Friday, August 19, 2011

Haiku "while the cat's away, the mice will play" Friday

The boss has left for
vacation, meaning I am
free for a few days.

***

Don't worry, I am
still working, but I may take
off early to hang.

***

Next week, heading to
California, see the boy
and my great matron!

Can't wait!

Monday, August 8, 2011

Monday Numbers

  • On Friday, we headed out the the Art Museum for the Art after 5 exhibit. They had a salsa band playing, and 6 or 8 of our friends from the dance studio were going to do a performance in between band sets. They were doing a dance called the Salsa Rueda, which is really pretty an fun to watch. We had a great time, dancing some salsa and hanging out with our friends. As a bonus, we wandered through the galleries that were open, checking out some Monet and Van Gogh paintings, as well as some weird Jasper Johns stuff that Alex loves. 
  • Saturday, we had a party for Alex's 28th birthday. We probably had 20-25 people here at our little house. It was a lot of fun, as quite a few people came who we hadn't seen in a while, even our friend who is literally 9 months pregnant! It was a great time, with a ton of food, beer and lots of fun conversation. We've got so much left over, I think we should do it again!
  • Sunday was a bit of a "throw away" day. I had wayyyy too much to drink (bad Christine, bad!). I was supposed to run 6 miles, but I sure did not! We stayed in and watched a marathon of MacGyver episodes (holy moly, is that show funny, mullets and all! LOVE IT!). 
  • Today has been catch up day - starting some experiments at work, doing some laundry and doing all the dishes. I'm also in the process of job hunting for next fall. I've got two tentative interviews in the Bay, and perhaps one more up in Boston. Should be fun and interesting!

The Moe Prager Series by Reed Farrel Coleman

I've reviewed books by Coleman before. He writes a series of detective novels about Moe Prager, a Jewish "hard boiled" detective from Brooklyn. I love these books for a number of reasons. While I don't know NYC or Brooklyn that well, I love the perspective the narrator, Moe, has. He's Brooklyn born and bred, and I can almost hear his thick Brooklyn accent come through the pages of the book. Moe gets himself into some interesting mysteries, with a lot of twists and turns, and some increasing violence in the last couple of books. I think one of the reasons I enjoy these books so much is the ambiance, the settings and descriptiveness of the storyline, and the fact that Coleman is a little known author. I love discovering something new! Prager finds himself in some odd situations throughout the last three books I just finished reading. I think I like his earlier novels better, as they're not so dark, but I must admit, I did enjoy the last three books as well. Moe ends up in some heartbreaking situations, losing family members, having friends turn on him, and nearly losing his daughter. He's definitely a more "real" character than a lot of series books. I enjoyed his perspective on criminals, crime, NYC and Brooklyn. He's always coming up with anecdotes or ridiculous stories that are so entertaining they're almost believable. If you want an easy read with a good plotline and a twisting story, check out his books. I don't think you'll be disappointed.