Sunday Salon: Summing Up

It was a fairly busy week. I finished my bits of shopping - when your budget is constrained you tend to get creative and look for things to give that are interesting and maybe have a bit of a story to tell. It takes a little longer find these sorts of gifts, but I'm satisfied I did a good job this year. I'm only working on one painting as a gift and hopefully I'll get that in the mail before the 25th. It hasn't been easy going - my abysmal lack of energy slows my work day down to a couple of hours most days. But enough griping, onward and upward: How is your shopping going? All frenzied out yet?

I looked at and was tempted by a little Santa hat for Rocky but laughed so hard in the store (until people began staring) that I put the damn thing down and thought: well, I've already imagined it and had my laugh, no use paying for it too. But it WAS awfully cute. If I go back to the store, it will probably be gone anyway. (The hat, not the store.)

Went out early on in the week with my daughter. We drove all the way to Pennsylvania, to an outlet Mall. She thought she'd save some money - though it always seems to me that the money you might save driving there is probably spent on the gas that it takes to get your vehicle there in the first place. She did all the gift-buying but I'm not saying what or for whom - my lips are sealed. It was bitterly cold and windy and the mall was an outdoor one, so it wasn't a lot of fun. But we were bundled up and I enjoy spending time with my daughter regardless. We had a nice lunch, too.

Tuesday I began a new feature on the blog - A Favorite Film - with which I can tell I'm going to have a heck of a lot of fun. I'm a big fan of the film blogging community and this is my own puny effort to join in. There's always plenty to talk about if you love the older films as much as I do. And I've figured out thankfully, that I'm not the only one.

I still can't believe my blog is just about six months along. Who would ever have suspected those few years ago when my daughter practically forced a computer on me (against my better judgement) insisting I'd grow to love it (again against my better judgement), that techno-simpleton me would (heavens above!) indeed, grow to love the damn thing. That I would, even more astoundingly, design and maintain a blog and what's more, ENJOY doing it. Sometimes you just have to shake your head.

I'm reading a bio of Cleopatra by Joyce Tyledesley which I am finding completely absorbing. Though to figure out the Ptolemys and their various reigns - made even more difficult because most of them had the habit of marrying their sisters, brothers and/or cousins and using the same names over and over - is a dicey proposition at best. For instance there were about ten different Cleopatras and the same amount of Ptolemys and how to tell who was who is a mystery even Solomon would have had trouble divining. So I just made a considered judgement and moved on. All this was definitely the stuff that dreams were made of, that's for sure. Non-fiction, but certainly not dry. The ancient Egyptians were so colorful and dramatic that most 'fiction' about them is just gilding the lily.

And aren't those old covers of the Agatha Christie mysteries a hoot? So much fun to hunt them down and post them in a bunch. I've found plenty of other colorful covers for some of the authors I'll be reading for the Vintage Mystery Challenge - so stay tuned. For that Challenge, I'll be picking and choosing from the work of Agatha Christie, John Dickson Carr, Frances and Richard Lockridge, Ellery Queen, Michael Innes, Rex Stout , Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Josephine Tey and whoever else catches my eye. Most of them will be re-reads, but there's no law against that. Ha!