Memorial Day pt. 2

For our official Memorial Day I celebrated with Amanda and Virginia. I piled the ladies into the back seat and we headed over to Delhi for a little Girly Cookout Action. It was quite fun, which is not a surprise at all whatsoever.

The girls always enjoy playing with friends, and after having Allie and Lazarus over recently, it was our turn to play on their turf. I knew that Daisy was a good traveler, and Madison's foster mom had her in the car tons during weekend trips to Natchez. It turns out that they really do ride well together. They just sprawled out and enjoyed the ride. Once we arrived it was time for the dogs to play play play. As we all knew, Daisy was not a big fan of the cats, as evidenced by her shaking her booty at us while she wiggled under the gate to get at them! She wasn't alone in this game - Madison was right up in it too!

It turns out that while Madison was learning obedience Daisy decided to learn some things of her own! She has learned a new sit - the greyhound/sphinx pose.

It was fun to get to spend some tiem outside of work with Amanda and Virginia. We hadn't gotten a chance lately. Va is growing so fast, and so big! She cracks me up. We got lots of play time in, and she enjoyed having more animals in the zoo to keep her company. I look forward to our next holiday gathering. Or, perhaps we will just hit the zoo, literally! One of these days I'm going to make them go to the Monroe Zoo with me. I hear it is better than the ghetto Jackson zoo.

Purple People Eater

A belated Happy Memorial Day to one and all. Not sure if there is more than one reader out there, but a belated none the less. We had a pretty hard core weekend. As in, I worked hard.

At St. Paddy's day I found a set of quilts for my spare room. This weekend I painted the walls. If you recall, they were fairly blah and icky.

Now they are PURPLE! Yes, not the easiest color to pass of when selling the house, but I'll slop on a couple coats of a neutral when I'm ready to unload it. THere is so much other stuff to do before I can unload it that I imagine I'll go through several other colors between now and then. So, the Hotel Sarah Jersey is up and running - feel free to book a room!

The Ghost Orchid

I've been a busy little reader, and not so busy on the blogging front. My last read of recent times is The Ghost Orchid, by Carol Goodman. I am a HUGE fan of Goodman. I accidentally found one of her previous books a few years back and had to read them all. She took a break from writing for a few years, and it was totally worth it. She generally sets her novels in New York State, and does a phenomonal job of describing the region. Her prose is awesome, and I get incredibly vivid images in my head. After my trip to the Hudson River Valley last fall, I recognize that she writes it like it is, using far better words than I ever could. I would classify her novels as fiction, although there is a certain amount of suspense or mystery that the heroine must solve in order to move on with her life.

The Ghost Orchid is set at a Victorian Mansion somewhere upstate, Bosco. The mansion has exhotic gardens and has become an 'artists' haven - a residence program for writers and artists. The main character, Ellis, has been accepted at Bosco to turn a short story based on historical happenings at Bosco into a full novel. Goodman seamlessly weaves Ellis's story into that of her character, Corinth. Corinth is a medium who was called to Bosco to connect the Mistress of the house with her dead children, allowing their spirits to move onward. The Ghost ORchid, a white orchid with a vanilla smell found in bogs features prominently as a fixture which connects the two stories. I was able to guess the relationship between Corinth and Ellis pretty quickly, however the rest of the book was fabulous.

I cannot say enough about Goodwin - if you are looking for a good book, I highly reccomend picking one of hers up. This novel went slightly into questional territory with the medium. I might reccomend one of the others first. I see that last years publication should be heading into paperback soon. You can look forward to my review.

The Lovely Bones

I also recently re-read Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones. I had read it in 2004 (according to my reciept) on the way back from the Louden's wedding. Erin had picked it for this months "Book People" meeting, so I reread it.

This novel was a narritve loosely based on some horrible experiences in the authors younger years. I remember really enjoying the book the first time I read it. It had some very difficult things in it, however it was so well written that I was sucked into it. Apparently I had forgotten a lot of the details, as evidenced by what little I recalled of the text when I re-read it. There was some definite craziness in the way the story unfolded, particularly a few of the character interactions. In essence, it is the story of a young girls death and the way it has affected her family. The story is told by Susie from heaven as she watches from heaven. her murderer lives down the street from her family - and the murder affects many more people than expected, in many more ways than one might predict. It was enjoyable despite the upsetting subject.

The Lost German Slave Girl

Last week I read The Lost German Slave Girl: The Extraordinary True Story of Sally Miller and Her Fight for Freedom in Old New Orleans . This was a departure from my normal reading as it was a nonfiction book. I really enjoyed the change, a little change is good for us all. I think I also enjoyed the book since it dealt with NO and the MS/LA/AR area - an area I know a little better now.

My mom had given me this book in a pile she passed on to me about a year ago. I don't think I even knew it was nonfiction for the first 10 months it sat on my bookshelf. I just never made it to the point in the pile of unread books where it resdied. now that I finally read it, I really enjoyed it. The author was planning to research and write about slave law in NOLA. During his research he found te story of Salome Mueller, AKA Sally Miller. She was a young girl, around the age of 4-7 years old when her parents immigrated from Germany to the US. Through an unfortunate turn of events her parents passed away, and she disappeared. Suddently 25 years later she is magically found, living as a slave in the French Quarter. Her relatives and family friends go through the efforts of freeing her and her children. It is these struggles that are narrated in the book. It was quite enjoyable, and there were some real twists. Human nature at its worst and at its best shines through loud and clear. I definitely would reccomend this book.

Madison, Obedience School Graduate

She is no beauty school dropout -she's an obedience school graduate. That is my Madison! She is so proud, ok actually, I'm so proud. Although, there was no standardized test to finish - just a final class. We went, we finished. It is totally like high school today - you can graduate and not actually understand how to read or add. However, Madison does know how to STAY, SIT, and DOWN. She can Heel and Come sometimes. Hopefully we'll be going back for refresher training in the fall when Daisy Dogg gets indoctrinated.

Jano Fabulous is Fantabulous

Just wanted to put out a quick happy birthday shout out to Jano Fabulous. Jano and I go back to my college days. She was an Non-Academic Usher supervisor at the Assembly Hall, and a darn good supervisor at that. Plus, she was a fun supervisor. We got to know her back then, and the friendship stuck. Last year when I was back at school I got to spend some time with Jane - it helped make returning to school worth while!

Happy birthday Jano Fabulous. I hope it was Fantabulous!