Crimes Against Juliet and Romeo

 When I was in 9th grade at Parkview Middle School I asked my parents to sign a permission slip to see a movie. Our class took a bus to the theater and we watched Romeo and Juliet. I remember I wore my black and white hounds toothed slacks. After 8 years of wearing boring uniform dresses, I was happy to add variety to my wardrobe. Our class also put on a performance of the play. I played the nurse and my friend, Renee F., played Juliet and she wasn't too happy about kissing Romeo. Now the actors are suing Paramount Pictures for child abuse, sexual abuse, sexual harassment and fraud. I agree with the actors 100%. I think Paramount Pictures committed crimes against these two beautiful children and made a boatload of money off of their crimes. Paramount Pictures violated California and national laws against indecency and exploitation of children. How did we not see this before? Why did it take this long for the light bulb to come on?

The Wrong Family

 Tarryn Fisher is the author of The Wrong Family, a complicated family drama with so many twists and turns I got a mental whiplash listening to it. The story starts with the seemingly perfect family of Winnie, Nigel and their 13 year old son, Sam. Of course there is no "perfect" family. This story has villains in it and as I listened I drove through a major winter storm, I kept changing my mind on who was a villain and who wasn't. There is another character named Juno and she went from heroine to villain to heroine to villain to heroine to villain so many times I couldn't keep count. This excellent drama made me laugh and cry and it certainly kept my mind off of the hazardous weather conditions.

Adam's Fault

 

The only reason I left today instead of yesterday was because Adam, the weather guy, told me that Wednesday would be a better day to travel than Tuesday. He said that Monday night. On Tuesday night he says the complete opposite. Here is my car in Des Moines, the capital city in Iowa. By the way the state capitol building has a very appealing gold roof on top. There is hardly any snow here!

This is my car at 9 a.m. in front of my apartment. Geez Louise, today was a terrible day to travel! I saw so many cars, van, trucks, and semi-trailers in the ditch. Am I a bad person when I see a car that sped past me in the ditch down the road and smile a little? I didn't expect a trip from Duluth to Des Moines to take 7.5 hours but I am glad I didn't book a hotel farther out! Along the way I saw a bald eagle feasting on a deer carcass along the highway, Canadian geese, crows, ravens and one ring necked pheasant walking in a corn field.

Battery Problems

 I am having a crazy day with battery problems (luckily not the car battery). This morning at 5:15 a.m. the carbon monoxide detector battery starts chirping. The battery in my bathroom scale quit weighing but instead told me "low." And I had to replace the batteries in my thermostat. My flashlights still work but doesn't it seem unusual to have so many batteries go bad at one time? I bought more batteries today than I did all of 2022.

Velvet Was The Night

 Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the author of Velvet Was The Night. This novel is set in the 1970's in Mexico which can be a dangerous country. The main character is Maite, a woman nearing 30 who works as a secretary. Maite's mother expresses her disappointment in her with almost every sentence she speaks. Maite is compared to her younger sister who is married and has kids and seems to do everything right in her mother's eyes. Maite spends her free time reading romance novels. She has had a few boyfriends who dumped her. Maite has a neighbor, Leonora, who is younger and very beautiful. Leonora appears to have an abundance of money because she wears expensive clothes and jewelry. One day Leonora asks Maite to feed her cat while she is gone for the weekend. Maite doesn't want to do it so she asks for an exorbitant amount of cash which she gets. When Leonora fails to return on time, Maite goes looking for her. She contacts her sister and some of her acquaintances who appear to be students protesting the government. Dangerous people are watching the protestors. One of the most dangerous is Elvis and Elvis is watching Maite. Elvis and Maite enjoy the same music and books. Elvis thinks Maite is beautiful. In this story are hitmen, government agents and Russian spies. Will Elvis find his soul in his search for Leonora? The book was a tad violent but not in a gratuitous way. Like Maite, I don't like cats either. I did enjoy this story.

Where Does The Time Go?

 My plan was to walk a half mile to the post office box to mail two greeting cards. But it was nice out so I kept going south west until the street ends. Then I headed uphill past houses I have never walked by before. I like looking at people's houses. I saw five crows in the tree above a dead squirrel on the sidewalk. Many black capped chickadees came very close to me. Rock doves ate seed at a feeder. I kept going uphill until I got to Skyline Drive. I made it across a busy intersection. I enjoyed the views from Skyline Drive and instead of going home I stopped by the Chester Creek Bowl to see if anyone was skiing. I figured it might be busy because the kids are out of school and this is a government holiday. Boy howdy, it WAS busy. I watched the kids and adults wait in line for the ski lift, go up the ski lift, and come barreling down the hill on skis and snowboards. Little children as young as four years old were doing it. Everybody seemed to be having a good time. I watched them for 15 or so minutes before moving on. As I walked by the purple port a potty I was sure glad I didn't need to use it. I still didn't go home. I walked down the other side of Chester Creek looking down the ravine and once in a while glancing at the beautiful homes that line this side of the creek. And then I thought I saw the Lock Ness Monster. How did this family make this monster out of ice? The family that lives in this house must be very creative and talented. I would like to meet them one day. By the time I got home I realized I had been out of my house for two and a half hours. Where does the time go?

Happy New Year

 

Happy New Year! Also, if you are interested in northern Indian, Tibetan or Nepalese food I suggest you visit the Gorkha Palace in northeast Minneapolis. The food is delicious and the atmosphere was pleasant the the service was excellent.