Archive

Somehow doubled up all the images in the garden galleries below. No clue how that happened. Gonna fix 'em later though. Got a date with my wife right now!!! See ya!!!

I've read a number of other Patterson novels. This is an older one, written in 1989, and was somewhat inspired by the 1987 stock market crash. The premise is a weird merging of Viet Nam tragedy and betrayal and Wall Street high finance. The plot was average but some of the characters were memorable. In particular, the characters of Hudson and Arch Carroll were interesting. This novel was of the standard paperback length of around 400+ pages but easily could have been longer with a little more background on the above characters. That background information would have been fascinating, I'm sure, and certainly worth the extra reading. This is a novel that could have been great but was instead mediocre because of missing details and unfulfilled character promises.

Coming back from lunch today I somewhat witnessed an accident between a semi and a maroon passenger car on Lake Cook Road and I-294. I was in front of the maroon car and there was one other car between us. The semi crashed right into the back of the maroon car. We were stopped at a light at the time. The semi driver apparently hadn't noticed in time that the traffic had stopped. The fact that I could see the top of the crumpled trunk above the roof of the passenger car should tell you how much of the car had been squashed by the semi. The engine was also making smoke so my guess is that when a semi smashes the back of a car, the exhaust system is damaged and closed up and this causes some sort of engine damage as well. I would say the car is probably totalled.

This is a new type of crime novel for me - one where the main character is a woman instead of a man. I read about Lucas Davenport in the Prey series and Elvis Cole in Crais' detective novels, but Evanovich's Stephanie Plum is something else. Whereas the male characters mentioned above are seasoned pros, One for the Money details the start of Plum's new career as a bounty hunter.

I have now finished the 7th novel in the Prey series by John Sandford. This one was pretty dark. I find it hard to review these books because of their severe content. Let's just say that the characters in the book pull no punches.

Can't say enough about this movie. Loved it.

So my wife and I just moved into our first home. Pulte Homes, Carrington Reserve development. Our lot backs right up to a protected wetland. The Jelkes Creek wetland is one of only three of its kind in the entire world. Pretty wild ecosystem to have as your backyard neighbor.

As seen on a bumper sticker in Northbrook, Illinois:

I was thinking the other day about how I had not written a letter with pen and paper in years and years. In fact, I may not have scribed such a message since I was a child. I realized that I rely completely on email to communicate with friends and family. Of course I still use that archaic device, the telephone, from time to time but pretty much send electronic mail whenever I want to reach out and touch someone.

I ran across this link on the Internet yesterday. It's written by a woman who lives near the city and rides her Kawasaki Ninja on the roads around the city. She says its the best place in the world to ride because there are no cars or people anywhere to be seen and, therefore, the roads are wide open. She says the roads are in perfect condition because there is no wear and tear on them from constant traffic. Only the occasional blade of grass pokes through a minute crack in the pavement.