Spenser

Odds & Ends

This is way cool, instead of hanging your flat panel TV on the wall or hiding it in an armoire, make it into a quasi mid-century MadMen inspired piece of furniture. M21 Flat Panel Console

For Christmas I bought myself a USB TV stick. It came with a chintzy little metal stick antenna that has a magnetic base. I stuck it to back of a panel on my computer desk and it works pretty good pulling in three of the four local stations. The one it is missing is FOX and I kinda want that one. I found a tutorial on how to make a digital TV antenna from wire coat hangers and yesterday I made one. It looks remarkably like this and all I managed to do was ruin 6 coat hangers and get a blister on my right palm because it doesn’t work as good as the throw away one that came with the TV stick.

I’m trying out the latest version of the Google Chrome browser (right now, as I type this!) and it does seem substantially faster than Firefox. Now with extentsions. The first of which I installed was AdBlock… Will the love last?

The office of the University president looked like the front palor of a successful Victorian whorehouse. It was paneled in big squares of dark walnut, with ornately figured maroon drapes at the long windows. There was maroon carpeting and the furniture was black leather with brass studs. The office was much nicer than the classrooms; maybe I should have worn a tie.

That is the opening paragraph from the little book that started it all, The Godwulf Manuscript, the first of 37 Spenser books by Robert B. Parker. Rest in peace Mr. Parker.

The Emperor got a much desrved bath this afternoon.

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Whatever The Case May Be

Twelve of eighty-two and we learn just how devious Kate is, both on and off the island. The little airplane is a reminder of a person Kate says she loved, and said she killed. We do know that she orchestrated a bank hold up and shoots several people to get the toy plane. A replica of that plane (included in the Kate “action figure”) sits on my mantle right next to the life-size replica of the dingus from the movie Maltese Falcon.

At the Chocolate Festival this past weekend one of the books I picked up Appaloosa by Robert B. Parker. It is no secret that I devour his Spenser novels like a starving man at a Thanksgiving buffet, so I figured I’d at least like the book. I do, plus I have already come across one or two of the scenes from the book in the trailer and if the rest of the movie tracks as well to the book as those bits, this one might be worth seeing in a theater.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw1XFu-mFVk

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My Sentiments Exactly

Finished Spenser book number thirty-five tonight. There were no new Crime Buster Rules in this volume, but I did find out that his feelings for turnovers is exactly like my feelings for pizza:

I finished my turnover. It wasn’t a very good turnover. But the worst turnover I’d ever eaten was excellent. And this one was far from the worst.

The eight new Post Office photos are up on Flickr! and the old school gallery here, but there are no captions yet. This latest set of photos have a cameo appearance by the Emperor’s Mini-Me and the photographer and his navigator.

We are planning a a trip for more Post Office photos this weekend, either Turkey Day or Sunday, depending on which one has better weather. Right now it is a tossup as both days are calling for a 40% chance of rain. Right now we are at 327 out of 461 – 71% complete.

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Spenser For Sale

They won’t be here in time, but my birthday present is going to be the last eight of my unread Spenser books. They are all used, mostly paperbacks and from 4 different Amazon affiliate vendors. Figured it would be a lot easier to get them this way than to keep poking our noses into used book stores in the cities we visit.

Changed the gallery style to more match my new default theme. I’m on the fence with the new Post Office Gallery, it seems like more work than I want to do. I’ve got 23 new photos to add into 3 different directories and I have manually added the files to three different ext files so they can display 3 different ways. Plus there is that whole no descriptive caption thing, even though I am sometimes at a loss for what to write, when I do, it personalizes the photos. For now all I’ve done is stick the new images into the old gallery (which I may end up going back to.)

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Mainlining Spenser

I’ve now finished 17 out of the 35 Spenser books. I’ve got two more books still on the way from my Amazon spending spree of a week ago and I’ve still got one left to read of the four I’ve already received. Today we went to 3 used book stores, one in Aiken and two in Augusta and bought 6 more books including a good find of a paperback reissue of #3 in the series, Mortal Stakes. his now leaves just 9 books in the series I don’t have.

Mortal Stakes is about Spenser and the 1975 Red Sox (with fictitious players) so it is like getting two pleasures for he price of one, even though I’m really not enamored with the FRS right now after their showing in the Bronx and tonight’s game, so far, against Baltimore.

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Spenser’s Crime Buster Tips

#31: If you have a name and no address, try looking in the phone book.

For some reason the first three of these I found, they were in the same book, were called Spenser’s Crime Buster Rules, but this one was called a Tip. I have decided to read all 35 (so far) Spenser books to chronicle all the tips/rules and collect them on a separate page here. I have now re-read two of the four books I own and tonight when we visited the used book store I picked up three more. They probably have another half dozen on the shelf still for later.

Today was a two-fer, breakfast and dinner out. Donna told me point blank this morning that we were going out for breakfast and because it was a weekday that meant Hardee’s. Biscuit & Gravy for her, Sausage & Egg Biscuit for him, O.J. and Hash Rounds to split.
Meal Cost: $5.71
Tip: None
Spent This Meal: $5.71

Dinner was out because it was the monthly Miata Club meeting, for July it was in Aiken at Olive Oils. Crab Bruschetta for appetizer, Seafood Ravioli for her, Hot & Sweet Sausages for him. We went whole hog and got desert, Chocolate Ice Cream for her and Key Lime Pie for him.
Meal Cost: $43.00
Tip: $6.45
Spent This Meal: $49.45
Year to Date: $1461.06
Meals out 82 of a possible 576.

 

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Spenser Crime Buster Rules

WakeAnother vacation outtake. This is from the Olympic Sculpture Garden in Seattle. The title of this piece is Wake and it is by Richard Serra. 10 big ol’ rusty metal plates welded into 5 wave shaped forms. To get a sense of scale look to the left and you will see Donna in her red jacket.

I ran out of books to read after I finished the one on the plane home and haven’t had time to get to the used bookstore yet, so I had to re-read something I had around the house. Picked “School Days” by Robert B. Parker. Tonight I stumbled on the section of the book I was thinking of back in March. Here for posterity are the Spenser Crime Buster Rules so far:

#8: Always look.
#8a: Don’t blunder into something while you’re looking.

If I find more I’ll make a separate page for them.

A couple more camera contenders surfaced today, both of them Canons; 1) PowerShot A710IS & B) PowerShot SD800IS. The SD800 is about the same size as my current Kodak and it’s zoom’s widest angle is 28mm, not the 23 I have already, but it meets ever other criteria. The 710 is the least expensive option, but it’s zoom starts at 35mm. Plus it, like the Panasonic DMC-TZ3 I mentioned yesterday, are about and 1-1/2″ thick compared to my little more than 3/4″ Kodak. I will need to go to a store and put one in my back pocket try it out first (hopefully not getting picked up for shoplifting in the attempt.)

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