We're having a heat wave!

Sorry I haven't blogged much lately. I am taking 3 classes and the homework is keeping me busy. I have done very little reading too which really sucks.

Go check out the weather maps for Seattle. Today is the hottest day EVER recorded in Seattle! 103 degrees! And it was 104 degrees at my house! Needless to say we don't have weather like this. In fact, I can't remember the last time we had 90 degrees before this year. And we don't have air conditioning. Very few home owners in this area do since you would only need it a few days out of the year.

The only silver lining is that we have a basement and the temp down there is 75 degrees which is very tolerable since I moved the spare bed down there a few months ago so at least we can sleep. Add a fan and it's downright perfect. It's not supposed to cool down for a few days so I figure I'll be melted into a puddle by then. My pots of annuals are drying up and it's a struggle to keep them watered.

Anyway, hope everyone is keeping cool. I'll get back to reading soon.

This is why ebooks won't replace "real" books

I was cruising some of my favorite sites when I came across this article about Amazon and I was horrified.

Seems like Amazon "took back" one of the ebooks it sold for the Kindle without the buyers consent. Kinda like stealing a book after it's already paid for by the customer.

Here the article from AmericaBlog (a liberal news site) Amazon kindle takes back 1984 (irony alert).

I have to agree with David Pogue from the NYT: "This is ugly for all kinds of reasons." And one of the reasons I think the whole ebook phenomenon is a mess and I will never switch to electronic. I download them from the library occasionally but that's it. I'm not handing control of my library over to the publishers and the book sellers. Give me a book I can hold and curl up in bed with or pass along to a friend or sell at a UBS. Maybe sometime in the distant future these problems will be solved but until then I'm keeping my paperbacks.

Back in town

I'm back from the road trip to North Dakota. We had a great time at the reunion. The cousin & wife (from hell) didn't make it so I was glad about that (although I'm sorry Bob didn't get to see his cousin... he's a nice guy but nobody missed the wife - she's a total nightmare). We followed Bob's dad home to Minot and spent a couple days with him. He had moved into a new retirement/assisted living home and he still had a bunch of boxes to unpack and nothing on the walls. So Bob and I got everything unpacked or stored away (not enough room) and put up lots of pictures and made it look nice and homey. It looked great. We also went with him to order the headstone. We gave our input on the design and I think it will look wonderful. This took a couple of days because Dad has a hard time making decisions. But he was glad we were there to help and I was very sad to say goodbye. I felt bad leaving him.

I received good news from the Washington State Employment Security department when I got back. I was approved by them to begin my training program through Bellevue College and I DON'T have to keep looking for work, and I still collect unemployment (about $530 a week). Plus the state is paying for the training (I just have to pay for books). Such a deal. I just wish I knew about this program 6 months ago, but ... oh, well. I started Summer Quarter with 2 online classes and took my computer along to ND to work on them. Classes are easy but there is a lot of homework. It's fun really.

I did some reading on the road but not as much as usual. Only three books :) Two of them were good, the third was so-so:

1) Dangerous Lies by Anna Louise Lucia - a romantic suspense in an unusual setting - North Africa (Morocco and Algeria). Action packed but I found some of the writing sort of awkward and had to reread passages occasionally. Grade B-

2) Shadow Dance by Anne Stuart - an historical that was recommended by CindyS (I think) and I loved it. Features two couples and was hot and sensual with some great subtle humor. Grade B+

3) The Major's Mistake by Andrea Pickens - a regency romance that starts out with a big misunderstanding and separation. I have no idea how it got into my TBR. It had a good storyline but NO sex scenes and you know how I hate that. Grade C+

I'm trying to keep ahead with these classes so I can take off this weekend with my old high school girl friends. We're having a little mini-reunion and I'm really looking forward to seeing them and reliving old times. We have a busy summer ahead of us with a camping trip planned and birthday party for my dad who turns 75. So I'm not gettting much reading done.

Family reunion

Going to Bismarck, North Dakota for a family reunion over the 4th of July week. Road trip! Yeah, Bob would rather drive than fly. This will be his mother's side of the family and a few of them are not my favorite people so I'm not looking forward to the experience. A really odd bunch. One of the cousins is a great guy but he has this wife from HELL. She talks incessantly and she is constantly putting down her husband. I don't know how he stays married to her. I told Bob if he takes off golfing with his cousin and leaves me stuck with her for 5 or 6 hours, he is dead meat, and I will make him suffer :)

It's a 3 day reunion and I'll give him ONE day and then I'm outta there.

Anyway, we should be gone no more than a week, and I have already packed my books. OK, I know my priorities. So I'll post when I get back.