Yay, Linda!

Linda over at Craftaholics Anonymous is celebrating her 2-year blogiversary!




There are some awesome giveaways over there, so go check her out!

You go, Linda!  And keep up the good work!

Our Engagement Anniversary!

On August 14, 2009, Justin and I got engaged.  We really wanted to celebrate that day, so this weekend we lived up to our usual shenanigans.

Friday, August 12: When Justin got off work at 5:30, we went to Bennett Pointe Grill, a little restaurant right behind our apartment.  We had seen it before several times, but never gone.  Last week, we gave it our first shot, and really liked it, so we went again.  I tried their house salad with grilled chicken and Justin had their grilled chicken and bacon sandwich with sweet potato fries.  We even shared a slice of Sweet Italian Creme cake!  Oh, it was all SO delicious.  Once we were through with dinner, we headed back home and watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 1.  About a month ago, Justin bought Harry Potter Years 1-7 on Blu-Ray, so the plan was for us to watch the first 7 movies throughout the week and then go see the newest one this weekend.  After the movie was over, Justin started giving me guidelines for MTG so that I could help him practice since stupid Cameron is moving away and he won't have anyone local to play with.  After that, we were both really beat, so we went to bed.

Saturday, August 13: Today was Elise's birthday!  We had an appointment for 10 a.m. at the Hyundai dealership to have the car inspected for our tag renewal.  North Carolina is really awesome that way, because the dealership sends in all the info from the inspection and we can go online and renew the tag that way.  Then the tag comes in the mail soon thereafter.  While we were waiting, we walked across the car lot to RoomStore and looked around in there.  I of course saw some things I wanted, a dragonfly print and a baker's rack for example.  We got a call from Hyundai about 20 minutes later saying our car was ready, which was great since the lady at the desk said it would be an hour!

Some really nice sun through the clouds at the dealership. :)

Once we got the car back and left the lot, we were looking for something else to do, and I remembered this awesome-looking antique shop across the street.  We had to go down the highway and make a U-turn to get back and on the way it started raining, which I welcomed.  We parked and went in the antique shop, and almost immediately I wanted to leave, because this older man (named "Vernon," as indicated by a notice once we stepped in) followed literally every step we took.  There was an additional floor to the shop, and we headed down there to try and get away from the man, but it didn't work.  I got very frustrated with that and asked Justin if we could leave.  Not to mention, even though Vern had a lot of nice things, they were all horrendously priced.  The whole sketchy setup reminded me of that season of Weeds where Nancy has that fake maternity shop.

Once we were finally out, we went one block down to TJ Maxx and I found this wonderful print there for $20 that had I heart U written inside the alphabet.  We also scored some nicely-scented fall potpourri on clearance for $3!  When we got back in the car from TJ Maxx, we were trying to figure out where to go for lunch, and decided on Chili's since neither one of us had ever been and it was right next to the store we just left.  I got the ranch chicken quesadilla, and Justin got the chili and salad lunch combo.  Lunch was pretty good, but the service wasn't, so it probably won't end up being one of our regular hangouts.

After lunch, we headed to Harry Potter.  The movie was excellent, and a wonderful end to the series, although I'm sure the books will be better.  After the  movie, we couldn't think of anything else we wanted to do, and it was already 4:00, so we just went back home.  We laid down and took a nap until 6 p.m., when we went out and got dinner.  Justin wanted a burger from Wendy's and I wanted one from Cook Out, so that's what we got.  We came home, ate, and then Justin was itching to play a computer game, so he played "The Witcher," and I watched "17 Kids and Counting" on Netflix.  We ended up staying up quite late and didn't head to bed until around 3 a.m.

Sunday, August 14:  Because we stayed up so late, we didn't even wake up until 1:30 p.m., which is a big deal for us!  After we laid in the bed for a little while, we both got up and took showers.  We got ready and headed to Brightleaf Square, a "fine shopping and dining" mall downtown.  It's on Main Street, and we pass it every time we go somewhere downtown.  We had seen Brightleaf several times, and really wanted to visit it.  So we decided to go today.

It's this really cute little square, which houses about 10 shops and 5 eateries.  The surrounding block of the city, which includes some additional places to eat and maybe another shop or two, make up the "square" part.  The doorway of a restaurant called Satisfaction faces the street, and it was the only place to eat there that I knew of, so I suggested we eat there.

Upon doing some research while Justin was in the shower, I discovered the other places to eat.  We saw them in person, but ultimately decided on Satisfaction anyway.  Their prices were fair and the food was really good, so maybe we have found another place for to eat!  Plus, it's close to the apartment and it's local.  Before we ate, we looked around in the already-few shops, of just two or three were open on Sunday.  What I saw in the window of one shop really excited me.  All over Durham, I have seen stickers on cars that say, "Durham Rocks" with a guitar.

I've been wondering where to get them with no luck for almost 2 years now.  So, as we were walking around Brightleaf, I saw shirts in a store window with Durham Rocks logo on them!

The store was called Offbeat Music, and it was really cool.  There was even a .45 record wall, which was my favorite part.

Here is a shot of the inside of the store.

After we shopped in Offbeat Music, we stopped inside this little bookstore next door, but it was a local and rare bookstore, and it wasn't really that exciting.  Next to it was an antique shop, and while it made up for our sketchy trip the day before, the store was also over-priced.  But it sure had some pretty stuff in it!

Satisfaction came next, because we were both starving.  Justin was afraid that because the restaurant was a part of the "fine shopping and dining" deal, that it would be expensive.  But once we got inside and looked at a menu, we were happy to see their yummy subs were only $7!

I loved the bugs in the wall!

This was my sandwich, called the Crash Davis.  Justin ate his too fast for me to get a picture of it!

After we ate, and since most of the places at Brightleaf were closed on Sunday, there wasn't much else to do there, so we snapped a few more shots and headed home.

It was a fantastic weekend, and I couldn't be happier that I said, "Yes" two years ago!

Book Review: Classified As Murder

Classified As Murder, by Miranda James

Classified As Murder is the second book in the "Cat in the Stacks" mystery collection and the sequel to Murder Past Due.


This book once again follows Charlie and Diesel, but a new character is added to the mix!  Charlie's son, Sean, comes home unexpectedly from Texas, and Charlie can't figure out why and Sean's not making any noise to fill in the gaps.  Meanwhile, at the public library where Charlie volunteers, elderly and wealthy Mr. Delacorte comes in and asks Charlie to do inventory on his extensive rare book collection, since he thinks someone is stealing some of the books from him.  Charlie agrees since he works regularly with rare books and because he likes Mr. Delacorte.  Charlie heads over to the Delacorte mansion at Mr. Delacorte's request to meet the rest of the family.  Everyone is absolutely insane in one way or another.  After Charlie meets the family and the butler, Truesdale, he sets to work.  He and Diesel head home for lunch on the first day of work and return to find Mr. Delacorte dead at his desk in the library.  The police squad is called in, and Kanesha Berry comes back into the picture to help Charlie once again.  Once the investigation has started, the Will is read to the family.  Everyone gets some slice of Mr. Delacorte's money, but Truesdale gets the entire estate because Mr. Delacorte was hiding in the closet and had it for Truesdale, but the butler is straight as a ruler.  The reading of the Will gives everyone some motive for the murder of Mr. Truesdale.  Charlie, Diesel and Kanesha set to work to solve the mystery.


Warning: Spoilers follow here.


Sean is home because he began having an affair with his boss at work, only to find out she does this with lots of men in the firm, and being jaded he quits his job and comes home to Charlie's house.  He decides he doesn't want to be a corporate lawyer anymore, and wants to take the Miss. bar to become a lawyer in town.


As is usual with these sorts of mysteries, the butler did it.  Turns out there is a lot of back-stabbing, lots of getting around, and lots of motive.  The nephew, Hubert, and his mistress, Anita, who works with Charlie at the public library, originally stole books from the collection, which made Mr. Delacorte suspicious to begin with.  Hubert's wife, Eloise, and their uncle, Mr. Delacorte, are both deathly allergic to peanuts, and cookies with peanuts in them are discovered to be the culprit for both of their deaths.  Truesdale planted the cookies for both victims.  Anita's niece works with Alexandra Pendergrast, the daughter Mr. Delacorte's lawyer.  When Mr. Delacorte suddenly changed his Will the week before he died, Anita's niece found out, and gabbed it to her aunt.  Anita told Truesdale, and once he found out he was getting everything, he killed Mr. Delacorte before he could change it again.  Eloise, through mumbled ramblings, tried to tell everyone the truth, but Truesdale killed her off before she could coherently tell anyone.  Cousing Stewart, after learning that Mr. Delacorte's death was murder and not a heart attack, doesn't want to live in the mansion anymore out of fear, and becomes a boarder in Charlie's house.  Counsin Cynthia, who is innocent all throughout the book, grabbed a cookie on the way to work the night Truesdale poisoned and killed Eloise.  She takes the cookie to the police, and the police use it as evidence to convict Truesdale, but he is only convicted of Eloise's murder.  All the main characters come together for dinner and the book ends.

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I enjoyed this book, but not nearly as much as the first one.  Things were not wrapped up as nicely at the end as they were in Murder Past Due.  The nice thing about this series, at least what I can tell so far, is that you don't have to read every book in the series to know what's going on.  It's like Nancy Drew mysteries and the like; each book is simply a new story, and you are reacquainted with the main character each book, so there is no back story knowledge required from one book to the next.  There is a lot left up in the air at the end of this book, however, and I worry that since each book doesn't recap the last story, that we just simply aren't going to know the outcome and have to live with the assumptions at the end of the book.  It's because of the absent ending that I give it a 4/5.  It was a solid story with good motive and flow, but not as good an ending as the first one.

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For Next Time

The Green Mile, by Stephen King

Set in the 1930s at the Cold Mountain Penitentiary's death-row facility, The Green Mile is the riveting and tragic story of John Coffey, a giant, preternaturally gentle inmate condemned to death for the rape and murder of twin nine-year-old girls. It is a story narrated years later by Paul Edgecomb, the ward superintendent compelled to help every prisoner spend his last days peacefully and every man walk the green mile to execution with his humanity intact.

Edgecomb has sent seventy-eight inmates to their date with "old sparky," but he's never encountered one like Coffey -- a man who wants to die, yet has the power to heal. And in this place of ultimate retribution, Edgecomb discovers the terrible truth about Coffey's gift, a truth that challenges his most cherished beliefs -- and ours.

Originally published in 1996 in six self-contained monthly installments, The Green Mile is an astonishingly rich and complex novel that delivers over and over again.

-barnesandnoble.com

Book Review: Murder Past Due

Murder Past Due, by Miranda James

Murder Past Due is the first book in the "Cat in the Stacks" mystery collection.  The second book, Classified as Murder, came out this past May.

The book follows humble librarian Charlie Harris and his Maine Coon, Diesel.  Charlie works at the local college library and volunteers at the public library a few times a week.  Having suffered the loss of his Aunt Dottie and his wife in the last year, Charlie lives alone in the house left to him by his Aunt Dottie in the small town of Athena, Miss.  Just like his aunt did, Charlie uses the house as a boarding home of sorts for local college students.  This year, Justin is living in the house.  Athena is the sort of sleepy little town where everyone knows everything about everybody.  And one of the things everyone knows is the success of former local Godfrey Priest, a now famous and bestselling author.  Godfrey decided he's going to roll back into town for a few days, to grace everyone with his pompous presence.  But once he's back in town, things go downhill, especially for Godfrey, since he winds up dead within 12 hours of arriving in Athena.  Shortly before his death, it is revealed to the town that Godfrey is actually Justin's biological father.  Justin only knew his father for a few hours before they were parted for good.  Everyone in the town has been wronged in one way or another by Godfrey, and that means everyone has a motive.  But who did it?  Charlie and Diesel go snooping for clues to find out.

Warning: Spoilers follow here.

After talking to a few infamous busybodies in the town, Charlie gathers up a nice handful of clues on his own.  He tries to help out Deputy Berry, the officer leading the investigation, much to her disapproval.  It turns out that everyone has a little something to hide about Godfrey.  The bookstore owner, the library's secretary, and a few others have had past love affairs with him, all to have been shunned when it counted.  Perhaps a woman scorned, then?  Then Charlie discovers that the last few books Godfrey wrote were actually written by someone else.  AND that Godfrey had a half-brother, who never saw a dime of his riches, despite having to struggle to get by.  With so many people out for Godfrey's blood, it was difficult to pinpoint the real perpetrator.  At the end, everyone gathers at Charlie's house for the reading of the Will.  Even though Godfrey just found out Justin was his son, he leaves him two-thirds of his estate, which comes out to around seventy million dollars.  He leaves his half-brother, Rick, the remaining one-third.  As the clues start coming together at the Will reading, and as Deputy Berry leans into Justin's mom, Julia, Julia finally cracks.  She had gone to Godfrey's hotel room so that he could confront her because he figured out that Justin wasn't really his son.  Upon being found out, Julia got mad and took Godfrey out.  But that's not all.  So who is Justin's real father?  Rick, the half-brother.  At the end, Julia gets hauled off to jail, and everyone starts being able to go about their lives again, armed with new gossip.

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I really enjoyed this book, for two reasons.  One, because the book was not suspenseful.  The book was written conversationally, which I enjoy, and flowed well.  It kept me wanting to know what happened next, but I wasn't gasping for air on the edge of my seat.  I enjoyed the pace.  Second, mostly all the loose ends were wrapped up.  There was one straggler I can think of (why Jordan got the signed copies), and I'm sure one or two more, but I'm also anal and tend to notice these things more than other people.  But in all, the ends were wrapped nicely and the twist at the end really threw me for a loop!  I really didn't see it coming.  Several times, I thought I knew who killed Godfrey, because James makes such a plausible case for everyone involved.  But when the killer is revealed, it all makes sense.  I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the book also, it really paints a nice picture.  4/5

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For Next Time

Classified As Murder (CitS #2), by Miranda James

Aging eccentric James Delacorte asks Charlie the librarian to do an inventory of his rare book collection - but the job goes from tedious to terrifying when James turns up dead. Relying on his cat Diesel to paw around for clues, Charlie has to catch the killer before another victim checks out.

-BarnesandNoble.com