Peter Pan Must Die by John Verdon

Peter Pan Must Die by John Verdon

Now here is a mystery that really makes your mind do some hard work.
Gurney a retired NYPD brilliant detective is persuaded by an old friend ,Harwick also retired to work with him to solve a murder. The murderer is the wife of the murdered business man. She is already in jail having been found guilty but has hired Hardwick to work on an appeal as she is innocent.

On looking at the evidence it seems that something is not right and before Gurney realizes it , he is drawn into the case and with each chapter the mystery gets more involved , more characters and clues are added and the reader becomes mystified at how this is going to end.
        And just where does the title fit in? 
Peter Pan is the murderer but who is he or she?

Today it's My Birthday

Today it's My Birthday

Oh dear- not to good.

I said on Mikes birthday doodle, my sketching was ultra poor and this is one of me .
Fortunately I will only have myself to grumble at for doing a poor job. but I won't grumble too much as it is my BIRTHDAY.

Today it's my birthday and this day  I have been on this earth, this time so far for 28.124days. That's a pretty long time when you think about it. I guess I've wasted a lot of those days as well without realizing I was actually wasting them.
I must try harder not to waste time. 

It's surprising as the days build up you notice time is going faster. It seems just like yesterday it was my birthday so how could it possibly be here again so quickly! 

I know for sure this January 2015 has just flown past and before I know it will be Easter  and Christmas will be here again and there it comes another birthday.
Believe me Valentines items are already in the stores and I bet if I look I can find Leprechauns and chocolate eggs as well.

The good thing about this year is it is full of my lucky numbers so I am expecting not just a good year but a Great year..

Happy Birthday Mike

Happy Birthday Mike

Mike , before hair cut !!

This is birthday weekend at my house. Grandson MIke is 24 today and it doesn’t seem that long since he was a tiny baby. So to celebrate his birthday we will be having a combined family and friends dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant this weekend. My birthday is on Sunday so this works out well.

What didn’t work out so well was my beginning sketches! I thought as I am not good at drawing especially people I will start doing some sketches. As you can see the sketch of Mike below  certainly was a bit peculiar.But hopefully I’ll get better if I keep practicing.

Wait until you see the one I did of me on Sunday,

I need a lot of practice!!

BJ's Brewhouse

BJ's Brewhouse

We were very happy when our friends Sally and Joe asked if we would like to meet them  to go out to eat especially when they said there was a new restaurant they wanted to try.
They were going to the movies and so we would meet them at the restaurant called BJ's Brewhouse and Restaurant  in Lewisville. We thought about it for a while and suspected it would be a place like Chilis or the old Bennigans and just the the place for a late lunch or early dinner.
We were right except it was a much larger place that either of these two other restaurants . It had large TV screens on the walls all showing different programs and I can see that it would be really a great place to be if there was a sports game on TV and everyone was cheering for their team.I expect rather a bit too noisy for me though!!

The sampler of 4 beers.

 It was fairly empty when we arrived at 4.30 pm with lots of empty seats and booths and we quickly saw by the display of the variety of beers that this was a place specializing in craft beers  as well as fairly regular beers. Mike was really surprised when he saw one of his favorite beers which we always have trouble finding to buy, was available here.

We also were surprised by the large menu of various appetizers, pizzas snack foods and entrees. It was a bit like reading a large book to read the menu as each of the meals and drinks comes with a description and it takes for ever to read it all.We certainly needed help from our server in finding out about our choices.

Mike and Joe chose the 4 beer sampler which was good value for just over $6 . I chose a sangria  but I truly wasn't impressed even though it was presented and dressed up nicely with a big chunk of pineapple.It was rather weak in taste.

The food we chose was mostly pizza which was an excellent choice. Very tasty. We sampled both the thick pastry pizza and the thin pizza and both were hot  and really good. Sally had ordered a gluten free pizza which was available.

Our server was very good and attentive as he explained the menu and was patient as we asked questions. Our drinks and meal came out in good time and he made sure we got everything we needed .

We enjoyed catching up on news with our friends and found this a good place to go for a pleasant meal.

Funerals make you think

Funerals make you think

I went to a funeral today.It was a beautiful sunny and warm day in January and it didn’t seem right that the friend who had suddenly died with a heart attack just wouldn’t be there to enjoy it .

Maureen was a lovely lady and younger than me by about 10years or so. She was a kind and generous person, who always had a good word for anyone she met and despite going through a life full of tribulation, always  through hard work and pure self determination had managed to cope  and not let life drag her down. I hadn’t known much about  her family or her early life as she was a friend that I would meet at occasional meetings so it was quite  a surprise when a good size crowd attended the funeral. I say that because some of the funerals I have attended have had only a very few in attendance.

This was not a funeral in the old fashioned way, it was more  a celebration of her life One by one her family, children and grandchildren and close friends came up to give  testimony for a person much loved, respected and honored. There were tender stories and fond memories and by the end of the service I felt that not only did I really know and understand  Maureen now but I realized why this type of saying goodbye is so important.

Yes, It gives closure to the family and friends but it brings  a thought to my mind that while you are living your life you just don’t fully realize what impressions you are making on the people that you meet on that journey. A lesson in life to learn.

This celebration of life showed this.

Alive Inside

Alive Inside

I saw a very interesting documentary on Neflix the other night. It showed how a man, Dan Cohen as he volunteered in a nursing home that catered mostly to Alzheimer's patients, wondered if he could bring some change and joy to their lives by giving them the opportunity to listen to music.
 Most  patients were sitting around having mostly withdrawn from life but as he put  headphones on them with music that they would have enjoyed in their earlier lives, it seemed to open the doors of long forgotten memories . It was really amazing to see the difference in the patients well being and their willingness to start interacting with life and people around them again.

When Dan saw what good results it brought  and how they enjoyed this small thing, he then went on to try to get his program into more nursing homes and accepted by other people.
If you get a chance, watch this program. It opened my eyes and my mind.
I enjoy listening to music each day as I walk and I can see how these old people must have had their inner souls and memories awakened if only for a short while.

Scandinavian Crime Fiction- a good read !!.

Scandinavian Crime Fiction- a good read !!.

A while back I read  Stieg Larsson’s  Millenium triology “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” series  and got hooked on these very deep and involved mystery novels set in Sweden and Denmark.

Placed in a modern but unknown culture for me, the complicated  story lines and the brooding, odd, even quirky characters, turn into a book  which I just can’t put down.They are real page-turners.

I read the whole series and found the books actually more interesting than the movie series that came out later. I guess that is often the case.

I also watched “Wallander” on Netflix, This is a mystery/dectective series based on  mystery fiction by Henning Mankell. One series was produced by the BBC but I watched the original series  in  Danish so  I was watching it with sub titles but still found it just as intriguing.

Just recently I found the third book in the series by Jussi Adler-Olsen- 

" Purity of Vengance"

Having read his previous two books in the Department Q series  ,I knew this would be a great read as well. I wasn’t disappointed. “Purity of Vengance “ is complicated which I expected, funny sometimes, has weird type characters, is quite dark and  sinister in places and above all , the ending comes as a  complete surprise.

I am not sure why it is that these Nordik books entrance me but they do and  I recommend them to anyone who wants a mystery book that will keep you guessing.

Just be sure if it is a series to try and get the first book so you understand the complexity of all the characters.

The Fright Man

After reading the scary book I mentioned the other day, I was checking out some of the paint and draw apps on my computer. Most are very simple probably designed with children in mind or so complicated that it boggles the mind.
I used to do a lot of art work on the computer when I got my first computer, my beloved Amiga in the early 90s.  I even managed to make some basic videos of animated fairy stories.

So I tried and needing a quick subject I thought of the scary man in the jungle.

Obviously with age my skill in computer art work has gone!!
 You can see  that  by my attempt above. I will blame my mouse I think as it isn't exactly easy to pin point. It skitters all over the place so it is hard to get it to do what you want it to do.
After all this was Microsoft's basic paint program and any child can do it .

A Visit to Weatherford

Weatherford is a very typical country town with Western flare  in North Texas about 1 hour drive from where we live.It is in Parker county to the west of Fort Worth and like all small towns close to large cities is starting to develop with new houses and new people moving in. It still retains a quaint country charm with lots of Western activities and restaurants , horse ranches . In the center of the town is the County Court house, and it is a magnificent old building If you are visiting you won’t miss it as it is in the center of town and  the main roads converge and in fact it is stands in the middle of a roundabout so all the traffic has to go around it.

We came here to see our friends Kathy and Vince who have moved out recently to a new home in this area  and we were here to celebrate Kathy’s birthday which we did by going to a very nice Western style BBQ restaurant.

A Scary Book- Don't Look Back

 A Scary Book

Don't Look Back by Greg Hurwitz

I read 2 books over the Xmas holidays. Don’t  Look Back by Greg Hurwitz was certainly a scary thriller and I should have known this from the book cover - the silhouette of a large man looking out from a jungle.

The plot goes like this:

A  new divorcee decides to get over her depression by going for her dream vacation to a primitive eco-camp in the jungle area of Oaxaca in Southern Mexico.

She feels it will be a confidence restorer as she  will be doing all kinds of adventurous things she hasn’t done before like rafting , and hiking and meeting new and different people.  The camp which is fairly primitive and hidden in the jungle has just a few other guests and starts out well. 

It is interesting and she is learning a lot of new activities but then she sees a strange man lurking in the jungle  close to the camp and she senses that he is dangerous. She finds a  digital camera  close by on the jungle floor and wants to return the camera only the lady who owned the camera has disappeared  without trace and photos of the strange man are on the camera.

The menacing man is lurking around the camp, a raging storm is approaching  , the vacation is no longer the fun experience but  becomes a  fight for life in a strange and overwhelming territory. and so the real  scary part begins…….

And  then of course you just have to read it to the end !

Goodbye Christmas Cards

Goodbye Christmas Cards.

So today we start the DE CHRISTMASING of the house.

First to go are the wonderful Christmas cards that we received from so many friends and relatives. from near and far.

I did a quick analysis just for fun, as I sorted them out and this is what I got:

Religious theme cards, just 4. I would have guessed more.

Hand made cards , 2. Both lovely painted ones.Every year I plan to do that but never actually do it. Maybe next year. I’ll start tomorrow….

Animal and bird cards,12  and surprisingly they were robins or other birds although a few dogs and cats were there as well.

Only 2 photo cards of our friends but 7 or 8 newsletters. That surprised me as well but I guess like us a lot of people send internet greetings now as well. So thanks if you did that.I always like those.

The rest of the cards about 25, were all bright Christmas season cards with lots of sparkles and snow. Always lovely to look at .

Thank you all. We so enjoyed hearing all the news.

Now to add these to my others from past years , just can’t ever seem to throw them out !!

New Beginnings

New Beginnings

"What a BIG world"

I guess each New Year we all hope for new beginnings of something or other- a new project, a new job, a new friend or even a new family member be it a new pet or even a new baby.

So the challenge on facebook page “ monthlypainterschallenge” called New Beginnings fit right in with the start of 2015.

This is my entry, an acrylic painting 10”by 8”.

Its a combination from a photo of a chick .Eggs photo came from a magazine cover

Date: Friday Jan 2

Weather: grey skies,rain sometimes heavy( most unusual) 36 degreesF

Reading: The Purity of Vengeance by Jussi Adler-Olsen

Movie: The Honorable Woman series.

Sheila K birthday.

A Doodle for 2015

Date Jan 1

Weather: miserable -rain and very cold.

First  doodle using 'Sumopaint app.
Neat app , but I'll need to practice some more!

And so we start another year, 2015. It seems like only yesterday that it was the year 2000. What a mess that year was! Just in case you forget, that was the year when everybody thought that the computers would all crash as we celebrated the New Year going into the new century and everybody's computers throughout the whole world would suddenly stop functioning. 
Well of course it didn't happen. 
The biggest worry this year was the crazy weather that was attacking the whole of the United States and indeed it seems like the whole world. Here in our part of Texas we were fortunate to have just heavy rain and temperatures hovering around the freezing mark.

So with the new year comes another new blog. Now if I was really into blogging I would have prepared for this a few days ago because the actual starting a new blog is the most difficult part  and takes a few hours to set up. It's quite complicated even for a simple blog.  When you only get to do it once a year you forget how it to do it and so of course it takes longer. 
But here it is.

This year I'll keep it short, shorter than this first attempt and I'll keep to odds and ends that amuse me or things I see, create, read, find, think or wonder about. That opens up a whole world of possibilities,

 I do these blogs mainly for my own amusement and so that I can look back throughout the year to see what actually happened. It's a process that jogs my memory and keeps my brain cells lubricated.
 I am very happy to have anybody read or comment on my blog or even to add to them if they choose. Just send mean email.