Wordless Wednesday...A Few From Philly

It's not exotic...it's Philly!

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Your view of the city if you never get off Route 95

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...as always, for more Wordless Wednesday, check these out.

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Musing Monday...The Secret Life of Caite

Another week is under way...so let's head over to see what  Miz B at  Should Be Reading is asking...

This week’s musing asks…

If you were going to write a book, what would you write about? Would it be fiction, or nonfiction?

I think every avid reader has thought, at one time or another, that it would be great to write a book. Can't you just see yourself with a book at the top of the NY Times best seller list...Can't you see yourself being interviewed by Oprah (yes, I know she is off the air)...Can't you see people stopping you on the street telling you how they loved your book..they laughed, they cried, it changed their life...Can't you see yourself, with your agent, as the bidders fight over how much they will offer for the movie rights?

But then reality intrudes.
Non-fiction is not really an option.
I know a little bit about a great many topics. My knowledge is very wide and very shallow. Maybe enough to right a nice little pamphlet.But not a book unless I did a great deal of research and work. But where is the fun in that?

The thing I probably know the most about, natural gas, clean, plentiful natural gas, the industry I have spent the last 25+ years in..well, I actually don't know that much ever about even that. And what I do know would make one incredibly boring book. A past president of our company actually wrote a book about the history of our company. Every employee was given a copy when they were hired and I am sure many even read it. But I never got my copy..so I have not. I bet it is a page turner!

So it would have to be fiction.
They say, "Write what you know". Again, here is the problem. What life lessons have I learned in my half century that I am just bursting to share? Hmmmmm.....Can I get back to you on that?
And then there is another problem. Say you write this book and there it is, out there. And of course, all you friends and family and everyone who went to high school with you reads it..well, the ones who can read. Especially if you give then a free copy. Now they are wondering, how much of this book is based on real things in your life. Did she really steal that money from the PTA? Wow, that character is a lot like Cousin Joe..do you think he really has another family in St. Louis? He is out of town on "business" a lot?

I think writing these Musing Monday posts are revealing enough.
I'm not sure I want you all knowing more about me and my secret, fascinating hidden life.
But I do love to travel and a world wide book tour would be great fun!

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Bookish Bandit SundayI

I am preparing for my trip in the fall to Florence, reading up!
What do you mean, I'm not going??
What..there must be a mistake!!
What...WHAT??

Weekend Cooking...Orange Cardamon Ice Cream

Ok, I admit it.
I certainly did not need a new ice cream maker.
But there I was, surfing the internet..ok, actually, I got an e-mail, as I do every day, from Ru La La, a site that sells stuff every day, brand name stuff, in limited amounts, at often quite good prices.
I skip the designer clothes 'boutiques' but the home stuff, the kitchen stuff, the vacation destinations, yes, I look at them.
So when my friends at Cuisinart were selling, I had to look. And I saw it. A lovely red ice cream maker. Oh, only three left..it is a sign. I must have IT!!

Yes, I had an ice cream maker. But it was old. And not red. And while electric, required ice and salt.
And did I mention, it was not red.
Like this one.

 

So, here I was with a new ice cream maker and no recipe.
Ok, that too is a lie.
I have a very nice book, The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz, with lots of wonderful recipes. But then, on my friend Zite, that site which I mentioned last week, I saw a recipe for this Cardamom Orange Ice cream. It is from the Bi-Rite Creamery and appears in the Sweet Cream and Sugar Cones.
It sounds so exotic, like an exotic Creamsicle, a perfect summer ice cream.
Of course, which ice cream isn't perfect?

Orange Cardamom Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 1/4 ounce green cardamom pods
• 1 3/4 cups heavy cream
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 5 large egg yolks
• 2 large oranges, zested 
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

Infuse the milk/cream: Put the cardamom pods in a small skillet and put the pan over medium heat. Toast, stirring frequently, until aromatic, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat, let cool for a minute, then use a sharp knife to coarsely chop the pods.

In a medium heavy saucepan, stir together the cardamom, cream, milk, half of the sugar (1/4 cup), and the salt. Put the pan over medium-high heat. When the mixture just begins to bubble around the edges, remove from the heat and cover the pan. Let steep for about 30 minutes, or until the cream mixture has a distinct cardamom flavor.

For the base: In a medium heatproof bowl, whisk the yolks just to break them up, then whisk in the remaining sugar (1/4 cup). Set aside.

Uncover the cream mixture and put the pan over medium-high heat. When the mixture approaches a bare simmer, reduce the heat to medium.

Carefully scoop out about 1/2 cup of the hot cream mixture and, whisking the eggs constantly, add the cream to the bowl with the yolks. Repeat, adding another 1/2 cup of the hot cream to the bowl with the yolks. Returning to the pan of cream on the stove, use a heatproof spatula to stir the cream as you slowly pour the egg and cream mixture from the bowl back into the pan.

Continue to cook the mixture carefully over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thickened, coats the back of a spatula, and leaves a clear mark when you run your finger across it, 1 to 2 minutes longer.

Strain the base through a fine-mesh strainer and into a clean container. Working directly over the container, use a fine grater to grate the orange zest into the ice cream base. Set the container into an ice bath and use it to stir the base occasionally until it is cool. Then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate the base for at least 2 hours or overnight.

To Freeze: Add the vanilla to the base and stir until blended. Freeze in your ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's instructions. While the ice cream is churning, put the container you'll use to store the ice cream into the freezer. Enjoy right away or, for a firmer ice cream, freeze for at least four hours.

Ok, after consulting my ice cream bible, Mr. Lebovitz's book, I skipped the whole tempering part with combining the egg and cream mixtures. By the time the cream and pods have steeped, it is not that hot, a little warm at best, so I just stirred it in carefully, whisking constantly. It was fine, quicker, less annoying.

 

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This is my contribution this to this week's Weekend Cooking.
"Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend."
Be sure to check out the other entries this week. As always, hosted by Beth Fish Reads.

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Review of "Afterwards" [34]

Afterwards: A Novel by Rosamund Lupton
Crown, ISBN 978-0307716545
April 24, 2012, 400 pages

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"A figure is hurrying along the burns unit corridor. For some reason, I think of the shadowy figure on the edge of the playing field.
He's going towards Jenny's side ward.
He goes in, and through the half open doorway I see his shape bending over her.
I scream, making no sound."

Well, you see, the problem is, she is in a coma.

It started as a lovely day, a sports day at her young son's school and his birthday as well, and Grace Covey is there, along with many of the parents, helping out. It is a family affair, because her teenage daughter Jenny is in the school, working as a medical helper.
But then it all turns horribly wrong.

Grace sees black smoke billowing from the building and runs toward the school, searching for her children. She is relieved to see her son, safe outside, but realizing her daughter is still inside, she runs into the burning building. When she next realizes what is happening, they are both in the hospital, her daughter very badly burned and on a ventilator and she is in a coma, suffering from severe head trauma, possibly brain dead.
But she is outside her body, in some sort of unexplained spirit state, soon joined by the spirit of her daughter. So begins a rather unusual attempt to help solve the mystery of what happen.
Because, as is soon clear, the fire was not an accident.

They can travel around the hospital, and in Grace's case even go outside, in cars to her home, see and hear her husband, see her son or accompany her sister-in-law, a police officer doing her own investigation into the crime, as she questions people, but they are both helpless to intervene. No one can hear them and they have no way to share what they know or think, especially as her daughter starts to remember bits of what happened, not even as her own son comes under suspicion.

Who could have committed this crime? There is no lack of suspects and no lack of motives, financial and personal,  even that one involving her own son. And it seems that the threat might not yet be over, as it appears that someone is still trying to kill her daughter. Which is rather pointless beacuse it is soon clear that if Jenny's damage body does not get a heart transplant, she will die from her injuries within weeks. How far will a mother's love go to save her?

I did not read the author’s previous book,  Sister, but it got some great reviews, as did this book, so I was very hopeful when I started it. Well, there is good news...and there is bad.
Let's take the bad first, to end on a higher note.

I thought I would have a problem with the basic premise, that the story is told by a woman in some sort of undefined spirit state, but oddly enough that worked for me quite well. We are left to our own understanding of what is going on with Grace and Jenny and that is fine, especially since they do not understand it themselves, but are just learning as they go along.  However, one way that the author did this, by having the narrator, Grace, always talk in the second person, did not. She will be listening into a conversation…something that made up a large part of the book and she will refer to "You". Wait, which "you"… just who is she referring to? This person, that person? ..and the reader must try to figure it out from the context. That gets old very fast and it was very, very confusing at time.
And quite honestly, I became quite tired of Jill. She becomes, as the book progresses, more and more unlikable, more and more self righteous in her love for her family . As the Kirkus Book Review so perfectly said it the book suffers from "the sense of suffocation that can arise from Grace's Interiorscape". The fact that the book is just too long for the story does not help. A lot of her interior musing could have been cut down with good effects all around, especially in the center..the long center..of the book.

But on the other hand, there is a fair bit to like about this book. The mystery is a good one, with some red herrings, lots of suspects and a good story that come to light in a nice way. And while Grace was not my favorite, a number of the other characters become quite likable, including her sister-in-law Sarah, a woman Grace never much liked before but who really become the book's hero. It seems even at the edge of death, Grace has quite a bit to learn, about her husband and her children, and even about herself. This book is a good mystery, and a good thriller, but it is also a story about friends and family, with a surprisingly moving if not totally surprising, ending. It does not overcome all it's faults, but still leaves us with a good story, a clever story, with a lot to enjoy.

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Wordless Wednesday....Stoned

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Venice

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Connamara, Ireland...with a cow

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Ephasus, Turkey

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Camden, Maine

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...as always, for more Wordless Wednesday, check these out.

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Musing Monday...Do You Hear What I Hear?

It's Monday, so let's see what Miz B at at Should Be Reading has in mind this week...

This week’s musing asks…


Do you listen to audiobooks? If not, why not? And, if so, what has been one of your favorites, so far?


Not looking for trouble here. but didn't we muse about this recently?
Oh, that is ok..I love to repeat myself. Sometimes endlessly.
So, do I listen to audiobooks?
Hmmm..well, I do, on occasion. Not a regular basis though.
Why? Because I do not think we are really suited for each other, audiobooks and me.

I only figured it out in recent times, but I am not an audio person. I blame that for my total inability to learn a foreign language. Ok, not total. I somehow made my way through 3 years of Spanish class in high school, even getting good grades but it was all a sham. In one ear and out the other..literally. Now a written language, like Latin and classical Greek, they and I got along just fine. Well, except that one teacher in high school who though Latin should be taught as a spoken language. I could have murdered her. Happily, no other Latin or Greek teachers I had shared that idea.

I learn things visually. When I remember things, I actually 'see' them in my mind, as they happen or as I saw them in a book. Even my memories of spoken things are visual..which is a bit hard to explain. The written word, on a page, is my friend. Things I hear are not.
Yes, audiobooks. My attention wanders. I have a problem following the story. Even at its best, I think I miss a lot of detail that I would have picked up in a written text. And for me, that is a lot of the enjoyment of reading that I am missing. So, even at their best...by which I mean the ones that do not put me right to sleep, audiobooks are a lesser thing, a compromise, as opposed to a written book.

Now, I have had a few fair successes with audiobooks, but I realize it has to be the right book and under the right circumstances. A long road trip, ideally on a boring interstate is perfect. Nothing to distract me but endless road, mile after mile. But taking maybe only one road trip a year, even at a couple of books per trip, that is not very productive. Oh well.

And the right book helps. Not a book with a big cast of characters. No, that is sometimes difficult enough in print, where I actually 'see' the names. Not a book like a complicated mystery with a lot of twists and turns. No, something more straight forward I think.
I had a lot of success, audio speaking, with a couple of books by Joshilyn Jackson...Gods in Alabama, Between, Georgia. They were narrated by the author and I thought she was perfect. I actually have Backseat Saint on my iPod, but I somehow screwed it up and the chapters got all mixed up..wow, I was happy I was listening to it on a walk and not a 12 hour drive somewhere. That would have driven me nuts.
Which unlike my road trip, is not a long drive.

Lazy Larry Sunday..A Cat's Most Important Thought

Weekend Cooking...Pimento Cheese

I must say I love my iPad and one of my favorite apps on it is Zite, "a personalized magazine for iPhone and iPad that gets smarter as you use it". You pick subjects you are interested in and it trolls the internet, endless sites, picking articles it think may interest you. You can vote thumbs up or down for each as you read it and that will determine the type of ones it will pick in the future.

I must say, I find all sorts of stuff I would never have the time, or be able, to find otherwise, including a lot of great recipes and food related stuff...and book related stuff..and photography related stuff...and Maine related stuff and fly fishing related stuff ...Ok, you get the idea.

But for Zite, and an article it led me to, I might never have realized the importance of pimento cheese in the life of our Southern neighbors. Like those below the Mason-Dixon line south. I might have gone my entire life never having tasted Pimento Cheese!
While I had heard of it, probably served in some book I had read, I had never tasted it, made it..or knew anyone else who tasted or made it. There may be people in NJ who make it, but I never met them. But according to this article, it is an essential food group in the land of Dixie.
Who knew?
Well, we Northerners had to give it a try! So I made some for the Sil and Bro for our little celebration of their 29th wedding anniversary last Sunday, along with mac and cheese and hot dogs. Hey, they picked the menu!

I must say it was a hit! Totally yummy and oddly addictive.
I did add more garlic than the one small clove that was recommended and played it by ear on the hot sauce. I was using Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce..it was what I had on hand...and had no idea hot it was compared to what she used. And then with the pepper jack cheese...well, I added about a teaspoon or two of hot sauce as I made it and added more at the end to taste.

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Perky Pimento Cheese

adapted from A Spicy Perspective

Ingredients

8 oz. cream cheese

3/4 cup mayonnaise

1 very small clove garlic, minced

1 Tb. chopped onion

1 Tb. Worcestershire sauce

1 Tb. hot sauce

8 oz. shredded extra sharp cheddar (2 cups)

8 oz. shredded pepper jack cheese (2 cups)

1/3 cup chopped pimentos, drained

Pepper

Instructions

Place the cream cheese, garlic and onion in the food processor. Puree until smooth.

Then add the mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce and puree again.

Scrape the bowl and add half the shredded cheese. Pulse until well combined.

Pour the mixture into a large bowl. Add the remaining cheese, pimentos and pepper to taste. Mix, cover and place in the fridge. Allow the pimento cheese spread to chill and thicken for 30 minutes.

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I will say, if you taste this when it is done, you will have an issue with waiting the 30 minutes, but do try, to let things meld.
"Pimento cheese spread is fantastic on crackers, veggies, apples, sliced bread and as a topper for baked potatoes or broccoli." I imagine it would be great on a burger or a sandwich.
Or on a spoon.
Or your finger..lol

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This is my contribution this to this week's Weekend Cooking.
"Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend."
Be sure to check out the other entries this week. As always, hosted by Beth Fish Reads.

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Do You Want To Be Number One?

We all want to be number one, or even 100th, including authors it seems. There are so many best selling lists, but of course most of them only note the top ten or twenty and only so many can be in the top ten or twenty. Like...ahhhh..ten or twenty. But there is another ranking, a much bigger ranking and that is the All Powerful Amazon's ranking. It seems that since Amazon instituted the system 10+ years, it has become quite an obsession among both authors and their publishers and discussed in this NY Times article. It seems that some authors become a bit obsessed with their ranking, checking every day to see if they have moved from 1800th to 1700th place. And of course, as with every system someone come up with, it doesn't take long for someone to figure out how to 'game' the system.

For most books, it does not take many orders to increase rankings. Knowing this, authors, publishers, even nonprofit organizations like MoveOn.org will send out e-mail blasts asking people to buy a book at a set time, or buy up copies themselves. Some authors get their friends to write reviews or even write a positive review for a rival book and mention their own title.

Oh, that is one of my pet peeves. Sometimes, I am looking at books on Amazon, maybe a book recommended because of another book I bought. There is a book, maybe one with only a small number of reviews, but an oddly large number in the 5 star category. So, I look at the review authors.
Is this the only book they have reviewed? And, of course, it is the very best book they have ever, ever read! Thanks mom and sis and college roommate!
I usually leave a comment for others to take this one with a grain of salt perhaps.

Also, there is some real mystery as to how the system even works. Seems there is some secret to it all. I am shocked...not.Sily me, I thought it was just like..the book that sold the most copies. But it seems not...

Neither Amazon nor Barnes & Noble will divulge the algorithms they use for rankings. What Amazon will say is that sales rankings are updated hourly for millions of items. The sales history counts, but recent sales are weighted more heavily.

I think I have clearly voiced my disinterest before in these best selling lists and such. Oh, they are fun to look at, but when it comes to buying or reading, give me a good review or recommendation from someone I trust any day. In fact, if something is very, very popular (in the past, insert any Oprah pick here), that is a bit of a red flag for me. I can't say that I believe I have ever read a book just because it was on one of these list...and I know that I have NEVER bought a book on Amazon because of it's ranking. So authors, don't be distracted and besides, they are probably 'fixed' somehow anyhoo. Just write really good, entertaining stuff and then get some great reviews out there. Personally, I think it is worth a lot more than some questionable ranking somewhere.

Really my dear readers, I am curious. Have you ever based a buying/reading decision on an Amazon ranking?

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Review of "Beneath a Meth Moon" [33]

Beneath a Meth Moon: An Elegy by Jacqueline Woodson
Nancy Paulsen Books, ISBN 978-0399252501
February 2, 2012, 192 pages

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"Kaylee says, Write an elegy to the past...and move on. She says it's all about moving on. I've read about it Laurel. You write all the time. You can do this.
So I'll begin it this way-It's almost winter again..."

Yes, she is just 15 years old, an age that seems too young for all that Laurel Daneau has undergone. The first years of her life, along the Mississippi Gulf coast seem almost perfect, her dad a fisherman, her mom working in a dollar store where Laurel was allowed the occasional 'shopping spree', then home to her friends, her baby brother and her beloved grandmother, M'lady. But all that came to an end with Hurricane Katrina, killing her mother and grandmother, washing away their home and their life as they knew it. But now, after two year living with her aunt, her father has found work and they are starting a new life in a small Iowa town.

Things look good on the surface. Laurel has a new BFF, is on the cheerleading team and has a new boyfriend, T-Boom, the co-captain of the basketball team. But things are not what they seem. Laurel is haunted by her memories, by the loss of her mother and grandmother and ripe for escape, the escape T-Boom offers her when he introduces her to the 'moon'...meth. And before anyone has any idea what is going on, things spiral out of control. Stealing money from her friend, taking the grocery money for drugs, running away, homeless, begging on the street, starving herself because every penny must go to the moon...Can Laurel possibly find her way back, or will she end up dead, like so many, immortalized in a portrait painted on the side of a building by a young artist named Moses, just another lost child.

It all sounds a little bleak, and in lesser hands, it might be. But as with every tough subject that Woodson tackles in her books, while this book is often disturbing, it is not bleak and ultimately offers us some hope for the future. But if ever there might be a hopeless topic, meth addiction might be it.

"Seems that's what I was always doing now- chasing the moon- trying to catch the high, trying to hold on to it. Trying to step deep into it. And disappear."

Most of us probably have no idea what addiction is like, what the attraction of something like meth is, but I think after reading this book you will have a better idea. And an idea of how hard the fight back will be. It is a frightening vision. These are people we know, ordinary, middle America, small town people. Not some 'losers' but the popular kids at the local high school, our neighbors. And that makes it all the more powerful.

It is a fairly short book, with short chapters, some in the present, some looking back at the memories that Laurel can never forget, but as with all of Woodson's book, not a word is wasted. Yes, I am a fan, and I think this is one of her best. Her prose is clean and sharp and while you will not want to put the book down once you start, don't be tempted to read it too fast. No, read it slowly, taking in every word. And, as Woodson believes all fiction should be, it is a hopeful book. Because while the world is full of horrible things like meth, it is also full of good people, like Laurel's dad and little brother, her friend Kaylee, and a stranger named Moses.

"While you're living...It's the rocks in your life that will stand by you. Your words, your friends, your family."

You might see this marketed as a YA book, a book for teenagers. But I think this is a book that, without doubt, adults will love as well. I know this adult did, another gem from one of my favorite authors.

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Wordless Wednesday...Black and White

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...as always, for more Wordless Wednesday, check these out.

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Review of "The Long Way Home" [32]

The Long Way Home by Karen McQuestion
Amazon Publishing, ISBN  978-1612183565
May 1, 2012, 336 pages

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From the book description...

"Marnie’s sorrow over her long-time love’s sudden death is nothing compared to the shock of losing his teenage son Troy (a boy she’s raised for ten years) when he’s whisked away to Las Vegas by his absentee birth mother. Luckily, she meets three unlikely allies at a local grief group who join her on an cross-country road trip to reconnect with him. Along for the ride are fifty-something Rita, still reeling from the murder of her daughter years before; Laverne, Marnie’s reclusive, widowed landlady; and Jazzy, a beautiful young psychic. Together, these four very different women embark on the adventure of their lives--a journey toward reconciliation and healing. Heartwarming, funny, and bittersweet, The Long Way Home is a winning novel of friendship and love from best-selling author Karen McQuestion."

As much as I like my mysteries, full of death and mayhem, sometimes you just need a break, something a bit different, and The Long Way Home certainly filled the bill.
When you read the premise of the book, when I read the premise of the book, I must admit it sounded a bit hard to believe. Would four women who barley knew each other just jump in a car and take off on this big road trip together? It is a sign of the success of this book that when you read how it comes about, yes, it does seem totally believable. Three of these woman, Marnie, Lavene and Rita are all marking time, seeming just waiting for something big to happen, to shake them up and the chance for this trip is just the thing. I can totally buy them jumping at the chance. 

Now, Jazzy's situation is a bit different.
Jazzy hears voices. The voices of dead people.
Something, again, that I am not usually a great fan of but here, the author makes it work. Jazzy is so nice, so positive, so concerned that she help people with her 'gift', like her grandmother, who shared the gift before her own death and still turns up from time to time, taught her. She is going along, really leading the group along, because this is what she believes all the women must do. It is fun to watch the story unfold, as we come to know each woman's tale, what has brought her to this point and how she must decide where she will go from here. And each woman's story is nicely wrapped up, setting them on a new path, including Jazzy herself. 


Ok, I thought the end of the book was not quite as good as the first half of the book. Maybe I just like anticipation more than conclusions, but I can't say that I totally bought how Marnie and her "stepson's" story ended.  Maybe the end of the book was a bit rushed and just pushed my level of belief just a little too far. 
But ultimately, not enough to negate my enjoyment of the whole book. And yes, this is a fun, enjoyable book. It is, at times, quite funny and often heartwarming. Surprising my favorite character by the end of the book was the elderly landlady, Laverne. She is a pistol..and a source of much of the book's humor. Not that authors usually listen to my suggestions (for some reason) but I think she is a character that I would love to see reappear in the future.  
The book contains a number of storylines that anyone who has lost a loved one will understand and an interesting look at friendship, between some rather unlikely candidates, that is quite sweet.. 


This is the author's fourth book, and, as she told me in an e-mail, her mom think it is her best so far...lol
I know that has me anxious to see what McQuestion's will come up with in the future.

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My thanks to the author with providing me with a copy of this book for review.

Musing Monday...That's Life...

It's Monday, very early Monday here in the Garden State, but still Monday, so let's see what Miz B at at Should Be Reading has in mind this week...

This week’s musing asks…

Other than working at a job, what is your biggest interruption to reading? What takes you away from your books?

"That's life, that's what people say.
You're riding high in April,
Shot down in May...."

Actually, my time at work is one of my most productive reading times!
I have talked about this before, and I don't want to dwell on the point (especially if there is ANY chance my boss reads my blog) but I get a fair amount of reading done at work. No, not when I work the day shift. That is actually 12 hours of natural gas, clean, efficient, home grown natural gas, related activities. But after two or three days of that and a couple of days off, I am on the 12 hours night shift for the next 2 or 3 days and my responsibilities change. Several hours of each shift I am fully occupied, especially the first and last and one in the middle. But for about 6 of the 12, I have about 45 minutes when I am in a more observational mode, a mode which requires alertness but does not preclude reading.

No, it is my days off that making reading time a little more limited, due to a little something called Life.
I live alone, no one making demands on my time. But still, the time, the non-reading time, just flies. For example, I have found that living requires eating which in turn requires shopping for food, cooking food, cleaning up from eating and cooking food. Then there are clothes, something I fully believe people should wear. Yes, I saw online a place, I think it was the travel oriented Magellan catalog, that sells disposable underwear, which would require no laundry, but since you still need to wash shirts and pants and socks and PJs and such, it would not help, would it? Paying bills, cleaning the house, going through the mail, trips to the Home Depot, yard work (even though I threw in the towel in hired someone to mow my grass) all take time, time I could be reading!

And then there is the new addition of Larry, a time sink if I ever saw one. That cat's care takes more than 10 minutes a day..every day. He wants food, he wants a clean litter box and he wants...no, he demands!...to be brushed and have his belongings sprinkled with cat nip.

Still, it is better than vacation, when, as I have admitted, I often do no reading at all. On my last vacation, two weeks on the road through Maine, I read one book, which with my vacation time history was actually good. Sad.
So I am happy that tonight I am back to work. Just fought my way through a book for some unknown reason..have we discussed 'giving up' on books on MM and why some of have a problem doing that?...so time to pick a fresh one and start the productive part of my reading week..back to work!

And sleeping! Let's not forget sleeping! 7, 8, 12 hours a day with yours eyes shut, making reading impossible. Really, what a waste. But, what are yu going to do..that's life.
As this Jersey boy says...

Lazy Larry Sunday...The Shedding Edition

"Oh Larry, come over here my sweet Lazy Larry! Come here!! 
Look, the doggie likes it!"