Blood Ties and more
23.Feb.08
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I just finished a book by Lori G. Armstrong titled Blood Ties and I suspect I’ve found a new author to follow. Love it when that happens, don’t you?
Part of the draw is definitely the setting. This story takes place out in western South Dakota in (roughly) the Rapid City greater metro complex (such as it is…). While the style isn’t quite as “I lived that life” as the feeling that John Sandford’s books tend to elicit, it’s still definitely a strong factor.
The plot itself is more or less a standard whodunnit but has a ton of characters and some great twists. You also have your tension between Julie, our main character, and Kevin, an old friend and PI that she sometimes works with. They remind me a bit of Patrick and Angela from Dennis Lehane’s great series (Gone Baby Gone is the first in that series and now a movie). Come to think on it, some of the other “larger than life” supporting characters in Blood Ties are a bit reminiscent of a Lehane book. In particular, Jimmer is a slightly toned down Bubba.
Side note: seriously, read the Lehane Patrick and Angie series if you haven’t yet
If you like a good detective tale, and/or watching some new characters come to life as you turn pages then give this one a shot.
I see Armstrong has two more books and I sure hope they feature the same two lead characters.
Next in the queue is a big pile of library books:
- John Grisham The Appeal
- Miller’s Sin City volumes 5, 6 and 7
- Alan Moore’s V For Vendetta and Watchmen
- 30 Days of Night by Niles and Templesmith
Thanks for the comments and suggestions of books to try 
I guess my handwriting stinks
16.Feb.08
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Installing a new “custom” shower surround this weekend. Until just now things were going quite well. Considering the awesome instructions, I was quite pleased with myself (seriously, I have structural parts not in the docs — and the docs has parts listed that I don’t have!).
I was working on cutting the top rails to fit this afternoon. Made sure everything was level and measured — twice. Wrote down my measurements, grabbed the piece to cut and headed to the garage.
In the garage I measured and marked my piece to cut. In fact, I measured twice, then ran back upstairs to look at my notes and measured a third time.
Pity that I was reading my handwriting wrong and cut the damned thing 5 inches too short.
I’m so disgusted with myself at the moment.
I figured I could save a couple hundred bucks by doing the install myself. I think I just ate up that savings with the new “custom” header I’ll be ordering monday morning.
Real Weekend Plans
03.Feb.08
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For Christmas the wife got the family tickets to a Nuggets basketball game. The school district was sponsoring “Douglas County Schools” night and she hooked us up.
I was excited to go — been here 7 years and haven’t seen a bball game yet — but was a bit concerned about seats. Honestly, I figured we’d be up at the very top of the building. So, imagine our pleasant surprise when we picked up our tickets at Will Call and found that we were in club level.
Here is a picture of the wife and kids:
And here is a picture of moi and the kids:
And again, I apologize for the blurry pics — my camera phone is acting a bit dodgy…
Oh, I also had the chance to show the family the blimps that I helped with earlier this week. Here’s a [blurry] shot of all 3 in the air in front of us:
The game was great. It started out pretty rough — the Bobcats were consistently ahead the first 3 periods. The 4th period started with the Nuggets 10 points down, but then they went to town and won it by 16!
Carmelo Anthony was back from five nights off which was pretty sweet. He and Alan Iverson combined for 49 points. Linas Kleiza, a fellow I’ve never really heard of, exploded in the fourth with 16 of his 23 points. He was on fire and great fun to watch as he really took it to ‘em at the end. He’s one to keep an eye on.
The 4 older members of the family were definitely engaged right up to the end. Ben was… tired, but he was a trooper and hung in there with no complaints.
I’ll be working the blimp crew for this month’s upcoming Jazz and Celtics games and I’m definitely looking forward to watching more ball.
Today will be a casual day of hanging out. Tonight my brother and family are coming up to watch commercials and a bit of football with us. We have tons of great football food planned and I plan to gain a few pounds
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On the other hand, I...