Great Author

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson


My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Severely introspective, complex, well-crafted....  I will go back and read Larsson's "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."

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Birthday Weekend

Previously I wrote that I entered a quilt into a tri-state competition.  It was accepted for the juried show.  My wonderful son-in-law, Adam, took the required photographs for me in January. The acceptance letter was received in mid-February.  The judging was conducted this last Wednesday and the show was open to the public on Thursday through Sunday.  For my birthday on Sunday, Jackie and I had some time together at the show in the morning.  We shopped at the vendors for fabric to complete placemats for each other.  The challenge was to select a fabric palette that the other of us would choose and make the mats as gifts to each other.  I thought that this would be a lot of fun for us to do and give us an opportunity to see how well we knew our quite opposite tastes.  The mats must be completed by June.  We will use them when we visit each other for coffee, tea and chat. Adam, Rob and Grace joined us around lunch time to view my quilt.  It did not win a prize.  I am anxiously waiting for its return with the judges’ comments so that I will know how to improve.  My sister, Jackie joined us and we all went to lunch together afterward. It was a great day. 

On Saturday, we celebrated Grace’s upcoming birthday with a trip to the Museum of Natural History.  We thought that it would be a quick visit for her to see the big blue whale and walk through one of the dinosaur rooms.  To our amazement, she loved the museum.  We were there for two hours!  The run-up to the visit involved bedtime picture books about a dinosaur who went to school and an octopus who thought he was the king of the ocean until a blue whale made an appearance.  She was ready to  go see the whale and the dinosaurs.  Using the museum map in “Dora, the Explorer” imagery, we visited North American Mammals where she was speechless and saucer-eyed viewing an Alaskan brown bear, two of the dinosaur rooms and the ocean mammals.  Her interest was more than I had hoped it would be.  By the way, the new butterfly conservatory inside the museum is well worth a visit when you are in the city.  We will follow up with more science activities.

Rob took Grace home late this afternoon.  I needed a nap before preparing dinner.  And, I was in my pajamas by 7 p.m.!  She is a joy and she is exhausting.