June 9, 2023: Friday Recommendations

Daily Diary, Day 1011:

It has been a usual Friday, in that I did about an hour cleaning upstairs, and several loads of laundry. However, an unscheduled phone call ate into some of the time I spent chatting with Rio’s owner and watching the dogs play-or ignore each other-for their weekly play date. Then I figured out meals for the next week and ordered groceries. Now, suddenly it is almost time for lunch. We are having someone come by this afternoon at 2 to give us another estimate for taking care of the front and side yards (get rid of weeds and come up with something that is easier to maintain.) I hope that this doesn’t take so long that I can’t get in my late afternoon walk.

Very gloomy so far today, and actually some precipitation last night, and since I lost a little sleep midway through the night, I confess I am now feeling rather sleepy.

One of my facebook followers mentioned this morning that the interview I gave is on youtube. I tend to cringe when I watch myself, and in some ways it is a mini-lecture on self-publishing, which I suspect was more information than they wanted me to give, but I know some of you expressed interest in seeing the interview, so here is the link.

Finally, I think I will try to do a recommendations post every other week, so here is what I have been reading, listening to, and watching since the last recommendation post two weeks ago.

TV watching: My husband is still watching old episodes of Columbo, there is one with George Hamilton as the villain on right now. For those of you of my generation, I think the most fun thing about this series is seeing so many of the stars—often TV stars—of the 1970s. We are still watching Seinfeld (now on season 3) and either it is getting better or it is simply growing on us, but, we are enjoying. We are still slowly finishing Ted Lasso, and searching for some other series that we both can get excited about, while watching some quirky movies, and rewatching movies like the Ocean 11, and the Wick series. I can say for the Wick movies, they should not be binged…because then they become boring. We now are to Wick 4, but I think I need to wait at least a couple of months to try it. Otherwise, nothing we have watched is standing out as something to recommend.

Listening: I continued to listen to the new Julia Louis-Dreyfus podcast, Wiser than Me, and she ended the season with an interview with Carol Burnette. I was struck how many of the women ended up married to younger men (true of Burnette.) One thing I will mention is that Julia uses a lot of profanity, which didn’t bother me because I am not above using profanity myself to make a point, but I can imagine it might be off-putting to some. As far as audiobooks, I finished the Dorothy Sayers mystery, Unnatural Death, and listened to a Tony Hillerman mystery, Talking God, and I am now listening to another Anne Cleeves, Vera mystery, called the Glass Room, which I don’t think was made into one of the TV shows, so I am rather enjoying the fact that I don’t know who did it.

Reading: As I mentioned in my last post, much of my reading during the day is in short intervals, and I am very pleased that I finally got caught up on the print magazines. Of course a new Science News, a new New Science, and a new New Yorker, have just arrived. But I intend not to get so behind again. I finished reading the short stories in the anthology, entitled, The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2022, and I have just started reading for the ten minutes before bed, an old Albert Campion mystery, Death of a Ghost (by British Golden Age Margery Allingham.) I am not sure if I ever read it, but if I did, it was probably at least 40 years ago, so I don’t have a clue who did it. While Campion is not my favorite protagonist, I am enjoying the story so far.

Hope some of these recommendations give you some ideas for your own recreational activities, and, as usual, I would love to hear from you what shows or books are currently entertaining you!