Spring may finally be here

It seems that my update schedule has moved to every two weeks. I'm going to try to get back to a weekly update.

The snow has finally all melted from our last snow storm on the 14th. I was reminded that It snowed pretty hard (about 3") on April 14th, 2002. I remember complaining about it on an online forum and an acquaintance who had just returned from Brazil was complaining more bitterly than the cold. The trees are budding, leaves are leafing, and we've had a series of rain storms move through. My grass has been cut once and I'm planning on getting to it this weekend again for a second. The Spring semester has one week left before graduation and our department is geared up for the summer. I've had a lot of fun in the mornings watching the clouds roll through Cache Valley, sometimes bringing rain, but I don't need to turn on my lights very often, my window lets in a lot of light when when it's mostly cloudy, like now.

The kids are excited about the change in weather because it means they can play outside more and longer. Our neighbors, who have six kids, do a lot outdoors, often riding their bikes around the cul-de-sac (French for bottom of the bag). Kanga is a lot more interested in learning how to ride her bike while Tigger is still unsure about it. He likes the idea of a bike, but his perpetual hesitance gets in the way of trying it. We took Kanga's pedals off so she could practice balancing and she's gotten pretty good at it now. She may be ready for pedals soon. Last night when I came home I had to pull through the whole herd as turned into the street. It did my heart good to see them all playing. Everybody in the cul-de-sac is careful about the kids and the kids do a good job of steering clear of cars. Reminds me of my own childhood.

Leeroy, Spock, and Raptor are still living with us as they have had difficulty finding land and a house. It is not for lack of trying and they are currently under contract on a plot ten minutes away from us. They have moved out to their trailer, which has freed up the TV room. It has been good to have them with us. They help out with expenses, meals, cleaning, and watching the kids. It will be good to have our house back to ourselves and it will also be bittersweet when they move out.

Angel and I are looking forward to summer and working on a few projects around the house and yard. With the new job we have some funds for these projects. Unfortunately, the first one is replacing the roof. I'm also in the process of pricing out the cost of a new shed and greenhouse. We've had less than mediocre luck with gardening. Mostly because we've had difficulty keeping up on it. I did have a chance to prune three of my trees a couple of weeks back and I'm hoping we get some good fruit. The pear and peach are looking good. The apples - well, it could be an off year for them, we'll just have to see. The magnolia is blooming beautifully and we'll probably start having Monday dinners on deck soon.

All in all, life, like the seasons, is looking up. 

Audible Book Review - Manners and Mutiny by Gail Carriger Finishing School book the Fourth

And I'm still struggling keeping up but here it is. The last of the Finishing School series by Gail Carriger. When we cancelled our Audible Account both Angel and I were sad that we wouldn't have ready access to this book when it came out. Luckily my new job enabled us to renew our account just in time. There was no question that this book (which had come out late last year) was getting picked up. Here is the link to the Audbile page for the book. The series is now complete and, from what I understand, ends with everything in place for Carriger's 1st book Soulless to start up. Muscles has told us that while she enjoyed the Parasol Protectorate books she recommends them sparingly, the same way I recommend the Monster Hunter and Dead Six series. I don't know that we'll pick up any of those books we we've enjoyed the Finishing School books. The last book was narrated by Moira Quirk, like the others, and like the others she did a great job.

Plot: Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy Young Ladies of Quality is in more danger than ever. With the Picklemen maneuvering to take over mechanicals all over the kingdom something most be done. And the most capable people of doing anything about it tend to be the first targets. Sophronia is determined to make sure that those who are seeking control don't get it, but that's hard to do when you don't know how they intend to take control. With Agatha and Dimnity, Sophronia tries to figure out what is the Picklemen's ultimate goal. However, can she survive finding out?

My personal favorites: The story is great and the characters are a lot of fun, as before. The action was good and suspense was well done. I liked part where Sophronia was "behind enemy lines" and had to find ways to handle herself with danger all around her. I thought the ending was satisfying. I didn't mind Sophronia and Soap's relationships and I thought the interactions were fun.

Considerations: There is more violence in this book as well as more sensuality, but I still consider it appropriate for young adults. There were no graphic descriptions or language to worry about. The book was on par with the others.

I was glad to listen to this series and enjoyed the presentation very much. As I said, we probably won't pick up the Parasol Protectorate, but I am curious about the Custard Protocol. The total length of Manners and Mutiny was just under 10 hours.

Audible Book Review - The Dresden Files books 3-12 by Jim Butcher

So I haven't posted a book review in a while because I wanted to get through all the books I had in the series. Thanks to my cousin I was able to get audible versions of the bulk of the Dresden Files that I started reading a could of years ago. SO, you can consider this a review of Grave Peril, Summer Knight, Death Masks, Blood Rites, Dead Beat, Proven Guilty, White Knight, Small Favor, Turn Coat, Changes, and Ghost Story. It was a lot of listening, about 154 hours, give or take a hour or two. They were all narrated by James Marsters who was marvelous. I really like Butcher's writing and despite listening to a adventure/thriller series for almost three months straight I rarely tired of hearing either about the story or James Marsters' voice. There were a couple of times when I would feel annoyed with an attitude or action that the Dresden had decided to take, but without fail the next time I started listening had me back in the story and loving the characters in a matter of minutes. This says a lot about an author. It took me twice to get through Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix because I was so annoyed with Potter's attitude but when I got annoyed with Dresden I just had to give it a minute and I knew that Butcher would suck me right back in. I'm not going to try to provide a plot summery for each book, but, in Butcher's own words, Grave Peril is where the much larger story arch gets started and, while it is still moving forward at the end of Ghost Story it does wrap up a pretty big part of it. Harry Dresden is far from done. As of this writing there are two books and an anthology that are past this. I'm going to see a friend next month who has promised to help me get the next couple of books, so I'll review those when I get done with them. It may be a bit. Despite enjoying Dresden, I may need a bit more time before getting back into his story. It's pretty intense and a change of pace and palate is nice every once in a while. Can I just say I really don't like the way Blogger arranges pictures?

Plot: Harry Dresden, Chicago's only professional wizard private investigator, is not known for holding back when innocents are in danger. Luckily he is not alone. Through his contacts in the supernatural world Harry has met righteous knights (complete with swords and shining armor), a pack of young werewolves, small time practitioners, necromancers (complete with zombies) gangsters, demons, ghosts, vampires, the Fae (Matrons, Queens, Kings, Ladies, and Knights - all worthy of the capitol letter), shades, fallen angles, mercenaries, oracles, and, or course, fellow wizards. All of whom want him to work for them, kill him, or are willing to help him. His job is to know which is which. When war breaks out and Harry starts to lose friends and allies, he finds himself stretching and pushing himself more and more. With every victory he finds himself losing something. The question is how far can he go before he bets too big and loses it all.

My personal favorites: Butcher has created a cast of heroes, villains, gods, and demons that are anything but two dimensional. and are all intriguing. Whether it's the polka loving Butters, the mysterious gangster Markon, the relentless Warden Morgan, or the good intentioned Molly - and these are predominately side characters - the cast is well envisioned and well developed. It's incredible to see each character go through their own story arc and experience their own triumphs and failures. Karen Murphy, Dresden's closest friend, is a delight in and of herself. Unfailing in her loyalty and stalwart in her duty she backs Dresden to the hilt (literally on occasion) and reaps the rewards and the consequences. Butcher does an incredible job of showing us exactly what Harry's actions lead to and many of them are not pretty. The action is very well written and the story arc is both vast and intimate. All in all, fantastic writing.

Considerations: The books do have occasional strong language. I would be surprised to be reminded of that fact, but did not find it used inappropriately. There is also sensuality, some books don't have much, others more so. The most blatant sexual references were in Death Masks which was a little intense with some brief, limited, graphic descriptions, Despite all the violence and the supernatural aspects there aren't a lot of graphic descriptions of violence. On par or less than Corriea's books. I probably wouldn't recommend these books for young adults, even older ones. For anybody else, go for it.

Going through these books was quite a ride. They were a big help in handling the stress of job searching and starting my new job. I've recently finished another new book and the audible version of an old favorite that I need to review. I'm also re-listening to Crystal Keepers as I'm anticipating getting the new Five Kingdoms book next week. My wife is thinking about picking up the latest Lockwood & Co. even though she's already read it. She really likes the productions on Audible and I have been encouraging her because I have not read it yet. So, yeah, lots of stuff on my plate - reading wise. The Dresden books were great and I will finish the series. It's just a matter of time.