Evidence

I am reading Jonathan Kellerman's latest novel, Evidence. I am an avid reader of this author's books and have read all of the Alex Delaware novels. But I've found factual errors in every one. Some are glaring, others aren't. The problem is that they distract me from the plot.

Here are the ones I found in this book.

Page 5: "He'd brought a good lunch today, roast beef sandwich from Arby's, too bad there was nothing to heat the gravy with."

I've eaten at Arby's and they do have roast beef sandwiches, but I've never seen one on the menu which includes gravy. I looked at the Arby's website and they have sausage and biscuits with gravy, but no roast beef sandwiches with gravy. So where did this guy get the gravy?

Page 65: "We found some soda cans toward the back of the property, dented and rusty, like they've been there for a while."

They must have been there for a very long while. Most soda cans have been made of aluminum since the early 1970's and aluminum doesn't rust.

And lastly, on pages 142-143, there is some discussion about $50,000 in $50 bills. "Two large suitcases full."

No. That's totally wrong. $50,000 in $50 bills is a total of 1,000 bills. A bill is 0.0043 in thickness. A stack of 1000 bills would be less than five inches high. "Two large suitcases" would not be required.

I know I am being picky, but why can't authors (and their editors) catch these factual mistakes before the book is published? They're not huge errors, but they detract from the story.

Possessives, Contractions, and Plurals

This is my latest pet peeve. Don't schools teach this anymore? I am astounded by the number of times I've seen these used incorrectly in books and on professional blogs.

Here's a brief review:

Ownership by one person or thing: school's John's
Ownership by more than one person or thing: students'

Using its and it's:
When used as a possessive, use its: The truck lost its muffler
When used as a contraction--"it is": It's best not to question a judge in a courtroom.

When a word ends with the letter "s" (including a plural) to make it possessive use an apostrophe after the "s" without adding another "s": snakes'

How hard is that?

Autumn Rains

I woke last night to the rain beating on the roof although there were pieces of blue sky this morning. There may be a day or two of bright sunny weather in the next couple of weeks, but the rainy season is upon us. I need to find my wool hats and gloves and my umbrella. I'll be using them often for the next six months.

The Last of Summer's Flowers

The sun was warm when I went out to water my flowers this morning, but the air is cold. Yes, autumn is here. Next weekend I'll need to clear them out and get the flower pots ready for next spring. The lavender, sage, chives, oregano, and rosemary will winter over. The basil is in John's office. The Thanksgiving cactus has been put away in a dark closet to force it to bloom.

When I Know Summer Really is Over

There comes a time when it cannot be put off any longer. The radio warns of a killing frost coming that night, and you must say good-by to the garden. You dread it, as you dread saying good-by to any good friend; but the garden waits with its last gifts, and you must go with a bushel basket or big buckets to receive them. ~ Rachel Peden

Blackberry Eating

Blackberry Eating

I love to go out in late September
among the fat, overripe, icy, black blackberries
to eat blackberries for breakfast,
the stalks very prickly, a penalty
they earn for knowing the black art
of blackberry-making; and as I stand among them
lifting the stalks to my mouth, the ripest berries
fall almost unbidden to my tongue,
as words sometimes do, certain peculiar words
like strengths and squinched,
many-lettered, one-syllabled lumps,
which I squeeze, squinch open, and splurge well
in the silent, startled, icy, black language
of blackberry-eating in late September.


Galway Kinnell (b. 1927)

What I Did Today

Today I:

* paid the utility bills
* cut out fabric for a doll quilt
* made a pumpkin nut bread
* saw that the weather forecast for the next two weeks is for 70-80 degrees every day
* did two loads of laundry
* started a list of what I want to do this weekend
* knit a pair of pink mittens
* began knitting a pair of baby bumblebee socks
* mopped the kitchen floor and did some other maintenance housework
* watered my flowers and herbs
* put stale bread out for the birds and filled their bird bath
* thought about getting out the Fall decorations, but decided to wait
* swept the front porch
* ironed John's work shirts for next week
* made an appointment with a heating contractor about installing a new furnace
* picked up books, DVD movies, and books on CD at the public library
* looked at possible new curtains for the bedrooms
* ate leftover pizza for dinner
* began reading Charles Todd's A Duty to the Dead
* said a prayer for all those affected by 9/11/01

Summer's End

No! Sob! I'm not ready! Yesterday evening I realized it was getting dark much earlier. A few leaves are turning color. It's cooler in the mornings. I can still keep the screened, sliding glass door next to my desk open and listen to the wind rustling in the leaves and the birds singing, but how much longer will it be before it's too cold and the leaves and the birds are gone? Last night, just before I fell asleep, I heard a flock of geese honking as they began their long trip south.

I'm going to go eat another fresh peach, knowing that soon there soon will be no more, and muse over summer's end.

Oregon State Fair

John and I went to the fair yesterday with our son, Owen, and daughter-in-law, Sarah. We left at 8am and picked them up in Eugene at 9am, arriving in Salem shortly after the fair opened for the day. The weather was perfect; warm, but not too warm, with an overcast sky.

We headed straight to the animal barns. First, came the sheep! One of my favorite breeds is the Navajo-Churro. Their wool is gorgeous and comes in marvelous colors and if I had this breed I would take up spinning and weaving.

The second breed I like are the Shetland sheep. These are the sheep I would probably get if I moved back to the country and we had sheep again. They are small and could be managed much more easily than larger breeds. They also have lovely wool and I could again see myself learning how to spin and using the yarn to knit.


At the end of the sheep barn, there was a large stall with people crowded around. We went over to see what was there and found a sow with her piglets!


Next came the chickens!

Here are Sarah, Owen, and John entering the building.

I'm not especially fond of the strange looking, fluffy, poodle-looking like chickens, but it was lovely to see examples of the breeds we used to have--Barred Rock and Rhode Island Red. I'll admit I became enamored of the small and delicate old English breeds. The building wasn't conducive to photography, but I did get this one photo.


We also saw Toulouse geese like the ones we had. There were also some Welsh Harlequin ducks. I had forgotten how beautiful they were.

I did manage to get a photo of John with a rooster which belongs to his co-worker, Lee. The rooster's name is Stella. I don't know why.


After thoroughly washing our hands at one of the many hand-washing stations set up outside the barns, we looked for something to eat for lunch. We ended up with barbecued ribs, coleslaw, and beans. After washing our hands again we found the Americraft Center.

There was a lot of competition in the baked goods divisions, but it was disappointing to see so few canned fruits, vegetables, and jams. I had looked forward to seeing the knitted entries, but there were surprisingly very few. I could only find three pairs of socks. There were several small lace shawls and they appeared not to have been blocked. There were many, many quilts. Quite a few were hung high up on the walls making them difficult to see.

There was one area, however, where quilts were hung up so that viewers could see them close up and here is where I took many photographs.

Blackberry Pie

It's not the most beautiful pie in the world, I know. When my four boys were growing up, my goal was to make pies faster than they could eat them. They didn't care what they looked like, only that they tasted good. And they did.

Why I Don't Go to the Movies

When someone asks me what's the last movie I saw at a theater, I have to answer that I don't remember. It's just too long ago. I think it might have been one of the 007 movies--one with Sean Connery--but I'm not certain. In any case, it's been many, many years. When I'm asked why I don't go to movies I give conventional, generally acceptable answers like:

1. It's too expensive
2. The closest movie theater to where I live is a 50 mile round-trip drive
3. There are no movies at the theater I really want to see that badly.
4. There always seems to be some jerk who won't stop commenting, a crying kid, and/or a ringing cell phone or some other distraction which ruins the movie for me
5. The snacks are too expensive
6. The air conditioning is too cold and I don't want to wear a sweater in the summer
7. The sound is too loud
8. The best seats (half way back, in the middle) are always filled before I get there
9. I can't put the movie on pause if I need to leave to use the restroom
10. The person sitting next to me always wants the armrest and/or someone very tall sits right in front of me so I have to lean over to see the screen.

Well, those are the reasons I give. But the truth is I am just so easily distracted by the big screen that I forget to pay attention to the plot. If it's a period piece I'm looking at hairstyles and clothing. If someone is wearing a handknit sweater that's all I'll pay attention to. (See Knitting in the Movies for a list of DVD movies which include knitting.) I'm looking at architectural details and listening to accents or choices of words. I look at how the movie was made-- colors, lights and shadows, point of view, depth of field, props, and angles of shots. In short, I'm paying attention to everything except the story.

No, if it's a movie I really do want to see I'll wait for it to come out on DVD. The smaller television screen isn't as distracting and I can watch it as many times as I wish and at some point I'll pay attention to the movie itself instead of all the details. That works for me.

Thunderstorm Warning!

There is a high possibility of thunderstorms this afternoon. I know this means we may lose electric service and so I am doing my baking and cooking now. I'm making a macaroni salad for dinner, cooking some rice for the left-over stir fry to put in John's lunch tomorrow, a potato salad to eat with sub sandwiches, and a blackberry crisp. As I began this morning I found I was out of milk, brown sugar, salad macaroni, and potatoes so I will need to go to the store when it opens at 8 am.

I plan to spend the rest of the day knitting and reading.

Blazing Heat

I don't generally write about the weather because, really, what is there to say? Well, today it's--- It is really hot! It was 104 degrees yesterday and the forecast is for 105 degrees today and it is really hot! And it's not cooling down at night either. It's 6 am now and it's 71 degrees outside. I have to rely on it's cooling down at night to cool down the house, but when it doesn't cool down at night it just doesn't work.

And did I tell you it's really hot?

The Best Part of Summer

The best part of summer is coming up. It's the time of blackberries, corn-on-the-cob, tomatoes and cucumbers from the garden. Every flower is in glorious bloom. The birds are singing their hearts out. Dawn and twilight are the most beautiful. And mid-day, when the sun shines down on us all, bright and warm. At night I stand outside where there are no outdoor lights and I see stars going on forever. I hear the children laughing and talking on the swings and slides and playing baseball and tag at the school playground a few blocks away. The bees are buzzing, the little wild rabbits hide under the snowball bush, and the birds splash in the bird bath.

Summer is truly here. Life is good.

Trip to Oregon Coast

John and I went to the Oregon Coast today, traveling to Waldport and down the Coast Highway through Yachats and Florence before heading home again. It was sunny with a cold wind so we didn't spend very much time on the beach, but we did take a lot of photographs. The weather was perfect, there weren't many people, and we had a wonderful time.