N is for Never Have I Ever

Never Have I Ever is a game played with friends where one person says a thing they've never done, and then if someone else has, they get a point. Or take a drink. Never have I ever played the game, so I'm not sure. But now I'm going to play with a set of questions I cut and pasted from the internet. I wonder how I'll do since I'm playing against myself?  :)

1. Never have I ever learned a foreign language. I have studied several foreign languages, but I would say I never learned any of them. In high school, I had a year of French taught by one of the coaches. I still remember a few sentences, but that's about it. In college, I studied Russian for three years. Even though I got good grades and was in the Russian National Honor Society, I didn't learn it very well. I can't remember much Russian at this point. I also studied a year of Japanese, and I probably learned more in that year than I learned in any of the other languages I studied because of an excellent teacher. 

2. Never have I ever dropped acid. Nope, unless you count spilling some vinegar.

3. Never have I ever had a one-night stand. Nope.

4. Never have I ever read a partner's text messages. I do read Ward's text messages from time to time, especially if he's driving. However, I try to be respectful of his phone and don't regularly look at it.

5. Never have I ever read a partner's emails. Ward and I read each other's emails freely. Occasionally, we will tell the other to not look at them when there's communication about a gift. Ward doesn't check his email frequently, so because I check it, I can give him a heads up if there is something he needs to pay attention to.

6. Never have I ever been hospitalized for something other than giving birth or being born. I was in the hospital for 2 weeks when I was a baby for pneumonia, but nothing else since then except to have kids. I was in the emergency room once for amnesia but was not admitted. 

7. Never have I ever sang in public. I have sung in school and community plays, church, and at work. I like to sing, but have no training, meaning sometimes I'm sound pretty good and other times I'm a little pitchy.

8. Never have I ever played a musical instrument. When I was in school, I played the clarinet and saxophone in various groups. I played my sister's flute at home. I tried to teach myself to play guitar but never got past my fingers hurting on the strings.

There was good sledding after this snow.

9. Never have I ever gone snowboarding. Nope

10. Never have I ever gone skiing. Nope. The most I've done in snow is sledding.

11. Never have I ever traveled to a foreign country. I have not traveled extensively, but I've made it to a few countries, including Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium, Japan, and Guatemala.

Until next time...

M is for More Book Reviews

 Here are more books I've read recently.

A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters, historical mystery, 1977

This is the first of 20 historical mysteries featuring the 12th-century Welsh monk Brother Cadfael. Kris recommended it in the comments on my last book review post. 

In this one, an ambitious priest wants to bring the remains of Saint Winifred from Wales to his abby in England. The town does not want to let her go, and a murder happens while the monks are in Wales to retrieve her. Through different deductions and tests, Brother Cadfael figures out who did it. 

I enjoyed the book but had some difficulty reading it, at least in the beginning. First, I was unfamiliar with the hierarchy and some of the religious practices of the Catholic church, especially in the 1100s. Next, the Welsh names and some of the local words were unfamiliar to me. However, about halfway through, I found a glossary in the back of the book with many of the Welsh words defined. 

The book was richer than the cozy mysteries I sometimes read, and I will add more Brother Cadfael books to the rotation when I'm in the mood for a mystery.

The Mayfair Bookshop by Eliza Knight, historical fiction, 2022.

Granny Sue recommended this book on her blog. She said it was the best book she had read in a while, so I put it on my list to read.

The Mayfair Bookshop is based on the life of Nancy Mitford and her family during WWII in England. The book follows Nancy through her younger, carefree days in a high-society family into a bad marriage and the horrors of WWII. While Nancy is loyal to England and tirelessly helps the war effort, some of her sisters are in Hitler's inner circles. This causes much strife in the family.

The book fluctuates between chapters about Nancy during WWII and the present day when Lucy is trying to solve the mystery of who Iris was in Nancy's life. The present-day story is less compelling than Nancy's, but it's okay.  

While the book is fiction, it is a fact-based story, including almost all names, dates, and places. The Mitfords were often in the newspaper for scandals and wrote copious letters, so much was known about them.  

I agree with Granny Sue and would recommend this book. I have requested Nancy's 1945 novel The Pursuit of Love from the library. It was her first commercially successful novel, and the Mayfair Bookshop describes the circumstances under which it was written. I am curious to see what I will think about it in the present day.

Note: Since I wrote this, I have read The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford. The book focuses on the narrator, Fanny, and her cousin, Linda. Linda is a somewhat one-dimensional character who is in pursuit of love. Mitford is definitely writing about what she knows, and the characters in this book are recognizable from her family, with Linda being a combination of a couple of the Mitford girls. The book was okay, but I won't be reading the next one.

L is for Lips

 How about a little pop culture quiz about famous lips? See if you can guess whose lips these are.

1. These lips aggravate Marge.

2. Her lips have been used for international adoptions.

3. He used to play football, and these lips still talk about it.

4. Her lip kits made her hundreds of millions of dollars.
 Her famous family didn't hurt the business.

5. Only Wilbur knew these lips could talk.

6. His lips deliver the weather with a smile.

7. These lips have been an enigma since
they were painted over 500 years ago.

8. It's a myth that there were wooden dentures
behind these lips.

____________________________________________

Answers: 1. Homer Simpson, 2. Angelina Jolie, 3. Michael Strahan, 4. Kylie Jenner, 5. Mr. Ed, 6. Al Roker, 7. Mona Lisa, 8. George Washington

How did you do?

Until next time...

K is for Keeping up with Exercise

Since retirement, I have focused on getting more exercise. I post weekly updates here to hold myself accountable and see my progress.

I'm pleased I've been keeping up with this exercise effort for the last two months. However, this week, there were two times I had plans to go to the gym but made up excuses and didn't go. I made up for it in other ways, but I know that feeling of not wanting to exercise all too well, and it's taking more effort to get past it. But this week, I managed to compensate in other ways.

Saturday, April 5, 2025

Ballroom Dance: Ward and I went to a ballroom dance sponsored by USA Dance, which has the goal of making ballroom dance more accessible. The local chapter hosts two monthly dances, which start with a lesson followed by two hours of dancing. We learned two moves for the West Coast Swing during the lesson hour. We didn't know all the dances, but we tried the ones we knew. And sometimes, that meant hovering in the corner, trying to remember steps. All in all, it was a decent aerobic workout.

Sunday, April 6, 2025

Free Day: We practiced some for our ballroom class tomorrow, and that was about it for exercise. There was no yard work, as it was a cold, rainy day.

Monday, April 7, 2025

Strong and Balanced: This was becoming one of my favorite classes, but today was grueling. The class is meant to work on strength and balance, i.e., a lot of standing on one foot and using weights and squats, among other things, to strengthen muscles and balance. Each person has a chair if needed for balance, but generally, we don't sit. Today, there was a sub, and while she said all the right words about doing things at your own pace, she didn't lead that way. We spent about 1/3 of the time sitting, mostly doing weight and shoulder exercises with weights. My shoulders were definitely feeling it, and so was my back. In fact, that's the most weight work I've done in any class of any type. 

Ballroom Dance: Ward and I practiced this week, so tonight's class went better than last week. This is a new session, and we will focus on quick step, cha-cha, and jive. Tonight, we worked on the quick step and a bit of cha-cha and reviewed the samba routine we were working on last week. While I was sometimes confused, I wasn't totally lost like last week, and that felt better. We did a lot of fast-tempo dances, and I got a good aerobic workout. 

Tuesday, April 8, 2025

Line Dancing: I had been exposed to all the dances we did today at least once before, so I was never totally lost. Yay! However, certain sideways movements bother my knees, so I'm trying to figure out how to modify them. I've been telling people about this class, but I'm going to stop. If there are any more people, it will be crowded. I continue to enjoy this class and get a good workout.

Wednesday, April 9, 2025

Free Day: I had intended to go to Tai Chi today, but when it was time to go, I was doing other things. And I convinced myself that it wasn't worth the drive to go to 1/2 hour class. I did some yard work, but not enough to count as a workout.

Thursday, April 10, 2025

Dancing: This morning, I had planned to go to a Zumba class but decided I wasn't ready for that intensity yet in my day. So, instead, Ward and I practiced ballroom dancing for 20 minutes. Then we went to a line dance in the evening. We went to this venue a couple of weeks ago and liked it, so we tried it again. Over the evening, I'd say that I got about 1 1/2 hours of vigorous exercise. At least the amount I was sweating suggested that. :)

Friday, April 11, 2025

Strong and Balanced: In this class, the instructor says to get a lighter and heavier set of weights. I have only been getting a lighter set. Today, I actually took two sets and used the heavier set when appropriate. Still, much of the class has heavier weights than I do, but I'm improving. I have said before that I like this class, and one of the reasons is that they pay attention to most parts of the body--more than just the major muscle groups. Today, we exercised for the arches of our feet. 

Until next time...

J is for Jurassic Park

I was talking with my sons the other day, and they couldn't believe I hadn't read Jurassic Park or seen any of its movies. I hadn't because the idea of cloned dinosaurs terrorizing the earth was not at all appealing to me. Wally said I needed to read the book for cultural literacy's sake. I use the cultural literacy argument on my sons all the time, so I decided that I should put up or shut up.  So, I recently read Jurassic Park by Michael Critchen. 

I chose to read the book instead of watching the movie because I have enjoyed other Michael Crichton books. And what did I think of this one? It was a compelling read. I enjoyed the science and philosophical discussions but got tired of the dinosaur slashing. 

I don't plan to watch the movie based on the book (or any other movie in the franchise), but I looked up how the book and the movie differed. Basically, the book is more violent with more bad guys. So there. Now, I'm not the last person on earth to read or see movies about Jurassic Park. (BTW, the fact that it's in the news that an extinct wolf has been brought back to life scares me!!)

I've been trying to catch up on my cultural literacy with a couple of other things, also. We don't have any streaming channels except Amazon Prime, so I'm often out of the loop for current shows. However, I have been able to see two of them through library DVDs.

The first was Ted Lasso. The series came out 5 years ago and had three seasons, with talks about a fourth. I had heard the name mentioned frequently, but I had no idea what it was about other than soccer. In case you're living under a bush like I was, Ted Lasso is about a football coach from the US who goes to coach a soccer team in England. He knows nothing about soccer but is the eternal optimist and makes other characters see things in different ways. Ward and I thoroughly enjoyed the series and were sad when we finished it. I understand why the show has won so many awards. 

The other show that we tried recently was White Lotus. I hear people talking about it all the time, discussing plots, etc., but I didn't know much about it. The show takes place at a fancy resort where rich people bring all their problems and stay for a week. The staff have their own set of problems. 

The show is described as a dark satire about human behavior. At first, we were intrigued with the show. The characters were odd, but we wanted to know more about them. But by the end of the third show, we were done. Behaviors and events got worse to the point we were uncomfortable watching. And with promises that things would only get worse until the end of the show, we didn't want to spend any more time on it. 

Each season is filmed in a different resort with different guests. However, we won't be watching anymore, but I think we're in the minority when I hear the buzz around the show. To each their own.

Until next time...