All posts by verily sherrilee

Directionally challenged, crafty, reading mother of young adult
2026, books, Business, Fantasy, Mysteries, TV

The Doctor

34 Comments

When I was in the bookstore, I was offered a “new” position in Store #1 (Southdale).  My title was Associate Manager, a title that didn’t exist anywhere else in the bookstore world at that point.  This fancy title meant that I had more responsibility, more work but no more power than any average employee.  And certainly not a lot more money.  But the one thing that I was promised was the doing this job would mean that when it came time for me to become a store manager, I would be able to skip the traditional small “starter” store, but would jump right away to a medium store. 

If you live in the Twin Cities, if you ever visited the store over in Sun Ray Mall (not there any longer), you’ll know that they lied to me.  There were only a few stores smaller than Sun Ray at the time.  However, the Associate Manager job was such a pain in the patoot that I didn’t argue when they offered me the teeny store – off I went.

I’ve mentioned the teeniest because despite it’s small size, it had the largest Dr. Who section in the Twin Cities – seven full shelves in the corner so basically its own section.  A couple of times a week, someone would come in the front door and ask “Dr. Who?”.  We sold A LOT of the little mass market editions.  Some of them were books based on episodes and many were other Dr. Who fiction.  Written by many different authors.

That was over 30 years ago, only half way through what is now a 60-year legacy and still going strong.  Even though we had cornered the Dr. Who market at the time, it didn’t interest me much.  As time has passed, I’ve watched just a few episodes and a couple of years ago I did read the very first book. 

A couple of weeks ago I read something on FB that commented that Dr. #5 (Peter Davison) is the father-in-law of Dr. #10 (David Tennant).  Not sure why but that seems like a funny happenstance.  So I decided I might learn a bit more about the whole Dr. Who universe.  I’ve started with a series that was made about 10 years ago.  There is one DVD per doctor with a 30-minute overview and interviews covering the doctor, the companions and what made them special and different.  Then there is one episode, sometimes the first of that particular doctor, sometimes one of the most iconic.    

There have been 14 different Dr. Who actors, although some folks count 15 because David Tennant came back.  However clocking in with a whooping 892 episodes filmed so far, this is not a rabbit hole I’m going to jump down.  I’ll watch the rest of the series.  Maybe in the future I’ll watch a few more here and there – particularly David Tennant and Peter Davison, both of whom I already liked from other roles.  I don’t think I’ll need a spreadsheet!

Is there any science fiction you like?  A Dr. Who fan?  Star Wars?  Star Trek?  Firefly?  Avengers?

2026, Automotive, Kids, Technology

When They Roamed

40 Comments

My car (Honda Insight) is 12 years old.  She has held up remarkably well but I wasn’t overly surprised when a couple of weeks ago, I had to push my key fob repeatedly to open the car.  But it only happened twice, so then I forgot about it.

Then three days ago, the key fob quit locking.  It would unlock but not lock.  I tried the old key fob – that one was deader than dead.  A quick trip to the hardware store and two new batteries didn’t fix the problem; the internet search listed about 10 possible causes, only one of which was something I could fix on my own.  And that fix didn’t work.  *&#^^%@$.

With YA coming home Sunday night, I was worried that if I messed around too much, locking the car the old fashioned way, that I might not then be able to open it.  Since I needed the car to pick up YA and also needed the car to take a friend downtown yesterday morning, I didn’t want an issue.

Then I made my big mistake; I texted YA about the situation.  What I really wanted to know was where her keys were, in case I needed to use her car to pick her up.

What I got was:

  • Directions on how to change to batteries in the fob. (Thanks, did that on my own already)
  • You know you have the old fob in the drawer? (Yep, been there, done that)
  • Why don’t you leave it until I get home. (Really, you don’t trust me to drive your car to the airport and back?)
  • You know, you can lock the car with your key. There’s a key hole on the door.  (I am not making this up).

Fortunately, the fob is now working intermittently so the short-term issue is on hold although I’m sure I’m going to have to deal with this in the coming month.  Not sure how to let YA know that back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, the ONLY way to lock a car was with the key in the door!

Did you know how to drive a stick-shift?  Did you learn on it or teach yourself later?

2026, Business, Mysteries, Stories

Keen

20 Comments

I haven’t been anywhere the last couple of days.  No errands of any import, no lunches, no appointments, just a quiet few days.  The one downside to this is that I’m listening to a CD in the car that I have been missing.  The Woman Who Walked in the Sunshine by Alexander McCall Smith; it’s part of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series.

A need arose for something from the hardware store yesterday so I hopped in the car and immediately turned on the CD player.  Mma Ramotswe is having a holiday and is enjoying an afternoon tea with some ladies at President Hotel in town.  As the other women are gossiping away (just as I was getting to the hardware store) this passage came up on the CD:

Mma Ramotswe lowered her eyes.  She was not enjoying this conversation, but she had to say something.  “There are many shocking things that happen,” she said.  “I see them in my work.”

One of the ladies exhaled loudly.  “You must tell us about these things some time, Mma,” she said.  “You must tell us about some of these shocking things.”

“Yes,” said another.  “We are very keen to disapprove.”

I had just taken a big swig of coffee and it was all I could do to keep from snorting it up my nose when I laughed out loud.  “Disapprove” was not the ending to the sentence that I expected but it was a better ending than anything I could have thought up on my own.

Has anything made you laugh recently?  (Book, film, kid, meme…..)

 

 

2026, animals, Food, Mysteries, Nature

Critter Conundrum?

29 Comments

I can’t decide if I’m losing my mind or not.

Backstory.  For many years, I have kept dog treats in my car – a box in the backseat and usually two or three in the little well in the drivers side door.  Most of these go to dogs at the hardware store – there are two official hardware store dogs but there are also often shoppers who bring their dogs in.  Occasionally if someone asking for money on a street corner has a dog, I will stop and talk to them a bit.  Dollar or so if I have it and a couple of treats for the dog.  I haven’t changed the type of dog treat – ever. 

This summer, I went to grab a treat from the little well and there were none there.  No big deal, I must have used them the last time I was at the hardware store.  I went to get a few from the box and the box was empty.  It’s completely within the realm of possibility that I took the last few treats out the box the last time I filled up the well, but I couldn’t grab a memory of doing that.  I bought another box, opened it and put a few in the window well.  A couple weeks later I noticed the well was empty, so went back to the box.  It was open and tipped over in the storage box where it sits.  Hmmmm.  This is where it gets tricky.  I am not 100% certain that I put any treats in the well at that point but the next week when I wanted one, the well was empty.

There is absolutely no evidence that critters are the culprits of all this.  No crumbs, no droppings, no scratch marks, no odor, no damage to anything else in the car.  Even in summer, I never leave the car windows open.  I could do a more scientific investigation (other than relying on my perhaps faulty memory) by taking a photo and jotting down the date and time to compare it later if I find the well empty.  Same with the box – picture and date of it closed.  So far, I’ve been too lazy to do that, although truly, how long would it take to snap a photo with my phone as I’m getting out of the car? 

It’s hard to imagine a squirrel getting into the car and it’s harder to imagine mice getting in and traipsing off with whole dog treats without leaving some kind of trail.  

Any thoughts?

2026, Business, Family, Food, Travel

Pea Green

32 Comments

When I started in the travel department of my company (35 years back), nobody had cell phones.  Of course, mobile phones did exist, however they were huge and very expensive.  Nobody I knew had a cell phone until the 90s.  The first small phone, the flip phone, came out in 1989. 

If you needed to call home while you were traveling, you needed to call through the hotel and it was exorbitant.  (This was also before everybody had laptops.)  My company had a strict “once every three days” rule for these expensive calls.  We all know how much technology has changed the world.  Now the company doesn’t even have a rule about calls home. 

This morning, I got up to the above photo texted to me from YA, who is on a work program right now.  Up until that moment, I had thought we were having a really warm couple of days.  Everything is relative, I guess.   The caption under her photo was “Breakfast on my balcony.”

Are you jealous of anybody this week?

2026, books, Fantasy, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Let’s Speculate!

36 Comments

The first bookstore that I worked in was teeny.  Teeny tiny.  Because we were so small, we did not have any subsections of Fiction.  Romance and science fiction and mystery were all filed together by author with the “regular fiction”.  I don’t ever remember this being a problem.  My next store was larger; Romance and Science Fiction got their own shelves but Mystery was still mixed in with Fiction.  By the time I got the store #1 at Southdale, even Mystery had a neighborhood of its own.

I remember when Fantasy started being differentiated from SciFic (although it never had its own section when I was in stores).  And I also remember when I first started hearing folks use Literary Fiction as a subgenre.  (This one always bothers me because it sounds kind of snooty.)  And although I’ve never seen it listed anywhere officially (although I’m sure it’s out there), I’ve used Dystopian Fiction myself for books like Station Eleven and Red Rising.

Last week when I was in Barnes & Noble I turned a corner and found two big tables of “Speculative Fiction”.  This is a new one on me.  The signs said “the perfect mash-up of your supernatural, fantastical, magical and futuristic dreams.”  Doesn’t this encompass fantasy and science fiction and maybe even dystopian?  Fellowship of the Ring was on the table – I would clearly call that Fantasy.   Both of Andy Weir’s books (The Martian and The Hail Mary Project (both excellent by the way)) were piled up.  I would absolutely call both of those Science Fiction.  Station Eleven was on the other table.  I would put that in Dystopian since it’s not supernatural, fantastical or magical.  Wouldn’t Mystery fall into Speculative?  I was thinking that just about every fiction title might qualify for Speculative.  Except the romances – as they pretty much always end the way we think they will.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not actually against putting books together by fairly specific genres; it does help folks find books they might like.  But Speculative seems to be a more expansive genre rather than a whittled down category.  Not sure it will help, but it was a nice sign.

Do you have a title that you think qualifies for the Speculative Fiction section?

2026, Art, home, Uncategorized

Chunk Mess

25 Comments

We have a new baby in the neighborhood; they came home on Saturday.  These are newish neighbors so I don’t know them super-well.  With folks you don’t know, and young to boot, it’s hard to gauge what kind of gift to get.  I wasn’t invited to any showers and these days new parents seem to want the types of stuff that I either have never heard of or is out of my price range.  I need a small, casual gift.  My go-to is the chunk journal.

This is a small photo album, just 4 x 4, with lots of pretty paper and embellishments.  The front and back cover is made with corkboard – I get the 4 x 4 coasters online.  It’s easy to make and I get to use up stuff from my way-too-big craft stash.  Papers, ribbons, stickers, bling.  The only problem with the chunk journal is the mess:

I don’t have a plan when I start a chunk journal except the number of pages (I usually do 24 pieces, so places for 48 photos.  As I cut paper and take out various embellishments, I don’t put them back right away, as I may want to use them again on later pages.  This means my desk is covered in all kinds of stuff that I’m not willing to return to its home until I’m all done with the journal.  As I get closer and closer to the end, I get a little more ruffled about the mess.  I start to put stuff away in my head.  That means I get two endorphin kicks at the end.  I’ve finished the gift and I get to start the clean-up.  Unfortunately, this is the only time I get all excited about cleaning up in my studio.  Rats.

Do you have any go-to gifts (any occasion)?  Do you purchase gifts off folks’ registries?

Business, Media, Uncategorized

Time to Make the Donuts

32 Comments

January 8.  I am not willfully ignoring the events of yesterday or the day before that.  Or the day before that.  I don’t want us to become a source of dissension that could attract trolls.  And on a more personal note I need at least one place/forum separate from the insanities that are surrounding us on a daily basis.  If others disagree, I bow to the majority but will mostly likely be quiet.

***********

I saw a news story that some residents of the town of Haverhill, Massachusetts are upset at the smell emanating from the new Dunkin’ Donuts factory there in town.  They complain about the fried dough smell and that their homes and clothes reek of it.  Of course, quite a few others think it’s a nice smell.

It was a surprise to me that the donuts are made in a factory; while I never really thought about it, I assumed they were made in each Dunkin location:

Turns out it’s a little of both worlds.   Most Dunkins get frozen dough from various partner factories.  They thaw the dough, shape, fry, ice, etc. in the individual locations but there are also franchises that have the donuts made in their local factory.  Who knew?  Truly I do like the idea of the donuts being made right in my little store, but as long as they taste good when I get them in the drive-thru, I guess it doesn’t really matter to me.

However I do sincerely understand how the anti-smell folks in Havervill feel.  When I was working in the bakery, I came home every single day and took a hot shower before I did anything else.  I even convinced the owner to include me in the uniform rental (the other women in the bakery didn’t want this) so that I could leave the odor-drenched clothing at the bakery.  I could FEEL the bakery smell on my skin.  It wasn’t even that it was a bad smell just that it was so enveloping.  And, of course, I believe I told the pumpkin pie story more than once, but my aversion to that smell is just as strong now as it was back then. 

I guess that means I would be in the “ew, it stinks” camp if I lived near the factory.  But I’m not sure I’d be willing to complain about it out loud.

What kind of a factory would you prefer not to live near?

2025, books, Fantasy, History, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Alternative Histories

24 Comments

The holidays brought me a nice cache of giftcards so yesterday I had a “gift card day”.  Dunkin for breakfast on the way to knee therapy.  Blicks Art Supply.  Barnes & Noble.  Taco Bell.  A great day.

I spent about an hour wandering around Barnes & Noble.  As a dedicated library patron, I have to admit that I haven’t been inside a bookstore since last year when Jacque’s sister was signing her latest book at Once Upon a Crime.  Nothing against bookstores but my pocketbook prefers the library system.

Anyway…  as I was checking everything out, I found two tables that had various history books piled up.  I’m assuming that B&N stores get table recommendations from headquarters with a few title suggestions but that most of the books are picked for display by store employees.  (That’s how it was back in my day in the bookstore.)  The history tables had the look of employees having a bunch of fun.  History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks, History of America in Ten Expeditions, History of the World in Six Glasses.   Clearly this is a trend and it reminded me of a couple of titles I’ve read – A History of the World in 100 Objects and Orchid Muse: History of Obsession in Fifteen Flowers.  100 Objects started as a BBC radio series – I stumbled upon in once it was published in book form.  It looks at objects from all over the world, from as long ago as 2 million years.  It was absolutely fascinating.  Orchid Muse was a book I read last year as part of my Rivers & Ridges Book Festival experience.  The author was at the festival so I got to hear her speak – a lot of extra little details that weren’t in the book. 

I didn’t realize that history in a set number of lessons was a thing but if you do a quick internet search, you can find a glut of these books.  47 Borders, 50 Books, 50 Failures, 12 Maps, 500 Walks, 50 Lies.  I could go on but this is enough and it makes me wonder if authors are starting out to do a “number of things” or if they have an area of interest and publishers/agents push them in that direction?

Any other suggestions for “History of the World in”…….?

2026, books, Media, Mysteries

A Good Thing After All…

20 Comments

One Good Thing.  That’s the name of my journal – short and sweet – one good thing a day.  Every now and then if I just can’t whittle it down, then two.  Doesn’t have to be earth-shaking. 

Every now and then, like yesterday, I am just not feeling it.  Gray and cold.  No good news in the world. Found out my supplement program has stopped doing the $50 of pharmacy freebies.  My checks haven’t come in yet.  The mail didn’t arrive.  I started three different books and none of them lit any kind of spark.  Just a crumby day.  What in heaven’s name was going to be my one good thing?

Back in December I went to get my hearing aids checked before my 3-year warranty was up.  It was pretty cursory but when “Opal” (name changed to protect the innocent) asked me if I had downloaded the app, I remembered when Jacque was helping Lou with his hearing aid once at a Blevin’s meeting using his phone.  Opal and I discussed it for a bit, what it could do for me and if it would fit my needs.  And then she said the magic words…. “do you ever listen to audio books?”  You all know I perked up immediately.  Turns out that even without the app, I can have audiobooks (and also my phone) stream through my hearing aids!  Who knew.

My phone does have the Libby app on it already but it hasn’t too useful.  If I had it too loud, YA would comment.  During the summer, when windows were open, traffic made it hard to hear sometimes.  If I would get up and leave the room, I’d have to remember to grab the phone.  I didn’t use this feature often.  But through my hearing aids, it’s a whole `nother world!  No irritating YA, no traffic noise, no having to remember to take the phone.  I can walk all over each floor of my house before I get out of range.  It’s amazing.

This has been life-changing for me and I’m trying not to regret that I spent three years not knowing about this.  Oh well.  Even though Opal clued me into this in December, since one of my “meh” books today was listened to via my hearing aids, I’m gonna take it!

One good thing for anybody else yesterday?