November 2nd's Sunday/Monday Post

Welcome to this week's Sunday/Monday Post.  I will be linking up to:

Sunday Post
Sunday Salon
Stacking the Shelves
Mailbox Monday
It's Monday, What Are You Reading?

Before we get to this week, I do want to talk about the last couple of weekends.  My parents were in town!  It was great having them here visiting.  They went out to Palm Springs in between.  When they were in town, we went to church together and played lots of games.  What amazed me was how many I won since I rarely win games.  And no, that wasn't why it was great having them here.  It was great having them here because it meant we got to spent time together.

This week?  I had a rough week at work.  Just too much stuff that everyone is expecting of me right now.  And close is starting.  Hopefully, things will calm down this coming week.

But Saturday was nice and relaxing.  I went paddleboarding with a friend in the morning.  Okay, it was very late morning/early afternoon when we were out on the lake.  Enjoyed temps in the 70's and 80's with hardly any breeze.  Then, I stopped by my local Six Flags park to activate my pass renewal.  I just went on one ride while I was there since it was so late in the day.  Now, I'm home and working on this.  Plus I have some other blog work to do.

But I need to start getting out and paddleboarding more.

Joke of the Week:

Why was the rabbit so happy? Because some bunny loved him!

This Past Week on the Blog:

Sunday - Sunday/Monday Post

Monday - Movie Review: Sick

Tuesday - Book Review: The Case of the Carnaby Castle Curse by PJ Fitzsimmons

Wednesday - Book Review: The Ghostway by Tony Hillerman

Thursday - Book Review: The Tightrope Walker by Dorothy Gilman

Friday - Monthly Reading Summary

Saturday - Weekly TV Thoughts

This Coming Week on the Blog:

Sunday - Sunday/Monday Post

Monday - TV Show Review: Mistletoe Murders - Season 1

Tuesday - Book Review: Crescent City Christmas Chaos by Ellen Byron

Wednesday - Movie Review: Now You See Me

Thursday - Book Review: The Devil Comes Calling by Annette Dashofy

Friday - Movie Review: Holiday Mismatch

Saturday - Weekly TV Thoughts

Book Haul:

I'd been doing so well, but I wound up with four books to talk about this week.

Let's kick things off with The Crime Brulee Bake Off by Rebecca Connelly.  A culinary cozy mystery?  Sign me up.  This one appears to involve a murder during a British baking reality TV show - a fictional one but inspired but a very popular one I'm sure.  I've heard good things about it and the ebook went on sale.

I also got another pre-order delivered.  At Death's Dough is the fifth in the Deep Dish Mysteries from Mindy Quigley.  I really enjoy this series, but I'm guessing I won't get to this one until December.

Completing the trio of culinary cozies I got this week, I also got an ARC of Catering to the Dead, the eighth Cupcake Catering Mystery, this one with a Day of the Dead theme.  I enjoy Kim Davis's books, so I'm anxious to dive into this one.

Finally, I got a used paperback copy of The Maze in the Heart of the Castle by Dorothy Gilman.  I'm trying to read  her stand alones, but I was focused on the ones she wrote for adults.  Until one of them talked about this book in a fictional way.  (In fact, she hadn't written this book yet when The Tightrope Walker came out.)  I was intrigued enough I had to get it.  Tracking it down was a bit of extra work since it is rare.  But I found a decent enough deal that I was willing to buy it.

What I'm Currently Reading:

As I'm typing this, I'm about two thirds of the way through This Way to Murder by Shelley Shearer.  While it calls itself a Board Game Cafe Mystery, it's been more about letterboxing.  I'm enjoying it, but it's a fast read.  I should finish it up on Sunday.

Which means I'll be diving into Catering to the Dead by Kim Davis.  Told ya I was anxious to dive into it.  Plus, it is an ARC and I try to turn those around quickly if the book has already comes out, which is true in this case.

That's it for me.  Have a great week!

November 1st's Weekly TV Thoughts

TV We Love – I never really have connected with The Love Boat, but they made me want to give it another try.  I definitely do appreciate the fact that it is light, fun entertainment.  So much of TV these days seems to have forgotten how to do that.

Only Murders in the Building – As the episode was starting, I got to thinking about the twist from last week, and it stopped making sense to me.  But then they reframed things and everything made perfect sense.  Very well done season overall.  And they saved the building.  The only question I’m left with it, how has it been five years for them since most of the seasons start right after the last one ended.  This is only the second time we’ve had a time jump, right?  I guess the murders take longer to solve than the couple of months I’d given them.  That ending?  Yes, I was laughing.  Not the victim I thought it would be.  Glad to hear it’s been renewed for season six!

Dancing with the Stars – There were some great dancing.  I feel for Elaine.  I hope she is doing okay and is able to come back strong next week.  They didn’t leave Andy in the bottom three, which was a surprise.  Jen never really caught my attention, but I’m still sorry to see her go.  At this point, it’s hard to see anyone go.

Shifting Gears – Not the biggest fan of the episode.  Maybe it’s just the mood I’m in (didn’t laugh at another sitcom I watched earlier in the evening), but I also didn’t find the subject matter that great.  The ending scene was touching.  I’ll give it that.  And I liked the meta jokes.  They just should have had something about Galaxy Quest.  Especially coming from Stitch.  Heck, he barely had two lines all week.

The Challenge – A couple of interesting challenges.  At this point, I am over the alliance vs alliance thing.  I’m hoping we aren’t too far from the final because I’m more than ready to see who winds up at the end and who wins.

Survivor – I’m not sorry to see Shannon go.  She was annoying me.  As much as I’ve talked about how annoying it is to constantly be having them break up the merged tribe into smaller groups (which I still stand by), I did like this twist on things.  Looks like it is only for one episode, but still, it was nice to see just a little bit of different scrambling and dynamics before we merge.

The Amazing Race – A rather boring episode.  Were there any position changes?  Yeah, a couple of people got lost, but it doesn’t appear to have been for very long.  Hopefully, they shake things up again next week.