Anything by Ann Rule. She was true crime before it was cool. Her books are older, but they are really well researched and she had good relationships with law enforcements.
Her most famous book is the Stranger Beside Me about Ted Bundy - who she was friends with at one time.
I agree. I love Ann Rule and have read many of hers.
I actually read The Stranger Beside Me on my honeymoon sitting by the pool lol
Post by RoxMonster on May 13, 2024 15:08:03 GMT -5
Sunday: We grilled hot dogs with homemade pasta salad, corn on the cob, and fruit Monday: Chicken Parmesan, baked potato, green beans Tuesday: I’m doing a “paint your pet” night at a pub with co-workers so I’ll eat there and H will figure something out Wed: Probably chicken parm leftovers
Post by RoxMonster on May 12, 2024 11:56:48 GMT -5
Happy Mother’s Day to those who celebrate!
H and I did a hike first thing this AM. It was very peaceful and I’m now the nerd who likes seeing which new birds come up on my Merlin app. Then we got breakfast out.
Post by RoxMonster on May 11, 2024 15:22:05 GMT -5
Today is such a beautiful day. Got my hair done this morning. Then we walked around a fine art fair, went to a brewery and had drinks on the patio, now I’m home reading on my own patio and about to walk the dog.
Tonight we’re driving to a nearby town to have dinner at this family restaurant that is supposed to have delicious fried chicken. Also hearing we have a shot at seeing the Aurora tonight since we were cloudy last night so fingers crossed.
Post by RoxMonster on May 11, 2024 10:18:29 GMT -5
I’m so disappointed we didn’t get to see them. All the meteorologists were saying they would be visible after 10 in our area but would be too cloudy so I kind of forgot about it. Then at 10:30, saw pics from our city of amazing lights from an hour prior. H and I drove out to the country but it was too cloudy by then ☹️ I was so sad because this has been a bucket list item for years.
Crossing my fingers for tonight but I think we’re too far south.
Thanks, all! These are great suggestions and I need to do some more research and run them by H.
We have done Deep Creek and the Finger Lakes, though it's been years. I'd like to go back someday, but probably prefer some place new.
For those of you saying Michigan, can you name some particular towns I should be looking at? I've always wanted to go that direction so that might win.
We've been to MI a few times. If you do the western shore, we really loved South Haven and Saugatuck. South Haven had a wonderful beach and a cute downtown area.
Possibly my favorite MI trip was when we did Mackinac Island and then the Leelanau Peninsula. We stayed near Suttons Bay, visited a bunch of cute towns on the peninsula and visited Sleeping Bear Dunes. We don't have kids and a lot of trip was winery-focused but there's some nice beaches, the national lakeshore is fun, and Mackinac Island was fun with biking it, etc.
***PDQ I might delete later to avoid him Googling and finding this thread****
I also have a co-worker who has a robot lawn mower. However, his first two both got stolen right out of his yard while mowing. The first time, the person even came back at a later time to steal the charger out of his yard. The second time, he purchased GPS with it but by the time the police got involved and it was tracked to a scrap yard, it was too late.
He did get a third one but now he won't run it unless he is actively sitting outside watching it mow.
I enjoy all of her books. This one was a slow burn at first and I think the first 15% or so could have gone a bit faster. But then it picked up pace and I flew through it. I did guess the main culprit early on but it didn’t take away from enjoying the book.
We just bought an Ego this year and love it. It cuts thick grass WAY better than our old gas mower did. (It's also nice having a self-propelled after having a push mower for 13 years). We bought it a couple months ago when they had a deal that you could get a back-up battery for free. Honestly our yard is small enough that we can easily cut the entire thing on one charge - the battery isn't even low when we are done, but also nice to have a second battery for the fall when we'll be cutting/mulching leaves and it will take more time.
It’s beautiful here so far but severe storms are coming later. Went to two plant sales this morning but ended up just grabbing a few more annuals from Lowe’s to complete our container pots this year. The sales mainly had perennials.
Now I’m sitting on the patio in the shade reading while H plants them lol.
I recently read She's Not Sorry by Mary Kubica. I give it four stars.
It started out a bit slow. I actually put it down for a couple weeks and read other books but I'm glad I picked it back up. About 30% of the way in, it started picking up and I flew through it after the halfway mark. I ended up really enjoying it.
Now I'm debating my next book. I think it'll be either Megan Miranda's latest or Holly Jackson's new novel (she is the author of the Good Girl's Guide to Murder Series).
Post by RoxMonster on Apr 28, 2024 22:11:03 GMT -5
Flew through Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra in one day. 4.5 ⭐️
Super creepy and suspenseful. If you like thrillers, I recommend this one. The author has you questioning if the narrator is unreliable. No spoilers from me; I will just say I’m happy with how it turned out.
I was pretty sheltered/poor growing up so very rarely ate any kind of fast food, and most prepackaged snacks were a no, too. Except the tastycakes. I can confirm that today's butterscotch krimpets don't taste like I remember, but maybe that's bc I have access to more/better options now.
I worked at a coffee shop in high school that sold Orangina. I thought it was the fanciest drink I'd ever had in my life and drank so much of it in my time there.
Do you all remember Ground Round and making kids weigh themselves to pay by the pound? WTF was that?
That reminds me of how much I loved Fruitopia! I could get it in the college dining hall as part of my meal.
And the Ground Round was our go to place as a kid, so yes, this is what I remember too. Getting weighed before dinner! Definitely had a birthday party there. I thought it was super regional but apparently there were over 200 at one time, and it was one of the first casual dining chains (and the reason happy hours are banned in Massachusetts to this day?? Is that true??)
Post by RoxMonster on Apr 27, 2024 14:30:41 GMT -5
It’s our planting weekend! My favorite time of year. Went to two nurseries and spent a lot of money but my yard makes me happy. Now to finish mulching and then starting to put our container pots together.
Post by RoxMonster on Apr 26, 2024 17:02:23 GMT -5
No, I don't join stuff like this. My work had one in March where you could do it individually or in a group of 4. You manually tracked your "exercise hours" and didn't sync your device, but it's just not my thing. If I did anything like that, I'd want to enter individually so I wouldn't worry about bringing my team down or feeling pressured by team members. But I just chose not to participate at all.
Post by RoxMonster on Apr 23, 2024 21:56:33 GMT -5
Mine is Koala Yummies. I Googled and apparently you can still buy them places in the Asian food aisle marketed as Koala’s March. I may have to get some. I don’t think I’ve eaten any since I was about 8!
Post by RoxMonster on Apr 21, 2024 18:28:24 GMT -5
I just finished Lilith by Eric Rickstad. I flew through it in half a day.
4 stars Definitely need to give a content warning
This is about a school shooting that injures a mom/teacher and her son and the vengeance she seeks to get after. I would describe it as a literary thriller.
Post by RoxMonster on Apr 20, 2024 18:03:16 GMT -5
I have done several garage sales over the last 10 years. I usually wear a fanny pack with the money in it. That way I don't have to keep track of it or worry about it wandering off and it's also hands-free. We had a LOT of clothes, and made up huge signs posted around the yard that said "All shorts are X$, all jeans are X$ etc" instead of individually pricing each item. We did the same for other similar items like a sign on a table that said "All paperback books 50 cents" or whatever.
Like others have said, people WILL show up early and start shopping. We've had people show up an hour before our posted opening time and it was a bit stressful because we were trying to get everything set up and pulled out while they were trying to look. I find a lot of people who are serious about getting there that early have specific stuff in mind they're looking for though and usually don't stick around too long.
For negotiating, I usually looked at how much total stuff the person was buying (I was a lot more willing to cut a deal for someone buying 20 pieces of clothing instead of 1-2) and also time of day/how much I hated keeping the item if it never sold. This last garage sale, we also did 50% off all items for the last 3 hours of the sale to get rid of stuff.
If it's going to be hot and you have something like this available, we put up one of those pop-up tent type things they use at farmers markets to shade us and had camp chairs and a table set up so we could eat lunch and what not. Every single time, we were busy like 8-12 and then it got a lot more sporadic after that.
Post by RoxMonster on Apr 20, 2024 17:28:18 GMT -5
We went to our local nature preserve’s Earth day festival. We did a guided bird hike again. We went last year when it was snowing (lol) and there was only one other person on it besides the guide.
This year the weather was much better and it was packed! We had at least 20 other people on the hike and most were kids. I absolutely love seeing people out enjoying our trails. I did feel bad for the guide because she kept trying to get them to quiet down so we could actually hear some birds and was mostly unsuccessful 😂 We did still get to see a turkey, barred owl, several woodpeckers, a chickadee, cardinals etc.
RoxMonster Keep an eye on your travel plans, your long drive between Aspen and Crested Butte may have gotten longer, or you’ll want to reverse your route and do Breck to CB. This bridge closure is a huge impact to travel in this area and recreation/tourism as well if they can’t get it open by this summer: