Book Review : Merchant of Death, Nightlife

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The Merchant of Death (Pendragon Series #1) by D. J. MacHale

2.5 stars – Merchant of Death is the first in the Pendragon series. This was a mostly forgettable novel. The interesting part of the book was that it was told through the main character’s journal writings and his best friend’s actions while reading the journal. Format – Electronic download from LAPL played at fast speed.


Nightlife: A Novel by Thomas Perry

4 stars – Nightlife is another fantastic novel from Thomas Perry. He is one of my favorite authors. This book is suspenseful and thrilling. It started off with a bang (literally) and ended well. Along the way I was on the edge of my seat hanging on every word. The only bummer : I have yet to find Perry’s work as audiobooks. Format – hardcover from Ventura County library.


Isaac Asimov Presents Agent of Byzantium (Isaac Asimov Presents Series) by Harry Turtledove

3 stars – Harry Turtledove writes great historical fiction. I have read a number of other books by this author, and while Agent of Byzantium was not my favorite, it was quite enjoyable. The fun thing about historical fiction is that it is fiction. This book’s main character basically makes most of the major discoveries of the middle ages: gunpowder, using cowpox as small pox innoculations, telescopes, etc. Format – hardcover from Ventura County library.

***************** Stinkers: ******************


Close to Home: A Novel of Suspense by Peter Robinson

1 star – slow moving, disjointed narative, also had a weird psuedo-pedophilia subplot throughout most of the story. I finished this book thinking that it was just not that great. Format : Audiobook at fast speed (but not fast enough)


The Snake Tattoo (Carlotta Carlyle) by Linda Barnes

0.5 stars – A good book in the vein of Kinsey Milhone or Stephanie Plum up until the final 10-15 minutes. The ending involved incest and was totally unexpected. Unlike the previous book, where I was on my guard that ‘if it got worse, it stops’, I was totally unprepared for the ending. And it makes me mad which is why it gets a lower rating than the above book. Format : Audiobook at fast speed.


Micah (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Book 13) by Laurell K. Hamilton

0 stars – I didn’t realize this was #13 in a series. The premise is that this woman is a federal marshall, certified vampire executioner and zombie re-animator. It sounded like it could be interesting. It wasn’t. I listened to about 1/2 hour of the protagonist whining and complaining and over-analyzing everything. I couldn’t take it. After I quit the book, I looked it up on Amazon and the first 4 reviews were 1 star (the lowest on Amazon). LAME. Format : Audiobook at fast speed.

Retro work weekend

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This week was a flashback to the type of work we were doing last year at this time. We dug footings, tied rebar, poured cement, etc. We are preparing for our last 4 paralams on the second floor. We have 4 posts to put in to support these paralams, and the pads 2 of them sit on were pads that straddled the existing foundation. We had already done the half of the pad that was under the house, and so we completed the front half of the pads. Uncle Mark worked tirelessly demo’ing the roof to make room for the last of the second floor. If things go amazingly well next weekend we might have all the sub floor covered on the 2nd floor at the end of the weekend. Most below pictures are compliments of Maximilian W. Theule

Digging the pad

Digging the pad

prepping for the rebar

prepping for the rebar

Mark and the roof debris

Mark and the roof debris

Roof tarps

Roof tarps

Roof destruction

Roof destruction

Trying the white tarp again

Trying the white tarp again

Project Progress Jan 6 2007

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We cranked away at the floor joists of the second floor and were able to lay down about 3/4 of the floor sheeting. Greg reminded me that layout was all important when he had to rip out about a dozen pieces of blocking that I had put in that didn’t hold the joists to spacing of 14.5″. Mark and I also started the sheeting in the wrong direction, so Pop, Mark and I got back up there at 8:30p and ripped up the 3 sheets we had already laid down so that the glue could be scraped off before drying. The floor looks huge without any walls to break it up.

Sweeping up

Sweeping up

Are we putting in a dance floor?

Are we putting in a dance floor?

More flooring

More flooring

Taking a break, but just a small one

Taking a break, but just a small one

Thanksgiving pics and others

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I look like the schmo because Matt does his blog posting right away – and I seem to take forever! Ah well – here are some of our favorites from our Thanksgiving time in Orange County with the Theule and Nienhuis families.

Wow! Everyone is smiling and looking in the right direction.

Gotta have the silly one too

Max’s first horsey ride

Amazing! Look at the first fish Max has ever caught!

Okay – here’s the real size of the fish with no camera tricks.

Silly Daddy and Lucy

Star Wars at OMSI

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OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) has an exhibit named Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination.

Star Wars OMSI

Star Wars OMSI

Since we were taking Toby to the airport anyways, OMSI was sort of in the area. Max and Lucy and I dropped Toby off and bid her good flight. We had about 90 minutes to kill before the museum opened and so we leisurely found a Noah’s bagel shop and had breakfast bagels (chocolate chip with chocolate milk, of course). We drove around looking a church / castles and the river and it was about 9:45a when we got to the museum and boy was it packed. We spent about 30 minutes in line, just to get admission tickets. By the time we got our tickets, they were printing tickets for 12:00 entrance into the Star Wars exhibit. Because there was such a long time before Star Wars admission, I spent an extra $10 for the Millenium Falcon Speed of Light exhibit/ride. I thought that doing this would be fun and help Max to wait patiently for the real Star Wars exhibit. Boy was I wrong. We waited almost an hour in line. It was only as I got to the front that I realized why this was taking so long. They only had four seats per 5 minute ride. Ugh! I told the ride operator (who was very nice) that I would sit both Max and Lucy on my lap so we only needed 1 chair. We got in a bit earlier. Looking back, it was a pretty cool use of sight and sound simulation, but at the time I was feeling a bit ripped off. In the end, Max got his Millenium Falcon pin and he was happy. It was the Millenium Falcon pin that prevented him from abandoning the line altogether. All in all, I wish I hadn’t spent the $10 on these tickets and we had just examined the other exhibits in the museum. 20 more minutes in line finally brought us inside the exhibit. The Star Wars exhibit itself was fantastic. 2 huge rooms full of hands on stations (build your own robot, control robot legs, etc), visual displays and characters walking around to take picures with (storm troopers and jawas). Too bad we had used up all of Max’s energy waiting in lines. After a total of 25 minutes he was asking to be done and go home. sigh. There was so much that I didn’t get to see because I was picking Lucy up off the floor or telling Max how cool something was. I guess that is what happens when you take the kids to the museum and wait in line a total of 120 minutes for 30 minutes of exhibits.

Max and Lucy have blasters.

Max and Lucy have blasters.

In an effort to extend Max’s time in the exhibit, I let him take pictures with the camera. He was doing a good job until he dropped it. Here is an example of the photos he shot. This is the type of picture you take when you are 4 feet tall and the displays begin about 18 inches off the ground.

Looking up?

Looking up?