Foreign Affairs

Books

Author: Alison Lurie

This book won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1985. I think, because of this award, I was expecting a much deeper story. Based on the title and the introduction of the main characters in the first two chapters I expected the affair would be between the two – I was wrong.

Vinnie and Fred are both professors at the same US college and both have been awarded grants to do research in London for publications they are working on. Vinnie loves England but lives a quite solitary life; Fred hates England because he and his wife have just separated and nothing is working out as planned.

Enter an English socialite and a Texan (need I say more) and life begins to change for Vinnie and Fred.

Goodreads Rating: * * * *

Not how the day was supposed to go

Journal

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

Pat and I came home yesterday on the late afternoon ferry. We both had online meetings today and Pat wasn’t sure the bandwidth at the studio would be good enough. We also wanted to see a Covid-19 online update regarding Powell River and the Lower Sunshine Coast. By yesterday I knew that my session was going to be cancelled; I was the only one who signed up with Hospice for an Advanced Planning seminar.

I finished up a card last night and it was ready to be wrapped this morning for the mail. There were a few things I wanted to transfer from my main computer to my laptop; but I couldn’t get the connection between the two to work. I tried every username/password combination from both machines and still nothing. I eventually took a wild guess at a password for a user that doesn’t actually exist on either machine and – Bingo – they were seeing each other. I don’t mind resolving issues but when they do get resolved I like to know why.

I took the photo of my card and was ready to get it scheduled on my website but as soon as I tried to log in I got an error message that I was locked out. I tried to use the Forgot Password method but it wouldn’t accept my e-mail address. It took some research but I found a back door into WordPress and got rid of the plug-in that was causing the problem.

By then it was almost 1 PM and we had totally missed the Covid-19 session; Pat was also in computer hell because his e-mail was transferred to the new platform today and it didn’t go well for him (and it may not be working until tomorrow). Fortunately the session was saved and we could still watch it and fortunately there was no information in particular that we needed to know. There have been less than five positively-tested cases in Powell River but no active cases. No more info on how long ago the positive tests were or any idea of where the virus might have originated in those less than five cases. They only release “less than five” because in their stats that is the lowest numbers they get. What a waste!

I went for a drive this afternoon – post office, library and the Hall. I was settling back in thinking I might get at least one daily block done when our friend delivered Pat’s upgraded computer (my old one). He needed a mouse and keyboard so I unplugged the keyboard I use on my main machine and found a mouse (the good kind) in my cupboard. But when I plugged another keyboard into my machine everything went really dark. I don’t know what the issue was but I got my original keyboard back and I’m okay now.

So there was absolutely no sewing done today and I’m going to quit for the day. We’re heading back to the studio this evening after Pat’s meeting.

The Jetsetters

Books

Author: Amanda Eyre Ward

I feel guilty that I asked the library to purchase this book. When you order a book from the Inter-library loan app you are often denied your request because the book is too recent and other libraries aren’t willing to send it out. When this happened with this book the librarian asked if I wanted them to purchase it so I said yes.

I didn’t enjoy the book. The premise was good; an elderly (she’s only 71!) woman wins a Mediterranean cruise and she invites her three children come along because she wants to reconnect with them after their difficult childhood. The story of each of their lives is interesting but cut up by chapters from the various ports of call they visit. Each chapter (sometimes only two pages long) is told from the vantage point of either Charlotte (the mother) or her children.

In the end, I was glad it was an easy read and that it was over.

Goodreads Rating: * *

Happy Birthday Christy

Cards

July 5, 2020

Summer Flip Flopping (bonus block from the Splendid Sampler series)

This was a fun card to make and a perfect pattern for the start of summer.

I used my travelling machine for the appliqué and it worked so much better than my last attempt with my quilting machine. The glue gun worked to hold the buttons and, because it was going into an express envelope, they didn’t add to the postage.