Terry's 3M's

Yesterday was my birthday. And what a busy day it was!

First, my son--who had stayed up over an hour past bedtime the night before--came into my room before 7 AM. I was a tad peeved at this because I was planning on the kids sleeping late and I had only been up for 15 minutes. I was hoping to finish Dark Rivers of the Heart before they got up.

Johnny wanted to go outside to play, but, I reminded him that he was grounded to his bedroom until it was clean.

Within 15 minutes, he had woken Bryan up. And when he got up on Bryan's bed and sat down on his cousin's blanket, Bryan pulled the blanket out from under him and caused John to fall out of the top bunk. So, my kid ended up with a crescent-shaped scratch on his knee from something that he fell on. Naturally, this started a big arguement.

That's the way my birthday started. And it set the tone for the day ahead.

Stephanie wanted to make me breakfast in bed. I appreciated the sentiment, but, I had to insist that the underdone egg get put back in the pan. Bless her heart-- she tried.

Later in the day, Carrie played an original recorder composition for me. She was disappointed when I told her that I appreciated the thought. I would have just said, "Thank you." But, she kept asking me how I liked it. (She's been taking lessons--less than 1 a week--at school since January. Even if she were very talented, she wouldn't be ready to solo.)

Some of the nice things about the day:
Frances stopped by with the birthday cake and present Mom sent over for me.
Faye and Delton got me one perfect rose.
They also got me Wizard and Glass. (Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy!)
Birthday greetings through e-mail--most from Garden House sister (and most of the Garden House sisters are also LOTH sisters.)

Dinner was later than usual because some of the ingredients came home with Delton around 6 PM. So, it was almost 7:30 when the chicken and dumplings got done. (The chicken and broth were already cooked earlier in the day.)

Naturally, that meant that the kids went to bed later than usual.

Then, I finally got to finish Dean Koontz' Dark Rivers of the Heart. Yes, I will reread this book another time. I haven't read all the books he's written (this makes number 8), but, this is the one I've enjoyed the most.

On my site, I am not going to have a separate section for thrillers. Thrillers will go under general fiction. Although, Koontz is known primarily as a horror author, this is one book I would classify as thriller. The monsters in this book are all too human.

Why will I read this book again? Because I love the story of the main characters on the run from an unnamed government hit squad and all the techno-geek computer stuff (albeit simplified for the sake of the story). But, there's quite a bit of grisly stuff that I will skip over when I reread it. It turned my stomach to read the stuff, but, it was a legimate part of the story. However, I can remember it enough to gloss over it on subsequent readings.

I've turned the downstairs clocks ahead already. It's now a little after 8 AM and my son has awoken. So, I'd better finish this and try to upload it before he asks for breakfast.

Thanks to for the border background set.