Reading In the time of COVID

A Pandemic.  I work in end user technology for a Health Organization. For years we have been discussing the different scenarios and trying to plan.  Sadly that day has come.  From an IT perspective this is an interesting and challenging journey.  Requirements literally change in five minutes. Wow carts (work stations on wheels are being specially configured not only to provide information to our amazing staff but to provide information without spreading the virus. Mobile devices are being used in ways they were never used in a health setting before.  Computers, ipads, androids all need to be configured and deployed rapidly.  

As people in the media like to say we are living in a "New Normal".  I am curious to know after this whole pandemic dies down and I know it will, how much of the old normal will return to us.

I work on site and remotely.  To unwind from the stress of the day, I have been reading non stop and as the picture shows, drinking a glass of wine know and then.


Check out my posts to see if any books look interesting. Click on the book to order from Amazon or sign up for overdrive on your library website.

Ho Ho Ho What to Get a Decaf Coffee Drinker

 I love flavored coffee but I am a decaf drinker.  Not by choice mind you, but by necessity. So when I go to the grocery store and get all these great flavored coffees for my family, I sadly get plain decaf for me.

This time of year the number of great coffee flavors increase exponentially.  Just this morning I was doing my weekly shopping and I found and bought, pecan pie, maple flavored and pumpkin spice flavored coffee.  I bought them.

But wait!  Very very soon, I mean within the next week or so the Holiday Blend by Starbucks will be available.  Pure bliss if you are a regular coffee drinker

I refuse to have a pity party for myself. So I was thrilled when I went to  amazon and lo and behold I found this  Decaf Variety Sampler.  I ordered it and was extremely please with the flavors.They all are good. So if you have a decaf only drinker or if you love a good cup of decaf in the evening with your Christmas cookies then click on the link above and check it out.  It is a 30 count box so it is a very good deal!

Lincoln a Most Fascinating Man

American History is a particular interest of mine. There are two Presidents from the past that have always interested me, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. I have been to Monticello many times and have read several books on both Jefferson and Lincoln.

Lincoln's Last Trial is written by Dan Abrams and David Fisher.  If you watch Good Morning America, then you are familiar with Dan Abrams since he is the shows legal analyst.

 The book centers around a trial Lincoln accepted around the time he was considering running for President of the United States. It is a local murder trial and what makes it very interesting is the fact that the murder victim had trained in his law office.  The accused man was the son of Lincoln's good friend and loyal supporter. In this day and age with all the legal mumbo jumbo going on, Lincoln would never have accepted the case since it would definitely be seen as conflict of interest. Times were very different then and practice of the law was evolving and extremely fluid.

At this time he had an untarnished reputation and taking this case was very risky for him especially since he was considering a run for President.

The book gave great incite into Lincoln the man.  It captured all the drama in the courtroom. In fact, I actually felt like I was in the court room. In addition it discussed how the law was interpreted at the time.  The comparison of the law then and now was extremely interesting.

I would highly recommend this book if you want to get a good feel for Lincoln's character and for his prowess in the courtroom.

'Tis cookie season

Warning! This post has nothing to do with books or reading.

So let me start out by saying it is cookie season.  I am not a baker so baking cookies is a challenge for me.

I bake cookies once a year during the holidays. I try to find the easiest recipes I can find.  I almost always bake drop cookies.  Just to be clear drop cookies are the ones that you mix up in a bowl and drop them by the spoonful onto the cookie sheet. There is no rolling or shaping involved.  Basically the cookies form their shape as they bake.

Even though this sounds easy it does take a little bit of skill.  There are several factors that can ruin your cookies.  I have discovered them all.  I follow a recipe.  I cream the butter and then add the dry ingredients but some times the butter and dry ingredients just don't seem to want to cooperate with each other and I have in the past pulled out the cookie sheet only to find that the cookies have melded together to make one thin crispy cookie.  It tasted fine but it was not the look or the cookie I was going for.

This year I seem to be doing ok.  I prepared the dough in advance and placed it all in the refrigerator.  Once all the various types of dough were made I started the baking process.

Which brings up my next challenge.  Do I under cook them or let them get brown and crispy on the bottom.  Each of my family members like them a different way.  So I decided to do a little bit of both.  Thankfully I seem to be learning the precise time to take them out of the oven so that they are slightly under cooked and therefore they are soft but not gooey.  On the flip side the ones I left in the oven to get brown were not so crispy that they were almost burnt.

All in all I think it was a successful baking adventure.  I baked four kinds and yes I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies so don't judge me.  They are still one of the favorite cookies in my house. You can always count on the toll house recipe.  So I have 12 dozen cookies that I will be bringing to friends and office mates.

My work is done until next cookie season.

Wake up Call for a Cab Driver at Christmas (Holiday Romance)

It snowed on the East Coast on Thursday.  It doesn't generally snow in November but of course we have had early snow before.  This snow was a little unusual because instead of that light powdery snow it was a wet heavy snow and on top of that it snowed all day. It was accumulating snow.  There are still remnants of it on the lawns.

It looks like winter is early. Thanksgiving is next Thursday which means the holiday season is starting.  I was driving yesterday and turned on one of my usual stations and lo and behold they are playing holiday music. Personally, I think starting to play Christmas carols before Thanksgiving is over is a little early.  Don't get me wrong I love the music.  I just would prefer to hear it after Thanksgiving.  I love the Thanksgiving holiday and I like to savor the time dedicated to it.

Hearing the music  motivated me to pick up another holiday novel Catching Christmas.  If Hallmark is reading this (Ha!) this would make a great movie.  I will just give a very brief teaser.  A cab driver gets a dispatch call.  Yes I said cab driver.  He refuses to become an Uber driver.  He has his reasons.
I  get it.

He picks up an elderly woman.  The minute she enters his cab his whole life changes.  She is not an Angel, she is an ordinary mere mortal.  But because of her he ends up having an epiphany.  I will not say any more except the book is 274 pages and I read it in a couple of hours.  Fast reading. It's a feel good novel. Tap on the picture of the book.

The Christmas Sisters

The Hallmark channel is starting to show Christmas movies which of course I watch.  The great thing about these movies is that at the end everything works out and people are happy.  So not true in real life but who cares.

It is also my signal to read holiday themed novels and this is the first one I read this season.

 My husband and I decided to take a long weekend off and drive to Lancaster county.  We stayed at the Historic Smithton Inn which I highly recommend.  It was absolutely perfect.

It was a cold and rainy evening so after eating dinner at the White Swan, we decided to come back to the Inn and chill.  I cracked open The Christmas Sisters and read till I finished the book.

The book is about three sisters who lost their parents at a very young age.  They were adopted by their Mom's best friend. While they were close growing up, but as they grew and pursued careers and families they hardly saw each other.  This year they all gathered at their adopted home in Scotland for Christmas and worked on their relationships. Their stories were good so enjoy!

 

Social Media, What a Beast---An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

It was a cold, rainy Friday night and I was oncall for the weekend. So literally my phone was attached to my hip.  Now being oncall does not necessarily mean I am housebound but everyone knows Murphy's law if I am out having a nice dinner or at a movie I will be called.

So I got into my nice plush warm and cozy bathrobe and cracked open  An Absolutely Remarkable Thing,  I bet you thought I was going to say I cracked open a great bottle of wine.  Remember I am on call and need clarity of thought. I read late into the night because I found the book both Bizarre and Fascinating.

A woman (April) is a design consultant in New York working for a startup that has her working all the time.  She worked late and was about to jump on the subway when she realizes she has forgotten her subway card and has no money in her wallet.

She decides to walk back to her office and stumbles upon this hugh statue the likes of which she has never seen. This statue had just appeared from thin air because it had not been there before. She immediately calls her videographer friend and hauls him out of bed to meet her at the statue.  They create a video and it goes viral.  The book then tells you the story of April and the statue, a story that becomes larger than life.

The book clearly makes a statement on how social media creates media sensations   The internet has created a beast that needs to be feed more and more information and everyone wants to be the one to get the story out first or get their five minutes of fame.  Read the book and tell me what you think.