Week One of Eddie's Birthday Celebrations

So January turned out to be a slow month.  Guess that's what happens when the sun is no longer shining and I'm too low on funds to do any indoor activities outside of my apartment.  But I've continued my love affair with the library and have read a bunch of books.  So I'll get all of those reviews out of the way - quickly.

One of the first books I really remember reading as a kid was The Tower Treasure - the first installment of the Hardy Boys series.  If I hadn't been introduced to that when I was, I probably wouldn't be the avid reader I am today.  That series hooked me in and showed me what fun reading could truly be.  Unfortunately the main library in town doesn't have too many of the books in the series so I picked one at random to read.  I settled with What Happened at Midnight because the title didn't sound familiar to me.  And this copy was not in the standard blue hardcover format I was used to reading.  I did some research and found that the version I selected is a reproduction of the original manuscript from the 1930s.  Apparently my beloved blue hardcover versions were edited around 1959 to remove racial stereotypes.  The stories were also shortened to keep up with kids' diminishing attention spans.  But my copy of What Happened at Midnight was printed just as it first was in 1931; stereotypes and all.  I knew this addition was different from the modified blue version I must have read as a kid, but I was still surprised to not have a single portion of this story ring a bell in my memory.  After a little more Wikipedia research, it turns out I'm not crazy.  The book was rewritten in 1967 and given a completely different plot for the blue hardcover edition.  That's the story I remember.  But it was kind of fun reading the full-length original.

Oh.  I guess I lied earlier about the sun not coming out to play because we have had a few nice days lately.  I snapped this photo right by my apartment when I was heading out for a free wine tasting at Thirst Wine Bar & Bistro.  They do complimentary wine tastings every Thursday with a different theme each week.  I will definitely be going back to this place since it's only a two-minute walk from my front door.





While relaxing at Thirst with some vino, I started reading Jeffery Deaver's The Bodies Left Behind.  I chose this from the library because Deaver was the main contributor to a duo of crime novellas with a collaboration of some of the best authors in the field.  I enjoyed that book so I wanted to check out one of his solo works.  This was a surprisingly suspenseful read about a small-town sheriff's deputy saving the day.  There were a few plot twists that I found to be unnecessary causing the story to drag out a bit longer than it should have.  That being said, I hardly put this book down and finished it in record time.  I certainly wouldn't mind checking out some of his other books.

The other day, Eddie and I had a nice lunch date with my cousin, Chris.  He invited us to Tábor, one of the local food carts.  This one specializes in Czech food.  They are most famous for their schniztelwich (a sandwich made with either pork or chicken schniztel).  But I knew I wouldn't be having that and instead opted for their muenster cheese sandwich.  I was really nervous to try it since I had never eaten muenster cheese, but after reading online that it's a mild American cheese and not the stinky French munster I was worried it would be, I knew it would be good.  They take a huge, thick slab of this cheese then season, bread it, and deep-fry it.  And then they serve this giant fried cheese slab in a ciabatta roll.  I knew it was going to be too much food for me so I just munched on the fried cheese and picked at the ciabatta roll on the side.  I'm pretty sure this is one food cart Eddie and I will be visiting again.

My last review for the evening is for John Gilstrap's Hostage Zero.  The only reason I picked this one up from the library is because it was in paperback format.  I love the library, but I really hate reading hardcover editions of books.  There is no comfortable way to lie down and read with them.  I wasn't overly thrilled with this one.  I had a hard time getting into it in the beginning because the story bounced around between several sets of main characters and I had a hard time keeping track of who was doing what and where it would go.  It's not a classic whodunnit kind of mystery so in that respect it was fun to read, but I really never found myself wowed by it.

And now to wrap up.  Tonight we celebrated Eddie's birthday (which is tomorrow).  I kept asking Eddie to invite his co-workers over for a little get-together and he kept putting it off so I finally took matters into my own hands and reached out to them directly.  I asked them to keep it a secret so we got to have a little surprise party tonight.  Nothing fancy.  Just a few friends, charcuterie, homemade lasagna, and of course lots of wine.  Eddie seemed genuinely surprised.  Fred Meyer had cheap party supplies so I got to decorate the house with some crepe paper which will probably stay up for a few months.  Ooh.  I even made my first cherry pie.  I don't think it was the best recipe, but Eddie enjoyed it and that's all that matters.

I can't wait for tomorrow because I have another fun evening planned for his actual birthday...