Photo Wednesday

 July of 2018. Driftwood Estate Winery near San Marcos, Austin, and Wimberly, in the Texas hill country.

View more fun photos at image-in-ing and Wordless Wednesday.

It's Random and it's Tuesday

 Happy Tuesday and Random Tuesday Thoughts.

Wow!  The last two weeks have been so hectic!  Mostly good, some sad, but completely hectic.  First our daughter and her family lost one of their dogs, Homer.  He was a Korean meat dog that she saved from becoming food. 

He was an important part of our family, and they are really struggling, especially our daughter because she saw it happen.  He was hit by a car in a parking lot at one of Austin's many trails.  

Shortly after that, we went to Austin to help them move into their new home, and our precious grandbaby started walking about the same time.  She's going to keep them on their toes.

After returning, I had to take mom to the Dr.  She is still having issues with the wounds on her leg and hip which they think is a rare disease called Pyoderma Gangrenosum.  The Dr. said they may never go away.  We will just hope to get them to a manageable level.  And her Alzheimer's is getting more noticeable.

Ripley's near Dallas

Then, my twins celebrated their 25th birthday which meant a trip to Dallas so we could be together.   We went to Ripley's Believe it or Not and the Magical Mirror Maze as well as dinner out a couple of times.  Let's not forget presents and cake, too, It was a super fun trip, but a lot of time in the car again. 

And I have a scrapbook retreat coming up this weekend (another 4 hours in the car each way) that I have got to pack and organize for, but what is going to make it more difficult is I have a broken finger.  It happened the day we went up to Austin.  When we got back a few days later, I had it x-rayed.  It was a small distal phalangeal fracture.  But... I'm hard-headed and wasn't wearing my splint, and I  injured it worse. Now I have a mallet fracture.  The bone broke where the tendon attaches. This isn't my hand, but it looks exactly like this but more swollen.  And it hurts!

  I have to wear a splint 24/7 for six weeks to see if it heals. This is going to make scrapbooking more difficult,  but I'm not giving up!  And all this  is happening while starting a new medication for which I seem to have most, if not all, of the possible side effects!

And now...

This is true more than ever now!  Fingers, shoulders, eyes, aches and pains!

It's hot and getting hotter here!

True!

Can't get much dumber than this!

This cracked me up!

LOL!

And last, but not least...

Hahaha!

Have a great week!

Sunday Synopsis

 

Fatal Vision by Joe McGinniss
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I finally finished this book! It was almost 700 pages including the two afterwords/epilogues, and I really did want to find out what had transpired in the few years between the trial and publication.

You may have heard of Dr. Jeffery MacDonald, Princeton educated, Green Beret, wealthy, playboy, who was accused of the savage murder of his pregnant wife and two young daughters at Fort Bragg in February of 1970. The murders were unbelievably cruel and unusual. Both of Colette's arms (the wife) were broken and she was stabbed multiple times as well as being beaten with a club. The little girls were also beaten and stabbed.

MacDonald claimed four hippies had broken into his home and committed these awful acts including a blonde female with a candle who said, "Acid is groovy; kill the pigs." Words to that effect were also written on the headboard and walls in blood. The female who was possibly involved was found, high on acid, of course, but her three companions were never found. Military police concluded that MacDonald had committed the murders but they did not have enough evidence to make the charges stick. A few years later, the state rearrested him, and MacDonald went to trial.

This book is a COMPLETE account of all that happened, including recordings and journal entries in Jeffery MacDonald's own words as well as information from hearing and trial transcripts as well as the author's own observations. I will not spoil the outcome, but I gradually noticed a change in the author's attitude as the book progressed.

First, a couple of nit-picky things. On page 292, the author wrote (quoting someone else, I think) "You have another think coming." Shouldn't it be " another THING"? He also says pulses instead of pulse as in feeling for someone's pulses (a doctor calls it pulses?).

This book moved very slowly, and it did not need to be this long! There is so much repetitiveness and redundancy due to the actual quoting the author used rather than summarizing what a character said.  This includes all of the "ummms, wells, ahs, hmmms, every single utterance! I didn't see the need to quote word-for-word a person's testimony or personal observations. We all know how long trial transcripts are. They could easily have been condensed because the same things were said over and over. It wasn't necessary.

Are grand juries really treated the way the book described? I don't know for sure, but if they are, I don't ever want to serve on one. Testimony goes on and on and much of it was irrelevant to the case. Do I really care how the defendant's mother's friend felt when this person had no relevance to the case? So much of the story was repetitive. How many times does the author need to say there were 48 holes in the blue pajama top that lined up with the 21 stab wounds of MacDonald's wife? This is one of many repetitive examples.

I enjoyed reading about the  Jeffery MacDonald case, although he is an arrogant, narcissistic, attention-seeking, shell of a person. I had heard of this case before, but I did not know the outcome, and it didn't end the way I thought it would based on the first 1/3 of the book. It's a good read if you need or are interested in tedious details, but I feel like much of it could easily have been condensed rather than having the characters say the same things time and time again. It is an interesting case, though, and I found out there is a mini-series that was made in 1984.  There was also a movie in 2017 called Final Vision which I will eventually watch.  There was also an FX documentary about the case that came out last year (2020).  

The case itself is fascinating; however, I only liked the book, but didn't love it.

View all my reviews

Thursday Thirteen

As a teacher of 11-13 year olds, I have heard my fair share of slang words.
 Here are 13 words I wish would just go away!

1. Bae (short for baby) 

2. Yaaasss! (Yes plus excitement) 

3. Wifey (married woman) 

image credit

4. Lit (cool or high on drugs or alcohol)

5. Woke (culturally or politically aware)

Image Credit

 6. GOAT (Greatest of all time) 

7. Extra (over the top) 

8. Keep it 100 (keeping it real)

 9. Savage (someone who doesn’t care) 

10. Bruh (means bro, often pronounced bra) 

Image Credit

11. Squad (friend group) 

12. Cray-Cray (crazy) 

Image Credit

13. Snatched (you look great)

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Photo Wednesday

Photos taken earlier this year at the Fort Worth (Texas) Arboretum.

For more fun photos, visit Wordless Wednesday and Image-in-ing.

Random and Happy

 I can't believe it's Tuesday already!  The last week has literally sprouted wings and flown by!  I'm linking up with Sandee and Comedy Plus and Stacy at Stacy Uncorked.

We got back from Austin Sunday evening.  The move was completed, but it wasn't smooth.  One mover got his truck stuck in a ditch.  Another cancelled because one of his guys didn't show up.  Finally, the next day, movers showed up.  However, they were slow.  It took twelve hours to get two loads moved.  You read that right!  TWELVE hours! And I think they thought we were going to pay for their lunch break.  Ummm, no.  My huband and son-in-law took two loads of boxes, and the movers still couldn't do it in one trip, and they still forgot stuff.  Yes.  DH had to make a 3rd trip to get the things the movers left.  So glad that is over!  Plus, we got to have fun with this cutie!

Happy belated Father's Day to the dads out there. My own dad passed suddenly in 2004, and Father's Day has never been the same for me. Here's my dad when he was a little boy.

I've previously written several posts about my precious dad.  They are linked above if you're interested.

My twins are about to turn the big 2-5!  I can't believe it!  I'm headed to Dallas soon to celebrate with them!  Side note:  Voxmedia printed an article that states that the part of the brain that assists in making decisions , delaying gratification, and thinking things through is usually developed by age 25.  Yay!

And now... funnies

Funny!  But I could never actually do that!

Actually true!

This is me, on some days.

Another truth!

Giggle!

Notice anything about these buns?

I have to admit this cracked me up!

And last, but not least...

Awww.  This cute kitty is like me!

Have a great week!

Friendship Friday

 Hello friends!  I'm linking up with Create with Joy.

My past week was more creative than it has been in the previous weeks.  I started on two cards (not finished yet), I added vinyl stickers to my computer and cricut, I organized some of my scrapbooking and card-making supplies, and I made a tee shirt for my grandbaby and a skirt with matching scrunchie and headband for my daughter. I also created a zipper bag.  It's the first bag with a zipper I've mad in  a long while.Her birthday is next week.  I sure hope she likes it.

I highly recommend Made Everyday for directions for making
several items.

 

I also made a pennant for my son-in-law who is returning next month from air force training.

It's been a fun week!

Thursday Thirteen

 
Our oldest daughter is moving into a new house on Friday, so we are up here to help them get moved in, mostly to take care of the grandbaby while they unpack.

  It just reminds me, though, why I don't really like to move.  I lived in the same house for almost 18 years when I was growing up, so moving never came as second nature to me.  I almost wish it had.  There are all kind of great things about moving into a new place, but the process.  What's your least favorite thing to do?

1.  Packing boxes

2. Arranging to turn off/on electricity, gas, water, trash pickup, phone, cable, wi-fi, etc.

3. Giving every one your change of address.

4. Deciding what to pack and what to throw away.

5.  Deciding where to put everything.

6.  Physically moving boxes and furniture.

7.  Getting to know new neighbors.  What if they don't like you or you don't like them?

8. Making repairs to the old and/or new place, if necessary.

9.  Sleeping in a new place is always weird at first.

10. Buying things your new place doesn't have.

11. Learning where the grocery, gas, and convenience stores are.

12. Navigating a new way to work.

Clipart Library

13. The cost!!!!

For more fun lists, visit Thursday Thirteen!