Ponder: All the Devils Are Here: Gamache 16

With my completion of Louise Penny's 16th Gamache novel All the Devils are Here ©2020, I have finished reading all the books thus far published in the author’s Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series, copyrighted one per year 2005 through 2020. I recently caught up on all my blog posts about them. Each of my reviews for the first twelve books, cites my familiarity with the family of characters, most from Three Pines, the quaint village in Quebec near the Vermont USA border. This sixteenth novel is set in Paris where Armand and his wife Reine-Marie travel for the birth of their fourth grandchild. They join up with Gamache’s former second in command Jean-Guy Beauvoir and his family. The Gamaches' son Daniel, his wife, and two granddaughters already live there as does Armand’s godfather, billionaire Stephen Horowitz. Stephen played an important role in Armand’s life following the death of Armand’s parents in a car crash when he was a young boy.  The trip is to be a joyful reunion. Since character portrayal is a strong suit of Louise Penny, and my familiarity with those characters is a comforting constant, pulling them all together in this novel was a treat. 

In addition to becoming better acquainted with other members of Inspector Armand Gamache’s family, I rode along on a tour of Paris seeing sights such as the Eiffel Tower (also on the book cover), the Paris Archives, gardens outside the Louvre, plus famous luxurious hotels and stores, to name a few. Although I have never been to Paris, I suspect that those who have, would also appreciate the street and bridge names, zones of Paris, and paths taken throughout the city.

 

A description of the famous department store Le Bon Marché made me think of visiting historic Macy's on State Street in Chicago with its tiffany ceiling (post dated 10/28/17). Per Chapter 12 of All the Devils Are Here

Le Bon Marché was the oldest, the first, store of its kind in Paris. Practically in the world. Opened in 1852, it pre-dated Selfridges in London by more than half a century. In fact, the Hotel Lutetia was built by the owner of the Bon Marche, primarily to give his customers someplace to stay while spending money in his remarkable store. He was a visionary. What he saw was wealth. What he could not have envisioned were the other uses his magnificent hotel would be put to. As children, Daniel and Annie had love nothing better than to ride up and down the famous white tiled escalators, looking out over the wares, the people, gawking at the huge installations that were as much art as marketing.

When Reine-Marie is trying to find the name of a cologne she detected lingering at the site of a murder, she describes it to a clerk of the perfume department of Le Bon Marché as "not fruity... citrusy... maybe a little woody... with a kind of chemically smell. The clerk responded

 “It seems we’re looking for a lemon tree made out of plastic. It’s a good thing you’re not trying to sell fragrances, madame.”

Some overnight stays and a good deal of the action takes place at the exorbitantly expensive adjacent Hôtel Lutetia. Reine-Marie quips that tea service for their party will cost her a kidney. Per Wikipedia

The Lutetia was built in 1910 in the Art Nouveau style to designs by architects Louis-Charles Boileau and Henri Tauzin. It was founded by the Bon Marché department store, which sits opposite it facing Square Boucicaut. ... The hotel is named for an early pre-Roman town that existed where Paris is now located. Famous guests over the years have included Pablo Picasso, Charles de Gaulle... Peggy Guggenheim .... James Joyce wrote part of Ulysses at the hotel.

Some of the parks and gardens throughout Paris and in particular outside the Louvre give other glimpses at the Paris setting. Watching his son and granddaughters romping about, Armand muses this interesting tidbit of wisdom.

Armand watched his son be a father, and smiled. Yes, it was far more important he be a great father than a good son.

Oh, yes. Besides the images of the characters and the scenes of Paris, which permeate my mind, there is indeed a great plot. Early on, shortly after everyones arrival in Paris reunion, Armand's 93 year old godfather, billionaire  Stephen Horowitz, is struck by a vehicle – intentionally it appears – and is in critical condition in the hospital.   Who and why  has done this leads to a quite convoluted plot, which centers around venture capitalists. Armand's son Daniel is in that business and there are indications that he may be involved in some underhanded financing and trades. There is also some over arching inexplicable friction between Armand and his son Daniel. A trip ensues to the Paris Archives to discover proof of underhanded dealings or a forged document .

At one point Daniel is taken hostage by sinister financiers and Armand is tasked at gunpoint with fetching a certain item, whereabouts unknown, and delivering it to save his son's life. This time critical action takes place concurrent with the stressful labor and delivery sequence of Armand's daughter Annie. For a facts-only synopsis of the action, see https://the-bibliofile.com/all-the-devils-are-here-synposis-summary/ . This site helps me remember what happened, but for the emotion-infused and character-inter-relational version of how it happened, I much prefer the real book. For those who have not read Louise Penny's previous Gamache novels, I believe some of the warmth of the character relations cannot be fully appreciated; those come-lately readers may opine this is a four star book (Really good; maybe only one weak aspect or limited audience). I maintain that the reduction of one star does not reflect the merit of the book, but rather is symbolic of the limited capacity of the readers who can only benefit from four of the five stars the book has to offer. Because of its well-developed and familiar characters, engaging educational settings, sprinkling of bit of tongue-in-cheek humor, and page turning plot, I rate All the Devils Are Here five stars. 

★★★★★ Great! Read it!

Ponder: Gamache 13,14,15 – Drugs, Blizzard, Flood

My pace of working my way through the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series by Louise Penny has, for the most part, been set by the rate at which the books become available at the library. Her most recent, #16, All the Devils Are Here, became available much sooner than I was expecting and before the previous three. My husband, Frank however found a good deal on line for those three and bought them used for me. I raced through #13, #14, and #15 since I wanted to read them in order before digging into the one I'd checked out of the library. Like binge watching a TV series, there are pros and cons. 

The segway from one book to the next is smoother since memory is fresh; the impatience and curiosity are allayed more quickly, having not had to wait as long. But the down side is the books become all muddled together and alas, the enjoyment of savoring each is diluted. Plus, since I did not blog each as I finished, now I am scrambling to figure out what to say. Fortunately I did write my review of All the Devils Are Here ©2020 (#16) soon after I finished it. That post is waiting in the wings to be published right after I’ve caught up reviewing these. My solution for being behind for the trio of books, is to write this one post for all three. And I had to "cheat".

Remember the CliffsNotes study guides reminiscent of high school and college days... those yellow and black bumble-bee striped pamphlets? I do not recall ever using them, not so much out of integrity but more out of fear of being accused of "cheating". Per Wikipedia

Detractors of the study guides claim they let students bypass reading the assigned literature. The company claims to promote the reading of the original work and does not view the study guides as a substitute for that reading.

I have found a great use for an excellent website, www.bookrags.com, which is kind of like an online version of CliffsNotes. It helps me jog my memory on books I have read or perhaps did not understand. It is in no way a substitution for reading the book since it is riddled with spoilers and lacks setting description and character development. In this situation I used BOOKRAGS to help me recall the plot lines of the Louise Penny's novels Glass Houses ©2017, Kingdom of the Blind ©2018, and A Better Man ©2019 and provided the link in the following relevant paragraphs for each book. Notice in the image of the covers I also overlaid a one-word clue near the bottom as to what the main action was.

Glass Houses ©2017 (#13) ★★★★☆

A black robed figure, radiating the fear and dread of a grim reaper, appears at a Halloween party in the Canadian village of Three Pines but stands ominously and wordlessly looming on the village green for days afterward. The spooky form is modeled after a cobrador del franc, a character from Spain who acts as a conscious for people with debts (monetary and moral) they have yet to repay, following the guilty parties and shaming them. Days later a murder is committed in Three Pines. I specially liked this graphic with silhouettes of three pines and a hooded figure from a NY Times review.

A creepy twist in the narrative traces the cobrador back to medieval Spain, when plague victims, lepers and witches were consigned to a remote island to die. Those who survived and managed to return to the mainland silently stalked the people who had banished them and, over the years, became mythic figures. In his dark robes, the cobrador becomes a vivid metaphor for opioids like fentanyl, the “modern-day Black Death” that drug cartels are smuggling across the border through Three Pines and into Vermont.

There are two plot lines in Glass Houses: a murder and a battle to bring down a drug cartel. There are two main settings: one in the Canadian village of Three Pines in the fall/winter where a murder is committed and one in a Montreal courtroom in the heat of summer where the accused killer is on trial. Penny cleverly alerts the reader early on which timeline is being followed by description of the heat or cold and not necessarily the dialogue. Suspense in the trial is sustained wondering if Chief Superintendent Armand Gamache, an honorable staunch supporter of the law, will perjure himself when on the witness stand.

Sitting uncomfortably on the hard chair, under oath, Armand Gamache admitted to himself that while he believed in the law, had spent his career working within the justice system, what he really had to answer to was his conscience. And that was proving to be a pretty harsh judge. [Chapter 1]

As usual Penny inserts humorous or poignant scenes that stick with me. Even though I needed to refresh my mind on the basic facts of the book, these scenes stick with me in some visceral way. After the murder victim is discovered by Gamache's wife Reine-Marie she has blood on her hands.

Armand took Reine-Marie to the powder room, and together they washed the worst of the blood off her hands, his large fingers softly rubbing the now dried blood from her skin.... There was still some blood stuck to her wedding ring. It was difficult not to see the symbolism... This was what he'd brought into their marriage. Blood ran through their lives together. [Chapter 13]

Gamache's forces pretend to be inept in order to lull the drug cartel into complacency so they can be trapped. When a battle ensues in the bistro, three ladies of the village, upon hearing gunfire, rush in to even the numbers.

"Does" Armand have a gun?" asked Clara, her eyes wide and hands trembling but her voice was strong. "Non." Reine-Marie looked around and grabbed the fireplace poker. Myrna and Clara did the same thing. Myrna came away with a hatchet-like thing and Clara was left with a fireplace brush. "Fuck," she muttered under her breath. [Chapter 33]

Glass Houses had high action passages, soft emotions, suspense, humor, struggles with conscience, and of course the reprise of characters I have come to identify as my literary family. True, I did need to refer to http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-glass-houses/ to recall the plot, but even so I rate it four stars.

★★★★☆ Really good; maybe only one weak aspect or limited audience.

Kingdom of the Blind ©2018 (#14) ★★☆☆☆
A major character from the previous novel is seriously injured and so I was quite anxious to move ahead and see what the outcome for that character was in the sequel. In this book Chief Superintendent Armand Gamache has been placed on suspension due to investigations related to a drug raid he orchestrated where some of the narcotics slipped into Montreal. 

The first of two storylines takes place in Three Pines in which Gamache and Myrna and a new character Benedict are appointed co-executors on the will of a person none of them knows. They meet at an abandoned snow covered dilapidated house in the woods as instructed in a letter from a deceased notary. Strange? Yes. Curious? Yes. Engaging? Not really... not to me any way. But I suppose since he is on suspension Gamache has the time and willingness to pursue his role of co-executor for a multi-million dollar fortune that oddly enough does not seem to exist. Tracking the line of money has some dealing in the financial world, also not endearing to my interests. I found the clues and logic difficult for me to follow. However, a dead body, potentially a victim of murder, found in the house when it collapses entrapping the three coexecutors within the debris, does up my interest level a bit more.

In the second storyline, Amelia, a young female cadet ejected from the Police Academy becomes immersed in the drug world of Montreal downtown. A frantic search ensues in a desperate attempt to locate the drugs and their processing lab before the deadly concoction is loosed on the streets of Montreal. It is these very drugs that had slipped through Gamache's fingers at the American-Canadian border in the engagement with the drug cartel in the previous book, Glass Houses. There is a police raid on the drug lab, a shoot out, and lethal injection of drugs as the key source of page-turning, heart-pounding action. I find this kind of dark, drug-related drama distasteful to me, and the topic soured my opinion of this book.

 
With two storylines that never intertwined, a drug theme I abhor, and the harrowing experiences of a young woman trying to shake an addiction, I uncharacteristically found Kingdom of the Blind an unappealing Louise Penny selection. I was however, encouraged by learning the outcome of a key character I like, whose fate had been left dangling in the previous novel. For a more inclusive plot summary see http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-kingdom-of-the-blind-a-chief-inspector-gamache-novel.  I rate Kingdom of the Blind two stars meaning

★★☆☆☆ Ok, not great; some redeeming features; I finished it

A Better Man ©2019 (#15) ★★★★☆
A Better Man opens with Armand Gamache's first day back at work, returning from a leave imposed while an investigation into his unconventional actions and decisions as Chief Superintendent took place. He has been demoted to Chief Inspector from his role as Chief Superintendent and must share that role with Jean-Guy Beauvoir, formerly his second in command. Rather than being humiliated by the political intentions to demean him, at the daily morning opening staff meeting, Gamache freely discusses the situation with lower ranked officers who have served under him. Also at that meeting, a young woman, who is known to be in an abusive marriage, is reported missing. Gamache is the officer assigned to look into it. He is actually quite eager and reminiscent to be back in the rank and file of direct crime investigations.

Concurrent to the missing young woman investigation is the threat of several dams in danger of breach due to heavy spring flooding. The newly- appointed, inexperienced Chief Superintendent is not acting quickly nor wisely enough to avert the disaster. Gamache tries to direct a plan to sufficiently divert the water, saving lives and minimizing property damage, while risking accusations of insubordination.  Three Pines is one of the areas in danger of the deluge pouring through their village. During bulldozing efforts to redirect the flood waters nearby, some personal property of the missing woman is uncovered and the case upscales to possible murder. 

A high level of tension is maintained throughout the novel due both to the threat of rising waters and to several cases of people falling into the icy-cold raging torrents or barely being rescued before they do. The body of the missing woman is found floating in the river. At one point in the story, Jean-Guy Beauvoir acts impulsively spurned on by his personal situation and Armand Gamache must physically intervene. The forensic trail followed to detect the story behind the demise of the young woman is creative, unique, and unsuspected. There is a final twist in the determination of whether her death was accidental or intentional.

I especially liked this novel because it featured both the professional and personal lives of the three main detectives, Armand Gamache, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, and Isabelle Lacoste and involves the cast of characters from the Three Pines village. This is important to me in reading the series. One frequently asked question at the Louise Penny Official site is whether it is important to read the Gamache series in order. 

Well, it's not essential...Having said that, there is a strong, and growing, character development arc throughout the books. I think of the books as having two streams - one is the plot - the crime. The other is the personal life of the characters. The first will, for the most part, be contained in a single book. The character development, though, gets deeper and deeper across the series.

A plot summary is available at http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-a-better-man. But to know about the people outside of their work lives, uncover the plot details, try to figure out the investigative clues, feel the vivid action, flip pages quickly in suspense, enjoy the familiarity of a book style... then read the book. I subtracted one star from my rating due to the "limited audience" caveat and rated it four stars. Those not in the readership of Louise Penny fans will not appreciate this book to its fullest potential. I read it not just for the crime but also for the characters.

★★★★☆ Really good; maybe only one weak aspect or limited audience

Ponder: Home for the Holidays (Novella)

Home for the Holidays by Brenda Novak ©2021 is a novella that was published shortly after When I Found You, Novak's 8th novel in the Silver Springs series (post dated 7/26/21). The time period covered in Home for the Holidays had already been previously referenced in When I Found You. Although it contains a few more details, the novella adds no information or insight to the storyline between the two main characters Natasha Sharp and Mac Amos, a love attraction thwarted by an age difference and an awkward living situation. For this reason I considered it extraneous to the series, introducing no new characters nor giving more insight into the characters Natasha and Mac as had been portrayed in When I Found You. I waffled amongst my low ratings and eliminated zero, one, or three stars, settling on two stars.

☆☆☆☆☆ I probably did not even finish it  — I did finish

★☆☆☆☆ Awful but I read most or maybe even all of it — It was not awful
★★☆☆☆ Ok, not great; some redeeming features; I finished it — Seems to fit
★★★☆☆ Better than average; not a waste of time — No new info so a waste of time

Then I realized that to evaluate this brief novella, half the page length of the previous eight novels in the series, to those novels was like comparing apples and oranges. Per Masterclass, the most obvious difference between novels and novellas is page length and number of words. However, beyond this superficial difference there are many structural and thematic hallmarks of novellas that make them their own standalone genre of writing. Additionally per Masterclass, there are three differences between novellas and novels. Some of these include – and I realized all these traits applied to Home for the Holidays

1) A single central conflict: Most novellas explore a single, compelling central conflict. Because of their shorter length, novellas have less time to explore subplots and tend to focus on the main plot. Novellas generally have one main character and a handful of secondary characters. Because of length constraints, most of the character development will be focused on the protagonist.
2) Fast pacing: Novellas usually move at a quick pace. Whereas novels can spend time diverging from the central conflict to delve into backstory and explore multiple points of view, novellas generally offer a quick compelling story with a singular point of view.
3) Unity of time and place: When writing novellas, writers should root the action in continuous time within a limited space, ideally one location.

Then I tried to figure out what number Home for the Holidays was in the Silver Springs series. Chronologically per the storyline it preceded #8, but according to the publication date it should be #9. When I researched my confusion I found that the official Brenda Novak booklist from her website and the Amazon entries for those books did not agree. Apparently a novella does not even count in Novak's booklist. In further poking around I learned that the novella was published first as a free pdf download starting on page 26 in the first issue of a Reading with Brenda Novak magazine. And I paid for it in the Kindle version from Amazon! 

Amazon is also confused on the numbering as shown in the next photo.  Per Amazon there appears to be two #8's, one #10 and no #9.   Keep Me Warm at Christmas (#9 or #10?) is not due for publication until September 2021. Then, curiously, there is Book 10 of 9. Hmmm. 

I do realize that to most people, and probably to all of my blog readers, this discrepancy is a big "so what". I also realize you cannot believe everything you read on the internet, but I want Wander or Ponder to be accurate and I work hard to keep it so. It is a point of pride, even if in this case it perhaps is a waste of time. The detective work did keep me amused, though, and I do learn something. Per Brenda Novak's Bio on Amazon

It was a shocking experience that jump-started Brenda Novak's career as a bestselling author--she caught her day-care provider drugging her children with cough syrup to get them to sleep all day. That was when Brenda decided she needed to quit her job as a loan officer and help make a living from home. ... Brenda and her husband, Ted, live in Sacramento and are proud parents of five children--three girls and two boys. When she's not spending time with her family or writing, Brenda is usually raising funds for diabetes research (her youngest son has this disease). So far, Brenda has raised $2.6 million!

With five children, I think Brenda Novak can be forgiven for some confusion on book numbering. I still maintain my rating of two stars for Home for the Holidays and claim that to skip reading this short, five chapter, novella in no way affects the progression of the Silver Spring Series and its characters.

Robin & Family Visit: Wed–Sun

Wednesday, June 9th: Fairyland
So far in during the visit all our activities and amusements had taken place in Livermore. (Whoops, not quite but almost. We bowled in the nearby town of Dublin, but Livermore does have a bowling alley.) We planned a mid-week trip about 40 minutes away that required two cars. We were going to Children's Fairyland in Oakland located on Bellevue avenue. Robin was eager to relive her memories from when she went there as a child. Per Wikipedia

Children's Fairyland,U.S.A. is an amusement park, located in Oakland, California, on the shores of Lake Merritt. It was one of the earliest "themed" amusement parks in the United States. Fairyland includes 10 acres of play sets, small rides, and animals.

Due to COVID-19, Fairyland had divided its operating hours into two shifts, morning and afternoon, with the purpose of reducing crowd size and allowing for mid-day cleaning. Pathways were narrowed or made one way to promote social distancing. We stayed at home in the morning, lounging in PJs and reading books, generally kicking back until time to leave.

When we'd arrived at Fairyland, Frank and I had parked farther away then Robin and Jeremy did so we had farther to walk to the entrance. Autumn and Isaiah had to come out to meet us. No adults are allowed in without a child. Them's da rules!

Once inside, there were bubbles to chase, hills to roll down like Jack and Jill, and tunnels to race through like the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. There were all sorts of places to sit such as flowers and horses.

But nobody sat for long... unless they were on the train! They used precious park time waiting in line but it paid off since they were lucky enough to make it onto the second to last train ride of the day, in the second to last car. Grandpa and Robin rode with Autumn and Isaiah. Jeremy and I waved and took pictures. 

The PA system was repeatedly announcing that it was time to exit the park. We took an exit route that went through Wonderland again. The tunnels there were a fun adventure that the kids did not want to miss. Although Alex was not with us, I took a picture of the White Rabbit for him. I posed Robin in front of a huge pocket watch, the phrase running through my mind ,"We're late. We're late. ...for a very important date." Frank preferred to have his picture taken by the Red Queen. Notice even her mouth is heart shaped. Then a park worker offered to take a photo of the Frank and me posed on either side of the Jack of Hearts. The mustache, not the hairdo, gives him away as the Jack of Hearts. The adults had fun, too. Where were the kids? Hopefully with Jeremy.

We were at Fairyland for half a day. We used the time to explore and did not stop for a food break. I never did asked Robin what she remembered from three or so decades ago. The kids did indeed have fun but the fun did not end once outside the park. There were awesome trees to climb on the shores of Lake Merritt. Autumn and Isaiah were just two of the kids who found that grove of trees irresistible.

Thursday, June 10th: May Nissan Park, Lunch Out
The park we learned about when we were at Sunset park was called May Nissan Park and it was truly amazing. An aerial view from the website of Landscape Structures, the park designer, shows it to be quite extensive. On the right is a play area surrounded by a circular path, with maze type games, game-board type pathways, and a typewriter keyboard. Toward the left is the more vertical type play structure, again surrounded by a circular path, where we spent most of our time. The big red and blue flower structures provide shade. The second photo is an enlargement of the left side and rotated 90° clockwise.

It is difficult to tell from the aerial views but the surface, is not flat. It is fill with lumps and bumps and primary colored polka dots that are mini hills. The area is covered with a soft rubberized surface for safety. The following photos are taken from where Robin and I sat in the cool shade and could gaze in several directions to watch Autumn and Isaiah. While we were here at the park, Frank and Jeremy were tackling an electrical project at home, installing some motion sensor switches. They were to join up with us later for lunch.

After about 1½ to 2 hours at the park we went to eat lunch out. Eating out was Autumn's request. She liked the food I had stocked at the house, but she wanted to "pick from a menu". We ate outdoors on the main street through downtown Livermore. Parking spaces had been blocked off and the dining space expanded so more customers could be seated outdoors due to the pandemic. It was novel to the kids to be sitting at tables and chairs in the street, beyond the curb. And Autumn got her wish to pick from a menu. Known for their dips, Mario's French Dips still has a kid friendly menu.

After lunch we went for a brief introductory visit into a game, toy, and music store called Mozart, Einstein, and Me – subtitled Gifts of Music, Science, and Art. I promised Autumn and Isaiah we would take them for another longer visit to the store the next day. They had limited time because Robin, Jeremy, and the kids were due that afternoon to visit the parents of the Robin's best friend throughout high school. Mary and Robin had been maids/matrons of honor at each others wedding and Mary's folks still live in Livermore. Autumn and Isaiah went willingly, each clutching a small shark's tooth souvenir as a token of the promise to return the next day.

I love this store because of its unique high caliber gifts. True you will not find LOL dolls or Marvel action figures but you will find clever games, books, and manipulatives typical of the store in a science museum. There is a lot to take in but when we returned for our repeat visit,  Autumn and Isaiah each selected a Squishable as their primary toy of choice. These selections would not have been my first choice on the intellectual side but they certainly appealed on the tactile side. Neither of them put down their plush pug or furry avocado for the rest of the visit, slept with them at night, and hugged them tightly on their travels and flight. Autumn wants a dog and Isaiah's favorite color is green. Perhaps that explains their choices? What else can I say? I an not certain about the finalized names but I think they were Chocolate and Greenie.

Friday, June 11th: Quilting, Games
Robin brought out with her from Oklahoma a Christmas quilt she has had been working on for years. She had pieced and appliquéd it, layered it with batting and backing, but had yet to quilt it. She wanted to use my HQ Sweet Sixteen longarm machine for the job.  So we got her started on it Friday. It was only two days before she would leave. She was determined to make progress on so as not feel foolish for having hauled it out here and back for naught. It would not have been for naught. I got to see it. So she laid out her quilting plan, chose her thread colors, donned some grip-fingered gloves, and got started. Friday night was supposed to be date night for her and Jeremy but she gave him doe-eyes and asked for a raincheck so she could quilt instead. Jeremy acquiesced, knowing well from experience the siren call of a sewing project in process.

We played games throughout the visit, not just on Friday; I just happened to plunk in the discussion of them on this day in Friday's post. Skyjo was a new one to Robin and Jeremy but it was quite popular even with the kids. In fact, when their return flight was delayed by 1½ hours, Robin, Jeremy, Autumn, and Isaiah plopped themselves in one spot in the airport and played, keeping everyone amused for the duration. Jeremy was wise to have packed it in his carryon. Otrio is a glorified three dimension tic-tac-toe. The addition of a wooden board and smooth colorful plastic rings enhances playing pleasure by making tic tac toe a tactile experience. Autumn often beat me at Otrio. Pride in my granddaughter's cleverness, outweighed the sting of my bruised ego.

 

I bought AZUL because of the beautiful playing tiles and great reviews; I'd even sent a copy of the board game out to Jeremy and Robin. They had never played it before but Frank and I have with local friends. Apparently, however Frank and I had missed part of the instructions and were playing it wrong. Jeremy, an eagle-eye for directions and an extremely skilled game player, pointed that out to us. Whoops! We stand corrected. There was one point however about scoring methodology that Jeremy interpreted differently. A heated discussion ensued. Whew! Exhausting! We are a family of stubborn people! Or as Frank would state it, "It is not being pigheaded, it is having great tenacity of purpose."

Jeremy carried the game Space Base out from Oklahoma with him, excited to play it with us, certain we would really like it. Robin claims it looks like a slot machine and if I squint my eyes and imagine, I can almost agree with her. On the right I have shown five of the twelve positions called docking ports, each player has on his own game board. Docks are numbered in relatively large black numerals in the gray region near the bottom of the board. On each space ship card is the dock number to which it is assigned, printed in the white diamond in the upper right of the card. Beneath the gray region is a section to score coins (yellow), planets (green) or ships (blue) A player scores both on his turn and the other players turn according to the values in the red or blue central section – a nice feature that keeps the player engaged at all times but also means he has to keep paying attention. Point criteria cards are drawn, collected, and amassed above the board cards. It was a lot for Frank and me to learn. Have your eyes glazed over yet? The artwork is beautiful but Frank and I struggled with the rubrics. Jeremy, Robin, Frank, and I played the game once. With four players and our steep learning curve, it took a while – over two hours if I remember correctly. I would like to try it again when we visit Oklahoma. I feel that we dampened Jeremy's enthusiasm as to how much we would love the game, so I needed to remind him, "You can teach old dogs new tricks, but they take longer to learn." We will try again. It is a game of strategy, not merely chance, and Frank and I were too overwhelmed to even begin to know how to strategize, let alone muddle though our turn and do it. Frank and I need a do-over. Obviously we lost, big time.

Saturday, June 12th: Date Night, Pizza, Frogs
Robin finished the quilting on her masterpiece. She only needs to bind it when she gets home.  A closeup shows two examples of Christmas trees through the centuries. I look forward to reading her blog post about it once completed. Her blog is called RobinLovesQuilting (RLQ). Now her blog also includes a lot of knit clothes she has made on her serger, her latest creative passion.

Jeremy and Robin were free to go out on their dinner and date night, now that the quilting goal had been accomplished. They went off to exciting downtown Livermore, which is really quite hopping on Friday and Saturday nights. Autumn and Isaiah had their wish of pizza for dinner, home with Grandma and Grandpa.

When Jeremy and Robin returned home they were greeted at our front door by a small gathering of frogs that had journeyed up from the creek bed behind our house. I wasn't aware the frogs would travel that far or climb so high. I knew we had lizards, but not frogs.

Sunday, June 13th: Goodbye Hugs and Departure
Their flight back, from San Francisco through Denver, was scheduled to leave late morning, unlike their flight out from OKC which had left at the butt crack of dawn (6:19 am). 

Autumn is prepped to leave. Have sunglasses, mask, and pug, will travel.

Isaiah and Autumn gave me tearful hugs. Autumn muttered "Grandma, I'm going to miss...wait for it... Snoopy." Then they dutifully went to stand by their luggage for a photo. Notice Isaiah is chomping down on one more Svenhardt's pastry. They are not available in Oklahoma so I sent home with them as many as could be distributed throughout their suitcases. 

Autumn waited outside on the sidewalk, watching the car being loaded and saying a heartfelt goodbye to Snoopy.  Even Snoopy looks forlorn as he watches the car being loaded.

We took some final photos by the front door, in the car, and of the car about to pull away, with Robin blowing us a kiss. Frank is driving them to the airport.

Frank got his final hugs at the airport when he dropped them off. And there they go with luggage and masks and Squishables. Hope to see Jeremy, Robin, Autumn, and Isaiah again real soon, not just virtually but in person for some real hugs, games, sword fights, and pancakes, again!