Friday Orts and a Blurb

We start off this edition of Orts and a Blurb with a picture of fruit, for no reason except that suddenly our Kansas August weather is, well, Kansas August weather. It has been so unexpectedly mild most of the summer that we almost forget that the reason the Wicked Witch of the West melted was because she was wearing black, in Kansas, and almost certainly in August.

But refresh yourself with a picture of the fruit that was our break refreshment during the Mexican trip. It's sweating beads of pure refreshment, as opposed to the rest of us who were sweating buckets of pure sweat.

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My Facebook pals already know this, but a "highlight" of last week was going to see Guardians of the Galaxy with Husband. It was our only actual true movie seen in a movie theater in quite a while, so we were a bit confounded when the price was so cheap. That's when Husband checked the ticket and discovered we had been charged the senior citizen rate.

Yes.

I didn't know whether to be insulted or delighted, but then it occurred to me that the difference between the entrance price for young'uns (apparently not us) and for faux senior citizens (apparently us) is exactly the price of a large popcorn, so delighted it is.

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It's been a while since I updated what's on my needles and what's on my reading list, so this week's blurbs review what I've been knitting and reading.

In the knitting realm, I'm working on what I'm calling Madeline's Stole, even though its official name is Cyrcus Rectangular Lace Shawl. Isn't it purty? Two words of advice for any knitter who is new to lace: stitch markers, and lifeline. (Okay, that was four, but you get my point.) YouTube them--they will transform how much you enjoy the process.

The books I am reading now are:

• On the fitness trail: The Last Romanov. I wanted to love it, but...ick. I'm more than 50 pages in, though, so I must persevere.
• On the bedside table: Snow Falling on Cedars. Oh, this is so lovely and so sad. I'm only halfway through and I tear up just thinking of it. 
• On the e-reader: The Devil's Star. And you can substitute any title by Jo Nesbo until I'm finished with all of his books. If you like melancholy Scandinavian detective stories (who knew this was such an enormous genre?) you will LOVE these. 

And what are YOU reading these days?