Happy Halloween!

Inspector Singh Investigates: A Deadly Cambodian Crime Spree -- Take 2

The nice thing about murder mysteries is that they're easy to read.  Sometimes a little too easy; I just want to get to the end even when I should be doing other things.  But books like that are nice sometimes, especially if you just need to give yourself a proverbial kick in the reading pants.

So it was with Inspector Singh.  Reasonably compelling, fairly well-written.  I was especially fond of some of the more European turns of phrase that were sprinkled throughout.  (The author - and the titular inspector - are from Singapore, which began its life as a British colony.)  It wasn't terribly surprising, but it was interesting enough to keep me reading.

Most importantly, it carried a flavor of the place -- that's what I was really looking for.  How accurate of a flavor it is, I can't say just yet.  But it certainly was a flavor.  And the good Inspector Singh's fondness for curry sure did make me hungry!

Tiny Grammar Rant

I know there are some sources that say that the use of apostrophes to make an acronym plural is acceptable.

Here's the simple thing about that: they're wrong.

And I would at least expect better from the library:

The Classic Bic

You may not have known this, but the classic black Bic pen has gotten a promotion.  It is now the "special ballot marking pen" for Missouri elections.

I'm sure it's a conspiracy on the part of one side or the other.

Pizza Tour: Peel Wood Fired Pizza

Peel Wood Fired Pizza, which has long had a location in Edwardsville, Illinois, recently opened a shop in Clayton.  I've been a few times, and have very much enjoyed it.  Here is a quick rundown of some of the predictable (and not so predictable) things I like about the Clayton location:

- The pizza is good: a California/Neapolitan style.  Also good is the goat cheese gratin (pizza in another form)
- Well-designed bathrooms, including floor-to-ceiling doors and trough sinks
- The bar is enormous
- Even when it's reasonably crowded, it's not super noisy (This is huge! When did it become the hip thing for restaurants to be noisy?  For whom is that enjoyable?)
- Their take-away pizza boxes are compostable

So, if you're around Clayton, or Edwardsville, or O'Fallon, give it a try.

Fritanga and Gateway Cup

One very hot Friday evening not too long ago, S and I had a wonderful St. Louis outing.  It started with dinner at Fritanga, a Nicaraguan restaurant down on Jefferson.

It was, as I mentioned, toasty.  Probably because I had been sitting in a freezing cold office building all day, though, for the short walk from the car to the restaurant, the temperature felt nice.  Consequently, I made the erroneous decision to sit outside.  And it wasn't actually so much the heat that was annoying, because we had cold drinks (a Nicarita for me, beer for S), but it was the mosquitoes.  Nevertheless, we very much enjoyed our food.  I went the app route -- chicharron de pollo and empanadas.  S had the canoa de maduro with pork, and we shared the queso frito.  One thing Nicaraguan food is not, at least when served in the US, is light.

We decided to make ourselves feel better about our unhealthy dinner choices by going to watch other people race bikes.  The heat was even worse standing out on the pavement of Lafayette Square, but at least every time the riders came around, we got a nice breeze.  And it's always a thrill to see a crit!

What I Watched -- Peter Rabbit

Every now and then, I stumble onto a movie that is so much more than I expected it to be.  Peter Rabbit was one of those movies.

S and I were having a chill night at home after a long day and we wanted something easy for entertainment.  S does much of the movie picking, usually because I'm futzing around in the kitchen, and he picked Peter Rabbit.

It is the traditional story, told in a mix of live action and computer animation.  In addition to being well done, it's funny.  And it's funny in that adult way that kids' movies are funny these days, like the inquiry made into whether "moving to France" really meant that someone had died.  Gotta love the Brits!

Bottom line: super cute.  You don't need kids around to have an excuse to watch it, but go ahead and use them as your excuse
if you need to.

Flora Borealis

When Mom was in town back in late July, we made plans to head to Flora Borealis down at Missouri Botanical Gardens.

The four of us -- mom, P, me, and S -- started out at O'Connell's Pub for dinner in advance of the walk through the park.  I hadn't been to O'Connell's in a while, and I don't think I had ever sat on the restaurant side of the establishment.  I'm not sure I want to be there again.

Worst of all, the service was terrible.  S eventually went to the bar to order our drinks because we couldn't find our server.  Second worst (only because if the drinks had been timely he probably wouldn't have minded so much), we were at one of the center tables, which are hobbit sized and S couldn't fit his knees underneath it!  He had to eat the whole meal awkwardly attempting to straddle one whole side of the table and leaning way forward in order to reach his food.  And yes, the server finally did show up so we could order food.  I got a burger (because I feel like you have to) and onion rings.  They were fine -- bar food -- but certainly nothing to write home about.  Maybe they were having an off day, but I'm not going to make a point to go back.

Then, on to the Gardens!  In a nutshell, my review of the show is mixed.

It started out with a very strange and preachy lecture about the fragility of the Earth directed at us through the voice of a nymph? elf lady? I'm not sure? via speakers placed around the rose garden.  I feel like everyone there already appreciates the gardens, and by extension, the Earth, and that was pretty unnecessary.  They did pump the whole rose garden full of some kine of (certainly environmentally-friendly) smoke, and had an overhead light show the whole time the nymph lady was talking.  That was sort of neat.

There were lots of sections of the sidewalk through the garden that were lighted in interesting ways, but not all that different than the Christmas show, except for the color choices.  The two coolest parts, I thought, were this one tree that they used as a backdrop for a light show, and Henry Shaw's house.  That show again had the elfin voiceover, but they did such a great job using the house as a projection screen that you could pretty easily ignore it.

So, it was neat.  There were some amazing light displays, but for $25 per head (and in keeping with the theme of the outing), I wouldn't make it a point to go back.

We did see this super cool truck in the parking lot, though.

Amos Lee

I have many, many long-overdue posts.  Apologies for the lack of timeliness (which also usually means my posts will be shorter and less descriptive, because my memory is not excellent), but I didn't want these things to go un-remarked-upon!

First, many thanks to K for taking me to see Amos Lee!  He was playing in St. Louis at Powell Symphony Hall the weekend after K's operas (here and here), so we had even more fun and culture packed into such a short time!

We tried to have dinner beforehand at The Dark Room, but we didn't have a reservation and they were all booked up.  Instead we went to Lucha for some Mexican apps and cocktails.  Tasty -- and they have pre-concert drink specials!

It started out as a solo show, with Amos demonstrating his humor, love of storytelling, and folksy music on stage all by himself.  After a bit of that, he was joined on stage by his bandmates, for a few more songs as a small group.  After intermission, they were also joined by dozens of musicians from the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra for a rockin' second half of the show!  I was especially impressed by his expansive vocal range.

SLSO has a link on their website to a Spotify playlist from the show, if you want to hear what we heard.  Thanks, K, for a great date!

What I'm Reading Now -- Inspector Singh Investigates: A Deadly Cambodian Crime Spree

I'm reading so many books right now!  I usually try to keep he number to two or fewer, but right now I am failing miserably at that.

There are many causes for my failure: a hectic schedule, the unpredictability of availability of ebooks from the library, and not wanting to tote around a paper copy of Truman (for two reasons -- it's huge, and it's not mine).

But I am still working on Truman (when I'm home or when the ebook is available), as well as Lands of Lost Borders (when the ebook is available), Devil's Mile (when the ebook is available), Ethics (and Other Liabilities) (when I'm awake in the middle of the night or I need a paperback that's portable), and now this new one, also in anticipation of our honeymoon.

As I mentioned in my post on Lands of Lost Borders, there is limited literature available about Cambodia.  Inspector Singh is one of the ones that I found, and my friend R was kind enough to get it for us off our registry.  So here I go, with some more preparatory reading!

Goals 2018 -- October Edition

I am famously terrible for not following through with post-event obligations.  Probably the one I'm worst at is pictures.  I always have grand plans about, for example, returning from vacation and reviewing my photographs, deleting the bad ones, sharing the good ones, etc.  That pretty much never happens, which is why my collection of digital (and printed) photographs is such a hot mess.

I'm not going to get through all my old pictures this month.  That's too much.  But to the extent that I receive pictures from the wedding, I want to make sure that they're curated, organized, and backed up.  There are going to be some good ones!