Sara also included fun stickers on this postcard mailed from the city of our birth.
She writes that her trip to Boise was a good one, it was good to attend the memorial service she attended.
She notes that this postcard reminds her of old-school Boise River Festival designs. Agreed.
The day has arrived! We had a wonderful time at Renee’s birthday party. Everyone brought their A game.
Including Renee. She needle felted little party favors for each person. Here’s my mouse, hanging out at my fancy plate, napkin, and envelope.
Here is my final version of my mouse costume. I made the collar that very day.
And here is Matt’s stallion costume.
Birthday girl Renee, reading from our guidebook. She was the Countess.
And her husband Greg, the inspector, who guided us through the mystery.
Two other fun costumes: the Cat, a widow.
And the Weasel, who took home the prize for best character.
I realized at the start of the mystery that all my party energy had gone into planning my costume, leaving nothing for mystery solving. It turned out I was sitting next to the murderer, who escaped mine, and everyone else’s attention.
And here is our group shot.
This was a very fun evening. We all had some eyerolls at the gendered notions of the plot, but we were able to overlook those.
Vistaprint has delivered my business cards and the thank you notes I ordered.
Now I just need some customers.
“More dumb song lyrics for you!” Ariel opens. This is in response to my message that I find song lyrics written for novels cringeworthy. Every. Single. Time.
I mostly just skip them.
Sara sends this card from Oregon’s City of Sunshine, aka Klamath Falls.
She was taking a quick trip to Boise, and mentions that they seem to have taken the very scenic route a few times.
Also arriving was this cute cat, which Sara found at Eureka Books.
She wrote the card on July 4 and it was postmarked on July 7. Meanwhile, the Klamath Falls postcard was written on July 10, and made its way to Portland before getting a July 11 Portland, Oregon postmark.
I do miss things being postmarked from the small towns along the way.
This week Ariel posited the same thing I did: Would this book work better if we weren’t reading it over 10 weeks?
Lake Huron is looking good, though.
I don’t think a full set of these bowls came to me with Grandma Collins’s china, but perhaps there was. We’ve enjoyed using them. They are a nice size for a small snack or a piece of cut up fruit.
But today, we said goodbye to the last of the small bowls. We are a flat-dish and cereal-bowl-only household now.
It being July and warm, I opted to not wear a mask for my mouse costume; instead, I found instructions for a cute headband on the internet. As we are creeping closer to the party, I thought it best to make a test run in paper that could then be used as the pattern.
It looks like it will be okay. Now, I just have to make it. Before the party. On July 18.
During my morning constitutional something caught my eye outside this house, and I moved closer.
I found summer planning in process.
But why outside? And why propped up between a chair and the porch?
Hmmm. I wonder if it was serving as an awning for the plants below?
City life. So many unanswered questions.
I think we can correctly guess that this letter writer is a prompt returner of library items.
The Multnomah County Library hasn’t had fines for a few years now. (Given my loose grasp on the passage of time, it could be anywhere from three years to fifteen.)
While I did enjoy the low-key pressure to renew or return my books to avoid fines, I similarly enjoy that I get an email when a book I have checked out has a bunch of people waiting.
I bet you can guess that I would do well in this demerit system.
