Deeds of the Disturber

We picked up the girls' pictures today from Wal-Mart. No it's not the greatest quality, but the price is right. Molly looks so grown up in hers. We hadn't gotten them done since she was ten, and when I placed the new one up on the wall, it was a shock. I went from having a young girl on the wall to having a teenager! Mia's pictures were terrific. They did a shot of her sitting in front of a screen that looked like a tea party with teddy bears and dolls. She held a pitcher and pretended to pour it into a cup. Another picture was done against a black background with just a soft spotlight on her face. The studio is going to enter those two pictures into a competition and may use them in their advertising. Everyone always thinks that their child is beautiful, but it's awful nice to hear a stranger agree.

Deeds of the Disturber by Elizabeth Peters is the fifth book in the Amelia Peabody series. Amelia and her husband Emerson, Egyptologists and English gentry, return to England with their precocious son Ramses to find a "curse" haunting the British Museum and a reporter "friend" of theirs publishing that they are on the case to investigate. Two deaths and a kidnapped female reporter add to the suspense. The story is really only the excuse to peek in on the lives of Amelia, Emerson and Ramses, one of the most amusingly fascinating families in literary mysteries. The stories are written as though taken from Amelia's journal and she writes with asperity. It is a clever author who can write a scene through the eyes of a character while giving the impression that it may not have happened just the way the character said and while adding insight to said character. Amelia's versions of events may not always be completely trustworthy, and occasionally her interpretation of events is hilarious, even to the other characters involved. Peters writes with a bright wit and a flair for romance. Amelia and Emerson are madly in love and lust with each other and the bedroom door shuts on the reader rather regularly, although not before a bit of double entendre dialogue. The word precocious for Ramses doesn't begin to describe the boy. He is preternaturally intelligent and often poses rather pointed questions about matters he doesn't quite understand. His rescuing his parents may grow a bit old if it continues as the series goes on, but he adds a tartness to his scenes. A new cast of characters has been added with the addition of some household staff, and I hope that they return. Simply said: Peters is a delight to read, and I space out the reading of her books so that I don't read through them all too quickly and have to wait for the next in the series.

If you haven't already, check out my blog on WisMoms.com, the link is on the right side of the page. Yesterday I wrote about my frustration with laundry. Today about Little League.

I discovered how to make it rain. All I have to do is leave the driver's side window open on the van, even just a crack, and it will rain cats and dogs, sometimes completely sideways so that my seat gets soaking wet. Twice this week I had to run my errands in town with a wet butt. At least now I know how to fix the next drought!