Don't Be Afraid of the Dork: Saturday in the Garden

I like to garden and generally putter around in my yard and my Saturday in the Garden posts serve as my pseudo- garden journal, plus a round-up of my week in reading, watching and blogging. Occasionally, I'll whine, rant or gush about something in a GAK section.

OUTSIDE

The Jasmine has started blooming this week:). The blooms last 4.3 seconds but it's so pretty.

And I have a negative review to put out there. I decided to try a hybrid variety of tomatoes in containers this year. I chose the Patio Paste variety from Burpees with the hope I would get lots of paste tomatoes for canning. Instead, every last tomato grown on these plants has blossom end rot. You may argue, because blossom end rot is caused by a mineral deficiency, that I must just be using a poor soil mix in the pots. However, I also have one plant of my favorite tomato variety, Beam's Pear growing in a pot and it is not having these problems. AND. AND. It's an heirloom and not even a variety designed for growing IN POTS like the Patio Paste is. Grrrrr.... Maybe it will eventually improve but so far I am NOT impressed. I will be happy to recant, if necesssary.

WATCHING, READING and BLOGGING

Watching

I think I have to finally accept that I am in a massive TV watching slump at the moment and it's probably been like this for months. I keep finding myself checking out on any new shows I start and drifting back into old favorites. Even if I like the new show, they are not holding my interest. This even goes for new seasons of shows I already like. Most recently, I kind of petered out on Shetland (which I do really like) because I suddenly had an overwhelming urge to re-watch, for the 75th time, The IT Crowd. I wish I could find a new complex and involved show that really sucked me in. I'm starting to think this show doesn't exist. I like shows that are funny, but also have some depth, drama and involved storylines, good characters and some romance. So a little bit of everything. SFF and crime/mystery are also a draw. Any suggestions? I think the last two shows I really got into were Galavant and Arrow.

Part of the reason this post is going up a day late, is that Saturday was busy; helping some friends move and then heading to the big city to see An American in Paris. I've seen the movie with my beloved Gene Kelly and was interested to read that this musical is actually based on the movie, not the other way around. Also interesting is that it was more inspired by than really trying to recreate the movie. It still features the music of George and Ira Gershwin, though the song list is almost completely different and is still heavy on the dance. In fact, most of the leads are professional ballet dancers.

I enjoyed it very much and the traveling cast was good. The dancing and choreography was top notch. The scenery was inventive and interesting. The main reason it will never be a favorite musical of mine is the story, which is rather juvenile and has the problem of being focused on the wrong characters, lol. It's basically about these three guys, two American ex-patriates and one French man, that are friends and who are all in love with the same girl, a milk toast, prim and pretty ballerina. SNNNNOOOORRREEE. The main male love interest, Jerry Mulligan, is a pushy ass, and as I already mentioned the lead female could not be more boring. My favorite guy was the wisecracking cynical piano playing composer, Adam and my favorite woman was Milo, a spunky, independent American heiress, who is very interested in the arts and who has the misfortune of falling in love with Jerry. I really wanted her and Adam to run off together and for Jerry and Lise to drown in the Seine:).

Listening

I am currently totally obsessed with this song. No idea why - it's not my normal fave type of music? But I can't stop listening to it and wanting to blast it at full volume in my car so the windows shake:0). *shrugs*

Reading

Finished Since the Last Time I Posted:

Career of Evil (Cormoran Strike #3)by Robert Galbraith: This ended up being my favorite of the series thus far. I love all the character stuff happening in these books. Robin has become one of my very favorite characters.
A Perilous Undertaking (Veronica Speedwell #2) by Deanna Raybourn: A mystery set in the Victorian Era in Britain, featuring a pair of Natural Historians as the amateur sleuths. Book one was one of my favorite reads during the first half of the year. AND I really loved this one as well.
They Found Him Dead by Georgette Heyer: Another enjoyable mystery by Heyer.

CURRENTLY READING

Intuitive Eating by Tribole and Resch: Non-fiction about eating psychology and biology. I've been dipping in and out of it for the last few months!
The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima: Epic YA fantasy that sounds super duper amazing! Starting to make some headway on this one though I am having a little bit of trouble engaging. Problem isn't the book, I don't think, but the fact that my mood right now is for mysteries.
Spirit Animals: Wild Born by Brandon Mull: This is a middle grade fantasy series where each of the books is written by a different author and what a list of authors it is! It got on my radar because Garth Nix is one of the authors but also on the list are Maggie Stiefvater, Shannon Hale and Marie Lu. So despite the fact that the idea for series sounds so gimmicky (it's a book series paired with a video game apparently) I wanted to give it a try and so far I am really liking it.
The Line (Witching Savannah #1) by J.D. Horn: This is an urban fantasy series that's been on my TBR for a while. I haven't gotten very far into yet but I'm really liking it thus far and it has even surprised me a time or two.

Added to the TBR:

This is a list of books that I have added to my Goodreads TBR list this week. It helps to burn the books I want to read a little more firmly into my mind, maybe get them on some other folks TBRs and gives me a chance to recognize a lot of the awesome bloggers that add stuff to my TBR!

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantaro: An adult "where are they now" story about the Scooby Gang. Yep. You read that right.
The Dream Hunter by Laura Kinsale: This was on sale this week and I'm not sure I've ever tried a historic romance by Kinsale.
The Fairy-Tale Detectives (Sisters Grimm #1) by Michael Buckley: I can't believe I was ignorant of this middle-grade series up until now! It looks delightful and this first book was on sale this week.

On the BLOG since I last Posted:

TUESDAY: REVIEW: The Star-touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi This book, which many others love, just wasn't my cup of tea.

WEDNESDAY: REVIEW | The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett The first book in The Lymond Chronicles. I try to marshall my fan girl thoughts into something coherent with mixed success.