Vacation, Books? Vacation

Hi everyone, (like there's so many of you that read my blog!) Well, it's the 3rd of July here in Chesapeake Beach and I'm in heaven, there's no other way say it. The fireworks have just ended, Don and his long time friend from the FAA are playing chess out on the patio, there are hundreds of boats still out in the Bay. It's probably 80 degrees, but with not a hint of humidity, it feels 10 degrees cooler and, miracle of miracles, I've had no hot flashes since we got here, even though we cooked a turkey today!
Our trip was fabulous even if we did some how manage to lose 60 bucks in the first hotel (www.stonehouseinn.com) along with the case of the disappearing camera! Yup, I arrived in Ohio, in charge of photos, per my cousin Linda, at the wedding sans digital. Don't know where I left it. It's hell to grow old. I could write a novel about the wedding of my niece but suffice it to say, it was as different and loving as she and her husband Mike are. I LOVE his taste in music, the weather held for an outdoor ceremony right out of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, my aunt Jackie and cousin Michelle were there from Gt. Barrington and all was great.

Don and I surprised ourselves with the amount of time we spent at the Air Force museum in Dayton. Besides it being a lovely trip and Ohio being MUCH prettier than I've given it credit for, the museum was fabulous. Don was having a ball looking at all the various planes and helicopters he's logged flight time in and I found out that I own some very interesting and possibly worthy artifacts from my Dad's time in the Army Air Corps....a "short snorter," yup, look up the phrase. So very British. Basically, it's a long taped together row of dollar bills from countries all over Europe. Each time a soldier entered a bar, he was to have his money autographed by all the fellows at the bar at the time. If a soldier couldn't produce his "short snorter" when ordering drinks, the tab was on him. My Dad's is autographed by Bob Hope, Jerry Colonna (yeah, you guys are too old to know him), and Frances Langford, among others. I'm sorry it's in pretty bad shape but I'm going to try to get it fixed up so that I can donate it to the museum, along with his story about being with all these entertainers on a troop train home from his 25 bombing missions over Germany.

Muchos gracias to Jessica for the signed ARC from Anita Shreve of her forthcoming novel Testimony. Wow! I started it last Thursday at the airport and read all the way to DC without putting it down. I would say it's her best ever and would make a fab book discussion. It's so well done. I love the way Shreve tells her story, and a sordid one it is, from the points of view of at least 10 characters and manages to give each of them a distinctive voice. Seems like lately all I've been reading about are sex scandals but this one is so distinctive and it feels like it could have happened yesterday. Lots of nuance, lots of tragedy, lots of that "wrong time, wrong place" kind of fate that can change a person's life in an instant. It reminded me of any book by Jodi Picoult. Today I started Andre DuBus's new one and am planning to swing in my swing and read all day tomorrow. More later.