Reading Update (2024 #58-60)
[58] Colton Gentry’s Third Act by Jeff Zentner
Fiction / Southern, heard about from Knox at The Popcast, audio
Synopsis: Colton Gentry is a second-rate country music singer who drunkenly spoke out about gun control at a concert and got himself canceled. Now he’s out of rehab, freshly divorced, and back in his hometown, trying to get his life on the right track.
Review: This is such a wonderfully earnest redemption story. I really enjoyed it. It’s hard NOT to root for Colton because he accepts all his faults and is trying so hard to do what’s right. The story goes back and forth from present day to his time growing up in his hometown (in… I already forgot [insert small southern town here]), and some of the characters from his youth make a reappearance. I’m usually not a “second chance” romance fan, but so much of the backstory was built up that I really wanted them to reunite. This book takes addiction and the struggle with it very seriously, but will leave you feeling good. And bonus, how can you not love a book that has only two footnotes and they are to tell you that the super senior dog Colton adopts will NOT die in this book?
Recommend? Definitely yes
[59] Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver
Fiction / Romance / New Adult, Anita told me it was overrated and I should read it and tell her what I think, audio
Synopsis: Two serial killers fall in love over years of playing a “who can kill the bad guy” first game.
Review: I was worried this would be too graphic and torture-y, and thankfully it wasn’t. There were very clear trigger warnings (if you can call them that? more like warnings) in the beginning. This is basically a romance, but the two main characters are killers. You still have them being unsure if the other likes them, taking way too long to get together, a dark moment, etc. I think the sex was supposed to come off as extra kinky? I liked listening to it because the main male character is Irish and had a lovely accent, and the female did a great job too. However… it was a bit slow moving, and kind of boring at times. And there wasn’t enough background (for me anyway) that explained why these two kill bad people for fun on the side. I think that concept just generally doesn’t do it for me.
Recommend? Nah
[60] Powerless by Elsie Silver
Fiction / Romance / Contemporary, third in series, Kindle
Synopsis: Jasper and Sloane have been friends since childhood, with her always have a very obvious (seemingly unreciprocated) crush on him. Now, Sloane is about to marry someone else but leaves that dirtbag behind in the church after an anonymous video is texted to her. Jasper gets her out of there, and now they have a chance to be together… if they’ll take it.
Review: This was not my favorite from the series, but I still enjoyed it. I didn’t like these characters as much as those in the first two books, but there’s nothing wrong or unlikable about them, I just enjoyed the chemistry in the first two better. The “I haven’t liked you your whole life but now I do that you’re about to get married and aren’t anymore and are available” is a bit sus but it’s addressed by Sloane, who calls Jasper out on her bullshit. The sex seems were pretty steamy, so there’s that!
Recommend? Sure
Random Thoughts Thursday 465
- I feel like people drive so much crazier/riskier since the pandemic. We see something bizarre every time we drive (on Monday we saw a left on red). When Steven leaves to go to work, I always say “watch out for f*ckos!” All that to say, on Steven’s drive home yesterday, he saw a truck get t-boned and fly up in the air. The truck landed on its side, and the driver was trapped. The passenger door wouldn’t open, so Steven and three others bent it open wide enough for the driver to climb/crawl out. Both drivers were thankfully okay and the cops showed up right away to help. BE SAFE OUT THERE FOLKS! WATCH OUT FOR F*CKOS!
- We were discussing times for Steven to do a night currency flight* and were checking sunset times and were shocked by how much earlier there were going to be over the course of the next few weeks. Science and math, baby! Winter is coming. In three months. (*Steven can fly by himself at night, but to fly with a passenger (me!) at night he must have completed 3 takeoffs and landings at night in the last 90 days)
- Last year we had plans every weekend in October. It was fun but we were exhausted! It looked like this October was going to shape up the same way and then slowly almost everything was canceled or postponed (or declined) and it feels so good. I know you get me!
- This is one of those weeks where I had something going on every day after work. Props to those of you who that is your regular week because it exhausts me! I know I could get used to it… I just don’t want to. See above bullet about liking free time.
- Do you ever think “I wish I was less needed at work”? Sigh. I am glad I have such an amazing team who can handle things for me when I take time off.
- When Val was here she commented on how good I am at taking photos when we’re together (thank you!). The funny thing is, I’ve been trying to use my phone less, so I have to be way more purposeful about it now. I’m actually feeling like I need to take more random shots of my day to day life (like this Tuesday run photo below).
Long story short (maybe?), on Tuesday I texted Steven “Wow! Great memory!” and he said “Lol I’d better screenshot that part about my great memory” (since I am “typically telling him he can’t remember things” that I told him). Flash forward to Tuesday night when he asks if I saw what he added to our digital photo frame – that screenshot. “I was going to print it and frame it, but then I remembered I can add it to the digital frame.” Ha ha, right?
But wait! There’s more! I said “You know, my mom looks at every photo I add to our frame and is going to ask about it.” It’s an Aura frame and she can see on the app when I add photos. Sure enough, she asked about it Wednesday morning. Ha. It’s even funnier because it’s a memory of something that happened to me and my mother that I told Steven about. Which she and I don’t remember as vividly as Steven. Ha ha ha ha ha. I started a group chat so Steven could explain it to her.
Three Questions
For you to answer!
- Are you over summer (specifically, the heat)?
- Have you starting snoozing/unfollowing/whatever people on socials because of election madness?
- When you use GPS, do you use north up or course up?
1. When we flew to Rochelle on the 8th I wore jeans. JEANS! And I felt great! Last Friday when we flew with Val I wore shorts and when Steven was doing steep turns I felt sweat trickle down the back of my leg. Ick.
It’s still summer but UGH. I’m over the heat and looking forward to cooler days. Apologies to my southern friends who will not be getting a break anytime soon.
2. HARD YES.
3. Okay, so I’ve always been a north up girlie with GPS. That’s just how my brain operates – on a grid with cardinal directions. That’s all good in the car.
But when we fly I have north up on ForeFlight which works amazingly for wayfinding, but I am STRUGGLING when I encounter traffic and need to tell Steven where it is on the clock (for example, traffic at 2:00, 2 miles out, 500′ below). I need a clock on my airplane icon OR I need to try course up. Steven, we need to look at this before Friday!
Val’s Visit!
Val was here midday Wednesday through this afternoon, and we had such a wonderful time together!
Before this trip I assumed we’d spend most of our time painting rocks, but we did so much more!
Wednesday
I picked Val up from the Milwaukee airport, and we went to the Third Ward to eat lunch and check out the shops. We got some new drawing books to try:
Val remet the indoor cats, then met all the outdoor cats. When we were outside the two planes that Steven flies flew over our house one after another. Val is SUCH a trooper for all my aviation talk this week. Eesh!
We painted, toured Steven’s warehouse, then got El Famous for dinner (naturally).
Thursday
We ran at Van Patten Woods. I love showing people our amazing preserve system!
It’s so lovely to run with a friend! It was cool when we started, then quickly heated up (it’s been in the 80s for a while here). We both already had headaches, but finished strong and rehydrated later and felt better.
Then more painting, and a picnic at the beach! The beach was gorgeous in the shade with the lake breeze.
We stopped at Starbucks to get the Iced Apple Crisp Nondairy Cream Chai. Have you had it? SO SO GOOD.
Then we were off to mani/pedis! Val’s got done before mine so she sat and chatted with me and Lorena for a long time and I loved having two of my fave people meet each other and hit it off!
We had crunchwraps for dinner then painted a bit more and called it an early night because…
Friday
We went to the 5:00 am Lower Body class at WWM! Val kicked major butt. I’m proud of her! She loved class and wishes she could come more often (but… she lives in Denver, CO). I do too. I’d love if she found something like this by her. WWM is really special, but there has got to be more amazing places like this around the world.
After class we cleaned up and met my snis for lunch at Wildberry! She was in town for work in Chicago the night before and drove up to Libertyville to see us. We had a great time eating then doing some shopping. Our fun time together made me even more excited for our November Seattle trip together (with Tiff too!).
We had a little bit of time at home (painting!) when we got back, then left to meet Steven at the airport. We had originally planned to take Val on a flight Saturday am but it was showing that it would be windy, so Steven moved our reservation to Friday night.
We had a beautiful (although hazy) flight. We flew down to the city,
then along the state line to show Val what our neck of the woods looks like from above. It was fun pointing out the places we’d gone to from the sky!
We were so excited to have our first passenger!!!!!!!! And Val loved it!
We got pizza for dinner, then hung out and painted a bit.
Saturday
Since we no longer had Saturday plans we slept in a bit, then just painted all morning until I drove Val to the airport around 2:30! It was a perfect end to the trip, just sitting and chatting for most of the morning.
I’m so grateful Val came out. I suggested this trip to her because her husband Steve was flying out here for a skydiving event, and I was like “you could fly together and he’ll go to his thing and I’ll pick you up!” But then she booked a separate flight to a different airport, so she could get in earlier and fly to the airport closest to my house. I appreciate her so much! Our time together is always wonderful and this time was no different, except we were missing our other Musketeer, Tiff!
But really. I always feel so relaxed and happy when I am with Val (and Tiff) and after our time together. I’m so grateful for our friendship.
Reading Update (2024 #55-57)
[55] Never Lie by Freida McFadden
Fiction / Thrillers / Psychological, gift from Dunja, paperback
Synopsis: Newlyweds Tricia and Ethan are searching for the house of their dreams. They’re checking out a remote manor in the middle of a blizzard and get stuck there. The house belonged to Dr. Adrienne Hale, a famous psychiatrist who’s been missing for years. As Tricia explores the house she finds a room full of tape recordings from Dr. Hale’s sessions, and learns more about what happened to her, and becomes increasingly concerned they might not be alone in the house.
Review: Okay, I have to admit, the twist got me on this one. I was reading it thinking “come on Tricia, this is OBVIOUS” then I was like, “Oh! I see.” I enjoyed this book. The writing is elementary, the characters are unlikeable, and the plot is full of holes, but it’s fast-paced and fun. I’m wondering if this author ever writes likeable characters? The characters were also highly unlikeable in the other book I read of hers. Usually that puts me off but I was here for it, hoping bad things would happen to them. Ha.
Recommend? Yes
[56] Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood
Fiction / Romance / Workplace, saw in Libby/heard about from Jamie at The Popcast, audio
Synopsis: Rue and Eli decide to meet in person after matching on a hookup app, but their meeting does NOT go as planned. Then Rue goes to work the next day and Eli is there – as part of the company that bought out the loan where Rue works. She is instantly defensive and suspicious oh him and the company, but the attraction is still there.
Review: Ugh. This audio style is different. There were dual narrators, but they do their own voices for the whole story, meaning the female narrator does Rue’s voice during Eli’s chapters, and vice versa. For all my complaining about narrators doing crappy voices for the opposite sex, and my love of Graphic Audio, I am surprised to say I didn’t like this… but I think I just didn’t like the voices the narrators were doing, period.
Okay, all that being said, the business side of this story was hard to follow (on purpose? to be secretive?) and mostly boring. On The Popcast Jamie went on about how spicy this was but it was a bit meh for me – I guess because I didn’t really care for either of these characters?
Recommend? No
[57] Wild Eyes (Rose Hill #2) by Elsie Silver
Fiction / Romance / Contemporary, second in series, Kindle
Synopsis: Superstar singer Skylar Stone is escaping to small town Canada to record new music and get away from toxic LA and her controlling and unloving parents. She meets Weston (West) Belmont immediately on her way into town, when he saves her from a black bear she was taking a selfie with. He leads her to the recording studio – literally next to his property – and since the housing there isn’t set up yet, she stays in his bunkhouse, and becomes very familiar with West and his two kids.
Review: The story took me a while to get into, which surprised me – I had read the first chapter of this at the end of book 1 in the series and was stoked. But it was a bit of a slow build after that. Skylar has so much healing to do – she pretty much found out her entire life is fabricated and isn’t sure who she is or what she wants. The more time she spends at the ranch, the more she discovers herself, which was great to see… but I wanted the romance to happen faster. Ha. I’m impatient like that. I really enjoyed the second half of the book though!
Recommend? Yes
Flying by Big Boy
Any steam engine enthusiasts here? No?
Yeah, us either. 😂 But when we were doing preflight at the airport today, the person who checked the plane out to us called and said “You’re going to Rochelle, right? Someone just posted on the board that some historic steam engine is going to be there today.” And Steven was like, “Oh, Big Boy?”
It turns out Big Boy is currently on an eight-week Heartland of America Tour and Rochelle is one of three spots Big Boy is on display. We know who Big Boy is because we were in Iowa when he went through several years ago. We didn’t see him in person then, or this time. But we did see him from 1000′ above today, which is close enough for me!
There was a ton of traffic going into town we when we flew in. People are SUPER into Big Boy. And the place we were flying to – Flight Deck Bar & Grill – was full of train enthusiasts (we played a fun game of “who’s here for Big Boy and who’s here for airplanes/skydiving?” using clues like someone wearing a train conductor’s hat or a “Heartland Tour” shirt or carrying flight gear or wearing a loud skydiving outfit to guess. Okay, okay, and age played a MAJOR proponent of this game).
But back to flying! We’re flying once a week so Steven can stay current and keep learning. I’ve been so excited for this part of his flying journey. I love going along. And I was telling my sister, it’s the same frequency he was flying before, but he’s no longer paying a CFI (certified flight instructor) so it’s like he’s saving money! #girlmath
Gosh, I swore this wasn’t going to be long and drawn out but here we are.
So we made a spreadsheet of local places to fly and check out. A lot of airports have restaurants at the airport, and this one wasn’t too far away (62.6 miles), and actually had some fake meats on the menu. Usually these places have NO vegetarian options, so that was pretty exciting.
The airport (RPJ – Rochelle Municipal Airport/Koritz Field) is an active skydiving place, so Steven called the airport Friday to ask about procedures for flying in with skydivers. They told him what frequency to listen to, where the skydivers land, how far to stay away if there are skydivers, and told him to never overfly the runway. We had no issues landing and taking off.
There was a long (hour+) wait for a table because of all the Big Boy people at the restaurant, but we enjoyed sitting outside and watching the skydivers until a table was ready. It was such a beautiful day! Then we ate and headed out, flying over Big Boy when we left.
It was so much fun! I’d love to go back (with friends?). I can’t wait for our next adventure, with Val next week! We tested out the passenger headset we got today. We’re all ready for someone to fly with us!
Random Thoughts Thursday 464
- I had my first post-40 mammogram Tuesday. The only other time I had one (2016) I blacked out, so I was concerned it would be incredibly uncomfortable, but it wasn’t at all. And the radiology technologist was super nice. And most importantly, my results came back all good!
- I got this wood engraving for Steven to commemorate getting his private pilot certification. I should have gone bigger. Derp. I will when he gets his instrument rating.
- Does this seem like a good place to leave the package that engraving came in? Sigh.
- I started listening to the Part Time Pilot Audio Ground School Podcast and I’m really enjoying it. There’s so much going on in the plane, but some of the systems and mechanics are so freaking basic it kind of blows my mind.
- I love love love Goodr sunglasses, and they had a 20% off sale for Labor Day, so that seemed like a really good reason to get some. I mean, I need more Aviator options for flying! Obviously!
- Edited to add – we kind of figured out why Starbuck hasn’t been eating – we’ve found plastic all around the house she’s been eating. So her stomach is probably full of plastic. Ugh.
- Mani from last week!
Anniversary date
We got to do our Chicago skyline flight last night (on our anniversary, aww)!
[This is the part of the flight recap where I talk about the uncertainty of the flight happening or not] The previous night, I noticed we had a beach hazards statement (a warning about life threatening waves and currents at Lake Michigan) in effect until the end of the day today, and I wondered if our flight would happen – when we get a warning like that, it usually means it’s going to be quite windy. Steven watched the weather most of the day, and at the time of our flight it looked okay – the wind was coming almost straight down the runway, which is better than a crosswind (for takeoff and landing purposes) and we were able to go. Yay! [/end uncertainty portion of recap]
Our reservation was from 5-7 pm. We got to Skill (where Steven went to school/we rent the plane), picked up the flight binder (we flew ES this time), downloaded the flight briefing from ForeFlight, did preflight (Steven showed me how to do the exterior inspection of the plane), did runup, and took off at 5:47.
My job for this flight was to watch for traffic (that’s always the passenger’s job!), let Steven know when we were below certain shelves of the Class Bravo airspace, and to let him know when we got close to the TFR (temporary flight restriction) around Guaranteed Rate Field.
What is Class Bravo airspace? Airspace classes are categorized by the type of air traffic control (ATC). Class B (Bravo) is controlled airspace around the busiest airports, like ORD (Chicago), where we live. The airspace is designed in layers, that get wider as you go up. Imagine an upside down tiered wedding cake – the first layer goes all the way to the ground, and you can’t fly through that (without special permission, go ahead and bother ATC for that, ha). The next layer is wider, but doesn’t go to the ground, so you can go below that, and the next layer is even wider, and you can fly below that and next to the previous layer. So basically, we stayed low for the entire flight, but I let Steven know when we were entering certain shelves and the maximum height he could fly. And not to confuse things, but if we had kept going south we would have entered a special Class C airspace around Midway airport. But we didn’t go that far because of the TFR.
What’s a TFR? I’m glad you asked! It’s a temporary flight restriction. I’m gonna copy this one straight from Google AI, because it’s accurate – a Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) is an area of airspace that is restricted to air travel for a limited time. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issues TFRs for safety or security reasons, and they are communicated to pilots through Notices to Air Missions (NOTAMs). When we did our flight briefing we saw there was an active TFR around Guaranteed Rate Field, where the Sox lose, and there was a future TFR around Wrigley, where the Cubs play, starting September 2. We turned around before we got to the active TFR.
I absolutely love maps and love helping with navigation.
Okay, phew, I kind of exhausted myself typing all that stuff. The flight was fun and uneventful. Not a lot of traffic – we saw two other planes around our elevation coming and going, and two circling around the city (and some jets way above us). The city was beautiful, as always!
When we got closer to our home airport (UGN) I entered it into the Garmin GNS 430 so we could get distance estimates. Steven listened to ATIS (automatic terminal information service) about 15 miles out to get the weather conditions, and called ATC 10 miles out and they told him to contact them again at 2 miles out for a right base for runway 5. I didn’t know what right base meant (other than it was the type of approach to the runway) and told Steven I needed him to explain that later (he did, over dinner at El Famous. I won’t subject you all to that, today, anyway).
And we had a nice landing on runway 5 (winds were 04008KTG15KT, meaning they were coming from 40° at 8 knots, gusting at 15). You want to takeoff and land into a headwind (because it increases the airflow over the wings, and allows the plane to achieve lift earlier and at lower speeds, and requires less runway when you land), and the runway numbers correlate to the compass bearing, so 5 is 50°, the closest you can get to the 40° winds. ANYWAY.
We did postflight. I did one of the tie downs and gave myself rope burn on my pinky. Note to self, remove fingers from rope before securing. Duh.
This was a lot of fun, especially to do on our anniversary! Val is visiting next week and we plan to do this tour with her (this was kind of our test flight for that!).
If you made it this far, congratulations! And thanks for reading all my flying mumbo jumbo. I’ll likely post about each flight until I get sick of it. You likely already ARE sick of it, so again, thanks if you made it this far.
Reading Update (2024 #52-54)
[52] The Teacher by Freida McFadden
Fiction / Thrillers / Psychological, gift from Dunja, paperback
Synopsis: Addie is miserable. She was involved in a scandal with a teacher during her sophomore year. Now it’s her junior year and she’s being ostracized. The only joy in her day is English class with dreamy Mr. Bennett. Mrs. Bennett also works at the school, has Addie in her math class, and is also miserable. Everyone thinks her husband is gorgeous and amazing, but he’ll only have sex with her once a month and cares more about the students than her.
Review: My synopsis and the synopsis online make you wonder what the heck this book is even about. But yeah, it’s basically about a miserable student and teacher, and the bad things they get up to. I flew through this because the pacing was so fast, and I wanted to see what happened to these characters. Not because I like them – they are all horrible – but because I wanted to see them get in trouble. I enjoyed the book and it was nice to read something outside of romance (which has been my jam for a minute)!
TW: Inappropriate student/teacher relationships
Recommend? If the TW does not bother you, yes
[53] Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend by MJ Wassmer
Fiction / Literary, green light from Knox on The Popcast, audio
Synopsis: Dan and Mara are on a tropical vacation at a new resort when the sun explodes. Now the have to figure out how to survive, along with the occupants of the other buildings on the resort. One building quickly steals all the food and medicine to claim it for themselves, and puts the other buildings to work. Dan must decide whether to follow along or fight back.
Review: I have very mixed feelings about this book. I really struggle with storylines around people fighting over resources, and hoarding. I also get that this book is supposed to make me have feelings about that. So hey, look at me, feeling something. This storyline is compelling though, I mean, the sun exploding? This sounds like sci fi. It’s not though. And it’s actually pretty obvious what’s going on. And Dan is pretty unlikeable. He struggles throughout most of the book with not living up to the expectations he’s set for himself, wanting to be remembered (because they are surely going to die), but also somehow being seen as a rebel by other people at the resort, but not wanting to be a leader. This is going to sound insensitive, but are people really that hung up over leaving a mark on the world and being remembered? Get over yourself, Dan. Just be kind, like your girlfriend, Mara. Mara is great. Dan describes her as being completely genuine, and 100% herself around everyone. That’s how I’d like to be described, but I still struggle a bit with it. Anyway.
I make it sound like I hate this book. I didn’t. I just disliked Dan and how obvious it was what was going on. And disliked one group of people taking more resources and not distributing them evenly (the base of much conflict irl – what can I say – I read to escape).
Recommend? Sure, if you don’t think the things that bugged me would bug you! It was well written.
[54] Heartless (Chestnut Springs #2) by Elsie Silver
Fiction / Romance / Contemporary, #2 in series, Kindle
Synopsis: Cade needs a nanny for his 5 year-old so he can work long days at the ranch. Willa has the summer off and nothing to do. She visits the ranch to see her best friend Summer (from the first book) and finds herself with the job. Cade’s broody and grumpy personality is a complete contrast to Willa’s bright and fun one, but hey, you know what they say about opposites attract…
Review: I loved this story and Cade and Willa’s chemistry! What a fun read. The ending made me roll my eyes a bit, but I still loved it.
Recommend? Yes
First flight!
Yesterday Steven did his first flight as a private pilot and I got to ride in the front!
Ha. You guys. I’ve been wanting to ride in the front for a long time. I’ve really wanted to see what you have to do to fly a plane. There’s like a zillion gauges, and the yoke, and pedals, and comms, and etc. etc. I’m determined to learn what all this s-word is!
Plus I wanted to see the view. Turns out I needed to make my seat higher and the windshield needed to be cleaned. Next time.
ANYWAY! We were originally planning to fly down the lakeshore to see the Chicago skyline but the low clouds were not conducive to that. So we flew from Waukegan (UGN, our home airport) to Burlington, WI (BUU) and back. I’m glad we still got to fly at all! I was waiting ALLLLLLL week for this.
The entire time Steven was learning to fly he used analog maps (called sectional charts) and the GPS in the plane. Yesterday though, he brought the iPad and we connected ForeFlight (a flight planning, traffic, weather, etc. app) to the WiFi on the plane so we could see traffic. I realized I was watching that too closely on the way to Burlington and Steven was like “I’ve flown this entire time without it, don’t stare at it.” Ha, I needed that reminder, and didn’t look at it much on the way back. (It’s pretty handy though, it tells you which frequencies airports use, how much runway you have left, traffic, weather, if traffic is close to you, etc. etc.)
I had a lot of fun, looking at the view, trying to follow what ATC (air traffic control) was telling us, trying to decipher what ATIS (automatic terminal information service) was saying, paying attention to what Steven was doing. I can’t wait to go again (maybe tomorrow!)!
Hi! I’m Kim, a 40-something-year-old living in northeastern Illinois with my husband Steven, and our cats, Khaleesi, Apollo, Starbuck, and Eddard aka Ned. My current main hobbies are running, painting rocks, flying, reading, and eating. I follow a vegan lifestyle and work in an account management role. I write about a variety of topics and consider this a “life” blog – a place I can share anything that’s on my mind. Please visit the “About” page to get a better idea of who I am! 🙂
