Monday Malarkey - A confused bird, stuff I've done, books that walked in and links to reviews

Since Monday's theme is malarkey, let's get off on the right foot:

Today's malarkey has been brought to you by an addled grosbeak.  Or, maybe there was water pooling on the hummingbird feeder. Only the grosbeak knows.

I just broke up the beginnings of a cat fight:

Things were going so well, today!  I managed to hold Prissy within a few feet of Isabel without even a tail-fluffing!  But, then Prissy pranced around the breakfast nook for about an hour, Isabel finished her bathroom window nap and Izzy surprised me by hissing and leaping at poor Prissy while my back was turned.  I calmed the baby and put her back in her room.  She was happy for me to close the door, for once -- no mad dash to escape.  On the plus side, Izzy appears to be all bluster.  She didn't touch the kitten; she just looked like a crazed, hissing fur snowball.  The cat dynamics are totally fascinating, around here.

Recent arrivals . . . and just so you know, I've put plenty in the "get rid of" bag ('cause this looks bad, again):

From publishers:

• Comet's Tale by Steven D. Wolf with Lynette Padwa from Algonquin Books, unsolicited.  I've read and reviewed Comet's Tale (dash over there via the link in the title) and I loved it.  It must have just come out in paperback.  This is the first Algonquin Book that has arrived safely (apart from the two they shipped UPS) since our mail thief attacked.  So excited that an Algonquin parcel finally arrived!!!
• The Widows of Braxton County by Jess McConkey from HarperCollins - This was either a mistake on HarperCollins' part or I hit the wrong button on the request form.  Hard to say which, but it's a book and I will read it, although it doesn't interest me as much as the book I meant to request: The Butterfly Sister by Amy Gail Hansen.  

From friends:

• The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence
• The Stockholm Octavo by Karen Engelmann
• Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell
• The Last Newspaperman by Mark Di Ionno
• The Last Policeman by Ben Winters
• Fuse by Julianna Baggott

This weekend . . . 

. . . was a busy one.  Husband worked on putting a drawer in the empty space where there used to be a small oven in our old house (we went from double oven to single, 2 years ago).  Then, we took down the remainder of Diseased Tree #1 at the new house (can't even bear to think about DT #2, yet) with the help of our delightful neighbor and his chainsaw.  The rest of the day was spent doing light chores and watching North by Northwest to recover.  The next day we did laundry and tackled moving boxes that still needed to be emptied, as well as (ohmygosh, the agony) matching an entire laundry basket full of socks.  Gah.  I did manage to match quite a few but I think we'll end up throwing away a lot of single socks, soon.

We watched Much Ado About Nothing (the Kenneth Branagh version) at some point and then I continued matching socks because, really, there were that many and watched all 3 episodes of Under the Dome while Huzzybuns avoided the room.  I can't say I loved it.  I'm finding Under the Dome cheesier than expected.  Also, if I could ask a favor, I'd like the writers to miraculously discover a handsome hero. The best-looking actor was already killed off and I could stand a break from sinister Junior, the annoying councilman, the deceitful minister and . . . okay, yeah, the killer is good-looking. But, he's a murderer, damn it!

I've done a lot of posting in the past few days:

Fiona Friday - Two Weeks is an update on the kitten and cats, and 

I've posted 4 reviews in a mad attempt to catch up with myself:

Lotería by Mario Alberto Zambrano

The Keeper of Secrets by Julie Thomas

Astor Place Vintage by Stephanie Lehmann

To Be a Cat by Matt Haig

I hope to continue this trend. 

Happy Monday!

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