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This is the first of the series (currently numbering 6) of Baldacci novels featuring Sean King and Michelle Maxwell, two former Secret Service agents who left the agency in disgrace – King for having his minor presidential candidate assassinated and Maxwell for having her minor presidential candidate kidnapped 8 years after the assassination. This book describes both of those events in detail and documents how the two meet and, at the end of this first novel, decide to open a detective agency.
I was impressed with the plot here. Two huge Secret Service failures spaced 8 years apart, somehow are linked. The kidnapping is executed by a team of three – two men and a woman – who we learn, as the story progresses, are all involved in earlier events tied either directly or indirectly to the assassination. The plot is plausible, the threats to King and Maxwell – and some other lesser characters – is real. The body count is not as high as a Reacher story, but probably reaches double digits.
Baldacci is a skilled writer. He keeps things moving and makes the reader care about King and Maxwell. Very enjoyable.
This is #17 (of 27) in the series of adventure/fantasy novels by Clive Cussler featuring Dirk Pitt, Special Activities Director of NUMA, the National Underwater Marine Administration. I was surprised that there are 10 to follow this one because (spoiler alert) in this one Dirk retires, gets married and generally intends to become a normal human being rather than the superhuman engineer who roams the world saving us all from impending disaster and doom.
Pitt is also a parent. At the end of #16 he learns that a long-lost love gave birth to male/female twins who are now of age and are both working for NUMA. It certainly appears that this book intends to transition the derring-do from the elder Pitt to his two children, Dirk Jr and Summer. Some of this book’s plot involves saving Dirk Jr and Summer from two near-death experiences.
The main plot, though, concerns the Odyssey Corporation, a mysterious conglomerate that has virtually cornered the world’s supply of platinum. They are also involved in a strange engineering project, with the Chinese government, in Nicaragua. Why is this mysterious corporation, led by an equally mysterious CEO named Specter, doing in Nicaragua? And how is it all related to the discovery (by Dirk Jr and Summer, of course) of Bronze Age artifacts in shallow water in the Caribbean? They are all related, of course, in a most unlikely way. And it all is a threat to North America and western Europe. Rest assured, however, that Dirk and NUMA saved us. Again.
What a guy!
You have to suspend disbelief to read a Cussler novel. And he is not a great writer. But it is fun. A good book for beach reading.
My laptop died 4 days ago. It was working fine, with about half the battery time remaining. I closed the top and put it on the charger. An hour later I took it off the charger and tried to start it. Nothing. Put it back on the charger but the light indicating that it was charging did not go on. Dead.
Took it to a local computer repair shop. They diagnosed it as a bad motherboard. Did I experience a power surge they asked. No, nothing. It just died.
They gave me a part number. I ordered a new motherboard. The good news: it costs less than $60 (I expected it would be about $150). The bad news: it won’t arrive for a week, minimum.
A week without a laptop? It is like a week without water for me. Some people can’t live without a cell phone. I can’t live without a laptop.
So how am I posting this? I bought another laptop. It wasn’t my plan. I was in Costco to get large quantities of foodstuffs and saw a laptop – with touchscreen – for under $400. I decided that it would not be a bad idea to have a backup laptop. It is a good idea in general and I was not 100% confident that my old one could be resurrected.
The pleasant surprise was how easy it was to get up and running with a new laptop. Much easier than the last time, several years ago. While this “automatic backup to the cloud” stuff can be annoying – and the idea of having my sensitive information on some server farm somewhere makes me nervous – it surely does make switching to a new laptop easy. Within an hour of opening the new laptop’s box I was up and running, with passwords, emails and many files recovered. I had to reinstall some software, like Thunderbird, my email client, but even that was pretty easy.
So this is a post that I wrote on my new laptop. I am back in business.
In case you don’t know Kissimmee is a town very close to Orlando. You might consider it a suburb of Orlando. And it is very close to Disney World and Universal Studios.
We spent four nights there. Why? Because we got a “free” stay in a timeshare resort. Yes, we had to sit through a timeshare presentation (more on that later) and the “free” price didn’t include taxes and the “resort fee” which made the price for 4 nights just about $170. Cheap for 4 nights but not free. And the cost for this stay, another week someone (TBD), a one-week cruise for 2 and two sporting event tickets was $250 (actually $400 but included a $150 gift card as well). Again, not bad for all that, but not free. And it still isn’t totally certain that all that stuff will materialize.
Henna
Anyway, it was an opportunity to get away for a few days and we chose Kissimmee.
The trip there took over 4 hours because we had to drop off Becky (Marlene’s dog) at the dogsitter’s place in Cape Coral and we stopped for lunch along the way. We got checked into our 1-bedroom unit (pretty basic but with a full kitchen and jacuzzi) at Calypso Cay and went out to Old Town Kissimmee, an entertainment area just a few miles from the resort. But we never got to Old Town because we parked near a huge group of food trucks (probably about 100) and an indoor flea market. Well, Marlene can spend hours in a flea market and we did. She bought some clothes and got a henna tattoo that I thought was pretty nice.
Then we went back to the resort and tried to use the jacuzzi. But the water was lukewarm at best, so it was a short stint in the jacuzzi. A hot tub without hot water is pretty useless.
Food trucks
The second day (the first full day in Kissimmee) featured a trip to Celebration followed by a trip to Disney Springs. Celebration is a cute little town. We wandered around took some photos and had some drinks and nachos at a Mexican restaurant. A pleasant afternoon.
A canal in CelebrationMarlene in a Thai restaurantDrinks and nachos
Disney Springs was nice. A good band was playing near the water (and, yes, we danced a bit), the shops were interesting (for Marlene anyway) and there were many dining options (which we ignored – we had dinner at the resort). We were intrigued by the “escape room” attraction but were not attracted to the $55 ticket price.
The lake at Disney Springs (with serpent)Free concertMarlene at the Harley shopOutside the Rainforest CafeCrocodile and usShowboat at sunsetT-Rex restaurantUs with various Disney charactersUsLego sculptureMe molesting a princess
The timeshare presentation was 8:30am Monday morning, our second full day in Kissimmee. It was billed as “90 to 120 minutes” but of course they tried every trick in the book to keep us until we bought. Well, we were there over 4 hours but didn’t buy anything except 3 days at their resort in Pigeon Forge TN for $199 (with $150 returned in the form of a gift card). We can use that.
A fairly congenial presentation at the beginning but it became increasingly acrimonious as they refused to let us go. We finally escaped. They promised to send me an email with details of the other freebies that we were to get with our $400 investment. But I haven’t seen anything yet. I will have to call them. Annoying.
We “dined” at Cici’s Pizza which was a first for me. An all-you-can-eat pizza and pasta buffet. Not bad and probably a good deal ($12 each) but I really didn’t need all the pizza I ate.
We then went to Universal CityWalk which we expected to be similar to Disney Springs. It was, in the sense that it was lovely and had lots of dining options. And it fronted on two Universal theme parks (which were closed). But it had no live band and no shopping other than souvenirs. Disappointing. But I got some good photos.
The entrance to (closed) Universal StudiosMarlene at the Hard Rock Cafe“Surfing”Marlene at Voodoo DonutsIslands of Adventure lighthouseWilly Wonka’s homeMarlene at the Chocolate EmporiumIslands of AdventureMarlene goofing
On the final day we actually got to Old Town. We didn’t do much more than walk around, but it was pleasant.
Marlene in Old Town
The trip back home included a stop at the Hard Rock Casino in Tampa where we both dropped more than $100. That was the most expensive part of the whole trip.
There are two big annual festivals in south central Florida: the Swamp Cabbage Festival in Labelle in February and the Sugar Festival in Clewiston in March. They are similar in that they have a lot of food trucks and vendors of a variety of goods and trinkets and they both have some really fine live music. The big difference is that the Swamp Cabbage Festival celebrates swamp cabbage, which I find disgusting, and the Sugar Festival features sugar. Who doesn’t like sugar?
There was also a very nice Seafood Festival at Babcock Ranch in March. I am not sure that is an annual event, but it was similar in that it had good food, good beer and good music.
I took photos at all three.
All three festivals were worth investing a day. But if you go and eat at one of these, avoid the swamp cabbage.
Stage at the Seafood FestibalEncouraging the young to danceCrossfile Creek performanceMarlene and Crossfire Creek lead singerSwamp Cabbage stageSugar FestivalTasting sugar caneMarlene and brotherBecky
This is the 5th in the series of books by Vince Flynn that features Mitch Rapp, a CIA assassin. Yes, a CIA assassin. I am not so naive to believe that our government never kills anyone, but, frankly, making a government-sanctioned killer into a hero makes me more than a little uncomfortable. But that kind of protagonist generates a lot of opportunities for action. There is a lot of action in this book.
A couple of plotlines are intertwined. The main one is the pending confirmation of a new director of the CIA – Dr Irene Kennedy, the first woman to head the agency. The senator chairing the confirmation hearings, Hugh Clark, is, on the surface, supportive of the nomination but is secretly working to undermine her – and the President – to further his own presidential ambitions. Rapp, one of her best field operatives, wants to retire and marry Anna Rielly, a beautiful NBC anchor. But he learns that Donnatella Rahn, an Israeli assassin that he had collaborated with – and bedded – some years before may have been responsible for the assassination of another CIA operative. He decides to confront her in Italy where he is taking Anna with the intention of proposing to her. Well, it is never a good idea to mix business and pleasure and it all blows up in his face as he is caught in the middle of an attempt to assassinate Donnatella.
Yes, there is a LOT of assassination in this book.
This is all prelude to the other major plotline which is a military takeout of Saddam Hussein’s nuclear weapons. And that is just a prelude to another plotline which is the takedown of Senator Clark.
A lot of plotlines, a lot of assassinations. It makes for an interesting, if somewhat implausible, read. But it all made me uncomfortable.
That sounds like a mantra and I should probably say that to myself every day while I shave. I believe that am not a loser and two recent events reinforce that belief.
First, the 2024 senior softball season ended with my team having a 9-9 record. Not a winning record, but not a losing record either. I think we were actually 10-8 but I am not going to argue with the guy who keeps the standings. We had fun and a non-losing season.
Second, I went to the casino Friday night. I played slots for 4 hours and won 40 cents. Not a big winning night, but not a losing night either.
If you have been following my adventures long enough you will remember that the extensive repairs to the RV in 2018 included replacement of the half-bath toilet. This was a $500 repair item. That toilet started dripping from the water connection, occasionally, almost immediately, prompting me to put a cup under the connection to catch the drip. Yes, I tried to fix it but never got it tight enough to completely stop the drip. But I did catch most of the water, so no rot resulted. I have lived with this annoying drip for at least 5 years.
More recently the pedal valve started to leak whenever I flushed. This started as a few drops but got worse over time, to the point where I had to mop the leakage each time I flushed.
At least it was all fresh water leaks. No sewage.
But REALLY annoying nevertheless.
I finally, after much prompting from Marlene, got around to replacing the toilet. I bought one online and installed it myself in under an hour.
2023 was a year of extensive travel, though none of the travel was by RV. The amount of travel and the large number of photos posted in the blog necessitated breaking the booklet into two sections:
2023-1: Includes the transatlantic cruise (TC2) and the auto trip north (TN9)
2023-2: Includes the auto trip south (TS9), the transpacific cruise (TP1) and the short cruise on the Carnival Vista.
NOTE: These files are large. You may need to download them to view them.
I have been very busy since the end of the Carnival Conquest journey so I am a bit tardy in my wrapup. I know you were on the edge of your seat…
Highlights:
Robbie, the Cruise Director. He was fun, always upbeat and the guy can dance. A very good cruise director.
The Conquest Rockband. They weren’t quite as good as the Luminosa Rockband, but they were pretty darn good.
The other musicians – solo and duo acts – were also quite good. Kudos to the person who booked the musical acts on this ship.
Dining room staff – always courteous, prompt and responsive.
The itinerary. Eight ports in 14 days, including two ports (Antigua and Barbados) that were new to me.
The coffee. Usually the coffee in the buffet is tolerable at best. On the Conquest it was actually quite good.
The dining room menus and food. With the exception of “Mexico Night” when there was nothing on the menu that was recognizable or tasty, the menu choices and the food were very good. The star, in my opinion, was the short ribs. Teriffic.
Our health. We didn’t get to the gym much (i.e., once) but we stayed healthy throughout. We were told, near the end of the cruise, that dozens of passengers were ill. Probably the flu. But not us.
Lowlights:
The sound guy. I have never even thought about the sound guy in the theater on any other ship, but this guy was hard to ignore. He over-amplified everything, to the point of distortion, and cranked up the bass so high that the ship vibrated. We walked out of 3 shows because he ruined them. He should be fired.
The show cast. We had one song-and-dance show the first night of the cruise. And no others. I don’t know if the cast was sick or if some other calamity befell them, but I have never been on a cruise where the cast simply disappeared from view. Very strange.
The laundry service. We sent our laundry out one time and it was returned with nasty spots on several items. We had to send them back to be redone. It is bad when the laundry is returned more dirty that when it was sent out.
The lemonade and iced tea. These are usually our go-to drinks in the buffet but on the Conquest they were just terrible. Very weak. New machines were being used and perhaps they just needed tweaking because the drinks did get better as the cruise progressed. But even at the end they were worse than usual.
The in-cabin television. The Carnival TV is generally not very good (though they do provide TCM so I had something to watch). But the live TV was inoperative for 4 days, leaving us with nothing to watch. Well, we shouldn’t be in the cabin anyway, right?
The casino. I guess the casino itself was fine but wasn’t very kind to us.
My favorite ports were Curacao and Grenada, two islands that I like very much. The new ports – Antigua and Barbados – were disappointments.
A laptop death in the family
My laptop died 4 days ago. It was working fine, with about half the battery time remaining. I closed the top and put it on the charger. An hour later I took it off the charger and tried to start it. Nothing. Put it back on the charger but the light indicating that it was charging did not go on. Dead.
Took it to a local computer repair shop. They diagnosed it as a bad motherboard. Did I experience a power surge they asked. No, nothing. It just died.
They gave me a part number. I ordered a new motherboard. The good news: it costs less than $60 (I expected it would be about $150). The bad news: it won’t arrive for a week, minimum.
A week without a laptop? It is like a week without water for me. Some people can’t live without a cell phone. I can’t live without a laptop.
So how am I posting this? I bought another laptop. It wasn’t my plan. I was in Costco to get large quantities of foodstuffs and saw a laptop – with touchscreen – for under $400. I decided that it would not be a bad idea to have a backup laptop. It is a good idea in general and I was not 100% confident that my old one could be resurrected.
The pleasant surprise was how easy it was to get up and running with a new laptop. Much easier than the last time, several years ago. While this “automatic backup to the cloud” stuff can be annoying – and the idea of having my sensitive information on some server farm somewhere makes me nervous – it surely does make switching to a new laptop easy. Within an hour of opening the new laptop’s box I was up and running, with passwords, emails and many files recovered. I had to reinstall some software, like Thunderbird, my email client, but even that was pretty easy.
So this is a post that I wrote on my new laptop. I am back in business.