I'mmmm baaaaccckkkk!

So much has happened since the last post! I finished four star trek books, Double Helix: Red Sector (kind of a confusing book, not highly recommended), Double Helix: Quarantine (ok, but the ending that solves that virus was unsatisfactory), New Frontier: House of Cards (love it!) and New Frontier: Into the Void (also loved it). I am now reading New Frontier: The Two Front War. I hope to have it done today or tomorrow.

My personal life has been a little wild. I have been working nonstop teaching and keeping things going while my husband finishes the book he is working on (a cookbook, not a Star Trek book). He will be done soon, so I can get things a little more even, which means more Star Trek reading.

My brother has also had a bad few weeks, and I’ve been worried about him, my own health took a few turns, and I had a birthday and anniversary in there! It has been busy!

But all that is my way of saying sorry I was a jerk for not blogging. I will be back at it now!

In Star Trek news, I decided to read the New Frontier series. I have read some of the books before, but I am reading them front to back. I love the characters. Mac is my favorite captain, and the one that is the most ‘me’ (unless you count Kira and then it is a tie). Actually, Kira is the most me and Mac is who I want to be. He reminds me in some ways of my husband (but if my husband were a captain, he’d be Picard. Calm under pressure, loved, with a weakness for redheads).

I will be back tomorrow to give you an update on my quest!

Another One Bites the Dust!

Last night I finished reading ST:TNG Double Helix book 1, Infection. It takes place during the first season of Next Gen, and I was surprised at how well Betancourt managed to get everyone’s characters down pat. There is even an exchange between Will and Deanna about why she calls him ‘Bill’ in the first season, which I thought was a nice touch. It was also good to ‘see’ Tasha again. There are also a few fan jokes, such as when Data needs to pick a human name and picks Bret. If you’re reading this than I am sure you know that Data was played by Bret Spiner. It was the little touches that gave this book a lot of personality.

However, it does have some problems as well. At first the book sweeps you up and rushes you along for the ride as a horrible virus breaks out on Archaria III then the Enterprise. You want a cure to be found, but you’re enjoying the search process…. But then it is just over, with little fanfare. There is a cure, which seems to materialize out of thin air. The book is great until the last thirty pages or so. I found myself a little disappointed at the end.

Overall, it isn’t a bad read and enjoyable, especially if you want to revisit the awkwardness/innocence of TNG first season.

As for me, I am trying out contacts and it is weird, but I am managing, and still moving forward with my reading. I am working on Double Helix book 2, Vectors, which is more enjoyable to me since it is Deep Space Nine, back when it was Terok Nor. I love it! I think I will race through this one. I am also excited because I added two more books to my collection yesterday, Q&A and Errand of Fury book 3. After all, I have to have them to read them. I am even thinking about eventually getting an eReader one of these days so I can read the eBooks. But we will cross that bridge when we get to it.

Now, back to Vectors!

"He's Dead, Jim!"

So I continue my multi-year mission to not only read all the Star Trek books, but blog about them and how they incorporate in my life. Today the blend was pretty obvious. After some vacillating, which I wrote about yesterday, I decided to start reading Star Trek: TNG #51, Double Helix: Infection. I am moving along at a nice clip, and I am already on page 71! (the print is large and the pages small, which help a lot). So far, they have at least one good scene where Worf walks in on Tasha showering and gets very uncomfortable to say the least. I laughed because if they put something like that in the show, a lot of us geeks would identify at getting uncomfortable around the other sex.

But here I am reading ‘Robin Cook writes Trek’ and my poor husband got his first silent migraine. I get them, and we try to share everything, but he doesn’t have to share that! I rubbed his head and neck, which helped, but he wouldn’t take Tylenol, and he wouldn’t even drink coffee. I started turning into Bones, mumbling under my breath about his green blood and Vulcan logic. Who knew that I had an inner McCoy waiting to get crabby? The funny thing is that McCoy isn’t even in this book, so it’s not a case of ‘Monkey see, monkey do’, it’s a matter of having an inner crabby country doctor.

So if my husband is Spock and I am Bones, then who is Kirk? (suddenly I have visions of our future child springing forth from my womb with a bad toupee and wildly gesturing arms, saying in staggered breaths, “Mom…. Get me some MILK…” Scary thought. Much scarier than Double Helix: Infection.

Coming Out of the Trek Closet

Again, no post yesterday. Sorry. I had a hard day, working away, but I also had fun. I finally finished Dark Mirror at 2am this morning, and it was excellent to the very end. Diane Duane made a great book that was tons of fun to read. If you like Trek at all and you haven’t read it, try it! The only problem is that no I can’t decide what to read next. I was going to read Seven Deadly Sins, and I still might, but it leads off with an Romulan story that has feet in Enterprise and since I haven’t watched any of those, I am a little lost. I might just read all of the Double Helix series, but I also want to read Q-in-Law… I will read them all sooner or later, but I just don’t know where to go now.

It was so sweet. Yesterday I my husband came out as a closet Trek fan, too. Mostly of the original series, and some Next Gen. He knows that I love Deep Space Nine the best, so when I said I was going to save up for the different show seasons, he was not only supportive, but he offered to watch them with me! I am blessed to have the best husband ever!

So now I have read 2 Star Trek books. I will have a little time on Friday, so my plan is to spend some time trying to get a semi accurate count of which Star Trek books I already own, and how many there are. I need some kind of counter, so I know what I am up against. I will prevail, although now that I look more into it, this seems like a 10 year quest, but I am still finding it relaxing, so I am going to keep with it.

Now, if I can only decide what to read next…

The Trouble With Tribbles

Today I had trouble with tribbles. My husband and I are having a busy week, which is good for the latinum but bad for the nerves. Last night I had to buy a massive amount of groceries and while pushing an overflowing cart, I wrenched my back. Needless to say, I didn’t want to shop again anytime soon. But then my husband announced nonchalantly that he needed to shop for his private class tomorrow night. Since he will be at the catering job all day, he will have no time to do this tomorrow, and considering the fact that all his friends were coming over in one hour, and his dad any minute, it was on me. He said I could get everything at Sprouts, no big deal. I had to go now, and could I make sure everything was organic?

I sprinted out of the house to complete my task and still get home in time to make sure that the house was clean for his friends. I raced down to the store, to the organic produce section, only to find to my horror that this store didn’t have anything organic that was on this list. Furthermore, after taking a good hard look at the list, I would need to go to three other stores, two of which my husband had already been to that day. I was starting to feel more enraged than a constipated Klingon with a rusty batliff in the middle of battle with Romulans. Then, before I could completely rage, I looked into a reflective surface and gasped in horror. Could that be me?

In my haste to get out of the house, I had not only run out in my pajamas (t-shirt and pajama pants) but my hair was also wet from the shower, all except for my bangs, which, through some horrible quirk of heat and humidity had fanned into a puffy ball that looked like a tribble. I had a tribble on my head. This was an active tribble, too. He seemed to be doing the ‘wave’ while watching a sports game. Great. I had a sports nut tribble on my head. After grabbing non-organic versions of what my husband needed at that store I went to check out, anxious to get my tribble away. I stood in line, looking a bad magazine headlines, when I caught a cashier in another line staring at me, or more accurately, at the tribble. I could just picture my head tribble mooning the cashier, and as I stood in line, I was riveted in horror – did tribble have butts? Could they moon? I didn’t think they had faces, let alone butts. Does that mean they can’t poop? If I had one on my head I hoped it couldn’t poop and it wasn’t mooning anyone.

I ended up going to three more stores, with a head tribble, in my pajamas. I came home and everyone was already here, drinking beer and relaxing, while I was hoping my head tribble wasn’t multiplying. My husband was the only one besides me who was a little horrified, possibly because the woman he married just stomped into the house with a snarl, a growl, a head tribble, and wearing pajamas with arms full of groceries, in front of his friends.

I am still reading Dark Mirror, but now it is close to midnight and I have a glass of wine. My head tribble is cooing cutely, and hasn’t pooped on my head yet.

Romulan Spies Are In Our Classes!!!

I decided that the woman from Wednesday’s post was a Romulan spy in my class, placed there to make me insane. That made me feel a lot better.

Sorry about the lack of a post yesterday. It was crazy between work and family. My husband and I did two big jobs, then came home and had friends over. When it was all done I had a glass of wine and died. I only read one chapter of Dark Mirror, but I have been managing to get some reading done today.

I cannot tell you all how much Dark Mirror rocks! It is easily one of the best books I have read, let alone of the best Trek books out there. I love the little details that Diane Duane throws in, that the ship’s grey in the alternate universe is darker, and that the alternate crew members are every bit as nasty and vicious as you want them to be, and that they still use ‘nukes! For some reason, I found that detail brilliant. Of course the ultimate bad guys would still use something as nasty and effective as ‘nukes.

I am really enjoying this book, even though it is taking much longer than I thought to read it. I am chipping away slowly. But if you like Trek at all and you haven’t read this one, then pick up a copy! It makes a great mental escape.

Ups, Downs, Mirrors, and Sins

Today has been one of those days of ups and downs. First off, the new Star Trek book I am reading, Dark Mirror (ST:TNG) is SOOOO good! I am on Chapter 6, but the character of Hwiii, who is a dolphin, is delightful. He’s funny and adds that bit of humor that I love. So far the plot is coming together, and I am having a ton of fun with it. I am hoping to finish chapter 6 tonight, but we’ll see. I worked today and I am a little tired.

I teach cooking classes. I just finished my first series, and I got one slightly poor evaluation. That, frankly, pisses me off because I asked if anyone was bothered by what I was doing. At the time everyone said no, but this lady complains a month later. Nice. I was a little bothered, but my husband surprised me by buying me a new Star Trek book! He doesn’t even know about the blog yet. He just noticed that I have been reading a lot of ST books. He is so wonderful, and that book is precious to me. He got me Star Trek: Seven Deadly Sins. How cool is that?

I guess that Guinan would tell me that there is balance in the universe. That if one thing happens, another will come to help the universe maintain equilibrium, but she would be wrong. That student only mildly ticked me off, but my husband delighted me, so today, I came out ahead. Life is good. Onto finish chapter 6 of Dark Mirror so I can start reading Seven Deadly Sins!