キャミー・タング著「戌年」連載小説 プロのドッグトレーナーであるマリ・ムトウは、厄年を迎えている。 犬小屋と訓練所の改築をしながら、いつも不服そうにしている家族と同居することになった。母と姉に言わせれば、犬の毛とよだれかけにまみれる仕事は、家族にとって恥ずべきものだという。彼女は元カレを説得し、数ヶ月間犬を預かってもらうことにした。しかし、彼の兄は、数週間前に彼女が誤って車に追突した、怒り狂ったセキュリティ専門家であることが判明する。 アシュウィン・ケイトウは十分な問題を抱えている。叔母が玄関先に現れ、同居を希望している。彼は彼女にすべてを借りているので、断ることができません。母親が家を出て行った後、ネルおばさんはアシュウィンと弟を引き取り、愛のあるキリスト教の家庭で育てた。しかも、弟のダスティもアパートを追い出され、居場所を求めている。しかし、彼は犬を飼っている。そして、その犬の飼い主は誰だと思いますか? しかし、旧友でオアフ島のノースショアでデイスパを経営する私立探偵のエディサ・ゲレロから依頼を受ける。マリの施設で奇妙な破壊行為があり、3年前に失踪したエディサの妹の財布を発見する。エディサはマリが危険な目に遭っているのではと心配する。警備の専門家であるアシュウィンがすでにマリを知っていることを知ったエディサは、忙しい若い女性を密かに監視することを彼に依頼する。 アシュウィンは、活発でのんびりとしたドッグトレーナーに不本意ながら惹かれていく。彼女は、幸せそうな母親を思い出させる。その母親の裏切りによって、彼は人と距離を置くようになったのだ。マリは、アシュウィンの冷たい外見を見抜き、彼が家族に忠実な男であることを認める。彼は、彼女のキャリア選択を批判するだけの母親や姉とは違う。 マリのバラバラな家庭とアシュウィンのバラバラな家庭の中で、過去を隠そうとする人たちから、彼らの周りに危険が迫ってくるようになる。彼らは、影で動く秘密に光を当てることができるのか? 過去に発表されたパートへのリンクはこちら。 *** 第8章 - 恐ろしくも真っ白な不動産書類 『みんな仲良くできないのかな?』 マリは無用に力を込めて箱に本を投げ入れた。最近、なぜ彼女は人生の中で全員と言い争いをしているのだろう?もしかすると、これは本当に悪いアイデア
Captain’s Log, Stardate 03.18.2006
Blog Book giveaway:
My Monday book giveaway (STEALING ADDA) is here.
My Thursday book giveaway (DIE BEFORE NIGHTFALL) is here.
You can still enter both of them. Just post a comment on those blog posts.
On Monday, I'll draw the winner for STEALING ADDA and post the title for another book I'm giving away. Stay tuned.
Mochi: On the way home from their China trip, my parents had a layover at Narita Airport in Japan, and of course they headed straight for the Duty-Free shop. The both love mochi and bought some there. The mochi made in Japan is so much better quality than the stuff made here. It’s also ten times more expensive, even bought IN Japan.
After saying there was no way in hell they’d send me some of their precious stash, Mom and Dad relented to my whining and sent me a package of this mochi.
Talk about heaven in my mouth.
The Japanese have this thing for cute little packages. The mochi is individually packaged in little ice-cube sized plastic tubs wrapped with soft linen paper. The type of mochi my parents bought is kinako--sweet rice dumplings covered in fine beige-colored flour made from soybeans. The flour is a nice contrast to the sweet mochi, but this particular brand had these postage-stamp sized packets of sauce to pour over your mochi. The sauce is to die for—mapley and thick and dark and oozy.
Yum to infinity, man.
Bible in 90 Days: Day 65. Oops, I haven’t read my Bible yet today. I’ll do it right after I post.
Writing: Got some done after youth group meeting tonight, and hopefully will get a little more plotting done later.
Diet: Went for a 75 minute walk today with my husband dragging his grumpy butt with me (just kidding, we had a good laugh over that). But it was one of the kids’ birthday tonight and I had two of these fabulous German chocolate cake cupcakes. I’m such a sucker for German chocolate cake. I ended the day at around 1700 or 1800 calories.
Blog Book giveaway:
My Monday book giveaway (STEALING ADDA) is here.
My Thursday book giveaway (DIE BEFORE NIGHTFALL) is here.
You can still enter both of them. Just post a comment on those blog posts.
On Monday, I'll draw the winner for STEALING ADDA and post the title for another book I'm giving away. Stay tuned.
Mochi: On the way home from their China trip, my parents had a layover at Narita Airport in Japan, and of course they headed straight for the Duty-Free shop. The both love mochi and bought some there. The mochi made in Japan is so much better quality than the stuff made here. It’s also ten times more expensive, even bought IN Japan.
After saying there was no way in hell they’d send me some of their precious stash, Mom and Dad relented to my whining and sent me a package of this mochi.
Talk about heaven in my mouth.
The Japanese have this thing for cute little packages. The mochi is individually packaged in little ice-cube sized plastic tubs wrapped with soft linen paper. The type of mochi my parents bought is kinako--sweet rice dumplings covered in fine beige-colored flour made from soybeans. The flour is a nice contrast to the sweet mochi, but this particular brand had these postage-stamp sized packets of sauce to pour over your mochi. The sauce is to die for—mapley and thick and dark and oozy.
Yum to infinity, man.
Bible in 90 Days: Day 65. Oops, I haven’t read my Bible yet today. I’ll do it right after I post.
Writing: Got some done after youth group meeting tonight, and hopefully will get a little more plotting done later.
Diet: Went for a 75 minute walk today with my husband dragging his grumpy butt with me (just kidding, we had a good laugh over that). But it was one of the kids’ birthday tonight and I had two of these fabulous German chocolate cake cupcakes. I’m such a sucker for German chocolate cake. I ended the day at around 1700 or 1800 calories.
Comments
My sister-in-law took a sabbatical from teaching about 3 or 4 years ago and went to China with a travel-agent friend. They first went to a school close to Korea with which her pupils had exchanged letters. The whole school had put up a big production to welcome Donna and Donna. She took them things from Canada and even got them a couple of government things as well as a greeting from either the prime minister or the then governor-general. She had a great time there.
Then the headmistress and some of the other teachers took them around the area for about 2 or 3 days. The introduction to the school came through Donna's former pastor whose family had gone to the area as missionaries.
They also saw Peking, the Chinese Emperor Chin's clay army, some tributary of the Yangtse before it was flooded. In total they really enjoyed their stay there.
I'm hoping to see my friend, Grace, in Hong Kong sometime. She just sent me some postcards of Discovery Bay, the area in which they live. The area is totally stunning. I'm hoping that if I ever get there, I'll get a chance to go to China as well to see some of the sights. Grace set up some quite profitable businesses when she headed back to Hong Kong after going to University in Manitoba with me, at least the last year. Her husband-to-be was studying physics and is a professor. Their son is one of the premier neurosurgeons in HK. He studied medicine at the U. of Edinburgh. Their daughter also went to school in England. They felt that if things got really bad again in China, they wanted their children to have the option of having dual citizenship (or something like that).
You were talking of kids' birthdays. Now your profile says that you don't have any. So who are these kids? Call me "Curious" but not nosey.
Is it fattening???
:)