Thursday’s Tale: The Most Sensitive Woman

by Carol7 Comments
"The Most Sensitive Woman" is a tale from Italy retold by Christian Schneller in Märchen und Sagen aus Wälschtirol. I read the version on D. L. Ashliman's site. It's from the South Tyrol region in Northern Italy, an area with close historical and cultural ties to Austria. It's similar to "The Princess and the Pea" - you'll see why. Once upon a time there was a prince. (Isn't there always?) His parents want him to get married, but he states he would only marry the most sensitive woman in the world. His parents say fine, go out and find her. The thing is by sensitive he doesn't mean attuned to others feelings, he apparently means someone who feels pain easily, which really doesn't seem like the best quality to seek in a wife. The first lady he meets has her head wrapped up because her maid had pulled out a single hair when she was brushing her hair that morning. The prince decides she's...
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Audiobook Review: The Devil’s Workshop by Alex Grecian

by Carol8 Comments
Title: The Devil's Workshop (The Murder Squad #3) Author: Alex Grecian Narrator: John Curless Published: May 20, 2014 by Penguin Audio Genre: Mystery Rating: 2 out of 5 stars Add: Goodreads Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository | Audible London, 1890. Four vicious murderers have escaped from prison, part of a plan gone terribly wrong, and now it is up to Walter Day, Nevil Hammersmith, and the rest of Scotland Yard’s Murder Squad to hunt down the convicts before the men can resume their bloody spree. But they might already be too late. The killers have retribution in mind, and one of them is heading straight toward a member of the Murder Squad, and his family. And that isn’t even the worst of it. During the escape, the killers have stumbled upon the location of another notorious murderer, one thought gone for good but now prepared to join forces with them. Jack the Ripper is loose in London once more. I've mentioned before that my ratings are entirely subjective. It's my reaction...
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Fitness Tuesday

by Carol7 Comments
Here's my plan, more or less. Since last check-in, I finished Week 4 and am starting Week 5. I had to switch Tuesday and Wednesday because we went to my Mom's for dinner on Wednesday and to do a little yard work, so I didn't think I'd want to head out to the gym after that. On Tuesday I did 1 hr 5 mins on the elliptical, going between 4 and 5 miles, I don't remember the exact number. Wednesday I did some weight-lifting at home with David. We did dead-lifts, curls, squats, a couple of other things and a few crunches. Thursday was a nice evening so I ran 2 miles at the local park. My pace was 10:42 min/mile. I'm thinking I'll try to go a little quicker on those shorter runs and not worry too much about time on the longer ones. Friday I took the dog on a mile walk, but we're pretty slow. Saturday I did my 4 miles at...
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Thursday’s Tale: Nägendümer

by Carol4 Comments
"Nägendümer" is a German story re-told by Alfred Haas in Rügensche Sagen und Märchen, 1903. It's a type 500 folktale, in which a mysterious and threatening helper is defeated when the hero or heroine discovers his name, like Rumpelstiltskin. One day I might have to do a post about the folktale classification system, since I don't know much about it myself. The story is pretty short and fairly uncomplicated. There's a girl whose job it is to spin a certain amount of flax every day, but she never manages to complete the whole task.  One day a man comes by and promises to spin the flax for her every day if she can guess his name. I don't know why he made the offer, he doesn't seem to gain anything from it except teasing the girl. Of course, she has no idea what his name is. The man goes away and turns himself into a bird. He flies around, singing to her who promised her that...
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Fitness Tuesday

by Carol5 Comments
Here's my plan, more or less. Since last check-in, I finished Week 3 and am starting Week 4. Tuesday, I put in a yoga DVD and did that for about 30-40 minutes. It's actually an hour long, but I admit I skipped a harder chunk in the middle - I'm a bit out of practice. I also took the dog for a mile walk, more for his benefit than mine. Wednesday evening I went out to the gym and did an hour on the recumbent bike. I forgot my headphones, but can totally read on my kindle while on the bike, yay! Thursday I had a headache and just didn't feel like running, so I did the elliptical - 2 miles/25 minutes. Then almost fell over when I got off  - I think my sinuses had my head a bit foggy. On Saturday we actually had some summer weather, which meant it was too hot to run on the road in the afternoon so I...
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