Book Talks 2025 -- David Jones

 I  saw an Facebook post about Kimberly Library was having another author, a local author. The book looked interesting and I thought it was true crime. I was excited to check him out.

David Jones was from Phoenix, joined the Air Force, and since his wife was from the U.P. ended up in WI after he retired from the military. He joined the area police forces and eventually retired. After he retired, he decided to write books all set in and around the Fox Valley. His first series, Guardians of Rockport, is a dystopia series set in Sherwood. I am not interested in dystopia. but being set in the Fox Valley, I am intrigued enough maybe one day I will check it out. However, he also wrote crime fiction books, The first one is No Perfect Crime.

David spoke about his background, his secretive military career, and his police service. He was an amazing speaker. I could have listened him for hours. He had many stories to tell. 

I did buy No Perfect Crime. It is really weird reading a book set pretty much in your backyard. It is surreal when the characters visit local places, like JD's, just like we do. 

As David says, it is high-quality fiction but it is a fun quick read. It's not going to win any awards but not cozy mystery either. I definitely can't wait to read book 2. 

You never know what you are going to discover when you go  hear a local author. This was definitely another winner. Who knows what author I will discover next. 

8241. Do Paper Embroidery

 I loved going to Make and Mingle at Kaukauna Library every month. It was a great way to get out of the house and try my hand at various crafty projects. Then my work hours changed it was more difficult to get there. I was able to make it work in May and I dragged Danielle with.

May's project was paper embroidery which is almost like regular embroidery but on paper instead. My aunt used to do counted cross stitch while my mom the just regular cross stitch. I found both tedious and never picked up the craft. 

To start the project, we had to decide if you wanted to make a card or a picture. I opted for a picture. I don't send cards. I just needed one piece of cardstock type paper. Otherwise I would have used 2 (the second to hide the stitching inside the card.

Then we had to punch the pattern on the paper using a needle. This was a bit of a pain because the needles weren't very sharp. We were all doing the same flower pattern. 

Once we were were done with punching the pattern, it was time to start stitching. It was simple line stitch for the most part. We started at point 1 and then went to point 2 and back to point 1 and repeated until the flower or leave was done. 

The hardest part was pulling the floss apart into 2 strands. I cut my strands too long so it would not up. Danielle found if one of us held one end while the other split the threads apart, it worked much better. 

My picture didn't turn out too bad except for the one of the petals of my flowers is going in the wrong direction. I guess that's what makes it mine.

Like cross stitch, paper embroidery is not my thing. Definitely too tedious. It was a fun project and if it wasn't so tedious, it is definitely a project I could master. Even Danielle agreed with me. Maybe one day I'll attempt Macramé. 

5649. Go to Vern’s Cheese in Chilton

 Last year while I walked when the hubby had a tournament at Chilton High School, I wandered past Vern's Cheese. This year, I decided to check it out. 

Vern's Cheese is located just off of downtown in Chilton. It is open Mon-Fri 9-5 and 8:30-2 on Saturdays. It is within easy walking distance of Chilton High School.

I wanted cheese curds. They had no fresh cheese curds when I was there. It was all packaged sealed cheese curds. They definitely did not squeak. I was disappointed. 

Despite not having fresh cheese curds when I was there, Vern's does offer a wide selection of cheese including mozzarella whips which were very good.

They also carry cheese from other cheese stores. 

 I do like they have options to make your own gift boxes with the sausage, wine, and other gifts. 

I would definitely go back for the mozzarella whips and to try some of the other cheeses. If you ever find yourself in Chilton, go check out Vern's. 

8073. Read 50 Brenda Novak books and get my pin

 Back when the pandemic started, many authors had to pivot from in person book tours to a virtual event. I saw a post on Susan Mallory's Facebook Page about being invited to be a part of Brenda Novak's virtual book launch. I love Susan Mallory. I had no clue who this Brenda Novak was but bought an e-book copy of her book and watched. 

It turns out she has a whole Facebook Group and everything. I joined the Facebook group where I learned that if I read 50 Brenda Novak Books, I get a free pin. So I was determined to read 50 books. 

Brenda writes women's fiction, romance suspense, and suspense. I'm definitely more about women's fiction and regular romance. I like romance and I like suspense but not really together. I like my romance to be as drama free as possible. Brenda started out by writing Historical Romance.

Brenda has several series and trilogies along with stand alone books. I started out with One Perfect Summer  -- a stand alone that I was the book of the book launch. When I joined the book club, I got two free digital books. Then I focused on the books I could get in audio book. I didn't care what series it was a part of initially or what order I read them in. I just wanted to get my hands on as many as possible. 

It may have taken me 5 years to do it but I read my 50th Brenda Novak Book Welcome Home to Whiskey Creek.

And will get my book in my June's book box. Yes, I will keep getting those for now

My favorite series were the Dundee, Idaho series and the Silver Springs Series. There was one Silver Springs series book, Until You Loved Me, that featured a football player and unlike most of the characters in her series, you never really heard about those characters again. I was kind of sad to leave them behind. That was probably my favorite book in the series.

My favorite stand alone was Tourist Season probably because I love being a tourist. 

There were some books and series I liked more than others. I did avoid the historicals because I am not a huge of fan of those. I do have one downloaded to my tablet that I will eventually get around to reading. 

Even though I hit my 50 books, I will keep reading. Now that Brenda has written 80+ books, maybe she will offer a 75 book pin. So I better keep reading. 

5274. Go to Cleo’s in Appleton

 After Danielle and I browsed the closing exhibit at the Trout, we decided we should get a drink. We debated between Dirty Snowballs at Cleo's or Limoncello at the Latin Fusion place. Since I was never to Cleo's, Dirty Snowballs it was. 

Cleo's Brown Beam is a cocktail lounge downtown Appleton famous for it's year round Christmas decor. It opens at 2 pm every day except Sunday when it is closed. Unlike most bars in Wisconsin no minors are allowed even with parents. 

Since it was a Friday, they also had Old Fashions on special. It was a toss up for me between the Dirty Snowball and an Old Fashion. I decided to go with the Dirty Snowball.

Cleo's dirty snowball is 1 part vodka, 2 crème de cacao and 2 parts coffee liqueur topped with a splash of cream. It was told it tasted like a boozy milkshake. It really did.

If I didn't know there was coffee liqueur in it, I would have not known. It was definitely good but not something I would probably order again. I would definitely do an old fashioned again.

The Christmas themed bar was just fun to hang out in. The Christmas lights made it nice and cozy. They had a nice collection of nutcrackers. 

It may have taken me 20 years to get to Cleo's but it was worth the wait. We said we should drag Janis with us next time. I may have to take Stacy in the future. 

If you have never been to Cleo's, you need to go and check it out. It is definitely a fun place to get drinks. 

Closing Exhibit at The Trout

 The Trout Museum of Art is moving from it's current location at the Houdini Plaza down the road near Lawrence University. Since they plan to open in the new location in October, they had to close the current location in order to pack everything up and move it down the road. They had a closing exhibit, free to the public. 

Since it was free, I wanted to go and I convinced Danielle to come with me. 

The final exhibit was called A Creative Place. It is, according the Trout Website "With a range of mediums, styles, and themes, this exhibition explores how local artists have responded to distinct cultural and environmental influences."

The exhibit was mainly paintings. A lot of them were boring -- small town America paintings. They are just not my type of art.

My favorite was the one that reminded me of Red from Shawshank Redemption. 

The random black circle was odd. I could do that.

The random cows were also a favorite even if the background was unusual.

I did like the statues even if they were completely random.

I kind of felt of place. It was full of artsy people most of them dressed up. We definitely were not dressed up. We browsed the exhibit navigating around people just chatting. I guess I am not cut out to rub elbows with art people. I will stick to baseball games.

I can't wait for the new museum to open. Stay tuned for another post later this year about the new Trout.