The Lost Fleet: Fearless

I finished the second book in this series, a nice quick read, tonight. The fleet’s on its way back home, trying to get back safely with the technology they’ve captured. Along the way they rescue another living legend and have to deal with more of the fallout of a decades long war and the changes it’s made to the society. There’s a really interesting subplot dealing with the glorious death versus winning with less glory issue that has been plaguing them from the beginning of the series. The next book will be ordered once I’ve got my to-be-read stack a little lower…

The Battle Of Devastation Reef

Man, I hate it when books end like this one. Total cliff-hanger. But that’s ok, I’m slowly marching through my to-be-read pile and will be buying the next one when I’m back to zero. It’s a good, fast read, with some interesting plot twists. I swear I thought the book was done with a hundred pages left and was asking myself what was coming next. The new dreadnoughts get put to use despite objections, the bad guys get beat, but get some licks in, and then that ending. Read the series if you haven’t already, it’s worth it.

Kitchen Renovation Shopping

We found the granite I’m going to use for the new kitchen counter at Floor and Decor Outlets. It’s their Venetian Gold. I’m really excited about getting the new countertop in, and it looks like the carpenter’s working on the cabinet doors as well. I also have a new sink and faucet to install once the counters are in, which is nice because the existing enamel sink really needs to go away.

The Zumo Is Mounted

I got the Zumo mounted on the bike today. It was pretty painless, other than having to remove both fairings. The supplied power cable was long enough to have some slack left over and the supplied RAM mounting hardware worked with everything I’ve already got on the bike. I also got a couple more washers under the bolts holding the accessory bar on which has eliminated the wiggle it had.

The Zumo Got Delivered

The UPS guy dropped off my new GPS for the BMW, a Garmin Zumo 660. It’s pretty impressive considering I came from a GPSMap 60C. The screen’s huge, it’s fast, and has detailed maps that actually route!

I’ve got to get some time to get it wired up, but I’m already loading waypoints and creating custom POIs, and yes, the Mac software works just fine.

Ambitious Brew: The Story Of American Beer

I started this one on the train ride back from Peoria and finally got through it thanks to a rough school and work schedule. I’m trying to set aside some time to do non-school reading at night to get my brain shut down so hopefully this is the start of a trend. The book was really interesting, following the history of beer brewing in America, starting with the German immigrants in the 1800s on through prohibition, and on to the modern rebirth of micro- and craft brewing. She did a great job of bringing the history to life in an entertaining manner. I learned a lot and have some more reading to do thanks to extensive footnotes. If you’re at all interested in the history of brewing in America you could do a lot worse than reading this book.

The Stove Is In

The carpenter came by and cleaned up the box for the stove and I’ve got the gas line hooked up and have flamage! I’m looking forward to cooking something hot for breakfast, it’s been too long without one. It’s in there temporarily because we’ve still got the cabinets and countertop to work on, but hot food not out of a microwave is a good thing!

Race To Dakar

Another book about motorcycle adventure, this one covering the trials of a privateer team attempting the Dakar Rally. It was a fun ready, like the Long Way Down and Long Way Round books, and really brought home to me just how hard these rallies are. Two weeks of brutal riding over deserts and rocks, injuries, fatalities, and a true test of human endurance. It’s amazing that anyone finishes it, considering just how hard it is on riders and machines, but they do. I’ll never compete in one, but I’m definitely going to be watching the 2011 rally.