Snowy Day

It snowed today.  Not a blizzard, just a couple inches worth of Christmas card snow.  You

know, the big flakes that drift down like in the movies.  Then there were hours of the tiny flake snow that's hard to see but still piles up a bit and makes the streets slippery.  Today's temps were right above freezing so all that moisture landed on the pavement and semi-froze.  Just dandy.  I didn't jump on the highway to get to the Y this morning, I went around on surface streets.  I'm just not comfortable going 70 mph on slick roads.  Nope, not comfortable.  BTW, the birdie tree was devoid of snow yesterday and it's supposed to be in the low 30s and semi-snowy for the next few days.  Yay.


I went to the grocery on my way home from the Y and bought a lot of ingredients so I forced myself to cook supper.  I made this turkey Italian sausage rigati (skinny penne) with zucchini, onions, cherry tomatoes topped with ricotta and fresh basil.  It was delicious and there's enough for another supper.  Hooray.  I think I'll make some single-meal meatloaves this weekend and I found a recipe for WW broccoli cheese soup so I'll make that too.  Naturally I need a couple ingredients that I don't have on hand so I'll be going to the store again tomorrow which is okay since my printer ran out of black ink this afternoon.  Grr.  I want to make and freeze some more WW marinara sauce too but that I have the ingredients for.  Whew.



OJ gave me some of his art the other evening and I need to share it with you.  That's me there in blue and then me in brown dressed like a bear.  They're studying bears at day care so he told me all about bears sleeping all winter and "not waking up until spring, Meemaw."  Amazing.  I think I look good as a bear.  And I think these are pretty good humans drawn by someone who is "three and three-quarters" years old.

23 January--Barbara Malcolm, Three Cheers for Murder. 

Entering Kitty’s Korner, the two men looked around the dimly lit, cramped bookstore.  Behind the counter sat Marlene, a short woman in her late twenties with pale skin, medium brown hair and brown eyes so dark her pupils were nearly invisible.

“Ms. Brownloe, I’m Detective Alan Archibald.  I investigated your mother’s accident years ago.  I wonder if you remember me?”

“Yes, I do,” she murmured.

 “And this is my partner, Lieutenant Len Graybow.”

“How do you do?”  she said softly.  Her eyes seemed caught by Lt. Graybow’s eyes.  “What can I do for you, Detective?”

“Len and I are investigating the murder of Tiffany Davis two days ago on Monday, June 7.  Your name is the last one on her appointment calendar.  Why did you go to see her?”

“I wanted to order a special floral arrangement for my mother’s grave.   Mother’s birthday is next week.  And since both Tiffy and I keep the same store hours the only time I could get into Blossoms was after I closed the store.   So, I called her a few days ago, made the appointment, and went over there last Monday night as soon as I closed up here.”

“Tell us exactly how it was.  What you said, what she said,” Archibald asked.

“Let’s see . . . first we went through some catalogs so I could pick out the sort of arrangement I wanted.  Then we discussed the types of flowers Mother liked, agreed on a style, and then I left.”  Marlene’s gaze never left Lieutenant Graybow’s face.

Lieutenant Graybow spoke, “Can you tell us if she seemed different, distracted?  Give you any indication that she was afraid?  Anything that could help us find the killer, Ms. Brownloe.”

            Marlene frowned, then said, “No, she seemed the same as she always does, or did.  Very happy, eager to help.  Tired from the long day, just as I was.”

“Anything else?” Graybow asked, seeming as riveted to Marlene as she was to him.

“Hmm?  Oh, not really.  I’m sorry.  That’s all I remember.”

Detective Archibald interrupted her reverie with a sharp question.  “Did Mrs. Davis say anything about another appointment?”

Dragging her eyes from Lieutenant Graybow’s face Marlene flushed, “I don’t want to spread rumors, but she did mention that she was expecting someone after I left.  She never said a name.  I guess...I assumed it was a man.  She seemed excited about the prospect of that person arriving.”

“Did you see anyone as you left?  A car arriving?”  Archibald asked.

Marlene thought a moment.  “No, I’m sorry, Detective.  I didn’t see or hear anything else.  I wish I could be of more help.”

“Thank you, Ms. Brownloe.  You’ve been a big help.  Here’s my card.  Call me if you think of anything else.”  Archibald turned to leave the bookstore.  “Graybow, you coming?”

Lieutenant Graybow started at hearing his name and turned to follow after giving Marlene a little smile.

As they got in the car, Archibald turned to his partner.  “Well, what did you think?”

Graybow started the car and pulled away from the curb.

“I think she looks nice,” Graybow said before he caught himself, cleared his throat, and continued.    “Oh.  I think we need to look harder at the things on Mrs. Davis’ desk.  If she was expecting another person, maybe there’s something we missed.  You know, like a note or something.”

“Yeah.”  Archibald looked at Graybow.  “You two sure didn’t miss much in there.” Graybow flushed.  Archibald continued, “I thought we did a good job of going over the stuff on her desk, but we should go over it again.  Let’s meet there around 8:30, 9:00 tonight.  We can look at it all without any interruption.”

Sorry I didn't blog last night and I probably won't blog on Wednesday nights for the foreseeable future.  Since I'm not a real beer drinker they won't hire me to work at Zambaldi Beer so my part of helping with the taproom and brewery is child care, not difficult duty, so I don't get home until about 11 o'clock.  Too late and too tired to blog.
--Barbara