Saturday’s Activities Include: martial arts, Victor’s for lunch, bday at SkyZone, AJR

I took T. to martial arts. Then we went home. Then we went back to Hudson in two vehicles to go to lunch at Victor’s. It was yummy — T. had been before but the rest of us had not. They are nice. Then it was off to Sky Zone for T.’s friend’s birthday party. We were early, so they went to Lowe’s and A. and I bought shoes and a couple shirts at Burlington. That store has definitely changed since the last time I was in one — it isn’t “Burlington Coat Factory” anymore, it is “Burlington”, only the B is heart shaped, and there is a “Baby Depot”. They seem to be selling previous year’s name brand goods, but I could be wrong. I’ve never seen so many security tags on low-value items; presumably they have a theft problem.

The birthday party was fun. Loud, but fun. A. didn’t like the Namaste cake mix cake, but I did. Yay! I got to eat cake!

In theory, T. was going to leave early to go to NVUB baseball, but it was raining so that was canceled. I stopped at Solomon Pond to take A. to creative nails to get her nails done. I tried to charge the car while I was there and failed completely; I’ve put on the to do list to debug what happened and try to get another fast charger to work. Because.

R. is taking T. to dinner and a show tonight. A. and I are staying in.

_The Other Lady Vanishes_, JAK spoilers

Second in the Burning Cove series. Irene and Oliver make very brief appearances in the background.

Adelaide’s parents “died” in a mysterious lab explosion, leaving her an orphan, and easy prey for what in a very different kind of book would have been labeled a fortune hunter. Massey was pointed at Adelaide in part because the people who murdered HEY SPOILERS YOU KNOW THE DRILL her parents wanted to nab her for moderately confusing reasons as a test subject. She is whisked off to Rushbrook, which she escapes from, travels to Burning Cove where she summered with her parents when younger, changes her name and gets a job as a tearoom waitress.

There, she makes friends and develops a support system, including Raina, who I suspect will star in book 3, but might just remain a background character (she was _also_ a background character in book 1, which is sort of awesome). Raina and Luther are developing a relationship — also pretty awesome. The drug designers / dealers show up looking for Adelaide, but all kinds of confusing shenanigans ensue as various members of the drug ring start offing each other.

I pretty much always enjoy JAK, but I felt like this was a pretty strong one for her. The cast of characters was better developed than is sometimes the case. The back and forth rescuing is unusually plausible, in part because it is subtle. And there are so, so, so many moments that reminded me of _It Happened One Night_, a deeply problematic movie which I nevertheless totally adore.

Looking forward to the closing of the trilogy, but also looking forward to other JAK.

ETA: #17