Book completed

The Ship in the Hill, by William L. Sullivan. This is the first in his series about medieval Scandinavia, which I don't think has a series name. It was very cool. He alternates chapters between two stories. One is the story of Åsa (here called Asa, which is misleading for mentally pronouncing her name since Åsa is pronounced O-sa) - she was queen of one of the 30+ kingdoms that made up early medieval Norway, and her grandson Harald Fairhair became the king who united all of Norway under his rule and reinstituted civil law, which had been pushed aside in the kingdoms allied with the more violent Vikings. The other story is a fictionalized version of the 1904 excavation of an elaborate burial ship that contained the bones of two women, one of whom was very likely our Åsa.

I enjoyed it vey much. Bill Sullivan is a local author who's also written some fun contemporary novels, as well as a really great hiking memoir that I posted about last year, and a whole series of hiking guidebooks. I didn't know he could write such strong female characters, and this book has three of them. I'd rather he hadn't included a mystical link between Åsa and the female archaeologist, such that they sometimes had dreams about the other, but, whatever.

Day 988: Viola

Today I attended a solo viola concert by Kim from Delgani String Quartet, but parking was an unexpected problem. The area where I usually park was full, so I parked at a meter on Pearl, but... it only took coins! I put in all the coins I had but that only got me 20 minutes. I went inside, bought my ticket, and sat down just as the concert began, but after the first piece finished, I had to go move my car. I knew the church had its own off-street lot, but it was bizarre, with double-deep spots (so you're either blocking someone in or blocked in yourself), so I gave up on that and parked on 14th at a meter... which did take my debit card.

Whew! I went back in and stood in the lobby until the second piece ended, then took my seat again. But when I'd paid at the meter, I didn't expect an intermission and an encore, so as soon as the final piece ended, I had to rush back to add to the meter before I could return and socialize. I chatted with RV and JH, who were already talking, then with just JH, then we spoke a while with Kim, then JH and I talked more, and finally we went home. It was a fine concert, with pieces by Reger, Bach, and Hindemith.

Meanwhile, J. drove D and DG to Portland to play in a Magic tournament, with the winner qualifying to play in a much bigger event in April, in San Diego. DG had won such an event a few months ago and got to play in Atlanta. At the end of the regular play, D. was in first place! He then lost in the top-8 part of the event, unfortunately.

Now they're in a Portland hotel so they can play in a similar event tomorrow, which will be 30 miles west of where they are, in a pretty little suburb. Unfortunately, the Portland forecast is calling for snow tomorrow, 8 am to noon. We'll see if they get to play or if instead they'll be struggling to get back home.