TRACEY TRIES THE HAGGIS!

Thought you might all want to have a looksee at my sister/Outlander mentor, Tracey enjoying some Haggis for the first time (and last?) with her husband and friends.

TO THE HAGGIS!

So last night my sister/mentor, Tracey went to the Argyle restaurant in Kearny, NJ (Scottish capital of NJ) for their annual "Address to a Haggis" celebration of Robert Burns' birthday. She took video so y'all could partake in this interesting ritual.  Enjoy!

Robert Burns' Address to a Haggis

Na na na na na na... you say it's your birthday...

SPOILER ALERT: Dinna read unless you have finished Chapter 59 in THE FIERY CROSS.

OK - so no sooner are Jamie and Claire back at the Ridge than they're heading out to go fight the Regulators with the Militia... and Roger Mac is going with them. (I LOVE that name. It makes Roger seem a little more mysterious and manly.) Because, you know, Roger has soooo much experience with guns and the like. He is ridiculously lucky that Jamie doesn't tell him to stay home with the weans and tend to Claire's garden.

So once they get where they're going, Jamie sends Roger's arse out into the wood to go find Hermon Husband and ask him to please come and talk to the governor. Jamie probably figured this was an easy enough task for Roger who is lacking in um, shall we say battle skills.

But a few days before Roger's departure, Jamie and Claire wake up in their tent on Jamie's birthday. And Jamie is holding up his right hand (and we all know what THAT hand looks like... damn you Jack Randall. Damn you to hell!) and examining it for changes, now that he has turned 50. HOLY SHIT JAMIE IS 50, Y'ALL! (Fifty and fine... say it with me!) And Carol melts a little further into her chair, beaming with pride over a fictional character and his journey through hell and back again - lucky to be with his one true love at the half-century mark of his life. And Jamie and Claire have a very moving and poignant conversation about outliving their parents... which made me shed a little tear for both of them.

And then the journal entries start. LORDDDD the journal entries. Journal entries made by Governor Tryon. And then the skimming starts. Because it was late and Carol was tired (why else would she be talking about herself in the third person?) and she kindof loathes Tryon and doesna really care what he's up to. All I cared about was this: Are we fighting or what???

The Gold Rush

SPOILER ALERT: Dinna read unless you've finished Book 5 in The Fiery Cross. (Shannon - that means you. Go 'way and read something further down the page, Lass!)

OK forgive me if I rush this but there is so much happening in book 6 (or am I on book 7??) now that I have to get to it PRONTO. But the following must be mentioned, so let's get to it.

So here's Claire - all happy after some good stable lovin' with Jamie... where she got a new lesson in Jamie Nethers Aesthetics, if you will. And next thing we know, Betty is no longer drunk in the slaves quarters. No... Betty is now dead in the slaves quarters. How do I know? Because the poor woman is spitting up blood and just keeled over right in front of Claire's face - and in front of "the good doctor's" face - who is now a fan of Claire because she made him feel better after he lost one of his patients. I was proud of Claire for putting away her condescending attitude toward ignorant 19th century doctors for a minute or two, to make him feel better. Go Team Claire.

So Claire - feeling in her gut that Betty was murdered - and in her infinite need to find the culprit (a la Fred from Scooby Doo) -  decides she's going to give poor, ol' Betty an autopsy, right there in the shed where she's laid out, awaiting burial. And why is she awaiting burial? Because Jocasta isn't about to bother herself or her guests with the nasty business of burying a slave woman - heaven forbid. Because, you know, she's just  a HUMAN BEING and all. (I plan to do a whole post at some point about how the slave storylines are tearing my heart right out of my chest.) So Jamie accompanies Claire to the shed to help hold the lantern steady while she slices Betty into pieces, without asking her next of kin or anything (um, that would be Phaedre, a character I absolutely adore and could read an entire series about, I'm sure.)

So yada yada yada - cut cut cut, "Jamie hold the lantern steady"... and who should come flying in the door but Philip Wylie - followed closely by STEPHEN BONNET. Um, hello? WTF??? Where'd HIS RANK DIRTY IRISH ASS come from???? I was like "Um - did I skim something??" but alas - no - because there he was, all ready to steal some gold from the shed, until JAMES ALEXANDER MALCOLM MACKENZIE FRASER saw him and chased his ass down like a panther chases an antelope in one of those Animal Kingdom shows my dad is obsessed with. It ruled. But unforch - Jamie lost him. And in the skirmish, the shed went up in flames - and poor Phaedre is turning into a mental patient after all this hubbub with her poor mom, Betty. And THEN we find out Bonnet had tied up Jocasta and Duncan, after messing up Duncan pretty dang good... because he's looking for gold she's had hidden in the house since her late husband was alive. (Remember Dougal's gold? Yeah - it's the same gold. Enough said.) And Bonnet had an accomplice who Jocasta knows - because he didn't speak while he was in the room with her, Bonnet and Duncan - so she is assuming he didn't want her to hear his voice.

Anywho.... after all of that... Claire and the gang had a big, ol' powwow in Jocasta's room - and again at breakfast the next morning (god I salivate when the talk about their breads and all those jams) and they all tried to come up with theories about who the mystery tier-upper was.... but to no avail. I'm sure that will come back in another book. But for now... it's just back to life on the Ridge!

Jamie and Claire, Sittin' in a Tree...

SPOILER ALERT: Dinna read unless you have finished Part 5 in The Fiery Cross.

So where were we? Oh yeah - Jamie made JFBM2 and asked Claire to give him both of her wedding rings. Not too cool, Julie. (If you can name what movie that line is from I will be seriously impressed.)

So Claire goes and finishes taking care of all her various patients (it's amazing how many people get hurt in Claire's world, no?) and goes to sleep on the floor in a room with about 45 other wives. Someone comes in, starts playing with her feet, then works his way up to her nethers and starts getting seriously frisky - and GIRLFRIEND DOESN'T KNOW WHO IT IS. OK, now... do you not sit up and say "Hmmm... someone has his hand dangerously close to my vajayjay... maybe I ought to take a lil looksee"?????? NO - she just lays there thinking "Well goshdarn, I surely hope this is Jamie." I've said it before - I'll say it again: "CLAIRE, YOU IGNORANT SLUT." ;) 

So anywhoooo - boyfriend runs out of the room because the annoying woman next to her rolls over... and Claire ends up laying there for a while, wondering if it was Jamie who was playin' "this little piggie goes to market" with her toes (and other areas)... and when she can stand the curiosity no longer (this would so be me; obsess much?), she gets up and goes to the stairs, of which Jamie is standing at the bottom, waiting for her. And he's drunk. Really, really drunk. And summons to her to "Come down". And a shiver runs right the hell down my own spine and I'm thinking I'd probably slide down the banister to get there as uber fast as possible. And he tries to "take her" right there on the stairs... but Claire's like "Um, hello? This isn't our house. HELL to the NO!" and they go out to the stables, where Jamie proceeds to do one of the hottest things he has EVER done and tells her to "Look down" and "Watch while I take ye" while he's railing her against the wall. Mmmm hmmm. It was about as TASTY as you can possibly get where James Alexander Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser is concerned. Oh yeah - and he gave her the rings back, because, in addition to sword fighting.. and soothing horses... and running a farm... and showing Claire a good time, boyfriend is apparently tremendous at cards, as well. He tells Claire he won Wylie's prized horse in the game... and is verra excited about the prospect because he's going to sell it (you know, so they won't starve this winter and all.)

I have read way more than this... but I need to end this here as Tracey told me to make my book review posts shorter - and post them more often - so y'all will actually want to read them.

Outlander Book Club

Just have to give a shout out to our friends over at the Outlander Book Club. They rock. You must go check out their site. They have forum discussions about every single Outlander series book. And the BEST part is that they list each book separately, so if you're like me and you're still in the midst of the series, you can go to whatever book discussions you want without worrying about spoilers. AWESOME. And I just have to say that their banner with the stones is so cool I don't know what to do with myself.

I couldna resist...