Part 2: the thrilling conclusion you waited for is not here yet.

Edmond, who now calls himself the count of monte cristo, has started off with some charity: he gave a large diamond to somebody for information on the current era (which is 14 years off), and finds out several things:
a: his wife married his enemy Fernand, who mysteriously got rich quick and is now Count Morcerf. He has one son: Albert.
B: His old enemy Danglers is now an excellent banker
C: His corrupt judge had a bonapartist father who is now bound to a wheelchair (Villefort). The father's (Noirtier) granddaughter Valentine is the only family who actually loves him. Valentine is planning to escape her arranged marriage to marry Maximillian, the son of the merchant whom Monte Cristo used to work for.

Upon hearing all this, the count saves his old friends from financial ruin and then departs on a yacht, vowing he will devote his life to revenge.

I have a sinking feeling that this was due on tuesday...

So.
Edmond Dantes is jailed because one guy wants his wife, another guy wants his job and a third guy doesn't want the world to know his father supported Napoleon. He was in jail for 14 or 17 years before he (with the help of another cellmate) escapes, having been stuck in a sack and thrown from the castle into the sea.

The cellmate, who died during the escape, told Edmond of an ancient treasure he learned about before being incarcerated. Edmond found it, and is now rich and fabulously wealthy.

"Chautau D'if", kingdom of the Hypotheticals

I just started reading "The Count of Monte Cristo" which takes place in France before and after Napoleon's 100 days back in action. I'm following the life of Edmond Dante, who is about to get promoted at his job as a successful sailor to CAPTAIN, marry a BEAUTIFUL GIRL and SAVE HIS FATHER from poverty. So what could go wrong?

I don't exactly have "stellar" habits, do I?

Alright, so I had to read through the rest of the book in one night, which is why I had to do my blog this morning. I collapsed at about 12:30 and had to sleep. Anyway, heres the breakdown:
A man named Ferris builds a gigantic metal wheel with cars to out-eiffel eiffel. The fair is just barely a success. Today, most of the fair has withered away, leaving only the palace of fine arts (which is now a science museum).
Holmes is finally caught and convicted after the bodies of several children are found. He is executed promptly after writing his memoirs, where he says he killed over 100 women.
Prendergaft, or whatever his name is, was a total psycho: He believed the government betrayed him, so he decided to kill the mayor, on the night of the ending of the fair.

So there it is.

What do you do when there isn't a breakfast-machine to be found?

Well, turns out that Holmes did not kill the woman and her daughter...yet. In any case, there are are more interesting things to read in the regular story: An entrepeneur by the name of Sol Bloom, recently bought a whole algerian village, has decided to set up his exhibit next-door to the fair. he plans to call his place a "Midway".

SPECIAL GUEST STAR APPEARANCE from Buffolo Bill, who's wild-west show is also setting up shop next to the grounds. Evn beter are the proposals set forth to "out-eiffel Eiffel", including:
A tower that telescopes upward
Another tower (this time with tobbogans leading to New York, Boston and San Francisco)
A third Tower, but with a twist: it's the exact Eiffel Tower, only bigger! (submitted by Eiffel himself)

I couldn't stop laughing for awhile...

Almost forgot...again

Well, I'll be honest. With all the commotion that happened last weekend with relatives visiting and touring St. Paul, I have only managed to read one page at this time of writing. The architecture team is using very interesting buildings, bu there is very little drama so far. Holmes, on the other hand, is now selling his victims' skeletons o nearby med schools, as this was the height of anti-desecration-of-the-dead and cadavers were hard to find.

Also, I think he might have just killed a little girl and her mother, but I'm not sure...

Whoops!

OMG! I'M LATE! Trying to fit in "The Hobbit" (which I never got around to reading before) was a bad idea. I didn't get much reading done in DitWC, But here's a basic update: Holmes has finished his hotel, wich has a sound-proof kiln in the basement and an airtight storage vault with a gas nozzle. Creepy! He kept the workers from noticing by having them build it in sections, then firing them without paying them. Actually, he does this a lot; He has thousands of dollars worth of debts to various factories whose products he sells. Also, because he is a doctor after all, he has opened a pharmacy on the first floor, where he sells crack-pot stuff like wonder-cures and hair-tonics. He has already seduced several women, even though he married the first one, and obviously has some evil plan for them. I'm beginning to think that he, considering his business expertise, might be planning to sell the remains as pies, a la Sweeny Todd. We'll see...