Archive for July, 2007
Okay, I think we need to get a little more organized about this. We’ll keep this on-topic so that we don’t distract from Wapak’s post.
- Are you planning to go to the J&B signing in Dayton on 8/30?
-
Do you need a room or roommate?
- If you are not going, do you want one of us to get a copy of AATHM signed for you?
What I’m thinking is that someone can be in charge of figuring out where we stay and pairing off those who want to save $$ by sharing a room. Also someone can keep track of who wants books and then we can split it up amongst those of us in Dayton.
Also, for those of you not aware, I think the bookstore is actually in the Dayton ‘burbs. Someplace called Beavercreek off of Indian Ripple.
And if anyone has suggestions, please speak up.
July 27th, 2007
Since I have last blogged I have become a world traveler. Yes, a passport stamped traveling American. My son is in Oxford England at this time, so the entire family took the opportunity to go to Paris and London before we dumped left him at Oxford to be rained upon and flooded. And our 30th anniversary is this December so we combined all the excitement into one Griswald-ish trip.
Of course, it is the worst time in the history of mankind to travel to Paris and London as the dollar is at the all time low against the Euro and the pound. Figures.
What did I do on my summer vacation? It is more like what I learned about myself.
1. I still have NO F@#$%**ing idea what to do with a bidet. Much hilarity.
2. I do not react well to being two blocks from a car with a bomb in it. My voice tends to go up a few octaves on the phone and I tend to speak a wholelotfaster.
FOR MARY——I came out of the store where I was shopping and ALL TRAFFIC ALL 4 WAYS was stopped and backed up. I thought it was from rerouting everything from the bomb/car the night before. So I asked the MR. Policeman sir if I could walk a couple blocks somewhere else and get a cab. He informed me that I wasn’t walking anywhere and to stay put as they had “another situation,” just 2 blocks away. I called the men to tell them I didn’t know when I would ever get back to the hotel as all was halted. I found out on the news they towed the car out of a parking garage with a bomb in it. The garage was 2 blocks from where I was.
3. Watching my 2 grown sons act like goofballs with their dad or without can still bring a tear to my eye. And I still want to whap them upside the head when they all walk 10 miles ahead of me. I’m trying to figure out which way to look to cross the street without being maimed and they are onto the next museum.
4. After 2 weeks, I had my fill of DEAD PEOPLE! I put my foot down on the prison towers of London and went shopping. You could not sneeze in London without hitting a statue or a crypt or a tomb with a marble corpse on top. You should have seen me hopscotching around Westminster Abbey trying not to step on tombs.
5. I must fit some profile because I was double checked, wanded, and patted down in 3 countries! Maybe it was the amount of things stuffed into my purse and carry on. 
6. There’s no place like home. My regards to Dorothy.
Of course, I was only home for less than a week and we got in the car and headed to Atlanta to stay with MAX! while his parents went out. He is nearly 5 months old!!! I loved the heck out of my boys but having a Grandchild is another piece of your heart that opens out and lets the love out.
So to facilitate discussion-as if THIS group needed that- what was your favorite vacation and why? It can be virtual or still in the planning stage. We are CB’s after all.
Bryan I have my instructions right in front of me and I am going to do my best to get the MAX pictures on here. Be warned.
And reading the book his Grandpa got him. It is one of a set.
Carry on and talk amongst yourselves.
Pics are now clickable ~ bjw
July 25th, 2007
Okay, so you all know I hate to have my picture taken. I am not photogenic, at all, and why any sane person would want a picture of me is a mystery. Unless they have plans to terrorize small children. Plus there’s that whole theory that pictures steal a part of your soul — hey, it could be true — so I don’t like to take any chances. Honestly? I just absolutely hate it.
But I figured if I could be the one to take the pictures, it would be okay to post them here. After a few minor threats of bodily harm, hardly worth mentioning, really, everyone else agreed. Except my camera is not the most up-to-date model. And I haven’t had any real training. And I’m not sure how to use the focus thing. But I did my best and, really, no one can expect more than that, can they?
Here is a picture of all of us together.
Please note that RSS and I are not giants. Our heights are well within normal range for humans. Margaret and JenB and GP are just a wee bit short. But I’ve seen cats bigger than McB.
Of course there was quite a bit of hugging going on when we all first got there. Which was great, until RSS and McB arrived. I tried to hug McB a couple times, but missed. And my knees can’t take any more abuse. So we got creative and it was fine. Really.
Here we are having a nice lunch. Notice that JenB is Very Well Behaved — how else would you describe someone who came to lunch bearing gifts of Godiva chocolate? [JenB, my DD19 (who loves chocolate and who might start to believe you all are real if she keeps getting such gifts) says to tell you, "Thank you!"] RSS brought gifts as well, and GP shared some truly impressive hand-worked artistry with us.
Six hours later, we were still having a nice lunch. I have more pictures taken in between, but they’re pretty similar to the one above and I don’t want to bore you. The wait staff was very indulgent. They kept coming over and asking whether everything was all right. We kept saying, “Yep, just fine.” They never did figure out a better question to ask — one that might convince us to leave.
Oh, and here is a close-up of me. I’m thinking I might use it on my website someday, if I ever get published and need to worry about such nonsense. I think it captures that dignified-yet-approachable aspect of my personality.
And here we are, most of us anyway, standing outside the restaurant and saying a final farewell. It was sad. You’ll notice McB’s hands are a little blurry. Hard to focus on something that never stops moving. I think if we tied her up, she’d become mute. Hmmm.
But we are determined to meet up again soon. Before snow flies and ice coats the roads, I think is the plan. Or maybe it was before pigs fly and McB and I hit the road again. And I heard a rumour that JenB is going to arrange padded rooms for anyone who wants to join us. There are sign-up sheets over there on the corner of the bar, if anyone is interested.
Oh, and I’ve volunteered to take pictures next time, too. Yeah, I know, I’m so nice.
July 22nd, 2007
So, I went to Illinois last week. I may or may not have a place to live. I couldn’t read my mail at the hotel, so I’ve been doing it all afternoon. Scope and Dee – prayers for both of you. GP, I’m sorry about the loss of your kitchen companion. ZaZa – I’ve never had bamboo, but it’s very renewable, since it takes so much less time to grow than a tree, so I’d love to hear about how yours works out, if you go that way. MCB, many congrats on your hat, though I completely understand that it’s not quite the thing to wear to a luncheon in July, but maybe you brought it anyway and I’d love to see photos. But a big part of my trip was the GPS/ navigation system.
My parents got one when they bought their Acura MDX several years ago, and added an aftermarket one to the (now) 14-year old other car, because it’s so handy to have. My sister and her husband bought one, and I used it when I went to interview in their state (no job, but I didn’t get lost in any way the GPS couldn’t get me out of).
I was looking at apartments all around 3 or 4 towns in construction season, so I figured having a GPS to tell me how to get to where I was going would be a Godsend. So I borrowed one from friends (who have another, so they didn’t get lost while I was gone).
I drove all over everywhere and never got lost (except on foot, and I’m not sure about then, and it worked out OK). But I’m not sure I developed much of a feeling for what was where. I just followed the directions without getting oriented. But the excellent thing is, if one misses a turn, it will recalculate the route so that one still ends up in the right place.
I wouldn’t want to use one all the time, because it’s good to develop a sense of where one is, but I didn’t have to call anyone to say I’d be late and WHERE AM I and How can I get to where YOU are? And it was fun driving home, all 12 hours of it, mostly on I80 and I90, because I could watch my arrival time, see how far it was to the next turn (as much as 5 hours, in one case) etc.. And listening to Seeing a Large Cat by Elizabeth Peters made being in the car lots of fun.
Then I got home, found my Deluxe edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in its special box from Amazon behind my screen door and read ’til I was done (nearly midnight). A long day, but a good one. And 113 comments on the last Post, so I figured I’d muse on the GPS concept. As usual, since I’m a random person, I am NOT trying to pre-empt anyone else’s Post and will keep my sniffles to myself if I get no response due to something more interesting coming along!
July 22nd, 2007
I made a quick comment on the earlier post that elicited a few comments, and it got me thinking about jobs-
I have an interesting one. It isn’t one of those fields you enter for love of MONEY but for love of the job and the things. As many of you know when I’m not getting goofy with y’all I work for a small museum.
In the museum field small usually means that the staff is the equivalent to five or less full timers. We have an educator, director and myself. And I have the bestest job of all! Here, I’ll prove it to you. In the last few days I’ve: conducted tours, worked with an artist, found dead people, played with 50-70 year old baseball gloves, brought in a collection of kids games that covers two generations, ordered new merchandise for the museum store, trained a volunteer, handled technical issues, updated the website, and handled a double booking in the community room. See, coolest job in the county.
Let me give a little detail about some of the more interesting parts of that list.
Tour- We had 22 seniors from a senior center about 80 miles away stop in for a tour. They were fun!!! Asked questions, told stories, and bought stuff in the store. Thankfully they bought some of the items that had gone to third markdown. I love adult tours. The background they want is on the community itself and I don’t have to do a lot of the explanations I have to do with kids. No one asked what the Civil War was, or a wagon trail, or had to have a soda fountain explained to them. This was nice and left me time for the juicy details about lives, loves, and deaths.
Artist- Most artists are odd. Not meant as a slam just an observation. This one is one of the most down to earth people I know. She does amazing work with her specialty being horses and wildlife. One of my favorite stories she tells is…. They were at a show when a blind man and his companion approached them. The companion asked if the blind man could touch the statues of the horses. He had heard about horses his entire life but had never met one and didn’t get what all the fuss was about. She thought this was a wonderful idea. The gentleman had tears in his eyes by the time he was done, after all he had just “seen” his first horse.
Baseball Gloves- Each item in a museum has a specific number that we all the object ID number. Yep, we museum folk are a crazy group. We use a specialty database to track our objects. Which means I have to instantly become an expert on every object we have. Fortunately once I have the information entered into the computer I can forget most of what I had to learn.
Kid Games- The parents are moving into town so they are cleaning out the house. I like it when people do that, I get some interesting things. This time it was toys. Two generations of toys: Claudette Colbert paper dolls, Candy Land, an early ViewMaster, Tinker-Toys, and a coloring book from 1944 were just a few of the goodies that came in today.
So, what is your favorite thing about your job? Or maybe if you could do something else what would it be?
edited to add: I apologize to the grammarians amongst us for the excessive use of colons and commas, but they make me happy.
July 18th, 2007
NYC will never be the same. Nope. It won’t because JenT was there.
So, I arrived in NYC on Wednesday. While waiting for my friends CJ Lyons and Amy Shojai so we could share a cab I ran into Lisa Gardner. Me, being the shy and quiet type went right up to her and said, “Hi.” She said, “Oh, Hi Jen. It’s so good to see you.” Okay, so I’ve met her before. A few minutes later Tess Gerritson and her wonderful husband (who has become my new best friend) walks up to Lisa. Lisa introduces us and let me tell you, Tess is one class act and she’s a very talented writer. We becaome fast friends. I don’t have a picture of me and Tess because my camera got stolen with before I had a chance to up load most of them. I’ll tell that story later.
Now, I’m standing line line at the the hotel and a woman by the name of Laura Benedict and another woman by the name of Margie Lawson start talking to me. Of course, CJ knows them. CJ knows everybody. We start talking and the next thing I know I’ve been ubducted for dinner. CJ ditched us so she could have dinner with her friend…. David Morrell. Like I said, she knows everyone. From left to right. Laura, Alien Jen, Margie and then Amy. We had quite a night.
And it’s still only Wednesday. Okay, on to Thursday which is what they call Craftfest is is for writers. I went to all sorts of workshops. The first one was given by David Morrell and he made me cry. Seriously. There I sat in the front row of his lecture, crying. Why was I crying? Because he made me realize what a sick and twisted human I was and that the reality of that was quiet normal. Really. Not kidding. There were so many wonderful talks that day. James Rollins, D.P. Lyle, MD (who is really my new best friend, but I’ll tell you why later), Tess Gerritson, Lisa Gardner and more. It was a fab day, but exhausting and I was calling it a day around 9pm when I headed toward the lobby and walked right by Lee Child. He smiled and said hello, I smiled and said, “Oh, Hi Lee. I’m the woman who you signed the cup for in Denver.” He actually laughed, then hugged me and said, “It is so nice to meet the person I did that for.” We chatted a bit longer, but I can’t tell you the conversation, or I’d have to kill you. Kidding. We never did get into why the cup, but he did mention it was not the strangest thing he had ever signed, but choosed not to elaborate. Later in the conference I got to have a drink with him. The conversation started out very serious, but ended up me having to use the ‘cup’. That man is funny. And the things we ended up talking about one would think we were at a Romance writers convention.
The next few days were filled with panels and book signings. One of the things I volunteered for was helping out in the booksigning and I ended up being the woman who had to attend to Vince Flynn’s every need. It was such a hard job. At the end of the signing he told me it had been bugging him that I looked like someone, but he couldn’t place it but he had just figured it out. He said, “You look just like Cheryl Crow.” I smiled and then said, “I married the right man.” Vince said, “Huh?” I laughed. “My husband is a huge fan of hers and has the biggest crush on her.” We both laughed. Later in the bar I milked that one for all it’s worth and by the end of the conference I was known as, “Hey, look, there goes the girl that looks like Cheryl Crow.” Hey, gotta leave an impression some how. Sorry to say that my picture will Vince was stolen, although a few rumors are circulating that a few of my friends have one of us so hopefully the will send it along.
One night I went out to dinner with Tim Maleeny and Laura Benedict. Tim is an up and coming writer. I already read his latest book STEALING THE DRAGON and it’s great! Laura’s first book ISABELLA MOON comes out on September 25th. I’m happy to report, I got an ARC and will be reading it tonight. Again, no picture of that. But I can tell you that they are both really great.
Now, on to my new best friend Doug Lyle. Doug is the author of many non fiction work including Forensics for Dummies and Murder and Mayhem. He also has some Thrillers out there and I highly recommend him. He’s also chalk full of information. I asked him after one of his panels if I could talk about my book with him. He said, sure. We went out for coffee and I picked his brain. He had all sorts of information for me and at the end of the day he told me he thought my book idea was great and he was really excited to help me anyway he can. He’s is totally cool. Nope, no picture. Sigh…
Grant Blackwood is another up and coming thriller writer and the man is a saint. He saved my toe. Really. He was a day late, but he saved it just the same. I wore the same stupid brown shoes I wore at Nationals last year that gave me a blister. I had forgotten and wore them at thrillerfest. I saw me in the lobby and said he’d bring me a band-aide. We did not see each other the rest of the day, but when I saw him at breakfeast, he had the band-aide with him. I shared a cab with Grant on the way back to the hotel. He’s a gem and a very talented writer.
I wish I had a picture of me in my really hot dress that I wore to the awards dinner on Saturday. It was a big hit later in the bar. Of course, everyone kept thinking, is that really Cheryl Crow. Snort. It got so bad that people were just introducing me as that.
I wish I had more pictures to share. Stupid theif. It was a fab conference I will be returing to it next year.
Feel free to ask me anything. I might answer.
July 16th, 2007
to continue the party, in which me grabbed a Spartan trying to hide (ha!)
July 14th, 2007
As you all know, some wonderful Indiana CBs came to visit the Canadians. Much hilarity ensued.
Bryan, Cathy and Katie arrived on Saturday evening before I got home home from work. The Traitor Dog, previously known as Ky, had already adopted Bryan as his own – without aid of a food bribe. This has resulted in The Traitor Dog’s devastation at the loss of his new best friend. Apparently he did not understand the temporary nature of said devotion. Cathy and Katie settled right in in other ways and they all helped celebrate my dad’s birthday. Katie drew some amazing pictures while the adults got to know each other.
We spent Sunday hanging out in my brother’s backyard; swimming, grilling and re-enacting the War of 1812. After a refreshing swim that turned her toes blue, Katie took the computer game prisoner. That girl is seriously good.
My 5 year old niece Sarah took this goofy picture of Bryan and I.
She made a couple of snippy comments about the faces that he always makes in photographs. He demonstrated the joy in that behaviour which resulted in a half dozen photos of the two of them. This was my favourite as Sarah had really embraced her inner model by this point.
Monday provided us with a great deal of entertainment as the border guard informed us that the restaurant at which we planned to meet JenT had been closed for several months. Thank Bob for cell phones. Too bad I have her house and cell numbers reversed in my directory. Bryan had the pleasure of talking to Jen’s youngest who relayed the message. Once settled at the table we laughed so much I thought Jen was going to need her cup. It had already been packed for Thrillerfest.
None of us noticed her footwear until Flexible Woman practically bent her leg over her head to show us the flip flogs. And lovely pedicure. Bryan informed her that he was saving his signed pink foot thongs for the dancing Grover video. I have a video mode on my camera but she was unable to convince him to dance.
He said he needed the pink tutu.
That evening he cooked a delicious pot of chili. I made complimentary corn muffins. There may have been some wine and beer flowing. Despite Bryan’s migraine, he managed to amuse Cathy and I until the early morning hours. The discussion carried over on my shower wall thanks to the aid of bathtub crayons and three healthy senses of humour.
We ran around Niagara Falls yesterday to enjoy a portion of the tourist experience in 37 degree celcius weather. I won’t hurt McB with the math other than to say everyone melted faster than a plastic bag of crickets left in the car. Bryan and I watched a woman read Fast Women while Cathy and Katie went on the cable car over the whirlpool basin. He tried to take a picture but she kept her book carefully tucked beneath her arm. Crusie fans are very possessive of their books.
Katie and Bryan made up funny expressions for sign graphics while my nephew Michael took funky pictures. I wish I could remember some of them. Maybe it was the heat stroke that made everything amuse me.
Bryan and I took Traitor Dog to the Ky-ropractor while Cathy packed the car. All I did was listen and pay. I felt superfluous. We bought some fresh local cherries with a combination of Canadian and American currency, thereby demonstrating the fellowship, harmony and mutual goodwill between the countries. Half the cherries stayed at my house, the other half were consumed in the car on the long drive back to Indiana.
Traitor Dog tried to leave with Bryan who said he would have taken TD if he had the room. I pouted. Neither one of them noticed. Look who Bryan is petting in this photo and who he’s oblivious of (smack me later for the bad grammar, I’m tired from all the late night conversations).
That is Scope’s dog Tara in the background. Tara had surgery while we had Indiana visitors. She did not ingratiate herself with them as she had been anaethesitized.
Bryan, Cathy and especially Katie, were gracious about being run all over the place to meet so many people on their mini-vacation. Next time we’ll just stay home and drink margaritas by the pond (which still hasn’t been repaired)
July 11th, 2007
We all have coping mechanisms we turn to in times of stress, right? I know reading is at the top of the list for this group when it comes to getting through tough times. I also know that hanging out here at the Bar&Grill is some of the best medicine around. CherryBombs totally rock, that’s all there is to it.
I have a few other things that I turn to, as well. Gardening, when the weather cooperates, and I’ll have to take some new pics soon to share with you guys. And my crocheting, which has stepped up considerably. I finished and sent off my last project and I’ll get around to posting pictures on my blog one of these day. I also started another for the couple next door who are expecting a baby very soon. It’s a WIP, but maybe I’ll show you what I’ve got so far.
I have to admit though to giving into a little retail therapy as well. More specifically,
SHOES!!!!!
I have small, hard to fit feet so I often end up ordering shoes from catalogs. It’s not a bad deal if you know your brands. The best place I’ve found to order from though, is Zappos. What I like about them is the product reviews. Real people discussing the fit and comfort and what they like or dislike about the product overall. They also have free shipping, which is a plus. If you want to know more about what kind of company they are, read Zaza’s blog.
Last week I decided to indulge my need for retail therapy so I went shopping at Zappos. And I ordered these:
Aren’t they gorgeous? They came yesterday and it was love at first sight. Plus they’re pretty comfortable and will go with just about anything. I was so giddy, my mom half expected me to wear them to bed. No, I didn’t. With those heels? Please, they’d ruin my sheets.
But here’s my problem. While browsing last week I also spotted these: 
which you’ll have to agree are just too darned cute for words. And they have them in other colors, such as 
which would be perfect with jeans, don’t you think? I’m debating. And you may recall that last summer on the dueling blog I talked about buying these
which it turns out they still have in stock. Really comfortable, although as they are suede I can only wear them during nice weather. It’s a burden, but what can I do? Plus they have them in black suede 
which makes me drool a bit, but I have a pair something like those already, though not in suede. And I might be better served to get theses 
instead anyway. Why yes, they do come in other colors, thank you for asking. Decisions, decisions. What would you do?
July 10th, 2007
I totally realize that it’s MCB’s turn, and will only pout a little if no one comments on my post because she comes up with something actually interesting for people to comment on. On the other hand, maybe my verbosity will a) give MCB some extra time to polish her insights while we have a “fewer than 100 comments” post to hang our chat on and b) make her look better by comparison!
CC- your “default” ice cream sounds fabulous – I’d love the recipe, if it’s not proprietary, and if it is, then sort of a base recipe that hints how to get real dark chocolate ice cream (you could Post, so that it’s find-able). I usually don’t do chocolate ice cream, because it’s not chocolate-y enough, but your flavor combo is definitely inspiring! One could also try other Mexican-themed versions (not quite sure why cinnamon makes chocolate Mexican, since cinnamon is from Sri Lanka and thereabouts, but whatever).
Happy Birthday, Dee! Seeing RSS and ZaZa back around, makes me (not that one, although possibly her, as well) happy, too.
So, it was supposed to be hot today and I still have a cold, so I didn’t much want to go to church, but since I had agreed to be liturgist (the person who does “Welcome & Announcements”, reads the scripture, etc. ) AND to be a sort of back-up person for the “Spirituality 101″ post-worship adult ed experience, I put on my jungle dress and Kenneth Cole slides and went.
No real problems through most of the service, but as soon as I started singing, I knew that the cold had affected my voice. Sometimes it does, sometimes not. This time, I made it through the first hymn just fine, the second, not so good. I started to cough. I stopped sounding like much of anything. I stepped off to the side to cough some more. I fell down the 3 stairs at the side (just a little scrape under my skirt on my shin, but there may be bruises tomorrow). I coughed yet more. Not quite in the “hack up a lung” category, but frequent. I went back up and finished the service (the last hymn I made it through, though there wasn’t much volume there).
Nice post-service reception – some homemade chocolate chip bars (I didn’t get any, because I waited too long and the kids finished ‘em off), a melon fruit salad and strawberries and angelfood cake, plus some vegetables and dip. Not bad for a woman who thought, until her husband pointed out otherwise, that she wasn’t up ’til next week!
Then our little workshop. Not very intense, though one of the things the program suggests is “forced choice” : the leader reads a statement, and you HAVE TO agree or disagree (they suggest and I concurred that the participants actually get up and move to one side of the room or another). You can moderate your position, you can say later why the choice was hard, but you can’t sit a fence. But in the middle of all this (there was a reading time, so I didn’t miss anything), the thunder started. And then the rain. Well, I thought it wasn’t supposed to start ’til tomorrow, so I’d left the windows down in the car. I went out to roll them up. The parking lot was awash, maybe an inch and a half deep.
I have on these totally stupid shoes (black wooden heels with a black canvas X as the upper, rope sole), so I can’t move very fast. Raindrops the size of grapes pelted me. I had parked at the far end of the parking lot. I could feel the jungle dress (made of rayon and has a bunch of different animal prints, as well as some geometric patterns; not as bright as my jungle skirt, which also has some splashy orchids on it) scrunching up the way rayon does when wet, getting all crepe-y. But I got my windows rolled up, the group leader offered me a scarf to dry my (dripping) face, and we finished off our discussion. And I came in to find little mail, much SPAM, and a post with over 100 comments on it, so I figured I’d tell my story as a post.
July 8th, 2007
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