Archive for August, 2008
My Aunt Miriam showed up at my door this last week. She is 80 and lives 3 hours away in Detroit. She had been working on my dear departed Grandma’s scrapbooks and found items in there that were about me. She had a box, tied in twine, for my Dad. Since she had never been to my house before, I was somewhat surprised to see her. And I was in my PJ’s.
My Grandma has been dead for 11 years and Aunt Miriam just got through the FIRST of the scrapbooks. She gets easily distracted! She thought I might like some of the items back. Bob knows how many years until I see anything else.
There I was in second grade, a member of the Von Trapp family in the high school musical. My campaign literature from my school board runs. The pictures of me winning Miss Wapakoneta. Yep! I have my OWN TIARA! The best part was my Grandma’s little comments on the side. Only a few words, but just so precious. I was always writing poems and she had so many of them…..how she got them to keep- I’ll never know.
I have had a lot of changes in my life this year, as you all know. Getting the treasures from my Grandma, and reading the love in the comments..(”Wasn’t she pretty, but her skirt was a bit short.” was my favorite in my cheerleading picture. *snort*)- was a GREAT and NEEDED Blast from the Past. Life is still all a lot to deal with, but thanks for sending Grandma. I feel better when she is around.
Have you ever reached in an unused purse or coat pocket and found something that brought back great memories for you? Find anything while cleaning out old closets or attics? Besides mismatched shoes and cat fur- (my usual!)
I think if MAX! ever looks back on his Gamma’s life, he will find himself pretty well adored. The other two to come are progressing well- doctors say momma’s all healthy and happy. And an adoring Gamma waiting for them to appear.
Speaking of Adoring Gamma’s…….17 month old MAX!
August 27th, 2008
I’m feeling under the weather (not to worry, CMS, I didn’t get it from you; my whole department at work is sick right now) and not feeling very creative. So … Ya’ll always said you’d read a certain author’s shopping list. Let’s see if you’ll read mine.
- One container Brummel and Brown margarine with yogurt $2.19
- One bottle Newman’s Own Light Raspberry & Walnut salad dressing $2.99
- One container cherry tomatoes $2.50
- Two bags of Just Lettuce $3.98
- One box Cheerios Crunch $3.69
- One half-gallon milk $2.19
- One loaf bakery-fresh organic roasted garlic bread $3.99
- One bottle All laundry detergent $4.79
- One box Green Giant cheesy broccoli and rice $1.67
- One can Bumblebee tuna $1.67
- One box Barilla rotini 89 cents
- One container fresh strawberries $2 (big and red and juicy and on sale)
- One box rye Triscuits $2.50
- Four Lean Cuisines $9
- Six-pack of toilet paper $2.79
- One 20-lb jug of Tidy Cat litter $8.99
- Farmer’s market pitstop: pint of baby red potatoes, six giant peaches, four zucchini, three ears of corn, one yellow watermelon: $11
What did you buy?
August 25th, 2008
Okay, so I’m up to here in alligators so I’m not going to do much writing tonight. But I am home before ten, barely, but I am home. So… here’s some linky love or with this group we’ll call it conversational fodder.
Knit? Crochet? Want to help improve the life of a college age orphan right here in North America? The Red Scarf project is for you.
I know we have some long lasting marriages among us but it’s nice to hear someone comment on their marriage and why they think it’s lasted so long.
Do you like dresses? Even if you don’t sew visiting Erin’s blog is always fun. And if words are more your style… Well, Erin edits dictonaries for a living and likes words.
Like odd, weird, or even time wasting? Fred Flare is your place. They are the home of everything from the “Holly Golightly Sleep Mask” to the “Undy Rug” that is a pair of tighty whities designed to be walked on. Do you need a phone in the shape of a giant pair of lips or a cheeseburger, maybe you need a banana shaped cozy for your cell phone? Fred Flare has it for you.
I’m trying to alleviate my debt and increase my savings all while working for an employer who doesn’t believe in raises. I’ve found Get Rich Slowly a font of advice. Some of it useful, some of it not really applicable to me, but all if gets me thinking.
My cousin Travis and his dog Presley are contestants on The Greatest American Dog Show. I think he deserves to win. I’m biased, but it’s true.
Want to really know what’s going on in the world? Not the canned news the pundits give but the real and exciting things like weird tattos or the guy who is going around doing acupuncture on the town of Portland. Weird Universe is the place for you.
And for some exciting news… was pulling weeds in the back yard Monday and the allergies hit me so hard and so strong one eye swelled shut and the other wasn’t far behind. Am almost back to normal, but it was a bit scary there for a while.
August 20th, 2008
A little something to amuse you until the next real post
Dinner Party
At a posh Manhattan dinner party, a Latin American visitor was telling the guests about this home country and himself. As he concluded, he said, “And I have a charming and understanding wife but, alas, no children.”
As his listeners appeared to be waiting for him to continue, he said, haltingly, “You see, my wife is unbearable.”
Puzzled glances prompted him to try to clarify the matter: “What I mean is, my wife is inconceivable.”
As his companions seemed amused, he floundered deeper into the intricacies of the English language, explaining triumphantly, “That is, my wife, she is impregnable!”
Word Contest
The local newspaper has published the winning submissions to its annual contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words. Here are some of the selected results.
– Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs.
– Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.
– Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
– Esplanade (v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk.
– Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you absentmindedly answer the door in your nightgown.
– Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp.
– Gargoyle (n.), olive-flavored mouthwash.
– Flatulence (n.) emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller.
– Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline.
– Oyster (n.), a person who sprinkles his conversation with ‘Yiddishisms’.
– Frisbeetarianism (n.), The belief that, when you die, your soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.
August 20th, 2008
Do you ever wonder what makes a person like a certain type of weather? Is it buried within our genetics? Is it the way we are raised? Is it the month in which we were born? Is it parents who bundle their children up in too many clothes all the time so that they don’t develop a tolerance for the cold?
For instance, I love cold weather. I don’t get cold the way other people do. Even when I’m out in the cold and come back inside with skin that feels like ice, I don’t feel cold or chilled. And if I’m moving, I often have to remove my jacket because I get hot easily. People who know me, and ask me if it’s cold outside, know that they will need a jacket when I say, “No.” I was born in February and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area where (when I was growing up) the temperature during the summer rarely got above 75 degrees. A heat wave was 85 degrees. For a long time I could not tolerate hot weather. It actually made me feel somewhat sick, and lying on the beach in the sun was out of the question. However, when I began to show horses, most of the horseshows were in the central valley where it gets really hot, so I learned how to sweat and hydrate. But given a choice, my body will always prefer cold weather.
Most people I know love hot weather. They go out in weather that makes me run for the air conditioning. I see them outside, a lot of them without hats, turning their faces to the sun, lying on the hot beach in the hot sun, going to the State Fair in 100 degree temperatures and actually enjoying it. I wonder how they can stand it. They apparently don’t feel the heat like I do. And most people I know get cold easily. I’m endlessly baffled by people who need their jacket in 65 degree weather, but I know they do.
So why do people like either hot or cold weather? Are they born that way? Is it the way they are raised? Is it the weather they grew up with? What do you think?
August 16th, 2008
It’s awfully quiet in my house right now. Scope should be at Churchill Downs by now. She sounded very excited when I spoke with her this morning. It’s their first real vacation in a long time. I hope they enjoy themselves but I don’t want to hear all about it if you know what I mean (nudge nudge wink wink, say no more)
An older woman athet library felt the need to tell me yesterday that her sex life is still quite healthy. Good for her. I guess when you’re in your 80’s that’s something to be thrilled about. But I’m not sure why she felt the need to tell me* about it. Although I can write hot, I don’t want to know details about other people’s lives. There’s a huge ick factor there for me*. Some things should stay private and between the involved parties. I feel intrusive and awkward hearing certain information.
There are a lot of things I don’t want to know about other people. Personal body functions are high on the list. Sexual preferences and activities. The entire day’s food consumption(unless it involves a recommendation or dessert). Personal financial statement. Anything that may lead to them being the lead story on the Evening News.
There are exceptions to all of the above and I don’t know what they are until they come up. Close friends and CBs can always share with me*. Vent, rant, rail, commiserate, meditate and analyze. There are times when anyone of those can lead to a life-changing decision or action. I’d hate to let my personal squeamishness get in the way.
Do you have any boundaries when it comes to conversation and personal sharing?
August 13th, 2008
It was a dark and …
starry night. It had been stormy earlier, but the front had moved on and left the night sky clear. It was about the only thing that was looking good at the end of this long day. It had just been one danged thing after another, one of those days when everything had gone wrong and everyone had been getting on my case. When I could finally come up for air I knew just where I needed to be; my favorite Bar & Grill.
The B&G is a bit off the beaten path, one of those cozy joints known mostly by word of mouth and hard to find. Even as many times as I’d been there, if I was headed there from a different neighborhood I might have trouble finding it. Fortunately I knew where to look for the trail of breadcrumbs. But tonight it wasn’t necessary.
I cruised through the parking lot first, looking to see who else might be around. The usual crowd was there, as far as I could tell. And it looked like Lori and Btuda had dropped in, too. I was glad to see that as we hadn’t seen them around much recently. When I went to open the door, I had some trouble. That was unusual and I wondered if the door was becoming warped from all the rain we’d had. I took a good grip on the handle and put my shoulder to the door until I felt it give a little. As I stepped into the place I could hear laughter and snatches of conversation. TwinkleToes was at the bar, bemoaning the fate of her tomatoes to GP who was listening with a sympathetic ear and dispensing advice. RSS was bartending tonight and I signaled to her for my usual - rocks, lots of salt - and took my glass over to the big corner booth where everyone habitually congregated. There were several conversations going on all at once and the air around the big table was filled with overlapping voices. A few of those voices had been out of town for a few days, but folks always found their way back to the B&G eventually
I heard someone say, ” …
August 10th, 2008
I was going to do a scene by scene of my arrival, fun times, and departure of San Fran, but really, you don’t want that many details. But I’ll break it down to the highlights. I arrived Wed after the plane, the airBART, the regular BART, walking uphill with a suitcase (ew) and plenty of nice conversations with strangers (the book I brought sucked). First thing I did in SF was meet Kay T (aka RWA roomie). Next thing I did was walk into a lobby with at least a hundred women talking romance, their voices like “chattering birds” (stole that from someone), their energy level sparking the mind. But that was nothing compared to the “Readers for Life” Literacy Autographing that night. Over 500 authors, a lot of the RWA members, and a huge smattering of the public filled up the enormous ballroom. I made a beeline to Suz Brockmann’s table- squeal squeal squeal- and then made my rounds around the place, picking up among others Kathleen O’Rielly’s Sex, Straight Up, which I’ve read since I’ve been back and found extremely well-written. As I’m making the end of my rounds I notice the raffle board and omibob I won two gift baskets. (Let me* say right now, Kay T actually dropped off my raffle tickets while I was in line for Suz- squeal- so I did share some of the goodies, though she wouldn’t take the seagull sculpture no matter how much I insisted. *grin*)
Thurs. was the beginning of the workshops (and the Goody Room, where I saw what made good promotional items and filled up a bag with the stuff). I got to see RSS again (yay! I was very lucky and got to spend a lot of time with RSS, all of it fabulous) and then Dee (first and last time I saw her at the conference; you need to get an elephant to sit on her to keep that CB in one place). The workshop to point out for that day is Watching the Detectives: Peek Inside a Real Detective Agency with Eileen Rendahl, who basically explained all the ins and outs of PI work and life. If anybody has a PI in their story, I’ll be happy to type up my notes from this one for you, cause wow was she informative. The luncheon during the afternoon had a very funny, funny speech by Victoria Alexander, who I must now read in the hopes she is just as funny in her books. I also went to the Moonlight Madness Bazaar (aka time to sell you stuff) and met the DH of a writer/blogger who did magic tricks. Spent more time talking to him than anyone else there (until he started to look like a young Tom Cruise which was a little freaky, cause ew) but he and his wife were very wonderful. Had the best time at dinner with RSS that night too, where I found out some more cool things about her and the family.
Fri. was the first all-day workshop day. There were three especially amazing wokshops. First, The 21st C Heroine: How Far She’s Come and Where She’s Heading (which included on its panel Kesington editor Kate Duffy who is completely hilarious; if you go to RWA next year make sure you go to one of her workshops). We had a very fascinating discussion that I learned a lot from (you burst with romance pride after this one). The second was World Building: Creating Your Own Universe. A lot of it was stuff I knew, and they were referring to contemporaries, but I had a lot of little light bulbs go off, which is the best response to have in a classroom (as opposed to yawning). And third was Sociopaths vs Psychopaths and the Serial Killer with Dr. Cynthia Lea Clark, and I must buy her books cause oh boy, the stuff she knows. I talked about her workshop often afterwards, which garners more strange looks than I was really expecting considering where I was. I also should mention the workshop with SEP and Jayne Anne Krentz, which was more entertaining than informative (not saying it’s a bad thing, I just found it to be so). I’d love to see Jenny with those two doing a ‘workshop’. This was also the night of the CB Get-Togther in Chinatown. I don’t really have words to describe just how it feels to be sitting and talking with CBs face to face. Most of you have experienced it, but it strikes me* every time by how wonderful it all is. Even if they think checking up to make sure they got home safely is something only a mother would do. Like if I wasn’t walking back with Kay T they wouldn’t have made me* do the same thing. CBs. Sheesh.
[BTW: I’m mentioning the names of the omibob workshops I went to because you can download the workshops from the website and you may want to look at a few to get a feel for them if you’ve never been to RWA. I’m not really suggesting any of the above three- first was more about being there, second was good but basically common sense, and the third will probably have a lot of blank spots as after her first five minutes of speaking we just peppered her with questions and I’m not sure how many she repeated for the mike. I did take good notes in the last one though, so again, will type them up if you so wish.]
Sat. had one very mentionable workshop (though there was another I liked, but mostly just because the people were so wonderful on the panel, all from Dorchester Publishing House)- From Cover Concept to Finished Cover, and this gave me a great view inside the marketing/sales/art dept. Don’t bother getting this one, you needed the images too, but I would love to go to another one like this. After that it was mostly zooming through book signings (cause at this point I really needed more books) instead of workshops. Then it was the awards ceremony, which I dragged Kay T to so I could see Suz emcee. As I said to Kay T, until RSS or another CB is up for an award, or someone like Jenny is doing host spot, I’m probably not going to another one. It was fun, and we got to sit in the finalist section (didn’t see the red rope, I swear officer), but once is plenty until a CB is nominated.
Sun. was not as fun, mostly cause I was leaving and partly because I had a monster headache. RSS, Kay T and I meet up and ate breakfast as lori’s diner (judging by the car in the middle of the place, let’s not have lori doing any driving any time soon). And then it was a plane ride and home, brimming with ideas, a headache, and the desire to go to RWA next year.
I really didn’t mean to do a play by play of the whole conference, but overall I have a few tidbits I picked up during the conference. One, get the vegeterian meal at lunch. Two, find a workshop with Kate Duffy in it. Three, learn as much as possible, but go to to at least one book signing during the weekend. Four, have Kay T drop your raffle tickets in the box if possible. Five, romance writers want to meet you and want to share as much knowledge as they can. Six, it truly is their refrain that the best book to write is the one you want to. Seven, stay in the hotel where the conference is at if possible; it truly is worth the money to be able to drop off stuff you pick up during the day instead of breaking your back (RSS lent me* her room for this reason).
And eight- it’s a magical experience, and I recommend it to anyone who loves romance- whether it’s reading, writing, or doing both with it. The energy you get can bring you into a new place in your writing and life. I’m so glad I finally went to one.
And don’t forget about Dr. T’s Scotland post below.
August 6th, 2008
Okey dokey. As I mentioned on the previous post, I think May is the best month for me* for a CB invasion of Scotland, and Christina said a weekend that month would also work for her.
So, I’ve setup the following blog http://scotlandwhackinvasion.blogspot.com as a place to scheme and plot and also to post travel and other info. Right now there’s nothing there to see. If anyone else wants posting privileges, just let me know. No furries, I’ve made it non-searchable, and non-something else. So hopefully it will be private.
Um, oh yeah, one more thing. I was thinking of maybe setting up an online vote to select a weekend in May, assuming May is good with everyone. Not that you all can’t come for longer, but it would be a definite date when folks could try to overlap their trips. Let me know if you think I should go ahead and do this.
And I apologize in advance for how expensive it is to visit here. (But I am THRILLED that folks want to come!)
August 5th, 2008
BCB took the original picture, and a little editing helped it out. Sorta!
A good time was had by all. Of course we discussed books. And RWAs. And the impossible aunt/sister/father/you fill in the blank that so many CBs seem to have. And the perfect children CBs have. And CBs who are reading. And CBs who are writing. And reasons that writing is difficult to do. (How can a person find time if that person is also holding down 1 or more jobs?) And the CBs who are strong. No need to discuss the weak ones, since we agreed there aren’t any.
Ya’d think with only 3 of us that lunch would be shorter than when there are more. Say not so! I’d have stayed longer, but I needed to dash home between thunderstorms. Thus the need to use my telephone to check out the storm paths. I LOVE my phone. So glad McB talked me into indulging. So JenB and BCB stayed a while longer. I wonder what they talked about.
One of our topics was about competition, and how I really don’t like competitive sports because they’re, well, competitive. BCB made the observation, that I’m very competitive. Moi? Yes. Absolutely, positively, even viciously. So JenB said how could that be, if I was against such. So I admitted that having that trait doesn’t mean I’m proud of it. The good news is that I’m most fiercely competitive against myself.
Anyhoo. How about you? Care to admit to a personality defect? Or, for that matter, a personality attribute that you’re proud of?
Oh. I’m a good listener.
August 3rd, 2008
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