This & That

I just finished Sandra Heath's Marigold's Marriages. Quite an adventurous little yarn, disguised as a traditional Regency. Druidism, stolen inheritances, time traveling & shape shifting are all wonderfully fitted into this excellent little book. Highly recommended for an afternoon's diversion.

I've been listening to Jean-Yves Thibaudet's The Magic of Satie. Dreamy & slow with occasional bursts of brightness. Perfect for a silvery, rainy day like today (or yesterday or the day before)> I'm not complaining though, we need a long slow rain. The trees & shrubs have been steadily folding in on themselves in pain for want of water. The whiskers that used to be grass have cautiously turned green, as though the chlorophyll had run away.

Hmm. A contented day, saith the little housemouse. Washing machine humming, dryer full, dishwasher swishing along. Children's heads bent over their books. I finally succeeded in wrestling my hair into a proper French twist with a single comb- quite a feat for a woman with hair to her waist. Someone else cooked dinner & yet another person cleaned up. What more could a woman waant?

Off to commence chauffeuring duties. Perhaps perfect contentment would include having a driver?

Lemon Drop

Younger son has a cute 'honey bear' hamster, supposedly male but we haven't checked it to determine the sex. We only have one, so I don't suppose we absolutely need to know. It/he was christened Lemon Drop before we left the store. Extremely curious, it has thoroughly explored his new home and is now asleep in his exercise wheel. I argree with him- exercise is overrated.

We made the error of buying two different brands of cages as the packaging claimed the brands are interchangeable. Wrong. Lemon drop is in the larger cage & I now need to hunt for tubing & acessories for him. Daughter has a craving for a hamster of her own & asks can she use the smaller cage if she decides to buy one. I figure, why not? She hasn't decided yet.

Anyhow, the weather has finally cooled off to some semblance of autumn. You know- under 80. Only 60% humidity. Husband & I hope to take the kids out to a corn maze before the end of the month. Nothing like getting lost in a farmer's field for laughs!

Working on reading Marigold's Marriages by Sandra Heath. So far so good. Youngish widow is fraudulently deprived by her brother in law of her support & her son's inheritance. Run off of the estate as soon as the will is read she knocks around England, desperately hunting for a respectable position and ends up in an inn where she meets a man acquainted with her deceased husband's family. Many characters named after either birds or flora, hints of Druidism are popping up. I'll let you know how well it continues tomorrow.

Chit chatting

Son has had cake & ice cream at each grandparents' home & now has enough hamster habitat items-tubes, condos, exercise wheels, etc- to fund a hamster refuge. Husband is fully on board with said idea, telling me we will have to have two hamsters, so that I (meaning me, not husband) can name one. I don't remember wanting/needing/desiring to name a hamster but I do enjoy naming creatures. I had a great time naming our bettas (Hector, Achilles, Caesar & Attila). The goldfish were simply dubbed Pirhanas (sp) since they're always hungry & they ate the snail we put in there to keep their tank clean.

It has rained for the last two days straight with no let up. I'm glad for it, honestly. My garden has been parched for months & the butterfly bushes were barely hanging on. The humidity has been extremely high & I'm likely to develop mold on the siding by the front door as that side of the house faces northeast. Oh well. Older son always wants to earn extra money. He can scrub the siding for me.

Forgot Duke of Sin at home but found two Regencies in the bottom of daughter's bag. They're sitting by my bedside patiently waiting a quiet moment.

I've decided I want to pad & cover the headboard & footboard of my bed, so my mom & I have been combing her vast collection of catalogs for just the right fabric. I've pretty much decided on either matelasse or a high thread count tone on tone patterned sheet made into a slipcover. The bedroom, if you remember, is pink & I'm trying to keep the atmosphere from becoming frou frou. I found a nice striped sheet but it's only 200 count & I don't think it'll be strong enough to make a durable slipcover. I like the washability of a sheet though...We'll see.

Happy Birthday, darling

Today is my younger son's birthday. He's ten. The past years have flown by, I look at him and I am amazed at how big he's getting. My memories of when & how I went into labor are crystal clear, but don't ask me where my copy of Cake Doctor went. I promised DS I'd make him the buttercream & lime curd recipe for tonight. Instead, we've decided on a key lime recipe I found on Recipe*zaar. It's bizarre, really. I just had the damned book yesterday.

So other than rushing to the grocery store, doing several errands, & playing chauffeur- I've plenty of time to bake his Key Lime Cake. HAHAHA. Because, you see, the new recipe calls for different supplies than the Cake Doctor recipe. A mother's work is never done, or some such trite saying.

Anyhow, I've pulled Adele Ashworth's Duke of Sin out of my TBR. I can't decide if I'll actually read it this weekend or return it & choose something shorter. We're going out of town this weekend & I'm unsure if I'll be able to settle in & really pay attention to this.

Review: Dark Lover by J.R. Ward

So I think I'm in love. This series has started with much promise. The world is unique with its own mythology & terminology. I am a major fangirl of vampire romances, but have had major issues in the last year or two with certain commonalities within the subgenre that really bother me. I am SO happy to report that this debut features none of them!

A vampire world wherein the vampires are proud of their race, ie: don't feel like they need to be redeemed or need to regain their soul. A world where the humans who live in the vampire community are cut from whole cloth, undamaged & strong. There will be an ongoing external villain or two. Plus chances for conflicts within the community.

Best of all (& my personal favorite) tortured heroes aplenty. Two odd things. One, which I mentioned yesterday, is the names of the men. I ranted at length on this issue, so scroll down if you want to know what my issues are.

Two, the warriors' speech rubbed me the wrong way for most of the book. At first I couldn't quite work through what my problem was. Their diction & word choices simply sounded odd. Finally, last night I realized that while it sounded odd to me, the speech patterns & word choices are similar to young men my son knows. So, while they may sound odd to old, doddering moms like me J.R. Ward seems to have caught authentic rhythms & patterns used by young men.

The other problem I had with this story is the time frame. The hero & heroine meet, have great sex, fall in love, get married & become King & Queen in roughly two weeks. Initially the heroine thinks the hero is a stalker & her friend the local cop thinks the hero is a drug dealer for most of the book. I have problems with this, but since this (the short time frame) happens frequently in romances it isn't really a huge deal for me.

It has been difficult to write this without dissolving into a rant against other series. I wanted to detail Dark Lover's strengths & weaknesses, not write things like "well, the heroine wasn't this or this so I really enjoyed it." Strong, rounded characters, tortured heroes, dastardly villains, excellent world building, the promise of plenty more to come. I can't wait! Besides, when was the last time you read a vampire romance where the vampires listened to rap, drive Cadillac Escalades & are Red Sox fans !!

Horrible names

I survived the overscheduled weekend. I only managed fifty pages of Dark Lover (the red vampire romance I wrote about yesterday), but what I read I've enjoyed.

I have to say though, the names of the male warrior vampires is getting to me. Wrath, Rage, Vicious, Torment, etc. none of which is spelled properly. I'm sure their mothers didn't originally name them that. Can you imagine, "Wrath, honey, come inside & brush your teeth, daddy's ready to feed you." NOT.

My initial theory is that these vampire warriors are similar to Suzanne Brockmann's SEALS. Ultra macho military types who have a weak spot for certain women around whom their uber alpha behavior goes out the window.

Their names (the vampires' names that is) seem to me to be an extension of some authors' enjoyment in giving military men stupid nicknames. Not only this author, but many others who feature military heroes. So far as I know (my husband & I were active duty combat military for twelve+ years) no one but pilots have a 'call sign' or nickname used by his cowrorkers, a la 'Maverick'. I've never met a military man whose wife called him anything but his given first name. The most common name behavior in the military is that they call each other by their last names (including female servicemembers) & often don't even know the first names of their coworkers unless they are truly close friends.

The other thought that crossed my mind while mulling over the names is that they are similar to the Four Horsemen. Bringers of justice, etc. etc. etc.


OK. Rant over. I'm manging the God awful names in this otherwise wonderful book.

Maili, if you're out there- I miss you!

Bookstore adventure

Took a few minutes to thoroughly embarrass myself at a local Borders in search of a book highly recommended by Romancereadingmom (otherwise known as Tara). I'd rushed out of the house, late, on my way to buy a baby gift for my sister's shower. Naturally this meant I'd left my little notebook with the all important directions, gift ideas & 'books wanted' list on the table at the house. Hubby had pulled a double shift overnight & was asleep so I didn't want to awaken him with the phone.

I figured I was already late & the Borders was across the parking lot from Target (where I'd just bought the babygift). So I waltz into the Borders, march up to the computer & enter what I thought the title was. The computer laughed at me & said, "No, dear, that's an old Anne Stuart book. Try again." I realize I'll have to look another time when a clerk walks up & asks if he can help. Now I have to admit a)I don't know the title & b)I don't know the author, but I do know that it's red, has vampires & is a romance. The clerk & I share a laugh after I tell him he won't know what it is either & I'll just return another day & aren't customers like me annoying?

Meantime daughter has disappeared deep into the graphic novel section. As I wander in search of her, I turned a sharp corner & there they were- faced out on a display shelf right in front of me. Hooray! Mission accomplished.

BTW- I've read fifty pages & it's great! Thanks, Tara!

Nightable reading pile

I never finished Redwall by Brian Jacques or A Daughter's Destiny by Jo Ann Ferguson. Redwall simply wasn't able to hold my attention, even though I really wanted to like it. Similarly, the Ferguson book dragged in the middle. Badly enough that I simply skipped to the last few pages & declared myself finished. The other Ferguson book (about the second daughter) I read during the summer suffered from similar issues although not to this extent. I have the third book (about the brother) but & am undecided as to if I shall actually read it.

Yesterday I read Lady Leprechaun by Melinda McRae. Another tradtional Regency, this one featured a widow & widower (the Duke of Hartford & Emily, Vicountess Darrow) chasing after their runaway sons & subsequently falling in love over the two week cross country chase. The boys were adorable although I found it hard to believe that a pair of ten year olds could survive two weeks traveling cross England on foot. Lady Leprechaun was well enough done, but the hero & heroine simply didn't catch fire with me.

This weekend is scheduled out to the nth degree & I hope to keep you abreast of the action, but if I'm unable to post, don't be surprised.

Oh BTW- I just bought Shana Abe's Smoke Thief yesterday & hope to squeeze in time to start it this weekend. I've looked forward to this one for a long time!

Review:The Bedeviled Duke, by Judith Lansdown

This is a traditional Regency originally published in 1996. The widowed Rudolph Denbeigh, Duke of Abbercombe (minor problem: I spent the entire book calling him Abercrombie in my head!), has returned to England with his children to present his oldest identical twin girls in society so that they may begin their husband hunt. The enormous stumbling block being that he was transported over twenty years earlier for murdering a peer &, 'Cash' as his friends know him, realizes that his daughters will pay the price. Meantime Miss Olivia Willburton-Smythe is bosom-bow of Cash's sister in law. Miss Olivia is drawn into Cash's life by his chidren & his sister in law although she remains suspicious of his actions & motives because of his past. Add a spy for Napoleon, a family member determined to get revenge, a missing brother & four sets of identical twins & you have yourself one amazing, complicated plot.

To her vast credit, Ms. Lansdown handles it all with aplomb. Cash & Olivia discuss their misunderstandings. Cash himself is a loving, even indulgent father, especially when you consider the traditional child rearing methods of that time & class. While he is long widowed (six years) he appears ready to find another companion,, if one could be found who loves his children. Olivia decides that perhaps society was wrong & unneccessarily cruel & that she wishes to assist the girls' entree into Polite Society to honor her friendship with Cash's sister in law, Jessica. Olivia, at thirty one, has resigned herself to being the maiden aunt. Her feelings for Cash & his family take her by surprise, but after several adventures together she admits he's the man for her.

Naturally, there is quite a bit more to the story than I have said here. The children (four sets of identical twins!) play a major role in the plot. The espionage element is prominently featured as well. Cash & Olivia are thoughtful adults who discuss their differences & the past & who acknowlege their responsibilities in the present. Their love story, set amid the chaos of an eight child home & the espionage war between England & France, is touching & will make you smile.

Review: Elizabeth's Rake & Cupid's Mistake

Elizabeth's Rake by Emily Hendrickson and Cupid's Mistake by Karen Harbaugh are a 'double header' so to speak published by Signet in February 2005. Each title was peviously published in 1993 & 1997 respectively.

"Elizabeth's Rake" stars, naturally, Elizabeth Dancy a nineteen year old accomplished amateur spy & engraver. Her love interest, David, Viscount Leighton, returned to his family estate to tend his ailing father. Miss Dancy lives with her aunt & two cousins nearby. On the eve of her aunt's annual St. Vaentine's ball, David climbs the wisteria outside Elizabeth's room & Elizabeth, fearing an intruder, shoots him. She is forced to nurse him, first at her aunt's home & then at Leighton's estate nearby after they become engaged (he having compromised her, naturally). Once at David's estate, things take an ominous turn. Suspicious activities abound & Elizabeth feels obligated to help David protect his father.

I enjoyed this traditional Regency despite figuring out the who the bad guy was before I had read halfway through. Elizabeth & David slowly draw you deeper & deeper into their intrigues. I didn't feel as though they were fully fleshed people, although I am under the impression they might have been in Hendrickson's earlier books (possibly featuring Elizabeth's sisters). Hendrickson includes many little details about superstitious beliefs during the period that I found fascinating & which helped me along to the end. Elizabeth's Rake was well worth reading, although I recommend looking for the previous titles involving the Dancy family since they might flesh out Elizabeth & David more fully.


Cupid's Mistake by Karen Harbaugh follows Miss Cassandra Hathaway & Paul Templeton, Marquess of Blytheland. Paul's first wife died in childbed attempting to birth another man's child. Paul meets Cassandra at a musicale, where she intrigues him by giving him an honest assessment of the violin divertimento he played. Paul has fallen head over heels in love with Cassandra & struggles to put aside the bitterness & pain of his previous marriage. Cassandra meanwhile must learn polite society's dictates regarding decorum & proper conversation. Being an honest & plainspoken woman of twenty three, Cassandra struggles with the idea that society functions best when one is willing to fabricate the occasional white lie & that brutal honesty does not always win one friends.

A serious misunderstanding nearly derails their relationship permanently, but with the help of Cassandra's sister, Psyche & Psyche's best 'imaginary' friend Harry, things are patched up between Paul & Cassandra. Laden with references to classic Greek mythology, the best part of this novel is Cassandra's parents' loving relationship with each other & their daughters. A facet too often missing in romances I find. Paul & Cassandra are fully rounded people who worked through several real problems to finally achieve their HEA. Harry & Psyche add just the right touch to leaven this novel with a touch of humour & whimsy.

Bummer

Due to track repairs on the blue & yellow lines, daughter & I spent forty five minutes to make it two stops closer to DC. We had only a three hour window to rush up there & return to Alexandria so daughter could babysit. What ordinarily ought to have been a twenty minute trip turned into a forty five minute lesson in how to surf the internet on my cell phone.

Still, daughter & I managed a nice lunch at a delicious deli in Old Town Alexandria, a quick trip in to the Lancome counter & a copy of The Master by Melanie Jackson. Daughter is thrilled as she scored some lipgloss & lavendar eyeshadows (Lancome is having a 'gift with purchase' event).

I really hoped to see the protests in front of the White House & the book festival & maybe even see the Segway (sp?) in action. It was a perfect day for sightseeing- overcast & cool (finally!!).

I'm disappointed we missed the main event, but daughter & I had a nice afternoon together anyway. I bought her the Teen Vogue with Orlando Bloom on the cover & she was in heaven. Apologies to those who were hoping for a Diana Gabaldon sighting, but I tried!

Praying for TX & LA

I hope hurricane Rita weakens more & the battered Gulf coast pulls through ok. Hubby has kin between San Antonio & Corpus Christi & he has been concerned about them. Texans appear to have learned quite a lot from the complete fiasco that was Katrina. Despite the gas shortages & horrendous traffic (which by the way, resembled regular Friday traffic jams here in DC) Texans seem to be doing whatever they can to take care of people & property.

Speaking of horrendous traffic jams, I am absolutley positive that our region would be a paralyzed, gelatinous stew should anything serious happen here again. Traffic stoppages are a routine feature of life in the DC metro area. I am unconvinced our regional political leaders have thoroughly vetted, coordinated disaster plans. We are on our own. If you live in a major metro area in the US, you'd better be prepared to hang tight alone & not count on the local or federal government to help you.

History Project

I worked on 'the photo album project' today. For several years I have attempted to organize & prune what had been likely eight or nine years of photographs. Some envelopes were neatly labeled & photos annotated, but most were blank. Slowly (at a glacial pace, I must admit) I've been sorting the photos into four piles: one pile per child & one pile for hubby & me plus a discard pile. I'm now down to five envelopes of developed photos all from last year! Each pile is in a labeled box awaiting album placement. I'm so proud of myself. HAHAHA.

These poor photos have been through an average of two military moves, plus storage. All because I've procrastinated & procrastinated. Now I'm halfway finished. Soon all I'll have left are years of unmarked school photos, LOL. Meantime, the cabinet will not bury you in an avalanche of processing envelopes, photos & empty albums.

I've realized the older children's Jefferson cups engaved with their initials are missing. Hubby's & my love letters were in a goodly sized box & I don't know where they are either. Hubby thinks they're all in the attic somewhere. It's too hot still to go hunting up there. My mom knitted outfits for the kids & they're missing as well. Darn it, I thought I was making progress.

National Book Festival- Sat. 24th

I think we're going to take the kids unless the temperature is over 90 or it's going to rain. All you Diana Gabaldon fans take note- according to the brochure I have she'll be signing Saturday sometime. The list of authors is long & distinguished- check the link above to see who'll be there. A few names off of the list: Neil Gaiman, George R.R. Martin, Nevada Barr, Sandra Brown, Karin Slaughter, David McCullough & quite a few well known children's authors.

A Daughter's Destiny by Jo Ann Ferguson. First in a three book series called Shadows of the Bastille. I'm about two thirds of the way through. It's a Regency set historical adventure involving a 'hidden' daughter of the French aristocracy, an antiques dealer hired to find a missing vase, a traveling Italian theater troupe & a hired thug. I read the last one in the series this summer & it was much of the same. Competently done. Not spectacular. Just the right touch for periods in your life when you're insanely busy & want something to lower the stress level & yet not demand too much. Make sense to you? It isn't deep or complicated & the heroine is slightly irritating, but at least I'm reading! Right?

My newest title: Chauffeur

Somehow, despite my best efforts slowing down my life & our children's lives hasn't worked. No matter how much I consolidated & rearranged I'll be on the road at least three nights a week. I was careful to back out of actually participating in two of these & use those two hours to read instead! I thought I was so clever, rearranging & sorting. HA. SNORT.

Currently listening to Jack Johnson's Brushfire Fairytales. You remember him. The 'Bubbletoes' song from a couple of years ago. Very relaxing. Even when you can barely hear it over your children's bickering over whose homework is harder & what is the correct plural of hypothesis (hypotheses).

Currently not reading anything, but carrying Redwall by Brian Jacques & Silver's Edge by Anne Kelleher around everywhere in the forlorn hope that soon I will be able to finish them. The result? They are impressively traveled for books, but remain unread.

Autumn cleaning

Still 'nesting', as hubby says. Typically I spend the month of September rummaging through the entire house sorting, scrubbing, etc. It's spring cleaning except it's autumn. My grandmother did heavy cleaning twice annually, but I don't have six daughters to help me.

I spent a day realphabetizing, rearranging & pruning down my (our?) books. Poor things, they were haphazardly piled sideways, atop each other, shelved three layers deep. Then there were the romances buried in the bottom of hubby's wardrobe...

So the bookcases are ship shape now. No more books buried in hubby's wardrobe. All are shelved single row, except the romances. Keepers are triple row, but that's ok since I've memorized what they are. The TBRs are double shelved & have horizontal stacks atop this, but they're all in one case now (as opposed to three locations). Genre fiction is broken out by type (mystery, fantasy, romance & horror).

I did take over two shelves of hubby's bookcase though. His books are zipped into a giant duffel bag & hubby says they can stay there as most are medical & business reference anyway. I feel guilty. I think they deserve shelf space of their own, but hubby wants a shelf for his infamous 'paperwork towers' which by law must be in our room instead of the livingroom.

I discovered I had a grocery sack of medieval mysteries which belong to our church. Tonight they were returned to their rightful location after lounging here for heaven only knows how long. I have a goodly sized carton plus two Christmas size shopping bags of books in the trunk of my car destined for the thrift shop.

I went through a three inch stack of cooking magazines & tore out my favorite recipies. Now I have a stack of paper to put away. It opened up quite a lot of room on my bookshelves. More room for my precious books! I did discover that I've mislaid an excellent recipie for maple syrup cake though.

Is anyone else out there having a good sort through?

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous thoughts jamming the brain today. Don't expect any logical thought patterns.

Did you see Melissa Etheridge's performance during the Katrina concert on MTV Saturday night? First of all, I thought she looked & sounded wonderful. Hers was the only performance that brought tears to my eyes. She said she wrote a new song just for the concert &, honestly, the 'Swing Low Sweet Chariot' ending just grabbed my heart & wouldn't let go. Completely aside from that, the Rolling Stones, Green Day & U2 were totally hot.

I finished reading "A Right to be Hostile, the Boondocks Treasury" by Aaron McGruder. The comic can be found here. Aaron McGruder's webpage is here. The foreward by Michael Moore will tell you which way the strip leans politically. The guys are so funny- I love them. I want a bumpersticker that says, 'Huey Freeman for President' but I'm afraid that a) no one would understand it & b) I'd be driven out of VA entirely for being a radical white chick.

Younger son & I have been reading Polly Horvath's 'Everything on a Waffle'. In rural British Columbia, Primrose Squarp's parents disappear in heavy storm while at sea. Eventually, Primrose's Uncle Jack arrives to take care of her. Meantime, the school guidance counselor, Miss Honeycutt, has set her cap for Uncle Jack & has no scruples about pushing Primrose aside to get to him. Miss Perfidy, the mothball obsessed old lady who took Primrose in until Uncle Jack arrived, is beginning to act a tad strangely. Primrose & Uncle Jack muddle along relatively well. At least so far. The serious storyline is treated with a humerous, deft hand, although I find Primrose's word choices to be too adult once in a while. An odd peeve of mine, but children ought to sound age appropriate. My sister would laugh uproarously at that last comment- all of my children are verbose.

Ringtones

I'm becoming addicted to ringtones. I bought a new cellphone a while ago & the ringtones loaded into the phone bug me..so the kids & I just spent nearly two hours browsing through a catalog of songs. The selection of comedy snippets available is impressive too. I have to say though, that it became instantly clear that many of the comedy snippets are- how do I say this without sounding stiff?- not appropriate for all situations. So I settled on a couple of upbeat cheerful ringtones, which will (hopefully) successfully compete with my car radio for my attention as I rush up & down I 95.

What surprised me was that the kids loved listening to the ringtones. I played more songs for them than I would've played for myself. They are busily planning what songs they want when mom buys them phones. HA! NOT. The older boy has a phone, but he has to keep its account full on his own & isn't planning to spend his precious cash on music & games since it would cut into his texting his buddies.

Maybe I need to add a new game to my phone. I bought Connect Four a few weeks ago. It's weird though. The program is either too easy or impossible. There's no in between. Any suggestions for fun phone games?

Still here after all

No, I didn't float off into outer space or drown in Katrina's well of pain. Our harddrive (1 word or 2?) crashed for good & we had to wait for the new one to arrive. It was here in boxes at 7:30 last night & was up & running by 9 pm. Unfortunately we had modem problems after all & I had to go & get a new modem & then install..yadda, yadda, yadda. Here I am.

We visited my sister all of last week. I have to say- except for cleaning up the kitchen for her, we didn't do a blessed thing. It was absolutely wonderful, let me tell you. No errands. No lists of places to go or touristy things to do. We just visited. It was so refreshing! We used to have regular dinners when she lived around the corner a piece, but she's moved not quite two hours away & I miss her.

Daughter, older son & I took advantage of our comptuer free time to paint my room a beautiful shade of Necco wafer pink. Remember those? I loved them as a child. I can't stand them now, but nostalgia is a powerful thing. I know you'll disbelieve me, but hubby chose it. Really. I had probably 10 shades of peach/pink/light coral on the wall. After a few days he grabbed one & said 'this one'. I'd had a terrible time waffling around & took his advice. It's actually very soothing. The room faces north & the color wavers between peach & pink depending on the time of day & the weather.

The children are all in school finally & I'm done with filling out all of those blasted forms. My days are my own. Yesterday I scrubbed the walls in the dining area (it's far, far too small to be anything else)& the hall & vaccuumed under all of the living room furniture. My back is killing me, let me tell you.Today I sorted & rearranged the 'pharmacy' closet. It took some doing, I'll have you know. I also flipped through two of hubby's bookshelves worth of paperwork piles. Didn't put any away for him, but straightened it out & discovered just what he'd been busily squirreling away. Sorted through our 'blue box'- our little strong box of our most important papers. Discovered that daughter's immunization record is missing.

Still not reading a blessed thing, but I thought I'd start posting just as soon as possible. I've missed being on the 'net & talking to you guys.

Thoughts on Katrina

Wow. I just watched some of the coverage about the Katrina aftermath. Remember those old commercials (from the early 70's) which ended with a garlanded Mother Nature saying 'Don't mess with Mother Nature!' & then had a huge thunderclap? I know I'm a shallow person, but honestly that was the first thing I thought when the footage scrolled by on the tv. You know it was bad when the emergency shelters had to be evacuated after the storm.

So I've donated some money to the Red Cross & made a few phone calls to check up on some friends. Say a few prayers, folks. They can use them.