Memorial Day

Memorial Day is one of my favorite holidays. First off, I salute all the troops for fighting for our country and freedom. My father was a LT. Commander in the Navy and fought bravely in The Battle of Leyte Gulf. His ship was bombed and he was able to get his crew out to safety. If not, I wouldn't be here today. I love you and miss you, Dad!

Second of all, its the start of summer! After a long cold winter, I look forward to the days of summer. Of course, I try not to think of the Texas 100 plus degrees that will soon come.

It's a three day weekend and fortunately, we have been blessed with friends who have invited us to pool parties and BBQ's. We have been emailing or messaging on Facebook most of the winter, so it's good to see them in person.

It's also time for my brain to take a breather from my writing. On Thursday and Friday, my characters in my current book are not talking to me. Friday, I just sat and stared at a blank page with my hands poised over the keyboard. Nothing! You know what it is? I think they started the holiday early and didn't tell me about it! They better come back to work on Tuesday or there will be some words!

Garage Sales

Spring cleaning at our house brought out lots of stuff we have, we don't need anymore. When we moved five years ago, we really cleaned out before our move. We had lived in our home in Pennsylvania for fourteen years and the junk we had? Well, way too much. We realized the house in Texas had smaller rooms and we eliminated a lot of furniture.

Our neighborhood here in Texas always has an annual garage sale, so this year we decided to participate. I will insert here, my parents grew up during the depression and they became hoarders. When they died, they left behind a five bedroom home filled with over 3000 antique clocks and watches and junk like you wouldn't believe. We sold the clocks to an auctioneer which took over three semis to haul away. Then, there were four dumpsters used before the house was empty. I refuse to live that way. I shy away from any garage sales or auctions which my parents would go to all the time.

My husband grew up differently. His parents threw out everything when they no longer needed it. His mother loved garage sales and worked the circuit. He embraced our participation in the garage sale to the point where I was ready to kill him. He called me several times a day to make sure we had everything we could sell. I told him I would check when I could because I too was working. He made an Excel spreadsheet of our items and the suggested price. (He's a salesman by trade). We even went to his office to borrow tables to display our items. He took off Friday afternoon and the two of us cleaned out the garage; gathered and priced everything. Bring on Saturday!

We all got up at six on Saturday and placed everything to enhance their appeal. First customers came at 7:45 and quickly left. More of the same. After about an hour, we learned what we had for sale wasn't what people wanted. We had no children's clothes, toys, or games. People didn't want VHS tapes, nor did they want bookcases. They didn't want a set of drinking glasses or bar stools. We even tried "Manager's Special' buy these items for only three dollars! No go. By eleven, we had only sold $90 dollars worth of stuff of what we had priced out would've been at least $200.

We hauled our unwanted stuff back into the house and have called a local charity to schedule a pick up. Was the experience worth it? Nope! Guess we are not garage sale folks!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day! I miss my mom who died six years ago. After my father died, she was a very unhappy woman who had no wish to live without the love of her life. She died exactly six months to the day of my father's death.

Estelle was a true New Yorker who had a lot of spit and fire in her younger days. I remember when we moved to Chicago when I was young, poor Chicago had no idea who they were dealing with. She was not afraid to go in the worst part of the city by herself. Hell, she was from New York and had seen everything. And could she pick fights. The family will remember her when she tracked down the waitress in the restaurant after we had been seated. It was my father's birthday and we had selected a restaurant that overlooked the Fox River in St. Charles, IL. Us sisters and grandchildren went in first while my parents parked the car. My mother instructed us to ask for a table that overlooked the river. The waitress seated us elsewhere. We just took it because we knew we were a large party. When my mother came in and saw where we were, she demanded to speak to the manager and sure enough we were given the proper table!

Estelle was also a fighter in the grocery store parking lots. If she wanted that space, she was bound and determined to get it. She got into many arguments and one lady even slapped her!

I could go on about her and my sisters and I like to say, oh my God. I sounded just like Estelle! But she always was a fighter but not at the end. She just gave up. I'd say, Mom? What about your daughters and grandchildren? She would just shake her head and not answer me. She stopped eating and taking her medicine. She even bit the caregiver! I am crushed she gave up on me.

Still Writing!

On Monday, I submitted my next manuscript, Not Just an Act to my editor/publisher. There are some transitions going on there and I hope who ever reads it, likes it! I'm saying my prayers! I can't thank them enough for believing in me and all of their help with my writing career!

I started to plot and research for my next sports romance and it has to do with the world of golf, which I know very well. My husband's mistress is golf. I can't play as well as he, and get very discouraged by some of the courses he chooses to play on. They are way too hard for me! Not to mention my run ins with wildlife such as snakes, alligators and water in general. I have relegated my role to driving the cart and handing out positive suggestions.

However, to become a professional golfer, there's a lot of work involved. The more I read up on it, the more I admire these athletes. At the Golf Galaxy in Grapevine, TX, I had a chance to meet young LPGA golfer, Lexi Thompson. What a composed, older than her years, 19 year old woman. I asked her questions which she dutifully answered. She has been on the circuit since she was then years old. Amazing!

Technology Strikes Again!

Don't laugh, but I still use AOL for my email. I've been using it since it first came out and saw no reason to stop. We have Verizon Fios here in Texas and during the first year we lived here, didn't think anything about it until we noticed an increase in our AOL bill. We were still paying for the dialup. Duh! So, I cancelled the service but bought my screen name for life. My husband has his computer all set up with AOL connections to his sports and whatever else he does and his screen name is grandfathered into mine.

Monday, when I signed on for the morning, I noticed I had 26 items in my spam folder. It was all undelivered mail. I didn't think anything about it until my friends started to email and call me saying they were getting spam mail from me. Huh?

Husband comes home from work with a packet they've received telling all employees to change their password because of spamming. Aha! Something is going on. I hate changing passwords even though I know I should. Now they are accepting special characters making it more creative. When I finally got the 'brilliant' message from AOL, I felt like I had won an Oscar! Then, watching the noon news, the story came on about AOL being hacked and advising everyone to change their password. AOL was currently working on the problem! Don't you just love technology?

The good news is I finished reviewing my completed manuscript for my next book, tentatively called Not Just an Act. It's another romantic comedy which I know you will love. I have yet to finish the blurb to submit to my publisher which I plan on doing very soon. I pray they like it as well!

Happy Easter

Nature has really greened up the grass, trees and lawns! Our rose bushes are starting to bloom; such a pretty time of the year!

I love to take walks outside and try to walk at least an hour a day. It's helps me with my writer's block and my emotional well being as well as my health.

I love where we live because the city has provided wide, winding sidewalks with plenty of crepe myrtle trees. It's not too hot at this time of year either.

The only complaint I have, (don't laugh), is that they have opened up a Dairy Queen restaurant only four blocks from my house. It opened in February and I have done my best to avoid walking in that direction. I don't carry money with me on my walks, no reason to stop. Right?

Yesterday, my daughter wanted to walk with me and I warned her, it's going to be an hour. I don't want it to be 'take a step; drag Alexis' kind of a walk. Wouldn't you know on the way back, she started to complain how thirsty she had become. I told her to man up! We are only 6 blocks away from home.

She had money in her pocket and the next thing I knew, there we were at the Dairy Queen where she ordered a cherry Arctic Blast. Do you know how tough it was to be there with the smell of ice cream and shakes hovering in the air?

I was good. I only had a sip of her drink and didn't order a thing. No chocolate dipped cones, no ice cream sandwiches, no shakes, no Dilly Bars. Can you tell my mouth is watering? I've worked too hard to lose weight to slip up.

Monday, while she's at work, I'll walk the other way...as far away from Dairy Queen as I can!

I forgot to mention the Godiva Solid Dark Chocolate Easter Bunny sitting on my counter. Groan!

Always Something

First off, I just want to say thank you to all of you who commented on my last blog! Yes, we need to weed out dishonest auto repair businesses! One step at a time.

Last week, I tried really hard to get away from the Internet to devote time to my next book so I can submit it to my editor. On Monday, I devoted at least ten hours of writing and rereading and felt on track. Life got in the way on Tuesday through Thursday and then I spent more time on Friday. Hopefully, I will be done soon so I can start on my next one!

I did try the library, but it is not at all quiet like it was when we were growing up. Our library is small but functional. It has tables where you can sit and work quietly on whatever you're doing as well as tables where people can hold tutoring sessions. Within the area of tables, there are sitting areas of stuffed chairs and love seats. This area is surrounded by shelves of magazines.

Then off, to the left, is the children and young adults sections where they have a similar set up along with a huge fish tank where children love to watch the colorful fish.

Then, there are rows of computers, where people can access the Internet to do whatever they want. As I said, very accommodating.

There is also a huge auditorium where story telling for the little ones is held as well as scheduled classes and meetings. Very nice.

So why do the mother's bring in their little ones, who scream from the minute they enter the building? Not only that, they don't discipline them at all? They ignore them. They let them run up and down the aisles unattended. They also bring these children into the adult section where people are working, so that mom can check out a magazine while the poor little guys are bored out of their minds?

Let's not forget the mothers who bring in infants to the adult section to sit on the stuffed chairs so they can breast feed? I am not against breast feeding at all since I did it for my daughter, it's just that the library does have other places to accommodate these mothers.

The staff is not encouraged to discipline any of these women. They fear the public will stop using the library, so this behavior is tolerated. Sad state of affairs for our future.

I have invested in some really good earplugs!!!