Opinions

Prince Joe, Forever Blue and Educating Harvard by Suzanne Brockmann are worth reading and are guaranteed to hook you on Suzanne's writing if you've never read her before.
Now I'm on the search for more.

Speed Dating by Nancy Warren is one of those NASCAR inspired romance books by Harlequin. Have to say, it was cute and worth reading in a relaxing bubble bath. Someone just needs to find a way to keep the water warm for more than 20 minutes!

I just got my notification from the Romantic Times E-zine I subscribed to last month.
Happy News/Disappointed News.

The American Title III contest winner isn't Kim Howe, the author that I had highlighted in my blog back in January.

The lucky lady who won is Jenny Gardiner, whose SLEEPING WITH WARD CLEVER had that unusual romantic finale; the one that had wry humor and wit coloring the scene. It wasn't my personal style or expectation, but clearly many were intrigued by the unexpected twist and I acknowledge its cleverness.

She popped in on my comments way back (February) and explained why she chose what she did. She hinted that the other romance scenes that she had to choose from were critical to the story and would have given too much away.
Here's me saying, Congratulations to Jenny Gardiner! Looks like we're going to be able to read all about it when Sleeping With Ward Clever gets published.

AND for Kim Howe, the author who graciously allowed me to highlight her on this blog: Congratulations for making it all the way to the very last contest! I hope to read
One Shot, Two Kills at some point because after reading all your excerpts, you have me hooked! For me, your characters, plot and potential crisis vehicles are reminiscent of Susanne Brockmann's Navy SEALs and that constitutes a must read. All the best to you !!

Thanks to my smallest, I've learned that the Madagascar Tomato Frog is on the endangered Species list due to deforestation and the illegal pet trade.
You've heard about the rain forests being destroyed that way in South America and Africa, but on the island of Madagascar? They have flora and fauna that appear no where else in the world. Why isn't more being done?
Frogs are considered the world's litmus test of a stable ecology and environmnent. Shouldn't we be protecting them with stronger measures?

BTW - I read that they should be referred to with a different adjective than Madagascar - like,
Malagasy Tomato Frog, NOT Madagascan. Guess they're sensitive about that.

It is sunny today but breezy! We have sustained winds of 24 MPH but the wind so far has gusted up to 34 MPH. That would dry my hair in a hurry! LOL

Has anyone heard that Jaid Black has a new Trek offering? NOT Star Trek folks, LOL!
No, her erotic romance series based in another galaxy. I'm STILL waiting for Death's HEA!
She's been keeping us fans dangling for a few years.
I am hoping for a great climax soon.
*gg*

Herpetorium Freak

I promised a WARNING when I posted such a thing


This was Five Feet from my back door. I grossed out a couple of my blog buddies with this ... and I didn't know I would. I was just so excited to share. Now I know better. I'll warn you guys first.


It is at Least Two feet, perhaps a few inches over. Amazingly pretty, don't you think?


A
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Amended post:
Thanks, Emma, for pointing out I never I.D.'d my guest.

This is a regular, friendly (if you leave him alone) non-poisonous Garter Snake. (Info LINK)


Oh, they'll strike if provoked, and they move like lightning, but they are fun to have around. At the end of last summer, one got into our house and my DH had to corral it and herd it back outside using a broom. LOL
That was fun to watch. *grin*
Oh! And remember to Click on the picture to get the FULL effect of its eyes and scales. This pic is shrunk to about 35% of the original size. Great for wallpaper... but not for me. It's marking ARE pretty, just not soothing or relaxing. You know what I mean?

End of amended post.

However:
I also realize that seeing this exclusivly when you are trying to comment while you can't get away from the thing might give you the heebie jeebies ....


So, allow me to post another safe picture for your commenting relief.

May I please present to you,


SEAWEED the Seagull. So named by my youngest. He stayed still while I snapped his pic on our ocean view porch four feet away from us. Isn't he CUTE? Or she...
can't really tell with a gull ....


See how close we were to the water?

WE LOVED our place.

Oh and guess what? Seagulls like Potato bread. *gg*

We squished them into little bread balls so we could throw them better.

I have a short video I shot with my little camera showing the gulls fighting over the morsels.

Man, are they noisey!!

Eye Spy

I took this when we were on the salt marsh nature walk.

This makes a GREAT wallpaper!

BUT, when I loaded it onto my large screen at work, guess what I saw?

Look at the big picture and look at the person with the white shirt.

Tell me what YOU see!!

LOL

This ain't ol' Sponge Bob

Here's a tale without a tail.

A sponge that bobbed but wasn't Bob.

An item porous but FAR from amorous.

I really wished someone had warned me, told me, and made sure I paid attention. Sponges are not made equal. After the Nor'Easter I guess a lot of surf and turf got tossed. One of the effects were these greyish floaty things bobbing in the water, moving with a gentle sway from the incoming tide in tide pools left behind earlier in the day.

Some were as big as eight inches across and two inches thick. Intriguing 'creatures', wouldn't you say?

Look at this critter. Doesn't it look like a cross between a rock and a slab of brains??

This shot was taken while the natural wonder was still under water. I couldn't believe how clear it came out. Cool, eh ?

The one thing that will always remain memorable about seeing and touching a sponge in its natural habitat can only be done in the form of a question.

What do Mer-people wipe their asses with in the ocean?

These sea sponges!!!!

Honest to Betsy, people, that is exactly what this sucker smelled like ... human shit. GROSS!!!!!

It took two scented wipes to get the smell off of my fingers!! I've smelled rotting seaweed, decomposing fish and stagnant water, but this takes offensive to a whole new level.

I don't think I'll EVER forget this experience.

Zipping in to say HI

Yep, I'm back .

Started off cold. Ended up warm. Warmest as we were leaving. Figures.

LOVE the new place we stayed. What an illusion, like we were over the water, on a boat. Even through the walls and windows closed, the crash of the surf could be heard all night long.

Lovely.

This is the lighthouse at Nausett Beach. Taken the day we were coming home. Pretty yes? Wait until you see what else I saw there and the story I'll tell about it ... well, I'm going to be imparting words of wisdom. I wished I'd known or someone had told me before I TOUCHED it.

Ack!

TTFN

Hiatus Time again

All's quiet on the Eastern Front - East Coast that is.

Yep, I'm heading offline for a few days. I thought I'd give you a heads up.

Just a few things to share while I'm serving crickets noise here.

I was talking to DH. He said a phrase. The Polish Count.

I realized that "Count" can be interpreted THREE ways! So the phrase is saying three different things.

No wonder our language is such a bear to learn.

BTW - Can YOU name the three difference? Hmmmmm?

Making a Baby

The Smiths were unable to conceive children and decided to use a surrogate father to start their family.
On the day the proxy father was to arrive, Mr. Smith kissed his wife goodbye and said,
"Well, I'm off now The man should be here soon."

Half an hour later, just by chance, a door-to-door baby photographer

happened to ring the doorbell, hoping to make a sale.

Good morning, Ma'am", he said, "I've come to...''

Oh, no need to explain,"

Mrs. Smith cut in, embarrassed, "I've been expecting you."

"Have you really?" said the photographer.

"Well, that's good. Did you know babies are my specialty?"

"Well that's what my husband and I had hoped.

Please come in and have a seat"

After a moment she asked, blushing, "Well, where do we start?"

"Leave everything to me. I usually try two in the bathtub, one on

the couch, and perhaps a couple on the bed. And sometimes the living
room floor is fun. You can really spread out there."

"Bathtub, living room floor? No wonder it didn't work out for Harry and me!"

"Well, Ma'am, none of us can guarantee a good one every time. But if we try several different positions and I shoot from six or seven

angles, I'm sure you'll be pleased with the results."

"My, that's a lot!" gasped Mrs. Smith.

"Ma'am, in my line of work a man has to take his time. I'd love to

be in and out in five minutes, but I'm sure you'd be disappointed

with that."

"Don't I know it," said Mrs. Smith quietly.

The photographer opened his briefcase and pulled out a portfolio

of his baby pictures.

"This was done on the top of a bus," he said.

"Oh my God!" Mrs. Smith exclaimed, grasping at her throat.

"And these twins turned out exceptionally well - when you consider

their mother was so difficult to work with."

"She was difficult?" asked Mrs. Smith.

"Yes, I'm afraid so I finally had to take her to the park to get

the job done right.

People were crowding around four and five deep toget a good look"

"Four and five deep?" said Mrs. Smith, her eyes wide with amazement.

"Yes", the photographer replied.

"And for more than three hours,too.

The mother was constantly squealing and yelling - I could hardly

concentrate, and when darkness approached I had to rush my shots.

Finally, when the squirrels began nibbling on my equipment, I just

had to pack it all in."

Mrs. Smith leaned forward.

"Do you mean they actually chewed on your, uh...equipment?"

"It's true, Ma'am, yes..

Well, if you're ready, I'll set-up my tripod and we can get to work right away."

"Tripod?"

"Oh yes, Ma'am.

I need to use a tripod to rest my Canon on. It's

much too big to be held in the hand very long."

Mrs. Smith fainted.

*****************************

Well, that's all folks , for a bit anyway. I promise to take some pictures and share them with you when I get back. I just hope we don't get rained out! TTFN!

Edit: Pic's wouldn't post this last night.

Posting this so when you visit, you'll

be inspired to smile.

I can only HOPE to catch a pic as fun as this.

*giggle*

Photographer was good! I had to add this one too... Seems the perfect pose for a perfect "G'day mate. Enjoy the walk-a-bout"

**waggles brows**

What do You think He's saying?

Thanks for stopping by. Maybe one of these is worth viewing more than once? *gg*

Behave while I'm gone.

Or not.

*grin*

Book Bang

It's raining, it's pouring, when you read it's never boring.

How not bored was I? I'll list them for you but,

How would a cat rate a book?

Let's see

... Meow= Good- romantic, more please, LOL

... Purr = spicy/juicy, great - wow-romantic-demand MORE

... Hiss = boo-hiss! let down, had potential, had more off than on moments
... Cat antics = subtext - details
... Grrr = bury book in used kitty litter

In Blackhawk's Bed by Barbara McCauley - Meow

At the Spaniard's Convenience by Margaret Mayo - Hiss

Shockingly Sensual by Lori Wilde - Purr/Meow

Kitty Takes a Holiday by Carrie Vaughn - MEOW/purr ( or should I say "woof", *giggle* )

The Greek's Virgin by Trish Morey - Kitty stretch with tail flick.

When She Was Bad by Cara Summers - Purr

The Accidental Mrs. MacKenzie by Bonnie K. Winn - Meow

Stolen By The Sheikh by Trish Morey - Meow with tail flick

From Out Of The Blue by Nadia Nichols - MEOW/rub, rub, curl

Bustin' by Minda Webber - MEOW/PURR/Pounce - let's play!

His Wedding-Night Heir by Sara Craven - Hiss

The Greek's Bridal Bargain by Melanie Milburne - Hiss

Well, that's all from Cat Critic Corner. *giggle*

Play with you next time!

Back to Fluff with a Bang

I'm driving along on the highway at 65 miles an hour (the speed limit), minding my own business, when outta nowhere there's this big crack in my windshield!!

I swerved right,

and then left,

and it was still right there!!

*

*

*

THAT'S JUST WRONG!!!!!

There just ain't NO words for this!

Sure there is : Giggle! Snicker! Good Grief! Quick, hide the kids eyes!

Thank one of my best friends for emailing this eye shocker to me. LOL!

I Doubt Didymus' Doubt

See my headline up above? It says that this is a place where I share things near and dear to me.
You’ve seen most of my input, mostly fluffy and offbeat, sometimes serious but not usually to the point of controversial.

Guess I feel like tweaking that a bit. So fair warning - I’m going to be talking religion. So for some visitors, that means “boring” or “red flag” and you‘ll be clicking out faster than you can blink.
That’s OK.

That’s why I’m giving you the head’s up before you go any further into this post.

Catch you next time.

The Scripture readings today were from John 20:1-29.

Remember Doubting Thomas?

How Jesus came into a well locked room to appear before the disciples but Thomas was the only one missing? When the others proclaimed that they had seen the Lord, how he said he wouldn’t believe them unless HE was able to put his fingers into the wounds ?

This story is always used to teach about what makes our faith so special; to believe even when there is no physical, tangible proof.

As I was sitting there listening, I had a thought zing through my brain. A very human and fallible thought.
What if Thomas’ reaction wasn’t so much of disbelief, but of hurt? An envy and hurt that he disguised with words of cynical bravado?
“Oh yeah, tell me another one. I’ll believe that when I see it.”

No one will ever know what he was really thinking - but what if?

What if his feelings were hurt? Tormented by jealousy that the other disciples got to see something, some one, that Thomas was aching to see, yearning to experience? What if he felt left out?
Maybe shut out? Denied?

How crushing!

What would be a human’s response - someone like you and me?

Would we perhaps hide our true feelings with a “Yeah, right” attitude and express disbelief to cover how much we DO believe? Would we suffer the tortured feeling of being on the outside looking in with no hope of one last glance at God who walked as man on Earth? Would our souls cry out at the lost opportunity?

That’s how I see Thomas. I doubt his disbelief. I do not doubt his love for Jesus and his yearning to see him one last time.

I think he issued words of challenge because he still hoped.
Hoped that Jesus would hear and understand and give him the gift of one last chance to be in His presence.

And God loved his disciples to do just that. Even one we now refer to as Doubting Thomas.

And Thomas a/k/a Didymus, has the distinction of presenting our Lord the opportunity to teach us through him that:

“ Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."

How truly special is Thomas!

IMHO

Is a Rainbow worth a Migraine?

It is when the pictures actually come out showing the prism effect.

Took me awhile to download it into the computer to see how it came out.

Wasn't there a great book by Susan Grant about time travel beyond a rainbow? Very romantic story if I remember.

Unfortunately, I didn't have such a thrilling result. Me and Bucket Buddy walked around for hours while my migraine induced nausea kept me company.

My family is pretty happy though and that counts for something. OK, so it's not a true rainbow, more like a giant prism in the sky, but the refracted colors can be seen and it is what got my little one's so excited that they came in screaming "Rainbow! Rainbow! We see a rainbow, come here! Come on!"

So here's the proof.

Click on the picture if you want the BIG view as it took a LONG time to load.

If you don't want to click, here's a slightly bigger pic for instant gratification.

Sort of looks like a ribbon tying tight and bunching up the clouds, like you would with corn stalks or paper flowers. Isn't Mother Nature creative?

Random notes

Can't have the same thing all the time staring at you in blogland.

Can't top those pictures, though.

Let me tell you about work. My computer fried. Three people and two computers. Ever play musical chairs? In this game, I'm always the loser. As soon as someone vacates their chair, I have to slip in and do my work and slither back out.

Annoying. Doable, but annoying.

The most irritating is lunch time. I eat at my desk. I love to eat at my desk.

Why?

Because they have DSL!!!

I can zoom through the blogosphere with the greatest of ease.Things load in seconds whereas at home it takes minutes...sometimes as long as three minutes!!!

So, now I don't have a computer and I have a BAD habit of reading while eating. .. do you do that too??

Anyway ... what do I do in the meantime?

Read. A book. I don't bring any from home, so I scrounge around.

What books are there to read in a lawyer's office?

Legal books, what else?

Yesterday, I grabbed a Legal Dictionary and found myself enjoying it.

So, today I did the same thing.

I learned:

You know that phrase, " Them thar words is "Fightin' Words, boy!!" ?

Fighting Words - a real legal term

Speech that is not protected by the First Admendment to the United States Constitution because it is likely to cause violence by the person to whom the words are spoken.

How come we don't see that used as a defense anywhere? It has great potential. I guess yelling 'Fire' in a crowded place falls under that category ... sort of.

Tons of people spout and get on their soap boxes about their pet peeves and they extravagantly express (read - abuse) their freedoms of speech. Sometimes it seems that there's no stopping them, no matter how inflamed and self-righteous they get or who they hurt.

Well .... insulting me or mine is FIGHTING WORDS ... so if I beat the crap outta you, because you enticed me to violence, will I get off because your words aren't defensible if they can be proved as "fighting words"??

I guess that depends on how badly I beat the crap outta you and what you do to retaliate.

See, If I respond to your FIGHTING WORDS and attack you, YOU then bear the brunt of proving said violence against you when you do violence against ME because you will then have to defend yourself with FLEE TO THE WALL Doctrine.

What the heck is that?

The principle that a person must try every reasonable way of escape before killing the attacker.

So, in trying to "escape my violence", you .... I'm ... Oops, that means I'm dead. Eek.

Well, how in the hell do you prove your innocence then? What about mine???? I can't talk anymore!!!

Damned, infernal Fighting Words ....

Spring!

This was Last Thursday. Our elevation was enough to grace our lands with marshmallow snow. It coated the trees in glorious late spring dressings of white.

Isn't the water pretty? This is not too far from me. If I want, I could see this everyday throughout the different seasons. I just never stopped to take a pic before.

A tall spire graces the corner of my house,

thrust up between the oak and birch.

On fronds of pine

and cone unseen,

find marshmallow snows on a tentative perch

Bright golden sprouts of spring
A sense of hope
upon me bring.


Focus on my Crocus
and you will see,
a harginger of Spring
a herald of Mother Nature's magic,
and a new season's king.

Happy Easter!

A quiet blog

Have you noticed?
I've been quiet.
ENNUI?
Perhaps.

I've been reading though.

I DID find an answer to my previous question. He DOES get his own story ... a novella, but at least it's something after putting up with those Cynster Sisters. LOL

Oh, what have I been reading these past four days? Fluff. Pure fluff.

Heiress for Hire by Erin McCarthy

No Strings Attached by Alison Kent

Storming Paradise by Mary McBride

The Billionaire Boss's Forbidden Mistress by Miranda Lee

For Pleasure ... or Marriage? by Julia James

The Greek's Chosen Wife by Lynne Graham

The Playboy Boss's Chosen Bride (NK on cover, Woot!) by Emma Darcy

The Spanish Billionaire's Mistress by Susan Stephens

Savage Arrow by Cassie Edwards (NK on cover, double Woot!)
*************sssssssss
SOMEBODY ;-) sent me Kisses to Go by Irene Peterson ... so that's on my TBR pile...next up. Sounds cute!

Oh! Remember I said I was going to see THE MIKADO?
I did.
Fun! Very fun and I DID recognize the music from Foul Play with Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn. LOVE that movie, a real LOL film.
Even DH laughed so you know it had to be good.
A guy laughing at an opera?
Yep, had to be good.

It snowed today! It was Beauuutiful this AM. Now? All gone. Emphemeral beauty thy name is Snow.
**********************************(())__+)&^%^^*%$#@@
Did you see the previews for what looks like a cute movie called SPYMATE?
It's a about a James Bond type Monkey!! *giggle*..
What will they think of next?

Hey, have a great weekend!

A question of character

Great title, yes?

Nothing so dramatic a topic as you might think.

I have a question for any fervent Stephanie Lauren reader.
I'm reading her Bar Cynster series. I've been reading it on and off for a few months now.

My question - DOES REGGIE CARMARTHEN HAVE HIS OWN STORY???

He seems like the perfect foil, the "standy-by-you" kind of guy, the friend, the one no one takes seriously, the one that's a man but people have forgotten or no longer see him in such a light.
He's the kind of guy that begs for notice, the quiet one. Still waters run deep they say.
Has Laurie said?