November 2006

I’ve been silenced!

2 Comments / Day to Day, Pet Peeves /

I have stuff to say.  Important stuff.  Brilliant observations about kids and family and friends and POLITICS and FOOD but Cox has censored me by popping my connection in and out in the most horrid of manners. 

All is moving along nicely and then 30 seconds later, my wireless is trying to connect me to the Hyatt – the Hyatt in San Jose!  What the Fudge?  Others in the house hold their connection but me, I’m being connected all the way across the country?  Turns out it is my sensitive little Stinkpad noticing Cox is having some connection issues because finally TW and Prince J and Michelle and Christopher all begin to have connection woes as well.  My little Stinkpad is just way too sensitive and tries to be awesomely helpful and seeks out a connection in California rather than muddling through with low connectivity here in town.

Tomorrow will be better, surely.  I have a day off and I plan to blog and blog and blog (and do laundry and run all of those errands I totally blew off this weekend in favor of family time and reading and napping).

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There Is No Me Without You

2 Comments / 2006, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

Sigh, Sigh, Sigh, Sigh. There Is No Me Without You is a difficult book. Difficult because it’s a reminder of how little most of us are doing to solve huge problems. It’s a reminder of how little difference we are making in the world.

Everyone should read this, and books like it – and then DO something. And while you’re at it, go read Mary’s interview with the author. And visit Mary’s family – her family has made a difference in Africa.

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I think I’m done with Irish authors

2006, Books in Bed, Fiction /

OK maybe I’m not done with Irish authors but I think I need to be a bit more selective. Then again, even Irish authors I’m supposed to like because everyone likes them are just not my thing. The Third Policeman appeared on my reserve pick up list and I have no idea how it got there. Or maybe it was something that TW just picked up off the shelf? However it happened, I wish it hadn’t.

For awhile I thought I might like it, that lasted for the first chapter. For the next three chapters I was just puzzled. Almost in the same way I was puzzled about Gravity’s Rainbow. At that point, I flipped to the back of the book and saw some author’s notes – ah ha, that clears things up a bit. (No I’m not going to tell you what is in there – just remember if you are reading this and you’re just not getting it, flip to the back and the author’s notes might help – and I just peeked at Amazon and they suggest the author’s note as well. Darn, I wish I had seen that earlier!). From there, it was better. It almost made sense, almost. In that madcap, this is just too weird sort of way. I think I liked the last chapter the best – too bad I had to read the first 190 pages.

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The Coroner’s Journal

2 Comments / 2006, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

Like they always say, truth is stranger than fiction. The Coroner’s Journal proves that completely. Louis Cataldie is one of the most interesting characters ever to grace the pages of a book and he’s a real live person. The crimes, often felt like something out of a horror novel or a whodunit, but those were real crimes. Truth is definitely stranger than fiction.

I would like to meet Cataladie over a cup of coffee and a hot donut someday, the stories he can tell and the fact that he still seems to be pretty sane after all that he’s been through. Amazing

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Review Me

3 Comments / Review /

A brand new blogging for dollars program has launched, it’s called ReviewMe and I am getting paid to review “Review Me” with this very post. In the future, any posts I may write for Review Me will sit in the “Review Me” category and the posts themselves will indicate that they are “advertisements” or that I am being paid to review. This isn’t just my policy but it is also ReviewMe’s policy. All bloggers MUST disclose their relationship within the blog post.


When you sign up for ReviewMe as a blogger, you enter all of your data and then register a blog. ReviewMe immediately determines how much you’ll get paid for a review post and this is determined by your page rank. If you want to make more money for your reviews then you’d best get busy and increase your page rank. Good blogs get more money and that makes sense to me. I’ve got a PR5 so not bad but not great either. My payout is $30 per review.


The site itself is easy to navigate, and it was easy to find answers to my questions last night when I joined. I’ve surfed around some of the other blogs who have also joined and that’s been interesting, as well. There are some good bloggers already signed up, that seems like a good sign for the future.
So let’s see how this goes, shall we. Feel free to tell me what you think as we travel along this road.

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Daily Dose of Cupcake Toppers

1 Comment / Cupcake Toppers /

coins021sm.jpgHappy Veteran’s Day. Military cupcake toppers, there are oh so many options to choose from. You could go with the classic little green men (I can’t wait to see the search hits from that phrase!) or miniature tanks or planes or ships. Do you know anyone with an abundance of military coins they might be willing to part with? Incredibly expensive to buy on ebay and you probably won’t find anyone willing to give theirs up, but what a fantastic cupcake topper.

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My Parents Are Weird

7 Comments / Friends & Family /

You’re probably thinking that all parents are weird and I am writing about something everybody knows.  Well I think I can prove that my parents are more weird than the normal weird parents that you have. 

First, in case you don’t know this, my parents split up while I was pregnant with Jenn so that would be summer of 1983.  My father has been remarried for a long, long time (happy anniversary, pop) and my mom lives with her partner of several years.  They do not and have not lived in the same city for a very, very long time.  They do not talk very often at all, they don’t fight, they just don’t have any reason to interact regularly.

So, years ago when my sister got married my mom and my step mother showed up at the wedding in the same dress.  Weird, eh?  My step mother got in the car, drove to the nearest store and bought a new dress, which was good of her.  It’s an amusing family story that we often talk about.

Also, greeting cards have been an issue.  My mom and dad, they send the same greeting cards.  I mean identical cards – not the same card every year, I mean identical as in they choose the same greeting card as the other parent has chosen.  Not every holiday, but often.  Often enough that I have noticed and commented upon this.  And it’s not just ME they send the same cards to my brother.  I’m not sure if this happens with my sister, I don’t recall ever discussing it with her or in her presence.  Weird eh?

Now, I have a new weird thing and this one is really starting to bug me.  My parents, they both insist on calling me on the same day.  I’m not talking holiday phone calls, or weird family issue phone calls.  I mean just out of the blue called to kill time phone calls.  I will no sooner get off the phone with one of them and the phone will ring and it is the OTHER one.  Or I will get a call waiting beep while talking to one of them and it will no doubt be the other one.  This happens all of the time, seriously ALL of the TIME.   See, they are weird aren’t they?

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