Yesterday's mail brought my royalty check. Whoo-hooo! Just in time to pay the property tax bill. Boo-hoo. I'm grateful, and fortunate, to still receive royalties on career and educational books that I wrote 10 years ago. Jo in Little Women was asked by Professor Bhaer (who Jo eventually married) why she wrote trashy stories. Her answer: The sale of that trashy story bought something for her family back home, the sale of this trashy story paid for a vacation by the sea for her ill sister who needed the fresh air, and so forth and so on. Professor Bhaer had the decency to feel bad for bringing it up to Jo, and after he apologized, he encouraged Jo to write something that is dear to her heart. I'm not saying that my books are trash. Far from it. I have been wondering lately if there is something that is dear to my heart that I want to write.   

Swings and jungle gyms. Slides and teeter-totters. I came across a playground for the first time when I was five years old on my first day of first grade. I really took to the slides, especially the corkscrew one. When I got home that day, I looked forward to the next day of the slides just as much as the books and the pencils, and the desks and the blackboards. That experience lasted all of two-and-a-half days. I had to wait a full year to hang out in a playground again because the teacher said I was "too young" for school. It was okay. I went back to my old playground of open fields.

Lately my hands have been itchy to draw. The other evening it began with the desire to draw a sunflower. Instead of drawing an imaginary one, I got off the couch and went and plucked a wilted sunflower from a two-week bouquet in the kitchen. I checked out the flower's structure, counted its petals, and took a good long hard look at it. I sketched a sunflower head with 32 petals (more or less, I lost count in the 20s), shaded in the petals with colored pencils, didn't like the result, and went searching for the crayons. Before I knew it the sunflower got a stem and leaves. . .and a setting!

Yesterday I fried chicken for the Husband's and my main meal, which some may consider a very late lunch or a rather early dinner. I've been wanting to taste fried chicken for the last several days. Fried chicken is one of my comfort foods. Nibble, nibble. The best fried chicken I've ever eaten was cooked by the Daddy, perfectly crisp on the outside and moist inside. It has been over 35 years since I ate the Daddy's fried chicken. Recently I decided it's not worth buying already-made fried chicken from any of the options in our town. It's too disappointing. Too greasy. Too dry. Too salty. And so forth and so on. So, this Missus Lady (as Molly the Cat calls me) cut chicken thighs into bite-size chunks; shook them in a bag of flour, paprika, turmeric, mustard power, garlic powder, black powder, and salt; and fried them in olive oil. Sizzle, sizzle.  The result was quite tasty. Nibble, nibble . The best part about eating fried chicken yesterday was r...

I'm tired of writing about movies. But, I have to say something. Missus Lady says so. She says she's not filling in for me like last time.  So, okay. The other day Missus Lady received a surprise package from Miss Georgy (You rock!) of Jubilee Street . In it were sweet stuff including a couple of blank journals and blank postcards to invite creativity. Purrrrrrrrrr.  This morning Missus Lady and Hero Man painted postcards in the backyard.  She painted an island, I think, while he painted Me! Purrrrrrrrrrr. A note from Su-sieee! Mac: This week the theme is the letter P on ABC Wednesday . Click here to check out what bloggers from around the world have written. Thank you,  ABCW team! P.S. Maybe Molly will be back with a movie review next week.

"Just from the gate to the grate," I said unsurely to the Husband yesterday, as he swung the car around to park on the other side of the rutted lane. We were at the eastern end of the Juan Bautista de Anza national Historic Trail in San Juan Bautista. It's been almost two years since we've walked here. The last time we got as far as we did today because the Husband's heart couldn't take it. We didn't know then what was going on with his heart. I'm happy to say that the Husband and his friend, Gerry Andy Pacemaker, felt g-r-e-a-t . They had no problem going that short distance. This time round it was me that we were being careful about. I discovered that my knees can handle walking on uneven, forgiving dirt with the help of a cane. I woke up yesterday morning determined to walk a bit up one of our favorite trails.  Looking at the trail from the car, I wondered if I really could walk between the gate and cattle grate. The Husband thought the distance...

I love a movie with penguins. Who wouldn't, I ask you? Who? Maybe owls. This movie stars a dog. Rrrrfh . I like dogs. My first friends and protectors were dogs. I love dogs. Rrrfh . Sometimes Missus Lady and Hero Man remark how much like a dog I am. My Humans so know me. Rrrrfh. Oddball and the Penguins (2015) Setting: Middle Island off the coast of Warrnambool, Australia Fairy penguins do indeed have a breeding colony on Middle Island off the southwestern coast of Australia. And, Oddball was an actual maremma sheepdog who saved the colony of fairy penguins from dying off on Middle Island in 2006. So, purrrrrrr , this movie is inspired by a true heart-warming tale. Why were the fairy penguins dying off? How did the farmer who owned Oddball knew he could protect the penguins? Also, who among the townspeople didn't want the little penguins to flourish, and why didn't they? I love this movie. Rrrrfh! Purrrrrrrrrrr. A note from Su-sieee! Mac: The letter O ...

No movie review from me today. But, here's a photo of purrrrrrrrrrrrty me taking a snoozer of a stretch .  See ya next week with a movie . Ciao. A Note from Su-sieee! Mac Molly the Cat refused to write about today's selection, A New Kind of Love , a 1963 silly comedy romp starring the sparkly and sparking duo of Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman. She said, "How can I write about the movie, Missus Lady, when I've never seen it? Also, it's not on Netflix." Always the logical cat, Missy Molly is, by golly. Molly gave me her glare of a stare then a turn of her back when I said she could paraphrase what I told her about the movie. That Girl! She didn't care that it was one of my favorite movies from my teenage years, making the circuits of the day, evening, and late Saturday night movie stations. It was a funny, sexy, actually quite layered, love story, but one I'd probably cringe at a lot if I were to see it for the first time today. A Ne...

These books were new at the library last month. The one by the rich girl was prominently displayed, while Ms Arce's was shelved beneath it.   I could not resist pulling hers out and placing it next to the other with the tagline  "Rewrting the Rules for Success." Isn't it interesting whose name was printed huuuuugely on her book?  Meow. "That's not me mewing," says Molly the Cat.

Sir Billy Connolly is one of the Missus Lady's favorite actors. Until she saw Mrs Brown , she thought of Connolly as being that Scottish actor in a 1980s high school sitcom who played the teacher of a class of specially smart, and troubled, kids in New York City. It was when the Humans first signed up for Netflix that Missus Lady got on a Billy Connolly kick and came to realize how versatile an actor he is. The Man Who Sued God (2001) Setting: Some place in Australia Steve (so wonderfully interpreted by Billy Connolly) is a lawyer turned fisherman. Not sure if he does it for a living or just says that's what he does. One day his fishing boat is struck by lightening. Ka-Bloom! The insurance company tells him that they will not honor his claim because it was destroyed by an Act of God. Oh-oh. Steve sees red. And, sues! But, who does he sue? Uhm...the churches. Yup. Steve sues the churches because they are God's representatives on Earth. How are the churches g...