I believe the husband and I reached another milestone yesterday. We went to the grand opening of Vertigo Cafe in the next town over. We decided to drink our free coffee and eat our croissants on the patio. The husband went out with the coffee to grab the last free table, while I waited for the food. When I came out, he was standing next to the table. "There's only one chair," he said at the same time that I noticed why he had been standing. "We can sit on the bench," he said. That was okay by me. I was in need of coffee and food to break my evening fast. Everything was registering very slow with me. "Take my chair," said a voice behind me. I looked over at a young family. Two small children were perched on chairs. Dad was standing behind his son, and Mom was standing beside her chair. "No, thank you," we said. "We can sit on the bench." "You have a plate," the young mom said. "Besides, we are about to leave." Th

This week, the PhotoHunt theme is orange. To see other photos, click here to tnchick's (our host) site. What Came First: The Color or The Fruit?

Today, I offer you, dear readers, a review of my third entry for the Cozy Mystery Challenge . Four more to go. Actually, I finished Corpse Suzette by G. A. McKevett about three weeks ago. The book has been sitting patiently on my table to be written about for over a week. How time flies! Corpse Suzett e is the 11th book of the Savannah Reid series. Savannah is a 40-ish ex-police officer who turned private eye many years ago. She is based in the fictional town of San Carmelita, which I think could be anywhere on the California central coast.  Originally from Georgia, Savannah loves cooking and eating yummy rich food (think Paula Deen) and is happy about her zaftig size. She has no problem getting around as she sleuths the traditional way. In contrast, Savannah's assistant is a slim, hyper health nut named Tammy, who is also a computer whiz. Savannah's other sidekick is Sgt. Dirk Coulter, her ex-cop-partner who still serves on the local force. Because no one wants to work with

I like it when the husband drives. I hang out the car window, like a happy puppy, clicking away at the scenery. As we were driving home the other evening, the fog was starting to roll over the hills. Click! Today, I'm sharing my photos at Wordless Wednesday and Outdoor Wednesday . Head over to those sites to check out links to photo works by other bloggers.

"Ow-ow-ow-ow-Ow! Owwww!" "What were you doing?" asked the husband with alarm. No, not a clock. Though, I did ask him to time me for a minute. He saw me get down on the floor, but didn't notice what I was doing. He kept tippity tapping away on his computer, after he said, "Go" and then 60 seconds later, "Stop." I did 48 stomach crunches.  I was soooo impressed with myself since I hadn't done sit-ups in several months. But I didn't think the crunches would cramp me up when I sat down in front of the computer. "Owwwwww." "You silly woman," said the husband. See. That's the kind of sympathy I get after 13 years of marriage. Why was I doing the crunches? It was a test to find out where to start my 200 sit-ups training program . Yep, another challenge. And, yep, you heard me right. 200 sit-ups. The goal is to be able to do 200 sit-ups, one after the other, in 6 weeks or more. You only need to crunch up to a 35-degree

Our child is growing. Til today, she felt shy to go to social events. Now look. Two days. Two parties by herself. Before we know it, our 80ish mama will be dating. --- This is a 160 Character Challenge, hosted by the Monkey Man . Give it a try. What can you write in 160 characters or less? You must count spaces, too.

I'm having fun checking out different blog hops and linky parties around the blogosphere. Today, I've hooked up with two new groups of bloggers.  One is PhotoHunt hosted by tnchick.com. This is my contribution to the pack of photo hunters. PhotoHunt has a weekly theme. "Colorful" is this week's theme. I took this photo at a local diner because of the colors. The second blog hop is called "Saturday Sharing," hosted by Say Anything...Cuz Censorship Sux. There, you link up your favorite post of the week.  Take a look, why don't ya, and maybe link your post, too.