Whooo-hoooo! Five books. Five books. Five books. A happy song for me. I bought five books, a buck a book, from the local Friends of the Library the other day. It took all of five minutes, a minute a book, to decide I wanted them. Hurrah, hurrah! Molly the Cat likes the titles, too.  So it seems. I'm still working on Anne Perry's latest Daniel Pitt novel, Triple Jeopardy , set in London in the early 1900s . If you read Perry's Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series, which was based in the 19th century at the end of Queen Victoria's reign, you may like the Daniel Pitt series. Daniel is a 20-ish attorney who is Charlotte's and Thomas's son. So far, his parents play a minor, but still very important, role in the series. Once I'm done with Triple Jeopardy , I'll start on one of the five books. Which shall be first: Everything is Beautiful , by Mira T. Lee; Pride vs. Prejudice , by Joan Hess; Major Pettigrew's Last Stand , by Helen Simonson; I Fe

Snip, snip, snip. The past two mornings I've been trimming the daisy bushes in the front yard. A lot of daisies to be deadheaded. I chose to wait for the California poppies to go to seed before starting the task, so I reasoned. Snip, snip, snip. Glub, glub, glub. A female Ruby-throated Hummingbird has been Molly the Cat's and my companion these past mornings. She, the hummingbird, loves drinking the flowers of the Hot Lips Littleleaf Sage by the driveway. Cool name, Hot Lips. Remember Major Hot Lips Houlihan? Click, click, click. "Want to see a hummingbird's nest?" I asked, as I plucked the camera out of the bowl in the hallway. The Husband got up from the breakfast table and followed me out the door. I discovered the nest minutes before in the tree in the front yard. That's an upside to deadheading daisies. I think the hummingbird was used to my presence because she didn't seem to mind that I was standing nearby. Click, click

Earlier this week the Husband and I attended the funeral service for dear friend J's sister, Rosie, who was much loved by her family and friends. Two of her nieces told loving, funny, and cheerful Rosie stories to us all there. They called Rosie the fun-loving auntie who, from their stories, you can tell the nieces thought of as their second mother. It was heart-warming to hear as I'm childless as well, and, once was the fun-loving auntie.  That's life sometimes, bittersweet. The family considered Rosie to be the lumpia king. She made the best and it sounded like she always kept lumpia (similar to an eggroll, for those who've never tasted lumpia) in the freezer ready to fry at any time of day or night. Hearing all that talk about lumpia got me wanting some so when the Husband and I got home, I took out lumpia wrappers and leftover lumpia filling from the freezer. I managed to roll sixteen lumpias from the mix. Hurrah! But what do I do with the rest of the wrapp

A few weeks ago Saturday Night Live featured a video about two women talking about their hobbies. Oh my gosh,  I recognized myself. When I was a young single thing living la dolce vita in San Francisco, a guy I met for coffee asked, "What are your hobbies?" "Hobbies?" "Interests. What do you like to do?" Totally stumped, I was. I liked to read and write, but I didn't consider those activities as hobbies. They were simply a part of what I did.  Without trying, in the last three years, I've embraced hobbies. Sewing, drawing, painting, gardening, and crafting are what have showed up at my door, thus far. That guy at the cafe 40 years ago? I never saw him again. SO, MOLLY DID The other day I didn't feel like folding the pieces of fabric I laid out on the bed in L Studio. It wasn't going to bother me if Molly the Cat felt like lying on top of the fabric. I told her so, too, before I sat down to contemplate how much of the vari

Thirteen years ago, I would've replied "Nooo. Really?" should future me had reached into the time spectrum to tease me about my today. Never ever would I have thought 13 years ago that I would actually do these things. One. Taking 15 years for us to move the Husband's parents' belongings from a rented storage locker to our garage. Two.  Buying artist's and crafter's paints. Three. Tending to all sorts of flowers on what was once Mama's lawn.  Four. Mulling over the possibilities for curtains I'll sew for the bedroom, L Studio, and living room windows.  Five. Interrupting a task to play Scrabble with the Husband, and knowing that I'll finish the task when we're done with the game.  Six. Painting a mural. Seven. Being told by a specialist that he can't straighten my leg. Crooked? That was news to me. Eight. Receiving my social security benefits! Nine. Being loved by Molly the Cat. Ten. Meeting many ki

Dear Blogging Friends, I appreciate your concern to what Jeanna nicely asks, ". . .where the hells are ya?" Time flew. Words stuttered. Thoughts blocked. Fog erased sentences. I shrugged it off by becoming a mad demon downsizing the stuff in the garage and house so that all the stuff that has been in storage for 15 years may get shoved into the garage.  Of course, the decision to make this happen was three weeks before the Husband had his first cataract surgery. Once that happened, he won't be able to lift, carry, and manipulate heavy objects until June. (He has his second cataract surgery in May.) Success! Everything got moved and fit in the garage. Success! The Husband was able to read 20/25 on the eye chart with his new left lens less than 24 hours after his procedure. Pretty good from 20/800. "Keep busy" is the advice some people like to give those who recently lose someone. I didn't understand that when the First Husband died in 1995 nor

The other day, friends (whom I've known since elementary school) and I were kidding about not knowing what we want to be when we grow up.  Then I realized that I did know and that I was doing it: Playing at being an artist. And, not just with words. Whooo-hooo! A couple weeks ago I finished my first painting. It's on the concrete step outside the patio window. Some of you may remember the bottles I painted earlier this month. I let a few of them dry on that concrete step, which left paint stains. I decided that painting over the stains was the best way to get rid of them. And, so I did. BOOK PLANTER I made one! It was easy-peasy. If you want to give it a try, do a search for "book planter" in your browser. One of these days, I'll share my method once I've got it down. I have another book ready to be planted and four more prepped to carve. My first book planter became a housewarming gift. The yellow glassy thing (in the middle photo above) i