It's That Time Again

It's time for Buy A Friend a Book Week. Well, actually, tomorrow is the start of the first week in July, but I'm getting a head-start (and I'm not the only one!) Blatantly stolen from the main site: Celebrating BAFAB is easy. Just get yourself to a real-life or virtual book store during Buy a Friend a Book Week (the first weeks of January, April, July, and October) and, well, buy a friend a book! But here's the fun part: you can't buy your friend a book because it's their birthday or they just graduated or got engaged or had a baby or anything else. You have to give them a book for no good reason. In fact, this present out of the blue from you should shock the pants off of whomever you decide to give it to. And it'll make them happy. And that's the point: promote reading, promote friendships. chanel handbags Just make sure to let them know about Buy a Friend a Book Week, so they can spread the joy in turn.

I always like celebrating this week by having a contest and this week is no exception. All you have to do is leave a comment here telling me you want to be entered into the drawing and one of you will win a free book of your choice (up to a $20 value). How easy is that? I'll have the drawing on Saturday, July 5.

Also, check out the contest Karen is having. If you are running a contest for BAFAB Week, let me know and I'll include your link as well.



EDITED TO ADD THE LINKS BELOW

Juliet is giving away a copy of Harpole & Foxberrow, General Publishers by J.L. Carr.

Juxtabook is giving away a copy of The Road to Haworth

In another contest, he's also giving away a gently read paperback.






Click to play along.

1. What’s the last thing you grab before you run out of the door in the morning? Are you pretty good at being on time? Or do you constantly run behind? If/when you’re late, what is usually the reason(s)? My pocketbook and camera. I never go anywhere without my camera. And.. I hate being late. I would rather not go someplace than be late. If I AM late, it's usually because I'm having to wait on someone... or that I forgot something and had to come back and get it (normally my sunglasses).

2. What is the last thing you bought from a vending machine? Where were you? How much did you spend? Do you use vending machines very often? Hmmm.. probably a diet coke, but I can't remember when the last time was. Obviously, I don't buy things from vending machines very often!

3. What does the hand-soap in your bathroom smell of? What color are your bathroom walls? What color are your guest towels? What sort of decor, or theme, do you have in your bathroom? (Post a picture if you dare!) MY bathroom is in a transitional state and the color of the walls is sheetrock. Yep.. no paint. It WILL be a light peach once we get to that part. Theme: Early American remodeling.

4. What three words do you think of when someone says ‘body’? "and soul"; "image"; "hair"... I know, technically that's more than three words... sue me.

Friday's Feast

Click to play along.

Appetizer

What is the weather like today where you live? Uh.. I live in south Georgia. It's hot and sunny and humid. I was going to add a cute little Weather Pixie, but apparently their site is down. Oh, well. Bother. According to Intellicast, the current temperature is 70 with an expected high of 90 and 94% humidity and scattered thunderstorms.

Soup

On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how career-minded are you? My career as a writer has taken backseat these days as a career as a website owner and editor. I hope to be changing that shortly. Some way, some how, there has to be a way of juggling all the hats I wear without dropping any.

Salad

What type of window coverings do you have in your home? Blinds, curtains, shutters, etc.? I love the idea of shutters... and if we ever get around to glassing in our side porch, I want shutters there. We have blinds and wooden valances in most of the rooms, but in the den we have drapes and sheers I made.

Main Course

Name something that instantly cheers you up. My husband's smile.

Dessert

How many times do you hit the snooze button on a typical morning? I never use an alarm clock, so.... never?

Thursday Thirteen

I have been bound and determined to spell Thursday Thirsday all morning. Sheesh....It's not like Wednesday (which to this day, I have to remind myself to spell it the way my teacher taught us way back in the day... Wed-nes-day... otherwise I spell it wrong. Are there any words you habitually spell wrong? Hmmm.. might be a post for another TT....)

But... today's Thursdy Thirteen is Thirteen Things I Need to Do...

1. Finish some editing
2. Finish critiquing a friend's manuscript
3. Write the pages for next week
4. Answer a ton of emails
5. Go with Bob as he grinds stumps (dodue to my injury, I'm not allowed to help this time. All we would need is for a chunk of wood to fly up and hit right on the wound.) EDITED TO ADD: Remind self to make a list of words I misspell this week for next week's TT.
6. Check on the garden (I think our first tomato might be about ready to pick. There is nothing better than vine-ripened tomatoes fresh off the vine)
7. Check on buying a new pressure canner. I have the feeling the one I have will need retiring. Of course, if I just freeze everything, I won't need one, 'cause tomatoes can be processed in a hot water bath.
8. Stock up on freezer bags.
9. Maybe make the investment in one of those vacuum freezer things...what do y'all think? If you have them, do you like them? And is it worth the investment?
10. Change the dressing on my leg. We've not done that yet. I'm not sure either one of us wants to see, but... it's probably a good idea to make sure things are healing properly.
11. Figure out something for supper. Mama came over and cooked for us last night (Southern-fried steak, yellow rice, and broccoli...mmm, mmm, good.)
12. Finish this blog and go link up to TT.
13. See if there is any trouble I can get into with Marianne or Lianne this morning before I have to leave.

Hope to see y'all soon!

Wednesday Wondering and Wanderings

We had some excitement in the old home place last night. I walked by a box that had a reciprocating saw sitting in it and didn't notice that the blade was sticking out. I felt a pull, looked down, saw the my leg was cut and bleeding pretty badly, and my first thought was, "Oh, this can't be good." I kinda pushed the edges back together and called for Bob.

Fortunately, he can always tell from my voice whether I want him or NEED him...and he never wastes time when I NEED him. Within two hours of cutting myself, I was returning home with eight stitches and two prescriptions. And, orders to keep my leg elevated. I'll be googling sutures and stitches to find out what more I need to be doing.
~~~

I will be doing some writing today... writing pages for next week's interviews and Author Spotlights on The Long and the Short of It, that is. And, hopefully, I'll get a chance to do some real writing as well. I still owe Daisy a story. :-)

~~~
Just wanted to give everyone a heads-up (because I forgot the last one!): Buy A Friend A Book Week is NEXT week. So.... be thinking about what book you would like to give someone. And, if you need any suggestions, my wish list is here. ;-)
~~~

Today's Birthday:
Happy Birthday, Carly Simon.

Tuesday Twitters

Blogger finally cooperated and let me post pictures of our garden. Last year we had a small spot for my mom to play in... this year, it's about twice as big. And, Bob is really getting into this whole gardening thing. We're already talking about what to put in our fall garden and looking at new things to add to next year's garden. Plus, I was looking at my copy of The Old Farmer's Almanac and discovered that a lot of what we planted late April should have been planted in February. Who knew?



This is one of our squash/zucchini plants. They are FULL of blooms. I didn't know that squash/zucchini flowers close up at night, though.



Our cucumbers also have a lot of blooms. As a matter of fact, one is about ready to pick. It's strange, though. Most of the cukes are ... well, cucumber shaped. One (on the same vine as others) is round. I thought at first it was some kind of melon.



Our okra has a multitude of itsy-bitsy okras. We've already gotten one off, but I have the feeling we'll be starting to harvest okra daily very soon.



And... these are some of our beans/peas. We bought some heirloom seeds and are really looking forward to seeing how they turn out.

~~~~
I ended up not getting anything done yesterday except what absolutely had to be done. The barometric pressure had been dropping for two days and whenever the pressure falls my sinuses have a heyday. And... yesterday, my sinus headache turned into a full-blown migraine...loads of fun. But, I woke up this morning. Our barometric pressure is on the rise, I am sinus-pain free, and ready to get some stuff done!

Y'all have a great day, now, y'hear?

Monday Morning Meme and Mayhem

Click on the picture to play along

June 23rd Questions:

1. What are your children doing right now? If you don’t have children, what is your significant other/roommate/friend, etc. doing right now?

The only child we have at home still is sleeping (we think that's her talent....anyone know of a job where she can sleep and make money?). DH is reading an article about the Scituate lighthouse . Apparently,they are looking for a new lighthouse keeper because the current one is retiring. Anyone want the job?

2. How many times a day do you look in a mirror? And be honest with us! WHY do you look? Is it a habit? Do you think you’re attractive? If you avoid looking into a mirror, why? Be honest with yourself! Hmmm... I look in the mirror when I get up and brush my teeth. If we have to leave the house for virtually any reason (except to go across the road to my mom's to tend to the garden), I look in the mirror because I don't leave the house without putting my make-up on (seriously. Marianne was horrified I put on make-up to go pick up a load of dirt. Only my family...poor things... get the dubious pleasure of seeing me without make-up). And... then again when I brush my teeth at night. Other than that... no.. not much unless I happen to be passing one...then I'll glance to make sure I don't have dirt on my face. Which, unfortunately, happens way too often!

3. What do you do/eat/say that makes your mother mentally cringe? What do your children/significant other do that makes YOU cringe? Hmmmm... nothing that I know of. If so, she hasn't complained. The main thing that makes me cringe with the child at home is her room. I'm scared to go in there. And, Bob...the only thing that makes me sorta cringe is he has NO patience in traffic or with stupid drivers. None.

4. Which do you focus on more, eating less or exercising more? Do you think one is more important than the other? Do you have a weight loss system that works for you? How much exercise would you say you do in a day? A week? How active (overall) is your family? What sort of physical activities does your family like to do together? Eating less when I think of it at all. I love to walk, but have fallen out of the habit of that. Intellectually, I know they are both important. Emotionally, I wish they weren't. As far as exercise goes... when our business if very active, I don't worry about it too much because I'm raking and lifting limbs, but it's slow now... so I don't do as much as I would like. Especially since my "other" jobs are all on the computer. I tend to get "spread-butt-itis" from sitting.

~~~~
I wanted an unable to show y'all a bit of how our garden is progressing (because for some reason Blogger doesn't want to upload my pictures.. I'll try again later)... and then I'm going over to weed a bit before it gets too hot. And, after that, I'm going to work on my "vacation/elation" story, Daisy, and will be posting it this week.

Sunday Somethings

I thought y'all might like to know what I do when I'm not LASRing, or reading to do a review, or writing, or editing, or thinking about cleaning my house. No, I don't go around looking for ways to look shorter than I am. Bob and I have a tree and stump removal company and we were called out the other day to give an estimate on a tree that blew over in a recent storm. It fell on a fence and the owners need a price on getting it off the fence.



I, also, received word the other day that one of my flash fiction pieces will be published by Flashshot. As soon as I get the publication date, I'll share :-)

The Long and the Short of It will be announcing the winners of the First Annual Short Story contest on July 1. The judges' score sheets are coming in and I've set up a database to put their scores in. The scores will be added together and the winner will be the writer who has the best score. All of the entrants will receive copies of the judges' score sheets and comments as well. It's interesting to see the judges' points of view. It just drives home the point again that reading and liking books is very subjective.

Off to do some writing today (good Lord willing and the creek don't rise). Have yourselves a wonderful Sunday!

Friday's Feast

I have another short story up at LASR this week. After next Thursday, when it's archived, you'll be able to find it on my sidebar.

I like using rhyming words to give me ideas (yeah.. I'm weird). This week's was "balloon and baboon." In the past, I've used "locks and clocks" (A Lock on Her Heart) and "love and glove" (Fits Like a Glove). Your assignment, Mr. Phelps, if you care to accept it... is to leave me a pair of rhyming words in the comments, and I'll try to use them for a bit of writing. I'll even post my efforts here over the next several days.

And now.. on to the feast:


To play, or to find more participants, click the button.

Appetizer

If you could live on another continent for 1 year, which one would you choose? Okay... this one is hard. I lived in Brazil for three years, so while I would love to go back to visit, I've had the experience of living there. I've visited Ireland, England, and Scotland.. but the trip was too short. I've always wanted to go to Australia as well. So, it would be a toss-up between Europe and Australia. Probably, though, Europe would win out...if only because the countries are so small I could do a lot of traveling during that one year and see a lot of different countries.

Soup

Which browser do you use to surf the Internet? I use Internet Explorer. I'm boring. It came with the computer, it does its job, I have no complaints.

Salad

On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being highest), how much do you know about the history of your country? Probably about an eight. I've always enjoyed history and even taught it for a bit (of course, I taught fourth and fifth grades, so I taught a little bit of everything.. even things I'm not that great at, like... oh.. science??? LOL) But, I DO enjoy history. I enjoy watching movies set in historical times, period pieces. I enjoy reading historical fiction. I even have some non-fiction on history I enjoy reading. I was fortunate enough to have teachers who made history come alive. And, I think that's so important. So many people view history classes as a time to drill dates into people's heads. And some dates ARE important. However, other dates... well, that's what they have libraries for. If I need to know a date, chanel handbags I know how to look it up.

Main Course

Finish this sentence: Love is… wonderful, magnificient... can you tell I'm still in love? :-)

Dessert

Have you ever been in or near a tornado? Not to see one, but when Fran came through in 1996 (and yes, I had to look it up.. but I knew how)...it had hurricane force winds as far inland as Raleigh, where I was living at the time...and I'm sure some tornadoes were spawned as a result of that storm.

Bad Bad Judy

I have been a woefully inadequate blogger. I apologize. I'm going to try to do better (there are a lot of things I need to try to do better at... including my writing! Oy vey.)

Anyway... we are having a party at the LASR Yahoo group. We're giving away prizes and having fun. You can't be entered in the comment unless you comment, though, so get on over there and have fun with us.

I am thinking about remodeling my kitchen (I'm always thinking about remodeling something!... ) We need to finish our bathroom projects...then our laundry room project... but, I'm thinking the kitchen/dining may be next.

Bob built a stand for me to keep my turtle tank on.



I hope the picture's not too dark. We painted it a gloss black and I loved it. Since it sits in our dining room, that got my imagination going. I've been wanting to make a big difference in our kitchen/dining room. So..I'm seriously considering going black and white. I found this dining set and really liked it, esp. the chandelier they have. I think I can recreate that look with my own table and chairs with some sanding and painting. Then, I discovered this kitchen redo and really like it.

What do y'all think?

Good Monday Morning

EDITED TO ADD: I've just discovered I was nominated for the "Nicest Personality Award" in the Bloggy Hoss Awards Contest Kailani is conducting on her awesome site. If you want to vote for me, you can go here. Thanks!

:::Yawn:::: it's in the wee small hours of the morning here. 4:10 and I'm waiting for my partner in crime Marianne. This is the morning for the re-launch of our romance reviews site. It was OMG...exactly a year ago (well, yesterday was exactly.. June 8, 2007) that Marianne said to me, "Hey... I have an idea for a group blog -- doing simple reviews for some of the Wild Rose short stories and any other stories/books that tickle my fancy, but I'd love to have other folks participating... If I set things up, would you be interested in helping now and then?
I thought I'd call it "The Long and the Short of it" or something"

And thus was born what we all know and love as The Long and the Short of It. Who would have thought in a year's time we would have gone from "simple reviews" to a full romance ezine featuring both non- and erotic romance... and not just reviews.. but a whole lot more!

I was searching back over our old chats... on July 19, 2007 Marianne made the comment.. it would be nice to build our own website to archive reviews from the blog, but I'll probably never do it.

On July 22, we were discussing names and features! Marianne and I have decided not only WERE we nuts.. we still are.

Do go and check out the latest evidence of our insanity. The front door gives you access to both sites. For direct access to the same LASR you all know and love, click here (you might want to update your bookmarks). To check out our brand new erotic romance site, click here.

Have a great day!

Exciting Things at LASR

I've been hinting for a while that there were some major changes ahead at The Long and the Short of It. Monday, there will now be two segments of The Long and the Short of It. The LASR you all know and love is not changing. However, due to overwhelming clamor, we will be (starting Monday, June 9) offering LASR and Whipped Cream, which will have the same features (author spotlight, reviews, author interviews, free short stories, etc) for those readers who like their romance with a lot more heat. So, now readers have the choice.

We've been working frantically these past couple of weeks getting everything on line, so I hope you stop by on Monday and see what it's all about. As a matter of fact, if you tell a friend via your blog ... I'll enter you into a contest for a $10 Amazon gift certificate. Just leave the link to your blog entry in the comments here. I'll have the drawing on Tuesday morning.

Now...on to Friday's Feast....

Click on the button to play along.

Appetizer

When you drink soda/pop/coke, do you prefer to drink it from the bottle, a can, or after pouring it into a cup? I always prefer to drink it in a glass, over ice. However, if I'm out and about I will drink it from the small bottle or can. Normally a bottle that I can reseal, because I'm notorious about spilling things in open containers in cars. chanel handbags

Soup

What television show are you willing to stay up late to watch? Honestly... since we got the recording feature on our cable, I don't stay up late to watch anything. I record it and watch it some other time. Possibly I'd stay up some later to watch the election results, but even then I'ld probably just wait til morning to find out who won.

Salad

Name one person, place, or thing you think of as brilliant.The first thing that comes to mind when I think of the word "brilliance" is the sun. I love the sun... love how it warms everything up and lightens everything.

Main Course

Would you be willing to work 4 10-hour days instead of 5 8-hour days in order to save gas? If I were working in an office/store/outside the home job I have always liked the idea of 4 ten-hour days. Not so much to save gas, but to have an extra day. Since we work at home now, though, the question is moot.

Dessert

If you were a superhero, what would you call yourself? I was writing a story once called... The Adventures of the Green Sister. I would probably stick with that. I wonder if that blog is still active? ....Huh... what do you know? It is. I might just have to finish her story. That was kinda fun.

Off to go feast now... have a great one!

Tuesday Tired

We've had an active weekend. In between working on a LASR project (remember the news I told y'all was coming.... it's coming :-)), we discovered that our hall bathroom...y'know... the one that all the company uses?.... had some bad places in the floor, so this was the weekend we tackled it. And, boy did we ever. We got in and found out that whoever made our house decided it would be a wonderful idea to do the floor in particle board. The floor in the bathroom. The floor right around the toilet. And toilets sometimes leak. And when particle board gets wet....well, trust me. It's not a pretty picture.

Then we discovered that due to the amazing properties of particle board, in the toilet area, the subflooring was also bad. Anyway...we've had to replace a large part of the subflooring and the flooring. Now we're going to lay concreteboard and tile the thing.

In the midst of all this fun and excitement, my mom called to say the corn was ready. (Okay... all you from the north, don't yell at me because the corn around y'all is only two inches high and we're already harvesting...Marianne already took care of that job). We don't grow corn because it takes up too much space, but we have friends who do. And...$2/dozen. Can we say happy?

So, we bought ten dozen (which actually worked out to more like twelve dozen, because they are firm believers in the concept of the baker's dozen, and more. So... last night we put up corn.


Corn on the floor



Mama shucked the corn (hint: if you cut off the butt-end of the corn and shuck it from the bottom, you get a lot more of the silk off than shucking it from the top).

After washing the corn and removing the last few silks (and I know I missed some, but.. ),


I blanched it for six minutes, then


cooled it in ice water.


Then I cut the corn off the cob. This is a corn cutter that used to be Bob's mom's (yesterday, when I was chatting with Marianne, I said, "that used to be Bob's mom." I tell you, as much as that woman loved to put up food, if she could come back as an inanimate object, I can't think of anything more appropriate for her to come back as!)

And .... because of a hard evening's work, we'll be able to enjoy fresh corn all year. After all, you can't get much fresher than on the stalk at five and in the freezer before eleven!


Sixteen quarts of corn, ready for the freezer

So... how was your day?

It's That Time of Year

It's time again for the Bloggy Hoss Elections... sponsored by Kailani and copied shamelessly from this post

Welcome to the 2nd Annual Bloggy Hoss Elections! Last year was such a success that I decided to have it again this year.

If you’re around my age, you’ll probably remember this high school contest where classmates voted for their friends in various categories and the winners got a cartoon character drawn of them and published in the yearbook. How I longed to be Miss Popularity. *sigh* It never happened. Believe it or not, I was very shy back then.

It’s now *ahem* 20-something years later (for me anyway) and I’m giving all of you a second chance at going for that prestigious award. And even though I’m sure a lot of you were actually popular in high school, I won’t hold that against you.

Here are the categories:

Most Athletic
Class Clown
Brainiest
Most Popular
Most Likely to Succeed
Most Artistic
Head Cheerleader
Nicest Personality
Most Talkative
Best Looking (Site Design)
Rules:

From now until June 6th, you may nominate one blog for each category using my contact form above (all nominations will be held confidential).
The top 3 nominees in each category will then be announced on June 7th.
From June 7th till June 10th, a poll will be posted here and you may vote for one blog in each category, once per day. Get all your friends to vote for you, too!
The blog with the most votes wins. Winners will be announced on June 11th and receive a cool button to prove how popular you are!

So, go and check out your blogrolls to see who fits into the above categories and may the best blogs win!

This was so much fun last year... and I'm excited about it again this year! Maybe I'll see you there!!!