Saturday, May 06, 2006

Super Authors Blog

I'm forcing myself to be quick today. I really need to finish up the proposal I'm working on so I can get it to my editor. But I did want to fly by and mention the new blog the Superromance authors have on our joint website. We're having a good time over there chatting among ourselves, but it would be really great to hear from some of our readers!!! This month, I'm scheduled to blog on May 10, so this Wednesday I'll be there. Meanwhile, come on over and catch up with your favorite Superromance authors. Just to go our website and click on the link to our blog.

Wedding Bells

I should know better. I'm certainly old enough to know better, but somehow I always get caught thinking that some day something's going to happen to make life slow down long enough to me to catch up with myself. I thought this spring was going to be my time. It was all planned out, right down to how many words a day I was going to write and what I was going to plant in my garden. Then my daughter came home and announced that she and her boyfriend were going to get married. At the end of June. Right in the middle of the Catch-Up-With-My-Life time I'd scheduled. So guess what I've been doing. (Hint: I have NOT been catching up with anything.) It's really okay, though. Stressful as it has been to plan a wedding on a limited budget in just a few short weeks, it's been fun spending time with Vanessa, helping her plan her special day, and watching the changes in her as she prepares to become a wife. And I'm absolutely delighted with Ian, the man she has chosen to spend the rest of her life with. Two big thumbs' up from mom

The Cell Phone Blues

Phone ShockerI just finished posting my entry on the Super Authors blog this morning. Six Weird Things About Me. Come on over and check it out! Cool I'm annoyed with my cell phone today, and I need to vent. When I signed up for my current service, I got a free cell phone. A nice little Nokia that, at the time, had a what I thought were a lot of bells and whistles. It worked great, never gave me a moment's trouble, but when my daughter upgraded a while later, the phone she chose looked so great I couldn't resist. I decided to join her and upgrade to a flip phone. The phone arrived and I loved it, except the ring tones were all so quiet I couldn't hear the phone when it was inside my purse and after a while the screen cracked and then stopped working. So back I went to my Nokia. A little while later, my youngest daughter bought a phone from a friend for about $30. It was a great phone. So great, that someone stole it from her while she was playing designated driver one weekend. So for Christmas, I found her another phone like it on eBay for not much money and decided to take a risk. They actually had two, and I thought, well why not? So we both got the nice flip phone with the camera for about 1/4 of what we'd have spent on new phones. They even worked great -- for a few months. But then the speakers went out -- not just on one phone, but on both of them. So even though the screens worked and we could hear that someone was calling, we couldn't hear a word they said. I keep trying to make that phone work because I like it. The screen is easy to read, even without my glasses, and the graphics are clear and sharp, unlike my little Nokia. But the receiver part (whatever that's called) is just dead. I even tried using a hands-free set with it, but that didn't work either so. . . you guessed it . . . I'm back to my old reliable Nokia again. :::sigh::: But hey, at least it works, right?

Monday, May 01, 2006

Shop Til You Drop

Over the weekend, I went shopping with my youngest daughter. From the time she was little, she has been a picky shopper--the opposite of my oldest daughter, who shops very much like I do. Daughter #1 and I walk into the store, find something we like, check the size and the price, hold it up to see if it looks like it will fit, and we're done. Daughter #2, however, tries on every article of clothing, and trying something on once is never enough. When she was younger, I got into the habit of going into the dressing room area with her and sitting in a nearby, unused dressing room because standing around outside a dressing room for as long as it took her to try everything on once, and then in various combinations, just wasn't fun for me. I learned early on not to push her to hurry. Pushing her to hurry or encouraging her to buy something she's not completely sold on was just a waste of money. I learned that difficult lesson through experience. She's grown up now, though, and she's working a great new job, and this weekend's shopping trip was funded by her paycheck, not mine. She tried everything on just as she always has. She checked out every combination to make sure this skirt not only looks great with that blouse and that blouse, but with that blouse as well. She decided on and against things, decided on her Must-Buy stack, her will buy if I Have Enough Money stack and her Absolutely No Freakin' Way stack. The shopping trip took just as long as they always do, but somehow, knowing that itwasn't going to cost me anything but time and sore feet made the time fly by a whole lot faster :)