On the Merry Go Round

Sometimes, life is a merry go round.  I have to tell you I no longer can be a rider.  This past week we had three parties, a double date and fixed up the yard for a party we are going to have.
The last thing almost didn't get done because we were exhausted!
Most of the time, I don't feel older.  Wait and you'll see.  I still feel like I am thirty years old and rarin' to go.  This week was a nasty reminder that I'm not.
The craziest part was everything we did was fun.  Wednesday, we went to a cook out and saw fireworks.  Thursday we went to a pool party with our whole family at my Sis'  house.  Friday we went to a winery with Sis and her husband.  Saturday was a retirement party for my WP.   Sounds great doesn't it?
That much fun should make you feel wonderful.  Don't they say it's good to keep busy?
I barely made it through the party on Saturday.
This is what it is like to get old.  Suddenly, you can't do the things you used to do without batting an eyelasth.  And I'm not even that old yet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have no great advice here or words of wisdom.  As the saying goes, it is what it is.  I just wish it wasn't!

My Favorite Author

I was attending a retirement party for my WP and there was quite a crowd.  My Sis was there too and the most interesting thing happened.
You see, my Sis is an author.  She has written a book called Waiting For Dusk and it is very very good.  You can get it at barnesandnoble.com or amazon.com.  It is an ebook or a paperback.  It is a young adult book but everyone who has read it loves it and they have been ages 15 to 85!
I am really proud of her but really didn't understand the impact of being a well-liked author.  It will change her life.
She has fans!  Big fans!  Who loved her and were so excited to meet her because of her  book.  They made a little crowd around her and everything.  Lots of people there had not read her book and now they want to!
I'm not surprised by her success.  As I said it's a very very good book.  I just can't explain the feeling of pride and awe I have for her. There she was at a little retirement party and she was making a personal appearance!  I felt like she was as famous as Angelina Jolie!
It is so exciting and I can hardly wrap my head around it.  I was just about bursting with pride.  I mean, she's my little sister.  We held hands when we were little and had CIB(sorry, our own private term).  Now she's entering a world I knew nothing about and am having fun learning about it.
It's not easy to be an author now.  There is a ton out there.  She has to work hard to get her book known.  I know she will.
The best part of listening to her fans was the  reaction when she said there is another book in the series.  They were overjoyed.  I'm telling you I could have cried with happiness.
If you have a little sister and you think she's annoying or bratty or hangs around you too much, you better think again because some day she may make you so very, very proud.

Thoroughly Modern Susan

I use the computer.  I pay my bills on line. I write a blog.  I shop on line.....I am a modern woman.  Or so I thought until yesterday when I found out I am about as modern as a toothpick.
DH had to go to the emergency room because he hurt his foot and thought it might be broken so while I waited I looked through a magazine.  Did you ever try to look at a magazine in the ER waiting room?  They are so boring or old or ripped up you can't believe it.  Come on, people. Could you cough up the money for some decent magazines at least?
Anyway, I ended up reading Popular Science.  It was all about inventions.  They had an article that said there are more inventions happening now than ever before.  People thought computers would make people lazy but instead amateur inventors are able to get notice because of the Internet.
So  I read about a bike made out of cardboard.  No kidding.  The inventor wants to sell them for 30 bucks and raise enough to offer them free in third world countries.  I think that's amazing.
I also read about a beer syrup you can carry around, add seltzer and ta! da! you have beer anywhere, any time...pretty much.
Then I read about a guy who invented a new Ax.  Guess what, that's not a Paul Bunyon type Ax, it's a guitar with no body.  It works with Rock Star or whatever that Wii game is called or maybe it's on xBox.  Anyway, he thought if kids(and adults, let's be honest) were going to play along they may as well learn some skills too and learn how to really play.  I don't know how it works.  I hardly understood all the jargon.
Last but surely not least I read about a "smart ball" which is not for any sport.  It is a ball that first responders can use that is the size of a baseball and has infra red LED lights and six cameras.  Six.  You just remote it into a pad or a phone and you can look for survivors and it also can tell you if the air is safe to breathe or not.  I really really don't know how that works.
So when I was done, I realized I didn't know squat about the modern world and that I should probably read more science magazines.  My biggest question though was if we can do all that stuff why does it still take 2 and1/2 hours to get your possibly broken foot xrayed and send you home?????

Baby, You're A FIrework

I hate fireworks.  I know it is totally unAmerican of me but it is the truth.  I hated them ever since I was a little girl.  I hate the noise most of all and I hate the crowds that always gather and make it hard to get home when they're over.
Mostly, I hate the noise.
Plus they are usually boring.  Unless you're at Disneyworld.  They have the most beautiful fireworks you ever saw.  They are over the top and for some reason don't seem as noisy as the ones at home.
When we were kids, our family walked to the fireworks.  I really hated that part.  It seemed to take forever.
Then when we were a young family, we used to drive our kids to the fireworks.  It took forever to get out of there because of the traffic.
We saw fireworks at the stadium once and they were set to Beatles tunes.  I laughed hysterically through the whole thing.  I couldn't stop.  I was practically rolling on the floor.  Somehow Hey Jude and fireworks just struck me as funny and that was the end of me.  My sister in law and brother in law were there with us and I'm sure they thought I was nuts.
Last night, we watched the fireworks on television from Washington DC with music and no exploding noises.  That's my kind of fireworks.

Believe it or Not

Yesterday I made brownies to take to my Sis' house for our Fourth of July celebration. I made them last year and they are the yummiest brownies you ever had.
Anyway, I turned my mixer on to cream the butter and sugar and added the eggs.  The next step was to add the cocoa powder and flour...........wait, let me stop there for a little aside.
I watch A LOT of the Food Network.  Giada has told me and Ina has told me and Paula has told me--don't put your mixer on too high or the flour/cocoa powder will get all over the kitchen and you.
Ok, so I turned on my mixer and three guesses, I did not take their good advice and my entire mixer, face, legs, feet, counter top, and floor were covered in a cocoa powder/flour mix mess! 
So a job that should have taken ten minutes tops took almost 45 minutes to clean up!
So believe them when they tell you  Keep the darn thing on low for a while....a long while,
I also see a lot of commercials and there is a paper towel ad that claims one towel cleans up the whole mess.  LIARS!!  It took me about 6 paper towels both wet and dry to finally mop up the mess I made.
So you see some things you can believe and some things you can't!

Spelling Bee

I don't really think about spelling much these days, being retired from teaching and all but the other day I saw a sign in my neighborhood that said English Bulldogge puppies for sale.
Now I don't know about you but I'm not sure I would buy a DOG from somebody who couldn't even spell it.....unless I'm wrong and that's how the English spell DOG.  You know like YE OLDE TAVERN, Ye Smalle Dogge.  However, I don't think so.
But it got me to thinking about those poor kids in the spelling bees.  I have experience being in a spelling bee.  As a fourth grader I was in the all school spelling bee and got knocked out on the first word they gave me.  It was kindergarten.  I spelled it kintergarden.  I was out, not to mention humiliated.  The ironic part is as an adult I  spent 20 years teaching kindergarten!!!  And anyway, everyone knows it's kinnygarden. Right?
You'd think nowadays we wouldn't have to worry about spelling with auto correct and spell check.  Not so my friend.  I once typed didnt into a story and spell check wanted me to replace it with that most common word "dint".  HUH?
My daughter and I were texting and I told her something and she replied with the weirdest comment about about handbag downtown and it turned out she had been autocorrected into it.  It was totally inane and made no sense at all. It was good for a laugh though.
So maybe it's good that those kids in spelling bees have to spell words we never heard of and they will never use again(especially in those National Spelling Bees, I never know any of those words).  We wouldn't want them to be totally auto corrected for life, think of the miscommunication there would be."Hon, please buy milk."
" What do you want with a mink?"
"I don't wait for a mink.  I want milk."
Pretty soon you'd have a who's on first scenario!
Speling is imporant so yew jest haf to now how to do it>  Rite?

Author! Author!

Books are an important part of my life.  I have always loved to lose myself in a good story.  I have a sister who is an author.  I am a book reviewer.  I started a book club.  I have a Kindle!
So, why is there so little time?  I have a book review to write, my book club book to finish and a line up of about a hundred books I would like to read on my Pinterest board.
Since ebooks and self-published books have arrived on the scene, there are just too many choices.  It is so hard to decide what to read and what order to read them in.
I feel a real obligation to the authors whose books I review to read carefully, slowly and think about it as I read.  Sometimes I even take notes when the book is long and has a lot of characters.
I am on the fence about book reviewing.  On one hand, I love telling people about a book I enjoyed.  On the other hand, I sometimes feel like I wish I didn't have to review it at all.  At GoodBood Alert, we don't have to finish a book if we don't like it but if I get wrapped up in the story and the writing just isn't that great or there are too many characters or parts are confusing  I still want to review it but I hate to say those things.
We rate from three to five stars and so far I've not read a five, but I have given a four to a book that probably should have gotten three.  I have a hard  time being a critical critic!
Kids have so many opportunities now to read that parents should be encouraging it even more than ever.  How fun to own a Kindle and download your choices from the library.  I love doing it and I'm a supposed grown up.  Reading a book is at the tip of your fingers whenever you need one.  Just hop on the computer and Voila!
With newspapers and magazines dwindling, books are more important than ever.  And I mean a real book.  One with a cover and pages that you turn yourself.  There is something comforting about that feeling.  You should try it.