It’s here! The short story my husband has been working on the past few weeks, Barrel of Fun, is now published and free for a few short days on Amazon. Grab your copy while you can, and tell your friends!
Stanley Danslow is a two-bit private eye. He’s not Phillip Marlowe or Sam Spade, though. Danslow’s the guy you go to when you think your spouse is cheating on you, or the insurance company thinks Joe Blow’s running a worker’s comp scam.
So when the beautiful Mrs. Tellinghousen comes in and asks Danslow to check out her husband, who she thinks just might be a killer, he’s a little out of his depth.
He doesn’t find out just how much he’s out of his depth until he’s in way over his head.
This is our little Valentine’s Day tree. For now, I’ve used some Christmas ornaments that aren’t exactly Christmas-y, or Christmas colored. I have more Valentine themed stuff on the way though, so it’ll have hearts on it soon, too.
Do you do any special decorating for St Valentine’s Day?
I took a close up of one of the ornaments – now you know I think of you often, Sparkling Red!
Sunrise, so to speak. What I found most interesting about this one is the neighbor’s car is gone. Which means the neighbors aren’t home. Which means it’s quiet. *sighsofcontentment*
And now the blizzard has started – the update I just got says 4-8 inches by midnight. Safe journeys to my husband, and all the other commuters out there who have to drive in the mess.
It’s that time of year again. I don’t know why – well, maybe I do but it still sucks – but in winter, we have a hard time getting hot water to our bathroom. It’s no problem in the summer, oh no! But in winter, when I’m freezing my buns off, the hot water makes itself scarce.
I understand that our bathroom is on an outside wall. I understand that the hot water heater is more centrally located in the apartment. Why the hot water has cooled to a mild tepid by the time it gets to our shower is beyond me. I have the temperature on the water heater set as high as it will go. And I can turn the knob in the shower to be exclusively hot water – and for a couple of minutes I have blessed hot water. Then, nothing. No more hot water, just something that is less than skin temp so it feels almost ice cold. *sigh*
This morning, with temps in the sub-zero range, I opted for a bath in the kid’s bathroom, which is closer to the hot water heater than our bathroom. Of course, the hot water ran out before the tub was full, but at least I got to sit in the heat-there-was and get my feet warm!
My dream house will have one of those flash hot water heater things, in addition to a tank. I’m not taking any chances of running out!
Yesterday in school, I had the kids watch King’s “Dream” speech, in honor of MLK day. I had to explain racism to them, which, when I think about it, is a good thing. They had a hard time understanding why one race of people would be treated differently than any other race. Black skin doesn’t make you less, any more than blonde hair makes you stupid. They notice more how a person behaves than what they look like.
The speech, in its entirety.
Today’s sunrise. I thought the cloud formation back there on the horizon was cool.
“This striking composite image follows the Sun’s path through the December Solstice day of 2005 in a beautiful blue sky, looking down the Tyrrhenian Sea coast from Santa Severa toward Fiumicino, Italy. The view covers about 115 degrees in 43 separate, well-planned exposures from sunrise to sunset.”
Yes, I know this “Sunset at the North Pole” is ‘shopped and not real, but I still think it’s an awesome image, and totally in keeping with a Winter solstice.
April Birthstone
April Gemstone: Diamond
April Birthstone Color: White, Clear
APRIL: DAISY
Folklore has it that the daisy originated from a nymph who transformed herself into a charming but unassuming wildflower to escape unwanted attention. Its character symbolizes childlike joy and playfulness. The daisy is an appropriate birth flower for April as it captures the essence of spring’s happy-go-lucky, forever-young attitude.
What did you say?