I’m going to be at RomCon in Colorado Springs this Weekend. Hope to see you there!

Joe Konrath says on his blog:

Tess Gerritsen – the mind behind the bestselling crime novel series-turned-hit-TV-drama Rizzoli & Isles — has declared War on Alzheimer’s with a new online fundraising campaign in memory of her father, who died of the disease.

If you help her, Joe will help you. Donate $100 toward Tess’s campaign and Joe will set up a date for you to guest post on his blog.

A double win. I’ve donated and I hope you do to. Even $5 would help.

Back to our regular programming on Wednesday.

Hello, did you miss me? I’m in California visiting my Aunties and cousins. I’m sleeping a bunch and spending time in places I have memories. (In places I have memories of?) That doesn’t sound right either.

A couple of days back I was lying on my mother’s beach. Well, Seabright Beach, which in now called something like Twin beaches State Park -> that’s not exactly right but it’s always going to be Seabright Beach to me. My mom owned a little cottage two houses up the street and you can sit in her front room and watch the beach and see dolphins jumping sometimes.

Anyway, I was lying there and my kids were in the water and this thought floated through my head that if we wanted we could walk up there when were done and shower in the outdoor shower before going in the back door. And my mother would still be there and could hear what she would say and what my kids would say back. It felt so comforting to have that image in my head.

It’s like my mother is still alive inside me and I can see my kids growing up knowing her. It’s a nice feeling.

I’ll be home late tomorrow and then maybe I’ll get a proper post done.

Don’t you love good news?

Audible, bless their hearts, has given me five of each of my audio books to give away. Not Crazy Little Thing Called Dead, yet, because it’s still in the final phases of production. But the other two.

So! For the first two (one of each) I’m going to do pretty much the same thing I did for the paperback giveaway. Comment here, or on the facebook post – pretty much wherever I can see it and I’ll do a random drawing for each.

You might want to say which book you want if either isn’t okay. And be goofy. You don’t have to make me laugh, but it’s a bonus.

Tell me about your life, or what you had for breakfast, or your summer vacation plans. Give me something here, people. Or not. The drawing will be random.

When is the drawing? Let’s say after I get back from California, but before I go to Colorado Springs. How’s that?

June 18.

Comment away. Yes you. I see you lurking there. It really doesn’t hurt. Just type “Froot Loops and soda pop.” and you’re done. See? Easy.

6/18 ETA: Congratulations to Joanne and Cathy (who commented on facebook). They each win a copy of one of my audiobooks! yay! balloons! Ribbons! Confetti!

Tomorrow is my last day of being gainfully employed until I find another job. Of course I have all summer to write and get rich (yeah, right) so that I don’t ever have to go back to work ever, ever again. Wouldn’t that be nice.

I also have to spend some time this summer figuring out how to get more exposure.

Speaking of exposure, what ever happened to the show Northern Exposure? Did it get tied up in a neat little bow? I seem to remember something about a grave and that’s slightly disturbing.

Thinking about graves reminds me of my mother and her little jewel box house that we (her children) sold. It had to be done, and I’m okay with it, but sometimes I wish I had that house. Or one like it. There would only be room for me and I would probably get a lot more done.

I must post a picture of that house sometime. She bought it after the big earthquake of (okay when was that earthquake?) 1989. And there were cracks in the outer walls you could put a hand through.

I was in a college classroom in Sacramento during that earthquake and the lights were swaying. That’s how far away that quake was felt. We took a math test right after that and almost everyone flunked. Well maybe not flunked but got worse scores that we normally would. I blame the earthquake.

Now I live in Vermont where earthquakes make unearthly noises. Squealing and grinding. I never heard anything like that in California, and I lived through many, many earthquakes out there. We’ve had maybe two in the last twenty years here. But that’s enough. The sound makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

As does not having gainful employment. No, that’s a lie. I like not having gainful employment, but it did make a convenient segue.

It’s not something that happens everyday, but when it does it’s something special.

The boys track and field team of our little school won the state division four championship today. And yeah that’s pretty special. My boys are on the team and they came home walking on air. But the best part? It’s how the town responded:

What follows is a very poor video (no I didn’t film it, I was too busy cheering) of the hero’s welcome given the boys track team when they arrived back in town today. As the bus came up route 14 it was surrounded by the town police vehicles, ambulance, firetruck and probably a good dozen private vehicles like tow trucks and volunteer fire fighters. Those of us not escorting the team stood on the green and in the streets to cheer. Because it may not make a difference in the wider world, but today those boys made the town proud.

Click here if you the video doesn’t show up for you: http://youtu.be/WOvoAqEDB50.

ETA: For a better video go here.

   So Sonja Foust, THE Pintester, sort of challenged her readers to test a pin. Click here to see what she and the other testers are up to today. Recently I heard on the radio how birdbaths attract birds (duh), and as I can’t have my feeders out in the summer because of the BEAR, I’ve decided a birdbath may be the ticket. And along came Sonja’s Challenge, just the thing to make me do it.

First of all, you can’t look at my dirty house. I can’t be expected to actually do a pin if I have to clean my house first. Sorry, but that’s the truth of it. Also I did this on my Birthday, and there is no way in H E double toothpicks I’m going to clean house on my birthday.

This is the original idea. Don’t expect mine to come out looking anything like this. I tend to be a little “unique” in my production of things. This Birdbath is pretty and blue, I like it.

I went to the local Recover store and bought $16 worth of glassware and put it through the dishwasher. I wasn’t about to hand wash all that glass!

I sort of knew what I wanted to do, but this particular pot lid was giving me fits. It’s nice and heavy and would make a great base – but flip it over and it makes a pretty good bowl for the birdbath. I decided to go with the base. I just had a feeling about it.

That’s when I noticed the silicone I bought wasn’t paint-able  Poop! My plan was to paint the thing blue like the one above. Well maybe it wouldn’t matter. Or maybe I wouldn’t paint it. I’d wait and see. Going to the hardware store to get the right stuff was not in the plan. I’d have to take a shower and get dressed, and no way was I doing that. It was my birthday. Although I will admit to showering before I went out to dinner.

Anyway I started fiddling with the pieces trying to  decide which way they should go. Like which of these big vases should go first…

I glued my choice on (you may notice I’m not very good with glue here.) and then fiddled with options for the next few while waiting for it to set. If you look carefully you will see my helper sitting on the couch with her stick.

Here’s a little slide show of me fiddling about:

Only it takes 24 hours to cure, so then I threw caution to the wind and just started gluing with abandon.   Look ma, I’m getting better more creative with the glue. OMG – DO Not LOOK at my house. It’s the dog. The dog dragged crap all over. That is not my shoe.  Time to look at the NEXT picture!

I got to this point and realized I should have glued it together outside. It was going to be too big to move. Drat.

So I glued the next two levels separately so that I could assemble outside in the garden.

You may have noticed that another platter appeared out of nowhere. I had it already and decided it needed to be used belonged in this project. I waited until I could pretty safely move the pieces outside, which luckily coincided with the rain finally stopping. I glued the last two pieces on and voila!

A beautiful glass birdbath! And it was almost ridiculously easy, too!

And here’s the link to the other “craft all the things” posts! http://pintester.com/2013/05/the-pintester-movement-craft-all-the-things

I do. How can it possibly be Monday when all the family is here and it’s impossible to write?

I forget something else too, but I don’t remember what that is.

I’m busy working on a post for Thursday so this post is pretty pathetic. Too bad I can’t get my kids to record a funny video for you.

Light bulb moment! Ah ha!  (Too bad I can’t just insert a light bulb clip arty thingie here.)

I recently had my dad’s super eight films converted to digital. Mostly they are endless, soundless pictures of race cars and airplanes. My dad was a racer and a car wonk. HOWEVER, there is a nice short that my brother and his best friend made. I think I’ll put that up for your watching enjoyment. You won’t see my brother, he was the camera man, but Curly Locks O’Brian (his real name was Brian something but we liked to make him crazy) is fun to watch and is the star of the screen.

Enjoy. (I added the music.)

http://youtu.be/LCyfB0WuxNM

It’s my Birthday today. My gift to you is this little video my bank sent to me. It’s say perfectly how I feel about all of you in my life.

Have a great day, on me.

If you can’t see the video click here:

http://youtu.be/tqMC0OloUXs

Another thing that makes me happy? Dogs. Pippin pulled the piece of plastic I used to shore up my planter out. She then proceeded to bark at it for the next twenty minutes. Silly dog.

I decided to indulge my inner gardener today, knowing that it would also be rejuvenate my inner writer. Sometimes spending the day reading and writing feels like doing nothing. Nothing gets accomplished. I love days when I finish things, a sewing project (I’ve got three, no make that four unfinished at the moment but I have to clear a space to work on them. Two unfinished books. A dirty house. Really, my downstair’s bathroom sink is disgusting. I’ve got to try to get to that today too.

So I took some time, bought some flowers and began the process of outdoor beautification.

I forgot to take a real before picture, but here’s an almost before series for you:

An empty container with my trusty un-assistant. Isn’t that what you’d call a helper who runs away with your tools and supplies? That’s what I call her.  - Turkey.

This is a container I’d already started when I thought about photos. I’m apparently having a yellow and blue/purple summer this year.

This is the stuff I bought. That one plant in the window next to the Dalia? That’s a Boxwood! I’m thinking boxwood boarders like on an English Estate. Theres more of the beautiful blue flowers, a couple of tomatoes, a couple of red Bell Peppers, some ground cover and God knows what else. I love flowers.

And this last picture is the pot from the top of the page, finished. The big yellow dog chewed it to bits when he was little so I had to shore it up with a couple of cut up flower pots. Of course now, instead of writing I feel like napping. Isn’t that always the way?