What's on my nightstand, so to speak

Y'all remember that I was sick with the head, chest, coughing virus thing for damn near FOUR WEEKS? Do you further remember that the meds and the coughing made it impossible to sleep?  How to while away the hours while the rest of the house slept was my dilemma.

Kindle to the rescue!


Oh, how I love my Kindle.  I love me some regular hardbound books, don't get me wrong.  I hold the written word in very high esteem.

So, I have been reading.  A lot.  I finally forced myself to read the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy.  I had tried and tried to start the first one, but it just wasn't striking my fancy.  Then finally, it did.

It's a crying shame that they were published posthumously.  I am sure he might have had a couple more good books in him.

Then I read this:

I can't remember who recommended this book to me, but thank you to whomever it was.  This was a really interesting read.  And then . . . .  at the end?

There's a conversation with the author and he goes into great detail about how this was one of those novels based on his very own personal family tree.  I really enjoy those historically accurate novels where you start out based in truth and then fill in the blanks with what you think would make a great story.

After that came this one:

Ok, now this book was recommended to me twice.  And when I read the little synopsis, I was immediately leary.  I thought it would be different than what it turned out to be.  So I did what any good Kindle owner would do, I got the free sample chapters to try it out.

Yea for the sample chapters!!

If they can hook you in the first couple of chapters, you are good.  If not, you've only wasted a little time and no money.

Back to Room.  This book was so clever, so intriguing and so gripping I don't even know how the author came up with this.  It does come to some good resolutions, but not so cute and "happily ever after" in a smarmy non-realistic way.

These were both really good books and I can recommend them.  After the dark subject matter of these I decided to go with a more light-hearted read and am currently reading a new Maeve Binchy.  More on it when I finish.

Oh!!  And totally off the subject of books, I got myself a new phone this weekend.  Yea!  I still like my old phone, but it was dying.  Is anyone else irritate that phones seem to be made to last 12 to 18 months while your contract is designed for 24 months?  And then you have to baby your phone along to get to the 24 month?  I am trying to get the hang of the new phone and find all new ringtones and Caller Tunes (as T-Mobile calls them).

In a couple of days it will be April Fools Day.  And that signals the beginning of all sorts of festivities around here!  Spring, wildflower sightings, Fiesta , Poteet Strawberry Festival , Easter, Earth Day , not to mention the NBA PLAYOFFS!!!  Time for our beloved Spurs to rally.  Yea!

Yep, April is a great month.  I swear to you there are at least 2 or 3 things you can find here to do every single day.  Most of them free.  If you are bored, it's because you want to be.

Every few years I update my inventory.  I do a complete inventory of everything in the house.  We have had to do this in the past because of all the international moving we did and keeping the inventory was a chore I took on and if we made a big purchase I would try to take care of entering the item right away from the invoice.  But sadly, since we have been planted for almost 6 years I have neglected my inventory.  So along with the spring cleaning mentality I get the "let's clean up the inventory list" fever. And that is my goal for the rest of this week, to work on the inventory.  Isn't that exciting?  Don't you wish you led the glamourous life I lead?  Real Housewives of SA, here I come!  Heh.

Enjoy your day.  

Rambling and Musing

I have not been able to string two coherent thoughts together for over 2 weeks now.  Maybe it is this virus from hell that has attached itself to my body?  I am so tired of the headache, the chest wheezing and the infernal cough, cough, cough, cough, run to the bathroom so I don't pee on myself, and then cough some more.  Things need to be getting done, and I am not doing them.  It sucks being sick is what it does.

So my brain has had all sorts of random thoughts and I thought I might share some of them with you.

1. It is a tradition in my family to put out a jigsaw puzzle during the Christmas holidays and leisurely work on it with Christmas carols playing in the background while nibbling on cookies and such.  This year we have left the big round folding table up that houses the puzzle and have done one after the other after the next.  I think we are on the 7th one since the holidays.  We are some jigsaw puzzling fools!

If you have a puzzle that needs putting together, send it on down.  We will do it and then take a picture of it for you.

2. I have been researching on ancestry.com since I have been sick.  It's a new hobby and it is a good change of pace from the usual things you do when you don't feel good.  I work on one branch for a while and then switch over to another.  It has been really interesting looking at the old census pages and seeing what all you can find out from reading them.  And reading between the lines, too.  For example, in looking at a census of one family branch I noticed that a different branch of my family was listed on that same page. This means that they were neighbors.

Some of the censuses, censi, whatever the hell the plural of census is, ask questions like
A. What color is this person?
B. How many children have you given birth to?  How many still living?
C. Where was your father from?
D. Highest level of school attended?
E. Rent or own home?
F. Employment?
G. When did you come to this country?

In every case, the man is listed as head of household, unless he is dead and the widow is working the farm with the help of a bunch of the living kids.  When she gets older, the son or son-in-law is then listed as head of household and she is listed as retired, even though they never moved!

In the early 1800's the census also asked for an accounting of how many free white people and how many slaves.  Where did the indentured white people go on that list?  There only seemed to be the two categories.

3. Spring is springing up all over!  It is so beautiful.  If we could get a good long misting, sprinkling rain I think it would be just what we need to push all the wildflowers into bloom.

4. Showtime's new series to fill the void left after The Tudors finished, The Borgias is due to start on Sunday, April 3rd.  And if this isn't the best thing on t.v. (since the Tudors) I will eat my hat.  Go, run over to Showtime and scope it out.  Read up on those e-vil Borgias and get ready.

5. Over at Bye Bye Pie in the comments the last couple of days, we have been discussing our favorite soups.  Now, this is NOT what June posted about, but somehow the comments over there take on a life of their own and there we go.  Anyhoo, we were all discussing our favorite soups.  So I am curious, what are your favorite soups?  Homemade?  Restaurant? Cream based? Brothy?  Do you have one in each category?

Soup, it's good food!

Time for me to go make some more hot tea and get a cough drop.

Get your corned beefs ready!  Get your Irish soda bread made!  Bake up some gingerbread!  Get your Guinness or Harps beer on ice. And think about ole St. Paddy.  Driving the snakes out of Ireland.  Makes you wonder what happened next, doesn't it?  I have a book on all the saints, so I will look it up and give you a full report on St. Patrick tomorrow.

Bluebonnets of Texas, they bloom in the Spring

Sing it with me people!
I do love that song.  And here for your Saturday enjoyment are the photos of my neighbor's yard.  Just a little patch of heaven here on earth!

Now, can you even believe she wakes up every day and gets to look out the front window and see this?  And I wish you were all here to smell the lovely scent and hear all the little bees just a-buzzing!  Fabulous, is what it is.

"I love dear old Texas in summer and fall,

But bluebonnet time is the nicest of all,

but bluebonnet time is the nicest of all!"

Random Weekend Stuff

I was quite surprised to see that Paul Harvey of radio fame had died. He was 90 years old, so I am not sure why I would be surprised at his death. But he was an icon and I guess I never thought of him aging. I hope that there will be someone who puts his commentaries online or compiles them on cd or mp3 format for future generations. He will be greatly missed and his passing leaves a great hole that can't be filled.

Saturday Mr. Big Ed and I went to a symposium on environmental issues, energy saving, housing and business and such at the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center: http://www.esperanzacenter.org/
I attend many functions, speaker events, music, plays and things at the Esperanza and I think they are one of the most worthy non-profits in this city. The Peace Market they sponsor on the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving is the only place I will go on Black Friday that is shopping related.
Anyhoo, this particular event opened up a lot of food for thought and hopefully that gets translated into action.

Sunday we drove up to Kerrville to see Sparky and spend the afternoon with him. It is so dry and everything is still dead and brown. No green tips of anything sprouting. This drought is serious. It has been close to 18 months or more with no rain to speak of and they are now saying that soon we will go to Stage 4 restrictions. I don't know what that means, but it does sound ominous doesn't it? It is now March and we should have had enough precipitation to see the beginnings of all the lovely Texas wildflowers, but no. If you believe in rain dances, please do one for us.

This means that I have to get busy with my gray water recycling. I have been picturing and trying to work this out in my head for a long time now, and now it is time to implement and take action. There has to be an easy way to get the water from my washing machine out to my rain barrel. I will be getting more information on how to do this. I also want to start pumping the shower and bath water out to the garden. That should be easier to do. I will be sure to post how these projects end up and I hope to remember to start photographing these things as they develop.