Green Lantern

Green Lantern & Cat Woman

We gotta winn-ah!

So humble! So shy!

Reading, Baseball, A New Adventure, Knotts Scary Farm, HEAs, & Swimming

I finally started my ARC of EVERMORE by Lynn Viehl today. I'm 60 pages in and loving it. Boy that woman can write. This is another series that has stayed high in quality, remained consistent and still manages to have something new to add to the mix with each book. Feels great. I'm smiling typing this and can't wait to get back to reading it.

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So the Cleveland Indians have to keep things interesting by NOT clinching a trip to the World Series at home and traveling back to Boston. Good thing we had swimming tonight because GG was strung tight as a drum when we left at the end of the 4th inning. The score was 2 to 1 Boston. When we got home the game was over and Cleveland had lost 7-1. I think I'll be in a different room on Saturday when they play again. Beanie is working the night shift and he was making phone calls and texting to check on the score. God help us all...okay ME...if the Indians don't manage to win one more game and move on.

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A new adventure awaits over the horizon for me. I was recently asked to be a monthly contributor to the Readers Gab blog over at Access Romance. I will join the illustrious ranks of Kristie, Robin, Tara, and JMC sometime in November. I'm extremely flattered and want to do a good job for them. Besides I count on you all to let me know how I'm doing. You wouldn't let me make a monkey of myself...would you?

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If you saw the title to this post you saw KNOTTS SCARY FARM. I'm sure you will be shocked to learn that Shmoo decided that GG & I could drive he and GF #1 to Knotts tonight. Of course this was one of the compromises offered earlier in the week that he initially turned down. Have I mentioned the kid drives us nuts? Anyway, all's well that ends well. I actually went over to GF #1's house and met her parents today. Very nice people. Since Shmoo and GF #1 seem to have patched things up and he's annoyed with GF #2 I'm thinking meeting her parents is a good thing. Or maybe I'm just happy because there's been no drama this week. Praise be.

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I was over at Bam's yesterday and read this post about HEA's of our favorite romance couples. In her remarks Bam mentioned one of my all time favorite couples Roanna and Webb from SHADES OF TWILIGHT by Linda Howard. Those of you who visit here frequently know that this is one of my most beloved romance novels. It is also one of the few I've read more than once, or twice for that matter. Anyway, I couldn't resist posting my thoughts on what I think happened to them after the book ends... You're dying to know aren't you? To save you a click here's what I said.

Webb and Roanna are one of my very fave couples. Since this is one of the few books I’ve read more than once I have given their future some thought.

Of course they have two little Tallants which Webb is thrilled about because he has a little Webb to raise to take over the family dynasty. Although Roanna has her horses as a diversion she gets distressed as Webb begins to drift further and further away as he obsesses over business. It isn’t until he realizes that Roanna is spending a lot of time with the new trainer and taking trips entering the horses in high stakes races that Webb wakes up and begins to court and woo her like she deserved to be the first time around.

I blame my mother for this. She's the one who'd sit with us and people watch and make up stories and HEAs about people all the time. It's why I don't particularly like epilogues in books. I'd rather think up my own future for the characters.

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Last and certainly not least. Swimming. We've been steadily increasing the number of lengths of the pool we swim each week. One length is 25 meters for all of you with inquiring minds. Anyway, I used to be just wiped out after doing 10 lengths waaaaay back on June 4th when we started lap swimming. Now we are up to 40 lengths of the pool. FORTY people. It takes GG and I about 30 to 35 minutes of steady swimming to do this.

Anyway, tonight for some reason I started wheezing and having a tough time breathing. This happened one time before and I wrote it off as a fluke. I pushed myself and got 32 lengths in tonight. GG, of course, did his 40. All of which is irrelevant to my question for all your bright people out there. Has anyone ever had something like that happen? Wheezing starts and then labored breathing? It just exhausted me and I was pretty wiped out when swimming usually energizes me. We have a lot of asthma in my family and my Dad didn't get his until his 60s. You think it could be asthma? I know maybe I should go see my doctor, but I figure third time's the charm. I'll go if it happens again...or one of you gives me a diagnosis. So? What do you think?

BOO!

So name your poison. Do you decorate your home for fall? How about Halloween? Much of my extended family and relatives live in Montana. Heck my Dad lives there most of the year. Up in Montana where they can get snow as early as August people go all out with the Halloween decorations. Well they seem to in the parts of the state where I have family. I'm talking about the sorts of decorating people do here in So Cal for Christmas. It's awesome and it's inspiring.

I love autumn. It's the beginning of the holiday season. We have Halloween in October, Thanksgiving in November and Christmas in December. January seems so anti-climatic after that doesn't it? I'm going to try and convice the SoCal blogger chicks to get together in January. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for getting together sooner, but I definitely would go for a January gathering. I always have the doldrums in January.

Anyway, what I'm really trying to talk about here is fall and decorating. So do you decorate? Do you do an all encompassing autumn theme or is it strictly the spooky stuff for Halloween? I've done both. I usually try to put some stuff up the first week in October. We are terribly lax this year and except for some exceptionally pretty bright yellow giant marigolds in my front flower beds there's not a fall decoration in sight.

GG promised me we'll get some stuff up this weekend. I've got pumpkin lights. We string them across our front porch. Those will go up and my door wreathe. I made it two or three years ago and will pull it out and see if it can withstand one more year on the front door. The wind is horrendous this time of year so outside decorations really take a beating.

Anyway, that's what's going on in my neck of the woods. I'm feeling nostalgic and in a holiday frame of mind. BTW, the photo at the top is available as a wallpaper. Guess what's on my desktop now?

It's Halloween?

Halloween. Not particularly my favorite holiday, and it arrives in my favorite season, so go figure. I think it all goes back to not liking to be scared and Halloweens of my childhood. I always wanted to stay home and handout candy instead of walk around in the dark with a bag and beg for treats. I was always terrified every time we rang a doorbell.

Then as a Mom I was always tortured between "buy a costume...make a costume" each year. We bought very few costumes so my boys had a wild conglomeration of get ups over the years. Most times they had the PC costume for school (dress up as your favorite character from a book...boys LOVE that!) and a scary costume for Trick or Treating. Although here in Southern California I haven't found Halloween to be quite as big a deal as it was when I grew up with school parties and fairs and community bazaars and such.

So with my grown up kids and a son with a birthday on October 28th we have LOTS of Halloween/Birthday parties over the years. This past Saturday was a case in point. Family, friends, kids, kids friends...I think there was about 30 people all told. I love having company and a gathering. I really, really do. However, this time I was in a flare period with my RA and the weekend ended up really kicking my ass. *sigh* These are the adjustments I hate to make and that remind me I haven't really accepted things as well as I like to believe.

Anyway, as a result of the fatigue I haven't posted in a while, but I have been reading. Today I downloaded a couple of stories from PBW's ebook challenge. If you haven't heard about it or checked it out, today is definitely the day to go take a look see. All the stories and authors with the links are posted on her site. I have to admire a working author who takes the time out to do this. Kudos to Lynn Viehl. I'm anxious to go back later today and get the link to HER story.

My posts might be a little sparse in the short term because sitting for lengthy period of time is pretty uncomfortable. Right now I'm off to B&N to check out today's releases. Have a Happy Halloween...hope you get all treats and NO tricks!!

HALLOWEEN...or Bust!

It turns out that after years of saying I don't like Halloween, in fact I've been known to say "I hate Halloween!" that I actually do like this wacky, weird, wild holiday.

Now that my boys are not the least interested in decorating the house and spooking it up...couldn't care less about carving pumpkins and don't see the point of leaving the porch light on for trick-or-treaters, it seems that I DO want to do all those things. To be sure the little darlings are mystified with my sudden change of heart.

Where is the grumbling, growling, grousing, aggravated Mom of years past who is stumbling through thrift shops trying to find pieces to put together an "original" costume instead of a store bought one from Wal-Mart? The Mom who made one costume for school and another for trick-or-treating so they didn't have to trick or treat in the "come as a profession you admire" get-up the school asked them to wear. Where is the Mom who said, "I can't wait until they out grow Halloween!" Or, "I never liked Halloween...even when I was a kid!"

Well guess what?!! That Mom's kids grew up and she....umm...I realized that Halloween is the kick off of the "holiday season". You tick them off like a metronome...Halloween in October; Thanksgiving in November; and Christmas in December!

Besides, I also realized this is my favorite time of the year. Really if anyone asks me, or it comes up in conversation I always say "fall" is my favorite time of year. So how can I possibly continue to say I dislike any holiday in my favorite time of the year?

I've discovered that while autumn has always been a hectic and very busy time of the year it is also has number one son's birthday, October 28th. So Halloween was always a holiday with a booster rocket that started on the 28th.

There are many reasons that Halloween became the punching bag of holidays. The birthday and birthday party followed closely by school parties with outrageusly behaved kids in costumes didn't help. From my own days in the school room to my kids' school rooms parties, Halloween was almost always dramatic, traumatic and exhausting. There always seemed to be more work than holiday, which is a whole other subject for another time.

My kids rarely did more than a block or two of actual trick-or-treating. We generally participated in school, church, or community Halloween parties and carnivals so we could leave the begging for candy part of the evening out of things. However, as the boys got older, they enjoyed going out to houses and seeing the spooky and different decorations as much as getting the candy.

I remember trying to bribe them into skipping the door-to-door one year by telling them I'd take them to the store and let them buy any bag of candy of their choice and take it home. They both said they'd rather take their chances on the street. Go figure!

Of course, in recent years a parent has to go through every piece of candy piece by piece and check it because there are wackos who want to harm kids as an added jolly. Every year without fail there is a story somewhere where a needle, pin, razor or some such was found in some kid's treats. This added stigma didn't give the holiday much to crow about.

But even with all the craziness I love the pumpkin lights I have for my porch. My marigolds are all in bloom in orange and yellow. I've bribed the child units with a little pumpkin carving party with their friends a couple days before Halloween so I can have a bunch of pumpkins out. I enjoy seeing the little kids out trick-or- treating for the first time.

I know once I drag the can of decorations and old costumes out the whole household will get into the swing of things. We'll decorate. We'll carve pumpkins. We'll buy way too much candy. And my boys will dig through the old costumes under the guise of looking for something to wear to scare our little visitors at the door but end up begging me to go out and trick-or-treat...still more interested in "being out there" than eating the candy we have at home.

So go figure...it turns out I like Halloween!!