More company....

.... but our special Miss C isn't really company... she's family.  And she'll be coming to visit with us when my cousins from Florida are here in March.  C practically knows my whole family because she has watched the video of my Aunt Dolly's 75th birthday party with me... more than a few times. As each of my aunts, uncles, and cousins appeared on the screen, I would tell her who they were and then I'd point out their children. So she really knows who is 'connected' with whom and where they sit on the family tree.

Aunt Dolly will be 102 this year, and a lot of my family who are on that video are no longer with us, so watching that 75th birthday video has become a special treat. (Tissues included for those who need them, and that's usually me.)

So.... C is looking forward to meeting my cousin S and his daughter B, and their visit is also around the time of C's birthday, so we can all celebrate that as well.

I am hoping beyond hope that the stupid weather we've been having will be a distant memory when my cousins get here. They live near Florida's Disney World, where it's almost always warm, and they'll be stopping here after a trip to Hawaii, which is always, always beautifully warm and tropical... and the last thing I want them to have here are cloudy and drippy and cold days, which is what we've been having all week. It's supposed to rain next week... so when that weather front moves east, I'm hoping the sun breaks out in all its Texas glory and gives us sunny and warm days with just a tad bit of coolness at night.

Is that too much to ask?  And just where do I go to file that request.....

Company's coming....

One of my cousins called the other day to tell me that he'll be in Texas for a few days in March. He and his daughter are going to Hawaii first, then he has business in Dallas to tend to, and then he'll be driving this way to visit us.

"That's great! I'll put the flag out!" -- which is exactly what my Uncle Tony used to tell everyone years ago when family were expected to visit. Uncle Tony was the first one to move out of Queens... he and his wife and sons moved "all the way out to Suffolk County," which was considered nearly sacrilege in the 1950s. He dared to move that far away from the rest of the family?

When the family drove from Queens out to Suffolk County to visit Tony, they'd let him know they were on their way, and my uncle would say "That's great! I'll put the flag out!"  (Translation: It must be a holiday, so let's celebrate by running the stars and stripes up the flagpole.)  Not many family members drove out to Suffolk County in those days, for the simple reason that they thought Uncle Tony shouldn't have moved that far away in the first place, so they just waited for Tony and his family to drive from out on the Island back into Queens.

Uncle Tony was also the first to move out of state--- all the way to Arizona.  And the family was in total denial and disbelief until the day they were packed up and ready to drive towards the west. As soon as they were settled in, up went a flagpole in the front yard, and my Uncle invited the rest of the family to come and visit, telling them he'd "put the flag out" when they were on their way. Considering the size of my big Italian family, only my dad and myself flew out there to visit my Uncle and Aunt (and by that time, their sons and their family had moved to Arizona also).

It will be nice to see my cousin S and his daughter here... they'll stay in the guest cottage, which I know his little girl will love. S is a city-boy at heart, and always has been, so it will be interesting to see his reaction to our home here out in the hills, surrounded by properties with horses and cows and goats. Not to mention the coyotes howling at night... and the sounds of the train in the distance at three o'clock in the morning... and I'm wondering if I should even mention the possibility that they might see a snake or two out by the back fence. And I guess I'll have to warn them about the fire ants also.  This should be an interesting visit...

Is it Spring yet?

It's getting there... but not quite fast enough, in my opinion. The bluebonnet plants are popping up all over the pastures, there are ladybugs on the porch, turtles and ducks in the pond, and scores of birds dining at our bird-feeder and bathing in our fountain. And every morning, at least three or four deer are munching the grasses in the side pasture... and I hope they're not eating the bluebonnets before they have a chance to bloom.

Everyone says that this will be a banner-year for the bluebonnets, and I hope they're right. Last Spring's bluebonnet count was more of an exhibition than a true explosion... so I'm hoping that our house will look like it's sitting in the middle of a sparkling blue ocean by April.

The Mardi Gras celebrations in Galveston and New Orleans came to a close last night... and a cold celebration it was indeed. Lower-than-ever temperatures have been reported all over the south, and I'm sure my cousins on Long Island are thinking that our 38-degree nights are nothing at all to complain about, given the fact that they've had days and nights in the single digits up there, with houses and cars and roads covered with ice and snow that hasn't even had a chance to melt.

As luck would have it, our little friend Miss C is up in New Jersey this week, in the midst of all that frigid weather. The company she works for sent her up there for a training class and conference meeting, and she won't be back on Texas soil till the end of the month. Needless to say, she was not a happy camper when she got the news that she'd have to fly up north in the middle of February. "Couldn't they have sent me to Hawaii?!"... that's what she told me on the phone before she left.  I suggested to C that she wear boots, bring her heaviest coat, pack extra sweaters and socks... and I told her by no means to walk around Newark after dark. (With apologies to Newark, I truly don't believe that city is as safe as Houston or Galveston for a young girl out walking by herself.)

After this afternoon's tea party (every Wed. is our "Waldorf Wednesdays" group), I took down all of the Valentine's decorations. I've scaled down a lot on Valentine things... everything fit into one plastic bin, and not a huge bin at that. I sent a lot of Valentine decorations to my cousin's little girl, and to my friend Fran's granddaughter, and I also sold a bunch of red glass hearts and vases in my booth at the antique co-op.

I've got a bin filled with St. Patty's Day decorations and glassware, and another bin filled with Easter things. As each of those bins come out of the storage closet, I'll sort through them and probably send some items to my cousins' kids, and also sell some things in the shop.  We used to have such big parties and gatherings for every holiday... and for the holiday-less months, I'd make up a theme so we could all celebrate something.

I know one thing we can celebrate out here---- the end of this stupid cold weather!

"Livin' the dream..."

That's what my mailman told me this morning when I asked him how he was feeling today... "Livin' the dream.... sometimes it's a dang nightmare, but I'm still livin' the dream!"

I went out there to give Charlie an Italian pastry for Valentine's Day.  My sister-in-law had sent a box of cannoli from Carlo's Bakery and they were indeed delicious, even with the freezing and the shipping and the re-freezing. The secret was that the bakery packed the cannoli shells separately, with the pastry cream in a piping bag... so they could be filled upon arrival rather than being shipped with the sweet cream already inside the flaky shells.

For all of the holidays, and whatever else inbetween, I tend to save some baked goods for Charlie. He's always been careful with our mail and packages, bringing them up on the porch so they're not out in the rain. So the cakes and cupcakes and cookies all during the year is my way of thanking him. When he sees me walking down our driveway with a little package or a wrapped-up paper plate, he sits in his mail truck and just smiles and says "Whatcha got there, Mrs. B?"

When I told him this morning that I had a Valentine's Day cannoli for him from an Italian bakery up north, he said that he'd never heard of 'canwhatoli' before but he'd be willing to try it just because it was "Eye-talian."  The cannoli was wrapped up in waxed paper, and Charlie unwrapped it, whistled, and said it was 'mighty pretty.'  Then he proceeded to re-wrap the cannoli like a taco, with one end sticking up from the waxed paper. He took a bite... and said.... "Living' the dream... and this part is no nightmare...."

Today is Valentine's Day.... no party tonight.... not many people here are too interested in this day, so I've given up on Valentine parties.  I had a little Valentine celebration during the week for our group of Waldorf Wednesday tea ladies... everyone left with a small box of chocolates wrapped up in Valentine paper.  My husband and I don't go out for lunch or dinner on Valentine's Day... every good place is too crowded on this day, so we tend to celebrate with a dinner out after everyone else has had their Valentine treat.  We'll have dinner in the dining room tonight, and enjoy the Valentine decorations that have been in there and in the living room since the end of January.

Valentine's Day comes and goes, whether or not there's a party.  I have to wonder what Buddy, The Cake Boss, would think if he knew that one of his delicious cannolis had been wrapped up like a taco and eaten in a Hill Country mail truck..... Livin' the dream....

What a difference...

....a couple of days of rest makes.

Gone is the virus that had me sick for a day and resting for two days after that. I spent the 'resting' time with either a book in one hand and a cup of tea in the other,  or both hands on the keyboard of my laptop. (Lots of Pinterest-ing going on during those two days of rest.)

The weather has been glorious, to say the least. Lots of sun and warm temperatures, just a little warm breeze blowing outside, and aside from people who have allergies to all the Spring-blooming things outside, everyone has been enjoying the back-to-Texas-normal weather. (Unlike my cousins in NY, who are now looking forward to temperatures with a wind-chill factor of 12 degrees below zero.)

I like these Spring days when I can open doors and let the breeze and fresh air come through the screens.  Sweet Pea has spent countless hours on a little bench by the screen door of the TV room... he smells the outside air, watches the birds in the trees, the other cats on the porch, and generally surveys the outside world from his inside kingdom. For those of you saying "Let that poor cat go outside!".... I can't.  Sweet Pea is a climber.... when we did let him wander around outside, we'd find him on the roof of the house, the roof of the barn, or so far up into the trees that he just stood where he was and screamed till his whiskers nearly turned blue. When we were finally able to get him down from up high, he would hide his face in my arms and wouldn't look up until I brought him back into the safety of the house. He acts like he's Marco Polo, but unlike Winnie The Pooh and Christopher Robin, Sweet Pea is not as brave as he thinks he is.

Not exactly a good day...

Got out of bed at my usual time this morning and just didn't feel right.... I must have picked up a virus somewhere and it hit like a ton of proverbial bricks.

I was trying to get back into the bedroom quietly, without waking up my husband who was sleeping soundly. Next thing I knew, I was opening my eyes and I was staring at the ceiling in the little bathroom connected to my dressing room. What the heck? I was very lucky not to have hit my head, but I seemed to have fallen very nicely across the little rug in that room.

Well, so much for trying to be quiet.... I called out to my husband and he woke up quickly and found me shaking so badly that I couldn't hold the cup of water that I'd asked him to bring me. He practically carried me into the dressing room and got me on the fainting sofa. (Now isn't that ironic, that I fainted less than twenty feet away from a Victorian fainting sofa?)

Needless to say, I went back to bed after a glass of orange juice and a bunch of much-needed hugs. I slept till nearly noon. My husband fed the cats, cleaned the litter boxes, and basically got the day started without me.

My own day didn't really begin till nearly one o'clock this afternoon.... and the mail-lady brought a box of Valentine chocolates that my husband had ordered... on this day of days, I can't even look at a piece of chocolate, much less taste one. I'll be sticking to tea and toast and fruit for a couple of days.

And what a beautiful day this has been... the sun is shining, the birds are singing and dancing all over the yard in their bird-seed symphonic flight. However, my knees are still sort of wobbly so I haven't been enjoying much of anything beyond the latest book I've been reading and my Pinterest page.

My only accomplishment today was putting on a little powder and lipstick, making my way down the stairs, and I've re-organized all of the books on my Pinterest page into six separate boards. Well, at least that's something.

Tomorrow will be a better day, I'm sure.

Every rule has an exception...

That last post about The Book Jar.... putting in slips of paper with the titles of the books waiting-to-be-read... and when you pick a title, that's the book you have to read.

Well, that's fine, and that's what I'm doing.  With one exception....

The new book by Harper Lee.... due out on July 14th of this year. I've already pre-ordered it on Amazon.... its title is "Go Set a Watchman."

You can bet the ranch that when that book arrives in my mailbox, that is the book that I'll be reading.  The Book Jar, at that point, will just have to wait.

The Book Jar

I found this idea on one of the Pinterest pages that I've been following.... a jar filled with little slips of paper.... each paper with a book title written on it. The idea is to pick a slip of paper from the jar and the title written on the paper is the book to choose from your "waiting-to-be-read" shelf.

Any good collector and reader of books usually has either a pile of books or a dedicated shelf filled with books that haven't yet been read. What almost always happens is that one picks from the top of the pile or the beginning of the shelf, and the books at the bottom (or at the end) tend to stay there for much too long a time. And that's what happened to me, beginning just after Christmas, when I started to read the books I had received as gifts, rather than reading the books that had been waiting there patiently since before the holidays.

Enter the Book Jar. Or, in my case, The Book Box. I used a pretty box that had contained a Christmas gift... on top of the box, I made a printed label which says, of course, "The Book Box,"  Then I sat in my library and wrote down the titles of all those books that haven't yet been read... into the Book Box went the folded-up slips of paper. From now on, when I go up to the library to choose a book, I will take a slip from the Book Box, and that's what I'll read. No exceptions. Unless, of course, I want to re-read a book that's already found a home on my bookshelves.

So that's what I did last night... took the cover off of that pretty box, put my hand in and swirled the little papers around, and chose one. Put the cover back on the box, sat in my favorite chair up there, and read the little slip of paper.

And wouldn't you know... the slip of paper I chose had the title of a book I just bought last week. That particular book was right there at the very end of the shelf.  Oh well. No exceptions. So that's the book I've started to read. And the other books... are still waiting patiently until I pick their titles from the box.

Deliver me from Pinterest....

Good grief... I must be out of my mind. (But I'm hooked on Pinterest, and that's just that.)

A few days ago, an idea occurred to me... that I should use my 'Books, Books, Books!' board on my Pinterest page as an inventory of all the books I have upstairs in the library. I figured that would be easy... just go through the shelves, check to see which books I'd already pinned onto that board, and then just add in the others.

Simple idea. Yes. But then, I have a lot of books upstairs in that third floor library. I just finished going through the fiction shelves this afternoon. I quickly realized that my inventory idea would be made easier if I didn't list (or pin) every single one of the books I have by authors such as Dickens, Sanders, Shreve, Berg, Tyler, Wharton, Nichols.  I have all of their books (except a few by Shreve and Berg and Tyler which I felt weren't entirely library-worthy after I read them).

Certainly, all of Dickens, Wharton, Nichols, and Sanders are library-worthy... but to list them all... every blessed book... I'd still be up there right now instead of down here typing this. Just whose idea was this anyway? That library is a big room.... 14' x 36'.... and the walls are lined with shelf after shelf after shelf...

Tomorrow, I'll start with the decorating books and the travel books... and then work my way to the other side of the room where the rest of the non-fiction books are shelved. And then there's the vintage children's books, in the children's corner.  Surely, I have to include those, as well as the 'young adult' classics.  And the collection of Christmas books.... and that entire shelf with the books on British history and the Royal Family. I repeat: Just whose idea....

Well, I started this... I will continue.  (Tomorrow.)  God Save The Queen.

New book!!!!!! From Harper Lee!!!!!!

Not exactly a new-just-written book from Harper Lee, but a book that she wrote in the 1950s before "To Kill a Mockingbird" was published.  And I repeat: !!!!!!!!!!!!!

The new book is set to be released in July... the title is "Go Set a Watchman."  The first printing of this book will be two million copies, which is unheard-of in the publishing business.

The link about this event and a synopsis of the story itself:   http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/03/harper-lee-new-novel-to-kill-a-mockingbird        

Or just do a Google search on Harper Lee's new book, or do a search on "Go Set a Watchman."

A friend told me about Lee's new book this afternoon... she'd heard the story on one of the morning news programs.  I just sent her an eMail suggesting that maybe we should go to the nearest Barnes & Noble and set up camp..... like right now.

I repeat:  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And let me just say that once more: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Blind Date With a Book!"

I went into town last weekend with our little friend C and we stopped at the local bookstore. Rather a small store, and I'm not always thrilled with the selection there... too many westerns and romances for my taste, but the owner is very nice and extremely helpful.

While I was looking for a particular book that I'd read about on Pinterest (and they had it there at the shop!), C found a shelf near the front of the store with a sign over it which said "Blind Date With a Book!"  All of the books on that display were wrapped in white paper so you couldn't see the covers. On the white wrapper were clues about the book... fiction, memoir, mystery, etc.... and then parts of the blurbs describing the story were written down as well, without giving away the contents of the book.

The 'instructions' on the sign were as follows:
*Choose your 'date' by reading the clues on the wrapping paper. Take your date home and unwrap it in privacy. Introduce your date to your favorite reading spots.
*If you've found the book-love of your life, add it to your own library shelves, or you may want to share it with your friends.
*If you're not satisfied with your date, then re-wrap it and return it,,.. and choose another. No questions asked!

C and I laughed at the sign... I copied it down because I knew I'd want to adapt it to our Waldorf Wednesdays and other parties... and then both C and I picked out two books. The bookstore was selling the Blind Date books for $3 each, but there are libraries all over the country doing the same thing... those books can be 'borrowed' on library cards (and returned, of course) or purchased for just a dollar or two if they're on the library's Books-For-Sale shelves.

I made up my own sign for "Blind Date With a Book," using the instructions from the bookstore sign. Then I went through my selling page on Half.com and pulled out books that I thought would be of interest to the tea ladies, and of course deleted them from my inventory.  At this afternoon's Waldorf Wednesday, I will introduce everyone to their Blind Date options... which are all wrapped up and waiting on the table in the breakfast room, all with little cards on them giving clues as to what sort of book is under the wrapping paper.

As I go to the bookstores and thrift stores in the area, I will look for other books to add to the "Blind Date With a Book" table, and also ask the ladies if they have any books they'd like to contribute to the 'dating' possibilities.  I know all of this will be a nice surprise for the ladies, and I'm sure it's going to be a lot of fun from week to week.