The Next Save

In December of 2017, on the 15th to be exact, my World of Warcraft guild, Spectacular Death, will celebrate 10 years of uninterrupted time in the game. That's a long time. We were talking, last summer, about doing something spectacular to celebrate. Brainstorming came up with a guild trip to Walt Disney World. After presenting the idea, it was approved.

In September of last year, I put a down payment on the trip. I had tucked away a decent sum until house repairs forced me to dip into the Disney fund to get things fixed. It makes me sad because I have to, essentially, start all over in saving and there's less than a year to do it. February and March see the highest heating bills so I'm scrambling right now, to figure out where money goes and what really needs to be done in 2017, since I put down money on this.

I was at my favorite bookstore and this was on the shelf. The last time I bought one of these guides it was 1990 and I was going, as a family, for the first time. My last visit was in 2005, when my pen pal was still alive.

A guild member, Liz, went in November of last year and took these amazing photos of the fireworks at Epcot.

She went during the time of that Super Moon.

These were taken from a pontoon boat which you can reserve to watch the Epcot fireworks. Unobstructed views and snacks are guaranteed. We are going to do this.

So far, 13 of us are going. We're not going as an official group because that locks us into a certain discount and the travel agent we are working with says she can get better deals if we are just a bunch of friends going at the same time. We're going in October, to take advantage of Halloween and the annual Food and Wine Festival. I have selected the venue for our character breakfast but we're getting down to the wire to pick the place for the 'Goodbye' dinner. I told the group I would pick 4 places and we would vote. The place with the most votes would be where we'll go. We can make reservations for rides and dinners as early as April 17th. When it was November, that was a long way away. Now that it's January, *gasp*, that's almost here.

I know I can do this, but I really need for there not to be emergencies. I'm not going to take another traveling vacation this year, opting to take days off here and there to save money. Having a car that doesn't need monthly maintenance helps tremendously. Now, I need for it to be mild in temperature so the heating bill is not astronomical.

Beverage:  Dr Pepper

Deb

I Spy With My Little Eye

Remember those books? They were all the rage some 17-odd years ago. I remember, when I worked at The Bookstore, we couldn't keep them in stock. A new one would come out and we knew exactly how many to reserve and which customers were sure to pick up the new version. They just needed a call when the book was in.

It's a great game to play with the grade school set. It teaches kids to be observant of their surroundings. It teaches language skills and how to be patient. When it's their turn to pick something, and the beginning clue is, "It's blue!", it can be hard for them not to tell you it's your socks when you guess it's your purse which is clearly visible on the counter. You can tell I've had some experience with this.

So, it was with bemusement  that I noticed the following.

See it? I spy with my little eye, something slender and blue.

How about now? How about I say that it's not the Jeep, nor the bumper sticker affixed to the bumper. It's that blue thing in the center of the photo.

The pen is a brand we use in the office. I have no idea how long it had been between the bumper and the body. I don't remember why I noticed it, either. Might have been some morning when I was brushing the frost off the back window and I happened to look down.

I stared, incredulously, and then had a hearty laugh. I've never said anything to my coworkers about this, waiting to see if someone says, "Um...has anyone seen my pen, anyone, like, oh...I don't know, you, Deb?" So far, and I know I found this back in October, no one has volunteered any sort of clue as to who did this.

I thought about leaving the pen there. It would be of value when I'm on a job and forget to bring one. "Oh! Wait right here! I have one stuck in my bumper for just such an emergency!" The looks, alone, would be worth it. But as we get into winter, with slush and snow, I realized it would probably get broken. That defeats the whole point of leaving it where it is. So, I carry it around in my purse as a reminder that humor is all around us, encouraged by some who wish to remain anonymous.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

The Printed Word

I managed to get 7 books read in 2014. I didn't review the last one. I don't even have a photo of it. It was a cat book with a copyright of 1976. It wasn't very informative or insightful. The study of the cat has come a long way in the almost 50 years since the book was published. Thankfully, I got it used so I don't feel cheated by spending money for a book containing now largely discredited information. I guess it's interesting to see how far science has come to trying to understand the cat.

The book that's been on the ottoman since the cat book has been Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication on the Rights of Women. I feel I should read a classic every year, either something I have read before or something I haven't. Wollstonecraft's book will, periodically, be used as a reference to women's rights. She wrote it in the 18th Century and was an uncommon woman. But it's kind of like slogging through a thawing peat bog. I'm half-way through it and I kind of feel like I HAVE to finish it, rather than want to finish it. That's a clear sign that I need to set it aside and pick up something else, something more engaging.

Lately, my eyes and brain have been assaulted by other books. As you know, I honestly don't NEED books. I should take a bag to Half Price Books because they will buy stuff and give you a store credit, which would promote the purchase of more books, but I'm sure I can find things to use up the store credit. At least I'd have the books out of the house. If they gave me $15 for a bag of books, I could, perhaps, find something large which could be a Christmas book for someone.

After much thought and reading, I purchased these from my friendly bookstore, Just the Bookstore, in downtown Glen Ellyn.

The Guild Leader's Handbook is a reference tome for people who lead guilds in computer games. As you know, I lead a guild in World of Warcraft. Any help I can have to navigate the needs of the guild and the drama of having 85 people in one place is welcome.

Living in the Shadow of Death is the book which sparked the PBS "American Experience" program about tuberculosis.

Amusing Ourselves to Death is a book about how television has eroded the ability to critically think and discuss politics, science, most anything. It was originally published in 1985, but I've seen it referenced in quite a few articles on the news and science sites I frequent. If eight different authors refer to this in eight different articles, I figured I should see what they were talking about.

As You Wish is the memoir of Cary Elwes who played "Wesley" in "The Princess Bride" movie. It's one of my favorite movies and has become a part of our culture. I probably should, at some point, read the original novel, The Princess Bride by William Goldman. While Goldman wrote the script for the movie, he left out a great deal which fleshes out the characters more.

I tend to steer clear of memoirs. A huge number are released every year and it's tough to find one that isn't about a horrible family or event which colors the author's world outlook. I guess if you had a happy childhood, you don't need to write a memoir to exorcise your demons. But the doom and gloom of most memoirs, even with a happy ending, turns me off. This book, however, promised to be very narrow in scope. It only deals with the time Elwes was filming the movie. Since the book's release, I've read probably a quarter of it on a wide variety of web sites. Everything I read was funny and well written. It seems like the perfect late winter book when the storm rages o'er me.

The top book was an impulse purchase. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up crossed my news feed in, of all places, a couple of craft blogs I read, as well as a book review on NPR. The premise of the book is the Japanese method of decluttering your life really will remove the stress we feel when our homes are filled with stuff. I've said, a lot, that I want to declutter, purge, remove. The Aunt Peaches blog to the right had a wonderfully glowing review of this book and that's what made me get it when I asked Renee if they had it in the store. I guess I need to read the whole book before jumping into decluttering. One of the tips is to hold up an item and say, "Does this bring me joy?" If not, it goes. I'm sure there is more to it. You'll be the first to know.

So, Mary Wollstonecraft is going back in the pile. I'm not sure which one of these I will start with. My goal is still to read a book a month, 12 books at least, per year. I think decluttering would go hand in hand with that. Did this book bring me joy? If not, add to the get rid of bag.

Beverage: Earl Grey Tea

Deb

I Haz A Sad

With the cold and the snow, I've been wearing my new boots to the office and then changing into shoes once I get there. That way, if I have to stop for something and there's lots of snow around, I don't get my feet wet.

As work was winding down last night, I removed my shoes and put on my boots. Once, home and the recycling dragged to the curb and the mail retrieved, the boots were removed and I went to put the shoes away on the shoe tree in my bedroom. That's when I saw it.

Oh man, this is the left shoe. It's coming apart at the stitching. Quickly checking the right shoe, I found this.

This was my first pair of Clarks shoes. This is the pair that sold me on how good, how comfortable these shoes are. I have had this pair for, oh gosh, maybe 8 years? I'm not sure how long. With RA sometimes affecting my ankles and then, by extension, my feet, my decision to invest in Clarks has paid off substantially. Yes, they are more expensive than something I could get at Payless, but for comfort, they are well worth the price.

You can see that the sole is still in exceptionally good condition and all that's wrong is that the stitching holding the black piping to the sole and the upper has come apart. There is a cobbler in downtown Glen Ellyn. I've taken a lot of stuff to him over the years. There's probably another 8 years, at least, of use left in these shoes. I think I need to drop them off.

Yes, when I discovered this, I had a momentary thought that I should just replace them. They need to be polished, badly. I've had them a long time. But, beyond the broken stitching, there is nothing wrong with them. As long as I can fix them, it's stupid to spend money on a new pair of shoes. If the sole or the upper was cracked, that's a different matter, but stitching. Pffft.

So, next week I have a couple days off for doctor's visits. I'll add dropping these off at the cobbler to my to do list. Oh look. Across the street is The Bookstore. I can pop in and say, "Hi".

Beverage:  Rooibos tea

Deb

Small Business Saturday

I think we should look with huge skepticism whenever a company, particularly a credit card company, encourages us to spend money. Even under the guise of "X% of the proceeds will go to fighting toenail fungus", I tend to think the overall goal is to part me from money I don't have and make me want things I don't need. But then American Express came out with this "Small Business Saturday" idea. You know, it's a great idea.

If you haven't a clue what it's all about, and admittedly, I should have blogged about this a week ago, but I've been preoccupied with other blog posts, American Express came up with this idea to promote the small businesses that form the backbone of the local economy. It's not the Walmarts or the JC Penneys or the Jewel grocery stores that pump money back into the community. It's the yarn shop, the tea house, the bookstore with square footage equal to my house who keep their profits in the community. So, I decided that the few places I still needed to frequent would be as local as I could make them and would be on Saturday.

One of the great things about living in the Chicagoland area is the wealth of small downtowns with a wide variety of offerings. I went into downtown Glen Ellyn after getting my hair cut today.

Antique stores, children's clothing and toys, stationary, framing, women's specialty clothing, bakery, shoe repair and my favorite bookstore on the planet, Just the Bookstore. I could be a bit biased since I used to work there but the personalized service you get from Jane, Sue, Linda, Jenny and Renee cannot be beat. It's time to replace the calendars in the house so they ordered 4 of the 5 I usually get. The other one they can't get so I'll have to order it on Cyber Monday. There was a book I'd read about which they just happened to get in the day I called about the calendars. "Oh Deb, we have this book that, when it was announced, we all said, 'That's a book for Deb'." Yeah, yes it is. I'd actually seen it but hadn't ordered it, yet.

Buying locally makes me feel good. Could I get those books and the calendars for less somewhere else? Oh yeah, but when I walk in the store and they ask about my daughter, hand me something they think I might like, show off grandchildren photos and discuss where the kids are that our kids grew up with, it's family. I wound up having to go to Target because I couldn't find something that I wanted and the staff seemed more friendly than I remembered. It wasn't nearly as hectic as I expected today to be. Maybe that's why Target employees were happy.

Small businesses are easily swallowed up by the Targets, the Walmarts, the Costcos. Every time you walk into one of those anywhere in the US, you know the shampoo will be over to the right, the printer paper will be off to the center and pet food tucked in the left corner. But you won't have someone asking how the girls are doing, I can guarantee that.

So, I did my part today. I actually don't need a reason to shop locally and far prefer it, although, with some things, there are just limited options. If you're going to be a consumer, try to shop local. You win. Your shopkeeper wins. Your community wins.

This is the point where I should plug the written word. Give a book. Go to your local bookstore and see what they have for Christmas. Give a classic. Give something new. If you're not going to crochet scarves for everyone on your list, give a book. In fact, if you email Just the Bookstore, they will ship anywhere in the US. I'm thinking I should go back and get that cookie making kit that's in the center of the display. I know a family who would love that.

Beverage:  Berry-flavored seltzer

Deb

Ghostly Books

After a flurry of books about battlefield ghosts, I'm back to the stack of magazines. I'm so close to having that stack gone, finished, recycled, that one of my goals to read books has sort of fallen by the wayside. There might be a dozen magazines in the stack now. I didn't count last night when I finished yet another one and tossed it into the recycling bin.

But I thought I'd do a book review of the three books by Mark Nesbitt on battlefield ghosts that I read around the July 4th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. The first review is of this one to the left. I ordered it from Just the Bookstore in Glen Ellyn and picked it up Friday after the Jeep was fixed so it would pass emissions testing. On Monday, I finished it. 

It's okay. It's a fairly quick read with chapters that are 3-4 pages in length. The battles he covers are arranged chronologically from 1861-1865. The problem with the book is that about three-quarters of the way through, it feels as if the author felt he had bitten off more than he really wanted to write about.

When the book starts, there is an excellent synopsis of the major battles of the Civil War. Detailed descriptions of these battles are for other books. He's concerned with where the armies were, where they moved during the particular battle and where the deadliest fighting occurred. I found his synopsis, at the beginning, to be very well done.

The problem, if you haven't guessed by now, is that Nesbitt seems to lose steam or desire for the concise descriptions of the battles that he starts with. In setting the stage for the ghost stories he's going to relate, it just seems as if he decided he was being too wordy before and he needed to pare down the descriptions. While I didn't read the book for a description of the battles, they way he presents the battles early in the war help put the ghost stories in context. 

Plus, he leaves out the Petersburg campaign entirely. I cannot believe he has no stories from the siege that produced "The Crater" and which saw a black regiment severely decimated by Southern troops. They took out their anger about the war on those soldiers, killing any black soldier they could find even those who attempted to surrender. You would think the trench warfare of this campaign would produce all sorts of stories. Sherman's March to the Sea is also curiously absent. The emotions, which still run raw, about this march and what Sherman did to the south would certainly have produced ghost stories. If there are any, Nesbitt doesn't include them.

There are stories from Chattenooga and Kentucky. We tend to forget that the Civil War was fought from Gettysburg to Mobile, from Charleston to Texas. Iowans were in Arkansas. Every battle produced casualties and while a detailed battlefield book is not what this purports to be, I was quite surprised that he left out two major events. 

The ghost stories related are of the usual kind. They weren't particularly scary. If you want to be scared, you need to read his Ghosts of Gettysburg series. I had high hopes for the Ghost Trails books because of the other series. Nesbitt was a ranger at Gettysburg National Battlefield and knows that area extremely well. It shows in the attention to detail of the stories he collects. Some of the stories in the Gettysburg book made me shiver. 

There's the bed and breakfast across the street from the house where General Lee had his headquarters. One chilly fall evening, the owner went to the wood pile to get an armload of wood. He picked up the wood and heard sounds that could only be described as cannon fire. They were coming from the far end of the open field behind the inn. As he looked across the field, he saw shadows form and start moving towards him. They took on the shape of men. This would be Union soldiers who were routed from their positions and fled back into and through Gettysburg. He attempted to step aside as he saw a soldier running towards him but the shade ran right through him. At this point, he dropped the wood and fled back inside. When he told his wife what had happened, she said she had been in the back office doing paperwork when she saw what looked like men running past the inn. She couldn't see any detail on them. They were all shadowed but it was quite clear they were running through the side yard. 

With the ghost stories in the ghost trail book, there isn't this attention to detail. More space is given over to Nesbitt's attempt to communicate with reported ghosts than with the actual reports from people of what they have experienced. He uses a digital tape recorder set on voice activation. He goes to a battleground and asks general questions to the air and hopes that he gets something in return. I don't find these kinds of stories as chilling as the stories of people having encounters they cannot explain. I can't believe there aren't stories out there.

The only story from the ghost trails book that gave me chills was the story of the Carter House in Franklin, Tennessee. Tod Carter fought for the Confederate Army and was in sight of his boyhood home when he was shot 9 times. His men carried him from the field of battle into his home where he died. The Carter farm is now a museum detailing the battle and life on the farm. 

One day, right before closing, a thin man in wool pants, scuffed shoes and a cotton shirt showed up at the museum and asked for a tour. The museum director took him around. She became increasingly irritated when this man would politely correct her on numerous aspects of the battle fought around the farm and on the lives of the family who lived there. They headed to the cellar where she was to give a presentation on how the family stayed in the cellar during the battle. The young man became agitated and said they weren't allowed in the cellar. She assured him that it was okay. She turned on the light to go down the stairs and he vanished in front of her. A week later, as she was going through family photos for an exhibit, she found a photo of the man she had given the tour to. It had been Tod. No wonder he knew about life on the farm. 

Nesbitt has changed the focus of the Ghosts of Gettysburg books just a bit. He looks at these stories with a somewhat skeptical eye. There is no doubt, to him, that something is going on in places where life was violently removed from so many. For himself, as much as for anyone else, he wants some sort of tangible proof in this, that what someone experiences is real. I remain skeptical of the tape recorded sounds. Poltergeist activity; the moving of items, slamming of doors, touching, shoving, etc; can be more solid proof, as is auditory sounds of battle when there is nothing visible. People report the smell of rotten eggs, a remnant of the sulfur that was used in ammunition, or the smell of smoke. Nesbitt reports people who visit The Wilderness battlefield often smell smoke. The woods caught on fire several times during the battle which lead to many deaths as men who were wounded and couldn't move were burned alive. 

He mentions that only 10% of paranormal encounters are with full specters as the guide had at the Carter house. A full 60% are of the poltergeist nature and the rest are auditory or olfactory. He's not very fond of the ghost "hunters" on television. He believes you don't hunt for ghosts. You just happen to be in the same space as them. They determine whether they will reveal themselves to you. And these "hunters" are looking for a full spectral manifestation, ignoring how most incidents occur. 

He's even less happy with people who show up in packs with their meters and infrared cameras. Controlled, almost scientific, investigations are what he's doing now, what he's reporting on now and he feels these packs of would-be investigators erode the credibility of those who are trying to solve the mystery of what people experience in these locations. He was polite but not charitable to the TV program he found himself involved with because they did not show all the prep work he and those he works with do prior to an investigation. The TV program was disappointed when they didn't get a ghost on film and only got noises even though that's the way most ghosts manifest. 

If you are interested in purported real-life ghost stories, pick up the Ghosts of Gettysburg series. You can get them as e-books now, if you read on one of those devices. The Ghost Trails book can be summed up thus, "Battlefields can have ghosts. If you visit one of the Civil War battlefields or a house or building that was associated with the Civil War, you have the potential to have an experience you can't logically explain." Beyond that, it's really not worth the money to buy. 

Beverage:  Yorkshire Gold tea

Deb

Summer Reading

I've started out with a bang. In years past, The Bookstore, in downtown Glen Ellyn had this summer reading program. You were to read 10 books between Memorial Day and Labor Day, fill out a form with a bit about the book and turn it in by the weekend after Labor Day. When you did that, you got a free paperback. Never mind that this works out to about a book every other week, if you're a voracious reader, you probably can finish this off by the beginning of August.

Me? Well, it really depended upon what life was like. Some years, I finished 12 books with time to spare. Other years, I barely made it through 4, let alone 10. They had to be age appropriate, too. I couldn't fill my paper with "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", etc, and call it done.

I have gone through a period where my reading has been pretty much confined to magazines and the instruction sheets that go with craft projects. I'm not sure why but I'm drawn to the stack this summer. It could be that's because there is an adaptation of Shakespeare coming to movie theatres this Friday.

"Much Ado About Nothing" is not one of Shakespeare's finest. I hadn't read this play since probably college, so I dug out my Complete Shakespeare and dove in.

This is a frothy tale employing one of Shakespeare's favorite comedic conceits, the masquerade wherein people claim to be whom they are not and the repercussions of this action. The hero and heroine of the story, Claudio and, aptly named, Hero, meet and Claudio falls madly in love with her on sight. She is wooed by Claudio's boss, Don Pedro, and she agrees to marry Claudio. The villain, an illegitimate brother to Claudio's boss decides to break them up and has his henchmen stage a rendevous with Hero's maid at night while Claudio overhears from a nearby orchard. Thinking Hero has just agreed to meet with another man, he publicly humiliates her the next day, at their wedding. Hero faints and several people agree to tell Claudio that she has died, while the local constabulary accidentally arrest the conspirators and elicit a confession. The final act sees all this madness come to resolution and Claudio and Hero happily together about to be married. The whole of this happens under the auspices of a large party to welcome Don Pedro back from an unspecified  successful military campaign.

There are problems with the play. The action takes place over 3 days. Truncating the action like that leads to a great need on behalf of the audience to suspend disbelief and agree that things can happen this quickly. Even "Hamlet" is allowed to play out over several months. "As You Like It", which employs a similar 'people not who they say they are' concept, gives the characters some time to get to know one another. The villain, Don John, is given little motive for doing what he does. He's mentioned as being illegitmate, but in stronger plays, that means someone's been cheated out of an inheritance or ostracized from court. This guy seems to want to be mean just because he can. That's never a very deep well of motivation for a villain. Also, he escapes the police, who have his accomplices, and the movie ends with the announcement that he's sent his army to attack his brother.

The best lines in the play are not from the two lovers. The leads in the play are Beatrice and Bernardo and much of the richness of language, the humor and the resolution of the plots many strings comes from their banter. We meet them before we meet Claudio and Hero and, from the early language understand they have had a long relationship marked by verbal swordplay. Their exchanges are some of the best written lines in this play. The fact that they use their verbal sparring to keep each other at bay when it's clear they love each other is quite amusing. When they come together at the end, accepting that love, it is, I think, a much bigger thrill than Hero being revealed as alive and Claudio finding out he was duped.

The title of the play references all the little twists and turns contained in it. When it comes to love, the bumps and pot holes to get from meeting to marriage are not important, much ado about nothing. True love finds a way. We might have to help it along, but even left to its own devices, it will find a way.

I'm excited to see this adapted for the movies. Will Joss Whedon, director, carry this through? Will he keep the banter between Beatrice and Bernardo at the intensity it is in the original? Will he flesh out Don John and give him more of a reason to be a villain? Will the audience get half of what's going on or will they simply come to see Nathan Fillion call himself an 'ass'? I suppose there are worse ways to get people to hear the words of Shakespeare.

Reading Shakespeare caused me to think about an author I don't think I've read since college. There has been a long, long, long running discussion; in some places of academia, an argument; that the man, William Shakespeare, did not write the plays attributed to him. The one piece of "evidence" used to frame this discussion is that the man called Shakespeare was not educated enough to create such astounding works, to create over 5,000 words which were added to the lexicon. It is known that he was in the theatre but he was just a would-be writer and just didn't have the smarts or social standing to write these intricate works. One of the people associated with this conspiracy is Christopher Marlowe.

Marlowe died in 1593, well before Shakespeare's plays were considered for the stage or before some of them had been written. Some of the conspiracy theorists have Shakespeare killing Marlow and stealing his compositions, affixing his name to them. The two were contemporaries although there is no evidence they ever met. It is known that Shakespeare knew of and read Marlowe's plays and was influenced by his style.

I'm not sure why the association popped into my head, but as I was planning to read Much Ado, I thought of Marlowe and his play "Doctor Faustus". It's based on historical information from Wittenberg, Martin Luther's home town, about a theology student who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for riches. Supposedly this happened shortly after Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the cathedral. This story was "all the rage" with the court and Marlowe tapped into that.

So, I hauled out my big red British Literature book Volume 1 and opened it up to "Doctor Faustus". The premise is simple. A theologian takes up the offer of two others to learn magic and conjures Mephistopheles who says he cannot be the man's servant unless the man sells his soul to Lucifer. There is an on-going dialog between good and evil angels and a final ending wherein either the theologian outwits Lucifer or Lucifer claims the soul. Honestly, I don't remember if this was written as a cautionary tale, lest someone be tempted towards the 'dark arts', or an uplifting story of redemption. It's long, much longer than one of Shakespeare's plays and does require a bit more out of a reader. I reached Act II Scene II yesterday before closing the book to finish chores.

The theatre starts my summer reading. Where it goes from here is going to be a surprise to me. I shall let my eyes pick the next books; there's merit in buying a book because it looks good; and we'll see. What are you reading this summer?

Beverage:  Berry-flavored Seltzer

deb

One A Penny, Two A Penny

Hot cross buns! Oh yes, please.

Today was the first day for Panera's Hot Cross Buns. They are so good.

Usually, I eat them warmed and these are really good in the morning with some yogurt and hot tea. Today, however, I am a doofus and left my lunch, all packed into the lunch bag, sitting on the stove so I'll have a couple of these to tide me over until supper.

"Traditional" hot cross buns are made with currants or raisins. Panera will do that but these have bits of dried strawberry in them instead of raisins. It's a delicious change. It's $5.99 for a half dozen, more pricey than other baked goods. I'll have these once during the time they are available and then won't think about them the rest of Lent.

Most bakeries will churn them out during Lent but you have to be fast. When I worked at The Bookstore in downtown Glen Ellyn, the buns from the bakery down the block were usually gone by the time I opened the store for the day. Pretty much the only time I got to sample one was on Saturday, when we opened an hour early. If you can find them, I recommend them.

Hot cross buns!
Hot cross buns!
One ha' penny, two ha' penny,
Hot cross buns!
If you have no daughters,
Give them to your sons
One ha' penny,
Two ha' penny,
Hot Cross Buns!

Beverage:  water

Deb

I Swore I Wouldn't But...

I'm a bibliophile. I cannot imagine a life where books are nowhere to be found. I realize some people live like that, but I cannot. If I could afford it, I would give books to everyone on my Christmas list, from children's books to horror, from fantasy to romance, from gardening to cookbooks.

I was in The Bookstore to pick up a couple of books I am giving as gifts. The owner of the store, Jane, and I go way, way back. I worked for her nearly 13 years ago. It was a delightful time in my life but it also cemented the observation that retail work is not for me. Working in a bookstore sometimes doesn't feel like retail but it sure is. Just because you're surrounded by the things you love, doesn't mean it's not a hassle to deal with the public every single day.

So, after paying for my books, we sat down to chat. I got caught up on her life and she got caught up on mine. We haven't seen each other, as I don't have the disposable income to be buying books regularly anymore, in over a year. She didn't know about the RA diagnosis.

We were chatting and suddenly, the other gal in the store, Jenny, stopped, looked at me and said to Jane, "That cookbook! Remember? That cookbook. What was it called?" It seems a chef was diagnosed with RA and, after some trial and error, discovered how much his diet factored into how he felt. He wrote a cookbook about it to help other sufferers with their diet. Jenny couldn't remember the name of the book, but she had given it to a friend within the last couple of months.

Now this is a "full-service" bookstore. Jenny called Kathy who got the book and gave Jenny the title. Well, neither Jane nor Jenny wanted me to buy a $35 cookbook based solely on their recommendation. They wanted me to see it. I wanted to see it. I have been looking for an RA cookbook since May when my doctor said one of her patients had recommended one. This isn't something  you find on the shelves at Barnes and Noble, however. I would have to order something and then, what if I don't like it. Jenny called a store across the street where she thought some copies were. As she was talking to the proprietor, she stopped, pointed at the shelves and said, "Never mind, Jill. We have one. I see it. It's right there." I did a quick page through and decided to bring it home with me. That's service.

I have to say, there are foods in here I won't touch, I don't care how nicely presented they are. Octopus and anchovies have their own chapter. Um...yeah. He's big on stone fruits; peaches and plums. Peaches are okay but I do love plums. He also touts oatmeal (huzzah!), berries (double huzzah!), broccoli, kale, eggs, and, would you believe it, dandelion greens. I can eat my yard in the spring!

This weekend, after I finish another book I started, I'm going to sit down and read this, just like I would read a novel. Let's see exactly what he found that helps him. How much of what he touts is palatable to me? Of course I'm going to start with the plums and the berries but what else can I add?

I swore to myself I would not buy another book for me. I will put books on my wish list but I wasn't going to buy a book just for me. I have so many. But, if this books does what its premise is, it will be well worth the price, even with the anchovies and the octopus.

Beverage:  Edinburgh's Finest tea

Deb

Reading. A Fundamental Right?

I used to work in a bookstore and, to the left, is part of the stash in the bedroom that hasn't been read. There are hundreds of books scattered about this house. Some, I will read once and never read again. Some are old friends to be returned to again and again. Most fall into the former category and I'm slowly realizing that simply having isn't really very smart when I probably won't read it again.

I worked in The Bookstore at a time when independent bookstores were closing daily. Amazon had just gotten off the ground. Barnes and Noble and Borders were opening stores as quickly as they could. Waldenbooks and B. Dalton were in every mall. Small stores had to think about how to invent themselves to stay alive. They were in competition with, not only the large chains, but each other. In shaky fashion, independent book stores overcame their wariness of each other and banded together to offer people a more personalized experience and joint services that the big bookstores could offer, things like gift certificates redeemable at any independent bookstore which was a part of the network, and books offered by small presses, books the big guys won't touch because they won't sell eleventy billion. They reinvented themselves. That reinvention has allowed them to survive, if not thrive, during an era when the big stores have to close outlets or simply go out of business.

Enter the e-book. Now, this is not going to be a post condemning your use of a Kindle or Nook. I feel, personally, they have allowed people who might never pick up a paper book, to read. I am going to toss some ideas into the ether for reflection.

Many of us take for granted the ability to read. You can thank the Scots and John Knox, the fiery Calvinist preacher, for that. From the September/October 2010 issue of The Highlander, in a story entitled "The Scottish Reformation" by R. Macbeth Pitkin, on page 17, Pitkin writes:

     The Reformed emphasis on education was another Calvinist attribute that found approbation in Scotland. Scots had long prized education...Calvin [Johannes Calvin, the religion's founder] advocated that ordinary people should be able to read and understand Holy Scripture themselves, rather than having to rely on a priest to tell them what it said. This meant that the Bible would have to be in a language people could understand, and that they would have to be able to read that language. Naturally, this had a direct bearing on the matter of public education.
     At the founding of the Kirk, Knox's Book of Discipline called for a national system of education, something that was realized 80 years later when Parliament passed the first of several statutes requiring each parish to provide schooling for all its children. This legislation represented by far the world's earliest example of public education, at least on a national basis, and it would have far-reaching effects.

Knox demanded that the Bible be in the vernacular in roughly 1560. It would be 1640 before the education laws were passed. This was not just for male children but ALL children in a parish. Female children did not receive an education, generally, outside of the parish, but they were taught the basics, math, science, religion and reading.

From Gutenberg and moveable type, which meant a book could be printed in larger quantities, through Knox and the requirement that all be able to read, to the hiccups in literacy and the publishing industry, reading is on top of the list in skills a child should have. The medium by which we get our information may have changed, but we still must have the ability to read or nothing else matters.

I've been reading lately, of the trials of the independent bookseller with regards to e-books. I don't remember how I stumbled onto Jarek Steele's blog but it's been something of an eye opener, to say the least. I love independent book stores, not just because I worked in one, but because they provide a vital service to the reading community. There is room in the vastness of retail for large stores with thousands of square footage in books. There is room for a one room 700 square foot store on the corner of 12th and Main. As long as both compete fairly, both can thrive in their niches. Steele made me aware in this post, about the cutthroat nature of e-book commerce.

Let's be clear about something else. I don't like Amazon. I'm not sure if I've crossed the stream to "hate" yet but I really don't like them. I don't like their ordering methods or their customer service that can't figure out why I have 3 separate accounts and merge them into one. If I have to order something, I order from Barnes and Noble. Generally speaking, I don't order books online. I use Amazon or BN as a resource. I get the ISBN number, that 10-15 digit number on the spine or back of a book, and email The Bookstore. They get it for me. If you want something for Christmas that I can only get on Amazon, well, you're not going to get it.

If you look at The Bookstore's link, you'll see that they offer people the ability to purchase e-books. This is how an independent bookseller can reinvent themselves and make their product useful to more people. You can purchase and download your e-book from their web site. With thousands of titles, you don't have to be the captive of Amazon or BN.

If you followed the earlier link to Jarek Steele's blog, you read about the Justice Department's lawsuit claiming price fixing in e-book retailing. If you're interested in following up more on the lawsuit, read this post and follow the links at the bottom of the page. Essentially, Amazon got the Justice Department to claim that allowing free price ranges on e-books was a monopoly and therefore, not allowed. Amazon would gain most of the share of e-book commerce and put others out of business. The time for comment on this is over so now we wait to see what will be decided. Competition is good, right? The ability of people to have choice in products is good, right?

If you're still with me, I'd like you to click this link and read this post. Another place that has had to reinvent itself is the local public library. This article talks about the challenges libraries face in a digital world. If you value any sort of access to any kind of book from Cat in the Hat through Shakespeare and on to Mein Kampf (I read a translation of this in college. Boring.) or the current squee, Fifty Shades of Gray, you owe it to yourself to read and ponder the challenges to libraries as presented in this article.

One paragraph stood out to me in the above article. Libraries are places where the printed word is preserved. The author writes,

"We can’t do any of this with most ebooks. The files don’t live on library servers. License terms can restrict copying, archiving, and format shifting. This is why the Amazon/Overdrive deal was news; if libraries had had the ability to shift those ebooks to .mobi format on their own, no deal would have been needed. This is why Jo Budler’s high-profile move to 3M was news: because Kansas’ contract let them keep the files during the move, but she had to fight to enforce that — and the contract language has since changed to prevent other libraries from doing the same. This is why it was news when HarperCollins imposed a 26-checkout limit, and Amazon deleted copies of 1984 from users’ Kindles.  We don’t expect that books we own can vanish.  But, of course, we don’t own ebooks; we merely license them. Their cultural memory isn’t ours to keep."

HarperCollins imposed a 26-checkout limit on e-books? Amazon deleted 1984 from user's Kindles? I didn't know this and this makes me very, very uneasy.

I don't want a Kindle or a Nook. I prefer paper cuts and scribbled margins and bookmarks and the ability to set my book down in a bathroom and not worry that I'll short it out or that I'm out $100 if I forget it. If I want to go back, 8 years from now and read The Colour of Magic, I will only have to visit the stash in the basement, not pony up another $7.99 or whatever it costs, if Terry Pratchett's works are even available for e-books, to read it again. I want to be able to send How the Grinch Stole Christmas to my nieces and nephews in any quantity and know that their parents can, as I have, memorize the words because it's read over and over and over, more than 26 times.

But that's just me. I honestly don't believe e-books will replace paper books, but we do need to think long and hard about how we want our fiction, non-fiction, gardening, mystery, children's and all other categories of books delivered.

I want to leave you with a section from The Well of Lost Plots, a Thursday Next book by Jasper Fforde. The book was written in 2003. In this selection, the protagonist, Thursday Next, is talking to a convention about the newest gimmick in reading, UltraWord. (This is taken from my book, a Penguin issue, page 348.)

     "'...Secondly,' I went on. 'UltraWord carries a thrice-read-only feature.'
     There was a gasp from the audience.
     'This means no more book lending. Libraries will close down overnight, secondhand bookshops will be a thing of the past. Words can educate and liberate--but TCG want to make them a salable commodity and nothing more.'...
     'Here,' I said, tossing Deane's copy of The Little Prince onto the table right at the front. The displacement-field technology worked perfectly--a single book landed on each of the hundred thousand tables.
     'This is an UltraWord book,' I explained. 'Read the first page and pass it on. See how long it takes before you can't open it.'"

I don't think that's the future I'd like to see.

Beverage:  Club Soda

Deb
   

Repairing a Memory

One of my wall decorations fell on Friday. I came home to a gap.

The hanger came off, which caused the portrait to slip down. Fortunately, it was caught on the one below it. It was a simple matter to glue the hanger back into position and replace the item where it was.

These silhouettes are very special to me. The top one was done when Carole was 4 years-old. A woman named Sally Newcom was doing silhouettes at a Lord & Taylor store near me. I thought that would be cool to have something like that done. I remember the little boy in front of us just screaming at the top of his lungs when asked to sit still. I explained to Carole what was going to happen and that she had to look straight ahead at me so the lady could cut out her head from black paper. She was very excited to have this done.

Four years later, there was another Sally Newcom event. I don't remember where. The one that toppled was done when she was 14 and is also a Sally Newcom silhouette. The bottom one has no age on it so I'm hoping Carole remembers. It was done by a man and done at The Bookstore in Glen Ellyn. I think she was a senior in high school.

Now, about the placement. Originally, I had these just hanging on the wall. They were two across in a box grouping. It was fine. When Carole graduated from high school, she wanted, as a gift, a road trip to tour Civil War sites. It was one of the most fun vacations we'd ever done. We hit Gettysburg first and then Spotsylvania, Chancellorsville, Antietam, and drove all the way to Richmond to visit the Museum of the Confederacy because they had just opened an exhibit on Robert E. Lee. After doing that, we headed home. Oh look, we're close to Monticello. Let's stop there.

In touring Jefferson's home, one of the things the guide pointed out was the silhouettes on the wall in the drawing room. It was, she said, a very big event to sit for your silhouette. Jefferson's wife made sure this was done with all family members repeatedly. I think even some servants had their silhouettes done. The silhouettes on the wall were mounted on top of a ribbon which matched one of the colors of the wallpaper. I remember looking at Carole and she at me as the light bulb went off in both our heads simultaneously. 

At the time, the living room was painted in beige and a light tan. We repainted it in its current colors over Thanksgiving weekend that year. Once the room was painted, we spent a long time at JoAnn Fabrics looking at ribbon. It had to be just the right color and width. The silhouettes in Monticello are much smaller than these which is why we opted to go with a wide ribbon. My walls are painted two tones, a very light gray-ish lavendar on top with dark gray-ish lavendar on the bottom. I know it sounds weird but the colors are found in a lap blanket a former friend gave me. You know I like color and the store matched the colors in the blanket perfectly.

We measured from the top of the ceiling down and then marked where the silhouettes would hang. I made the "bow", put the nail through the inside of the bow and nailed the whole thing to the wall. Each silhouette is nailed through the ribbon into the wall. They aren't quite equal distance apart, but close. I wasn't going to put repeated holes in the wall to get them all 2 inches apart.

It's been like this for years now, over a decade actually. It's kind of rare to have one of the silhouettes fall off the wall but it happens. If Carole can remember when the last one was done, I'll be sure to write the year on the back.

Beverage:  Lapsang Souchong tea

Deb

Day 30 - An Author that you will read whatever they put out

I was so busy yesterday, that although I had this topic covered, I didn't have time to post day 30. This is a good topic to end a 30-Day book challenge.

If you've hung with me, you know there are others whom I could have put in this spot; Terry Pratchett and Jasper Fforde. I decided on Erik Larson because he writes what is probably termed "historical fiction". This means, he takes a real event, researches it and then writes about that event, but he makes up things that couldn't possibly be known, such as how people felt or what private conversations they might have had with, say, a neighbor.

I stumbled across Larson in 1999, when I worked at The Bookstore. A book named Isaac's Storm had just come out. It was about the Galveston, Texas hurricane of 1900, which has been labeled the deadliest hurricane in US history. As the hurricane category scale and the appellation of names to them had not happened, it's referred to only as the "Galveston hurricane".

The Isaac of the title was the chief meterologist stationed in Galveston. The book details not just how much the fledgling US Weather Service knew, but when they knew it and the whole political climate surrounding how much information to feed the public. In reading this book, particularly with the backdrop of Hurricane Irene behind us, you might be appalled at what people of 1900 took for granted. Galveston changed the Weather Service.

I was allowed to take the book home to read. After all, it's hard to sell something you haven't read. Jenny, one of the co-workers, called and said she wanted it back the next day so she could put it in the window. I had already read a bit over a third of it so let's keep going.

I distinctly remember looking at the clock in the living room at 1:30 a.m. Larson was building up to the arrival of the hurricane. I like to tell people, "The hurricane arrived at 2 a.m. and I didn't put the book down for another hour." I know I was tired the next day, but I could take Carole to school, go drop off the book at the store and come home for a nap. 

After that, I read Devil in the White City. This was another "can't put me down" books. I supposed the setting, Chicago and the World Colombian Exposition of 1893 was appealing from the start. There are things still on the south side of Chicago which were created for that world's fair. The 'devil' was one, H. H. Holmes who, it is thought, murdered from 20 to 200 people while he lived in Chicago. Most of these murders took advantage of the World's Fair by luring people to stay at a 'boarding' house Holmes had set up along one of the avenues to the fair. The house has been long gone. I read this at a time when I had to drive through that area for work and I tried to imagine what it looked like, with all the buildings and the people.

His next book, which I have not read but which is in the pile is Thunderstruck, a story about the first wireless transatlantic communications. Guglielmo Marconi's story is told in tandem with that of a Scotland Yard detective who is hot on the trail of a murderer who is moving to Quebec. It's been called Larson's least compelling book. As I haven't read it, I can't testify to that.

The book at the top of the column is Larson's latest. It came out in May. It's the story of William Dodd, the US ambassador to Hitler's new regime. All the press I've read about it say this is Larson's best book to date. I'll have to see if I can get it.

And this concludes 30 days of books. This has been quite fun and has forced me to assess my reading.

Beverage:  Dr Pepper

Deb

Day 8- An unpopular book you believe should be a Best-Seller

I've been struggling with this category off and on all morning. In between phone calls and reports and checking emails and machines, I've stewed about what book have I read that would meet this qualification. This was hard.

First, I had to define, for myself, both "unpopular" and "Best-Seller". I decided that, for me, a book that wouldn't be sitting on the "Best-Seller" table at a chain bookstore, nor one that would be under the "Best-Sellers, 15% off every day", would be one quality. Now to define "unpopular".

Generally speaking, an "unpopular" book is one that gets bad press. It could still wind up in the best seller bin simply because of the author or the subject. I have two examples. John Travolta wrote a book in 1997, just in time for the Christmas season. Propeller One-Way Night Coach was a small volume and was a story about a kid and his mom who flew in the early years of flight. It was bad; very bad; really, really bad. But, it was a best seller simply because of who the author was.

Another example is Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Regan. Although the author was granted complete access to Regan, his style of writing and the topics he covered caused most to roundly pan the book. When it was released, it was already a best seller. As more people read it, however, it quickly sank.

I never read either of those books but I was working in a bookstore at the time they were released. I remember the press about how bad each of them was and how this was surely the end of modern civilization when an author or a subject caused a book to get to best seller status instead of good writing. I could insert a snarky remark on fame here, but I won't.

So I decided to use as the definition of "unpopular" a weird book, something I enjoyed but is definitely not what could be considered for the average reader. Having defined "unpopular" in that way, I found several in my journal that could fit. I will list the contenders before the book I picked. The Island of Lost Maps by Miles Harvey; Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw; Spam: A Biography by Carol Wyman, and This is Not a Novel by David Markson were all considered. I decided on The Inkdrinker by Eric Sanvoisin.

First of all, this is a book for young people, I think 3rd grade and up. It is delightfully creepy with really interesting and image-filled line drawings accompanying the text. What I loved about this book is that it takes place in a bookstore and the premise, as revealed about two-thirds of the way through the book, made me think about my reading and how I experience books. Yes, it is a very fast read, probably an hour or 90 minutes for an adult, but I would defy you not to come away with a sense of wonder.

In searching for the photo to accompany this post, I discovered there are a few more in this series. I don't need any more books, but I liked this first one so well, I'm tempted to get the next 3 just to see where the author took his premise.

If you like your books a bit on the bizarre, I think you'll like this one. Don't everyone rush out and get it. Sometimes the appeal of a book is not that it's a best-seller. Sometimes the appeal is that it's a rare find, something everyone should read, but no one does.

Beverage:  Scottish Blend tea

Deb

Least Favorite

Day 2 in the 30 Day Book Challenge is your least favorite. That also was quite easy. I have two books I wouldn't pick up again if they were free. And, if stranded on a deserted island with only these two, I would not read them, that's now much I dislike them.

It's well known I don't like Lord of the Flies by William Golding. I may dislike it but it should be in the canon of literature. The themes he tackles in this book are as relevant today as they were when it was published in 1954. (I have not read ahead on the list so this may come up again.)

People cast aside Moby Dick by Herman Melville but I rather enjoyed it. I may be visiting this book some time this month.

The two books I don't like are Cavedweller by Dorothy Allison and The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene.

I came upon this book when I worked at The Bookstore. I had finished a book and was looking for something to read. This had been a featured book in several book clubs and one of the other sales people had read it. She said it was very well written and very good.

I quit half way through.

Depressing doesn't cover it. I could find no redeeming qualities in the main character. I didn't understand her motivations. I felt the problems she got into were manufactured just because the author thought, "Oh well, I've written 10 pages with nothing bad happening, let's kill off her dog." I'm not one for depressing narratives and I finally set it aside, eventually adding the book to a give away box.

And then there is The Power and the Glory.

My high school English teacher gave me a list of a dozen books she felt I needed to read and this was on it. She loaned me the book and I took to it eagerly. It is considered, along with Lord of the Flies, to be one of the best English-language novels. It deals with a time period in Mexican history where the government was trying to suppress the Catholic Church.

In the book, a priest must go into hiding yet minister to his flock. Anti-clerical soldiers dodge him as he travels across a section of Mexico toward the north and freedom. What angered me and caused me to never finish this book was that the priest turns back and heads right into the camp of the soldiers and certain death, with no logical reason why he would do so. He wasn't saving anyone. He had been helped along the way and had done an admirable job of helping the poor and those who relied on him. No one had died for sheltering him. He just suddenly, as far as I could tell, decides, with the northern border in view, with his safety just a 3 hour walk, with people ready to make sure he got to that border, turns back towards the soldiers following him when he knows he will be killed. I couldn't understand it and reread the last 3 chapters up to the point of that decision at least 4-5 times to see what I could have missed. I was so upset at this decision, I read the last page of the book, closed it and have no desire to pick it up again.

I understand that the best writing sometimes leaves motivations behind for a compelling story. I also kept reading, devouring the prose, because I was convinced the priest would get within 100 feet of the border and he would be shot dead because someone would have betrayed him. I would have been angry but it would have been a more satisfying ending. I didn't feel the priest should make it to freedom because he was serving as an allegory but this turn of events just made me so angry. I handed the book back to my teacher and said, "Interesting read. What's next?"

These two illustrate the famous Dorothy Parker quote, "This is not a book to be tossed aside lightly. It is to be heaved with great force." 

This is going to be a fun and exciting exercise. I'm not looking ahead on the list, preferring to be somewhat surprised each morning when I look and see what the topic is.

Beverage:  Edinburgh's Finest tea

Deb

Bug Killer

On the 13th, I got a call from Just the Bookstore in downtown Glen Ellyn. I used to work there and I still do 90% of my book buying through them. The book I had ordered was in.

"What book? I don't remember ordering any book."

I forgot about the phone call until I was talking with Carole a week ago. We were going over her life and the next chapter of it. She mentioned that George R. R. Martin had released his latest book but she was going to wait to get it until they were all moved to Virginia.

THAT BOOK!

I started laughing. I think we pre-ordered this book 2+ odd years ago when there was an announcement that it would be released "soon". Yes, that's the kind of service you get from an independent book seller. They kept my order on file and, as soon as the book came out, I got one. I picked it up today.

2.5 inches of prose. I could wipe out whole colonies of ants, at least a couple mice and maybe break a toe if I dropped this. 

No, it's not her Christmas present. Once she's settled in Virginia, I'll ship it. 

My purchase netted me a $10.00 gift certificate. I was sitting down after unpacking all the groceries and it hit me what I should get; book 3 in the Thursday Next series. I've been working through magazines this month. With August looking like it will be a continuation of July, hot and humid, a good book is a great idea. 

Now to place an order.

Beverage:  Orange Juice

Deb

Stitchery

The new project has been started.

No, I won't tell you what it is. You'll have to come back as it progresses and see.

No, I won't tell you whom it's for. Said person will just have to wait.

I have to go to the cross-stitch shop tomorrow, however. I am missing 2 colors and very low on a third. This is odd because I have 4, count 'em, 4 plastic bins of DMC floss, arranged in numerical order. Perhaps the 2 missing colors are in some forgotten project. At one point, I was buying, every time they were on sale, DMC floss in an attempt to have every color made. When you could get them 5 for a dollar, I'd buy $5.00 worth, hence the 4 plastic bins full of color.

But, after a while, it seemed rather silly. Some colors I'll probably never use, but, doggoneit, I have them.

This is 18-count, meaning 18 little squares to the inch. I can't do this with my glasses on. I have to perch those on top of my head. I might be using the wrong size needle, too, but we'll see.

So, watch this space. I'll post photos as I work.

And for those who wonder, the last project I did, the gnome, it went to my son-in-law for Christmas. I told a bold-faced lie to Carole and David and said it was going to my friend Patt. Now, Patt was in on the lie, so, does that really make it a lie? It was to go with a book I got him for Christmas, How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack by Chuck Sambuchino. The book is hilarious. As David put in their zen-ish garden in the front of the house, I thought it an appropriate tome. Indeed, when the book arrived at The Bookstore in downtown Glen Ellyn, where I buy all my books, Jenny looked at it and said, "Oooh, this is something Deb would like!" and then burst out laughing when she was told Deb ordered it.

Now for appropriate stitching music, television or video.

Beverage:  tea (using up several bags)

Deb

First Snow of the Winter

Overnight, we got about 4 inches of wet snow. It's borderline slush actually, the kind that is going to produce snowballs but will also make you really wet when playing in it.

My task this morning was finish shopping. I had one framing project to drop off, one stop at The Bookstore in downtown Glen Ellyn and a swing through Whole Foods for fresh fruits and veggies. Four-wheel drive into the street and we're off.

It is beautiful out. This kind of snow sticks to everything and makes things look frosting covered. Walking about with a tiny camera means I can keep it drier than if I had a large one like Carole and David have. Of course, I'm limited in my shots to what the camera can do, but, as this photo of the tree in downtown Glen Ellyn shows, it takes perfectly wonderful photos on its own.

The forecast for tomorrow is partly cloudy. It might be a time to wander parks for good photo opportunities. There are too many people scared to be out in this actually out driving in this when they should be at home for me to feel comfortable driving about now. I'm home. I got 90% of what I needed to get done, done.

This kind of snow makes the upcoming season more real for me. HO x 3!

Beverage: China Black tea

Deb