Southern Living Yankee

It's a hot and rainy day Sunday afternoon. We might take the boat out for an early evening cruise, but until then I decided to surf around on the internet for our upcoming trip to Long Island, and in particular, the return drive through Paradise, PA where I will be, as the title states, looking up dead people. Just their names and abodes, not them personally, may they rest in peace. Maybe this tombstone will explain. Notice my name? Notice the date? So I'll visit this cemetary and maybe get a pic of my mug on top of the tombstone. Unless it's walled off and protected from nuts like me. Then I might book a room at Creekside Inn Bed and Breakfast, built in 1781 on land that was part of the original Ferree purchase grant. This must be what it feels like for some people who visit Hollywood, or Graceland! I'm getting all goose-bumply! Must pack binoculars and camera! Oh, by the way, Mom, this website has everything you ever need about Ferree. Our Ferree Family An...

Who put July into warp speed? I can't believe it's already halfway over. Stop! Now! There it goes, calendar pages flapping in the wind. The rest of the summer is eaten away. We wanted to take the boat out today but it rained. I refuse to start painting the dining room and wallpapering the kitchen while the weather is nice. For now I have a large paint chip taped to the wall and it's making me incredibly happy. I bought the wallpaper so I admire it every now and then. It all looks great in my little head. For now. I'll get to it later when I don't want to go outside. WRITING UPDATE: The writers I met with last Wednesday were really helpful. I'm looking forward to working on the manuscript on Thursday or Friday. But I'm also pressuring myself to get the widows blog written ahead several weeks since I've got a week of vacation coming up, plus a quick trip to Wisconsin, plus maybe some company . . . Oh! Vacation! I don't think I told anyone yet. To...

I finally decided Chapter 5 has been edited to death--time for it to rest. I sent it off to some writer-types who will let me know what they think of it on Wednesday--why don't we just spell it Wendsday? So if you hear loud wailing and gnashing of teeth W-morning, between 9:30 and 11:30, that'd be me. You can come scrape up the pieces that are left, tape them back together, glue my butt back in front of the computer and tell me keep going. That's all. The big news--Actual Progress! After I put Chapter 5 to rest, I looked selected a widows blog post to use as Chapter 6. Chapter 7 just needed a brush up here and there, but it was pretty good! Then Chapter 8 was pretty good, too! I stalled on Chapter 9, but it could have been because it was the end of a long writing day. I also formatted the head and page numbers for all I've re-written. If only I could knock off a bunch of chapters every week! Thanks for checking in on me. Be sure to check my other...

Wow! Blogger obviously doesn't realize I'm checking out other blog platforms for ease of use and presentation! The copy and pictures are not jiving at all today! So I'll number the paragrahs 1-4, and hope you can understand what picture they're meant to go with. Compare this to my new blog with Wordpress (which has a funny video today, and in all fairness, that's easy to do with Blogger, too) Check out my Squawks here 1.  Here's me and my brothers and my parents at my nephew Sam's graduation party. Although this is Sam's big party, his picture is last because I can't waste any more time trying to coax it up here for you to see first and say "oooh and aaaah, my has he grown!" But let's just tell Sam I'm saving the best for last, OK? I have a sister, too, but she couldn't come. Plus she's tall and beautiful so she would have ruined it for the rest of us. 2. This picture is WGSIL (Worlds Greatest Sister-In-Law) with her si...

Widows Christian Place is catching up. In the almost four years I've been puttering away at this blog I've written 186 posts. Since February I've written 140 on WCP. In about 2 month WCP will surpass this one, Deo Volente. As if that's not enough, last week I started my THIRD BLOG! Am I crazy? Yea, probably. But the other reason I started it was to try out a different blog platform. So I'm experimenting, OK? That's all. I've heard it had more features and was easier and more reliable. If you'd like to see it, click here and laugh . WRITING UPDATE: Tammy, chapter 5 is still a booger. Thanks for checking in on me! I appreciate your prayers! (Picture credit: mad scientist by dzingeek on Flickr)

Mrs. Gee wanted a ribbon to match her teapot and I was the only clerk. The blue wouldn’t do, the rose was the wrong shade. I brought out bolt after bolt of ribbon but not one was quite right. Finally, a plaid ribbon caught my eye. Stripes of royal blue, green gold, and spring yellow played with just a touch of mint green and matched her pot perfectly. “Splendid!” she cried. I picked my way across the yards of fabric and tulle that she had shuffled through while scrambling to find her ribbon, stepped over the piles remnants she’d unloaded and left for me on the old wood plank floor, And then shifted back through again and again while we tried to uncover the teapot my cutting scissors. It was a mess. My boss would have a fit. Especially since this would only bring in a $1.35 sale. Now for a $1000 dollar wedding dress, or even a $200 bridesmaid’s dress he wouldn’t have minded this little catastrophe, but this was too much for $1.35! Plus, I had my life preserver on. (I told you thi...

So I'm at Home Depot spending way too much on potted plants when I see hanging pots of strawberries! Ten Bucks. Hmm . . . this is either a really good idea or the world's most expensive strawberries. I found the pot with the most buds on it, brought it home, unhooked the hanger and put it on my picnic table so it'd get the most sun. drum roll . . . Ta da! The strawberries are ripening! The first day I got a total of 3! Then there were 4, 1, 5 to pick! That's a total of 13 sweet strawberries so far at a cost of  $.76 each. But I've got the rest of the summer to bring the price down, right? They're everbearing! I'm also seeing red in my house! Tom heard me saying how starved I was for color in this house of beige and how it was driving me crazy but how I hate painting. That's a no win situation: go crazy or do something I hate? You decide. However, my hero that he is, Tom said he'd paint. AND for our anniversary (which, by the way, you ALL f...