The first Snowstorm

I have been outside since 9:00 am shoveling a foot and a half of snow. I bet you can guess why this blod is not longer.

The Game

Alright everyone, it is time to play another trivia game. Post your answers in the comment section after the post and I will post the winner and the answers in a few days. Have fun!

1. Which Broadway and Silver Screen star played the mother on the 1970's show The Partridge Family?
2. What 1976 hit song was sung by 10cc and had the memorable chorus of "Like walking in the rain and the snow when there's nowhere to go...?
3. What is believed to be the first disco song released in 1972?
4. What were the character names of each of the six kids in the Brady Bunch that aired from 1969 to 1974?
5. What year did the Senate committee begin the Watergate hearings?
6. Which movie won the Oscar for best picture in 1970?
7. Which song was #1 in the top 10 singles for 1975?
8. How did Walter Cronkite end each newscast?
9. In 1975, which TV show had the highest ratings?
10. What became a worldwide phenomenon in May of 1977?

Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil

   Just came back from a selectmens' meeting where it has been decided that they are moving our town offices into another building due to mold spores. Some people were so angry they actually got up and left. I work in the building and truly feel that if they can fix the problem without moving us great, if not not then it's off to a new building we go.

   I am just amazed how upset people get especially when it doesn't even effect them. They do not have to pack up their office and move it. They just have to go to a different building temporarily. Once the problem is fixed we move back to our lovely clean building.

   Anyway, today was tax bill day and I have been working on them with my boss since 7:30 this morning. So goodnight all!

Horrible Bosses

   Yesterday, I woke my 15-year-old up at nine o: clock am and asked him to get dressed and help his dad fix the horses' broken fences. Well, if you know 15 year olds at all you know that nine o: clock is excessively too early to wake one up. He complained and complained, but I got him to get dressed by offering my services in fence fixing also.

   We headed down to the barn where my husband was cleaning out the corral with a York rake and proceeded to finish cleaning out the horses' stalls. Paul (my husband) was so happy to have our help that when we were done with the stalls he put us to work loading firewood into the bucket on the tractor so he could drive it up to the house. Every time he disappeared with the tractor, Harry and I would just groan about the manual labor we were doing.

   My husband is a work horse. He never stops going, or fixing things, he believes that if there is work to be done that it all has to be done that day. Harry and I on the other hand believe that one job a day is enough and the weekend is for relaxing. So in essence, we did a whole lot of grumbling.

   After the wood was done, we finally got around to fixing the many fences in the field. This means you have to carry the planks of wood up the hill to wherever one is broken. The planks are not light and are extremely awkward to carry with their length. While we were getting one in place, Paul noticed a gravel truck was pulling in down by the barn to drop a load off. He told Harry and I to get the last nail in and bring the stuff down. Not a smart move on his part. We could not get that nail into the wood. It must have taken us about fifteen minutes to hammer the one silly nail and in that time Paul had the gravel truck go into the corral, dump the load and sent the truck on its merry way.

   Harry and I were heading back to the house when we heard Paul shout out to us. "Hey, where are you two going?"

   We laughed and laughed because we thought it was quitting time. Little did we know, Paul wanted us to do more fences and then cut down the entire section of Sumach trees and have us drag it down to the barn. We are under the assumption that he was trying to kill us with labor. Thank God, he is cute and lovable.

   Today is cooking day, so I get out of outside work. Yay!

My Wedding

   I felt like doing something a bit different today. My in-laws are up from MA again and last night I showed them my wedding video. They were all excited since they had never seen it and we watched it with a lot of oohs and aahs.

   My darling husband then announces that he has never seen our wedding photos or the video. Fifteen years and he hasn't seen the pictures. So this is for my sweetheart who is so adorable in this video.

Last Bus to Nowhere

   It is with great pride that I am announcing the release of my newest short story "Last Bus to Nowhere."
It is available as of today on smashwords.com in many different formats. Just click on the cover picture to the left and it will take you directly to the link.
 
  Amazon.com is in the process of publishing it for the Amazon Kindle and should be available by tomorrow afternoon.

   Thanks to all who helped me with the final copy. Special thanks to Robert and Stephen who gave me their time and knowledge.

   To all of you who purchased my first short story "The Hand That Beats Thee", I just love the fact that you read it. Hope you enjoy my second story.

The X Factor

I do not watch the X Factor, but somebody posted this today on Facebook and I just wanted to share it. He is amazing!

Cats And Dogs

   It is always nice to go away, but it is much better to come home. As Dorothy said "There's no place like home." I left North Conway at 6:45 am this morning and thankfully beat the rain. Last year when I left the conference, it was a monsoon outside and the drive was horrible.

   My three dogs, I believe, are very happy to see me because they are running around moving the rugs, barking, playing continuously while bumping into everything. I go down stairs to switch the load; they follow and try to steal the laundry. I try to strip the bed and put fresh sheets on it, they jump on and off while I yell at them. I try to empty the dishwasher; they all hang at my feet and trip me.

  Three different size dogs, ranging from large to small. Three different personalities but all on the same wavelength today. How can we possibly get in her way?

   The cat on the other hand said, love me, feed me, now go away!

   I have not seen my family yet but they should be straggling through the door shortly. I miss them!

   There really is not anyplace like home!

The Colors Of The Mountain

Yesterday, I drove up to North Conway,NH to attend a tax conference. The three hour drive was fantastic and gave me time to listen to my audio book "Shanghai Girls". This is a very good story about two Chinese sisters trying to make a life in 1937 China.

After checking in we began our day in classes and finished around four o:clock. It was very interesting, Bernie, the lawyer for the N.H. Tax Collectors Association really delved deep in to many topics.

I woke up early this morning and was greeted by the most beautiful site. The mountains were the color of a very ripe tomato. I took a picture with my phone but have no way of getting it on to this IPad.

I have to get to class now. If there are spelling mistakes on this blog, I will warn you that the IPad likes to fill in it's on words sometimes.

Have a lovely day!

My Dinner With Andre

   Last night we had the pleasure of joining our dearest friends out for dinner. This couple and their daughter are like family to us. We have Sunday night dinner together, we play family games together, and we go shopping together.

   However, last night, we went out, just the adults, to a great restaurant. Our friend chose The Common Man in Claremont, NH. Paul and I love finding new restaurants especially golden treasures. This was one of them.

   The atmosphere was fantastic. Situated in an old mill building, they totally renovated the structure mixing brick walls with gorgeous wood floor and beams. They had lovely dim lights and lanterns on each table.

   The menu was fantastic, the meal even better and to top the whole thing off, great martinis. The best part was we had quality time with the best people in the world. The whole night – Priceless!

The Social Network

   Why is it every time you finally get used to a program the developers decide to switch everything. Take Yahoo for instance. Nice homepage, easy to use, no problem saving all my links. When they updated a few weeks ago, my maximize and minimize buttons have disappeared. I can no longer download certain things. Actually right after I ran the update all my favorites disappeared. What a friendly letter Yahoo received from me.

   Today we are trying to do home sharing with two computers, and IPod and an IPad from ITunes. A lovely message keeps popping up that we are only able to share with five computers. Maybe math has changed since I went to school, but I only come up with four gadgets.

   Facebook that is another one who changes their format every other week. I realize they are just trying to make it better but even my 15-year-old son and his friends are complaining about it.

  Well, I think I am going to have a lovely glass of wine with my husband and watch a movie. Hope everyone has a relaxing weekend.

Gnomeo And Juliet

   You know how Travelocity has the Roaming Gnome, well my darling husband brought home a gnome a few weeks ago, and now he sits and watches over me as I write. Here's the thing, I have always had this giant dislike for gnomes. Nevertheless, there he sits everyday watching me.

   His name is Norman. My husband gave him that name and it seems to fit the little bugger. Now you may enquire, "If he bothers you that much, why don't you move him?" I have many times and out of the blue Norman the gnome reappears on the table next to my computer.

   Maybe he will bring me good luck in my writing and have lots of people buy my books or maybe he will just sit there and do absolutely nothing. If he does not bring me luck then poor little Norman is going to become a piece of firewood.

   Enjoy your evening. My son will. He has requested grilled cheese sandwiches and soup for dinner. Last night I made Veal Marsala with pasta and cauliflower sautéed with garlic and onions. Well, now I'm hungry, Gotta Go!

Rebecca

   When I did the movie trivia blog the other day, there was one movie that many did not know of, Rebecca. This movie, is based upon the book (of the same title), written in 1938 by Daphne du Maurier. Rebecca is the story of a young naïve woman who works as a companion to a rich American woman. They are vacationing on the French Rivera when the young woman (who remains unnamed thru ought the book and the movie) becomes acquainted with a wealthy Englishman, Maximilian (Maxim) de Winter, a somewhat older widower. After having spent a few days with him, he asks her to marry him. After they are married, she accompanies him to his mansion, the beautiful and huge country estate of Manderley.

  At Manderley, she meets Mrs. Danvers, the housekeeper, who was profoundly devoted to the first Mrs. de Winter, Rebecca. She continually, psychologically undermines the second Mrs. de Winter, suggesting to her that she will never attain the knowledge or charm that Rebecca possessed. Lacking self-confidence and overwhelmed by her new life, the young woman is convinced that Maxim regrets his impetuous decision to marry her and is still deeply in love with his first wife, the seemingly perfect Rebecca. I can't tell you any more than that.
   Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense, turned it into a fabulous movie in 1940. In fact, it was the only film that Hitchcock did that won an Oscar for best picture. The movie stared Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson (who is pure evil), George Sanders (one of my favorites) and Nigel Bruce.

   If you are looking to watch a GREAT suspense movie, please watch this one! Hitchcock loved this author's work so much that he turned two more of her stories into movies, one of which was The Birds.

   Rent it today and tell me if I'm wrong!

Shortcut To Happiness

   I am extremely happy. I spent the better portion of this day working on "The Last Bus to Nowhere." As of three minutes ago, I finished this short story. Now, I need to proofread and have it edited. That was a long day of typing but what a great feeling.

   This is going to be the shortest blog ever since I can barely see my computer. So I hope everyone has a great afternoon. We are taking the boat out for its very last trip of this season tomorrow. Then off to storage it goes. Enjoy Columbus Day.

On A Clear Day

   What a wonderful day today was. I started my day out the best way possible, with a yummy hot coffee with Crème Brule flavored cream. Then being determined to have at least four hours on the computer, just for typing, I put on the blinders and stayed clear of any and all games. If you know me at all then you will know, that yes, I am a gameaholic.

   By midafternoon, my husband was bugging me to leave the keyboard and spend the rest of the day with him. I had gotten so much writing done that I felt a break was well deserved. After a bit of makeup and some new clothes on, we headed up to Mount Sunapee, where there was a small festival going on.

   We rode on the ski tram all the way to the top and then just stared out at the beautiful views that surrounded us. We could see all the way to the Presidential Mountain Range up north. Then we had some fair food and listened to a fantastic Blues band. Dr. Harps Blues Revue. The lead singer plays an amazing harmonica and I believe you can check them out on MySpace.
   We stopped to check on our boat on the way home and decided to go have a martini across the street. Ladies, if you ever need your husbands to do something they hate. Give them a martini. My husband HATES Mexican food but after the martini we headed off for a fantastic Mexican dinner. He even bought me an ice cream on the way home.

   We had such a nice afternoon. Tomorrow, after we pick our son up at his friend's house, I believe we are going back to Mount Sunapee to ride the tram again.

Adios Muchachos!

17 Again

   I just finished cleaning the house and feel exhausted. It should not take all your energy to vacuum or dust and clean the bathrooms. Granted we do have three dogs that love nothing better than to shed but really, I just did the house from top to bottom on Friday.

   I am still in the process of getting all the beds finished. I am just waiting for the blankets to dry so I can get them back onto the beds and I am wiped out. Wish I had a genie to grant me the wish of a house cleaner so I could sit back with a box of truffles and watch movies all day.

   I do not get where that everlasting amount of energy that I used to have disappeared to. Wherever it went, it took my metabolism with it. I watch my body and skin taking on all these new textures, shapes, and wonder who in God's name is that looking back at me in the mirror. Even my brain seems to be forgetting why I walked from one room to the other, which is weird because in my head I still feel twenty. What happened?

   There was a time when I could go to work, come home, clean my house, cook dinner, and then go out with the girls all night. I ate everything I wanted, weighed nothing, and still had it in me to get up before the sun the next morning and make it to work earlier than need be.

  I love my family and animals tremendously but boy, I would love to have my old mind, body and energy back for just one day. One hour of younger woman to go please!

The Winning Season

   Good Morning to everyone who has read this blog including my friends in Russia and Germany. It is wonderful to see such a response come through when I log in to my blog.

   The Quiz Show blog was a huge hit and I would like to thank everyone who posted answers. Barbara G. obviously likes her movies as much as I. She answered almost all of the questions correctly. Barbara G. is a smart cookie. Here are the answers for all the other inquiring minds.

1. Caddyshack – 1980, starring Chevy Chase and Bill Murray. What type of candy bar was mistaken for a poop in the pool? A Baby Ruth

2. It's A Wonderful Life – 1946, starring James Stewart and Donna Reed. What is the last line of this movie? The actual last line to this movie is "That's right, that's right, Atta boy Clarence."

3. The Shining – 1980, starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall. What was the name of Danny Torrance's imaginary friend? Tony

4. The Wizard of Oz – 1939, starring Judy Garland and Ray Bolger. What was Dorothy's last name? Dorothy Gale

5. The Princess Bride – 1987, starring Robin Wright and Cary Elwes. Inigo Montoya was searching for the man who killed his father. What oddity did the man who killed his father have? He had six fingers on one hand.

6. Twister – 1996, starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton. What was the nickname of the instrument used to gather pertinent data the storm chasers were trying to launch? The machine was nicknamed Dorothy.

7. Rebecca – 1940, starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine. What is Joan Fontaine's character's name? Her name is never mentioned in either the book or the movie. She was known only as the second Mrs. De Winter.

8. Young Frankenstein – 1974, starring Gene Wilder and Teri Garr. What happened every time someone mentioned Frau Blucher's name? The Horses whinnied every time her name is mentioned.

9. Titanic – 1997, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. What was the name of the necklace given to Rose DeWitt Bukater? The Heart of the Sea/Ocean.

10. Monty Python And The Holy Grail – 1974 starring Graham Chapman and John Cleese. Finish this sentence; We are the knights who say …? We are the knights who say "Ni."

           Today will be my first time in two weeks that I will finally have a chance to sit and work on my stories and I am very excited. My little brain cells have been working very hard to remember everything I want to get down on paper.

    Have a great day (it is not raining yet) and keep a look out for the next trivia quiz on some of the classic books we all know and love. Take care!

Quiz Show

One of my favorite things to do is watch movies. You may have noticed that almost all of my blogs are named after movies or famous lines from movies. Since today is such a wonderful chilly, rainy day I thought that instead of my usual blog I would give a small movie trivia quiz. If you know, some or all of the answers then below the post is a button to click for leaving comments. Leave your answers and your first name and I will post who did the best.

1.       Caddyshack – 1980, starring Chevy Chase and Bill Murray. What type of candy bar was mistaken for a poop in the pool?

2.       It's A Wonderful Life – 1946, starring James Stewart and Donna Reed. What is the last line of this movie?

3.       The Shining – 1980, starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall. What was the name of Danny Torrance's imaginary friend?

4.       The Wizard Of Oz – 1939, starring Judy Garland and Ray Bolger. What was Dorothy's last name?

5.       The Princess Bride – 1987, starring Robin Wright and Cary Elwes. Inigo Montoya was searching for the man who killed his father. What oddity did the man who killed his father have?

6.       Twister – 1996, starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton. What was the nickname of the instrument used to gather pertinent data the storm chasers were trying to launch?

7.       Rebecca – 1940, starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine. What is Joan Fontaine's character's name?

8.       Young Frankenstein – 1974, starring Gene Wilder and Teri Garr. What happened every time someone mentioned Frau Blucher's name?

9.       Titanic – 1997, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. What was the name of the necklace given to Rose DeWitt Bukater?

10.   Monty Python And The Holy Grail – 1974 starring Graham Chapman and John Cleese. Finish this sentence; We are the knights who say …?