Graduation

He graduated! Our youngest child completed his pre-college schooling, and we're so proud of him. His two aunts and uncles on the mom side of the family joined his sister, dad and I to watch him get his diploma last Friday night (at a large arena normally used for equestrian shows). The whole ceremony lasted a little more than one hour, and meeting up afterwards and picture-taking took about the same amount of time. A great evening was had by all!

The great thing about the whole week preceeding the momentous event (besides seeing my sisters, et al; going downtown to DC to visit the newly reopened American History Museum; and enjoying the beautiful weather over the weekend) was that my house is now clean, some things I no longer use have been purged and pictures that spent the last two years leaning against the walls in my dining room are finally hung. So overall, it was a great week!

Cleaning Frenzy

This week is a celebration week in our household. Our son is graduating from high school on Friday night. YEA! Guests are coming in from out of town, and we're having a party at our house to honor the new grad. So we've been dusting, vacuuming, hiding stacks of paper and ferreting away all kinds of other useless items we need to throw away. I've even cleaned the bathrooms. Shocking, I know! However, the occasion begged for it... In case you're wondering how to clean a toilet, here's a helpful video with step by step instructions.

It's going to be fun to see all our invitees, and hopefully no one uninvited will crash the party a la Jimmy Fallon at Steve Martin's house. Check it out here.

Cheers!

CHANGES

As you can see, I'm still fiddling around with my blog, trying to get the perfect look. I've gone back and forth with the font colors and type, and I've sampled various layouts. Look for more alterations as I frequently change my mind.

I'm also changing my house. Starting tomorrow (Thursday) I'll hopefully be purging and minimizing my decor. That's my plan. We'll see if I can focus and follow through.

By the way, have you seen the new dollar coins? The one I saw today had Thomas Jefferson's image? It's almost silver and hardly bigger than a quarter, so IMO it could easily be confused with that coin. I've added the image here in case you haven't seen one of these presidential dollars.

Til later!

AMAZON.COM PRODUCT REVIEWS

Okay. I'll admit it. I don't have an original idea in my head today. But I did read Murderati, an author blog that's awesome, and saw yesterday's post on amazon.com product reviews by wonderful writer, Robert Gregory Browne. His blog is pretty funny, and the links are hysterical. Like Rob, I'd never known about these informative and entertaining reviews.

My favorite is posted on the Tuscan Whole Milk page. It's the review by Super Bargain which is down the page a bit. But all of the milk reviews made me laugh.

To quickly access Rob's links, they are:
The 3 wolf t-shirt: http://tinyurl.com/dy9ukm
Uranium Ore: http://tinyurl.com/chopwh
And of course, Tuscan Whole Milk: http://tinyurl.com/auatdw

A big thanks to Rob for the blog idea and the links for a few chuckles today.

**** And a VERY BIG HAPPY BRAND NEW BIRTHDAY to SEATON MOFFETT, born today at 8:31 am. CONGRATS to Ean and Becca and big brother Graham!! ****

BLUE ANGELS SHOW

This week is the Naval Academy's Commissioning Week, the week-long celebration honoring this year's graduating class. One of the best parts of the festivities is the Blue Angel air show on Wednesday (at 2:oo pm). The Naval Academy Bridge is closed, boats are parked all over the Severn River and Chesapeake Bay to get a good view, and families take picnics around Annapolis and the parade ground on the Naval Academy property. The show is pretty amazing and VERY loud. Practice is always on Tuesday, and so for two days residents and visitors can enjoy the awesome aerial maneuvers. My only complaint (besides the traffic) is the rattle of my home's windows when the planes fly fairly low to make a particular formation. But since the glass hasn't broken yet, it's just a small issue.

I can't really see much from my house, even when I stand in the middle of the intersection of my cul-de-sac with our side street. So when I don't go downtown or near the Naval Academy, I just jaunt up to the higher grounds of the nearby Annapolis Middle School. In fact, I think that's where I'll be this year. All I need to do is take a Diet Coke and maybe some gorp, set up my camp chair & watch the show. Luckily this year the weather is clear without too much wind, and hopefully all the planes will be working okay. Should be a "really good shew."

Book Review: THE CROSSROADS

This book by Chris Grabenstein won the Agatha Award for Best Childrens/YA Novel for 2008. (Chris was a member of my panel at the Malice Domestic conference two Saturdays ago AND is a fellow UT grad - GO VOLS!) It's a great supernatural mystery book that kid's will love. Here's the synopsis from Chris's website:

"Zack, his dad, and new stepmother have just moved back to his father's hometown in Connecticut, not knowing that their new house has a dark history. Fifty years ago, a crazed killer caused an accident at the nearby crossroads that took forty innocent lives. He died when his car hit a tree in a fiery crash, and his malevolent spirit has inhabited the tree ever since. During a huge storm, lightning hits the tree, releasing the spirit, who decides his evil spree isn't over, and Zack is directly in his sights! " http://www.chrisgrabenstein.com/ya/crossroads.php

This is one of the best books I've ever read. Not only is the stepmother presented as a positive, likeable person (thanks, Chris!), but the main character, Zack, has some interesting and spooky adventures with his new friends in Connecticut. Life before his dad's second marriage wasn't always so fun, so Zack enjoys the freedom and friendships available in his new community. He finds you can't always believe old legends and that secrets don't always stay hidden. But most of all Zack learns that he matters, after all, both to his family and to his neighbors. The book is directed towards middle schoolers (grades 6-8), but advanced younger readers might also enjoy the suspense and fun in the book.

The paperback edition of THE CROSSROADS was released on May 12 and is available at Barnes & Noble, Borders and your Independent bookstores. Look for the second book in the series, THE HANGING HILL, to be released in hardback on August 11, 2009. (Chris told me the story incorporates a play he wrote for the Children's Theatre of Knoxville.)

Why am I telling you about these books? Well, Chris is a great guy, he went to UT/Knoxville and he's really funny. Buy the books...you'll be glad you did.

MY FAVORITE THINGS

I was visiting the blog site Swish and Swanky the other day and saw this post on April 27, 2009. Scroll down to see the soothing ice blue walls and white furniture. Everything looks so crisp, clean and neat...and nothing like my house. I would love to have such relaxing-looking rooms. Maybe some day. It could happen. Really...it could!

INTERESTING MUSIC VIDEO

I saw this music video - You and I by Dmitri Hvorostovsky - on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books blog today. It's an operatic-style production that's kind of weird, and definitely haunting, but really beautiful music. It's probably NOT SAFE for work (NSFW). Check it out.

FRIDAY'S HERE!!

Yea! It's Friday. My favorite day of the week...the day I don't have to cook. What can be more exciting than that? I got up early when my dog kept barking for me. He was calling me downstairs to see him eat his cookie. I felt so special.

But I was able to check my emails, send Mother's Day flowers and check out my favorite blogs...all before 9 am. Three blogs I visit everyday are: The Lipstick Chronicles, First Offenders and Murderati. If I have time, I then jump to gossip blogs. You never know when you'll discover some fascinating, world-shaking news through those sites. (And I have to keep current with contemporary culture.)

This weekend is supposed to be relatively nice, as opposed to the constant rain of this past week. So D and I are attending le grande opening of the Annapolis Town Centre. Food, fun & frolic are promised. We have all kinds of new stores in a fake downtown actually built outside of Annapolis in Parole, where a run-down shopping center lanquished for years.

I couldn't wait for tomorrow to grocery shop though. Yesterday I shopped at the brand new, super duper, extra big Whole Foods. It's incredible. I must have been there from about 3:00 to 5:00 pm. It has a burger bar, pizza bar, ice cream area, BBQ ribs and pulled pork and a cornecopia of amazing vegetables, cheeses and other offerings. And it was packed! I asked the cashier when the least busy time was. She looked around and said, it's not bad right now. Not bad! You could barely get through the mile-wide aisles without running into other carts. And that was the least busy time! She said it was even more crowded in the morning. Hopefully it will clear out a little after the newness has worn off.

Right now I'm at Barnes and Noble doing some research for a suspense book I want to write. It's set in today's world but connected to the 1600's. (Well actually, I'm blogging right now...but I *have* been researching...and eating a multigrain bagel with cream cheese...and drinking a green iced tea. Yummy.)

Enjoy the weekend, all!

MY FIRST POST

I've been toying around with creating a blog for some time, and I finally did it...after some encouragement from friends at the Malice Domestic convention. My goal is to post book reviews, musings and info about other websites of interest to me. Maybe to you too. Interesting content may be lacking the first few posts, 'cause I'll be easing into some pattern for blogging. But keep checking back. You never know when I'll post about something you'll want to read. Peace out!