Summer “Vacation.”
Click on picture to go to hub.
Like working in a sauna, sweat rolls down her back. The fan on the computer is running so hard it’s developing a high-pitched whine. No air conditioning. Over 100F in the shade. Can’t stop. Three novels due or over due. Back aches, wrist aches, head is empty but can’t stop. Words. Words. Just a few more….
13 Random Things
1. My, it’s gotten awfully quiet around here since I moved the blog.
2. TWM, Dr. John, Kaye, Thank you! You stuck with me through everything.
3. I’m soooooo tired! I keep trying to fall asleep. Must be the release of all that tension now that my big trip is over.
4. It’s so nice to be home. I don’t have to worry about getting on line, or not being able to find my wrist brace, or what weird thing I’ll be eating next. Not that I mind eating weird things. Just I haven’t eaten soup in weeks.
5. I almost fell asleep at the wheel while driving home on the last segment of my big trip. I’m so grateful for waysides restrooms and camping grounds.
6. That was so much fun! Not just Cabo, but seeing old friends I’ve never laid eyes on before, seeing family, seeing old friends I haven’t seen in too long. I don’t even mind all the times I got lost.
7. It’s amazing what I can do with a good set of directions.
8. It’s amazing how much I calm down when someone saves me a seat.
9. I’m amazed I didn’t turn into a total fan-girl spaz when Jo Beverley walked into the goodie room while I was refilling my container.
10. I hope the lady who sat next to me on the plane sticks around long enough to collect that picture I took over the wing. I think she’ll like it. It’s coming in a few more days.
11. I still have so much to do! But I won’t bore you with the list.
12. Except I will mention I’m going to catch up on all those links I let slide over the last couple of months. My apologies to everyone in TT, and Simply Delicious for the delay.
13. And I’ll try to be a little more pro-active, in visiting too. But the only guarantee I’ll offer is that if you leave your link in the sig line of any comments you leave here, I will be by to visit within 24 hours.
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By George! The Lords Are… Determined?
At this point in Mr. Al’s narrative George IV has become king, but has not yet become coronated. When he began his divorce proceedings it was his desperate hope to be rid of Princess Caroline as quickly and conveniently as possible.
On August 17, 1820, the House of Lords began it’s inquiry. The Queen moved to a house in St. James Square, to be close at hand. She spent so much time at a front window, waving and bowing to the immense, cheering crowds gathered in front, that it’s a wonder she found time to eat. But she did. “She had grown very fat during her years of exile, and she wore more rouge than ever upon her naturally ruddy cheeks. Her eyebrows were painted black, and long black curls hung down on either side of her face from her wig.”
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2/365 – Cactus
This was taken around Cabo-something-or-another. I’m not sure which of the Baja Mexico Cabos it was.
Frontier Airline’s Baggage Rules
I’m ticked off enough to name names this time. I flew out to the Romance Writer’s of America’s National Convention in Washington DC last Wednesday on Frontier Airlines. The first leg of the trip was normal, but the second leg was over booked. I took a duffel that came to exactly the limit as outlined by Frontier on their website – a total of 49 inches when combining height, width, and length.
On the second leg of the trip out I made the mistake of not worrying about getting on the airplane quickly. By the time I reached my seat, the overhead bins were filled. This included one bag that was clearly over sized. It was turned lengthwise in the bin. I reached up to correct it, wondering why the stewardess, who was standing right next to me, hadn’t.
She immediately stepped in and told me not to touch it. She told me to place my bag in one of the bins toward the front of the plane. Considering the aisle was packed, everyone was quickly thrusting their bags into the overhead bins, and they had long since announced that over sized bags wouldn’t be allowed because the plane was over booked, I knew my chances of following her orders were about zero and told her so.
Considering I was on my way to a convention, and needed everything in my bag, I didn’t want to risk it getting lost in flight. Besides, why should I pay the $15 charge for checking when I was not in the wrong. Clearly, I had to get my bag into the overhead bin. Ignoring the stewardess – whose name is Eva Jean, BTW – I pulled out a laptop case that had been put in sideways so it took up a full bags worth of space, put the laptop in front of the over sized bag, and put mine in. It fit fine.
The whole time the stewardess is telling me not to. I point out the bag should be checked because it is over sized, and she tells me I should check mine instead. The woman was useless. Worse, after I’d gotten my bag into place, she lectured me on bringing a suitcase onto the plane, saying it was for carry ons only. Mine is a carry on.
So what was wrong with the woman? About half way through the flight I found out. A man in a pilot’s uniform got a sandwich from the over sized bag.
So my question for you today is, if you were the stewardess, what would you have done? If the bag belonged to a friend of yours, a co-worker, would you have made him check it?
Pop Tart Award
I absolutely love it when someone I admire gives me an award. This one is doubly nice because Mama Zen, who is cool and nice and has a great blog, gave it to me for Suzie’s House. Squeeee!!!
This one is for a particular post. I’d like to pass it along to Andi, who did a post about Twilight a while back that resulted in my buying and reading the book. Until her post came alone I was quite content to simply watch the movie. I’d link to the particular post, but Andi has it hidden somewhere in her archives, and I haven’t found it yet.
Palms in the Desert
I’m letting the recipes slide again today because I’m still about 500 miles away from my recipe file. I thought it was a good day to show you some of my vacation shots.
One of the weird things about Cabo San Lucas is water.
Rocks for Brains
Last week Jack found airline tickets in the trash of the woman who claimed to have their dog, Tonic.
Jack: We should use them!
Jill: What? Go to Cabo? What do you mean?
Jack: Yeah, yeah! It’s a great idea. She must not want them. She threw them away.
Jill: Wait. Jack. It doesn’t work that way.
Jack: Can’t you imagine the sun and the surf, Pina Coladas in the pool, getting frisky on the beach?
Jill:It doesn’t work that way. Tickets aren’t transferable anymore. They have to be in you name to work. You have to show your ID. We can’t use these at all! What’s wrong with you? Do you have rocks in your head?
Jack: Yeah. Maybe so.
Previously in Jack and Jill Trashed
Saturday photo scavenger hunt
The rules for Photohunt can be found here.
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Suzie’s House 122: Affirmations
Kathy paused in front of the kitchen table in Suzie Hammaker’s house. She’d delivered Gene into her care and provided the paper work. She had no further excuse, yet there she stood, unable to resist.
“Are you aware of the story your son wrote?”
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13 Uninspired Catch Phrases
I’m at a convention for Romance writers right now. I’m expected to have business cards that include a single sentence summing up what I do. What I do is mostly a kind of light hearted Romantic Suspense that causes people to laugh more often than gasp, Historical Romance that tends to be silly and serious by turns, and this one book under contract that is what they call “sweet”, meaning there’s no sex, which is a contemporary and only a little funny. And Suzie’s House, of course. What the heck do I call myself? Here are a few phrases I came up with. If you can think of anything, let me know.
1. Something different this way comes.
2. Blog awful.
3. License to create.
4. Milk, tea, or banana smoothie?
5. Temptations for every house wife.
6. A walk on the homey side.
7. Historically distracted.
8. Where Alice says “off with her head!”
9. Alice in Blogland.
10. The restaurant at the end of the world as we know it.
11. History with ‘tude.
12. A shot in the dark.
13. Mr. Al, in the dining room, with a candlestick.
What do you think? Should I put one of these on my header?
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More Thursday Thirteen participants can be found here
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As always, I welcome the link to your Thursday Thirteen in my comments as well as in Mr. Linky.
By George! She’s Come Home To Roost.
George IV made himself quite ill over how to rid himself of his wife, Queen Caroline. If he couldn’t do it before his father died, while she was merely a princess, how can he do it once she was queen?
In June, 1820, Queen Caroline decided to return to England. It was not a sudden decision, but once she made up her mind to do so, nothing could stop her. Her demand for a royal yacht to pick her up in Calais was ignored. Brougham was there to beg her to reconsider. “I earnestly implore you to refrain from rushing into certain trouble and possible danger.” He told her. To no positive effect.
With no yacht available, she crossed the Channel on a packet boat. A large crowd of “tradesmen and fishermen carrying banners and shouting suitable slogans,” escorted her to her hotel. The next day she left for London via Canterbury, gathering crowds the whole way. She entered London over Westminster Bridge. According to one witness, Thomas Denman, “Her progress was slow through the countless populace, her traveling equipage mean and miserable, her attendants appeared ill-calculated to cocilitate good-will in this country. Hardly a well-dressed person was to be seen in the crowd. Two or three men on horseback assumed a rather more respectable appearance, but one of them was my bankrupt cousin.”
The ill-dressed crowds soon turned into that most dreaded of beasts, The Drunken London Mob. Shouting “Long Live Queen Caroline” windows in the homes of Cabinet Members were smashed. The Duke of Wellington was prevented from entering his own home by a mob of boozy louts. The windows of his carriage were smashed with paving stones while he was in it. It was downhill from there.
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