Mrs Jeffries

Mrs Jeffries is a character in a cozy mystery series by Emily Brightwell.  Out of 5 stars I would give the 4 titles I have read each a 5.  I love them!  They are so sweet, fun, interesting mysteries and I would love to read every one of the 29 titles she has written.  Bummer! I just checked my library website and they only own 10 of the titles.  I am SO disappointed.  Inter-library loan might be able to get some of the titles for me but they won't order paperbacks since the postage costs as much as a paperback and the service is no longer free here so I won't be trying that.  Dang it! And it is such a good series.  If I would just win the Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes I would buy the library all 29, in large print.  (amongst other things I would do if I won!!!!!! ... I have been entering that contest for 40 years, I think it is my turn, don't you think???) I will just have to find another series.... but if you like cozy mysteries give her a try. 

A balmy 15 degrees here...

a balmy 15 degrees here with snow and wind making the wind chill factor -1 degrees.  I do not like any temp with a "minus" in front of it.  It has snowed all day but with the wind it has blow horizontally so at my house at least we don't have but maybe 2 inches or so on the ground.  If it had all fallen straight down we would have foot of snow easily.   it does seem Christmas-y though.  That plus I just watched A Charlie Brown Christmas.  Just me and the dogs, no kids around but I love A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Not Much Excitement Around Here

We did not get any of the snow were were suppose to get.  Instead of snowing for 4 days as expected we just got some sleet and cold, windy days.  The high today was about 35 but tomorrow the high is only suppose to be 25 with snow tomorrow night.  If it is going to be cold I wanted lots of snow this weekend while I did not have to get out in it.  Today I:

• read a Mrs. Jeffries book --- I really like that series
• read the Sunday paper and got depressed over all the Christmas things I can not buy
• had sloppy joes and french fries with my daughter
• applied for a job online
• watched White Christmas for the umpteenth gazillion time
• told myself I could play just one game of Mah Jongg at the AARP site.....aarrgghhhh, I played probably 20
• and my accomplishment of the day----bathing my three dogs (not my favorite job)

11 p.m. and it is snowing! Very pretty!!! But Ugh! Weather guy just said low will be 9 degrees Wed morning with negative degree wind chills.  When it was over 100 degrees for -- what was it --- 51 days? last summer -- and I said I would never complain about winter weather again?  I did not mean it, the heat had fried my brain.  I really don't want it to be 9 degrees and the wind blowing. 

Honey Popcorn

Tonight I may have gained back the 26 lbs I have lost.  On another blog I read the lady has repeatedly mentioned making homemade carmel corn this fall and tonight I caved.  I didn't make her recipe but one I use to make for my children all the time.  It is so easy and if you like honey this is the recipe for you.  When I received this recipe probably 25 years ago it was a recipe for popcorn balls but I have never been able to make balls out of it.  (maybe because I don't measure the popcorn and have the exact amount).  We just eat it with sticky fingers.  Anyway, pop your popcorn.  Remove all the kernals that did not pop so you don't break a tooth. The recipe calls for 10 cups but I have never measured it out.  In a small saucepan put 3/4 cup of brown sugar, 1/3 cup of honey and 2 Tablespoons of butter or oleo.  Heat and stir until it starts to bubble and everything is melted and well mixed.  Pour over the popcorn. Mold into balls if you can, and if you can't then just dig in!  I should have waited and made this when some of my kids or grandkids were here because I ate half of what I made. Oh well, I hadn't made it in years and it was really good.

My Max

This is an old picture of Max and me.  He is 11 years old and the best dog ever born.  He is the ruler of the roost around our home and is smarter than the average bear.   It is a very cold day here and Max just did something that is so funny.  He pulls this on me every now and then.  When he wants to go outside he scratches on the door.  Alot of dogs do that and that isn't what is funny.  When Max wants MY chair he scratches on the door...knowing I am going to get up....and then he runs and gets in the warm spot I left in the recliner.  If one of his sister dogs is on the couch in a spot he wants he will do the same thing....Max will go stand at the door like he is planning on going outside, scratch on the door, I will get up and open it and say "Max wants outside, who else wants to go?" and  he knows that Zoe will always, always go....then instead of him going out the door he will stand there, Zoe will push past him and he will run jump in the spot on the couch she vacated!  Once he gets settled he looks at me like "Good girl! I finally have you guys trained!"

Spoiled rotten Gracie

Max and Zoe

I'm glad I saw this---it makes me feel better

‘It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop’ Confucious

Insomnia

Well, I have to get up at 6 a.m. and it is almost 1 a.m. so what am I doing awake?  I don't know.  Happens all the time.  After laying in the dark for 3 hours I finally got up, took something for the bursitis-like pain in my hip (I'm old, the bitter cold does this to joints sometimes) with some cranberry juice, and now I am eating toast with honey while waiting for some sleepytime herbal tea with honey to steep.  So, ... 
      Someone asked me what tv shows I like....I like Harry's Law (love Kathy Bates), The Mentalist, 48 Hours Mystery and Body of Proof are the ones I never miss.  I usually catch 20/20, 60 Minutes, Extreme Makeover: Home edition.  Sometimes I watch the CSI's and NCIS.   I don't have cable so I just get the big 3 networks.  I watched Dancing With the Stars this season.  About the only situation comedies I like are Modern Family and The Big Bang Theory.  I guess I like Tim Allen's new comedy.  I wanted so badly to like Mike and Molly but it annoys me that they sleep together and they aren't married.  (yes, I am an old fogie).  I like to ready cozy mysteries and biographies.  I like to listen to country music, and sometimes classical or jazz.  I like food of just about any kind other than seafood.  I like sphagetti,  lasagna, posole, fried rice, and just about any kind of Tex-Mex.  I like casseroles, stew, roast, BBQ, fried round steak just like the picture on Pioneer Woman's blog, chicken fried steak, fried chicken breast, and especially pinto beans, chow chow and cornbread.  A sirloin really well done and a baked potato are a rare and welcome treat for me.  I am pretty certain I would not like anything considered gourmet food...I am more a plain, comfort food, southern cooking type of gal. 
    Someone else asked if I have decorated for Christmas. No and I doubt I do this year.  I just am not myself yet and have no desire to decorate.  I just can't picture it this year but maybe I will, maybe it will make me feel better to really clean house then decorate and things be pretty instead of cluttered. Now, just to find the energy for all that.    Previously I liked to decorate and put things up on Thanksgiving night...the tree, lights in the windows and outside, my snowman collection all over the place, Christmasy little votive candle holders here and there, cinnamon scented pinecones in a basket, Christmas placemats and centerpiece on the table, something Christmasy in every room.  In fact, if I lived in a different world (one with money) and had what I think of as a big old grandma house ( picture a two story house with a big front porch complete with porch swings and rockers) I would have a Christmas tree in every room.  In the kitchen I would want one with Christmas cookie decorations....ornaments that look like decorated sugar cookies and gingerbread men, cranberry looking garland and clear twinkly lights.  In the dining room I would want a big real wonderful smelling tree with red chili pepper lights and ornaments that look like little cowboy boots, tin stars, rustic ornaments.  In the living room I would want a tree with frosty white balls and balls in different shades of blue with blue and white lights.  The grandma house would have a family room off the kitchen and in that room would be a big tree .... an artifical one that looks like it has snow on it with multi-colored lights and old fashioned ornaments.... glass balls in jeweltone colors, glass candy canes, glass icicles.  In my room I would have a tree decorated entirely with snowman ornaments and blue lights.  On a bathroom counter I would have a little tree decorated with little red and green balls and white crocheted snowflakes and clear lights.  Somewhere else I would have a small real tree but scruffy, sort of a Charlie Brown tree, but sturdy enough to hold red and green bubble lights, red and green loopy construction paper garland and paper ornaments my grandchildren & I would make.   Somewhere I would have to have a little tree with little red bows, ornaments tht look like little  doggie bone shaped cookies, and little dog ornaments...schnauzers of course in white like my Max, grey like my Fred, Maggie and Lucy (all deceased) and black like my Gracie. 
     I think the sleepy time tea has helped so I am turning out the light and trying to go to sleep again...especially since it is now 20 til 2 and I have to get up in 4.5 hours.  oh gee............ and it will be about 18 degrees and my windshield will be coated with ice a half inch thick probably. 

Christmas books

      My first two suggestions are for adults.....The Modern Magi & A Stranger for Christmas...both slim little volumes by Carol Lynn Pearson but two of the best Christmas stories I have ever read.  When I worked at the library I kept them displayed on my desk to hand out. Otherwise, they were so small and slender they would have been overlooked---and in the library world overlooked books that never get checked out get weeded out (tossed).  My goal, and it always happened, was to keep those two books in patrons hands from Thanksgiving through December.  Other good ones for adults are The Christmas Jars by Jason Wright, Skipping Christmas by James Grisham, The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans, The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry, A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg,
        These are picture books for children
The Night Before Christmas (my favorite is Mary Engelbreit's)
Harvey Slumfenburger's Christmas Present
Santa's New Suit
The Gingerbread Doll
Too Many Tamales
The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey
The Christmas Cookie Sprinkle Snitcher
   and a children's chapter book to read aloud.....The Worst Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson

You Know, It Just Isn't Necessary

I don't like ugly language.  I just don't.  Last night I finished reading Wicked Autumn by G. M. Malliet.  It was a good book.  I really enjoyed it, did not figure out who committed the murder (I like it when I can't), I can't say that the characters ever developed enough that you could relate or empathize with them too much but still, I would recommend it but....in several places the author felt the need to add the F word.  Why?  Really? Do ugly words ever "add" anything? Improve? Make it better? Uplift?  If I were reading a story that takes place in the middle of a fierce battle fight in a warn torn country, or a story full of abuse, drug lords, unsavory lifestyles I could see the use of that kind of language...I guess...I don't read those kinds of things.  By definition a "cozy mystery" is one that is not explicit, gory, or has that kind of language, and I heard about this title on a cozy mystery website so I didn't expect it.  That is the reason I love cozy mysteries, 99.9 % of the time I know what kind of material I will be reading---the kind I like and enjoy.  I hope this is not a new trend in literature that cozy mysteries are going the way of the world and including language that just doesn't add anything positive. 

For December let's all just be nice