Happy happy

Growing up there wasn't a lot that my family agreed on but one thing we did was, we all loved The Carol Burnett Show. It came on either Friday or Saturday nights (I think) and we would put aside any bad feelings we had about each other and all sit down in front of the TV and laugh for an hour, as a family. It was a sad day for us when it went off the air. It was like losing a family member - one we liked at that. ;-)

Years later I read her autobiography and I fell in love with her again. She has such a kind, gentle spirit about her. I'm just a big fan of hers - as a person and as an actress. She doesn't hold back.

So, happy birthday Carol. May you have many, many more.


And in honor of Secretary's week - enjoy a picture of Carol dressed as one of my favorite characters...secretary, Mrs. Wiggins. ;-)

A dog's life

I have several blogs that I check out every day and there's this one that hasn't been updated in a while. Every day when I go there and it hasn't been updated I'm disappointed because I like this blog. And then today I realized, she's updated hers since I've updated mine. *Oops* I thought, I might ought to update mine, otherwise I have no room to whine, right?

So anyway, I'm getting ready for RWA's National conference in Atlanta this summer. Last year the plan was to have someone come watch my dogs at my house. She was going to stop by twice a day and walk them, feed them and help them to forget that no one was with them at night. Only thing was, we were having awful weather during this time and my dog, Max, was knocking down the fence gate and running the neighborhood - scared, which is not a good thing. At the last minute I decided I should kennel my dogs, as much as I hated the thought.

Two friends recommended this place in League City. Both said the woman that ran it lacked people skills but was great with dogs. These two friends have never met so I took that as a very good sign for this kennel. I booked my dogs there.

When I dropped them off I asked to see where they were staying. I meant literally, she thought I wanted a tour of the place. So I got the tour.

It was your typical kennel type place and had a variety of environments for the animals. My favorite - which of course was not available on such short notice - was the "rooms". It's a room 3-1/2 feet by 8 feet (I know that from seeing it on the webpage) with a sliding patio door on it. I thought if I ever needed to kennel them again, that's what I wanted for the boys.

So, I'm planning early this year, right? I email the kennel and inquire as to the availability of the rooms. She replies back that I need to book before the end of April (I sent the inquiry about three weeks ago -when it was still March). I reply with an email that I wanted to book it, to please consider my email as confirmation of my intent to book and to please reply back with confirmation of the booking.

I got no response. So a week or so later, I forward the email and said I hadn't heard back from her, could she please confirm that I would get the room. She replies back and asks - get this - did I want the room with the sliding patio door or did I want the room with the bed and the TV.

TV??? For a dog's room? Ummm, okay.

I replied back that I wasn't aware that a room with a bed and TV were an option, that the room with the sliding patio door would probably be fine, would she please reply with confirmation of the booking and with the rates.

She replied back with the rates for the room with a bed and TV AND the room with the sliding patio door. But no confirmation of booking.

I went to their webpage today. The picture posted above is an actual picture from their webpage of the room with the bed and TV. Since the dog isn't looking at the camera I can only assume it's watching the TV. Scooby Doo is probably on.

I think I'm going to go with the Bed/TV room. Now all I need to know is, does it come with a VCR?

Sex, Lies and Online Dating

Rachel Gibson's Sex, Lies and Online Dating was nominated for the reading group at RWAOL. Even though it wasn't one of the three (yes three) books I nominated, I voted for it. (Hey, the books I nominated were already in my TBR stack and going to be read anyway and this one looked fun.)

It did not disappoint.

Rachel Gibson created characters that were human and likeable. She told a story that was fun and kept you guessing (it was a mystery, after all).

Lucy Rothschild is a mystery writer who is doing research for her next book titled dead.com. It's about a woman who makes dates with men she meets online. And then she kills them. Lucy is making dates with men she meets online so that she can be authentic with the "losers" one would meet online. As they pour out their hearts to her on their "dates" she's mentally thinking of all the ways she wants to "kill" them in her book.

Quinn McIntyre is a homicide detective assigned to a serial killer's case. Breathless, as the killer is called, appears to be setting up dates with her victims online. She meets up with them and kills them.

When Lucy and Quinn meet up the attraction is almost immediate. Lucy is disappointed because she can't see killing him off in one of her books. Quinn sees her as a potential murder suspect. His superiors force him to spend more time with her and the more time he spends with her, the more convinced he is that she is the killer. This tears him apart because he is drawn to her, even believing she will try to kill him.

On the other hand, Lucy is also drawn to Quinn and feels guilty about lying to him. Once she decides there could be something there, she comes clean about her profession but that doesn't clear her of murder in Quinn's mind.

This book was so much fun to read. It had humor, it had mystery and it had loveable characters. It's been a while since I've enjoyed a book this much (and I love books). Having never read her before, I wasn't a fan of Rachel Gibson's before I read this book but I certainly am now! :o)