Everything is moving

Hook news:
"Chocolate Dreams"
… while finished, is still not up. My photographer has been on strike. :-/

Mary Maxim Contest
This is the week. Between the contest and our pending move, I’ll be a nervous wreck by weeks end.

Crook news:
SOLD!
It’s hard to believe that just 2 months ago our hope was to sell our properties and be able to move by the holidays. Shortly we will close the papers on our second property and that will leave us with only our house to fix and sell. Everything has moved so quickly. Some nights I crawl into bed and wonder if I will wake up in the morning and find it’s all been a dream. The Lord has truly blessed us with this move, and I know that He will continue to do so as we pack, fix and leave this area. I can hardly wait to see what He has for us in Oregon.

Book news:
Map of Bones:
My wonderful husband was likely tired of hearing me moan about having to wait and wait and wait for the copy from the local library, and purchased a copy of this book for me. He then brought it home, set it on the book shelf and told me I had to wait for my birthday. The man is rotten. LOL!

Finished but …
I finished Without Remorse this weekend. It was a good book, but left me unsatisfied. Why? To borrow from a friend: I had a lot of trouble accepting the ending. The hero got away with murder—actually several murders—because the government needed his talents. Okay, so the murders were “justified” because the people he murdered were drug dealers and murderers themselves … but that still doesn’t justify murder to me. I guess I still like the notion that justice will prevail, even though I know better. Oh well.

I’m now reading Edge of Danger by Jack Higgins. It’s a hardbound edition that I picked up a few months back for $5 on the clearance table—my favorite place. :D A quick read, even if I have to sit in my chair to enjoy it. hehehe

The book shelves are where?
Sunday we spent some gift certificates from Christmas and enjoyed a dish of ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery. Overkill would be a good description of the delights they serve up. Be sure to take your entire days appetite if you visit.

Afterwards we felt the need to walk off some calories, so we wandered down the mall and took a tour of the local Barnes and Nobel. We were stunned to discover they had moved most of the books sections! Took me 20 minutes to find the books I like, and then another 5 to figure out that the books weren’t all alphabetized by author’s last name at the moment! Some sections continued across the aisle, while other shelves only went to the aisle and then did a U-turn.

As hard as it was to find things, I managed to come home with 3 new hardbound books. No I don’t need them. Yes, I’ll probably have to pack them. But ... but ... how could I pass up such great bargains? (Well, actually I passed on two that I wanted because some bimbo was sitting on the stack of books and her shorts were really short and her cheekys were on the cover ... and EEEWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!) Sorry, got carried away. hehehe I did came home with:

• Valhalla Rising by Clive Cussler - $4.98
• The Teeth of the Tiger by Tom Clancy - $5.98
• Bad Company by Jack Higgins - $6.99

Of course, Harry Potter is due out in what, 25 days or so? And then in August I’ll have Map of Bones, so I’m set for the summer. The only other thing I hope to read is a map on how to get to Oregon. :)

Speaking of roaches …

For 3 years now I've been battling these bugs in my garage. In the beginning I used non-toxic traps. Then I added in some powder—even though it's toxic and I have to wear gloves and a mask to apply it. Between the two I've kept the population under control (translation: the indoor traps are empty.) ;)

Now, the debate between Mr. Retired and myself has always been … are they "water beetles" as the city claims, or are they "co**roaches"? I was sure it was the latter and even considered having chemicals dumped all over my house (toxins be damned!), but since the indoor traps have shown NO bugs, I haven't dumped toxins inside.

Finally, I captured one of these buggers and we hauled it to the Ag folks. There we amused the biologists with our critter. (For the record, these biologists are delightfully weird; they get so darn excited over the bugs you bring in. They actually fought over a blue wasp I once brought in for identification, and I wound up having to decide who got to keep it in their private collection.) :rolleyes:

Anyhow … after much discussion amongst themselves and checking in books … it was determined that the dumb things really are water beetles and they aren't harmful. In fact, they eat ants and such. So how come I have so many ants?

It has a name!

Hook news:
Nameless no longer
"Chocolate Dreams" is finished. Once my artistic cameraman has pictures ready, I'll be able to put the pattern up.

I still have no idea what I'll tackle next.

Crook news:
Friends—as close as a calling card
Yesterday I picked up a new calling card at Costco. Last evening I used the card to call a friend. Just hearing the voice of my friend had me smiling. We talked about so many things—family, sports, computers, our shared faith in Christ. We laughed, I shed a few tears, we were serious ... we reminisced and simply enjoyed each other's company.

While a phone call isn't the same as seeing each other in person, it was certainly a wonderful "for the present" substitute. I'll be smiling for days over this call and look forward to chatting with my friend again.

Moving Wrinkles

Hook news:
Mary Maxim Contest
My entry was received and I'm now counting down until the week of July 1st when the winners are notified.

Nameless new design
The pattern is completed, all typo's have—hopefully—been found and corrected. All that is left is a picture and a name. I'm stumped on the name. The picture is up to my artistic cameraman.

I have no idea what I'll tackle next.

Crook news:
Moving wrinkles:
Yesterday we got the lovely news that if move out of state, we have to pay more out of pocket for our health insurance. Charming. The additional monthly cost is more than the monthly pay raise we just received. That spurred us to reconsider exactly where we will move. Washington is looking better than Oregon right now. ;-)

While chatting with the rep, Mr. Retired asked about my health coverage and what happens when I get to MediCare age. Seems I lose everything Mr. Retired worked for, and I wind up with the hideous coverage from the feds. What was the point of Mr. Retired covering me all those years? The idea they sold us on was that I would then have decent lifetime health coverage. Apparently that only applies if I had not managed to get all those quarters in and qualified for SS/Medicare.

Okay, so I accumulated those quarters because I was willfully disobedient and headstrong. Guess this is one of those "every action has a reaction and consequence" things. Not that I like it, but I can't do a darn thing about it.

For some reason this verse keeps coming to my mind:

Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. – Philippians 4:11

So I'll be trying to be content with what has come my way. Somehow I think this is a lifelong lesson for me—rather like trying to learn to be patient.

Being thankful

Hook news:
Mary Maxim Contest
I'm now in the waiting stage. The afghan is complete and and on it's way. I'm thankful the project is completed.

New design
I cannot believe I've been working on this design for over a year—but I have. I took time off to make a baby ghan, then time off to do the Mary Maxim stuff. Then there were the holidays, and life in general. Well, now I'm back to it. All that needs to be done is finish typing up the directions, and give it a name. I'm thankful to be almost done with this project.

Wonder what my next project will be?

Crook news:
An update on my garden.
The sweet peas seeds that survived the winter rain, and brought forth 3 plants and 2 small blooms became the victims of an early heat spell and are no more. :( Perhaps next year.

I have 3 geranium plants now and they are doing super. The carnations didn't like the heat either and are gone. *sigh*

I trimmed “Joyce” and she's doing well; however “Ethel” does not like the a/c blowing on her and is suffering. Some surgery is in order.

I'm thankful that I haven't managed to kill all of my plants. ;-)

Book news:
My current read:
I'm presently reading an older James Rollins, Excavation. It's very fast paced and has creepy creatures, Inca tribes, buried treasure and evil and nefarious characters as well. I don't read it just before bedtime.

Tom Clancy and "Jack Ryan":
We recently rented The Hunt for Red October from Netflix (I needed to drool over Alec Baldwin and Sean Connery - hehehe). I was curious as to why Baldwin played Ryan only once, so I did some digging. That took me a web site that listed all the "Jack Ryan" books, and there was a listing of the books in published order and chronological character order.

Now I love reading books in chronological character order, so I made notes and scampered over to my favorite used book store, where I managed to garner the first 3 in the chronological list. My summer pleasure will be to find and read them all—in chronological order.

If you are interested, here is the chronological listing I found (which may or may not be accurate):

• Without Remorse
• Patriot Games
• The Red Rabbit
  
• The Hunt for Red October
• The Cardinal of the Kremlin
• Clear and Present Danger
• The Sum of All Fears
• Debt of Honor
• Executive Orders
• Rainbow Six
• The Bear and the Dragon
• The Teeth of the Tiger

Whew. I'm thankful I'm done typing chronologically. hehehe

Map of Bones:
I’m still sitting at #9 and holding for this book. How can a county this size have only one copy of this best seller? I guess I'm thankful we have a local library. ;-)

Personal news:
How patient are you?
My patience is no better than it was a few weeks ago. I noticed today that I have bit the nails on 3 of my fingers. Yes, just 3 nails—the 3 middle fingers on my left hand. I wasn't even aware I was biting them.

Moving and being thankful
The other day we signed papers and sold what was to have been our retirement property. When we bought it there were 3 other homes in the area, and loads of trees. Now there is a subdivision behind the property, several other homes on the street itself, a large church kiddy-corner to the property, and rules and regs that would curl your hair. Oh—and no trees.

Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. – Psalms 150:6

We are very thankful as God blessed our investment and we received good money for the property. We'll invest this money in our new home. Hopefully that will be in a small town where there are trees, not a lot of growth, and a nice, small, warm comfy church where we can worship the One who gave His life for us.