"You'll Never Believe What I Did"

Well, yesterday totally sucked. You won't believe what I did....or then again you might.
Well..it kinda started with burning my big sauce pan to a total crisp when I got on the computer and forgot about the rice I was cooking. (At least the smoke detectors didn't go off but the pan was a total loss)
Crazyfriend wanted to come over and visit the animals. Since it was absolutely POURING with rain and hubby did not want to go anywhere, (we went out every single day this week, Cookie went to Day Care 3 times and he wanted a break) I asked her to come out here and pick me up. When is it raining steady like this I don't like to take the Jeep out because I wind up with two inches of water in the backseat....no back windows will do that.
So she said fine, she wanted to go to Michael's Craft Store to buy some teddy bear clothes for a Christmas teddy bear drive her church was having and to Target for some small Christmas items. The church asked them to pick an age (toddler, baby, small child etc) boy or girl and then make a cmall Christmas box for a child.
I said fine because I wanted lunch and I needed to buy a new pan, as long as she would come and pick me up so I wouldn't have to take the Jeep.
Well..it started out with lunch. Instead of going to 5 Guys like I really wanted, I let her pick and we went to Cracker Barrel. Mistake, It wasn't what I wanted and lunch pretty much sucked. It was too much food (even though I only ordered Beans & Greens) and I felt awful from there on out.
Then we went to Michaels. They have lots of doll and teddy bear clothes but of course, Crazyfriend has to AGONIZE of the choice. Uncharacteristically, I picked up a really cute pink stuffed kitten, put a blue sweater that said "Angel" on it and got it. It was adorable and I gave it to Crazyfriend to donate to their teddy bear drive. (Yeah, yeah I know it wasn't a teddy bear but it was very cute.) I also paid for Crazyfriend's teddy bear sweater since she paid for our lousy lunch. Ugh.
After Michael's we walked over to Target in the pouring rain/. There is was HELL>>>> She of course could NOT decide on an age group and once I steered her towards toddler stuff, she kept buying and buying stuff. I pointed out to her that this was just supposed to be a little Christmas box but this was CrazyFriend's typical overcompensation.
While she was going overboard with that, I looked at the pans. Didn't see anything I liked but I did find a $3.98 movie (I am Legend with Will Smith) and a package of gel pens.
Well, we got out of Target with her buying $35 worth of stuff (including my movis and pens..I figure if I had to go through that hell, it was worth $5). She insisted we go back to TJ Maxx (I hate TJ Maxx) to look for a pan there. So back we went and although they had a zillion pans piled and stacked everywhere, they just did not have what I wanted.
So......we took the big leap and headed for Wally World. Hopefully the crowds and the stampeding had thinned out by now and nobosy would get kille.
It was just as bad. The store wasn't so crowded and they had the kind of pans I wanted, I just could not decide on which one to get. They had cheapy ones for $10. expensive ones for $25. I chose the middle one for $16. And I am happy with it.
But we wandered around Wally World, looking at blankets and sheets and touching stuff. I was getting tired and annoyed and irritable. I had my pan and I wanted to LEAVE>
So we did. On the way back, CrazyFriend wanted a hot chocolate so we stopped at Starbuck's (I HATE Starbuck's but that's where we went...to get hot chocolate.) And then we headed on home.
Ugh It was nearly 4:30. Things deteriorated from there on out and the rest of the evening was a total loss. I had a POUNDING RAGING SCREAMING BLINDING migraine and I went ahead and took an Imitrex right off..I just didn't feel like struggling with it. I asked hubby to feed Persimmon and 5:00 and of course he forgot. I went out in the rain and fed her and at 6:30.....I just gave up and went to bed.
You won't believe it. It was awful.
What a terrible day.
A typical day with CrazyFriend.

Is it possible to look cool while wearing a fanny pack?

okay...here's the deal.
I carry a LOT of stuff with me.
All the time.
I hang stuff off my belt. And off my belt loops.
Plus I carry a purse and I carry a gun for personal defense.
Right now?
I AM GETTING VERY TIRED OF CARRYING ALL THIS STUFF.

I have a fanny pack.
It's a very nice fanny pack.
I think I can put most of my stuff in it but I don't want to look like a dork with my fanny pack.

IS IT TOTALLY HOPELESS OR CAN I CARRY MY STUFF IN MY FANNY PACK WITHOUT LOOKING LIKE A TOTAL GEEK///????

(I don't think it looks that bad.............)

One holiday behind.....

I have decided that from here on out, I am going to be one holiday behind.
I went to the commissary and the day after Halloween, all of the big bags of Halloween candy was marked down to $1.00.
I bought 3 bags.

I went to WalMart.
They had really cute Halloween t-shirts with little appliques on them.
They were $11.00 before Halloween. Then they went down to $7.00.
Then I went again and they were $3.50.
Yesterday, they were $1.00.
I bought one.

Now I am going to wear my Halloween t-shirt with the cute ghost on it for Thanksgiving.
If I can get a Thanksgiving t-shirt with a turkey on it for $1.00, I am going to wear it for Christmas.

Then, after Christmas, I will buy Christmas candy and a t-shirt with a Christmas tree on it for $1.00.
I will wear it for New Years.

I will buy a New Year's t-shirt and wear it on St. Patrick's Day.
I will find a St. Patrick's Day shirt with a leprechaun on it the day after St. Patrick's Day and wear it for Easter.......

I am going to live my life one holiday behind from now on.
Think of the $$$$ I will save.

All talk and no action.

Okay..I just finished a very benign, pedestrian, unremarkable cozy.

Interestingly enough, I read it at 2 o'clock in the morning like I usually do but I was able to follow the story, keep track of the characters (although have three main characters called Lizzie, Lisa and Lucy got a little confusing).

A couple of things struck me about it:

It was NOT great writing. Some of it was pretty BAD writing.

1) The author CONSTANTLY used the same phrases over and over and over again (ie "She drank deeply from her coffee cup." "She took a deep drink..." Apparently everyone drank DEEPLY.

Other annoying phrases: She gave him a smile. She gave her a slight smile. She gave him a grin. (She never flashed a smile, or just smiled she was always giving some kind of a smile or grin.)


And "filched". What kind of a word is "filched"?

2) The main character was pretty flat and not particularly interesting. She was never in any kind of jeopardy and you didn't want her to be your new best friend. You wouldn't want her to step in and save your life.
She wasn't "spunky" and the coffee addiction which was supposed to be one of her signature characteristics just got annoying (see #1). The characters were a little too cute and the dialogue strained.

3) It was mostly talk and very little action. I suppose the setting contributed to that (it was set in a knitting shop) and what action there was seemed gratuitous. Jogging across the golf course to get to the tennis courts. Driving in the snow to see the property. Having the holiday part for the underprivileged kids. ALL gratuitous and not really moving the story forward.

4) You could actually see the author's thought process in solving the "mystery as you read. You could see her thinking and in some places she actually thought out loud in the choice of the main character.."Well the last time I was involved in a mysterious death, it looked like it would be the most likely person but it turned out to be someone else."



But the thing that stood out to me was that you could follow the workings of writing the cozy. It was like the author was following a checklist. It was so simple and basic, you could she her going through the step in her mind;
Okay,
we've got to have an explanation of how our heroine can be independently wealthy (inheritance from a murdered aunt she hardly knew)
we've got to have a retired cop,
we've got to have a police detective who finds her annoying and nosy.
we've got to have a boyfriend who we are keeping at a distance,
we've got to have a best friend,
we've got to have someone smarmy who no on likes and everyone has plenty of motive to kill to be the victim.
I couldn't help imagining her writing with a text book : "You Can Write a Mystery" open next to her computer.

I liked it (and I hated it) for that and only that reason.

And as awful as it was...she got a book published (three actually and her first in the series actually won a prestigious award.....)
AND I am going to buy the one she won the award for.
Just to see how LOW their standards really are.