Yesterday, J had to work and I decided to make it my personal mission to weed the front flower beds. For the most part, I accomplished that task but I also decided to dress up the front porch to get ready for fall. With n
ew pots and all new flowers, I’m quite proud o
f the results…
Snapped this one about a week ago, thinking it was just a pretty cardinal hanging out with the sparrows. But look close. It’s a sparrow, the cardinal, and a baby cardinal. In some of my other pics, the father is feeding the baby.
One evening last week, I opened the backdoor to let the dogs out and was surprised to find this guy just across the fence in our neighbor’s backyard. Based on how long my neighbors go without mowing their yard, there were probably all kinds of tastey critters lurking about which this guy was after. It was odd to find him so close to us in the suburbs. He’s a long way from the grasslands and prairies, or at least, what’s left of them.
Wow! STEALING WISHES is hanging on at #19 in gay and lesbian fiction today on the Amazon Kindle.
It’s #7 on Hot New Releases! Right behind Frank Anthony Polito’s Band Fags. Wow!
No Kindle? No worries! Download it right to your computer here!
Well, last night was a true sign mine and J’s summer is coming to an end. One of our favorite shows, SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE, came to an end last night crowning Joshua the winner of this year’s season. Joshua was definitely a good entertainer, especially when paired with Katee. Season two and season three still remain my favorites, as they were able to keep my attention throughout the whole season. This year, season four, I found myself getting bored sometimes and not really concerned about what I was missing. J and I didn’t even watch the second hour of Wednesday’s show. We did watch all of the finale last night though, and I still can’t believe it’s over. Tonight, we’ll start watching the Olympics and try our best to wade through summer television until Pushing Daisies and Dexter start back up again in September and October.
Here’s one of my favorite routines from this season…
Here’s my new favorite thing to do….go to Google.com and enter an address. Click on maps, then click on street view. You can actually get a 360 degree view of the street. Now, I wonder who they paid to drive around and video all of this, then who had the fantastic job of uploading it to the web? And imagine being one of those people on the streets forever captured in a Google map. By the way, I’ve tried it in some areas, and it doesn’t seem to be available everywhere just yet. So, keep a look out for people with cameras walking slowly down your street! Here’s a favorite place of mine which I haven’t seen in quite some time…
Last night I finished reading Diane Setterfield’s The Thirteeth Tale, one of those books that I have to admit got my attention because of its cover: a stack of old but colorful books. Briefly, it’s about a young lady, Margaret Lea, who works in a bookstore and enjoys writing small biographies about those who have passed on. If you are an excessive booklover like me, then you will enjoy the pages and pages of description on how Margaret lives and breathes books.
Margaret is called upon by a famous author, Vida Winter (this today’s JK Rowling), who wants Margaret to write her official biography. Vida is a vivid storyteller, often bending the truth to appease herself. After all, stories are wonderful lies, she says. But she vows to tell Margaret the truth. And so the majority of the 400 page book is Vida’s story.
The title of the book comes from one of Vida’s books which was to be a collection of 13 short stories, but only 12 were published in the final book. And so, the mystery of that 13th tale begins. The book dwells into subjects of murder, ghosts, incest, sibling rivalry, and much more. Family plays a big part of it, as Vida tells you the story of twin sisters growing up in a huge mansion with strange parents. Margaret was also a twin. Here sister was connected to her and died when they were separated. And so, Margaret is haunted by a ghost of herself which she sees in the mirror and in her reflection in windows.
Overall, the book is a good mystery with no need for a detective. It definitely kept me guessing until the end drew near. I was very excited to find myself all wrong on several occasions. It was also nice to spend some time with a book that encompasses two things I love most…reading and writing. I definitely look forward to Setterfield’s next.
