TEASER TUESDAYS

Welcome to Teaser Tuesdays, the favorite meme of bloggers who enjoy seeing what everyone else is reading. Hosted by Should Be Reading, you can play too.  Just follow these rules:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week, I’m excerpting from a book I’ve just started.  Comfort Food, by Kate Jacobs, is about a woman named Augustus (Gus) who hosts a TV cooking show.  But she is facing a birthday she’d rather not think about…the big 5-0.  And she wants to make some big changes.

In the excerpt below, the passage is spotlighting one of Gus’s friends.

The carriage house had been Hannah’s first —and only—major purchase, other than a red sports car which sat, its battery disconnected, covered under a sheet in the garage.  A memento from another time.  p. 81

What exciting tidbits did you find this week?  I hope you’ll pop on over here and share….

A QUIRKY TALE

Quirky Pals

Today I was noticing a couple of dolls that I sometimes just walk by—primarily because they’ve been around for a long time.

You know how it is when you look at something familiar with new eyes.

Naturally I had to grab my camera and capture the moment.

The big Engelbreit rag doll was one I discovered a few years ago in one of my favorite shops—now out of business!—that featured many favorites like this one.  The shop was called Granny’s Cobweb Closet and stocked many treasures that I took home with me.

My quirky angel was another treasure I discovered many years ago in a shop in a funky neighborhood here that specializes in unique collectibles.  Karen’s Keepsakes is still a favorite shop of mine.

The big doll normally sits in a vignette with other special treasures, while the angel perches on one of my DVD shelves.

A Unique Assortment of Special Friends

Quirky Angel

HUMP DAY POTPOURRI

Hurdles to Climb

Do you like Hump Day? Back in the day—when I was working the grueling routine of my social work career—I LOVED Wednesdays.  The hurdle to climb over on the way to Fridays.

Nowadays, in my world of writing and blogging, it’s a whole new journey.  It means a couple of different events in blog land—like Waiting on Wednesday or A-Z Wednesdays.

But once I’m done with those, I find myself clicking around to my various sites and posting about odds and ends and sundry obsessive tasks.  Like over on Meditations and Reflections, my musings (reflections, etc.) are all about recent changes in my blogs.

I’ve done it again!  I merged my old Reflections site with Meditations, to form…yes, Meditations and Reflections.

You might think it’s simple…just delete one, change the title of the other.

But of course there are all those pesky links to change…you know, the ones on my “Other Blogs” pages of all my sites.

Then I discovered another glitch this morning.  When I “deleted” Collections (to merge with Potpourri) or Accidental Life to transfer to Accidental Moments, I forgot one thing!

I had a couple (quite a few, actually!) images linking to specific blog posts on those sites!  So I had to go through and delete them all.  Not only here, but on Blogger.

Then I decided to move my blogging journey story to my Potpourri site under The Journey page.  That was easy enough, but then I had to change the links on all those images in various sidebars.

While I was doing that, I discovered still another “story” image linking to a defunct site and…well, as you can imagine, I’ve been busy.

But guess what?  I still feel more excited each day than when I was doing that other career…the one that lasted more than three decades!

But lest you think that those years were a total waste, don’t worry.  I managed to plumb the depths and transfer those experiences into fictionalized creations…my five novels.

So nothing in life is a waste of time when we can:

1)  Learn something useful

2)  Utilize those experiences in some creative effort

3)  And grab a pension!

What are you learning in your daily journey that you can use to enrich your life today?  What do you plan to do next?

I hope you’ll stop by and share your thoughts.

TEASER TUESDAYS

I'm here to tempt you!

Welcome to Teaser Tuesdays, hosted by Should Be Reading.

This meme is our chance to really tease and tempt other bloggers to read what we’re reading…and it’s an opportunity for us to add exciting new books to our lists.

Here’s how it works:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Today I’m excerpting from a collection of short stories by Joyce Carol Oates, called Give Me Your Heart.

My teaser is from the first story in the collection, which is entitled Give Me Your Heart.

These days, Dr. K–, my skin is no longer flawless.  It has become the frank, flawed skin of a middle-aged woman who makes no effort to disguise her age.  My hair, once shimmering strawberry-blond, is now faded, dry and brittle as broom sage; I keep it trimmed short, like a man’s, with scissors, scarcely glancing into a mirror as I snip-snip! away.

Okay, that is actually three sentences, but I couldn’t stop!

What did you discover in your books today?  I hope you’ll come by and share.

WEEKEND POTPOURRI

Reading Possibilities

Saturdays are days that are open to possibilities. What to do?  Movies, shopping, hanging out with friends—or staying home to read and to watch DVDs.

I love each kind of day.  Sometimes I have grandchildren around for sleepovers.

Today none of them are here, and I’m still considering all the options for the day.  I started out by checking e-mails and posting my A Bit of Me (Me) meme.  Today, the topic is about what kind of family we grew up in, large or small, and how it affected us.

That triggered my thoughts, of course.   I have fictionalized some of my childhood experiences into my books. I say “fictionalized,” lest anyone think that they’re a literal page from my life….I wouldn’t want to give that much away!

Then, after visiting a few blogs, I curled up on my sofa to read my newest book, Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives.

Also, I posted my review of As Husbands Go, by Susan Isaacs. (Click the title for the review).

Yesterday I got some books in the mail, which is always exciting.  I’ll be posting about them on Mailbox Monday.

I’m still trying to figure out where to post my various memes these days.  I’ve moved It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading? to Curl up and Read, and I’m thinking of doing the same with Mailbox Monday.

I’ve found the commenting system much more user-friendly here on Word Press.

Okay, now I’m off to read my book again until I can decide what, if anything, I’ll do next.  Maybe I’ll just be a total hermit this weekend!

What are you up to today?  Any special plans?

TEASER TUESDAYS

Mickey Is Teasing Us!

Tuesdays are that pivotal point in the week when we share tidbits from our current reads.  This event is hosted by Should Be Reading.

Here’s how it works:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Today I’m thrilled to excerpt from a book by Susan Isaacs, a favorite author of mine.  As Husbands Go is a murder mystery, but it’s also all about a love that won’t give up.

Here’s what the Amazon description tells us:

She may not be as brainy as her famous Manhattan plastic-surgeon husband, Jonah, nor as proper as his snooty rich parents. And she may be clueless about mothering, thanks to her wildly deficient Brooklynite parents (picture schlumpy, depressed Roz Chast characters), but nonetheless Susie loves her triplets, three rambunctious four-year-old boys. She also takes unabashed pleasure in her happy marriage, her floral design company, her humongous Long Island home, and her designer wardrobe. She may be shallow, as she’s the first to admit, but she does have heart. And ethics, even though she’s not sure what that means. And so when her husband is found stabbed to death in a prostitute’s apartment, Susie is devastated, skeptical about the open-and-shut case touted by the district attorney and her impossible in-laws, and determined to unearth the truth about Jonah’s killer.

MY TEASER:

I was about to charge over to the linen closet and get a fresh bottle of L’Essence de Soleil liquid hand soap when the endangered-animal-trying-to-get-control nesting instinct exhausted itself and the terror returned.  I whimpered, a high sound in my throat.  p. 17

Hmm, I’m intrigued!

What did you discover this week? I hope you’ll pop on over here and share….

WEEKEND POTPOURRI

The Center of the Universe

On the weekends, I usually try to change a few things.  Like go to the movies, or hang out in bookstores with coffee…or even rearrange my space.

Actually, I did that yesterday, along with rearranging some of my blogs.

It started out with “decluttering” the bathrooms.  The products on the counters had developed their own zip codes.  So once that was done, it was only natural to rearrange the dining/entry room area.

There isn’t a lot I can do to most of the furniture, but those particular areas are up for grabs.  I was bored.  And I’d noticed that my walk way through the space seemed tiny.  So here’s what I came up with.

Entering the Rooms

The "Long" View

Once I’d done all of that, it was time to do some blog juggling.  A couple of days ago, I added some “collections” pages here, under Cottage Corner; then I eliminated my Collections site.

I know…I did use the “eliminate” word!

So yesterday, I ruthlessly combined (I won’t say eliminate again!) my Snow Impressions with my Connections; now it’s called Snow Connections & Impressions, and it’s here on Word Press. The Blogger site was…eliminated.  Ugh.

It wasn’t as painful as I thought it would be, but I did have to change things up at Facebook, where my blogs are networked.  And then I had to go through ALL of my sites and change the links.

Then today I remembered that I had to change the blog button, too.  Ah, alas, how much trivia lies in wait when we rearrange our sites.

I’ve also posted some memes today.  Book Blogger Hop, 56/Book Beginnings, and Obsessions.

Stop on by and leave some comment love.

QUIRKY TIDBITS AND TREASURES

What's Up, Laurel-Rain?

When I woke up today, it hit me that I had made several big changes here at this site that I needed to talk about.

For one thing, the tagline now reads “Quirky Tidbits and Treasures” for a reason.  I have eliminated my Collections blog and incorporated it into this one.  So far, I have only added a few pages, but this will be an ongoing activity and part of my journey here.

You’re probably aware that I have a lot of blogs, and sometimes I find it difficult to come up with anything to add to a site devoted entirely to collections.  When running out of fresh ideas, I become bored.   Yes, sadly….

Then it occurred to me that I could add some pages here.

Another aspect of this decision was that I have so many blogs here on Word Press that when I try to access the dashboards, the line of blogs that begins at the top of the page was so long that it didn’t even reach to the blogs on the bottom!  A technological issue, but also a sign.  That perhaps I needed to cut back and incorporate at least one of the blogs into another one.

I may do that to a couple of the others eventually, but for now, I’m just “reinventing” this one.

Hope you’ll come back and visit often and check the features under my tab “Cottage Corner.”

TEASER TUESDAYS

Today we gather around to talk about our current reads.  Hosted by Should Be Reading, we share tidbits from our books.

Here’s how it works:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

The Position, by Meg Wolitzer, is what I’m tackling now.

It wasn’t that she was exactly sexually attracted to Paul in the beginning; he was undeniably handsome, but he had a little too much hair on his head and on his face and sprouting out the end of his sleeves.  He was also so kind and understanding; though these were good qualities for a psychoanalyst, they were less desirable for a lover, at least at first.  p. 146.

That excerpt made me laugh!  What about you?  What tempting tidbits did you discover today?  Please stop by and share.

FRIDAY POTPOURRI

Sounds of the Wind and Sounds of the Sea

As I prepare for the weekend, my thoughts turn to fun and relaxation. Of course, there’s reading, which happens no matter what day of the week (or weekend) it is.

Since I’m officially “retired,” I can also go to the movies during the week, too, but I usually find it more fun to do this on the weekend.

First I’ll be visiting Fandango to see what’s playing, and then I’ll be plotting out what to do next.

What do you have planned this weekend?  Do you like movies, or perhaps a getaway?

To be perfectly honest, I’d like to go to the beach.  I could just lie in the sand, kick back, and read with the sound of the ocean playing like music in the background.

I know…I’ve been wanting to go to the beach for awhile.  So why not just go?  Good question.  I’ll have to reflect on that….