Thoughts on reading material

Gretchen Rubin has it just right in this post.

I am saying good bye to author Suzanne Brockmann

I love books (that should come as no surprise to you by now) and it is always sad when I make the decision to "give up" an author. It doesn't usually happen with me but now is one of those times. I am a reasonable person but there occasionally comes a time when I have to say enough is enough.

Now I divorce myself from an author for a few reasons. Ernest Hemingway and I are through. Yes I know that he has a beautiful way with words. I have read several of his novels in a vain attempt to like him. It just wasn't happening. So, he and I parted ways. Amicably but we are done (of course he is dead so it really doesn't matter to him). I feel the same way about Jonathan Swift and Gullivers Travels. My book club loved him but I had a decidedly different reaction. The part about the Lilliputians cleaning up his poop by carting it away in wheel barrows was fairly amusing but that was the highlight for me. There have been other authors and books but I won't list them here. My "giving up" an author is usually a reflection of the fact that I don't like the writing style or the subject matter. However, this is not the case with Ms. Brockmann.

I have been reading Suzanne Brockmann novels for a number of years now. I am not sure where I first heard about them but I loved them from the first. I would eagerly anticipate the next "Seal Team 16" or "Seal Team 10" installments. I loved being on her bulletin board. But, that has all changed and I have made the decision to say goodbye. I doubt that Ms. Brockmann will care but that is the way that it is.

I hold fairly conservative views (that will also be no surprise to you). Ms. Brockmann and I are POLLS apart in our views which doesn't bother me in the least. I am voting for John McCain, she is an Obama supporter. She has the right to vote for whoever she wants to as do I. That is the beauty of the USA. She is very vocal in her support of gay rights (her son is gay) and that is more and more reflected in her writing. She can write what she wants but I don't have to read it.
But..... I have felt more and more that if you have conservative political views that there is no place for you on her bulletin board (of which I am a long time member). Ms. Brockmann allows political discussion on her board but those of us who express conservative views or support for President Bush are often (make that almost always) vilified, called bigots and homophobes and worse. It has been very heated at times and more than once rather vitriolic. Express open praise for President Bush and see what happens, just make sure that you have flame proof clothing on first. Now, I will admit that some of the mud slinging has come from both sides. It doesn't contribute to the discussion and I hate to see it. But, I am finding more and more that those who preach "tolerance" are often times the most intolerant.

Well, I am divorcing myself from Ms. Brockmann, her bulletin board, her books and it breaks my heart. It is a long time in coming and it is hard. I love some of these ladies. They are smart, funny and look out for each other. But, there is no place any longer for me on her board. The atmosphere is toxic at times and I just don't need that. I don't like right wing blogs that bash people and I avoid those. If I do that and consider myself to conservative then I think I will need to do that with this bulletin board. Good bye Suz. I will miss you, I will miss your books but we are done.

Baseball Anyone

Ah summer baseball. I love it. One of Dan's baseball buddies had extra tickets to the Indians-San Fran Giants game and we snagged two of them. Unbelievably this is our fist game of the season. We usually go to about 10 games a year but this year things have conspired against us.


We arrived early at the ballpark to find our seats and get something to eat. Tonight was special for Cleveland fans because Omar Vizquel, our former Short Stop would be back for the first time. Now, there are former Indians players that we "boo" when they come to play (yes that would be you Jim Thome) because they left for more money. When I say money I mean egregiously large amounts of money that should never be paid to anyone who is playing a sport. We can debate later about whether it is OK to boo a player and the salaries of said players. In the case of Omar we didn't boo we cheered. This man is loved here is Cleveland and we took the time to show that with cheers and a standing O not only before the game but when he was up to bat. A quality player all around.

During the first few years of attending Indians games I will admit that the nine innings seemed to go on FOREVER. However, I learned the basic rules of the game and that helped. But it wasn't until my hubby urged me to learn to score the games that I really came to experience the full game (thanks honey!!). He seemed to think that I was "born to score baseball games" perhaps because I love order (some would read that as obsessive compulsive but they would be WRONG). Now I can't imagine not taking my score book with me.

Jacob's Field... alright, alright I will call it Progressive Field even though that doesn't feel right to me. Progressive Field does a fairly decent job of food. I had my usual piece of pizza and half of a watery beer ( because I was too lazy to go and find the good beer). Dan also had a hot dog. Not too bad.



It was a beautiful night for baseball, not necessarily a beautiful game (with the Indians those are few and far between these days). The temp was perfect, the sky was unclouded and there was very little wind. Lovely.

To top in all off we were all presented with our VERY OWN Travis Hafner bobble head doll. OH joy, OH rapture. To make it TOTALLY authentic (OK I will stop with the capitals now) I have added a bandaide to his shoulder since he is currently on the DL. We always want to go for authenticity at our house. Of course the bat broke the minute that I put it together which I think is a sad commentary on how Travis Hafner is hitting this year. Sigh.

Prairie Home Companion!

"Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking and the children are above average".

Ash and I spent Saturday evening doing something that always brings us loads of joy. We went to Blossom Music Center to see A Prairie Home Companion.

Our family has been listening to PHC on Saturday nights since the girls were very little. My grandmother first told us about it (Thanks Grandmother!) and from the first time we heard the dulcet tones of Garrison Keillor we were hooked.

Ash and I loaded up our shortie lawn chairs, our deli sandwiches and brownies and our ponchos and drove down to Blossom which is about a 40 minutes south of our house. We like to get there early (the doors were just opening) so that we can find the perfect spot for some shade and people watching. This year our perfect spot was on the upper most portion of the lawn close to the walk way. That way we could watch all the people arriving.


We were done with dinner, we had spent time visiting with friends and it was getting on to time for the warm up to start. It was then that the weather decided to "ramp it up". We had been watching the clouds off to the west of us and the sky above us. The bad weather seemed to be holding off and passing us by but we were WRONG. About 5:30p we started to hear rumbles of thunder and see flashes of lightning.
Now, I love a good thunderstorm with lots of lightning but......I like it when I am inside in my nice DRY, SAFE house. Not when I am sitting on a metal chair surrounded by trees. Ash and I dug out the ponchos and packed everything else back into our waterproof bag and hoped for the best. A little rain wasn't going to be a problem for us and the show would go on despite the rain.

Ponchos are a lovely look don't you think? At any rate the warm up started at 5:45p just as the rain came. And it wasn't just a little drizzle, it was really raining and thundering and lightning. Great. We will be fried. We will die happy, thinking about Powdermilk Biscuits and Guy Noir Private Eye, The Lives of the Cowboys and Lake Wobegon but we will still be fried.

With about 5 minutes to go before the broadcast began officials from Blossom began to circulate through the crowd on the lawn letting us know that we could come and find seats in the Pavilion under the roof. Wow, that was a surprise. We aren't usually fools so we grabbed our stuff and ran through the rain, snagging seats in the last row. Excellent. About the time we sat down the heavens opened with full force as well as wind.

Ash and I still kept our ponchos on during the broadcast because our seats afforded us the ability to take advantage of the blowing rain but we were still under cover for which we were grateful. The thunder rumbled and at one point the pavilion lost power (for about 30 seconds) but we were treated to a wonderful PHC with special guests Jorma Kaukonen, Robin and Linda Williams, and The Wailin' Jennies (who happen to be a favorite of Ashley). We were treated to The Lives of the Cowboys and Guy Noir Private Eye as well as all the other funny things that one would expect from PHC. It was a good evening.

The Bees are busy

The bees are busy in the Spirea. I love these bushes because they bloom so prolifically in early Summer/late Spring.

If you look closely you can see tons of bees just going from blossom to blossom. Then if you get a tad closer you can hear the buzzing. There is a low hum as the bees do their work. I wish that you could hear it because it is actually fairly loud.

Appliances are there to keep us humble

OK, I will say this right off the bat. Dan and I aren't that mechanically inclined. That is just the way it is. We are fine with that. If something, say the refrigerator, isn't working correctly it is great to call the expert (and hope he doesn't have refrigerator repair man pants). That is what an expert is there for, to do things expertly that we can't do.

Well, our frig hasn't been working quite right for about a week. It just wasn't all that cold. It is a tad disconcerting when you get up in the morning and have your bowl of cereal and the milk just isn't cold enough. Not a good way to start your day. Now, when we first noticed it the temperature outside was a blistering 92F so I just thought nothing of it. However, when it cooled down to a reasonable 82F the frig still wasn't cold enough. SO, I did what any self respecting frig owner would do. I turned the frig temp down. No dice. It still wasn't cold enough. Grrrrr. We finally moved the milk to the frig in the garage. That would be the 23 year old refrigerator that has NEVER had a service call, as opposed to the current frig that has had 3 calls in the last 7 years.

I called our usual appliance repair service and scheduled an appointment. I tried not to pop a blood vessel when they said the service charge would be $69.50. I tried to remember that the gas prices are higher yada, yada, yada. But what could I do (and don't say fix it myself).

The repair man arrived on time and didn't have pants that showed me more of his anatomy than I needed to see. I showed him the frig, complained with a smile about how this frig was on it's third service call and my OLD frig hadn't ever quit and left him to it, hoping that he wasn't going to sigh and tell me that, unfortunately, this wasn't a problem that they saw very often and that he didn't have the part and that it would have to be ordered and that it would be a week (that particular scenario has happened before around here). He worked for about 15 minutes and then needs to ask me a question or two

"How long ago did you first notice that the refrigerator wasn't cold enough?"
"About a week".
"How long have you had this frost build up on the ice maker chute?"
"Hmm, about a week I would guess."

Then he tells me that the fact that the freezer is way to cold (I didn't know that freezers could BE too cold!) and that the frig isn't cold enough is probably related. That made sense to me. So, then he opens the frig door and points out that there is a plastic bag with green onions in it that is pushed up against the small vent on the lowest shelf of the frig.
"How long has this bag been in your frig?"
"About a week I would think."

And then the light dawns.

A bag of green onions was blocking the airflow from freezer to frig, making the freezer too cold and the frig not cold enough. Hmmmmmmm. How stupid can I feel for $69.50. Pretty stupid I can tell you. But, I was still glad that it wasn't some obscure part that needed to be ordered from Mauritania or something.

So "Dave" took my check with a smile and left to make some other poor household happy by fixing their appliance. He also left with a great story to tell the other repair men at the office. "Hey guys, you won't believe what these people had done......". I love to know that I have brought laughter to someones life. Now I can live my life happy, hopefully with a cold refrigerator.

House to House

House To House
Bellavia, SSG David
Knitting Sticks: 5!!!!!


I had to think about this review for several days after completing this book. I just had to let it "digest" for a time before putting my thoughts on paper, so to speak.

I believe that in the years to come, when we talk about battles that have been bravely fought by our men and women in uniform, we will add a name to the list of places already in our lexicon of war. We speak with hushed and reverent tones of Bunker Hill, Verdun, Belleau Wood, the Somme, Okinawa, Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal. We will also say the name Fallujah. Because of the MSM and their firm insistence that the war is lost, that there is nothing to be gained by speaking of the wins in the war, that there is nothing good that CAN be spoken of Iraq, most people do not know the sacrifice and heroism that is Fallujah. The battles that were fought street to street and often face to face.

SSG David Bellavia served with Third Platoon, Alpha Company, Army Task Force 2/2 during the battle of Fallujah in November 2004. They entered a city where the enemy had been, for weeks, preparing for battle by booby trapping houses and stock piling weapons. They met an enemy who willingly sacrificed themselves and innocent bystanders in order to kill the American soldiers that they encountered. This is the memoir of those first two weeks of hard fighting, house to house. Of wounds and death, of killing. I don't want to go into too much detail because I want you to find this book and read it. Then I want you to think about what the men and women who serve in our military are asked to do to keep you safe in your nice warm house.

This book is often hard to read. Not because it is full of big words but because it is full of pain and love for his fellow soldier and dealing with having to kill a fellow human being who is actively trying to kill you and will stop at nothing to accomplish that end. But however hard I found this book to read I am glad that I did.