WOW..Time Flies When You Get OLD...

Mercy Me! Where did 2009 rush off to in such a big fired-up hurry? I have heard about how your life flashes before your eyes just before you die, I hope this is no indication of how my 2010 is going to go! LOL

This time of year I like to reflect on new things I discovered, or interesting places I've been (or hope to go) or just life in general. I've come to realize that as I age the things that in my youth were of ultimate importance to me are really of no great consequence and the things I never considered to be important in my youth are really the only things that truly matter.

As a child, I was told to be nice and share and hold my temper until I got all the facts. I was having none of that! Now that I'm older, I see why that is really important and even though those are not always my first responses, I am happy to report that I tend to get there eventually--most of the time.

As a teen, the opinions of other people had about the same affect on me as water on a duck's back. My opinion was the ONLY one that mattered. To a degree, this is still the case, however I have learned to appreciate the opinions of others, even if I don't always agree with them. I have learned that just because I don't agree with another person doesn't always make either of us WRONG. It simply means we come from different places and our journeys have lead us down different paths to the same spot. Because our paths were different, so is our perception. I try to learn from the differences and if it changes my perception and my opinion, then my path is different for the rest of my journey. I just hope for nicer scenery.

Now the things that matter most to me are not always tangible. Time is very precious to me. I try not to waste so much of it on frivolous ventures that go nowhere. I try to look for the positives in every situation. Sometimes the only positive is the fact that I have moved on in my life and that situation is behind me. I try to learn from my mistakes because otherwise I will only repeat them.

I can only hope that 2010 is a great year for all of us.
My very best wishes to you and yours,
Laine

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DARE TO DIE--Carolyn Hart. I DARE you not to LOVE IT!

DARE TO DIE by Carolyn Hart--I dare you not to LOVE it!

"She came in the rain. Alone. On a bicycle" and Iris Tilford's arrival will open old wounds and scare someone into committing murder to hide old sins.

Annie and Max Darling are back! This time they are thrown into the middle of an investigation into the death of a former Broward's Rock resident who has come home after a decade away to put things right--one of her twelve steps to sobriety--when she is murdered at a party Max is throwing for Annie to celebrate their new home.

Someone doesn't like the Darling's meddling and chooses arson to try to put a stop to it, but it'll take more than that to derail Annie and Max from finding out who killed Iris.

With the help of her husband and Broward Rock's own resident "Jessica Fletcher"--famed mystery writer Emma Clyde--Annie manages to draw the ire and attention of some very powerful people who for their own personal reasons want events of the past to remain buried. That just isn't how life in a small town in the South ever works, but someone is willing to commit murder to keep the past in the past. Will the one of the Darlings be the next victim?
Carolyn Hart is a master at her craft. Her books are perfect How-to-Write-a-Mystery-Novel Textbooks. Ms. Hart breathes life into her characters and makes them as real as relatives we all have (and a few we all avoid at the family reunions) endearing them to fans of cozy mysteries and just great stories as well. A wizard with words, Ms. Hart never disappoints and DARE TO DIE is another must read in a long list of the great reads she has provided to us. Thank God for Carolyn Hart and her love of a good mystery, a great story, and a fantastic sense of humor. She blends those talents with ease and we all reap the benefits.
DARE TO DIE--I DARE you not to love it!

New Blog No New Concept

I've started a new blog. I want to keep this one clear for my book reviews and things, so I started one where I can put my opinions about those things that really don't belong here so much.
This one is along the lines of a Dear Abby kind of thing, people can ask me questions and I'll share my wisdom on the topic with them. I do have people asking me what I think a lot, so why not blog it?
If you want to check it out, go to http://dearlaine.blogspot.com/
If you want a question answered, just leave it in the comment section. If you wish to comment on any of my previous answers, go ahead!

Just remember, follow my advice at your own risk! I do not even pretend to be right about what you should do in your own life. I can and will offer my opinion and you are free to follow it OR NOT. If you don't and wish you had, don't blame me! If you do and realize you shouldn't, also DON'T BLAME ME. I fully believe in free will principle! :)

Until I have something to report,
Laine

What makes a celebrity? And other questions to ponder...

I was flipping channels on the boob tube the other night and came across some reality tv monstrosity caught my attention somehow. I was trying to figure out exactly what this stupidity was and wondering why anyone would pay money to put it on the air in the first place, when the kid unit (aka my walking IMDB) saunters in the room and asks, as only a teenager can, "MOM, WHY are you watching THIS? Do you even KNOW who those people ARE?" And suffice it to say I did not know who most of them were, I did recognize a Baldwin though so I'm not a TOTAL waste of space on the planet, right? LOL
Which brings me to my question to ponder--
Is someone REALLY a celebrity if YOU have never heard of them? What does it take for YOU to consider someone a celebrity? Are those 'over rated' celebs really over rated or are they really pseudo-celebrity types who actually do not deserve the title? Who gets to decide if someone is a celebrity or not?
Ok...there are more than one question to ponder, but it takes more than one to fully appreciate the scope of the inquiry! LOL What do YOU think? Enquiring Minds Want To Know! LOL

Until the next wild hair,
Laine

I really need to stay out of the crack houses!

Now don't go getting all knicker-knotted over that title. My crack house is not THAT kind of crack house. I'm talking Barnes and Noble and my local libraries! Books are like crack to me--no matter how many I have, I need more!

I 'own' a group on CafeMom called I LOVE A LITTLE MYSTERY and one of the joys of that group is our monthly BOOK OF THE MONTH discussions. This month we picked an author instead of a specific book and the winner of the poll was MARY KAY ANDREWS. I happened to have one of her books on my shelf, SAVANNAH BLUES. This was in my 'goody bag' from when I attended Malice Domestic a couple years ago. I got home, added it to my collection and forgot all about it, until last week.

The main character, Eloise Foley, Weezie to her friends and family, has recently suffered a great blow--her marriage to Talmadge Evans III, Tal, was usurped by a floozy from up North with no class, tact or sense of how things are done Down South. Weezie is forced out of her home in Savannah's Historic District--a home she found and lovingly restored herself, and is living in the carriage house that was to be her antique store someday. She is living in the backyard of the house she once owned while the woman who stole her life is living in 'the big house' with her husband. That's enough to make any woman boil, but a Savannah woman makes the best of it and plots revenge over wine and chocolate with her best friend.

Weezie is also a 'picker' meaning she picks through garage sales and sometimes the trash to find items of value, fixes them up if needed and sells them to make her living. She's quite good at it as well! When a grand plantation house in Savannah is scheduled for an estate sale, Weezie can't wait to get a look at what is inside. She finds more than she bargains for when she opens a closet and finds the dead body of none other than Caroline DeSantos--the floozy from up North whose death Weezie had been known to think about from time to time. Weezie is arrested and she and her friend BeBe (pronounced Bay Bay) along with her uncle James (a priest turned lawyer) and an old high school beau and new love interest Daniel work to prove Weezie innocent and point the finger of the law in the direction it belongs!

This story is rich and smooth--like a good banana puddin' on any Sunday in the South! Full of body and character and nothing left to chance. Ms. Andrews even gave me an ending I could smile about reading!

People, I LOVED that book! Ms. Andrews even made Savannah as much a character as any of her other characters! She so obviously understands the fact that if you are going to set a story in a place like Savannah, then you had better make it a character unto itself because that's how life IS down South! Where you are from and who your 'people' are matter!

The characters in this book are somewhat stereotypical, but are far from caricatures--perfect blend of familiarity and individuality and not easy to pull off! Ms. Andrews does it with skill.

This was the first of her books I've read, but it won't be the last--which means another trip to one of my crack houses! I'm thinking Barnes and Noble because I doubt I'll want to return this one!

Until next time,
Laine

Kid Unit and The Piano Recital

The Kid Unit had her piano judging on Saturday and the recital on Sunday and did very well! Those songs had been giving her fits for 2 months, but she played them well enough to get a Superior at the judging!

She only had to play one of the songs at the recital because another child had also chosen one of her selections. Her director didn't want them both playing the same song and the Kid Unit was NOT unhappy about that decision. The song she didn't have to play in the recital was the one she was having the most difficulty playing. The fact that she memorized it at all is amazing enough to me!!

All the kids did an outstanding job at the recital! Every one of them were graded on the Superior scale. We heard classical, pop, ragtime, and even a cartoon theme song. Those kids never cease to amaze and thrill me with what they can do!

I send my congrats to them all and I'm so proud!!

Until next time,

Laine

Just an update on life in Laineland

Not a lot going on is better than being dead! Laineland is all in 'coast' mode right now. We are just trying to get the kid unit finished up with her school work for the year, get the band concert and the piano judging and recital behind us and that is about all we have on our plates right now.

There was a tad little bit of discord in Laineland recently due to the incredible insensitivity of one set of neighbors who think that their dogs should be allowed to bark from daylight to dark for days at a time and we should just accept it because 'they're dogs and dogs bark!" NO! Dogs do not bark without a reason! Even if that reason is "HELP! I have a stupid owner who never walks me, never trains me, only feeds me and has no clue what being a responsible pet owner means!" that dog has a REASON.
I tried to do the neighborly thing and give them a chance to rectify the situation before I called anyone other than animal control (which would have made my 3rd attempt at calling them). I spoke to the husband and I admit to being a tad irritated and I said, "I thought I'd let you know that your dog is barking his head off since you obviously cannot hear him yourself!" That is an exact quote of what I said. If the man had enough sense to know, he would have realized that the easiest way to make nice with the mad neighbor lady is to shut his dog up! But....instead he wants to know who I am. I tell him. He asks where I live and I called him Darlin' and said I lived right behind him. He said something that sounded like 'alright' and we hung up.
Two minutes later, his WIFE calls back to "handle me." Yeah, that went over real well. I'm not the type to be 'handled' by anyone. I did my best to be calm, cool and collected. I spoke in an even tone. Tried not to get angry at her. She, on the other hand, was irate and screaming at me over the phone. When I told her my dog didn't bark she came back with "For all I know you cut your dog's throat!" I assured her my dog is capable of barking, but she's been trained not to bark and when she does, she is immediately told NO.
The conversation ended with her telling me she wouldn't do anything about her dogs and there wasn't anything I or the sheriff's office COULD do about it. I said 'we'll just have to see." and hung up.
I did call the county sheriff's office and a deputy came out to my house about an hour later. He heard the dogs barking (the neighbors had left for work and had left the dogs outside again). He went to their house and left something letting them know a complaint had been filed. Hopefully, now, they realize I am serious. After listening to this for over a YEAR, another day of it is just too long. The deputy advised us that anytime the noise was a bother, to call them. I hated doing that. They have so many more important things to deal with than a barking dog.

That is all the excitement I've had to report of late. And if that is all I have this year, I'll be happy for it!

How's life in YOUR neck of the woods??

Until next time,
Laine

WOE IS US! The Blizzard of 09--will we EVER thaw out?

These are just a few shots of my backyard and the neighbor's yard too after the Blizzard of 09 rolled through here yesterday! Terrible, isn't it?

My poor puppy didn't know how to act. She ate some snow, she rolled in the snow and then she trotted back inside with a look of "are you people crazy sending me out in that stuff' look on her face. Silly dog!

I know I have friends who live in places like International Falls, MN and family in Vermont who will laugh their hineys off at seeing what I call a 'blizzard', but they forget, winter in North Carolina is sort of like SUMMER to them. So you have YOUR blizzard and I'll take MY VERSION! Thank you VERY MUCH! LOL

Here's my deck--see how DEEP it was?? Those are kid unit footie prints and furbaby ones too!

SO, until I have something interesting to say again or I get another wild hair...

Have a good one..stay WARM...enjoy the day!

Laine

THE DEVIL CAN WAIT--A thrilling ride from start to finish!

THE DEVIL CAN WAIT, the second installment in Marta Stephens’ Sam Harper series is a thrilling read!!

The bodies of teenagers in Chandler, Massachusetts are turning up in the bay and homicide detective Sam Harper has been assigned to the case. What Sam and his partner, Dave Mann, do not know is that not only are those cases related, but there is more to this than a serial killer on the loose. This case reaches from the jungles of South America all the way to Rome and has ties to the Vatican that can change the lives of everyone and not in a good way!

As if the end of the world wasn’t complication enough, Sam finds himself trying to out-pace and protect a reporter for the local newspaper, Jenny Blake, who is dead-set on making a name for herself and using this case to do it.

THE DEVIL CAN WAIT is an incredibly entertaining, completely enthralling, and masterfully written novel. Ms. Stephens grabbed my attention from page one and never let it go! This story had me gasping for breath and left me begging for more! I can’t wait for the next installment in the Sam Harper series. And if anyone in Hollywood is paying attention, this one would make a great feature film as well!

Trying to wrap my brain around this concept...

If anyone, anywhere, can actually explain to me HOW in the world anyone would ever think it was perfectly acceptable for a Girl Scout troop to have a cookie booth outside of a HOOTER'S restaurant, I would greatly appreciate the effort!!

I just do not think, and cannot be convinced, that the image of Girl Scouts will ever mesh with the image of Hooter's. Why bring little girls to that type of establishment and have them outside selling cookies to raise money for troop activities, when the girls inside are dressed like a bunch of skanky low-rent hookers serving a big plate of false hope to a bunch of drunken men who should have better things to do? Any ideas?? Anyone??

And before anyone wants to tell me that they are a family restaurant and have good food there, let me tell you this, if their food was so great, they would be willing to clothe their wait staff. They would be willing to hire a man to wait tables. They might even hire a flat-chested girl or, now here's a novel idea--a fat chick or two! If Hooter's did any of that, I MIGHT be able to give them a shot at being called a family restaurant.

For those who want to argue it is a LEGAL business, so is a strip club, but I won't want to associate Girl Scouts with that either. Of course, there isn't much difference if you ask me. I see a very short walk from 'having nothing left to imagine' and 'leaving nothing TO the imagination' because Hooter's uniforms are so tight and so short, they fall firmly within that latter category.

For those who say that the GIRLS who work at Hooter's put themselves there by choice. No one is exploiting them without their permission, that is true. However, hookers on the street are their by their own choice too. That doesn't mean I want to set up a cookie booth in front of a brothel either--even in areas where that is also legal!

Any business (legal or otherwise) that objectifies women in any way in order to line their own coffers should NEVER been seen as aligning with Girl Scouts!! Girl Scouts is a wonderful organization, but sometimes, a few people within it really need to pull their heads out from the dark recesses of their lower extremities and think in the light of day!! They may find it refreshing!!

That's my take on it. Tossing it out to you now. Tell me what YOU think!

Until something else crawls across my wild hair,
Laine

What is racism?

I'm a member of a 'debate' group in one of those online social networking sites we all read so much about these days. The discussions in this group are usually triggered by odd news reports, a flippant remark made by someone in line at the grocery store, or one of those things that makes you go, "Hmmmm..."

A question was posed recently regarding racism and whether or not it is racist for the African American community to have their own colleges, pageants, magazines and television networks. The poster also mentioned that her place of employment gives African-American employees MLK Day off with pay while refusing to give the same benefit to white employees. I'm sure that has been a cause for many discussions at her workplace. Being that she is by no means a racist individual, my guess is she is trying to wrap her brain around the concepts she may have been overhearing at work. (I explain that for the benefit of folks who are not members of that particular group and may not understand or appreciate how these types of conversations may come about. And for no other reason.)

My response to her debate question was:

I think you have to look back to when those particular institutions you mentioned were started. They came from a need in the community to show non-white people in a different light--as REAL people, not just the maid or the thug. Times are changing, but slowly because some folks want to dig in their heels and scream NO! all the way.

MLK Day is not a religious holiday, so any company who only wants to pay some employees and not all to have that day off is missing the mark! Martin Luther King, Jr. did a great thing for ALL people, it just so happened that the Black community benefited the most (perceived as 'most' anyway) from his efforts, and the efforts of THOUSANDS of others because they were the focus of it and had the farther to come, just to be treated equally.

Don't you remember your history? Even as late as the 1960's, Black American CITIZENS were forced to sit in the back of the bus, couldn't drink from the same water fountains, had to cross the street if a white person was heading their way. Black men and boys were murdered for something as small as smiling at a white woman, or complimenting her on her hair or dress, regardless of their intention or how polite they were when they said it. And all without white people batting an eyelash against it!

So if I were going to be upset at anyone in a company where only some got to celebrate a day in honor of a great man like Dr. King, I'd put the blame where it belongs--firmly on the shoulders of the idiot who made the policy! Not those who have been made to seem to be taking advantage of it. Do you have any Jewish people working there? Do they get upset when their religious holidays are not recognized with the same excitement as yours?

I think it is most definitely racist to expect there to be WHITE ONLY establishments, colleges, pageants, etc., because for so many CENTURIES in this great country of ours, that is exactly how it was! Now we are a little more enlightened--or I certainly HOPE we are--and it may SEEM to some that the rights of whites are being trampled, but that is just not the case. This is simply what a more equal society looks like. Not being held above another simply on the basis of your skin tone is NOT the same as being discriminated against. It just means you have to play by the same rules as everyone else.

We aren't THERE yet. In a perfect world there would be no NEED for BET or predominately Black colleges or the Miss Black America Pageant because none of us would see ourselves as (Fill-in-the-Blank)-Americans, but simply AMERICANS and we could actually be proud of that alone!! Until that day arrives, we just have to keep on keepin' on and hoping the light will eventually reach everyone and not be taken up by the lucky who were born paler than the others.

That's my plugged nickel's worth on the topic. These are just my opinions. Others may vary. Void where prohibited by law.

Let me know what you think....

Until next time,
Laine

New year...same old attitude?

I am unable to sleep tonight. No clue as to the why of that, but I was trying to come up with something productive and QUIET to do and a thought struck me (no it did not hurt, in case you were wondering).

Does the new year ever change a person's attitude? I don't think it does. It has never changed mine. Turning over a new calendar is not life altering enough to change much more than the scenery.

If the new year doesn't bring a change in attitude, what does? I think only a change in attitude can provide that. It has to come from a desire to change, not from simply waking up in a new year.

Will I change my attitude this year? I certainly hope I have a reason to feel more optimistic about life and our nation's economy and our position in the world. I'm thrilled with the way the national election turned out. I have great hopes for what President-elect Obama can bring to this nation, IF he is given the chance to do so. For the first time in a long time, I can say I support my President and feel good about it.

There may be fair seas ahead, but I fear the turmoil will come from inside the boat! I want to be proven wrong on that count. Please?

Time will tell I guess.

Wishing you and yours a very happy and prosperous 2009!

Laine...if this doesn't make any sense, just chalk it up to lack of sleep and the writer being decaffeinated.