Life gets in the way sometimes ...

I usually read at least 4 books a week but lately, I find myself here working on my blog and trying to make contacts so it will grow and get more followers, or playing games on FaceBook, or playing with my grandson, attending my 6' 4" Junior son's  basketball games, discussing college options with my Senior daughter, (she's only 5'6" :) or doing household chores or the dreaded evil watching too much television.

I have one soap I have been addicted to my whole life, Days of our Lives, which I TIVO so I can watch it anytime,  I have to get my soap fix. But I also like the prime time programming,  all the CSI's and all the Law and Orders, Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, House, Desperate Housewives, Biggest Loser, heaven forbid I get wrapped up in American Idol, or Dancing with the Stars.  The Good Wife and Mercy are two new ones that beg my time.  I TIVO all of them because some are on at the same time, but also to watch on the weekends, when nothing that interests me is playing.

I cannot be the only one with this problem.  I am trying very hard to shut the television off more and use the time reading, but I have one problem.  It's called a husband, the television is turned on as soon as he gets home and usually stays on until he falls asleep, sometimes I try to turn it off when I think he's asleep, actually snoring only to have him wake up and say "Hey, I was watching that!"

Please add your comments below, tell me how you find time to read all the great books on your TBR piles.  Share funny stories, let me know I not alone in this t.v. / computer world.

Right now I need to hide the remote and push away from this computer and finish the book I was reading when I fell asleep last night.  I may have to go back a chapter or two, I awoke at 3:16 a.m. glasses still on and the book among the blankets.

More soon,
dollycas

THE CAT, THE QUILT AND THE CORPSE By Leann Sweeney

I love cats, quilting was a former passion, and who doesn't like a good mystery.

Leann Sweeney’s first book in her new Cats in Trouble series was truly enjoyable.The characters are realistic and relatable, the cats are truly stars in this book, and the plot is well thought out.  The Cat Trivia within the story are little added gifts.  (I did not know a group of kittens was call a “kindle”, I thought a kindle was the new electronic gadget for reading books.)

Jillian and John Hart move to Mercy, S.C. where everyone knows everything about everybody, or do they?

John dies all too soon and leaves Jillian with their three cats, Merlot, Chablis, and Syrah and her quilting business, knowing almost none of her neighbors. When she returns from an overnight business trip she finds her home has been broken into and one of her beloved cats is missing. After reporting the break-in and the missing cat, she knows the police are not going to be of any help to find her cat and realizes she must look for him herself. While searching for her cat she also finds a corpse, and her investigation is just beginning, not only is she going to meet her neighbors, she’s going to find out one of them is a murderer.

Don't forget to check out Leann's other series The Yellow Rose Mysteries and her website http://www.leannsweeney.com/.

We Are Packer Fans!!

Today on this snowy, blustery day I have chosen to write about my family's passion for football.  I can remember watching the games as a child on Sunday afternoons with my dad, and as an adult going to my in-laws every Sunday with all Jeff's siblings and their families.  In both cases yelling at the television as if the players and coaches could actually hear us.  Today we watch the games at home with our kids and our grandson. It has been a good year with "the Pack" winning 10 games and making the playoffs.

The Green Bay Packers Organization is rich in history.   They are also the most unique team in sports:

• No owner (last remaining publicly owned pro sports team, 4,750,937 shares, 112,120 stockholders, none of whom receive dividend on initial investment).
  
  
• Team plays in major sports' smallest TV market -- 70th (New Orleans, 53, is closest).
  
  
• Packers have 11 playoff appearances in last 15 years, and won most NFL titles (12).
  
  
• Green Bay has 21 Pro Hall of Famers, second-most in league.
  
  
• Team has averted four financial collapses: 1921, 1922, 1934 and 1950, each time gaining monetary support from community.
  
  
• In a century of franchise movement, only 10 other pro sports teams -- none in football -- have held same moniker in same location longer (nine baseball, one hockey).
  
  
• Only two other pro sports venues have been in continuous use longer than Lambeau Field (1957) -- Boston's Fenway Park (1912) and Chicago's Wrigley Field (1916).
  
  
• With season-ticket holders from all 50 states, as well as Washington D.C., Canada, Japan and Australia, the team's waiting list has more than 78,000 names. People who were recently awarded season tickets put their names on the waiting list in mid 1970s.
  
  
• Packers have most fans in league based on recent Harris polls, merchandise sales and Web site attraction. Plus, the team sells every available seat at Lambeau Field for intra-squad scrimmage, "Family Night."
  
  
• Before radio, when Packers played on the road, as many as 500 fans turned out at Legion Park to "watch" game on Playograph board (telegraph reports from press box re-created game on screen, complete with PA).
  
  
• Packers were first to open hall of fame and museum (1966). http://www.packers.com/ 

My sister manages a small book store and she finds all these great books to give my husband, but I have to say one of his favorites, which comes out every football season since he received it back in 2007 is The 25 Greatest Moments in Lambeau Fields History, written by Cliff Christi and Dale Hofman with forwards written bu Bob Harlan and Larry McCarren.  It is definitely a keepsake my family will continue to enjoy over and over.  The pictures are wonderful, the stories are well written and informative, first hand accounts from players and coaches.  It truly is a great book.  While there are many books written about the Green Bay Packers, this is one of the best.


MORE PACKER ITEMS

BEST BOOKS OF 2009

I have to say I was surprised that with all the books I read, I had not read one of the Best Books of 2009 listed by Amazon and after reading the descriptions not one of them intrigued me enough to order it.

I fared a little better with the Top Ten Mystery/Thrillers, between by husband and myself four of those book have graced our shelves.  Jeff really likes Vince Flynn and Janet Evanovich is one of my favorite authors.  We both like James Patterson and John Grisham.  We also like Stuart Woods, Harlan Coben and J.A. Konrath but they didn't make any of the top tens.

I also am quite of fan of the cozy mystery as you can see from by 2009 Reading List and while they may make the Customer's Favorites lists, they are never so controversial or acclaimed enough to make the Top Ten lists, but for me they are the most enjoyable, a little escape from everyday life.

Music Memories

I'm showing my age, but I remember when I was in high school we had dances Friday nights after most home football and basketball games. We had live bands, no disc jockeys, and we actually danced.  Each group or club took turns sponsoring the dances as fundraisers, we never sold candy or wrapping paper. :)

You could also travel to the "big city" and attend concerts for next to nothing.  Tickets were less than 20 bucks and you could see STYX (my favorite) who I saw in concert at least 8 times, and The Eagles, Boston, Chicago, Loverboy, Molly Hatchet, Van Halen, all the big groups of the 70's and early 80's. We'd go to concerts several times a year, sometimes weekly. I still like to pop in a CD and listen to the "good old songs."

Don't get me wrong, I like the music my kids listen to today, but by taste these days tends to run more in the Country genre.  Right now, Rascal Flatts are my favs, but also like Trace Adkins, Tim McGraw and Sugarland.  But these days I only get as close as a CD, tickets to concerts can be outrageous. Plus I'd have to sit in seat and everyone knows the best place to be at a concert is in the mosh pit of people on the floor.

TBR's (To Be Read)

Like most avid readers I have a huge TBR pile or I should say several stacks of books waiting to be read. The newest ones land on top and others are destined to the back or bottom almost forgotten.

Last week I decided to rearrange and sort my stacks and found that one of the first series I collected after my accident had been buried. I started collecting the series way before joining PaperbackSwap, so these books were found at Amazon or Ebay and I remember being so excited to finally get the first and oldest 2, but they were just added to the stack. I have also collected the latest. There are now 24 books in the series with another due out soon.

The books are Mary's Daheim's Bed & Breakfast series set in the Pacific Northwest featuring Judith McMonigle Flynn, innkeeper turned sleuth and her cousin Renie, who seem to trip over dead bodies wherever they go. Add into the mix the cousin's mothers, their husbands and their neighbors and the stories are priceless. The relationship between the characters will have you in stitches as they come up with some of the most unorthodox ways to solve the crimes. I read the first four in the series last week and after the first one I was hooked.

This series is said the have launched the B&B sub-genre and after just reading the first four, I can see why, at the end of each you can't wait to start another.

Daheim has also written another series based in Alpine, Washington of which I have read and enjoyed every one. She is truly one of my favorite authors.

If you would like to find out more about Mary Daheim and her wonderful books, be sure to check out her website http://www.authormarydaheim.com/

Now I'm off to start reading number five Bantam of the Opera. Sounds good, doesn't it.

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