Summer's Almost Here

Great  friends of ours, who moved from Naperville to Wisconsin to start a goat farm (not a typo), sent this picture to us this morning.

"Summer's almost here."

Isn't It Romantic?

“Margaret Watson, a star in the world of contemporary romance, grabs you on the opening page and keeps you reading to the happily ever after.”

New York Times Bestselling author Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Margaret is my friend from the old hood. As far as I can tell, An Unlikely Setup is her 900th novel, all of them written while entertaining our children, the neighbor children and her own three. (I'm still working on the laundry from the 90s.) And while it would be very tempting to hate Margaret for writing and meeting deadlines and living the writing life, I adore her nonetheless. She is witty, smart and kind. She makes the best from-scratch caramel apples on the planet. And she has loved us and our pets for many years. (Did I mention she's a veterinarian?)

So head out to Borders and/or the Meijer and buy An Unlikely Setup. If you would like to read more about this lovely human being, her website is http://www.margaretwatson.com/.

An Unlikely Setup is the first of a series, set in Otter Tail, Wisconsin. Part Deux will come out in June.

The rest of the Margaret Watson library is available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

Next Thing I Knew, It Was 2010

Happy Birthday, lovey. And many more.

My Blue Heaven

While Honey looks around for the calculator and crunches our "We Gotta Get Out of This Place" numbers, I bestow upon you a bit of heaven.

Can you feel it?

Miracles Keep Piling Up

If you were thinking my husband surprised me with a bungalow in Savannah, GA, you'd be wrong.

However, there was a delightful miracle handed to us anonymously this morning because the driveway went from this

to this

 all while I was eating an English Muffin.

Having avoided the inevitable long enough, I rose to don my mukluks and glanced out to see that an angel had plowed the overnight snow from the driveway. AND from the sidewalks. As in zpfft, all gone!

Another miracle, possibly at the hand of my favorite Norwich Terrier's family, but I am not sure. I didn't recognize the pattern of tread marks. (Hmmm. Potential here for an epsiode of CSI:Snowbound?)

Thank you, my plowing friend. I shall find you and thank you in person.

We Gotta Get a Plan

In about 12 hours, this is what Chicago is going to look like, which leads me to this thought: we gotta get a plan. I don't know what that plan is, exactly, I just know we need one so I can clutch it to my heart and keep its small flame alight while I'm snowblowing the forever driveway and sidewalks in my hometown, Naperville.

Savannah is too hot in the summer, but it might work for the three to five months of winter that gnaw and thaw at Chicago's heart. The question is, how much can we afford bungalow-wise in the sun? Honey? Where's the calculator?

A friend of ours actually has a 99-year lease on a mobile home on a beach in California (Venice, I think). He bought it so his very long commute to his real home in Cucamonga (yes, that really is a place) would be on weekends only. Of course, there were some spectacular trailer jokes cracked on his behalf, especially from his kids and their friends, who all now use the place constantly.

I'm thinking I'm not much for trailers, but I could do bungalow. And maybe a condo here? First floor. Good insulation. Handyman. This is beginning to sound really, really good.

Okay, there would be too much vaccuuming involved with this joint on the right, but you get the idea: no snow, fair winds, civilized, azaleas. I like that.

Honey, have you found that calculator?

Soap/Salt Box

On the way to Costco to buy baby formula and tomatoes, we observed a SUV in front of us with the following affixed to the rear of the car: a Cubs logo, a Merry Christmas wreath and a manger scene.

"Look. They're playing for the Mangers," commented my husband. Or maybe he said in the mangers.

I'm all for enthusiasm, but the manger scene on a salty, dirty car hatch?