Hello Friends!

WOW!  Did that icy rainy sleety pellety stuff come fast this morning!  As I watched it was sloppy snowing yet still tick, tick, ticking against the house.  How can that happen?  Two different types of precip at the same time?  And, it was no time at all between the time that it started and I needed to scrape through the quarter inch of hard ice on my windshield.  You know, that ice that sticks to the glass as if someone had figured out a glue to affix rain drops to a windshield or a window, and then they went overboard and figured out an anti-gravity glue to stick the raindrops together after they wet the glass?  And it was the glue like the one that sticks the hard hat to the steel beam on that commercial?? And then you really get a workout trying to scrape a hole big enough to see through and yet not be late to wherever you’re going?

And why isn’t there an armometer that can give you credit for that workout, like a pedometer would if you were moving your legs??

I think there’s  discrimination afoot here. Someone has decided that the best way to track movement is to track leg movement.  So leg movement shows calories burned.   Well, what about arm movement?  What about picking up babies, laundry baskets, clean dishes out of the dishwasher, cat poop out of the litter box??  What about folding towels,  chopping veggies,  and blow drying and then curling your hair with a curling iron for goodness sakes??!

Hmmmmm.   I smell sexism here.  Harrumph.  The activities that most women do are not counted as exercise. Hmmmm. . .

I see a political campaign here.  Placards,  demonstrations, speakers with bullhorns.

ARM THE ARMS!!  LET THE ARMS COUNT FOR CALORIES!!  WOMEN FOR ARMOMETERS!!

Let me know if you’re available to address and lick  envelopes.

+++++Were you really expecting a transition here?++++++++++++++++

Time for favorite author news.  I just started the new Louise Penny book in the Inspector Gamache series.  Oh, my goodness, if you haven’t read any of these, you are in for a treat. Find the first one which is entitled, Still Life.  (If you Google the author’s name you’ll even get the list in order—–always a handy thing to have because you have to read these in order)

Starting the book last night I had a smile on my face as I encountered the main characters who are like old friends.  The main setting, a village in Quebec, is as well known to me as the town I grew up in.  It was good to be home.

Another favorite at the moment is Cary Elwes’ book about The Princess Bride, called As You Wish.  By the way, this Sunday at noon, they’ll be showing The Princess Bride on the big screen at The Mall of America movie theater.  I believe Cary will be there to hold a discussion afterwards.  He played the Farm Boy, Wesley, true love of Buttercup.  I wish I could be there, both to see the movie on the big screen since I just finished the book and to take part in the discussion.  But, alas, I won’t be able to go.

And the third book I am reading is the second in the series of Jasper Fforde’s Chronicles of Kazam.  This one is called The Song of the Quarkbeast.   The first was called The Last Dragonslayer.  I have also read his Thursday Next series.  If you want something fresh and innovative, check out Fforde.

All three are good winter reads, meaning that the books don’t mention snow, cold, freezing temps, school closings, or road closings.  They will take you away from all this.

And that’s a good thing!

Love,

Janet