Tag: friends

I have to do this…

…it was the only way I could get something made by ‘Nathan.

So:

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.
This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

I make no guarantees that you’ll like what I make.
What I create will be with you in mind.
It’ll be done this year.

You have no clue what it’s going to be. Right now, neither do I.
I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch is that you put this in your journal as well. We all can make stuff.

ETA: Comments are now screened since I’ve gotten responses. And eventually you, my responders, will get your Becky-created items. Thanks for playing!

If you know me at all…

…you know I don’t do well with dog death. This is why, if a dog is a character in a book or a movie, my friends pre-read or pre-screen for me, or give me a “dead dog disclosure.” It’s why, one year when Timmy did not pre-read a book he gave me, after I finished it, I took a photo of my tear-and-mascara-stained face, then e-mailed the photo to him with a simple, “Thanks!” much to his remorse. (Don’t worry. I’ve forgiven you, Timmy.)

It’s why, when Lynne had bad news to deliver last week, she freely admitted to being a coward and calling Tim so he could tell me instead of calling me herself.

Though I’m sad that a wonderful dog has left our lives, there’s so much to be grateful for. We’d never have known him if his previous family hadn’t encountered a challenge. As much as they loved him and wanted him, their baby was severely allergic to him. Jess and Laura, even with two large dogs already in their home, made room for this gentle giant. They chose to keep him when their own newborn complicated logistics, although there was another home willing to take him. Laura said she just couldn’t let him go through another displacement.

So he stayed. He was nothing but good. Nothing but loving. Nothing but kind. In spite of his size and his big bark, he had the sweetest of natures. His name, which he already had when he came to Laura and Jess, is one of my favorite names. I’ve used it for two characters–one in an unpublished novel, and one in a just-published novel.

In his last hours, Lila played with him, laughing, falling on him, and burying herself in his thick coat. He loved the attention and understood that he was her guard and protector as well as her playmate. He embodied everything that is good and noble about dogs in general and his breed–bullmastiff–in particular.

Sam, you will be missed.

More photos of Sam behind the cut.

Fire!

A few years ago, someone in Tom’s family gave him this jigsaw puzzle for Christmas.

I’d forgotten about it until this past Christmas, when his sister J. got a similar one, and everyone complained about how hard it is to put together. When we got home after our holiday traveling, I dug ours out of the window seat. I set about doing the edges, which was a LOT harder than I expected.

Tim likes jigsaw puzzles, so he began putting pieces together. Then Tom got into the act. Last night, Rhonda and Lindsey came over. Lindsey decided the puzzle was the devil, although she successfully managed to put six pieces together. Rhonda felt like her brain had worked enough for the day, so she shunnnnnned the puzzle. However, major progress was made on the edges by Tim and Tom while The Brides were here, then later, while I was looking for a Photo Friday picture, Tom and Tim, with little fanfare, finally ended up with this:

Yay, it’s done! But I’ve found another way to lure our friends to The Compound:

Yup, the chiminea is waxed, seasoned, and in business.

I think marshmallows, Starbucks, and fireplace tongs are in our not-too-distant future.

Three Shots

I didn’t exactly get permission for this, so if you want your photo removed, let me know. But here are three reader shots. If you have a photo of yourself, your dog, your child, your armadillo (we can’t keep those in captivity in Texas), your entire class, office, or knitting group, or strangers on the street reading A Coventry Wedding, please send it on and I’ll post it here.

Here you see the coy, the tough guy, and the happy bookseller:

Thanks for these photos, and for the photos of the novel on the shelves in stores!

Random

While at one sister-in-law’s house, we cracked open a liqueur she’d bought on a cruise: Sheridan’s Coffee Layered Liqueur. Two bottles are fused together, one containing the coffee liqueur, the other containing cream. You tilt the bottle, pour over ice, and even a person who drinks infrequently like me gets a little taste of liquid heaven. Might be worth going on a cruise just to get this stuff. This photo is blurred not because I can’t hold my liqueur, but because the D40 chose to focus on other people’s wineglasses.

The next night, to usher in the new year, we all had a little champagne in untraditional glasses cups:


Sponge Bob is the new Waterford.

Last night, I inadvertently discovered that my grand-niece Amelia is planning to be a spokesmodel:

Here, she extolls the value of Finding Nemo.

I’ve got material for posts, but it’ll have to wait until I get back to The Compound and back in my groove. One thing I’ve enjoyed on this trip is stopping into bookstores and signing stock of A Coventry Wedding. In one store in Birmingham, they had only one copy, and I bought it to give to someone. The associate who rang me up saw me signing it and wanted it for herself. She offered to pay for it, but I gifted it to her. It seemed a small price to pay for her enthusiasm and the way she turned around and ordered more copies of it and A Coventry Christmas for her store.

I’ve already started getting e-mails from friends as well as new readers and they’re all positive. This has been a fantastic way to start the new year, especially after such a challenging 2008. Thank you to EVERYONE who’s posting about the book and e-mailing me. I tip a virtual coffee liqueur to you–in the drinking vessel of your choice.

You know how it sometimes seems a day can’t get any better…

…and then it does?

Today I managed to accomplish every goal I set for myself. While I was doing it, I got to speak by phone to Lynne, Marika, my sister Debby, my friend Debbie, Jim–I feel like I’m leaving out someone, but at age thirty-five, a memory lapse or two is to be expected. I’ve missed calls from Timmy and Amy, but we’ll catch up soon.

I took some photos that you can see after the cut.

Continue reading “You know how it sometimes seems a day can’t get any better…”

‘Twas the day after Christmas…

The other night when The Brides were at The Compound, Lindsey cracked some nuts from a bowl sitting on the table. The nutcracker and the matching picks were in stuff of my mother’s that I kept because I remember using them on so many occasions, especially holidays, when my father, uncles, and cousins would tell stories while we shelled pecans for my mother’s pies.


Daddy and Cousin Bruce, Christmas 1973

The others’ parents had similar nutcracker sets, including wooden bowls with slots for the nutcracker and picks, and they also had memories like mine of sitting with older family members and listening to stories while everyone cracked pecans and walnuts.

Some of those memories were in my head today when I stood in line at the post office behind a man–maybe eighty-ish–dressed in blue coveralls and a jacket and leaning on a cane. There were only two postal employees to take care of a long line of us, and I found myself hoping that everyone behind me would have a little patience as the clerk helped the elderly man. He was sending a couple of packages, and he also bought stamps to put on some letters and cards. Except he didn’t realize he didn’t need to lick the stamps, He couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t stay on the envelopes, and the clerk was the very soul of kindness as she showed him how to peel the adhesive stamps off the backing then helped him finish stamping his mail.

By the time I got to her, there was no way I could have said anything without crying, so I just tried to let my politeness convey my gratitude for the way she helped him without belittling him in any way. As I was walking out the door, I heard the next person at her window say, “YOU ARE SO NICE!”

More here for the curious.