News of the day...such as it is

I am so tired of seeing the McKinney pool party or the Duggars on the news--fortunately both seem to be fading though I'm sure the long tail will surface. Now there's that Congressman who declares disabled people are a drain on society. Help? Do I have to throw away my handicapped tag?
On a more personal note, for the oldsters among my readers (you don't have to confess publicly), Amazon is running a joint promotion with AARP for discounts on tons of books. Began last march and continues through October--up to 50% on some books. The good news as far as I'm concerned is that my novel, Ballad for Sallie, is among the titles discounted this month. Ballad for Sallie is set in Fort Worth toward the end of the 19th century and includes good guys/bad guys Luke Short and Longhair Jim Courtwright plus a schoolteacher just come from the East to the Wild West, all narrated by Sallie, a child of the streets. Written years ago but I still have a soft spot in my heart for this book.
To find out about this and other titles, here are some links:

• eBook discount page and terms: https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1001927991
• Pbook/Audiobook discount page and terms: https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/?ie=UTF8&docId=1002994231

 

As far as I'm concerned, the other news of the day is pretty mundane. It was a grocery and a catch up on email day. Did have lunch with a good friend at LaMadelleine (I love their tuna sandwiches) and we went to Sprouts, a grocery I've never explored. I had forgotten to get canned pie filling (that's a whole 'nother story) but all they had was pumpkin--wouldn't make a good fruit salad. We zoomed by Albertson's on the way home and I got a large jar of peach pie filling. We'll see.

Tonight I made myself tuna pasties--essentially biscuit dough from a tube (am I the one who eschews prepared foods?) filled with a tuna/grated cheese/chopped celery/parsley/sour cream filling. The recipe is so old I couldn't even find what magazine it came from or a date. So I feel free to share it:

Heat oven to 400. Mix 1 can albacore tuna in water, drained, with 1 c. shredded cheddar (I like sharp), 1/4 c. diced celery, 1 Tbsp. chopped parsley, and 1/3 c. sour cream. Separate biscuits and spread half into ovals as big as you can--top with 1 good Tbsp. of filling and then top with another  elongated biscuit (recipe says roll them out but I just press with my fingers). Seal the edges and brush the tops with melted butter. Bake at 400 on ungreased cookie sheet for 15 minutes--unless you use an insulated cookie sheet put another pan under it to prevent burning the bottoms.

Strange thing: we hear these days that packaging is cheating us--there's less food in many containers than before. This recipe says serves six, which would mean 12 biscuits. But there were only ten biscuits in the tube, so I came out with five pasties. Good enough for me, but it struck me as part of the changing times.

Maybe that goes along with my comments posted today on Vicki Batman's blog about the weird foods I eat: https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8535414384309157179&postID=6709800340457246816&page=1&token=1434162340453 The comments are more interesting than my post.

I don't understand....

I really don't understand climate deniers, fracking advocates, those people who are destroying God's green earth. For years, before environment was a big concern, I worried that we were covering the earth's surface with concrete so that it could not breathe. I still think it's true.
Now I worry that we drilling deep into earth's core. Recently two wells exploded near Karnes City TX, an area of heavy fracking. The explosions spewed oil and chemicals into the area, destroying a wide swath of fertile land.  Families had to be evacuated--some may never be able to return home if decontamination is not possible. In North Texas I believe they've called a halt to drilling in areas experiencing frequent earthquakes--we never had them before.
The majority of scientists agree that fracking is bad for the earth, bad for people, and should be stopped, so I'm at a complete loss to understand legislators who pass laws like the one Texas Governor Greg Abbott just signed forbidding communities to have any control over whether or not there is fracking in their area. The city of Denton had voted on such a ban, and it passed by a large vote of the populace. Now their vote is null and void.
It seems that legislators who pass these laws are not thinking beyond the immediate moment. They aren't thinking at all about the earth we leave to our children and grandchildren. They aren't thinking of the wildlife populations and natural flora and fauna that are destroyed. It's the same problem we've witnessed for years with clear-cutting Amazon forests.
One thing I fear I do understand is that those behind this environmental damage are thinking with their pocketbooks--sure, there's money for Texas in fracking and, quite possibly, under the table money for some legislators. Plus some property owners are getting rich allowing fracking on their land. I think fracking and climate change denial and laws that tie the hands of the EPA are a product of greed--and greed may yet do us all in.
On my soapbox next, possibly, what greed is doing to nutrition. Oh, so many causes, so little time. That's what polluters don't understand--so little time. It's not a future problem. It's here and now.

Of kitchens and pigeons--and hearing loss

On our weekly dinner outing tonight, my friend Betty and I enjoyed tomato basil soup and one crab cake each at Winslow's Wine Café. It was good, but the café was so loud that I could hear little of what she said. Even adjusted to restaurant setting, my hearing aids only do so much. We asked the waitress about moving outside, in spite of heat, but she warned that the flies were really bad. So we enjoyed a lopsided conversation. We agreed next week would be someplace quiet.
As I got out of the car, Betty suggested a restaurant but it was a name I wasn't familiar with. She kept repeating it--somebody's Kitchen. I wondered why I'd never heard of it, since I'm the one who scouts out new places. Finally she said "On White Settlement Road," and I suddenly got it--the Clay Pigeon, one of my all-time favorites. I simply misheard "Pigeon" for "Kitchen."
Mishearings are a common part of hearing loss. It's not that you don't hear, your brain simply doesn't process the word correctly, substituting something else entirely, usually a word that fits the sentence structure but makes no sense.
In the July 5 issue of the New York Times Oliver Sachs wrote an essay about mishearings,, citing the time he thought his assistant said she was going to choir practice. He was puzzled because in all the years they'd worked together, he'd never heard her mention church, let alone choir. Turned out she was going to the chiropractor. Other mishearings he cited: poetry bag, for grocery bag; oral numbness, for all-or-noneness; and the corker, "Kiss my feet!" for Christmas Eve.
This business of mishearing is one of the most frustrating about hearing loss. Sachs cited all kinds of theories, including the Freudian analysis of word substitution (which he discarded). I think the brain is scrambling so hard to make sense of what the ears don't really hear that it substitutes a word.
Particularly on the phone, it is sometimes hard--impossible?--for me to make sense of one word. I get everything else that's being said but that one word. This frustrates particularly my brother and my youngest daughter--and then I am left feeling guilty. As Oliver Sachs says, the best course is to see the humor in it but that too is hard.
But I'm looking forward to dinner at the Clay Pigeon.

Walk this way....

I seem to have hit some sort of blogger writer's block. Maybe it's summer doldrums, which set in quickly, but when I think about my days all I can think is I'd end up blogging "And then I did this, and then I did that." On the national scene, there are political thoughts I could comment on like the Republican who wants to destroy the ACA but thinks it's a shame so many people will lose their benefits--bit of logic lacking there, but one can only carp on politics so much. I'm saving my ammunition for bigger battles. Locally, there's the trouble at the McKinney swimming pool. I doubt we'll ever hear the full story--all we hear now are biased reports from both sides and media hype. It's been done to death and no matter how appalled I am at it, I'm tired of reading about it. Or talking about it.
So about the most interesting thing I did today was go to physical therapy. I've been going for several weeks now, at the behest of a doctor who was worried about my falling, which I do from time to time. Knock on wood, no serious damage so far but one fall in the driveway left me badly bruised and with a reluctance to walk down the driveway again. I'm in a program designed to keep the elderly from falling. I really resent being called elderly, but a much younger friend said to me last night, "Let's face it. We are elderly!"
What intrigues me about the PT program is the way they make use of ordinary objects. Today I sat on a rolling stool and propelled myself around a huge square workout table (accommodates probably four people) first forward, then backward--two times each. You'd be surprised at the muscles it works. Another exercise has me stepping over cone-shaped paper cups--the kind you find in an ordinary water dispenser. Not easy--I kept swinging my foot behind them when the point is to go over them. Sometimes I do an exercise that looks like the one they ask suspected drunks to do--walk a straight line, one foot in front of the other. I used to have to hold on; today I only occasionally touched the table and chairs that were on either side of me for security.
Today I got lots of praise, which pleased me. The therapist and the aide both said I was walking so much better. I'm grateful for the praise, but it amuses me--I've been walking all my life. Have I been doing it wrong? Apparently so. They've taught me to bend my knees and lift my feet off the ground--I shuffled before. And the therapist tells me he can feel a difference in my low back--less stiff, more flexible.
Some days I think I'd just rather keep going there than have to find an exercise program after I leave. Maybe I'll go back to yoga. But physical therapy is an interesting experience...and not as unpleasant as I feared. Really nice people make a difference.

Thoughts on the Triiple Crown

I'm not a horse-racing fan. Okay, let's put it bluntly--I'm not particularly fond of horses. When I was about twelve, my parents gave my horseback lessons where we rode in a large group around an arena. I'm not sure that I particularly enjoyed it, but when I was kept from two lessons for some sort of behavioral indiscretion, I never wanted to go back. In my early twenties my step-niece tried to help me ride her Hackamore (?) pony (a medium size pony with a better disposition than most Shetlands). She kept saying, "Don't worry, Aunt Judy. I won't let you fall." I worried. Felt like I was slipping from one side to another.
In my forties, I had a good friend who took me to a horse trainer's stable one day. We walked out into the field amidst all the horses, and Bob said to Alan, the trainer, "She wouldn't do that for anyone else but you." Yep, I'm not comfortable around horses.
I'm also not at all sure about horse racing as a sport. A horse at the Belmont Stakes "fell apart" (whatever that means) during the race and had to be put down on the track. The number of deaths of racing horses each year is appalling. And yet I know for owners, trainers, and jockeys each horse is a great investment so I would think they take as good care as possible. We are told that the days of doping, etc., are over because of good policing. And yet I've read enough Dick Francis' novels to believe that some evil people lurk around racing stables.
Years and years ago I went to a race in Kentucky with my then new husband and was appalled at how much he wanted to bet (we were starving students). Ever after he claimed if I'd let him bet as he wanted we'd have come away much richer. I'm too Scottish for that. But my one impression was that it was all over too quickly you could hardly tell which horse did what. Obviously I write all this as an outsider looking in at the racing culture.
All that said, I watch the Belmont Stakes yesterday with my heart in my mouth. The idea of a triple crown winner after all those years was real excitement. And American Pharoah was such a beautiful, powerful horse--his long stride grace in motion--that you couldn't help cheering. It made me think of the pioneering photographic studies by Eadweard Muybridge of horses in motion. There was that one brief moment when it look like another horse (Frosted?) might surge to the fore, but then it was over and American Pharoah had won! Wow! Relief, excitement, joy--even from an outsider.
I probably won't watch another horse race for a long time, but that one was a high point in my day, even just sitting in front of the TV. I can't imagine the excitement of being in the crowd. And hats off to the jockey who will contribute his winnings to charity. Maybe horse racing is a part of American culture that I need to understand better.

Summer arrives so suddenly

Last night, I heard a great loud noise, like a crash as if something had fallen. My immediate reaction was to call out, in a reprimanding tone of voice, "Sophie!" What, I wondered, was she doing now? She's been trying I think to develop a hot spot on her back--itching it on the underside of the coffee table or the front panel of my desk, scratching a lot. Benedryl has helped some but not a lot, so naturally I thought she'd found a new way to scratch her itch. Poor dog was sleeping peacefully until I yelled at her.
A few more great crashes of sound, and I realized it was fireworks from Concerts in the Garden, a beloved Fort Worth tradition. I always enjoy hearing the fireworks and wish the trees weren't so thick so that I could see them. Sophie isn't bothered, although I have had dogs who were terrified.
The debut of Concerts in the Garden marks the beginning of summer. This year it coincided with the last day of school. Jacob and I have both been ready for the day for three weeks or more. The atmosphere at the school was one of anticipation, letdown, less homework. We all slacked off.
Yesterday Jacob went home with a friend to spend the night, so I celebrated with a late nap. But I woke up feeling a little dismayed. The weekend and the whole long summer stretched endlessly before me. Now that's not exactly true. Last night I got involved in what I was doing and stayed up until midnight--late for me. This morning, after sleeping to a tardy 7:45, I have done computer work, filled out an information sheet on a forthcoming reprint (no small chore), and made a ham loaf. Tonight Jacob will be here, but I know he won't eat ham loaf, so I'll have to figure out what to feed him beside an ear of corn. He'll be tired, and he'll chill with his iPad.
The summer will be no less busy. I plan to focus on letting the world (and you) know about "The Gilded Cage," the historical novel set in Chicago's Golden Age that I plan to release this fall. And I have a draft of a third Blue Plate Novel to edit. Plus publicity to do for Texas is Chili Country, which will release in November. No doubt I'll be busy...and I can sleep late and take luxurious naps. No, summer will go by too quickly.
A few days ago I blogged about eating high on the hog. It came home to bite me yesterday when I really didn't feel myself--not sick, just lethargic. Taught me a lesson about that high hog.
Happy summer everyone!

"West Wing" and memories

Someone posted a clip from "West Wing" on Facebook today--there they all were, all those familiar faces who formed such a coherent, unified group of advisors. And it was Martin Sheen (or President Bartlett) at his very best, expounding on the follies of extremist interpretations of religion and the Bible, using a talk show hostess as his target. His final line was a zinger, as the lady sat and tried to answer him, finally lapsing into silence. "On more thing," he thundered. "In this house, when the president is standing, no one sits." After a long minute, she stood. I frequently wish we had such leadership, especially in the governments of some of the states. Or that we could see hope for it in the great host of presidential candidates.
The show took me back fifteen years or so, when a colleague and I thought Wednesdays were the best day of the week. We didn't really work together but shared adjacent offices, and we became close friends, a friendship that endures after we've both long since retired. I still laugh at the time she had been away for three weeks and came in my office door calling, "Hi, honey. I'm home." We had good times in that office in those days. And we loved Wednesdays.
The Wednesday morning newspaper had the food section, abounding with recipes many of which enticed me. I still have yellowed clippings from those days in my recipes files. Yes, plural--I have files for main dishes tried, main dishes not tried, vegetables (thickest folder), appetizers, and dessert (less used). Today, the Wednesday edition still has a few recipes but they are trendy and I seldom find anything that calls to me to clip it--folks, I just don't like kale. Sorry. I dutifully read the Wed. paper but it has shrunk so I can go through it in minutes.
Then Wednesday was meatloaf day at the Star Café (as it still is). So we went for meatloaf, mashed potatoes and salad--sometimes following it with banana pudding, also a Wednesday special. I guess my weight didn't worry me as much in those days. Friends Don and Betty Boles own the Star, and the meatloaf and banana pudding are Betty's personal recipes. Somehow I was so enthusiastic about that meal I could overlook the bits of green pepper in the meatloaf.
And then Wednesday night brought "West Wing," perhaps my all-time favorite TV show. I'm not much of a television watcher--in the mornings I often keep the TODAY show on sort of as background noise, hoping to catch news and weather. I get fidgety if I just sit and watch TV with nothing else to do. Not so when "West Wing" was on--I sat in rapt attention from start to finish.
Struck me today that Wednesdays are no longer the same--and neither is our world. How did we change so fast in 15-20 years?

Eating high on the hog

Seems that food has been much on my agenda the last few days--I must quickly qualify that it's due to the opportunity to visit with good friends while eating out. But I want to give a shout-out to a few Fort Worth restaurants where I've enjoyed really good meals.
Years ago, when I moved to Fort Worth, there were two stars in the restaurant world--the Swiss House and The Carriage House. If you wanted a fancy dinner, those were where you went. Oh, there were satellites--Mac's House, for one. But the restaurant world was limited, and both those stars are now gone and sadly missed. Used to be when I walked into the Carriage House, they looked at me and said "Dover sole and spinach." I liked that sense of familiarity which is sadly missing in most restaurants now.
Today Fort Worth is bursting with great opportunities for dining--from well-known places to out of the way smaller ones you'd never find if someone didn't tell you. Just a general impression--those in So7, the residential/commercial area grown up along 7th Street, tend to be more chains. But the most interesting are to be found along eclectic Magnolia Street.
My friend Jean and I had lunch yesterday at Fixtures, on West Magnolia but far to the east. The menu is absolutely enticing and puzzling at the same time--want peanut butter and jelly? Just when I said we should have brought Jacob with us, she pointed out that it was jalapeno jelly. Or fried bologna sandwiches? (I gave up bologna years ago!). But I had a heaven-sent single scallop on a bed of pureed sweet potatoes with a beet/barbecue topping. Wonderful. And we split an order of beet fries--I think I've described them before but they are really roasted nuggets of beet, dipped in light cornstarch and flash fried. Served with aioli and pepitas. So good! Jean had a kale salad. In spite of its popularity, I just don't warm to kale. No matter, there are other things on the men, like tomato skins with house-smoked salmon and goat cheese. And several friends have loved the spaetzle.
Last night my restaurant adventurer friend Betty and I went to the Bite City Grill--tucked away in the back of the complex that used to be Montgomery Ward's. I ordered chopped lobster salad. Now most chopped salads are just that--really chopped. This had large chunks of lobster and avocado, good greens, and delightful creamy dressing. Betty had shrimp tacos but she always delights in ordering shrimp in front of me because I'm allergic. She says that's not the reason--she truly loves shrimp, but I still think she gloats a bit.
Tonight I had dinner with friend Mary V. at Pacific Table, our really sophisticated seafood place. She had the scallop salad, and I have to say they get scallops just right--crisp and brown on the outside and soft inside. I had crab cakes, intending only to eat one and take the other home--but I ate them both. They were all crab, no filler, and served with a great caper/aioli sauce.
I've gained weight lately though I tend to eat lightly, but I comfort myself that none of the meals above were excessive or fattening. My physical therapist tells me I'm building muscle, and that might account for the weight gain. I'll go with that, because at my age I really want to enjoy food.
Stay tuned for weekend cooking activities.

Should You Kindle Scout?

Please welcome my Wednesday guest, James M. Jackson, author of the Seamus McCree novels. Ant Farm (Spring 2015), a prequel to Bad Policy (2013) and Cabin Fever (2014), recently won a Kindle Scout nomination. Ebook published by Kindle Press; print from Wolf’s Echo Press. Bad Policy won the Evan Marshall Fiction Makeover Contest for freshness and commercial potential of the story and quality of the writing. Jim has published an acclaimed book on contract bridge, One Trick at a Time: How to Start Winning at Bridge (Master Point Press 2012), as well as numerous short stories and essays. Find more information about Jim and his writing at http://jamesmjackson.com.

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There are so many possible paths to publication nowadays, and Kindle Scout is just one possibility. [If you haven’t heard of Kindle Scout, it is an Amazon platform to allow readers to “nominate” books for Kindle Press to publish as ebooks. Think “American Idol” meets corporate behemoth Amazon.]

To help you decide if Kindle Scout might make sense for you, I’ve designed a little decision tree. If you answer “no” to any question, Kindle Scout is not what you want. If you get through all the questions and are still yessing, then I have some links to help you make a final determination.

Is your manuscript fiction? [No? The Kindle Scout program is only open to fiction. It started with Romance, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller and Science Fiction/Fantasy, and later added Literature & Fiction, which includes Action and Adventure. Nonfiction won’t go, nor will children’s literature, foreign languages, etc.]

Do you have a U.S. bank account and tax number? [No? So far the program is only open to people who Kindle Press can pay in the U.S., even though your books are sold throughout the world wherever Amazon does business.]

Will you only be satisfied with a traditional publishing contract? [No? You need a traditional publishing contract, which Kindle Scout is not.]

Are you willing to have different publishers for the print and electronic versions of your book? [No? The Kindle Press contract only covers ebooks and digital audio books. If you want a print edition of your book, you must either obtain a print-only publisher or self-publish.]

Are you willing to have your ebook and audio book only available on Amazon? [No? The Kindle Press contract locks your electronic books to the Amazon platform.]

Are you willing to have your electronic books part of the Kindle Unlimited subscription service? [No? Kindle Press is not for you.]

Is it okay if no digital audio book is made in the first two years? [No? Kindle Press is not required to produce an Audible book; your rights revert back to you if they don’t produce one within two years. In their first six months of operation they have not yet produced any.]

Is your manuscript finalized so it can be published without any further copyedits? [No? The Kindle Press contract does not require them to make any changes to the text you submit. Of course, if that answer is no, you aren’t really ready to self-publish either. Note: Kindle Press has copyedited all books it has published to date.]

Do you have a professional-looking book cover? [No? Kindle Press requires you to have a book cover. During the thirty-day nomination process that is the first thing prospective readers (called “Scouts”) will see. Again, you should have this for a self-published manuscript as well.]

Are you willing to give up pricing and promotional decisions to a ginormous corporation? [No? Then you really need to be an Indie publisher.]

Are you willing to wait two and a half or three months for publication? [No? Because you must have a complete manuscript and book cover to enter the Kindle Scout nomination process, you could be Indie publishing as soon as you format the manuscript and upload it. The Kindle Scout nomination process takes around forty days from submission to approval. Because Kindle Press has been copyediting, add another six weeks or so plus a week for formatting and, best case, you are ten weeks out. With glitches (and I had several) it will be a longer delay.]

Congratulations, you’ve said “yes,” or at least not “no,” to all of the questions. Kindle Scout may make sense for you.

What advantages might Kindle Scout have compared to Indie publishing?

$1,500 advance on royalties paid within thirty days of being selected

Amazon promotion – there are no guarantees, and Kindle Press is only one of a number of Amazon imprints. However, early Kindle Press publications have received various pushes from Amazon.

International sales: Your electronic book will be available in North America, the U.K., Australia and Germany through Amazon subsidiaries.

One final copyedit—again, not promised, but currently they are contracting with Kirkus editors for copyedits. Every author I have talked to has been very pleased with their edits.

Free publicity during the thirty-day Kindle Scout nomination period. If you are selected by Kindle Press, those who nominate your book will receive a free Kindle version (and are asked to leave reviews). If you are not selected, those who nominate your book have recently been given the option to receive an email when your book does become available (from your Indie publishing or from another publisher.)

Decent royalties (given there is an advance): 50% on ebooks; 20% on digital audio

Rights reversions are clear: After two years if book does not hit minimum royalty levels ($500 in any trailing twelve-month period) you may reclaim your rights. After five years if you haven’t received at least $25,000 in royalties you may revert your rights. If Kindle Press does not publish within six months (ebook) or two years (digital audio) you may reclaim rights.

What are the disadvantages of Kindle Scout relative to Indie publishing?

As an Indie publisher you can choose whether to distribute through all channels or receive higher royalty rates going exclusively with Kindle. Thus, if you are going to stay within the Amazon umbrella anyway, you are giving up royalties per book.

As an Indie you retain control over pricing, whether or not to have an audio book, promotions, etc. With Kindle Press you are relying on Amazon’s marketing power and self-interest to benefit you.

That, I think is the crux of your decision if you compare Indie to the Kindle Scout route. Will the Amazon marketing power make a difference in sales? So far, most of the Kindle Press published authors have been happy with their results. As the program continues to roll out, I think it will be worthwhile to pay attention to the opinion of Kindle Press’s authors. Recognize that it is in their interest to promote the Kindle Scout program, so if you hear issues or complaints or concerns, dig deeper.

As promised, here are some links with additional details.

 

Official Information About Kindle Scout: https://kindlescout.amazon.com/about

Official Kindle Scout guidelines for submission: https://kindlescout.amazon.com/submit

Official Contract Terms: https://kindlescout.amazon.com/agreement

Kindle Scout Selected Books: https://kindlescout.amazon.com/selected

 

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Welcome sunshine!

The world is looking better to me this evening. We've had no rain for two days, and today was a day of beautiful sunshine. First day in I don't know how long that I didn't have to traipse through all the school's hallways to the far end to get Jacob. When I crossed the street, he was waiting on the curb.
My kitchen faucet is functional if fragile--turned out to be a defective faucet, and the company is sending parts in seven to ten days. Meanwhile, Keith, my favorite plumber, has put it together so it works--I just have to be careful. He was panicked when he came to look at it--thought he'd done something wrong; I was panicked because I thought I'd done something wrong. Turned out we were both innocent.
The doorknob on the office door is fixed. Lewis's motto seems to be if you can find what you want, make it yourself, and he fashioned the missing piece, had to take it to make a slight adjustment, and then brought it back and fixed the door. I'm being gentle with that too--just in case.
The TV that has sat in the family room for months is now built into what was a bookcase and looks great. The electricians worked most of the morning--no internet or TV but I survived. Lewis told me all it needed was to be programmed and first suggested I call U-Verse. Then he said, "Your daughter may know how to do this." Cancel that--I know for a certainty that she doesn't know anymore about it than either Lewis, who said it was beyond him, or me. Neighbor Jay came to the rescue, figured out they had attached it to the wrong cable, went to the hardware for more cable and connectors, and Voila! We have TV in the sunroom. Of course he threatened to set it so it defaults to Fox News. No, thank you!
It's the little things that make life comfortable, folks. And the blessings of having good people who care about me.
I seem to be on a food kick. Two TCU friends came for lunch--supposedly a business lunch but my business questions went by in about two minutes. I fixed one of my favorite meals remembered from childhood--cold canned salmon (I buy really good salmon straight from a cannery in Oregon), sliced cucumbers, deviled eggs, cherry tomatoes, all on a bed of lettuce, served with mayo and lemon quarters. I also had leftover lemon potato salad. So good. Ate the leftovers for my supper tonight.
Super tired after the weekend--going to bed early tonight.