Julia London's Blog, page 59

Memories

September 21 is a great day, one to celebrate because it is the birthday of beloved Whine Sister and best friend Kathleen Givens.

Kathleen in Belgium, a picture she took just for her Whine Sisters

It's a happy day of wonderful memories for me, but also a sad day because she is not here to make more. I miss her so much that it hurts, still hurts, quite a lot. But I tell myself to stop crying and smile, remember the good times, and how she loved to laugh. We had some great laughs! Dinner at Pittypat's Porch in Atlanta, Julia London? What a night!

After another wonderful night of laughs.

Because of Kathleen, I stop what I am doing once a day and watch the sun set. I take sunset pictures when I travel now and can get a good view of the sun going down.

Sunset in Boston

Sunset in NYC

Because of Kathleen, I have stopped being so hard on myself and let the small stuff go. She always said, "stop being so hard on yourself, kid." And when I am about to take myself to task for something, I hear her voice and let myself off the hook. When I am about to get annoyed at something that really isn't a big deal, I take a step back and a deep breath and remember "life is short."

Because of Kathleen, I never let a good one liner go unspoken, even if it falls flat. She loved to laugh, and she laughed at me and with me often. I can still hear the sound of her laughter and it eggs me on. I know that sometimes, she is still with me laughing along.

Because of Kathleen, I donate to Orange County's Ronald McDonald House twice a year (Sept 21 and Christmas) and I feel like I'm honoring her memory by helping others. She loved kids. She was really happy at Christmas time. One of her last tweets on her Twitter account: Christmas tree finally up, decorated with much enthusiasm and laughter with my grandchildren. Does life get any better?

And we still have her books! Lucky for us, her lyrical voice still rings out on the page. Check out Kathleen's books on her website, still up and running and a wonderful place to visit, to remember.

To Kathleen Givens, and to all my Whine Sisters: I love you, man.

Slainte!

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Closing Time

Cathedral in Sante Fe

Just back from a fabulous trip to Albuquerque and Sante Fe to first see my mother and then to hang with Julie K.

Almost got ourselves in a pickle though on our first day in Sante Fe. We were too early to check in at Bishop's Lodge, so we headed into town for a little shopping on the plaza.  Many dollars later and with really sore feet we headed back to the parking garage where we'd left our rental car only to find that we'd totally missed the sign that said the garage closed at 5:30.

The garage was locked tight.  Big iron gates.  We were outside and our car, along with all our luggage, was inside.  Panic was setting in, as we contemplated a night without luggage and a way to get a ride the four miles back to the lodge.  Thankfully a really lovely lady pulled up to the tenet gate in her car and we managed to slip inside as she drove out.  She told us even the out gate quit working at 6 and that we'd better hurry.  We ran.  And then drove with tires squealing down from roof where we had parked.  At the tenets gate and prayed.  It opened.

Dinner at La Fonda

Disaster averted.

Fortunately the rest of the tip turned out beautifully.  Gorgeous weather, beautiful scenery, fabulous food, great shopping, and good friend!  Perfect weekend.  I'm ready to do it again.  But I'll be checking on closing times!

How about you?  Have you managed to get in and out of a vacation mess?

 

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Birthday Cake!

If you have been to a kid's birthday cake lately, you have probably seen a themed cake with a lot of heavy, thick frosting.  The kids like that thick, creamy, nothing-but-sugar icing, and the adults like big slabs of cake.  Popular themes are fairies, princesses, Spongebob, and transformers. If you are like me, a square of store-bought birthday cake can put you in a coma.

When I was a kid, which was, admittedly, a very long time ago, my mother made our birthday cake.  They were mostly sheet cakes.  My oldest sister's favorite cake was cherry cake.  My second sister's favorite cake was chocolate.  My brother's favorite cake was strawberry.  And my favorite was angel food with strawberries and whipped cream.  Everyone of these cakes were, and still are, family favorites.  My mother still makes them for us.  She still remembers our favorite birthday cakes.  And we had them year after year, so that by the time we were teens, our birthdays didn't seem like birthdays without our favorite birthday cakes.

These cakes were not embellished with decoration.  There was icing, but not too thick.  There were candles, but just the wax kind.  The best part was the actual cake.

What kind of birthday cake did you have?  What's your favorite?  Are you a baker?  Do you know how to decorate a cake?  Do you make cakes or do you get them from the store?  What's your favorite…icing? Or cake?

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Material Girl

The Lear Sister Trilogy is about three sisters who must come to grips with their relationship with their dying father, their mother, and each other. It's bad enough that their powerful, king-like father has cancer, but at the same time, he forces them each to embark on a journey of self-discovery that leads to some very different, and very sexy places.

Robin (Material Girl) is the oldest. She can remember when her now wealthy family lived in near poverty. She has always looked up to her father, has even followed in her father's footsteps, seeking his approval and attention by joining his company and taking vice-presidency of his parent company by the age of 30. Robin has certainly bought into Aaron's business philosophy—take no prisoners—and is single-minded and driven when it comes to her career. But when her father informs her he has cancer and she is not ready to succeed him, he throws her into some on the job training that puts her in the path of a man unlike any she has ever known before.

 

Buy from Amazon * Buy from Barnes & Noble

Buy from Smashwords

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Baby, it's COLD outside

Far be it for me to complain about cold weather, but hey, I'm complaining about cold water.  It was in the 40s last night and we're in SEPTEMBER.  Right now, it's 51 and I'm wearing my wool sweater.  There's a process we go through, usually in October when all the summer clothes are moved upstairs, when bedspreads are switched to down comforters, when the space heaters come up from the basement.  It takes about a day to transform the house to cold-friendly, and I don't have time to do this in SEPTEMBER.

As I wrote this, I checked the weather in Texas, because I don't want to be obnoxious Yankee dude, complaining about the cold while Texas is in triple digits, and then I noticed… Texas is below triple digits and there is a 60% chance of rain for tomorrow!  Oh, y'all, I hope that holds true.  When I was in Texas, I saw a fire crop up, I noticed how brittle the grass was.  More like straw than a lawn, and all I could think of was, when the heck is it going to rain.

All you Texans, keep us posted on the situation.  I'm hoping the weatherman got it right!  How's the weather in your neck of the woods?

 

 

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Nosy Neighbors

Aww...look at the face. Is that the face of a wild dog?

I had my dog trained to run and walk off leash.  I didn't do it myself, I had a professional do it, and the upshot is that Moose stays with me, he doesn't bother other dogs, and he doesn't bother people.  We have been doing this for eighteen months now.  I can count on one hand the times Moose got off course–once, when a man came out of his house and whistled and Moose took off.  Once, when a dog charged him–he barked madly and  then ran.  And once, when a cat in a bush startled him, and he shot off across the street.  But he didn't run from me any of those times and came when I called him.  He is a good dog.

So one day, I am out and a woman pulls up in her Suburban.  She informs me there is a leash law.  I tell her I know, but I had my dog trained and I show her the pager I have (he wears a pager collar).  She said she understood, but it was a city ordinance, and I could be fined.  I said, thanks, but I am going to take that chance.  And it's not much of a chance, really.  Morning patrols see me all the time and do you think they care?  Ha.  Nope.

About a week later, I was standing on the sidewalk in front of my house with Moose–who was standing next to me until he was commanded to go–and Animal Control pulled up.  She said she needed to tell me that it is against city ordinance to walk a dog off leash.  I said, I know, but I have had him trained.  She said, yes, and he's obviously well-trained, but you could be cited if a neighbor complains.  I said, I'll take that chance.  She said, okay, I have done what I needed to do, and she drove off.  I told my mom later and she was instantly indignant–she instantly suspected the other woman turned me  in!  Upon reflection, I think she did, too.  That woman turned me in and she wasn't even walking herself that day.

You guys have probably heard that Texas is in the midst of the worst drought in the state's history.  We are running out of water and we are all on water restrictions.  In today's paper, I read that the city was overwhelmed by calls from neighbors ratting on neighbors.  They said they know who the big water users are, so these are calls about people watering on the wrong day, or watering more than their allotted time.  Really?  Remember when your mom used to tell you to stop worrying what everyone else was doing and take care of yourself and your business?  What happened to that?

What's it like in your neck of the woods?  Do you have a neighborhood association that keeps an eye on you?  Do you notice what your neighbors are doing?  Would you call in a neighbor who was watering more than you or on the wrong day?  Have you ever had a neighbor interfere or put their nose where it didn't belong? Is there a time when a neighbor should rat on a neighbor?

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IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR

College football is a HUGE deal in the south.  Seriously HUGE.  Rivalries are intense and fortunes are spent by fans for tickets in stadiums that attract mind-boggling crowds.  Sanford Stadium at the University of Georgia holds 96,000 people.  NINETY-SIX THOUSAND. And every game is a sell-out.  To someone like me–who picks the team I want to win the Super Bowl based on which one has the cutest quarterback (hey–it's a very scientific method, people!)–this devotion is a head scratcher.  BUT–I do love a cookout and a fun party, so of course we signed up for our neighborhood's SEC college football kick-off golf cart parade.  The mission: decorate your golf cart to honor your fave college team.  The prize: a $50 gift certificate to a local restaurant.

Decorations?  Food?  Prizes?  Count us in!

Since our son attends the University of Georgia, we are definitely UGA fans.  And as any UGA fan knows, the Bulldogs are HUGE rivals with the University of Florida Gators (which, btw, is where Gatorade was born!  See how much we learn when we blog?!).  Bulldogs and Gators do NOT get along, which led to the brainstorm of our cart decoration.  We enlisted the help of Allie, my alligator purse, and Uga my Bulldog purse.  And then borrowed an ad idea from the Chick Fil-A cows.  If you're unfamiliar with Chick Fil-A, like college football, it's HUGE here in the south.  It's a fast food chicken sandwich place—sort of like a Chicken McDonald's, only better.  Their ads are super popular and feature bad-spelling, graffiti-painting cows who advise you to EET MOR CHIKEN.

Here are the results of our cart decorating, and the story:  First, our intrepid Bulldog Uga decides to go fishing for some of them Gators…

Fishing for Gators

After catching himself a Gator, Uga strings up the beast to the roof of the cart.

Gators is feisty, but Uga done got 'im!

 Then Uga cast his line again and caught himself another Gator!!!

Another Gator on the line! And it looks like Allie!!!!

Good heavens, the second Gator is Allie!  Wearing a UGA T-shirt!  Oh, the INDIGNITY!   Will Allie ever forgive me? 

Allie about to bite my face. Guess I'm not forgiven.

It's been a week and Allie is still pouting about wearing that tacky T-shirt and being caught on that fishing pole, swinging in the breeze.  Oh–and in case you missed it, we decorated ourselves as well in UGA colors.  Check out the DH's swanky UGA pants:

The epitome of UGA fashion

 Don't laugh–I'll have you know I made those pants!  And the DH could gain 80 pounds and grow a foot and a half and they'd still fit him, LOL! Am I a seamstress or what?

And finally, our intrepid Gator-catching Bulldog (with some help from the Chick Fil-A cows) has an important message for everyone:

EET MOR ALAGATA

We had a great time at the parade and the food afterwards was delish.  And the best news?  We won first prize!

Yay, we won! Go Dawgs!

So tell me–are you a college football fan?  Do you follow any sports?  Are you an athlete or more of an athletic supporter (tee hee!)?  (If you like tennis I happen to have about 10,000 pics of Rafael Nadal I'd be happy to share!).

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Kid envy

Well, it's that time of year again. The kidlets are all getting involved in various extracurricular things…and I'm thinking, "Oh, man! I wish I'd done that as a kid!"

Piano, for one thing. (And to be honest, when they first started, I did 15 minutes w/ the teacher, too. But I just didn't have time to practice, dang it. Though I did enjoy it…and still wish I'd stuck it out long enough to at least learn how to play The Entertainer!)

And, of course, there's Latin (yes, yes, I really do wish I knew Latin). I did Latin with C from Kindergarten until about 2nd grade. But she's been with a tutor now for going on her second year, and she's doing amazing. The downside, of course, is that I'm completely incapable of meaningful help…and she can insult her sister without me knowing!

Then, of course, we added in dance…which I would be terrible at, but it still sounds fun. (Maybe I should take one of those Zumba classes?)

And the latest: This weekend we rented a violin for Catherine…and she starts her first lesson this Sunday! And it looks like Isabella's getting a guitar (and pierced ears!) for her birthday. I already have the pierced ears, and I have to confess that I'm not all that interested in learning to play the violin or the guitar. But piano, dance and Latin…well, it would be fun to be a kid again!

How about y'all? Anything "childhood" related that you wish you'd had the opportunity to do? (And for the record, can I just say that apparently I will be schlepping kids all over creation for the next, oh, 10 years. Yikes! At least in 6.5, C can get a driver's license!!)

*violin photo by Image: dream designs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

piano photo by Image: pixbox77 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

dance photo by

Image: Danilo Rizzuti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Oh YEAH

The husband and I enjoy watching cheesy movies together, often 80s movies. They're on cable most weekend afternoons (not like we actually rent them, though in the case of certain ones like John Cusack's Better Off Dead, that has happened). On a weekend not too long ago, we happened to start watching Michael J. Fox in The Secret of My Success. Well, okay, this one was not on in the afternoon. It was late evening. And, yeah, perhaps we had been drinking a little (it was the weekend of our 21st anniversary). [image error]

The song Oh Yeah (you know, the one with the deep voice, bow-bows, and chicka-chickas) came on during one scene and my husband was really digging it. How many movies has this song been in, we wondered? It seems like it was in every 80s movie for a while there, plus some TV shows and commercials.

While we were watching, the husband went on Amazon and BOUGHT THE CD! Yes, crazy (so maybe he had a little more to drink than I had?). Not just the song on iTunes, the whole freaking Yello CD! (And not the only outlandish, frivolous purchase of the evening, I might add– I can't let that man drink and shop… or, can I? *evil grin*).

Click here to view the embedded video.

So we looked up Yello, the band, and well, they're probably gazillionaires from that song alone, but they have done others. That song was in:

Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Secret of My Succe$s, She's Out of Control, K-9, the short film 5 Men and a Limo. Also, The Simpsons as the theme for the Duffman character. As the soundtrack in the game Gran Turismo 4,  in the television advertisements for Irn-Bru featuring "Raoul", in the South Park episode "Hell on Earth 2006", featured prominently in commercials for Twix candy bars and the Austin Metro, and was used extensively in commercials for the now defunct New Zealand department store, DEKA. "Oh Yeah" also appeared in Season 4 of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia where it was referred to it as 'Day Bow Bow'.

Holy Moly! That's a lot of royalties. I hope. If they had good management. So… the CD came in the mail, and we had a good laugh over the whole drinking-and-shopping episode. And we wondered, what are we going to do with it? Then we cooked up our plan. We decided we would have it loaded and ready to go in my car, and press play somewhere on the way to NJ to drop the daughter off at college. How we laughed over this little plan as we pictured the WTF? exclamations of shock from our grown kids in the backseat. And yes, we did it, pressed play once we hit the highway, and yes, both kids were overcome with "What the heck?" and we had our little laugh. Yep, the Erwin family is that dorky (Julia London could have told you as much).

[image error]

Ohhhh Yeeeahhh...

In our grander scheme, we imagined blasting it at high volume through open windows as we pulled up at the daughter's dorm… but in the end, we decided it might not make the right first impression. But we're still laughing over it.

OH Yeeeeeah, bow-bow, chicka chica.

What are some of your favorite cheesy movies? Cheesy songs? Did your parents ever embarrass you in a memorable, over-the-top way? Or perhaps, you got to make your kid blush? Just a little?

 

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Just Let Go

Last week, I got some great news.  JUST GIVE IN…, my September Blaze, hit #93 on the Bookscan Romance top 100.  "I was thrilled," is an understatement.  It's the last book in the Harts of Texas trilogy, and now that I've written three trilogies, I've noticed that the last book always sells more than the other two.  Data fascinates me, and I track my numbers, watching how they change over time.  I will see that I thought the cover of this one is gorgeous, and I'm betting that has something to do with it as well.

Just Give In...

I'll be stepping on the plane shortly, (going back to New York), but I hope everyone had a good weekend.  I know I did.  It was quiet, fixed xome computer things, ate some AWESOME food, and was on the receiving end of some great squeezy hugs from the family.

I have an excerpt for JUST GIVE IN on the website, so if you're interested, take a gander! 

So, question for the day, tell me about the weekend, any exciting things going on? 

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