Kate Collins's Blog, page 109

Does someone you love suffer from ‘Man Eyes’?

By Mary Jane Maffini aka Victoria Abbott
If so, our sympathies. This condition appears in many families. There is no cure. Or is there?
But what exactly is Man Eyes?  It is the condition when a normal, intelligent person (who has perhaps already had that cataract surgery) cannot see something that is right in front of him.  You notice I do not use the more politically correct pronouns ‘him or her’.  There is reason for that.Symptoms of man eyes are when a ‘person’ cannot find black socks in sock drawer. 

Or gloves.

Or if his shoes are not where he thinks he left them the night before and now he’s going to be late for an appointment.  
‘Man eyes’ is at its most extreme in the fridge: perhaps there is something to do with the temperature and the bright light that makes most foods instantly invisible and leads the victim to bleat ‘But I can’t see it, are you sure we have mayo?’ 

 Medical science still hasn’t devised a theory to explain this phenomenon, but, trust me, it’s real.  It’s particularly difficult to find something if there’, say,  a small item in front of a larger one.
This morning, when searching for his shoes, my hubby confessed:  “I’m suffering from Man Eyes. I’m going to be late. Have you seen my shoes?
I just had to point.  There they were, on the floor, where you might expect them to be.
He muttered under his breath: “Women Eyes can see though steel plates. It’s like X-Ray vision.”
This is not entirely true, although we should get that spandex shirt with the big S on it.  I did not point out that shorts that are headed for the laundry hamper (shown here) should not be stored neatly folded on top of shoes.  



 I was in a good mood about my Woman Eyes and could afford to be generous. 
Of course, at some future time, I could post about men and laundry hampers.  Apparently, they’re hard to see too.
Full disclosure: I did mention to a certain person (who is very handy, helpful and generally ‘a keeper’) that I would do a post on ‘Man Eyes’ and apparently, we’re still happily married.  And he kindly failed to mention that my “Woman Eyes” prevent me from seeing those trash cans and recycling boxes when they’re ready to be hauled to the curb. 
 
What about you? Any stories to tell?  Come on over. We’re all friends here. Nudge wink.

Some just like to be Needled

Okay, I got my flu shot because getting the flu totally sucks. One bout with it made me a believer of doing everything possible to never get it again.
But mostly I try to avoid taking pills when I’ve got a problem. I think it’s because there are so many side effects. Like when I take my killer pills to get rid of migraines they do that but then I feel like I’m in a total fog for days.
I used to get migraines a lot and got sick of taking the pills so I decided to try acupuncture. It worked!! I mean really worked. No migraines for six months.
I have a friend with a bad ankle after two botched surgeries that made her nearly ready for a wheelchair, she said no more and turned to acupuncture. It worked! She goes back every six months for a treatment but is walking just fine.
When I have a cold I take vitamin C and Echinacea and it really helps. I’m a firm believer of exercise and am going to take up yoga to keep my old body flexible.
Even Cleveland Clinic is getting into the alternative medicine game. Last year they opened a whole new wing devoted it. Fact is, I’m taking an adult-ed class on the subject where they bring in specialists each week to talk on such issues as chiropractic, herbalists, meditation and the like.

So for the next few weeks I’ll keep you up on what I learn and see if it works for you. Medication is often necessary but some of these alternative medicines go a long way in keeping us healthy.


So what about you? Are you into any alternative medicines? See a chiropractor? Take yoga? Have a sure-fired cure for a cold. Would not think of starting the day without meditating?  

Wonderful Autumn Escape

by Maggie Sefton

The view from my hotel window

This past Sunday evening I returned from a four-day writers' conference in St. Pete's Beach on Florida's beautiful west coast.  Novelists Inc or NINC is made up of multi-published authors from every publishing genre imaginable.  Mystery, Fantasy, Romance, Historical, Paranormal, Science Fiction and Young Adult.  And there are blends of all those genres as well.



As you can see from the photos I'm posting, there was plenty of temptation to escape the conference sessions and wander outside in the balmy low 80s weather.  But---all of us stayed to attend the very interesting sessions that were presented on all aspects of publishing in today's competitive marketplace.  Believe me, we learned something at every session.  There were representatives there of publishing houses as well as literary agencies and all the important retailers like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iBooks/iTunes.  And some new ones attended that are located mostly in Europe like Kobo.


Look at the beautiful colors in the Gulf of Mexico waters

The sessions were fascinating as well as providing a chance for writers to get together and socialize.  That is especially fun.  Most of us would escape outside to the many cafes and restaurants scattered around, and even drive off to favorite spots.  We've all built some long-lasting friendships at these conferences.  And, it was especially fun to see fellow Cozy Chick Lorraine Bartlett there with her husband
aka Mr. L.  

VINTAGE COOKBOOKS ARE FULL OF SURPRISES

By Mary Kennedy                     
                                          
While cleaning out a few boxes in the basement, I came across a treasure trove of vintage cookbooks. Many were gifts, some dating back to my grandmother's time. Have cookbooks changed over the years? Yes, big-time. Some of the covers are historical, check out the Gibson Girl hair-do!
                                                                               
 Some remind us that people loved to party back in the 50's and 60's when people had time to fix elaborate hors d'oeuvres...                                                              Some (incredibly!) recall a time when women cooked and men ate (and served as food critics.) Oh dear...                                                               Some churches and community groups wrote and published cookbooks as fund-raisers (and they still do.)                                                              Some cookbooks are handed down from generations ago. The plot in Dream a Little Scream, one of my Dream Club mysteries, includes a treasured family cookbook whose recipes might have been stolen by a celebrity chef.                                                               
      I got the idea from seeing an old family cookbook like this one...                                                                    Another interesting thing about these cookbooks is that they don't include any nutritional information and people weren't overly concerned with the amount of saturated fat, sugar or carbs in a recipe.  It was a simpler time and people were interested in whether a dish tasted good. If it was easy to prepare, that was a bonus!                                                               How about you? Do you have some favorite cookbooks from years gone by? Or a folder of treasured family recipes? It's fun to dig in and explore some of these tasty treats from years ago And don't forget the Cozy Chicks' cook book and tea party book. We selected our very best recipes for them.                                                                   Thanks for stopping by and I'd love to hear about some of your favorite recipes!  Mary Kennedy

ALI BLAKE AND THE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

By Mary Kennedy                                
 Hi ya'll, Ali Blake here from the Dream Club Mysteries. Summer is winding down in Savannah--although the weather is still beautiful--and we're trying out some new recipes at Oldies But Goodies.  Since my sister Taylor and I believe that "you can never have too much chocolate," I'm experimenting with a recipe for a chocolate mug cake. The customers seem to love it, and I might expand the idea to include other flavors. Somehow a nice mug of chocolate cake just hits the spot with a cup of hot tea (or a glass of iced sweet tea) or latte when you take a break from sight-seeing. If you want a tasty treat for your friends or family, here's the recipe. Ingredients:  2 Tablespoons Bisquick1 Tablespoon unsweetened baking cocoa1 Tablespoons white sugar2 Tablespoons milk1 teaspoon oil2 Tablespoons chocolate chips (you can use one Tablespoon of chocolate chips and one Tablespoon of white baking chips, or you can use Milk Chocolate Toffee Chips, if you prefer. You can't go wrong with any of these!)   Directions:  Mix the first five ingredients until combined and then add the chips.  Microwave on high for one minute. Let stand for a couple of minutes and sprinkle with powdered sugar, if you want. Delish!      Don't forget to plan a trip to Savannah, it's gorgeous in the Fall, or in any season!                                                                                                                                            Mary Kennedy                                                                                                                                            

Yum yum -- pot pies!

by Lorraine Bartlett / Lorna Barrett / L.L. Bartlett

I don't like winter. There--I said it. But the ONE good thing that comes in winter is hot COMFORT food. Is there any better comfort food than a wee pot pie? (Or even a BIG one?)


Mr. L LOVES pie. Fruit pies. Me? Not so much. I like meat pies. I make a pretty mean turkey pot pie after Thanksgiving, and have even started buying turkey parts other times of the year so that I can have them whenever I want. I also make a lot of chicken and leek pies. Yum-Yum. Perfect on a cold winter's night.

My aunt makes a really, REALLY good steak and mushroom pie, and when I was in England, every pub had some kind of meat pie on the menu and that's what I always chose.

Of course, the weather report for today is NOT for cold weather, so I'm going to wait a couple of weeks before I make one ... but it's giving me something to look forward to.

What's your favorite kind of meat (or other) pie?

Read, sleep, dream, repeat

By Mary Jane Maffini aka half of Victoria Abbott


 Around here, we’re a bit like Goldilocks:  two beds ago, we bought a firm mattress with a pillow top.  Somehow, this combination felt like sleeping on a bed of ping pong balls.  Not such a happy time for us and by the time we realized that we were not going to get used to the ping pong balls or even come to like them, it was too late.  We’ll call that the Papa Bear Bed.
Next time, we got a medium-firm bed with a cushiony top.  We must be slow to catch on, because it took a long time to acknowledge that we didn’t like this one either. It was actually way too soft. By then we were in the middle of a health crisis and a dramatic move and Mamma Bear’s too soft bed was the last thing we were worrying about.  We did buy a 'topper' to firm it up and give it a bit more support, but that only improved things a bit.
Mamma Bear can keep her bed
Then on our recent trip to Newfoundland, we had the best beds ever in four of our accommodations (We won't talk about the others.)  The accommodations were pleasant, but not palatial, but we loved the really firm mattresses.  Now we knew exactly what they were supposed to feel like. 
Back home again, we decided that at least one of us was spending up to a third of our life sleeping or napping in our bed (more if you count reading) in a bed that caused tossing and turning.  
So what if the other bed was still in good shape? It was making us miserable. It was time. After a fun filled shopping trip to exactly one mattress store, now we are the proud owners of a FIRM mattress that is very comfortable and made even more comfortable by the fact that it was in a half-price sale.  We found a willing taker for Mamma Bear’s bed and this time we learned that if we are not happy we can exchange the bed.  I’m not crazy about the idea of where those exchanged beds might go.  I don’t want to buy one!   But the whole thing is moot (as they say in the legal dramas) because we are in love with Baby Bear’s bed:  it’s just right. 
Of course, we are a bit worried that we may wake out of our fabulous sleep some morning and find three furry faces frowning at us and complaining about their porridge and broken chairs. But you know what?  It’s worth the risk!
We’ve both found ourselves going to bed just a bit earlier and giving up our crime drama Netflix binging because this bed just feels right.  
The lesson to us was to know what we want, shop wisely and make sure the terms are right. It took long enough, but we’re happy sleepers now. Like the cushion says, read, sleep, dream, repeat.

What about you? Soft bed? Medium?  Really firm?  Let’s make it a slumber party and chat. 
All tips for a good night's sleep are accepted with gratitude!

Terrified...or maybe kittens and rainbows instead

We are getting into the spooky time of year with Halloween right around the corner and to kick things off today is Stephen King’s B-Day.
When he was 10, he was at the local theater watching a matinee of Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, and the manager interrupted the film to announce that the Soviet Union had launched Sputnik. 
He says that for the first time, he saw a connection between the world of fantasy and current events and figured that the main purpose of horror was to form a liaison between our fantasy fears and our real fears. In my humble opinion he succeeded in spades. King scares the bajeebers out of me.  I like spooky things okay, hey I even got a cat names Spooky so that counts for something, but scared to death isn’t for me.  Maybe it’s because I live alone and having the wits scared out of me makes me not sleep for months.
I don’t even go to scary movies. Those chainsaw things make my hair stand on end and every time I hear a growling motor I think someone’s out to cut me up in little pieces!! What a mess! That’s another thing, scary movies are always messy. Who cleans that all up?

My first really scary movie was War of the Worlds. When those things landed in a pod, the pod screwed open and something crawled out I knew Earth was in for a bad time of it. I still see those creatures to this day and feel my skin crawl all over again.

There was this other movie called House on Haunted Hill with this really scary actor Vincent Price. After that I never had the urge to go in any haunted house…even those “fun” ones on Halloween ever again.
Psycho ruined showers for me forever and that TV show Criminal Minds really scares the poop out of me as it’s real people off their trolley doing horrible things for no reason. Gads!!

So what about you? Are you into this scary time of year? Read scary books? Watch scary movies? Can’t wait to get the crap scared out of you? Got a fave scary movie you watch over and over? You are a brave soul!

Movie Time--2

by Maggie Sefton



I wanted to post some more of the recent movies that I've seen recently in case some of
you folks are curious.  Most of them are still in the theatres.  Last Saturday, I saw "Sully" which was a dramatic and extremely effective re-telling of the incident where a U.S. Airways jet made an emergency landing in the Hudson River in New York City.  Tom Hanks plays the Captain of the passenger jet who managed to save everyone on board despite losing two engines within the first two minutes after takeoff from LaGuardia airport.  The passenger jet was still climbing and gaining altitude when a large---and I DO mean large flock of geese collided head-on with the airplane.  Right in front of the Captain and his very able co-pilot.  Captain "Sully" (short for his real name Sullenberger) has been flying passenger jets for over 40 years and had an impeccable flight record.  Tom Hanks gives a wonderfully restrained and affecting portrayal of this brave man who did not think he deserved to be called a hero.  Watching how all those events unfolded that day makes it abundantly clear that Sully was indeed a Hero.  Footnote:  Have any of you folks ever seen a goose up close and personal?   I have and have seen several in a gaggle.  One goose alone is good-sized.  Picturing a whole bunch of those large birds, wings spread wide in flight, hitting an engine at high speed makes it easy to understand how two entire jet engines could be totally destroyed.  This is definitely a movie to enjoy, everyone, unless---of course---you have a fear of flying.  :)


I enjoyed watching the movie "War Dogs," but remember----I love action and adventure.  This is a funny movie which is based entirely on a true story.  These two American men are always looking for ways to turn a large profit off some scheme.  These two guys have known each other since college, and have been walking that fine line between Legal and Illegal activities ever since they met.  Alas, they have never lacked for quasi-legal schemes to pursue which have always yielded a large profit.  Hence, they have made out pretty well.  That's how they found the opportunity to provide a shipment of handguns to a U.S. Army base inside Iraq.  Far enough inside Iraq to make it a dangerous place---even if you're not running guns.  This movie is funny (dark humor, folks) and definitely provides suspenseful moments.  All----true to life.


I'll finish off with "Ghostbusters."  This is an All-Girl version of the 70s blockbuster hit with Bill Murray where the team has to go to different locations and eliminate all the ghostly apparitions that are haunting the place.  I love the actresses here, especially Melissa McCarthy.  She is hilarious in every movie she's ever appeared, I think.  A very funny movie, folks.  And this is one you can take the whole family to.  Enjoy yourselves.  :)  

WHY I LOVE MY ONLINE FRIENDS

by Mary Kennedy                          
 I have friends I've never met (in person, that is) but they are dear, treasured people who are so important in my life.  What do I love about them? Let me count the ways. 1. They let me post as many cat pictures as I want and never seem to get tired of them (or they're too polite to say so!)                                                               2. They allow me to rhapsodize over places I've been, places I'd like to go back to, and my endless pining for Ft. Lauderdale and the ocean...                                                                                                                                                      ...and my love affair with Paris.  My son took this photo of the Eiffel Tower and I'm understandably proud of it...                                          3. We share a love of books...                                                             4. Especially mysteries...                   5. We love great food and cooking...                                                            6.  We love dogs... (this is Duncan, Fred Yoder's adorable pup, all decked out to withstand another Indiana winter)                                                             7  We share similar ideas on how to spend our time...   8. And of course, we have a sense of humor. Because after all, what would life be like without a few laughs now and then? I can't even imagine it! Here's a photo of a cat cooking, (something you don't see too often, and I'm sure the Board of Health wouldn't approve, but hey, it's a cute photo.)   How about you, do you have precious online friends who add so much joy to your life that you just can't imagine not having them? I bet you do! Mary Kennedy