C. (Comment, never msg).’s Comments (group member since Jan 30, 2014)

C. (Comment, never msg).’s comments from the Gentle SPECTRUMS group.

Happy ST. PATRICK'S DAY to all of my people!

I am taking my time putting together my well-wishing mail that needs to go out this month and all of it will be tardly. Nicer packages than just an envelope in the mail but I don't want friends and family doubting their special days are being honoured. So to our great conversationalist and high-volume fellow reader, whose special day was this week, I am leaving an internet greeting so she knows she is not forgotten. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you, all the way to Florida from us, Erin!

Louis Riel was an important figure in Canada. An biography I read of his Grandma only a few years ago, Marianne Lagimodiere, was extraordinary and explained where we got the names of many of my home city streets! She was considered the Mother of Manitoba. She was the first white woman settler, befriending and living right along with all the Metis women. Later, her Grandson (from her youngest child, Julie) would fight for Metis rights and hang for it. His home is minutes from where I grew up.

Only a few years ago, Canada chose him to make a statuatory holiday in February: today. In honour of one of my ancestors and someone who cared about equal rights two-hundred years ago: HAPPY LOUIS RIEL DAY!

I hope all of our members and their families had a wonderful St. Valentine's! I didn't date at an early age, so all through my teens, I either was relieved to think of Valentine's day as my close friend's birthday and also adopted the regard I maintain today. That it is a fun holiday to wish friends and family and not reserved for our romantic halves.

I couldn't get to so much mail lately but I like to send a card to my toddler niece and nephew in Toronto, my parents, and to my middle brother and his wife and kitty. That grey beauty, Lopez, has had serious health issues due to diabetes and is only 13 (cats can live twice as long) so I hope you wouldn't mind praying for him along with us.

On some occasions I've mailed those little school-size valentines to friends too. Either they get a smile out of it, or if they happen to be single, they are happy to be included in the holiday. And everyone loves mail! Ron & I exchange gifts like at Christmas and my birthday, except smaller-scale; which is a blessing because those two occasions are very far away. It is a relief to have celebrations I am a part of and treats to enjoy well before November rolls around for me again! Ron bought my fill at the latest charity used book sale and I allowed him to choose snacks and any useful items he wanted (like socks he needed). I told him he spent enough on those books but he surprised me with two chocolate hearts yesterday as well! Xoxoxoxo from me to you!

Thank you, Sue! You too! Gosh, so many to choose and read. If your house is well-stocked like ours, here to breezing through another good dent of it. I am glad to finally know you received and enjoyed my Christmas card. I have always loved knowing my mail lights people up, when it arrives on its travels. :)

I am happy to chat but this is my blog post where I will update the mystery books I read and review. I hope you visit, comment, and garner nice ideas! https://cmriedel.wordpress.com/2017/0...

Our Gentle Spectrums review page is finished and our RIEDEL Fascination year starts tomorrow! https://cmriedel.wordpress.com/gentle...

Each of these took a lot of work because I like my review pages to be clear and nicely decorated with pretty book covers. Those take a lot of thought and are never random. I choose a book cover that matches the alphabet span but also one I have read or am going to. I hope everyone peeks into our review pages to follow our entries, whether or not they are doing it themselves.

Our CELTIC COASTS second year's review page is ready too! https://cmriedel.wordpress.com/celtic...

All this page-making has been tremendous time and work. I hope people stream in to join us! (Yes, I always advertize at "A Novel Challenge". What we still need is GREAT word-of-mouth). I might take a break before tackling our "Gentle Spectrums" review page because it requires 11 linky buttons, not counting a "wrap up post" button, if you would like to have one. However we are in the home stretch and my blog's menu tabs are already set!

Our MY KIND OF MYSTERY review page is up for 2017! https://cmriedel.wordpress.com/mykind...

ETHEREAL'S review page is active! Who will be first to join? :) https://cmriedel.wordpress.com/ethere...

Now that our four 2016 groups are closing, I found a place to add comment boxes to the review pages; all of which did not have them! You may certainly leave a word there now and I think winding down is a key time for them to be available. Comments matter to me, so I can't wait to hear how you did with your reading! :) Wordpress must have made changes because comment boxes came with posts and pages automatically. Posts still seem to.

For the new pages, which are all up and running (yay!) there is an option for a different comment box style, while you are making them. Now that I know where to check-box comments on finished pages, I guess I could experiment with the four review pages I am working on and see if the standard Wordpress comment box is there automatically. I know where to correct it with a checkmark if it isn't. The reason I didn't spot them until now is because I happened to edit a post a different way, pressing "edit" at the bottom of the page. I edit through the post and page tab of my blog's dashboard. This is better at keeping formatting intact but the comment option doesn't appear.

Our fourth group is here! Welcome back, to MY KIND OF MYSTERY 2017! https://cmriedel.wordpress.com/mykind...

Review pages, with all those linky buttons, need time but everything is ready to read and to invite you to rejoin! Xoxo, Carolyn

It's here! Our sign-up page for this companion group's titular home! I give you: Gentle Spectrums 2017! https://cmriedel.wordpress.com/gentle...

Don't miss looking up. I wonder how many of you notice that all of our group information and brand new Gentle Subjects are renewed here too!

ETHEREAL 2017 is ready! https://cmriedel.wordpress.com/ethere...

These are the nuts and bolts. I need to create review pages and two more challenges, so that they are all properly referenced. Here is something you can look at. :)

CELTIC COASTS 2017 is open! http://cmriedel.wordpress.com/Celtic-...

There are no review pages yet and there are three reading group themes to go. However you can see the new logo and sign up for this one. Yay! Here is to a wonderful year!

It was higher time I wrote a general article and I enjoyed it. My subscribers who have nothing to do with book groups will appreciate it. I hope they are still tuned in to look! Anyone who has been getting to know me would like it, so come on by. It shows my infamous library outbuilding (yes, my unread books have their own building)! You see pretty McCartney (16), Conan (6), and Petal (6). There is a glimpse of my music collection and even our Christmas tree. https://cmriedel.wordpress.com/2017/0...

Honourable mention this month: the four kittens' small Mom turned 7 years-old on January 7! This was a case of gauging her age in concert with an elderly vet's observation, when she was 10 months old (and already a Mother). Pinpointing the right month, we gave her day 7 to match her four kittens' birthday, September 7. We have had Marigold since she was eight months old (a young age we did not dream), four days before the loves of our lives were born. Happy seventh year, Marigold! We love you!

I am going to post the 2017 sign-up / home posts for Celtic Coasts, Ethereal, My Kind Of Mystery, and Gentle Spectrums soon. We don't begin anew until February 1. I am sure most people are too frankly busy for website updating and reviews, until well into January like I home. Therefore even if you would like to run your reading along January to December lines, you have the relief of not needing to update the four groups with me until later. Even after February, I keep the linky buttons open. Why not, right?

I do know that most people browse for challenges in December and we hoped for many more participants this year but I am usually too busy November and December. What's more, changing from XP to windows 7 means the software I used for the logos is no longer functional for me. The update is that I did find something that will work!

This is after a two-week cold snap (suddenly it is above 0 C, which is UNHEARD of in January), several Christmas storms, and a recent power outage. I don't mind being without light but our well doesn't pump into our plumbing without electricity. That's right: six hours without running water. Before my daily bath! I was mighty pissed that day. I keep rainwater pails just in case and go figure, in the Canadian prairies of a January: it is frigging raining! I tell you, only WE know how to dress for all weather.

Please stay tuned for those fresh posts. Perhaps if each of you attracts some eager people, our membership will rise anyway. :) Yours Truly, Carolyn.

I have been busy November, over my birthday and over Jesus's. :) January finds me swirling with no less to do on all fronts: home, writing, and family. I assure readers of my genres and themes that my RIEDEL Fascination quartet: Celtic Coasts, Gentle Spectrums, Ethereal, and My Kind Of Mystery will definitely reprise this February 1st!

Further to being busy, I have a glitch of the kind only Bill Gates can answer for: the software I used last year to put text on those necessarily eye-catching logos, does not work since Ron & I switched to Windows 7! With slow-speed internet, searching out and grabbing some other software is no fast task. I will figure something out, after the crazy bout of housecleaning I need to finish today, including receipt-finding.

If you know which themes you would like to join without awaiting a logo, it is only a matter of e-mailing me. :) I regret this delay and wanted better advertising by propping up this year's shingle earlier. However you will all be very helpful advertisers with your your posts later. For now, please tell any paranormal, mystery, Celtic-lovers you know: Carolyn is hosting again this year and only needs an e-mail! :) The new address again is: RIEDELFascination{at}Gmail{dot}com.

Happy new year 2017 to all of my people! It means a lot that you are in this group, that you read my Wordpress blog in particular, and any reviews I write because I do it with heart. And those few who kept the four RIEDEL Fascination reading groups / "challenges" going this lean year: thank you! That made all the difference.

It seems the fresh quartet posts for next year will be on the late side again, in terms of when people browse (we, after all, run Feburary 1 to January 31). I have complete faith that those who reprise those groups will help me get the word out that you enjoy them. :) Of the two who e-mailed that they want to take part in our year-end draw: I will draw those soon! Today is a busy day so January 1 or 2 are more likely.

My car suddenly doesn't work, obliging Ron to work on it when he gets in from his parents'. I have a lot of housecleaning to do (which should produce Erin's postal receipt) and a little baking as well, if I get into a good groove. Then tonight, we watch brand new blu-ray gifts like "Pete's Dragon" and "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2".... and we dance! With love to all of you for a wonderful, safe, and peaceful 2017: Carolyn.

Well, December 27 was decent manners for middle brother! We needed to see their cat, dear Lopez of 13. We pampered him with a gift from our cats (toys played with by them, sending their scent). Met their kitten, Bella Angel. Mark always gives generous monetary gifts and seeing my sister-in-law was wonderful. Trying to ignore a raised fist picture of Donald Trump on his laptop background (we're Canadian?!), Jennifer & I kept the conversation happily on normal things. The CDs from my HMV exchange on the way there (two by Maroon 5!) and Ron piped in to explain to Mark why Sia Furler is awesome. Hehehe.

We arrived at my parents later than usual, my childhood home and it was very lovely. Dad had phoned me a couple of weeks earlier to smooth over an awful blow-up from a month earlier. I appreciated it because I have never heard anything so well-meant and thought-out. The easy, light visit was with them. Mom & Dad gave fantastic gifts. One was a disco-looking, faux red velvet-looking blazer that Mom urges my eyes to absorb! I said I was unsure, or indeed sure, it isn't my style but she thought I could get used to fashion I had not contemplated. She could be right, if she obtained it in a store recently! Let's see the reaction of folks the next time I am in public to wear it! :)

They loved the bag of peanuts and triple bags of cheezies for Dad, who dove into them right away and then asked Mom to help him stop. I do know his favourite snacks and these are healthy ones! He also likes "Still Me", the famous autobiography by Christopher Reeves. Mom got a soft lavender long-sleeved top, a trio of fuzzy lavendar socks, chocolate cherries, and "Life Is What You Make It" by Donnie Osmond, all of which she likes. Many great presents for Ron & I, especially a gorgeous new spring jacket, my first in years, which I'm surprised she got at this time of year. I'm glad I asked her. I could write a comedy article about ending up with one of the categories I please don't need any more of: salt / pepper / milk / sugar condiments, facecloths, hairbrushes, or clothing that is pink. I carry in my purse another brush. Oh well!

A really fun, satisfying part: my folks long ago invited me to choose any records I want. They are upright the skinny way, four shelves full. Over a year, I got as far as bringing a plastic storage bin and finishing the first shelf. This time: after visiting nicely and exchanging gifts, I took an hour in the basement to get it done. I ended up filling that bin with great selections! They include all the records from my childhood: Dolly Parton, children's symphony, Disney's haunted house sounds, the Mini Pops (I had at least two), the Smurfs. The most Canadian thing anyone can own: the family's "Bob & Doug MacKenzie Christmas album"! Look it up: their take of "The 12 Days Of Christmas" still airs today. Back me up, other Canadians: if you hear it you never forget it, right!? "And a beer.... in a tree"! Christmas is still going. Soft, traditional snow sprinkling as Ron makes a safe, daylight drive to his parents. I'm taking the cats outside because it is warm: only -4 C. New year's with one's son sounds wonderful.