Tag: Morning Meanderings

Good morning.  Can you smell the fresh brewed coffee?

MMMMMMMMMM

Take a moment and smell it. 

Mmmmmmmmm……

Yesterday afternoon I came home with a plan.  My hubby on Monday evening was scrounging around the house for something sweet.  Cake is actually what he was craving.  Cake.  We never have cake in the house but apparently he had been watching some tv show that had cake and now he too wanted cake.  All I had in the cupboards was a brownie mix, but no eggs in the frig as I forgot them when I went shopping.  Disgruntled… sweet tooth unsatisfied he went to bed.

So on Tuesday I came home from work armed with the missing eggs, a lemon cake mix and cream cheese frosting.  I also picked up a couple of steaks and shrimp (shrimp was on sale – woo hoo!!!) for dinner.  I was planning a special dinner since I was gone in New York all last week.  So I came home and I baked not only the cake, but the brownies.  I doctored up my steaks – tossed the shrimp on top and put them in to broil, feeling a lot like Betty Crocker as I never put this much effort into cooking.

Yay, I thought…. me time!  I text Al (hubby) to let him know when dinner would be ready, and grabbed Laptop and got comfy in the recliner in the reading room.  I was going to catch up on emails before dinner.  That is when Bailey (see exhibit A) decided he would like to go out.  Ok.  Out of the recliner I get, Laptop carefully to the side and let Bailey out.  I see it looks like he is going to stay outside awhile so I get cozy in the recliner again, and just get emails opened when…. Bailey wants in.

Of course he does.

Laptop carefully to side…. out of the recliner, let Bailey in and then back to the recliner wondering if I still have any time before dinner.  I think I do…

Then comes Elmo… he looks at me.  He wants to go outside.  (See Exhibit B)

Now, I can not deny Elmo anything.  Elmo is my dog.  We have had him since 1997.  He grew up with our boys, has been lost (and found) three times in his life, hit by a car 2 years ago and dragged (gah – awful story) and has just been through the ringer.  He is blind in one eye, has loss of hearing, and the early stages of dementia.  Needless to say – I get up and let Elmo out.

Ten minutes later, I get up and let Elmo in.

Some days…. I think I am the pet.  😛

Ok off to work.. later I return to kickboxing class where I have been MIA for three weeks now and am probably going to be hurting in the morning.  Oh well…. it’s all good for me.  😀

Have a lovely LOVELY day everyone!

Good morning!

Wow.  This morning is a BIG dose of normalcy here.

AND uh huh…. I like it.  😛

It has been over a week since I have sat down at my kitchen table in the morning having  a cup of coffee and tapping at my keyboard a message out to the blogosphere. 

It is GOOD to be home.

Brainerd Minnesota…. is quite the opposite of New York. 

I love taking my time in the morning with my coffee.  I love looking our my window and seeing blue skies and a yard that has been a part of my life since I was 3 years old. 

I love my deck… and that it is finally time to sit on it and read – my absolute favorite place to read!  😀

No rushing in the early hours, fast walking down busy New York sidewalks, crowds of people everywhere, the smell of donuts on one corner, hot pretzels on the next, and something greasy and fried on the next.

(I had some  really good food in New York and I had some really bad food in New York.) 

Anyway…. I drift.

I am off to work here shortly and even that feels good and normal.  I am hopeful the day turns out to be a nice one so I can ride my bike this afternoon…. (it has been 2+ weeks since I have worked out and I feel a bit sluggish…..)  I have kickboxing and group power on Wednesday and I am soooo looking forward to getting back at it.)

Ok… so this post really was just a ramble and gushing of how good it is to be home… putting images of Dorothy clicking her red (totally outdated) pumps together saying, “there is no place like home…. there is no place like home”. 

Oh… it is good to be home. (I should be over this melancholy by tomorrow…. really)  😛

Good Morning!  😀

I am here at my kitchen table…. safely back in Brainerd Minnesota with a hot cut of TEA,

WHA?

Yes… tea.  I have had a sore throat for the last couple of days.  No reason why…. I don’t recall any yelling while I was in New York… however I did talk a lot.  😉  Another reason for the tea is… uh… the DeChantal home seems to be out of coffee.  I know, perish the thought but there it is.  A trip to the grocery store today is in the planning. 

After an amazing week in New York with Reagan (Miss Remmers Reviews), chatting it up with authors, publishers, bloggers, and occasionally… the perfect stranger, there comes a time when all good things must end.  Thoroughly exhausted we caught our plane on Saturday morning at 5:45 am and between the two flights we were back in Minnesota by 10:00 am.  I then drove home and between traffic and a lunch stop landed on my door step a little after 1:00 p.m.  and promptly took a nap until 4:30 pm.  SO TIRED.

Through out this past week I gave a couple hints as to things I was doing and people I was seeing.  I plan to write posts this week of the events in more detail and I hope you enjoy them as I would love for you to feel like you were there.  I did get a little reading done, not much but on the plane I made a dent so I do have 2 reviews to write and hopefully a couple more very soon after.

Here are a few of the highlights of the week:

*  Dinner with Beth Hoffman, author of Cee Cee Honeycutt)

*  Seeing the Harry Potter Exhibit

*  Catching up with Sandra Brannan, author of In The Belly of Jonah (there are hints of this becoming a movie!)

* The walking tour of Greenwich Village and lunch after with author Adriana Trigiani

* Meeting Harlan Coben (oh…. he is my favorite mystery author!) 

* Chatting it up with Sarah Pekkanen (author of Skipping A Beat)

* Meeting a couple of my fall tour authors…)

Going to the Broadway showing of Mary Poppins (I believe I will write my first play review!)

Anyway – I could go on and on between the awesome bloggers who I chat with here and ,meeting them in person to the food experiences (yup – there will be pictures)…

I will share it all with you!  😀  There are a couple of books coming out that were super exciting to get early – and that will be shared with you here as well as a copy may be showing up at my Blogiversary Party on June 9, so make a note to be here for that!

Anyway…. I need to get ready here.  It is wonderful to be home and cant wait to catch up with all of you!  😀

Good Morning!  😀

Hoping everyone is well….I am having a BLAST!

I do not have a lot of time… we are leaving in about a half hour for the Javitz, last day of the Book Expo part of this trip.  Tomorrow is the book blogger convention.  We have until 10:30 today before we grab a taxi and go meet up with Adriana Trigiani for our tour of Greenwich Village and lunch.  How crazy is that?

The weather has been beautiful!  Our first day here it rained (Monday) and we had heard that was pretty much the norm so far this year but Tuesday and Wednesday have been gorgeous and today is supposed to be in the mid 70’s.

Highlights have been:

• Meeting Harlan Coben (I really enjoy his books)
• Going to the Harry Potter Exhibit – and sorted by the sorting hat!!!!!!  (SQQQQUUUUEEEE!!!!!!! Oh and I am….. GRYFINDOR!!!!)
• chatting it up with blogger friends – old and new!

Tonight we have a couple of blogger/Publisher events that we hope (HOPE!) to spend time at both.  It will be another busy day but we did not have a super early one this morning which helps so much. 

On another completely random (but fun!) note… Linda White from the Minneapolis Books Examiner wrote up an article about my blogging path.  She would love it (and I would too :D) if you would pop over and comment on this article. 

Good morning.  Dreary and dark this morning in Central Minnesota as I sit at my kitchen table COFFEE CUP in hand.  I have about 9 hours before I head to the cities. 

I know most of you know that I am going to New York for BEA this week…. second year attending and UBER excited.  See my crazy schedule here 😛

I am half packed,still need to pick up some shipping tape (for books coming home), an IPOD car adapter (so I can listen to my books on it during drive time), and a NOOK charger as for the life of me I can not find it (I have a vague recollection about this in the back of my memory that it is a cord that I already have but I need to do something to it to make it work in the NOOK.)  Of course this also tells you how little I have used this reader.  😳

Looking at the weather now for New York… it looks like rain at least the early part of the week….  maybe I should add umbrella to my list of things to bring (would you believe I have never owned one? )  I may need to change that today. 

Really though that is it …. I have posts yet for today and plan to blog all through the BEA experience, and I am a little concerned about traveling with LAPTOP as this is the same one that died a while back, came back to life, died again…. and then suddenly just started working again.  I am really hoping the trip isn’t too much for him because I don’t think I would make it a week without my laptop… 😛

Stop by and check out the What Are You Reading post later tonight, it will be light of course, but I will be going NOOK, not book, for the first time ever.  😯

**Oh and I am still taking votes on which real book to take with me (I am only taking ONE).  Currently the Berg book is ahead, I will announce on the post tonight which one won the vote.

Have an awesome Sunday!

Good morning!  😀

This past Monday on the Monday What Are You reading Meme, Sarah from Puss Reboots mentioned she was having coffee and Manga in the morning.  I don’t know why , but that sounded as good as my morning oatmeal…. maybe even better.

Never one to back down from a personal challenge, I thought maybe this is about the time that I should try Manga.  I have never read it…. honestly… I was not even 100% sure what it was.  😯

So… Tuesday afternoon I made my way to my local library and back to the graphic novel section.  I stood in front of these books feeling incredibly out of place.  Honestly… I was not even sure what I was looking for.  I picked up random titles and thumbed through them…. a couple teenagers passed by me slowly but I continued to pretend I knew what I was doing. 

Were all graphic novels manga? 

Then I seen on a couple books where it actually said Manga! I picked them up and flipped through them…. they looked much like the other graphic novels except I found out a lot about Manga really fast in the front of one of the books:

1.  Manga is (are?) Japanese books written in an almost cartoon or graphic style format.

2.  Manga reads right to left, the opposite of the way that we all learned to read..

3.  You start at the back of the book and read forward.

Wow…. a literary workout.

SO…. in honor of my Manga attempt, I am having Manga for breakfast this morning.  COFFEE CUP is at hand and a dose of Manga to start my day…

I will let you know soon how I felt about Manga.  Will it become a breakfast staple?  An occasional treat?  Or will I find it not to my liking? 

Have you read any Manga?  If so, what was it and did you like it? 

Good morning.  😛

Sun is shining!

Coffee is GOOD.

Here are a few things to know about me. 

I was born and raised in Brainerd Minnesota.

It’s a nice place to live.

I can’t stand the movie Fargo.

If you are unfamiliar with the movie Fargo…. know that they refer to Brainerd Minnesota A LOT.  And they give us that accent in the movie clip above and make us look pretty simple-minded. 

I have never to my knowledge said, “oh Yeaaahhhh”.

I have never said “You betcha.”

Ok… Ok…

I may have said “You Betcha”, but only in jest….

However…. when I seen yesterdays Police Blotter (which they post daily and can make for some fine entertainment….) I had to wonder a little about my home town:  (Yes the following are actual calls to the Brainerd Police Department).

1.  8:40 pm on Saturday:  A call was received regarding a large fire in the area of Whipple Beach on the 1000 block of Oakwood Drive.  An officer advised the called that it was the sunset.

2.  Police received a report that someone struck a residence on Pleasant Avenue with a toilet plunger and damaged the door bell.

Yup.  You betcha.  (Again – I am saying it in jest).

Perhaps I should move….

I am curious, does every town post the police calls for all to see?  I mean, yeah they can be entertaining….. but curious about that. 

Have an awesome day!