Guess who's birthday?

Guess who's birthday it is today?

Yep - Agatha Christie's!!

Now, as SG so rightly pointed out, the Queen of Crime is probably not celebrating too much so it falls to the rest of us to do it for her. And one of the places I found is a "How Well Do You Know Agatha Christie" quiz. I only got 8 out of 11. I had to guess at the number of cups of tea she drank.

Apparently, she's such a prolific writer that she'll still be publishing a couple new stories after she's dead. (More details here and here.) Can you believe she did all that in longhand and on a manual typewriter? She must have had wrists of steel. Or a secretary. With wrists of steel.

I read my first Agatha Christie story many moons ago when I had run out of things to do while babysitting on a goat farm (I wasn't baby sitting the goats, mind you. It was a different sort of kid.) I pulled And Then There Were None off the shelf and we've been the best of friends ever since. I thought I had every story she'd had published but now I see I'll have a couple new ones to add to the collection.

In the meantime, it's actually Agatha Christie WEEK, so dig out a classic and celebrate with a little murder and mayhem!

9:09:09 9/9/09

Did you miss it? That big historic moment yesterday when the clock clicked over to 9:09:09, September 9,2009?

Yep. Me too.

September 8, 2009

I was accused a few days ago of being a little over eager about today.

I don't think so!!!

Must be love

I read a saying by a child the other day that went,

"You know it's love when you say you like their shirt and they wear it every day."

I was following a discussion today about an industry issue (one relevant to my industry) and I must confess it made me a little - no, make that a lot - frustrated. And by the time I went out to the kitchen to make supper, I was a little riled. Can you be frosted and steamed all at the same time? My poor hubby, that I hadn't really talked with all day, stepped right into the line of fire with a possibly innocent question and then just stood back as I went off. At least I wasn't waving a knife.

I spouted and spewed and generally behaved like a shrew and he just watched.

Then he decided to talk about baseball.

So on that note, here's a link to some great baseball commercials by the Mariners. (Yes, I know, but it's the only sports channel we get and I'm starting to like them.)

I highly recommend the one called "Sorry."

Now I've got to see if I can find a shirt he likes ...

The Butterfly Circus

This short film is 20 minutes long and well worth every second of your time:

Slipping a gear

Ever have one of those days?

I spend Sunday and Monday driving someone else's car. It was a fun little car and had lots of oomph on the hills of the interstate of our area. Even with the air conditioning on.

Our van doesn't like working as hard when the air conditioning is on. It thinks a little more about the hills and generally acts as lazy as the heat around here makes me feel.

I should mention too, that our vehicle (the brand, not just the one we're driving) had a history of dropping transmissions at pretty predictable times. So when the engine starts straining just a little, I do tend to wonder if this is "the big one" - has the tranny given up the ghost and I'll end up staring at the under side of my van on a hoist somewhere? It happened to us once in St. Regis, Montana. I don't recommend an extended stay in St. Regis, Montana, by the way. Or Fargo, North Dakota. Although that was discs, not the transmission.

But back to today - I left home to run down to the library for some more summer stories. And couldn't help but notice that the engine was revving a little high. I mean, we should have been driving about 120 mph according to the tachometer. But we definitely weren't. (Really, honey.) And then on the first big hill it got worse.

"Oh, no." (Visions of shop cars started dancing in my head.) "This is not a good week for this!"

Turns out I'd left the parking brake on.

Read the fine print

Yesterday I received one of those forwards that occasionally do the rounds. It was from a wonderful friend and I loved the sentiment of it. It began...

"You have been considered one of the 10 prettiest ladies with a kind, warm and loving heart."

Aw, shucks. Me? Really? Gee, thanks. (small blush)

Then I'm supposed to "hit" 10 more women with the message and wait to see if it makes it back to me. But in the midst of all the flattery and prettiness, came this warning:

"If you fail to forward this, you'll have ugliness for 10 years."

What!? What kind of threat is that? 10 years? Do you suppose I could negotiate 1 year off the sentence for each friend I send it to? Ten years, after all, is a long time to deal with ugliness. I mean, come on, I'm living in America, and even 10 weeks of ugliness around the proposed health care reform is too much. There's a saying - "Beauty is only skin deep but ugly goes all the way through." - and I don't know if I would be able to see the light at the end of a 10 year tunnel.

So for the moment, I won't be forwarding this message. After all, I hope you know you're beautiful already. I certainly think you are. But if a message with a pink insect suddenly shows up in your inbox, you'll know I had a bad hair day and I'm hedging my bets.