The Best Laid Plans...

Whew!

This has been a very busy few weeks. First, the writerly news. I map out the work on my books ahead of time, estimating the word count I need to produce each day to meet my deadlines. I'm currently working on A COLDWATER WARM HEARTS CHRISTMAS, which will be out in October 2018. 

I know it seems like a long time from now, but the wheels of publishing grind slowly. Once I turn the manuscript in to my editor, who has a deft hand with my stories, I can expect to see it back again for revisions a few weeks later. Then it'll be off to the copy editor for grammar, spelling and fact checks. Once the CE has made his or her suggestions, it comes back to me again so I can accept or reject the changes. In the meantime, Kensington, my lovely publisher, is working diligently on yet another gorgeous cover for this series and planning the best way to market it to the reading public. All in all, with everything that needs doing, the 2018 release will be here before you know it and I need to stick to my carefully crafted writing plan. 

But sometimes, life intervenes in writing schedules. 

My dear sister Jenn, who lives in Corpus Christi, had surgery a couple of weeks ago and suffered some complications. My parents, who are 82 & 80 spry years young, were so wanting to be with her but it's a two day drive from our town here in the Ozarks. And as my dad put it, "I'd drive 100 miles out of my way to avoid driving through Houston."

So my DH and I loaded up the pick-up and camper and took my parents down to Corpus Christi so we could all pitch in and help while Jenn recovered. 

It was so good to be with Jenn and her little family. She and her hubby have one grown daughter (who lives in the same town we do!), and still at home they have a teen-aged son, a son and daughter in first grade and four (count 'em!) foster kids aged 9 months to 7 years. 

Needless to say, not a lot of writing happened in Texas. 

But that's okay. As I said, life intervenes.

And sometimes sadly, death does, too. 

While we were in Texas, two of our tenants died unexpectedly. Though there was no evidence of foul play or suicide (it was drug use and a heart attack), we were so very saddened. Years ago, when we made plans to fund our retirement by providing nice rental homes for people to live in, we never thought about them dying in them, too. 

Especially since our tenants were young--27 in one case and early 40's in the other. And since neither of them had a will, we are trying to follow the letter of the law to make sure the rights of their legal heirs are protected until the estates can be probated. 

You'd be amazed how many people come out of the woodwork claiming the deceased had something of theirs or promised them something verbally. We were inundated with calls the first few days. And some not very nice texts, but the last thing the police said to us was not to let anyone take anything from the properties without a court order. We have to walk a fine line between being sensitive to the grieving and making sure we follow the law. 

Think we're in for a steep learning curve. 

Anyway, this sad development has caused another change in plans as well. I won't be going to the RWA conference in Orlando next week. My husband needs to stay close to home so he can be available to deal with the courts and grieving family members. And because my pesky lung condition (see my SecondWind blog if you want to know more about that) makes it difficult to travel without my DH, AKA my faithful "sherpa," to help me haul all the medical equipment I need to keep going, I won't be going to Florida either.

So here's the take-away from all this turmoil:

1. Don't do drugs. It may be the last thing you do.
2. Choose your emergency contact person wisely. This may well be the person who will be in charge of your things if you pass away without a will.   
3. Make a will. No matter what your age. Your family and friends will thank you for it and you'll have peace of mind knowing you spared them needless anxiety.
4. Be willing to surrender your plans. This is a toughie. I tend to want what I want, but sometimes, things just won't let us go forward with our original plan. That's when we need to take a break and realize every day is a gift. The opportunity that "now" presents to us is enough. 

So how about you? Have you ever had unexpected things change your plans? Come on, I know you have. Share! 

Good Daddies

Today is Father's Day and I want to give a shout out to my Dad. He's been a rock of love and support all through my life and. true to his prediction, the older I get the smarter he gets. I'm so blessed to have him in my life. See you later today for a cookout, Dad!

But I'd also like to share a bit about the other father in my life, namely the father of my children. When our oldest daughter was not quite two, we were in the middle of one of our many moves and had gone out for a quick lunch as a break from packing. At the next table, a new baby was very unhappy and wouldn't stop crying. Finally, the child's young father picked him up and started walking around the restaurant with the wailing infant. The baby quieted quickly as he patted his back and spoke softly to him.

"Look at that good daddy right there," I said.

Our daughter shot me a look of indignation and pointed to my DH. "Good daddy right here!"

She was right. My DH is the best of fathers and I'm grateful for the love he shows our kids every day. Even though they're both grown now, they know the good daddy is still right here.

A Blast from my Past

from Lexi Eddings...

A couple of weeks ago we made a trip to northern Iowa to celebrate my sister-in-law's 30th anniversary of her ordination. It was like a mini-reunion for my DH's side of the family. He got to see 4 of his 7 siblings, and lots of nieces and nephews and their assorted children. There were four generations of my S-I-L's family in attendance, her kids, their kids & their kid's kids. Keeping track of who went with whom was a task of Herculean proportions.

You couldn't tell the players without a program. 

But it was fun to see them all, some for the very first time.

I know you're not supposed to have favorites but I couldn't help being impressed by my great-nephew Ben. He's an active, fun-loving sixteen year old from California. 

Not only is he a dog magnet--that's my grand-dog Tiny Lu in the little carrier--but all his younger cousins adored him. They followed him like a flock of imprinted ducklings, down to the park, to the pool, anywhere Ben went was the cool place to be. 

And he seemed to love hanging out with them too, which was oh, so wonderful for those younger kids. 

He reminded me of my dear Uncle Rick, whom we lost to cancer a few years ago. Rick was seven years older than me, so when I was a kid, he was the epitome of cool. An Eagle scout, a football player, he even had the lead in his high school musical, in my eyes, Uncle Rick could do no wrong. 

Like Ben, he never seemed to mind having his little nieces clinging to him. He took us to the movies, the park, the corner grocery for treats. Even when his friends--who also seemed incredibly cool to us--were around, he never made us feel we were a bother.  

My sister Cindy and I used to love to wake him early in the morning by pulling off his socks and tickling his feet. One morning he was ready for us. He had put on six pairs the night before. We had a dickens of a time getting them off while he lay there playing possum and trying not to laugh. 

Uncle Rick was the best. 

I'm so glad his spirit of tolerance and good fun toward his "youngers" lives on in my great-nephew Ben. 

    

OMGosh! We did it!

from Lexi Eddings...

You cannot eat your cake and have it.

So the cautious wise ones wail.

But I shall eat mine willy-nilly--

Otherwise it might get stale.

~The Cheerful Cherub, Rebecca McCann

I am addicted to travel. Have been since I was kid, when I camped with my family all over the western US. A few years later, I was extremely lucky in my choice of husbands. The DH went into travel IT and worked for several different airlines. Using his flight benefits, we took our kids on trips we never could have afforded otherwise. 

Then my sister, a travel agent, took me with her to Nassau on a "familiarization trip" and I was hooked on cruising. I'm in love with the romance of ocean travel, the sense of wonder when stars wheel overhead, and the fantasy that I'm actually minor royalty but only the ship's crew seems to know it. When a deck is rocking beneath my feet, all's right with my world. 

Over the years, the DH & I have taken a number of cruises on several different lines--Carnival, Costa, Princess, Holland America, Norwegian, and even the now defunct American Hawaiian, and Dolphin Cruise lines. Not all cruise ships are created equal, of course, but we found reasons to enjoy all of them.  

For a while now, I've been dreaming of taking a cruise around the world--a grand voyage that balanced bucket list destinations with the luxury of long, lazy sea days. At first I dismissed it as a pipe dream, but over the last five years or so, it started to seem a bit more real. I started talking to my DH about it. He was skeptical that we could do it, but he humored me by not saying absolutely no. 

I took that as encouragement.

Then when he retired in 2015, I started thinking about it in earnest, haunting the Cruise Critic message boards and lurking on travel blogs of other world cruisers.   

I compared itineraries, the culture of the lines, and, of course, the price. Some were so far beyond the realm of possibility for us, I dismissed them out of hand. But a few looked doable. 

Maybe. 

In a few years.

I set 2021 as my target. By then, I reasoned, we just might be able to swing it. In the meantime, I continued to monitor info about world cruises. I learned we'd likely have to book the cruise 18 months in advance because they tend to sell out. (Blame it on the Boomers!) I also watched for changes in itinerary. They don't go to the same places each year.

And I was told that world cruise fares were seldom discounted at the last minute, like other cruises sometimes are. 

But hope springs eternal, and last week (on our anniversary of all things!) I saw that Princess's 2018 World Cruise fares had been quietly slashed. I mean, SLASHED! And if we opted for 94 days (LA to Ft. Lauderdale) instead of 111 (LA to LA), the savings was enough that all of a sudden, it made sense to go sooner rather than later. 

We aren't waiting till 2021 to eat our cake. On Jan. 22, 2018, we'll board the Pacific Princess in Los Angeles for the trip of a lifetime!  

Here's our itinerary. We especially wanted to visit New Zealand (yeah, we're Lord of the Rings fans!) and Australia and the Pacific Princess makes 8 stops between those 2 countries. The ports of call in the Med are also a huge draw for me. 

So now, we have 239 days till we board the Pacific Princess. There's a ton of things to do before we go (not the least of which is finishing A COLDWATER WARM HEARTS CHRISTMAS, my holiday-themed novel for Kensington Publishing!) We have to get visas, arrange for an extension on our 2017 taxes, figure out how to pack for such a long trip, set up ways to pay our bills from sea, look into vaccinations required, make sure we have enough of our prescription meds (I may need an extra suitcase for that!), decide what shore excursions we want to take, book pre-cruise air travel and hotel...the list goes ever, ever on!

Oh! And pay our fare in full by September 24th.  

If you enjoy armchair travel like I do, I invite you to hop in my pocket and go with me on this trip. If you sign up to follow by email in the right hand column above, you'll receive my posts in your inbox. Until we embark, I'll keep you up to speed on our planning and share our adventures once we board next January. 

Of course, I'm blogging about it because I'm excited and can't believe it's real yet, but I'm also doing it because I want to encourage YOU. If you have a dream, no matter what it is, no matter how undoable it may seem, keep thinking about it. Keep talking about it. Speak that dream into existence. 

I'm rooting for you!

Art in the Ozarks

from Lexi Eddings...

Yesterday, the DH and I loaded up the camper and headed for Blowing Spring Park in Bella Vista, AR. It's a lovely part of the world, heavily treed hills and rollicking streams. Think we've arrived before the mosquito season begins in earnest. And it's near Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, which we visited today. 

I promised you pictures so this blog is going to be more of a "plog" than usual. I didn't know what to expect when we first arrived. I'd heard the architecture was as much art as the collection it houses, but I sure wasn't anticipating seeing a gigantic spider first thing!

Then I noticed the title of the piece--"Maman." That's French for "mother." Wow. Someone's got mommy issues, I thought. Then I read the artist's explanation:

Ok, I decided. Perspective is everything. I made a judgment based on my own fear of anything with more than four legs. Trust art to make me rethink my assumptions and try new ideas on for size!

This blown glass piece by Seattle artist Chihuly is in the process of being installed, It's only about half reassembled. Can you imagine the packing that went into sending this piece across country? The hundreds of boxes holding the individual shards and how many hours it will take to put them back together? 

Surprisingly enough, I was allowed to take photos inside this museum as long as I turned the flash off on my camera. I didn't know that in time to take pics of the Georgia O'Keefe paintings or the portrait of George Washington with such a pained expression on his face my own teeth hurt, but I was able to capture my favorite of the day: The Reader by Mary Cassatt. She looks so cozy, and so engaged in what she's reading, all snoodled up with pillows and not a care in the world! 

This was my DH's favorite piece. He says he can almost smell the sea air and feel the salt spray! 

Outside the museum, there is a lovely, mostly level asphalt path leading to a number of art pieces set up in the forest! 

These colorful glass globes were floating in a lagoon. Chihuly says they were a big challenge to create because while a sphere is the easiest form for a glass artist to create, it's not so easy on this scale. 

 

What's American art without the quintessential American hero--a cowboy?

And you can't very well go to Arkansas without running into a razorback! 

I'm going to leave you with a snippet from my DH's journal about his take on one of the pieces we saw: 

"One of the Modern Art exhibits that I was fascinated by is in this picture.  I've always been fascinated by perception, and how experience or bias changes the way people see a situation, or how it affects their "world view" as Francis Schaeffer puts it.  

This piece gives a visual representation of that concept.

The way the glass changes the line of the architecture, affecting how we see that straight line.  The color changes light affecting our perception of the water, and the view.  This is a perfect example of how our background and or the way we think changes how we see the physical and emotional world around us.  I need to remember this when trying to deal with other people, and trying to understand why they don't see things the way I see them. 

Amen to that. 

PS. This amazing museum was built by the Walton family--the folks behind Walmart. It is free to the public and so worth the trip! What a beautiful and generous use of wealth! Really makes me want to support my local Walmart store next time I need something. 

More Turtle Travel

from Lexi Eddings...

The camper weathered the recent flood unscathed!

Our neighbors weren't happy about us having it parked by our garage (even though it could not be seen from their property!) so, in the interest of peace, we rented a fenced, off site spot to park it. At the time, I stewed about the injustice of it. I loved having the camper close by so I could store a few things in it and use the fridge as an extra place to keep colas and bottled water.  But as it turned out, it was a blessing that the camper was someplace higher and drier when the flood waters came.

Which just goes to show that "all things do work together for good," even when we're sometimes sure they don't.  I'm feeling very blessed and very grateful.

So now we're planning our next little ziptrip! Next week, we're heading for Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. It's the museum Walmart built near Bentonville, Arkansas. From the website, it looks like it's surrounded by a lovely forest and the Ozark hills. (The locals call them mountains, but I've lived near the Rockies, the Big Horns, the Wasatch and the Cascades. The bumps around here are hills.) We're looking forward to a quick getaway in our tiny house.

With any luck, I'll have typed THE END on my current Work-In-Progress by then and this can be a real vaca. I promise lots of pics!

Shirley Evans Said It Best

from Lexi Eddings...

A Coldwater Warm Hearts Wedding starts with a quote from Shirley Evans, who's just learned she has breast cancer:

Trouble makes us stronger, they say. It brings out the best in us and shows what we're really made of. But don't you just hate it when blessings come in disguise?

A disguised blessing came to the Ozarks last week. Our little town was drenched with 13 1/2 inches of rain in less than 24 hours. Previous flood records were blown away. (See my previous post for pics taken from our house that'll make your hair stand on end!) People who'd been assured their properties were not in a flood plain found themselves with five feet of water in the second story of their homes. The highways leading into and out of town were shut down. Gas stations ran out of fuel. Grocery store shelves started looking a little thin. Now, even a week out from the worst of it, I'm having trouble refilling a prescription.

But there is a silver lining behind this storm. Despite the damage done, no one died in our part of the Ozarks. And even during the worst of the storm, our community came together. First responders were out risking their lives to do water rescues. Three of our friends spent a terrifying night on the roof of their home near the river before they were saved by emergency crews in a boat. Once the rain stopped, county linemen were in our neighborhood, retrieving an electrical box that had been torn from its foundation by the rushing water. Power was restored promptly. Neighbor began helping neighbor with clean up. Our church has opened its doors as an emergency shelter for those whose homes have become uninhabitable or lost entirely. Work crews are being organized and supplies distributed to those who are in need.

We lived on the edge of Boston during the nightmare of the 2013 Marathon bombing. The city pulled together. We sheltered in place while our law enforcement did their jobs and brought the perpetrators to justice. Lives were lost or changed forever. A beautiful young couple in our neighborhood both lost limbs, but the community rallied around them. We were Boston Strong.

Now we're feeling Ozark Strong. Our little town has had, to borrow from Tolkien, a chance to show its quality. And it's pretty darn good.

Have you ever lived through a "blessing in disguise" that made you stronger? Wiser? More tenderhearted?

 

How High's the Water, Mama?

We had several days of rain this week. Water was already running rather charmingly down the drainage ditch at the north edge of our side yard. It meandered through the green common area in the middle of our big oval neighborhood pretty as a postcard. It was almost like having water front property.

I'm over it.

Last night just before sundown, the heavens opened and we were hit with blinding rain. First water puddled in the usual low spots and we had an inch deep pond in the side yard nearest the ditch. 

No worries. It was a long way from the house.

Then fifteen minutes later, I started to take the dogs out the back door.

   

Bad idea. Based on where the water has reached on our steps, it's about 2 feet deep.

I usually love the view of the pasture behind our house. Not so much now. Our wrought iron fire pit floated away.

The view out the front doesn't inspire confidence. The water is running very swiftly. The concrete abutment you see peeping over the flood designates where the usually empty drainage ditch comes out after it goes under the road. Notice how high the water is on the mailbox pole.

No joy for Charlie and Mack out the front door either. Keep your eye on the storage shed across the street. It's already broken through some fences and is in the wrong yard. 

Normally, you'd see our driveway and the walk leading up to our front door out this window.

Wait a minute! Where's that shed off to?

Wherever it is, I hope the shed didn't hit someone's house.

Remember how high the water was on the mailbox a few minutes ago?

This is the view out our side yard. The water lapped up past the two bottom slats of siding on our garage. 

Night fell. Then to make it all extra fun, we lost power.

I'm not a dyed-in-the-wool prepper, but I have taken some precautions. We know where our flashlights are and have extra batteries. We have about 50 gallons of bottled water on hand. I keep a well-stocked pantry. We have go-bags packed in case someone floats by in a canoe and wants to pick us up.  

Best of all, we bought flood insurance on March 15th.

Believe it or not, when we bought this house in 2003, we were assured by the city that it was NOT in a flood plain. So we weren't required to have flood insurance by our lender. We've had a few scary moments over the years, so we have tried to buy insurance on our own, but were told we couldn't because we weren't in an official flood plain. Still, each time an impromptu pond appeared on our property, my DH would go down to city hall with pictures and ask, "Are you sure?"

Fortunately, early this year, the county flood plain maps were redrawn and our property was included, along with several other homes in our neighborhood. We bought insurance ASAP, because it has to be in effect for at least a month before we'd be covered. So if we have damage, we'll be ok.

This morning, the water had receded, but since this pic was taken, it started raining again. The street in front of our house is flooded once more, but we're still safe. The power came back on, but we have no phone service. This is frustrating because I can't call my parents to see if they're ok. Fortunately, their house is much higher than ours, but I'd still like to know for sure.

I've been able to text with #1 Daughter, who lives in Columbia and has been frantic about us all, bless her heart. #2 Daughter has been trying to call her boss to let her know she can't make it out of the neighborhood for her shift this afternoon. Church has been cancelled. I've put a roast on to cook in case we lose power again. 

For now, we'll do like we did during the Boston Marathon Bombing. We'll shelter in place. 

Ready, Set, Release!

It's been many months in the making, but A COLDWATER WARM HEARTS WEDDING is finally in bookstores. I have to admit, it was a thrill to find several copies (along with one copy of THE COLDWATER WARM HEARTS CLUB) at the Barnes and Noble when we were visiting Springfield, MO this week. (If you happen to be in that area, I did sign the books in that store!)

If you enjoy my stories about the folk who live in Coldwater Cove, I wonder if you'd mind helping me spread the word about this new release? I'd appreciate it so very much. Here are a few things you can do to get the word out, if you're so inclined:

1. Buy a copy for yourself. And maybe one for a friend. (Ok, that's my most shameless suggestion. Some of the others won't cost you a penny!) 
2. Post something about A COLDWATER WARM HEARTS WEDDING on Facebook or Twitter. If you've read it, wonderful! Hope you loved it, but either way, please share your thoughts. If you haven't read the book yet, but still want to help, you can copy and paste the following message: Looking for a sweet, funny romance? Check out @Lexi_Eddings A COLDWATER WARM HEARTS WEDDING!  https://lexieddings.blogspot.com/p/coming-in-may-2017-read-more.html 
3. Post a review on Goodreads, Amazon, B&N or wherever you purchased your copy of A COLDWATER WARM HEARTS CLUB. I appreciate all reviews. Truly. The gift of your time means the world to me. Thank you.
4. Belong to a book club? Why not suggest A COLDWATER WARM HEARTS WEDDING for the next read? The Sea Island Book Club in South Carolina had a ball reading the first book in the series. Here's a snippet from an email about the club meeting:"They met last night and the response was so overwhelmingly positive. All the members raved about the book and really discussed the reading guide questions. Two members even made the recipes in the back and brought them to the meeting! How fun is that!" 

Thanks, Sea Island Book Club!

You've probably heard the old saw "if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, did it make a sound?" Well, the literary corollary to that is "if a book is published and no one knows about it, will anyone read it?"

So if you would like to help spread the word about A COLDWATER WARM HEARTS WEDDING, I will bless your name! Thanks so very much. Wrap your arms around yourself and give yourself a hug from me!

Happy Reading,
Lexi

Turtle Travel Tales

from Lexi Eddings….

“Wherever you go, there you are!”~Not sure who said it first. Some sources nod to Confucius, but my money’s on Yogi Berra

I’m following a few travel blogs right now written by people who are on board world cruises. Some of the blogs are filled with wonderful photographs and vibrant descriptions of exotic ports of call. Others are more introspective and concentrate on how their travel experiences have made them feel. One couple I follow hurries off the ship in each port only to walk about in search of pizza and beer. I kid you not! Whether they’re in Aquaba or Aukland, it’s always pizza and beer. 

It reminds me of the time years ago when my in-laws went on a tour of Europe.

“Oh!” I gushed. “How wonderful! You’ll see cathedrals and castles and museums galore!”

Turns out, they’d booked a farm tour. They traveled by motor coach through half a dozen countries, visiting family farms all along the way. My DH’s parents were Iowa farmers and they were fascinated to watch European agriculture at work!   

So, I’m coming to the conclusion that travel is more often a reflection of who we are than a way to experience the world in different way.

Take me, for example.

The DH and I are camping in Springfield, MO this weekend. If you’re picturing s’mores round the campfire, you’re sadly mistaken. We “glamp.” Glamor camp. Our little 24 ft trailer has a fully functional kitchen, a 3/4 bath, a queen sized bed, and once we get hooked up to electricity at the KOA, our AC or heater is keeping us comfy. We can watch TV or connect to the campground wifi. 

Roughing it we are not.  

But I am trying a few things that I rarely do at home. If you follow me at all, you know that I am the Anti-Shopper. Whip me, beat me, don’t make me shop. So this morning, the DH & I went shopping.

Well, actually, we went buying. You see, we already knew what we wanted to get before we set out and we knew where we needed to go to get them. My mother and sisters’ definition of shopping is wandering around from store to store in search of some nameless something. “I’m not sure what I want, but I’ll know when I see it” is their battle cry.

Kill me now.

So I guess I didn’t really try anything different today. I always ninja shop. Target. Acquire. Extract. Get in. Get out. No muss, no fuss. 

And, as an old music major, I’m really running true to form this evening. The DH & I have tickets to the symphony tonight. That’s right. We camp for culture.


“No matter where you go, there you are.” Guess Confucius was right. Or maybe it was Yogi Berra. 

~~~

Lexi will be sharing more of her travels as she & her DH camp this summer. She calls it Turtle Travel because they carry their little home with them! If you'd like to follow her adventures--and she promises to have some eventually!--be sure to sign up to follow her blog by email! Thanks!

The Prequel to the Sequel

from Lexi Eddings...

If you've read The Coldwater Warm Hearts Club, you know that Lacy Evans has a brother named Michael. He doesn't come into that story much because he's a bit of a black sheep and the family hasn't heard from him in nearly a decade. He disappeared shortly after his Grandma Evans' funeral. My next book, A Coldwater Warm Hearts Wedding, is the story of what happens when Mike comes back home.

But what happened to him during those lost years?

Fortunately, I found out and wrote it all down for you in a free novella called Coldwater Blues!

Originally, this story was sold as part of a boxed set to benefit Alzheimer's research. Once the fundraising campaign was over--and we raised a significant amount, thanks to you!--each of the contributing authors received the rights to their stories back. Some have self-published their novellas, but I decided I'd rather offer it to readers as a gift. If, like me, you've lost someone you care about to Alzheimer's, this is especially for you. And even if you haven't been touched by "a long goodbye," I hope you'll enjoy the story as an introduction to Mike Evans, the hero of A Coldwater Warm Hearts Wedding. 

So without further ado, I hope you'll click over to Coldwater Blues. It's a quick read. And if you enjoy it, please share the link with your friends.

Thanks so much, and happy reading!

A little culture please...

When we lived in Boston, we had season tickets to the symphony. We frequently attended operas, Shakespeare in the Park on Boston Commons and the wonderful free concerts at the Boston Hatch Shell on the banks of the Charles River.

The Massachusetts Museum of Art and the Isabella Gardener were just a short T-ride away. If history was our pleasure, we hiked the Freedom Trail and took in the wonderful colonial architecture of the Old North Church, the old State House or Paul Revere's house.

We were swimming in "cul-chaa."

When we moved back to the Ozarks, I was afraid I'd have to give up some of those wonderful experiences with the arts.

Not so!

Yesterday, the DH and I drove over to the Gilioz Theater in Springfield, MO (about 85 miles away) to see Springfield Regional Opera's production of Donizetti's Don Pasquale. It's a delightful comic opera with a talented young cast.

It was sung in Italian with English subtitles. (This is really the best of both worlds because the subtitles make it easy to follow the story while performance in the language for which the music written ensures the best possible vocal production!)

Over the years, we've seen world class opera companies in San Francisco, New York, London and Hannover, Germany. I'd rank this cast and orchestra with the best of them.

We had a great time in Springfield yesterday. And it reminded me of the first opera were ever saw together. That was La Traviata in Minneapolis. Back then, we were starving college students in Iowa, just dating at the time, but I really wanted him to go with me. I'd just discovered the world of opera and fell in love with it. I needed to know if he'd be willing to share that passion with me.

So I PAID for the the bus ride up and back, supper at a Chinese restaurant near the theater and tickets for the show. (It was actually the first and last time I've paid for anything. When we got married, I remember him saying, "with all my worldly goods I thee endow." I believe in taking things literally, so I never let him forget that one!)  But anyway, he enjoyed the opera too, or at least said he did, and I knew I'd found a keeper. (Of course, I really knew he cared about me when he sat through an entire bassoon recital. If that's not love, what is?)

Anyway, he's been looking for ways to take me to the opera ever since that first time.  It didn't hurt that to take me to this one, we got to drive through the lovely rolling hills of the Ozarks, either.

Sorry for the fuzziness of this pic. I snapped it from a moving car. But doesn't it sort of look like an impressionist painting in the pointillism style?

See? You can find "cul-chaa" wherever you go!

Dining like You're on a Cruise Ship

from Lexi Eddings...

If you follow my blog, you know the DH & I went on a cruise earlier this month. Part of the fun of cruising is always the fabulous food. I've heard you can eat 13 times a day if you know where the fast elevators are. But because it's far too tempting to overindulge at the buffet on the Lido deck, we usually dine in the main dining room because there the chef controls portions.

And the dishes are really special too. Case in point: Baby Leaf Spinach & Fresh Mushrooms 

Want to make it at home? Here's the recipe from the Carnival Chef's Art Steakhouse. It serves 4.

Ingredients
Baby spinach, 1/4 lb
Bacon, 6 strips
Blue cheese, 2 oz
Olive oil, extra virgin, 4 TBS
Portobello mushroom, 4 (one for each salad)
Butter, 1/2 TBS
Mixed chopped mushrooms (shiitake, button, whatever kind you like) 1/4 cup
Salt, to taste
Crushed black pepper, to taste
Lemon juice 1/4 TBS
Parmesan cheese, 2 oz.
Chives, a few

Directions

1. Dice bacon and then fry till crisp. Drain excess fat & keep warm. 
2. Clean, wash & dry spinach in a salad spinner. (I have one of these handy dandy little gizmos and highly recommend them. They not only clean, but help keep your greens crisp.)
3. Remove the stem and gills from the Portobellos. (The gills have a musty sort of taste you'll want to get rid of.) Cook the tops in butter with salt & pepper. You can also cook the mixed chopped mushrooms at this time. When done, fill each Portabello cap with the mushroom mixture. Keep warm.

Now for the dressing:

Blend olive oil, half the bleu cheese, lemon juice with salt & pepper, Adjust seasoning to your liking. 

Presentation: (Make no mistake. Fine dining is all about the presentation!)

1. Place the warm portobello in the middle of the plate. 
2. Toss the spinach with dressing and place over and around the stuffed portobello.
3. Garnish with chives, remaining crumbled bleu cheese, and warm bacon bits.
4. Grate Parmesan cheese over the dish as desired. 

There you have it--a celebration in a salad bowl.

Bon appetit!

If you'd like to have the recipe for the soup course that goes with this salad, check out my travel blog, Two Old Farts on a Party Ship!

Rumor has it...

I don't like spreading rumors. If I haven't seen something firsthand, I'm loathe to pass the info on. But...

Something happened on my recent cruise that has bothered me enough that I feel the need to write about it. Let me hasten to tell you this wasn't something that happened to me. I had a terrific time on the Carnival Dream. But, not everyone did.

I was waiting to go to one of the art auctions (no, I didn't buy anything!) and sort of caught myself eavesdropping on a conversation between two women seated near me. It went something like this:

Blue-haired grandma-type: Say, didn't you audition for the Carnival Legends show?
(The Carnival Legends is sort of a karaoke show on steroids. Passengers are chosen to sing in an end of the week production impersonating pop stars with costumes & everything.)

Pleasantly plump Thirty-something: (Smiling broadly) Yes, I did.

Blue-hair: I thought so. You were so good as Madonna.

Pleasantly: (No longer smiling) Well, you're the only one who thinks so. I wasn't chosen.

Blue-hair: Well, that's not fair. You got way more applause than those other girls.

Pleasantly: I thought so too. So before I tried out the next day to do Britney Spears, I went to the judge and asked if it was worth trying. (tearing up) He said probably not.

Blue-hair: Whyever not?

Pleasantly: He said didn't I think someone my size wouldn't be comfortable in such a skimpy costume?

At this point, I was furious on her behalf. Ever since I took up two spaces in my kindergarten picture, I've struggled with my weight. But Pleasantly was obviously happy with who she was and had worked hard on her performance prior to coming on the cruise. The only question should have been whether she could do justice to the music.

Of course, Blue-hair's opinion notwithstanding, this wouldn't be the first time someone who couldn't really sing thought they could. My own father, God bless him, can't carry a tune with a gold-handled bucket. Yet he was blissfully unaware of this fact until my sisters and I tactlessly told him when we were kids.

I'm happy to report it hasn't stopping him from trying, but he'll never be mistaken for Willy Nelson no matter how loudly he belts out "On the Road Again."

So since I hadn't seen the audition in question, I had to wonder if the judge was trying to be tactful about her singing, and had instead made the mistake of stepping big time into the issue of her size. I didn't have all the information. I tried to reserve judgment, but I was still quietly steaming on her behalf.

Then another Carnival employee came over. He apologized for eavesdropping (something I neglected to do!) but he couldn't help overhearing. If true, he said, it should never have happened. He encouraged her to go to the office and report the incident. It was totally unacceptable.

He was very sympathetic and supportive. His response went a long way toward mitigating how awful Pleasantly felt. And settled me down as well.

The thing is, Pleasantly was on vacation. She wasn't trying to make a career of the stage. What would be the harm in letting her perform, even if she spilled out of the costume a bit? No one had the right to make her feel bad about herself for trying something different.

The judge for the Legends Show needs to take a page from the Hard Rock Cafe.

Love All, Serve All.

Actually, I could stand to live by those words too!

Carnival Dream

from Lexi Eddings...

My DH is taking me on another adventure! We're off to New Orleans today and tomorrow we'll be boarding the Carnival Dream for a week of fun in the sun! Here's our itinerary:

Date	Port	Arrive	Depart
Sunday, January 8	New Orleans, LA		4:00pm
Monday, January 9	At Sea
Tuesday, January 10	Cozumel, Mexico	8:00am	6:00pm
Wednesday, January 11	Belize City, Belize	8:00am	5:00pm
Thursday, January 12	Roatan, Honduras	7:00am	5:00pm
Friday, January 13	At Sea
Saturday, January 14	At Sea
Sunday, January 15	New Orleans, LA	8:00am

If you want to join us on this trip, pop over to Two Old Farts on a Party Ship! There's a way to have new posts delivered to your email address if you sign up to follow the travel blog.

Hope you come along!

A Straight Apology

from Lexi Eddings...

I'm not making any resolutions this year. There have been too many Januaries in my past that were littered with failed diets, dusty treadmills, diaries that fizzled, and the self-recrimination that comes from not meeting my own expectations.

But I am trying to make a change. Before I share what it is, I want to tell you a little story. A true one...

A few years ago, I was at a writers' conference. It was between workshops, so a group of my writer buddies and I had taken over part of the hotel lounge and we were having our own little confab over coffee, tea or whatever. Then another of my author friends joined us with a new guy in tow. He was a writer of gay romance and they'd just come from crashing an inspirational panel (read: evangelical Christian writers). He was absolutely spewing anti-Christian venom. Totally jazzed about disrupting things, too.

I didn't know what to do. My first instinct was to defend my faith, but he was already so wound up, anything I might have said would have been like throwing gasoline on a fire. Instead, I sat in stunned silence as he continued his tirade. So did the rest of my friends. Guess they were feeling as attacked as I was.

Anyway, it seemed like not responding in kind was the right thing to do, because he ran out of steam fairly quickly and, like a wind-up monkey, he finally ground to a halt. He settled onto the over-sized ottoman next to me. And I started a conversation with him, looking for common ground. We talked about the writer's craft, about the publishing biz, about books we loved, about music and theater. He was fun to talk to. Considering that the encounter started with him trashing my God, my faith, and my fellow Christians, we made great strides.

A workshop I wanted to attend was coming up, so I had to leave after about twenty minutes, but I left feeling pretty good about how I'd handled the situation.

But something niggled at me.

I couldn't figure out why I kept going over this meeting in my mind. It bothered me for months. Years, actually. Then it finally hit me.

He wasn't lashing out at Christianity because he hated Christians. He was acting out because he'd been hurt BY Christians. Deeply. Repeatedly. He'd been made to feel unworthy. Rejected. Irredeemable.

I'd lash out, too.

And I started wondering what might have happened if I'd responded differently. What if I'd been discerning enough to recognize the pain that motivated his rant? What if, instead of stunned silence, I'd reacted by saying something like:

"I'm so sorry that someone has used the name of Jesus to hurt you. Sometimes, Christians use scripture to condemn others when we're supposed to let it change us. No matter what anyone says, God doesn't think you're junk. He loves you. He thinks you're worthy. He doesn't reject you. And neither do I. Instead, I ask your pardon for the hurtful things I have done and the helpful things I have left undone. Can you forgive me?"

What would our conversation have been like then?

Anyway, back to the change I was talking about making earlier...

My goal for this next year is to become a more compassionate person. I want to have a deeper empathy for others. I want to be able to discern the motive behind their actions and words, and use that discernment to help them if I can.

I have a feeling this is going to be much more difficult than if I'd just listed off a few resolutions that I could laugh about having abandoned after a month or so. This is about working on myself on a much deeper level than losing a dress size or two.

The world is tough. It's easy to become hard. But I don't want to be like that. I want to be tender.

It's probably going hurt, but I have to try.