Choice Morsels

    The Mama Kat question I'm doing is: Book Review! What is your best (or worse read)?        I joined a Book Club last year. We meet once a month at a local restaurant that allows us to come in at 10 am to discuss our book, then we order lunch. Everyone is 60 or older, I think--who else has free time to do a Book Club at 10 am?      I joined for 2 reasons:     1) Social Interaction. It gets me out of the house and around other people.     2) To Try Out New Books to Read. I'm fairly particular about what I read and the club is reasonably conservative in book choices.      Frankly, not every book choice has been fantastic , but I have two I consider the "Best Reads" this year. The 1st is non-fiction based on a historical event and the 2nd is fiction based on a historical event. I happen to like history, so I probably enjoyed them more then most of the other ladies, but I highly recommend both: Eighty Days b...

  This weeks Mama Kat prompt I've chosen is, "Something that brought me joy this week." Well, there are two things that brought me Joy this week: One is my cat, Tawny, sitting on my lap for a nap while sitting in the easy chair watching a episode of a series, like Murder She Wrote. I'll often watching a second episode, just to go on enjoying her sleeping and purring on my legs!  The other Joy this week is my flower garden: This photo was taken yesterday looking across the top of my front flower bed. There are actually beds and borders all around my house .

 My first car was this: A baby blue 1978 Ford Pinto Hatchback, 4-speed standard transmission just like this. I bought it after I got out of the Air Force. It was 1980 and I was planning on going to college. I saw it for advertised for sale by an individual in the local paper. Price was great and it was in great condition. It got 45 miles to the galleon on the highway--which actually puts modern, lighter gasoline burning vehicles to shame, considering that blue body was all metal. Heavy, too--on a good downward hill in neutral it could coast 50-60 miles an hour flat out.  It took me to college the next years and was our primary vehicle after husband and I got married for another year or so. I looking back, I regret we didn't keep it after we bought a new car. It would've been smarter to have kept it. 

  My Mama Kat topic is, "Something that surprised me." And that happy surprise was finding this baby tomato plant, pictured below, growing in this bit of dirt outside my front door a couple weeks ago. How it came to be there I don't know. The other part of the surprise is I have no idea what sort of tomato it is. Cherry? Roma? Regular? Red? Yellow? Heirloom? So I moved it to my r aised bed: And here it is, but the surprise won't be finished until I see the fruit.

"What famous people have I met?" is the Mama Kat prompt question of the day.       Actually, I've met a few. The most well-known famous Hollywood person I've met is George Takei, who played Mr. Sulu on the Original Star Trek series and a few subsequent films.        It was 1989, the year Star Trek V came out. There was a Trek Convention in Tampa. I  happened to be in a local Star Trek Club at the time and one of the members knew someone who knew someone willing to let us bunk at their home for the Con weekend. So 4 of us packed up our Trek costumes and we drove down.        I was 33 at the time and the Trek Club was run by a  guy and his wife who lived in Eglin Base Housing. My husband and I also lived in the same Base Housing, a few blocks away. We joined the Club together. Since I could sew, I ended up making several original series shirts for club members. I wore a gold shirt with the emblem, like pictured, with black p...

 Today's Mama Kat prompt is to write about, "a time you did something sneaky." Once upon a time, we had two guys in our military singles Bible Study group named Rod and Bruce. They were room-mates in a house off-base. Rod's 26th birthday was coming up and Bruce got the brain-storm to throw Rod a surprise birthday party. His plan was to distract Rod and get him away from the house by suggesting to Rod that they go to some Chinese restaurant to eat, but it would be a Chinese restaurant he "couldn't quite remember the location of," so they'd be out driving around while we set up the surprise party at Rod's house. We brought cake and blew up balloons. There was about a dozen of us. As a gag, Bruce had also suggested we might all put on some article of Rod's clothing, so we raided his closet for hats, ties, jackets and so on. Then we sat down to wait in the living room, lights off, prepared to leap up with "Surprise!" They were only supp...

Today's Mama Kat is brief fiction based using the word "enough." It's based on a writers prompt from  my Pinterest   board of "Interesting Writers  Prompts."  Enough by B Nickerson He waited until dark to approach the small brick house and knock tentatively on the door. This was his last hope. He winced as the porch light blinked on and she opened the door the width of the security chain to peer out. He wasn't sure she'd even recognize him. He had a beard now and wore a slouchy hat to help conceal his face. They used to work together a few years back in the same office, both journalists. They'd been friendly co-workers back then---before the Purge.   He hated to involve her, but he just had no where else to turn. Her eyes widened with recognition. "Clay?" He nodded. "Can I come in?" She unlatched the door chain and widened the door so he could walk in. Clay quickly scanned the living room. The window...

Today, I'm going to share a few amusing quotes from my Pinterest "Good Quotes" board: The fate of all crafty hobby people. ******* Even on bad days, something good can be found be happy about. ******** You know this is true when you see people are driving around town  alone in their car wearing a mask. ******** Any one who gardens knows this is true. *******

      The Mama Kat prompt I chose today is to write a post using the word: final. For this one, I turned to my collection of writers prompts in Pinterest: "the last entry of an explorers journal" and thus this short  fiction was born: The Final Report by b.nickerson. Allen turned on the logbook and rapidly began tapping keys, composing his final report, quite certain he would not survive the night.      “ Of the seven of us, I alone am left,” he typed, then paused to reflect on events since they landed on this planet. Ethan had been the first to disappear. Right after they landed and were hacking their way through thick jungle. Ethan had been in the rear, but then suddenly he wasn't there at all---and they hadn't heard a sound.             They called for him and scanned around, but nothing. The Ship wasn't due back for four days to pick them up, so the Captain ordered they proceed. They had surve...

The Mama Kat prompt I chose today is to share about a favorite read. My absolute favorite book is, "My Blue Castle" by  L.M. Montgomery, the same author of Anna of Green Gables.  It's a yellowed, worn paperback that I re-read from time to time. I like it because it's  a classic ugly-ducking-turns-into-a-swan story. It's set in Canada around 1920 and is about a young woman named, Valency. She's almost 29, an old maid by social standards of the day with no hope of any marrying prospects She's an introverted, meek girl who feels stuck succumbing to every whim of her domineering Mother and her Mother's cousin as well as having to endure all the eccentricities of all the local high-brow relatives. Her's is a drab life and to make-up for it, Valency lives an imaginary day-dream life in her mind where she is the princess of a beautiful blue castle and can do what she likes and is courted by every handsome prince of the land. Valency als...

Today's chosen prompt is to share a memory from 12th grade and of all my years o f high school, 12th grade has some nice memory highlights. Probably one of my best memories of 12th grade is writing fanfiction  with my friend Cheryl. We became friends in 9th grade and I got her hooked on my interest in it. There was a masked-hero show called "The Green Hornet" in re-runs then and I fell in love with writing script-like fanfiction for that show. Cheryl liked the idea and started writing similar fanfiction for her favorite show, Mannix. We both even had an original character we added into the mix.  I remember many a study hall period, us sitting side-by-side, talking in hushed whispers about whatever we wrote the night before.  Having someone to share a common interest with was super cool. The other highlight of 12th grade was having a boy actually ask me to be his experiment partner for a Psych class project. I'd known him since 10th grade, but I was just ...

The Mama Kat prompt I chose to day is, "Something that made me laugh," so here's some clever meme's from Pinterest that gave me chuckle: When Every Day is Casual Friday... Not So Far-Feteched Anymore... Here's An Idea... Sounds like a deal... When the "Have Nots," Finally Catch Up to the "Haves."

The Mama Kat prompt I've chosen today is to "Show Us Something Beautiful." My Dutch Iris have been extravagant this year! I have a vase of them in the house. Very cheery. It's the reason I grow flowers---to have a free vase of flowers in the house!  And My Favorite Azalea's This one Azalea in my back yard is the only one that bloomed profusely this year! I love the large these large fluffy single blooms!

I graduated high school in 1975. I took typing class I & II over 2 semesters when I was in 11th grade.  At that time, being able to type and type well was a critical employment skill. For women, a majority of jobs between World War 2 and advent of Personal Computers replacing typewriters ---typing was a required job skill. You were required not only to type fast, but accurately.  Even in the 60's and 70's when computers were beginning to be installed in business offices, they were monstrous contraptions with huge keyboards, so typing remained a high demand skill.  (check this Pinterest picture of the lady with a beehive hair-do at a trendy desk computer!)  The typing technique we were taught was called, "Touch Typing," and you had to keep your eyes on the paper document you were typing while your fingers flew over the keys, each finger knowing which letters to strike. Your typing skill level was evaluated by a timed speed test where you ty...

The Mama Kat prompt I chose today asks the question, "What are you binge watching?" Interesting question since I rarely watch TV, but I didn't binge watch television---instead I did some binge watching of fan made Star Wars movies on You Tube on my computer. I spent several hours watching them, one after another. Mostly I just watched ones that caught my interest and seemed well-made. There are official contests for fan made Star Wars films and some of the fan film fare in You Tube are noted as having won awards.  Pure escapism. I needed to decompress. It's surprising how many fan films there are and how well made. For your interest, if you're a Star Wars fan, I've included a 3 part series I thought pretty good, called, "A Light in the Darkness." It's set in a galaxy far, far away on a mining colony planet. It's a story of rebellion and ordinary people laying down their lives to fight for freedom. The segments are short, about 13 min...

T he Mama Kat writing prompt today is to write a post inspired by the word, "purpose."      Let's face it. Everyone needs a sense of purpose, a way to feel useful.      Are you acquainted with Joni Eareckson Tada? She's been a quadraplegic since 1967 and well known for her art that she paints by holding a paint-brush in her mouth as well as her Joni & Friends ministry to others with disabilities in the Christian community.  Also an author, I read one of Joni's devotional books some years ago. It was filled with stories of insights from her life experiences and one especially memorable story I recall is one relating in particular to the idea of having "purpose."     I'm retelling it from memory, but the gist of it was this:     One day, Joni and another handicapped friend, as part of her encouraging ministry, drove out to visit another handicapped lady in her home, whom I'm going to call Mary for clarity. Mary was ...

The Mama Kat prompt I'm doing today is, "Share your favorite local restaurant." We have a couple favorite local restaurants, but I'm only going to share one today: The Aegean Restaurant. This one is located in Shalimar, Florida, across the the street from the county administrative building, around 10 -12 miles from where we live. Distance here is kind of relative, since the Air Force base is the center  of everything and the towns are spread out on either side of it, so getting from one to another involves driving around the base; Shalimar is on the West side of the base and we live on the East side. It's Greek and the family that owns and runs it are Greek as well, so it's authentic. Here's an inside view: All the food on the menu is delicious and they have a good mix of Greek specialties as well as entrees, pastas, salads for those who rather have something more ordinary. One thing I like that they serve, if I'm in the mood for ...

T he blog writing prompt I'm doing today for Mama Kat is one from the general list of October prompts. It asks the question, "Have I ever visited a farm?" When I was a little girl of about 10 , while we were visiting Grandma & Grandpa in Minnesota, I remember visiting a farm. It may have been the farm our Grandpa owned that he leased. Or maybe relatives. I don't remember, though I do recall our whole family driving there in the car. With the Grands, too, I think.  It was a working farm with cows and horses and fields. There was the farm house and, nearby, a large barn with a rail fence partially enclosing a barnyard area that was empty, though the ground had the bare and straw-spattered look of having been used at some point. I remember the farm family had a couple young daughters around our age and they guided us through the barn and through the empty barnyard off someplace to show us something. What I remember most vividly, however, is the return tri...

Today's Mama Kat prompt I've chosen is, "Write something that begins and ends with, "I hope it stays that way." As Hubby and I walked away from the display table of shirts and ties at J.C. Penney's, I hoped they'd stay that way... You see, what happened is, a couple weeks ago, we were just walking around in J.C. Penney's when we passed a display table on the outer edge of the men's section showing off a selection of men's dress shirts in multiple colors and on top of those shirts  about random 7 ties some store worker had apparently put there for a nice effect---but it wasn't nice. The tie colors and shirts they'd been laid on were completely   mismatched! The disparity caught my eye as I almost walked by, but drew me back to try and fix it. I can't stand seeing a mis-matched shirt and tie.  If a guy walks in a room with a bad tie choice, I'll notice. So I stood there at the display table, moving those ties around,...

The Mama Kat prompt I chose today was to share a photo that best represents your August so far: This,  because Florida has been hot, hot, hot. So we all want what this Box Turtle found: a dip in the pool to cool off!