Books I've read this week

One of the books I picked up at the sale on Saturday was There Was a Little Girl by Ed McBain, ©1994. The story takes place in Florida and concerns a small circus that wants to buy a piece of land where they can put on shows during the winter. The circus owner hires a lawyer, Matthew Hope, to make an offer for the land and while trying to make the deal, he upsets someone and ends up getting shot. During the rest of the story he's in the hospital in a semi-coma. His good friends, who are two private investigators and a local cop, follow his trail for the week before the shooting trying to figure out what he was doing in the bad part of town where the shooting occurred and who did it. The story unfolds through their dectective work and also flashbacks that Matthew has as he lays in the hospital, and includes circus performers, drugs, lies, sex, blackmail, burglary, and murder. The plot line was pretty good but I don't think the author needed to include quite so much circus information. I also thought the ending left the reader hanging somewhat but then decided that Matthew Hope wasn't really the story. The story was just about finding out who shot him and why.

Another Romano's Macaroni Grill Gift Basket Giveaway

These gift baskets would be really nice to win since they include a colander, serving spoon, cheese grater, box of the Creamy Basil Parmesan Chicken & Pasta, AND coupons to get 3 more free boxes of your choice. To win just stop by Coupon Mommie's blog and tell her how often you eat dinner together as a family or how you let the kids help you cook dinner. Enter here. Contest ends Thursday April 30th at midnight. Additional entry info on the site. Good luck!

Hot and Cold Running. . . . Weather

I take back the comment I made a couple of days ago about summer being here already. Yes, it was 85° Friday which was too warm for this time of year, but this is Iowa and Saturday it was only 45° and raining off and on all day. Right now (at about 2 a.m.) I'm listening to a thunderstorm as I type and we had small hail earlier tonight. Tomorrow's forecast is for about 70° and then the possibility of heavy rain and severe storms. I'm glad I don't have much in the garden yet as it would just get ruined.

We spent Saturday at Boone where our son Jay set up a booth at the flea market again this month. I took books and jigsaw puzzles along with some miscellaneous items to sell. He pays the set up fee and gets half the money from anything I sell so it works for us both. The sale is at the local county fairgrounds but today they were in a different building because the usual one was being used by another group. The building wasn't heated and it didn't take long to get chilly. Not the most comfortable way so spend a day. The other building was having a huge 'garage sale' fundraiser for the local animal shelter. This brought a lot more people to the fairgrounds than usual but most spent their money at the fundraiser instead of the flea market. I even spent my money there getting a great bargain of 8 books for a dollar. I have quite a few ahead now so I'd better spend some time reading and quit buying for a while.

(I hope you have no melcryptovestimentaphiliacs in your area. They compulsively steal ladies underwear!)

I bet you didn't know........

according to the U. S. Department of Agriculture, the 9 beans that cause the most gas are:
1. Soybeans
2. Pink beans
3. Black beans
4. Pinto beans
5. California small white beans
6. Great northern beans
7. Lima beans
8. Garbanzos
9. Blackeyed peas

This comes from Uncle John's Absolutely Absorbing Bathroom Reader, the 12th Edition by the Bathroom Readers' Institute. I'm loving this book. It's full of bits on trivia and so much fun to read (and not just in the bathroom. LOL)

Did you know the single most ordered item in American restaurants is French fries? Or that the first email was sent over the internet in 1972? It also tells the origin of such things as Kellogg's Corn Flakes, the shopping cart, and the first drive-in. It tells 3 celebrities who say they've seen UFOs (Mohammed Ali, Jimmy Carter, and William Shatner). Like I said, it's just a fun book. I have another edition of it and can't wait to read it, too.

Yea, another win!

I got a surprise in today's mail. I won an instyle.com giveway and the prize was a RED Avon Ostrich Embossed Clutch, ARV $19.99. It's so pretty and will be great to carry when I need something a little fancier. It also has a shoulder strap. I am a Bag Lady (love 'em, love 'em!!) so this is a great prize for me.