Work Is Worse

Probably the only good thing about being sick in bed with food poisoning for the last month was that I was able to justifiably allow my housekeeping chores to slide--and I mean really slide (I will spare you actual photographs of the interior of my house). Now that I'm on the mend (knock on wood), I have to catch up on all those neglected homeowner activities. The good part is, of course, that hard physical activity burns calories and provides excellent exercise--sort of like my regular gym outings to Curves.

Unfortunately, toilet cleaning and floor scrubbing doesn't provide the pleasant ambiance that I get at Curves. There aren't any of my regular buddies there to provide the latest gossip or clever jokes and stories. I can't discuss last night's episode of "The Bachelorette" with Lisa when I'm on my hands and knees in the loo. When I get lazy and my scrubbing arm slows down, I don't have a dozen gals cheering me on, yelling, "faster! harder!"

No, housework may burn as many calories as working out at the gym--but it's not nearly as much fun! What do you say?

(photo from www.princess5exyface.com)

Shower Time

Just returned from a baby shower that I had for my new daughter-in-law Kerry at the beautiful Nohea Restaurant in Chicago. Thought you all might enjoy seeing some of the photos I took.

I Stand Corrected! And Rummage Reverie

Thanks to the many people who offered suggestions about charities that pick up furniture and large appliances. There evidently are some that still provide this service! It takes some searching and questioning and investigating in your local area, but if you're persistent, you can find someone who will come out and load up those old sofas and beds and washing machines and haul them away and give them a new home.

I guess I was thinking about rummage and junk because I just returned from my mother's place--Independence Village--an assisted living facility in Naperville, Illinois. IV is holding their big annual rummage sale today and their parking lot was filled with booths, sellers, and buyers when I arrived this morning to pick up Mom's weekly laundry. It was fun to see many of the elderly residents hawking their wares. As I meandered around the lot, I heard a lot of "Looks like you bought more than you can fit into your apartment!" The residents were obviously having a great time both as buyers and sellers of their stuff.

On my way home, I stopped by Caribou Coffee and got myself a latte--a real treat. As I've been avoiding caffeine for over a month now while I battled a parasite I got from eating grape leaves at a Greek restaurant, it was a joy to be able to finally indulge in this forbidden beverage.

In general, it was a lovely morning. Beautiful weather, great to be out and about after being couped up for a month. Wonderful seeing Mom and all her buddies. And to top it off--a yummy latte! Hurray for me!

How was your day?

(graphic fromf www.41uvofdog.com)

What Do You Do About Furniture Donations?

My husband Milt and I have moved a number of times throughout our married life. Each time, we find we have to get rid of certain items of furniture or large appliances that we no longer need or want. Years ago, I remember it was easy to deal with this situation. I would call Good Will or The Salvation Army and schedule a pick-up. On the appointed date, several men would arrive with a truck, load our furniture and appliances on the truck, give me a receipt for the donation, and cart the items off. These types of services made moving easier and allowed people to find new homes for perfectly good items that they couldn't use any more.

Unfortunately, I've discovered that such services are becoming rare. When we moved from Louisiana to Illinois three years ago, we searched and searched for a service to take our donated items. Good Will and the Salvation Army would not pick-up our large items--even though much of it was perfectly salvageable. We were not capable of transporting the items ourselves to any of the drop-off centers (we did take many small items to the drop-off centers). Our only solution seemed to be to hire a junk dealer to cart the furniture away as junk which was definitely overkill.

What can people do these days when they need to get rid of perfectly good furniture and large appliances that they can no longer use? Any brilliant ideas out there?

(photo from www.Kittzy.flickr.com)

Come See Us in Rochelle

My writing partner Diane and I will be doing a book signing at Conover Books in Rochelle, Illinois, this Saturday, from 11:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. If you are anywhere in the area, I hope you will consider coming by to meet us and let us sign your copy of our books. Here's Diane's poster for the event.

Don't Eat the Stuffed Grape Leaves

Hubby Milt and I ate at a lovely Greek restaurant about a month ago. He had the lamb and I had the stuffed grape leaves. They were delicious. They were also the last food I've been able to keep down since. In the month since consuming that exotic dish, I have been struggling to figure out what is going on inside my digestive system. I've tried very bland diets, all liquid diets, and just about any diet you can think of. I've been to my doctor several times and have followed her directions religiously. Many lab tests were conducted because my doc suspected food poisoning. Throughout my predicament, I have lost a boatload of weight. Yes, I want to lose weight--but not this much, this fast, in this way!

My doc eventually put me in the hospital last week on IV fluids to get me re-hydrated. That helped while I was actually in the hospital and I slowly began to be able to consume some plain foods. Unfortunately, as soon as I returned home, the problem returned. My doc then sent me to a gastro-enterologist who scheduled a colonoscopy. I completed that charming procedure Friday and it showed my colon was fine. The gastro doc believes that I probably did get food poisoning from the grape leaves but that it had passed through my system by the time the lab tests were done. He hypothesized that the food poisoning left my digestive tract "confused" and it will probably just take time for it to readjust.

In the mean time, I am taking my medicine and eating a very bland diet. This entire episode has left me feeling very weak, so if you were wondering why I hadn't been posting very much lately--now you know.

One thing I know. I won't be eating stuffed grape leaves ever again.

(photo from www.canarygirl.vox.com)

Honeymoon

Here is a photograph of my son Alex and his new bride Kerry on their honeymoon in Mexico. Is this not a glorious picture?

Husband and Wife!

My son Alex got married today. Here are some of photos from the lovely garden ceremony. Congratulations and best wishes, Alex and Kerry! And have a wonderful honeymoon in Mexico!

Check Out "A Book and a Dish"

Check out Martha A. Cheves' delightful book review blog, A Book and a Dish. This unique blog connects a recent book with an appropriate recipe, sort of in the vein of Dinner and a Movie.

Martha's most recent post, I am pleased to say, features my cozy mystery Sounds of Murder and the accompanying recipe is Italian Sausage Soup which is a dish created by one of the main characters in my book. I hope you'll take the time to visit Martha's blog and tell her Patricia sent you!

Thanks, Midwest Book Review!

Shelley Glodowski, Senior Reviewer from the Midwest Book Review, wrote a lovely review of my cozy mystery Sounds of Murder (which is available on Amazon in paperback and Smashwords in e-book format) and gave it five stars!. Here is the review:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read for a summer day, June 6, 2010

By
Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sounds of Murder (Paperback) .

"Patricia Rockwell's main career lies in teaching. She holds a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Nebraska, and a Ph.D. from the University of Arizona. She held a faculty position at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette for thirteen years and retired in 2007. She published the requisite number of articles in her field, which interestingly enough, was in sarcasm. She also specialized in vocal cues. SOUNDS OF MURDER is her premiere mystery.

Professor Pamela Barnes specializes in sounds within the Psychology Department at Grace University. Her department is small, with only ten faculty members and one departmental secretary. But the department has its prima donna, in the form of one Charlotte Clark. Charlotte is less than popular, so as murders go, she was the prime target for almost everyone in the department. Pamela Barnes and her graduate assistant have the misfortune of finding the body in the computer lab. The faculty is completely terrorized, and so it falls to Pamela to become a sleuth, much to the chagrin of her doting, hunky husband Rocky.

She examines the recording device in the lab and has a lead: "'Are you crazy?' he huffed, 'This is not some academic research project, Pammie. This is a murder. Somebody killed this woman and here you have a recording of them doing it. If they found out you had this, your life would be in danger. As it is, your life is in jeopardy. I mean, you found the body. You can't go digging around the crime scene looking for clues. That could get you killed-just like Charlotte.'"

Ms. Rockwell's first mystery is well crafted and lots of fun. She draws on her own experience, no doubt, to present characters that are true to form in a faculty setting: the prima donna; the hardworking secretary; the chair with secrets to hide; the tenure nominees; Pam's women friends; etc. She also includes some yummy recipes and a margarita outing between the women that is delicious. Her timing is impeccable, her plot jumps along, and the killer is well hidden until the final denouement. SOUNDS OF MURDER is a great read for a summer day. Hopefully we'll hear more from Pamela and her new job as a first-rate detective."

Shelley Glodowski

Senior Reviewer

Thanks, Shelley and Midwest Book Review!

Hospital Observations

Just returned from a three-day stay in the hospital for a resistant stomach virus. This was my first time in a hospital since coming to live in Illinois. My, they do things differently here than they did in the hospitals in Louisiana where I used to live. Maybe it's because, being so close to Chicago, hospitals have to be prepared for mob hits, gang violence, and the ever-increasing severe reactions to Rod Blagojovich reality videos. Down in Lafayette, Louisiana, hospital staffs were more prepared for patients who got their foot caught in an alligator trap or who choked on a crawfish or who were involved in the extremely common car accidents that occurred immediately outside one of Lafayette's numerous drive-thru daiquiri huts.

Actually, the Illinois hospital I stayed in was pretty much like the hospitals I ever stayed in in Lafayette. There were some new things, however. Now, nurses check everything with this handy-dandy digital reader device. Everything is coded and they just click the item with the coder and it automatically registers it into the system. That is, of course, when it works. Several of my nurses had a great deal of trouble getting the coder to register me from my hospital admit bracelet. They would scan the device over my bracelet and I could see the red laser beam form an "X" on my name on my bracelet. Again and again, they tried, but to no avail. I felt like a sack of flour at Target at the check-out counter. Price check on Aisle Ten! For a while, I began to wonder if I existed. I mean, if the digital system doesn't recognize you, are you really there?

One thing has really improved at hospitals--at least from my point of view. The insertion of IVs. The last time I remember getting an IV line inserted was terrible. Four nurses tried at least five different locations on both arms before finally getting the IV needle in. I was sore and black and blue all over. This time, a technician arrived in my hospital room, announced that she was the IV tech and promptly and virtually painlessly proceeded to insert the IV needle into my arm in a few seconds. It seems that nowadays, hospitals have IV teams--technicians that do nothing but travel from room to room inserting IVs. The regular nurse no longer has to do this. I guess inserting must be a really difficult task for nurses since they've outsourced the job.

Anyway, I'm home from my three days in the hospital--hopefully improved. If you've wondered why I wasn't posting my regular homilies, that's the reason.

(graphic from www.crestock.com)

Thanks to Go Around

Many thanks to Susan Schoeffield , managing Editor of the online magazine The Poetry Hut, who wrote a lovely review of my cozy mystery Sounds of Murder on Smashwords. Here's a bit of what she said:

What would Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot or Perry Mason have done had there been available today’s latest scientific advancements for solving crimes? They would have presented you with the same type of intriguing mystery found in Patricia Rockwell’s Sounds of Murder. When an overbearing Psychology professor is found strangled, a fellow professor, Dr. Pamela Barnes, wants to help bring the killer to justice. Pamela is convinced crucial evidence can be found using her department’s sophisticated acoustics equipment. But could her amateur sleuthing lead the way to her own sounds of murder? Dr. Rockwell’s interesting characters, enticing storyline and fascinating use of advanced sound technology all blend together to make this book a must-have for your murder mystery library.

Also, many thanks to my wonderful blogging and Entrecard friends who stopped by Subjective Soup every day during the month of May. Here are the Top Ten of you:

How to make money
AsTheCrackerheadCrumbles
the crazy suburban mom
Photography by KML
toys4dogsncats.com
The Third Uncle
The Ad Master
Sparkle
Space In Pictures
The Horror Movie Show

(graphic from www.florcita.eu)