The Burrow

(If you are one of the nine people who read this yesterday before I realized that it wasn't supposed to be posted until today, I'm sorry.  If you click here , you can ready my rant on Senator Jeff Flake, which ran after this post yesterday.Sorry....) I won my Kindle Fire.  I'd never considered buying one.  I'd railed about it here and in private.  I like books, real, hold in my hand, turn the pages myself, paper books.  I used the infernal machine for game playing and minor-web-searches on the couch, but never for reading.  Reading demanded covers, a binding, print on a page.  Reading was not pixels. After I conquered my addiction to the gaming feature, I deleted them from the device's memory and began using it to read Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak series while my boys watched football over Big Cuter's winter vacation.  There was no need to run to the library or the bookstore; with a little bit of pressure and heat from my finger, the next inst...

I sat on the patio in the backyard yesterday, drinking Proseco and gossiping with the girls. We ate hulled strawberries and shifted around so that the sun didn't burn any of our parts more than the others.  There were shared memories and new stories and much advice was given.  We wore no makeup and our shorts were the ones lying atop the laundry pile; we were there for one another, not trying to impress. Sparkling wine as dinner..... I could get used to this. ***** There's a distinct change in the breeze and the air quality here in the desert Southwest.  April is nearly half-way gone, and most all of the snowbirds have fled to cooler climes.  Those of us who are planning to stick it out through the summer share a certain glee, a glint in our eyes, a reluctance to admit that we love baking in triple digit temperatures. I can't speak for anyone else, but, for me, it's self-preservation.  I don't want Tucson to be winter-crowded all year long. ***** Justifi...

The San Francisco 49'ers lost a heart-breaker Sunday night.  Big Cuter can now attend his conference (in Paris... poor baby) without feeling that he's leaving his team in the lurch.  Personally, I am reveling in the success of a quarterback who actually graduated from college (a semester early) with Deans' List grades.  Smart rules! ***** The Fox Theatre was going to be the venue for Sunday's movies-in-the-afternoon-with-the-girls because I thought that the original 3:10 to Yuma was on the schedule. Turns out that Russel Crowe was going to be on the big screen, not Glenn Ford and Van Heflin. I was looking forward to seeing an old movie in an old theatre and sharing the joy with Elizibeth, my favorite teenager. Instead, we shifted our sights to the local mall and Marky Mark. Am I the only one who remembers the hoopla over his underwear ad in Times Square? http://markyadvertising.tripod.com/ ***** I am now the proud possessor of a Kindle Fire.  Big Cuter ta...

I love making new friends in the blogosphere. Some send me badges, some put me on lists, and, best of all, they comment.  How else could I make new friends unless I knew they were out there?   One of my newest blog-friends is JES, who blogs at Running After My Hat .  You really should click over and spend some time with him.  You'll feel smarter and more thoughtful and happier and there will be a tune or a poem running through your head for a while after you're gone.  His comments are posts in themselves; I hope you've been enjoying them as much as I have been enjoying them. (Please forgive that small grammatical outburst.  Last night's television was a cauldron of "David and I's relationship....."  "Tenley and I's date......" and still I am not recovered.) But, I digress.  JES is a writer's writer, a man who seemed to hold the written word in as much esteem as do I, so it was particularly troubling to read that he loves his kindle * ...

My readers do love their books. Friday's post garnered more comments than anything the Burrow has seen in its lifetime. And what lovely comments they are. It seems that I am not the only library scofflaw here in the blogosphere, and that paying up is not a problem for either of us. I knew I liked you! Loving real books has kept me from being an early Kindle adopter. The thought of having any book I want immediately available is nearly orgasmic..... but I won't really have the book then, will I? The real, palpable sensation of the paper between my fingers makes a difference to me. Dick Francis writes on bright white paper with a sharp edged easy to read font. Faye Kellerman has put Blindman's Bluff on a thick ecru with feathery edges that make me feel like I'm holding personalized stationary. My Ulysses is printed on an almost slick off white surface that is absolutely perfect for writing notes - and Ulysses , if it is nothing else, is a text which requires notes. T...