HOW TIME FLIES

Well, 2 + months have gone by since I last put fingers to keyboard to put my thoughts into published copy.

I have not been idle: I have now 2 stories on Amazon.com - soon both will be on Kindle and Nook.

I have located a cousin of my husband's on his biological mother's side of the family.  The cousin gave me some information and I located 5 biological siblings of my husbands': 2 brothers, unfortunately both deceased - one in 2003 and the other just this year, 2012.  Still working on the 3 sisters, this is a little harder as woman change their last names through marriage, sometimes more than once. It is back to the drawing board to locate children of the 2 brothers.  Hopefully I can find them with the help of our newly found cousin.

I am working on another story and have another one in the research and gathering information stage.

Well dog days of summer are upon us. Time to be lazy and keep cool.

Monte and the Car Show

Once a year Culver City closes streets to traffic close to "our" Starbucks, usually on that day we go to a Starbucks a little further away.  Today is the day the streets are closed; my husband and I decided to walk to "our" Starbucks, it is only 3 blocks way and of course Monte joined us.  Monte being a terrier has to stop and sniff every blade of grass and tree trunk on the way, which makes walking a fairly slow process.  He also does not like crowds and big dogs.  We took his stroller with us and when we got to the crowds we put him in it - as you can see I really does not mind being in the stroller.  He was the talk of the Car Show and the smiles it brought to peoples faces, especially the children made the walk around well worth it.  My husband and I were able to enjoy the show also as we did not have to worry about Monte getting underfoot or barking at some of the other dogs.  We took him out of the stroller once we had cleared the cars and people and he walked home. I should write to Pet Gear and thank them for the stroller, it really was a good investment, maybe Monte could be their poster dog?!!

Ah, A Dog's Life!!!

My dog, Monte does not get very excited or show emotion about anything. When do we know he is excited, he dances in circles otherwise known as his “happy dance”. These are the only times he does this.
• Seeing his leash and knowing he is going for a walk or just out.
• Seeing a dog that he likes.
• That “special” blue bag; he cannot see the color but he somehow recognizes “that” bag.
That bag is his overnight bag. When my husband goes out of town and is able to take Monte with him I pull out the “special” bag and he sits and watches me while I pack it. He knows he is going on a trip. The trips are mostly to Palm Springs in California; Monte loves Palm Springs, it is very dog friendly. My husband usually will get a room on the lower level with sliding glass doors opening onto the grass area surrounding the pool. Monte loves to run on the grass then he will lie down in the sun and soak up the rays. The pool – forget it he doesn’t like water. If he is out walking and someone’s sprinklers are on, he wants to cross the street to avoid the water. He will lie by the pool if my husband decides to go for a swim.
Monte’s overnight bag contains of course his food and “goodies”. A must is his suntan lotion – oh yes dogs do get sunburned, his sun visor and of course his sun goggles. I haven’t told him yet but tomorrow his bag is coming out of the cupboard as he is going on a trip.

Talk again real soon.

What a nice surprise

I have just finished reading a very exciting book called "Once On A Cold and Grey September" written by Brendan Gerad O'Brien. This is a MUST read; although some details may be a little upsetting to some, especially people in the UK who are of an age that they remember the happenings of World War II. I chose to read this particular book, not just for the subject matter but - call me strange - September was the month one of my sisters was born. This particular sister also lived in Los Angeles (close by)sadly she passed away very suddenly December of 2004.

My surprise: I logged onto the website for Brendan and left a comment on the book, lo and behold I received a PERSONAL email in return from him; I replied to his email enquiring about a sequel to the above mentioned book and he informed me by return email he is working on one!!!! My reply email to Brendan included links to a couple of articles I had written for a community website where I lived in England before immigrating to the United States and a link to my blog. Brendan read my blog which in one of them I mentioned my book and he thought it was great that I was also an "author".

Well duty calls; namely Monte my dog who needs me to take him for a walk.

TTFN

Toni

Wonders of Modern Technology

Ah, modern technology what did we ever do when I was growing up and a teenager without these wonderful "inventions".

New Year's Eve at 6:30pm in Los Angeles, California, I sat at my computer and "up pops" my nephews name in the land of OZ. I clicked on his name and "Viola" there he was in front of me, sitting in his tank top and shorts explaining that it was 41c or 105f at that time 1pm New Year's Day in the land of OZ. My husband and I had the pleasure of seeing my nephew and his wife in 2005 when they stopped briefly in Los Angeles at the end of a vacation. This New Year's Day I was introduced to his children and their children.

I also, with my husband and dog got to see my sister-in-law - I had not seen her since they immigrated to Australia in the 50's. Sadly my brother had died shortly after their arrival in Australia but my sister-in-law is still going strong at 92 years old and she doesn't look/sound or think any different to people I know at the age of 80 years old, God bless her.

Now that I have experienced this I will have to get the rest of my family or at least some of them to invest in a camera for their computer and register with Skype as it is free to register and subsequent calls are also free. WOW what a bargain, talk and see people FREE.

Well must close this as I still need to work on the last chapter of my book, hopefully this will be totally finished in a few months. I also need to send a few emails - another wonder of technology - no need to wait for "snail-mail".

Toodles - will talk again soon.

More family located

Several months ago I corresponded on Genes Reunited with a gentlemen who had posted for information on a person with my mother's name. He allowed me to view his family tree which showed his great grandfathers and great grandmother's names to be the same as my mum's mother and father. In checking further it showed the children of the grandparents to be the same as my mother's siblings. The gentleman then informed me that he had received wrong information; when he checked his grandfather's marriage certificate it showed a different name for his father.

About a month ago I looked and found another gentleman looking for a person with my mother's name. To make this story short he is the brother of the previous gentleman I mentioned and he told me that for some reason his grandfather had put down a wrong name as his father on his marriage certificate. He also checked his grandfather's birth certificate to make sure and it did indeed show his father's name as the same as my mother's father.

These two gentlemen are my mother's great nephews and my 2nd cousins. Hopefully they will keep in touch with me as I want to find out all I can about my mother's life before she married my Dad. I don't know if they can shed any light on that as all of my mother's sibling are deceased; but maybe they will have some "stories" to pass along.

Merry Christmas to everyone and a Happy New Year.

Lovely Day

I know this sounds strange but today in Los Angeles is, to me, a lovely day. 7am this morning is was raining and the temperature was about 55 degrees. When I left the house at 8:30am to run errands and get my morning Starbucks the rain had stopped however it was quite cold and breezy. Home again at 11am, still dry until 12pm just as my groceries were being delivered it started to rain and continued until 2am. It has stayed dry but cold, 63 degrees at 3:30pm. I much prefer this type of day as my energy level is higher. The hot days of "summer" make me very lazy.

The only draw back to the rain is my dog Monte prefers not to venture out to do "his business", however he does in his trench coat and we pretend he is Sherlock Bones when he investigates every bush and plant; "hot on the trail my dear Watson".

As most animal lovers know, especially those without children, treat their dogs/cats as their "children".

Well, I will now wait for some more rain to arrive, should be tomorrow night according to the weather man.