Military Romance Author
by Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
It’s time! The new “Peanuts” movie opens today. Does life get any better than that? Snoopy is my hero from his military service to his Joe Cool shades and fantastic Latin dance moves. Plus he’s a writer, I have his books. Looks like this movie has it all.
What better way to spend the weekend than a visit with the Peanuts gang. Crank up the sound and let’s all boogie with Snoopy! A dog’s work is never done.
Happy Quirky Friday and have a great weekend!
by Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
This year is flying by and I realized I don’t have any Halloween decorations up at home. My last luncheon visit to my favorite antique store I stumbled upon this snappy skull dressed with a tiara. Now I’m not that thrilled with skulls, but I’m a big fan of tiaras so I had to take a pic. Decorating idea. In my case the tiara would be on a pumpkin. A baby pumpkin.
I won a pumpkin decorating contest at the day job one year with a miniature pumpkin decked out in a mini Santa hat and sunglasses. No carving even. I’m lazy. It’s all in the presentation folks.
Organizing the candy shelf at home this past weekend, it used to be a bowl but it grew, I unearthed some leftover candy from last Halloween. Not sure how that happened, but miracles do occur during the holidays.
The sunrises and sunsets are getting closer together now and all I want to do is hunker down with a book, bottle and blankie. My bottle would be filled with chocolate milk. I’m a wild one! With the urge to hibernate coming on, I focus on the holidays to distract me from the short dark days. Plus I look forward to staying inside and reading.
A member of my writer group mentioned there might be another pumpkin shortage. I went straight to the store and loaded up on Libby’s canned pumpkin and Carnation evaporated milk. Safe for another year. I may still have some pumpkin leftover from the last shortage scare. Might this be a marketing ploy at some point?
I also picked up a new pumpkin spice muffin mix I saw at the grocery store. Plus I’m on the hunt for my special pumpkin chips I can buy only at this time of the year. Which is another reason why the repair person will be installing a new motor in my treadmill in a week; I actually killed the motor. Heaven knows I cannot go into the holidays without a working treadmill. It’s the calorie grazing season!
Hope you all are enjoying your pre-Halloween test candy so we can all go out and buy the real Halloween candy for the treaters.
Happy Snacking? Got candy? Run for the pumpkin products too!
by Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
When I took a three-month camping trip to Europe in 1983, I carried 70 rolls of film with me. Some of my best shots were sticking the camera out the window and just shooting. Shit shots, I called them. Nothing to lose!
On our recent adventure to Hood River we went to one of the Columbia River parks for a look-see before heading home. It had started to rain and the wind was whipping up in the gorge, so I did my usual and took a few pictures from the car window. Just like in Europe. (Yes, I rolled the window down.)
Sometimes the most important thing as a photographer is to just take the shot. I had some cars coming toward me and I was about to hold up someone driving behind me, so I grabbed the shot. I’m pretty happy with it.
One of the reasons I always carry one of my little Canon Elph cameras with me is I never know when I might see a photo I need to take. Kind of like the Boy Scouts, always prepared. Which includes a fully charged backup battery too.
With the leaves starting to change colors and the pumpkin decorations everywhere, this is a great time of year to capture the golden light in the morning and evening. You don’t need a ton of equipment or to even get out of your car; be lazy and creative. You might be able to use the photo for a blog post.
Whether taking pictures on the road, in your own backyard or trying to capture your pet’s latest antics, for us photo freaks it’s always a good day to take a picture. The weather folks say the rains are coming in this week. Yeah! Cloud and rain pictures! Woo Hoo!
by Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
It’s official; I’m retro. Was shopping at Target the other day and happened upon this display of “retro” games. Hah! I dearly remember Candyland. And Twister, And Rock Em’ Sock Em’ Robots. But besides the fact I prefer the word vintage, I’ll go with retro. Sounds kind of cool.
I also noticed retro games are not necessarily cheap either. So maybe being retro is cool and expensive. According to the three pit crews it takes to keep me together, that is correct.
So in honor of the last days of August, I’m going to take my retro butt over to the couch for a nap and leave you all with games to ponder. What was your favorite game growing up? Do you still own it? Do you think they will make it retro too?
My friend Michelle loved Mystery Date and that summed up her social life until she met her husband. Me, I was more into the Clue game, still do love mysteries! Which also sums up my dating life.
Enjoy these August days of summer. I’ve noticed the summer morning light changing from yellow to a golden hue in the morning. I’m also watering the garden in the dark these days, which is a clue to the change of seasons.
Might just be time to stock up on some retro board games. Personally, I’m going to go dig out my vintage Yahtzee game. I’m in the mood to roll me some dice!
by Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
It is definitely catch-up time. So many fun things have been happening! Our favorite airport carpet was featured as the Grand Marshall at the Portland Rose Festival Starlight Parade. “PeeDee” rode in a fabulous red Cadillac and made quite the entrance.
Since we are ga-ga over our old teal carpet currently being replaced by new green carpet we haven’t bonded with yet, there is an entire industry of shoes, ties, mugs, you name it with the old carpet pattern. Even the pace truck for Saturday’s Portland Rose Festival Grand Floral Parade was wrapped in the pattern.
SO, of course you can imagine that I had a shoe selfie taken when we arrived back from Maui last month, so here is my photo complete with sparkly toes! This is not considered odd behavior by the way, shoe selfies with the old PDX carpet is the thing to do here while we all race to get pics taken before all the carpet is replaced.
Worthy of a “Portlandia” episode, we love our old carpet and it has risen to great heights; including a limited edition shoe from Trailblazer Damian Lillard. Only in Oregon, I guess. We take Keep Portland Weird to the MAX (Also the name of our lightrail train).
It was a very hot and toasty weekend and yesterday hit 91 degrees, so even though you might think the hot weather explains all the PDX carpet-mania, it doesn’t. I think what it really explains is that I was born in the right city, Quirky Portland, Oregon. Because if everybody is a little odd, we all fit in!
P.S. I just registered to get in line for some used PDX airport carpet. Keep your fingers crossed!
www.pdxcarpetstore.com
www.twitter.com/pdxcarpet
by Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
Few things get me more excited than word of a new book by a favorite author. Double that when the book is about creativity and I’d only heard rumors about it until recently. So, while I am marking my calendar for September 22nd this year, I wanted to share the info with those of you like-minded creative types. The new book was announced Jan. 12th, but I’ve been oblivious I guess.
Elizabeth Gilbert’s new book is “Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear.” I’m figuring out whether to take vacation time from the day job to hit the bookstore first thing that morning and/or pre-order it from her “Two Buttons” store so I can get an autographed copy. I’m thinking both. Why deny myself?
I’ve come to realize I prefer getting a paperback or hard copy of non-fiction books because highlighting on my ereader makes a mess; kidding, but not quite. Physically underlining words on a page reinforces the learning process of the brain and I can use all the education help I can get. Plus, I’m addicted to those Post-It Note Flags.
So for all of us creative types, and that is pretty much everybody on the planet, more book fun to come. Plus the cover is partly pink! Living the dream!
P.S. The Portland Rose Festival is in grand swing now and Fleet Week starts on Wednesday. Check out the link to see which ships are coming for a visit. Too fun! Brings back high school days memories; seeing sexy U.S. and Canadian Navy uniforms. But I can’t swim for beans or chocolate so into the Army and Air Force I went! http://www.rosefestival.org/event/fleet-week-4-3
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