Happy Weekend!

Rest and relax! anny

Life Skills

As you make your way through life, you acquire strange little skills and odd bits of experience that you usually never expect to use. And then the day arrives when you need that odd skill in a way you never imagined.

In this day of job shortages and down-sizing and retraining, one of the bits of advice that job coaches are sharing is to think out of the box, look at your skills with an eye toward how those skills are related to new jobs you're applying for.

In the past I worked for a small manufacturing company where I ran a drill press to drill holes in knobs, McDonald's, Friendly's, a Waldenbooks warehouse, and a county-wide school where my position was executive secretary. I also taught adult education vocational classes at that last job. Filling out a resume or a job application can be a challenge. But there are commonalities in all my past jobs.

One of the skills I have in common from every one of my employers was that I was the job trainer for new employees. Nope, that wasn't in my job description when I started, but in some strange way, training became one of my duties every time.

In each job, I also wrote and compiled a manual for the job. Hmmm. That wasn't in my job description, either. But it seems that most jobs need some type of reference manual--whether one done professionally by an outside agency, or one done in-house.

Every one of those employers needed an inventory compiled. In all but one job, I made up the forms and process as I went along. But the job was finished and the counts were accurate.

Along the way, I've picked up other oddments of information that I'll use one day. I'm convinced that nothing we learn is wasted. When the day arrives that I desperately need a skill or information, it will be ready to hand.

What is the strangest skill you have acquired in life?

anny

Review!

"I just wanted to squeeze Joe Harris. What a sweety! He handled Becky with kid gloves when appropriate, but also treated her like a woman. Becky, though she’s had a hard time, was no shrinking violet. Their romance moves along nicely until Joe drops an unintentional bomb on Becky. Her interpretation of his comment makes for a tense moment or two, but Joe saves the day. And he saves Becky too, in more ways than one. A delightfully romantic and steamy read."--Chris of Night Owl Reviews, 4.25 out of 5

To read the entire review...NOR!

Tonight the authors of the Carnal Reunions anthology will be having a chat at Coffee Time Erotic. We'll be there from 7 PM-9 PM. I hope you'll join us for sample excerpts and perhaps... a contest or two!

Wow! The suggestions for the Assassin's Creed were fabulous! Thank you so much for playing! The winner (picked by my daughter in a random draw) of the autographed copy of Carnal Camelot was Jacquéline Roth! Congratulations, Jacquéline! Get in touch with me about a snail mail addy so I can mail this out!

anny

Assassin's Creed

So I'm tootling around looking at e-mails and stuff and I see this list of "most popular searches today" and lo and behold, number ten was "assassin's creed".

Now I'm a literal minded person so I thought. Hmmm. Assassin's have a creed? What the heck kind of creed would a bunch of assassins have? Maybe like, "don't kill innocent bystanders" or "collateral damage is not acceptable". Or it could maybe be "if possible assassinations should look like an accident" or "don't carry out a mission when children are present".

Anyway, curiosity got the best of me, I admit! So I clicked on "assassin's creed" and... it's a game. Bummer. Who would name a GAME something like that? Apparently, the second version of it is coming out so there are all these posts and forums about the new game. Gah.

That's sort of like searching for information on fairy lore and only finding pages about fairy characters from Dragons and Dungeons type games. I was soooo disappointed.

So I've decided to put together my own ASSASSINS CREED. And I need your help. Put in your suggestions. I'll be drawing one entry at random for a free autographed copy of Carnal Camelot. So make 'em good.

anny

Doll House

When all your belongings are packed up in a storage facility--including your toys--things can get sticky. This last weekend my granddaughter wistfully mentioned her Barbie dollhouse. The next thing I knew, my daughter had an empty cardboard box and she was requesting a craft knife, heavy duty tape and scissors.

Then there were intermittent requests for other items... glue, fabric remnants, yarn, etc. I remembered a box full of craft items I purchased years ago with the intent to create a Christmas village. We dug those out of the closet, discovering with delight that there were long forgotten items such as miniature candle sticks and tiny clay pots.

With a flare of creativity, Mama and the girls decorated their house with repurposed foam furniture, toilet paper "log seats" out by the fire pit on the patio, and an aluminum foil mirror over the couch. The addition of about five dollars worth of doll house odds and ends from the craft store finished off the house.

Since then, the little one has happily played with her dolls in the doll house. Happy and contented--even proud, because she helped create the doll house.
Overall, it beats her last set of toys--one of my pots and the clothes hamper. Amazing how little it takes to entertain kids, isn't it?

anny

Doctor's Visit

I can with confidence state that I'm not contagious. No flu, no strep, not even a cold. After a visit to my new doctor--mostly to convince my family that I'm not going to kill them all off with my new virus--I can assure them they're all safe.

First the doctor's visit. It was fabulous. We went to the clinic at 5 PM on Saturday night, prepared to wait a long time. Walked right in. Registered. The nurse, a real cute guy named Chris came right out and took me back for the usual weigh, bp, temp, etc. No temp! BP was good, lost four pounds... all good. Then we went into one of the little exam rooms where he swabbed me for strep and flu--not fun at all--and whisked off to check the results.

After a bit, a very pleasant (also attractive) doctor came in. First thing he said? "You can take off the mask. You're not contagious!" After a few more questions and listening to my lungs, etc., he pronounced me over-all healthy. I have a mild sinus infection and the reason for the cough??? Allergies. Something in my apartment doesn't like me.

He ordered an antibiotic and an allergy meds. Prescriptions were ready before I even had a chance to get re-dressed. We paid $10 each for the prescriptions on the way out the door.

Total time from leaving to returning home? One hour. Really pleasant people and a quick visit. I think I'm gonna like my new doctors.

Do I feel better? Maybe a little in that way that you feel better because you know you have a perfectly ordinary cold instead of the H1N1. Still coughing intermittently for no apparent reason. My family is now taking my allergy/asthma difficulties seriously as we slowly work our way room by room to clear out whatever it is that's setting off the coughing attacks.

And today? Today, I'm going to get back to writing! There are tales to tell and stories to write! What about you? What are you doing today?

anny

Happy Weekend!

Yay! The week is over. Long live the weekend!

anny