Monday Morning Quarterbacking and stuff...

The Super Bowl is over for another year. I'm not much of a football fan, but even I know enough to appreciate all the after-the-game discussion and analyzing. I'm surrounded by football fans. I'm surrounded by New York Giants fans so there was much high-fiving and excited exclamations after the game. And now we're done until next year. Congratulations to the Giants on their win.

Over the weekend I acquired a new mouse. That may not seem like such a big deal but this is a replacement for my last super-duper, does-everything-except-walk-the-dog mouse that lasted for five years. Naturally, in five years the company has added "improvements" to the old mouse design. I'm not sure what-all this new mouse will do and it will probably take me five years to figure it all out, but it's up and running so that's what counts at the moment.

I also bought a new printer. I believe that I've printed eight pages out so far. It took me nearly an hour to figure out how to print the first page--a print of my new cover for Daffodil. I was aiming for a full-page print out and ended up with a quarter page. Three sheets later after much poking through the various screens, I finally ended up with a full-sized print of the cover. Gorgeous if I do say so myself. Once it's approved by all the powers that be, I'll put it up on my webpage, the blogs, and everywhere else I can think of. In the meantime, I'm still learning about all the handy-dandy things that I can do with my printer.

You would think that would be enough to deal with, but nooooo. Not only did the mouse die last week, but the telephone and the microwave did too. The new microwave is a marvel I'm sure. It would be nice if I could make heads or tails of the directions which were no doubt written by a cousin of the man who wrote Amarinda's directions for her blinds. It's makes some pretty strange noises, but there is a definite line in the book that indicates that thumping noises are normal. I suppose I'll eventually get used to the racket. It does a wondrous job with popcorn and reheating the coffee.

The telephone is another matter entirely. I imagine it will take at least a year before I figure out all the functions. There is one thing that I think I'll work on this morning though and that is something called an address book. Apparently I can input a bunch of phone numbers. If it will let me put them in with the prefix "1" that we have to use with every number in Baltimore, then baby, I'm set. I will be ecstatically happy if I don't have to unearth my little paper phone book everytime I want to make a call.

Of course, I'm not going to have that much time to play with the new electronic toys today. This afternoon from one p.m. to eight p.m. EST, the ladies from the Eternally Yours contest and I will be chatting at Love Romances Cafe. We would love to have you join us for lively conversation and excerpts. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LoveRomancesCafe/ is where we'll be hanging out.

Then tomorrow after we've tempted you with some interesting and enticing excerpts, our Eternally Yours contest begins. It's really very simple. Click on the links. Search the blogs or webpages that the links take you to and find the author who completed the phrase, "My darling I could spend eternity…" Write down the phrase and the author's name. Repeat each day until you have all ten entries and then e-mail them to me at anny@annycook.com That's it!

There are a couple other contests here and there. Some of the authors are running private contests on their websites. I have a February scavenger hunt on my website at http://www.annycook.com/ so go over there and find the Contest Box where you'll find all the directions and rules for the contest. Kelly also has a contest with a wonderful prize. Check it at at her blog at http://www.kkirch.blogspot.com/ Amarinda just finished a contest with a prize of a free download of Shades of Gray, her new vampire novel. Yummmm. But I'm sure that she'll be running another impromtu contest any day now so make sure you check her blog at http://www.amarindajones.blogspot.com/ as often as you can. After all, you don't want to miss out on your chance next time, right?

Blessings on your day.

Anny