I have over a hundred books in my TBR book shelf. These are books I have acquired over several years – books that I am looking forward to reading. All of them are books by many of my favorite authors, so they are “tried and true” books for me. I know that none of them will disappointment.

So, what would compel me to go out and buy three more books? And then, upon finishing the first in this author’s series go out and get eight more books in her other cozy series?!?

I have written about a good friend of mine who shares my taste in Cozy Mysteries several times before. We met over ten years ago, when both of us belonged to two different online mystery book groups. She recently told me about a Cozy Mystery author she has been reading AND enjoying a lot. My taste in Cozies is so similar to hers that I quickly ordered the first book in this author’s new series. Well, I just finished the first book, and her recommendation is greatly appreciated! I am now reading a second book by that author.

When I first started the Cozy Mystery site I only posted authors who I had read. That was a few years ago, and although there were quite a few authors on the site back then, it has grown a lot. (Thanks to Cozy site readers who have recommended so many authors for me to add.) So, I already had this particular author on the site… She had been recommended by several people. I used to try to keep up with reading the recommended authors… but I found that I just couldn’t. So, I slowly try new authors who look particularly interesting to me. (This author is one of those writers who I put on my list of authors to definitely try… but it would have taken me a while to get to her, as that list is rather long.) I am currently reading the first cozy in her other series.

Now I have over a hundred, PLUS nine new books in my TBR book shelf!

PS>>> I’m writing my Monday’s blog right now, in which I talk about my new Cozy Author…

OK! I’m off on another rant! So, be forewarned!

Have you noticed that lately, while watching American TV shows (as in USA shows>>> Yes, yes, I know: South America, Central America, Canada…) it has gotten to look like all of the actors are competing on who got the whitest veneers? (I think that is the name for those things. It’s either that or luminaries, sort of like crowns, but I believe a whole lot more expensive!) Right when you see an actor open his  mouth, with the whiter than white teeth, an actress smiles and you see a dozen miniature flashbulbs go off!

Am I the only one who finds these “dazzling-est of dazzling” teeth distracting?!?  It has gotten to a point where even the actors who are playing street people, upon opening their mouths, sport their dentists’ over-zealous whitening techniques.

I’m not advocating that we stop using “All-Whitening Crest/Colgate,” but really… is a blindingly bright snow-scape what we are now going for? I mean, just how white is white?

Oh well, I guess that if I was able to get used to anorexic actresses who are “top heavy,” I will soon get used to these new developments in our society. Oh, Brave New World….

As some of you know, I often write about non-cozy/mystery topics. Today I am doing just that:

I truly thought that I had seen everything… well, almost everything! But, something uniquely different happened about twenty years ago, or at least it’s been unique enough that I have never met anyone with the same experience.

This was back when our children were still very young… They were probably two and four years old. We lived in a split-level house in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. As you entered the front door, you had to make a decision to either go up or down the stairs. The family room was downstairs, which was the children’s play room. I was lucky enough not to have to work outside of the home, so our children and I spent many hours playing downstairs in our family room. (I divided their toys into plastic clothes hampers that we kept in a  closet so that I could rotate them every three or four days. We would have puzzles, building toys, board games, etc. in those hampers, and by rotating them, the children never got tired of any of their toys.)

One morning, the three of us were downstairs playing and I kept thinking that I could hear something very faint. I could not figure out what it was, and since it wasn’t a continuous noise, I couldn’t pinpoint where it was originating. We would play, I would hear the noise, we would stop playing, I would try to find the source, the noise would stop, ETC. This went on for a little while, and I was becoming increasingly frustrated by that doggone noise.

Finally, I was able to find where the noise was coming from… but it didn’t make any sense! We had a fireplace in the room on which we had put a glass door, since we had very young children. (“You can never be too careful!” was our motto.) And, thank goodness for that!!! You cannot imagine how scared and shocked I was to find that we had a little visitor sitting in that fireplace. Looking at me from behind that glass partition, in a corner of the fireplace sat a squirrel that had apparently come down from the rooftop. YIKES!!! That was an unexpected source of fun for both of our children, but not for their mom!

PS>>> I hired someone to get our little visitor so that he could be freed back outside where he belonged!