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Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books, Movies, and TV

UPS DIM… Hmmm…

August 23, 2009

I know that this doesn’t qualify AT ALL as a Cozy mystery book entry, but we just found out about this information and I thought of all of the money I have wasted by not knowing about it… I am guessing that there are a lot of you out there who have been doing the same wa$teful thing, al$o. So, here goes:

For years, I have been shipping packages to my mother and brother (from San Antonio) to Colorado Springs. Each year, I always thought I was so clever to be able to cram as many of the Christmas and birthday packages into one large box as possible. Usually that meant that I sent about three large boxes for Christmas and another two large boxes for birthdays. Wasn’t I clever?!? I always RE-use the styrofoam popcorn I receive throughout the year by placing it gingerly between the breakable items and the non-breakable. Oh boy! Does this large box have room for yet another package?

Back to the reason for this post>>>

My daughter is leaving for the Boston area this week, and since it would have taken us three days to drive there with our car absolutely stuffed to the top (which meant two nights in a hotel each way of the trip) we decided to price what it would cost to ship all of her “necessities” for the three years she will be out there.

Boy!!! Was I ready for this challenge! I had been saving all of the largest of our boxes for quite some time, to use for my Colorado Springs Christmas and birthday shipping…

What a surprise to find out (my husband searched around on the internet to price different shipping costs) that UPS has a very $ub$tantial price hike after you hit a certain size of box. It appears that UPS calculates the square inches of each box, and after a certain amount of square inches you pay a huge (what I call) penalty. [In case you are interested in seeing the square inches, the place he found is Uline. It even tells you how to calculate UPS’ DIM (“dimensional weight”) guideline: 3 cubic feet (5,184 cubic inches)… And since I haven’t needed to calculate cubic inches since high school geometry, I appreciated the help!] Each of our boxes weighed under 50 pounds, which seemed to be the weight limit for the box size that we chose to use. I was actually surprised by how much stuff I could stuff into a box and still keep it under 50 pounds.

We ended up sending twelve of the correct square-inched boxes, which will be waiting in her dorm room when she arrives. She will be flying to Boston, which will actually end up saving us money on the four nights of hotels, restaurant/fast food stops, and a lot of driving time. Of the three, I will miss the driving time. My daughter and I have a lot of laughs when we drive for long (or short!) distances… But this way, we can use that time more wisely at home.

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Church Choir Mystery Book Series List of Books…

August 21, 2009

I have received several letters asking that I find more Cozy mystery books that are “faith-based.” With this in mind, I posted the

Heartsong Presents Mystery Book Series

Mystery and the Minister’s Wife Mystery Book Series a while back,

and today I just posted the Church Choir Mystery Book Series.

I believe that both the Heartsong Presents and the Church Choir mystery book series were types of book clubs in the past. Since I was not a member of either of these series, I don’t know exactly how they worked… I don’t know whether they sent out a given number of books each month, or if you picked and chose which books you wanted each month. Either way, the mystery books appealed (and still do!) to many.

Here is an update: I have added the Hope Haven Book Series (not mysteries)

and the Home to Heather Creek Book Series (not mysteries) to the site. Both series are published by Guideposts.

Also, I have added Tales from Grace Chapel Inn (not mysteries) to the site.

If you want lists, I’ve got them!!! I also have a list of mystery book authors who do not use profanity in their books…

I hope that those of you who have requested these mystery book lists can use them as starting points…

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Another 100° +++ Day, but Who's Counting?!?

August 19, 2009

I try to call my mother at least once a week, but lately, hearing about the “cold spell” they are experiencing is getting old! I know that she doesn’t mean to complain about the temperatures dropping into the low 70°, but hearing about those “cold” temperatures in August makes me yearn for the days when I (too) lived in Colorado Springs!

My husband and I are starting to ponder where we might want to retire in the not-so-near future, and it isn’t in San Antonio! In the past, both of us assumed that San Antonio would be where we eventually retired. But, this last summer has been particularly difficult for us. Just walking across a parking lot is something I dread in these over 100°  days.

Sprite (our 14 1/2 year old “puppy”) is going through a time of blissful ignorance… Poor little Sprite… We have to be sure to watch her when she goes outside because she frequently lays down in the sun, on dried-up grass that we are only allowed to water once a week (our night is Thursday, and we get a very limited time span in which we are allowed to water.) If we aren’t particularly diligent, Sprite will simply lay down >>> never in the shade >>> and pant, pant, pant.

Because of Sprite, we have never wanted to “attract” birds, squirrels, or (of course!!!) the neighbors’ cats to our yard. But this year, my husband and I felt like we simply had to go buy a bird bath to put outside. After seeing several squirrels laying on tree branches as if they were going to pass out, we visited our neighborhood Home Depot and bought one. Slowly, the birds and squirrels are getting the word out… WATER!!!

As for Sprite, the little animals don’t seem to bother her. She would have enjoyed running after the squirrels a few years ago, but now she seems oblivious to them. She does enjoy inspecting her backyard domain in the morning to make sure no nighttime trespassers are still on the premises… Then it’s off to nap it off!

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September 2009 Mystery Book New Releases…

August 17, 2009

The following mystery books will be released in September 2009:

Susan Wittig Albert: The Tale of Applebeck Orchard (This will be the 6th in The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter Mystery Series…)

Sarah Atwell (aka Sheila Connolly): Snake in the Glass (This will be the 3rd in the Glassblowing Mystery Series…)

Nevada Barr: 13 1/2 (This will be a Stand Alone….)

Stephanie Barron (aka Francine Mathews): The White Garden (This will be a Stand Alone…)

M. C. Beaton: There Goes the Bride (This will be the 20th in the Agatha Raisin Mystery Series…)

Claudia Bishop: A Plateful of Murder (This will include the first two mysteries in the Hemlock Falls Mystery Series…)

Mindy Starns Clark: Under the Cajun Moon (This will be a Stand Alone Southern Gothic Mystery…)

Ann Cleeves: Red Bones (This will be the 3rd in the Shetland Island Quartet…)

Margaret Coel: The Silent Spirit (This will be the 14th in the Wind River Mystery Series…)

Susan Rogers Cooper: Rude Awakening (This will be the 10th in the Milt Kovak Mystery Series…)

Clive Cussler (editor): Thriller 2: Stories You Just Can’t Put Down (This will be an Anthology…)

Clive Cussler w/Grant Blackwood: Spartan Gold (This will be the 1st in the NEW Sam & Remi Fargo Adventure Mystery Series…)

Carola Dunn: Sheer Folly (This will be the 18th in the Daisy Dalrymple Mystery Series…)

Kaitlyn Dunnett (aka Kathy Lynn Emerson): A Wee Christmas Homicide (This will be the 3rd in the Liss MacCrimmon Mystery Series…)

Aaron Elkins: Skull Duggery (This will be the 16th in the Gideon Oliver Mystery Series…)

Janet Evanovich: Between the Plums (This will include 3 of the Stephanie Plum holiday mystery books: Visions of Sugar Plums, Plum Lovin’ and Plum Lucky…)

Joanne Fluke: Plum Pudding Murder (This will be the 12th in the Hannah Swensen Cookie Jar Mystery Series…) (This will be a Christmas-themed mystery book…)

Charlaine Harris: Sookie Stackhouse 8-Copy Boxed Set (This will include the first 8 Sookie Stackhouse Books…)

Cynthia Harrod-Eagles: The Fourth Bill Slider Omnibus (This will contain Gone Tomorrow & Dear Departed…)

Sue Ann Jaffarian: Ghost à la Mode (This will be the 1st in the NEW Ghost of Granny Apples Mystery Series…)

Jonathan Kellerman: True Detectives (This will be the 24th in the Alex Delaware Mystery Series…)

Tracy Kiely: Murder at the Longbourne  (This will be the 1st in the  NEW Elizabeth Parker Mystery Series…)

William Krueger: Heaven’s Keep (This will be the 9th in the Cork O’Connor Mystery Series…)

John J. Lamb: The Treacherous Teddy (This will be the 5th in the Bear Collector’s Mystery Series…)

Victoria Laurie: Doom with a View (This will be the 7th in the Psychic Eye Mystery Series…)

Joyce & Jim Lavene: Ghastly Glass (This will be the 2nd in the Renaissance Faire Mystery Series…) (This will be a Halloween-themed mystery book…)

Kathryn Lilley: Makeovers Can Be Murder (This will be the 3rd in the Fat City Mystery Series…)

Jess Lourey: September Fair (This will be the 5th in the Murder by Month Mystery Series…)

Debbie Macomber: 92 Pacific Boulevard (This will be the 9th in the Cedar Cove Series…) (Actually August 25…) (Not a mystery book…)

Beverle Graves Myers: Her Deadly Mischief (This will be 5th in the Baroque Mystery Series…)

Clare O’Donohue: A Drunkard’s Path (This will be the 2nd in the Someday Quilts Mystery Series…)

Sara Paretsky: Hardball (This will be the 14th in the V.I. Warshawski Mystery Series…)

James Patterson w/Martin Dugard: The Murder of King Tut (This will be a Stand Alone…)

Richard North Patterson: The Spire (This will be a Stand Alone….)

Louise Penny: The Brutal Telling (This will be the 5th in the Armand Gamache Mystery Series…)

Alexander McCall Smith: The Lost Art of Gratitude (This will be the 6th in the Isabel Dalhousie Series…)

Livia J. Washburn: Killer Crab Cakes (This will be the 4th in the Fresh-Baked Mystery Series…)

Sharon Wildwind: Missing, Presumed Wed (This will be the 4th in the Pepperhawk/Avivah Rosen Mystery Series…)

♦To go back to the Cozy Mystery Book New Releases page click here♦

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