A Day For Us

I have been busy cranking out a couple of thousand words a day on my new Big Lake book while Terry has been occupied with bookkeeping, household tasks, and all the other things she does to keep our home and business running smoothly. So yesterday I declared it was an “us day,” and we were going to get out of the house and spend time together doing whatever we felt like.

We started out by going to a very nice quilt store called the Ark Shoppe in Pinetop, looking for some thread that Terry needed. W didn’t find the thread, but we did make a new friend in the owner and had a very nice conversation with her. As it turns out, she has a daughter who is a student at Show Low High School, and she knows our daughter Tiffany, who is the attendance clerk there. Everywhere we go, we run into people who know Tiffany and Kenny. I guess they’re the family celebrities.

We also visited a couple of antique shops, Bear Wallow and Vintage Sisters, where we found some small goodies that followed us home, along with a couple of framed prints Terry wanted. By then we were getting hungry, so we went to Tipsy Hippy, one of our favorite restaurants in the area. I had barbecued wings and Terry had fish tacos, both of which were delicious.

Our last stop of the day was at Lowe’s to pick up a new controller for the misting system in the greenhouse, some plants Terry wanted, along with garden soil, fertilizer, and things like that. I think there were twenty bags, and it was hard work getting it all loaded into the back of the pickup truck, but we got it done.

Back at home, we spent time playing with the critters, watched a couple of hours of television and the evening news, and that was it. The end of a very pleasant “us day.” But every day is great when you’re hanging out with your best friend in life, isn’t it?

It’s Thursday, so it’s time for a new Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an autographed copy of Birdsongs by Jason Deas, who was featured in this week’s Author Spotlight. This first book in the Benny James mystery series is a fast-paced story about a former FBI agent fired for inadvertently sleeping with the perp in a murder case. Benny decides to retire to his houseboat and disappear, but before long boredom sets in, and he starts a service offering discrete investigations. He had no idea what he was in for when the local police department asked him to help solve the case of a body found crucified near his marina. Soon the media descends on the quiet waterfront town. Close on their heels are an ex-convict fresh out of prison with revenge on his mind and a strange young man raised by deaf mute parents from deep in the Ozark Mountains. Benny soon finds himself struggling to solve the most important case of his life and redeem his tarnished reputation.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 30 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – The great part about living in a small town is that when I don’t know what I’m doing, someone else surely does.