Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Happy New Year


I hope you're having a good start to the New Year, whether you're shooting off fireworks, pounding mochi, watching a ball or something else drop, or whatever. We're doing well. I hoped to bake mochi (Japanese rice flour pastries) tonight, but I'll just have to do that tomorrow. No, baking it isn't traditional, but I'm not Japanese. {wink, Smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Merry Christmas, etc.


 
Merry Christmas! I hope you had a good time, if you celebrate it, of course. {SMILE}
 
If you celebrated Yule a few days ago instead, I hope you had a good time then. {SMILE}
 
If you're still ramping up to the really big bash on New Year's Eve, I hope your preparations are going great, and you have a really good time next week. {SMILE}
 
And if you're doing what a few neighborhoods in my town do: started your party a little before Christmas and plan to keep going until after New Year's, I hope your party is going well, and continues to do so! {BIG SMILE, wink}
 
If you didn't do anything above, I hope you've still had some good days, and continue to do so. {SMILE}
 
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
 

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Ouch


I was just Telling Chicory thru her blog that I feel like a four-legged stool with only three legs. When things go good, I’m okay, but it doesn’t take much to make me tumble. (Emotionally speaking; my permanent vertigo is neither better nor worse than usual. {cross fingers}

Anyway, I’ve taken another emotional tumble for little reason. Ouch! {WINCE}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Expanded links

In case you're curious where else I'm active on the web, I just expanded the list of places I hang out. I also moved that list to the top of my sidebar, where it's much more noticeable. {Smile}

Not that I'm all that active on Facebook, but it's a good way to find out what I'm up to on Goodreads without actually joining Goodreads. {shrug, Smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Monday, December 2, 2013

GLUE!

My glue arrived today! {REALLY BIG GRIN, HUMONGOUS GRIN}

Oh, I know it’s silly to get excited about glue, but this isn’t student’s white glue, or even carpenter’s wood glue. Those you can find in many stores in most decent-sized town. No, this is acid-free book binder’s glue. (I’d had some, but mine had gone lumpy. I’m not using that glue, not even the still-liquid parts around the lumps.) There was one store in Hilo that carried it maybe a decade ago, but I think they closed. So it was make a special trip that would quite likely be fruitless, or hop on the web. I found DEMCO, a library supplies firm I’ve ordered from before, and they still had the kind I’d ordered before. It did work great, until it went lumpy. However, Amazon had some, too, and they’ll give you free shipping on large-enough orders. DEMCO won’t, and they will insist you give them your phone number if they’re going to send you anything. Amazon doesn’t. So I ordered a pint from Amazon, along with some acid free coverboards and a friend’s book that I’ve been meaning to order, to make the order big enough to qualify for that free shipping.

They wrote back promising to send the coverboards immediately, and the glue with the book when it comes out in January.

{groan, rub face} It’s the glue I want immediately! The coverboards can wait; Mom wants a paperback cause it’s lighter and takes less space. So I ordered another pint, and a few books that have been sitting on my wishlist long enough to be in danger of dropping out of print. They promised to send that order more promptly, glue and all. {Smile}

I still expected them to show up around the middle of the month. Nope. Today I got two packages. One had the coverboards, and the other had four books and both pints of glue. Yes, both pints. I’m not quite sure how that happened, but I’m certainly not complaining! {SMILE}

Anyway, now I can bind the booklet I promised to Mom. I can also bind a couple of books I found on the web that appear to be in the public domain that I think she’ll like. But she won’t get those until one or another of the upcoming gift occasions. With Christmas on December 25th, her and Dad’s anniversary on December 27th, and her birthday on January 21st, we have enough occasions coming soon. {SMILE}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Saturday, November 30, 2013

An invitation to questions

In a blog I recently started reading, the owner recently decided to give a quite detailed introduction of herself. I enjoyed reading it quite a bit. {Smile}

Then I wondered about doing something similar, and realized I didn’t know where to begin… or where to end, or what points to hit in between. {rueful smile}

I know there are a lot of things I don’t talk about. Usually it’s not because I want to keep secrets, but that I don’t realize anyone is interested. {shrug, spread hands, Smile}

I’m not entirely sure how to fix that. So far, all I’ve thought of is offering to answer any questions about me that you might have been wondering about. That’s by no means a perfect fix, since you might not think of some questions at all, but it’s what I’ve thought of so far. {spread hands, Smile}

So… any questions? I'm not likely to get offended, honest. {SMILE}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Thanksgiving


I'd like to wish a happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrated it today. {Smile}

To those who don't, I hope you had a good day. {GRIN, wink}

If you're interested, for us it was just the four of us. Valentine only jumped up on the table once, and got back down when scolded, so he didn't have to be exiled. He had as much turkey as he could cadge off of us. Mom, Dad and I had turkey, stuffing, succotash, cranberry sauce, and blueberry pie.

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Fridge update


Well, the fridge is fixed. It took most of Sunday morning, but it’s fixed. The fellow came, leveled the thing because it was tilted far too far back, and dumped hot water down the drain tube until it broke thru a surprisingly stubborn ice dam. I think he was about ready to open the thing up and see if a gecko had crawled into the tube when it finally started draining. Apparently that happened at least once before. {Smile}
 
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Repairs


We’ve had a bit of a repair saga this past week. The freezer has been icing up. On Tuesday, it got bad enough, the fan blades regularly hit the ice. So we tried defrosting it on our own Tuesday morning.

Then in the evening the toilet stopped flushing. It was definitely broken. Fortunately, we know a plumber lives a few houses down the street. Literally. So we called them that morning. He and his assistant looked at it before breakfast, fetched a part, and fixed it that morning. I do like quick service. {Smile}

The freezer had started icing up again Wednesday afternoon. Dad called a repairman. We expect him repairman tomorrow around 10. We’re more than a little surprised the repairman suggested working on a Sunday, but it was his idea, not ours. {spread hands, shrug} Since church starts too early for Dad and me anyway tomorrow, we might as well stay home and get our fridge fixed. Hopefully. {cross fingers, smile}

Just… don’t let anything else break. This is enough! {wry look}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Monday, October 28, 2013

Tsunami research

Well, it’s been almost two month since I learned my friend had died. I’m finally beginning to feel like writing again. Yes, it took me that long. I lost one of my best sounding boards, one of my most reliable beta readers… and that only covers the help she gave me with writing. There’s so much about her that I miss even more... {bite lips}

{STEADYING SIGH}

Anyway, I want to get back to writing. I know which story wants to get written. It involves the Widow Mere, her children, and a tsunami. So now I’m researching tsunami. Living in Hilo, I’m around tsunami stories a lot. Dad even has one; he outran the April Fool’s Tsunami (April 1, 1946) as a teenager right here in Hilo.  (I remember my friend saying she thought you couldn’t outrun a tsunami when I mentioned that in an email. Well, you can’t if you give it a fair start, but Dad wasn’t stupid enough to do that. He had at least a mile’s head start, and didn’t even hang around long enough to figure out how much more he might or might not have had. {Smile})

Unfortunately Dad’s story will only go so far with my story. He’s given me permission to base a story line on his experiences, but they only fit one of the six storylines I need. So I’m looking further afield. So far, I’ve found:
 

NONFICTION:


Dudley, Walter C. and Min Lee. 1998. Tsunami! 2d ed. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.


FICTION:


Buck, Pearl S. 1986. The Big Wave. New York: HarperTrophy.

Fredericks, Anthony D. 2007. The Tsunami Quilt. Chelsea, MI: Sleeping Bear Press.

Salisbury, Graham. 2007. Night of the Howling Dogs. New York: Random House.


No, it’s not a long list. At least I own all except the Pearl Buck, and I’ve ordered that through the public library.

Unfortunately, the Fredericks and Salisbury aren’t applicable like Dad’s story, and Walt Dudley’s co-author summarized things a bit too succinctly. (Walt’s a former co-worker of Dad’s, hence the nickname. I think he’d be shocked if I used his full first name, and not in a good way. {wink, GRIN}

Remembering how much help I got when I asked for recommendations of books with handicapped heroines, I thought I’d ask if anyone knew of some good books, TV shows, movies, etc. involving tsunami. I figure it’s worth a try. {SMILE}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Friday, October 11, 2013

A Concert


I went to a concert by the Escher String Quartet last night. I liked the music, and loved getting to go. {SMILE}

I haven't been to a concert in years, ever since Mom and Dad decided they couldn't sit thru a long concert between Mom's back's tendency to give her trouble, and Dad's need to put his feet up or walk around or something. He's not supposed to sit still for long periods of time. That pretty thoroughly messed up my transportation options, so I've been pretty much pretending that Hilo doesn't have any shows I want to see for several years now. {resigned smile}

They do have a few, like last night's concert. Fortunately, a friend who lives a block or two away offered to take me with her. I bought my ticket when I got there, and had a wonderful time. The music was pretty nice, especially since it was live. Even better, I got to see a few folks I haven't bumped into in years during the intermission. {SMILE}

I enjoyed myself so much, I'm trying to figure out how to do this a little more often. I'm hoping to think of something. I've missed this entirely too much. {SMILE}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Saturday, September 14, 2013

{sigh}


I know I’ve gone quiet recently. I’m sorry if that worried anyone. I’m okay... but I lost a dear friend to cancer at the end of August. {bite lips} It’s taking me time to adjust to her not being around anymore. I miss her very much. {resigned look}

 

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Friday, August 23, 2013

Large Print Science Fiction and Fantasy


I've been wondering about something. Does anyone know of good sources for large print "dead-tree" science fiction and fantasy books? Or for science fiction and fantasy e-books that can be formatted and printed for your own use?

I'm not trying to go into publishing; I'm just trying to get a wider variety of reading material for my mother. She's decided she needs large print. She wants absolutely nothing to do with either audiobooks or ebooks. She's more emphatic about wanting large print dead-tree books than I am about preferring dead-tree myself. {chuckle, Smile}

I know more folks on here lean the opposite way, but I thought I'd ask in case anyone happened to notice something. It could happen, and I'd really appreciate it. I'm more than slightly frustrated with the limited variety I've found so far. Mom particularly likes Misty, Anne McCaffrey, Andre Norton, and Georgette Heyer (the only non-SF writer among her favorites). While they all wrote quite a bit, only Heyer seems to have much available in large print, and even that is mostly used. {rueful smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Edited To Add: By "Misty," I mean Mercedes Lackey. I wrote to a group of fans who use that nickname of hers first, and forgot to replace that with her full name when I decided to ask here, too. I'm sorry for any confusion. {apologetic smile}

A.E.B.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Foot Update


Well, my dermatologist says my foot is essentially healed. Finally. He wants me to continue putting a fungicide on those toes once a day until late next week. Then I can put it on every other day. He wants me to continue to do that indefinitely. He's very concerned that this could come back, and wants to prevent that. {pause}

I’m concerned about over-using a fungicide, since that tends to produce resistant organisms over time. However, this infection was pretty bad, and I had another… probably last spring; if not, then the spring before that. Two nasty foot infections in two or three years are TOO MANY! I really don't want to go thru this again. So I guess I keep applying the medicine. {resigned smile}

Still, I'm glad to be over the current problem. That is a relief! I even felt free to tag along with Dad when he went grocery shopping yesterday, since I don't think I have to worry about putting my foot up now. {Smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Foot trouble

Well, I have a badly infected foot. It started a little over a week ago, with a badly itchy foot. By the time I realized it wasn’t some irritant like soap or dry skin, it was too close to the weekend to see a regular doctor with a normal appointment. So we waited. I saw my Dermatologist last Tuesday. He was very concerned, giving me instructions involving medicine, toe spacers, frequent washing, and putting my foot up above the level of my heart as much as feasible.

Unfortunately, I’m bored. Putting my foot up a lot severely limits my computer time. I am getting a fair bit of reading done, but… I still miss my computer. Especially the friends it lets me stay in touch with, even if I don’t write much beyond responses to what they write most of the time. {odd smile}

The good news is, it seems to be helping. He was favorably impressed with the improvement when he saw it again on Thursday. He should be happy when he sees me again next Friday, since it’s improved more since.

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Am I back?

Hello. {Smile}

Well, after some slow research and much deliberation, I have an account with Bloglines. {smile}

I did look into Feedly, and it does look like it has some nice advantages. Unfortunately, you have to download stuff to use it. On my own computer, this woudln't be a serious problem. However, Dad's computer is complaining about "insufficent memory" enough, he asked me not to download anything new into it. So I looked elsewhere, and ended up deciding that Bloglines looked as good as anything with a web-based browsing option. {Smile, spread hands}

I don't know how long it will take me to catch up with the blogs I often follow. I've fallen terribly behind with them. I did start today, and I think I've made siginificant inroads, However, this may take some time. {apologetic smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Friday, April 5, 2013

Merrie Monarch Hula Festival 2013


Well, the first night of competition for the Merrie Monarch Hula Festival was last night. We have a new “Miss Aloha Hula” for another year. {Smile}

If you want to see what I get so excited about each year, the “official website” is here: http://merriemonarch.com/ , while this is the main Merrie Monarch page for the TV station that’s broadcasting it: http://www.k5thehometeam.com/category/260043/the-2013-merrie-monarch-festival-on-kfve . I notice last night’s competition is available to watch on the web, but I don’t know if they’ll keep it up when tonight’s competition starts. The Merrie Monarch is a LOT of video to host by web standards. {Smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Happy Easter!


Happy Easter everyone! {SMILE}

I do hope you've had good ones this year. {WARM SMILE}

We did. Dad and I would have liked to go to church, but they started too early. So we concentrated on fixing a nice dinner and relaxing instead. We had turkey, some of the fixings, and apple pie for dessert. We had to make a run this afternoon for the pie; Dad remembered dessert only last night. {Smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

A surprising bird


On Sunday, we had a surprise. {Smile}

Dad and I were sitting in dining room near the end of lunch when mom came in. She said she’d heard a strange noise, and when she looked, it was a peacock. She led us to her bedroom window. Dad spotted the bird just before it went out of view back by the old carport. I didn’t, so when Dad went out back for a better look, I definitely followed. We found her behind the woodshop and the patio. Yes, her; technically, she was a peahen, which is a female peacock. {Smile}

She was wandering around, calling. A lot. I’ve heard peacocks call before, but not as often as this one did. I thought maybe she was looking for someone, like she was lost. Dad agreed.

He tried to get closer.  No problem. She let him get within six feet of her without showing fear. So she was obviously used to people. Dad thought she must be someone’s pet.  {Smile}

We went inside, and Dad tried to figure out who to call. After a few tries, he found someone who gave him the Humane Society’s after-hours number.  Unfortunately, that rang busy repeatedly. {lop-sided smile}

Eventually, Dad decided we really needed to get some milk, so he and I went to the store, and picked up that and a couple of other things we were nearly out of. He figured he could try again if the bird was still around when we got back.

She wasn’t. Mom said she left after a while; she thought the bird must have gone home for dinner. The way she was calling, I wonder. I honestly thought she was lost. Dad says at least she wasn’t our concern any more. I have to agree, since I know nothing about caring for peahens. {spread hands, Smile}

She hasn’t returned, either. I wish I knew she’d returned home for a happy reunion, or at least found someone to take care of her. I don’t. But I don’t know that she’s met a bad end, either. She spice up our Sunday afternoon quite a bit with her visit. {SMILE}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Blog Readers

So... Google is cancelling Google Reader to make everyone switch over to Google+.

{wry look} I'm not going to play that game. I suppose in another few years, they'll cancel that to make folks join Google++, and a few years after that, Google * or something.

I'd rather find a provider who will continue to provide the service that attracts their customers in the first place. Preferably without changing every around every few months like Facebook. Yes, of course I can learn to use a new system each time they dump an old system, but I'd really rather not have to. I have more interesting things to do that I'd rather not drop periodically to learn a new system. {lop-sided smile}

I don't suppose anyone has any suggestions for a reliable blog reader that won't keep changing stuff and dumping users all the time? {Wistful Smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Girl Books and Boy Books


   A while back, Amazon sent a range of suggestions for books by types of readers. Under "books for girls" was The Hunger Games
.

   Under normal circumstances, I would expect "books for girls" to be books no one expects boys to be interested in. I really don't think that's the case with The Hunger Games. I can't see how it could have sold as many copies as it has if guys weren't interested in the book too. Especially since the plot descriptions sound like something many guys I knew back in school would have loved. {Smile}

   I suspect I know what the problem is. Publishers, librarians, teachers, and apparently booksellers who study what children read have been telling each other "boys will only read books about boys, but girls will read books about girls or boys" long enough they believe that's the deciding factor when kids pick books.

   That may sound good, but the kids I know, and knew, and the girl I remember being myself didn't care as much about gender as about what the characters did. If they liked mysteries, boys would check out Nancy Drew and the Dana Girls as well as the Hardy Boys. If they liked fantasy, they wouldn't skip the middle book of the Earthsea Trilogy. And so on.

   Then I wonder if I'm wrong. I'm up against a pretty large and well-educated group, and my personal opinion fights some of my own education on the subject. So I'd really like to know what you think about this, too. {Hopeful Smile}


Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Happy New Year!

I know I'm a little late, but I do hope your new year has started well, and continues to do so. {Smile}

So yes: Happy New Year! {BIG SMILE, REALLY BIG GRIN}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin