Monday Music Mania: Kool & the Gang

Once again, I've decided to start up with my Monday Music Mania posts. I have a passion for Disco Music, but if I just had a Disco Week, the list would be ridiculously long with repeat artists (especially this one). So I've decided to focus this week on Kool & the Gang. One week down the road I will probably have a Disco Week though:-)

I love Kool & the Gang more than words can say! Their CD Emergency is the first CD my dad bought and I still have it to this day. It's also one of my favorite albums. I once had the chance to see them in a reunion concert with JT Taylor, but it conflicted with my summer school class when I was in college. Being the good student I am, I went to class. I've also regretted it ever since. I did get to see Kool & the Gang a couple times after that, but both times without JT Taylor, and it's just not the same (no matter what other people claim!)

Anyway, here are some of my favorite Kool & the Gang songs:

Create a playlist at MixPod.com

Christmas San Diego Style!

Merry Christmas
Or Happy Holidays if you celebrate something other than Christmas.

As many of you know, I grew up in Bonita, California which is a suburb of San Diego. Even though I no longer live in Bonita, I spend Christmas there with my parents each year. For the past 2 years, I've driven by the Christmas decoration in the photo above.

I've wanted a photo since the first time I saw it, but I either never had my camera or didn't have time to go back home to get it. I finally remembered my camera and found a break in the rain to get the shot this year. To me it's the perfect way to represent a San Diego Christmas :-)

As I was taking photos, the woman who lives in the house came out and told me it was made by a local artist who lived just down the street. When he and his family moved a few years back, it was too big/heavy to get in the truck and so they left it with the neighbors!

See my posts below to see some favorite holiday songs and photos of decorations at my house :-)

Special Non-Monday Music Mania: Holiday Music Favorites

In the spirit of the holidays, I thought I'd do a Holiday Favorites edition of Monday Music Mania. Of course since it's Tuesday as I'm writing this (and Wednesday by the time I post it), it's sort of a special Non-Monday edition.

Anyway, here is a playlist of some of my favorite holiday songs (some of them may be just 30 second clips due to copyright issues):

Christmas Favorites

Christmas Decorations & House Pictures

Since I sent out my holiday letters, I realized I pointed people here to my blog to see photos of my new house. Those I have posted, I posted a while back, so the posts are a bit buried. I wanted to post some photos of my Christmas decorations (not much but I'll add to it every year!) so I figured it would be a good idea to post some additional house photos to my blog

It was hard to get good shots with the lights on, but I gave it a try. And I apologize in advance for the glare in the flash photos and the messiness inside (in the kitchen especially).

Front of the house with Christmas decorations out

Santa close up

Close up of the "Santa Boots"

The outside front entry way with Christmas decorations up

Here are some photos of inside the house I took back in August. I've made a few changes, but most of it is pretty much the same.

The living/dining room area which you can see I use just as a sitting area

A 5 1/2 foot tall nook along the entry way--finally filled thanks to Hobby Lobby!

A metal jazz band sculpture on my living room wall

The Great Room
(the TV & stand that are randomly in the room at the right side are now gone)

The messy kitchen

Here are a few photos from when the landscaping was first completed:




Here are some photos I took of the house when I first bought it (before I moved in):

Holiday Contest: Win a Kindle!

In the spirit of the holiday season, Samhain Publishing is giving away lots of great prizes in a month-long contest! I love the holiday season and contests, and this combines two of my favorite things.

You can win some great prizes. They're giving away 2 Kindles, books (yes, Dad, more books that I have nowhere to put, I know), and lots of other cool stuff. Samhain is my favorite ebook publisher, so you know I'll be entering as much as I can :-)

Be sure to check out all the details over at Angie's blog by clicking here or on the picture below!




Good luck and Happy Holidays!

Summer Photos!

I know, I know. It's November and I'm just now posting photos from summer (the beginning of June to be exact). I'm telling you, Google Reader and RSS feeds are evil! They suck me in and I read/skim through other people's blogs every day. But it means I rarely visit my own blog and time gets away from me between posts.

Anyway, here are some photos I took on my trip to the Lori Foster Reader/Author Get Together. A few of these photos are from near the hotel (the sunsets), but most of them are from the drive I took into Indiana.

One of my "bucket list" goals is to visit each of the 50 states in the US. Since I'd never been to Indiana and I was just a few miles from the border, I couldn't pass up the chance to visit! Of course, I felt that just driving on the freeway into Indiana and then turning around and coming back to Ohio was cheating. So I pulled out the handy-dandy AAA guide (thank goodness I remembered to go and get the guidebook before I went this year!) to look for places I could visit in Indiana.

Of course I wanted to attend the events of the day, so I had limited time. Luckily I found an interesting destination that was close enough that I could leave after a short time at the book fair and still make it back by dinner (difficult, but doable). That destination was Metamora, Indiana. It was a quick visit after over an hour driving, but I enjoyed it. The drive was scenic too!

One thing I had to deal with that was new to me, though, was the incredible humidity. In fact, after being in the air conditioned car for so long, the first thing my camera lens did when I tried to take a photo after getting out of the car was fog up! It made getting the horse pictures nearly impossible, but I did the best I could.

Anyway, enough rambling from me. Here are the photos...

Most of you who know me won't be surprised that my first stop was the bathroom. I parked close by and happened upon these horses in the field just next to the lot...




After my pit stop, I drove back into the heart of the little town. Here's the post office...



The main attraction of Metamora is the canal system. It's amazing! I got there very late in the day and wasn't able to take a canal tour, but I still had a great time looking around and taking photos. Here are some shots of the canal through the main part of town...






The ducks were everywhere! They cracked me up with their crazy antics. One duck (you can see him in both the above and below photos in the background) just stayed in the water swimming against the current for as long as I watched him! I suppose it's a form of duck aerobics...


At the far end of town was the Duck Creek Aqueduct...



Here are some shots from later that same night but back in West Chester, Ohio at the hotel...