Wednesday, July 04, 2012

Scattered Thoughts on This 4th of July



Happy 4th of July!


Well, it's another holiday alone in the trenches. heh. Probably out of our 33 Independence Days while married, Tom and I have spent, maybe 5 together. So I should be used to this. I try to get used to this. I tell myself I'm used to this.... Sigh.


But hey! He's going to insist on getting tomorrow off which could be even better since we'll have no real crowds to contend with anywhere. We'll probably just go see a movie after a quick trip to Home Depot for more garden soil. Always, I'm lugging in bags of garden soil. I see no end of that anytime soon.


Anyway, so there I was clipping our hedges with our battery-operated trimmer and I got to thinking how it's kinda wild that I'm not spending any of the extra money Tom's bringing home now that he has a real job. Oh, I did order some Sweet Woodruff yesterday (finally) because I must always have Sweet Woodruff wherever we live. Just one of those things. But that only came to $7 and I even used my latest Swagbucks reward gift card to bring down the cost.


I keep threatening Tom that if he doesn't stay home sometimes, I'm gonna go all insane online and spend a ton of money. He just chuckles. Says, "Yeah, right. What, like $50? Oooo... I'm scared."


He knows this penny-pincher too well. Drats.


But anyway.... There I was up on the ladder trimming those hedges, practically suffocating (okay, I'm exaggerating) because of the humidity out there when oh! A light bulb moment. Since I can't seem to spend money on things, why not hire somebody to trim these eternal hedges around our house?!


Good, good idea, I'm thinking. Especially nice to picture those hedges being clipped by someone who knows what they're doing, as opposed to someone (me) faking it. Happy sigh.


One last thing.... Does anyone have some good cozy mysteries to recommend? I love the Joanne Fluke mysteries (have read nearly all) and I just finished ordering The Cat, The Professor and the Poison by Leann Sweeney (I ordered it from abebooks (cheaper), but I'm sending you to amazon.com for the reviews) since I own and enjoy her first book in that series.


Any recommendations of other cozy (as in sweet, clean, wholesome) mystery authors/books would be highly appreciated... thanks!


Enjoy your 4th, however you choose to spend it....




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11 comments:

Robin in New Jersey said...

Happy 4th Debra!

Loved Tom's comment about your spending $50 online!

K.E. said...

Paying someone do things you don't like (or are not good at) doing is money well spent in my book!
Like lawn mowing (for me). Or house cleaning or painting, or hedge trimming(for others). It's a win-win!
Happy 4th!

Anonymous said...

We finally hired college boy to do our lawn. He needed the money and we needed help. Now my husband has asked him about crafts and skills he knows that the boy might like to learn and so he is going to mentor him in them! A double win win and one wants to learn and there other loves to teach! :) We are having a very quiet 4th. ..but we are safe and healthy so that is good. I wish I was there to help you putter in the yard. I love to be working along with someone else, especially outside. Tom's comment sounds like what my husband would say! :) Enjoy your day. Sarah

Anonymous said...

Sorry, I forgot you suggested book titles. Sorry again as I have not gotten into mysteries. I may like them a lot just never tried them. I do have friends that do though and will ask. I should see them tomorrow. They might read the newer maybe gruesome ones though... are they ok or would you rather not? You said good and cozy so I thought maybe not. I will check back here later. Sarah

Debra said...

Thanks, Everyone, for taking the time to cheer me on this quiet 4th, quiet around here anyway. I appreciate your taking the time to comment so much!

And Sarah--the mysteries I prefer are those where there's much talk about coffee and pastries and people sit in coffee shops a lot and/or hobbies like quilting and quilt shops and/or cats, etc. You know, where's there's a mystery to solve, but on the way to solving it, lots of cozy-type of conversations amongst quirky people and their desserts in cozy shops take place. :) There are many books out there now like that, I've just not found all the authors yet who write them.

Thanks again! Blessings, Debra

Mary said...

Happy 4th Debra! Try www.Cozy-Mystery.Com I have found good suggestions there.

Anonymous said...

I like the descriptions of the type of mystery books you like. Maybe I should give them a try too! Are you sure these mysteries are not Nancy Drew grown up? :-) I will look on the site Mary suggested too. I am glad she chimed in! Sarah

Judy said...

I'm not a fan of mysteries, but I do recommend "The Nine Tailors" by Dorthy Sayers. Not an easy read, but SOOO worth it in the end.

Mary said...

Also, since you have netflix, I can recommend Rosemary and Thyme. Kind of a cozy mystery bbc series. Full of eye-candy (the old houses, gardens and english countryside type). It is on the instant streaming queue now.

Elizabeth said...

Happy 4th Debra! I had a different 4th this year,I will be blogging about it.

Anonymous said...

Sorry I forgot to ask about the mystery book titles! I'll see them again soon. Sounds like you might have many to choose from others suggested. Hope the rest of your 4th went well. So many people around us had the illegal professional type high fireworks going on it sounded like a war zone around us. So many going on at one time it sounded like the end of the usual city shows where they send up so many up one after the other. I goes no one knows what illegal means?? Our are like so many others are not to have Any kind used around here. {ah oh..better stop I am grumbling...} Hope you and Tom are enjoying his day off!!!! :-) Sarah