Karen

A New Book to Mooch

June 29, 2008June 29, 2008 Karen

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I just added another book to my Bookmooch collection. I’ve reserved this book for 7 days on my Bookmooch account. This means, if you’re my friend on Bookmooch, you’ll have first dibs on this book. Not a friend? No problem. Just sign into your bookmooch account and add me (take2max) to your friends!

Lipstick Jungle by Candace Bushnell

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Book blurb:
Book blurb:

The new novel that fans of the bestselling author have been waiting for, about three sexy, powerful career women who will do anything to stay at the top of their fields

Victory Ford is the darling of the fashion world. Single, attractive, and iconoclastic, she has worked for years to create her own signature line. As Victory struggles to keep her company afloat, she learns crucial lessons about what she really wants in a relationship.

Nico O’Neilly is the glamorous, brilliant editor of Bonfire Magazine—the pop-culture bible for fashion, show business, and politics. Considered one of the most powerful women in publishing, she seems to have it all. But in a mid-life crisis, she suddenly realizes this isn’t enough.

Wendy Healy’s chutzpah has propelled her to the very top of the cut-throat movie industry. When it becomes clear that a competitor is trying to oust her, something has to give—and Wendy must decide between her career and her marriage.

In Lipstick Jungle, Bushnell once again delivers an addictive page-turner of sex and scandal that will keep readers enthralled and guessing to the very last page.

If you would like to join Bookmooch (or if you’re already a member, look me up!) and mooch books off of me, you can find my inventory and my account information here. My Bookmooch ID is: take2max – in case the link doesn’t work and you want to find me. 🙂

Sorry, I’m only shipping to the U.S at this time. International shipping just isn’t in the budget right now. 😦

I’ve got some bookmooch points burning a hole in my pocket. Any bookmoochers out there that want to get rid of some of their books? If so, leave me a link to your inventory in the comment section and I’ll take a look!

Check Dear Reader soon for my review of Lipstick Jungle

Book Corner

BAFAB: Deadline July 3rd

June 28, 2008July 5, 2008 Karen

~~IT’S TIME!~~

And the winner is …

Yep, it’s that time once again – time to give a book away for no good reason!

So how does this work, you ask? Here’s the short version, I’m participating in the program and would love to buy someone a book of their choice ($20 max). If you would like to put your name into the pot and win a free book, please enter your name in the comment section below. If I draw your name July 3rd, then I’ll buy you a book!

Winner will be announced on Write From Karen after 11:00 a.m. (U.S. central time) July 3rd.

And … if any of you are feeling generous and would like to buy ME a book, I’ve included a link to my Amazon.com wish list to make it easy for you. 😀

Easy-smeasy, right?

Want to learn more? Read the long version.

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Washington D.C.

D.C. Trip – Day Three

June 28, 2008June 29, 2009 Karen

Need to catch up?

Day One
Day Two

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Day Three – Monday

There are moments in my life when I can safely say, “I’m a smart cookie.”

This wouldn’t be one of those moments.

I mentioned last time that our first night in Washington D.C. sucked – royally. I got virtually no sleep what with the sirens wailing, the horns honking, my husband sawing logs right in my dad-blasted ear and our possessed refrigerator making this weird, shuddering, popping/grinding noise every 45 minutes – it was truly bad.

But did I think about how I was going to get through the next night? No. Did I prepare myself for all of the night noises that would surely keep me up for a second night in a row? Of course not.

But GD did, God bless the boy.

When we found the Safeway and bought groceries to feed us for the remainder of our trip, GD suggested we buy earplugs. BRILLIANT! Why didn’t I think of that?! Because I was brain dead from lack of sleep, that’s why. (Or I’m an idiot … that works, too).

Luckily, Safeway had earplugs and I stuffed those mommas so deep into my ear canal the only thing I could hear was the beat of my own heart.

I slept sounder than a cat drunk on catnip. Wait, do cats pass out from too much catnip? Sorry, I wouldn’t know, I’m not a cat person …

Where was I? Oh yeah …

Monday rolled around and my physical and mental batteries recharged; I was ready to face another full day of walking my shins off.

And that’s exactly what we did. We boarded the Metro and headed to the Smithsonian station. Another thing we bought at Safeway was a detailed map of Washington D.C. (and for future reference, if I start talking about going someplace for vacation, especially someplace NOTORIOUS for confusing streets and horrendous traffic, you have my permission to knock me out cold AND THEN remind me to buy a detailed map of the area when I wake up). So, we exited the Metro, pulled out our handy-dandy map and found our way to the Air & Space Museum.

May I just say – WOW. This place was entertainment pay dirt for my guys. We could have easily spent our entire vacation in the Air & Space Museum – it was not only gigantic, but LOADED with cool facts and of course, AUTHENTIC artifacts.

Case in point:

The Red Baron

The Spirit of St. Louis (A personal favorite considering I’m from Missouri)

Apollo Capsules

And the original Wright Flyer (Well, the canvas was replaced, but the frame was original).

In addition to the above cool stuff, they had the Cray computer, turbines, propellers, heat sensors, rockets, hands-on experiments and all sorts of interesting facts about our air and space history. We arrived at the Air & Space Museum about 11ish? We FINALLY finished the first floor about 2ish.

And we still had another floor to explore. That’s how much fun we had at the museum. We also ran into a dog tag booth. As soon as I saw the booth, I knew what was going to happen – I braced myself for the beg fest.

I wasn’t disappointed. As soon as MK spotted the dog tag booth, he went into full charm mode. “Mom, you said we could buy souvenirs at each place we visited.”

“I said that?” Of course I said that, but my boys are teenagers now and charm mode? Doesn’t come along very often, so I’m going to milk the opportunity as much as possible when they come along.

“You did. So,” MK nodded toward the booth, “can we get some dog tags?”

I threw up my hands and caused a huge scene explaining the down side to having dog tags. I raised my voice, smoke billowed from my ears and when I finally calmed down and was sufficiently sure that I had embarrassed my boys as much as I possibly could, I said, “Why yes son, you certainly MAY have dog tags.”

HA! I had you going, didn’t I. I didn’t cause a scene. In fact, I had my credit card out and was in line before the boy even finished his begging.

I’m awesome like that. 😀 MK wore his dog tags the rest of our trip. In fact, you can see the dog tags in the slideshow I put together, if you’re interested.

Our stomachs, which had been grumbling for the past two hours and which we had dutifully ignored so we could absorb some more history goodness, finally caught our attention. We headed to the food court only to slam smack dab into a wall of people about twenty bodies deep and as far as the eye could see.

We didn’t really want to wait in line for an hour and pay a butt load of money on sub-par food, so we exited the museum, walked across the street and ate at a rather largish kiosk and paid a butt load of money for sub-par food.

*sigh* Food is not cheap when you’re on vacation.

After stuffing our faces, we decided to leave the second floor of the museum for another day – our brains simply couldn’t take anymore information overload. In the meantime, as we were in the park eating our grub, a park police helicopter flew overhead several times. Then, a slew of sirens wailed and nearly every single EMT vehicle in D.C. descended upon us.

We threw our trash away and began walking toward the commotion. We stopped a guy in a business suit and asked him what was going on. “Oh nothing,” he replied. “They are just showing off for the public.”

We raised our eyebrows, looked at each other and said, “D.C. is so cool!”

We were in The National Mall park. It’s a long strip of land that separates countless museums (along with the Smithsonian Castle …

… isn’t it cool?!)

and that has the Washington Monument at one end and the Capitol at the other end. To walk from the Capitol to the Monument, end-to-end is half a mile. This doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you’re walking it, at the hottest part of the day, in 90-degree weather and after walking for four straight hours in the museum, it’s not something you really want to do on the spur-of-the-moment.

And yet, that’s exactly what we did.

We walked down to the Capitol to see what all the fuss was about. Apparently, it was some sort of publicity thing and after allowing the public to get close and take some pictures, they shooed us away so they could have some professional photographers come in and do their thing.

In the meantime, we took some pictures of the Capitol.

(As you can see, I wasn’t QUITE ready for him to take the picture. And I was hot, hence the reason my sleeves are rolled up and I look like a hick from the sticks. Oh wait, I AM a hick from the sticks – never mind).

After the excitement died down, we walked the half mile to the other end and visited the Washington Monument. By the time we got there, we were extremely hot, tired and I had a sweat mark slashed across my shirt due to the book bag I carried the whole trip (it had all of our cameras, water and money in it).

If you look closely, you can see my sweaty slash mark …

Never let it be said that I ONLY post flattering pictures of myself. I think we can all agree this one is anything BUT flattering.

We spent quite a bit of time at the monument, ~~catching our breath and praying to God for strength to get us back to the hotel~~ just sort of soaking in the atmosphere and we took some pretty awesome pictures of the flags that encircled the monument. Again, you can see those in the slideshow.

After taking our pictures and catching our breath, we started the LOOONG trek back to the Metro station and stumbled back to our hotel room. Our leg muscles were screaming bloody murder by that time, but we were happy and that’s all that mattered to us. (And I’d like to add, brag really, that the boys never ONCE complained about all the walking we did – 1. because they are the coolest boys on earth and 2., they knew it would do them no good and why waste their breath? *snort*).

We ate our TV dinners and fell into bed early because we had yet another full day of walking ahead of us the next day.

(To be continued …)

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Saturday Photo Hunt

Saturday Photo Hunt – Bright

June 28, 2008June 29, 2008 Karen

This week’s theme: Bright

This is MK, he’s about … three here. I was taking pictures of him and he ran to grab his sunglasses because the light was too, “bwight.” 😀

Grab the Scavenger Hunt code.
Photo Theme. Join the blogroll. Visit participants.

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Enter your name NOW for a chance to win a FREE book! Drawing will be July 3rd..

Washington D.C.

D.C. Trip – Day Two

June 27, 2008June 29, 2009 Karen

(Did you miss day one? No fear – it’s right here.)

May I just say, at the onslaught, that I miss Washington D.C. I miss the noise, I miss the madness and yes, I miss the ENERGY! People here are so SLOOOW in comparison. Everything is too quiet, our space is, well, too spacious. I honestly think I prefer the compact crazy intelligence (is that an oxymoron?) of D.C. to our scratch-our-heads-and-say-“huh?” mentality of the Ozarks. (Hey, I can say that, I’m FROM the area – Yo).

Er, maybe. More on that later …

Day Two – Sunday:

Our first night in Washington D.C. had to be the WORST night I’ve EVER spent in a hotel room. I got virtually no sleep – none. Well, I dozed off at irregular intervals but jerked awake at every horn (there were PLENTY), sirens (there were MANY), snores (the husband’s snores could wake the dead – seriously), and this crazy jump/jarring/shuddering noise that occurred every 45 minutes and nearly gave me a heart attack each and every time it ripped through the dead of the night. After hearing it several times, I finally hazarded a guess at what it might be – it must have been the housekeeping staff (who had their hub right next to our hotel room), jerking their cart over the inch platform that framed each doorway’s threshold. I found myself cursing the staff for their inconsiderate behavior.

So much for THEIR tip.

I later discovered, quite by accident, when I was in our kitchenette grinding up coffee beans to make some coffee, that the horrific noise, the one that had kept ALL of us up that first night? Was our refrigerator. Whenever the thing shut off, it shuddered and shook so violently that it vibrated the walls. Why previous guests never complained about the evil refrigerator before is beyond my comprehension but we certainly planned on lodging a complaint when we checked out. (And for the record? We totally forgot to do so when we checked out. My apologizes to the guests who next stay in room 801).

We all awoke Sunday morning groggy, tired and disoriented. WHERE were we? Oh yes, Washington D.C. WHY were we here? Oh yes, to tour the numerous museums and see The White House.

It was time to get our bearings and have some fun.

I had originally planned on touring Arlington Cemetery on Sunday, but after looking at the weather and noting that there was a 30% chance of showers (which means it was GUARANTEED to rain in Missouri, but apparently, this was not the case in D.C.), I didn’t want to be caught out of doors, in the middle of vast tombstones with no where to go for shelter with our cameras, so I rearranged our itinerary and we headed to the National Museum of Natural History instead.

The day was beautiful (in fact, the weather cooperated with us the whole trip – we had a few showers, but they were in the evening and when we were back at our hotel so we didn’t have to deal with them), and though it was hot, it wasn’t that muggy, sticky hot we endure in Missouri this time of year.

We walked to the Foggy Bottom Metro station, which was across the circle (our hotel was on Washington Circle) and stuffed between a hospital (which would account for all the sirens we heard – duh), and the George Washington University. We rode the escalators down into the bowels of the city.

We purchased four Farecards,

slipped the cards into the gate and walked down to the trains. The air was stale, the lighting was poor and there were bored people with their noses in various reading materials everywhere. We looked at the stops the different trains made, determined our train and waited for the monster to slide out of its hole and pick us up.

(Apparently, I’m dumbfounded judging by my expression *snort*).

We lucked out that first day. Though there were a lot of people, we began our Metro experience at 10 in the morning, which meant that most everyone was where they needed to be by that time – work/home/school, and boarding and exiting the train wasn’t that big of a deal. However, later in the week, we got caught up in the snarl of human rush hour and it was pure chaos trying to jostle our way on and off the train and still stick together.

But we’re not to that part of the story yet …

Our train arrived and we boarded. We stepped in and noticed all of the seats were occupied. No problem, we would just hang onto the overhead bars. The train jerked to life and within seconds, we were SPEEDING down the tunnel. We were quite surprised by how fast the trains travelled. Picture a cartoon character being whisked off its feet by a strong gust of wind, one tiny hand desperately clutching a bar, its hair being whipped away from its face and you’ll have a general idea how fast these suckers went.

We arrived at our destination: Federal Triangle Station. We stepped off, inserted our tickets into the gate, the system deducted $1.65 from our total and we rode the escalators above ground and back out into the throng of fresh, different crowd of people once again.

We had survived our first Metro ride. And we were thrilled. In fact, I think it would be so cool to live someplace where you didn’t have to have a car, like D.C. Oh sure, there would be the inconvenience of not having a place to store bags of groceries, but think of the benefits: no car payments, no insurance, no gas fill-ups. You would be forced to walk everywhere, thereby getting exercise and living a healthier lifestyle. And that was something else we noticed about D.C. right away – there was virtually NO OBESITY! How could there be in a “walking city.” And the fact that NOTHING was clearly marked, meaning you really had to search for someplace to buy food and it wasn’t hitting you over the head, nearly every corner you came to, that you need to eat or drink fatty substances like we have here in Springfield. Everything was more subtle in Washington D.C. Life was about working and being productive in D.C. as opposed to gluttony and slothfulness here in Springfield. The healthy lifestyle really appealed to us and I wish Springfield would incorporate the same sort of subtlety.

We’re VERY spoiled here – but I digress …

We’re at Federal Triangle. We consult our map and locate the National Museum of Natural History. We walk in and see a huge elephant in the rotunda.

Continue reading “D.C. Trip – Day Two” →

Washington D.C.

On Our Way Home

June 26, 2008June 29, 2009 Karen

Well, it’s over. Our Washington D.C. vacation is over and I totally failed to keep you all up-to-date on our activities. My intentions were good – I sat down, I stared at the screen, my fingers curled in anticipation of typing, but … I simply didn’t have the energy to write down my thoughts. I’m a big walker, but I have to say, if I don’t do any more walking for the next several weeks, it will be too soon.

We covered A LOT of Washington D.C. ground. We rode the Metro so many times that I now feel like a DC native. We got caught in rush hour foot, and Metro, traffic and I have to admit, I’m glad we don’t have the same hectic pace at home – people were running to catch the subway, which didn’t make any sense to me considering the trains ran on a five minute schedule. People were tense, snappy, and on a mission and I wish I could have spent a few hours watching them. The car traffic was INSANE and there wasn’t a fifteen minute interval that someone didn’t honk their horn in anger. Washington D.C. has diagonal streets, circles and squares and you MUST BE ALERT to keep up. Sirens wailed every half hour (the EMT guys must be EXHAUSTED), there were policemen EVERYWHERE and essential roadways were blocked due to construction. I had to sleep with ear plugs in to block out the noise and activity; Washington D.C. is a convoluted snarl of humanity … and I loved every minute of it. I could easily live here.

We’re now biding our time until it’s time to go to the airport. We could make a run down to the memorials and take a few more photographs of the magnificent structures honoring our brave military men and women, but we’re toured out and it’s nice to just sit here and catch our breath (and I’m sick of sweating – it would be nice to arrive at the airport looking halfway decent as opposed to halfway melted). We’ll be leaving for the airport soon – we’re scheduled to leave at 2:55 and will be trapped inside the madness we call air travel for most of the afternoon and early evening. I hope our flights are on-time and problem-free.

I’ll post details about our trip soon – we did a lot and there’s a lot to talk about. In the meantime, have a great day and I’ll see you back in Missouri!

Prompt Fiction

Fiction: I Had a Problem

June 26, 2008June 20, 2008 Karen

Thursday is the day I post a bit o’ fiction.

This was originally published March 23, 2007

These prompt fiction pieces were all written in a hurry and haven’t been edited (much). I’m using these prompts to free / speed write – just some warm-up exercises.

You can find a ton of writing prompts at Write Anything. Click over today and write YOUR version!

Writing Prompt:

You’re behind a car in traffic when you notice part of a trash bag sticking out from the closed trunk. What’s in the bag?

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I couldn’t help it. I had a problem. I knew it, my husband knew it, my friends knew it, hell even my neighbors knew it.

I worried the inside of my cheek and continued to check the traffic in my rearview mirror. I kept driving. I had no idea where I was going, but I couldn’t stop. Not now. I had pushed the envelope too far this time. I had lied so many times in the past I had forgotten the truth even existed.

I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. It was painful and yet strangely comforting. I was alive! Finally, thank God, I was alive.

I knew what I was doing was wrong. I knew there would be repercussions. But I simply couldn’t stop. I had an impulse, a need to do this. It was strong. It pushed me. It was like being stuck in the middle of a parade. The people kept pushing against me; I tried to fight my way through the masses, but somehow, they always won and I ended up being twirled around and pushed ahead of them.

I finally stopped fighting them. What was the use? This was who I was. This was the only thing that kept me breathing, kept me functioning from day to day, kept me from tearing my hair out night after night and kept the demons from clawing my insides to bloody ribbons.

I pulled off the highway and onto the exit ramp. This section of town was dark, mysterious and dangerous. It was the perfect place to dump the contents of the trash bag in the trunk of my car.

I continued to check my rearview mirror. I didn’t think I was being followed, but I couldn’t take the chance. I drove around several blocks, taking side streets and weaving in and out of back alleys.

I released a small sigh of relief when I was finally convinced no one was tailing me. I lifted a shaky hand and removed a fine sheen of perspiration from my brow. The hard part was over. Now it was time to dump the contents.

I couldn’t help but smile at myself in the mirror. This was my favorite part.

I pulled up to the small security building outside the Greenback Storage Facility.

“Hey Ms. Winter. How’s you doin’ tonight?” The large, burly black man smiled at me from within his cubicle. His teeth glowed brightly in the dim light.

“Hi Max,” I replied in what I hope was a normal voice. I sounded breathless, guilty. I cleared my throat and smiled. “Slow night?” I could feel my heartbeat decrease with each heavy thud. It had a tendency to do that whenever I found myself in dire straits.

Max chuckled and pressed the button that opened the security gate. “The only people out are the punks who’s got something to hide,” he said.

I blinked instinctively as if he had taken a swing at me. I swallowed hard and recovered quickly. “Really. Well, then I better not look too guilty, eh?”

The breath caught in my throat as I waited for his reaction. I nonchalantly placed my hand over my purse just in case he asked any more nosey questions.

“Yeah, right Ms. Winter.” He grinned and waved me on through the gate.

I relaxed my death grip on the steering wheel and drove into the facility. I forced myself to drive slowly though what I really wanted to do was tear around the storage buildings on two wheels.

I finally parked in front of door number 414. I slipped out of the car and made a show of stretching my legs. It hadn’t really been that long of a drive, only 45 minutes, but I knew Max was probably watching me on the security monitor. I fished the storage keys out of my purse and walked to the trunk. I jabbed the key into the lock with perhaps more force than was necessary.

I broke a nail and swore softly under my breath.

I popped the trunk and grabbed the heavy black trash bag. A very distinctive and not altogether unpleasant smell wafted up my nose. I took deep breaths and using every ounce of strength I had, I hauled the bag out of the trunk. Using my elbow, I snapped it shut.

I stumbled a few times but was careful to keep my walk regular and steady. I wanted to run as fast as I could to the shed, but I didn’t want to arouse Max’s suspicions. When I reached the door, I unceremoniously dropped the bag at my feet and unlocked the door. I switched on the light and keeping the door open with my rear end, I dragged the bag into the building. It was only after I shut the door and caught my breath did I relax.

I stuffed the fake ID and credit card into the mail pouch next to the door. I wouldn’t need those again for a few weeks.

I turned and feasted my eyes on the mound in the corner. I could feel myself salivating with anticipation. I glanced at my watch. It was 4:15. I had just under an hour to “play.”

A giggle gurgled up inside my throat and I allowed it to surface. The sound reverberated off the walls and sounded scratchy and … evil.

I frowned and dragged the bag over to the mound. I was determined not to let anything spoil the moment, for these indeed were the happiest moments of my life, the trips to my storage container.

I grabbed a corner of the bag and tugged. The contents began to spill out and mix with the mound. The colors were spectacular: blue, red, pink, yellow, green, black, and white.

I rubbed my hands together and kicked off my boots. I began to try on the various pairs of shoes I had just emptied from the bag. I admired myself in the full-length mirror tacked to the far wall.

I sighed happily at my reflection.

“Now THIS is what life is all about,” I said to my flushed, animated face.