Just To Show You...

That I was really in Venice..and will be back there in a few days.

Not up to my usual photos maybe..I can't even tell you on this darn small screen.

But you will see a lot more in the future!

 

Bandit Tuesday! And the 12th Day of Christmas.

The sorrow is almost overwhelming. Yesterday, Bandit and his mom flew back to Florida. Not to be seen again...at least in person...until the Great Trip South that I am going to undertake in March.
Second, Christmas is coming to a close. Soon, I will have to shut my outside lights off (I try to be the last in the town to do so) and take down my tree.
There is NOTHING fun about taking down a Christmas tree!

But still, it is Bandit Tuesday and that is always a happy time!

This photographic outing was at Sonic.
Now, we here in southern NJ have been late to get this drive-in fast food chain and I had never been to one. Happily, Bandit was only too pleased to go along and show me the ropes, so long as he was paid with his beloved Tater Tots!

First, you must carefully study the menu...yes...tots...

Then push the button and tell them your choice. Now if only Bandit could find his credit card...My treat Bandit!

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Wordless Wednesday- Japanese Maple

I had to take these pictures in the rain, since the peak of the tree's autumn color came the same day as a Nor'easter that will soon blow every one of those leaves off. And I assure you that color is untouched...except by God.

...for more Wordless Wednesday, check these out.

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A Cause for Celebration

One of my very favorite lighthouses is having a birthday party and you are invited! Today the Cape May Lighthouse is celebrating it's 150th birthday and there will be a party with a Civil War feel...and cake! According to the Cape May County Herald,

"The Cape May Lighthouse, one of the oldest continually operating lighthouses in the country, was first lit Oct. 31, 1859.

In honor of the beacon’s 150th anniversary, the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts (MAC) is holding a celebration from noon to 2 p.m. Oct. 31 at Cape May Point State Park on Lighthouse Ave. off Sunset Blvd.

The official ceremony kicks off at 1 p.m. with brief remarks on the Cape May Lighthouse’s history and costumed re-enactors including General George G. Meade who will be accompanied by his honor guard and Dr. Emlen Physick.

Afterwards, the candles on the Lighthouse’s birthday cake will be blown out and the cake along, with light refreshments, will be served to the public.

There will also be storytelling on the grounds, music and book signings."

Sounds like a swell time..and did I mention, there will be cake!
Of course, while you are there, I recommend you climb the lighthouse's 199 steps to the top for a lovely view of the city of Cape May and out to the Delaware Bay. A visit to Cape May, with her shops and restaurants and an unrivaled collection of beautifully restored Victorian houses, is always lovely, especially in the fall. Then, maybe you can take a short drive down to Sunset Beach for a view of what remains of the concrete ship and a walk on the beach to look for Cape May "diamonds". And, as you might guess by the name, lovely sunsets.

Did I mention there will be cake?

Happy Birthday Cape May Lighthouse!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY To My Big Brother!


He is the one on the right...wee caite on the left, a number of years ago, in a far off place (Northern NJ), when we were a bit younger. Now he is very, very old....lol

...my, what snappy dressers. we wore those suits every day. which explains a lot. :-)

Get Your Hands Off My Book...and That Is Not a Book!!

Oh, is it time for another one of my anti-Kindle rants?
Oh sure...there is always room for an anti-Kindle rant. And Jello, if you are old enough to remember that commercial.
Now yes, I must say that I have not used a Kindle but for more than a few minutes. But I did have the chance while on vacation to read a significant part of a book on a Sony Reader, and I was not terribly impressed. I kept reaching up to turn the page. I couldn't break the habit of decades! But beyond that, I didn't really like the way the type looked, I didn't like the way you have to hold it...like I said, I was not really impressed.

But with the Kindle, there are much bigger issues as well. Like the fact, as people have recently discovered, that Kindle has the ability to 'reach' into your device and remove a 'book'. Now they said they mishandled that episode and apologized, and no doubt promised not to do it again, but doesn't it just concern you that they can do that. Is anyone worried that someone, the Evil Amazon, has ultimate control over your books, especially since Kindle books can not be played on any other piece of non-Amazon hardware? That you have to agree to a 'terms of service" just to buy books?

But most of my latest ammunition come from this interesting article by Nicholson Baker from this months New Yorker.
First, there is the whole look of "e-paper".

"The problem was not that the screen was in black-and-white; if it had really been black-and-white, that would have been fine. The problem was that the screen was gray. And it wasn’t just gray; it was a greenish, sickly gray. A postmortem gray. The resizable typeface, Monotype Caecilia, appeared as a darker gray. Dark gray on paler greenish gray was the palette of the Amazon Kindle.

This was what they were calling e-paper? This four-by-five window onto an overcast afternoon?"

Ok, that seems to be a major issue to me. He then compared some Kindle versions to real books. Missing beautiful illustrations, missing or unreadable maps, the color coding in text books gone. Not always an issue with every book you might read, true, but with a number of books I can think of it would be extremely important. Why would I want to but a 'book' that is incomplete? He tries a newspaper subscription on the Kindle. The Kindle version

"lacks most of the print edition’s superb photography—and its subheads and call-outs and teasers, its spinnakered typographical elegance and variety, its browsableness, its Web-site links, its listed names of contributing reporters, and almost all captioned pie charts, diagrams, weather maps, crossword puzzles, summary sports scores, financial data, and, of course, ads, for jewels, for swimsuits, for vacationlands, and for recently bailed-out investment firms. A century and a half of evolved beauty and informational expressiveness is all but entirely rinsed away in this digital reductio."

Ok, that sounds like a pretty rotten way to read a newspaper to me.

He goes to Freeport, Maine to meet a Kindle owner, the manager of a British import store across the street from L.L.Bean, who is part of the “See a Kindle in Your City” promotion. It is cute, she has made a nice, little cover for it. But when taking it to the neighboring bookstore, he is surprised by how many books are not available. At home, comparing it to his own books, he is surprised at how many books he has that are not available. Of course, I know that will change when the Evil Amazon pressures every publisher and author to sign on and make available more Kindle editions. Because certainly Amazon is huge enough to exert that sort of pressure.

However, I was even more upset to find out that I noticed neither the British import store or the book store next to it on my recent visit to Freeport. I was blinded by the beauty that is L.L.Bean I assume!

Bottom line, yes, I understand the convenience of being able to carry a bunch of 'books' in one little device, the convenience of being able to order and download a book in seconds, but there is a price to pay for that convenience. An aesthetic price, in some cases, a usability price. You can't loan out your books, or sell them...speaking of which, here is an amusing video about that very issue...


But my greatest concern is when you buy an e-book, most especially when you buy it from Amazon, with their proprietary software, what are you actually buying. Did you read the small print in the "terms of service"? Will you still have access to those books years from now or will you maybe have to 'upgrade' your hardware or software at an additional cost to continue to have access to the material? That is over the $350 you already paid for the privilege of buying Kindle 'books' at a small discount from the Evil Amazon. Wow, I could buy a lot of real books for $350 and then do what I want with them. Maybe even offer thrm to my readers inn a giveaway. As Mr. Baker puts it,

"Here’s what you buy when you buy a Kindle book. You buy the right to display a grouping of words in front of your eyes for your private use with the aid of an electronic display device approved by Amazon."

Hmmmm...I'll pass on that for now thanks.

Well, in honor of Freeport, Maine, where I did not test drive a Kindle or see that bookstore (although I found another on the edge of town and bought a book. Or two), a couple of pictures of the town from my trip.



Welcome To Freeport and Hello From the Giant Freeport Indian


One Store on the L.L.Bean campus and a Big L.L.Bean Shoe in the 4th of July Parade.

a review of The Girl She Used To Be

The Girl She Used To be by David Cristofano (Grand Central Publishing, ISBN 978-0446582223)

Melody McCartney was just six years old when she and her parents accidentally witnessed a Mafia don murder a man, but that was the end of her life as Melody. In a way it was the end of her life as anyone. In a bit of a mystery as to how they were tracked down, a mystery that we will learn the answer to later in the book, the feds show up at the family's door and convince them to testify against the don in exchange for the protection of the Witness Protection Program. But don't take that idea of protection too seriously, because in the years that follow, her parents are found and killed and Melody has been relocated, each time with a new identity, 8 times. Sometimes, it was because as a child, she couldn't remember that she could never tell anyone the truth of who she was. Sometimes, it was because of a real threat but as the book begins, it is because when 26 year old Melody becomes very bored with her present, very bland life, or very angry at the agency that she feels ruined her life and that of her family, she pretends to have been contacted, and within minutes she is whisked away to her next identity by her protectors.

It is in the midst of another one of these moves that something very different happens. She wakes up in the latest, rather seedy motel used in transit to find the son of the mafia boss that wants to kill her standing there. He is Jonathan Bovaro, handsome, rich and offering her a way out. It seems he has been following her for years. He knows who she really is. She will leave the program and go off with him, under his protection. And so the roller coaster ride of the adventure begins....

It's an interesting premise. What would it be like to have no real identity? Melody haunts a local Hallmark store after work, imagining what it would be like to have some connection to someone.

"It is here I get to witness life, albeit the life of others. I walk through the store and watch people select intimate items for their lovers, their friends, their families, and for the briefest of moments I get to pretend I am there for someone special too."

But there is no one special, there never has been and there never will be for Melody. No family left, able to make no friends, because you can never be fully honest about who you are. You must be ever on guard with everyone that knows you, for their protection and yours. Records that show you went to a college you never stepped a foot on, a resume with a series of jobs you never held, your longest relationship in the world with your agency handler. The idea of being able to start your life over may seem to have a certain appeal to us all at times, but the reality is not so romantic. Mr. Cristofano tries very hard to have Melody paint that picture for us so that her decision to go off with Jonathan seems believable...and he almost succeeds.

But not totally. At times, my disbelief was rearing it's head and that is the weakest part of the book. Not at the forefront, but still there. The strongest part of the book is the character of Melody. She is angry and sarcastic, at times very funny and always very believable. It is her character that makes this well written debut novel of Mr. Cristofano a fun read and makes you buy into what I think is a very successful journey and a satisfying if not storybook ending. There are romantic elements, there are mob elements, there are mystery/thriller elements to this book, and let, at heart, it is really just a pretty fun, fast paced read. As I said, this is Mr. Cristofano first book, but I will be keeping my eye open for his second.

..if you want to check out some more reviews...
Booking Mama
Devourer of Books
Mt Two Blessings
Cindy's Love of Books
Bermudaonion's Weblog

Melody might not have taken a train on her trip...but I did on the Great Alaska/Yukon Adventure and here is a picture of it, the Alaskan Railroad.

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Let Me Count the Ways, or NOT...That I Muse on Monday

Time for my Musing Monday...this time actually on Monday because of that job thing again last night. So let's see what this weeks question is from Just One More Page...

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about mid-year reading…

Now that we’ve come to the middle of the year, what do you think of your 2009 reading so far? Read anything interesting that you’d like to share? Any outstanding favourites?

Yes, we have reached the middle of the year, and many see fit to take stock on what they have read so far. How many books read, how many pages, how many reviews, how many rated 5 stars or 1 stars. They have calculated how they are doing on the many challenges they are taking part in, what books they plan to read in the next quarter....all sorts of facts and figures. I'm not going to mention any names {{{cough...Jenners cough, cough}}} and while I admit there is some very appealing and even admirable in all those nice neat statistics, I do not partake.

I pay no attention at all to what I read!
I have no reading 'goals' at all. No a one.
So there! ;-)

Why you may ask? Don't I go on about how I love all the nice neat statistics that I can find listing my books on Library Thing? Why yes, my dear readers, I do. But that is different...because!
See, I don't want to think of my reading as having to meet some goal, whether set by me or some sort of challenge. I don't want to count or measure how many books I read or compare it to anyone else's numbers. Yes, because I know I will most likely fall short of many, being neither a very fast nor very committed reader by some standards. I will name no names again {{{cough...Nise, with her 144 books read cough, cough}}}. Part of me would hate to count them and then be sure of my more feeble efforts...lol

But most of all I don't examine what I read because I want my reading to be nothing but fun and amusement. I have noticed, since writing a blog, that there is a danger of my reading and my blogging becoming, in my mind, a sort of job. An obligation, a task. And if I felt that way, I would stop.
So, I will not be counting or examining my last 6 months of books, or the next 6 or the year as a whole, ok? No challenges for me, thank you.
Not that I am defensive or anything...nope...lol

As to my favorites so far...ok, I will go back and look at that. But just for you all...
For most amusing, I very much liked "There's a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell: A Novel of Sewer Pipes, Pageant Queens and Big Trouble". Quite funny. For two that I know I will pick up and look at again and again, Hello, Cupcake and Timeless Toys, both beautiful books that will always bring a smile to my face when I pick them up. And finally, for the two books that I totally enjoyed and would recommend to anyone looking for a good book... The Help and The School of Essential Ingredients. Both excellent books that I thoroughly enjoyed.
And that is enough retrospection for me. :-)

Ok, time for another Great Alaska/Yukon Adventure picture. Or two.

..a big, rather scary critter, that got a bit too close...



and some cute, baby ones, first day out of their den...awwww

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review of Sworn To Silence

Sworn To Silence by Linda Castillo (Minotaur Books, ISBN 031237497)

With the publication of the newly released Sworn To Silence, we lovers of police procedurals and thrillers have what is hopefully the first in an exciting, solid, new series.

When on routine patrol, Officer T.J.Banks finds the horribly mutilated body of a young woman abandoned in the snow, most believe that the serial killer that terrorized the rural Ohio community of Painter's Mill 16 year ago has returned. After killing four young women, the killer simply stopped, disappeared, while the police had few clues to his identity. But Chief of Police Kate Burkholder believes that she knows better.

As more girls disappear, the small town is racked with fear. The victims include both Amish, who make up about a third of the population, and their 'English" neighbors. While the town council is concerned about the competence of the new Chief, anxious that the tourists that visit will be scared away, Kate Burkholder is in a unique position to investigate a crime in this community. Raised in one of the local Amish families, she choose as a young person to leave the religious community, moved to the city, became a police officer and is now back as the chief. Though shunned by her family, she and they share a secret and a unique perspective on the deaths.

"Is he back Katie?"
The question startles me, but I know I'll hear it again in the coming days. It's a question I don't want to ponder. But Issac remembers what happened 16 years ago . I was only 14 at the time, but I remember, too. "I don't know."
But I am lying. I know the person who killed that girl is not the same man who raped and murdered four young women sixteen years ago.
I know because I killed him.

Do not be concerned that quote is giving too much away, because that is revealed very early in the book. But there is much more to be learned about Kate and the events that shaped her many years ago and how it all ties into what is happening in the present day.

Sworn To Silence is a fast paced, well written thriller that held my attention from the opening line to the very last page. The bucolic setting, with a good bit of information about the Amish, is certainly a positive feature. The book introduces us to some excellent characters as well, including the flawed but intelligent Chief, a budding romance with the dark and very troubled FBI Agent John Tomasetti and a well portrayed and often amusing supporting cast. I hope if this becomes a series for Ms. Castillo, and I certainly hope it does, we have not seen the last of T.J, Mona, and Glock. You have to love a character named after a high quality semi-automatic handgun! I will warn you that there are some very strong, even gruesome scenes in the book, but personally I think that adds to what makes this a compelling and very enjoyable book.

Check out these other reviews...
On My Bookshelf
Julie's Jewels
Book Reader's Heaven
The Novel Bookworm

I'd Rather Have a Burger Please!

I have mentioned, have I not, that I was on a trip recently, haven't I? Yes, I think so...lol
Well, somewhere on the journey, I was presented with the chance to eat escargot, a chance i passed up by the way. I assume it was on the cruise ship, because, quite honestly, the restaurants in the rest of Alaska lean more toward fish and chips. Which is a very good thing in my mind, especially with a nice beer, maybe an IPA...yes....

But, back to the escargot. Before they crawl away. Since, of course, escargot are more commonly known as snails. Those creepy, nasty looking things that you might have in you garden, waving their little horned heads at you. Never ate them, never plan too, and this account of a snail 'feast' in the Irish Times, while quite amusing, reminded me why.

A short time before she left for home, we had our first shower of rain in two months. The snails, surprised by this good fortune, came out of their hiding places in battalions to graze on the lawn.

“Escargots!” said Danyele in raptures. “They are so delicious, specially with the butter a la Bourguignonne.

“But you can’t eat those snails,” I said. “They’re ordinary snails, not like the special snails you get in France.”

“It makes no matter. These are les petits gris. We cook them in Corsica all the time. It is very mad not to eat escargots. They cost you nothing except the butter, and they are very well.”

Well, anything for peace. We collected a box of snails and left them overnight, hoping to starve the harm out of them. I, for one, went uneasily to bed. Next morning the brutes, instead of being shyly curled up in their shells, were rampant and entwined round each other in what was, probably, a farewell embrace. I have rarely seen a less mouth-watering sight...

I put them into a basin with a handful of salt, a dash of vinegar, and some water. When I came back, two hours later, the snails were in their shells (dead, I presume), and the basin was filled with drifts of congealed slime.

Bon Appetit..lol

Now, another pic from the trip. Met this much larger critter in Denali National Park, where I am sure she is very happy not to be on anyone's dinner plate.

more books...more books...Musing Monday about more books

Let's start our week by checking out this weeks musing question from the desk of Just One More Page... Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about library borrowing…

Do you restrict yourself on how many books you take out from the library at a time? Do you borrow books if you already have some out? Do you always reborrow books you don’t get to?

Yes, The Library. That loved and most admired place, that rarely visited place, the library.

I have written about my very early, very happy memories of the public library system. The library is a wonderful place, a wonderful resource and if I needed any books, I would be there in a flash. They make is so easy these days, even putting the catalog online, letting you check to see if they have the book you want, seeing if another branch might and reserving it if the book is out at the moment, even calling when it comes in. Short of dropping it at my door, turning to the first page and making me a cup of tea, with a cookie, there is nothing more they could do to make it a more pleasant experience.

But...that is assuming that I was in need of books and I can assure you, I am not. My more than three week/book non-reading vacation has made that situation even more extreme. I have ARCs on hand that should have been read and reviewed weeks (or months) ago. And of course, I just had to visit several bookstores on my trip, with excellent sections of Alaskan fiction and non-fiction and it just seemed rude to leave the store without buying something.
A simply equation- On Hand ARCs + vacation purchased books + ARCs delivered while on vacation + the Towering TBR pile = No Need For Library Books.

Now that being said...I did visit the library a few months ago to take out a book that I had read reviews of and very much wanted to read. I believe I wrote about that trip. I came home with not only the book I went to borrow but two books from the Book Sale table (hey, they were like 25 cents!)and had to use huge amounts of self control (..and I have so very little!) in order not to borrow several other new books I saw on the shelves. Painful.

I admit it.
I am a book addict.
I have a weakness for buying books, even when I am in no need of books and may already have more on hand than I will ever read in the near future.
I like to own them.
I like to have them.
And while the library is a wonderful place...they WANT THE BOOKS BACK! So that is another issue, library-wise. No need for books, no desire to give them back...so, no visits are planned to the library on a regular basis in my future. Now if...a big IF...if I borrow a book from the library, it would be given top priority in my book universe. One book taken out, to read at once, no reborrowing needed. But I have no plans to visit the library in the near future. Not until the day I am all caught up on my reading.

At least that is what I tell myself. :-)

...and now, a Whale Tail picture and a glacier picture from my trip that has nothing at all to do with my post!

My, Oh My, It's Monday!

I think I have mentioned that I have been gone the last three weeks on the Great Alaskan/Yukon Adventure...GAYA!
Well, I am back. And although I have not finished unpacking my suitcases yet (and still have hope of finding a few items that went missing in the course of visiting about a dozen towns) if I don't get back on the blog train soon, I may never muse again. What a loss that would be for the world, so let's check out this weeks Musing Monday question, from the desk of Just One More Page!

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about award winning books…
Do you feel compelled to read prize-winning (Giller/Booker/Pulitzer etc) books? Why, or why not? Is there, perhaps, one particular award that you favour?

No, I do not feel compelled to read prize winning or best selling books...or any specific books at all really. In fact, let me tell ya all a secret. At times, I do not feel compelled to read anything at all. Yes, it is true. I hang my head in book blogger shame.... :-(

Now, don't get me wrong. I love to read. Books have always been a huge presence in my life..and I do not just mean the very big physical presence that they have now assumed in my house. No, I have received great pleasure in my life from reading and no doubt will continue to until the day that I give up these earthy restraints.

But...while on vacation, I did very little reading, which is usually the case for me while on vacation. I brought no books with me. I started a book that was loaned to me on the cruise ship, but once setting foot on land, read not another word of it.
What has this to do with the question you might ask? Well, actually nothing. I just thought it was a bit bizarre....lol
In my defense I did visit any number of bookstores and at various spots bought about 8 books, two of which I read while flying, here and there, my purchases limited only their weigh in my suitcases. You will find a picture of a bookstore in Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon Territory, on the left and a bookstore in Anchorage on the right, which I think claims to be the largest in Alaska.

As to not feeling compelled to read award winners and such, well, I will fall back on my previous statement that I firmly believe that life is too short to read books that you do not love. And sadly, it is my experience that a book winning an award or being a bestseller is no guarantee that I will like a book. Why, I am not sure, but it has been my personal experience that many of these books are not my cup of tea. Words like pretentious, boring, bizarre come to mind regarding several I have read in the last year or so. You will not find the reviews on my blog because, holding to that life is too short thing, I never finished them and if I don't finish, I don't review.

Now, granted, that is not always the case. There are a number of award winning/best selling books I have read and loved, but bottom line, it is just one more piece in the puzzle of what books I might pick to read. I don't look forward to the various awards, I don't follow who won, I am not greatly moved by seeing mention of the award on the book jacket, no more than any other number of factors.

Now, if you have been good enough to read this, your reward will be what I think is a nice photo of the Queen of the Mountains...Mt.Denali or Mt. McKinley, depending on your point of view on such matters. Let me say, the picture does not do her justice, but I tried my best!

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Just for Jenners, a example of the rather middling quality pysanky I have on hand, from the hands of caite...

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Happy Pi Day!!

Any moment it will be 1:59....ooops there it goes....So the time is at hand to celebrate Pi Day. Get it? 3.14.159. Well, you might get it if you were awake in math class, or are a real nerd. ..and there is no better way to celebrate Pi Day as it should be cebrated than by having pie! Ideally Pi Pie!     

Now here, just above, is a lovely example of a Pi Pie, made by my friend Raye, from the Great White Frozen North...also known as Canada. Now come to think of it, I have no idea why Raye baked this Pi Pie, because it was certainly not March 14 when I was there. I like cold and snow...but not that much. Visits should be saved for summer there. Or when the salmon are running.                                                   
But ANY time is a fine time for pie...especially pi pie on Pi Day!! So make a pie and share it with your friends and foes, because no one is your enemy when sharing pie! I'll bring the milk!!

My thanks to The Happy Catholic for the reminder.                                                

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Spring is just around the corner. Ignore the foot of snow outside.

It has been a very busy week...which is my excuse for why I have not written the two book reviews I need to write. Monday, we got more than a foot of snow, which was grand fun driving through on the unplowed streets at 5 a.m. Monday morning on my way to work. But since Bermudaonion has the snow pictures taken care of, I thought I might post a few pictures to remind you that Spring is just around the corner. Hopefully I will get to those reviews shortly...

But until then, let my give you a brief taste of my trip yesterday to the Philadelphia Flower Show, the largest indoor flower show in the world! Every year, the show has a theme and this year it is Italy, warm and sunny Italy.

The huge, and I do mean huge, center displays, gave a feel for five different regions of Italy, complete with lovely buildings and fountains, reflecting pools and in Venice, a gondola!

..some lovely statues...


And of course, trees and plants and beautiful, beautiful flowers.


Lovely Spring bulbs, summer annuals and perennials, flowering trees and shrubs...

..and more flowers.
But the flower show is about more than just beautiful displays. There are competitions in all sorts of categories for individuals and garden clubs, there are lectures and demonstrations, smaller displays form area schools, musical performances, displays from a variety of Italian products and a big Marketplaces with all sort of vendors, many garden related...and many just very nice.

I also enjoy going to the Flower Show because the Convention Center is just across the street from the Historic Reading Terminal Market, another place with way too many things to buy and some great food. I had breakfast at an Amish run lunch counter...I love scrapple...and then a late lunch at DiNic's, the home of the best roast pork sandwich in the world, with sharp provolone and sauteed spinach. I swear, they serve that sandwich in Heaven.

After just 11 hours there, I made my way home, a couple of pounds of scrapple in my cooler and a vision of Spring in my heart.

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I may be about the last person in the blogsphere...

The last to get tagged with this meme, that is.
Seems I was tagged, the blog version of a chain letter...lol...by Fleur Fisher for this photo meme
Here are the rules...

“Find your 5th photo file folder, then the 5th photo in that file folder. Then pass the meme to 5 people.”

So first, the picture.

This a picture of Carnegie Hall, a view of the hall from the stage looking back. So if you were performing, this is the view you would have. We were there, just before Christmas, for a performance and because one of the people I was with was in a wheelchair, we got to go in before the general admittance. Actually we were in that huge place all by ourselves...it is very impressive.

I am sorry folks, but I have to do it! I can't break the chain! If you have been subjected..I mean lucky enough... to get this before...well, just post a different picture. A nice picture is always nice. A bad one is even more funny. So I 'tag'...

Joseph, at Peace of Brain

Carol at Carol's Notebook

Bobbi at My Muse and Me

Emily at The World Inside My Head

and last but most certainly not least the Cutest Dog in the World,
Bandit at the world from down here

I just like pictues in the snow...

Holly in the snow...

A giant oak...

a dusting of snow at 3 A.M.

and later...

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