raquel of the ranch country is finally on line, and other details of normal life

I finally got some pictures taken today.  A STACK (well, actually, THREE precariously piled stacks ringing my desk --woe to anyone who sits down and puts his elbows out the tiniest bit ) of pictures taken today.

I moved boxes.

I re-piled boxes and reduced my solid WALL of boxes behind my desk by TWO!!!!

I'm feeling enough better to start to worry about what's coming up in the next few weeks -- which means that my nerves start to go, even though my body is just beginning to feel normal.  Darn.

However, feeling a little better means I can start to DO things again.

Like clean.  When I don't feel well, I don't get the cleaning done ... and when you have colds / viruses, etc. you need to CLEAN the house well so that you don't just keep re-infecting everyone, right?  But when you're feeling bad, you don't have the energy or brain power to clean.

So.  Doorknobs have been bleached.  Keyboards ditto. etc. etc. etc. around the house to get all the places where germs lurk and laugh.

I pulled another box off the pile in the front room to re-do after the Sacramento Fair.  Now I'm down to THREE boxes left.

Then I signed up for Pasadena today AND booked my hotel room, so no going back now.

(Now I get to quietly freak that I don't have enough  GOOD STOCK....wahhhh.....)

I have books to mail out (which is always a good thing).

Now I get to plow through some data entry, and some taxes.

Getting back to Raquel of the Ranch Country (see the book picture at the top there, right?)

I picked this book up one day (reasons are many and too long-winded to mention, but I felt that HUM I sometimes get. I don't question it. I just pay my money and THEN figure out why).

This book is the first book by Alida Sims Malkus.  She wrote a number of books for young people (especially women) during her writing career, most of the historical in one form or another. This book, however, is a loosely based autobiography. (She must have started with that old saw -- write what you know....).  One of her later books -- The Dark Star of Itza -- became a Newbery Honor book.   From what I can piece together of her life, she sounds like a fascinating woman.  If I ever get time, I'll try and read this book, just to see what her life must have been like.

Now that I've got my picture for it, the book is FINALLY going up on my website.