That was when my parents were actually dating. I have heard lots of stories. No drugs ever mentioned. Cigarettes were a topic of much peer pressure for my mom-- she thought they were gross, figures that's why she is still here to talk about it! :lol: She grew up in a small Midwest town. The scandal was the class president had to get married after graduation. The baby arrived over the summer.

Stacia-- Believe me Nemo was not my choice. Amazon Prime tv portion of prime just started in the UK. We seem to be rewatching things that I watched many times when the dc's were little. Dh never saw most. I was actually forced to watch Disney's Tarzan the other night so Nemo rates as 5*. :lol: Dh falls asleep as soon as the movie starts. The kids disappear and there I sit reading or knitting. The second I touch the tv everyone complains -- they were watching. Grrrrr. Positive side of prime is I now have Spooks ( in US MI5 I think)and Dexter to watch. So how was our evening out? I am sure I had a fabulous time! ;) Wish I had been there..........

I seem to be concentrating on Richard III lately due to my 15th century book and now the Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey. Tey's book is going rather slow because I keep googling everything trying to really picture the life and times. Would love to be able to keep all the people and places straight. To that end I have found a really great website http://www.richardiii.net/richards_world.php which is helping greatly. Shakespeare's Richard III is requested from the library in several forms. Field trips in my future to see some of the sites.

I wish I could join you! Instead of having a great girls night out I spent the evening with Nemo, the kids movie! :lol: I really need to go to bed now!

I just saw this thread. I had no idea how expensive this board was for you to run. I just want to say Thank You. I see no reason not to try the ads. The ability to make those of us who stay logged in ad free amazes me. Thank you so much. I would be happy to pay a fee or give a donation. I love visiting this site!

After bragging here that I was 2 away from the top of the Monuments of Men list something appears to have gone wrong???? Just checked, part of my bedtime rituals :lol: and it seems to have disappeared from my request list. Do not have a clue how, I haven't removed it and the library was closed for Easter!!! Back at the bottom so maybe July read for me???? Going to check other libraries, maybe somewhere else now has it thanks to the movie. Can not believe this!!!!!! ETA. I am number one, yes one, on the list in a different system. Still might take awhile but definitely should have it for May!

Jane -- I meant to wish you a pleasant visit to your hometown. I hope you have acceptable weather, that is probably the best you can hope for! ;)

Well your book does look good and has been requested by me. While looking at it on Goodreads I discovered The Josephine Tey murder mysteries by Nicola Upson http://www.nicolaupson.com/an_expert_in_murder/ . I ended up requesting the first in that series too. :lol: Has anybody read this series?

I haven't managed to get much reading done. Exhausting week, I came home from church today and had a couple of free hours and fell asleep. I needed it but I suspect I could have finished one of my books. Just realized I didn't get last week's HotAW done. I will have to catch up. My current books are Black Roses by Jane Thynne, which looks great but I have only made it 50 pages in. Shadow Spell by Nora Roberts on the kindle which will return it on the 22nd so a priority. Finally, Josephine Tey's Daughter of Time due to the reviews here. Really like what little I have read. The choose a book by location challenge sounds fun. Will have to adapt a bit because small library but will go and do it when they reopen from Easter. Someday I will do my library update. Still upset about things and every time I start updating I quit because of frustration. Lots of Easter chocolate here. Friends gave us a huge Thonton's egg as a surprise this morning. Looks yummy. Easter Chocolate Eggs are super popular here. They literally start appearing as soon as Christmas is cleaned up in the stores and we see people with their cart full of them from late January on. An amazing amount of chocolate gets consumed in honour of the Easter bunny here. :) We take things a bit easy-- although having discovered the bliss of a Smarties egg this morning (hollow milk choc stuffed with pastel colour smarties which are creamy mm's) and I will buy a supply if I can find them tomorrow! No book presents but we now have the second season of Land of the Giants on DVD. Watching it now. ;) Stacia, I have a tremendous urge to watch No Way Out now. Need to pull it out. I need to knit a pink baby outfit quickly so tv is in my future. The baby is due in a couple of weeks and I think my elbow is recovered enough. No baby girl outfits in my stash of premade presents. I need to make some ahead too.

Fullerton Abbey is a term invented here, not sure if it is just Regency period or all. I have been reading a really good very Flufferton series with unfortunate names, extremely glad they are on my kindle! :) They are by Sally MacKenzie. Success of Love is the series. I just finished Bedding Lord Ned. Really can't carry that around with me without blushing. I read a good cozy recently that Stacia might like simply because the cat in it was really fun. Title was Murder Past Due, first in the Cat in the Stacks series by Miranda James. I enjoyed the trailer for 3 days to Kill and will make sure I see it eventually. Probably on DVD. :lol: Not a huge move fan but like Kevin Costner quite a bit. Not sure why but I love his No Way Out. I watch it at least once a year. I associate Spainish Moss with being very itchy. I know I had an awful reaction as a child to it and haven't touched it since. Since no one else is complaining about itching I am wondering if the bit I touched had some sort of itchy bugs or if I was just allergic.

:lol: That is definitely the mini Tara. If memory serves it is one of the many places in that area that now offers a giant alligator (stuffed) for viewing and has signs out for that now. No, we didn't stop to view the gator but a gas station in that area had one in the window. Haven't got much reading done. Hectic schedule in general but in my free two hours today I discovered that my living room ceiling was dripping water rather rapidly from a brand new crack. We actually managed to get a plumber in to fix the problem with the heating system but all the furniture in dd's room had to be removed so her carpet and floor boards could be lifted. Ugh! Needless to say her room is relatively clutter free and Dh and I have collapsed with a bottle of wine. What a day, and somehow we made it to all the activities! Tomorrow is the Scawcrow Festival, I ended up on the Church's Rota for most of the day. Greeting and Tea. Hopefully it will be fun.

http://adcockpecans.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Adcock-Front-Picture1.jpg Let's see if I managed to just get the picture. Definitely not a mini Tara. The mini Tara is either a couple of exits before or after. I really drove that route too many times! ETA Well just the picture but you have to click. I guess I am improving. :lol:

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

We haven't driven I75 for about 7 years but the peach was south of Atlanta (think Macon too). Fairly certain north of Tifton but not sure how far North. It may have been near a giant flea market ( Rosie, I am going to let you think about that.....:lol: ) but not sure about that. I know it wasn't one of our normal stops. We drove one way on 75 each month when the dc's were little. We pretty much lived between two states. Now Tifton had a giant gorilla, I think, by Adcock's pecans. Another favourite stop. Gas, car wash to get the road salt off, and several fast food places all together! We also loved to peanut. Thanks for finding it.

Stacia, you just made me think of the giant peach sculpture/statue on I75 somewhere in south Georgia. The Dc's loved the giant peach when they were little and had to stay awake to see it. We had way to many long drives on that road when they were little. I hope it is still there.

Now for gardening. After being without a garden for 7 years I have one again. So far I have tripped and fallen while planting it, wrenched my elbow which is now almost completely better. Too embarrassed to mention it a couple of weeks ago when I did it. Spent part of today watering, with a watering can, the whole thing. No outside tap because I live in England so mother nature is supposed to water for me. Hasn't rained properly for a week. I am starting to remember how much work a few flower beds are!

Aggieamy :grouphug: I am so sorry. Such a tragedy!

I am a bit late Stacia but Happy Anniversary!!!! Those chocolate sprinkles make amazing brownies ;) dd's Dutch friends bring her sprinkles from Holland and she uses some with peanut butter and the rest go in brownies. The sandwiches are odd concept for the rest of us to get used to and definitely an acquired taste.

I won't require Dracula again since you read it with me last year! I know I don't really want to read it again right now. ;) If Dd ever makes it through GWTW can she have the postcard? I loved that book in 8th grade, we actually read it in English. To Kill a Mockingbird also. Pretty much what I remember of that year's English class. :lol: I honestly don't care how we do things. My main concern is that I get enough postcards when I am at one of these sites because I don't want to leave someone out who would really enjoy one. Our family tends to be a bit spontaneous so I probably won't know that I am going ahead of time for several of these day trips so it might be hard to plan beforehand. One idea might be to tie postcards with Monuments of Men. I haven't read it or seen the movie so I don't know where it takes place. I assume Germany, France, Italy, London.....I also don't know when we are reading it so pretty clueless overall. :lol: I do know that I am 2 people from the top of the holds list so I will have a copy soon. London is easy, we will go there soon. I know we will go to North France soon (they are running cheap ferry day trips with a free case of wine that is worth more than the ticket, so we will go before that offer ends). We might go to Berlin in the fall with Dh for work. Pam will be in Munich for a wedding.....seems like a potential tie in. Just musing......

I would be happy to mail them! If Robin makes some official challenges I would be happy to get the postcards. Rosie is right because it would be more fun if the postcards come with challenges. My only request is we do some advance planning so I can pick up the cards when my family is visiting the location. My reality is places like Whitby are usually summer visits for us and the spooky reads are in October.

Just finished "Murder Past Due" http://www.houstonpress.com/2010-08-05/calendar/dean-james-writing-as-miranda-james-murder-past-due/full/ by Miranda James which was a delightful copy mystery. It managed to completely distract me and keep me tied to my kindle all day yesterday! I normally read something with real paper when at home. When you click on the link you will see Miranda is a man -- may be reading more male authors then previously thought. :lol: Now back to the storyline , the main character, a librarian, is accompanied everywhere by his favourite companion an absolutely fabulous Maine coon cat. Just had to mention because of the high percentage of cat lovers. ;) This was a well done copy. I had to stop reading The Accident. Just could not seem to follow it well enough to enjoy it. Characters from the Expats popping up. All sorts of unexplained intrigue. Confusing. The first pages were great.....literary agent receives incredible thriller manuscript with a page at the end from the author saying that if you are reading this they are dead. Great start but.......May I will try again at some point.

I would be happy to do some postcards over the summer. Heathersage area/Jane Austen, Whitby/Stoker, and Haworth/Bronte sisters, are all on the list to visit this summer. If someone has a special request I can try -- we love historical spots. Send me a pm with address and preference and I will do my best to find the postcards. Oh, Ashby de.....for Ivanhoe fans would be pretty easy too.

Robin, Here are my suggestions...... Angelmaker A Tale for the Time Being Boy, Bird,Snow Heresy by SJ Parrish -- 16th century England What Angels Fear by CS Harris Dark Currents, Agent of Hel by Jacqueline Carey. - The only really enjoyable paranormal that I have read lately that didn't originate from your suggestions! ;)

My ds had great experiences on Codeacademy. He learned tons. Has pretty much done it all very quickly. Received great feedback from the moderators. A very positive experience for him. Dd is also working her way through Codeacademy happily. She has no programming aspirations but is pretty picky about her online experiences and has no complaints. Coursera also has some classes that have gone well for Dd when your son gets some experience. The python one from Rice is one several WTM boarding dc's have enjoyed. Ds liked it overall but python is not his preferred language so...... Has moved on to Java. Has done the free courses from MIT and Stanford. All of what I have mentioned is free online.

Hope you have a great time Kareni!