With school starting and working like a fiend, I’m finding I have less and less time to sit down with a good book and read. Recently I found a wonderful website where I can subscribe to books via email. DailyLit has so many options for those of us who enjoy reading. They offer the classic book titles for free and if that’s not your forte for a low price you can purchase a book off their site and have it emailed to you in installments.

This is how it works; you join their site for free, then you find a book you would like to read, you enter your email address and you subscribe. Then just sit back because you’ll receive installments of your book.

The super cool thing about it is, you can sit down, read your email in a brief period of time, then go back to your life while waiting for the next installment to come. How easy is that?

For the person who’s too busy to sit down and enjoy a good book, but loves to read, this is a great way to get your literary fix, and still have time for your daily life!

Enjoy!

~Kat

(for fun I’ll be adding a link under the recipe box, where you can see what I’m currently reading!)

I was sitting in a yahoo chat room the other night, listening to several people expound upon one chatter’s sins, from fathering several children and not paying his child support, to requesting money from a woman he professed his love to while they were ‘online dating’ and who in the past had sent him money.

Finally in disgust I had to sign out of chat. In my opinion, while people might feel this man is lower than pond scum for his actions, the reality of the situation is this is between the parties involved. As one chatter stated, there are three sides to the truth, His, Hers, and the Truth. Who deemed it that people in chat should be allowed to be the judge and jury? This was not something that should have ever been brought into chat. The fact that so many people in chat got involved really made me re-evaluate my opinions of the people involved.

First of all, knowing someone does not obligate a person to send a large sum of money especially if you have only known them ONLINE for 4 weeks. If you do, then you need to take responsibility and know that you just were taken. Regardless’ of “words of love” being spoken, if you can’t afford to lose that kind of money do not send it off to someone you only just met.

Secondly, personal transactions should stay just that PERSONAL, for those who will argue that she didn’t bring it into chat, I beg to differ, by discussing the situation with the number of people in chat whom she apparently did, brought it into chat, to expect each and every person to keep it to themselves is to try and pin a wave upon the sand… impossible.

Third and finally, while I know there are several who will disagree with me, but if some guy can get some girl to send him money; then apparently he’s worked something out that most men haven’t. Typically its men who send money to women not vice versa.

Each and every one of us has done something that we are not proud of; would we want this to become chat room fodder just because someone deems it your day to be hung out to dry? I think not!

So people think before you act, use your common sense otherwise your actions could land you in a chat room with your actions being discussed, dissected and you being called out for something that should not have been brought into a chat room in the first place.

Read the story below and if you are without sin then feel free to cast the first stone.

Mayhap we should read this lesson again and learn from it.

John 8:2-11 (King James Version)

2 And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.

3 And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,

4 They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.

5 Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?

6 This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.

7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

8 And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.

9 And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

10 When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee?

11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

Over the years I’ve taken several classes that have interested me. I’ve finally decided twenty plus years after graduating from high school, to knuckle down and start taking classes that will in the end afford me a degree.

Being the last of my sisters to finish her schooling, I’m left with the age old question “What do I want to be when I grow up?” At nearly forty I’m still not sure. My interests are varied as the fish in the ocean, on one hand I’m artsy, on the other hand I’m geeky and somewhere in-between I like to think I’m quasi normal.

I signed up for a few classes that are under the ‘business administration’ heading. I love the fact that classes are offered online, as this affords me the ability to do my class work at home during the hours that best suit my schedule. There is nothing like logging into a lecture in your pajamas, as long as the school isn’t computer savvy enough to have us all on webcam.

The only issue I can see is that I’ve decided to head back to school during the summer months which as we all know in Southern California is beach time. I’m sure I’ll be schlepping my books along with the cooler, my beach chair and swim gear down to the beach for a fun and studying.

Education opens up unknown worlds to a person who is willing to explore them and provides the tools to accomplish ones dreams.

Have a wonderful day!

~Kat

I was reading a story in Readers Digest about a guy who was having lunch with a friend, to his friends’ dismay he kept glancing at his blackberry. Finally in exasperation the friend said to him that he lived on it and wasn’t able to put it down and have a face to face conversation. In the ensuing story, the two made a bet that the fellow wouldn’t last a weekend without turning it on. To his surprise he found it was difficult at best, but he managed and won the bet. During the weekend he found out that he was missing out on life while being so connected to this electronic devise that he kept attached to his hip.

I have to chuckle, I don’t think many of us would survive without our cell phones, blackberries and other portable devices. I find it very distracting and frustrating while conversing with someone to have them constantly text messaging others. I have this wonderful friend who while we’re talking she’s texting others. She’ll look at me and go along as though she’s listening and when I toss something unexpected in she’ll agree. The other day she was texting someone and I said “Hey, do you like squid in soy sauce? She gave me this blank look and said yes. I started giggling and she said what? I said did you even hear what I said or did you check out on the conversation? She sheepishly admitted to having checked out on the conversation and apologized.

How often do you find yourself at your child’s game, watching and checking your email? How many times have you had a conversation with someone only to find that you missed the main points of what you are talking about because you were busy looking at some email that told you “You might be our grand prize winner?”

While I think that our portable devices are wonderful assets in our lives, I think that more often than not we let them become our lives fearing that we will miss something important, when what we are really missing is life. Perhaps it’s time for us to put down our electronic gizmo’s and focus on what is important.

Growing up in our house was wonderful, I can’t remember a time that my Mom wasn’t there to support us, encourage us and cheer us on. From being our campfire girl’s troop leader to accidentally kicking people on the sidelines of our soccer games, as she was cheering for us and got a little to into the game, to holding us when it felt like our world was falling apart.

My Mom will say, she was a professional mother, some moms were secretaries, some were doctors, but my Mom made her career out of raising us girls. I remember as a child I was always quick to volunteer Mom for all sorts of things, from field trips to driving a passel of kids home from school. She loved being the home room mom when I was in grade school and when I went to high school, I volunteered her to chaperone dances along with anything else we needed.

My senior year I got myself in a little over my head, my boyfriend was in Drama and his teacher knew I was taking sewing classes, so he asked me to sew a costume. Mom and her best friend Margie, went with me to the school and helped me make it, complete with a feather boa tacked around the neck. That feather boa saw more miles before it was attached, with both Mom and Margie dancing around singing old show tunes twirling it in the air. We laughed and got the costume done the night before dress rehearsal and had a grand time doing so.

To this day friends whom I grew up with, still stop by and chat with Mom, though we are all older and wiser, they come by for the stories and laughter, as well as advice that she always is ready to hand out. Most children grow up and move on with their lives, we girls have done so in fine fashion, but still keep in daily contact with her, if only to give her a ring and say Hi Mom, I’m on my way home from work how was your day?

I found this poem on a beautiful made picture years ago and gave it to my mom, it sums up what kind of mother she was to us girls.

A Mean Mother

A mean mother never allows candy or sweets to take the place of a well balanced meal.

A mean mother insists on knowing where her children are all times, who their friends are and what they do.

A mean mother breaks child labor laws by making her children work, washing dishes, making beds, learning to cook, and other cruel and unpleasant chores.

A mean mother makes life miserable for her offspring by insisting they always tell the truth.

A mean mother produces teenagers who are wiser and more sensible.

A mean mother can smile with secret delight and pride as she hears her own grandchildren call their mother mean.

What the world needs now are more mean mothers!

My Mom raised the three of us to believe in ourselves, to be confident and secure, to make good choices in life and friends and know that no matter what she will always love us.

So this is for you Mom. Have a wonderful Mothers Day!

Love you always!

Kat

So I have to admit that this week I have been very in touch with my proverbial masculine side. I’ve spent just over a year researching, looking at, talking to friends about, pricing and dreaming about buying a LCD TV. Well I finally did it.

I called my neighbor Bill and asked if I could borrow his truck to haul it home for me, I also think I needed him along to make sure I was thinking clearly about this major purchase. Little did I realize that my ‘male’ side would pop out front and center in the store. I had decided on the brand and was still in the air on the size, my internal debate was between the merits of a 32” and a 37”. Poor Bill bore the brunt of my indecisiveness. I stood him in front of the 37” television and said well what do you think, when he replied that he liked it, I moved him over an isle in the store and said how does the picture look from here, next thing you know we’re half way across the store, looking at the television and I’m quite sure to the amusement of the folks who where selling it to me, said to him Bill look how clear it is from all the way over here. Bill replied that it was and that my living room wasn’t as big as the store so if I was happy with a 37” then I should buy it.

When we got the television home, Bill, thankfully stuck around and helped me unpack it, set it up and run through the screen features that set all the colors, sound and other dohickies that still remain a mystery to me, he then said, we have one more test, pop in that movie you bought and lets see how clear it is. It was at this point that I realized, my male side came out in the buying of this television, a 32” was still five inches larger than my old standard tube set and would have sufficed but 37” was bigger and therefore better, or so my male mind set told me. I looked at Bill and my neighbor Naomi, who had wondered over to see what the fuss was about and asked; Ok did my man side come out? Would the 32” have been just fine? I wasn’t surprised when they said in unison, “YES”.

So you would think that would be the end of my male side, but no there is more, the next day at work I was talking with my secretary and casually mentioned that I might just buy a PSP3, she said not a Wii? Once my male side popped up, before I realized what it was doing I was logged onto eBay and bidding on a Wii, then not to be finished there I searched out a few accessories for it.

Now, here I am eagerly tracking the shipment of my Wii on FedEx.com, it should arrive Monday and you better believe that I will be hooking it up with the HD cable set thingy I bought in eBay and gaming like never before.

So as you can see girls, it’s not wrong to be in touch with your masculine side now and again as long as you can control the impulse for “Bigger must be better” and yes I know that’s nearly impossible to do!

To Wii or not to Wii that is the question, but to Wii in High Definition, that just makes the male side of this Kat drool!

Have a great one!

Kat