So look at the projected highs for today (Sunday) and Wednesday

5 Day Forecast

Today May 27

93^°F

67^°F

Isolated T-Storms / Wind

Chance of rain:

30%

Wind:

SSE at 21 mph

Mon May 28

85^°

52^°

Scattered T-Storms

Chance of rain:

40%

Wind:

SW at 18 mph

Tue May 29

72^°

45^°

Partly Cloudy / Wind

Chance of rain:

10%

Wind:

W at 21 mph

Wed May 30

63^°

42^°

Partly Cloudy

Chance of rain:

10%

Wind:

NW at 10 mph

Thu May 31

65^°

44^°

Partly Cloudy

Chance of rain:

10%

Wind:

NE at 6 mph

On the (not really) writing front

This past week someone bought one of my books from Amazon. I am not doing any marketing anymore, but occasionally I get news that a copy sold and I will get a few bucks in royalties. Amazon is now making the books available in England and Europe, but I don't expect to see any big bump in sales as a result.

I just found out that I can publish the books as Nook books through Barnes & Noble, too. I have signed up for an account, but I am not sure yet whether I will do it. It may be more hassle than it's worth, although it wouldn't cost anything. I might try by publishing a short story (they do that, too) first to see what all is involved.

Birthday travels

For my birthday, Tom and I decided not to go TO anywhere, just to head west and see what we saw. We -- well, Tom -- drove through miles and miles of beautiful western Wisconsin countryside, past Amish farms and around one young couple in a buggy, through small towns with their Main Streets blocked off for fairs, over steep hills and small rivers, up and down a very winding road over Wildcat Mountain, over the even more winding Kickapoo River, through the coulee and ridge driftless region and had a Cajun lunch in "historic downtown La Crosse." After that we drove a ways up the Great River Road along the Mississippi before instructing Jack (the GPS dude voice) to take us home.

Mama had given me birthday money and instructions to take Tom out for a nice dinner. I did pay for lunch, but when we got home, we were both too tired to go out for dinner. There is a big auto show in the Dells this weekend, and it is a good time to avoid the town completely. So we had leftovers and went to get some ice cream. (Peggy -- thank you! -- had provided us with some cake earlier.)  I plan to take to Tom out for dinner at a favorite Italian restaurant later in the week.

Thanks to everyone for birthday greetings, cards and stuff. It was a great day weather-wise to be out and about, and I got to see some parts of Wisconsin I had not seen before.

Sporty 62 Model ;-)

Hope

Most people understand hope as wishful thinking, as in "I hope something will happen." This is not what the Bible means by hope. The biblical definition of hope is "confident expectation."  Note that hope is about something not yet present, but definitely on the way.

Rhode Island's state motto is Hope.

To Mothers All

Happy Mother's Day! To everyone, of course, but especially to Mama (Generation I), Cynthia (Generation II), Angie, Kirstin and Kristin (Generation III in alphabetical order)!
Love from Tom, Michael, Sundance and Cassidy (in birth order)

The Terror of the Mouses

Sundance and Cassidy are doing their usual bang-up job of keeping the house free of mice -- NOT!

In the last few days, two mice have found themselves into the sticky traps. Last night a small mouse ran around the living room while we were watching television. It ran behind the entertainment center, and I got out the sticky traps and placed them around. The mouse ran back out and I rearranged the traps and added more to corners. The mouse ran into my bedroom, and I put peppermint-soaked cotton balls all over the place to get it out. It ran into the living room and trotted across two sticky traps, apparently too light to get stuck, and hid behind the entertainment center.

Suddenly I heard a thump from Tom's office. Cassidy had decided to investigate what was making all the ruckus. She stalked the mouse for a while, chasing it to various places and then sitting and staring. I think she was doing that thing Sheldon Cooper does where he stares hard and tries to make your brain explode. This worked no better for Cassidy than it does for Dr. Copper.

Eventually she chased the little round rodent back into my room, where it promptly climbed a cord and ran across the pillows. (Not a sight to make one happy to lie down one's head to rest, I assure you.)

I chased the mouse off the bed, followed by all the bedding to make sure it wasn't hiding somewhere. Then Cassidy and I went hunting it and found it near the front door. After Cassidy stalked it from a safe distance away for a while, I opened the door and chased the mouse out. Tom was on the porch making a phone call and making fun of the whole process. Cassidy took off after Mickey/Minnie, but I don't think she had any success. She was back in the house shortly looking decidedly unvictorious.

Below is a picture of Sundance on my bed this morning. She is protecting it from further violation by snoring loudly. This is her way of keeping the mice at bay. Works as well as staring at them.