The Hobbit Hole VI - And Whither Then? I Cannot Say...

[Fedora]

But wait! I think I spot a furry bunny slipper behind that hedge...

Uh-oh--bunny-slippered Balrog!!! :)

[Fedora]

Only have one loaf left. ;-)

Can you send that over here as an attachment? :)

[JenB]

When we started Saxon, with me, they had 54 - I think they may have a 43, but we only start it in 4th grade. I liked Saxon. Well, mostly in retrospect, at the time it was tough.

Ugh, home. Waiting for sib to get out of the shower, then I'll pack and have ice cream.

[RosieCotton]

Fresh from the oven!

I used a little yogurt in the dough...seemed to make it come out very even and with just a slight tang.

I'm havin' bread and cheese for lunch tomorrow. Yum!

[RosieCotton]

Heh...too bad they don't have that worked out!

Ever read Charlie and the Chocolate factory (or see...I THINK it made the movie version, too...)? Where they were working on a way to send chocolate by TV waves?

[RMDupree]

He wears those slippers for "stealth" reasons!

[RMDupree]

Sounds delicious, Rosie!

[RosieCotton]

For tough...in fourth grade I had Rod and Staff. Saxon was a breath of fresh air in comparison. Plus the word problems all involved perfect Mennonite children, which ticked me off. "Judy is helping Mother sew a dress for little Betty. They need a yard and a half of fabric. If fabric costs blah blah a yard, how much will Judy need?"

Etc.

We had books by Rod and Staff, too. They mostly were about impossibly well behaved families, and when kids were bad, parents were never angry, only sad. It was highly irritating.

[Rose in RoseBear]

Romance novels! The really thick historicals, by Mary Jo Putney, Edith Layton, Roberta Gellis, et al!

The authors do excellent research, the characters are engaging, and you can skip the spicy bits, if you like! <grin> But why would you?

There's a sub-genre of historical romance that adds in real historical figures --- for example, the Roselynde series by Roberta Gellis features Eleanor of Aquitaine, Richard I (aka "The Lion-Hearted"), John (aka "of England," aka "Lackland"), and William Marshal, 4th Earl of Pembroke (aka the "Marshal of England") --- as secondary characters. Done properly, as in the Roselynde series, it is very cool stuff to read!

[300winmag]

I filed the insurance claim with the post office today. As soon as the woman saw "knives" on the sales receipt I had to produce, she said "maybe you weren't allowed to send those". I explained to her that they were legal under Army regs for mailing. Her answer was, "well, maybe they're not allowable for certain APOs". Of course, nobody said that to me when they took the $17 to send the package, because that same info was on the customs statement.

She said it would take 4-6 weeks for the post office and customs to investigate. For some reason, they cannot scan the insurance barcodes when the mail hits Kuwait. That puts ALL the insured packages at risk. It's nice to know that the biggest overseas mail operations since WW2, and its major depot, is still running in the horse-and-buggy era.

I got the distinct impression her job is to work as hard as possible to deny all insurance claims.

[JenB]

Oh, yuck, my mother avoided that sort of material like the plague. She knew there was no better way to get us do disbehave.... it's like when she read us "Little House on the Praire". Pretty good books but in general those kids were too well behaved. It got old fast.

Oh, and once I had to read an "Elsie Dinsmore" book. I don't remember the author, but did you ever run across those gems? UGH - like Pollyanna, only worse. No wonder I turned to SF and fantasy.... no wonder I wanted to be Eowyn.

[RosieCotton]

If they weren't allowed to be mailed, wouldn't it be THEIR responsibility to tell you that?

And even if that were the case (which it of course isn't), why does that give them the right to lose them rather than just returning them?

Hope they come through. Too bad it has to take forever.

[RosieCotton]

Rod and Staff books made the Little House kids seem like hellions. So you can guess what they were like.

Had stuff like kids eating a few grains of wheat off the stalk while walking past the wheat field to run errands. Then later they'd realize that that was "stealing", confess to Father, who would "sadly" tell them that he was disappointed, but that God would forgive them if they repented and apologized to the farmer.

Gak!

I'm going to bed. Been a longgggg day.

[Wneighbor]

I got the distinct impression her job is to work as hard as possible to deny all insurance claims.

I just thought that went along with all insurance claims WM!

I got the magazines!

[Ramius]

Still here?

[RMDupree]

Hi Rose!

If you like historical romance, no series (IMHO) can ever beat Diana Gabaldon's Outlander.

It's got a time travel element to it, which is always fun, but the characters are so well-developed and the research so well-done, that you'll never regret tackling it!

I loved it so much, I paid $35 dollars for an autographed hard cover of the first book, Outlander. Dragonfly in Amber is the sequel and there are 3 more after that!

Check it out!

[Fedora]

I saw the movie of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I don't remember the part about them trying to send chocolate by TV waves, but it's a good idea! :)

[Wneighbor]

I'm here! (((Ramius)))

Was just off in the kitchen getting something to eat.

[Fedora]

He wears those slippers for "stealth" reasons!

Hmmm--now that you mention it, they do make him somehow unobtrusive--invisible, you might say. . .

[Ramius]

You would not *believe* what just happened...