Books For Cooks With A Little Murder Thrown In

I love to read, and can't resist a good murder mystery especially if it also involves food in some way. I'm a fan of the Dianne Mott Davidson series about Goldy, a caterer in Colorado. This week I'm reading a new series by Melinda Wells, whose main character is Della, a gal who runs a cooking school and who has a brand new cooking show! Unfortunately her first show results in murder live on tv. The back of the book has some of the recipes featured in the novel - yum!
If you like to read and cook, you might like her books too. Summer is the perfect time to grab a few paperbacks and take them on vacation with you.

Our World From Space

I can remember how much fun it was as a kid to spend a summer night looking up at the stars and wondering what our world looked like from space. One special memory is of a meteor shower at summer camp, with the sky filled with shooting stars burning up as they fell towards the earth. It was so peaceful, just lying on my back, looking for familiar constellations and counting the stars as they fell.
Today I found an online store that offers beautiful satellite photos of earth from space, and I'm featuring it here in my blog so other earth lovers can find prints to frame on your walls, bringing just a little bit of our-world-from-space home. Here are a few examples:

Pearl Harbor Hawaii From Space by terraprints
More Pearl Posters

Happy 4th Of July

The summer travel season is in full swing with plenty of cars on the road. For a recent trip our family rented an SUV, as our own minivan now has 133,000 miles on it and has seen better days in its 12 yr lifespan. What fun to have a 'new' car to drive! There will be many families heading to the shore or the mountains this weekend to celebrate the 4th of July. I just wanted to say, be safe! Here are several simple safety tips to make your holiday better.

Watch your speed - just a little extra caution can save lives. When I was in Yosemite recently, the park had placed little caution signs with a picture of a bear on them and the caption "Speed Kills Bears", a reminder to slow down.

Be courteous - let the other driver merge in when he needs to. Getting to your vacation spot 5 minutes sooner isn't really that important, is it?

Lock your car if you leave it, even for a short time - unfortunately it only takes a second for a thief to slip into your car and steal a purse, a Garmin or an ipod left on a seat unattended.

So have a safe and wonderful Fourth and enjoy your BBQ, picnic, camping trip or beach vacation. Happy traveling!