However, I know there are many out there who are curious about the appeal of this device, and when I get mine I hope to help others in the same boat by posting a series here on my learning how to use it, what apps I’m adding and how, and other “tech bridge” posts that I hope will help the baby boomers out there jump in with enthusiasm.

Check back soon for more…

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The Postmistress by Sarah Blake

At the beginning of World War II, while London was being bombed, and the United States had yet to join the war, this story connects the divergent realities of a small town on Cape Cod with the terrors  of the London Blitz and the voices of fleeing refugees across Europe.  For the most part this is not a page turner thriller – it’s a quiet thoughtful book told through the eyes of three different women whose paths come together in the ripples of a war.

Buy The Postmistress now at Amazon.com

The Faculty Club by Danny Tobey

A very different choice than the book above – The Faculty Club was a book I could not put down.  Do be warned though that the need to suspend disbelief takes a quantum leap about 2/3 of the way through.  If that sort of leap does not bother you, then I think you’ll find this a real page turner.  Sort of a Dan Brown Lite type of book.  Although I agree with some of the criticism of the book that it seems to borrow from everthing from Da Vinci Code to Harry Potter, for a light fun read I thoroughly enjoyed it as a guilty pleasure.

Buy The Faculty Club: A Thriller from Amazon.com now.

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A1 diner, Gardiner, ME

I’ve just returned from 3 days at a friend’s camp. We started off with breakfast at the A1 diner in Gardiner – fun to see a diner straight out of time and great food as well. Then we continued on up to Cold Stream Pond near Lincoln, ME, with beautiful spring fed refreshing (cold) water.

There are certain sounds and sights that bring up wonderful memories and create wonderful new stories to be told as future memories.  Is there anything more relaxing than the sound of gentle lake waves lapping against the rocks while diamonds bounce off the lake in early morning?  Or that special green and yellow when the sun honeycombs the shallow edges? We laughed, we ate, we enjoyed the lake and realized how truly blessed we are to be each others friends.  A thank you to Mary and Andrew for putting up with us (and teaching us to play Canasta) and to Pat, Eirwen and Martha and Carol for the laughter, stories and sharing my birthday!

Photo by Pat

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July 23rd, 2008 by Gloria

I’ve settled back into work after a week camp hopping around the state of Maine. I visited 3 camps of different friends and we had a great time, but there is one lake that is closer to my heart since I spent a couple weeks there every summer growing up. It was with much pleasure then that I learned some friends of mine had a camp on the same lake (albeit the other end of the lake)

This camp is so cool I just had to share some of the photos.

Now, let it be said, if you are reading this post from anywhere other than in Maine, you’re probably thinking to yourself “Why did she go to a kids summer camp”….

So let’s define “Camp”.

If you grew up in Maine, camp is what most of you would call a cottage – probably but not always on a lake. There are some that are quite sophisticated, but to me a camp often means a much older building, with or without lake frontage but preferably with (no lake frontage probably means it’s a “hunting” camp.)

In this case the camp has it all (except a decent inside bathroom…oh, and “all” includes a resident chipmunk, the occasional mouse, and on one visit/occasion a bat – though thankfully nothing spotted on this visit). It was originally a hunting camp as evidenced by the deer and moose heads both inside and out. (Andy, my apologies to the vegetarian in the crew).

It also has great lake frontage with the sand beach going up under the porch and about 15 feet of beach between the camp and the lake. I also include a photo of the sink….an odd thing to take a picture of you say? Take a closer look….that sink and counter top is all carved out of one great big tree/log. Hope you enjoy these pictures of a good old fashioned Maine camp!

Many Thanks for the camp hospitality go out to Eirwen and Lane (Lake Cobbosseecontee near Augusta); to Doug and Linda – with a shoutout to Martha and Kevin (Beach Hill Pond near Ellsworth – the pictures are from here); and to Mary and Andrew (Cold Stream Pond near Lincoln).

Note the Bird’s nest in the antlers……circle of life?

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Hold down the Shift and Fn keys and click the Print Scrn key – on my laptop computer it’s F11 key in the top row – yours may be a different F key on your computer or on a full keyboard it may be a separate key, but it will have some abbreviation of Print Screen written on the key and be in the upper right quadrant.  The Fn key will likely be near the Shift key in the lower left quadrant.

From there, open your favorite image program (I use Photoshop, but most PCs come with Paint – look under Start – All Programs – Accessories – Paint. You can use Control + V to paste the screenshot into program.

A simple thing to do once you know the right key combination!

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Elizabeth Aston Books

I’ve always loved Pride and Prejudice and felt the loss when I had finished all the Jane Austen books many years ago.  I recently became aware that there have been many who have tried to pick up the Pride and Prejudice story and take it further – most I found fell sadly  short.  One author though got it right.  Elizabeth Aston books work I think because she skips to the next generation, while keeping the same tone and feeling.  I suggest you start with Mr. Darcy’s Daughters but it isn’t necessary to read them in order. 
Browse more Elizabeth Aston books here.

Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand

Think love is only for the young?  It’s easy to overlook cultural differences when you are young, perhaps not as easy when you have a lifetime of being taught to think in a certain way.  This novel is a terrific exploration of examining the way we think and how it affects relationships.
Buy Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand at Amazon.com

The Elegance of the Hedgehog

This book is a bit different than my previous suggestions.  Not quite as light, but an intriguing story well worth reading.
Buy The Elegance of the Hedgehog at Amazon.com

To Kill a Mockingbird

Left the best for last – This is just the most superb book.  Even if you were made to read it in school, reread it just for pleasure. It’s not on the current best seller list (it was first published in 1960), but I strongly recommend you pick up a copy of this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel!  (And here’s a little surprise information – The young neighbor boy Dill was fashioned after Harper Lee’s childhood friend Truman Capote).
Buy To Kill a Mockingbird at Amazon.com

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Ever since that time, I’ve been trying to tell the story here on my blog, but kept getting writer’s block when I thought about how to cover the scope of a real life story that reads far more like fiction. It starts with the conversion of a charismatic minister in 1880, and ends 40 years later when the members were finally told by their leader to go out and work.  In between those years are blind faith, perceived miracles,  starvation, disease, a manslaughter trial, a doomed voyage on the schooner Coronet, hardship and absolute control over his flock.

When we approached the bottom of the hill leading up to Shiloh I seriously felt an Alfred Hitchcock moment of chill when looking up at the Chapel. Even though it is a beautiful building built with the best of intentions at the time, there is an eerie feeling in its aspect.  My photos show the only portion left standing of the campus, but there are some wonderful old photos of the full complex from more than 100 years ago.

When reading the book, I was also surprised to realize that even after the Scattering, many remained a part of the movement, and were buried in the Shiloh Cemetary decades later.

A summary of the story can be read here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Sandford. To really get the inside story though I recommend reading the book written by a descendant of the Shiloh family.  Your best bet may be to get it at your local library, or you may find a well priced used copy through Amazon.  A new copy will cost you quite a bit more. The book is Fair, Clear and Terrible by Shirley Nelson.

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I’ll admit it, I’m a wimp when it comes to high heat and humidity days – I would rather be reading in a cool room or on a camp porch.  Consequently I’ve been going through a lot of books this summer and would like to share some favorites from both past and present.  Whether you prefer to read out on the beach, on that breezy camp porch, or curled in your favorite recliner here are some great picks:

South of Broad by Pat Conroy

I just finished Pat Conroy’s new book South of Broad.  His books fascinate me with their juxtaposition of horrifying events placed against the polite genteel society of the south.  His wonderful poetic prose is a pleasure as he tells the tale of an unlikely group of  friends thrown together in their senior year of high school in the south of the late 60’s, and through the next couple decades of their lives.
Buy South of Broad at Amazon.com
Browse more books in my Amazon.com store.

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

I’ve become a great fan of Alice Hoffman.  Her touch of magic mixed with humanity make her books unique and fascinating.  It was difficult to feature just one, but I think my favorite is still the first one I read.  If you saw the movie, read it anyway as it’s much better as a book and does not have the absurd ending the movie has. 
Buy Practical Magic at Amazon.com.
Browse more books in my Amazon.com store.

The Stephanie Plum Series by Janet Evanovich

This is my guilty pleasure reading. The only redeeming factor is the laughing out loud you’ll do throughout the exploits of New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum and her odd assortment of relatives and friends.  The first book, One for the Money was given to me as a gift, and it took awhile before I picked it up thinking it wasn’t my style.  I’ve been through 15 of them and number 16 is coming up next.  Since I’m sure you’ll get addicted as well, I’ve put them in order in my Amazon store to make your next fix easy to find after you finish each one.
Quick, give me a Stephanie Plum fix!

Best Beach Read – Jennifer Weiner Books

I suggest you start with In Her Shoes, but it doesn’t matter what order you read them in.  I’m already signed up to auto download the soon to be released Fly Away Home to my Kindle when it comes out this month.
Browse more Jennifer Weiner books in my Amazon.com store.

Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer

The ultimate guilty pleasure – there’s already enough hype about this.  Let me just add that I reluctantly read the first one because all my female co-workers were reading them.  Yes, I was hooked.  These are NOT just for teenagers.  I could link the books individually, but let’s face it you’ll want to pick up the second as soon as you finish the first.  (And in case you are wondering, I’m on Team Jacob).
I accept my fate – buy the whole set at Amazon.com   The Twilight Saga Collection

Browse more books in my Amazon.com store.

More reading favorites coming up next week!

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All my friends have green thumbs.  Me…not so much.  I like the end result of wonderful flowers, just not the getting there.  A couple weeks ago one of my favorite people showed up with two boxes full of wonderful plants.   I had just rearranged my small deck with some new patio planters, but they were still sitting there sadly empty.   Martha not only brought plants to fill them, but also used her gardening talent to arrange and plant them.  Best birthday present in years (even though it’s still two months away).

Thank you Martha!!!   Check out my new patio  garden:

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My early work days were as a secretary (before it was known as the more accurate term of administrative assistant). Some of the technological wonders were:

• Moving from manual typewriter to IBM selectric. Moving from carbon paper to photocopiers. Moving from eraser, to white out, to strikeover tape.
• Moving from IBM selectric to a model that would hold one line of type in memory before it shot it out like a machine gun attack.
• Moving from one line of memory to a Wang word processor, where you could cut a whole section of text and paste it in another location (Beam me up Scotty).

Why the trip down memory lane?  In the last 9 years I’ve moved from developing websites with Dreamweaver with templates and library items on local computer, to using includes to change all pages with one small move, to developing websites on Wordpress, where after it’s built even the non-techie customer can take over the majority of their changes without advanced knowledge.

The job I do now has changed since one year ago, changed drastically since 5 years ago, and is almost unrecognizable to the job I entered 9 years ago.  In a few years from now it will change again.  No matter what your age or experience, if you are working for a living it is imperative to not only stay on top of the newest technology in your job, but also in the newest technology period.  The manual elevator operator is long gone, out of most people’s memory, and eventually that will happen to most of us no matter what job we are currently doing.  Look around the corner, down the long mile, and learn for the future to prepare for the job resurgence that WILL come, but might not look the same as the job we’ve done in the past.  Good luck to all the job seekers out there!

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