I think more people travel today than ever before. We have so many ways to get there – car, bus, train, plane, boat – and we do all of them.
There are so many reasons to travel as families and friends put miles between us for so many reasons. But when we move away, that means we get to travel to go visit, and for many, often we need to go for a business trip.
Once the decision is made on how to travel, the next thing is packing. I think packing is harder than actually traveling.
Without getting too personal, what’s the most important thing you need to pack? How do you decide what to take, and what is extra? I have traveled with friends who took a suitcase double the size of mine – and paid at the airport because it was overweight, and then didn’t wear or use half of what they took. Hmmmm…. I plan for one extra set of clothing, and then everything I take, I wear or use. No extras in my suitcase.
I always pack with a list. Yes, I have forgotten important items you never think you’d forget, because they weren’t on my list.
But there’s something you only have to forget once, and then it never is left off the list. In fact, it’s on the top my list. That’s all the chargers for all my electronic devices.
After all, you can buy socks anywhere.

I put up a post on www.inspyromance.com about falling in love, yeah, it’s a romance novel site, and included a picture of a phantom photo bomber.
Check it out at http://www.inspyromance.com/why-do-we-fall-in-love/

Did I say it was hot? Well, if I didn’t say it enough times, it’s HOT!

Here on the west coast we didn’t have a very good spring. I’m wondering if we had spring at all. I think we had three months of solid rain. Now the hot weather is here and we’re not used to it. I feel like we’re baking, and we don’t even need an oven.

What do you do when it’s hot? Of course whatever you do, I hope you do it with lots of sunscreen.

When it cools in the evening we always take the dogs out, which is always fun, and good exercise for some. Many of the dog owners, however, only walk to get to the dog park, then stand around and talk while all the dogs run around and play together. You know, I could get used to that.

Yesterday I snuck away from my deadline for my next book and took a bit of a break. My husband and I went to one of the local parks, with our dogs, where there was a lineup of different bands playing all afternoon and into the evening.

The band we went to see was, as best I can describe, an aggressive rock-a-billy group, with a guitarist, bassist, and a drummer. Of course what held my interest was the bassist. He didn’t have an electric bass, but a big acoustic bass that was wired for sound. And, he didn’t just play it, for a lot of the performance it was like he was also almost riding it. I’ve never seen anyone play a big acoustic bass like this fellow. If I played my bass like that, it would probably cry. But it sure did sound good.

My husband and I weren’t the only ones who enjoyed they music. My husband’s dog, a Scottie Schnauzer mix (yeah, a Schnottie) enjoyed it too. I wasn’t watching the dog, I was watching the band, but when the set was almost done I looked down to the dogs – remember this was outdoors in a park on a Sunday evening – and Fred had his nose in the air, and he was singing away to the music as only a Scottie can. Whenever the singer held a note, our dog did too.

While we thought it was amusing, I’m not sure the singer would have shared our opinion…

In preparation for my upcoming journeys to two writers’ conferences in August, I got my hair done today. I haven’t got a new perm for a very long time, and I was quite overdue. My hair is very fine and poker straight, so I need a perm to give  it some body.  I went to a new hairdresser today and I think she did a great job with it, except I really won’t know until next week when it settles down a bit. Then, at the end of the month, it will be all relaxed and ready to be seen in public.

But my first test subject is always my husband. He says the same thing every time I get a new perm, and we’ve been married a long time, so this is not new. Actually, his first comment is made before he even sees it.

Yeah, he smells the chemicals before I make it around the corner. He did it again this time. His first words were, “Oh, no. You stink.”

But it’s for a worthy cause. Really. It is.

Really.

Yesterday was the longest day of  the year in the northern hemisphere. It was sunny, so the daylight extended truly until the end of the day, and it was beautiful. As well, today, Sunday morning, the sun was up much earlier than I was, which woke the birds, which in turn woke me.

Today my jazz band is going to play at a garden party. For supper my family will have a barbecue, and this evening we will enjoy the long summer day until the sun sets nice and late, because it truly is now the start of summer.

This got me started on thinking of my summer plans. The weather here on the west coast has been quite dismal, so it’s been hard to think of summer, but summer is finally here. I plan to spend a lot of the summer in my back yard.  For part of that I plan to watch my tomatoes grow, but I will also be writing, sitting in the middle of the grass with my netbook.

I can remember the days before everyone had a laptop or netbook, and the only truly useable computer was a desktop, which meant to use a computer you were trapped in the house.  Today my phone does more than my first computer. A few years ago I was at a museum where they had a few older computers on display, and to my shock one of them was the same as the computer system that I used at an old job until only a couple of years before I saw it in the museum.

I don’t know what that had to do with the first day of summer, maybe this is the day to look ahead, and in order to appreciate what is ahead, we need to remember what was behind.

Enjoy the summer!

Well, here it is, the middle of June, and here on the west coast we had a nice week and then come the weekend, a total downpour on the day that we were supposed to have a fun barbecue for Father’s Day. But as the saying goes, when life gives you lemons, then make lemonade.

So we made lemonade. We put a tarp over a corner of the yard and sat outside but under the deck while my oldest son was the barbecuer on Father’s Day, giving his father a nice rest (and a good laugh).  We didn’t play any badminton, and instead shared stories with my father-in-law about our badminton adventures, okay, mis-adventures, over the past couple of weeks. There was only one dog-fight over a new toy, with Fred (husband’s Scotty-Schnauzer cross) and Sadie (son’s girlfriend’s Shi-Tzu) having a growling tug, and Heidi (my mini Schnauzer) telling the world her thoughts.

Once I said I would never give a dog a people name, now we have 2 1/2 dogs with people names. Go figure.

Anyway, it was still a nice weekend, except instead of drinking ice cold soft drinks we had never-ending cups of hot coffee, and instead of shorts and t-shirts we all wore jeans and jackets.

Overall, it was a good day. We stayed dry, and had fun, so mission accomplished.

This may not be exciting to anyone else, but I can see the color red starting to appear in my strawberrry garden. Now if I can figure out a way to keep my dog from jumping the wooden posts that were supposed to keep him out.

I’ve just returned from the weekend conference of The Word Guild’s Vancouver branch, and what a weekend it was! I love going to conferences because every one of them has something special and unique, and this was no exception.  This one was smaller than most I usually attend, and definitely more casual.  Something different on this was the setting – at UBC campus, the University of British Columbia.

I stayed the night at one of the dormatory buildings. From my room on the 16th floor I could overlook the campus and the ocean, and it was gorgeous.

The highlight of this conference was the guest speaker – Dr. J.I.Packer, author of Knowing God and many, many other great books. During the dinner, part of which was a tribute to Dr. Packer, a prize was awarded to the person who owned (and brought) the oldest copy of one of his books. I won! Actually I should say my husband won, but he wasn’t with me. He found the oldest book of Dr. Packer’s that we own, and it was a first edition copy of Knowing God, dated 1973.  I don’t even know how we got a book that old, but we had it in our library, and still in reasonably good condition. That’s a book that still as good today as it was back then.

The prize for having the oldest book was a copy of his newest book, which I thought was fitting.

If you have a copy of Knowing God – check the date, how old is your copy? If you don’t have one, I recommend that it’s one you should get.

Enjoy!

Sorry it’s been so long since I last posted. I’ve apparently been MIA – missing in action – because I’ve been buried with…. yeah, you guessed it… a book deadline. Hey, it’s what I live for. 🙂

The book is done – this is my second Best Man series novel, the 3rd is now under construction. The first book isn’t out yet, but it will be soon – see the cover and a link on my main page for The Best Man’s Secret. If you pre-order you’ll get it first. 🙂

I also have more exciting news. If you’ve read The Path To Piney Meadows I think you’ll be happy to hear that it is a finalist in a writing contest. I don’t enter many contests… okay it’s been years since I entered a writing contest… but I’m glad I did this time. Final results will be announced in June 2014 at The Word Guild’s conference in Toronto. I won’t be there, but I’ll be watching for the results. Still, whether my book comes in first, second, or third, that’s all great, and I’m very happy for whatever comes.

(PS if you haven’t read it, this is a great time to buy it)(just thought I’d throw that in)

Until next time!

Gail Sattler