Karen and I have been in California, helping my mother celebrate her 80th birthday. My three sisters and I, two of her grandchildren, Karen and my oldest sister's husband, and some friends all sang, drank, and generally partied. 80 is a big deal. There's a lot of wisdom gathered in surviving that long. We're about to head back home, but we've been house hunting here again. We saw a few places that look promising. Karen's rule is that we'll have to take about half the square footage, pay an extra hundred thousand, and live in a worse neighborhood and voila, we're in CA. That seems about right. Still, three years ago, it would have been more like an extra five hundred thousand. My sister, who bought into the market on March 7, sold her house at the peak as well. I've always thought I was doing well to break even when I sold a house.

We've walked on the beach, looked at birds, and generally enjoyed the sunshine and cool sea breezes. I can understand how CA became so popular a destination. I'm not sure, though, about those who live inland. If you're going to live in a desert, you might as well live in Texas, it seems to me. Assuming our insane governor doesn't go forward with his talk about succeeding from the union. Talk about wacky.

I'm looking forward to getting back together with my pets, my own bed, and yes, my neighborhood. When we finally do move to CA, I know I'll miss Texas a lot. I've spent longer in TX than in any other state.

I'm going to make THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA by Karen Leabo the www.BooksForABuck.com book of the day. An FBI agent steps way over the limit when he decides to kidnapp the sister of a top Mafia don. When killers see a chance to shake up Mafia leadership, both are on the run--but can the two learn to trust each other with such an unlucky start to their relationship? Sexy and exciting romantic suspense. Only $2.99. (Available in HTML, Adobe Acrobat PDF, eReader and Microsoft Reader formats). Here's the URL: http://www.booksforabuck.com/rompages/devilsea.html

Here's the cover (cover design by Karen Leabo):

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