Z is for Zilch

And that's pretty much what came to mind for this post. Zilch.

I find it incredible that the A to Z April Blog Challenge is over, and that this is the last day of April. Zowie!

My posts haven't exactly been zooty or zany, but hopefully acceptable since I was pretty much zonked the whole month. No, not drunk. Zonked by a virus that totally took the zip out of my zapateado. Zooks, I was zombie-like.

That's over now. Thank Zeus!

See you on Monday!

Y is for Yuck

Yucky things are:

1. Black walnuts (they are so revolting in taste and smell that I suspect I'm allergic to them)

2. Corn fritters (especially served with ham salad -- it was a disgusting combination of grease and salt from my country grade school's cafeteria back in the early 50s).

3. Certain bottled drinks (especially the green ones) I dare not mention by brand name

4. Okra (double yuck)

5. Raw oysters

6. Escargot (with or without garlic butter)

7. Black hairy spiders

8. Cockroaches

9. Leeches and slugs

10. Skunks

What did I leave out?

X is for Xplore Photo Contest Winners

Xplore is the name of the weekly outdoor magazine supplement to the Fort Collins Coloradoan. Each month Xplore holds a photo contest for local amateur and professional photographers to submit their outdoor images for judging by popular vote.

The photos for March and previous months are online. The March winner's photo of a bald eagle in the raptor cages at the Environmental Learning Center is worth seeing.

April photos submitted so far are posted online as well. I love the one with the foxy mama and her kits.

W is for Wednesday Scramble

How convenient is that? My Wednesday Scramble usually includes an announcement of Thursday's guest, but because of the A to Z April Blog Challenge 2011, I didn't schedule any guests this month. But I do have some other "W" stuff to talk about.

First, there's a writer's conference to promote. Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers has released the brochure and workshop description for Colorado Gold 2011 to be held September 9, 10, and 11 in Denver, Colorado. I posted some brief information and all the links yesterday at Chiseled in Rock Blog.

Then there are writing classes to announce from Northern Colorado Writers in Fort Collins, Colorado.

I'd like to give a nod to The Writing Bug: A blog for those who have caught it which participated in the A to Z Challenge with posts from regular and guest contributors. If you haven't visited them yet during the challenge, now's a great time to check out this arm of Northern Colorado Writers.

And finally, I can announce the end of my month of whining about everything from dial-up computer access to travel woes to catching the cold to end all colds. That should make everyone happy, especially me.

V is for Volcano

One of the greatest national parks in the country is Yellowstone, in the northwest corner of Wyoming. There are so many photo opportunities that it's hard to stop taking pictures. And the sounds are as amazing as the sights.

I wasn't quite as close to this guy as the photo makes it look, thanks to the zoom lens.



I have a whole sequence of photos showing Old Faithful from the first puff of steam to the last gasp. I like this one the best.



It's so beautiful in Yellowstone that it's hard to imagine it blowing up and wiping out a big portion of the United States, my part of Colorado with it.

Yellowstone is a supervolcano. This recent article at Discovery News says scientists are now reporting the volcano is bigger than previously thought. Of course, it's highly unlikely this monster will blow anytime soon. The last time was 642,000 years ago, and previous eruptions were 660,000 and 800,000 years apart. No worries.

Geesh. And I wanted to get out of Florida because I thought hurricanes were scary.

U is for Underground

Many of my scenic side trips over the years have included underground adventures. When I was a kid, my family toured some of the caves on the way to or in the Ozarks of Missouri. Meramac Caverns and Bridal Cave are two I remember.

The spectacular Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota was a must see when my husband and I toured the Badlands, Custer State Park, and the rest of South Dakota's attractions.

One of my favorite underground tours was the old Gold Road Mine tour near Oatman, Arizona. I'd never toured a gold mine before, but my imagination used some of the things I learned there to create the fictional mine in The Desert Hedge Murders. Since the Gold Road Mine is now closed, one needs to search other parts of Arizona for a good gold mine tour.

Even though we weren't underground during our Wyoming road trip, we did view amazing sites that had once been buried but were now being excavated by paleontologists. Some of the dig sites at The Wyoming Dinosaur Center are open to tours.

On one of our driving trips in Europe, we discovered we were close to an accessible bunker on the Alpes-Maritimes section of the Maginot Line near the French/Italian border. We were lucky enough to join a group descending into the opening to view the underground stairs, chambers, and tunnels. Even if you don't check out any of the other links, I urge you to take a look at these photos from the Gros ouvrage de Barbonnet near Sospel. I can't even imagine how difficult it was to haul in this equipment and install it below ground. To learn much more about these bunkers and view other photos, check out this 2002 Trip Report from the Bunkertours site.

T is for Taking the Easy Way Out

I thought seriously about a T is for Three Cups of Tea post, but so much has already been written about the controversy involving Greg Mortenson, his books, and his non-profit organization that I couldn't imagine adding anything significant. Mortenson spoke here in Northern Colorado, at Colorado State University, and this community raised a significant amount of money for his cause. It will be a real shame if that money was wasted when it could have been used right here at home at the Food Bank.

Then one of the kind visitors to my blog yesterday, L. G. Smith of Bards and Prophets, suggested I simply post a cup of tea as today's contribution. I gave that some serious thought. After all, I've been chugging a lot of Earl Gray, green tea, and herbal teas throughout this cold and bronchitis attack. But then, finding a free picture of a cup of tea (or taking one and uploading and cropping and resizing) seemed like a lot of effort for someone who mostly wanted to take another nap. Instead, I'll refer you to this great website, Teavana: Tea for Beginners.

I could also send you to this You Tube recording of Ninet Tayeb singing Elliott Smith's Taking the Easy Way Out. But Smith had a pretty sad life and an unfortunate end, so it seemed too depressing a subject for good A to Z Challenge post. Day Tripper from the Beatles works better, "Got a good reason for taking the easy way out."

That's the best I can do for now. It's time for another cup of tea, a new supply of tissues and a couple of cough drops.

S is for Stuff I've Learned About the A to Z Challenge (So Far)

1. Just because April looks pretty clean on your calendar and you sign up for the A to Z April Blog Challenge 2011 doesn't mean all hell won't break loose sometime during the month. My month of chaos began April 1st and threatens to continue all month.

2. Because of No. 1, Alex J. Cavanaugh's approach -- writing his blog posts ahead of time and pre-scheduling them to publish -- would have saved me a lot of grief. Alex, I sure wish with all my heart that I had followed your great example. I'm still hanging on with a wing and a prayer, but I think I'm going to make it to Z.

3. There are so many amazing bloggers participating in the A to Z that it's going to take months for me to visit them all and read their challenge posts. To those who have left comments and followed my blog so far, I will reciprocate.

4. The originator of this challenge, Arlee Bird, and his 2011 team deserve a huge round of applause for their creativity and hard work. Stand up and take a bow, folks!

R is for Rocky Mountain National Park

Another short post, folks. Hopefully I'm on the road to recovery from what turned out to be bronchitis, but I'm really feeling rocky and not yet ready to rumble. Thinking relaxing thoughts about beautiful places can't hurt, right?

I have been to several national parks across the country, but one that takes my breath away every time I visit is only forty-five minutes from my house: Rocky Mountain National Park. The National Park Service website has an excellent photos and multimedia page if you want to see great pictures.

One time we were driving along Trail Ridge Road in August when it suddenly began to snow real hard and cars were sliding off the road. And then about a mile further on, there was no snow, the roads were dry, and the sun was shining. We've seen mountain sheep, elk, and at least one coyote. The best part, however, are the stunning views. Consider this park highly recommended.

Q is for Quick

And today's post is going to be one of the quickest you'll find during the A to Z Challenge. I'm still suffering from this miserable cold from hell. I probably should be quarantined. Nevertheless, I'm not a quitter. I'll hang in there for all of A to Z.

Anyway, the post I'd originally planned for today (Q is for QRZ?) on the subject of ham radio isn't going to happen. Maybe next year. You can check out an earlier post I wrote about the joys of being a ham in Why I Spent the Night in the Boys Locker Room.

However, I guess we could turn this Q post into a quiz. Who knows what QRZ? means in ham radio jargon, and how do you pronounce it?

P is for Pointer Post

Pointing you to Chiseled in Rock blog where I'm replaying a few cheap ways to relieve stress when your To Do List is out of control. It's playful, so I hope you enjoy it.

O is for Out of Order and Oatman, Arizona

I'm out of order.

I'm coughing, have a very sore throat, am sneezing and dripping, and my sinuses are trying burst my head open from the inside. My teeth even hurt. My apologies for taking the easy way out today, but I plan to spend another day on the couch, drinking hot tea and lots of water and napping (not to mention the hacking, sneezing, dripping and whining).

To keep to my travel theme, however, I would like to refer you to a previous post I wrote about Oatman, the ghostly touristy gold mining town in NW Arizona that I used for part of the setting of The Desert Hedge Murders. It's nice and short.

Monthly Book Giveaway by Mystery Writers of America

This month Mystery Writers of America is giving away twenty excellent books.

The April books are:

Love Me to Death by Allison Brennan

Merciless by Mary Burton

Before Cain Strikes by Joshua Corin

Rogue Island by Bruce DeSilva

So Close the Hand of Death by J.T. Ellison

Silent Mercy by Linda Fairstein

Love You More by Lisa Gardner

Deadly Currents by Beth Groundwater

Grace Under Pressure by Julie Hyzy

The Ragtime Fool by Larry Karp

Beaglemania by Linda O. Johnston

A Touch of Gold by Joyce and Jim Lavene

Rizzo's Fire by Lou Manfredo

Sticky Fingers by Nancy Martin

Killer Routine by Alan Orloff

I, Alex Cross by James Patterson

The Insane Train by Sheldon Russell

The Other Side of Dark by Sarah Smith

Deadly Diversion by Eleanor Sullivan

The Mapping of Love and Death by Jacqueline Winspear

Plus a copy of Mystery Writers of America Presents...Crimes by Moonlight, edited by Charlaine Harris

To enter, head over to the Mystery Writers of America website page for reader contests by April 30, 2011.

N is for Norway

"N" is one of my super easy posts because I get to refer you to a wonderful travel blog called Girls Trek Too from author/blogger Cara Lopez Lee, author of They Only Eat Their Husbands.

My guest post (with photos) is called Older Gals Trek Too: Discovering My Norwegian Homeland. In 1998 I took a solo trip to Norway, visited my mother's cousins, and then took off alone to explore the land of my ancestors by train and ferry. It was the trip of a lifetime, and I did it when I was 56 years old.

I hope you have a great weekend.

M is for Maastricht, Holland

The driving trip my husband and I took in March 1997 included a tiny corner of Holland. We stopped in the city of Maastricht to look around. There's always something to see in any town or city in Europe, so we were able to find historic buildings:




and enjoy beer in yet one more country:



As usual, however, at least one thing has to go wrong on every trip. Notice the "pained" expression on my face as I sip my beer?

We were exploring the parks and climbing around on old walls in Maastricht, and as I came down the steps, intent on photographic opportunities, I stepped onto a worn dip in the stone and lost my balance. As I tumbled to the ground, I kept thinking, "The camera. Don't break the camera."

The camera was fine, but I had sprained my ankle on the third day of our trip. I hobbled along for the next week, using the coldest water possible in the bathtub each night to bring down the swelling so I could jam the foot back into a shoe the next day. I just kept thinking, "It could have been worse," and "I'm not going home early, no matter what."

L is for Lugano, Switzerland

Back to the travel theme today. During our driving trip around Italy, Switzerland, and France in April, 2000, my husband and I spent a couple of days in Lugano, Switzerland.




It was quiet and peaceful, flowers blooming everywhere, and I can't remember ever being so calm and relaxed on a vacation.




We took a funicular up the mountain for this view:




The trip was not completely stress-free. We had tried to be adventurous and find hotels or motels along the way without making advance reservations. We did not take into account Easter vacation. By the time we reached the French Riviera where we planned to stay a couple more nights before flying home from Nice, every hotel and motel from the best to the worst had been booked ahead.

We drove the autoroute for hours to get away from the tourist areas and finally found a motel about 4:30 in the morning with one unoccupied room. So much for my spirit of adventure. I'd rather have a good night's sleep anytime.

K is for Katie Kitten

I've written about Katrina Katie Kitten before. On February 9th I was at Kaye Barley's Meanderings and Muses with a post about My Office, My Pet, and Me. Two days later our kitten got sick.

On February 23, I wrote this in my Wednesday Scramble:

On Friday, Feb. 11th, the kitten we adopted from the animal shelter about three weeks earlier became very ill. We've been through a very scary time with Katie, putting her through multiple visits to the vet and some tests way too tough for a cute little kitten less than six months old. It's been hard on her because she was suffering so much, and hard on us because we were so afraid we were going to lose her.

Katie is a trooper, though, and she has an astounding desire to get better and stick around to humor her humans. Since Sunday, she has been making daily improvements. It's enough of a heart breaker to almost lose a pet (and if feels as though she's been here forever instead of a mere six weeks), but to see her try so hard to get better and regain control of her people brings tears to my eyes.

I'm happy to say that Katie is improving. Our wonderful vet considers her illness a mystery and a challenge, and he even calls us to check on her and discuss what we should do next. To his credit, he has even told us the next step, if she were to get worse again, would be to pull in the well-known Colorado State University Veterinarian Hospital team to apply their diagnostic expertise to her case.

This evening, however, Katie is even better. She not only ate her own meal, she conned me out of a few bites of my baked chicken. And then she wanted to play.

So keep your fingers crossed for Katie. She's a keeper (and she seems to think we're keepers, too).

As it turns out, we did take the kitten to the CSU Veterinary Hospital for some tests. We've been working with a wonderful veterinarian there who is so involved in Katie's progress that she gave me an e-mail address so I could send regular updates. Katie was diagnosed with a mega-esophagus and a possible hiatal hernia, and we've been treating her with medications and a special feeding regimen that requires her to eat like this:



After feeding the kitten, husband Bill or I must keep Katie in as vertical a position as possible for about thirty minutes. When she was sickly and sleeping a lot, she was docile and easygoing about being held. As she became healthier and the pain went away, she became more feisty and began to resist the forced holding period.

All within a thirty-minute period, she glares:



acts resigned:



enjoys herself (note the position of her paws):



or demands to be put down right now:



Most of the time these days she feels really good, plays energetically, and eats like a little pig. Tomorrow she goes back to the CSU Veterinary Hospital for more tests. We still don't know whether the mega-esophagus can ever resolve itself, or if a possible hernia is repairable, but we sure are learning a lot about cat anatomy during this process.

J is for Java or Joe

My dad and uncle used to sing the Java Jive a lot. (That link is to a fun Manhattan Transfer video clip on You Tube). Anyway, I feel that way about my coffee, too. Of all the coffees I've enjoyed on my travels (and I must do my best to stick to my travel theme throughout the A to Z Challenge), I'm most fond of the Douwe Egberts coffee I first tasted in Wavre, Belgium.

And that leads to the fact I'm on a Coffee Break over at Chiseled in Rock blog where I'm talking about ghosts. Since yesterday's CIR contributor Janet Fogg wrote about talking to the dead, ghosts seemed to fit right in. I hope you'll join us for a cup of java and leave a comment about your own ghostly experiences.

How about that? Did my "J" post work?

I is for Illinois Weather

Friday's travels were seriously complicated by the storms that passed through Chicago in the morning. As you know, flight delays snowball and affect travel and connections all over the country. My trip went something like this:

9:30 AM -- Arrived at University of Illinois Willard Airport in Savoy and returned my snazzy red Camry rental way in advance of the 11:30 AM flight to Chicago on an American Eagle commuter jet.

11:00 AM -- Time to board the plane, but instead we got an announcement that the flight was delayed until 12:30 PM. My Chicago to Denver flight was scheduled for 2:30 but had been delayed to 3:15, so my connection was still okay.

Noon -- Time to board the plane, but instead we got an announcement that the flight was delayed until 1:30 PM. Thank goodness for my new Kindle. I read the first half of Headwind by K.K. Brees during this trip.

We boarded the plane and taxied out to the runway, but on the tarmac the plane stopped and abruptly powered down. We had been told by Chicago ground control to hold until 2:15. I knew there was no chance to make a 3:15 flight, but hoped that my Chicago/Denver flight was also delayed again.

At 2:15 we took off and got to Chicago in excellent time, but then were held up a bit before landing. (Note: I hate circling over an airport way more than taking off, landing, or flying.) Finally landed and taxied almost to the gate....but had to wait just short of the jetway for a while. I think there was no one present to connect the walkway to the plane.

Finally in the airport, I discovered my Denver flight had indeed been delayed...until 4:30. I had a chance to get something to eat, a bacon, egg, and cheese bagel that sat in my stomach like a lump of lead. Headed for my gate and waited...noticed the departure time change again to 4:42 PM. We eventually boarded, taxied, took off and landed in Denver.

The thing is, I travel to Illinois at least twice a year. Sometimes I fly to Indianapolis and drive over, but that has been uncomfortable a time or two because of ground fog. I really hate driving for 2-3 hours in fog.

Other times I go through Chicago so I can fly direct into Champaign. The windy city is never calm, but wind is the least of our problems. The biggest risk throughout Illinois is from violent storms and tornadoes.

One time, my commuter flight was ready to board in Champaign and the tornado sirens went off. Sure enough, we saw the twister touch down in the distance to the west of the airport before we were sent to a lower level to hover under the stairs.

Another time I watched a violent thunderstorm play out in the dark in lightning flashes and roiling, black clouds as our commuter flight skirted the edge of the storm and scooted under the clouds to land. Just as I was walking out the front door to catch a shuttle, the tornado sirens sounded. I was ready to crawl back under those stairs, but the shuttle driver said, "No, come on, we'll outrun it."

I grew up on a farm in central Illinois, so you'd think I'd be used to the weather, just like that shuttle driver. It's not so. I'm afraid of thunderstorms and terrified of tornadoes. In Northern Colorado, we don't get too much of that. That's fine with me.

H is for Home

Home has meant a lot of different things to me over the years. I was born in Chicago. I grew up on a farm in east central Illinois, just west of Champaign-Urbana. Oklahoma City was my home for one year before I returned to Illinois.

In 1969 I moved to Muncie, Indiana, and that's where my kids spent most of their school years. I lived there for sixteen years.

That two amazing years in the South of France came next. Then eleven years in South Florida. And now, retirement from real-world work and a new home in Northern Colorado.

All of these places were home at one time, but I've fallen in love with the climate and beauty of Colorado. My husband and I enjoy change of seasons and we even like snow as long as it doesn't stick around too long, so Colorado suits us better than Florida. Neither one of us would choose to return to our Illinois roots. Midwest weather is more violent and there are too many gray, dreary days.

It's said that home is where the heart is. I believe that, but I think the heart gets a lot of encouragement from the environment. My week in Illinois has left me sunshine-deprived and over-humidified. It's good to be home.

G is for Gourdon, France

My husband and I lived in the South of France for a couple of years in the mid-80s. You'll hear more about that later in the alphabet.

Today's post is about my favorite perched village ,located well inland from the Mediterranean, roughly north and west of Nice in the Alpes-Maritime of Provence. Gourdon (and you might want to click on that link for sure because it's a great photo of the village) is not all that easy to find, but the drive through the Gorges du Loup is incredibly beautiful and the view of the village from a distance is stunning. The chateau de Gourdon is old, very old. Pre-13th century old.

After parking in a visitor lot and walking up the hill to enter the village, the tourist is awed by the view out over the countryside of vineyards, olive groves, and flowers grown for perfumes. This area of France, which includes Grasse, is perfume country. It's not unusual to see fields of flowers, especially lavender, in the season. The perfume factories and showrooms are interesting places to visit....unless you have allergies or asthma.

F is for Fiddlesticks, Family and Friends!

The fiddlesticks part: Who knew it was going to be this hard to write blog posts on the fly? I sure wish I'd followed Alex J. Cavanaugh's good example and written at least this first week of posts in advance. I won't give up, even though I'm out of town visiting family...

The family part: I'm visiting my 91 year old mom who ordinarily gets along just fine but this week apparently got bit on the face by a spider or other unfriendly creature. The face isn't a good place to get bit. She's now on an antibiotic and we're hoping it clears up in a hurry. If not, I may extend my trip a couple more days. Thanks to the patience of all my old and new blogging friends...

The friends part: One of the neatest things about the A to Z April Blog Challenge is the connection we make with bloggers who become virtual friends. I joined the first challenge in 2010 and met so many nice people from around the world (including that Alex J. Cavanaugh guy who plans ahead). This year, with more than 1200 participants, our opportunities to connect have grown. I'm plugging along at a snail's pace, making as many return visits as I can until I get back home to a faster internet connection.

What I'd like to do today is give a nod to some of my old friends who are participating in A to Z for the first time this year. :

1. Cricket McRae, mystery author and member of Northern Colorado Writers who blogs at Hearth Cricket

2. The Northern Colorado Writers team and guest contributors at The Writing Bug

3. NCW member Michelle Mach who blogs at Beads and Books

4. NCW member Luana Krause who blogs as a fictional character at Fixing Madison

If you're also a first time challenger (or even a veteran), I invite you to leave a link to your blog in a comment. I'll be visiting every single blogger who leaves a comment here. Even if it takes forever.

E is for Estes Park, Colorado

I wanted to write a short post about one of the "E" places I've visited, but had a lot of trouble picking one over the other. There's Everglades National Park with its elephant-sized mosquitoes. Or Eze in the South of France, with its exotic gardens and incredible scenery. I also loved Eltz Castle (Burg Eltz) in Germany, though we arrived there too late in the day to get the inside tour. Even so, the castle was spectacular enough viewed from a distance.

However, easiest and closest to home is Estes Park. This town is one of my favorite places to visit now that we live in Colorado. The gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park, it's also a tourist destination in itself. The main drag is full of shops and restaurants, the headquarters for trail rides and whitewater rafting, and the event center for a long list of interesting festivals and celebrations throughout the year. My personal favorite is the Longs Peak Scottish Irish Festival held each September. When the bagpipes wail, Estes Park beckons.

D is for Double Duty

I'm here to file a "D" report when I'm actually supposed to be at Chiseled in Rock with my usual Tuesday post.

Since CIR is not participating in the A to Z Challenge, the post there is a video from You Tube that shows exactly how far authors (especially mystery authors) will go to get attention. Check out The Mass Market Murderers at Left Coast Crime 2011.

As for "D", doggone it, I did my darnedest to do my duty.

C is for Cinque-Terre, Italy

I'm going to cheat a little bit on today's post because I've already told the story of my trip to the Cinque Terre.

Last December I wrote a Friday Field Trip for Terry Odell who blogs at Terry's Place. This one was a photo essay about a hike my husband and I took back in 2000 between two of the towns in the Cinque Terre. I hope you'll follow this link for my "C" post today: Friday Field Trip - Cinque Terre.

Please tell Terry hi for me (even though she's not participating in the A to Z Challenge).

B is for Belgian Trappist Beer

My husband and I had the pleasure for visiting old friends in Belgium a few years ago. This is when we first tasted the incredibly rich and intoxicating beers brewed in a few of the Trappist monasteries there. Our friends served Chimay.

From our friends' home in Wavre, we took a long drive that included parts of Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Germany, and France. We visited one of the monasteries and participated in another tasting.

But no matter how many times I might have been told the alcohol content of these beers, I never thought of them as being any different than any other brew...until the evening we spent in Dinant, a town between a rock and a wet place (the River Meuse). We checked into a quaint hotel, then headed out for dinner. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a pub. Our drink of choice that evening was the beer from the Rochefort Trappist Monastery.

When we returned to our hotel that evening, I made my usual entries in my travel journal and then collapsed on the bed, almost giving myself a concussion. The bed was as hard as a rock. I suspect the mattress was made of straw packed solid from years of supporting hefty tourists. It didn't matter. I was snoring in minutes.

The next morning, I pulled out my travel journal to make a few more notes, and found the last entry was illegible, the incoherent ramblings in written form from one more victim of ignorance and over-indulgence.

The beers from the Belgian Trappist Monasteries are delicious, and they're available at most wine shops and liquor stores. Just be careful. They really are more potent than your favorite micro-brew.

A is for Airports

Here we are. It's day one of the A to Z April Blog Challenge 2011. By the time you read this, I'll be somewhere between Northern Colorado and East Central Illinois and won't return to Colorado until a week from today. During this first week of April, I'll be on dial-up on my mom's phone.

I wouldn't call this the best planning for someone signed up to participate in a blog challenge, but sometimes I just do dumb stuff and then deal with it later.

So back to today. I take the Super Shuttle to the Denver Airport, check my bag and go through security. Then I hang around drinking coffee until my plane boards, jump on an American Eagle flight (on a Regional Canadair jet), and head for Chicago O'Hare.

At O'Hare, I have a three hour wait before my little American Eagle Embraer jet flight takes off. If I arrive and leave from the usual concourses, there will be a Starbucks, a yummy bagel restaurant, and a TCBY frozen yogurt stall on the way from one to the other. There are also restaurants and bars, of course. And massage chairs. I don't mind the layover in O'Hare so much.

I'm prepared for a day of waiting and flying and waiting and flying. I charged my Kindle and loaded it with blogger friend books (including Alex J. Cavanaugh's CassaStaR and The Hating Game by Talli Roland). My laptop is fully charged (just in case I want to write a couple more A to Z blog posts or visit and comment on other blogs). And I'm sleep-deprived so I'll snooze on both flights. Who could ask for anything more?

Special note: if you're participating in the A to Z Challenge and don't know about the great "Next blog" and "Surprise Me!" buttons at Arlee Bird's tossing it out, follow the link in the first line of this post and give them a try. It's a very handy way to blog-hop among challenge participants.