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Thursday, January 19, 2017

This Winter Things Are Getting Hot! by Jenny Gardiner

Hi there! Happy New Year to all! I hope you’ve been slogging through this January with not too much hardship…Each day I look to the sky at sunset and smile, knowing the days are getting longer.

Our weather hasn’t been terribly cold, but we’ve been socked in with a lot of rain, which is indeed dreary. But I compensate by making a nice fire in the fireplace, which is my daily accompaniment while I write (working on Blue Collar Romeo—book four of the Royal Romeos series). Unfortunately the hardship in our household this winter is that our beloved 14-1/2 year old Labrador Sassy has been struggling. Which means caring for Sassy has taken up a lot of time and is of course taking a huge emotional toll. It’s so heartbreaking when these babies who give you their undying love reach this point in life. So we’re savoring each day we have with her and take heart on those days when she seems to rebound a bit. I’m now pureeing canned dog food (blech) and sit with her each small meal and encourage her to eat while I mix it with chicken broth to help hydrate her. You just want your pets to live for a thousand years!

So we’re in the new year now, and that means the Chinese New Year is soon! Which I get excited about because I’m the year of the Tiger and I like tigers (so glad I wasn’t the Year of the Rat, right?!). But I’ve been anxiously awaiting the end of this past Chinese lunar year because at my favorite Chinese restaurant they have this huge poster of the forecast for that year for each animal and, well, let’s just say the Tigers were screwed. Nothing good was going to happen all year and a lot of bad things were suggested. Which meant that every time I’d swing in there for carryout at lunch (far too often, mind you) I’d look up at that darned poster and grimace, then fret about looming bad fortune. I’ve been waiting for them to change that poster all year! Of course when the new one gets hung up, if Tigers are doomed yet again I’m going to have to find a new Chinese carryout because I can’t deal with impending doom for another year.

At the end of this month my daughter who’s been living in Australia returns home! So excited for her and her boyfriend to move back to the States! Which means I need to get writing because I’ll be diverted from my writing deadlines catching up with them and making lots of home-cooked meals upon their return for a while!

Hope you get to enjoy some pleasant, brief snowfalls before warm weather, sunshine and blooming trees return!
 Check out my Royal Romeos series, which is a spin-off of my wildly successful It's Reigning Men series--I hope you'll be able to check them out!
  


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