Just call me Mortar Girl

Yep, that's a poke at my kid, who's a mortarman in the Army.

However . . . these two formerly well-manicured hands of mine have created steps where, four days ago, there was nothing but air. Steps that are not bad to look at. That come pretty darn close to the recommended rise and run (or height and width for the uninitiated). Steps that will endure a lifetime.

Or, at least, a few years.

I've never built anything out of stone before, but I have plenty of how-to books, and I'm a big believer that if a man can do it, so can I. I may have to find alternative methods -- for example, I couldn't use any stones that I couldn't lift myself (except for the one base stone that my husband helped me with). I couldn't carry the 70-pound bags of sand from the garage to the back of the house -- or the 60-pound bags of mortar, for that matter -- but I could darn well push them in the wheelbarrow. I couldn't mix 60 pounds of mortar at once, either, but I managed 20-pound batches quite nicely.

A little hard work, frequent runs to Home Depot, a lot of sweat, and voila -- steps that I am extraordinarily proud of.

Hmm . . . I have extra sand . . . and mortar . . . and stone. And that flower bed around front really does need a border around it . . . And I'd love to have a new flower bed or two . . . and wouldn't a stone wall look nice down by the office . . . Rachel9:46 AM

Free at last!

Well, at least for a while. I shipped off the line-edits for Deep Cover last night, with a huge sigh of relief! I love my characters, and love writing the manuscript, but by the time I finish with revisions, rewrites, line- and copy-edits, I'd just as soon never see them again -- which can be a problem with a continuing series.

But now I have a little down time -- and can start thinking about what will happen in Selena's next adventure. By the time I start on it, I'll be love in with her and Tony and Damon again, and anxious to spend time with them. In the meantime, there are all those things to catch up -- reading, house cleaning, laundry, yard work . . . Too much of a "break", and work starts to look like the real vacation. Rachel9:25 AM

A hero? You've got to be kidding . . .

I don't know what world the media lives in, but it's certainly not mine, not when they can proclaim Mark Felt a hero, and do so with a straight face. Please . . . the man apparently broke as many laws as the Watergate folks, only with one major difference: he was a federal agent, charged with upholding the law, not perverting it for his own gain.

One of the Watergate proscecutors defended Felt on the news yesterday, saying that the then-head of the FBI, L. Patrick Gray, was in cahoots with the White House so Felt had no choice but to illegally pass on information to Woodward and Bernstein. That's pure bullshit. He had plenty of choices, but they would have required him to actually put his job on the line, something which he clearly had no intention of doing.

And I find it frustrating as hell that no one on the CBS or NBC news has bothered to mention that Watergate wasn't the only time Felt got caught illegally leaking information. Nor have they talked about the fact that the man was charged with multiple felonies (unrelated to the felonies he committed wrt Watergate) and was convicted. (Though later pardoned by Reagan.)

Yes, the activities of those involved in Watergate were reprehensible; but most of them were politicians. Who seriously expects honor, decency, morality from them? But Felt was no better. A criminal who breaks the law is one thing. A cop who does it is far worse. And the media tells us this man is a hero?

Not in my book. Rachel9:01 AM