It’s too early for spring fever, but signs that we’ve had our fill of winter are cropping up all around. This coming Wednesday is Groundhog Day. The little town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania becomes the focus of the world for one morning each year. Punxsutawney isn’t all that far from here. Easy driving distance to be honest. However, don’t look for me in the crowd. More often than not, February 2nd is a crappy, gray, cold, snowy day, and I am not a morning person. Besides, is there any doubt what the little rodent is going to predict? If he sees his shadow, six more weeks of winter. If he doesn’t, about a month and a half. No, I look for other signs of spring. Hubby is talking about getting his fishing license. That’s a good one. The RV show in Pittsburgh has already come and gone. I missed it, though, darn it. Last winter, I had great fun there, although I still refuse to consider owning a camper that’s nicer and bigger than my house. The best sign of spring for me came in the mail t...

The Pittsburgh Steelers are Super Bowl bound yet again. The thrill never gets old. Possibly because the Steelers know how build tension and create drama better than most thriller writers. We never seem to play some boring old blow-out game. Never mind that minutes before halftime, the score last night was Steelers 24-Jets 0. Like a good mystery/suspense/thriller writer, they had to throw in a twist at the midpoint by letting the Jets get a momentum shifting field goal. Then came the second half. The Jets scraped and clawed their way back into the game and the Steelers seemed content to let them. Just to keep us fans on the edge of our seats. One never falls asleep in front of the TV during a Steelers game. I’ve learned a lot about writing a good page-turner by watching Steelers football games over the years. Never mind that about half of my gray hairs can be directly attributed to this team I affectionately refer to as “the Cardiac Kids.” The big lesson is keep the fan—or reader—guessi...

A morning in Kensi's life. In her words. I very cute. But bored. Must find trouble to get into. Let's PLAY! I vicious beast! Rawrrr! Attacking toy ball. Must kill it! Ah, there's big sister Skye looking much too content. And now she has a toy. MY toy! Gimme my toy! Oops. Skye means business. I outta here. BYE!

On a cold night in December, my Citizen's Police Academy class toured the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office. As in morgue. I'm sharing the experience today at Working Stiffs .

One of my Christmas gifts this year was a Nook e-reader. I dragged my feet a long time regarding the e-book phenomenon, but rather than get left in the dust of what seems to be the brave new world of publishing, I asked Santa for the Nook, and he acquiesced. (Actually, I told my husband what I wanted and he told me to go out and buy it. Much easier.) Anyway, I’ve stocked it with books…something that is dangerously easy to do…and carry it with me everywhere I go. Something odd has started happening. At least, it seems odd to me. In the short time I’ve had the thing, TWICE total strangers have approached me while I was reading and started a discussion about e-readers. Even odder is the fact that both times it was a man. Okay, don’t try telling me these guys were flirting…I’m too old for that crap. They weren’t. Trust me. I can’t remember the last time someone came up to me when I was reading a real book and asked me about it. And these guys weren’t asking “what are you reading?” They wer...

It’s a good thing one of my New Year’s resolutions wasn’t to stop procrastinating, because here it is, January 9th and I’m only now getting around to sorting out my goals and intentions for the year. Basically, I’m limiting my resolutions to TWO this year. I’m tired of failing at a long list of things. Better to only fail at two, don’t you think? First, I intend to get back to my health and fitness routine. I’d rather say I was planning to expand on it, but I’ve really derailed, so simply getting back on track will make me happy. I can handle the yoga, weight workouts, and eating healthier parts. But getting on a good walking routine when it’s 11 degrees outside will be a real challenge. Anyone have an old treadmill taking up space that you’d like to donate to my cause? The second goal is one that I really hope I can stick to. I hope to write every day. I’ve never really stated that before, because I’ve known that I’d fail at it. Life and family get in the way. And I may very well fail...

Last night I graduated from the Pennsylvania State Police Citizen's Police Academy. We had a lovely buffet dinner and received our certificates of completion. I'm still not a cop, but I feel I can write about them with much greater understanding now. Over on Working Stiffs, however, I'm still only on Week 8 of CPA, which was the week we toured the Allegheny County Jail and visiting night court. Click here to read about the experience.