Tuesdays are not a day to try and sleep in. The trash truck comes by before 6 a.m. and then just when I start to fall back to sleep Steve's alarm goes off. And, that triggers Sophie to begin talking, which she does until she has us both awake. Then she goes back to sleep! If I try to go back to sleep I then get woke up by the truck that picks up recyclables. So, it is a good morning to curl up in bed and read - which I have been doing.

The trip back home from Greenville on Saturday was a tiring one as it rained most of the way - sometimes hard but mostly just enough to make the spray from the trucks a pain as far as visibility goes. Lots of people on the road too, making travel even more difficult. I had such a tension headache when I got home I just sat while Steve made yummy chili and we watched the Kentucky Derby on TV. Dominican, my favorite, was way back in the running so I wouldn't have won anything anyway. I crawled into bed and gave my headache over to Tylenol P.M.

Sunday we went window shopping for bedroom furniture. I think I found the suite I want, but we have a few more stores to check out first. Then we spent some time in Lowe's looking at landscaping plants. I think we are going to put in a couple of Japanese maple trees since we both love them. Not sure what else but it did get me in the mood and I weeded the flower beds in front of the house yesterday. All we have right now are pansies, which are not a favorite of mine, as far as flowers go. We have lots of work to do on this yard, but that's the fun of it. Steve gave me landscape software so I am going to start playing with that to see what I might come up with. Would like to put a swing in one corner of the yard with lilacs or roses near it.

I am sure we have all heard the saying, "Once in a blue moon" about how rarely, if ever, something happens. Guess that is what made me pick up Hila Feil's Blue Moon - a paperback reprint of a 1990 Gothic style mystery set on Cape Cod. I had to chuckle when I realized the teenage girl was an au pair, which certainly has a racier connotation in teen literature today with Melissa de la Cruz's Au Pairs series, which is set in the Hamptons and has rich teens involved in activities very adult in nature. I read a couple of them and that was enough for me, but I am sure teenage girls find these a guilty voyeuristic pleasure. Kind of like watching Paris Hilton's antics because you are disgustedly fascinated. Back to Blue Moon, which is a beautiful coming of age story about naive 17-year-old Julia whose parents have divorced and is shipped off to take care of the 8-year-old stepdaughter of a self-centered soap opera writer. Molly is the exact opposite of her outgoing blond stepmother - she is dark and quiet and observes the world around her with big sad eyes. Julia learns Molly's mother drowned - suicide, perhaps. Molly is sure her mother's spirit haunts her family home and she is very upset when her stepmother begins to remodel the home. Weird things take place like paint refusing to dry and mysterious footsteps appearing in still wet floors. Julia and Molly are inseparable until the mysterious Sean asks her to sit for a portrait. Although she knows he is too old for her, Julia falls for him and ignores the guy her own age who is right in front of her. Add fog banks, a village that now resides under the sea, and a young girl searching for her mother in her old sailboat and the Gothic theme swirls around the reader. A delightful "safe" read for the romance and/or mystery reader 12 and older.