Woke up by a quietly meowing alarm clock around 6:15 this a.m. It was so cute - Sophie was quietly meowing to let Steve know it was time to get up. She did her job - got us both up, got her Mama/kitty time while I read and now she is asleep in her bed. Another cool day with possible thunderstorms. Only 43 degrees - seems odd after the high 80s we had earlier this week. High of 65 today, but I doubt that. Sunny for the weekend though. Good reason to stay inside and finish up a few things. Listening to the Today Show as I type. Don't miss Katie at all! I love Ann Curry and Al Roker!

Tried a new recipe for a taco skillet type dinner last night. Seemed to be a hit with Steve but my favorite part was the "kitchen sink" salad. I love to make big salads with lots of stuff in it - found the shredded broccoli, cauliflower mix for slaw is a perfect addition to a regular salad - add crunch, along with carrots, snap peas, mushrooms, etc. I am not a big salad dressing person so I love the salad spritzer type dressing. Steve is in heaven not to have to cook dinner hardly at all. I told him to enjoy it while I was in the mood to cook as I am not always in that state of mind. Guess it is this house and the kitchen I love. Tonight is leftovers as I haven't figured out how to cook for two yet. Still cooking for four as I did when the kids were little.

Finished Kelly Easton's Hiroshima Dreams this morning. Such a gentle book. I was curious about this author as this book is such a poignant coming of age story. So I went to her Web site - http://www.kellyeaston.com/books.html and saw that she is also a life coach, a career choice somewhat based on her very unhappy childhood. She commented on how she writes for teens and children because she never really had a childhood. Hiroshima Dreams somewhat reminds me of An Na's A Step From Heaven in the sense that it follow a girl's life journey from early childhood through her adolescence, but it has a bit of a psychic flavor as Lin is able to predict things that will happen - as simple as her best friend's brother's sculpture falling to the floor and as important as the whereabouts of a kidnapped autistic child. Lin is the daughter of an Irish Catholic father and a Japanese mother who turned her back on her own culture due to her mother's deep immersion in culture. Lin learns about what it means to be Japanese when her grandmother comes to live with them. I love the multicultural/racial nature of this book. Lin's best friend is black, the boy she adores is Italian, and their neighbor is Portuguese. I related to the relationship between Lin and her grandmother - it pulled at my heartstrings and caused me to deeply miss my very Finnish gramma as I read of their close relationship. My gramma lived with us for a number of years. She was a central part of my life while growing up. I can still see her with her walker trying to clean up puppy pee on the floor before my mom saw it. It was my puppy, of course! Hiroshima Dreams is a wonderful feel good book for middle school.

All for today.