OLD TIMER BLOG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have begun a new blog that I am calling Old Timer. I will be writing mostly about baseball and other sports, with perhaps a few thoughts about various forms of recreation and entertainment. If you have any interest in such topics, I hope you will come by for a look and maybe a few ideas of your own regarding the issues surrounding the teams and games.

NEW BOOK CLUB FORMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



A good friend of mine has decided to put together a
Book Club gathering of bloggers each month. She will post a book for any one who is interested in participating to read by the 25th of the month. Then each participant will post his or her report on the book on their own blog, with a link to the book club site. My friend will include links back to the various posts so that the participants can peruse the other posted reports.

The book to be read for the month of April is To Kill A Mockingbird. I have not read it since high school, so I will pick up a copy at the library and give it a reread.

The whole idea sounds like fun to me, and of course, the more the merrier!

MOTHER GOOSE & GRIMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





I have daily home delivery of the Houston Chronicle. Except on Sunday, I like to start my day with the paper, but I usually only read the sports page and the funny papers. One of the comics I check every day is Mother Goose and Grimm. It often has a new twist on old thoughts or phrases. I often laugh. Today was one of those. I thought you might enjoy the laugh and start reading the funnies, if you are not in the habit.

IZEA RANKINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IZEA, parent company of Pay Per Post, has developed a ranking system for blogs. The Real Rank is intended, at least in part, to help establish value for advertisers using PPP to promote their products. Google has decided that any blog posting links to an advertiser somehow diminishes their strength, so they removed all page ranks from such blogs. It has resulted, at least for the blogs I had that were very productive now receiving almost no offers. I am trying to get the Izea Rankings to work for me, so I can do more work for them. I am anxious to get back on a better footing with the advertisers.

NAKED NATURALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


My hair is long gone, so my wife was the one to use the samples of naked naturals shampoo and conditioner we received in the mail. It was a welcome product for my bride because her hair is very fine, and as she is aging, she feels the need to use products that will strengthen it. She read the claims that the the ingredients in the products have been clinically proven to make hair up to seven times stronger by working inside out. It is the only shampoo that makes such a claim.

So she gladly experimented with the samples, which contain Citrus and Keravis, but no harsh chemicals. The key to the benefits of Naked Naturals is the Keravis, a plant protein. My wife has long been a proponent of natural shampoo and other products that use nature's own ingredients. It just makes sense to her functionally and ecologically.

Her first use of the products from the one time sample size left her hair looking nice, but she was unwilling to say conclusively that it was the answer to her quest for the right product for her. But she will be using the coupon that came with the samples for a discount on bottles of the products when she goes to the local Walgreens later today!

CARNIVAL VICTORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


My wife and I took our seven and eight year old grandsons on a seven day cruise of the Eastern Caribbean on the Carnival Victory. We sailed out of Miami, making ports of call in San Juan, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten. We had a very comfortable balcony suite that slept four on the Upper Deck level. We had late seating in the Pacific dining room, and had wonderful waiters; Clarence from St. Vincent and Adrian from Indonesia. They were especially kind to the boys.

The food was good and there was lots to do on the boat when we were at sea, includnig Camp Carnival sessions for the kids at no extra charge. The boys most enjoyed the 80 foot water slide!

Dragon Speak!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My computer has been down for the last few days, and when I got problems figured out, at least most of them, I could not launch my voice recognition software. I went to nuance.com, who produces the software called Dragon Speak. I found out if there is a problem between Windows XP and Dragon Speak. The fix was very quick and now I am testing the software and it seems to be working fine again.

CHEAPERTHANHOTELS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My travels around the world have not yet taken me to England. But ti is one of the places I would love to visit, to take my wife for a holiday. We would like to see the the major attractions, like Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey, and the Tower Bridge. But while making one of the London hotels our base, we would also like to attend the theater and catch some of the local music.

But if my wife has her way, we will not simply stay in one lace but move around to perhaps a selection from Oxford Street hotels, Kensington hotels, or Knightsbridge hotels. Maybe one of each. The reason is she wants to take full advantage of the shopping districts. She wants to come home with a shopping bag from an exclusive shop on Oxford Street, but she also wants to do some serious shopping in the more relaxed environment of Knightsbridge and Kensington.