Yielding is NOT Optional

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the 3rd edition of Tuesday Travel Tips with Tiffany! To read previous editions, you can find them here!

People travel by the millions each and every day through that wonderful invention known as the automobile. And did you know that you're exponentially more likely to die in an automobile crash than to ever suffer a mishap when traveling by air?

That's a cheerful thought, isn't it? But many automobile crashes - both fatal and less serious - are caused by stupidity and failing to have the situational awareness of what is going on around you.

To that end, my biggest pet peeve is the YIELD SIGN. Here in Texas, we have lots of those. I bet we got a large lot discount from Sam's, because with all of our access roads, we've got them by the boatloads.

But people invariably ignore these nice little red and white signs, and place themselves and their fellow drivers in peril. So I thought I'd take today's edition of Tuesday Travel to explain the use of the yield sign, as some of the less smart among us may be having trouble grasping the concept.

When there is a yield sign, it means that more than one stream of traffic will be vying for a limited amount of space. If the yield sign is facing YOUR stream of traffic, it means that you absolutely, positively do NOT have the right-of-way unless the other stream of traffic is clear.

Here's what a yield sign does NOT mean you should do:

• Speed up to get in front of cars who do have the right-of-way.
• Slam on your brakes. Especially if there is no oncoming traffic. You feel that probing up your rear end? That's me, getting whiplash, because you stopped for no reason.
• Blithely ignore the sign and cause the people who DO have the right-of-way to have to slam on their brakes.
• Graciously motion those WITH the right-of-way out of your way - where do you get off, buddy? It's already my turn. I don't need your permission!
• Apply your own vehicle to the rear bumper of the vehicle in front of you and continue moving forward so as to form a wall of blockage to those vehicles who would love to slam on their gas and plow through your stupid self but refrain from doing so because they know that stooping to your level of humanity will not solve anything.

Here's how to correctly approach a yield sign:

1. When one is coming up, begin to decrease your speed, glancing at the other stream of traffic to check on it's flow.
2. If there are no vehicles in that other stream, remain at a decrease speed until you pass the sign and then accelerate back to the speed limit - there is no need to stop if there is no opposing traffic.
3. If there ARE vehicles in the opposing stream of traffic, gauge whether it will be necessary to slow down further or stop entirely to allow those who have the right-of-way to proceed unimpeded.

See that? Easy stuff. Now off you go...and remember:
BE ALERT. BE PREPARED. BE SMART!
Until next time...
Safe travels!

O, Canada!

I make one little comment in a Manic Monday...hahaha! :-)

I referenced Canada as likely the next country we'll travel to, because of it's close proximity to where my mother-in-law lives.

For clarity (since Canada is, uh, rather large) for my Canadian bloggy friends, here's a better frame of reference of where we would be or visit:

1. My mother-in-law is in Port Hill, ID. The Canadian border city in this area is called Creston, which is in British Columbia. Cute little town.
2. My sister-in-law and niece and nephew are in Lethbridge, Alberta, which is south of Calgary, also getting pretty close to the U.S. border with Montana. My hubby was just up there visiting at the start of this month before bringing our niece for her July-long visit and will be back up there in August to take our nephew camping for a few days. This'll make the list for a visit, I'm sure, so we can show off New Baby when she gets here at some point. Yahoo for non-rev flying! :-)

Hubby also has cousins in Kelowna, B.C., on the other side of the family. I think that about covers our Canadian connections! :-)

Without having any actual plans, I would predict a trip to the Pacific northwest sometime late spring/early summer to introduce New Baby to the family/friends that are in Washington, Idaho, and potentially western Canada. We'll see!!! Hope that helps!! :-)

Manic Monday #18

Good morning!

It's just another Manic Monday, hosted by Lisa! Head over there and join in!

What's your favorite beach in the world?
I'd have to say Ocean City, New Jersey - spent every summer there from early childhood until college graduation and it's near and dear to my heart!

What's the next country you want to visit?
Well, I suspect the next country we'll go to is Canada, whenever we visit my husband's mom next, since she lives DIRECTLY on the board. (Not kidding. Her backyard is Canada.) For a vacation, I sure would love to go to Greece!

What one thing are you craving today?
Sleep. I had another sleepless night last night. WIDE awake by 4 AM. Very annoying.



Happy Monday, ya'll!

Jumping on Kangaroos

In Australia, the Associated Press reports that an elderly woman was nearly killed by a wild kangaroo before being saved by her pet dog. Consider the following article, from Yahoo! News:

Sat Jul 19, 4:07 AM ET

SYDNEY, Australia - An elderly woman was attacked by a large kangaroo on a farm in Australia and was lucky to be alive after a pet dog leapt to her aid, her son said Saturday.

The 6-foot-5-inch kangaroo lunged without warning at 65-year-old Rosemary Neal as she went to check on some horses in a paddock on the property near Mudgee, 160 miles northwest of Sydney on Friday, son Darren Neal said.

The kangaroo "just jumped up and launched straight at her," Darren Neal said. "He hit her once and she just dropped and rolled. My dog heard her screaming and bolted down and chased him off.

"It wasn't for the dog she'd probably be dead."

Rosemary Neal was hospitalized for for deep cuts to her face, hands and back and a concussion, he said.

Kangaroos are widespread across Australia and there are dozens of species in the family, ranging from tiny, 17-ounce potoroos to Red Kangaroos, the world's largest marsupial that can grow past 6 feet tall and weigh more than 200 pounds.

Most species are not considered aggressive toward humans, and attacks are extremely rare. But males fight each other for mates, rearing up on their tails to scratch at the soft belly flesh of their rivals with the powerful legs they more commenly use for their trademark leaps.

Darren Neal said mobs of kangaroos had become common on their farm and his mother thought nothing of walking through them in the paddock. Usually, they just jump away.

"My mum is 65 years old and about five-and-a-half foot," he said. "Her whole body is sore where she has dropped to the ground."

Problems I have with this article:

1. The AP misspelled the word "commonly" - did you catch that?
   
2. A 65-year-old woman is not elderly. My mother, quickly approaching 66 this year, would shoot you where you stand if you even suggested such a thing.
3. Facial scratches and a concussion are not life threatening.
4. The kangaroo "just jumped up and launched straight at her," Darren Neal said. Well, which is it? Did the kangaroo jump up, or launch straight? That's two different directions.
   
5. The article notes that attacks are extremely rare and gives only as an example the idea of multiple males fighting one another. That was clearly not the case in this instance. Sounds like Ms. Elderly got too close to a wild animal and freaked it out. Any repercussion to her and her family's casual regard for approaching wild animals is likely deserved. They may be cute, but they're wild animals.
   
6. What does being "five-and-a-half foot" tall have to do with the price of tea in China? That's about my height. It's not exactly qualification for midget status. In fact, that only puts the woman at a foot shorter than the kangaroo supposedly was.
7. Rah rah for Lassie. From the description of the woman's activities and where she was on the farm, the dog would have had a bit of a run to catch up with Ms. Elderly. So bully for him that he managed to "chase off" a kangaroo that was likely already hopping off. Because if Lassie had any distance at all to cover, and if the kangaroo was seriously attacking Ms. Elderly, she'd have suffered more than just a facial scratch and concussion...which injuries are more likely from her falling over than being attacked in the first place!
8. "Mobs" of kangaroos? Picture me laughing. Do they have guns and stocking caps? Ski masks? Are they demanding equal rights?
9. Maybe it's the "mob" that managed to file the requisite paperwork to trademark their leaps? I'm relieved to hear that their leaps are not "patent pending." Trademarked sound much more settled and official.
   
10. "It wasn't for the dog she'd probably be dead." Oh, get a grip. You are apparently as prone to hysteria as your mother. Grab a Fosters ("Australian for beer") and sit down before you incite the "mob" to further action.

Sometimes, I just have to poke fun at the overblown "human interest" stories produced by the media. What say you?

Friday Fill In #4

Wow - I'm actually getting this up at a decent time this week! Janet, are you proud of me? To participate, head over to Friday Fill Ins and jump right in!

1. If I could be a fly on the wall I would have a lot of places I'd like to visit to get good scoops!
2. Jealousy is irrational.
3. When I see a shooting star my wish would be that my baby is born healthy.
4. I'd rather be at the beach than anywhere else any day!
5. Certain songs when I hear them make me wanna dance.
6. If time were in a bottle it'd be quite pricey to sell.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to finishing upstairs closet organization and designing my new bathroom floor and cutting my husband's hair, tomorrow my plans include a visit from Patti, potentially starting work on my new bathroom floor and other items from my insane to-do list, and Sunday, I want to go to church, relax, and evaluate the status of remaining projects!

How about you, dear readers? What say you?

Have a fabulous weekend! Remember to get your baby updates over at the baby blog, where planned posts for this weekend include the much-awaited for tummy pictures page and a look at my insane 100+ item pre-baby to-do list. Also, an update is coming for the book blog - I'm like 15 books behind at this point, but I'm going to chain myself to the laptop to get caught up so that I can get my books reshelved as a part of my library/office organization project!

Today's Accomplishment

Other than having several successful and productive meetings today, and now heading off to a doctor's appointment (more on that later over at the baby blog), I had a huge accomplishment today.

I've been procrastinating on submitting expense reports. For, like, six months. And in the meantime, I've bought lunch for several meetings, hosted several training events, and taken more than several trips. And since I got burned by my corporate account twice...I've been financing my work expenses out of my checking account. Um, ouch.

So today, I filed EIGHTEEN expense reports, totalling damned near to $1k. My boss quickly approved them as they hit his email (everything here is automated) and so I should have the money in my account (again, automated) by the middle of next week, after our accounting department receives my receipts through our interoffice mail tomorrow and audits for accuracy.

YAHOO for money. Now...it's all spoken for already. Most of it will be going into my savings account, where I'm stockpiling enough money to offset missing six paychecks at year's end due to baby. (I'm not really counting on my OSTD as pay...it's not that high so that'll just be extra baby cash.) After putting that over into savings, I'll be that much closer to having all of my time off paid for...just a few more writing jobs and I think I'll actually be set. SO exciting.

Big accomplishment. I'm rather proud.

No TT This Week

Sorry - my creative juices are just not flowing today. I was up late last night finishing a writing gig up for my largest and steadiest client and it just sapped the crap out of me. I took a few articles thinking they'd be interesting to research/write...and they ended up being a lot more work than I expected. One of the three was pretty easy to bang out - it's something I'm intimately familiar with due to my work history - but the other two just had limited resources available for me to gather information to put together non-fluff pieces. Naturally, I can't tell you the topics since it's ghostwriting (as most of my paid writing is) but suffice to say, they sucked the juices out of my brain.

So anyways, stick around here to read some of my recent posts, or head over to my baby blog to read the latest there. I'll try to get up a Friday Feast and perhaps even a Friday Fill In to make up for my lack of a TT!

MWAH!

Kids Are People, Too!

Welcome to the 2nd edition of Tuesday Travel Tips with Tiffany! If you missed the first edition, you can find it here!

Many families travel by air on a daily basis. That means that Mom and Dad has to circumnaviate the fun that is the security checkpoint while ushering through their kids as well.

It amazes me how often I see parents basically forgetting that their kids are people, too.

For instance: little Tommy has sneakers on. Mom and Dad have to take off their shoes. But obviously, Tommy's shoes must not count. 'Cause they're, like, small. And cute. So they don't count. Right?

Wrong!

Get 'em off, folks. Anything that you do for yourself, you have to do for kiddo as well.

And isn't it just so precious that Tommy brought along his entire coin collection in his little jeans pocket?

Nope, not so precious.

Ya know that little annoying buzzer that keeps going off? That's to remind you, Mom and Dad, that little Tommy needs his damn pockets emptied. Chances are that the little tyke hasn't yet reached the age of reason and will not know to do that without your urging.

Ah yes, and then there's my favorite: when little Tommy masquerades as a pack mule.

Mom and Dad take their time in getting ready to go through the scanner. In the meantime, Tommy is left holding/dragging/being dragged by their gear.

Which he then attempts to walk through security while holding.

Um, nope. Parents, it's your job to get ALL of the bags belonging to your precious family up on the conveyor belt. Us impatient folks stuck behind you would just love to help, but there's those nasty legal implications for touching someone else's child. So it's your job. Get it?

We can all have a more pleasant travel experience if we just follow the following three objectives:

BE ALERT. BE PREPARED. BE SMART!

Until next time...

Safe Travels!

If I Were To Dance...

This cracks me up...

Exotic Dancer Name Is...

Xanadu

Exotic Dancer Name Generator

What's your exotic dancer name? Can you even profess to having an exotic dancer name while keeping a straight face? It's pretty hard for me. My husband, as a cop, gets to bust these kinds of places every so often, and I'm sorry...after hearing the stories he tells, I can't even imagine anyone (a) working there (eeeee-yew) or (b) actually enjoying going there. In fact, when we got married, he specifically asked the guys throwing his bachelor party not to include any strip clubs. I think they eventually did anyways, but hubby considers these places as grody as I do!

But a fun little game to play, anyways! Comment back here for me what your "Exotic" name is! :-)

How Financially Fit Are You?

With baby on her way - and, if my hunch plays out, somewhat sooner than she's expected - we're doing everything we can to get our house, our lives and our finances in shape.

I want to share a great site with you that I've discovered, called BillsIQ. Now, if you know me at all, you'll know that I'm fanatical about my bills. I have an enormous excel spreadsheet that contains our budget information going back to 2005 and forward to 2010. I have every possible metric measured and updated the file religiously.

A visit to BillsIQ and a walk through their free quiz still managed to open my eyes however, asking questions I hadn't actually given thought to. And as well as I think I manage both my individual finances as well as our household budget, I was shocked to only score a B! Jeez! A B wasn't good enough for me back when I was in school, so it certainly isn't now. I definitely have some catching up to do to make our finances healthier...with only 3 months to go before baby!

What I liked about this web site is that after scoring the test, point by point advice is given on each question asked. The most important thing I learned is that we're not saving nearly enough money. Sure, our individual jobs help us to contribute towards retirement, and our monthly budget has us putting away money towards taxes and household projects, but we need to bulk WAY up to have an emergency fund available that wouldn't require tapping into savings meant for other occasions.

Check it out - it's a great site, easy to use, and you can spend as much or as little time there as possible. Remember - it's called BillsIQ.

Manic Monday #17

Good morning, everyone!

Here at Breakfast at Tiffany's, it's just another Manic Monday, thanks to the lovely Lisa!

What do you do when you are feeling very sad or depressed?
I either take a nap (escape), read a book (escape), or find the nearest body of water and sit myself next to it until I feel better. (Ok, so that's escaping, too.)

Who was your first crush?
Hahaha! Blake Martin, 3rd grade. Wonder where he is these days?

If given a chance to skip work for a day (without repercussions), how would you spend the entire day?
At this point, I'd spend the day working on projects around my house! We got a TON accomplished this weekend but have so much more to go pre-baby!

You know what to do now...and have a great week!

Great Police Supplier

Hey, Readers!

Do you remember when I blogged back in late May about these really nifty tactical police pants that I thought my husband had just bought? I'm not sure if I ever came back to tell you, but after checking with Chris, I did confirm that those exact pants that I blogged about - 5.11 tactical pants - are what he had just bought.

I'm in the midst of doing laundry, and those very same pants just found their way into the washer. Chris is already talking about getting more! Between their comfy padded knees and zillions of pockets, they are the perfect tactical gear for any cop.

Just wanted to share before I forget about them again until our next wash day. Check it out!

We Lost...

...a dear member of our household this past weekend.

She was a member of our family for many years. In fact, she's been by my side through move after move after move from town to town, state to state, since 2001.

We've shared many meals together...I don't know how I would have gotten through some of them without her.

I've often referred to her as turbo-charged or nuclear-powered, because when given a task, she always bulldozed right through it.

But with barely a flicker on Saturday evening, she was gone.

I'm going to miss her.

My microwave.

($80 at Sears, purchased June 2001. I think I got my money's worth. Thank God my kitchen has a built-in that we can use until I get a new standalone!)

Preparing to Check In: CHECK IN!

Welcome to the 1st edition of Tuesday Travel Tips with Tiffany!

When traveling by air, passengers must go through the sacred ritual of the security check. The security check is a necessary process that is often made painful because of traveler's ignorance on what to expect. In order to ease your experience, dear readers, let me offer the following advice:

BE ALERT. BE PREPARED. BE SMART!

Chances are:

• that you're going to stand in line for at least a minute or two before reaching the TSA employee who will be checking your boarding pass versus your legal identification.
• that there are going to be people in front of you in line.
• that there are going to be people behind you in line.
• that if I have to stand in line longer because you're an idiot, I'm not going to be a happy person.
• that if you make the TSA employee's job harder than a minimum wage job should be, they're going to hate you.

So listen up! Here are the rules:

1. Turn off your damn cell phone. Chuckie back at the office can wait another five minutes to hear your prescient remarks regarding the upcoming sales conference. No matter how good you think you are at multi-tasking, your Crackberry is robbing you of precious brain cells that you obviously need to be able to navigate a simple line.
2. Observe - if everyone else in line is doing something, maybe you should consider doing the same thing.
3. Put away your makeup bag - you haven't looked like your driver's license picture since, well, ever.
4. Get out your boarding pass. Um, hello! That's the point of this little line here. Waiting to dig for it until you reach the head of the line is uber annoying and will make the people queued behind you begin to plot your death. Especially if the boarding pass you eventually dig out is for the wrong flight and you spend more time holding us up. If your stupidity necessitates your getting out of line, some of us may try to trip you as you walk past.
5. Ditto your ID. Yes, you need to hand it to the TSA employee. No, you can't simply flash it, TV detective style. GET IT OUT. Don't be fumbling at the last minute. Have it already in hand. No, you can't use your gym membership card. No, your badge from the last Trekkie convention won't cut it. Have your driver's license, state-issued ID card, or passport IN HAND and READY before you even THINK of getting in line.

See, that's not so hard, is it? Watch around you, be alert, think fast, and we'll all have a better experience traveling!

Until next time...

Safe Travels!

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth of July!

Thursday Thirteen #19

Happy Fourth of July Weekend, ya'll!

In light of the coming three-day weekend, I thought I'd devote today's list to one of my favorite holidays: Independence Day!

Thirteen "Favorites" For the Fourth of July

1. Grilled hot dogs - oh so unhealthy, but oh so yum!
2. Pool parties - splish splash and relax...
3. Going to the lake - little road trips to watery destinations are just the ideal 4th!
4. Patriotic songs - guaranteed to make me tear up. Guaranteed.
5. Parades,
   
6. Marching bands,
7. and ceremonies - more tears. Love these events.
8. Red, white and blue - I think our nation's colors are just so striking - thanks, Britain!
9. Time with family and friends - Independence Day is best shared with others.
10. Baseball games - for some reason, games are just more fun on holidays!
11. Da Beach - Growing up, we were down the shore nearly every 4th - I miss that!
    
12. Grilled hot dogs - pregnant ladies get to mention food twice. I'm hungry even now!
    
13. FIREWORKS - seriously, now. The 4th wouldn't be complete without a light show!

Have a wonderful holiday, everyone!

What do you read?

I'm a reader.

Bet my book blog already gave that away, huh?

But it's been a defining descriptor in my life.

When other kids played video games, I read.

When the rest of my family was hunkered down in front of the TV, I read.

When I was grounded, when I was bored, when I was sick, when I was lonely, when I was hyper, when I was sad, when I simply woke up in the morning...I read.

It's always amazed me when other people profess to have no time to read. Bullshit. Pure, unadulterated bullshit. They're simply not making time to read.

In any case, I found this little survey over at Our Box of Rain, a blog maintained by one of my bloggy friends at How to Have a Baby. It's fun - steal and take yourself!

Over at Read and Release, we'll be spending the 4th of July weekend catching up on book reviews - I have about 15 to add - and then launching into this summer's theme: The Pulitzer Project. I'll be (attempting) to read through, in order, every book that has ever won the Pulitzer Prize. That's a lot! I'm counting on my neighborhood library to fill in the gaps when I don't already own the book.

Hope you have a great summer of reading, too!

(start survey)

"The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed.

Well, let's see.

1. Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2. Italicize those you intend to read.
3. Underline the books you LOVE.
4. Reprint this list in your blog so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them ;-)"

The List:

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
   I am NOT a Jane Austen fan. I never will be. She annoys me. You can stone me now.
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
   I think I'm the only person in the world who hates Tolkien. I just cannot get into his absurd world of fantasy. For whatever reason, my mind just tries to self destruct when I try.
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
   I'd actually rather not read this series, but I'm going to force myself to just to see what all the hoopla is about. I suspect I will be disappointed. Hubby got the first 3 or 4 as a gift but hasn't cracked them open, so we'll be tag-team reading them, like we did with The Dark Tower series a couple years ago.
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
    I just read another du Maurier work and was disappointed...I'm counting on Rebecca to reverse my opinion of this author.
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
    Hated the movie. Going to skip the book. I know. Sin.
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
    Eventually, I'll work up the courage to tackle this one.
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
    I've been chidded for missing this...I'll get to it, promise!
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
    Another one that I have to work up the courage to get to.
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
    And another...good old Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
    Same as 33...but I've read the entire Chronicles.
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
    I've heard fabulous things about this book...it's on the list.
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
    Only so I can see what all the hype is about...
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
    The movie is hilarious...hopefully I'll like the book. I hate to go in reverse from movie to book, but we'll give it a try.
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
    Um, the entire works of Shakespeare is #14...
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Ok, of the 100, I've read 46. Of the 46, I've identified 9 as must reads. In addition, there are 12 that I intend to read. So that leaves 42...some I've never heard of. Others inspire no interest in me. I'm not remorseful of this - everyone has differing tastes in reading materials.

Incidentally, I'm wondering who originally compiled this list of 100 - I'm curious as to the make up and how these 100 books came to be lumped together. Is this based on lifetime sales? Perceived value of the writing? Someone's random opinion? What? In any case, I wouldn't take this as the ultimate "have you read it" list, but a great start to fuel your reading lists!

New Weekly Feature!

Howdy, folks!

After much brainstorming and planning...and a few frustrating experiences that spurred the idea, I'd like to announce a new weekly feature coming to Breakfast at Tiffany's, beginning next Tuesday and running indefinitely into the future.

Called "Tuesday Travel Tips", it will feature my advice (born largely of my frustration) to those less bright individuals around us who get on planes, stay at hotels and rent cars. I'm going for a humorous tone, here, but am hoping that the little snippets I publish every week may help just one person, who can then stop screwing up and pissing me off! :-)

Hubby helped with the brainstorming and I believe we've got 30 topics so far, so this should continue for quite some time into the future. I'm going to "cheat" and pre-write many of the posts and just future date them, so you can reliably count on seeing these weekly posts at the same time each Tuesday.

And if ya'll have any funny travel observations to share - or questions to ask on protocol - just pop 'em over to me in the comments section of any related blog post, and I'll work them in!

Here's a preview of some items to be discussed:

-Water is a liquid, too
-Overhead bins are not expandable
-Flight Attendants: not your personal servant

Ok, so those are all related to flying, but I promise that there are some hotel and rental car ones thrown in, too. I just happen to know flying best!

Hope you all come back weekly to read Tuesday Travel Tips!