I had a terrific day with my daughter’s family yesterday. Didn’t worry about making a wordcount. Didn’t itch to get to my computer. I headed to Hot Springs with my camera and a credit card.

My SIL, his mom, the red-headed hellion, the 5-year-old, and 1-year-old were all loaded up, and we headed first to downtown Hot Springs. Parking was tough to find because it was a beautiful sunny day with a nice breeze and EVERYONE headed to the strip.

We started at Bubbalu’s for hot dogs and hamburgers. A woman came up to ooh and ah over the baby. The baby gave her a scowl. “She must be shy,” the woman said. SIL said, “No, ma’am, she’s just mean.” And that’s the truth. Little Girl doesn’t have a shy bone in her body, but she has a temper and she did not want to stay in her stroller.

We stopped in at several little specialty shops, the 5-year-old and I bought matching shiny pink scarfs to wrap around our necks and blingy necklaces. The girl-child got stopped several times to be told how beautiful and “fashionable” she was. The same folks chuckled at me as they passed. This was the girl-child’s last day of Spring Break, and we’d told her it was her special day. She kept remarking on how great it was that everyone showed up to help her celebrate.

While we were walking, I passed a family with this dog and had to stop them to get a picture. Don’t you know there’s a story somewhere in that picture?

The shopping was nice. Stopped in Tillman’s which is an estate sale store and saw some amazing pieces. Faberge eggs, jewelry from The French Quarter that dated back to the late 1800′s. So much bling I thought I’d died and gone to heavan. I forgot to ask if they had lay-away… But never mind. Daughter and I are already plotting our next trip there—just have to save a bit to get something special!

Girl-child’s wish was to go to the petting zoo, so off we traipsed. This is us in the goat cage, feeding bread to the goats. It’s the only shot you’ll see of me, because after I saw what the wind did to my hair that was over!

The highlight of course was the alligator house. They keep them inside in winter and the gators huddle under heat lamps in the pools. Being so close, with only a 4-foot fence surrounded by chicken wire, didn’t make me feel very safe. I know they can jump that height and that chicken wire isn’t enough to hold them back if they do attack, but they looked very well-fed and lethargic.

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I’m back from the NOLA conference! Betcha didn’t even know I was gone. It was a quick trip—Friday through Sunday. And it was just across the border to Shreveport Louisiana, a little over two hours away. I’m a member of the NOLA chapter and love to get a chance to go down there and see friends.

I traveled with Shayla Kersten, and wouldn’t you know, I didn’t get a single darn photo of the woman! We had a great trip. I drove, hence the quick driving time. She only gasped a few times. We were set to stay in the hotel where the event was hosted, but discovered they’d lost our reservation! While I boiled, reception found us a room in the hotel next door, a Hilton Homewood Suites, and they arranged a very reaonable price for the rooms. Yeah, rooms. We ended up in a two-bedroom suite with a common sitting area and kitchenette. I didn’t complain after that.

I took a few pictures, but promise to share only a few! This first is of Lori Wilde. I’ve taken classes from her before. She makes some really tough concepts so easy to understand. I won the hardcover book you see pictured here. Didn’t get her to sign it though. Don’t know why I didn’t ask. When I’m done reading it, I’ll pass it along to one of you.

Here’s Sandy Blair. I love her. Her books and listening to her speak. Very funny lady.

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My horoscope today. No kidding. “You’re a space explorer, setting out into the unknown. Make contact with Houston.”

Anyway, I’m back! Still tired and my butt’s tingly from sitting for hours in a car, but I kind of like tingly, so not so bad. And I have pictures! They’re not as fun as the cruise pics, but you know I have to share. Thanks so much to the ladies who took over my blog while I was gone. Looks like you all had fun! We’ll do that again!

Have to start with this picture. My sis, Elle James, forgot she was wearing her reading glasses and we bumped heads while she held the camera above us. She thinks I deleted this one.

Sis and I left Arkansas on Friday, and headed up north to snow country. A writer’s group in Omaha invited us up to conduct a weekend-long plotting bootcamp. We do them a couple of times a year. They’re exhausting, but also a lot of fun. I like hanging with other authors and helping them put together a plot for a book. Brainstorming is fun so long as the book’s not mine!

The group was a nice mix of newbie-writers and multi-published authors. I won’t mention names to protect their privacy, but I was pleased and a little intimidated going in. That lasted about five seconds once everyone started talking about their stories.

I shot this out the car window as we drove. I don’t see snow that often, so it’s cool to me. That drive, BTW, was 12 hours! I broke it into two legs. 4 to my sister’s, then we drove 8 together. Like I said. Tingly butt.

The Omaha group set everything up in a hotel. Here we are arriving. Had to include this pic because that’s sis’s butt. She’s gonna want to kill me, but she’d have a long drive to do it now.

I don’t have a lot of fun photos because the weekend was cram-packed with work. I took a couple of shots while everyone worked on their lists of story conflicts. This was a rare quiet moment.

The bootcamp class is dynamic, and usually looks more like this. Wish you could see her schnauzer slippers. We kept to sweats and slippers for comfort.

The whole reason I love to do the bootcamps is a chance to hang with my sis and do something we both love.

Psst! For yesterday’s winner, you’ll have to scroll to the bottom of this post! ~DD

Well, I’ve finally arrived at the last days of the cruise. It was a 10-days, 9-nights cruise, and still I hated to see it end. Sasha White and I had a wonderful time. I managed to get some work done here and there. Nothing impressive. The best benefit for my muse was the chance to experience new things and take in some incredible sights.

For the more ambitious traveler, cruise ships offer non-stop entertainments. My favorite was the ice show, which I watched twice. It was spectacular, and I wasn’t even a little bit prejudiced by the fact that one of Sasha’s friends from back home was part of the cast! Most of my shots are blurs, like this one, because there’s so much movement. But the colors are lovely, aren’t they?

At the center, the guy holding the other skater aloft is Brad, Sasha’s friend, whose suggestion it was that we cruise on this ship.

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My cruise buddy, Sasha White, and I are posting pictures with a theme today—something that made us smile on our cruise. Hers has to do with towel pets and mine is watermelon art. And we’re both running contests for signed books and a gift from the islands. So be sure to hit her site today too!

Here’s what you have to do to win a copy of To Serve and Protect: 1) Send an email to me privately, listing what you think each of these 11 works of art represents AND 2) post a comment somewhere on my blog. That simple. Oh and here’s my email address: DD’s Email

The morning after we left the islands for our long trip back to Newark we had a treat lined up in The Promenade. Watermelons had been carved and served as the centerpieces for a buffet lunch. I couldn’t resist taking pictures of every one of them. Good luck and don’t stress about getting them absolutely correct! Guesses count!

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If you’d like to see what kept Sasha amused (me shopping, and shopping and shopping), head on over to her website too! Sasha White’s blog

The next island stop on our cruise was Labadee, Haiti. I didn’t know a thing about what to expect in Haiti except what everyone emailed me—it’s dangerous and dirty, don’t take the cabs because you’ll be robbed and killed. I actually was looking forward to that Haiti. I wanted to hit a voodoo shop. Wanted the third world pictures. Instead, I ended up in a place so pristine my mother would sit on the toilet seat. Labadee is privately owned by Royal Caribbean. So the experience is restful, peaceful and beautiful, but anything other than authentic.

Sasha was quite pleased. All she wanted to do was lie on the beach. I must have annoyed the crap out of her. I couldn’t just lie in the sun. We tipped a guy to set up our loungers, but I didn’t spend 10 minutes in mine. I swam, I wandered down the beach to the…ahem…shops. Like I needed to do more shopping, but I was BORED. However, the scenery was seriously gorgeous.

Here’s the dock where we arrived.

I tried to get a shot of this guy without being too obvious. I pretended to snap a pic of our monster boat, but he wouldn’t turn around. His abs weren’t a 6-pack, they had to be 12-freaking-pack!

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Yesterday’s winner will be named at the end of this posting! ~DD

Here’s hoping everyone spent Christmas day surrounded by family.

My parents and I descended on my daughter and her family. So we got to watch the 11-month-old unwrap gifts (translated: play with wrapping paper). The six-year-old is in Texas with her daddy, and we missed her, but got a chance to concentrate on the other baby’s first Christmas. Getting to Hot Springs was a little tricky though. With all the rain we’ve had, the roads leading to Arkadelphia were flooded. At Clear Lake (someone with a wicked sense of humor named it because it’s a murky swamp with alligators), I did try to see how far I could get, but when the water got 6-inches deep and I couldn’t see the edges of the road, I turned back and took a different route.

Our meal was great and very relaxed—something I will no doubt look back on with fondness because I’m back on my diet today. Turns out I only gained six pounds on the trip. I didn’t backslide that far!

But it was enough to keep me out of those “booty jeans” yesterday.

Anyway, back to the cruise. A funny thing happened in St. Thomas. I forgot to take pictures of the town because I got caught up in a shopping frenzy. If you’ve never been there, it’s a mecca for jewelry. I caught the fever! I bought two sets (ring, earings, and pendant) of bright blue topaz and purple tanzanite and tons of semiprecious stone bracelets, which I gave away as Christmas gifts. So the photos that follow were taken after I’d finished most of my shopping.

Except these first two. When we debarked at the dock, these tourist taxis that sat a dozen people met us to take us into town. All of them were brightly colored and decorated. We didn’t ride with “The Muscle Man” but I had to snap a pic.

Here’s a view of St. Thomas from the dock.

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