I never win raffle drawings????

It was my lucky day yesterday!  I went to a Pampered Chef party last night and guess who won the grand prize raffle?  Yes, moi!  It was getting to the last raffle draw and what do you know my ticket number was called.  Yeah, I won the new Stoneware Cookie Sheet (guess who is going to start baking cookies), but not only that I also won the new Mega Lifter (its the easiest way to move foods from the oven or grill to serving platters) which was the next to the last drawing.  So a "two in row" winner!  Imagine that? Thank you Pampered Chef!

New year.......new resolutions?

My new blog is giving me a sense of renewal and revitalization.  I am so inspired by other blogs I have read....some from you my friends, some from strangers who have similar interests, and some from bloggers who have given me positive motivation.

The year is new and have you kept your resolutions?  Have you made any resolutions?  I found a book, The Chicken Soup for the Soul series, one called "Chicken Soup for the Soul....My Resolutions." It talks of making resolutions at one time or another during your life, whether at new year's, that big birthday, or the beginning of the month.  It became clear it's simple to make them but sometimes difficult to keep them.  Change is not easy to achieve. Or after achieving them, we found we really didn't need to make a change.  Or we found more is not necessarily better; sometimes less rather than more is the solution.

You might find you are fine just the way you are.  Everyone is in charge of their life.  You can make changes if you want, or you can resolve to be satisfied and happy with what you have. Set aside some time and take a look at your life.  That's what I did.  So here I go with some resolutions and change this year.  Come on along with me on the ride.......

One resolution for me is to read books more.  I saw those ereaders such as the Kindle, the Nook, etc.  I don't know if I will get one of those.  If you have one, let me know what the verdict is on it.  One of my colleagues at work uses the library a lot for books and since it's free, I started there.  Libraries are a great thing that we under utilize, well at least I should speak for myself.  There is a lot of other events, things to do, and to learn from a library....and most are free.  Free is good.

I also joined a book club called Destination Book Club.  It's about learning of another country/culture but not having to travel to that country.  Kind of cost effective without the travel and educational with the reading.  The organizer selects a book to read set in another country and then we all meet at a restaurant from that country.  The first book selected was, "The Caliph's House" set in Morocco.  Last month we met at The Marrakesh restaurant.  Here are some pictures of our meetup:

It was a fun time of good food, talented belly dancers, good conversation, and good ambiance.  The dessert we had was really delicious!  If you want a little something different in Vegas, try this restaurant.  It's in the area of Paradise and Flamingo.  Watch out for the jinns.......

Clean slate....

With the new year, I'm starting over with my blog.  I've changed my blogger name (if that's correct terminology?) and I have a renewed sense of commitment with this.  So it seems this is one of my new year's resolutions.  I'll probably need some prompting and nudging along the way (isn't that what friends are for?), but  I've decided I do like this blogging thing.  It makes sense.  It will take some effort and I will do better than I did before.  So I may not get on this everyday but no less than bi-weekly should be attainable for me.  That seems reasonable.     Baby steps they say.......