Rainy Days With Amanda

Hey everyone! I hope you are doing well, in spite of everything going on. I felt like maybe I could talk about my quarantine experience as everyone else seems to be doing now-a-days. But somehow, hearing people's different experiences, makes me feel a little less alone with my feelings, so maybe that my blog post will be just that for you.  So, I live in Texas. As of the time of this blog posting, we are not on a state-mandated stay-at-home quarantine. Our Governor is leaving that up to each individual city and my city, San Antonio, has decided to do a quarantine, but I don't think it's as restrictive as some other places such as California and New York. Only essential places can be open, but I feel that those "essential" businesses are pretty broad. We have only had this mandate for a week now, so we'll see if our quarantine will go any deeper. Anyways, it was my first full week of full quarantine life and these are my thoughts. On one hand, I enjoy wo...

POSTCARDS FROM LONNIE HOW I REDISCOVERED MY BROTHER ON THE  STREET CORNER HE CALLED HOME by Lisa Johnson Biography / Photo Journal / Poverty Publisher: Rand-Smith LLC Date of Publication: January 14, 2020 Number of Pages: 200 Scroll down for the giveaway!     It all started on Christmas Day 1993. Lisa and Lonnie were sitting on their mom's rickety yard swing, when Lisa's curiosity took over. She asked Lonnie questions about his life on the street, about being homeless. To her surprise, he answered honestly, humorously, and thoughtfully. That conversation continued throughout the next four years as Lisa wrote questions on postcards addressed to herself, then mailed them in packets to Lonnie at the flower shop on his corner. He wrote his answers and mailed them back. Lonnie answered a lot of questions and even asked a few, too. His detailed, matter-of-fact responses gave Lisa an unfettered view of a p...

Hey Everyone! If you followed me on   Facebook ,   Instagram   or even   Twitter , you may know that I recently went on a Tour of Italy trip with my husband for vacation. And we left the day before Italy basically shut down everything. But we made it out fine, we are fine, we did call UT Health Services and they said we are not experiencing any symptoms. And I am emphasizing that because there was a post about the coronavirus on Facebook and some people were commenting that everyone who   traveled   to countries who were infected should be "burned alive" or "killed off." I also want to emphasize that when we left for Italy, there were only like 2 cases in Italy, and those two cases were not even Italian citizens.  So there's that. ANYWAYS, happier thoughts. This was our first time going to Italy, it was also our first time going to a European country. If you're just joining me on my journey, the only other place we have   traveled   outs...

BAYOU CITY BURNING Harry & Dizzy Lark, Book 1 by D.B. BORTON Mystery / Detective / Humor / Historical Publisher: Boomerang Books Date of Publication: May 30, 2019 Number of Pages: 390      Houston, 1961: comedy meets mystery and history. It's hard to be hard-boiled when your biggest fan and worst critic is your twelve-year-old daughter, especially when she's cracking your case for you and defending you from the bad guys, along with sidekicks human and feline. Houston is still a cowboy backwater, but Texas politicians dream big. P.I. Harry Lark is out to save the city for President Kennedy's moon mission. Dizzy Lark is out to save Harry. Jani Brooks of Romance Reviews Today calls Bayou City Burning “a terrific mystery loaded with humor, lots of excitement, and fascinating, well written characters” and rates it “a Perfect 10 book.” CLICK TO PURCHASE = = = =  ...