White House Chef

Tracy Aleksy forwarded the following link (Thanks, Tracy!):

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081124/ap_on_re_us/obama_chef

I'm always on the lookout for information about our White House Chef - and this is the first article that really cuts to the heart of what's required in the job. I hope the Obamas decide to keep Cristeta Comerford in the position - and not just because it's good for Ollie.

;-)

Walter Scheib did a wonderful job of describing the needs of the position and the best candidate for it. I tried to write Ollie as a person dedicated to serving her country and after reading Mr. Scheib's description, I feel as though I hit my mark.

Hail to the Chef is due out in stores next Tuesday and the third (and last) book of my contract is now complete and about to be turned in. I really hope Ollie is "re-elected" for another few adventures. Fingers crossed!

Belated

I've been using the title "Belated" on a slew of e-mails lately. Most were very late answers to questions or requests. One was to a friend whose birthday I missed. It's been just that kind of month. Since Bouchercon, I've been running hard to play catch-up. Still not there. In fact this blog entry is *very* belated. It's been over a month since I posted.

But with my eldest daughter, Robyn, in from NY with her boyfriend, Andrew, all bets are off. I'll catch up later. There just isn't enough time to spend with family these days, so I'm enjoying every minute. Sara was in over the weekend from school, and she comes back home again tonight for the holidays. Good stuff.

Saturday we went to the wedding of Lindsey Mueller and Ben Dragstrem. Lindsey is the daughter of dear friends of ours and watching her get married -- she's the first of all our friends' kids -- was more emotional than I expected it to be.

Sunday we decided to show Andrew the Museum of Science and Industry - our family favorite museum. Below are pics of the kids pledging allegiance in front of the United States's tree, and then a few other pics of Grandma and Dad, Uncle Paul and Mitch. The kids took more pictures than I did, but they haven't shared their memory cards with me yet.

I'll wrangle the pics out of them soon ;-)

Going forward, I hope to do better posting here. I have a slew of book-related news, but I'll save that for another day. I still have a manuscript to polish ....

Thanks for checking in! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!