Thursday 2 July 2009

Home Again

rainy, humid, temps 20

Back home now. Had the BEST time at Hovey. Stayed in a room called The Birches, which is actually in the woods above the Inn...with huge windows looking into the forest on one side and out over the lake at the front. A huge room, with a huge bathroom. I could actually live there, I'm convinced. Such fun to dress for dinner in our finery and walk through the woods to a formal, candle-lit dinner.

I think my favorite meals at Hovey, though, are breakfast. This morning it was two soft boiled eggs, ham and shallots, asperagus and a confit of red pepper. With a side of smoked bacon. Plus the cold buffet of fruit compot, home-made granola, cheese, croissants, cinnamon buns. Dear Lord, take me now.

What bliss.

Then arrived home to a torrent of problems...all of them fairly minor. Problems with the water at the guest cottage (and we have guests so that's not great)... our Sharp Aquos TV (a real lemon) has broken again and is taking 3 weeks to repair...this is the second time in a year. We've had televisions that haven't broken in 25 years...and this supposedly high end thing breaks twice in a year. The warrenty is about to expire...so I asked the company for a) an extended warrenty since this is clearly a problem TV or a replacement.

I think Aquos has a fine reputation. We seem, uniquely, to have a lemon.

But so far the company seems unimpressed with our requests. Will go up the chain. But again, this is an irritant when there are other things to concentrate on. Oh well, it could be worse. The TV could have decided to poop. God, that's probably next. Day after the warrenty expires.

For now all the phone calls are made...personal war has not been declared, emails have been returned and forwarded and replied to. Sent out the newsletter on July first - or at least he wonderful Linda Lyall did...and had hundreds of responses. I can no longer personally respond to them all, but have replied at random to a number of them.

Am giving away a signed ARC for The Brutal Telling. Will also give one away next month on the newsletter.

Will start editing book 6 (the Quebec City one) tomorrow in hopes of finishing it completely by the end of august. One foot in front of the other. And remembering to count my blessings. So important. And not hard, after that blessed time away with Michael.

Be well - talk tomorrow.

5 comments:

Marjorie said...

Oh! How do we enter to win the ARC? Is there a contest? A raffle? Is bribery permitted? LOL. Wouldn't it be wonderful to get to read the book ahead of time!


--Marjorie from Connecticut

Kaye Wilkinson Barley - Meanderings and Muses said...

I'm with Marjorie! Is this where we sign up for a signed ARC?! Bribery?! I'm in!

lil Gluckstern said...

Hi Louise,

It is so frustrating to have a lemon, and it starts to take over you life just when you get to do other things , and don't need this mess. Meanwhile, it sits there like a lump-oops, shouldn't have said that. good luck with that. I signed up for your book on the newsletter page,. Hope that's enough. Enjoy your home.

Louise Penny Author said...

Hi Kaye and Marjorie,

Oh, thought you'd signed up already! If you go to the home page of my website you'll see a place to sign-up for my monthly newsletter. In it I often do giveaways, including the Advance Copy for The Brutal Telling. I'll be giving more away next month, and in September too, so you haven't missed it!

Good luck!!!

Louise Penny Author said...

Hi Lil,

So glad you signed up - indeed, I saw your email...didn't respond because I was just overwhelmed and decided to write to people I hadn't corresponded with before. But yes, that is enough...and yes, best not to talk about lumps of anything around here!