Grand Opening!

I finally got the time to sit down and work on my blog today. Finally. Our grand opening event was very successful on Independent Bookstore Day last Saturday! We couldn't have done it without our family jumping in with both feet and both hands and helping us bring it to reality. So, a very heartfelt thank you to all of them.

Quite frankly, I'm still recovering from the event. We went non-stop for several days leading up to last Saturday so I haven't gotten a whole lot of anything else done. Housework? Just the basics like laundry which still isn't folded. Gardening? Just the pollinator garden and the entry stones. Dog grooming? No. They still stink and their toenails are in need of a doggy pedicure. I haven't even had the time to do any writing...

So, we only have 12 days until we arrive in New Orleans. That means I'm really going to have to get hyped up on a ton of caffeine to get everything done that needs done before we go. I'm pretty darned excited about our list of activities...all our tickets paid in advance. The nighttime tour of Destrehan Plantation and I'm not sure which cemeteries are included, the jazz lunch on the paddle wheel boat on the Mississippi, the all day tour to Oak Alley Plantation and the swamp tour. Now, another one has popped up in my feed...you know how it goes...you search one thing or say one thing in the presence of your "smart phone" and up pops all kinds of suggestions that you didn't know you were looking for. But, this last one is "Tales of the Macabre" which include drinks and dramatic tales within the walls of an old mortuary. Sounds like one more thing to add to our list. Right? Stay tuned...I'll be doing a whole blog post on our travels...maybe even as it happens.

The garden needs attention. However, it's probably good that I've had to put it off because we are expecting a hard freeze the first full week of May. Like...they said on May 9th. Thankfully, I've not put any plants out in the garden, nor have I sowed anything but the pollinator mix. I do have my herb beds ready to plant, so I may go ahead and sow them this weekend. I figure if I need to cover them, I can. I did buy two new grape plants for the arbor, and we got the volunteer walnut tree cut off and split so that I can feed it some lye to kill the roots. So much to do!!

In the book world...our first book club meeting at the shop is this Saturday morning and we are reading Sour by Shae Smith--one of our local authors--I picked up the book yesterday while I was watching the shop and between customers and could not put the book down! The heroine of the book was raised by serial killers on a freaking lemon farm! Can you guess where they bury the bodies? Run out and grab your copy or get it from Amazon...you won't be disappointed. This book is on the heels of Charles Lemar Brown's Huntin' Justice which was another page turner. Vigilante justice or serial killer? You be the judge! In the car, I've been listening to Red River Deep by Carolyn Brown and just finished up her Wild Card. What I love about her books is that I can see a little bit of Carolyn in every book, and she truly is one gem of a woman!

Okay, what else is going on? Well, we have Book Jeopardy on May 6th in the Los Amores Cantina to kick off our 2nd open mic night. We have Sheri Ann Richerson presenting her growing chocolate in Indiana on May 2nd. May is also Mother's Day, so we will have something special in the shop for those moms who stop in. Our roving bookstore will be in Logansport on May 23rd led by Bob, Kim and Connor Freeman. It is surely a busy month indeed!

I'm going to wrap things up for now. Too much to do and a few piles of new books on the counter that need inventoried and marked at some point. Have a wonderful weekend!!