Happy Halloween!

With a wedding coming up in my family in less than 2 weeks, time has been short to do everything I've wanted to do. But with today being a holiday, I wanted to stop in and spread the spirit.

Halloween's origins date back to the 5th century and the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). It marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of winter. It was believed that the souls of the dead walked among the living on this night. By the 7th century, the Christians attempted to replace the Celtic holiday by proclaiming November 1 as All Saints Day, to honor saints and martyrs. Yet Halloween lives on in most communities.

If you'd like to read more about the history of Halloween and how our modern customs of this holiday came to be, I've included some links.

http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/halloween/ Read about the origins of Halloween, check out some spooky recipies, and watch some creepy video clips.

Halloween will be celebrated on the History Channel October 31 with the following programs:

2/3c History's Mysteries: Amityville: Horror or Hoax?
3/4c History's Mysteries: The Real Dracula
4/3c Time Machine: Bloodlines - Dracula Family Tree
5/4c History's Mysteries: Ancient Monster Hunters
6/5c Haunted History Of Halloween
7/6c Haunted History Of Halloween
8/7c Houdini: Unlocking The Mystery
10/9c UFO Files: Russian Roswell
11/10c Weird U.S. Creepy Curses

More Halloween history:
http://wilstar.com/holidays/hallown.htm
http://www.theholidayspot.com/halloween/history.htm
http://www.bhg.com/bhg/story.jhtml?storyid=/templatedata/bhg/story/data/13587.xml
http://www.halloweenishere.com/history.html

Hope your Halloween is fun and safe!

Burned Out

No, not me, my computer's power supply. There's nothing like spending time without a computer to appreciate everything it does that makes life easier. From relaxing with a quick game (my favorite is spider solitaire) to doing research for a book and everything in between, I use my computer constantly. And I, like most of us, tend to take technology for granted. I paid the price for that, not only in $$$, but in time.

I decided to spend some of my downtime by hitting my TBR (To Be Read) pile. I wasn't disappointed and was in fact energized after reading 3 books, enough so that I pulled out my trusty Alpha Smart and wrote 16 pages in 2 days. To my surprise, my power supply arrived 4 days after I ordered it and that included a weekend. WOW! I was back in business again. But I had a lot of catching up to do.

Now that I'm (relatively) caught up, I'm curious to know what others are reading. Frankly, my reading tastes are eclectic, and I'll read just about anything if it looks good or interesting. I'll especially look for something someone has suggested, so feel free to post what you're reading now or have read in the past. I'd love to hear what's out there that's good!