Barnes & Noble buyout - hold onto your bricks...

Here's news from CNN, you can also find it on several other news outlets this morning. Apparently, the chairman of Barnes & Noble is talking about buying up all the stores and separating the Nook business. 

I'm not sure how this will play out, there are advantages and disadvantages to going private. Will it save brick and mortar stores? Maybe, but it's likely to involve more store closings, most of them already in the works.

Indies Sue Amazon, Publishers over E-book DRM

Publisher's Weekly reports the latest in the ongoing battle for digital supremacy (said with sarcasm). 

Counteract (Winter) Cabin Fever

Here are three ideas for beating the blahs of being indoors during harsh weather.

Take a trip to the beach indoors: Get out some plastic bins and pretend to make sand castles. Pretend to “swim in the ocean” around your family room and get some exercise.

Pack a picnic: Lay out an easy to wash blanket and prepare a picnic lunch with sammies, apple slices and sipppy cups.

Go on safari: Make sure the house is warm and let the kids wear shorts or cropped pants and adventure gear, like a sun hat or binoculars. Don’t have binoculars? Make some out of a paper towel roll. 

Snow Tracks by K.Gibson

A Garage Door and a Dublin Mudslide

This looks harmless, but don’t be fooled. It’s three inches of plastic pain-in-the-you-know-what and the reason I practically had to crawl under our van the other day. Ok, so it was the Dublin Mudslide ice cream that made me do it, but it all started with that three-inch red nemesis.

The basic storyline is this. I’ve been doing the mommy-runs-around-town in frigid temps thing for a while. I needed a break, nap, drink, but I had to get a kid to school, another home to nap, and we were out of milk, bread, water, you get it. I summoned up the strength to get the first one to school and headed to the store. I’d made a mental list of essentials, but I knew with more snow coming, I’d better get what I could and get out. Then, there it was. The decadent flavors calling to me – Dublin Mudslide. Figures – ice cream in a snowstorm.

I get everything I can, mudslide included, and get on the way home. By the time we get there, my little one has had it, needs a nap. He’s unloaded first, since I only have a few bags. Unloading the rest, I bump my Siberian faux-fur hood on the plastic hanging from the ceiling and sit a bag back in the van so I can move the handle out of my way. You know what happens? The bag falls open and the only thing I bought for myself drops out and rolls under the van. Sigh. It may be cold, but the ice cream’s mine and I’m getting it. Somehow, it rolled almost exactly in the middle of the space under the van, so I couldn’t just reach for it. I had to get on my hands and knees as the snow is puddling in our garage to get my delectable treat.

And so I did. Then as I went to rush inside and clean myself off, I accidentally shut the sliding door on the garage handle. This is the same handle that controls the garage door. Snows coming and I can’t get it shut for anything. Plus, I have no idea what I’m supposed to do to make it work again.

I fuss and fidget. Running from one side of the van to the other in order to find out, again, and again, nothing was working. Nearly 20 minutes later, it worked. Some combination of jerking and pulling freed it so it could move the door. I was so cold when it was over I ended up having coffee instead. My Dublin Mudslide would have to wait, and it was well worth it. Just imagine – Irish cream liqueur ice cream with chocolate-chocolate chip cookies and a coffee fudge swirl. Yum, brr! Happy winter!

Hunger Games: Catching Fire Sneek Peek

Google Maps photographed images of the Catching Fire Quarter Quell Arena. Here's a link to pics and info. from Hollywood.com. Cool. 

Enjoy Hunger-lings!

Barnes and Noble Store Closings

Barnes & Noble is not denying they have and will continue to close more brick and mortar stores.  

This brief clip explains their plan is to stem losses, not close-up shop for good, that's the story for now. Indies may not all be cheering, but big e-tailers scooping up more of the e-reader and e-book market are. It's a hot market, and something B & N has hoped will help their overall business, if they can grow it. 

This struggle in the e-market has changed traditional publishing. I've read dozens of industry articles about big publishers who have launched or are buying up e-book and self-publishing platforms. The times, they are a-changing, fast. 

Here's a link to the Barnes & Noble article (CBS News).  

Don't let the spammers get you down

I recently had an uptick in comments, only to find my popularity spike was partly due to spammers. I plan to increase my postings this year. New and regular readers can look forward to more food, fun and Success or Mess experiments. I welcome your comments. Just be aware, I've implemented the "read-and-retype-the-word-in-the-box" as a way to keep spam at bay. 

I liked it better when the only spam we had to avoid was ham in a can. Although, you'd be surprised at what spam can do when you cook it up - maybe a future Success or Mess experiment? :)

SYOAS - See you online again soon!