I was a very lucky woman last night. My musician friend arranged for me to go see Barry Manilow and I had a front row seat. What a wonderful musician and singer. Last night was a promotion with QVC the shopping network, to plug his latest CD-Romantic Love Songs. Barr will soon be starting at the Paris Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas (March 5th). Hopefully more comp seats will come my way.

It's tax time and I did my taxes-how about you? Taxes put the fear of God in me when I do them and truly I have nothing to every worry about, but I still worry. So it's done and now behind me. Prior to moving to Las Vegas, I was living in GA, where I didn't do my state taxes for many years, but they caught up with me. Honestly, it was enough each year just to get my federal taxes done. So now I'm being audited by the State of GA, but we (State of GA Revenue Dept. & me) agreed, that by the time we're done, they will owe me a nice check.

I've also started my own Meetup group www.meetup.com/WomenTravelingTogetherOnCruises

I have joined some other meet-up groups, this is the new thing now. Look in your city for meet-up groups for things that you enjoy. It's been a wonderful opportunity for me to meet new people here in Las Vegas. My meet-up groups are the Romance Writing Group, Magicians (I'm not a magician, but I love magic), The Chef's Table (meeting in different homes & restaurants, sharing food) and the a Travel & Social Club (does day-trips, cruises & meets at different restaurants for socializing). So I decided to start up my own group. I love cruising and I know alot of women are intimidated by traveling alone-so "men" and women-if you want to join me on my cruises, come along. At least you'll know one person-me!

Now for my plug for my EBay listing-Valerie2901 or under the general heading of cookbooks on EBay:

2 books that haven't sold, but should have:

From Sunrise to Sunset, a hardback book down as a fundraiser for the Sunrise Children's Hospital Foundation in Las Vegas. It is such a well-presented book with original art and sketch's of children. For you bread makers out there, there are over thirty original bread recipes. Over 200 great recipes can be found in this book-unique, new, clever and very tasty.

Casual Entertaining by Good Seasons (the salad dressing people)-this is not a big book, but it does have 59 fresh and super simple recipes, with beautiful color photographs. If this one doesn't sell soon, it's going to go in my personal collection.

A new festival to attend: Alabama Chicken & Egg Festival-April 10-11, 2010. They will have wing eating contests, clucking contests, chicken motorcycle run, and much more. www.chickenandeggfestival.com It sounds like alot of fun.

So do you think you make a great barbecue sauce. In just two weeks, applications will be online for the 2010 American Royal Barbecue Contest. This is an invitational contest where individuals are able to secure applications on Feb. 10th and team applications on March 8th. www.arbbq.com

That's all for now.

Cookbook Val