When Christa first emailed that her book club in Westerville, OH, had recently upgraded to a literary society after meeting for four years, I was surprised they'd chosen QUEEN OF THE ROAD. After all, one thing I've never been accused of is being literary. But then, she told me she's a psychiatric nurse AND has a car phobia, so I understood.

Actually, several of the women in the group are nurses. And, let me tell you, nurses know how to have a good time. Can't you tell?

Front row: from the left (on chair): Cynthia Franzman, Julie Smith, Vicki Driver (with Chelsie on lap), Paula D’Auteuil, Mildred Stevens.

Back row: From the left: Ginny Chapin, Keitha Eckles, Christa Newtz (in her Queenly shirt!), Jennifer Beistel, Valerie Marburger.

That's Chelsie, Christa's 13 year old shi-a-poo. (She said she'd let me figure out what that meant.) As she put it: I also want to add a disclaimer that the beverage in the martini glass is NON-alcoholic. (I don't blame you, Christa. I have some awfully er... rabid readers in Boulder, which, after all, is the home of the city ordinance proclaiming that all pet owners shall hereby not be refered to as owners, but as "guardians." But, that's another blog entry.)

Regular readers of this blog know how sick I am of hearing about how "wonderful" Tim is all the time from the book clubs I call in to. My own fault for putting him in the book in the first place. Believe me, I considered skipping him entirely, but then you all would have wondered how I'd gotten around. Or eaten. Or wore clean clothes.

So, my favorite part of this fabulo book club was when one of the members said, "Tim seems so great because of the loving way you portray him." Oh, yeah. I'll take the credit.

What do you want from me?