What I'm Reading Now - Mrs. Kennedy and Me

First a confession: I thought this book was going to be a "tell all" with tons of scandal and the such, but I gave it a try because I am slightly intrigued by Mrs. Kennedy & I was hoping for a bunch of pictures :-D

This book starts with Clint Hill getting the assignment to be one of Mrs. Kennedy's Secret Service Agents. At the time of the appointment he was assigned to President Eisenhower - so he sees this as a bit of a demotion. He talked about how he would miss all the traveling he got to do with the President (who knew that he would be away from DC much more with Mrs. Kennedy!). He offers a great view of Mrs. K's struggle with being in the White House, raising (and losing) children and overall being in the limelight.

I thought the book was very interesting. He held my interest the entire time I was reading it. Reading his memories of the day that Jackie delivered and lost Patrick and the day that JFK died brought me to tears (not that I think that's an incredible feat ;-)) While my one complaint would be that it was written like a guy (hello, he never talks about her outfits!), I think I liked that he stuck to the story - which was all about how she took her role as first lady. The book did make it seem like she didn't spend much time at all at The White House. Maybe that's true... I need to do more research.

Overall this was a great read if you are interested in Jackie Kennedy. It doesn't give you a ton of insight into what the secret service does - but it does show you how she lived her life as the First Lady.

Comments

Adding Machine Cake

What type of cake do you give a graduating accountant? Why an adding machine/printing calculator cake of course! A friend of mine text me asking me to make one for her husband's graduation party and I accepted the challenge! I was very nervous, as this was my first sculpted cake! The night before I started working on the cake I cut the keys out of fondant. Because I wanted to make it to scale, I used a photo of an actually printing calculator. And then used the algebra my momma taught me! :) The width of almost all of my keys is 5/8 of an inch. I then cut a 2" wide strip of gum paste approximately 6" long and laid it over a quart jar overnight to dry. The next day I started by making 2 9"x13" cakes and placing one on top of the other and shaping the top one (actually only using about 1/3 of it) to make the top of the calculator! I apologize I have no photos, this was a pre-blog cake. Then came butter cream in between the layers and covering the cake! I rolled o

Labor of Love (Part 1 of 3)

I love lace. I love the delicacy with which it presents itself to the world. That being said, I dont really use it very much. I do have some family doilies, and my wedding dress has some lace, but I dont go too crazy. I like to be able to clean things, and not have dust mites clinging to every available piece of cloth (they cling to everything else anyway.) So, I decided to try a painting technique. Why not paint the lace on the object? Easy to clean, lovely design, what could be better? We got this child's vanity in an old attic pick. Yes, we went into someone's hot and muggy attic for several hours. Yes, they let us jsut dig through things (can you believe it?!?!) unsupervised. Yes, we had to take our own flashlights. And yes, there was mouse droppings and dead birds up there. It was gross, but worth it. My boy LOVED it! American Pickers is his favorite tv show. So this school bus yellow vanity sat there looking at us. Begging for new life! I knew if we left

Blind Man Stood on the Road and he

First, I need to say that every time I think of this song, I think of one man: Don Strunk. He shaped my middle school years and beyond by singing this song....alot :-) On my way to work yesterday I passed by the subway stop. Usually there is a man with a mohawk at this corner passing out free newspapers. I realized as I was crossing the street that it was a different man (also signaling that it was a different free paper). I also noticed the man had a cane, a cane like blind people normally walk with. As I got onto the sidewalk I was going to continue down the avenue (as opposed to into the train like most people would be doing) and the man asked me if I'd like a newspaper. I was pretty amazed that he heard me walking by in tennis shoes while big trucks zoomed past us. I'm lucky if I can hear the conversation that's meant for me to hear it in these situations.

Strikes my fancy

Search This Blog