We all know about the bad luck that walking under a ladder or a black cat crossing your path can supposedly bring. What about breaking a mirror and having seven years of bad luck as a consequence? I remember being at the home of my friend Laurie when I was about twelve and accidentally breaking a mirror. I was devastated to think that I would have bad luck until I turned nineteen. That seemed like forever!

Who doesn’t like a sincere compliment? “You’re a good cook,” “I like the way you decorated this room,” “Your children are well behaved,” “You are a talented musician,” or any such positive comments have always been a pleasure to hear.

                Piropos are not quite the same and never did sit well with me. One definition of the term says that it is a flattering comment or compliment. Well, yes, it could be. But in Spanish-speaking countries piropos quite often are “unsolicited flirtatious or sexually oriented comments made by a male to a passing female of reproductive age whom he does not know.”

                If you have done your DNA test on Ancestry, you know that you have a list of matches that is broken down into close relatives, first cousins, 2^nd-3^rd cousins, 4^th-6^th cousins, etc. Those of us genealogy addicts that are on Facebook refer to the distant cousins as “DNA Cousins”.  Back in July, I was contacted by one such DNA cousin, Marisol Colón Santoni. She told me about her friend, Donna Darling, who (like me) wrote a historical novel based in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico.  However, Donna’s book, The 3 Marias, is set around 1897-1900, while my book, Luisa, is set from 1867-1870. Marisol thought that it would be fun for the three of us to get together and talk about genealogy and our books.