So the 2nd month might be the shortest of the year but I was doing so much handtesting at work that I went through books like wildfire. Here's the rundown:

13. Murder In Mesepotamia - Agatha Christie

14. They Came To Baghdad - Agatha Christie

15. Darker Than Midnight - Maggie Shayne

16. High Tide - Jude Deveraux

17. Out Of This World - A short story complilation that included:

-Interlude In Death - J.D. Robb

-Kinsman - Susan Krinard

-Immortality - Maggie Shayne

-Magic Like Heat Across My Skin - Laurell K. Hamilton

18. Forever Odd - Dean Koontz

19. Ghost Dance - Mark T. Sullivan

20. Once Upon A Castle - A short story complilation that included:

-Spellbound - Nora Roberts

-Castle Doom - Jill Gregory

-Falcon's Lair - Ruth Ryan Langan

-DragonSpell - Marianna Willman

21. Moon Shadows - A short story compiliation that included:

-Wolf Moon - Nora Roberts

-The Moon Witch - Jill Gregory

-Blood On The Moon - Ruth Ryan Langan

-West Of The Moon - Marianna Willman

22. The MacGregor Brides - Nora Roberts

23. The MacGregor Grooms - Nora Roberts

24. The MacGregors: Serena & Caine - Nora Roberts

25. Queens Of England - Norah Lofts

26. The MacGregors: Daniel & Ian - Nora Roberts



The Book Of The Month actually went to a short story - Blood On The Moon by Ruth Ryan Langan. It was a wonderfully told tale of murder, revenge and love that made me cry. I can't ask for much more than that!

I've just recently discovered Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb and as the coming months' lists are posted, you'll see their names a lot more! Hope you all had a fantastic holiday weekend and don't forget about the new post on Anton & Olga's site!!

Labels: Books

|

My take on "Cake" - a wedding card shaped like a cake! I started out with scraps of paper that looked like a close-up of a wedding dress then glued them to card stock paper and shaped them to look like cake layers. I covered those with vellum which I attached with tiny yellow brads. The "cherish" sticker is 3-D (I got it at Mom's store for 50 cents!!!) and the white ribbon at the top is attached to.... (drum roll please)....


The card doesn't open like a normal card - you tug the ribbon and the "wish" portion is revealed, written on champagne glasses. I glued a piece of ribbon to the top and the bottom of the glasses then attached the bottom to the back of the card before covering it with the backing. I left a "hole" for the glasses so when the ribbon is tugged, the wish slides out easily. Here's a better view of the glasses:



Comments are welcome & appreciated!

Labels: Pictures

|

Guitar Hero II is slated to come out in November and I find myself salivating at the thought of what songs might be on there. This is my wish list of what I'd like to play:



Slave To The Grind - Skid Row
20th Century Boy - T. Rex
C'Mon & Love Me - Kiss
Another Rainy Night - Queensryche
Dedication - Lita Ford
Barracuda - Heart
Smokin - Boston
Are You Gonna Go My Way - Lenny Kravitz
Dancing In The Moonlight - Thin Lizzy
Harvester Of Sorrow - Metallica
Desire - Gary Hoey
Mr. Brownstone - Guns N Roses
Rainbow In The Dark - Dio
Fire - Jimi Hendrix
Oh Well - Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac
Roadhouse Blues - The Doors
Fire Woman - The Cult
Pain - Jimmy Eat World



I know there's a ton more and others I'll think of right after I hit "Publish Post" but those are the ones on the top of my head. For now, I'll settle for practicing the hell out of Bark At The Moon. Randy Rhodes was a god!!!!

And for your reading pleasure, there is a new Anton & Olga post!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Labels: Games, Music

|

You Are Apple Pie

You're the perfect combo of comforting and traditional Those who like you crave security

You Are 32% Evil

A bit of evil lurks in your heart, but you hide it well. In some ways, you are the most dangerous kind of evil.

So I'm not as evil as I thought. Damn. But that pie sure looks good! :-)

Yeah, I'm dry as far as posts go right now...I did complete the medium level on Guitar Hero for the 2nd time and got 5 stars on all the songs. To be a guitar god you have to get 5 stars on medium, hard & expert. Right now I'm considered a guitar legend. :-) I started the hard level and got through 9 songs before I had to go to bed. I'm getting fairly good at the game. Surprisingly my favorite songs to play are Spanish Castle Magic (Jimi Hendrix), Ace Of Spades (Motorhead) & Bark At The Moon (Ozzy).

We took Guitar Hero over to Derek's the night of the poker party and made everyone play. Mom was funny - - she tried so hard. Heather (Squatchy) picked it up right away and it took Derek a bit but he caught on and kept saying "One more, aww just one more." It's sooo addictive and everyone should be playing it!! :-)

Labels: Games, Quiz

|

The last couple of years I've made my year-end posts listing off all the books I read over the past 12 months. This year my goal is to try to read 200* but unless I speed things up, I'm never going to make it! But if I do make it, the list will be unbearably long so I've decided to do a month-to-month list and at the end of the year post my final tally. Since it's May and I only just thought of this, the next few posts will be me playing catch-up.

Without any further ado, here are the books I read in January:

1. Heaven And Earth - Nora Roberts

2. Face The Fire - Nora Roberts

3. Winter House - Carol O'Connell

4. Bubbles Abound - Sarah Strohmeyer

5. Bubbles In Trouble - Sarah Strohmeyer

6. Bubbles Ablaze - Sarah Strohmeyer

7. Bubbles A Broad - Sarah Strohmeyer

8. Colder Than Ice - Maggie Shayne

9. Mary, Mary - James Patterson

10. Carolina Isle - Jude Deveraux

11. Mail Order Groom - Sandra Chastain

12. Murder On The Orient Express - Agatha Christie

My new feature with my book lists this year is a Book Of The Month. Then I'll name a Book Of The Year. January's BOTM was Colder Than Ice by Maggie Shayne. She is a phenomenal writer and that book is the 2nd in a (as of now) trilogy about a psychic religious cult leader and his daughter. You may think that sounds weird but the books are amazing!!

* = Last week we had a Buddy Training Class at work and the lady who gave it was one of those bubbly, never stops talking kind of women. She asked a couple people why they bothered getting up in the morning and coming to work, what was their motivation. I was hoping she would ask me. My answer: "I have books in my locker that I need to read!" Seriously, my locker holds more books than my parents have ever owned!! And since I'm lucky enough to have a job where I can read, maybe 200 books in a year isn't that big a goal.

And one more side note -- the book that I just finished, Play Dead by Leslie O'Kane (one of the few authors I discovered on my own and wasn't reccommended by anyone), I picked up at a used book store for $3.50. I opened it tonight to start reading it and guess what? It was autographed!! I thought that was awesome. Either the people at the book store didn't realize it was signed or Leslie O'Kane isn't worth that much. Considering how much I like her books, I'm willing to bet it's the former.

February's list coming soon!!

Labels: Books

|

Which character from LOST are you? Hurley Dude...you're rich

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

I took a lot of other "Which Lost character are you" quizzes and in each one I was somebody different so I latched onto my favorite one. I figure I must be schizo. :-)

Hope you all have a fine weekend. As for me, I'm off to see The DaVinci Code tonight! Whoo!

Labels: Quiz

|

My mom is the manager of a Big Lots store here in town. She's been there since the store opened 20-some odd years ago and it was called Pic-N-Save. I still call it Pic-N-Save (and MacFrugals sometimes - it's had 3 names over the course of it's lifetime) but whatever it's called, there's always something strange happening there. But I think the strangest thing happened the other day.

The story Mom told went something like this: A woman had purchased a Milton Bradley toy for her 4 year old son. The toy was in a plastic packaging with reinforced cardboard corners. As soon as she paid for it, the kid opened it up and pulled the corners off. Suddenly he says, "Mommy! Look at the naked children!"

It turns out that stuffed inside the cardboard corners were drawings of naked kids!!! There was German writing underneath the drawings. The woman showed the drawings to Renee, the assistant manager, who immediately checked the other MB toys they had there with the same corners...she found one other package with the same drawings.

The customer called Milton Bradley to let them know and the answer she got: "None of the people who work for us would do something like that. It was put there by someone who works in the store where you bought it." How's that for passing the buck? No concern, no apology, no trying to find out who works for them could have done this and by doing so making their company look bad....no! Someone at Big Lots surely opened these toys, slipped the drawings inside and somehow magically sealed it right back up. Luckilly, the customer saw the illogic of this and let Renee know what the MB rep had said.

There's some sick people in this world and by ignoring it (like the MB rep), it's only going to get worse!

Labels: Mom, stories

|

Derek was talking about poo yesterday and it reminded me of something that happened at work last week. Brace yourself.

It was about 4:40am and I was on my way to the bathroom. To get to the women's bathroom, there's a little corner to turn. As I was approaching the corner, I noticed something sitting on the floor midway between the men's & women's restrooms. The closer I got, the more horrified I became. It was poo.

It was small and squishy-looking, coiled like a mini chocolate donut. There was no way it had been tracked inside from the ground because it wasn't smeared and it didn't have any footprints on it. It was a perfectly formed pile of poo. It wasn't fake, either. I didn't touch it, mind you, but you could tell. I looked to see if there was a trail of poo leading into one of the bathrooms but the rest of the floor was clear. I sidestepped it, walking into the women's room wondering where it came from.

I mentioned it to Prescilla when we went for our 5:30 walk. She had seen it, also, and was just as horrified as I was. We discussed where it could have came from. Our thoughts:

-Someone placed it there, perhaps as a joke or a message that they were unhappy with the business.

-It fell out of someone's pants in a rush to the toilet. (Prescilla's response to this idea was: "That means someone we work with has Poopy Pants!!")

-A small animal such as a dog or cat somehow gained entrance without being seen and pooped on the floor.

When we returned from our walk, Prescilla told AJ & Gabe about it and the boys went to investigate. Gabe even snapped a picture of it with his phone. I wish I had had my camera so I could have shared the horror. No one admitted to the poop and no one seemed to know where it came from. When I left that morning, someone had stepped in it and smeared it across the floor. It was gone by the time we came back that night.

I'm thinking if it was left as a joke someone would have owned up to it by now: "Did you see the poo I left on the floor?? Wasn't that hi-larious??" No one has mentioned it again, though...it's a mystery that will never be solved.

Labels: stories

|

I got that line from Shanon, by the way. I think it's funny. Anyway, for today's reading pleasure, here is something that really irks my cookies.

Moths.

I saw my first moth of the season last night and it disturbed me. I've been quite happy without the moths, thank you very much, and I'm not pleased that it's that time of the year again. The time of year for me to start ducking when I walk outside or come close to crashing my car because a rogue moth has somehow gotten inside and is flapping madly about at the windows.

But the point of my story is this: I'm supposed to be safe at work from bugs, spiders, bees & moths. But it's becoming all too clear that this was a lie. A couple years ago I found a large black spider in my smock pocket causing undo chaos and last night - well....

I was sitting in corner, reading my book when something overhead caught my attention. The ceiling tile above where I sit is missing, has been since I can remember. The moth flew down from the hole left by the missing tile and started fluttering about around my head! Of course I jumped to my feet and ran to the other side of the room. The gross thing flitted and bumped around before finding another ceiling hole and disappearing, hopefully FOREVER!

I really, really hate moths. They're disgusting and made of the dust from their departed brethren, I swear. What I want to know is, is there a place in the world where I can go to be safe from moths? Or am I doomed to an eternity of Moth Hell?

Labels: bugs, stories

|

I don't have much going on so here's some random pics to keep you busy.


Otto The Great - check out his paw...he's giving the peace sign! Either that or throwing hamster gang signs!!


Jordyn being weird...look at that tongue!


How cute is he??? I love him!


And speaking of cute - here's an old picture of Collin. He doesn't have all those curls anymore, he keeps his hair short nowadays.

That's about all for now. Thanks for dropping by! Aaaannnddd - - there's a new post at my Anton & Olga site. Don't forget to check it out!

Labels: Pictures

|

About 2 years ago, I posted a story about my friend's daughter. What she said stuck with me and inspired this drawing:


Here's the story: Shanon & I were shopping and Elena, Shanon's daughter (who was 2, almost 3 at the time), was acting a little draggy. The conversation went like this:

Shanon: Elena, why are you so droopy?

Elena: Because I'm fat, Mama. (sigh) I'm fat like a flower.

No idea where it came from, she never said it again but it was so cute that I always think about it whenever anyone says anything about the word "fat."

The picture is a little lopsided, due to the fact that I was talking on the phone to Collin while I drew it. It's also only in pencil because I was at work and that was all I had at my disposal. I think it would look pretty if I colored it in pastel chalk. I'm thinking maybe I could actually turn it into a wall hanging if I could find the right supplies. Hobby Lobby, here I come! :-)

Labels: Pictures

|

I've always had an addictive personality. If I like something, I tend to go overboard on it. I like to read so I have hundreds of books and I'm always buying new ones. I like music so I have over a thousand cd's. It seemed that when I was little, there was always a new TV show or movie that would capture my interest and whenever I looked through any magazine or watched a show on television, I would always be keeping my eyes peeled for anything to do with my latest obsession.

Well, it's happened again. This time with the show Lost.

I didn't watch it at all last season. I knew that Dominic Monaghan was in it and that was all. I didn't understand why everyone was so addicted to this show. Even my friend Shanon & her husband and father were hooked bad! When Season 1 came out on DVD, Shanon got it and she let Collin & I borrow it (after she got her in-laws hooked). We started it Thursday night and were immediately captivated. The opening scene where the plane has just crashed was so well done I was actually crying out of sheer fear that that could ever possibly happen to me. We watched 4 episodes that first night, mainly because we simply had to find out what was going to happen next.

We continued with more on Friday night and were going to stop at 1am but whatever episode we were watching ended with a serious cliffhanger. Crap! We went to bed at 2.

On Saturday, we took the kids to see Mission: Wolf (which is a whole other post in itself, complete with pictures!!) then went for lunch. We were planning on going shopping after we ate at Trivelli's but come to find out the place closes at 3 (on a Saturday???) and we walked in at 5 till. So we took the sandwiches back to Collin's with the plan of eating while we watched 1 episode then we would continue with our shopping plan. You know what? We didn't go shopping. We finished Season 1. We watched from nearly 4pm to about 2am.

We just found out last night that Season 2 won't come to DVD until October 3rd. I'm trying to convince Collin to go in with me on buying the episodes for $2 a pop online so we can get caught up and won't be behind when Season 3 comes out but so far I've had no luck.

My favorite character? Hands down it's Hurley. I adore him. He's so funny - always has the best lines. ("The numbers are bad! The numbers are bad!!" "Hey, dude, there's a piece of Arzt on you." "Oh, dude, you didn't hear about the polar bear?") Then there's Sawyer - like Shanon said, always the bad guy for me. There's not really any character I dislike - my least favorite would have to be Shannon if I had to pick.

So there you go. A new Lost addict has joined the ranks but I'm still in the back, trying to catch up

Labels: entertainment

|

Never one to be original, I've decided to follow the trail blazed by Collin & Derek and start doing stuff for Illustration Friday. The problem is that I'm not an artist like they are. What I have been doing recently, though, is making cards. So I've decided that I will make a card for the IF topic each week, giving me some much needed practice.

This week's topic is Under the Sea, which of course makes me think of Ariel. Being a Little Mermaid fanatic, I have plenty of Ariel stuff to make a card with. This is what I came up with:



I just bought the star-shaped brads and was thrilled to see that they really added something to the overall look of the card. The purple squares between the silver & blue are actually cut from Post-It notes - - the shade matched better than any other purple paper I had.

Also, since I really didn't draw anything on that card, here's an actual drawing I did of Ariel.



It was done on my leg one night while I was bored and had a surplus of gel pens lying around. On the right you can barely see the picture I was copying from.

So there we have my first ever IF attempt. Comments are welcome & appreciated.

Labels: Pictures

|

I almost got hit - in the head - by a BIRD!! A Magpie, actually. He was flying all loopy & crazy and was heading straight for my head (we were walking in front of the lake) and when I screamed, he dipped, ducked & dodged. Prescilla didn't even see it!! She thought I was crazy!

THEEENNNNN - - I'm pretty dang sure I saw a ghost! Seriously! I was handtesting on the serial floor and for the video portion of the test there's a black border that I can see my reflection in. I was checking out my hair which I had just braided and was looking to make sure that no strands were sticking out and I swear (!!!!) I saw a man walk behind me, way back against the wall. The creepy thing is that there's tables and handlers up against the wall so no one can really walk there. I whipped around & of course there was no one there!

It doesn't help that I'm also reading a spooky book.

Labels: ghosts, stories

|