sula's space

Envy

2012-01-16T20:01:00.003-05:00

In my quest to squeeze all the good reads I can from my local library, I have been pleased to see that at least someone on their purchasing staff is aware of J.R. Ward (sadly, they are also under the impression that what we need is more Danielle Steele in the collection as well, but I digress). In any event, during my pre-holiday stock up, I grabbed this recent entry in the Fallen Angel series, also known as the not-BDB-series-yet-featuring-BDB-cameos-and-slang series. I don't know any other writer that uses phrases like a "cup of wakey wakey" or has bad-ass tough guys drop phrases like "abso" in place of absolutely. Seriously. Who says that stuff? But bizarrely enough, I still find her books eminently readable. I can't stop turning the pages. So she's doing something right.

This entry finds our angel/hero Jim Heron back in Caldwell (hrm, who else do we know who lives there?) to fight another round in the war of souls against the demon Devina. His angel buddies Eddie and Adrian are still backing him up and helping him to get up to speed on the rules and tricks of the supernatural trade. The story revolves around Thomas "Veck" DelVecchio, Jr., a cop who happens to be the son of a famous serial killer. When he finds himself on the scene of a murder but with no memory of what happened right before he got there, he's investigated by Sophia Reilly, an officer from Internal Affairs, and oh yeah, she happens to be a hottie and a hard-ass. Match. Made. In. Heaven. (how's my ward-speak?) Veck isn't sure whether or not he committed the murder. He's always felt like he has a shadow waiting inside him...is he his father's son?

It's pretty much impossible to summarize the plot without either writing a helluva lot or giving away lots of spoilers, but suffice it to say that Veck and Reilly's story intersects with Jim, Devina and the rest of the gang with mayhem, blood and spirit possessions going down like you might expect. And there were a few twists that I didn't expect either.

As far as the romance angle goes, it seems like so far in this series the couples fall pretty hard for one another in a matter of a few days. It's not quite the BDB "fated mates" type thing, but definitely a strong and swift attraction. What I liked about this particular book was that Reilly was that rare female character who actually did come across as sensible and smart. She's also realistic. She is attracted to Veck and can acknowledge that without getting overly emo or denial-y. I like it when a modern woman in a novel set in the contemporary era is allowed to own her sexuality. So kudos to Ward for improving on the "females" from that other series.

All in all, I had mixed feelings when I finished the book. It a fast read because the action just keeps on moving forward, and the characters were well drawn, I felt. The camaraderie between the angels is a little reminiscent of the brothers but not quite as vibrant. But on the plus side the homoerotic subtones are there and they don't feel subtle or apologetic as in that other series. I guess in the end, it is hard to read this series without making comparisons to the BDB whether you want to or not. And in that regard it doesn't stand on its own, imo. Still...eminently readable. I'll be there for the next outing.

AdamsexyBlackback

2012-01-06T08:13:00.003-05:00

Working on my Moning backlist glom to supplement my recent read of the Fever series. First up, The Immortal Highlander. I blasted through 50 pages yesterday morning before work and finished the rest in the evening. Romping good times with fae and humans and lots of sexy bad-boy but not overly brooding hero. I like Adam Black. He's morally kind of ambiguous, has done a lot of mischievous and even bad stuff in his past, but he doesn't seem to have done them out of malice. More like curiousity, self-centeredness and arrogance. This book finds him dumped in the 21st century without his fae powers, turned into a human by the queen of the Fae for pushing her buttons one too many times. Oh and he's invisible to humans, so he can't interact with anyone. Anyone except a sidhe-seer, those humans who have the "gift" of seeing the Fae. What are the odds that our heroine is a sidhe-seer? Anyone, anyone?

Gabrielle was raised to fear and hate the Fae, so when she runs into Adam, she distrusts and does not want anything to do with him. Well, except for that she secretly does because HELLO, gigantic, muscled, HAWT beautiful man!!!! But no no no, he's Fae, do not want! (inner conflict, we haz it). Adam starts off wanting her because she's the only person who can see him and talk to him and he needs a conduit to help him track down a way to get in touch with the Fae queen and remove the curse. And then he's attracted to her. And then he falls for her...MINE! They spend the majority of the book doing this dance of back and forth as he tries to get her to see him for who he really is (ie. through his actions towards her not from hearsay from the big Bible of sidhe-seer lore in which he is labeled as teh ebil) and she tries to keep from liking him. AS IF!

Near the end there is some gratuitous previous series couples revisiting (oh hai Daegus and Drustan and wives and kiddies), but it allows us to get to Scotland. Och aye. And then some action involving actually evil Fae. And then the wrap-up where Adam has to choose between his immortality and true love. It's all quite nicely done, with a dollop of simmering sexual tension throughout the book culminating in a three or four day marathon of nom nom nom in a Scottish castle. Who wouldn't want that? S'rsly.

If I had to grade this book as a stand-alone, I would give it a solid B+. While it's interesting to go into it knowing more about the Fae, the queen, the druids and all that stuff, I think it would work just as well on it's own by the force of Adam's personality and the romantic chase between him and Gabrielle.

Bottom line: if you see a hot Fae prince, don't automatically run away in fear. He may be worth sticking around for.

What the mailman brought

2012-01-05T09:34:00.003-05:00

Oh yesssss, my pretties! I have been looking forward to this book ever since I read the first in the series. Love me some Elizabeth Hoyt. And I've been intrigued by Mickey O'Connor since his dastardly appearances in the previous books. What is it about those amoral pirates? Again with the bad boy intrigue. hmm. I am really curious to see how the author redeems him because one gets the feeling that he's not had a pretty past nor a very upright moral code. Hoyt's writing has almost always "worked" for me, ever since the Raven Prince, so I trust her to weave the story and make me a believer.

Even though I want to dive in and devour this in one day, I am going to torture myself by saving it for later. Library books have to be read and returned. Right now I'm 50 pages into The Immortal Highlander, aka Adam Black's book. I seem to recall he was something of a naughty antagonist in some of the earlier books, but again, who doesn't love an anti-hero, right? Another bad boy! I'm sensing a trend.

And right on time...my spotify music queue (newest addiction!) starts playing Sexyback. lmao.

Once a year (or so) I post

2012-01-04T15:07:00.006-05:00

Apparently!

So being as this is a new year, I guess was bound to start thinking about things I had neglected and nothing could be more neglected than this poor blog. I log in to find that, lo and behold, the last time I posted anything was on this same date. Just, um...two damn years ago. lol.

Rather than get all guilty and make resolutions that I can't and won't stick to, I guess I'm just going to use this space as an occasional free-flowing online journal rather than a review site. I still read a lot but I don't have a big book buying budget and tend to get stuff from the library, paperbackswap, and snag any free kindle deals that look worth the effort. So I can't really comment on the latest hot trends, but whatevs. Books are books and I like reading them. Since I have to write a fair bit now in my "real" life (moar grad school!), I can't promise actual reviews or any coherence. It makes it too much like work and ergo procrastination ensues.

Anyways, on the book front....I spent the last week going through the entire Fever series by Karen Marie Moning. Yay library! And yay on waiting to read a series in which each book ended in a cliffhanger. Going through the story in one go was definitely entertaining. I don't think it would been nearly as much fun dragged out. That said, it was a pretty good story, albeit a little repetitive. I can see why there are those who are pro/anti Barrons. Mark me in as a pro-Barrons. What can I say? I like them growly, taciturn, and assholish sometimes. Probably it's the fantasy that the hard-shell guy can and will be saved by the love of a good woman, and all that. I read the first four books within two days and then listened to the last one (Shadowfever) on audiobook. All 20-odd hours of it. Sometimes I dig (narrator) Phil Gigante and sometimes he's a little over-the-top for my tastes, but I have to say that his Barrons definitely worked for me. Yum!

Another holiday library find was Nalini Singh's Kiss of Snow. Which was totally yummy even if the will-they-or-won't-they sexual tension between Hawke and Sienna was dragged out just a wee bit tooooo long. This is a series that I had written off after the first book but have since come around on. Having spent the entire series waiting for Hawke's story, it was delicious when it finally arrived. No regrets here. In fact, I may have to reread it before returning it.

Speaking of the library, I just got an email that they have some of the Moning highlander books waiting for me to pick up. Cuz there is nothing like glomming a backlist once you get going on a series. Going to head over right now and snag them.

So that's what's up chez sula for the moment. Stay tuned or don't. I'm hoping to not wait another two years to post again. :)

back in the habit

2010-01-04T08:06:00.003-05:00

Good morning and happy new week in the new year! I have to go back to work today after having a good 10 days off. le sigh. But it will be good to get back into the swing of things, I suppose.

In the meantime, please take a little trip out to DIK island where Carrie Lofty is visiting for the next three days. Today, she's talking about the exotic pleasures of Spain. I must admit, it is refreshing to see an author use a location and time period that we don't often see and I am looking forward to her new release. A monk in medieval Spain as a hero...yes, I'm all over that. :)

It was a very good year

2009-12-31T08:41:00.008-05:00

2009 was a busy, eventful and life-changing year over here at chez sula. For starters, the location of "chez" (which literally means at the home of). It was one year ago today that DH and I finished moving all our stuff from the house I was sharing with messy college students into a cozy, historic apartment smack in the old town. We rang in the new year by spending our first night here. And how lovely it has been. Not just to have one's own place, but the location, the architecture, the windows and sunlight, everything. A great way to start 2009.

In April, I led a group of students, faculty and staff from our university on a one-week trip to Mali. Not only was it a great experience to be able to share the country I love with others, but I also got to re-connect with friends back there and visit DH's family. AND get back to speed on my language skillz (which apparently may go dormant but are not lost...happily).

The first half of the year also saw both DH and I busily working on our respective degree programs. It's important to note that in DH's country, there is only one university. When he attended classes there back in the early part of the 2000s, a series of strikes resulted in the entire academic year being canceled. So he ended up working and doing other things and wasn't able to go back and finish his degree. When we got the chance to come to the States and study, it was an unforeseen opportunity. He slogged through three years of classes in not his second, but his THIRD language, was often the oldest student in his courses, and worked a part-time on-campus job to boot. So when he walked across the stage at commencement in May and received his bachelor's degree (the first person in his family to do so) I was bursting-at-the-seams-proud. :)

Right after graduation, there was another trip out of the country for me...I was in Taiwan for about 10 days for my work. It was special in that I got to spend time with a colleague and friend who is from there and being with her gave me lots of insider scoops that I wouldn't have had otherwise. (Did I mention the all-u-can-eat sushi bar for under $10????) heh. But I missed my fiance and it was nice to come home again.

After two long years of part-time evening classes with no breaks for summer, I too got a chance to walk across the stage in August and receive my MBA. (Come to think of it, I guess I'm the first person in my family to get a graduate degree.) It was nice to finish the program, and I barely had time to catch my breath before my 30th birthday. Yet another mile-stone of sorts. heh.

Then it was full speed ahead to the biggest milestone of our lives...our wedding! Thankfully, I had a couple of very talented and giving friends who basically planned, coordinated, decorated and shepherded me through the whole process. The ceremony was held in the backyard of our good friends. The mountains and fields served as a cathedral unmatched in beauty. With a classic English garden at on end, guests were seated in four sections creating a circle which surrounded the ceremony site. Our families began the processional and walked in pairs to their seats in front of the garden. To the strains of a single violin, the wedding party processed through the garden paths and met one another in the center of the ceremony circle. During a moving interfaith ceremony led by our two ministers (husband and wife), we took our vows and exchanged rings. A djembe drum ensemble led the celebration as we left the circle as husband and wife.

Our reception was held under the trees in an open buffet style. Among the dishes served were roast lamb, plantains and a special African rice dish. After toasts by the best man and matron of honor, we enjoyed musical selections by a small gamelan orchestra, an instrument native to Indonesia (my childhood home). We cut the cake and then had our first dance to a song by a musician from DH's home country. Guests joined in the dance and much fun and laughter was had. Before the sun set, we changed into our best traditional African clothing and finished the evening by spending time talking with our friends and family.

As if that weren't enough for an eventful 2009, DH found a great job (in this economy no less) and started work shortly after our wedding. I began taking Spanish classes and applied to another graduate program for spring (hey, gotta keep busy). Then last week, we traveled down to Louisiana to spend Christmas with my parents and meet my mom's side of the family. I hadn't seen my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. since 2000...so it was quite fun to catch up with everyone and to introduce DH.

whew! Now that I look back on all that, I can sort of see why my blog has fallen by the wayside. Hopefully next year I can get back to reading more books and writing more entries. So that was 2009. This is a year I don't think I'll ever forget. Now onward to 2010!

Happy New Year to everyone who takes the time to stop by this little corner of the interwebs. :)

all snowed up

2009-12-20T13:50:00.004-05:00

Didja hear about that blizzard that blanketed the east coast/mid atlantic this weekend? Well, we managed to get smack in the middle of it. Snow began to fall around 9pm Friday night. By Saturday morning, we were under almost a foot and it continued to come down steadily until nightfall. All told, I think we ended up buried under almost two feet of the stuff. Very pretty. But a total mess to clean up. ack!

In other news, I made a batch of lisabea's famous buckeyes to be part of a party spread, and they were a big hit. nom nom nom. And now I'm going to go eat one of the leftover ones because it feels lonely. heh.

And then I'm off to knit whilst curled up in the armchair. It's that kind of day. I hope you are all safe and warm!

hobbies

2009-12-01T08:23:00.004-05:00

I've always liked to cook. Ever since my first lesson at age 6 when my dad taught me how to make scrambled eggs, I've been invigorated by the mystery of cuisine. When we lived in the jungle village of my childhood, there were no stores. No roads or cars (or even bikes). Everything we ate either came from the earth or was flown in on a supply run once every few months. So my coming of age included making everything from scratch. Including bread. Yummy delicious, warm fresh bread. mmmm. I fell out of the habit when I lived in my shared housing situation of the past few years, but now that DH and I have our own place, I find that I'm curious about picking back up and perfecting my craft. Besides, it gives me something productive to do now that my MBA classes are over.

Here is a French country loaf I made on Sunday to bring to a luncheon. It turned out pretty, but I need to work on the dough because it was fine-grained and more suited to sandwiches. Needs more of those big air holes and crusty goodness. Still...

The other day I decided to be more creative with my left-over pumpkin puree from T-day, so I found this recipe for a Ginger Pumpkin Braid and gave it a whirl. Let me just say, it was a huge hit when I brought a loaf to work yesterday. And I think I have an idea of what to make as Christmas gifts for people this year. heh.

So that's what I've been doing with my spare time. That and reading an AWESOME book which I hope to post about later this week. Cheers and greetings to all and happy hump day!

festivities

2009-11-30T07:55:00.005-05:00

So long, farewell, dear holiday week of relaxation and fun. It was nice to know you. heh.

We had a great time here at chez sula. DH's cousin flew in on Tuesday afternoon to spend T-day with us. He is the only member of DH's family who was able to come to our wedding, and it was great to see him again. Since he lives in the States and not in Africa, he's able to come over here from time to time. We celebrated DH's birthday that evening with homemade pizza and homemade cheesecake (thank you KitchenAid stand mixer!). I decided it was high time we had a GPS unit, so that's what I gave DH as a present. Big success. oh yes, good decision on my part. He loves it. (and so do I, heh).

We spent T-day dinner down the street at a friend's house. I brought some of the food items, she supplied the turkey and other dishes. Some other students from DH's home country also came as well as the mother of one of them (she's visiting this week). So we had a roomful of Africans and a couple Americans and much food and fun was had by all.

After stuffing ourselves silly, we grooved to Michael Jackson tunes and attempted the gingersnap pumpkin pecan pie that I had made (note to self, tinker with pumpkin filling a bit next time around...did not set up well.)

While this all seems like a good time, it got even better the next day. No, we didn't brave the Black Friday hordes. We celebrated Tabaski (otherwise known as Eid Al Adha), the biggest Muslim holiday of the year in DH's country...essentially equivalent in importance as Christmas is here. Back in Africa, one would have purchased a sheep a few weeks ago and kept it in the courtyard to feed and fatten. On the big day, it will be sacrificed and loads of roast meat will be given to the poor and of course, eaten by everyone in the family. Then people visit their friends and family and wish them well, giving them lots of blessings and benedictions for the year to come. Basically, the point is to eat a lot of roast meat and hang out with friends. Which is exactly what we did. Not that we got to kill our own sheep, but we did buy a load of lamb chops and ten pounds of beef from Costco. After marinating and grilling, we gathered and partied African style for several hours. Everyone was speaking Bambara (DH's native language) with some French and a bit of English here and there to help out our Sierra Leonnian friend who is Anglophone...it was like being back in Africa. Good times! :)

Saturday morning saw us up at 5am to bring DH's cousin back to the airport. Our new GPS system proved it's worth as we used it to find another location in the Northern VA/DC metro area after dropping him off. I could get used to this little thing! It was nice to have a weekend to recover from the holidays. I actually don't feel too bad about going back to work this morning. Rather, I feel pretty refreshed and ready to hit it full steam to push through till Christmas.

Hope everyone had an equally festive week and best wishes to you all. In Malian style, here are some Tabaski blessings to send you out...

Aw sambe sambe!
Fa tigiala!
Ba tigiala!
Denw tigiala!
Ala ka san were yiran na!

fabulous friday fail

2009-10-30T08:26:00.002-04:00

fashun! we can haz it!

(sorry for the post and run, but this picture cracked me up and I just had to share). Remember the 80s!!!!! :)

what i'm reading

2009-10-28T20:59:00.002-04:00

I received this book in the mail after sitting on the paperbackswap waitlist for several months. And then I had a houseguest all last week, so it basically sat on my bedside table waiting to be opened. But now I've started it, and I'm happy to say, it's been worth the wait. So far I am loving the writing style of Ms. Duran. I feel like I'm getting to know these two rather dysfunctional people but i'm being shown, not told. I don't like being hit over the head with two much exposition; give me dialogue and character's interacting and I'll figure it out. So this is really working for me. yay books!

ahoy!

2009-10-21T08:24:00.002-04:00

The other night I was feeling very nautical, what with a week full of grey and rainy days. So I rummaged around and pulled out our copy of Master and Commander. I'd forgotten how thoroughly enjoyable a good sea yarn can be, not to mention how curiously attractive Mr. Russell Crowe can be in the right role. It made me long for a good shipboard romance, so I pulled out a Marsha Canham novel. Why isn't she still writing? *sniff*

Anyways, here's to those rousing adventures of derringdo on the high seas. I like to imagine myself participating in a leading role...and then I remember that I get seasick in a bathtub and my likelihood of being Keira Knightly to Johnny Depp's Cap'n Jack is low indeed. ah well.

lazy

2009-10-19T20:37:00.003-04:00

I don't have any good excuses for my pitiful lack of blog material this past month. Settling in to married life, I suppose. More likely just plain lazy. After all the craziness of this past year, finishing the MBA, planning the wedding, etc. I think I'm just burnt out. I'm too scared to even look at my Google Reader list of unread posts. sob! I want to catch up but don't know where to start. Hopefully, all my virtual internet frendz will still want to play with me. I promise to get back into my mojo/groove...sometime...soon...

I have been reading though! I picked up three Jeanine Frost books from my library and devoured them all in a weekend. nom nom nom! I officially heart Bones (although s'rsly what kind of a name for a hero is that?) Apparently there is a fourth book out already. I wonder if my library has ordered it yet? hmm.

In other book news, I just received my copy of Meredith Duran's Bound by Your Touch. It may have taken me months of sitting in line on PBS, but to those who are patient, good things come. :) I am looking forward to curling up in our new rocker-recliner (one of those newlywed purchases) and savoring this book. Preferably with a glass of hot cocoa. Or wine. heh.

So what's new in bloglandia? Catch me up to speed and save me from my google reader! :)

rockin' the dress

2009-09-25T08:28:00.003-04:00

Did I mention how much I loved my dress? hehehe. I felt like a frickin' princess from a romance novel in that thing. Such fun. *g* I want to pull it back out of the closet and swan around the house in it. lol.

dance like no one is watching...

2009-09-21T21:03:00.000-04:00

heh heh.

wed

2009-09-18T21:52:00.001-04:00

:) More to come....

(it was a fantastic day)

tomorrow is it

2009-09-11T13:15:00.004-04:00

well, tomorrow is the big day. i think i'm ready, despite being super-tired from waking up in the middle of every night this week and not being able to fall back asleep. ugh.

I hope that the shaky weather situation will hold on and give us just one nice day without rain. pleeeeease!!! heh.

um, otherwise it is all just run here, run there. got my fake nails (they look fab), waxed my bushy brows for the first time evah (wow, they look neat), have hair and makeup appointments for tomorrow... Let's rock and roll. I think I am ready.

thanks to everyone who stops by this blog and has put up with my non-book meandering posts. lol. we should be back to normal pretty soon. see you all on the flipside!

loot.

2009-09-07T13:44:00.003-04:00

Oh yes, my pretties! I am the proud owner of a Kitchenaid Stand Mixer. mwahaha. And to inaugurate it, last night I made a cheesecake. It is sitting lovely-ly in my fridge waiting for our dinner guests to come and partake.

And here is another awesome gift. An area rug! Really makes our living room feel more homey. Sometimes we sit on it to watch TV. heh.

Five more days to the wedding. At this point it is all about last minute stuff and a lot of it has to do with me...my person, my beauty needs, etc. So funny. I am going to get acrylic nails, waxed eyebrows, a pedicure. Makeup. lol.

My parents arrive tomorrow night. Now we are just watching the weather forecast for Saturday. Fingers crossed. :)

shower!

2009-09-03T08:01:00.002-04:00

It's kind of fun being a bride. People throw parties for you and give you presents and all kinds of things. heh. So yesterday evening was my shower. My cousin and maid-o-honor planned it and we had it at the gorgeous spacious home of our celebrants. (How cool is this, our celebrants are a husband and wife both of whom are ordained ministers and super ecuminical, they are both going to do the ceremony, tag team). Anyways, the wee party was just lovely. We had wine and cheeses, specialty breads, crackers, fruit, brie en croute, yum yum yum.

Out on the patio overlooking the valley, sun setting, good conversation, laughs with friends. It was an excellent evening. Oh and I got my Kitchenaid stand-up mixer, so my life is pretty much complete now. lol. Other gifts include many assorted kitchen tools (which I lurve cuz I like to cook) and gift cards to places like TJ Maxx and (heh) Victoria's Secret.

And now I gotta run because I scheduled my dental cleaning visit for this week (smart, yes?)

tick tock

2009-08-31T07:57:00.004-04:00

So my newly minted 30-year-old self is now ready to get all primped and prettified for this here upcoming wedding. I got my hair trimmed for the first time in over a year and colored with something other than clairol out of the box. Figured doing it two weeks before the big day would give me a chance to get used to any changes. I have an appointment to go in and do a trial run of my hair style later this week.

I'm hoping someone can give me some sage advice about tanning salons. I don't go to them, but it appears I am going to have to. My dress is a lovely sleeveless thing, but I never go sleeveless in real life, so I have a nifty triangle shaped tan from my neck to my chest and farmer tan from my upper arms down. ack! (my helpful fiance notes with glee that HE doesn't have such problems...pffft, yeah because his skin is all one lovely shade of luscious chocolate. yum. um, where was I....?) Anyways, I plan to drop in at a tanning place nearby and get started on evening my shade out.

My poor chewed up nails are going to have to be covered with those ghastly press-on thingies. Why oh why did I not shake that nail-biting habit???? Oh well, too late now. I would say just screw it but apparently my hands (with rings) may figure prominently in the photography. bah. Open toed shoes mean a pedicure is also in order. I wonder if the hair salon person can do that for me.

All these little details, but I guess they are sorta important. At least I have the next two weeks to get them done. Then again, between my slamming work schedule, my three-times-a-week Spanish class (you didn't think that just because I finished that MBA, I was gonna take a break from school now?), cooking all our meals from scratch, and finalizing all the little last-minute wedding stuff (make ipod playlist, choose vows and ceremony structure, call caterer to verify tablecloth numbers, etc.)....wahhhh!

Ok, whining is done. Does anyone have any songs they want to suggest for my reception playlist? I had to fire the band, so it looks like ipod to the rescue. :)

Btw, amidst all this silliness, I still carve out time for reading. Cuz you just can't live without your books, dammit! Check out the lovely one I found at the library this weekend.

iz 30 today

2009-08-27T07:44:00.002-04:00

wow, it seems like a long time since I had this photo taken. Here's to another decade on this planet, more adventures and more memories. :)

(and moar buks!)

t minus 30

2009-08-14T07:54:00.007-04:00

some random thoughts on this friday morning. We're down to less than 30 days before W-day. I feel like I should be either more stressed or more organized than I actually am. But so far, everything seems to be going alright. We have a location, tables and chairs, food, ministers (husband and wife team), rental tuxes ordered, my dress in the closet, shoes (woot!) and the flowers are going to be a last minute thing. Still gotta do something about the cake (I'm thinking Costco). And I have a friend who is totally artistic and has done about 10 weddings serving as my de facto wedding planner. So is it ok not to panic? yet.

One thing that I have turned my attention to is the hair situation. I have rather curly hair and it's natural. I'm not interested in straightening it and doing anything uber-elaborate. But I also don't want it to just look blah and normal. So I have a hairstylist that I've met with once to play around with it and we're going to have another consultation soon (reminds me, I need to call her). I have spent some time combing teh interwebs for photos of inspiration. Lemme tell you, finding good styles of naturally curly hair is not as easy as I thought.

So this is a bit like what my hair looks like on a normal day (except that I don't pile it on the top of my head like that.

I kind of like this (except for the fluffy veil) but the flowers are a little big. Also, it's more wavy and not curly.

Really like the front of this one but I don't plan on a full up-do. Probably I will see if the stylist can take the part I like and marry it with the following.

Everything from the flowers back looks good. Not so much the bangs.

Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions?

I'm not really a fussy girly-girl kind of person. My idea of fixing my hair is wash, scrunch with mousse to keep the curls defined, airdry and go. So I'm trying to get hip with the bobbypin. But it is still a foreign language to me.

oh yeah, and I graduate tomorrow at 10am! Then we are going camping for the night with some friends. DFs first camping trip. Wish us luck. lol.

ten dollars

2009-08-11T08:09:00.004-04:00

When I got home last night from work, I grabbed the mail that had arrived and found two envelopes. Both were cards from my grandparents (father's side). One to DF and I for our wedding and one to me for my birthday.

My grandparents are simple, salt of the earth folks. Grandma is the daughter of Italian immigrants, raised in a series of foster homes and married young to get away from it all. Grandpa signed up for the Army at 18 and caught the very tail-end of World War 2 before coming back to settle down with Grammy. He worked in a factory job for his adult life before being laid off right before his retirement would kick in. Grandma raised 5 kids including a youngest son that was born with birth defects that meant he spent most of his childhood in and out of hospitals having surgery. If it weren't for the Shriners, my uncle probably would not be able to walk.

My memories of my grandparents come mainly from letters and pictures and from my dad's stories. My family lived across the planet and didn't get to visit more than for a week or so every four or five years. I remember Grandma's homemade spaghetti and meatballs (took all day to cook and made the house smell divine) and grandpa's proclivity to take out his dentures and make funny faces at us. Grandma had a job at Sears to bring in extra income and in his later years (post lay-off) Grandpa worked as a janitor to make ends meet. Now they are both in an assisted living apartment, working days finished due to the onset of old age and illness. I keep telling myself that I will drive the 10 or 12 hours up to see them, but life always gets in the way.

Ever since I can remember, right around my birthday I have received a card with a ten-dollar bill carefully taped inside. Each and every year. In Indonesia, in Mali. Even now as an adult, long after the time when I would anticipate getting anything birthday related, the cards arrive like clockwork. I know that ten dollars for each of their ten grandchildren is a sacrifice and I almost wish I could send it back and say, no please...you need this money more than I. But I am their granddaughter and this is their gift to me.

Today I have ten dollars to spend on myself. And I'm infinitely richer because of the love of my family.

shooooooes

2009-08-09T22:30:00.005-04:00

Shopping yesterday for wedding accoutrements...I was not able to find a bra-pushup-corset thingy, but I did run across some shoes that might work. I wanted some ballet flats but it is impossible to find any that are simple and white and have a teeny heel (very long dress in the back, could use a little heel action). Since the ceremony and reception are all outdoors, I can't have any serious pointy heels (or I will make holes all around the yard) but I think this might be ok. My dress is champagne colored so bright white is a no-no...these are kinda shimmery and the color is called "bone". Thoughts? For $20 I might just get them anyways. lol.

34 days!

my fav things

2009-08-02T17:38:00.007-04:00

Updates!

I took my last final exam in my last class to complete my MBA degree. woot! As readers of this blog will know...it's been a slog - 2 courses each semester, 3 semesters a year (no summers off) but it feels great to be done. :) I will walk in our summer graduation ceremony and am quite looking forward to balancing that mortarboard on my head.

DF and I were housesitting for our friends at whose house/backyard we will be having our wedding. It's out in the country, wide open fields and mountains in the distance as well as a gated English garden. The great news is that I was able to get some of my artistic helpful friends to come over and we planned out where the ceremony will take place, the reception, etc. I am feeling much better about the status of the whole event. Mainly because I have such awesome talented friends. Thank gawd they have cute ideas and can decorate cuz I surely cannot.

On the reading front, I plowed through a couple of books from the library. One was so awful it was a DNF, Kat Martin - Heart of Honor. But the other two were delightful and easy to zip through in an afternoon. Jacquie D'Alessandro's Love and the Single Heiress reminded me why I continue to pick up books with her name on them (even when I have been burned before). She's hit or miss with me, but when it's a hit, it's quite good. And of course Julia Quinn is always a safe bet for an enjoyable read. The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheaver was a lovely little book with a successful childhood crush turned adult romance storyline. Nice.

Now I'm hitting my own shelves for some re-read material before I get to the library. Currently, I'm working my way through the Elizabeth Hoyt Prince books. The Leopard Prince is on my table at the moment. I'd forgotten how funny it was. I just hope the heroine doesn't annoy me as much this time around (I recall her pulling some serious TSTL action near the end).

And now, I am to share seven favorite things. Super Librarian Wendy awarded me with the Kreativ Blogger award, and I think I'm supposed to come up with seven more people to bequeath. Thing is, I am so late on this, I bet all the bloggers I know have already done it. lol.

Anyways, here are some fav things.

1. U2. Love them, every album they have done, every b-side and outtake, every passionate save-the-world speech that Bono gives. Did I mention that I have flown to places and camped out in parking lots just to be up close at the concerts? um, yes. And I joined the Peace Corps and worked in Africa as a tangental result of having my conscience spurred by them. Who says music doesn't change things?

2. Reading a deliciously good book. Well, duh. Reading is the one constant in my life and I can barely remember a time in my life when I wasn't curled up in a book. Finding a real keeper, a book that keeps you glued to your seat turning the pages, staying up till 3am to finish...that's the stuff I keep coming back for.

3. Travel. I was lucky in that my parents choice of work had us trotting around the world from the time I was 3. My own wanderings as an adult have brought me to several more continents. And now for my job, I get to jet off to places on official business from time to time. As exhausting as it is, I do love it. Getting on planes and stepping off in totally different, new, exotic places is a thrill. You never really know what to expect. So far I have visited more than 30 countries and I intend to keep adding to my list.

4. Coffee. Gotta have it in the morning to start my day off right. I guzzle down my first cup like it's a tall glass of water. The second one is enjoyed more slowly.

5. Cooking. I enjoy spending time in the kitchen, experimenting with recipes, planning menus, etc. DF and I really don't eat out anymore. Not only do we save money, but we can eat healthily. Of course, I don't know if the hand-made pizza I baked last night counts as healthy....but it was good.

6. Lazy rainy (snowy) days. You know, the kind when you just curl up on the couch or in bed with a good book or a good movie (north and south! pride and prejudice!) Then there is a baking project (cookies!) and maybe some hot chocolate or a big simmering pot of soup. mmm.

7. My fiance's scent. Ok, I know that sounds kinda weird, but really. No matter what he wears cologne-wise or even if he's been outdoors or working out, when I hug him or cuddle up to his neck, he smells fantastic to me. Makes me feel all cozy.

Since I'm too lazy to hit all my favorite blogs and see if anyone hasn't yet done this list, I will just open it up to everyone. Share some fav things if you want. Or don't. Or whatever. :) The floor is yours.

SYTYCD rant

2009-07-23T21:55:00.003-04:00

I've been watching So You Think You Can Dance since season 2. Lots of great moments, performances and choreography. Unfortunately, the viewer voting tends to reward personality over actual dance talent. And sometimes those who get voted for have neither personality OR talent. And at the moment, I am SO effing pissed off at the idiot teeny-bopper voters. Seriously? Evan and Kayla should have been voted off ages ago. And now the actually TALENTED dancers like Jeannette and Jason get cut? Whatever. All I can say is if either one of those hacks wins the whole thing, I am so done with the show. gahhhh.

/end rant

moving on...

2009-07-15T21:46:00.004-04:00

once again, blog suffers from neglect. it's like a disease. sad really.

So the wedding plans are progressing. We spent tonight hand writing addresses and checking names off lists. I think we've got our food plans and table and chairs plans down. Still working on flowers and cake (looking more and more like Costco). Oh, and we bought wedding bands for both of us from a pawn shop. woot!

Work has been crazy busy this week, but sometimes that's a good thing. Keeps me focused I think when I have so many things to do with tight deadlines. We're nearing the end of our cycle and my numbers are up this year. Thinking about asking for a promotion. Even if no raise is possible due to the economy, I would settle for a better title. Gotta think about the resume. ;)

One reason I think I ought to ask for this is because in less than a month I will be receiving my Master of Business Administration degree. That oughta count for something, right? Yes, after two long years of evening and weekend classes and homework to come home to after work, I have three more class sessions to go. Graduation is mid-August. I'm feeling pretty happy. And ready to take more classes...maybe Spanish? heh.

I have a book to read. Yay library! So far this is intriguing. I wish I had read the previous books more recently because I get the feeling there is some tie-in with the characters, but oh well.

RWA is happening over in DC, which is not too far from me. I'd like to drive over to hang with the cool kids on Saturday but we'll have to see. So much to do, so little time.

final note: DF had his first viewing of that totally classic film, "The Sound of Music" and he loved it. Now we are singing the Do-Re-Mi song and others. So funny. He'd never seen it before.

rest in peace, MJ

2009-06-25T22:09:00.003-04:00

I hope he finds peace at last. A troubled, brilliant artist whom we'll never completely understand and certainly never forget.

insert clever title here

2009-06-22T19:13:00.002-04:00

Well, another weekend has come and gone. How they manage to do that so quickly...I'll never know. lol.

Good news! I was able to get my two bridesmaids together at one place at one time and we shopped for dresses. After trying on a bunch, we quickly decided on a style that flattered them both and in the color palette I'm going for (burgundy and chocolate and no it's not the color of the photo), ordered dresses, paid for dresses, dresses will be delivered to their doorsteps within about a month. hooray. Check another thing off the wedding to-do list. Unfortunately, that list just seems to get longer as more things that I ought to be doing crop up. le sigh.

DF and I finally got back to Target to use the little zapper thingy and choose stuff for a registry. It was kind of weird to be going around picking stuff we would like people to buy for us, but after a while it become kind of fun. We tried to keep it reasonable and practical and not extravagant. And s'rsly, it's TARGET, not frackin' Crate and Barrel or anything. lol.

I'm trying to read this book at the moment. Picked it up at the library because I had enjoyed some of the previous entries in this series. But now I'm wondering if my memory played a trick on me. There's lots of mental lusting and "oh I should not be attracted to this lower class dude" (on the heroine's part) and "oh I am so beneath this upper-class chick" (on the bow street runner hero's part) that I am fast becoming weary. But every night I pick it up and read a few chapters before bed. I have a hard time giving up on books.

I did enjoy Lover Ahvenged although it contained far too little of the central romance plot for my taste. Not that I wasn't expecting it though. I am totally skeeved out by the villain. Just ick. Really. I skipped his bits (har) whenever possible. John Matthew is making me a little annoyed but I'll cut him some slack for the moment. It's like his emo teen years. He best not keep carrying on with the poor-me stuff for much longer tho. As for the rest of the gang, I only wish that we got to see a bit more of the internal stuff between couples featured previously. Like the focus on Wrath and Beth and their relationship...that was nice. Can we have more of that but with RHAGE next time? k'thx.

And with that, I think it is time for me to find DF and start our evening stroll around the neighborhood. Weather is nice (finally no rain) and time's a wasting. Then it's homework time!

whew...life!

2009-06-16T20:14:00.005-04:00

o hai! I feel kinda embarrassed about the state of my blog. Or more correctly, about the non-state of it. Sure, I was in Taiwan for almost two weeks and then in LA and then home and going to weddings, catching up on homework and office work, and planning my own wedding (that is coming up in 3 months, omg!) and and and....

Anyways, long story short, I've been a wee bit busy. And the longer I put off updating my blog, the more guilty I feel and the more guilty I feel the more I put off updating. What a viscous cycle. lol.

So here's the updates:

The Taiwan trip went well. Not only in terms of getting some good contacts and making professional visits that should be beneficial in the long term for my work but also because I was with a friend and colleague and hosted at her family's home with warmth and hospitality. Highlights included hitting the night markets and shopping, going to the most AMAZING sushi restaurant where it was all you can eat for only $12 USD (unbelievable!), a backstage visit with a traditional Chinese opera and watching a rehearsal, and seeing the tallest building in the world, Taipei 101.

My 12 hour flight back to LA went as quickly as can be expected. Once I finally got through customs (that airport is SUCH a hole) I checked into my uber-trendy funky hotel and had a busy three days trying to overcome jetlag, attend a huge professional conference, network with colleagues, and hang out with old Peace Corps friends. Oh and I got to see the dumpy little place they call Hollywood.

The flight home arrived somewhere around midnight. It was great to see DF after our long time apart. And the next morning it was up and off to my cousin's wedding. It went well if a little more casual than I see my wedding being. Still, it fit her and her husband and everyone had a nice time. Since then it has been hardcore homework, work and wedding planning. I've put off things long enough, so now DF and I are hitting it hard. We went shopping for crafty stuff and made our own invitations. Now we're working on tracking down a sheep or goat to roast for the reception (it's an african thing, don't ask), pricing chairs and tables, checking out pawn shops for wedding bands...lots of stuff. I'm starting to realize what a big undertaking a wedding is, even a do-it-yourself cheap-ass one. But we'll make it work. :)

And finally, in READING related news, I just got the new JR Ward book from my library (after waiting for about a month). I'm scarfing it down and am just getting to the part where everything seems to be going down. Initial impressions are that it's better than the last one, i still hate lessers (and skip their parts), love Rhage (and miss Mary), enjoy seeing more of Wrath and Beth, wish the central romance was more central, and enjoy being back in the BDB world. Oh and I'm digging Xhex and JM as a couple, but I never had any hangups with her in the first place. And now, I think I may go finish the book.

To anyone who made it all the way through this self-indulgent post (and who bothered to check my sad little blog), I thank you and salute you. :)

你好!

2009-05-16T22:06:00.003-04:00

Yes, I am writing this entry from Taipei, Taiwan. Pretty exhausted from a 30+ hour journey and missing a day somehow (damn you, international date line!) but happy to be here.

I left my little hamlet in Virginia on Friday afternoon, driving a spiffy rental car to the airport. As luck would have it, I've never driven a Prius and it took me over 15 minutes to figure out how to turn it on. Major panic...omg, I am going to miss my flight because I can't even get out of town! Thankfully, I called the dealer and they explained that one has to hold the power button down for a few more seconds than I was doing....ohhhh. Now I feel dumb. Anyways, made it to the airport, checked in and made it through security and to my gate on time. Five and a half hours later, we touched down in LA. I joined the disorganized mass of people waiting for the EVA Airlines check-in counter to open. Quite a mix of people, many Vietnamese, Thai and Cambodians taking the flight to Taipei to connect to another to points beyond. After a successful check-in, another three hours were spent sitting and killing time at the gate. By 1:30 am (LA time...my body was saying 4:30am) we were ready to take off. Thankfully, EVA Air has more legroom and individual entertainment consoles even in economy class, so the 13 and a half hours spent in the plane weren't too unbearable. That said, spending 13 hours in one place is never a barrel of laughs. We arrived here at 6 am Sunday and after clearing customs (interminably long lines) and grabbing my bags, I found a bus to take me into the city and then a taxi driver to take me to my hotel. When I walked into the tiny lobby, the clerk assured me that I had a reservation...but that the hotel was full and I wouldn't be able to check in until 2pm. UGH! So here I am operating on very little sleep, in an opposite day/night time zone shift, don't know the area and not really great at speaking Chinese (although I am starting to remember some from my one year of language study). The joy of international solo travel.

Lucky for me, my Taiwanese friend whom I'm meeting later on this evening called the hotel to check and make sure I made it, and when she heard that I couldn't check in, she called her brother who lives in the area and I'm hanging out at his place in the meantime. We just ate egg sandwiches at a street vendor's stall and are now watching CSI subtitled in Mandarin.

Hope everyone is well and reading lots of great books. :)

moar buks!

2009-05-07T21:58:00.002-04:00

I'm on a roll! On my way home I remembered that I had a 30% coupon at Borders and haven't bought a single thing since...oh prolly last year. No really. I moved into my new apartment on new years eve and I can't recall any new books since the move.

So what the heck, I decided to swing by and see what struck my fancy. I should have planned ahead and brought a list because I always blank out when I reach the store. However, after some browsing I settled on a Jo Goodman that I have not yet read. I have really enjoyed her work...very textured and character driven. So hopefully this one's good. At 439 pages, at least I know I am getting plenty of book for my buck. heh.

As usual, I just haaaad to meander through the bargain rack to see if any cheap finds were to be had. And for $4.99 I was able to purchase the Good Sex Bible!!! omg. LOL. Finally, a bible that I can look forward to reading. With pictures! Gosh, it was fun to go up to the checkout with my mantitty romance novel and my porny sex manual. I'll, um, have to decide which book to start first. After I finish my fluffy bunny and rainbow Julia Quinn book that is. hmm. sex bible, fluffy pink novel...decisions, decisions....

omg, i am reading books!

2009-05-06T21:42:00.004-04:00

yes, this should not be a banner headline on a blog where i supposedly talk about books and romance books and reading. But given my long wilderness of busy work, mba homework, and all other such stuff...it has been eons since I actually have had the time or energy to sit down and read. a book!

a book, a book, my kingdom for a book.

So now that I have turned in all my papers and taken all my finals (for this semester anyways) and even though my summer classes have started (but don't have any homework yet), I took the time to walk to the library yesterday after work. Did I mention that I love living so close to the library? k, just had to repeat it.

My quick perusal of the paperback shelves gave me these:

Ok, so two of those I've already read (the Holly and the Kleypas) but it's been a while so why not a reread? And the others are new to me.

Last night I sat up and read the Carlyle book and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's been so long since I've curled up with a good romance novel and just savored...what a treat. I'm now on to the Quinn. Scuze me while I go read some more. I could get used to this...

Oh and one other bit of library news; I got on the waiting list for this little book. Thank goodness for libraries because I don't pay for hardcover.

I figure it may come available about the time I get back from my trip to Taiwan. woot!

why do today what you can put off...

2009-04-29T23:21:00.003-04:00

Whew. So, in typical fashion I have managed to procrastinate on a number of critical school projects until the last possible minute. Why oh why do I do this to myself? I had four projects to do, all needing to be finished this week. Finished one powerpoint the day before it was to be presented. I have no problems standing up in front of people and talking, so I WISH all my assignments were those, but noooo, I had papers to write. I've just finished a 10 page term paper as well as a 9 page essay take-home exam. I took off half a day from work just to get these put to bed. Tomorrow I have one more presentation but I finished those powerpoint slides last night. Oh well. It's done now. But I really have to figure out a better way to do this.

In the spirit of self-help, I have downloaded an audiobook from my library called "The NOW habit: stopping procrastination". Lol. Maybe I'll learn something.

Tomorrow I have friends visiting from out of town. They are here for the weekend and much frivolity will be had. Not to mention that I haven't seen my friend A in over 2 years and I haven't told her about my 70 pound weight loss. mwahaha. In fact, it was the photos from her b-day party that gave me the kick in the arse to join WW. So I'm kind of looking forward to shocking her. heh.

K, time for bed. I hope I will now have at least a teeny tiny bit more time for recreational reading. I'm getting very weary of boring school stuff. /whine

A Gaythering Storm

2009-04-21T20:11:00.004-04:00

Happy Monday to one and to all. In honor of MLM, I have a couple of videos (one depressing, one hilarious) to share with you.

First, this truly awful "anti-ghey" ad by the ironically named National Organization for Marriage. ooooh, teh ghey...iz scary! I am afraid!

There are a plethora of awesome parodies of this on youtube, but one of my favs is the following. Cuz it makes me laugh. And it has Jason Lewis!

A Gaythering Storm from Jane Lynch

And on that note, today sees the beginning of gay marriage in Iowa. Congratulations to all the happy couples!

happy monday

2009-04-20T18:58:00.005-04:00

How was your weekend?

Mine went by too quickly. I woke up bright and early at 6am on Saturday morning to go to the first session of one of my summer courses. It's being held every other Saturday for four hours at a pop. And is in a satellite campus that takes 40 minutes to drive to. oh joy. Just what you want to do with your Saturday morning. (Did I mention that I'm not done with my spring classes yet?) Anyways, that was Saturday morning. That afternoon, I had a team meeting with classmates from another course. Twas a good time...we ate jerk chicken at a local Jamaican joint. sooo tasty. Then my lack of sleep caught up with me and I actually started feeling ill - vertigo and stuff. Came home and crashed into bed at 6pm and slept all night. Saturday came and went without much fun being had. :(

Sunday, DF and I drove up to DC with another friend to see our first major league baseball game. The Washington Nationals vs. the Florida Marlins. Our friend had been given a set of tickets from someone else...they were in a great spot and quite close. DF had never seen baseball, so there was a lot of explaining about rules and such. He enjoyed himself but was annoyed at the vendors walking up and down the aisles and blocking his view as well as all the spectators coming and going (to the snack shop!) The great American pasttime...is it baseball or eating? I'm not sure. lol.

Take us out to the ballgame

And now for some truly exciting and actual READING-related news...

My BFF lisabea aka lb gregg aka super kewl author is gonna have a new book released very soon. You can read an excerpt here (careful, it's smokin') and then go buy it very shortly from here. As a sometime beta reader and general friend, I will cop to having had a sneak peak and lemme tell you, it's good stuff. More of the men in springfield and I'm going to want to move there myself, I tell you.

you've already seen this but...

2009-04-16T23:53:00.004-04:00

I can't help myself. I just keep watching this video of Susan Boyle on Britain's Got Talent (like American Idol), and it gets me all teared up. NOT because I buy into the stupid idea that good looks make for good voices, but because she's just so plucky and comfortable with herself and just hits it out of the park! Fascinating to see the audience members so clearly dismissive of her based on her frumpy looks and then, BAM, get their prejudices knocked in the teeth.

Oh and I love Les Mis. *le sigh*

Time for bed.

wednesday

2009-04-15T08:00:00.004-04:00

I'm going to a Seder tonight! Nope, I'm not Jewish, but I do have an interest in other faiths particularly since the Exodus story is so common to my own faith (and even plays a part in DF's). Our uni is hosting the event and a local rabbi is presiding. I thought it would be interesting, so I'm off to eat matzo. And hopefully some of that yummy charoset.

In other news, I have a summer session class that (wait for it) starts this Saturday! ugh. I'm not done with spring classes yet!!! So I've gotta try to hustle through all my final projects and homework as well as buy a new book and get started on yet more homework. blech. Do masters students get senioritis? Cuz I'm feeling it. Just gotta get through these two summer courses and I graduate in August. woot! And I'm already considering what other courses I may take in the fall in another discipline. Because, hey, if you get free tuition for working there, you ought to take advantage.

I guess today is tax day, but I'm still not done. I don't know if I have ever turned in my taxes on time in my life. And I always get a refund, so it's silly to procrastinate in getting money back. But there you have it. This year I am going to file online with one of those free services. And instead of the 1040EZ, I'm gonna itemize! I feel like such a grownup. heh.

Lastly, I found this photo and it made me think of the recent Amazon censorship kerfuffle. Kinda funny...think of the children!!!

movie night

2009-04-13T08:08:00.005-04:00

Did everyone have a fun holiday? DF and I were out housesitting for our friends, the ones with the great big old house in the country but no internet. Which meant lots of time to read books, watch TV and cook. We came back to our place yesterday afternoon and I was commenting to DF how nice it is to have an apartment that we actually enjoy coming home to. In times past, we would have stayed at the other place until the last possible minute, dreading returning to the dreaded roommate-filled house where I used to live. Not anymore!

After catching up with emails and stuff, I rolled up my sleeves to make some pizza dough. I've got a recipe that works pretty well now, and I decided to make a small test pizza on the stone. As luck would have it, the one I baked on the pizza stone turned out better than the larger one I made on the pan. If only I had one of those wooden paddles to slide the pizza on and off the stone, I think I would retire the pan entirely. Something to put on my shopping list.

The previous night we had started watching a cheesy made-for-TV movie on the SciFi channel. During a commercial break, I surfed around and saw that Lifetime was showing some new Nora Roberts movies. However, since we had already started the other flick, DF was not amenable to changing channels. hrmph. So last night at home, I saw that the NR films were scheduled to be on again and I let him know that we would be watching MY movies. heh.

The first one had already started. Northern Lights. I had not read the book, but the movie was entertaining. He wandered in and started watching it with me. We tried to figure out whodunnit and he cracked me up by commenting about the hero during the first sex scene: "He's hot!" lmao. I could tell he was trying to get a reaction out of me. Overall, it was a pretty decent flick. Good production values, nice scenery. Leann Rimes is no actress though and should stick to singing. The guy playing the lead was (as DF observed) pretty hot and worked for me as a romantic lead.

Then came the movie I had been waiting for...Tribute. I just read (or listened to the audiobook as the case may be) this one a few months back and was very curious to see how the movie would stack up. Not to mention, it is supposedly set in Virginia in a location just down the road from us. To start, Brittany Murphy is a horrible choice for casting. For any movie. Anytime. Just...no. She's supposed to convince me that she knows what she is doing with that hammer. In the book, Cill is completely competent in construction gear and houseflipping. You wouldn't have known from watching this movie. That said, I can watch Jason Lewis any time of the day. I wasn't sure going in how the smooth guy I remembered from Sex and the City would get the geeky Ford Sawyer vibe down, but I think he did a credible job. Main complaints would be that the extra characters were trimmed way way down (I know, it's a time constraint but it really took away from the feel of how Cilla became part of a larger family), and how the villain's identity was obvious pretty quickly. Too bad.

But like I said, there is Jason Lewis to gaze upon, so all is not lost.

Me to DF halfway through the movie: "So, do you recognize the actor playing the hero?"
Him (with a slight eyeroll): "Of course! Sex and the City. Why do you think I watch TV?"

Sometimes I could just kiss him. ;-)

my many lives

2009-04-08T21:06:00.003-04:00

Whew. Talk about taking a long break from blogging, eh? I feel guilty but it seems like each time I sit down with the intention to say something, I get pulled away by homework or something else. Work is busy. MBA classes are requiring lots of out-of-class work (wah!). Wedding plans...yeah, I ought to get started with those. Not to mention a friend of DF's visiting from France for four days (which was great fun but meant playing hostess and doing a lot of entertaining and cooking and stuff). So um yeah, the blog...

I'm gonna try to get back in the groove. Even if I don't have anything pithy to say. heh.

So, this being a blog supposedly having to do with romance novels...I read one recently! Scandal by Carolyn Jewel. Yes, I know, I'm late to the party but as they say, better late than never. Due to my busy schedule, I actually took the time to read this over the course of a week rather than in one fell swoop (my usual M.O. for book-readin') and it fit the pace of the story, I think. I enjoyed the attention to detail, the characters and the reformed-rake story being turned a bit on its head. It was heartbreaking in places and scorching hot in others. A very satisfying read. Thank you to Rosie for providing me with a copy. This is an author I'm going to keep a look out for.

In music news, my favorite band in the whole wide world released a new album. Yes, that band, the incomparable U2. Being the massive fan that I am, I can't be objective. It's the kind of album that is a grower, lots of interesting ideas and musical bits and bobs that are completely familiar if you've been listening to their 20+ year canon but that might seem random and odd if your only exposure is megahits like "With or Without You" or "Beautiful Day". In other words, I heart it! lol. My favorite song on the album is called Magnificent and you can listen to it here.

Lastly in the spirit of romance and stuff, I give you this photo of DF and I at the Cherry Blossom Festival in D.C. last weekend. Crowds of people, lots of wind, but we managed to keep warm. ;-)

Out of Africa

2009-03-17T20:07:00.020-04:00

Hello friends! I am back from my trip as of monday evening and although I'm swamped with overdue work and homework, I wanted to throw up some pictures. Here's a few from my very very busy and incredibly awesome trip.

Famous mud mosque of Djenne (UNESCO world heritage site)

The morning view from my mat on the roof where I slept the first night we trekked in Dogon Country.

Dogon village where we spent another night on the roof (if you look to the right just above center, you can see the campement with the mats on part of the roof).

Chief of the village where we visited a Peace Corps volunteer for a day.

Yes, termite mounds can really get that big (and even bigger!)

Sunset on the Bani River in the port city of Mopti.

Regular traffic scene in the bustling capital city of Bamako, my home for two years. The locals have taken to calling it Obamako. *g*

My adorable goddaughter and my future sister-in-law. :-)

africa here i come!

2009-03-04T22:04:00.008-05:00

As I mentioned earlier, I'm off to Africa on Friday. Will be leading a group of 10 people on a 10-day trip to my old stomping grounds. Of course I'm terribly excited but also apprehensive at being in charge of everything. Lots of details and a jam-packed itinerary. But it will be great to be back there, to visit all of the sights and to give lots of gifts to DFs family. :)

Here are some pics to give you an idea of where I'll be...

We'll be trekking up in this area for two days and nights. It's rugged and beautiful and totally fascinating. The villages we will visit are places I have been to before. I think the hikes are doable by everyone in the group. Hey, if I can do it, anyone can. I'm soooo not physically fit. lol. Of course, temperatures are in the 100s now, so we'll be taking it slow (and staying put during midday).

Crazy fun at the open market in the capital city. This was my view every day going to and from work. Total chaos. But it all works out in the end.

mmm, I hope I get to eat some of my favorite dishes. Groundnut stew, riz au gras, and good ol' rice and sauce. Fried plaintains too. Oh yeah.

So I'm not sure if I'll get a chance to blog between now and Friday, but I'll certainly have some stories to share in a week or so. K'an b'en sooni!

some things

2009-02-25T08:18:00.004-05:00

This is gonna be fast and random because I am about to run out the door to work. So a bulleted list of items in no special order.

I heart internet frends! One of my blogging buddies (she knows who she is) offered to send me a new book that I was envying and that she had already read...and then she tossed in like 7 more books in the envelope! zomg, I am salivating over all the house of reading fun ahead. mwah to friends!
As I mentioned elsewhere, I am off to Africa in less than 2 weeks for a 10 day trip with a group. I'm the leader of said group, so that's a little scary in terms of being organized and responsible for so many. But I can't wait to go back and see my old haunts, speak the language and show off the fabulous culture.
One of my personal hopes for said trip is to see if I can snag some good ethnic printed cloth for use in the wedding. We shall see.
I have a 12 page midterm to write for one of my classes. Glurg.
My other MBA class is interesting and I'm enjoying it but we have to produce and present a case study every single week with a group. Needless to say, it is taking a LOT of my time (witness the blog...or lack thereof)
Work is busy busy and not only do I have to catch up on things but try to get ahead so that the week I'm in Africa is not total chaos. Not exactly sure how this is going to happen, so it is stressing me out.
Last night I was trying to throw together some sort of Mexican dish and during the onion saute, I sprinkled what I thought was chili powder only to find out it was ground cloves. This led to a rethink of the dish and I added coriander and curry powder in an attempt to rescue it. The result was edible but weird. Note to self, pay attention with the spices!
I still love my apartment.
I have been made aware that my blog is suffering from a shortage of Richard Armitage pictures. The sitution shall be rectified upon my return from my trip. Robin Hood Season 2 is available on netflix and waiting in my queue. woot!
President Obama's speech last night was totally full of win. DF and I were watching and cheering and discussing the whole way through. Worth every long moment I spent working on the campaign last fall.
Oh and I hope I get to see this man and his band play while I'm in Africa. Sooooo gooooood! (and um, he's a nice singer too)

Happy Wednesday!

final verdict. win!

2009-02-19T09:35:00.004-05:00

So after receiving my dress in the mail on Monday, I was dying to try it on and see how much altering it would need. As luck would have it, my cousin called me at work yesterday to say she was in town and would I like to do lunch? I told her about how the dress had just got here and she was all like, zomg, let's go to your house and try it on! So we did. *g*

And.....

It. Fits. Like. A. Glove.

All I need is the train/pick-up thingie.

zomg, it fits! hahahahaha. Ok, I just had to share because that's almost creepy.

In other news, I am blogging over at the DIK blog today. Come and check out a hot Sean Bean as Napoleanic War hero Sharpe!

The dress arrives!

2009-02-17T18:27:00.006-05:00

K, so you may recall my post about trying on a 100 or so wedding dresses. After much review of the photos and advice-getting from friends (including some of you!), my mom, my fiance, co-workers, etc. I decided that I was quite partial to one of them.

My cousin who went on the dress expedition with me and who is going to be my best woman (maid of honor, whatever) is also getting married this year and was ALL OVER tracking down my dress for me. She found the exact same style and designer...THE dress...being sold on ebay for like half of what it would cost at a boutique. So after hemming and hawing and soul-searching, I finally took the plunge and bought it. And it arrived today! Here it is nestling in the box.

And as much as I want to try it on, I think I'm gonna wait until either DF or my cousin are here and can help me with it. I'm too scared to screw it up or to get it dirty or rip something while trying to get it over my head or something. heh. So for now it is hanging in the spare room closet.

yay! Now I just have to take it in to the local bridal place and they will do any alterations I need. I'm quite amused by the way our engagement and wedding plans have been done on the cheap and online. Ring, dress...all those pricey things. I am so NOT embarrassed to admit it either. It's a new world and why should I pay more than I have to?

MLM - Gobsmacked!

2009-02-09T08:06:00.003-05:00

The past few weeks have seen me slide into more and more blog neglect as work and school obligations intensify. I feel guilty and keep thinking I ought to post more but then I open up the blank page and get writers block. Sux. But here's something very noteworthy which is not only easy to blog about but FUN!

As you may or may not know, my pal lisabea has been busy scribbling great m/m stories in addition to maintaining her outrageously entertaining blog Nose In A Book. And just last week her first story was released!

First of all, check out the cover...

Tasty, no? Makes you wanna see more. Here's a brief synopsis...

No more Mr. Nice Guy.

Mild mannered Mark Meehan’s good judgment flies out the window when he finds his lover banging another man. Things go from bad to worse as Mark’s crazy revenge scheme uncovers shocking secrets—sending him straight into the arms of hunky lawman and old friend, Tony Gervase, a man of limited patience and secrets of his own.

Hunky lawmen? Crazy revenge and no more Mr. Nice Guy? Oh yeah, I'm so there. Without giving away the whole plot, let me just assure you that there is gonna be witty fun and hawt smex all rolled up into one tasty treat of a story. You know you wanna read it. So surf your way on over to Aspen Press and get your copy today.

Happy ManLove Monday and Congratulations ms. bea!!!

Horn lickin' good

2009-01-30T20:16:00.003-05:00

Or at least I HOPE this book will be. I've been waiting for Rydstrom's story since...oh well, I guess since his character was first introduced. And this evening while out looking for deals at K-Mart, I found the book and it was cheaper than borders, so...

'Scuze me while I go spend my Friday night in a productive manner. Reading!

It's still snowing

2009-01-27T16:34:00.008-05:00

Well, the weather forecast was right, and I woke up to snow on the ground and a snow day called. woohoo! After a little sleeping in, I woke up and made myself a healthy breakfast and curled up with a cup of coffee and my last library book, To Wed a Wicked Prince by Jane Feather. I'm not in the mood to do a proper review, but in a nutshell, I would say it's an average read. What I like about Feather is that she does give her stories a lot of detail and depth; it doesn't feel wallpaper. But the pace is also quite languid and slow and the book runs a bit long (almost 500 pages).

Prince Alex comes from Russia to England to do some undercover work for the czar, a childhood friend. Or is he on the other side? To be honest, I never did quite figure that bit out. hrm. Anyways, his mother was English but he was raised in Russia and never met her. One of his goals in coming to England is to claim some property owned by his father which includes the house his mother lived in for the rest of her life. She willed it to a strong young lady named Livia for reasons not quite explained in the story. One gets the impression that this book is part of a series and that some of the backstory is contained elsewhere. Alex sees Livia and decides that rather than kick her out of his house, he'll just woo and marry her because he needs a wife as part of his fly-on-the-wall spy scheme. He's very charming and kind of autocratic. Livia is no spring chicken but like any normal woman, she is flattered by his attentions. After their marriage, she begins to wonder about the strange Russian friends that drop by the house at odd hours and Alex's tendency to be peculiar now and again. But at least the sex is still hot. N'stuff. Like I said, the book runs long. It could have used some editing, imo, just to tighten things up. But I have to say that I did like Alex and Livia and enjoyed getting to know them. So overall, not a bad read.

As much as I would have liked to have stayed indoors curled up all day, I did have to venture out to pick up a prescription. This led to a little grocery exursion in which I also brought home some new ingredients to play with in my baking hobby. Flax seed and buckwheat groats. I worked them into a yummy WW recipe for rosemary oatmeal rolls. Very tasty and the house still smells great. I put my radiator units to good use with the bread rising phases. Did I mention that I really like my new place? yeah.

I'm back on WW after picking up a gradual 7 or so pounds over the holiday season. While I'm not anywhere near the danger zone, I don't intend to let things get out of hand. After all, I have a wedding to plan and a dress I want to look and feel good in. So back in the habit and it's a good thing. Paying more attention to what I put in my mouth and eatings lots of fruits and veggies. It works too because I'm already down almost 4 pounds, so yay! Now if I could just get myself to the gym....

Netflix had sent me a movie that I'd forgotten was on my queue. I think the only reason I put it there is because it stars one Gerard Butler. Title of the movie is "Beowulf and Grendel" and it has a lot of hairy men, rocky craigs, and hand to hand fighting. But did I mention Gerry Butler? Oh yeah. Worth seeing just for him and his ever-loving hair. *g* Oh and the extra stuff included some fun interviews with him talking about the movie and the role and I don't really know what else because I was just listening to the accent and not the words. In one part of the interview, it was obviously just after a scene wrap because he was taking off his chain mail and shirt while talking and being all casual and funny. Damn him and his prettiness.

So that's my day. Pretty lazy but that's ok. We all need a snow day now and again.

Gerard Butler and his really BIG sword. *snort*

Shadows of the Night - Lydia Joyce

2009-01-24T20:45:00.004-05:00

I snagged this book on a jaunt to the library (still can't believe it's literally around the corner from me, heh) this afternoon. I have read all of Ms. Joyce's previous books and tend to enjoy her writing. She has a nice way with words, often featuring unusual characters and a strong Gothic flavor. I guess this book came out last year, but I missed it. The blurb talks about igniting "insatiable hunger" and "forbidden love", so I was very optimistic. And while I enjoyed a lot of the premise of the book, the last 1/2 or so failed to live up to the promise shown in the beginning.

We start with a basic romance trope - the arranged marriage of convenience. The story opens with the wedding of Fern and Colin. (Actually it literally opens with Colin leaving his mistress' bed to attend his wedding, giving you an idea of how much he's emotionally invested in the marriage). Fern is a gently reared young lady and while she wants the marriage to be a success, she has no idea of how to break out of her and Colin's polite societal personas. Colin, a viscount-to-be who has gone through life on autopilot, sees his new wife with a mixture of mild interest and patronizing politness. The wedding night is pleasant enough for Colin, not so much for Fern. Her reaction to the intimacy involved in the marriage bed is to feel rebellion and a desire to maintain her sense of self.

Fern doesn't feel like Colin even registers how earth-shattering the experience was and neither knows how to communicate effectively with one another. But their honeymoon takes a dramatic turn when Fern lashes out during an argument.

Trapped, trapped forever...She had to get away now. Without thinking, she threw her body weight away from him, but his grip was too tight. She couldn't escape. Fighting down a sob of hysteria, she lashed out blindly, her free hand striking his face with a ringing slap.

Colin felt the pain, sudden and sharp, cutting through layers in his brain that he hadn't known were there. Layers wrapped around his brain...it was like a jolt of light to eyes that had always been in darkness, burning into his mind and flooding it with color that he could never have imagined.

Colin released Fern with a shove that knocked her hard against the side of the coach. In the sudden silence, they sat frozen, staring at each other. Fern was incapable of speech, shocked at what she had just done but unable to apologize as fury and rebellion still roiled, choking, inside her. Colin's expression was frozen, the livid lines that her fingers had left already outlined in red. But under the dark slashes of his brows, his eyes flared, and for the first time, Fern felt the presence of a person at the bottom of their dark depths, looking back at her.

Oh yes, precious. We likes the hint of D/s, yes we do! And everything seems to be on track for a really singular romance novel. Both parties realize that Colin has just discovered he has an appetitite for pain and that Fern has an appetite for indulging him. It's fascinating to see these two prim and proper society creatures peel back their layers and not only expose themselves to one another but also to re-invent themselves. Who do they want to be? Not who have they been raised to be.

Colin immediately decides that he can't handle dealing with the ramifications of his newfound desires in the presence of society, and the couple decamps to one of his far flung holdings. It's a property that he's never visited but he knows is isolated...perfect for exploring new boundaries. Except that rather than being a cozy but shabby outpost, it's a completely derelict and creepy deserted estate. Gothic and scary and complete with secrets and crazy old caretakers and whatnot. Unfortunately, the story gets bogged down in overly plotty mystery stuff and while the relationship between Fern and Colin continues to develop, I felt cheated. Finally, there is a plot twist (read Big Secret) thown in at the last minute that I really disliked and just could have lived without.

Overall, this was an interesting book and is worth a look, but it makes me sad to think of how awesome it might have been.

B-

Dawn on a new day.

2009-01-20T08:25:00.008-05:00

Well, I intended to post something this morning, but got too caught up in anticipating the big day. And it was. A red letter day. I could talk for hours. Or post for seconds. Really, there is just so much running through my head and my heart.

But for now, I'm too full of emotion to blog. I'm still soaking in all the coverage and enjoying the moment. Having my glass(s) of wine and shedding a tear (or ten). There is a lot to be done, and I'm ready to do my part. This is just the beginning. Yes we can.

(and now I'm watching a retrospective of the day and bawling like a baby again)

edited to add: zomg, this picture is full of wow. (full credit to the person who created it)

Back to School

2009-01-13T07:50:00.002-05:00

Well it is that time of year again. Not only is DF back to his dorm room and I have the apartment to myself, but today is my first day of classes for the spring semester. Four more courses and I will have that MBA. Two this semester, two in the summer. Come August, I should be graduating. And then a wedding in September. I have a feeling this is going to be a busy year.

It's been interesting to not only have my own place but to also have it to myself. DF will be spending time here on the weekends, but for now he's back on campus and super busy with what will hopefully be his final semester. Last night I found myself a little restless. I curled up on the couch, lit a candle in the fireplace for mood, turned on a CD...whipped up a batch of waffle batter to put in the fridge for the morning. Just did whatever struck me without worrying about running into people or getting in anyone's way. I am so happy to be back to a roommate free life.

In book news, I read a very satisfying story by Liz Carlyle. Never Deceive a Duke. After a string of so-so reads, I am happy to say that this merits at least an A-. If I have time tonight I may try my hand at a formal review, but for now I'll just say that the characters were well developed and showed growth over the course of the book. And despite some potential for Big Mis behaviour, there was no dreaded long separation to slog through (something that makes me really twitchy). So yay!

Now I need to go pack a lunch and tidy the place up before I go to work.

Winter reads, Lightning reviews

2009-01-06T09:50:00.000-05:00

Well it's been quite some time since I've blogged about anything book related. Dunno how that happens but I claim RL interference and the whole packing/moving shebang that claimed my holiday break. However, I did manage to get through a little stack of library books in between sorting through boxes, and I'm going to take the easy way out and do some "lightning" reviews.

Stephanie Laurens - The Taste of Innocence

Laurens was one of the first authors that got me really hooked on romance and I remember buying each and every one of the Cynster series back in college. Since then, I've gotten rather weary of the way her writing seems to repeat itself. But I figured that it might be interesting to read another entry and see if the magic was still there.

Sadly, no not really. It starts off well enough. Charles Morwellan (the younger brother of Alathea who married Gabriel Cynster in All About Love) decides that he needs a wife and that rather than risk falling in lurve, he'll marry someone sensible and safe. Like the neighboring landowner's daughter, Sarah. She seems nice and sweet and stuff, but he runs into a problem when she refuses to accept his proposal outright. She wants some time to figure out if they'd be a good match and so he is forced to do some courting. In true Cynster fashion, that means seduction and lots of little forays to a secluded gazebo where he can make it to first base, second base, third, etc. This part was pretty good and typically Laurensian hot. Unfortunately, once they get married, Charles turns into a raging idiot and almost ruins the whole story. Apparently he has this thing where he fears that love and passion will destroy him (like his father), so while he'll happily boink his wife at night, he is cold and abrupt with her in the day. Totally cuts her out of his life and is a real ass. Thankfully, Sarah is not too much of a ninny and she figures out whats what and manages to kick some sense into him by the end. Oh and there is a mystery plot about some nefarious land developers. Overall, it wasn't a BAD read, but it wasn't great either. Readers that have not OD'ed on Laurens may feel otherwise, but I'm left feeling that the Cynster glory days are over. I may as well just go back and reread Devil's Bride. The original is still the best.
B-

Linda Lael Miller - High Country Bride

Next, I moved on to something really out of my regular reading zone. I think I've read one LLM book before (I recall it being about a girl who got zipped back to the past and met a pirate...or something) but she's not a go-to author. Nor am I a big fan of Westerns (unless they are the smokin' hawt Sarah McCarty kind, heh). However, the premise of a mail order bride, a handsome cowboy, and a family ranch (ala Bonanza) sounded like it could be good. Crusty old landowner patriarch gives an ultimatum to his three wild sons - "the first one to marry and produce a child gets the whole ranch, the other two get nothing". That's kind of entertaining, no? Unfortunately, this turned out to be a totally wallpaper romance. All of the elements were there but there was no passion and no feeling of the characters being anything other than just that...characters. I didn't care about any of them even after spending 400 pages with them.
C-

Nora Roberts - Morrigan's Cross

While I've read a handful of NR books, I don't usually make a point of seeking them out. Probably because for the most part I avoid contemps and that seems to be the bulk of what she writes. That said, I've always found her to be a very capable storyteller. This book was quite entertaining, and I was surprised to find vampires, shapeshifters, wizards and witches, as well as time-travel and goddesses. An intrepid group is called together by the goddess Morrigan to fight the evil vampire horde. How they learn to get along with one another and become a team is really the bulk of the story. The romance between two of the group members almost feels like a side plot, which would be my main criticism. However, I found myself turning the pages and wanting to know what happens next. I'm definitely going to look for the next two entries in the trilogy when I visit my library.
B+

Marjorie M. Liu - The Last Twilight

This is part of the Dirk and Steele series. I read one previously and remembered it being engaging but also very dark and violent. The heros/heroines all seem to be a bit like the X-men, mutants or shifters with special powers who have to watch out for evil scientists who want to use and abuse them. What drew me to this book was that it was set in Africa and the back blurb indicated that the hero was African. Given that my own romantic interest is from that part of the world, I was eager to read a book that featured an African hero. It was the best part of the book for me. I always try to imagine what characters look like when I read, and I kept getting a little thrill out of seeing MY guy in my mind's eye. Is that shallow? heh. Other than that, the story was certainly action packed and moved along at a brisk pace. What I disliked was the level of gore and how each damn time our characters think they're safe, they get cornered by the bad guys yet again. All seems lost....over and over again. And the bad guys are really sick. Just...ugh. I don't think I'll read any more of this series because my stomach can't handle it. But it may appeal to other readers. Thumbs up for the unique hero though. :)
B-

Sabrina Jeffries - Beware a Scots Revenge

I'm not sure how to grade this one. It's not bad but also not particularly memorable either. Venetia Campbell is visiting Scotland and is kidnapped by a sexy stranger who just happens to be a childhood playmate and her father's sworn enemy. Lots of squabbling ensues during their journey to the Highlands. Some comic, some eye-rollingly formulaic. Of course there are sparks between them but oh noes, she really shouldn't be dallying with him. But then it seems that he's just been misunderstood and perhaps her father is in the wrong in their feud. At a certain point, it's like someone switched a lightbulb and she goes from hating him to wanting to marry him. Which was clearly the way the story had to go, but it happened too abruptly for me. Anyways, it's easy enough to read and has some good moments, but overall this was pretty forgettable.
C+

We're having an inclement weather day here which means that work has been cancelled. I'm not complaining one bit. I may just walk around the corner to the library and pick up some more reading material. *g*

home sweet home

2009-01-04T09:55:00.005-05:00

I'm writing this post from my new digs. It's a grey morning, and I'm sitting in my self-proclaimed "breakfast nook" having just completed breakfast and nursing my second cup of coffee. From the tall plate glass windows I can see the street, lined with old historic brick homes. The one directly across the street has a turret like a castle! The apartment itself is on the second floor of an old building. We have old-fashioned radiators that keep it toasty and warm as well as wood floors and two (count em!) closed-up fireplaces with mantels.

I can't really describe how happy I am with the way everything has worked out. When I first moved to this town three years ago, I rented a room in a house as a way to save money and as a "temporary" thing. Three years later...I was still there and getting more and more frustrated with lazy, slobs masquerading as roommates as well as just tired of not having my own place to call home. I never felt like I could invite friends or colleagues over, nor could I entertain and throw dinner parties (I love to cook). It was really stifling and I don't know if I even realized how much until this week when I moved here.

Already, DF and I have decorated the place with our own things and are having some friends over to hang out this afternoon. One of my coworkers lives in the neighborhood and we were invited to a neighborhood potluck at her place last night. We were by far the youngest ones there (mostly eldery and retired live here) but they were so fun-loving and charming and warm that we felt very comfortable.

We spent the Christmas holidays packing and then the last few days of the year moving boxes into the apartment in a series of short runs. The last day of the year was the final push when we got all our furniture here and cleaned the old place. We spent New Years Eve exhausted in front of the TV, curled up in our new home and ready to greet the new year.

It's nice to have a home. :)

short

2009-01-01T22:12:00.001-05:00

new year, new apartment... Lots of details to come. Since this is from my iPod suffice to say happy 2009 and hope you all read loads of great books! Mwah!

Oh hai, Jebus iz bornd

2008-12-24T09:03:00.003-05:00

1 'Roun dis tiyem, Caesar Augustus wuz like, "I can has cenzus?"2 ('Coz while Quirinius was Teh Boz of Syria, is invisible census!)3 And all teh doodz went home for teh saying, "I is heer!"4 So Joseph went from Naz'reth to Judeeah to Bethlehemm whar David wuz borned, 'coz David wuz hiz graete-graete gran-daddie,5 An Mary went wif him, 'coz she was gonna be married wif him an she was preggerz.6 When wuz time for teh baybee,7 it wuz a boy, so he wuz wrapd in blanket like burrito an placd him in fud dish, cuz innkeeper wuz liek, no room here kthxbye!

8 Then there wuz sheep-doods in teh field, an they wuz watchin teh sheep in teh dark. Iz vry vry boring. srsly.9 An suddenly, visible angel! An glory! O noez!!10 But teh angel sed, "DONT AFRAID OF ENYTHING! it r ok, you can has gud news for all teh doodz!11 Todai in da city ov David, you can has sayvur! is Christ da Lord! w00t!12 Iz sign fer u, find da baybee wrapd like brrito in a big fud dish."13 An suddenly, moar angelz! They sez, 14 "w00t to teh Ceiling Cat! An peace fer doodz he luffs! Kthxbai."

15 An when da angelz go invisible again, sheep-doodz sed, "sweet, nao we find teh brrito-baybee sayvur!"16 So dey left da sheeps (sheeps r vry borng) and found Joe an Mary and da baybee in da fud dish.17 An when dey saw it wuz baybee an not brrito, they told evrywun he wuz kewl,18 An all teh doodz who herd were lyke, "neat-o brrito!"19 An Mary wuz lyke, "o rly?"20 Teh sheep-doodz sed, "Yay fer Ceiling Cat! Was not invisible brrito!"21 On dai noomber ate, it wuz tiem 2 circumcize him (iz laik getting fixd) an they called him Jebus, 'coz teh angel sed tht wuz hiz name.

Luke 2:1-21, LOLcat Bible translation

(I know, I know...going straight to hell, but I just can't stop laughing. I luv the damn LOLcats!!!!)

Merry Xmas Everyone!!!!

moar tyme off!

2008-12-23T10:15:00.006-05:00

I'm enjoying my time off and yesterday I spent most of the morning and early afternoon shopping and not really buying. lol. I went to all the local thrift stores to scope out stuff like furniture and housewares for the new apartment, hit the "bargain" stores where they have overstocks and random selections of things not wanted by the major department stores. You just never know WHAT you'll find and lord knows, I am not too proud to buy no-name stuff. Anyways, it was kinda fun regardless of the traffic (on a Monday?!) and crowds. I picked up a pair of indoor slippers for DF, his Christmas present. We are going very economical this year. Probably just one or two small useful gifts each. Our money needs to be saved for the new apartment and oh yeah, that wedding thing. heh.

One of the stops in my turn about town was at the aforementioned library. I wanted to pick up some books to tide me over during the holiday season. Rather than doing a lot of research, I just grabbed some random titles, some by authors I haven't read and some that aren't in genres that I normally read. It can't hurt...they're library books and free. (yay!) Here is my wee haul...

I've been doing more cooking lately which is both a money saver and also a hobby of mine that actually relaxes me. Last night I whipped up a pizza using all of the leftover toppings and sauce that we had from last week. It kind of amazes me to think that for about $4 in ingredients I can make a pizza as large as a $15 one in a delivery place. I make my crust from scratch (yep, water, yeast, flour, etc. knead and rise) and one never knows exactly how it will turn out. Always an adventure. Anyways, it was good and DF and I devoured the whole thing over a marathon of Little People, Big World. If you haven't seen it, this is a great little show on TLC about a family made up of dwarf parents and their kids, whom are both regular-sized and dwarf. The show basically just follows their lives and how they make their way in a big-sized world. It's very interesting in a 'real life' sort of way without a lot of gimmicky stuff. Last night's episodes included the very sad death of a family friend and it got both DF and I all teary-eyed. If anything, it reminded us that life is short and that it's very important to let the ones you love know how much you care.

Speaking of the people you care about, I'm happy to say that the anticipated conflict with my parents over my engagement has actually not materialized in the way I had expected. They have been pretty circumspect and although I know they wish I would marry a nice Christian boy, they do like DF and know he is a good person. Overall, I think it will be ok. Still a bit uncomfortable and tricky in terms of people not stepping on each others toes and all, but it seems that we're all trying to be adults about it. They want to be at the wedding and my mom offered to send me a bit of money to help defray the costs of the dress. So that is unexpected. And hopefully a good omen for the future. :)

Finally, I share with you all a neat little link to an online radio service I use a lot through the holidays. It doesn't cost anything and requires no special software downloads. You can pick your favorite kind of holiday music (classic, religious, jazz, contemporary, etc.) or make a mix. I like to have it playing on my computer while I blog and surf the web. So for anyone who's interested, I hope you enjoy.

And now I am off to read a bit, sort through my stuff a bit (gotta begin the packing thing) and probably make my Christmas dinner cooking list. Even though it's just DF and me, I am going to make the whole dinner including a turkey. *g*

100 dresses later...

2008-12-21T14:51:00.004-05:00

ok, so maybe it was more like 30 dresses, but anyways. Time for more random updates...

The wedding dress trying-on spree went very well. My cousin and I were able to narrow down which styles and cuts look good on me. Some of my favorites can be seen by clicking here and here and here and here and here. Your input, feedback, etc. is of course appreciated. Funny enough, I sent my mom pictures of about 30 or 40 dresses and the ones she picked as her favs were exactly the same as my favs. And my cousin's. And lisabea's! (woot!) So I guess that means my instincts are pretty good. hopefully. Now the great ebay search begins.

I'm officially on Christmas holiday aka time off work. I had hoped to take some half days off last week (particularly Friday afternoon) in order to use up some vacation days that I'd accumulated before they go away at the end of the year. Unfortunately, there were some crises that came up which only I could negotiate and I ended up spending my entire day scrambling around the office fighting fires. So much for that. pfft. Which left me feeling very grumpy and rather non-holiday-spirit-ish.

Bookwise, I'm halfway through Broken Wing. It's easy to read and while not ground breaking, a nice solid romance. It's nice to curl up with a book during the holidays and I'm glad I saved this one for that purpose. Very cozy. heh.

In major news, DF and I have put down a deposit on an apartment. Hope to move in around the first of the new year. If you've been around my blog for long you've probably read my ranting and whining at my roommate situation. I'm just getting too old to have to live with college kids and clean up after them. Anyways, we're really excited about the new place. It's in an apartment community that is not of the cookie-cutter modern variety. Mainly older and retired folks. Our apartment will be in a historic building, wood floors, big windows, closed-up fireplaces. Oh and radiator heaters!!! Best of all, it's within about a minute walk from the library and historic walking mall. The library is literally around the corner. And what a gorgeous building it is (as seen in photo here). I'm very excited to be able to just drop in any time and pick up books, CDs, videos and whatnot.

So that's what's going on in sulaland. Hope everyone is having a relatively low-stress holiday season. Now I'm off to go cook up an African meal for DF and one of our friends from Ghana. Tis the season and all that.

obligatory update

2008-12-17T19:34:00.006-05:00

ack, poor wee blog. how i neglect thee.

Is everyone else full into the holiday swing of things? I've been at a few rounds of parties (coworkers, etc.) which is nice but has had the unfortunate side effect of bumping the scale up more than I would like. Back to the WW tracking thing. Gotta do it. But I had almost forgotten how many g-d points cheesecake is. le sigh.

I've been taking random days and half-days off work in order to use up my accrued vacation days before they vaporize upon the dawn of a new year. Tomorrow, I'm skipping to go try on wedding dresses. Yup. And so it begins. lol. My cousin is going to go with me which is good because I have no clue about this stuff. She's getting married in May and has already navigated the waters of "wedding dress shopping". Quite frankly, I wish we could do what men do and rent the damned things. Why shell out $$$ for a dress I will wear once? pfft. Anyways, tomorrow's expedition is intended to be an exploratory "what kind of style looks good on me and what kind should I avoid" trip. If I find the perfect style, I may just order it online from a Chinese vendor. (no really...I just might. lol)

In book news, I finished Adrien! I had had to put it down for a bit because Jake was making me twitchy. But I'm happy to say that although things were heavy, it turned out satisfactorily in the end. Um, the VERY end. Last page. Actually, last few sentences. Josh makes you work for it, dammit! Perhaps when I get over my lazy ennui, I will attempt something more structured in the way of a review.

But for now, I'm going back to curling up on the couch with DF (oh lookee, new acronym for new status of fiance) and watching movies.

And the winner is...

2008-12-09T08:11:00.002-05:00

...(drumroll)...

Renee! Her winning entry of how to have fun for under $4:

Double cappuccino ($3.85) at my favorite coffee place, a book, my ipod. Bliss.

I must be getting old. In college, it would have been the free condoms at the Student Health Center and my boyfriend (now husband). ;-)

I like both suggestions. *g* And I could really go for that cappuccino right about now. Thanks to everyone for playing and hey, go buy Carrie's book What a Scoundrel Wants. It's under $4. And will entertain you for hours!

MLM - wedding edition

2008-12-08T08:23:00.001-05:00

Since weddings are very much on my mind now, this short clip seemed apropos. Specially for a Monday. Yay love!

In which I buy out the store

2008-12-03T19:32:00.002-05:00

I got a call from my local Borders today telling me that my order of Broken Wing had arrived. That was quick! I only placed the request on Monday. woot! (hey, Kristie I finally got it!) I had some Borders Bucks to blow, and I figured that I could pick up this book as well as copies of Carrie Lofty's new release at the same time.

Lo and behold, this time when I went to the Romance section, right smack in the L's (somewhere after Stephanie Laurens and before Julia London), snuggled two copies of What a Scoundrel Wants. So I bought them both. The entire stock. heh. So as far as Borders is concerned, this new book is so hot that it is flying off the shelves one day after release. Must stock up! (At least I hope that's how the statistics will look). Anyways, I now have one print copy for me (I have the e-book but there's nothing like paper) and a copy for one lucky reader in this week's giveaway. If you haven't already entered your suggestion for fun things to do under $4 and a chance to win, you still have a little time. Go for it!

After snagging my loot, I hunted down a section of the store I had hitherto never set foot in. The wedding planners/organizers. Oh dear. I grabbed a stack of them and went to the coffee shop area to peruse and compare. First of all, it's amazing to me how much money the "typical" wedding costs. S'rsly? Half of the stuff that is on the list seems extravagant and wasteful to me. We're going to be doing this very much on the cheap. I didn't buy any of the books; I really just wanted to get an idea of what kind of a book I might want to find online (for cheap...see, I'm already working on a budget!).

Anyways, overall a very productive trip. Now I want to curl up with my copy of WASW and pick up where I left on in the e-book.

Fun for under $4 - contest!

2008-12-01T08:11:00.000-05:00

It's not often that my wee blog holds a contest. Primarily because I am too poor to buy loot to give out and also because I'm generally too lazy to organize one. But one of my fav blogger/authors, Carrie Lofty, is coming out with a debut book and although I'm only halfway through my review copy, I can tell you now...it's a good 'un! Fans of historical romance, clever dialogue, and derring-do take note. You want to read this book. (More on this later...I plan to review it this week).

As for the contest. Well, you may have noticed from the cover, that this book is going for the really unbeatable price of $3.99. Seriously? What kind of fun can one find for the bargain price of under four bucks (or the equivalent in your home currency)? This is your contest...write in the comments and give me your best suggestions for fun things that cost less than $4. Winner will receive (obviously) a copy of What a Scoundrel Wants without having to pay a dime. How cool is that? And because I've lived outside the U.S. for most of my life and since Carrie's husband is a Brit, I'll open this up to readers anywhere. You're all eligible...postage frustrations notwithstanding. Go forth and win!

I have the honor of hosting Carrie on the DIK blog for the next three days, so please stop by and see what kind of fun we can cook up.

what happened during my holiday...

2008-11-29T20:27:00.004-05:00

Yep. It's official. Been together for almost five years in two countries and three languages. We've talked about taking the next step for a while now. Today, we stopped by my house to drop some stuff off (after being out of town for the last few days) and there was a FedEx box for DBF. As we were driving to our friend's place, he opened the box and removed a ring. Of course, I was DRIVING and had to pull over so that he could put it on my finger. lol. Silly man. :)

Anyways, it is shiny and small and simple. I keep looking at it and playing with it. And wondering how i'm going to break the news to my disapproving parentals. *sigh*

Happy Thanksgiving!

library take

2008-11-23T19:20:00.005-05:00

I really like the whole 'put it on hold using the internet and get an email when it's ready' thing at my library. In this case, the book I snagged was Lisa Kleypas' Seduce Me at Sunrise. Sure it's a hard-cover, large-print edition, but so what? I didn't have to pay for it. heh. I am looking forward to this one. Gypsy heros...yum! I hope it is as good as my expectations. At the very least, the cover is delish. lol.

While there, I quickly scanned the shelves for a few more books to take home and ended up with The Temptation a medieval by Claudia Dain and Confessions at Midnight by Jacquie D'Allessandro. I am trying to remember if I've ever read any Claudia Dain. I don't think so. I do like a well-written medieval, so again...hopeful but cautious. I already sped through the D'Allessandro book this morning. It was cute and hot and a very easy read. A widow who is not only NOT a virgin but who loved her late husband and misses teh sex. How refreshing. *g* I'd recommend it for a low-angst comfort read.

And finally, a pictorial response to my pahtnah's recent James Bond post. hey, lb, here's lookin' at you kid.

wednesday

2008-11-19T23:20:00.004-05:00

huh, it's the middle of the week already? Time does fly. I didn't get a blessed thing done on that silly school project until tonite at which point I buckled down and knocked it out in an hour and a half. pfft. Seems that I need to quit putting things off in the fear that they will be hard. Easy to say, not always easy to do.

I read more Adrien tonight. *sniff* Actually, I did get choked up and almost cried. I'm up to the bit where Jake comes over to Adrien's apartment and they talk. And stuff. And it's so bittersweet and heartrending. arg. I had to put it down. Small doses at a time.

In other news, People magazine reveals that Hugh Jackman is the sexiest man alive. My reaction: o'rly, like we didn't already know? heh.

getting started

2008-11-17T22:59:00.004-05:00

Thanks to everyone who offered reading suggestions in my last post. Much appreciated. I now have some stuff on my PBS wish list, the library hold list and at least one book in my hot little hand. Oh and come December 1, I will have $15 in Borders Bucks to convert into more books. mmmm...books. Kristie, one of them will be that quest book, I promise. It looks like my cuppa. :)

So I am putting aside my fears of being hurt by evil Jake and have recommenced reading Death of a Pirate King. Of course it's awesome because let's face it...Josh Lanyon's writing just flows like a river and even though I see the way the current is taking me and that there are rapids ahead and omg, we just might capsize, i just can't help but let it whisk me along. le sigh. I'm almost halfway through. But I will say that I still hate Jake and want him to experience excrutiating pain. I'm vindictive that way. grrr.

In other news, I still have 2 or 3 pages of a group paper to write and submit. Actually I should have finished it last weekend but procrastination is my middle name. Tomorrow night. Yeah, that's the ticket. Only four more courses to go until I finish this MBA. I'll just keep telling myself that I can make it, regardless of how tired I am of the whole thing.

And finally, just for kicks I give you this photo that I took a few years ago in India. It never ceases to amaze me in all my travels and in all of the countries I've lived in, how ingenious and downright TALENTED people can be in transporting goods with only a bike.

trying to pick back up

2008-11-15T19:11:00.002-05:00

so, i have no clue how to get back into my blogging groove. I've been gone for such a long time that I don't even know what the new releases are or who is flaming whom or any of the gossip. le sigh.

i skimmed through an old Susan Johnson book last night. "Wicked". Yes, the sex is hot (which is why i read it) but what's up with the virgin who is deflowered and then proceeds to talk like a sailor and engage in a weeklong orgy? F'real? And how bout the hero who is 22 and has slept his way through the entire ton? What a sexy dude. lol. um, anyways. I'm making fun but really, I do need some recommendations.

Help me out!

What are the hottest new reads that I have to get?

a.new.day

2008-11-09T20:26:00.002-05:00

I know I promised a return to hot menz and a detour from politics, but I just gotta share this song/video. It's catchy and makes me grin like a loon. So until I dig myself out from under this pile of work and school catch-up...enjoy.

Yes WE Did.

2008-11-06T10:49:00.006-05:00

Good morning America!

It's been a grueling but exhilirating couple of months and the last two weeks have been exhausting. I've been volunteering at the Obama campaign office in my small Virginia town, going down there every night after work and all weekend...basically any time I was not at my job or in classes. Last week in the runup to the election, I took vacation time so that I could be there full-time. I ended up being given the job of organizing all of the volunteers that were coming in to help, assigning them to tasks, sending canvassers to satellite staging locations, monitoring which turfs were covered, delegating other prep tasks (literature sorting, data entering, etc.) to small teams. It was stressful but exciting, and I'm still recovering from 10+ days of sixteen hour days on my feet.

There was truly something wonderful about the community coming together to elect this very special candidate. It's hard for me to articulate the spirit of hope and positive energy that surrounded us. I think of the elderly woman who would make her way to our office with the help of a cane and feed paper into the shredder. The high school students who can't vote but who would make phone calls, enter data, or help tally up the numbers from the day's activities. The blue collar family who is struggling to make ends meet on less than 25k a year, who were denied food stamps for the third time last week because they are "not poor enough" but who spent hours each day going out to knock on doors and talk to voters. The quiet young black veteran who showed up to help and after we learned about his IT expertise gained in the Army, immediately set to work troubleshooting some of our computer and networking issues. The local volunteers who were the heart and soul of the office and the out of town volunteers who came down from D.C., Maryland and even New York to help provide assistance in the last Get Out the Vote push. People from every race, social class and creed coming together and working hard in what is really grueling, unglamourous work.

In the end, we were able to turn our city blue even if the surrounding county still went red (although we shaved off over 10 points from their margins which in itself is pretty amazing). It's not an easy area to be a Democrat. We had plenty of rude people walking by our storefront windows and yelling nasty things. The night before E-day, the car of one volunteer was side-swiped by someone yelling "Obama sucks". I couldn't tell you how many people came in to get a new yard sign because the ones they had kept getting stolen. I answered the phone and got yelled out by people telling me that they "weren't votin' for no goddammed Democrat". Other offices around the state suffered worse in the ways of vandalism and threats. My own parents sent me horrific email forwards about Obama being the "anti-christ" and other fear-mongering nonsense. Clearly change scares some people. But overall, I am very heartened by the willingness of so many people to come together and reject the divisive politics of the past.

Tuesday night as I sat in the embrace of my boyfriend, surrounded by a sea of tired, happy people, I wept tears of joy. Not only because my future children will grow up in a world where a man that looks like them can be president. But also because I have seen firsthand what can happen when individuals organize and work for the betterment of the whole community. I have made friends that I expect to keep for a lifetime and have met people in my area that I would never otherwise have known. It's been an amazing journey and it's only the beginning.

In closing, I just have to share one of the many grassroots contributions during this election. It's a zydeco band from Louisiana, my mom's homestate and a place I have lived. Not only is the music joyful and infectious but I just love seeing the mix of regular folks. (and as a speaker of french, I get a kick out of the Cajun french). :-)

Happy People Dancing on Planet Earth

2008-10-17T13:34:00.002-04:00

A friend of mine passed this video along to me. Apparently this guy has made something of a name for himself going around the world and filming himself doing a goofy happy dance in each corner of the globe. And in this outting, he's joined by people from all over the world. It put a smile on my face, and I thought you all might enjoy it too.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Blogiversary

2008-10-06T21:47:00.002-04:00

wow, how quickly a year goes by! Apparently, I have now owned this little corner of virtual real estate for a year. It's been fun. I've met lots of new friends, started reading a whole new genre of romance (yay m/m!) and fallen in lurve with Richard Armitage (*swoon*) and the loveliness that is North and South. So to celebrate, I am going to revisit the epic "white shirt" photo and try to read a few chapters of my shiny new Josh Lanyon book. mmmm. books.

Thanks to everyone who stops by this little place, and I promise that I'll be back in 29 days. *g*

Yes we can. Yes I can.

2008-09-23T08:11:00.006-04:00

o hai. Yes, it is true. I have once again fallen down on my blogging duties. But I'm here to tell you why and to let you know that my negligence may continue until about, say, November 5.

I don't need to tell anyone that we in the U.S. are engaged in a landmark Presidential election. I have been following the news, feeling alternatively very hopeful, very angry, and very worried. Since last week, I decided that sitting on the sidelines and wringing my hands wasn't enough. If there's to be a change, it has to come from the bottom up. We're the ones that have to get engaged. Get our hands dirty. Come out of our comfort zones and talk to our friends and neighbors and complete strangers. So I've been volunteering my time at the local Obama campaign office here in my small VA town. After work, on weekends, any block of time that I'm not at work or school. And while I know that I won't single-handedly change the course of the election, I know that I'm doing a small part to help. I might just be doing data entry, talking to people as they come in the door, organizing groups to knock on doors or answering the phone. But when you take a few people and put them together, they can make a difference. Let me tell you how uplifting it has been to work alongside people in my city that I would have never met. The little white-haired grandmothers who grew up under segregation and never would have dreamed to see this day. The blue collar worker who just came from a long shift of work. The white collar worker who comes in to volunteer hours after a 2+ hour commute back from D.C. High school students coming in to man the phone banks or tally data. Black, white, young, old, rich, poor, right and left...they're all there. We're all in this together for each other and for our community.

So while I promise not to turn this blog into a political zone (frankly, I'm not all that eloquent and prefer to squee over books anyways), I probably won't be posting a whole lot for the next 40 days. I've got work to do! :-)

library loot

2008-09-12T22:36:00.005-04:00

Avast! So after a list posted by ciara about pirate novels, I was inspired to try to nab a few piratical romance novels from my local library. unfortunately, my online search queries yielded only one of the books on her pirate list was stocked in my library. fortunately, it was quickly available and reserved for me. Over my lunch break I wandered the paperback shelves and grabbed a couple of other titles that I've not yet read. Actually, it's been eons since I've visited my local library. So there were some books there that I don't recall seeing before. My little haul...

I'm 2/3 through this already. It's kind of goofy fun. Lots of anachronistic language but cheerful and kind of slapstick. And you gotta love the old skool cover. CHEST! heh. But I am a little annoyed by the distinct lack of shivering of timbers. if you know what i mean. hey, i know. i'm shallow, but at least i'm honest.

I always cruise by the F and G section of authors with my head turned sideways to read the spines. Lots of F and G authors that I like. Feather, Foley, Garwood, Goodman, etcetera. Hey, lookee a Gaelen Foley book that I haven't read! Blurb talks of an "irresistible Major Derek Knight...newly returned from India." k, I do like those Knight boys. I'll bite. Of course, as all visitors to the foreign eastern lands, this guy is supposed to have mad skilz in bedz. kama sutra and all that. I'm doubtful cuz back blurbs rarely live up to their hype, but we shall see...

Have I mentioned how bereaved I am that Ms. Hunter continues to let her obvious talents of writing medievals languish in favor of more mainstream european historical aka regency boredom? *sigh* That said, I do like her writing style. So against my better judgement, I picked up this one too. I haven't read anything about it yet. No reviews that I can recall. An overused plot device is indicated in the summary (the ol' hero purchases heroine in bidding game from wastrel male family member thang) but who knows how it may turn out.

And to top it all off, I am STILL working my way through Loretta Chase's The Lion's Daughter. I had started it and gotten about 1/3 through before losing interest and putting it down for a month or so. Then in the past week, I've started back where I left off, reading a chapter or two at a time before bed. It's interesting because although I would think that a book that took me this long to get through would be one that I disliked, it's not the case. I'm enjoying it. But for some reason I'm enjoying it better by taking my time rather than racing through. hmm.

ahhhh, books. and the amazingest part is that they're FREE!

shiver me timbers

2008-09-06T21:49:00.004-04:00

I have a definite 'thing' for the mystique and romance of the high seas. Nevermind that I turn green and empty the contents of my stomach whenever I myself dare to step aboard a boat. In my imagination, I'm deftly making my way across the deck, nimbly climbing the rigging or navigating the open ocean with my mad math skillz (snort). The drama and the sense of adventure that accompany seafaring tales always interest me. Be it a hot romance novel set onboard a ship, Johnny Depp in a pirate movie (rawr!) or British period mini-series about the Napoleanic Wars...I'm there. So when my netflix delivery this week turned out to be an episode of Horatio Hornblower, even though I had forgotten putting it on my queue sometime long ago, I was excited to curl up on a rainy day (today) and watch it.

The miniseries is an adaptation of the naval adventure series written by C.S. Forester. During my peace corps days, I listened to several audio versions of the books and found them to be both exciting yarns of derring do but also a fascinating character study of a man who is both shy and cerebral but also fierce and courageous. During the course of the series, he makes his way up the naval career ladder by using his quick wits and intelligence as well as a bloody good lot of luck. In this particular episode, Horatio goes from being an unemployed captain (war being temporarily over makes for an oversupply of naval officers) to being put in charge of a ship and sent on a secret mission to France. As always, he ends up entangled in the thick of some action and we're treated to raids on forts, cannons being blown up, hand to hand combat and lotsa ships shooting at each other. What could be better than lots of men waiving their big swords around? Waiving their big guns? lol. *ahem*

What do these films have to offer the romance fan? Well, for one thing there is plenty of chisel jawed Ioan (prounced yo-ahn) Gruffud to gaze upon. Then there are those lovely sailing ships and period costumed sailors and officers. Best of all, the hearty male camaraderie and brotherhood amongst the characters is touching and dare I say, has a hint of something deeper? Ok, I'm sure it was never meant to be seen as such, but my mind goes where it will. heh. So sue me.

Go swash a buckle and check this series out.

Lover Enshrined

2008-09-03T07:10:00.001-04:00

Disclaimer: M'kay so this is totally not a "review". Because the way I see it...everyone who wanted to read this book has already done so and everyone who got pissed off at JRW after V's book has already decided not to bother. So rather than try to condense 500+ pages of book into one short review, I'm going to be lazy and just ramble about stuff that I liked/disliked/noticed/missed in Lover Enshrined.

That out of the way. First thing, this is not a romance. Repeat NOT a romance. Are there romantic elements? Sure thing, but in no way do they take center stage. But despite this fact or maybe even because of it, this book read better to me than the previous outting. There's lots of jumping around between the Phury/Cormia story, the JM/Blay/Quinn story, the lessers, the other random BDB dudes, Rhev (oh yes!), the Chosen (oh noes!) and the ever-more-violent war between the lessers and vamps. If you don't like the scene you're reading, just wait a minute cuz a totally new thread is going to be joined in a sec. Never a dull moment! Oh wait...yeah there are a few. Mainly anytime the "hero" is onstage. *sigh*

Phury is a disappointment. I have to say. He was never my fav Brother (yeah, that would be Rhage, duh) but I always had a soft spot for him and was looking forward to seeing him get his HEA. By the end of this book, as he was contemplating suicide I was urging him to go ahead and do it and save us all the trouble. Horrid, I know. But s'rsly. whine whine whine. Internal monologues. Woe is me. wahhhhh. And both he and Cormia indulged in my ultra-pet-peeve, the old "push you away for your own good cuz i am not worrrrrthy" schtick. ugh.

The upshot is that Cormia actually turned out to be ok. Her introduction in the previous book was less than stellar and I had zero hopes for her, but in fact she learns to grow something of a backbone and comes into her own. Not anything near the level of a Jane or a Bella, but still better than expected. Unfortunately, she and Phury spend most of the book separated for one lame reason or another. Cormia actually has more face time with JM it seems. I was kinda rooting for him to make a move on her and steal her away from Phury. Seeing as Phury couldn't make up his mind about her and couldn't be bothered to get with her. Would have served him right.

Speaking of John Matthew, I have to give him props. In the previous books I have always been bored with his parts and skimmed through them to get back to the main h/h storyline. He becomes much more interesting and complex in this go-round. JM, Blay and Quinn as a trio really work, and their interactions and coming-of-age probably are the best part of the book. Oh yeah, and did I mention that we finally do get a teeny tiny m/m kiss? mmm. I want Blay to have his own damned book. plz. kthx.

However, I have no complaint that the next book is scheduled to be about our drug-dealing mafioso-esque friend Rhev. We get to know a lot more about him and his sympath side and he's not what he seems on the surface. I like how he's got like a dual-nature thing going and how he's both good and evil. Should make for some compelling drama in the next story. At least it sure better if it's going to be in frackin' HARDCOVER. Pffft. Library, here I come.

Other random thoughts. Nice continuation of the Z/Bella story. Z has really been a mainstay throughout the books and he always gets the best lines. And why the hell does my man Rhage only get a few little measly moments? And don't even get me started on the serious lack of V. As for Butch, he never was one of my favs so I didn't much notice his presence or lack thereof. The real star of LE tho. It's gotta be the cat Boo. (excuse for gratuitous LOLcat posting)

What else? Well, the lessers are more interesting and seem to have more of a gameplan this time. Omega is turning out to have an actual backstory and not just be there for the sake of villainy. And who knew...the Scribe Virgin is capable of getting talked back to! Most importantly (spoiler!) Tohr is back. Not in any kind of good shape but he's alive. I knew it all along. Some nice moments between him and JM. And oh YEAH before I forget...nice moments between JM and Xhex. Woot! The boy is growing up and growing into that hot big body of his. I can't wait to see what the future has for these two. I know I'm in the minority but I really dig Xhex. For all of the complaining people do about the lack of strong women characters in the series, she has gotta be the antithesis to the typical BDB heroine. so yeah, looking forward to that one.

All in all? This ain't yo' momma's BDB book! And by that I mean, this series has definitely moved from the romance category to the urban fantasy/paranormal category. As a romance reader it makes me a bit sad because I found the first 3 books to be totally riveting and emotional. However, I get that as Ward delves more into her world, the list of characters keeps growing and you can only cover so many of them in a certain amount of space. The good (or perhaps bad?) thing for me is that I'm still compelled to read them and I still raced through this one just about as fast as I devoured the previous installments. For all the goofy slang and over-the-top-ness, the BDB is still damned entertaining and I believe I am here for the duration.

(pssst, check it out. Gerard Butler as a vampire. LOL!)

Whassit

2008-09-02T08:10:00.006-04:00

Good morning friends. Did everyone have a nice Labor Day weekend? I was just thinking to myself that one of the best parts of a 3-day weekend is that it is accompanied by a 4-day work week. yay!

Random notes for the day in no particular order.

1. Lisabea and I collaborated on a ManLoveMonday post yesterday. If you haven't already done so, you can read it here. It's fun and goofy and full of pretty menz photos. Hope you like.

2. Way back in February, I thought it would be fun to see how many people were already wishing for JR Ward's Lover Enshrined on paperbackswap.com before it was even out. 477! And for shits and giggles I put myself on the list to get it at position 478. Well, guess what? It just arrived on Friday. LOL! Think about that. Some 400+ people bought it, read it, and traded it out on PBS. That's a high traffic, high volume book there. To compare, I've been on the wait list for Judy Cuevas' Dance for freakin' EVER and I still haven't budged from number 33.

3. In reference to LE, I'm about halfway through it at this point. Initial thoughts include:
- Yes, Phury is a whiny baby and I want to slap him
- Cormia is not turning out to be as wussy as expected
- Normally I get really tired of the John Matthew interludes but this time they are interesting
- Like others have noted, this book is definitely NOT romance-centric. Pretty standard urban fantasy with a big cast of characters. Not sure how I'm feeling about that.
- Rhevenge!!!!!!
- Regardless of my jonesing for the old-skool type of BDB book (Lover Eternal *sniff*), JR's writing is still freaking addictive and I'm still compelled to find out WHAT HAPPENS NEXT! I had to force myself to put the book down and get to bed last night. So I guess that means the series isn't done with me yet.

3. I had a lovely time unplugging and relaxing yesterday at my cousin's country cabin up in WVA. My DBF and her DBF fished, and we gals lounged on inflatable rafts in the pond. Clear blue skies, sun, breeze, Corona beer and all is right with the world. Good times.

a trip to the island

2008-08-28T09:19:00.003-04:00

So it is my first day to host the DIK blog. If you have nothing better to do with your time, go on over and check out my collection of harem men. *g*

In other news, I am still recovering from downing an entire bottle of wine last night. But I think I'll be ok. I drank a lot of water and ibuprofen. And now coffee. heh. Why can't my b-day fall on a weekend, I ask!!!!

29.

2008-08-27T07:45:00.000-04:00

Thus begins my last year in the 20s. Tick tock!

DBF tells me that an i-pod may be in my future. woot! I will only be like a decade late in catching up on the latest gadgets. heh.

i will find you

2008-08-23T23:38:00.004-04:00

So tonight is my first night back on my own, so to speak. DBF moved back into his residence hall on campus. While I will miss having him around, it's not like we don't see each other every day during the semester. So it will be alright. I'll just miss having to roll over and shake him to stop his snoring. heh. Oh okay and I may just miss him for other reasons too. but enough of that. lol.

A friend of mine came over to hang out with me tonite, something that we rarely get to do. She's a filmmaker and documentary producer and has done some really cool stuff in her life. We get along great but just are both busy and have a hard time coordinating time to do stuff. So taking the evening to relax, catch up, watch some Olympics, eat some great food and then introduce her to the all-time classic film "The Last of the Mohicans"...was just too fun.

As we were watching LOTM, I couldn't help but think back to my first viewing. I was 12 years old just about to turn 13. It was the summer before I would make the big switch from our grade school to high school (both were boarding schools) which was on a completely different island. I was so excited to be going away to the BIG school but also nervous about becoming a teenager and starting that phase of my life. I remember seeing this movie and just being so caught up in the drama and passion of it. I was utterly enthralled. I think I cried. The movie was, to me, a Very Big Deal. I remember hunting through magazines by candlelight later on that night to find a one-page ad of the movie poster, ripping it out and posting it on my wall. That page was to follow me to school to be posted on my dorm room wall and back home each break. Eventually it came back to the States with me and was posted on my bedroom wall there. I think I finally retired it from my wall decor sometime in college, but it still lies in a storage box somewhere. Witness to my childhood obsession with romance, passion and adventure.

I got ahold of a tape copy of the soundtrack and played it incessantly. I taught myself how to play the main theme songs on the piano and would lose myself in the music. Whenever I had a chance to rewatch the film, I did so. I recall sitting in Biology class with a girlfriend and writing notes back and forth about how hot Daniel Day-Lewis was in the kissing scene. (come to think of it, this note-writing thing...was kinda like blogging and texting...back in the old days).

All of these funny little memories came back to me tonight as I watched the film yet again with my friend and witnessed her reactions to it. And you know what? It really is a great movie! It's not just my 12-year-old nostalgia apparently. She loved it and was totally drawn in. And she does this stuff (make films) for a living. heh. We had a good time.

I can't talk about LOTM without leaving you with the ultimate kiss. In retrospect, I still think it's an awfully HOT scene despite the fact that both characters are fully closed and nowhere near a bed. The total focus and absolute connection between the h/h is far more passionate than any bow-chicka-bow that I've ever seen. This is romance, folks! Enjoy!

timesuck

2008-08-18T20:57:00.003-04:00

that iz all.

i just watch for the "action"

2008-08-14T21:48:00.003-04:00

Is it wrong that I was watching this very exciting moment and anticipating that it would become even more exciting with a little more droppage of those swimsuits? *sigh* I live in hope. But really, what do you call that lovely muscle that runs from the hip down to the um...nether regions? I don't know it's name, but I know that I sure like seeing it!

Olympic watching is so educational. *ahem*

Anyone else enjoying these games? Fav moments?

go world

2008-08-12T21:11:00.003-04:00

hey there, world. What's up? Oh yeah....the OLYMPICS!!! I have no idea why I am so fascinated by the games. S'rsly. I'm not typically a sports person and I don't follow any particular sport throughout the year. (Well, with the exception of the occasional figure skating or gymnastic thing caught while flipping channels.) But yeah, something pretty transfixing about this whole 2+ weeks of international competition and drama. How bout that Michael Phelps? It's almost insane how fast he swims. The men's team gymnastic competition last night was intense. And oh yeah, who knew that synchronized diving was a sport? not me! (I still can't quite decipher how the judges can figure out how to award points) But it's all pretty fascinating. Would be even better if NBC wasn't determined to manufacture sappy drama and tell us how to feel. Just let me draw my own conclusions, dammit!

On the reading front, I have completed the latest Kresley Cole (loved it), McCarty's "Sam's Creed" (mmm, sexay) and Joanna Bourne's "My Lord and Spymaster" (that gal can WRITE). All deserve reviews which I am currently too distracted to write. But that just gives me an excuse to re-read them later. heh.

And finally, I would like to wish my dear friend KristieJ a very happy belated birthday! May your day be blessed with muliple RICHard sightings. *g*

kicking my own arse

2008-08-07T20:24:00.003-04:00

So there's a new little strip mall about a mile from my house and one of the businesses that just opened is a Taekwondo school. DBF used to practice martial arts, so one day I dropped in and picked up some info for him thinking he might want to get involved (he didn't). About a month later, I got a promo thing from them in the mail offering two weeks of classes for free (plus a uniform). DBF was like...you should try it. And I was like...yeah, why not?

Tonight was my first class. It was fun, lots of people younger (and better) than me. Kick, kick, kick. I am going to be one sore kitty tomorrow. But I'm curious to do this and see how I like it. And how it likes me. Maybe I'll magically turn into a kick-ass heroine. heh. Or not.

RWA wrap-up

2008-08-03T20:58:00.004-04:00

Although I technically arrived back home early on Thursday morning and actually missed all of the actual RWA conference, I have been so busy catching up on work, email and sleep that I just haven't had the courage to blog. I'm now sitting here beside DBF, scary "when animals attack" type show on in the background. eeek!

Flashback to exactly one week ago. I woke up bright (dark actually) and early on Sunday morning around 3:30am. The drive to the airport takes about 45 minutes but I always give myself tons of time to navigate parking, security, etc. By 7:00 am, I was happily ensconced on my first JetBlue flight. 5 hours goes a lot faster when you have satellite TV with tons of channels to surf. heh. I arrived at the Oakland airport around 9am and was picked up by a friend and her sister. They took me to the neighborhood where they grew up and we hit up a local breakfast eatery. Then it was off to San Francisco to see all the touristy sites. I was really lucky to have local guides and the independence of a car. We did the hills and I almost had a heart-attack thinking about driving my stick shift car there. Pier 39, the "crooked street", the Golden Gate, Chinatown, and all kinds of fun neighborhoods. We got stuck in traffic near Folsom Street (which was blocked off for a party) and saw some festive fair-goers. The sign said "adult themed" event. And the assless chaps that one guy was wearing right by my window concurred with that assessment. omg! Apparently cellulite is not limited to women. My only regret is that I was not quick enough with the camera. I really wanted to present photographic evidence to my pahtnah lisabea.

After a totally full day of sight-seeing, shopping and eating, I checked into my hotel in Japantown. Lucky me! They gave me a free upgrade to a suite. Why, I dunno, but no complaints here. I had my own sauna. *g* I was operating on only a few hours of sleep, had spent the whole day on the go, and my body thought it was still on EST. So all I remember is crashing into bed. And then waking up early to go to my workshop.

Monday morning - We'll skip all of the boring workshop details (this was a business trip) and get to the evening. I braved the public transportation in the form of a bus (saving me lots of money) and met up with bloggers KristieJ, katiebabs, ciara, tracy, and alys. After chatting about books n' stuff, we got a recommendation from the hotel concierge and set out to walk (and walk and walk) to a Thai restaurant. Yummy food, funny conversation, and tasty drinks were all on the menu. Then we walked (and walked some more) back towards the hotel. We ended up at a bar where beer was consumed by moi and katiebabs somehow convinced poor lil' alys to do a shot of goldschlagger (sp?). hooooowheee! That is strong stuff. Alys looked just a little dazed and confused for the rest of the night.

Tuesday - more of the same work stuff all day. Then I took the bus again, being an old hand by now, and met (omg) pahtnah!!! woot! I blogged about this previously, so I'll sum up quickly. Sushi was had. Drinks were consumed. Hilarity ensued. And then we made it back to the hotel bar where we hung out with bloggers Wendy and Rosie as well as author/blogger Carrie Lofty. It was great to finally meet Carrie after having traded emails and blog comments for months. Carrie has the distinction of introducing me to my totally irrational love of Dr. Who (thanks!). And she and I are big huge U2 fans. Annnnd, check out her upcoming release! Pretty cover, natch. Great price, natch. Oh and something to do with Robin Hood-y type tales? I'm there. Watch this space (and the DIK blog) for more deets as we get closer to the release date.

Wednesday - workshop over, I slept in till like 9am! And then checked out of my hotel and headed downtown with my bags to the Marriot. Katie let me drop my bags in her room and then a bunch of us went out for breakfast. Also previously blogged about. Angela James is teh bestest. Not only does she work for Samhain (and I heart their books) but she also sports a nose piercing just like me. yay! Oh and she picked up the breakfast tab. awwww.

Fortified with a hearty breakfast, most of us went back up to the room to gab and blog. It was quite liberating to be able to talk about romance novels, sex, relationships et al with a group of smart ladies. Although we had lots of laughs, there were actually many good relationship 'smarts' to be gleaned from those who had been in long-term things (like marriage) for many years. For a young whipper-snapper like myself, it was nice to get some wisdom and advice. And stuff.

lb had a thing to go to (*cough*pitch*cough*) and I wasn't sure when she would be available to do our Castro district trip. So when katiebabs asked if I was ready to go to the Today Show filming at Borders, I went for it. We walked to one Borders on Union Square, found out that in fact the taping was at another store, caught a cab and made it in time to meet and mingle, check out the shelves and chat with other bloggers and readers. Beverly Jenkins was asked to do a reading from one of her books and before they rolled tape she gave us the backstory. It sounded really interesting. And then my phone buzzed, so I dashed to a back corner of the store. lb had finished her thing and we were on for our big trip to the Castro. So I had to duck out. Sorry Beverly!

lb has already blogged in great detail about our field trip to the "gay" district of San Fran. Let me just say that the outting (har) was fun fun fun. Not only was there a cool vibe in the area but it was great to hang out with someone that I've been blogging with for months. It felt a bit like our chats on AIM, but live and in technicolor. S'rsly. Good times. She cracks me up. Castro was great...I got a print copy of MFC! woot! And we visited a sex store and I saw pictures of acts that I had hitherto not imagined. lol. Verra educational.

We rode the cable car trolley thingie back up to the middle of town and made it back to the hotel in time for the big literacy signing. There was quite a line to get into the ballroom, but once you made it in, it was like a big candy store. books! authors! A to Z. I was a little shy to talk to some of them. Mainly because I was on a strict budget and simply could not buy books from everyone. *sniff* I had a nice little chat with Joanna Bourne in which we discussed the French language, my experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in W. Africa and her time in the same region. And she signed a copy of My Lord and Spymaster for me. I'm so looking forward to reading it.

Other authors I met and said hi to include Elizabeth Hoyt, Connie Brockway, Ann Aguirre, and Madeline Hunter. I begged Kresley Cole for some horn-lickin' in Rydstrom's upcoming story, which garnered a laugh from her. She's frickin' beauuuutiful. *envy* What else...oh yeah. Jade Lee managed to convince me that I needed her book Tempted Tigress. And I ran into Laura Baumbach and scored little goody bags promoting her and Josh Lanyon's upcoming release Mexican Heat (holy HOTness!) Said goody bag included an adorable shot glass. I can't wait to try it out.

There was a little blogger get-together which I only got to catch the beginning of. Thankfully, I did snag a piece of pizza before catching a cab back to Oakland and my red-eye flight to D.C. I made it back to my car, drove home (somehow managing not to fall asleep at the wheel) and crossed paths with DBF as he was driving to work. We exchanged air kisses and then I went home and crashed.

In retrospect, I am really really happy that I was lucky enough to have a work event to go to in San Fran that just happened to fall around the same dates as RWA. I feel super lucky. Not only did I get to see old friends but also meet lots of new ones. I don't talk about my romance reading to anyone within my "real life" circle of acquaintances, so it's not only a relief to be able to do so but also totally thrilling to be with others who "get it". Can't wait for next year in DC...practically my back yard. :)

My day at RWA

2008-07-30T16:24:00.004-04:00

Ahoy! So I'm here in San Francisco (as evidenced by photos below). My work conference thingy was all day Monday and Tuesday and was very productive. Monday night, I met up with blogger buddies KristieJ, katiebabs, ciara, alys, and tracy and we walked for EVER to get to a yummy Thai restaurant. kb has posted some wild n' crazy photos on Ramblings on Romance. Don't believe it...I wuz not drunk. heh. ;)

Last night was a monumental event. I finally met my partnah in crime, ms. lisabea. We had a blast and mr. lisabea is a really good sport, it has to be said. He went out with us crazy ladies and endured an evening of sushi and squeeing and sake. Back at the hotel lobby, we met up with rosie and author Carrie Lofty and just hung out at the bar drinking and talking. heh. Carrie has a book coming out in December called "What a Scoundrel Wants". More about that later (looks fab, can't wait!). I had to head back to my hotel in Japantown and pretty much crashed. I'm still getting used to this 3-hour time change thingy.

This morning we ventured forth to find a reasonably priced breakfast (the hotel buffet is like $20+) and were thrilled to find...wait for it...a DENNY'S! woot! Grand slam, baybey! Samhain editor Angela James (who has a fun blog) joined us and we had an excellent time slamming coffee, eggs, pancakes and assorted meat products. mmmmm...foooood. Not only is Angela cool to hang with and cool because Samhain has such great books (and such nice covers, ahem) but she also bought our breakfast. awww. Too many nice people!

mkay, so time to head out for more fun and excitement. Will try to check in later. Wish you were here!

teddy, lb and I are going to try to hit some of those recommended locations that you told us about. report to follow. ;)

edited to add: i totally hijacked SB Sarah in the hallway. poor thing. lol. She's a good sport and freakin' funny too.

oh yeah and I met Gena Showalter and Jill Monroe (along with rosie and kristiej) in front of the elevators.

Guess where I am?

2008-07-28T14:51:00.002-04:00

More details to follow...

one down, one to go

2008-07-17T07:34:00.005-04:00

Wow, to look at this blog, you would think I'm a total slacker. No updates for 10 freaking days? eeeeeek!!!

I feel like I've been trapped in some sort of parallel universe. Getting up in the morning and reading my marketing book over coffee before hurridly throwing together lunches for DBF and myself and rushing to work. Coming home from a full day at the office and sitting right down to study until bed time. I'm not sure what exactly it is about this semester but it's been much more time-consuming than the previous two I took on this MBA path. A combination of lots of busy-work in the marketing class (not hard, just takes a lot of time) and really dense theory in the economics class. Last night after completing my marketing final in record pace, I came home and worked on another assignment for econ. That final won't be until Sunday night. So from today till then, I have to focus on memorizing four or five chapters of scintillating material on topics like unemployment, inflation and whatnot. Thrilling.

But on the positive side, I did get a new book in the mail (yay PBS!) and have been reading it in agonizingly slow increments as I find the time. This is a different way of reading for me. Usually, I sit down and devour a book in roughly an hour, maybe two. This time around, I'm just grabbing 5 or 10 minutes to read a chapter or two. So at least it will last longer. Which book? Ah yes, the incomparable Loretta Chase. The Lion's Daughter. I believe I put this on my wishlist after reading that Chase-a-thon over at Book Smugglers. Or maybe it was something else. I can't remember...just that I read that it was good and stuck it on my list and when it was available, the nice people at PBS asked me if I wanted it. So far it is entertaining. The heroine is teetering dangerously close to annoying, but she hasn't crossed the line yet so I'm happy about that. And the hero is funny and charming and reminds me a little of Rupert from the other book. Anyways, yay books. The cover makes me laugh.

(see why I haven't been blogging...I really have nothing interesting to say. lol)

In other news, DBF and I will be staying home this weekend instead of going on a four day vacation as we had planned. The long story short is that we had made some plans with a group of three other couples to go to the beach and rent two houses, go fishing, relax, etc. We're not super tight with any of said couples, but we are acquaintances and thought it would be a good opportunity for us to get out and see another part of the state...do something we normally would not do on our own. A week before the trip, we were asked by the couple who has been planning everything if we would mind not sharing a room (mind you, said room had two single beds in it, lol) because they are hosting a European exchange student who had marked on her application that she is a Christian. And they are Christian (pretty religious too, but we've always been able to live and let live in the past) and didn't want to offend her sensibilities. Apparently the idea of me and my BF, a couple in their late twenties that have been together for five years but aren't officially "married" sharing a room (again, with TWO SINGLE BEDS) might offend her. or something. Anyways, DBF was so not pleased to be asked this question. Highly insulted and really upset. At first I just thought it was silly and was inclined to shrug and say, sure whatever, just let them have their way. But now I see his point. We were supposedly equal participants in this venture, were going to be PAYING for the privelege of our sleeping quarters just the same price as everyone else. Out of all four couples, why would we be asked to split up just for the sake of some stranger's potential ease of mind? And they didn't even know if this student would actually CARE (she's from freaking france, I'm sure she's been exposed to the concept of unmarried couples) AND she was going to be staying in the other house anyways and not in the house where we were. Even though it was a "request" and not a demand, we felt that we wouldn't be comfortable now with the group, so we cancelled. ugh. It was a big freaking mess.

so yeah, no mini vacation at the end of the summer term. :( We'll try to come up with something that the two of us can do cheaply and funly (heh) before the end of August, but it won't include random 'friends'. *sigh*

forget reading

2008-07-08T21:54:00.004-04:00

Well, I may not have time for reading or blogging in the mad race for the MBA summer term finish line. BUT I have found time to listen to an audiobook as I drift off to sleep in the evening. La Nora. This is her best, imho. Those Quinn boys are just fab. I'm partial to Phillip myself. Mainly because his book was my first NR read. But Cam and Ethan and Seth are all keepers too. What is so cool about these books is that while the romance between each brother and his woman is good and romantic and stuff, what's really great is the interaction between the guys. Miz Nora gets it right and it feels so natural and real. I luvs it.

So yeah. No books being read (except for that monster marketing tome on the sidebar). But at least there is some audiobook goodness to see me through.

The other end of this tunnel includes a quick trip to the other side of the country (yay San Fran!) and dinner, drinks and other hijinks with some of my blogging friends. I try to keep this in mind as I slog through the homework. It's like a carrot to keep me motivated.

You can run, but you can't hide

2008-07-01T22:30:00.002-04:00

K, so I am back from my roadtrip, but if I thought that it would be a vacation from my crazy life of work and MBA madness, I was sorely mistaken. le sigh. I'm up to my ears in homework and of course I am putting off things like group projects that MUST be done in the next two weeks so that said weeks will be even more stressful. Excellent!

Anyways, here is a LOLcat to brighten your day/night. One day soon I hope to actually blog again. Might not be until MBA summer school lets out and I get one glorious month of freedom from class (not from work, mind you, but I'll take what I can get.) Oh and let's start the countdown to San Fran! woot!

Roadtrip!

2008-06-27T07:33:00.002-04:00

DBF and I are off to drive up to New York state. This weekend we are visiting a couple that we were friends with back in Africa. She's ex-peace corps like me, he's Malian like DBF. And they have three adorable kids, one of whom we've never met. So hooray for roadtrips!

See you all next week. Behave yourselves! Don't do anything that I wouldn't do. heh.

Of DIKs and things...

2008-06-24T21:05:00.004-04:00

(The picture has nothing to do with this post...I just have a soft spot for LOLcats and thought that was funny. *g*)

....

Once upon a time there was a group of five or six romance bloggers who were chatting on AIM. A good time was had by all as books were discussed and best reads evah were named. One thing led to another and the notion of a DIK (Desert Island Keeper) list took shape. Initially there were six of us in the chat, so we decided that each person could bring six books to our made-up island. Which would make a library of 36. That's how it started. Since then, the DIK-mania (heh) has grown and morphed into a free-for-all hero-choose-a-thon and now (drumroll) a blog! Excellent reads, hot men, author interviews, these things will be covered in detail. Good times.

I've been pathetically remiss in shouldering my share of the blog's duties (shakes fist at summer MBA courses and full-time work schedule) but I always seem to find time to pimp myself. ha. Well, that is...today is/was my "about me" day on the group blog. So if you wanna know my answers to such scintillating and life-changing questions as "what is your favorite sex song?", then hurry on over to the DIK Ladies blog. woot!

MLM - The Hell You Say!

2008-06-23T07:48:00.006-04:00

I should have known. I was warned. Everyone said that Jake Riordan would break my heart and it's true. *sniff* I may never get over this.

Oh hi there. Did you come to celebrate ManLove Monday? Yeah. I'm sorry, but I'm not in the festive mood. Let me tell you why. I fell in like (as in, plz be my BFF) with this guy named Adrien English. He's everything a BFF should be. Funny, witty. Wry and sarcastic. Good taste in books and movies and a thoughtful gift shopper. S'rsly. Every girl needs a good gay friend. And I want Adrien to be mine. But I can't stand watching him get his heart crushed by his erstwhile closeted boyfriend, Homicide Detective Jake Riordan. The rotten bastard!!!!

Lemme go back a bit. I'm clearly getting worked up. See, there is this mystery series written by the incomparable Mr. Josh Lanyon. The Adrien English Mystery Series. And this past week, I read book 3. Title: The Hell You Say. I think it's been reviewed very soundly and thoroughly by many other bloggers out there. So I'm not even going to try to do a proper review. This is my quickie review. But yeah, I'll attempt a brief summary.

Adrien finds himself in the middle of a mystery that includes young college-aged occultist wannabes, missing persons, pentagrams drawn in red blood and a university professor that may or may not be all that he seems. In the meantime, Adrien's mother is thinking of getting remarried and he has to negotiate the relationship with the new potential in-laws. And of course there is the police detective that he's been seeing secretly. Secretly because said policeman is totally in the closet and can't admit to himself let alone the world that he is teh gay! The plot moves along at a good pace. We're not sure who we can trust and the one person we ought to be able to trust (the rat bastard boyfriend) ends up pulling a whopper of a betrayal. But I'm not bitter. No. Uh uh. *ahem*

Anyways, back to the writing. It's good stuff. I've read short stories by Lanyon before and the elements I liked about his writing there stay true here. He has a deft touch with humor and takes the maxim of "show me don't tell me" to heart. The writing is tight, and we're treated to Adrien's take on events as they happen. Being inside Adrien's head is a great place to be. He's funny and sarcastic but also has an edge of vulnerability. It's the vulnerability, the ordinariness and realness of him that really gets me. Because unlike some heros in a murder mystery, Adrien acts like you might expect a normal person to react to finding things like dead bodies. Shock, fear, confusion but with a stubborn determination to feret out the truth behind the lies. It's this determination and ability to move beyond the knee-jerk reaction to horrible events that makes Adrien such a scrappy contender. He may not be a muscle-bound he-man, but he's got a brain and he's not afraid to use it.

I finished this book in a swirling mix of emotions. Happy that I had had the chance to meet Adrien. Satisfied with the denouement of the mystery. And absolutely spitting furious at Jake. Really. Angry. (just ask my buddy lisabea...I was sending her raging emails. lol) I think that it's a testament to Lanyon's writing skill that I feel so strongly about these fictional characters. I may not like what he's done with them, but I'm going to trust (fingers crossed) that it will all work out in the end...be that the next book or the one after it. I'm certainly going to be along for the ride.

Visit Josh Lanyon's official website here. Buy The Hell You Say here as an e-book or at Amazon in paperback.

Oh and be sure to visit my partner-in-crime lisabea for more MLM today.

Just Cuz

2008-06-22T16:18:00.002-04:00

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

alright, this seems to be the blog meme o' the day. I have to laugh at mine. How sad and true it is. poor lonely blog. I really need to rescue it from its solitude. lol.

Congratulations to the happy couples

2008-06-18T09:38:00.002-04:00

*sniff* Such a happy day for so many...and such a long time coming.

More photos at SF Gate. Careful though, you just might get a little choked up.

Monday exclusive - where's the beef?

2008-06-16T10:25:00.004-04:00

First of all, can I just share this picture with you? How hilarious is that? S'rsly, I start convulsing in giggles whenever I look at it. A classic DOH moment if there ever was one. Well, maybe this one also qualifies.

DOH!

Ok, I just thought those were funny and would help start off the week with a giggle.

Moving on...

Yesterday whilst speaking with my parents during our once-a-month-or-so phone conversation, my mom and I started to discuss menus and one thing led to another and we got talking recipes. Our family likes to cook, you see. As we were talking, Dad was in the other room whipping up a batch of homemade biscuits and sausage gravy (yum!). And Mom was telling me about a great recipe she had for daging rendang (Indo/Malay beef dish). We lived in Indonesia for some thirteen plus years and Indonesian dishes are like comfort food for me. Unfortunately, as an adult I haven't always been able to find recipes for the dishes I ate as a child. So when she started talking about this recipe and I realized that I happened to have all of the necessary ingredients on hand, I asked her to email me the recipe.

After we got off the phone, I rushed to my email and started hitting refresh. No recipe. I gave it some time figuring the length of the intertubes from England to USA might have gotten tangled. Refresh. No recipe. So I shot mom a quick email asking if she was going to send me that darned recipe after all, cuz I wanted to make the dish for supper. As I waited, I googled around and found a plethora of alternative recipes for daging rendang. They all were a little different. Apparently, there are multiple ways to prepare a dish, not necessarily one RIGHT way or wrong way. Kind of like book reviews. Anyways, with this in mind, I would like to share with you an exclusive recipe for a different way to prepare beef than your standard hamburger helper meal. My mommy's recipe! *g* For people with an open mind and an adventurous palate, this may be something to try. At least I can say that my boyfriend polished of a huge helping of it last night and gave me big props on my cooking mojo.

Daging Rendang
600 grams lean beef (1.5 pounds)
4 shallots sliced (small red onions)
6 fresh red chillies (or cayenne powder to suit your taste)
1-inch knob fresh ginger, grated

4 cloves garlic
300 ml coconut milk
50 ml. Vegetable oil
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
Salt
Ground black pepper

Chop the meat into cubes and place in bowl. Chop shallots and place half to one side. Chop the chillies and garlic and mix with ground ginger, half the shallots and a small amount of coconut milk. Pour this paste over the meat, stir to evenly coat. Marinate for 20-30 minutes. Heat oil in a large frying pan and sauté the remaining shallots until soft, add the meat along with the marinade. Season with the coriander, cumin, salt and freshly ground black pepper. Pour in the remaining coconut milk and boil, stirring frequently. Lower heat to simmer until the meat is tender, approximately 1 1/4 hours. Finally, add a bit more coconut milk and continue cooking over medium heat uncovered until the liquid has been almost completely reduced.

sexy pasta

2008-06-15T17:25:00.003-04:00

Sunday afternoon. I'm sitting here multi-tasking: watching Discovery channel specials out of the corner of one eye, studying for an economics quiz on my laptop, simmering some Indonesian dishes for supper (which smells fantastic, btw). And my attention was caught by this ridiculously funny ad for pasta.

Can someone please tell me how being a good mom by serving your kids and extended family a special kind of pasta from the box will net you a hot Italian stallion? Not complaining about the eye candy, but the juxtaposition of the elements just makes me laugh. I'm switching pasta brands NOW! *snort*

Happy Loving Day

2008-06-12T19:11:00.005-04:00

Loving Day is an annual celebration held on June 12, the anniversary of the 1967 United States Supreme Court decision Loving v. Virginia which struck down all anti-miscegenation laws remaining in 16 states (according to wikipedia)

It's mind-blowing to me to think that some 40-odd years ago my relationship would have been illegal in the state where I currently live. Heck, our future president's parents would have been criminals in 16 states at the time of his birth just for the fact of their marriage. Amazing.

So I hug my loved one tight to me and celebrate our multi-colored, multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-cultural love. Diversity is beautiful. I pray that someday soon my gay and lesbian friends will be able to claim the same equal rights that I take for granted.

Happy Loving Day!

Blast from the past - Princess Bride

2008-06-09T08:03:00.004-04:00

So after that all-day study-a-thon, I came home last night totally wiped out. DBF and I curled up on the couch together, ate pizza and flipped through the TV channels. Turns out that Princess Bride was on, and DBF had never seen this class film! I had great pleasure in introducing him to one of my all-time feel-good favs.

I mean seriously...this movie is quotation heaven!
"As you wish!"
"No more rhymes now, I mean it!" "Anybody want a peanut?"
"Inconceivable!"
"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
"My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father. Prepare to die."
"Your friend is not all dead, he's mostly dead....All dead and there is only one thing you can do....go through his clothes and check for loose change."
"Mawwiage...mawwiage is what bwings us togever today."
"There is a shortage of perfect breasts in this world. Twould be a pity to damage yours."
"Drop. Your. Sword."

*sigh*

I had such a teenage crush on Westley, although I didn't really want to be Buttercup. Even then I could realize that she was too much of a ditz (check out her lame reaction to the R.O.U.S. in the fireswamp.) But Westley...oh my little heart went pitter pat. I distinctly remember wearing out a hole in the VHS tape (remember those?) on the part when they rolled down the mountain and had their big reunion. AND being annoyed at Fred Savage's character for stopping all the good kissing bits.

Memories. Heh. Anyways, my BF really enjoyed the movie and now I'm sure to hear the Inigo Montoya line in the future.

Anyone else want to reminisce with me? Btw, if you are brave, ABC has this 20 year retrospective where they show then and now pics of the actors involved. My poor teenage crush...is seriously crushed. yikes!

economical studying

2008-06-08T11:31:00.003-04:00

Economics = study of the use of scarce resources

My scarce resource of free time is being consumed today by the study of economics. A mid-term exam looms at 6pm tonight (yes, SUNDAY night, ugh) and of course I am a professional procrastinator. So today will be spent unplugged from teh intertubes as I attempt to cram five chapters of boring theory into my brain, ready to be unleashed in five essay questions.

booyah.

What Happens in Vegas...

2008-06-05T08:34:00.001-04:00

At long last...my review of this anthology. First of all, let's talk about the cover. Phew, that's hot stuff. Definitely a book that would be fun to take out in public to read and watch people's reactions. heh.

Now I have found that anthologies tend to be a mixed bag. It's pretty rare that I find each entry to really 'work' for me and this book was no exception. Some of the stories were stronger than others. One of them really didn't work at all. I'm gonna give the little blurb from the back jacket and then try to quickly cover a thumbnail sketch of each plot and my take on each vignette.

First up...

Hot for You - Jodi Lynn Copeland
Cocktail waitress Carinna wants a man to tie her up, not tie her down. Little does she know that her most willing partner yet has something else planned for this fiery Latina bombshell.

Jack and Carinna have known each other forever. They were childhood friends and have remained friends into adulthood. Carinna has serious emotional baggage regarding getting serious about anyone and prefers to love 'em and leave 'em. Or at least to just have sex with no strings attached. When the story begins, we're told that she and Jack indulged in one night of hot sex a few months back and that they both got spooked by how vulnerable they felt one to another. After a high stakes game of poker, they begin to explore a sexual relationship that just might turn serious.

I think this was my favorite entry in the book. The author uses a device I haven't seen often which is alternating first person POV. The story is told in Carinna's voice for half a chapter or so, then we switch into Jack's head and get his take on what just happened as well as the next few moves of the plot. It sounds clunky, but oddly enough works very well here. Particularly because the conflict of the story lies in Carinna and Jack's differing take on "what it all means". Carinna is terrified of being tied down to any man. Jack realizes that she is the love of his life but that he has to convince her to get over her fears of commitment. I like the gender role reversal and the sexxoring is hot stuff. Overall, a satisfying little read and I'm going to keep my eyes open for more by this author.

Stripped - Lauren Dane
Dahlia is a burlesque dancer with a brain for business and a bod for sin. Her latest admirer may be a sweet-talking Casanova, but despite what he thinks she's not giving anything away for free.

Stripper by night, MBA student by day, Dahlia just wants to be respected for her brains and not her hot hot body! How dare our hero Nash hit on her after he sees her stripping, oh no, I'm sorry "burlesque dancing" (cuz apparently, there is a big difference). It's so unfair! *pout* Um, yeah. Clearly, I didn't buy into the setup of this one. Maybe I'm being too snarky, but the "I'm a stripper to pay for my MBA and I just don't understand why people don't take me seriously" schtick did not work for me. Probably because I myself am in the middle of an MBA program (and have not yet resorted to exotic dancing. lol).

Rich playboy Nash sees Dahlia dancing onstage at the club that his brother owns. We're told he's rich and a bit of a player so when he propositions Dahlia it's not surprising but a little disappointing. In general, I want my heros to be a little more heroic. Dahlia goes OFF on him (how dare you assume that just because I do burlesque dancing I am a slut...I'll have you know I am an MBA student, etc.) and he apologizes and tries to remedy the situation by being very polite and gentlemanly. He tries to get to know Dahlia as a person and spends the next few encounters wooing her gently. Interestingly enough, it doesn't take them all that long to embark on a relationship. The conflict in the story has more to do with Dahlia feeling like she's out of her league by being with a guy in a higher social class. For his part, Nash actually grows on me. For being a playboy, he reforms pretty quickly and seems genuinely attracted and devoted to Dahlia. I guess he's not a bad hero after all. And Dahlia is a nice person. So why don't I CARE more?

I'm not sure how to evaluate this story. It didn't really engage my emotions, so I never felt all that invested in the outcome. Not bad, not great. Average?

Red-Handed - Kit Tunstall
Meanwhile, Amy has the perfect plan to rob the Liege Casino blind...until the intimidating owner catches her red-handed. Now she knows she's going to pay...with both pleasure and pain.

Ah, the sexual blackmail plot. How do we love thee? Let me count the ways...

As the blurb indicates Amy is in the middle of robbing the Liege Casino with her no-account cousin who has convinced her that their family has to have this money or lose the farm (or something). She thinks she's a real tricky trickster but alas, Roan, the owner of said casino, is trickier and she gets caught. Uhoh! He hauls her away and threatens to hand her over to the cops, UNLESS.... Well, let's just say that somehow Amy ends up proposing that she play sub to Roan's very controlling dom side for the next month in exchange for him not turning her over to the law. Wow. Alrighty then. Before you call me a prude, let me just say that I can dig a little captive seduction/BDSM fantasy as much as the next gal as long as it's believable. But unfortunately, this one was not. I'm supposed to believe that through all of the wannabe BDSM stuff (and honestly, it didn't actually come across as genuinely kinky) these two are forging some kind of deep emotional bond. I just did not see it. We are treated to lots of internal angst in both Amy and Roan's thoughts, and I felt like smacking them both upside the head and telling them to quit being silly and just TALK to one another. And by the time Amy has had not one but TWO scary encounters with other dudes thinking that because she was Roan's sex slave she was fair game, I was SO over it.

The Deal - Anya Bast
Professional shill Cassidy is ready to experience a breathless rendezvous with her "friend with benefits." But when he proposes five delicious nights of sexy blackjack, the stakes have never been so high.

One can always rely on Anya Bast for a super hot story that hits all the right notes and entertains. This is a friends to lovers plot and I am a sucker for those. Cassidy was left at the altar by her fiance and has never recovered enough emotionally to trust another guy (not surprisingly). The best man at the cancelled wedding was James, and she's remained close friends with him. James has always been attracted to Cassidy but could never act on that connection because she was his friend's fiance. He's kept his distance for a year since the break-up to give her space, but now he wants to make his move. Five nights of blackjack with sexual prizes at stake? Oh yeah, this is the Vegas I'm talking about, baby!

This is a fun little tale. James and Cassidy are a great couple and they already know each other's quirks and foibles. This is part of why I dig the friends/lovers thing, especially in a short story that by its nature doesn't give one a lot of time to develop a relationship. We can get right down to the sexxoring, and hoo boy, it's hot. James is an adventurous sort, and it's fun to see him seduce Cassidy into letting go of her inhibitions. Cassidy regains a lot of the self-confidence she lost when she was jilted and she gets a sweet, hot sexy guy in the bargain. A definite win-win. I thoroughly enjoyed this entry and ended the book on a positive note.

Overall, I would give this anthology a B-. The best stories bookended the collection (first and last) and I'm going to keep Anya Bast on my list of go-to authors and add Jodi Lynn Copeland as a new author to watch. Oh, and I'm going to keep this book on my bedside table because it's fun to watch DBF double-take at the cover. lol.

A big thank you to Ann Aguirre for holding the contest and sending me the book. Mwah!