Nothing else matters ...

My dog keeps twitching her nose at me which is cracking me up beyond all belief. It shouldn't because she does it all the time, but it's totally hitting my funny bone today.

I'm kinda at a loss on what to do today. I cleaned the house on Wednesday (and by "house" I don't mean house at all. I mean my bedroom and bathroom.) and did all those stupid little things that I've been meaning to get to for ages. Now what? I'm just... adrift.

On the work front, I've been renting apartments like mad. I think I've rented six in the past week. That's a lot. All of a sudden we have a ton of people giving notice and I don't think I like it. It's far too much work for a delicate flower like myself. *blink blink*

I shipped Cole off to school today. He missed nearly the entire week with his stomach ailments. I'm just thrilled to have the house to myself again. Of course, having nothing to do to fill my alone time puts a bit of a damper on this but whatever. I'm cool with it.

And last but not least, a meager book post.
Book Blogger Hop, Follow Friday & Tagalong Friday (05/16/11) - I talk about how my underwear has skulls on it, that I was possibly a pirate in a former life, a few favorite books, some favorite characters and post a pic of a hot, tattooed man. Lovely.

That, my darlings, is all today. Maybe I'll go plant some flowers before it gets too hot out.
Later.

When my mom took the dogs to the vet not too long ago, the doc said that they had...umm, gained a little weight** and I needed to cut back on the amount of food my little darlings are getting every day. Okay. I can do that. So I cut them down and now I ask my family every day if Ruby's looking slimmer (she's the fatter of the two). I always get the same look, the one that says "Dude, it's been a week. I can't tell a difference." Whatever, family. I put my dogs on a diet, I want to see some results!

**Random aside: I would just like to mention that my minor obsession with peanut butter led to me buying a bag of after-Halloween discount Reese's. BAD IDEA! I'd like to take this moment to extend a big, fat Fuck You! to Reese's and their candy. And now I'm going to promptly take it back because WHAT IF THEY HEAR ME AND STOP MAKING PEANUT BUTTER CUPS?!?!?! WOE!!! The point in this is that my dogs aren't the only ones in the house who need to watch what they're eating.

NaNo stats:
I'm embarrassed to admit that I slacked like a champion slacker today. I wrote a grand total of 250 words. Boo. This is suck-a-licious because I've hit a really awesome part of the story with a revelation that I didn't see coming (but which makes perfect sense, thankyouverymuch) and I want to write it. I'm just momentarily unmotivated. I do, however, plan on getting this story done, in its entirety, by the end of the month.

No more slacking for me.

Book stuff:
Books #235 & #236 - Holiday Bound by Beth Kery & Snowy Night Seduction by Arianna Hart - Earlier this week, Samhain Publishing released a bunch of books as free downloads for the Kindle and Nook. I snapped up most of them. Now I've reviewed the first two of the lot.

Book Blogger Hop & Follow Friday - Why, yes. I did just admit that I keep trying to sell my son to the gypsies. Yeah, I don't know either.
30 days of books... Day 68 - High fantasy! Now with blood and guts. No, wait. That's usually present anyway.

There you have it.
I'm hungry, it's getting late. I should really eat.
Later.

It's hot and I'm on the edge of grumpy. Enjoyable? Not so much. So I'll keep this short.

I read a book.
Book #193 - Winter's Kiss (Vampires Realm) by F.E. Heaton - Very, very good. Plus, I totally won it through a contest, so I got a good book at no cost. Love that!
30 days of books... Day 15 - The last of my Scott Westerfeld books. I promise.

Ruby is giving me puppy dog eyes right now. Why? I have no idea. But it is starting to freak me out a little. Does she need to go outside? Does she need a belly rub? What? Tell me, dog! Tell me!

And that's all I got, people.
Later.

The Sharks are playing in San Jose. My boy's home from his day in Carmel with his dad. My dogs are not terrorizing each other. Sounds like bliss.

Randomly, Hailey scored a goal at her soccer game today. She was such a little trouper, running here and there and everywhere. One of the parents on the other team told my sister that Hailey was "really, really good". It was kinda awesome.

It looks like Ruby has rolled herself up into one of the blankets and can't get out. I'd help her but watching her roll around and try to extract herself is one of the funniest things I've seen this week. Darn it, she got out. Maybe she'll do it again later. *g*

Speaking of, remember how I said that the dogs aren't terrorizing each other. I was wrong. They're back to pretend fighting in the middle of the bed. The entertainment that I can find on a Saturday night. It's almost unbelievable!

Okay, okay. I read a book today. 2, actually.
Book #86 - Once Dead, Twice Shy (Madison Avery #1) by Kim Harrison - I've been looking forward to getting into this series simply because Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan series is one of my favorites. That said, the beginning of this book felt kinda like being tossed into the middle of an icy lake with rudimentary swimming skills. I was floundering. You literally get dropped into the middle of the story without a lot of clues as to why or how things are happening. Kim Harrison builds the backstory slowly (almost too slowly) but she does write likable characters, both bad and good, and that is probably the main reason I'm itching to get my hands on the next book. In a nutshell, Madison Avery is dead. She was scythed on her 17th birthday by a Dark Reaper but some quick thinking and a series of fortuitous events allows her to maintain the semblance of a human body despite being a ghost. Here's the thing - that's the backstory. That's the part you get in fits and starts over the beginning of the book. Apparently, if you read Madison's short story in Prom Nights from Hell you get some of that backstory in a little more cohesive package. I can't speak to that because I haven't read the story. The real story in this book starts with Madison trying to control the amulet she's stolen from the Reaper who scythed her and learn it's powers while fending off attacks by other Reapers who are trying to finish the job. Will I be reading the rest in the series? Undoubtedly. Am I enamoured of the series at this point? Not really. But I am determined to see where it's heading.

-and-

Book #87 - Club Dead (Sookie Stackhouse #3) by Charlaine Harris - The biggest draw for me with this book is that Bill is not present through a big portion of it. Honestly, I don't see what Sookie sees in him half the time. Well, I do see, I guess. She sees silence and sex. I guess that's a good combo when you're telepathic and people think you're crazy. Anyway. After Bill disappears, Sookie heads to Jackson to see what she can telepathically dig up about his whereabouts. With Werewolf Alcide Herveaux as her escort in the big city, Sookie tangles with fanatics, vampire royalty, jealous ex-girlfriends and an entire pack of motorcycle-riding, leather-wearing Werewolves who have been hired to stop Sookie from finding Bill. Eric is perfectly awesome in this book. He's refreshingly straightforward in his desire to sleep with Sookie and have her for himself. He's there when she needs him. He isn't afraid to be the vampire that he is. I don't get that from Bill. He's trying so hard to mainstream that when he slips up and acts like an actual vampire he ends up making all these excuses that kinda squick me. Yet, when Eric acts like a vamp, you expect it. Maybe I'm just prejudiced in his favor. Whatever. I like Eric. I'm not going to apologize for it.

Have I said enough yet? Okay.
Later.

Cole's watching Xena as I type this. Such a ridiculously fun show. I have so much love for it. I really like that both of the kids are getting into it right now. Hailey's all "Auntie, we need to watch another episode of Xena!" It cracks me up.

I woke up this morning with my arm aching like the dickens. I thought I had slept on it wrong until iron_knife asked me if it was from the altercation with the dog yesterday. I then attempted to re-enact how I was trying to pull the dog away from Ruby and was IMMEDIATELY beset by blinding pain. Yep. That was the reason. Awesome. It hurts like holy hell but my little girl is safe and doing fine so it was worth it.

And she is. Doing just fine. She was being her usual exuberant self today. I'm so glad. Seeing her all whimpering and shaky wasn't my best day ever.

I also finished another book ...
Book #9 - Not Flesh Nor Feathers by Cherie Priest - I still can't say enough good things about this author. I really, really like both her style of writing and her subject matter. And, by the gods, does she write a dense book. There's a lot of stuff going on and you have to pay attention and it's so worth it in the end. So, resident psychic Eden Moore gets thrown into a years old murder cover-up when the Tennessee river bursts her banks and allows the dead to walk. Can we say ZOMBIES anyone??

I'm off to work on my story. The deadline is looming. Friday. I'm on it!
Later!

I had a crappy napping day. It seems like every time I started the fall asleep, something conspired to keep me awake. The dogs would bark at something that only they could hear. The kids would come barging into my room. My sister and bro-in-law stopped by to drop off some of their boxes (they need to be moved out of their house by the end of the month but they can't move into their new one until the 1st, therefore they're storing boxes in our crawlspace). My stomach was growling something fierce. It was just a myriad of things.

*sigh*

Randomly, Cole and I are on the last few episodes of Xena season 1 and I was cracking up at the ep that first introduces Callisto. See, Callisto tells everyone that she's Xena and proceeds to wreak havoc across the countryside. I was totally like, "Whoa! Xena totally had her identity stolen. How topical." No fooling. I actually said that. It was really funny when it happened.

You know, I didn't get a whole lot done today. The dogs and I spent a big chunk of time outside cleaning up the deck. I watered our poor plants (can you believe that we've been rain-free for several days now? The puddles have almost completely dried up!)and swept and pruned back some of the dead stuff. The dogs ran back and forth and barked at passing cars. And passing birds. And a leaf. Good times, people. Good times.

Here are my two little girls enjoying the sun ...


Awwwwww!

Okay. I'm done.
Later!

You know, I really should have had a clue after the first time Ruby pooped after we brought her home from the shelter that she was going to be one of those dogs that ate EVERYTHING. Yeah. That rubber band in her poop should have given me some sort of inkling. Alas, I am sometimes slow. Today she tried to eat (1)a band-aid, (2)several pieces of tanbark, (3)a paper towel, (4)a cough drop wrapper and (5)the lid to her wet food. *face palm* I love the little beast but sometimes I think she might be a little slow.

In other amusing news, I'm trying to find a place to set my story in. I know the bulk of the story is in a small town but I needed a quiet, out of the way valley to locate my psychiatric hospital. I was on Wikipedia earlier idly looking for some place that would grab my attention (OOOH! Google maps would be a good one to check out!) and Cole asked me what I was doing. I told him I was trying to find a place to put my psychiatric hospital and he very seriously asked me if I was going crazy. O_o No. It's for my story. About the girl who can see ghosts. O_o Should it worry me that he had to ask me that? Have I been acting crazier than usual?

For the record, him asking me that distracted me so much that I never did find a good valley. Although the hospital will be fictional, I'd like it to have some basis in the real world. I'll do some more research tomorrow.

Cole's still coughing. And now I have a tickle in my throat. Lovely.

I have a bunch of fun looking movies to watch. I'd better get on that. Or, wait. Isn't Lost on tonight? Man, that's going to throw off my entire movie watching evening. In a good way.
Later!

I made soup for dinner tonight because we're supposed to be having this big, bad, motherfucker of a storm hitting us soon and it made me crave soup. It was very good. Both my mom and Heather agreed wholeheartedly. You know, sometimes new recipes just don't cut the mustard but this one was goooooood. Yum.

Although the soup was good, the storm still hasn't quite hit. We had a smattering of rain earlier but it was no 8-20 inches (20 in the mountains! Yikes!) so I'm expecting to wake up tomorrow to torrential downpours. Or just one downpour that is torrential. Or something that's torrential that resembles a downpour. Kinda like Niagara Falls but over the entire state of California.

Or, we could just have rain and I'll be happy.

Mmm. Soup.

I gave both Bailey and Ruby a bath today because they were starting to get a funk about them that was ... unpleasant. Nobody likes to smell stinky dogs. At least I don't. They're wrestling on my bed right now and they sound like Elephant Seals during mating season. I really don't know how such little dogs can make such bizarrely loud noises. It's truly strange.

I got a Sudoku book for Christmas and I've almost finished it. I'm getting pretty good at them and I rarely cheat. Rarely. Sometimes I just hit a wall and need a little help. What? My Cylon circuitry can't process everything, you know.

Okay. The weird noises that the girls are making is distracting me into telling you my deep, dark, cheating secrets. That must be my sign to go.
Later!

I have a confession to make. Are you ready? I saw how everybody who watched Alice on my flist was all abuzz about how great it was so I sat down to watch it. Here's where the confession comes in. At about the 1:30 mark I found myself so underwhelmed by it that I turned it off and didn't get back to it for a week. I couldn't figure out why everyone was gaga over it. Then I watched the rest of it. I liked it. A lot. I didn't even have the heart to delete it off my DVR yet. And that's saying a lot since I usually delete stuff as soon as I watch it.

So. Yeah. I liked it. I might even watch it again.

Cole and I had to give Ruby a bath earlier cause she had a funk to her that was rather ... unpleasant. I don't know what the little darling got into but she didn't smell good. Now she smells clean and shiny. Yay!

I'm up to disc 5 of season 2 of Lost. However, I won't be watching any tomorrow since I have my super awesome Annual Holiday Gathering. I didn't watch any eps today either because I was getting ready for my super awesome Annual Holiday Gathering. There was much shopping done. The headache I acquired midway though the day made the end of the shopping a drag. Good thing I was able to curl up with my dogs and pillows for a bit. Headaches suck.

I'm done now.
Later!

I'm going to lunch with one of my old work friends later today, so I thought I'd better get on the ball this morning and do my thing. Plus, oddmonster is getting ready to use her big voice on me if I don't do the promised icon meme. :)

First off:
Book #109 - The High King (The Chronicles of Prydain - Book 5) by Lloyd Alexander - This was a very satisfying ending to the series. There was much action and sword fighting and epic battles. The main character, Taran, had a lot of growth from the first book to the last. Of course it ended how I thought it would end. But I was okay with that. Definitely worth a read if you can get past the tongue twisting Welsh names.

I have one more book that I'd like to get read before the end of the year, but nothing else is pressing on me insistently.

Secondly:
oddmonster gave me some icons to talk about.
( Here goes )

This morning I was taking a shower and Hailey and Ruby were sitting in the bathroom talking to me (which is why I usually shower when no one's home ... PRIVACY!) and we had a long discussion about what color our snot currently is. We've both progressed to clear if anyone really needs to know. But we're both still pretty stuffed up. Yes, Hailey caught my cold. She informed me (quite snootily, might I add) that I "gave her a stuffy nose!" Nice.

I think I've written a long enough post for the day. I've covered all the topics I was planning on covering and now I can move on to my next thing.
Later!