Time change blah...

I don't know about you but I am tired! This time change thing just wears me out and takes about a week for me to get adjusted. My body thinks it is still 4:30 am when I get up at 5:30! Not my favorite time of year.

So, I am joining Weight Watchers on-line program. I have a 10lb goal and I am just too damn lazy to do anything about it. My brother and 2 sisters in law participate in WW and see great results. My boss lost 30 lbs (but she eats carrots all day) and another person at work lost about 50. Since the hubby pasted away I haven't really been cooking. It is easier for me to just grab something to go and as you know, to-go usually means junk! I am hoping that with a little of the discipline I have been laking I will meet my goal soon.

I started the Pilates class and promptly dropped out! I went to two. The class was advertised for mixed levels but ended up being for advanced level students and the instructor wasn't that great and making sure the classed worked for beginning and intermediate too. The good news is, I just found out you can get exercise classes On Demand! Comcast has a bunch of free classes so I am going to try out a few this weekend. The other good news is I can now walk outside. Gracie the Wonder Dog loves the mile long walks we have been taking all week!


Oh and I am still stuck on the Dana Stabenow books!! Oh my god she killed someone off and I about died! I am on the 11th book and have 8 more to go. Seriously, I can't read anything else. I just have to know what happens next!

Enjoy your weekend!

Just what I needed!

I lay on the table in a warm dark room. He wraps me in warm blankets and tucks pillows under my knees and arms. The music is low and some kind of natural chirping birds and gurgling streams. He always thanks me for remembering him, in his heavy Chinese accent, and then sticks needles in my face, head, neck, arms and legs! In the winter, I get acupuncture for my sinuses and lately for my back too. The first time I went I asked him, "what if I don't believe in acupuncture". He told me "that's ok, it works anyway". He was right. This time of year my sinuses protest, loudly and painfully! I wake up with a headache in the middle of my face and can feel the gunk draining as I sit up. Don't know how it works but my head feels better after only one session. After a couple I am back to normal. Hey don't laugh, I can do normal if I really try!

Random Wednesday

• He was my very first crush! I used to know all the words to all the Monkee's songs and I am sure I drove my mother crazy singing them. I never missed a show! I am deeply saddened by his death. RIP Davy Jones and thanks for the memories!



• I am plowing through the Kate Shugak mysteries by Dana Stabenow. I just finished the 5th one, Play with Fire. "A rainy gust of wind tore over the rise, swooped across the road and tossed up the leaves of a stand of birches, exposing their lighter undersides. A lusty laugh and the gust was gone and with a scandalized rustle the birches shook their skirts back down over their white boles, and all was still again, except for the patter of returning rain." This is the kind of writing that just reels me in and keeps me reading and reading,which I guess is a good thing because there are 19 books so far in the series. If you don't hear from me by April or May send in reinforcements!



• Sigh.. I went bathing suit shopping this past weekend. It was a sad and miserable event but after much torture I selected a cute tankini and skirt bottom from Land's End. Freaking thing cost $120 but I guess it will be worth it. I am heading to Key West in April with my 2 girl cousins, my cousin-in-law, my aunt and sister. We are staying at the Doubletree Hilton Grand Key Resort for 7 nights. I see mucho margarita's in my future!



• I am considering working on a family tree and looking for suggestions and helpful hints.



• Monday was my first Pilates class in,well, in ages. I still work out with my trainer but I need something to mix it up. The jury is still out on whether or not it is going to help with my back issues but it was mini-intense.



• Last but not least I gave up Starbucks, AGAIN! Non-religious person that I am, I gave it up for Lent! The caffeine was making my heart go pitty patty and not in a good way plus I was back up to $15-20 a week. So Starbucks short soy no water chai and cranberry orange scones got booted to the curb. It was my crack and I think about it every morning... is there a rehab for this?

Book blog 2 - Alaska on my mind!

The picture has nothing to do with books. I just love it and wanted to share. My little sweetheart heading to ballet class.

So, here I am again sharing the books I have been reading since my last book blog. These are mostly mysteries but I did get in a little romance.

Firelight- Kristen Callihan. This is a dark, Gothic-style historical. The mystery isn't resolved until the end but the love story was pretty hot.

From Amazon -- "London, 1881 Once the flames are ignited . . . Miranda Ellis is a woman tormented. Plagued since birth by a strange and powerful gift, she has spent her entire life struggling to control her exceptional abilities. Yet one innocent but irreversible mistake has left her family's fortune decimated and forced her to wed London's most nefarious nobleman.They will burn for eternity . . . Lord Benjamin Archer is no ordinary man. Doomed to hide his disfigured face behind masks, Archer knows it's selfish to take Miranda as his bride. Yet he can't help being drawn to the flame-haired beauty whose touch sparks a passion he hasn't felt in a lifetime. When Archer is accused of a series of gruesome murders, he gives in to the beastly nature he has fought so hard to hide from the world. But the curse that haunts him cannot be denied. Now, to save his soul, Miranda will enter a world of dark magic and darker intrigue. For only she can see the man hiding behind the mask".

Secrets of the Lost Summer - Carla Neggars. I wasn't sure I was going to finish this one. It is a contemporary romance with a little mystery tossed in. I liked the story but it just didn't seem to move fast enough or have enough heat. It did finally draw me in though. I guess I would classify it as "sweet".

"A wave of hope carries Olivia Frost back to her small New England hometown nestled in the beautiful Swift River Valley. She's transforming a historic home into an idyllic getaway. Picturesque and perfect, if only the absentee owner will fix up the eyesore next door.…Dylan McCaffrey's ramshackle house is an inheritance he never counted on. It also holds the key to a generations-old lost treasure he can't resist…any more than he can resist his new neighbor. Against this breathtaking landscape, Dylan and Olivia pursue long-buried secrets and discover a mystery wrapped in a love story…past and present".


Now for the nitty gritty of what I have been reading: The Kate Shugak series by Dana Stabenow. "Kate Shugak is an Aleut who lives on a 160-acre homestead in a generic national Park in Alaska. Her roommate is a half-wolf, half-husky dog named Mutt. Her nearest neighbors are a bull moose and a grizzly sow. Farther off are dog mushers, miners, hunters, trappers, fishermen, bush pilots, pipeline workers, Park rats and Park rangers, other Aleuts, Athabascans, a few Tlingits and the residents of Niniltna, a village perched on the edge of the Kanuyaq River, a 600-mile long, salmon-rich tributary that winds through the Park to Prince William Sound." (From stabenow.com)

I am now on book 5 of this up to now, 19 book series. I like starting at the beginning and working my way through a series so I get to know the characters as they grow. The mysteries have been good and the writing superb. "The sky was of that crystal clarity that comes only to the lands of the far north in winter; light, translucent, wanting cloud and color." By the 4th book I had to print a map of Alaska so I could picture all the places that have been described so wonderfully in the books. The first in this series is A Cold-Blooded Business and you can get it for only $4.99 on Kindle.

What are you reading?

Pizza and Neighbors

This was going to be a book blog. I read Robert Crais' new book "Taken" , Michael Connelly's new one "The Drop" and the new Stephanie Plum book Janet Evanovich, "Explosive Eighteen" and I wanted to tell you about them. This was all before my neighbor brought over more pizza!

If you haven't been following me on Facebook let me give you a little background. The section of my city that I live in has been known as "Little Italy" for many years. It is a multi-block area that was developed by a bunch of Italian people who all moved from Italy to Detroit and then all built houses in the same neighborhood back in the 60's. My neighbor grew up across the street and eventually bought the house next door to me. She is a school teacher and he owned a pizzeria. He now sells pizza spices and homemade dough to boutique grocery stores.

Starting the week after Bob died they have been bringing me pizza. EVERY WEEK! It started with an innocent phone call, "Hi it's your neighbor. It's pizza night so call me when you get home and I will bring some over!" Every week! I don't like pizza very much! I think I may have to move! I tried telling her I already ate. She said, great, you will have dinner for tomorrow. I tried nicely telling her, "you really don't have to do this". She rubs my arm and very sincerely says, "It's my pleasure". What do you say to that? I was thrilled when they went on vacation.

I guess I will post next week about the books.

Seattle

I am on vacation in Seattle. The same Seattle that has record snow and an ice storm. A state of emergency has just been declared because the entire city and surrounding areas are covered in inches of snow and topped with about a 1/2 inch of ice. Those of you from northern climes know that this means no one is getting out. They actually are asking everyone to stay home. Seattle is all hills. Cars and buses can't really get around and tend to slide, a lot, downhill.

Believe it or not this has been a very relaxing vacation. My sis-in-law Stefanie and I had grand plans for this week.. shopping, walking to Starbucks for breakfast coffee, taking the bus downtown for..um... more shopping. All the girl stuff she has missed since moving here. The weather and school closing has made that pretty much impossible but I find that this really isn't bad news. I have been running non-stop for 3 months and this forced relaxation is just what I needed. At home I would have too much to do to just lay on the couch and read. Plus there is the loving factor. Lola and Nolan have been giving me tons o' love!! I get hugs and kisses all day. I get to play princess and read chapter books..ahhh.

It may not be the vacation I planned but I really think it's the vacation I needed. Of course heading to the Keys in April won't hurt!

Stay warm!!

The book blog

In the past couple of weeks I have been asked for reading suggestions about 4 times. I am posting my "starter" list below. These are mostly mysteries and all in series so if you like them you can continue the series. (I have to figure out the picture thing).

1. I recommend the "In Death" series by JD Robb (who is Nora Roberts) to pretty much everyone who asks me about books. The first one is "Naked in Death". Eve Dallas is a cop in the near future. There is romance and mystery and a great on-going story line about all of the main characters. I smile, I cry. I have been hooked on these books since they started in the 90's. There are over 20 books in this series so it gives you something to read for a very long time.

2. The "Prey" series by John Sandford. The first one is "Rules of Prey". They are all good, fast reads and another long time series with the main character a cop named Lucas Davenport. What I like about this series is frequently you know "who done it" but Davenport doesn't so it's interesting to see how he is going to figure it all out. These are must buys for me, my mom and my sister.

3. Michal Connelly - hey I am on a cop roll here! The first book in his series is "Black Echo". These are more intense and suspenseful murder mysteries starring Harry Bosch. He also wrote the "Lincoln Lawyer" and few others with the same character, Mickey Hailer, that are tied-in to the Harry Bosch books.

4. Robert Crais - Start with "Monkey Business". His main characters are Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. Elvis Cole is a private detective and Joe is his go-to muscle and best friend. Joe eventually gets his own books.

If you are looking for something lighter and funny you should try "One for the Money" by Janet Evanovich. LAUGH OUT LOUD funny. I cannot tell you how much joy I get out of this series. My mom and I read parts of these books to each other on the phone because we just crack up. I have been known to embarrass myself in airports with these books *snort*. I am sure you have seen the ads for the upcoming movie.

So, if you are interested in contemporary or historical romance or Urban Fantasy let me know and I will send you a list of books I have read and enjoyed lately.