Favorite Picture of the Week

 

Typical Summer sunrise. Not many clouds in the sky this morning but a couple that didn't stick around for very long as the day heated up. 

Book Review : Kyrix by Kate Stevens

 

Book Description

Meredith always dreamed of being whisked off her feet by a prince—she just didn’t realize he’d be a blue-scaled alien warrior.

Working a dead-end job in a chocolate shop, Meredith Sinclair has all but buried her dreams of finding happiness.

But when a bland-looking man comes into the shop and starts asking her suspicious questions, the most ridiculous thing happens—he turns into a horned, seven-foot tall alien before her very eyes.

Sent on an expedition to determine the intelligence of the human species, Lord Kyrix Yio’naeus doesn’t expect his cloaking device to break down on his first mission.

When a human sees his true form, he has no choice but to take her back to his ship. But at the touch of her soft skin, his blood ignites like it has with no other female.

When the Herkleian government orders Meredith transferred to a lab for study, Kyrix will do anything to save her. Is it possible a human could be the fated mate to an alien royal?

And even if she is, will Meredith and Kyrix be able to escape his crew for a future together?

My Review

Kyrix comes to Earth on a mission to see if humans are ready to join the other aliens in an alliance. But while questioning Meredith his cloaking device fails and his true form is shown to her. He has no choice but to bring her back to his ship and erase her memory but the memory wiping serum doesn't work on her. When Kyrix's government hears about this, they decide that she is to be transported back to their planet and experimented on to find out why the memory wiping didn't take on her and if humans will be a problem. 

But Kyrix doesn't like this at all and has formed a bond with Meredith so he's going to do what he has to in order to keep her safe. 

Kyrix and Meredith fall for each other so fast and I loved that. At first she thinks she's having a break down because big, good looking alien in her shop? That can't be real. But it was and Kyrix turns out to be such a great guy. He is the illegitimate son of the King and the King has sent him away so that his other son can take the throne. Kyrix doesn't want the throne and wants to keep his mother safe.  

This was a cute, quick read and now I want to go back to the first book and read that too. Bring on the aliens! I'm here for it. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

"We got a new duck bed"

"It came with Quack Snacks, which I might share either the others."

"Maybe, if there's any left after I'm done."

*All pictures this week are courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

Apartment Life #374

 

This is a weekly blog post that I'm calling Apartment Hell  Life. I've mentioned a few times some of the crazy things that have gone on in and around my apartment complex and in my neighborhood in the past 26 years that I've lived here and people keep telling me I should write a book. But instead of a book, I've decided to share the crazy things that have happened in and around my apartment complex in the last 26 years here in a weekly blog post.

Firstly, Happy Birthday to my daughter who turns 34 today!

---

This is also my 5100th post. That's a lot of posts. 

-----

The big crane was back across the street putting in another new AC on the roof. There are 8 apartments in each building and from what I can see there are 4 large AC's so 2 apartments share a rooftop unit.

  They did it from the alley side so I only got this picture of it. I think that's 4 new AC's in the last 2 years for 3 of the different apartment buildings across the street and those things are not cheap. 

---

While I was out walking the dog on Monday, I saw 2 police cars pull up and park real fast. This was the first one. 

This was the second one that showed up really fast. They were walking so fast they almost ran into the courtyard across the street with the tan buildings. I stayed outside for a few minutes and then watched on my cameras and they were there for over an hour. Then they left. No one was arrested and no ambulances showed up so I have no idea what was going on. Maybe they were taking a report for a robbery or something.

It was hot as Hades here this week. 

The high this week was 110F/43C

The low this week was 76F/24C

So that's it for this week's Apartment Hell  Life! Be sure to come back next week for more.

Saturday Vittles

 

So I thought I would share this delicious recipe again for mini chocolate pudding pies that I made. I've shared it before but some of the newer readers might not have seen it and it's so good so I'm sharing it again. 

Mini Pudding Pies

You will need: 

Keebler Mini Graham Cracker Pie Crust

1box of Jell-O Sugar Free Pudding Mix

1 can of Sugar Free Reddi Whip

What To Do: 

Make the pudding according to the package directions. I made mine with 2% milk. Let chill in the refrigerator for an hour. 

Preheat oven to 350F, place 1 pie crust on a cookie sheet and bake for 5 minutes. Do not over bake. Remove from oven and let cool completely. 

When you're ready to assemble one, add about 1/2 cup of the pudding mixture to the crust and top with 2 TBSP of Reddi Whip. 

These crusts are ready to eat and you totally don't have to bake it for 5 minutes but I liked it a little crunchier. You can remove the crust from the tin before you assemble it if you like but it came out easy after I added the pudding also

1 Mini Pudding Pie has 210 calories and 26 carbs.

Would you eat this?

Freebie Friday!

Welcome to another weekly Freebie Friday post, where I tell you what free samples and full sized products I received in the mail and how you can get them too. Someone asked me why I do a "Freebie Friday" each week, so I'll tell you.

A while back I listed all the free samples and wins that I had received that previous year and so many people didn't believe that I could have gotten so many free things. So I decided to prove it by taking a picture every week and sharing the sites that I found the links to the freebies at. So now you too can get great free samples coming to your mailbox each week.

  You can find links to great samples at Hey It's Free and Freebie Shark.

I went from not getting any freebies to getting a bunch this week. 

This week I received: 

A sample of Blue Lizard sunscreen. 

A sample of castley cologne. 

2 Samples of Erborian CC cream.  

I wear sunscreen everyday so it's always nice to try something new. 

The cologne smelled good. 

The Erborian CC cream was too white for me. Not just light but bright white. No way I could use either of them. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Book Review: Knight's Salvation by Sherilee Gray

 

Book Description

Demon hunter Zenon lives with a dark secret. When he escaped Hell, he didn’t leave alone—and he’ll do anything to keep the shameful reason hidden. But when an intoxicating demi-demon, new to her powers, has him breaking all his own rules just to be near her, he knows he’s in serious trouble.

Painfully aware of being different, Mia Westbrook has always kept herself apart from others. Yet her new demon life comes with strings attached, namely one scarred and broodingly seductive knight who storms into her world—and her heart—and may just be her perfect match.

But a formidable evil has been watching, and is determined to tear them apart. They want Zenon is back in Hell, with them, where he belongs…

My Review

Because some demons have mated with humans and had offspring, those children come into their demon powers when they get older. They are known as demi-demon. The Knight's are charged with keeping the demi-demons safe while they learn to control their powers and also keep other demons and shifters from kidnapping the demi's and enslaving them. 

Mia has known her entire life that she was a demi-demon. Her human mother and demon father cared about each other but her father left and never came back. Mia knew she was a demi and she thought her sister could help her get through it when she got her powers since her sister has already been through it but she called the Knight's for help when it became apparent that she was going to need more help than her sister could give her. 

When the Knight's show up she meets Zenon. The Knight's are half angel, half demon and charged with keeping the demi-demons safe. As Zenon's past is unfolded little by little, I felt so bad for him. He's not like the other KNight's and never felt like he was part of their family tight circle. He keeps to himself mostly and doesn't let anyone in. But he can't help the way he feels about Mia and he is heartbroken because he doesn't see a way that they can ever be together because he has a big secret. 

Mia was so good for Zenon. She kept at him no matter how many times he tries to push her away. The characters are awesome, the fight scenes are great, the romance made my heart hurt for them and the world building left me wanting to read more of this series. I'm definitely going to read more of this series now. I highly recommend this book, I can't say enough good things about this story.

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

Here is a typical Summer sunrise here in Las Vegas. Not many clouds but this day had a few. 

The little bit of clouds we did have were in the right place to be in front of the sun as it came up and so I was able to get this picture without being blinded. lol 

Book Review: Kissed By Fire by Kimber White

 

Book Description

Billionaire dragon shifter, Xander Brandhart is running out of time. If he doesn't find a mate soon, his last shift will be permanent. He can already feel himself starting to lose control.

Shae MacKenna grew up alone, trying to survive on the streets of Chicago until a powerful mage took her in and gave her a home. But when a wolf pack kills her foster father, Shae doesn't know where to turn. She's a marked woman and knows not to trust even the hunky dragon shifter that just saved her life and swore to protect her.

Xander knows Shae's his fated mate. But no human has ever survived mating with a dragon. To break his curse, Shae must take his brand. But a dragon’s kiss comes with a deadly price. The trouble is, Shae loves the way he burns. Can she find a way to survive it for a chance at her happily ever after?

My Review

Xander is on the hunt for something rare when he's told by his mother to go to a shop to look for it. But when he gets there, wolf shifters have already broken in and are terrorizing Shae and her foster father. Xander is too late to save her foster father but he whisks Shae away and brings her back to his home where his brothers and mother are. But Shae isn't sure what's going on, she knows about shifters from her foster father since he was a powerful mage but Xander is something different, something that shouldn't exist. She's not sure how safe she'll be in a house full of dragon shifters but with the wolves still out to kill her, she doesn't have much choice but to stay with Xander. 

Xander can hardly believe it when he realizes that Shae is his fated mate. How could fate be that cruel. A human would never survive the mating or giving birth to a dragon baby so he has to find a way to stay away from her. Not that she's making that easy since she feels the mating pull as well. Shae is willing to risk it in order to be with him and he's doing everything in his power to keep her safe not only from the wolves but from himself as well. 

The twist at the end of this book was so good! I love how they ended this. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Undeliverable Mail, Auctioned Mail and Lost & Found

 

I was wondering what would happen if I wrote the wrong address on a letter and forgot to add my return address to the envelope. So I went in search of answers...

If you Google what happens to undeliverable mail, this is what pops up. 

"The Mail Recovery Center (MRC) is the U.S. Postal Service's official "lost and found" department for undeliverable and non-returnable mail. Undeliverable mailpieces are letters, flats or parcels that cannot be delivered as addressed nor returned to the sender."

And if you go to the "What is the USPS Mail Recovery Center" page. It says this...

*Click on image to enlarge*

So apparently if they can't deliver the mail for whatever reason they open it to see if the contents are worth more than $25.00 ($20.00 for mailpieces containing cash), and they hold it for 30-60 days. If no one claims it within that time, they sometimes auction off the contents of lost mail, donate it or just throw it away. You can find the auctioned items for sale at the United States Postal Service Auctions page. 

I didn't even know this was a thing! They have all kinds of products available to buy. 

So if you're wondering how to file a missing mail request or if you could just go to the post office and have them look for a piece of mail that was missing. Well, they make it very hard to file a request if you're missing a piece of mail. I know, because I've done this several times before with no results. The way I was told to do it was to make an Informed Delivery account on the USPS website, click on 'support' and then on the right hand side click on 'missing mail' and fill out the missing mail report form.

 I've done this several times because my mail has gone missing more times than I care to admit. Either the mailperson puts it into someone else's mailbox slot, doesn't deliver it at all or it goes missing. And since mail carriers have been caught on video disposing of large amounts of mail into dumpsters behind company buildings, it could have ended up in a dumpster for all I know. 

Each time I waited 2-3 months for them to write me back, just to tell me that the 'missing mail'  was not found and the report was now closed. Yep, very helpful, not!

So if you've ever wondered about what happens to missing mail, undeliverable mail or lost mail, now you know.