Happy Raturday!

 

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

Apartment Life #403

 

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 27 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 27 years here in a weekly blog post.

My daughter and her best friend and I had a little adventure on Monday night. We noticed Xavier's (missing guy)  apartment door open. So I grabbed my phone and tazer and headed over there and they went with me. I shouted into the apartment if anyone was in there, made sure no one was inside and then I locked the inside door but the security door you need a key to lock so I just locked the inside door and shut both of them. If the homeless had been inside I was going to tell them to leave or I was calling the police but it was empty, thankfully. *Hopefully the video plays for you guys*

You can hear my daughter's best friend who lives in my courtyard now, Say, "Oh this is nice." When she turns the bathroom light on. lol The apartment was completely redone, new paint, floors, appliances ect. 

When we got back in our apartment, my daughter joked that she had to go with me in case I got into a fight with someone. lol 

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The garden is no more. 

Tuesday morning, maintenance started raking up all the rocks in the courtyard. I asked one of them what they were doing and he told me they were putting plastic sheeting under the rocks so that no more weeds would grow in the courtyards. Because as you can see, there's a lot of patches of green out there. I asked if my garden was ok and he said he was told to move it all to the garbage so if I wanted to keep any of it to bring it in. But when I started bringing stuff in, he stopped me and said that they wouldn't be getting to my section today so I had until tomorrow (Wednesday) to get it all done. He said we're allowed 1-2 small plants in pots but we can't plant anything directly in the courtyard and with the plastic sheeting being put under the rocks, nothing will grow anyway. 

They put all the rocks into piles so they could shovel them up easier to lay the plastic down.

Piles of rocks. 

I also told him that this courtyard floods during the rain and if there's plastic it's going to flood more. He said it shouldn't flood too bad and then just turned around and ignored me. The Hell? I guess we'll see next time it rains. 

This is what it used to look like. Now it's just rocks. 

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Tuesday afternoon, I was walking Falcor past the pool courtyard and heard this woman upstairs screaming for help. I mean, she was screaming like she was being killed or something. So I called 911 and told them. She came out while I was on the phone with 911 and she was still screaming for help and the 911 operator on the phone could hear her. Then the woman started slamming her fists against the window and I'm really surprised they didn't break. 

Then she started screaming cuss words. The police got here really fast. Another woman came out of the apartment and saw me standing there and said she's mentally challenged, well that got this woman screaming all over again. Anyway, the police got here, they can sort it all out.

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Here's something funny for you. 

I took this broken egg out of the container and was surprised when the egg white was purple! It took a few minutes to figure out that...

The egg whites probably picked up some of the color from sitting in the egg crate foam or pulp stock the crate is made from. Since it's dyed a dark purple/blue that has to be where the color came from. Sure had me stumped for a moment though. 

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The high this week was 60F/15C

The low this week was 36F/2C

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

Saturday Vittles

 

My daughter and I are trying to eat healthier, so I am sharing some of the dishes that we are eating each week. 

Girl Dinner Charcuterie board

My daughter saw "Girl Dinner" trending on Tiktok and thought we should do something like that too. This is her plate. My plate was the same except I didn't have the blueberry goat cheese or the mozzarella balls in oil. Mine was a little smaller in portions. 

On the boards was: 

sliced avocado

cherry tomatoes

green olives

slices of bell pepper

black berries

3 ounces of rib eye steak

3 thin slices of baguette

a few Cheez its crackers

3 crispy bread crackers

This meal was 540 calories and 200 carbs.

We had a small salad for lunch and saved some of our calories for this dinner. We were still able to keep it to 1200 calories for the day. 

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.  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.

This week I received: 

I won a book box from Author Becky Muth from Midnight In The Garden Readers Group on FB. 

A Healthy Snack Box win from FB.

In the Healthy Snack Box was:

Skinny Pop white cheddar popcorn

Snyders pretzels

Emerald almonds

Motts fruit snacks

Sunmaid yogurt covered raisins

Annies Cheddar Bunnies crackers

Nurtigrain bar

Pirates Booty white cheddar puffs

In the book box was a pen, bookmarks, notepads, a quote of the day notebook, dog paw stickers, other stickers and 3 books. 

And I won the bookmark and stickers from author Heather Andrews in Abbie's Dangerously Dark Darlings FB group. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Book Review: Legacy of Temptation by Larissa Ione

 

Book Description

The legacy continues…

It’s a gritty new world.

Three decades after the events of REAPER, the world is a different place. The secret is out. The existence of demons, vampires, shapeshifters, and angels has been revealed, and humans are struggling to adapt. Out of the chaos, The Aegis has risen to global power on the promise of containing or exterminating all underworlders, even if that means ushering in the End of Days.

Standing in their way is the next generation of warriors, the children of demons and angels and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

See how they become legends in their own right.

Legacy of Temptation

Eva Tennant, like everyone at The Aegis, hates demons. But she loves her job as Deputy Spokesperson for the global demon-slaying organization, and she’s excited to be in the running for Chief Spokesperson. All she has to do is not screw up the two-week exchange program with The Aegis’s rival agency, the Demon Activity Response Team. But things go horribly wrong when a murder turns her into a fugitive from justice and puts a demonic target on her back.

Logan, son of the Horseman of the Apocalypse known as Death, has dedicated his life to fighting demons alongside his colleagues at DART. He loves fighting, females, and his pet hellhound, Cujo. What he doesn’t love is The Aegis, whose leadership attempted to slaughter him at birth. Understandably, he balks when he’s ordered to protect an Aegis Guardian responsible for the deaths of his friends. Really, he’d rather feed her to Cujo.

But when an old enemy rises from the ashes, Eva and Logan find themselves giving into temptation even as they sacrifice the things…and people…they love the most.

My Review

Logan is the son of Thanatos, the Horseman of the Apocalypse known as Death. When The Aegis comes to do an exchange program for information with his agency, DART, he is asked to keep an Aegis guardian safe after tragedy strikes. Eva thinks that Logan is fully huma, she has no idea he's half demon or else she never would have trusted him. 

The Aegis is a global demon slaying agency but DART is responsible for policing demons and keeping them in line. There's a lot of action, tension and romance in this book. The sexual tension in this book is great because they've grown up hating each other's agencies and therefore each other. But they're very interested in each other too. 

I loved Cujo, Logan's Hellhound. 

There didn't seem to be enough grieving going on when an animal died and then friends died as well. Logan seemed more concerned about his interest in Eva than the fact that his friend died. 

This book will make more sense if you've read some of the Demonica series or some of the Lords of Deliverance series. But this can be read by itself. This is a great start to a new series, and it was nice to see some of the characters from the other series that I've previously read. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Disclosure: I was given an e-ARC of this book via NetGalley but all thoughts and opinions are my own. 

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

My grandson and Falcor having a cuddle.

I put Falcor's small bed beside the new futon and he was sleeping there but popped his head up when the picture was taken. He has a bigger bed in my room but he usually sleeps on the couch or my bed. 

My daughter put that white feather on his head and took the picture. lol 

My daughter bought Falcor this Dog Advent calendar for Christmas. He loves all the toys he got. 

Book Review: Watch Me Break: A Dark Stalker Romance by V.E Huntley

 

Book Description

He’s always watching. She’s starting to want him to.

What do you do if you have a raccoon with a boob fetish, dead bodies being dropped in your driveway, and a masked stalker who watches you, breaks into your bedroom at night, and takes your body to heights you didn’t know were possible?

If you’re Dr. Luna Foster, owner of Sage & Summit Wildlife Sanctuary, you seek out your new neighbor, Damien Wolfe, billionaire security mogul, and ask him to wire your property with security cameras.

But little do you know... He might just be the most dangerous predator of them all.

Damien

I have three rules: stay hidden, leave no traces, never let the target know. But Dr. Luna Foster's smile shatters every rule I've lived by. Now I want her to see me, to know what kind of monster is watching her. I’ve spent years in the dark, perfecting the art of hunting those who deserve death. Now I’ve found someone who makes me want to step into the light—even if it means she’ll see the blood on my hands.

Luna

The first time I feel someone watching, I'm terrified. The second time, I'm curious. By the third, I'm leaving my curtains open on purpose. But when I realize my stalker isn't the nightmare—he's the one who hunts them—I find myself craving his deadly attention. Slowly, the weight of his gaze starts to feel less like terror and more like a deadly promise I want him to keep. I'm drawn to a monster, but it feels like freedom.

This is a dark romance containing mature themes, graphic violence, explicit sexual situations, and morally ambiguous characters. Intended for adult readers who enjoy psychologically complex relationships and anti-hero love interests. Please see the author's website for a full list of trigger/content warnings.

My Review

Luna is the owner of a wildlife sanctuary doesn't like Damien when he literally runs into her at the post office. He almost knocks her down and doesn't even apologize. But she doesn't know that her smile made his mind go blank for a second and totally messed up his assertiveness. 

He's never had such a reaction to a woman before. When Luna finds out that he bought the house and property next to her, she's not sure what to think. It's right after that when her wolf, Shadow starts acting like a predator is watching her. She's scared at first knowing someone is watching her. Does she have a stalker?

Damien is more predator than human at this point. He's a serial killer but he only hunts and kills really bad people so there's some good in him. Damien sets his sights on Luna because he wants her more than he's ever wanted any other woman. He stalks her, at first he can tell she's scared and that just spurs him on. He likes to see fear in others. But when she starts to crave the stalker watching her and leaves the curtains open for him to watch her undress, he knows there's no way he'll be able to stay away from her now. 

The secondary characters, especially Maren and Cade are a lot of fun to watch and I really hope that we see more of them in the future. 

Do you like dark romance with a mask wearing stalker? I don't read a lot of dark romance because a lot of the time they are too dark, but this wasn't. This was dark romance perfection! But it does end on a cliffhanger which I'm not fond of at all. I loved the story, characters and of course Damien is wildly wonderful but the cliffhanger really ruined the ending of this book for me. This is the first book in the Watched in Darkness series, I'll probably read the next book because this story has me hooked.

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

"Just finishing the Christmas Present wrapping."

"Do you like my hat?"

"Hot chocolate, anyone?"

"The ornaments are almost as big as I am!"

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

Apartment Life #402

 

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 27 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 27 years here in a weekly blog post.

I got a picture of the police helicopter as it was circling around my apartment complex and going right over the sound wall. No police showed up so I have no idea why he was circling around here.

I don't post a lot of the homeless people unless they do something worth posting about. The guy who has this grocery cart filled with stuff and the blankets hanging on the wall has been around here for a few weeks. I don't care that he has been hanging out around here, he always says hello to me. But one day this week he pulled his pants all the way down (nothing was hidden), he then backed up to the edge of the sidewalk, squatted over the street and went #2. Cars were driving by, people were out walking around like me and Falcor and he cared not. At least he didn't go on the sidewalk, I guess.

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I have a neighbor, I'll be referring to her as Streaker from now on because I've now seen this lady naked or half naked at least 4 times now. She answers the door with no clothes on all the time. One of those times I had my daughter's best friend with me and she turned around and walked the other way. lol So streaker saw me walking Falcor the other day and called me over, she wasn't wearing anything but was tryin and failing to hide behind her door. She told me she had a Christmas present for me and to holler at her when I got back from the walk. So I did and she answered the door in her underwear, nothing else on. Handed me my present and said Merry Christmas. I said thank you and went back to my door. lol

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The high this week was 60F/15C

The low this week was 41F/5C

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

Saturday Vittles

 

My daughter and I are back on the low carb, low calorie diet again so I'll be sharing some more recipes we try out. 

Parmesan Garlic Whole Edamame

What You Need: 

12 oz whole Edamame

1 TBSP Butter

2 Cloves of crushed garlic

2 TBSP grated Parmesan cheese

Salt and Pepper to taste

What to do: 

Bring a pot of water with 3 cups of water to a boil. Add Edamame and boil for 6 minutes, covered.

Drain the Edamame and set aside. 

In a small sauce pan, melt the butter. Add the crushed garlic, salt and pepper. Sauté for 1 minute, add Edamame. Sauté in the butter garlic sauce for 2-3 minutes and add the parmesan cheese. Toss well and remove from heat. 

You only eat the Edamame seeds inside the pod. Just scrape your teeth along the pod to get the seeds out and some of the flavor on the pods. This was my daughter's idea. Next time I think I'll remove the seeds from the pods and eat them that way. You can also remove the seeds and cook this the same way if you don't want to scrape the seeds out with your teeth. 

This dish serves 2 people and has 130 calories per serving and 10 grams of carbs. 

Have you eaten Edamame like this before?