Favorite Picture of the Week

When our daughter was little her favorite thing to do was to go to the Park that's just a couple of blocks away and feed the ducks and geese. In the picture is Ken and our daughter and a couple of geese. There are tons of geese and ducks at this park. There's a lake and in the middle of the lake is a little island with tree's that the ducks and geese live on. They fly or swim over to the park to chase people and get fed by the people who aren't afraid of them. 

I Was A Guest Reviewer At I Smell Sheep - Review of Wake A Sleeping Tiger by Lora Leigh

Wake A Sleeping Tiger (Breeds #31)

by Lora Leigh

Book Description

On a moonless Navajo night, the recessed Bengal Breed known only as Judd became Cullen Maverick, grandson to one of the Chiefs of the Six Tribes of the Native Americans.

Bengal genetics, usually so fierce as to be labeled primal, was recessed so deep inside Judd that no hint of it can be found. A phenomena so rare it’s been notated only a few times. And there’s no way, it’s believed, to force those genetics free once they’ve disappeared past the genetic level.

Now, as commander of the Navajo Covert Law Enforcement Division in Window Rock, New Mexico, Cullen leads his six agents in protecting the treasures of the Navajo Tribes by ensuring they remain safely in Navajo possession.

Added to this mix is none other than the delicate Window Rock police detective determined to stick her pretty little nose in his business.

And once Cullen realized the animosity that keeps flaming between them is far more than he imagined, then the Primal Breed that’s lurked inside him comes out to play. And when that beast decides to make itself known, Cullen suddenly remembers all the reasons it was better off sleeping.

A few days ago I was a guest reviewer over at I Smell Sheep and I reviewed this book there. So if you have a few minutes, I'd love for you to go over and read my review and let me know what you think. I've been reading this series for years and it's one of my favorites. 

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of *Poppy'sMischief*

"Just one more story before bed?"

*Picture courtesy of Rat Logic*

*Picture courtesy of Martymousehouse.com*

Review: DegustaBox- March

In this month's box was:

Good Thins Sweet Potato Crisps

Mrs. Thinster's Chocolate Chip Cookie Thins

Tolerant Foods Pasta

Loacker Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies

Paul's Quinoa Bars

Energems

7 Days Peanut Butter and Jelly Croissant

Boboli Pizza Crust

Lemoncocco Lemon and Coconut flavored drink

Goya Quinoa -White Quinoa with Brown Rice, Black Beans, Bell Pepper and Spices

So if you've been reading my blog for a while you know I've been receiving a DegustaBox for over 6 months and I'm loving these boxes because they send products that I've never tried. Everything in this box was a new to me item or a new Brand. Each box is $19.99 and you can cancel at any time. I usually try new subscription boxes for a couple of months and then move on to another box but I've liked this one so much that I've stuck with this one for a while. I haven't found another subscription box that looks better than this one to try yet so I'll keep getting this one for a while. And if you want to try this box you can click on my link or use my code MARYK-ACB to get your first box half off. 

The only things I haven't tried yet are the pasta noodles, Quinoa and Boboli pizza crust. I've had Quinoa before and didn't care for it but it was plain and not flavored like this one so I'm hoping this one will be better. The pasta noodles are Kale and Green Lentil flavored so I'm not sure about that either. Everything else was good though. 

Have you ever tried a subscription box? Do you have one that you like?

Favorite Video of the month

Even if you don't like spiders you'll find this funny.

Freebie Friday!

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, 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.

This week I received:

2 samples of Elyptol hand sanitizer and a pouch to keep them in.
2- 10oz canisters of Folger's Coffee (Just paid $5 for shipping)
$5 Amazon gift card from Crowdtap

Did you receive any free samples this week?

Review: Jersey Mike's Subs

This past Monday our daughter took Ken to Jersey Mike's to get us all sandwiches. We hardly ever eat out so when we do, I hope that the food is good or they at the very least get our order right. Well none of those things happened this time. I was so upset with the sandwiches, the drink that was supposed to be Pepsi and the tip fiasco that I decided the only way for me to warn others about this place was to write a review and share it on FB, Twitter, Yelp and my blog. And, I'll be tweeting out my review on Twitter every single day for the next 30 days because just once isn't anywhere near enough.

Here's the review I left on Yelp...

"My daughter took hubby over to Jersey Mike's sandwich shop and he bought 3 sandwiches, a foot long #9 and 2 of the 6 inch sandwiches of another number.Well we'll never go there again. They messed the sandwiches up, royally! They were told no onions on mine and they piled the onions on. By the time I finally got all the onions off, there was a huge handful of them on my plate, there were more onions than there was lettuce. The 2, 6 inch subs had no mayo or mustard but loads of oil and vinegar. The amount of meat on these sandwiches was laughable. The bread is hard and tasteless. But that wasn't even the worst thing. When Ken went to pay for the sandwiches with his debit card, it wouldn't let him proceed to pay for it until he picked a tip of either 10%, 15% or 20%. You should be able to leave a tip or not or leave it in cash if you want. And then I tasted the pepsi that he got me and I'll be damned, it wasn't pepsi but a combination of Mr. Pibb and watered down pepsi. I know I let Ken and Elizabeth both taste it and they agreed with me that it was some weirdo concoction and not the pepsi that they said it was. So my opinion is don't go to Jersey Mike's if you want a good sandwich. Pick a different place."


Now I don't want anyone getting the idea that we were upset we had to leave a tip. We always give a tip. What I was mad about was the fact that they had one of those Credit Card Swipe machines that won't let you proceed with your purchase unless you pick a tip. That makes the tip mandatory and tips ARE NOT mandatory! It's a gratuity that you give for good service. If there's a tip jar we always put cash in it. Now if you want a tip to be part of your bill, the owner should just increase the amount of money they charge for the sandwich and pay their employee's more. Simple really. But do not set up your credit card swipe machine so that you can't complete your purchase unless you select one of the tip amounts that you have pre selected for your machine. That's not right. My daughter said that she's seen these machines at other restaurants and if you ask the person if you can pay the tip in cash they will put in a code so you can proceed but not everyone knows that and there wasn't a sign telling anyone this. If I had been there and had seen this, I would have told them to keep the sandwiches and walked out without paying. As it was, we spent $35.00 for 3 sandwiches which is completely ridiculous. And on top of that they got the order wrong. Maybe train your employees better and make sure your drink machine isn't spitting out something other than what it's supposed to.

Moral of the story? Don't piss off a blogger.

UPDATE:
Yesterday I received an email from someone at Jersey Mike's Franchise Systems, Inc. Asking if she could share my review with the franchise owner and would I mind sharing my telephone number with her to pass a long to them so this matter could be resolved. I declined to give out my number and said to me it's already been resolved because I'll just never eat there again so there's no need for any further contact.

Then today I get an email from Yelp telling me that my review was taken down...
"MAR 09, 2017  |  03:31PM PST
Hi Mary,

We wanted to let you know that we've removed your review of Jersey Mike's Subs. Your review was brought to our attention by the Yelp community, and we found that it fell outside our Content Guidelines because it appeared to be primarily based on someone else's customer experience.

We want to hear about your personal consumer experiences with local businesses. The best reviews provide context, detail and perhaps even a helpful tip or two. To learn more, check out our Content Guidelines at http://www.yelp.com/guidelines.

Thanks for understanding, and we'll see you on Yelp!"

Could be a coincidence but I doubt it. Now I told the truth that I didn't go there and order the sandwiches but I tasted the sandwich and it sucked in my opinion. I saw the other two sandwiches that they got and no mayo could be seen on them and the amount of meat was laughable. I stand by my review. I was truthful that I didn't go there but I did see my own sandwich piled high with onions that both my daughter and Ken said they made sure to tell them not to put on my sandwich. So I saw no reason to give out my telephone number to the franchise owner to try and resolve this. Resolve it how? By giving me a free sandwich maybe? Because that's what most restaurants or fast food places do when you complain. Now why would I want a free sandwich from a place that I didn't like the first sandwich I got? No thanks.

Favorite Picture of the Week

Falcor was sleeping, surrounded by his blanket and when I went to snap the picture he barely opened his eye to look at me like, "Do I amuse you, human?" 

My Crazy Neighbors

If you are friends with me on FB, you've probably seen me post pictures of my crazy neighbors or tell stories of them. Well this week is no exception. Now while the police presence has died down quite a bit and I haven't been seeing them around as much, it seems that my neighbors have decided to start doing weird things. So being me, I took a couple of pictures of said weirdness...

In this picture you can see a blue and orange bouncy house that my neighbor bought for her kids. She set it up in the middle of the courtyard and the kids were yelling and screaming. It didn't bad until the mother also got in it and started screaming, "Hot Potato, hot potato!" at the top of her lungs. Several people in my courtyard complained to the manager that she and her kids were making too much noise in the common area in front of the 16 apartments in my courtyard and she had to take it down. 

Then this week my neighbor set up a camping tent right in front of his door. It was set up for several days and when I walked by it with the dog in the morning, there was a sleeping bag in it. So I guess he just wanted to have a camp out. lol 

Oh and if you haven't seen it before, I've also taken a few videos of my crazy neighbors. Here's one of the best one's. 

Turn the sound up so you can hear it. Yes, I filmed through the screen door, I wasn't about to open the door and have them start screaming at me too. LOL

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of Rat Logic*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"It's time for lunch. I can already taste it." 

Recipe: Baked Vanilla Custard

You'll Need: 

2 ½ cups whole milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 large eggs + 1 Extra Egg yolk

¼ cup sugar

A Sprinkle of ground Nutmeg

Recipe

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Fill a pan with 3 cups of water, and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, heat milk. Heat just until warm, add vanilla extract after milk is heated.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, yolks and sugar. Pour in vanilla-infused milk, whisking until smooth. Strain mixture into a bowl and slowly pour mixture into Ramekins. Sprinkle with nutmeg.

Place Ramekins in a large shallow baking dish, and fill baking pan with boiling water to come halfway up side of Ramekins. Place in oven and bake until custard is set, about 45 minutes. Remove baking pan from oven, and transfer Ramekins to a rack to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving. Serve while slightly warm, or if you prefer, cold. I like mine cold so I put them in the refrigerator for 2 hours before eating.

You can change up this recipe if you like it more sweet, just add a little more sugar. If you want to add a different flavor, add it to the mixture before pouring into the ramekins. I've been making this recipe for about 10 years. I bought my first set of ramekins so I could make this custard and it's a great treat that only take about an hour to make. 

Tip: You'll know the custard is set if you stick a butter knife into the center of it and it comes out clean, just like testing to see if a cake is done. 

Have you ever made homemade custard? Do you like custard?

Favorite Video of the Week

This week I'm posting one of my videos of Falcor. Ken was having some fun with a chunk of dry ice and when it started bubbling after he poured some hot water on it, Falcor started barking at it. I thought it was funny so I took a little video. I know he kept putting his nose by the mist but the door was open and we didn't let him stay there long so there was no chance of it hurting him.

Freebie Friday!

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, 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.

This week I received:

Samples of pads and tampons from U by Kotex
2 Truvia Nectar samples
$5 Amazon gift card from Crowdtap

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Favorite Picture of the Week

About a month ago one of my older brother's and his wife went to see our dad. They hadn't seen each other in a while so my dad was excited. 

Recipe: Fried Flour Tortillas

I wanted something sweet and didn't want to spend a lot of time making something so I made this. It's fried flour tortillas tossed in a cinnamon sugar mixture. 

Cut your flour tortillas to a chip size. 

Mix together 1 ts. ground cinnamon and 2 TBSP. sugar and set aside.

Heat oil in a pan and add a few of the flour tortillas pieces. Fry for about 20 seconds on each side. They go very quickly. 

Toss in the cinnamon sugar mixture and enjoy. 

It took about 5 minutes. 

Because sometimes you need a fast, sweet treat. 

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

Favorite Video of the Week

I love this because this guy dives and looks on the the river bed for lost treasures. He's found GoPro's, Knives, fishing equipment, jewelry and even a gun. He's reunited people with their lost phones, GoPro's and handed the gun over to the police. But what I really loved is that he will help wildlife that have fishing lines, lures, hooks ect caught on them and then sets them free.

Freebie Friday!

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, 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.

This is what I received this week:
A sample of Persil Laundry Detergent
Clinique Acne Gel

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Favorite Picture of the Week

This is my brother's rabbit and dog. They are buddies and love to lay next to each other. My brother will lay a sheet on the floor for the rabbit and as soon as the dog sees my brother put the sheet down the dog will go lay on it and wait for the rabbit to come sit next to him. 

Review: Wolf At The Door by N.J. Walters

Book Description

When this wolf comes knocking, there’s no turning him away

Salvation Pack, Book 1

When Gwendolyn Jones inherits a Tennessee cabin from a great aunt she never knew, she quits her job and follows her dream to write full time. Meeting a stranger in a local cemetery isn’t a risk she normally takes, but she needs the information on his flash drive for an article she’s writing on werewolves. Later that night, when two honest-to-God werewolves come knocking on her cabin door, they’re definitely not Photoshopped.

Jacque LaForge is on a mission to retrieve a flash drive before it endangers his pack. He never thought he’d find a mate, but the chemistry between him and Gwen is unmistakably off the charts. Now to convince her he’s only trying to protect her from his vengeful former pack—led by his own father.

Gwen’s first instinct to flee only gets her a smashed car and a concussion. She wakes up in a dangerous new world she never thought existed—and in the arms of the one man who stands between her and certain death.

Warning: Contains a sexy werewolf and his small pack of friends, a paranormal writer who really didn’t believe such things existed—until now—and a completely dysfunctional family who are out to kill them both.

My Review

Gwen has been interviewing people for the paranormal type articles she's been writing. So when someone asks to meet her in a cemetery and tells her he has proof that werewolves exist, she reluctantly meets him and gets handed a flash drive. Unfortunately the werewolves can't allow her to keep the flash drive and that's when interesting things start happening. 

Louis and Jacque LaForge are brothers and werewolves. Jacque is the alpha of the pack that split off from their father's pack and he's been keeping their secret from the humans. But now he and his brother must get a flash drive that was given to a human female that proves werewolves really do exist. 

From the very start these two brothers did things wrong and they scared Gwen to death in the process. If they had snuck into her house and  stolen the flash drive from her, things would have been so much simpler. Instead they confronted her, scared her, caused her to wreck her car and then kidnapped her. If that wasn't enough for them to handle it turns out that Jacque realizes that she is his mate and also a possible mate for his brother Louis, which makes things really awkward for a while. 

Things are going pretty good until their evil father comes with a bunch of minions from his own pack to try and kill Gwen because she's human and their father is just plain mean as hell, which is one of the reasons they split from his pack. 

There's some great action, bloody fight scenes and a few emotional tear jerking scenes where I needed to take a minute just to let it all sink in. The sex was hot, erotic and just what this story needed to make it even better than it already was. 

This is the first book I've read from this author but it won't be the last. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

Favorite Video of the Week

Ok, so some of you might not like spiders but this is just fascinating.
Oh and that Net Casting spider needs to be in a horror movie, seriously. Just look at that face!

Freebie Friday!

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, 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.

This week I received:

From Generation Good... Wipes and Lotion.
From PinchMe...Olay body Wash, Hunts Tomato Paste, Bella Dog Food, Coupon for a free Barilla Pesto Sauce and Buy one Get one free dog food.
From ChatterBox...a full size Dove Deodorant.
On InboxDollars I won $16.10 for getting the highest score in a game.

Did you get any freebies this week?

Review: Target Beauty Box- February

I ordered another Target Beauty Box this month. It was $10 and to me well worth it because I was able to try a few products that I'd not tried before. 

Here's a list of what was in my box: 

Masque Bar Hydrating Peel Off Mask

Raw Sugar Raw Coconut and Mango Body Wash

Soap and Glory Face Soap and Clarity Face Wash

Gliss Ultimate Repair Shampoo

Gliss Ultimate Repair Conditioner

Sun Bum Sunless Self-Tanning Towelette

W3LL PEOPLE Expressionist Pro Mascara

3 samples of L’Oréal Paris Pure-Clay Mask

Everything in this box was new to me, while I might have tried some of the Brands, I haven't tried any of these actual products. Anything that I don't want, I give to my daughter so she loves that. For just $10 there were quite a few products and samples in this box. 

Have you tried the Target Beauty Boxes yet? They come out each month but they only have so many boxes and when they're gone they're gone. They usually go pretty fast to so I try to post a link to them on my fb wall. 

Favorite Picture of the Week

One of my older brother's who's mother is the bride in this picture of my dad's first wedding sent this picture over when he visited my younger brother. I'd never seen this picture before but loved it because not only did it have a picture of my dad where he's really young but on the left side are my grandfather, grandmother, aunt and uncle. The people on the right are family of my dad's first wife. I don't have many pictures of my aunt and uncle since my aunt passed away from cancer before I was born and my uncle also passed away from cancer while I was very young. 

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of Storm's Rat Pack*

Review: Daily Goodie Box

What was in this months Daily Goodie Box: 

Nellie's All-Natural - Laundry Soda Packs - I'm always up to try a new laundry detergent and this worked as well as any other I've tried. 

JustChill - Stress Relief Drinks - Not a bad flavor and I even got Ken to try it and he said it was fine. Not a great flavor and unless it has cups of sugar and artificial flavors in it they hardly ever are, but it was definitely drinkable. 

Vermont Smoke Cure  - Cracked Pepper Beef & Pork Sticks - This was one of my favorite things in this box. I've made a note of the website because I will definitely be ordering more of this. 

Nature's Bakery - Raspberry Fig Bars - I wasn't sure about this but dang it was good. I sliced off a piece to let Ken try and and he liked it too. 

Jack N' Jill -  Natural Toothpaste - I'm always up for trying something new and since I'd never tried this before I was happy that it didn't have a bad taste to it. It works and tasted slightly like Raspberries. I think kids would really like this. Win win. 

Dream Water - Sleep Powder - I've tried this before and while it doesn't help me sleep *I blame menopause* it might help others sleep. 

Coffee Blocks - Butter Coffee - this is the last thing I tried because I was really not sure about this at all. You squeeze the packet a few times, squeeze it into your cup and add hot water. It is instant coffee with butter, egg yolk, vanilla and coconut oil. I don't drink much coffee but I did make it and try it and then Ken drank the rest of the cup. Both of us were surprised that it was quite tasty. 

Aloha - Daily Good Greens - I have to say that I'm not a fan. I mixed some in a cup of yogurt and wasn't a fan. Maybe if they were mixed in a drink they would be better but I didn't care for it.

XyliChew - Spearmint - I'm already a fan of spearmint so this was a nice flavored gum to chew. They have other flavors and I'm going to try some of them as well. 

Gorilly Goods - Organic Snacks - This is the product I was most looking forward to when I saw the picture of it. It was nuts and fruit but had a sweet curry flavoring on it and I didn't care for the flavorng. I love this type of snack and nuts and fruit like this are good for people like myself with diabetes.

This is my second Daily Goodie Box and more and more people seem to be getting these. I've now seen several of my FB friends get them and love them. They are completely free even the shipping is free and all you have to do is sign up and log in to the site each day to see if you've been given one. It's a nice box of freebies to try for a free box. Then just review the products in the box to be eligible for another one. Oh and one more thing, if you visit their FB Page, they give away Goodie Boxes to people who interact with their posts. So if you've tried before and weren't able to get a Goodie Box, there's even more ways to get one now. 

I'm a fan of subscription boxes and love trying new products for free so this was a huge hit with me. New products+free box = Fabulous!

Have you signed up? Have you received one of these boxes?

Disclosure: I received this box in exchange for an honest review.

Favorite Video of the Week

Warning** these guys cuss, so if that bothers you don't watch.

Here's a great game for your next party!  Put on headphones and try to lip read what the other person is saying.

Freebie Friday!

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, where I tell you what free samples, gift cards 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 a lot of great samples at Hey It's Free and Freebie Shark.

This week I received a coupon for a free disposable razor up to $12.00

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Favorite Picture of the Week

My Grandson came over and spent the day with us right before Christmas. He fell asleep while watching cartoons. He turned 4 on January 31st.