Apartment Life #327

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 25 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 25 years here in a weekly blog post.  

I have a lot to catch up on this week. I took a lot of pictures the 10 days that I was without internet. 

The man in the grocery cart was back a few times. I don't know why he chose to sleep in the cart, it can't be comfortable.

I wasn't going to share this homeless woman's picture while she was washing her clothes and hanging them on the fence line but then she started hitting the crack pipe while she was standing there. That's what she's bent over doing. She was getting the crack pipe ready and then hit it over by the wall. Unbelievable.

One night at 11PM the police showed up with sirens and lights. 

There were about 5 cop cars that showed up, they got out of their cars with their guns drawn, and ran to the right down the walking path. Then they ran back to their cars and sped off down the walking path. I have no idea what was going on down there.

The police showed up one day and were checking out some of the homeless people on my street. I've noticed at least 12 homeless people on my street this past week. The police stop them and search them all the time.

Falcor in his new hot weather booties that he hates.

I spotted this flowering bush across the street. It has orange flowers on it. I wanted to show something nice amongst all the bad.

Not sure what kind of flowers these are but they're pretty.

A few years ago this man (Jeff) had a fire in his apartment right across the courtyard from me. He was moved to another apartment. A couple of months ago his wife passed away and he was evicted soon after and is now one of the homeless people that hang out around here. I used to refer to him as married guy. He and his girlfriend that he has now hang out and hit the meth pipe and shoot heroin in plain view, I've seen them do it. Well the police stopped him last week, searched his bags and must have found something because he was arrested. 

I heard what sounded like gunshots one night. Wasn't sure what or where it was coming from. The next day I saw paintball marks on the sound wall in several places.

All those little white marks are where paintballs hit the wall. 

This is at least the third time that I've seen paintball marks on the walls around here. I worry when I see that because I don't want someone to drive by and hit me or others with the paintballs if we happen to be out at that time. 

The high this week was 109F/42C

The low this week was 85F/29C

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

Favorite Song of the Week

 

NOTHING MORE ft David Draiman - ANGEL SONG

I love David Draiman's voice so whenever he is featured in another band's songs I like to listen to it to see if I like it and I liked this one. I love Disturbed because of Draiman's voice so hearing him in this song made it great for me. I hope you enjoy it too. 

Book Review: Primal Mirror by Nalini Singh

 

Book Description

ew York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh takes us into a family dark with shadowy secrets, as the world of the Psy teeters on the edge of a final catastrophic collapse. . . .

 

Daughter of two ruthless high-Gradient telepaths, Auden Scott is not the child her Psy parents wanted or expected, even before her brain injury. Her thoughts are scattered, her memories fuzzy—or just terrifyingly blank. The only thing she knows for certain is that she must protect her unborn baby . . . a baby she has no recollection of conceiving and who draws an unnerving depth of interest from her dead mother’s closest associates.

 

Leopard alpha Remi Denier is a man driven by the primal instinct to protect. Protect his pack, protect his allies . . . and protect the mysterious woman who has become a most unlikely neighbor. With eerie eyes that see too much and a scent that alters in ways disturbing and impossible, Auden Scott is the enemy . . . but nothing about this strange Psy is what it seems, and Remi’s feline heart is as fascinated by her as his human half.

 

Then Auden asks Remi to help her shatter the wall of secrets that is the Scott bloodline. What they unearth will reveal a nightmare beyond imagination. This time, the battle is to the death. . . .

My Review

So once again I've jumped right into the middle of a series and started reading it because it sounded good. I've read some of this authors other books and liked then so I thought I would like this one as well. But this story left me wanting and not in a good way. It starts out really slow and the story lags for the first half of the book. We get a sense that Auden who is pregnant has something more wrong with her brain than what those around her are telling her. The fact that everyone seems to want to do tests on her unborn baby that don't seem necessary and how Auden keeps losing time and her doctor says it's just seizures, was suspect at best. 

When Auden meets Remi who is a changeling (think shifter) she feels comfortable with him. So when he tells her that he saw her and she was different and she even smelled like a different person, she knows something else is going on. So she asks Remi if he and his people will keep her safe and give her sanctuary if it comes to that. 

When the truth is finally revealed, it made up for the lack of engagement during the first half of this book because it was a big secret that those around her were keeping from her. So even though I had some problems with this book because it starts out pretty slow, I ended up liking it when it did finally get more entertaining and dramatic. 

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. 

Disclosure: I was sent a free copy of this book via NetGalley but all thoughts and opinions are my own. 

Amazon

Book Review: The Polar Bear's Fake Mate by Sophie Stern

 

Book Description

One bear. One human. One big, fat lie.

Justin

You'd think that with a backstory like mine, the idea of taking a mate is unbelievable. You'd be right. The only reason I'm agreeing to this entire "mates" thing is so that my mother gets off my back, my shareholders are happy, and I continue moving forward in my career. I'm the face of a multi-billion dollar company. I don't need any scandals in my midst.

Rebecca

The offer is for one year. One year of pretending to be this guy's mate, and then we can have a quiet divorce. He just needs his shareholders off of his back, and me? Well, I'd like to not starve to death. Only, there's more than meets the eye when it comes to Justin. He might have money and brains and incredibly good looks, but there's a secret that lurks behind those beautiful eyes.

And I intend to find out what it is.

THE POLAR BEAR'S FAKE MATE is the first book in SHIFTERS OF RAWR COUNTY: a new shifter series from Sophie Stern. There is no cheating and a guaranteed HEA for our happy couple. You may also want to check out THE DRAGON'S CHRISTMAS TREASURE for a sneak peek at life in Rawr County!

My Review

Justin's mother wants her son married off even if it's a fake mate and a fake wedding. She doesn't want her son to lose their company after someone is editing pictures of him to make it look like he's bad for the company. Plus she just found out that she has some health problems. So her idea is to put an ad out in another city for a woman who will be paid well for one year's time who agrees to be fake married and everything that comes with that. But Rebecca doesn't realize that Justin is a shifter when she agrees to become his bride. 

Rebecca needs the money this fake marriage will bring her so she steps out of her comfort zone and applies to the ad not knowing if it's a real deal or not. But she gets the job, the only problem is after spending time with Justin, getting ready for the fake marriage ceremony, getting to know his mother and realizing that Justin is a nice guy...she starts falling for him. That's not supposed to be part of the deal, right? But she doesn't know that Justin wants her for more than just a fake wife, he has feelings for her too. Watching these two navigate a fake relationship, having to play at being in love when they really are and falling for each other was so much fun. 

Justin is a great character but he does come off a bit gruff at first. I think it's because he was hiding a big part of who he was but we get to see another side of him once all the secrets are revealed. 

I had a good time with this book. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

How blogging has changed For Me

Since I just celebrated my 19th blogoversary, I had this idea for a post. I've been around a long time and things have changed somewhat for bloggers and how people blog. Here are just a few things that have changed for me in that time. 

I used to just grab a picture off the internet when I wanted to add a picture. But then in 2012 things changed when I found out that you could get sued for posting pictures you found on the internet, and I almost deleted my blog because I used to post a lot of pictures. I made two blog posts about it at the time that you can find here and here. Ultimately I decided to just delete most of the pictures I had posted over the years and just change some things. So now if I want to use a royalty free picture I go to a site like Pixabay and find a picture there that I can use for free. The picture in this post are from there. 

I like using pictures in my posts because posts with pictures tend to get more traffic and pictures make the posts better, at least to me. So I take a lot of pictures myself as well. 

When I first started blogging, my friends and I started off using our blogs as diaries for the most part. One friend used hers as a site for all her recipes. I don't see a lot of personal blogs anymore, where they just talk about themselves. But I do see friends have a blog post every now and again about themselves or little snippets about their lives. I love those posts. It's nice to be able to get to know your blog friends. I value my blog and the friends I've made here because of it. 

While the types of blogs might have changed and there are more blogs sharing news, articles they find, politics and book reviews, there are still a lot of active blogs which I love. I like that I can experiment with self expression in my posts and tell stories that have happened to me as well as still share things I like. I blog for fun and to share my thoughts on things like books, products I like, freebies and my life. So I still post like I did when I first started out even though blogging has changed a bit. 

I used to see a lot of ads on blogs. So much so that they would pop up and slow my browser down. I don't see that anymore. Instead there are affiliate programs where you click on a link and the blogger who posted it will get a small revenue incentive. I don't blog to make money, I do it for fun. But something like an Amazon affiliate program might be worth looking into for the posts I share books reviews on. 

How has blogging changed for you?

Book Review: Moon Kissed by Jen L. Grey

 

Book Description

You can’t outrun a curse ... trust me. I’ve tried.

My heart was left shattered into a million jagged pieces. To survive, I did the only thing I could and forced myself to play the part of the perfect girlfriend. The perfect daughter. Because no one wants someone broken.

But now, the boy who owned my heart is a grown man — hardened and cold.

Seeing Aidan four years later forces me to face my greatest fear, and realizing he is my fated mate only makes things worse.

Secrets aren’t meant to stay buried, and fate always has a plan.

That’s the funny thing about destiny. Right when you think everything is figured out, you get dealt a new hand.

My Review

We meet Emma and Aidan when they are teenagers. They love each other and think they can make it even though they are from different packs. They are both wolf shifters so their packs would make a big deal about their relationship if they knew. Then one day Aidan just stops coming to meet Emma or talking to her. She's devastated but she moves on because that's the only thing she can do. She goes away to college with her now boyfriend, Jacob that she'll never have any true feelings for but was kinda pushed into a relationship with by her pack. 

While at college she sees Aidan, it's been 4 years and he's no longer the easy going, loving boy she knew. She wants to hate him for leaving her the way he did but there are bigger things at play. There's a reason he left her and once he tells her because she's now in danger not only from his pack but from others as well, they find themselves in a lot of danger and get help from a very unlikely source. 

Whew, so many things happened in this book and the storyline kept changing which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Aidan should have told her the entire reason that he left and what is going on, right away. I don't understand why he waited so long when he knew she was probably in danger. This does end in a cliffhanger which did not help my thoughts on this book. I liked the storyline most of the time but some of these characters were not likable. I might read the next book just to see if it's better and we get a better explanation of what's going on. 

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

"Anytime is a good time for ice cream."

"Did you take the hot fudge for my ice cream again?"

"Cold drinks on a hot day."

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

Apartment Life #326

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 25 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 25 years here in a weekly blog post.  

On Sunday we beat our hottest day ever recorded by 3 degrees. It was 120F/48C. Too hot. 

---

Also last Sunday there was a guy in the grocery cart and he's laying down in it. I had just been outside with Falcor and this man was over near the trees where I take the dog where there is shade and he was standing in the middle of the trees screaming at the tree's. Scared the ever loving crap out of me. So I walked away from where we were and when I get back in the apartment I see from my bedroom window that he has grabbed a grocery cart and now he's laying in it. This guy must be high out of his mind. A few minutes later he wheeled the cart down the street and started screaming at the palm tree's down there. 

---

On Tuesday the police stopped by the apartment complex across the street. Something was going on in their alley and I could see more police over there but I have no idea what was going on.

This week I've had no internet. Thank you to those who kept visiting. Once the internet is fixed I'll be back to visiting blogs.

The high this week was 120F/48C

The low this week was 86F/30C

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

Favorite Song of the Week

 

DREAM EVIL - Chosen Force

I went looking for a metal band that sounded like those old 80'd metal bands that I used to love as a teenager and I found this song. I fell in love right away because this sure sounds like those old 80's metal bands that I still love. His voice is amazing. 

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.

So this week I wanted to show you how I cashed out a $100 Amazon gift card from Inbox Dollars. After cashing out the $100 gift card I still had $77.34 in my account that I could cash out. But I wanted to wait until I had another $100 that I could cash out an Amazon gift card for. 

I downloaded this game and finished the levels. They give you certain amounts of money for reaching the levels as you can see. You usually have 30 days to reach all the levels but they pay you for whatever levels you do reach in the time allotted. 

These are all the games I downloaded last month and was playing. Some of the games gave me 45 days to complete. I even have my daughter playing games and earning a little bit of pocket change now too. I just thought I would tell you about this in case you are already playing games on your phone. 

I also cashed out a survey points for a $5 Amazon gift card.

I also cashed out points from Pinecone Surveys for a $10 Amazon gift card.

Book Review: The Alpha's Catch by Reece Barden

 

Book Description

Sean's ready to turn his life upside down when the girl of his dreams lands in his arms, literally. After rescuing Sam from a devastating blaze, this stubborn shifter falls fast and hard. But when Sam bolts in the middle of the night, he's left alone in Grey Ridge, wishing he never let his guard down.

Sam has never relied on anyone. She's forced to lean upon a brawny stranger after a fire that nearly took her life, and while she enjoyed every minute, it can't turn into something real. Or can it?

When Sam is forced to return to Grey Ridge and accept Sean's help once more, she has a chance to repair the damage she's done. But will he ever trust her again?

And more importantly, should he?

This is a standalone novella linked to the Shifters of Grey Ridge series. It features handsome heroes, shifters of all kinds and lots of heat.

My Review

Sam is rescued from a building fire and Sean is the guy who catches her. They spend some time together and it's clear that Sam is having a really hard time with the PTSD/nightmares from the fire. so when she just ups and leaves one day and doesn't look back, it really messes Sean up mentally. He thought they really had something special. 

Months later Sam's friend knows she has to do something to help her friend because she's not eating, sleeping or living. She's just moving through life and still having nightmares. So she gets a hold of Sam's phone and calls Sean. He's not sure he was the right person to all since he thinks she made it clear she never looked back when she left but things are not always what they appear. So he comes to see how she is and what he finds makes him act and try to help her even though he's still mad that she just up and left him with out even a goodbye. 

Sam is in need of some serious help because she's not dealing with the trauma of the fire but seeing Sean again makes her feel bad for leaving him. Now he's back and she's not sure how to feel. These two had so many miscommunication problems that if they had just talked to one another and explained things, it probably would have stopped a lot of heartache on both their parts. Sam is human and Sean is a shifter but Sam doesn't know that for most of the book. 

Goodness, I loved these two. This storyline was so good. This series (even though I'm reading it totally out of order) is so good! I've definitely found a new favorite series to read. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Weird Things Around My Apartment

 

A while back my friend Anna, from Herding Cats & Burning Soup did a post about things around her house. I liked the idea so much I did my own post a while back. Then one of my blogger buddies Bytes From The 'Burbs, did her own post. I love these posts and you all seemed to like it as well so I thought I would do another one. Feel free to join in and do your own post.

So if you were to walk around my house there might be a few things that stand out as strange, nothing I'd classify as outlandish but maybe a bit weird. I never said I was normal...let's just get that out there, okay?  😛 😂

Skull mugs. They're not just for Halloween. 

It's been a while since I've done one of these posts. If you'd like to see the other two posts I did about things around my apartment, I'll post links to them below. 

Weird Things Around My Apartment

Things Around My Apartment- Inherited and Gifts

LED light tree. I use it as my night light. It changes into a bunch of different colors.

Wiccan wall art and shelves. I consider myself to be a Wiccan Agnostic. My daughter is also Wiccan. I'm not religious but I still worship nature. I don't think you have to pick one path and stick to it. Choose what you believe from many paths and believe what feels right to you. My daughter made the pentacle wall hangings. 

Wiccan shelf has a statue of Baphomet (because I find this diety interesting and the statues fun to look at.) Various small bottle with dead bugs. They were dead when we found them. A real cat skull that my daughter found, cleaned and bleached for the shelf and little rocks, geodes ect. 

Baphomet statue.

Baby Baphomet statue because he's flippin' adorable. 

A cat skull. The cat was already dead when my daughter found it. 

Hand statues symbolize strength, power and protection. 

Dead spider in a jar. My daughter likes to keep dead bugs she finds. She has quite a few.

And yes I know the shelf is dusty. Don't come for me. lol We just had a windy day and I swear it's impossible to keep anything dusted completely here in Las Vegas. I could dust twice and day and things would still be dusty.

And can you even call yourself a Nevadan if you don't have a small souvenir jar of gold flakes from a gift shop?

One last thing which I thought was fun was a pair of demon horns that my daughter bought because she thought they were cute and I did too, just because.

Here I am wearing the demon horns and using a black makeup TIKTOK filter just to make it a little more spooky. The TikTok filter made me look way older though. Lol

Here's one using a Snapchat makeup filter. You have to have a little fun now and then. 

So there you have it. Some interesting or weird things you would find around my apartment 

Book Review: Big Burly Foreman by Cassi Hart

 

Book Description

Ashley

For the past two years, I’ve been drawn to the mysterious older cowboy working my father’s ranch. Something about his strong body and stoic façade draws me in. I’ve done everything I can think of it get his attention with no luck. I want him, but he doesn’t see me. That is, until my father sets me up with the son of his new friend. Suddenly, my cowboy has decided to claim me, and he’ll stop at nothing until everyone knows I’m his.

Logan

I never intended to become a cowboy, but after my military career was unexpectedly cut short, here I am. I enjoy working with my hands and body every day. I enjoy knowing the boss’s daughter is watching me even more. Ashley may be her rich daddy’s princess, but after two years of keeping my distance, I’m ready to make her my queen. That kid her father wants her to marry doesn’t stand a chance at coming between me and what’s mine.

My Review

Ashley is an heiress and she and Logan have feelings for each other but neither know it. He's watched her as she's watched him but they have never acted on their feelings at all. When her parents set her up with someone in an arranged marriage, he can't let her go because he doesn't like the guy and he wants her for himself. So he let's his feelings be know once and for all. He doesn't give her time to come to grips with the reality that he's not going to let her marry this other guy before they get caught together by her family and he let's a big secret slip that shocks her family. 

This was a pretty quick read and while Ashley and Logan always liked each other they went from not acting on it to a fully involved couple very quickly. Nothing like an arranged marriage to put a spark under a cowboy's hat and spark him into finally acting on his feelings. I liked the storyline but Logan was a bit pushy and brusk for my liking. Why did it take so long for him to tell her how he felt? But things seemed to work out in the end. 

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

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

Apartment Life #325

 

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 25 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 25 years here in a weekly blog post.  

You might remember a few weeks ago I told you that my apartment complex installed 2 of the electric car charging stations in the alley. Well this week I noticed someone had completely cut the hose off of one of them. I circled in red where it was cut.

This is the second one and you can see there's supposed to be a long hose attached to it. People have been uncoiling the hose and leaving it on the ground with this one. I wonder if they will fix the one with the cut hose? I knew this was a bad idea.

 

This was the weather forecast for this week. So besides it being incredibly hot this week, it's been pretty quiet. I wonder if we'll actually make it to 118F/47C today like the forecast is showing?

On the 4th of July, after the fireworks around 1AM, the police helicopter was flying around my street. The police never showed up though,

I watched some fireworks on the 4th from my cameras. It was too darn hot to be outside. lol There were a lot of illegal fireworks going off around here. I saw on the news that there were 193 outside fires caused by illegal fireworks and 18 building fires caused by the illegal fireworks. I'm actually surprised I didn't see any fires around here.

The high this week was 116F/46C

The low this week was 83F/28C

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

Favorite Song of the Week

 

Saul- More Of The Same

I just found this band and this was he first song I listened to and really liked it. His voice is nice. I hope you enjoy. 

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.

What I received:

I received a free box of dog goodies from Puppywise. Falcor loved the treats and food. The stickers are cute. 

I received a free bag of Ona Pecan Maple cookies from Try Products. Oh, those are good. 

I received a free Salonpas pain relief patch. 

I also received a sample of Keys moisturizer. 

Falcor loved getting an entire box of goodies just for him. He's been snacking on the Greenies snacks and loves them. He already eats Pedigree dog food so I knew he would like that and he was raised on Nutro dog food before I got him so I knew he could eat that and not get an upset stomach. He enjoyed his food and snacks. 

Those Ona cookies are so good. If you like pecan and maple then you will love these. I won a bag of them on Twitter from Try Products. 

I've used the Salonpas pain patches before and they do help for muscle pain which I used this one on my back when I had a muscle cramp and the muscle became sore. It did help for that. 

The Keys moisturizer was a good facial moisturizer. I would try that again. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Book Review: Pact With the Pack by A.J. Mullican

 

Book Description

Cherry Duvall's had a rough week.

After escaping an abusive, controlling ex with her jugular barely intact, Cherry finds out Eric's skipped bail—and he's out for her blood. Cherry jumps on her motorcycle, and it's through the woods to grandmother's house she goes in an attempt to get out of town while the getting's good.

Too bad Eric beat her there. Cherry's too late to save her granny, and things get hairy when Eric threatens her with his knife.

Things get even hairier when five larger-than-life wolves appear in her granny's cabin to battle Cherry's attacker.

Dive into a world of sexy shifters and pack dynamics in this steamy reverse harem romp!

My Review

Cherry is trying to stay away from her ex who tried not too long ago to kill her but when he finds her again, a pack of wolves stop him but not before she is hurt. The wolves turn out to be wolf shifters that save her and deal with her ex. They take her back to their house and heal her but she thinks she's dreaming. Once she's awake, she has a lot of questions and when they tell her who and what they are, she has a hard time believing it at first. 

Once that's out of the way though, she starts to get to know the five shifters and likes all of them. When they find out that her ex's brother is looking for her to make her pay for his brother's death, the guys know they can't let her leave yet because she's in danger. The ex's brother belongs to a biker gang so it's more than just the brother out looking for her. When he finds her, the danger amps way up but there's a great twist that just slides right in there that you never see coming at all. 

This is a why choose romance, meaning she is involved with all five men. They make it work after some drama. This was a fun story. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon