Apartment Life #431

 

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 28 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 28 years here in a weekly blog post.

*Life Update*

I have some good news and some not so good news to share. After my daughter had 2 different mammograms, the doctor said it's not cancer. Just some fibrous tissue. But they are having her come back in 6 months for another mammogram just to make sure nothing has grown. 

My grandson has been diagnosed with POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome) He's been almost fainting and getting really dizzy so they took him to the doctor. He also has hyperlordosis which is an inward curvature of the spine and he has to see a specialist to see what can be done for that. 

The doctors office referral department still hasn't called my daughter with a referral for pain management or a new cardiologist. Good thing the infusions are working and she's not having much pain now. She even did their job and found the pain management that her insurance would take and gave them the address, phone number everything. But they still haven't called her. And they don't answer the phone when you try to call the referral department. So crazy. She sees that doctor in a week and I told her to raise hell about the referrals because that's ridiculous.

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I was taking Falcor out and saw this police car sitting on the corner of the street across the street. Not sure if he had just come from somewhere over there or if he was running the plates on the car in front of him. While I was outside (5 minutes) he drove off. I take Falcor for quick 5 minute potty breaks right here when it's really hot out like it is right now.

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On Thursday, the police helicopter was flying right over my apartment complex and over the other side of the sound wall so I went outside to see if any police were outside. There were none. I took a short video of the police helicopter flying around. 

 

Later that day my neighbor came over and told us that right around the cover from us, less than a block away on the other side of the soundwall the police were all over the street, had the street blocked off and had the police tape up. 

I found out the next day on the Nextdoor App...

A lady had been selling flowers on the corner and some guy tried to rob her. A good Samaritan stopped his car and got out to help her and the robber shot him. The good Samaritan got back in his car and tried to drive off but crashed his car into a tree. Police said he later died at the hospital. Here's the news story about it. 

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Yesterday *Saturday* I noticed police at the end of my street and there was crime scene tape going from the upstairs all the way to the bottom stairs. I don't know if I got out there after everything happened, but I didn't see any ambulance or coroner, or anything pull up. 

The 3 police cars that were down there, stayed down there for quite a while though. I still have no idea what happened.

The high this week was 115F/46C

The low this week was 88F/31C

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

Saturday Vittles

 

Sugar Free Pudding and Berries

You will need: 

1 package Jello Sugar Free Instant Pudding

2% milk

Berries or fruit of your choice

What to do: 

Make the pudding according to the package direction. I used 2% milk to keep the calories lower but you can use whatever milk you like. 

I used 1/2 cup of the pudding and a hand full of the strawberries and blueberries. 

Total calories for this desert is about 50 calories.

What It's Like To Have a Psychotic Episode

 

*Picture courtesy of Pixabay*

So earlier this week I had a psychotic episode. 

I've talked about my mental health problems before but I thought this would be a good time to revisit that subject. I think that talking about it, and removing the stigma tied to mental health is a good way for people to feel comfortable to seek help when they need it. 

I have been diagnosed with depression, anxiety, PTSD, agoraphobia, Schizoaffective disorder and schizotypal personality disorder. If you look up any of these that you don't know, it will give you a better understanding of what I deal with. I don't have many psychotic episodes but they do happen. 

I hear voices/whispering and have hallucinations most days. But I usually know that they aren't real and I can ignore them. Yes, I'm taking an anti-psychotic medication but it's a low dose because I still want to be able to function during the day. But it does help. 

On Sunday I started hearing really loud voices. There were 2 of them at first. One was a menacing man's voice cackling at me telling me that he was a demon and was going to possess my mind and body and there was nothing I could do to stop him. 

My daughter was sleeping on the couch and I was moving around the living room trying to figure out what was possessed. My daughter woke up and asked me what was wrong. Then a 3rd voice emerged and I thought I could hear my daughter's thoughts. 

The other loud voice was a woman who was telling me that I needed to find the possessed object and destroy it. I could hear them clearly and they didn't stop shouting at me. I searched for the possessed object and the closer I got to my bedroom the louder the voices got. I picked up a few books on my bookcase and listened but they weren't the possessed object. It wasn't until I found a different book and picked it up that the female voice started screaming for me to destroy it. I had to light it on fire and burn it until I saw the blue flames, she told me. This was my grandsons book, I don't even remember seeing it on my bookshelf before this. So I picked up the book and my matches and took it to the sink where I was going to burn it. 

My daughter took the book and matches away from me and wouldn't give them back, all the while she was texting a neighbor to come over. The neighbor also has some mental health problems and she works with people with disabilities, so she knew what I was going through, kinda. 

I yelled at my daughter and told her that I could hear her thoughts and that I knew she wanted to put a whole stick of butter in the rice in order to get my gratitude journal. But I was mad because I said there was no reason to waste that much butter in order to take my gratitude journal. *I don't have a gratitude journal* My thoughts were clearly all over the place. 

My daughter told me I should go get some fresh air and take the dog for a walk. She didn't know what to do. So I did. But as we came home, I saw blue flames sprouting from Falcor's paws so I picked him up and brought him inside. I was going to wash his feet off so he wouldn't burn but my daughter and neighbor told me the flames were gone and he was ok. 

My neighbor took the book and told me that she would light it on fire for me in her bbq outside so the demon would be expelled. That calmed down the female's voice a little. But then I saw blue flames through the walls of my apartment and told my daughter that it was so hot because there were blue flames in the walls and we had to destroy the book right away. My neighbor took the book out to her bbq and burned the book, I went outside to make sure and as she was lighting it on fire, she turned it over to get the rest of the pages. Right on the back cover was what looked like to me a ghost with blue flames. It was a R.L. Stine Goosebumps book. I'm guessing it was this image. 

Looks like a blue flame ghost to me. 🤣🤣🤣👻👻And since the blue flames were burned everything was ok again.

I calmed down once the book was destroyed and the voices started to go away. But it took about 3 hours before I realized that what I had been hearing and seeing wasn't actually real. 

Book Review: Her Alien Hoarder by Nessa Claugh

 

Book Description

Humans hoard cats. Kytol hoards raccoons. I’m just the animal control officer trying to get a leash on the situation.

Earth’s Wildlife and You: A Primer should be required reading for aliens. Unfortunately it isn’t, and now I’m stuck in the unenviable position of explaining to green-skinned Kytol that no, raccoons aren’t pets. A case involving animal hoarding is one of the fastest ways to get me angry, but Kytol’s menagerie of rescued raccoons is happy, healthy, and quells my initial reaction in a way I’m afraid to put my finger on. Shutting his little operation down is the last thing I want to do, but laws are laws, and I’m going to have to choose whether to break the law or my heart.

Earth is the Dila Cluster’s newest vacation hotspot. Deserts, oceans, crazy animals, unique human events; it has everything a curious alien could ask for. Humanity is still trying to play catch-up with that fact. All Dilaverse stories are cozy, low-stakes HEA/HFN romances where aliens come to Earth looking for fun times and end up getting more than they bargained for. Each Dilaverse story is in the wider multi-author Alien Quickies line, which means hot alien reads in under 30 minutes.

My Review

Brenda is an animal control officer and gets a tip that there's an animal hoarder feeding raccoons cat food so she has to go check it out. But things aren't as she thought they would be once she gets there. In this book, aliens are known and they are on Earth so seeing Kytol answer the door might have been a bit of a shock because he's an alien, but the humans know that aliens exist here. 

Brenda is just trying to do her job and Kytol isn't about to let a nosy human stop him from taking care of the injured and abandoned raccoons that he's helping. Once Brenda finds out the truth of what he's doing, she decides to help him because he's not doing anything wrong. I liked that about this story. 

The alien anatomy was a little strange, but they made it work when they decided to become intimate. This was a quick, fun novella. 

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week!

 

*Click on any images to make them bigger*

I wanted to share with you a craft project that my daughter did with the half moon shelves that I gave her for her birthday last month. 

She started out adding some fake plants to the shelves.

Then some stones and jewels.

Then she hot glued some moss to the shelves and made some chains with charms on them and added that. 

She added more stones, gems and small pieces of mirror. I think they came out so cute! Now they hang on the wall.

Book Review: Hellhounds and Angel Cakes by Zoe Chant

 

Book Description

He’s supposed to be a rough, tough, terrifying hellhound. That's hard when you're covered in chihuahuas.

Henry’s used to everyone being afraid of him – being a hellhound has that effect on people. What he’s not used to is having every animal within a four-mile radius suddenly wanting to be his best friend. Pigeons roosting on your shoulder: annoying, but mostly harmless. The local moose population stampeding toward you in the hopes of a hug: somewhat more worrying.

There’s nothing for it but to escape to the mountains, where he can use his hellhound form to intimidate the local wildlife into leaving him alone. But a stop for one last piece of cake before heading into the wilderness leads him straight to his fated mate. He's over the moon... but how can he court her when every animal in town is trying to leap into his arms?

Travel journalist Luna was looking forward to this assignment: covering the first annual Girdwood Springs Food Festival, along with her trademark: Fillmore, the world's ugliest dog. Specifically, she was looking forward to sampling all the amazing, mouth-watering local delicacies.

But there's other delights to sample in Girdwood Springs – such as the mind-bogglingly gorgeous, hunky man who is now covered in cake, thanks to Fillmore. And who seems to be strangely popular with the local animal population.

Suddenly, writing her article is the last thing on her mind…

Hellhounds and Angel Cakes is a short and sweet standalone shifter romance, full of warmth and humor, and is the fourth in the Shifters and Sweets series. One-click now for a cute, quirky read with a guaranteed HEA!

My Review

Henry is a hellhound shifter with a bad sweet tooth. His Hellhound is always shaming him for wanting cake, but he can't help himself. So, Henry comes to the town of Girdwood to have a little peace and quiet in the woods, but the town is having a Spring Foods Festival. Henry can't stop himself from stopping at a bakery because the cakes smell so good. But while there Luna's dog, Fillmore jumps on Henry, spilling the cakes all over him. 

Henry is also plagued with a curse that makes animals love him. He can't stay in one place too long or all kinds of wild animals come to greet him, which would raise a lot of questions he's not ready to answer. 

When Luna finds her dog and sees what he's caused, she offers to let Henry come back to her place so she can wash his clothes and he can get cleaned up. While there they find they are very attracted to each other. 

This book made me laugh too many times to count. Henry might be a hellhound but he's not a bad guy at all. The banter between Luna and Henry was great and let's not forget Fillmore the dog, he was hilarious. This was such a fun read. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

"It's almost time for the kids to head back to school, make sure those computers are charged up."

"Any time is a good time for ice cream."

*All pictures today are courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

Apartment Life #430

 

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 just want to say this is not me making fun of the homeless. I took this picture of this homeless man sleeping on a mattress he found outside. I am just taking pictures of what I see in my neighborhood and posting them here and I saw this while out with Falcor one time. It just shows how hard things are for some people living on the streets in my neighborhood. 

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Because it was so slow this week, I thought I would share a video from 2019 that my daughter took. My daughter was on her way to work and stopped at the bus stop to catch the bus. She had her earbuds in listening to music and this homeless woman started screaming at her because she thought my daughter was recording her. 

Even after my daughter told her she was just listening to music and not recording her, she continued to yell at her. So my daughter started recording. By this time my daughter was really mad so she used quite a few curse words, just so you know. But with all the homeless people in the neighborhood, things like this happen quite often to people who live around here.

The high this week was 113F/45C

The low this week was 84F/28C

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

Saturday Vittles

 

Well, we're back to trying to eat healthy again. So, this night we made this. 

One Pan Skillet Hamburger and Vegetable Meal

You will need: 

1 lb. hamburger

1 medium potato- diced

2 carrots- diced

1 medium yellow onion- diced

1 bunch of fresh spinach (about 3 cups uncooked)- rinsed and drained

No calorie cooking spray

salt and pepper to taste

1 tsp. McCormick Hamburger seasoning

1 tsp. McCormick Montreal Steak seasoning

1/2 tsp. McCormick Mesquite seasoning

What to do: 

In a large nonstick pan, spray some no calorie cooking spray. Add diced potatoes and cook on medium heat with a lid on for 10 minutes. Add carrots and onions and cook until the vegetables are fork tender or to your liking. Add hamburger and spices, cook until hamburger is done. Drain off any fat. Add spinach and stir until spinach is wilted. 

This makes 4 servings. Each serving is about 300 calories and 10 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.  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:

CeraVe anti dandruff shampoo

Hero facial cleanser from hero Skin Squad

Zevo bug spray foam (from Influenster)

A little freebies box from Bloomingdales Luxe scents for him which included:

Acqua Di Parma

John Varvatos

Mind Games

Penhaligon's 

The CeraVe shampoo is good. I don't have dandruff but it is a good shampoo. I sprayed the bug spray foam on some ants that were outside my door and it does work on them. I'll keep it under my sink for future use just in case but it does have a very strong scent. I was able to find a someone who wanted the men's scents.

I like the Hero facial cleanser too. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?