Favorite Type of Spooky Images?

 

If you didn't know before now, you will after this post... I like Grim Reapers. If I was ever going to get a tattoo it would be of a grim reaper. I don't find them scary at all, I find them fascinating, mysterious and a little sexy. I might have a problem...

If I had to say I had a favorite type of spooky image or type of spooky Halloween décor that I like, it would definitely be Grim Reapers. 

Do you have a certain type of spooky image or décor that you like this time of year?

What is it about Grim Reapers? I'm not sure. Is it the cloak? His dominating presence? The fact that he has dark, soulless eyes or that you can't actually see his skeletal face in most pictures? Could be...

I would probably get on the boat with him if he beckoned me with those gloved hands. I definitely have a problem. I love this time of year. Bring on the Grim Reapers. 

What's your favorite spooky image or décor this time of year?

What's Your Favorite Halloween Candy?

 

What's your favorite Halloween candy?

What is now or was when you were a kid?  Mine was always chocolate. I can't imagine anyone not loving chocolate, but that's another story all together. 

When I was Trick or Treating, I always wanted a lot of candy bars. Didn't matter what kind of candy bar it was because I liked them all. 

My mom liked picking out some of the hard candy for herself and I did the same thing to my daughter when she got home with a huge load of candy at the end of the night, I think most parents do. They wait until the kid has gone to bed, coming down from the sugar rush and then go through the candy stash to pick out their favorites. Stashing them away for later. 

*Don't look at me like that. You know you did it too.*

So what did you hope for when you went Trick or Treating?

Chocolates?

Hard candy?

Lollipops?

Sour candies?

Gummi candies?

Pixie Sticks?

Those weird homemade popcorn balls the old cat lady always made? lol 

Candy corn? I love candy corn. 

What about candied apples? I like them. 

Everyone Has A Story, Here's One of Mine

 

I've been thinking of writing an autobiography or memoir but it just never comes together for me but I figured if I write one story at a time and post it on my blog maybe once a month, I can do that. Maybe one day I'll pull all the stories together and put them in a book but for now I'll just share some stories with you about my childhood. Some of the stories will be happy, some sad and some horrific because that was my childhood. But they will all be real, things that actually happened. If it seems like something that people enjoy reading maybe I'll keep it going. These stories will not be in any kind of order, I'll just write them as they come to me.

Taking A Walk With Uncle Jack Christmas Night

Not sure how old I was at the time but probably between the ages of 7 and 9 years old. My uncle Jack was at my grandma's house for Christmas and we were all there as well. After the sun set that night my Uncle Jack took my brother and I on a walk to go trash digging. This was a thing in my family for some reason. My mom kept the tradition alive when my own daughter was a kid and she gave her a porcelain doll she found in the trash. It would have been fine but the head was cracked in half. LOL 

Anyway, that Christmas while out with Uncle Jack, we were walking up and down the streets, looking in trash cans and I found a Farrah Fawcett puzzle that turned out to have all the pieces. Score!

My brother found some toys and on the way home, Uncle Jack started taking all the trash cans from the sidewalk and moved them into the middle of the street. We were little kids and thought it was funny so we helped. He was always such a bad influence on us. Then he spotted a small hibachi bbq by someone's door that had some chicken legs and a large steak on it. So Uncle Jack told us kids to hide behind the block wall and be quiet until he got back. A couple of minutes later he came back with the steak that he proceeded to eat on the walk home. My brother and I had fun that night and Uncle Jack had a steak. 

That man was a bad influence on us for the most part but sometimes he was fun.

 Links to past stories

2023

January 2023

February 2023

March 2023

April 2023

May 2023

June 2023

July 2023

August 2023

September 2023

October 2023

November 2023

December

2024

January 2024

February 2024

March 2024

April 2024

May 2024

June 2024

July 2024

August 2024

September 2024

Book Review: How To Help A Hungry Werewolf by Charlotte Stein

 

Book Description

What We Do in the Shadows with the small town feels of Gilmore Girls in this swoon-worthy romance that will leave readers delightfully cozy and hungry for more.

When Cassandra Camberwell returns to her hometown of Hollow Brook to clear out her late grandmother’s ramshackle old house, the last thing she expects is Seth Brubaker on her doorstep. 

Her former best friend was responsible for the worst moment of her high school life, and she can’t imagine he wants to do anything but torment her all over again. Until she unearths the real reason this annoyingly gorgeous beast of a man keeps hanging around: he’s an actual werewolf, who’s certain she’s the witch that will ease his suffering. 

But Cassie just isn’t sure if she can trust him again. So Seth offers a pact: he’ll teach her all about her undiscovered magic, and she will brew the potions he needs. No feelings, no funny business, just a witch and a werewolf striking a deal.

Totally doable. Until they get hit with a do-or-die mating bond. And now the heat is rising, in between fights with formers bullies and encounters with talking raccoons. They just have to not give in. Unless giving in just might be the very thing they never knew they always wanted.

My Review

Seth and Cassie meet up again after years of her hating him because of a prank he and his friends pulled on her in high school. But once Cassie's grandmother passes away and leaves her a house, she comes back to town to clean out the house and probably sell it. But Seth shows up and sets a whole slew of things in motion. For one, Seth is now a werewolf and needs the potion or recipe that Cassie's grandmother used to make him so he can control his shifts. But instead Cassie just thinks he's in the basement trying to steal something until he starts to shift and he has to tell her to run, block the basement door and wait. Which she does and is not prepared to face her new reality that paranormals exist, the next day. 

Seth and Cassie start to spend more time together because Cassie has a lot of questions and she doesn't have anyone else to talk to about this stuff. So Seth fills her in but she's not sure she can trust him yet even though the prank was years ago. He really hurt her since they had been best friends before the whole thing happened. But the more time they spend together, the more she sees her friend in Seth again and they start to act like friends again. All the while Cassie is trying to help Seth with a couple of potions to help him out and they need some ingredients that they have to go looking for. 

In the meantime, those old jerks that Seth used to hang out with and set Cassie up for the prank in high school are still holding a grudge against her and Seth knows she's in danger from them. But then halfway through the book the plot takes a backseat to the mating urges that first Seth starts to feel and then Cassie feels. They are so strong that they have a hard time focusing on anything else and the book focuses on sex between them for quite a while. After they get that out of their system, it gets better and we get back to the plot of this story. I really liked the characters, and Pod the racoon familiar for Cassie after she realizes she's a witch. 

It was a little slow at times and a little wordy but the storyline was a lot of fun. You can bet this won't be the last book I read by this author. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

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

Amazon

Halloween Craft Using Avocado Seeds

 

How To Make Bleeding Avocado Seed Faces

Here's a fun Halloween craft to do with the kids or grandkids.

What to do: 

Remove seed from avocado

Wash seed

Carefully peel away brown part from seed

Carve a face into seed

Wait 10 minutes and watch as face starts to 'bleed'. 

I found that making more shallow cuts instead of deeper cuts will make it bleed more and look redder. This would be fun to do for Halloween. Nothing says I love Halloween like a shelf full of bleeding faces. 

Happy Halloween Month!

 

Tomorrow starts Halloween Month. I used to post Halloween related pictures and other things during the month of October and then life got hectic and in the way and I stopped. So now that things are getting back to normal, I decided to bring back Halloween Month! You can expect spooky pictures, Halloween related content and whatever else I come up with throughout the month of October along with some regular posts. Most pictures that I haven't taken myself will be from Pixabay which are royalty free. So enjoy.

Since today is Raturday, how about we change things up and I share some AI generated creatures.

Apartment Life #337

 

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.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed my toilet wasn't flushing right, it was slow and that usually means the pipes are getting clogged and the cleanout is overflowing. So I looked out my bedroom window and sure enough raw sewage was leaking out of this pipe again. Long time readers know that this happens a few times a year. 

So I went outside because those of you that remember last time, there were a couple dozen bugs on my wall and window from the sewer pipe that's right under my bedroom window and I was afraid that would happen again. I only saw two huge sewer bugs but that was enough for me. Those two black spots on the wall, lower and one higher are bugs. No thank you. So I called maintenance Friday afternoon and told them raw sewage was leaking all over the ground and the maintenance guy came out fast. 

I was actually surprised he got here so fast. 

He was mad about something though because for a few minutes he was just yelling into his phone. 

But he pulled out the electric snake, unclogged the pipe and went home. I did not want to deal with bugs and a slow toilet and backed up tub all weekend. Thankfully I didn't have to.

---

I think I showed you a while back when my daughter found these unspent bullets in the alley. Strange to find bullets that haven't been fired but I just figured it was a fluke. These are .22 bullets.

Then she found a .38 unspent bullet. Still weird but ok. 

Then this month she found this, it's a .223 Remington bullet from what could be several different semi-automatic and manual rifles. Now I don't have a problem with guns. I learned how to shoot when I was 12 years old. I just find it weird that there are so many unspent rounds in my alley. Ammo costs quite a bit of money, bullets aren't cheap according to my brother. So what's happening? Are their ammo cans so overflowing when they open them the ammo is just falling out? Or do they have bullets in their pockets and they are dropping them on the ground when pulling a few out of their pockets? I just find it weird. 

Is it all from the same person? Several people? I have questions. 

The high this week was 106F/41C

The low this week was 71F/21C

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

Sky Pictures From This Week

 

We had a cloudy couple of days this week. These pictures are courtesy of my daughter since she was up before me and heard the thunder that I missed. 

She said there was some lightning coming out of these clouds too.

It was early in the morning. I got up at 4AM, took the dog out, saw a few clouds but nothing like this and I went back to bed and missed the thunder and lightning. 

Not one drop of rain where we live though. Other parts of Vegas got some rain but not us. 

You can even see the rain coming down in some of these pictures. 

It sure made for some good pictures though.

And then we started seeing blue skies after noon. 

How was your week?

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.

This week I received: 

A Lancome perfume sample. 

It smells good so that's always good. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Book Review: The Beta's Challenge by Alexa Phoenix

 

Book Description

When my brothers and I decided to start a new life inside a new pack that accepted us, when all others turned us away, I vowed never to endure the pain of a mate bond again.

However, I should have known fate always enjoys playing games with us. One look and everything I’ve built comes crashing down around me.

When I took up an extra shift, one gaze threw everything I had ever worked for out the window.

Conrad Miller, my newest pack’s Beta, was my second chance at a mate.

Blessed by the Moon goddess, he was supposed to be my perfect half. The person who was made to complete my soul, my happily ever after. From his compassion to his protectiveness, he’s everything my wolf has ever wanted.

However, I want nothing to do with him. Unfortunately, he refuses to take no for an answer.

Now, I'm torn between the mate bond and my own desires.

Will I be able to resist his charm, or will fate once again have its way?

If you like paranormal romances with fated mates, intense conflict, and strong women, you’ll love The Beta's Challenge. Recommended for readers 17+

My Review

April's first mate, Josh ended up being a cheat and jerk so April refused to be his mate and she and her brother's left. They are finally able to find a new pack who will accept them and April gets a job at a cafe as well as working at her brother's auto shop. She doesn't plan on having a mate after the horrible first one so when Conrad walks into the cafe and April recognizes him as her mate, she runs. April and Conrad are both wolf shifters and finding a mate should be a happy occasion but it's not for April, she's been through this once already and isn't going to do it again. 

But Conrad doesn't take no for an answer, he just wants her to give him a shot, get to know him a little before she rejects him completely. Conrad is the pack's Beta so either way April knows that she's going to have to see him and agrees to go out with him once to get to know him better. He's nothing like Josh and she's incredibly attracted to him. So she gives him a chance, slowly. But then there's a miscommunication and their relationship takes a backseat until Conrad realizes that April is in danger from her past. 

I loved the banter between her and her family. They were great and they loved her and it showed. Conrad is such a nice guy, I loved him. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

This was the sunrise on Wednesday morning.

This was a little while after sunrise on Thursday morning. 

Book Review: The Alpha King's Mark by Anne T. Thyssen

 

Book Description

After killing his uncle, Marcos rises to be the king of supernatural creatures, but finds himself burdened by the weight of his crown. Despite wanting nothing but to avenge his family and be free, Marcos remains trapped by his duty to those who depend on him. However, everything changes one fateful night at an upper-class party when a woman, disguised as a servant, sets out to end his life. Yet, as Marcos gazes into her enigmatic eyes, he is inexplicably drawn to her, and in that moment must make her his.

Marcella lost everything as a child and was raised by the vampire Aleister, who molded her into a merciless assassin. Bound to Aleister, the King of the Underworld, she carries out his orders, always a weapon in his hands. When the call to assassinate the king reaches Aleister's ears, he dispatches Marcella without hesitation. Though she successfully plunges the knife into Marcos's chest, she soon realizes that the act cannot sever the invisible bond he has established between them.

Will Marcos and Marcella find solace in each other, or will their past and duty destroy them?

This story contains assassination, manipulation, explicit sex scenes, descriptions of death, and is rated 18+.

My Review

A powerful vampire named Aleister found Marcella when she was just a child after her family had been killed. He took her in because he sensed she would be a powerful werewolf when she got older. So he raised her to be his assassin. She is a werewolf raised by a vampire in a cold, unfeeling home. While Aleister might have some sense of familiar feelings for her, she is nothing more than a tool for his ruthless rise to be more powerful. When Aleister sends Marcella out on another assignment to kill Marcos, an alpha werewolf, she isn't expecting anything to go wrong. Boy was she in for a surprise. 

For some reason someone wants Marcos dead. When an assassination attempt goes wrong and the assassin is caught, Marcos finds himself face to face with his fated mate who is also the woman who tried to kill him. 

I actually felt really bad for Marcella because having been raised by a vampire, she knows nothing of her werewolf heritage. She can't remember her childhood with the family that was killed so she and her wolf don't get along at all. Little by little Marcos gets to her and makes her feel things she never thought possible until she no longer wants to go back to the vampire she owes her life to. 

I loved Marcos. He was so patient with her even through she tried to kill him. He slowly gets under her skin and gets to know her while showing her how it is supposed to be when you're a wolf shifter. I really enjoyed this book a lot. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

"Teaching an alien about toast, because bread is life"

"For an advanced species, I was surprised this alien didn't even know what a Lite Brite was."

"Singing with my alien friends"

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

Apartment Life #336

 

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 was out with Falcor and when I got back to my apartment there was a woman and her husband in front of my apartment arguing. The woman is the sister of one of my neighbors. The sister called the police. My daughter was outside and told the woman to come over to her and yelled at the husband to leave. He left when I walked up. The police came but I didn't see anyone get arrested. 

The police went to the sisters apartment and then she took them over to her sisters apartment. She also lives in my apartment complex. 

About 2 hours later the police showed up again but I don't know what for. There are two police cars side by side here talking to each other. 

Right next door one night a couple of weeks ago there was a car meet in the Cal Ranch parking lot around 11Pm. My daughter went outside to see why they were making so much noise. They were setting off smoke bombs, racing their cars, doing doughnuts and squealing their tires.

You can see a bunch of people in the background watching. There was a bunch of cars doing it. I tried to upload a video but the video wouldn't play. They all left when the police showed up. 

A fire truck showed at for an apartment across the street Friday night at 4AM. My camera doesn't take good pictures at night but you can see all the lights on it. lol I'll just use my window cameras for night time pictures from now on. They didn't stay long and nothing was on fire so hopefully whatever they were there for everyone is alright. 

The high this week was 90F/32C

The low this week was 62F/16C

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