Apartment Life #364

 

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 26 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 26 years here in a weekly blog post.  

I heard the police helicopter up flying right over my apartment complex so I had to go outside and see what was up. 

The police were all over the street.

Some right across the street and another one farther down the street. 

The police had a homeless woman in the pool courtyard of my complex and were going through her bags and had her handcuffed. But later on I saw her outside so she wasn't arrested. I have no idea why there were so many cops and the police helicopter for just that or if they were looking for someone else too. I didn't see them bother anyone else. 

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A couple of weeks ago this older woman was walking these two large dogs (a pitbull and an Australian Shepherd) They saw Falcor and me come around the corner and they pulled her off her feet. She landed in the street and let go of one of the leashes. The Australian Shepherd came running over and I was able to pick Falcor up before he did anything. She still had a hold of the pitbull but the dog was trying to get to us, barking and growling. I pulled out my tazer just in case. But I didn't have to use it. I told her she shouldn't be walking both dogs at the same time if she can't control them. But the very next day here she is walking both dogs again. You can't fix stupid, I guess. And that very same day I saw her dogs go after another little dog and she was pulled into the street again and almost fell down...again. 

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You might remember Jessica, the Mayor of tunnel town in my neighborhood. Well her reign might be over. I saw a homeless man putting these signs up all over and snagged one before the homeless people took them all down. It says, "Jessica you can come clean and pay up or I'll knock on Alta's door."

Looks like there's some drama brewing down in them tunnels. LoL

Will Jessica pay up? 

Will he have to knock on Alta's door? 

Will Jessica keep her job as Mayor of tunnel town?

Will there be more signs put up? 

Get answers to these burning questions and more on the next episode of, As The Apartment Burns. 

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Yesterday's sunrise. 

The high this week was 93F/33C

The low this week was 61F/16C

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

Saturday Vittles

 

My Daughter and I are trying to eat more healthy so I thought I would share some pictures on Saturday's of what we've made. 

Homemade Vegetable Broth

Since I started eating low carb I've been using a lot of vegetables. So I thought I would save all the cuttings, ends and pieces that would usually get thrown away and make some homemade vegetable broth. I saved it all in freezer bags and and just added to the bags as I used the vegetables. After 2 months I had enough to make a large pot of vegetable broth. 

I didn't add any salt or spices to this that way I can spice it up any way I want when I use it. The vegetable pieces that I had were carrots, onion, tomato, zucchini, asparagus, bell pepper, cilantro, broccoli, cauliflower and celery.

I added all the ends, pieces and peels from the vegetables I had saved to a pot and covered it with water. Bring it to a boil, put a cover on it and let it simmer on medium for 6 hours or until all of the vegetable ends and pieces have gotten mushy. Strain the vegetables from the broth and fill ice cube trays with the broth. 

I got 24 vegetable broth cubes from this big pot of vegie pieces. 

I put the vegie broth cubes in ziplock freezer bags and am storing it in the freezer. When I need some vegetable broth for a recipe I can just pop a few vegie cubes out of the bag and use it. 

Would you make your own vegetable broth?

Weird Things Around My Apartment

 

*Click pictures to enlarge them*

So if you were to walk around my apartment 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?

I bought this gnome wand made from clay about 15 years ago. I just thought it was so unique. It sits on my bookcase. I saw some Sculpey Clay and thought, I can do that! lol 

And I made my own wand with some blue beads. 

It was a lot harder to make something than I thought it would be.  

I have a Dime Rat. It's called a Dime Rat because it's the size of a Dime. It was hard to get a good picture of her because she's so little. I won her in a FB contest years ago at Sculptures By Eve. 

My daughter went to a store that had some interesting things and bought this. It's heavy, made of ceramic and made to look like that paper game we used to play when we were kids. 

I thought it looked very interesting. 

At that store my daughter also bought a Beaver's paw and a small alligator paw to add to her shelf. Not sure if it's the formaldehyde or whatever they used to preserve the paws, but they smell really bad if you get up close to them.

A friend of mine gave me some Monster Dollars years ago. I think they're cool. 

I have two small comic books. This one Grimm's Ghost Stories is a fun one.

It has a copyright date of 1977. I've had it a long time.

I like to keep small things that are interesting.

I also have a small Twilight Zone comic book. 

This also has a copyright date of 1977. 

I used to watch the show all the time.

These Screaming Traders trading cards are from some horror movies. My favorite being Pet Sematary.

A couple of weeks ago my daughter went to a store called Cemetery Pulp and bought a couple more things. This is a banana spider in a vial of formaldehyde. That spider is big.

And this is a leach in a vial of formaldehyde. 

So there ya go. There's some of the weird things you might find around my apartment. 

Do you have anything in your home that would surprise someone?

If you want to see the other posts I've done about Weird Things Around My Apartment, I will link them below. 

Weird Things Around My Apartment- 2017

Things Around My House- Inherited and Gifts- 2018

Weird Things Around My Apartment- 2024

Book Review: Her Alien Guardian by Adele Yates

 

Book Description

New world. New Rules. New problems.

Anna needs to find her feet before she kneels at Harkin’s.

Harkin never thought he’d find someone compatible. But tests don’t lie, even secret ones. Anna’s everything he wants — needs — but he’s supposed to be caring for her, not taking advantage. Arkians don’t even recognize mates anymore, so why can’t he stay away from her?

He needs to concentrate, he’s got a job to do — catching determinists. And they have taken an interest in the Earthling he’s starting to think of as his.

Anna left everything behind — thank goodness, it wasn’t looking good. Settling into her new home should be easy, they have a school for that.

Things never go to plan, do they?

Luckily, she knows just the guy to take her home and keep her safe. She wants Harkin — he’s big, sometimes bossy, and he’s good to her.

Unfortunately, she’s his ward, and she can’t even book a transport pod alone. What’s the difference between love and gratitude?

Each book in the Guardians of Arksis series is a standalone romance with a happy ending. Life on Arksis is different, and they are much more open about many things. Expect a whole new world with steamy scenes, light BDSM and a unique approach to relationships.

This spicy, steamy sci-fi romance is for adults only.

My Review

Anna gets approved to go to Arksis because Earth is not faring too well. Some Earthlings get approved to go to Arksis but they get transformed into Arkians and have to learn the rules, customs and they go to school after getting to the planet in order to learn things about their new world before they can take the citizenship tests and be considered citizens. Only then can they leave and live their lives. 

Harkin is a Guardian and hosts Anna in his home as she studies and gets used to things. But they are compatible as mates and aren't supposed to know it yet. They spend time together in VR where they can do things that they can't anywhere else. But as they spend time together Harkin finds out that there are bad guys who want his human to experiment on before she gets her citizenship and that jolts the danger way up. 

Watching these two get to know one another was fun especially because the Arkians are not shy about sex, nudity and talking about what they like and want. Anna is human and a little more reserved but she starts getting used to things and their customs as time goes on. 

There is some light BDSM in this book but it's completely consensual and not at all rough or extreme. This was a fun, sexy read and I look forward to reading the next book now. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Old Photos

 

I was going through some old photo albums and thought it would be fun to share some old pictures. This is my mom and her dad when she was a little kid at Christmas time.

My grandpa holding my mom when she was a baby. The little boy is my uncle Jack.

This is my grandpa and his mother, so my great grandma. 

This is my great grandparents. The same lady as the above picture. They were my maternal grandpa's parents. This man, my great grandpa, Lewis Casper Sherman was a Baptist Minister. His obituary is below.

I found my great grandfathers obituary in one of the photo albums. It says, 
Rev. Sherman, 69 Dies Following Sudden Illness. 

The Rev. Lewis Casper Sherman, 69 of Rush died at 4:45Pm of a sudden illness. 

The Rev. Mr Sherman, was born December 25th, 1896 in Morgan county, a son of Paris Sherman of Portsmouth o..and the late Julie Hamilton Sherman. He was a minister and a farmer and a member of the Enterprise Baptist church. 

And then it goes on to list his family. 

I thought it was very neat that even through I never met him, I have all of these pictures of him and his newspaper obituary that I'm sure my grandfather put in this photo album to remember his father. I inherited all of my moms photo albums when she passed away in 2011. 

This is my grandpa and his mother (Same lady from the other pictures). They are holding my mom when she was a baby. 

I love looking back at all the old black and white old pictures I have of family members. 

I've always been the keeper of the pictures in my family. I have a lot of old photo albums. Now pretty much everything is digital but I still get some pictures printed out so keep in the photo albums that my daughter gets to have when I'm gone. 

Do you have old photo albums?

Book Review: Wulf's Pack by Jackie May

 

Book Description

True lone wolves are rare, but I’ve been happily on my own for decades. I’m too dominant to be anything except a pack alpha, and the thought of leading gives me hives. The only thing that scares me more than pack life is mate-hungry she-wolves. The old ball and chain lifestyle isn’t for me.

Then she walks into my club and changes everything.

In the span of a heartbeat, my single status is revoked. True mates are supposed to be myths, but there’s no denying what the beautiful, waifish woman who just stumbled into the club is to me.

I never thought I’d have a mate. Nor did my wolf. Neither of us were prepared for it. When the mate bond snaps into place, I'm shocked, but my wolf loses his damn mind. The bruises mottled all over our mate’s skin and the fear that clings to her like a bad stench has my wolf nearly feral with the need to protect her and get revenge on the person that hurt her. I want that too, but to my wolf, protecting our mate means having a strong pack.

When it's revealed that Skylar is a rare, coveted type of shifter on the run from a very dangerous pack, my wolf takes over and starts claiming shifters left and right. Now I’ve got a mate, a pack, a psychotic new enemy, and I keep losing control of my wolf. I’m in over my head, but I have to find a way to step up and become the alpha I was always meant to be—before everything and everyone I love is destroyed.

My Review

I have not read either of the series that this book is part of but that didn't hurt my absolute love for this book. This can be read as a stand alone as I did. 

This book starts off on a bang right away. Skylar has been held captive by an abusive wolf shifter who uses her gifts for himself. She's been beaten and abused but when she sees a way to escape, she takes it. Wulf spots her when she comes into the bar and is looking for the alpha of the territory because she needs help. Wulf, a long wolf shifter feels an immediate pull to help her and that's strange for him because he's a lone wolf. But once his clan helps her and gets the magical collar off her that was suppressing her wolf, it because apparent to Wulf and his wolf that she is his true mate. Which is a shock to him and others since true mates are supposed to be a myth. 

What comes next is Skylar and Wulf navigating their new relationship while Wulf tries to control his wolf who is adamant that they make a pack. But Wulf has always been a long wolf and he doesn't understand why his wolf wants to keep making new pack members. 

Skylar is different and special so Wulf has to be careful a nd deal with more drama once others know about her. Shifters start coming to ask for help from her and that brings all kinds of new twists to the story. Skylar and Wulf have to ask for help from some people that they really don't want to but they are able to help a few more people when they do. 

This was such a good book. New people and situations kept getting thrown at Wulf and Skylar but as long as they worked together and helped each other through the situations, they got through them. I'm definitely going to have to go back and read the other series and books in this universe because some of these other characters like Illren, the Fae who happens to be an assassin is so intriguing and I want to get to know him more. 

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

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

"Just taking out the trash."

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

Apartment Life #363

 

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 26 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 26 years here in a weekly blog post.  

Falcor stared down a new dog in the neighborhood. They stared at each other while us humans laughed. Later that day he met the dog and they got along fine. The other dog is a little black and white Chihuahua. Another old man like Falcor. 

The police were back across the street for that same apartment upstairs as last week. I don't know what's happening since no one was arrested. The police didn't even stay that long. 

A little while later the Fire Department ambulance showed up down the street and took an elderly man to the ER. Hopefully he's better from whatever sent him to the hospital soon. 

This is our apartment security. Early in the morning they showed up because there were a bunch of homeless people camped out in front of the office. There's an electrical outlet right next to the office door that people use to charge their phones. So there's people sleeping there at night quite often.

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On Wednesday the apartment manager was knocking on everyone's door telling us all that they were having inspections from the owner and we all had to put our chairs and tables inside. Anyone who didn't answer their door right then she had the maintenance guy wheeling a big trash can around with him put anything sitting outside into the trash. I watched as the guy across from me had his bbq thrown in the trash. Others had their folding chairs tossed in the trash. The manager told me it was just for today and she's hoping that if nothing is out that the owner won't tell her to put out notices saying we aren't allowed to have anything outside our doors. Technically we aren't allowed to have bbq's here at all, it's in the lease agreement. 

The owner hasn't been around since he bought this place 7 years ago so this doesn't happen often.

One of the homeless ladies living with Johnathan (BB Gun dude) came outside in her underwear and took their bbq and chair inside his apartment. I am hoping we don't have a problem with her trying to stay there when he moves out on the 20th. I might have to call the office and let them know. They have been having loud parties almost every night.

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I went outside when I heard the police helicopter up flying around my street and spotted this police car parked near the alley. There were other police cars driving up and down my street and some police officers running up and down the street on the sidewalk. They were looking for someone but they all took off really fast so I think whoever it was went somewhere else while they were looking here. They all left fast so I have no idea if they found who they were looking for. 

 

The high this week was 76F/24C

The low this week was 51F/10C

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

Saturday Vittles

 

My Daughter and I are trying to eat more healthy so I thought I would share some pictures on Saturday's of what we've made. Most pictures are from my daughter since she takes good food pics. lol

Cauliflower Rice, Mushrooms and Spinach

I made this as a side dish and it came out really good. 

What you need: 

1 Cup of shredded cauliflower

1 Cup Sliced mushrooms

2 Cups Fresh Spinach

1 TBSP Butter

1/2 tsp. Garlic powder

1/2 tsp. Onion powder

1/2 tsp. Chicken bullion powder

No calorie cooking spray

2 TBSP water

Salt and Pepper to taste

What to do: 

Rinse the spinach under cold water. A lot of times fresh spinach will have dirt on it and it will make your recipe gritty if you don't wash it off. After washing, put in a colander and let drain off excess water. 

Shred the cauliflower using a cheese grater. You can use a food processor but since I was only needing a cup of it, I just grated it myself. Set aside. 

In a non-stick skillet, spray the pan generously with no calorie cooking spray and add in the sliced mushrooms. Cook over medium heat under cooked to desired doneness. Remove mushrooms and set aside. 

Using the same non-stick skillet, add the butter to the pan. Once melted add all the spices and cauliflower. Let cook over medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Add the mushrooms back in and the water. Stir well and add the spinach. Cook until the spinach is wilted. Do not overcook or add too much water or the cauliflower will get mushy. 

This entire pan has only 160 calories and about 10 carbs. 

I used this as a side dish. 

Would you eat this?

Garden Flowers

 

Some of you asked what flowers were in my daughters garden. She used a pack of seeds that said wild flower seed mix. So I have no idea what any of these are. lol I took pictures as they started blooming.

There was one orange flower among all the pink and purple ones. 

Only a couple bloomed for a few weeks.

I like the pink and purple ones.

It's nice to see some flowers in the courtyard. At first there were just a few flowers.

Then these two flowers popped up. These are my favorite. What a pretty color. 

And then boom! Flowers. 

Soon after I took this picture we had several days of high winds and most of the flower stems broke or fell over. It was nice while it lasted.