Chop bacon into bite sized pieces. Sauté bacon over medium heat until crispy. Add cabbage and all spices. Cover and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes or until your desired doneness.
The entire dish has 300 calories which makes this a good side dish.
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.
Brookside blueberry and acai chocolate covered blueberries
Earth Chimp chocolate shake mix
My daughter, I and my grandson tried everything except the shake mix and we all liked pretty much all of it. We've tried almost everything in the box before and all of it was pretty good.
Healthy Snack Box gives away 100 boxes with each post they make on FB and Twitter. All you have to do is comment on their posts for a chance to win one.
They were sent to kill her. Claim her. Use her. None of them expected to want her.
Tierney has always felt wrong. Like something dark and dangerous hides beneath her skin. When that darkness finally erupts, she discovers the truth: she's the last survivor of a bloodline destroyed centuries ago.
Now she's been thrown into a deadly competition with no training, no allies, and four lethal men circling her like wolves.
An assassin. A prince. A beast. A schemer.
They should be her enemies. But in a world where everyone wants her dead, these monsters might be the only ones willing to keep her alive.
The question is: what will they demand in return?
A Court of Monsters is a scorching paranormal why choose romance with a fierce heroine, four morally grey men, deadly trials, and a cliffhanger.
My Review
I knew going into this book that it would end in a cliffhanger but as long as I know that beforehand, I will give a book a chance and see if it grabs me. And boy, did this grab me. This is book 1 in the A Court Of Monsters Trilogy.
Right off the bat, Tierney has been running all her life. Her mother disappeared years ago and told her that she needed to keep moving and keep herself hidden as much as possible. She's working at a bar when she spots a man in a booth that is strange and gives her the creeps. She's cornered soon after by 3 assassins who almost kill her but instead, a power she had no idea she had comes to the surface and she kills, then absorbs the 3 monsters powers. Now she knows more monsters will be coming after her, she can feel them coming but now she knows that she can protect herself, even if she's not sure how she did it the first time. She's done hiding, let them come.
Claimed by Chaos has different courts that are vying for power. The Shadow Court, Ice Court, Beast Court, Shadow Court and the Chaos Court. The crucible is about to begin and anyone can compete in it so the courts have sent assassins to kill her and stop her from getting to The Crucible in time to compete. If she can make it to the Crucible and get through it then somebody in one of the courts can claim her and use her as a weapon.
All the other courts got together 400 years ago and thought that they eliminated the Chaos Court by killing all of them because they were entirely too powerful. Tierney might be the most powerful Chaos person they've ever encountered.
The Citadel has also sent an assassin to kill her but he's feeling things that he shouldn't be ever since her saw a picture of her. He has seen her face in his dreams and doesn't know what that means. And then Rhydian whose brother killed their father and took over their court has been running from his brother for several years now waiting until he can prove that he had nothing to do with his father's death so he can take back his rightful place. He plans on going to find her and help her get through The Crucible but he has no plans on claiming her against her will and is hoping that if he protects her during The Crucible she will willingly help him.
The assassins that are sent to kill her, end up having feelings for her. Now they have to fight together to save her and keep her safe. There are a lot of players in this book and a lot going on. It was kind of hard to keep track of everyone, but the story is really good so I plan on reading the other two books at some point.
There’s no escaping the pull of desire in this novel in #1 New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan’s Torpedo Ink motorcycle club series.
When Czar shut down Lazar “Keys” Alexeev’s undercover mission, that should have been the end of the story. Instead, Keys is back in the middle of a nowhere town where a petite redhead with a pouty mouth and a ready smile drives him to distraction. He’s not sure why he’s breaking all of Torpedo Ink’s rules to spend more time around a woman who’s not even his type. He can’t get her out of his head—and now he’s facing the consequences.
Lyric Johansen doesn’t like to look anyone in the eyes, but Keys’s gaze is the one thing keeping her from a full-on panic attack. Her instinct to charge into the fray and help the biker fend off a group of vicious thugs has led to the most insane situation she’s ever been in: trapped in a coffin with a man she barely knows, minutes away from a painful death.
Survival means staying focused. But when Keys kisses Lyric to snap her out of losing it, he’s the one who ends up falling apart. He’ll need to unleash hell to get them out alive.
If only to get another taste….
My Review
Keys and Lyric wake up in a pine box after getting knocked out by some bad guys. Keys has been undercover in Lyrics small town for a few months and they have gotten to know one another a bit. But waking up in a box on their way to be slaughtered is not a good day.
Keys knows he can get them out alive but first he has to calm her down from having a panic attack which isn't easy since he's just found out she's claustrophobic. He gets through to her, tells her to act unconscious and he'll do the rest. It almost works but she's not known for her ability to take orders and sit idlily by when she thinks she could help.
Now the bad guys are dead, another bad guy is waiting for confirmation of their death, they're both hurt and Keys has no way to get ahold of his motorcycle club members to help them. But his club, Torpedo Ink does come for them when he can get word to them. Afterwards when the wounds are healed and Key and Lyric have time to themselves, they come to realize that they don't want to go back to being alone and want to make a life together but Lyric doesn't know if she'll be enough for him, to stay with her in the long run. It was fun watching these two learn how they fit together, even if Keys was way too bossy for my taste.
Keys makes it a point to show Lyric and tell her that he doesn't want to live without her. The first meeting with some of the other members of Torpedo Ink, doesn't go as well as Keys was hoping because the guys don't think Lyric is the kind of woman that Keys would end up with if he ever claimed one woman. There's some misunderstandings and then when Lyric meets Czar, their leader he can see that both Keys and Lyric are meant to be together. All of the members of Torpedo Ink have special supernatural type gifts. Steele is a doctor and can surgically repair injuries psychically. Someone else in the group is a human lie detector and Czar knows instantly if two people are meant for each other. They all have their own gifts in that way.
But the guys are all like family because they all went through something truly horrible as children. It made them killers, killers who go after human traffickers and pedophiles. Czar thinks that there's a human trafficking ring operating from the town that Lyric was living in when she met Keys. So, Czar and some of the others question her about what she saw and heard while she lived there. While she's not comfortable, she does her best to answer them. They know they have to go after the human traffickers and save whatever women and children they might have kidnapped.
While I liked the storyline quite a bit and loved being able to see what some of the other characters have been up to, Keys is over the top bossy and pushy in what he wants to do with Lyric. She goes along with him because she wants to please him which sat wrong with me on more than one occasion. I didn't love his characters the way I loved some of the others, but it was a nice addition to the series.
Twisted Road is the 10th book in the Torpedo Ink series by Christine Feehan. I've read all the books and they are best read in order to understand what the members have gone through since they were children. There's a lot of talk of murder, revenge and sex in these books. But these are not bad people, they spend their lives saving people when they can.
I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.
Disclosure: I was given an e-ARC of this book via NetGalley but all opinions and thoughts are my own.
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.
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This week I bought a few things from Amazon. It was supposed to be delivered on the 30th but it got delivered on the 29th and 9:30PM...to the wrong apartment.
So when I saw it, I went over to that apartment and knocked on the door and asked for my package. She told me that there was no package there, that she never got my package. I told her that I had the picture the driver took and she said, Yeah, they always have a picture but that my damn package wasn't there.
So I left. But another of my packages last month had been left at her door and once again she said she never got it. I know she's lying but whatever.
I called Amazon and they sent a replacement for all the stuff I ordered. But I made a complaint and said that we now have building numbers and apartment numbers right next to our doors so there shouldn't be any misdelivered deliveries. She said she would add that to my account. We will see.
But now I know to watch out for the woman thief who is keeping my packages when they are mis-delivered to her door.
I see a bunch of the homeless people going to her door and hanging out there, so there's that. The whole thing just really made me mad.
The high this week was 105F/40C
The low this week was 72F/22C
So that's it for this week's Apartment Hell Life! Be sure to come back next week for more.
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.
I got an email telling me I would be getting a sample of Honey Roasted Peanut M&M's. I'll let you know when I get it.
I also received a Bloomindale's Little Freebies Box with samples of Chloe Sable and Lavender perfume, Infinity Coty Vanilla and Amber perfume, and Jil Sander Leaf perfume.
My favorite perfume this week was the Leaf by Jil Sander. That smells really good.
Did you receive any freebies or free samples this week?
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 and into adulthood. 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.
Dealing With A Bully
For my first two years of high school I lived in Hawthorne, California. The High School I went to was Leuzinger High School in Lawndale, California.
Freshman year things were mostly fine and I got good grades and had no problems with anyone. Near the middle of the school year one girl had a problem with me for talking to her boyfriend. But I had my own boyfriend and wasn't interested in hers. She kept picking on me, pushed me into the lockers in the locker room of P.E, Class, tried tripping me on the way to class. Called me names ect. I got really sick of it, so I took another class the second semester of the year that we could take instead of P.E. so I wouldn't have to be in the locker room with her. I ended up taking ROTC. Ohh that was a lot harder than I thought it would be, we ran the mile 3 times a week.
The next year, Sophomore year of high school she kept picking on me. So I took girls wrestling instead of P.E. that first semester and got really good at it. The second semester I took weight lifting. By this time I was still running a lot after school, and I was in good shape. The weight lifting made me stronger after a few weeks of doing it and when she came at me during lunch one day, I just had enough of her.
She pushed me and I punched her in the face. She grabbed my head and punched me, then she grabbed a hold of the second piercing in each of my ears and pulled. She ripped the earrings right out of my ears and I saw red. I punched her a few times in the face and I ended up breaking her nose.
Campus security got to us, stopped the fight and took us both to the office. We both got suspended for 2 weeks and we both went to the ER. I had to have both of my ears sewn back together, you can still see the scars on my ears from that fight.
When we were allowed back to school, she never bothered me again. No one bothered me. I only spent a little of the next year at that school because I got put in foster care for a few months when my mom went to prison for 6 months for drugs and then changed schools when I lived with my dad later.
Billionaire werewolf Sebastian Deveraux needs a mate. According to his brothers, he's spent too much time in the spotlight. That's code for not putting the Pack first. They're right, but evenings with a starlet are easier than admitting the truth to himself.
He found his mate. And she'd run from him.
Amanda St. James is back in Louisiana for her father's funeral and not a moment longer. The place is steeped in memories, daydreams, and dangerous desires. It doesn't matter how smoking hot Sebastian is, she refuses to end up like her mother.
Sebastian let his pride get in the way before. He's not going to make the same mistakes again. This time, he'll do whatever it takes to keep her.
My Review
Sebastian Deveraux is a wolf shifter. Years ago he met Amanda and had fallen hard for her, she was his mate and he let her get away. He's thought about her as the years have passed him by, but he'd never gone after her. She's human and she had no idea that he was a shifter and he was scared that if she knew, she would reject him, so he left things the way they were.
Now his brothers, who had also liked Amanda, have been after him to take a mate. But the only woman he wants is Amanda. He's thinking about going after her when she unexpectedly shows up at his house. She's in town for her father's funeral and stops by to thank him for the flowers. Only thing is, he didn't send the flowers. I'm sure his brothers were behind that. So, because they came together again things are tense between them. She knows more than he thinks she does and confronts him about a huge secret he's keeping. She knows or at least thinks she knows about him being a shifter.
If they're going to have a chance at happiness, he's going to have to come clean about everything. But she has secrets of her own. She was afraid she was going to end up like her mother, pining away for a man who could never love her and when Sebastian finds out that's the real reason she ran, he feels so bad and knows he has to tell her and show her how much he actually cares, even if that means telling her the truth about him and risking her rejecting him.
These two needed each other, they've both had bad things happen, but they knew deep down that they were meant for each other which is why they had never had any other real relationships. I was happy with the ending and how they finally got their happy ending. They deserved it.
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.
Instead of Uber, I've been seeing this new car service called, Vay. You download the app, order a car and it comes to you driverless and then you can drive it yourself wherever you need to go.
I looked at their website and the price is above. Kinda crazy.
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I heard the police helicopter up and got a picture of it.
Then looked outside and there were 2 cop cars parked in front of my building. They went into the building next to mine but I have no idea for what.
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I noticed that someone (probably a homeless person) set fire to a box spring part of a bed. Good thing it didn't catch anything else on fire.
The fire stayed right here thankfully. This was close to my building though and I'm getting pretty tired of them setting fire to things around my apartment complex.
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The high this week was 110F/43C
The low this week was 75F/23C
So that's it for this week's Apartment Hell Life! Be sure to come back next week for more.
Heat the oven to 350°F. Spray an 8x5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.
Melt 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter in the microwave. Place the melted butter and 1 cup granulated sugar in a large bowl and whisk until well combined.
Crack 2 large eggs into the bowl. Whisk until completely combined and the mixture is smooth.
Whisk 1/4 cup milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract into the batter.
Peel 3 very ripe, medium bananas and add them to the bowl. Using a dinner fork, mash them into the batter.
Measure 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg and 1 teaspoon baking powder into the bowl. Switch to using a spatula and gently stir until the ingredients are just barely combined and no more dry flour is visible.
Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan, using the spatula to scrape all the batter from the bowl.
Bake until the top of the cake is caramelized dark brown with some yellow interior peeking through and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, 50 to 65 minutes. Baking time will vary slightly depending on the moisture and sugar content of your bananas — start checking around 50 minutes and then every 5 minutes after.
Set the loaf, still in the pan, on a wire cooling rack. Let it cool for 20 minutes before slicing.
This is the best banana bread recipe I've ever made and it's so easy to make. I figured I would share the banana bread recipe I made last month before I start sharing the healthy recipes again.
Archaeologist Clara has always chased the past—until a mysterious artifact catapults her into a brutal alien war. Now, she’s face-to-face with Zorvak, a dominant warlord with a battle-scarred body and an iron will.
Zorvak doesn't trust easily. But the moment he lays eyes on Clara, he knows she’s more than a curiosity. She’s his.
As enemies close in and passion ignites, Zorvak must protect the only thing he’s ever wanted for himself. Clara may not belong in his world, but he’ll fight the stars themselves to claim her.
She unearthed a relic.
He unearthed a mate.
My Review
Clara is an archaeologist who finds an artifact that transports her to Zorvak's world. Zorvak thinks she is the alien that has been foretold to come and bring his people together. But once he's around her for a little while, he realizes that she's his mate too. He's shocked by this because he thought that his mate would be one of his own species.
She's treated well but feels like she's being held hostage for reasons she's doesn't understand. He really should have talked with her more about what he was thinking. But once they start spending more time together, she realizes that he really does like her and wants her to stay with him, not just because she's been foretold but because he cares about her.
I really liked these two and liked how the rest of the aliens came to think of her as being a strong female and not just an alien who they could overlook.
This novella was a quick read but it had a good storyline, danger at times, steamy sex scenes and a great ending.
Falcor had been resting in the sun puddle on my bed, but when I moved his leash and harness, he jumped up and told me it was time to go for a walk. 🐶🐶🤣🤣
There's some cursing and saying the "F" word so if that bothers you, don't watch the videos.
So as you know, I pulled a muscle and pinched a nerve in my back and had sciatica not too long ago. My doctor wouldn't give me any pain meds because the x-rays showed nothing was broken. I'm still in a bit of pain but nothing like it was a few weeks ago. I was using a crutch just to walk around the little bit that I could. My daughter has been using Cannabis edibles for the severe pain of Lupus and RA she's been in and it helped so she suggested that I try one of her edibles. So, I said, what the heck, it can't hurt. Right? Maybe it will just make me tired and help a little with the pain, and I'll be able to get a little sleep... Oh how wrong I was. My daughter can take the same amount and not feel much at all. But I've never smoked weed and never taken an edible before, so I had no idea this was too much to start out with.
My daughter has been taking the 100mg edibles and drinks. So, she gave me one of the packs of gummy candies that were 100mgs and told me to eat the whole thing. That was a mistake, I just didn't know it yet.
You might think me posting this online is a mistake, but after it happened, I find it hilarious now. Let this be a warning to anyone who's never eaten a cannabis edible, to start off with a very small dose. Whatever you do, don't ingest 100mgs your first go around.
It started off slow, 2 hours after I took the edible it got hard to read and I started feeling dizzy. A few moments later, I was questioning all my life choices that thought taking an edible would be a good idea. The room started spinning and I was grabbing the computer desk for dear life because I thought I was going to fall out of my chair...it went downhill fast from there. I was grabbing onto the desk so I wouldn't fall, getting dizzy, and my eyes wouldn't stay open. I had the craziest thought spiral, a panic attack, and dissociated so hard it felt like my body was on earth and I was traveling in tunnels in space and visiting different realities that took years and years to get back home from. It felt like a nightmare I couldn't wake up from. I was so dizzy and felt so fuzzy that I wasn't able to get up out of that chair for 8 hours.
I couldn’t get the words out fast enough before they would slip away and I'd fall into the unknown dark place. I didn't like feeling like my brain was not in my control at all. It felt like I was being dragged into different portals or tunnels and I'd be gone for 80 years and then come back to my reality and I'd say, "I'm back again." I kept slipping away to a dark place, the world went black for a second because I was closing my eyes and couldn't keep them open but I didn't realize that's what was happening. I started to panic because it felt like I could only remember 3 seconds in the past and I was forgetting everything else. I was like this for 5 hours. Non-stop talking my daughter said, for 5 hours. And then I got sick and was vomiting non-stop for 3 hours. After that I was finally able to lay down in bed and sleep for a few hours.
I found these pretty funny because I'm the exact opposite of what you see in these videos. I am not an emotional person. I have a flat affect most times, I don't show a lot of emotion on my face for 99% of the time. So me jabbering away for 5 hours and being so emotional is not something that you see from me very often.
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.
Life Update:
My doctor did a bunch of tests and he told me that I had Myoglobin in my urine which could mean I damaged a muscle. Well, duh! So even though my back is still hurting he thinks it's just going to take some more time for it to heal because of a muscle injury. I'm taking muscle relaxers and something for the sciatica pain. I am getting around a little better though. Unfortunately, over the last 5 months I gained 50lbs back, after losing 80lbs last year. I've always been a yoyo dieter, but stress just makes my eating habits worse. But this month I went back on my diet and lost 25lbs so far. So, I just need to lose another 25lbs to get back where I ended last year. I am just under 300lbs right now, but I am determined to try and eat healthier again and lose more weight. I'm still a big woman and I have a lot to still lose but I'm getting there.
My cholesterol is normal and my A1c is 6.5 which is great, especially since when I first found out I was diabetic my A1c was 11.1, which is high as heck. So at least there's that.
My daughter is doing better after her first infusion over a week ago. The referrals are slowly coming and doctor appointments have been made. It's just a wait and see now to start getting all the results from testing.
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On Sunday the Fire Department ambulance and Fire truck both showed up for someone across the street.
My daughter got a better picture for me because all you can see on mine is the glare from the lights. lol The fire engine left soon after but the ambulance stayed for over an hour for some reason.
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On Monday the police stopped 2 homeless guys who have been hanging out around my apartment complex ever since they were evicted a couple of weeks ago. They've been sleeping on the steps next to the office and I see them in the morning sleeping there when I take Falcor out. They have been hanging out in the alley and just hanging around the complex. Someone must have called the police to come check them out. One of the guys told my daughter that they are just waiting for their new apartment in another complex to become ready so they can move in there. It must be in the area since they are hanging around here so much. The police left and neither of them were arrested.
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At 2 AM on Tuesday my daughter was woken up by the police helicopter flying really low over our apartment complex. So, she went outside to see what was going on and she took these 2 very quick videos. The police had Antwon and Screamer Lady at the front of their cars and were questioning them. My daughter came back in and went back to sleep, so she didn't see what happened or why the police were here.
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This month I signed a new lease. I asked for a 15 month lease and they gave it to me. I know I'm not moving anytime soon so it gives me more time before I have to sign another lease. The rent didn't increase so I'm still paying $935 for this 1 BDRM apartment. Most other 1 BDRM apartments that I've looked at started at $1200 a month or more, so while it's not a great neighborhood, it's not that bad for the price.
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I've talked about the tunnels and how the homeless people frequently live in them. There are several tunnel entrances in my neighborhood and all over Las Vegas. I saw a couple of pictures from the Las Vegas Fire Dept on FB and this is what is said if you can't read it.
" Newborn Delivered in Las Vegas Flood Channel Tunnel
Las Vegas Fire & Rescue crews responded on June 17, 2026, after reports of a woman in labor inside a flood channel tunnel in Las Vegas.
Upon arrival, firefighters found a newborn baby wrapped in a sweatshirt. Crews cared for both the mother and baby, clamped and cut the umbilical cord, and transported them to a local hospital in stable condition.
Engine 44 and Rescue 103 handled the call. The incident occurred on Wednesday, June 17.
📷 Credit: Las Vegas Firefighters Local 1285"
"Las Vegas firefighters (Engine 44 and Rescue 103) helped to safely deliver a baby after a woman went into labor inside a flood tunnel yesterday.
For context: an estimated 1,000 people live in those tunnels. The city and county are aware."
I have to wonder if CPS (Child Protective Services) is going to get involved since the mother is probably homeless.
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Friday evening my daughter got a call that a friend and neighbor had just been beaten up and attacked with a machete in our apartment complex. So my daughter went down to his apartment because her friends from our courtyard were already down there helping Marshall who had been attacked. The police got called and my daughter and her friends helped to clean Marshall up. He has a gash over his forehead and in his arm from the machete and he was bleeding and needed stitches pretty obviously. But after they got him settled and made sure he was going to be ok, my daughter stepped outside his apartment door and was surrounded by police who had their weapons drawn. One cop took her aside to speak with her and Marshall came outside to let them know she had nothing to do with it she was just a friend. The police had thought the attacker was still inside so that's why they acted like that.
My daughter was questioned; her friends were questioned. My daughter was able to come home but her friends who saw more of what went on were told to stay down there in their car for a while which ended up being more than 3 hours.
Police tape was put up, more police showed up, detectives showed up and they questioned a lot of people. Finally, a witness came forward and someone in Marshalls courtyard came forward with some video from with window camera and when they found out who the attacker was, the police went across the street and arrested him the same night. Marshall will be fine thankfully.
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And here I thought this week might be a quiet one. I guess not.
The high this week was 109F/42C
The low this week was 75F/23C
So that's it for this week's Apartment Hell Life! Be sure to come back next week for more.
