Happy Raturday!

 

Candy Cane Elf.

Merry Ratmas Elf

Christmas Magazine Elf

Christmas Present Elf

Christmas Cookie Elf

Just a few of the Rat Elves of Christmas. 

All pictures this week courtesy of www.martymousehouse.com

Apartment Life #345

 

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 go on in and around my apartment complex in the past 25 years that we'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. 

The Marshall and a van to pick up the homeless people and take them to the shelter was on my street again this week. 

You can see the black van parked behind the Marshall's car. They talked to a couple of homeless people who had their camp set up just ahead of the car. But they must have declined because the cars left without anyone getting in the van.

The sun was shining right towards me so the pictures didn't come out great but you can see the cop car has his lights on. He had someone pulled over and was talking to them.

I didn't see anyone get arrested but the cop was talking to them for a while. Maybe they just got a ticket. I didn't see what they did wrong. I just heard the police siren beep and looked out the window to see he had someone pulled over. 

---

There was a huge fight between two people that live in my courtyard. When it kept going on for hours, the yelling, screaming, door slamming and the sounds like they were throwing things against the walls in their apartment, I finally called the police. But wouldn't you know the police never showed up. This is the 4th time in a couple of years that I've called the police for something and they never showed up. This is why I almost never call the police because so many times, they don't even bother to show up around here. It's so crazy. One of these days, people are going to be fighting, someone is going to need the help and going to get really hurt or die because the police don't bother to show up. That's so crazy to me.

The high this week was 54F/12C

The low this week was 28F/-2C

It's been pretty cold this week. I actually had to break out my coat. lol 

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

 

I don't post a lot of covers of songs because the original is almost always better in my opinion. But I heard this cover of a Twisted Sister song and thought his voice was spectacular. This is Tommy Johansson singing a Twisted Sister song. I've never heard him sing before. I'll have to look him up now because 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.

This week I received: 

Bloomingdale's Little Freebies Box with 2 mini candles from Voluspa and Glasshouse Fragrances. 

I also received a perfume sample La Belle by John Paul Gaultier.

I love the mini candles, they smell so good and have so much scent to them. The perfume samples smells really good too. 

I find the Bloomingdale's Little Freebies Box on FaceBook when they are available. They come up as an ad or sponsored post randomly. If you happen to see it while scrolling, make sure to sign up for it. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

On Sunday we had a very overcast day. You couldn't even see the mountains and it snowed in the mountains that day. We actually got a little rain out of these clouds. It was nice to get a little rain this week.

Funny how just two days before that it was mostly sunny with big puffy clouds over the mountains.

My daughter took this picture of the sunset a few weeks ago for me but I don't think I ever shared it because it was sitting in the wrong folder on my computer. it was a gorgeous sunset though.

Low Carb Recipe: Surf and Turf (Steak and Shrimp)

 

We made steak and shrimp with roasted cherry tomatoes and asparagus. 

So to make this you will need

Whatever steak you like. 

1 LB of shrimp

1 bunch of Asparagus

8-10 cherry tomatoes

1/2 stick of butter

salt and pepper to taste

4 TBSP Olive Oil- divided

3 TBSP cilantro-diced

What To Do

Start by preparing the asparagus. If you hold each spear at the ends and bend them, they will snap in the exact right place they need to. Throw the end away and just keep the tops that are left. Add asparagus and tomatoes to a bowl, add a pinch of salt and pepper and 2 TBSP olive oil. Stir until completely coated and transfer to a baking dish. Roast in a 350 oven for 20 minutes.

Melt butter in a pan, add a pinch of salt and pepper, add shrimp and cook until shrimp turns pink. Add cilantro and stir until mixed well. Remove shrimp from pan or it will over cook. Use butter and cilantro as a sauce for shrimp. 

Add 2 TBSP olive oil in another pan and cook your steak the way you like.

Product Review: Daily Goodie Box: December

 

The Daily Goodie Box has been around since about July of 2016. I signed up for an account right after I heard about them. They are 100% free, you don't even have to pay for shipping. And for a free box it's a nice sampler box of products.

What was in the box?

Miracle Tree - Moringa Energy Tea - The tea is good but I didn't feel any extra energy from it. It had a good taste to it though,

Hubbard Peanut Company - Hubs Power Packs - This was a good little snack and it was low carb so I was able to eat it. The peanuts had a good taste to them too.

Toast! - Before You Drink Gummies - I really wish they would stop putting these in the boxes. They smell bad and taste even worse. Plus my daughter said they didn't make her feel any different after drinking the night before. 

Honey House Naturals - Bee Bar Lotion - I love the Bee bar Lotion. It's a solid bar of lotion that you warm in your hands and then rub on your skin. It works well and smells good. I use a shampoo bar and like it so this was great to me. It also came with a lip butter which I loved.

Flathau's Fine Foods - Key Lime Shortbread Cookies - This was definitely my favorite thing in the box. They had such a good flavor to them.

Sambrosa - Night Syrup - I have to say that this did help us sleep better. It got us both tired and helped us sleep.

Rowdy - Collagen Protein Powder - I've said it before but I am not a fan of protein powers and this was no exception. I tried it in a smoothie and I just didn't care for it at all. 

Bee & You - Vitamin C + Zink Propolis Shots - I'm not a fan of these kinds of shots because they always taste so bad and this one did as well. 

All they ask you to do is try the products and leave reviews for the products you got in order to be eligible for more Free Goodie Boxes. As you guys already know, I'm a fan of all these types of boxes. I love all the different subscription boxes and it's really nice to be able to try new to me products for free. This is a great box to try for.

Oh and one more thing, if you visit their FB Page, they give away Goodie Boxes to people who interact with their posts. So if you've tried before and weren't able to get a Goodie Box, there's even more ways to get one now.

Daily Goodie Box. It's more than just Free Samples!

Have you signed up? Have you received one of these boxes?

I'm a fan of subscription boxes and love trying new products for free so this was a huge hit with me. New products+free box = Fabulous!

Disclosure: I was given and free box in exchange for a review but all opinions are my own.

Happy Raturday!

 

"Chillin' with my new hat on."

*The pictures today are courtesy of Anisah Grace Hanna and www.martymousehouse.com*

Apartment Life #344

 

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 go on in and around my apartment complex in the past 25 years that we'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.

My picture isn't great because my phone camera sucks but that is a Marshall's car in front and the van that takes the homeless people to the shelters behind it. There was a guy making a camp to the right of the van near a big rock that you can't see. I am guessing they asked him if he wanted to go to the shelter and he said no. I walked by him at one point while he was there and he had a big cast iron pot that he had a small fire pit in and a metal grate on top and was cooking some steaks on it for him and another guy that was sitting there. 

---

Monday night about 9PM I was outside with Falcor and I ran into one of the people that go down to drug dealers apartment. She looked freaked out so I asked her if she was okay and she said she was by drug dealers car and some guy in a hoodie came up real close to her pulled up his his shirt and showed her the gun he had in his waistband and then he walked off without saying a word. And she had been standing there for a few minutes just freaked out so I asked her if she wanted me to walk her back over to drug dealers apartment since we both live in the same building and she said yeah because she was scared. She looked it too, she looked like she was scared and freaked out. 

----

Oh and drug dealer is not getting evicted. My neighbor who talks to his wife said management accepted their rent and they aren't getting evicted. They owed some back rent and money for replacing the back window that they didn't want to pay. So management would only accept their rent if they paid everything in full which they did. So they are staying here.

The high this week was 57F/13C

The low this week was 38F/3C

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

 

I know a lot of people give Nickelback a lot of grief but I actually like them. This song is new and I liked it so I decided to share it with you in case you hadn't heard it. I hope you enjoy it. 

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 sample of Aerin perfume. 

I also received 2 samples of CC Cream. 

The perfume smells good and I've tried the CC cream before and liked it. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Low Carb Recipe: Crab Boil

 

Crab boil

So this is my daughter's favorite thing to make and have for dinner. I think I might have shared pictures before of the crab but not everything together. This is for 2 people. I did not have any red potatoes so that made mine low carb. I know some people add different kinds of sausage like Andouille or kielbasa but I don't like that. You can add that if you like.

You will need

2lbs of crab legs

1lb of shrimp

1 lb of scallops

2 eggs

2 ears of corn

2 lemons, halved

1/2 cup Old Bay Seasoning

1stick of butter

Several small red potatoes for those who eat them

3 TBSP cilantro

What to do. 

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Drop potatoes, lemon halves, Old Bay Seasoning, eggs and corn into boiling water. Boil until potatoes are done. While you are waiting, add 2 TBSP of butter to a pan and add shrimp and scallops with a little more Old Bay Seasoning. Cook until done but do not over cook. Remove shrimp and scallops from pan. Add the rest of the butter to the same pan. Once melted add about a tsp. of Old Bay Seasoning and a pinch of salt. Stir and add diced cilantro. Remove after mixing thoroughly and use as a sauce for your food.

Remove eggs from boiling water and add crab. Boil for about 10-15 minutes. Remove everything from water and add to plates. 

You can put the scallops and shrimp in the boiling water if you want but to me it tastes better cooked in butter. 

Book Review: Antonio by D.B. Reynolds

 

Book Description

Porto, Portugal—home to writers and poets, to revolutionaries and dreamers. And down the river to the sea, a grand estate rises on green hills of latticed vineyards—the home of the powerful and deadly vampire who rules Portugal.

Darkly handsome and charming, Lord Antônio Silveira is a warrior at heart. But his future was warped in an instant when he defended his Sire against overwhelming odds and emerged not only victorious, but the Vampire Lord of Portugal in his own right. It was a title he never sought, but one he will defend to the death.

Rachel Shepherd knows nothing of loyalty or family. Abandoned by her powerful mother to be raised as an orphan, she is chosen to serve an ancient society as an assassin, a weapon to be pointed and fired with always fatal consequences. But Rachel has begun to question those who command her to kill, and when they send her against a vampire lord known for his ferocious battle skills, she begins to wonder if maybe, this time, her superiors are hoping she'll die trying.

Brought together by a threat to both their lives, Antônio and Rachel join forces to reveal their true enemies and drag them from the shadows, where together, vampire and assassin will decide who lives and who dies, and ensure an end to their enemy's poisonous intrigues. It is time at last for the hunters to become the hunted…

My Review

Rachel is given up by her mother who is a powerful woman. She used her small daughter to gain the favor of the people and get the position of power she wanted but we never really find out how she used her daughter for that or why she had her in the first place. When Rachel is little her mother gives her over to a boarding school where she is trained to become an assassin. But when she is a little older she finds her mother and confronts her and her mother tells her she never wanted her in the first place. She doesn't see her again after that for a long time. 

Rachel works for The Society and they assign her who to kill. She knows if she doesn't carry out their orders, she could be the next one on the kill list. But they seem to want her to be killed by her job since they keep giving her really hard assignments like assassinating a very powerful vampire lord. She isn't sure they actually want her to make it out alive. 

The thing is we don't even see Rachel and Antonio together and talking until around the 44 percent mark of the book. Before that we get a lot of her background and the plans on how she's going with Lady Inge to be her translator which will be her way in to meet Antonio and seduce him so she can find him when he's in his vampire sleep during the day and kill him. The only problem is Lord Antonio is a very powerful vampire and can stay awake and even out in the sun during the day for sometime. So that really blew her plans out of the water. 

The first half of this book was very boring. The two main characters don't even meet until almost halfway through the book. There were so many pages of descriptions that really could have been shortened. The lack of action, dialogue and storyline really made this book hard to read because it was boring to the point of me having to put it down and come back to it several times while I was reading. 

The vampire politics were nothing short of boring and really made this story drag out, almost to the point that I almost stopped reading it but I was really hoping it would get better which never happened. Antonio is supposed to be this powerful vampire who turns beserker at times when he's really angry, but I just didn't see it. When he finds out what and who Rachel really is and why she's really there, I expected him to get really angry but he didn't and that just didn't seem like his personality at all. 

Rachel is a deadly assassin who has been raised to hate the supernatural being she kills but she finds herself attracted to Antonio right away to the point that she has a hard time concentrating. I would have thought her training would help her through that but it didn't seem to. I found that far fetched, I would have found it more plausible if she had fought the attraction a little harder, but she didn't. It just wasn't believable. The ending was very predictable and made the story something I just rolled my eyes at. I usually like vampire romance stories but this one didn't live up to my expectations. 

I give this book 1 out of 5 stars. 

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

Amazon

Book Review: Purge by Raven Hush

 

Book Description

Killian du Pont is a regular Dom and manager at Fray, Melbourne’s premiere BDSM shifter club, but he only wants to play with one girl. A girl who craves pain over pleasure, soothing his beast, a gray buck kangaroo.

Problem: she isn’t his.

Emu shifter Lux belongs to no one. Her uniform consists of a collar she bought for herself, signature dark denim and a fluff of her own shifted feathers. Her loyalty belongs to her boss but her attention is drawn to Killian who irritates her with his overprotective streak but attracts her with his personal brand of dominance.

When Killian breaks through Lux’s edgy exterior, he discovers trauma and courage, but inner strength isn’t her weakness. Lux’s past haunts her to the club’s doorstep. Killian doesn’t know where Lux stands when Fray is threatened or if he’ll lose her just as he’s found her.

My Review

Killian is a Dom and manager at club Fray, a BDSM club. He's also a kangaroo shifter. Lux is an emu shifter and a bartender at club Fray. Now let's just talk about these two for a second. An emu shifter and a kangaroo shifter, that's something I haven't read before and I loved that these were unique shifters that you don't hear a lot about. That was a lot of fun. 

Killian is a sadist and likes to inflict pain but only on willing subs. While Lux is a masochist who likes pain and is a submissive. They've never played together or done a scene together though. Lux usually plays with someone else that she trusts but she belongs to no one and likes it that way. Killian is very much interested in Lux but keeps his distance because he has a rule for himself that he doesn't play with those he works with but it's getting harder and harder to keep this rule for himself since he really likes Lux and wants to be with her. 

Lux had some secrets though and she keeps to herself for the most part and does her job. She doesn't want to get close to Killian because she doesn't trust others too easily because of something that happened in her past. When the truth comes out and we find out that some of the other shifters are racist against mixed breed shifters, it was sad. But I think it sent a really good message about accepting others for who they are and being nice to people because you never know what someone has gone through. 

Thankfully Lux has the people she works with to help her and be there for her. Once Killian breaks through the wall she's put up and they get closer and he finds out all she's been through, I was actually shocked. The violence that she went though isn't something I was expecting but the connection between these two was strong and Killian ended up being such a great guy. I loved him and how great he was with her. This story gave me a few surprises and I really liked that. The romance was sweet even though their brand of BDSM was a bit too much for me, it worked for them and the story. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

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

Apartment Life #343

 

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 go on in and around my apartment complex in the past 25 years that we'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.

Just down the street there was a bad car crash and they had the street blocked off and had police and emergency vehicles out there. I couldn't find a news article about it so I have no idea if anyone was badly hurt. 

---

I heard another rumor that drug dealer has to be out by the 10th. But I have no idea if it's true or not. He doesn't seem to be packing anything up so I have a feeling the rumor is false. 

----

Thursday night right after 10pm my daughter and I heard a loud explosion and my daughter looked on her security camera and the apartment directly across from me was on fire. So I called 911 real fast and my daughter went outside. They got here in just a couple of minutes. They got one dog out right away, my daughter chased him down the street and we brought him inside. 

Several people saw the woman who lives there jump out of the bedroom window and she was taken to the hospital. The firemen got the other dog out and they were both fine. The guy who lives there was not home but he was outside a little while later. The previous owner of the dog we had in our apartment came looking to see if he was ok and we gave him to the guy. Later on we saw the guy that lives there with both of his dogs. 

The apartment was a hoarding situation so they brought out a bunch of stuff while fighting the fire. The couch was a total loss. 

They got the fire out really fast and it didn't spread to other apartments, the dogs are fine, the guy that lives there is fine and the woman got taken to the hospital, but I saw her the next day and she is fine. They evacuated that entire building, but they didn't make my building evacuate. 

The police were here until almost 2am bagging evidence and taking pictures of stuff in the apartment. We heard them say there were 2 unregistered, loaded hand guns and a loaded shotgun that we saw sitting outside the door.  They also said they found drug paraphernalia. They also had a large propane tank inside their apartment so I'm glad that didn't explode or catch fire.

The next day the the couple came back and had maintenance open the apartment for them. The Red Cross was here in case they needed a place to stay but the manager moved them into another apartment building, 2 buildings away from mine. I asked the guy what exploded and he said he had a drone battery charging and that's what exploded. I had thought it was maybe a meth lab but since the police didn't tape off his apartment and tell him he couldn't go back inside, I'm thinking that wasn't what the explosion was. 

We heard him saying that the police told him he was going to get fined for the unregistered guns. I don't know about the supposed drug paraphernalia they found. 

There was so much stuff inside that apartment they pulled the door completely off and was bringing stuff outside just so they could get inside the apartment.

My entire street was filled with emergency vehicles for hours. I've never seen that many emergency vehicles at once.

This is what it looked like the next morning. At least they were all fine and so were the dogs and the fire didn't spread. That was a really scary situation though. Having an apartment fire is one of my biggest fears. 

The high this week was 65F/18C

The low this week was 32F/0C

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

 

I've posted Disturbed a few times because I love them. David Draiman has such a great voice and even when he was signing with the band Device, I listened to them because of his voice. I hope you like this too.

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: 

Beneful canned dog food infused with fish oil. From Fur Buddies.

Jo Malone perfume sample. 

Falcor loved getting some new food. He ate it and it didn't upset his stomach so that's a good thing. And the Jo Malone perfume samples smells really nice. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Favorite Picture of the Week/Skywatch

While outside with Falcor one day last month I saw this, I don't even know what to call it...wall of cloud. My picture doesn't even show how long it was. It went so far to the left that only the mountain range that way obscured it. 

The thing is, this is a more accurate picture of what I saw. These clouds were gigantic! They went from the ground behind the mountains there to where they stopped higher up. I just found it creepy cool. 

A few days later we had some rainy days and the clouds were dark. 

I love these cold, dark, overcast days. 

Low Carb Recipe: Egg Foo Young

 

You will need: 

5 eggs

1 TBSP Soy Sauce

2 TBSP Vegetable Oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

2 Green Onions

2 TBSP Diced Yellow Onion

1/2 Diced Green Bell Pepper

3 Diced White Mushrooms

1/4 tsp. McCormick Chipotle and Roasted Garlic seasoning

What To Do: 

Whisk eggs in a bowl.

Add all ingredients and mix through.

Heat 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil in a non stick skillet over medium heat. 

Pour in 1/2 cup of batter. Jiggle pan a little to form a round(ish) shape.

Cook until the underside is light golden (about 1 1/2 minutes) then flip and cook the other side for 1 minute. Repeat with remaining egg to make 4 omelettes.

Slide omelette onto plate.

You can mix in some diced meat like sautéed shrimp, pork or whatever you like. You can use other vegetables as well. I made this with mushrooms and spinach and it was so good. 

Would you try this?