Happy Raturday!

 

"Almonds are good snacks."

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

Apartment Life #334

 

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. 

On Tuesday at 11PM I saw the flashing lights from the ambulance as it showed up. They came into my courtyard and took one of my neighbors away on a stretcher. The neighbor has been really sick and is going through cancer treatments. I haven't seen her come back home yet. 

Wednesday the ambulance was here at 1AM for someone else in my courtyard. I had been asleep until the lights from the ambulance woke me up so I have no idea what happened. Even with my curtains closed if the ambulance parks right in front of my bedroom window at night, those lights are very bright and light up my room. Hopefully whoever it was is alright.

---

On Thursday the police were questioning the two women who have been living out of this U-Haul truck for at least 2 months that I've noticed. It was 7AM this morning and they were asleep in the back of the truck and had the door open about a foot to get some air. I think that's why the police stopped to check it out. I figured the U-Haul was stolen maybe. But the police didn't tow it away so maybe not. The women have been parking it in different spots in my neighborhood for a couple of months and I've seen them sleeping in the back of it. If it was stolen or they weren't paying for it I would imagine the police would have found out and towed it away? Right? I could be wrong. Who knows. Has to have gotten pretty expensive though. 

---

On Saturday the police showed up for an apartment across the street. But they were walking through several of the courtyards on that side of the street looking for something or someone. Not sure what was going on. 

The high this week was 109F/42C

The low this week was 80F/26C

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

 

Seventeen - Shadow

I like to share some of the KPOP I find and enjoy. So hopefully you'll enjoy this song. 

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.

What did I receive this week?

2 OraQuick HIV self tests

3 samples of Laura Mercier loose face powder

Obagi Firming Facial Serum

My daughter and I took the hiv home tests and they were both negative. I think it's important to know your hiv status. My late husband was hiv positive and he didn't find out until he going in for surgery on his broken ankle. There are a lots of people out there that have no idea they are positive and end up passing it around to others through sex. It's better to know for sure. So when I saw these free tests, I got them. 

The Obagi facial serum is nice. It made my face feel very soft. I don't know if it's going to help my old skin my it did feel nice. 

The Laura Mercier face powder is nice. I like the one I use and it's affordable so I won't be switching but this is nice. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Book Review: Feral Instincts by Stephanie Storm

 

Book Description

Shy bookworms make horrible vampires.

Ava believes nothing could be harder than coping with her mother's death—until she survives her own. When the small-town introvert is kidnapped by a madman and turned into a vampire, she discovers just how sheltered she’s been. Although quiet wallflowers have zero business playing bait to capture their sires, not even a bossy werewolf will keep Ava from seeking justice.

No matter how hard Teagan tries to fill his legendary father’s shoes, he falls short. The aspiring packmaster will do anything to prove he’s worthy, even if it means helping the vampire authorities hunt a rogue killer. With his pack’s future on the line, the last thing he needs is to play guard dog for a tempting innocent.

Ava is torn between duty and desire when the only creature capable of satisfying her hunger is a delicious alpha who’s off the menu. And every minute Teagan spends protecting the reckless idealist weakens his resolve to put his pack’s needs first. Should either of them give in to temptation, it could lead to their destruction.

Can the star-crossed lovers resist their forbidden attraction while saving a small-town from a ruthless monster? Or will they lose themselves to their inner beasts?

My Review

Ava is living her human life when a crazy vampire kidnaps her, turns her into a vampire against her will and claims she is his resurrected bride. Salvatore is crazy and Ava knows she's in danger and thinks her life is over until people break in and rescue her. 

Teagan is a werewolf shifter and saves the newborn vampire, not know anything about her. They are after Salvatore because he's creating rogue vampires that are killing people but he can't leave Ava there. 

Once Ava is safe and the people explain to her what's going on, she has to make a choice to join them or not. In the compound she finds herself in, there are vampires and werewolves working together to bring Salvatore down. While she's learning how to be a vampire, she and Teagan are getting closer. Their relationship is pretty much forbidden because his pack would never accept her and vampires don't usually take shifters as mates. So these two are breaking all kinds of rules. 

When Ava once again finds herself in danger and Salvatore makes another move against her, Teagan finds himself facing someone who double crosses him. The twists, turns and forbidden relationship made this story very entertaining. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

I was looking at some of the unused apps on my phone and one of them is called, Maps. So after clicking on it, it shows my neighborhood. I see this. Across the street is a place called, Snacks On Da Block. What?

So I clicked on the little picture to see where it's at and it shows the alley for the apartment complex across the street. 

If you swing around using street view, it's just the alley across the street. There's no snack store over there...that I know of. Maybe someone is running a snack store out of their apartment? I've lived here for 26 years and I've never known of a snack store across the street. How did they even get this on the map?

I found this funnier than it actually is. 

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.

Spending Time In A Psychiatric Hospital

This post will talk about attempted suicide and psychiatric hospital stays. If that is triggering for you, please do not read this post. 

When I was 9 years old my parents were still married and they fought all the time. My dad was a very mean drunk and he hit us kids, the dog and my mom. I remember seeing some small, black nails in my dads toolbox and thinking if I swallowed them that they would travel through my veins and hit my heart, killing me. I was 9 years old and didn't know that's not how that would work. 

The nails looked very similar to these. 

So I took 4 out them and stuffed each one into a small piece of leftover steak and swallowed the meat pieces and waited. I really thought in my 9 year old brain that when I went to sleep that I just wouldn't wake up again but that didn't happen. 2 weeks went by and I started to get worried. So that weekend I was spending the night at my grandma's house, I told her what I did. She took me to her doctor who never even asked me why I did it, and told my grandma that they probably just passed. I didn't know what that meant until I was older. My grandma told me not to tell my parents that she took me to the doctor and didn't ask me any questions. But she told me not to do that again. 

---

When I was 17 years old, me my brother and mother were all living in West Virginia with my step grandfather and my grandma who had some brain damage from being in a coma for weeks after she had heart surgery that she had complications from. My step Grandfather, Buster was a mean ole drunk. He yelled at all of us all the time. He would turn the breakers off so the lights wouldn't come on and we would all go to bed. My grandma wasn't in her right mind and one day she picked up and huge butcher knife and came at me with it. She tried to stab me in the chest but I was able to hold her off long enough for Buster to pull her off me. She ended up staying in a Psychiatric unit in the hospital for a month until her meds were regulated again. 

My mom fell down the stairs and broke her pelvis one night because Buster, my step grandfather would turn the breakers off at night so we couldn't turn the lights on after 8PM. My mom was drunk and couldn't see so she fell. After a lengthy hospital stay, she came home. Once she was almost back to her normal I decided I'd had enough.

 I got into my grandma's old prescription bags and there were a lot of them and I took handfuls of Thorazine, Xanax, and Valium. All together I took 6 almost completely full bottles of pills. Then I laid down in my bed and hoped that I wouldn't wake up again. But I did wake up about 3 hours later and I walked over to the stairs and started walking down them. My mom said she saw me and she knew something wasn't right and I stumbled and fell the rest of the way down. I barely remember anything but bits and pieces after that. My mom yelled for Buster and she told my grandma to keep me awake so my grandma kept slapping me across the face whenever I would closed my eyes. My mom called 911 and when they got there and got me on the gurney. In the yard, I was told my heart stopped and they had to perform cpr and shock my heart a couple of times. 

They got me into the ambulance and my brother who was there told me he kicked the ambulance as they were driving off because he was so upset, and I was taken to the ER. In the ER I remember the doctor kept doing the sternum rub on me to keep me awake. I had my stomach pumped but I was unconscious for 7 days. When I woke up I had a feeding tube and a breathing tube which they took out fairly soon after I woke up. 

Someone from the psychiatric unit came to talk to me and told me if I didn't sign the papers to go to the psychiatric unit for a little while that a judge would sign them and I would be committed either way, so I signed the papers. I was on that unit for 6 months before they let me leave. They sent me to a group home with several other people and I stayed there for a month before I got suicidal again. I was sent back to the Psychiatric hospital for another 6 months.

My mom and my brother ended up in the same hospital for drugs and alcohol so they were on different floors than me. We all got better and my mom moved out of Busters house and we moved in with her. 

---

My 3rd suicide attempt was when I was 19, here in Las Vegas. I took a bunch of pills again but this time my mom didn't call 911. She found the heart medication that I took and called poison control. A few days later after I had recovered I told her I wanted to get help and she took me to the ER. I told them that I was suicidal and they put me in a room to wait for a room at the psychiatric hospital which took about 3 hours. My mom stayed with me until they took me away. I was there in that hospital for 6 months and then I was sent to a group home for another 6 months. I met Ken (My late husband) in the psychiatric hospital and we were sent to the same group home. I know it was a crazy place to meet someone but we were both there for the same reasons. I think it gave us both something to look forward to when we finally got out. I was sent to a transitional housing with 3 other women and we all lived in a 3 bdrm apartment that the state paid for while we got counseling and Vocational Rehabilitation. Ken and I started dating while I was there and he was at his own transitional housing placement. We both got jobs and several months later we moved in together. We were together for 30 years after that and had a beautiful daughter. 

We both had some mental problems during our time together before he passed away in 2020 of lung cancer but we were there for each other and knew what it was like to have suicidal feelings so we were able to help each other through it when it happened again. But I think finding someone who understood what it was like really helped each of us. The people at the mental hospital and then the group homes sure didn't like the fact that we wanted to date each other. They thought it was a bad idea. Turns out they were wrong. 

This is a picture of the backside of the Psychiatric Hospital that Ken and I were in here in Las Vegas. This fenced in area is the yard that we all were allowed to go out into. There is a metal wired fence surrounding the top and bottom so that no one could escape. I spent a lot of time out here while I was there. It's just a few streets away from where I live right now.

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

Happy Raturday!

 

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

Apartment Life #333

 

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. 

The police showed up for a domestic violence issue in one of the courtyards in my complex. The helicopter was up for a while because they were looking for someone. Not sure if they found them or not. 

There's two police cars parked there. They came into my courtyard on Wednesday and were talking with one of the neighbors. The guys girlfriend was screaming and pounding on the door to let her back in. She's actually done this a few times but she always comes back and he always takes her back after acting like this. She broke out their living room window one time a couple of months ago too. She took off before the police got here and he never answered the door so they left. I'm sure someone else in the courtyard called the police because of the all the pounding on the door she was doing. 

---

I was standing on the sidewalk where the blood still is from the stabbing a few weeks ago and Mike, one of the homeless guys I say hi to, walked by. Right away a guy from across the street quickly rushed across the street to him and pulled his knife out. Mike saw him, stopped, pointed at the blood on the ground and said, "Whoa dude, it's already happened." I have no idea what that was about other than I think I almost saw Mike get stabbed just then. But the guy just stood there watching Mike walk down the sidewalk while he had his knife in his hand. I had my hand on my tazer the whole time. But the guy put his knife away and walked back across the street. Stuff happens around here just that fast, it's crazy.

-- 

The high this week was 104F/40C

The low this week was 76F/24C

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

 

Marilyn Manson- As Sick As The Secrets Within

I've said before how much I like Manson so when I heard this song and loved it. I knew I had to share it. I hope you enjoy. 

My first AI Pictures

 

Earlier this month I was on Instagram and when I went to upload a picture I was given a chance to create an avatar. My daughter tried to do this but so far I've only seen it available while using my laptop. So I played around with it and came up with these. 

You just type a few words into the box for custom avatar and it generates a pictures from your description. This one had the words, demons and rats, purple and horns. 

This one I typed, demon, fairy, dogs, rats, horns, long hair. 

The little white dog came out looking like a hybrid rat/dog that looks kinda like Falcor. lol 

These rat/dogs made me laugh because they really looked like little Falcor's if he was part rat. How cute are they? I love the dresses that these pictures generated. 

I typed in, mage, dragons, purple and glowing eyes. 

I love the little dragons. 

So these were my first attempt at any kind of AI pictures. That was fun to do. 

Thank you for 100,000 comments!

 

So yesterday I refreshed the Blogger editor page and Boom! I just surpassed 100,000 comments on my blog. I'm not sure exactly who it was because they don't let you see exactly which comment it was but these three comments were the last three before it switched to 100K. So thank you all for all the comments you have posted on my blog over the last 19 years. 

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

I found this picture on my tablet so I'm not sure if I shared this one or not. lol I liked the halo around the sun as it was coming up around sunrise. I thought it was a pretty picture.

Just a little while later the sun was behind the clouds.

We have had some clouds this week but not a bit of rain. 

Book Review: Fated To The Alien Warrior by Erin Hale

 

Book Description

London

Life has sure kicked me in the teeth. After I’m arrested for stealing, I’m given two choices: prison or get shipped to the human settlement on the planet Tavikh. Since orange isn’t my color, I guess off-planet it is.

Except when our ship lands we’re attacked by vicious aliens no one warned us about. I’m suddenly rethinking my decision. Just as I swear I’m about to die, a towering alien with long, flowing golden hair and muscles rippling beneath gorgeous purple skin saves me.

When the battle is over and the good guys seem to have won, my savior tells me I’m his fated mate.

I hate to break it to him, but I don’t believe in fate.

Zander

As shefir of the Tavikhi, it’s my duty to lead our tribe and fight against the Krijese. When word comes that another Terran ship has arrived, we rush to defend them against our brutal enemies.

I’m unprepared, though, for my mating marks to burn and brighten in color when I rescue one of the human females. Is it truly possible that the goddess, Deeka, has chosen her as my keeshla—my fated mate?

Despite her continued denial of the mate bond, the attraction between us flares hotter than our sun. I must do everything to convince her that we are fated to be together. Even seduce her.

My Review

After London gets caught stealing, she's given a choice to go to a human settlement on an alien planet or go to prison. Who wouldn't take the chance to move to an alien planet? But the humans who are sent there aren't told that aliens are already living there or that there's another warring alien race of beasts that are killing and taking some of the humans for whatever reason. So when London's ship arrives, she and her new friends from the ship are attacked right away but thankfully Zander and his people are there to lend a helping hand with the beasts and save most of the new people. 

Planet Tavikhi is not the peaceful planet that London thought it would be. She doesn't even get a small house to live in, she is given a tent to set up. Life is nothing like what she thought it would be and there's no going back to Earth. 

After Zander who is the leader of the village of aliens who saved the humans, meets London he knows she is his mate because his mate markings light up. He wasn't expecting his mate to be a human but he's not opposed to the idea either. Now if he could only make her believe that she's his mate so he can keep her safe and make her happy. 

After the beasts attack the human settlement once again, Zander knows he has to help them and offers to teach them how to fight to keep themselves safe. He also offers sanctuary to anyone who wants to come back to his village to live. 

I loved Zander, he was so sweet and so patient with London as she came to grips with her new reality and love interest. Not only is Zander muscled, tall and purple, he has a tail! If you've read any alien romance where the male has a tail, you already know why that's fun. *smirk* I'm looking forward to reading more of this series now.

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

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

Apartment Life #332

 

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.  

Unbelievably I had more problems with my AC. This time it was dripping inside the wall right underneath the AC. Inside the wall... I knew this because the water was coming out the bottom of the wall under the baseboards. I had a large 12x12 area of my carpet that was soaked. I put the work order in on Saturday. Maintenance finally came Monday at 5PM after I called to put in another work order for it that day. He was just going to stick a screw in the drain hole outside but I heard him on the ladder so I opened the door and told him my carpet was all wet. 

He doesn't speak much English so I had to make him come inside so I could show him the water coming out from the baseboards and my soaked carpet. He looked stunned like I hadn't put all that in both work orders. It's in writing and I'm sure the person who sent him out told him. So he un-taped the AC, unscrewed some of the boards holding it up there, put a piece of wood under the front of the AC so it angled it down outside so all the condensation inside would drip to the outside.

He put the boards back up and taped it back up.

I have to say I'm surprised he did as much as he did because this is the same guy, Juan that just wanted me to turn it off for 2 hours the last time he came out and I argued with him about it. But he seems to have fixed the problem this time. At least I hope he did.

It's all boarded in and taped up again and dripping to the outside. Then he even got the Wet/Vac and vacuumed up as much of the water as he could. Gotta say, I was surprised he did all that. The only thing I'm worried about is the fact that water was dripping inside the wall for 3 days and it's probably pretty wet in there. We've been leaving the door open in the morning and late at night when it's a little cooler but still hot enough to dry the carpet and the wall. I don't want black mold growing from all this. 

I would get a carpet shampooer but I think if I did that this 20 year old carpet would tear up and probably fall apart. I don't want to risk it unless it starts smelling musty which it isn't yet because we are drying it out as best we can. Oh the joys of apartment living. Cross your fingers that this is the last time I have to call them out for the AC.

The high this week was 103F/39C

The low this week was 79F/26C

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

 

SKYND - 'Violets are Blue'

I only saw a small clip of this song on TikTok and had to find the rest so I did. I loved the video but when she's singing, she has such a lovely voice. I was surprised I liked the song as much as I did. I hope you enjoy. 

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 coupon for a free Yogi tea. 

Several packets of Sunday Riley Good Genes Lactic Acid Treatment for the face. 

3 Initio Unisex perfumes. 

3 small perfume samples. 

Kind Kids chocolate chip bar. 

I'll get the tea next time I'm in the store. 

The lactic acid treatments really haven't done anything to my face. 

The perfume smelled good. The chocolate chip bar was good. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Book Review: Demon Mine by Marina Simcoe

 

Book Description

They are big, strong and silent. Their faces are hidden behind masks and their bodies are enclosed in armor suits. They took me from my home in the middle of the night and have been holding me in isolation for months.

I don't fully understand the purpose of my captivity. No one explains anything to me. No one even talks to me. Nearly driven to madness with no more hope for freedom, I no longer care if I live or die.

And then, he speaks to me. Just a few words . . . He throws me a lifeline and helps me find my way back to sanity. He becomes my only companion. My light in the darkness.

I suspect they may not be entirely human. What's worse is that he may be one of them.

________________

Demon Mine is a Paranormal Romance with dark elements. It contains sexual situations, graphic descriptions of intimacy, and potential triggers.

Intended for mature readers

My Review

Let me start off by saying this is a dark romance and has some major triggers such as kidnapping, sexual assault, and mental breakdowns. But if you like dark romance then this was a really good one. 

Alyssa was kidnapped because unbeknownst to her, the human government has a peace treaty with the Incubus demons that they are given several women at a time so the Incubus can feed off their sexual energy and not a have war between the two races. 

Alyssa is kept in a small cell, fed and given clean clothes but each night she is taken to a room where she is bound and forced into sexual situations so the demons in the room can feed off her sexual energy. Each of the women captives are treated the same way. The demons don't talk with any of the human females, they wear face masks and body armor so the females can't even see their faces or touch them without gloves on. Most of the Incubus demons are in a deep sleep because there aren't enough human females to go around to keep them fed with their positive emotions. So it's really just the top tier Incubus demons who get fed well. 

Sytrius is Alyssa's handler, he's an incubus demon and he is the one who interacts with her. He's not allowed to talk to her but he listens to her when she talks to him and asks for things during the day and at the end of the night when he brings her back to her cell. He starts to feel sorry for her and have feelings for her and knows he can't leave her there to die when his boss is about to kill her. So without really thinking about it, he helps her escape the facility and they are on the run. 

With the help of one of Sytrius's demon friends they are going to try and change the laws surrounding how the human women are treated because they know this isn't right. Sytrius and the other Incubus are led to believe that they aren't capable of love but Alyssa and Sytrius change some of their minds. 

This book starts out so sad and I didn't like Sytrius much but I came to see that he was lied to his entire life and made to believe things that weren't true. The lower level Incubus are not treated well and are left pretty much starving so that they have to put themselves into a deep, painful sleep so that they don't go insane from the hunger. 

It's obvious that the way they're living isn't working for anyone but the people in charge of things need to change. I ended up feeling sorry for the demons as well as the human females that were given away like they meant nothing by their own people. But the romance was everything you'd want in a romance even though it starts off very dark. I very much enjoyed this book. I look forward to reading more and seeing what changes are made to the Incubus laws in the future. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

Las Vegas Sunrise on a cloudy day.

Las Vegas sunrise on a cloudy day.