My Week In Review

It's been a heck of a week. For some reason a family of rolie polies, their extended family and all their friends decided to make their way through my kitchen and bathroom. Now, I'm not scared of the little critters and if you don't know what I'm talking about, they are the little black beetle looking bugs that roll into a ball when they feel threatened. 

If you were anything like my brother, you played with them like marbles when you were younger. No? Yeah, me either. 

After a few days they seem to have come and gone. I don't know if it was the weather heating up and they decided that traveling through my kitchen and bathroom was the easiest way to get to where they were going or what, but they seem to be gone now. 

Oh summer time. The time of year when I can expect all sorts of bugs and little critters to venture into my apartment. I found a little *ken thought it was pretty big* spider in my apartment the other day. I let him crawl on my arm as I walked him outside and let him crawl into the bush outside my door. If all the spiders I've put in that bush over the years are still there...that's be a scary thought because there would have to be at least 150 of them, plus other bugs I've put out there. 

Just call me Mary, the saver of spiders and other creepy crawlies and cuddler of rats. 

*just keep the bee's away from me and everyone will be fine*

This week I found myself with quite the haul of free samples. 

Shout Color Catcher

                                                         Degreaser and no rinse floor cleaner

Laundry detergent

Body lotion

Mucinex

Tide Pods

Downy Unstoppables

Downy Dryer Sheet

That's just the ones that I haven't used yet. I also received a Honey Tea mix, Fiber One chocolate chip bar and a sample of a new cereal.

I was able to read one book this week. I barely had any time to myself so I had to read a few pages here and there and it was hard to do when I started reading this book, because it was so good I didn't want to put it down. 

I just want to say thank you to the publishers of this book for putting such a nice cover *With a full face and eyes* on this book. I love covers like this. The background is really nice, and the guy is super hot. Not to mention his eyes...look at his eyes. I've been ranting about the headless covers for so long my fingers are starting to bleed, so when I find myself reading a really good book with a cover I really like, I have to say so. 

If you haven't read this book yet...get to it. I loved it! If you like shifter books and very Alpha Males..this is the book for you. Seriously. I'm not good at writing book reviews, so I'm not going to try..I'm just going to tell you that this book rocks and leave it at that. Now go get it. 

I also got a little writing done this past week and published a few articles. 

How To Make A scrapbook For Your Pets.

How I Live With clinical Depression.

Ailments in Older Male Rats.

Well there you have it. My week in Review. How was your week?

Music Videos That "Do It" for Me

Are there some music videos that you watch and think..."Omg, that so hot." are there some music videos that have subtle sexual overtones that feed your fantasies? Of course there are, we're only human after all. This video always did it for me. I don't know if it's the guy in the mask, because guys in masks really do it for me...let me tell you. Or the fact that when he finally gets her in her bedroom he grabs her by the back of the hair and gently forces her down, while she looks up a little scared. Yeah, it's probably all of that and more..but in any case, this video does it for me. This is one of those videos that have a really good looking guy...and omg he is good looking, those eyes! *falls out of chair* Not to mention all the sexual innuendo going on in this video..Oh goodness. Watching guys dance is another thing that does it for me. Especially when they are dancing sexy like the guys do in this video. I liked this song before I ever saw the video and when I watched the video, I was like...omg wow. I replayed the parts with the group of guys dancing together just so I could watch them bump and grind..whew. Now this is a good one. it's dark, kinda scary and the lead singer David Draiman is sex personified. He has a lot of time right up close in front of the camera so you see he looks a little scary at times, he's hot, and he seems like a bad bad. And who doesn't like a bad boy? Am I right? So there you have it. My top picks for music videos that 'do it' for me. :)

How To Give A Rat Medicine

I know I've talked before about how my little guy, Brodie had an upper respiratory infection and now have him on antibiotics. Sometimes the upper respiratory infection does permanent damage to their little lungs and they will need to stay on antibiotics for the rest of their lives. I know a lot of people will put the liquid antibiotics right into the water bottles but doing that lets all the rats in the cage take the antibiotics, so what I have done is put the drops into a small spoonful of pudding or yogurt for Brodie and he has no problem eating it. 

My daughter put Bunny ears on Brodie and all the other rats in the cage on Easter and took pictures of them. None of them cared at all. Brodie just started cleaning his face and didn't even try to get the ears off. They are such laid back little guys. This picture was taken while he was cleaning his face. It looks like he's putting his hands on his face, telling my daughter..no, no more pictures. lol 

Brodie loves his hammock. 

Look at that little face. So sweet. 

I have also had to give the boys mite medicine a few times. I tried putting that stuff in so many different foods and so many times they just weren't having it. It must taste really bad. But I added it to a small spoonful of chocolate pudding and they ate it up no problem. 

So that's my tip to all you rat mommy and daddy's out there. Add the medicine to something sweet like yogurt, pudding, ice cream, cake or frosting. It works every time. 

Photo Album Memories

I realize that with the digital age most people aren't buying actual photo albums anymore, but I have so many old pictures that have to be put away that I needed a few more photo albums. This pretty black one is the latest one I've bought. I still have several hundred of my mom's old photos to put away in either photo albums or in scrapbooks. I also have post cards from my grandmas trip to Germany back in the 80's. 

I like my digital camera but nothing beats a picture that you can hold and put into an album. Yes, I'm old school. 

This is my mom and step dad. 

My brother went to california and took pictures of our grandfathers grave. This is my mothers father. I know you can't really see what it says but it says..

Charles C. Sherman
US Army
World War II
1923-  Feb 19 1984

Here's my mom with her dog Cupcake. I'm really glad I have all these pictures. I'm known in my family as the picture keeper. I have over 20 large photo albums and many more digital pictures saved on disks, photo bucket and in my email but I still like the printed pictures the best. I like photo albums that I can take out and share the pictures with others. My daughters likes them too and she told me when she gets older she wants to inherit all my pictures, which is fine with me. I'm glad to hear someone else wants to carry on what I've been doing. 

—A member of @NescafeUSA Tasters

A New Scrapbook Page- Hamsters

I have so many loose pictures laying around, especially since my mother passed away and I inherited all her pictures. I've been putting some in scrapbooks and some in albums and I've got about 400 pictures put away at this point. 

But while I was doing all that I cam across a few pictures of the hamsters we've had as pets and knew I had some fun scrapbook pages, cardstock, cut outs ect.. in my bag. so I put this page together the other day and wanted to share it with you. 

This was Sniffy, he was such a character. he was the most lovable little hamster. 

I thought the 'fleas' thought bubble went really well with the look on his little face. 

This is what the whole page looks like.

As you can see, we've had quite a few hamsters. 

I found a tiny picture of Buster, our big hamster and put a small cupcake sticker in his paws. You can't really see if from this fuzzy picture, but it's adorable. 

This is Cuddles peeking out from atop a hamster cage. She loved the space on top and always made it her bed. I bought her from a pet store in the mall, even though I don't usually buy from pet stores. But the store was going out of business and she was going to be going to the shelter the next day. The thing is a few days after I brought her home...she gave birth to 5 healthy little babies. I didn't even know there were babies in the cage until I heard the squeaking. I kept all the babies their entire lives. 

We ended up with three boys and two girls. It was so much fun raising babies to adulthood. Cuddles was a great mama. 

—A member of @NescafeUSA Tasters

Memories of My Mother

I talk about my family all the time and since my mom will have been gone for a year next month I thought what better way to keep her memory alive than to share some of my memories of her throughout the month. 

The picture below is from quite a while ago, my daughter was only about 7 years old in this photo. That's me in red, my mom beside me in black, my step dad in front of me and my daughter. 

It was Christmas time and my mom wanted pictures taken, so we went and had some pictures taken. 

My mom and step dad didn't realize the photographer was going to take so many different pictures and she had only planned on buying 2 or 3 of the big 8x10's. But when she saw all the pictures he had made for us to look at, she couldn't make up her mind and didn't have the money to buy all of them, so I told her to pick out the one's she wanted to buy and I would buy the rest and give her the ones she wanted. 

I made her day that day. They really were nice pictures. 

Ocean Beauty- Danger of Leaving Seller Feedback On Amazon

I buy from Amazon all the time and have to tell you this is only the second time in many years that I've had a problem with a seller and this time it was  Ocean Beauty, on the site. I want to say right up front that this is in no way a reflection on Amazon, but on the private seller that I did business with on amazon.com. 

Click on pictures to enlarge.

I ordered this product on April 11th and was sent an email that it had been sent and I could expect it between April 17-20. I underlined how it says the package is 'In Transit" There was a tracking number and everything. Tracking Id 9400111201080442723186 as you can see.

This page has stayed like this since then and it is now May 18th and my order has since been canceled and refunded. I clicked on 'track package' and there were no details available. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and waited for a few extra days after the estimated delivery date and when I didn't get my package I sent them an email using amazon's 'contact seller' feature. 

As you can see in this picture I waited until May 3rd to send them an email because I was hoping they would send me an email if there was a problem or the package was mis-delivered. I was giving them the benefit of the doubt that there was just a hiccup somewhere and the package would get delivered since I had that email that said it had been mailed and was in transit. 

After contacting them because they didn't bother to contact me and I don't believe they ever would have, I got this email back from them. At first I thought it was a joke. If you don't know what I'm talking about, click on the image to enlarge it. Read the yellow underlined message they sent to me. It looks like a 9 year old wrote that. Completely unprofessional. 

But as you can see, it does say that they tried to call me (no they didn't) and that my package was lost in the mail. Meaning it had been mailed, right? Wrong! I called them and talked to Raquel and she told me that my package had never been mailed at all because they ran out of stock and didn't have what I ordered and they would like to refund my money.

I was fine with that. It took about 5 days and my credit card was refunded. I thought that was the end of it. I was wrong.

You can plainly see others have been leaving bad feedback for them, I'm not the only one. My feedback is the one on the bottom by Mary K. 

Here's a better look at my feedback. You can also see I left really good feedback for a company that gave me really good service, even when there was a little mix up with the order. 

You would think that would be the end of it, right? You can see I left my feedback on May 14th...not 5 minutes after I left that feedback...they called me. That's right, the company I left bad feedback for, called me and asked me to take down my bad feedback and if I agreed to remove it, they would send me a free bottle of what I ordered...when they found one. The man I talked to, hardly spoke English and it was hard to understand what he was saying, but I did understand he told me that they were moving to a new warehouse and he knew they had another bottle of the product I ordered 'somewhere in their warehouse' and when they found it they would send it to me for free. I said ok and thank you. I thought that was the end of it. It wasn't. 

On the 16th, I received another call from Raquel. The same woman I had talked to the first time on the phone. She asked me to take down my bad feedback and if I did they would send me a free bottle of another product since they don't have the one I wanted. But could I please take the bad feedback down now. 

I told her no. That if I actually was sent the free product, I would take my bad feedback down. That was not good enough for her. She said she would send me a tracking number so I knew I was really getting it and if I got the tracking number, would I please take down the bad feedback. I said no, not until I received the product in the mail. 

So I was sent an email with a tracking number and the day after it was sent I saw a package was really sent to me. I waited for the package knowing I wasn't going to get what I had originally ordered but something was better than nothing and they were trying to make up for their mistakes. 

I received a package a few days later with something similar to what I had originally ordered and so I took my bad feedback down as I had agreed to. So after 40 days, 2 emails, and 3 phone calls I finally received a product from the company I ordered from, it wasn't the product I had wanted but it was something and it ended up being free. Well, free except for my time, my energy and the stress of having to put up with a company calling me and badgering me to take down my feedback of their company and the lousy customer service I received. 

When my package came I noted the return address. You can clearly see the return address and the replacement free product they sent to me. I blacked out my own address but not my name.

                                  It says Deals Trading, 15 Fred Eller dr. Monsey, ny 10952-3902

So I looked it up online and found this website about it and a map. Now if I click on the map....it sure looks like a house, not a big company building. It says on the website that they have 1-5 employees. That tells me something, this whole incident tells me something and I don't think  have to spell it out for you.

I made this blog post because it is my opinion that had I not contacted them that first time, they would have kept my money and sent me nothing. No product, no email saying they were sorry, no refund and no free product. After talking with Raquel on the phone that first time and her offering a refund, there was no mention of getting a replacement product for free or asking if there was some way they could make up their mistake to me. 

No, it was only after I left bad feedback for their company that they started calling me asking if they could send me a free product and only if I took down my bad feedback. I feel I was bribed. But I agreed to take down the feedback if they sent me the product they offered to, in hindsight I would not make that mistake again, but neither will I go back on my word once I gave it. 

In Conclusion:

I made this blog post because I want anyone to know who is going to be doing business with Ocean Beauty on amazon.com to beware. They are unprofessional, unreliable, and you might not get the product you ordered. If you leave them bad feedback you could also get harassed like I was. So make sure to look at the seller's feedback from other's who have bought from the sellers before doing business with them.

A New Dish

Chili Noodle Casserole

I had decided to try out a few new recipes and this was one of the first. It consisted of boiled shells, browned hamburger meat, 2 cans of no bean chili, a can on stewed tomatoes and a cup of mozzarella cheese. Then I baked it for 20 minutes until the cheese was melted. It was a big hit with the family. 

—A member of @NescafeUSA Tasters

RIP Jasper

My beautiful Jasper passed away yesterday.

Jasper was my laid back, cuddly boy who loved to be cuddled and kissed on the face. Jasper loved to sit next to us on the couch where he would lay on us and eye boggle and give kisses. He would just stay close, clean himself or brux and boggle, or look around. Because he was so laid back and gentle, I would usually take him out to show to new people and he loved the attention. It didn't take much behind the ear petting to get him boggling. A few days ago, Jasper started slowing down for no apparent reason.

On his last day he was snuggling with his brothers, because that's where he seemed most comfortable and happy. As I was watching him in the cage he started to seem restless and his breathing became more labored. All of a sudden, Jasper ran down the ladder and to the cage door, making a line straight for me. I saw the urgency in him and picked him up and sat down. I was sitting there with him, just petting him gently and talking to him. I found "the spot" behind his little ear and I got a short, sweet boggle out of my boy... our last one together. I feel so fortunate that I was able to be home with him when he passed and it's obvious to me that he knew how much he was loved since he wanted to be held.

I had him on antibiotics for the past week, but the upper respiratory infection it seems got the better of him.

Jasper was my big boy, the biggest rat I've ever had or seen. He was always ready to come out for a snuggle and I am really going to miss our snuggle time together. 

Jasper being Jasper. He was so lovable and so laid back. 

Jasper laying on the food bowl. Or at least trying too. I don't think he knew he didn't fit. lol He scooped all the food out of the bowl first too. Silly boy. 

What ya doing mama.

My beautiful boy posing for the camera. 

He was so laid back, he even let me dress him for Easter with some bunny ears. 

He was such a sweet little guy, my heart is broken right now and I'll be taking some time off the computer for a few days. I'll be back in a few days.

Memories of My Mom

Happy Mother's Day

Because it's Mother's Day I wanted to share a memory of my mom today.

My mom passed away last June and it seems like it just happened. It doesn't seem like it's almost been a year. I have a lot of great memories of my mom and wanted to share some of them, so several times over the next month I am going to share a great memory I have of my mother. One of the best was one time my mom and dad, Uncle Jack and his wife took me and my little brother to Big Bear Lake in California and my mom saw a stray dog wandering around near our cabin. So she started leaving the left over dinner for him and after a day or so he got comfortable with her and she would be outside petting him after dinner.

We really didn't think much of it or pay attention to the dog for the first couple of nights. My uncle Jack was too busy sending my brother and I on snipe hunts.  They both got me good one night by taking me out in a field late one night with a plastic bag and spoon and telling me to take the spoon and try to catch the snipes in the bag. I bent down to do that and they turned the flashlights off and stood out there giggling at me freaking out.

When we got back to the cabin, my mom was outside feeding the dog again and I went inside the cabin for a minute.

My mom called me outside and was petting the dog and it came and sat down next to us on the stairs. My dad and uncle came out and stopped really suddenly and told my mom and I to get back in the cabin. My mom looked at them like they were crazy until my uncle said, Peggy...that's a wolf.

My mom and I were sitting on the stairs petting a wolf, or at the very least a wolf/dog mix. He was friendly though. We got up and walked back in the cabin where my dad and uncle freaked out. But my mom was laughing and fed the wolf/dog every night while we were there. We just didn't sit with him on the stairs again.

This is my mom and my hubby Ken, outside our apartment complex from just a couple of years ago.

Happy Mother's Day Mom

Watch the entire video

Make sure to watch the whole thing.

Winner!

Thanks to everyone who entered my $10 Starbucks Gift Card Giveaway. 

Amber! Who's email begins with awal....

I'll be contacting you soon for your mailing address. 

Thanks again to everyone who entered. 

I'm A Very Happy Girl Today

I went to check out my Yahoo Contributor Profile and see how my articles are doing. Imagine my surprise to find a shiny new Badge on my profile, a Hot 500 Badge! There are thousands of contributors (writers) on the site, so to be one of the top 500 for last month and get the badge is a real high point for me.

I've been a member of the Yahoo Contributor Network (Formerly known as Associated Content) since 2006 and this is the first time I've received this badge, so you can imagine my surprise, shock and excitement. And yes, I took a screen shot of it on my profile page. lol The badges are given out each month so I might not have it next month, but I have it right now! Look at my pretty red badge.

I mostly write articles about small exotic animals such as gerbils, hamsters, rats and mice but have other articles about rabbits, dogs, whales and pigs. I have also written an informative article about what Wicca is and my thoughts on ebooks vs Traditional books. I was also interviewed a while back on SOS Aloha about my articles. 

If you read my articles, let me know what you think and if you have any questions about small animals and their care just ask. I'll do my best to answer your questions.

New Necklace I made

I decided to make some new jewelry with some of the loose stones I had in my beading kit. I used semi precious stones and small gold tone beads as spacers. It's been a while since I sat down and made a new necklace but I have so much beading material I may as well use it.

—A member of @NescafeUSA Tasters

Giveaway: $10 Starbucks Gift Card!

Win A $10 Starbucks Gift Card!

I love entering giveaways and have won a few recently so I thought I would hold one and give a little something to my wonderful readers. All you have to do to enter this giveaway is leave a comment with your email address (So I can email you if you win). 

That's it!

I will pick a winner on 5/7/12 and send them an email. I will also announce the winner here on my blog. I will need the winner to respond to my email and send me their mailing address within 24 hours or I will pick another winner. 

Disclaimer: This post was not sponsored by anyone but me. The giveaway is for my readers because I love them! This is only open to people in the U.S. Must be 18 years or older to win.

Update: This giveaway is now closed. 

This Seems Legit

I receive emails that I have determined to be scams all of the time. Some are easy to tell they are scams while others, like the one below are harder to tell they are scams. I mean, who wouldn't believe I just won Five Million Dollars? This totally seems legit to me *insert sarcastic tone of voice here*. I will however tell these scammers something that may help them in the future. If you are going to write to people who most likely have half a brain, you may want to learn better English so you don't sound like such an idiot.."brain cage" really? I feel sympathy for those who don't see emails like this one for the scams they are and end up losing money to these idiots. Here's the email I received today. I had to share it with you because I found it so ridiculous.


"hello I call CHRISTELLE VALBERG married born April 24, 1968 and I am a French national. You can contact him because I want to do something very important. This will seem a little suspect it true that you do not know me and you do not know. I have a cancer that is terminally ill, my doctor is telling me that my days are numbered because of my range of health. From what the Dr. I was justified, a bullet is currently installed in my brain cage, I have this disease for over 4 years. I made you to accept my award. I have the sum of $ 5,000,000 as a grant. Please accept this sum as it may well be very useful and it asks nothing in return. It is necessary to accept my offer if you directly answer my email: christellevalberg@yahoo.fr I feel very bad and I'm afraid, almost did not sleep at night and day. I can not die without having done all this grant money if I do not think it would be a copy gasto.Quiere my email address to write to my lame: God remains with you."


Oh yeah, that seems legit...

Do You Tip?

I was watching a show on tv a while back and it showed this server in a restaurant ranting about not getting an 18% tip on all the people who ate at the place she works. Now while I do understand that servers/wait staff don't make big bucks, they know what they are going to be making when they apply for or take the job, no one forces them to be a server and a tip is not mandatory of customers.

This lady said if you expect to get good service that they expect to get a good tip of at least 18% but in my opinion she is wrong. Good service is what they are paid to do, it's not mandatory for customers to give them a tip for a service that's already being paid for. That's their job!

Expecting a tip from everyone or bitching about a small tip is rude and ridiculous. If someone thinks their waitperson was nice/helpful enough to leave them any sort of tip, even a couple of bucks change, then that person should remember they didn't have to and be thankful for it.

Tips are for good service rendered. Not just because you brought out the food and never came back and did your job of asking if anyone needed a refill, something else or if I have to hound the other servers to get my check because you never come back to my table after bringing the food.

You pay for your food and anything extra should not be 'expected and bitched about if you don't get it'. If I felt like giving a tip, I will. If the service was bad and the server had a bad attitude, I'm not leaving a tip. You took that job knowing full well that you would be having to wait on customers and be friendly. I worked in a bakery/deli and never got a tip and I made sandwiches, donuts, sliced people's cold cuts and cheese and made party platters all day, but I did it with a smile because that's what I got paid to do.

Not everyone who works with the public gets a tip. The people in the bakery/deli who slice your cold cuts and cheese don't get tips, doctors who make sure you are alright don't get tips, the cashier at the grocery store doesn't get a tip.

And don't even get me started on those places that put out a tip jar right by the cash register and expect a tip like Starbucks, port of subs, subway and other fast food places that seem to be doing it. They get paid for doing their job and I expect to pay the price on the wall, next to what I am getting. I don't tip at those places.

The one thing I will say is if I order food and have it delivered, I usually tip the person who brings it to me. I do tip when going out to eat, although I really don't go out to eat all that often anymore. I just don't think the servers should be getting all ranty and indignant if they don't get the 18% tip they are looking for. If I throw a couple of bucks on the table after a meal, smile and be happy you got anything at all, because believe me if I hear a snarky remark about a small tip...you'll never get another tip from me.

I was being nice one time when I went to Port of subs and left $2 in the tip jar after the ladies made our two sandwiches. They had been nice and I was feeling generous and so when she gave me my change, I put it in the tip jar and on my way out I heard her say to the other lady, "Two bucks? Can you believe this shit?"

There was no one else in the store at the time and she didn't even have the common courtesy to wait until we were completely out the door before she took the money out and said that. so whenever we wanted sandwiches again from port of subs, I made sure to go on days I knew they were working and got them then. I never gave another tip. Oh and yeah, I called the 1-800 number and complained about them too. It pissed me off just that much. I wasn't worried about retribution since you watch them through the glass making the sandwiches..they couldn't spit in my food in the back like I'm sure they would have given the chance.

Yeah I'm pessimistic/negative and irritated with the whole tip thing. It's probably a good thing I don't go out much..because I'm not a good tipper.

What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger...

I would love to know who thought that up. What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger. Is that really true for all of us? I'm not so sure. Sometimes the things we go through when we were younger shape they way we are later on in life, for the good or the worst. But sometimes the things that happen in life don't make you stronger, they just leave you feeling exhausted, frail and broken. 

A good friend of mine passed away last week and it's left me shaken. He was only 55 years old and so I never thought anything would happen to him, not for a long time anyway. This coming June 23rd will have been one year since my mom passed away. You just never know what little gem life is going to throw at you next and while I used to just take each day as it came, right now I seem to be in "Oh no" mode. That is, I'm thinking, "Oh No"..what's going to happen next. Oh no, why is my phone ringing, is it going to be bad news? Oh no, who's at my door...ect.

I really need to get out of this frame of mind, but I'm not sure how to right now. But I guess that's what life is..cycles of time where the water is calm and everything is moving smoothly with the occasional wave, storm or shark floating along the surface ready to bite you in the ass if you get too close.

Operation Smile

Operation Smile: This April Like Operation Smile on Facebook and SwimWays will donate $2 per Like http://on.fb.me/IKxw0E #OperationSmiley360

About Operation Smile:

Operation Smile is an international children's medical charity that heals children's smiles, forever changing their lives.

Every three minutes a child is born with a cleft — often unable to eat, speak, socialize or smile. In some places these children are shunned and rejected. And in too many cases, their parents can't afford to give them the surgeries they need to live a normal life.

Since 1982, Operation Smile — through the help of dedicated medical volunteers — has provided more than 2 million patient evaluations and over 200,000 free surgeries for children and young adults born with cleft lips, cleft palates and other facial deformities.

With your help, how many lives can we change tomorrow?

*I may receive compensation as a result of this blog post from Smiley 360 in the form of free samples and/or points*

Articles Published, Movies Watched and Books Read..

I write when I have the time and find an idea for an article. Well, this month I had the time to write uninterrupted because Ken was in California dog/house sitting for his sister and my daughter was out with her friends or her boyfriend. So I had the house all to myself. I was able to get in a few movies including the remake of Nightmare on Elm Street, which was less than satisfying. I really like the original much better. I also watched Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Hostel 3, both of which I really enjoyed.

I read a couple of books including a new one by Shelley Munro called Cat Burglar in Training, which I really loved. This book is Previously published as The Shadow *that I wrote a review for*, and is newly refreshed by the author, It's a great story and I like the changes that were done. Shelley was nice enough to send it to me after I won an ecopy on a blog contest and when I finally had a few minutes to myself I knew it would be one of the books I read. I love Shelley's writing, her books are always so good and she is such a sweet person. Shelley has a blog Taste of Kiwi, that she regularly updates and chats with commenter's. If you haven't read a book by Shelley Munro yet, I highly recommend her, all of her books have been keeper's.

I also read Wild Cat By Jennifer Ashley, this is part of a series that I am really enjoying and am looking forward to the next book coming out which the author said on fb should be next year. I'm very much looking forward to that. If you like Shifter romances, I recommend this book.

I still have a few other books to get to, I just haven't had the time yet.

I did however find the time to write two more articles.

What Causes Weight Loss In Pet Rats

How To Keep Your Rat From Tipping The Scale.

Good Bye Tk

I found out earlier today that a good friend of mine passed away from a heart attack. Although we never met in person, we'd know each other through several yahoo groups and fb for many years. I was so shocked and saddened to hear of his passing, I'm still so sad about this.

William Watts or Tk as he was known to us was one of the nicest people I've even had the privilege of knowing. I met him during a time in my life when I had all but given up on there being people like he and his wife out there to meet. He renewed my faith in humanity and made me see there were still people in the world that would help another for no other reason than they wanted to.

I've received many holiday cards from he and his wife and sent many in return. He was proud of Canada where he lived and sent me Maple Leaf cookies to try because he wanted me to experience something he loved. I sent him something from Vegas so he would always have a little part of where I lived with him.

When I found out he loved spongebob square pants, I sent him a few spongebob stickers that he took pictures of after he put them on his riding mower.

I'll never get to meet Tk in person but we talked like we had lived next door to one another for years. He was like a member of my family and after my mom died last year I made it a point to let him know how much he meant to me. I told him since my mom passed away so suddenly, I wanted the people I loved to know how much they meant to me and how much I cared for him because we never know when we'll go to sleep and not wake up.

I'm so happy that I wrote that letter to him and let him know how much he had influenced my life for the better. Don't waste time never telling those you love how much they mean to you, because they can be taken away at any minute and then you'll never have the chance to.

Be happy and free, Tk. You'll be missed my friend.

A Maintenance Man's Wife

Being the wife of a maintenance man has been interesting to say the least. Not only can Ken do simple handy man type things he is also certified in AC, Pool maintenance and Plumbing. He can fix pretty much anything where he works at. Over the last 22 years I've heard so many stories and seen so many funny things because of the type of work he does that I thought it would be fun to share a few of these stories.

A few years ago a lady asked the manager if she could have a pole *stripper pole* installed in her living room. The manager approved it and Ken installed it. He had to drill through the floor and the ceiling to install it. I found that way too funny. I really didn't think an apartment manager would approve something like that being done to an apartment but he might have had the hots for the lady and probably tried sneaking looks in her window for all I know. LOL

Ken also worked at a Hotel/Lodge that I won't name but it's here in Las Vegas and it's really nice. :P He and one of his workers came back to our place after work and was telling me about what they found in one of the rooms after the couple left. Now the couple had stayed for three days and didn't want anyone in their room for anything. Ken told me that he and another maintenance person were called to do some maintenance on the room and when they got there they had to take some hardware off the ceiling, walls, and bed.

There were heavy metal hooks, chains and boards screwed right in the walls of the room. He said it looked just like a BDSM Dungeon and all the workers were talking about it. Even the front desk people wanted to go take pictures before it was taken down. There was an X frame screwed to one wall with heavy chains screwed to it.

My first thought was...why didn't they take their equipment with them? lol

At one of the apartments we lived at where Ken worked maintenance I was called and told to get my daughter who was just a baby at the time and quickly come down stairs. So I did and I and other workers families were ushered to other other side of the street. When I asked what was going on I was told there was a bomb scare and they were only telling the people who worked there and their families until the police told them for sure.

The police/Swat came and finally after an hour were able to get the guy out of the apartment and he didn't have any bombs but he had a hell of a lot of guns. The guy was arrested and Ken and another maintenance man were told to repair the broken window and door and lock the place up. When he came home that night he told me the entire inside of that apartment was painted in camouflage paint. When the guy didn't come back after 30 days and no one came to pay his rent, all of his belongings were bagged up and put in storage for a month before trashed. When they started bagging stuff up they found pipes for making bombs, nails and three more guns so they had to stop and call the police back. The police came took the guns and pipes and I never heard what happened to the guy.

Oh and the best story I saved for last. Years ago Ken hurt himself on the job and broke both his ankles. The guy that came and took over his maintenance duties until he healed came over to our apartment all the time to ask how to do certain things and ken trained him is what he needed to know..about three months after the guy got hired we see his mug shot on the news one night. The story said he killed one guy and then killed his room mate, wrapped the guy in plastic and duct tape and hid the body under his bed for 6 weeks. When the police went in to investigate the disappearance of the room mate they found the body wrapped in plastic under the bed and the guy confessed to killing him.

That guy who killed those two people had been in my apartment, ate at my table, talked with ken all the time and we never suspected a thing until seeing his face on tv that night. How creepy is that?

Being a maintenance man's wife has been interesting alright.

5 Ways To Stretch Your Pet Rat Budget

I have another article published today and would love it if you would read it. 5 Ways To Stretch Your Pet Rat Budget.

That's the picture I used for my article, it's of two of my rats...Jasper and Ares. Don't they look comfortable?

Las Vegas

I've been living in Las Vegas now for more than 25 years and when I first got here I went to all the Hotels and casinos and did the buffet thing, the gambling thing, the people watching thing and put up with the crowds to see the outside shows like the Volcano at The Mirage.

I don't do those things anymore because it got so boring. It's the same old thing every time, I guess it's great for tourists but the locals say once you've seen it a dozen times it kinda loses its appeal.

I used to enjoy the buffets..I mean what's not to enjoy about an all you can eat dessert bar? Right? lol But the desserts are usually cake and pie and I can make that at home. Yep, I've become a fuddy duddy.

I don't gamble, I don't go to clubs, I don't go to bars or Hotels and I don't like crowds. I would rather rent a movie On Demand and eat my own food. lol

How Do I Find The Yahoo News Articles I've Commented On?

I remember before Yahoo changed the way they did things it was easy to find all the different articles I had commented on, but now unless I bookmark the page...I can't ever find the articles again. But...did you know that there is a way to find some of the articles you've commented on if..and I do mean if you have gotten at least one thumbs up on your comment.

Here's how.

Go to your Yahoo mail page and look at the top right hand side. There should be a little bell right next to Go mobile, Try Y! and Yahoo with a little house next to it. Now click on the bell and there will be a drop down menu of the recent comments that have gotten a thumbs up. All you have to do is click on the one you want to see.



Still don't see it? Look at my picture below. I have a little black arrow where the bell will be. Click on that bell, and then click on the article you want to read. It's that simple.

Pre Ordered Books

Time Untime by Sherrilyn Kenyon (A Dark Hunters Novel) Not available until august 13

Kiss The Dead by Laurell K. Hamilton (A Vampire Hunter Novel) Not available until September 10th

Dark Storm by Christine Feehan (A Dark Series Novel) Not available until September 10th

Now all of these are available in hardcover which I like, I know some people don't like paying more for the hardcover but I like it. I pre-ordered all of them a few days ago and do it with these three series because these three series are my all time favorite series. So I wanted to let you all know if you haven't been reading these series *And what's wrong with you? o.O* you really need to take a look at them if you like Vampires or paranormal romance.

The Keeper of the Pictures

I am known to my family as the keeper of the pictures. Mostly because when I was 12 my mom and dad gave me the box of pictures they had of the family when they divorced and told me it was my job to keep them safe for my family. To me it seemed like a huge box of pictures but when I bought my very first photo album all the pictures fit into this one huge photo album. So it was a lot of pictures just not as many as I had thought it was. Now with digital cameras I have a lot of pictures on the computer and after getting a virus a few years ago and losing all the pictures I had on the computer. I learned to back them up by putting them on Photobucket and some on fb.

That way there are some place if the computer decides to get a virus and I can't get to them again. I know I should back them up on disk but I like photobucket. So here are a few of my family pictures to get to know me better.

My mom, step mom and dad.

And here I am.

My younger brother, Billy and his wife Lynnece.

My older brother, Bear and his wife Melissa.

And this is my nephew Billy Jr. This is what I can do to the digital pictures when I have time. LOL He just loved this..:P

My beautiful daughter Elizabeth this past Halloween.

My dad caught off guard. lol

My hubby.

My mom and daughter on my daughter's 20th birthday.

My little brother Billy...relaxing with the cat in the back yard.

When my mom passed away last year I inherited all her pictures and there are a whole bunch that I have no idea who the heck they are, but I'm keeping them because maybe a cousin will come around some day and I can show them to him and he can tell me who some of them are. Plus, they are old...like really old black and white pictures that are at least 50-70 years old. I figured out a few of them and wrote who they were on the back of them. Ya know, I actually wrote on over 600 pictures that I got from my mom...my hand still hurts.

But all these old pictures are going in their own photo album named "Old pictures of people who could be family members" lol

One of the last times my dad came over I pulled out that very first photo album I made with the pictures when I was 12 and asked him about 4 pictures who I found out were his grandparents. How cool is that, I had pictures of my great grandparents all this time and didn't even know it.

My Rats

As most of you already know I have 4 male rats and I write articles about small animal care. I thought I would share a couple of pictures of my boys with you today.

This is Brodie. he's my smallest boy. he only weighs 1/2 lb. He lost a little weight when he got sick a month ago, but I've been giving him anti-biotics and he seems to be doing much better. He's more spunky again and eating more, so I'm hoping he will gain a little weight back. But he's always been my little guy.

Here's jasper. I just love his little face. he weighs 3lbs. He's a huge rat! When people come over they cannot believe how big this guy is. He's my lover boy, he loves to cuddle with us.

Here's Hades. He's just under 3lbs. He's my second biggest rat and he is by far the laziest. When we take him out he just lays down wherever we put him and waits to be petted. Unless there is food invloved and then he is as fast as a cobra. I kid you not.

And this is Ares. He's my antisocial boy. He doesn't like to come out of the cage all that often and doesn't like to be held. But if you come over to the cage he will let you pet him, give him food, play with him..just as long as you don't try to take him out.

And there you have my 4 boys. Aren't they cute!

My Articles

Since I have a few new followers I thought I would put the link out to my articles. For those of you that didn't know, I'm a Freelance Writer. I mainly write about small animal care because I love my little furry guys. I've got 4 little rats right now and so I use their pictures in a lot of my articles. So if you're interested take a look at my articles on the Yahoo Contributor Network and let me know if you have any comments or questions.

Update: Yahoo Contributor Network is no longer around.