Clouds, Clouds and More clouds

 

Since I didn't receive any freebies or samples this week I thought I would just post a few cloud pictures today. It went from 60's F and cloudy to 78F and very sunny this week. Soon it will just stay sunny and hot for a few months.

One morning it was looking like rain and we did get a few sprinkles but it was just so cloudy. You can't even see the mountains.

It was nice and cool, cloudy and the sun was no where to be seen. My favorite kind of day. 

The next day when the clouds had moved out, I spotted some snow on the mountains. I doubt I'll be seeing that again anytime soon. 

Book Review: The King of Fire by Brittany White

 

Book Description

June Morris may have just found the man of her dreams, but will his secret keep them apart?

June was a woman who loved things that were extreme. She worked at a rock-climbing studio before quitting her job to go on an adventure in Tokyo. June went to visit her sister, Samantha, hoping Sam would agree to go on the expedition with her, but because it involves a semi-active volcano, Samantha refused to go with June. June decided to go on the trip anyway, much to her sister’s disappointment. Once she got there, an accident proved that Samantha might have been right after all.

Mishal, the King of Fire, had been trapped for well over a century with the Royal Guardians. He hoped for their freedom as activity started within the volcano. Just when he was sure they were going to remain inside; a human girl fell through the barrier. Faced with the decision to show himself or let her die, Mishal decided the girl’s life was worth more than his secret and he shifted into his dragon form to save her. As he carried her to the safety of a local hospital, he decided that she was to be his mate no matter how long it took him to woo her.

June wants to stay and learn about the man who saved her life. He had a secret. As she spent time with Mishal, she realized she was developing feelings for him, secret or not. He finally told her, and she was in complete shock but still had feelings for him she could not deny. June tried to dismiss her feelings by returning home to the states, but soon found out Sam betrayed her trust and now Mishal and his people are in danger. June must race against the clock to save Mishal and his people. Will June succeed? Will love prevail?

My Review

June goes on an expedition to a semi-active volcano and when she falls through a hole, she is saved by a dragon shifter who had been trapped inside the volcano for 100 years. He and his friends only escaped because the volcano is a bit active and the rumbling broke them out of the walls they were imprisoned in. Once Mishal saves June, he can't seem to get her out of his mind though. She feels the same way way about him which is why when she is released from the hospital she goes back to he volcano to find him and he saves her a second time. 

She knows he's hiding something but Mishal doesn't think June will stay if he reveals he's a dragon shifter. He comes clean with her though and she wants to stay with him but she thinks that her being around him and his people will bring scientists down on their heads and she doesn't want to be the cause of them being experimented on so she leaves. But there are people who put Mishal and his people in danger anyway. 

This was a good story but I was expecting more romance and more of them getting to know each other, but instead I got more of a story of the danger dragon shifters were put in. The dialogue made it hard for me to read because when June and Mishal are talking to each other they sound like early teenagers and he's supposed to be over 100 years old. He was immature and didn't come across as very wise. I found so many parts of this story boring which slowed the pace down for me. 

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. 

Goodreads

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

Falcor first thing in the morning after coming back from our first walk of the day. You may not realize I walk him 8-10 times a day. 

Looking at me because I was holding his treat.

Getting ready for a nap. It's hard being a dog. 

Book Review: Jagger: The Temptation by Charmaine Louise Shelton

 

Book Description

They say the heart knows, but what if it's impossible...

I’m the leader of my pack—the Billionaire Wolves of Miami. A wolf shifter who has it all—money, power, and she-wolves who vie for me to claim them. Sounds good? Not exactly. I long for my fated mate.

When my wolf senses detect her unique scent on another male, I lose it. Then memories forcefully blocked for ten years flood my mind. Memories of a young witch. And not just any witch—the future High Witch.

She’s the one my wolf howls for, my fated mate. Now, I have to find her and prove it to her. Again. A second chance for us.

Too bad wolves and witches are not allowed to mate…

You’ve heard what they say about cats and dogs? Yeah, well, crank that up by a thousand percent for wolf shifters and witches.

No one is happy about this revelation. But that's too bad for them. My heart knows what it wants and that's her. Again.

Their steamy love story is a standalone romance in the sizzling Billionaire Wolves Series of interconnecting stories featuring wolf shifter fated mates. Get a glimpse of their dynamism in other books.

My Review

Jagger and Sage met 10 years earlier and instantly knew they were fated mates but their families stepped in and erased their memories so they forgot all about each other. Now 10 years later Sage goes into a club a few days before she is to be married to someone she doesn't love and Jagger smells her. He does something he never thought he would do, he kidnaps her and tries to get her to remember him. 

Jagger remembers her and has to try and get her to remember him too. It takes a little time and she is falling for him all over again but their families try to step in and keep them apart, again. Sage is a powerful witch and this time she isn't going to let her or his family keep them apart. I really liked these two once they figured out what was going on and who was trying to keep them apart. There's a bit of a twist as to who is trying to keep them apart and why and I really liked that. 

These two might come from completely opposite backgrounds but it looks like wolves and witches should be able to mate without there being these big problems 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 #310

 

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.  

So you may remember that last week we all got notices on our doors that a company was going to be painting the exterior of the buildings. Now down towards the bottom of this notice you can see that it says, " You can come and go as you please via your front door or garage." Remember this....

On Monday the painters patched up some of the cracks.

Then Tuesday morning I take Falcor out at 9am and see the painters covering all the doors and windows with plastic and tape. So I asked one of the guys how long the door was going to be taped up and he said until 12:00 noon, that's 3 hours. So I said that's not going to work for me because I need to be able to take the dog in and out and we were told that we could come and go as we please. He said, well how about 2 hours. Give me until 11:00 and I said well, we'll see. I don't know because the dog might need to go out again. And he said okay, well then knock on the door and I'll hear you and I'll be able to let you out. So I was thinking, if that doesn't work and I need to be able to take the dog out I'm just going to bust through the flipping tape on my door, like the Kool-Aid Man.

Here's the apartment doors and windows all taped up.

More taped up doors.

Oh and you can see the new paint color.

So at 11am, the dog needed to go out again so you can see me go to the door and knock on it. I didn't get a response so I broke through the plastic and tape. I may not have busted down the door like the Kool- Aid man, but I got the job done. 

Here's my door after I broke the tape and plastic off. The painters weren't even in my courtyard! They painted the walls and went to the alley to do the walls there. They left all the doors sealed up for hours! I noticed some other people breaking through the plastic around 1PM and the painters didn't come back to take all the plastic off until 5PM. right before they quit for the day. 

You might have seen in the last picture that they taped slippery plastic to the sidewalk right in front of everyone's door too. That was hazardous to walk on. 

The notice said we could come and go as we pleased but they sealed us in and didn't take the plastic off for hours. I was so irritated. There was no way I wasn't going to go outside all that time.

And this is my building all done. It's white with black trim. I think it actually looks like. 

The inside doors are now blue. They used to be brown. I don't know if they are going to paint the security screen doors or not yet. Some of us have security doors and some don't. 

I think the white and black trim looks nice. 

The overhangs over the walkways are now black, which is a little weird. But it's ok. 

What do you want to bet that they raised our rent at least $100 dollars next time the leases are up?

The high this week was 69F/20C

The low this week was 49F/9C

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

 

Godsmack- Truth

Godsmack has been around for a long time and they recently came out with a new song which I loved. I hope you enjoy it 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: 

Puppy pads from Peekage. 

Perfume samples from Macy's. 

I'll save the puppy pads because I use them under the rug that I have his water and food dish on in my bedroom. He's only spilled the water once so far though. 

I like most of the perfume samples. The Gucci Flora actually smelled the best to me out of all of them. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Snow on the Nevada Mountains

 

I liked the clouds so I took a picture of them. 

The next day the mountains in the background had snow on them. I enlarged the picture so you could see the snow. I took these pictures last month. It's warming up now.

The mountains to the North also had snow on them.  

My brother lives in Lovelock, Nevada (which is about 9 hours from me in Las Vegas) and he took this picture from his house last month when there was snow on the ground where he lives. 

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

Falcor feel asleep on my grandson's lap while he was playing on his tablet. 

Falcor is always laying in Logan's lap.

Falcor got another new sweater. It got a little cold outside so he's been wearing all his sweaters recently. While we were out he spotted this metal cover covering some wires down in the hole had been moved so he had to check it out. 

Here he saw a big dog coming up the pathway on his own walk with their human. I had to hold him back because he thinks he can win a fight with all the big dogs. lol

Book Review: Hunter's Claim by S.E. Smith

 

Book Description

When Earth received its first visitors from space.... The Trivators came to bring Earth into the Alliance of Star Systems, but now they have to take control of Earth to prevent the humans from destroying it in the panicked chaos. The Trivators aren’t prepared for how humans will affect their own lives, though, starting with a family of three sisters….

Alone in a world gone mad with just her younger sisters, Jesse Sampson has learned to use the darkness and the remains of Seattle to keep what is left of her family alive. She has seen the savage side of human nature and found they are not much different from the aliens who conquered the Earth.

Hunter belongs to a unit of Trivators who specialize in quelling violent uprisings. His ability to track and capture is renowned, but he finds the tables turned when he is the one captured by a group of ruthless humans.

Hunter is shocked when a strange human female risks her life to help him escape, only to disappear into the ruins of the city. He now has a new mission: finding the female who saved his life.

My Review

Trivators are aliens that came to Earth in peace to bring Earth into the alliance of star systems. But a lot of earthlings didn't take having aliens on Earth very well, they just didn't trust them. So humans fought the Trivators but the aliens are bigger, stronger, faster and have better weapons. Little factions of humans have turned to the Trivators when they started handing out food and other supplies to show that they aren't the enemy. But there are still some brutal humans who want nothing more than to kill all the aliens. Some humans just don't trust the aliens and are scared of them like Jesse and her two sisters. Jesse and her sisters have been living by hiding and stealing what supplies they need but it's not nearly enough. 

While out trying to gather some food for her and her sisters, Jesse comes across some humans who have captured a Trivator and plan on torturing him until he's dead. Jesse can't just leave him to that fate so she rescues him and leaves. Once Hunter is free, he meets up with two of his teammates and they go looking for Jesse. She has a small cut and Hunter uses the small of her blood to track her. Once they find the sisters they are taken back to their ship because they are not in good shape. They are sick, hurt, malnourished and dehydrated. But the sisters don't trust Hunter at all and escape which puts them in danger. 

These sisters are smart and really challenge the three Trivators who are looking after them. Hunter claims Jesse as his Amate and the two sisters as his family so they can stay with him. This leads to the sisters having to go back to his home world with him and they are still trying to trust he and his people. But Jesse and Hunter find a way to get closer and make their relationship work after a little time. 

I love a good alien romance and this was definitely a good one. I loved the danger, romance, humor and alien world that they end up on. What a fun book. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

"Make sure to vote"

*Fibbs is the name of this rat.*

"Tiny mail for tiny rats"

*All pictures today are courtesy of www.martymousehouse.com*

Apartment Life #309

 

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 Thursday everyone in my courtyard and the one next to ours got this notice that a painting company would be power washing and then painting our buildings starting on Friday. And bright and early Friday morning they were here at 7am power washing the walls. 

Then they started scraping off the water damaged paint places that are mostly towards the bottom and filling that in with something. This is the color before they painted over it. I'll show you the finished product next week if they finished by then.

So this is what it looks like before the new paint.

While walking Falcor I noticed the painters had set up this trailer for all their painting supplies so they don't have to lug them back and forth over the weekend I'm guessing. 

But what I hadn't noticed until I was walking back was a porta potty right next to the trailer that was placed right in front of someone's bedroom window. 

As you can see it's really close to the wall and the smell coming off this thing is awful. They could have at least put it on the other side of the alley and not right up against someone's bedroom widow. 

Then on Saturday morning I noticed that my elderly neighbor's bedroom window was wide open. This is a problem because she was evicted a month ago and still has a bunch of stuff in her apartment that she wants to come back and get. So I looked at the door and the "Keep Out" sticker that maintenance put across the door was taken off. So someone, probably one of the homeless people broke in. So I called her and let her know. She said she would be right over but she never showed up so I have no idea. I would have called the manager or the maintenance guy but they are not available on the weekends. 

She had sowed up with her daughter last week to check on her apartment and noticed that the chairs and table she left outside had been moved to her next door neighbors door. So her daughter knocked really loudly on their door and then proceeded to cuss them out and tell them not to move her stuff again. The daughter started to walk away and they shut their door but I guess the daughter had more to say because she turned around, walked back to their door, pounded on it again and told then they shouldn't be touching other people's stuff. 

My elderly neighbor was standing next to me and my daughter and said she couldn't believe that they moved her table and chairs. 

Well last night someone stole her chairs. They are now gone. 

The white lines are where the painters filled in the cracks.

And then I noticed that the glass on this window had been broken. Not sure what happened.

The high this week was 68F/20C

The low this week was 45F/7C

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

 

Kim Hyun Joong - Unbreakable (Feat. Jay Park)

Since some of you said you don't listen to much KPOP I thought I would share a song I started listeing to this week. I hope you enjoy. 

Product Review: Chicken of the Sea Smoked Oysters

 

I realize today should have been freebie Friday but I received no freebies this week so how about a product review instead. I tried something new so I'll share with you what I tried. You may be aware of the smoked oysters that come in a tin can. They are usually with the sardines, clams, kipper snacks ect. I love smoked oysters and the ones that come in the can are usually around $3. So when my daughter found this pack of smoked oysters at Dollar Tree for $1.25 I was happy to try them. 

There is a lot of oil in the bag and it seemed to me like there were more smoked oysters in the bag than are usually in the can as well. Now if you've tried the smoked oysters that are in the can, you know what they taste like. These tasted just like the ones in the can and I do mean exactly like them. I will be getting these from now on. I know they don't look appetizing but these things are so good. 

Have you tried these?