I have lost my freaking mind

I just let my best friend talk me into entering a contest to go see these guys on tour. We have to dress up like KISS and send in photos. I agreed, but only if we could make her husband go as Gene Simmons. LOL. He's going to kill us both.

I think I'm going to go with the Cat face. Costumes are going to be a bit trickier...



 This was too cute not to throw in.



We'll see how it goes. Pictures may or may not be forthcoming.


**once again, thanks to Google Images for the pictures posted above

Me, superstitious? Nah

Sugar & Spice- Jules Stanbridge

From Amazon: When Maddy loses her high-paying city job, her instant reaction is blind panic. But after the 'drowning her sorrows' hangover has cleared, she realises that this is an opportunity to change her life and do what she loves best: baking cakes. And so she sets up her own cake company, embracing the highs and lows of getting a new business off the ground, while looking for love along the way.



 
This was a light read, very British, and seriously chick-lit. I'm a sucker for anything involving baking (despite the fact that I *WAS* a baker and hated every minute of it) and loved the fact that Maddy associated the various people she met with different cakes. There's romance, sorrow, misunderstandings, and an ending that isn't excatly a happily ever after, but is still satisfying.
 
The biggest problem I had with this book is the craving for a Victoria Sponge Cake that it left me with!

Monday Musings- Felicity & the Squirrel

I lived in a bottom floor apartment in a u-shaped building for about 5 years. My living room windows looked out onto the courtyard and had a small ledge on the outside. There were bushes on either side of my front door and trees by my bathroom window and in the middle of the courtyard. We had a fairly extensive squirrel population, although they mostly lived in the trees out along the street.

Felicity loved to lounge in the windows, like a queen looking out over her lands. She would chatter at my neighbors as they ambled through the courtyard to the rear apartments. Sometimes they'd chatter back. One day, as I was struggling to get the door open, I noticed a flower on the window ledge. I didn't think anything of it at first, other than it was odd for it to be there. Then I started finding all kinds of things on the ledge- flowers, seeds, tiny pebbles, bits of shiny stuff. I wondered if one of my neighbors had a child who was sharing their treasures with my kitten.

The mystery was solved one day when I was home with a headache. Liss had been napping in my lap in my recliner. Her sharp little ears caught a sound and she was off my lap and in the window like a shot. the curtain was pushed askew as she bolted into the window and I finally saw the source of her treasures. A squirrel was there, chattering to her. Felicity pushed her nose against the screen and the squirrel did the same. They sat there, nose to nose, for a minute, and then her little boyfriend was spooked by an approaching neighbor and zipped into the bushes, leaving a leaf behind on the ledge. Liss sighed and came back to my lap, waiting for another chance to chat with her little friend.

When Maidens Mourn- C. S. Harris

This is the 7th in the series of Sebastian St Cyr mysteries and is an excellent read. I wondered what was left for our hero after book 6 and the author has found a whole new series of angles to explore with her character. From his twisted relationship with his family to his new marriage to the daughter of his worst enemy, I can't wait to see what comes next.

The mystery in this book is the death of scholarly maiden Gabrielle Tennyson, and the disappearance of the two young cousins, George & Alfred (yes, THAT Alfred) who were visiting her. St Cyr & his new bride (who was a friend of Gabrielle's) start separate investigations that come together with a suprising conclusion.

Happy 4th of July!

Monday Musings- Herding Cats, take 2

So after the bath adventure, I had thought we'd be done traveling for a good while. WRONG. 3 days after the bath experience, the landlord informed me that the workers were finally coming to replace my hail damaged roof. They thought they'd only need 1 day, but I had to have my driveway cleared by 8 a.m. for them to be able to get a truck & garbage trailer in. I was also instructed to take down anything hanging on the walls (framed art, etc) that could be shaken loose by them pounding on the top of the building.


The street I live on is fairly narrow and has steep drainage ditches on either side, so there's no street parking. I was informed of this after I was at work and therefore unable to ask any of my neighbors if I could park in their driveways. (Somehow I didn't think they'd be too thrilled to have me knocking on their doors at midnight when I got home to ask) I was left with two choices- park in the Kroger parking lot 1/4 mile form the house and hike to/from my car, or go stay with the parents. Add in the fact that there would be NO sleeping going on once the work started, and the noise was likely to give my idiot kittens a breakdown, the parents looked like the best option.


Mom couldn't contain her laughter when I called to ask. She agreed to let me bring the cats on the condition that they be locked in the room with me when I went to bed. Gramma's cat tried to kill her by sitting on her face when she was a baby and she's had a phobia about it ever since. I didn't have the heart to tell her that Felicity (sob) would have been the one most likely to do that, but agreed quickly before she could change her mind.


Running home after work, I discovered both cats had crawled into the big carrier. They'd been sleeping together in it since coming home from Bath Day. I flipped the door shut, packed my clothes and some kitty supplies and hauled everything to the car. Amazingly, being in the box together kept them calm- I didn't hear a single peep on the ride to Mom's. (as opposed to the ride on bath day when they each caterwauled the whole way there and back) I carried them into the apartment and back to the spare room. Malkin immediately bolted out of the room to explore, Nightshade went straight under the bed.


I left them with my parents when I went to work the next day. The landlord called to tell me that the roofers hadn't quite finished, so they'd be back tomorrow. Another night with the parents. Malkin didn't mind- he was having quite a good time with belly rubs on demand and new furniture to rub his face on and mark as his. Nightshade was still under the bed.


Since I usually go over to Mom's after work on Fridays, I left the cats there again for the day and planned to take them home late that night/Saturday morning. Wouldn't you know? Day 3 and Nightshade finally gets brave enough to venture out of the bedroom. She has an incredibly long little neck, and when she sits up and stretches her head out to investigate things she looks like a little meerkat. She wouldn't let us pet her and would bolt if we reached for her, but she did explore, play tag with her brother, and rub her face on the few surfaces he missed. The best moment was around 2 a.m. She'd bolted down the hall after Malkin and disappeared. I figured she'd gone back under the bed until I heard my dad yelp. Shady came tearing back into the living room and jumped into my lap. My dad came out a minute later, half-asleep and laughing. It seems that little Miss Braveheart had ventured into territory that even Greymalkin the Bold had avoided and gone into Dad's room. She jumped onto the bed- she's so small that he didn't feel that, and he wouldn't have known she was there if she hadn't headbutted him and stuck her cold little nose into his ear!


Wrestleing the brats back into the carrier took all 3 of us. They didn't want to go. I let them out when we got home, they both went and sniffed around our house and came back to me. It was clear that they wanted to go back to the other place. I don't know if they just liked it that much, or if there's still a lot of Felicity's scent in our house and it bothers them that they don't know where she is.