Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey

Just a few weeks before her 18th birthday, Jessica is staggered by news she refuses to believe.  She is a vampire princess, betrothed at her birth to a vampire prince inorder to bring peace between their two clans.  Jessica knew she was adopted from Romania, she even knew her name then (Antanasia Dragomir), but this she cannot believe.  It doesn't help that the prince in question, Lucius Vladescu, is an arrogant, bullying snob!

But soon she begins to feel a strange attraction for the tall, dark, slightly menacing Lucius and wonders if it is possible that she could be a princess, and his wife, after all.

Um, not my favorite.  It got a starred review from Publisher's Weekly and mostly positive customer reviews on Amazon but the lone one-star review said it best for me.  Fantaskey can't seem to decide whether this is going to be a light-hearted Princess Diaries-esque story or something much darker.  It really felt like a bipolar story, one minute dark and sizzling and the next cracking corny jokes.  It was a bumpy ride but I finished it.

Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert Massie

I barely remember studying this horrifying little piece of history in school, and I do mean BARELY.  I vaguely recall the whole Anastasia-craze news.  None of that will prepare you for what Massie's investigation has suggested really happened.  

Mr. Massie traces the downfall of Russian autocracy from Tsar Alexander III's failure to properly prepare his son for the throne through the tragic execution (and horrifying disposal) of Tsar Nicholas II, his wife and five children.

There are many excerpts from letters, diaries, and missives from the time that paint a much different portrait of Nicholas II than history has often granted him.  He was a soft spoken, kind hearted, confrontation avoiding man born much too early for his time.  

Massie makes the assertion that he would have made a much better British monarch than he did a Russian autocrat and I found his evidence to be right on the money with that.  I wonder how Russia would be different if Rasputin had never come along or if Nicholas II were in charge of the country now?  

Imperial Russia is a delight to read about (the Faberge section alone makes the whole book worthwhile) but the fate of this family is definitely sobering.  The copy I read the 1967 edition so I plan to get the recent edition and see what has been added to the introduction and epilogue.

Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson

There is a small little art deco place in Manhattan called The Hopewell Hotel.  It has been owned and operated by the Martin family forEVER but they've recently fallen on some harder times so all the employees have been let go.  

Scarlett Martin, now turning fifteen, is to partake in the family tradition.  When the Martin kids turn 15, they get a suite in the hotel.  It's not what you are thinking.  They take on the CARE of a suite AND whoever happens to be staying there.  For poor Scarlett, that turns out to be the oh-so-kooky Mrs. Amberson.  

Over the course of this summer, Mrs. Amberson will turn Scarlett's life upside down while placing her square in the path of things that feel like destiny.  From forging a new relationship with her bratty little sister to possibly starting a romance with her brother's hunky costar,  Scarlett's life will never be the same.

People, this book has it all!  A historic hotel, a bipolar guest, Broadway intrigue, a new take on Hamlet, shoplifted tuna, a rich boyfriend and a poor one, exotic cosmetic products, and much, much more!  I had a great time with this, laughing uproariously in my car despite the truly horrendous narrator.  

! ! ! this just in ! ! !

Patron: I'm looking for a book.  It's by Edgar Allan Poe.  It's a book of short stories.  They might be classified as horror stories.

Me: (inside) aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

aaaaaaaaaaaaa!

aaaaa!

PRACTICALLY ALL OF THEM, YOU DA!!!!!!!!

Me: (outside) 

Edgar Allan Poe is at 818.  We also have some of his short stories in the short story section, look in the P's for Poe. 

that is all.

1 a.m.

wanna hear what it sounds like in my front yard when I get home at 1 a.m., click through!  

That right there is why I love (and put up with the occasional inconveniences of) living in a rural area far from the highways and byways.

gloomy Monday

It is so hard to get out of bed when it's all gloomy and overcast like it is today.  My property and person went unharmed despite the fact that the weatherman was showing all kinds of bow echoes, wall clouds, and other tornadic activity right over my house!  Binky was asleep on the back of my recliner when I got home so I knew we had truly weathered the storm in style.  

I did go ahead and drag myself out of bed when the alarm went off this morning at 6am and got in a good 45 minute session on the recumbent bike.  I doubled up on my productivity by reading two chapters of my book group book while I was at it!  

So far today I have had:

8 oz of V8

8 oz of soymilk

1 piece of HFCS-free toast

2 tbls of natural peanut butter

I brought lots of fruit, some 2% cheese, 1 oz of almonds, my very favorite Lime & Salt popcorn, some hot chocolate mix, and some baked sesame crackers for snacks if I get hungry during the day.  Oh yeah, and lots and lots of water!  I'd lost another 4 lbs this morning according to my home scale!

sad news for me....

so, one of my petsitting clients from whom I haven't heard in about six months called today to let me know....

that she is being transferred and my boys are moving to the other side of the country!  I get to petsit for them one more time while she goes househunting.....

the hair of many colors

...but only one at a time.  

I feel a bit like Strawberry Shortcake :-)  My stylist always flattens it down for some reason but it will be back to spiky on the morrow!  

grocery run

I decided to go all nerdy on the grocery store so I got the recipes of what I wanted to cook, separated the ingredients out into their various elements, and put it all in a Google spreadsheet so I could work on it at home and at the library.  I went to the store last night armed with this spreadsheet and waged war on groceries.  I was so proud of my grocery cart that I walked around a bit more after I was done hoping people were looking in the fat girl's cart (yes, I actually took a picture of it in the middle of the store) and feeling ashamed of their own.  Sorry about that, but it's true.  

You should see my freezer!  I'm going to have to get some more storage containers!  I spent $152 and am estimating 91 meals from what I've cooked.  That may go up if I can get more than 8 servings out of one of the scheduled dishes.  That is roughly $1.67 per meal.  

So far, I have made and frozen:

taco soup - 15 servings

turkey lasagna - 12 servings

turkey meatloaf - 7 servings

chicken enchilada casserole - 12 servings

Ready-made things I purchased:

hotdogs (hebrew national, yum-meee!) - 4 servings

frozen turkey burgers - 6 servings

sliced deli turkey - 15 servings (I get it sliced thick, then cut those slices in half and freeze them.  They thaw super fast under the kitchen faucet so I don't have to wait if I want a yummy sandwich)

On the cooking agenda for tonight and tomorrow:

curried chicken and rice - estimated 12 servings

crockpot chicken & dumplings - estimated 8 servings

I already had some frozen green beans and broccoli so I also picked up some frozen corn, spinach, and cauliflower.  My fresh produce included apples, oranges, bananas, lettuce, carrots, onions, and garlic.

I do not apologize for volunteering you all to be my accountability partners :-)  If you made it this far down the post

THANKS!!!

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Lia has just learned that her wayward best friend Cassie was found dead in a nearby hotel.  Also, Cassie had called her 33 times in the hours before she died, leaving tearful messages asking Lia to call her back, which Lia never did.  These calls, the messages Cassie left, and episodes from their long friendship haunt Lia throughout the story.  Cassie and Lia were blood sisters, making vows in the snow and under the light of the moon to be the skinniest. girls. ever.  They were wintergirls...frozen, distant, half alive, and, in their minds, S.T.R.O.N.G.  Cassie was bulimic, and died from it.  Lia is anorexic and making steady progress towards the same fate though she denies that until the end.  She has been hospitalized twice already, having gotten down to about 85 lbs.

Now home life is prison for her.  Constantly being monitored to see that she eats (she's very sneaky cautious about this) and weighed weekly to see that she stays in a healthy range (nothing a bit of tinkering with the scale, a limit of 400 calories per day, sewing quarters in your robe pockets, and 4 hour middle-of-the-night workouts can't handle).  No one understands, everyone wants to send her to the loony bin (Cassie doesn't exactly go away after she's dead), and the razorblades seem to be the only ones on her side.  

So, second somber title in a row.  REALLY somber.  However, I loved another book by this author, Speak, so I decided to give it a try.  I think she is a beautiful writer, one of my favorites, but there is no laughter here, no lightness, no smiles unless they are artificial or hard won.  There is healing, redemption, a light in the darkness.  This book is really worth the journey, as are all of her titles in my opinion.