The Coroner’s Journal

2 Comments / 2006, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

Like they always say, truth is stranger than fiction. The Coroner’s Journal proves that completely. Louis Cataldie is one of the most interesting characters ever to grace the pages of a book and he’s a real live person. The crimes, often felt like something out of a horror novel or a whodunit, but those were real crimes. Truth is definitely stranger than fiction.

I would like to meet Cataladie over a cup of coffee and a hot donut someday, the stories he can tell and the fact that he still seems to be pretty sane after all that he’s been through. Amazing

The Coroner’s Journal Read More »

Review Me

3 Comments / Review /

A brand new blogging for dollars program has launched, it’s called ReviewMe and I am getting paid to review “Review Me” with this very post. In the future, any posts I may write for Review Me will sit in the “Review Me” category and the posts themselves will indicate that they are “advertisements” or that I am being paid to review. This isn’t just my policy but it is also ReviewMe’s policy. All bloggers MUST disclose their relationship within the blog post.


When you sign up for ReviewMe as a blogger, you enter all of your data and then register a blog. ReviewMe immediately determines how much you’ll get paid for a review post and this is determined by your page rank. If you want to make more money for your reviews then you’d best get busy and increase your page rank. Good blogs get more money and that makes sense to me. I’ve got a PR5 so not bad but not great either. My payout is $30 per review.


The site itself is easy to navigate, and it was easy to find answers to my questions last night when I joined. I’ve surfed around some of the other blogs who have also joined and that’s been interesting, as well. There are some good bloggers already signed up, that seems like a good sign for the future.
So let’s see how this goes, shall we. Feel free to tell me what you think as we travel along this road.

Review Me Read More »

Daily Dose of Cupcake Toppers

1 Comment / Cupcake Toppers /

coins021sm.jpgHappy Veteran’s Day. Military cupcake toppers, there are oh so many options to choose from. You could go with the classic little green men (I can’t wait to see the search hits from that phrase!) or miniature tanks or planes or ships. Do you know anyone with an abundance of military coins they might be willing to part with? Incredibly expensive to buy on ebay and you probably won’t find anyone willing to give theirs up, but what a fantastic cupcake topper.

Daily Dose of Cupcake Toppers Read More »

My Parents Are Weird

7 Comments / Friends & Family /

You’re probably thinking that all parents are weird and I am writing about something everybody knows.  Well I think I can prove that my parents are more weird than the normal weird parents that you have. 

First, in case you don’t know this, my parents split up while I was pregnant with Jenn so that would be summer of 1983.  My father has been remarried for a long, long time (happy anniversary, pop) and my mom lives with her partner of several years.  They do not and have not lived in the same city for a very, very long time.  They do not talk very often at all, they don’t fight, they just don’t have any reason to interact regularly.

So, years ago when my sister got married my mom and my step mother showed up at the wedding in the same dress.  Weird, eh?  My step mother got in the car, drove to the nearest store and bought a new dress, which was good of her.  It’s an amusing family story that we often talk about.

Also, greeting cards have been an issue.  My mom and dad, they send the same greeting cards.  I mean identical cards – not the same card every year, I mean identical as in they choose the same greeting card as the other parent has chosen.  Not every holiday, but often.  Often enough that I have noticed and commented upon this.  And it’s not just ME they send the same cards to my brother.  I’m not sure if this happens with my sister, I don’t recall ever discussing it with her or in her presence.  Weird eh?

Now, I have a new weird thing and this one is really starting to bug me.  My parents, they both insist on calling me on the same day.  I’m not talking holiday phone calls, or weird family issue phone calls.  I mean just out of the blue called to kill time phone calls.  I will no sooner get off the phone with one of them and the phone will ring and it is the OTHER one.  Or I will get a call waiting beep while talking to one of them and it will no doubt be the other one.  This happens all of the time, seriously ALL of the TIME.   See, they are weird aren’t they?

My Parents Are Weird Read More »

I am not a foodie, damn it

3 Comments / Foodie /

I swear I’m not a foodie, but I am enjoying my very foodie gift quite a bit.  Even all of the chocolate, which I don’t generally love.

P1010001_3
See that picture there?  That’s a picture of my foodie gift.  If you click it, you’ll see my friend sent Trader Joe’s to me since I am always griping because I cannot go to Trader Joe’s and EVERYONE else can.  I have nice friends.  Even if they send me chocolate when I do not like chocolate.  Maybe particularly since they send me chocolate since I actually ate a good bit of that chocolate.

First, there was the white pom tea.  Love it.  I think there might be three tea bags left.  There were like three days straight when I did not make coffee or reheat two day old coffee and I drank hot white pom tea instead.  Awesome stuff.  (I think I should hide the last of it before Prince J returns on Friday or he will finish it, I’m sure.)

Then we opened the TJ’s chocolate candy bars.  I had one, TW had one and then I ummm had the last one.  Heh.  Not all in the same day, sheesh.  I don’t like chocolate, remember?  Michelle opened some TJ’s chocolate chip cookies and really REALLY liked those.  I think RJ might also have had some but don’t hold me to that, she may have chosen another snack instead – I can’t remember. 

The plantains I love, but you probably guessed that because surely I have talked about my love of plantains before.  The dried cranberries were only so-so as a snack out of the bag but they were beautiful in the banana bread I made on Sunday. 

Last night during Gilmore Girls, TW opened the truffles… I did not take my friend’s advice and put them in the freezer.  I should have because they were very melty and TW was covered in chocolate.  She was also making noises in front of Michelle that I prefer she only make in private – apparently the truffles were that good.  She got up and got more while I glared at her and reminded her of her recent visit to the doctor and her vow to die of liver failure instead of heart failure. 

Now, what do we have left in this little snacky box?  We have some spicey nuts that I will open this weekend since I am out of plantains.  And we have some cornbread mix which I plan to use this weekend for dinner.  And some dried mango which I haven’t decided about yet.  I’ll get back to you.   Oops, forgot also there’s Panda licorice which I won’t touch but TW was oohing and aahing over (are there antioxidants or omega3s in that?)

I love Trader Joe’s and my very nice friend for sending Trader Joe’s to me.

I am not a foodie, damn it Read More »

Acorna’s Children

2006, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

Have I mentioned I am not an Anne McCaffrey fan? Well I’m not, except for the Acorna series. That, I like. Probably because the first one I “read” was on audio and it lured me in, but after half dozen (or more) of these, I’m still enjoying them. Acorna’s Children was just what I needed after a string of non-fiction. It just doesn’t get any better than inter-gallactic unicorn type creatures saving the universe, particularly when the heroes tend to be women and children.

Acorna’s Children Read More »