Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Lots of Work

This week is busy for work which I'm grateful for but I lost steam at the end of last night and couldn't blog. Bad Cindy.

I don't have much to offer in the book department EXCEPT that I stepped out of my box and bought a couple of category romances. The ones that Kristie was having fun with a few posts ago (I can't seem to link to a specific post at Kristie's and can only send you to her blog. I think it could be 5 posts down or so).

Bedded By The Billionaire by Leanne Banks and Marrying For King's Millions by Maureen Child. I tried to ignore the titles of all the Desire titles and just browse the back blurbs.

It also came down to author names. I recognized Banks and Child so I leaned more towards these two.

Basically I used to read Desire and another type years ago (I can't find the name at the site so I think it's been changed). These stories could be powerful and wonderfully sexy.

I bought willy nilly for years and found many authors in these lines. I don't remember getting burned by these books but I did start to find authors I loved in these lines and instead of just buying any story I would hunt down back lists and buy specific authors.

These authors then moved on to greater things and I followed and for some reason I forgot all about category romances.

WAIT!!

I remember now.

BLAZE happened. I had never read such drek in my life and I think it broke my will to read categories. Bad Cindy. Anyways, I'm still not going to read Blaze titles but I am curious about the Desire line.

Also, being in the middle of a hellacious slump means I need to turn some stuff up and about. I *think* these books will be faster to read and easier on my need to finish books.

ETA: It's now hours after starting this post. Work hurt and then I had to look at our bills. Not enough tylenol right now! Off to bed for me!

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Feeling Good Again!

Me thinks we are back and I come bearing great news - at least for me!

I am currently reading a book and enjoying it. I started it two days before Keishon's TBR Challenge was due (was that a week ago or two now?). I figure I'll have it done by the next due date and thankfully it was from the TBR pile. I'll have to take a picture of it for you because Cody decided it was a great book too. Yes, I bought another copy.

What brings me back to blogdom?

ROSIE!!

Rosie posted that she had nothing to post (been there) but she managed to sneak in some titles of books I've been waiting for for like EONS!

THEN, Nath mentioned that Kresley Cole's latest book was spotted at her local bookstore which had me wondering if maybe my bookstore had said books in stock.

Me: Woohoo!! Gotta go!!

Bob: (in jammies after getting home from being out and about) Where ya going now? It's late!

Me: To the bookstore *doing butt dance in chair*

Bob: You can go tomorrow morning.

Me: ANNE ST--

Bob: Drive carefully.

Didn't even have to finish the sentence this time around. Smart man he is.

So I forced the sales clerk to head into the back dungeon of the stock room to get me my Anne Stuart. I swear they think their customers are dumb as dirt.

Clerk: It says it's in the romance section.

Me: Yep, I looked.

Clerk: Did you look it up alphabetically?

(I have to be honest here and say I was too focused on getting my book to shoot back a snotty answer but, dude, are you serious?)

Me: You can re-check.

Which she did. I even helped her out and showed her where the books should have been. Hell, I even looked around the piles they put on the floor. (and when did that become a good marketing strategy? Guy in meeting: No, wait, I got it! We'll put new releases all over the store! We'll put them in piles at the bottom of the book stacks. We'll look all funky and shit! AND, we can charge the publishers extra because we are 'highlighting' their authors. Meanwhile I can't find any rhyme or reason to how they are stacked. I swear you really have to get lucky to find a book nowadays.)

Me: These books are recently released, they'll probably be out back.

The clerk disappears for a minute and I figure she's gone to look for the books. Uh, wrong. She's at the computer figuring out when the books came in.

Clerk: *put upon sigh* Maybe they are in the back.

At this point I'm getting worried that this little chickie isn't feeling lucky or in any way interested in helping me get my books.

So I start to wander around and on a table near the stock room doors, no where near anything even related to what the book could be about I find -

Kresley Cole's Dark Needs at Night's Edge. In the middle of nowhere. Now mind you I'm killer pleased with myself but heads would still be rolling if the 22 books they showed in stock hadn't been found by the unlucky clerk and the battalion of staff I would have rounded up to search for the book. How hard is it to put in that fancy-fan-dangled-computer-thingie 'in stock on table 12'? I guess customer service nowadays prefers the fumbling around approach to stock management.

Good news is I didn't have to make the clerk cry when she came out only carrying one book because I had
found the other. Lucky for her it was:

Fire and Ice by Anne Stuart! How crazy happy am I? I didn't even have to wait for Kristie to do a check and send me an e-mail after store hours claiming said book was all locked up tight until the next business day! The bad news is this. I won't start Annie until I have finished the book I am currently reading. Okay, don't hold me to that but, could happen.

Few more goodies purchased just because I was there:

Jane Fallon's Getting Rid of Matthew. The cover sold me. I know. Pathetic but true. And the back blurb sounded, hmmmmm, cute I guess. We'll see. I may just put the book on my bookshelves facing out for the pretty.

One Foot in the Grave by Jeaniene Frost. I have the first book but haven't read it yet. Katiebabs over at Ramblings on Romance has been very happy with the two book by this author and her enthusiasm is catching. But that's it for this author until I read one of them. Two book rule and all that.

If You Deceive by Kresley Cole. Cause I couldn't remember if I owned it already or not. This is the third book in a trilogy and the second one was there but again, I didn't know if I owned it or not. I guess I have some checking to do.

OH!! Can we have a moment to appreciate the episode of LOST that aired this week?

Could Sawyer be any hotter? Why yes, yes he can! Especially when he told Locke if he harmed one curly hair on Hurly's head he'd kill him.

Perfection.

Okay, you can go on about your day now.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Uh, Did I Do That?

At this time I'm on daywalker hours. Or better known as 'normal people' hours.

I'm always intrigued by those who stay up all day and have normal sleep cycles. I wonder what it's like and if I will ever fit into the 'normal' way of life.

Well.

I HATE IT!!!

I'm never truly awake except for those first 3 or 4 hours. After that it's a battle to stay awake and boredom is a constant companion. I have tons of stuff I need to get done but I can't seem to get up the energy to do anything about it. It's like I'm a zombie!

With this concrete scientific evidence I've decided normal people are zombies.

Hey, we can't all be wacky nocturnal-ites.

Get this, whenever I turn to day hours Bob's sleep cycle gets all bent out of shape. It's nine PM and the poor guy just crawled into bed after falling asleep on the couch around 7pm. The problem comes when he wakes up at 2am and has to get up for a few hours because he's wide awake.

So basically, Bob has stolen my nap mojo and staying awake for all hours of a day are killer boring.

I truly am meant to be nocturnal. I get so much more done and napping is such a glorious sensation. When I'm daywalking I don't dare nap or I will throw it all out again. Blergh.

I'm trying to stay on zombie hours because Bob wants to do some day trips over the next week and I would rather be muggy headed than out right screaming bitch tired.

I think.

I'll let you know if casualties abound.

Until then I hope you are enjoying a great book and eating some chocolate.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Just Blasting In

I'm using the word 'blasting' because it's going to rain here for the next three days and it's miserable. Of course, I'm awake now during the day and I am bored out of my skull. My body went around too early - Bob has a week off starting this coming Wednesday so I'm hoping I will still be on daylight hours.

Never fails, I'm up in the morning and Bob has committed to something somewhere else tomorrow. I don't begrudge that because I'm not usually awake in the early mornings on a weekend but then he's not usually elsewhere either. Funny how those things always meet when we least expect it.

Lots of world events have been twitching in my brain but I'm blaming my chain like fixation to my TV for most of it. I need to get out!

My brain is constantly jumping around and I have a few fairly funny stories for ya and yeah, they deal with all the animals in my home. I swear they have declared a revolution. Thank God they don't have opposable thumbs or we'd be cooked.

Then there is my hubby. He's always good for a laugh. I either laugh or I'll go nutty.

Okay, I'm already nutty but he'd put me in the padded cell realm.

Hey! Only one wall is padded!

I've really missed you guys. I woke up crying yesterday which had me wondering when exactly I became that person. Crying? While waking up? My one very best bud is 3000 miles away living her new life and I'm so happy for her but I miss her like crazy. Then my best friend has been decidedly absent of late which had me waking up feeling like the only person who cared about me was Bob. Poor guy was home when I woke up and ran from the room to get the phone so I could hear the message my friend left while I was sleeping.

I've loved this winter but I need to get out now. I'm ready for spring. I've been sleeping like crazy the last few days because I opened the windows in our bedroom and the fresh air clocked me out.

Ooops.

ATTENTION!!

All About Romance is polling for Favourite Books by Favourite Authors and Lee, LinnieGayl and I would love for you to jump over and send in a ballot. Go here. We have some heavy hitters like Lisa Kleypas (oops, we just lost Kristie), Patricia Gaffney and Madeline Hunter mixed with some great new comers like Hope Tarr, Cindy Holby/Colby Hodge and Gena Showalter. The poll ends April 20th so if you need to look at that keeper pile you have some time.

Have fun!

Yet another piece of evidence that my brain is one wacky place to be.

So I might be around or I might be gone just a few more weeks. Yesterday Bob pulled something and I yelled down, 'I'm going to blog about that!'.