Aliens, Ringworm and Birthdays

So I woke up last Thursday to two perfectly-formed red circles on my breast bone. Let me tell ya, that was an eye opener. I had no idea where they'd come from. The only two options I could think of were: an alien abduction or ringworm. I was hoping for alien abduction. One, I'd have all kinds of fodder for new stories and two, the babies were due in town and I wouldn't have been allowed anywhere near them with anything contagious. I immediately call the doctor and of course couldn't get in. So I took my dilemma to my boss who was a nurse in her former life. She looked at it, grinned, and said I'd had a reaction to the gel they'd put on me the day before for an ultrasound. So much for my alien abduction theory.

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My baby boy is thirty-two today and has a baby boy (and girl) of his own. Happy Birthday, Sweetie.

Friday's Funnies

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And here's another 'It's Spring' pic.

 Have a great weekend, everyone.

Who'd A Thought

Who'd a thought of cleaning your toilet with Koolaid or your tub with Vodka...though Dez did mention that he used soda to clean his toilet. For other tips--if you didn't see it on Yahoo--here's the link:
http://shine.yahoo.com/at-home/12-spring-cleaning-tips-mom-never-told-140500736.html

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Need to take this cat to Vegas;)

Rate My Professor.Com

Have you seen this site? It's a hoot. Students can rate their instructors online. If you or your relatives are in education you may want to check it out. If you are a student, you may want to check it out. It seems to be a regional thing. I typed in the relatives I know in the south and a writer/instructor in the north but nothing popped up. Then I typed in my daughter and her fiance, who are in the Philly area, and they were there. Both had chili peppers for hotness. How does this relate to teaching you ask? Got me. Though, I found it entertaining.

www.ratemyprofessors.com

A Dying Man's Last Wish

How special is this?

Monday

Really? What's wrong with this pooch? Doesn't he realize it's Monday?

How was your weekend? Wondrous? Mine was the usual WLC weekend. I bet you can figure that one out. (Write. Laundry. Clean)
My big news--actually, I've got more big news--but more about that at a later date. I went for my doctor's visit, KNOWING I'd gained about five pounds only to find out I'd lost a pound. The big weight losers have nothing on me. For the past three years, I've lost a pound a year. At this rate, if I live another twenty years I'll be down to 108.  I know. I know. I need to get a life. I hope yours is more exciting than mine. So what did you do this weekend? Anybody see Divergent?

Weekend Words of Wisdom

I knew there's a reason I liked this guy:)

Enjoy your weekend.

Spring

Oh My God, It's Finally Here!

Wednesday's Chuckle

Lion Cubs Meet Dad

Some dads have no patience when it comes to babysitting.
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On another note..Have any of you tried to follow another blog and gotten an 'Unable to handle your request. Please try later' message?

Happy St. Pats Day and We're Back

 Wishing all my blogster buds, a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
As the name implies, St. Patrick's Day is in honor of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. Legend has it that he used the shamrock to teach the trinity. The leprechaun is an Irish fairy that makes shoes and stores his gold in a pot at the end of the rainbow. Ladies, is this or is this not, our kind of fairy?

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Life is just one damn thing after another~Elbert Hubbard
 OMG. It was great to see everyone, but I'm ecstatic to be home. We spent Sunday night in KY, Monday night in southern Illinois, Tuesday night in central Illinois, Wednesday night in IN and Thursday night at home. Yay! Cousin Murphy--the originator of Murphy's Law--tagged along with us.  As you are probably aware of from an earlier blog, I was in the airport preparatory to flying in to Illinois when I got the call the surgery had been postponed  because my brother got sick. So, I decided to wait and drive out with the hh Friday night.
Of course, that didn't go as scheduled. Friday night we had an ice storm and it knocked the power out. So we waited till Sunday.  We went to my aunt and uncle's and from there planned on staying a couple of nights with the bro since I probably won't be going back for his surgery.
The day before we were to arrive at the bro's got a call from him telling us his wife has pneumonia. So...we couldn't go since the hh has had double pneumonia and is susceptible. We finally did manage to hook up with him. And from there with the exception of snow and traffic snarls made it home without further incident. Whew.
We had all grumbled about the surgery being postponed, but it turned out to be a blessing when we found out his wife had pneumonia. There would have been no good scenarios. If it hadn't been caught and he'd had the surgery and was exposed to pneumonia after heart surgery...Yikes. Could have been scary.
What about you, what were you doing last week?

Weekend, Goth and Hippies

The pic has nothing to do with anything. I just thought it was funny. Have a wonderful weekend and tell me all about it Monday. I'll be thinking of ya.

Non-Stop

Have you see this one? Saw it. Liked it. 'Non-stop' action. I'm a Liam Neeson fan.

BB: The Maid of Milan

BLURB:

After three years of marriage, Adelaide has fallen in love with the handsome, honorable husband who nurtured her through her darkest hours.

Now Adelaide’s former lover, the passionate poet from whose arms she was torn from by her family during their illicit liaison in Milan six years previously has returned, a celebrity due to the success of his book The Maid of Milan.

High society is as desperate to discover the identity of his ‘muse’ as Adelaide is to protect her newfound love and her husband’s political career.

EXCERPT:

The following scene takes place after Adelaide has decided she cannot be present for the visit of her former lover and the man who was her husband’s childhood friend. Here, she is suddenly caught off-guard.

Mrs Henley knocked and they entered as Tristan rose, his forced smile replaced by one of pleasure when he saw Adelaide. He took a step forward, extending his hand for hers, the flare in his eyes as intense as the day she consented to be his wife, and Adelaide felt an unexpected

jolt somewhere in the region of her heart, her determination bolstered to bridge the distance between them, despite the oppressive presence of her mother, always a footfall away, it seemed.

‘Tristan, I—’

She stopped, pulling back as a warm, fragrant breeze stirred the papers on his desk.

The French doors from the garden had been thrown open, and the heavy tread of Hessian boots upon the wooden floor pulled their attention towards the muslin curtains which swirled in eddies, silhouetting the shape of a man: a slender man of middle height – the only ordinary

thing about him – dressed in a black cutaway coat and buff breeches, who materialised before them like a young demigod, smouldering with an enthusiasm he did nothing to inhibit, for good manners were always in abeyance to the  passion that ruled James’s life.

‘Tristan!’ Tossing his low-crowned beaver upon the ottoman, James strode forward, arms outstretched, his voice taut with emotion.

Nearly four years, it had been, and from first impressions it was as if nothing had changed. Inky curls framed his delicately boned face and his eyes were like coals burning the fire within. No, nothing had changed, she could see, for James was still like a coiled spring, eager for love,

eager for life, as ready to give as he was to take … without discernment.

Adelaide froze with nowhere to go, tense with premonition while shafts of sensation, painful and familiar, tore through her.

Could this really be happening? Unwillingly, her gaze was fixed upon James’s profile, dusted with dark stubble, tapering up to angular cheekbones delineated with the slivers of sideburns sported by the fashionable Corinthians of the day.

In four years he could not be so unchanged whereas she …

She touched her face, her heart. She was a mere husk of what she’d once been. Tristan knew nothing of the passions that burned within her when her heart was engaged – and she didn’t know if he ever would, for suddenly she felt reduced to nothingness by the force of James’s personality. She’d been his equal once – a woman of fire and vitality – and she’d loved him with a savagery that her mother claimed bordered on insanity. She’d been a child, thrust into

adulthood by this charismatic older man. Married older man. But as she looked between the two men before her it was Tristan who made her heart beat faster, as much with longing as with fear of what he would think of her if he knew the truth.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Beverley Eikli is the author of eight historical romances. In 2012 she won UK Women's Fiction publisher Choc-Lit's Search for An Australia Star competition with her suspenseful, Napoleonic espionage Romance The Reluctant Bride, which has just been shortlisted by Australian Romance Readers for Favourite Historical in 2013.

In 2011 she was nominated for an ARRA award for her Regency romance A Little Deception, and in 2012 for her racy Regency Romp, Rake’s Honour, written under her Beverley Oakley pseudonym.

Eikli wrote her first romance when she was seventeen. However, drowning the heroine on the last page was, she discovered, not in the spirit of the genre so her romance-writing career ground to a halt and she became a journalist.

After throwing in her job on South Australia's metropolitan daily The Advertiser to manage a luxury safari lodge in the Okavango Delta, in Botswana, she discovered a new world of romance and adventure in a thatched cottage in the middle of a mopane forest with the handsome Norwegian bush pilot she met around a camp fire.

Twenty years later, after exploring the world in the back of Cessna 404s and CASA 212s as an airborne geophysical survey operator during low-level sorties over the French Guyanese jungle and Greenland's ice cap, Eikli is back in Australia teaching in the Department of Professional Writing & Editing at Victoria University, as well as teaching Short Courses for the Centre of Adult Education and Macedon Ranges Further Education.

Preorder The Maid of Milan at The Book Depository: http://www.bookdepository.com/Maid-Milan-Beverley-Eikli/9781781891285

Amazon:http://www.amazon.com/Maid-Milan-Beverley-Eikli/dp/1781891281/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1381039713&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Maid+of+Milan

 Website: http://www.beverleyeikli.com/

 Blog: http://beverleyeikli.blogspot.com.au/

 Twitter: http://beverleyoakley/

 Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/beverley.eikli

Beverly will award a $20 Amazon book voucher and a digital copy of The Reluctant Bride to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.

It's An Age Thing

Are you a Colbert fan? If so and you haven't seen this video, you'll probably appreciate it. If you don't like Colbert, chances are you won't like the video.


http://tv.yahoo.com/news/stephen-colbert-fox-news-hillary-clinton-bombshell-her-161711314.html;_ylt=A0LEVxrK.BFTFnAA4phXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEzczk5bTk1BHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDNwRjb2xvA2JmMQR2dGlkA1ZJUDIyNl8x

So what do you think? Is the candidate's age important to you? Would it keep you from voting for someone you otherwise think would make a good elected official?

Question For The Day

If your dog's a barker, how do you know when you've got an intruder at the door or a butterfly going by the window?

The Weekend, Microchipping And Glitch

beforeandafterstuff.com

Is This Us Or What?
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Microchipping

We hit a glitch. The Murphy's paid a visit to my brother. He's sick. The surgery was cancelled while we were at the airport.  So we're still in NC but will probably drive to IL tomorrow.

Have a good weekend, blogster buds. 

Giveaway and Weather

Are you a gardener? Like aromatherapy? Use edible flowers? Interested in carnivorous plants?
I'm giving away three copies of POWER FLOWERS at Goodreads. To enter just go to the contest page on the sidebar.

On a personal note, I've pre-posted but I may not have an opportunity to respond to your comments or chat with you at your blogs. I'm flying to IL today. My bro is having heart surgery. The hh will drive in this weekend. From there we'll visit our other relatives then hopefully when we get  home next week we'll get to visit the babies. So even though I may not be responding to the comments, I appreciate them and will be thinking of each and everyone of you.

Pompeii

Did you see it? Did you like it? In spite of the fact, that it had elements I usually avoid in movies--I won't mention what they are since I don't want them to be spoilers--I really enjoyed this movie. If you've seen it, let me know what you thought about it.

A little history: Founded in seventh century BC, Pompeii was a Roman town in Italy. It was destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. Pompeii's 20,000 inhabitants were buried under twenty feet of ash.

What I Saw Last Week and Read An E Book Week

 http://www.clipart.dk.co.uk/

Can you believe the daffodils were in bloom last week? Of course yesterday evening we got ice and snow. sigh.


For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

By William Wordsworth (1770-1850).

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Smashwords will be running mega deals this week. Lots of freebies so you might want to stock up.Here's the read an e-book promotion page at Smashwords:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/category/1/newest/1

Coupon codes for the following:
RW100-Shardai is free

REW50-Akasha: 99cents

REW50-Makita: 1.50

REW50-Power Stones: 1.50

REW50-Vampire Bay: 1.50

Children of Lubrochius Cover Reveal

BLURB:   

The vampire, Lucian val Drasmyr, has been defeated, but not destroyed: Now he serves another evil: Korina Bolaris, a young and gifted sorceress bent on subverting the power structure of Drisdak. Only Coragan of Esperia can hope to stop them. But is even he prepared to face the dark cult who claims her as their own: the Children of Lubrochius?

EXCERPT:

“I am a Child of Lubrochius,” Korina said. “I came here to hire you and offer you an opportunity few ever have. Are you interested?”

           

“I see little profit in it,” said the first man, “save vague promises of uncertain future rewards.”

           

Korina paused. Clearly, she was not explaining the up-side of her offer well enough. She needed something to lure the men in; something the Shadowhand could not provide, but the Children could. “Have you ever robbed from a wizard?” she asked, changing the topic as the obvious lure occurred to her. She reached into another small pouch on her side and pulled out four Kaldtarri rings, her fingers gently caressing one, feeling the band of iron and the grotesque gargoyle-like head. Sidipius had come through and provided her with ten Kaldtarri Primes and two Kaldtarri Secunduses, an ample beginning supply: enough to begin a formidable hellring. All she needed were the recruits. Men such as these.

           

The men stared across the empty space at her, at first saying nothing in reply. Finally, one of them broke the silence. “No, we have not,” he said.

           

“Why?”  she asked, though she knew the answer.

           

“They have magic. They can snoop you out no matter how good you are.”

           

“How about a baron or a count?”

           

“Do you know how many thieves have gone to the gallows for trying?” the thief said. “The nobility just hire wizards. It’s a lost cause.”

           

She smiled, and one by one dropped three of the rings on the table in front of them. “Is it now?” she said.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Matthew D. Ryan is a published author living in upstate New York on the shores of Lake Champlain. Mr. Ryan has a background in philosophy, mathematics, and computer science. He has a black belt in the martial arts and studies yoga. He has been deeply involved in the fantasy genre for most of his life as a reader, writer, and game designer. He is the operator of the web-site matthewdryan.com which features his blog, “A Toast to Dragons,”a blog dedicated to fantasy literature, and, to a lesser extent, sci-fi. Mr. Ryan says he receives his inspiration from his many years as an avid role-player and fantasy book reader. He has spent many long hours devising adventures and story-lines for games, so it was a natural shift moving into fantasy writing.

Mr. Ryan is the author of the exciting dark fantasy novel, Drasmyr,, its sequel, The Children of Lubrochius, and a growing number of short stories. His first novel, Drasmyr, has consistently earned reviews in the four and five star range and serves as the prequel to his upcoming series: From the Ashes of Ruin. In addition to Drasmyr and The Children of Lubrochius, Mr. Ryan has published several short stories on-line, including: “Haladryn and the Minotaur,” “The River’s Eye,” and “Escape.”

Links to the Author on the Internet

Author’s website: http://matthewdryan.com

Author’s Smashwords Page: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/matthewdryan

Author’s Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000038781652

Author’s Amazon Author Central Page: http://www.amazon.com/author/matthewdryan

Author’s Goodreads Page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/579148.Matthew_D_Ryan

Matthew will award a metal miniature of a demon from the Reaper Fantasy Miniatures to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour (US ONLY). The tour dates can be found here:  http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2014/01/virtual-cover-reveal-tour-children-of.html