Day 62

Today is day 62 of my book drought. At this point it’s anyone’s guess as to when I’ll break the dry spell.

What I’ve been up to in the last week…

I read a verygood post on whether or not BEA is worth attending. I can relate to this post so much it’s not even funny. For a mood reader who isn’t heavy into reading review books it can create a lot of pressure. I attended BEA in 2013 and 2014 and I absolutely don’t regret going BUT the pressure to read all of the books may be part of the reasoning behind my drought.

I have fallen behind on Walking Dead *GASP*! Technically I’m only 3 days behind but it’s been so long since I’ve missed seeing the show as it airs. It’s a strange feeling.

I’m still experimenting with new recipes. I found and made very simple recipes for Black Bean Soup and Baked Tortilla Chips…both will be made again soon! Yum!

I caved and watched a couple Christmas movies. I know, I know…just last week I refused to watch any until Thanksgiving week *hangs head in shame*. I’ve also discovered that Christmas movies make me both happy and sad. I love the movies but the reason I watch so many of them during the holiday season is because my hubby isn’t home. He works a lot this time of year so the movies sometimes make me feel a little lonely.

I ordered and received Christmas cards with my adorable pooch on them. I tried sending cards without the furrball one year and promptly received multiple complaints lol. So I now order photo cards for those picky family members ;-) and everyone else receives normal cards.

Please excuse my thumb, I had to block out our last name so no one can find us and steal the dog ;-p

Into the Storm is out on DVD! I saw it in the theater and I can definitely recommend it to any disaster movie lovers like myself.

Is it paranoid that I sometimes think our XBOX One is stalking us? Probably but anything is possible.

That’s all I can think of right now. What have you been up to?

Blog Tour: Burdin of Choice by Alexander Nader

Burdin of Choice (Beasts of Burdin #2)

By Alexander Nader

Publisher:  J. Taylor Publishing

Release Date:  November 10, 2014

Keywords:  Urban Fantasy

Blurb:  

Ty Burdin is back. Back to drinking and back to avoiding demons. He is, of course, the leading expert in his field. In both subjects. 

That’s probably why, when a customer offers him way too much money just to locate a missing car and some mysterious cargo, he readily agrees. The dude is human after all—Ty’s prime target client base. 

Along with the money comes a slew of disappearances which Ty tries to ignore while tracking down that car, because, of course, those missing people might be demon related, and as he’s said before, that’s agency business. Not his. Period. 

Until today. 

Ty Burdin is to back drinking as well as everything he vowed never to get involved with again. 

Question is, which one will kill him first? The booze, the demons, or the Agency?

Beasts of Burdin on Amazon  &  Barnes and Noble

Burdin of Choice on goodreads

About the author:

Alex lives in the tourist infested hills of east Tennessee with his amazing wife/muse and three superb children. He would tell you more about how awesome they are, but you probably wouldn’t believe him. When he’s not hanging out with them he’s making pizzas and occasionally he jots a few words down. He’s a big fan of good music, good storytelling, and fun, lots of fun. 

He once wrote a short story about pirates to his wife via text message that blossomed into a full length novel and never stopped after that.

Alex on Goodreads   Twitter   Facebook   Website   Blog

Day 56

Today is Day 56 of my bookish drought.

What I’ve been up to…

TV, TV, and more TV

Thanks to a binge watch last weekend, I am now caught up on Z Nation! It’s no Walking Dead but I am liking it. For those of you who watch it, I thought the Liberty Bell was cool and how the ‘family’ survives was….interesting. I really wish they would have expanded on the tornado scene because hello, I love Sharknado!

I’ve seen a bunch of movies in the last week and a half. The total would be higher but our internet was down for a day so I couldn’t hop on Netflix.

Corpse Bride -Pabkins, that one was just for you :)

Quarantine and Quarantine 2 – The first was a little better but both were decent z movies.
My Babysitter is a Vampire – come on…who doesn’t love teen movies once in a while!
40 Days & Nights / Age of Dinosaurs / High Lane – None of these were great movies but I didn’t regret watching them or anything like that.
Finding Normal – I guess I was in the mood for a romance.
Sharknado…again.

Have you notice that Christmas movies are on?? I love Christmas movies but I don’t think I’m quite ready for that yet. I’ll wait until Thanksgiving week before diving into that pond.

I almost forgot to add these...

I saw on twitter that Sharknado 3 will be hitting D.C.!

Dead Snow 2: Red vs Dead releases on DVD December 9th!! I fully expect it to be awesomely ridiculous!

Cooking

I’ve slowed down just a little with my cooking but I’m still at it. Some recipes I tried and recommend are MexicanChicken, Chicken Roll ups, Garlic Parmesan Chicken. I’ve had the Garlic Parmesan Chicken recipe for a few years and have no clue where I found it so I’ll put the recipe at the end of this post.

Does anyone have any Thanksgiving dessert recommendations? I’m going to two Turkey Day meals (Yay!) and I want to make some desserts to take. I’d like to stay away from the typical pumpkin/apple pie desserts.

Shopping

I really think I have a shopping problem right now, lol. On the plus side, I now have a cool pair of mid-calf combat type boots, a pretty teal purse, a couple of new scarves, a pair of black converse with pink laces on the way, and a few Christmas/Birthday pressies bought. I know, I know, you probably don’t want to hear about Christmas shopping any more than I do but if I see things on sale I figure I might as well scoop them up and save money in the long run.

Artsy Fartsy

I did one drawing a couple weeks ago. She’s not great and she’s well….armless but they all can’t be winners, lol.

Check out Tabitha’s weekly Art It Up feature to see much cooler drawings!

 My armless Corpse Bride...

Garlic Parmesan Chicken Recipe (as mentioned above)

Garlic Parmesan Chicken

Prep 20 minutes
Cook time 35 minutes
4 servings

Ingredients

2 tsp crushed garlic (I used 4 minced cloves)
1/4 c olive oil
1/4 c dry bread crumbs
1/4 c grated parmesan cheese
4 skinless boneless chicken breast halves.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Warm garlic and olive oil to blend flavors. In separate dish, combine bread crumbs and parmesan cheese. Dip chicken breasts in olive oil and garlic mixture, then into bread crumb mixture. Place in shallow baking dish.
3. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until no longer pink and juices run clear.

Day 47

Today is day 47. It’s been 47 days since I’ve read a book and before this post I hadn’t blogged in two weeks.
 

Why the bookish drought? I wish I knew. I think maybe something is just missing right now. I’m still working on figuring out what that something is but whatever it is it has taken the fun out of reading and blogging. The thought has crossed my mind to just stop blogging/reviewing but I’m not ready to make that decision.

 

What have I been up to during my bookish drought?

 

-          Vacation – Hubby and I spent a few days at a cabin in the New York Finger Lakes region. It wasn’t nearly as relaxing as it should have been so we ended up going home a day early.

 

-          Various Halloween activities. Due to lack of time (or just laziness, whichever) I scrapped my original idea of being zombie Red Riding Hood aka Zed Riding Hood. Instead I dressed up as Waldo…well Wenda if you want to get technical. You can see a pic of me as Wenda on twitter (@LRAtRandom) if you’d like.

 

-          My husband has me hooked on woot.com so I’ve been spending time and money there. I really need to break myself of this one!

 

-          I’ve been compiling an emergency kit for my car. It’s something that has been in the back of my mind for a while and winter is coming so I figured why not now. Better to be safe than sorry, right?

 

-          TV…like usual I watch too much TV. I’m insanely excited to have The Walking Dead back on. I need to catch up on watching Castle and Z Nation. My coworker keeps talking to me about Castle so really I need to catch up on the current season so she stops spoiling it, haha.

 

-          We have a new couch arriving in a couple days! Yay!

 

-          Cooking…I always used to enjoy baking and loathe cooking but that has changed recently. I’ve been expanding my cooking skills a little much to the dismay of mine and my hubby’s waistlines (lol). I’ve been having fun searching for new recipes to try. I also took the time (and am still taking the time) to compile two recipe books. One recipe book is for recipes I want to try and the other is for recipes I’ve tried, liked/loved, and plan to make again.

-          Three recipes I’ve tried (and loved) recently. Tater Tot Bake; Easiest Crock PotChicken Dinner; Ham & Cheese French Toastie Roll Ups

 

Books I’ve purchased…because of course I would still buy books even though I haven’t read :)

-AsYou Wish by Cary Elwes

-TheArt of Eating Through the Zombie Apocalypse because zombies…enough said.

-LittleDead Riding Hood because the first book in the series, Cinderskella, was adorbs.

-I’m pretty sure there’s another paperback I bought recently but I can’t think of it at the moment

-Various kindle freebies or cheapies (probably zombie books)

 

Comics I’ve purchased…because I’m convinced I will start reading comics…one of these days.

-Volumes 2 and 3 of iZombie because zombies.

-Rot & Ruin #2 because Jonathan Maberry rocks and again…zombies.

-Marvel Zombies #1 not that I’ve read any other marvel comics but yeah…zombies

 

A November Release that deserves a little love even if I don’t do an official release post.

Killer Instinct by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. This is the second book in the series. I haven’t read it YET (stupid drought) but I read the first in the series, The Naturals, and trust me it’s awesome!

 

What have you been up to?