Miscellaneous: Be Funky

I'm always looking for avatars that show the real me for all the various online activities I participate in. Facebook has little advertisements all the time for how to cartoonize yourself. Of course I never click on those. I have done several searches looking, especially when I first started creating online identities, but I hadn't run across this one until now.

I love it!

Be Funky takes your photos and lets you create all kinds of photo effects. It's free and there's no sign up required. Music to my ears! Here's a little sample below:

Men: Lance Gross

Name: Lance Gross
Best Known For: TV, House of Payne
Year of Birth: 1981
Status: Engaged (Eva Marcille aka Pigford)
Height: 6'
Fun Fact: Could have been a Pro Track and Field Athlete

I was watching reruns of America's Next Top Model, wikied the show to see previous winners, and checked out where the models ended up after the show. Voile, Lance Gross. He is very handsome and has a nice bod. I'm not a big fan of the tats, but he carries them well. Too bad he's soon to be off the market :( Eva is a lucky lady, Lance is anything but gross!

Photo credit www.KevynMajorHoward.com

Chocolate: Green & Black's Organic Dark 70%

I'm going to simplify. Dark, bitter, tangy, but chalky. I wouldn't buy it again, because it was just too much dark chocolate for me. The tangy part was interesting. I had to let the flavor roll over my tongue, but no, not again. HOWEVER, I found this review - this lucky dude who got Green & Black's to send him a whole bleepin' box - and he likes them and has more info on them. Makes me want to see if Green & Black's milk chocolate is too sweet or just right. I think the almond or mint...

Books: Heiress for Hire

I'm in full on fluff mode for the summer because the books I want will cost me an arm, a leg, and a severe loss of square footage in my house, thus I must use the library. Don't get me wrong, I love the library, but the books I want are just not available (Not there at all or already checked out). Since I only have a short time to enjoy books I can't spend days on multiple hold lists. Fluff is in my immediate future.

I scoured the aisles looking for any book that would tide me over until I could look through more book recommendations at Amazon (from the thriller books and authors I like) and found Heiress for Hire by Erin McCarthy. Basically rich girl ends up stuck in the boonies without money, but with a hunky farmer who just found out he was a father to an 8 year old.

I really enjoyed it. One, the personalities of the main characters jumped out at me. I liked them and the supporting characters. Two, it was doggone funny. Sixty-five percent of the reviewers on Amazon gave the book 5 stars.

I'm off to read another of her books now, but couldn't resist checking on the fluff piece that leads to this one, A Date With the Other Side. The reviews for this one weren't as positive, which is a shame because the main characters are mentioned in Heiress. While not true for Heiress IMHO, many reviewers felt her other books were high on the horizontal mambo and low on plot or character development.

I won't recommend Erin McCarthy as an author (yet?), but if you're looking for a little romance try this book.

TV: Warehouse 13

Syfy, no longer SciFi, has debuted a new show called Warehouse 13. Basically it's the warehouse from Raiders where they put that ark into a wooden box. There are other wooden boxes in the warehouse each containing items with unusual properties. The warehouse is watched over by some special branch of the FBI, head honcho, played by C. C. H. Pounder, and quirky watcher, played by Saul Rubinek. Similar to X-Files, two FBI agents, a no nonsense practical woman, played by Joanne Kelly, and a paranormal sensitive man, played by Eddie McClintock, are recruited to help "bag and tag" more unusual items.

With the basic plot out of the way, it's a shame that it sounds so much like other shows because I think it has potential. They are just beginning to scratch the surface of the characters. I believe there is a lot of depth that we haven't seen yet. Also, there are hints of several larger more difficult hurdles than the single episode item collection.

It's not without it's quirks. One thing that takes getting used to is the devices used for completing their tasks. They look old fashioned but are really more advanced than our current computers, cellphones, etc. Hopefully it will stay on long enough for us to get used to it.

Tuesday nights on Syfy.

Miscellaneous: Crochet Four

The dollar store sometimes has some amazing finds. I found some Lion Brand Suede yarn in two shades of brown at the 99 Cent store near me. There was this cute pattern for a really simple shawl on the packaging. I thought, "For a dollar a package I could make this." Especially since a package would normally cost 4 or 5 times as much. If you register with Lion Brand Yarn, you can access their free patterns (I haven't done it so I don't know how much spam wrath you will incur). So here's a picture above of the shawl they made and of the one I made below.

Men: Michael Copon

Name: Michael Sowell Copon
Best Known For: TV, Beyond the Break, Power Rangers
Year of Birth: 1982
Status: Married (Brittany Padre)
Height: 6'1"
Fun Fact: He sings too.

He's just a baby, so young, but what a cutie. It was hard to find just the right picture. One showed his awesome bod and another his gorgeous smile and so on. So Google Image searches will do the guy justice. Don't know how I could have missed him before?

Chocolate: Objets d'art

Things made out of chocolate. I think it's a waste of a delicacy, but they are interesting to look at!

Objets d'art here at Oddee.

Books: Judi McCoy

I've only been able to make it to the library twice:( and the plan was to go to more than one library because the selection would be different. Especially with romance books. A combination of factors have kept me from making a third trip: sickies, house cleaning goal, and the kiddos not finishing the books they checked out. This latter to be rectified pretty quickly.

This was a problem because the book I wanted (next book on my list from Robb's series) is on hold and others are not at my branch of the library. In the meantime, I will write a little about a couple of books by Judi McCoy. Unlike some of the other authors I like to read (Former romance novelists turned thriller), McCoy focuses on the romance. The fluff stuff. I refuse to be embarrassed by my affinity for the romance novel. So there.

Anyway, McCoy likes to write trilogies and I read one book from each of two trilogies. Making Over Mr. Right is the third in a goddess series (One Night with a Goddess, Almost a Goddess) in which three muses are sent to earth to inspire mortals and fulfill their destinies. One condition from their father Zeus is that they not fall in love with a mortal. Well, you know that isn't going to happen. That theme follows in the book...that you know something is or isn't going to happen. There were no surprises, just a straight-forward falling in love stuff. The biggest hurdle to overcome is the love/mortal thing.

The other book I read, Match Made in Heaven, and its partners (Heaven in Your Eyes, Heaven Sent) focus on a guardian angel whose job it is to make people find and marry their soulmates. In these three books he is getting cast-offs from the full-fledged guardians and is trying to get a promotion. There was a little more of a barrier here in the woman's inability to be less rigid, the man's horrible secret, and obstacles for the guardian angel. Still there weren't many if any real twists or turns.

The thing is that now I want to read the other four books, just to complete the trilogy. I wouldn't recommend these books if you like a little adventure, but if you're looking for simple fluff...

TV: Torchwood: Children of Earth

Too excited for words! Torchwood will be back!

Unfortunately, it will be for an excrutiatingly short 5 days (July 20, BBC America). You may recall that I've written about the show before. You may have heard me upset in another post about how it wasn't showing anymore :( Now it's back, and I can' hardly wait for the first episode. B had me check out the forums at the first link above. Apparently, the lead male actor John Barrowman, who plays Captain Jack Harkness, is unhappy with the short number of episodes even though they have done well in the ratings. Get a gander here.

But I refuse to be depressed. I will enjoy every minute.

UPDATE 7/20: And holy cow! I hate when there is such a gap between the season finale and the premiere of the new season. Not knowing if Torchwood was coming back made this even harder. I looked forward to the new episode with trepidation. It blew me away - Day One was brilliant!

UPDATE 7/25: I'm shocked, dismayed, saddened and speechless. It was awesome, but the ending - Day Five - was surreal. It didn't end the way I thought it would, and describing why would only ruin it for anyone who hasn't seen it. Just whoa.

Summer

Ah, summer! I still have my list of things to accomplish, but it's been super nice to wake up when I want and wear pjs all day. The last few months have been busy and I haven't had posts on my blogs ready to go like usual. So the day rolls around and no post. I do apologize.

But you can see how having more time hasn't made me more attentive.

Well, we did go on a trip back to my hometown which kept me away from the computer for a bit. It was nice to see family from both sides in one place. B's family was having a reunion in my hometown. I caught up on some genealogy and took a bunch of pictures. Of course, I became an immovable ball of mush when we returned. Travel stresses me.

So I'm enjoying the sun and the pool and my Kindle. Life can be nice.

Oh, and I forgot to say...with over 200 posts it's time to reorganize the tags. This may take a few days. :)