Chocolate: Spring

Here's some interesting finds:

Chocolate Salami recipe
Sounds delightful, might try it.

Peeps went all chocolate covered a while ago, but now there's Peepsters.
Another thing to check out.

Not a drinker, but this sounds...interesting.
Chocolate wine?

Oh, and this just bites, literally, when spring is here.Chocolate prices...

Books: Yarn Trilogy

How to Knit a Wild Bikini is the first in a trilogy. By just saying it's a trilogy I'm potentially ruining a plot line, but I felt you had to know. Nikki is a chef who is scaling down from her work as a restaurant chef to become a private chef due to ACL damage to her knee. She is afraid of hospitals and the rehabilitation it will take so she doesn't want surgery yet. She finds a month long stint in the home of a confirmed bachelor and male magazine editor Jay. Obviously he won't be a bachelor much longer. It was a great read with sub plots.

Unravel Me focuses on Juliet who is a widow of a very respected older military man. His daughter is of course unhappy with the entire situation and isn't any happier when her father passes. During the time Juliet's husband was ill, another trusted military man, Noah, was asked by the husband to watch over his wife. Of course Noah falls in love with Juliet.

Dirty Sexy Knitting follows Cassandra, a yarn store owner. She is a central character in all three books. Her story is darker as she has deep feelings for Gabe, her landlord and a man mired in guilt and self-loathing. So the story is about how her connection with him pulls him out of it. There is more going on with Cassandra, but it is part of the three story arc. I enjoyed all three books! Different feel for each and great fluff :)

TV: Tidbits

The fate of Fringe! The show is going off the grid - getting kind of 4400 or Lost, but I'm still enjoying all the twists and turns.

Got a date with Torchwood! Honestly can't wait to see how these British characters adapt to weirdness in LA.

Off and on Dancing with the Stars and American Idol! I'm interested in seeing how Ralph Macchio and Kirstie Alley fare. He keeps talking about his age and not being able to keep up, while she can't even speak after a dance routine. Will she lose weight being on the show? While no one actually catches my eye, I have been peeping in on the "booted" shows to see who is forced to do the song of woe.

And that's all I've got when it comes to TV until this whole March Madness thing is over :(

Miscellaneous: What the...?

Seeing is believing. Er, or maybe not.

Men: Sad Face

I tried, really I did. There aren't any hot guys out there to tap into for my latest post. I know - total disappointment. Maybe I haven't found the right shows to watch. Maybe the in thing is to have male models who look like teenaged boys. Maybe not watching sports has come back to bite me in the... Well, it just comes down to not having any man to post this time. And I'm sad.

Now that doesn't mean there weren't some guys out there with abs I would gladly wash my clothes on for long periods of time. It doesn't mean there weren't several pairs of gorgeous eyes. There were some really tight tushies out there too. But none with the complete package.

Not a fan of:

Kellan Lutz
James Franco
Eric Bana
Christian Bale
Brendan Fraser
Jake Gyllenhaal
Robert Pattinson
Shia LeBeouf
Taylor Lautner

I need some suggestions! What are you watching that I'm not?

Chocolate: Recchiuti Dark Milk Chocolate 55%

Oxymoron, huh? Dark Milk? Well, it works. I love this bar, Recchiuti Dark Milk Chocolate 55%. Simple crisp break, smooth and the milk pulls the edge off the bitter. I do two things with my chocolate, chew and suck. LOL! I did both with this bar. The chew was great all the way down to the little melty bits. The suck was hard at first (my only 'dislike'), but it eventually molded to my mouth and slid down. It seems like it's right there hovering between dark and milk. My kind of bar.

The only review I've found wasn't as favorable as my review, but it's only fair to give you a link.

Books: Jenna Starborn

Jenna Starborn is simply a futuristic Jane Eyre. I have to admit being afraid to read Jane Eyre. I was afraid the content would be too much for me. However, this version written by Sharon Shinn was very easy to read and Jenna didn't have as many of the horrors that Jane had to face. I enjoyed Shinn's portrayal of Jenna and look forward to seeking out more of her writing. There is a concise summary of Jane Eyre at Wikipedia, but I'm glad I didn't read it before reading Jenna Starborn. Also, here is another person's review of the story (another who has never read Jane Eyre :) )

TV: Fringe

I'm nearly caught up on my Fringe! I had 11 episodes saved, watched 10, had 1 more to watch and a new episode was showing Friday. There's always something new although I'm worried about what's going to happen now that the show is heading toward a resolution. If you don't know anything about the show read my post here. The show has now focused more on a parallel universe, btw.

While I'm in the sci fi, my coworkers and I were discussing TV shows and of course I told them I'm into the nerdy ones, Fringe, Chuck, Eureka, Supernatural, Being Human (new episodes soon :)), and Torchwood (which I've heard is gearing up for another miniseries-squeee!) And of course they all looked at me like I was an Observer.

They asked me about V and The Event. Anyone watch those? Should I be interested?

Miscellaneous: Zuma

One of my favorite games to play these days is Zuma Blitz on Facebook. B bought me the regular Zuma game when playing it on Yahoo! Games started grating on my nerves. I played that game over and over again, winning and then playing the endless stream. The game involves a centered frog which spits out colored orbs. The goal is to hit similarly colored orbs that stream onto the screen and keep the string from spiralling down a chomping mouth (thus ending the game).

I hadn't played in a while because the game is on my desktop (what's that? LOL!) Then one of my FB friends found Zuma Blitz, all the same rules except you only have 60 seconds to hit orbs. You collect mojo which allows you to "purchase" extras that help you get more points.

So this is all an intro to the saga I'm about to tell you. This FB friend, hereafter known as FBF, is a gamer. He plays a lot of the FB games and admittedly (reluctantly) is much better than I am. Not only is he the geeky gamer playing things like WoW, he is extremely intelligent and can play a good game of Word Scramble (or other such games). Me? I only play two games, Bejewelled Blitz and Zuma Blitz. My Bejewelled game needs help. I feel lucky if I'm in the top 5 with those other friends of my that score 600, 000 to my 250,000. Yes, FBF can wipe the floor with me on that game.

Now Zuma, that's a different story. I am queen. Since it keeps a weekly top player list, I have to continually prove my prowess. Go back to the second week of February and I score my normal 500,000 points only to have FBF score 666,000. That should have been an omen. Anyway, I play my little fingers to the bone getting 722,000 only to have my Zuma freeze up and kill my score. :( I had to cripple my fingers this time trying to beat him with 748,000. Satisfied, I checked my status all weekend, succumbing to the need to play Minecraft (<--Even more of an addiction) on a Monday. Tuesday is when the winners are posted and the scoreboard clear. Of course, FBF clocks in on Monday night with 758,000 right before the board wipe. I find out Tuesday morning.

The things that came out of my mouth! LOL jk, I was dumbfounded though and only managed 428,000 before I left that morning. Spent the entire day at work figuring out how I was going to beat him. In the meantime we had a few words on our FB walls about how evil he was ;) Came home that night, really motivated. Wait for it....

940,000!!!

Sweet! I threw down my glove and thought I'd won the battle for the week early. No such luck. He tried to get there with 848,000. I knew I wasn't going to last long, evil FBF. So I had to get better than my high score.

1,046,000 :o)

Stay tuned...

Men: Markus Ricci

I don't know much about this hottie except that he is a fitness model, 5'9", and ripped. I think he's in his late twenties, but I can't find a lot of bio info out there. Instead I'm just going to gaze upon the mighty physique.

Chocolate: My Goodness Bar

My hubby spoils me. Seriously. If you didn't know already, I don't cook dinner. He does. Every night. I panic if he calls and says he's running late in coming home from work unless there are leftovers I can heat up. So when Valentine's Day rolls around I know I'm getting something good. I was not disappointed. He brought home Chocolate Visions My Goodness Bar.

61% Bittersweet chocolate, Honey Roasted Peanuts & Toasted
Coconut

Individually handmade and hand-wrapped. I tried to eat one square to savor it and describe it. I couldn't hold back. I LOVE nuts in my chocolate, and this is chock full. The flavors just roll through the ingredients. I get chocolate when I first place the piece on my tongue. Then to get through the peanuts I have to chew, then I get the sweet of the honey roasted which goes straight to a salty. The salt is momentary as the taste slides back to chocolate. Finally I taste the coconut. Love this bar :)

Someone else's review here.

Sun

I'm waiting for sunshine. No more cold and ick.

A friend gave me lemons and I'm literally making lemonade.

I went roller skating for the first time in years...and didn't fall :)

We're healthy here.

All I need now is sun.