Books: Mike Gayle

The library I frequent has done some renovating and now is similar in organization to another branch (second on my list). They used to have separate sections for genres and now anything that is fiction is mixed up together. The plus is that when I need to find a book by an author I like I don't need to search in three different places if it crosses genres. The minus is that all the romance that used to be grouped together is now mixed in. I have to go row by row to try to find ones by authors I'm not familiar with.

So what has all that nonsense got to do with anything? Well, one, I can't seem to find any of the 250 page Mira's or Harlequin's as a quick read. I'm either misreading the sign about where they've moved to, the library chucked them and is lying to us, or they've all been checked out. Whatever the reason, I've had to walk down aisles trying to filter out the romance from the thriller, classics, and mysteries. Thus, two, I only seem to be able to find British romances!

To that end I'm writing about Mike Gayle, a freelance journalist and advice columnist and a...man! Forgive me if I've written about him (or one of his stories before) as I noticed I've read one of his books in the past, possibly two, Dinner for Two and Mr. Commitment. The third is Turning Thirty and I haven't tackled it quite yet. Funny thing is that it's very cool to get a male perspective on relationships. He does a very nice job of portraying his characters in a way that is humorous and reasonable. I mean, I believe his male characters and still like them. Gayle has a few more books out there and I'm set to keep reading :)

TV: Wilfred

OMG! This show is scary. Wilfred is a show with Elijah Wood playing a crazy man (Ryan) who is the only one who can see his neighbor's dog as a man. And he talks to him. This show is an Australian original starring Jason Gann who plays Wilfred. Gann is one of the shows three creators and also stars as the dog in the American version.

As I was saying OMG! The dog is a cigarette and marijuana smoking, beer drinking, junk food eating, dogpile of trouble with a capital T. While the show says it teaches lessons, I cringe everytime I end up watching because B is. He, of course, loves the show. Why Ryan does what the dog asks, like steal the marijuana plants of another neighbor and let Wilfred crap in the neighbor's boots, I have no idea (well, other than the comedic value). Wilfred leaves Ryan's wallet outside the window after they break in and...

Craziness. However, I realize this is quite a nice cuppa for some (B), so if you're interested check it out. I will continue watching non-Wilfred vids on YouTube with my headphones on.

Miscellaneous: Harry Potter

Well, that's it. The film franchise has come to an end. Harry Potter has defeated Voldemort on screen.

I can't remember if I've said anything about the books in my blog before. I didn't want to read Harry Potter when it first came out. I thought it was a bunch of hype over something I didn't think I was interested in. What caught my attention (about the time that the second book was coming out) was the idea of magic, which I know I've mentioned in my reviews before. That was all it took and I was reading them all. It didn't take more than 12 hours to read any of the books (12 was the longest time) and I would often read them without making much time to eat or take a restroom break. I also have mentioned my thing about movies made from books. They can't be too different or I'm too disappointed.

So when the movies came out I was a skeptic of the biggest sort. I would find differences and rate whether it ruined the movie or not. Overall, I think they, everyone involved, did a decent job of turning the books into movies especially knowing the limitations. I reread the 7th book starting with the second half of The Deathly Hallows movie just today and wrote down 50 discrepancies. Some were inconsequential while others were huge. And I have to say I am a little disappointed in how the final battle went down. But if you are only a movie watcher you MUST make time even in the future to read the books and fully understand what you've missed.

I'm trying desperately to get A & M to read the series. A read Sorcerer's Stone and didn't feel the inexplicable need to read Chamber of Secrets as I had. I'm hoping for more from M.

PS Of course I bawled just like I did when read the books.

Men: Warren Christie

Name: Hans Warren Christie
Best Known For: TV, October Road, Alphas
Year of Birth: 1975
Status: Married (Sonya Salomaa)
Height: 6'1 1/2"
Fun Fact: Nothing except that he was born in Northern Ireland (He grew up in Canada, though). I wonder if he has an accent...

He looks really good on the Alphas although most of the pictures I found in the Net were of him with long hair (not liking the longer hair).

Chocolate: Chocolove 3

I indulged and bought not one, but two expensive chocolate bars. I didn't buy the most expensive which was about $5.50, but it certainly wasn't your $0.60 variety. Chocolove Toffee & Almonds in Milk Chocolate.

At 33% cocoa content, it was milk chocolate for sure. The amount of toffee and almonds were fine, not great because I'm a big almond in my chocolate fan. I think my dark chocolate bias was speaking to me as well, because the chocolate tasted very sweet. The chocolate was smooth and melty. Overall, a good milk bar. I don't scale my chocolate, but I'd say 6 or 7.

I think if I try another Chocolove, I'm going to have to go dark... maybe the orange.

Books: Practically Perfect

First a little apology for not putting up a book post last round (or even a proper one in the last few months). I hadn't been doing any reading this summer which makes things difficult. So Tuesday I went to the library. Today is Friday and now I've read three of the books - which is a little slow, but so was the last book I read.

Practically Perfect, written by Kaite Fforde, is British story about Anna, an interior designer with some mad carpentry skills, who buys a house in this tiny town with the intention of flipping it. Several things happen to put her into a situation with two men.

My problem with the story was how slow and leisurely the story moved along. It was like taking a drive in Iowa. "Oh, there's another farm." "Lots of corn here." "That's a pretty little farmhouse." The only excitement is when suddenly there is a crossroad instead of a farm, but even in this book the surprise of seeing pavement after multiple rows of corn is really not all that surprising.

The Amazon reviewers came up with 3 1/2 stars, ranging from a fan of the author to one who felt Anna salvaging some stairs from a previous renovation makes her a thief. Me? I felt I might have given up if I hadn't wanted so badly to have something for a book post.

Side note: This post will move to it's proper spot after day or so :)

TV: Stuff

Let's hit it...

1. Dallas is baaaack! LOL Keep in mind I never watched that show, not even the commercials if I could help it. I was still compelled to read the Wiki and then look at the photo of the new cast. Had a good laugh ;)

2. One of these days I'll get to go to Comic-Con. Err, maybe not, but a girl can dream. All of my sci-fi favorites.

3. I was less interested in Big Brother premiering than the little snippet provided of journalists playing the show for a day. Very fun!

4. Supernatural: The Animation? Strangely interesting, but I probably won't get into it.

5. Finally...I watched Alphas. I'm liking it. My only worry at this point is that they get to the mystery too soon. Right now I really want to see if there's any more information relating to what they teased about in the premiere. If they give us the goods too soon I won't remain in this When is the Next Episode *twitch* mode. PS I have to wait another day to see Eureka and Warehouse 13, can't wait :)

Miscellaneous: Minecraft 2

It has been almost a year since I posted about Minecraft, and I'm still addicted.

Although it's an exciting game for me, many who like faster paces and more challenges have gotten bored easily. I mean, what's a sandbox game have to go up against Portal or Call of Duty? And with spiffier games that are similar like Terraria?

Minecraft does have some variations though, and those could keep a person going for a while.

1) You can play with others on a multi-player server, and it can be
a. ... a friendly game with everyone helping out to make massive builds.
b. ... anarchy with every man for himself.
c. ... with others doing an adventure map (see below).
d. ... with others playing a game inside a game (Spleef).

2) You can add a modification (mod) to the game which will add more building/creating options, more mobs (animals, creatures, other characters), or both!

3) You can download and play an adventure map. There are several in which someone else has done all the work mining (or invediting, hacking, modding) and has created some goal for you to accomplish.

4) You can do what I've been doing for the past three months, making an adventure map. The work is a harder because I'm not using any mods, but I'm enjoying it :) I'm also working on a t-shirt to show my Minecraft interest ;)

If you're a creative person and not afraid of computer games, check it out.

Men: EHIC

I know right? Who the heck is EHIC? Well, watch the video.

Just in case it doesn't show, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkrCylE-P5U

Chocolate: Frogs

Honestly?

I'm too afraid to eat it! Yes, I got a coveted chocolate frog from Universal's Islands of Adventure: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Afraid the heat of Florida would melt my frog, it was carefully carried in cool places all the way back home. The pretty blue and gold pentagonal package was a bit dented and my surprisingly large chocolate frog was missing a toe, but it's here!

And I can't ruin it. :( What I can say is that the toe tasted good. I expected something similar to that Hershey after taste, but there was none. The first ingredient is sugar so it was very sweet. Sooo, that's all I can tell you with such a small taste.

I have pictures however on the night before the fourth, and having spent an hour sending photos to family members, I'm not thrilled about looking at my camera. Instead I'm putting up a picture of me in front of Honeydukes. Of course you can't see me ;)

If only I could eat that chocolate frog...

Family

I visited family I haven't seen in ten years (or more) last month. It was nice :) and strange. I can't help but think of my relatives as they were when we were young. And while we were closer back then, we really don't know each other now. Isn't it funny how much you still care for and love people you barely know? I'm hoping that over the next several years, even though we are far from each other, that we are able to get at least half of that closeness back from when we were so small.

Enjoy your family this fourth :)