Showing posts with label elizabeth vaughan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label elizabeth vaughan. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Bright Eyed & Bushy Tailed...

Goal: 3x Abs & Arms, Gym Night
Sitrep: 1x Abs & Arms

...I am not. I think I need a keeper. [g] Went to the bookstore yesterday during lunch to get Dagger Star, the new Elizabeth Vaughan book (author of Warprize, Warsworn, Warlord trilogy). This book returns to that world. Of course, I couldn't get just one book. After work I made a particularly dismal stop at Wal.Mart to pick up prescriptions on the new insurance ($18 cheaper a month, whoo hoo!). I really wonder about some people, you know? I handed them my new insurance card, said it was new insurance and the other insurance was cancelled. Please refill prescriptions X and X under my new insurance. 30 minutes later, I pick it up and they've run it under the old insurance. Sigh. How it went through I have no idea.

So they had to re-run it. One prescription changed, the other was still at $8.00 when it was supposed to go up to $10.00. I could not make them understand this, and eventually I was too frustrated so I left. Ended up finding the $1.00 candy bin and brought waaaaayyyy too much of that stuff home. Ugh. Then at the checkout my Flex Plan debit card kept getting denied. Now I know I have enough in that account. So I had to pay out of pocket. I had the funds, but that's not the point! I'm on a strict budget which I'd already gone over earlier with the books.

Got home and checked online, and they've closed out our Flex Plan account. Our new health insurance is through the same company, and apparently they want to tie the two accounts together (Flex and Health Ins) so last week they moved the funds. Only didn't tell us, didn't give us new debit cards, etc. Arghhh. Do you have any idea how embarassing it is to be sitting there at Wal.mart and having your card declined? That has never happened to me before. Ughh.

To "comfort" myself, I ate too much candy and stayed up late reading. Past midnight. So today I'm tired and cranky. And I decided to give up coffee again today. I must be deranged or something. [g]

Tonight is Gym Night with Big Brothers/Big Sisters and I so do not want to go. But I'm going to because a) I promised Shanni and b) I blogged here and posted on the bulletin board. So. My big mouth is doing me in again. ;)

Probably because I'm cranky, but the talk - again - of bailing out the homeowner crisis is ticking me off. Read one article about this woman that works specifically with homeowners that are in default. She is the middleman between the homeowner and the loan holder. They specifically showcased this dual income couple that had to take out TWO loans to get into their $300,000 plus house, BOTH with adjustable rates. Their mortgage went from $1600 to $2200 over several years, and they ended up behind on their payments. Eventually this lady was able to work it out where the two loans were consolidated into one loan, with no penalties or fees paid by the homeowners, and locked in at a 3.5% for five years, with them needing to refinance again then. WTF? Give ME that deal. I can guar-an-dam-tee you that in 5 years my credit score will still be high enough and my finances at least as good as now that I'll qualify for a loan no problem. What makes them think these people will be any better with their finances or decision making in five years when they haven't suffered any repercussions with their current decision? Why is it that people who are stupid and irresponsible seemingly get all the breaks???

Oooooh, I think I need to take these red-colored glasses off and go talk a quick walk outside or something. Shake loose the cobwebs and crankiness from my brain!

Here are two good things to blog -

- for the 2nd week in a row on Biggest Loser, a girl beat the guys. Heheheheh. I really, really, really hope Ali wins.

- my sister emailed me a picture on my phone of my 4 yr old niece at Disney...Daddy was not able to talk his little girl out of the Princess Jasmine costume...[g]

Monday, July 30, 2007

Books, Books, Books, and Books

Can you guess what I want to talk about today? [g] I promised a post on books last week and just didn't get there.

Saturday I went to the library with my little sis and her sister KT. We spent almost 2 hours there. I'm not sure who was more reluctant to leave. And we all came away with a handful of books. Plus we'd gone to the library the weekend before...We also take lists from their mom with us. [She's started calling me her personal librarian.]

She's gone through my TBR & storage piles to the point I don't have anything else for her to read. I got her hooked on Elizabeth Vaughan's trilogy - Warprize, Warsworn, Warlord. She'd call me every morning to "gripe" at me that she stayed up late reading them. She couldn't put them down. Mooner, her husband, picked the first one up the other day making comments about "romance novels" but actually stayed up late to read the first one. Which is - literally - a first for him! Or so he says. Next we'll get him reading Suzanne Brockmann's books.

So here's what I've been reading lately:

Never Lie to a Lady by Liz Carlyle
*****Fabulous. Loved it. Stayed up late to finish it. On a week night. Want more. And whaddaya know, the next book in the trilogy is apparently already out! Yippee!!! 2 Carlyle's in one week. How'd I get so lucky?

Web of Love by Mary Balogh
****It's a Balogh. Must I say more? Good read, follows Gilded Web. Not my favorite Balogh, but enjoyable.

The Fated Sky: Astrology in History by Benson Bobrick
*Would have been great if the author would have stopped trying to use every big word he knew in every sentence. For pete's sake!!!! Returned to library unread.

Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati
*I could not get into this one. It was a BB recommended read, and I'm surprised I don't like it. Maybe it's my dislike of books that pull characters from other books the author didn't write. This one pulls in the characters from the book the Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper. I don't like that. Too jarring for me for some reason. I also didn't like the writing style. Irritated/aggravated me somehow. I know it's her first book, and there you have it. :) Felt to me like a first time author attempting to write in the style of one of the literary greats. I'm just too picky. So I put it down (spent several hours trying to get into it yesterday afternoon.) It seemed a poor attempt at copying "Shanna" by Kathleen Woodiweiss. But not really. It wasn't similar at all. Bizarre, but I couldn't get that thought/book out of my head. Or my favorite The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare. Anyway. This book is now in the "return to library" pile.

The Raven Prince by Elizabeth Hoyt
TBD - just started last night. So far so good, but I'm only 5 pages into it.

Multiple papers on Legal & Illegal Immigration in the U.S.
***because it powered up my brain and I'm just freaky weird in that I enjoy this stuff. ;)

Sooooo. My TBR pile is small, mainly because the mood I'm in lately nothing really sounds good. And then when I read stuff by good authors, like Carlyle and Balogh...well, nothing else works afterward. [g] Good thing Suz is having another book out on August 15th. But what I'll do after that is the question. I'm probably good until the 17th. Then I'm in trouble...