My Awesome Friend, Lois Kasznia

Has a new book out today.  Flag on the Play.  How cool is that!  Her other books are fun.  I expect this one will be too.  Go read it.

Blurb -

Payton Walters loves her job as a sportscaster for the National Football League. She has worked hard to get to this point in her career and thanks to her knowledge, has earned the respect of her peers in this male dominated field. Some view her as eye candy, but her knowledge and no nonsense attitude about the game has grudgingly given her respect amongst her peers. She is not shy about her critiques on certain players and teams, calling it as she sees it. She is still single, what seems to be the enviable position of working around so many football players – like every woman would dream of this chance and be like a kid in a candy store. However, one thing Payton has learned over the years is that most of these athletes have egos the size of Texas. Not her type of man.

Bad boy Kyle Ross, a star quarterback in the NFL, is trying to turn his life around. Even though he plays an excellent game, his social life needs major work. After years of dating actresses and models, he has had it with their shallow personalities. Payton is an old friend and Kyle has always been close to her father, a famous high school football coach. When he meets up with Payton during the season, he wants to revive their friendship, but Payton doesn’t want anything to do with him – not only because of his image, but because Kyle plays for her least favorite team. Kyle needs to change his image quickly if he wants Payton to take him seriously. How far will Kyle go to win not just the season, but Payton?

I Have a Release Date!

For Bitten & Defiant!  February 7th!  As in just over a week away!  YAY!!!

Blurb ~

Frankie Morgan’s life was over. Her family was gone and she had nothing to live for, nothing save revenge on the individual who took them from her. But to accomplish that she needed help. And who better to enlist than the hottest vampire around?

Kellen didn’t know the woman was who was stalking him but he sure wanted to.  Intimately in fact. There was something going on and he needed to get to the bottom of it, to the bottom of her. He'd allowed her to watch him feed, something that simply wasn’t done. Even then, with all his senses heightened, he still couldn't tap into her thoughts which had him more curious than he ever remembered being. Perhaps, after some out of control sex, she’d loosen up enough to share all her secrets with him.

It's Always Something

Yesterday morning I went off to the basement to do a little chore before work.  As I was down there I heard a noise and caught fluttering out of the corner of my eye.  I looked to see what it was as I was racing for the stairs and saw a bird.  A starling.  In my basement with no outside access.  My guess is it slipped down the chimney and made it’s way out the vent pipe on the water heater.

After calming down enough to process the fact that there was a starling in my basement I decided the poor thing had to be terrified.  So I broke up some of the raw nuts in the trail mix I have and took it food and water for the day.

Last night it was 7.  Too cold to be tossing a petrified critter out in the dark.

This morning I went off to do my errands.  Once everything was accomplished it was time to deal with the starling situation.  I’d done some online research and there were several suggestions.

Possibility one.  I located a fishing net and a fluffy towel.  Down I went, stalking the bird, armed with the net and the towel to hold up so it didn’t fly in my face.  The plan was to scoop it into the net and wrap it in the towel so I could get it out through the house without either of us being injured and also without the chance of it being introduced to the cats.  Oh yes, they definitely knew we had a winged guest downstairs.  They knew long before I did.  They were all clustered around the cold heater vent Thursday afternoon, staring and sniffing.

Did I mention the red spotlight I was wearing on my head part of the time?  No, guess not.  The one thing I read recommended stalking the bird in the dark which they said would make it less active.  Hahahaha!  Nope.  No better luck with the net approach with the lights on either.

Possibility two.  Put bread on the floor, lighted by a flashlight.  Stand statue still, ready to toss a towel on it.  Yeah well the starling mustn’t have liked the cashews and pumpkin seeds I left out yesterday.  Soon as I put down the bread it flew before I was in position.  There I was, inching closer and closer as it switched its focus between me and the bread.

Soon as it went for a bite I tossed the towel.  Into the dark.  I only had the spotlight thingy that I had on my head earlier and it doesn’t have a very wide beam.  You won’t believe this but I did it!  I got the bird on the first toss!  Okay, now I have a starling trapped under a towel in my basement.  In the dark.  Fixed that right away.  But I still had a bird beneath the towel and oh yes, the net at that point too.  I put it on top for good measure,

I finally decided it was still more afraid than I was and the towel was heavy enough that it wouldn’t hurt even if the bird did try to spear me with its pointy beak.  I closed my hand over the lump and gently wrapped the rest of the towel around it.  I carried it up, through the kitchen and outside where I slowly unwrapped the towel with the open part away from me.  Yep, off it flew, up to the wire where it roosted for a moment before going on its way.

Mission accomplished!  

Happy weekend, all!

To Quote the Raven

Sadness, corrosive and debilitating, seeps into my marrow

The vituperative silence usurps all joy

leaving a hollow quiet in its wake

Devoid of life my empty soul lingers on

Echoes of long abandoned promises whisper through the tatters

reminding me of what never will be

So close I once was

but, to quote the raven, nevermore

This vast wasteland that was my life

uninhabitable even for ghosts

crumbles under the onslaught of nothingness

Bit by bit, I died

my spirit leeched away by the waiting

What should have been a constant

shattered and lost, tossed carelessly to the four corners

Now so distorted it is unrecognizable

Never to be reformed

Never to be missed

To quote the raven, nevermore

Disappointment rumbles like distant thunder

Each new hurt a shaft of lightening scorching the blackened embers that were my soul

Where hope had blossomed

with a tentative toehold in need of tender nurturing

Now crushed under the weight of neglect

Extinct from recklessness

Lost forever

To quote the raven, nevermore

Disappointed

The one I wanted

I have watched the Olympics all my life.  I don't remember the first.  I was two.  I do however, remember all since then.  I was happy when the schedule changed from holding both seasons the same year to alternating every two years.  That meant I didn't have to wait so long between.  I don't have a favorite Olympic sport.  I love them all!  Things I'd never consider watching any other time I am riveted to the screen if it's the Olympics.

I'm not sure when but somewhere along the line I started collecting pins.  I've always liked the official ones best.  To me, they signify the true spirit of the Olympics - the entire world coming together for a few short weeks, full of national pride while putting aside all the politics of the day.  I can only imagine the thrill of competing, even for those who know going in that they don't stand a chance of medalling.  They are still their, the best their countries have to offer, up against the best in the world.

Anyway, I found pins from the older Olympiads and now I have at least one from every games since I was born.  Sadly, this year there will be no official pin for me.  The Sochi committee is not shipping any official merchandise to the USA, North Korea or Brazil.  Very un-sportsman-like if you want my opinion.

A friend of a friend heard of my disappointment and offered me her address in the Netherlands, promising to turn the package around and ship it out to me.  Wonderful!  Back I went to the Sochi website.  I selected three pins, $6.02 per pin.  And then I discovered that it would cost $44.87 to ship them from Russia to the Netherlands.  I want them.  I would absolutely love to have them.  But I just can't justify that much self-indulgence.  So I ordered me a Team USA pin.  It doesn't have the year on it.  It's not a cool as the official pin.  But the shipping was only $4.99 which was within my price range so I will force myself to be happy with it even though deep in my heart I am not.

I Can Read This. Can You?

Not Bad!

Off I went to work this morning before the crack of dawn only to turn up the street that takes me to the parking lot and encounter a half block hill of solid ice. Howie the Magnificent was not happy but we made it. After I parked I went investigating. There was water oozing up out of the street. Curious. At -1 there should not have been any water that was still liquid.

I called all the water authority numbers which were disconnected. Then I called the police and spoke with a very nice officer who, after sighing at my explanation of why I was calling them and not the water people, thanked me and said he'd contact them.

Amazing! Within 15 minutes they were there. When I left work later I chatted with one of the very unhappy looking workers. What an awful way to spend a 0 degree day! He was pleasant and actual smiled as he told me it could have been much worse if it hadn't been called in when it was. I did good!

I also did good at the hearing for my yard.  The inspector I met with pulled up a pic of the weeds in my yard.  I identified them all and then proceeded to show him the photos I took with me of the same plants in full bloom.  In less than two minutes he apologized and promised my fine would be refunded within the month,.  Yay!

Sadly I picked up a the nasty bug that's going around.  Ears, throat, body aches with an unhappy tummy.  Boo!  Back to bed with me.  Hope you avoid this one.

Hahaha!