Book Review - Transformation

This was a really good read. Seyonne is a slave dealing with the horrible degradation that you would expect a slave to have to put up. Once Prince Aleksander purchases him his life takes a turn…almost for the worst. A jealous hanger on of the Prince’s has Seyonne branded as a runaway slave to get back at the Prince and things get progressively worse.
The Prince is a cruel master but not completely unreasonable. That is until the demons came. Luckily Seyone was not always a slave, he once was an Ezzarian Warder who’s job it was to hunt demons, and to recognize and protect key individuals that carry the feadnach, a seed of greatness, a soul that can change the world for the better.

A strange partnership forms when Aleksander is struck down by a demon inflicted curse that changes him into a beast and then on the eve of his becoming the heir, is accused of killing his uncle. Aleksander and Seyonne escape with the help of the slave master and Aleksander’s bride to be and go searching for the only thing that can save Aleksander. The last remaining Ezzarians.

The characters are robust. Their various cultures are interesting and plausible. Although at times I was yelling at someone to stop being stupid. There are enough twists to keep the story from becoming predictable.

Best of all? It’s at least a trilogy.

Spotty says

This morning as we lay in bed and I was “eating his legs” he tells me “No eating my legs mama, only pretend eating”

Apple Picking - Climb a Tree

We went apple picking today at Honey Pot orchards. We have been picking apples here for the past 5-6 years. We were going to try to go somewhere else this year. We love Honey Pot, but it is so popular and crowded that it hasn’t been as much fun as it could be. We searched and searched and got…nothing, places either had no apples or were ridiculously expensive (yes I am talking about you lookout farm). Moo had called to see if it was crazy busy and they said no so that’s where we headed.

We had a blast with Moo, Freak show and the kids, cheese please, hippy chick and the hips boy friend henceforth to be known as CR or cradle robber. Moo’s sister "Little Sis" came with her hubby The Teacher and their three kids. We picked more apples than anyone should ever pick and I will be running out to get some pie making stuff soon. Spotty chop is in love with green apples but will not touch the red ones. I hoped that if he picked his own he would at least try them. I was correct. The boy had to have 3 or 4. All different types, he loved them all. Between picking apples and rolling down hills his day was complete. We went through the hedge maze and I can not freaking believe it but I let Spotty choose how to go and not only did he get us to the center of the maze, but he got us out again too. I am so overwhelmed by this and am hoping that this is a trait he keeps as I can not function without my GPS in any way shape or form. Speaking of which…On the way to the orchard the sound stopped working on Tomtom. I won’t say I was paralyzed, but pretty darn close. I am now so used to him telling me when to turn that it doesn’t dawn on me to check the screen anymore. Luckily his voice came back on the ride home.

We got donuts; they have awesome home made donuts. Spotty was so tired by this point that he just wanted me to lay down so he could rest. So I did, but then the kids were talking about the animals and he perked up. So we watched the animals, fed the goats and then saw pumpkins. Spotty wanted to pick out a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch so boy toy and I chased him through the patch till he found the one he liked. We felt we had done everything there was to do; Spotty had just about passed out, as we were walking back to the car when we walked by…the hot dog stand. He needed a hot dog, but when we got to the car decided he just wanted the bun and a juice box. He fell asleep on the ride home, we plopped him on our bed to finish his nap. I fell asleep on the couch. Boy toy fell asleep with Spotty. We just had some chicken and left over Chinese food. I have emailed everyone photos from today, some were really great. Now Spotty and I are eating pop corn and watching Monsters Inc. Boy toy is watching…Red Sox? Bruins? Patriots? Somebody. OK it’s the Red Sox, I think it’s an important game.

A good time was had by all.

Snuggliest Snuggles

Spotty has been extremely snuggly lately. He is constantly draped over me. When I am sitting down he crawls up onto my lap and either puts his head on my shoulder to play with my hair or wiggles his bum to make my lap more comfy, then leans his head back on my neck and plays with my hair. Sometimes he climbs behind me and will put his legs around me, sometimes he just stands and lays his head on my back. If I am lying on the couch he crawls up and puts his head on my chest to watch TV. If I am sitting on a recliner he drapes over me so that his head is on the arm of the chair and the rest of him is on me. When we are falling asleep he moves my face so I am breathing on him. He curls his legs up so they are in my stomach or chest. I honestly don’t know if he needs all the touching or if I do. But I don’t care; this is a great period in my life. I can’t get enough of him.

Book Review - Soul of the Fire

Sword of Truth Book 5
When is a chicken not a chicken? When will the mother confessor not piss me off? Is anyone keeping track of how many times I want to slap the shit out of her? I’ve lost track. We start this story off with Richard and Kahlan celebrating their day after the wedding. They are happy. I will confess it is nice to have them happy every once and awhile. It doesn’t happen often. Soon enough trouble rears its head; Richard and Zed don’t even get a chance to chat before death and mayhem start. Zed and Ann send Richard and Kahlan back to the keep for some busy work. When will Zed learn to trust Richard? Magic is draining from the world due to Kahlan’s saving Richards life. Good news Jagang’s magic is draining, bad news; subtractive magic is still going strong.

I have found a whole new country of people that I want to smack the crap out of. Anderith. How that land fills me with a seething hatred. They treat their slaves/servants like crap because they once were at war. Women are less than nothing and everyone sleeps around. Except for the minister’s aid Dalton who is a smart snake. You want to like him but he is EEEEEEEEEVile, not Jagang like evil, more fascist pig evil. The Anderith have this kick ass weapon the Dominie Diritch. A line of carved bells that once rung will kill anything within eyesight, in fact it sloth’s the skin right off a person. Guess where Jagang wants to set up his headquarters?

Du Chaillu is back with her team of sword masters and so is Cara, who I love more and more. We meet some new folks as well, some we like and some…not so much. I had trouble with this book and wanting to put it down for long periods of time. I think I have a really hard time when I know or think I know that someone is about to do something stupid. Damn I hate that, brings back all sorts of jr. high and high school memories.

Next up is book 6 something I haven’t read

Book Review – The Novice

The Black Magician Trilogy - Book Two.
We meet up with Sonea on the eve of her Acceptance Ceremony. Rothen is her guardian and they have built a strong relationship. Sonea has been worried about when school started as she is the first dwell (slum dweller) to ever be admitted to the Guild. Rothen assured her that once folks got to know her and she had a few friends she would feel better. Unfortunately all of Sonea’s classmates are from rich, high profile families and they shun her because of where she came from. It gets a lot worse when Regin takes a disliking to her. With his charisma he is easily able to turn not only all of her classmates against her, but many of her teachers as well. Regin is a master of the dirty underhanded trick, and is constantly pulling something on Sonea. At first it was just mean pranks, ruining an experiment, getting her robes wet, but as he gests not satisfaction from her it quickly escalates to Sonea not only getting accused of stealing from a fellow student, but also cornered and attacked by several students.

As if that isn’t enough, the High Lord finds out about what Sonea saw that night and binds Lorlen, the High Lord’s administrator from speaking to Rothen unless absolutely necessary. He also takes Sonea away from Rothen as assurance to both of their good behavior. The High Lord becomes Sonea’s guardian. Sonea and Rothen are also not allowed to speak, the High Lord even manages to remove Rothen as a teacher for Sonea.

Not all is bad. Sonea meets Rothen’s son Dorrien and the beginning of a beautiful friendship or something more takes hold. Dorrien seems to be just what Sonea needs, a friend.

Dannyl plays a much bigger role in this book than he did in the last. He has become the “Second Guild Ambassador fro Elyne.” He befriends Tayend, who becomes his assistant. Tayend was at the great library when the High Lord visited Elyne years before and is an invaluable help in Dannyl’s research. What Dannyl doesn’t know is that it is research on behalf of Lorlen, to try and find out how the High Lord became a practitioner of Black Magic.

Playing Hooky

I took the day off on Monday to spend with Spotty Chop cauz I missed him during the wedding, Boy toy missed him too and was bummed that he couldn’t stay home, but that’s what happens when you start a new job, your life sucks. We woke up late for us…8 or 8:30. Went to the Little Gym in the morning, it was a fun class. I am sorry I am not going to be able to attend more often. There was another mom there who also had a 2 ½ year old boy. It was nice to see how similar they are. They were running around doing their own things, sometimes together and sometimes just by themselves. The rest of the group was girls and you know what, boys and girls are different. I know that’s a generalization, but I really think it’s true in some ways. I was having a conversation with Spotty on how it’s not ok to hit me and as the other boy was trying to get Spotty’s attention so they could play; his mom walked by and said “glad to see it’s not just me”. It was nice to talk to someone in the same place as you are.

After the gym we went food shopping. This was a HUGE chore for awhile, Spotty was…a pain in the ass, wouldn’t sit in the carriage, cried and carried on, and he just didn’t dig it. So I stopped bringing him. I think it was just a phase because we are having fun again, he is flirting with everyone and trying to help me shop. Next time I go I am going to cut out things from the circular and have him help me find them. We put food away, played trucks and trains, had some lunch. Then we took a nap, I really wanted to do some cleaning while he slept, but…it’s hard not to nap when your baby is so cuddly and warm. We woke up a few minutes before boy toy walked in the door, which is good because he would have been even sadder if he knew we were napping together, I mean he knows, but it hurts more when you walk in and see everyone all snuggled and you had to work all day. We went back to the little gym for our normal class and he had a really good time, we haven’t made several of the classed because Spotty hasn’t been napping during the day and he falls asleep on the ride home. He is a BEAR when I try to wake him.
Once we got home we played mixing. I had bought a bunch of dried peas that I poured into my bridesmaid gift. A large bowl that a friend of the Bride’s had made. Spotty seems fascinated with the texture of things in the bowl (we have had Chex mix and M&M’s in it since we got home. We all took turns swishing things around; pouring them in and out of the bowl and just some general silliness. We took a shower and then a tubbie. We read books and played puzzles. Nothing outrageous but I was glad I could spend the day with our boy. He just gets cooler every time I turn around.

Woo Woo Wedding!

The wedding was this past weekend and we had a friggen BLAST. I dropped Spotty Chop off at the SIL after a somewhat leisurely morning, and then ran to Natick to have breakfast with the Bride, her daughter and her mom. I was psyched it was just the 4 of us. We all get along really well. We had some laughs trying to get one of the staff members to take our picture. Her visor kept hitting the flash preventing the photo shoot, but damn it was funny. We all got our nails done at a place down the street. Heather and her mom had been going there for years. I am used to going to a “SPA” to have this done, and this shop was in a little strip mall, but DAMN were they good. I was so happy with how my nails came out. I am so going there again. Luckily Grammie lives down the street.

I picked up boy toy’s tux and hit a shoe store next door. Bought 2 pairs of KICKING boots. I was able to pack and pull the girls goody bags together with the help of boy toy and then we were on our way. The Hotel Marlow is incredible. The décor is to die for. Nothing like leopard bathrobes to make a girl feel at home. The not rehearsal dinner was wonderful. The food was very good, boy toy had steak and I had chicken. There was the biggest dessert sampler on the face of the planet at each table. The company was good, we were sitting with a bunch of the maids and a few of the folks we would be sitting with the next day.

The next day started with my sleeping until 9:30am…it was heaven, and enough time to jump in the shower and get ready for hair and makeup. If you have never done a “wedding production” of hair and makeup I don’t think I can do it justice. I started at 10:30 and finished around 12:30 – 1:00. There were 6 of us for hair and 8 of us for makeup. I had my hair up with lots of curls. My makeup was smoky eyes and then even color. I asked that I not look like a whore. I think they did a good job, but damn I do not have the patience to do that all the time. Usually my hair is in a ponytail and I throw on some chapstick. Once we were all done up I grabbed boy toy so that we could run down to the rehearsal. He was not in the wedding, but the photographer was not showing up until after 4:00 and the Bride had so wanted a photo to capture her soon to be hubby’s face when he first saw her. Boy toy stepped in. The rehearsal went fine, the place was beautiful. We were ready for photos….and more photos and more photos. No matter where you were in the hotel you had great backdrops for photos and I think we took them all. Everyone’s favorite I think was the big red couch. Our flowers were spectacular. Roses and bittersweet, a smaller version of the Brides. We had a Champaign toast to the bride before the ceremony and then had to run like crazy to get to the wedding on time. God I loved how everything was in one place. The ceremony was lovely. A friend of theirs got licensed for the day. They wrote their own vows and as I was holding both mine and the Brides flowers I just bawled my eyes out and tried to wipe them away with bittersweet.

The reception was great. Tons of good food and dancing. Lots of folks were friends of Bob so we all reminisced. We ended up in the bar for awhile because who wants a good party to end and I think I finally kicked people out of our room around 2:30am. A good time was had by all…at least until I realized that I left my bouquet down in the banquet hall. Boy toy ran down broke in and rescued it for me.

The next morning was brunch. I woke up at 8:00am and couldn’t fall back asleep so I packed us up, took a shower, washed all the crap out of my hair and then hung out for a few hours with the crew, laughing about the nights antics. My mom called when we were on our way to pick up Spotty. He had just fallen asleep so we stopped off at the NE mobile book fair (BONUS). We snuggled with Spotty and took his ass home.

Book Review – Temple of the Winds

Book four of the Sword of Truth.
Nadine you whore. You make it almost impossible to like you, and every time we get close you act like a clam. Shoata, I want to strangle you, I know you might mean well, but you are screwing with the kids and that in turn makes Kahlan act like a 13 year old. Kahlan, as much as I love you, I just want to slap the shit out of you sometimes. I know love makes you do stupid things, but girl you really take the cake. Jagang is such a prick. I really hope he gets what’s coming to him. Although I do like how he is an equal opportunity prick. He smites the worthy, unworthy, he don’t care as long as he is smiting. I am thinking I might have rage issues as I constantly want to smack someone in this series.

Let’s look at the folks I didn’t feel like smacking…this time. I can’t get enough of the Mud people, they just rock. Grandfathers back! Bring on the toads. Zed and Ann are still chasing after Nathan and getting into all sorts of trouble. Nathan, I am so glad they are spending more time with you. You get more and more interesting. Never doing what is expected, and a horn dog to boot. Well I guess if I had been kept locked up for a few thousand years I might be a bit…frisky myself. Cara, Raina and Berdine, those crazy byotches are at it again, gaining more humanity and yet still willing to kill at the drop of a hat. How do you punish these girls? You have to read it to believe it. Did I mention libraries? More books? Finding answers….where? In books.


All this plus the plague, serial killers, pig riding and marriage.

Book 5 is just around the corner…and I can’t wait

Partay with a Tux

We had a 3 year olds birthday party to attend this weekend. Spotty Chop’s uber fabulous cousin the Terminator. My sis-in law (SIL) watches Spotty 3 days a week, which is great and Spotty and Terminator act like true brother and sister, they irk each other like they get paid for it.

The weather was lovely, the kids were running around like mad men, they painted, they stickered, they ate cake and ice cream. What more can be asked for? Saw family members, didn’t have to talk to family members. Life is good.

We finally got a Tux for boy toy to wear at the wedding this weekend. Can I just say Christ on a Cracker, you would have thought I asked him to suck molten lava through a straw by the way he has been dragging his feet. He’s known for over 2 months that he would be wearing a tux. I did not want to deal with, finding his suit, ties, shoes, sox, shirt, cleaning, ironing, blah blah blah….When I was pregnant boy toy promised that I would never be heavier than he was, which was so sweet. He however has not lost his baby weight yet and the expensive suits I have purchased no longer fit. He has a cheap, crappy suit, but this is a SHING DING, and not that I care what people think, but I do like my boy fitting in. The wedding is black tie optional, and most of these folks own their own. Also we went to a wedding over the summer and his neck is big, don’t know if anyone knows this, but if your neck is big the rest of the shirt gets…BIG. I think the sleeves went down to his knees. Unnecessary say I. On Sunday I said
get your ass in the car
But
No, get your Fin ass in the car
I need to do paperwork
I don’t give a RATS ASS what you need to do, pick up your son and get YOUR ASS IN THE CAR
I need to go to the bathroom…
If you do not have your ass in the car in the next 5 minutes so help me GOD you will be sorry
FINE be that way, come on Spotty, we have to go to the car, daddy has to try on a tuuuuxxxxsssssss.
For the love of Christ GET IN THE CAR

And now you all know why I do not need to have another child…Kill me

We also went visiting Sheep, Brain and the Bug. Boy toy worked with
Sheep back in the days when they worked for Genghis Khan. Sheep is also Genghis’ cousin. SIL watched Bug for awhile when she was first born she is about 6 months younger than Spotty. Spotty and she are in luv. Actually they were super cute together. They played together really well, sometimes playing in parallel, sometimes interacting, and sometimes ignoring each other. As the Terminator is very aggressive and bossy it was nice to see Spotty just hanging out. They made us dinner, we gossiped, kids played. A good time was had by all.

Book Review – The Magicians Guild

The Black Magician Trilogy - Book One.
I love books with thieves in them. I like the idea of a thieves guild, run by a mastermind that often times has a heart of gold. Or at least looks out for the poor and downtrodden. Add a magician’s guild that services the rich and you have instant conflict, and who doesn’t love conflict?

The story starts off with Soneae, her family and the rest of the poor who live in the slums being pushed out of their homes/hovels/the streets in the annual “Purge” mandated by the King and carried out by the magician’s guild. As expected most of the magicians are a pompous bunch, believing that the slum dwellers deserve what they are getting as they are all thieves and cutthroats anyways. Soneae overhears the guards talking about a trap laid for a group of troublemakers that Soneae used to run with. She catches up with her old friends Cery and the leader of the gang Harrin. The gang escapes and as the magicians prepare to start the Purge the gang shows their defiance by pelting the magicians with rocks, rotten fruit and whatever they can get their hands on. Everything bounces off the shields the magicians have set up, until Soneae gets angry and throws a rock that gets through the shield and knocks a magician unconscious.

Cery helps Soneae avoid the magicians that are looking for her by introducing her to the thieves’ guild. They protect her until her budding magical powers get out of control. Soneae then has to decide if the magician’s really do want her, and if she wants them.

Coco Key ROCKS!!!!

What a Frelling awesome day we had today. Spotty chop and I went to Coco Key (A FREAKING INDOOR WATERPARK…CAN I GET AN AMEN) with Moo and Cheese Please.

The day started off rough because Spotty did not nap yesterday. He of course fell asleep on our way home around 6:15pm, we were supposed to go to Little Gym, but he was out completely. He woke up when we got home. Speed Racer, Mantha and Auntie D were over. Spotty was freaking out, wanted to go back to sleep, but was so uptight that he couldn’t fall asleep. He fell back asleep FINALLY till 8 or 8:30. Then he was a mess until 9:30 or 10:00 when he finally woke up and had ice cream for dinner. I stayed up with him till 12:45am! (Well we did snuggle on the couch. I was so friggen tired I put the gate up, videos on and drifted. He would snuggle and I would think GREAT we can go to bed and then he would hop of the couch and run around the living room like a madman.)

We woke up today at 9:00am and I got an email from Moo at 4am saying “if you didn’t buy the tickets, lets do another day.” Moo had a crappy night; her body just doesn’t behave itself and causes her a lot of pain. I of course had already bought the tickets. So I sent her an email saying “Spotty and I will go and I will call you if we need to purchase more than 2 tickets. Comments about the water park said you had to buy 4 tickets min. I got discounted tickets because Spotty is under 6, but they let me buy 2. We dilly dallied till 10:30, when I read the crackberry again Moo wrote that they would be ready to go at 10:30. I finally got a hold of her before she left her driveway. ummm I haven’t taken a shower yet and my legs look like a forest. We decided I would call her when I was ready. Which was around 11:30.

When we walked in the girl at the counter actually let Moo and Cheese in for the discounted rate. We got changed and walked in and realized…WE HAD THE WHOLE PLACE TO OURSELVES!!!!!! Do you know what that is like, an entire park to yourselves people? Ok…I lied; there was one other couple there with their 5-6 year old son.

The place is BEAU-TEE-FULL. So clean it hurt to look at it. There is a great kiddy pool with 3 waterslides for the little ones. Spotty really dug it. There are fountains that come out of the ground as well as the deck, giant things that pour water down on you, and things that fill with water and then tip on you. And that is just in the kiddy pool.

You can ride tubes through the lazy river, pull strings to pour water on yourself or others, and pirate coconuts that spit water at you. Then there is the main part of the park. This has a GIANT bucket that fills with water and then rings a bell before it crashes over everything. 3 water slides that I enjoyed, and would be good for kids. Cheese was afraid to go down them for most of the day, but toward the end she decided to face her fears, and found out that she LOVED it. It also had 2 smaller slides for Spotty. There was water splashing, shooting, dripping, spraying from every angle. There were more water fountains in the ground and one of Spotty’s favorite things a giant sluice that had filters, and you could move around, hard to describe but totally cool.

Then there are the 4 waterslides for 48 inches and above. These kicked ASS and Moo was kind enough to watch Spotty so I could enjoy. 2 are body slides and 2 are for tubes. I think they are actually the same thing but one is pitch black and the other you can see light. There is an indoor/outdoor pool with a door you can swim through, but the door was broken. It was heated to perhaps 90 degrees; I hope they keep it open in the winter as we had a great time sitting outside. There was also another pool that was closed where there are activities – basketball, rope climbing etc.

They have food, Spotty and I had a chicken sandwich, fries, drink, hot dog and fries, and it came to $12.25. I thought that was reasonable. They also have cabanas for rent (I think it’s $100) these are rooms with a fridge, TV and places to sit. This would be great if the place was crowded.

I decided that Spotty and I would leave around 4:00. Spotty needed to take a nap. School must have gotten out because right at 4:00 hoards of kids starting showing up. Moo and I had been talking that even if there were 100 people in the park it would still be cool. Well after seeing all of the kids (50ish) we decided that we liked having the place to ourselves best.

I am kind of glad that no one is reading this blog because the place is so FRIGGEN awesome that I want to tell everyone about it, but we liked having the place to ourselves so much that I don’t want anyone to know about it. Spotty and I had such a great time that we will be going back October 29th. So if there are any lurkers out there and you happen to live in Massachusetts….Coco Key is in Danvers, it’s an hour away for us and totally worth it!

BTW if you do go you might want to tell your SO that you are going, and if you forget that, you really should at least remember a camera so you can take pictures, and if you can't do that, don't eat the one and only munchkin that your child decides is yuckie without giving said SO a bite. Not that Boy toy is miffed or anything.