Book Review: Phantom

Sword of Truth Book 10

The only thing Khalan knows for sure is that she is the slave of the Dark sisters. Big problems occur when the sisters drag Khalan to an inn to pick up Tovi and the last box of Orden. The inn keeper can see and remember who Khalan is. The sisters act as dark sisters are wont to do. Commence death and destruction.

Shota shows up with the seer Jebra to make Richard understand what he is fighting.

I kind of stopped caring; I still do not understand why we wasted so much of the book on getting Richard to “understand”. He’s never not understood. Having Jebra tell of the horrors of the order is stupid. We get it WE GET IT!!!! If the rest of the book is like this I am going to start kicking things.

There is a new witch woman who has taken over Samuel and wants Shota’s territory.

Don’t we have just one more book? Shouldn’t we be wrapping crap up?

Samuel also stabbed Chase and kidnapped Rachel. I think Samuel is due for a smack down.

I was going to say this book was totally boring me and rehashing crap that has been rehashed before….but then…we get to see what’s going on with Rachel and I TOTALLY did not see this coming.

Camping at Pine Acre’s with a 3 year old

Last weekend we went camping with Moo, Freak Show, Hippy Chick and Cheese Please. We went somewhere OTHER than FransTed. I know…crazy! Pine Acre’s is only an hour away from us and Boy Toy does not have the same vacation that he once had. We have been trying to find a place closer by so that when the mood struck we could head out for a night or two and not have a huge production. We may have found the place.

Pine Acres is LARGE lots of RV sites. There is a separate tent section all have water some with electric (WTF). We were at the furthest end of the campground located at the top of a hill. Spotty Chop loved walking down the hill to explore the campground. Want to guess if he enjoyed walking back up? The campground has a pool, kidding water area, playground but best of all? A giant lake where you can rent row boats, kayaks, canoes, paddle boats and barracudas (bike on water thingy). We had a great time in the paddle boat. Spotty Chop loved jumping off into the water. Moo pointed out that there were wild blueberries around the lake and on the islands so we ate as many as we could pick. Spotty and I swam in the pool and played in the water area. Freak, Cheese, Spotty and I also attended the campgrounds 40th birthday. We got cake and ice cream. Spotty and I spent some time in the game room (think mini version of chuckie cheese). Spotty really had a great time for himself. Freak Show cooked great food for us, Hippy and Cheese kept Spotty entertained, and then we kept each other entertained with Mad Libs.

This place also had 3 different grades of cabins we didn’t peek in, but if you like that sort of thing, or haven’t tried camping before they sounded really nice.

I will leave you with a Mad Lib

Words:
Adjective – Smelly
Plural Noun – mushrooms
Noun – poop
Part of the body (plural) – butt cheeks
Part of the body (plural) – ears
Noun – asshole
Verb ending in ‘ing” – running
Adverb – sheepishly
Noun – school
Noun – butt
Plural noun – drugs
Color – pink
Noun – dad
Plural noun – bananas
Noun - wood
Noun – flame

ANOTHER CLOSE ENCOUNTER

I wanted to tell you about a SMELLY experience I had yesterday. I was walking down a path which leads from my house, when three MUSHROOMS from Outer Space cam out from behind the POOP. I couldn’t believe my BUTT CHEEKS. My heart stopped. I wanted to scream at the top of my EARS but couldn’t because I had lost my ASSHOLE. I was very close to RUNNING when one of the creatures SHEEPISHLY held out his SCHOOL and shook my BUTT. These were friendly, but strange looking, DRUGS. The one who was PINK had a gigantic DAD on his head and had four BANANAS sticking out of his WOOD. I wonder if all this was a figment of my FLAME.

Holy Christ on a Cracker Batman!

I was having a bit of a crappy weekend until I popped into my blog late Saturday/early Sunday. Apparently I am not just writing to amuse myself; I have been told that I may be interesting to others.

I have won my first award!

This has definitely blown me away and tickled my funny bone. Barb, who has been so generous with her comments and support, is the one that surprised me with this. She has multiple blogs that you should check out when you have a second. I usually find her at Picture this, at last! where her photos blow me away, but then there is Made for Keeps and The Family Branson . Damn girlfriend, working overtime aren’t we?

As for the award? It is the Este Blog premia el arte y la creatividad .



So not only is it an award, but it’s a language lesson as well.

You wanna know what it means? Go see Barb she took some Spanish.
Ich spreche Deutsches aber sehr schlecht.

Here are the rules for this award.

1) You must pick 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award, based upon creativity, design, interesting material, and that also contribute to the blogger community.

2) Each award must have the name of the author with a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

3) Award-winners must show the award and put the name and link to the blog that awarded it.

4) Award-winners and the one who has given the prize must show the link to the Arte y Pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.

5) These rules must be included in your post.

Well, how do you pick 5 blogs that are kick ass? Personally I panic, procrastinate, and then pass out.

Here they are

1.) one thing I HATE about today – Annie’s web designs makes me happy, I think it’s one of the best out there. She also has issues with MORE-ONS and rat fink bastards. What’s not to love?

2.) Blogger Buster - Amanda writes a blog to help other bloggers make their blogs look and perform better. Because of her I found "suck my lolly" and the design I now use (although, she has 125 new favorites...)

3.) Project Rungay – If you have never read the snark kings (or should I say Queens) Tom and Lozenzo, RUN, do not pass go. I can’t start my mornings without them.

4.) Another Roadside Attraction – Rue makes beautiful things. She also has a beautiful family and an interesting take on life. Did I mention she takes a mean photo as well?

5.) Editorial Anonymous – Is a blog written by a children’s book editor. She not only gives great insight into an industry that seems very mysterious to me but gives great advice.

Here’s to more great blogging! (Or even mediocre rambling…)

Dear Spotty Chop you are 41 months old today

You have had a busy month. We went blueberry picking for the first time with Moo, Hippy Chick and Cheese Please. Moo is a champion blueberry picker. I needed her help filling my bucket (you needed 3 lbs minimum). I may have done a bit better if you had not disappeared. You freaked all of us out. We were running up and down the rows of blueberry trees (OK so they are bushes, but they are HUGE). You decided to head back home. We finally found you because you were on your way back to us and kicked up a dust storm.

I watched as you rode on a sea kayak in the ocean with Little sister’s kids. I didn’t want to let you go, but you wanted to so badly. I was afraid I would have to run through the ocean like a Baywatch beauty we all know. But that didn’t happen and you had a great time. I was a craptastic mom in that I missed putting sunscreen below your eyes and a finger mark on the left side of your face. I was so upset.

We went to the drive in, you are definitely not ready to sit in a movie theater for several hours, and that’s OK. You are a bundle of energy. You still refuse to sleep. Tonight it was after 11:00 before you finally gave up the fight. You did sleep in your own bed for the ENTIRE night 3 times!!! Just enough to psych us out. “is this it? Will he sleep in his own bed?” and as you now love to say "EEENT, I don't think so". (you are so damned cute when you say this, but it really will drive me crazy at times I think.)

Possibly the biggest thing is that you are wearing water wings and are a swimming machine. You have no fear with these bad boys on. I am not as afraid either. this started when you figured out that you could touch the bottom of the pool. Your mouth and nose were still under water, but you thought it was great. I of course had a heart attack because all I could see were your beautiful blue eyes staring at me from just above the water. Water wings rock and so do you. I love you kiddo.

Book Review: Kabul Beauty School

Deborah goes to Afghanistan to help others and in turn helps herself.
Crazy Deb is in another phase of her life, and not really sure how she got there. She is married to an abusive preacher man. She escapes him by volunteering and getting disaster training. She took care of the fireman during 9/11. When that was over she couldn't stop watching what was happening in Afghanistan with the Taliban. She wanted to help. Her husband forbid her to go. As she walked out the door to the airport he said "I hope you die in Afghanistan." She replies "I would rather die than live here with you."

She finds herself surrounded by doctors, nurses, missionaries and other highly profession people. She feels useless because she is “only” a hairdresser. But when folks find out they flock to her. Beauty is something that has been missing in women’s lives for a long time. She gets women to bring her to Afghanistan salons and realizes that they are using crap for products, twigs for perm rods, solution that is over 4 years old and a hookers idea of makeup for weddings.

What follows is Deb’s brilliant idea of opening a beauty school and how she gets it off the ground. But more importantly it is about the women of Afghanistan. What they have done, and continue to do to survive at the mercy of the men and politics of the region.

This was a great book and I recommended it to several folks on the train while I was reading it. I don’t always agree with what she (Deb) did, but it is a fascinating look at a culture that we (or perhaps I should say I) know nothing about.