Wednesday Reads and I’m Safe from Tornadoes…so far

Storms ripped through Dayton on Memorial Day evening, including tornadoes. One came as close as four miles from our house (closer to our previous residence). Hubby’s work was affected in that they didn’t have any water or internet, and the new manufacturing plant they were planning on opening in 30 days was pretty much destroyed.

At first I was annoyed at all the weather alerts, and the fact the local NBC station took over the hockey game after the first period (yes, I was watching the Stanley Cup Finals). Why the station couldn’t scroll the information, or even show picture in picture, I’ll never know. It’s not like the information wasn’t on five other stations (the storms were still in Indiana at this time, not exactly the Dayton market)!

Once the game was over (which we were able to stream via the NBC Sports App), I paid more attention to the storms. Then again, they were almost in our area by that time (although, if we had lost power at any time, I would have headed for the closet—the only place in this house that doesn’t have a window). We were the fortunate ones, though. Never lost power. Wind barely kicked up. Lots of lightning, though and the rain was very heavy (but no hail, whereas it hailed about three miles from us).

More storms are expected as I post this, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed it ends up being a quieter night.

Here’s what I finished reading this week:

Book #25

Dates read: May 13-23
Title: Deadly Curiosities
Year of publication: 2014
Author: Gail Z. Martin
Genre: Paranormal mystery
Series:  Deadly Curiosities #1
# of Pages: 458
Paper or plastic: Mass market paperback
How obtained: Purchased
Blurb from book: Welcome to Trifles & Folly, a store with a dark secret.
    Proprietor Cassidy Kincaide continues a family tradition begun in 1670 – acquiring and neutralizing dangerous supernatural items. It’s the perfect job for Cassidy, whose psychic gift lets her touch an object and know its history. Together with her business partner Sorren, a 500-year-old vampire and former jewel thief, Cassidy makes it her business to get infernal objects off the market.
    When a trip to a haunted hotel unearths a statue steeped in malevolent power, and a string of murders draws a trail to the abandoned old Navy yard, Cassidy and Sorren discover a diabolical plot to unleash a supernatural onslaught on their city.
    It’s time for Kincaide and her team to get rid of these Deadly Curiosities before the bodies start piling up.
My thoughts: I didn’t enjoy this so much. Not because it’s a bad book, because it’s not the type of book I enjoy reading. But I wanted to give the author a try since I’ve seen her at Dragon Con several years (and I am trying to read more new-to-me authors this year). Well, now I can say I read one of her books. No, I won’t keep reading the series. That’s not to say you wouldn’t enjoy the book. If you like detailed mysteries, with a lot of magic, then give it a try. It’s a very well written book. Heads up: there is a bit of gore, but absolutely no romantic anything in this book (which isn’t why I didn’t like it—it was just too detailed for my taste).  

So… What’s the closest you’ve been to a tornado? I think one went over our home while we were stationed at Ft. Rucker, Alabama back in the late 80s. It was night and very windy and I heard what sounded like a freight train. There were no reports of one touching down, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t there. Those suckers scare me.

Happy Reading!

Stacy

No Wednesday Reads But I Won!

I haven't finished the book I'm reading, but this happened on Monday:

Ghostly Interlude Won in the Strut Your Stuff Contest! I even got a badge! See?

This is the very FIRST contest I have ever won. EVER.

And in case you were wondering, it came in third in the Readers Choice portion (the voting portion). Not too shabby, huh?

In other good news... St Louis Blues won the Western Conference last night. Whoo hoo! Now I have a team to root for in the finals. Go Blues!!

And finally, my short story, Savannah's Destiny (a mix of my Bitten by Love and Ghostly Encounters series), is available to preorder (is that how you say it?).

Here's the blurb:

Darren, vampire and bartender at the Savannah Riverfront Hotel, has a ghost problem by the name of Austin that won’t go away. He’d love nothing more for the ghost to move on, but Austin is keeping mum. That is until his sister, Savannah, attends a book convention that is held in the same hotel. Darren believes she’s the ticket to get rid of the ghost as well as a reward for putting up with the spirit for so long.

Austin doesn’t want the blood sucker’s help, but he doesn’t want his sister hurt, either. Now that his body has been found by the police, he’s forced to cooperate, but does everything he can to keep the vampire from sinking his fangs in Savannah.

And here are the preorder links:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/30C5JR1
Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/2Qee1db
Kobo: http://bit.ly/30Bq2Or
Apple: https://apple.co/2YNhGSv


So... Are you going to watch the Stanley Cup Finals? Who are you rooting for?

Happy Reading!

Stacy

Wednesday Reads

Here’s what I finished reading this week:

Book #24

Dates read: May 6-12
Title: Nothing to Hide
Year of publication: 2019
Author: Allison Brennan
Genre: Mystery/Suspense
Series:  Lucy Kincaid #15
# of Pages: 406
Paper or plastic: Mass market paperback
How obtained: Purchased
Blurb from book: With a background in psychology, FBI Agent Lucy Kincaid is good at getting into the heads of killers and victims both. Still, her latest case is leaving her stumped. A third body has turned up in San Antonio—and it bears the same unique and troubling M.O. as the first two. The killer is clearly trying to send a message. But what is it—and to whom? All roads keep leading Lucy down a dead end…
    The victims are all married men who led honest lives alongside their adoring wives but have nothing else in common. When Lucy catches each widow in a lie, she realizes that things are not at all as they seem. What begins as a seemingly straightforward investigation turns into something far darker and more sinister than Lucy could have ever imagined Can she solve this case before more lives are lost..including her own?
My thoughts: The romance part of this series is long gone, but that doesn’t keep me from wanting to keep reading these books. I love Lucy and Sean and their whole family and friends. Not a lot of major suspense in this one, but still a good read. And I couldn’t figure out whodunnit until Lucy and her partner did.

So… do you like reading series books? I enjoy them. I must. I read a LOT of them!

Happy Reading!

Stacy

Electrical Mystery

So… the circuit breaker to the kitchen island has been blowing (or is that tripping?) a lot recently. The island consists of the dishwasher, garbage disposal, and two outlets. It seems to go out when I’m not using anything electrical.

I called the builder (since the house is still under warranty). They sent an electrician. He pulled stuff out from under the sink and did his thing (whatever that thing is). Went into the garage and looked at the breaker box (or I assume he did, because he went into the garage—it’s not like I followed him in there). Came back and said it was the dishwasher since all the wiring was fine. Said he would put the order in and I should hear back from the appliance people.

Two days later, still no call. So I called the builder back. They knew nothing of this and said I had to call the appliance people. Sure, fine, give me the number.

Appliance guy came over on Friday. Plugged his little doohickey into the dishwasher and connected it to his laptop. Nothing. No surges. No outages. Nothing listed to show that anything went wrong. The dishwasher is fine. In fact, when I told him when the circuit was blowing, that it happened after the dishwasher ran (and the dishwasher always finished the cycle), he said it couldn’t possibly be the dishwasher. Still, he did his thing and checked everything twice. Wasn’t happy that the garbage disposal and outlets were on the same breaker as the dishwasher, but there wasn’t anything he could do about that. And since I wasn’t using anything when it blew, said it was most likely a bad breaker.

Hmmm… Wouldn’t the electrician have noticed THAT???

Appliance guy said for us to call our project manager and let him know what’s going on. But as he was leaving, he asked if I was okay with the rest of the appliances (range and microwave). I told him I didn’t like the fact that the microwave didn’t have a light, otherwise they were fine.

He stopped. “It should have a light,” he said. “Let’s go check it out.”

Sure enough, he pointed to where the light is located (which is not easy to see since the inside of the microwave is a dark grey and the bulb is covered with a black mesh thingy). The light should come on when the door is open. It never had (which is why I thought one didn’t exist).

He looked up the model and confirmed it did indeed have a light. He ordered one and will install it this Wednesday. Yay!

After appliance guy left, I called Hubby and told him about calling the project manager (since he had his number on his phone). Nothing the PM can do, but he said to call the builder and he would put a push on the request. So I called the builder. An hour later I get a call from the electrician.

I like it when the PM pushes! The electrician wil be back today to replace the circuit breaker. I hope. And then I hope it doesn’t happen again, because our warranty is almost up (we closed on May 29, 2018).

I guess it could be worse. The circuit could have waited until after the warranty had expired. Isn’t that what stuff does when they’re under warranty? Wait for the expiration date? Sure feels that way sometimes.

So… how was your weekend? Do anything fun? It was pretty quiet here, which was fine by me.

Happy Monday!

Stacy

I Hate Spectrum

Today is a ranty post. Because I’m mad and need to get it off my chest.

I hate Spectrum. I’d probably hate any other TV provider, too (because they’re all a pain in the ASS), but we feel cable is a little better than a dish, especially around here when the weather gets bad (I’ve seen what happens to those dish providers during a storm).

We have three DVRs. Before Spectrum took over Time Warner, we used to have a whole house system. Where we could watch any show recorded on any DVR from any DVR. It was great. We weren’t forced to watch it on the DVR that did the recording. Then Spectrum took over.

They didn’t support whole house systems. They don’t have anything that sophisticated. Why would a company get rid of the BEST FEATURE of DVRs???? We only got to keep the one we had because we were grandfathered in. Then we moved.

Yeah, we lost our whole house system. So we’re stuck with three separate DVRs and we have to go to that DVR to watch the shows we had recorded, which is another pain in the ASS. We moved the bedroom DVR into the Great Room so our TV can use both DVRs (and because we didn’t want to have to watch our recorded shows in the bedroom).

Problem was… the bedroom DVR didn’t record all that well. I’d set it up to record a show and sometimes it would record it all and sometimes it would only record five minutes of it. We couldn’t rely on it for our series, but we had shows on the DVR that had recorded correctly. Daughter and I finally watched the last show last week. The DVR was now ready to be replaced.

You’d think this would be a joyous time. Nope. I followed the INSTRUCTIONS that the clerk at Spectrum HANDED me when I exchanged DVRs. I spent all day waiting for the DVR to show the time so I could call to activate it. Waited for the message on the TV to say it was ready to be activated. I unplugged/plugged it several times. Reconnected the cables. Nothing was working.

Hubby called Spectrum, which is something we really hate to do. I think they purposely use that recorded voice to repel callers. I know I think long and hard before I have to call them.

After answering all the questions and telling robot lady we needed technical support, the recording said that we had an outage in our area (we didn’t) and kept telling us there wasn’t anything they could do. You know, if we could have talked to a real person, they would have KNOWN why we were calling.

Hubby almost had to start over, but managed to get in line for a real person. And then we find out… the INSTRUCTIONS WERE WRONG!!!

You see, their DVRs don’t have clocks on them anymore.

And that right there really pisses me off. Used to be all the electronics had clocks on them. Now, NONE OF THEM DO!!! What, don’t people like to see what time it is? I certainly do.

I hope our older DVR never dies (it’s the one we use the most). I will not be happy without a clock. There’s nowhere behind the TV to hang one (since there are three windows there).

By the way, do the other TV providers have clocks on their devices? That would be a big selling point to win me over.

Anyway, both boxes are now working, but I don’t know if I want to use the new one. It has a completely DIFFERENT menu system! Why?????

I was going to set up to record Season 6 of SHIELD on that one (since we haven’t seen Season 5 yet—have to get that on Netflix). I may still do it, but gee whiz, why does Spectrum have to make everything so complicated?

Oh, and the real kicker after all this? The guide on the old box now has a stupid advertising line between the channels. An ADVERTISEMENT! I pay a lot of money for cable. I don’t think I should have to be forced to see an ADVERTISEMENT on the stupid GUIDE!

If I didn’t like watching TV so much, I’d give it up.

Thanks for letting me rant. I just hope I don’t write another ranty post on Monday. The appliance repair person is supposed to come by today and find out why our dishwasher keeps blowing the circuit breaker. The electrician already said it wasn’t the wiring. And yes, it’s still under warranty. So at least we have that going for us.

Stacy

Wednesday Reads and I’m Crocheting…Again

Here’s what I finished reading this week:

Book #23

Dates read: April 28 – May 5
Title: The Trouble With Vampires
Year of publication: 2019
Author: Lynsay Sands
Genre: Paranormal romance
Series:  Argeneau #29
# of Pages: 380
Paper or plastic: Mass market paperback
How obtained: Purchased
Blurb from book: For close to three thousand years the imposing, impossibly handsome Santo Notte has fought in armies across the world and battled his own, more personal enemies. Of all the places he might expect to encounter his life mate, a quiet corner of upstate New York doesn’t seem likely. But as soon as he makes contact with history professor Petronella Stone, while hunting down a suspected rogue immortal, he knows that she will be the greatest adventure of his eternal life.
    He expects her to be surprised, confused, even overwhelmed. What he doesn’t expect is that Pet has a secret history of her own. There’s no mistaking the mind-blowing, mutual pleasure they share. But as Pet struggles to protect her nephew from a danger lurking too close to home, Santo realizes there’s another threat to her safety—him. And claiming their passionate future will be impossible until he leaves his past behind, forever…
My thoughts: You’d think after 28 books in this series that the 29^th might just feel like the same ol’ same ol’. But NOPE! Still hot romance. Still humorous. Still suspenseful. But a different story every time. I love the Argeneau family and hope the books continue for a long time to come.

Well… the Blue Jackets are out of the playoffs, so I guess I’ll be rooting for the Canes (sorry, Jeff, I just don’t like ANY Boston teams!). Don’t know how much I’ll sit and watch them, though. I probably will if the daughter comes home to watch. But alone? Nope, not likely. I’m not THAT big of a fan. Of the Canes.

I started a crochet project. I wasn’t sure I’d ever crochet again, but this yarn and pattern has intrigued me (for a baby blanket—like I know anyone having babies!!!). I’m starting small first, though, making a scarf for my granddaughter (the yarn color is called Pegasus, and it’s her favorite creature, so I thought…why not?). Once I determine my hands will not turn into two painful fists (can’t tell if it’s arthritis or the stupid pills I have to take for another FOUR YEARS, but my hands get stiff easily), then I will make that baby blanket. Which really won’t be for a baby. Probably more for my lap. Or a gift to someone. I haven’t decided yet. What I do know is that when I finish it (and see, I’m being positive here), I will take a picture and show you all how neat it turned out (because I only make neat things, didn’t you know??).

So… Are you a crafty person? What do you like making?

Happy Reading!

Stacy

Wednesday Reads and Other Stuff

Here’s what I finished reading this week:

Book #22

Dates read: April 22-27
Title: Crashing Heat
Year of publication: 2019
Author: Richard Castle
Genre: Mystery
Series:  Nikki Heat #10
# of Pages: 234
Paper or plastic: Hardback
How obtained: Purchased
Blurb from book: Marriage. It’s a double-edged sword, or at least it is for Nikki Heat. Her husband, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jameson Rook, infuriates her in a way no one else in her entire life has ever done. He also takes her to heights of pleasure she has never experienced. But most of all, she loves the man with all her heart and she’d do anything to protect him—which is just what she has done not so long ago. It almost cost them everything.
    Now Rook is given the honor to be a visiting professor at his alma mater, and he can’t pass up the opportunity to mentor burgeoning writers at his award-winning college newspaper. But shortly after his arrival on campus, a female reporter for the paper is found dead…naked…in Rook’s bed.
    Dealing with betrayal from any man is not Nikki’s style. She and Jameson have had plenty of conflicts during their complicated relationship, but none like this. Is her husband keeping secrets, or can she really trust him? In order to find out, Nikki gives Jameson the benefit of the doubt and digs into his theory of a secret society within a secret society. What she finds puts her investigative skills, and her marriage, to the test.
My thoughts: A little more tame than the other books in this series. No thrilling suspense in a life-and-death adventure. Just a straight-up mystery. It was okay, but not as good as the others. And apparently a character has been brought back from the dead, but funny thing, I didn’t notice. Shows you how much I pay attention to minor characters.

I’m down to one project again since I returned Biting the Curse to my editor for another look. Almost feel free! Working on two projects takes up more time than I imagined. But I met my goal and that makes me HAPPY!

Know what also made me happy? Watching the Blue Jackets win last night. Whoo hoo! I’m also rooting for St. Louis, Carolina, and Colorado (in case you were wondering).

So… Whatcha reading now? Anything good? How did you find the book?

Happy Reading!

Stacy