Book ~ "Home to Whiskey Creek" (2013) Brenda Novak

From Goodreads ~ Sometimes home is the refuge you need - and sometimes it isn't. Adelaide Davies, who's been living in Sacramento, returns to Whiskey Creek, the place she once called home. She's there to take care of her aging grandmother and to help with Gran's restaurant, Just Like Mom's. But Adelaide isn't happy to be back. There are too many people here she'd rather avoid, people who were involved in that terrible June night fifteen years ago.

Ever since the graduation party that changed her life, she's wanted to go to the police and make sure the boys responsible - men now - are punished. But she can't, not without revealing an even darker secret. So it's better to pretend ....

Noah Rackham, popular, attractive, successful, is shocked when Adelaide won't have anything to do with him. He has no idea that his very presence reminds her of something she'd rather forget. He only knows that he's finally met a woman he could love.

When she was sixteen, Addy was gang raped by five popular guys at their high school graduation party.  She doesn't say anything and leaves Whiskey Creek as soon as she graduates.

Fifteen years later, Addy moves home to take care of her grandmother's restaurant.  She hasn't been home since she graduated from high school.  Right away she is kidnapped and left in an abandoned mine and told that if she tells anyone about what happened fifteen years ago, her grandmother will be killed.  Noah finds and rescues her and is puzzled as to why she is vague about the details and doesn't want to tell the police.  They are attracted to each other but Ally resists because his twin brother, Cody, was one of guys who had raped her.

This is the fourth in the Whiskey Creek series ... I'd read the first one last year and enjoyed it.  I liked this one too.

I liked the writing style.  It was well-paced and kept me wanting to read more.

I liked Addy.  She had dealt with what had happened to her through therapy.  She just wants to put it behind her but it comes back to haunt her when she is kidnapped (though she doesn't know by who).  Noah was a nice guy, though he had commitment issues.  Once he meets Addy, though, he knows he wants her and can't understand why she keeps putting up blocks.

I found there was too much of an effort to tie in the other characters in the series (lots of mentions and references).  I didn't know who these characters were so it was hard to keep track of them since they weren't part of this story.  Also I thought the subplot with Noah wondering whether Baxter, his best friend, was gay wasn't necessary ... it had nothing to do with Addy and Noah and added nothing to the story.

Book ~ "Take it Off" (2012) Taylor Cole and Justin Whitfield

From Goodreads ~ Ever wonder what goes on behind the scenes in a male strip club? Are those guys gay? How do they stay so ripped? Do they stuff their trunks? How did they get into such a business? How much money do they make? Do they have wild sex every night? 

This book takes you backstage and into the lives of two successful male strippers over a span of twenty years in the business. From their rookie days to their wild sexcapades and practical jokes, Take It Off! is a laugh-filled, action-packed joyride. 

Justin Whitfield and Taylor Cole are the stage names of male exotic dancers who have performed for women in Europe, the Caribbean, South America and Canada, as well as at various casinos, on cruise ships and in hundreds of clubs across the United States. Both have been featured on television and radio, as well as in newspapers, calendars, and magazines. Both are also official Ellora’s Caveman cover models and appear on their erotic romance covers and at their conventions and tradeshows.

Justin and Taylor are male strippers who give us an apparently honest account on what happens behind the scenes in the male stripping industry .  I found this book a fast (less than 80 pages) and interesting read (though it's been many years since I've been in a male strip club).  Not surprising, the language is for mature readers.

It's written in first person point of view and some of the sections have their names so you know whose voice it is.  Most of them don't so you don't know who was doing what to whom.  I found the writing style a bit arrogant.  The chapters include:

• Life cycle of a male stripper
• Backstage with the guys
• Tricks and tools of the trade
• Sexacapades
• Stripper legends and tall tales
• Working out - the secrets

Given that these guys are in their thirties, it was a bit odd to hear them refer to women as "chicks" most of the time.  But I guess that shows the respect (or lack of) they had/have for the women they encountered in the clubs and on the road.  I cringed at how easy it was for these guys to pick up someone they liked in the club and two seconds later it was wham-bam-thank you-ma'am in the bathroom or a car (sometimes two at a time ... sometimes more than one in a night).  To make more tips, they would prey on and cultivate their regulars.

It would have been interesting to get a little more follow-up on where they are today re relationships and whether stripping and sleeping with everything that moved affected how they got into and out of these relationships.  Given their experiences and how they look, I wonder how huge their egos are and if they would be hard to live with.

How the kitties fold the laundry

Our washer and dryer are across the hall from our bedroom.

When I do laundry, I dump all the clothes from the dryer onto our bed and them fold them later (once all the loads are done) ... sometimes it's much later if the kitties get comfortable!

Morgan and Crumpet

Canada Post Consumers' Choice Program

We live in a condo.  Our mailboxes are outside and kind of look like these ones.

There was a crazy amount of junk mail being delivered by Canada Post along with our mail so about five years ago I stuck a note on the inside of the door of our mailbox requesting no junk mail.  It's helped a lot.

I got a letter today from Canada Post addressed to "occupant" acknowledging that we are currently not getting junk mail.  The letter then went on to promote their Consumers' Choice Program and listed all the things we are missing ... coupons and savings offers from local businesses (aka flyers), catalogs, etc.

Canada Post wants to make it easy for us to receive this "important mail" so included a card that I'm to stick in our mailbox so the mailman will know it's okay to leave junk in our mailbox again.  Plus I would have to take off the "no junk mail" note.  Um ... no thanks!

I find it interesting, though, when I look at the Consumers' Choice Program on Canada Post's website, they are promoting people to STOP receiving junk mail as one of the "many simple things you can do to lessen your impact on the environment" by doing what I did.

I guess it's more important for them now to make $$ delivering junk mail than to save the environment.

Do you mind getting junk mail?

Book ~ "Saving Laura" (2013) Jim Satterfield

From Goodreads ~ Twenty-one-year-old Shelby Lee plunges into dangerous terrain when blatantly and very foolishly he robs Aspen, Colorado's most notorious cocaine dealer, fleeing the scene with five kilos of Peruvian flake and $75,000.

Shelby escapes to the sagebrush hills of southwestern Wyoming, hoping to disappear into the wilderness until after the furor dies down. Then he plans to return and wrest his old girlfriend, Laura, from the dealer's clutches. Shelby's half-baked scheme goes awry when a chance encounter with a teenage Bonnie and Clyde puts him in the middle of a shootout with two highway patrolmen, intensifying his challenge to stay hidden off the grid.

Using his cache of survival skills, Shelby evades local and state police and returns to Aspen only weeks after the robbery. He finds Laura, herself on the run after a brutal assault at the hands of her captor.

To make things worse, Shelby encounters an unscrupulous DEA agent, willing to sacrifice Laura to make his case. At the core of the chase and the unending physical challenges is the love of a man for a woman. Pure, not simple, but complicated.

It's 1979 and Shelby and Laura are dating and in love.  When his grandfather dies, Shelby needs his space and breaks up with Laura.  Laura starts dating Tom Tucker, a coke dealer, who turns her onto coke, gets her addicted and doesn't treat her very well. Thinking it was his fault this all happened, Shelby robs Tucker of coke and drugs, with the intent of exchanging them for Laura.

Needing to lay low for a while, Shelby hitchhikes to his grandfather's hunting cabin.  That's when things start to go wrong.  He gets a ride from a young couple who are on the run.  After a police chase, one cop is dead, the couple steal the cruiser and Shelby stays to take care of the other cop until he knows help will be arriving.  But now he has the cops looking for him.  He eventually heads back to Aspen, discovers Laura has escaped from Tucker and takes care of her.  He is then forced to help a DEA agent bring Tucker down (the DEA were in the process of this until Shelby unwittingly interfered).

This is the first book I've read by this author and I liked it.

I liked the writing style.  It was action-packed and there was always something going on.  It is written in first person, from Shelby's point of view.  As a head's up, the language at times is for mature readers.

I liked the characters.  Shelby is just trying to right the wrong that has happened to Laura.  He's a good guy and has loyal friends (who are colourful characters) who are willing to help him out no matter what.  Had Laura not become involved with Tucker and let him get her addicted to coke, none of this would have happened ... there is a lot of emphasis on the fact that she had alcoholic father, thus making it easy for her to become an addict herself.  Just say "no", kids!  I loved Jaws, the dog!

I'd recommend this book.

How our kitties are celebrating Victoria Day

Crumpet and Morgan

Trinity Bellwoods Park, Toronto, ON

It's such a nice day today (sunny and 25C) so Gord and I walked over to Trinity Bellwoods Park (about a 15 minute walk).

The park is full of colour!

Happy Victoria Day

In Canada, the celebration of Victoria Day occurs every year on Monday, prior to May 25th.

It is the official celebration of the birthdays of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II.

Victoria Day was established as a holiday in Canada West (now Ontario) in 1845 and became a national holiday in 1901. Before Victoria Day became a national holiday, we had celebrated Empire Day, beginning in the 1890s as Victoria approached her Diamond jubilee in 1897.

Victoria, queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and empress of India, was born on 24 May 1819. She ascended the throne after the death of her uncle, George IV, in 1837 when she was only 18. She ruled until her death in 1901 when her son, Edward the VII, became king of England.

Long weekend pub crawl, Toronto, ON

Gord and I went on a pub crawl this afternoon that was organized by Ken Woods, owner of Black Oak Brewing Company.

It started at Bellwoods Brewery at Ossington/Queen W, which is in our 'hood.  It opened at 2pm and that's when/where the group met.

There were three tables of us and we got a spot on the patio.  The patio filled up instantly.

I ordered a Twin Peach.  I can't taste or smell anything (because of my cold/infection) but Gord said I'd like it if I could taste it.  Ha!  It was cold so that's all that mattered to me.

Here's Ken, who organized us.

Book ~ "99 Reasons Everyone Hates Facebook" (2013) Emmet Purcell

From Goodreads ~ Writer Emmet Purcell is a simple man with simple tastes. He likes keeping things short and simple, which is why Facebook appealed to him when it first surfaced. However, as it inevitably transformed from being a well-loved social outlet for friends and family into an egotistical, duck pose-laden, virtual farming-centric nightmare, he decided to take a humorous tongue-in-cheek "poke" at the social website in his new release 99 Reasons Everyone Hates Facebook.

“With over one billion worldwide users, Facebook has become a part of our social identity … for good or ill. Mostly ill,” says Purcell. “But rather than wag a disapproving finger at the website itself, I decided to point out such inanities as creating a Facebook page for your pets, giving out WAY too much personal information, Face-Bragging and being one of the 48,000 people who have been suckered into clicking on ‘Join if you love your dad/mom/Jesus.”

99 Reasons Everyone Hates Facebook consists of nine chapters that contain 10-12 "reasons" each, with each chapter focusing on some of the biggest Facebook offenders around. For example:

Reason #1 - Huge numbers of people gather together on Facebook to form the most pointless of groups
Reason #23 - Posting song lyrics as a status message
Reason #33 – Spending real money on virtual goods
Reason #64 - The plight of Facebook’s only other Mark Zuckerberg
Reason #70 - Facebook was mean to a really, really old woman
Reason #95 - Don't like Timeline? Tough luck

The author has listed 99 reasons he feels everyone hates Facebook ... it's amazing he could come up with 99 (and I found most of them valid)!  They are divided up by chapters:

1. Idiots
2. Attention Seekers
3. Apps
4. Desperate Facebookers
5. To Much Information
6. Party Poopers
7. Social Harassment
8. The Impact of Facebook
9. Timeline

I'm on Facebook and thought this book would be fun ... and it was.  The writing style was funny and sarcastic.

The author made note of a lot of things that annoy me too including:

1. Sideways photos
2. Vaguebookers - Putting stuff like "Wondering if it's worth it" as a status.  They are designed to bait unwitting friends to ask what's wrong and then they reply with stuff like "I don't want to talk about it".  I don't get sucked up into those games.
3. Facebook "quitters" - Instead of just quitting, they (as attention seekers) announce that they are going to quit Facebook ... and then don't because their friends beg them not to.  If you are going to quit, quit!
4. Facebook farmers - I don't play games on Facebook so stop inviting me to play.
5. The utterly useless Notes function - what's the point of it?
6. No "Dislike" button

If you're on Facebook, you'll probably be able to relate to a lot of the reasons in this book.

Trius wine club - May

We picked up our box from Trius at the post office today (we weren't home when they tried to deliver it yesterday).

Gord and I have been members of the Trius Wine Club (formerly the Hillebrand Wine Club) for over ten years.

Every month, 2 bottles of our best wine will be delivered to your door along with Winemaker Craig McDonald’s tasting notes and Chef Frank Dodd’s recipes.

The cost is about $40 a month and it's only available in Ontario.

Here's what we got this month ...

• Trius Barrel Fermented Chardonnay 2011 ($19.75) ~ We're not fans of chardonnay but we'll give it a try.  The recipe included that pairs with it is Crab Beignets
• Artist Series Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 ($12.95) - The recipe included that pairs with it is Tomato and Sweet Pepper Bisque

What woke me up this morning

I have problems falling asleep and staying asleep ... but I have no problem sleeping in on the weekends with Gord (so I take advantage of it to catch up on my sleep).

I woke up this morning about 9:00 to what sounded like a tank driving back and forth, back and forth in the parking lot outside our bedroom window.  Huh?

Then there was constant chip-chip-chipping at something outside our living room window.  I jokingly said to Gord that it sounded like they were on our terrace.

When I got up at 9:45am, I looked out our living room window and sure enough there was a guy on our terrace chip-chip-chipping at something.

I ducked out when he left for a while to see what was going on and saw that he had removed some bricks from the wall (and had swept up the mess).

They are doing the same next door.

And I can't yell at them for waking me up cuz it wasn't that early.  Ha!

Update:  The roof decks on the upper units have leaked for years ...the water has moved down through the units and apparently affected the integrity of the bricks supporting the outside stairs.

Peggy's Corner, King Street W/Bay Street, Toronto, ON

I had read that on Wednesday the Nova Scotia Tourism Agency installed a 28 foot replica of the Peggy's Cove lighthouse downtown.  It is a enticement for people to visit the Peggy's Cove in person this summer.

My doctor's office is a block away so I stopped in afterwards this morning.

I'm sick

I wasn't feeling great last weekend ... I thought it was allergies or I was getting a cold.

When I woke up on Monday, I felt crappy ... I was stuffed up, coughing, tired and had a sore throat so I called in sick from work.  I felt better on Tuesday so went to work.  I felt worse on Wednesday so called in sick again.  I felt better yesterday so went to work.

My cough has been getting worse (I have been having wicked phlemy coughing fits) and I can hear crackling in my chest.  My nose won't stop running and I've lost my sense of taste and smell.

I've been taking DayQuil during the day and drinking extra strength Neo Citron at night.  Plus I've been chugging cough medicine and having cough drops always handy.  I've have been drinking lots of lemon herbal tea because it's been soothing (I never drink tea).  And I've simmered a cough-ender aromatherapy recipe of tea tree, eucalyptus, lavender, chamomile and geranium essential oils (which I can't smell).

I called my doctor's office this morning managed to get an appointment. It turns out that I have a lower respiratory tract infection.  My doctor has prescribed antibiotics (twice a day for seven days) and puffer for when I have a coughing fit.  She said it's not something that's going around.  The last couple of months I have been doing a lot of one-on-ones in day cares so I must have picked something up from someone and it caught up with me.

I hate being sick ... I hope I get better soon, especially since it's a long weekend.