Topbox - June 2017

My June Topbox arrived today.

For only $12 a month, you will receive a Topbox with 4 carefully selected, indulgent, beauty products. Then test the products in the comfort of your own home.

Here's what I received ...

• MaskerAide TELL ME ‘POUT IT – Hydrating Lip Mask - $7 value
• AvryBeauty Jelly Spa Bath Lavender - $3.75 value
• ESTATE Cosmetics Lip Crayon (Sweeter Season) - $10 value
• belif The True Cream - Aqua Bomb - 10ml - $9.40 value

Total value = $30.15 value

Denny’s, London, ON

I had lunch today at Denny's in London.  It's attached to a rest stop on Highbury Avenue S, just south of the 401.

I ordered Baked Lasagna.  I love lasagna and this was just okay.  The noodles were overcooked and there was too much sauce.

Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites London, London, ON

I spent last night at the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites London on Wellington Road South.  I've stayed here a couple times over the years.

Lobby

Here is my suite ...

A wet bar, including a mini fridge, is to the right
when you walk in

Book ~ "Looking for Rachel Wallace" (1980) Robert B. Parker

From Goodreads ~ Rachel Wallace is a woman who writes and speaks her mind. She has made a lot of enemies - enemies who threaten her life. 

Spenser is the tough guy with a macho code of honor, hired to protect a woman who thinks that code is obsolete. 

Privately, they will never see eye to eye. That's why she fires him. But when Rachel vanishes, Spenser rattles skeletons in blue-blooded family closets, tangles with the Klan and fights for her right to be exactly what she is. He is ready to lay his life on the line to find Rachel Wallace. 

Rachel Wallace is a writer, lesbian and feminist activist.  When she receives threats, she hires Spenser to be her bodyguard.  Their personalities and ideologies clash and Rachel fires Spenser.  When she is kidnapped, Spenser feels duty-bound to try to find her because had he behaved as she wanted, he never would have been fired and she wouldn't have been kidnapped.  Spenser's investigation leads him to an organization that is anti-communist, anti-gay and affiliated with the local Ku Klux Klan.

This is the sixth in the Spenser series (there are currently 46, with the last six written by Ace Atkins after Parker's death in 2010).  I've read many in the series over the years (and have enjoyed the series) but I can't remember where I'd jumped in.  I know I hadn't started at the beginning so have started reading them from the beginning of the series.  Though it is part of a series, it works as a stand alone.

I liked the writing style ... I find it humorous at times.  Spenser is a tough guy with a wisecracking sense of humour.  This book was written and is set in the early 1980s so is dated with some of its references and lingo.  Rachel was too angry and unbelievable to me with her hatred of all men.  It's written in first person perspective in Spenser's voice.  As a head's up, there is swearing.

Fionn MacCool’s, London, ON

I had supper this evening at Fionn MacCool's in London (on Wellington Road).

It was fairly busy when I got there.

I sat on the dining room side

The Trinity Bellwoods Flea, The Great Hall, Toronto, ON

This morning Gord and I checked out the Trinity Bellwoods Flea Market at The Great Hall (on Queen Street W/Dovercourt Road), in our 'hood.

School's out summer is calling your name! We are back at it with those start of summer must-haves. Find vendors inside and outside June 18th 10am-5pm at The Great Hall at the heart of Queen West. Swing by, enjoy a handcrafted cocktail, some local eats, sweet treats and all the best vintage and handmade vendors and artisans this Toronto has to offer. Remember admission is always FREE and four-legged friends are always welcome! Shop local at the Trinity Bellwoods Flea. As a fun treat for all the local lovers. 

YELP Toronto will be on hand giving out FREE reusable shopping bags for all visitors to the market for your locally made goodies! 

Love Local. Shop Local.

So much to tempt you, inside and out ... food, plants, clothing, jewelry, candles, bath bombs and lots more!

Queen Star Restaurant, Toronto, ON

Gord and I had breakfast this morning at Queen Star Restaurant (Queen Street W/Dovercourt Road), in our 'hood.  It's been a while since I've been there.

We both ordered four eggs with bacon.  It was a good hearty breakfast.

Rosen's Cinnamon Buns, Toronto, ON

On my way home from the Taste of Little Italy, I caught the whiff of cinnamon as I was approaching Ossington Avenue.  I noticed I was in front of Rosen's Cinnamon Buns.  I love cinnamon buns so stopped in.

It's in a former beauty salon

Taste of Little Italy, Toronto, ON

The Taste of Little Italy is happening this weekend and I walked there this afternoon to check it out.  I was there before it got too crowded.

From June 16th to 18th, join us for our biggest festival of the year, the Taste of Little Italy. A festival that celebrates College Street’s rich Italian history as well as the eclectic international community of today. Enjoy live music by performers from around the world, check out artisan vendors, savour a drink on one of the many patios and indulge in the food. With so many choices, from restaurants and street kiosks, to the myriad of tastings, you won’t leave hungry. Come to eat slowly, sip slowly and go slowly, while enjoying the unique neighbourhood that is Little Italy!

College Street is closed from Shaw Street to Bathurst Street for the festival.

Shaw Street/College Street

There is something for everyone ... food, games, patios, psychics, music, vendors, face painting and lots more!  I started at the Shaw Street entrance and walked to Bathurst Street and then back to Shaw Street.

Book ~ "One Wrong Turn" (2017) Deanna Lynn Sletten

From Goodreads ~ The words “I’m her husband” roll off Clay Connors’s tongue, but with his estranged wife lying in a coma - and no assurance that she’ll awaken - he knows he’s perilously close to losing everything. A singular, terrifying accident has left Jess Connors suspended between life and death. Now Clay is reunited with the family he hasn’t seen for two years, including the daughters he left behind. 

Clay should have been there for his family. He never should have stayed away so long. The alcohol that took over his life destroyed everything but a shred of his self-preservation. Sober and haunted, Clay revisits the memory of love, marriage, and how his life unraveled. He hopes that by trying to reconnect with the daughter who blames him and the daughter who barely knew him, he can find a light of hope in this darkest hour. As his family faces its most grueling, emotional test yet, Clay must summon the courage to make right what was wrong - and find forgiveness from his harshest judge: himself. 

Jess has an accident one day as she is driving home and ends up in a coma.  Clay is contacted and he rushes to the hospital claiming to be her husband.  They have been married for almost 15 years but haven't been together in two years.

Clay is a musician and Jess was a stay-at-home mom.  What started out as Clay having a couple beers a day turned into an alcoholic problem.  He had been in rehab three times and after the last stint, he didn't think he could handle the stress of being a husband and dad so didn't go home.  His 12-year-old daughter, Maddie, now hates him for leaving and his 7-year-old daughter, Jilly, doesn't remember him.  It's time for Clay to step up and be the dad and husband he should have been as they wait for Jess to come out of her coma.

This is the third book I've read by this author and I liked it.  It is written in third person perspective.  It starts in present day and then shifts back and forth to how/when Jess and Clay met and their lives together until they broke up (the dates are at the top of the section so it's obvious when the story goes into the past).

I liked the characters.  Jess and Clay were good for each but then his addiction started getting in the way.  Jess eventually had to put the safety of her family before her marriage to Clay.

I look forward to reading other books by this author.

Book ~ "A Welcome Murder" (2017) Robin Yocum

From Goodreads ~ After his unspectacular professional baseball career ends with a knee injury in Toledo, Ohio, Johnny Earl gets busted for selling cocaine. After serving seven years in prison, all he wants to do is return to his hometown of Steubenville, retrieve the drug money he stashed before he went to jail and start a new life where no one has ever heard of Johnny Earl. 

However, before he can leave town with his money, Johnny is picked up for questioning in the murder of Rayce Daubner, the FBI informant who had set him up on drug charges in the first place. Then his former prison cellmate shows up - a white supremacist who wants the drug money to help fund an Aryan nation in the wilds of Idaho. 

Five memorable characters, each with a separate agenda, come together in this layered tale of murder, deceit and political intrigue.

In high school in a small town in Ohio, Johnny Earl was popular and a star athlete.  He was drafted onto a major league baseball team but an injury, though, cuts his career short.  He drifts into selling coke and is sent to prison for seven years when he is caught.  In prison, his cellmate is a nut who is a white supremacist who wants to kill the president and take over the United States.  Needless to say, Johnny is relieved when he is released from prison and heads home.

As Johnny is getting ready to go get the money he had hidden before he went to prison, Rayce Daubner, the FBI informant who had ratted on Johnny and got him sent to prison, is murdered.  Johnny is an obvious suspect.  Around this time, his former cellmate is released and comes looking for Johnny to give him his hidden money so he can started his Aryan nation.  Sheriff Roberson tries to solve the murder before the FBI agents can.  He has aspirations to eventually become president plus he has secrets of his own that he'd like to remain hidden.

This is the first book I read by this author and I enjoyed it.  It wasn't your typical murder mystery.  I liked the writing style and it amusing.  It is written in first person perspective from various points of view (the chapters are labeled so you know whose voice it is) ... Johnny, Francis (Johnny's former best friend in high school and now sheriff of the town), Allison (Francis' wife), Dena Marie (Johnny's former girlfriend from high school who seems to be sleeping with everyone in town) and Smoochie (Dena Marie's wimpy husband).  The characters were all a bit wacky but likable.  As a head's up, there is swearing and adult activity.

I look forward to reading other books by this author.

Book ~ "Now You Know Canada: 150 Years of Fascinating Facts" (2017) Doug Lennox

From Goodreads ~ Just in time for Canada's 150th birthday comes this collection of the best in Canadian questions and answers, covering history, famous Canadians, sports, word origins, geography, and everything in between. 

In these pages, you'll learn the answers to questions like: 

• Where did the word Canuck come from?
• How did an aristocratic French girl become a Canadian Robinson Crusoe? 
• What famous explorer played hockey in the Arctic? 
• Who was the first black woman elected to Canada's Parliament? 
• What unlikely team beat Canada for the gold medal for hockey in the 1936 Winter Olympics? 
• How did the Halifax Explosion occur?

I'm always interested in learning more about Canada.  "Now You Know Canada" provides 150 facts in celebration of Canada's 150th birthday this year.

The chapters include:

• O Canada!
• Policy-makers and ground-breakers
• Rebellions
• Canada at war
• Heroes and legends
• Prodigies of science, invention and medicine
• Canadian disasters
• Intrepid explorers
• Entertain me
• The old ball game (baseball)
• Gridiron history (football)
• Canada's game (hockey)
• The beautiful game .. now in Canada (soccer)
• Scoops on Canadian hoops (basketball)
• Canada's other national game (lacrosse)
• Rocks and rolls (curling)
• Making a splash (swimming)
• Olympic feats
• More champions of Canadian sport

There was interesting information and trivia.  I found it was really sports heavy, though ... half the book covers various sports.  While I found some of it interesting, I was less interested in the sports stories and would have liked to have read more about entertainment, disasters, heroes, etc.  

The information is laid out in easily digestible chunks.  It would have been nice to have had more pictures to break up all the text (there were just a couple pictures).

Ipsy Glam Bag - June 2017

My June Ipsy Glam Bag arrived today.

• 4 to 5 beauty products in a collectible makeup bag 
• Monthly videos showing you how to get the Look 
• Win free products in contests and giveaways

Subscriptions are $10US a month or $110US for a year.  Shipping is free in the U.S. and $4.95US per month to Canada.

Here's what I received ...

• Make-up bag
• Trust Fund Beauty Nail Polish (What's a Budget) -  $15 value - I gave it to a friend and her toes look great!
• NYX Professional Makeup Whipped Lip & Cheek Soufflé (Pink Cloud) - $6 value
• DOUCCE Maxlash Volumizer Mascara - $7.33 value
• PEEK Beauty Multiuse Black Primer - $11 value
• Delectable by Cake Beauty Coconut & Cream Triple Moisture Body Lotion - 2oz - $3.50 value
• Glamour Dolls Romantic Rose Brush - $3.99

Total value: $46.82US (without the make-up bag)

Book ~ "The Judas Goat" (1978) Robert B. Parker

From Goodreads ~ Spenser has gone to London - and not to see the Queen. He's gone to track down a bunch of bombers who've blown away his client's wife and kids. His job is to catch them. Or kill them. His client isn't choosy.

But there are nine killers to one Spenser - long odds. Hawk helps balance the equation. The rest depends on a wild plan. Spenser will get one of the terrorists to play Judas Goat - to lead him to others. Trouble is, he hasn't counted on her being very blond, very beautiful and very dangerous.

Spenser is a private investigator in Boston and has been hired by Hugh Dixon, a millionaire, to find the nine members of a terrorist group that bombed a London restaurant where he and his family had been dining.  His wife and daughters are killed and he was left a paraplegic.

Spenser heads to London to start his investigation.  He finds some of the members and hires his friend, Hawk, to help him find the others.  This takes them from London to Copenhagen to Amsterdam to the Montreal Olympics.

This is the fifth in the Spenser series (there are currently 46, with the last six written by Ace Atkins after Parker's death in 2010).  I've read many in the series over the years (and have enjoyed the series) but I can't remember where I'd jumped in.  I know I hadn't started at the beginning so have started reading them from the beginning of the series.  Though it is part of a series, it works as a stand alone.

I liked the writing style ... I find it humorous at times.  Spenser is a tough guy with a wisecracking sense of humour.  This book was written and is set in the late 1970s so is dated with some of its references and lingo.  It's written in first person perspective in Spenser's voice.  As a head's up, there is swearing.

I wasn't crazy about this book.  I thought the storyline was uninteresting and boring.  And I found it hard to believe that Spenser got away with killing or injuring as many people as he did worldwide yet there was no ramifications.  While I don't mind that Spenser is dating Susan Silverman, I find their conversations unbelievable.  They are in love, have been dating for a few years, yet talk to each other like they are teenagers (they are about 40).  I like the friendship between Spenser and Hawk but it is tiring at times with Spenser talking like the rich white plantation owner and Hawk talking like the indentured slave (Hawk is black).  I found Kathie, one of the terrorists, to be an unbelievable character when she is "given" to Spenser and becomes submissive throwing herself at Spenser and then Hawk (her terrorist group is against blacks).