Gym Rat

It’s official! I’m a gym rat as of yesterday! How did it happen you ask? As my friends know, my favorite work-out is shopping and my favorite nutrient is chocolate. Obviously gym and exercise and me don’t mix well! Was it taking two exercise classes this quarter (the fact that I’m missing most of my Tai Chi class on purpose and have missed 4 session of Yoga due to holidays and sickness and instructor canceling the class, completely irrelevant?) or thinking about buying an exercise DVD or may be those two twenty minutes that I spend on Tread-mill this week? Huh? The answer is none of the above! It is my dedicating a whole drawer to gym-wear that makes me a gym rat! Ha! Didn’t you know that having proper exercise cloths is the most important even the only point of exercising?
All that planning and color coordinating and finding cute little shrunken hoodies and matching tank tops is a great exercise and past time, much better than sweating on your yoga mat or trying to move slowly (very slowly!) in Tai Chi!

Happy! (The Dwarf? maybe! Me? Definitely!)

I’m so happy! Remember “The Mistress of The Art of Death” by Ariana Franklin? Adelia and Sir Rowley Picot and all that mayhem and witchcraft? Well the sequel to it, “The Serpent’s Tale” has come out! Yoooohooo! I was waiting for a great book and here it is, the answer to my prayers! If anyone wants to give me a gift, please make it this book! And soon too! I can’t wait!
Aaaand another great surprise, the second book of Claudia Dain will be out in May. Have I told you about great scheme and dialogues of “The Courtesan’s Daughter”? Well this second one in the series is “The Courtesan's Secret” and from the excerpt in Ms. Dain’s website, it sounds even more delicious! (Delicious is the favorite word of Lady Sophia!) How am I to wait two more months for it, I ask you?

The Jinx of a book!

Apparently I’m not reading enough. My mood is bleak, my temper short and my head is pounding, all bad signs! Good news is I broke that jinx and was able to finish a book! Yaay! It was a “Jinx” anyway! This book of Meg Cabot is a story for Young Adults. Jean (Jinx) comes to NY to live with her aunt and uncle and their three children. Jean is running away from some mistakes which are bound to catch up with her. Worse than that her cousin Tory thinks of herself as a powerful witch (and the only one who inherited the powers of their great-great grandmother). Also the only one who has been friendly toward Jean at school is a boy whom Tory has been in love with like forever. Jean has good reasons to believe she is jinxed for life. What a mess!
“The accidental Werewolf” also looks good. I’m halfway through the book and the story has been great so far. Ms. Cassidy has a wicked sense of humor and the working of Marty’s mind is hilarious.
That’s it for now! Stay tuned for farther developments! Ha!

Ranting and Bitching!

What a life! I took that exam and aced it and it wasn’t easy! How do you pronounce Pfiesteria piscicida anyway? Or Pseudo-nizchia for that matter? And who the hell cares?
Then over the weekend I worked on a field trip report and finished a site sketch who put Rembrandt to shame (yeah, sure!)! Also finished a couple of books:
“Gucci Gucci Coo” and “Breakfast at Stephanie’s” by Sue Margolis. Very boring, very cliché. This author has great ideas but she pushes so much stuff into her stories that she gets confused and wraps things with very lame endings.
Then “Odd Mum Out” by Jane Porter, the story of a rebel without a case. Sheesh… talk about hanging to your past with all you’ve got. What was it she wanted to prove anyway?
A new book again: “The Accidental Werewolf” by Dakota Cassidy. OK, this one is not that bad. I’m a couple of chapters into the book and love how the plot is unfolding. Let’s wait and see!
Have you met people whom keep moaning and bitching about simple things in life? Like the length of their hair or its color, or wanting to change their car or lose weight or how much they hate their job or……. And just keep bitching and bitching and do nothing about it? How frustrating is that? To listen day after day and visit after visit to someone complaining about the same old crap over and over… you know the worst part? All their problems are easy to fix, just they have to move they lazy butts to a store or to gym or … just do something! But no, they prefer to bore you and me every single frigging meeting! Why shouldn’t we shout at them “Hey dude! Move it!”? And you know what the absolute worse is? There are some guys who do this too! I mean yeah, you kind of get used to a moaning nagging unhappy gal after a while but a guy? How pathetic!

Right in the middle!

I finished “Vampires are forever” (Argeneau Vampires, Book 8) by Lynsay Sands. Thomas and Inez are going to live happily ever after and then in a couple of weeks it is Marguerite’s turn. Oh well, she deserves happiness too!
Then I started “Confessions of a Werewolf Supermodel” by Ronda Thompson. Why is that I can’t finish any book? Let’s see:
I haven’t finished “Holy Smokes” yet (too boring!), “Elijah” (too cliché!), am a couple of chapters into “Mine to Possess” (Psy-Changelings, Book 4) by Nalini Singh. Also I’ve read a few chapters of “The Chocolate Lovers' Club” by Carole Matthews.
Sheesh! What’s wrong with me? Am I getting sick? Some new type of ADD maybe?
To top it all, it is Valentine in a couple of days and I haven’t thought of a gift for Dear hubby! And I have a midterm that day too! What’s wrong with my life?!

Spring Fashion

I’m so tiered of my heavy winter clothes and can not wait for warmer weather. These feelings got way out of hand as of yesterday when I saw two lines of trees full of white blooms and lots of green hills. Is there an exact time when you are allowed to change to your spring wardrobe? A date on your calendar or is it a feeling or just seeing what others are wearing? If the last one is true then it has been spring in Southern California for a couple of weeks now. Girls in school are wearing miniskirt and shorts! Anyway I can’t wait to get rid of my tweeds and wools and knits and boucles. I’m so craving all those airy light fabrics of spring, silk and lace and toile and chiffon… Wow! Also I’m going to adjust my style a little. Usually I wear business casual with some twist… a little femininity or something periodical and costumey piece. This winter specially, I was all 40’s high waist skirts and defined shoulders… But for spring, I’m thinking more ruffles and lace and sheer silky fabrics with bows and flowers… As for colors, I’m still happy with my black and whites and reds and occasional orange and greens… Also I’m going to add bright yellow to the mix as well. I’ve been enchanted with feminine details of Anthropologie’s stuff and cute designs of my recent discovery, Madison Bleu.
My planned looks for this spring are:
-Jeans and nauticals (yeah, just like last summer! It never goes out style!)
-A little safari pieces
-lots of ruffles and ribbons and flowers and Victorian blouses

Good little girl!

Five books in five days. Slow but not bad, not bad at all, considering I had a presentation to prepare and worry about too!
I reread “Desiree” by Annemarie Selinko. I used to read it at least once a year before but it had been six or seven years that I hadn’t. Missed the book and the sweet enchanting voice of Desiree dreadfuly.
Then, a little romance about a plotting old lady and her schemes “Breaking all the rules” by Sue Civil-Brown. Not too much to write about!
“Only the Cat Knows” by Marian Babson was a little confusing and boring and artificial and … well, not a great book!
Then another of Discworld books by Terry Pratchett. “Guards! Guards!” is when a dragon comes to Ankh-Morpork and Captain Wimes meets Lady Sybil and Carrot comes to town and Vetinari is imprisoned in his own dungeon. Very very funny.
And Last but not least “Courtesan’s Daughter” by Claudia Dain. I usually don’t like period romances but this one set in 1802 England is very delicious. A former courtesan Lady Sophia and her cheeky daughter Caro are enchanting and endearing. All those plotting and cutting remarks were refreshing. Wish the book was a series, it simply was too short!
Well, now I should start studying for a midterm like a good little girl!

Miss Me?

Well, have I been lazy or what? Truth to be told I’ve been reading a lot and not doing anything else! Here it goes:
A great new series about a little team of detectives in Rome, Italy by David Hewson. In “A season for the dead”, we meet Nic Costa a young rookie detective and his partner Luca, their boss Leo Falcone and the police pathologist Theresa. They form a bound and start looking for a serial killer with ties to Vatican. The killer murders Luca and Nic gets wounded pretty badly at the end. In “The villa of mysteries”, Nic is persuaded back to work by Leo and is assigned a new partner, Gianini; a huge man with a scared face and calm manners. The corpse of a young girl is found and investigation points to an ancient cult. Theresa is playing detective and looking for clues too. A ghost from Leo’s past is making an appearance and complicating the investigation. “The sacred cut” starts when a corpse in found in Rome’s Pantheon and FBI wants to lead the investigation. Leo, Nic and Gianini are asked to wok with the FBI and Emily, a young beautiful agent; is the go between. She has more than professional interests in the matter: the last victim before the one in the Rome, was her father. Is she willing to face the skeletons in her father’s old closet in order to catch this murderer? “The lizard's bite” happens in Venice, where our police team is working (a punishment handed out to them because of the way the last investigation turned out!) and a simple and easy murder-suicide case in given to them to wrap and stop the locals from gossiping. When Theresa and Emily come for vacation and join the guys, new insight into the mystery are revealed and everything takes a turn for worse. Leo gets shot, Nic is kidnapped, Emily is seducing a suspect and Theresa is … well, read it for yourself! Anyway, the series was one of the best I’d read recently and well worth the time. Loved these modern three musketeers, loved them!
Then two more books of Masters of elemental series by Mercedes Lackey. “The gates of sleep” is a turn-of-the-century Seeping Beauty with a twist and “The serpent's shadow” is a new Snow White. Well although the ideas for the stories were kind of old, the twists and quirks and characters were new and interesting.
“Bloodfever” by Karen Marie Moning was boring and a waste of time. Mac’s character is way unpolished and unfinished. The story is not making sense and characters are all over the place. Unorganized and with lose ends this is not a series I want to fallow.
“Forget about it” by Caprice Crane is about new beginnings, karma, lies, and unbearable families and bad choices. All in all nothing new!
“Caspian rain” by Gina Barkhordar Nahai is about a Jewish family in pre-revolution Iran and how faith and free will (or lack of it!) affects the lives of these family members. A sad but very well written story, it made me cry my eyes out!
I also finished “Darkling” (The Sisters of the Moon, Book 3) by Yasmine Galenorn. This one was about the third sister who is a vampire. She faces her sadistic ‘sire’ and woes to be good.
I’m also still in the middle of “Holy smokes” and am very bored with it! And yes, I have started “Elijah” (The Nightwalkers, Book 3) by Jacquelyn Frank but am not liking it. The first book was great, the second one OK, this one is starting too look bad!
Yeah, I’m done! Pretty much!