Books in Review: Lunch Time Reads

Sometimes, I am incredibly cheap. I hunt down free books on Amazon all the time. I also check content (normally) and page count before purchasing a book. Today, as I was perusing the Kindle eBooks, I stumbled upon a few free romance books that looked promising. Since they were free, I went ahead and downloaded with one-click (boy can that get me in trouble!).

The first was Rescue Me: A Valentine's Day Short Story by Serena Bell. It was super short. Molly is stuck on a ledge outside her apartment after attempting to rescue her Jimmy Choo, which just so happened to stop on the ledge and didn't fall the 20 feet to the ground?. Then there's Dave, fellow building tenant, to the rescue. All of this happens on Valentine's Day. Man...the title kind of gives it away. After a fallen ladder, the reemergence of Valentine's Day Dumper (ex-boyfriend) Peyton, and the rescue of one Jimmy Choo, Molly and Dave make it back inside just in time to properly celebrate Valentine's Day. Hey! What's a random hook-up with your neighbor on a romantic holiday? This took me about fifteen minutes to plow through. Haha, get it? Plow. ANYWAY, it was free. It was good but DON'T PAY FULL PRICE FOR IT. Twenty pages of content isn't worth $0.99 to me.

The second book I picked up today was Connections by Selena Kitt. After skimming through the brief plot description, I thought, "what the hell." Again, it was free. Cathy is this strange character who seems to have trouble connecting with reality and is this shell of a person, randomly calling people in the phone book. Only, one night, a victim of her calls startled her enough to speak back. Fast forward eight months of now constant communication with Seth (literally the book jumps eight months for no rhyme or reason) and they're meeting for the first time in person. Sex, awkwardness, and an incredibly abrupt ending follow. This was FREE and I'm telling you to SAVE IT. It's definitely not worth the original $2.99 digital price.

The third book I read today at lunch was The Escort Next Door by Clara James. This book I enjoyed the most of the three. I had to keep reading something after the depression the last one left me in. Julia is a late twenties, married housewife with three children under eight. Lo and behold, her executive husband is cheating on her. With an overbearing mother-in-law and an outwardly iron clad pre-nup she struggles to find a way out of her marriage and how to support her children. This is the first book in a short trilogy. While the end of this book doesn't provide any resolution to the problem at hand, it makes you want to continue reading. It's not poorly written and keeps me intrigued. The digital list price for this is $0.99. The next two books in the trilogy are each listed at $2.99 though. All the books are about 80 pages in length, so as good as it may be, I'm not spending another $5.98 to find out what happens. It's up to you but DON'T PAY FULL PRICE FOR IT.

Have you found anything worth the full price lately?

Food for Thought...Pulled Pork Sliders

Ryan's been on a kick lately. A pulled pork kick. If we go out and it's on the menu, he'll order it. I shouldn't have been so surprised when I took a pork roast out to defrost and he wanted to make pulled pork. But I was. Namely because we don't have barbecue sauce in the house. Where was I even supposed to start? With gentle guidance and a request for sweetness, I made some pretty fantastic sandwiches that my husband told me he, "literally just want[s] to keep eating the pulled pork. Every day." Today, I'm sharing it with you. Here's what you need to keep 'em drooling:

2 lb pork roast (untrimmed)

3 (generous) cloves of garlic (minced)

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp salt

1 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp ground mustard

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup ketchup

1/3 cup cider vinegar

Drizzle of mustard sauce

Step 1. Mix all your rub ingredients (garlic, paprika, salt, onion powder, pepper, and ground mustard) together in a bowl. Combine well. 

Step 2. Rub the mixture all over the roast. Top, bottom, sides, front and top. Toss it in your slow cooker.

Step 3. Mix together your sauce (brown sugar, ketchup, and cider vinegar) until well combined and soupy. 

Step 4. Pour the sauce over your pork in the slow cooker. Rotate the pork so that it's fully coated. 

not gonna lie, this looks a little bit like a heart

Step 5. Set your slow cooker for low (eight hours) and walk away for three. 

Step 6. After three hours, flip the roast, and drizzle your mustard on top of the roast. Walk away and let cook for another three hours.

Step 7. If you're feeling ambitious, bake some rolls to enjoy your, almost done!, pulled pork.

Step 8. After you get bothered by your husband to get on making the sandwiches, pull apart the roast. It should fall apart fairly easily with not much effort. 

Step 9. Place about a half a cup on your roll and try to stop drooling as your shovel down a few or four. Seriously, I hope you enjoy these. Don't they just look like heaven?

Books in Review: The Fixed Trilogy by Laurelin Paige

Earlier this week, I received an email from Amazon stating that I had money coming! You may have read about it in the news. I got a whopping $2.19. Now, I read a lot of books, so I'm going to chalk it up to I first got my kindle in December of 2011 and only bought 22 books between then and May of 2012. Some people, I read, though, received over $50, which is pretty impressive. I wish I was one of those people. Then I could buy more books.

I did buy a book (or trilogy) for $0.99 with my newly found giftcard balance. The Fixed Trilogy: Fixed on You, Found in You, Forever with You by Laurelin Paige. For that price and 853 pages I was sold. I didn't even look at the reviews. I lucked out on that, because it's a pretty awesome book series.

The book follows Alayna, a recent MBA grad looking to work her way up the ladder at a NYC club, and Hudson, an ultra hot, super rich, businessman (of course). Both have had less than stellar upbringings (Alayna's parents are dead, another of course, and Hudson was his mother's pawn against his unfaithful father). They're both working through their issues to become better people. But Alayna's working through her obsessive/stalking nature and Hudson is trying to stop playing games.

The book sets you up to be suspicious of every detail and every character. Is Hudson playing with Alayna? And just how does his sister and friend Celia fall into this? What about Sophia, his mother? Each book seems to focus on one part of the puzzle. But the seemingly solved issues are recurring in the next books as well, while you try and figure out what's up and what's down.

I like that the book gives Alayna some backbone unlike so many books that portray the female leads as spineless and ever conceding. But like most other books, sex is a central theme on how Alayna and Hudson stay connected. That always strikes me as odd, does sex really work all that well at solving things? Sure, you have physical chemistry but really? You bone and everything's better?

Anyway, the third book is the best. The last 15% of it wraps the story up nicely (I think). And I just want to say that I hate romance novels, because they write about such sweet things guys do and say. Can't that just happen in my life? Once? Hudson makes up for being a complete ass and Alayna gets her reluctant happily ever after.

The book previews Hudson which is the books from Hudson's point of view. Based on how well I think this trilogy was written, I'll be purchasing it. I feel like even though it's the same story with extra dialogue I still like it a whole lot. It's like rereading it but not. Does that make sense?

What are you reading right now? Anything good?

Student Loans and Me

Okay, let's be honest. Student loans suck. I read an article today stating just how much student loan sucks. And how, they're really hurting recent graduates. And I'm one of them. 

If your parents covered all your student loans, I hate you a little. My parents partway helped me through undergrad but grad school was all me. Ryan's parents didn't help him at all. He wanted to go to college so he paid for it. Or shall I say, we're paying for it.

It's tough. When I first calculated our student loan debt it was just under $140,000. Yea. One hundred forty THOUSAND. I cried a little. All right, a lot. I cried oceans. That debt is keeping me from doing things. Like saving for a house, a new car, or retirement. Renting is not my ideal. But I like it a hell of a lot better than living out of boxes under my parents roof. 

Ryan and I budget all the money we earn. His goes directly towards paying down student debt outstanding (but not currently in repayment). My paycheck goes towards current student loans, rent, gas, our phones, internet, food, and insurance. 

Last year, we paid over $25,000 in student loans. $7,500 of that went straight to interest. I'd like to pat myself on the shoulder. But when I look at our still outstanding loans, I cry. Though, I only cry buckets now. It's manageable, right?

Do you have student loan debt? How are you managing?

NYC Quotes

Naturally, whenever Ryan and I go somewhere, there's always something to laugh at. Generally for hours on end. Here's a few things that made us giggle:

When we went to the Brooklyn Brewery, the girl giving us the tour gave some history on the current location. They have been in their current location since 1996. She gave this quote as how they could afford it...

Font: KGDropsofJupiter. KGEyesWideOpen. JandaSafeandSound. 

That first day in the City was pretty nice out, I think it even hit 60°. Naturally, Ryan was in shorts. A couple walked by us and said, "Sun's out, guns out." I had never heard that phrase in my life but apparently Ryan had. When a student at Albany rhetorically asked, "Sun's out, guns out, right?!" He was also wearing shorts that day. Apparently, it's a phrase that's popular with muscle heads as the weather gets nice they wear cutoff sleeve shirts to show off their guns...

The night out to dinner with Ryan's friend Josh, they started talking math and I sort of zoned out. Until they mentioned this risky topology. Or rather, it was, the Zariski Topology. Not into math? I wouldn't even attempt to start reading that Wikipedia article. I kept trying to clarify what they were saying but it's one of those things where you could ask 1,000 times and still think it's pronounced "The Risky" and not "Zariski."

Font: KGTangledUp2. JandaCurlygirlSerif. 

Background: MathFormulas. 

Our hotel had they most awesome water dispenser. They provided empty plastic water bottles (like the kind you would get from Poland Spring) and caps that screwed on after you filled it. Effectively making it sealed. You could totally steal some and sneak vodka or other liquids in these. Anyway, the stations highlighted the "chilled, purified water." I read it as...

Font: Unfinished Sympathy.

Yep, they bottled it up and brought Chilean water here so I could put it in smaller bottles. I know, I know, I'm a genius.

How's your week going? Hear anything funny lately?

Happy (early) April

I gave up candy. It was a poor choice. But, I think it was a wise one. Confused? Let me explain.

Lent started last month in the beginning of March. My work has a candy drawer, where people bring in left over candy, newly bought candy, etc for the office to enjoy. I've been over-indulging. For example, there were whoppers in the bag. No one likes whoppers. Except for me, apparently. I eat them three three-packs at a time. One day, I did six. So I gave it up. 

And now I want M&M's. Let me countdown the days! I know, Sundays don't technically count during lent. But I give it up from Ash Wednesday 'til Easter Sunday. Last year I went vegetarian. Ryan threatened divorce (not really) if I did it again. 

Anyway, it's close enough to the first of the month, that means there's a printable for you. It's themed for April's impending holiday and hot damn do I love pastels. It looks awesome on my new mantel. Check it out.

Here's the printable...

April Mash Up

This printable was formatted to fit a 5" x 7" piece of paper. I used the following fonts: ReturntoSender. SketchSerif. CarnevaleeFreakshow. Vanessa. BlackBoysonMopeds. I used the following graphics: EasterEgg1. EasterEgg2.

Did you give up anything for lent? Has it been a challenge so far?

She's Crafty - Spring Bottles

I have a plethora of bottles and jars hanging around. They are from around the world (truly - there's some from Argentina and Mexico) and I keep them so that I can do crafty things with them. Like this project.

Easter's right around the corner. Since St. Patty's is already over I've started decorating for Spring. Bright pastel colored bottles were just the thing. 

I bought three colors of matte Rustoleum spray paint, pastels of purple, yellow, and blue. Funny thing. I painted yellow and blue two bottles each. Then I got to purple and this happened...

There was no paint cap on it to spray paint. So I just changed one from another color to this one. After a few coats of paint these bottles were looking pretty nice. Of course, after I figured out how to spray paint evenly. I'm still working on that one.

Along with the garland I made before, I think they tie the whole mantel piece together. This project was definitely a HIT.