Explaining My Vanishing Act

Some of you may recall a few posts back when I mentioned moving to a new city and starting a new career. Well, that new career is the reason my online presence has been virtually nonexistent the last few weeks. To make a long story short: I'm in the police academy.

For those of you who don't know, police academies in California are 22 weeks of intensive academic and physical training in a para-military structure. I can best describe it as a combination of boot camp and college, which, in practical terms, means most of my free time is spent either studying for exams or spit-shining my boots. Seriously.

When I started this blog a couple of months ago, I had no idea how much longer the hiring process was going to take, or if I would even be successful. It wasn't until Thanksgiving week that I found out my year-and-a-half wait was over and that I'd been hired. I had 6 weeks to relocate and prepare for the start of the academy. Needless to say, December was a stressful month.

Going into the academy I knew I'd be busy, but I wasn't exactly sure how much free time I'd have. After a couple of weeks, I now realize that it will be a struggle for me to meet my monthly AAR reviewer commitment of 3 books, let alone find time to blog on a regular basis.

Which means that for the next several months I'm putting this blog on hiatus, with the fervent hope that once all of my training is complete, I'll be able to re-devote myself to the endeavor, which I truly enjoyed for the short time I did it.

In the mean time I'll still be reviewing for AAR, so I won't be completely absent from Romanceland. In fact, since my last blog post I've had two reviews go up at AAR -- If Looks Could Chill by Nina Bruhns and Strangers in the Night by Saskia Walker -- and my reviews of Slow Heat by Jill Shalvis and Waking the Dead by Kylie Brant should be posted within the next week or so. But the likelihood of my having time to blog-hop is close to nil.

As an aside, I can now call myself a true Bay Area resident. I experienced my first earthquake within days after moving to the area, which was a very Twilight Zone experience. I was sitting with my fellow recruits in the classroom, listening to the T.O. speak, when I felt this shaking. I started looking all around trying to figure out what the hell was happening, but everyone else was listening to the T.O. like there was nothing out of the ordinary. Which, apparently, there wasn't. The T.O. didn't even pause in her speech. I remember thinking, "What the hell? Don't any of you people feel that?" It wasn't until after class ended that someone got on their iPhone and said, "Nice. A 4.1." Yeah, nice. That's exactly what I was thinking.

Christmas Tidbits

My awesome family members and Dear Boyfriend helped me move 98% of my possessions on the day after Christmas, which means we all had to drag our asses out of bed at an ungodly hour after the festivities the day before. Lucky for Bro -- who was suffering from an eggnog hangover -- I wisely hadn't yet packed the aspirin.

Moving last weekend also means that since I'm still working at my old job this week, I'm living in an apartment furnished with a chair, a folding tray table, and an air mattress. Oh, the luxury.

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Every year my mom draws each of our names out of a hat and assigns us someone for Christmas. This year I was in charge of gift-giving for Middle Sis (age 27). Knowing that Middle Sis is a big paranormal YA fan, I endeavored to both surprise her with my selection, and find a well-regarded YA book that she hasn't yet read. I also took the opportunity to, ahem, expand her horizons.Which led to this conversation:

ME: "Now, I should warn you, two of these books aren't YA. They're adult paranormals, but I've read one and it's really, really good, and the other one comes very highly recommended. I really think you should give them a shot, you know, even though they're not YA."

MS (looking a bit miffed): "I do occasionally read grown-up books too, you know. You don't have to warn me that they might have adult themes. I am a big girl now."

ME (feeling acute embarrassment): "Uh, right. I didn't think that you didn't ... I mean ... um ... sorry. ... I mean, of course you read more than YA... Uh, yeah, so ... Hope you enjoy the books!" (scurries away)

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Little Sis was in charge of my gift, and she did an excellent job. I drink a lot of tea during the fall and winter, but have never gotten off my ass found the time to purchase a tea kettle. So LS got me a rockin' retro red (say that 5 times fast) tea kettle very similar to the one pictured here. I'm too lazy to take a picture of my actual kettle, so y'all are stuck with this one.

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At one point during the festivities, my mother decided to share a rather embarrassing story from when Bro and I were very young. After the guffawing died down a bit, Bro stated that since our family is ruled by democracy, he was taking a vote from the people who were there as to whether or not said events actually occurred.

Predictably, Mom was out-voted by Bro and I, and the story is now officially categorized under the heading of Spurious Tales Containing Vicious Lies and Untruths.

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How did your holiday turn out? Good times, good food, and all that?

Random Tidbits

I'm expecting the next couple of weeks to be crazy. I'm moving to a new city, starting a new career, wrapping-up on my current job, and on top of all that I have to deal with Christmas. To say that I'm stressed is an understatement.

While I would love nothing more than to curl up with a good book for an hour or two to relax, even a great story isn't enough to make me unwind. There's just too much going on in my head.

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In other news, I've discovered a fantastic way to kick your fried chicken addiction. Just bite into an undercooked chicken tender, stare at the raw center, and obsess about possible salmonella poisoning. Trust me, it'll be weeks (if ever) before fried chicken sounds remotely appetizing. Now if I could just find a way to turn myself off of sweets...

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A couple of weeks ago one of my cats, Blue, injured himself. He was healing quite nicely until a few days ago, when his paws started bleeding again -- probably from him messing with them. So we took the Cone of Shame for a test-drive.

As is his nature, Blue remained calm throughout the process, approaching it more from a "Let's figure out how to make this work" perspective. After repeated unsuccessful attempts at walking forward, he decided the best course of action would be to walk backward -- everywhere. There's nothing quite like watching a cat approach you ass first.

So the problem wasn't with Blue; it was with myself and Blue's partner-in-crime, Poe. Poe took one look at Blue with that bright blue cone around his head, and lost his ever-lovin' mind. He acted like Blue was an alien invader sent to murder us all, and alternated between cowering under the bed and executing Sniff-And-Runs. And I could only take about 30 minutes of watching my poor kitty pathetically maneuver through the apartment backwards, before I removed said Cone of Shame.

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I think I've checked Amazon at least twice this week to see if a cover has been uploaded for Julia Spencer-Fleming's upcoming release One Was a Soldier, the newest installment in her abso-freaking-amazing Clare Fergusson / Russ Van Alstyne series.

It's not that I particularly care about the cover; it's more about having a cover as proof the release date is real this time -- unlike the previous date of October 27th. Until I see that cover, that April 13th date seems very tentative to me. And boy howdy, do I want that book. Want, as in: Really. Must. Have. It. Now.

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My glomming of the television show Supernatural continues, as I eagerly await the arrival of Season 3 on my doorstep. I burned through each of the first two seasons at lightning speed, which included many late nights and very little reading. I'm going to attempt to savor the third season, and draw out the enjoyment a bit longer, but I'm also self-aware enough to realize that I have almost zero willpower and there's small chance of my being successful. Oh, and I might possibly be developing an itty-bitty crush on one Dean Winchester. Maybe.

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What about y'all? Stressed out during this holiday season? Know a good way to battle a food craving? How do your pets react to the Cone of Shame? Irrationally excited about an upcoming release? Crushing on any fictional characters?

Boys and Fire

So ... the other night I'm on the phone with Dear Boyfriend while I'm reading through some of the blog posts that have been accumulating in my feed reader. I come across this post by Jill Shalvis, and it amuses me, so I share it with DB:

ME: Hey, here's something funny. This author is blogging about her oldest daughter at UCLA. She said her daughter sent her a text message that read:

“My professor just asked if anyone has ever lit their farts on fire, because we’re learning about methane. I started laughing and everyone just stared at me. Lecture class of 250 …"

The author says:

"Poor thing. Of course she started laughing. She was raised by a wolf, aka Alpha Man. We sent her away to college to get educated, and what she’s learning is that her family is a little crazy…"

Heh, heh. Funny, huh?

DB: [silence]

ME: So ... you know. Her dad must have lit his farts on fire. Heh, heh.

DB: [silence]

ME: You've lit your farts on fire, haven't you?

DB: Who hasn't?

Texting Fun with Mom

Sometimes my mother really cracks me up, and it's not always intentional on her part. Such as this text message exchange from last night:

MOM: we have power!!

ME: awesome! i didn't know it was out.

MOM: since sunday

ME: sucky

MOM: yws but now   i am ib n the bath. aawesom

ME: r u also imbibing alcohol?

MOM: not since 10 am

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My mother is not a lush. Really, she's not. She just likes her Irish Coffee. You know, in the morning.

Pinups and Totes and Aprons, Oh My!

I just finished a bit of online shopping indulgence, and seeing as how this weekend I have no one else to show off my purchases to, I'm going to show them off to BlogLand. Not that any of you actually care, but for the moment I'm going to pretend you do.

Since I always seem to be carrying an armful of books wherever I go, I decided I needed a tote bag to make things easier. I checked out the local big box stores, but nothing captured my interest. So I went online to Etsy. That's where I stumbled upon My Great Gifts.

I have quite a thing for vintage and vintage-inspired clothing and accessories, so I was all excited to find this cute pinup tote bag:

And that's not all I found: My Great Gifts also makes vintage-inspired aprons! Of course, with the holidays coming up -- and my mind filling with images of me cooking Thanksgiving pecan pie while decked out in a cute apron -- I totally rationalized my purchase. I took a while to decide between these two:

Although I love the 1940s style of aprons (the one on the right), it was the cherry print, polka-dots, and red ruffle trim that eventually sold me on the bib-style one.

I fully plan to bring the apron to Mom's for Thanksgiving kitchen duty. About half the women in attendance will likely mock me for being so outdated as to wear an apron, *coughmysisterscough*, and the other half will fawn over my très cute kitchen attire.

So, where do you stand: Are aprons outdated or hip?

P.S. After I purchased my cherry print apron, I discovered Boojiboo's shop. I may need to increase my apron-buying budget. Seriously.