Windstorm!

You may have been wondering where I have been hiding lately. Well, we had one doozy of a windstorm last Thursday night and lost power about 1:00 am when a huge gust came through. About that time SeaTac airport recorded a gust of 70 mph (a record). It knocked Bob's pride-and-joy gas BBQ grill on it's top (weighing over 200 lbs).

This was the worst windstorm we have had since 1993 with about a million households without power. We were without power for 48 hours and STILL are without cable internet so I have been offline for almost a week. I have been working 10-12 hour days and so haven't had time to post from work either. But I'm taking a breather here at my desk and decided "what the hell, I'm going to blog".

Thousands of people are still without power so I shouldn't complain. You should see the roads around here with massive 100 ft. trees fallen across the roads, homes and cars. Looks like a war zone. I have had to alter my route to work because a large section of Northup Way is still closed with several large trees overhanging the roadway in a two block section.

I'll try to post some pictures later.

Squished

Just had my breasts squished today. OUCH! I hate my yearly mammogram and the technician was especially mean, a real masochist. I am usually very stoic even though it's rather uncomfortable but this time it hurt like HELL. Most painful one I have ever had and I actually yelled in pain. Never done that before. I swear I've got a huge bruise on one boob.

Anyway, before the mammogram the assistant who led me back to the changing area noticed the book in my hand and asked what I was reading. I was brave and told her it was a romance (something I usually don't admit to a stranger) and her expression just lit up with a big smile. She said she loves to read romance.. but calls them her 'slutty' books. You know we woman have got to stop putting down our reading preferences. I smiled back and said 'oh I don't think they're slutty, I really enjoy romance.' Right there I could see that she realized I was a kindred spirit. She wanted to know who the author was (Susan Donovan) and I told her it was a contemporary. She said that she liked historical romance and asked if I had read Christina Dodd. We spent the next few minutes talking about our favorite historical romance authors until she realized I needed to get changed into an exam gown.

I think I have finally gotten braver about admitting to strangers what I'm reading. In the past when asked "what ja reading" I would say stuff like:

"oh, nothing"
"just a trashy book"
"a mystery" (it was a romantic suspense)

and other lies or half truths.

I was always afraid about being judged but really why should I care what perfect strangers think. I bet most of you are more secure in your reading preferences and never have this problem but it has taken me a long time to reach this conclusion. I will never ever call a book I'm reading 'trashy' again. I will stand tall. I will be proud.

FictionDB.com

Popping in for a sec. Worked 12 hours today. *sigh* I'm tired but can't go to sleep yet.

I was subscribed to fictiondb.com and just got a notice that my subscription has run out and to sign up again it will run $29.99. That's for one year. Kind of steep, don't you think? I mostly used it to look up an author's entire backlist and find related books in a series. Their database is very complete. But the steep price is making me think twice. I could have sworn it was cheaper last year but I could be wrong and I'm too lazy to look up what I paid. Well, you do get a free book when you subscribe but overall I don't think it's worth it.

Are there any other sites out there that you can use to look up an author's entire backlist that are less expensive? There used to be a free site but I think you have to pay now for that one too.

Greetings from the saltmines

Yup, I'm feeling pretty bitchy right now so be prepared for a major rant. I worked last Saturday and refused to work Sunday although I was asked to which probably pissed some people off but I don't care. I have a life! I have other commitments! I go to church on Sunday mornings and I'm not a religious fanatic which is probably what they thought (but we Lutherans are pretty tame :-). I belong to a community handbell group and we have rehearsal on Sunday afternoons and I have to get a sub if I can't be there (which is impossible to do this time of year).

Today we were told that lunch and dinner will be provided every day plus breakfast on Saturdays until we ship our product on 12/22. Basically they want us to work work work everyday and not leave the office for lunch or go home for dinner. Nose to the grindstone until ship day. Why don't they just get out the ol' ball and chain and attach us all to our desks? What's next... porta potties in our offices?

Now some may say that they are just being thoughtful by buying us lunch and dinner but I need to get away from this place occasionally. I workout on Monday and Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings and I don't plan on missing it. Our bible study group (we're more social than bible study) is having a cookie exchange on Thursday. Bob and I are going to a Christmas brunch at a fabulous restaurant next weekend. AND I want to do some Christmas shopping and decorating and baking. Oh, and Christmas cards. I feel like I'm going to explode. And I feel like I'm on the verge of tears a lot.

My stress quota has been reached.

I finished Hard Evidence by Pamela Clare last night and loved it. Ok, it had problems (and Jane's review pointed them out). But Clare's writing ranks right up there with Linda Howard and Anne Stuart for me. So what bothered her didn't bother me. It was fast paced and extremely HOT. I gave it a B-.

Just started The Wicked Lover by Julia Ross for about the 5th time. Let's see if I can get through it this time. Probably not a good time to try with my work situation.

Oh, well, back to work.