MY FINAL 2023 TOTAL BOOKS READ IS 187!

I did a monthly book bracket—which was hard because some months had more than one great book!

That said, my top 12 bracket books of the year were:

  • January – Verity
  • February – Spare
  • March – Winners
  • April – Under the Whispering Door
  • May – In the Lives of Puppets
  • June – The Bones Beneath My Skin
  • July – Housemaid’s Secret
  • August – Dark Matter
  • September – Big Little Lies
  • October – A Man Called Ove
  • November – The Wishing Game
  • December – Never Lie

And the winning bracket book of my year is Under the Whispering Door.

Other books I’d highly recommend:

Beartown (series)
•Project Hail Mary
•Midnight Library
•The Rose Code
•The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
•Undercover Bromance (series)
•Remarkably Bright Creatures
•The Authenticity Project
•Gone Girl
•Drowning
•In an Instant
•Finley Donovan series
•Thursday Murder Club (series)
•Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice
•I Will Always Write Back
•The Wild Robot
•None of This is True

Spring Break Day 5: Manatees!

Linda surprised us and told us she wanted to take us swimming with the manatees! So, being in a wetsuit was a first for me and the kids!

Unfortunately, this time of year is the end of the season — most manatees have already begun the trek to warmer waters — so we actually had to hunt for them a bit. We eventually found this mom and baby and followed them, hoping they’d go into calmer waters…which they did, but they didn’t really go to a place we could easily get to them.

We did eventually get into the water but it was hard to see much since the water was so cloudy. That said, at one point, a manatee swam directly under me! Like inches below me!

The guide was taking photos for us so that was nice not to have to worry about…but the manatees weren’t very calm today so we didn’t get pics of us with them underwater. This is about the best we got of us in the same photo:

The kids loved the guide’s description of them as “2000 pound sea potatoes!”

We definitely wanted a selfie with our guides!
I wrote them a review on the car ride home!

Back home, we completed the beach glass puzzle with one day to spare!

Owen was serenading us with his snoring.

Magic Spoon cereal? Meh.

We wanted to try it after seeing tons of ads for it—we were intrigued. So we finally forked over $10 for a box and…meh.

As you can see — the bag is only half full. And it was a smaller box to start. The taste was okay — it definitely didn’t taste like the sugar cereals of our youth like they claim. That said, it wasn’t bad…but I wouldn’t waste your money on this unless you really REALLY specifically needed this type of product and just couldn’t live without cereal.

Book 37

I forgot about going outside to read because I’d had four days of Arizona’s blast furnace weather. But omggggggg today is perfection! And I’m on book #37: The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post

11:11am
1:54pm

I highly recommend this one. I had no idea it was historical fiction. To know that this lady I’m reading about actually existed was really quite cool.

My reading buddy

Top Gun: Maverick

There was no way in hell I was missing this on the big screen…

My thoughts?

  • Holy crap was that good! I wasn’t sure they could pull it off but they did.
  • It was more emotional than I anticipated for sure.
  • Tom Cruise still has it.
  • I got goosebumps more than once.
  • I teared up more than once.
  • The actor that plays Goose’s son is damn near perfect casting.
  • I’m so glad my mom didn’t see it first and tell me I didn’t need to see it because it was “just a bunch of planes flying around.”
  • I definitely want to see it again.

The TOTALLY unbelievable ottoman saga.

It started waaaay back in July. We ordered two pieces from The Roomstore on July 3 with delivery on July 10. Easy, right?

Except that the ottoman was damaged—it had a cracked foot (that fell apart when unwrapped) and a badly ripped corner.

Okay. Crap happens, we get it. So we scheduled another attempt—just thankful they had more in stock since in-stock furniture is hard to come by. So they attempted again on July 13 (#2) and…it was ripped on an edge.

Since it was actually functional they let us keep this ripped one until they could exchange it. Isn’t it pretty?

Our friends told us to just cancel it but it’s soooo pretty—it’s the perfect color and perfect size, plus it’s a storage ottoman. We asked for a discount and they refused, saying they’ll just exchange it.

On July 16 they attempted again (#3) and this time we made them unwrap it before they even brought it in the house. Nope. Two of the “squares” were so unbelievably discolored it was ridiculous that anyone looking at it for a second would assume it was good to deliver. I don’t have a photo of this one.

The next exchange (#4) was scheduled for July 20. This one was actually the least damaged of them all but the colors were off. Again. Not as bad as the first one but still unfit to accept.

SURPRISE SURPRISE—delivery attempt #5 on July 23 was a fail. Damaged. The inside edge was really scratched. It wasn’t visible, but the piece was expensive, so we figure it should be perfect to start with. Right? But we told the customer service person that we would accept it at a big discount and she offered us $50. On a $1100 ottoman. Um, no.

They told us it would be another month for delivery because they are getting one straight from the manufacturer to hopefully avoid any issues. UGH. At this point I really just wanted to be done with them, but it’s the perfect color, shape, size, etc.

Previous to this, Tom had talked to managers a few times and they assured him that we would be getting white glove service—that someone would be in the warehouse and looking it over first before it got loaded on the truck. Yeah no. That never happened. As evidenced by the continued arrival of damaged ottomans.

But then! We got a call saying they were going to deliver again. How? What happened to getting one straight from the manufacturer? Honestly at this point I don’t remember all the lies but I do know that they cancelled a few attempts because they discovered before or while loading it that it was damaged. I have texts from 7/28, 7/31, 8/11, 8/12, and 8/19—all of which I think were attempts that got cancelled. So maybe now a manager was actually checking them?!

So, fast forward through almost a month of attempts and cancellations and reschedules and talks with Customer Service (and Tweets!) that accomplished exactly nothing. (Oh wait! Tom had talked to customer service a few more times and they ended up giving us a $75 store credit and another time they refunded our $199 delivery fees. They then turned the store credit into an actual $75 credit but we never saw it on our account.)

8/19 — No idea what actual delivery attempt, but it was a FAIL. The outside had had packing tape on it, so when they ripped it off… OMFG… the color ripped off.

Tom tried to get store managers and it proved to be near impossible. He did finally get one and they basically told him they’d just keep trying. I want to give up but I want this damn ottoman because I haven’t found anything else this size or color or with storage in my search (and I’ve been searching)!

8/25 — Surprise surprise. Ottoman delivery attempt FAIL. It was scratched in two places and when the delivery guys went to try leather conditioner to fix it, it took the color off!

We decided enough was enough and even though it was a perfect size/shape/color, we couldn’t have something that got ruined that easily. (We had also noticed that we were scratching it just in daily use.) So we decided that we wanted to send both pieces from them back. Why both? Well, we bought them together (to go together) and if we couldn’t have one, we didn’t want either. Also? The loveseat turned out to be really crappy and was already getting deformed. We technically don’t need it since we found our real one elsewhere (after) and are just waiting for it to come in.

Well of course they fought it. Tom said if they refuse we will tell them we expect an ottoman delivery every Saturday from here on out until we’re happy…or they take both pieces. It was just ridiculous. Had they just given us a respectable discount to keep a less-damaged one, we would have been done with this in July. I mean, how much time and money did they waste attempting delivery of like nine ottomans?

After like 10 minutes on hold, the manager came back and said they will pick up both pieces! YAY! But also boo because I loved this ottoman. So now we are on the hunt.

Hello Fresh has spoiled us.

We have been loving Hello Fresh so we thought we’d try a bit cheaper alternative. It would have been perfectly fine had we started with that one and not Hello Fresh. We are really spoiled by all the ingredients for all the meals being separated into bags…because when we opened this box and saw a completely jumbled mess of food Tom and I looked at each other like WHAAAAAT IS THIIIIIIS?!

So we had to split it all up and bag it so we could just grab a bag and go. It wasn’t hard but…like I said, we were spoiled.

Maggie puppy in watercolor!

A Facebook ad strikes again! I kept seeing the PAWS ad on my feed for awhile now where they take a pet photo and make a watercolor out of it. Yes I know apps can do the same thing but it was only $5 so I thought I’d try it. It is cute and I’d say worth the $5 but it’s nothing super special. But damn Maggie was a cute puppy.

The original, 2005

My thoughts on Hamilton.

We finished it tonight. My first thoughts after Act 1 this past weekend were…MEH—I would have been pissed if I’d have spent hundreds to see it.

After Act 2…well…Act 2 was indeed better but I had hoped to be blown away by it—and I guess in some aspects I was— but overall I have no immediate desire to watch it again. Also? I am an emotional sap so when I was warned I’d need Kleenex…I was worried. But my eyes just got a tiny bit misty and there was no ugly cry.

That said, I can totally appreciate all the work that went into it—the actors were absolutely phenomenal and of course the writing was amazing (I wish I could be that talented at anything)—and I even caught myself singing some catchy snippets of songs this morning (My Shot and Helpless). I will also give it credit for making history interesting. But it’s still historical and history is just not my thing. I’m glad I saw it but that’s the end of my relationship with Hamilton.

Allure Day 4: St. Thomas

This morning we ate breakfast at Johnny Rockets! Normally it has an extra fee—but not for breakfast! I kind of missed all the choices available in the Windjammer buffet, but it’s also nice to have limited choices.

Don’t ask why I didn’t take many pics—I have no idea. None of the ship, none of the wildlife, none of the excursion line or the catamaran we were on. Maybe because it was HOT and I hate hot. 🙂

We got on the boat and everyone had a seat with snorkeling gear on it. We traveled about 20 minutes to the bay where we were going to be swimming with the sea turtles. We got our instructions, safety briefs, and enjoyed the breezes. Then it was time to get in the water. And it was…not what we expected. The short version is that it was too exhausting and too short.

The longer version? It was described as

Cruise in comfort aboard a power catamaran to the waters off Buck Island, where you’ll snorkel amidst colorful fish, vibrant coral and maybe some sea turtles!” with the typical warning “Guests must consider their physical fitness level and medical history when determining whether this tour is appropriate.”

Which kind of sounds like you’ll hop off the boat and leisurely swim around looking at turtles and sea life, right? Well I am a healthy 46yo woman who is not a peak swimmer but I know how to swim and I’m not going to drown…and this was EXHAUSTING. We had to swim A LONG WAYS to see the turtles. They are protected, so the boat has to drop anchor way away from where the turtles are so you have to swim over to them. They did warn us that there was a long trip and a short trip…but if you wanted to see the turtles you had to do the long trip. They also offered the use of fins, but strongly warned against using them if you were not used to them (citing the possibility of leg cramps). But if you don’t use them, you are likely going to struggle in the water since you have SUCH a long distance to swim (but they don’t tell you that). And you are swimming with snorkel gear (that you are likely mostly unfamiliar with) and maybe a waterproof camera…and there are like 50 other people swimming along with you and you are dodging 3-4 other boats and excursion groups. Egads.

So some people are faster and get there right away (with the guide) and you’re left dragging behind, struggling to catch up. My dad had to turn around and go back (and Tom had to help him, so he had to double back) and thankfully Katie opted to stay behind—she never would have made it and there is no way I could have helped her as I was barely making it. Tom and Linda had fins and didn’t have as many issues (but they were familiar with fins) but Tom was still tired. So by the time we all made it to the sea turtle area…we had about 3 minutes before they were moving on to the reef…which, you guessed it…was another longish swim away. And I was already exhausted. So my plan of a leisurely snorkel off the boat to check out some sea life and take some pics was not happening and I was frustrated and exhausted—not exactly best case scenario for a Caribbean vacation excursion.

Oh, and did I mention that Katie had refused to get off the boat? Yes it ended up okay because the swim would have been too hard, but still. That’s not what you expect after you’ve paid a bunch of money for a snorkeling excursion. She said she didn’t like saltwater and didn’t want any fish to touch her. I kinda wanted to strangle her to be honest. She wouldn’t even hop off the boat and swim for a few minutes.

And then we were back on the boat. And it was time for unlimited rum punch. I don’t generally like rum but this stuff was delicious.

Then it was off to “enjoy an hour of swimming, sunning, and relaxing at this idyllic spot.” If by idyllic you mean having to jump off a boat into neck-deep water to get to shore and then share the beach with a ton of other people from other boats…and that hour was over WAY too quickly. We barely had time to grab a quick lunch and some more rum drinks… And I practically had to BEG Katie to get in the water and Papa totally refused saying he didn’t like getting wet (or didn’t want to get wet?) which was silly because he was already wet from getting off the boat! But we had fun just relaxing in the water!

All that said, the excursion staff was amazing. They were all witty, helpful, and nice. I felt safe the entire time, they were good with our kids, and you could tell they knew what they were doing. I just wish Royal Caribbean would have more than a boilerplate description on their site because this was NOT the relaxing experience I wanted.

Once back on shore, we split up. I took Katie and Papa back to the ship and Tom, Owen, and Linda walked around St. Thomas. Katie and I dug into the frosting dog. The other group shopped and ate lunch.

Then Katie and I headed to the pool—I stayed in the hot (warm) tub and chatted with a bunch of people. Katie was running around in the pools and eating ice cream and visiting me in the hot tub. I don’t remember what all we did the rest of the night…but I know we called it an earlyish night again since we had another early morning planned for San Juan.

One funny story: the kids came home and said they had photobombed a video. So we had to watch it on the room TV…and sure enough… wait until the end. 🙂

DAMN Y’ALL. I’M FLABBERGASTED.

Can I talk to you for a second about my wattle? 🦃 I hate it, but I’ve considered it a badge of honor🎖for having lost 141# ⚖️ (now a bit less but let’s not go there in this post). 😂 But look what happened recently in just eight days?

DAMN Y’ALL. I’M FLABBERGASTED. I expected this to take at least a month or two IF IT EVEN WORKED. And it took days. DAYS Y’ALL.

(I’ve also been using it on my face but was so concentrated on watching for neck results that I didn’t take a direct face before shot. I’ve used it sporadically in the past but I’m determined to be religious about it going forward…because look at those results?!)

I never expected to cross off two bucket list items tonight!

So let me backtrack a bit and say that back in July I saw a news article come across my Facebook feed about the most unique margarita in Michigan. Of course I clicked the link…and was happily surprised to see that it was a thimbleberry margarita in a restaurant in Calumet—exactly where we’d be headed later in the summer to pick the kids up after grandparent’s camp. What are the odds?

I tried to figure out when we could stop, hoping it would work on the way through as it would be about an hour from where we were staying (and since we’d only be there two days, we didn’t have much time to be traveling two hours for a margarita…even if I REALLY really wanted to). We planned to be passing through about 9pm which was perfect…except we left later than anticipated plus ran into construction and rush hour traffic so by the time we were driving by it was after midnight and they were long closed. 🙁 And then I kind of forgot about it since we were busy with family.

But then we went on our date night—which was about 20 minutes from the house—and actually put us about halfway to the margarita. Tom suggested we go and I thought about it for a minute, thinking I’d love to but that would mean a 45-minute ride home afterwards and I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that. And he looked at me and said “REALLY?! Let’s go. We won’t be this close for at least another year.” #vacationbucketlist

I love this man.

So off we went. We walked in to the restaurant and headed to the bar. An older gentleman sitting at the bar welcomed us (which seemed slightly odd, but whatever) so we thanked him then ordered the margarita. It. Was. Delicious. Here’s me enjoying my first one.

I asked who came up with it and the bartender pointed and said “The owner—and she’s right there!” So we started chatting with them. They were a husband and wife (which, had I reread the article, I would have seen their photo) and they were really great and super nice.

So as we were talking, I jokingly asked if they would let me drink from the dispenser (because who hasn’t wanted to do that with a drink or ice cream at some point in their life?!) and the owner said yes! WAIT, WHAT?! I was kidding. But they said it was a first and no one had ever asked! Ha! Free margaritas? I’m totally in. She said I’d have to let them take pictures to post on their Facebook page and I said that was no problem!

So I did it.

My first thought was it’s harder than you’d think to line your mouth up under it—the dispenser shoot is pretty close to the machine itself which doesn’t lend itself well to putting your mouth directly under it. Plus I had to hold my hair out of the way so it didn’t get in the machine, get covered in margarita, or get in the way of the pics being taken. Plus you couldn’t just crank it open full force or you’d choke—and it obviously have you brain freeze! So it was a delicate balance…but I handled myself like a pro. 🙂

Tom, the owner, and the bartender were snapping pics the whole time. Unfortunately noone took a video.

And from the bartender’s view:

It might have been dripping out of my mouth.

What a total riot! I mean seriously. I never would have guessed this is how my night would end. I told her I’m sure people would PAY to do that (I would!) and she joked that maybe that would be her new business model.

I took a pic with the owner and we exchanged pics and I posted them right then and there.

We even joked about me doing it again because we didn’t get a video and she said I could but then it didn’t go any farther. She said she’d let Tom do it if he wanted but he’s not a margarita guy. She then offered him the beer tap of his choice but as Marine Officer he declined. But, she did give me my second margarita on the house! Oh, and we also had a piece of delicious chocolate cake that the owner made!

We will definitely go back there…and I highly recommend the thimbleberry margarita.

Lilac-haired girl!

I put the purple hair wax in Katie’s hair when it was wet and it was easier to do… I didn’t want to put too much in the first time, so it ended up a nice shade of lilac.

UPDATE: It washed out of Owen’s hair fine. Katie’s hair had some VERY slight tint left but I didn’t scrub it. As far as my pillowcase? There was very super light transfer but I had to REALLY look. It’s more like a powder. But if I hadn’t been looking for it I wouldn’t have seen it. So I’m happy with it.

It’s that time again…Katie has started ABCMouse!


So, Katie has been doing “homework” lately—we bought her a workbook like Owen gets for his Summer Slide and she has fun with that, plus she also has a few educational iPad apps that she enjoys. She saw a commercial for ABCmouse.com the other day and asked if she could have it on the iPad again.

First, huh? She remembers? It hasn’t been on the iPad for probably two years now!

Second, well, why not? Owen really enjoyed it and if she wants to do it…it certainly can’t hurt! (And in the back of my mind I keep wondering if maybe that’s one of the reasons why Katie is a touch behind as compared to Owen—even though I know I shouldn’t compare the two.)

So the thought was in my mind but on the back burner since we’ve been busy. So imagine my surprise when out of the blue I get an email from someone at ABCMouse saying my site came up as one that linked to them and—long story short—would I want to become a full-fledged official referral source. Well, sure, why not?

So Katie was EXCITED to start her “homework” and she kept asking to do it. Before I knew it, she was 14% done with the pre-k level. Hopefully her excitement continues! And hopefully I make some money off referrals!

HOLY $H!TBALL$ this product is amazing!!

Ladies, listen up. I’ve discovered a game changer if you straighten your hair—you have GOT to check out the Dafni. I got mine on QVC because at the time it was cheaper than Amazon, but less than a week later Amazon now has it cheaper. This cut my straightening time from 45 minutes (including blow drying with a round brush and then ironing) to 10 minutes (15 tops). I can’t gush about this thing enough: DAFNI The Original Hair Straightening Ceramic Brush.

This result took me TEN minutes:

My review can be found here but here it is. (Sidenote: I learned you can’t say HOLY $H!TBALL$ in a review. LOL)

I have long naturally wavy hair that takes me, on average, 35-40 minutes to blow dry straight and then another 15 minutes or so to touch up with a steam iron (actually a Maxius Maxiglide MX-597 One Step Hair Straightening Iron with Steam Burst Technology). But I am always on the lookout for a revolutionary hair straightener and I’ve tried a bunch of them. I’ve actually been using the Maxiglide for 10+ years because it was so awesome–until now, I would have said it was revolutionary. But this? The Dafni? HOLY SMOKES. This might just be the best money I’ve EVER spent!

I went into the first use with some trepidation as products like these generally have big claims and then generally don’t come through. But what you see in my photos literally took 10 minutes. TEN MINUTES! I then spent another five going over some sections a few more times and trying to get the ends better, but still…15 minutes?! FIFTEEN MINUTES?! ABSOLUTELY AMAZING.

Is it perfect? No. Obviously your hairdresser doing a salon blow-out will get it smoother and it will look better, but for an average person doing this at home? Yes. You can recreate your own efforts in a fraction of the time. My after photo with the Dafni is what my hair looks like after I blow it dry with a round brush for 40 minutes!

Also, my arms aren’t tired from holding a blow-drier and/or iron for 40 minutes and I’m not sweating from blowing hot air at my head for 40 minutes. I used to seriously plan ahead when I was going to dry/straighten my hair because it does take so long, but now? I can pretty much do it whenever I have a spare 15 minutes! The longest part of the process for me today was waiting for my hair to dry because I wanted to do it naturally but that’s no big deal because I do that some days anyway.

I am just completely blown away. My first thought once I finished in ten minutes was HOLY COW. This might be the best money I’ve ever spent on a hair product–kicking the Maxiglide to second place.

I get nothing for referrals—I just love this product!

Cirque Italia (Water Circus)

We surprised the kids with tickets to a water circus. We were driving around beforehand running errands and they saw the big tents and they knew it was a circus!

Unfortunately, it wasn’t nearly as exciting as I thought it would be from being called a WATER circus…it was pretty much your basic circus acts with a few of them done inside a ring of falling water. I didn’t really even take any pictures. It was also REALLY warm inside the tent and we were there an hour early, so it was a loooong afternoon of sitting on uncomfortable seats in an unfriendly temperature. There were some neat acts and the kids enjoyed it, but it certainly didn’t compare to the Big Apple Circus we saw last year.

Helloooo HelloFresh!

I’ve been thinking about trying HelloFresh for months, so when a friend offered a free box ($60 value), I grabbed it!

hellofresh

I selected the Omnivore box and then selected the meals I wanted, opting against one of the suggested meals because I am not a big artichoke fan:

  1. Rosemary Beef Flatbread with Caramelized Onion & Broccoli
  2. Spicy Shrimp ‘Fra Diavolo’ with Garlic Crostini
  3. Pan-Seared Calamari over Bulgur & Chorizo Hash with Parsley Gremolata

It’s refrigerated and shipped UPS—you pick what day it’s coming so you know for sure. I was very impressed upon opening the box—everything was superbly packaged and labeled (each meals’ ingredients are bagged together, minus the refrigerated proteins) inside an insulated bag. I was surprised they actually used frozen water bottles instead of dry ice (I tweeted them saying it was cool, and they replied that it was to reduce their carbon footprint) so we got four drinkable bottles of water as well! The three days’ worth of meals arrives in one box.

Once I actually started the meal prep, I was even more impressed—shrimp were peeled and deveined, garlic heads were peeled, everything was the exact amount required (except the red pepper flakes!), and the instructions were beautiful and detailed (I see why it’s as expensive as it is!). For us it’s above budget, but as a treat now and again to try new dishes it’s definitely worth it!

I discovered I like fresh oregano:

Spicy Shrimp ‘Fra Diavolo’ with Garlic Crostini (download recipe):

It was quite good. It wasn’t something I’d likely make regularly but it was a nice change of pace. And I had been worried about portion size, but Tom and I had a full meal and even had some leftover!

If anyone is interested, using my personal code AV8W2E will get you $40 off your first box! (I also get a $20 discount on a future box.) I definitely recommend trying at least one box as it’s definitely worth it for $20. There are no minimum purchases, you can postpone up to three months of future deliveries, and you can cancel at any time. They also send you a reminder email on the last day of meal selection to make sure you have either picked the meals you want or paused that week’s delivery. Of course they’re hoping you will get sucked in, and I can easily see how that would happen—I only planned on getting this one box, but I find myself looking ahead at the upcoming recipes to see what’s being offered…and drooling. 🙂

I can’t wait to make the other two meals!!

2010 USMC Birthday Ball

The ball moved to a new location this year—the Atheneum Suite Hotel in downtown Detroit. The rooms were pretty nice, but read the linked review for the whole rundown.

We had been looking forward to a crazy time like we had last year—since we knew more people AND it was an open bar again. However, the alcohol wasn’t really settling well with me (it was giving me a headache), so I was done drinking by about 8. Tom was having no problems, though, and I didn’t see him most of the night (after the ceremony and dinner). And for whatever reason, the music just wasn’t anything I wanted to dance to, so I pretty much sat at the table with a friend of mine (her guy was also working the room) and then after she went back to her room, I sat alone and Tweeted and Facebooked and played Scrabble. Big whoop, eh?

The event was officially over at 11 so I went to find Tom to tell him I was going back to the room…and let’s just say that the rest of the night didn’t go well (I was upset, he was not himself, we fought, I was wide awake, and he was passed out within 10 minutes of getting back to the room). Then the A/C kept me up all night (again, read the review) and I couldn’t wait for morning to get the hell out of there and back home.

So, I got to dress up…and we did get our official picture taken, but that was about all the fun I had, unfortunately. And aside from one cell phone photo, the official pics which we don’t have yet, and a really blurry pic someone took of us, this is the only pic we have:

And the blurry pic, which looks like it would have been awesome if it was in focus!