That's insane!

The other day we were at the store and Jason was looking at cigars.  I looked over and noticed the price of tobacco.  Almost $8 for a pack of cigarettes and $75 for a cartoon!!!! Holy Crap! 

But wait! It get's better.

I thought that was the worst markup in pricing I was going to see, but I was wrong.  Very wrong. We went to buy more bottled water tonight and a 24 pack of Aquafina is $22!  That's right, I said $22!  And before you ask, it wasn't a price mistake.  That was the price at another store as well.  So we bought the 24 pack of Nestle Pure Life for $5.99.

Double Rainbow

Book Talk: Bad Smut

Ok, time to talks books.  I just finished a book called Dangerous Lover by Lisa Marie Rice.  Here is the synopsis provided by Barnes and Noble:

"I don’t want to be alone tonight."

Caroline Lake can hardly believe she would ever say these words to someone she'd never met before. When a tall, dark stranger arrives wanting to rent a room in her beautiful empty shell of a mansion, she hesitates. Though she is in dire financial straits, the man looks dangerous—dangerously sexy. She's overwhelmed by the desire he sparks in her—hotter than anything she's ever felt before, making her ache to experience his sensuous touch. But who is this armed and mysterious man with danger following in his wake? He's not who she thinks he is . . .
Jack Prescott has wanted Caroline forever. He has spent the past twelve years dreaming of her, desiring her, while fighting in some of the worst hellholes on earth. Now he's back, with twenty million dollars in blood diamonds and a relentless enemy stalking him. But this time Jack's determined that nothing will stop him from finally making Caroline his.

I read it in two days and I'm afraid I have to give this one a "bad smut" rating.  This story had great potential but fell short on many levels.  Here are my reasons:

• Never really got attached to the characters.  Yes their personal stories were sad, but something about the writing just didn't grab at your heart.  I never felt connected to them and wasn't really cheering for them.  Not people I thought about when I had to put the book down.
• One minute Caroline is thinking how Jack is not attractive but yet has this pull about him and the next minute she is saying how incredibly handsome he is.  Which is it?
• Lots of misspellings.  One character's name is Deaver and the story constantly switches between Deaver and Deacon.  
• Needs more research!!!!!  Jack, the main character was supposedly an Officer in the Army.  Well, he never went to college and only had a GED.  Um, so he could not have been an officer.  He was an Army Ranger. All the covert, heavily secreted, dropped in the middle of a third world countries to infiltrate their government type missions would have been Delta Force, not Rangers.
• Deaver, the bad guy, talks constantly about getting his diamonds back and living the good life overseas.  Only he doesn't say overseas, he says OUTCONUS.  Um, WTF is that?  It is supposed to be OCONUS, an acronym for Outside Contiguous United States.
• Jack constantly talkes to himself in his head.  No big deal, most books use this. But Jack uses lots of words from Courtney's "I don't like that word" list.  Cussing I can handle but if you know me, there are certain words, usually pertaining to women, that make me cringe and just kill the mood!
• The whole book is building you up for the major scene at the end.  I knew there was going to be a problem when there were only 5 pages left.  The books ends with the bad guy dropping to the ground dead.  The End!  You get a little extra tibit from a new character who suddenly gets a check in the mail, so you can figure out what they did with the diamonds, but you get nothing more on the couple.  I don't like that.  Give me a better Happily Ever After.
• Finally, the smut.  It was detailed, but just not interesting.  In fact, after reading several scenes, Jack should have been slightly if not more embarrassed.  See a doctor dude! 

Hope you enjoyed my review.  This is not one I will be buying in print to keep and re-read. 

Oh Popeyes!

When we lived in Germany,  I loved the food.  But there were times when you just wanted food from "home".  We had a Taco Bell on post and I was there often, even if I had to walk in the snow.  One of my guilty little pleasures was to sneak over to the Popeye's Chicken line and order a few biscuits to eat after my Taco Bell.  I loved how warm and soft and buttery they were.  Really reminded me of being a southerner.  Don't get me wrong, German bread is wonderful.  But sometimes you just want/need a dense biscuit that can be used to scoop up mashed potatoes and gravy.

Well wouldn't you know, the first thing I saw outside the PX here when we were shopping on post was a Popeye's!  Of course I had to get some biscuits!  The whole time I was worried.  I hadn't had them in over 8 years.  (Yes, I know there was a Popeye's in West Columbia about 20 minutes from my house in SC, but that is not the point.  It has to be a POST Popeye's to be sentimental! So I never ate at the one in SC)  I worried I would be disappointed, that they would not be as good as I remembered.   I sat down with my meal, ate my chicken and saved my biscuit for last.  SCORE!  Boy oh boy was it worth the wait!  Even better than I remembered! 

Now, for the shocking part.  Over $9 for a 2 piece meal!  It was good, but from now on I will just buy the biscuits or learn to make them myself.

Better schools, not so better evening

The girls had a great first day at their new schools.  They like these schools much more and even made a few friends.  It was such a relief to hear them come home happy.  There is not much I can do about the bad public school, but Jason and I plan to file a complaint about the post school. 

While the girls had a great day, Josh's was not so grand.  He started feeling bad right before we left to get the girls from school.  By dinner time, he was throwing up.  This went on until late into the evening.  Hotels are no place to be when sick.  However, there were plenty of clean towels and sheets and I was not stuck staying up all night doing the laundry!

Finally some progress

It has been a very busy past few days.  We were not able to get a rental.  The last one we were trying to see didn't pan out.  The rental agent canceled our appointment to see it 5 times.  So, we had to finally give in and consider the option of buying.  We got pre-approved and started looking.  We found one we really liked and put in a strong offer, only a few thousand under asking since it needs some upgrades.  He countered, asking for full price and we walked.  He then realized his mistake and tried to come back and agree to our first offer, but by then we were already looking at other houses.

We found another house the next day.  It is perfect!  It has all the room we need and is move in ready.  We submitted an offer and it was accepted a few hours later.  We close Feb. 24!  I can't wait!  Our house payment, even after taxes and escrow, will be $600 a month cheaper than the rental houses!  Plus the house has great rental potential later on.  It is 5 minutes from post, and has a fully finished basement (with it's own entrance) that can be a second rental unit.

Finding the house could not have happened at a better time.  The girls hated their schools.  Joanna was going on post and came home crying everyday.  She has always loved school and has never come home crying before.  Chey was going to a civilian school and was terrified of her school.  Most of the kids in her class had their drivers licenses already!  They were supposed to be in 10th and 11th grade.  She was one of the only ones in 8th grade for the first time.  When I was walking her down the hallway, all the kids were bigger than me, covered in piercings and the girls were showing way too much skin and boobs!

So, we took our housing contract and went and enrolled them in the schools near our new home.  They started this morning.  Hopefully today is a better day for both of them.

Jason leaves next week for training.  He will be gone until March.  The kids and I will be moving into the house alone.  I am actually hoping to get our house hold goods delivered and have the whole house set up before he comes home.  He can enjoy the house a few weeks before heading off for the deployment.

You know it's cold when.....

The inside of your nose freezes the minute you walk outside.  I HATE that!  It is a very uncomfortable feeling.  Jason says that is how you know it is -20 or below.  It was -34 the other day.  Absolutely painful.  It did warm up yesterday.  After starting the morning at -27, it warmed up to -14.  I know that sounds strange, but you really could tell a difference.

What I am confused about is, how does plumbing set off fire alarms?  Our alarms went off at 3am.  Not a pleasant way to be woken up.  Everyone was standing at their doors, trying to figure out what to do.  Well, we know what to do, but it's hard to make yourself go outside when it's almost -30 and snowing.  Luckily, it was a burst pipe in the building next door and everyone was told to go back to their rooms.  The fire department did come and Josh had a blast watching them out the window.  I am grateful it was just a pipe since the Frontier Lodge Motel did catch on fire yesterday.