The Madness of it All!

I have spent the last three days flat on my back. I've been so sick I could barely move. It appears that I can't catch a break I guess it could be worse in the sense that at least I didn't get the strep throat, however I did have to call out of work yesterday and now I will definitely be reprimanded today and put on a First and Final for attendance. What that means, people, is that I will be unable to be sick for the next 6 months!

Which is whatever, I should have been well, I shouldn't be working this hotbed of disease that I call work, however I do and I did, so it is what it is. Hopefully I won't get sick again. Go figure! I will just start to ask off for a day every two to three weeks and do what needs to be done then. Hopefully I will be working from home this week and won't have to wonder what the hell is going on when I can't stand up and walk.

I think I am running a temperature so please disregard anything I have written thus far.

I just finished reading a book by Victoria Alexander called Desires of a Perfect Lady. I liked some things about this book, didn't much care for others. The book is about Olivia who was in a bad marriage with a horrible man who abused her horribly. Well he was murdered in another book (had his throat slit, ick!) well anyway in order to gain her inheritance (the man was filthy rich with a emphasis on filthy) she has to complete three of his art collections. Apparently he was a huge art collector, including Titian, Egyptian artifacts and things of that nature. The thing is the man was crazy so he is trying to make his wife finish the collections which in his mind she would never have been able to complete therefore keeping her on a shoestring budget the rest of her life. He liked torturing her.

So Olivia had to turn to her ex-love. The man who abandoned her when she needed him. She was to have married the Earl of Wyldewood when they were young, but her father made her marry the crazy Lord Rathbourne instead. She wrote letters to the Earl but he was such an idiot that he never read them. If you can tell I am not a fan of the Earl of Wyldewood. I found him kind of self centered, very needy and a lot immature. After what Olivia went through I would have hoped he would be man enough to handle her but I have a feeling he is not the best man for our heroine. Anyway, she had to go to him, simply because she couldn't afford to take on the taste of completing the art collections with the budget her dead husband set her up with. Anyway, this undertaking takes our couple from England to Egypt to Italy and along the way they have to fight their feelings for one another, then give in, then fight some more,  before we see our happy ending (It's a romance novel so of course there is a happy ending!)

The one thing I didn't understand was that twice in the book Olivia is attacked at night in her bed but nothing ever came of it. We don't know who did it, we don't know why, it just happens and then it disappears like it never happened. Go figure! I completely do not get it. Also the Earl is boring. I was so terribly bored by him that at one point I put the book down and read another book entirely before picking it up again. I like my men either humorous or take charge and hot and the Earl is neither. Olivia I liked, she persevered through some really hard times. She survived with her mind intact. She just has horrible taste in men!

If you are curious about this book there is a first one about the Earl's treasure hunting brother The Virgin's Secret of course I never read things in order so I haven't read this one. There is another brother who I am sure has a book already or will have one but I can't locate a third book so who knows.

Thanks for reading my randomness.

Ahh, Monday, Wish it was Sunday!

This weekend was a major let down. I had a laundry list of things I wanted to get done but I only got a few of them marked off. Why you ask? Well, Friday after work I took a tumble down the stairs at home. I have some bruises in some really interesting places. This is what my Casey-Do (Since I don't have a Honey to do a Honey-do list) list looked like on Friday morning.

1.) Complete Invitations and get them in the mail.
2.) Complete Gift Swag Bags (8 total)
3.) Finish painting the ugly 70's inspired foyer with a fresh coat of Buttercream Yellow.
4.) Cut out 100 Barbies with the Cricut.
5.) Laundry
6.) Gather up all the recycling.
7.) Clean room, change sheets (I'm fanatical about sheet changing)
8.) Repaint 3 chairs Pink and cover them in my damask fabric.
9.) Bake Oreo Cupcakes and Smore's Cupcakes
10.) Grocery Shopping for the next 2 weeks.

You may ask well Casey, since you were pretty much flat on your back on Friday and Saturday what were you able to accomplish?

1.) I cut out 4 Barbies.
2.) Grocery shopping for 2 weeks. (Did this Friday BEFORE I got home and fell down the stairs)
3.) Cleaned room, changed sheets (I'm VERY fanatical about sheet changing)
4.) Laundry (Well at least 2 loads.)

That's pretty much it. I was still very sore on Sunday but I had to get the room cleaned at least, that way I wouldn't imagine the dust bunnies rising up against me in a fit of anger over the state of my room. I didn't get my curtains hung yet. I have these Blackout Curtains, basically they are a very pretty purple but if you untie them and put them in front of the windows 0 light gets in. Picked those up at Walmart - awesome!

My ribs are pretty sore, I don't think I broke anything but it was rough going there on Friday evening and Saturday.

Here is some cool news, I was chosen to receive an ARC (Advanced Reader's Copy) of JK Beck's When Blood Calls. I was chosen because I do tend to blog about what I read and tell you how great I thought the book was, so stay tuned for more information on that, once I receive it you guys will be the first to know!

 I finished two books by Karen Robards while I was laid up. She has a trilogy about the Banning sisters Scandalous, Irresistible, and Shameless. I was able to pick up Scandalous and Irresistible at the local goodwill for a great price of .50 each. Which was quite cool, I've always been a Karen Robards fan and I hadn't read these two books before. (On a side note I also picked up The Pursuit as well, and am almost finished with this one)

We will start with Scandalous. Basically you have the Plain Jane story with a twist. Our Plain Jane is possessed of a temper and she has a bum leg. I can so relate to the Gimpy leg she has. Anyway, the story is set in 1810 and Lady Gabriella (Gabby) receives word that her half-brother who she has only met a hand full of times has been murdered. See, her father was kind of a nut-job and left her and her two sisters with no provisions in the will, so everything passed over to her Half-Brother Lord Wickham. Gabby wanted to do a come out for her sister Claire so that she could find a match (yay, 1800's London!), but since her brother died everything would go over to her much to be desired cousin and his witch of a wife. So Gabby did the only thing she thought she could do. She pretended her brother was still alive and set about arranging Claire's come out.

This where things go horribly wrong for Gabby. When she and her sisters arrive in London to the home their deceased brother owns, they find that he is in residence. Wait. You are totally going, but Casey, you said he was dead! He IS! That is the weird part, there is this man that says he is Wickham and Gabby is the only one who knows he is definitely NOT. Soon London is watching the pair fall in love and the scandal rocks the old biddies down to their pinafores. I mean come-on they think that the two are brother and sister and are carrying on like an illicit affair (which they are but seriously they AREN'T related, but in public they have to appear to be). Well you got to read this one, I thought it was exceptionally good. Any book that contains, love, illicit romances, scandal, spies (yes there are SPIES!) and 1800's London is always fun.

And now on to Irresistible. Irresistible is Claire's story. Claire is already married to an insanely annoying man who she thought she was in love with, but on her way home she gets besieged by some crazy people who kidnap her, she manages to escape by bashing one over the head with a chamber pot (If you don't know what a chamber pot is, imagine a little kids porta-potty in porcelain, yeah real heavy and kinda nasty.) She gets away but gets caught on the beach by some other dudes who take her on a boat and ship her clear across the ocean to France. See what happened is that Claire was mistaken for a French spy and Hugh Battancourt is the man tasked with bringing in the spy, so when Claire makes it to the beach where the REAL spy is supposed to be she is snatched up by accident. But you are so totally wondering who had her kidnapped to begin with. I'm not gonna tell you, I refuse to ruin the book for you, but just think about it and you will figure it out. Anyway, she and Hugh fall in love of course, since she's married and he's a Spy for England nothing can come of it, or so you think. You totally have to read to find out exactly WHO Hugh winds up being and what that means for Claire.

I enjoyed both books, the only downfall I can see is that I don't think there was that many Spies in England and the who spies in the books (Hugh and fake Wickham) aren't related or know about each other in any way. There is a third book, Shameless, which I bet also has a spy. I just kind of find it weird that those particular three sisters fall in love with spies. I mean, what is the likelihood?

I am now reading The Pursuit about the murder of the first lady so I will let you know what I think when I'm done with that!