Just Jump

Monday, June 27, 2011

Getting our grump face on!

I asked for treats.
Then I demanded treats.
And yet you still ignored me.
Now you must deal with the wrath of Tyson!

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Review: Phone Kitten by Marika Christian

Shy, slightly overweight Emily would die if she had to talk dirty face-to-face—especially to her hot cop boy friend. She sure didn’t set out to do phone sex—she wanted to be a writer. But when her BFF framed her for plagiarism, she got in a tiny financial hole and saw this ad for “phone actresses”… Hey, it’s not nearly as bad as it sounds. No pantyhose or pantsuits, no regular hours, you’re your own boss, and lots of people to talk to. Guys, that is. But here’s the odd thing—lots of them want to talk about more than Emily’s imagined attributes; they start to think of her as the best friend they’ll never have to meet. Next thing you know, one of her customers gets killed and Emily knows a lot more about it than she should. But she can’t tell the nearest cop, who’s also her own true love, because then he’ll find out about her secret life. What’s a phone kitten to do? Solve the murder herself, of course—because wouldn’t it be a great story for the newspaper that wrongly fired her? It’s her ticket back to her real life—if it doesn’t get her killed.

Marika Christian's debut novel was one of the most fun reads I have had this year. Sweet Emily taking a job as a "phone actress" has to be one of the funniest things ever. And after chatting with Marika and knowing these phone calls were real, amused me all the more. Emily's circle of friends and allies were all as lovable as her and the shady characters were perfectly despicable. (And there is a hot cop, Rick, that is just yummy!)Emily's investigation into her client, Jim's, murder is full of one zany misadventure after another with a long list of suspects. Along the way, Emily finds that her life is more interesting than she thought it was. It kept me guessing all the way until the end as to who was going to be the killer, I guessed wrong the entire way. Witty dialogue, charming characters, and a suspenseful who-dun-it makes this a fabulous read and one that comes highly recommended!

Wanna know what sucks?

I don't have HBO!
So I have to wait for a site to upload "True Blood" so I can watch it!

My bed is calling me, it's nap time!

The sad thing is no matter how much I do want to go nap, I know if I do, I will never sleep tonight. *sighs*

I knocked "Smokin' Seventeen" off of my "to be read" list, finishing it yesterday afternoon. I am so excited that there are going to be two books out this year (book eighteen in November) but I fear the end is coming soon. I am about 86 pages into "Just Friends with Benefits" by Meredith Schorr now. (And yes, I still need to finish the Sherilyn Kenyon book.)

I went to see "Bad Teacher" today. It was one of those movies that would either be hilarious or suck, there would be no in-betweens with it. While it was no "Hangover II", it was pretty dang funny. I will see Jason Segal in anything.

It is a three day work week for me and I couldn't be more excited for this!!

How has your weekend been?

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Books, books, and more books!

I love, love, love to read but my "to be read" pile is getting out of control. I need to buckle down and get these books read!

My To Be Read Pile consists of:

Smokin' Seventeen by Janet Evanovich
Good Enough to Eat by Stacey Ballis
A Pug's Tale by Alison Pace
The Taming of the Bastard by LA Dale
Just Friends with Benefits by Meredith Schorr
Do not lick the phones by Britney Bronte
Fantasy Lover by Sherilyn Kenyon (I am half way through that book.)

Those are just the books sitting in front of me. I have books on my book shelf that I have never read as well.

Plus I need to get two reviews up:
Phone Kitten by Marika Christian (YAY!)
Scotland by Starlight by Nancy Volkers.

So keep an eye out over here...hopefully I get some reading in soon and can cross these books off my list. :) For the record, I have done 11 of the 12 books for the Chick Lit Book Challenge. (I will participate through the whole year, I love the challenge.) I also put a personal goal of 24 books on myself for the year. I'm at book 28.

Monday, June 20, 2011

38th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards (pt 2)

I love the daytime TV genre. I remember Luke and Laura's iconic wedding on "General Hospital" in 1981. I fell in love with that show because of Robert and Holly. I have watched "All My Children", "One Life to Live", "Port Charles", "Young and the Restless", "Santa Barbara", and "Days of our Lives" at some point or other in my life. Soap actors don't get a lot of respect. They work harder than most other actors as there is not a season break, there are not repeats. It is a fast paced, often changing atmosphere where you need talent to survive. But it is generally looked down on when someone says they got their break on a soap. Over the last few years the soap opera scene has started to crumble. A couple of months back it was announced that ABC would be cancelling "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" and replacing them with reality based TV talk shows. And I do understand the network point of view as it does take a lot of money to produce a daily soap opera and yes, the market has been on a steady decline for years now. However, instead of getting rid of the soap operas maybe they should look at what is not working and what is working and make some changes to them. That said, we had the 38th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards telecast last night on CBS. The networks have been balking at hosting this awards ceremony for the last couple of years. Two years ago was a disastrous airing on the CW, last year and this year CBS agreed to air them with generous backing from Las Vegas. And when I say generous backing, I mean the promotion of all things Las Vegas swallowed the show. Somewhere it became an infomercial of why you should go to Vegas instead of to honor the daytime genre. Very sad to see it happen that way. Unfortunately, if this is what we have to look forward to next year, I hope they opt to not air the telecast, instead do a low key awards ceremony and save an already slighted genre further embarrassment.

That said, let me hop off of my soap box and give you my best dressed from the Emmys last night.

Melissa Archer - last year she went for the scandal. This year, she went simple elegance.

Lisa LoCicero is tied for my favorite dress from last night. Absolutely stunning!

Laura Wright - Big congratulations for winning Best Actress last night. 20 years in the daytime business and won her first Emmy on her first nomination.