You Can Tell A Lot About A Person....

Everybody likes to spy their friends' bookshelves to see what they've read. Or claim to have read. The books we read show our interests, infatuations, and aspirations. Or they should. May have to re-tool my To-Be-Read ile for next year. This year was a little heavy on diet books.

1. Irresistible Forces by Brenda Jackson (Kimani)
2. The Feel Good Life by Stephanie Rowe
3. The Sicilian Boss's Mistress by Penny Jordan (Presents)
4. Unlimited: How to Build an Exceptional Life by Jillian Michaels
5. The Secret: The Power by Rhonda Byrne
6. The Dukan Diet by Dr Pierre Dukan
7. The 17 Day Diet by Dr Mike Moreno
8. Conquering King's Heart by Maureen Child (Desire)
9. Texan's Wedding-Night Wager by Charlene Sands (Desire)
10. More Than A Millionaire by Emilie Rose (Desire)
11. The Key: The Missing Secret for Attracting Anything You Want by Joe Vitale
12. Hot Westmoreland Nights by Brenda Jackson (Desire)
13. What a Westmoreland Wants by Brenda Jackson (Desire)
14. Here Comes The Groom by Karina Bliss (Supers)
15. Feels Like The First Time by Tawny Weber (Blaze)
16. Spontneous by Brenda Jackson (Blaze)
17. The Writing Life by Annie Dillard
18. Eat Your Feelings by Heather Whaley
19. Claimed! by Vicki Lewis Thompson (Blaze)
20. Ambushed! by Vicki Lewis Thompson (Blaze)
21. The Naked Mom by Brooke Burke
22. The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson
23. The Gabriel Method by Jon Gabriel
24. Proud Wife by Kate Walker (Presents)
25. Bossypants by Tina Fey
26. Afterlives of the Rich and Famous by Sylvia Browne
27. Kardashian Konfidential
28. The Everything Thyroid Diet Book by Clara Schneider
29. Master Your Metabolism by Jillian Michaels
30. The Insulin-resistance Diet by Hart & Grossman
31. The Everything Guide to Thyroid Disease by Friedman & Wu
32. America's Most Wanted Recipes by Ron Douglas
33. Billionaire MD by Olivia Gates (Desire)
34. Beat This! Cookbook by Ann Hodgeman
35. Deliciously Dangerous by Karen Anders (Blaze)
36. Make Your Move by Samantha Hunter (Blaze)
37. Cinch! by Cynthis Sass
38. Once Upon A Scandal by Delilah Marvelle (HQN)
39. Prelude to a Scandal by Delilah Marvelle (HQN)

Unexpected December



Hanukkah Bush

 I had so much planned for this month. Writing, of course, but also the holiday parties at school for my boys, Breakfast with Santa, The Nutcracker, Zoolights, cookie baking...I'd even intended a little Hanukkah get together for their friends today. And while the shopping for my kiddos is done, extended family gifts are not. And I can't just head to the store. Because...

Working the pole :)

I've spent the week in the hospital. After some testing and a scary phone call, a friend took on my babes at a moments notice, while another drove me to the ER. Where I had to wait for an hour. Made me wonder what scaring me was about.

Then we met with the doctor who explained diverticulitis (it's icky, don't click if you're easily squicked out) can be very scary indeed when it perforates, which is what had happened. Joy. They got my pain under control and loaded me up with antibiotics and stopped all eating. After a few loopy days, we tried liquids, but had to pull back. I've missed some fun things I had planned, but as long as once they let me out, I don't have to come back, all will be good.

Everyone, do something fun for me today, will you?

And Happy Hanukkah!

The Pink Heart Society: Wildcard Weekend : Favorite Category Romances of 2...

The Pink Heart Society: Wildcard Weekend : Favorite Category Romances of 2...: The Pink Heart Society celebrates all things category romance. We asked some of our favorite contributors to share with us the best category romance they read this year...

Las Vegas Weekend - Sunday

Though we were up until the wee hours giggling about how amazing the Katy Perry concert was, I popped out of bed bright and early. I escaped the room to spend some quality time with The Village People...the slot machine game. The cocktail waitress was a doll, bringing me both coffee and mimosas. I love Las Vegas!

Once I thought the other girls might have stirred (OK, so I was up $20 and didn't want to give it back to the machine) I checked upstairs. All it took to get them packed up and ready to go was the promise of brunch at Sugar Factory. The place is simply that good.

We spent the day exploring the free stuff Vegas has to offer - fountains, waterfalls, flamingos, lions, the live statues in the Venetian. We didn't manage to do anything on our agenda -- the roller coaster, gondolas, and CSI Experience. It was a bummer since I know the girls looked forward to it.

We did manage to laugh ourselves silly at Madame Tussaud's wax museum. We texted pix to one friend's husband and daughter...but they weren't fooled. Too bad, since I was all about getting my picture taken in bed with Hef!

Every time I go to Las Vegas, I come home with a list of things I want to do next time. I can't wait to go back!

Las Vegas Weekend - Saturday

Here's the part where I share what not to do on a girls weekend in Las Vegas when you have ADD.

Do NOT leave your phone in the car on the way to the airport. Then, your friendlies won't be too keen on letting you wander the city alone, since they don't have a way to reach you and they do not want to have to call your husband and explain that they lost his sugarmama. You have to do what they want to do, even if it is shopping and you don't like to shop in Las Vegas. (Oregon has no sales tax, so I don't like to shop anywhere else, no hard feelings Vegas, I'm just cheap like that)

Do NOT forget to put the battery in your camera before you leave the hotel room for the day. You'll have to lug around the heavy camera, and since it's your only form of distraction from shopping... your ADD will flare like it hasn't in decades.

Lesson learned. My frustrations aside, from the moment we woke up, Saturday was all about the Katy Perry concert that night. I may have influenced my lovelies to go to Sugar Factory for the best breakfast ever. And they might have explored the Forums Shoppes and Miracle Mile. I think we even managed to find a cute waiter at RiRa for dinner.

But it was all about Katy. We love Katy. Some of us went a little wild for Katy and bought new outfits. There were hot pink wigs. Feather earings. Lots of mascara. And a bedazzled bra.

And did we ever LOVE that concert! Such a fun combination of Candyland, Alice in Winderland and Wizard of Oz. The amazing staging and fabulous music came together to create a magical event. Such a great time.

After the concert I was too keyed up to go back to the room, but since we were in our own hotel, the girls trusted me enough to let me hit the slots. I got to spend quality time with my favorite game - Invaders from the Planet Moolah! I love slot machines. I always wind up breaking even, so for me they are like video games. Great for camling my frazzeled mind. The champagne helped too.

Las Vegas Weekend - Friday

After much planning, scheduling, and bargaining, my favorite group of desperate housewives managed to book a weekend in Vegas all to ourselves! No husbands, no kids... Heaven, is that you calling?

We packed a whole lot into our 3 days, which proved how much I love Las Vegas. There is never a dull moment in that city. Plus, since the town never shuts down, you can do as much as your lack of sleep allows!

The trip started out in style with a limo ride from the airport. Our driver even gave us a tour of the strip, and took our picture at the Welcome to Las Vegas sign.

After a fab lunch at RiRa Irish Pub, we headed to the Minus 5 Ice Bar. Talk about hilarious - I was expecting some kind of sexy igloo with a cozy lodge and floor length mink coats...but I got a walk in freezer with ice sculptures and coats and hats made out of muppet fur! The drinks were tasty and the bartenders were fun, but the chick with the camera was quite the sourpuss. I really wished they'd let me bring my camera in, the whole experience would have been much more fun had we managed to get more than one photo. The place is really only good for photo ops...and if you can't get that...

And then I got married. HA! The girls didn't want me to pack along my laptop, so I did some hands on research while I was there for the marriage proposal book. Checking out wedding chapels is a part of my job...not even going to pretend I didn't enjoy every minute.  

The first night we took a helicopter tour of the strip. I've never been in a helicopter and it was amazing...for me. It made one of my chickies claustraphobic, and another nearly lost her Irish pub lunch in her ice bar muppet fur hat!

Once our tummies settled, we needed dinner...at a Pampas Brazillian grill. We magically got a private dining room and the servers came in with swords of meat for us to try. Faboosh. Definitely a place I'd take my husband or brothers to.

After a round of shopping, it was time to get this set of Mommies out of their heels. We're used to sneakers...or in my case...socks!