Jack Johnson ROCKS the Billboards

Oh, Saaaamaaaanthaaaaa!!! Well, well, well, what do you know? Look who's on the cover of the latest issue of RollingStone magazine. C'mon, you know you've been Sitting, Waiting, Wishing for his newly released album! I even saw it for sale at Starbucks this week! Surprised? Nah... you shouldn't be. This new album, Sleep Though The Static is currently #1 on the Billboards! That is, #1 on The Billboard 200, the Billboard Comprehensive Albums, the Top Digital Albums, and the Top Rock Albums!!! Go Jack!

Do You Remember the times you made fun of my fondness for the soulful sounds of Jack Johnson? Thinking I was a Flake? Well, girl friend, those days are Gone because in Times Like These, I obviously don't Walk Alone. There are millions of Jack Johnson fans. And someday... maybe someday... you'll be thinking to yourself, "If I Had Eyes, I'd be a Jack Johnson fan, too."

So tell me, did this news turn your world Upside Down or what? Don't worry... I know what would cheer you up. Come on over to my place, I'll fix you up some Banana Pancakes and expose you to some Sexy Plexi. You know you want some. ;o)

Go here to the Jack Johnson's website to the video section of this laid back surfer dude music artist. "If I Had Eyes" is from his new album. "Upside Down" from the Curious George movie is another of my favorites and the lyrics can apply to adults, too. :)

EDITED FOR CORRECTION:

From the Oxford American Dictionary:

flake |flak|

noun

1. a snowflake.

2. informal: a crazy or eccentric person.

Samantha has never called me a flake, especially in regard to definition number two. I really just wanted to use that song title in my post. However, I am like a snowflake.... unique and delicate. There's no one out there like me! :) ... but I'm not cold. ;p

And here's Jack Johnson performing one of my favorites,
Better Together:

A day of Futuristic Romance

Today is the release date of two futuristic romances that I will be reading in the not so distant future.

First up is Netherwood by Michele Lang. Netherwood is the latest novel in Dorchester's SHOMI line of speculative romance novels that combine the elements of suspense, paranormal, fantasy and sci fi with most powerful and compelling element of all--romance. Michele describes Netherwood as a futuristic Robin Hood story in which intergalactic sheriff, Talia Fortune hunts down cyber outlaw Kovner, a.k.a. The Avenger. Talia's hunt brings her to the Gray Forest where she finds The Avenger and her perspective of her world and self is ultimately shattered. Stop over at Sarai's blog, Thoughts of an aspiring writer and check out her interview with Michele Lang, where you'll also find Sarai's review of Michele's new novel, Netherwood.

The second book of My Futuristic Romance Day, is Ann Aguirre's much buzzed about novel, Grimspace. The heroine, Sirantha Jax, has the rare ability to navigate or jump ships through grimspace. A tragic crash kills her crew and she is imprisoned and tortured. Her talent, however, is a valuable one, and she is ultimately rescued by a group of rogues, lead by March, who need her help with their mission to disrupt the current monopoly on space travel.

I have heard nothing but outstanding things about this novel, including a wonderfully written review of Grimspace by Katie(babs) on Ramblings on Romance. I love a heroine centered romance and from what I hear, Jax is a wonderfully complex character who is heartbroken and emotionally vulnerable, yet a strong and determined woman. I just can't resist the combination of romance woven with action packed sci fi or fantasy adventure. I'm truly looking forward to this novel.

It looks to me like there's no better time than the present to get in on the futuristic romance scene! :)

REVIEW: Riding Wild by Jaci Burton

There's good reason why the cover to Jaci Burton's latest release, Riding Wild, is splashed with the color of flames... this book is on FIRE!

Riding Wild is a fast paced novel full of suspense, emotional and sexual heat between bad boy thief Mac Canfield and good girl private investigator Lily West. When Lily is hired to test the museum security protecting a high profile artifact, she witnesses its theft by none other than Mac, her bad boy crush of ten years ago who broke her heart. As Lily confronts Mac outside the museum, she becomes overrun with conflicting emotions as she has never truly gotten over him, and is disheartened as it appears he hasn't changed his bad boy ways after all these years. Not to mention she wants the artifact back. Mac is equally stunned to be face to face with Lily as he realizes the sweet, innocent girl-next-door he once knew has transformed into a strong willed, independent woman who can totally kick ass. As they deal with the shock of seeing each other, they come under fire by yet someone else after the artifact. As it turns out, things are not exactly what they seem--the artifact is more than just a piece of art, and Mac is more than just a thief. So in order to both preserve the secrecy of his mission and to keep Lily safe, he is forced to essentially kidnap her. Mac whisks Lily away on his Harley and she finally gets the ride on the wild side she always wanted.

Riding Wild is highly charged with emotional and sexual tension. Mac and Lily are unable to deny their stong, insatiable desire for each other and the sexual tension builds. The intense heat between them leads to extremely passionate, erotic sex and ultimately to the realization of the love they have always shared. Throughout this wild and sensual adventure, Mac and Lily work through issues of trust and troubled pasts, and in the process discover the true meaning of love and acceptance.

Jaci Burton expertly weaves this compelling story of secret agent intrigue and erotic romance and should not be missed. Riding Wild is the first novel in Jaci's new Wild Riders series, which means more tantalizing stories of sexy heroes riding fast motorcycles and souped up cars, dangerous missions and sensual romance. Riding Temptation is the next Wild Riders novel, due in October 2008, followed by Riding on Instinct, tentatively due in April 2009.

GRADE: A-

My Random List of Six

I've been blog tagged by Jill. Her blog is Romance Rookie. 

Here are the rules:

1. Link back to the person who tagged you.

2. Post the rules on your blog

3. Share six random things about you

4. Tag six random people at the end of your blog entry

5. Let the tagged people know by leaving a comment on their blog.

Six random things about me.... 

1. I'm a coffee addict. I started drinking coffee regularly after my second child was born because I was chronically sleep deprived and could barely keep my eyes open past 3:00 in the afternoon. Now I drink maybe 3 cups a day, but also LOVE coffee anything! Coffee drinks...hot, cold, frozen, alcoholic (Espresso Martinis YUM!), coffee ice cream, coffee candy, coffee desserts, etc...

2. I am not a "cat person," yet have four cats. I do love my pets, but I'm not really the "cat lady" that I must look like from the outside. I'm more of a "kitten person," and well, yeah, they grow. I've been suckered TWICE to adopted the last brother/sister pair in the shelter because I didn't want them to be separated. TWICE I did this. I won't be making that mistake ever again. 

3. I cry a lot. I've always have been a crier, and probably always will be. I wasn't even allowed to watch The Little House on the Prairie when I was a kid, because I'd be a basket case every time. I'm serious. I saw the Spiderwick Chronicles movie last weekend with my nine year old daughter. At the end, I said to her, "I cried." She sighs and says, "I know, Mommy." lol Yeah, so things like movies, books, Hallmark commercials, songs on the radio... they all get to me. My latest example is the Alicia Keys song, "Like You'll Never See Me Again." I can't listen to it without getting that burn behind the eyes. But I don't cry when I see roadkill anymore, so that's good. ;p

4. I love ethnic foods. My favorites are Thai, Mexican and Indian. I'm going out to dinner with my friend Kate tonight for Turkish food, which I'm really excited about. I have only had some traditional Turkish appetizers in the past... can't wait to discover something new! I will try anything once and refuse to get grossed out over what other cultures eat. I'm not vegetarian. I eat animal flesh, so really folks, there's not really much that's more gross than that.

5. I'm a world class procrastinator. Case in point, Jill tagged me Sunday and here I am posting this on Thursday. *rolling eyes* I'm going to try very, very, very hard not to procrastinate doing my taxes this year. Because when you are expecting a refund, it is extremely lame to mail them out on April 15. Just saying. 

6. I've lived in New Jersey my entire life, always within 30 minutes of New York City, barring traffic, and it wasn't until I started dating my husband (who immigrated here when he was 11) that I ever saw the Statue of Liberty or Ellis Island, where my own grandparents passed through in the 1920s when they immigrated to the US! He was also the one who took me around to all the touristy places in NYC. 

I tag the following people: Anna, Amy, Sarai, Kat, and um... hmm... I think I need more blog friends. Humpf.

Camping Fun

I took my older girl scout troop camping this past weekend. Yup. You read that right. Camping. In February. In the beautiful Appalachian Mountains that roll through north western New Jersey. 

Guess which car is mine? ....

Inevitably, wherever you are driving to in New Jersey on a Friday afternoon or evening, you sit in traffic. So to help pass the time and control the volume of chatter and giggles that quickly turn to shrieks, I decide to play some music from my ipod using this handy dandy tape cassette thingy that lets me broadcast my tunes via the car speakers. One of the girls is a HUGE My Chemical Romance fan, and is thrilled to learn that I have a few (three) My Chemical Romance songs on my playlist. As the song starts playing, I remember that the song is the explicit version of I'm Not Okay. I should have skipped to the next song. But no. I can handle this. I tell them I will censor the single curse word in the whole song by simply turning the volume off for the few seconds it takes for the dude to sing it. No problem. I know the curse is at the end of the song, so after the first two verses, my fingers start lingering over the volume knob, and I'm saying, "Here... it's here, right?" Totally at the ready. The girls are saying, "No, not yet." Fingers twitching. I say, "I know its coming.... It's at the end... riiiiight NOW!" And I lower the volume totally off. Four.... three... two.. one. I turn the volume back up, but a slight slip sends the volume WAAAY up. In perfect time to hear the words, "I'M NOT O-FUCKING-KAY!" in full volume, louder than loud. Nice. All I can muster is "I'm so sorry." What else am I supposed to say? (In my head I was saying "Don't tell your parents about this," but I would never ever EVER tell a child to not to tell their parents something, so I guess "Sorry" will just have to do). The girls are in hysterics. "Mrs. A, you ROCK!" Which would normally be 'music to my ears', but not exactly in this context. *sigh*

Recall the instructions from the Snow Tubing trip two weeks ago when the girls needed to bring a brown bag lunch-type meal with them for dinner? Well, the same instructions applied for this trip. You know what's coming, don't you? Its now after 7:00 pm and we're a good 30 minutes from camp, so when the girls ask if they can start eating in the car, my daughter turns to me with a worried look on her face. "Mom?" Oh shit. How did I forget to pack us dinner... AGAIN? Poor kid. So this time, Mickey D saves the day. She got her crispy ranch chicken snack wrap and french fries. Sure beats the turkey on wheat I would have packed her if I had remembered, true? ;)

We finally get to camp, settle into our cabin, and head to the commons for some fun. When we get back to the cabin later that night, I run into a spot of trouble with my ski jacket. I can't unzip it. I zip it up a bit to unsnag it, but it's not caught on anything, and still won't unzip. Thankfully, I'm able to pull the jacket over my head, but as I try to determine the cause of its unzipability, I end up zipping the zipper all the way up. Stupid. Now the opening is too small for me to slip my head through. And none of the capable and resourceful girl scout leaders in our cabin is able to fix it. Which means I now have no coat for the next two days. So of course it snows Saturday. And Sunday. *big sigh*

The good news is that the theme for this camping weekend is Pajama Party. Which simply means some wholesome and relaxing girl time. The girls get manicures, bake cookies, sip hot cocoa, weave baskets (don't laugh... it was really cool. I made one, too!), have a snowball fight, make s'mores, act out an outrageously funny and original skit, build a snowman, and simply spend quality time with each other. So despite the slip with blasting the 'F' word to a car full of girl scouts, forgetting to pack my daughter and myself a dinner again, and being coatless, I'd say the camping was pretty awesome. :)

Stood Up

My girl got stood up on her first non date thing.  Well, she still claims it wasn't a date, which is a good thing, because even though she was disappointed, she was not heartbroken.   She waited for 20 minutes before giving up and having her dad drive her to a friend's house to shoot some hoops.  The boy called her later that afternoon with no explanation for why he didn't show up and asked her if she wanted to reschedule for Sunday.  Her response: "No. I don't think so."  She told me she needed some time to decide whether or not she wanted to take a chance on him standing her up again.  That's my girl. 

Oh! And the friend who she hung out with playing hoops?  The other boy who had asked to join them on their non date downtown!   ;o) 

"The Liar's Diary" by Patry Francis

Once again I have come up a day (or two) late and a dollar short. I am making this post on behalf of "The Liar's Diary Blog Day" that took place on January 29, 2008. The Liar's Diary is the debut novel by author Patry Francis and was released on paperback on January 29, 2008. Ms. Francis is currently fighting an aggressive form of cancer, and has fallen seriously ill during a time when she would be needing to promote her novel. So some of Ms. Francis' kind hearted writer friends and readers have taken it upon themselves to spread awareness of the novel by starting "The Liar's Diary Blog Day" and encouraging fellow bloggers to mention Ms. Francis' book. It is really great to see that how wonderfully supportive the people you meet in the blog world can be toward each other, especially in a time of need. My thoughts are with Ms. Francis and her loved ones, and send her the strength she needs to fight her battles. I learned of this from Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Books and have also seen the novel recently mentioned at Dionne Galace: It's not Chick Porn. The author of the latter blog, BAM, recently purchased The Liar's Diary, and recently shared her enthusiasm for the novel. It looks like an engrossing read. I hope you check it out.