In our neck of the woods, college semesters are wrapping up.  Students are looking forward to the summer off to relax and recuperate.  But for some (like Art) summer school looms on the horizon, and realistically, September (or August) and the fall semester will be here before you know it!!

Campusbookrentals.com is a great way to save money on textbooks!!  Here are some of the advantages:

• save 40-90% off of bookstore prices
• free shipping both ways
• 30 day risk-free returns
• can highlight in the textbooks
• flexible renting periods
• they donate to Operation Smile with each textbook rented

Operation Smile works is to heal children’s smiles and transform lives across the globe.  Their medical volunteers treat children with cleft lips, cleft palates, and other facial deformities, and leave a legacy of trained medical professionals, surgical equipment and professional partnerships to expand local medical infrastructures and create self-reliance in the developing world.  And your textbook rental through Campusbookrentals.com helps fund this worthy cause.

In addition, Campusbookrentals.com has a new program called Rentback.com.  With this new program, students who purchased their books, can rent them to other students, through Campusbookrentals.com.  Here’s how it works:

What a great program!! With Rentback.com, students can make 2-4 times what they would make from a traditional buyback program.  And we’re all trying to optimize our dollars in this economy, aren’t we?

Why not try it for yourself? Rentback.com has a handy search tool which allows you to look a book up by isbn, author, title, or keyword.  Once you choose the book you want to rent out, Rentback.com will let you know how much your book is worth and how many times you will be able to rent it out before it is unrentable.

Give it a shot and let me know how much money you saved or how much you made!!

This is a sponsored post on behalf of Campusbookrentals.com  All opinions are 100% my own.

One of our favorite family treats has always been cinnamon rolls.  For 20+ years, on special occasions, or sometimes just because, we would buy a can of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls and bake them up!!

A few years ago, I wondered how hard they were to make.  I made them from scratch a few times, but in order to have them ready for breakfast I would have to make the dough the night before, put it in the refrigerator, and do the final rise and bake first thing in the morning.

For Christmas, I got a new bread machine and decided to try making the dough that way.  If your family are early risers, you may still need to put the dough in the refrigerator the night before, but total time from putting the ingredients in the machine to pulling hot yummy rolls out of the oven was 2 1/4 hours as compared to almost 3 hours without the machine.

Ingredients:

Directions:

Combine first seven ingredients, in order into bread machine pan.  Select Dough cycle.  Once timer beeps, remove dough from pan immediately.  Gently push fist into dough to deflate.  Roll dough into a 15 x 10 inch rectangle on lightly floured surface (I recommend flouring the rolling pin also – this dough is sticky!!)  Spread with the 2 tablespoons of butter.  Sprinkle with filling.

Filling: Combine 1/4 cup brown sugar with 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon.  I used a restaurant-style cheese shaker, which you can buy for around $2 online or at a restaurant supply store.

Roll rectangle up tightly, from the long end.  Pinch dough under to seal.  Cut into 1 inch slices, using dental floss.

Place slices slightly apart in a jelly roll pan or deep cookie sheet.  Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise until double, about 15 minutes.

Heat oven to 350F.  Bake rolls for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove rolls from pan to wire rack.  Cool for 10 minutes.  Drizzle with vanilla glaze.

Vanilla glaze: Melt 1/3 cup butter in a small saucepan over low heat.  Remove from heat and stir in 2 cups powdered sugar and 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla.  Continue stirring and add hot water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until consistency of thick syrup.

Enjoy!!

Terminal Rock

Will Dresser

ISBN-13: 978-1475083224

Thriller

April 2013

322 Pages

About the Book:

From Amazon.com:

Under the management and direction of Dima Gregorovich, the Russian rock’n’roll band REVOLVER has become the biggest international sensation since The BEATLES. But when people associated with the band start turning up dead during their first-ever US Tour, their extraordinary success may all come to an early end!

From the beautiful blue waters of the Cayman Islands to the dangerous Russian streets of Minusinsk, Siberia, Wes, A.J., and Aryana, risk their lives to unravel a web of deception, expose secret identities, and bring an end to a deadly subterfuge that threatens to turn the band into Terminal Rock!

My Review:

When Will Dresser announced the release of the third book in his Wes Franklin series, Terminal Rock, I did something I rarely do anymore.  I purchased the book outright!! I have fallen in love with the characters of Wes, A.J. and Rouzbeh, and just had to know what their next adventure would be.

Yet again, Will Dresser did not disappoint!!  The intense description that has become his trademark in the Wes Franklin novels continues throughout this compelling story.  I had to google some of the items Will describes, such as Clive Christian’s Imperial Majesty perfume (the most expensive perfume in the world) and Louis Moinet’s Astralis watch (made with real moonstone), just to make sure they were real!

The twists and turns in this story kept me constantly guessing.  As the saying goes in this series, “The truth never happens in real time,” and so, of course, the resolution to the story took me completely by surprise, which is nice.  I hate it when I figure out whodunnit in the first chapter, don’t you?

Wes and A.J.’s relationship is continuing to evolve.  I loved this line in the book:

He stood watching her for a moment filled with too much emotion to express.  He walked slowly over to her, and when she looked up at him and smiled, he bent down and kissed her tenderly on the lips, not with passion but with a deep feeling of love for who she was and what she had brought to his life.

Awwww, sniff sniff.

If I have any complaints about Terminal Rock, it is that in all his descriptions, Will Franklin only mentions wine from the Anderson Valley, instead of the Napa Valley, my hometown.  Other than that, this book is flawless.

I give Terminal Rock, five microphones – a must read!!!

I did not receive any compensation for this review.  I purchased the book on my own and wanted to share it with my readers.

About the Author:

Will Dresser lives in Las Vegas, Nevada where he is currently working on his fourth and fifth Wes Franklin novels, The Billionaires Club and its companion piece, The Chronicles of Cain: The Epic Life of Jarred Kennan Cain As Told to Wes Franklin.  You can follow him at willdresser.com.

Spring’s Surprise

Sara Michaels is single again. And she’s celebrating her thirtieth birthday with a complete spa makeover and a day of boutique shopping with her two best friends. After a ten-month battle for freedom, a long weekend in Nashville, Tennessee is just what she needs to erase the memories of a broken heart.

Jack Tanner is the soon-to-be new partner at Chester & Dorsey Development Firm. Jack’s love life has been on the back burner for years as he’s built a successful career. But the moment he meets Sara, he takes a hard look at his life and his priorities.

Sara steps out of her comfort zone and spends an unforgettable weekend with Jack. She’s never felt so carefree. Until she realizes too late that three days can change everything

On Sale May 15, 2013

Read an Excerpt

Winter’s Magic

Owner of La Bella Vita, a five-star day spa nestled in the affluent suburbs of Nashville, Tennessee, Beth Sergeant knows her elite clientele first hand. She attended their private schools. She was even engaged, although briefly, to one of their most recognized bachelors. But she never fit in to their social-elite world.

After losing his parents to a car accident at a young age, Nick Chester was raised by his grandfather, the wealthiest man in Nashville. When he chooses to socialize, he has a never-ending list of exclusive events and beautiful women vying for his attention. Yet he never lets himself forget that everyone has an agenda.

Beth can’t resist Nick’s charm and accepts an invitation to dinner, despite her deep-seated insecurities. She proves she’s nothing like other women he’s dated and learns to trust him in return. But just as the last of their resistance crumbles and true love is within reach, challenges from Nick’s past threaten to destroy everything and force Beth to reveal her most guarded secret.

Available Now Through: Amazon Barnes & Noble Soul Mate Publishing

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As part of our quest for a healthier lifestyle, Art and I have been trying to eat more salads.  When he got back from his trip to Oregon, Art complained that grocery store salad bars are way more expensive in California.  We have very different tastes in veggies (Art is way more picky) so making a big tossed salad is out of the question.

After trying the salad “kits”, we realized we could put our own salads together for less money and that way we would both get exactly what we wanted.

Here’s our home salad bar.  Isn’t it beautiful?  To be perfectly honest, we normally just grab from the individual bags for each item, but I wanted to pretty it up for my readers

Ingredients (from the left):

Top Row: Mixed greens, shredded carrots, broccoli, garbanzo beans (chickpeas)

Bottom Row: Spinach, chopped baby bell peppers, sliced mushrooms, tomatoes (canned diced), kidney beans

Add condiments of your choice.  Art likes to add some pepperoncini, shredded cheese, bacon bits, chow mein noodles and honey mustard dressing.  I prefer just a few bacon bits and a vinaigrette.

Here’s my salad, before the dressing.  I didn’t put any bacon bits on it this time because I had a baked potato with dinner and I love to put a few bacon bits on my baked potato.

The nicest thing about having all our favorite ingredients well stocked all the time is that we can have a salad whenever we want.  Sometimes I will add some leftover chicken and have just the salad for lunch or dinner.

What are your favorite salad ingredients?  Do you have your own family salad bar?

By popular demand, here are some more photos of our crazy corgle, Kiff (The Unexpected Corgle, Corgle Update – He’s So Cute, Our Crazy Dogs – More Fun Facts About Katie and Kiff).

Just for reference, here’s what Kiff looked like when we first got him:

And here’s a picture of Kiff I took yesterday:

Here’s a photo of Kiff and Boo having a stare down – I wonder who’s winning?

One of Kiff’s favorite things to do is chase a thrown object.  The problem is he likes to chase so much that sometimes he forgets what he was chasing.  Take a look at this video to see what I mean:

And Kiff is so excited when he sees his breakfast coming:

I hope you enjoyed our photos and video of Kiff.  What are some crazy things that your pet does?

Little Fuzzy

H. Beam Piper

ASIN: B0039UUBFC

Science Fiction

1962

118 Pages

About the Book:

from Amazon.com

One day Jack Holloway, prospector on the planet Zarathustra, finds what seems to be a small monkey with golden fur; these new introductions (for the first brings a family) are tiny hunters, and prove to be curious and capable tool users. Why is this so important to the new human settlers? – Because a planet inhabited by a sapient race cannot be monopolized by the Zarathustra Company.

My Review:

When I was 10 years old, my brothers and I went to spend the weekend with my parent’s friends, the Worthingtons.  Mr. Worthington, knowing I was a voracious reader, gave me a paper grocery sack full of pulp science fiction from the 1960s.  The funny thing is I don’t remember much about the books I read that weekend, except that I enjoyed them immensely.  What I most remember is the ad for H. Beam Piper’s Fuzzy Sapiens which was in the back of one of the books.  The Fuzzies looked so cute, that I just had to find the book!!

Unfortunately for me, Fuzzy Sapiens was published in 1964, 3 years before I was born, and although classified at the time in the same genre as The Hobbit, never took on the same cult status as Tolkien’s highly successful start of the Middle Earth saga.  So for 35 years, my yearning for Fuzzies was limited to my dreams.

Then, last November, I was visiting Art at school in Oregon and we stopped at a used bookstore to peruse the aisles.  I am a huge Kindle fan, but there is still much to be said for a good and worn used book.  The musty smell, the notes in the margins, the browning or yellowing of the dog-eared pages – all of these indicators give me some idea of how much the previous owner (or owners) enjoyed the book.

Anyway, as I wandered the science fiction section (my favorite), what popped out at me but the entire Fuzzy trilogy!!!  I didn’t even know there was a trilogy.  Little Fuzzy is the first book and the one I read for this review.

Parts of this book were very pulpy and fun, like watching the original Star Trek and wondering how they could have such “advanced” technology but no one had invented seatbelts?  In Fuzzy Sapiens all video data is transmitted by super fast reel to reel tape.  Seriously?  How many of my readers even remember reel to reel tapes?  Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Nixdorf at the English language Wikipedia

The best part of this book is Jack Holloway, the crusty old prospector who takes to “his” Fuzzies, the way that Grandfather took to Heidi.  The Fuzzies are cute and cuddly and not at all Gremlin-like.  The majority of the story revolves around whether or not the Fuzzies can be classified as sapient beings or “people”.  There is a definite tinge of xenophobia in this book, as even those who believe the Fuzzies can think and reason tend to treat the little people more like pets or small children than peers.  Since this book was written in 1962, I give the author some credit for his forward thinking and excuse his lack of prescience in civil rights.

I give Little Fuzzy four and a half jingles!!!  This book was everything I had hoped it would be and more!!  You will love this!! Your kids will love it too!!

I did not receive any compensation for this post.  I bought my own copy of the book because I wanted to read it and thought my readers might enjoy it as well.

Ratatouille is one of my favorite springtime “everything but the kitchen sink” type dishes.  And for those of you who are not familiar with this dish, it has nothing to do with rats   Ratatouille is a french vegetable dish, usually comprised of tomatoes, zucchini, garlic, onions, bell pepper and eggplant.  It is usually served as a side dish, but I serve mine as a main dish, sometimes over pasta.

For me, the best thing about ratatouille is that as long as I have tomatoes, onions and zucchini I can wing it on the other ingredients.  The other day I came upon some lovely early eggplants, so I knew what I had to make!!  Here is the recipe for this month’s easy sauteed ratatouille, but keep in mind you can substitute or add your favorite vegetables along the way.

Ingredients:

Directions:

Heat oil over medium heat in a large skillet.  Saute onions and garlic until translucent.  Add eggplant and cook for an additional six minutes.  Add carrots, tomatoes, salt and Italian seasoning.  Reduce heat to simmer and cook for 40 more minutes, uncovered, until vegetables are tender.

Serve hot and cover with Parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!!!

With Mother’s Day fast approaching, I thought it would be nice to share the following infographic of Amazing Things Only Mothers Do.

But first, I’d like to thank:

• My mom – for her steadfast love and support
• My mother-in-law for her immense patience
• Grandma Hamilton – for her sense of humor
• Grandma Pence – for always being there for me
• My Nana – for my love of lavender and lilac
• My Gram – for my love of baking

Via: Promocode4share.com

Have you ever asked your mom what she wanted for her birthday, or Christmas or Mother’s Day?  If she’s anything like my mom she probably said something like, “Knowing you love me is all the present I need.”  Now while that’s a very sweet sentiment and I very much appreciate that my mom doesn’t expect a gift (and really, she can afford to buy herself whatever she needs), I would still like to show her just a small token of how much I love and admire her.  What to do?

I have found that my mom is very moved by a donation to a charity on her behalf.  I bet your mom would like that too!!  Following is a list of just a few of the charities I’ve highlighted recently and how they are helping celebrate mom this Mother’s Day!!

• WaterAid America – for a donation as low as $25, you can pay for one person in one of the world’s poorest countries to gain access to safe, clean water and sanitation for life. In addition, you can print a Mother’s Day card that includes the details of your gift.
• Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation – in honor of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation’s 25th anniversary this year and Mother’s Day, they want to challenge everyone to help them raise the funds that would allow 2,500 women to get tested for HIV. Your $19 donation in honor of your loved one enables one new mother to get tested, and you can send your loved one an e-card!
  
• Unicef – your gift of $18.57 will provide 3 children with nets treated with long-lasting insect repellent to protect them from mosquitoes and other biting insects.  They also have a list of other Mother’s Day-inspired gifts.
  
• Opportunity International launched its  Invest in One, Honor Mom campaign leading up to Mother’s Day. This campaign will celebrate the strength and resilience of moms and women everywhere with a digital quilt comprised of patches purchased by the public to honor influential women in their lives.
  With gifts starting at $5, individuals can select from one of 20 patch designs or create their own and dedicate it to a special woman with an honorary message. Each tribute patch donated can be shared digitally and will be added to Opportunity’s virtual quilt, symbolizing a community of empowerment and opportunity.
• And if you just have to buy your mom something tangible, why not shop at 1000 Shillings? Each product sold on 1000 Shillings is unique to the website and sold as a limited edition piece.  When you buy a piece of jewelry or a scarf from 1000 Shillings your money is going to help the women they work with to start their own small businesses with the ultimate goal of empowering them to stand alone as small business owners and be able to support their families.

With all the choices available, what will you give your mom this Mother’s Day?  There are so many charitable possibilities, I think I will tell my kids, “Your love is all the gift I need,” and see what they come up with!!