Welcome to my coffee shop in the cyber neighborhood!


The Chronicles of Nani On Video

I am overcoming my inability to type with my ability to talk (and talk and talk and talk) I'll be posting a video every week on my YouTube channel. I'll be posting those videos here too along with an occasional regular blog in the mix. (As long as my hands are up to doing the extra typing.)

You'll be able to watch the videos here, but I encourage you to stop by my channel at YouTube once I'm up and running to follow me and get my numbers started!


Welcome to my coffee shop in Cyber Space
Try the latte with a slice of black forest cake!


Contact Nani at
chroniclesofnani@gmail.com

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Book Review: Real Vampires Have Curves by Gerry Bartlett

Finished July 14, 2014

Synopsis at Good Reads

Gloriana St. Clair is an eternally "full-figured" vampire-she just happened to be bloating when a sexy Scotsman sank his teeth into her. She and said Scot- Angus Jeremiah Campbell III, aka Jeremy Blade-have been on and off again for centuries, currently off. A couple hundred years has taught them how to press each other's buttons-in good ways and bad.

Glory's headed for Austin and a new business venture: Vintage Vamp's Emporium. After all, she loves clothes, and she is an antique. Only problem is, there's a billionaire techno-freak vampire hunter on the loose. Blade's in total he- vampire mode, and wants Glory to move in with him so he can "protect" her. But it's time for this vamp to explore her own powers.


My review at Good Reads

3.5 of 5 stars

This is not my usual kind of book but it sounded interesting, it sounded fun. And it was fun! It's very light reading. But the characters are developed well and you do feel like you know them, all 400+ years of them. It also does a wonderful job of making bad guy about as bad as bad gets.

Vampires are portrayed as sexy or sexual beings, maybe more than was necessary. But the story was fun, at times intense and the people in the story we developed well enough to make you wonder, "maybe."

All in all for light reading I thought it was a good book. At the end of the book includes a sample chapter from the next book and it's possible somewhere down the road I may pick that one up too. If you like vampire stories, a decent amount of sex, and characters you might even want to hang out with as long as you're wearing a turtleneck, pick up Real Vampires Have Curves it's a fun quick read.

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Holiday Time!


I hope everyone had a great Canada Day yesterday! As a border-baby, born just 5 minutes away from Canada, Canada Day has always been the start of a month of celebration for me ending with my Birthday Festival. When I was a kid the Freedom Festival was a festival in Detroit and Windsor celebrating both Canada Day and Independence Day with carnivals and a huge fireworks display from a boat in the Detroit River. Of course it was an open border and no one ever needed a passport to cross from one side of the festival to the other. It’s not so difficult to get to Canada now, but needing a passport to cross the border is sad. It’s kinda like having to get someone’s permission to see your sister.


Yesterday was also my brother-in-law, Ben’s, birthday. David’s baby brother turned the same age my baby brother will be in September. It’s mean how they keep getting older and force us to stay ahead. ;)

We’re enjoying a holiday weekend starting today since people who work in media don’t get regular holidays. David will be working Saturday. We toyed with thoughts of going out of town for three days but ended up opting for sleeping in this morning. Sleeping in here means we woke up when my third snooze on the alarm went off at 7:20. If you’d have told me that would ever be “sleeping in” when I was 17, I’d have called you crazy!

I sent David out to photograph some local trains while I continue to recover from physical therapy yesterday. I was just stiff yesterday. The therapist I was working with noted that and asked if I was affected by the weather. Well, duh! I always remember that AFTER I say “what is wrong with me today?” I usually ask that question on the cloudy, rainy days or when the humidity is still up after a heavy rain. So today I’m just a little sore and slow, but when I’m sitting I don’t really feel pain, but the mild stretching at home reminds me of the pain. The steroid shot didn’t make the pain go away but it does seem that it helped and it may be time to think about doing it again. I didn’t really notice that the second one was a huge difference at the beginning of the year, although the first one was noticeable, so maybe 2 a year 6 months apart is what I need. I’ll have to give the pain doc a call next week.

Today is the first day of the 27th week of 2014, or the half-way point. I know this well because in my Random 2014 project I keep my notes in weekly files and then sort those files into quarters so I can access them if I need to. I’m a little OCD like that. But one of the plusses of condensing and organizing all of my files is that it takes less time and less scrolling to find things which takes it easier on my hands.

Now, in a 365 day year today is the top of the hill and there have been 182 days of 2014 before today and 182 to go. I’ve been thinking about doing a full 2-page spread for today and starting the rest of the weeks with Thursdays. That OCD sides doesn’t like that at all because it makes the first and second halves of the same year different. But then what do I do with the extra day? Put it in the extra box in Week 52? But what if I want to do a special section for goals for 2015 or a wrap-up of 2014 in that section?

Wednesday is still the first day of the weeks of 2014. I’d confuse myself if I changed it.


Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Book Review: Saving Faith by David Baldacci

Finished June 24, 2014

Synopsis at Good Reads

When a zealous CIA Chief begins personally spying on his clients to promote a secret agenda of his own devising, the beautiful Faith Lockhard, one of Washington's greatest influence-peddlers, tells the FBI all her suspicions. Now in mortal danger, she still hopes to see justice done. Yet who will rescue Faith?


My review at Good Reads


3 out of 5 stars

This is one of Baldacci’s older books, first published in 1991. Being that old, I found a thriller involving Washington lobbyists and operatives from both the CIA and FBI with no reference to terrorism to seem a little odd. I wasn’t as impressed with this one as I’ve been with other Baldacci books. I still enjoyed the story but I think there was a little more fluff than I usually like.

The main and title character is a Washington lobbyist who knows her job well, but her job is not the action in the book, so while she is at the root of the plot, she really doesn’t add to the action much more than a “damsel in distress” role. I guess I’m used to being in the minds of the likes of later Baldacci’s Will Robie or Alan Jacobson’s Karen Vail and by comparison Faith left little substance. Faith’s mentor, Danny Buchannan had the mental strength I like to read in main characters, but he was a supporting cast member.

I did like the balance of bad guys gone good and good guys gone bad. It’s on the edge of overpowering but I don’t think it’s too far a stretch from reality to liken Washington morality to professional wrestling.

I did find the very end to be a bit beyond belief. The final chapter is the chapter I might entertain wondering “what if” after finishing the book but I was disappointed to read it as the end.

Rainy Day and Monday

Carrabba's Mezzaluna - YUM!
 
I hope everyone is enjoying the summer so far! I’ve already been to a baseball game and had a double-scoop waffle cone ice cream. It could snow tomorrow and I’d…be miserable. Snow in June? My world would end. Summer is not about having a baseball and ice cream day once; it’s about baseball and ice cream all the time!

On the second day of summer 2014, Sunday, David and I traveled into the Motherland and caught a baseball game in Grand Rapids, the West Michigan Whitecaps. The Whitecaps are the Tigers A-Ball team in the Midwest League. The Whitecaps lost the game 4-2 to the Fort Wayne Tin Caps, which marked the first game of 4 we’ve seen this year that the home team lost. It’s also the second time we’ve watched part of the Tigers family lose! We were at the game in Cleveland where the Tigers miserable lump started! I’d HATE to think that this year we need to stay away from The Tigers!

Saturday was Bike To The Bay, MS bike fundraiser. You’ll recall my friend, Christine, who has MS with drop foot is the captain of Team Leap Frog which is linked in The Chronicles if Nani’s right column. She biked 38 miles Saturday! Her 44-rider team collected nearly $13,000 for MS so far with a few months of fundraising left. Stop by Leap Frog For MS  and give her a “congrats!”

Monday was a cloudy morning with rain in the forecast. David and I went to do a larger grocery trip. The way the groceries work he stops a few times a week to pick up things we need and dinner stuff and I go every couple weeks to stock up on produce and the things I want to choose rather than choose from home. An example; there are about ten different REV wraps and many flavors of yogurt, but if David’s picking them up for me I have to choose from what I remember. About every month to 6 weeks, we gather all the coupons and do a major “staples and new things” trip. That was Monday.

Now, I have a gripe. I much prefer to shop with my power chair and hand baskets than use the go-carts available in store. First off, I can maneuver between all the tables in the bakery and deli areas with my chair. The carts are just too big not to knock into things. The other thing I noticed is that people in general are not as kind or helpful as when I’m in my own chair. Maybe that’s because there are so many people who use them that don’t "look" like they need them. I think passing judgment like that is cruel because you can’t look at someone and SEE why they need the riding carts. Someone with a heart or lung condition may be able to walk, but not for a whole trip to the store and use of that go-cart is the only reason they CAN walk out when they’re done. I know “back in the day” my knee would be fine until about half way through a grocery trip, then I was dragging my leg and left much of my list unbought. Whatever the reason, I feel better treated when I’m in my own chair. There’s also the space problem in parts of the store and reaching so far up to what’s in the cart.

When we left the store, it was raining, I mean REALLY raining! David pulled up close and I got drenched even trying to get close enough to get in the car. He ended up taking the groceries home and came back for me when the rain let up. I had my book, so all was okay until he came back and I’d been in that cart so long I had no strength and almost no feeling in my legs and needed help to get up.

I MUCH prefer taking my power chair to the grocery store!

Last night we finally celebrated Valentine’s Day! I had bought a gift card for our dinner that we never went out for because of frozen pipes, more snow and then just no time! We had a great dinner at Carrabba’s. David had a shrimp and scallops dish with mashed potatoes and I had Mezzaluna; chicken, spinach and ricotta ravioli. We shared Sogna Di Cioccolato, Chocolate Dream, for dessert.


After getting pretty wet earlier at the store, I managed to get in the house with just a few raindrops after dinner. It was a rain-exhausting but good day.