Wouldn't you know it? The minute the abandoned car is gone the fun and games begin again. This morning at the library it's graffiti - again. Second time this month. After a thorough check on my part - it appears that only the back of the building was tagged. I've put a call into the city, and hopefully the paint crew will make an appearance soon.



I also dodged a bullet and wonder which deity I have to thank for it. I was sent an advanced copy of In A Wild Wood by Sasha Lord for review and was planning on writing up said review this morning. Then I checked the updates over at TRR - only to see that someone else already beat me to the punch. Thank goodness!



In A Wild Wood tells the story of a petulant, spoiled girl who doesn't want to marry. Her mother informs her she doesn't understand all that she is giving up by not marrying (this is set in medieval times). So when our heroine spies our hero tied to a tree by thieves she decides to satisfy her curiosity on carnal relations. Naturally, the girl's family finds out and a hasty marriage is arranged. Our hero is unthrilled with this development, and to make matters worse his new wife is rather headstrong.



Outside of the heroine, whose motives annoyed me, I found everything smooth sailing until the scene. Like a 1980s bodice-ripper, the author tosses in a "forced seduction." For you who don't know what this is - think rape, only with a stupendous orgasm on the heroine's part. Distasteful no?



To make matters more confusing, outside of this totally icky scene, I rather liked the story. The writing style borders on the flowery side - which I normally deplore - but I found the book as a whole rather readable. In fact, for the final half of the book I had a hard time putting it down. I was fretting over how I was going to write a review for a book I liked outside of one distasteful scene. A scene that many readers (I'm sure) would find troubling. Luckily, I don't have to now.



All of which begs the question - what was the editor thinking by not leaving that scene on the cutting room floor?

So the Chevy Corisca was still here when I got into work this morning. This being Day 6 of the Abandoned Car Stalmate - I was losing my sense of humor. After all, this hunk of crap now had crickets living in it - and was still taking up two parking spots.



So I called police dispatch yet again. The same woman I talked to before answered the phone. After double checking when the ticket was issued (last Tuesday) she said, "Well that's odd, we normally tow after 72 hours. I'll send someone right over." And true to her word she did. The car was gone within the hour.



I didn't get a lot of reading done over the weekend, but I plowed through a large chunk of The Forever Kiss by Angela Knight this morning. It's really good so far! Again, it does read like her first novel in parts (there's a lack of polish in places) - but the story is an entertaining mix of good vs. evil, the hero is a yummy (even though he's a bloodsucking vampire), and the heroine is blessedly not a moron.



I'm also just getting around to listening to the latest Stephanie Plum opus on audio - Ten Big Ones by Janet Evanovich. Personally, I stopped obsessing over this series around #7, but I still listen to get my Ranger fix. Because while the series has gotten a little too zany for my tastes, Ranger the Bounty Hunter still makes my toes curl. He's Cuban, sexy, gets great dialouge, drives shiny new black cars of which he has an endless supply of, and just generally kicks ass. That, and it helps he has a mysterious past. While I've never found "bad boys" appealing in real life or fiction, Ranger seems to be the one exception to my general rule.

I finally forced myself to finish The Irish Devil by Diane Whiteside and you know what? It actually got better. Coincidently it got better after the heroine got feisty again and brandishes a shot gun. So great beginning, good ending and dismal middle. I rated it a C-.



I pulled out The Forever Kiss by Angela Knight to read next, and am only about 30 pages into it. According to her dedication this was her first book and it's published by small press Red Sage. I really liked Knight's debut for Berkley - Jane's Warlord - and while I'm not finding TFK as polished as that effort, it has started out promising.



For those keeping score on what exactly will be left in my library's parking lot - the piece of crap Chevy Corsica is still here. I'm thinking of making it the Library Mascot and naming it Christine (after the Stephen King novel). I'm giving the cops until Monday (which will make it Day 6 of being here) to tow the stupid thing before I call and harass dispatch. My boyfriend thinks I should just put it in neutral and push it out into traffic - a tempting thought at the moment.



Incidentally, since the car has been here I have found no more used condoms, feces or other goodies left behind.



Speaking of cars - I got to call 911 on Thursday after hearing a loud crash outside the library. I was in my cinder block office, so didn't see the accident happen. However it looked like an SVU (it's always an SVU) side-swiped two cars parked innocently on the street.



Note to self - never park out on the street outside of work....

Mental Health Day!



I finally had enough. The final straw occurred yesterday afternoon (post blogging) when I learned I did something wrong via the chain of command. Since I literally had no training prior to taking this managerial job, and was shoved into the shark-invested pond head first - well - I lost it. I mean, I really lost it. Something I have haven't done on the job since my food service days when some a-hole came into the restaurant and took out his miserable existence on me.



But that's neither here nor there.



So I had a meeting this morning at the administration building, and I called my library to make sure nothing had blown up, no dead bodies were left over night etc. When they said, "Everything's fine!" I said, "Good - I'm going home." I called my boyfriend hard at work and said, "Hey, want to go out for lunch?" He said, "Sure," and now I'm home - basking in the glow of alone time and The Beatles White Album.



The abandoned car is still in the staff parking lot, but has since been ticketed. I'm thinking of making it the library mascot and naming it "Dewey." This is what happens when I get punchy - I start going goofy.

Ya know - it's like there is a demented Santa Claus hanging around my library.



Everyday is proving to be an adventure - what will I find when I pull into the parking lot today? Used condoms? Feces? Giant Attacking Spiders?



Today's gift from the library gods was a piece of crap Chevy Corsica, with a flat tire, blocking two staff parking spots. After calling the city who told me, "Call the cops," I called the cops. Cop #1 told me, "You're on private property, we won't tow - but let me have you talk to dispatch." I got a woman (Praise God!) at dispatch who told me, "Yes, you're on public property - we'll send someone out."



Once again, a woman has shown us the way.



In other depressing news - The Irish Devil is proving to be one of worst kinds of books. The kind of book that starts out awesome then picks up steam while it rolls down hill. So after my gushing yesterday what happened?



Well, first off - the author is employing flashbacks to flesh out the pasts of the hero and heroine. This is fine, in fact I like flashbacks - but how about the hero and heroine getting to know each other! All they are doing is boinking. It's like an unpleasant trip back to one of my former college relationships. Talk damn you, talk!



Then there is the hero - who also started out totally fabulous (he is Irish after all), but has morphed into something tasteless. The only way I can describe it is that he's speaking his dialouge in a constant leer. I'm normally fine with dominantion/submission play in my smutty fiction - but there's something icky about the hero calling the heroine his "filly" and ordering her about non-stop. Ewwwww.



And the heroine, the same heroine who slices the villain's hand open with a broken whiskey bottle, keeps calling the hero "Mr." and/or "Sir." Hello?! Has the fiesty widow been kidnapped by aliens?



I'm not quite to the halfway point yet - so I'm not totally giving up hope yet. If these two can keep their clothes on for one chapter and actually talk, it would go a long way in improving my mood - which has been shoddy at best lately.

I swear my ovaries shrivel up a bit more every day I'm here at work.



I cannot tolerate whiney children. Which makes me wonders - why do parents put up with it? I think it's to secretly torture me. Instead of taking these kids by the arm, ear, or seat of their pants and exit stage right - these parents continue to causally browse the library while the child is whining, "Moooommmmyyyyyy, I want a video. Mooommmmyyyy, I want to go outside. Moooommmmyyy, I want to go home" etc. etc. etc.



It just makes me further appreciate what a fabulous mother my older sister is. When my niece gets the least bit whiney in public, Lori hauls her out of the store and they head straight home. This is unspeakable torture for my niece, who loves to go out - and I think it's the main reason why the child is so darn well behaved in public - and she's not even 3 yet.



Besides excessively whiney children that parents won't discipline, I was greeted with graffiti at the office today. Luckily my children's librarian noticed the problem on Saturday and left a message for the city's graffiti clean up crew. The problem areas were painted over before we opened for business today.



Speaking of whining - I've been doing that a lot lately on this blog. Why not discuss something more pleasant - like the latest smutty book I'm reading? The Irish Devil by Diane Whiteside is not only smutty, it's a western! Could my life possibly get any better?! I started it this morning, and am already nearing the 100 page mark.



Our heroine, poor thing, has been working as a laundress ever since her drunken, idiot husband was murdered. Disowned by her wealthy Eastern family, she's doing making due - until her husband's murderer buys all of her worldly possessions in an effort to force her into marriage. Not keen on this idea, she instead goes to our hero, an Irish immigrant and successful business owner and offers up her services as a potential mistress. Having admired (and lusted over) her from afar, he agrees and offers her money and protection in exchange.



There's a lot going on here I like so far. The heroine has moxie - having already successfully defended herself with a broken whiskey bottle. The hero is a self-made man, Irish (like what's not to love about that?!), sexy as hell, and the author is already dipping into his backstory via flashbacks (I love this writing technique, I just can't help myself).



If this whiney kid (who is now screaming) doesn't give me a raging headache, I look forward to reading a lot more of this book on my dinner break.

After Feces And Insect Invasion Week 2004, I was really looking forward to Friday. That's right, I finally got around to spending that spa gift certificate my boyfriend got me for my birthday!



It was heaven on Earth.



Here was what I had done over the course of the entire day (10AM - 6PM to be exact).

1. An oil wrap
2. A full body massage
3. A facial
4. A pedicure
5. A manicure

I have to say the highlights were the oil wrap, massage, pedicure and manicure. I was marginally disappointed in the facial - only because I expected there to be more to it. If you have the means, I cannot recommend the oil wrap and massage enough. Both were done back to back, in a 2 hour period. I swear I was walking around like a drugged woman for a good hour afterwards.



I also highly enjoyed the pedicure and manicure. I'm a nail biter by trade, and somehow the manicurist (who was from Michigan - like how cool is that?) made my nails look great. Hell, even my feet look cute - and who thought that was possible? Both toe and fingernails are painted this pearly shade of pink. I feel so darn girly.



For those of you that have been keeping an eye on Hurricane Chuckles - my younger sister managed to survive the onslaught from her newly purchased Winter Park/Orlando home. Luckily her home saw little damage (a small downed tree in her front yard was it), although she says most of the area looks like something out of a war zone. She told her fiance (who is working on his PhD down there) that she wants out of "the swamp" ASAP. She can't handle the storms or the cockroaches. I can't say I blame her.



In other news - the Buffalo Bills play their first preseason game tonight against the Denver Broncos. I wasn't terribly impressed with what Buffalo did in the draft this year, but it's always interesting to take a look at the rookies every year. After the debacle of last season, I'm hoping for better things - mainly an offense that isn't a one trick pony.