There is such a thing as too many options. I stopped in at my local Walmart (I hate shopping there, but that’s all there is to this teensy town) to pick up some D-Con to kill the bad rodents. I found the pest removal section and I couldn’t find the D-Con at first. I found about 80 gadzillion other options though. Too many frickin’ options! There were electrocuting traps, ergonomic traps, snap traps that looked like big chip-baggy clips. And then there were twelve different kinds of poison. I counted.

Who knew they put this much thought into killing pests?

I got two of the non-poison ergonomic traps. No snap noise, so I should be okay. But, when I looked at all those poisons I freaked out a little thinking that Horatio might somehow finally manage to open the kitchen door and instead of dead mice I’d have a dead cat.

And I just could not deal with that.

Hands down, my favorite do-dad was the plug-in sonic noise pest repellent. Part of me was cracking up at the thought of a noise machine scary away the big bad mice. Another part of me (the part connected to my hand) thought “well, why not?” and put it in the cart anyway.

No sign of mice this morning, but nothing in the traps either. So far, the noise makers are doing their jobs. Crazy, huh?

Eeeek!

I do not do rodents. Or snakes. Or spiders. Or cockroaches. Everything else I can handle. We all have phobias and these are mine, people.

The funny thing about this is: I have a cat. And he’s a really good mouser. So, the rooms of the apartment he’s allowed into bear no evidence of the amazing invasion. Just my kitchen has signs of mice. Horatio, the demon mouse-hunter, is not allowed in the kitchen because he eats my house plants and flips over the trash can. (That’s him lounging in my bathroom sink while I furiously cleaned up before Thanksgiving.)

Now that I have to get some mice poison Horatio is really not going to be allowed in the kitchen. I can’t do mousetraps. I just can’t. We had mice when I was a teenager and I could hear the distinctive “snap!” noise at 4am and I knew what had happened.

Not that I mind killing the rodents. Die, mousy, die. (Did I mention that I don’t do rodents?) But, it’s the snapping noise I can’t take. I had one mouse who got snapped run screeching in agony under my bed. Picture that sound accompanied by teen-me standing in the middle of my bed shrieking until my younger brother fished the mouse out and finished it off.

So, yeah. No snappity mousetraps. Must get poison.

I hopped over to the Romance Diva’s website today and discovered that they had posted my sample review. They liked my “audition” well enough to let me review for them and now they’ve posted it for all to see. How cool is that? So check out my review of MaryJanice Davidson’s Hello, Gorgeous!

They list this book as erotica, but I would not. It’s about on par with Harlequin Blaze novels in terms of graphic-ness for the intimate scenes. Still, the review is rated PG. Go see for yourself.

In other good news, I got some writing done over the weekend and my wordcount is up. I also discovered an interesting way to kill a werewolf. Not bad for a weekend’s work, huh?

Today’s fun quiz: “Which Jones Holiday Soda Are You?”

P.S. I don’t even like Pecan Pie, but my first result was “Turkey and Gravy Soda” and I got a bit grossed out; so I took a do-over.

You Are Pecan Pie Soda

Sweet, but totally nuts

I’ve been very busy lately. Unfortunately, not with my writing. I just have so much else going on and I feel guilty because I don’t want to neglect my book. I used to be able to knock out 2-5% of the 90K words I need in a few days. Now, I feel lucky to do that in a week to 10 days. And I know what I want to write; I’m not stuck or blocked or even groping for words, I just don’t have time. I try to write everyday, but the daily wordcount goes down everytime I check. Not sure how to fix this. Work at the library, while enjoyable, is just starting to overwhelm me. Not sure I can fix this. **sigh**

Maybe I can do more when I’m on vacation for the holidays, but my family kinda has dibs on my time when I get home.

The day after Thanksgiving is my personal favorite part of this holiday. No cooking, no dishes, most of the annoying relations have gone home. All that remains is: shopping and leftovers.

How fan-freaking-tastic is that? Seriously!

Unfortunately, by the end of the weekend, I’m sick of turkey sandwiches, turkey soup, turkey hash, turkey bake, etc. And I’m even ready to drop-kick the relatives that I actually like who stayed all weekend. Picture scary fluffy-bunny slipper wearing Crystal waving a stripped wishbone in one hand and a dirty frying pan in the other, screaming “Out! Out! Damn Spot! And don’t come back!”

(PS- Just for the record, I don’t really own fluffy-bunny slippers)

Happy Thanksgiving, people! Go stuff your face and don’t report it to Jenny Craig! That’s what holidays are for.

In honor of this auspicious occasion, for which I will be slaving over a hot stove and then – to add insult to injury — I will be doing heinous mounds of dishes, I have decided to give you, my loyal readers, the:

Turkey Trivia Quiz

Let’s talk turkey! Whaddaya know? (I only know 68% of the turkey stuff. Sad, but true.)

I’ve seen about 8 blogs with this on it, so I thought I’d jump off the bridge, too. I don’t want to be left behind!

Here’s a Sexy Name Decoder Quiz I found over on the Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Novels website. Check it out!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I had many false-starts when I first tried my hand at writing romance. This was at the beginning of this calendar year; so I’m pretty new. What got me over the hump of my first chapter/outline was not typing out my story. I avoid the computer entirely unless it’s for research. I write it out by hand (then transfer it to the computer). Thus far, I have filled over 6 note pads (2 big and 4 small) with my ideas, scenes, chapters, and ramblings about characters. And I’m not even half done!

I got this idea when I read Gena Showalter’s blog and she said her friends mocked her for writing out her multiple books by hand. I thought, “Maybe that will work for me.” And then, “Duh. Why didn’t I think of that before now?” I do really well at getting my ideas out when I’m journaling; so, this is a natural progression of that. Now, I’ve been writing for two months (with a full-time job) and I have 40-something percent of my wordcount into the computer. Woo-hoo!

Moral of the story: Be willing to try new things — you never know what might improve your writing skills.

My cousin and her roommate and her roommate’s boyfriend are coming to my apartment for Thanksgiving. I’m relieved that this is a smaller party than I usually have (hey, I just moved here). Unfortunately, I had planned to clean my place tonight after work and tomorrow morning — but my cuz may be arriving tonight while I’m at work. Isn’t that lovely? Crap, crap, crappity, crap!

I adore my cousin and I’m glad she’s coming, but I at least wanted a semi-clean house before some boyfriend I’ve never met gets an eyeful of my bras hanging over the shower rod. Ah, well. They want to see me and not my house, right? Right?