Sci-Fi Month 2022

I hope everyone had an absolutely splendid Halloween! We had a laid-back night of homemade macaroni and cheese and a horror movie. I had intended to post again before my favorite holiday of the year, but I did not end up reading the comic that I intended and didn’t have much to post about otherwise.

So here we are leaping into Science Fiction month!

Here is my game plan. Whether it happens or not, that’s a whole different story: Continue my quest of watching all of Battlestar Galactica for the first time, watch/rewatch Escape from New York (I can’t remember if I’ve seen it before) and pick up at least one Sci-Fi novel.

I’ve only read one book in Ridley’s presence, and it was while he was sick, so I still don’t know if he’ll try to eat it while I’m trying to read it. It will be a fun game!

Are you participating in Sci-Fi month or are you more of a Non-Fiction November type of person? Either way, what are your plans?!

Science Fiction Month 2021

Good morning aliens and astronauts! As per usual with my life lately, I cannot dive fully into science fiction as much as I would like but I’m still getting doses in here and there. I will take what I can get though, as it’s a much needed reprieve.

Reading:

Saga is always a delight. I don’t think I’ve complained about a volume yet and I need to catch up before the new one comes out.

H.G. Well’s The Time Machine is a buddy read with Ignited Moth for our joint blog Sugar and Scream.

Movies:

I stuck with a couple of great 90’s sci-fi movies that I knew wouldn’t fail me.

How is Science Fiction month going for you??

August 2021 Recap

I kept my promise! I was very active this month. It was easy for once. Now I get to go back to school starting today and I am sure things will slow down for me, blog wise, until this semester is up in December. I will try to post at least once a week.

I managed to finish 3 books this month. I don’t know the last time this happened. Probably before school started.

The Invention of Sound review

The Last Mortal Bond review

I just finished this last night and I loved it. 5 out of 5 stars. I don’t feel like reviewing it however. There is a lot of world building to explain and I rather just enjoy the bliss it brought me instead of worrying about how to describe it.

eBooks Purchased:

Emerald Blaze by Ilona Andrews $2.99

The Poppy War by RF Huang $1.99

Death Masks by Jim Butcher $0.00 (coupon for this book specifically from Amazon)

TOTAL SPENT: $4.98

Movies Watched:

I’ve clearly been on a horror movie kick. I decided to go back and watch all the ones from the 80s that I haven’t gotten around to yet.

TV Watched:

As you can see, it was a productive month. My three weeks off of class flew by. I’m going to miss all the free time.

What was your favorite part of August??

October Week 2: Apple Cider Slushies

The second full week of October was a bit of a doozy. Work has been absolutely swamped with hordes of people coming in for their flu shots. We’ve been doing anywhere from 20 to 50 per day. As you can imagine, this interrupts the natural flow of work when it’s busy in it’s own right. Plenty of people getting sick already and a few confirmed cases of the flu. I don’t expect it to slow down anytime soon so it’s even more important to enjoy the season whenever I get a chance.

Watching

I was pretty skeptical the first few episodes of this season. Yes, it’s honoring slasher films but in the beginning, it was pretty basic. Then, we had some twists and turns that brought my interest back. The last episode was so weird, I don’t know how to feel. We might be coming to ‘absolutely ridiculous’ grounds but I’ll hang in there and find out. I can say that I am LOVING Billie Lourd this season. I can’t stand Emma Roberts, if she’d hurry up and die, I would enjoy it a lot more.

This one was weird but in a good way. It was original and how often do we get to say that about movies anymore? I would recommend giving it a try. It’s not amazing but I enjoyed my time watching it. 3/5 stars

Reading

I finished In a Dark, Dark Wood and you can read the review here. I’ve picked up one of my absolute favorite authors, R.S. Belcher’s Nightwise. It had my attention at the very first sentence. I binged about 45 pages before I was interrupted but I can’t wait to get back at it.

Treats

Oh, the treats were glorious! We went to the local orchard during the town’s fall festival strictly to get apple cider slushies because, what about that does not sound amazing?! It was cold, but we wanted one anyway. Worth it. We also picked up a pumpkin cream coffee cake that we have yet to break into and chocolate covered cherries and bananas. Both of which, we HAVE broken into and they’re damn tasty. We also bought a jar of apple butter and I forgot to make myself an amazing sandwich with it today.

I also baked up another goodie that I will post later in the week. Sipping an apple cider slushie while baking is the only way I want to bake every autumn now.

Apple versus Pumpkin, GO!

Second Week of October

This week ended in death. My husband’s grandmother passed away yesterday after several years battling cancer and nine months in hospice. No need for condolences, there was much pain in the last several months and she has finally been released from something that could hardly be called living towards the end. The black cat gif is in honor of her and her love of black cats.

Reading – If you missed it, I finally finished Dracula and I actually enjoyed a classic for once. I’ve now started my book club selection for the month which is completely un-Halloween related. I hope to knock it out shortly and maybe even brave another spooky classic.

Tim Horton’s Pumpkin Spice Iced Capp has strong pumpkin flavor. I think I prefer a little less intense pumpkin flavor in my coffee but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

Movies – Two movies this week. I think it important to mention here that I barely watch one movie a month so this is a movie action packed couple of weeks for me. This year has apparently flip-flopped my usual style, reading LOTS of paranormal/horror books. I guess I’ve traded it for movies this season.

4 stars – Most fucked up movie I’ve watched in awhile.

2.5 stars – Highly romanticized version of the book.

Note – I know it unwise to watch a movie immediately after reading the book it is based upon but I did it anyway. The most frustrating thing was that there were moments when the dialogue stuck closely with the book and then other parts where the journal entries were completely butchered to make this a weird love tale. Mina and Lucy were both made to be much more vapid than either were and none of the male characters were as enjoyable as they were in the book. It may be the one movie I don’t like Anthony Hopkins in as I strongly disliked his Van Helsing. It did however make me miss when movies had to do something besides CGI for their special effects.

Well that was my successful second week of October. How is everyone else fairing in their holiday fun??

Fur Covered Sofas = Home

Since we bought our house in June, we’ve been operating with a recliner in the living room and the entertainment center. That’s about it. I mean, it’s not like we had a ton of money when we decided to buy a house, then we had vehicles problems until we recently gave up and got a lease. So, half a million things were more important than a couch but, HOLY HELL IS IT AWESOME HAVING A FUCKING COUCH AGAIN.

Some serious coffee drinking, reading, blogging, and let’s be honest, napping are about to happen on this new gray beauty.

Dog approved. Which is good because we bought it with them in mind. Just like we bought the house with them in mind. I mean if reincarnation was real, I would want to come back as one of my dogs.

 

Sleepy Rambling.

*double fists rubbing both eye balls*

I keep telling myself that I AM going to get ahead in blog posts so that I don’t have to sit down and think of something every other day. I can just copy and paste and be on my merry little way to work. IT’S NOT WORKING. Every time I sit down, I choose to read instead. (How dare I?!) It doesn’t help that I’ve finally started reading a horror genre for the seasonal occasion. I also started watching horror movies the other day. I’m going to be a Halloween sponge this year. Soak it all in baby.

First horror read of the year? Fire & Ash. It’s the final installment in my ALL-TIME favorite zombies series; the Rot & Ruin series by Jonathan Maberry.  It’s been years since I left off with book number 3 but I’ve forgotten practically nothing since I loved it so much.

First horror movie of the year? Deep Blue Sea. BECAUSE. Yes, it’s cheesy but it acknowledges all the faulty things happening with the sharks instead of passing it off as normal shark behavior. (Example: swimming backwards.) It was followed up with Jaws and Jaws 2. Apparently, I was in a sharky kind of mood.

Well that gif just makes me want a snack.

What is one of your guilty pleasure horror movies?

 

Donkey Punch

Oh Life! You saucy lil’ wench. Give us one giant step forward and five mediocre steps back. So goes this slutty little tango of ours. It’s fine really. I’m always triumphant. See you on the dance floor.

Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet

A little questionnaire to get everyone in the holiday mood. I’ll post the questions without answers first to make it easy for everyone to participate if they wish:

1. What scent sets the holiday mood?
2. Favorite Halloween Fun Size Candy Bar?
3. Favorite Halloween movie?
4. Favorite seasonal sweet?
5. What toppings are on the perfect candy apple?
6. What’s your favorite costume you ever wore on Halloween?
7. Most enjoyable fall tradition?
8. Pumpkin Patch Hayride or Haunted Hayride?
9. What song is a must for a Halloween Party Playlist?
10. Favorite Halloween Monster: Dracula, Frankenstein, etc.?
11. Cider or Cocoa?
12. Scary movies or Scaredy cat?
13. Pumpkin Spice: Yum, or Yuck?
14. Which is scariest: Spiders, Zombies, or Clowns?
15. Best find in your Trick or Treat bag?
16. Worst thing to get in your Trick or Treat bag?

1. What scent sets the holiday mood?

Dead leaves. Above all else, for me, it’s the smell of dead leaves.

2. Favorite Halloween Fun Size candy bar?

Snickers

3. Favorite Halloween movie?

This is a bastard of a question….I will pick all B-Rated horror movies and you can’t stop me.

4. Favorite seasonal sweet?

Have you been following this blog? Pumpkin AND Caramel Apple.

5. What toppings are on the perfect candy apple?

Caramel and nuts.

6. What’s your favorite costume you ever wore on Halloween?

Catwoman from Batman Returns when I was like 8.

7. Most enjoyable fall tradition?

Gah. What is it with you people and wanting only one answer? Cider mills.

8. Pumpkin Patch Hayride or Haunted Hayride?

Haunted hayride. I much rather run through the pumpkin patch myself thank you.

9. What song is a must for a Halloween Party Playlist?

The Monster Mash!

10. Favorite Halloween Monster: Dracula, Frankenstein, etc?

Dracula

11. Cider or Cocoa?

Cider! Cocoa is for winter time you fools!

12. Scarey movies or Scaredy cat?

Scarey movies! I am not much of a scaredy cat about anything.

13. Pumpkin Spice: Yum, or Yuck?

How is ‘yuck’ even an option??

14. What is scariest: Spiders, Zombies or Clowns?

Goddamn clowns. Shudders

15. Best find in your Trick or Treat bag?

Reese’s peanut butter cups.

16. Worst thing to get in your Trick or Treat bag?

Mini dental kits. Way to ruin my fun you dentists!

Holy Crap Batman!

If you haven’t heard about the shootings at a Colorado screening of The Dark Knight Rises you probably live under a rock. But just in case you’re not from the States you can get all caught up right here.

Now obviously none of this was under control of Mr. Bruce Wayne himself but you might be surprised how many double takes you get now while wearing a Batman shirt running your errands.

I didn’t even think twice before I put on the shirt. Regardless I received an uncountable amount of double takes between all the stores I stopped at in one day. It REALLY pissed me off. These people are playing right into one man not only ruining and ending lives but also attempting to ruin Batman.

Needless to say I won’t let this damper my love of the Bat, nor will I stop wearing the bat signal shirt.

Because you can’t keep the Dark Knight down!

 

P.S. Michelle Pfeiffer is the best Catwoman ever! (In my opinion.)