Just finished The Changeling Sea (Firebird) by Patricia A. McKillip. Here’s the review I wrote on my Facebook books app: 2 1/2 stars out of 5
This was a little hard to read.. the paragraphs felt.. disjointed? I don’t really know what it was about the book that made it feel so poorly written. It was choppy.
The plot itself was a good one, and the descriptive scenes were very well done. I dunno. :/
Now I’m reading The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley
Just finished reading Children of the Night: A Diana Tregarde Investigation by Mercedes Lackey. Here’s the review I wrote on my Facebook book app: 3 / 5stars
Lots of well written thoughts which made me understand Diana pretty well even though this is the first of the series I’ve read. I also liked that not *everything* was foreshadowed. Like in real life, many things are just routine and common-place. The chapters on the store barely played a part in the overall story but it’s something that Diana *did*, so it wasn’t out of place.
Now I’m reading The Changeling Sea by Patricia A. McKillip
Previously on As The Palace Turns.. A new chocolate heaven was discovered, did the love last or was devastation around the corner??
*Update* A week of trying the samples of everything we purchased at Soma’s last week has resulted in the following findings:
**Malted Milk Hot Chocolate Mix: Ken tried this and said it was ok but he’s not big on hot chocolate
**Mayan Hot Chocolate Mix: The instructions said to use 1/2 cup of water with 1 packet (almost a cup) of mix. This seemed way too thick to me so I added another 1/2 cup of water and it was good. I made the second packet for Andrea on Monday and used 1 1/2 cup water and it seemed the same consistency as the cup we purchased at the store. Though theirs was steamed milk not water. Still.. OH my lord is it good..
**Gianduja Hot Chocolate Mix: I tried this on Sunday, it smelled delicious but it was too nutty tasting for me. I think Ken would <3 it though.
**Almond Clusters with Milk Chocolate and Handmade Toffee & Baci D’Allassio (Chocolate Hazelnut Kisses) sandwiched with Dark Venezuelan Chocolate & Roasted Cashews tumbled in Chai spiced Milk Chocolate: Ken, Michelle and Andrea all raved about these. I don’t like nuts though.
**“Arbequina” estate olive oil dark Venezuelan truffle cones: Not bad, a strange shape though. Yummy.
**Beurre noisette & Valentine Holiday candies & salted chocolate caramel: All very good, I’ve never tasted salt with chocolate before. Surprising.
**chocolate caramel crisp: Hands down winner of the taste test. It makes you want to take the smallest bites possible so you can savor it longer.
So on to our main events.. what have I been doing this week?
February 7th - 9th (Thursday to Saturday)
Went and picked up Michelle for a visit. Good amount of snow on the ground so driving was interesting. We played a lot of Rock Band, had yummy food and of course discovered the distillery district on Saturday. Driving her home Saturday night was pretty bad, the roads were snowy still and it started to snow again when we reached Kitchener. We actually got stuck in the unplowed side street where her friend lived when we picked up her dog Daisy. FUN!
On the way home, I called Erika to see what she and the gang were up to and asked them over for some visiting. They agreed and we played more Rock Band had some of the yummy bread from the Bakery and had a cop come to the door at 9:30 (on a Saturday?!?) about the noise. We promised to turn it down but the sad part was that we already had it turned down from it’s normal volume of 55 to 40. So we turned it down to 35 and put a blanket underneath Ken’s drums. I really hate living in these apartments. This is not the first time we’ve had notices left on our door or hallway about the volume. The walls are thick but the front door is not so all the sound goes through there. Even at lower volumes you can still hear it in the hallway. It also really pisses me off that the notices always say something about “respecting those of us who work all day and need our sleep” .. Ken often has late night upgrades, when they have to pull the servers off-line, doing so when there’s the least amount of traffic is best. Yet the building has been doing construction on the new old folks home beginning as early as 7am. Where’s his respect? I’m positive he’s not the only one in the building who works nights. I often wait till after midnight to do laundry so that I don’t have to worry if there will be available washers, and occasionally even at 3am it’s been busy.
February 10th - 13th (Sunday to Wednesday)
We didn’t really do much of anything. Andrea came on Monday as usual but Chris was scheduled to come on Tuesday this week instead. He didn’t end up coming because we got an insane amount of snow again and didn’t want to risk anything. Wednesday, Michelle came by for 2 hours after her doctor’s appointments but she was feeling tired so we just chatted for a bit.
Both Ken and I played a lot of EQ2. They put in the Erollisi Day holiday events and while 2 of them were the same as last year, there was a new one and a bunch of new items to craft such as silver or gold plated roses, incense burners, perfume bottles, chaise lounge chairs and marrsipan candies and frosted cookies and much more. They’ve been selling well in the market too, so I might be able to afford a horsie someday! Of course I had to put one of everything in my own house. :p
February 14th (Thursday)
Valentine’s Day! Not really a big holiday for me, but it’s a nice idea. I really wanted some Mayan Hot Chocolate so we went down to Distillery District and picked up some sandwiches, then went to Soma’s. It was not-surprisingly packed! Of the stuff we got last time we picked up, A big bag of the Mayan Hot Chocolate Mix, another small bag of the Almond Clusters with Milk Chocolate and Handmade Toffee, a packet of the Gianduja Hot Chocolate Mix for Ken to try, 6 of the legendary chocolate caramel crisps, 4 Beurre noisettes, 4 salted chocolate caramel and 2 of the candied Seville orange peel, hand-dipped in dark Venezuelan chocolate but somehow they didn’t make it to the bag. :/ Sorry Ken! I also had another small cup of the Mayan Hot Chocolate made with steamed milk.
Some new things we picked up are:
**1 small package of Lightly Salted Roasted Sunflower Seeds tumbled in Milk Chocolate
**2 packets of A La Taza Hot Chocolate Mix (The classic thick hot chocolate of Barcelona, gently spiced with Vanilla, Cinnamon and Allspice). I want to try it and then maybe I’ll send some packets to my Grandma and Great-Aunt who are from Spain.
**1 small square of Sugar-Free 53.8% chocolate. (Low carb and suitable for diabetics, sugar is replaced with Maltitol)
With chocolate glowing hearts we set off to run a few errands, we’d been slacking hard and needed a trip to Costco. Apparently everyone else in the city needed to go somewhere at the exact same time and we had a really bad time with traffic, but I got to see a really nice area on the Lakeshore that I hadn’t seen before and a SNOWY beach! We picked up way too much stuff at Costco.. but somehow it really didn’t look like that much. Our most extravagent purchase was a new 11 piece knife set. We never did find the paring knife from our old set.. how the heck can you lose a knife in a tiny apartment without “finding” it accidentally in your foot or something?
I have to mention that while we were at Costco, every other guy I saw had either a giant box of chocolates or a huge orchid plant.. or both.. way to go slackers! 
Next Week / Future
Ken, Chris, Nick and Myles have lots of work to do this weekend and the following week finishing up moving all the servers to the new suite. I think we’re all going down to 151 this Saturday night. Monday is a new holiday, Family Day, just about the worst name I’ve ever heard for a holiday and for no reason other than to have a holiday in February. Ken says that he will be “unavailable” for work except for world ending situations, I wonder what he’ll do instead :p
Next week is also my Grandfather’s birthday (Thursday), Ken’s Uncle Lynn’s birthday (Saturday) and an old friend Pheuri’s birthday (also on Saturday). So HAPPY! BIRTHDAY!! <3
Soma Chocolatemaker
In association with Oliver Bonacini Restaurants the distillery historic district.
55 Mill Street
Building 48, Suite 102
Toronto, Ontario M5A 3C4
Chocolate Bar, Factory, Boutique
That’s really what their stuff says But oh my are they right. We went to the distillery historic district for lunch at the Brick Street Bakery and since we’d never been there before we looked around and found Soma Chocolates. Here’s a picture of their menu but we picked up:
**a package of Malted Milk Hot Chocolate Mix (lightly roasted Costa Rican cacao blended with malted milk. A rich and creamy elixir with warm notes of caramel.)
**2 packages of Mayan Hot Chocolate Mix (An intoxicating chocolate elixir handmade with chilli peppers, ginger, orange peel, Madagascar Vanilla and a unique blend of spices.)
**A package of Gianduja Hot Chocolate Mix (Created wtih an aromatic blend of roasted hazelnuts and cacao. A rich and nutty elixir.)
**A small bag of Balzac’s Organic Farmer’s Blend Coffee Beans tumbled in Venezuelan Dark Chocolate.
**A small bag of Almond Clusters with Milk Chocolate and Handmade Toffee.
**A small bag of Baci D’Allassio (Chocolate Hazelnut Kisses) sandwiched with Dark Venezuelan Chocolate.
**A small bag of Roasted Cashews tumbled in Chai spiced Milk Chocolate.
**1 candied Seville orange peel, hand-dipped in dark Venezuelan chocolate.
**2 “Arbequina” estate olive oil dark Venezuelan truffle cones.
**1 Beurre noisette ( brown butter truffle).
**2 Valentine Holiday candies (don’t remember what it was called).
**2 salted chocolate caramel (dark chocolate caramel sprinkled with fleur de sel).
**3 chocolate caramel crisp (dark chocolate caramel covered in crispy flakes).
We tried a cup of their Bicerin drink (one of the oldest, most famous, delectable drinks in Piedmont, Italy. Bicerin is in essence, a “bicchierino” or “small glass” of melted dark chocolate espresso, steamed milk and whipped cream.) And a cup of their Mayan Hot Chocolate (an interesting elixir made with dark Venezuelan Chocolate, spiced with cinnamon, ginger, orange peel, Madagascar Vanilla and Chilli Peppers.)
The store had “laboratory rooms” with glass walls labeled Gelato Lab, Chocolate Lab and I didn’t see the third rooms name. I can’t wait to try some of the things we bought (some of which are gifts too) and I can’t wait to go back .
Welcome back. In our last episode our heroine was reveling in the multitude of social engagements cast at her feet. Things got rather quiet in the weeks following.
*Update* I mentioned that we were supposed to go see the movie Fanboys with Clint, Erika and Brea on Jan. 18th (Saturday) but we ended up seeing I Am Legend in Imax instead. Here’s what I thought of it as posted on my Facebook Movies app:
I hear it’s well below the book quality, but I enjoyed Will Smith in this. The poor doggie was awesome too. I am still confused about how the woman and her son managed to survive alone traveling and how they were left alone at the docks right until they saved Will from dying. I will have to read the book I guess.
January 21st (Monday)
Regular Chris visiting for work day (Andrea was sick)
January 25th (Friday)
Happy Birthday Luvene! Wish we could have hung out
Nick came over for gaming and dinner
January 27th (Sunday)
Ken and Chris left for Sausalito, Cali to meet with the folks at FM. Except Ken lost his wallet at the airport just before boarding his plane. He IM’d me from the plane and I called the airport information line, explained the situation to them and asked if they could call the gate agent to take a look for it. She did and they didn’t find it. Ken told me he last had it at the Tim Hortons by the gate, so he may have lost it there so I told him I’d continue the search since he was about to take off. Mom suggested I should call the credit card companies right away to have them put a freeze on the accounts and possibly overnight Ken new cards. I called up Amex first and was told there was nothing they could do until the next morning and Ken would need to go to a branch office, and THEN he asked me for my account number. ?? I politely thanked him for his help, and said that I really didn’t think he needed the number to not help me.
So Plan B: Look up Tim Horton numbers and call around to find the one at the gate. The first one I called barely spoke english and I asked if they were the Tim Horton’s inside the Airport. The lady said “no this is tim hortons”, I explained again and asked if they were located inside the airport, “this is tim hortons” .. great .. then she hung up. ?? So I called at least 6 more Tim Horton’s that I thought were in the area, and all were “not it” but I asked if they happened to have the number for it, none did. An hour had passed since Ken’s flight had left. I called the Lost and Found office and explained what happened, the girl assured me that she would call me right away if it turned up there. I then tried calling the Tim Horton’s customer service line, which was closed for the night but I left a message. I never heard back from them by the way. Thinking it was my last shot, I called the airport information line again, explained what I was trying to do and begged for a phone number. The guy only had one number for Tim Horton’s in the airport but he couldn’t tell which gate it was located near. It was a good lead anyway, so I thanked him profusely and called it. It was not the one I sought but they did have another number I could try. BINGO! They were indeed the right Tim Hortons.. and they HAD THE WALLET! I damn near cried, my phone had been fully charged and was on the verge of dying by this point. The lady promised me that she would bring it down to the Lost and Found office as soon as she could. It was 7:30pm at this point.
The Lost and Found office would close at Midnight but as soon as they called me to tell me the wallet was there, I was ready to go get it. By 9pm I hadn’t heard anything, and not wanting to risk angering the 1 person in whose hands rested our entire financial well-being, but still needing to know what was going on, I decided to call the Tim Horton’s back. The lady sounded frustrated but promised she would bring the wallet down by 10pm. I thanked her and hung up, just hoping that if it made it to the Lost and Found by midnight, I could pick it up at 6am and hit a FedEx, Nick helped me locate one near the airport. I spent from 9:30 - 11pm waiting for the phone to ring, willing it to ring.. no luck.. Not wanting to anger the Tim Horton’s lady further, I decided to call the Lost and Found girl. She had just been about to call me, she had the wallet. Unfortunately she could not release it to me without Ken’s signature, which he could fax but his plane wasn’t landing until after the office closed. So I told the girl that I would get Ken to fax his signature as soon as he could and I’d be by to pick it up in the morning. Then I waited for Ken’s plane to land to explain everything to him, since he still didn’t know that it was found. Ken landed an hour late, and I was already convinced that I wouldn’t be getting any sleep if I was to go get his wallet, fedex it off, then meet his sister for lunch and then pick up Erika for our slumber party at Lesley’s. However, he could not find a fax machine so I gave him the number to the lost and found and went to bed.
I’m really going to buy a staple gun for that man…
January 28th (Monday)
So I finally got to sleep but set my alarm for 10am. Checked my email and Ken’s sister wasn’t feeling well so wouldn’t make it to our lunch date. I was a little relieved that I could grab 2 more hours of sleep before I went to pick up Erika at 1pm. I had packed up a small overnight bag with PJ’s and a change of clothes, and bathroom stuff already, and also our Rock Band guitar, Game & Mic. Erika was bringing her guitar as well. Lesley had never played Rock Band. Erika and I hit the grocery store near her apartment to bring drinks and snacks, and also stopped off at the Tim Horton’s for some coffee type stuff.. I tried not to grumble about the night before. Our sleep-over was oodles of fun, we played with Peter, who is way smarter than I am by the way. We ordered Chinese food for dinner, we watched a giant bear sing about the potty then after Peter went to sleep we played Rock Band till Midnight. I should have thought to bring my saved game with me, we played as a band for awhile, Lesley on the mic, Erika on Bass and me on Guitar. But realized quickly that all the songs weren’t unlocked so we round-robin’d the solo gig on guitar. Our band was named Limp Dalek’s :p Ask if you wanna know why!
I had left a note for Andrea saying that I was sorry to miss her again, she’d been sick the week before, and left her check.
January 29th (Tuesday)
I actually woke up pretty early for me. 8am I think it was. Lesley and Peter were already up and had breakfast. I made some toast and played with Peter so Lesley could have a shower. Do all mom’s get super speed boost for the 30 seconds they get to themselves? Erika woke while Lesley was in the shower and we were having lots of fun with Peter asking him what the animals say. I taught him what a Mazda says!! We hung out with them till around 2pm and then left to get Erika home so she could spend some time with her kitten before taking her to the vet. I accidentally left my purse at Lesley’s though and she called my cell phone as I was getting off the Gardiner at Jarvis. I know, what is in the water at our apartment huh? Though I left with 2 bags and a guitar so missing one bag on my arm would have been a miracle. She had an appointment to go to but thankfully I had my house keys on me so I told her I would come back for it once she got home.
My head was kinda foggy so I took a rather long shower and waited for the time to head back to Lesley’s. There was a little bit of traffic but I still made good time. When I got there, I knocked on the door a few times and heard no answer. So I opened the door and I could hear Lesley speaking, I only have one ear so I couldn’t tell where it was coming from so I guessed that she was reading Peter a bedtime story. I called her name a few times and started walking up the stairs. The sound got quieter so I realized she was in the basement. I called her name some more and started walking down the stairs. I already had my bag, but I thought it would be rude to take it without saying hi. I didn’t want to scare her so I kept calling her name, I even knocked on the basement door before walking in. She was sitting on the floor talking to Chris on her laptop. I called her name again, and took a few steps forward. She must have seen me out of the corner of her eye because she nearly jumped out of her skin. Such a horrible feeling scaring your friend that way. I would have had a heart attack. Peter was playing in the corner and thought it was pretty funny. I gave Lesley a big hug, apologized for scaring her, waved to Chris and Ken who were sitting at FM together and then headed home. Lot of driving! I don’t mind driving though.
January 30th (Wednesday)
Karen emailed me and asked if we could have our lunch date still, I had planned to pick up Michelle from Kitchener either Wednesday or Thursday depending on when Nick’s computer arrived in Niagara Falls. I was going with him to keep him company and to mail a bunch of burned dvd’s with TV shows and mp3’s for my brother DJ in Iraq. It looked like the trip would be postponed to the next week so I asked Michelle which day she wanted to come down. She thought Thursday would be better so I met up with Karen for lunch at noon, except I was feeling nauseous and she was still a bit sick so we just hung out at my place and chatted for awhile. Then she had to get home to study for her classes.
That night I heard from Sosena, she’d called my cell phone and asked if I could pick her up from the airport on Tuesday when she got back from Jamaica. I said I would but Tuesday morning I got a text message from her saying that her family would pick her up instead. So I couldn’t wait to hear about her trip, she had been pretty worried about the whole situation, going with co-workers, not staying at a hotel, etc. Turns out the trip was awful, but I did see some pictures and it looked pretty at least.
I also had the bright idea to take down our Christmas decorations. I should have known better, I always have an allergy death day after we put them up and after taking them down, but what I experienced doing it myself was like both combined. My face was red and itchy, my eyes were watery, I was sneezing faster than I type!, my head hurt from sneezing, even my teeth were itchy. I had to take my inhaler twice, after taking my regular doses of allegra, and I still wasn’t much better. I got all of the ornaments put away and tied up the first two sections of our fake tree and put them in the box before I almost collapsed and had to take a rather long break till I could function again. To top it off, Rogue got the idea to be a menace and launched himself off our corner shelf stand, knocking over my beautiful Fairy on a Unicorn statue I got from Clint, Brea & Erika this last Christmas. He’s lucky I didn’t see him for a few hours after (he scared himself) and that I was dying. Unfortunately he wasn’t done tormenting me though, and he later knocked over my external hard drive which I would have skinned him for if it had broken, especially in my not-so-cat-happy-miserable-walking-bags-of-death allergy mood. I finally did get the rest of the ornaments put away, but I’d forgotten the giant blow up penguin my mom got for Ken and our stockings, but decided they could wait for Ken. *grumble*
January 31st (Thursday)
I was supposed to go get Michelle but I had such a horrible night. I couldn’t sleep, my heart was racing from the adrenaline in my inhaler, I couldn’t breathe but I couldn’t take any more. I tossed and turned and sneezed and was a general face waterfall of tears and snot.. Lovely huh? So I wrote her and cancelled, thank goodness too because she thought she’d come down with strep throat and that’s something I can’t afford to get without insurance .. still.. My best-friend, Melar, picked up Guild Wars and asked me about it. I’ve had the game for a few years (since launch actually, I pre-ordered) but I’d never made it past level 10 because I didn’t have anyone to play with. She’s never played a game like it before, so it took a little while to get her accustomed to playing with another “person”. If you’re interested in playing, there’s no monthly fee or anything, you just buy the game which comes in a pack now with the 2 expansions (not including the new one). Message me if you want to play!
February 2nd (Saturday)
Nothing really happened on Friday, I was still recovering from the allergy attack. Saturday I had to be at the airport cell phone lot at 7am to meet Lesley & Peter and to pick up Chris and Ken. Their flight was an hour and a half late, but we’d known that it was going to be at least half an hour late so we’d planned for that. I sat in Lesley’s car with her and Peter and we talked, and Peter kept saying “no see Niki” for some reason. Weird but damn cute. Once the boys arrived we went to Perkins for breakfast and we were all about ready to drop face into platter I think. Peter informed Lesley that “mommy needs her coffee” !! We did pretty much nothing else that weekend, just recovered from our respective weeks.
My dad made it home to Virginia from Iraq, he’ll be back for 3 weeks. But we learned that he has a detached retina and needed surgery which could have him home for an added 3 weeks. The surgery went well though and he’s recovering. I ended up having to call him really late because DJ is bunking in his trailer for the week and had some questions about where he and his friends could secure their weapons and such. Having to apologize to your dad at 3am on behalf of your brother for eating all his oreo cookies in a war zone is kinda surreal.
February 3rd (Sunday)
So pleased to hear that Posey Doctorow was born! She’s healthy and adorable. Congratulations again Cory & Alice! Also, we had scheduled to have dinner with Ken’s cousin, Joel, but the weather was being iffy so we rain-checked.
February 4th (Monday)
Regular Chris & Andrea visiting for work day, nothing much else happens on Mondays. I finished my book The Oathbound, Vows and Honor, Book 1 by Mercedes Lackey. Here’s the review I wrote on my Facebook Books app: 3 /5 stars
The book mentions that there are previous stories of the characters, but this is the first one I read. Overall it was enjoyable, I liked the “world”, but every chapter there was a description of the characters and their motivations when I could have remembered on my own.
Then I began reading Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
February 5th (Tuesday)
Nick’s computer had finally arrived in Niagara Falls so I drove over to his place by 11am and we made record time to the UPS store. I mailed off the DVD’s for DJ, the guy at the store was pretty funny. We were set to head back by 12:30pm and got back to Nick’s house by 1:30pm. Another record! I chatted with his mom while he tested his shiny new toy Then I drove him down to 151 Front St. on my way home. I was home by 3pm, our estimation had been 4 or 5pm. Thankfully I had no trouble at the border, I always worry. The weather was also in our favor, it was a cloudy but breaks of sun, 47 degrees.
February 6th (Wednesday)
Chris came over again at 3pm for a work upgrade. It was crazy snowing all day though, and I had a massive headache all day (and last night as well) so I read for most of the day, finally succumbing to a nap right as Ken and Chris were ready to go have dinner. Figures! I napped off and on from then till around midnight, when I got up and watched some of my recorded American Idol shows (still in auditions) and then went to go nap some more. I also finished my book Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris which was pretty damn good. I read it really fast. Here’s the review I wrote on my Facebook Books app: 4 1/2 / 5 stars
I really liked this one. I practically couldn’t put it down. Great story, great characters, great language. I’ll take 2 Erics, a Bill, a Jason and even a Sam. :p
Now I’m reading Children of the Night: A Diana Tregarde Investigation by Mercedes Lackey
February 7th (Thursday)
I was up at stupid o’clock, aka 6am which is usually my bedtime. My head still hurts, there’s tons of snow on the ground and Ken’s still sleeping (it’s 10:30am now) I’ve been playing the Sims 2 a lot since my sleep-over with Lesley. She brought up a bunch of stuff that I’d never done in some of the expansions. It’s been fun, and I played this morning. I’m waiting to hear from Ken’s cousin, Michelle about when she’s ready for me to come get her but I’ll write more about that in my next update.
