If you’ve been coming to my blog since it started you might remember his face. He’s been on here before. He’s not as hot as Marcus but he’s close. His blog is called Versatile and I subscribe to the feed and get notices from him when posts videos and photos. He’s some seriously good eye candy. He also inspired a plot but I’ve yet to finish that book. Maybe this year…

Anyway, the versatile part of today’s post isn’t about Andrei. It’s about Nina Pierce who gave me the Versatile Blogger Award. Giving me the award means I need to tell you seven things about me and then pass this award on to some interesting folks I think you should check out.

I know it’s sorta meme-ish but without Diesel‘s Grundir on the payroll, protecting me from memes, I’m sorta stuck. Since it’s Christmas week, I thought I’d give this a holiday twist and make each thing about me Christmas related. So here goes:

1. I love Peppermint Bark. It’s my favorite Christmas thing. I’ve been hunting for Hagen Dazs Peppermint Bark ice cream because Selena Illyria said they came out with some.

2. I still have the stocking my mother bought for me when I was a baby. Yep. It’s almost 50 years old. There’s a photo of it on my Flickr page. Don’t mind the caption on. It’s older now!

3. I like Christmas lights year round. When we first moved into the condo we live in now, Rott strung Christmas lights around the bathroom mirror for me. His idea but I love it!

4. I don’t really like turkey for Christmas, but the company I work for always gives us one. I prefer ham because we just had turkey a month before on Thanksgiving. I bought a ham this year. The bird goes in the freezer until I need to warm the house on a cold day!

5. When we lived in Tempe, AZ for a year, the Tempe Fire Department adopted us and gave Nikki a wonderful Christmas. She was about 18 months old.

6. I’m a sucker for a great Christmas romance book right down to the sappy Regencies with proposals beneath the mistletoe, secret babies, pretty much all of it if it’s a Christmas story. The rest of the year you couldn’t pay me to read a secret baby story.

7. Everyone knows that I love Josh Lanyon’s Christmas story The Dickens With Love, but my favorite Christmas book of all time is Gift of the Magi. I even took that theme and used it in Christmas Hookup, my free Christmas story.

So, there ya have it! Seven Christmas things about me! Now, go on out there and check out Nina’s seven things and the seven things of the two people I talked into doing this meme with me!

Jaime Samms

Evie Balos

Now, that the versatile blogger meme is over, it’s time for a Marcus!

Where is my drool bib? I swear each image is better than the last. How does he make almost 40 look so damned good? *sigh*

Okay, before I toddle off, don’t forget to come by the Lex Valentine blog and comment on today’s post for a chance to win a free Christmas book during the last week of my 30 Days of Christmas event!

Happy Christmas Week Monday!

Memes

Okay, so I got tagged for this Bald Face Liar game. Originally, when I first saw this meme on a few blogs, I laughed because a couple of the authors who were playing really are bald faced liars so I found it rather ironic. I never did do memes well and I prefer the truth even with regard to games so I doubt I’ll play.  My friend Lisa is playing though, so if you want to see how it works click on her name and check it out.

Lunch

I had lunch on Saturday with an author! A real live totally awesome author! Z.A. Maxfield and I held down a corner booth at Claim Jumper for three hours and talked about everything.  I can’t believe how much fun it was. I can’t believe I hadn’t come out of my dark cave sooner to meet her. But now that I have, we have plans. First, we plan on doing this monthly. Second, we plan on descending on the Orange County chapter of the Romance Writer’s of America to see how two authors of M/M romantic fiction can stir things up.

RWA

Speaking of RWA, since Pink Petal Books is now allowed in, I’m going to join RWA and submit my PAN application since I do happen to fit the criteria of the elite group who made a thousand bucks in royalties in a year (I think I did it in about 6 months which is amazing from a little pub) on a single title. Fire Season is the book that did it so I might as well show off the fact that it’s a bestseller. I’ll probably join the Rainbow (GLBT) and Passionate Ink (erotic) chapters too. I need to check out the OC chapter before I join. It seemed kind boring but ya never know. ZAM and I will give them a look over and see if it’s worth belonging to.

Knitting

I’m knitting together all the scenes for Common Ground. I’m very close to finishing this. I just have a bare handful of scenes to complete with a little weaving and it will done. Won’t be as long as Ride the Lightning or Fire Season, which were both closer to 60K. This one will be under 50K. But it’s the introduction to the werewolves so the dragons have very little face time. However, it lays the ground work for two other stories in the series. One is Sunstroked which is the book that follows this one and is about Colin’s very happy assistant Corey. (Who isn’t very happy in the beginning of the book.) The second is Thunder and Myth which is the story of how Diandra Antaeus left her family for Ruan McCallan and what happens years later when Ruan manages to push even Di away. Look for Common Ground in July and Sunstroked in the fall.

The Bar

It’s buh bye to something very dear to my heart. By the end of this week the Bar will be gone. With big gaping holes in the story from posts deleted by writers who left, it wasn’t worth keeping up. A couple of the other writers are copying their posts to save and once they are done this week, I’m taking the site down and deleting the domain. It’s like the end of an era and it’s a little heartbreaking for me.

Scare

Rott and I had a scare over the weekend. His mom had a bout of severe confusion so his step-dad took her to the hospital where they kept her overnight and did an MRI and some other tests. They let her go home the next day and I guess we’ll eventually find out what the tests have to say. It really shook Rott up though.

STP

Yes, Stone Temple Pilots have a new CD that is out tomorrow! Rott and I are stoked. We’ve already ordered a copy. We’ve debated going to see them when they come around and I don’t mind watching Weiland bounce around the stage totally high off his ass but for some reason Rott seems to have some reservations about that. Neither of us have looked up dates yet so there’s a good chance we may not even have the opportunity to see them. The other CD we’re early awaiting is the new Nevermore which is out in June.

Toes

I got a pedicure on Friday and I could have cried. It felt soooo good! I’ve neglected to do this for myself for a year and now I’m so sorry that I did. It was relaxing and my feet feel great. I need to give myself that pampering every two weeks and stop being such a pissant about it taking away my writing time. I can use the time to read on my Nookie and reading always rejuvenates a writer so I just don’t have any excuses except that I’m a lazy so and so.

Marcus

The Bar may be gone but I will never give up my Marcus!

Asthma

I’m having a bad patch with my asthma. It happens once in awhile. The least little exertion has me gasping for air. It sucks eggs in a major way. Unfortunately, it’s one of those times where my meds just don’t do jack. It always seems to occur a couple of times a year…getting so bad that nothing works and all I can do is stay indoors as much as possible and not have to walk more than a few feet at a time and not carry or lift anything heavier than my purse. It will ease up. It always does. I’m just miserable until it does though.

Memorial Day

I have to work. We always work on Memorial Day because there’s a big event at the cemetery. Actually, I’ll be inside doing the deposit for my friend Liz who normally does them. She’s on golf cart duty this year ferrying the handicapped visitors to the event. Since it’s month end and we can’t afford a lost day, I get to stay out of the sun and count money. It’s really quiet inside the building on Memorial Day. Even quieter than it is on a weekend. But usually, that means I’ll get done quicker. And we sometimes get lunch too. Chicken or hot dogs. Nothing special but free food is always nice.

I’m going to stop rambling now and toddle off to work. You all have a great Monday!

Now, here’s that meme I snagged from Kapgar. Afterward, we’ll have a little Marcus!

The Rule: Answer the questions using only one word.

1. Where is your cell phone? Desk
2. Your significant other? Rott
3. Your hair? Long
4. Your mother? Dead
5. Your father? Dead
6. Your favorite thing? purse
7. Your dream last night? hot
8. Your favorite drink? coffee
9. Your dream/goal? stressless
10. The room you’re in? bedroom
11. Your hobby? writing
12. Your fear? homelessness
13. Where do you want to be in six years? comfortable
14. What you’re not? stressfree
15. Muffins? English
16. One of your wish list items? car
17. Where you grew up? salinas
18. The last thing you did? email
19. What are you wearing? undies
20. Favorite gadget? cellphone
21. Your pets? many
22. Your computer? black
23. Your mood? tired
24. Missing someone? always
25. Your car? broken
26. Something you’re not wearing? shoes
27. Favorite store? Dooney
28. Like someone? many
29. Your favorite color? violet
30. When is the last time you laughed? afternoon
31. Last time you cried? friday

That was hard. Finding one word answers isn’t as easy as you’d think. Hmmmn.

Okay, now here’s a Marcus for this Monday. I killed off a character last night that I needed to get rid of and now I feel a little freer. To celebrate the freedom, I wanted a fun Marcus. This is from some fashion show. Not sure why he had to be the Mad Hatter but he was. He’s still hot.

Have a great Monday!

1. I haven’t had sunstroke, but I have had sun poisoning. If I’m in the sun too much now, I get really sick later. Chills, fever, shakes, nausea. It’s awful.
2. I still have a nostalgic kinda thing for my ex, the hottie named Paul. It’s fueled some dreams, some fantasies, and few writing projects. Hot men make good muses.
3. I get really homesick when it’s hot here. I mean, 68 degrees and overcast is the perfect weather to me. It’s what my body is used to after living 30 years in that climate. When I’m really overheated and miserable in my hot, swampy house, I just wanna lay down (in front of the fan, of course) and sob because I miss home so much.
4. When I look at some of the old photos of me, from my 20′s and a few from my 30′s, I think, my God. I was pretty and never knew it. How did I never know it?
5. Me and another blogger (male) have this torrid fantasy about sharing Kelly Monaco… and/or Marcus Schenkenberg. Rawr.
6. I am addicted to hot wings. It is probably my most favorite food on the planet. Whenever I go to a new restaurant and I see hot wings on the menu, I have to try them. I’m not sure whose wings are my favorites these days because my favorite place, Big Red Wings on Santa Monica Blvd in West LA, is gone now. Hooters falls in the middle for me. Their wings are good, but not great. Not a fan of Wingnuts (the wings or the prices) either. El Toritos’ hot wings are actually pretty good. Same for Islands and Marie Callender’s. I just can’t pick a fave place anymore. I just keep trying wings from everywhere and some day I’ll find a replacement for Big Red Wings, I guess.
7. I would totally watch soccer just to get my eyeballs all over that Brazilian soccer team. I think I need to move to Brazil. They have the hottest men, I swear. The models… omg. Rafael Lazzini, Andre Coelho, the Verga brothers and more. I would love to retire to Brazil and sit and watch the hotties all day long while twatting to everyone how happy I am with the scenery. Oh, yeah. Now, that is a fantasy!
8. I don’t usually watch TV, but I’ve totally been watching In Plain Sight strictly to get a glimpse of the hottie on there, Christian de la Fuente.
9. Hot tubs are one of my favorite things in the world. However, since there isn’t one where I live and I look like Jabba the Hut in a bathing suit anyway, I never get to indulge. If I ever get my own house, it would absolutely need a hot tub so I could sit in it naked and enjoy the heat without being self conscious.
10. Another of my fantasy-wish list items, is to cruise on a private yacht and go swimming someplace where the water is warm and perfectly clear (and shark free). I’m not quite sure why the warm water is so attractive since usually I have a huge fear of water and swimming.

So that’s it for me for today. Here’s a couple of eye candy morsels for you before I go.

Brandon Boyd of Incubus. This is my favorite photo of him, taken at a Surfrider Foundation event.

This is Christina Scabbia of Lacuna Coil. Sultry voice, sulty woman. Now, you’re all gonna want to go listen to her sing, right?

Hope your Humpday is filled with hotties, but not hot weather. Ugh.

According to Livvy, the English Courtesan, this meme is Seven Lots of Five. Since I’m not a tagger, I won’t bother with that bit, but anyone who wants to do it and give it their individual spin, feel free to do so. I’ve already seen some hella creative versions of this (ie Snackiepoo). I’m just gonna answer the Q’s. LOL

Where were you ten years ago?

Living in Huntington Beach. Working in West Los Angeles near Santa Monica. Yakking online to Rott and all my friends at KNAC.com. Trying to meet Rott. That didn’t actually happen until October, but we’d been talking for months and I really had a crush on him even though I had a boyfriend. Yeah, the boyfriend was the hot long haired blonde guy with the bullwhip tattoo from a few posts back. Austin B. That would be him.

5 Things on your to do list

1. Get caught up reading all the blogs I missed while my computer was down.

2. Go to the bank and pay my rent. This may seem like 2 things but it’s really one. If I didn’t need to pay the rent, I wouldn’t have to go to the bank.

3. Find my Photoshop CD.

4. Order a few groceries for delivery. I need milk, bread, English muffins for work, Krustez pancake mix, rice, and a couple packages of a Portuguese sausage called Linguica. We LOVE linguica in my house. We eat it with steamed white rice.

5. Get info on VOIP. I need a land phone again. Ugh. I’m so not in love with them, but currently, I need one so Rott can call home. He can’t call my cell much, and I miss hearing his voice. Although, I did get a quick call from him on my cell last weekend. Perked me right the hell up until he had to go. Then I started crying because I miss him so.

What would you do if you were a billionaire?

Heh. I don’t see this question as a “what would you do with the money” question. I’m taking it totally at face value here. If I were a billionaire, I would cruise around on the megayacht Janie and spend my days writing. I’d get published. I’d write a lot of stuff and enjoy not being stressed. Sure, I’d invest some money, and I’d give some to charity. I’d put my kid through college and maybe even finish my last year, just so I could have the sheepskin. I’d help out some friends who would love to have their houses and cars paid off or a vacation on the yacht with me.

I’d hire lots of cute cabin boys for the first vacation. I’d invite ShinyBitch, Jen, MaryO, Hilly, Livvy, Britt, Becky, Bluepaintred, MetalMom, the other Jen, and Susan. As a counterpoint to the all female guest list, I would include Jester and UMB. We would cruise the Mediterranean and see the South of France and Monaco. I would forget about sunlight sucking. I would write on a new Mac Notebook and hand them out as vacation favors to the guests. And we’d all have fun with the cabin boys. HEH. Perhaps I should invite Karl and Othurme along to make a video of all the fun we would have… I’m good at this dreaming thing, aren’t I?

5 Places you’ve lived

1. Salinas, California – In the house I grew up in, until everyone died.

2. Tempe, Arizona – Two blocks from ASU and Sun Devil Stadium. Go Sparky Sun Devil!

3. Bellevue, Washington – Right off the 405, on a hill, in a really nice private neighborhood.

4. Sherman Oaks, California – In a brand new apartment on the fourth floor. No one else had ever lived in it and I could see the Sepulveda Dam from my balcony and kitchen window.

5. Barstow, California – In a motel on the main drag. It was definitely a drag.

5 Bad habits

1. I procrastinate. I can be an ostrich sometimes.

2. I have a bad temper. Mostly, I can control it, but it’s really a very bad temper.

3. I’m suspicious. I rarely believe people. I always think they aren’t telling me the whole truth or they have some kind of ulterior motive. Not my friends really, but other people I have to deal with. Yeah, I’m a tad paranoid. I think it goes with working in IT…

4. This goes with #3. I have a marked lack of faith in others. I never think they are going to do what they say they will. Or I think they will do it wrong. I’m the first one to think that someone’s fucked something up. I try not to open my mouth when I think this because often I put my foot in it due to my bad habit of thinking the worst.

5. I’m lazy. Sometimes. Other times I want to do things, but my body protests when I do, so I give up. I think the lazy goes with the procrastinate though.

5 jobs you’ve had

I think I did this in my 100 things… didn’t I? Lemme look… Ah! I did! Copy, paste, voila! HEH.

1. My first job was making change in my dad’s barber shop.

2. When I was in college I worked in an auto repair shop. I drove Adam Jones from Tool’s Barracuda. Booyeah!

3. I ran a coffee shop for my mom on the south end of Mercer Island, WA when I was just out of high school.

4. I stuffed envelopes for the Southern California Gardener Newsletter when it was first starting out.

5. I worked for a wish granting organization.

How was your blog named?

I was having a contest for a tagline and the Absurdist gave me “Sunlight is Overrated”, which reminded me of Britt’s tagline. When Jester actually DID come up with the tagline, I decided I loved it, but not with the original blog title. That’s when I realized that the Absurdist had named the blog. My twist on her tagline was Sunlight Sucks, which went well with Jester’s tagline of “I vant to suck your blog.”

That’s a nice ending to this meme. My title, my tagline… are all about YOU folks. I embrace you all today! Much hugs and MUAHS! Happy weekend!