Camy Tang's Blog, page 122

16th century French queen's pin found in toilet

Catherine de Medici’s pin found in a communal toilet??? Now that’s the start of some story, don’t you think?

The Young Ladies’ Room by Elizabeth Ford

I just finished this book yesterday and it was WONDERFUL.



What was interesting about it was that it was published in 1945, so it was probably written in 1943 or 1944 in Great Britain during World War 2. So although it’s a “contemporary” romantic novel, the setting and characters and dialogue are straight from the 40s and very authentic. It reminded me a bit of some of Grace Livingston Hill’s novels in its calm tone and slang-ish language.



The plot was a little predictable, but it made me cry at the end anyway (and at some points in between). What I especially liked was that I thought that each character got what they deserved (mostly). It was a terribly satisfying ending.



Unfortunately, it’s mostly available in the UK and hard to find in the US. I had to special order it from a UK used bookstore. But it was SO worth the extra money and hassle. It’s become one of my favorite books.



I really love Elizabeth Ford. I read one of her books by accident and enjoyed it so much that I went out to find her other ones. Elizabeth Ford is a pseudonym, and she also wrote historical romances (Victorian and Regency) under the pseudonym Mary Ann Gibbs.

Carb cycling

I found this article on carb cycling. Has anyone done this? I’m not entirely sure how healthy it is to go low carb and then binge.

Exercises for migraines

Funny that I read this article today, because I woke up with the beginnings of a migraine around 3 this morning. My migraines are usually hormonal because of my peri-menopause, so I drank soymilk (to even out my fluctuating hormones) and this time I took some willow bark pills rather than Tylenol. They seemed to work well so I’ll try that again next time instead of Tylenol.



Do you think the stretches in the article are useful? What do you do for your migraines? Any tips for me?

Facebook games!

I admit to loving Zuma Blitz, which is a Facebook game. There’s also a version you can download on your iPad/iPod/iPhone and a computer game version, but I like the Facebook version best since I get to compete against my Facebook friends. (If you play Zuma Blitz, friend me so we can play together!) You can see above that I enjoy playing with authors Vickie McDonough and Rhonda Gibson. Usually it's just the three of us on the leaderboard that shows on my screen.



I also tried Words With Friends and I completely, utterly SUCK at it. No, I am not being modest.



I was also playing Packrat for a while but stopped because it just didn’t interest me as much anymore.



Any Facebook games you like to play?

Gyros

Captain Caffeine and I love going out to lunch after church on two Sundays each month. It’s kind of like our special date lunches each month. One of his favorite eateries is Yiassoo, a Greek restaurant that has some of the BEST gyros on the planet!!!!







Plus their french fries are really good too. :)



Any of you like Greek food?

How was your Father’s Day?

Any cool gifts you gave/received?

This is how cruel I am to my dog

I wanted to take a picture of these new socks I just finished knitting, so I went outside where Snickers came to greet me, expecting me to play with her or at least scratch her tummy (which I did).



And while she was on her side, I threw my socks on top of her and snapped this picture:







Her look says it all: “I don’t believe you’re embarrassing me like this.”



Wouldn’t I be simply AWFUL if I had kids???? I’d probably dress them up in tomato costumes or as mini-me.

Homage to CHUCK

I absolutely adored the TV show Chuck. So in Protection for Hire , Charles’s alias at the party, Charles Carmichael, is in honor of Chuck Bartowsky’s favorite alias from the TV show.



There also used to be a Captain Awesome reference, but unfortunately my editor took it out. So here’s the original excerpt from chapter 23:



Josh led Velma out onto the dance floor and Charles drew Tessa into his arms.



He felt as if a circle had been completed.



She looked up at him, her brown eyes glowing with flecks of emerald. He thought she might have stopped breathing—he knew he did. He’d been wanting to hold her since the moment he saw her at the foot of his stairs, regal in that blue gown. She hadn’t been transformed so much as enhanced—before, her confidence had been in her walk and her athletic grace, but tonight, it shone from every pore, in the tilt of her chin, the sway of her hips, the toss of her head. His hand at her waist tightened.



“The music’s started,” she murmured, and he realized they’d been standing still at the edge of the dancing area. He swept her into the slow, sensuous tango.



“Needed rescuing, did you?” she asked.



He frowned at her. “You obviously didn’t.”



“Oh, Josh already knows who we are and what we’re doing here.”



“You told him?”



She explained about Karissa.



“Do you trust him?”



“Josh assured me that they could torture him like Wesley in The Princess Bride, but they’d never get him to tell what he knows about us.”



“Oh. That completely reassures me.” Then again, she’d gained an ally tonight with Captain Awesome over there, whereas Charles had spent most of his time trying to keep Ms. Crackhead from throwing him over her shoulder and hoofing it out of the ballroom.

Clean plate syndrome

You know what’s freeing? Realizing that if I’m not liking what I’m eating, I don’t have to finish it.



I was eating leftovers yesterday and not really enjoying it (it was Minnesota wild rice soup, but I had added too much kale). I kept slogging through until it hit me, Duh, I don’t have to keep eating.



So I dumped the rest down the garbage disposal and refuse to feel guilty for all the starving children in Africa who wouldn’t have eaten my yucky soup, either.



I didn’t waste the calories on bad food.



I should have realized this earlier, because it’s like how I’ve been with my reading lately, I don’t have time to waste on a book that doesn’t interest me. There are lots of books that I ought to read, or that are well-written, but if the story doesn’t resonate with me for whatever reason, I don’t have to finish reading it!



How about you? Do you finish your food and your books?