Inglath Cooper's Blog, page 10

The Other Woman a 5 Star Escape

If you’re looking for a movie that will let you turn off the world for a couple of hours and just go to a place where you can laugh, this is that movie.

So here’s a story about Mark, a husband gone bad, and the three women who set out to teach him a lesson. Ironically, those three women are his wife and two of his conquests.

Carly (Cameron Diaz) – conquest number one, meets wife Kate (Leslie Mann) – when Carly arrives at Mark’s house dressed as a hot plumber after he breaks one of their dates because of a “water leak in his basement.”

When the two finally put the pieces together, things do not look good for Mark! These two end up becoming friends, and I’m not sure who’s more entertaining, Kate or her Great Dane “puppy.”

I haven’t seen a romantic comedy that I enjoyed this much in some time. It has all the elements that many of us look for in a movie. You won’t have to think too hard, the scenery is spectacular and the laughs frequent.

For me, this was a four-star escape!

You can rent it right now on iTunes and on Amazon.

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Never tried one of my books? If you like stories that take you away for a bit, feature characters looking to live fulfilled lives with love and dogs and relationships that matter, I’d love to give you a FREE copy of Good Guys Love Dogs! Please just click here: http://inglathcooper.com/good-guys-love-dogs-free-gift

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The Other Woman a 4 Star Escape

If you’re looking for a movie that will let you turn off the world for a couple of hours and just go to a place where you can laugh, this is that movie.

So here’s a story about Mark, a husband gone bad, and the three women who set out to teach him a lesson. Ironically, those three women are his wife and two of his conquests.

Carly (Cameron Diaz) – conquest number one, meets wife Kate (Leslie Mann) – when Carly arrives at Mark’s house dressed as a hot plumber after he breaks one of their dates because of a “water leak in his basement.”

When the two finally put the pieces together, things do not look good for Mark! These two end up becoming friends, and I’m not sure who’s more entertaining, Kate or her Great Dane “puppy.”

I haven’t seen a romantic comedy that I enjoyed this much in some time. It has all the elements that many of us look for in a movie. You won’t have to think too hard, the scenery is spectacular and the laughs frequent.

For me, this was a four-star escape!

You can rent it right now on iTunes and on Amazon.

*************

Never tried one of my books? If you like stories that take you away for a bit, feature characters looking to live fulfilled lives with love and dogs and relationships that matter, I’d love to give you a FREE copy of Good Guys Love Dogs! Please just click here: http://inglathcooper.com/good-guys-love-dogs-free-gift

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Survive the Unthinkable

There is so much violence in our world.

This past week, I’ve been unable to stop thinking about Hannah Graham, the University of Virginia student who disappeared on September 13th. It’s almost impossible to process this kind of thing, a young girl disappears without explanation. It’s the unthinkable.

No matter how much we try to close it out, avoid listening to the news stories or read the articles in the newspapers, it’s there. We know it. And maybe we try not to think about it because we know deep down that if someone really wants to hurt us, there’s probably not going to be much we can do to stop it.

But that’s not the way we should think about it, is it?

Or at least that’s what I realized today after listening to an interview with Tim Larkin, author of Survive the Unthinkable. I’m reading this book.

You can listen to the interview on Lewis Howes’ School of Greatness podcast. Check it out here.

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Never tried one of my books? If you like stories that take you away for a bit, feature characters looking to live fulfilled lives with love and dogs and relationships that matter, I’d love to give you a FREE copy of Good Guys Love Dogs! Please just click here: http://inglathcooper.com/good-guys-lo...

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When Lightning Strikes

I’ve always been respectful of lightning. I’m not someone who likes to stay out on the boat when there’s a storm on the lake where we live. I’ve never wanted to take a walk on a golf course when there’s thunder around. And I really don’t like driving in heavy rain.

So yesterday, I’m driving to Florida from Virginia. Three dogs with me. We were on I-95, a couple hours south of Jacksonville. I could see the storm up ahead. The sky was as black and ominous as I’ve ever seen a sky.

When the rain began, it didn’t do so in sprinkles. It came in heavy, blasting sheets that immediately cut all visibility but the taillights of the car in front of me. I immediately started looking for the next exit, so I could pull over somewhere and wait out the rain. But the next off ramp was four miles ahead. Traffic had now slowed to a crawl. I kept a safe distance between me and the car in front of me, noticing that the tractor trailer behind me was also doing the same, thank goodness.

Around mile marker 190, a lightning bolt struck the pavement right in front of my car. I saw a flash of red, just before I heard a deafening crack and felt the force of pavement flying up and hitting the underside of my vehicle. The force jerked the wheel in my hands, but I was able to control it because of my slow speed.

It’s amazing how quickly fear can grab you by the throat. I knew what had happened, but at the same time couldn’t believe it actually had. I immediately feared that the car might explode because I knew I had just run over the end of a lightning bolt.

I won’t kid you and say that I was as calm as a cucumber in figuring out what to do. I wasn’t. But I did manage to find the next exit and pull over to make sure my car wasn’t on fire.

Thankfully, it wasn’t. The windshield was broken. Other than that, we appeared to be okay.

I’ve said my prayers of thankfulness for the fact that no one was hurt yesterday, and I will continue to do so. But there’s no doubt that these moments in our lives make us question why we’re still here. I think, too, I’ll be looking for opportunities to be the kind of person who deserves the privilege.

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Never tried one of my books? If you like stories that take you away for a bit, feature characters looking to live fulfilled lives with love and dogs and relationships that matter, I’d love to give you a FREE copy of Good Guys Love Dogs! Please just click here.

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Recipe: Kale, Potato, Pea Salad

I like to make big, dinner portion salads, kind of one-dish meals. We’re a family of six, so size matters!

This particular salad is filling, so you shouldn’t leave the table hungry. The kale, potatoes and walnuts are a good mix of flavors. You may have noticed kale is the new popular green in restaurants and grocery stores. It deserves the recognition. It’s loaded with Vitamins A, C, K and others.

Here’s the recipe:

1 bag of chopped, organic kale

1 bag of frozen organic green peas

1 small bag of small white potatoes

1 can of organic white beans

1/2 cup of walnuts, toasted

1/2 cup of good olive oil

sea salt to taste

Cook the potatoes in boiling water. When they’ve just turned soft, add peas and cook for two minutes, leaving them bright green. Drain potatoes and peas. Drain white beans. In a large bowl, add kale, then add potatoes, peas, white beans. Toast walnuts in a pan on the stovetop until they are just starting to brown. Add to mixture.

Pour olive oil over salad mixture. Add salt. Mix with large spoon until all ingredients are coated with olive oil. Adjust your salt to taste. Enjoy!

Recipe: Toasted Walnut Apple Salad

Here’s a favorite healthy meal salad! It takes next to no time to put together, and everything in it is super good for you!

6 medium organic Gala apples, sliced into bite size pieces

1 large container of organic mixed greens

1 small container of crumbled Goat cheese

1/2 crumbled walnuts

1/4 cup of your favorite olive oil

Sea salt to taste

In a sauce pan, toast the walnuts. Don’t leave the stove or you’ll burn them – trust me, I speak from experience! Stir back and forth until they begin to brown and release that lovely, walnut flavor.

In a large bowl, place your mixed greens, sliced apples, goat cheese and now toasted walnuts. Drizzle salad ingredients with olive oil. Add sea salt to taste.

Toss with a large spoon until all ingredients are covered with olive oil and salt.

That’s it. I hope you enjoy it!

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Never tried one of my books? If you like stories that take you away for a bit, feature characters looking to live fulfilled lives with love and dogs and relationships that matter, I’d love to give you a FREE copy of Good Guys Love Dogs! Please just click here.

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Juice Love

 

It wasn’t an at first sight kind of thing. It took a bit of finessing on the part of my juicer and its attempts to find the exact blend that would put these hearts in my eyes. But finesse, it did, and my Breville Elite and I now have a date each and every day of the week.

I started this love affair on a cautionary note. Aware that it could be a positive life change, but also with lots of questions about things like how much to have each day, which fruits and vegetables blended well together, whether it could be refrigerated, how long it would stay fresh and much more.

As it turns out, the more I learn, the more I want to know. And so I’m on a quest to discover as much about the benefits of juicing as I can. My introduction to juicing came when I watched Joe Cross’s Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, an amazing documentary about his 60-day juice fast and how it totally changed his state of health and well-being.

I also found a podcast - Jucing Radio – that I’ve been listening to on my phone when I’m running or riding my bike. They have lots of good interviews with people who’ve rebooted their lives with juicing. Here are a couple of favorites:

Victoria Moran – Author of Main Street Vegan

Shawny’s Juicing Weight Loss Success Tips

So, a little on why I’ve taken to juicing. I started a couple of years ago, juicing off and on, making smoothies more often than juice. And when I did juice, I would only have one a day. I really liked it, but didn’t make it a priority.

Then I began having some digestive issues. Certain foods just did not suit me anymore. I went to see my doctor about the symptoms and ended up being scheduled for an ultrasound of my abdomen. Based on the results of that, I was scheduled for an MRI. If there’s any experience that will make you want to protect your health, it is spending nearly an hour in an MRI machine.

For me, it was an exercise in trying not to have a panic attack while blocking out the jackhammer sound effects of the machine.

Thankfully, my results were good and no more tests were needed. But the experience renewed my determination to clean up my eating even more than I already had. I decided to get serious about the juicing, increasing my juices per day from one to three or four.

And boy, has it made a difference in the way I feel. I have one for breakfast, usually one late morning, afternoon and sometimes after dinner.

What have I noticed?

Increased energy – MAJOR increase in energy. I’ve tackled projects over the past few weeks that I have been putting off for two years.

Far less desire to snack. Far fewer cravings for snack type food. I’ve read this about the effects of juicing, and I have to say, it’s something I’ve definitely noticed. I don’t think about snacking. There is a satisfaction I have from drinking juice throughout the day that I have not experienced eating any other way.

My digestive issues. Nearly gone.

Weight loss. My scale is currently broken, but my guess is around ten pounds.

Those are my facts for now. My next post on juicing will be Juicing Timesavers.

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Never tried one of my books? If you like stories that take you away for a bit, feature characters looking to live fulfilled lives with love and dogs and relationships that matter, I’d love to give you a FREE copy of Good Guys Love Dogs! Please just click here.

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I’m in Love!

With juicing.

It wasn’t a first sight kind of thing. It took a bit of finessing on the part of my juicer and its attempts to find the exact blend that would put these hearts in my eyes. But finesse, it did, and my Breville Elite and I now have a date each and every day of the week.

I started this love affair on a cautionary note. Aware that it could be a positive life change, but also with lots of questions about things like how much to have each day, which fruits and vegetables blended well together, whether it could be refrigerated, how long it would stay fresh and much more.

As it turns out, the more I learn, the more I want to know. And so I’m on a quest to learn as much about the benefits of juicing as I can. My introduction to juicing came when I watched Joe Cross’s Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, an amazing documentary about his 60 day juice fast and how it totally changed his state of health and well-being.

I’ve found a couple of podcasts - Jucing Radio - I’ve been listening to on my phone when I’m running or riding my bike.

Rock Her – New Book

Finishing up the edits on my new book. This is a fun phase, but a nerve-wracking, one, too because I always start thinking what if it’s not really that good? What if no one likes it?

This book is mostly set in Italy. Gosh, I love that country! There’s not a town you can drive through that isn’t interesting and unique in some way. My two main characters – Lizzy and Ren – end up doing just this – driving town to town – falling in love with Italy as I have during my trips there.

Lizzy is a photographer and takes tons of pictures during their travels. I took tons during mine as well. Thought I would share some of them here.

You can Pre-order Rock Her on Amazon.com. The release date is September 19, 2014! Thank you for your interest in my books. I appreciate it so very much!

It seems appropriate to start with dessert first. The Tiramisu at this small trattoria in Rome was the best I’ve ever had! Can’t even come up with words to describe it!

There are so many angles from which to view Rome’s sprawling beauty.

I find the architecture incredible.

The food stands are virtual works of art. Their proprietors take great pride in their presentation.

When my husband isn’t mimicking Roman statues, he’s actually pretty hot.

In all fairness, here he is looking considerably hotter.

Deer Friends

It was a very cold winter in Virginia this past year. I’m told the acorns were in short supply and with the low temperatures, the deer around our farm started looking hungry in February.

We started putting out corn for them every day, and it was nice to see them come up in groups of ten or twelve and make a line across the hillside near our barn, eating their fill.

When spring showed up and revived our local greenery, the deer stopped coming every afternoon. They were finding plenty of food on their own.

But then one afternoon, a few weeks go, a pretty young doe walked right up to our horse barn, just a few feet away from where I was standing. She was thin, and we could see that she was nursing a baby. If she had spoken out loud in regular old English and asked me if we had any corn for her, her request wouldn’t have been any clearer.

We were out of corn at the time, but I went and got some horse feed for her, and we gave her a snack. She ate it all up and was back the next afternoon for more. By that time, we were back in stock on our deer corn, and she liked that even better.

This went on for a week or so before she began bringing her baby with her. Is there anything cuter than a fawn?

During one corn visit, they were kind enough to let me take their pictures. Sweet, gentle, peaceful beauty.

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Never tried one of my books? If you like stories that take you away for a bit, feature characters looking to live fulfilled lives with love and dogs and relationships that matter, I’d love to give you a FREE copy of Good Guys Love Dogs! Please just click here: http://inglathcooper.com/good-guys-lo...

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