Or is that finally done? LOL. It’s been a long month, lots of stuff going on and happenings that have stressed me, thrilled me, frustrated me and made me soooo ready for my cruise.

And today is March 31 – the end of the month named after the Roman god Mars. Is it any wonder March is so crazy since it’s named after the god of war?

Tomorrow is April and I was browsing on Wikipedia to find little tidbits about April. Interestingly enough, I found it comes from the Latin word aperire meaning “to open”. Open it up y’all because I’m ready for it! Of course the April birthstone is diamond and I wouldn’t mind one of those either. ;)

April brings my vacation (woo!) then a flurry of activity while I get ready for RT (yay!). It’s going to be busy, and I expect it to pass by even faster than March did. I am really looking forward to all of it!

I’m working from home as my icemaker was giving me fits again, and my work laptop is infected with some kind of trojan/malware/virus. Blech. I’m working on my personal laptop and running scans on the other. Oh yeah, March has been a doozy!

Anyhoo, I hope y’all have a great Tuesday!

Monday’s eye candy for your viewing pleasure.

It started out okay. I got to the airport and got through security without a problem. Even was the first in my group on the plane, then everything went wrong…

First I saw the little boy with the too-long hair, the frazzled Mom holding the 9 month old baby, and I wondered (hoped they wouldn’t) be near me. But alas, they were nearly across the row from me. The boy was loud, spoke everything at full volume and repeated it over and over.

Have you ever seen/heard Bill Cosby’s story about Jeffrey who is 4 years old on the airplane? Yep, this was Jeffrey. So I listened to “Youknowwhatyouknowwhatyouknowwhatyouknowwhat?” and “Lookatmelookatmelookatmelookatme”.

I survived it even though as we were descending into Dulles airport, he decided to screech at the top of his lungs “We’re craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaashinggggggggggggggggggggggggggg!”

So I got off the first plane and made my way half-way across the planet to the next gate. Everything seemed okay, then they announced the flight had a “mechanical delay”. No worries, right?

Wrong.

They ended up canceling the 12:17 pm flight half an hour later and by that time, many of the passengers, probably 40 of them, had already gone down to customer service. By the time I got there, there were no seats on the 5:00 flight and the 10:00 pm was filling up fast. I was only going for one day, and I wasn’t about to stay in the airport for 10 hours.

I called my company’s travel department and ended up deciding to turn around and go back to Raleigh. Easier said than done, right? Okay, so there was a 3:20 flight and I got a seat.

Then the 3:20 turned into 3:40 which turned into 4:05 which turned into 4:30. I spent more than 5 hours in Dulles before I finally took off to head back home. After 10 hours of traveling, I ended up back where I started.

I stopped and got a chocolate shake with whipped cream on the way home.

Business travel for today and tomorrow – thank God it’s going to be around 50. It’s been frigid there until today – I’m bringing the warm winds with me. :)

I’ll be offline quite a bit due to work and the fact I’ll be in the air so if you e-mailed me and I haven’t answered, it’s because I’m likely in a plane. LOL.

Anyhoo, it’s Thursday already. The week started off really rough, but it’s rolling now. I’ll be back tomorrow night from VT and then the weekend will be filled with crazy busy stuff too. I totally need a vacation.

The good news is, I’ll be on vacation for real as of next Friday. Yes, ladies and gents, I’ll be on board a luxurious cruise ship with books and cold drinks not remembering how frantic life has been the last year or so.

I. Can’t. Wait.

All right now, I need some recs for books to bring to read – they can be ebooks or print books. Bring it on y’all – what have you read lately that you liked, loved, or that blew your socks off?

This is the first year in a very long time I’m going to owe on my taxes.

*sigh*

I had planned on that, really I did, but I also wanted that sunporch on the back of the house, so alas, that money is now gone. I have to pay my taxes owed with other fundage.

*double sigh*

The good news is it’s not an extraordinary amount like those people on the TV who owe the IRS over $100k. I’d like to know how the hell that happens. I mean, that’s much more than I actually make in salary, much less pay in taxes, so how do they owe that much? Maybe they’re one of those people making $5,000 a week on that crazy like a fox pyramid scheme…

Ah, well, it could be worse. I just have to put on my big girl panties and do what I must do, right? And I have to start making quarterly estimated tax payments because of my book money, even better! *adjusting the elastic on my big girl panties*

Onto better topics, I saw the FUNNIEST damn commercial last night. I was watching House on the USA network (love that show) and another one of those commercials came on about people who have taken a certain medication. Ya know the type, they are usually from law firms trolling the bottom of the pond for people who have suffered because of taking the meds and need ambulance chasers.

So I sort of zoned out until they talked about the symptoms… Instead of “you may have experienced heart valve damage” or “your blood pressure may have been permanently damaged” or stuff like that, it says something like “you may have suffered from the urge to gamble.”

*pause*

WTF? I started laughing and backed it up to look at it again. Yep, it was apparently a wicked side effect on this medicine that users may have become compulsive gamblers. So, if that’s you, this law firm of Slimy and Scuzzy can help you sue the absolute f*ck out of the pharmaceutical company because of the 5000 scratch off tickets in your trash.

Absolutely freakin’ bizarre!

Yes, that’s right, Thank God it’s Tuesday. Wowza, Monday was probably the worst, most stressful day I’ve had in years.

Don’t want to think about it, remember it in detail or even tell y’all what happened. Suffice it to say I felt like I got run over by a truck.

The good news is it’s TUESDAY. Whew. So anyway, I have an amazingly hot new cover for my upcoming Samhain release, On His Knees. It’s a contemporary erotica, a different kind of something from me. :)

This is a republication of a previous novella, the first in a series of three I plan on publishing called “Private Lives” – all about married/divorced/separated women and the men in their lives. Hot, scorching stuff, if I do say so myself. Erotica, not necessarily romance, if ya know what I mean.

Anyhoo, here’s the cover. *waiting for the holy cows!*

Monday’s eye candy for your viewing pleasure.

The lovely Linda Bass sent this to me. I loved the sentiment so I wanted to share it with all my girls out there.

THIS SAYS IT ALL:
Time passes.
Life happens.
Distance separates.
Children grow up.

Jobs come and go. Love waxes and wanes.
Men don’t do what they’re supposed to do.

Hearts break. Parents die.
Colleagues forget favors. Careers end.

BUT…….. Sisters are there, no matter how much time and how
many miles are between you. A girl friend is never farther away
than needing her can reach.

When you have to walk that lonesome valley and you have to walk it by yourself,
the women in your life will be on the valley’s rim, cheering you on,
praying for you, pulling for you, intervening on your behalf, and waiting with
open arms at the valley’s end.

Sometimes, they will even break the rules and walk beside you…Or come in
and carry you out. Girlfriends, daughters, granddaughters, daughters-in-law,
sisters, sisters-in-law, Mothers, Grandmothers, aunties,
nieces, cousins, and extended family, all bless our life!

The world wouldn’t be the same without women, and neither would I. When we
began this adventure called womanhood, we had no idea of the incredible
joys or sorrows that lay ahead. Nor did we know how much we
would need each other. Every day, we need each other still.

Pass this on to all the women who help make your life meaningful. I just did.
Short and very sweet: There are more than twenty angels in this world.
Ten are peacefully sleeping on clouds. Nine are playing.
And one is reading this at this moment.

Had to post it – kudos to Gary Larson. I’ve always been a fan of his weird universe, but this one, yeah, it really hits it on the head, doesn’t it?

Monday’s eye candy for your viewing pleasure.

I’m over at the Brava blog talking about my first signing for The Education of Madeline.