The Aliens Are Back, And They're Breeding!

I went to the bookstore with my mom last week, and lo and behold! Gini Koch's newest Alien book had actually arrived! (I'd looked for it just after release date, and every Chapter's store but the one I was at had a copy or three...)



So I picked it up, and saved it for reading on my three day holiday last week. (As a Christmas present, I had a room booked for me at a hotel an hour and a half from my home. Not so I could do any tourist-type things, but just so that I could relax in a room with a jacuzzi and a big bed and a television with lots of channels. It was wonderful!)

As soon as I was unpacked, the book was opened. I read it in the chair, in the jacuzzi, in the bed. I read from the time I got there at about one in the afternoon until I finally finished at one in the morning. By which you can tell it was riveting.

So, first off, the bad news. I'm not, and have never been, a Jeff fan. So sue me. He's too perfect, except for the jealousy thing, which I find disturbing more than endearing. Second, he may be a ladies' man, but I'm not a man's lady.

Which is to say, I'm a die-hard Kitty fan. I'll fight Jeff for her. :D

Seriously, any woman who reaches into her purse to find weapons with which to kill the bad alien superbing and comes up with a ball point pen or hairspray, and then actually proceeds to make it work--that woman is my type of woman! No other description needed. I can work with her music choices--I'm pretty open to anything that's not rap, even if I do prefer Beethoven to Aerosmith.

And it's pretty obvious where she gets her mojo from--her mother is awesome, too, and her long-suffering father is totally true-to-life in his eye-rolling glory. (And Kitty, don't worry that you never really knew what your parents did for a living. Does any child really know her parents before she becomes an adult? I sure didn't!)

Of all the guys in the book though, I have to say I prefer the humans over the aliens. Chuckie is a great character--revenge of the nerds, and all that. Reader is just plain hilarious.

And I just realized I have to take that back--there is one alien who gets more words in this book than he has in previous books, and it's all to the good. Richard White, the Pontifex, steps off the page and into reality as an extremely able partner for Kitty, who once again is left to save the day. He's the only alien so far that's made me want to turn straight...

I do have to say that getting Jeff out of the Armani and into jeans (which does actually happen in this book) is a Good Thing, and amusing to boot. Hope it happens again. (Hint, hint.)

All in all, this one was a very fast-paced and captivating read. The best book of the series so far, in my opinion, though it beats out the first by only a hair. Lots of action, lots of really gut-busting humour, and a bit of truly flesh-creeping horror thrown in. I can't wait for the next one!

Same Old, Same Old

It's that time of year again.

Yep. New Year's Day, and the time to make New Year's resolutions.

Lots of people don't make them any more, I'm led to understand. They don't make them any more because they make the same ones every year, and by the first of February (if they're really persistent and serious about their resolutions) the habits are gone by the wayside. (If they're not persistent, the new resolution might last until the 5th of January or so...)

Get fit. Eat more healthy foods and less junk (she says as she's writing this, pop and chips near to hand...). Lose weight. Clean the house. Get the finances under control. Write every day. Finish a book and submit it to publishers.

Yep. If you've been reading this blog for more than one post, you'll know exactly whose resloutions these are.

And those who have known me for years know that they're the same resolutions I have made every year since I can remember making resolutions.

Why do I do it, if I continually fail to acheive my goals?

There are a couple of reasons I do this:

1) I do it to remind me on at least an annual basis (and usually more often) that I do have goals that are worth the time and effort to pursue.

2) I do it because I find that the reminder really does help me. I'm not in the same place finanacially where I was ten years ago, I am eating more health-fully, my house is cleaner.

I'm not where I want to be, but I am closer to my long term goals. I've made such amazing strides in the past month and a half that pretty much everyone who interacts with me on a regular basis has noticed. My daughter is saying, "Who are you, and what have you done with my mother?" My ex is enjoying two home-cooked meals a week at my place, and it's noticably lessened his stress. My parents are visiting now. They haven't seen me since September, and my dad's first words to me (and this from a man who is very quick with the backhanded compliments) were, "You're looking really good! What are you doing?"

Things are changing, and they're changing because I continually resovle and re-resolve to get fit, eat healtfully, lose weight, write more, and so on...

So, once again, I'm making New Year's resolutions. Yes, they're the same old, same old. They're not the kind of goals I can really "fail" at. I can get sidetracked, but if I do, all I need to do to get back on track is to review my goals and figure out how I got off track, and then get back on the wagon.

No guilt, no worry. Just pick myself up out of the mud, wash myself off, and carry on.