Melonie Johnson

Friday Fast Five

November 19, 2010Cool Stuff, UncategorizedWrite a comment

1. The new Harry Potter movie came out today! The husband and I will have to schedule a date night (hopefully in the next month) to go see it together. We rarely go to the movies, it’s almost an annual thing…we went for all the new Star Wars movies, of course. Then for all 3 Lord of the Rings movies. Now all that’s left is Harry Potter! I think after part two comes out we may not go see a movie together for a loooooong time.

2. Speaking of movies, next week Disny’s Tangled comes out and Miss A has been looking forward to it for months. We are going to try and turn it into a Girls’ Night Out with a few other Mama/Daughter couples, as part of the fun, we plan to make these really cute Bow/Clippie holders as a themed project. Now I just need to find yarn that resembles Miss A’s strawberry blonde locks. One of my super crafty friends has her own version of this project, so we are going to meld the two ideas together for something really great!

3. Black Friday approaches…I think I will skip the lunacy this year. Every time I decide to brave the retail jungle on this most notorious of shopping days, I come away disgusted with the human race. I think I will brew up something hot and delicious, wear extra comfy pj’s and if I do any kind of shopping, it will be on-line.

4. My NaNo count is struggling. I have high hopes for plumping it up this upcoming holiday week when I have a small break from the usual daily demands. All I’m on the hook for is making dessert (I’m debating between THIS and THIS…I’ll probably make both…oh, and did anyone else catch PW on t.v. last Wednesday?). I am seriously hoping to more than double my word count between next Thursday and Sunday. Any of my writing buddies wanna do an on-line word war Thanksgiving weekend? Let me know.

5. On the topic of plumping things up: Feta Fries.

Oh sweet heaven. During my time as a high school English teacher I only taught Freshman once – my first year of teaching. I had the little heathens 8th hour – the last period of the day. I swear the administration schedules stuff like that on purpose; you know – some kind of hazing weeding out process. Anyways, that was 11 years ago and now one of the boys from that class owns owns a little restaurant in town. His family is Greek, and it cracked me up at how tickled he was while we worked our way through the Greek mythology unit. Remember the dad from My Big Fat Greek Wedding? Just like that. The reason I mention this is because although his place serves most of the standard stuff like pizza, burgers, etc, he always tries to add a little Greek spin to things in some of the offerings. Like the Feta Fries. A friend of mine told me about them and I had to try them. It had been a very long time since I allowed myself the treat of french fries (I find it hard to only eat a few so I try not to eat them at all), but it was worth it because they were incredible! Perfectly toasty hot seasoned thick cut fries showered with a heavy dose of feta. An unexpected combination but really yummy. And salty!

Friday Fast Five NaNoWriMo

Friday Fast Five: With Pictures!

November 12, 2010Cool Stuff, Life, Products, Uncategorized, WritingWrite a comment

1 – It’s my birthday this weekend! I am not ashamed to admit that I LOVE PRESENTS!!! I adore getting gifts. To my credit I also get a kick out of giving gifts as well. One of the neat things this year is all the birthday freebies I’m getting! So far, here is what I get to “cash in on ” during my birthday month:

A free drink from Sbux, a $10 giftcard to WorldMarket (time for me to buy that tea I wanted!), a free ice cream cone from Oberweiss, 20% off my total purchase at Hallmark, $10 off at Rainforest Cafe, and best of all – a free meal at my fav place (Cooper’s Hawk). I also just found out I get free eyebrow shaping at Ulta’s salon – I’ve never done anything to my eyebrows before, so I’m a little trepidatious (which, btw, some people say is a word while others argue it’s not), but hey – it’s free so I’ll give it a whirl.

2 – This past Wednesday, my sand v-ball team, The Java Mamas, played our final tournament game. Yes, you got that right – we live in the mid-west and just played an OUTDOOR SAND VOLLEYBALL game in the middle of freakin’ NOVEMBER. We thanked our lucky stars that we had uncommonly awesome weather this week and enjoyed an unseasonably fair evening temp in the 50’s. However, the sand was still pretty freakin’ cold. Why so late? It was originally slated for the end of October (which is still pretty late, but not horrible) but a freak wind storm caused a cancellation, followed by some schedule issues that led to another cancellation, but finally we played our game and WON! Hurrah, the Java Mamas are the champions!

Here we are posing with the 2nd place team (who are called the Beavers, and yes, their team name leads to all sorts of jokes).

java mamas 2010 champs — That's me in the Ireland sweatshirt...sorry about the quality, my camera can't handle night shots.

3 – My NaNo word count has been at a stand still the last couple days, mainly because I got hit with a big ol’ sick stick and felt horrible – 0ut and out crawl under the covers and hide horrible. I’m starting to feel a little better today and have high hopes to make up for lost time this weekend. As the recent NaNo pep talk quoted from Robert Frost, “The best way out is always through.” That is really an unconscious motto for my life, whenever things are tough I don’t stall and dwell in misery or back out – I push through. It helps to have a wonderful husband who picks up the slack and a sweet daughter who makes cards like this:

4 – Not too long ago I mentioned I had been on a streak of good luck, one thing being the awesome Miloushka necklace I won courtesty of BirdCrafts. I promised Bird I’d post about my prize, and here I am finally getting around to it!

necklace prize 2 — When it first arrived, the husband wanted to know who the heck in the UK was sending me jewelry...

necklace prize — ...as tempting as it was to let him wonder if I had a secret admirer from overseas, I reminded him about the contest I had won. Isn't it pretty!?!

Here is a pic of me sporting the goods:

prize necklace cropped — Can I just say that trying to take a picture of yourself is not very easy?

Yes, I have freckles. Lots and lots and lots of freckles. Part of the red hair and fair skin package I suppose. As is the little bit of sunburn I’m still sporting into November…and speaking of “goods” while I love the sweater I’m wearing (and, as the sweet cashier at Trader Joes noted in a very complimentary way, the color of it matches the necklace perfectly) upon seeing these pictures, I realized it is rather, er, low cut, as you can see in the uncropped version.

Thanks again to Bird Crafts and Miloushka Jewelry!

And, on the subject of giveaways, I’m giving away five special edition free copies of the first book in Karen Marie Moning’s DarkFever series. The contest closes Monday, so enter now! So far, only Miss Tami has entered, so if nobody else bothers, she’ll be getting all 5 copies! Also, Lil Lollipops Designs (who will be featured here soon) is hosting a necklace giveaway of her own, check it out – the prize is gorgeous!

5- So, a couple of weeks ago I saw an Article in the New York Times about a dude I went to college with, he was Algernon to my Cecily in one of my favorite plays, The Importance of Being Earnest , we were nominated for the Irene Ryan Award and the scene where Cecily describes how Algernon wooed her heart via all the letters he (that is she pretending to be him) wrote her was selected for some type of award as well, I can’t remember what; it’s been over 10 years! Funny, considering what a big deal it felt like to me at the time. Anyways, I still haven’t seen his t.v. show, but from what I hear, it’s a wee bit popular. Yes, I can admit I’m jealous of his success – not that I have aspirations to write for a t.v. show, but I wouldn’t run away screaming if the job were to be offered.

Friday Fast Five Giveaways NaNoWriMo

Friday Fast Five

November 5, 2010Cool Stuff, Products, Time Wasters, UncategorizedWrite a comment

I started building this week’s Friday Fast Five on Sunday, adding to it here and there throughout the week, so the post itself won’t seem quite so “fast,” but the act of me putting it up today is very fast indeed, I assure you 🙂

1. Having been a Smart Bitch test driver for a Sony e-reader last summer, I have found I really enjoy Miss Scarlett – my favorite feature, and one that other devices are not able to offer (from what I can tell) is the ability to borrow e-books from my library’s digital “Media Mall.” I have to say though, that the wi-fi only Kindle priced under $150 is very tempting. Kindle offers soooooooo many free e-books, and there are a lot of features the Kindle has that the Sony doesn’t – but I really, REALLY don’t need two e-readers. I wouldn’t mind an ipad though (an item I can never ever see myself buying, I have way too many other things for me to spend $500…or whatever they currently cost, it’s still too much…on). Which is why I’m entering the Family Circle sweepstakes to win a 16GB ipad (they are also giving away a few Wii’s) You can enter here – if you win, I expect a thank you. 😉

2. Vanilla Rooibus tea. I love it. It is dee-licious with not a thing added to it other than piping hot water. Starbucks carries it, and it’s great because I can get a drink that feels almost as indulgent as a cafe mocha but has several hundred less calories and is half the price. It’s even cheaper when I brew it at home; World Market sells Republic of Tea, and yes it’s a little pricey, but I stock up when I have a $10 off purchase coupon (frugalness is a just a part of my blood I think). Next time I go on a tea shopping spree, I think I’ll have to try this one:

3. I want to buy Lil’ G some type of electonic-y device for Christmas…I’m debating between 3, er, 4:

Any advice, comments, reviews, suggestions or general opinions on these products are welcome. I’m leaning towards the Fisher-Price device. TIA

4. Speaking of holiday shopping, Black Friday is 3 weeks from today…do I give in to the insanity and go out shopping at 3am? Is there even anything I want to buy that badly? What do you usually do?

5. If you look in the upper right corner of the sidebar, you’ll see Miss A asking for your vote. Yes, election day was this past Tuesday – but Miss A needs your vote for a chance to go to Disney World! She’s entered the Balloon Time Put a Face on Fun contest. To vote for her, just click on that pic and then click vote! You don’t need to register for anything and can vote up to 5 times a day. If she wins we’ll bring you back something nice from the Magic Kingdom. The contest closes on my birthday…I’m going to take that as a piece of luck.

E-reader Test Drive Friday Fast Five

Sara B at HOB: “We sold the f* out of this place!”

November 4, 2010IMO, Life, MoviesWrite a comment

That was pretty much the first thing Sara said when she came onstage last night. She seemed pretty excited about the fact, and good for her!

Though the drive into Chicago absolutely sucked (on a Wednesday night? really?) we still got there in plenty of time to park, get just a teeny bit lost (we haven’t been to HOB in…12 years maybe? When we went to see Crystal Method), find our way to the House of Blues, pick up my “free” tickets from the will-call booth (yay!), and shuffle around the various levels til we found a semi-decent spot to see the show.

The husband and I had 1 beer each…guess how much two bottles of beer cost? My guesstimate had been a $1 too low.

And, true to our belief that wherever we go we are destined to run into someone one or both of us knows, a gal pal I went to college with was there, she had her first baby 9 months ago so we talked Mama shop for a few minutes and then enjoyed the incredible, genuine voice of Miss Sara B.

She played a fun set and really seemed to be enjoying herself onstage. The only song I was really hoping to hear that she didn’t play was One Sweet Love. Of course she performed my new favorite, the very popular King of Anything, totally rocked Uncharted (which was great to hear live) and of course performed Love Song and Gravity (though the audience sang most of Love Song). When I first heard Hold My Heart on the new album I wasn’t in love with it, but it has really grown on me after hearing Sara perform it. I probably listened to it at least five times while writing last night. I also enjoyed hearing Fairytale live – and who knew, she has a half-sister the same age as Miss A.

I didn’t take any pics or anything (you’re not supposed, not that anyone follows that rule) but I’m hoping to find a few youtube uploads from the concert to link to here so you can enjoy it too! For now, I included some from her recent show at the House of Blues in Orlando – the whole look and feel is pretty much the same to what I saw last night.

She’ll be in Milwaukee tomorrow night, here is her tour schedule if you want to catch her!

You May Have Got Your Flu Shot, But You Can Still Catch the Fever!

November 1, 2010Books, Cool Stuff, IMO, ProductsWrite a comment

As I mentioned sometime last week, one of my favorite authors, Karen Marie Moning, is releasing the fifth and final book in her Fever series this January. To celebrate, and to try and lure a few more fans to the “dark” side, she has asked some of her readers to “spread the fever.” That’s how a big ol’ box from Random House landed on my doorstop. Filled to the brim with a special edition free copy of the first book in the series, DarkFever.

My mission: to pass these books out to friends, family, and random strangers who have never read KMM’s work before and to introduce them to the Fever World. I’ll be honest, I much prefer Karen’s other work – her sexy Highlander romance novels; but I respect the chance she took straying away from her “comfort” zone to write what she felt compelled to write, and to not bend or break under criticism or complaint. I followed her on the journey she took her readers on in this series, and look forward to seeing how it ends! If you have yet to enter the Fever world, then lucky you! You can enter to win one of the 5 books I’m giving away here on my site, and by the time you get through books 1-4, book 5 should be ready for release and you won’t have to wait in the same state of suspense the rest of have been in since last year!

TO ENTER: This is the 5th book, so I’m giving away 5 copies, and I’ll give you 5 chances to win. That kind of parallel stuff makes me happy. Here are the 5 ways you can enter. Please make each answer a separate comment so you earn another entry for each answer. Winners chosen at random. (There’s not too much traffic on this site, so I say your odds are pretty good!)

Contest will close at midnight on November 15th.

1: Follow The Original Drama Mama (see left sidebar). Leave a comment to let me know! If you already follow me, leave a comment saying so.

2: Visit Karen’s author site and check her books out. Leave a comment letting me know which one sounds like a book you’d like to read. (or if you have read some of her stuff before, leave a comment letting me know which one(s))

3: Leave a comment telling me about any book series you have ever followed, anxiously awaiting the next in the series to come out.

4: KMM is hosting a book release party in New Orleans…I’m hoping to go, since the husband and I had been considering a return trip there soon anyways to celebrate getting engaged there 10 (well, it will be 11 now) years ago. If you were to host a release party for a book, what city would you choose? Leave your answer in the comments!

5: If you had to choose one city to visit, which would it be: London, England; Dublin, Ireland; or Edinburgh, Scotland? Tell me your choice in the comments!

*I am not being compensated in anyway for hosting this giveaway. As a fan of Karen’s, I offered to pass out books, and all I got out of it was a box of books to pass out to lucky people like you 🙂

Giveaways