Book's I've been reading.

I've taken some books out from our e-library and I've also bought a few for my Kindle Fire. (Eek! I get my Kindle Fire HD 8.9 on Nov 21st, I can't wait! So excited!) I love to read. I read on the train home from work and I also love reading at night before I fall asleep, I've done that since I was a child. My favorite genres are mostly: History, Historical Fiction, Fiction or Biography.

Here's what I've been reading lately:

1. Rena's Promise: Two Sisters in Auschwitz



I LOVED LOVED LOVED this! I've always had an obsession with Holocaust history. Of course Anne Frank started my obsession, but I've wanted to dig deeper, and this book is beyond fascinating, real, in depth & raw. I've read this 3x's already. (Rena Kornreich Gelissen).

2. Sarah's Key



I liked this, but I didn't love it. It's a bittersweet story, told from two different time periods. But I wish it was more in depth and you got to know the characters better. This fictional book takes place during World War II

3. Surviving the Angel of Death: The True Story of a Mengele Twin in Auschwitz



Can you see a theme with the books I've been reading lately? I actually watched a documentary on Netflix, that the author of this book; Eva Mozes Kor did. (It's called Forgiving Dr. Mengele). It was really good. This book is written more for young adults so it doesn't delve as deep in depth as I wanted it too, but it's still a fascinating read.

4. The Archivist : A Novel



This book also takes place partly after World War II and then again in the present. It's told from the point of view of a man in his 60's who is an archivist at the university library he works at. He is in charge of rare unreleased T.S. Eliot letters (the poet), that a curious college student in her early 30's wants to see & she reminds, Matt of his wife that committed suicide years & years earlier. The letter's aren't to be released yet though. There's a lot of flash backs in this book. But it's written so well... and now I'm contemplating buying a copy of this for myself. (Took it out from the e-library). It's really intriguing.

5. Anne Frank's Family: The Extraordinary Story of Where She Came From, Based on More Than 6,000 Newly Discovered Letters, Documents, and Photos 


 

I can't remember if I shared this one in a prior post, but it's another book I purchased recently. If you are interested in Anne Frank's family history this is definitely a good read. It tells a lot of the background story of her relatives.

(I do use Amazon Associates, but not because I've made any money- because I haven't! lol! But I like that I can show a picture/link with a product when I'm blogging. Plus I do recommend Amazon.com for their low prices. That or Ebay!
 
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Krazy Candle Fundraiser for November!!!

*Krazy Candle is no longer open* 

I've blogged a few times about Krazy Candle before and I've also held a giveaway. Krazy Candle makes all natural soy tarts and they sell warmers for their tarts. They also make all natural soy candles, in many different scents. I've ordered about 4'xs from Krazy Candle and  I've tried many of their scents. (My Favorites: Pumpkin Crunch, Birthday Cake, Lilac Mist, Lavender, Summer Breeze, Apples & Maple Bourbon, Hot Cocoa).

One of my very favorite things about Krazy Candle, is even though they sell bigger 2oz tarts, packs of tarts, mixed box samplers; They also offer single .99 cent tarts of ANY scent. This is great way to sample a lot of their different scents, so later you can buy larger packs of your favorites. This is definitely one thing that keeps me coming back for future purchases.

Krazy Candle is holding a fundraiser this month. Every purchase made on Krazy Candle during November, they will donate 15% of each sale to Star's Rat Rescue in South Dakota. I've blogged many many times about SRR. I've adopted 9 rats from SRR over the years. Currently, I have 3 rats from Star's Rat Rescue; (Aspen, Cherry & Belle). 

Christmas is coming and I know people are starting to shop for gifts, so please consider trying out Krazy Candle and making a purchase that will benefit Star's Rat Rescue. There are so many pet rats in need of a forever home. If you've read my blog, you know I've owned pet rats since 2007. (And if you want to know Why Rats?! Click here!). This is also a great time to support an American Small Business!

Krazy Candle will be donating 15% of all sales to Star's Rat Rescue during November 2012! 

ALL ORDERS will need to enter "SRR" in the comments section at checkout for 15% to go to SRR!

Krazy Candle Photo: Hot Cocoa Cups
Krazy Candle Photo: All Natural Soy Cupcake Candles
My Photo: 2oz tart of Pumpkin Crunch
My Photo: 2oz tart of Birthday Cake
My Photo: Hot Cocoa Cups
Other Places you can find Krazy Candle & Star's Rat Rescue:
Star's Rat Rescue is now a registered 501c3 non profit organization. All donations made through Star's Rat Rescue are tax deductible. 
Disclaimer: I was not paid for this blog. This is my heartfelt opinion, after being a customer of Krazy Candle, and adopting 9 rats from Star's Rat Rescue over the years. All links either link to older blog entries or websites/products mentioned in the above blog.

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Hurricane Sandy in Philadelphia.

Hurricane Sandy is wreaking havoc all up up the Northeastern United States. It's much worse in coastal areas, but Philadelphia has been affected as well.

Picture from NASA
Sunday afternoon after reading reports online my husband & I thought it might be a good idea to pick some candles up and another larger flashlight (we only have mini travel ones), so we went out in the afternoon on Sunday. I was thinking... okay maybe there will only be really expensive flashlights left. What we saw stunned us...


This was Target. There were NO flashlights left except that tiny travel one hanging there. In fact we went to Home Depot and 4 other stores and there were NO flashlights. We ended up stopping at my Dad's to borrow a larger flashlight. Only thing with that was... we couldn't find extra D batteries at the stores ANYWHERE. Most of the stores only had Double AA batteries left. So we've got some candles, and 2 mini flashlights and a larger flashlight and praying the power doesn't go out.

My job was closed Monday and it's now also officially closed for Tuesday. (I will still get paid). It's insane, because I work for the Government and they never like to shut down, so to be closed for two days in a row is just crazy. Philadelphia closed schools, city offices, they have shut down ALL public transportation. The airport is shut down and even some of the highways & bridges have been shut down. Stores and businesses are closed.

At this point (Almost 10pm here), the rain & flooding are not especially bad in Philadelphia. What's worse is the wind. We have 44+ MPH winds in Philadelphia right now. They are quite scary. Rattling the windows, etc. Our gutter line & drainage pipe completely ripped off and was laying on the lawn in front of our apartment building. Unfortunately a piece of the gutter is still hanging in front of our bedroom window and keeps banging & scraping against the window, it's quite scary. The worst of this hurricane will be through tonight and into tomorrow.


Prayers & Thoughts for everyone that has been affected by Hurricane Sandy.
Tuesday Afternoon: Piece of the gutter that ripped off our apartment building last night during the storm. There's 3 pieces laying down on the lawn and a mini piece still dangling near our living room window.


EDITED TO ADD 11/4/12: So many people have been affected by Sandy. A lot of people have lost everything. Some still don't have power, shelter, etc. Please consider making a donation to the American Red Cross to help with disaster relief efforts. 

American Red Cross Donations
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Pictures & Video of the Gang!

I haven't posted many recent pictures of my pet rats lately. (I have 10 at the moment. 3 boys and 7 girls.) This is isn't everyone, but I thought I'd upload some random photos and share a few videos I've posted to YouTube. :-p

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Templeton
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Daisy & Buttercup
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Daisy
Daisy
Daisy in her wheel
Pumpkin
Pumpkin sleeping on her back in our bed.
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Teddy bear having a treat.
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Buttercup



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More Nail Mail!

Here are some of the newest nail colors I've gotten this month...yes I have a polish addiction ;-)
(Click on each photo to enlarge)
My very first Zoya nail polishes! I loved these two colors of the most out of the new Holiday 2012 collection. They have holographic sparkles in them and are gorgeous in person! I found them on eBay through this seller. (Who even sent a cute gold nail file along as a free gift).
Aurora (3 coats).

Another of Aurora (4 coats)

 Storm (3 coats)

The coveted Two Fingered Salute color from Butter London. It's a Nordstrom's exclusive color. It was on back order for awhile, but finally arrived! I love it! It has a matte finish. It's really unique, kind of a faded sage green with copper shimmer in it. It reminds me of stone or marble.

Pudding Lane from Nails Inc London. I found this on eBay too. It's actually more aqua in person. It's got bits of purple and gold glitter. And the aqua blue color is creamy like icing. It's pretty in person, but a pain in the ass to take off, lol!

Speaking of which, if you're on Pinterest maybe you've seen this pin going around. I've also seen people blog about this method for removing glitter polish. So today I tried it out for myself. You take cotton balls soak them in nail polish remover then place the cotton ball over each nail and wrap with foil. (I used cheap foil from Dollar Tree because it's not as sharp and tears easily.) 

Obviously you have to do one hand at a time, lol. I waited about 15 minutes per hand. When you remove them, you twist and rub the foil with the cotton ball and it removes the glitter polish like nothing. I was pretty impressed. I will definitely be doing it again when I have to remove stubborn polish!

P.S. And just to show you what it's like to try & take nail swatch photographs when you have pet rats, lol. Pumpkin got her nose in the picture:

LOL! And yes, I'm wearing 2 kinds of polish in that photo. Sometimes I get so excited when I get a new color & don't feel like changing colors right away on all my nails, I'll only test the new color on 1 or 2 nails to photograph it.

*No top or base coats were used in the photos above.
Edited To Add: 11/4/2012
 Zoya Blaze


*All polish was purchased by myself. 

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More Foreign Snack Foods (Philippines)

Because October has 5 Monday's this month, I somehow get three paychecks instead of two.. It's always fun when that happens, because then we get just a little bit of extra spending money. So the husband & I decided to order from Phil-Am Foods again. We ordered so much this time, it came in 2 boxes, lol.

(Click on each photo to enlarge it).

All the goodies! I also ordered more Vaseline shampoo again.

The frozen goods. We've tried the Siopao & Pork Tocino before. The Fish & Shrimp Balls will be boiled in soup, they are like dumplings. The pastry Ensaymada; look like round biscuits, they have shredded cheese on top, but are sweet and remind me of a cheese danish.

Squid & Anchovy jerky. It's crispy & crunchy and a bit fishy tasting. But not too salty. We love these. Of course... you may be a bit freaked out, because the crispy little anchovies still have eyes! :-p


Haven't tried this yet, Spicy Squid Cubes, but I love trying new or exotic foods. We will probably have it with some white rice. 

This just look fun & interesting. Curly Spaghetti! Lucky Me Brand makes a lot of ramen noodle soups. 

 Haven't tried these yet either, but Leslie's Brand makes Clover Chips which we love.

These were just okay- the flavoring could have been stronger. We really liked the Green/Yellow Bag of the Marco Polo Shrimp onion & garlic chips better, those melted in your mouth!

Regent makes our all time favorite chips, Tempura, Sashimi & Labzter. These Chicken Teriyaki ones are new. The flavoring is strong and I really liked them.

I've blogged about these before. Baconette Strips are so good! They are shaped like little bacon slices. But they are light and crispy with a nice bacon flavoring. There is no meat in this product.

My brother Scott did a review of them on YouTube here:



Dinner tonight! Shrimp soup with shrimp balls. Pork barbecue on a stick and a salted duck egg. Everything was delicious!

Similar Blog Posts:

Goodies from Phil-Am again!

Yay! More Phil-Am goodies!

Phil-Am Foods

Philippine Snack Foods

Foreign Food Cravings

Taste Testing (Asian Aisle) 

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Polish Addiction...

My addiction with nail polish continues... lol. I've gotten some lovely new colors again.

New China Glaze Halloween 2012 colors. These were my favorites. The gray 'Immortal' has different colors of shimmer in it. And 'Make a Spectacle' is my new favorite glitter topcoat. This blog post on The PolishAholic is what made me want these two colors so much. In the bottle, 'Make a Spectacle' looks very similar to China Glaze 'Luxe & Lush', but 'Luxe & Lush' shows up gold on your nails. 'Make a Spectacle' is iridescent and has larger circles of glitter, plus shimmer. I was lucky to get each of the new colors for $3 on ebay.


And my Layla polish obsession! I'm so glad Ninja Polish carries this brand. These are my first two non holographic Layla polishes.

I ordered Layla Softouch Effects in: Aqua Zen. I love this color and the finish is so unique from any of my other nail polishes. It's not matte, it's more a ceramic or rubber/vinyl finish. (I wore this color for 1 full week with no base or top coat and had NO CHIPS at all. Just tip wear- AMAZING polish!)



And Layla Mirror Effect in: Metal Chrome. This one is pretty neat, it's not too streaky, it does show every imperfection on your nail though, you're supposed to soft buff your nails before applying this. But what I did was do 1 coat, then a coat of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat and then 3 more coats of the Metal Chrome and it smoothed it out. It's super shiny in person like I have foil on my nails. :-)


 
Also I know I've talked about Butter London before. How it takes forever to dry and stains my nails and how I don't think it's worth the price. (Not like Layla!) Well... then I saw this picture of the Butter London Nordstrom Exclusive color 'Two Fingered Salute' and I had to have it...


Not my picture. This is from The PolishAholic blog.

 


 
Actually, they were out of stock and I couldn't find the color on ebay so I thought I would never own it. But Nordstrom's finally restocked so I ordered it! It's so pretty... it reminds me of marble or stone. A subtle goldish greenish color. It's gorgeous! It's not shipping until October 20th though. :-(

P.S. Check out KJPugs blog! She received her prizes from the Krazy Candle giveaway I hosted and she blogged all about it. :-) Congrats again! *Krazy Candle is no longer open* 

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