Bad, bad Mr. Anonymous - and book recs?

So, I've changed the settings because apparently even word verification isn't enough to stop our resident spammer. You have to have an account somewhere and be signed in. So sorry. Hope it isn't an inconvenience for anyone.

Anyway... I'm trying really hard to shake off the blogging blues. I promise I'll come up with something witty to blog about very soon. Honest. I'm going on a weeklong cruise with my mom - leaving on Saturday. That's bound to give me plenty to bitch talk about, LOL. And oh... the books I've got loaded up in my ebookwise for the trip! Yay me!

E-books I'm taking:
Always - Lauren Dane
Past Promises - NJ Walters
Facing It - Linda Winfree
Hot in Here (ARC) - Sophie Renwick
Pleasure Unbound (yes, really! - Hey, it was $1.99)
Driving Hard & Acting Naughty - GA Hauser
A Desperate Journey - Debra Parmly
Out of the Dark - JoAnn Smith Ainsworth
The Role of A Lifetime - Jennifer Shirk
Turbulent Passions - Anne Rainey
Compromising Positions - Jenna Bayley-Burke
Heat of Passion - Elle Kennedy

I also have a bunch of print saved up. These I can give to my mom when I'm done, for the most part, although the Lisa Jacksons won't interest her. Harlequins are much more her speed. Yeah, come to think of it, she won't go for the Diane Whiteside either. Little too hot. Hmmm.... I do have a bunch of Harlequins that I'm done with, though. Maybe I'll bring those for her.

Print I'm taking:
Malice - Lisa Jackson
Wicked Game - Lisa Jackson & Nancy Bush
It's Hotter in Hawaii - Helen Kay Dimon
The Duke to Die For - Amelia Grey
Southern Devil - Diane Whiteside
Tempted at MN - Jacquie D'Allesandro
Flat Out Sexy - Erin McCarthy

And befre you ask... yes, it's likely that I'll finish all of these. I'll be gone 7 days with nothing to do but lie around on deck. Any other suggestions that I can get on ebook? I really don't want to load down my suitcase with paper. I could use a really good historical. I'm getting contemp'ed out.

If you want to see where I'm going, just go take a look at Beth Williamson's blog. She just got back from the same cruise.

My UK Trip, finally...

So, I finally got the pics loaded, and then decided there were far too many pics (527 in all), so got all fancy, and made a video out of about 100 of them. But first I thought I'd tell you a little about the trip.

We started in London, and spent 3 days there sightseeing. We took it all in - everything we could possibly see! The highlight was climbing the skinny staircase to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral - all 484 teeny tiny stairs. There's no chicken ext - once you start, you're stuck going up. But the view was wort it. And Westminster Abbey was equally gorgeous. Buckingham Palace was a big disappointment, I have to say.

More after the break...

Then it was off to Bath, where we saw the Abbey, the Roman Baths, the Jane Austen museum, and her house as well, and the crescents. If you look at the slide show, there's a hotel in it that was built by an architect who wanted to shed light on the disparity between the classes. There are 3 distinct rooftops on it - each representative of the lower, middle and upper classes. It was really cool!

Then it was on to Dublin, where we had a fantastic time. Not much else to say. Just a blast! Oh, they were building these sand sculptures in the middle of Dublin Castle. Weird. One note. We rented a car and drove our way through Ireland. I thought we were going to die! The roads are incredibly skinny two-lane roads, and there are these huge tour buses that hurtle down them.

Then it was on to Galway and Doolin, where we saw the amazing Cliffs of Moher. I have to acknowledge our marketing intern at work, who is actually a lifeguard on the Doolin pier (small world, huh?). Anyway, she told me everything to see in Ireland. It was awesome! I think Bob took about 50 pics of just the Cliffs, LOL! Then we took a ferry out to the Aran Islands, where they still speak old Irish, and live like they have for the past hundreds of years.

Then we went to Scotland. We adored Scotland! We were in Edinburgh for the first week of Festival, which is their equivalent of Oktoberfest. So. much. fun! And the people were just lovely - wonderful, warm and welcoming. (everywhere, but especially in Scotland)

Then it was back to England, where we met up with Karen S and her hubby in Nottingham. We had a fantastic time! They were really terrific - Karen and I had a great time talking about books, and all the latest gossip. But we all talked about everything - politics, houses, our jobs; you name it, we talked about it. The guys had a ton in common - even aside from commiserating about our book-spending habits and the number of boxes that seem to arrive at the doorstep from Amazon. TTG is just the nicest guy you can imagine. He and Karen are wonderful together. He made several recommendations to Bob about what else to do in London while I was working the following week - many of which Bob did, and thoroughly enjoyed.

So, while I slaved at the office over the next 4 days, Bob went to the Imperial War Museum (for 2 full days!) and visited Abbey Road Studios. We saw "We Will Rock You," which was totally cheesy, but fun nonetheless.

Anyway, without further ado, here are many of the pics we took... Word of warning if you are at work - there is music on the video, and it's quite long...

Kate's Thursday Thirteen

I feel bad. I've been sadly neglecting both my blogs because of work stuff.

But because I'm still extremely lazy, I only had time to post my TT on the Great Scotts blog, because I'd have to change all the coding to fit this one, and, well, I'm lazy. :-P

So check out my TT for this week, with pics from Seattle! :-)