I want more Stephanie Plum!

I finished reading the Janet Evanovich series - 14 saucy fiction novels that are pure entertainment reading. Apparently there's a new one coming out this summer... Hooray! The series starts with "One for the Money" continues with "Two for the Dough" and goes all the way up to "Fearless Fourteen". Stephanie Plum, the main character of all the novels is described in Wikipedia as

"a spunky combination of Nancy Drew and Dirty Harry, and although a female bounty hunter - is the opposite of Domino Harvey"

Her romantic relationships are with Joe Morelli and Ranger. Lately, I have been trying to find real life actors to fit the image formed in my head of these two characters. So far I have decided that:

Joe Morrelli is Jeffrey Donnovan, inspired from character on the USA TV series Burn Notice.

And Ranger is Gilles Marini known most recently for his appearance on Dancing with the Stars. His accent helps complete the Puerto-Rican persona (even though he's apparently French).


With these two men in mind, I can see where Stephanie's dilemma comes from. These guys are hot, hot, hot! :)

Really. Seriously?

Something I've noticed since my return has been the extensive use of the words "really" and "seriously" in conversations.  Maybe I even talked like this before, but it has really stuck out in my mind.  My personal favorite is:  "I mean, like, really?  Seriously?"  It's not just Californians, but it's definitely American.    

R.I.P. Fishy

After talking to MyAnna today, I discovered the fate of Fishy - my dear house pet that I had to leave behind when I left the country. Well, it's no big surprise... Fishy jumped his tank AGAIN, (for like the 7th time in his career!), ended up in ray of sunlight on the carpet floor and dried to a fishy crisp. Poor guy. Feisty little bugger he was, always breaking out of his tank to explore the big big world. I could learn a few lessons from that brave little soul, something like: shoot big, and no matter how traumatizing the fall, you can pick yourself up, try again and still survive (just don't keep trying 7 times, I guess...)