myJaxonIf we don’t go crazy once in a while, we’ll all go crazy. - Hawkeye

Woo Hoo! Grey’s is back and I’m excited. It seems like they are breaking up Derek and Meredith, but oh wait, they get to have sex all the time. Like that was going to stop. I’m interested to see how they handle the George/Izzy/Callie triangle. I kinda feel sorry for Callie. They are not exactly warming up to her as the new Chief Resident and now with the whole potential split with George, her life is going to suck. It was a big surprised that Burke (Isaiah Washington) wasn’t coming back this year, but I thought I heard that George (TR Knight) wasn’t either. Hey, I’m excited that he’s back.

I kinda want to see what they do with having Meredith’s sister, Lexie, at the hospital. Big shocker that she went to talk to Derek before Lexie, the only real question is - when WILL she talk to Lexie. I can understand why Meredith doesn’t want to talk to her. After all, she had everything Meredith really didn’t - a mother who was supportive, a father that was there, and a family. Meredith only had her mother and we all know that relationship wasn’t the greatest.

Did anyone catch the Grey’s spinoff last night? Private Practice centers around Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh) and her move to an alternative medicine clinic. I’m not sure what I think yet, but it looks like it has potential. It has some good actors in it - Tim Daly, Amy Brenneman, Taye Diggs. I liked Wings and Judging Amy, although I’ve only heard the name Taye Diggs, so we’ll see how it goes. The only thing I’m worried about is if they try to have her do surgery in all of the episodes. After all, she’s a neonatal surgeon, that’s what she does - surgery.

Alright, enough gossiping about Grey’s and Private Practice. Next week’s episode should be interesting. I’m curious to see who decks Alex and why.

Awhile ago, I found a bunch of two serving recipes and we’re finally getting around to trying them. We’ve tried a couple of the new dishes over the past week and I thought I would let you know what I thought. If you do end up trying any of them (even the ones I didn’t try), let me know. I’ll be interested in your opinion on them.

• Baked Chicken and Potato Dinner - This was perfect for Jesse and I. The servings were a good size, even though I did fudge a little on the potatoes. We’re not really crazy about green peppers and I’m not a fan of onions, so I added an additional potato and it still turned out great. The original recipe said to cook it for 35-40 minutes, but after 40-45 minutes, the potatoes were still a little raw inside. Still edible, but not that soft. This could be due to the way I cut them as well. I didn’t do fourths like the recipe said because they would have been too big, so definitely cut them done a bit. I’m definitely going to try this recipe again, but next time I’m going to play around with the vegetables. Maybe some broccoli or carrots instead of the bell peppers.
• Chicken Fruit Salad - Originally, I thought this would turn out alright, but after having it sit in the refrigerator for a couple of hours (to chill according to the directions), yeah, it’s not so hot. It has a funny taste to it. The peaches and grapes are great, but I think it has something to do with the yogurt/mayonnaise mix. No, it’s definitely the yogurt/mayonnaise mix. That needs to be reworked or I just did it wrong. Maybe if I took out the mint leaves, it would work better, but as is…definitely not.
• Easy Garden Bake - This didn’t come out exactly as I expected. It’s actually not that bad, however, it’s more of a breakfast dish than dinner. In it’s original conception, it could have been good, but I’ve made a lot of changes to it for my cookbook. Basically, Jesse said that if it had meat and maybe green peppers then it would definitely be better and have it for breakfast. I also had to double the bisquick amount. It was too much of a bad omelet as it was.
• Cowboy Stew - This was really good, but it was really thick. There wasn’t that many ingredients and it was quite filling. Of course, if you have to watch your sodium intake, then I would stay as far away from this recipe as you can. Honestly, there really wasn’t anything spectacular about the recipe, but it is a good one to have on hand. It’s quick and easy to prepare; and it works great with a bread bowl for dinner.
• Citrus Pasta Salad - Yeah, the concept is good, but the taste isn’t that great. I like citrus, but in this, the citrus was a bit much. Of course, that may have something to do with the fact that I used Miracle Whip instead of Mayonnaise like it said to, but I don’t know. I haven’t put this one in my cookbook yet, because I want to make sure that I’m going to like it. I’m going to give it another shot, maybe it’ll taste better once I make it right, but not right away. I want to make sure that I’m not bias or anything like that.

So those are the recipes I’ve tried so far. As anyone else tried anything?

The new JR Ward novel, Lover Unbound, is coming out tomorrow! I can’t wait because it is Vishous’s story. I might pick it up tomorrow when I go to Wal-mart to get my glasses fixed (since Ian decided they needed to be readjusted). If you’ve been keeping up with the True Blood press releases, then you already know that it’s official - HBO will run the show. There isn’t any word on an airdate, but I’m still keeping an eye out for it.

I am a huge Diana Gabaldon fan and it’s exciting to hear that Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade came out in the top 10 on the New York Times bestselling list and it’s #1 in Canada. If you missed the exciting news from last time, there is an excerpt from the seventh book at Gabaldon’s website. Still no word on when it’s going to be released though.

The latest Anita Blake novel has been announced. It’s going to be called Blood Noir and won’t be released until sometime next year. Big surprise since Lick of Frost comes out this fall. The latest Otherworld novel by Kelley Armstrong will be out some time next spring. The narrators of the new novel will be Hope Adams and Lucas Cortez. If you haven’t found it yet, she also has a bunch of online novellas that are pretty good. There’s an excerpt for Holy Smokes coming out in November!

I’m always looking for a new author, so I like it when authors I like recommend other authors novels. Kim Harrison generally does this every so often at her website and the latest novel premiering is Blood Engines by T.A. Pratt. I’m going to try and get my hands on a copy, but I haven’t found it at the library yet. I’ve also included the new authors I’m reading, so if you’re looking for the next novel, you’ll have to wait with me.

Upcoming Releases:

• No Rest for the Witches - Anthology including MaryJanice Davidson - Oct 2nd
• Lick of Frost - by Laurell K Hamilton - Oct 23rd
• Upon the Midnight Clear - by Sherrilyn Kenyon - Oct 30th (Dream Hunter #2)
• Holidays are Hell - Anthology including Kim Harrision - Oct 30th
• Holy Smokes - by Katie MacAlister - Nov 6th
• Lord John and the Hand of Devils - by Diana Gabaldon - Nov 27th
• Elijah - by Jacquelyn Frank - Dec 2007 (Nightwalkers #3)
• Blood Noir - by Laurell K Hamilton - 2008
• Mona Lisa Craving - by Sunny (Monere #3)
• Iron Kissed - by Patricia Briggs - Jan 2nd (Mercy Thompson #3)
• Night Season - by Eileen Wilks - Jan 2nd (World of the Lupi #4)
• Plum Lucky & Plum Lovin’ - by Janet Evanovich - Jan 8th (Stephanie Plum holiday novellas)
• Dream Chaser - by Sherrilyn Kenyon - Feb 5th (Dream Hunter #3)
• The Outlaw Demon Wails - by Kim Harrison - March 2008
• Embrace the Night - by Karen Chance - Apr 1st (Cassandra Palmer #3)
• Personal Demon - by Kelley Armstrong - Spring 2008 (Otherworld #8)
• Title Unknown - by Charlaine Harris - May 2008 (Sookie Stackhouse #8)
• All Souls Night - by Jennifer Armintrout - Jun 2008 (Blood Ties #4)
• Damien - by Jacquelyn Frank - Jun 2008 (Nightwalkers #4)
• Lover Enshrined - by JR Ward - Jun 2008 (Black Dagger #6 - Phury)
• The Darkest Kiss - by Keri Arthur - Sept 2008 (Riley Jensen #6)
• Noah - by Jacquelyn Frank - Sept 2008 (Nightwalkers #5)

So the transition is complete. My site, myjaxon.com, is now my blog site and the old site no longer exists. Nothing really changed, well, a couple of things, which I’ll list below, but overall it’s all the same. So update your bookmarks and enjoy.

All of my junk that was previously on myjaxon.com was moved to a new location. Here are the changes:

• My cookbook will now be located at http://cookbook.myjaxon.com. Hopefully this will make it easier to remember.
• Pictures will now be located at http://pictures.myjaxon.com. I did do a complete redesign on this. I actually like it a lot better, but it is still being worked on. I only have the last two years here so far, but I’m working on scanning in a bunch of pictures so everything needs to be re-examined. As I become happy with the older pictures, I’ll start adding them back onto the page. Until then, if you want a certain picture, let me know and I’ll send you a direct link. This will also mean that all the pictures in all of our blogs (Jesse’s, Ian’s, and mine) will probably end up broken. I’m going to try and make all the changes, but I may miss a few. If I do, just let me know and I’ll get that changed.
• All of my random stuff that I have is now located at http://stuff.myjaxon.com. This would include all the pages with my class notes, the IRC listing that I did for my father, and other various pages that I’ve made public. Not everything will be listed on this page (i.e. my address book), but it will still be at this address.

I have to say “Touch the Dark” by Karen Chance was a great find. It’s a vampire novel, but it doesn’t center around a vamp hunter or a necromancer, but a clairvoyant who grew up in the vampire world. Plus, unlike most of the vampire novels I’ve been reading, this one has the premise that the supernatural community is still in hiding from the humans. One very positive thing about this book was that, unlike most vampire centered novels, Chance didn’t spend too much time on speculating how old the vampires were or their personalities. She really didn’t have to because she used some very familiar names - Christopher Marlowe, Mircea Tepes, Raphael, Louis-Cesar, and Rasputin (who happens to be the bad guy) were just a few of the vampires making an appearance. She gives a little background on each person, but just enough to tell us that she isn’t changing their mortal lives, just the fact that they are vampires. This gives us an idea to their age without spending too much time on them.

If you like the Anita Blake series by L. Hamilton, then you definitely need to check out this series. I already can’t wait to get my hands on the second novel - Claimed by Shadow - and the third one doesn’t come out until next April.