Sunday, July 30, 2017

The Nosferatu Adventures s12 p16

The Nosferatu Adventures
page 316, chapter 316

Pangs of Glory

"What's going on here?" Edric asked as he stood suddenly behind them. Seward swore under his breath before jumping between Edric and our heroine, who was still holding the handful of underwear from the clearance bin.

"Surprise?" Seward said nodding towards them both, his hands now clinched at his chest as he rocked up on his toes. "Nosferatu decided to stop by for coffee before the fireworks...cause it's July 1st and...oh BBQ..." the dark haired male said stammering as he looked at his empty wrist. "I'll just go do a quick set of rounds and then see if there is anything in the food court we can use for a picnic or...I'll be back." he scurried away in the direction that Edric had just arrived from.  Our heroine and Edric stood there both unsure what to say or do next.

"He means well." our heroine said as she cleared her throat suddenly remembering she had a half a bin of cotton underwear in her hand, placing them back and smoothing them out. "Total method to his madness. I think?"

"Yeah, he's a good...I'm sorry, what are you doing here?" Edric tilted his head blushing hotly, scratching at his neck. "I mean, hi I'm Edric."

"Nosferatu." she held out her hand not sure if she should offer it or not, but it was too late by the time she'd thought the gesture through. Edric had already grabbed her hand in his, the action so familiar it took them both a few long seconds to realize they hadn't actually shook hands. They were both just sort of standing there in a daze holding hands.

"Edric! Edric! Edric!!!" the sound of heavy running seemed to break their trance as Zeddy came around the corner at top speed. He stopped beside our heroine placing one hand on her shoulder, the other at his chest trying to catch his breath. "I'm not hallucinating. I'm not too high, there is someone after me!"

"Dude, there's no one after you." Edric replied his blue eyes closed all blushing and awkwardness stripped from the moment. "Okay fine, say there is. What makes you think it and what did they look like?"

"Big, horns on their head, furry." he gestured over his shoulder towards the hallway nearest the food court. "I was getting flour from the storage area, and it's shadow took up half the wall. Hi Nosferatu, you're still here?"

"I'm sure it was nothing. But, I was in the middle of doing rounds so I'll check it out." Edric said back to work mode.

"Good. Nosferatu can come with us. I'll hide behind her." Zeddy mumbled as he took the tail end of their little group, literally walking behind each of them peering over their shoulders. "It's good to see you two finally together. I mean, man, if I had to listen to him any longer about how he wasn't sure he should message you...ouch what you hit me for?" Zeddy rubbed his left shoulder from where Edric had punched him. They continued on in silence for a few more minutes, Edric opening the door to the storage area not seeing anything out of the ordinary. He was about to yell at his friend when our heroine pointed to a spot on the floor.

"Does that look like a hoof print to you?" she bent down to examine the dropped bag of flour and the light dusting it left across the floor. There was clear indication that something had been there.

"Uh. Oddly it does." Edric replied in puzzlement. "Okay you're not completely crazy this time." he said off handedly to Zeddy.  Hunching down on his heels, Edric tried to get a closer look. "There seems to be a trail sort of. If you call three scuffs a trail." he turned towards the back of the storage room, where the trail seemed to stop. Getting back to a standing position, the sandy-blonde male made his way to the back door. It was unlocked which it shouldn't have been. Grabbing his flashlight, he peeked into the hallway. Nothing but spiderwebs and dust. He waited for a long pause, listening for something when he noticed the webs were moving. There seemed to be a breeze coming from somewhere, only there were no fans or air ducts. "God, this is like a maze. Did you know this was here?" he turned to ask Zeddy. The larger male shrugged shaking his head.

"No idea there was a second door in this room. That's usually in that spot." he pointed to a large wooden bookcase. The bookcase had been moved a few feet, but looked otherwise untouched. The boxes and cans all still in their place. "You go check it out and I'll wait here." he grabbed our heroine by the shoulders hiding behind her.

"Alone? You who's like a foot taller than I am, and out weigh me by 40 pounds, want me to go in there alone? With no map or anything?"  Zeddy didn't answer just nodding ducking behind our heroine some more.

"Oh give me that." our heroine said with a sigh as she grabbed the flashlight out of his hand.

"Scream if you need us. Like if a psycho killer is in there or you trip into a well or something." Zeddy said. "We'll get Seward to rescue you."

"Uh. Speaking of. He should have been back by now." Edric started to dial Seward's number.


Meanwhile...

Out of Time...

Seward snorted as he woke, the sound of the cell phone buzzing somewhere near him. He pushed the stack of open books away from him as he searched for the intrusion to his dream. Hitting the button, he found he'd missed a call from Quentin asking him if he'd gotten any farther with his research?  The dark haired male was about to reply that he hadn't when he spotted a photo in one of the books. Grabbing the large volume he dragged it into his lap still sitting on the floor of his grandfather's book shop. The page before him was written in a language he couldn't read, but the woodcarving was very familiar. Shaking his head, Seward got up off the floor and headed for the back of the store. Searching the one corner of the building where they had comic books, the male found what he'd been looking for. A rare collector's edition of a 1970's horror comic. Seward had convinced his grandfather to add a bit of a "modern" edge to the store a few years before, but his grandfather had been less then willing to do much more than appease him with the far back corner converting one book case for it. But here, now in inked pinks, yellows and slime greens, all faded from their former glory, he found the matching images.

Returning to his spot on the floor, the dark haired male compared the comic's panels to the woodcutting in his ancient text. Even with the "modern" setting of the 1970's, when you ignored the intense afros and street slang, the story seemed to match up. Though he had to admit as he titled his head to the side making a small noise in his throat, he did like the rainbow that glided out of the disco sorcerer's hand, and the magick 8-ball that sent lightening up to activate the skull shaped mirror ball over the dance floor. 
The story centered around a guy who had to travel to the underworld to battle a god. Along the way, getting stuck in a maze having to fight a minotaur, a group of feral women and searching for the key with a bunch of magickal fae.

"Just like my dream." he whispered to the comic. Seward scrambled for a pen and paper to write down what he saw in his dream before he forgot it, but couldn't find a pen. Quickly, he hit the record button on his cell phone, dictating the dream.  "July 1st, book store, secret passage way, hoof prints, flour, the make-up...which was fairy dust! the stuffed animals, uh...uh a bat, a wolf, a fox, there were trees and a pool, I think it meant to be a wooded area? Not sure, what else was there?"  he closed his eyes letting out a deep sigh forcing himself to remember. "a prism on the text book, text books in general, oh it was a metaphysics book! So the occult, Zeddy was there, he was going on about movies and..." he looked at the comic in his hand. "he was standing in front of the comic book store in the dream, talking about the whole thing..." hitting the off button Seward dialed Quentin. "Hey, I think you need to return. Leave the book wherever you stashed it, and get back asap. Oh, and tell your new buddy he needs to come with you."


Tune in again for another installment of the Nosferatu Adventures starring your heroine...me(straight up story. Disco inferno anyone?)

Thursday, July 20, 2017

Food n Flix July 2017

It's that time again, where I tell you "hey, the group watched a movie and were inspired to make stuff". This month's Food n'Flix selection was Dirty Dancing, and it's being hosted by Chef Sarah Elizabeth.

plot: Two teenaged girls spend two weeks with their parents at a hotel, and end up falling for two staff members. The older sister unknowingly gets involved with the local cad, while the younger sibling ends up with the misunderstood rebel. Before long, they find themselves having to battle their own personal morals vs what they have been told they should believe in.

I am not going to lie, I've never been a fan of this film. I'm not a fan of  Romeo/Juliet style stories at all, and that's what this is at the core.  I have just never seen the appeal of this movie, or Patrick Swayze? (I always thought he looked like an oversized troll but...)   (I mean seriously, what was wrong with Watermelon Boy? She by passed the one guy completely for the flashiness of the dancer)

What this movie is about and does handle well is the topic of abortion, and I will give it all the props on the planet for that, and it was one of - if not the first major film to do so; but otherwise; when you strip that off you're left with a story about two teenaged girls who get involved with older guys.   Here, you have "Baby", this 17 year old kid who pushes her way into the lives of these twenty-somethings, sticking her nose in their business where it doesn't belong, pretty much steals Penny's job out from under her not too mention her best friend, and flaunts her wealth by giving her money to "fix the problem".

So, with all that said, I had a wait for it...TV EDIT ON VHS!  Yeah, I managed to borrow a really old copy and was so worried it was going to get eaten by my vcr.

Notes- "meringue" (because of the Merengue dance scene) soup (mentioned) pickles, bread, butter, fruit salad, mashed potatoes, turkey, stuffing, pot roast, chicken, watermelon, alcohol, cake, "pot pie" (one of the dancers' hat made me think of it)  pop, milk, rice pudding, brownies, cabbage rolls, coffee, bagels, donuts, jujubes (mentioned) grapefruit, eggs, sausage, pancakes, toast, juice, jam, bacon, pastry.

There was a lot of breakfast foods that I saw, but I wanted to go with something...pink! Yeah, the nodes of pink throughout from the title to her dress had me thinking of icing sugar actually. But, the temperature here has been too much for me to handle without having the oven on; so I went for the only other pink food I know how to make...Beet and Potato Salad.



 Ingredients:

2 large potatoes,
half an onion chopped,
pinch of salt,
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup Miracle Whip
sliced baby beets with juice





Boil potatoes in salt water till they are slightly tender, drain and chop
Set aside to cool, 

once cooled, mix potatoes with onion, salt, sugar, Miracle Whip,

Put into fridge for 15 minutes,

Take your beets and chop them up, I would advise doing so either on a plate or a paper towel, because they will stain everything.  I used 4 pre-sliced pieces but adjust to the amount of salad you're making.

Remove potato salad from fridge and add your beets, mixing well,
Carefully add 2 Tablespoons of the beet juice.  Again, if you are making a larger salad you can add more, or if you want a darker colour.

Mix well,

Return bowl to fridge for about 45 minutes.



And that's all I've got for you this time around.    And next month's selection will be Second Hand Lions, and is being hosted by Fictional Fare.

Till next time

Sunday, July 16, 2017

The Nosferatu Adventures s12 p15

The Nosferatu Adventures
page 315, chapter 315

Pangs of Glory

They continued to walk through the empty mall, our heroine still wondering if she should be pissed off at Seward or flattered that he was trying to play matchmaker?

"Wait 'em second. So he's not gay?" she shook her head stopping once again, this time in front of the expensive make-up store. The display featuring a two foot poster of a woman in deep charcoal coloured eye shadow and sparkles over her cheeks and lips; the headline reading You'll make your wildest dreams come true with our Fairy Dust. Little pots of the powder sat piled under the poster shaped like cartoon fairies. Only they looked smooshed, flattened like roadkill.

"You thought Edric was gay?" Seward asked the smile and good humour still glowing in his eyes. Our heroine said nothing as she stood there waiting for him to answer her. "Like I said, Edric has been crushing on you for a really long time..."

"It's just, when a man's that hot..." our heroine sighed continuing on down the empty mall, her foot steps echoing as she did.

"You've never seen him strung out depressed after a break up, all..." Seward let his arms turn into a windmill as he moved the few steps to catch up with her. "...blotchy cry eyed and having spent a week eating nothing but Poutine and pie, and drinking himself into oblivion, his hair gross with not being washed for a week, and the beer butt..."

"You mean gut don't you?"

"No, I mean butt." Seward puffed out his cheeks a little slapping his own rear. "Everything goes right to that guy's arse."

"I no longer know if you're still trying to sell me on the idea of him or put me off it?"

"Sell you on him. Definitely. Just pointing out that he's not that hot." Seward shrugged dragging out the word. "Just a guy under all that pretty. He poops like everyone else."

"Yeah, thanks for that visual." our heroine said waving her hand near her temples. "I didn't really need to think of anyone that way."

Seward looked up to see the book store lights were on. Telling Nosferatu to wait, he checked out the store.  One of the display tables had been knocked over, spilling a stack of books. Bending to pick them up, he half glanced at the fact they were metaphysics text books, the cover looking like a giant crystal with coloured dots marking off a prism shape. "Hello?" he continued on towards the back of the book store, spotting a bit of light coming from the stock room. Satisfied that the store was in deed empty, Seward returned to where he'd left our heroine.  She had moved on towards another store and was staring at the window display. A bunch of stuffed animals were hanging by threads over a large blow up pool. A little fuzzy grey bat seemed to be about to fall off it's thread, having been hung uneven, and with the breeze from the air conditioning, it swayed just a little too close to the little red fox and white wolf, who were positioned nearest an evergreen tree.  

"Does that look wrong to you?" she asked her fingertip tapping on the glass window, pointing just above the fox and wolf.

"No. Same display they've had all week. No one's touched it."

"No I just mean the fox and wolf being too close...never mind. I don't know what I was thinking?" her voice trailed off slightly as she let out another sigh. "I don't think I'm up for this. Meeting Edric, I mean."

"No no you are! You totally are!" the younger male said eyes suddenly wide hands out once again as if holding up an invisible wall. "I'm sorry, okay, I didn't mean to gross you out with the poop comment..."

"Ah sweetie, it's not that. I just mean...he's..." she tapped the window again without thinking before looking up at the stuffed bat. "...and I'm..." she could tell by the fact Seward's expression hadn't changed that he wasn't listening to her. "Here." she said grabbing him by the elbow and leading him towards yet another store on the other side of the hallway. Stopping in front of the men's clothing store, she shoved Seward towards the mannequin dressed in a tux. "Edric right." she continued, passing another two stores before reaching the lingerie store. She pointed towards the plain white cotton underwear in the clearance bin. "Me." she dipped her hand into the chaos of price tags and material pulling out a handful. "Not a bit of frilly or flash. Understand now?"

"Um...if I say no will you continue to try to explain by taking me over to the lacy frilly pink see-through...and...I'll shut up now."


Tune in again for another installment of the Nosferatu Adventures starring your heroine...me(straight up story. Remember, they are standing in Edric's blindspot.)

Thursday, July 13, 2017

Coffee Talk Randomness July 13th 2017

Spudguns! Got your dark roasted coffee bean goodness...yummy right. Okay, so I just heard there is going to be a remake of the movie Little Vampire. You know I'm digging that. It's getting a Hallowe'en release. Makes sense. And that will hold me over till the next Hotel Transylvania film scheduled for next year.  Which again, timing wise fits, with the whole reboot of the Universal Monsters that they started this year. I haven't had the chance yet to see the first in the reboot; The Mummy.  I plan to though. I know, it's a Tom Cruise movie and I hate his stuff. But, let's face it, he nailed Interview with a Vampire. Against everything anyone believed, he shinned in Interview with a Vampire. And I suppose at some point I need to actually see the Mummy movies that came out in the last twenty years.

Big segue...you will notice, I never did relaunch my Top 5 Favs segments. That's because I never got any responses from anyone. I had asked back beginning of the year for some movie recommendations and, nothing. I'm disappointed.  That was one of my more popular topics on the blog here too, which surprises me actually that no one...moving on from my self pity.

Recognize the silver purse don't you? Right you are, it's what inspired that dream sequence that I wrote in Nosferatu Adventures. Look at that, the purse is a star.

Yeah, my brain is in full on vampire mode, more than normal. As I've pretty much been watching nothing but vampire films for the youtube movie reviews. And as I mentioned before, there are a few different reviews on my youtube then there are here in written form.

Another segue...I'm pretty happy with the current schedule for Nosferatu Adventures. So I think I'll continue on for another few months of just doing them every two weeks. Which means, there will be one this Sunday (July 16th,)
If you want to catch any of my video reviews you can do so (here)  With that said...til next time.

Thursday, July 6, 2017

Coffee Talk July 6th 2017

Spudguns!  Just coming in to remind you all that the Night Bleeds all vamp combo for August 2017 is Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko; the 1998 (2004/06 English translation) novel and the 2004 movie version.

Rules: Read the novel, watch the movie, and if it inspires you to bake/cook/craft something, blog about it.  You must have a blog to be part. Link to either this announcement or the actual Night Bleeds page on here. Leave a comment on here letting me know you joined in. (or the day of's post)
The blog post must be the current timeframe, in this case August 2017

Deadline: the last Sunday of August 2017 which is the 27th

And as always, if you're in the Thunder Bay area and would like to join me for the physical book club, let me know.


Sunday, July 2, 2017

The Nosferatu Adventures s12 p14

The Nosferatu Adventures
page 314, chapter 314

Pangs of Glory

Seward stood near the east entrance of the mall, having just done the second walk around of the night. He checked the clock on his phone twice before putting it back into his pocket, feeling a little nervous. The phone buzzed exposing a text from Edric asking what was taking him so long? Seward had positioned himself so that he was out of range of the security camera, and quickly texted that he was in the bathroom. Clearly a lie, as he was outside waiting for the familiar sound of the bus. A smile crossed the younger male's face, as he spotted it pulling up; one lone figure back lit by the harsh green lights of the interior.  Nosferatu stood a few feet away from him, as Seward felt the need to wipe his palms of sweat.

"Hi.Hi!" he said waving her towards the door of the mall. "I'm so glad you decided to show up."

"I told you yesterday I would when you asked.What's going on anyways?" the auburn haired female asked, as she adjusted the strap of her purse over her left shoulder. She was dressed in a pair of jeans that flared at the bottoms, a black cammy with lace at the neckline, and black sweater. Seward blushed as he guided her into the building.

"Edric is like totally in love with you." he said still smiling. Gesturing his right hand towards the hardware store he nodded. "This way. Come now."

"Your best friend? The guy who's photos you keep showing me? The one who looks like he should be some viking pirate or something?"

"Yeah that would be the one."  They were half way into the hardware store, when our heroine stopped in her tracks causing Seward to turn back.

"Wait. So what, you showed him my photos too? Why?" she asked again fidgeting with the purse strap.

"No. Um..." he scratched at the back of his neck making a face shrugging his shoulders. "Don't get mad." Seward raised both hands towards her as if holding an invisible wall. "But...he's the one who told me about you." he shrugged again. "Edric saw you way way long time ago..." he turned then gesturing his right arm wildly towards the lawnmowers. "And has been crushing on you ever since." the younger male grabbed hold of her elbows and began pushing her out of the store, and into the main area of the mall.

"Hang on! So let me get this straight. You're telling me, your best friend knew about me before I ever knew about him?"

"Huh uh. Pretty much yeah. This direction past the store that makes all those smelly soaps with fruit juice." he moved them closer to the middle of the mall, trying to keep her out of the cameras view.

"Why am I only finding this out now?" Nosferatu remarked as she turned to face Seward, causing him to slam into her.

"He's very insecure? Yes, that's the answer I should go with. Um...he's very insecure." Seward nodded smiling once again, the dark mop of curls bouncing around his ears. He side stepped her clearing his throat blushing. "Can you stand a little more over here away from the security cameras. Thanks"

"No man is ever that insecure. What's gives?" our heroine's voice took on a sudden distrustful tone as she crossed her arms under her chest giving her boobs a boost. "What's the score?"

"Hey Nosferatu." they both turned to see Zeddy walking out of the lotto store, a pop in hand. "Seward said you were coming by tonight." Zeddy slurped loudly on his drink. "Hey, have either of you seen that new movie, the one about the crazy mob guy who keeps stealing his brother's gang, turning them against him? It's got that dude in it from that Australian soap opera. I was hoping to go this weekend to see it, but had to work." he shrugged. "Heard the soundtrack's an all 80's death metal sort of thing. I'm sure you've seen the previews for it or the poster?" he waited for them to say something, but both Seward and our heroine just shrugged. "You know the one..." he rolled his wrist gesturing then towards the direction of the nearest clothing store. "The one mob guy is all about taking over the world, but his brother is like all about rebuilding it. And they end up in this massive battle with the one kidnapping the second one's favourite waitress...or maid or mistress or something. Brainwashes her into running his cult for him." Zeddy held up his hand then as if describing someone's height before leaning on a mannequin for the comic book store display. "It's got that chick in it who's done all those cheesy bad monster movies." Seward and our heroine continued to look at him blankly. "Blood Splatter Beyond Dracula's Tooth, Die Die My Moonlit Bat, Renfield and the Corpse-Kickers..." their expressions didn't change. Giving up Zeddy sighed taking another large gulp of his pop before turning heading back to the pizza place.    


Tune in again for another installment of the Nosferatu Adventures starring your heroine...me(straight up story. Every movie is better with an all 80's death metal/heavy metal soundtrack!)