Vortex is a puzzle game that debuted in May ‘09 at $1.99 and is now free. This game currently has 45 reviews with an average of 4.5 stars. Please be sure to leave a review if you enjoy the game to make up for the hordes of people who will download it on a whim and then give it a 1 star review because it wasn’t what they were expected.  I don’t expect the free price to last more than a few days, if that, so get this one quick.

Well, we all know I looooooove Penny’s Low Fat Desserts. She makes some kickin’ products that taste great, are all natural, and have a reasonable portion size for relatively low amount of calories and fat. I reviewed her muffin tops (which ROCKED) here, so if you are unfamiliar with her products, check it out.

Recently I received the No Sugar Added Toffee Cinnamon Cookie in the mail. It’s Penny’s new product, targeted especially for Diabetics (coincidence- I AM a type 1 Diabetic! ). I also tried the other variety Penny offers, the Chocolate Truffle. These cookies are sweetened with erythritol and rebiana rather than sugar, are high in fiber and are only 100 calories each.
No Sugar? you ask. Aren’t these going to be bland and have that weird aftertaste?
HA!
These cookies will ROCK YOUR SOCKS OFF. Read on, bloggies !

Chocolate Truffle- holy. moly. I literally died when this beautiful creature hit my mouth. This cookie fooled my taste buds into thinking it was eating a Godiva truffle. It is sooo moist and crumbly, almost a buttery texture. It was sweet, with a deep chocolately taste. The outside rim is slightly lighter in color than the rest of the cookie, and is the sweetest and softest part of the cookie. It’s so hard to believe there isn’t any sugar in this- it’s AMAZING. It was satisfying and filling too, with the 7 grams of fiber.

Toffe Cinnamon Cookie- ahhhhh. Also heavenly. It has a delicate flavor, crumbly, soft and melts in your mouth. It was also sweeter on the edges of the cookie than in the middle. It didn’t have so much of a toffee taste to me, more cinnamon flavored, but that’s fine by me! It reminded me of the top of those cinnamon crumb cakes. It paired very well with some vanilla yogurt too.

Overall. Buy these. Now. (but make sure you buy and send me some too!! ) I was literally upset when these cookies were over, they are so good. I hope she comes out with another flavor soon. Something peanut buttery? Caramel? Chocolate Chip? I love the texture of the cookies the most. It melts in your mouth.Penny. You are a genious! 5 stars for your no sugar added cookies from heaven

Chocolate Truffle Cookie- 1 cookie is 100 calories, 3 grams of fat, 32 carbohydrates, 7 grams of fiber,and 3 grams of protein.
Toffee Cinnamon Cookie-1 cookie is 100 calories, 2.5 grams of fat, 33 grams of carbohydrates, 6 grams of fiber, and 3 grams of protein.
Chocolate Truffle Cookie-erythritol, water, oats, dried plums, whole wheat flour, pasteurized egg, cellulose, chocolate liquor, alkalized cocoa, natural flavors, rice syrup solids, chicory root extract, xanthan gum, guar gum, sodium alginate, gum acacia, food starch, ammonium calcium alginate, baking soda, palm oil, salt, cinnamon, soy lecithin, rebiana.
Toffee Cinnamon Cookie- erythritol, oats, water, dried plums, whole wheat flour, pasteurized egg, cellulose, chocolate, natural flavors, rice syrup solids, chicory root extract, xanthan gum, guar gum, sodium alginate, gum acacia, food starch, ammonium calcium alginate, baking soda, palm oil, salt, cinnamon, soy lecithin, rebiana.

Hey, you! Don’t forget to enter the DONUT and 150$ giveaway by Holey Donuts! Just visit the website and put MY blog name and website in the subject line, and fill out the contact info. Then leave me a comment. More info provided HERE.

Jenny from PB&J is also hosting a giveaway.!

is in the runnings for the most ignant muttha fucka alive. ahahaha

Located in the heart of the Grasse countryside, the Bastide Saint Antoine is the ideal wedding venue for all you foodies out there. In 1996, the Bastide Saint Antoine was bought by celebrated French chef Jacques Chibois and only one year after its opening, the hotel’s restaurant was awarded two Michelin stars. The establishment has recently just been awarded a 5th star in reconnaissance of its superb facilities and quality of service and is part of the ‘Relais & Chateaux‘ group. The venue can also be found in the ‘Grand Tables du Monde‘ gastronomic food guide.

The Bastide Saint Antoine dates back to the 18th century and is packed full of Provencal charm. The 16 bedrooms and suits are decorated in a chic modern style and the hotel can accomodate up to 32 guests. The venue’s gardens are a wonderful place to start a wedding reception with a welcome cocktail moving onto the 120 people capacity terrace for a seated dinner.

The restaurant can also be used as an inside space for seated dinners and can fit 120 people maximum spread over two different rooms. For groups of above 120 people, the Salon Jasmin function room can fit up to 180 people. The Salon Jasmin is also the area in the hotel best suited for live entertainment and discos.

The venue offers one of two different pricing options for wedding hire. Either couples can rent the entire hotel for a minimum stay of 2 nights with full exclusive use of all the hotel’s facilities, or alternatively the Salon Jasmin function room can be rented on a per night basis for a dinner and dance party. In the second instance, couples are required to take a minimum of 3 bedrooms for 2 nights.

The chefs at the Bastide Saint Antoine can put together fabulously tantalising menus priced at approximately 180 euros for 6 courses excluding alcohol and beverages. Drinks and canapé packages are also offered and special children’s menus can be arranged.

Due to sound regulations, music must strictly end by 02.00 but if you want to continue the party without music, this is negotiable and payable at a supplementary hourly rate of approximately 325 euros per hour.

In terms of additional services, the venue can arrange babysitting, can install a dance floor upon request for 763 euros and will allow guests to bring their own Champagne (a ‘bouchon’ fee does however apply).

The Bastide Saint Antoine’s sales team have put together a fairly comprehensive wedding brochure; to request a copy and for all enquiries, you can contact Sylvie Venzac-Rouve by email or by telephone on +33 (0)4 93 70 94 63. www.jacques-chibois.com.

Flights to Florida with British Airways or Virgin are now at unbeatable prices for Autumn and october half term 2010.

Flights alone are from just £449. However, Ocean Florida have put together some amazing packages which include your British Airway or Virgin flights.

The half term and october florida deals include:

* 3 star, two week packages, staying at the Quality Inn Plaza on International Drive for just £539

* Ocean Florida exclusive deals staying at Windsor Hills in one of their amazing villas from just £599pp

* 5 star, yes 5 star, family hotel packages at the brand new Waldorf Astoria Disney World from just £799.

For more information on British Airways and Virgin holiday packages to Florida in 2010 visit ocean-florida.co.uk or call 0800 804 8430.

Watch this, Are you a 5* Chic?

Time for Thanksgiving review number 2! I figured applesauce and apple butter would fit the bill nicely. We always use applesauce as a compliment to the other dishes, but I like it in place of gravy with my turkey and I like using it as a condiment the next day for cold turkey and apple sandwiches. Yum! So i was excited to try products by Vermont Village Cannery. They make applesauce in the individual cups and jars in flavors Original Unsweetened, Raspberry, Mixed Berry, Peach, Strawberry-Banana, Maple Syrup, Tropical Mango, Cranberry and Cinnamon and they also make a Spiced Apple Butter.  Basically, me being the fan of applesauce that i am, i’m in applesauce heaven. All of the products are naturally grown and made in Vermont, and the apples are purchased locally and are pesticide free. They also don’t have any added sugars or preservatives, and most of the products are organic if not all  natural.
I got to try the Peach, Cinnamon, Strawberry Banana and Maple Syrup varieties of the applesauce, and the spiced apple butter. What did i think?

Each of the applesauces had a velvety smooth texture, which I absolutely loved. No chunks, pieces or even tiny blumps in these applesauces. It had a smooth feeling going down, and you can tell a lot of TLC was put into cooking and making the applesauces. I enjoyed every single flavor I tried.

Peach- this one had a strong and subtly sweet peach flavor, complimented nicely by the apple. I froze this one for about 30 minutes, and had a little peach slushie. Yum! 4 stars

Cinnamon- oooh. total dessert applesauce we got here. SO smooth, SO delicious. The cinnamon flavor is absolutely perfect, and it tastes as if it had been simmering with cinnamon sticks and cooked for a while to acheive such a good taste. 4 1/2 stars

Strawberry-Banana- this one had more of a tartness to it than the peach, probably due to the strawberry flavor. I didn’t taste much banana, but rather more of a strawberry-apple combination. It also had just the right amount of sweetness. 4 stars

Maple Syrup-  another favorite. I was so excited to try this one, because i adore maple flavored things. It was the smoothest out of all of them texture wise, and had just a hint of maple flavor. It also had a bit of a lemon aftertaste. I heated it up in the microwave and it tasted like the inside of an apple pie. Deeeeeeee-lish. I would liek to crush some graham cracker crumbs and heat this up and place it on top- sort of like a mock pie! 4 1/2 stars

Spiced Apple Butter- Vermont Village Cannery is awarded BEST APPLE BUTTER EVER. Seriously. This stuff BLEW ME AWAY. It had a buttery (heh, no pun intended) consistency and it was sweet despite no added sugar. It had a nice blend of a nutmeg/cinnamon/maple taste, and I would totally eat it out of the jar (in fact, i did ) . It was perfect on waffles and heated up. I also used it in place of jelly for my usual PB&J and let’s just say I didn’t miss my sweet grape jelly at all. This stuff is SO good YOU MUST TRY IT. 5 stars!!!

Overall, obviosuly I loved these products. There great and perfect this time of the year, and anytime in my eyes I’m giving 4 stars to the applesauce, and 5 for the apple butter. I would like to try the tropical mango variety. It sounds delish! Clearly, Apples +Vermont Village Cannery = amazing. Keep up the good work!

What’s your favorite flavor of applesauce? Tell me here!

1 individual cup/ 1/2 cup applesauce ranges from 60-80 calories, 0 grams of fat, 16-20 carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, and 1 gram of protein.

1 Tablespoon of the applebutter provides 30 calories, 0 grams of fat,  8 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, and 0 grams of protein.

Peach-Organic apples, Organic peach and apple puree, organic white grape juice concentrate, vitamin C, natural flavor.
Cinnamon-Organic apples,  organic white grape juice concentrate, organic cinnamon, organic nutmeg, vitamin C.
Strawberry Banana-Organic Apples, Organic Bananas, Organic Strawberries, Organic White Grape Juice Concentrate, Vitamin C, Natural Flavors.
Maple Syrup- Apples, Maple Syrup, Grape Juice Concentrate, Vitamin C.

Spiced Apple Butter- Organic Apple Puree, Organic Apples, Organic Spices, Organic Caramel Color.

Time to review something I eat every day without fail. I love, love, love (love!) peanut butter. 6 days out of 7, i eat pb& jelly/honey/maple/apple butter or fluff sandwiches. Then for snacks, peanut butter flavored granola bars, pb spread on cereal, apples, PB Puffin cereal, you get the point. I can’t get enough. So i was SO FREAKING EXCITED to try a FLAVORED peanut butter! 

P.B. Loco makes all natural, gourmet flavored peanut butters, that appeal to the “adult” senses. Of course, there are no hydrogenated oils used (yay!) . They also have cafe locations where they concoct delicious-sounding sandwiches like Yummer Nutter, which is white chocolate peanut butter by P.B. Loco, Nutella Spread and and Banana. Yum! They make  Peanut Butter with Caramel Apple, with Chocolate-Chip Cookie Dough,  with CoCoBanana, with Dark Chocolate Duo, with Jungle Banana, with Raspberry White Chocolate, with Sumatra Cinnamon and Raisin, with Asian Curry Spice and then Original “Munchy Crunchy” and “Creamy Dreamy”.  Can we say peanut butter heaven?

P.B. Loco sent me 2 1.8 oz samples, or about 3 and a half  Tablespoons, (in these cute little jars that resembled make-up jars!) in flavors Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Jungle Banana.  I could hardly contain my excitement, i ate them both in one day.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough- wow. Such a different take on peanut butter. It smells sweet, my mom said it smelled like “a bag of Halloween candy”, but a good kind of sweet. It’s a little bit runnier than Jif or SKippy (but that’s a good thing because Jif & Skippy have HYDROGENATED oils, and P.B. Loco does NOT!) and there are swirls of chocolate and itty bitty chocolate chips in it. It really tastes amazing. I didn’t need to spread it on anything, and i ate the whole “jar” they sent me at once (who couldn’t?)  It has a nice blend of salty-sweet, but it isn’t too sweet. Just right. It kind of tastes like raw peanut butter cookie dough with bits of chocolate chips in it. P.B. Loco hit this one of the head. 5 stars!!

here’s what it looked like (before i devoured it!!)

Jungle Banana- ooooohhhh this one’s good. It smells sweet too, and you can actually smell banana. This one is amazing. It’s as close as you can get to peanut butter and banana mixed together. In fact, i think P.B. Loco smooshed a banana in a peanut butter jar. It’s just the perfect blend of Peanut butter and banana, and it’s smooth and satisfying. Also eaten in one sitting. Heh   5 stars.

Overall. Need i say it? These are awesome. If you like peanut butter, you gotta buy these. I wish PB Loco sent me more samples (or at least bigger ones!!) because i want more, more, more!! I really want to try the chocolate varieties and CARAMEL APPLE! Yum!

Peanut Butter with Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough- 2 Tbsp. is 190 calories, 15 grams of fat, 9 carbohydrates, 3 grams of fiber, and 6 grams of protein.
Peanuts, sugar, palm oil (non-hydrogenated), chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, whole milk, and less than 2 percent of salt, soy lecithin (natural emulsifier), natural flavor (vanilla bean extractives, water [alcohol free]).

Peanut Butter with Jungle Banana- 2 Tbsp. is 190 calories, 15 grams of fat, 8 carbohydrates, 3 grams of fiber, and 7 grams of protein.
Peanuts, sugar, palm oil (non-hydrogenated), bananas, banana concentrate, and less than 2 percent of organic evaporated cane juice, salt, modified food starch, natural flavor, and color (from annatto).

Hey don’t forget about MY NUTTY giveaway! Last 2 days to enter!!

Rocklea, Little Gruinard, Wester Ross is a 3 Bedroom 5 birth self catering log cabin. It nestles on the west highland coast of Scotland just south of Ullapool commanding stunning views and active wildlife all year round.
With private beach access and countless opportunity to unwind and surround yourself in one of the most beautiful parts of Scotland it is little wonder that Visit Scotland / the Scottish Tourist board award the house a 5 star rating.

scottish tourist board 4 star rating

wheelchair access throughout

Last night, shortly after wrapping up the Sunday Salon, I was able to wrap up the last 100 or so pages of Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood and, as I thought I would, I enjoyed the book IMMENSELY and was tempted to write about it immediately last night but, unfortunately, by that time it was already well past my bed time! However, even the night of sleep didn’t diminish my almost-possessed level of love and desire to talk about the book!

The plot of the book is almost to summarize quickly, but I’ll do my best! As I outlined briefly in the Sunday Salon, the book has a fairly-predictable dystopian plotline to a certain extent. The society in which Jimmy (who later goes by Snowman), Crake, and Oryx live is a divided one, composed of the ‘pleeblands’, dangerous and dirty cities where the illicit pleasures of the world can be sought. This is in contrast to the Modules and Compounds where the more ‘civilized’ members of society live. It is a society where the fear of disease has become paramount and the creation of new creatures (the’pigoon’, a combination of a pig and a human, is used to grow human organs for transplants, and ‘wolvogs’ – a combination of wolf and dog – are created as weapons) made by genetic modification and splicing is common place.

At his high schoo, Jimmy meets a young boy named Glenn, who goes by Crake for the rest of the novel. The two hang out together, surfing the ‘net and playing games like ‘Kwiktime Osama’ and ‘Extinctathon’, which requires an encyclopediac knowledge of extinct plants and animals. One of this sessions of ‘net-surfing take the two boys to a kiddie-porn site, where Jimmy is haunted by the face of a young girl, who later comes in to the novel as Oryx. The two boys remain friends through the novel’s equivalents of high school and college, and Crake proves himself to be an incredible scientist who immerges out of college with a plan. SPOILERS Jimmy joins Crake at his job, where Crake is attempting to event the BlyssPlus pill which would serve as a cure against any and all sexually transmitted diseases, boost sexual energy, and prolong youth. However, it was also a one-time birth control pill, and Crake uses Jimmy to largely distriubute the pill, touted as the cure for all humanities ills. At the same time, Crake has invented the Crakers, a group of psuedo-people who are leaf-eating herbivores, are incapable of the higher brain function that would lead to feelings like faith and jealousy, and have sexual intercourse during limited breeding seasons when they are polyandrous. Also joining Jimmy is Oryx, who Crake remembered from the kiddie-porn site and had brought to him to serve as a personal prositute and to also teach the Crakers about nature.This is when the novel gets REALLY interesting. Crake has, without the knowledge of Jimmy, planted a ‘bioform’ in the BlyssPlus pills and thus literally creates a gloabl killer, a disease without a cure that ravages the planet. Crake immunized Jimmy without his knowledge so that he would remain to teach the Crakers, which is exactly what happens when Crake kills Oryx and Jimmy kills Crake right after learning of his bioterrorism and megalomaniacal plans. END SPOILERS.

The book is told in a series of flashbacks between Snowman – what the Crakers call Jimmy after he does, indeed, take them in to the woods surrounding the compound where Crake was working – describing what it is like to live in a world where disease has killed everyone but a simple-minded hybrid-human. It is here that Atwood does perhaps some of her greatest writing, and I absolutely adored the details to which Atwood gave to issues such as what it WOULD be like to live in a tree, or to fear mutant hybrid creatures who were almost created to live in the world in which Jimmy now finds himself. The other parts of the book chronicle Jimmy and his relationship with Crake and Oryx and how his world came to be. These parts basically presented the basic issue I had with the book: it’s one of those books that can be really confusing the first time you read it. Atwood is a master of releasing details only when you need to know them, sometimes not until after, and while such a tactic does an AMAZING job at creating suspense (which this book does, believe me – it’s the textbook definition of a page turner!) it can also make the book a little hard to follow. The first time you hear of pigoons, Oryx, the Crakers, or of Jimmy, it is without any kind of provided definition or explanation. This would probably be one of those books that even better on a second read!

I can’t really describe what it is I love about this book, other than Atwood’s plot turns and skills as a writer. I suppose its the same as what inspires my love for practically all other dystopian novels: there is something about it that feels eminently real. While I think that the world that Atwood describes is still far off (then again, who really knows just how far) there are sections of it – the huge, global fear of disease and ‘pandemics’, the money that there is to be made in even false-cures, and, of course, the desire by humans to create a more perfect world, which can often lead to the destruction of the world we currently live in – that hit home in the scariest ways.

Please go read the book! It’ll stick with you, and I’m DYING to have someone to talk to about it (my mother is working on it, but she really is an abhorently slow reader! Happy reading, and hopefully you’re enjoying the slow shift to winter as much as I am!

BookMaven

Now, usually I would try to avoid the whole double-posting-one-day thing, but I just finished my twelfth cup of coffee for the evening and, conicidentally, was able to completely plow through Chris Abani’s Becoming Abigail: A Novella, which I basically demolished in less than an hour. I should probably be wary of using too many ‘destroying’ verbs, however, because although I read it quickly, the book itself was a pure treat.

The book is about a young girl, Abigail, who is named for her mother, who dies during childbirth. Abigail comes from a Nigerian family, a highly patriarchal culture, and her father is completely distraught over his wifes death. His pain is made worse by the fact that Abigail looks just like her mother, causing her father to see only his dead wife in her. Abigail also suffers from bouts of insanity, spurred by her search for identity – she is compared to her mother so often by her father that she begins to loose sight of her own self, which she attempts to document by literally branding phrases, poetry, and memories of her mother on her skin. As a teenager, Abigail’s cousin Peter comes to take her to London, where he forces her in to a sort of home-based prostitution, in which he brings in paying customers to accost Abigail in her room at night. Although Abigail ends up getting her (rather fitting, albeit it rather disturbing) revenge, the pain she has to go through is almost incomprehensible. After the culminating incident with Peter, Abigail meets her social worker Derek (which is one of my favorite names EVER) and the two fall into a passionate but completely illicit affair, for which Derek is inevitably arrested. The ending of the book I won’t reveal, but let me just say that the plot of the book is remarkably touching for clocking in at under 150 pages.

Perhaps one of the greatest things about this book, however, is it’s style. Chris Abani is an amazing man, a published writer since the age of 16, imprisoned three times by the Nigerian state, sentenced to death once, who is an amazing novelist, poet, and social rights activist. He’s coming to give a lecture at my University in less than a week, and I can’t believe that I have been given the opportunity to have a special honors luncheon with a man who crafts beautiful, poignant work. I could write volumes and volumes if I had to, but I would rather just let the work speak for itself:

” Sometimes there is no way to leave something behind. Something over. We know this. We know this. We know this. This is the prevalence of ritual. The remember something that cannot be forgotten. Yet not left over. She knew this. As she smoked. She knew this. This. This. And what now?”

One of the best descriptions of rain I’ve ever read: “There was a time, it seemed to her, that she lived purely for the pleasure of rain. The way it would threaten the world gently, dropping dark clouds over the brightness of an afternoon, wind whipping trees in dark play. Then the smell; carried from afar, the lushness of wet, moisture-heavy eath, heralding the first cold stabs of water that seemed to just be practicing for the torrent that was about to come. And she, sitting on the dry safety of the veranda, wrapped in a sweater, watching the world weep as the Beatles in the background tinny and small in the soundscape, asked, Dear Prudence, won’t you come out to play?”

A description of all the things I, too, love about London: “She would find out later that it was an old untidy sprawl of rivers and canals, beautiful parks, old cobbled streets that still held the echo of horse drawn carriages, tired crumbling walls built by Caesar, and modern plazas of glass and chrome. There was the open pleasure of Covent Garden with its flower shops, vegetable stalls, colorful barrow boy calls, the new market with with stall after stall selling trinkets that nobody needed to people who should know better. There were street musicians everywhere filling the hallowed halls of the Underground with their melancholic worship.”

“So much of love is memory.”

” ‘A human being alone is a thing more sad than any lost animal and nothing destroys the soul like aloneness.”

“Why did these people know nothing of this? Of the complexities of life and how you can never recapture the way a particular shaft of light, falling through a tree, patterned the floor in a shower of shadows. You just opened your heart because you knew tomorrow there would be another shaft of light, another tree, and another rain of shadows. Each particular. Not the same as yesterday’s. Not as beautiful as yesterday’s. Only as beautiful as today’s.”

“Destiny isn’t a deck of cards stacked up against you. It is the particular idiosyncrasies of the player, not the deck or the dealer, that hold the key. Personality always sways the outcome of the game.”

If these little tidbits haven’t made you want to read, I’m not sure there is much else I can do to convince you, other than to say that this is quite possibly one of the best books I’ve read this year, and I was able to finish it in under an hour. Take the time. Open the book. Be changed. Below is a video of Chris Abani giving a lecutre on African Narrative, and although it’s a long video, I urge you all to check it out because of just how amazing a public speaker Chris Abani is, and the great things he has to say about the way we view ourselves as human beings, and just how crucial language is to this view. Happy reading!

BookMaven

Create Your Own Economy

These are a Few Reasons Why We Are Experiencing Growth – Polaris Media Group

Build Your Company and Create Your Own Economy – PMG

You can operate this business with a virtual office
Computer, Internet Access, Phone

The Day You Start You Can Be In Position To Earn Income
Place An Ad, Put Them Through System, Collect Decision

Proven “9″ Year Track Record
Company Founded in 2001, US Based, Global Reach

Successful Leaders
24/7 Training & Live Calls and Masterminding

Compensation Plan Hybrid System
Commission paid weekly from $1,000 to $20,000

Financial Opportunities – PMG

The best home business opportunities are ones where the distributors can feel passionate about the products and services. The Polaris network marketing opportunity offers life-changing educational products and events that help people increase their self-confidence, and nurture their entrepreneurial spirit. Add to that a company and its distributors who share their financial success with non-profits helping the less fortunate–you have a group that lives its passion every day.

5 Reasons To Become A Polaris Distributor – PMG

Distributors can work part-time or full-time and have the potential to earn extra income quickly. Polaris unique training techniques can get someone productive and earning income on a near immediate basis.

We recognize that it takes time and effort to achieve success. We have everything it takes to help the average person achieve success. Evolving to meet the demands of the 21st century home business entrepreneur, we provide an innovative business model.

With economics ups and downs, little or no job security, Polaris provides the education and opportunity to anyone to achieve financial independence.

The Polaris educational products and motivational events are all about personal freedom and are very unique. No other company in the world offers these self confidence builders and wealth creation products.

Would someone feel good about the company? At Polaris we believe we have great products that help others in their steps to success. Our community is here to empower the individual to step outside of the box and reach for their dreams. There is nothing more rewarding than helping someone gain personal freedom and become more self-confident.

Look forward to having a short 3 – 5 minute conversation to see if this is a good fit for you. Feel free to call our toll free 800 845 1972 for more information on the income opportunity or call me direct @ 949 929 1733.

Jana Clinton
PMG Founding Memeber

I can’t offer enough apologies for my complete and total absence from the blogosphere for so long! I have little excuse, other than being a student leaves me plenty of time for reading but very little time to write about it! So let me begin by getting caught up on some LONG overdue matters of business.

First, a HUGE thank you goes out to Jeane, a friend of mine over at DogEar Diary that was kind enough to (a very, very long time ago I may add, and my dearest apologies for taking so long to recognize it!) award me the Lovely Blog Award, an award I’m not sure I deserve, considering my often frequent absences! This is an award that needs to be passed on to 15 people, which I gladly do now!

1.) A Striped Armchair
2.) Book Haven
3.) Musings from the Sofa
4.) Naked Without Books
5.) So Many Books, So Little Time
6.) Stuck in a Book
7.) Things Mean A Lot
8.) A Fondness for Reading
9.) A Guy’s Moleskin Notebook
10.) Bending Bookshelf
11.) Book Nut
12.) Books on the Brain
13.) Citizen Reader
14.) Eloise by the Book Piles
15.) Sophisticated Dorkiness

All of these bloggers have never steered me wrong in my search for great books and what is perhaps even more amazing is that they always manage to steer me in a way I would have never expected, always with wonderfully delightful results.

Alright, now that that little matter of business is all wrapped up, I’m absolutely DYING to talk about Mary Renault’s Fire From Heaven, which I recently dived in to on the recommendation of my Yalie friend Jesi Egan. The book is the first in Renault’s Alexander trilogy, and as the first volume, focuses on the life of Alexander the Great up until his 20’s.

The novel is absolutely AMAZINGLY written, and I’m not even half way done withthe first volume and already I’m dreading the end of the entire trilogy. I can see what my friend Jesi was talking about when she said that this is the book that makes you fall in love with Alexander. And not in that ‘we love him because he was part of history’ way but love as in an overwhelming attachment to what happens to him. And even though Renault makes it fairly clear from the get-go that she’s part of the whole ‘Alexander liked boys’ philosophy, he is still possibly one of the most attractive literary creations of the actual man that I’ve ever read.

I think part of my love for this book stems from a childhood fascination with everything Greek, and in that light it doesn’t disappoint. The book speaks of Alexander’s witch-mother Olympias, who is described as being absolutely beautiful, but complete terrifying in that beauty. She is constant defiance of her husband, King Phillip II of Macedon, who is also described as an almost tyrranical leader, and the two seem to be waging almost silent but constant war over how to raise Alexander. Even with this tension in the background, the book outlies the many ways in which Alexander becomes known as the King of Asia, and one of the greatest Greek kings. He kills his first man in hand-on-hand combat at age 12, years before even his father had, and he is placed under the tutelage of Aristotle in his early teens, which is when he also forms a solid friendship with Hephaistion, the young son of an underlord, who participates in Alexander’s education with him.

This is as far as I’ve gotten in the book, and it’s heartbreaking – the passages where Hephaistion describes his budding (non-friendly) love for Alexander, with the knowledge that taking a bed-boy may be common practice, but love between men seldom was, are enough to bring you to tears. Perhaps the greatest accomplishment of the book, however, is that it immediately takes you to ancient Greece, envelops you in the world that existed there. It doesn’t necessarily matter that my Greek political/military history is pretty much non-existent, or that the names are pretty much totally confusing (a problem I also, funnily enough, had with Tolstoy), it speaks to the power of the book that I am able to open its pages and forget that I’m riding a smelly old bus to campus to take a test I haven’t studied for – I become a member of Philip’s court, watching this beautiful, strong, headstrong and talented boy grow up in to what will be (with the beauty of hindsight) an absolutely legendary military leader! I can’t say enough for the book – literally, I’m out of time at the work computer – but please, please, PLEASE read it. You won’t regret it! Happy reading, and I’ll see you all again soon – promise!

BookMaven

To improve my site and to provide a better experience for you. I have moved my site to: http://www.freedom-vision-wealth.com

Since its construction in 1908, the Grand Hotel du Cap Ferrat has welcomed aristocrats, politicians, celebrities, acclaimed artists and high net worth individuals from around the world. Today, the Grand Hotel du Cap Ferrat is one of the most stunning if not the most stunning hotels in France. What makes the Grand Hotel du Cap Ferrat so special is that it is just so perfect. Since mass renovations last year, this 5 star hotel has been given a new lease of life and entered into a new league of luxury. It is no coincidence that the venue has won many tourism awards such as the Conde Nast Traveller Gold List 2009 for the best location in Europe, and the National Geographic 2008 award for the best swimming pool in the world as well as the first prize for service in Europe awarded by Travel and Leisure magazine in 2006.

The Grand Hotel du Cap Ferrat is located on the tip of the highly exclusive Saint Jean-Cap-Ferrat peninsular between Nice and Monaco in an extremely private, secluded area. The hotel’s main building, a pristine white ‘Belle Epoque’ style mansion house is set in luscious Provenal gardens and enjoys a magnificent uninterrupted sea view. One of the main renovation projects was the construction of several luxury suites with private swimming pools in an annex building a few metres away from the main building.

The hotel’s Michelin star restaurant Le Cap is run by head chef Didier Aniès and offers ’haute gastronomie’ using the very best local ingredients. The restaurant opens out onto a huge terrace spread over two levels, an ideal place for a cocktail reception. The hotel’s lobby area with its lounge and huge bay windows is often used for seated dinners at weddings as the stunning white décor lends itself perfectly to such an occassion. An equally spectacular space suitable for events is the Grand Hotel du Cap Ferrat’s ’Club Dauphin‘ located at the sea-shore a few minutes walk from the main hotel. The ‘Club Dauphin’ is a 300 m² restaurant located side by side with the hotel’s amazing infinity pool which melts into the Mediterranean sea. The ‘Club Dauphin’ is accessible via an air-conditioned mini railway or by foot down a small path and has a seated capacity of 120 and a standing capacity of 200 for weddings and events.

For your wedding ceremony, the  Grand Hotel du Cap Ferrat has a stunning walk way going from the main building through the gardens towards the ‘Club Dauphin’ which is ideal for a bridal procession. A ceremony could take place in the hotel’s gardens or equally on the terrace overlooking the sea.

The Grand Hotel du Cap Ferrat has a total of 49 bedrooms and 24 suites of which 8 have private swimming pools with accommodation for over 150 people. The hotel has a magnificent spa with 5 open air treatment zones.

I would recommend the Grand Hotel du Cap Ferrat for large budget weddings only as the venue is known for being the most expensive in France. Just to give you an idea, in high-season rooms go from 560 Euros for the lowest category up to 4200 Euros for a deluxe suite per night. I imagine that the hotel does however negotiate special rates if you wish to hire the entire hotel for exclusive use.

If you would like to know more about holding your wedding at the Grand Hotel du Cap Ferrat, you can contact Thomas Mee, Marketing and Sales director at th hotel on my behalf by email tmee@ghcf.fr or by direct line  + 33 (0)4 93 76 50 42. Thomas speaks excellent English and some Russian.

We have been telling you about Oasis of the Seas for months and, as it is only 7 days from its home port of Fort Lauderdale, we thought we would bring our loyal readers an extra special offer.

Take a look at this Oasis of the Seas deal for Autumn 2010.

What do you regard as a Five star hotel?

Spa? Steam room? Luxury rooms? Fantastic restaurants and food? Fantastic pools? Golf? Tennis? Plenty of bars to relax?

And what about 5 star luxury for less than £50 per night? Not what you would expect we bet.

But for just £599 you can get flights and 14 nights in the Hilton Orlando.

For this and other great 5 star florida package deals, visit ocean-florida.co.uk

If you want to attend, contact me at pamelajoan@theexecutiveglobaltravel.com!

We’re looking for 10 more teams of 4, it WAS 15! To be held at the beautiful Westin Kierland Resort & Spa in Scottsdale, Arizona. It is a 1 day event, however, there’s a whole weekend before the event in which to enjoy discounted rounds of golf in Scottsdale and your luxurious rooms at The Westin, or The Xona, both corporate sponsors.

Eat, drink, golf and mingle with MLB Players, Hall of Famers, All-Stars, and Cy Young Winners!! Hang with your celebrity playing partner, enjoy a tremendous ONE-OF-A-KIND outing, all while supporting a great cause, the Miracle League of Arizona. “EVERY CHILD DESERVES A CHANCE TO PLAY BASEBALL!!”