Thursday This n That - Late Again

After waking up late yesterday, I started this post, then got distracted and called Mom, then went grocery shopping.  Woke up this morning to see I'd never completed nor posted this post.  Derp

I read something last night about carrots - they thrive best between 60 and 70 degrees F.  Oops.  The inside of my greenhouse these days has to be topping 100.  :shrug:  So, they either steam or they get eaten by critters.  I'm letting them steam.  We'll see what happens at harvest time.

Today's bird is a Barred Eagle-Owl.  Weird looking dude.  Possibly stoned.  Could be an extra in Disney's The Sword and the Stone.  

If you're into super-intense crime shows, check out Line of Duty - a UK show about a special group of police officers who investigate police corruption.  It's so intense I sometimes have to take a break in the middle because the villains are PISSING ME OFF.  But it usually works out in the end.

I'm calling the little fox Reynard. (Rey for short.)  It's after a mythological fox figure I reached while writing the Once Upon a Djinn series.  Yes, I am a nerd.

This morning, I read a neat story about a dude who'd just gotten out of prison and was on his way to a job interview when he saw a car accident.  He got off the bus and saved the man who was trapped inside, thus missing his job interview.  Online donations afterward gained him over $50K and three job offers.  As Hubs said, this is what sites like GoFundMe were created for.

I have encouraged Hubs to jump on some type of social media so others can benefit from his sparkling wit, canny insights, and wry humor, but he'd rather douse himself with gasoline and play with sparklers than use social media.  I can't say as I blame him.

While I was out and about yesterday, I stopped at the local store to pick up smokes for Hubs and I.  There was a brand-spanking new cashier there - like first hour of first day new.  I'll call him Jay.  Anyway, I told Jay I needed two cartons of smokes and the types, and he went over to the rack.  After much assistance on my part, he finally located what I needed.  Then he rang everything up and told me the total.  It was about half what it was supposed to be, so I let him know he hadn't rung up both cartons.  After we went through the whole 'first time processing a check' thing, Jay thanked me for being honest.  It's a sad world when pointing out that a cashier hasn't rung up all the items is worth a thanks because honesty is shocking or something.  I'm glad I caught it.  The guy seemed nice and I didn't want him to get fired.  Also, it doesn't help local businesses when they don't get paid for their products.  While my smokes are the cheapest smokes a gal can buy, they aren't cheap in the scheme of things.  Miss ringing up a candy bar?  Eh.  You're out a couple bucks.  Miss a carton of smokes and you're out anywhere from $30 to $80.  After I left, I mused about it being nice if they'd given me an 'honest customer' discount, then I laughed.

Okay, time to get this post posted and let you get on with your day.  Have a great one!

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 14?

 Well, crap... it's Sunday again, isn't it?  Since I can't figure out what day it is most of the time, you shouldn't be surprised that I'm not sure what week it is.  Anyway...

Nope on the writing / editing.  I'm having stern talks with myself.  I may banish myself with my Kindle and my notepad to the spare room until I finish editing the damn book I should've finished editing months ago.  I think the main problem here is I'm stuck in the 'I suck and I hate this book' mindset, so it's hard to make progress on something you're pretty sure stinks.  And if you suck, how can you fix something that stinks?  :shrug:

Yep on the marketing.  Not a banner week, but still, something is better than nothing.  No clue what's going to be on the block for this week.

No reading.  Seriously, I don't think I even picked up my book last week.  Derp.

No baking happened, but I did make ham & bean soup yesterday.  It turned out really yummy and it used up the last of my Easter ham, so yay.

I was pretty active this past week - mostly with the deck garden.  I did take two hard-target walks for 1.75 miles.  I also did some cleaning and furniture moving.  I'm also trying to eat better - more salads, less crap.  Unfortunately, I stepped on the scale yesterday and had gained two pounds.  Derp.  Weight: 179.4

As for gardening, I have all my produce seeds/plants in the ground now - potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, and green peppers.  We'll see how those go.  I realized yesterday that I fucked up with Pedro.  I was supposed to cover him with dirt while he was still small - to encourage root growth.  But I was so pleased with Pedro's growth, I totally forgot to mound him in dirt.  He is pretty spectacular.  I'll mound the other potatoes.  

I spent some time shopping this week - Tractor Supply and Wallyworld.  I do love Tractor Supply, and they had dirt 'buy one get one 50% off', so I had that going for me.  Yes, I am a redneck.  Wallyworld was Wallyworld.  

Oh, I saw Beauregard the Broad-Winged Hawk twice this past week.  One time, he flew beneath the smoking room windows, so I got a really close view of him.  He's pretty awesome.  On another bird note, the Barred Owls have been hanging out close to the house, so we've heard them hooting for a few nights/mornings in a row.  This morning, one of them must have been in the yard because the hooting was really loud.  Awesome.

And that's about it for me.  I need to figure out what I'm going to do today and try to avoid sitting in front of the TV for the majority of it.  A walk is in order, definitely.  The rest?  Time will tell.  Have a great day wherever you are.  

Thursday This n That

Working in the woods yesterday, moving one pile of crap to another pile of crap, and I went to move a rather large hickory limb.  I stood it up and tipped it over to get it out of the way, but I neglected to account for the way the limb was weirdly twisted, so when it hit the ground, the thick end bounced up and hit me in the thigh.  Talk about ouch.  It's going to be a glorious bruise once it blooms.

You ever have a dream so happy that you were sad when you woke up?  

I'm driving myself crazy trying to think of a title for DN3.  I mean, I had settled on The Deepest Cut, which would be right for the MO of the killer, but all wrong for the timeframe (plus, it's been done to death).  Maybe that's why every other title sounds lame by comparison.  I need to get over it.  I'm laying in bed running the Title HamsterWheel and not getting any sleep.  I thought I had a good title - Green-Eyed Murder - but the next morning, it was lame.  Then I came up with a couple last night which I got out of bed to write down, but they seem lame this morning.  The best one out of that lot is JUSTICE: PAST DUE - I think the colon helps.  :shrug:  (And a big hug to Silver, who sent me a list of suggestions.)  Oh, well.  I'm in the between place right now, so I have time to ponder it.  I'll start editing probably this weekend.  We'll see.

I had a neat idea for a SF short story.  Whether I write it... eh.  

I think I need to bake a cake.  I've been jones'n for baked goods lately.  I really don't need the calories or the carbs, but mmmm.... cake.

I also want pizza.  I made a passable substitute for lunch yesterday, using leftover spaghetti sauce, rolls, and mozzarella.  Still, it wasn't enough to get rid of my craving.  I'm going to have to bite the bullet and make real pizza soon.

The bird of the day is a Great Blue Heron.  Love those birds, but they do make the most unholy of noises.

The other day, I found a neat new-to-me show called Exhibit A with Graham Green.  It's a half-hour show where they go over a true crime, present the facts, and give you the solution.  I like that I don't really have to think too much about it.  Wham, bam, thank you forensics.  I am all about the crime sometimes.

I'm almost out of ice cream, which is a crime in itself.  Yay for Dollar General being like 3 miles from the house now.

Well, that's it from me.  What's on your list today?

Thursday This n That

I sometimes wonder what the people who gossip to me say about me when I'm not around.  I don't care.  I'm just curious.

Yesterday, I saw a coyote.  I was driving down the highway and it was standing in a field.  It actually looked quite majestic.  Coyotes are always the rangy, scaggy things they're portrayed to be, ya know.

It was an outstanding coyote.  It was out standing in a field.  ROFL

Yellow-bellied sapsuckers... Their bellies aren't really all that yellow and they don't actually suck sap, they lick it.  But vaguely-yellowish bellied saplicker doesn't quite roll off the tongue.

There's nothing quite like waking up in the morning, wandering toward the bathroom, and stepping in cat puke.  Thankfully, I stepped in the smallest bit.  After I turned the lights on, there were several piles.  Not sure which cat urped all over the kitchen, but thankfully, he didn't urp on the carpet.

I keep receiving emails from scammers, trying to get me to buy their services for books that aren't even mine.  This morning alone, they wanted me to hire them to promote something called After Midnight and something else called Hurricane Secrets.  ROFL... what boobs.

And now I seem to be out of things to this-n-that.  Feel free to drop your own.  And have a great day!

Thursday This n That

Obviously, I have no idea what day it is.

Gah, busy week.  I'm not used to it being busy anymore.  

I went to town this week to get my plates and driver's license renewed.  Of course, I left it to almost the last minute and made it even more fun.  The people waiting to use the license office were cluttered in the hall of the court building.  (It's a really small office in a corner of the court building.  Three places to help people and only one of them can do driver's licenses, so we happy few had to wait longer.)  It wasn't really that bad... except for the lady who wanted to tell her life story to all of her trapped listeners.  And for the really hard benches we had to wait on.  And the fact they were painting the inside of the building... with a sprayer that sounded like rayguns from an old SF movie.  I laughed to myself through most of it.  I got it done and then went for Chinese takeout.  Yay.

My new license photo makes me look really old.  I mean, I'm old, but that thing makes me look REALLY old.  I blame the fluorescent lights.  Those thing highlight every gray hair.  Blech.

Lumpy's baby is really tiny.  We saw it again yesterday.  So cute!  It looks healthy, though.  It's just tiny.  I think it's less than a week old.  I want to snuggle it up so bad.  Of course, Lumpy would kick my ass if I tried, so I won't.

Today, I get to go pick up Hubs' prescriptions.  Yay.  No seriously.  My best thrift store is across the street from the pharmacy.  I'll get the scripts and then get to some thrifting.  I hope they have some more old crime novels, like last time.  Then I'll hit the grocery store and snag some ice cream (because I forgot it when I went to Wallyworld and I'm almost out.)  Oh, and I have to hit the building supply place because they carry suet and those birds are gorging themselves lately on suet.  They went through a brick in just over a day.  Greedy buggers.  They must have a lot of babies out there somewhere.  

Anyway, life is good.  How are things for you?

Thursday This n That

May day!  May day!  (Heh, I like doing that every May 1st, but I'm weird.)

Reposted from yesterday's FB status update: So, I just got back from the thrift store.  I picked out two books to buy - a paperback and a hardcover.  When I get to the register, the chick there tries to tell me the paperback is $5. When I balked at that, she said 'well, it was printed in the '40s, so it's vintage.  I told her no and that was the original print date.  She tried to tell me it was the only print date in there, so I opened it to the copyright page, scanned it briefly, and then pointed to where it said 20th printing 1975.  She backed down and only charged me $1, but she was kinda snotty about it.  Kids these days.  She's probably never opened a damn book in her life.  

It's bad enough that this thrift store jacked the prices of their books up from 5 for $1 to 4 for $1 to $1 each for paperbacks, from 50c to $2 for hardcovers, and $5 for anything older than 1970 (vintage to them).  The other two nearby stores charges 25c ea for paperbacks.  Last time I get books at today's place, lemme tell ya.  I can handle the price, but dealing with snotty little twits just ruins the experience for me.  =o\

This morning, Hubs looked out the window and saw what he thought were several deer, then he realized one of them was actually the neighbor's dog, Copper.  (He's an old red-bone coonhound, so deer colored and about the same size.)  Well, ol' Copper was just sniffing around he own yard and the deer were standing there watching him - no more than 10-12 feet away.  They'd advance a step and then back up a step while Copper continued sniffing and not paying attention to them.  Finally, he wandered over to sniff another part of the yard and the deer walked away.  It was pretty funny, but I guess you had to be there.

I want cinnamon rolls, but I'm too lazy and I'm trying to cut back on the baked goods anyway.

Right now, there are all sorts of birds twittering away in the trees every morning.  I'm pretty good at identifying birds by their songs usually, but I'm hearing some stuff I've never heard before.  Fun.

We had a big ol' rat snake in the yard the other day.  Hubs and I went out to encourage it to leave, and it was going pretty well until the snake decided to turn and confront us.  I took the rake and got the tines up under it and flung it into the woods.  It was last seen headed down the hill and away from the yard.  No snakes were harmed in that encounter.  It better not come back, though.  Our courtesy only extends so far with snakes - harmless or not.  

Okay, that's about it for me.  Have a great day, wherever you are.  :hugs:

Thursday This n That

 Mmm, coffee.

I started writing again yesterday.  A new book.  I know I know I know.... I have scads of unfinished manuscripts weeping from the neglect they've suffered, but when an idea strikes, it's best to just run with it.  Okay, maybe not best, but it's certainly easier.  I'm all about easy.  Anyway, I got about 1300 words down, so I've got that going for me.  We'll see what today brings.  And who knows, maybe I can cobble something I've already written into this.  That'd be good.

My baby tree project is going well.  Out of the scads of seeds I harvested last fall and planted either then or recently, I have 4 dogwoods.  Nothing else came up.  Live and learn for next fall.  On the other hand, I rescued a bunch of volunteer seedlings from around the outside - 4 cedars, 3 redbuds, and 2 oaks.  They're in pots now.  We'll see how they do.  I also have a boatload of volunteer elms that will either have to be dug up and replanted or pulled and thrown out.  They're not in optimal places to have a tree.  

Did you hear the news about the toddler who wandered away from his home in AZ only to be found by a dog 7 miles away?  Yay for the dog.  My suspicious mind wonders, though, how a 2 year old made it seven miles on foot.  Was he snatched and let go?  Was he dumped like a unwanted dog?  Sure, he could've just been a tot on a mission, but like I said, I'm suspicious.

Today, my bird-a-day calendar has a tern feeding its baby a tasty fish.

Earlier I heard a single yip out there in the darkness.  I'm guessing fox.  Coyotes have a tendency to move in a group and when one goes, they all go.  Foxes are more solitary.  On the other hand, neither of them are generally one yip kind of critters.  Since all I have is that one yip to go on, all I can do is guess.

They came and fixed my phone again.  This time, the tech called afterward and it was one I've worked with before.  He said to call him directly next time, and bypass the whole mess that is BS customer support.  And there will be a next time because they can't be bothered to replace what is constantly failing with stuff that actually works.  (He didn't say most of that - only to call him.  I don't want to get him in trouble.)  Anyway, he also said that part of the problem is because someone has been cutting their fiber optic cables.  Most likely they're looking for copper to steal and sell.  Morons.

I'm back to walking more regularly again.  The other night, I saw two rabbits chasing each other around and around.  Bunnies!  So cute.  I mean, they were adults, but still... BUNNIES!  And adult rabbits generally produce even cuter bunnies.  Yay.

No wonder bunnies are associated with Easter.  Spring = Easter. Spring = Rabbits.  Therefore, Easter = Rabbits.  It's simple math.  ;o)

Okay, that's it for me.  I need more coffee and I should probably think about doing something constructive.  Have a great day!

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 14

 Yeah, yeah... I woke up late.  And yes, I've said before that I need to write these things ahead of time and get them scheduled, but we both know I'm not going to do that, so here we are.

Anyway, it was a week.  No writing, no editing.  I did think about writing, so that's a step in the right direction, but no actual words on paper yet. 

Last week's marketing effort was sorta blasé.  Thus, I only moved 28 copies of UNEQUAL.  Starting tomorrow, Dying Embers is on the freebie rotation.  I'll try to do better marketing that and see if I can't generate some interest.  Something's working because I am seeing a smattering of sales for books marketed previously.  Nothing spectacular, but better than nothing, and I appreciate every page read.  (Reviews would be nice, too, but beggars can't exactly be picky.)

Oh, yeah, I started working on a cover for the new book.  It's not horrible.  I don't hate it.  Then again, I don't love it either, so I have more work to do.  Personally, I think it turned out too bright and soft, like a chick lit cover instead of a gritty crime novel.  I really need to set everything up again and take another round of pics while it's still super-gloomy outside.  It might be the lightbulb.  I think it's a soft-white instead of a bright white.  :scuttles off to change bulbs:

Anyhoo... I did read a bunch last week.  I finished 3 books and made it halfway through another book.  I should finish that one today.  Right now, though, I've only finished 8 books this year, which leaves me 10 books behind schedule.  :shrug:  I'll either make that up or I won't.  

No baking this week.  It's not like my Ever-Widening Ass™ needs baked goods.

Speaking of the EWA™, my activity level sucked this week. I only got in a couple days where I did anything other than sit on said body part.  One day I did some woods work and the other day I went for a walk.  :throws confetti:  Weight: 174.8

One reason my activity sucked was the weather.  We've had some torrential rain crap move through in waves.  I think we've gotten about 6-7 inches of rain over the last 3 days.  And today we're supposed to get SNOW.  How is that even possible???  Stupid weather.  I moved all my baby trees inside for the duration.  Here's hoping Wrenegade leaves them alone.  

Yes, we still have that silly bird in the garage.  Although, maybe not so silly considering the rain and the cold.  He's a helluva lot better off than his free range counterparts right now.

Okay, I think that's it for me today.  I need more coffee and another cigarette.  Have a great day wherever you are.  :hugs:

Sunday Update - 2025 - Week 10

It's like 7:30 and I'm just now getting around to posting because it's NOT actually 7:30 to all the little grey cells and other parts of my being.  Damn time change.

Anyway, I've been motoring along on Edit Notes - Round 4.  (Which I just now realized I've also listed as round 3 and round 5, depending on the day and how tired I was when I backed up the files.  But I actually think it's round 4.  :shrug:)  As of last night, I passed the 50% mark in notes.  Yeah, I thought this would go quicker, but it's not.  I keep finding stuff I missed and finding places where I said something early that I didn't explain later.  Derp.  Anyway, I've made progress, which is always good.  It'll be published when it's published.  Oh, and I think I have the title... Duke Noble P.I.: Secrets & Lies - how does that grab ya?  It grabs me better than any of the dozen or so titles I've played with, so there's that.

I did my usual week of marketing.  Okay, so I didn't do as much marketing as I should've.  I still moved 306 copies of Wish in One Hand this week.  Time will tell if that equates into sales later.  The freebie I had for DE last month has gained me some sales this month, so I'll keep doing it.  To that end, I'll be starting another freebie tomorrow.  I think one of the Ugly books.  We'll see.  Update: CINDER UGLY will be free starting tomorrow and going through Friday night.

I actually started reading a book this past week.  It's my new-to-me old copy of a Sax Rohmer novel.  I meant to do a Reading Wrap-up yesterday, but I forgot.  Maybe this coming Saturday, I'll remember.

In baking news, I made another batch of cinnamon rolls.  I think I nailed the inner goo.  (Embrace your inner goo.)  I also did beef stew one day and chili another.  Yummers.

On the activity front, I spent about 4 hours over three days digging up the south garden.  Another hour should see that bit finished.  Also, we spent about 45 minutes walking around in the woods.  And I did a massive grocery trip.  Unfortunately, despite the actual activity, I gained 2 pounds somewhere along the way.  Weight: 175.2 - damn cinnamon rolls.  LOL

Gardening... Well, I've dug up the whole south garden bed to a depth of about 12-18 inches, thrown all the weeds out, and shifted all the irises.  Somehow, I ended up with a pile of dirt in the middle, so I'll be moving all the irises out of the east side, spreading the dirt around, and replacing the irises today.  (I've already done this with the west side.)  I'll be using the middle of the bed for my new gladiolas and my old lilies.  Once I get this done, I really need to start potting the tree seeds I started last fall.  I've also found two volunteer cedars that need to be potted or pulled.  They can't be allowed to continue growing where they are.  One of them is under the deck, for petesakes.  Oh, and I need to start cleaning out all the other beds. One thing at a time, eh?

In other news, Woodstock, the wren, is still in the garage.  Despite our best half-assed efforts, he will not be moved from his new home.  :shrug:  He's in there singing right now.  The cats are fine.  Hubs is fine.  I'm fine.  

How are things in your world?

Thursday This n That

A few minutes ago, Hubs and I were out in the smoking room, which overlooks the woods.  The sun is just coming up here and what do we see silhouetted against the dawn?  Vultures.  The trees are filled with vultures.  I counted 85 and that was just what we could see from those windows.  I expect if I had opened the door out onto the deck, the count would've been well over 100.  As I said on FB, "I'm not dead yet. Go away."  It's kinda creepy out there, but also cool.  

I made cinnamon rolls again yesterday.  It's getting kinda easy to make them now, after all the batches I've done in recent months.  And I think I have the filling down now.  So yay.  I'll try to remember to post the recipe sometime soon.

If you make a cinnamon roll filling that's spreadable, it oozes out when you cut them.  If you do the filling so it's sprinkle-able, your rolls are dry.  So, I devised one that is just short of spreadable and has to be crumbled by hand.  It's messy as hell and you end up with gooey hands, but it's worth it.

I just dribbled coffee on my keyboard and my desk.  Derp.  So wasteful.

WISH IN ONE HAND is free right now.  And it's moving nicely this time.  Without too much help from me, which is good in a way because I've been a toad this week.

There's a lot of craziness on the internet right now.  For the most part, I'm avoiding it.  I block at least a dozen people every day.  These aren't friends, per se, but strangers who've commented on a friend's post - spewing idiocy, etc.  Some of the stuff I'm seeing is really quite shocking, to use an antique turn of phrase.  :shudder:  TDS is high.  Antisemitism is off the charts.  I'm not sure what this world got itself into while I was working, but GAH.

I need coffee.  And I'm about out of things to say, so I'll leave you at that.  Go forth, drink coffee, and try to stay sane out there.

Thursday This n That

That's right, it's Thursday... Derp.

It's freakin' COLD here.  Last time I checked it was -5.  Negative five.  37 degrees below freezing.  Blerg.

The wren in our garage is fat and happy and warm.  I've named him Woodstock.  He's not yellow, but he is a funny little bird.  We're leaving suet nuggets on top of the Jeep for him.  And there's a shallow pan with water.  And, of course, the space heater is keeping it above 40F in there.  (So the pipes don't freeze, not for him, but he gets the benefit of it.)

The news coming out of Israel is pissing me off royally.  If you support Hamas or the P'stinians, please stop coming by here.  I stand with the Jews.  How any person can stand alongside the people who are celebrating the murders of babies escapes me.  It must be some kind of insanity.

Anyway...

I got my first page of edit notes for this round done and entered into the manuscript.  This is the phase where I do that... make a page of notes, enter the notes, lather-rinse-repeat throughout the day.  One page of notes = 3 pages of manuscript.  I hope to make more progress today.  Might as well, I can't go outside or anything.

Last night, we sat down to watch a new series.  I had great hopes for it, but the series opener was unimpressive.  It had a couple spots that made me LOL, but not enough to sustain my interest.  :shrug:  Hubs and I looked at each other and said 'well, we did that'.  For those interested, it was Good Cop / Bad Cop.  Your mileage may vary, but it's not for us.  Still loving High Potential, but the season ender was last week, so we'll have to wait to see how they resolve the mystery next season.  

I made awesome soup the other day.  I'm calling it Chicken-Cheddar-Bacon-Potato Chowder.  I had defrosted a chicken breast and it's cold, so I got the idea for soup, did some recipe scanning, and then just starting throwing things in the pot.  Like I said, it was awesome.  We'll be having leftovers of it tonight for dinner.  Yum.

Speaking of food, now I'm hungry.  Have a great day.  Stay warm.  Eat something yummy.

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 7

 Yeah yeah, I know you know what year it is, but I started putting the year there so there wouldn't be any confusion if someone was doing a search.  (Not that there are many people coming here or searching for stuff, but I'm like that sometimes.)

This week was a slug week.  

I'm up to pg 107 in the edit notes, which means I did notes for 69 pages.  And this put me about halfway through.  If I could muster the gumption, I'd be done with this by now.  I am gumption-free at the moment.

I did do some marketing this week.  Dying Embers was free and I moved 814 copies.  I thought it was all me, but then it occurred to me that I had received what I thought was a spammy scammer email talking about they had promoted my book and all they were asking was that I share the link to their page... or something.  Like I said, I thought it was a scammer, so I marked it as spam and deleted it.  Oops.  If you're from there, email me again.  I'll put you out of spam.

I also got an email this week from someone who said they were a talent agent and they were interested in talking to me about taking UNEQUAL to the movies.  The agency they supposedly work for has a website, but no internet chatter.  The person isn't listed on their website as an employee.  And there's no chatter about them either.  Plus, their email address isn't from their website.  No movie deals for me, I guess.  (Not that I would want anyone in Hollywood coming anywhere near any of my books.  I don't trust them to do it right.  Especially not a book as philosophically driven as UNEQUAL.  They'd fuck that story up in a major way.)

Speaking of... well, books and freebies and philosophically driven stuff... BLINK OF AN I will be free starting tomorrow.  Woot.

No reading.

Loads of baking.  I made carrot cake for the first time.  :muppetflail:  I also made another batch of cinnamon rolls.  These turned out awesome.  I think I've got them down now.  Yay.  And I did bread pizza again.  Also, not baking but I made beef stroganoff in the crock pot yesterday and it was awesome.

No activity.  Like I said... slug.  I did weigh myself, though.  Weight: 172 - down a pound from the last weight.  Yay?

Wrong Way Wren is still in the garage.  I saw him yesterday and we can hear him singing in the mornings.  I thought I got him out after then, but Hubs heard him this morning and he ate his last suet pellet, so I guess he'll be a guest for another few days.  Once this polar snap is over, I'll try to encourage him out again.  

Sawyer's been a turd these past few mornings.  I figured out why today.  He likes to sleep in my desk chair, but I'm using it in the mornings.  This morning, he was meowing all over the place and making a general nuisance of himself.  Then I got up to do something.  He jumped into my chair, curled up and went to sleep.  I am now sitting in my old desk chair to preserve the quiet.

This week, I got a new project from the pay-job, so I've been hitting that pretty hard.  I have to pull data from 12 months and compile sales figures for that span according to the parameters the boss has given me.  It's a slog, but I like playing with data, so it's all good.  I've gone as far as I can without some needed data from the office, which isn't open on Sundays, so I can try to focus on editing today.  

Other than that, we're supposed to be getting a winter storm again this week.  We got a little bit of snow last night, and the temps are dropping.  Fingers crossed that whatever this is hits and moves out quickly and without too much fuss.  I don't like fuss.  Thank goodness I don't work outside the house anymore, but it does make errands a little iffy.  

Okay, I think that's it for me.  What's been up with you?

Randomosity

Forgetting to blog + super-slow internet which makes blogging a pain in the ass = a dearth of posts.  

Sawyer is finally on his way to becoming a lap cat.  Sometimes this is a good thing.  Sometimes it's not so much.  He's a moose, for one thing.  For another, when he decides he's done being a lap cat, he doesn't just get down.  He rolls over and wants to play rough (i.e. he bites).  Be careful what you wish for.

This morning, I saw a video of a chick saying how happy she was to be 42 and able to go to a bar on Thanksgiving without having to worry about getting a babysitter. She finished with some nonsense about the right hating that.  Trust me, honey.  The right loves the fact that you aren't breeding.  The same thing goes for all the women who have declared their celibacy in the face of T winning.  More power to ya, gals.  Oh, and the same goes for all the people who are declaring their intent to leave the country.  Buh-bye.  :waves:

It's freakin' cold.  Sure, it's December, but I'm still not ready for freakin' cold.  

Once again, I missed fall fishing.  It was too hot to fish, then it rained a bunch, now it's too cold.  

I need to start working on Christmas cards.  And put up the tree.  And find gifts for the moms.  I'm so not ready for Christmas. I say we put it off until February.

If you're looking for something yummy and easy to make for the holidays, go to Silver's blog for today.

There's some kind of big bird in our woods that I can't identify.  I've only seen glimpses of it as it flies away.  What I have seen is gray.  And big.  Did I mention big?  About redtail size or larger.  It could be an owl, but those are darker.  It might be a goshawk, but those aren't supposed to be this far south.  I'll keep watching and try to get a better look at it.  Right now, though, it's just a ghost.

And that's it for me today.  Time to call Mom.  Have a great day wherever you are.  :hugs:

Sunday Update 10/27/24

 :blink blink: I just woke up, so bear with me.

Still not writing.  In editing news, I finished the first round of edit notes on Friday - 21 pages worth of single spaced notes on college ruled paper.  Not the most notes I've ever made on a book, but still, that's lots.  Yesterday, I sat down and started inputting those notes. Then I had to refer back to Rumor Has It about something and I discovered, to my dismay, that I wrote the entirety of TTW in the wrong person.  Should've written in first person.  Wrote it in third.  Derp.  Much swearing occurred and then much laughing because really, how silly can one gal get?  Sooo... I need to fix that, too.  I did manage to get one page of edit notes entered and five pages edited for notes and POV.  

I almost forgot... SLEEPING UGLY is free starting tomorrow.  Kind of a Halloween thing.  

I read a book this week.  Unfortunately, it doesn't count toward my goal because it was a book I volunteered to proofread for the author.  It's now out for sale, and I bought a copy, so I'll read it again and then count it.  The book?  Oh, it's Silver James' Moonstruck Mafia: Boston.  It's wicked awesome.  Pick up your copy today.

This week in cooking, I made a vat of chicken soup, a crockpot worth of pulled pork, and applesauce bars.  Oh, and I used leftover pulled pork to make Cuban sandwiches, which is no small effort.  (I mean, if I had a panini press, it wouldn't be hard, but I don't, so it is.)

On the activity front, well... you see... Falling on my ass in the woods and twisting my knee kinda put the kybosh on that.  I did get into the woods once and I went for one walk, which wasn't far and I had to turn back for home because my knee was being a whiny little bitch.  Sitting on my butt and eating copious amounts is not helping my overall physical well-being.  Weight: 175.2

The reason I went into the woods is to start putting my 'grow your own trees' scheme into motion. I've been researching what needs to be done to grow these trees from seeds, so I'm working on that.  I gathered seeds from the redbud in our front yard, a couple of spicebushes along the side, the buckthorn up front, and then went down into the woods to gather dogwoods seeds.  Yesterday, I separated all the redbud seeds from their pods, put them in a coffee mug, and doused them with boiling water.  They need to sit in that for 24 hours and then I can hit the next step, which if memory serves is to put them in dirt.  The other seeds all require different magic, so I could be remembering wrong.  Dogwood seeds need to be cleaned and scarified (i.e. the process of artfully damaging the seed hull to allow for germination), then they need to live in the fridge for 3-4 months.  Same with the buckthorn seeds.  The spicebush seeds just need to be cleaned, I think, and then chilled.  As I do this, I'll make sure to apply the right method for each seed.  Should be fun.

I'm also thinking about doing wood carving in my spare time.  Right now, I'm researching the tools and trying to see which ones to buy.  We'll see if I keep at it or get bored before I even start.

Oh, we went fishing this week.  It was only for a couple hours and I only caught one fish, but it was good to get out again.  And now I have nightcrawlers, so I can go whenever and not have to worry about waiting for my bait shop to open up.  

While we were driving to the fishing hole, we saw two bald eagles flying low and dancing in the air around each other.  It was AWESOME.  We also saw yellow-bellied sapsuckers this week, so yay!  I love fall migration.

Okay, that was a lot of read, so thank you for getting all the way down here.  Have a great week!  And feel free to drop a comment to let me know how your week went.

Sunday Update 9/29/24

My life is pretty boring right now.  I'm not writing.  I'm not reading.  I'm barely editing.  

With regard to editing, I'm up to 29% of the book with edit notes.  I'm getting about a page of notes with every 2-3% of the book.  This is what comes of a dirty draft, but there's no other way I'd rather write, so there ya go.

In marketing news, I did the whole FB Group thing for my freebie offering of Blink of an I.  I moved 78 free copies.  I'm also getting some page reads for Blink, which means money in my pocket.  Not a lot, but it's better than a sharp stick in the ass, so yay.  I also have someone reading Wish in One Hand, which I assume is leftover from my marketing push for that last month.

I made a chocolate oil cake yesterday.  After I took it out of the oven, I slathered it with warm raspberry jam.  Once it cooled, I frosted it with vanilla buttercream.  It wasn't amazing, but it was pretty damn good.  Next time, I'll use more jam.  

My activity level is not where it needs to be.  I know how to fix that, but I am stuck in the lazies.  Anyway, I did a little raking in the driveway after a sploosher washed a bunch of pea gravel into the yard.  I also spent time working with Hubs to saw up the logs the electric company left.  We spent about 3 hours total on that over 2 days.  And we took one walk.  I'm up to about 49 miles walked for the year.  Weight: 172.6

Speaking of the logs, two guys with the electric company came by on a UTV and asked us if we needed help.  We assented.  It took one of them less than 5 minutes to completely saw that elm trunk into firewood.  He had a chainsaw, of course.  We'll still need to split it once it seasons, but those guys really took a lot of the work out of the task.  Yay.  We thanked them profusely and then threw all the logs into the wheelbarrow and transported them under the house for drying.

With the fall migration underway, we're seeing a lot of birds we don't usually see.  I can't remember the names of the exact species, but it was a couple of warblers new to me.  We're also hearing more geese.  I love migration time.  

The deer here are starting to separate for the rut.  They were also absent from the yard because of the tree cutting activity, but this is typical fall activity.  The fawns are now spotless.  =o(

Okay, I think that's it for me.  Feel free to leave a comment and tell me about what's going on in your world.  

Thursday This n That

Hey, it's still Thursday.  

I actually thought tomorrow was Thursday and I was stopping to set up my post for tomorrow all proud of myself... until I realized that it was already Thursday.  Derp.

Tonight, I was really good and made fish for dinner with a side salad.  About 30 minutes after I ate, I made myself a chicken salad sandwich (on a hot dog bun because that's how I roll, baby) because no way was I going to make it through the night on tilapia and salad.  I am satiated now.  Yay.  On the upside, I don't feel like eating a bowl of ice cream tonight.

I think the eagles have gone, but the exchange is songbirds are arriving and the air is filled with happy.

Another think... I think wrens are building a nest in a work van that hardly anyone ever uses anymore.  I hope it gets driven before the birds lay any eggs.

My neighbor used to leave his mailbox open so he'd know when the mail got delivered.  Wrens decided it would be a perfect place to build a nest and we watched them fly back and forth all day delivering weeds and sticks.  The next day, the neighbor had to clean all that stuff out, which was pretty funny.  Even funnier was that the wrens starting rebuilding almost as soon as his back was turned.  Day after day, they would work on the nest and later, he would take all the material out.  The wrens finally got the hint and left.  The neighbor never did learn to close his mailbox.  One day, a woman moved in with him and she started closing the mailbox. 

I love Amazon.  You can get all sorts of disparate items in one place.  Tonight, I ordered a new bra and a 22-pack of Carnation Instant Breakfast.  I wonder what the person putting that package together is going to think.  ROFL

Carnation Instant Breakfast - chocolate flavored - is perfect in a cup of coffee.  Screw milk.  Dump the packet into the bottom of a large coffee mug and fill it with java.  If you've been here long enough, you may remember it was my beverage of choice years back.  I called it 'Breakfast of Champions'.  I'm going back to drinking it because I don't think I'm getting enough nutrition and by the time lunch rolls around I'm so hungry I could eat my shoes.

By the way, the low-salt diet thing?  Screw that.  I thought I was putting a lot of salt on my food until I actually measured a 1/4 teaspoon of the stuff and dumped it into the palm of my hand.  And thus, I learned that's about how much I put into a pot of water for noodles.  The minuscule amount I shake onto a burger is piddlin'.  And I don't even use straight salt for that.  I use Lowery's which has less sodium than salt anyway.  Piffle.  

I'm hovering around 160 now.  Sometimes a little over, sometimes a little under.  And I'm okay with that.  It's 22 pounds gone since last June.  Hell, it's enough of a weight loss that I needed another new bra, so win-win.

Okay, I think that's enough out of me for one sitting.  What's on your radar today?

Sunday Update - Week 8

Eight weeks into the new year.  How 'bout that?  I wouldn't have thought we were past week 5.  The days are just flying by.  Derp.

Things are pretty much the same here.  No writing.  Nothing writerly.  Work.  Home.  Meh.

I didn't finish any books this past week.  I'm still working on that NF about the submarines.  It's pretty interesting, but not a fast read.

I got some activity this week.  I swept the office.  I went for a walk.  I did some minimal lifting.  Weight: 158.8.  

In cooking news, for shits and giggles, I'm trying this new low-sodium thing.  Lord knows, I probably eat way too much sodium as a general rule.  But I do like my snacks.  (Did I tell ya about the nacho cheese pretzels I found? OMG, so yummy.)  So I'm cutting back where I can control the sodium.  Yesterday I made a low-sodium spaghetti sauce.  It's only about 165 mg per serving.  (Yes, that is low.  One freakin' chocolate cupcake from Wallyworld has 310 mg, for pitysakes.)   Anyway, the sauce was okay.  It needed salt.  I added some parm, which helped.  I also made a salt-free vinaigrette which I thought was yummy.   I'm not sure how long the low-salt thing will last, but it's keeping me out of trouble for now.  ;o)

(Before you ask, I didn't mean health trouble.  I meant this is keeping me occupied.)

I was out at the feed store yesterday and they were super busy, so while I waited for my order to be filled, I sat on the loading dock and played with their kitties.  I love the gray one.  She's awesome.  I picked her up and put her on my lap.  She has the softest purr I've heard (or hardly heard) from a cat.  The calico kitty, who's usually standoffish, decided she wanted in on the action and started head-butting me.  So I had both hands going for a while there, petting them both.  Finally, calico had enough and flopped down behind me, pressed up against my back.  Awwww.  KITTIES!

The eagles are still here.  For how much longer, I don't know.  We're still getting a boatload of deer.  Thankfully, things are starting to green up around here, so maybe the deer will start finding alternate food sources.  My daffodils are loaded with leaves.  My hyacinths have buds and are starting to shoot them up.  Looks like all the purple ones survived and none of the pink ones.  Oh, well.  The lilac has leaf buds.  Spring is coming.  Yay.

Other than that, life is pretty bland around here.  How are things in your neck of the woods?

Monday Update - Week Whatever

 Sorry I missed both Saturday and Sunday posts, but I had other things on my mind, so here it is on Monday with no books read and no update.  Missing Saturday was no big deal from my end because I didn't finish any books last week, but I do like reading about the books you read.  And I'm sure you like talking about them.  So... :hugs:  I'm sorry.

As for the Sunday update, not much went on last week that I'm at liberty to talk about in the online public forum.  The stuff I'm not at liberty to talk about took up a lot of my time and brain space.  Be assured that it is now over and all is well.  And we'll leave it at that.  

Like I said, I didn't finish any books last week.  I'm still reading that book about submarines and the Cold War, but I'm not making tons of progress.  Maybe this week.

In baking/cooking news, I made a batch of granola bars.  I also roasted a chicken in the crockpot.  And I created a salt-free salad dressing - kind of a red-wine vinaigrette - that I think is pretty yummy, but that Hubs is unimpressed with.  :shrug:

Not much on the activity scale again.  Weight: 160.4.

Work is work.  

The deer are coming in droves.  (How many are there in a drove exactly?  :shrug: With deer, it's about 25.)  All of them are looking healthy, so that's good.  It's too early yet to see any hint of pregnancies, but I know all the does are probably pregnant and that accounts for a majority of the drove.  We might have like 2-3 buck fawns from last year hanging around.  

I'm starting to hear our springtime bird visitors, so that's a good sign winter is almost over.  Yay.  I've had about enough of that crap.  

Other than that, life here is pretty boring.  How are things in your life?

Thursday This n That

 I snapped off the earpiece on my glasses while I was at work the other morning. Now, I can read without my glasses, but it's a pain in the ass, and it gives me a headache.  I could've run home for a different pair, but I didn't want to use my lunch half-hour for that.  Luckily, I knew one of my co-workers had super glue.  I glued the damn earpiece back together and sat waiting for it to dry.  If you know me, you know I'm short on patience, so after a minute of waiting and the glue still wasn't dry, I took a strip of Kleenex and wrapped it around the sticky part, then taped that.  Black glasses, white band.  Yep, I went full nerd.  And yeah, I got laughed at, but I joined in with it.  (No, I do not see customers very often, so no worries there.)  I now have a different pair of glasses for work but the nerd glasses are sitting here on my desk.  LOL

The other day, I was out behind the office smoking when I heard a distinctive, reedy whistle in the sky that I knew meant cedar waxwings.  I love cedar waxwings.  I glanced around trying to spot them when the flock flew into view.  As it was flying along, some of its members noticed the big cedar tree they were about to pass.  The whole flock hooked a luey and settled into their favorite type of tree.  Not sure if there were any berries left in there for them to eat, but they seemed happy.

When I'm tired or I'm stressed, I have brainfarts. If I'm both, look out world.  Afternoons are the worst.  

I almost typed branfarts up there, with is a radically different thing.  ROFL

Getting old sucks.

I saw a thing on FB this morning that said something like 'singing while dressed up as the devil isn't going to impress your grandpa who was dropping acid while watching Ozzy bite the heads off of live bats 50 years ago'.   I laughed.  And then I realized that, yeah, my generation is now old enough to have grandkids.  I need to scan a photo of me wearing my Guns n Roses t-shirt.  Or one of me drunk off my ass.  I might have one that is both.  Makes me wish I'd gotten the t-shirt at the Monsters of Rock concert in 1988.  It'd be trashed by now, but there would be pics.

And on that note, I probably should head in the direction of getting ready for work.  It's supposed to be gross today, so I'm not dressing up.  Business casual all the way, baby.

Have a great day wherever you are.  Stay safe and stay warm.  :hugs:

Thursday This n That

I'm going in late today, but I'm running late anyway. And I forgot it was Thursday.  Derp.

Well, the moms both got and opened their Christmas gifts.  They're both happy with them.  Yay.  I found these neat mugs on Etsy with states on them. Each mug has two states - the one we're in and the one they're in - connected with flowers and filigree stuff.  Very pretty.  So they're there and we're here, but we're still connected.  :sniffle: 

And the cards I sent out should be arriving at their locations.  I know one of my nephews in Michigan got his.  Yay.

Yesterday, on my way home, I saw one of my neighbor's dogs running down the road.  I stopped and yelled her name and told her to get home.  She turned and headed right for their front porch.  Good girl!

I was out smoking the other day and heard eagles.  When I looked up, there were three of them circling.  Awesome.

And that's all I've got for today.  Mostly because I need to get ready for work, but partly because I don't lead that interesting of a life anymore. LOL

What's on your list today?