The Groove, The Path and a Hint of Disappointment

Okay, so yesterday I was really in the groove.  Sure, I woke up at 3am and ended up taking 3 short naps throughout the day, but I also wrote 2K words, did some writerly work on the query process, and read a bit more in Le Morte d'Arthur - taking notes for my super sekrit project.  It felt good.

Hubs and I have been talking about stuff - trying to figure out how to get ahead in our chosen endeavors.  We hashed some things out, which is what led to my renewed commitment to resolution #2 - take my work more seriously.  As well as leading to yesterday's groovy-ness.  It's time to walk the path and not just talk about it.  So that's what I'm going to do - hit both the writing and the business aspect of publication with renewed vigor.

Which led me to a hint of disappointment last night.  I had the opportunity to beta read a new book for an author I love (who's also a really awesome person), but I had to be honest with her about these commitments I've made to myself.  I mean, part of me wants to drop everything and just read her book.  Cuz like damn and whoa how awesome would that be??  But tanking on my goals the day after I make them and actually did what I said I was going to do would unravel everything.  On the upside, she said to get back to her when my schedule frees up - and I agreed because she really does deserve my full attention.  And as I was apologizing and admitting my regret, it occurred to me that if I had gotten off my ever-widening ass and worked last month, I would've had this rewrite knocked out by now and I would have the time I need to beta read.

Let that be a lesson to me - do your work when you have the time so you can grasp opportunity when it shows its handsome face. 

Yeah, pretty much what my mom told me years ago about my procrastinatory behavior.  Mom always was right.  Why I couldn't see it back then is beyond me.  ;o)

It's Too Early for Such Ridiculousness

Okay, so here's a bit of ridiculous that I stumbled across at about a quarter to five this morning.  It all started when I read a blog post about what sounds like a really awesome book I wanted to buy, but, you see, the author went out of the way to say it wasn't available on Amazon.  So I exercised my Google-fu to see where I could buy it.  (Cuz, hey, it was the middle of the night and I like to buy stuff when I'm too sleepy to care about depleting my book budget.  Regrets are for later in the day.)

The first three hits for her name and/or title are Amazon links and after following one, I learned the paperback is in stock (3 left - order now) and the Kindle version is available for instant download.  No other stores had buy links for her book in the first page of hits.  At the bottom of the page, there's a pirate site where you can steal her book and a link to a place in Australia. 

B&N was on the next page - but I don't have a Nook*.  A link to her publisher's site was on the bottom of page 3 - and it was to one of her other books.  I finally found a link to the right book at her publisher's Australia site (this is a US author) on the 6th page of hits.  I quit looking for a link to the US site at pg 10.

It's like waking up one day and saying 'I know!  I'll make it as difficult as possible for a whole section of the populace to buy my book!"  Nose meet scalpel.  Take THAT face!** 

The thing about sales is that you need to 1) make your product as attractive as possible so people will want to buy it (which she did... kudos to her) and then 2) you need to make it as easy as possible for people to purchase your product (which she purposely did not do).  As a #3, let me add that you need to not alienate your customers by basically telling them if they want your product in the form that's most convenient to them, they can go pound sand.

Because isn't selling books and pleasing readers so we can sell more books what we're in this for***?  Cuz hey, I think we'd all eventually like to make enough money to feed the cats.  Or who knows, buy a car that doesn't need service every couple months.  Or eke a bit to save toward our kids' college funds.

I know I would.  These cats are eating me out of house and home.



*and I'm not going to buy one.  I'm not freakin' made of money.  Hell, my Kindle was a gift.  It was hard enough making the decision on whether to spend $3 on an author I've never tried when my book budget is so slim.  Also, I know I probably could've found a way to buy the damn book in another format, found another way to email the book to myself at my Kindle account and then uploaded it to my ereader, but like I said in #2 - make it easier not harder for your customers to buy your book.  

**yes, yes, as a writer, this post is akin to introducing my nose to the scalpel myself, but it's better than the hackjob I've done on my principles by staying silent about too many things over too many years.

***unless you're Stephen King.  He's in this for the joy of writing.  :snort:

Sunday Update - Week 30

Yay!  I remembered on a Sunday morning!  (Now I just need to get back to remembering on Saturday night so this is here when I get up on Sunday.)

I only rewrote 7927 words last week - not counting Sunday night because I counted that when I did the late update last Monday.  The shortfall is because I took a couple days off.  I don't remember why for one day and yesterday I was just lazy.  I am in the middle of chapter 9, though, so I guess I'm making progress.  Whether I have this done and ready to send out to other human beings by my self-imposed deadline of mid-September... most likely I'll be racing around next month like a crazy woman trying to get this sucker polished, which will allow me to hit my deadline.  Stay tuned.

Checking through my FB for the past week - because I really can't remember - it seems like I did a whole lot of screwing off.  I took some fun quizzes that let me know if I were a female Harry Potter character, I'd be Molly Weasley.  And if I was a 'Sci-fi Bad Boy', I'd be Han Solo.  And if I were a goddess, I'd be Isis.  Fun, but not very productive. 

I read some stuff.  Eyes of the Hammer by Bob Mayer was five stars worth of action and good guys defeating bad guys.  Heinous by Debra Webb was five stars worth of suspense and defeating evil.  I'm working on a light romance called License to Date right now.  And I'm still reading Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable - but like reading any dictionary, it's taking some time.  Hell, I'm still in the As with this thing. 

I woke up on Thursday to a mouse on one of my spider-catching glue traps.  Sorry little bugger, but you shouldn't be in the damn house.  Hubs dispatched him quickly so he didn't suffer much.  I seriously try to be humane with these suckers.  I don't poison them, and in the past, I tried not leaving glue traps to catch them.  But I have stopped up every freaking hole in this house and they're still getting in, pooping all over my kitchen drawers and gnawing on my utensils and peeing on things I had hoped to eat off of.  Now they're getting out into the rest of the house?  This means war.

And I sprayed weeds.  Yes, the vinegar and dish soap solution does work.  Some people add Epsom salts to the mix, but after some internet research, I discovered the only reason the salts are in there is to replace magnesium in the ground and since I'm just spraying places where I don't want stuff to grow, I left that part out.  So, one gallon of vinegar mixed with about a quarter cup of Dawn dish washing liquid kills plants dead.  You might have to reapply after about a week for tougher weeds and grasses (the grassy weeds just don't seem to want to die), but it'll work.  Just make sure you don't spray it around where you want other stuff to grow cuz this shit kills EVERYTHING.

Well, that's my week.  How was yours?

This n That - The Insomniac Cut

Recently, I've gotten into the bad habit of waking up at 3-something and being unable to drift back off to sleep.  So here I am, at 4:30-ish - after having already run through my FB feed and my blog roll - bringing you the Insomniac Cut of my life's soundtrack.  (Sans backbeat.)

So yesterday it was ungodly hot and sticky in SW MO.  I stayed in the house until late afternoon - after the 'storm' blew through and dropped the temperature about 10 degrees.  I put quotes around the word because while everyone else it went past got rain, all we got was wind and the rumble of thunder in the distance.  Talk about anti-climactic.  Anyway, here's how that conversation went:

Me:  We didn't get any rain.
Hubs:  It all went south again.
Me: Dirty rain-stealing bastards in Arkansas*.

Being in the sweet spot for not getting storms unfortunately also means we're not getting rain - which isn't so sweet.  I guess I'll be back outside with the hose again today watering my gardens so my hard work doesn't shrivel and die.

Of course, once the storm that wasn't a storm dropped the temperature, I took Max for a walk around the yard.  Pretty uneventful until we got around to the blocks by the iris bed and even then it was only eventful for me.  There's one block on the corner of the bottom tier that didn't get filled in with rocks.  Out of the corner of my eye, I caught site of something big and green in that hole.  And I wondered why in the hell a katydid was hiding in there.  When I stooped to get a better look, I saw something black and shiny skitter behind the katydid.  Then I noticed the gossamer webbing in front of the hole and holding the katydid in place.  :shudder:  Damn big black widow.  She'll be dying as soon as I get Hubs out there with the permethrin.

Speaking of permethrin, I'm still catching brown recluses in the sticky traps, so while the stuff is pretty awesome, unless you have a way to get every nook and cranny in the house, you're going to continue to find spiders.  We had one guy tell us those buggers smell the insecticide and run.  Personally, I think they're just so good at hiding (hence the 'recluse' in its name) that it'll take several treatments to get them all.  Meanwhile, I have the sticky traps and every one on a sticky trap is one that won't be noshing on me while I sleep. 

Speaking of sticky traps, I was checking them yesterday and one was missing.  So I asked Hubs if he moved it.  He said he didn't even know I had a trap there.  My first thought was 'oh god, a mouse is dragging one through the house somewhere'.  Then I found it - stuck to the top of the bottom shelf of the table it was hiding behind.  Somehow it had gotten from upright on the floor to upside down on the shelf.  So there I was trying to peel it up, without getting it stuck to myself and without knocking over all the stuff I have on that table, when I noticed what I think is white fur.  How Kira got behind that table and why she could go there is beyond me.  Of course, this is merely a guess on my part because the trap is still sitting there, stuck to the table because neither Hubs nor I could pull the damn thing off without removing everything from the table and neither of us was in the mood for that freakin' project.

We both have enough freakin' projects right now.

Speaking of projects... What on your plate today?


*When we lived in CO, our non-stormy sweet spot led my saying to 'dirty, rain-stealing bastards in KS'. And no, I don't actually think people are stealing our rain. I may be a little nuts, but I'm not whackadoodle.

Sunday Update - Week 29

What do you mean it's not Sunday?  Oh.  Well, yeah, I guess I am a day late.  Sorry.  My days are all screwed up lately. Anyway, we took the weekend off, so it's not like pushing this off one day is gonna effect a lot in the scheme of things. 

Last week... Let's see... it's pretty much a blur.  If you were here on Friday, you already read about a lot of what I was doing last week.  (If you weren't, go ahead and go.  There are pictures and everything.) 

Looking back at last week's update, I see that then I was halfway through typing chapter 3 into the computer.  As of last night, I am halfway through chapter 7.  So that's 10274 words rewritten for the week.  (Ah, how I love my practice of putting word counts in the subject of my backup emails to myself.  Cuz otherwise, I'd be all like 'what did I do last week... duh'.)

I helped my mom with a computer thing.  True, the computer thing was caused by me, but only because she mentioned running through color cartridges when she rarely needs to print in color.  So like a good daughter, I walked her through setting her printer to 'black ink only' a couple weeks ago.  The problem arose when she needed to print something in color.  And walking her back through - when her software versions are somewhat different than mine and I can't SEE what's on her monitor - took a bit of time.  I enjoy helping Mom, though, so it was no big thing.  And usually, while I help her, we have a laugh or two - cuz that's how my mom is.  Anyway, that's done.  Not sure if we'll be setting that back to the other ink-saving setting or not.

Last week, I read an entire book!  Yeah, I know, it shouldn't be that big a deal, but it was.  So, yay for me.  The book I read was Jennifer Apodaca's Her Temporary Hero.  Wicked awesome book, folks.  Go forth and buy a copy.

That's all I can think of at the moment.  If you're bored, go read my post at Killer Chicks about how I killed a man last night.  Big fun.  ;o)

Goodbye Orange Paint, Hello Pine

So anyway, this is what we're up to this week and I'm just so tickled with Hubs' progress, I wanted to share it.

Here's the house before:

Here's the front of the house after day 3:

And here's the front after today (day 4):

Here's what Hubs did on the first day:

And on the second day:

Look at all that gorgeous wood.

Of course, everyone's feeling the need to voice their opinions.  It's too much work.  Why don't we just paint over it?  Why not use paint stripper?  Yada yada yada.  One look at the finished product tells us that 1) it's not too much work for that result and 2) the last guy painted over it and it looked like shit, so why exactly would we paint over it again?  As for 3) We explored every available option and this one suits us the best.  Do you have any idea how many gallons of stripper we'd need to buy to cover this size house??  And don't even go there with how much it would cost to have a crew of people come out to sand it or strip it with corncobs or whatever.

Anyway, I'm damn proud and we'll have the house we dreamed of.  Complete with pine knots and real wood and NO MORE ORANGE.  (We swear, it did not look orange in the pictures before we bought the place.  Not that it would've changed our minds, but at least we would have known.)

And while Hubs was doing that today, this is what I did.  I took the chunky rock border out from our wildflower bed and replaced it with pea gravel.

Before:

After:

And why I did it:

I found Mr. Copperhead hiding in the chunky rocks when I went out to weed.  Now they have nowhere to hide.

Not bad work for two old farts, eh?

Today... Hubs will be sanding and I will be inside trying to avoid the buzz of the sander by throwing on my headphones and writing.

What's up with you?

Resolution Check

It's a little over halfway through the year and I thought I'd do a resolution check.  (Cuz the post I planned out in my head last night while I was trying unsuccessfully to sleep makes yesterday's post look milquetoast.) 

So anyway those resolutions were...

1) Take my writing more seriously.

2) Reduce the irritation from my life. 

3) Accept myself for who I am.

Number one?  Umm... yeah... about that.  I have been serious about my writing.  I wrote a freakin' book in May for petesakes.  And I'm really trying to commit to getting this book edited.  I rewrote a chapter and a half yesterday for cryin' out loud.  But the business side of the writing... Let's just say that while I am paying for a membership to Query Tracker, I haven't really been using it.  I need to get back to that.  But I've also been going over some things in my head that might make querytracker moot. 

As for #2, let's just say that I have tried.  I cut loose a couple people who were doing more to add negativity to my life than add positivity.  I unfollowed a couple irritating pages on FB.  That's been a major reduction.  I know I can never eliminate the irritation - I only joke about being a hermit and that would take a full court press of hermitization.  Unfortunately, as I reduce irritation, new irritations arise.  Still, I think I'm ahead for the year.

That last one is the only one I feel pretty good about.  Okay, so the tragic haircut knocked me sideways for a while.  (Still waiting for it to grow out enough to be fixable, but I have accepted it.)  All in all, though, I think I'm doing well at being okay with ME.  I'm a slightly overweight, 44 year old woman with graying hair and gimpy parts.  And that's okay.  The downside of being okay with myself relates to #2 - and finding myself getting increasingly irritated with our culture's push to make people be NOT okay with themselves.  Seriously, if I get one more email from this major magazine I subscribe to telling me how I can lose weight, fix my flaws, make myself sexier... I'm going to scream - in the ear of a customer service representative at said major magazine.

:deep breath... in through the nose, out through the mouth:

Ah, much better.

How are you doing at your resolutions for 2014? 

I Still Love Amazon

I know I'm probably going to piss off a certain sect of the writing world by even suggesting I love Amazon.  Hell, for all I know, I've just sealed my fate against ever being published by a big name publisher.  :shrug:  It's not like they're beating a path to my door.  Know what I mean?  Anyway, I love Amazon.  And despite all the brouhaha in the industry, I still love Amazon.

I love Amazon because they get me what I want when I want it.  I don't live near any bookstores.  There's one indy about 20 miles from here and it's not convenient to where I need to go when I'm down that way.  (Which is Walmart 24 out of 25 times, so I guess I love them, too, which also makes me hated in certain sects.  Aren't I the little rebel?) 

But it's not just books.  As long as I can wait a week, I can get damn near anything from Amazon with little to no trouble.  Hop online, place the order, bingbangboom, it's in my mailbox or on my frontporch.

Case in point...  My last order from Amazon consisted of:

1 book by an author acquaintance of mine whose big name publisher had dropped her so basically the only place I can snag a hardcopy of her work is AMAZON.

1 10-pk of Max's favorite kitty treats - the soft kind he requires sprinkled on his wet food at every meal.  (Cut me a break, he only has 4 teeth, so getting him to eat is a kind of special hell some days.)  I can no longer find these treats at my go-to place (Dollar General) so Amazon is my only option for my special needs kitty.

1 LED lantern for emergency use.  I don't even know who else would carry these things, but I can bet I wouldn't find it anywhere else for $30.  And since I've bought from this manufacturer before, I know it's quality stuff.

And the shipping was free*.

It seems to me that in this world where people are reading less and less, alienating potential readers by calling for a boycott of a place so wonderful and necessary as Amazon is like cutting your face off to spite your ass.

:shrug:

Maybe big name authors published by the big 6 publishers don't need Amazon.  They probably don't shop at Walmart either.  Little ol' me?  Well, after writing this and potentially pissing off the traditional publishers, I probably need Amazon more than ever.  And at this rate - with no checks coming in for anything I've written - I really need Walmart, too.

Great Value trail mix, anyone?


*So that purchase actually cost me LESS - even if someone could've had those products in stock at those prices in this area - than it would've if I'd gotten into the car and driven. Especially at these gas prices.

Sunday Update - Week 28

Hiho.  It was off to work I went this week.  Without actually leaving... if that makes any sense.

Anyways... this is what we did this week:

We took this...

And turned it into this...

By filling these in with regular dirt...

...and then covering them with the aforementioned pea gravel.  Now it looks like this...

All that's left to do is cleanup and then some painting.

Other than that, I did get chapter 3 rewritten in the notebook and half of it typed into the computer last night.  Yes, a chapter a week sucks, but I expect now that this project is nearly completed, I can once again focus on writing.  I mean, once my hands stop swelling and look more like hands than inflated latex gloves*.  LOL

Also, this week, I managed to beta read an acquaintance's work (albeit only the first portion) and give some credible feedback.

This past week also marked the return of Bunbun - our resident rabbit.  He's tame enough now that we can get within a few feet of him before he hops a few feet further away.  Unfortunately, this year, he is alone.  His lady friend (or maybe he's a her and the missing one was her guy) hasn't been seen since last year's bobcat sightings.  Nature can be cruel sometimes.

Oh, and we saw our first fawns of 2014!  Yay!

So, what's new in your world? 


*Not really.  They just feel that inflated this morning.

The Continuing Project: A New Saga

For reasons I can't go into online, the explanation of the saga has been redacted.  Suffice it to say, the previous owners of this place did something half-assed and now we're having to go back and make it right.  So....

I know I said this before, but please PLEASE if you're doing work on your home, do it right.  Get it done by professionals with references if you can't do it yourself and do it right.  Get Mike Holmes to come inspect it for you if you have to.  (Or some reasonable facsimile of a competent contractor.)  But for petesakes, do it right.  I know most people probably don't care about the people who might own the home after they leave.  Don't think about them.  Think about what you might have to go through if you have to fix it - if you did it wrong in the first place. 

It's always easier in the long run, to do things right the first time.  Seriously. 

And as a friend pointed out, once this is done, it will be done right and will last for years to come.  I just wish they'd done it right to begin with.

The World Needs Ditchdiggers, Too.

Okay, so maybe these aren't ditches.  And maybe this doesn't have to do with a career change (not that I haven't thought that maybe I'd be better suited to digging ditches than writing - just not today).  But I since I mentioned that we were digging out the foundation in yesterday's Sunday Update - Week 27, I thought I should post a couple pics.

So, here's the north side of the back addition to our house (the part where the office and the sunroom are):

and here's the south side:

Since the pics were taken, Hubs has painted the walls with Drylok, so it seals gthe foundation.  AND we dug up a little all the way around so he could paint all the way up and finally get rid of the orange on the blocks!  Yay!

So, the orange you see on the blocks behind this weird plant* is now a lovely shade of gray.

The orange on the siding will be gone by the end of fall.  :crosses fingers:


Today, we're hoping to get all the trenches filled back in.  What are you up to today?

*If any of you know what they hell that plant is, let me know.  I almost thought it was an American Pokeweed, but those have red stems and this thing is all green.

Sunday Update - Week 27

Hey, wow, I actually got the week # on this post!  Yay.  So I guess that means I'm out of my lazy streak.  Kinda.  Sorta.  I'm a lazy gal at heart, so the streak is always stalking me below the surface, but this was a good week.

I got back to work on getting Bloodflow whipped into shape.  (Even if MS Word doesn't like me typing the title as one word.  Party pooper.)  Rewrote the first chapter by hand and then typed it into the computer.  Then I got through the first scene of chapter two with just some simple rewrites and more typing.  When I got to the second scene, though, things stopped.  And I think I realized why that scene has been driving me nuts for the past few years.  (Yes, years.)  It was from the wrong POV.  So I wrote a new scene from a different character's viewpoint, and I think I nailed it.  Now I can proceed.  Yay!

Anyway, I'm up to 3200 words retyped.

Hubs and I got a wild hair last Sunday and decided to finish digging out the foundation.  We thought we'd take it slow, get a little done at a time... Yeah, that doesn't ever work for us.  We put our heads down and dug like freaks.  Got the north trench off the addition mostly done Sunday.  Fell apart Monday.  Did some other stuff Tuesday.  Dug like dogs after a mole and got the south side mostly done Wednesday.  Then Thursday was just finish work making sure the trenches were all the way down to the cement lip at the bottom of the cinder blocks.  Friday got it dry.  Yesterday, Hubs painted the first coat of Drylok on the walls.  And I drove down to buy more Drylok because he only had enough for one coat.  We also decided to get enough to coat all the remaining exposed block so it all looks uniform and we can finally cover where the silly gits slapped orange paint on those, too.

Also, last week our utility sink arrived for the garage bathroom.  I'm so glad he ripped out the ugly thing they had going on it there.  Yuck.  He finished running the plumbing out there and installed the new sink.  Yesterday, he got to wash out his paint brushes without stooping over in the bathtub or getting paint in the kitchen sink. 

We made appointments for the electric dude to come back out and for the local boys ranch to come haul off our pile of junk.  The electric dude will be installing lights and plugs in the two crawl spaces sometime this week.  The boys will be out Tuesday and we'll finally be able to get rid of all that stuff the previous owners so joyfully chucked into the woods, as well as all the detritus from our remodel.

Yesterday, while Hubs was slapping Drylok on the foundation, I took to the yard and sprayed the holy hell out of the remaining poison ivy.  Then I grabbed the Weed-B-Gone and sprayed our lovely stone pathways so the weeds stop trying to take over.  Recently Kerry Schafer passed along a great recipe for weed killer - 1 gallon of vinegar, 2 cups of Epsom salts, and 1/4 cup DAWN dish soap (the original blue kind) - but I already had the other stuff.  I'll try that stuff next time.

So, it's been busy-busy-busy here.  Like I said it would be weeks ago, but we all know how that worked out.  On the upside, we were talking and we should be done with this years major projects way ahead of schedule.  Then we're going fishing.

What happened in your world this past week?  Can you believe we're already halfway through the year?  

I Am a Delicate Flower

Want a workout for that ever-widening ass?  Dig out your foundation.  By hand.  With a shovel.  The constant bending and lifting is sure to give you buns of steel in no time. 

Or a really sore set of gluts.

It really helps if you're digging under a deck, too.  Because you have to bend and crouch, which gives other muscles a workout, too.

I don't have pics yet.  Not of my muscles, silly.  Of the dug out foundation.  I'll add those later, if I remember. 

This morning, I get to crawl under the deck at it's shortest point and dig away the last wall (luckily only a few inches worth of dirt) while Hubs finishes the deep hole.  Then once it dries, we get to paint it with this stuff called Drylok.  And once THAT dries, we get to fill in the holes again, so I can finally FINALLY move the pea rock mountain out of my driveway to make a lovely border around the entire house.  Go me.  (Well... go us, because chances are Hubs will be doing 75% of the work.  Cuz he's a guy and has better muscles and is more anatomically suited to back-breaking work, whereas I am a delicate flower*.)

Right this moment, though, my ass hurts.  And my hands hurt.  And my abs hurt.  And... Well, you get the picture.



*I AM A DELICATE FLOWER, DAMMIT!

This n That

My brain has been almost entirely wrapped up in this brown recluse invasion we've been battling.  I now know more about those damn spiders than I ever wanted to know.  For instance, their real name is 'violin spider' because they have the shape of a tiny violin on their backs.  And that they live for clutter - which kind of screws me because I AM the clutter queen.  Oh, and if you have brown recluses in your home, you shouldn't leave clothing laying on the floor because they like to hide in that shit, but if you do happen to leave some article of clothing on the floor, you should stomp on it thoroughly before you put it on.  (Because, as one site pointed out, it may be gross to put on something with squished spider in it, it's way better than a brown recluse bite.)

I read this morning on an agent's blog that after they read queries, they stalk the queriers online.  Not surprising, but nice to have confirmation of what I suspected all along.  Which is to say that it might not be my writing that's getting me rejected.  :shrug:  I am who I am, and if they don't like what I'm saying out here on the interwebs, we probably won't have an awesome business relationship anyway.  Still, I do try to be smart enough to not say EVERYTHING that's on my mind.  That would just be publication suicide.

My friend, JB, got a new dog.  I want a dog.  (Not that her having a new dog makes me want one.  I've always wanted one.)  I am a little jealous.  I mean, I love my cats.  But my cats do not like dogs.  Max is terrified of them, and Kira hates everything except for Hubs, me and the Kid.  Whether I'll get a dog once the cats have moved on to their final scratching post, I don't know. 

I have to call the local ranch for 'at-risk' youth today.  I've heard they provide clean-up services and we have a boatload of crap someone needs to haul away.  They get a monetary donation and it helps keep the boys out of trouble.  Plus, whatever they could conceivably fix out of your stuff, they fix and then sell at their thrift store.   So, it's a win-win.

The older I get the crankier I get.  In some ways.  In other ways, the older I get the more relaxed I get.  Depends on the day and the situation.  I read something the other day about how awesome it is that once you get older you care less about what other people think about you.  I think this is where I'm headed. 

And now, here's a pretty picture for you:

Have a great day!

And feel free to tell me what 'this n that' is on your mind today.