Sunday, July 31, 2016

Sunday Update - Week 29

I'm almost to 28K in my WIP.  That's only 7K for the week, which isn't my best week by any stretch, but I'll take it.  I have a bunch of stuff I need to go back and add in because I feel like I skipped ahead.  I went through to the part that I had an epiphany about a while back.  And that makes it so Ned knows who the killer is too early in the book... maybe.  I don't know.  I'll keep forging ahead.  Maybe this will work itself out and be alright anyway.

I almost have a title, but it's lame.  Something like Premature Death... but not.  That's too much like Accidental Death.  And the word premature makes one think of either babies or sperm.  Not the imagery I hope for in a suspense.  Ya know?

I spent yesterday morning fishing.  It occurred to me Friday night that my edits are coming back tonight or tomorrow, and once I get those, I need to chain myself to this chair for the duration, which means no fishing.  So I went fishing.  I caught a 8.5" bluegill and a 7.5" green sunfish.  Hubs filleted them for me and they went into the freezer with the other fillets.  Soon we'll have enough fillets for a meal.  (Panfish have very small fillets.)

I read a bit this past week. I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe last Sunday.  Since then, I've been working on A New Eden: Idolatry Book 2 by Quent Cordair.  It's a meaty book, which is why it's taking me longer than usual.  Beautiful imagery.  Deep thoughts.  Well-fleshed characters.  It's a joy to read so far.  But I can usually count on that from Quent.  He makes me want to be a better writer.

The new pumper for our sprayer arrived, which meant that I needed to take the old pumper to UPS and send it back to the distributor.  Since I had yet to visit our local UPS Store, it was a bit of an adventure.  I drove past it three times - the third AFTER a nice man at a gas station told me exactly where it was and what it looked like.  Derp.  I don't care what they say about Eureka Springs, I don't enjoy visits to it.  It's congested and everything is on a curve and there are people everywhere.  But the guys at UPS were super once I found them.  And now I know where it is if I ever need it again.

We had an owl hooting in our tree two evenings in a row - right as the sun dipped behind the trees on the top of our hill.  It was a barred owl.  We didn't see him, but it was nice to know he was there.  We haven't heard an owl in about a year.

Well, that's about it for me today.  How about you?

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Not The Brightest Bulb

I think of the best thing to blog about right before I fall asleep at night.  By morning, they're gone.  And, lord knows, I am NOT the most creative, witty person first thing in the morning. 

Derpy derpy derp, coffee. 

Okay, so I haven't been the brightest bulb lately coffee or no.  For instance, today I have to make an extra trip to town, because Sunday I forgot to sign the check I wrote.  And they'd kinda like to get paid for the goods they sell, if ya know what I mean. 

I could blame 'writer brain'.

I could blame my seasonal inability to sleep in the summer. 

Or I could always fall back on the old brain injury thing.  That's always good for an excuse.

Whatever it is, I'm a toad.

Are you a toad?  Or is it just me?

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Sunday Update - Week 27? No, 28

I'm too lazy to actually verify what week this is right now. (Week 28... verified... I think... )

So, last week.  Things happened.  Stuff occurred.  It's all kind of mashed up in my coffee deprived head right now.  Let's see if I can sort it all out...

I wrote about 10K words in the WIP.  Still don't have a title.  It's being saved as SCIU Ned.  Because it's about Agent Ned Washington out of the Detroit office investigating a string of deaths in Toledo.  A Toledo detective believes they're murders, but Ned's not too sure at first.  So far, it's pretty good.  I think.  I'm at about 21K and there's a lot of work to do to finish this and make it reader-worthy, but it's something.

Last Thursday, someone hit our resident wild rabbit, Bun Bun, in front of our house.  It's still kinda hard to think about.  The sight was horrific in ways you can't imagine.  Hubs and I are still both pretty pissed off because it probably could've been avoided.  People drive around in here like the extra couple minutes it would take to get to their property will ruin everything and they have to VACATION FASTER!  I'm considering getting signs - Slow: Wildlife Crossing.  I doubt they'd do any good, though.  Let's all keep our fingers crossed that no one hits a fawn or a doe here.  I can't be held responsible for my actions if that happens.

In happier news, we're seeing fawns now.  This year, we have a plan.  Take beaucoup pics of each fawn and use the spots as identifiers so we can tell exactly how many individual fawns we have here.  So far, we have four different fawns: 
 
Dot & Dash (the twins), the one with the parallel lines on its neck, and the one with the blurry spots on its side.  (Names for them will be decided later.)  I know naming them will make it harder to take if we end up losing any of them, but I can't not name them.  Like naming Bun Bun.  Of course, she was a special cottontail, so... :sniffle:

I have some advertising going out for Wish in One Hand tomorrow and Tuesday.  Keeping my fingers crossed it nets me some sales.

And now, I'm off to drink more coffee and hope my brain kickstarts itself soon.  How are things in your world?

Friday, July 22, 2016

Squash Bread

Or Zucchini Bread.  Or Courgette Bread (which commenter Fran tells me is what the UK calls Zucchini). 



3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups zucchini (peeled then shredded)
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 350F.  Liberally coat two 8x4” bread pans with cooking spray.  Beat eggs until light and fluffy.  Beat in sugar, oil, and vanilla until thick.  Stir in shredded zucchini and squash.  In a separate bowl, sift together remaining dry ingredients except coconut.  Add dry mixture to wet mixture.  Stir in coconut until well combined.  Pour equally into prepared bread pans.  Bake for one hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out  clean.  Allow to cool 15-20 minutes.  Turn out from bread pans onto cooling surface.  Slice and serve, or cool completely, package, and refrigerate for later use.  Can be frozen.

I don't know the UK conversions for this.  Sorry, Fran.

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Thursday This n That

Yesterday, I saw a threesome of strange (to me) birds in the redbud tree.  Turns out they were summer tanagers. A mama with her two juveniles - a male and a female.  I've never seen those before, so it was pretty cool. 

We saw our first fawns of the year.  Twins.  I'm calling them Dot and Dash - because she's very spotted and he has a line on his neck:
And, no, I am not certain of either one's gender.  I'm just assigning the left one as a girl and the right one as a boy.

The pump went wonky on our sprayer again.  We just got this new pump in May and it's already pooping out.  So I call the company where we bought it.  The customer service gal was really nice, but ineffective.  I tried to tell her we didn't need to trouble shoot because we knew what was wrong.  Eventually she told me I had to call the manufacturer directly, but that if I had any problems with them to call back.  I called the manufacturer and got put on forever hold where the recording kept telling me if I wanted to let them wait, press one and they'd call me back or press any other number to continue waiting.  I continued waiting until they got sick of me and dumped me into voice mail anyway.  I called back.  Got dumped into the queue again, but I'd lost my place in line.  Screw that.  I called the distributor back, got a new gal, and had her sending me a new pump in under ten minutes. 

The political miasma in this country is really bumming me right the hell out. 

I'm making zucchini bread this morning.  As soon as I can muster the will to move.  Need more coffee.  Tanker truck more. 

I've been having the weirdest dreams lately.  I think it's because I'm writing again.  There seems to be a correlation between the frequency and weirdness of my dreams and whether or not I'm plugging down new words.  :shrug: 

What's on your this-n-that radar today?







Sunday, July 17, 2016

Sunday Update - Week 27

Week 27 is a blur.  Let's see if I can cobble it back together.

I went fishing once, but the fish weren't biting.  It's really getting too hot to fish from the bank because the bigger fishies are happier in deeper, cooler water.  Only the baby fishies are hanging out in shallower water, and all they do is steal my worms.  =o\  Dirty worm stealin' buggers.

SCIU Ned - which is what I'm calling the WIP - is over 11K words right now.  With 8K of that written in the last week.  Not burning up the keyboard right now, but it's all good, baby.  It features Agent Washington from Fertile Ground.  And that's all I have to say about that.

Still haven't seen any fawns.  The does are starting to come back in multiples again - rather than alone - but they're still hesitating about bringing their babies to feed.  I'd like to see at least a couple before they lose their spots.  Sheesh.

We seem to be having a banner year for orb weaver spiders.  Thus, walking through the yard has become something of a feat.  I haven't walked directly into a circular web, but the guy lines they use to attach to trees aren't fun to walk into either.  One day last week, I walked around the yard waving a broom in front of me.  I took down 5 webs at head height.  :shudder:

It's been quiet around the interwebs this week.  A whole bunch of people are at the RWA conference in California.  :waves:  They'll be back soon and then we'll get back to some semblance of normal. 

We took a couple walks.  It's harder to get the gumption to walk when it's already hot and muggy by the time I wake up and it just gets worse from there.  This might explain why I gained two of my lost pounds back.  Bleh.  Either that or I need to stop eating ice cream.  Maybe both.  ;o)

What happened in your world last week?

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Thursday This n That

Last week a neighbor brought us some squash.  I used it to make bread and then gave her a loaf.  Yesterday, she stopped by with enough squash for me to make eight more loaves.  She really liked that bread LOL.  I told Hubs it would take us months to eat 8 loaves.  He said, you make it, I'll eat it.  So, I'm making it. I was going to start in on that this morning, but I don't have enough coconut.  Maybe I'll make one batch (2 loaves of my regular recipe - the one I usually double) and freeze the rest of the squash.

Then while we were talking with the neighbor gal, she told us how she'd been mowing her lawn, but her mower lost a wheel off the mowing bed and it was tearing up her lawn, but her husband wasn't home to fix it.  Well, being who we are, we talked about it after she'd gone and decided to drop over there and help her out.  We'd never actually been to her house.  She's a neighbor only in that she lives in the general area and they drive by regularly on their golf cart, so we've developed a neighborly relationship with them.  Lemme tell ya, I was not expecting what their place looked like.  It's huge.  I mean, when she said they mow 7 acres, I expected they kept a couple fields near the house short with a brush-hog or something.  Nope.  7 acres of parklike lawn.  It's freakin' gorgeous over there.  And her home is lovely.  Like a lodge you'd rent out for a vacation by the lake, but cozy.  Set way back in the woods where you can't see it from the road, and overlooking the lake. So pretty. Anyway, Hubs fixed her wheel and then took her riding lawn mower for a spin while I toured her home and then we came home despite her invitations to come inside for a while. 

A pertinent note here, I'm really uncomfortable being inside other people's homes. Like approaching panic-attack uncomfortable.  But she's so sweet and she so wanted me to see her home that I sucked it up.  They've invited us to come visit dozens of times since we moved here, and I feel bad about declining necause they're both so nice, but what's a gal to do?  I think I need to take her aside and explain the situation, so she doesn't think it's them. Or that it's their dogs. I love their dogs. They have awesome dogs.  It's totally me.

Well, that's it for me today.  What's going on with you?


Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Silence is Golden

Just because I am generally silent publicly about certain issues and current events doesn't mean I don't care.  I'd just rather not piss everyone off.  I'd rather keep my thoughts off the world wide web because:

Silence is golden.

If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.

And, yes, I would probably end up pissing everyone off one way or another.  Those that would agree with me on one point, would probably be offended by another, and vice versa.  Hell, even when I don't say anything, just 'liking' things on Facebook pisses people off.

:shrug:  Not much I can do about that unless I want to quit Facebook altogether because I won't stop liking the things I like.

And hiding the things I don't.  Or blocking the things I totally disagree with.


The way things have been lately, I'm surprised I have anybody left in my newsfeed. I'm an opinionated person and I'm at a point in my life where my opinions aren't going to change without some MAJOR epiphany through facts and evidence to the contrary.  And lately things like facts and evidence are in short supply when it comes to opinions.

But you know what they say...

Opinions are like assholes.  Everyone has one.  And they all stink but mine. 

Crass, I know, but true.  It's a bit of Dad wisdom that works for me.  So, I'll keep my opinions to myself for the most part, lest someone get a whiff of something disagreeable. 

And if you should stumble across one of my opinions that carries a disagreeable odor to your sensibilities, feel free to block or hide or whatever.  It's a free country.  Kinda... sorta... for now.

Thursday, July 7, 2016

Thursday This n That... But Mostly This

It feels like every time I sit down to work this week, something derails me.  Mostly it's been thunderstorms.  I work on a desktop, so there's always the possibility a power outage will screw me royally.  Last night, no storms, so I was a good girl and sat my ass down in this chair and got to work.  Not long into it, I hear a big truck barreling down the road.  Weird, but no biggie.  Then another truck and sirens.  And Hubs saying something about something going on down the hill. 

All told, 4 fire trucks and two ambulances and a couple fire pickup trucks. 

Hubs and I go for a walk to see - because, hey, we never get excitement here.  I don't see anything.  I don't smell smoke.  Off we go on a slow downhill trek.  Get to the dogleg left, still nothing.  Clear the trees and there at the very bottom, all the fire vehicles are glutted on the little access road to the river.  At the mouth of the private access road, we see a group of people standing, so we walk down to them.  I don't recognize anyone - which isn't strange because I don't know all the people in here AND I have a crappy memory.  Then I recognize the dog.  It's the GSD that lives two doors down, so that must be the blonde gal who lives there.  Then another gal smiles and waves and welcomes us.  Not sure if she's the really nice gal who walks with her really nice husband, or the so-so nice gal we helped when their golf cart died and they needed a push.  (Her husband walked up later, so we figured out it was Really Nice Gal.) 

Turns out the newest resident to our sleepy little neighborhood is a whacko who accidentally set his own house on fire burning garbage in his yard.  I've seen him and his trashy, loud pickup truck flying past our house like we live on the straightaway at the Indy 500.  I've resigned myself to him.  Apparently, though, he's a worse problem for them down there.  It sounds like the beginning of an episode of Fear Thy Neighbor, and bad things are ahead if it plays out like one of those episodes.  For the sake of those involved - which ain't us because there is no way we are getting involved - I hope I'm wrong. 

All I know is I intend to be more careful when I'm out walking by myself.  Which is sad.  We moved way the hell out here to avoid crap like that. 

That's my this.  No that today.  What's on your radar?

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Independence Day

I didn't post anything yesterday.  Not because I don't love this country.  I do love it.  Not because I'm saddened by the direction this country has taken.  I am.  I didn't post anything because I was out celebrating in my own way. 

Shouldn't be a big surprise that I went fishing. 

It was quiet for the most part.  Someone was shooting off fireworks in broad, albeit rainy, daylight.  Across the inlet from me, a young family was swimming and I could hear the little girl encouraging her daddy to swim across the river and him joking back with her about doing it.  (He didn't.  It's a pretty wide river with lots of boat traffic.)  A couple locals stopped to tow a defunct golf cart away and reminded me to leave some fish for other people to catch. 

I was fishing at the boat ramp, so I had to stop every now and then when people wanted to put their boats in or take them out.  It was a new spot for me and the fishing was pretty awesome.  Caught a bunch of nice bluegills.  I was throwing them back until I caught a couple that swallowed the hook and wouldn't have survived anyway.  In the end, I came home with those two.  And wished I hadn't thrown back the huge honkers I'd already tossed.  Hub filleted the two I brought home - because that's the kind of guy he is.

At one point, I noticed a slow moving boat with a guy in it.  He seemed to be watching me fish, which was fine by me.  He obviously wasn't fishing right then, which was a little weird, but to each his own.  Then I noticed he was wearing a uniform.  DNR dude.  Cool.  I expected him to stop and ask to see my license.  He didn't.  He just rounded the corner into the river proper and sped away.  Guess he had bigger fish to fry. 

I have a license, btw.  $12 and I can fish as many times as I want to all year long.  And as long as I stick to the size and amount limits, I'm kosher.  I threw back an 11 inch bass for just that reason.  Oh, and as long as I don't catch trout.  Those are an extra fee and a special stamp. 

I don't mind the rules.  They're there for a reason.  Smart fishing means we'll have plenty of fish for years to come.  Even if the length limit on bass wasn't 15", I'd throw smaller than that back anyway.  Hard to make a good fillet out of smaller bass, doncha know.  There's no length limit on bluegills and I still throw back anything smaller than like 7".  The small ones are hard to clean and a pain to eat.  I tell the fish "Go on.  Grow bigger." before I throw them back.  (Yes, I talk to the fish.  Hey, at least I don't kiss them like Jimmy Houston.)

It occurs to me - as it has many times in the past - that we wouldn't need half the rules and laws we have if people were more rational.  Or as Aristophanes put it "Wise people, even though all laws were abolished, would still lead the same life."

Then we'd be even more independent and have more to celebrate.  But maybe that's just me.

Whether you're here and celebrated the 4th of July, or in Canada celebrating Canada Day, or just out there in the world leading your life, Happy Independence Day.  Feel free to celebrate it every day.  =o)


Sunday, July 3, 2016

Sunday Update - Week 26

Well, here we are again at the close of Week 26.  Halfway through the year.  Where did the time go??

This past week, I sent Up Wish Creek off to my AWE (Awesome Wonderful Editor).  She'll have it back to me by the 31st.  I may have been overly optimistic about this book releasing by Labor Day.  We'll see.

And I started Djinn4.  I have like three whole paragraphs.  But I need to set that aside and work on finishing Natural Causes (Dennis Haggarty 2).  Or get editing on something else. 

I read.  A lot.  I finished a paranormal mystery, a fantasy, and a historical romance.  Not sure what I'll be reading next.  I downloaded a couple books that were on my Amazon Wish List, so we'll see how those go.  I did buy a book by a new-to-me author, but about a third of the way in I got sick of being confused, so I stopped reading it.  You know the old one about 'if you leave a gun on the mantel in the first act, someone better fire it by the 4th'?  Too many guns on the mantel and no way they would all get fired in any rational way.  :shrug:  If I ever do that, please feel free to slap me.

I'm 10 books ahead on my reading goal for the year.  

I had intentions to go fishing this morning, but the thunder is rolling in.  I don't like the idea of turning myself into a human lightning rod.  I did go fishing last Tuesday, but there were campers in my favorite spot at the park, so I went to another place.  Lost the rigging on one pole when I ditched my cast into a bush.  Lost the rigging on my other pole on an underwater rock ledge.  I was too lazy to re-rig, so I went home.  I did catch about six little fishies before then, but there wasn't really any fun in it.  On the upside, the car started when I got ready to leave.  Yay.

Still no fawn sightings.

I had an ad go out on Friday.  Sold 3 books from it.  :shrug: 

Sorry if this came off a little whiny this morning.  I really have no reason to whine.  Life's pretty good.  I blame the excess blood in my caffeine stream. 

How are things in your world?