Sunday Update - Week 48

Well, it was a week.  Holiday weeks always mess me up.

I didn't do much writing this week.  Only about 700 words on a story I had no plans on writing.  But it wouldn't leave me alone.  Unfortunately, this seems to be the song for the week - loads of ideas but no real impetus to keep writing on any of them. Hell, last night I had to get out of bed and write down another idea.  Gah.  Plus, my unpublished books are screaming at me, too.  Silly brain is doing its rendition of short attention span theater.

Starting today, Dying Embers is free for 5 days.  Plus, Fertile Ground and Early Grave are 99c/99p each.  (All of them always free if you have a Kindle Unlimited subscription.)  So you can get the whole series for less than $2.  Fingers crossed this'll help end the year end with less of a whimper than the rest of 2020 showed me.

Tuesday is December, so I've been thinking about 2021 and you know what that means... spreadsheets for the new year.  I have my own to do and the pay-job ones to do.  Umm... yay.

Reading was slow last week, but I did finish a cute romance set in Canada and populated with people of Chinese heritage.  I like to mix it up a bit every once in a while.  It was way spicier than I usually like my romances, but you know me, I flip past that stuff anyway.  If you like spicy, and I know at least one reader here who does, you'll probably enjoy it.

In baking news, I made my pumpkin cheesecake.  So much yum.  I also did granola bars.  Hubs made another awesome Thanksgiving turkey.  He's so good at that.  

After Thanksgiving dinner, I took the turkey and broke it down.  Six quart freezer bags of meat and two gallon bags of bones, etc. for soup.  Yaha.  Meals I already paid for?  Oh, yeah, baby.

Other than that, not much went on here.  How was your week?

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 11/28/20

Ack.  Is it Saturday?  Holiday weeks always screw me up.  Anyway...  

It's not much of a reading wrap-up this week, but it's better than nothing.

Two new ebooks acquired this week - a romantic comedy (which I already read) and a mystery.  I still have two romances, a mystery, and a thriller left from earlier in the month.

Books Read:

77) A Match Made for Thanksgiving by Jackie Lau (11/27/20) - Romantic Comedy* - 4 stars.  New to me but not underappreciated.  Free off the Book Doggy newsletter.
Review: "Cute romance. A little step into a different culture for me, which was fun. A bit too spicy for my tastes, but that's me."

DNF: 

11/27/20 - I gave up on Le Morte d'Arhur.  

Currently reading... a suspense I picked up at the thrift store by an author I've been meaning to try.  I didn't make much progress yesterday due to the Band of Brothers marathon.

How was your reading week?

Wednesday This n That

Because Thursday this week is a holiday, here's a little Wednesday this n that...

I made the pumpkin cheesecake yesterday.  Of course, I licked the bowl and the filling was so good I could've poured it into a glass and drank it.  I think I might've accidentally used too much cream - 2/3rd cup instead of a half.  I wasn't wearing my glasses.  Anyway, it took way longer to cook, but, like I said, the filling tasted awesome.  We'll eat some today.

Tomorrow Hubs will do the turkey.  It's a behemoth for us, so he'll have to put it in the oven earlier than usual if we want to eat around noon like we always do.  :shrug:  We eat dinner around noon on TGD so we can lay around all day digesting the huge amounts we eat.  It'll be a simple meal - turkey, stuffing, corn, cranberry sauce, rolls - on which we will gorge ourselves.  Then days of turkey sandwiches.  Yay.

Cranberry sauce... It has to be canned.  It has to be jellied.  I ate homemade cranberry sauce with whole cranberries once.  Umm, no.  For me, it's a crime against Thanksgiving.  ;o)

Besides, canned cranberry sauce has lines for easy cutting.  And Hubs loves it on turkey sandwiches.  I don't need cranberry sauce on mine.  Is there anything better than leftover roast turkey on a buttered crusty roll?  I don't think so.

And now I'm hungry.

In non-food news, night before last, a scene for a book I wasn't planning on writing popped into my head and wouldn't go away.  So I got up and jotted a couple notes for it.  Last night, I wrote the scene out a little.  I'm not sure where it's going to go, but hey, it's words.

In the past week or so, I've written words on three different stories.  Which is weird for me.  I'm usually a 'pick a story and stick to it' kind of gal.  We'll see which if any of those three win and become whole books.

Okay, I'm done for today.  I hope you all have most awesome Thanksgiving Days tomorrow and that you get to spend time with family and friends, if that's your thing.  Hubs and I will be alone together again, which is just the way I like it.  (Even if I do kinda miss seeing everyone at Thanksgiving, it's like a crowd scene up there most years.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Today, I'll be making pumpkin cheesecake.  Now, just so you know, my cheesecakes are not like most people's cheesecakes.  I don't have any special pans to make a cheesecake in, so they're made in pie pans.  And they're super creamy.  No dry cheesecakes in this house.  If you're into that, here's the recipe.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

 

Crust:

 

1 3/4 c. graham cracker crumbs

1/2 butter or margarine (melted)

1/4 c sugar

dash cinnamon (to taste)

dash ground cloves (to taste)

 

Filling:

 

1 8 oz pkg cream cheese (softened to room temperature)

3/4 c packed brown sugar

3 eggs, beaten

1 15 oz can pumpkin puree

1/2 c whipping cream

1/2 tsp brandy

1 tsp cinnamon

dash ground cloves

1/4 tsp salt

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Butter standard 9" diameter pie pan.  Mix together cracker crumbs, spices, extract and sugar.  Add in melted butter and stir until well combined.  Press crumb mixture into pan as evenly as you're able - along bottom and up the sides to the edge.  Bake 8-10 minutes.  (Some shrinkage will occur.)  Allow to cool completely before adding filling.

 

Re-preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Beat cream cheese with brown sugar until smooth.  Add in eggs, cream, brandy and pumpkin - beat until smooth.  Add in remaining ingredients and beat until smooth.  Pour into pie shell.  Bake 35-45 minutes or until center is set.  Chill overnight, slice and serve with whipped cream topping.

I didn't get any brandy this time, so that's out, but I left it in the recipe so you can add it or not.  And, of course, if you're into nutmeg (:shudder: I hate nutmeg) then feel free to add a dash or two.  

Enjoy!

What are you making for Thanksgiving dessert?

The Psychology of Baking

The other day a friend of mine said something about how I must be so motivated to bake as much as I do.  Which got me to thinking.  Baking for me is less about being motivated and more about finding something to do that provides me with the illusion I'm accomplishing something.  That and the end product is a yummy treat with makes me (and Hubs) happy.

Yeah, yeah, I know... there's the whole 'food is not happiness' thing.  =op

Anyway, I tend to think (and overthink) about stuff.  So when my friend said what she said, I started to delve into it.  Why am I baking like a fiend right now?

And that's what I came up with - I'm sublimating the urge to do things I cannot do into something I can do.  I have little control over what's happening in my life, but I can control what I bake.  'Rona madness?  Bake something.  Election chaos?  Bake something.  Can't shop?  Bake something.  Can't write?  Bake something.  

Mental, I know.

But hey, my neuroses aren't debilitating and we have a house full of treats, for which Hubs is eternally grateful.  

To that end, today I really have to do a batch of granola bars.  Hubs ate the last of those a couple days ago.  And I need to make a pumpkin cheesecake for Thanksgiving - which we will begin eating as soon as it cools, because cheesecake.  

Does any of this baking really help?  :shrug:  It can't hurt.  Except my waistline and that's been holding steady, so no worries there.

What about you?  Have you baked anything lately?  Does it help?

Sunday Update - Week 47

"Ack!  It's Sunday.  It's Sunday?  Yeah, it's Sunday. Well, crap." - my brain at 5:45am this morning.  Which is why I'm writing this now.

I got about 200 words out Friday.  Not good words, I'm sure, and I definitely don't like them.  But they're words.  I'll most likely kill them sometime today.  Mostly, I'm reading Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Mallory as research and trying to inspire myself to write.  Since I did write Friday, it must be working.  I'm also spending a lot of time thinking about writing.

I read a couple awesome books last week before I started reading LMdA.  Yay.

In baking news, yesterday I got a wild hair and decided to make blondies.  Cuz I'm out of baker's cocoa to make brownies.  I added chocolate chips to the recipe I found.  Umm... the chips sank to the bottom.  And they're not really great otherwise.  Oh, I'll eat them, but I won't be making them again.  Later this week, I'll be making a pumpkin cheesecake.

Also yesterday, I went to Wallyworld (where, no, I didn't remember baker's cocoa... hence, blondies).  Aside from them moving everything around, it wasn't a bad shopping trip.  Thank goodness I didn't need toilet paper, though.  They only had two kinds left and those were the kinds I hate, and there was piddlin' few of those.  Paper towels were also sparse.  Not sure what the hell is going on this time, but there it is.

Anyway, I did get what I went there for - chiefly, a turkey.  I ended up with a 17 pounder.  It was the cheapest I could get for a reasonable price per pound.  I could've gotten a 22 pounder for about the same price, but come on.  We're gonna have enough leftovers with a 17lb already.  Sheesh.  There was a little turkey for $1 less, but I am not paying that much per pound for a damn turkey.  Leftovers are good thing.  Right?  Right.

As for activity, umm, no.  But I made myself step on the scale.  Weight: 180.6.  So no real gains despite the inactivity.  Hubs did goad me into taking a walk with him on Friday which was good because it rained all day yesterday.  Other than that, I am a toad.

Well, I think that's about it for me this week.  How was your week? 

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 11/21/20

:rushes into the room:  Hello.  Sorry I'm late again.  I just woke up, so bear with me.

Only one new ebook acquired last week - a romance.  I still have three others on my Kindle left to read - thriller, mystery, romance.  I'm also still working through the last batch of hardcopy books I snagged.

Books Read:

76) The Edge by Dick Francis (11/16/20) - Mystery - 5 stars.  Not new to me or underappreciated.  Picked up from the thrift store for 50c.
Review: " Ooo, that was a good one! Definitely going on the keeper shelf. "

75) Savaged Devotion by Jennifer Lyon (11/14/20) - Romantic Suspense* - 5 stars.  Not new to me, but since it's a new release, it's probably not as appreciated as it should be.
Review: "5+++ stars! That was freakin' amazing. It was a long wait for this final book in the trilogy, but oh, so, worth it. My heart wrenched along with Liza and Justice as they fought the pain of loss, smiled when they found the strength to be together again, and cheered at the satisfying climax. Good wins, evil loses, and they got their happily-ever-after. Yay! I'm not even sad the trilogy is over because I know the happiness lasts forever. End of story."

No DNFs this week.

Currently reading...  I'm working my way through Le Morte d'Arthur for research purposes.  I haven't read this since high school.  I loved it then.  Now?  It's kind of tedious.

What did you read last week?  Anything good?

Thursday This n That

 We now have 6 bucks frequenting the yard - Arthur, Lear, Midas, Captain, Val, and Spike.

A couple days ago, I glanced out the back window in time to see a skunk ambling his way to the wood pile and disappearing underneath it.  I have named him Pierre.  He's a big dude with a little giddy-up in his step, like one of his back legs is ouchy.  We've never seen a skunk here in the neighborhood.  Smelled one a couple times down near the river, but never even smelled one up here - including Pierre.  (We had the windows open, so we definitely should've smelled something.)  As long as Pierre doesn't cause us any problems, he's free to live under the wood pile.  Hell, if he doesn't stink, he may have been living under that pile for years without us knowing.  If he starts causing problems, we'll find a way to encourage him to move elsewhere.

I don't know why this never occurred to me until I saw Pierre, but Pepe le Pew is a French skunk with a Spanish name.  Maybe Pepe hails from the Spain/France border.  Perhaps he's Basque.  :chortle:

Yesterday, I made applesauce bread.  This time I put diced apple in there.  Yummers.

Thanksgiving is a week from today.  Feel free to panic.  I know I am.  I haven't even gotten a turkey yet.  It's always just the two of us for holidays.  I feel bad for my family up in Michigan.  No one is coming to Mom's for Thanksgiving this year.  I mean, my one sister who lives close will be there, but she's always there, so while it's nice, it's not special.  My brother and other sister won't be coming with their families for the big special family gathering.  Sad.  Gah, I just realized that also shits out Mom's yearly shopping trip with my sisters.  Every day-after-Thanksgiving, it's a family tradition for the gals to go Christmas shopping.  (Not 'Black Friday' style shopping.  No getting up early, no stress.  Just a nice trip with the girls.  I used to go, too, but I live too far away now.)  Double sad.  =o(

I'm trying really hard to not let all of this crap get to me.  This really has been a shit year, though.  Nothing hugely horrible has happened.  We're all still alive.  It's just a constant droning of pain in the background - like that one bone you broke years ago that still hurts when the weather gets bad.  Sometimes you can forget about it or ignore it, but it's always there, waiting to flare up and hurt like the dickens.  It's either a constant ache or the fear of more pain to come.  Yep, that's what this year has been.

And on that cheery note, I'll let you get back to your day.  Hang in there, everybody.  :hugs:

Not Dead

Hey everybody.  Sorry I haven't posted in a couple days.  I just haven't had anything to post about that wasn't ranting or whining.  And who needs that crap, eh?  

Nothing else new has been going on.  Post-publication writing depression, but that's not new.  Or even very interesting.  

Last night, I did start thinking about one of my left-behind stories from a couple years back - unfortunately while I was trying to sleep, but hey, you get insights when you get them.  This morning, I went back and read the couple pages I'd previously written and, while they're good stuff, I remember why I stopped writing this.  I need to do a shit-ton of research to get it right. I still wrote down some of the stuff I'd thought about last night, though.  It's not a dead idea, I just have to find/make the time to do it.

I posted a snippet of the above story on Silver James' blog, if you're interested.  It fit her prompt perfectly.  How's that for serendipity?  

Anyway, I'm not dead.  I'm not even sick.  I know in these messed up times we all have to wonder and worry when a friend stops posting.  I know I worry when a friend doesn't post like they're supposed to.  But it's all good here.  We're still pretty much hermits, so not a lot of risk of getting the Kung Flu with us.  I did hug another human being I didn't live with and wasn't related to for the first time since March, but I think I'm safe.  (And she really needed a hug right then, so I felt it was worth the risk.)

So, how are you?  How are things going in your lives? 

Sunday Update - Week 46

Oh, what a night.  Apparently, some tornado stuff was swirling around the area.  We're fine here.  When the sun comes up, we'll see what damage, if any, there is to the outside.  At one point, it sounded like a large limb came down.  And there was hail.  Weeee.  As long as all my car windows are intact, I'll be content.

I actually did start the week out with writing.  I got about 750 words out.  Then crickets.  The books are also swirling around but in my head.  When I get them sorted out, I'll probably be able to write more.

Marketing... ahem... The first two books of A Model Curse are still on sale - through to midnight tonight - but I fell down on marketing them.  It's hard to market when you don't see results from the marketing efforts.  

I only finished one book before the wrap-up went out yesterday.  Then yesterday, I inhaled the rest of the other book I was reading.  I'll talk about that one on Saturday.

In baking news, I made brownies.  Oh, so good.  And yesterday, I made homemade pizza.  Always yummy.  I think I've already posted those recipes, so they're not here.  If you missed them and want them, let me know.

The other day, Mom said something about not knowing if one of her cousins was still alive, so I did some genealogy stuff.  As far as I can tell, Cousin Shar is still with us, but one of her daughters is gone and one of her grandsons.  

Let's not talk about exercise, activity, or weight this week, eh?

We saw another different buck in the yard.  A little four point with symmetrical antlers.  Not to confused with the little four point whose antlers look like hooks.  So, now there's Arthur, Lear, Captain, Val, and Spike.  Lumpy is still coming for food, sometimes with the twins and sometimes without.  I don't know if I've ever mentioned White Legs, but she's here, too.  (Her two front legs are white.)  And now we're starting to see other does with white legs, so she's passing on her genes.  Yay.

And that's about it for me today.  How are things in your world?

Satruday Reading Wrap-up - 11/14/20

Hey there.  It's early on Saturday morning and I didn't set this up last night because I was reading, so I get a pass, right?

I have one ebook left from earlier in the month - a thriller.  I also picked up three new ebooks - a romance, a romantic suspense, and a mystery.  I'm reading the romantic suspense right now because I've been waiting for this book for a while and it's finally here!  Yay!  No new hardcopies.

Books Read:

74) Flintelf (Exili's Excellent Elucidation Services, #1) by Victoria Bastedo (11/12/20) - Fantasy Mystery*#. 5 stars.  New to me and underappreciated,  Free off the Book Gorilla newsletter.
Review: "What a fun story! I do love fantasies and mysteries, so fantasy mystery as a genre is perfect for me. And this is an awesome example with a unique premise, interesting characters, and an intriguing mystery. Well done!"

DNFs:

11/8/20 - American Sniper by Chris Kyle.  I just couldn't get into it.  And I really really tried.

Currently reading... the third and final book in a series I have thoroughly enjoyed.  So far it's really good with loads of feels, and despite how long it took to get this last book, I'm falling right back into the story.  

What reading hijinks have you been up to this week?

Thursday This n That

I'm trying really hard not to be a downer out there in the world, but it ain't easy.  A friend of mine had a nice, positive post this morning and I wrote a really bummer comment to it, but I deleted it.  I mean, who needs that crap on their blog, eh?  But this is my blog and I can be whatever I need to be here.  So, if you wanted a cheery post this morning, sorry.  It's this or no post at all today.

When I got up, this morning was already looking like it was going to be a bad one so I put extra coffee in my coffee.  Soon I'll be able to hear colors.

Sorry I missed posting yesterday.  It was Wallyworld day and I got an early start on that trial.

Speaking of the Wallyworld trip, what a zoo.  Wallyworld has moved everything around again.  According to one worker there, they're doing this at all their stores to make a sort of uniformity nationwide.  So anyone who goes into any Walmart will be able to find anything.  I guess there will be some sort of map you can access with the app.  Umm, I don't have a smartphone, so nerts to you Walmart.  And I'll say it again: Totally wrong year to be doing any of this, dudes.

When the young gal I was talking to told me about the app, I told her I don't have a smartphone and she continued like I'd told her I don't have the app - explaining where I could get it.  I finally took my phone out of my pocket and held it up to her.  "I don't have a smartphone."  She was astounded.  Then I told her I'd had the phone for over 10 years.  That really blew her away.  Ah, to be young again.

Speaking of the young gal, she was a greeter.  We started talking about the chaos and masks and stuff.  She told me she's been cursed at, hit, and spit on for asking people to wear a mask in Walmart.  I get not wanting to wear a mask.  Hell, I don't want to wear one.  I get wanting to assert your freedom to not wear a mask.  They actually can't make you wear one if you don't want to.  I do NOT get hitting or spitting on a young woman who's just trying to do her damn job.  Animals.  Whoever it was was lucky I didn't see them doing this.  I would've called the police.  And trust me, they'd better not ever spit on me.  I'll end them.  (Or Hubs will.  He was justifiably pissed on behalf of the young woman when I told him the story.)  

I told the young lady to be careful and carry pepper spray, you know in case someone gets really psycho and follows her to her car.  She told me they're not allowed to walk to their cars alone anymore.  They go in pairs.  This is a Walmart in a town of about 5000 people in the middle of a very rural area.  You don't expect that crap here.  But I guess that's the world we live in now and the depths to which we've been dragged, where you have to watch your back wherever you are because you never know if the person next to you is a psycho.

Which reminds me of a line from the song "Heathens" by Twenty-one Pilots: "You'll never know the psychopath sitting next to you."  Cheery.

And on that note, I'll let you go back to your other activities.  Hang in there.  This too shall pass.  Or we'll learn to adapt to it. 

Social Media - The Options

With the big options in social media showing themselves to be buttwarts, people are scrambling for another option.  So in addition to the FB, you can find me at MeWe and Parler. 

MeWe - seems like it's going to be a good alternative to FB.  I mean, once more people migrate over and I find my base.  I have around 200 followers on FB, and not nearly that many yet on MW (I'm sitting at 14 as of yesterday morning).  But there's hope.  MeWe promises to not censor stuff or block stuff or impede your reach.  So basically, I hope it'll actually show my posts to people who follow me and actually show me posts of the people I follow.

Parler - this seems like it's an alternative to Twitter - with parlays instead of tweets and echoes instead of shares.  It's open to everyone, but it seems like a conservative safe-haven at the moment.  Not sure how much marketing I'll be able to do there.  It doesn't seem like the place to do that right now.  It seems very serious.  Might be a good place to market Blink and Unequal. 

I've also heard of something called Gab, which I'm looking into.  Of course, the main stream media complex has deemed that one a place for all the bad white people to hang out.  We'll see.

Like I said, I'm still on Facebook.  Unless I want to shoot myself in the ass with regard to my publishing career, I have to have a presence there.  But from what I've seen over the past week, the exodus is on.

That said, I also still have a Pinterest account and I have one on Instagram that I can't use because I don't have a smartphone.  I still have a Twitter account, but only so no one else can claim besanderson as their twitter handle.  And, as always, you can reach me here and via email.  Like FB, I can't give up all the Google-based stuff without hurting myself.  Although I am trying to shift my internet searches over to Duck Duck Go.  

Anyway, that's me.  There are options out there, if you're so inclined.  See ya around the webz!

Sunday Update - Week 45

 Well, as I said yesterday, it's been a week.  I don't want to talk about all that right now, so let's just talk about regular stuffs, eh?

Yeah, still not in a writing place, but I did spend some time thinking about writing and trying to make the next SCIU book work in my head so I can get it on paper (virtual paper, but still).  Cinder Ugly went live on Monday, so I did some FB posts about that.  The series went 'live' as a group, too, so there were posts about that.  Tomorrow, the sale for SU and UatB starts, so there will be posts and junk about that.

I did some reading.

I don't remember when I made cake, but I ate the last piece yesterday.  Chocolate oil cake with chocolate peanut butter franken-frosting.  I keep planning on making yeast rolls, but I take the recipe out, set it on the counter, and then later in the day, I put it back.  The thought of kneading makes my arms hurt.  Today, I'll probably use up the last of the apples and cranberries in a crisp of some sort.

Let's not talk about activity and weight, eh?  

A few days ago, I was looking through my CDs for something different to listen to and found my Chuck Mangione 'best of' album.  So I've been listening to that.  I'd forgotten how much I loved Chuck.  He gives me a happy.  

The deer are getting ready for the rut.  The boys are being turds and pushing everyone around.  The ladies are being all standoffish.  The kids are on their own and not liking it.  This, too, shall pass.

Hubs has been raking.  There are too many leaves right now to use the mower.  Once we get the big piles taken care of, he'll mulch the rest.  I've been raking a little, too, but he's doing the lion's share of the work.  I finally got into the woods and started moving deadfall into the piles.  Tidying up a bit, doncha know.  

The eagles and the sapsuckers are back.  Yay.  And we've been seeing flickers in the yard again.  I also saw a golden-crowned kinglet.  The only winter visitors we haven't seen yet are the juncos.  They'll be here soon.  Oh, and I might've mentioned that this was a banner year for berries.  The robins came through and took care of that.  Whoosh.  One morning we had scads of berries on the spicebushes and the dogwoods, etc.  By afternoon, they were gone.  A couple days later, a single robin was hopping around one spicebush, looking everywhere for berries to no avail.  Sorry, bud, you snooze, you lose.

Anyway, I think that's about it for A Week in the Exciting Life of B.E. Sanderson.  How did things go in your life?

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 11/7/20

Howdy.  It's been a week, but I did manage to get a couple books read.

In new books, I picked up two new ebooks.  Which was good because those last two unread ebooks I had were DNFs.  I got a fantasy mystery and a British thriller.  Fingers crossed they're as good as they looked when I snagged them.  No new hardcopies.

Books Read:

73) Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, March 1994, Double issue (11/4/20) Mystery shorts.  5 stars.  Loads of new to me authors in there and this only has one review because I'm the one who added it to Goodreads.  Picked this up at the thrift store for 25c.
Review: "Mostly four and five star stories. Only one dud."

72) Rafe (Texas Boudreau Brotherhood #1) by Kathy Ivan (11/1/20) - Romance*. 5 stars. New to me but not underappreciated.  Free off the ENT newsletter.
Review: "A wonderful little sweet romance with some suspense thrown in. Just what I needed to read."

DNFs:

11/5/20 - mystery.  free.  Another ugh.  Again with the lack of flow.  And the victim was never introduced, he was just dead.  Why would I care if I never met the man?  Plus, there were some questionable bits I couldn't get past.

11/5/20 - UF.  free.  Ugh.  I guess I hadn't realized this was YA, but still, the writing was... I dunno... not great.  Too much backstory piled on with no flow.  Bored the crap right out of me.

11/2/20 - suspense. 50c.  A book I'd never heard of from a well-known author, which should, in itself, tell me something.  Gah.  I know he was trying to show the normal family life of his main character before shit hits the fan, but really?  I can do without the nitty-gritty.  If that's how it's going to start, I didn't hold out much hope for the rest of the book.  Thank goodness this author's book aren't all like this or I'd have a serious sad.

Currently reading... American Sniper by Chris Kyle.  So far, it's not nearly as exciting as I thought it would be.  Oh, it's pretty good.  You can tell it's not written by someone who writes for a living, though.  The flow is off.  But that's okay.  

So, how was your reading week?

Thursday This n That

This has been the longest week ever and it ain't done yet.

I really need to wash my monitor screen.  Yuck.

Speaking of cleaning up, I've been buying these baby wet-wipes.  The kind without anything in them - no aloe, no scent, etc.  I started buying them when we had Max, because his mouth was nasty and he couldn't wash himself.  They're perfect for cats and I use them for Kira now.  They're also great for quicky clean-ups - hands, face, etc. and spot cleaning counters, floors, walls - when you don't have time to actually wash and you want something that won't leave a residue.  

I spent a half-hour before bed last night listening to classical music, hoping it would help my brain wind down.  It was nice.  But nope.  The brain still wouldn't shut the hell up so I could sleep.  Blerg.

Zipped into Wallyworld yesterday for a few things (yes, a FEW things) to discover they'd rearranged it all again.  Oh, they'd already done the 'non-food' half of the store, but this time, they'd moved the food, too.  I never did find where they moved the coffee to.  Not a big deal since I was only looking for instant this time and I wasn't there for a full on shopping experience.  Next time... well, I'll deal with that when the time comes.  Personally, I think it was immensely stupid of Walmart of rearrange any its stores this year.  Like shoppers don't already have enough to deal with.  But that's me.

I really really REALLY need to get some exercise.  My whole 'activity every day' thing fell apart a couple weeks ago and I haven't done diddly-squat.  I've only walked like a half a mile since the 11th.  And I'm paying for it, lemme tell ya.  I always feel crappier when I get sedentary.

Last night, as I was listening to music, I made a decision.  I am not going to let them take my happy.  If this goes the way its looking like it's going to go, they're going to be taking a lot of other things from us all, but they cannot have my happy.  Don't let them have yours either.

The Next Day

Well, it's the morning after.  Everything here in MO went according to the way I voted except one amendment which was amending something back to the way it was before and a couple of local seats that were more of a 'this guy or this guy could win and I won't care' - like county coroner.  I voted for the independent there because I thought he had more experience overall.  The guy who won was already in as coroner after the last coroner died.  :shrug:  And I voted for the incumbent commissioner for our area because why fix what ain't broke.  The other voters didn't agree.  :also shrug:  It's not like the post is critical really.

Of course, the Presidency is still up in the air.  With each side saying 'our guy won'.  And the press getting things all farged up.  This is all unsurprising.  

We went to bed at 9.  Hubs was up in the middle of the night.  I'm up now and he's sleeping.  Nothing's changed as far as the election goes.  It'll probably be days.  Might be weeks.  They stopped counting votes in PA.  There was some kind of water main break or something in Atlanta, so Georgia's ballots will have to wait.  Not sure what's up with Arizona.  

Personally, I've always thought the media called the races way too early, but that's me.  "With 1% of the votes counted, we declare X has won"... Umm, ri-i-ght. 

I spent a bit of time yesterday blocking people on FB again.  Nobody I knew, but just people with lunatic comments in other people's posts.  People actually defending socialism like it's a good thing.  That sort of stuff.  Umm, don't know you, don't want to... block.

Anyway, here's hoping that when the dust settles, we'll still have a nation of laws and freedom.  I don't want to think about the alternative.

Okay, off you go into the world.  I've got to figure out what I'm going to do today when I don't actually feel like doing anything. 

Election Day

Well, folks, it's election day here in the states. It's probably the most important election day in our lifetimes.  So, go vote.  From what I understand, it's supposed to be beautiful day in pretty much the whole country, so no excuses, eh?

If you don't know who you're voting for by now, I can't help you.  Hell, if you didn't know who you were voting for months ago, then you weren't paying attention.  Nothing I say right here, right now, is going to change anything.  Unless it lights a fire under your butt to go vote.

Hubs and I will be trotting down to the community center to cast our votes in a few hours - once the sun comes up enough so it's not in my eyes as I drive.  Safety first, doncha know.  I hate driving with the sun in my eyes.  I'll do it if I have to, but I don't have to today.  We've got all day.  We just like getting it done in the morning.

Here's hoping there are no problems like I've heard about in other places with the early ballots.  I swear, if I get there and there's even one circle already blacked in, I'm going to go apeshit.  

It should be pretty smooth here.  Not a lot of people in this area, so I don't expect huge lines.  Once, we got to the polling place and there were like three people in front of us.  Also, our polling place shares a building with the tiny local library.  They're almost never open, but they have books for sale outside in the hall, so I might come home with a few.  (Depends on if I have to wait for Hubs or if he gets done first.)

Of course, I woke up feeling gross.  Not 'rona gross.  More like something I ate isn't agreeing with me.  And I didn't sleep well.  Again.  But I'll go vote if I have to crawl across the parking lot and up the steps to vote.  (I'm not quite that gross-feeling.  And I'll be back to fine by the time we go probably. Thank goodness for coffee.)

I'd like to think that after today, this will all be over and we can go back to our lives.  But they're making it pretty clear this isn't going to be over today.  Have to make sure they count all the mail-in ballots, doncha know - which could take days... or weeks.  Umm...  If you didn't get your mail-in ballot in the mail in plenty of time to get to where it was going by now, shame on you.  And if they didn't get their asses in gear to count all the mail-in ballots by midnight tonight, shame on them.  We all want our lives back, thank you very much.

So, yeah, if you haven't already voted, go vote.  If you didn't vote and aren't going to, I don't want to know.  I also don't want to know who you voted for.  Keep everything nice and civil today - here if nowhere else.

And otherwise, have a great day.  Tomorrow will sort itself out one way or another.

Sunday Update - Week 44

Hello again.  We're slowly creeping toward the end of 2020.  A lot of people won't be sad to put this year behind them, and I'm one of them.  Still, whether 2021 is better than this is up to you.  And what happens on Tuesday.  Positive forward progress vs negative sliding backward.  

And if you haven't set your clock back yet, you should probably get on that at some point today.  (We do ours Sunday morning after the coffee has kicked in.)  Right now, the computers and the satellite clocks all say 5:30 and the other clocks all say 6:30.  :shrug: 

Anyway... I didn't do any writing this past week.  This was mainly due to getting Cinder Ugly done and up for pre-order and focusing on the Once Upon a Djinn sale.  Post-publication is not a good writing time for me.  I get the blues.  Meh.

I have done a bunch of marketing this week.  It's netted me 9 sales, which is more than I've sold over the past few months combined.  If I'd done some paid advertising, I could've possibly raised that number, but paying for marketing is not in the cards right now.  Gotta sell books to make money so I can pay for advertising to sell books.  It's a vicious circle.

On the reading front, it was a good week.  Not gangbusters, but good.

This week was not good for activity.  It rained.  A lot.  Like 7 inches worth of sky water.  And I was not inclined to exercise indoors.  Or clean.  Meh.  Let's not talk about weight.  I didn't weigh myself.  I don't want to and you can't make me.

I made oatmeal raisin cookies this week.  Those are for Hubs.  I had planned to make a meatloaf yesterday, but then I got a wild hair and picked up the fixin's for chili.  Big ol' vat of it.  Yum.  Actually I planned to make the meatloaf Thursday and then forgot until it was too late in the day to start it.  That's the problem with meatloaf.  It takes 2.5 hours to cook, so I have to get it in the oven by 2:30 if I want it ready by dinner.  And I don't like eating late.  I'm getting a real craving for cake, so that might be on the to-do list for today.

Speaking of wild hairs, I cut my hair yesterday.  It was driving me nuts.  Back up above my collar it goes.  Yay.

It's finally getting cold enough to go into the woods.  I haven't yet - 7" of rain makes muddy mush out of my hill.  The rain also screws up the fishing - makes a muddy mess out of the river, doncha know.  I hope to be able to do both of those things soon.

I've been thinking about what to do for writing next.  Again, I'm faced with the same decisions - do I hit the unfinished YA fantasy, or the unfinished mystery, or the unfinished UF?  Or do I start a new book - another SCIU or Dennis Haggarty?  Decisions decisions.  I'll figure it out.  Needless to say, I will not be starting NaNoWriMo today.

I think that's about it for me today.  What went on in your week?  What lies ahead?