Thursday This n That

 Alligator Alcatraz...  First off, I just saw some liberal chick whining quite incorrectly that it was a wildlife sanctuary and how dare we all celebrate it because it's cruel.  I also saw a cute cartoon of some alligators talking and one says 'did you hear we get to eat them if they escape?'  Which reminded me of this prison just outside Marquette, Michigan.  It's across the street from Lake Superior and it butts up to some of the nastiest, craggy woodlands you'd ever want to see.  Back when I was in college, it had the highest walkaway rate of any prison in Michigan.  But the escapees were rarely ever seen again.  You see, it was filled with criminals from places like Detroit and Flint.  City boys who probably had never taken a survival course in their lives.  The way I figure it, the missing criminals either went into the water and drown, or they went into the woods and died.  Win win, in my book.

Soon, I will be able to kick Brightspeed to the curb.  The VoiP is in place and working smashingly.  I called Mom on it yesterday.  Unfortunately, the Starlink router only has 2 ports, and we have 2 computers to plug in, so I needed a splitter.  It came and after some massaging, it's working, too.  The true test will be calling Mom through the splitter this morning.  Keep your fingers crossed.  I have a temp phone # until my regular # transfers over to the new service, so don't try to call me at this time.

Better internet... check.  Better phone... check.  Next up, replacing the satellite TV with something like Roku.  Woot.

Man, Wallyworld was a zoo yesterday.  Totally spasticness.  

What's with this new crap here on Blogger?  This morning it has a notice at the top - some crap about upgrading something - and it just offered to insert links into my post for me.  Why the hell would I want links inserted into my post?  Wouldn't a link take people away from READING my post?  Derp.  Makes no sense.

My tomatoes might almost be trying to make flowers.  Fingers crossed.

My black walnut tree got root rot and died.  I guess they aren't meant for growing in a pot.  Next time I have to transplant a volunteer walnut, I'll find a place in the woods for it.  =o(

I almost put in -o(... That would be a cyclops, I guess. Rawr.

Okay, that's about all I've got today.  Feel free to drop some this-n-that yourself before you wander off.  Have a great day!

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 2

2025 Week 2... or the first full week of the year.  Woot.

By now you're probably sick of me saying I haven't written.  That's okay, I'm pretty sick of not writing myself.  On a brighter note, I finally finished inputting the first round of edit notes and I have begun making another set of edit notes.  This is the process.  I'm shooting to have this done and published before Valentine's Day.  We'll see if that actually happens.  It would be a good thing, especially since 2/13 is my 10th anniversary of being a published author.  

I spent a boatload of time on marketing this week.  I finished the freebie thing for Fertile Ground and did the whole freebie thing for In Deep Wish.  I moved over 315 books, some of them for actual $$ (okay, 301 were free).  As sad as that sounds, this is already my third best January since I started selling books and it's only the 12th of the month.  Monday starts a freebie thing for Ugly and the Beast.  I need to get to work on some graphics for that.

Earlier this week, I actually finished reading a book.  I haven't started a new one because... Well, I'm lazy.

Speaking of lazy, I haven't gotten any exercise this week.  Unless you count shining the red dot for the kitties.  Or stirring ingredients for baking.

Ah, baking... I made a chocolate oil cake covered in raspberry jam and vanilla frosting last Sunday.  Yesterday, I did a batch of cinnamon rolls.  Much stirring was involved, so I guess that's exercise. Heh.  I might do pizza today.  We'll see.

In weather news, we got about 5 inches of snow.  And some freakin' cold temps.  The temps are up a little, so the snow's melting.  We lost satellite TV for a few hours.  We lost satellite internet for... Oh, wait.  We DIDN'T lose internet.  At all.  It didn't even slow down.  Elon Musk is my hero.  On the bright side, it's supposed to be bright and sunny for the next week or so.  Fingers crossed it melts all the crap still on the roof.  And on the roads... because no one has bothered to come down these 'publicly maintained' roads with a plow yet.  

I think that's it.  I'm a pretty boring person.  All the interesting things go into my fiction and everything else is blah.

Have a great day today, wherever you are.  And feel free to drop a comment, if you so desire.

Randomosity

I didn't do a Sunday update because not much happened last week.  Not much exciting is happening this week either, so don't be surprised if there isn't one this Sunday either.

Screamin' fast internet.  It's deep and it's real, man.

Yeah, I just remembered... Happy Christmas Eve.  I'm making a loaded lasagna tomorrow. Loads of meat.  Loads of cheese.  Loads of sauce.  A layer of Portobello mushrooms.  Olives. I have to put a pan under it to keep it from dripping all over the bottom of the stove.  It'll be pretty epic.  Today, I need to make the sauce so it's ready for tomorrow build.  ;o)

I bought a new day planner for 2025.  They didn't have the kind I wanted, so I bought a different one.  I don't like it, but I've already written in it, so I can't return it.  Derp.

I'm trying to keep Christmas in my heart this week.  The world is not making it easy.  I won't go into the specifics here because I don't want to harsh anyone else's day.  If you've been paying attention to the news, you'll know without my saying.  

I sent my sister a birthday card back on the 6th.  Last time we talked, she still hadn't received it.  She did get the Christmas card I sent, which was mailed after the b-day card.  The USPS is drunk.

The other day I saw two bald eagles flying circles around each other and then chasing each other.  It was pretty awesome.

Yesterday, I made pecan raisin cinnamon rolls.  They're so huge I had to use two pans - a 9x13" and a 9" round.  I ended up with 19 rolls.  Gah.  Unfortunately, I did not put enough goo inside them, so they're pretty blah.  Thank goodness I bought cream cheese frosting in a can so we can slather them up.  Yum.

The Boyz already got their Christmas prezzies.  I found a chicken and a pig - they're round and flat with some padding and crinkly stuff and a squeaker in each.  They are each too cute for words.  Anyway, the cats are mildly amused with them, but they aren't as much of a sensation as their ducks.  :shrug:  They'd rather chase baby crickets.

Speaking of which, for some reason, there's been a baby cricket hatch in the house.  It's keeping the cats occupied.  They both play with them but when the crickets are no longer fun (i.e. no longer moving), Finn is the only one who eats them.  I guess Sawyer has different tastes.

Okay, I'm done.  Go forth and have an awesome day.  And if I don't see you tomorrow, have a very Merry Christmas.  :HUGS:

Sunday Update 12/15/24

T minus 16 for launch on 2025.  I repeat... T minus 16 for launch.

Finn's in my lap and making it difficult to type, but we'll see if I can't get this post out anyway. 

Actually, I don't have that much to talk about this week.  I didn't write or edit or market.  I take that last part back.  I did some marketing early in the week as I wrapped up my Song of Storm and Shroud freebie offering.  I ended up moving 87 copies and saw a some KU action for this and previous freebies.  Woot.  I need to figure out a plan for the rest of the year.  Your guess is as good as mine.  On the bright side... we'll all be surprised.

I did some reading, which you can find out about by looking at yesterday's post.  I'm one book away from reaching my reading goal for the year.  

In cooking news, I made more Rolo pretzel turtles.  I also did a vat of chili yesterday.  Hubs is still working on last week's blondies, but I plan on making more stuff.  I have the fixin's for chocolate cake cookies with the mint patties in the middle, so there's that.  Also, I'll do more blondies using a different recipe.  The last ones were good, but not spectacular.  We're searching for spectacular here, folks.

No activity worth talking about.  I did weigh myself, though, and I'm sitting at 174.4.  No real change in the old fat level despite being a toad, so I got that going for me. 

We're still working on putting the Starlink up.  We'd planned on getting outside with it yesterday, but it rained all morning and then the roof was a wet mess.  We'll see what today brings.  The clock is ticking on our 30 day return window, but we still have plenty of time.

When I first woke up this morning, it looked pretty clear out there in the woods, but as I sat there smoking, the fog slowly rolled in.  Within ten minutes, the woods were filled with a thin fog.  Now, about a half hour later, it's pea soup.  Pretty creepy, man.  And kinda cool.

Okay, that's about it for me and my boring life.  What's up with you?