Sunday Update - Week 28

Well, here we are again.  Twenty-eight weeks in and on the downslope of 2021.

I finished the first draft of Untitled Fantasy.Thursday night.  Yeah, still don't have a title.  I'm thinking about Shroudlands for the series (umm, since I'm already thinking about the next book, I guess I have myself another series here), but for this book... no clue.  It topped out at 97552 words.  It will expand and contract when I put it under the heat of editing, so who knows where it'll end up.

In marketing news, A Model Curse will go on sale Tuesday.  Sleeping Ugly will be free for 5 days and the other two (Ugly and the Beast and Cinder Ugly) will be 99c/99p each.  So, three books for $1.98.  

With the writing being done for now, I hopped into some reading.  

On the baking side of things, I made cake cookies and pizza.  It's really getting too hot to bake much.

I started the week out pretty good with the activity thing.  Then I fell down.  (Figuratively, not literally.)  I was back at it yesterday, though, so I had 4 active days this week.  I'm up to over 17 miles on the exercise bike.  Woohoo.  And the weight is slowly coming down again.  Weight: 183.6.

Speaking of being on the bike, I've been putting old tapes on to listen to while I ride.  The last few times, it's been Icehouse - their first self-titled album that I dubbed off an old boyfriend's tape and then dubbed again onto a different tape so side B would be the Icehouse 'Man of Colours' album.  Well, when it got to the end of the tape, I was riding along and didn't feel like getting off the bike to change tapes and I just let it play itself out instead of fast-forwarding to the end like I usually do.  A strange thing happened.  It sounded like there was something on the end of the tape.  I stopped the bike and turned the volume up, wondering what the hell it was.  And I heard a baby.  It wasn't crying or anything.  Just cooing and making standard baby noises.  And then I realized it was Owl.  I stopped the tape and went to go have a cigarette.  Then I went back, rewound the tape to the end of the music and sat down to listen.  At one point, I did say her name, so that verifies I did, in fact, tape my baby.  For the most part, though, there was no sound on the tape other than Owl.  And maybe a TV in the background.  I don't remember doing it.  I'm sure I never listened to it before last night.  But there it was.  I wonder if I did that on any other tapes.  Are there more tiny time capsules?  Who knows.

We've decided to sell our boat.  Since we bought it, we've only used it 3 times.  It was fun, but not FUN-fun.  It's just taking up space in the garage.  Plus, I prefer bank fishing, since I get motion sick and have to where those wristbands.  :shrug:  So, I've been going around putting up flyers at various places.  Hubs' ad goes out in the paper on Thursday.  

Oh, I almost forgot.  I got a wild hair the other day and decided to try drawing my concept of a beast I created for the fantasy.  So I sat here and looked at some photos of things I'd said the beast looked like - panther body, bat ears.  Considering I haven't drawn anything in years, it's not too bad.  It's not cover art worthy by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm pleased.  I have to finish it, but yeah, not awful.  And since Hubs could see what it was I was trying to do - bat kitty beast? - I'm calling it a win.  (BTW, I'm calling it a mistmorph.)  Maybe if I finish it, I'll be brave enough to scan it and share it.  Don't hold your breath, though.

Okay, that's probably enough out of me this morning.  How'd your week 28 go?

Thursday This n That

Well, Blogger has finally forced me to use their new thingie.  What a pain in the ass.  Nothing is how I'm used to it being.  Woohoo.  So worth all the time and money they put into it.  Not.  Change for the sole sake of change is never a good idea.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it.  Or in this case, if it ain't broke, don't break it so you can claim to have fixed it.  (I'm looking at you, too, Facebook.)

I've been using Blogger in its original format for 14 freakin' years.  Previously, you needed to put in spaces between paragraphs and now you don't, so I'm sitting here hitting my ENTER and then having to go back and delete the now extra space.  GAH.  Yeah, in the scheme of things, it's not that big a deal, but right now, any change is compounded to be extra irritating.  

Anyway...

I made lemon squares yesterday.  So full of lemony goodness.  I'll post the recipe Sunday maybe.  

Last night, I heard from Owl.  She's fine up there - school's going well, she's got herself a job.  Right after I got off the phone with her, I read a news story about a police shooting and standoff in Michigan and when I went to see where the particular township in question was - cuz that's what I do - it was, oh... about a mile from her campus.  Back amongst the nutcases, she is.  Blerg. 

Don't get me started on people shooting police officers.  Seriously.  Don't.

I've been having trouble getting to sleep lately.  Oh, once I'm asleep, I seem to do fine, but actually getting there is a pain in the ass.  My stupid brain just won't shut the hell up.  As such, I've been sleeping in lately, which throws my whole morning off.  Thus, it's after 7 and I'm just now getting my post for today written.

Day before yesterday, I went fishing for the first time in about two months.  It was nice to be out at the lake again, even if I only caught one little pumpkinseed.  

Okay, enough of this.  Blogger has managed to make blogging an unpleasant chore this morning.  Like blogging wasn't already in the throes of dying anyway, they had to squirt oil all over the ramp into the grave.

What's up with you?

One additional note.  Guess what happens when you click the PUBLISH button?  A message flashes up that you are about to publish your post and asks if that's what you want to do.  Well, I wouldn't have clicked the damn PUBLISH button if I didn't want to post it, you raging twitweasels.  And they don't have a freakin' edit button anymore... I hate you, Blogger.  Seriously.

Thursday This n That

Yesterday, the Owl woke me up from my nap.  Not really, because she's like a thousand miles away from here now, but I was sleeping and I must've dreamed she was out in the living room talking to Hubs, which woke me up.  Ah, the things our brains do. 

Looking for something different to listen to, I loaded my Paul Simon Graceland CD.  Now it's stuck in my head.  On random.  And repeat. 

Years ago, on the MDA Labor Day Telethon, Tony Orlando sang 'Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes' from that album.  I'll never forget it because he screwed up the words.  Instead of 'slipped into her pocket with her car keys' he said 'slipped into her pocket and took her car keys'.  ROFL  Now every time I hear that song, I think of that.  My brain works in mysterious ways.

Does anyone even remember spending the whole of Labor Day watching the telethon?  All that talent and music and fun pulling for a cause.  Sometimes Dad would take us to where the fireman were filling their boots with donations so we could throw some change in the boot.  Does anyone do that anymore?  Do they even have a telethon?  I don't want to think about what it's turned into/  The last time I watched, it was lame and talentless and boring as hell.  I miss Jerry Lewis.

Anyway...

The fawns are losing their spots.  :sadface:  The buck fawns will start to get antler buds soon, but right now, they all look like little does.  They're also starting to show their independence and moving away from their moms.  Good thing, too, because they have to be on their own before the rut comes.  It seems early for losing the spots, but what do I know. Does this mean an early winter?  Time will tell.

I found another itty-bitty, teeny-tiny snake on my walk the other day.  I never did figure out what kind it was.  Black head, tan/taupe body.  Definitely non-venomous because the head was in line with the body.  Might've been a northern red-bellied snake, but since I didn't turn it over, I'll never know.  I just picked it up by the tail and moved it out of the road.  It was totally chill. 

Okay, that's enough out of me today.  What's up with you?

Thursday This n That

I'm currently adding words to that mystery thing I started back in June.  For the most part, it's slow going, but I am still writing every day.  (Except Sunday.  I took Sunday off.)

Welcome to the next round of 'people have gone shitpants crazy' in America.

I did some much-needed weeding yesterday.  The last time I weeded was early June, so yeah, it needs it.  I had big plans to get a bunch of it done.  I did three smaller beds and quit because I was soaked in sweat and plum tuckered out. 

This is the last day Owl will be here.  Laundry and packing for her.  I'll be making pizza.  I think the old hands can take it.  And if they can't, well they need to get the hell over it.  Tomorrow, we'll head north to the airport.  Then I'll collapse. 

All this 'start, stop, start, stop' 'constantly wondering what's next' crap is exhausting.  Which, by the way, is the general consensus of people I've talked to around here.  Everyone is exhausted.

On one of my walks this week, I came across the teeny-tiniest, widdle-bitty baby snake.  Probably no more than 4 inches long and about the diameter of a piece of yarn.  It was a baby ring-necked snake - black with a pretty yellow necklace.  So cute.  I picked it up and it sat in my palm for a minute before it wanted down.  I set it off the road and it went its merry way into the long grass.  I'm so glad I didn't see it squashed in the road.  That would've given me a sad.

Well, I guess that's it for me today.  What's on your this-n-that radar?

So This Happened

Sunday I made a cake with BYE Owl and a frowny face on it.  Owl also said that with everything being so close, there wasn't any possible way for this to get screwed up.

I think we jinxed it.

Yesterday, Owl came out of her room and I knew something was wrong.  I was on my way out to the smoking porch, but I stopped and asked what was up.  She was all like 'oh, it can wait until after you have your cigarette' and I was all like 'okay, what's wrong? again.  Turns out she'd just gotten an email from the university.

Five days before she is due to fly north, the university announced that they're not allowing students into the dorms for an additional three weeks.  Oh, classes will start on time - online - but no housing.  Because there might be an outbreak due to Labor Day celebrations and they want to wait until after the outbreak is over to let students back into the dorms.  Or some such crap.  So conceivably, the earliest she might be able to move in is Sept. 20th. 

There is an outside chance she will get a 'special dispensation' to move in on time, but she's running out of time to change flights and rental car reservations, so they'd better get off their asses and tell her whether she can move or not.

And, of course, there's no telling whether in three weeks, they'll decide to move the goalposts again.

Needless to say, I spent the rest of the day playing poker because everything else I wanted to do to bleed off stress - throw logs, go fishing, walk - was crapped out by the heat.  I hate this shit. 

Updated 8:20pm:  Owl got an email saying she was getting special dispensation and can move in on Saturday as scheduled.  :cue screeching of tires and grinding of gears:  Thankfully, she did not cancel or change her flights or her rental car.  Everything is back on for Friday.  :collapses in a heap:

Sunday Update - Week 33

Hello.  It's bright and early on Sunday here and I'm doing the Sunday Update post now because I forgot to write it up yesterday, like I forgot so many other things this week.  No excuses, just brainfarting out. 

One thing I didn't forget?  The writing.  Twenty-three days straight with an average of about 950 words a day and 21865 words total for August and added to Cinder Ugly.  And as of last night, I can officially say I'm finished.  The first draft of CU is 59789 words.  Everything's wrapped up as far as I can tell.  I guess I'll find out for sure in edits.  Still not sure what I'm going to do for the next 8 days of AuGoWriMo

No editing, no marketing. 

Reading was kind of pathetic.  Only one book finished.  And it wasn't nearly as much fun as I thought it was going to be.  Last night, I started a Dick Francis mystery I picked up at the thrift store.  Haven't read one of those in ages.  So far, so good.  Until I get the first round of edits done, I'll be sticking to hardcopy books so my Kindle is available for this phase of book creation.

On the activity front, I really only did 4 out of 7 days of exercise-y things - all walking - and that one day of roadtrip, which shouldn't really count as activity.  Weight 178.6 as of Thursday morning.

This is the last week of Owl's self-isolation in the back of beyond.  Friday, she will be winging her way back to Michigan and her life as she knew it before with added 'rona stuffs (or deleted stuff due to 'rona as the case may be).  Our lives will also return to as normal as they can be in the midst of this crap.  Everybody send positive thoughts that it all goes off without a hitch, k?

Today, I'll be baking a 'going away' cake.  Chocolate oil with cream cheese frosting.  And I did oatmeal cookies this week.  Also... It wasn't baking, but yesterday I made mostly-homemade spaghetti sauce with fresh tomatoes and green peppers (I supplemented it with Prego Traditional).  It turned out pretty good if I do say so myself and it got thumbs up from Hubs and Owl.

I'm over 2mil in poker now.  It's all two steps forward and one step back, so we'll see how that goes.  Like I said, it's strictly play money, so it doesn't really matter.  It just give me the illusion I'm accomplishing something.  And hey, it's something to do since TV is the shits and FB is mostly depressing. 

It's super quiet in the house right now.  Owl went to bed and Hubs is still sleeping.  Kira is snoring in her cubby hole next to the filing cabinet.  And here I am, chugging coffee and contemplating the universe.

What went on in your world last week?  Any plans for the coming week? 

The Chaos Diaries - 4/10/20

I'm still gimping along over here.  Every day a little bit better, but it's certainly putting a crimp in my activities.  Meanwhile, Hubs finished mowing the lawn yesterday and then hung blinds on the garage windows.  Let's not talk about how long ago we bought those blinds for in there, k?  And whether it was actually my project all those years ago.

Speaking of blinds, years ago, I removed the blinds from my bathroom window and hung curtains.  With Owl here and the guys building their house next door where they can look right in my bathroom window, we went looking for the blinds I took down.  Can't find them any-frickin-where.  (Looking for blinds is what prompted Hubs to hang the garage blinds.  Too bad they were too big for my bathroom.)  Anyway, he sacrificed the blinds off his bathroom window for the girl's room.  What a guy.

All the shopping I did so I wouldn't have to go out again for a month?  I forgot to pick up a 90-day card for my cell phone.  I have 8 days left.  A Dollar General run is scheduled for Monday when I'll have to go to the bank anyway.  It's all good.  Maybe they'll have the few things I also forgot at Wallyworld - like pizza sauce.  (Bought the fixin's for pizza, but no sauce.)

Last night. we had a bit of fun.  Owl decided she wanted to go for a walk at dusk.  I asked her to be back before dark.  She wasn't.  And when I called her cell phone, she didn't pick up.  Well, crap.  So I got in the car and went looking for her.  (She's a city gal now and I wondered whether she realized how incredibly dark it gets here.)  When I got to the T, I had a choice - go right toward the highway or left toward the other neighborhood.  I chose right.  No Owl there.  So I backtracked and went down the other way.  No Owl.  About halfway back to the house, my cell phone was vibrating in my pocket, so I pulled over to answer it, but it had stopped ringing by the time I got it out.  I figured it was Home calling to say she'd made it back, but in the dark, I misdialed and then I got frustrated and went home.  It buzzed again as I was pulling into the driveway, darn thing.  Anyway, she was home.  She'd gone left and by the time I got back to the intersection, she was already past where I would see her heading for home.  Comedy of errors.  I mean, it wasn't funny last night, but it is now.  And she didn't answer her phone because she ran out of juice - so no phone and no light.  It must've been kind scary out there in the dark with things rustling all around her.  On the bright side, it really is beautiful out here at night.  Orion was brighter than I've seen him in years.

In worldly news, both sides of the aisle have now gone nuts - with one side calling for tighter restrictions for longer and the other side wondering why we needed all these restrictions when the cases are way lower than predicted.  (Umm, they might be lower because of the restrictions - just sayin'.  But more restrictions over the next 18 months isn't going to do anyone any good.)  And Bill Gates can cram his idea of tagging people like Jews in WWII up his gold-plated butt.

In the local paper, they had a post from the sheriff.  He stated firmly that his men will not be pulling people over to ask them why they're out and about.  They will not be taking calls from people reporting other people for not adhering to the rules, either.  I love our sheriff and I'm glad I voted for him.  Everybody needs to chill the hell out and use their freakin' heads.  Six feet isn't that hard to guesstimate and you can still talk to people from six feet away.  Sheesh.

Anyway, that's all from me today?  How are things with you?  What honey-dos are you getting done during the chaos?