Sunday Update - 2025 Week Dunno

Well, here we are at the Sunday morning after the fall time change.  I have no clue what time it is, so don't ask me what week it is.  It's a week.

I did some small amount of writing this week.  Just over a thousand words over two days.  Frankly, I was at a point where I had painted myself into a corner and couldn't find a window to crawl out of.  Then I had an idea while sitting on the toilet before bed.  I wrote the idea down when I was finished and then went back to brush my teeth.  Then I laid in bed thinking about how to write the idea.  I really should've gotten up and just written the scene because it was way harder to write the next day, lemme tell ya.  Ya gotta strike while the iron is hot, even if you're sleepy.  Anyway, I think I have it, but we'll see what happens tonight.

Marketing... Well, I did WIOH and very little came of it.  Which is weird because WIOH is one of my best movers when it comes to freebie week.  And it usually results in page reads, too.  :shrug:  Poor returns on marketing make it really hard to get the motor going for writing more books.  Like I need another reason to not write.  Blerg.

I'm in the middle of reading The Martian by Andy Weir.  It's pretty good so far.

In baking news... there isn't any.  I thought about baking bread, but it never happened.

On the activity front, it was cool enough for me to go into the woods, so there was a lot of that.  The active part was mostly cutting vines and dead limbs, and piling those things up, plus moving deadfall.  We also did some wandering in the woods, to survey what needs to be done.  Man, there are a lot of fallen limbs and trees since the last time I was down in there.  I did walk the road once, too.  Weight: 174.2

It got down to freezing last night, so yesterday afternoon, I moved all my baby trees into the garage.  And I picked all the big tomatoes.  They're still mostly green, but they should ripen.  I've got them in a container in the spare room, where they can still get some sun.  Fingers crossed.  The little tomatoes are still out there on the plants.  We'll see what last night's temps did to them.  This coming week, I'll trash the plants and reuse the pots for some of my trees who need bigger pots to thrive.  Hubs and I are in talks about where in the yard to place new trees.  I really need to pick up some fencing before I plant, so they have at least a small chance of surviving the deer.

I think that's it for me this morning.  If I missed anything, sorry.  What went on in your lives?

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 34

 :blink blink: Oh.  Hello.  It's Sunday again, isn't it?  I woke up thinking it was Tuesday.  Days of the week have little meaning to me anymore.  I feel like, at this point, I ought to have reached a higher plain of consciousness, but I haven't.  I've reached a higher plain of unconsciousness, maybe.

Anyway...  I didn't write much this week, but I did write.  DN3 has rolled over 20K words, so that's something.  I'm hoping to have news of more words by this time next week.

The marketing didn't go great.  I started out okay, then I lost the will.  Thus, Unequal only moved 16 copies. :sad trombone:  Song of Storm and Shroud will be free starting tomorrow.  Then the month will end and along with it, my current 90-day span of Kindle Select.  Starting Labor Day, I'll have a whole new 90 days to market stuff.  Woot.  Here's hoping next month is better for sales than this month has been.

Oh, and I spent some time yesterday morning screwing around with Grok, building a sorta-kinda new cover for SSS.  It looks pretty snazzy until you realize the dragon's left back leg is coming out of it's butthole and it's front left leg is spindly and warped.  AI still has a lot to learn about how living things are put together.  No creature - real or imagined - can walk with a leg coming out of it's butt.  Jus' sayin'.

In reading news, I finally finished that Hercule Poirot omnibus.  Yay.  I'm a third through another book.  Also yay.  And I bought 6 new used books to dive into.  Woot.

It was a busy baking week.  I made banana-raisin muffins, pizza, and bread pudding.  The pizza was the only thing that turned out right, but the other two were tasty, so it's all good.  Too much banana in the muffins and I forgot to add sugar to the bread pudding.  :shrug:  Even the best bakers can screw stuff up, so I'm not flagellating myself.  

On the activity front, I was still something of a toad.  One day, I did the dancercizorama thing 5/4/5 (5 minutes dance, then 4 minutes exercise, then another 5 minutes dance).  That's way down from what I used to do, but I'll have to work my way back up to that.  And as my mom reminded me, I'm older now than when I did 20/10/20.  Another day, I walked three-quarters of a mile.  Weight? No clue.  Chonky.

The fawns are getting big and their spots are starting to fade.  We've named Sissy's fawn 'Scout', which'll work for a doe or a buck.  I'm thinking Scout is a buck fawn because it's big for its age.  (Buck fawns are typical larger than doe fawns.)  I need to come up with a name for the twins.  I've already used Dot and Dash, but since I almost never know which deer is which once they turn into adults, I can reuse those.

Okay, on that note, I'll let you go.  Have a great day and feel free to drop a line or two about your week.  =o)

Friday This n That

I'm not dead.  I'm just lazy.

I woke up late two days in a row.  This makes me not want to do anything, but I had planned on going grocery shopping.  The jury's out as to whether I'll just skip over to the Dollar General for milk and postpone Wallyworld.

The news lately is fucking horrible.  Mass stabbing in Traverse City, mass shooting in NYC, some shithead killed two people in front of their kids on a fucking hiking trail in NWAR (northwest Arkansas to the uninitiated), four people were murdered by some asshole in TN.  Is it any wonder I don't want to go anywhere?

I dreamed last night that I had a third tomato on my plants.  Yeah, I lead a boring life.  Here's me dreaming about tomatoes.  One more tomato is an exciting thing for me.

I'm supposed to start AuGoWriMo today and write words.  I need to carve out some time to do that and I need to STOP watching Roku for a few hours to get that done.  I can do it!  Unfortunately, we found a new series to watch last night and it was awesome.  Drat.

A couple of days ago, I had a chicken breast defrosted to make Salsa Chicken, but then I realized I didn't have the right cheese, so I turned it into a kind of Chicken Parm.  Slap a chicken breast into a pan, cover it in marinara sauce, cover that all in mozzarella, bake at 375F for 30-40 minutes or until cooked through.  I made spaghetti noodles and more sauce to go with it, and added those into the pan about halfway through.  It all turned out really yummy.  We ate the leftovers for dinner last night.  Yum.

Yeah, the lacking cheese thing is another reason I need to go to Wallyworld.  Drat.

During the making of the spaghetti noodles, I spent some time dancing around the living room to music in my head.  Sawyer was freaked out by this.  Finn just looked at me like I'd lost my mind.  Maybe I had.

Sunday Update - Week 26

I almost typed Sunday Ypdate.  Yip.  LOL. Yeah, this is what comes of too little sleep and then waking up late.  

Anyway...

I wrote words!  5269 of them.  I gave myself a good talking to mentally and Monday night, I just started adding words to DN3.  I took Friday off because it was a mentally draining day and I just wasn't in a place where words would come out.  Then yesterday I wrote over 1800 words, which kinda made up for the day off.  The point is, I'm averaging over 1000 words a day, which is good.

And I even did some editing.  I stopped writing one night and as I lay in bed, I realized that something needed to happen between where Duke was and where Duke had been before, so I went back... a thing I almost never do while I'm dirty drafting... and fixed it.  The writing really started flowing after that.  Woot.

No Marketing this week.  I'll see what I can come up with this week for a new offering.  It's hard to muster the urge when I have to fight FB every step of the way, but if I don't market, I don't sell.  And I like selling books.

The reading... well, you can see that in yesterday's posts.  I'm not blazing any trails here, unless it's the trail to DNF.

Yesterday morning, I made a half-batch of cinnamon rolls.  They turned out pretty good, even if halving the recipe took some mathing.  

On the activity front, I did something active 6 out of 7 days, so woot.  I only walked three of those days, so 3.5 miles (37.4 total).  I meant to walk 4 days, but I was wandering in the yard before setting out and I got stung by some kind of baby, bastard hornet.  Hurt like a bugger and put the kibosh on that day's walk.  (It's all better thanks to Benadryl gel.)  Now that it's hot, I decided to start dancing in the living room again.  So I did that one day.  And I went grocery shopping.  Weight: 172.0

Look for more information on Friday's drama this Tuesday.  (The post's already written, I just need to schedule it.)

On a gardening note, my tomato plants are huge and they all look like they're getting the beginnings of flowers, so that's something.  My green pepper plants are still tiny, but they're making progress.  Some of my trees are looking pooky, though. I think they need replanting in bigger pots or in the ground.  Ack.  I have no more bigger pots and they're not ready to combat the deer yet.  We'll see how that goes.  I may go pick up pots today.  Also, the blackberry patch I've been watching down the road is getting close to being ripe enough to pick.  Cross your fingers I make it there before the birds do.

Okay, so that's about all I have for you today.  How was your week?  

What I Did

Despite the risk of jinxing this, I'm going to tell y'all what I did yesterday.

I wrote words.  1558 of them to be exact.  Which puts Duke Noble #3 at just over 3000 words.  It's a start.  No promises.  No judging.  Just write the words.  Every day.

I also exercised.  Not walked... exercised.  5 minutes dancing (which freaked the cats out... like 'eek! hide! mama's having a spastic fit' or something), 4 minutes doing regular exercises, 4 minutes more dancing and then walking around the house to get my heart rate back to normal*.

I told you all I just needed to give myself a good talking to.

Now, I just have to keep it up.  I'm shooting for 1500 words a day but any words will do.  And I'm aiming at ramping up the exercising until I'm back to my old stamina - walk = 1.6 miles 3 or 4 times a week, exercise = 20/10/20 on the days I'm not walking.

No excuses.  I need this for both my mental and my physical health.  Lord knows, I'm not getting any younger.  If I don't want to end up as an old lady sitting in a chair watching the world go by, or drooling on myself in a corner, I have to do something to make that not happen.  This is it.  

Join me, if you're able.  

*Safer than just stopping on the exercise.  You've got to ease your heart up and then ease it back down again.  

Sunday Update 6/22/24

Okee dokie, I ate something yesterday that left me feeling gross this morning, so this might not be the most awesome of Sunday Updates...

First things first - because it always comes first... writing.  I wrote twice this past week for a total of 1684 words.  I had intended to write more, but I didn't.  The first writing session left me with an ouchy hand the next day, and being the big baby that I can be sometimes, I put off writing again for several days.  The next session wasn't nearly as hard on my hands, so yay.  But I really need to get myself into the writing groove, so that every night I am sitting here for at least a half hour, banging away at the keyboard.

Another writerly thing is that I set Sleeping Ugly up with a three day freebie deal.  Friday - Saturday - Sunday.  Which means today is the last day and if you haven't taken advantage of this, then your time is running out.  I've moved 42 books as of this morning.  Small beans in the scheme of things, but considering I'm only reaching people through Facebook groups designed for this type of marketing AND considering those 42 books are more books than I moved all of last year and a good part of '22, I'll take it.  Maybe those freebies will encourage people to buy the other two books in the series.  Maybe it'll get me a new review or two.  I have hopes.

To that end, I'll be running freebies and sales a lot over the next three months, just to make something happen.  Keep following this page or follow me on Facebook for up to date info on that jazz.

In reading news, I've been reading the same book all week - Poirot's Casebook.  It's a boatload of short stories by Agatha Christie, all involving Hercule.  It's pretty awesome, but I've read like 350 pages so far and I've only reached in the middle of the volume.

I was active 5 our of 7 days this week.  Cleaning mostly, but I did get a walk in.  I did what I call Loop +, which means walking the entire neighbor circle, plus the little short road.  That makes it 1.1 miles and puts me at 24.4 miles for the year so far.  My calf muscles are still protesting that walk.  I didn't weigh myself this week.  Mostly because I've been eating like a horse, so I don't expect to see a downward change and I don't want to see an upward change. LOL

In baking news, I made Parmesan-encrusted pork chops.  Then I got a wild hair and made brownies one night.  Both of those... so good.    It's really getting too hot here to bake a lot, which is why I try to do it in the morning, but sometimes a gal just has to have brownies.  Warm, with ice cream.  

Other than that?  I'm sure other stuff occurred, but my brain is toast today.  

How are things in your world?

Monday Update

Apparently, I'm not quite into the swing of being 'retired' again because I totally forgot to post yesterday.  Bear with me.  I'm workin' on it.

So, last week was my first full week of being back to being a private citizen / hermit again.  Here's what happened:

I wrote words!  Not every day, but I did manage to write twice for a total of 1733 words.  Not great but not horribly shabby either.  I learned that I am totally not up to any kind of marathon writing yet.  My hands start to be little, whiny babies at about 800 words right now.  That amounts to about a half hour of continuous typing.  I'm hoping that, by the end of July, I can be back to a sustained 60-90 minutes at a time. 

The story my brain wanted to work on was Duke Noble's.  I ended up restarting the next book in the series.  Right now, it's called Thicker than Water.  Once before, I started this story, and I may end up using some of what I wrote previously.  But since I got stuck, I probably needed to just jumpstart this sucker.  We'll see.  

I'm also working on getting back into the swing of reading.  I finished a Sherlock Holmes compilation and started a Hercule Poirot one.  Right now, I'm feeling mysterious... what can I say?  

On the activity front, I did something active 5 out of 7 days.  I'm not back to walking yet. There's so much other stuff I'm behind on that walking seems unproductive.  Instead, I spent time either cleaning or gardening.  Weight: 166.4

Cleaning is more exercise than you'd think.  And man, am I not used to doing it anymore.  I found muscles I forgot I had.  Oof.  It's not like Hubs wasn't doing it and doing a good job at it, but I'm a control freak sometimes, so as soon as I could take that job back, I did.  He's still doing dishes, but only because he gets to them before I think about it.  I did dishes once since I've been back and oh my aching back, I'd forgotten how much doing dishes hurts.  Oh well.  The job needs to shift back over to my list and get off of Hubs' list.  Jus' sayin'.

Gardening was mostly weeding and digging up beds because they are in such a state.  My poor shade bed... the astilbes are down from 6 to three and those were getting choked out.  I thought my two coral bells were toast, but one of them send out shoots and there are two little bitty live shoots from that.  The other variety is gone.  The lily-of-the-valley that was doing so good is left with one shoot that the deer have munched.  On a positive note, the tomatoes I planted a few weeks ago appear to be growing right along.  No signs on flowers yet, but I have hopes.

I made homemade cinnamon rolls on Friday.  I have had such a craving for cinnamon rolls like you wouldn't believe.  But I can't ever seem to find a recipe that makes me want to dive in.  Cinnamon rolls are such a pain in the butt to make, after all.  What I ended up doing it modifying my recipe for Tasty Buns.  I made the dough per the recipe, but then instead of making buns, I rolled it out into a rectangle, covered it in a butter/brown sugar/cinnamon mixture, and made cinnamon rolls.  They turned out super yummy.  The recipe ended up producing two pie pans worth or about 14.  Mmmmm.

Okay, I think I've bent your ear (bent your eyes???) for long enough.  Go forth and have an awesome day.  I'll try to remember to be back tomorrow.  How are things in your life?

Sunday Update - Week 10

 Ten weeks in.  Hard to believe, eh?

Okay, so it was a week.  I did my 40 hours of work and not much else, but let's see if I can't turn this into something more interesting.

I wrote words yesterday!  514 of them all in a row.  Actual fiction words!  (Not work words, which I do all the time.)  I'm not sure what this is or whether I'll actually finish it, but I don't care.  I had a thought, I sat down and typed it out then added to it and the next thing I new, I had a whole page (single spaced because who the hell cares).  

Yesterday, I also exercised.  Shocking, I know.  I did 9 minutes on the exercise bike.  1.8 miles worth of pedaling at between 10mph and 13mph.  I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but I probably shouldn't have done even that much, because I am feeling it today.  Blerg.  Weight: 160.2

I usually do Wallyworld on Saturday, but the weather was so gross, I pushed my shopping back to Sunday.  I mean, the stuff falling from the sky was actually splatting.  Like raindrops with slush in them.  Gross.  I'll do the grocery thing later this morning - sore legs or not.  

I'm still reading that submarine book.  I'm about 2/3rds of the way through now.  I mentioned something in it that had happened in the '60s and Hubs remembered it, so I told him the story that wasn't made public back then.  Pretty cool.

Oo, yeah, I also made pinto beans yesterday.  I tried the slow-cooker method using unsoaked beans.  Put the dry beans in the pot, added enough liquid so it was about two inches above the beans, set it to low, and let it cook.  The instructions said 5-6 hours.  Dinner was 9 hours later and the beans were still not done.  11 hours.  They took 11 hours and that was only because I turned the pot on high for the last 3.  I won't be doing this method again.  Soak 'em overnight.  Boil 'em until they're soft and creamy - 45-60 minutes.  Voila.  

I did use beans in last night's dinner.  I took some of the slightly under-cooked beans and threw them into a pan with ground beef and green onions.  They mostly finished cooking that way.  Just a little more texture than beans ought to have.  I served it over rice.  It wasn't the taste sensation I was hoping for, but it wasn't bad.  Ya know, there are shockingly few recipes online for Pinto beans that aren't chili or refried beans.  Such a versatile little bean, you'd think there'd be scads of ways to fix it.  :shrug:  I'll figure something out.  They're cheap and they're chock-full of healthy shit.  

Today, I have to make granola bars.  After groceries because we're out of condensed milk.  

Exciting life I lead, eh?  

Anyway, that's it for me.  Nothing much else going on.  What was your Week 10 like?

Sunday Update - '22 Week 3

 Hello again.  Let's dispense with the folderol and jump right in.

Last night, I finished the round of editing I've been working on since December 4th.  Out of 47 days, I missed 11.  That's about a 77% working percentage.  Not bad.  I wish I could do that all year.  For the record, people who work M-F only work 71% of the days.  On the other hand, I usually only work a couple hours a day.  Can you imagine if I worked all those days at 8 hours a day.  I'd rule the world.  So, you're welcome.  (Although, if I ruled the world, there'd be a lot less bullshit in it.)

All of my books are now uploaded to D2D.  And all of them are now available at the big distributors - Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo.  Also, they're available through library distributors like BorrowBox and OverDrive.  (All of them are still waiting on Hoopla to accept them.)  I sold a book last night through OverDrive, so I've got that going for me.  Now to add some marketing to the mix and see if I can generate some sales.  

As for other writerly news, I began working on the cover for Untitled Fantasy.  I'm building a dragon out of used lizard parts.  It's painstaking work.  I'm blowing the sucker up to 1000% and trying to do a pixel by pixel thing.  :shrug:  It'll keep me out of trouble, that's for sure.  And I'm liking the overall results.  May have to change lizards, but I'm also learning what works and what doesn't as I go.  It's all good, baby.

On the reading front, I start out the week pretty lame.  Four DNFs in a row.  After that, I managed to finish two books before my Saturday Wrap-up, and I finished another one yesterday afternoon.  It's all good, baby.

In baking news, I made coffee cake.  I used my regular yellow-cake recipe, but I dolloped applesauce all through the middle layer.  So yummy.  I also made a vat of spaghetti sauce, which netted me another 3 meals worth of leftover sauce.  Yay.

Activity... well, it wasn't a good week.  I spent one morning cleaning.  Dusting and vacuuming everything but the office, so about 1300 square feet.  I never did get around to the office.  It's hard to clean in here when Hubs is working and when he's not working, I don't seem to be in a cleaning mood.  :shrug:  It was too cold for much else, but that's a lame excuse.  I can use the damn bike.  Sheesh.

Needless to say, my diet isn't going well.  Being gungho about curbing the food intake is one thing, actually adhering to the plan is other.  And, like always, every time I think about watching what I eat, I'm thinking about food and that makes me want food.  But the results on the scale weren't as bad as I feared.  Weight: 183.6 - so only up a pound and a half since 1/1.  Still, that much in three weeks is not good.  Perhaps I'm just fluffy for winter.  Yeah, yeah, fluffy for winter.  That's the ticket.

Because of the cold, we're seeing a lot of deer in the yard, gulping down corn in copious amounts.  Most of them are hale and hearty.  And super fluffy because they fluff their coats when it's cold to retain body heat.  Unfortunately, one of our does broke something, probably the ankle, on her back right leg.  Poor baby.  There's nothing we can do, and research told me deer can often do well with a broken leg.  It heals, they go on with their lives.  Killing them isn't the answer.  The best advice was leave them alone, because trying to help will only make things worse.  Hubs saw the same doe a couple days later and her foot wasn't curled under like when we'd first seen it, so she was walking on the hoof and not her ankle.  Ouchie.

Tax time approacheth.  I'm waiting on the mail to deliver 1099s.  I already got the notice that Amazon's 1099s are available for download, so if you haven't gotten yours yet, poke somebody.  Or go into the tax area and see if they're there for you, too.  Not that the news on the 1099 is good.  About $145 for the year.  :sadtrombone:

Since I'm taking today off of writing, I should be able to accomplish some other stuff today.  We'll see.  And it's supposed to warm up a little, so maybe I can get out in the woods again.  Stupid snow.  Anyway, I'm trying to be optimistic.  Strange for me, I know, but you gotta start somewhere.

How was your week?  Accomplish anything?  Was it a week off for you?  (Totally cool, because we need time off every know and again.)  

Back to the Basics of Getting Healthier

Well, I took a hard look at myself in the mirror yesterday and I wasn't thrilled with what I saw.  Literally, not figuratively.  I was getting ready for a shower and like, yuck.

Overall, I like myself.  I'm a good person, I work hard when I work, and I'm kind to small animals and little children.  That's not what I'm talking about.  Stripped naked, I'm not happy with what I see.  And I've got two choices: accept that I am fat and old OR do something about it.  

Okay, there's a third choice which is a mixture of both.  A person needs to find some kind of acceptance of the things they don't like about themselves or they'll never get past it to making those things any better.  So, I'm old and fat AND I'm going to do something about it.  Well, the fat part.  There ain't much I can do about the old part.  I made the decision a long time ago to stick with what I've got rather than try to mask it in some way - my gray hairs were earned, after all, and the thought of surgeries or creams or whathaveyou is unappetizing to me.

So, I'm working on what I can work on - my weight and my activity level.  Which means getting back to the basics for me.  Eat less, exercise more.  Started with dinner last night (because dinner was after my shower and my yuck experience).  

Now, I know me.  I don't do well with denying myself food.  What I do well at is limiting the amounts of food.  For instance, I made fish sticks last night - the bigger, breaded and fried fillet kind.  Yummers.  I usually eat two, on a bun with mayo and cheese.  Side of fries.  Last night, I had one fillet - no bun, no cheese - and fewer fries.  Plus, I made up the difference in 'amount of food' with grapes, so my stomach wouldn't be hounding me all night.

Tonight, I plan to make grilled cheese sandwiches and soup.  When I do the grilled cheese, I will use three slices of cheese - today we have muenster, swiss, and cheddar - because that's how I roll.  And it'll probably be homemade turkey noodle soup.  I'll eat half the sandwich instead of all of it, and I'll portion out a smaller bowl of soup.  Maybe go light on the oyster crackers there, too.  

It's not the freeway to weight loss, but it's a road that'll get me there quicker in the long run than trying to do this the fast way and failing miserably.  At the very least, it'll stop my expansion.

Smaller dishes of ice cream.  Not as many M&Ms in my bowl of fewer mixed nuts than usual.  Six potato chips with lunch rather than twelve.  Since we're out of cake and homemade cookies, those will be flat out for a while. (Until the urge to bake overwhelms me, then smaller portions there, too.)

That's step one.  Step two is to get my body moving in a more calorie-burning fashion.  Sure, I've been pretty active so far this winter, but the things I'm doing aren't necessarily getting the heart pumping and the fat burning.  I haven't taken a single walk this year or put a single mile on the exercise bike.  That's gotta change.  Starting today.  If the snow is gone and the temps are okay, I may walk this afternoon.  If not, I will use the bike.

In four months, I'll be 52.  I'd like to slide into 52 a little lighter and a little more fit.  And that's on me.  One-hundred percent.  

And no need to worry about my self-esteem.  It's fine.  I am what I am.  I'd just prefer there to be less of what I am and for what's there to not kill me any time soon.  And no one is driving this but me.  Hubs loves me and thinks I'm dead sexy whatever weight I am.  (Okay, the photos of me when I was 110 pounds leave him a little cold, but I'll never be that skinny again, so no worries there.)

So yeah, eat less, exercise more.  That's my key to fitness.  Time to put the key into the ignition and fire this puppy up.  ;o)

2021 Wrap-up & Hopes for 2022

Well, for all my hopes at this time last year, 2021 didn't turn out at all like I wanted.  Most of the year is a blur.  From what I can cobble together out of my various spreadsheets, here are some notables...

I did something writerly 157 days, so about 43% of the year.  But I only got one book published - Rumor Has It.  I did finish writing that fantasy novel all the way through to THE END, so I've got that going for me.

I'll do a reading wrap-up for the year on another day, but suffice it to say, I read 70 books which was 5 books short of my goal.  

I baked or did some special kind of food on 98 days - some days more than one food, but I only counted the days.

On the activity front, I did something active on 220 of those days.  And overall, my weight ended up 6/10ths of a pound higher at 182.2.  The lowest I was at was 178.2, but the highest I was at was 187.8, so it's all good, baby.

I had planned to walk 100 miles this year.  That didn't happen.  I only made it 45.25 miles walking.  But I finally started using our exercise bike and made 46.6 miles on that.  Then I got wrapped up in helping a friend move and both the walking and the biking went off the rails.  I hope to get back to both of those this year.  But I'm not setting a number for either one.  What happens will happen.

Another notable is that Hubs and I finally acquired that piece of land, which was something we've been working toward for a couple years now.  We're hoping to get it staked out sometime this month.  The property pins are in place, though.  We just want to have markers along the line so anyone traipsing around back there knows its OURS.

Every human I care about is still alive.  And well, as far as I know.  :knock on wood:  My oldest nephew and his family had the 'rona, and they got over it.  Hubs' older brother and that brother's son had the Delta variant and while they felt like crap, they got over it.  Hubs and I are still going strong.

Unfortunately, we had to put Kira down this past January 25th.  She was 17 and a half, which is like super old for a cat, and we knew it was coming eventually, but it was still hard for both of us.  No new pets were acquired nor will there be in the near future for us.

Looking ahead, I don't have goals.  Last year kicked my ass and almost every plan I put in place failed.  So, this year, I have only hopes.  I hope to get back down to like 175lbs.  I hope to publish this Untitled Fantasy.  And maybe write one or two more books.  I'd like to see my sales go up, but I talked about that yesterday at Outside the Box.  

All things being equal, I guess I can't complain.  Well, I can, but who'd listen?  LOL  Nobody likes a whiner anyway.  I'm alive.  I'm free.  Nothing hurts any worse than it usually does.  I have a roof over my head and food in the fridge and the furnace works fine.  Life is good.  Not great, but good.  And these days, that's saying something.

Hang in there, folks.  This is the start of a brand new year and there's always hope.  :HUGS:

How was your 2021?  Anything you're looking forward to in 2022?  

Busy Little Beavers

 

Yeah, we've been busy little beavers.  In a figuratively literal way.  Hey, it's wood and we're chopping it.

We started on October 7th with the tippy cedar tree and one pallet.  (Now the center pallet.)  Then we got the bug and started dragging things up out of the forest to chop up.  Hubs added a second pallet for 'other wood'.  Once those two started to fill up, he added a third pallet.  We have one more pallet available and just enough room to put it.  We'll see.

Those pics were taken yesterday afternoon.  We've got it all underneath the sun porch, where it can stay nice and dry.  If you look at the top pic, you can really see the difference between the cedar and the 'other wood'.

Here's where the magic happens:

That's the stump from the tippy cedar tree we pulled down and chopped up.  We use it and the cinder block as saw horses.  The wood laying around is what we dragged up to saw.  When we get the urge, we'll cut it into lengths and throw it under the house.  Just two old folks and a limb saw.

Some of the wood we now have waiting to be chopped came from our oldest pile, where we've been throwing deadfall for 8 years now.  The pile was pretty tall and wide.  7 foot high by 10 ft wide by 15 ft deep.  It's now about half that and moved from between two trees to a more open spot.  We have three more deadfall piles as you go down the hill from the house.  We'll get to those eventually.  I don't look forward to dragging wood up from the bottom of the hill, lemme tell ya, but we'll do it.  

For the record, we are not taking down anything alive, except for tippy tree but he had to go.  And we're only working on land we own.  (Although I am starting to covet the deadfall on the neighbor's property.  When we finish with our wood, I'll ask him if he wants us to take care of his dead stuff, too.)

Anyway, like I've said, it's good exercise.  And it's an excellent way to leave the world behind for a while.

Are you finding ways to leave the world behind?  These days it's kinda necessary.

How Much Wood Could Two Old People Chuck?

 Okay, so a while back I said I thought Hubs said we had about 3/4 of a cord.  Boy, was I ever wrong.  He never said that and my estimation was totally off.  Turns out a cord of wood is a frickin' lot of wood.  4 foot wide by 4 foot high by 8 foot long.  Umm, yeah, we have a lot of wood chopped up, but it wasn't even close to that when I said it.  NOW we probably have 2/3 to 3/4 of a cord.  (A neat article about firewood can be read here.)

I think the reason I assumed it was a cord was because over the span of my life, I've seen people selling 'cords' of wood that weren't true cords.  'Face cords' and 'stove cords' and sometimes they say 'cord' when they're just trying to sell the pile of wood in the back of their pickup truck.  But it's not a cord unless it fits the above dimensions, so if you're out there buying wood, beware.

We had these old pallets under the house.  They came with the load of paving blocks we bought back in 2015.  He dragged two out and set them under the sun porch (so they're out of the elements) on cinder blocks (for better airflow) and we started stacking.  One pallet was initially for the big cedar that fell over and we chopped up, but now it has all the other cedar limbs/trunks we've found and chunked.  The other pallet was put into place to hold all the other types of wood.  

As those start to fill, he dragged out another one and set it beside the first two.  

I really need to take pics of these things.  

Anyway, the two initial pallets are stacked in three rows about 4 ft deep.  The two closest to the wall are probably 3.5 feet high.  The ones farthest from the wall are only about 2 ft high and contain the smallest in diameter limbs.  The third pallet is a staging area right now, but we're starting to slop over onto it.  

We're cutting the limbs into roughly 14" pieces.  And the cut wood ranges from about 1" to around 9" in diameter.  We haven't split any of it.  We need something called a maul or a wedge or something to do this.  Right now, it's just a bunch of 14" logs.  

Now, you might be thinking we're being all advanced and using a chainsaw for all this work.  We're not.  We started out with a bow saw and a hand saw.  When the old bow saw and the old hand saw started to get tired, I went out and bought another bow saw.  Then I got another one so we could both be sawing at the same time.  We aren't but we could be.  The reason we aren't is because it's way easier to saw when one person is sawing and the other is holding the limb steady.  (I'm usually the holder.)

You might also be thinking we have some way to burn all this wood.  We don't.  Not yet.  We're in the research phase.  Wood stove?  Fireplace?  Wood burning furnace?  And which one would fit our needs and our budget?  :get distracted looking at furnaces:  Sorry about that.  

Anyway, like I said before, it's good exercise for these two old people.  And it's cleaning up the copious amounts of wood we have laying all over the property.  We'll burn it later.  And eventually buy a chainsaw, too, for the really big tree that fell down in there.  For now, it is what it is.

Do you have a woodstove or a fireplace?  How's that working out for you?

Sunday Update - Week 43

 Hi there!  I woke up at 3 a.m. this morning and I'm jacked up on coffee!  Yay!  And now it's time to wrap-up last week and look forward to next, so let's do this thing...

I didn't get any writing done, but that's okay because I'm not in a writing place right now.  What's not okay is that I didn't get much other writerly stuff done either.  Half a page of edit notes entered and a few hours of attempting to get things ready to load in Draft 2 Digital, at which point I got frustrated and went into the woods to make firewood.  I'll attempt the D2D thing again today.  And I'll talk more about that tomorrow on Outside the Box.

I did manage to get some reading done this week.  Yay!

In baking news, I made To Die For Coffee Cake - with the Butter Pecan cake mix as originally and most beautifully intended*.  Yummers.  (Recipe here.)

As for activity... Like I said above, I made firewood yesterday.  I also threw logs and dragged logs, all of which made up for 4 of my 5 active days this week.  The other day was devoted to unclogging the drain in our kitchen sink.  Yes, that counts.  Unfortunately, I gained two pounds.  I blame the cake.  And the ice cream.  Or rather the 'frozen dairy dessert' I bought at the Dollar General.  Weight: 181.6

I would've been more active, but the weather wasn't cooperating this week.  Splooshy splooshy rain for three days.  Yeah, I could've done something inside, but after working outside, riding the exercise bike is boring.

Oh, while we were out throwing logs, etc., we saw Chester Chipmunk running around in the woods gathering food for the coming winter.  So cute!  Yesterday, he actually came right up to where Hubs was working on reorganizing under the house and watched for a while before Hubs got too close and even then, Chester didn't run far away.  Such a good little critter.  I may have to take some birdseed down to where he's gathering and give him a nice treat.

One of the bigger bucks wandered through, lookin' for lurve.  I didn't get a good look at the rack, but he was built like a brick shithouse.  The girls aren't quite ready for him yet, though.  They can't be bothered with romance and prefer to just eat.  

In other news, I received an interesting letter via email.  I'm sure the sender thought they were being helpful.  However, unsolicited advice from strangers rarely goes off well.  (If you're here reading this blog and seeing my advice, it falls under the 'you asked for it' category.  I would never invade your space and send you an email with advice unless you asked for it.)  I spent some time thinking about how to reply - when I should've been sleeping - and ultimately deleted the email unanswered.  No good can come of engaging.  As for taking the advice, I can only say that at this point, to follow the advice I was given, I would need a big bag of moolah for new cover art and rebranding and a big marketing thing.  If you're a wealthy philanthropist, donations are always welcome via PayPal**.

Oh, crap, I just realized it's Halloween.  Happy Halloween!  I was supposed to do some marketing things this week to take advantage of the holiday, but I crapped out on that.  I also don't really celebrate since I don't have a kid anymore.  (I still have Owl, she's just not a kid.)  I thought about buying a pumpkin, but more for baking purposes than decor for the day.  If you're into Halloween and/or have kids and grandkids, have fun tonight!

And on that note, I'll let you go enjoy your day.  Time for me to try and hit the D2D thing again.  Maybe I'll have better luck and more patience.  ;o)

How was your last week?

*to borrow a phrase from The Philadelphia Story.

** totally kidding there... I probably still wouldn't make the changes, even if I won a cool million in the lottery.  But if you ARE a wealthy philanthropist, I wouldn't mind having a silent and anonymous benefactor of my arts.  ROFL

This n That on a Friday

Okay, so I forgot to post yesterday, so here's the This n That, but on a Friday.  

I've been up since 4 and I'm only just now beginning to be awake enough to be human.  Thank goodness for coffee.

Hubs has been up since 3.  Right after I got up, he started the laundry.  Friday is sheets and towels day.  He just threw the sheets in the dryer and now he's collecting all the towels.  Get 'er done.

Shout out to Suni Lee who stepped up in the gymnastics and is kicking ass.  (No, I don't want to talk about why she needed to step up.  I'm just glad she did.)

To all the Olympic athletes... don't bite your medal.  It's crass.

Speaking of which, anyone else notice they not showing the medal ceremonies this year.   I thought I was missing them because they were showing them late, but then I saw gals wearing their medals after the competition and no ceremony.  I guess I could Duck-duck it, but I don't really want to know the reason because it will probably piss me off.

Editing is going slow.  It seems like every other paragraph needs some kind of tweak.  Blerg.

Halfway through a cigarette just now, it tasted like goat butt.  I hate when that happens.  Gag.  Luckily, it only happens like twice a year.  And since I smoke a pack a day and there are 20 cigs in a pack... well, it's too early to math, but you get the idea.  Every rare once in a while a cig tastes like pot.  Makes me wonder.  I have to put those out, too.  Pot makes me barf in a most spectacular way.

I both get why people do drugs and don't get why people do drugs.  They want to lose control and blank out.  I hate that feeling.  Which is why I quit drinking in addition to not doing drugs.  If you're trying to escape reality because you think it sucks, it's still going to suck when you sober up.  I guess that whole 'escape reality' thing is also why people are in such a rush to try and warp reality.  Doesn't work, but they still try.  It'll still be there whether they try and change their view of it.  :shrug:  

It's been HOT here.  Like 97 yesterday with a hear index of 105.  Gah.  And as I was laying in bed last night I realized I forgot to water the garden yesterday.  Here's hoping that once the sun comes up this morning I still have a garden and my one tiny tomato didn't wither up and drop off.  

Thank goodness for the exercise bike or I'd spend all day sitting on my ass in the AC.  I'm up to 42 miles.  Which is more than I walked all this year so far.  So much for hitting 100 miles walking this year.

Okay, that's more than enough out of me today.  What's up in your world?

Sunday Update - Week 30

 Another week gone by and not a whole lot to show for it.  But hey, it's the summer doldrums, so I'm not ready to flagellate myself yet.  Maybe next week.  ;o)

No writing got done, and very little editing.  But I'm thinking about it.

In marketing news, I have a sale that started today.  Accidental Death and Natural Causes are 99c each through Saturday Night.  

As for reading, it's pretty much stuck in the doldrums, too.  I only finished one book.  It was a pretty good one, though.  But I just don't feel like reading these days.

On the activity front, I did five days worth.  Four of the days, I alternated biking and gardening, and the fifth day was energetic vacuuming.  I'm up to 37 miles on the bike.  Woohoo.  Weight: 183.8

Not really much to talk about in the baking arena.  I did a pizza, but nothing else.  Several mornings, I set out a stick of butter to soften only to put it back in the afternoon because I'd lost interest.  It's also freakin' hot here right now, which makes the urge to bake tend to deflate like a sad balloon.

I transplanted all my zucchini and tomato plants and added fertilizer to everything.  Fingers crossed it helps them bloom and grow veggies.  I do have 2 tiny tomatoes now - on the same plant - but those were there before the transplanting.  Here's hoping they soon have siblings and cousins and neighbor kids.

Like I said, it's freakin' hot here right now with more hot expected.  This is making me not want to do much of anything but sit in the AC.  Unfortunately, I'm at the point where if the AC is low enough to kill the hot flashes, poor Hubs is freezing his ass off.  I think we've found a contented compromise.

I've taken to drinking cold coffee.  I mean, it's still hot in the morning, but by like 10am, I'm switching over to the cold stuff I have stored in the fridge.  Add some cream and it's a fancy coffee drink.  Or something.  :shrug:  It works for me.

I lead such an exciting life.  LOL.  What's up with you these days?

The Journey to Get Healthier

I'm back on the 'trying to get healthier' wagon again.   I'm watching what I eat, getting more active, and trying to shed a few pounds.  Why?  Because I feel better when I'm slimmer.

But not too slim.  This is me in 2002 at 110 pounds and a size 6:

Look at those stick legs and spindly arms.  I could see all my ribs.  My poor boobs were like underinflated balloons.  Gross.  (Note: I did not get that skinny intentionally.  I was working a job I hated where I was on my feet for 8 hours a day with no lunch break, running around a call center, and not eating when I got home because I hated life.  I don't recommend it.)

This is me thirteen years later at 194 pounds:

Umm, yah.  When I'm that heavy, I feel gross.  My joints hurt.  I get winded easily.  The internals get squonky.   And it's just not healthy for me.  Especially considering my crumpled spots.  The ol' legs and hips can't take lifting the extra poundage and dragging it around.  

Right now, I'm at 183.8.  (I weighed myself yesterday morning.)  Still down about 10 pounds from the top, but not nearly as low as I'd gotten a couple years ago.  And I'm feeling it.  So, I need to get back on the wagon and shed those craptastic boomerang pounds at a minimum.  

I know what I need to do.  I need to decrease the amount of food I'm putting in my face and increase the activity.  That's really all anyone needs to do.  It's harder for some than for others, but seriously... decrease the calorie input and increase the calories burned and you will lose weight.

You don't have to starve yourself.  That's just silly.  And it doesn't work in the long run.  You don't have to deprive yourself either.  Eat what you love, but eat less of it.  Instead of a bowl full of ice cream, eat two scoops.  Instead of a bag of M&Ms, eat a handful.  Instead of an entire pizza, eat two slices.  (Start out eating half then switch to two, so you're not shocking the system.)  I knew a gal who could eat a whole pizza for lunch.  She then cut back to half and then wound up eating only two slices.  She lost weight.  How much?  I don't know, but it was a visible change.  Her clothes fit better and she seemed happier.

Also, you don't have to spend your whole day working out.  Do something active every day.  Start small.  Anything that gets the heart pumping and the limbs moving works.  Hell, when Hubs started his walking regime, he would walk back and forth in front of the house (on the flat) until he felt like he was ready to start taking the hills.  Now, he's walking 2.5 miles 3 times a week.  For exercise, not weight loss, but he feels better now that he's doing it.  I couldn't walk a mile when I started out either, but I'm doing it now.  

If you slip up, don't beat yourself silly for it.  Try again the next day.  You'll get there.  Soon, you'll find out two things - Overeating makes you feel gross and so does laying around.  

Oh, there will be pain.  Unused muscles tend to get bitchy when you start using them again.  Take the pain reliever of your choice and get over it.  Your muscles will thank you later.  Don't overdo it either.  Take it slow.  Your body will tell you when it's had enough.  When it starts to gripe, push it for a couple more minutes and then give it a break.  For godsakes, don't hurt yourself trying to get healthier.  That's just silly.

Another thing... You might get impatient to see results.  In this day, everyone wants the quick fix.  Get over that, too.  There is no quick fix.  Realize that every day you're feeling better and getting healthier.  Tell yourself that when you look at your nekkid self in the mirror before you hop in the shower and you're not seeing a naughty body.  Shrug and say "I'm healthier today than I was yesterday and I feel better."  Learn to like the body you see and you'll be more inclined to want to do stuff to keep it going.

I don't want to live forever.  I do want to enjoy the days I have and in order to enjoy those days, I have to feel better. For me, feeling better means being active and slimming down.

On a side note:  Pinterest has got this new rule where you can't talk about losing weight, share your successes, tell people how you did it, post before and after pictures of your journey - in the name of stopping 'body shaming'.  Being the taciturn turd I can sometimes be, I wrote this post.  If reading about my weight loss, etc. makes you feel ashamed of your body, that's on you.  It shouldn't, by the way.  I would hope it would encourage you.  If you are ashamed of your body, do something about it.  Don't hate those people who are doing what you won't do.  And don't be ashamed of your body.  Silly.  If it's working the way it should for you and you feel healthy, be who you are.  If not, do something about it.  Shame is a waste of time and doesn't get you anywhere.

'Nuff said.  This is my journey.  If you want to come along on a journey of your own, more power to you.  Good luck!

Thursday This n That

We're supposed to get 3-5 inches of rain.  TODAY.  Hubs and I went out to the deck and moved all the plants from the middle where they were getting the right amount of sun and rain to under the eaves where they won't get drowned.  We'll slide them all back to the middle when the rain stops.  Needless to say, we got wet.

Hubs just named Lumpy's buck twin. Sonny.  So I named his sister Stormy.  We've also decided to call the one-antlered buck Uno.  (His other antler snapped at the base and was hanging by a piece of skin... gross... until it finally fell off.)

I can't believe it's already July 1st.  I had such hopes for the year and it's already half over.  On the bright side, 2021 has been kinda sucky so far, so it's already half over.

I've been using the exercise bike again.  Two days in a row.  Woohoo.  Go me.  I set it up in the spare bedroom, next to the stereo, looking out the window.  So I can listen to music and stare at the yard while I bike.  Fifteen minutes on the bike is roughly 3 miles worth and it burns about 150 calories.  (I know because the bike keeps track of that stuff.  It also does heart rate as long as I keep my hands on the handle bars, touching the metal points.)

I need to make cookies.

Last night, I was all like 'I got chicken out for dinner, how do you want it?' and Hubs made a face.  I guess he's off chicken again.  I sauteed it up, diced it up, and put it on the counter with a bunch of other stuff to make a salad bar.  That was acceptable.  Yay.  He's always been more of a beef dude.  Before we married, he ate a lot of steak.  Hamburgers tonight.  

Speaking of hamburger, I made a pizza night before last and browned ground beef to put on it.  Pretty tasty, if I do say so myself.

My BFF lost her job - long story, but I so want to poke her ex-boss in the eye with a pointy stick - so I've been looking at the want ads for her.  There are a lot of jobs available right now.  Not many that she's probably like, but way more than there ought to be considering how many people are unemployed.  I saw one that I would probably enjoy if I were so inclined - working at a vet clinic in their kennels.  I mentioned it to Hubs and he reminded me of my one foray working in a kennel, a job I thoroughly hated.  I'm older now, but yeah, probably not as much fun as I imagine it would be.

Okay, well, I should probably go do something constructive, although this is my day to not call the office and with it raining, there's not much I'm in the mood to do.  Cookies.  Yeah, I can do that.  Talk at ya later.

Sunday Update - Week 25

:blinkblink:  Good morning, everyone.  This past week was a fun-filled extravaganza... not really... but it wasn't bad either.  It just was.

I managed to write some words this week.  After finishing my re-through of Unfinished Untitled Fantasy, I put down about 2300 more words on it, made some notes for more, and had a dream about how to handle a particular niggle.  Then yesterday I didn't write on the story, but I made some more notes trying to figure out how to handle the upcoming scene.  I think I've got it.  As of this morning, 80818 words.  Probably about 20K more to go.  We'll see.

I've been doing marketing.  No sales for the genies.  No sales so far for the SCIU books which are discounted now.  I did get a lovely note from a fan on one of my sale posts, though.  She posted a picture of the paperbacks she bought of the SCIU books and AD last year.  And squeed a bit about how awesome they are.  It was a nice thing to go to bed on last night.

My reading week was kind of weird.  I finished a book and then spent most of the week reading my manuscript.  When I finished that and sat down to read other people's books, I hit a couple duds.

In baking news, I made granola bars, corn bread (to go with a big pot of chili), and chocolate oil cake with butter cream frosting. (The frosting was store bought, but that's okay.)

On the activity front, I spent three days on mowing the yard, one day vacuuming the entire house, and one day walking.  I added in the walking from the mowing and I'm at almost 40 miles for the year.  No movement of the scale numbers, though.  Weight: 186.0  As for eating, I'm back to trying to eat smaller portions.  We'll see if that helps.

We saw fawns this week!  Two came scampering through with their mama.  And then yesterday either the same two or a different two hung out with mom while she gobbled down some corn.  (I think it was a different set, but I can't be sure.)  Still no pictures of the twins together - they won't hold still.  I did get this, though:

We also have raccoons.  Rockette brought a friend to dinner and now Rockelle is visiting regularly, too.

(Rockette is the blacker one.)

Chester Chipmunk is alive and well.  So are the bunnies.  Life in the woods is good.

In container gardening news, the zukes are still blooming but still no fruits.  Same with the tomatoes.  It probably has to do with the bug spraying we do in the yard (not the deck this year, just the yard), but I'd rather spray and have no veggies than not spray.  The lettuce and the carrots are pathetic.  So are the onions.  I'm about ready to say 'screw it' and try again next year.  In flower-bed news, something came along and ate the buds off my remaining lilies.  Rabbit or deer probably.  Darn it all.  But the sedums are getting ready to bloom, and the hydrangea is still covered with white flowers.  Can't win 'em all.

And I think that's it for me for now.  How was your week?

Sunday Update - Week 17

 Seventeen weeks into 2021 and it's getting weirder by the day.  By the way, it's National Zucchini Bread Day.  As if it wasn't weird enough to have that day in freakin' April, I went looking for info on it and one site says zucchini bread was invented in the '60s by hippies.  Umm...  I think my grandmother was making zucchini bread way before that.  (It also said that's when banana bread was invented.)

Anyway, it wasn't the best writing week I've ever had, but writing did happened, so that's a win.  4332 words for the week.  And then I hit a mental block.  I figured it out last night when I should've been sleeping.  I need to delete the end of that last scene and the block should disappear.

I tried to do some marketing, because the Model Curse books are on sale, but I got crickets and then I got discouraged.  Then I went crickets.

Only one book read last week, mainly because I'm still working my way through that NF.  

It was kind of a baking bonanza, though.  I make drop biscuits, oatmeal raisin apple cookies, and chocolate walnut upside down cake.  

I did something active 6 days out of 7, but not hugely active things.  Spot cleaning, some yardwork, a little gardening, and fishing.  Weight 184.6.

Tuesday we got snow.  Heavy, wet snow. 

I was out there in it trying to knock snow off the cedars and the bushes and my plants, because the snow was heavy enough to drag everything toward the ground.  I got super wet and freakin' cold and it was an exercise in futility.  Although, I think it saved the peonies, so that's something.  All of our black walnuts trees are hurting.  Their new leaves couldn't take the cold and nearly all of the leaves are black and curled up/crunchy now.  The big trees will survive.  The little trees?  Time will tell.  

My container garden was inside, so it's all good.

I finally got my filing done.  I don't think I filed anything after the chaos started, so there were months worth of bills in a stack on the top of my printer/scanner.  I can see the top now!  Yay.  

The windows still aren't finished.  I did another third of them and then my arms said 'oh, hell, no'.  I'll get the last three windows done today - the spare room and Hubs' bathroom.  Then I can cross that off my to-do list until Fall.  

And I'm still playing poker.  I'm around 42 million now.  

I think that's it.  There may have been other stuff.  I'm kind of manic right now, using busyness to avoid the news and the world.  

How are things going for you?