Sunday Update - 2025 Week 1

It's the first Sunday Update of the year and, of course, I'm getting a late start.  I woke up late and then I had marketing to do.  So here we are...

I'm still not writing, but the editing is zooming along at a turtle's pace.  Last week, I edited every day but one, for a total of 39 pages edited.  I'm at page 173 now out of a current 191 pages.  The manuscript is at 58016 words.  When I started this edit round I had around 47K words and 133 pages, so you can see why this might be taking me a while to finish.  Every time I think I'm getting ahead, I wind up with the same amount of pages left to do.  But I'm adding words and making it awesome, so it's all good.

I'm also in the middle of a freebie thing for FERTILE GROUND so I'm marketing a lot.  It's going okay.  Books are moving and people are reading pages.  It's all good.  Oh, and starting Tuesday, IN DEEP WISH will be free.  I need to jump on that and make some marketing materials.  Speaking of which, this is the thing I made for FG this morning:

creepy, huh?

No Saturday Reading Wrap-up yesterday because I am still reading the same book - Child Star by Shirley Temple Black.  I crossed the halfway mark yesterday.  Woot.

In cooking news, I made a thing that I'm calling Italian Spaghetti Bake.  And yesterday, I made a vat of Turkey Noodle Soup.  Today, I'm hoping to do a chocolate oil cake with raspberry jam and vanilla frosting.  Either that or cinnamon rolls.  Maybe I'll get crazy and do both.  

On the activity front, I did something active 5 out of 7 days.  Sure, some of the stuff I'm counting isn't super-active, but hey, whatever it was, it got me out of my chair and my blood pumping.  I weighed myself to start the year: 174.2 - which is up 13.2 pounds from 1/1/24.  :shrug:  I was working and stressed then.  Now I'm home, relaxed, and back to grazing. 

This creeping crud thing that Hubs and I have just won't die.  Neither of us feel too bad, but it's a lingering thing that's just annoying.  I'm going to firebomb it with meds & vitamins today and see if I can't kick its ass.  By the way, Rikola Honey Herb cough drops are the bomb.  Rikola Honey Lemon Echinacea cough drops are GROSS.  They taste like weeds and lemon rind.  Blech.

Okay, I suppose I'd better get doing something, even if it's wrong.  Have a great day and drop a comment about how your week went.

Sunday Update 11/24/24

Here we are again at another Sunday Update.  It's getting pretty close to the end of the year and next year I'll be doing week numbers instead of dates on these posts again.  

Okay, so I did 5 days worth of editing this week which amounted to 30 pages of the book - and puts me at page 82 or 46%.  Like I said, this is not a quick process.  I'd hoped to have this round of edits done by the end of November, but that was before I discovered I'd written in the wrong POV, so it's taking way longer than anticipated.  The good news is that the book is really coming together, so yay.

I didn't do any marketing this week.  And I didn't get any sales either.  I'll probably put something together starting tomorrow and see what happens.  

Man, I read a whole lot this past week.  See yesterday's post.  I also downloaded 8 new-to-me ebooks yesterday, so I'll have tons to read before the end of the year.  Yay.

In baking news, I made another batch of Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Yum.  And I did French Bread pizza last night.  Also yum.  

On the activity front, I kinda fell down.  My excuse is that I had some sort of throat funk going on, which made doing anything problematic.  I spent most of the past week sitting around, drinking tea with honey, and resting.  The good news is the funk is just about done with.  The upside to having a throat funk is I didn't eat as much as usual, so the weight came down a little.  Weight: 173.6  I plan to get back to doing active stuff starting today.

It's deer hunting season here.  Fingers crossed Sonny makes it through the season.  He really is a beautiful buck and would make someone a lovely trophy (and a lot of meals), so I hope he was smart enough to stick close to home.  Ideally, he should stay on out property, but he doesn't.  Silly deer.

I think that's about it.  It's pretty boring around here.  Sorry I'm not more interesting.

How was your week?  

Thursday This n That

I've been screwing around in my moments of spare time, listening to music on YouTube.  I like doing that because I can load specific songs or just click videos along the side of whatever video I've got queued up.  This morning, I was listening to old Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians songs.  I used to have their tape - Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars.  I'd totally forgotten this one:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJOAz7zdKKo - cool.

Some of this music thing came up because of one of those FB things where they ask you to list your favorites of some specific thing.  This one was 'list 10 songs that make you think of a particular point in time and take you right back there' and you're not supposed to think too hard about it.  I did mine.  I told Hubs about it, so he shared some of his with me and I searched them on YouTube and we listened together.  Anyway, here are mine:
1) September by Earth, Wind, & Fire
2) Yeah Yeah Yeah by Judson Spence
3) You Shook Me All Night Long by AC/DC
4) The Living Years by Mike and the Mechanics
5) Push it by Salt n Pepa
6) Let's Go Crazy by Prince
7) Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver
8. If You Could Only See by Tonic
9) Chances Are by Johnny Mathis
10) No One is to Blame by Howard Jones
I could've done 20.  Music has always been a central part of my existence.  (Yes, there are a lot of '80s songs in there. What of it?)

Illness is sweeping through the office again.  I will NOT get it this time.  I refuse to.  So there.

The wind storm we had the other night toppled a tree across the road leading out of our neighborhood.  Lucky for me, someone else had to leave for work before I did and they must've had a chainsaw because it was passable when I got to it. And it was gone entirely by the time I came home.  Thank you, whoever you were.

I saw a bunny!  First one of the year.  For some reason, we only see bunnies in the Spring and Summer.  (Not baby bunnies.  There's a reason we only see babies in those seasons. LOL)

Okay, I probably should go get ready for work.  And remember to try and keep a positive attitude today, no matter what shit life throws your way.  =o)

Sunday Update - Week 6

Another week gone by in a flash.  It seems like just yesterday I was posting a Sunday Update for Week 5.  Derp.  

Once again, not much happened.  Worked a full week.  Good days, bad days... gave myself a good talking to and all is well.  I cannot control the world around me.  I can only control my reactions to it and my actions in it.  Why I have to keep reminding myself of this escapes me.

In reading news, I finally did a wrap-up post yesterday.  Only two Books Read.  Also two DNFs.  :shrug:

I made a pizza yesterday.  Full on, with handmade dough and everything.  My arms are sore today, but it was worth it.  Today, I'm doing a BBQ pork roast.  Yummers.

Making pizza was the only thing even approaching activity last week.  Weight: 161.4.  I can't seem to break the 160 barrier and stay there.  :shrug:  That's fine, really.  If I live out the rest of my life hovering around 160, I'll be happy.  I know my body is happier for dropping those 20 pounds.  I just need to increase my activity level so I'm not one big pile of atrophied muscle.

I saw a raccoon on my way to work on Friday.  He crossed the highway a ways in front of me and was happily walking up the embankment on the other side when I passed him.  Good boy, Rocky.  I see too many of your brethren trying to cross roads and failing.

This cold thing has been a devil to get rid of.  I'm still not at 100%.  Neither is Hubs.  I'm probably at 95% but Hubs has only made it to like 80%.  Of course, I had it first, so he has to catch up.  The last lingering part of it is the cough.  Blerg.  I hope none of you get this.  Talking to Mom up in Michigan, she had it the week before I got mine, so it's not a local thing.  It's not fatal.  It's just a pain in the ass.

Yesterday, I ran errands.  I filled up the car - $3.09 a gallon. Twinge.  Hit the Wallyworld to top off the groceries - $146. Not as bad as I'd feared, but I didn't get that much.  2.25 pounds of 90/10 burger - $11+.  Ouch.  Picked up deer feed.  Whole corn is $11 for a 50 pound bag.  Ouch.  Now that I'm working, it's not hitting us as hard as it would've if I wouldn't, but come on, man. Can we please have Trump back now?

And on that note, I'll let you get back to your regularly scheduled lives.  Have a great day and an awesome week!  :hugs:  Oh, and feel free to tell me about your week.  =o)

Sunday Update - Week 5

 Another exciting week in the life of B.E. Sanderson.  Just kidding... there's no excitement here.

Monday and Tuesday were snow days.  I made it to work the other three days.  Side roads were crap, but the highway was dry, so once I made it out of here I was good until I had to turn onto the road for the office.  And then reverse that when I left.  I'm a Michigan girl, though, so it's no big deal.

I ran errands yesterday.  Dollar General in the morning and then because of a snafu, Wallyworld in the afternoon.  I did meet a funny dude at the Walmart.  He was chatting with the greeter I like and she invited me into the conversation.  I think he might've been a Vietnam Vet.  He was the right age range.  But he also could've lost his legs some other way.  Dude was hilarious and I thanked him for giving me a chuckle before I walked off to shop.  Later, I saw him in the store and he was flying down the aisle in his wheelchair.  I called him a speed demon and he laughed.  Cool guy.

I forgot to post my reading wrap-up yesterday.  There was only one book on it, so I'll leave it for next weekend.  

On the weight/activity scale, the only activity I got was throwing salt in the parking lot.  Weight: 159.4

The cold from hell is still lingering in the house.  Hubs' cough is still present, although it does sound better this morning.  I bought some better cough syrup and cold pills, which he used as soon as I got home.  All my symptoms are almost gone, but now I have this smidgen of a headache.  Yip-pee.

Oh, the snafu.  I picked up a new phone card for Hubs' Tracfone.  No biggie, right?  Well, it wouldn't upload.  I don't know if all y'all have heard about the 3G sunset - wherein 3G devices will no longer work as of some indeterminate date - but apparently Hubs' phone was 3G and his date had passed.  So I ran down to Wallyworld and got him a new phone.   I attempted to set it up last night, but it wouldn't let me do it online, so today I have to call Tracfone and see if I can get them to get his info from the old phone to the new phone.  I am a dinosaur.

Everything else here is pretty much the same. SOS... SSDD... if you're old enough to remember those.  How are things in your world?

Sunday Update - Week 3

 Three weeks into 2023 and I already missed a Sunday Update.  Derp.  This is not an auspicious start for the year.  

Okay, anyway, I ate some things on Monday that did not agree with my stomach and spent part of early Tuesday morning praying to the porcelain god.  But I couldn't just not go to work because there was something very important that I had to do first thing, so I went to work.  Did the thing, made the call... and the dude wasn't answering his phone, so I left a voicemail.  Then I waited to see if dude would call back.  I gave up at 11 and went home.  I spent the rest of the day sleeping and reading, so I was all better when Wednesday came.  Yay.  Unfortunately, that little bout of whatever must've side-swiped my awesome immune system because I woke up yesterday with a scratchy throat which developed into a full blown head cold.  Anti-yay. :shrug: I've had worse, but I am a little bummed that I get to spend my two precious days off blowing my nose.

On the upside, sitting around doing nothing leaves lots of time for reading, so I actually finished 3 books last week.

Despite the cold virus, I made parm-encrusted pork chops last night for dinner.  Yum.  No baking otherwise.

In the weight/activity sphere, I cleaned the office bathrooms and then swept the whole office.  Cleaning is activity, damn it.  I sure felt it the next day.  Weight: 162.6 as of like five minutes ago.

I'm still playing in the family trees.  Mom set me a task yesterday morning, so I spent the afternoon tackling that.  Nor sure if I accomplished anything toward what she wanted me to find out, but I think I have the entire twig filled out, and I can ask if I found the person she was looking for the next time I talk to her.  In doing this, I discovered a bit about this one person in my family who was written up in the paper for wife-swapping in rural Michigan in 1939.  She moved in with the neighbor and the neighbor's wife moved in with her husband, they divided up the kids, and then they got divorces and remarried the new spouses.  Weird.  My month of Ancestry is almost up, though, so this will end and I'll go back to my usual pursuits.  I ought to have people pay me to do this for them.  

I did a little online shopping.  I bought soap.  Lever 2000 Aloe & Cucumber.  It's the only soap that keeps me clean without making me want to itch my skin off or douse myself with perfume to cover its scent.  It hasn't arrived yet, but it should be here before my last bar becomes a sliver.  I also bought 2 CDs - both by AJR - a book to round out my free-shipping amount.  (The soap couldn't be included in that, damn them.)  I haven't received those either, but I already downloaded the music to my computer, so YAY.

I think that's it for me today.  Work is work.  Life otherwise is unsurprising and unexciting.  How are things in your little piece of the world?