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)

Thursday This n That

Earlier, I saw some silly ditz 'digital content creator' saying that you don't have to be a writer to be an author.  Wuh?

Yesterday, I read a headline that went something like 'law students think tests are discriminatory' because they're too hard.  Like the person who posted the link said 'tests are supposed to help discriminate between the capable and the incapable', so yeah.

What is with all these words that people are putting asterisks into now?  I write a bunch of crime fiction, but words like rape, murder, killer, etc. are forbidden?  I don't even like putting asterisks in when I type fuck, I'm sure as hell not going to do it when I talk about rape or murder or killers.  Pardon me, but fuck that shit.

I wrote a note to FB in answer to their limiting my number of marketing posts.  Now, I don't seem to be getting the block, but I'm also not getting any reach.  Brilliant.  Wish in One Hand has traditionally flown out the door when I run a freebie.  I got 21 downloads the first day, then I wrote FB that note and the next day I got 4.  :eyeroll: :facepalm: :headdesk: 

Just got our Brightspeed 'final bill' thing.  They owe us $24.  It would've been nice if they'd just put in a check.  But no.  I'll most likely have to call them and struggle to get my credit back.  Fun.

I've been watching The IT Crowd.  It's pretty funny.  If you're a nerd, which I am.

I'm up to 50 miles walked for the year.  I posted that to FB and one of my friends (someone I've 'known' since like 2006 when I got my first blog) said something like 'well, you better turn around and go home'.  This is why we're friends.  LOL

If I wore jeans, I'd be buying myself a pair of American Eagle right now.  Sometimes I miss wearing jeans.  :shrug:

Dollar General has the best ice cream.  It's Caramel Swirl.  Caramel flavored ice cream with a ribbon of smooth caramel.  No chunks.  It's awesome.  I'm not a fan of chunks in my ice cream.

Got anything to add today?

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?  

Thursday This n That

Oh, joy... I'll be in the jury pool here from July - November.  That's how it works in MO... you get notified that you'll be in the pool for a certain time and then, if they pick you, you'll get another notice that you have to serve.  THEN you have to call the night before to see if they're actually going to have court or if it was cancelled.  I've been in the pool a lot in the past 12 years, and I've been picked several times, but it's always been cancelled the night before.  Whew.  Especially the last time because I went to Michigan while I was still in the pool and it would've sucked if I'd been called up while I was away.

FB is still screwing me hard on the marketing thing.  Turds.

I saw something this morning about how like 54% of Americans can't read above a 6th grade level.  And like 1 in 5 is functionally illiterate.  And how like 1 in 3 is like math-illiterate.  Which all sucks.  On a happier note, I saw how 2nd Lady Vance has a reading initiative this summer that kids can sign up for and win prizes and maybe win a trip to the White House.  I don't care what your politics are... that's a good thing and everyone should be all for it.  Anything that gets people reading more is awesome.

And if you're actively against Mrs. Vance's summer reading program, what the hell is wrong with you?  Illiteracy is everyone's problem.

Lumpy's baby is super cute!  A couple days ago, it walked right under the window where we were watching.  So tiny!  Awwww.

I'm really feeling that last walk.  I did the loop, which is only 1.1 miles, but it's very hilly and my calves are mooing this morning.  

Last night was not a good night for sleeping.  I was too hot and then the cats decided it would be an awesome night to run around the house playing with their jingly ball and then they found something interesting in the corner of the bedroom that HAD TO BE investigated right then.  They were being good boys, but their goodness was certainly noisy and I was not in the frame of mind to ignore them.  Oh well.  Naptime later and for now, lots of coffee!

Right now, though, I think I'm going to go finish my book.  Maybe snag some breffest.  Have a great day and feel free to leave whatever this or that your mind spits out.  

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 22

What a week I had.  Let's see if I can reconstruct it...

Okay, so I didn't do anything writerly.  I took the week off from marketing, too.  I didn't even get my spreadsheets ready for June - which is something I have to do today.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.

There was reading... see yesterday's post.

I made banana bread and pizza this week.  Woot.  And yum.  The pizza was yesterday, so I'll have pizza for breakfast today.  Yay!

The big update is activity, because I was busy busy this week.  I got in 4.8 miles worth of walks on 4 separate days.  Plus, I did a bunch of errand running, plus groceries.  Unfortunately, it didn't equal weight loss, so... Weight 173.8.  :shrug:  

So, you're saying to yourself, what made you so damn busy?  I guess in the scheme of other peoples' busyness, I wasn't really.  But for me, this was a busy week.  Tuesday, I did groceries.  Wednesday, I went northwest to get my car inspected and then over to the DMV to get my plates and my license renewed. (and pick up Chinese food for lunch.)  Friday, I went northeast to get Hubs' prescriptions and run errands up there - bank, supply store, grocery store, thrift store.  Since I stopped working, I don't get around much anymore.  Anyway, all that made me tired, so here I am.  And yes, I would like some cheese with that whine.

Gardening update... Everything is growing, except the green pepper seeds I planted a week ago yesterday.  I wasn't really expecting anything there, but I wanted to be happily surprised.  :shrug:  The tomatoes are getting tall, but not really spreading out much and no flowers yet, so no fruit on the way.  The little trees are all doing their things.  Yeah, not exciting news.

This week, I really need to weed the beds again, and continue to work on weeding the front rock path.  I also need to vacuum.  The dustbunnies are starting to gain sentience.

What's on your list for last week?  What's on the menu for this week?  

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 6

Six weeks into 2025 and I'm feeling pretty good about life in general.  Specifics?  Eh, the jury's still out.

I finished the second round of edit notes on Tuesday, took a day off, and began inputting them.  I'm only at pg38, but it's going well.  I guess.  I'm trying to just go from note to note, but I keep finding things I missed making notes on, so it's going slower than anticipated.  Like I said, I won't meet my goal of having this finished by Valentine's Day.  Not even close.  I am shooting for before the end of the month now, but that will depend on how fast I can get these notes entered, the next pass through and notes completed, sent out to readers and how quickly they turn it around back to me.  Then there will be formatting, etc.  Actually, typing all that out now makes me wonder if I can have this done by Easter.  (And I don't know when Easter even is this year.)

I did some marketing this week.  Not nearly enough.  I slacked off on this one.  Project Hermes did move 71 copies and had some page reads, though.  Tomorrow, Dying Embers starts its freebie week in celebration of its ten year anniversary.  Woot.

Reading still isn't happening.  I can't seem to muster the urge to read right now.  :shrug:  This, too, shall pass.

In baking news, all I made this week was Italian bread pizza.  It's like French bread pizza, but with a loaf of Italian bread.  Big shocker there, eh?  Anyway, it was totally yummy, and I still have half a loaf of bread left to make it again sometime this week.  Also, this week, we need cinnamon rolls.  We ate the last two a couple days ago and I'm jones'n.  Oh, and I plan on making carrot cake this week.  Maybe today.  I bought a huge bag of carrots for this purpose and for the beef stew I made yesterday.  OMG, that stew turned out amazing.  Yummers.

On the activity front, I did something active 5 out of 7 days.  Cleaning, walking, woods work, etc.  Oh, and I went fishing one afternoon.  I didn't catch anything, but lugging the gear around after ages of not going fishing was a real workout.  Speaking of real workouts, day before yesterday, in addition to my puttering around in the woods, I lugged a couple dead dogwood tree trunks up the hill.  And I paid for every inch of both the trees and the climbs.  Dogwood is not a light wood.  OMG, ouch.  I'm still feeling that one.  Weight as of Wednesday: 173.0

I found a couple really neat rocks in the woods, too.  One of these days, I should take pictures of all my neat rocks and let y'all see them.  Anyway, one of them was small and has interesting differently colored stripes in it.  The other is bigger and has some kind of translucent brown mineral layered into the white base rock.  Not sure what it is, but it's cool, so home it came.  Hey, Hubs didn't tell me this time, as he often does, not to bring any rocks back with me, so I went for it.  LOL

Yesterday, I hit Wallyworld ahead of the coming weather scuz.  And this morning I remembered that I forgot coffee :gasp: and some other essential, but less important, things.  This means a Dollar General run shortly.  

And that's about all I have for you today.  I hope wherever you are, life is good for you, too.  Have a great day!  And leave me a comment or two when you get a chance.  

Sunday Update 10/13/24

What a week, eh?

Let's see... I didn't do any writing again.  I did work on edits.  I'm up to like 60% of the books that now has edit notes.  I also did some marketing.  Unequal was free Sunday - Thursday but I only moved 18 books. Not sure what the dealy-bob was there.  Perhaps Sunday is not the best day to start these marketing blasts.  Maybe I'm reaching saturation.  I guess we'll find out.  I have Wish Hits the Fan set up to go free tomorrow.  None of the other books are on sale.  Well, Wish in One Hand is set at 99c, so there's that.  Get the whole 4-book series for less than $9.  It's a pretty good deal, if I do say so myself.

Once again, I didn't do any reading.

In baking news, I made a chocolate oil cake.  This time I used corn oil rather than vegetable oil.  I'm not sure if that made a difference.  Maybe it was a little more moist.  I also made a pizza.

On the activity front, it was a wild week of cleaning, cleaning, and more cleaning.  The house looks lovely.  I also did one walk.  Mileage for the year: 51.25. Weight: 173.8

The reason for the cleaning... I mean, other than it needed to be done?  We had visitors yesterday.  Just low impact, casual chatting.  We had pizza for lunch and ate cake.  It was all good.  Well, except for the cats.  We never have visitors, so they were both totally freaked out and hid under the bed.  After a while of them not coming out, we transferred their food and water, and their litter box, into the bedroom and closed the door.  Poor things.  They finally got back to normal last night.  Little xenophobes.

Today should be back to normal all the way around.  The plan is to not do anything active and just veg.  I'll probably work on the editing notes.  Maybe I'll take a little walk.  Tomorrow, I'll be back to marketing so I should probably spend some time today working on marketing materials.  We'll see.  

How are things in your world?

Sunday Update 10/6/24

Well, here we are again at Sunday morning.  The start of a new week, no matter what you're heard about the week starting on Monday.  I'll die on this hill.  Yeah, I'm kinda feisty today.  You wanna make somethin' of it?  ;o)

This past week... Hmm... Let's see...

I didn't write anything again.  I did reach 50% of the book on edit notes, though.  Still loving it.  Yay.  I also finished the project wherein I updated all my books (17 ebooks and 17 paperbacks) with Amazon.  So I got that going for me.  Today starts a freebie offering of UNEQUAL, and I've already been hard at work marketing this morning.  It'll be free today through the end of Thursday.  If you haven't already done so, snag yourself a copy.

Since I'm still editing, I'm still not reading.  I really need to rectify that.

In baking news, I made homemade cinnamon raisin rolls.  Bought some cream cheese frosting to slather all over them, too.  Yummers.  

I did five days worth of activity this week.  This included two walks for just under 2 miles, which brings me to over 50 miles walked this year.  I also did some cleaning, some furniture moving and book shifting, and some gardening.  I also ate a ton, so... Weight: 174.2

We're back to trying to let The Boyz have free run of the house at night.  They're older now, so there's hope.  Friday night was better than the last time we tried this, but Sawyer was still annoying.  Last night was better than Friday.  This may work this time.  Until it does, though, I'm sleep deprived.  Yay.

I have an idea floating around in my head for a new story.  Kind of a crime noir but with fairies.  And not your typical fairies, more like grungy, ill-tempered creatures with less than palatable jobs.  I don't know if I'll write it, but it's there in my head.

Anyway, I should probably go do something constructive.  Or maybe I'll just go veg in front of the TV until the sun comes up and it's light enough to actually do anything.  Have a great day wherever you are and whatever you do.  Feel free to drop a comment and let me know how your week went.

Sunday Update 9/8/24

 Good Morning.  I'm not quite awake yet, but here goes...

I got a wild idea and starting writing another book this week.  I'm 3729 words in.  The original idea was that this would be the third Duke Noble book, but I'm starting to think this would be better as the second Duke Noble, which would then shift the book I just finished writing, and am now editing, to #3.  We'll see.  

Also, I've been working a little on phase one of the edits for TTW (Duke #2... err 3).  I haven't gotten very far - only at 4% - but I'm working on it.  I think I already have like 3 pages of notes.  

I tried to do some marketing this week because SSS was on sale, but that was :sad trombone:, so I stopped.  I did sell a copy of it to someone in the UK, so not a total waste.  Also, I gave a gal at the bank one of my bookmarks and she wants a copy of BloodFlow (yeah, it's Project Hermes now, but the bookmark was old and that's the only copy I have on hand right now, so it works).  I'll get that to her later this week.  I really need to make some new marketing materials.  Blerg.

Reading...  We-ell... I did finish one book last Saturday, but I forgot to do a wrap-up yesterday, so I'll throw it on next week's.  I don't expect that to be very exciting, though, because I'm currently using my Kindle to edit and I haven't picked out a hardcopy to read while I'm writing and editing.  Derp.

On the activity front, I started out the week pretty good.  I got in three walks for almost three and a half miles.  Then I got sluggish and meh.  No walkies for the past three days, unless you count walking around the Wallyworld.  We won't talk about weight.  K?

Friday, on my way to do the shopping, I stopped in at the old office because I saw the truck for the one guy I never got to hug goodbye.  I got me some hugs from him and from my faux little brother.  Yay.  I do miss my guys.  And some of the customers.  Anyway, I chatted with people and stuff, which was nice.  And I finally remembered to take my big, metal, outdoor ashtray with me. Yay.

The deer are starting to turn gray.  The fawns are getting big and them what are boys are starting to get their antler nubs.  Lumpy's fawn is a buck.  He's the biggest fawn of them all.  Big boy.  Wuff.

Okay, that's about all the news that's fit to print here.  How are things in your world?

Sunday Update 8/24/24

Well, hello there.  Thanks for stopping by for my weekly update.  In case this is your first time here, I'm a pretty boring person.  All the exciting in my life is fictional.  

Day before yesterday, I finished the WIP.  It'll become my 18th published novel.  It's Duke Noble, book 2 - tentatively called Thicker Than Water.  (Not sure I love that title.  We'll see.)  It ended up being 47269 words for the first draft.  I really like how it ended.  There's a lot I have to go back and fix - continuity issues, gaps, a dearth of description... the usual.  I'll probably start that next week.  With my brain, I don't really need too much time to step out of the story so I can look at it objectively.  

So, with finishing that sucker, I wrote 6657 words last week.  I'm hoping to start writing again on something else sometime this week, then write at night and edit TTW during the day once I get to editing again.  I've done this in the past, so it's not outside the realm of possibility.  I do wonder whether I still have the chops to write one book while editing another, though.

This past week, I ran a sale on the Once Upon a Djinn books.  I ended up moving 106 copies of WIOH (free), two copies of IDW, and one copy each of UWC and WHTF (99c ea).  On the bright side, the rankings thing on Amazon is finally moving again, so here's hoping it equates to residual sales and page reads in KU.  WIOH reached #91 in free urban fantasy, so yay.  That usually helps.  :shrug:

I didn't post a Reading Wrap-up yesterday because, frankly, I forgot.  Honestly, though, I didn't really have anything to talk about.  I didn't finish a book last week - just DNF'd one, which was annoying.  Then I picked up a SF and finished that last night.  I'll talk about it all next Saturday.

In baking news, I made a batch of Peanut Butter & Cocoa Oatmeal Cookies.  Hubs was jones'n for something chocolate, so tada.  

On the activity front, I walked 3 days for 2.55 miles worth, then yesterday, I cut down my lilac bush with this nifty new hand saw thingie I bought.  (Poor Linus.  He up and died this year, all but one lonely trunk and 3-4 suckers.  I left all that, hoping to resurrect him.)  It was quite the upper body workout and I'm feeling it today.  I haven't weighed myself.  I don't need that kind of negativity... LOL.

I can't think of anything else from this past week worth talking about, so feel free to go on about your day.  And if you want to, drop a comment and tell me about your week.  I hope it was a good one.  If not, we can commiserate. :hugs:

Sunday Update 8/18/24

 Whew... just got back from a morning walk.  I hope to start making those a regular thing.  We'll see.  Now, onward to the update...

I wrote 5 out of 7 days this week for a total of 6097 words.  TTW is now at 40604 words total.  Last night, I finished writing and went out for a smoke, during which my brain formed one of the final scenes.  I had to come back in and write it down before I lost it.  I never write out of order, but apparently, it was necessary this time.  Then last night while I was failing to fall asleep, I hashed out a bunch of other stuff.  I should've gotten up and written it all down.  I didn't, so it's a crap shoot whether it'll be there when I'm ready to write today.  

As for marketing, nothing was on sale this week, but I did join a bunch of groups on Facebook for when I have another sale on.  Maybe I'll talk about that tomorrow.  I also did some spreadsheet work - pulling out my old marketing spreadsheet that I haven't touched since 2022.  And my Pages Read tab in my Sales sheet got unhidden and I worked on that a bit.  Some lovely soul read all 3 A Model Curse books and then read all 4 of the Once Upon a Djinn books.  Which puts my KU at 2446 pages read this month.  Cha-ching.

My reading week wasn't all that special.  I read one book and DNF'd two others.  Yesterday, I started a not-famous book by Aldous Huxley.  We'll see how that goes.

In cooking news, I made another stab at the yogurt coffee cake.  This was also a fail.  And I failed down, so this one wasn't nearly as yummy as my previous failure.  I'll give myself one more shot at it, then I'm calling this recipe quits.

Activity this week sucked.  I walked one day and cleaned one day.  The walk was 1.7 miles, though - which was why I didn't walk the rest of the week - I overdid it and hurt afterwards.  I'm going to have to work up to that mileage in smaller increments.  Derp. (Today's walk of .75 miles counts toward next week.)  Weight: 170.8. 

I can't think of what else to say here right now.  I'm kinda sweaty and in need of a shower, due to aforementioned walk.  Leave me a comment and tell me about your week.

Thursday This n nThat

Sorry I'm late posting.  Our internet is so slow, I try to stay off of it until Hubs doesn't need it anymore.  And even then, doing anything is just barely better than using dial-up.  And yes, our internet is run off our phone lines, so that oughta tell ya somethin'.

Our phone is still sporadic.  We had dial tone this morning.  It'll probably be gone again by afternoon.  

I just got back from a walk.  1.1 miles.  Woof, it's hot out there.  I'm Sweaty Spaghetti.  

I have been trying to grow my hair out.  I kept it short while I had a job.  Now I don't need it short.  However, it's starting to irritate me.  Every time I shower, I threaten to cut it.  I did do my bangs yesterday.  I still hate it.  :shrug:

The book I'm reading it s lot longer than I anticipated.  I should've known, because it's SF, but I guess I didn't notice it's like an epic SF space opera.  Still, it's pretty good, so I'm motoring through.  As long as it continues to be pretty good, that is.

I ran into a neighbor just now.  Her dog was taking her for a drag.  Nice gal.  Nice dog.  It's just a bit undertrained, so it drags her around the neighborhood.

It's dry here.  We need rain.  If you have extra, please send.

Hubs got some junk mail and threw the envelope on the floor.  He's not a pig or anything.  He just put it there for the cats to play with. When they get bored, he'll throw it away.  I do the same with boxes.  It's funny watching Sawyer try to fit himself in the box the fruit bars come in.  As I've said, he's a moose.  Right now, Finn is under a shoebox we left for them to play with and Sawyer is trying to dig him out.  Heh, the Turtle Game.  Yay.

Okay, I'm done.  Leave your own this n thats if you're in the mood.  Have a great day!

Sunday Update 8/4/24

 :blink blink: It's morning, isn't it?  Bleh.  :chugs coffee:  Okay, let's see if we can rebuild the week.

I wrapped up JuLoWriMo on Wednesday night.  And only wrote one day since then.  I did put out over 1300 words that night, but I'm guessing that I still didn't acquire the habit of writing every day if it was so easy to not write.  Gotta work on that.  The book is at 30055 words now.  

Yesterday, I did set up the SCIU books to run this week as a sale.  Dying Embers will be free.  Fertile Ground and Early Grave will be 99c (US and UK only).  I updated one of my previous sale graphics to go with it, which I'd show you but Google won't let me access the damn thing.  Derp.

I forgot to post a Reading Wrap-up this week.  It wasn't exciting or anything.  I only read one book.  I'll add that to next week's post.

In baking news, I made homemade pizza again.  Woohoo.  Otherwise, it really is too damn hot to bake.  Today, I'm going to make a pork roast in the crockpot.  It'll be yummy and still not add too much to the house heat.

On the activity front, Monday I walked the loop here - 1.1 miles of terrain.  Unfortunately, they've re-graveled the unpaved portion and it kinda makes for unsure footing.  I didn't fall, but I slipped around a couple times and must've pulled my calf muscle.  That sucker hurt.  This basically shut down my walking for the rest of the week.  It's finally feeling okay again, so I'll try to get a walk in this morning.  I also need to get back to cleaning.  Weight: 170.2

I don't think I've mentioned it, but I started doing crossword puzzles again.  We get a magazine from our electric company every month and each one has a crossword in the back.  Being the packrat I am, I have several years worth of the magazines, so I'm working my way through the puzzles.  Each time I complete a puzzle, I throw the magazine out.  Exercising the brain AND decluttering.  Go me.  (Not really a lot of exercise for the brain. The puzzles are kinda lame.  Plus, I cheat at crosswords.)

Oh, I almost forgot.  We were without phones again - Monday through Friday night.  They're back, but I'm not holding my breath that they'll stay that way.  The techs are doing the best they can, but the equipment out here is in desperate need of an upgrade and Brightspeed isn't interested in spending the money for an area that brings in so little revenue.  I get it, but it sucks.  We're still back and forth with the idea of ditching the landline altogether.  We'll see.  UPDATE: as of 9:45am, we are without phone again.  For the record, I hate Brightspeed.  If you can avoid using them, do so.

Other than that, not much really going on around here.  The life is pretty boring, which is good thing.  After two years of stress-stress-stress, it's a needed break.  

How was your week?

Sunday Update 7/14/24

 Welp, it's Sunday again.  If you don't know what happened in the news yesterday, some asshole tried to assassinate Trump.  He'll be fine and at least two other people fared much worse.  If you want to know more, there are a million articles about it out there now.

Onward to my world...

I wrote every day but one this week.  I took Tuesday off.  Still, I ended the week with 5058 new words added, and the book is at 14098 total.  I'm trying to remember to make a little note about Ju-Lo-Wri-Mo at the end of every blog post here, but I'm also adding it the widget over there on the right.  In addition to actually putting words on the page, I have notes of things that may or may not happen farther done the storyline, which is always a good thing to have.  It's kind of money in my writing bank.

The PROJECT HERMES freebie thing ended with me moving a total of 82 books.  No sales or page reads off this yet.  (And if it hasn't happened by now, it most likely won't.)  Derp.  

In reading news, I finished two books this week and I'm currently working on an Agatha Christie I've never read before.  Yay.

I didn't do too much in the activity column.  Two days walking, one day cleaning and rearranging my closet.  (I cleaned and rearranged my closet because Hubs found a brown recluse spider in our bed, so I made it a less welcome environment.)  I also cleaned other areas of the house that day.  Also, I went grocery shopping, which sorta counts as an activity because it involves a lot of walking and pushing the cart, etc.  

On the baking front, I didn't.  It's too hot to bake.  I did make a batch of no-bake cookies, though.  Also, yay.

The fawns are getting bigger and we're seeing them more frequently.

I really need to clean the house today.  Regular cleaning as opposed to 'OMG there's a nasty spider in our bed better clean where I don't usually clean' cleaning.  I also need to figure out my next move in the book marketing scheme of things.  I'll probably go with the genie books.  We'll see.  Right now, though, I should probably get dressed and go for a walk before it gets ungodly hot again.  

What happened in your world last week?  

Ju-Lo-Wri-Mo Day 13
Starting Word Count: 13285
Ending Word Count: 14098
New Words: 813

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?

Thursday This n That

You ever see one of those math problems on FB where it's like this picture plus this picture equals this amount and you get several lines of that with different pictures and then you have to figure out the ultimate answer using pictures?  I'm usually okay at those, but I saw one this morning on a whole 'nother level and it hurt my brain.

I heard from my MIL yesterday.  The bank contacted her about the check that was stolen out of Owl's mailbox at Christmas.  Sounds like they've caught someone and are moving forward with prosecution.  Yay.  I took all the information and sent it to Owl, in case she doesn't already have it, and I'll give it to my mom this morning.  I hope they throw the book and her/him/them.  Stealing little old ladies' Christmas checks... how low can you go?

I took a new pic of The Boyz...

You can really see Sawyer's markings in this one.  They both have such interesting markings.  And even though they're both tabbies, Sawyer's tabby is more brown-gray and Finn's is more gray-gray.  Totally brothers from another mother.

We've seen at least two fawns now.  Yay.

I actually got some words written last week, but the next day, my hand hurt so bad that I'm shying away from writing.  I need to suck it up.  My hands will get over it if I make them get over it.  So there.  I'll get some writing done today, you can guaran-damn-tee it.

I also walked the loop yesterday for the first time in over a year.  It took me 28 minutes instead of the usual 25.  I expected it to take longer because I really was taking it slower.  It felt good to do it, but I am paying for it a little this morning.  Gah, atrophy sucks.

Okay, that's probably enough out of me this morning.  Have an awesome day wherever you are and feel free to leave some of your this-n-thats behind before you go.  =o)

Sunday Update - Week 12

Another Sunday morning and here I am...

Work was work, so let's get that out of the way.  My customers love me.  I got some nice kudos. I've made friends with the UPS dude.  (Never underestimate the power of making friends with the guys who deliver the stuff you need.)  I got paid again.  It's all good, baby.  Let's see if anything interesting happened beyond that...

I finally finished the non-fiction I was reading.  Yay.  I'm now into a Phyllis Whitney.  

Yesterday, I ran errands.  No Wallyworld trip this time because I had to head north for other stuff, so I just hit the grocery store up there.  And I was super-excited because a north trip means stopping by one of my favorite thrift stores.  Unfortunately, the dang place was closed for remodeling.  Son of a motherless monkey.  Once that was thrown out the door, I at least got to get these awesome little fruit pies Walmart doesn't carry.  And pistachio ice cream.  Yum.  If I can't get books, I can be happy about food.  Yeah, I lead a simple life.

Amazon still hasn't refunded my money from that instant breakfast tragedy.  I even chatted with a live rep who promised they'd get it to me.  Bastards.  Amazon is pissing me off.

Hubs and I took a walk yesterday.  I'm still only at like 3 miles for the year, though.  I really need to get off my dead ass and get some exercise.  Weight: 160-ish.  And I'm back to eating pretty much normal again.

We have discarded the idea of getting a dog.  It's the rational decision.  Dogs are a lot of work and with me gone all day, all that work would fall on Hubs, which isn't fair.  Now, I'm working on convincing Hubs that getting a kitty now would be awesome.  Cats are easy.  And then he'd have someone to keep him company while I'm at the office.

I saw a bald eagle on the way home from errands yesterday.  She was sitting in a tree near the road leading back in to home.  I say she because it was quite light, but I don't know for certain that's a gender-based thing.  :shrug:  Anyway, she was an adult - white head, doncha know - and she looked healthy.  She's probably the last eagle I'll see until late Fall.

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

Finding My Zen Place

I started the weekend off in a funk.  Oh, not so much of a funk that I couldn't function (funk-tion... lol), but I was definitely in a funked-up place.  

I talked to Mom on Saturday morning, which always helps.  She's seen and done so much in her life, she always has a wise word or an understanding ear or just finds a way to commiserate.  And, of course, Hubs is always supportive.  But this was something I needed to find a way out of from within myself. To get zen*.

Yesterday morning, Hubs and I went for a walk.  We did the loop, wandering the leaf-covered roads, looking at the lake, and enjoying the quiet of our neighborhood on a Sunday morning.  

After lunch, I did some baking.  Peeling and slicing apples, adding them to cranberries and sugars and cinnamon to make the base.  Cutting together flour and sugars and oats and butter to make the crumbly topping.  Throw it in the oven and 40 minutes later, out pops heaven.  What could be more zen than that?

While it was cooling, Hubs and I went fishing.  It was a gorgeous fall day.  The lake was like glass.  The site was devoid of other people.  Just us and our bobbers, basically feeding the little fishies who were too small to catch but were happily devouring our worms.  Total zen.

By the time we got home, I didn't feel like cooking dinner.  Hubs made himself a bowl of fruits and granola.  I had apple cranberry crisp with ice cream.  (Hubs had that, too, but it was dessert for him. LOL)

Despite the time change, we stayed up and watched our Sunday night shows - Miss Scarlet and the Duke, followed by Magpie Murders.  (I'm pretty sure I figured out the whodunnit on that last one, but I won't say what it is in case anyone else is watching. We'll find out if I'm right next week, I think.)  

This morning, I'm feeling pretty zen.  We'll see if that holds up.  I'm gonna try and make it hold up.   I am centered.  I am calm.  I am wearing my Teflon force field - nothing sticks and nothing penetrates. Ohmmmm.

And if I keep telling myself that, maybe it'll be true. LOL

*I'm probably using that word wrong.  I don't care.  That's how zen I am.  =op 

Sunday Update - Week 40

Wow.  40 weeks into 2022.  Twelve weeks from 2023.  :shrug:

No writing this week.  Unless you count writing the same verbiage over and over in an endless stream of emails.  Yes, I could copy and paste, but there are sufficient spots where I have to make the emails customer specific and I type fast enough, that no time would actually be saved.  

I didn't finish reading a single book this week.  I'm pretty close to getting that Heinlein thing finished.  Maybe today.

Also, I didn't really do any baking this week.  I did make a big vat of chili yesterday.  Just right for fall weather, I think.

Yesterday, Hubs and I took a 2 mile walk.  I actually don't feel too bad, considering it was the first walk we'd taken in two weeks.  It was a lovely day and we didn't push it.  I was feeling it on the way home, though.  Oof.  Getting up that last hill to the house was a bugger.  

I also did Wallyworld yesterday.  Big fun was had at the pavilion.  (Bonus points if you know the movie that was paraphrased from.)  A while back I discovered the Wallyworld versions of several Little Debbie snacks.  Way cheaper and super yummy.  Not like we actually need Nutty Buddies, Swiss Rolls, and chocolate cupcakes, but who cares?   

Earlier in the week, I was helping move a box through the office.  I was walking backward and bashed my left wrist on a door molding, then about ten feet further on bashed my right wrist on a door knob.  I'm not even sure why there's a door in that spot.  My wrists now look like I was being held hostage.  Fun times.  

Ooo, we have a fox!  We saw him Thursday night, Friday morning, and Saturday morning.  Cool.  He's beautiful with a big fluffy tail and a lovely coat.  (Confession, I don't know if it's a male and I'm not even sure it was the same fox all three times.  Wouldn't it be great if it was a fox family?)  The only issue with having a fox in the neighborhood is it drives the dogs nuts in the middle of the night.  Eh, I'll learn to sleep through the barking.

It's so dry here.  We haven't had any rain since the beginning of September.  They've teased that we would get rain, but it never happened.  Bastards.  The stock ponds in the area are either dry or in full algae bloom.  Hubs is done watering the gardens though.  What lives lives and what doesn't wasn't meant to be anyway.  We're still filling the water pans for the critters, though.  

The bird migration should be coming.  We're already starting to see some of the little birds - warblers and such.  I'm keeping an eye out for eagles.

And that's about it for me today.  How was your Week 40?

Sunday Update - Week 30

Another week has passed and Sunday is here again.  

Unfortunately, these days I don't have anything interesting to talk about.  I work, I come home, I veg, I sleep... Lather, rinse repeat.  And since I can't really talk about the particulars of work, that cuts of 40 hrs worth of my awake time out of my Sunday Update.

I did manage to get some reading done.  I finished two books last week and DNF'd two.  I'm most of the way through another book right now and I'll finish it today.  

Baking happened.  Nothing exciting or even different.  I made zucchini bread last Sunday and granola bars yesterday.  

I also hit the Wallyworld yesterday.  I'm in charge of the pop machine at work now, and part of that is acquiring the cans to fill the machine.  So, before I did my own groceries, I did that.  168 cans worth.  What can I say, it's been a while since anyone did this and the machine was out of damn near everything.  My back seat is filled with pop.  Which meant I didn't have room for deer food.  Needless to say, I need to find a better way to do this.  Then I went back in and did my own shopping.  I was a naughty girl and bought stuff we didn't need.  Next month, I need to go back to my usual shopping strategies.  And of course, it was pouring rain, so between the two trips into and out of the store, and the loading of stuff into the car, plus the trips from the car to the house, I was soaked.  

After the rain stopped, Hubs and I went for a walk.  Our first real walk in weeks.  We did a little over a mile and man, can I tell that it's been a while since I walked.  I also took a short walk on my lunch half-hour one day this past week.  Still too hot for such activities.  I was a sweaty mess and I only walked for 8 minutes.  Additionally, on the activity side of things, I was moving boxes of stuff around at the office.  Weight: 175.4

In other news, my bank was robbed in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.  The gals who work there couldn't give me any details, because it's an ongoing investigation, but there were observations I could make on my own.  For instance, the two robbers knocked out the right side of the glass double doors to gain entry.  I'm not really sure what these bastards could've gotten away with - the vault, where my safety deposit box is, is well... a vault.  The bank does have a security system, which alerts the authorities and has cameras, so there's that.  Unfortunately, we are far enough out that the police did not arrive in time to catch the assholes.  

While I was discussing this bit of local news with the gal at the corner store, she told me there are also reports of a camouflage Chevy Blazer in the area making threats to set people's homes on fire and rob them when they escape the flames.  Nice.  I also heard about two other robberies in the area.  One of the people I was talking to said all this crime is because of, you know, drugs.  I think it's because people aren't being taught not to touch what doesn't belong to them, while being taught that they're entitled to shit, and there are no longer any real consequences for bad behavior.  And drugs.  But that's just me.

And now, on to the weather... It's been wet.  I can't complain, though, because we've been hoping for rain for so long that complaining would be hypocritical.  So, yay, rain.  

Nothing much else going on around here.  What's up in your world?