Sunday Update - Week 19

Mornin' Everyone.  Let's just jump right into the week, okay?

I had a good writing week, if a bit strange for me.  Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I wrote on SCIU4 - 2770 words.  Friday and Saturday, I shifted gears and worked on Shroudlands2 - 3188 words.  Right now, I have to go where the inspiration takes me.  And right now, the inspiration is following reader input.  But I'll try and talk about that more tomorrow.

I didn't read anything else all week until yesterday when I went ahead and picked up a suspense novel I've been chomping to read.  If I'm writing fantasy, a suspense shouldn't harsh my groove.  Yes, being a writer is weird.

In baking news, I did a lemon oil cake with strawberry frosting.  I also did a batch of granola bars.  Expect the baking to slack off now that the weather is decidedly warmer.  Although, I do plan to make a batch of zucchini bread today.  Hubs does love his granola bars and zucchini bread for breakfast.

On the activity front, I managed 4 days worth.  Tuesday I sprayed weeds in the driveway, which was a haul.  Wednesday, I took a short walk in the woods.  Thursday, I did a BIG grocery trip.  Friday, I mowed the lawn for an hour.  (Hubs did the rest - which took another 3 hours.  We have a push mower and a big lawn.)

Speaking of spraying weeds... it only worked a little.  I needed more vinegar in the vinegar, dish soap, Epsom salts, water mix.  Hubs redid the driveway yesterday using mostly vinegar in his big sprayer on wheels.  (I used the pump sprayer.)  By afternoon, there was visible Weed-mageddon going on out there, so yay.  

As for the grocery trip, it was BIG.  I went in and got all the non-perishable stuff and took it out to the car.  Then I went back in and got all the meats, cheeses, produce, and frozen stuff.  We're good for at least a month now.  One trip saves gas.  We won't talk about the fundage I dropped.  Let's just say it wasn't pretty.  It was all stuff we needed, but ouch.

I did buy a lottery ticket this week.  Won $10.  Woohoo.  In other gambling news, I won another tournament.  202 people started and I was the last man standing.  The whole thing lasted 101 minutes.  

The bunnies are back for the Spring.  There's one in the yard right now.  Yay!  Also, the deer have reached maximum fat pregnant, so we should be seeing the mass drop toward their hips and then a sudden thinning as they bring fawns into the world.  We won't see fawns until late June, if things run along previous years' schedules.  We did have two yearling bucks laying in the front yard the other day, though.  How cool is that?

The weather here has been weird.  Too hot for right now and storms that are predicted but pass us and dump all over other people.  We're predicted to have a nasty one today.  Here's hoping it also goes elsewhere.  

Not sure what's on tap for the week ahead.  More writing.  I have to get back to the neverending weeding.  I should also probably get some cleaning done.  Otherwise, the possibilities are end... Okay, not endless, but there are possibilities.  ;o)

How was your week?  

Sunday Update - Week 9

It's been a week and I am toast.  

I got the edit round finished last Sunday and sent the manuscript off to beta readers on Tuesday.  Thursday one of the betas was already finished, saying that she couldn't put it down.  Yay.  But I will wait until all the notes are in before I start entering them.  It makes it easier for me to sort through them that way.  

In reading news, I finished two books and DNF'd 3 others.

Last Sunday, I made cake cookies in bar form.  Yellow cake with chocolate chips and walnuts, so they're like blondies.  Kinda.  No other baking went on and all the cooking was simple stuff.  Today, I might make pumpkin bread.

On the activity front, I took two walks and did two sessions with the gardens.  Then yesterday, after my walk, I also helped Hubs with the home drainage system.  Basically, we're creating a new way for the water to go around the house to help ease up the erosion we've got going on in one place.  I didn't weigh myself at all last week, so your guess is as good as mine.

Today it's supposed to rain a lot, so we'll see how yesterday's work actually works.

I played a lot of poker.  It's good for taking my mind off everything, ya know.  Anyway, I've been doing tournaments.  My best finish this week was 28th out of 450.  Top 7% at least.  I've also been finishing in the top 10% on a regular basis.  I wish I played this well when I was playing for money.

Another notable thing... I filled my car's gas tank.  It was $3.15/gal when I stopped, and when I went to pay, the cashier told me I got in under the wire.  Gas was going up as soon as the truck got there.  Another local station was already at $3.29, so cha-ching for me.  With as little as I've been driving, a tank full should last me about a month.  

And I stopped at the thrift store.  In case you missed yesterday's post, I didn't get any books because they'd jacked the prices up on me, so I said screw it and moved on.  I did pick up a nice metal baseball bat for $2 - for home defense purposes.  The thought of hearing that PING as I wallop a burglar fills me with glee.  Sort of like this clip from 50 First Dates.  ROFL.   I also found a cute metal wall hanging for $3.  It's geese in flight.  So pretty.  

Okay, so I think that's about all.  Not the most exciting of weeks.  At least not on my little patch of ground.  The world?  Well, that's going right down the crapper, but there ain't a damn thing I can do about any of it, so I'm muddling along in my life the best I can.  

How are things with you?

Sunday Update - Week 40

Well, that week flew by.  Let's see if I can rebuild it.

I didn't do any writing, but I have been back at making edit notes on Untitled Fantasy.  If I remember right, I'm at 61% now.  I don't even want to think about how many pages worth of notes that is.  Lots.  Lots and lots.  I'd like to have these done and input by the end of the month, then do another pass through and have it ready to send to other human beings by Thanksgiving.  We'll see how that works out.

I still haven't done any marketing, but by some happy quirk, someone bought the entire genie series in ebook and someone bought a ebook copy of Up Wish Creek, then someone read Blink of an I all the way through in Kindle Unlimited.  It was the best sales week I had in a long time.  Sad, but true.

As for reading, I'm still working my way through A Brief Darkness - an Alfred Hitchcock anthology.  So far, I've only DNF'd one story.  The beginning left me meh.

In baking news, I made zucchini bread and oatmeal butterscotch cookies.  The cookies were just made with my regular recipe, substituting butterscotch chips for the raisins.  Hubs approves.

On the activity front, I did something active 5 out of 7 days.  Sunday was a flurry of cleaning, after which I took apart my container garden.  Tuesday was vacuuming the entire house.  The rest was outside stuff.  I haven't weighed myself since last Sunday, but the scale was kind.  Weight: 179.4.  That's down 2.2 lbs from the beginning of the year and down 7.6 lbs from my highest in June.  Yay.

Yes, I took apart my container garden.  It was time.  Well, time for everything but the two biggest tomato plants - one still has tomatoes and the other still had flowers that might turn into tomatoes.  Everything else edible got pulled.  I thought the deer might like the plants, but they ignored the pile of greenery.  :shrug:  I repotted my elm tree - Elmer - and my two little cedars.  We'll see how they overwinter.  

In regular garden news, I redid what I refer to as 'the cedar bed'.  I dug the whole thing up, set aside the iris bulbs and threw everything else out.  Then I leveled it out, covered it in pine mulch, and stuck a bird bath in the center.  Except we put seed in the bird bath instead of water.  The birds are enjoying it muchly.  And the squirrels are SOL for now.

We also took down tippy tree.  Last December, a cedar tree just off the yard began slowly falling over.  When it fell far enough to lean against the next cedar, it stopped.  But it was harshing the growth of the other cedar and making us leery of walking anywhere near it.  So, Hubs and I took matters into our own hands,  He used a saw and an axe to whack it off the stump, then we pulled the damn thing down because it wouldn't fall on its own.  Since then, Hubs has been cutting it into manageable lengths for burning in a wood stove.  By the time we get one of those, it should be seasoned enough to burn.  I helped with some of the stacking.  

Note:  peanut butter removes cedar sap from your skin when soap and water won't.  Smear it on, let it set for a few seconds, wash it off.  Then wash the peanut butter residue off with soap and water.  Easy peasy.

I did a bunch of other honey-dos this week, catching back up with the things I'd let slide while I was otherwise occupied.  I only have two things left on my to-do list - thoroughly cleaning the kitchen counters and then washing the kitchen floor.  Then I can start my front flower bed project - wherein I dig the whole thing up, set aside the plants I want to keep, and then redirt and replant.  By the time I'm done with that, it should be time to get into the woods again for my usual winter woodswork.  Yay.

How are things in your neck of the woods?  

Thursday This n That

I wonder who at the paper company thought it would be a good idea to make a pack of sticky notes where the sticky alternates from one end to the other.  It's a pain in my ass.  I keep having to move the damn thing around so the sticky part is at the top of what I'm writing.  And I threw out the wrapper ages ago, so I can't even see which company it was so I never buy them again.  Derp.

We saw the first fawns of 2021 this morning. Twins!  Yay!  Sadly, none of my pics turned out and now they're gone.  

I got a wild hair after dinner yesterday and decided to start mowing the lawn.  It was 90 degrees F outside.  Umm... yah.  It's supposed to get to 97 today, so I better get my butt in gear this morning.  There's mowin' needs doing and I'm the gal to do it this time.  (It's usually Hubs' job, but I wanted to this time.  I need the exercise.)

We got a gadget from Hubs' brothers for copying slides onto your computer.  (They already did theirs and mailed us a thingie with the pics on it.)  We've had it for a couple weeks now and haven't done anything with it.  I think I know where the slides are.  It's just a matter of digging that box out from under all the other boxes.  Maybe this weekend.  The gadget is sitting on the dining room table, mocking me.

SCIU is on sale this week.  I can't muster the gumption to do anything about it.  All that time I've spent the past few weeks on sales and things, with nothing to show for it, make doing more of it less than palatable.  

In happier news, I'm plugging right along on the re-read of the unfinished book.  It needs SO MUCH work, but that's okay.  It's good stuff and I need to finish it before I fix it.  (Or I'll spend too much time fixing and never finish.)  I did read what I think is a particularly brilliant piece of it yesterday, which made me feel good about myself.  So yay.

Okay, I really need to get moving this morning.  The grass ain't gonna mow itself.  And the sink is full of dishes.  Thank goodness this is my 'no call the office' day.  

What's on your radar today?

Sunday Update - Week 13

What a week...  and I'm late again, but at least it's Sunday and not Monday this time...

Monday, I pushed Duke Noble, P.I.: Rumor Has It out into the world.  The initials reviews are good, so yay.  I haven't finished the post-publication checklist on that yet, but I did format it for paperback and I'm waiting on the proof of that so I can make it live, too.  My first paperback through Amazon - not Createspace - so we'll see how it looks.  The process wasn't too bad.

Other than posting about the release, I haven't done any marketing.  We'll see what happens in the coming days.

It was a nice reading week.  It's always easier to read when I don't have writerly stuff going on.  Yesterday, a friend of mine, who was purging her book collection, posted about the books she was letting go and offered them up for basically the cost of shipping.  I picked out 8 - 3 Agatha Christies, 3 Rex Stouts, and two Piers Anthony.  Here's hoping the mail doesn't lose them.  :fingers crossed:  I know Piers Anthony doesn't seem like my usual fare, but I love his Xanth books (well, the early ones anyway) and I hope to start a collection of those.  If you're not familiar with Rex Stout, he writes the Nero Wolfe mysteries.  Anyway, I haz a happy.

In baking news, I did French bread pizza, frittatas, and granola bars last week.  Nothing exciting, but necessary.  I was also going to do a coffee cake, but I ran out of walnuts when I did the granola bars, so those will have to wait.

Guess what?  We went fishing!  Didn't catch anything and only got one bite, but it was fishing.  I had heard weeks ago that they were redoing the place where I fish, and yup, they did.  The parking lot is awesome and so is the boat ramp.  Unfortunately, the took huge chunky rocks and lined the river with them, so it's kind of hard for me to bank fish there.  So, maybe a third of my regular spots are messed up, but in that third is one of my most productive areas.  Drat.  Eh, when the water level goes down, I'll be able to walk around the rocks.  

As for other activities, I did something active 5 days out of 7, with 4 of those days having two activities.  Loads of gardening, yard work, and cleaning.  Yesterday, I was a cleaning fool.  I'd let so much stuff slide, my to-do list is hefty hefty hefty.  I didn't weigh myself at all, though.  

Speaking of gardening, I still haven't started my container garden.  Whoops.  That's on the to-do list for this week.  In other garden news, the peonies, the lilies, the columbines, and the lilies of the valley are all poking their heads up.  The lilac is covered in little green leaves and the beginnings of loads of flower drupes.  The hydrangeas are working on it.  The last remaining azalea has this season to get its act together or it'll be on the wood pile and I'll put a peony in its place.  Let's just say it ain't looking good for that one.

Well, I supposed I ought to get my buns in gear and start the day.  How are things in your neck of the woods?  

Sunday... err... Monday Update? Week 12

Wow, I totally brainfarted out there yesterday, didn't I?  Last night, I was sitting here playing poker when something flashed in my head like a mental meteorite strike...  "It's Sunday, isn't it?" So, here we are on Monday with the Sunday Update.  Sorry about that.  For some reason, I thought yesterday was Monday.  Don't ask.

Anyway, I have finished all but the formatting and uploading of Rumor Has It.  And I still need to do a Goodreads listing.  I had planned to do all of that yesterday, but yesterday didn't go as planned.  Obviously.  I was so totally not in a place to do anything that required thought.  I printed off my formatting checklist in hopes that eventually my brain would turn over, but like a sad car, it just kept doing that rrr rrr rrr noise.  Of course, as soon as my head hit the pillow the old brain was all like 'Hey!  Hi!  Remember when you did that one thing in 1982... 1975... 1999...?  Let's revisit those events from every possible angle!  And plan a garden!  A think about the cat!  And decide what to do about dinner! Did you remember to do that spreadsheet?  I want a puppy!"

Anyway... the plan is to drink loads of coffee and get to work today.  Except I have to run out for smokes at some point.  My brain, having been up all night, is ready for a nap, so I'd better get this post done before it falls asleep again.

Those of you who are anxiously waiting for Duke, have pity on me.

As for the rest of the week... 

I read a couple pretty good books.  And I'm in the last half of reading another good one.  

I made apple bread again.  

On the activity front, I've started working in the gardens again.  Getting the leaves removed and weeding.  I also took a couple walks.  Weight: 184.6 - down a pound.  

As for gardening, I bought a new peony and planted it yesterday.  I also bought some more hollyhocks which will go in as soon as I clean out the garage bed.  And I bought three packs of vegetable seeds and a bag of dirt to start my container garden.  Hubs went into the garage and found a boatload of old containers I'd kept from all the plants I've planted over the last eight years.  So we're good to go on that.  To start, we'll have a go at tomatoes, lettuce, and carrots.  I'm also going to try planting zucchini in the rosebed.  I'll talk about the plans more tomorrow or something.

During said yardwork, I torqued my wrist or something.  I have craptastic wrists, so it's not surprising or even concerning.  It is however, hard to do anything with my hands when my wrists are being stupid.  I spent a lot of yesterday with my old friends, Aspercreme and Aleve.  I also trotted out my really old friend Ace Bandage.  It's better today.  

I'm sure there are other things that happened, but it's Monday, and I really need to get going today.  (Which is why I generally write this posts on Sunday.  Derp.)  Have a good one.  And if you're inclined, leave a comment.  =o)

  

Thursday This n That

So, let me see if I have this right...  I, a person who has never owned slaves and hates the idea of slavery of any kind, will be forced based on my skin color to pay reparation money to people... people who have never actually been slaves... based on their skin color, because I am automatically guilty of things my ancestors may or may not have done to their ancestors who may or may not have been slaves.  Makes perfect sense.  :note sarcasm:  While I'm at it, let me whip out some money to pay reparations for the branch of my family tree that split off sometime in the late 1800s and became Nazis after my direct ancestors left Germany.  Makes about as much sense.

Shit like that makes my brain hurt.

We're having some beautiful weather this week.  I hope this doesn't encourage the trees and plants to sprout and bloom and then we have another cold snap.  It did that one year and all the blossoms on my redbud tree died.  That was sad.

I've started following the comedian JP Sears on FB and MeWe.  He's a hoot.  

In other happy news, I was contacted by an author I follow.  He messages me when he has a new book out.  YAY!  I snapped that sucker right up.  Unfortunately, I'm in the middle of edits on my Kindle and I'm trying to be all adult and junk so I can't read his book right yet.  If I weren't being adult, I'd set my editing aside (heh, like I need a reason) and inhale his book.  However, and utnostly, I made promises to get this book done and I will do that before I treat myself.  :dangles carrot:  

Yesterday morning, I was at loose ends - taking a break from editing and not wanting to just sit around - and I mentioned to Hubs that I might go out and finish some yardwork stuff.  He reminded me that we were going to do windows sometime this week and asked if I wanted to put that off until Friday.  Well, nope.  Windows and yardwork... same same.  Something to do that needs doing.  So I started working on the windows while he finished up his work and then he joined me.  I did the insides, he got a ladder and did the outsides.  Took about three hours to do the five windows in the sunroom - inside and out.  (Those are not tilt-in.  Thunderation!)  I'll get through the rest of the house windows by myself today and tomorrow.  

Thunderation... Have you seen the new Geico commercial with Captain Ahab helping a woman find a parking spot?  When he says 'Thunderation!' I about fall over laughing.  Every time.  Too funny.  And so now I've been saying thunderation because it's funny and it makes Hubs laugh.  Gotta find the fun where you can these days.

Okay, that's enough out of me.  What's the this-n-that skinny in your world?

Sunday Update - Week Something or Other

It's morning and I'm a knuckle-dragging troglodyte right now.  Blerg.

As you know, I'm not currently writing, so let's move on.  I'm up to page 71 in editing and I have five and a half pages of notes left to go through.  I'd like to get that done today.  We'll see how it goes.  Right now, I'd happily curl up in a ball and forget that I have things to do.

Marketing fell apart.  Early Grave is still on sale, but I lost the will to market somewhere around Wednesday.  The cascading sale thing was a failure.  Eh, it was worth a shot.  We'll try something else next month.  Last night someone in the UK bought all three of the Model Curse books, so that was a happy surprise.

I read two awesome books last week.  One was Silver James' latest release.  Yay.  And the other was a new-to-me author.  Also yay.  

In baking news, I did Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies and something called Yummy Lemon Coconut Loaf.  Plus another batch of frittatas.  

On the activity front, I did something five out of seven days.  Two of the days were housework.  Two of them were working on the south plot (which we finished clearing yesterday).  And I got a mile long walk in on the other day.  I weighed myself last Sunday morning, before all the active stuff, and I was 182.6 - only two-tenths of a pound up from three weeks of doing nothing and eating like a cow, so yay.  I'll weigh myself later this morning and see if the week's activity made a difference.

Like I said, we cleared the south lot.  There's still some minor tweaking left to do - mostly pulling up Virginia creeper roots and shoots - but the big work is done.  While I was doing that, I found a bunch more garbage, including a pretty little butter knife.  It'll go with the fork I found last year.  I also found more interesting rocks.  I'm paying for that activity mightily this morning.  Yay Aspercreme.  

Speaking of rocks, I was doing some research and discovered we have scads of Mozarkite.  It's the state rock.  We also have something called Fortification Agate.  Cool stuff.  This lead me to looking at various ways to make my rocks pretty - tumblers and rock saws and junk.  Whoo that stuff is expensive.  Truly doing it right can take weeks or months.  Sheesh.  Anyway, if you're into rocks, here's a neat site.

The neighbor sent us a big tin of popcorn as a thank you for our help with their water situation.  Very nice of them, but unnecessary.  It's good popcorn.  I made the mistake of thinking the red popcorn was some fruity flavor - apple, strawberry, cherry - but nope, found out the hard was that it was cinnamon.  Red Hots type cinnamon.  Hubs can eat that.  

The world is further descending into madness.  I saw an old dude wearing two masks at the Wallyworld.  'Nuff said about that.  If you don't see the madness, I can't help you.

All the snow is gone.  We hit almost 70 one day last week.  There was like a 90 degree difference between the 16th and the 23rd.  We had a mild thunderstorm yesterday afternoon with some booming and loads of rain.  Crazy weather.

Well, for being a trog, this ended up being a long post.  Thanks for reading to the end.  What went on your world last week?

Getting Older Sucks

Gah.  I feel like someone spent the night beating me with a bag of oranges.  Of course, I did this to myself.  No, not the bag of oranges thing.  I have other ways of abusing myself.  

For instance, I spent about an hour yesterday clearing brush from the neglected south plot.  That's the one we worked on last winter and then let go fallow again over the summer.  Eh, it gives me something to do.  

Then I helped Hubs with finishing the toilet repairs.

Then the cat bit my thumb while I was trying to give her an aspirin.  Molar chomp.  (Yes, I super disinfected it.)

And lastly, I wrote over 2K words last night.

So basically, I hurt this morning.  Getting older sucks.

Might do it all again today.  Well, with the exception of the cat chomping on my thumb.  You shouldn't give a cat aspirin more than every 48 hrs anyway.  (Baby aspirin.  Coated.)  Of course, we're supposed to have shitty weather, so maybe not even all of the other stuff.  Writing definitely.

Speaking of writing, I left off last night at the very beginning of the climax scene.  Then there has to be some denouement.  Not long before I get to THE END now.  Of course, lately it's been 'write a whole bunch one day, and only write a little bit the next couple days' because of hands and wrists.  Lucky for me, I am a fast typer.  Unlucky for me, the faster I type, the more it hurts to type*.  But when I'm on a roll, I don't consider typing slower.  And hey, it almost never hurts while I'm typing.  That comes later.

I took an anti-inflammatory last night before bed.  Fat lot of good that did.  Probably should've taken two.  Eh.

Fortunately, the more I move around this morning, the less it hurts.  Sleeping does that sometimes - makes everything seize up.  I should be right as rain... or as right as an old gimpy chick can ever be - by sunrise.  

Like I said, I'll probably do it all again today.  If not today then soon.  The alternative is laying around the house being a lump, and that never does anyone any good.  But oh, how I long for the days when I could do anything physical I wanted and not pay for it the next day. 

Getting older sucks.

*No, voice to text software wouldn't work for me.  I have considered it.  My brain doesn't work that way.  I'm constantly editing while I type.  'Type type type delete delete delete type type delete delete, reword this move that go back to earlier in the text looking for something find a typo there fix it go back to the end and start typing again get up to get coffee forget where I was and have to go back and read several paragraphs to get in the groove again.'  I don't think you can do that in voice to text.  I can't imagine what the actual text would look like afterwards.

Sunday Update - Week 40

 Okay, according to the internet, I was wrong about last week being Week 38, so this update is for week 40.  :shrug:  I must've mis-numbered a week somewhere along the way.

Anyhoo...

In writerly stuffs, I finished inputting the first round of edit notes and began the next round of edits.  In this round, I do a page of notes and then I enter them, instead of waiting until I've noted the whole book.  So, as of last night, I've created 4 pages worth of notes and entered three of them, which brings the finished part of the book to 23 pages.  Not sure where the fourth page of notes will bring me to today or how many more pages I'll get done today, but it'll be something.  Slow going, but necessary.

I actually finished reading two books last week.  Yay.  

On the activity front, I managed 5 out of 7 days.  Walking, cleaning, and yard work.  Weight was 178 as of Wednesday.

In baking news, I made a cheater cake this week.  Betty Crocker - yellow cake and chocolate frosting.  I might've also made cookies, but I can't remember if I did those this week or the week before.  And I did a baked spaghetti dish - cooked the noodles, heated the sauce, cooked chicken patties then layered it all in a 8x10 pan and covered it with mozzarella.  Baked it at 375F for 30 minutes until the cheese was bubbly and starting to brown.  I think we'll be having the leftovers for dinner tonight.

It's fall, so you know what that means... Leaves.  Lots and lots of leaves.  We're trying something different this year - using the mower to suck them all up.  It's a lot of emptying the bag into the wheelbarrow and dumping the wheelbarrow, but Hubs says it's easier than raking them all up, so we're going with that.  We'll see how it goes.  I was weeding and did one wheelbarrow dump - basically three bag-dumps worth. It's definitely easier on my shoulders than raking, but he's the one doing most of this work, so if it works for him, it works for me.

As for weeding, I only have two places left to weed - the garden paths - and I'll be done with that until Spring.  Yay.

That one buck has been stopping by on a regular basis now.  Checking out the ladies and since the ladies all stop here to eat, he's stopping here, too.  The neighbors are starting to talk about him - as in 'hey, have you seen that buck?'  Shhh.  If you talk about him, people will want to come shoot him.  He isn't here, he was never here, and I don't know what you're talking about.  =op

Okay, I think that's about all I have to say about last week.  How was your last week?

Sunday Update - Week 24

Hello.  We're 24 weeks into 2020.  I say we stop here and have a do over.  Reboot the year and maybe it won't be crashed went it loads up again.

I wrote some words.  And then self-doubt got me.  Nothing else writerly got done.

I read some good books and DNF'd some not-so-good ones.

I finally got my computer backup into the safety-deposit drawer, so that's checked off my to-do list.

Yesterday morning, we saw the year's first fawn...

The light was low and it wasn't standing still for the photo, so yeah, it's blurry, but hey, I got a pic.

I managed 5 days out of 7 for activity - cleaning, walking, yard stuff.  Unfortunately, the activity stuff is not showing on the scale, so we won't talk about that right now.  Suffice it to say, I have gained back all the weight I lost in March.  I expected I would, but I'd hoped I wouldn't.  :shrug:

Speaking of yard stuff, I started doing block work under the deck.  Unfortunately, there's been a recent blow-up of 'rona cases in the area, so skipping down to the building supply store for more blocks is 'unnecessary' and therefore, on hold.  At least until I can't stand the self-imposed incarceration anymore and get all 'let me outta here before I snap'.  Then it will be necessary for the safety of all mankind.

The Owl informed me that she needs some stuff the next time I go to the store.  I'm all like 'what do you need' and thanks to my extreme hoarding and inability to throw stuff away, I actually had what she needed tucked away already.  Score one for me.

If you've been stopping by, you'll see there've been a lot of pictures going up here lately.  It's either that or rant.  So, pics it is.  And I have LOTS of pics I can share. 

So, tell me, how was your last week?  Anything good to share? 

Sunday Update - Week 8

Eight weeks into the new year.  I'll admit my resolve fell down already, but I kicked my own butt and I'm back on track again.  Mostly.

I haven't written any new words, but I'm editing along nicely again.  I worked through about 90 pages of line by line edits.  Almost made myself cry at one point - the story not the editing.  Jeni's nieces and nephews are too damn cute to have had such a shitty dad.  Anyway, I've got about 45 pages left to go and then a quick read through to make sure I didn't leave any huge errors. 

I finished out the marketing for the Once Upon a Djinn series with 8 sales - 2 each - and no page reads yet.  Oh well.  I tried.  Once I get some new books out into the world, maybe sales will improve.

My reading week was pretty good.  I finished three and only DNF'd one, and I ended the week yesterday with an awesome Mickey Spillane.  (Awesome Mickey Spillane is redundant.)

On the activity front, I did 4 out of 7 days - three days straight of the yard expansion project and then 3 days off with a mile or so walk yesterday and kneading rolls.  Yeah, kneading counts as exercise when you do it for 8 minutes straight.  I was burning calories like crazy there, folks.  Upper body workout like you wouldn't believe.  Anyway...  I'm back at 179.0 again.  Roller coaster time.  Wee.

Speaking of rolls, I was trying a new recipe yesterday.  Iranian Barbari rolls.  It sounded easy.  Umm...  It was more effort than it was worth, so let's not talk about that, k?  Earlier in the week I made oatmeal cookies, though, and that recipe always works.  Yay.  Today, I'm thinking maybe a chocolate cake is necessary.  We'll see.  I was going to make more applesauce bread, but Hubs has been eating the applesauce straight, so there isn't enough left for bread.  Next time I hit the Wallyworld, I'm gonna buy an economy size vat of applesauce.

The yard expansion project is as finished as it's going to get until Spring.  Hubs did the last of the clearing crap out on Wednesday.  It looks pretty good.  Barren, but good.  Now green things can grow.  There about 6-8 little trees - 3-5' tall - growing in the new yard area.  Once those leaf-out, we'll see which ones get to stay and whether any of them can go.  They might all stay.  We'll see.  The most satisfying part was getting the vines off all those trees.  A couple poor sycamores were being killed by those damn vines.  No more.  Fingers crossed the sycamores recover.  I like sycamores.

It's been too cold to go fishing, which is driving me nuts.  I need to sit by the lake and drown worms for my sanity.

Alright, I've said more than enough for one Sunday.  How are things with you?

Sunday Update - Week 7

It's Sunday morning and here I am typing the Sunday Update post because, yeah, I forgot to write it out and schedule it.  This does not bode well for the week.

No writing.  I'm up to page 75 in editing on Ugly and the Beast.  I start the week with the best of intentions, but then... piffle.

I did my marketing thing for the OUAD sale.  8 sales - 2 of each book.  Yay.   The sale is still ongoing, so fingers crossed I sell some more books before it ends.  And then get some page reads afterwards.

Not a banner reading week.  I finished two old paperbacks but actually finishing an ebook was a bust until late yesterday afternoon.  That was a fun one. 

I made another loaf of applesauce bread.  That stuff is awesome.  Then for Valentine's Day, I made a pineapple upside-down cake from scratch.  I thought the cake was too dense, but Hubs declared it a winner.  I'm still going to tweak the recipe before I post it, though.  If you want the easy way, put a sliced up stick of butter in your 9x13" cake pan and put the pan in the oven while the oven is preheating.  When the butter is melted, take the pan out and stir in 2/3rds cups of brown sugar until it's all wet and gooey.  Then stir in one can of pineapple - crushed or tidbits works best for me - making sure the pineapple and the goo are evenly distributed.  Pour your yellow box cake batter - made according to box directions - evenly over the pineappley goodness.  Bake 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  Voila!  You're supposed to turn the whole cake over to serve, but what a pain.  I leave mine in the pan and flip over the pieces as I serve them.  The effect is the same.  :shrug:

It was a pretty good week for activity - 5 out of 7 days - with most of it being outside 'woods work'.  But I gained a pound back - 180.6.  :shrug:  Probably the bread and the cake. 

Speaking of woods work, Hubs and I decided to expand our yard to the south - a previously untouched portion of woods and overgrown old yard.  What a mess.  Seriously.  The property owner before us had no issue with throwing garbage in the woods.  We got all that picked up except for a pile of white tile I discovered under the weeds and behind a rose bush.  Ugh, rose bushes.  They're everywhere over there, so it was quite the battle.  I was going to try taming them back and leaving them, but they were so aggressive they had to die.  And we also have these wild bushes all over that propagate by shoots.  They pull right up out of the ground, but when you pull one the runner leads to the next one and the next one and... I probably pulled a few dozen up over there.  We're leaving the trees that have grown up over there since we bought this place.  Once they have leaves again, I'll figure out what they are and whether they get to stay.  And of course, we already know which ones are cedars.  Those stay.  We also have various vines to battle - Virginia creeper, climbing rose, and wild grape. And this one vine with ouchy spikes and spade shaped leaves of mottled green.  That last one is nasty.  Oh, and somewhere in there is poison ivy.  I think I already killed most of it in previous summers, but I won't know for sure until it leafs out. 

Anyway, that's my life right now.  This is a whole new week with new possibilities.  I hope to make the best of it.  Like I said, I start the week with the best of intentions.  Then again, my father always said 'intentions are for shit'.  :shrug:

How did your week go?  Do anything interesting?  Bake anything good?  Accomplish anything worthwhile?  Talk to me, people.

Sunday Update - Week 46

Hello again.  It's been a week.  For the most part, a good one, but a little bumpy here and there.

In writing news, I wrote 6587 words.  Would've done more, but I took Thursday and Friday off due to things.  Last night, before I wrote, I sat down and kind of roughed out the next several scenes. Then I got words out before things and then Live PD hit.

Marketing for the OUAD sale kind of fell apart.  The ad's supposed to go live today, though, so I have hope.  Not a lot of hope, but it's there.

Reading went well.  I finished three books, which is cool.  I do love reading so.

Yesterday was a baking extravaganza.  Okay, it was only two things, but after making granola bars and then oatmeal cookies, I was kind of shot for more baking.  I did, however, do a pot roast.  Yummers.  The day before I made a vat of chili.  Before that, I did pork chops and scalloped potatoes.  Today?  Maybe apple cranberry bread or apple cake, if I'm up to peeling and paring apples.  And leftovers.  Lots and lots of leftovers.

After baking, we went into the woods and played for a while.  Fun fun.  I love playing in the woods.  Maybe I'll do more of that today. 

The guy building his house next door got a survey done.  Now we know exactly where our NW pin is - three pins down and from that we can approximate where the 4th one is.  Yay.  We've been guessing for 6 years.  (Yeah, we thought we had a surveyor coming out.  He never showed.  We called again and he said next time he was out this way, he'd do it.  He never showed.  Then in the height of summer, he wanted to do the survey.  Umm, no.)

The leaves are nearly off the trees now and that means raking can begin.  I did the small south yard.  And then I paid for it on Thursday and Friday (and a little on Saturday).  It does look nice afterwards, though.  I love our trees, but cleaning up after them is a pain in the back.

Hunting season started here yesterday.  Keep a positive thought for our deer.

And I think that's about it.  Or at least, that's as much it as I can think of right now.  How was your week?

Sunday Update - Week 25

Well, that week flew by.  Whoosh.

I did manage to finally get my ass in gear and get some editing done.  Not a huge amount, but you don't eat the elephant all at once, you know.  I have three pages worth of edit notes left to go and then I have to go back and fix the big things.  I'd hope to be getting into that by Monday, but things happen and life has other plans sometimes.  Bleh.

I've been working on marketing again, since the SCIU books are all on sale.  The ad did me some good and paid for itself.  Then crickets.  But I still have 3 days left and I'm not giving up without a fight.

I did get a good amount of reading done.  And I finished the book in the 'currently reading' section yesterday afternoon.  Then I started on a Mickey Spillane.

Only four active days out of seven, but I'm okay with that.  The stamina is improving all the time and that's really the big thing.  If I can walk the loop (a mile worth of hills and curves) and then come home and spray the driveway for weeds and not be toast, life is good.  Okay, so I was a wee bit toasty the next day, but not toast the same day.  ;o)

We have now seen four individual fawns.  Two singles (one definitely larger than the other) and a set of twins. 

My hollyhocks are blooming.  The white ones anyway.  Something munched off the buds on the red one that was close to blooming.  :shrug:

No baking this week.  The temps are climbing into the summer range, which makes me not want to turn on the oven. 

The spiders are back and making webs all over the yard again.  Yesterday, I went all yard ninja on their asses - took a broom and went through the whole yard, knocking down webs - so Hubs could mow without getting a web to the face. 

Well, that seems like everything.  If I forgot anything, it probably wasn't that important anyway.  What was up in your week? 

Sunday Update - Week 49

Wow, 2019 is rushing up at us fast.  But let's focus on the rest of 2018, shall we?  Best not to poke the sleeping dragon, eh?

I'm still slogging through the final edits for Unequal.  Big ol' bear that it is.  As of yesterday, I have 120 pages left of the pink ink edits to do, then I have to hit a few niggles, then I have to read through it again and format it.  One week left to go before my self-imposed deadline hits.  And I will hit it.  Damn it.

I set up a sale for the SCIU series that will go from the 24th thru the 30th, and advertising for Dying Embers will go out on the 26th.  I went with Bargain Booksy again and I'm trying Book Adrenaline this time, too.  We'll see how it goes.  DE will be 99c, FG and EG will be $1.99.

No marketing planned for Unequal yet.  I'm not entirely sure how to work advertising on a new release - what with it having no reviews yet and junk.  Some places will let you if one of your other books has X number of reviews, but my books don't necessarily meet their numbers.  :shrug:

Worked on the blurb for UEQ.  Still have to set up the Goodreads listing and junk.  

I did a bunch of reading.

Got the Kid's Christmas package in the mail.  Still haven't done Christmas cards.  It's on the schedule for today.  Maybe.

Worked on pay-job spreadsheets for 2019.  Not quite done, but I'm making headway.  I need to finish those and then do my own sales spreadsheets before the end of the year. 

Ugh, I am so not ready for the end of the year.

In other news, we got the leaves raked back into the woods. Plus, I got some woods work done.  Moved some deadfall and pushed a dead cedar over.  Yay. I bought a salt block for the deer, which they are LOVING.  The storm we were supposed to get never happened.  We didn't even get flurries.  I assume this is because we spent all that time getting prepared for the storm.  Meh.

And that's about it for me.  What's new in you world?

Thursday This n That

We finally got all the leaves pushed back into the woods.  Not sure how many hours it took to rake all the leaves into piles, but it took like 5 hours (over 4 days) to move the piles.  That last hour on Tuesday was a full on, 'gonna get this done today' extravaganza which left us both sore.  But it's done.  Yay.

I love Vince Flynn.  If you're into political thrillers with tons of action where the good guys always win and justice is done, pick them up.  American Assassin (not the first written, but the first in Mitch Rapp's timeline) was made into a movie, but it was made after Vince died, and I'm not sure what Hollywood would do to it without Vince there to rein them in, so I'm staying away from it.  If you want to try Vince without getting sucked into Mitch Rapp's world, try Term Limits.  It was AWESOME.  I just finished reading Transfer of Power (first written, but not first in timeline) last night for the second time.  Sometimes I just need to read about good guys kicking terrorist ass and Vince delivers.  Someone else is writing Mitch Rapp books now, but I probably won't read those.  =o(

I'd scan a cute picture for you, but my scanner is currently occupied with holding my 'to be filed' pile.

It's the last month of the year, which means I need to start thinking about next year's spreadsheets - both my book ones and the pay-job ones.  I'm not ready to think about next year.  At all.

Kira got her last meds last night.  Fingers crossed it was sufficient to keep the UTI at bay for a while.

And that's it for me today.  How about you?

Sunday Update - Week 48

Well, would ya look at that... It's the last month of the year.  Where the hell did 2018 go?  Bleh.

No new words this week.  And I got the editing back early, but I didn't make much use of that time.  I'm still planning on having this release on or around the 17th, though, so it's all good.  Edits, formatting, upload.  No prob.  Heh.

The sale on AD ended last Sunday.  It went pretty well, for varying definitions of well.  I cleared the cost of the ad and made a little scratch over that.   Saw some more page reads throughout the week and a couple additional sales.  Saved my November from totally sucking.  Let's see if we can save December. 

My reading week kind of sucked.  I DNF'd two books.  The third book was really good, but it took me a while to read.  Here's hoping this week will be better.

Thursday blew apart.

Friday night we had whopper storms blow through.  Didn't effect us that much other than a short power outage.

I made a meatloaf.  That was pretty good.  And we had loads of leftovers.  I love me some leftover meatloaf.  And I made a turkey pot pie.  Always a fan favorite.  Again, loads of leftovers, but hey, I do love leftovers.

With everything going on, I managed to get the Christmas tree up and the house decorated.  And the holiday shopping is done for another year.  All I have to do now is box up the Kid's stuff and ship it to her.  And do those x-mas cards.

We also got a lot of raking done.

And that's about it.  How was your week?

Sunday Update - Week 47

Well, we're creeping down to the end of the year.  Let's try and wrap this sucker up with a bang, eh?

Okay, that was thinking ahead.  There weren't many bangs around here this past week.

I didn't do much writing.  For some reason, Ugly and the Beast is being a beast.  And since my brain can't seem to make it work, it's trying to tempt me with other ideas.  Bad brain.  No.  I have one week left before my edits come back for Unequal.  I don't think I can do 30K words in a week - not with the way my muse is acting - so my hope that I would have this book done by the 1st is hopeless.  :shrug:

The one big bang I had last week was the sale - which is still going on thru 11:59 tonight (PST).  It wasn't over the top, but it did pay for the ad, so it's all good.  Well, better than it has been.  And I'm getting page reads now, so there's hope I'll actually net above the ad cost this time.  And Accidental Death reached #28 in Hard-boiled mystery for a while there.  

I read some stuff.

Hubs and I moved a lot of leaves.  There are four big piles in the back yard, ready to move into the woods.  Then it rained.  Then it was Thanksgiving and the day after recovery from Thanksgiving.  We'll get to 'em eventually. 

While we were out walking last week, I heard a rustling in the woods just off the road.  Too much for a squirrel, so I looked hard for movement and saw a little armadillo collecting leaves for its den.  Must've been this year's litter - about 2/3rd size.  So cute.  And now that the neighborhood critter-killer has passed on to his next existence, we're seeing more of the little armored buggers.  I hope this one stays out of the road.  I see too many hit armadillos around here.

Thanksgiving happened.  It was like any other day, but with turkey.  And eating dinner at like 11:30am.  Then we laid around feeling fat for the rest of the day. 

I spent most of Friday making turkey soup.  Ended up with 2 containers of broth and three of turkey noodle soup.  I also made beef stew on Tuesday.  We're set for hot and hearty meals for a while.

I love my new crockpot, btw.  It's nice to have one that actually controls its temperature correctly.

Speaking of controlling temperatures, the main burner on my stove went wonky.  It's on high, no matter what.  Stupid burner.  I cannot afford to have the stove take a shit right now.  Lucky for me I have three other burners.  I'll just have to use the back big burner instead of the front one.  Bleh.

Oh, finally, the exercise/activity/weight thing.  I sucked it up and weighed myself after weeks of being a slug.  I'm holding steady at 180.  Up two pounds from the bottom, but still down fourteen, so I'm not going to flagellate myself.

And that's it for me.  What happened in your world last week?

Sunday Update - Week 46

Heh.

I finally got back to work on Ugly and the Beast.  Got that sticky segue done between chapter 2 and chapter 3 (which is now chapter 4).  Then I added some more words onto the end.  Then I realized I'd painted myself into a corner.  I figured out what I'm going to have to do - wash away some of that paint so I can reach a better path.  Not a huge wordcount week, but it's progress.

Set up a new sale and some marketing for next week.  Accidental Death will be on sale starting tomorrow.  Wednesday, I have a BargainBooksy ad going out.   (At least I think I do.  They haven't contacted me to tell me NO and refund my money, so I'm assuming it's a go.)

Talked to my local face-to-face fan.  She thinks I should write a medical suspense.  She loves medical suspenses.  I told her about Unequal, which is kind of medical and a little suspensey, but mostly dystopian.  I'll think about the whole 'write a medical suspense' thing.

I read a bunch.

Hubs has been raking the yard and I haven't been helping.  I felt kind of bad about it.  Then again, it's good exercise for him.  Gets him out of the house and away from the computer, too.  Fresh air and all that.  Yeah, yeah, I need all those things, too, which is why actually helped him yesterday.  We aren't done, but we do have a boat-ton of trees and the leaves that go with them.

We're all set for Thanksgiving this week.  The turkey's in the freezer... have to take that out today.  Got the stuffing, the cranberry sauce, the gravy... I should probably make biscuits, since I didn't buy rolls.  I shopped enough on Friday so I shouldn't have to go to the store until after the weekend after Black Friday.  Go me.

I still haven't mailed postcards, so if you were looking for one, sorry.  Tomorrow.  They'll go out tomorrow.  It's only a day away.

And that's about it for me.  What's up with you?