Sunday Update - Week 43

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How was your last week?

*to borrow a phrase from The Philadelphia Story.

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

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 10/30/21

Hi there!  Finally a week worthy of your visit!  

I didn't get any new ebooks this week, but I did swing by the thrift store.  Got a Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker omnibus and an Agatha Christie I didn't already have.  Yay.  I still have four unread ebooks leftover from before - a suspense, a mystery, and two romances.

Anyway, I'm so glad to be reading again.  Yay!

Books Read:

54) The French Fraud by Myrtle Morse, Ruby Loren (10/29/21) - Mystery*# - 5 stars.  New to me and at fifty Goodreads reviews, it just meets my criteria for underappreciated.  Picked up free from Reading Deals.
Review: "Cute and twisty mystery with plenty of fun stuff and interesting characters."

53) Centaur Aisle (Xanth #4) by Piers Anthony (10/26/21) - Fantasy - 5 stars.  Neither new to me not underappreciated.  Saw in the book rack at Dollar General for $3 amd just had to snap it up.
Review: "Just as awesome as I remembered it."

52) Canyons of Night by Jayne Castle (10/23/21) - Paranormal Romance* - 5 stars.  New to me but not underappreciated.  I was given a copy of this by a friend.
Review: "This was a pretty good book. Probably would've been better if I'd read the preceding books, but I can't fault it for that. I enjoyed the characters and the premise was interesting. The plot was solid and I enjoyed the romance. All in all, worthy of five stars."

DNFs:

10/27/21 - free - mystery.   The book started out okay.  A little reminiscent of a show I watched on Masterpiece Mystery, but passable.  Then I got a several paragraph dissertation on how awesome the prisons were in European Country vs how awful actual punishment was elsewhere and moved on to the next book.  Unfortunately, I had already also downloaded the sequel which I no longer have any interest in reading.  Bummer.

10/27/21 - free - mystery.  OMG, seriously.  I was trying really hard to wade through this, because it had a solid premise and some good writing.  The hard part had to do with the MC's strange affectation of breaking into Hispanic slang even though he was a white dude with a Wonder Bread last name.  I tried, but after he did something profoundly stupid and then claimed to be a Law & Order addict, I had to shut the book.  Come on, man.  If you ever really watched L&O, you'd know what you were doing was stupid.  Writer shoulda known better.  Meh.

Currently reading... After I finished the mystery, I dove into one of my the Douglas Adams omnibus.  I might only read one book in it before moving on to something else.  First up, the book that began it all - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  Hopefully, it's as awesome as I remember.

What was on your reading plate this past week?  Looking forward to anything awesome?

Thursday This n That

 I woke up this morning to a dead coffee maker.  Poor Hubs was making coffee by boiling water in the teakettle and then pouring it over the grounds in the machine.  He had about a half a pot ready for me when I woke up.  Then I went into the storage closet and pulled out the backup machine.  Yes, I have a backup coffee maker.  It's an older one that wasn't quite dead when I bought the new one, so I tucked it away for emergency usage.  So, we have coffee and the world is still safe.  You're welcome.

I will be going out and picking up a new coffee maker today.  Because the backup could die without warning and no one wants that.  I drink coffee and smoke cigarettes for your protection.  Again, you're welcome.

I also have instant.  For larger emergencies.

So, I finally heard back from Amazon about my missing page reads.  They're still not paying me for those, but Amazon assured me my account is in good standing.  Umm... yeah.  So, because they (or their bots) decided someone was using KU to... what, fake read books?... I'm screwed.  I'll talk more about that tomorrow.

It's totally splooshy here.  Big band of rain stretching from the Gulf to Canada and it's sort of stalled, so it's wet wet wet here.  I'll need to find something else to do rather than throw logs for a while I guess.

I did do some edit notes yesterday.  A half page worth.  Which sounds pathetic until you realize on that half page were a couple of things that needed to be changed in the whole book.  Find and replace is a wonder, but each instance had to be carefully reviewed and reworded to make it work.  One of them was the hair color of an important secondary character.  And there was another character with the same hair color, so I had to make sure I was changing the right person's hair.  Blerg.  The other was how the mages address each other.  Yeah, still sounds easy when I type it out, but it wasn't.  What it was was tiring and tedious.

My luck has truly sucked lately.  My poker account went from 330mil to 120mil.  And I'm not doing anything different.  Just getting a heapin' helpin' of bad luck.  Thankfully, it seems to only be in the poker.  Not that my luck is awesome elsewhere, but at least it's not bad.  :knock on wood:

I had a dream the other night that made me totally not want a dog.  Something about two little yappy dogs and my entire house covered in urine and feces.  :shudder:  But I'm over it.  I want a dog again.  I like the looks of this one.  Or this one.  Or this one.  Or this cat.  

And that's about enough out of me this morning.  Have a great day.

News Bits and Other Junk

So, Cambridge University and the University of Florida have come together to sift through books and authors determining which ones might need a trigger warning.  Cuz, ya know, people shouldn't have to read things that upset them in any way.  Even if they're getting upset over things no one got upset about 10...20...100 years ago. Hell, some of these things are things no one got upset about prior to last year's election cycle.  And by the way, it's censorship, but they're not going to let that stop them.  Writers everywhere should be pitching a bitch, but it's crickets out there for the most part.  =o\

Hey, did you hear the latest thing about Fauci and the puppies?  Spoiler alert, it's not cute or nice.  I find it funny that all the people who have no problem whatsoever with what Fauci and his policies are doing to human beings are suddenly upset and surprised that his actions resulted in puppies being used as lab animals.  Beagle puppies, if I read it right.  Look out, Fauci, John Wick is coming for your ass now.

In happier news, I read a headline that talked about how quarterback Tom Brady tossed the game ball to a 9-yr-old cancer survivor he'd recognized in the stands.  That's nice.  Not a fan of Brady, but it's still a nice story.

In other news, a police K9 was shot over the weekend.  In the head.  It's okay, though, because the bullet glanced off the skull and didn't enter the brain.  Poor dog's skull got cracked, which has to hurt like hell, but he's expected to make a full recovery.  Last report had him out of the hospital and recovering at home.  Good dog.  I don't remember what happened to the suspect.  Hopefully, they lit him up and he's dead now.  If not, I hope they prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law.

In my own news, I moved the entire pile of cast off limbs to the big brush pile this weekend.  While I was doing that I saw a tiny frog.  I tried to catch it and move it to a safer locale, but he disappeared into the limbs.  Here's hoping he hung on while I was dragging the limbs down to the pile and didn't get trod upon.

Hubs took a break from sawing firewood to reorganize the room under the house.  He built a shelfy-thing on which to lay lumber and stuff.  I haven't been under there since he finished, but I bet it looks nice.  

Note: Do not watch any of the Final Destination movies right before you help your spouse cut lumber.  The whine of the circular saw as it's approaching your unprotected fleshy bits will freak you out.  A little.  I obviously trust Hubs with my life, and he's the most careful and safety-conscious man alive, so I wasn't really worried.  But yeah, I shouldn't have watched any of that movie that morning.  LOL

How were things in your world this weekend?  Got any news to share?

Sunday Update - Week 42

Forty-two weeks in... ten weeks of 2021 left.  Blerg.  Oh, well.  I guess I'll start shifting my hopes that 2022 will be better.

In writerly news, I did start working on those edit notes.  Don't get excited.  I only did two pages so far and it's making me want to rewrite the beginning.  Don't get excited there either because I always feel this way when I start editing and I rarely rewrite the beginning due to it.

 I really should set up some kind of freebie/sale thing for this week, what with Halloween fast approaching and junk.  We'll see.  I'd hate to set up a sale and have my internet be all Mr. Poopyhead on me.

Speaking of internet, it's been fine so far this weekend.  We'll see what it's like tomorrow morning when we really need it.  We're still playing with the idea of satellite internet in place of or in addition to DSL.  

On the reading front, I finally finished the anthology and I also read another book.  So, I'm only like 8 books behind now.  I also picked up a paperback I've been casually looking for when I'm out and about.  It was surprising to find it in the Dollar General book rack, but yay.  I started reading it last night.

I didn't do a whole lot of baking this week.  A thing of baked spaghetti and a batch of granola bars.  

Not much baking because I've been in the woods every day, except yesterday.  Only a couple hours each day, but it kind of makes me not want to do anything else.  We're dragging logs up out of the woods and sawing them into firewood.  Then we stack the wood.  We've got quite a goodly amount after 6 days, which is cool.  When we get a wood stove, we'll have the fuel all ready to go.  And it's awesome exercise.  Nothing quite like getting some productive exercise going on.  I mean, I can walk/bike a hundred miles and go nowhere or I can make firewood and end up with something.  I'd rather have something to show for it when I'm done.

With the internet being a bastard all week, I spent a lot of time watching TV.  Funny since there really isn't anything on - even though we have free movie channels right now, too.  We're debating getting rid of the TV altogether.  Can we do it?  :shrug:  I certainly wouldn't miss the $114 for Direct TV every month.  And I can live without the reruns, which are about all I'm watching these days anyway.  

Ahem... anyway, the deer are fine.  They're getting ready for the rut, so we're not seeing them in large groups right now and they're not eating as much corn.  This is cyclical, so we're not worried or anything.  They'll be back.  They always are.  We are starting to see glimpses of the larger bucks as they wander through looking for the gals to love on.

The chipmunk has moved out of the flower bed and now seems to be inhabiting the wood pile.  We've seen him and another one chasing each other around it.  We're only removing the big logs we can get to easily, so no worries for them in their winter accommodations. 

Oh, before I forget, when I was on the phone with CenturyLink, I got a customer service rep who sounded EXACTLY like Martin Short doing Franck in Father of the Bride (the Steve Martin one).  I about fell out of my chair trying not to laugh.  Seriously.  I was slapping my leg and holding it all in.  I wrote a note so Hubs would know why I was acting so weird.  And then after I hung up, all the laughter came out at once in this sort of weird cackle.  I don't know if the dude actually sounded like that or he was doing the accent to sort of break up his day, but if it was the latter, he did a most excellent job and he stayed in character for the whole conversation.  Goid one, phone dude!  Made a horrible task almost enjoyable for me.

Anyway, that was my week.  How was yours?

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 10/23/21

Gah, I almost forgot that it's Saturday morning and I actually have things to talk about on the Reading wrap-up.

I picked up 1 paperback (which I already had) and a set of home improvement books this week.  The home improvement books are for Hubs, but I might read them at some point.  No new ebooks yet.  I still have the 9 I had from before, although I'm currently reading of those.

Books Read:

51) A Brief Darkness (Alfred Hitchcock anthology) by various (10/21/21) - Mystery Short Stories - 4 stars.  Neither new to me nor underappreciated.  Bought from the thrift store for $1.
Review: "This has some pretty interesting stories overall, but it wasn't my favorite of these anthologies."

No DNFs.

Currently reading... a paranormal romance.  It's like the third book in a series that I hadn't read before, but a friend gave it to me, so I'm jumping on in.  So far, so good - even with not quite knowing what's going on with this world due to jumping in late.

What was on your reading plate this past week?

Thursday This n That

I have had exceptionally slow internet for the most part of this week.  Like dial-up slow and worse.  When I do have internet, I'm trying to hit the high spots.  Alas, the blogs haven't been one of them.  Sorry about that.  CenturyLink dude was all like 'suck it'. Okay, that wasn't what he actually said, but that's what it boiled down to.  According to him, there's nothing wrong with our internet, so they refuse to send anyone out.  He kept talking about the DSL slowing down 'during peak times'.  I told him 'I don't know where you're at, but this started at 4 o'clock in the morning and we live in the middle of nowhere, so it's not a peak time here'.  We're looking at options.  Probably Hughes Net satellite internet.  Let's hope that doesn't suck, too.

Hubs is reading me reviews from Hughes Net right now.  It doesn't look good.  =o\

Aside from that, we've been throwing logs all week.  Woods work is extremely cathartic when you're frustrated as hell.  And sawing cedar smells good.  

I saw a teeny-tiny frog a couple days ago.  No clue what kind.  Brown.  And about the size of my pinky nail.  Itty Bitty Brown Frog... Ittibitticus brownius if you want to get technical.  LOL

The other day I went to the thrift store.  Picked up a framed mirror about ten inches long by 4 inches wide. Perfect for a spot in my bathroom where I wasn't sure what would work.  I also got another Vince Flynn novel that I already had.  (It's becoming a running gag now.)  And a set of home improvement books for free.  Cha-Ching.  Hubs was pleased with those.  And they had a new manager, which is awesome.  The last dude was the one who jacked up all the prices on everything.  I bet sales dumped and that's why he's gone.  Anyway, the new dude is way friendlier.  He's from Indianapolis and he has family in Michigan, which is cool.  

The thrift store is hiring.  I mean, they're always looking for volunteers, but this is for pay.  When I asked the oddly-haired (no hair should be that color) girl at the counter about the job, she leaned in and lowered her voice to let me know it was for... the back... which means moving furniture and stuff.  Like she was trying to warn me off.  ROFL.  If she only knew what I'd been doing all of September and part of August.  I have half a mind to go apply and get the job just to show that girl what an old lady can do.  I think it would be kinda fun working a thrift store.  But I'd have to get used to listening to Christian music all day.  It's hard enough to ignore while I'm shopping.  I wouldn't mind if it was GOOD, but it's rarely good.

Okay, time to see if this post will actually save and post.  Have a great day, if you can see this.  I'll be watching TV and throwing logs.