Sunday Update - Week 52

It's the last day of the year.  Time for the last Sunday Update.

I was supposed to get Blink of an I back to my editor today.  Umm... Yeah, that was perhaps a bit optimistic on my part.  This thing is a hot mess and I really need to write her an apology letter for the crap she had to wade through.  I usually have a manuscript in better condition before I turn it over to her.  I made it to page 116 of my power scrub last night - after working pretty much off and on all day.  That was 39 pages worth.  Only 207 pages left to go.  If I do 35 pages a day, that's about 6 days worth of work still left to go.  So, Friday?  Maybe?  If I get it to her then, and if there aren't any more issues that take for-freakin-ever, then I should still be able to get this out in February, though.  Later in the month than I anticipated, but I only promised readers February, not a firm day inside the month.

I made my reading goal for the year.  90 books.  Then I started Shogun by James Clavell.  That'll take me a while, for sure.  I'm about 40 pages in and it's pretty good so far.  Definitely holding my interest.  Oh, and in case you missed it, I did a wrap up of my reading year on Friday.

No fishing last week.  It's too friggin' cold.

Christmas was nice.  Quiet.  Just Hubs and I and phone to and from family.  We had surf and turf for dinner.  Hubs grilled the steak and I pan-fried the scallops and shrimp.  Forgot that I had cheesy biscuits to make with it, though.  All we ate for dinner was the meat. I also did a deconstructed black forest cake - there's the cake, there's the bowl with the cherry pie filling, there's the bowl of whipped cream, build it yourself.  We have enough leftover for tonight.

I got a nice picture of Oliver this week.  He's our orphaned yearling buck who was of great concern last spring.  He's all fat and sassy now.  You can't even tell he was stick-thin and worrisome.

I can't tell which of the does is his twin sister, Annie, anymore.  She's also lost her waif look and blends in with the other girls.  =o)

It's snowing this morning.  (Although the National Weather Service says it's raining when it's only 14F.  :shrug:)  This will be like our 3rd snow of 2017 and this, like the others, will only be a dusting.

Other than that, all's well here in Sandersonland.  How are things with you?

Saturday Fishing Report - 12/30/17 & Wrap Up

Welcome to the Saturday Fishing Report - the last one of the year and a bit of a wrap up.

It was COLD this past week.  Which, naturally, drives fish to deeper water and drives me to want to stay home under a big blanket, drinking cocoa and reading books.  Needless to say, I did so and didn't drown a single worm last week.  Hubs read a fishing report earlier this morning from a dude who was way more committed to fishing than I am.  The air temp was 17F and the water was 45F.  :shiver:  He caught some fish deep.  :shrug:

2017 was an interesting year for fishing.  When we started the year, the water level was way low - like 906'.  It gave me all sorts of new places to fish and plenty of exercise walking around carrying my gear.  Then in April, it started to rain.  The lake was up to 918' by the time we got the deluge at the end of the month that ended up raising the lake to 934'.  That seriously curtailed my fishing spots, lemme tell ya.

Once I finally moved enough flotsam out of the parking lot at my go-to spot, it was all good.  Spring fishing in the parking lot netted me plenty of hefty bass.  I had to let them all go because they were fat with eggs, but it was still a lot of fun.

In July, they finally opened the park again.  Which was awesome.  Except the people they'd hired to host the park were total numbnuts.  Because of this, I spent most of my time at my go-to spot.  I catch more fish there anyway. So there.  I was really looking forward to the hosts leaving in October, and it was nice after they were gone.  For a bit.  They closed the park again at the end of November.  Stupidheads.

So, here we are in December.  The lake level is back down to like 910' and a lot of spots are opening up to me.  Except it's freakin' cold.  They aren't predicting a boatload of rain for January, so maybe by the time I get out fishing, my good sitting and standing spots will all be dry.  :fingers crossed:

Anyway, I caught my first catfish this year.  And my first sucker.  I also caught my first fish on a lure this year.  It was awesome, even if I didn't accomplish that goal until December.  I'll probably still mostly worm fish because there's less work involved and I am, by nature, lazy.  Unless the fish are biting good on lures and I'm up to the standing/casting/reeling.

Oh, and I caught one little unknown fish.  It might've been a darter or a chub of some kind.  If it hadn't slipped out of my hand so quickly I might've had a better chance of identifying it.

Not sure what the coming year will bring, but I'm ready for it.  As soon as the weather warms up to better than 'freeze your ass off and get frostbite on your feet' levels, I'll be out again.  Until then, find some time to enjoy the outdoors - even if you have to do it from inside.  ;o)

2017 Reading Wrap Up

As the year slowly swings to a close, I thought I'd do a wrap-up on what I've read this year. 

I started the year with a goal of reading 70 books in 2017.  Then I adjusted that to 80 books, which wasn't enough because I had to adjust it again to 90 books.  And I'll hit that goal tonight or tomorrow.  (I'm about halfway through on a paranormal romance and those never take me too awfully long.)

Of those 90 books, here's the general breakdown...

Mystery - 25
Paranormal (Romance/Suspense/Mystery/YA) - 17
Suspense/Crime - 12
Romance - 10
SF - 8
History - 4
Fantasy - 4
Literature/Literary - 4
Action/Adventure - 3
Women's Fiction - 1
Western - 1
Non-fiction - 1

Some of those slopped over to more than more category (Paranormal Romance, Romantic Suspense, Historical NF).  I counted it in the category that was most valid for the story.

Most of those were adult novels, but I did get in 6 YA and 1 MG. 

I also had a goal to read new-to-me authors this year.  I read 15 of those this year.  I'll try to do a sort of review wrap-up on those next week for people who might be interested in finding new authors and supporting the under-appreciated among us.

All in all, it was a good year for reading.  I'm looking forward to what 2018 will bring.  To that end, I'm starting out with a 70 book goal again.  We'll see how that goes with my plan to publish 4 books this year.  Writing/publishing eats into reading time, doncha know.

Look for other wrap-ups as the year ends and the new one begins.

How was your reading year?  Did you meet your goals?  Read anything amazing?

Thursday This n That

I don't understand people and their attraction to getting tattoos.  Personally, tattoos gross me out.  I know a lot of people have them and it's their choice, but why?  What if fifteen years down the road you hate it?  What if thirty years down the road, you're old and saggy and the art piece you had inserted into your skin with needles now looks like an abstract drawing done by a chimpanzee? They're forever, unless you find someone to surgically remove it or someone who can artfully cover it with another tattoo.  I know people with tattoos - family members in fact.  I should probably ask them what the attraction is.  I have a feeling, though, that even if I asked, I still wouldn't understand.  Thankfully, Hubs and I are in agreement on this, so I don't ever have to contend with them on him or with him wanting me to get one.  :shudder:

I had a happy yesterday.  An awesome review of Wish in One Hand.  Check it out.  (It's the second book down.)  I was just scrolling down - because Cedar does some awesome reviews and I'm always looking for new books to drool over - and there it was.  Gave me all sorts of warm fuzzies yesterday morning.   (And I am not related in anyway to Cedar - not even by marriage.  Unless somewhere in her Sanderson family tree, her and Hubs share an ancestor I haven't found yet.)

Okay, so I started this at around 6:30am, then I got distracted and then I started doing chores, assuming I'd finished it and posted it.  But no.  Now, after lunch and shortly before naptime, I stop by the tab to look at something else and find this incomplete post.  Derp.

On the upside, I finally purged the filing cabinet of 2015 & 2016 paperwork, moved that old shit to the other cabinet where I archive stuff, moved the 2013-2014 archived stuff to the storage room, filed the bills from Oct thru now - which I'd put off filing because the files were too freakin' full, worked on spreadsheets for the office, called the office and went over a couple things, composed and sent an email to the boss, ate lunch, and did the dishes.

Naptime.

What's up in your this n that today?

Taking Myself in Hand

The end of the year is rapidly approaching.  Where did the time go?  Sheesh. 

I know a large portion of it was spent sitting on my ever-widening ass, I'll tell ya that.  And it's got to stop.  (The ever-widening ass part AND the sitting on it part.)  So here's the plan for 2018...

1)  I will get back to my 'do something active every day' thing.  Every day I'm not gimped up or sick, I will do something active.  This includes any number of the following: dancing, actual exercise, woods work, cleaning, walking, fishing... anything that gets my butt moving instead of sitting.

2)  I will stop being such a whiny baby and do the work I know I need to do to accomplish my goals, regardless of whether I'm tired or discouraged or achy.

3)  I will publish 4 books in 2018.  Which means sitting at this keyboard any time I'm not doing something active or running errands.  And I will be doing writerly things here any time I'm not doing spreadsheety things for work.

4) Since I recognize that the above will turn me into a crispy critter, I will read at least 70 books in 2018. 

Yeah, yeah, I know.  I'll still be screwing around part of the time - watching the boob tube, vegging out with FB, etc.  But if I don't take myself in hand at some point, my plans will fall apart and I'll be sitting here this time next year lamenting the time I frittered away.  2018 will be more working and less frittering. 

What's your plan for the new year?

Merry Christmas!

From our home to yours, Merry Christmas! 

Sunday Update - Week 51

2017 is almost over.  I'll do some kind of year-end wrap up next Sunday or something.  For now, though, here's the week that was...

I started the week with the best of intentions, really I did.  And then it all kind of fell apart.  Then I was at the bank, chatting with a friend who works there, and she said something that totally threw water on my gumption.  I was telling her how much work I have to do over the holidays and how I would probably be working on Christmas.  She looked at me and said 'What are they gonna do, fire you?'  Which is not what I needed at the time.  I'm having a tough enough time getting my gumption to ignite.  Anyway, every time I think about editing, her voice pops up in my head saying 'what are they gonna do, fire you?' and since the answer is 'no', it's always 'no', I settle back down and let whatever other excuse I have for not editing wash over me.  It's hard. I'm discouraged.  My everything aches.  Whatever.  I really need to kick myself in the ass.  But probably not today or tomorrow.

I got over my reading slump.  Read two awesome stories - a military thriller and a hard-boiled crime novel.  So now I'm one book shy of my goal.  I'm not sure what the last book of the year will be.  Maybe I'll finish up with an Agatha Christie.  Or an Andre Norton.  Or that book I've had on my Kindle since October by a new-to-me author.  We'll see.  I'll probably read something meaty after that that'll stretch me into 2018.  I'll do a reading wrap-up post after the 1st.

Fishing took up a lot of time last week.  The only days I didn't go fishing were Friday and Saturday - after it got cold.

Speaking of cold, we got the first snowfall of the year.  A dusting, but still.  It was really pretty.  Then it melted off.  We're supposed to get some more this morning, if the band of snow drops far enough south.  :shrug:  I can take it or leave it.  I definitely don't need a white Christmas with it's slick roads and junk.  Bleh.

We had an interesting visitor to the yard yesterday in the snow.  A hawk of some unknown species (because it wouldn't turn around and show itself for better identification. 

It could be a broad-winged hawk or a smaller red-shouldered hawk.  Or maybe a marsh hawk.  Too big to be a merlin.  Anyway, it was pretty cool.

This week?  Well, tomorrow's the big day, so I'll be baking a cake today and tomorrow we'll be making surf and turf for dinner.  (Hubs is grilling the steak and I'm doing to seafood.)  Other than that?  :shrug:  Need to spend some time locating my gumption and setting it on fire. 

Have an awesome holiday tomorrow!  I hope Christmas brings you all all the good things you desire.  :hugs:

What up in your world?