This n That - Travel Edition

Hey All.  It's been a helluva week, culminating yesterday.  I slept late today, which is weird because I don't like sleeping alone.  (It's okay.  Hubs is out of town on vacay.)

Hubs and I don't vacay together.  It's too expensive for us to go visit families at the same time.  Besides, who would take care of The Boyz.  So, he goes to see his family and I go to see my family.  It's all good.  

The Boyz are weirded out and wandering around looking for Hubs.  I keep telling them he'll be back soon, but all they know is he didn't come back with me, so I can't be trusted.

On the way to the airport, we almost hit an owl.  We had to leave at 4:15 to make the airport on time, so it's not surprising, but it shocked the shit out of me.  Driving along and out of the corner of my eye, an owl swooped down toward the passenger side of the windshield.  Thankfully, it swooped up at just the right moment and we passed under it.  Whew.  I think it was a great-horned owl, but I didn't get that good a look at it.  Flash of wings and breast feathers and it was gone.

We also saw a raccoon running down the shoulder of the highway, and a little buck standing in the ditch.  No animals were harmed, thank goodness.  

The sun was just coming up as I neared home.  Seeing the sun rise over the Ozarks was pretty spectacular.  I would've stopped to take a pic, but by that time, all I wanted to do was get home.  (I still stopped at the store for fried chicken and cinnamon rolls, though.  :snerk:)

I have plans for the week - cleaning like a madwoman, moving furniture, editing.  Yesterday, I rearranged the sun porch and I shifted Hubs' desk for maximum kitty blockage.  Sawyer liked to get beside Hubs' desk and attack his feet through the gap between the desk and the wall. Unfortunately, Hubs is trying to work when Sawyer does this, which makes Hubs' life difficult. I fixed it so Sawyer can't do that anymore.  We'll see if Hubs likes the new placement.  It is, after all, his desk.

Unfortunately, by the time I did everything else yesterday, I was totally not up for editing.  I did watch a shitload of TV, though.  I even watched a couple movies, but I can't remember what they are, I was that tired.  :shrug:  Anyway, onward and upward.

I'll make the 1.5 hour trip back up to collect him from the airport soon, this time during the day, so it's all good.  

Marketing Monday - Project Hermes

 Welcome to Marketing Monday.  This week's offering is Project Hermes.  

Starting today, PROJECT HERMES is free. (Always free with Kindle Unlimited.) Get your copy of this political/medical thriller before it's too late. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017Y6G0EW

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 40

Week 40?  Already?  So, there are only 12 weeks left of 2026.  Wow.

The big news this week is that I finished the first draft of Old Magic.  Wait, the bigger news might be that I came up with a title for it. Or it might be that I think I have a title for DN3, too.  Anyway, Old Magic is now... :drumroll: Home is Where the Hex is.  (Do you capitalize 'is' in that or not?)  And DN3 will probably be Duke Noble, P.I.: Truth Be Told.  Anyway Pt2, HWH topped out at 66960 words for the first draft.  I think I have ideas for a sequel for that, which would make this a series, which the title for will be The Worthy Witch or A Worthy Witch (cuz Worthy is the surname of the family).  The plan now is to edit TBT, starting today, and maybe start writing HWH sometime soon.  Time will tell.

Marketing was done.  Crickets were heard.  September ended up a big ol' donut-hole.  October ain't looking any better, but it's early yet.  I might do something this week and I might not. Stay tuned.

I baked stuff this week.  I think I already mentioned the Choco-Nanner cookies, which are banana cookies with chocolate chips.  They're good, but a little weird.  I also made a chocolate oil cake with raspberry jam and vanilla buttercream.  And I did a batch of twice-baked potatoes.  All yummy.  All not exactly good for my waistline.  :shrug:  

To combat the ever-expanding waist, I did three walks this week for a total of 3.2 miles.  I also did some cleaning, some grocery shopping and, of course, the lugging of water for the greenhouse.  Weight holding steady at 180.6.

Speaking of the greenhouse, I have flowers!  One pepper plant has one flower and the bigger tomato has at least 4-5 blooms.  The other peppers still have buds and the other tomato is working on it.  So, even though it's early October, I could still get vegetables this year.  The greenhouse will help keep everything warmer even if it freezes, so yay.

Speaking of temps, it's finally cooler here.  Okay, so yeah, we're supposed to get back into the upper eighties this week, but that's still cooler than those ungodly 100+ temps we were getting, so yay.  Unfortunately, the prediction for this year here is warmer than usual throughout the winter, which will totally harsh my time in the woods.  :shrug:  You can only do what you can do.

The rut is in its early stages here, so the deer are doing their things.  Yesterday, we had two yearling bucks clacking antlers in the side yard.  I think it was Scout and Ranger, but I'm not sure.  We also saw a fox for the first time in weeks, so yay.

Other than that, not much going on around here.  Stuff, junk, and yada yada.  How are things in your world?

This n That

 Yesterday was Thursday???  I was busy pretty much all day, so I totally blanked out on that one.

Tuesday, I took a recipe and Frankensteined it, creating what I call Choco-Nanner Cookies.  Banana cookies with chocolate chips.  They're kinda freaky and the banana flavor is getting more intense with every passing day.  And there are A LOT of them.  Wednesday, I made cake.  It was a boxed Devil's Food (because I got lazy) which I then slathered in seedless raspberry jam and then covered in vanilla buttercream.  Yummers.  Yesterday, I made twice-baked potatoes to go with the steaks Hubs grilled.  It's been a week of food, lemme tell ya.  I may have to put my arms out to see if I'm walking or rolling. In all seriousness, though, I've been eating less (via smaller portions) and walking more.  

Not sure if I already said this but I saw a bald eagle the other day.  Yay.

Gah, it's not Saturday!  I only say this, and so emphatically, because I keep having to remind myself that it's not Saturday.

I'm going to be bach'ing it soon as Hubs is going out of town for a few days.  I keep joking that while he's gone, I'm going to 1) demo the kitchen, 2) repaint rooms, 3) get a puppy, 4) get some more kitties, 5) replace the two kitties we currently have, 3) turn the spare room into an art studio.  None of these things will actually occur, of course, but it's fun to joke about.  Most likely, I will do some deep cleaning and watch a lot of TV.

There are lot of stupid people out there in the world, more so than there used to be.  I think this was planned.  Stupid people are easier to control.  

I just saw where someone in comments to one of my friend's posts said 'your an idiot'.  He corrected them to 'you're' and someone else pointed out that the commenter would never know the irony of his own statement.  ROFL

Some days, I laugh at the morons.  Some days, I just can't even.  Some days, I spend too much time blocking morons.  I can get lost in just blocking people and before I know it, dozens have been transported to Blockistan, and I've wasted too much of my valuable morning time.  :shrug: And that's just Facebook. Don't even get me started on X.

Okay, I suppose it's time to go fritter away my time on stuff.  Hopefully, some of it will be productive today.  ;o)

Marketing Monday - Dying Embers

 In a potentially-futile attempt to save September, Dying Embers is currently free and will be through Wednesday.  The hope is that people will pick up a copy of DE and want the other books, too.  :shrug:

Anyway, here goes nuthin'...

Today through Wednesday, DYING EMBERS is absolutely free. (Always free with Kindle Unlimited.) Grab your copy of this gripping suspense now. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TEQK7OU

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 39

 Hey All.  Yet another week has gone by.  Let's see what I've got to show for it...

Writing.  I added 4965 words to the WIP. (Old Magic is the working title, but I'm working on changing that.)  It now sits at 63805 words and I'm getting close to wrapping it up.  I've promised myself that I'll type THE END by the end of the month.  

I didn't market last week.  Thus, I moved zilch.  Dying Embers went on freebie yesterday, though, and will be free through Wednesday in hopes I'll finish out September with something besides zeroes in the $ column.  Zeroes are always disheartening and make me feel bad about myself, which never helps with writing.

On the baking front, I did another batch of OCC cookies.  Hubs likes them and they're easy, so there ya go.  I'll be making a cake this week.  And maybe some bread.  We'll see.

In activity news, I walked a couple times.  The plan is to start walking regularly again - like every day or every other day - but sometimes my legs won't cooperate.  We'll see how that goes, too.  I'm also still watering my greenhouse plants.  And I did some repotting of trees.  Weight: give me a minute... Ugh... 180.6

Speaking of gardening, the two cedars - Courtney and Chelsea - got bigger pots and should be ready to go in the ground later this fall.  The buckthorns are awesome.  The persimmon and the black cherry are okay.  I now have volunteer sycamores that are shooting up, so there's that.  In food plants: The Early Girl tomato died.  I tried to rescue a couple of the shoots that were still green and looked like they had roots, but I think those gave up the ghost, too.  The potatoes are toast.  My peppers are all looking awesome, though, and so are the beefsteak tomatoes.  We'll see if any of those flower and fruit now that it's getting cooler.  All of my garden beds are toast.  Between the heat and the critters, everything looks like crap.  I'm hoping I'll still have some things come back in the spring, but the hope is slim.

Nothing much else going on.  Like I said, it's finally cooler here.  It was like Autumn hit and nature went 'oh, okay, so we're doing this now' and the temps dropped.  Oh, and we're finally getting rain, which helps.  The fawns are pretty much spotless now.  I'm starting to hear geese migrating.  Life is good.

How's life in your neck of the woods?

Thursday This n That

What the hell is wrong with people lately?  Just skimming through FB makes me nauseous. I won't tell exactly you what brought this on, because no one else needs to hear that, but seriously...

And now I haz a sad.  I just found out another dog I knew had to be put down.  That's 4 dogs in the past two weeks.  They were all old, but still...  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for our neighbor's dog now because he's a 13-yr-old coonhound, and the bigger the dog, the shorter the lifespan.  If they lose Copper, I'll be a little bereft.

I'm not really in the mood now to finish this post, so I'll leave it short today.  Have a great day wherever you are and hug your pets.  :hugs: