Sunday Update - 2026 Week 45

 Welp, it's the end of another week.  I'm not sure I have much to show for it, but here goes...

No writing and very little editing.  I started the week with every intention of editing, but that goal fell apart.  Here's to another week.  I also didn't do any marketing.  With FB's supposed crack down and new rules and threatening to charge us for links, I'm not sure how much I can do and for how much longer.  (I haven't received any communications about this from FB, but I've heard about it from friends.)  I can't afford to do anything about it, especially with sales so pathetical.  For the record, I've made an entire penny so far this month.  How I'm supposed to pay for marketing on that escapes me.

Anyway...

I didn't bake anything this week.  Yesterday, Hubs made a turkey and we ate like it was Thanksgiving.  And I paid for eating too much, of course.  I need to make another loaf of apple cranberry bread, or maybe a loaf of pumpkin pie bread.  The cake is gone and that's good because the last thing my EWA needs is cake.

On the activity front, I did some stuff, but not much.  The usual things occurred - groceries, cleaning, gardening.  I also took a walk in the woods yesterday, so there is that.  I haven't weighed myself, but I expect I'm probably up a little or holding steady at 178.

The garden is still going, even though it's starting to get chilly.  I have maybe a half dozen little peppers on two plants and scads of flowers on all five.  I also still had scads of flowers on the tomatoes, but no fruits.  I did spend some time pollinating by hand, so we'll see if that helps.  It is November, after all.

Wandering the woods was interesting.  I promised myself it was a wander only and I wouldn't work, and I kept that promise. This was more an information-gathering trip through the forest. We knew we had another tree go down because we could see the truck laying out there.  It was an elm.  There are also more downed smaller trees of various species that will need to be cleaned up once the threat of ticks and snakes has passed.  (I saw no bugs yesterday, so that's a good sign.)  I'm itching to start woods work, can ya tell?

One thing that took up at 10 hours of time was a project for the pay-job.  I started it on Thursday morning, worked on it for about 4 hours that day, did another 5 hours on Friday, and then cleaned up the data for an hour yesterday morning.  Of course, after doing all that, I really didn't feel like sitting at the computer to edit.  :shrug:  Anyway, it's done and I'll find out Monday if it's everything they needed or if there's more to do.

Oh, there was also the election thing.  Hubs and I went to the polls in person and voted.  We were 152 and 153, which is higher than either of us usually gets and shows the locals might've actually gotten out and voted, too.  In the end, though, it didn't matter because almost every ballot measure we voted for went the other way.  On the upside, the guys we voted for won.  Go Scott and Eric and Andrew (and that other guy whose name escapes me at the moment... wait, I think it was Steve... :shrug:)

And on that note, I probably should wander off and forage for breakfast.  I bought these Little Debbie Sticky Buns yesterday.  I had great hopes for them to be AWESOME, but they're disappointingly small and flavorless. Oh, Little Debbie, how you have fallen in mine sight. LOL

Have a great day and an awesome week.  Here's to being productive, however we all manage to achieve that.  :hugs:

This n That

 I had every intention of doing a 'this n that' yesterday, but I got wrapped up in a work project, which I meant to have finished yesterday, but it was bigger than I thought, so I have to get back at it this morning, so don't expect a long post...  

Ahem.  Anyway...

coffee... coffee good... coffee makes brain do things...  good things... hehehe

I was watching a medical show set in Shetland (part of the British Isles) yesterday.  A guy came into the little hospital because he got a splinter.  Sure it had gotten infected, but come on.  They did surgery.  Cut his finger open and poked all over in the space. They didn't find anything.  Anyway, they told him he'd need to stay 'in hospital' for a day or two.  The doctor went on and on to the camera about how something as simple as a splinter could be life-threatening, because the infection could spread into your palm and up your fingers and... Umm.  I don't know if their more infectious over there, or if they just don't have access to good antibacterial shit, but I can't count how many times I'd gotten splinters and wood jammed into various points without ever getting even a little infection, let alone a big grody one.  (His finger wasn't even swollen that bad.)  My way of thinking: Slap some Neosporin on that sucker and get on with your life.  Sheesh.  Nope, go to the hospital, spend a couple days in there... Why not?  It's all free right?  Except free isn't free.  

Anyway, part two...

I saw a robin yesterday.  Just one, but he's the sign that their migration has begun.  I can't wait to see the flocks of robins.  They'll come through and strip every berry off my spicebushes and buckthorns, plus whatever wild grapes are still left after my vine-mageddon attempts.  Yay.

My peppers are happy they aren't outside the greenhouse, lemme tell ya.

Okay, that's it for me.  Work to be done and all that.  Well... after more coffee...  Later days, dudes.

Voting Day

 Yeah, it's actually called Election Day, but this isn't about the elections, it's about voting.  

Get out and vote.  It's a right, but it's also a responsibility.  The United States of America is the greatest country ever conceived.  Nowhere else in the world do you have the freedoms and the rights you have here.  It's up to each and every one of us to make sure this country stays that way.  

Hubs and I will be heading out to our polling place later this morning.  It's about a five mile drive.  Because we live in such a rural area, we usually don't have a line.  Oh, there might be one or two people ahead of us, but most times, the poll workers are just sitting/standing around chatting and eating.  We joke with them, they joke with us.  It's all pretty chill.  Sure, it's undoubtedly more of a pain in the ass for most of you, but I did the PITA thing when I was younger, and I still voted.  

The only time I didn't vote since I was 18 was in the 1992 election and look what happened... Bill Clinton won.  (Okay, so maybe he didn't win by one vote, but I still carry that failure on me.)  What happened there was that I was living outside of Michigan, hadn't registered in Illinois, and was too stupid to get an absentee ballot on time.  Derp.  

I've voted when I was the only one there.  I've voted when the line to vote is out the door and into the parking lot.  Sunny days, awful pouring rain days, snowy days.  It's my responsibility and I don't take it lightly.

I've voted when I thought it was clear that my candidate would win and when it was clear they wouldn't.  (And when they didn't win, even after I was certain they would.)  

One year, I walked around with a t-shirt that I'd written the names of those candidates for city council that I thought people should vote for.  (Not near the polling place, but just around town.)  My hope was that it would encourage people to vote.  It didn't, and my candidates lost... which was heartbreaking... but I carried on.  

I was absolutely certain B.O. wouldn't win the first time, but I still voted.  I was sure he couldn't possibly win the second time, but I voted.  Afterwards, I felt like my vote was thrown away, but it didn't stop me from voting.  

Seriously, folks, your vote is important.  (I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but it's better than sitting back and not saying anything, right?)  If you haven't already voted, or haven't made plans to vote today, please do so.  I love this country.  If you do, too, then go honor her by voting.  It's the American way.

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 44

Here we are again at another week closer to the end of 2026.  :shrug:  It hasn't been too bad of a year so far.  We'll see what this coming week with its elections brings.  It's also the first day of November, if that means anything to any of you.  All Saints Day, perhaps?  Half-Off Candy Day, maybe?  Recovering from taking the kids to beg for candy??  

I was a toad for most of the week again.  But I did finally get off my ass and do some editing last night.  Only about 4 pages worth, but that's better than nothing.  Here's hoping it's a start to doing this every day or almost every day until the end of the year and publication.  First, Duke Noble, P.I.: Truth Be Told will rise and join its brethren.  After that, I'll work on editing Old Magic (Syl and the Family Hex?  Twisted Branches on a Family Tree?) so it can fly free... err, free as in unencumbered, not free to purchase.  I'm not that nuts yet.

This week, I made apple-cranberry bread and pizza.  Both excellent choices and super yummy.  I did the bread because Wallyworld had cranberries for 72c a bag and I already had those apples I bought from the orchard.  The pizza needs no explanation.

My activity this week was mostly garden stuff, but I did get a walk in, and also some cleaning and shopping.  Still, not as active as I should be, but I'm working on it.  Weight: 178.0 - down a bit, so yay.  I actually did lose 2 pounds in October.  Woot.

The garden is doing okay.  I have little peppers on one of my plants, so yay.  Not sure which color of bell peppers those are, because the plant is at the very back of the green house and I'd have to move a bunch of stuff to see the label.  Eh, they all eat the same.  The tomatoes are still flowering but no fruits.  The trees are doing well and I'll be looking at putting them in the ground as soon as the weather gets cool enough.  

The bucks are still chasing the ladies.  The ladies still don't seem that interested, but maybe they're seeking privacy.  You know, I've never actually seen the deer mating here in the thirteen years we've been here.  They're doing it somewhere because every year we have fawns, but it's all behind closed doors.  (Which is how I like my romance, truth be told.)

We're finally getting some much-needed rain.  Woot.  I suspect we may end up with some dead dogwoods due to the heat and drought this summer.  It's all very sad.  I'll try to turn them into walking sticks, if I ever get back to carving again.

I think that's it for it today.  I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but I can't think of what, so there ya are.  Have a great day and an awesome week.  Don't forget to vote.  Later days, dudes.

This n That

 Yeah, I forgot yesterday was Thursday.  :shrug:

Tuesday is election day. Go vote (if you haven't already). If you're thinking about skipping it because 1) it's the midterms and so doesn't really matter, 2) the polls are showing that a) your candidate is already going to win and doesn't need you or b) your candidate has no chance of winning so your vote won't matter, 3) you have better things to do, 4) you hate standing in line... GO VOTE.  It does really matter, it doesn't matter what the polls are showing because they're notoriously wrong, there is next to nothing better to do, and standing in line is a small price to pay to protect America.  

I have peppers!  At least one of my pepper plants has the beginnings of tiny peppers on it, so yay!  It's the plant way in the back, so I'm not sure what color peppers they are - green, yellow, or red - but they're all bell peppers so it doesn't really matter.

A while back, I gave a friend some cans of wet catfood that The Boyz wouldn't eat, so her neighborhood cat who eats anything could have yummies.  Yesterday, she asked me if I have anymore food my cats won't eat because her (kinda) cat loved it.  LOL

Sawyer and I are currently having a test of wills.  I bought a shitload of food that he swore he liked and right after it arrived and I'd taken it out of its packaging, he decided he didn't like it after all.  So, I've vowed to not buy any more wet food until every last can is gone.  He can eat it or not, but it's what's being served for the near future.  On another note, his intake of kibbles has gone up.  

I keep getting distracted while writing this.  Then again, I keep getting distracted doing most things.  :shrug:  I'm highly distractible.

There's a grammar rule for whether/why a word ends in ible or able, but I can't remember what it is.  Anyway, distractible looks wrong with ible instead of able.  :shrug:  

I have no clue why some words look wrong to me when they're spelled right.  They just do.  Go figger.

Anyway... I should probably wrap this up.  Have a great day and a wonderful weekend.  Later days, dudes.

Marketing Monday - Sleeping Ugly

 It's Monday and it's early, and I have marketing to do, so here goes...

Today, in honor of Halloween, I picked my most Halloweeniest of books - Sleeping Ugly.  It's the story of a super-vapid, super-mouthy supermodel who sleeps with the wrong guy and ends up with one hell of a curse.  I told this story in a conversational way, so you'd be able to climb right into her head and go along for the ride. (At least that was the hope.) You'll find out along the way that maybe she's not as self-absorbed as she pretends to be, and she's got plenty of reasons for being what she is.  

Anyway...

Starting today, SLEEPING UGLY - a snarky, paranormal mystery - is totally free.  (Always free with KU, but this is for the rest of us.)  Pick up your copy before it's too late. 
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GM24Q48

PS. Facebook is screwing me hard today.  If you see a post from me anywhere, please share it along.  Thanks.

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 43

 Okay, it appears to be Week 43.  9 weeks left of 2026.  Woot.  (Not that 2026 was bad, but at this point, I'm willing to woot over the smallest of things.)

This is going to be a pretty boring post.  I did nothing... errr, next to nothing... this week.  I mean, I breathed in and out, I ate stuff, I watched stuff.  I didn't write or edit.  My marketing efforts were retarded by FB and I only moved 7 copies of Natural Causes.  I don't know if I have the heart to market anymore, but I probably will do something.  I'm thinking of trying to push Sleeping Ugly - the first book in the Halloweeniest of my series.  Time will tell.

I didn't bake anything.  I need to rectify that because we ate the last of the apple cake yesterday.  I'm thinking of taking my Chocolate Oil Cake recipe and making cupcakes.  We'll see.

My activity was nothing to get excited about.  I didn't even really water the greenhouse.  I checked it a few times, but the dirt was still moist, so not much hauling of water there.  I meant to do more.  I meant to take walks.  As my father always said, 'Intentions are for shit'.  The only yippy moment was stepping on the scale to see I had lost another pound.  Weight: 178.4 (The only real way to lose weight is to eat less and/or exercise more.  This week, I ate less.)

In the greenhouse, like I said, the plants don't really need to be watered as often because it's not as frickin' hot.  The tomatoes and the peppers are blossoming like crazy, but still no fruits.  I spent some time pollinating the tomatoes.  I was about to pollinate the peppers when I noticed that most of the flowers were rife with ants.  I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.  I'm leaning on the side of hoping it's like peonies and the ants are helping with pollination.  We'll see.  

Speaking of the intervention of living things, I stepped out on the deck a few days ago, and there was the packrat... sitting beside the greenhouse, staring at me.  I moved toward it and it exited the deck by dropping off the side.  It's a cute bugger, but I'd just as soon it not be visiting my gardens again.  Destructive little bastard.  I checked all around the greenhouse, but it hasn't been trying to chew its way in.  Yet.  

And there was the most exciting part of my week.  Other that that, Hubs' travel crud is still lingering, but getting better.  I haven't caught it and, at this point, I'm not likely to.  :fingers crossed:

Okay, time for me to let you go so you can get on with your more-interesting lives.  Peace out.