Best Laid Plans

To paraphrase Robert Burns*, The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.  Ain't that the truth.  For instance, I made plans for this week and I was all gung ho about them on Sunday.  Unfortunately, yesterday was a bad day.  Not bad-bad in the scheme of things, but just bad enough that it derailed me.  I woke up early from a weird and depressing dream, and it kind of got the whole day off to a wrong start.  I didn't walk.  I didn't read.  I didn't edit. The only thing that got checked off of my to-do list was dishes, and I have to do those or we'll have nothing to eat off of or with**.

I had great plans for this year.  Well, obviously, those got obliterated by the 'rona and the chaos surrounding it. 

Actually, I should say I let my plans for the year get derailed by the chaos.  It was all mental.  Nothing truly stopped me from going ahead with anything, except my brain.

Anyway, sometimes plans go awry.  I could spend this time kicking myself.  Lord knows, it's a popular pastime.  But I'm going to try to go another way.  I mean, kicking myself is useful from time to time, but today doesn't seem like one of those times.  So, I'm going to forgive myself.  I get a pass for yesterday.  As long as I don't let it continue into today.  I have work that needs to be done, regardless of what might be going on in my life or in my head.  I have promises to keep.  And if you'll forgive a foray into another poem, I have miles to go before I sleep.

*The original poem in its original Old English. Which I think is kind of neat.
**For times of extreme laziness, illness, or water outage, I have backup dishes and silverware, but I hate to break those out of storage.

Sunday Update - Week 38 or Something

 :crawls out from under her rock:  Ugh.  Good morning   Last night was a pip, lemme tell ya.  Couldn't get to sleep, then after I did, the phone rang at 'oh, derp thirty' and while it was a butt-dial, it startled me enough so I couldn't get back to sleep.  This is why I still have a flip-phone*, folks.  No chance of accidentally dialing anyone in the middle of the night.  Of course, the middle of the night is when I'm sleeping, so no worries of that anyway.  

And I didn't set this post up before I went to bed, so here I am.  Under-caffeinated, groggy, and grumpy.

Despite giving myself a pep-talk and shouting nasty things at myself, I still didn't get off my ass.  I entered three pages worth of notes so far.  Today has to be better.  I'm under a deadline now.  A self-imposed deadline, sure, but it's a still a deadline.  Except I also have some spreadsheet stuff that ought to be sent back to the office before tomorrow morning. 

I didn't finish any books in time for yesterday's reading wrap-up, but I did finish one yesterday afternoon.  Go me?  

In baking news, I made Romanian apple cake.  Recipe below.  We're out of oatmeal cookies, so I should make those today.  We'll see.

Let's not talk about activity.  I did a hard target walk on Monday that overdid it for me and I spent the rest of the week cowering.  Weight: 178.4, which is down about a pound from last week.

In other news, I broke my own rule about no-Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving, and bought a tub of eggnog ice cream.  Don't judge me.  It was a necessary bright spot in an otherwise depressing Wallyworld excursion.  It's hard to stay cheery with a mask on.  Which, I'm beginning to think, is their point.  Speaking of masks, they're littered all over the Wallyworld parking lot now.  People are pigs.

The migration is starting to bring us new birds.  Something different was singing his little brains out the other day.  Not sure what he was, but I love seeing and hearing new birds.  Haven't seen an eagle yet, but they'll be here shortly.

The fawns have no spots anymore.  And the bucks have lost their velvet.  The does are getting jumpy.  Soon, the rut will begin and start the cycle of life all over again.

Okay, that's enough out of me this morning.  What's up with you?  :wanders off to slug down more coffee:

*Well, part of the reason. The rest of the reason is if it ain't broke, don't fix it.  My flip-phone ain't broke, so why buy a new one?

Recipe:

Romanian Apple Cake

5 large (9 small) apples
3 eggs
1 ½ cups sugar
¾ cup vegetable oil
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 T vanilla
2 cups flour

Peel, core, and cut apples into large chunks (about 1”).  Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease 9x13” cake pan.  Beat together eggs and sugar until frothy.  Blend in oil, baking soda, vanilla, and cinnamon.  By quarters, gently stir in flour until just combined.  Fold in apple chunks.  Pour batter into prepared pan.  Bake for 50-55 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or eat plain later.

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 9/26/20

 The last reading wrap-up of the month.  I wish I had more stuff to talk about.

No new ebooks or hardcopies.  I only have two unread ebooks left on my Kindle - a romance and an urban fantasy - so I need to acquire some more at some point soon.  The good news is that I finished my edit pass, so I can use the Kindle for reading again instead of work.  For a little while anyway.

No Books Read.  I tried to finish what I was reading last night, but I was too tired to stay up late.

DNFs:

Early in the week, I picked up one of my set of hardcover Erle Stanley Gardners.  It's a set where there are two books in each volume and I love it.  I had planned to read through the whole set.  Unfortunately, about 20 pages into the first story, the pages started to come loose.  Gack and Horror.  I carefully put the pages right and re-shelved it.  Now I don't want to open any of the others for fear they'll fall apart.  I guess I'll have to love looking at them rather than reading them.  =o(

Currently reading... A dog mystery that I picked up back on the 1st.  It's got some issues that will probably only make it a 4-star, but nothing worth DNF'ing it.  I'll probably finish it today.

How was your week in reading?

Just Pondering

Over on Outside the Box, I made some negative statements about myself this morning and it got me to thinking.

Years... ahem, decades ago I heard something about 'negative self-talk and how we all needed to do away with it.  I think it was Leo Buscaglia.  He was big back then.  Anyway, it sort of made sense.  I mean, the one person you should count on to not say negative things to you and about you is yourself.  Right?

Lately, though, I've been wondering.  Some of my biggest accomplishments have occurred after I got downright nasty with myself.  Drill sergeant screaming in my ear nasty.  "Okay, Meissner*, you big, diaper-baby, are you going to sit in that wheelchair and whine, or are you going to walk again?" "Oh, boo-hoo, you sissy. No agent will represent you?  Well, wah.  Get off your dead ass and publish the books yourself."  "Books aren't selling?  Well, you turd, you haven't done anything to make that happen, now have you?" "Feeling fat?  Put down the damn bowl of ice cream and go for a fucking walk, ya loser."  That sort of thing.

Yeah, I could be nicer about it, but nicer doesn't work for me.  (Of course, if anyone but me talked to me like that, I'd kick 'em in the jewels.)  I can be nicer to myself after I get shit done.

If all you ever hear is that you're awesome, how do you know when you're not?  Maybe we need a little 'you suck' every once in a while to kick ourselves in the ass.  :shrug:

I don't mean in a 'ruin your self esteem' way.  Pointing out the negatives here and there shouldn't overwhelm the positives.  It isn't all gloom and doom.  I'm a good person.  I get stuff done.  I like me.

But it isn't all rainbows and lollipops either.  As I said on OTB, I'm weak and fainthearted sometimes.  If I don't point out the flaw, I won't fix it.  Shine a big ol' light on it so it can't hide, and then kick its lily-white ass.

So, yeah, you should be kind to yourself, but you should also kick your own ass when it needs it.  

Just pondering.

*When I yell at myself, I use my maiden name.

Thursday This n That

Ugh.  I slept late again.  Of course, late for me is after 6am.  But it throws off my morning, hence this post getting written after 7:30.  And posted after 8.  Derp.

I hit the Wallyworld yesterday.  Actually, I went down to get feed for the deer, but since I was in town, I figured it would be good to go to the store, too.  Meh.  Anyway, as I was walking from my car to the store, I heard someone shout 'Hey, where's your mask?  Put your mask on.'  It was in my hand so I held it up and waved it.  Then I noticed the person shouting was talking to a friend of his.  :shrug:  You never know.  I put the damned thing on before I got to the door, but I'll be damned if I'll walk out in the open air with the thing on.

Speaking of the 'rona, Missouri's governor and his wife tested positive.  I wish them both a speedy recovery.  Some people on FB were laughing about it, because he's been very 'anti-chaos crap', calling it Karma.  Assholes abound.  I expect both he and his wife will weather through it and come out the other side no worse for wear.  Sort of like Tom Hanks and his wife did.  

Yesterday was the anniversary of the release of George Strait's 'All My Exes Live in Texas'.  And now that song is stuck in my head.  You're welcome.  And sorry.

Having that song stuck in my head reminds me of the summer I spent hanging out at a country/western bar.  My brother and his wife were regulars and they took me there for my 21st birthday.  The rest of the summer just went along that route until I went back to college.  One of these days I should scan and post the photos of that summer, with my semi-mullet-esque hairstyle, drunk off my ass.  Unfortunately, I have a lot of 'drunk off my ass' photos from over the years.

Other than a couple sips of beer while I'm making bratwursts (and nine times out of ten, that was near-beer), I haven't had a drink since back in CO... Eight years?  For the life of me, I can't imagine why I ever drank.  

I feel the same way about football now.  For the life of me, I can't imagine why I was ever so into football.  Cold turkey now for... I think this is the third season I haven't watched.  Not even a sip or two.  ;o)

Oh, yeah, when I was at Wallyworld, I picked up a bag of Granny Smith apples.  Romanian Apple Cake, here I come!  You know, once I get off my butt and prep the apples.  ;o)

What's on your this n that today?

Rambling On

It occurs to me that I never wrote a post yesterday.  Derp.  And I'm not sure what to write about today.  Maybe if I ramble on, something will come to me.

I finally got to work on those edit notes last night.  Did one page worth of written notes, which amounted to 23 pages of the book.  Of course, I added a bunch of stuff in those 23 pages - like a brand new beginning - so it was more work than it sounds like.  I may have repeated myself a couple times, so that's something to watch for during the next edit phase.  Eight pages of notes left to go.  Blerg.

I committed a cardinal sin in book creation (maybe several) when I redid the beginning.  And I don't care.  It works for me.  We'll see if it works for the proofers.  

For the most part, I'm a rule-abiding type person, but for certain things, it rubs me the wrong way when I'm told I can't do something.  Part of me is all like 'oh, yeah? watch me.'  When I wrote my first book, I described the heroine by having her look at herself in a detached way on a TV monitor.  I was told by early readers that this was a no-no.  And my hackles rose.  I liked it, so I left it.  Maybe someday, that book will be published and all y'all can tell me whether it works.

I still love that book.  I contacted my editor once to see if she could help me make it publishable.  The amount she quoted me was understandable - it's an unwieldy behemoth - but totally not in the budget.  We'll see what happens in the future.

Looking back, I don't hate any of my older books.  They all need work, but I don't think any of them should be relegated to the trash heap.  They can all be fixed.  Some of them might not be as timely as they were when I wrote them, but the ideas are sound.  :shrug: 

Oh, I go through phases where I'm all like 'I hate this book', and I wonder whether everyone else will hate the book, too, but that's usually while I'm editing it.  Once I get through that, it's all good.  Okay, not ALL good.  Even after I publish, I wonder whether people will hate the books I love.  It's a thing.

Today, I hope to get at least another couple of notes input.  I love how this book turned out, even if I hate it a little.  ;o)

What about you?  Do you have a love/hate thing going on with your writing?  If you're not a writer, do you feel that way about your endeavors sometimes?  Do you have anything to ramble on about?

Sunday Update - Week 37

Hello again.  Thirty seven weeks into what seems like the worst year of the past 50.  Bleh.  This week wasn't so bad, I guess, just unproductive.  

No writing again.  No reading either.  I did get some editing done, but only 22%.  I'd like to get the rest of it done today, if at all possible, so I can start inputting edit notes this week.  This will, of course, mean setting my ass down and working.  :whipcrack:

I managed to get in 6 active days this week.  Mostly walking.  Added up, I walked roughly 6.8 miles last week.  One of my active days was fishing, which wasn't really active in a calorie burning sense, but it got me out of the house and off my butt.  

This week, I bought eggs when I didn't need eggs, so I took the opportunity to make lemon squares.  (They require a lot of eggs.)  So full of lemony goodness.  Yum.  Recipe below.

I'm up to 2.9mil in poker chips.  Not that it matters.  It's more the illusion of productivity than actual productivity.

The weather here has taken a turn for the cooler.  Yay.  Maybe now I can do stuff outside without sweating like a pig.  (Yes, I know, pigs don't sweat.  It's a phrase.  Go with it.)  The flower beds need to be weeded somethin' awful.

 Other than that, nothing really wowzers going on in my life.  What's been up in yours?

Recipe:

Lemon Squares

 

Crust:

2 cups flour

1 cup butter (softened)

½ cup powdered sugar 

 

Filling: 

4 eggs 

2 cups sugar 

1 t. baking powder 

5 T. lemon juice

1.      Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2.      Cream together butter and powdered sugar until thoroughly mixed.  Stir in flour until mixture is crumbly.  Press mixture into the bottom of a 9x13 cake pan.  Bake for 20 minutes.

3.      While crust is baking, beat together remaining ingredients until light and frothy.

4.      Remove pan from oven and, while still hot, pour filling onto crust. 

5.      Return pan to oven and bake for another 20-25 minutes or until filling is slightly browned.  (Do not overbake.)

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 9/19/20

Thanks for stopping by and I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I didn't read anything or pick up anything new to read this week.  And I haven't started reading anything either.  Kind of a blah reading week here at the ranch.

Here's hoping next week is better.

How was your reading week?

Thursday This n That

Well, Blogger has finally forced me to use their new thingie.  What a pain in the ass.  Nothing is how I'm used to it being.  Woohoo.  So worth all the time and money they put into it.  Not.  Change for the sole sake of change is never a good idea.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it.  Or in this case, if it ain't broke, don't break it so you can claim to have fixed it.  (I'm looking at you, too, Facebook.)

I've been using Blogger in its original format for 14 freakin' years.  Previously, you needed to put in spaces between paragraphs and now you don't, so I'm sitting here hitting my ENTER and then having to go back and delete the now extra space.  GAH.  Yeah, in the scheme of things, it's not that big a deal, but right now, any change is compounded to be extra irritating.  

Anyway...

I made lemon squares yesterday.  So full of lemony goodness.  I'll post the recipe Sunday maybe.  

Last night, I heard from Owl.  She's fine up there - school's going well, she's got herself a job.  Right after I got off the phone with her, I read a news story about a police shooting and standoff in Michigan and when I went to see where the particular township in question was - cuz that's what I do - it was, oh... about a mile from her campus.  Back amongst the nutcases, she is.  Blerg. 

Don't get me started on people shooting police officers.  Seriously.  Don't.

I've been having trouble getting to sleep lately.  Oh, once I'm asleep, I seem to do fine, but actually getting there is a pain in the ass.  My stupid brain just won't shut the hell up.  As such, I've been sleeping in lately, which throws my whole morning off.  Thus, it's after 7 and I'm just now getting my post for today written.

Day before yesterday, I went fishing for the first time in about two months.  It was nice to be out at the lake again, even if I only caught one little pumpkinseed.  

Okay, enough of this.  Blogger has managed to make blogging an unpleasant chore this morning.  Like blogging wasn't already in the throes of dying anyway, they had to squirt oil all over the ramp into the grave.

What's up with you?

One additional note.  Guess what happens when you click the PUBLISH button?  A message flashes up that you are about to publish your post and asks if that's what you want to do.  Well, I wouldn't have clicked the damn PUBLISH button if I didn't want to post it, you raging twitweasels.  And they don't have a freakin' edit button anymore... I hate you, Blogger.  Seriously.

Homemade Pizza

I don't know if I ever shared my pizza crust recipe...

Pizza Crust

2 tsp activated yeast
1/4 cup warm water

2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup warm water

Additional flour as needed.

In a small bowl, stir the yeast together with the 1/4 cup warm water, set aside.  In a large bowl, sift the flour and the salt together.  Make a well in the center.  Add the yeast mixture.  Pour the 1/2 cup of warm water into the yeast bowl and swirl to get the last of the yeasty goodness.  Add that to the flour.  Add in the olive oil.  Using your fingers, slowly incorporate the wet into the dry, starting from the center and pulling the dry into the wet until it's all combined.  Once you get all the dough off your fingers, flour your hands and begin kneading - stopping frequently to re-flour your hands.  Knead for 7 minutes.  (I knead it right in the bowl.  Cuts down on the mess.)  Once the kneading is done and you have a nice ball of dough, oil the bowl and the ball of dough.  Cover the bowl with a towel and set it somewhere warm for an hour - or until the ball doubles in size.  Punch the risen dough ball in the center, so it collapses. Take the dough and slap it into the center of a greased* pizza pan.  Work it from the center outward, spinning the pan as you go, until it's the size of pizza you want.  I can get a 16" thin crust out of this recipe.  Sometimes, I cut the dough in half after punching, use half to make a smaller pizza and freeze the other half for next time.

I do not knead the dough after it rises.  It makes the crust tough and I don't like doing it.

Once you top it with your favorite stuffs, bake it at 475F for 15-20 minutes or until the edges of the crust start to brown.  (We like this crust browner, so I usually end up going the full 20.  Your mileage may vary.)

I've also brushed the outer crust with butter, which is nice sometimes.  I may try adding a seasoning to the dry part of this and see how that goes.  I'm thinking a little oregano.

Anyway, that's the crust I always make.  I've screwed with the recipe a couple times, but this is the one that works best. 

Yeah, making pizza crust can be a pain in the butt (and the wrists), but I think it's worth it.  I know Hubs appreciates it.  Pizza night here is cause for celebration and much woohoo'ing. 

Have you ever made your own pizza crust?

*I use non-stick cooking spray.

Sunday Update - Week 36

Not sure where the week went.  It's Sunday morning somehow or other.  Tada. 

I didn't get any new words down last week.  And I'm only up to 50% done with this edit round on CU.  And I only finished part of one book before I DNF'd it.  I really need to get my head out of my lower orifice. 

I managed 4 out of 7 days of activity.  Walking, cleaning, and the big grocery trip.  If I didn't burn calories doing that shopping I'd be super surprised.  Uff.  Weight: 177.2

In the baking arena, I made cake early in the week and granola bars yesterday.  The cake was a chocolate oil cake with vanilla frosting.  The frosting turned out way too sweet, but it works well with chocolate ice cream.  Next time, I'm doing it with peanut butter frosting.  Or maybe strawberry.

For the pay-job, I got that behemoth project completed and the boss is happy. 

On a side note, this seemed to be the week when everyone wanted to change stuff on me.  Wallyworld is moving shelves around so it's a freakin' maze of confusion in there.  Facebook keeps trying to force me to use their new interface, which totally sucks.  And Blogger is trying to get me to shift to their new interface, too, which also totally sucks.  Now is not the time to be changing shit around, folks.  Life is chaotic enough.

To remedy the chaos at least for short periods of time, I've been watching old TV shows.  I discovered Hazel on a channel called FETV (Family Entertainment Television).  I'd never seen it before, but it's nice.  I've also been watching old episodes of Perry Mason.  Love me some Perry Mason.  (Both to read and to watch.)

Hey, maybe I can count watching Perry Mason as research for my book.  ;o)

What was your last week like? 

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 9/12/20

It was another lackluster week in reading for me. 

I did pick up one new ebook - a romance by an author I've enjoyed before.  I also still have an urban fantasy and a cozy mystery left to read on my Kindle.  And scads of hardcopies to read, but nothing is blowing my skirt up.

Books Read:

No books finished this week.

DNFs:

9/6/20 - Hell if I know what genre that was.  I picked up a popular hard-boiled crime author, one of his paperbacks I've owned for years that I hadn't gotten around to, and it was so far off anything I'd read of his before, I can't even tell what it was supposed to be.  I tried to keep reading, but bleh. 

Currently reading... I don't have anything open right now.  Right now, all my reading gumption is focused on reading my own book, looking for stuff that needs changing.  Maybe I'll pick up a non-fiction and see if that breaks the cycle.

What was your reading week like last week?

Thursday This n That

Well, yesterday didn't go as well as planned, but I did mention I was going to Wallyworld, so it shouldn't be surprising.  Shopping is tiring, more so when you have to breath through a mask.  Trying to brain afterwards was not happening.  Better luck today. 

I had planned to not get as much stuff as last time, and while that was a little bit true, I think I'm still stuck in hoarder mode, so I ended up with a full cart again.  At least it wasn't two carts like a couple of those months there.

The bird picture of the day is a female common merganser with two babies on her back.  That one makes me happy.

In all this, you have to work to find something that makes you happy.  It's imperative.  Personally, I need to go fishing.  Maybe today. 

Is it just me or do certain phrases always bring a song to mind?  Like 'maybe today' - it always puts the song Jumper in my head.  "Maybe today, you could put the past away."

Gah, I need to do the dishes.  I usually leave them until the morning.  It's a thing.  But this morning, I am so totally not in the mood.  Unfortunately, I am also not in the mood to look at them every time I go into the kitchen, so I'll suck it up and do them after Hubs gets out of the shower.

Damn, the shower just shut off.  Maybe after one more cup of coffee and another cigarette.  ;o)

We have a doe that has a large lump along the left side of her jaw.  Like an abscess, but it's been there about a year now.  She doesn't seem to have a problem with it.  She eats and drinks fine.  Her coat is glossy and she's a good weight.  She's raising two healthy twin fawns.  She just has this weird lumpy jaw.  So, we call her Lumpy Jaw or Lumpy for short.  Yeah, not original, but it works for identification.  Every morning, she shows up with the kids and they get first dibs on the corn before the rest of the herd shows up.  =o)

I saw a post on FB this morning about how a 7-year-old boy and his siblings had a lemonade stand and raised money for a young gal who makes teddy bears for the children of fallen police officers - Blue Line Bears.  It was a happy amongst so much bullshit. 

Find the happy, my friends.  It's out there.

What on your this n that today?  What's your happy today?

Getting Back on Track

I totally meant to post yesterday, really I did.  But I still needed to finish that spreadsheet thingy, so I jumped on it as soon as the coffee kicked in and everything else got shoved to the side - blogging, writing, editing, walking...  (Not bitching here.  It needed to be done, so I did it.  Just explaining.)

Well, the thingy is done.  Yay!  Which means I should be able to get back on track today.  I even got some editing done last night.  Woohoo.

You may have noticed I took down the counter thing for SeeMeWriMo.  It was depressing me because I haven't done as well this month as I did last month.  And the thought of inputting all those zeroes...  Well, it's gone.  I'll keep you updated through my Sunday Update posts. 

Right now, this round of edits for Cinder Ugly - wherein I read the book on my Kindle and make notes - is at 37%.  The mystery story is sitting at 7862 words.  I hope to get both of those numbers up this week. 

But first, today is shopping day.  That'll eat up a couple hours and by the time I get home and get the stuff put away, all I'll want to do is nap.

And I still have to shake off the need to open the spreadsheets and pour over them.  Sometimes when I focus on something had enough and long enough, I can't shake the feeling I need to work on it even when it's done.  (Sort of like writing/editing/publishing my books.)

I know, excuses, excuses.  It's all part of keeping my expectations low so I don't disappoint myself.  No pressure here in the SeMeWriMo.  (Even if you aren't seeing me write much.)

Anyway, that's where I'm at. 

How are you doing so far this month?

Labor Day? Oh, I'm Laborin', All Right.

It's Monday, but it isn't.  It's like Sunday Part Two, The Revenge of Sunday.  These Monday holidays wreck me.  Every damn time. 

So I spent a large hunk of the weekend working on a spreadsheet thing, and when I wasn't actually working on it, I was thinking about it.  Then I'd get an idea and head back here to the keyboard.  It's pushing me to give up, but I will not be defeated. 

The problem is I have two sets of data from two different entities I have to try and match up.  Well, actually, it's three sets of data because one of the entities sent it in one format and then sent additional data in a different format.  And I'm trying to make it all match.  It's hard to explain without getting into details I can't make public.  Suffice it to say, it's infinitely harder than it would be if all this was consistent. 

And I have to take it all and put it into a legible format to present to the boss.  Which I was trying to have to him by Monday, but Monday isn't Monday this week.  So I have an extra day to try and make it happen.  It still isn't looking good, but I'll give it the ol' college try.  (Cuz the new college try is half-assed, if you ask me.)

So, here I am, smoking too much with grainy eyes, getting ready to dive back in.  Labor Day?  Oh, I'm laborin', all right. 

What are you up to today?

Sunday Update - Week 35

Well, hell, it's Sunday again, isn't it?  I totally meant to work on this post yesterday and then didn't, but then again, I was deep in spreadsheet stuff and most of yesterday is a blur.  Most of the week is a blur right now, too, so let's see if I can rebuild what happened.  (Thank goodness for the log I keep.)

On the writing front, I finished AuGoWriMo inauspiciously, and started SeeMeWriMo with a bit of a whimper.  But I'm still in the game.  I wrote 24761 words in August but none of that in the last days.  I've written 2735 words so far this month.  And I've done 28% of this round of edits on CU.  I took yesterday off because spreadsheet stuff.

Not a lot of reading got done last week.  I can't decide what I want to read right now.  I tried that du Maurier, but meh.  I'll find something.  I did download what promises to be a fun cozy mystery, but right now, my Kindle is occupied with edits.

As for exercise and activity, I did four days out of seven.  All walking.  I made my best time ever going around the loop - 1 mile of hilly terrain in 22 minutes.  (I can do 1.6 miles in 29 minutes, but that's on my mostly flat, hard target walk.)  I kept the same pace I usually do, but I didn't have to stop on the uphills.  Go me.  Weight: 178.2.  That pound I lost to stress mostly came right back.  :shrug:

No baking this week, but I'm feeling a serious need for cake.  Maybe today.

No fishing either, but they're predicting a cool down soon, so there's hope.  I definitely wouldn't be fishing this weekend anyway.  Labor Day.  :shudder:  It's all peopley out there right now. 

I'm up to 2.4 million in play money at the poker site.  Would that it were real.  And I made a straight flush yesterday.  It's all luck of the draw, but still.  The skill comes in trying to extract as much money as possible from your opponents with the hand you have.  (And trying to avoid losing as much money as possible along the way.)

Like I said, I spent a lot of time yesterday on spreadsheet stuff.  Loads of typing stuff in and comparing stuff to make sure the numbers are right.  More of that today so I can finish this project and put it behind me.  At least the typing part is done.  Whew.

Well, it's time to start the day here.  What went in on your worlds last week?

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 9/5/20

Hello again.  It's early Saturday morning here because I forgot to set this post up last night.  I definitely need coffee.

Anyway, I picked up one new book this past week - a cozy mystery.  I still have that one UF left from early August, too.  Other than that, nada.  Which is okay because I'm using my Kindle for editing right now. 

Speaking of which, I'm editing AND writing now, so the reading is getting shunted aside.  Sorry about that.  Really I am, but it's got to be done.

Books read:

61) Sphere by Michael Crichton (8/29/20) - Technothriller - 4 stars.  Neither new to me nor underappreciated.  Paid 25c at a thrift store.
No Review.  What can I possibly add to Crichton's review base that will affect a reader one way or the other?  And he's gone, so helping his book sales is moot.  (Probably not to his heirs, but they're rolling in it anyway.)  All I can say is that it was thrilling... but ultimately? Weird. 

DNFs:

9/1/20 - literature.  The Flight of the Falcon by Daphne du Maurier.  I've had this one in my collection for years, and I want to say I read it when I was a teen, but I don't remember any of it and it totally was not blowing my skirt up.  I'll probably keep it because it's part of the collection.  

Currently reading...  I haven't picked up anything to read since that DNF.  

What did you read last week?  Anything good? 

A More Civil Place

My tolerance level for other people was bad before, but this year it's hit all time lows.  So, in order to maintain some level of sanity and not find myself constantly on edge, I've been culling the herd.  In real life, I don't have much to cull.  I don't know that many people and the ones I have contact with are in my life for a reason.  Usually, the reason is that I like those people.  My online life is a whole other story.  Sometimes I find myself faced with comments or posts, and wondering 'who the hell are these people?'  Which is usually followed by 'why are they even here?'  Which makes culling them exceptionally easy. 

Unfollow. 

Sometimes that isn't enough, though.  Then I whip out the Unfriend.  And more often than not, Unfriend is followed by Block. 

I keep seeing this meme thing making the rounds on FB.  It goes along the lines of "I'm an adult, so I can still have friends I don't agree with'.  :shrug:  I prefer the 'I'm an adult, and I choose not to be friends with specific individuals for whatever reasons without guilt or shame'.  Or even "I'm an adult, so I can be civil to people who don't share my basic philosophies.  But I don't call everyone my friend."


I'm not even sure how to be friends with people whose ideas of life and philosophy are antithetical to my own.  Civil.  Cordial.  Friendly, even.  But actual friends?  Umm... nope.

If I call you 'friend', it's because I can talk to you without worrying whether I'm going to offend you or you're going to piss me off.  If I can't feel that way around you, how could you ever be my friend?  Friendship isn't about having to walk on eggshells or sit on pins and needles just to be around someone. 

I know that I could walk into my best in-person friend's office right now and tell her anything without fear of censure or repercussions.  And I could shoot an email off to my best online friends about anything and feel the same way. 

To me, that's friendship.  The rest is just acquaintance-ship.  I'll be nice.  Until it's time to not be nice.  And even then, I won't be rude, I'll just let you go on about your life without me in it.  Buh-bye. 

I don't do conflict.  I won't confront anyone about anything.  I'll just walk away.  Seems to me if more people took that stance, the world would be a more civil place.  And maybe that's what we need right now.

Jus' sayin'.

Thursday This n That

Yesterday, the Owl woke me up from my nap.  Not really, because she's like a thousand miles away from here now, but I was sleeping and I must've dreamed she was out in the living room talking to Hubs, which woke me up.  Ah, the things our brains do. 

Looking for something different to listen to, I loaded my Paul Simon Graceland CD.  Now it's stuck in my head.  On random.  And repeat. 

Years ago, on the MDA Labor Day Telethon, Tony Orlando sang 'Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes' from that album.  I'll never forget it because he screwed up the words.  Instead of 'slipped into her pocket with her car keys' he said 'slipped into her pocket and took her car keys'.  ROFL  Now every time I hear that song, I think of that.  My brain works in mysterious ways.

Does anyone even remember spending the whole of Labor Day watching the telethon?  All that talent and music and fun pulling for a cause.  Sometimes Dad would take us to where the fireman were filling their boots with donations so we could throw some change in the boot.  Does anyone do that anymore?  Do they even have a telethon?  I don't want to think about what it's turned into/  The last time I watched, it was lame and talentless and boring as hell.  I miss Jerry Lewis.

Anyway...

The fawns are losing their spots.  :sadface:  The buck fawns will start to get antler buds soon, but right now, they all look like little does.  They're also starting to show their independence and moving away from their moms.  Good thing, too, because they have to be on their own before the rut comes.  It seems early for losing the spots, but what do I know. Does this mean an early winter?  Time will tell.

I found another itty-bitty, teeny-tiny snake on my walk the other day.  I never did figure out what kind it was.  Black head, tan/taupe body.  Definitely non-venomous because the head was in line with the body.  Might've been a northern red-bellied snake, but since I didn't turn it over, I'll never know.  I just picked it up by the tail and moved it out of the road.  It was totally chill. 

Okay, that's enough out of me today.  What's up with you?

Tuesday Yatters

It's Tuesday.  I only say that because sometimes I need a reminder of what day it is.  Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday.

The bird on my calendar today is the Northern Saw-whet Owl.  So cute.

My mouse is dying.  Right now, I'm at the point where it's still more of a pain in the ass to change the mouse than the mouse is itself.  When the scales tip*, I'll chuck this one for the new one I have in the storage closet.  Always have a backup mouse.  Trust me on that one.  Lucky for me, my new computer came with a new mouse and a new keyboard.  Yay.

I haven't been writing.  Well, today's the day to kick myself in the ass again.  September Get Off Your Ass and Write?  Silver came up with something, but I don't remember what it was and I'm too lazy to go search her blog.  SeeMeWriMo, maybe?  See Me Write More? Maybe she'll drop by later and tell me.

Also, I need to edit Cinder Ugly.  I did start that on Saturday.  But I didn't note it anywhere but in my activity log.

Ah, the activity log.  It's actually called the 2020 Weight Activity Log.  I started it at the beginning of the year to keep track of my weight and exercise.  And then I added columns for writing and editing, so everything I do is all in one place.  Now it's easy to scroll up and down and see where I'm at.  Kicks me in the ass to actually do stuff, because days with nothing on them are just sad.

Speaking of spreadsheets, sales have been so sucky that I haven't even worked on the September stuff for those.  =o\

What to do for dinner... chicken or fish...  We had hotdogs last night and fish the night before.  Chicken, it is.

I'm really craving a big fat juicy cheeseburger, but I only have enough for one more burger meal before the next Wallyworld trip, which'll be next week.  Burgers now or burgers later?  Oh, the quandaries.

The wind blew so hard here the other day that it took a sheet of roofing stuff (white stuff, says Lowes... not sure what it's called) off the neighbor's new build and hung it from a tree.  There's probably 20-30 feet of it hanging up there.  It's quite a sight.

Okay, I've yattered at you enough for now.  What's up in your worlds?  Yatter away.

*Just after I posted this, the scales tipped and I got out the new mouse.  It's smaller and louder with the clicking and scrolling, but it'll do.