Thursday This n That

Yesterday, I heard about a recent 'news' program where a couple of idiots were arguing that egg prices are, in fact, still up.  Not sure what planet they live on, or where they're buying their eggs, but egg prices here are about half what they were just a couple months ago.  I went from paying over $5 a dozen to $2-something last week.  I call that winning.  Now, if we can just get meat prices down, my budget will be happy.

Scammers suck.  A guy in one of my FB groups was contacted and offered the chance to write two articles for publication.  He wrote them, they paid him, he deposited the check.  Shortly after, they said they wanted half their money back for some hyped up reason.  Then the check bounced.  Thankfully, he hadn't spent any of it.  Writer Beware posted about another one where authors are getting contacted via email telling them that their book is being considered for a movie.  I've gotten a couple of these already (for Unequal), but mere minutes after I read the article, I got another one (Project Hermes).  A movie?!  My lil ol' book?  Yeah, pull the other leg, it's shorter.

I think I found the way around FB and their stupid 'anti-spammer' rules.  Post to one group every ten-fifteen minutes.  It's a PITA, but if it works, then I'll do it.  I find this whole thing particularly funny in that this morning alone I saw a couple people actually spamming these book marketing groups, but I'm the one that gets tagged.  Derp.  Those people are probably paying FB for the privilege... a thing I refuse to do.  

Have you ever seen the movie CAVEMAN?  It's from the '80s and it stars Ringo Starr.  (Yes, THAT Ringo Starr.)  It also has a really young Dennis Quaid and Shelley Long.  I remember my sister taking me to the movies to see that.  Well, I found it on Roku and watched it yesterday.  It's silly and stupid and a little crass.  But it was AWESOME!  

My tiny tomato is a little less tiny, but it's still the only tomato.  

I saw a news story yesterday about all these kids in TX setting up lemonade stands and using the proceeds to help flood victims.  

And that's enough out of me.  What's on your this n that list today?

Celebrating the Little Things

I'm so excited.  I have one tiny tomato.  It's about the size of a Jelly Belly, but it's there.  Most of the other plants have buds, so maybe the one tiny tomato will have friends soon.

Last night, while I was out back smoking, I saw a ton of fireflies.  I love fireflies and would much rather watch those than fireworks.  Anyway... one in particular was stationary.  It just sat in a cedar tree occasionally lighting up.  For some reason, seeing it made me happy.  

I spelled stationary right.

Sunday, I made a layer cake from scratch.  It's pretty dense, but it's super moist and yummy, so yay.

Someone bought a copy of FERTILE GROUND yesterday.

I lost a pound.

My WIP is up to 15488 words.

Several of my redbud trees are thriving.  They're about 6-8 inches tall and getting new leaves.

We watched a Sherlock Holmes movie from 1942 that we'd never seen before.  It was pretty good.  (Naturally. Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce are almost a guaranteed good watch.)

Those are my little things right now.  Sometimes I have to look for them, sometimes they pop right up, but they're always there.  What little things do you have to celebrate today?

Marketing Monday - Dying Embers

 The time has rolled around again to whip out the first book and set it free... or rather set it FOR free.  

(Hey! Inserting a pic works this morning!  Yay!)

Now through Friday, get DYING EMBERS absolutely free.  (Always free with Kindle Unlimited.)  Get your copy of this gripping suspense novel today!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TEQK7OU

Revenge is better hot.

Sunday Update - '25 Week 28

 :blink blink:  I just woke up and the coffee hasn't kicked in yet, so bear with me.

I did some writing.  Not nearly as much as I would've hoped, but life's like that sometimes.  I only wrote three days, but I managed to put out 4054 words.  The book is up to 14648 words.  Not NaNo #s, but better than nothing, right?

This week, I marketed Sleeping Ugly.  FB is still hamstringing me, so I get like 3-5 posts up and it tells me they're not letting me post anymore for a while to prevent spamming.  Turds.  I'm following all the rules of the groups I belong to - like only posting one book and only once every 24 hours - but I'm the spammer.  Gah.  So, while I got posts out, they weren't all the groups every day, which meant I only moved 57 books instead of my former amounts of 120-150 a week.  I did manage to sell a couple others, too, so not a total waste of time.  It's just disappointing.

Reading was okay.  I finished one freestanding book and then one of the books in that Poirot omnibus.  :shrug:

Nothing baked.  It's too hot and I'm unmotivated.

On the activity front, I got off my butt 4 days this week.  Two walks, some gardening, and some housework.  I haven't weighed myself.  Again... too hot to be motivated.

In gardening news, the tomatoes all either have flowers or buds for future flowers.  Last night we got heavy rain and when I looked out this morning, most of the plants look depressed.  I'll need to go out today and shore them up with extra slats and yarn.  I hope none of them are actually broken.  That'd suck.  The trees all look fine.  I did manage to repot some of them.  I need more dirt and more bigger pots to really do a good job.  What the bigger trees really need is to go in the ground, but I'm trying to wait until fall to give them a good shot of living through the deer.  After Elmer the Elm's horrific death, I'm hoping young trees without leaves will get ignored and by spring they'll just be part of the landscape and therefore uninteresting.

Ah, Roku... how I love thee.  Yes, I have spent way too much time this week vegging in front of the tube.  I'm watching Midsomer Murders, Murdoch Mysteries, Doc Martin, Yorkshire Vet, Great British Baking Show, and Hometown from the beginnings.  Not binging, just watching an episode each like once a day or once/twice a week.  There are a lot of episodes of all those, so yay.  I'm also watching Emergency!, Red Green, Dr. G, Mayday: Air Disasters, Forensic Files, and MST3K when I feel like it. When we get done, or we get bored, I'll subscribe to BritBox.  I'm looking forward to watching all the episodes of Inspector Morse and Poirot (naturally, Poirot... lol).  

Okay, I think that's about it for me this week.  How are things in your world?

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 7/12/25

 Not the best reading week I've ever had, but not the worst either, so let's get right to it.

No new books.  I still have 6 unread ebooks - three urban fantasy, two thrillers, and a YA action/adventure.  And of course, I have scads of unread hardcopies in case of emergency. ;o)

Books Read: 

27) Space Academy Dropouts by Phipps & Suttkus (7/6/25) - SF humor*# - 5 stars. New to me and underappreciated at the time of download.  Free off the Book Barbarian newsletter.
Review: "This is a pretty neat story, with loads of fun characters. I really enjoyed reading it."

No DNFs.

Currently reading... the next story in that Poirot omnibus.  I'm on The ABC Murders.  I'll probably finish it today and then read another ebook.  The omnibus has two more stories after this.  Unfortunately, I didn't notice when I bought it that Death on the Nile has damage to the last third or so of the story - like the top quarter of all the pages was ripped out.  I won't be able to read that.  Good thing I've already read that story in other formats, and I've seen the movies.  Still, damaged books make me sad.  =o(

Okay, your turn.  What's been on your reading plate this week?

2025 Books Read

Here we are with my 2025 Books Read post.  I started it a little later than usual this year because it took me a while to finish that first book.  

If you haven't been following along all these years, here's how this post goes.  The books I read are in reverse order - newest first.  * means ebook.  # means 'new to me and underappreciated'.  If there's a number at the end, it's where the book's at in a series.  The links go to Goodreads where I may or may not have written a review.  (Check back on Saturdays for my weekly Reading Wrap-up to see reviews.)

I set my goal for this year's reading at 70.  We'll see how that goes.

Okay, with that out of the way, let's begin...

27) Space Academy Dropouts by Phipps & Suttkus (7/6/25) - SF humor*#

26) Sweet Harmony by Noel Bailey (6/25/25) - magical romance*#

25) The Danger by Dick Francis (6/15/25) - thriller

0) Novella by Name Withheld (6/9/25) - SF*

24) The Face in the Water by Kathleen Pennell (6/8/25) - mystery*#

23) Blade Runner (or Do Androids Dream Electric Sheep) by Philip K Dick (6/5/25) - dystopian

22) You Only Live Twice by Ian Fleming (5/29/25) - action/hard-boiled crime

21) On Her Majesty's Secret Service by Ian Fleming (5/24/25) - action/hard-boiled crime

20) The Singing Stones by Phyllis A. Whitney (5/17/25) - romantic suspense

19) Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie (5/15/25) - mystery

18) Bill and the Last Cup of Coffee by Lance Lassen (5/8/25) - dystopian action/humor* (I read the ebook, but this is the link to the paperback. In the time between now and when I downloaded the book, the ebook page has been removed and the paperback was set to 'out of print'. :sadface:)

17) Goldfinger by Ian Fleming (5/5/25) - action/hard boiled crime

16) In Plain Sight by Dan Willis (4/27/25) - magical hard-boiled crime*

15) Dr. No by Ian Fleming (4/26/25) - action/hard boiled crime

14) Scarlet by Marissa Meyer (4/20/25) - dystopian

13) Diamonds are Forever by Ian Fleming (4/16/25) - action/hard boiled crime

12) Islands in the Sky by Arthur C. Clarke (4/11/25) -  science fiction

11) Murder by the Script by Lisa Pevey (4/8/25) - cozy mystery*

10) Festive Fonts and Fowl Murder by Lisa Pevey (4/7/25) - cozy mystery*

9) The Modigliani Scandal by Ken Follett (4/6/25) - suspense

8) A Murder in Cursive by Lisa Pevey (4/3/25) - cozy mystery*

7) The Ebony Swan by Phyllis Whitney (4/1/25) - romantic suspense

6) The Riddle-Master of Hed by Patricia McKillip (3/29/25) - fantasy

5) Murder by the Letter by Lisa Pevey (3/27/25) - cozy mystery*

4) Some Buried Caesar by Rex Stout (3/26/25) - noir crime

3) Moonstruck: Retribution by Silver James (3/20/25) - paranormal romantic suspense*

2) President Fu Manchu by Sax Rohmer (3/14/25) - noir crime

1) Child Star by Shirley Temple Black (1/8/25) - autobiography

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy this reading journey with me.

A Cautionary Tale

Saw this just now in one of my author groups.  It's a cautionary tale...

If you use Find and Replace, do not do Replace All.  I did it once years ago to change a character's name.  I think it was Tom and I changed it to something like Bob, so tomorrow became boborrow and tomato became bobato.  Cusbobers? Botbob? Ugh.  It was frustrating and irritating, and kind of hilarious in retrospect.  

Last week, I saw a similar story - only this time it was a reader saying the book they were reading had all sorts of weird errors and after thinking about it for a time, they realized that the author had Replaced all instances of 'ass' with 'arse' (probably to make it more British sounding).  Working on an arseignment?  Going to an arseignation?  Went fishing and caught a big barse?

In the above case, though, I'm not sure what 'too late' would be for a book. Post publication and after a slew of bad reviews perhaps?  Ugh.

If you're silly enough to make this mistake, the fix isn't that hard.  Once you realize you've replaced all your Toms with Bobs, do another Find and Replace, finding Bob this time and going through each separate instance... OR just replace all Bobs with Toms again, and THEN do another search for Tom replacing it with what you meant to replace it with in the first place - each instance separately.  Which is what you should've done the first time, but you got lazy and paid the price.

Sometimes, doing the work the right way, no matter what kind of boring slog it is, actually saves time in the long run.

If you've done it and didn't do that final run-through before you loaded it for publication, only to have people read it and leave bad reviews, you're kinda screwed.  Always check, recheck, and double-check before you hit Publish.  

Thursday This n That

Ding dong the witch is dead... to me, at least.  Yesterday, I had the great honor of killing my account with Brightspeed.  Gah, they suck so bad.  Even the last phone contact with them sucked.  The first person I talked to 'Shannon', who was barely understandable as it was, hung up on me accidentally.  I called back and got 'Sergio'.  He was actually harder to understand, but he got the job done and confirmed my account was cancelled effective 7/9.  Then I asked about the 'final bill' and he said it was like $58+, and I was all like 'whoa whoa whoa, wait a second there'.  I explained how we haven't had phone service for WEEKS and that any bill they sent wasn't going to get paid - very nicely, of course - then I said 'please make that go away for me, Sergio' and he did.  $0 bill and the service is dead.  Long live 1-VoiP.  Of course, I don't trust Brightspeed, so I fully expect to see a bill that they will want me to pay, but I have Sergio's confirmation number and a willingness to call and go all screamin' chicken on them.

By the way, it's really nice to pick up the phone and hear a freakin' dial tone for a change.

I also killed DirectTV.  That dude was also hard to understand, but only because he had his mic too close to his mouth and he was speaking too fast.  He tried really hard to get me to stay.  He offered me a discount.  He offered me a giftcard, too.  I finally ended up telling him he couldn't give me any offer that would be less than FREE.  $0 bill there, too, but no refund (per their Terms of Service according to the dude).  I just still have service through the 18th.  (I already took all the stuff down and put it in the spare room, so nah.)  And since my equipment was so old, they didn't want it back.  Yay.

This new Blogger thing where they want to insert links into my blog posts because their AI told them I should is really irritating.  It keeps flashing a dialogue box at me that I have to dismiss.  If I want links in my posts, I'll put them there tyvm.

I found a new-to-me show on Roku - Yorkshire Vet.  It combines two of my loves - Dr. Pol and All Creatures Great and Small.  And I have access to all the episodes, so I can just sit down and watch one when I feel like it.  For free.  Woot!

The bird of the day is actually a two-fer... Rosy-faced Lovebirds.  I'm not a fan of parrots, per se, but these are okay.  Little cuties.  Aww.

It looks like Lumpy lost her fawn.  We hadn't seen it in a while, and a couple of days ago, I noticed that her milk bag is gone.  It wasn't too unexpected.  Lumpy's getting pretty old and that baby was really small - like premie looking.  Still a sad thing.  On a happier note, we have Sissy and her baby (which would be Lumpy's grandbaby) both doing well and we have another doe with twins who's been visiting.

One of my tomato plants has two flowers blooming! I helped the pollination of them along, so fingers crossed.  Most of the other tomato plants have buds, so they should be blooming soon.  Then we'll get some real pollination action going on.  Woot.

Okay, that's probably more than enough out of me.  Have a great day!

A Morning Rant

When I got close to finishing the first draft of my first novel, I began doing research on everything I would need to do to get it published.  I bought the big book of agents.  I made lists and notes and spreadsheets.  I studied how to write query letters.  I scoured the web for information.  I joined a couple of writers' groups online.  

I did the same thing when I decided to stop looking for an agent.  I went through the process of researching publishers who might accept unagented manuscripts and how to contact them.  When that didn't work, I went through the process of researching everything on how to self-publish... before I made a single step down the path.  

This morning, I saw a gal bitching because she self-published through Amazon in May and made some sales, but it's already July and she hadn't seen any money yet.  A boatload of people told her what is already obvious to anyone who's done like 2 seconds of research - Amazon pays at 60 days from the end of the month that your sales occurred in.  So, May sales get paid at the END of July. 

Even then, she questioned the truth of the answers those people gave her.  She was sure Amazon was out to screw her.  :eyeroll:  And some dude in comments egged her on because Amazon supposedly closed his account within 30 days of him publishing his book, but they didn't take it down and they're collecting all his monies.  Obviously, Amazon is ebil.  

Okay, so Amazon isn't perfect.  Generally, though, if you do your research and you follow the rules, it's easy to navigate the river.  I'm guessing dude didn't follow the rules.  

I often see people complaining about things that are so easy to figure out with a little effort.  But effort is a four-letter word for some people, even when it's little and not really effort.  Here... I'll help... Go to your freakin' search engine, type in what you're looking for, scroll through the answers it spits out.  Voila.  And it helps to not just read the first answer.  Read several until you find the right answer and understand it thoroughly.  

Okay, so that is effort for some people, I guess.  Researching shit ought to be fun because like, you know, we're WRITERS.  :shrug:  But no, they'd rather bitch in a Facebook group.  It probably took more time for the bitching than they would've expended on the research, but hey...

Anyway, long story short... I blocked the chick.  And the dude.  I don't need that kind of negativity and willful ignorance in my life.  The moral of the story?  Don't run around social media screaming at people to chew your food for you and then whine when you choke.

Starlink, VoiP, and Roku... WOOT

Monday, I posted this on Facebook, but it's worth repeating here: "My Roku arrived and it's all hooked up.  This may have been the worst idea I ever had.  It has Red Green and Mystery Science Theater 3000 and all the Doc Martin episodes I never got to see because I started watching late in the game.  :swoon:  Oh, man, this could be bad for my productivity."

Turns out it's only bad for my productivity if I let it be.  Last night, I told myself 'you're going to write today', so I left Hubs in the living room watching some show about people building homes in Alaska and sat my ass down.  I cranked out about a thousand words, had a cigarette, then sat down again.  I ended with 2098.  My hands are ouchy this morning, but it was worth it.

Anyway, I'm loving the Roku.  I spent part of yesterday watching The Great British Baking Show and it's spinoff Celebrity British Baking Show.  Then I watched Dr G. Medical Examiner and a little MST3K.  Later, like I said, Hubs found that Alaska show to enjoy while I wrote.  We decided to go slow on the Doc Martin episodes so we don't get burned out.  There are like 18 seasons of that (2004-2022), most of which we haven't seen.  We're reserving it for one night a week, probably Saturday or Sunday.

It hasn't slowed the internet down at all.  Say what you want about Elon Musk, at the start of the year, Starlink saved us from Brightspeed's slow, sometimes non-existent, internet, and now it's saving us from the BS crappy phone - thanks to 1-VoiP - and skyrocketing bills through DirectTV.  

I'm sure at some point we'll run through all the shows we know we like, but there are scads of shows we've never seen that we'll give a try to at that point.  

By the way, going back to Red Green and MST3K, I laughed myself silly watching both of those, but I'll have to do small doses of them, too.  Too much of a good thing causes burnout.  And my face hurts from smiling too much.  We should all have such horrors visited upon us.

So, anyway, if you're like me and dragging your feet to get some of this newer technology, give it a try.  If I can get good service out here in the middle of nowhere, you can probably do fine with it, too.  It does take a little startup scratch, but in the long run, you'll save money.  Our combined phone and internet bill was $147 a month with BS, double that with DTV - so around $300 A MONTH.  Now, $120 for Starlink, $24 for phone, and the Roku is free.  All that for less than our phone/internet alone.  So the initial outgo for $600 Starlink and the $34 for phone and the $57 for Roku will be recovered by the end of the year.  Woot.

(Private thanks to my sister for recommending Roku and my nephew for getting her onto it.  This shit rocks, man.)

Marketing Monday - Sleeping Ugly

Hello, and welcome to Marketing Monday with your host, B.E. Sanderson.  Today, we'll be marketing a most wonderfully snarky paranormal mystery... SLEEPING UGLY.

It's the story of a supermodel on the verge of greatness who, through no fault of her own*, gets cursed and every night at midnight, she turns butt ugly.  How can this possibly happen every night?  Well, that's the brilliance and the evilness of the curse.  She gets better looking throughout each day until she's her beautiful self again at around 11:59 p.m.  Then WHAM... ugly.  Which super sucks because she can't even pretend to be someone else or people will notice she's getting better looking throughout the day and throw her in some kind of laboratory as a study subject.  

*Well, maybe it's a little her fault.  She's kind of bitchy, foul-mouthed, and self-absorbed, and she did sleep with someone else's husband... But, he's estranged from his wife, so that totally doesn't count, right?

Anyway, now she's got to get this damn curse taken off and maybe along the way, she'll learn something about herself.  Even bitchy models can maybe get a second chance.  

Starting today and going through Friday, SLEEPING UGLY is totally free.  (It's also free with a KU subscription, but this is for everyone else.)  Pick up your copy of this snarky, fun, paranormal mystery today!  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GM24Q48

There's supposed to be a cool marketing graphic here, but Blogger is being a turd.  Just imagine one, okay?

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 27

 Okay, we're over halfway through 2025 and so far, I'm of the opinion that this is the best year we've had in a long long time.  Sure, things are still pretty shitty all over, but things are also looking up.  I'm feeling optimistic.  Which is weird for me.  Anyway, let's get into the past week...

I didn't write much, because I was distracted with other things.  Those distractions are over, so I'm feeling good about the week to come.  I did get over 2200 words down and I like where the story is going.  Yay.

I took the week off of marketing.  Guess what?  No sales.  Not a single one.  Not a single page read.  Crickets.  I need to figure out if I'm going to be marketing this week and what, or if I'm just going to let it slide again.  

I read some stuff, but I didn't finish anything.  

This week, I made a batch of blackberry muffins.  Yummers.  And a batch of chicken wet burritos.  Also yummers.  

On the activity front, I did walk three times for a total of 3.6 miles.  That puts me at 41 miles for the year.  Woot.  Weight: 171.4 - also woot.

The big news for the week... I got the VoiP set up.  (That's voice over internet protocol - which allows you to make regular phone calls on a regular phone using your internet, which for me is Starlink.)  There was a little niggle wherein the Starlink only has two ports for devices to plug into and I need three - my computer, Hubs' computer, and the VoiP device.  So I ordered up an ethernet splitter from Amazon and had it overnighted.  And it was defective. So, I went to Walmart yesterday and bought a better thing from a company I trust, and it works like a champ.  Yay.  Today or tomorrow, my regular phone number should be ported over from Brightspeed to 1-VoiP (our new provider out of Edmund, OK... love them) and then I can officially kick Brightspeed to the curb.  (OMG, they suck so bad.)  Next up, ditching DirectTV.  My Roku device is supposed to be here today through Walmart delivery.  Woot.  If it's everything everyone says it is, DerektTV can go away, too.  Woot.

Okay, I should probably wrap this up so I can get my walk in... and pick berries while I'm out there.  (Blackberries growing alongside the road... hence the muffins.)  Have a great day and tell me about what's going on in your life before you go.  =o)

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 7/5/25

Not the most exciting of reading weeks here.  Eh, it goes like that sometimes.

No new books.

Books Read: 

I didn't finish any books this week.  Well, not free-standing books.  I finished Murder on the Orient Express in that omnibus of Poirot stories, though.  It was awesome, as usual.

DNFs:

7/4/25 - free SF humor - OMG, this was so poorly written I just couldn't even.  It seemed like every single thing a writer can easily catch and fix during edits was missed by this person.  And that was only in the first few pages.  It really bummed me out because I was actually excited about the premise, which is why I downloaded it.  =o\

Currently reading... a different SF humor.  This one is good so far.  I'm over halfway through, so I hope it doesn't take a turn for the crappy.  

What was on your reading plate this week?

Happy Independence Day!

Happy Independence Day to all my American friends.  Actually, all my non-American friends should celebrate, too, because us being independent helps make the world a safer place.  And we're getting back to being the place we need to be... i.e. a shining example of liberty.  

Anyway, because I'm free to do whatever I want, I'm going to do exactly that today.  It'll probably be nothing, but that's okay, too.  

Oh, and here's an art pic I made of some kids on their way to watch the Independence Day parade where we used to live in CO.  I just loved the little red-headed trio, so I snapped a shot and then played with it until it looked like a painting.  It makes me happy.  Hopefully, it'll do the same for you...

 

Thursday This n That

 Alligator Alcatraz...  First off, I just saw some liberal chick whining quite incorrectly that it was a wildlife sanctuary and how dare we all celebrate it because it's cruel.  I also saw a cute cartoon of some alligators talking and one says 'did you hear we get to eat them if they escape?'  Which reminded me of this prison just outside Marquette, Michigan.  It's across the street from Lake Superior and it butts up to some of the nastiest, craggy woodlands you'd ever want to see.  Back when I was in college, it had the highest walkaway rate of any prison in Michigan.  But the escapees were rarely ever seen again.  You see, it was filled with criminals from places like Detroit and Flint.  City boys who probably had never taken a survival course in their lives.  The way I figure it, the missing criminals either went into the water and drown, or they went into the woods and died.  Win win, in my book.

Soon, I will be able to kick Brightspeed to the curb.  The VoiP is in place and working smashingly.  I called Mom on it yesterday.  Unfortunately, the Starlink router only has 2 ports, and we have 2 computers to plug in, so I needed a splitter.  It came and after some massaging, it's working, too.  The true test will be calling Mom through the splitter this morning.  Keep your fingers crossed.  I have a temp phone # until my regular # transfers over to the new service, so don't try to call me at this time.

Better internet... check.  Better phone... check.  Next up, replacing the satellite TV with something like Roku.  Woot.

Man, Wallyworld was a zoo yesterday.  Totally spasticness.  

What's with this new crap here on Blogger?  This morning it has a notice at the top - some crap about upgrading something - and it just offered to insert links into my post for me.  Why the hell would I want links inserted into my post?  Wouldn't a link take people away from READING my post?  Derp.  Makes no sense.

My tomatoes might almost be trying to make flowers.  Fingers crossed.

My black walnut tree got root rot and died.  I guess they aren't meant for growing in a pot.  Next time I have to transplant a volunteer walnut, I'll find a place in the woods for it.  =o(

I almost put in -o(... That would be a cyclops, I guess. Rawr.

Okay, that's about all I've got today.  Feel free to drop some this-n-that yourself before you wander off.  Have a great day!