Sunday Update - 2026 Week 20

Here we are again at another week.  Let's see what happened.

I wrote.  I still don't want to talk about it much.  Suffice it to say, I wrote 4 nights in a row and ended up with around 2800 new words, all on one WIP, so there ya go.  I'm not celebrating, in case this is an anomaly.  The hardest part about writing after so many months away is retraining my fingers to type as much as I want for as long as I want.  Derp.

I marketed.  A little.  Blink moved a whole 17 copies.  Woot.  Not sure what this week will bring.  I'm at the end of a 90 day KDP reup, so this week might be a little iffy.

Reading still isn't a thing, but I made a little progress with Rudy.

In baking news, yesterday, Hubs made me a cake from scratch - yellow cake, chocolate frosting with a layer of strawberry jam in the middle.  Yum.  It's not the prettiest thing, but it's been more than 20 years since he made a cake, so I'm not harshing him too much about it.  He was going to make the frosting, too, but after the cake wouldn't come out of the pan and ended up kinda roached, he left the frosting to me.  Hey, it tastes good and he tried, so that's all that matters.

On the activity front, I wasn't.  I did some garden stuff and I went shopping.  Meh.  Didn't bother weighing myself.  Weight: Fat.

The trail cam has been fun.  See yesterday's post.  The new mower is awesome.  So's the new greenhouse.  Shopping for the win.  Woot.

The garden is growing right along in the greenhouse.  I have one little grape tomato growing and one little Early Girl tomato.  The green peppers are trying to come back from getting munched, as are the black cherry and the persimmon.

Yesterday, I cut my hair.  Short.  It was bugging me, so off it went.  It looks pretty cute, if I do say so myself.  No, there aren't any pics.

Speaking of cake... Today is our anniversary.  22 years.  Go, us!  And tomorrow's my birthday.  56 years.  Go, me!  (Yes, people shouldn't leave important dates lying around the internet, but we make sure we never use those dates in any security questions or passwords, so there ya are.)  We aren't doing anything for either.  We don't give each other cards or gifts anymore.  I think that stuff stopped about 15 years ago.  We're happy with each other and celebrate each other every day, so no prezzies are necessary.

And that's it for me today.  What's been up with you lately?

Saturday Trail Cam Fun

 Hello again.  I don't know how you feel about it, but this trail cam stuff is fun.  

Anyway, here I am, checking out the placement of the camera...

This one shows pretty much all of the regular deer visitors to the feeding area:

I call this one "Is that a camera?"

You might not be able to see this guy.  He's doing such a good job of hiding behind a tree:

Another instance of 'is that a camera?' but this time it's Scout - son of Sissy and Lumpy's grandbuck.  He's such a good boy, but he got deer snot on my camera.

And from last night, I got a a good one of two raccoons.  If you blow it up, you can see one watching something in the distance while the other one is crouched behind him playing 'Stealth Raccoon'.  

I've also gotten some snaps of opossums, but none of them worth sharing.  Oh, and I got this shot...

...but I have no clue what it is.  I'm speculating that it's an opossum, but for laughs, I'm calling it a chupacabra.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed seeing some snaps from the trail camera.  Like I said, I know I'M having fun.  

Thursday This n That

 I'm having fun with my trail camera.  Look for pics on Saturday.

I'm writing again. No, I don't want to talk about it.  Just saying it here makes me nervous that I'll ruin it and make the inspiration run away and hide.  Shhh... be vewwy vewwy quiet, I'm hunting word-bits.

Two of my tomato plants have a tiny tomato each.  Since one of them is a grape tomato plant, I'm not hopeful I'll get anything close to sated off that one tomato.  Itty-bitty it is and itty-bitty it shall stay.  The other plant is my Early Girl, and that one should get sizable enough to slice and put on a sandwich at least.

There's every possibility that my greenhouse could double as a sauna in the off-months.  Man, it gets toasty warm and damp in there.  

Some days, I get really tired of seeing liars out there in the world.  It's even worse knowing that peoplle buy the shinola they're selling.  The IDF has trained dogs to rape innocent civilians??  Really.  And people believe that shit.  Derp.  Morons.

Oh, I forgot... you're not allowed to use the word rape online anymore.  If you do use it, they harsh your reach on social media.  Can't use kill or murder anymore either, and assassination is flat out.  Bah.  I'm a writer.  I'll use whatever words I see fit, and if that retards my reach, then so be it.  My reach wasn't that great to begin with.  Whatevs.

"Life is hard.  It's harder when you're stupid." - John Wayne  (It's attributed to him, so I'm going with it.)  I do love John Wayne.  

I watched a true-crime show out of Australia the other day and a serial killer, who was convicted of murdering three women only got 21-28 years.  The earliest date he could get out was 2017, which would make the latest date 2024.  So, unless he was killed in prison, he's out and on the streets of AU again.  Sorry, ladies.  I'd say arm yourself, but I don't think you can down there anymore.  Good luck and godspeed.

And on that note, I should probably get my buns in gear and do something constructive this morning.  Have a great day, wherever you are.  :hugs:

Marketing Monday - Blink of an I

 Okay, so after a week of no marketing and thus no sales, I decided I needed to get off my ever-widening ass and get back to work.  So here goes...

Starting today, BLINK OF AN I is free.  (Always free with Kindle Unlimited.)  Get your copy of this fast-paced, meaty dystopian view of the future before time runs out.  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079X142G2

It's a large book and there's lots going on.  I almost wrote this as three books, but I hate it when people do that to a single book, so I just left it large.  I mean, it's told in three parts - in the city, out of the city, back to save the city - and it flows well.  I hope you take a chance on it and enjoy the journey.  (And the happy ending, because I hate books without happy endings.)

Sunday Update - 2026 Week Something or Other

First off, Happy Mother's Day to those who are moms or have moms.  My furbabies are unimpressed by the holiday, as is my human baby.  I'll call my own mom in a while.

Not much is going on in my little portion of the world.  I'm still stuck in what basically amounts to neutral.

The gardening is going okay.  I planted some more carrots this week and I fertilized everything using used coffee grounds.  One heaping spoonful per plant.  Then I watered everything.  One of my munched green peppers has itty-bitty leaves, so it's trying to live.  My black cherry and persimmon trees are showing signs of life.  Also, I picked more nettles to refresh my 'weed tea'.  In about 10 days, I'll use it to fertilize the plants again.  (I saw a video saying potted tomatoes need to be fertilized every ten days, so I'm going with that.)

If you missed yesterday's post, I set up my game camera and have started taking pics.  Except I messed with a setting somewhere and last night's trial was a bust.  No night pics at all.  Derp.  The worst thing about this camera so far is the lack of instructions.  And no, the company's website doesn't help.  At all.  Derp.  I'll fuss with it later.  Anyway, here's me feeding the deer this morning.  

Yes, I look fat and old.  No, I don't really care.  Like Popeye, I am what I am.

Early in the week, Hubs and I mowed the lawn.  I love the new mower.  It's so light and so easy to start.  Yay.  I got in some other activity this week, too, but not really anything specific.  I doubt any of it had any effect on my EWA.  Earlier in the week, I weighed myself, so... Weight: 177.8

We've been seeing foxes in the yard.  At first, I thought it was one fox, but over the past week, I've gotten better looks at them all.  From my estimation, we have three young foxes and one older fox.  Or rather, 3 that are about 2/3 size and one full size.  One of the little ones has a white patch on its side, another has a dark patch, and the third is uniform in its grizzled gray/red.  So yay.  I hope they stick around.  They're good for eating vermins.  I do hope they don't eat the baby raccoon.  Then again, I hope the coyotes don't eat them.  Nature's a bitch sometimes.

Other than that, not much going on around here.  I need to get off the net call my mom and wish her a Happy Mother's Day.  Later, Hubs will call his mom.  All is well.  Have a great day, wherever you are.  

Saturday Trail Cam Snaps

 I finally set up my trail cam yesterday.  I tried putting it a couple places, just as a test.  Here's from the morning:

It's not a super-quality photo, but it does what we need it to do, which is snap pics of critters.  There are a couple squirrels there, a bluejay, and a dove.

Here's one from the afternoon:

That's a pileated woodpecker hanging on the suet.  (The rest of that bunch of photos was pretty much Hubs going back and forth because he was cleaning the gutters... hence the ladder.)

And finally, here's a night shot.  This one was taken after we went to bed.

Baby Raccoon!  Yay!  I also got some primo shots of a neighbor driving home for the night, because between the light in the upper right corner and the tree where the raccoon sits is a road.

The camera itself isn't a top of the line model.  It only cost like $50, so I wasn't expecting super great things from it.  I'm pleased with the photo quality, which is the most important part.  It's not a wifi enabled model, so I have to actually plug the thing into my computer to download photos, and there are some hiccups with that.  Still I give it 4 stars.  Well worth the money.

=o)

Thursday This n That

 I'm late, but not as late as I was last week, so that's progress, right? 

I woke up later than usual today and somewhere between the bathroom and my first cup of coffee, a thought occurred to me... IT'S THURSDAY!  And panic ensued because 1) I hadn't sent in my timesheet for the week and 2) I hadn't done the spreadsheet I received yesterday which needed to be done so it could go on the timesheet so I could get paid for it this week.  Needless to say, I got my cup of coffee, had a quick smoke, and got to work.  I got it all finished before 7am (which is 8am office time and when my sis gets in and starts doing payroll) and finally took a sip of my coffee.  It was cold by then, but hey, I got 'er done.  

Nothing like a bit of panic first thing to really wake a gal up.

I'm a bit sore today from wrestling the feather topper thing into its newly-created pillowcase.  Derp.

Since I didn't do any marketing this week, I'm sitting at 38c in earnings.  3c in page reads and one 35c sale of Dying Embers.  Woot.  Go me.  This shows me that I really need to get off my ass next week.  

We have a little fox who's been hanging around the general area lately.  We see it just about every day now.  It's super cute.  It's probably from last year's litter.  Awww.  I'm happy to have foxes around the house.  They eat destructive critters and I'm rooting for it to eat that blasted packrat, which is probably the reason why all my lilies recently got munched.  (Probably since I moved all the deck plants out of munching range.)

Living in the woods is awesome, but it does have its downsides.  One being critters munching my plants.  Another is that once the leaves fill out with leaves, we don't really see much in the way of stars at night or rainbows during the day.  :shrug:  It's a tradeoff.

I keep forgetting to set up my game camera.  Derp.  Maybe today I'll remember.  We'll see if I make it from doing this to doing that without the TV getting in the way.

Speaking of the TV, I'm convinced that Roku is evil.  There are so many awesome things to watch that I get distracted by it easily.  I sit down to eat breakfast and watch one show, and the next thing I know, it's bedtime and I've wasted the whole damn day.  I really need to start policing that.  And I will, right after I eat breakfast and watch my one show.  XoP.

I had a thought the other night that I would get back to wood carving and start my own like Etsy store or something and I would call it XoP Designs.  (If you don't know what XoP is, turn your head sideways and look at it again.  It's the old way of doing a face with squinty eyes, a little round nose, and a mouth with the tongue sticking out.)

And on that note, I should probably go be productive or something.  I really need to tend my garden, clean the house, cut my hair, and sequester myself in a room until I edit or write something.  (For the record, I am NOT ready to retire from writing.  I may not be doing it but retiring isn't in the plans either.)

Peace out.

Bright Ideas?

 Me and my bright ideas... We had a 'feather' topper on our bed, but we hated it, so it's been sitting in the spare room. We also have the flat sheet to a set of flannel sheets where the fitted sheet was roached years ago. Bright idea? Use the flannel sheet to make a 'pillowcase' for the feather topper and turn it into a cat bed.

I thought I'd pin it and then sew it. No pins. I could've sworn I had a box of pins leftover from my previous sewing adventures. Nope. I had safety pins, though, so off I started.

The cats, being cats, were deeply interested in my goings-on such that I had to shut them out of the bedroom where I was working. Meowing insued. I let them back in and Finn decided he wanted to sleep in the middle of my work. Sawyer, seeing that I was distracted by Finn, proceeded to stick his head in my coffee cup and slurp away. They were promptly kicked back out of the bedroom and I ignored the caterwauling.

I get the whole thing safety pinned, flip it right-side out, and try to stuff the feather monster into its new home. A half-hour of wrestling later, it was in there. It ain't pretty and it's incredibly lumpy, but it's done. (For now. I may actually sew it later.)

Finn loves it. It jumped into the middle and laid there like he finally had a bed worthy of his royalship.

I'm Tired

There won't be any marketing this week.  I'm tired.  Hell, you might even say I was depressed. (From a writing perspective.  I don't feel depressed otherwise.)  Thinking about writing, or my lack thereof, makes me sad.  

I try to be all Positive Polly, but the act only stretches so far.  

So, I spend my days doing everything/anything that doesn't remind me of my unfinished novels and my stillborn ideas.  Which is probably why I don't spend a boatload of time blogging or visiting blogs lately.  Marketing is about the only writerly thing I can manage, and the only reason for that is seeing the zeroes on my KDP Dashboard makes me more depressed. 

It's like the writer part of me is curled up in the fetal position over there in the corner.  I keep saying I'll get over this, but I'm not sure if I can.  I'd like to think I'm not done with writing, that 18 books isn't the final total of my life's work, but I don't really know.  

I have a book sitting in the spare room that's done being written.  It's DONE.  All it needs is editing, but I can't bring myself to finish editing it.  Well, editing, proofreading, cover creation, getting it set for publishing... :shudder:  So I'm stuck in this weird place where I can't make myself finish it.

Maybe it's fear of failure.  Maybe it's being tired of pushing books out there into the world to crickets.  Maybe doing this for myself isn't enough anymore.... maybe it never was enough.  I dunno.

From time to time, I still think about writing, so there's still hope.  Although, some days, I'm inclined to agree with Gena Showalter's take on Hope - it was always the worst of the evils in Pandora's box.

Anyway, sorry to be a bummer on a Tuesday morning.  On a happier note, my greenhouse is doing it's job and protecting the plants.  Yay.  I wish I had a greenhouse to keep my writer self warm and happy and thriving -  a greenhouse for the soul, so to speak.  

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 18

Well hello there.  It's Sunday.  It's morning.  It's time for an update.  This week was a busy one for me and I am understandably both tired and sore.

I spent a lot of time this week on the deck garden.  Last Sunday, due to critter carnage, I moved the entire garden worth of pots inside.  About half of the pots went into the garage and the other half went into the sunroom.  The potato pots are huge, so we're talking probably 30-40 pounds each, but I did it. (Hubs' back is toast right now, so I've been doing stuff myself rather than have him lift and carry.)  I also thinned the carrots.  

My new greenhouse arrived.  It's a beaut.  Not a large enclosure at roughly 5x5x6.5, but large enough.  Hubs helped me put that sucker together on Friday and I populated it with all the plants that can handle full sun.  Not that the deck gets a whole lot of full sun, but enough that it would probably kill my redbuds.  Then to further discourage the critter, I put blocks all the way around it - each block sitting on the edge of the plastic greenhouse cover.  This will also give the greenhouse some stability in the wind, so yay.  The three mornings since I put the greenhouse together have been carnage free, so yay to that, too.  (I haven't taken any pics yet, so if you want to see the greenhouse I bought, click the link.  It's still on sale as of this morning, if you want one, too.)

When I ordered the greenhouse, I also ordered a game camera.  That arrived on Friday, but I haven't put it out yet.  I did set it up and managed to take several pictures of my hands.  It's not the wifi kind, so I'll have to take it down and plug it into the computer if I want to see the pics, but I'm okay with that.  

I've been feeding the deer all week, so Hubs can rest his back.  The deer are getting fat pregnant.  I always feel so bad for them, waddling around the yard.  Judging by the size of their bellies, they might drop fawns earlier this year.  We'll see.

Friday, I went grocery shopping.  Wallyworld was a zoo.  Anyway, while I was there, they had a bunch of beef marked down, so I ended up getting a London Broil.  I'd never cooked one of those, but it was cheap and cheap beef is hard to find.  I took half of that and threw it in the crockpot with spaghetti sauce and mushrooms, and we had my version of steak pizziola last night for dinner.  Yummers.

I did some marketing this week.  Not a huge amount of books moved, but eh, it's better than nothing.  The start of a new month makes my KDP dashboard look so depressing with it zeroes across the board.  Having numbers there, even if they're small, helps.  Not sure what will be on the Marketing Monday rota tomorrow.

And since I started this over an hour ago and it's been sitting here forgotten as I scroll through X and FB, I think I'm probably done.  Have a great day and a wonderful week.  :hugs:

Thursday This n That (delayed)

ACK!  I started this post yesterday morning and never finished it.  Derp. Here's what I said then...

I made pizza last night and now my hands are killing me.  It was totally worth it.

Yesterday, my new greenhouse arrived.  I'll work on putting it together today, I think.  We'll see if the hands allow it.  Then we'll see if it works to foil the critter's plans.  Our new mower arrived, too.  That's Hubs' job.  We'll help each other if we need it.

We're going on 22 years married.  For the most part, the us part has been pretty easy.  That's what happens when you're with the right person.  Yay.

And now for the stuff I didn't write yesterday morning...

I did put the greenhouse up, put blocks around the base to hold it down and keep critters out, and populated it with plants.  This morning, no signs the critter has been back, but it's early yet.

No sign of the marauding mouse from the other night.  

Hubs put together the mower and mowed a little to see if he had the height settings right.  It works like a dream.  Yay.

Gah, Sawyer's being really annoying this morning.  This is an especially bad morning for him to be a turd, as I am really sore from the activities of yesterday.  Putting together the greenhouse was pretty easy, except for being on my feet for so long, and then the moving of all those pots, and the sweeping beforehand. 

I really should go grocery shopping today, except the aforementioned soreness is making me really not want to go.

Bitchbitchbitchbitch.  Why yes, I would like some cheese...

What's on your this-n-that list today?

Nature is Revolting

 Okay, first off, the saga of the garden...

SomeTHING got onto the deck and munched a bunch of my plants over the course of a few days.  First, I sprinkled cayenne pepper over everything.  Nope.  Then I mixed up a batch of my Rat-B-Gone (peppermint, cloves, and cedar essential oils).  Nope.  I tried putting up a length of fencing around my tastiest plants, too, but whatever it was climbed right over or went through the spacing.  Sunday, I moved all my plants inside - half in the garage, half in the sunroom.  And I ordered a small (5x5x6.5 roughly) greenhouse from Amazon.  That'll be here Thursday and it's supposedly pretty easy to put together.  I also bought a game camera to keep an eye on everything.  Fingers crossed.  

The plants that got munched... Of my trees: my baby black cherry, my little persimmon, one hickory, three redbuds, and a dogwood are all sticks now.  My buckthorn has two little leaves left about 2" up.  The other hickory has been halved.  Of my produce: all 4 green pepper plants are sticks, one of my fingerling potatoes is sticks, my best pots of carrots had about 2/3rds of the greenery munched off and the other two that were doing well also saw munching.  The one carrot pot that only had a few carrots coming up only has one now.  Thankfully, it left Pedro Potato and the Tomato Trio alone.

Okay, so I've got a fix for that on the way.  One would think I'd be done with critter mayhem, right?  Umm, no.

Last night, about 1:30 a.m., I hear the scrabble of claws on vinyl flooring.  And it's not the usual sound of the cats chasing each other.  I turn to Hubs, but he's not in bed.  None of the lights are on, so I figure he's on a bathroom break.  The noise has stopped, but that doesn't mean anything in a house with cats, so I get up to go see what the hell is up with The Boyz.  I wander into the kitchen to find Finn intently staring at the space under the catfood cupboard.  I get a flashlight and shine it under there.  Nothing.  But he won't be swayed.  We keep a cooler next the cupboard so the cats can jump up there easily.  I move the cooler.  MOUSE.  He was terrified and I was stunned, so we just looked at each other for a minute.  He recovered first and took off, followed closely by Finn.  

Did Finn catch him?  No.  The little bastard ran along the wall, across the space by the front door, and I lost sight of it.  Finn didn't.  He started circling Hubs' recliner like a hound who'd run a fox to ground. 

By then, Hubs had come out to see what the hell was going on.  We upended the recliner.  Couldn't see it.  I tried beating on the recliner, but no sign of it.  We eventually found it on the other end of the room behind the shelf I keep our TV on.  Haha! thinks I, we've got it trapped.  

Nope.  We tried to get it, but it skittered away, ran down the wall, and went into my recliner.  So there we were trying to get it out of my recliner.  Not a sign of the damn thing.  

For some reason, at that point... it being now 2:30 and me being me... I decided to check behind the TV again.  Sure enough, the little bastard had slipped by us and was back where it thought it was safe.  I put sticky traps on either side of the shelving and we debated on how best to get the little bastard out of there, both of watching to make sure it didn't escape again.  At one point, I checked and it was still there.  More debating.  Checked again.  Would you believe it, the little fucker was gone.  

At this point, we had both cats locked up in the office because we didn't need them underfoot, especially considering that Hubs was prepared to whack the little shit with a shovel, and we didn't want the cats to get in the middle of that.  Since the cats were put away, I went around laying sticky traps and snap traps all over the living room.  I made coffee and we plopped down in front of the TV to both settled down enough to go back to bed and to see if we caught the furry bastard before going to sleep.  

It was around 4am when we went back to bed with no mouse caught.  I got up at 6:30 with still no mouse.  We finally put all the traps away and let the cats out at 8 with no success.  We did, however, kill a mouse in the garage last night.  Not the same mouse.  The dead one was lighter than the marauder.  

Neither of us has any clue as to how the furry bugger got in the house.  I've spent untold time over the years plugging every damn hole that would allow ingress for mice.  It's been years, in fact, since we saw one inside the house.  More investigating will occur, but not now.  I'm bushed.  I leave it to the cats to find it and kill it, if it shows its twitchy little nose again.

Unfortunately, Finn did not show prowess at killing the mouse last night and Sawyer, when given the chance, was terrified at the prospect.  I'm revoking their cat cards until they prove their worth.

Between the mysterious plant-muncher (packrat, I assume) and the nighttime visitor, I'm about 75% wondering what I did to piss Nature off, because I think she's staging a revolt.  Pray for our safety.  There are more of them than there are of us and we're getting to old for this shit.

Marketing Monday - Rumor Has It

Amidst the throes of garden woes, the show must go on - which means Marketing Monday.  This week, I'm putting RUMOR HAS IT out there for your free book downloading pleasure. Enjoy!  

Starting today, RUMOR HAS IT is totally free. (Always free with Kindle Unlimited.) Step back in time with this gritty noir mystery now. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08ZNXQKPC

And if you enjoy it, please leave a review, then head over to buy the next book in the series - THICKER THAN WATER.  It'll be a win for you and it'll help fund my fight against the critter noshing my plants.  

Sunday Update - Whatever Week It Is

 Hey all, I know I'm extremely late.  In fact, I'm taking 5 in the middle of dinner to type this.  Suffice it to say, there isn't much to talk about.  Well, except for the fact that some bastard critter saw fit to climb onto the deck and ravage my garden.  I spent the morning moving all the remaining pots - some alive, some possibly dead - into the smoking porch and the garage.  After that, I wasn't motivated to do anything.

I've since ordered a small greenhouse to put on the deck for plant protection and a game camera to see if I can catch the little bastard.  I'd kill it with my bare hands if I could.  All that work... Blerg.

Anyway, I hope your day was good.  Feel free to talk about it in comments.  :hugs:

Totally Forgot Thursday

 LOL, Totally Forgot Thursday should be a thing and it should always be posted on Friday.  I could make it a list of things I totally forgot, which would be long... if I could remember to write down all the things I forgot.

Pedro Potato fell over yesterday.  I totally didn't think about staking him up and how does one stake up a potato plant that's already a couple feet tall without staking potential potatoes??  I managed it, I think, but time will tell whether I harshed any spuds.  Anyway, he seems fine this morning, so no harm done, I guess.

I went out of my way to hit the other local thrift store and while they did have a lot of books, I only found two I wanted.  What a waste of gas.  The books, you ask?  The Surgeon by Tess Garretson and a three book volume of 87th Precinct novels by Ed McBain.  Cost?  75c.  I would've made out like a bandit if I'd been into Danielle Steel or James Patterson, but alas, I'm not a fan of either of those authors.

Sawyer woke us up this morning at 4am.  He was trying to jump to the top of the big chest of drawers.  He missed... he always misses... but he managed to knock the bottle of antacids on the floor.  Scared the crap out of himself and woke us both up rather rudely.  Sometimes... to the moon, cat.

I hate when I get an email touting 'free shipping' and it's only on order over a certain amount.  This last one seemed like it was for any order and only for a limited time, but it's their regular free shipping amount.  Dirty pool, chaps.  That's one way to get me to not buy anything from you ever.

Sawyer's being a picky eater right now.  Turd.  I mean, Finn's always been a picky eater, but Finn also doesn't bitch when he doesn't get fed his favorite foods.  He simply chooses not to eat what he doesn't like.  Sawyer?  Nope.  'FEED ME... I don't LIKE that... FEED ME SOMETHING ELSE!'  He's my problem child.  We do love him, but ugh.  (And before you wonder, he's fine.  He's also not in danger of starving to death.)

Ugh, I meant to take a shower yesterday, but I wasn't in the mood.  I figured I could take a shower when I got up this morning.  This morning?  Thunderstorms.  Blerg.  That'll teach me.

Okay, that's probably enough out of me.  Any snippets of wisdom from you?  Anything you totally forgot that you'd like to mention?  Comment away.

Monday Marketing - Wish Hits The Fan

Good morning!  It's time again for another rousing round of Monday Marketing, with your host - B.E. Sanderson.  

Heh.  Yeah, I've been up since 4, the coffee isn't cutting it, and I'm a little loopy.  Anyway, it IS Monday and it is also time to market.  Today, WISH HITS THE FAN is up on the block.

Starting today, WISH HITS THE FAN is totally free. (Always free with Kindle Unlimited.) Get this snarky, fun, paranormal suspense now! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075C7FCXG

This is the one that wraps the whole series up.  There are thrills and chills and spills.  There are difficult choices to make and a world to save.  Questions are answered and lives hang in the balance.  What's not to love there?  Trust me.  Go grab a copy while you can.

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 15

 Here we are again at the beginning of another week.  Time to look at last week.

Book marketing was done.  I moved 52 copies of Fertile Ground.  From previous marketing, I had page reads of Dying Embers and Song of Storm and Shroud.  Oh, and Wish Hits the Fan goes on freebie starting tomorrow.

Reading is still going slow, but I am reading, so I have that going for me.  I'm about a third of the way through Leadership by Rudy Giuliani.  It's really interesting.

No baking.  Which is good because my EWA doesn't need the calories.  

I was pretty active this week.  I did a hard target walk, vacuumed, worked on the deck garden, and planted trees in the woods.  I haven't weighed myself, though, so whether any of that is starting to shrink my ass?  Dunno.  

Speaking of gardening, Pedro Potato is getting tall.  I have another pot with tiny potato plants coming up, too.  One tomato and two of the peppers have flowers.  The carrots are growing right along and need thinning again.  Then there are the trees.  They all seem to be doing well.  The one unknown tree has been identified as a persimmon, so yay.  Thank you to whatever squirrel or bird planted that seed in my garden last year.  

Speaking of trees, Cecil and Clyde went into the woods.  They're my oldest two cedars and it was time.  When I turned Cecil out of his pot, it was obvious he needed more space.  He was getting rootbound in there.  Clyde probably could've spent another year on the deck, but like I said, it was time.  I can still see Cecil from the house, so yay.  Fingers crossed that nature doesn't harsh my babies.

Pregnancy abounds in the deer herd, so yay.  Lumpy is still rolling along, but does not appear pregnant, which is a mercy.  We also have phoebes nesting under the deck and chickadees using our birdhouse.  I love Spring.

Other than that, life is pretty boring here.  What's up with you?

Thursday This n That

On a short continuance from yesterday, let me just say that I did not have roaming hippos in Columbia on my bingo card. (Was talking about it here a HIPPO violation?  ROFL)

Yesterday, I removed the 'feather bed mimic' topper thing from our bed.  The dang thing was lumpy as all get out.  That and the constant fluffing of it were getting to be a pain in the everywhere.  Last night, I did have a devil of a time getting to sleep, but I must've slept better.  We'll see how it goes.

Getting old blows.

Okay, I'm old.  (Yeah, yeah, not as old as some.)  I was thinking the other day about my grandmother and how she was.  I realized I will never be as old in my head as my grandmother was.  Then again, Grandma was never as old as I thought she was.  Hearing stories from Mom about her tell me that I was mistaken about her on several points.  Oh, she was not a pleasant woman and would never be mistaken for the warm and cuddly grandmas some people have.  I was talking with my sister and we agreed that Grandma was a bitch.  But really when Grandma was younger, she was a tough, pants-wearing, hard-working chick who liked parties and doing things women weren't supposed to do back then.  Maybe she was bitchy because as she got old, she couldn't be the woman she knew herself to be, which would make anyone bitchy, I guess.

You hear all the time about men withholding stuff from the wives during a divorce, but I just read a case where it was the woman.  She's in jail now until she forks over the stuff that the court already said belonged to her ex-husband or pays him the value of those things.  Equal rights for women means being equal in this shit, too.  Good for the judge.  Feminists wanted everything equal, where there ya go.  Choke on it.

Pedro Potato is getting tall.  Go, Pedro!  I'm not sure if he's actually making potatoes under there.  The only way to tell is to dig him up, the thought of which makes me sad.  It'll have to be done eventually, but until then, I'll enjoy him as the healthy plant he is.

We had a hell of a storm last night.  Thankfully, I'd already moved all my pots under the eaves, so they got at least some protection.  At around 2am, it got really nasty and I wondered if I did indeed hear a train in the distance.  (We have no tracks anywhere near here... by train, I mean tornado.)  I checked the yard this morning and all is well.

And on that note, I have to go make my daily call to Mom.  Have a great day everyone.  Peace out.

Wild and WTF on Wednesday

I see a lot of wild and WTF things on FB and X, so I thought I'd share...

Someone tried to use the phrase 'molon labe' - basically an ancient Greek phrase meaning 'Come. Take.' (referencing gun rights) - but autocorrect changed it to 'melon lube'... ROFL.

Someone made an AI photo of Trump eating McDonald's with Jesus.  Now, there's a section of people with their undies in a wad.

I saw a video of a cat whose owner was deaf.  The cat had learned that meowing doesn't work, so it figured out how to signal its owner by tapping his arm and then tapping its mouth when it wanted treats.  

Just now, someone shared a video out of Japan - a JAWS bath bomb.  It looks like a boat.  Then you drop it into the water, it starts to dissolve and turns the water blue, then it starts to bubble.  Then it releases what looks like blood and a shark's head floats to the service.  The head has a piece of boat in its mouth.  Too funny.

Another video... Beagle terrifies alligator and makes it run away.

No, the IDF didn't put 60 P-people in a garbage truck.  The P-people used a garbage truck to try to sneak into somewhere to do bad things and the IDF caught them.

Some dude (in Pakistan, I believe) said woman shouldn't be (aren't allowed to be?) educated. Fuck that shit.

The pope is more concerned with how Muslims are being treated than with how Christians are being treated.  Let that sink in.

Diets are now racist.  

Yale gathering applauds a guy who said America deserved 9/11.

Japan loves us.  And they have a word for Leftist nutjob - Payoku.  Funny, I never thought I'd love Japan more than I could ever love Australia, but one is becoming awesome and the other is becoming a leftist shithole.  So there ya are.

And with that, I'll let ya go do whatever it is you do out there in the world.  Me?  I'm doing marketing posts and then I have to clean.  Woot.

Marketing Monday - Fertile Ground

I'm creating this post on Sunday, so hopefully nothing screws up and makes a liar out of me.  

Starting today - Monday, I mean - FERTILE GROUND (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FOPNE9Y) is free and will be through Friday.  This book portrays a SCIU agent, who was once a victim, pursuing a serial rapist.  Like all the SCIU books, it swings between the POV of the MC and the antagonist.  It does not get into the gritty details or descriptions of rape, but it does show the mindset of a psycho who's committing these crimes and how a rape victim can rise above her trauma to hunt the fucker down.  She has choices to make and she makes the right ones.  And in the end, justice - not revenge - prevails.  

Anyway, it's free as you're reading this and it'll be free 'til the end of the week.  I hope you enjoy.

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 14?

 Well, crap... it's Sunday again, isn't it?  Since I can't figure out what day it is most of the time, you shouldn't be surprised that I'm not sure what week it is.  Anyway...

Nope on the writing / editing.  I'm having stern talks with myself.  I may banish myself with my Kindle and my notepad to the spare room until I finish editing the damn book I should've finished editing months ago.  I think the main problem here is I'm stuck in the 'I suck and I hate this book' mindset, so it's hard to make progress on something you're pretty sure stinks.  And if you suck, how can you fix something that stinks?  :shrug:

Yep on the marketing.  Not a banner week, but still, something is better than nothing.  No clue what's going to be on the block for this week.

No reading.  Seriously, I don't think I even picked up my book last week.  Derp.

No baking happened, but I did make ham & bean soup yesterday.  It turned out really yummy and it used up the last of my Easter ham, so yay.

I was pretty active this past week - mostly with the deck garden.  I did take two hard-target walks for 1.75 miles.  I also did some cleaning and furniture moving.  I'm also trying to eat better - more salads, less crap.  Unfortunately, I stepped on the scale yesterday and had gained two pounds.  Derp.  Weight: 179.4

As for gardening, I have all my produce seeds/plants in the ground now - potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, and green peppers.  We'll see how those go.  I realized yesterday that I fucked up with Pedro.  I was supposed to cover him with dirt while he was still small - to encourage root growth.  But I was so pleased with Pedro's growth, I totally forgot to mound him in dirt.  He is pretty spectacular.  I'll mound the other potatoes.  

I spent some time shopping this week - Tractor Supply and Wallyworld.  I do love Tractor Supply, and they had dirt 'buy one get one 50% off', so I had that going for me.  Yes, I am a redneck.  Wallyworld was Wallyworld.  

Oh, I saw Beauregard the Broad-Winged Hawk twice this past week.  One time, he flew beneath the smoking room windows, so I got a really close view of him.  He's pretty awesome.  On another bird note, the Barred Owls have been hanging out close to the house, so we've heard them hooting for a few nights/mornings in a row.  This morning, one of them must have been in the yard because the hooting was really loud.  Awesome.

And that's about it for me.  I need to figure out what I'm going to do today and try to avoid sitting in front of the TV for the majority of it.  A walk is in order, definitely.  The rest?  Time will tell.  Have a great day wherever you are.  

Thursday This n That

 I forgot what day it is.

Tuesday, we voted in the municipal elections.  One measure on the ballot failed by one vote.  ONE vote.  Never let it be said that your vote doesn't matter.  It does.  If we hadn't voted, it would've changed the outcome.  (And we'd be paying more in property taxes this year, which we do not need.)

Why do people vote to raise their own property taxes???  I mean, yeah, I could see if it was something important, but this wasn't.  

Yesterday, there was a squirrel in the yard that was acting like it was having a stroke or something.  We didn't go anywhere near it, but we kept an eye on it from the window.  First, it was just laying there in the sun underneath the hickory tree.  The next time we looked it had moved into the shade.  The next time it was back in the sun.  Then Hubs saw it from his bathroom window and another squirrel had walked up on it and they were jumping around at each other, after which it went right back to laying under the tree.  A little while later, it was stumbling toward the water pans and got itself a drink.  Then it was right back under the tree - about a 15 foot distance - where it was digging with its front paw and then eating what looked like some kind of root.  After dinner, it had moved to the backyard and was again eating some kind of root.  By then, it was looking decidedly better.  I wonder if those roots have medicinal properties.  Anyway, the next time we looked, it was gone.  Either it got better and went away, or the fox got it during its dusk rounds through our yard.  Still, it was all very weird.  

What does one do for a messed-up squirrel?  I'd call a rehabber, if we had any anywhere near us.  The only good one I know of, though, is in OK and they can't take out of state animals.  Bummer.  I thought about going out there with a net and catching it, but then I'd be violating some wild animal ordinance or something.  Around here, the wildlife better get better on its own.  I just wish the critters would stop having medical dramas on my lawn.  If they're going to die, they need to do it in the woods and far enough away that I don't see it.

Okay, time for me to go take a walk... which is what I was getting ready to do when I realized I hadn't posted today.  Derp.  Have a great day, wherever you are.  Peace out.

Monday Update - 2026 Week 13

 Yesterday was a holiday, but let's face it, I can't blame Easter for my totally forgetting to post.  I'm late today because I overslept because cat-antics wouldn't let me sleep and then I was up until after midnight.

Let's not talk about writing, eh?  Although, I did think about writing.  For some reason, a story I started years ago but never finished popped into my head late last night and wanted me to write it RIGHT THEN.  But I was trying to get to a place where I could sleep, so I ignored it.  I take the fact that stories are demanding to be written as a good sign, but so far, that's all it is - a sign.  

The big marketing a whole series thing last week went okay.  It looked better than it was because I had three books being downloaded, but per book, it wasn't great.  Today, Song of Storm and Shroud is up for a 5-day freebie.  (SONG OF STORM AND SHROUD - an epic fantasy for kids and adults alike - is free today through Friday. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09W745M6P)  Unfortunately, I woke up late and haven't really done any marketing beyond posting to my pages on FB.  :shrug:  I'm tired and unmotivated.

Not much reading this week.  I really am a toad.

In baking news, I made applesauce bars (B-) and raisin-apple bread pudding (A-).  Plus, I baked the ham for Easter (A+).  

On the activity front, I took two walks for about 2 miles. I also did stuff in the deck garden - moving pots, etc.  Last night, I moved a bookshelf and all its books, so that was active.  (Sawyer was being turd and using it as a springboard to get onto the TV shelf.)  After all the ham I ate yesterday, I'm not going to weigh myself, but when I weighed myself last Tuesday, I was at 177.4.

Ah, the garden.  It's rolling right along, as you could see from my post last week.  I did plant more carrot seeds to replace the ones that pooped out on me.  The feed store has their tomato plants in, but I have to wait until I'm flush again before I buy those.  Later this week... I hope.  None of Pedro Potato's kinfolk have come up, so I'm getting ready to plant more taters.  :fingers crossed:

Other than that, not much going on here.  I did mention I was a toad, didn't I.  

Pedro Potato and The Produce Posse

So, I went out yesterday and took pictures of where my garden is at right now. First off:

Pedro Potato!

Next:

The Pepper Quartet

And then there's...

The Carrot Gang

I'll leave the pics of the trees for another day. Needless to say, there are a lot of pots on my deck right now. LOL

Instagram?

 I've had an Instagram account for years, but I could never get it to work because it was expecting me to post from a smartphone (or some such nonsense).  This morning I got one of those notifications that people were following me on Instagram.  I went over there with the thought that I'd try using it again.  Lo and behold, it actually let me post something.  Wow.  

So, anyway, if you're on Instagram, I'm at https://www.instagram.com/b.e.sanderson/

I can't guarantee I'll post anything with any regularity, but there it is.  

B.E. Sanderson... slowly moving into this century. Heh.

As an aside, what ever happened to Pinterest?  I had an account and deleted it when they turned into turds, but I never hear about it from anyone else anymore either.  Are they even still a thing?

Marketing Monday - Series Bonanza - A Model Curse

I'm trying something different today.  I'm marketing an entire series.  My A MODEL CURSE series definitely hasn't gotten the love it deserves, so all three books in the series are free starting today and running through Friday.  It's snarky.  It's got a heroine who breaks the rules by being slightly unlovable.  Although, frankly, I do love her, but that's because I know her and she's really a good person deep down.  She's shallow and vapid and self-absorbed, with a foul-mouth and bad habits, but she's also got a big heart.  Once you read the books, you'll see how she got the way she is and how she grows to show her real beauty.  

The book is written in a very conversational style - my conversational style - so don't come into this with your Strunk and White in hand.  It's for fun.  It's for escape.  Oh, there is a deeper message behind it all, but I don't beat you over the head with it.  If you get it, great.  If not, I hope the ride is still enjoyable.

Anyway, enjoy.  The books are free, so why not try them?  What have you got to lose?

Marketing copy:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MTFRD71
A MODEL CURSE - the entire series - is free for a limited time. Now through Friday, get the whole damn, fun, snarky, paranormal suspense story totally free. (They're always free with Kindle Unlimited. This is so everyone can play.)

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 12

Hello.  I'm up obscenely early for a Sunday, but that's on the cats.  They didn't like last night's food, so they're being turds.

I thought about writing and editing this week.  That may be a sign that I'm jones'n for it.  Shhh, don't frighten the gumption away.  Marketing went crickets on me.  I only moved 15 copies of UNEQUAL.  :shrug:  Tomorrow starts a 'series bonanza' - something different I'm trying - wherein all the books in the A Model Curse series will be free for 5 days.  I've already set up tomorrow's post on that.  

I started reading a book.  Woot.  I'm about a quarter of the way through Leadership by Rudy Giuliani.  

No baking.  I did make a really tasty sweet & sour chicken dish, even if the breading on the chicken did go pear-shaped* on me.

On the activity front, I was a little active this week.  It was mostly garden work - removing detritus from the outside beds and working on the potted plants on the deck.  We did walk once, though.  Go us.  I haven't weighed myself.  Weight: Fat

The potted plants seem to be doing okay.  I'm not sure if I mentioned that 3 out of my 4 pots worth of tiny carrot plants died, but the 4th pot is doing good.  I will be thinning that this week and replanting the other pots with new carrot seeds.  I have 1 tiny potato plant coming up, which thrills me no end.  The repotted green peppers are all doing well.  All six of my redbud trees have leaves.  The redbud I thought was dead is trying, so yay.  Both of my remaining dogwood trees have tiny leaves.  The three mystery trees are all doing really well.  I'm no longer sure that one is a black cherry, but I'm getting more sure that one is a buckthorn.  We'll see.

I did try to do some carving this week.  I was really getting into it when the gouge slipped and I perforated my thumb knuckle.  That'll teach me.  Of course, I wasn't wearing the safety gloves.  I hate gloves when I have to actually do anything with my hands.  Of course, I'll be wearing them the next time I carve, because while I am sometimes foolhardy, I'm not stupid.  Live and learn.  Thankfully, it wasn't a large perforation and I'm a good clotter.  I'm just waiting to be 100% sure it won't open back up before I go back to strenuous hand activities.  

Other than that?  :shrug:  I hope you had a good week last week and that this coming week is amazing for you.

*a British phrase that I appreciate, so I'm gonna use.  What's English if not an opportunistic language that rummages through the pockets of other languages looking for spare phrases and shiny euphemisms?

Thursday This n That

The saga of Brightspeed still lives.   In case you don't remember, we kicked Brightspeed to the curb last July and have since continued to receive information from them.  I've called and called, to no avail.  I finally gave up on them in October.  I figured if they wanted to continue to waste money on me, more power to them.  Well, I gave up on the giving up.  You see, a few days ago, we started getting calls from Brightspeed, giving us updates on the service repair in our area.  After the third time of one of us running across the house to make sure it wasn't family only to see it was Brightspeed, I went to their website, found a complaint email addy, and wrote them a stern missive.  Lo and behold, yesterday afternoon, we got another call about the service repair and I was pissed.  Minutes after that, the phone rang again and it was Brightspeed again.  I picked up with every intention of shouting at the recorded message.  Needless to say, I was shocked to find an actual person on the line.  She was calling about the email I sent.  I explained everything to her, reiterating what was in my email and adding additional info.  She was nice - and American, I might add - and she vowed to get this cleared up.  Fingers crossed it actually happens this time.  No offense to her, but I've heard it before.  :shrug:

I don't know about you, but I get tired of dealing with the same shit every day.  And no, I don't want different shit.  I want a cessation of shit.  Is that too much to ask?

Speaking of dealing with shit, Facebook is intermittently preventing me from reacting to posts.  There's no rhyme or reason to it.  I just can't do it and get a snotty message when I try.  Blerg.

From the tiny acorn grows the mighty oak.  Well, yeah, but have you ever seen a sycamore seed?  Those things aren't much bigger than dandelion seeds and from those suckers grows an even mightier sycamore.  Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of oaks, but sycamores are huge.  (Says the woman who just watched her husband chainsaw a 50 ft sycamore that had fallen on our land.)  For that matter, have you ever seen an elm seed?  They look like tiny frisbees - smaller than a dime - with a lump in the center.  From those grow the majestic elm.  All I'm saying is trees are amazing.

I just started reading Leadership by Rudolph Giuliani.  The first chapter is all about 9/11.  It's a hard thing to read about, but I guess I'm finally ready to revisit that horrible day.  I never realized how close we were to losing Rudy in all that.  I wish he'd run for President in 2008 and beat what we ended up with.  He would've been an amazing President.  I wanted him to run with Connie Rice as his VP.  They would've made an awesome duo for the leadership of this country.  

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

My Love of Israel: How It Started

One of my favorite pastimes in my pre-teen years was walking down the road to the horse barns near my house and standing in the road watching those magnificent beasts.  Sometimes, if I was feeling especially brave, I'd cross the ditch to stand by the fence, hoping one of the horses would see me and come over for a pet.  And hoping I wouldn't get caught trespassing.  

One particular day, early in 1983 I think, I was engrossed enough in the horses to not notice I was being watched.  A tall, dark man with an exotic accent called out to me waving for me come over to him.  Being the rural kid I was, I didn't think anything of doing as he asked.  It wasn't as if he was a total stranger.  I knew him by sight.  He was obviously the guy in charge of the facility.  

He told me his name was Itzik and he was Israeli.  Over the course of several such encounters, he suggested I take riding lessons, which my family could in no way afford.  Then he proposed a way for me to pay for them.  I could clean stalls - after school and on weekends - in exchange for which, he would give me riding lessons.  

I learned to ride English - which is different from the riding you usually see on TV.  Think more 'equestrian event' than 'cowboy' and you'll get the picture.  It was also an amazing opportunity to interact with the horses.  A couple years into it, he paid me to clean the little house he lived in on the property with another of the Israeli workers, Ophir.  Every Thursday, after school, I would walk up to the house and start cleaning.  Two single guys sure do make for a messy house, let me tell you.

While I worked for this man, I learned.  Itzik told me all about his homeland.  He spoke about his time in the military and his life on a kibbutz.  He taught me some Hebrew.  He showed me pictures of the beauty of Israel.  He also talked to me about his studies and the classes he was taking at Michigan State to become a doctor.

Over the course of a few years, I spent a lot of time around Israelis.  The owner of the stables was an American with ties to Israel and he would bring young people over so they could gain work experience.  His own daughter went the other direction and emigrated to Israel.  They were all very nice people.  For a while, I considered emigrating there.  I even looked into majoring in Hebrew and becoming a teacher in Israel.

Yes, I had a tremendous crush on Itzik.  My first case of puppy-love, in fact.  If he knew, he never let on.  The Israelis I met were never anything but nice to me.  Itzik himself was helpful and encouraging at a time when I needed it.  

Eventually, life took me on past the experience.  Life took him elsewhere, too.  Last I knew, he was married and had reached his dream to become a doctor.  Obviously, I didn't go to Israel or even become a teacher.  Hell, the last time I was on a horse was in the 80s.  The only thing that lasted from that series of encounters all those years ago was my love for Israel and the Israeli people.  

Marketing Monday - UNEQUAL

Good morning.  And welcome to Marketing Monday.  Today's offering is UNEQUAL.

Starting today, this dystopian suspense - UNEQUAL - is absolutely free. (Always free with Kindle Unlimited.) Get your copy today! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07LDVFWBS

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 11?

 I counted and it was week 11, but I could've miscounted.  :shrug:  I could go online and check, but meh.  I'm unmotivated this morning.  Big surprise, I know.  Bu then I haven't been overflowing with motivation this year, have I?

You know the drill... no writing, no editing.  The usual marketing.  I moved 20 copies of Project Hermes.  No residuals there yet.  On the upside, my previous marketing efforts have gained me 20+ sales this month so far.  It might not seem like much, but it's better than all but 2 months in the last couple years at least.  So yay.  This week UNEQUAL will be free.  The week after that the entire A Model Curse series will be free.  

No reading.  I DNF'd the book I was reading because it wasn't holding my interest enough.  :shrug:  I might try some non-fiction for a while and see if that sparks me.

No baking.  Which works for me because my ever-widening ass could use a break from all that.

On the activity front, I was pretty busy.  I only spent one day sitting on said EWA.  It's Spring and all the things need doing.  Plus, we had what appears to be the last cold days until next fall, so we were in the woods doing work.  I don't know my weight because stepping on the scale is depressing.  

One of the 'needs doing' things is clearing my garden beds of the leaves from last fall.  Yesterday, I hauled about 4 wheelbarrow loads of leaves out of the front garden.  My peonies are happy now.  Today, I need to do the shade bed and the south bed.  That'll leave me with the cedar bed in the middle of the yard, which needs weeding more than leaf removal.  

I've also been working on my deck garden.  (See Wednesday's post.)  Unfortunately, it seems like I killed two pots worth of carrots somehow.  I suspect I either knocked them down the day I had to water with the big jug or the first really hot day zapped them.  It disheartening, but I have more seeds, so I can plant again.  Still no sign of the potatoes.  They have until the next time I hit the grocery store (10 days at least) and if I don't see any signs of growth, I'll buy more potatoes to plant.  

I went to Wallyworld.  Yes, prices are up again.  No, I'm not pissed... well, not much... because at least there's a good reason behind it.  I can bear the burden of higher prices if it means crushing the Iranian regime.  The little bit of pissed I am comes more from the idea that some of these prices were raised in anticipation of rising costs.  

Not much else going on in my life, really.  It's hot but I'll get used to it.  I'm a little sore from bending over the garden yesterday, but I'll get over it.  All in all, I don't have much to bitch about.  (Not that that's ever stopped me before. LOL)

Have a great day out there, whatever you're doing.  Peace out.

Thursday This n That

Facebook is screwing with me again.  Now, it won't let me react to any posts, including my own.  This is the image I screen-captured:

I mean, how ridiculous.  I can post and comment and share, but I can't like, love, or make angwy* face or wow face... turds.  If I didn't need FB to market my books, I'd chuck the whole damn thing.

Finn's walking around the house meowing like he's lost.  Silly cat.  Kira used to do that from time to time, and I never did figure out why.  Oh, the mysteries of the feline brain.

And Hubs just informed me that Finn had jumped up on the bookshelf to get beside the TV and was sitting there like the RCA dog while Sawyer watched from down below.  When I went to investigate, they both ran to the treat cupboard like they hadn't just committed an act of pre-vandalism.  I swear... those boys... bang zoom, to the moon.

I had someone comment on a marketing post for AD this morning, giving me a cover critique like I'd asked for his help.  As if I didn't know what that cover looks like.  I gave the guy what his opinion was worth and blocked him.  If that's a new method to get me to engage so that he can spam me, he's sadly mistaken.  A friend of mine calls that sending them to Blockistan.  Heh.

Have you ever been with a guy/girl who critiques everything you do so you'll never believe you're worth anything and therefore never leave them?  I have.  It's a dick move.  Classic mental abuse.  Don't buy it.  Ever.

So, Monday, it was cold, so Hubs and I went into the woods and worked at clearing out the wet-weather creek so it isn't all junky looking.  Afterwards, we both paid for it.  And I learned something - you never know when you're overdoing it until after you've overdone it.

And on that note, I'll leave you to get on with your day.  Make it a good one.

*I meant to spell it that way.  It's what I call this 😡**.

** Blogger call this 😡 'pouting face', which is just stupid. It's angwy face.

The Deck Garden

Since I just finished moving all the plants back outside, after we had a cold snap and they spent more time inside, I thought I'd talk about my deck garden.  As of right now...

My deck garden:
3 x-large - potatoes
4 large - carrots
2 small cedars, 1 medium cedar (Clyde), 1 large cedar (Cecil)
3 dogwood
6 redbud
1 oak
1 buckthorn
2 hickory
1 black cherry
1 unidentified tree/bush

Plus, I still have 4 green peppers in the spare room that need to go into larger pots and go outside. I'm not even counting the tomatoes because I haven't bought the seedlings yet, but there'll probably be 6 of those. Woot.

The carrots are bursting up out of the soil, so yay. Those will need to be thinned soon. No sign of potatoes yet. If I don't see movement soon, I'll buy more taters and replant.

Of the trees, most of them are showing some signs of life after overwintering in the garage. The ones that aren't showing sings yet are one hickory, one redbud, and one dogwood. Those all might be dead. We'll see. The oak has the cutest, teeny-tiny leaves. If it had cheeks, I'd want to pinch them. (If you weren't already aware that I'm weird, you must be new here.)

The black cherry is actually three tiny trunks that I dug up together and planted together, not knowing what they were. When fall came, the leaves turned a pale peachy pink, which made me think they're black cherry trees. And now with their spring leaves, I'm like 95% certain of the species. Yay. I'll repot those into a bigger container and they'll spend another year being babied before they go into the yard.

Cecil the Cedar is the one I transplanted as an inch-high seedling I found in the garden back in 2021. That means he's probably 5 years old, maybe 6 if I consider he probably started growing in the garden in late 2020. (He had a pot-mate - Cedric - but it died.) Cecil is gorgeous and will go in the yard next month. Clyde was transplanted from where he was growing under the deck. He's kind of retarded, but I love him. He'll go into the woods to thrive there.

One of the redbuds and one of the dogwoods will go in the yard somewhere either this year or next. The rest will be transplanted into the woods. I need to put some out there sooner rather than later because I need their pots for tomatoes. Or I'll just buy more pots and nurture them for another year. I'm goofy that way. I'm trying not to be a helicopter parent to my trees, but after I lost Elmer the Elm to ravenous deer, I'm being more protective of my little trees. We'll see how it goes.

Anyway, those are the garden stats right now. I'll post more as things develop. Have a great rest of your day!

Marketing Monday - Project Hermes

So, this morning, it's colder than a witch's nose after being in the mid-70s the day before and I'm not happy about it.  Nevertheless, it's Monday, which means marketing.  Keeping with the whole 'doing the books in order of publication*, here's the fourth book published:

Starting today, get this taut political/medical suspense - PROJECT HERMES - absolutely free! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017Y6G0EW

All thanks, once more, to Silver James, who made me that graphic.  It rocks and so does she.

*This likely won't happen again next week.  The next book in the publication order is the second book in a series and I'd rather wait a bit after the first ones went free before I offer the second ones.

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 10

Well, there's another week shot to hell gone by.  What happened?  :shrug:  Drama llama.

Of course, there was no writing or editing.  Marketing was done, but little movement of books was seen.  I moved 28 free copies of WIOH and got one sale for that after the freebie was over.  I'm still moving some SCIU books, though, so yay.  I've actually sold nearly 15 books this month - regular sales and pages reads - so I can't gripe.

No reading.

No baking.

Very little carving.

I did some cleaning and some garden work, so 4 out of 7 days had some activity.  I didn't weigh myself.

In garden news, I have tiny carrot seedlings in all four pots.  I'll thin those when they get a little bigger.  Nothing's happening in the potato pots, except for the ravages of a squirrel that decided it wanted to dig around.  Little bastard.  I've treated all those pots with chili powder and no more forays from Mr. Squirrel since.  It also looks like a majority of my baby trees have signs of leave buds.  Some of them even have leaves!  Everything needs to go in the garage today, though, because we're getting a freeze starting today.  

In other garden news, I've cleared the dead leaves out of 4 beds now.  Only five more beds to go.  The beds should be fine in the freeze.  

Other than that, we've been in the clutches of family drama again.  I can't give the details because they're not my details to give.  Needless to say, though, it's been all-encompassing and there's been very little room in my brain for anything else.  

A couple of days there, I did get out of the house and hit the thrift store for a little retail therapy.  The first time, I didn't buy anything.  The next day, I went back for a couple things I'd seen, since I'd had time to think about them.  Item 1: I got a handmade wood cabinet with shelves and a door for $10.  The door's hinges were wonky, though.  I tried to fix it, but in the end just removed the door.  Now it's a nice shelving unit. The other thing I got was a pair of stackable shelving units ($15 for both).  They're not high enough to put books in, so I gave them to Hubs for the garage.  Woot. I also picked up a cute painting of birds and birdhouses.  The painting is on wood and it was only $1, so yay.  I had intended to buy this neat kitchen island thing, but in the end, I didn't think it would fit in my car.  

Once the shelving unit was cleaned and polished, I put it in the living room and shifted books onto it from the full office shelves.  Then I shifted books around in the office.  I have room on my shelves again!  It was getting pretty close to me needing to thin my library out, so yay.  (I hate thinning my library.)  

On the upside, it seems like the family drama is finally actually over and all is well again, so we can get back to using our brains for something other than that.  Woot.  I actually have been feeling like I need to write, so maybe next week you'll get to see something about that.  I'm not promising anything, though.

Anyway, that's it for me.  Have a great day wherever you are.  :hugs:

Thursday This n That - The Saga of the Recliner

Okay, so Hubs' recliner... well, both of our recliners... are going on 13 years old and frankly, they've seen better days.  But Hubs' chair has always been a little iffy in the seat.  Well, his springs started popping ages ago and the last time I vacuumed underneath it, I saw he only had one unbroken spring left.  I sat in it the other day and felt like I was falling through to the floor.

So, I got this idea to use strapping to replace the springs.  It was actually pretty inspired, if I do say so myself.  I ordered the strapping from Amazon - 2" heavy-duty nylon strapping in brown.  A 10-yard roll of it costs like $14.  Yesterday afternoon, Hubs reminded me that it was here and we were going to do something with it.  We flipped the chair and surveyed the problem.  

I had initially thought we could just go in there with the bolt cutters, snip off the broken springs, and then nail in lengths of strapping.  Well... It ended up being more complicated than that.  We wound up removing the entire apparatus of the rocking/reclining part of the chair.  Once that was off, yeah, it was pretty easy to cut the springs off and put the strapping on.  Then we had to put it all back together.  Which was not easy.  The whole thing took about 3 hours.  I hurt.  Hubs hurts.  But it's done.  And I curse the day Ashley, and all those who assembled these chairs, were born.

We discovered an interesting thing when we started taking the chair apart.  There are way more holes for bolts than there are actual bolts.  And the bottom part of the assembly is held on with only two wood screws.  I mean, it made taking the thing apart easier, sure, but all told, the entire assembly only had two wood screws in the bottom and four bolts in the top.  One would think there would be more.  Hell, they used two bolts just to put on the lever than makes the chair recline, for pitysakes.  Sheesh.  

We are NOT tackling my recliner any time soon.  It's only got one popped spring, so it's still viable as a sitting apparatus.  On the upside, we now know how to do it and the length we'll need to cut strips of strapping to (and the # of straps we'll need).  

The cats, who were locked in the office the whole time, were not amused.

Marketing Monday - Wish in One Hand

It's Monday, which means marketing.  It's also the day after the Spring time change, which means I am dragging ass running late.  Have mercy on me.

Starting today, the thrilling, snarky, paranormal suspense - WISH IN ONE HAND - is absolutely free. (Always free with Kindle Unlimited.) Get your copy now! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B013RVEF0Y

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 9

 Argh.  Time change... I'm later posting this than I thought I was.  Derp.  

I didn't get much sleep last night.  I went to bed at 9 like a good girl, but I couldn't sleep and then Sawyer was being a turd, so I just got up.  I finally went back to bed at midnight.  Unfortunately, I still laid there.  And I had no sooner fallen asleep when I had to pee.  

Anyway...  Per my current outlook on life, no writing or editing.  I did some marketing for AD, but didn't really move many books.  Tomorrow WIOH goes on the freebie block.  (You might notice that for this 90-day run, so far, the books have been in the order in which they were published.  I'm not sure how long I'll continue this, but there it is.)

I'm still reading duMaurier.  I'm about halfway through.

Earlier this week, I made raisin walnut quick bread.  Yums.

On the activity front, it's been less about burning calories than accomplishing stuff.  I did some gardening and some carving, groceries, etc.  I haven't weighed myself since last week.  I don't expect the number to have changed.

As for carving, all my supplies are here and I'm in the process of teaching myself how to use the tools.  I have a big chunk of cedar on the sunporch for that purpose.  While I was messing with it, a thin piece came off in my hand, so now I'm carving on that.  It's probably 8 inches by 4 inches and maybe a third of an inch thick.  It's shape reminded me of feathers, so I'm trying to make that happen.  I also might cut the end of the chunk off to make myself a cube of wood and turn that into a sphere.  Additionally, my salesman brain got the idea to carve baby bunnies wearing diapers... and now I know that there are places where you can buy diapers to put on rabbits.  Anyway, I'm still excited about the hobby, so yay.

On the gardening front, I planted the carrot seeds and the potato chunks.  Now we wait.  Still no sign from most of the trees that they are, in fact, still alive.  :shrug:  It's early yet.  If they don't make it, I'll use their pots for veggies and other volunteer trees and try again next year.  This isn't a short game I'm playin' here.  Oh, and I need to move my pepper plants outside.  Heh, one of my peppers has a carrot growing in with it.  A baby carrot I bought to eat was starting to grow in the fridge.  I cut the top off and stuck it into a pot with one of the peppers.  It's kinda cute, so I'll keep it.

Anyway, I think that's it for me this morning.  Not exactly what you might have stopped here looking for, but I hope my humdrum existence was a little interesting for you.

Einstein Wasn't Always Right

I've heard a quote from Einstein to the effect that if you can't explain something so that a 5 year old could understand it, then you don't know the thing.  :shrug:  Sorry, but my brain doesn't work that way.  I can know a thing and understand it inside my head, and still not be able to explain it outside my head.  Hell, you should hear me just trying to have a random conversation with poor Hubs.  I get words wrong - substituting the totally wrong word in a sentence and not even realizing it.  I stumble.  I stammer.  I'm a fucking verbal mess about 80% of the time.  (Hubs is very patient or he would've divorced my ass ages ago.)

I'm better on paper.  I might be able to explain something to a five year old when it's written down, but then the five year old wouldn't understand it because of his reading level.  Even then, though, I still substitute words without knowing it.  Sometimes, it's simply substituting one homonym for another.  Sometimes it's substituting a synonym.  Occasionally, it's an antonym, which really screws up the meaning of a sentence.  Every once it a while, my brain throws in a word that isn't any of those and has nothing whatsoever to do with the word I had in mind - which I'm usually positive WAS the word I had in mind until I go back and edit.  Then I'm all like 'what the hell do I even mean here?'

Thank goodness for editing.  Unfortunately, I can't even what I say once it's out of my mouth.  Random people I encounter on the outside world often look at me like I'm a moron.  That's okay.  I can sometimes sound like a moron.  I don't let it get to me anymore.  Oh, it used to frustrate the hell out of me, but I made my peace with this brain thing ages ago.  For the most part... I still have my days of irritation.  Again, all props to Hubs and his patience.

I kind of felt bad for the people I worked with.  I never told them about my brain damage.  I needed the job and I knew I was able to do the job without too much of a problem.  And I was right.  Occasionally, though, my co-workers had to contend with my long pauses while my brain searched for the right words, rather than let the wrong words pop out.  The good ones got used to it, the not-so-good ones continued to let it bother them.  The good co-workers learned that when I finally did resumed talking again, I knew what I was talking about.  Of course, all of my issues get worse when I'm hurried or stressed or tired - all of which were functions of my job at the time.  

And this is why I don't do debates or confrontation, even online.  I get all het up about it and then even my fingers betray me.  Nope, not worth it.  I'm better just dropping an opinion and walking away.  This blog allows me to do that.  You don't like my opinions, fine.  You can walk away, too.  But don't try to debate me or confront me.  It won't happen.  I'll block you and wander off to do something much more enjoyable - like an at-home root canal.  

Anyway, I'm just sayin'.  Einstein wasn't always right.  ;o)