Sunday Update - 2026 Week 26

 Halfway through the year.  Woot.  It's been a better year so far than a lot of years, even with the Iran thing, so I'm calling it a win.

Writing last week wasn't great, but it was better than the week before, so yay.  I ended up adding 2218 words to Shroudlands #2 (Song of Dream and Dragon?  Dream of Demon and Shroud?  Song of Mage and Shroud? Meh.), putting it at 40970 words total.  I'll try to do better this week.  I really need to stop overthinking it and just get the damn dirty draft done.

Marketing was lame.  FB started the week by being turdy.  And it didn't help that this week sucked for sleeping, which meant I woke up last every damn day, which makes getting those important first-thing-in-the-morning posts impossible.  Anyway, I moved 19 copies of Thicker Than Water.  :sad trombone:  I don't think I'll do any marketing this week.  

Don't ask me about reading.  

In baking news, I made a batch of Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies on Sunday.  We tore through those by Friday.  Yesterday, I tried a different recipe for cookies.  I tried halving the recipe, fucked it up, and ended up with what I'm referring to as Retard Cookies.  They're tasty and we'll eat them, but they're kinda like a cross between a regular cookie and a florentine.  I also made a pizza yesterday and the crust was not right. Not as far off as those cookies, but still.  It must've been brainfart baking day.

On the activity front, I did active things on 4 days - yardwork, cleaning, gardening, groceries.  (And making pizza counts as exercise, so there.)  Weight: 178.4 - yep, lost a pound last week.  Imagine if I could lose a pound a week.  I'd be at my target weight by the end of the year.  Heh, like that'll happen.

Hubs just came in from feeding the deer and informed me that we have 4 fawns down by the pans.  Yay.  I love fawn times.  

Gardening... I harvested Pedro this week.  He produced 6 small potatoes.  (We ate them, sliced thin and sautéed with chicken and mushrooms. Yum.)  I checked the other potato plants and no more potatoes.  Several of those plants got pushed back into the ground in hopes they'll continue to grow.  Fingers crossed.  Nothing else is ready to harvest.  Nothing is blooming at the moment.  I think I need to re-dirt the tomatoes or refeed them.  The peppers and the carrots are doing good, so yay.

My path project is coming along.  I'm about halfway through weeding the front rock path than runs along the flower bed.  Meanwhile, Hubs has been weeding the whole driveway and he's almost done.  He works harder than I do, but then again, he's a dude.  He said he'd finish my project when he gets done with the driveway.  ENABLER!  Anyway, that usually gives me the kick in the ass I need to get 'er done, so expect to see that in my update next week.  

And speaking of that, the day's not getting any cooler.  Time to get dressed, get covered in bug spray, and get digging.  Have a great day and an awesome week.  See y'all soon.  Peace out.

Thursday This n That

 You know how people say they can predict the weather by the body parts that hurt?  I've decided it's not the weather, it's the barometric pressure that causes previously broken bones to ache.  Yeah, I've been thinking about this because the ankle that I probably broke (but never went to a doctor for) a few years back is shrieking at me.  Oh, and my broken bones scream at me in reverse order - newest to oldest - which is why that ankle is taking the stage ahead of the foot, the pelvis, the thigh, or the collar bone.  Actually I'm kinda thankful the pelvis breaks are being quiet.  When those hurt, it feels like someone kicked me in the crotch.  Not fun.

Potatoes.  The package of seedling potatoes I bought says 90-120 days from planting to harvest.  Several sites online say you harvest potatoes after the green parts turn brown and die back.  I need to research this further because why would they die back if they're happy and well-fed in the greenhouse??  But if that's not the key indicator, how will I know if they're ready at 90 days or at 120 days or somewhere along the way?  It's not like I can see the potatoes growing under the dirt there.  I told Hubs I need ground-penetrating radar, like they use to look for bodies, but small so I can look for potatoes.

I've been procrastinating about going shopping, so I really have to go today.  I have Old Mother Hubbard's freezer.  There's one chicken breast and one container of soup.  Oh, and a boatload of frozey-pops.  This does not bode well for a yummy dinner, so off to Wallyworld later this morning.  The cats are also down to one can of food, which is tragic.  Or will be if I don't get them more food today.

Hubs just came in with the coffee pot to refill my mug.  I picked it up and hovered over it like Golem, saying 'my precious'.  We laughed... well, I laughed anyway.

Roku 'monsters' channel was having an Abbott and Costello marathon yesterday - A&C Meet Frankenstein, A&C Meet the Invisible Man, A&C Meet the Mummy.  I watched part of the first and part of the last.  (The Invisible Man one was never my favorite.)  I used to have the mummy one on VHS.  I do love me some Abbott and Costello.  

Speaking of The Mummy, the best book of that sub-genre is Anne Rice's - The Mummy (or Ramses the Damned).  I think it's her best book, but that's me.  

Okay, I'd better get back to marketing.  (Not that it's doing me much good, but it's better than nothing.)  Have a great day wherever you are.  Peace out.

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.

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.