Sunday Update - 2026 Week 25

Okay, so it's Week 25.  Imagine that.  It makes sense, though, since we're about halfway through 2026 and half of 52 is 26.  Look at me, mathing in the morning and junk.

I was a slug this week.  I only wrote once for 909 words.  I could make excuses, but meh.  Marketing also didn't go well, but even so, I moved 57 copies of DE.  People must not read much in the summer because my page reads are way down.  :shrug: I'm halfway between marketing a book this week and not bothering.  Tune in tomorrow to see what the choice ended up being.

No reading.

I made a batch of my Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies this week.  We finished them yesterday.  6 days for 2 people to demolish 35 cookies.  I might make more cookies today - only because I'm tired of paying for cookies.  Then I'll get tired of making cookies and go back to buying them again.  It's a vicious circle.

This past week, I did all sorts of active things.  I sewed the cover for the cat bed I made, took two walks, did stuff with the greenhouse garden, worked in the yard, and went grocery shopping.  I don't think any of that was particularly calorie-burning, though.  (Maybe the yard work.)  Weight: 179.4

I'm not sure if I talked about the cat bed I made a couple weeks.  I took a 'feather' topper for a queen-sized mattress, folded in half, and stuffed into a queen-sized flat sheet that was folded in half and safety pinned.  Well, one evening, Sawyer being Sawyer, discovered the safety pins and decided to attack.  I had to remove them so he wouldn't hurt himself.  The next day, I sat down and sewed the seams where the safety pins had been.  Then Hubs and I wrestled the topper back into it.  It looks good and the cats enjoy it, and now it's safe.

The greenhouse garden is chugging right along.  Still only two tomatoes - both of them ripened and we ate them.  I learned this week that carrots don't like it hot, and it's hot in the greenhouse, so there ya are.  The tops of the carrots are still pretty small and I'm not seeing the shoulders of the carrots yet, so I'm not harvesting, even though that pot has been growing since early March.  The potatoes... same.  The two surviving green peppers from last year that got munched... One is thriving.  The other is pathetic.  The three peppers I rescued from the feed store are doing okay.  Some of the trees are getting big, but I had to give the last rites to two oaks and a hickory.  I don't think pot life is good for those species.  The redbuds in the ground - Randy and Rudy - are trying to live, but critters aren't making it easy for them.

Working in the yard... Well, I had planned to go out and start digging up the rock paths to remove weeds, etc., but Hubs was out picking up sticks left by the last few storms.  I ended up helping him and then I got the idea that it was about time to prune back the cedars, so we did that.  Then we had to go around and pick up all those limbs.  By the time we did all that, I was tired, so the weeding project got put on hold.  We're starting that this morning - me on the paths and Hubs on the driveway.  Gah, the driveway... we haven't hit those weeds in years and it's so bad that you can hardly tell where the driveway is.  It all looks like yard.  None of this will be done in a day.  Tune in next week to hear how well we progressed.

The fawns are coming into the yard more often, but I keep forgetting to put out the trail cam.  Maybe I'll remember today, so I can post pics next Saturday.  

And I think that's about it.  Busy busy... or at least the illusion of busyness.  Have a great week wherever you are.  :hugs:

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 22

What a week I had.  Let's see if I can reconstruct it...

Okay, so I didn't do anything writerly.  I took the week off from marketing, too.  I didn't even get my spreadsheets ready for June - which is something I have to do today.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.

There was reading... see yesterday's post.

I made banana bread and pizza this week.  Woot.  And yum.  The pizza was yesterday, so I'll have pizza for breakfast today.  Yay!

The big update is activity, because I was busy busy this week.  I got in 4.8 miles worth of walks on 4 separate days.  Plus, I did a bunch of errand running, plus groceries.  Unfortunately, it didn't equal weight loss, so... Weight 173.8.  :shrug:  

So, you're saying to yourself, what made you so damn busy?  I guess in the scheme of other peoples' busyness, I wasn't really.  But for me, this was a busy week.  Tuesday, I did groceries.  Wednesday, I went northwest to get my car inspected and then over to the DMV to get my plates and my license renewed. (and pick up Chinese food for lunch.)  Friday, I went northeast to get Hubs' prescriptions and run errands up there - bank, supply store, grocery store, thrift store.  Since I stopped working, I don't get around much anymore.  Anyway, all that made me tired, so here I am.  And yes, I would like some cheese with that whine.

Gardening update... Everything is growing, except the green pepper seeds I planted a week ago yesterday.  I wasn't really expecting anything there, but I wanted to be happily surprised.  :shrug:  The tomatoes are getting tall, but not really spreading out much and no flowers yet, so no fruit on the way.  The little trees are all doing their things.  Yeah, not exciting news.

This week, I really need to weed the beds again, and continue to work on weeding the front rock path.  I also need to vacuum.  The dustbunnies are starting to gain sentience.

What's on your list for last week?  What's on the menu for this week?  

Thursday This n That

 Dang, I missed Thursday again.  That sucker just flew past with no regard for my blog.  Ah, well.  Better late than never.  I really had intended to do better this year.  Derp.

I read a FB comment this morning where someone was saying how much they enjoyed a particular suspense novel and, at the end, they said 'may contain triggers for some people'.  Ummm... I would reckon that everything contains a trigger for some people.  I would also reckon that if a book contains nothing that would make anyone uncomfortable, it's not a very interesting book.  Jus' sayin'.

I wrote a book about a serial rapist - FERTILE GROUND.  Did I put trigger warnings on it?  Nope.  It's right there in the blurb.  For the record, though, the book contains no actual rape scenes.  I didn't feel the need to be explicit in order to keep the pedal to the metal on the suspense.  And I made the end ultra-satisfying.  Well, I found it satisfying.  :evil grin:

This entire week has been one big slam-fest at work.  I thought I was busy before, but this week made a lie out of that.  I drank a pot of coffee yesterday just to keep up.  Man, I was flyin'.  Woohoo.  Too much more of that and I might actually turn into diffuse ball of charged particles.  So, if I disappear and you just see a glow hovering over SW Missouri, that's me.

Huh, I just noticed it's Friday the 13th.  Make sure you leave milk and cookies out for Jason Voorhies.  Eh, I'm not a suspicious sort, but it fun to joke about.  Of course, if today turns out to suck, I can blame the date. LOL

I actually got to use my writing skills this week.  A big important letter needed to go out and they handed it to me to edit.  I took the general gist of it and rewrote it (after I told the original creator I was going to rewrite it and got his okee-dokee.)  I received much praise for the end result.  Yay.

For the record, everything I say I've done, I've actually done.  Jus' sayin'.  And yeah, I know... many of the things I've done were a couple decades ago.  I must be rusty, but I still have the chops.

Okay, I should probably wrap this up and go about my day, so you can go about yours.  Have a great one!

Sunday Update - Week 44

It was a week, lemme tell ya.  Mostly work related and mostly stuff I can't talk about online.  Wednesday was weird.  Friday sucked.  Details will not be forthcoming.

Anyway, I read some stuff.  I'm only one book behind schedule now.  I still have to read 13 books between now and the end of the year to reach my goal, though, so I'm not sure that's possible.  We'll see.

I made zucchini bread last Sunday.  I might make cranberry apple something today, because cranberries were on sale at Wallyworld, so I couldn't pass those suckers up.

Not really much activity this week.  I swept the office again.  The other half this time.  Woohoo.  Still lost 1.8 pounds since last Sunday.  Weight: 164.6.  I'd like to stop at like 150 or thereabouts, but we'll see if it's possible to stop.  I worked a job in FL that got me down to 110.  I was ugly-skinny at that point, trust me.  I might have to switch off diet dew (Wallyworld brand, of course) and start eating breakfast.

On the upside, the two pairs of pants I bought last month that were a little tight fit now.  I look smashing in the red pants with a sheer red shirt and a tank top underneath that.  The pinstripe pants are yet to be worn because I can't quite figure out the best tops to go with them.  Maybe tomorrow.

Oh oh oh, my sleeveless turtleneck tops arrived!  Took them long enough.  I love them.  They look and feel awesome on me.  We'll see how they fare after they're washed.  One is black and the other is purple like deep amethyst.  I do love me some gem colors.

Last weekend, I bought worms in a spate of optimism.  I still haven't gone fishing.  Maybe today.  We really should put new line on all the reels, though.  And we need to rake the yard.  There are too many things to do on my days off to spare a few hours for fishing.  Of course, my weekends now typically consist of sitting and reading and watching TV.  After a week of work, I don't really want to do anything else.  :shrug:

Of course, last night was the time change.  As always, we didn't change the clocks before we went to bed, so right now half the clocks are right and the other half are an hour ahead.  I'll go change those in a while.  Every clock thing in the kitchen and the one in the bedroom don't change themselves.  On the upside, it'll be light when I go to work.  On the downside, it'll be dark when I come home.  Turds.

Everything else is fine.  The family is fine.  The critters are fine.  The world isn't fine, but there's nothing I can do about that.  We'll vote on Tuesday before I have to head to work.  I'm not sure it'll do any good, but not voting definitely won't.  So go vote.

And on that note, I'll let you get back to your day.  Have a great one!  And drop a note to tell me how your week went.  =o)

Thursday This n That

 I get these emails from Ancestry letting me know when they found something interesting in one of my trees.  I used to get them and heave a sigh because I didn't have the money.  Now, I have the money, but I have no time.  :heavy sigh:

Speaking of time, we're supposed to be implementing a new thing at the office where we schedule our tasks throughout the day.  It's a fine idea.  We are all exceptionally busy all day and working more efficiently is always a good thing.  Except for when it comes to my job it's probably pissing into the wind.  You see, I am point man on answering the phones.  And they ring A LOT.  And just about every call is critical.  Now, if I was just answering the phones and passing the call along, scheduling my day might be doable, but I'm answering the phones, then a) dealing with the calls myself, b) taking lengthy messages and either sending the info through on chat or in email, c) hunting down people when it's critical... you get the picture.  I will attempt to schedule, though.  Actually, now that I think about it I already do to some extent.  I have to or I'd already be insane.

And my phone is the wonky one at the office.  Woohoo.  They keep saying they'll fix it, but no one has time, so I deal.  Improvise, adapt, and overcome.  Hoorah.

I made the decision when I started working that I wouldn't talk about the specifics of where I work.  It keeps my online life separate from my work life.  That and I already know they researched me online before they hired me, so they could be reading this right now.  :waves:  Besides, I don't necessarily want the people who've been nasty to me on the phone to connect there with here.  (They still could if they tried really hard, but why make it easier?)

We bought a new mattress on Saturday.  I'd like to say I love it.  :shrug:  I'm getting used to it.  

And with that, I'll let you go because it's just about time to get ready for work.  See ya in the funny papers.  ;o)

Sunday Update - Week 29

We're more than halfway through the year.  Things are looking up on a personal level.  We won't talk about on a world level, k?  I'm just muddling through and trying to live my life here.

I thought about writing yesterday.  That's actually a step forward.  I also tried to come up with a schedule with which I can get some words out without burning myself to a crispy critter.  It may involve writing in the morning. That hasn't worked for me in the past, but hey, this is a new world I'm working in, so maybe there's hope.  

I managed to finish reading two books last week.  Yay.  I'm still behind on my goal, but I'm not dropping further behind, so that's something.  

In baking news, I made cake cookies last Sunday.  Today, I need to make zucchini bread.  

At work, I was relaying what I thought was a funny story about getting home from work and then doing spreadsheets, wherein I attached the wrong file and sent it to the office.  It was posited that perhaps I was stretching myself too thin.  Eh.  I've attached the wrong file when I wasn't doing a day-job, too.  I make mistakes.  In the scheme of things, it wasn't the worst mistake I could've made.  Hell, I could've sent the right file to all the wrong people.  THAT would've been bad.  Yes, I am tired.  It's just a matter of getting used to all of this and acclimating myself to working when I haven't.  :shrug:  I must be getting used to it, or my brain wouldn't be thinking about throwing writing into the mix, too.  I tell you one thing, I probably won't write on the nights I have spreadsheets to do, too.  Hence, the maybe writing in the morning.  

Thankfully, Hubs is doing a most excellent job of taking care of the house, so really all I have to do is cook dinner.  And some nights, he does that, too.  Or we have leftovers or sandwiches.  It's all good, baby.

We had a bit of a scare this week.  Lumpy came into the yard with only one twin.  Fortunately, the next day, she had both of them with her.  I suspect the boy is starting to get more independent and decided he didn't want to follow Mom that day.  Nature can be a bitch, though, so if we lost one, it wouldn't be totally surprising.  Just sad.  

We're starting to see bucks again.  And we're playing the game of 'wonder which one is Sonny'.  For those of you who are new here, Sonny is Lumpy's son from two years ago who hung around with his Mom and his twin sister, Sissy, until last year's rut.  He's out there amongst the bucks somewhere.  I expect he'll be a little bit tamer than the other bucks because his mother and his sister are so much tamer.  They know which human is the food-bringer and what yard to find him in.  So Hubs can basically walk right by them and they follow him down to the feed pans, like big dogs.  They do not get close enough to touch, which is the way we want it, but they let him get closer than any other deer would.  

We have a bitty bunny hanging out here now.  She's about 2/3rd size of an adult rabbit.  And very chill.  Like the deer, she knows where she can get food and water, and remain safe.  Welcome to the menagerie, Bitty Bunny.

It's been so hot here.  And so dry.  Hubs has been watering my gardens so my plants don't die.  I don't expect great things from them this year.  If we can just keep them all alive, maybe next year will be better.  The vegetable plants... well, they're annual, so there won't be a next year for them.  But hey, they're alive, even if they are nowhere near putting forth anything edible.  

Well, that was a long-ass post.  Sorry.  Loads to say, I guess.  Anyway, thanks for reading this far.  Leave a comment, if you're not too tired from reading, and tell me what your week was like.

The hot and the dry are making life hard for the animals.  Which, I suspect, is why the deer have been eating my irises.  They don't usually do that.  Irises are not a food of choice for the deer.  This year?  Munch munch munch.  Like the hard winter where they ate my coral bells (another plant they aren't supposed to eat).  It is what it is.  

Speaking of deer eating things, they have ruinated Elmer the elm.  He's just a stick in the dirt now.  Hubs keeps watering it, but I think it's a lost cause.  :shrug:  We still have Cecil and Cedric cedars, though.  Fingers crossed that when they finally go into the ground, the deer leave them alone.

Thursday This n That

Unexpectedly had yesterday off.  I took the opportunity to get some shopping done and then I made a vat of homemade spaghetti sauce - enough for 4 meals.  You see, a neighbor brought us another big bag of tomatoes.  So first I had to parboil and skin those.  I had so many, it just made sense to turn them into sauce.  They also brought us 5 more zucchinis from the plants I gave them.  Not sure how many zukes that is now, but man, my babies produced.  Well, my babies produced as long as someone else was raising them.  He said he's turning over the garden today, so that's the last of them, but I have bags and bags of zucchini in the freezer.  Yay.

Oddly enough, we did not have spaghetti for dinner.  We had hot dogs and french fries.  It was too hot to actually want to eat a big carb-loaded meal.  

Last night, my friend called.  I have today off, too.  I think I'll take care of those zucchinis and make another batch of bread.  Maybe I'll clean my bathroom, too.  Or I'll vegetate and rest up for tomorrow.

I have today off because their pre-sale home inspection got scheduled for today.  Fingers crossed we did enough to satisfy FHA and what we didn't do, but still plan on doing, will get them through to the sale.  We still have one wall of the garage to do and both decks to power wash and stain.  We'll get 'er done.

One of our fawns has visible antler bumps now.  Baby buck!  Yay!

Remember when nobody stuck their nose into anyone else's health business?  Pepperidge Farms remembers.  I think it started with cigarettes.  Maybe it started with eating.  What you do with your body is no one else's business.  You really are not your brother's keeper.  Yeah, yeah, health insurance ties us all together somehow, which is wrong.  

Speaking of which, did you get a health insurance refund?  I looked it up and it seems that insurance companies didn't spend as much as they were allowed to spend versus the amount of premiums they took in last year.  Why?  Because fewer people are seeing doctors for non-essential things now.  One of the things they listed was elective surgery.  I thought elective surgeries were never covered under insurance.  :shrug:  So, it seems like more people are treating medical care like I've treated it for years - don't go to a doctor unless you actually need a doctor/  Huzzah.

What a world.

Anyway, that's about it for me.  How are things with you?