Thursday This n That

May day!  May day!  (Heh, I like doing that every May 1st, but I'm weird.)

Reposted from yesterday's FB status update: So, I just got back from the thrift store.  I picked out two books to buy - a paperback and a hardcover.  When I get to the register, the chick there tries to tell me the paperback is $5. When I balked at that, she said 'well, it was printed in the '40s, so it's vintage.  I told her no and that was the original print date.  She tried to tell me it was the only print date in there, so I opened it to the copyright page, scanned it briefly, and then pointed to where it said 20th printing 1975.  She backed down and only charged me $1, but she was kinda snotty about it.  Kids these days.  She's probably never opened a damn book in her life.  

It's bad enough that this thrift store jacked the prices of their books up from 5 for $1 to 4 for $1 to $1 each for paperbacks, from 50c to $2 for hardcovers, and $5 for anything older than 1970 (vintage to them).  The other two nearby stores charges 25c ea for paperbacks.  Last time I get books at today's place, lemme tell ya.  I can handle the price, but dealing with snotty little twits just ruins the experience for me.  =o\

This morning, Hubs looked out the window and saw what he thought were several deer, then he realized one of them was actually the neighbor's dog, Copper.  (He's an old red-bone coonhound, so deer colored and about the same size.)  Well, ol' Copper was just sniffing around he own yard and the deer were standing there watching him - no more than 10-12 feet away.  They'd advance a step and then back up a step while Copper continued sniffing and not paying attention to them.  Finally, he wandered over to sniff another part of the yard and the deer walked away.  It was pretty funny, but I guess you had to be there.

I want cinnamon rolls, but I'm too lazy and I'm trying to cut back on the baked goods anyway.

Right now, there are all sorts of birds twittering away in the trees every morning.  I'm pretty good at identifying birds by their songs usually, but I'm hearing some stuff I've never heard before.  Fun.

We had a big ol' rat snake in the yard the other day.  Hubs and I went out to encourage it to leave, and it was going pretty well until the snake decided to turn and confront us.  I took the rake and got the tines up under it and flung it into the woods.  It was last seen headed down the hill and away from the yard.  No snakes were harmed in that encounter.  It better not come back, though.  Our courtesy only extends so far with snakes - harmless or not.  

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

Thursday This n That

I'm going in late today, but I'm running late anyway. And I forgot it was Thursday.  Derp.

Well, the moms both got and opened their Christmas gifts.  They're both happy with them.  Yay.  I found these neat mugs on Etsy with states on them. Each mug has two states - the one we're in and the one they're in - connected with flowers and filigree stuff.  Very pretty.  So they're there and we're here, but we're still connected.  :sniffle: 

And the cards I sent out should be arriving at their locations.  I know one of my nephews in Michigan got his.  Yay.

Yesterday, on my way home, I saw one of my neighbor's dogs running down the road.  I stopped and yelled her name and told her to get home.  She turned and headed right for their front porch.  Good girl!

I was out smoking the other day and heard eagles.  When I looked up, there were three of them circling.  Awesome.

And that's all I've got for today.  Mostly because I need to get ready for work, but partly because I don't lead that interesting of a life anymore. LOL

What's on your list today?

Thursday This n That

I won a poker tournament this week.  Wanna see?

First out of 225.  Yay.  I hit final table with the least amount of money.  The two guys with the most amount went out like third and fifth.  When we got to heads-up, the other guy had like 3.7 million to my 800K.  We went back and forth for about 20 minutes.  Then when I had like 2/3rds of the chips, he went all in and I made a flush.  Woohoo.

In other news, my book went live at Amazon on Wednesday.  Yesterday, it went live on Apple, Kobo, B&N and some other places.  Click here for the universal link.  So pretty.

I spent most of yesterday being a toad.  Today, I'll get back to work.  The voices in my head are having a war about which book to do and they're bombarding me with scenes.  One side is throwing scenes for SCIU #4.  The other side is chucking bits of Shroudlands #2.  Gah.  Not sure who'll win yet, but the battle is fierce.

There's a big black dog running loose in the area.  He's gorgeous.  A black lab mix of some kind.  I swear if I see him out by the highway again, I'm coaxing him into my car and bringing him home.  I'll look for his owners.  Honest I will.  Stop laughing... I'll do it.  Okay, maybe not super hard...  But his coat is clean and shiny, so someone has to own him.  If I see him hit on the highway, though, I'm going to be very sad and extremely pissed.  I think I will call him Rochester.  Of Jane Eyre, not Jack Benny.  

I do have a affinity for Rochester of Jack Benny fame, though.  Have had one since I was a little girl.  I was also super fond of Jimmy Durante.  Ha chatta cha.  And Lou Costello.  Can't watch the old Abbott and Costello movies anymore.  I still love Lou, but Bud pisses me right the hell off.  

There are tiny red buds on my redbud tree.  And itty-bitty leaves on my lilac.  It's supposed to get cold again tonight.  If it freezes and kills my tiny buds, I'm going to have a sad.

This winter has been really weird.  Hot and cold, hot and cold.  Blerg.

Okay, time to toddle off.  Have a great day.  And feel free to drop whatever comments you may before you leave.  

Thursday This n That

The coffee is hot and strong today.  May yours be, too.

I finished looking up and saving all the songs I have written in my little notebook.  Then I shared some with Hubs last night.  He seemed to enjoy the video for Someone to You by BANNERS.  (Watch it all the way to the end.)

Yesterday, while I was on the phone with Mom, Hubs saw a coyote trotting through our woods.  He went to grab the camera, but the bugger was too fast.  We also saw an armadillo a few days before that.  Since the dude who used to kill critters died, and the gal who used to live-trap animals and move them moved herself,  the 'nuisance' animals are slowly coming back.

On the other hand, we've had a big brown dog wandering the neighborhood, too.  Someone we didn't recognize stopped yesterday and asked Hubs if he'd seen the dog, because it had gotten into their garage and stolen a bag of food.  As soon as she drove away, it wandered unconcerned past our house.  I hope it belongs to someone and isn't a drop-off.  Although, a dog as smart as that needs to be my dog... you know, if he doesn't already belong to someone.  I shall call him Rogue.

The unrecognized neighbor (after almost 9 years, we still haven't met most of the people in here, by the way) said Jerry tried to catch it but it ran away.  The only Jerry we could think of is old and doesn't strike us as a dog lover.  Then I remembered there's a female Geri on the other side of the hill who owns a corgi.  It was probably her.  (Turns out there's another dude Jerry, but he is also old and probably not spry enough to try and catch a dog.)  Funny how this gal we'd never met assumed we knew who she was talking about.  Anyway, we think she might belong to the house that's being remodeled.  

In our neighborhood, there are lakeside people and hill people.  They rarely associate with one another.  The gal who moved in next door has lived in the neighborhood for years, but at the beginning of the neighborhood.  (I've known her husband, but just met her.)  She doesn't know many of the people back in here either.  So, maybe there's a third group of people.  

It's an interesting dynamic in this little rural neighborhood, I tell ya.  Like the gal who used to be married to the guy across the street, but now she's married to a guy who lives down the hill.  I don't think I could live in the same neighborhood as any of my exs.  Hell, I don't live in the same state as any of them.  LOL

Okay, I should probably go do something constructive this morning.  Got any this-n-that going on in your neighborhood?

Thursday This n That

 A while back Amazon decided that when they send you a confirmation email after you order a book, it would make the subject some kind of code - which matches neither the ISBN or the ASIN - instead of the book title.  And to see the actual title, you have to click a link in the email.  And then it asks you for your password.  Like this is some kind of state secret.  Blerg.  Are there people out there for whom having the title in the email subject is a real problem?  Are they all like 'OMG, I couldn't bear it if someone saw I'd ordered The Duchess and the Rapacious Rake.'?  Not having the title in the subject, as you might've guessed, is exceptionally irritating to me, since I use those emails to track where I'm at reading the books I've ordered.  Just now, I implemented a new step that fixes it.  I forward the email back to myself and change the subject to the damn book title.  It's an extra step, but it stops messing with my system.  Last year, I ordered 113 books from Amazon.  Try juggling those.  (And yes, I have a spreadsheet with the titles, but that's not the point.)

Why can't people just leave things alone?  Newer isn't always better.  And change isn't always necessary.  Sheesh.

Guess what?  2022 is the year DOOM happens.  (It's a videogame and a movie.  Love the movie, never played the game.)  Since we haven't discovered the gateway thingie yet, I think we're safe from that.  SOYLENT GREEN is also set in 2022.  Not sure we're in a place where we'll be turning the elderly into food, but what do I know?  For the record, I haven't seen this movie, but it's enough of a cultural icon, I pretty much know what's going on.

I heard today that our feckless leader doesn't even know what year it is.  I am unsurprised.  Remember when they hammered Reagan for making small mistakes like that?  Pepperidge Farms remembers.  But Creepy Joe gets a pass.  Feh.

I also read a newstory from the 3rd about New Hampshire and Vermont law enforcement getting called to a report of a dog running loose on a bridge.  They get there and the German Shepherd leads them to where a truck had gone through the guardrail and rolled down an embankment, throwing both occupants out into the snow.  They were seriously injured and hypothermic, but alive.  One of them was the dog's owner.  The dog was unharmed.  Dog saves man.  Again.  Yay.

My new coffee maker has a 'strong' setting.  Hallelujah.  I'm playing with the idea of being able to use less coffee grounds by making it on 'strong'.  We'll see.

I'm running one day off this week.  Yesterday, I thought it was Thursday.  I thought Tuesday was Wednesday.  You get the gist.  Thankfully, I've stopped myself before doing anything stupid.  Part of this is probably my check arriving a day late.  Throws everything off.  Derp.

And that's it for me.  Anything on your this-n-that radar today?

Thursday This and That

Oops, sorry.  I woke up late and I've been dragging ever since, so I'm late doing this.  

I want a dog.  Not just any dog, but this... Crap, I went to get the link for her and she was gone.  I should've figured she wouldn't last long.  She was an awesome 7mo old that looked like a mix of lab and Leonberger. :sniffle:  Both of my favorite kittens got adopted, too.  That's good, though, right?  They got homes and I don't have to be sitting here wanting to go get them anymore.  

Well, that reprieve from wanting a particular dog didn't last long.  I found this one.  Okay, admittedly this one has been there a while and I'd seen it before, but the original pictures didn't do it justice.  The new pics make it look totally awesome.  It has two siblings there, too, but the pics of them are also not good and no new ones have been uploaded yet.  Not that I could take all three.  Gah.

Ahem...

I'm currently pissed at the USPS.  The paycheck my office mailed on 12/2 never arrived.  So last week, they cut me a new check.  Actually, they cut me a check for last week's pay and mailed it Thursday.  Then the replacement check went out Friday.  I got the Thursday check on Monday.  The replacement check still hasn't arrived.  AGAIN.  Then yesterday, we got two Christmas cards mailed to us from other states.  Both of them had stickers on them... 'unable to forward'.  WTF?!  One took 11 days to get here and the other took 9 days - from CO and VA.  WTF?!  So I called the local post office.  Poor dude sounded harried.  He had no clue what happened other than to intimate that somehow some letters are getting put through as forwards when there's no forward order.  Ostensibly so whoever is sorting that mail won't have to deal with it that day.  Off it goes and good luck with all that.  GAH!  Since the problem is from several different states, I'm laying the blame on the Springfield, MO postal sorting location.  I have half a mind to drive up there and slap the crap out of someone.  Paychecks, people.  You're messing with paychecks.  Fuckers.

Ahem...

We had another stormy thing blow through last night.  Lots of wind.  A little hail.  No big deal.  Once again, we're fine.  Not sure what the hell is up with the weather these days.  It is NOT, no matter what our feckless leaders says, due to manmade climate change.  What a dork.

Ahem...

I can't seem to drop a this or a that without wanting to go on and on or rant about it, so I'll leave you here.  Have a great day and stay safe wherever you are.  :hugs:

Thursday This n That

 I woke up this morning to a dead coffee maker.  Poor Hubs was making coffee by boiling water in the teakettle and then pouring it over the grounds in the machine.  He had about a half a pot ready for me when I woke up.  Then I went into the storage closet and pulled out the backup machine.  Yes, I have a backup coffee maker.  It's an older one that wasn't quite dead when I bought the new one, so I tucked it away for emergency usage.  So, we have coffee and the world is still safe.  You're welcome.

I will be going out and picking up a new coffee maker today.  Because the backup could die without warning and no one wants that.  I drink coffee and smoke cigarettes for your protection.  Again, you're welcome.

I also have instant.  For larger emergencies.

So, I finally heard back from Amazon about my missing page reads.  They're still not paying me for those, but Amazon assured me my account is in good standing.  Umm... yeah.  So, because they (or their bots) decided someone was using KU to... what, fake read books?... I'm screwed.  I'll talk more about that tomorrow.

It's totally splooshy here.  Big band of rain stretching from the Gulf to Canada and it's sort of stalled, so it's wet wet wet here.  I'll need to find something else to do rather than throw logs for a while I guess.

I did do some edit notes yesterday.  A half page worth.  Which sounds pathetic until you realize on that half page were a couple of things that needed to be changed in the whole book.  Find and replace is a wonder, but each instance had to be carefully reviewed and reworded to make it work.  One of them was the hair color of an important secondary character.  And there was another character with the same hair color, so I had to make sure I was changing the right person's hair.  Blerg.  The other was how the mages address each other.  Yeah, still sounds easy when I type it out, but it wasn't.  What it was was tiring and tedious.

My luck has truly sucked lately.  My poker account went from 330mil to 120mil.  And I'm not doing anything different.  Just getting a heapin' helpin' of bad luck.  Thankfully, it seems to only be in the poker.  Not that my luck is awesome elsewhere, but at least it's not bad.  :knock on wood:

I had a dream the other night that made me totally not want a dog.  Something about two little yappy dogs and my entire house covered in urine and feces.  :shudder:  But I'm over it.  I want a dog again.  I like the looks of this one.  Or this one.  Or this one.  Or this cat.  

And that's about enough out of me this morning.  Have a great day.

Thursday This n That

I started the week with a massive to-do list, but I'm whittling it down.  And I'm adding to it.  But hey, stuff's getting accomplished.  For instance, all the gardens are weeded now.  Of course, the first one I weeded is already showing signs of needing to be weeded again.  Blerg.

If you read yesterday's post on Paperbacks, you'll see there at the end how I discovered issues with those of my paperbacks I migrated over from Createspace.  That alone added to my to-do list.  I think this is a neverending to-do list.  It just goes on and on and on.

Neverending should be one word.  Jus' sayin'.

Today is April Fools Day.  I don't do pranks.  Loathe them, in fact.  It is, however, the day I met Hubs in person for the first time.  Seventeen years ago.  Our wedding anniversary is in May.  About 6 weeks from the day I saw him to the day we got married.  When it's right, you know it.

When we got to the car that day, Hubs had a dozen yellow roses waiting for me.  I still have several of those, dried in a vase.  If I'd known how momentous the occasion was going to be, I would've kept them all.  I have every other rose he ever gave me, though.  

April 1st was also my childhood dog's birthday.  Or the day we assigned as his birthday.  We got him mid-May 1976 and he was 6 weeks old, so we walked it backwards.  Happy Birthday, you wonderful dog, you.

I don't say my dog's name online because it's frequently a security question.  I also never use that name as a security question because you never know when I'll forget and drop the name somewhere out in the world.  

It's amazing how many little things we have to do in our daily lives because some numbnuts did something no rational person would conceive of doing.  Can't buy effective cold medicine over the counter?  Thank the group of numbnuts who make meth with it.  

I just joined this group over on FB that's devoted to Crime Fiction.  But they don't allow self-promotion except on Mondays.  So it's just a bunch of people talking about the books they're reading and asking about books others have read.  It's kind of nice.  I did do a self-promo this past Monday and got one sale in the UK from it.  I think.  It's a UK group - a fact I discovered after I'd joined.  :shrug:  It's either that or my one Brit fan who used to hang out here found the book on the same day I posted.  Either way, yay.

I got my proof copy of RHI on Monday.  The Amazon proofs come with a banner all the way around the cover saying 'Not for Resale'.  Well, duh.  Except the banner covers verbiage I'd like to be able to read to determine whether it looks right.  Derp-heads.  The old Createspace proofs had 'Not for resale' stamped on the back page.  Heaven forbid someone wanted to buy one of those.  :eyeroll:

While I was out weeding, I found a wee, itty-bitty frog.  A baby gray tree frog.  So damn cute.  I mean, they only get to about 1.5 inches when they're full grown, but this one was maybe a half-inch, so a baby.  Yeah yeah, actual baby frogs are tadpoles, so let's say an adolescent tree frog.  Geez.

Well, this ended up being longer than I thought it would be, so I'll just leave ya there.  Got any this-n-that to share?

Thursday This n That

I finally got sleep last night.  Woohoo!  Yay!  Hubs must've also gotten a good night's sleep because he's been sitting behind me reading the news out loud (it's a thing we do).  If he hadn't, he'd be quiet and if I hadn't, I'd be zoned out and ignoring him.  

Unfortunately, none of the news seems to be good.  

I learned last night that Callahan (aka Sour Patch) got adopted at some point during my self-imposed hiatus from looking at dogs.  Yay for him, but I almost cried.  I mean, seriously, there was no chance of my adopting him, but while he was there, I could dream.  

Yesterday, I wrangled the new wild rose onto a trellis.  At one point, the damn thing whipped back at me and hit me in the hand.  Later, I noticed it must've hit me with a thorn right in the thumb knuckle and popped a small blood vessel.  Kind of gross looking, but it's better this morning.  

Also, yesterday, I was clearing the leaves and junk out of the garage bed when something small jumped out at me.  At first my brain said 'grasshopper'.  Then it jumped again and my eyes could see where it landed.  Little bitty, baby, gray tree frog.  Maybe a 1/2 inch long.  So cute.  He was a bugger to catch, but once he jumped onto my glove, he was happy to stay there - even when I was trying to encourage him to jump off into a flower bed I'd already cleaned.  I moved him because I didn't want to accidentally squish him.

Speaking of frogs, the spring peepers are peeping their little brains out right now.  I love spring peepers.  They give me a happy.

I rolled over 40 million in poker last night.

It's time for me to order more bug spray again.  It's too much for me to hope the cold snap wiped out the ticks.  Fingers crossed it hammered the oak mite population, though.  But yeah, Spring.  I love it, but it brings out the bugs.

What's the this-n-that for you today?

Thursday This n That

One of the unfortunate things (out of many) about this whole chaos crap is that I have been unable to locate my preferred type of soap locally.  I prefer Lever 2000 Aloe and Cucumber.  It's the only soap that keeps me from being itchy.  (I'm an itchy person.)  When I couldn't find it, I bought regular Lever 2000.  Nope.  Shunted that over to Hubs and picked up Dove for sensitive skin.  Nope.  Still itchy.  So, I broke down and ordered my damn soap through Amazon.  A 12-pack there was about $11 more than I used to pay at Walmart, but a gal's gotta do what a gal's gotta do.  That's about a year's worth, so no big deal.  And on the upside, Hubs is set for soap for a while.

Speaking of Amazon, why do they keep telling me things are available for free shipping and then when I go to check out the only free shipping option is to sign up for Prime?  I don't want Prime.  I don't order enough to cover the cost of Prime.  Gah.  Lucky for me, the damn soap was free shipping without meeting the $25 bar.  Unfortunately, a CD I really want and a book I really want are NOT eligible like they said they were.  Bastards.

By the way, aloe is awesome.  I swear by it for sunburns, cooking burns, dry skin patches, bug bites...  I'd slather myself with it if it didn't leave a residue.  Some people even eat it.  I haven't gone that far yet, but you can find jugs of it in the pharmacy area at Wallyworld, so it must be medicinal.  

In an attempt to stop thinking about dogs, I've snoozed all the pet sites on FB for the next 30 days.  I mean, it was getting obsessive.  I even renamed one while I was supposed to be napping.  (Sour Patch, who I am totally in love with, is now Callahan.  Partly for his 'Dirty Harry' sneer and partly for the fun book Callahan's Crosstime Saloon, which was loads of fun to read.)  Sheesh.  What a neurotic nelly. 

The other day, Hubs asked, purely for theoretical purposes, whether if we could get a pet, whether I'd rather have a cat or a dog.  Didn't even have to think about it.  Dog.  He was a little stunned.  Oh, I like cats, but in truth, I am a dog person.  Hell, my Chinese zodiac sign is DOG.  The only reason I had a cat was because I was renting and they didn't allow dogs.  And then once we owned our own home, we couldn't get a dog because of the cats.  And now that we have no cats, we can't get a dog because reasons.  Maybe some day.  Not in the foreseeable future.

I belong to a FB group about local road conditions.  Yesterday, when the weather was nasty, people kept posting questions about road conditions.  They were kind of repetitive, which led some other people to get frustrated and snotty.  Yes, the askers could have just looked at the previous posts and extrapolated that their particular route would be nasty, too.  But these days, that's asking a lot.  Critical thinking skills are lacking just about everywhere, and that's what you need to extrapolate anything.  Shrug your shoulders and move on.  There's no point in being snotty.

And that's it for me.  What's up in your world?

Thursday This n That

Gah.  I can't believe it's Thursday again already.  Time is just whooshing past so far this year.

I saw on FB this morning that one of my favorite K9 officers from Live PD had to have emergency surgery.  Send whatever positive thoughts you can toward Springfield, MO and K9 Lor.  I also learned that Lor and his officer, Craigmyle retired recently.  I'm sad to see them leave the force, but I'm happy for them.  We need more officers like Craigmyle in the world.

Apparently there's some kind of kerfluffle thing going on over at the RWA.  Someone read something in a historical romance written like 20+ years ago that offended her somehow and took to twitter.  Offended people mobbed, things were said, the cry of 'racist' went up... :yawn:  I read a highlighted snippet of what the dustup was about and couldn't see what the problem was.  I guess I'm not woke enough.  And I don't want to be.

You know, I talk a good game about not caring what other people think, but if I explore it deeply, I find I care more than I should.  Maybe it's being a public personality as a writer and junk.  If I weren't a writer, I wouldn't have cause to care.  :shrug: 

In other non-news, I saw the cutest little girl at Wallyworld yesterday.  She was probably, I dunno, 14-16 months?  I waved at her as I was waiting to access the soups - her mom's cart was in the way - and then she started chattering at me.  And showing me everything she had in the cart - her new sippy cups and her vitamins and some other things.  I was smiling and laughing.  I thanked her for making my day brighter, grabbed my soup, and off I went.  Then I ended up behind them in the checkout - cuz I waved her mom in front of me.  (I had a full cart and she didn't.)  There this little girl was chattering away and I couldn't understand more than one word in four.  She seemed to be getting irritated that I wasn't answering her appropriately.  Finally, I told her 'I'm sorry, hon, but I haven't had to speak toddler in a long, long time'.  I mean, my Kid is 26, so I'm totally out of practice.  That seemed to satisfy her, but I was no longer an interesting person with whom to converse. 

I was telling my mom that I'm just about through with all the honey-dos and I wasn't sure what I'd do when they were all done.  She brought up the blanket I was crocheting for my oldest sister that I never finished.  I still have all of it, but I haven't touched it since Colorado.  So, like 7 years.  Yep, Mom's got a long memory for things left undone.  (And pretty much everything else.)   Unfortunately, I don't have the space to work on blankets here like I did there.  No couch where I can lay things out as I'm working.  Laying it all out on the bed would work, but I did that once in CO and it's a pain in the back.  So, the blanket bits stay in their tub.  For now. 

May I still be as sharp as Mom when I reach 79.

And on that note, I'll leave you to your own devices.  Have an awesome day.  Feel free to leave some this-n-thats on your way.  =o)

Thursday This n That

I spent most of yesterday doing spreadsheets, so I was kind of a toad.  I stopped for a while to take a walk.  Then I stopped for lunch and a nap.  Then I took a break to watch some of The Chase and do dinner.  I finished up after dinner.  It's days like that that show me what I could do writing-wise if I put my mind to it.  Of course, spreadsheets use an entirely different part of the brain, but it's the endurance I need to work on overall.

Yesterday, I was thinking about NaNo again.  I even went to the site and logged in a book called No Freakin' Clue.  LOL.  And then I looked at the last time I did NaNo.  It was kind of shocking. More about that tomorrow.

There's a dog at the animal rescue I really want.  His name is Theo and he looks like a super cool dog.  But right now, I've got all I can handle with Geriatric Cat.  I'll just settle for rooting for Theo to find a nice home.  It's what I do.

For some reason, the fish aren't biting.  The local reports are that fishing is slow.  Some dudes we talked to out at the lake said fishing was slow.  At least it's not just me.

The World Series is going on right now.  I predicted the Astros in 5, but since the Nationals took the first game, I'm glad I didn't actually put any money on that prediction.  As of typing this post so its ready for you now, the second game was tied 2-2.  Maybe the Nationals just want it more.  Since the Yankees aren't in it, I don't really care who wins.  (Update: The Nats won game 2, too.  Whomped 'em.  So much for me predicting the future.  Of course, if I could do that, I'd be rich.)

Still no eagle sightings.

Okay, time to get your day started.  Go have some coffee or something.  I know I will.  And leave a little this n that on your way.  ;o)

Thursday This n That

Yesterday's post was caused by a combination of the end of a week-long sale that had few sales and basic frustration.  I'd say 'it'll pass', but I'm not sure it will or that it even ought to.

I got a call yesterday from a 'Babette Hosier'.  Caller ID can be fun.  Definitely a change from "Unknown Caller" and "Not Provided".

Speaking of which, what the hell is it with all the freakin' spam calls?  I mean, we're pretty sure it's because Hubs will be eligible for Medicare later this year and it's a rolling stampede of morons trying to get him to sign up for their super-special supplementary insurance plan.  Lemme tell ya something - we will never sign up for anything that comes through telemarketing.  As if.  Duh.

We're also being inundated with wasps this year.  Oh, holy crap.  They like to get into the smoking porch - which is totally enclosed and has screens on the windows and junk.  Too bad for them, the smoking porch is lined with nicotine-impregnated cedar.  If we don't kill them with a flyswatter, the ambience will.  Heh.  Otherwise, they're just all over the freakin' place outside.  Walk around the yard at your own risk, lemme tell ya.

The other day we were casually watching game shows when there came a knock on the door.  Which was really weird because we didn't hear a car.  Peeked outside and there's a woman standing on our porch.  A pregnant woman.  Hubs opens the door and she starts asking if we've seen her little dog.  We have no clue who this person or her dog is.  Hubs asks what kind of dog and she says 'min-pin'.  "Excuse me?" he says.  "Min-pin?" Time for me to step in because she was kind of looking at him like he was nuts because he didn't know what a min-pin was.  "You mean a miniature pinscher?"  "Oh.  Yes."  Apparently it was fat little min-pin and she found it.  I saw her walking home with it about 5 minutes after she stopped here.  Nice to meet the new neighbors. At least now if we see him again, we know his name and where he belongs.

According to the fishing dudes around here, we're at the spawn.  This is the time when the fish are making baby fish - she's laying down eggs and he's milting all over them.  It's a good time to catch fish, but not a good time to keep fish.  And I want to keep them so I can eat them.  Right now, I sadly let even the keepers go, so they can make more fish.  The rest of the year they won't be so lucky.  And neither will I in catching them.  =o\

What's on your this n that radar today?

Thursday This n That

This is as warm as it's going to get today.  From here, the temperature drops.  I hate it when that happens.

I have an urge to make bread.  But not just any bread - interesting bread.  I have a couple recipes that look promising.  One is focaccia. The other is an Italian herb bread.  We'll see.

Spellcheck wanted me to replace focaccia with Iaccoca.  How long ago was he even famous enough to be a word in spellcheck?  I'd bet most people under a certain age don't even know who that was.  Huh, google says he's still alive.  Whoda thunk it?  As an aside, I'm not a fan of Chrysler.  I had one once.  Can't remember the model - it was an obscure one.  Biggest piece of crap I ever drove - followed closely by the Oldsmobile Achieva.  Don't get me started on that one.

I really need to paint new letters on my keyboard.  But if I paint new letters on it, I'll have to wait for it to dry before I can use it.  Not sure I can wait that long.  I should do it right before I go do something else for a while.  Yeah.  That sounds smart.

My spice rack is horribly out of date and most of the letters have rubbed off that, too.  I started a relabeling project last year.  Umm...  One of the containers has no letters at all and I don't remember what was in it.  Can't tell by the smell.  Time to toss it and start over. I learned the hard way not to put onion powder in my spice rack.  It turned into one big cylindrical brick.  I guess it has to stay in the container I buy it in.  By the way, who the hell uses Coriander? And why does it come standard with every spice rack?

I don't understand crate training for dogs.  None of the dogs I've ever had were crate trained and they seemed fine.  Happy.  Chill.  Our family dog would wander the house at night, checking on us all, then he'd pick a bed to sleep by.  By day, when we were all at school or work, he would protect the house.  Never had one break in while he was alive.  After he passed, the house was robbed.  Coincidence?  Don't think so.  It was the same with my two dogs when I had my own home.  Okay, so one time the Rott-n-Lab chewed up my cell phone while I was sleeping (and I awakened to the sounds of crunching), but hey, stuff happens.

Well, that's enough out of me for one day.  What kinds of this n that are on your radar today?

Thursday This n That

The other day I saw a book on how to drink less or quit drinking alcohol altogether.  If you can't just do that on your own without a book to guide you, you already have a problem and perhaps you should get in touch with AA.  I quit drinking like 6 years ago.  My drinking had already dwindled to like once in a blue moon and then I just never made myself another drink.  Don't miss it.  In fact, I look back and wonder why I ever drank in the first place.  Oh, sometimes I miss the taste of a gin and tonic (yeah, I know, it's an acquired taste but the good stuff doesn't taste like paint thinner) or a nice Riesling, but I don't want the alcohol anymore.  Now, if someone made non-alcoholic mixed drinks, I'd probably drink those.  I've had NA beer here and there, if I can find it locally - which ain't easy these days - but I don't need it.  It's more for nostalgia.

I pay all my bills on the 20th of the month.  It's a habit and it usually serves me well.  Since our local trash service got bought out by Republic, their bills arrive around the 25th.  And so, I forget to pay them until it's almost too late.  Usually in a panic.  Stupid Republic.  Silly habits.  Ugh.

Around here it seems like every other dog is a Heeler mix.  Now, I did extensive reading about dog breeds when I was a teen and never ran across that breed.  Then again, they've added a bunch of breeds in the past 30 years, so what do I know?  The other day I googled it.  Derp.  Heelers are Australian Cattle Dogs. Why they can't just call them that, I don't know.  Blerg.

I got an expected package from Mom.  Well, actually, it shouldn't have been totally unexpected.  She told me about it early last month.  It was a flannel lap blanket I'd given my dad for Christmas one year.  She's paring down things she doesn't need and she thought I might like to have it.  I opened the box and tada.  Got a little sniffley over it - partly because it was Dad's (he's been gone since '02) and partly because it smells like Mom.  Even though I talk to Mom almost every day, I haven't seen her in almost 5 years.  I hugged the blanket.

I have a photo of Mom and Dad at their 40th anniversary party.  It's sitting on my desk, so I can be close to them.  They had a 40th party because Dad didn't think he'd make it to 50.  He was right.  He didn't make it to 45 either. 

Gah, not sure why I got so trapped in sad memories right there.  Might be because tomorrow is my 25th anniversary of 'almost but not quite getting dead'.  That there's a reason for reflection, if ever there was one.  If it was a wedding anniversary, I'd be getting silver stuff. 

:shakes self like a wet dog"

Anyway, let's not dwell on that for too damn long, eh?  Like I said before, wake up every morning and go "YAY! I'm alive!"

Got any this and that going on today?  What's the skinny?

Thursday This n That

We had a yellow-billed cuckoo in our redbud tree this week.  I'd never seen one before, so I got to add a new bird to my life list.  You know, if I actually kept a life list.  If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you're not a birder.  I'm not actually a birder.  I just like to watch birds from the comfort of my own home.  Or wherever I happen to be at.  I'm totally not into driving all over creation to watch birds.  On a side note, if you haven't seen The Big Year, it's totally awesome.

The grain bugs are still here.  They can't be finding much to eat, so I don't expect they'll be around long.  We also are having a resurgence of these little flies.  Look kinda like fruit flies, except they're more interested in Kira's canned food than anything sweet.  Bleh.  Bugs... all part of living in the jungle, I guess.

I'm writing this Thursday night as I wait for the new Homicide Hunter to start.  Why they have to put the damn thing on at 9pm I'll never know.  I almost never stay up past nine, so it starting at my bedtime is really cheesing me off.  Odds are even that I'll fall asleep halfway through.

And then I'll go to bed and lie awake for what feels like freakin' ever.

Hubs sprayed vinegar on the driveway this week.  Is it wrong that we take so much pleasure in watching weeds die?  If yes, you don't even want to know how much I celebrate when he sprays for ticks. 

Somehow or other, we ended up with a mom dog and three pups in the neighborhood.  I haven't seen them yet, but Hubs has.  One of the neighbors seemed like she was going to take them in and do something with them.  Then he saw them running loose again.  If no one handles it soon, I will be scooping them up and taking them to one of the local rescues.  =o\

Yes, I love dogs.  Yes, I would love to have a dog.  No, I will not be getting a dog.  It would be cruel to Kira, for one.  And it would be cruel to the dog, because we do not have the time or the patience for an animal.  Except for Kira.  She's family.

Okay, time for Kenda.  What's on your this n that radar today?

Random Thoughts for an Early Sunday Morning

I wonder if other writers ever wonder if perhaps the reason agents are shifting to a 'no response means no' reaction to query letters is because as a whole agents are sick of being the bearers of bad news - as well as the targets for all the potentially postal writers out there.  Or maybe it's just that as a culture we seem to shy away from saying anything that might hurt someone else's feelings - even if it helps them in the long run.  (Or at least one aspect of our culture.  In others, hurting other people almost seems to be in style- but that's a rant for another day.)

Yeah, my butt does look big in this.  Don't worry.  That's the one good thing about gaining weight.  I have a butt for the first time in my life.  My best friend - post HS - used to refer to me a 'B.E. Buttless'*.

The other day I was talking to my husband and came up with a really neat way to explain how he gets anything done at work.  "Slaloming Around Stupidity"

I became a great aunt for the third time last month.  My first great niece.  The early polls indicate she looks like my mother.  I totally see that.  However, I also catch myself seeing my mother when I look in the mirror - a lot, lately.  But the baby totally doesn't look like me.  What's up with that?

Last Thursday, I picked up a CD - Stone Sour - because it had a song I really liked: "Through Glass".  Unfortunately, that's the only song on the whole CD I like.  The rest sound like a weird mash up of Metallica and Pink Floyd with a twist of Tourette's Syndrome (the malady, not the band - if there is one named that.)  Whatever it is, it ain't my style.

If I stand next to my mailbox, I can watch my neighbor's super huge flat screen TV through his front picture window.  He really needs some drapes or something.  But he's way better than the guy I used to live behind.  I could stand on my back porch and see into his bathroom.  I'd be standing there, staring off into space as I enjoyed a cigarette and BAM, I'd want to scrape out my eyes with a putty knife.  That guy definitely needed drapes.

I'm not nosy, I'm just observant.  (I need to print that on a t-shirt.)

Got any random thoughts for me today?

*He used my real first name and not my initials. 

(The above pic's a closeup of my former puppy - Tutter.  Isn't he pretty?  And yeah, he had one blue eye and one brown.)