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

 We have smoke in the air again.  Last I checked, they weren't sure where it was coming from, but it encompasses an area from middle USA across the Gulf to Mexico.  We usually get smoke clouds floating across from California or down from Canada.  WTF?  Is Mexico on fire?  

I found these little packs of imitation crabs legs for a buck a pack.  Crab for lunch.  Yay.

Hubs was reading me a news story about a teacher in Utah who made her students write an essay about how eating bugs was better for the environment because  cows are killing the planet or some such nonsense.  They couldn't write it as an argument against such tripe.  Why does it seem like English class is more often than not a vehicle for indoctrination?  I guess it's the natural choice.  Or as Nathaniel Hawthorne said: "Words -- so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them."

I've had to spend some time on the phone this week with the DMV.  Fun fun, I know.  I bet you wish you could be me right now.  One phone call had me 'waiting for a representative to assist me' for like 20 minutes and when I finally got him, he couldn't help me other than to tell me what I needed to do so he could help me.  I tried doing the stuffs only to find I couldn't do the stuffs.  I called again yesterday to find out what I had to do so I could do the stuffs I couldn't do.  On hold only 5 minutes and the gal who got on the phone told me the stuffs I thought couldn't be done had been done, they had all my paperwork in their computers now, and it's pretty much ready to go.  Nothing left to do but a stop in to pick up the tags and pay for them.  (A thing I do not personally have to do, so yay.)  I could've cried with joy.  I asked the gal for her name and the way she said it would've made one think I was about to yell at her.  Poor thing.  I praised the hell out of that gal for all her help, told her she made my day, and wished her a great rest of the week.  I had been prepared for a long, uphill battle and she made it easy.  I love that gal.  Always take extra time to praise people when they've earned it.  

They have the cutest puppies at the rescue right now.  Puppies!  And kitties, too.  We're still not ready for a pet, though.  

Errands after work tonight.  I was going to leave them all for Saturday when I had the thought to do a couple of them after work, to cut down on my Saturday driving time.  I mean, what kind of hothouse flower am I that I can't run errands after work?  Sheesh.  If I do the north stuff today, I only have to drive south on Saturday.  When I do them both in one day, it's like 30 miles north and then 60 miles south and 30 home again.  Yeah, it's still the same distances, but not all at once.  Yay.

I used to do all sorts of stuff after work.  I got out of the habit.  Now that I'm working again, I need to get back into the swing.  Maybe if I teach myself how to do it all again, I can figure out how to write after work, too.  Hmm....

And on that note, I'll let you get back to your lives.  Have a great day, everyone!

Sunday Update - Week 6

Another week gone by in a flash.  It seems like just yesterday I was posting a Sunday Update for Week 5.  Derp.  

Once again, not much happened.  Worked a full week.  Good days, bad days... gave myself a good talking to and all is well.  I cannot control the world around me.  I can only control my reactions to it and my actions in it.  Why I have to keep reminding myself of this escapes me.

In reading news, I finally did a wrap-up post yesterday.  Only two Books Read.  Also two DNFs.  :shrug:

I made a pizza yesterday.  Full on, with handmade dough and everything.  My arms are sore today, but it was worth it.  Today, I'm doing a BBQ pork roast.  Yummers.

Making pizza was the only thing even approaching activity last week.  Weight: 161.4.  I can't seem to break the 160 barrier and stay there.  :shrug:  That's fine, really.  If I live out the rest of my life hovering around 160, I'll be happy.  I know my body is happier for dropping those 20 pounds.  I just need to increase my activity level so I'm not one big pile of atrophied muscle.

I saw a raccoon on my way to work on Friday.  He crossed the highway a ways in front of me and was happily walking up the embankment on the other side when I passed him.  Good boy, Rocky.  I see too many of your brethren trying to cross roads and failing.

This cold thing has been a devil to get rid of.  I'm still not at 100%.  Neither is Hubs.  I'm probably at 95% but Hubs has only made it to like 80%.  Of course, I had it first, so he has to catch up.  The last lingering part of it is the cough.  Blerg.  I hope none of you get this.  Talking to Mom up in Michigan, she had it the week before I got mine, so it's not a local thing.  It's not fatal.  It's just a pain in the ass.

Yesterday, I ran errands.  I filled up the car - $3.09 a gallon. Twinge.  Hit the Wallyworld to top off the groceries - $146. Not as bad as I'd feared, but I didn't get that much.  2.25 pounds of 90/10 burger - $11+.  Ouch.  Picked up deer feed.  Whole corn is $11 for a 50 pound bag.  Ouch.  Now that I'm working, it's not hitting us as hard as it would've if I wouldn't, but come on, man. Can we please have Trump back now?

And on that note, I'll let you get back to your regularly scheduled lives.  Have a great day and an awesome week!  :hugs:  Oh, and feel free to tell me about your week.  =o)

Thursday This n That

I got distracted by the urge to write this morning... I know, I never write in the morning, but the bug hit me hard.  And thus, I forgot to post this earlier.  Whoops.

I'm beginning to feel slighted.  Facebook has this 'extremist warning' thing going around and I didn't get one.  Plus, there's this page a friend of mine followed and she got a warning about their content, but I followed the same page after she mentioned it and didn't get a warning there either.  Am I not a big enough person to worry about?  Am I not extreme enough?  Or is it because they're already watching me?  

Why do my fingers keep wanting to put a T at the end of any word that ends in 'ough'?  Hey, fingers, enought is not a word.  Neither is althought.  Stop it.

Tuesday, Hubs and I went to the big city... well, the nearby small unincorporated town anyway... so he could get a haircut and I could post some flyers for something we're selling.  I stopped in to a couple of stores I hadn't been in before.  One of them was the evil fishing store.  Found out they have new owners and aren't evil anymore.  Yay for them.  I'm still sticking with my regular place, though.  Sorry.  The other was the local gun store.  SO PRETTY!  I do love guns.  I wish I could afford to bring them all home with me.  Anyway, the store was awesome and the owner was a hoot.  After I picked Hubs up from the barber, I took him back to the store.  He has a happy now, too.  

Tuesday was a busy day for me.  South in the morning for deer feed and some groceries.  North in the afternoon for Hubs' haircut.  I don't usually do both trips in the same day, but I was in the mood, so we went north.  It's nice to get out for a drive with Hubs.  Even if it's like 90+ degrees out.  

My old car doesn't like it when I have the AC on, especially going up hills.  And we live in a hilly area, so my entire drives are either bake or spend an inordinate amount of time turning the AC off and on and off and on.  Uphill off, downhill on.  Sometimes I'd rather just bake.

This week had a weird holiday thing going on.  Sunday was the holiday, but the government made Monday the holiday so its workers could get a day off because boo-hoo the real holiday fell on a day they already had off.  Umm, suck it up.  Anyway...  Usually with holidays our trash service is pushed back a day, so we didn't put the trash out to the curb the night before regular pickup morning.  Unfortunately, the trash service must've been on the regular holiday and not the government holiday because the truck went zooming by the house on the regular day for pick-up.  Dang it.  And wouldn't you know it, we actually had a full receptacle this week because of the sorting and shredding I did over the weekend.  Derp.

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

Sunday Update - Week 4

Week 4 of the 2021 siege.  Just when you think it can't possibly get worse, it says 'oh, yeah, watch this'.  

No writing.

Sunday night, I couldn't sleep, so I got back up and worked on editing.  I adjusted the first 5 pages so Duke sounds more like himself.  Then Monday hit and nothing else got done.

I read one book last week.  I picked up ten new paperbacks at the thrift store, though.

In baking news, I made a batch of Oatmeal Raisin cookies, but this time I also added chocolate chips.  They're pretty yummy.  Then yesterday, I had the urge to bake and a box of yellow cake mix, so I gave Hubs the choice of either yellow cake with white frosting or coffee cake.  He chose coffee cake, so I made that.  I think I've posted both those recipes, so they won't be here.  If you want it and can't find it, let me know.

No activity.  No weight change.

I did a lot of running around this past week.  The vet Monday.  The bank, post office, convenience store, and thrift shop on Tuesday.  Then north for smokes Thursday.  Then south for groceries and another stop at the vet (Kira's ashes are home now) on Friday.  Then northwest to take all her unopened cans of food, etc. to the local shelter yesterday.  I probably put about 250 miles on the car last week.  Blerg.

One day, Hubs and I sat down and watched Citizen Kane together.  Neither of us had ever seen it.  (I thought I had, but I hadn't.)  I know it's supposed to be some cinematic masterpiece, but meh.  

Other than that, I played a lot of poker.  I went over 24 million, then lost back down to 23 mil, then came back up then went back down.  It was one of those weeks.

The world further descended into madness.

Yesterday, we had some weather fun as storms with rotational winds popped up and appeared to be headed this way.  We heard the thunder and saw the warnings, but all we got was the rain.  Whew.

Today, I hope to pull my head out and get some work done.  We'll see how the day progresses from here.

How did your week go?

Park Like an Idiot Day

I got all the Christmas cards done yesterday morning and took them to the post office along with the Mom boxes, so if you're expecting something, it should be there soon.  (There's always one or two I forget, so I have a couple more to send, but those'll go out as soon as I buy more stamps.)

While I was out, I discovered it was Park Like an Idiot Day and I didn't get the memo.  Our tiny post office has parking for maybe five cars and a handicapped spot.  It's a dirt parking lot, so of course, there are no lines (except for the handicapped spot which is paved and well marked).  When I got to the post office, there was a farm truck with two round bails on the back, parked stupid and taking up enough space for two cars.  Next to him was a sheriff's SUV parked stupid and taking up enough space for two cars.  The one space left was occupied and farmer dude and deputy were chatting.  I went into a holding pattern, waiting for the one space left to open up.  He left and I slid my little Cavalier into the space.  As I was getting out of my car, a lady pulled up behind me.  "I'll be quick," she said.  "Promise."  And she was.  While I was inside, mailing my packages and cards, another lady pulled up behind me.  The second lady was old and not quick. 

Meanwhile, the two dudes were still chatting.  Between the old gal and the dudes, I couldn't leave without risk of car injury and trust me, if I'd scraped the sheriff SUV while trying to avoid the old lady's car, it would've been my fault even though he was parked stupid and she had to park stupid because of him and his friend. 

I eventually made it out of the post office.  (So irritated that I forgot to buy stamps, so I'll be back there today.)  Then I went to the bank.  It's not a big bank, but it has a lot of parking spots along the side if you're willing to walk.  Some numbnuts in a truck with a trailer had parked in front of the bank in the space between the parking spaces - you know, the space for driving - instead of the long row of parking spots no one ever uses.  I think he was there applying for a loan, for pitysakes.  Anyway, I dillydallied around long enough chatting with my bank friends that he left before I did, thereby making it easier for me to pull out of the space I'd wedged myself into.  Lucky I dillydallied, too, because irritation almost made me forget to get some cash while I was there.  Derp.

Then, I get back to the road that leads back to my neighborhood.  People are always parking around there for one reason or another.  There are places you can pull off onto the grass, so it's usually not a big deal.  Yesterday, there was a dude parked in the road, talking on his cell phone.  Anywhere else, it wouldn't be a problem, but here you turn off the highway and then turn to go uphill to turn and go toward the neighborhood.  He was stopped on the uphill between the two turns.  Good thing no one was coming from the other direction or POW. 

Today is Wallyworld.  Here's hoping Park Like an Idiot Day is over or it may turn into Go Postal on Stupid People Day. 

:sings:  It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.  Every where I go. 

Not sure what it is about the holidays that makes people loose all sense of reason, decorum, and courtesy, but it does.  Be careful out there, folks.

(Yes, I could've politely asked the dudes to move their chat to the empty parking lot up the road a bit, but I didn't want risk pissing a sheriff's deputy off.  I'm pretty law-abiding, but I do have a tendency to speed a wee bit.  I so do not need a Barney Fife busting me for doing 3 mph over somewhere down the road because he's got a bug up his butt.)