Sunday Update - 2026 Week 33

 It's been a hot week with more hot expected.  I've basically been hiding in the house, absorbing the AC.

Writing this week went well.  I mean, of course, it could have gone better, but still, 6923 words ain't bad.  I meant to write last night, but the will got sucked out of me, so when 9 rolled around and Hubs asked if I was staying up, the answer was NO.  (I should've just stayed up because sleep was elusive anyway.  Derp.)  The book is now at 40001 words.  Let's see if I can hit 50K by this time next Sunday.  Good lord willin' and the wrists hold out.

Marketing was lame.  Too many days waking up later than I should've for optimal marketing postage.  I only moved 20 copies of UWC, but that's better than a sharp stick in the ass, so yay, I guess.  Tomorrow, Song of Storm and Shroud goes on the freebie train.  

This week, the baking bug hit me.  I made cinnamon rolls, double-chocolate oatmeal cookies, and chocolate banana bread.  The house was hot, but the treats were worth it.  Yesterday, I made a vat of pulled pork drowning in BBQ sauce.  Yum.  

On the activity front... Did I mention it was hot?  I did manage to get out and get the plants watered (less often than I should've but they're all still alive).  I also braved the heat and did the groceries on Friday.  Something new on the activity list is that I'm trying to run through my simple set of exercises - 5 reps each, no weights - at least every other day.  It's nothing major, but it's a start on the road back to not being an atrophied lump of muscle covered in a generous layer of fat.  Weight: 180.6

The greenhouse... the tomatoes are looking a little pitiful, but I have hopes for better news once the temps take their downward turn.  The peppers are happy, if unproductive.  I have two potato plants left that are trying to survive.  The carrots are pathetic but not out of the running yet.  The little trees I have left are mostly happy.  I think one of the redbuds is pooping out on me.  Live, damn you, live!

Lumpy Watch 2026: She holed up under the deck.  I keep expecting to find her dead, but yesterday, she was looking up at me through the slats while I watered my plants.  I really wish there was more I could do for her, but I don't want to run afoul of the government.  The best thing we can do for her now is to leave her alone and let her die in peace.  She is pretty old for a wild deer, but all the same, nature is a bitch.  

In other deer news, the five fawns all seem to be doing well.  The circle of life and all that.  Yesterday, three of them were sleeping in the yard while they waited for Hubs to bring food.  There were also two does sleeping and waiting.  I'm glad they think of our place as safe enough to catch some Zs.  

The cats are good, the Hubs is good, and I'm good.  What else can a gal ask for?  I mean other than rising book sales and calorie free chocolate that still tastes good. ;o)

Have a great week, everyone.  Hasta la bye-bye.

Sunday Update - 2026 Week :shrug:

 Hey all.  I just got back inside from tending to the greenhouse and now I'm sweaty, dirty, and tired.  I'll take a shower in a minute, don't rush me.  That pretty much sapped my motivation for the day.

Writing went pretty well this week.  7665 words during 5 days where I wrote.  Not great, but not bad.  Those two off days were necessary to my existence.  Anyway, OM is up to 23331 words as of last night.  I'm pleased with where I am and where it's going, so yay.

No marketing.  No sales.  Blerg.  Okay, fine, I'll so something markety this week.  Maybe.  We'll see.

I was baking this week.  So was Hubs.  I made pizza and a loaf of banana raisin bread.  Hubs made cake cookies.  Considering the impending furnace, I doubt I'll bake this week.  But hey, it was like 99F when I made the BR bread, so take that stupid heat.

Activity?  Well... it's hot.  Mostly, I tended the greenhouse by watering every other day.  I did some grocery shopping.  I vacuumed.  But I haven't weighed myself, so meh.  Again, it's hot and I am unmotivated.

As for gardening, like I said, I water everything every two days.  Today, I also harvest potatoes - mostly to get them out of my way.  I came up with about a half-dozen fingerlings, which is better than nothing.  And I replanted about 4 tiny potatoes that had started to grow roots themselves.  I'm hoping for a fall harvest.  The peppers are doing good.  A couple of the tomatoes are, against all odds and the heat, flowering.  Fingers crossed for those.  

Other than that, I mostly laid around in the AC.  Hell, the day I went grocery shopping was the coolest day and I still got it done early so I wouldn't broil.  Bake, yes; broil, no.  

The deer and the fawns are mostly doing well.  There's a dead doe about a quarter mile down the road.  I stopped the car and got out to see if I could recognize her.  I couldn't.  I know it's not Lumpy - she was here in the yard later that day.  It might be Lily.  Or it was that one skinny doe I saw last week.  I don't know if she was hit by a car or died because she was sick or the heat got to her.  Her body had already been fairly wrecked by the vultures, so no real clue.  Nature really is a bitch sometimes.

Anyway, I need to pour some more coffee down my gullet, have a smoke, and then take a shower.  Have a great day and stay cool*.  Peace out.

*That reminds me of when I was in middle school and everyone seemed to write 'stay cool' in everyone else's yearbooks.  Heh.

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 29?

 I think it's Week 29, but I'm too lazy to check.  Anyway...

I wrote 8379 words this week.  That's writing 6 out of 7 days.  Woot.  I skipped Wednesday because I was frickin' tired.  I was frickin' tired Friday night, too, but I made myself sit down here and at least try, and I got 875 words down, so yay.  Old Magic is now up to 15666 words.  :muppetflail:  Last night, my brain decided to shift the title to a series title and try thinking up other titles.  I amused myself by remembering an old Bugs Bunny cartoon where he mixes magic words up... ABRACA-POCUS!  HOCUS-CADABRA!  So maybe I'll use one of those.  Teehee.

Marketing... Meh.  I did it, but it didn't result in too much movement.  Only 17 copies of WIOH went out the door, which sucks.  WIOH usually moves more copies than that.  :shrug:  This month, sales started out really well and went downhill fast.  I don't think I'm going to market anything this week.  I'll focus on writing instead.  Let's see if I can't get over 10K words out this week.

In baking news, I made a loaf of Banana-Raisin Bread.  Yum!  I also did another batch of OCCC.  And I did a vat of pulled pork.  Life is good.

On the activity front, I wasn't really all that active - mostly watering the greenhouse garden - then I did some cleaning yesterday and I moved some furniture.  I haven't weighed myself.

On the subject of moving furniture, basically, I rearrange the dining area.  I like what I did, except for the artwork.  When I moved the table, the big painting over it didn't look right anymore, so I put a couple smaller pieces up there, but it still looked wrong. Today, I might rearrange the living room.  We'll see.  

As for the greenhouse, it's still doing okay.  I'm watering every other day to keep everything happy.  The heat means I'm not currently getting produce, but the plants themselves are green, so that's a win.  We'll see what happens when the weather starts to cool again.  Last year, I got my best output from the tomatoes after it shifted toward fall.  Fingers crossed.  Oh, and I moved my last few redbud trees back out onto the deck.  They didn't enjoy being in the garage - mostly because I kept forgetting to water them.  They seem happier outside again, the rat is leaving them alone, and they're growing new leaves.  Yay.

The fawns are getting bigger.  Lumpy still has her adopted kid, which is still weird.  But it seems to continue to thrive, so :shrug:  Our little foxes are still coming around.  They're so funny.  We'll look out the window and one of them will just be sitting there in the yard, staring at nothing or scratching, and then it'll wander off.  It's so cool that they're comfortable here.

This morning, I clipped Sawyer's claws.  He was being a turd and trying to push me out of my chair.  Well, I usually let him do that, so I can't complain, but this morning I didn't want to give up my chair.  I grabbed him up and went to put him on the floor when something startled him.  He ended up perforating one of my boobs and an arm.  I swore a great deal and bled a little.  After I applied anti-bacterial cream, I wrangled him up and clipped those stilettos of his.  Later, I'll do Finn.  Ah, the joys of cat ownership.

Okay, I think that's all I've got on my hit parade.  How's things in your world?

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 28

 Well, it's morning.  I feel like someone beat me with a stick, and I didn't even really do anything yesterday.  =op

This was a banner week for writing.  I got an idea, I ran with it, wrote for 4 days straight and ended up with 7287 words I didn't have before and a brand new story.  I'm feeling pretty good about it.  Last night, I hit a wall physically and, instead of writing at 9pm, I went straight to bed.  I have been writing from like 9-10 or 11.  It's good work, but this gal is not used to staying up late. That first day, I also did two writing sessions during the day, which is weird for me, so I didn't do any other day sessions.  Night time is the right time... or the write time, I guess.  ;o)

Marketing this week didn't not go well.  Since I was staying up late every night, I wasn't getting up early and early marketing is the best kind.  Thus, I only moved 13 copies of Accidental Death.  :sad trombone:  Not sure what I'll do for marketing this week, if anything.  :shrug:

Let's forget about reading for the time being.

In baking news, I made another batch of OC³ (Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies) and one night I did stuffed chicken breast for dinner.  Yummers.  I'm thinking about teaching Hubs to make the cookies so I don't have to, but I'm a control freak in the kitchen, so probably not.

Not hugely active this week.  It's too hot for too much activity.  I did work in the greenhouse three days, but that's not really that active.  I also vacuumed the office, which involved moving furniture.  And I grocery shopped.  Weight: 179.0

In the garden, I've been trying to water at least every other day.  I repotted some stuff and moved some stuff around.  This isn't the right time of year for exciting gardening news.  It's too damn hot for anything spectacular to happen.  I've been watching a lot of gardening videos lately, and I have plans for a fall harvest, but that planting should be done at the end of July, so not yet.  I'm also thinking ahead to next year.  We'll see.  

The fawns are starting to come to the yard more often and they're getting more independent.  We know for sure we have four fawns, because we saw them all together.  Other than that, I think we might have at least a couple others.  If I were motivated, I'd take pictures of every fawn I see and compare spot patterns.  I am not motivated for that.

Other than that, not much going on.  The cats are well.  Hubs is well.  I'm well... well, other than being fat and achy.  :shrug:  This too shall pass.  Have a great day wherever you are.  Peace out.

Thursday This n That

First off, I'm up to 4421 words. Not bad for two days work.  Secondly, my hands hurt.  I think the two might be connected.  ;o)

I never thought I'd reach a day where I was happy my hands hurt.

Yesterday, I went out to water the plants in the greenhouse and discovered the last time I went out to the greenhouse, I forgot to 'close' the door.  Usually, I unzip the floppy plastic door and, rather than mess with rolling it up and tying the roll, I flip the whole thing up over the top of the greenhouse.  Then when I'm done, I pull it back into place and zip it all up.  It was still all flipped up on top, and everything inside was super dry.  Drat.  I watered everything and now I'm crossing my fingers my tomatoes can recover, because the grape tomato and the Early Girl looked like crap. Derp.

I found a new place to get gardening videos.  The guy is calling himself The Millennial Gardener and he's pretty awesome.  Now that I finally figured out how to get YouTube on my Roku, it's super easy to watch videos like these.  I wonder how many other things I can learn.

We've been seeing Lumpy with a fawn.  Now, we were and still are sure she wasn't pregnant.  She doesn't have visible teats either.  So, we're wondering whether she kidnapped someone else's fawn or whether she's babysitting for Sissy.  I hope it's the latter because, like I said, she doesn't have milk and the fawn is young enough to still need a occasional boost from its mom.  One thing I know is that she will protect that fawn like nobody else could and being a grandma gives her something to do.  

I stayed up late writing last night.  Finn generously took it upon himself to make sure I didn't sleep too late.  Yay Finn. :grumble grumble grumble:

During my trip to Wallyworld, I accidentally bought decaf coffee.  I don't know about you, but for me, decaf is a crime against nature.  The bag is sitting on the counter, judging me.  Still, I'm thinking about keeping it.  Maybe I could drink coffee in the afternoons again.  Then again, why not drink regular?  I'm not sleeping well anyway.

Okay, time for me to get doing stuff.  Have a great day, wherever you are and whatever you're doing.  :waves: bu-bye.

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.

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:

Thursday This n That

FB sucks.

X is pretty okay, but I haven't figured out how to use it for marketing.  (Not free marketing, that is.)

We have fawns!  Yay!

Chex Mix Bold is addictive.  Unfortunately, my intestines do not enjoy it as much as my tastebuds do, so I stay away from it.  Additionally unfortunate, Wallyworld had a big ol' bag of it on sale and right there by the checkout.  Thus, I couldn't stop myself from buying it.  Also thus, I am paying for it.  But it's soooo damn good.  Especially when you add a handful of mixed nuts to a bowl of it.  Yummers.

Getting old blows.  I used to be able to eat whatever whenever and never worry about it.  Now?  I look at wheat the wrong way and I get into issues.  Stupid.

The inside of my greenhouse looks like a jungle.  It's scary in there.  And hot.  When the tomatoes finally fruit and are ready for picking, I'm not sure how I'll get back there to pick them.  The potatoes are taking over.  I expect them to reach sentience any day now.  Oh, and I picked up three new bell pepper plants, because they were free, so now they're in there, too.  If I disappear, it's entirely possible I got lost in the jungle.  Send help.

It seems like everyone I know is neurodivergent, which begs the question 'if everyone is neurodivergent, is it really divergent?'  Think about that for a minute.

I made Irish Soda Bread for the first time, and it turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself.  It's a super simple bread to make, too.  Messy, but easy.

For a woman who enjoys making bread, I have a weird quirk.  I can't stand having dough on my hands and I have to get it all off or I feel like I'm wasting food.  This is not a problem when I'm making a stiff dough bread product, like pizza crust, but for a wet dough... GAH!

Also, enjoying making bread and having issues with digesting wheat definitely do not go together.  Good thing Hubs enjoys eating bread, so there's less for me.

Okay, that's probably enough out of me.  Have a great day and feel free to drop some of your own observations about the world.  Peace out.

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 22

Here we are again at another Sunday.  It's the last day of May, which is my favorite month, but all good things must come to an end, eh?

Writing went well this week.  I wrote every day Monday-Friday and added 4758 words to my manuscript.  I think I'm finally in a place where I can tell you what I'm working on... :drumroll: The next book in the Shroudlands series.  It's up to 32240 words now, so yay.  I'm not laying out a whole shit-ton of words each day, but it's enough.  No clue when it'll be finished.  The point here is that I am writing again.  And once I get comfortable with being a writer again, I might finally get back to editing Duke Noble #3.  

Marketing occurred.  Not a lot of it, but it happened.  I moved 29 copies of Early Grave and someone bought a copy of Fertile Ground, so yay me.  May wasn't the best month this year, but it was better than nothing.

Reading... don't ask.  Despite my reading slump, I bought 8 new-to-me books last week, because I am a book-buying addict.  I picked up some NF books we didn't have and a Ken Follett I haven't read before.  Woot.

On the activity front, I wasn't too awfully active, but I did get some stuff done.  I vacuumed and dusted the whole house - 1700 sq ft worth - so go me.  I also did some gardening stuff.  And yesterday, we took a walk.  Weight: 178.6 - which isn't as low as I'd like, but better than I feared it would be when I stepped on the scale.

As for gardening, we planted two of my redbud trees in the ground - Randy and Rudy.  By the next morning, Randy was gone.  I haven't checked Rudy today but I am not holding out hope for his continued survival.  (Yes, I could surround him with wire, but if a critter REALLY wants to eat him, they'll get to him no matter what I do.)  Inside the greenhouse, everything seems to be thriving.  I need to repot some green peppers, now that I have two vacant bigger pots.  I still only have two tomatoes, but there's hope.  The potatoes have taken over.  

In exciting news, we've seen the first fawns of the year!  Brand new, still wet off the factory floor, baby deer.  New deer are so tiny!  (Of course.  They have a small door to go through when they first enter the world, so that have to be tiny.)  They grow fast, though, so we've already seen one that's less tiny.  Some of the deer were still pregnant as of last night, so there's more to come.  

I think that's it for me today.  Other things happened, but nothing of note.  Have a great day out there and a wonderful week.  :hugs:

Thursday This n That - Late Again

I blame Monday's government holiday for making me forget about yesterday's post.  I even had it started and everything.  Derp.  Anyway...

I think I might've figured out FB and their damn bots.  It's all about those banned words I've mentioned before.  If I use the words 'killed/kill' or 'murder/murderer', it's more likely to slap me with a content warning and tell me I'm a spammer.  Fuckers.  I'm talking about a MURDER mystery where people get KILLED and there's a KILLER on the loose.  I've already told FB their bots are insane, but since it's only bots reading the complaints, I doubt it'll get anywhere.  I'm not going to hide those words, but I may have to reword some stuff for future marketing.  Turds.

It's been raining here for about 24 hours.  Okay, Mother Nature, that's enough.  Thank you.  Go drip for a while at Mom's house.  Her plants need watering and if you do it, it means my sis doesn't have to.  

Copied from my FB post yesterday: "Hubs and I were out on the sun porch having a smoke, when we heard a fawn bleating. Actually, the dang thing sounded like it was shouting "MOM! MO-OM!" at full volume. Within seconds, a doe comes charging up the hill hell-bent for leather and ready to fight, with another doe close behind her. She stops just inside the neighbor's backyard and a fawn runs up. He (it had to be a buck fawn making that much of a fuss) immediately starts nursing like nothing much was going on. She allowed it for a couple minutes and then wandering off down the hill again, with him trailing along behind her."

I hate when FB changes my font and I can't figure out how to make it stop, other than inserting new paragraphs and moving the changed text up so unweirded paragraphs drop below it.  Frankly, it's a pain.  On the other hand, the font adds interest.  

The trail camera is awesome, but all those pics are filling my harddrive.  I mean, one night I got like 350 pics.  The next, it was like 650 pics.  At 1-3 megs each, those things fill my 'puter up fast.  Yesterday, I went through deleting, which, if you know me, you know I can't stand deleting pics even when they're blurry.  Anyway, I did it, and I'll have to continue to do it or face the very real reality of running out of space.  

Running out of space on a computer harddrive... I'm one of the old souls who maxed her computer out regularly, so I had to go through on a regular basis and delete shit.  It was either wipe it out of existence or move it to floppies.  And since my deletion anxiety stems from back then, you can imagine I had a LOT of floppies.  (3.5s aren't really floppy.  I remember the real floppies.)

Anyway, I have a lot of pics and some of them are pretty cool, so tune in tomorrow for that.  If I remember...

Peace out.

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 21

 Good morning.  I'm not quite up to speed this morning.  I think it's Week 21.  :shrug:  Anyway, here goes...

I wrote stuff this week.  I managed four days in a row, but then I fell off the wagon and didn't write for three days.  Blerg.  I did get 3437 words out, so I'm not kicking myself.  Not hard anyway.  I'll write tonight if I have to stay up late doing it.  (No, I still have to write at night.  My creativity doesn't wake up until after 5pm. It sucks, but there it is.)  As of now, my WIP is up to about 27500 words.  For the record, this is a book I started writing 4 years ago (almost to the day* as it turned out).  I got to 20378 words before I stopped.

Marketing was pretty much a bust this week.  FB cracked down on me and I was only able to make one or two posts a day before it shut me down.  Bastards.  I did manage to move 25 copies of Natural Causes... which is kind of pitiful.  Not sure what I'll do this coming week.  

Not much reading occurred.

It was a slightly active week this week.  Mostly, I messed with the gardens.  I also did some cleaning and shopping stuffs.  I didn't bother to weigh myself.  Who needs that kind of negativity?  ;o)

The gardens are doing well.  Everything in the greenhouse seems to be thriving.  I gave them all a healthy drink of nettle tea a couple days ago, which I guess they like.  It's supposedly full of nutrients.  Stinks to high heaven, but nobody ever promised homemade plant food would smell good.  I have two little tomatoes and plenty of tomato flowers, so yay.  The carrots in pot #1 are getting taller.  Carrot pots #2 & #3 need thinning again.  The potato plants are HUGE.  Pedro is a monster.  I just hope they're growing tubers underneath all that greenery.

The foxes are back.  I watched one for quite a few minutes yesterday.  It was a little fox and I think it was practicing hunting.  It said there, staring into the grass beside the neighbor's driveway and tilting its head back and forth like it was hearing something yummy.  Then it got bored and trotted away.  

I chatted with a neighbor who told me they had a fawn in their yard the other day.  I'm totally jealous.  But still, it means the fawning has begun, so yay.  Not sure which doe is post-pregnant yet.  It's not Sissy - she's still fat pregnant.  Fingers crossed that soon I'll have baby deers on my trail cam.

It was my annibirfsary week.  We ate a boatload of cake.  Other than that, not much celebrating happened.  I mean, kisses and snuggles and all the good things that come with being with the one you love for 22 of your 56 years, but no prezzies or singing.

 Other than that, not much going on around here.  What's going on around there?

*I started writing the book on 5/13/22 - wrote words for about a month and gave up.  I picked the book back up again on 5/12/26.  I didn't plan that.  It was just the book that called to me.

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 36

Welcome to the Sunday Update.  I think it's Week 36.  These days, who knows? LOL  Anyway, sorry last week was a dud, but let's see what I can do to amuse you today.

I did some writing this week.  Not nearly enough, but something anyway.  I managed 1709 out of two days.  :sad trombone:  This week ain't lookin' great either, but we'll see.  

Marketing was accomplished.  Unfortunately, still being hamstrung by FB, I moved only 29 copies of IDW.  I did sell a copy each of the other books in the series, though, so I've got that going for me.

Nothing got finished on the reading front, so no post yesterday.  I'm in the middle of reading a collection of inter-related short stories by Arthur C. Clarke.  They're okay.  Nothing really exciting, but fun.

In baking news, I made oatmeal raisin bread with a cinnamon swirl.  What can I say... I was inspired by watching The Great British Baking Show.  Plus, I got a new to me cookbook with this recipe in it.  It's pretty yummy, but the swirl part was a bust.  It's falling apart at the swirl line.  :shrug:  Better luck next time, I guess.  Except it took all day to make, so there might not be a next time.  We'll see.

On the activity front, I was more active this week.  Yay for cooler weather, eh?  I did two walks, two days of cleaning/yard work, and a big grocery trip.  I'm up to 53.7 miles walked for the year.  Weight: 171.4

Thanks also to the cooler weather, I guess, my tomatoes are bearing more fruits and more flowers, too.  I have like 5 more tomatoes.  Yay.  I also found this show on gardening.  It's out of Ireland, but plants are plants and dirt is dirt.  I just need to adjust their advice to Missouri climate.  The episode on growing tomatoes was very informative.  I found out I'm not feeding nearly often enough and that I should've pinched off the excessive shoots.  :shrug:  Next year's garden should be way better. Live and learn.

This morning, I heard a strange sound coming out of the woods.  When I did some research, I discovered it was the sound of an Eastern Screech Owl.  Yay.  In other nature news, the fawns are getting big and their spots are fading fast.  We named Sissy's fawn Scout and it's a big fawn.  It's probably a buck fawn, but I haven't seen any antler nubs yet, so the jury's still out.

Yesterday, I wandered the yard with stakes, plotting out where we're going to be transplanting some of the deck trees.  Hubs checked out my placement and agrees, so we'll proceed with that in a month or so.  I'm trying to put them in the ground when they have a better chance of surviving the deer (i.e. when the trees are leafless and less likely to attract attention.)  I hope it works.  Otherwise, there's always next year.  

Okay, I think that's probably enough out of me.  Have a great day and a lovely week.  

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 34

 :blink blink: Oh.  Hello.  It's Sunday again, isn't it?  I woke up thinking it was Tuesday.  Days of the week have little meaning to me anymore.  I feel like, at this point, I ought to have reached a higher plain of consciousness, but I haven't.  I've reached a higher plain of unconsciousness, maybe.

Anyway...  I didn't write much this week, but I did write.  DN3 has rolled over 20K words, so that's something.  I'm hoping to have news of more words by this time next week.

The marketing didn't go great.  I started out okay, then I lost the will.  Thus, Unequal only moved 16 copies. :sad trombone:  Song of Storm and Shroud will be free starting tomorrow.  Then the month will end and along with it, my current 90-day span of Kindle Select.  Starting Labor Day, I'll have a whole new 90 days to market stuff.  Woot.  Here's hoping next month is better for sales than this month has been.

Oh, and I spent some time yesterday morning screwing around with Grok, building a sorta-kinda new cover for SSS.  It looks pretty snazzy until you realize the dragon's left back leg is coming out of it's butthole and it's front left leg is spindly and warped.  AI still has a lot to learn about how living things are put together.  No creature - real or imagined - can walk with a leg coming out of it's butt.  Jus' sayin'.

In reading news, I finally finished that Hercule Poirot omnibus.  Yay.  I'm a third through another book.  Also yay.  And I bought 6 new used books to dive into.  Woot.

It was a busy baking week.  I made banana-raisin muffins, pizza, and bread pudding.  The pizza was the only thing that turned out right, but the other two were tasty, so it's all good.  Too much banana in the muffins and I forgot to add sugar to the bread pudding.  :shrug:  Even the best bakers can screw stuff up, so I'm not flagellating myself.  

On the activity front, I was still something of a toad.  One day, I did the dancercizorama thing 5/4/5 (5 minutes dance, then 4 minutes exercise, then another 5 minutes dance).  That's way down from what I used to do, but I'll have to work my way back up to that.  And as my mom reminded me, I'm older now than when I did 20/10/20.  Another day, I walked three-quarters of a mile.  Weight? No clue.  Chonky.

The fawns are getting big and their spots are starting to fade.  We've named Sissy's fawn 'Scout', which'll work for a doe or a buck.  I'm thinking Scout is a buck fawn because it's big for its age.  (Buck fawns are typical larger than doe fawns.)  I need to come up with a name for the twins.  I've already used Dot and Dash, but since I almost never know which deer is which once they turn into adults, I can reuse those.

Okay, on that note, I'll let you go.  Have a great day and feel free to drop a line or two about your week.  =o)

Sunday Update - Week 33

This week... Well, it was HOT.  And I was a toad.  Okay, I wasn't entirely a toad all week.

I wrote Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for 3182 words.  Then I lost track of where I was going next and turned back into a toad.  I'll try to get untoaded today.

Marketing was done.  Rumor Has It was free and I moved 57 copies - 40 of which went on Friday.  Not sure why the spike that day, but there it is.  Also, someone read Unequal this week and someone else is working on Dying Embers, so I am seeing some fundage for this month.  Not sure which book will be up for free this week.  Stay tuned.

Reading occurred.  I didn't bother doing a post yesterday because TOAD.  We'll see what I can accomplish next Saturday.  

No baking because HOT.

No activity because HOT.  Weight: 172.0

I'm still watering my deck garden.  My first tomato got picked.  We had it sliced up on hamburgers and it was yummy.  My second tomato got some kind of funk and turned gray from the bottom.  (It's not touching anything, so not sure what the hell happened there.)  In happier news, I have a third tomato.  It's tiny yet, but it's there.  And one of the tomato plants is still flowering, so there's hope for more.  Something ate all the leaves off one of my dogwood trees.  I think it was a grasshopper, because a discarded grasshopper exoskeleton is laying in the pot.  Did I ever mention how much I hate grasshoppers?  Filthy little bastards.  The rest of the trees are doing okay.  So are the green peppers, but those will never make it to big enough for fruit before the end of the growing season.  :shrug:  They were an experiment anyway, so no big loss.

The fawns are growing.  Sissy's fawn is a pretty big little guy.  (Assuming buck fawn because it's big, but I haven't seen nubs yet, so not sure.)  The twins are thriving.  Life is good.  Hubs is making sure they have fresh water once, if not twice, a day.

In family news, one of my extended family was attacked by a pitbull.  He was out running - he does marathons, so he was training - minding his own business, and some numbnuts was walking his pit without a leash.  He saw the dog and gave it a wide berth.  It didn't matter.  The pit went after him anyway, ruinating his left hand and then, after the owner and the guy got the dog off, it came back for more and attached to his right arm.  He's had surgery to repair the damage, so now it's a waiting game to see how much function he'll regain.  I'm pissed, to say the least.  Poor dude can't work now and who knows when he'll be able to work again.  He's freakin' IT, so all his work is hands.  And he's the nicest guy ever.

Okay, I think that's all the excitement I can take for one day.  Have a great day, wherever you are.  (And if you're walking/running, watch out for dogs with stupid owners.)  

Sunday Update - Week 32

Here we are at Week 32 and I don't really have much to show for it.

I did not write this week, despite every encouragement and a little poking in the ass.  Let's see if we can change that this week.  It goes without saying that AuGoWriMo is a bust for me so far.  I can salvage it if I get off my ass starting today.  START TODAY!  Part of the problem is the last words I wrote were such dreck, I'm having a crisis of confidence.  Derp.

Marketing was done.  It wasn't exactly productive.  I only moved 40 copies of WIOH, which is usually my best mover.  :shrug:  Not much I can do about it without paying for advertising.  I don't have a problem paying, but usually by the time I think about doing a freebie or a sale, it's too late to put an ad anywhere.  I need to plan ahead, which I am HORRIBLE at.

I did read this week, but I ended up DNFing most of it.

Cinnamon rolls were made.  They aren't the best rolls I ever made, but they're edible.  I halved the recipe, but while I was putting everything together, I used the whole measurement for the oil.  I tried to salvage it by adding more flour.  The result is a little weird.  We'll eat them and I'll try not to make the same mistake in the future.

On the activity front, I started out the week really well.  I walked three times for 3.5 miles.  Then it got hot again and I stayed inside.  Those miles put me at 50 miles even for the year, so far.  We won't talk about weight.  Heat makes me blow up like a water balloon, so even if I had weighed myself, it wouldn't really count.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

The fawns are getting bigger and their spots are getting less defined.  I saw an opossum.  We also had several baby nuthatches in the redbud tree.  Yay.

Speaking of trees, my baby redbuds are doing well.  I still only have two tomatoes.  Those are getting closer to ripe, so yay.  Everything else is holding steady and not too big, but not dead.  Dang heat.

I think that's it for me.  How are things with you?

Thursday This n That

Ding dong the witch is dead... to me, at least.  Yesterday, I had the great honor of killing my account with Brightspeed.  Gah, they suck so bad.  Even the last phone contact with them sucked.  The first person I talked to 'Shannon', who was barely understandable as it was, hung up on me accidentally.  I called back and got 'Sergio'.  He was actually harder to understand, but he got the job done and confirmed my account was cancelled effective 7/9.  Then I asked about the 'final bill' and he said it was like $58+, and I was all like 'whoa whoa whoa, wait a second there'.  I explained how we haven't had phone service for WEEKS and that any bill they sent wasn't going to get paid - very nicely, of course - then I said 'please make that go away for me, Sergio' and he did.  $0 bill and the service is dead.  Long live 1-VoiP.  Of course, I don't trust Brightspeed, so I fully expect to see a bill that they will want me to pay, but I have Sergio's confirmation number and a willingness to call and go all screamin' chicken on them.

By the way, it's really nice to pick up the phone and hear a freakin' dial tone for a change.

I also killed DirectTV.  That dude was also hard to understand, but only because he had his mic too close to his mouth and he was speaking too fast.  He tried really hard to get me to stay.  He offered me a discount.  He offered me a giftcard, too.  I finally ended up telling him he couldn't give me any offer that would be less than FREE.  $0 bill there, too, but no refund (per their Terms of Service according to the dude).  I just still have service through the 18th.  (I already took all the stuff down and put it in the spare room, so nah.)  And since my equipment was so old, they didn't want it back.  Yay.

This new Blogger thing where they want to insert links into my blog posts because their AI told them I should is really irritating.  It keeps flashing a dialogue box at me that I have to dismiss.  If I want links in my posts, I'll put them there tyvm.

I found a new-to-me show on Roku - Yorkshire Vet.  It combines two of my loves - Dr. Pol and All Creatures Great and Small.  And I have access to all the episodes, so I can just sit down and watch one when I feel like it.  For free.  Woot!

The bird of the day is actually a two-fer... Rosy-faced Lovebirds.  I'm not a fan of parrots, per se, but these are okay.  Little cuties.  Aww.

It looks like Lumpy lost her fawn.  We hadn't seen it in a while, and a couple of days ago, I noticed that her milk bag is gone.  It wasn't too unexpected.  Lumpy's getting pretty old and that baby was really small - like premie looking.  Still a sad thing.  On a happier note, we have Sissy and her baby (which would be Lumpy's grandbaby) both doing well and we have another doe with twins who's been visiting.

One of my tomato plants has two flowers blooming! I helped the pollination of them along, so fingers crossed.  Most of the other tomato plants have buds, so they should be blooming soon.  Then we'll get some real pollination action going on.  Woot.

Okay, that's probably more than enough out of me.  Have a great day!

Thursday This n That

Oh, joy... I'll be in the jury pool here from July - November.  That's how it works in MO... you get notified that you'll be in the pool for a certain time and then, if they pick you, you'll get another notice that you have to serve.  THEN you have to call the night before to see if they're actually going to have court or if it was cancelled.  I've been in the pool a lot in the past 12 years, and I've been picked several times, but it's always been cancelled the night before.  Whew.  Especially the last time because I went to Michigan while I was still in the pool and it would've sucked if I'd been called up while I was away.

FB is still screwing me hard on the marketing thing.  Turds.

I saw something this morning about how like 54% of Americans can't read above a 6th grade level.  And like 1 in 5 is functionally illiterate.  And how like 1 in 3 is like math-illiterate.  Which all sucks.  On a happier note, I saw how 2nd Lady Vance has a reading initiative this summer that kids can sign up for and win prizes and maybe win a trip to the White House.  I don't care what your politics are... that's a good thing and everyone should be all for it.  Anything that gets people reading more is awesome.

And if you're actively against Mrs. Vance's summer reading program, what the hell is wrong with you?  Illiteracy is everyone's problem.

Lumpy's baby is super cute!  A couple days ago, it walked right under the window where we were watching.  So tiny!  Awwww.

I'm really feeling that last walk.  I did the loop, which is only 1.1 miles, but it's very hilly and my calves are mooing this morning.  

Last night was not a good night for sleeping.  I was too hot and then the cats decided it would be an awesome night to run around the house playing with their jingly ball and then they found something interesting in the corner of the bedroom that HAD TO BE investigated right then.  They were being good boys, but their goodness was certainly noisy and I was not in the frame of mind to ignore them.  Oh well.  Naptime later and for now, lots of coffee!

Right now, though, I think I'm going to go finish my book.  Maybe snag some breffest.  Have a great day and feel free to leave whatever this or that your mind spits out.  

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 21

 I missed last week, which messed me all up, but I'm pretty sure last week was week 21.  Anyway, here goes...

I did some writing.  Not much, so don't get yourself too excited.  Still, it was better than nothing.  I also did some marketing.  Woot.  

Loads of reading, but not many books finished to show for it.  Hey, I did remember to do a Reading Wrap-up yesterday, so go look at that.  I finished a book yesterday, but that'll be on this week's wrap-up.

Last Sunday, I made pizza.  Yesterday, I made pulled BBQ pork.  Woot.  Other than that, nothing exciting to speak of in the baking/cooking category.  I really need to get off my butt and make cookies for Hubs.  He's earned them.

On the activity front, I walked three times for 3.2 miles worth (20.10 YTD), I gardened some, and did a bit of cleaning.  Weight: 172.4, down 1.2 from last week, so whatever I'm doing is working.  Increase activity, decrease food intake.

Gardening... Well, I've been working on cleaning up the rock path in front of the front flower bed.  That's slow going.  Lots of shoveling to turn the rocks over and then bending to pick out the weeds, then smoothing it down and tamping it down.  Patch by patch, so it's still walkable between exertions.  (I can't do the whole path at once anymore.)  Week before last, I repotted a bunch of the little trees into bigger pots.  They seem happy.  My tomatoes are getting big.  I'm seeing some new growth on most of the little trees.  And yesterday, I planted green peppers seeds from the green peppers I used to make deconstructed stuff peppers.  If they grow, they grow.  If not, not much time or money wasted.  

Yesterday, we saw our first fawn of the year.  It was Lumpy's!  Yay!  Then later, when I went for my evening walk, I heard a fawn beeping and looked for it, and there it was with what had to be Sissy.  (She's so tame, it had to be her.)  Double yay.  They had to have been born within the last couple of days.  Aww.  Unfortunately, it's been raining.  And raining.  And raining.  I'm a little worried about those little babies.  They're so tiny. 

Also, we had a HUGE raccoon on our porch the other night.  That hasn't happened in a while.  And we had bobcats tussling in the backyard one night.  Spooky, but cool. 

Okay, I think that's it for me.  I'm sure other stuff happened.  (Like I turned 55 in there somewhere and we had an anniversary.  Oh, and I got TTW's print version approved and up for sale.)  I'll try to be better about posting this week.  I hope you have a happy rest of the weekend and a nice Memorial Day.  :hugs:

Thursday This n That

We're trying the whole 'let the cats have free run of the house at night' thing again.  After ten days of sleep deprivation, I gave in and put the cats in the office last night.  Ahhh, sleep.  Finn is a perfect little gentleman and he just wants to cuddle.  Why Sawyer feels the need to scratch the walls in the middle of the night, I'll never know.  It sounds like nails on a chalkboard.  Ah, well.  We knew what we were getting into when we adopted a kitten they had named Chili Pepper.

I still haven't cleaned the house.  

Today is grocery shopping day.  I expect this to be a large load.  Ugh.

Months ago, I bought some PERT shampoo.  Yep, they still make it.  It's okay, but it's not thrilling me as a shampoo.  Every time I use it, I feel like I can never rinse it all out of my hair.  I'm tempted to throw it out, but I have this aversion to throwing out things I paid for that might still have some useful purpose.  

I'm debating on making brownies today.  We'll see.  I might do cake instead.  Or maybe an apple-cranberry crisp.  Perhaps cookies.  We'll see.

Pumpkin pie bread...

Ahem, I really don't need baked goods.  My ass is expanding and it doesn't need any more assistance.

All the fawns have lost their spots.  This gives me a sad every year.  

Okay, I'm pretty much out of things to say this morning.  Fly and be free.

Thursday This n That

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is now my favorite movie.  If you haven't watched it yet, I highly recommend it.  It's was made as a tribute to Harold Ramis and it totally rocks.  I can't explain what it's about without dropping spoilers.  (I tried.)  The main character is this girl, Phoebe, who's smart and funny and courageous.  She makes friends with this boy who calls himself Podcast (and steals the show).  And it's set in Oklahoma.  With ghosts and strange things happening.  I find something new to love about it every time I watch it.  If you even slightly enjoyed the old Ghostbusters, watch it.  

The saga with the phone was over... and then it wasn't.  Last Wednesday, it was fixed.  Monday morning, we had no dial-tone again.  They're supposed to be working on it, but the one tech told Hubs they're having trouble finding parts for equipment as old as we have in this neighborhood.  Fortunately, we still have internet.  (Albeit only slightly speedier than dial-up speed some days.)   :shrug:  With the way this is pissing Hubs off, we may end up chucking the landline altogether and using our cellphones instead.  Which sucks.  Have you ever tried to carry on a long conversation on a flip phone?  Hand cramps in a major way.  I need a cell phone that looks and feels like a handset.  Better yet, give me one that looks like an old receiver from a corded phone.  I could talk for hours on one of those without getting all crippled.

Speaking of crippled, I pulled a muscle in my calf when I went for a walk on Monday.  So, I've been limping which threw my gait off and now my hips hurt.  Growing old is so much fun.

Trash dude is here picking up our garbage.  

Speaking of garbage... last night Hubs went to take the trash up to the road and discovered the hard way that paper wasps had built a nest in a crevice on the garbage receptacle. He was stung twice - on his thumb and on his forearm.  Benadryl gel was applied followed by ice packs. Needless to say, the nest is now a smear on the concrete and the bottom of my shoe, and one wasp was flattened.  The other one made its escape.  War has been declared.  No truce in sight.  To paraphrase Sean Connery in Untouchables, you sting one of mine, I kill a hundred of yours.

I hear Hubs moving around.  For once, I got up earlier than he did.  Neener neener boo boo.

We've named Lumpy's fawn Speedy.  And her grand-fawn - Sissy's baby - is Patches.  

And on that thought, I'm outta here.  Have a great day and feel free to leave some comments with your own this n that.