Sunday Update - 2025 Week 46

Six more weeks left of 2025 and I'm okay with that.  This year has pretty much been a wash anyway.  

Still no writing.  Every morning, I tell myself that I am going to write today and then I go to bed that night without having written.  I did some marketing, though.  Huzzah, I guess.  I'm still marketing today.  For instance, UNEQUAL is free through the rest of today.  I'm not sure which book will be marketed tomorrow.  Stay tuned.

Very little reading was done.  Loads of TV watching, though.  Maybe I should do the 'hey, I watched this' instead of the 'hey, I read this' thing.  :shrug:  Anyway, if you're in the mood for a quirky family movie, try Papadopoulos and Sons.

Last Sunday, I made chocolate banana bread, which was a yummy quick bread.  Thursday, I made chocolate bread - a pretty good, if not chocolatey, yeasty bread.  I'm thinking about trying to make Irish soda bread this week. We'll see.

As for activity, I managed some work in the woods and some sweeping, plus a minor amount of gardening.  And I went grocery shopping.  Not really anything major or calorie burning, I guess. Weight: I don't want to know.  I feel fat.

The gardening for the week was taking the last of the tomato garden apart.  I snipped off the remainder of the above-ground parts and dumped the soil + roots into big pots so they can decompose over the winter and be ready for planting come spring.  Or soon, if I decide to overwinter potatoes.  I was reading up on that yesterday and it seems like a possibility.  We'll see.  I also read somewhere that you can overwinter carrots, but I'm not sure where I would get carrot seeds this time of year.  Potatoes can be gotten anywhere.  You just use a grocery store potato.  There's more to it than that, but I don't have all the ins and outs yet.  We'll see.

:pause for cat coughing:  Ugh, I hate that.  No barfing this time.  Sawyer must've just gotten a tickle (or a piece of fuzz) in his throat.  Ah, the joys of cat ownership.  Anyway...

Regular firearms deer hunting season started here yesterday.  I can hear shots this morning.  Keep your fingers crossed Sonny makes it through.  I have no problem with legal hunting, but I'd hate to see Sonny get killed.  He's such a nice buck and the herd needs his genes.

Okay, well, I'd better go locate some gumption and get something productive done.  At this point, I'll settle for anything.  Too bad it's too warm to go into the woods.  I need to throw logs.  

Have a great day!  And leave a comment so I know there are other human beings in the world.  ;o)

Today is Another Day

Yesterday on Outside the Box, I talked about getting myself back into the right mindset to work.  I had big plans for yesterday and it started out pretty good.  I got the edit notes completed first thing and then sent it to my Kindle for final proofing.  Then I planned on sitting down to write the blurb.  

Unfortunately, I then made the mistake of turning on the TV.  Watched an hour's worth of Grey's Anatomy while I wrestled with myself about whether to go grocery shopping.  I finally sucked it up and went to Wallyworld.  If that doesn't drain the gumption out of you, I don't what does.  

Gumptionless, I continued the slide back into my old routine by eating lunch and then sitting down for poker.  While I was waiting for a tournament to commence, I did start my blurb, though, so not a total loss.  And after I finished the tournament (17th out of like 275, by the way), I finished the blurb.  I haven't looked at it again.  It most likely sucks. 

Last night was a lost cause.  I planned to write.  Really, I did.  But we dined late and then there were things on TV to watch.  

I'm not kicking myself.  Today is another day.  A fresh time to get back to work.  If I fall down, I need to get back up again and not kick myself until I can't get up.  Lord knows, the world is kicking us all enough that we don't need to do it to ourselves, too.  

So, today I will hit that blurb again.  And I had a dream last night that gave me some additional insight into Justice Served - and :gasp: I got up and wrote it down.  So, I've got that going for me.  Onward and upward.

And here's a little inspiration for y'all... Harber Row - Shine On

Keep shining, folks.  

Sunday Update - Week 21

 Last week was annibirthary week.  Basically, I ate a lot and not much else got accomplished.

I didn't write anything or edit anything or market anything.  I did set up sales and freebies for the coming week, though.  I'll talk more about those when the time comes.  First up, though, UNEQUAL will be free Monday - Friday this week.  I think, pre-Memorial Day is the perfect time to read about a possible future scenario, don't you?   Then, for Memorial Day, BLINK OF AN I, my other glimpse of the future, will be free from the 29th through the 2nd.  After those, sales will begin.

I read some good stuff last week.

I didn't bake anything last week.  Hubs baked!  He made me a birthday cake.  Yay.  It was boxed with pre-made frosting, but I appreciated the effort nonetheless.

I finally went fishing on Thursday.  Then Hubs and I went together on Friday.  Thursday, I caught a spotted bass.  Caught the exact same bass on Friday in the exact same spot.  I knew it was him because I had to cut the line off on Thursday and he was still sporting it.  (For the record, it is my understanding this is the best thing to do for an undersized fish that has swallowed the hook.  Eventually, the hook will corrode and disintegrate.  Better for them then trying to yank a hook out and cause extensive damage to their innards.)  Anyway, I named him Rupert before I let him go and told Hubs if I caught him a third time I was keeping him because he obviously wanted to go home with me.  I did not catch him again, so I didn't have to be a liar.

Other than fishing, my activity level this week sucked.  I only did one other thing and that was sweeping the deck so I could rearrange the container garden.  Here's how that looks, btw:

If you want to see more of that, go over to my gardening blog.  I didn't bother weighing myself, what with all the eating and lazing about.

Looking ahead, I really need to kick myself in the ass and get back on track with both my writing and my non-writing.  Putting words down, getting exercise, being more careful with my eating, doing some real marketing so I sell books... those kinds of things.  We'll see if this morning's gung-ho attitude carries forward when we come to next week's Sunday Update.

How are things in your world?  Did you have a good Week 21?

Randomosity

 It's Tuesday.  How did it get to be Tuesday again already?  Not that there's anything special about Tuesday.  It's just that I feel like we just had a Tuesday and here it is again.  Where the hell did Monday go?

Sunday I reached down to do something behind my recliner and wasn't paying attention to where the back of the chair was in relation to my head.  Boink.  I'm sure it left a mark, but it's above the hairline.  

Yesterday, it rained off and on.  During one of the off periods, Hubs figured it was a good time to walk up to the mailbox to mail a couple birthday cards out.  Halfway there, the rain decided to turn on again.  Sploosh.

I have all my proofer notes ready to go, but the will to work isn't ready for anything.  On the upside, the proofers seemed to enjoy the story and reports are that the notes aren't that bad.  So what's the problem there, Mr. Gumption, eh?

Today's bird of the day is a tufted titmouse. If you have a bunch of them is it titmice or titmouses?  Spellcheck says titmice is correct (no red squiggle).  Titmouses sounds more fun to me.  Especially is you say it like a German psychiatrist.  Tit mouwziz.  Okay, maybe that's just me.

I went to bed last night with like 10 pages left to read in this book.  I was right in the middle of the climax when the cat started meowing that she needed to use the litterbox.  I tried to ignore her long enough to finish the book, but it became apparent that she was getting irritated.  I set the book aside, took her to the litterbox, and then got ready for bed.  Then I couldn't sleep because the book wasn't finished and I didn't know what happened and I was amped up from the thrill of the story.  I should've just finished the damn book.  With only about 10 pages left, he'd better get cracking on wrapping this thing up satisfactorily.  =o\  I'll finish it as soon as I finish this post.

Speaking of which, that's probably more than enough yattering out of me today.  How's things with you?

Lots of Work, but No Writing

It's the 6th day of 2020 and my 'new year, new resolve' thing is going along.  Not quite the gangbusters I had on 1/1, but still going. Yesterday, I derailed myself on the writing part of it, though. 

You see, I mentioned to Hubs that I needed to wash the windows.  I even went to the store to get plenty of paper towels for the activity.  Well, he took the idea and ran with it, so we spent the afternoon washing windows - inside and out.  Him up on the ladder doing the outside ones.  Me doing the inside ones and handing him supplies through the open windows. 

And, of course, some of the windows had to be taken apart - screens out, storm windows down and out.  Brush the screens, wash both sides of the storms, put them back in after Hubs did his thing.  Not an easy job.  I mean, the ones we did look awesome, but we're both feeling it today.  We were feeling it last night, too, which is why no writing got done.

Stuff happens. 

There are still four outside-wall windows to do and three interior windows.  (We have this weird thing where there are windows inside the house, from the office into the sun porch.)  I'll get those today, aches permitting.

I also happened to mention to Hubs that it's time to wash all the glass on the light fixtures again.  Good thing we were both too tired to start that yesterday or it would've been tackled, too.  Probably a 'later this week' project.

So, where's all this put the writing?  Well, one day off isn't a deal breaker.  I'll get back to it tonight, even if I don't wanna.  Last night was less a matter of 'I don't want to' than 'I literally can't'.  Body tired, brain fried, vegetative state.

Not sure what I'll do when all the honey-dos are completed around the house.  Start the list over again?  Gah.  Sit my ass down and work on writing for eight hours a day?  Not likely.  I'd like to find a happy balance.  We'll see.

All in all, I'm happy to be getting stuff accomplished again.  I'd be happier if there was more writing going on, but I can make that happen. 

What's on your honey-do list?  How's your new year so far?

Sunday Update - Week 51

2017 is almost over.  I'll do some kind of year-end wrap up next Sunday or something.  For now, though, here's the week that was...

I started the week with the best of intentions, really I did.  And then it all kind of fell apart.  Then I was at the bank, chatting with a friend who works there, and she said something that totally threw water on my gumption.  I was telling her how much work I have to do over the holidays and how I would probably be working on Christmas.  She looked at me and said 'What are they gonna do, fire you?'  Which is not what I needed at the time.  I'm having a tough enough time getting my gumption to ignite.  Anyway, every time I think about editing, her voice pops up in my head saying 'what are they gonna do, fire you?' and since the answer is 'no', it's always 'no', I settle back down and let whatever other excuse I have for not editing wash over me.  It's hard. I'm discouraged.  My everything aches.  Whatever.  I really need to kick myself in the ass.  But probably not today or tomorrow.

I got over my reading slump.  Read two awesome stories - a military thriller and a hard-boiled crime novel.  So now I'm one book shy of my goal.  I'm not sure what the last book of the year will be.  Maybe I'll finish up with an Agatha Christie.  Or an Andre Norton.  Or that book I've had on my Kindle since October by a new-to-me author.  We'll see.  I'll probably read something meaty after that that'll stretch me into 2018.  I'll do a reading wrap-up post after the 1st.

Fishing took up a lot of time last week.  The only days I didn't go fishing were Friday and Saturday - after it got cold.

Speaking of cold, we got the first snowfall of the year.  A dusting, but still.  It was really pretty.  Then it melted off.  We're supposed to get some more this morning, if the band of snow drops far enough south.  :shrug:  I can take it or leave it.  I definitely don't need a white Christmas with it's slick roads and junk.  Bleh.

We had an interesting visitor to the yard yesterday in the snow.  A hawk of some unknown species (because it wouldn't turn around and show itself for better identification. 

It could be a broad-winged hawk or a smaller red-shouldered hawk.  Or maybe a marsh hawk.  Too big to be a merlin.  Anyway, it was pretty cool.

This week?  Well, tomorrow's the big day, so I'll be baking a cake today and tomorrow we'll be making surf and turf for dinner.  (Hubs is grilling the steak and I'm doing to seafood.)  Other than that?  :shrug:  Need to spend some time locating my gumption and setting it on fire. 

Have an awesome holiday tomorrow!  I hope Christmas brings you all all the good things you desire.  :hugs:

What up in your world?