Sunday Update - 2025 Week 23

The first week of June went by... whoosh.  And today is already whoosh.  Of course, I got up late, so part of that can be excused.  The rest?  No Excuses.  I'm not really sure how much reading the minutiae of my life interests anyone else, but these posts help me, so there you are.

Anyway, there hasn't been much in the way of writing or editing lately.  Sorry about that, too.  As for marketing... Well... FB, in its infinite wisdom, decided to limit the amount of posts I can do in a row.  I can get 5 out before it tells me that in order to avoid 'spam', it won't let me post anymore for a while.  Not clue as to what amount of time that is.  An hour later, I might be able to get another post or two out, but not always.  The next day I can rinse and repeat with the same or worse outcomes.  Still, I managed to get posts to most of the groups I belong to and Friday, Project Hermes took off - moving 121 that day alone.  Still, with the other drab days added in, I gave away 161 books.  I'll try again tomorrow with Wish Hits the Fan.

Reading went okay, I guess.  I DNF'd more that I would've liked.  See yesterday, but also stay tuned for next Saturday's Wrap Up.

I made oatmeal raisin cookies this week.  Woot.  They turned out a little dry this time around, which sucks and is weird because it's the same damn recipe I've been using since I was a kid.  I also did a round of pulled pork.  Yummers.  I might make pizza today.  Or Cuban sandwiches.

On the activity front, I did three walks for a total of 2.7 miles (27.6 miles for the year so far).  I also moved some plastic tubs around and went grocery shopping.  (And if you don't think shopping is exercise, you're not doing it right.  Or I'm doing it wrong.)  Weight: 173.8

The deer are all getting un-pregnant, although we've only seen babies with Sissy and Lumpy so far.  They'll come around eventually.

I think a couple of my tomato plants might have buds.  Other than that, they're growing big.  Nice plants, but make with the fruiting already. Sheesh.  One of the pepper seeds I planted has germinated and is about an inch tall.  I think it has a friend that is trying to peek through.  Two plants producing green peppers would work for me.  The trees are doing well.  I lost one dogwood to what I assume was a squirrel digging in my pots on the deck.  It also got a cedar tree.  It dug in my walnut and my hickory, but those are fine.  Stupid squirrel.  I have weeding I need to get to this week, which I should've started doing last week.  I'm blaming the rain.

Speaking of rain, we've gotten about 2.5 inches in the past 7 days, with more on the way this week.  Enough already.  Sheesh.

And that's about it for me for now.  I'm sure there's more, but I'm about done sitting at the computer for this morning.  Time to start the day whether I want to or not.  Have a great day!  And feel free to tell me all the minutiae of your week.  =o)

Sunday Update - Week 30

Another week has passed and Sunday is here again.  

Unfortunately, these days I don't have anything interesting to talk about.  I work, I come home, I veg, I sleep... Lather, rinse repeat.  And since I can't really talk about the particulars of work, that cuts of 40 hrs worth of my awake time out of my Sunday Update.

I did manage to get some reading done.  I finished two books last week and DNF'd two.  I'm most of the way through another book right now and I'll finish it today.  

Baking happened.  Nothing exciting or even different.  I made zucchini bread last Sunday and granola bars yesterday.  

I also hit the Wallyworld yesterday.  I'm in charge of the pop machine at work now, and part of that is acquiring the cans to fill the machine.  So, before I did my own groceries, I did that.  168 cans worth.  What can I say, it's been a while since anyone did this and the machine was out of damn near everything.  My back seat is filled with pop.  Which meant I didn't have room for deer food.  Needless to say, I need to find a better way to do this.  Then I went back in and did my own shopping.  I was a naughty girl and bought stuff we didn't need.  Next month, I need to go back to my usual shopping strategies.  And of course, it was pouring rain, so between the two trips into and out of the store, and the loading of stuff into the car, plus the trips from the car to the house, I was soaked.  

After the rain stopped, Hubs and I went for a walk.  Our first real walk in weeks.  We did a little over a mile and man, can I tell that it's been a while since I walked.  I also took a short walk on my lunch half-hour one day this past week.  Still too hot for such activities.  I was a sweaty mess and I only walked for 8 minutes.  Additionally, on the activity side of things, I was moving boxes of stuff around at the office.  Weight: 175.4

In other news, my bank was robbed in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.  The gals who work there couldn't give me any details, because it's an ongoing investigation, but there were observations I could make on my own.  For instance, the two robbers knocked out the right side of the glass double doors to gain entry.  I'm not really sure what these bastards could've gotten away with - the vault, where my safety deposit box is, is well... a vault.  The bank does have a security system, which alerts the authorities and has cameras, so there's that.  Unfortunately, we are far enough out that the police did not arrive in time to catch the assholes.  

While I was discussing this bit of local news with the gal at the corner store, she told me there are also reports of a camouflage Chevy Blazer in the area making threats to set people's homes on fire and rob them when they escape the flames.  Nice.  I also heard about two other robberies in the area.  One of the people I was talking to said all this crime is because of, you know, drugs.  I think it's because people aren't being taught not to touch what doesn't belong to them, while being taught that they're entitled to shit, and there are no longer any real consequences for bad behavior.  And drugs.  But that's just me.

And now, on to the weather... It's been wet.  I can't complain, though, because we've been hoping for rain for so long that complaining would be hypocritical.  So, yay, rain.  

Nothing much else going on around here.  What's up in your world?

Thursday This n That

Facebook was actually useful this morning...

- Here's a pdf booklet on the care of wildlife so veterinarians can keep them alive while waiting on transfer to a rehabber.  (Never keep wildlife yourself.  Just keep them alive and as healthy as you can, but get them to someone who knows how to care for them ASAP.)  I saved it down because I never know when I might have to use the information.  I don't even know where there's a rehabber within 3 hours of here or whether any of my local vets take wildlife.  

- And here's the link to the YouTube videos of a child piano prodigy performing.  Definitely inspiring.  

I sat down to read a book last night and ended up DNF'ing 4 in a row.  I hate when that happens.

Trying to maintain a positive attitude is not an easy thing these days.  So, if you don't see me here or at your blogs, it's because I'm in a negative place and don't want to spread it around.  Negativity is a social disease, doncha know.  And penicillin don't help.

We had a death in the family.  It wasn't totally unexpected... I mean, the first part was kinda unexpected, but after that, we had a timeframe, so the very end wasn't a surprise.  It wasn't anyone close close to me.  I mean, I loved her and I remember her fondly, but it's not a deep hurt.  More like an 'aw, damn'.  Our moms and sibs and the kids are all fine and all that.  Sympathy cards have been purchased, flowers will be sent.  It kind of put me in a frame of mind to think about certain things, though.  Like not letting things, no matter how bad they may have been or may seem, keep you from communicating with the people who matter.  Unfortunately, it's a two-way street and both parties have to be on board with staying in touch.  But, yeah, dead is too late to repair the rift.  

We got like 2.3 inches of rain over the past few days.  Sploosh.  April showers bring May flowers.  And Mayflowers bring pilgrims. LOL

Amazon keeps trying to get me to sign up for Amazon Business.  Like that would be a thing for me.  Sure, I'm a business, but I don't really need business type stuff.  I'm down to the point where my expenses are almost nil.  Some printing costs - paper, ink.  Both of which I get at Wallyworld so I don't have to worry about shipping costs or time.  

Speaking of shipping, I ordered pesticide for the start of Tick-ma-geddon 2022.  The stuff was supposed to arrive from GA on Monday.  The tracking finally updated and it's headed this way from the hub in KS, but still no delivery date.  :shrug:  Why it went from GA to KS, passing MO entirely only to come back east, I have no clue.  The logistics is a nightmare.  Seems like a waste of fuel to me.  Eh, if I ran the world, it would've dropped into St Louis and then come here.  Like shipments out of TX always go past us into Kansas City and then come back south.  One would think if those dropped into Little Rock and then continued up, it would be so much more efficient.  :shrug:

And that's all I have to say about that.  I suppose I should get to doing something productive this morning.  But first! more coffee!

What say you on this fine morning?

Thursday This n That

I finally checked the last things off my to-do list yesterday.  As a result, there's a new remote control in the mail (ours had a couple buttons that don't work anymore) and there's a guy from the phone company coming to figure out why we have static in the line and, hopefully, fix it.  Oddly, there was static in the line when I called the office and when I called DirecTV to get the remote, but no static in the line when I called the phone company to report static in the line.  

We've had static in the phone line on and off for about a month.  Yeah, I procrastinated the hell out of that call.  And hey, why does it always have to be me that calls about that stuff?  Couldn't one of my neighbors call?  So part of my waiting was to see if anyone else would bother.  Umm, no.  Their laziness outwaited my stubbornness.  Bastards.  

I had all my zucchini and carrot plants out on the deck.  Then yesterday morning we got a sploosher, so there I was dragging all those pots back into the garage so my baby plants wouldn't get drowneded.  They'll go back out later today when this system passes through.  At some point, they're going to have to stay out there even through the splooshers because there's no way I'm dragging all those zucchinis back into the garage.  

According to Hubs and our rain gauge, we got 4 inches of rain in this system.  Sploosh.

I don't know what the hell my fingernail just accidentally touched, but suddenly I had a whole big sidebar thingie here that looked like programming language and junk.  Eeek.  Luckily, I could exit it easily.  They really ought to warn people about that shit.

I was over 44 million in poker and hit a string of bad luck during which I dropped 800K in chips. Beats so bad that I actually banged my head on the desk.  I mean, when you flop the nuts and go all in and they need runner runner to beat you and they make the runner runner, that's horrific.  And it happened twice inside ten minutes.  So, that was 400K out the window and then little beats here and there ate the other 400K.  (Yes, I understand most of you won't have any clue what I'm talking about there.  Sorry.)

In happier news, I've added 6200 words to Duke #2 this week.  So twisty.  Not only do I have no clue about who dun it, I have no clue who the bodies are.  Hehe.  It's so much fun finding out.

And that's all I've got today.  What's on your this-n-that radar today?

Thursday This n That

 In case you missed it, I have a new book (Cinder Ugly) up for pre-order right now and a sale going on (Once Upon a Djinn).  

Amazon, in its infinite wisdom, isn't showing pre-orders.  It's been a long time since I did a pre-order, but I'm pretty sure they used to show how many pre-orders I had.  I should have at least one (cuz I pre-ordered it).  

Amazon has also not grouped my A Model Curse books into a series yet.  I have a request in to them.  We'll see if it gets done before CU goes live.  (They used to do this automatically.  At least, they've done it for my other series.  :shrug:)

I'm not sure if it's the 'rona or Halloween or the approaching election, but twice this week I've had people screw up the attachment thing on emails I need.  Once, there was no attachment.  The other time, the attachment was wrong.  From totally different people.  Blerg.

Sometimes I have to remind myself 'you can't know what you don't know' and not feel stupid about things people point out that I didn't know.  (I don't think they meant to make me feel stupid.)  I mean, maybe I should've known.  But I didn't know such a thing even existed, so how could I have known that I didn't know?  Ya know?

I've been feeling kinda low these past couple days.  No big deal.  I only mention it because I woke up this morning with 'High Hopes' stuck in my head.  A positive song out of nowhere.  Part of me is all like 'yay'.  Part of me wants to punch myself in the brain.  It's like facing a cheerful person before you've had enough coffee to deal with all that cheer.

It's raining raining raining here.  The lake's gone up a foot in the past day or so.  Not a problem since the lake was a 'normal level' which means it can go up another 15 feet without causing a major problem.  Still, all this rain is making my yard look like a waterfall and it's really mushy out there.  It's also harshing my ability to take walks.  

I saw the cutest kitten posted on one of the rescue sites I follow and I wanted it in the worst way.  It was killer cute.  Death by cuteness cute.  This is not the time to be taking on a new pet - especially a kitten or a puppy.  I don't have the time or the energy or the patience for a baby animal right now.  And then there's Kira.  The old lady doesn't need that kind of irritation.  She's gotta be... what... 86 or so in cat years?   She takes up a lot of time and energy and patience all on her own.  Throw a new pet into that?  Nope.

And that's enough out of me.  What's up with you?

Thursday This n That

Rain rain rain... Ugh.  Lusty month of May my aunt's fanny.  Drippy month of May is more like it.  Almost 6 inches already this month.  Blerg.

And according to last night's radar, we've got another round of crap headed our way today.  Oh, joy.

The other day while I was out for a walk, I saw a turtle.  Not unusual as all that, except the turtles I usually see are box turtles.  I think this one was a cooter, but I've never seen a cooter outside the water, so you got me.  I think it was laying eggs about 8 feet off the road where the neighbor's yard meets the woods.  Or it was about to lay eggs.  All I know is it was sitting over a hole filled with water.  I may have disturbed it because it was gone when I walked back.  Either I disturbed it or it wasn't laying eggs after all and decided it wanted to take a walk, too.  Or the ground is so wet here, she didn't want to lay eggs in a flooded hole.

I've been trying to walk more often, but with all this rain, it's kind of hard to get out there.  I should use the exercise bike... or as I called it the other day, the coat holder... more often.  Or at all.  Yeah, we aren't exactly exercise equipment people.  Not sure what I was thinking when I bought it.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookie crumbled over vanilla ice cream with caramel drizzled over it all.  Jus' sayin'.

I kind of collect old writing books, I guess.  At this point, I only have three.  And that was after buying one at the thrift store last week.  Three makes a collection, right?

It's hard work trying to find new to me, underappreciated authors to read and write reviews about.  It's become kind of a mission.  I know good books are out there because I've found a bunch of them.  Some weeks, though, are better than others.  And if I get disheartened, I can always go back to an old favorite author and refresh myself.

That's all I've got for you today.  What have you got for me?

Thursday This n That

It rained yesterday for the first time since May 25th.  We got 4/10ths of an inch.  Not a deluge, but it's a start.  I had Hubs open the front door so we could listen to it.  Not for long... cuz, you know... bugs... but it was nice for a minute there.

Is it just me or has the world gone batshit freakin' insane lately?  Oh, holy crap.  Can't read my FB feed without purging someone from my view.  And forget Twitter.  I wasn't even on there for a minute before I ran screaming from the virtual room.  And saying 'I don't usually post about political things but I can no longer hold my tongue' and then spewing a load of verbal diarrhea?  Yah, ain't helpin'.  If it's wrong now, then it was wrong two, five, ten years ago, so what held your tongue then?

We had a lovely visit with our company.  Super nice people.  Interesting to talk to.  Fun to be around.  He was Hubs' best friend in high school and his wife was a former librarian.  What more could you ask for?  Sure, I still had to take a five minute alone break, but that's me.  Socialization, even with the best of people, is tiring.  Of course, I overbought on the cold cuts.  We have a ton of leftover deli ham and turkey.  Sammiches for everyone! 

Today is the day I'm supposed to have an ad going out.  Problem: it's a new source for me and I hadn't signed up for their newsletter until this morning, so I probably won't actually SEE what the ad looks like today.  Problem #2: After I signed up for their newsletter, they had links to their FB and Twitter.  They haven't posted to FB in years.  The Twitter feed is current, but I'm not sure if what I paid for includes tweets.  Caveat Emptor.  But more about that another day.

We saw our first fawn of the season yesterday!  So tiny and so cute! 

The rabbits have now accepted Hubs as one of their own.  They still move out of the way of the giant human, but not very far and as soon as he moves, they go back to where they were.

Okay, that's about it from me today.  What's it for you?