Thursday This n That

I have three pairs of glasses now, but I'm still stuck in the mindset of only having one, so I keep thinking I'm going to have to get up and walk into the living room to get my glasses, even though there's a pair right here on my desk.  Derp.

I wrote an entire long paragraph on Monday night with no punctuation other than at the end.  My editor is going to go into spasms but I was trying to show the character was in hysterics.  The MC slaps her to make it stop.

There was something else here, but it was so long, I turned it into a post for next week.

I sometimes wonder what people would think if they ever read the sticky notes on my desk.  There's one there now that says 'bunnies killed cellphones--Landlines?'  I expect they'd lock me in a rubber room with an I-love-me jacket.

I've been calling straitjackets 'I-love-me' jackets for decades.  Think about it for a second.  Get it now?  Not sure where I heard it or if I came up with that one myself.  I so funny.

Today, we're having Thanksgiving dinner.  Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce.  Yum.  I felt like eating turkey and they had turkeys on sale.  It was only $2.50 more for me to buy a whole turkey than a pre-made package of turkey breast slices with gravy.  Lucky for me, Hubs is okay with making it. 

Some of the things I thought were hilarious when I was younger are not really making me laugh like they used to.  Laurel and Hardy?  Meh.  Abbott and Costello?  Meh.  I'm meh about the Marx Brothers, too, to a certain extent.  (Still love me some Harpo.)  I guess I've progressed beyond slapstick.  Which is kinda sad.  I do breakout laughing when I see a criminal get tased, though.  Especially when they stiffen up and fall over.  Or when they're being all Barney Badass and then end up shrieking like a little girl.  ROFL.  Kills me every time.

Nope, no plans on ever getting tased.  That shit looks like it hurts and as long as you do what the officers are asking you to do, you don't get tased.  I'm very into doing what I'm told when pain is on the line.  They tell you to put your hands in the air, you do it.  They tell you to get on the ground, you do it.  Don't run.  Don't reach for stuff.  Follow directions and no tasing necessary.  Funny how that works.  And if you think they're in the wrong, you still do what they ask and sort it out later - after you call a lawyer.  Better to spend a few hours sorting it out than face the pain of a taser.  Know what I mean?

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

Chicken Veggie Casserole

Nothing much to talk about this morning, so I thought I'd give you a recipe I threw together last week.  If you already saw it on FB, ignore me.

Chicken Veggie Casserole

1 can white meat chicken (undrained)

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1/2 cup sour cream

1/4 cup milk

1 tube Ritz crackers (crushed)

2 small onions (diced)

3 T butter

1/2 cup shredded cheese

1 bag frozen veggies

pepper and paprika to taste

Preheat oven to 350F. In large sauce pan, sauté onions in butter. When the onions are clear and a little brown around the edges, drain the chicken liquid into the pan. Set the chicken aside.  Stir in soup, sour cream, and milk until thoroughly combined. Add in frozen veggies. Stir until coated. Let simmer for about 5-10 minutes or until the veggies just start to get tender. Stir in chicken chunks. Pour into casserole dish. Sprinkle crushed crackers evenly over the top. Sprinkle cheese over the cracker crumbs. Bake uncovered for 45 minutes or until the veggies are fork tender. 

It's awesome as leftovers, too.  We got like 3 meals out of it.  And when you nuke it, the cracker crumbs thicken up the sauce.  Mmm.

Sunday Update - Week 4

Wow, January is kind of flying by.  I saw a meme the other day that called January the Monday of the year.  Yah, pretty much.

Okay, so I actually did some writing last week.  I picked the humorous SF project - tentatively called 'Evil Space Bunnies'.  It's rolling right along.  I'm averaging like 2K words a day.  And as long as I can keep the self-doubt away, I should actually be able to finish this sometime in the next 30 days or so.  I'm not promising this will be published any time soon or at all.  The positive thing is it has gotten me writing again.  Yay.

No editing other than what I do as I write.

I didn't do much in the way of marketing this past week.  I did set up a sale that will run from February 3rd thru 11:59pm on the 9th.  All of the Once Upon a Djinn books will be on sale and Bargain Booksy will be running an ad on the 5th.  Since my goal is to run one sale with advertising a month, I'm on track for that.  And with page reads, the SU sale has almost cleared the advertising, so I got that going for me.

I only finished one book last week - All Creatures Great and Small.  DNF'd a few others.  Not sure how much reading I'll be doing with ESB on my brain, though.

We do not want to talk about activity.  Despite my best intentions, I only did stuff like one day last week.  I'm holding steady at 180.0 pounds right now.  We had a little niggle with the exercise bike.  Apparently, it doesn't appreciate being continuously ridden for longer than 30 minutes at tension 6.  (That was Hubs, not me.)  It started to make a weird thumping noise on the down stroke of the left peddle.  We took the damn thing apart.  Didn't find anything.  Once we put it all back together later in the day - we had a something that interrupted the process - it worked fine with no thumping.  I'm guessing that when the flywheel inside overheats, it rubs against something.

The 'something' we had in the middle of the bike surgery was a cat thing.  Another UTI.  Yeah.  Not sure where those are coming from.  Anyway, they let me get meds without bringing the cat along, so that's something.  But I was warned that the next time this happens, I'll have to bring her in for a round of testing.  Meh.  She'll be 16 this year.  I expect the tests will show she's an old cat.  I give her the antibiotics and it clears right up.  Within 24 hours, she's back to her old self again.  Today, her only problem is that she can't figure out why I'm still giving her medicine.  Umm, because you have to use it all up, cat, or the infection will roar back.  Sheesh.  For the record, she's now eating IAMS urinary tract health formula kibbles.  She doesn't like it, but she is eating it.  A little.  I'm running on the theory that stale dry food is causing the UTIs.  She eats so little dry food that by the time she gets halfway down the bag, it's stale.  We throw out so much food.  Sheesh.  This time, I took the bag of food and separated it into freezer bags.  One bag to eat, the rest in the freezer until she finishes a bag.  Defrost and feed.  Should keep the stuff from getting stale and maybe prevent her UTI.  Right.

Oh, and yesterday, we cleaned the carpet in the office.  Moved everything but the bookcases and the desks.  At any rate, I was offline between 8am and 5pm, when the carpets were finally dry enough to move everything back and plug everything back in.  Hubs did most of the work, except for moving some stuff.  Not sure why it all made me so tired.  LOL

Okay, well, that's plenty out of me for the time being.  What's been going on in your world?

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 1/26/19

Here we are again - the fourth time this year.  Hard to believe 4 weeks have already gone by.  Since I spent most of the week reading All Things Great and Small, I didn't think I'd have much to review this week. And I wouldn't have if not for the DNFs.

New books:  Picked up a free ebook and a 99c ebook - both mysteries, but one is historical and the other is set in Ireland.  I also picked up a free MG general fantasy and another free MG fantasy about genies. And a 99c thriller.  Someone stop me before I one-click again.  =oO

And now, here's the reading list for this past week...

 8) All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot (1/25/19) - Memoir - 5 stars.  New for me to read, but I'd definitely heard of it.  And it is in no way underappreciated.  I picked this up for 50c from St. Vinny's.
Review: "Somehow, despite being totally animal crazy when I was a teen, with aspirations to become a veterinarian, I never read this book before now. It was pretty good. Fun and light for the most part. The other vet was more than a little annoying at times, but Herriot pulled through. And it had a very satisfying ending. =o)"

DNF - 1/25/19 - Tried one of the mysteries I had on my Kindle.  Got a little ways in and realized I didn't like the heroine.  Not even a little bit.  I think it was the 'shares custody of the dog with her estranged husband, and supposedly loves the dog so much she doesn't want to lose it in the divorce, but treats the dog like crap' thing.  Just give the dog to him already.  And the mystery hadn't even started yet.  Meh.  Got it for free, so no big loss.

DNF - 1/25/19 - Tried a UF about the fae.  Realized I totally was not in the mood for UF right now.   I'm saving this one to try again later, too.

DNF - 1/25/19 - Picked up a book I didn't remember reading.  Got a few pages in and the memories all came rushing back to me.  It's a really good book, but the memory's now too fresh for a re-read.  Maybe later in the year.

------------------

Not sure what I'll pick up next.  Three DNFs in a row yesterday made me not want to start anything new.  Plus, Live PD was on.

I'm also writing again, so we'll see how reading goes until that's done.  ;o)

What wonderful things did you read last week?  Anything I should swoop in and download?

Thursday This n That

There's a type of exclusive coffee, I think it's Sumatran, that's made after a particular animal has eaten the coffee beans and pooped them out.  Umm, not just no but hell no.  And I do not even want to know who thought it was a good idea to make a beverage made from pooped beans in the first place.  "Hey, if you thought regular coffee was good, try this stuff that's been in an animal's gut for a while."  :shudder:  It's a crime against coffee, I tell ya.  Or another major hoax perpetrated on the unsuspecting masses.

And now that I've grossed you out...

I cannot stand dry skin.  Drives me right up the wall.  Especially dry hands.  I have a big pump bottle of lotion in my bathroom to stave off dry hands.  And a little bottle in my purse.  I prefer Suave Advanced Care.  It moistens my skin without leaving a residue that will be on everything I touch afterwards.  Dry lips kill me, too.  I have various tubes of lip balm laying here and there - Chapstick, Blistex, and Carmex.  The best one, though, is a promotional tube I got.  It has no brand name - just the name of the company passing it out.  When it runs out, I'm screwed.  Unless I want to drive an hour and beg for another one.  Might almost be worth it.

Monday's government holiday kinda screwed me up.  It was supposed to be bill paying day, but I couldn't do that.  And there's a check I usually get on Mondays that I received and deposited a day late.  (Not that money's that tight.  It's just a thing.)  And I spent all day Tuesday thinking it was Monday.  Blerg.

Well, I guess that's it.  Shorter than usual, I know, but meh.  I have dry brain right now.  Your turn to tell me some things. 

Only 30 Books? Heh.

The other day there was an internet dust-up over some girl saying people really only need to keep 30 books.  I think she was saying to pare down and get rid of the things that are cluttering up your life, but readers took it the wrong way. 

Meh.

First off, why the hell would anyone listen to some girl no one's ever heard of?  Or even some girl everyone's heard of when it comes to what you should and shouldn't do?  Hell, I wouldn't listen to someone I genuinely respected and cared about if they suggested I should only keep thirty books.  Look up at my header.  That shows three bookcases worth of books and I have 5 other bookcases.

I have all those books for reasons, and only I can determine the reasons I have each of those books.  (Well, Hubs does have a say.  Some of them are his, after all.  And while mine outnumber his, he has way more than 30 himself.  The majority of the non-fiction bookcase is his.)

The reasons?  Well, some of them I haven't read yet but still plan to.  Some of them are part of my collection of pulp crime novels.  Some of them I've read but loved enough that I'll read them again.  Others I don't plan on reading again, but I loved them, so they stay.  One case is my literary collection.   There are also reference books in there that I might need to refer to in the future.  And the shelf with the collection of the complete works of my favorite author - sometimes with duplicates (other editions with different covers). 

There's the vintage engineering books Hubs found at an estate sale.  There's the encyclopedia set that belonged to my parents, that still has pressed stuff from when we were kids.  I don't think either of us will really be reading those ever, but they're there and they won't be going anywhere.

Oh, and the case of really old books no one will ever read again.  They're too precious to read.  I'm hoarding them for future generations.  And there's the books my father bought me and the ones that are signed and the ones... Well, I did say 'because reasons'.  I have a lot of reasons to keep books.

Sometimes, I go through and re-determine which books I want to keep.  Some of them have lost their meaning to me.  Some of them I can't remember why I kept them in the first place, and if I can't justify them taking up shelf space, off they go to St. Vinny's to find an owner who appreciates them more.

I'm sure the girl had her reasons for picking the number 30.  I'm willing to bet that even she thinks the number is subjective and arbitrary.  Not sure what the dust up is all about.  And I'm not sure why she felt the need to make her opinions public.  In this day and age, I'm willing to bet she's gotten some really nasty emails over it and perhaps a death threat or two.  I wonder if it was worth it.  :shrug:

My point is there is no point in getting angry over anything anyone says about how many of anything you should hang onto.  Go your own way.  If you want to have a zillion books and have to make tunnels through them to get to your bedroom, so be it.   Who am I to judge your book hoarding habit?

When we moved from CO to MO, I got rid of about 2/3rds of my books.  That sucked, but we had a tiny moving van to transport everything we owned, so it had to be done.  I miss some of them sometimes, but I'm finding those titles I really miss and buying them when I can.   I will rebuild it, I have the technology.  ;o)

How many books do you have?  If you had to pare down - you know, to move across country in a small truck with the rest of your belongings - how many do you think you could part with?

Sunday Update - Week 3

Hi again.

Third week out and I'm still not writing.  I've been thinking about writing a lot.  Not that it counts, but it's better than nothing.

No editing either.

Sleeping Ugly is still on sale.  Not sure what happened to the ad.  I mean, it showed up on FB and it's certainly on their website, but I never got the newsletter - even though they sent me an email showing me what it would look like.  And I know I'm signed up for the newsletter (they automatically sign you up when you book an ad, plus I actually signed up for it before I first started placing ads with them.)  :shrug:  Anyway, whatever happened, I only sold one book that day and that was in the UK.  Derp.

Made some marketing photos to post to FB along with my marketing verbiage.  They're just the print copies of SU in my bed.

Here's one I decided not to post:

I don't think Kira appreciated it.  And she refuses to sign a waiver.  ;o)

I read a lot last week.

We did a lot of woods work, too.  And then it rained.  I think I said the same thing last Sunday.  We're in a pattern now where it rains every Friday/Saturday.  Anyway, we now have 4 piles of deadfall down there, placed strategically for ease of use.  (I'll take pics if it ever stops raining.)  We drag stuff to whichever one is closest.  Made some major progress in killing the spiky, thorny vine things.  I hate those things.  They're evil.  We also made progress on eradicating the big vines.  I think they're wild grape, but since they have no leaves right now and even if they did, the leaves are way up in the canopy, I can't be certain.

I actually left the house for the first time in over a week.  There wasn't really any reason to not leave the house, but there also wasn't any reason to leave.  Four days of that was actually not even stepping foot out the door.  The rest was just not leaving the property.  I think the hermitude is getting worse.

While I was out, I ran into someone I hadn't seen in over a year, so we chatted for about 20 minutes while in a really slow checkout line.  I was already there, saw him pushing his cart by and called out.  He pulled in behind me and we chatted.  He's a great dude.  I told him he really should stop by and see Hubs next time he's in the area.  The height of my socialization so far this year.

Hubs got to socialize, too.  One of the neighbors stopped by.  We were social animals last week.  ;o)

On the activity/exercise front, I did 5 out of 7 days.  Cleaning and woods work for the most part, plus biking.  I'm up to 5 minutes at a time on the bike.  I've noticed a thing about getting lots of exercise, though.  The more I exercise, the hungrier I am.  Not really surprising.  You're burning more calories and the body wants to replace them.  Not helpful for losing weight, though.  :shrug:  I keep reminding myself I'm not doing this to lose weight, I'm doing it to be more active and get off my dead ass.  I think I'm seeing my gut shrink.  Probably would've helped if I'd done some measurements at some point so I could track progress.

Oh, and it snowed yesterday.  First real snow of this winter.  'Bout time.  LOL

Wow, that was a long post.  Must be that since I'm not writing, my words are coming out in blog posts.

What was up in your world last week?