Thursday This n That

 Ugh, it's Thursday.  How did that happen?  Where did the week go?  

I feel like the underside of a public picnic table.  I woke up at 3 feeling gross, but I made myself go back to sleep.  I woke up at 4:15 feeling grosser.  After several cups of coffee and more than a few cigarettes, I'm feeling a bit better, but meh.  I cannot miss work, so this better go away.

You know how I was really busy at work?  Apparently, I didn't know what busy was.  The office is about to be one short until they hire someone new.  And another short for the next week due to a planned vacation.  For the past week or so, I've been training on some of person A's job in addition to my regular work, so I'm already behind.  Hubs reminded me yesterday that I can only do what I can do and if things fall through the cracks, that's not on me.  I reminded him that I don't work that way (and neither does he, btw).  Not being able to accomplish everything I am given feels like failure.  Even if the reality of it is that I'm being given more work than a single human can accomplish in 8 hours a day.  Or 9 hours a day, if they approved overtime.  Which they didn't.  

The hunt for a cat has stalled.  The cats we expected to hit the website yesterday did not, so they either got adopted right away or the vet didn't clear them to be adopted.  :shrug:  We might try again this weekend, if we call and they say they have more cats not pictured on the site.  

I keep forgetting that Sunday is Easter.  Which means my Saturday shopping trip is probably going to be packed with people.  Blerg.  Now that we don't have kids, Easter isn't really a thing for us.  Oh, we do something special for dinner, but not really any other holiday happenins.  

Two days ago, it was 87F here.  This morning, the heater is kicking on.  Ah, April in the Ozarks.

There was a show about rabbits on PBS last night.  There's this gal in England that raises giant bunnies.  She's got one that, when he stands on his hind legs, is about 4 ft tall.  Now, that's a big bunny.  

Okay, I think that's about it for my this n that.  What do you have in your this n that today?

 

Thursday This n That

I've been screwing around in my moments of spare time, listening to music on YouTube.  I like doing that because I can load specific songs or just click videos along the side of whatever video I've got queued up.  This morning, I was listening to old Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians songs.  I used to have their tape - Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars.  I'd totally forgotten this one:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJOAz7zdKKo - cool.

Some of this music thing came up because of one of those FB things where they ask you to list your favorites of some specific thing.  This one was 'list 10 songs that make you think of a particular point in time and take you right back there' and you're not supposed to think too hard about it.  I did mine.  I told Hubs about it, so he shared some of his with me and I searched them on YouTube and we listened together.  Anyway, here are mine:
1) September by Earth, Wind, & Fire
2) Yeah Yeah Yeah by Judson Spence
3) You Shook Me All Night Long by AC/DC
4) The Living Years by Mike and the Mechanics
5) Push it by Salt n Pepa
6) Let's Go Crazy by Prince
7) Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver
8. If You Could Only See by Tonic
9) Chances Are by Johnny Mathis
10) No One is to Blame by Howard Jones
I could've done 20.  Music has always been a central part of my existence.  (Yes, there are a lot of '80s songs in there. What of it?)

Illness is sweeping through the office again.  I will NOT get it this time.  I refuse to.  So there.

The wind storm we had the other night toppled a tree across the road leading out of our neighborhood.  Lucky for me, someone else had to leave for work before I did and they must've had a chainsaw because it was passable when I got to it. And it was gone entirely by the time I came home.  Thank you, whoever you were.

I saw a bunny!  First one of the year.  For some reason, we only see bunnies in the Spring and Summer.  (Not baby bunnies.  There's a reason we only see babies in those seasons. LOL)

Okay, I probably should go get ready for work.  And remember to try and keep a positive attitude today, no matter what shit life throws your way.  =o)

Sunday Update - Week 29

We're more than halfway through the year.  Things are looking up on a personal level.  We won't talk about on a world level, k?  I'm just muddling through and trying to live my life here.

I thought about writing yesterday.  That's actually a step forward.  I also tried to come up with a schedule with which I can get some words out without burning myself to a crispy critter.  It may involve writing in the morning. That hasn't worked for me in the past, but hey, this is a new world I'm working in, so maybe there's hope.  

I managed to finish reading two books last week.  Yay.  I'm still behind on my goal, but I'm not dropping further behind, so that's something.  

In baking news, I made cake cookies last Sunday.  Today, I need to make zucchini bread.  

At work, I was relaying what I thought was a funny story about getting home from work and then doing spreadsheets, wherein I attached the wrong file and sent it to the office.  It was posited that perhaps I was stretching myself too thin.  Eh.  I've attached the wrong file when I wasn't doing a day-job, too.  I make mistakes.  In the scheme of things, it wasn't the worst mistake I could've made.  Hell, I could've sent the right file to all the wrong people.  THAT would've been bad.  Yes, I am tired.  It's just a matter of getting used to all of this and acclimating myself to working when I haven't.  :shrug:  I must be getting used to it, or my brain wouldn't be thinking about throwing writing into the mix, too.  I tell you one thing, I probably won't write on the nights I have spreadsheets to do, too.  Hence, the maybe writing in the morning.  

Thankfully, Hubs is doing a most excellent job of taking care of the house, so really all I have to do is cook dinner.  And some nights, he does that, too.  Or we have leftovers or sandwiches.  It's all good, baby.

We had a bit of a scare this week.  Lumpy came into the yard with only one twin.  Fortunately, the next day, she had both of them with her.  I suspect the boy is starting to get more independent and decided he didn't want to follow Mom that day.  Nature can be a bitch, though, so if we lost one, it wouldn't be totally surprising.  Just sad.  

We're starting to see bucks again.  And we're playing the game of 'wonder which one is Sonny'.  For those of you who are new here, Sonny is Lumpy's son from two years ago who hung around with his Mom and his twin sister, Sissy, until last year's rut.  He's out there amongst the bucks somewhere.  I expect he'll be a little bit tamer than the other bucks because his mother and his sister are so much tamer.  They know which human is the food-bringer and what yard to find him in.  So Hubs can basically walk right by them and they follow him down to the feed pans, like big dogs.  They do not get close enough to touch, which is the way we want it, but they let him get closer than any other deer would.  

We have a bitty bunny hanging out here now.  She's about 2/3rd size of an adult rabbit.  And very chill.  Like the deer, she knows where she can get food and water, and remain safe.  Welcome to the menagerie, Bitty Bunny.

It's been so hot here.  And so dry.  Hubs has been watering my gardens so my plants don't die.  I don't expect great things from them this year.  If we can just keep them all alive, maybe next year will be better.  The vegetable plants... well, they're annual, so there won't be a next year for them.  But hey, they're alive, even if they are nowhere near putting forth anything edible.  

Well, that was a long-ass post.  Sorry.  Loads to say, I guess.  Anyway, thanks for reading this far.  Leave a comment, if you're not too tired from reading, and tell me what your week was like.

The hot and the dry are making life hard for the animals.  Which, I suspect, is why the deer have been eating my irises.  They don't usually do that.  Irises are not a food of choice for the deer.  This year?  Munch munch munch.  Like the hard winter where they ate my coral bells (another plant they aren't supposed to eat).  It is what it is.  

Speaking of deer eating things, they have ruinated Elmer the elm.  He's just a stick in the dirt now.  Hubs keeps watering it, but I think it's a lost cause.  :shrug:  We still have Cecil and Cedric cedars, though.  Fingers crossed that when they finally go into the ground, the deer leave them alone.

Thursday This n That

Shit, it's Thursday.  Where did the rest of the week go?  Seriously.  I swear it was just Monday.  

Yesterday, I left work at the same time as one of my co-workers.  She got into her car and rolled down all the windows, then yelled to me that it was 114 in her car.  I have manual windows, so I was walking around my car rolling all my windows down at the time.  When I got in, it felt like 130.  And of course, my old car doesn't appreciate it when I run the AC.  Of course.  Callie Cavalier growls at me when I try to run the AC... the bitch.  So, I hopped in and drove.  The air coming in the windows... Well, you know that whoosh of hot you get when you open the oven to check whether the pizza is done in the middle?  That's about what it felt like.  Lucky for me, I only have a 5-7 minute drive.  By the time I got home, my lighter was hot to the touch, as were the metal bits on my purse - both of which were inside with me all day.  Hell, I was hot to the touch.  We won't discuss how hot the steering wheel and gear shift were.  

It's bill-paying day.  Woohoo.  As soon as I get this post finished, I have to go do that.  Then shower.  Then work.

Hey, my new sheets and shorts arrived yesterday.  We have two sets of sheets we rotate.  One of them developed a hole in the fitted sheet, so that's relegated to 'drop cloth' duty.  I ordered a new set to use as the main set and we'll take the older set and use them as backup.  I also developed a hole in the butt of my favorite shorts, so I ordered two new pair.  Hubs is washing everything right now.  Yay.  After this morning's shower, I'll put on a pair of the new shorts and tonight we'll be sleeping on new sheets.  

We have a baby bunny living just off the yard.  Not sure where, but close enough that we're seeing her frequently.  Yay.  

Speaking of babies, the fawns are doing fine in this heat.  Of course, Hubs is refilling the water pans like 3 times a day.  And we do live near a lake.  Still, the water is fresher and cooler here.  

Okay, well, I should probably start me day.  Have a great one!  

Sunday Update - Week 22

Howdy there buckaroos.  (Not sure why I went there this morning...)  

Not a great week for writing progress.  I worked on the book 4 out of 7 days, but I only added 1539 words.  That was mostly a new scene at the beginning and the rest was reworking what I'd already written to make sure it flowed with the new stuff.  

I did some reading.  Finished two and DNF'd a third.  Yesterday, I picked out one of my old Zane Grey's and started reading that.

In baking, I did a plain ol' yellow cake from a mix on Monday.  We ate most of it with strawberries and the rest plain.  Thursday, I made granola bars and then a loaf of applesauce bread for Hubs.  He does like his granola bars and breads for breakfast.

On the activity front, I managed to get out 3 days where I did something other than sit on my ever-widening ass.  I got some more weeding done.  Then I planted vegetable seeds in the front flower bed and planted my elm tree.  Yesterday, Hubs and I went for a walk.  I need to get back to walking more, that's for sure.  Weight 182.4.

Speaking of my elm tree, that I raised from a seed I planted in a pot about 14 months ago... the deer have already munched almost all the leaves off of it.  Took them two days.  Poor Elmer.  I never did take a picture of him.  He was beautiful.  Now he's a stick with leaf bits.  I still have Cedric and Cecil, the two baby cedars, but now I'm afraid to put them in the ground.  They have to go out there sooner or later, though.  They can't thrive in pots.  Cross your fingers for my vegetable garden.  Between the deer and the bunnies, it's hard to grow things here without a 6 ft fence.

On our walk, we saw three bunnies.  One in the yard, one at the curve, and an itty-bitty baby bunny over by the well house.  OMG, that last one was so cute.  Fingers crossed he does better than Elmer out there in the mean world.  Nature is a bitch sometimes.

As far as we can tell, the deer are still pregnant.  No sign of fawns yet.  

7:13 a.m. update - Lumpy is post-pregnant!  Here's hoping she manages to get this fawn (these fawns - she usually has twins) to adulthood.  Last year, she never showed up with new fawns. Yes, I am excited.

Lumpy is the lighter deer.  I believe the darker deer is her daughter, Sissy.  Sissy's the only deer Lumpy will bother to groom.

Last Saturday, we had a male Prothonotary warbler checking out our bird house and laying a nice bed of moss in it.  Then he brought his lady by to check it out.  She started building a nest and he started defending it.  We had high hopes they were going to raise a brood there.  Then they stopped.  Not sure if that place is too active with other birds or what.  :shrug:

In poker news, the site I use has this round of 5 single table tournaments.  I made it a goal to win them all and I did it.  Yay for me.

Yep, I lead an exciting life.  What's up in your exciting life?

Sunday Update - Week 19

Mornin' Everyone.  Let's just jump right into the week, okay?

I had a good writing week, if a bit strange for me.  Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I wrote on SCIU4 - 2770 words.  Friday and Saturday, I shifted gears and worked on Shroudlands2 - 3188 words.  Right now, I have to go where the inspiration takes me.  And right now, the inspiration is following reader input.  But I'll try and talk about that more tomorrow.

I didn't read anything else all week until yesterday when I went ahead and picked up a suspense novel I've been chomping to read.  If I'm writing fantasy, a suspense shouldn't harsh my groove.  Yes, being a writer is weird.

In baking news, I did a lemon oil cake with strawberry frosting.  I also did a batch of granola bars.  Expect the baking to slack off now that the weather is decidedly warmer.  Although, I do plan to make a batch of zucchini bread today.  Hubs does love his granola bars and zucchini bread for breakfast.

On the activity front, I managed 4 days worth.  Tuesday I sprayed weeds in the driveway, which was a haul.  Wednesday, I took a short walk in the woods.  Thursday, I did a BIG grocery trip.  Friday, I mowed the lawn for an hour.  (Hubs did the rest - which took another 3 hours.  We have a push mower and a big lawn.)

Speaking of spraying weeds... it only worked a little.  I needed more vinegar in the vinegar, dish soap, Epsom salts, water mix.  Hubs redid the driveway yesterday using mostly vinegar in his big sprayer on wheels.  (I used the pump sprayer.)  By afternoon, there was visible Weed-mageddon going on out there, so yay.  

As for the grocery trip, it was BIG.  I went in and got all the non-perishable stuff and took it out to the car.  Then I went back in and got all the meats, cheeses, produce, and frozen stuff.  We're good for at least a month now.  One trip saves gas.  We won't talk about the fundage I dropped.  Let's just say it wasn't pretty.  It was all stuff we needed, but ouch.

I did buy a lottery ticket this week.  Won $10.  Woohoo.  In other gambling news, I won another tournament.  202 people started and I was the last man standing.  The whole thing lasted 101 minutes.  

The bunnies are back for the Spring.  There's one in the yard right now.  Yay!  Also, the deer have reached maximum fat pregnant, so we should be seeing the mass drop toward their hips and then a sudden thinning as they bring fawns into the world.  We won't see fawns until late June, if things run along previous years' schedules.  We did have two yearling bucks laying in the front yard the other day, though.  How cool is that?

The weather here has been weird.  Too hot for right now and storms that are predicted but pass us and dump all over other people.  We're predicted to have a nasty one today.  Here's hoping it also goes elsewhere.  

Not sure what's on tap for the week ahead.  More writing.  I have to get back to the neverending weeding.  I should also probably get some cleaning done.  Otherwise, the possibilities are end... Okay, not endless, but there are possibilities.  ;o)

How was your week?  

Sunday Update - Week 24

Yeah, there was no update post for Week 23.  I forgot it was Sunday and then I didn't really have anything to say.  I don't really have anything for today either, but I don't want to disappoint you again.

No writing or editing occurred.  I have been marketing as much as I can take.  No sales whatsoever for Duke.  I've moved 41 free copies of Wish Hits the Fan and sold one copy each of the other books (in the UK).  I'm hoping this spurs some page reads, but I'm not holding my breath.  WHTF is still free through the end of today.  The sale on the other books ends Tuesday.  Wednesday the SCIU books go on sale.  99c/99p each through the end of 6/22.

In reading news, I read some good books and DNF'd some dreck this week.

I didn't do much in the way of activity.  I mean, I washed the car one day and did the windows the next/  Other than that, there was grocery shopping and moving the container garden around.  The week I missed was more active and I'm up to 35.55 miles walked.  It's probably why I dropped a pound.  Weight: 186.2.

A couple neighbors stopped to chat while I was doing the car windows.  They had just seen a fawn.  Only one deer still looked like she was pregnant and she's probably dropped by now.  In fact, they said the fawn was super small and wobbly, so it might have been hers.  Yesterday, I saw a buck with a busted antler.  Snapped right at where it meets the head and laying over like it was attached by skin.   Poor baby.  That probably hurts like a bitch.  It wasn't bleeding, though, so that's something.

The heat spiked here so it's been hotter than it ought to be for early June.  Blerg.  Unfortunately, this means less baking and less fishing.  So, none of that.  

Yesterday, we had a big Texas black rat snake in the yard.  I tried to encourage him to leave, but he hid under a pile of boards we have under the smoking room and I didn't want to mess with it.  I really didn't want to kill it.  I mean, he serves a purpose for the most part.  And he might eat the pack rat, which would be awesome.  Did you know those snakes shake their tails when they feel threatened, so they sound like a rattler?  Silly snake... I saw your tail.  Derp.  I guess it would've been a bit disconcerting if I hadn't seen that it wasn't a rattler.  Since we do have rattlers here and all.  I guess it's time to spray the yard again.  

Chester the Chipmunk has made a home under one of my peonies.  I hope the snake doesn't eat him. Hubs thought he saw a baby bunny at dusk yesterday.  I hope the snake doesn't eat it either.  (Maybe I should've just whacked the snake with a shovel and been done with it.)

Last night, something occurred to me and I got a serious case of the sillies.  I started laughing and couldn't stop because every time I tried to tell Hubs why I was laughing the thought hit me again and I'd start laughing all over again.  What was it?  I was in the process of turning down the bed when I farted and my brain said: Farting is only your butt laughing.  That's what set me off.  And the more I laughed the more I farted and the more I farted, the harder I laughed.  It was a vicious circle.  Getting old is gross.

On that note, I'll leave you.  I hope you weren't bored reading this.  Lord knows, I've been boring the hell out of myself lately.  

How was your week?  

Thursday This n That

I don't understand the new style of tucking your shirt into the front of your pants and leaving it untucked in the back.  I've seen it on several shows now.  Erin does it on Hometown.  I think Jenny does it on Fixer to Fabulous.  Nancy Kerrigan (the figure skater) was wearing her shirt that way on Antiques Roadshow - Celebrity Edition.  Is it to cover your ass?  It seems like the mullet of fashion - business in the front, party in the back.  :shrug:  Not keen on it.  I leave the whole shirt untucked these days.  Cover the belly and the butt.  

It occurs to me so many people are trying so hard to avoid death that they're no longer living.

Yesterday, I went out on the deck for a smoke and it looked like something had stolen one of my tomato plants.  I was thinking birds or a squirrel.  Then when I looked closer, I realized that tiny baby plant was laying flat in the dirt.  When I watered yesterday, I'd forgotten the tomatoes.  Derp.  I might have lost like four of them.  We'll see.  Someone local I follow on FB posted pictures of their tomatoes this morning.  They already have fruit!?  WTH?  My plants are only like 2-3 inches tall.  

The latest in stupidity from our Impostor in Chief is that he's trying to ban menthol cigarettes.  Because menthols are racist and target black folk, or some stupid shit.  Legalize drugs, ban menthols.  I smoke menthols.  What a dipshit.  (And yes, I know it's not actually him because he can't think his way out of a paper bag.  He's merely the figurehead.  Universal dipshit and his dipshit handlers.)

Hey, did you hear Snow White is awful because the kiss of the prince that saves her wasn't consensual?  Can't make this stuff up, people.  I guess mouth-to-mouth resuscitation should be out shortly, too.  Dipshits.

In happier news, we had a bunny in our yard yesterday!  And a raccoon!  Spring is awesome.  Here's pic of the bunny after it hopped into the woods.  Can you find it?  

In additional happy news, our black walnut trees are all starting to recover from the hard freeze that killed most of their new leaves.  Even the baby trees I was especially concerned about have new leaves.  Nature will find a way.  Yay.

My irises are blooming.  Yay!  And my lilies have buds.  Yay!  

And on that note, I'll let you get back to your lives.  Have a great day, folks.  And try to find some happy amidst the chaos.  :hugs:

Thursday This n That

We now have three fawns.  The single I took a picture of and a set of twins.  Yay.

Yesterday, I made a pineapple upside-down cake.  We're out of ice cream again and that's one cake you can eat without it. 

Speaking of ice cream, what the heck?  Owl and I are blowing through that stuff like it was nothing.  Unfortunately, unless I want to expose myself... hush, not like that... I'm pretty much home bound.  So I'm wrapping trips together for maximum efficiency.  Since we don't need anything else right now, the ice cream will have to wait.

On a happier note, the other day I went fishing and caught 5 fat bluegills.  We had them for dinner on Tuesday and I'm planning on using the leftovers to have a fish sandwich for lunch today.  Yum.

There was a rabbit in the yard last night.  Yay.  And there's been a raccoon regularly visiting the deer corn at dusk or dawn.  It's not a fat one, but it's not thin either.  Just a nice sized, healthy looking coon.

Well, folks, it's bedtime here and I've run out of things to say, but I want to get this scheduled so early risers can read it with their morning coffee.  Have a great day and if you feel like it, leave some of your this and that stuffs.

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?

Sunday Update - Week 23

Well, it's Sunday again.  Before I forget...  Happy Father's Day to them what are fathers. 

Now, here's a look at the week that was.

I'm up to about 6800 words on Ugly and the Beast.  I have an idea for the next scene but the gumption to write is pretty weak lately. 

As for reading, I finished 4 books last week.  The three that are on my Saturday Reading Wrap Up and the one I mentioned as having started.  I finished that one last night.  So good that I spent the majority of yesterday in my recliner, reading it.

It's too hot to garden and it's too hot to fish, for the most part. I did go fishing once and caught a couple small fish, then the sun came out and the heat went up and the people came out, so I went home.  As for the gardens, they're growing right along.  I have to water at least every other day right now, because it hasn't rained in like 10 days and the futurecast ain't looking too good either.

I only managed 5 out of 7 days on the 'do something active every day' thing.  But Tuesday was a 3 actives day - exercised for 26 minutes, walked a mile, and went fishing.  Wednesday I was too pooped to do anything but water the gardens (which counts as active since I have to drag the hose all over our large yard.)  The scale showed 189.6 on Friday, so I must've done something right.  Eight tenths of a pound in a week is okay by me. 

Yesterday was the beginning of a mad cleaning spree.  (I cleaned all morning and read after that.)  Today will be more of the same.  We're supposed to have company coming sometime this week.  We never have company, so this'll be an event.  On the bright side, however this company thing goes, the house will be really clean.  But right now, I'm walking around going 'GAH!  Where did all this dust come from???'.

Haven't seen the itty-bitty bunny again.  But we now have a turtle stopping by the feeding area every day.  Still seeing the adult bunnies, so there's that.  And the deer, but they haven't started bringing babies yet.  The wait continues.

And that's about it for my week.  How was yours?

Thursday This n That

I glanced out the window a little while ago to see about a half dozen deer milling around near the feed pans.  I found Hubs and said, "Honey, your entourage is here."  LOL

He made feeding them his first priority this morning.  There's one yearling buck we call Bumper who waits just inside the woods for Hubs to put the food in the pans.  As soon as Hubs heads back up the hill, there comes Bumper.  (Yes, Hubs is extremely careful out there.  He knows they are wild things with the potential to jab the hell out of him with antlers - even fuzzy ones - and kick the crap out of him.) 

On another note, but a similar one, the local rabbit (BunBun) has become so relaxed around here, it now has to be shooed out of the way so Hubs can feed.  BunBun likes to get right in the middle of the pan and munch the corn at his leisure.  He also regularly takes his siesta in the front lawn.  Flops right down and snoozes.  It's a good life here.

I've been flying along with wild abandon on what I've titled 'Ugly and the Beast' (Sleeping Ugly 2).  I have no idea where I'm going.  I'm just careening down the byways hoping I don't crash into anything gnarly.  I'm up to 6800 words as of last night.  Woohoo.

I actually went fishing a couple days ago.  It was lovely at the lake until these two young dudes came by with their big ass boat, water skiing.  And playing gangsta rap at obscene volumes.  Seriously annoying.  Then yesterday I was at the nearby convenience store getting a beverage and gossiping when I saw them.  One of them couldn't have been more than 5' tall - shaggy bronze hair with tattoos crawling up his arms.  The other was maybe my height (5'7"-8") with long straight black hair tied back in a semi-ponytail.  Also covered in tattoos.  Their tattoos were so black they looked like they'd been painted on with India Ink instead of tatted on.  They acted like whipped puppies while they were in the store and then scurried out to get into a new SUV with an older gentleman behind the wheel.  Daddy's car.  Daddy's boat.  Rich kids on the lake acting like Barney Badass gangsta wannabes.  Thank goodness they didn't act like that in the store.  They would've gotten their asses handed to them by the locals.  (The convenience store is a hangout for the local farmers and salt of the earth types.)

And yes, gossiping.  I am wont to do that on occasion.  But I see so few people I care to talk to that it's rare.  On this particular day, my neighbor who works at the convenience store was feeling chatty.  So, we chatted while she helped customers.  It was an enlightening conversation about the little Peyton Place that is my neighborhood.  There's some kind of weird ass feud going on between this person and those people, to the point that this person feels the need to lie to those people. I told the gal I was speaking to that what this person was telling those people wasn't true and laid out the facts.  It may come back around to me.  I don't care.  I hate liars. 

Ever watch that show Fear Thy Neighbor?  It's on Investigation Discovery and it's all about neighborhood disputes that go horribly awry and end in murder.  Yeah, I worry about that stuff sometimes, which is why I try not to get involved in neighborhood disputes.  I just couldn't help myself yesterday.  Lying makes me so mad.

It occurs to me that I have never talked to the neighbor who works at the convenience store inside the neighborhood.  I met her at the store and we talk at the store.  We wave when we pass in our cars.  But that's it.  And we both like it that way.  She and her husband keep to themselves and we keep to ourselves. 

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

Sunday Update - Week 27? No, 28

I'm too lazy to actually verify what week this is right now. (Week 28... verified... I think... )

So, last week.  Things happened.  Stuff occurred.  It's all kind of mashed up in my coffee deprived head right now.  Let's see if I can sort it all out...

I wrote about 10K words in the WIP.  Still don't have a title.  It's being saved as SCIU Ned.  Because it's about Agent Ned Washington out of the Detroit office investigating a string of deaths in Toledo.  A Toledo detective believes they're murders, but Ned's not too sure at first.  So far, it's pretty good.  I think.  I'm at about 21K and there's a lot of work to do to finish this and make it reader-worthy, but it's something.

Last Thursday, someone hit our resident wild rabbit, Bun Bun, in front of our house.  It's still kinda hard to think about.  The sight was horrific in ways you can't imagine.  Hubs and I are still both pretty pissed off because it probably could've been avoided.  People drive around in here like the extra couple minutes it would take to get to their property will ruin everything and they have to VACATION FASTER!  I'm considering getting signs - Slow: Wildlife Crossing.  I doubt they'd do any good, though.  Let's all keep our fingers crossed that no one hits a fawn or a doe here.  I can't be held responsible for my actions if that happens.

In happier news, we're seeing fawns now.  This year, we have a plan.  Take beaucoup pics of each fawn and use the spots as identifiers so we can tell exactly how many individual fawns we have here.  So far, we have four different fawns: 

 

Dot & Dash (the twins), the one with the parallel lines on its neck, and the one with the blurry spots on its side.  (Names for them will be decided later.)  I know naming them will make it harder to take if we end up losing any of them, but I can't not name them.  Like naming Bun Bun.  Of course, she was a special cottontail, so... :sniffle:

I have some advertising going out for Wish in One Hand tomorrow and Tuesday.  Keeping my fingers crossed it nets me some sales.

And now, I'm off to drink more coffee and hope my brain kickstarts itself soon.  How are things in your world?

Hoppy Bunny Day!

Happy Easter, Everyone!  In celebration, I'd like to share a little bunny story...

Long ago in Michigan, I hired some people to come mow my tragically overgrown lawn.  In the process, they uncovered what they thought were a nest of moles.  I went out to see what they were talking about and found a nest of bunnies.  So, I picked all the bunnies up - because their nest was clearly wrecked - and put them in a shoebox until the mowers were finished. 

Then I took them back outside and rebuilt a nest for them in the same location,

Put them all back inside,

put a large cardboard box with a mama bunny sized doorhole cut into it over the top, and left them alone.

I watched it to make sure the mama came back, and sure enough, she did.

Then I really left them alone until I stopped seeing the mom around the yard. (Mom bunnies stop taking care of their babies pretty early.  I watched to make sure I didn't see her for a few days, and I made sure the babies were eating on their own.)

Now, because I was getting ready to move and because I lived in a populated area where rabbits are likely to either become roadkill or petfood, I decided to move them out to the country where I grew up.  I took the baby bunnies who were now capable of caring for themselves and placed them in a laundry basket.  (Not an easy task with hyper-active baby bunnies, lemme tell ya.)

I drove them out to where I grew up.  I released them into a field that would always and forever be a field, right near where the family dog was buried. 

I hope they lived long lives and made loads of baby bunnies with the local rabbits.  And I like to imagine that our old dog's ghost spent many happy hours chasing them through the long grass.

Happy Bunny Day, Everyone! 

This n That Thursday

It's 11:15pm. And I'm up to my ass in alligators, which is why I'm writing this post instead of sleeping.  Tried sleeping an hour ago.  Didn't work.  So I'm up again.  Weeee.

Yesterday (err, Tuesday) I got the first edit suggestions from my editor for Wish in One Hand.  As much as I've gone over and over this manuscript, you wouldn't think there'd be so much color, but it bleeds.  Which is good.  It's what I asked her to do.  But any thoughts of this being an easy edit have flown out the window.  I have scheduled myself to start working on this Saturday.

Actual yesterday - which was Wednesday - I got a note from a reader who is also a writer.  She loved Dying Embers, but she found a few flaws and would I like her to send them to me. Hells yes.  There are seven of them - all perfectly legitimate and totally derp on my part.  Those I'm scheduled to fix tomorrow and then I will upload the fixed version to all the outlets.

Last night, right before I shut the computer down for bed, I got the initial cover art for Wish in One Hand.  There are a few little things I hope he can fix without too much trouble and a couple other things I can adjust in the manuscript to fit the cover art.  Otherwise, it's quite lovely.  Still, this is the reason I couldn't sleep.  I had to play with it.

I have interesting things getting ready to bloom in my garden under the cedars.  Last year I planted wildlfowers in there.  I don't remember these, but they must've re-seeded themselves because there they are.  I wonder what the blooms will look like.  I also have scads of marigolds from last year that re-seeded themselves.  I do love marigolds.

The other day, our resident rabbit - BunBun* - was eating at the corn piles with a couple does.  Until one of the does noticed him. She walked over to sniff him and he scooted away.  A while later, he was in the front yard munching grass.  The doe followed him, intent on sniffing the bunny.  He scooted back down the hill to the corn.  She followed.  Today, I looked out and no deer or rabbits, but we had one squirrel at each pile of corn and on the middle pile, one little chipmunk.  I wish I could've gotten a pic of that.  I shall call him Chester and he shall be my Chester.

I removed two turtles from different points in the road.  I also saw a lot of them on the highway.  Luckily, on my way back, no smushed turtles.  The local papers here have 'watch out for turtle' warnings.  Must be turtle migration time in the Ozarks.

And now, I believe I've worn my brain out.  One hopes anyway.  Sometimes I wish there was a switch to turn the brain off (you know, everything but the autonomic functions - I want to sleep, not die).  How I would turn it back on again... that's the problem.

What this n that do you have for me this week?

*for some reason, I feel the need to pronounce BunBun with a French accent, so it sounds more like BonBon.

Chillin'

I think we could all use some chillin'.  These two are obviously showing us how it's done...