Sunday Update - Week 3

 Three weeks into 2023 and I already missed a Sunday Update.  Derp.  This is not an auspicious start for the year.  

Okay, anyway, I ate some things on Monday that did not agree with my stomach and spent part of early Tuesday morning praying to the porcelain god.  But I couldn't just not go to work because there was something very important that I had to do first thing, so I went to work.  Did the thing, made the call... and the dude wasn't answering his phone, so I left a voicemail.  Then I waited to see if dude would call back.  I gave up at 11 and went home.  I spent the rest of the day sleeping and reading, so I was all better when Wednesday came.  Yay.  Unfortunately, that little bout of whatever must've side-swiped my awesome immune system because I woke up yesterday with a scratchy throat which developed into a full blown head cold.  Anti-yay. :shrug: I've had worse, but I am a little bummed that I get to spend my two precious days off blowing my nose.

On the upside, sitting around doing nothing leaves lots of time for reading, so I actually finished 3 books last week.

Despite the cold virus, I made parm-encrusted pork chops last night for dinner.  Yum.  No baking otherwise.

In the weight/activity sphere, I cleaned the office bathrooms and then swept the whole office.  Cleaning is activity, damn it.  I sure felt it the next day.  Weight: 162.6 as of like five minutes ago.

I'm still playing in the family trees.  Mom set me a task yesterday morning, so I spent the afternoon tackling that.  Nor sure if I accomplished anything toward what she wanted me to find out, but I think I have the entire twig filled out, and I can ask if I found the person she was looking for the next time I talk to her.  In doing this, I discovered a bit about this one person in my family who was written up in the paper for wife-swapping in rural Michigan in 1939.  She moved in with the neighbor and the neighbor's wife moved in with her husband, they divided up the kids, and then they got divorces and remarried the new spouses.  Weird.  My month of Ancestry is almost up, though, so this will end and I'll go back to my usual pursuits.  I ought to have people pay me to do this for them.  

I did a little online shopping.  I bought soap.  Lever 2000 Aloe & Cucumber.  It's the only soap that keeps me clean without making me want to itch my skin off or douse myself with perfume to cover its scent.  It hasn't arrived yet, but it should be here before my last bar becomes a sliver.  I also bought 2 CDs - both by AJR - a book to round out my free-shipping amount.  (The soap couldn't be included in that, damn them.)  I haven't received those either, but I already downloaded the music to my computer, so YAY.

I think that's it for me today.  Work is work.  Life otherwise is unsurprising and unexciting.  How are things in your little piece of the world?

Sunday Update - Week Somethin' Or Other

 I'm too lazy to look up the week # this morning.  

Anyway, it was a week.  Not much different from the week before.  

I did a fair bit of reading, all things considered.  I inhaled a book yesterday and finished it last night.  Woohoo.  I also hit another thrift store and came home with 7 books for a dollar.  Most of them for the shelves and not strictly for reading, but hey, a book is a book.  I have a little collection of old books on how to write, and I found another one of those.  Not super old - like 1955 - but it looks good sitting with the others.

I made Hubs' granola bars before work one morning and that's it for the baking.

On the activity front, we took a walk last Sunday.  Just under a mile.  Which puts me at a measly 32.3 miles for the year.  On the other hand, my weight is still inching down.  As of yesterday... Weight: 166.4.  That's 15 pounds down since I started work and 15.8 down since the start of the year.  I can almost fit into those slightly too-small pants I bought last month.  They fit awesome when I'm standing up but they still cut into my stomach sitting down and since I spend most of my day sitting, they're going to have to remain int he closet.

My wrist is not exactly 100%, but I've gotten to the point where it only really bothers me first thing in the morning.  Both of the braces I bought are duds, as far as I'm concerned.  I wore the new one at work for about a half hour before it started to irritate me.  This reminds me of the time I broke my foot.  I wore the 'cast' thingie for about a day at home, then I had to not wear it to work because I couldn't drive with it.  I bought a pair of crutches to use instead and dumped those at the end of the first day because they were bothering my arms.  I spent the rest of my recovery limping around the plant.  :shrug:  I don't got time for no medical impedances.

Earlier in the week, the leaky spot on our roof from a ways back started leaking again.  We woke up to a puddle in the smoking room.  Yesterday, I picked up two gallons of roof repair, and then it spent most of the day raining.  Not a single drop came through.  Near as I can figure it, that last puddle was created because we got 3.5 inches of rain and it was really windy, so the wind drove the rain up under a loose shingle.  Hubs will still paint the roof with the repair gunk, but it's not as critical anymore.

Work is still work.  Not much changed about that.  The only problem I can see is that I am now comfortable in my position.  (Or as comfortable as anyone can be in a busy environment.)  This is a problem because when I'm comfortable, the little voice in my head that reminds me 'don't say that' starts to goof off.  I'm an opinionated person... yeah, stating the obvious to people who stop here regularly... and when those opinions start dropping out of my face at work, it's a problem.  Need to rein that in.  I need to keep those thoughts for when I'm talking to Hubs or Mom, or in private emails to a certain friend of mine.

One awesome thing about working, my mom and I are connecting on a whole new level.  She understands what I go through at work because it's similar to what she did for years, and I better understand what she went through for all those years many years ago when I was too wrapped up in my own junk to listen to what she needed to talk about.  Dad was not a great listener.  Anyway, I've been close to Mom most of my life, but I feel closer now.  Which is awesome.

I wish I had that kind of relationship with my daughter, but I think Owl has written me off.  =o(

Anyway...

The birds are migrating.  The deer are doing their things.  We haven't seen Sebastian the fox in a while.  A few mornings this past week, there has been a hawk sitting in the same place when I'm on my way to work, and the time I leave puts it so the first rays of the sun are hitting the hawk as I drive by.  It's pretty cool.  I'd stop and take a picture, but I have a feeling if I stopped the car, it would startle him and he'd fly away.  I think it's a red-shouldered hawk.  So pretty.

And that's about it for me.  How went your week?

Sunday Update - Week 42

It was a week.  Things happened.  I haven't had nearly enough coffee yet to rebuild what those things are, but I'll try. 

I worked 40 hours... I know that.  And just to set things straight, in case anyone stop by this blog who knows where I work and cares, they fixed the stuff they'd passed over at my 90-day mark.  All is well.  I'm still liking the job.  For the most part.  Say like 90%.  Which is better than most people get and more than I could've asked for.

I read... but I detailed that yesterday.

No baking.  Although, I probably should make Hubs some granola bars today.  

No exercising.  Well, I did sweep the office Friday afternoon, so that's something active, I guess. Weight: 168.2.  Hubs and I are planning to walk today, as long as it isn't super windy, and it's supposed to be super windy.  Derp.

My wrist is still wonky.  Typing and mousing are interesting.  I rearranged my desk at work to give my arm more support.  Yesterday, I bought a wrist brace at Walmart.  It fits good and it would work, but t's too tight around my thumb, so I order a different one online.  It'll be here Wednesday.  I think I know what the problem is - not carpal tunnel - and a brace should help.

I also ordered two sleeveless turtleneck tops.  In black and purple.  To go under my myriad of blazers.  They're cute.  And I got a super cute sweater at Wallyworld.  In olive green.

Speaking of Wallyworld, I did that yesterday.  The cupboards and the fridge/freezer are once again full.  Yay.

I saw a bald eagle yesterday!  I was driving home and it swooped down toward my car, so I got to see it in all its glory.  Big white head, big white tail, big black body.  Stunning.  So, the balds are back in town.  Sing it.  You know you want to.

Other than that, life is what it is.  Anything happening in your world?

Thursday This n That

Unexpectedly had yesterday off.  I took the opportunity to get some shopping done and then I made a vat of homemade spaghetti sauce - enough for 4 meals.  You see, a neighbor brought us another big bag of tomatoes.  So first I had to parboil and skin those.  I had so many, it just made sense to turn them into sauce.  They also brought us 5 more zucchinis from the plants I gave them.  Not sure how many zukes that is now, but man, my babies produced.  Well, my babies produced as long as someone else was raising them.  He said he's turning over the garden today, so that's the last of them, but I have bags and bags of zucchini in the freezer.  Yay.

Oddly enough, we did not have spaghetti for dinner.  We had hot dogs and french fries.  It was too hot to actually want to eat a big carb-loaded meal.  

Last night, my friend called.  I have today off, too.  I think I'll take care of those zucchinis and make another batch of bread.  Maybe I'll clean my bathroom, too.  Or I'll vegetate and rest up for tomorrow.

I have today off because their pre-sale home inspection got scheduled for today.  Fingers crossed we did enough to satisfy FHA and what we didn't do, but still plan on doing, will get them through to the sale.  We still have one wall of the garage to do and both decks to power wash and stain.  We'll get 'er done.

One of our fawns has visible antler bumps now.  Baby buck!  Yay!

Remember when nobody stuck their nose into anyone else's health business?  Pepperidge Farms remembers.  I think it started with cigarettes.  Maybe it started with eating.  What you do with your body is no one else's business.  You really are not your brother's keeper.  Yeah, yeah, health insurance ties us all together somehow, which is wrong.  

Speaking of which, did you get a health insurance refund?  I looked it up and it seems that insurance companies didn't spend as much as they were allowed to spend versus the amount of premiums they took in last year.  Why?  Because fewer people are seeing doctors for non-essential things now.  One of the things they listed was elective surgery.  I thought elective surgeries were never covered under insurance.  :shrug:  So, it seems like more people are treating medical care like I've treated it for years - don't go to a doctor unless you actually need a doctor/  Huzzah.

What a world.

Anyway, that's about it for me.  How are things with you?  

Sunday Update - Week 13

Well, that was a Week 13 if I ever saw one.

Still no writing, editing, or marketing.  I keep telling myself I'm going to do something writerly, but then when the rubber meets the road, I can't get any traction.  I need to do something because it's been about a month since I sold any books.

My reading week was weird.  A bunch of DNFs and then I read two books in a series back to back, which I almost never do.  Good series, though.  I wish I had the budget to buy the next three books, but I have other things I need to spend that $12 on right now.

You've already heard about life in the chaos this week, so I'll skip that.  There'll be another Chaos Diaries post tomorrow.

I made another chocolate oil cake this week.  And another batch of granola bars.  I have just enough ingredients to make another batch of granola bars, but I'm out of baker's cocoa, so no more of that cake for a while.  I might make applesauce bread this week.

They will be shutting down Missouri effective tomorrow, but they left a nice wrinkle - we can still outdoor recreate (as long as we follow the chaos rules), which means I could conceivably go fishing.  You know, if it ever stops raining and warms back up because I have no urge to freeze my ass off right now.  Maybe today.  Perhaps tomorrow.

Hubs and I are in discussions as to who's going shopping this week.  He says him because he can get in at 6am on Tuesday.  I say me because I know where everything is and can get in and out quicker.  I really wish I could trust the local grocery store to not poison me, so I could have an alternative to Walmart.  Oh, in case you hadn't heard, Walmart has new shopping guidelines that went into effect yesterday.  There's a set number of people allowed into the store at any given time and once that number is reached, you have to wait until someone leaves before they'll let you in.  Should be interesting. 

Lastly, everyone here is well.  And everyone I'm related to is well as of Friday when I talked to Mom.  I hope all the people I care about beyond that are healthy as well, but since I only communicate with most of them online or face to face (which I can't do anymore), I only know about them if I hear from them.  If you're reading this and you don't usually comment, drop a quick 'Fine here.' in the comments so I know you're okay.  Okay?

What went on in your week last week? 

Sunday Update - Week 32

Yeah, I forgot to set this up, and then I slept later than usual, so here I am short on coffee and attempting to write an update post. 

No writing or editing this week.  Don't ask.  I did get an email from ENT with a date, so there's that.

I read a lot this week.  Yesterday, I picked up Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie and I'm working my way through that now.

Did 6 out of 7 days of activity - mostly walking, but also fishing and cleaning.  I finished the week yesterday with a morning loop+ walk and then an evening stroll with Hubs.  I haven't weighed myself lately, so no clue.

No baking.  It's hot again. And we're still working through my last baking extravaganza.

Yesterday, my mouse died - right in the middle of a damn spreadsheet for work.  It wouldn't let me click and drag, which is kind of necessary when I'm taking fives spreadsheets full of data and turning it into one spreadsheet my people can work with.  Argh.  Lucky for me, I have a big box of old computer hardware and found a USB mouse that isn't quite dead yet (the scroller-roller sticks).  It'll work until I get to a store.  (I also found several old style mouses with the round plug that I can't remember the name for right now.  This computer no longer has one of those ports and I don't have that kind of adapter.  USB to round?  Yes.  Round to USB?  No.)

Fishing... On the coolest day of the week, I dragged Hubs out of the house.  We weren't expecting to catch anything, but we both needed to sit on the rocks and stare at bobbers for a while.  I caught a 6" bluegill.  He caught an itty-bitty bluegill.  Not really anything worth mentioning, but at least neither of us were skunked.

We had a bit of an extended-family health scare this week, but last I talked to Mom, the scare is over and everything should be fine.  Unfortunately, Mom's generation is getting up there and these things will be popping up.  No losses in the family for a while, though, so... :knocks on wood:  You do not want to be around me when it's Mom's time.  I'm gonna be a mess.

Thought I was going to have another UTI thing with Kira again, but whatever had her all screwy cleared itself up.  Whew.

Okay, well, I'd better get a move on this morning.  Chores won't do themselves.  Dang it.

What went on in your week last week?  Tell me something good.

Simple Salmon Salad

Looking for a way to get more fish into your diet, but not exactly keen on fish?  Try this:

Simple Salmon Salad

2 frozen salmon fillets
1 can solid white albacore tuna
1/2 cup olive oil mayonaisse
1/4 tsp dill
salt and pepper to taste

Thaw fillets according to package directions.  Preheat oven to 375F.  Bake fillets for 20 minutes or until flesh flakes easily with a fork.  Cool slightly before transferring to sealable container.  Smush with fork while still slightly warm.  Refrigerate until cold.  (I do overnight.)  Drain tuna.  Place in container and smush with fork until fully incorporated with salmon.  Stir in mayo and dill.  Stir in salt and pepper to taste until everything is well combined.  Serve cold on bread, toast, crackers, or eat with a fork. 

Hubs likes his on toast with pickle relish.  He also puts a big dollop of salmon salad on a plate and eats it with crackers. 

Yeah, I know, mayo isn't exactly high up on the 'good for you' list, but if you use the olive oil kind, it's better for you than regular mayo.  Also, albacore tuna is better for you than regular tuna.

So far, Kraft makes the tastiest olive oil mayo I've tried.  I also use Starkist tuna. (Chicken of the Sea was disappointingly mushy.)  I don't use canned salmon because it's a pain in the butt, super salty, and kinda mushy.  Wallyworld has bags of salmon fillets at a fairly reasonable price.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.  I know we do.

Being Active in the Winter Sometimes Means Equipment

It's winter.  And while the weather has been unseasonably nice here lately, winter provides a ton of excuses to not be active.  It's too cold.  It's too rainy, snowy, icy, windy... you get the gist.

I could do my dance-exercise thing, but sometimes I'm too achy from the weather to want to dance around the living room.

I have been doing the exer-clean thing, but there's only so much cleaning a house and a gal can take.

Working in the woods is an option, but when it's nice enough to not freeze my ass off, it's also nice enough to bring out the bugs and potentially the snakes.  Ugh.

What's a gal to do?

Well, I'd talked before about buying exercise equipment.  Sunday, I finally did it.  I ordered an exercise bike.  Hubs researched them and I already had the one we wanted in my wish list.  It's due to arrive here sometime between Friday and next Wednesday.  A little assembly required and we'll be good to go.

I ordered the Exerpeutic Folding Magnetic Upright Bike with Pulse.  According to Hubs' research, it's the best bike for the price and even beats some of the more expensive bikes out on quality.  It's pretty simple.  Set it up, get on it, put your hands on the sensor plates, and ride.  It tells you your heart rate and how far you've biked.  It's not for spinning or for beating the hell out of.  You sit, you ride.  Gets your heart rate up and burns calories.  Totally low impact, which is what my crappy joints need. 

And Hubs is planning on using it, too.  Total win.

Anyway, once we get it and start using it, I'll let you know how it works out.  I plan on still walking and maybe dancing, but it'll be nice to have something else to use when I want or when I can't do those things.


Oh, and since I ordered it through the Amazon Smile program, my local animal shelter gets a bit of funds, too.  Win win.

Do you use the Amazon Smile program?  I do for the big things, but I always forget to switch over to Smile when I'm buying books.  Derp.

The Back/Neck/Shoulder Thing

If you missed seeing a post yesterday on Outside the Box, I was trying to limit my time on the computer in an effort to get over the damn back/neck/shoulder pain.  I sat here only long enough to edit a few pages at a time and then back to the recliner.  Off and on all day.  Since it seems to be working, it's likely going to be more of the same today. 

Except in addition to editing, I also have spreadsheets to do.  That stuff requires hunching over sheets of paper with my eyeglasses on and a magnifying glass in hand, entering lines of data.  Life would be so much easier if the manufacturers emailed the spreadsheets, but since they don't, I have to work with what I have.  :shrug:

On the upside, my malady has recovered enough that I can read again.  Also, in small spurts to not aggravate the issue.  But I'm reading.

Hubs asked if perhaps I was thinking about going to a doctor.  My first answer was 'Nope'.  My second answer was 'Actually, I have been thinking about it and the decision was 'nope'. What are they going to do?'  To which he said, "I don't know.  Maybe give you muscle relaxants?"  Which was when I reminded him that I am allergic to muscle relaxants.  A fact discovered the first time I pulled the same damn muscle in my back in 1988, humping luggage up three flights of stairs during college orientation.  Got home, went to the doctor who prescribed a muscle relaxant, and hello to the cure being worse than the injury.  I'm never going to try that again, lemme tell ya.

On the upside, this particular back thing hasn't bothered me in years, and it's more annoying than anything.  I have things to do and do not have time to be laid up.  But, as Sunday taught me, I'd better take some time to take things slower or I'll be screwed.  (Sunday morning I felt a little better, so I overdid it and Sunday night I paid the price.) 

And to that end, I've been sitting in this chair long enough now that I'd better get off the computer for a while.  Just to be safe.  I'll be around on and off to check comments, though. 

Peace out.

Sunday Update - Week Whatever

It was a whatever kind of week.

Wrote about a thousand words on Ugly and the Beast.

Touched base with my AWE and got Unequal on the schedule for editing.  It'll go to her on Sept 1st, which leaves September for writing new words on UatB.  It will be my PerNoWriMo. (Personal Novel Writing Month - in which I shall write the remainder of this book which should be about 50K words.  Good lord willin' and the crick don't rise.)   Which means, I hope, that Unequal will be out sometime Nov/Dec, and UatB will be out in Feb(?). 

I barely got any reading done.  (See yesterday's Reading Wrap-up.)

I did get my edits back for Sleeping Ugly.  I'm cracking as much as I can on those.

I went fishing.  Caught a bass.  See Thursday's post for more info on that.

See?  Kind of whatever.  Why?  Because early in the week, I pulled a muscle in my back and then I aggravated it reaching for juice on the bottom shelf, way in the back of the bottom shelf as a matter of fact, at Wallyworld.  So, for the most part, I've been sitting in my recliner, watching TV.  Can't read because staring down at a book makes the back thing worse. Oh, it's better than it was.  A little bit every day.  Well, except for that juice incident - which I admit was really stupid.  I should've called an employee over to get those for me.  But no, I had to do it myself.  Bleh.

This also means that I only exercised 2 out of 7 days - Sunday and Monday.  Three if you count fishing on Tuesday which was mostly sitting, so it probably shouldn't really count.  I had lost another 2/10ths of a pound, but I probably gained that back with 5 straight days of sitting on my ass.

Oh, and today is my daughter's 25th birthday.  Happy Birthday, Ki.  Have a great one!  And remember, no matter how old you get, you'll always be my KD Kitten.  ;o)

How was your week?

Sunday Update - Week 30

Hello again.

Let's see...  I didn't write anything.  I didn't edit anything.  I didn't do much of anything writerly... Oh, wait, I did do some stuff.

I received the final cover for Sleeping Ugly.  Then I wrote the back cover copy for Sleeping Ugly and, with the help for AWE, I got it suitable for other people to read.  Then I created a Goodreads listing for it.  I also started the process over at Amazon to get it out there for all of you to read.  They're telling me as long as I get it uploaded by the 25th, it'll be available for preorder on the 29th.  :shrug:  I'm still shooting for the 18th.

I added the cover and link to the sidebars of my blogs.  And I did a new banner for my Facebook page.

I started to set up advertising at Book Barbarian for a sale on Wish in One Hand for later this month, only to discover they're booked solid through mid-Sept.  Bummer.  Ya snooze, ya looze.  I'll have to sit and think a while on how else I'm going to do some marketing.  I was hoping to do a sale on the Once Upon a Djinn books prior to the release of Sleeping Ugly.  Not that SU has anything to do with the OUAD books, but, ya know, paranormal and paranormal.  :shrug:

I read four books last week and DNF'd two others.

I had my yearly last week, too.  Everything is copacetic with me.  Blood pressure was up a little, but I was already irritated.  And I promised I wouldn't go into all that.  Anyway, it's back down to normal now.  And I won't have to go through that again for another year.  Yay.

On the 'being active' front, I managed 7 out of 7 days.  Not all hard core but being active is being active.  And I'm down to 180.4 pounds.  Like I said before, the clothes are fitting better, so it's all good.  Down the road a bit, my clothes will be loose and then I'll do some shopping.  What I'm really looking forward to is losing enough weight that I can wear my wedding ring again.  I mean, if I really tried, I could shove it on, but then I wouldn't be able to get it off again and my finger would hurt.  So I'm not going there.  I have no illusions about getting back to my pre-married weight.  That'd be another 25 pounds.  But my ring was a little loose back then, so there's hope I'll be able to wear it again. Eventually.

No fishing.  Between the heat in the afternoons and working in the mornings, I'm finding it hard to eek out a few hours to sit at the lake.

We still only have two fawns.  Well, unless that pair of fawns Hubs saw the other day were a set of twins and not our usual two.  Then we'd have four.  But it's unverified.

Our grain bug infestation is ongoing.  And I'm cleaning the kitchen in segments.  The cupboards are done.  I did the counters yesterday (full-on, move everything and clean under/behind).  I swept the floor, but I need to scrub it.  They're harmless little bugs, but gah.  It's not like we don't already have plenty of bugs in here.  All part of living in the woods, I guess.  At least these grain bugs don't bite.  That'd suck.

Well, I think that's about it for me this week.  What's up in your world?

Sunday Update - Week 20

Good morning.  The coffee is strong here today by necessity.  Grab a cup.

Another week of not much going on in the writing/editing sphere.  I finished round 1 of the edits on Sleeping Ugly.  As I lay in bed last night trying to sleep and failing miserably, I started writing SU#2 in my head.  Desperate for sleep, I did not get up and write any of it down.  Needless to say, I lost all that between then and this morning.  SU is sitting my Kindle waiting for me to get back to work on it, which I will do today.  I have 11 days, but I will have it ready for the editor on June 1st.

I read four books last week.  A crime novel (Deadly Welcome by John D. MacDonald), a fun mystery (Hitwoman in a Pickle by JB Lynn), a fantasy (Dragon's Child by DJ Salisbury), and a romance (Where There's Smoke... by Laura Abbot).  Which puts me only 6 books behind on my Goodreads goal. 

On the get-healthy front, I did something active 6 out of 7 days (took my birthday off) and lost about another half pound.  Bringing me to 3.2lbs lost since I bought the new scale during week 16.  So, about a month.  If you're keeping track - which you probably aren't - that leaves me at 191.2 as of yesterday morning.

Other than buying a cheesecake sampler for my birthday, I ate pretty healthy, too.  Fish or lean meats and salads and fresh fruit at mealtimes.  Nuts and prunes and dark chocolate or baked chips and crackers for snacks.

For my birthday, I had a choice to either go fishing or go shopping.  Since it was hot and sunny, I went shopping.  Bought stuff for my birthday dinner and dessert.  Picked up eight books at St. Vinny's.  Made it home without stopping at KFC.  It was a good day.  But I was so hot and tired by dinner time, I bypassed dinner and had cheesecake instead.  Hubs made himself something or other.  It's all good.

The trout for our anniversary dinner turned out amazeballs. 

I also went fishing once last week.  You can read about that here, if you want to.

That's about it for me.  How was your Week 20?

Thursday This n That

This this n that is all about my whole getting healthier thing.  Consider yourself warned.

I can make it through the Walmart without weeping over pizza and fried chicken now.

KFC sent us a coupon book.  Dirty bastards.  Hubs kept it on the table for a few days and then finally chucked it so we wouldn't be tempted anymore.  All I can say is thank goodness the KFC is 30 minutes away or I would've fallen for their rotten trick.

When I first started doing the exercise thing, I could easily get to my target heart rate.  Now, I exercise for a half a freakin hour and my heart's all like 'bring it'.  Too bad my legs can't push as hard as that.  Half an hour and my legs are whimpering.

My exercise thing is dance/exercise/dance.  I started out with 5 minutes of each.  Now I'm up to about 10 minutes each.  And about 20 reps on the exercises I'm doing, plus I added some exercises I wasn't doing at first because I couldn't do them.  I use 2 lb weights on the arms and no weight on the legs, because frankly, the legs carry enough weight on their own.  Da dump bump.

As for the diet thing - diet as in what I eat, not a set of guidelines I am forcing myself to strictly stick to - it's going well.  Like I said, I hardly miss the really yummy foods now.  Still eating ice cream, though.  And the occasional Hot Pocket or mini-pizza.  Hubs has cut those out entirely. I'm not that strong.  But we are eating loads of fruits and salads.  Rivers of fish.  Chicken.  93% lean burger and lean cut steak.  And smaller portions.  I'm down about 2 pounds since I bought the new scale and sent myself into a conniption.  (For the record, the 189 I said I was before was actually 197 because my old scale was off by 8 pounds.  So, from whenever that was, I'm down 5 pounds.  Let's not even talk about the dark days when the old scale said 195. :shudder:) 


Anyway, this is my journey.  Not sure if any of the same tactics would work for any of you, but you're welcome to try.  Increase activity, decrease unhealthy foods.  Sounds easy, and it does get easier after a while, but it takes time and commitment.  :shrug:  It's lasted a few months now, so maybe this'll stick.  Lord knows nothing else has.

Thursday This n That

Something I ate last night has me on the ropes this morning.  Nothing hugely bad, but I feel like I should be asking if anyone got the license plate number for the truck that ran me over.  At this point, I'm blaming the salad dressing because it's the only thing I ate that Hubs did not eat.  I tried this new Greek dressing.  Hubs had his standby Catalina.  He's fine and I'm not.  Oh well, better me than him. 

I so totally do not have time for this. 

I saw someone lamenting this morning about the negativity on social media dragging her down.  I agree, it can totally shit out your day.  I suggest she add some positive things to her feed - puppy and kitty adoption success stories, gardening pages with pretty flowers, art sites.  And I advised that she limit her Twitter.  No matter how hard I try, it's almost impossible to find enough positive things on there to balance all the negative.  Bleh.  And yes, find more things to do in the real world.  Spring's a comin', folks.  Take some time to see the burgeoning beauty of it.  And listen to the birds out there singing their love songs.  We have turkeys gobbling theirs this morning.  It's not a pretty song, but it's a love song nonetheless. 

Ah, finding the positive.  It's hard to do when you feel like doodle.  But there's a cardinal singing right there.  I love cardinals.  Did you know they don't have cardinals out west?  I didn't hear a single cardinal the whole time I lived in Utah or Colorado, which made me sad.  I couldn't wait to watch the Masters golf tournament because there were always cardinals in the background.  Now that we're here in MO, we have cardinals again.  Yay! 

And roadrunners, which kind of sound like a sad puppy when they sing their love song. 

Okay, I am feeling better now than when I woke up, so this thing is passing.  I hope.  And I should get going with my day.  I spent 5 hours yesterday on spreadsheet work.  Today should be about the same.  Luckily, spreadsheet stuff can be done sitting right here with minimal activity.  Just my speed right about now.

Have an awesome day, folks, and find something positive out there in the world.  K?

Sunday Update - Week 10

Ten weeks into 2018.  Hmm.  Those went kinda fast, eh? 

Here's the week that was...

I am a naughty monkey.  I have six days to finish this edit on Early Grave and I'm only through four chapters.  This said, though, I'm past all of my distractions :knock on wood: and can set my ass down for extended stretches of time.  You know, good lord willin' and the crick don't rise. 

I also haven't read much.  This is totally on me.  The book I'm reading is fun and interesting - Sorcery's Child by our own DJ Salisbury.  I'm just dragging on reading the way I am on editing.  Maybe the problem is related.  Anyway, I hope to read more regularly between editing stretches this week.

I got some yard work done this week.  Prepping the beds for the most part.  I ordered a bunch of plants - lilies, columbines, sedums, and an ornamental grass thingie.  I also picked up packs of seeds for daisies, black-eyes susies, and marigolds.  I'm gonna sprinkle those all over the bed under the cedars and hope for the best.  The bed gets good morning and late afternoon sun - just no mid-day sun.  Marigolds and daisies already love it there, but I want more.  My irises look amazing, green leaves shooting up all over their beds.  My hollyhocks are coming up nicely.  Life is good here on Sanderson Acres.

Went into the woods a bit because we had a day where it was still cold enough to keep the ticks and snakes at bay.  Got some more deadfall moved and then walked around on the trails.  Now that warmer weather is approaching I need to find another way to be active.  Maybe I'll convince Hubs to let me mow the lawn from time to time.  I'm also looking at the gazelle machine (because Silver suggested it).  Not sure if I'm ready for the expense right now and they look like something I could easily fall off of - because I'm a clod - but we'll see.

Speaking of being active and other healthy things, I'm doing okay on my resolve to eat healthier.  Walmart had pepperoni pizzas in the discount frozen food bin.  Pizza and a sale?  It really tested my willpower and I won.  As of yesterday, I've lost another pound, putting me at 186.

My turf war with the moles* is ongoing.  Those dirty bastards have expanded beyond a simple condo complex and have created a city, complete with highways and byways.  I bought three spinning flower yard ornaments.  We'll see if they work.  The way it's looking, though, I'll need a sea of those things to get the little buggers out of my yard.

I think that's quite enough out of me.  How was your week?


*Could be voles.  I haven't seen one to identify it exactly.

Thursday This n That

I wish people would stop passing along old news like it's new news.  I saw something this morning about a stabbing at a high school in PA and I was all like OMG, but I didn't see it in the newsfeed, so I had to go googling.  It happened in 2014.  Yeah, not a lot was made of it then - for whatever reasons - but use that as your lead-in.  "This happened in 2014 and no one splashed it all over the place.  Why?"  Or something.  Bleh.

I have started a quest to eat healthier.  I'm going for a low-LDL / high-HDL cholesterol diet - gotta keep the ticker ticking*, doncha know.  To that end, I've been increasing the amounts of certain foods and decreasing others.  I said a tearful goodbye to all my bestie food friends at the Walmart the other day - fried chicken, frozen pizza, donuts... :sniffle:  I switched out regular peanut M&Ms and bought dark chocolate peanut M&Ms.  I added avocados to the menu, as well as more fish, chicken, nuts, and beans.  I bought some ground turkey before I read that regular ground turkey is less healthy than super-lean beef.  :shrug:  Last night's turkey burger with avocado, lettuce, and tomato was pretty tasty, but that was the last of it.  I tried giving up ice cream.  That lasted two days.  I'll just eat less of that.  Anyway, here's hoping for a lifestyle change because otherwise this will be like every other thing I've tried and fail miserably.  Lucky for me, Hubs is on board.  I'm also trying to exercise more.  Umm, yah.  I really need to get a treadmill, but the expense!  Ack. 

On a side note, 72% cacao chocolate is GROSS.  I took one bite of a bar of that stuff and almost lost it.  Tried eating a fingerful of peanut butter with it.  Nope.  Drank some OJ to get the taste out of my mouth. It helped but...  Blech. I need to chop up the rest of that bar and make cookies with it or something. 

I'm not going total healthy.  Let's not be silly.  Just trying some new things.  I'll keep what works for me and discard the rest.  Then when I go for my yearly physical and the doc badgers me for a cholesterol test, I may just let her poke me this year. 

In case you missed it, I hate doctors.  In general.  There are specific ones that are okay.  The one I have isn't too bad.  We came to an understanding - as long as she doesn't irritate me, I'll keep going to her.  Which is good because she's the closest physician who accepts my insurance.  I would really hate to have to change.  Really.

Yeah, I hate change, too.

Somehow or other people are finding Blood Flow this month and buying it.  Not a lot of people, mind you, but the slight uptick sans advertising or a sale is nice.

Okay, that's it for me.  What have you got?


*No news of my impending doom.  It's just that I'm gonna be 48 and I have a genetic history of heart crap.  I'm already 4 years older than my dad was when he had his first heart attacks.  Don't want to push it.  Know what I mean?

Sunday Update - Week 35

Helloooo.

The coffee is strong this morning and the nicotine is flowing.  And I think I actually slept last night, which is weird as hell.  But enough about that.

Edits for Wish Hits the Fan are done.  Today is for formatting.  If I get it done, I may upload today.  Definitely uploading tomorrow at the latest.  Which means I will be outside the ten day window for setting books to 'pre-order' on Amazon.  Yay!  Then I can forget about it - well, except for marketing and junk - and get back to writing Early Grave again.

Last week, I read The Great Escape (yes, the one the movie is based on) and it was most excellent.  I cried, of course.  Then I read The Black Fawn by Jim Kjelgaard (the author of Big Red) and it was also most excellent.  And I cried.  Then my edits came back and I stopped reading to get this done.  Next up on my reading to-do list is Silver James' Assassin's Moon.  Squee!

I went fishing a little.

In case anyone wants an update on my ankle, it's still there.  The bruising is gone.  It's still a little twingy from time to time.  Thanks to you all for your concern last week.  I'm still taking it easy.  Well, as easy as I can take anything.

Along those lines, we got the weeding done for the year.  Any weeds grow and they get a reprieve until spring.  I really do hate weeding.  But I really do love how nice the yard looks when we're done.  So I guess we'll keep doing it.

We now have 5 fawns in the herd.  This last one arrived with a couple dark colored does and it has almost no spots left.  Wherever they came from, they're ready for fall.

And we lost a baby raccoon this week.  It died of unknown causes in our back yard.  I suspect snake bite, because it didn't actually look sick or injured.  Of course, I didn't do a full on investigation.  Hubs buried it for me while I was out shopping.

Well, I guess that's it for me.  What it for you?

Sunday Update - Week 34

Wow, that week went by fast.  And in a total blur.

I wrote about 6000 new words on Early Grave last week.  It was like pulling teeth.  You know the writing is hard when I manage less than a 1K a day average.  But I think I'm on track again.  EG now sits at just over 41K words.

I didn't do anything else writerly.

In reading, I finished that Australian romance.  It was pretty good.  I also read the next book in The Cat Who series.  It was okay, but she's starting to make Qwill's opinions on 'issues' more apparent, and in my opinion, they didn't really have anything to do with the story.  More like she threw them in there to check some virtue signaling boxes.  I hate that.  I'll try one more book and see if it gets better.  If not, I'm done with this series.  Not sure what I'm going to read next.

My fall from back on the 18th has given me some spectacular bruises, and my ankle still hurts, but I'm getting around okay, so it's all good.  I even went fishing once and did some yardwork.  Mom suggested that perhaps I should've gone to a doctor to have it checked.  My answer?  Why?  Pay a bunch of money for x-rays to have her tell me it's a sprain?  Pay her more money for the awesome advice of keeping it elevated and staying off it.  And doctors can't do anything if I broke the HO.  So, that's that.  If it gets worse, I'll suck it up and go see the doc.

Like I said, I did some yardwork.  The moles or voles or whatever the hell they are did a number on my gravel path.  They made a big mound right in the middle of it.  So, I raked all the rock away, dug around a bit, and smoothed it all out again.  On the plus side, it gave me a chance to pull all the weeds in there, too.  I have no illusions I chased the critter away, but I'm disinclined to try more drastic mole/vole measures at this time.  Maybe I'll shell out the money for those sonic things down the road.

Yesterday, Hubs applied Tick-mageddon III for the year.  Once it's dried, I'll finish weeding the gardens and he'll weed the driveway.  Maybe today.  Probably tomorrow.  We'll see.

Okay, that the update from me.  How's about you?

Thursday This n That

It's time for my yearly physical again.  This morning.  At 8am.  Since I have to drive east to get there, I'm glad sunrise is at 6am this morning.  It's a bitch to drive into the sun.  Anyway, since I had the full meal deal physical last year, this morning is just a 'pat and chat' visit.  She'll come into the room, talk to me about how I'm feeling, and then give me a boob exam.  yay.

So, I hate doctors.  In a general sort of way.  I can remember an individual doctor here or there that I liked, but it's a small percentage considering how many doctors I've seen over the course of my life.  My physiatrist in Michigan?  He's awesome.  This general practitioner?  I give her a 2 on the 'hate scale' - (1 being low-hate and 10 being total-hate).  Since we developed an understanding, she's been pretty cool.  The understanding being I won't be letting them poke me for blood tests I don't think I need.  I had one doc in CO hold my shot hostage until I let her draw blood, the nurse there popped my vein, and the tests came out normal.  I relayed this story to the doc here and she said 'that's just so wrong' and she promised me she would never hold my shot hostage.  Yay.

For the record, I love the office staff and the nurse at my clinic.  Also, for the record, I feel great, so I don't anticipate this to be a long doctor visit.

My new drapes arrived yesterday and I put them up while Hubs was mowing the lawn.  They're very pretty, but they're too thin.  I wanted something less heavy than the black-out drapes we had, but this might be less privacy than we feel comfortable with.  :sigh:  Anyway, the ones for the living room are chocolate and the ones for the office are sage.  The office ones will stay.  We'll see about the living room ones.

The big does are all fat pregnant.  Poor things.  They look so uncomfortable.  But the pregger bellies are shifting toward the back, so they should be dropping fawns soon.  Yay fawns!

We had Carolina wrens nest under our sunroom this year.  They fledged out four of the cutest little buggers, who are now flitting around our yard eating bugs.  =o)

What's on your this n that today?

Sunday Update - Week 7

And what a week it was. 

I hammered out 12265 words last week, and that included taking yesterday off.  So, averaging 2K on the days I worked actually worked out.  And I had an epiphany on Friday night that continued through to Saturday morning.  To give you a hint, I was singing "This writer's gotta kill someone, before the day is through" ala Eagles while I was out fishing yesterday.  And therein lay the rub.  I was so pooped after fishing I couldn't write last night.  Ah, well, today someone has to die.

Speaking of fishing, I did a lot of that last week, too.  For more info, read the Saturday Fishing Report.  It doesn't include yesterday, though.  Yesterday was an exercise in patience and frustration as the biggest fish I ever almost caught got away and I spent a lot of time trying to get him to bite again.

I finished one book last week.  Granny Hooks a Crook by Julie Seedorf.  Cute book.  Fun read.  (BTW, the Amazon credit I mentioned actually did come through.  Yay.)

I also had a sale last week, complete with advertising.  Let's see.  I spent $40 on ads.  I made $15.  Here's hoping there'll be some residual stuff because I can't afford to run ads that don't at least pay for themselves.

Oh, and I weighed myself last week.  You may remember I used to be all focused on my weight.  And then I stopped worrying about it and resolved to just be more active.  Which meant I stopped weighing myself every goddamn week.  Now, I weigh myself when I feel like it.  Well, I felt like it.  And I felt like I was either going to be heavier or about the same as where I'd backslid to last fall.  Nope.  Down to 181.  That's a 14 lb drop from January of 2016, so yay me.  And I feel great, so even better.  Fishing.  Who knew?

Okay, that's it for me.  What's up with you?