Friday, January 14, 2022
Feel Good Friday
Sunday, January 09, 2022
Weekend Wrap Up...
I know we're only halfway through Sunday, but the rest of my day will be spent napping and relaxing, with a little bit of laundry thrown in there for good measure!
My edits are done and sent back! Whooot! That's a huge relief! I am taking off the next two days. On Wednesday, my little writing group will start our 50 words a day for 50 days challenge. I need to be back up to speed with my current work in progress before then.
Christmas is gone from this house. Well, mostly. The porch is still decorated, but it's too cold to do that now. And today it's freezing rain. As beautiful as the decorations were and how much I wanted to keep them up, it's good they're down. I like the extra space.
Tomorrow is back to the day job. The best part of that is that I don't have to get dressed or go out in the cold. Ha! I'm due to go back to the office next Monday. The only way that will change is if we have more cases. So we'll see.
This week should be quiet around here. Our original plans were cancelled temporarily. But we'll see what happens...
That's all I have for now.
Behave!
Thursday, January 06, 2022
Post New Year Post...
Yeah, I'm lame. Sorry for not getting on here sooner. It's been a little crazy...
So let's back up a bit...
New Year's Eve was good. Just five people and three dogs. We talked and laughed. Ate some good food. Talked about how sad we are that Betty White passed away.
New Year's Day was also good. We took a walk in the woods, in the rain, to check out this old truck That Man had seen through the trees. It was cool, but too far gone for restoration. But there's another one there that isn't in terrible shape, so we'll see... As we were walking we were making up our own "getting lost in the woods" stories. It was awesome.
The kids came up for dinner. It was chaos, but fun. Got to hang with the grandboys and do our traditional LOTR watching. We got home early evening and continued the movie. Went to bed pretty early. Sunday was laundry and the usual Sunday stuff.
Back to the day job on Monday. And then Tuesday we were told to go back home to work. We have several positive cases at work and within people we know. I stayed the day because That Man can't work from home and it made no sense to do multiple trips. Got set up when we got home and so far so good. Except my office heater died.
Now I'm adjusting to working at home again. The dog is ecstatic. The cats just want to come into my office and eat my plants. I have another week after this one at this point, but we'll see if that changes or not.
I don't know if I'll do a "year in review" or not. Seriously not much happened this year.
Behave!
Monday, December 27, 2021
Post Christmas Update!
Sorry I fell off the face of the earth!
It has been crazy around here!
Let me sum up! Ha!
We did have K5 the following weekend and did get to see family! We had an amazing time watching Disney movies, eating, drinking coffee, and laughing about everything. K5 got to hang with her little cousin and we got to hang with a few of the siblings! It was really good!
Then we had to shop, wrap, clean, shop, wrap... Oh and work the day job. But by the time Christmas Eve came around, we were ready to go! Hysterical Dirty Santa exchange. Awesome Christmas Story reading. Lot's of good food. Surprise presents. Lot's of talking. It was good.
Christmas Morning rolled around far earlier than I expected. I knew That Man and I would get up early, but I did not expect K4 to get up at 6:30am. (She works a late shift, so usually doesn't get up until like 10am) It was good though. We took our time with the presents, made awesome coffee, and an awesome breakfast. Cracked open the champagne for mimosas and settled in to watch a movie and nap. K3 and A got here, partook of mimosas and also settled in to nap. Then I got a call from J. We talked for a long time and then hung up. Not more than five minutes later, she's calling me back to tell me they are coming over!
They had Covid a few weeks ago. They were being cautious as they have been since the pandemic started. Understandable. But then realized they were actually good to go and so are we all here. So... for the first time in months, they came over. It was so good. I won't lie, I cried. I have missed them so much. Little Mr. B is a hoot and kept me on my toes! He has the funniest "crab dance"!
Sunday was coma day. We stayed in our jammies and napped and watched movies. We only ate leftovers and did nothing except for a load of laundry and take the dog out to pee. It was good.
Today was back to the day job. That Man and I and maybe two other people were in the office. All of our vendors are closed, so I got zero emails all day. And it will be that way all week. Luckily we only have to work until Thursday afternoon. But it snowed! And that was awesome!
New Year's Eve is coming. We're going super low key this year. It's just going to be five of us old people and three dogs. I don't think I can do New Year's Eve chaos anymore! Ha! Though we have had some epic times in the past!
And that's about it! Except I got my next round of edits. I actually got them a week ago, but my editor doesn't expect them back anytime soon, so I am not starting them yet. But I will probably tomorrow after my online evening meeting We'll see. I did read through them and most of the changes are pretty easy - just a sentence or two. Others I will have to think about.
That is all!
Year in Review coming soon! (Like it won't be boring! Ha!)
Enjoy your celebrations!
Behave!
Sunday, December 12, 2021
Weekend Wrap Up!
Oy! We're back at Sunday! Back to the day job tomorrow after an exhausting weekend...
So, K5 didn't get to stay Saturday night. We had a bit of a miscommunication in our plans, but it was fine. We had a full day and we'll have her all of next weekend. We grabbed breakfast, went to the store for cookie supplies, decorated our tree and piano, got to see Santa in a firetruck thanks to our local fire station, made some truly ugly and awful cut out cookies. Seriously, they taste amazing, but the look like a crazed toddler decorated them (those are K5's words). They were a test batch though, so none of us took the decorating seriously. Ha!
Hopefully next weekend K5 will get to see some of the family. She wanted to this weekend, but we just didn't have time. That was all she talked about though - how much she wanted to see everyone and how long it's been. We are going to K2's next Sunday to do birthday and Christmas with them, so she'll get to do that.
Our tree is very pretty. At least I think so. It is full of lights and crammed with decorations. It's a bit crooked, but we'll get that fixed. Our packages are coming in, which is good, but we haven't moved forward at all. I looked for some of the things I need on the "mega warehouse" site, but couldn't find what I need at a reasonable price. K5 and I went out on Saturday to look and also had no luck.
Since my edits have been done, I have been searching for a story I had written previously and think would fit in with the series I have going on. But I cannot find it. So... I have wasted enough time on that. I pulled two other stories to my desktop to consider, but they will sit there until I think about it some more. And I went back to sector two. I am reading it again since it's been a little bit since I've touched it. And then we'll start new writing again.
And that is all for now...
Behave!
Friday, December 10, 2021
Feel Good Friday!
Wednesday, December 01, 2021
December 1st...
And my edits are done and sent back! Woooo!
Obviously I didn't finish on Tuesday like I'd hoped. I got about 60-70 pages from the end and all of the letters started looking like tiny dancing stick men. Ha! For real though! I finished, obviously, tonight!
Now it's December! And what like a little over three weeks until Christmas? Which means I have a lot of stuff to do! And don't we all?
Next I will see what I have in my stockpile that will fit with my "Challenging the Fates" series. I have a few ideas, which I was working on before I got my edits back. So I'll get back to that, and then I'll get back to Sector Two. I had a very good thread idea for Sector Two, which was solidified by my critique partners, so I'm thinking on that and will add/change the story as necessary to add it in. I think it'll make the story a lot darker than it is, but I'm really okay with that.
The day job is fine. Still busy. Today I did a seminar, which was fine, but... ugh. I really didn't learn anything new, but I guess it did make me more aware of stuff. I get continuing education credits for it, so that's something. As we head into the holidays, folks are less serious and more inclined to joke around, which is freaking awesome.
And that's all I have...
Behave!
Monday, November 29, 2021
Tomorrow Is the Last Day of November...
Wow...
Another crappy year gone by so fast. I'm not going to be sorry to see 2021 go, just like I wasn't sorry to see 2020 go, but really? How many more crappy years are we going to have?
We had a really nice Thanksgiving at my brother and sister-in-law's. We got there first and that was good. Lots of catching up and talking. (like...what else do we do? Ha!) The guys took care of the turkey and we sat at the table talking about weddings, stuff, and things.
The food was amazing. I got to have good conversation with my nieces. Got to see my great nieces, and nephew. And my nephew and his new wife. And my "adopted" sister. Though I'm still not sure what's going on with my real sister. She hugged me tight for a long time, but then didn't talk to me much at all. In fact, she turned away when she sat next to me and rolled her eyes when I said we had to discuss LLC business and ignored me when I brought up a potential trip. I wish I knew why she's so mad at me. I think she believes things that aren't true. I guess it doesn't matter because she doesn't know me at all anymore and I'm just doing the best I can to get through my own life. I'm not going to get into any more of that at this point though.
Sigh.
Other than that... My hard drive crapped out just as I started to finish my edits. Of-freaking-course! A good friend of ours fixed it, quickly, but it's still having issues. Ugh! I should have been done with my edits by Saturday, and here we are at Monday and I still have almost 200 pages to go. Oy!
I hope to finish them tomorrow, but we'll see. Tuesday is usually a busy night for us.
And now... It's freaking Christmas?? Oy! So much to do!
But one thing at a time...
Behave!
Wednesday, November 24, 2021
Thanksgiving Eve!
Well, here we are on the eve of Thanksgiving!
How did the holidays sneak up so fast? Last I remember it was June!
We are heading to my brothers for our Thanksgiving feast! I have made cheesecake and I will be making sweet potatoes in the morning! Though... I am still learning my new oven and the cheesecake might be a tiny bit overdone. It looks awesome though, so we shall see. Looking forward to the day! Though, unfortunately, we both have to work on Friday, which will mean an earlier leaving time for us. Plus, we're hoping to meet up with the kids for some dessert, but we'll see how that works out. Pretty much everyone has to work on Friday.
We got out of the day job early today, which was good since K4 was having issues with her Jeep. Turned out to be a vacuum line(s) and seems to be fixed now. Though as we drove my Jeep home today (K4 had our other car), we noticed that "something" is going out in my Jeep - either the water pump or the alternator. Not sure yet. That's a weekend project. Oy! Always something.
My edits are going well. I'd told my editor that she'll get them back after the holiday and that will be the case, but I'm able to work on them more than I thought I would. I still don't think she's getting them back before this time next week though! ha!
And that is all...
Behave!
Sunday, November 21, 2021
Weekend Wrap Up!
Friday, November 19, 2021
Feel Good Friday!
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
Mid-week...
So it's Wednesday.
Look it took me three times to spell that right, so that will give you a clue as to how my week is going so far. Ha!
The day job is busy. I took on some extra projects today only to get slammed with my regular stuff. Like major slammed. This is typical of how it goes for me, and it's fine, but oy! Tomorrow we have an employee appreciation lunch. We got to pick our lunch and it's being delivered to us in our offices since we're not supposed to gather together. It's fine and good and my favorite diet soda was purposefully purchased for the day. Nice. And I'll still eat lunch with That Man in his office like we do every day.
I am editing. And losing my mind. I have eliminated extra pulls, looks, it, just, and things. Ha! Okay, so I did pull, look, and am working on it. The rest will come. It's a slow process and I have to remind myself that some are okay. My editor is in no hurry for this since the book doesn't come out until April, but it's seriously going to need a few more cleaner passes to make sure it makes sense. Reading it through is hard when the track changes is still on. I do like the fact that I got my art sheet for the cover at the same time. I'll be able to fill that out quickly and efficiently since I'm back in the story.
We got our giant doors installed between our living and dining rooms. They are super big and pretty damned cool. They definitely cut the draft when it's cold. Work still needs to be done, but we're getting there. Next is getting the furnace ready for the super cold. We need parts, which we are having trouble locating, but it will be okay. We're also working on our front steps to make sure they don't crack more during the winter, though we can't find the stuff we bought to do this. Ha!
That is all... Back to removing (it) from my manuscript!
Behave!
Sunday, November 07, 2021
Holy Over a Month! Yikes!
Gosh! Sorry about that! That was a crazy long time!
So what happened in the month + since I posted last?
Well...
I came back home to work for two weeks due to a Covid outbreak at the day job. Everyone is still super paranoid. All of us keep our office doors shut and rarely just "chat" anymore. It's relaxing a little bit now though.
We went to the beach. It was an amazing time. Every day was the "best" day, though we did have one that outshone the rest. Our niece is now engaged. That was pretty awesome. We had beach fires, watched the full moon rise over the ocean and a thunderstorm. The rain never reached us, but the lightning over the water was cool as heck. We had amazing food, amazing sleep, amazing beach days, and lots and lots of laughs and great conversation. No fish were caught, well, no fish that you could keep. That's sad, but no one was catching fish at all.
That Man and I booked a beach trip in April, which I think is going to be a thing going forward. Wooo!
I got my edits for my April release. Oh and here's a ridiculous story for you... I knew I needed a new charging cable for my laptop thanks to one particular cat's penchant for chewing on electronics. Of course, the day my edits came, I started up the laptop only to discover that I no longer could charge. Ordered a new cable, which came on Thursday. Great! Started edits. Stupidly left the cord tucked into a dining room chair Friday night, and lo and behold when I went to start edits on Saturday, my cord was chewed again and did not work at all. Crap! I ordered two new cords, which came today and I will be ever vigilant with making sure the cord is no where that the ahole chewer can get to it.
Other than that we have a lot of stuff coming up! Dinner at my brother's for Thanksgiving, holiday stuff, my oldest niece's wedding in January which should be an awesome blast. We're looking forward to that. I've already started to get my holiday spirit, which is odd, considering. And we've made the decision to downsize Christmas gift giving this year. Not that we ever went crazy and into debt. My porch is decorated for Thanksgiving already. Those pilgrims are out there greeting people and they are still solidly together.
That's all I have for now... Hopefully it won't be a month until my next post!
Behave!
Sunday, September 26, 2021
Weekend Wrap Up...
I know it's a little earlier in the day than my normal end of weekend post, but hey, whatever! Ha!
I've been by myself for the last few hours. That Man went to help a friend who lost his driveway in the massive rains. Yeah, like it washed away. He does have a creek that runs under it, but still. The kid was off with friends for the weekend. It was just me, and I got a lot done. I finally finished a critique for a friend and I found my story again. I cut about 150 pages, but I am back on track. That feels good (even if I feel sick about the pages cut). More than I can even tell you.
I also finished the laundry. Whoopie! ha!
Other than that, I made the stupid decision to clean out our little shed. It's on our back porch and it's supposed to be for the stuff you use frequently, but don't want out. Ha! It's been a catchall for everything for a very long time. In fact, I haven't even opened it for a few years. Yeah. I know. So, anyway. I decided it was far past time. We have probably a million feet of extension cord. And far more screws and bolts than anyone could ever use. Ha! I also found two camp chairs. Nice, except they were in there so long they are dry rotted.
I stepped on a fishing thing and punctured my foot. I ran my arm along a rusty saw and gashed my arm. (Yes, I will be getting a tetanus shot) The whole process was pretty much a disaster with stuff falling over and falling on me. But it is done now and I am super happy with the results. Now the charcoal, cooler, and porch blower can be stored away again.
And our nephew came for dinner. That was nice. We rarely get a chance to hang with him.
My foot does hurt though. I'll be soaking it in a bit and keeping an eye on it. The fish thing wasn't rusty though, so there's that.
And that's all!
Behave!
Wednesday, September 22, 2021
Another Mid Week
It is mid-week again!
Nothing is new here. We've been doing Jeep work, yard work. Blah, blah, blah.
Work is work. The writing is going.
It's Fall now! Whoot! That's the best thing that's happened this week! Ha!
We went to our great niece's fourth birthday party last weekend. We didn't know anyone besides That Man's family. It was still nice. Our great niece is the cutest thing and so is her newborn baby brother. We had good conversations with the family. Our niece was stressed, but we had a good time with her and our nephew-in-law. We left right after presents were opened. We were like the old people there though, so Ha! Also, a deer tried to kill us after we left.
That is all I have!
Behave!
Wednesday, September 15, 2021
Mid-Week Check In
Here we are at Wednesday. Already.
So far, this week has been crazy! The day job is busy and there's a lot of random, crazy stuff going on there.
I figured out what I need to do with my story, so that was a HUGE relief. I've been struggling with it for a little while now. I was supposed to brainstorm with K3 the weekend before last, but he had plans he'd forgotten about so it never happened. I have been trying to figure it out on my own, and today, with the help of my writing pals, I got it mapped out. Yay!
The Jeep is done. It did take a few bucks, but it needed to be done. Now all of that bull crap is finished. Except I need new bump stops, which is no big deal except for off roading, so that will need to be taken care of before we start going to Jeep events. Now That Man is working on K4's Jeep. Her heater core went out and he made things work over the summer, but now that heat is going to be needed, well... It's been a huge pain in his butt, but he's almost done.
In the meantime, I made some spicy ketchup and actually canned it! I am pretty proud of myself for the whole thing. I had never canned before and I kind of winged the whole thing, from the sauce making to the actual canning process. It turned out pretty darned good and my jars actually sealed!
That's all I have!
Behave!
Friday, September 10, 2021
Feel Good Friday & Weekend Wrap Up
Yeah, it's a two-fer around the old blog today.
Sorry! It's been a busy week!
So here's the list:
1. Getting to see my family last weekend! It was so good to hang out and catch up! We haven't seen them since Easter, which was way too long. We had a great time sitting around the fire!
2. My great niece is the cutest child! My niece (and future nephew-in-law) is/are doing a fantastic job raising her! I'm proud as only an aunt can be! My niece was my mini me for a long time. People used to think she was my child and I loved that. We always went back and forth with the kids being at one house or another and it was awesome.
3. Having K5 last weekend. She's so funny! We had a blast with her! She got to see my brother and sister-in-law for the first time in a very long time and that was great. Hopefully we can keep that connection going.
4. That Man's car passing inspection even though it cost us a pretty penny.
5. The camper passing inspection. No where near as much cash outlay, but since we had it in for a fuel line problem last week, it was still more. Fingers crossed that the Jeep passes with no issues. I hate that we have three vehicles all due at the same time!
6. The body work getting done on the Jeep. That Man hates it, but he does a fantastic job. I, personally, despise the smell of body filler. It makes me sick, but the job needs done. He's almost finished. As we speak, he's out there sanding. It won't pass inspection unless it's done. So...
7. Not cooking dinner tonight. We haven't eaten yet, but the subs are in the fridge.
8. Work people who are awesome and make me laugh. Also, writing people who are awesome.
9. The cooler temperatures. I am in heaven to be able to wear my sweatshirt all day. We had to drop off a sweatshirt for K4 since she drove her Jeep with the top down today and was freezing. But that's the way it goes sometimes. Ha!
10. Weekend plans. They weren't what I thought they'd be, but they are good. We haven't been home the past few weekends and even though I need to wash sheets and vacuum this house within an inch of its life, I'm looking forward to the relaxation of being home!
That's all I have!
Hopefully it won't be another week until I get back here, but you never know!
Behave!
Monday, August 30, 2021
Adventures!
I know it's been over a week! I'm sorry!
Last week was a blur of overtime, car stuff, and random stuff.
But we went on an adventure over the weekend! We had so much fun and can't wait to do it again.
On Friday we left to meet up with a friend who has a boat. We got up super early Saturday morning and headed out 80 miles into the ocean. We caught fish, saw dolphin, whale spouts, and just chilled on the boat. I took a sweet nap and we had a great lunch. We were out for like thirteen hours with only a tiny bit of sunburn that didn't last.
Got back to their house, cleaned the fishing rods, the fish, made dinner, showered, and hung out.
It was a blast! We'll definitely be doing that again! Left early Sunday because we had houseguests. Our nephew was driving through from his previous assignment to his next assignment and needed a place to stay. Well, no one was home here, so K4 left him a key and they had the run of the house until K4 got home Sunday morning. We pulled in early afternoon, unloaded, and began making a feast for dinner since That Man's family was coming.
It was fun, but we were so exhausted and sore from our Saturday adventure. I didn't really get to sit down until everyone left, which was close to ten pm.
So yeah, we're still exhausted. And, of course, today was a super busy day at the day job.
That's all I have!
Behave!
Sunday, August 22, 2021
Week End Wrap Up...
So today's book signing was a bummer. Yeah, it was good for a lot of reasons, but the store was dead and the only books I sold were to my friends who were signing with me. Which was awesome, but...
I had our granddaughter with me, who was a riot and a blast. We had a good time looking for books and talking about stuff. She had fun meeting my writing friends and talking with them. She tried to help me use my store credit, but both of us fell short and I ended up with as much as I started with. (We get new store credit with every signing) Ha! She is so funny though. She tried to convince this older gentleman who said he doesn't read into buying a book anyway. He didn't, but she tried. Ha!
The Friday birthday gig was a lot of fun. The birthday girl didn't know I was coming and was surprised and happy to see me. We had a blast! The winery is super cool and they took awesome care of our rowdy group.
Currently, I am still in the lead on the words written tracking spreadsheet, which is surprising. But we've all been super busy this weekend. So...
Yesterday was a super good day. I got all of my house stuff done, wrote, dealt with an awesome natural gas guy who had to come and inspect our stuff. (He was funny and we laughed a lot) That Man got his car ready for inspection and we took care of a bunch of other house stuff. We picked up the kid, made dinner, and introduced her to Back to the Future, which she loved.
It's been raining all day, which is good. And I am wearing a sweatshirt, which is also good.
That's all I have!
Behave!
Thursday, August 19, 2021
Lots of Stuff...
So this Sunday I have a book signing at my favorite independent book store! I'm really looking forward to it. It's been a year since my last signing! This is a big event around here. There are different authors all weekend, and even a slumber party Saturday night. I can't stay for that this year. I was there for a while last year, but didn't stay over. It was fun and I heard a good time was had by all.