Back from Vacation

And reporting in late.  I reiterate, three weeks is too long for a vacation, but there was no shorter way to do this trip, and it was magnificent.

The Good Stuff:

- Loved meeting Val and her husband, Jim, in person and seeing their farm.  Brody is huge and such a lover dog.  Moxie and Coonie are so different in personality, it's hard to believe they are sisters, but they were both wonderful kitties.  I even got to see the piglets and chickens that the "kids" are raising.  I loved that the piglets have names like "Ham" and "Bacon."  What a great way to remind yourself that they will be dinner (or breakfast) some day.

- We got a good visit in with my Mom, Dad, and grandmother.  Also celebrated one nephew and brother-in-law's birthday.  My sister and the nephew's twin were at their global competition last weekend (niece and her team placed 17th out of 65 teams -- well done!), so we didn't get to see them.  Saw two more nieces.  Great niece was with her father and others this weekend, so I didn't get to see her.  Had Sunday brunch with Mom, Dad, and two aunts.  Bonus!  Mom and Dad have made good progress getting situated in their new house.

- None of the cats were happy with me when I picked them up.  Natasha was the first to forgive me by climbing onto my shoulder every time I sat down and clinging to me.  Lady abused me with her claws -- a first for her, Tarzan growled (but has since spent a few moments on my lap, so he's warming to me), and Ajax won't have anything to do with me yet.

- Wrote nearly 3,000 words on MAY DAYS while on the train, grabbing time now and then.  Not too bad.


The Not So Good Stuff:

- If you read my Facebook post, you already know we took all the garage door openers to SA while we were on the trip, and I forgot to bring any back with me, so I can't mow the lawn, because both lawn mowers are in the garage, and the third lawn mower that's usually at the store went to SA with me to allow me to do a quick mow before we left on the trip, and hubby didn't load it into my truck before I left, so I figure he decided to use it to be able to mow more quickly down there -- we use a reel-type push mower down there.)

- I'm pretty sure my doctor is going to hassle me about my weight when I go for my semi-annual appointment next week.  Sigh.  Going in for fasting blood work in the morning in preparation for the appointment.

- The town issued a voluntary boil water notice while we were gone, so I'm back to using my stored drinking water until they get their water system problems resolved.  I don't think this is going to go away soon, because this system is old and needs a complete overhaul or replacement to resolve the problems.  That, of course, takes money, and I don't think they've planned for it yet.

The Week Ahead:

It's almost over, but here goes:

- Dig sticker burs and weed eat.
- Get blood drawn for semi-annual doctor appointment next week.
- Get on the recumbent bike and ride

Wendy's week

I'm coming back down now. My mind is clearing a bit and I think I'm getting close to ready to get back to work. Good grief, last week was a long week. We saw 6 houses, 2 churches, the topiary garden and part of Martha's Vineyard. I learned two important lessons on this trip:

1. Take my own pictures. I took a lot of them, but it seemed redundant for Mom and me to take the same picture since we were going to share. Unfortunately, when Mom put the pictures on my thumb drive, all the folders had the same pictures in them--all from the drive through New York and Connecticut. I haven't had the heart to tell her yet.

2. When looking for a hotel, use the Holiday Inn Express phone app and call to make a reservation. Ask for the military discount.

The good news is I had ideas for two more stories while we were there, so I may get three books from one research trip. I'd call that a good value for the money. The other good news is that, despite my best efforts, I only gained three pounds. All the walking we did must have helped because it's tough to eat well with no access to a kitchen. I also have a new favorite tree--the weeping beech. The branch span is up to 85 feet, and the lower branches grow down and root into the ground to better support the tree. Of course, they're too big for my small yard, but maybe someday I'll have the acreage to support one. A copper beech would be cool, too.

This week:
- Write.
- Get back into the routine.
- Weed the garden beds.
- Get in touch with the guy in charge of the rendezvous in Dayton in September to see if there will be a minister camped there. It happens to be just before our 25th anniversary, and we were thinking about renewing our vows there.
- Line up the rest of the volunteers for the Scottish Games.

Tam's Week Twenty One

Only a month away from the halfway point!

The Good Stuff:

• Spore's polished through the end of chapter 5 and is off to my agent. Hope he likes it.
• Finished and polished the 2 page synopsis today. I think. Hopefully. Synopses are HARD, especially when the book isn't done.
• Moving forward again as of tonight.
• Done all right with the vitamins this week. Feel a little better in some ways, but I've had some pretty crappy digestive issues. Some day I'll just have to accept that I can't eat yogurt, no matter how much I enjoy it.
• Pretty sure the kittens are ready to go. They're going through food and using the litter just fine.
• Down a couple of pounds. I have to find a way to truly focus on weight loss because I've been within a couple three pounds of the same weight all this year.
• Finally lost the dang cold! YAY!!
• Took some walks with Bill. He had the dog, I pushed the stroller. That counts as exercise, right?

Not So Good:

• Been kinda cranky and stressy, partly from trying to get Spore out this weekend, partly from my sewing room being such a mess, partly from being digestivey-sick a couple of days mid week. Just can't seem to find my groove, or remember anything.

for Next Week:

• Sew
• Plan
• Write
• Clean

Have a good week, everyone.  {{huggs}}

Wendy's Whirlwind Week

Crazy (in a good way) week. Mom and Aunt Shirley got to my house last Wednesday, and we left Thursday morning for Newport. We got here Friday after 25 hours on the road. (Not really looking forward to the drive back!) Since Saturday, we have toured The Breakers, Marble House, Chateau-Sur-Mer, The Elms (upstairs and downstairs--the Servant's Life Tour was great!), and Rosecliff. Yesterday we saw St. Mary's Church (where JFK and Jackie were married) and Trinity Church to give me an idea of the architecture. We have the Topiary Gardens and Kingscote to do today, and tomorrow we're taking a day trip to Martha's Vineyard. Friday morning we head home and should be back at my house Saturday. Driving has been an adventure. Old cities tend to have a lot of one-way streets, and Newport is no exception. I understand why, but I don't like them, especially when my Tomtom (with Darth Vader's voice) tells me to turn the wrong way on a one-way. It's been a good trip, though, and I think I might finally be ready to do some plotting on book 3. I'll check back in when I get home and settled back in.

Jean's Still on Vacation

We're preparing to board the train. Had a great weekend with Valerie, Jim, Brody, Coonie, and Moxie. Yes, I got to play with a big, galumphy lab and two calico kitties. Love Valerie and Jim's farm. Have almost 1000 words on MAY DAYS. Will be hanging out with my folks next weekend. Hang in there. It looks like you all had pretty good weeks.

I'm still here

Not much to report, really, but here it is.

Still on the low carb diet. Some days I do really well. Some days not as good, but still not bad. I've adapted to this, apparently. 

Still working on the Christian devotion book with my friend. (It has a name now: On Target.)

Still doing a few things for the writers group anthology. We have a book signing June 7, which should be the last thing I help them do with this book.

Still working on Murder by the Mile. Slowly the story is coming together. Plot holes being filled, but dang, it's taking me forever. Also, it's a dark story. Maybe too dark for my cozy audience.

Still fighting depression. Nothing new there. Move along.

Sold copies of Creations 2012. Need to sell one more to break even on the copies I ordered from the group.

Sold several birthday cards. Don't know if that could grow into a real source of income or not.

Sold several copies of Murder by Dewey Decimal and Murder by the Acre (Second Edition) online. I'll have a little royalty check come August. Every bit helps. Been thinking I will do a second edition for MBDD, too. I'd like a new cover. Also, I'll fix a nagging one word error that bothers me every time I read it. And I'll fix the sex of Obsidian, Lisa's cat. No one has ever mentioned those two errors to me, but I notice them, and they vex me.

Went to my niece's graduation Friday. She's amazing, beautiful, charming, and a true brainic. Received  $102,000 dollars in academic scholarship money. She'll need it. She plans to be a doctor. Saw all my nieces and nephew and my siblings and their spouses. Nice visit, but short.

And that's all I have to report.

This coming week:

MBTM.
On Target.
Household chores.
Gym.
Battle the black dog.

Have a great week!

Tam's Week Twenty

Twenty weeks. 2/5 of the way through the year. Hard to believe.

The Good Stuff:

• Managed to get two more chapters of SPORE written. They're rough and clunky, but they're there.
• Halfway through pre-reader notes. It's a bit of a trick juggling and implementing several sets of notes at once.
• Someone has learned how to crawl, and to sit up. Watch out world!
• Added Vitamin E to my daily supplement mix because a friend found it helped ease her menopausal symptoms. I do feel a little more clearheaded.
• Survived the yard sale. We didn't make much, just a couple of bucks, but all the stuff has gone off to Goodwill and potential new homes.
• Kittens are walking around and we've put out kitty litter and food for them. Their mama tried yesterday to bring them a bird, but Laura wouldn't let her in. Mean ol' Laura!
• Tried some new recipes, all were hits, none was particularly healthy. But they were yummy.

Not So Good:

• Starting to feel itchy again. I really don't want to go back on the antihistamine, but I don't want to itch myself bloody, either.
• Have not exercised
• Weight up. Again. 
• I don't think this cold will ever end. 
• Not as far into SPORE as I should be. I'm really getting tired of the beginning.

for Next Week:

• Same as last week. 

Have a good week, everyone.  {{huggs}}

Jean's on Vacation

So it's mostly good stuff. I got about 350 words written on the train. I was goingto write some more the night before we pulled into LA, but hubby realized he didn't have (for some inexplicable reason)Friday's shopping points mapped out, so I helped him get the addresses loaded into his mapping program instead. None of them panned out, but he gets pretty stressed when his maps aren't right. We had a good VIP Experience at Universal Studios. I had a good Backstage Pass Experience as the San Diego Zoo -- hubby had a lousy museum day. I got to pet a bearcat as well as feed and pet a rhino and a kangaroo. Got to see some amazing clouded leopards up close as well as an Arctic Wolf, a Serval, and a Cheetah (and his companion dog Miley). Oh yes, and an amazing hornbill (I think that'swhat she was). San Diego got better for hubby when we toured W.T. Kirkman Lanterns. Some amazing stories there. We're back in LA tonight preparing to board the Coast Starlight to Seattle in the morning to kick off the second leg of our trip. One minor concern was the mild claustrophobia I experienced in the upper bunk on the way here. Hubby has offered to try sleeping up there, but I'm not sure how it will work for him. It's a little shorter than the. Lower bunk, and much firmer. I'm in constant pain when I try to sleep up there, so I'm not sure he will fare any better thani did. I'll try to report in again on Sunday night after I get back from Val's. I'll tell her hello for all of you if you like. (I have my copy of Rainbow's End for her to sign.)

Wendy's Week

Pretty good week, all things considered.

Good stuff:
- Writing went better. Increased my daily average a tiny bit and closed the week at 13,708. I did try for the 292 words to break 14,000, but I just didn't have it in me yesterday.
- Made progress on the plot, so I know more or less what I'll be writing this week.
- Planted tomatoes and peppers outside. I raised them from seeds, so I hope they live. And produce.
- Alex is home for a couple of weeks. He's taking a class in June, and then he'll be back for July and part of August. Vicky's last exam is Tuesday, and I may not see her until then. She's been working a lot and is all but living with her boyfriend. She comes by occasionally on her lunch break, and we go out to dinner on Tuesday nights.
- Went with Eric and Alex to see The Avengers. Really good movie, but the bit after the credits was a disappointment.
- Finally checked out the big farmers market in St Louis. I'm kicking myself for not going sooner. It's very much like the European markets, where you can buy produce, fresh meat, cheese, clothing, shoes, flowers, and sometimes live animals.
- Swam 4 times.
- Did fairly well cutting bread. It didn't take as much thought as I thought it would once I got alternatives into the house.

Not so good stuff:
- Still not doing a great job balancing writing with housework. I've got the writing part of my schedule down. Now I need to work regular cleaning into the mix instead of doing a bit here and there when I'm not doing something else.
- Not as prepared, plot-wise, for the research trip I'm leaving on next week. I had hoped to have the story, at least the big points, sketched out, but I still only have vague ideas. Maybe they'll come when I'm there.

This week (and next week, since I'll be gone):
- Get regular exercise. I don't really think this will be a hardship while I'm away.
- Pack.
- Clean up the house. Again.
- Write as much as possible. I have under 7,000 words to break 50k, but the book won't be done. It might be close.

Tam's weeks eighteen and nineteen

Life is, well, life. :)

The Good Stuff:

• Enjoyed my scheduled sew day
• Down about 2.5 lbs. Ish. It's fluctuating daily, but seems to hover around that point.
• Kittens have eyes and ears open. They're fat, fluffy and gorgeous. Anyone want a kitty? ;)
• Have polished SPORE through chapter five and it's off to pre-readers. I've written and proofread chapter six, but it's not polished. Starting on chapter seven tonight. With luck.
• Been prepping for our community wide yard sale next weekend.
• Scrubbed and rearranged two of the three 'living rooms' downstairs (actually the office room and the TV room, they got switched) The house seems much larger and more open. Less cluttered. I like it!
• Lots of good couple-time with Bill. We're both making a point to get out of the house and do things together, and it's nice. 
• Much quality granddaughter time!

Not So Good:

• Still feel like crap. Tired, listless, achy, kinda melancholy.
• Politics suck. I've pretty much decided to stay off news sites and just ignore the whole thing. I already know who I'm voting for - fwiw, it's neither of the two party choices - so, eh, screw it.
• I spend too much time online. Still. Must cut back more.
• House is a bit of a mess, between prepping for the yard sale and rearranging most of the downstairs, all the extra stuff is kinda piled up in the kitchen and my sewing room. Not liking that much, but I have made some progress.
• Have not exercised at all for almost 2 weeks. No time, no energy.
• I will likely not have anything decent to put in the guild's annual quilt show. I'm simply not sewing anything worth showing.
• SPORE is behind schedule. I find myself far too likely to become distracted by tv/internet/family/sleep than to be able to focus on the book
• Stopped taking my prescription antihistamine/sleep aid because I am tired of feeling tired and dopey all the time.

for Next Week:

• Eat right
• Exercise
• Write
• Not be so blue 

Have a good week, everyone.  {{huggs}}

A quick check in

Hey guys.

Just wanted to let you know that everything's okay, just a lot going on here - none of it very interesting. I'll try to get a real post up this weekend.

{{huggs}}

Cinco de Mayo

No.  I don't do any special celebrations for this "holiday."  I just like the phrase, and since it applies today, I'm using it.

The Good Stuff:
- The lawn is looking much better this year.  It's early yet, but I may have begun watering in time to get a better root system going.  We'll see how it fares while we're gone for a couple of weeks.
- The scraping on the west wall is coming along well.
- Mr Fig is doing well, and I'll get Ms. Peach from our neighbors when we get back from the trip
- We're packed and excited for the trip
- Got more work done on MAY DAYS -- I'll need to do some research on the Empire Builder part of the trip.
- I lost two pounds this week by purposely snacking less.

The Not So Good Stuff:
- My skin still hates me.  I'm wondering if my persistent rash on my hands will clear up while we're on the trip.  I can't tell what is not agreeing with me, but I'm plagued by itchy small welts on my hands -- more left than right (I'm left handed).  I suspect I'm hyper-sensitive to grasses, weeds, similar stuff since my earlier bout.  I mostly hope I'm not becoming allergic to cats.
- No work on PBOTL this week.  There won't be any progress on it until June.

The Week Ahead:
- Next week at this time, we'll be in LA.  We're set for a VIP Tour of Universal Studios on Saturday.
- Concentrate on not snacking during the trip (this should be relatively easy to do, but we'll get plenty to eat on the train -- train food is yummy).
- Looking forward to working on MAY DAYS on the train.  Will be trying to get the last few scenes plotted this week before we go.  It's looking pretty good.

Wendy's Week

Good Stuff:
- Worked on gardening a little bit and helped Eric mow the lawn.
- Raised my rain barrels so I can get my watering can under the spigots easier. I have one full; the other will fill when it rains again.
- Went to see Jeremy Camp and Francesca Battistelli (Christian singers) in concert with a friend. It was fun to hear the songs I hear on the radio live. It would have been better if the people in front of me hadn't felt the need to stand through half the concert. They were taller than me, too.
- Started getting a handle on my eating. I've been eating WAY too much bread, so I'm trying to cut it way back. Luckily my lettuce is ready to start eating, so I can do lettuce wraps.
- Got my air ducts clean. That one was really just a matter of hanging around the house while the guy worked.
- Swam three times. It would have been four if the duct guy had been on time. Maybe next week.
- Drank a lot of water. My kidneys should be squeaky clean by now.
- Wrote 10,927 words.

Not So Good Stuff:
- Only wrote 10,927 words. I know, you're all rolling your eyes, but I feel like this project is stretching itself out and I'm not ever going to get it done. It's been super hard not to compare myself to other writers (yes, pros) who write 5,000+ words a day without breaking a sweat. I need to have this book done and polished so I can pitch it in August, and I feel like I'm slogging through waist deep mud. And no, I don't think this is Katie Murphy's Writer's Event Horizon. I'm not close enough to the end yet.
- The routine I'm getting into isn't helping me keep track of days. I have to remind myself repeatedly what day it is. Appointment alarms on my phone have been essential lately.
- I've washed my hands and can't do a thing with them. Seriously, I'm going to wear out the backspace key.
- I'm still struggling with balance, especially with my self-imposed deadline looming. I have managed to keep up on what is essential. I'm just feeling like everyone else does it so much easier and faster and more efficiently than I do.

This Week:
- Cut myself a little slack.
- Try not to panic if it looks like the draft won't be done before I leave. We'll have three drivers on this trip. If push comes to shove, I can take my earbuds and write in the car. Aunt Shirley loves to drive.
- Swim at least three times. Shoot for four.
- Limit bread to no more than 2 slices a day.