Just wanted to give you all a lot of {{huggs}}

Everyone's been having crazy/busy/stressful/screwed up weeks, and I'm no exception.

I wish I could make it all better for all of us.

{{{HUGGS}}}

Step forward, stumble back

It's been a frustrating week. It seemed I would take a step forward and soon after stumble back.

Step forward:
- Finally got my car to run. It may be fixed. At least it hasn't died.
Step back:
Discovered my air conditioning system is broken. Can't be recharged. Needs to go AC professional, which is more money than I currently have.

Step forward:
- Got a new client for Many Rivers Harbor, and he paid me!
Stumble back:
- Two unexpected bills (one for car repair, one for insurance) took every last cent he paid me.

Step forward:
- Got everything organized on hutch. My work space is clean and efficient for the first time in years.
Half stumble back:
- I lost a bill in the reorganizing and was late and got penalty. (See above.) I should have known when I had money left over that I had missed a bill.

Step forward:
- Lost another five pounds with this low carb diet.
Stumble back:
- Blood sugar is continuing to rise. I'm quite worried about this trend.

Step forward:
- Wrote two new good chapters for Murder by the Mile.
Stumble back
- Had to remove 6,543 words from MBTM.

Well, that was the week. I also did chores, kept my client's websites updated, finally published and mailed March family newsletter, and generally stayed positive despite the setbacks. Over all, I give the week a 6.5.

This coming week:
- Easter dinner at a friend's house.
- Household chores.
- Work on MBTM.
- Work on April family newsletter. Maybe publish it on time for once!
- Maybe go to Medieval Fair on Friday if weather and finances permit.

Hope you have a wonderful Easter and a great week!

Here Comes the Sun

After last week's little cold spell, the sun looks like it's going to be settling into our little drought-filled state.  We're still in the time of year when I don't mind the weather, but we're rapidly approaching the nine months of the year I dislike living in Texas because of the heat.

The Good Stuff:

• With the advent of yard work, I'm getting good exercise
• I did my morning pages, reading, and tracking
• The yard sale is set up.  We have to decide how to display the "free stuff," but I need Mr. L here for that (he gets here tomorrow).
• Pre-op appointments went well.  Bloodwork is good, but my fasting glucose was 113 (the GYN doc wasn't concerned about it, but that was not good to see), and my EKG looked great.  I'm very comfortable with my GYN doc.  He's confident and exudes capability.  We were going over the authorization paperwork (on the computer, because the VA has computerized all records), and he was covering the things that could go wrong.  He highlighted them, said they are very rare but when they happen, we fix them.  Very matter of factly.  I said, "I sure hope so!"
• Took Lady to Dr. Val to have her ear looked at.  Dr. Val was stumped, but from the microscopic evaluation of the scrapings, she thought it was some kind of mite, so she loaned me a spray bottle of Frontline to spray onto cotton balls and rub over the affected area to repeat in two weeks.  Lady's ear looks much better, so I think that's doing the trick.  I'm down to a $1 credit at the vet clinic.  I told them, I'm sure I'll be using that up soon!
• Mr L has finally taken the plunge to cancel the land line in San Antonio, so I canceled the DSL service down there as well, switching to email only and prepaying for a year (that saves about $12). That will save us about $100 a month.
• I have A-Z blog challenge posts scheduled through "C."  I'm going to try to get a few more done before Monday.
• All the cats seem to be using the cat scratching post, including hanging on the post!  I'm so glad it's heavy and stable. I'm considering getting another one for upstairs.
• I attended the school board meeting this week and found it fascinating.  I may attend more meetings in the future (my Master's degree is in adult education and I have post-masters work in educational administration, so it's nice to know the field is at least interesting to me).
• No real progress with Rossie, but she transitioned well between SA and here without any regression.  She joins the herd of other cats when they are clamoring for attention and accepts her petting.  I picked her up and held her briefly last night and after letting her down, she returned to sniff my hand.  In some ways, Sneaky is more tolerant of me than Rossie is.

The Not So Good Stuff:

• See today's blog post about Sneaky. Suffice it to say I've screwed up colossally, and I hope she will eventually forgive me.
• I have failed to open Cat Eyes or PBOTL all week
• The cats seem to think they own the counters and the kitchen table.  This is not desirable to me.  Time to begin reviewing some behavior modification ideas.  I keep telling myself in a few months, these kittens will be lazy, sleepy cats, and I'll miss their crazy, kitten antics, but right now I'm not so sure.
• I haven't seen Peaches since we left to go to SA last week.  Sneaky's behavior this week indicates she's lonesome, which may not bode well for Peaches being okay.  And, of course, I haven't seen Little Orange since January.  They're feral and outdoor cats, so if something happens to them, there isn't much I can do, so this is an observation.
• My great aunt Margie died yesterday.  She was my Grandma B's sister.  It's been a tough year for the siblings. She would have been 99 in two weeks.

The Week Ahead:

• Everything's set for my endometrial ablation on Monday.  Surgery time is 1:15 pm and show time is 11:15 am. Prayers and good thoughts around those times and beyond are appreciated.  We don't anticipate any problems, but they are using general anesthesia (because, my doctor says, it would hurt like hell if I were awake), and there are always risks with that.
• Everything may not be perfect for the yard sale next weekend, but we're ready to go as it sits. I hope we can move some stuff out.
• I'm going to talk to Mr. L about making a box to keep on the side porch for Sneaky -- just in case she is pregnant and just in case she might decide to have her kittens there.  I think its a long shot, but it may be worth it (he's very good with making such things).
• I want to resume work on Cat Eyes and PBOTL.
• And, of course, continue tracking, exercising, doing morning pages, and reading.

Waving 'bye to last week

What did I do all week? I waited. There was someone at the house almost every day for one thing or another, and everyone did everything they could to drag their processes out to maximum length.

Not so good stuff (starting with this to get it off my chest):
- The kitchen is finally done. It took 10 1/2 weeks. They were supposed to template the rest of my window sills while they were here installing the last little piece of counter, but the guy said they'd only been allotted 90 minutes, and it was at least a 2 hour job. That was Monday. On Thursday, the templater came out and got it all done in a little over an hour. Supposedly they'll be installed on the 8th. We'll see.
- Wednesday was furniture delivery day. They came on time, but they the driver didn't see that I had two living room chairs until I told him. He read the list twice before he saw them. They also didn't bring the hardware to put my table together. The driver called customer service and assured me that Liz would call me before close of business. She didn't. I called our local store, who said they would get me an answer and call right back. I still haven't heard from them. I did call Liz directly the next morning, and she had no idea she was supposed to be doing something about it. She answered the driver's question and thought she was done. The soonest she could get someone out to put the table together was Monday. Yeah, the day after we're having kids here for Easter Dinner. I finally drove to St. Louis, picked up the hardware and instructions, and Eric put the table together in about 45 minutes. They did refund part of our delivery fee.
- My dryer is on the blink. Again. The little computer control thingy is going out again. Luckily, I have a folding drying rack in the garage. I have 2 loads of laundry air drying in my laundry room because our stupid HOA doesn't allow clothes lines.
- I had to go get my military dependent ID renewed. We waited three hours. By that point I was ready to find the flight commander and make him hire me to manage the office. They had three people working, and they weren't working very hard based on the fact that it took two minutes to make my new card, but they were averaging six minutes per customer. Oh, and there were only three people working because the fourth had gone to lunch. During the rush. Which is why wait times increased from two hours to three. I don't even want to think about how much money it cost the government to have all those people sitting around waiting.
- It seems like this whole year so far has been one frustration after another. We've had good things happen. That's evident--my blessing jar is filling up. It dawned on me the other day that maybe the reason is so I can write my current hero more effectively when his job doesn't go as planned. It's going to be a bad year for Tim.

Okay, now that I've vented, here's the Good Stuff:
- Stanley Steamer came and cleaned my downstairs carpets and stairs. They came on time, did their job, and left.
- I decided not to do the bi-monthly Merry Maids thing. I did a little research and discovered there are a lot of ladies in my area that clean houses for a lot less than Merry Maids charges. I might look into hiring one of them, but that's going on the back burner until late spring.
- Got some writing done. Not enough, if my dreams are any indication. They've been very vivid and strange, and usually they're only like that when I'm in a dry spell.
- I bought Les Mis on DVD.
- My second judo practice wasn't as scary as the first. Eventually my life will settle down and I'll be able to get two practices a week. That will give me two judo and one fencing most weeks.
- Made some progress with my two new warrior queens. Got costuming done and packed, although I might pull it all back out and put them on to make sure I can switch quickly. Do a dress rehearsal of sorts. We won't have a chance to rehearse, so I should probably do that.
- Everyone is healthy.
- Eric still loves me. He even helped with the house while he was off, and he cooked dinner twice.

This week:
- Easter dinner tomorrow with Vicky and Justin. Send left-over brownies home with them.
- Perfect the queens. My performance is next Saturday. (Note to self: Find the video camera and tripod.)
- Write.
- Lots of meetings this week, including two on consecutive nights in St Louis.
- Follow up with the dryer repairman. Maybe price new dryers? Why not? We've paid down the Lowes card, might as well buy something else. :-P
- Work on my attitude. It's not helping matters.
- Eat healthy and see if that helps the attitude. Get some exercise, too.
- Have fun at Tartan Day. I'll be late checking in next week.

Here's to a great week for all of us, and Scotch and chocolate if we don't!

Past midnight

It's past midnight on Monday. I guess that makes it Tuesday. Didn't want to go to sleep without posting here. Sharing a bit as it were of my life these days.

Been bitterly cold here. Wind chills in the twenties and teens. The cold creeps into my little house. Makes my bones ache. I'm so ready for summer. I fear the drought, but I need warmth. And sweet, sweet sunlight.

If you've followed the hutch story, you know I've been organizing my working space. I'm  proud of how it turned out. Here's what it looked like before:

Yes, that pile of clutter is where I worked. Until I took that picture and studied it, I didn't realize how limited my work space really was. I was actually shocked. Still, I produced five books and countless articles and newsletters there. So it worked.

Here's the same space with the new hutch:

I still have a few things to throw away or donate to the library, but I'm pleased with how it turned out. I had to replace that lamp because it didn't fit anymore, but I don't think I will need to do anything else. And it feels like I have so much space to work now. I wish I had done this years ago.

Inertia, you know. The tendency to stay put, to let things stay the way they are, even though something better might be possible. Got to remember to embrace a few new things each week. Or at least give them a try.

I've also been working on my News at Three. It's a daily "positive" news note on Facebook. No particular reason other than it forces me to review my day and find something good in it, either for me or for my friends. The response has been good. I'll keep it going until people lose interest.

Building and installing the hutch, working on various blogs, chasing some new publishing clients, doing household chores, and naturally working on Murder by the Mile ... that was last week for me. Oh, Saturday morning, we had our writers group meeting. It's going well. They are in the learning mode that I had hoped for. I hope I can help them sustain it until it becomes the norm.

This week:
- Publish March family newsletter.
- Household chores.
- Work on MBTB.
- Catch up on my postings on my blogs.

I hope you have a great week. Talk to you soon.

Walking on Sunshine

It's a lovely clear, cold day after a lovely, warm, overcast week.  After 81 degrees yesterday, we're slated for 32 tonight.  An Ohio friend expressed surprise about a 50 degree drop in such a short time.  I wanted to say, you obviously haven't been to Texas, but I didn't.

The Good Stuff:

• I got leaves raked and bagged, the alley hedge trimmed, debris raked and bagged from under that hedge, and I got half the front hedge cut way back to begin training the regrowth.  I still need to shape the remains of that hedge and rake the leaves and debris out of it, but that will have to wait until next month.  I also need to do the other half of the front hedge -- apparently the stuff on the left is jasmine, but it's gotten very woody.  This is what I started with (I'd already trimmed the Nandina before I remember to take a picture):

This is as far as I got last week (needs to be raked and and some training done):

 

This is what I have left to do in addition to raking out the other side and shaping:

  

• I completed morning pages, read Stuart MacBride's Blind Eye (I love Stuart's work), and logged in Lose It! (several hours of yard work each day credits me with burning a lot of calories, even though I didn't notice it on the scale)
• Rossie handled the transition to and from San Antonio very well.  She hid for a couple of days, but I expected that.  Then she came out and was seen throughout the house, in the garden window, and playing with toys.  She let both of us pet her in the garden window a couple of times.  She's still hiding now that we're back in Central Texas, but I expect that.  The drive is stressful for them.

The Not So Good Stuff:

• I found exactly the cat carriers I wanted on Overstock.com for less than on Amazon, ordered them, and they arrived exactly when Overstock said they would.  Two of the three were broken. I'm now going through the process of getting replacements, partially complicated by me not having worked with Overstock.com before and confusing the matter by not understanding their system.  They appear to be making things right, in spite of my confusing the issue.
• A classmate from high school died yesterday.  She had an elective surgery in mid-December, during the initial recovery "walking around," she complained of not being able to breathe, got back to her bed, laid down, and her heart stopped.  After some minutes, they got her heart beating again, but she was brain dead (outside of being non-responsive, this was not immediately obvious; the family was in limbo for about a week). At the end of February, her husband (also from our high school, but a year ahead of our class) took her off life support and brought her home to spend her last days with family in peace.  Yesterday she passed over.  While it's a sad situation, I'm going in for my pre-op appointments this week, so I'm a little sensitive to her plight and how it could also be mine.  I don't think it will be, but it's a stark reminder that there is nothing routine about any surgery, just like there is nothing "routine" about space travel.
• I accomplished nothing on Cat Eyes except for a realization that I need to recast Fantusie's mom as a "struggler" instead of a "loser," so I have some clean up to do on the beginning of the story.

The Week Ahead: 

• Track, read, do morning pages, and exercise
• Pre-op appointments on Monday and Thursday.  Hope all goes well.  I hope I'll get a clear understanding of which method my doctor uses for this procedure and verify it's the right thing to do
• Do all the preparatory work for setting up the yard sale, because I may not feel like moving around, lifting, and arranging next week after my procedure
• Do yard work here -- mow and trim the house, mow the store, and finish the crape myrtle trimming and training
• Try to do some prep work for the A-Z Blogging Challenge.  Yes, I'd hoped to have posts already written and scheduled.  Silly me.  That has gotten away from me.

Got in before Monday!

For whatever that's worth! It feels like the week was more productive than it was.

(Mostly) Good stuff:
- The kitchen should (fingers crossed) be done this week. The last piece of counter top goes in Monday, and the new kitchen table will be delivered Wednesday. Coincidentally, Eric is planning to take a vacation day Thursday to take care of graduation details and some other must-be-done-during-the-week errands, so he should be around part of the day to help me put stuff together.
- I did practice a couple Warrior Queens, but I have not recorded or sent MP3s.
- Got some writing done, but not two chapters. The focus has been more on getting the first scene right so I can submit it for a contest. Deadline is next week. Anyone want to read it?
- The Merry Maids quote went pretty well. Now we just have to decide on level of service. They have a special where they do the heavy duty spring cleaning free if you sign up for a year of bi-monthly cleaning at $117 per visit. This, of course, is appealing to me because at least my bathrooms and kitchen floor will get cleaned twice a month, not to mention the dusting I never do unless my mom is coming, but it's pricey, and we've spent a lot of money on the house this year. We might just shell out for the one-time cleaning and revisit regular service next month after Alex is done with his undergrad. 

Not so good stuff:
- No donations collected, and not much clutter busted.
- My writing partner discovered she works much more efficiently alone. I'm 46 and got told for the first time, "It's not you, it's me. I just want to be friends." Via e-mail. Yeah, that hurt. She did call me later, and it helped to hear in her voice that was truly the case and she wasn't upset with me over something I said or did. I do tend to be pretty blunt sometimes. We will remain friends, and I hope she'll let me bounce story ideas around in the future, but at this point I've backed way off. It's going to take some time to adjust to the new normal. In the meantime I guess I just count my blessings that she discovered this while I'm in the writing phase and not the plotting phase. One day at a time.
- Had my first judo practice. Not sure what to think about it. On one hand, it's a great workout. I can handle that. I'm not great at it, but I'm better than I thought I was. I kept up with the kids until they started tumbling. Learning the throws was way out of my comfort zone. Eric has asked me to give it a couple months before I throw in the towel. He wants me to develop more of a predator mentality rather than prey so if something bad happens I'll be able to function. On the plus side, while I definitely felt the workout the couple days after, I was never so sore that I couldn't move. I thought it would be a lot worse.
- I've put off a lot of non-fiction reading, and it's almost time to return the books to my bard. Really need to develop a better system to balance bardic studies, writing, and domestic stuff.
- If I sound overwhelmed, it's because I am. I have two weeks before my Warrior Queen performance, the family will be here in seven weeks, and it's supposed to snow tonight. I'm not quite sure why I want to run screaming in terror to hide in the closet. It shouldn't be stressful to prepare for fun things, should it? Perhaps I need to back down the caffeine another notch.

This week:
- Finish the kitchen and move furniture around to accommodate the new stuff
- Warrior Queens
- Read Scottish history
- Write/submit contest entry
- Decide on house cleaning and get it set up
- Clean downstairs carpets so I can see if I need a professional for that, too (sigh)
- Work on clutter
- Take advantage of the snow to take a chill pill and put things in perspective.

Done and yet to do

It's almost the end of Monday, and I meant to post earlier, but ... well, I didn't. Still, a good day overall. Got many things done. Still have many things to do. That's life.

The two big projects are 1) cleaning out my garage and 2) cleaning and rearranging my desk and surrounding area to be more efficient and less cluttered. They've been so overwhelming that I almost wish I had never started, but I can see an end in sight. Several more hours for both, but bit by bit, they're getting done.

Otherwise, not much to say other than household chores, book marketing, blog upkeep (mostly for my clients), and a few meals with friends.

This week:

- Murder by the Mile.
- Garage.
- Desk area.
- Household chores.

Boring, I know, but all are necessary. Hope y'all have a good week.

Monday. Again.

How is it the weeks seem so long but pass two at a time? There must be a disturbance in the time/space continuum. I blame Q.

Good Stuff:
- Had a good visit with Alex. He divided his time between homework and his girlfriend, but at least this time she came here a few times instead of him spending all his time at her house. She's a homebody. He got back safely yesterday afternoon. As far as I can tell, he didn't forget to take anything back with him.
- The last kitchen cabinet has been installed. We're down to the last bit of counter.
- Seeds are started. I already have baby tomatoes sprouting.
- Got some decluttering done.
- We bought a new kitchen table and two living room chairs. The counter height table with move to the dining room, which doubles as my apothecary. Our oldest couch (the yellow flowered one, Jean) will also move temporarily to the dining room until Alex can come get it. Or until I get sick of looking at it and rent a UHaul trailer to schlep it up to him. New stuff will be delivered a week from Wednesday.
- Logged a little mall time with Vicky (she needed a scrubs jacket before she starts her OR training), and we did manage to get the whole family (including the girlfriend) together for dinner.
- I don't mean to go bragging mom all over you guys, but can I just say I'm proud of the people my kids have become? They're heading for really good things, and they get along with each other, which is better than I hoped for years ago! Shoot, they get along better than Eric and I do with our siblings.

Not So Good Stuff:
- Did not start practicing the Warrior Queen stories. I have a bit less then three weeks, and I need to tweak costuming so each queen has her own look. Don't want to be haunted or anything.
- I also have a bit less than three weeks to get through at least some of the history books my bard gave me to read. Just goes to show I need deadlines or I procrastinate.
- Blah blah blah clutter. Yup, same old stuff there.
- Jumped through hoops between the doctor and Tricare. There was a billing glitch on the ultrasound I had in December and the hospital it trying to charge way more than we should be paying. That was a lot more time wasted on the phone than I would have liked. It's still not resolved. I have to follow up with the nurse this afternoon.
- Really have to stop shopping for a while.

Not Sure:
- Merry Maids comes to do a quote tomorrow. No idea what to expect but I'm pretty sure my house isn't ready. Terrified she's going to think I'm a slob and reminding myself she probably sees worse all the time. In any case, I'll let you all know what she says.

This Week:
- Warrior Queens--practice and send MP3 files to the band so they can practice "with" me.
- Finish at least two chapters of Building Truth (formerly known as Tim).
- Fill another box or two to donate. Stop shopping and fill boxes. That's the clutter solution.
- Finish putting away kitchen stuff.
- Deal with workers (hopefully the counter people will be here this week) and Tricare.

Forgive and Forget

For the third time this week, Rossie has asked us to pet her.  Maybe some progress?

The Good Stuff:

• Earlier this week, I reached down to pet Ajax and Ruby.  Rossie came over to investigate, and she sniffed my hand.  I petted the other cats; Rossie rubbed her head on my hand.  I petted Rossie, then petted the other cats.  For several minutes, Rossie enjoyed being petted.  Then she did the same thing Thursday night when I reached down to pet Ajax in the kitchen.  Rossie came through the rungs of the kitchen chair to get her some petting, and she even let Mr. L. pet her.  Today, when we got home from Houston, again, Rossie asked to be petted.  Most of the time, we can't approach her, but she's definitely taken the approach that she does like her petting -- on her schedule.  That's fine.  She just might forget she's a wild cat pretty soon.  We'll keep "taking it away" from her.
• About five years ago, Mr. L. found a kitchen table and a couple of chairs at a yard sale.  He bought two more chairs to complete the set at a super HEB (local grocery chain for Texas). They've been working well, but the chairs are the cheap kind held together with staples and pins.  They've started coming apart, so we looked for a replacement this weekend.  On the way back from Houston, we passed an antique store.  I didn't want to go in, but Mr. L turned around and went back. Lo and behold, we found a walnut table and six oak chairs that will work just fine in our kitchen, and the oak chairs will augment my oak dining room table very nicely if ever needed.  These, of course, are not a matched set, but my antique furniture is turn of the century tiger oak, and Mr. L's furniture in Victorian Eastlake walnut, so it's perfect for us.
• Got the morning pages, tracking, and bike riding done this week.
• I'm mostly over that nasty cold. Just a few vestiges of cough remain
• Lady is doing well in her vet follow-up visit and the doctor wants to see her again in 30 days to make sure she's still recovering.  We discovered two kittens didn't get their shots when they got spayed, so we got that rectified.
• Only one small curtain was knocked down while the cats ruled the house over the weekend, and a little litter from one box was scattered on the floor (they get a little exuberant when they bury sometimes)
• I decided not to get collars to Ruby and Delta.  I just can't put a collar on a cat.

The Not So Good Stuff:

• I'm eating too much
• My knees are bothering me (those two things might be related)
• Didn't get as much done to get ready for the yard sale as I would have liked
• Got a little more done on Cat Eyes but did not complete my draft.

The Week Ahead:

• If the weather stays on the good side, we'll head to SA this week to complete some tasks that need to be done at the house.
• Continue work on Cat Eyes.
• Find three more cat carriers.
• Continue reading, tracking, exercising, and morning pages

Spring peeked at us, then returned to hiding in a snowdrift

We've had SNOW. Gobs of SNOW. Were supposed to get an inch or so, got about 11, according to the local weather data. Was 65˚ yesterday, but we're supposed to get a dusting this Monday. We'll see how that goes, especially since every massive snowfall we've received this year (3 or 4 blizzards now) was forecast to be an inch or less. ;)

The Good

Most everything. Belly's better, writing is going well, Tina liked her quilt, no one is sick, Laura's still employed, granddaughter is awesome, I'm down 28lbs... It's been a pretty good week.

The Meh

Bill will officially become a mail carrier starting next Saturday. It's good because we finally have an answer and a direction. It's not so good because not only will it entail a pretty big pay cut (we will adapt to that) he's 50. Lugging a 50lb pack of mail up and down hills in all kinds of weather is hard on anyone's body and he's not 24 anymore. I am stocking up on easy to carry protein - nuts, beef jerky, protein bars, etc - and he's already started taking some additional vitamins and glucosamine. At least spring will be here soon so he won't be freezing, at least not to start.

The Bad

I really can't think of anything.

Have a great week, everyone!!  {{Hugs}}

Empty

Shouldn't have bragged about how well Murder by the Mile was going. The writing god was listening and decided to punish me for my pride. How oh how can writing be this hard? How can it hover in the front of my mind day after day and yet no usable words result? It astounds me. What is even more perplexing is that I don't give up. I can only say that I've never been known for my wisdom.

Last week:
- Struggled with MBTM.
- Did household chores.
- Conducted writers group meeting, which went better this time.
- Had a visit from my sister and nephew. I greatly enjoyed spending time with them. I got some bonding time in with my nephew who is a megamind, but shy and quiet. He really opened up to me, particularly after I started talking about comic books and anime that I enjoyed. "You're actually cool," he said, sounding more surprised than was really polite, but I took the compliment anyway.
- Fighting a cold and woke up Sunday with sore throat and aching all over. Slept most of the day and feel some better.

Been empty this week. Empty of talent, empty of hope, empty of effort. Black dog has me.

This week:
- MBTM. MBTM. MBTM.
- Household chores, including laundry.
- Pay bills.
- Lunch with a friend on Wednesday.
- Renew my car's tag.
- Go to water department and pay bill.
- Continue to declutter the garage.
- Fight this cold with Vitamin C, rest, hot tea, soup, and fluids.
- Fight the black dog unceasing.

Hope you have a wonderful week filled with writing and happy things!

CRAMPS!!

My aching gut has been the nexus of my life the past few days. Started low down and mostly ignorable Tuesday afternoon, but has spread steadily upward since and increased in crushing intensity. Can't stand, sit, move, or lay down without clenching pain. Honestly, I can't tell what the problem is - I suspect peri-menopause since my bowels are functioning within normal operating parameters - but I do know I'm tired of hurting and feeling like a whimpering, belly-holding invalid.

Grr!

Okay, on to more standard news. :)

The Good

I've received additional feedback on SPORE (got it a week ago Friday, actually, but seeing as how I've been in pain since Tuesday and can't seem to focus on much else, I haven't made much progress) and it's exciting to work again!! Very, very excited!  I'm looking at sending out my changes to pre readers in chunks of three chapters each so folks won't be slammed with the whole book at once. Most of the changes will be little tweaks in the narrative (chapter 1 was only setting/descriptive changes, for example) and bigger changes in the social media graphics. One more POV character is being added (a computer geek/hacker/activist named Glenn) and I'm hoping the rewrites will all run smoothly. I got all of the changes done to the first three chapters of narrative, and had started on changes to the graphics before my belly decided to mutiny, but since I can't focus/think to write, I haven't progressed much farther other than slowly working through the twitter and facebook avatars to ensure they're all properly sized for hi-res printing, and I either took the pics myself or the person(s) who did gave me permission to use them in SPORE. Since I can do that in short bursts, the PhotoShop work's all done. I'd better get back to narrative soon, though.

If y'all want to see the updates, let me know. I'm currently planning on getting the first chunk out on Monday.

I'm almost done with a quilt that I've traded with a friend for an iPad. The iPad is here, but the quilt is not done, again, because of the troublesome belly. My 'putting on binding' position just plain hurts, but I only have  about an hour's worth of work left on it, then it'll be out the door. I think it's a super cute quilt, and I hope she likes it. (I think she will). I'll post pics on FB after she's received it. :)

Weight loss is holding steady at right around 25lbs down, which is great. I haven't been on plan much lately (the same reason I'm off track with everything else, ha ha) but I've been under points, not over, so we'll see what next week's weigh in brings. It's the lack of exercise that worries me. It seems like I just get into the routine exercise groove then I'm sidelined by an illness. Grr!

The Granddaughter is speaking a few recognizable words, and her babble really sounds like actual sentences. Yay!!

We picked up a stray cat (his pic is on Facebook). He's very sweet and slowly acclimating to our household, even tho he hasn't (as far as we know) left the basement yet.

We're all good, overall. :)

The Meh

The Daughter is working, sort of, part time temp while a gal is out on maternity leave. It's not likely this will become anything permanent or more than part time, but at least it's something to get her out of the house for a while. The area here is really tough, employment wise. People with college degrees and experience are working the drive up window at McDonald's or putting clothes on racks at Kohl's. I am *very* concerned our whole country is shifting to a service-industry focused employment and that's really gonna wreak havoc in a lot of industries that require customers with some discretionary income (as in cars, real estate, and most any retail item beyond what's the cheapest version at WalMart), let alone the legions of working class people struggling to simply pay rent and eat. Thank goodness Bill makes enough to support us, otherwise I don't know how we'd manage. There's just nothing out there other than part time minimum wage crap jobs.

Bill's been working a little overtime (yay) but it's carrying mail in cold, crappy weather (boo) and he's hurting. I wish he'd exercise and stretch more on his days off, but I certainly can't make him. He's still very concerned about the postal mess, but at least the P.O. is getting mentioned in the various budgets put forth by various committees. I don't know what to do to help him worry less. Mostly I'm trying to stay positive and hopeful. Maybe it'll rub off??

House is rather messy since I'm not doing anything. Bill and Laura have picked up some of the slack, so that's good, but I really need to clean the kitchen and fold laundry!!

SPORE needs a new title. Agent likes the idea of it starting with a hashtag, so I need to come up with something there. Maybe #fingerscrossed or #NeedASale ?  ;)  I suck at titles, but something will float up, surely.

The Bad

I have to figure State Taxes. I totally forgot about them, haven't budgeted for them... Not looking forward to it at all but I have to get it done.

Desk and sewing room still a mess. Made some progress in sewing room, then got sick.

More snow forecasted for tomorrow. Would rather have rain.

Next Week

Get to at least Chapter 10 on SPORE, including changes to social media graphics.

Finish quilt and get it mailed to Tina.

CLEAN MY DESK. It's getting really bad, bad, bad.

Scrub my kitchen floor, which will be a waste of time since it's muddy out and the dog will just put footprints all over it, but it's just eeew.

Create quiet time with hubby. We've both been on short rations lately.

Have a loss this week at WW. :)

That's it for me, have a great mid-March, everyone!!  {{hugs}}

Wasted Time

I finally went to the doctor on Wednesday, because I went to bed about six the night before and felt like I had a fever all night -- the digital thermometer repeatedly beeped wildly and flashed 100.5 or 100.6 all night whenever I checked.  I was huddled under blankets and I provided more than enough body heat but never felt warm enough to throw the covers off like I typically do several times a night.  The temperature remained the same in the morning, so I made an appointment with my doctor.  By the time they saw me at 11:30, my temperature was 98.  Go figure.  I still felt like I was running a fever, but it did feel better by the time I got home.  The doctor attributed it to a combination of allergies and viruses, but I have no known allergies.  He gave me prescriptions for a Z-Pack and some cough medicine if it gets any worse and recommended the generic versions of Mucinex DM and Alavert, which I picked up at the grocery store on the way home.  I don't think I'm going to need to fill the prescriptions.

The Good Stuff:

• I've slept much better the last two nights.  Perhaps attributable to the Mucinex DM?  I'm not sure.  I'm coughing while I'm awake, but once I lay down to sleep, I don't appear to be coughing too badly.  Must be partially psychosomatic.
• I have been making some progress on CAT EYES.  The rewrite (and it's an entire rewrite -- no words have been copied or pasted, but characters are being reused) stands at 1300 words.  I stopped at a place last night, because I wasn't sure what the conflict was.  It came to me last night before going to sleep, so I jotted it in the Plain Text app on the iPad to keep it from disappearing.  I've been able to flesh the idea out a little more for a conflict between Fantusie and her mother as well as internal conflict for Mrs. Foster (that I can't show directly, because she isn't a POV character).  We'll see if I can pull it off.
• I rode the bike, did morning pages, and tracked on Lose It!.  If I count the two days I went over by less than a 100 calories as being "under," I hit the five day goal (but the two days I was over were REALLY over).  
• I did get one day's work on the crape (I have been spelling it wrong) myrtles done. I still have three to clear around the bottom, and I have a lot of major pruning to do yet.
• My mom was briefly in the hospital, but they decided a change they made in her medicine wasn't agreeing with her, made the change back, and sent her home saying she was fine, so I hope that's good news.
• Mr. L and I got a few reorganizing chores done this morning.  We moved a dog panel to the shop to form the final roof piece for his tool cage; we got the behemoth 26" TV from the den moved to the shop (we replaced it with a 32" HD flat screen months ago--somehow I moved it up there by myself in 2008, but I could barely lift it this year); moved the dog houses and a metal cot over the the store from out of the garage.  I'm going to use the 26" TV with my Wii instead of the 13" one I was using.

The Not So Good Stuff:

• The heat pump started freezing up (they're only supposed to do that when it's really, really cold -- it was in the 70s here).  A $60 capacitor and labor costs later (got the bill today), it's working great.  Apparently HVAC labor costs go for $160 an hour for a competent technician.  I had two half-competent technicians who, together, formed one reasonably competent one, so I only got charged $80 an hour (times two).  Watching them work, it was as if each one had a piece of the puzzle that the other didn't have.  (Nice guys, but I'm shaking my head -- they installed the unit four years ago, so they aren't that young or inexperienced.)
• No work on PBOTL this week.
• I'm still struggling to know the right way to try to interact with Rossie.  I think I'm trying too hard, but I don't want to just ignore her, either.  She wants to interact with me, but I seem to keep doing something that breaks her tenuous trust, so we don't quite make the connection.  I've apologized to her and told her I'm trying to figure it out.  She just looks at me.

The Week Ahead:

• We've decided to get Ruby and Delta different color collars to make it easier to tell them apart. They are very different cats, but at a glance, I keep calling them by the wrong names.  
• See if I can finish the Cat Eyes draft (and come up with an appropriate name).
• Continue riding, morning pages, and tracking.
• We've decided to resume the annual the yard sale the first weekend in April.  Since I'm having endometrial ablation surgery on April 1, we have to have everything set up before the end of the month, so we're getting the shop ready, setting up tables, unpacking yard sale stuff, and making sure prices are set.  We'll start work on that this week.
• Yard work -- mowing at house and store -- and crape myrtle pruning
• Take Lady for her follow-up with the vet this week
• Heading to Houston Friday for a swap meet and seafood dinner at Babin's.  We'll be back Saturday.  This is an inaugural weekend with all 8 cats left on their own.  Will they demolish the house?

Digging In...

Well, not yet, but soon. It's too soon to start the garden outside, but I will be starting it inside this week. This is the time of year I refer to as the tease. It gets nice and warm and sunny for a few days, and then we get slammed with cold and rain/snow. That usually coincides with one of my friends going to FL for Cardinals Spring Training.

Good Stuff:
- Entered "King Or Country" into two contests. In writing the short synopsis, I realized that main trouble with it is the weak romance arc. That gave me leave to ignore the problem until after the Kiss and Tell class I'm taking in April. I love productive procrastination.
- Made more progress on the house. We've got our bedroom about 2/3 done and the kitchen is coming together. We've been making at least monthly trips to Good Will.
- Eric finished his semester from Hell. He has a whole week off before the next semester starts.
- The last (I hope) pieces for the kitchen came in yesterday. Barring further damaged pieces, the rest of the cabinetry will be installed soon. It looks like we are well on track to being finished before the drop dead, has to be done date of April 30.
- Called maid services for quotes. Since we have so much family coming for graduation, I'm going to have someone come in and do a deep clean.
- Not sure if I mentioned it here, but I found a Judo club about four miles from our church, and I don't have to rearrange my schedule for their adult classes. I'm going to check them out Monday. Hopefully I won't chicken out! This is so far out of my comfort zone, but I think I need to do it. Wasn't it Eleanor Roosevelt who talked about doing something that scares you every day?
- Alex should be home tomorrow for spring break. 
- Started a new bible study about praying circles around problems/people. The concept is based on when the Israelites circled the walls of Jericho. It's been enlightening.

Not So Good Stuff:
- We've made good progress, but there is still a lot to do, even without doing all the pre-company cleaning myself. I feel like I'm going to need the 10 weeks I have left to declutter enough for a maid to come in!
- My Uncle Carl has started chemo for lymphoma. His prognosis is good, but it's going to be a long road for him and his sons.
- Despite my best efforts, I only marked off half my To Do list. It's not even like the stuff still on there is hard. I could knock most of the out in an hour or two, but I haven't.
- As is always the case after a conference, I've had to make a concerted effort to back my caffeine level back down again. It helps a lot with concentration, hence the reason for the spike, but getting where I am from a pot of coffee a day was hard. It's been almost three years and I still flip off the Nicorette commercials because there is no Cafferette. Yes, it's petty.

This Week:
- Make a Honey Do list for spring break. I'm going to have easy access to two able-bodied men, so I need to make it a good one!
- Start seeds.
- Figure out how to send a manuscript to my Kindle app.
- Kick decluttering into high gear.
- Start writing the book I've been plotting, and come up with a working title.
- Finish my To Do list.

Have a good week!

Progress and reversals

What a week it’s been. While there has been progress on many fronts, reversals abound, also. One front that showed significant progress was Murder by the Mile. For some time now I have struggled with a particular section of the book that I felt wandered and didn't add to the overall story narrative. Finally on Wednesday last week, I discovered that the story was missing an narrative thread, and once I started correcting that, the story fell into place.

It's always exciting to me when a story takes some life of its own. In the story, a certain number of pages are torn out of a book. This is important for the plot, and I had thought that the murderer torn the pages out since they pointed to him. However, I was never completely sure about how he knew the pages existed and why he would tear the pages out since the information was available in other places. While working on the book, a different character tore the pages out for very good reasons of her own. And once that character tore the pages out, it opened up a whole avenue that I hadn't even considered.

Mostly I spent this week working on Murder by the Mile. I did some household chores, ran errands, had dinner with a friend on Monday, had lunch with a friend on Wednesday, caught up with several friends on the telephone, spent too much time on Facebook and with Farmville 2, and that’s my week.

Jean read the first chapter of Murder by the Mile, and said some nice things about it, which I appreciated. I think it's the strongest beginning that I've ever written. It's the rest of the dang book has given me so much trouble. I'm on course for the book to come out this summer, barring unforeseen circumstances. I will be pleased when it is published.

There is a personality conflict within the writers group that I'm not sure what to do about. One of the members is a bit overbearing and way too critical. He has alienated several members who came to me after the meeting last Saturday and wanted me to fix the problem. The bylaws of the club really don't give me the authority to remove him from the club, and I don’t want to do that anyway. I also think they should stand up to him more and not expect me to fix their problem. I don't think he's been that bad. We'll see what develops.

This week I intend to:
– work on Murder by the Mile,
– household chores,
– work on decluttering the garage,
– eat at least five servings of vegetables and fruit per day. I just read a book about the health benefits of doing so by Dr. Amen. I don't know if I think it would do everything he says it will do, but I do think it will be good for me,
– update all my various websites,
– launch the publicity for a new Author of the Month,
– work on the new 2013 anthology for the writers group,
– and naturally try to keep my head above water and the black dog off my ass.

I hope things are going well for everyone and that you're getting lots of writing done. Have a great week.

Back. For now.

I'm heading into a busy time. There's a lot to do before everyone shows up for Eric's graduation. Conference hang-over is not helping.

Good Stuff:
- I learned a lot in Destin. No epiphanies this time as such, but lots of things I'd already learned fell into place. Now to apply them.
- Got to hang out with my writing partner and some of her friends. Huntsville AL is a pretty town. We had lunch at a local BBQ place that had St Louis style ribs. I didn't order them, but seeing them on the menu made me laugh.
- Made a few new friends. One of the gals at the conference has family in a town south of us. Her cousin owns the shop here in town where I buy tea and spices sometimes. Small world!
- Hit the ground running when I got home Friday afternoon. Yesterday I went to fencing in the morning (got beat with a stick) and then we met friends from church to see Chris Tomlin in concert. Really, really good show. If you like contemporary Christian music, go see him!
- Spent a good part of today working up a game plan so I can get stuff done. I have a big master list from which I've picked things to do this week.
- My sweet hubby agreed (even before I got home from Destin) to send me off again in April to a mini conference on writing romance. Should be interesting. Several of the gals from Deep Thinkers are going. This one is much less expensive or I wouldn't have considered if for this year.

Not So Good Stuff:
- I got the conference dates mixed up. The page I was looking at said March 22-26. Actually they gathered the evening of the 21st and started the morning of the 22nd, which was the day I was traveling from Huntsville. Luckily I didn't miss anything I hadn't already learned, but I did miss a whole day of bonding, and I scared the coordinators.
- It rained almost the whole time. Not light drizzle. Torrential downpours. Thunderstorms. Flood watches. We did manage an hour on the beach to get pictures and such, and the last day it stopped raining but it was cold and windy. Not that we had time to hang out on the beach, but still!
- There was an issue with the newsletter for the Scottish society and I couldn't get e-mail to send from my iPad, so I asked Eric to e-mail them that I would deal with it when I got back. Instead, they completely reformatted the newsletter, added a few things, and sent it out to membership without letting me know. I found out when the newsletter landed in my inbox. I wanted to send an angry e-mail to the whole board telling them where they could shove the next issue, but Eric talked me off the ledge. They have one more chance before I walk away from the newsletter, and possibly from the group altogether. It's very hard to offend me, but they're making a good go of it.
- Gained 5 lbs last week. That's what happens when there's a good cook and a lot of classroom time, and we won't even talk about the evil chocolate mint malted milk balls.

This Week:
- Whittle down my list. It's too extensive and mundane to list here.
- Start logging food again.
- Back down on my caffeine levels.
- Get back to the gym.
- Start thinking about what I need to do for my writing career business-wise going forward. I think that will be part of this year's learning curve.

I'm All Choked Up

I see I forgot to mention I felt a lot of drainage in my throat as we drove home from Dallas last weekend.  As I feared, it developed into a full-blown cold, with symptoms like whooping cough, but it can't be that, because I got a fresh vaccination for that last June.  Everything (almost everything -- thankfully, no diarrhea -- always something to be thankful for) was running -- eyes, nose, bladder, throat.  Mucous was clear, so no signs of infection.  Just a good, old-fashioned, make you miserable cold.  I'm down to mostly the cough and the side effects of that, which will probably linger for a month or so.

The Good Stuff:

• I got bike rides, morning pages (for anyone keeping track at home, that's every day this year, so far), and reading done this week
• I started the rework of Cat Eyes.  It's going slow, but I'll get it. I hope.
• If Rossie ever lets me catch her again, I'll give her her first dose of Revolution, then everyone will have this month's medication applied.  I'd been holding off on the kittens to see if they would be adopted and let the new owners decide what to do, but spring is coming, and I want to make sure the little darlings are protected just like our big cats are.
• We attended an Eagle Court of Honor this afternoon for our neighbor's boy.  He's 14 1/2 and started Scouts in 2008.  I don't think it's possible to earn Eagle Scout much faster than he did, and watching the support he had from his parents and grandparents to achieve this honor, I'm not sure how a kid does it without such an awesome support force.
• I tracked on Lose It! and was actually under my calorie goal for several days this week -- it did help to be sick; I didn't want to snack.
• The invoice from the vet was legit -- the staff didn't discount the other spays as much as the vet wanted them discounted, so when they applied all the discounts, I'd overpaid and had a credit.  I think this was more than generous, but I had asked her if she could give me a break on the spaying and neutering price, so the staff was puzzled that I was complaining about having a credit. I didn't want them to not get their due. She is running a business, after all.
• I got a few small things done around the house.
• I stopped in at the local appliance store after leaving the laundromat on Friday.  The washer/dryer combo unit we want is $1399.  They have to order it.  If I just want a washer, I can get one off their showroom floor for $549.  I hate having to reach in from the side to load and unload the washer and to shift the loads.  It's very awkward.  I'd much prefer the stacked unit like we have in San Antonio.  Before we can get it, hubby has to cut a new dryer vent on the washer side of the laundry closet and move the gas to the washer side.  We'll probably leave everything set up on the dryer side. (The washer and dryer face one another with a narrow space between them. This closet was built by taking a corner out of the kitchen.) I'm not going to bug him about it.  I'll just haul a couple of loads a week to the laundromat until he gets it worked into his schedule. (That's the plan, anyway. I may run out of patience.)

The Not So Good Stuff:

• I haven't pulled out PBOTL this week.  I'll blame it on being sick, maybe?
• I'd meant to do preliminary work on taxes, but didn't feel up to that either.
• I picked up all the kittens.  Rossie has expanded her range outside the parlor and has found a place to hide somewhere else in the house.  She's more elusive than ever the last two days.  I guess she'll come around eventually.  She's a good house cat, so I guess I'll just accept her for who she is and that's that.
• I received my TRICARE Prime letter that says they won't cover me next year because I live outside the service area.  Except they will, because my doctor is inside the service area, and I can reapply and sign the distance waiver -- which was what I did when I enrolled in 2008.  When they rewrote the TRICARE (the military medical plan) contracts, they wrote it to kick non active duty people outside the Prime Service Areas off the program and dump them onto TRICARE Standard, which has no enrollment and no premiums (and I'm not sure how it's viewed under ObamaCare laws), but you pay everything for the first $3000 out of pocket every year, then, after that, you're supposedly covered.  In theory, I could have a doctor closer to home by using this option, except in 2008, my doctor was the closest one to me who accepted TRICARE.  Since they opened the Scott and White Clinic in my town last year, there actually IS a doctor who will take TRICARE (but under the new rules, it will have to be Standard), but I avoided Scott and White in 2008, and I have no interest in working with them now, even if they are a five minute drive from my house instead of 40. (Prime has a $300 annual premium and a $12 co-pay for each visit.  There are a few other costs for procedures, but it's very reasonable, and all other expenses are covered.  If I get my prescriptions at a military hospital, they are free, but if I get them from a pharmacy, the run from $9-45. It's a very good deal.  I get that, but military members are promised health care for life if they stick it out to retirement.)
• I have to refill prescriptions at the end of the month.  I'll stop at the TRICARE office and pick up a new enrollment form and check with them that I'm understanding this correctly.

The Week Ahead:

• Continue riding, tracking, reading, and morning pages
• See how many days I can remain under my calorie goal this week (last week, it was five)
• Resume work on the crepe mrytles -- the weather is supposed to be beautiful, so it should help me to be outside
• Get the next iteration of CAT EYES down on pixels.