We've Only Just Begun

My nephew and his girlfriend graduated from high school on Friday night, and we were there at his request.  Nice kids.  It's been 35 years since I attended a graduation ceremony.  Despite the pleas for respectful applause, there were still outbursts of celebrated screaming and cheering.  Mr. L maintains those came from the families where there was unlikely to be anyone else ever graduating or from the families where this was the culmination of success for them.  I don't completely disagree.  At least they did avoid air horns and the like (because they'd been warned they would be ejected if that happened).  I noted with interest the differing approaches from the various kids.  Most were a little sheepish and didn't seem to know quite how to approach it.  Some pulled off a solid sophisticated smoothness.  Most were someplace in between.  My nephew and his intended remained serious but pretty relaxed throughout -- conduct we could be proud to observe.  As a side note, why, oh why do people bring kids under five to these things?  I think we were surrounded by screaming babies and toddlers.

The Good Stuff:

• Got the yard mowed
• Tracked (I think I got it all), read, and did morning pages each day.
• As reported elsewhere, jury duty was a non-event.  I got called for a criminal case, but they must have settled or post-poned, because we were credited with serving and released.  I was back in Central Texas by Monday night.
• Rossie seemed to miss us.  She allowed herself to be handled and petted, and she hasn't escaped to one of her hiding places yet tonight.
• There are mountains in Oklahoma.  I got some pretty cool pictures.  I'll get a post put together this week and share a few from the trip.

Not So Good Stuff:

• Yadda, yadda, yadda -- broken record here.

The Week Ahead:

• Track, read, ride bike, morning pages
• Bloodwork and ultrasound on Tuesday
• Crown prep on Wednesday
• Mr. L goes to San Antonio for a couple of weeks on Thursday -- I plan to try to get some serious decluttering done while he's gone.  We've talked about where I should focus.
• Get some blog posts done. 
• Begin decluttering in areas discussed with Mr. L.
• Yard work (we had rain while we were gone, and everything grew!)
• I'm sure there's more. 

Cue the crickets

It's been a blessedly quiet week.

Good Stuff:
- I got to fence yesterday! I only have four tender spots today.
- My fencing teacher's youngest daughter graduated from homeschool yesterday afternoon. She had a Star Wars themed graduation, which was fun. Sadly, the pictures of her in her gown and a Darth Vader helmet didn't come out. Maybe someone else will post some on Facebook.
- We got to have lunch with our friend and Official Photographer, Jenn, yesterday. Always great to see her.
- Alex realized on Thursday that this is Memorial Weekend, so he's crashing here while he hangs out with his girlfriend. :-)
- I got words in, and I plotted ahead to the middle of the book. I also go my timeline straightened out, although that caused another wrinkle I'm going to have to work out with my contractor consultant.
- I think we got the rest of the stuff we need to do Games on our own. For now, at least. I'm told you never really have everything. The next solo Games is in three weeks, near Chicago. In two weeks we'll be assisting in Kansas City.
- I went to the commissary this afternoon and stocked up on veggies and mint chocolate chip ice cream. It's almost summer.
- Eric ordered video editing software, so hopefully I'll have copies of the Warrior Queen DVD this week.

Not So Good Stuff:
- Eric may have an issue with gluten, so I have to adjust my cooking habits again. We've been talking about transitioning to a more Paleo diet anyway so it's not that as big an adjustment as it could be. It may be more of an issue when we're traveling.
- I've taken the care and maintenance of the house over almost entirely now that we have a lawn mower I can start. Grad school is consuming Eric and often when he says he'll do something, he forgets. I have had to talk myself down from resentment a couple of times. This will pass. Six more months and he's done for good. In theory, anyway.
- I had a moving scare. Eric interviewed for a job in VA but he didn't get it. I can't say I'm disappointed. The thought of dropping my life here and moving half-way across the country, away from my kids and further from my parents, was not something I was looking forward to. I won't even get started on the logistics of what to do with our house, with my new kitchen. Not that I dislike VA. There are worse places.
- I'm having a hard time working up the story of Marjorie Bruce. I'm not sure why. I've worked with less information.

This Week:
- More words
- Write Marjorie's story
- Find a home for Games gear. The garage is going to have to be cleaned. Again.
- Clean out the chest freezer.

Slowing down for a bit

We're entering into a period of a few weeks that have some fun things in them, but nothing I need to clean or pack for. That'll be a nice treat!

Good Stuff:
- We did our first Scottish Games as clan commissioner. Jeff (the bard) came from Missouri to help us and brought some books and flags for the clan tent. Other than that, we had everything covered, and most of it was stuff we had around the house. I had flannel tartan that I'd thought would make a good great kilt and it didn't work, so that's table cloth now. I found several books among the research material for King Or Country, and we had tables and camp chairs. All in all, it was a very nice weekend, and I planted seeds for Jeff and I to tell stories next year. Oh, and we got Honored Clan, so next year we get in free, we get to lead the tartan parade (right behind the pipers, of course) and we can bring friends!
- I didn't gain weight over the weekend, despite the scones and shortbread I scarfed yesterday. I wouldn't say it was a vast quantity, but it was more than I usually eat!
- The house is finally quiet. The AC is on. That and the keyboard are all I hear. Eric is down in his office regrouping after a hectic semester.
- Speaking of which, Eric has two weeks off before the summer semester, and he's only taking one class. He wouldn't be taking that one if it was offered sometime other than the summer!
- Since I'd already taken off from church today, we decided to go to our favorite place in the city for brunch. The Eggs Benedict will likely stick until supper.

Not So Good Stuff:
- It's taken no time at all for entropy to strike my house. I'll be putting in some time in the next couple days to put things away and figure out how to store the detritus from yet another hobby in such a way that it's out of the way but accessible.
- Alex was not at all thrilled to be heading back to school today. He's working up there over the summer and is dealing with roommate issues. I thought it would get easier to stand back and let them forge their own way once they reached adulthood, but part of me wanted to tell him to call in sick tomorrow and stay one more day! At least he left with a full belly, and he was stopping at his girlfriend's on the way out to pick up fresh muffins.
- I did not semi-final in the ACFW Genesis contest. However, a historical writer I met in Destin this year did. She's been writing all of about four years. That stung. A lot. I let it get to me for a few days, and now I'm letting it feed my resolve to work harder. The new plan is writing in the morning, and research in the afternoon. I've heard it said fairly often that it's not the good writers that get published, it's the stubborn ones. I have stubborn in spades.

This Week:
- Write in the morning, research in the afternoon.
- Put my house back together.
- Work up a new story to tell at the Kansas City Games in three weeks. (Probably Robert The Bruce's mother, Marjorie.) Also, practice the two newer stories so I can tell them better. Oh, and upload at least part of my Tartan Day performance to either post to the internet or e-mail. I haven't forgotten, Stephen. We just got the DVD back right before my mom left. If push comes to shove, I'll burn a DVD and send it to you.

Darkness on the Edge of Town

There was a song title to go with that album title, right?  Oh, well.  Just a little darkness at the far-reaching edges of my usually sunny disposition this week (this is supposed to make you laugh at the sarcasm.  Go ahead.  I am.).

The Good Stuff:

• I tracked, did Morning Pages, rode the bike, read, and did some yard work.  All the good, basic stuff I want and need to get done.  Yay.
• My dental check up went fine
• Sneaky is back and doing great. We didn't talk yesterday, but I guess she was busy.
• Got a little back end maintenance done at FM

The Not So Good Stuff:

• The deteriorating filling they've been watching for a year or two has reached the point where they want to do a crown.  We're going to do it before the tooth breaks so we can control what happens.  Apparently, if the tooth breaks, and it doesn't do it the right way, they can't fit it for a crown. 
• Despite tracking, I've managed to gain 6 pounds since starting to use LoseIt!.  I think I have something backwards here.
• I'm still avoiding the writing thing.  

The Week Ahead:

• Track, read, morning pages.
• Head back to San Antonio on Sunday in preparation for reporting to jury duty Monday morning.  They sent free bus passes with the summons, and, since I live on a major bus route that runs right downtown, I'm going to use them.
• If I get released by Wednesday afternoon, we'll scamper up to Lawton, OK, on Thursday for my nephew's high school graduation on Friday.  If I don't get released by Wednesday, we'll have to cancel the trip.  Mr L says they usually empanel for M-T-W and W-R-F, so he says I should know by early on Wednesday what the scoop will be for me. (R = Thursday -- that's how they did it on my computerized junior high school class schedule, and I've never forgotten it, but I don't know how prevalent the usage is.)

Have a great week, y'all!

Any Colour You Like

But let's not make it blue today.  Happy Mother's Day.

The Good Stuff:

• I tracked, did Morning Pages, and got some exercise in with the yard work.
• Morning Pages, Stephen, are like journaling.  You're supposed to write three pages first thing in the morning of the first thing that comes into your head, no matter what it is, to clear your mind and jump start you for writing productive stuff.  I do mine the first chance I get during the day -- sometimes as late as just before I go to bed, but I usually get them done sometime in the morning.  You're supposed to write them by hand, but I've been doing mine on the computer for a couple of years now, first via 750words.com and beginning this year in the MacJournal app.
• I had a productive week for yard work in San Antonio.  I got everything done I went down there to do -- lawn mowed, hedged trimmed, trash trees hacked back.  Yard watered when it wasn't raining.  Thankfully, the city made the watering hours 7-11 am and pm, which is much, much better than 3-8am and 8-10pm.  That waking up at 3 am and turning on the soaker hoses was a killer.
• We got at least 2 inches of rain here in Central TX while we were gone.  Praises!
• My mom says she's feeling so much better, and her pulmonologist approves of everything her doctor has been doing for her, so that's a win for her.  
• My dad is penciled in for his back surgery at the end of July, but if they can free up five hours in an operating room before then, they'll take him.  This is in the good stuff, because I'm hoping it will help him feel better -- not because I'm glad he needs surgery.
• I've been getting some good reading time in.

The Not So Good Stuff:

• I didn't get any writing done this week.  And, sadly, I didn't feel too bad about it.
• I'm eating too much.  I picked up some salad and fruit when I got back to Central TX.  

The Week Ahead:

• Dentist Monday morning, then pick up Sneaky from the vet clinic.  I'm going to bring her home and open a can of food before I open the carrier to release her.  If I'm really lucky, she'll hang around for some food, but I sincerely don't expect her to do that.  I expect her to bolt and hide for a little while.  Then we'll see if she'll talk to me or not after she has a chance to forgive me.
• Yard work in Central TX
• Some maintenance work at FM behind the scenes
• Read, track, morning pages, and ride the recumbent bike
• Take stock in my writing and decide what I'm going to do with it.  I think the first thing I need to do is sit down and review Cat Eyes to see what I can do to give this revised version more conflict and do it.  Then I need to also get back to working on PBOTL.  I've taken too much time off from it.

Sneaking away for a minute...

It's been a pretty darn good weekend. The weather yesterday was perfect--just the right amount of sun and breeze. The graduation ceremony, while long, was well done. The speakers were good, although the keynote guy went off on a tangent into left field. 

We ended up with all the parents, Eric's aunt and uncle, and our kids with their significants--14 of us total. I could have planned the logistics a little better. Traffic was awful and stressed me out more than anything else. If I hadn't had to drive it would have been fine. I'm thinking we should have hired a limo for the day. Other than that, it was a good day yesterday, and it was fun to celebrate Eric's accomplishment with a side order of Mother's and Father's Day.

Dad and Linda, and the aunt and uncle left this morning. Eric's dad and step-mom leave tomorrow, and my mom and step-dad are hanging around until Wednesday morning. It's been a lot of fun having everyone together. The cats are a little twitchy with the noise of 14 people talking and catching up, but they'll get over it. The dishwasher has been getting a workout, too.

The most interesting twist is that Eric has to report for Federal Jury Duty tomorrow morning. At least it wasn't last week! That's about it here. I have a couple more days of visiting, followed by a mad rush to prepare for our first Scottish Games as the reps of Clan Campbell in Springfield. A week from tomorrow, I'll clear my calendar and sleep.

There was a party?

I almost posted last night, but it was about 1 am and decided I'd try to sleep instead. So I guess I'm last.

Ah well.

Things are good, I guess. Busy. I'm down about 32 lbs, exercising 6 days a week, so that's all going fine. Haven't written a word since I sent SPORE out 3 weeks ago. I need to find something else to work on, but I currently have nuthin'. Also no word from The Agent. Starting to really doubt that I'd nailed the changes and worry I've screwed them up. It's surely writer angst.

I sewed six 3-block strips into three 6-block hunks yesterday. Oh, I ripped out some darts I'd put in one of my granddaughter's skirts a while back. That's it for sewing.

We lost a big branch from the old maple in back, and a lot of smaller branches from other trees with this most recent snow. Hopefully winter's finally done.

That's about it for me. Have a good week.

Later to the party

Have to agree with Jean's point about Facebook. I have a friend who says she won't be on Facebook because she doesn't want to hear every little detail of her friends' lives. Trust me, these days she wouldn't. She'd only see recipes, photos of cats, inspirational pics, etc. She'd have to really search to find out anything. What Facebook needs is a button to allow you to turn off other users 'Shares' on your page. I would be grateful.

What I did last week in no particular order:
- Published April family newsletter and mailed it.
- Did News at Three each day sort of on time.
- Worked on Red Bird Woman, a book of poetry I'm publishing for a friend.
- Worked on Murder by the Mile, God help me.
- Worked on Undying, ditto.
- Moped the kitchen and bathroom floor with a Swifter mop twice, then did them both with the steam mop. They shone afterwards. I hate to walk on them.
- Worked on the back bedroom so more. It had become a dumping ground again for coats, books, gym equipment, etc. Cleared most of that out and put everything in its proper home.
- Sort of cleaned the tub. I worked hard on it, but it needs more. Looks better, though. Our extremely hard water here makes cleaning even more of a chore.
- Scrubbed the toilet until it gleamed. Yeah, I know, but I got carried away cleaning.
- De-cluttered and cleaned the garage so more. It's much closer to the way I see it in my mind.
- Changed the display of the Many Rivers Harbor books in the downtown store. Made it more Spring-y.
- Filed three months of bills and other items.
- Vacuumed the house, laundry, and other household chores.

This week in no particular order:
- Work on Murder by the Mile. Did I mention God help me?
- Work on Undying. Ditto on the mention.
- Work on Red Bird Woman.
- Prepare agenda, classic poem discussion, and minutes for writers group.
- Conduct writers group meeting Saturday.
- Pay bills and do stinkin' book work so that my stinkin' taxes won't be so stinkin' hard next year.
- News at Three each day.
- Household chores, including a whole house dusting, which will officially end my spring cleaning ... except for two closets, dang it, that I still have to clear out. Man, does it ever end?
- Work on back bedroom and garage some more.
- May family newsletter.
- Upkeep on a couple of clients' blogs.
- Try oh try to get more sleep.
- Stay sane. Or what passes for it in my world.

I hope y'all have a GREAT week.

Late to the Party

Someone has to have made that a song title sometime, haven't they?

I'm in SA getting a lot of yard work done. The weather has been cool and comfortable, so I'm really enjoying that.

I'm tracking, reading, and doing morning pages.

I have a ton of story ideas lurking on the edge of my brain.  I need to coax them out.

Last time I was down here, I got a notice a couple days into my new cellular payment cycle that I'd used half my data allowance (we killed the landline and DSL in SA to save $100 a month). I upped my data to 6G instead of 4G, and I think I'll be fine. I have to see if there are any restrictions in my agreement on the number of times I can increase and decrease my data limits. I don't mind paying the $10 for the extra 2G if I'm using it, but I don't like wasting it.

I'm getting frustrated with my social media sources, and, at the moment, Facebook is the worst. I,m seeing maybe 10% original content in my feed. The rest is recipes, motivational placards, and silly sayings. I know it hurts people's feelings to complain about it, and I'm sometimes guilty of the same thing I'm complaining about.  I also realize these motivational sayings are frequently as much a personal boost solely for the person posting them, and I can sympathize with that.  But. Sigh.

For the week ahead:
-  Track, read, do morning pages
-  More yard work
-  There must be some other things...

A little better

I got a fair amount done, but my list is too vague. Drat!

Good stuff:
- Made progress on the house. Merry Maids comes sometime Tuesday for spring cleaning, so I have a good bit of decluttering to do before they come. I need as many things off horizontal surfaces as possible. Yeah...
- We bought a lawn mower. The new one is gas but has electric start. The bad news is I couldn't get the electric start to work, but the good news is the pull cord was much more girl friendly, so I did the lawn by myself while Eric was at work. Oh, and it's self-propelled, which is nice. Our yard isn't real hilly, but we do have a shallow swail at the back of the lot that I've had to shove the mower up in the past. Not so now.
- 'Attended' a webinar about social networking. The gist is that to build an effective platform, you'll get the most bang for your buck with Twitter, Facebook, and a blog. The presenter uses Hootsuite for Twitter and Facebook and spends 30 minutes a day on those two. (I spend 30 minutes at a time on FB sometimes, and I don't play games!) Blogging has to be done on a regular schedule, so I've designated Monday as my blogging day. I should be able to come up with something to say consistently once a week. It's a place to start. How is it that I'm coming up with places to start on so many things in the last several months?
- Eric and I saw Iron Man 3 yesterday. Go see it! Some people have said 1 & 2 were better, but I think 3 is the best so far. Tony isn't invincible, and Pepper isn't a simpering wimp. I hate it when script writers make the female lead a simpering wimp, but I equally dislike heroines who are too powerful. Think Princess Amidala in Revenge Of The Sith (the 6th movie but Episode 3) and Lara Croft. Equally loath. That'll preach at a writers' conference.
- We bought Father's Day gifts yesterday. Since ALL of our parents will be here next weekend, and it's Mother's Day, I made a command decision to do Mother's and Father's day together. I'll execute the MD plan tomorrow.
- I have a graduation outfit planned.
- Eric's aunt and uncle apparently didn't get or ignored the e-mail he sent out several months ago about graduation. They found out last week and contacted Eric. Long story short, they're coming, too. That gets our group up to 14 and will take a total of 4 airport runs. :-) Good thing the airport is only 45 minutes away in traffic--way better than the 2 1/2 hour drive from Del Rio to San Antonio. It's going to take 3 cars to get us all to graduation. It's going to be memorable, no doubt about that!
- Did I mention the Alex got accepted to grad school at Western IL Univ? That's where he's been going, so it looks like another 2-3 years there before he has to move on for a doctoral program, assuming WIU doesn't add one before then. He also found another house where the rent is a little less, and he'll have a new roommate who will be bringing a cat.

Ambivalent Stuff:
- I finally broke down yesterday when we were shopping for Father's Day and gave Eric the green light for his Bose surround sound system. He's only been drooling over Bose speakers for 25 years. They're sitting in my dining room at the moment and I have my doubts about whether we'll get them installed before the Ingress. It's more likely I'll drag them out to the garage and deal with it after everyone goes home. Eric, of course, is far more excited about it than I am, but I admit a bit of curiosity about future movie watching experiences. I have a mental list of movies I'm going to watch while he's at work. ;-)

Not So Good Stuff:
- Rain. Lots of rain. Close to 4" since Thursday night. It's still raining. At this point I'm just glad it's not snow.
- More rain forecast for next weekend. Graduation is outside and is slated to last about 4 hours.
- Lawn mowing was harder than it needed to be for the maiden voyage. The spark plug wire had come off during shipping and was hiding. Once I found and connected it, the mower started right up, but it's been so wet that the grass has been growing like crazy, and the old mower left clumps of grass on the lawn, so I finally had to attach the bagger just to keep the mower from choking every row. After that it went a little easier, but I am grateful that we didn't wait for a larger corner lot!
- I'm going to have to mow again before the Ingress because Alex won't get home before everyone comes. Looks like that will be Wednesday.

This Week:
- Mow the lawn
- Finish the house
- MD shopping
- Menu planning and grocery shopping
- Try to get some words in there somewhere
- Pick up in-laws Thursday afternoon
- My side arrives on Friday
- Survive the weekend. We haven't had all the parents together since 1987. Since then, my dad is with someone else, Eric's mom died (1999), and my father-in-law is on his third wife. My mom and his dad got along for our wedding only because I threatened bloodshed otherwise, and Eric's mom kept his dad in line. :-) Yeah, it could be a very interesting weekend! Details as soon as I can get them to you!