Blah

It's been a week. Trying to stay positive and upbeat, but finding it difficult. I'm blaming hormones because there's really nothing 'blah-worthy' going on. I was down .6lb at weigh in this week - totally did NOT deserve it - and I'm sorta/kinda taking the weekend off from watching what I eat.

Don't be worried. I had a cupcake and some gloriously cheesy mexican food, that's about it. It's not like I've dived into a vat of melted caramel and chocolate sprinkles. In fact, I've had salad twice. See, I can't even have a cheat weekend without glumping it up.

Sigh. Plenty of whining below the cut.

Scotch on the rocks

Actually, it's whiskey--Crown Royal Maple. Just what the doctor ordered after a long weekend. The retreat was good. I learned more than I expected, and I was able to help a couple baby writers. To say I was in my element might be a bit of an understatement. I got a new plot started, so I'll work on that for NaNo prep. In case you missed it on Facebook, I finished the draft of Building Truth Wednesday, just in the nick of time!

The only downside was that the inn's heat wasn't working right and our classroom was cold. Our guest rooms had gas fireplaces so they were nice and toasty. It really was a lovely venue, and the village had 2 indy bookstores. I found The Cattle Raid of Cooley (big Irish hero saga) in one volume in both English and Gaelic. It won't mean much to y'all, but I almost cried on the spot! I have bits of that story in a couple different books, but to have it all in one place is great.

Beyond that, I got words and packing (for the move) done before I left. Of course there's a lot left to go, but I have a few months to get all that done. I also told stories at the nursing home Wednesday, and I have another gig next Saturday. It will be Sunday before I go upstate again. I need time to pack, and the furries need mommy time before I disappear again. They do seem less stressed when I have someone come in to check on them, so I'll keep doing that. I have young friends who work cheap.

This week will be divided between plotting and packing. Oh, and laundry. And, since I've just checked my calendar, starting NaNo on Friday.

Tryin' to Get the Feeling Again

It's no secret I've been less than enthusiastic lately.  At least, not if I listen to Stephen, who has expressed concern. I could blame a lot of other people, but, when I'm finding fault everywhere but with me, well, I know where the real problem is.  Grin. It's me.  Really.  It don't know what or why.  I'll be fine, but I'm generally grumpy and dissatisfied with everything right now.  As they say, this, too, shall pass.

The Good Stuff:

• Thank you all for your help getting "Beginnings" ready for "prime time."  My invitation to join the fiction club is up on the blog, members are trickling in.  Huge thank yous to Stephen for sending his tribe in my direction.  I'm envious and appreciative of his leadership.
• I think I achieved the 80% solution on the list sign up and bennies page process.  It can be better, and I'll work that out.
• I got some logo work done last night.  I'm not happy with it, but I'll keep working.
• I got about 2/3 of PLF module 4 listened to.  Still need to get to the last webinar.
• Sneaky really likes to be petted, but she's still doing the dance of recognition.  Mr. L and I discussed the potential for bringing her inside at some point tonight.  I'm going to leave that decision to him. Nine cats in the house?  Too much. I think. And I'm not certain Sneaky is interested in coming in (despite her cries at the window on a regular basis).
• After belatedly realizing I needed to mow the grass at the store (it was easily a foot tall!), it took me three days and numerous battery charges, but I finished it this afternoon.

The Not So Good Stuff:

• I made a spinach lasagna this week.  It needs work.  I'll keep trying.  I'm just thankful Mr. L is willing to try a spinach lasagna.
• I also made Million Dollar Spaghetti, which is pretty darn good, but Mr. L won't like it (he's not interested in spaghetti), so it's something I make when he's not here.  The recipe is in the shared Evernote folder if you're interested.
• The five pounds I lost on vacation? It seems to have mostly found me again.
• I've made no writing progress beyond getting Beginnings ready to post.  And, of course, that process (as you're well familiar with in your own work) had me asking myself what made me think I was a writer.  
• My mom's been experiencing something that sounds like a nasty flu for the last two weeks.  I pray she's feeling healthier soon.

The Week Ahead:

• Do as much internet intensive stuff as possible this week -- next week we head to SA.
• But I have paid for 8G of data this month, so I can pretty much spend all week on line if I need to, because that's the only time we'll really need it.
• Note to self, dial data plan back for Dec; I won't need it.
• More yard work.
• Design newsletter logo, begin drafting material for it, and look at NaNo prep

Different Background

Stephen and all,

I decided to put up a different background and a slightly modified color theme for the blog. If you want it back the way it was, I'll be happy to put it back, but I thought a little change of pace might be okay.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

Finally.  Back home.  Mr. L left late this morning to return to San Antonio for a band rehearsal and a doctor appointment on Monday.  Then he'll come back here to get his newsletter written, printed, and mailed before the first.  Then we'll both head down to San Antonio to do some yard work in preparation for winter.

We have another Grand Tour planned for May 2014, but I'm seriously considering postponing it to May 2015.  I'm sick of traveling, and the Hershey trip seems to not be fading, so I'll have to deal with it.  The Grand Tour trip I have some input into.  Thankfully, being sick on the trip gave me the leeway at the beginning side to stay in the truck for some of the antique stops.  That didn't do much to alleviate the stress of him looking for places that are supposed to exist but may not and communicating the directions to me the driver who had to integrate them into the reality of real life traffic conditions and roads that differed from a truly terrible 2013 edition of Street Atlas USA. This results in many derogatory statements that Mr. L did not recall making when I finally related how offensive I found dealing with him.  I need to remember to chalk that annoying stuff up to just trying to execute his plan, which is usually very good, but I still don't like it.  I chose to stay in the truck for a lot of antique shops, but Mr. L would call if he saw something he thought I might like, and I'd go inside and look.  We have a few perennial places that I willingly chose to wander through, and that resulted in polar bears and the Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica following us home.

This is what Mr. L found which resulted in me losing my bench out of the rain for a couple of hours at Hershey, but it was worth it, I think:

Four guys loaded it into the back of the Navigator in pouring rain.  Mr. L and I unloaded it (with a little of his ingenious finesse).  Mr. L noticed holes on the bottom for casters, so we found some, modified them to fit, and installed them after we got it unloaded from the truck.  This is what's called an Ideal 85 slider box.  It dispenses cold drinks for a dime by sliding them to the dispenser area, inserting your dime, and pulling the bottle out.  Some of you may be old enough to remember these from when you were a young kid.


The Good Stuff:

• The scale shows I weigh five pounds less than before we left for Pennsylvania.  I'm pleased about that.
• Sneaky was just fine while we were gone but seemed happy to have us home.
• The vet staff discovered an ulcer on Natasha's eye while she was there and began treating it.  She went back for a follow up visit this morning, and she's doing much better.  We go back again on Wednesday.  The ulcer itself isn't a good thing, but the staff discovering it and getting her treatment was. 
• Ajax and Rossie were cuddled together on the shelf in their enclosure when I got there to pick them up.  Rossie was in the back and fully shielded by Ajax.  He's such a good uncle cat.
• A Books-A-Million clerk in Mississippi talked me into re-activating my Books-A-Million membership, despite having no store near me, when I stopped into pick up some bargain journals I've been looking for.  Apparently, it includes free shipping from the on-line store.

The Not So Good Stuff:

• Lady gave Neal the vet tech a hard time while she was there (this poor guy has borne the brunt of claws and teeth from my kitties, but he's a sweetheart with them all).  She was so mean to Tarzan, they had to separate them (I thought Lady and Tarzan could get along as roommates, but I guess not).  No wonder poor Tarzan was hiding under his towel when I got there to pick them up.  Lady is not adapting well to having the kittens in the house (and, yes, it's been a year). Dr. Val says, "There's always one.  Especially with that many."  She and Floyd are getting along well, although even Floyd defers to her.  Lady, Floyd, and Tarzan were sleeping alongside one another on the bed last night.  I'll note Floyd, Lady, and Tarzan are approximately the same size and weight, so they are relative equals.
• My digestive system is still not 100%.
• My head seems to be swimming as I try to figure out the best way to implement Product Launch Formula for me.  It's all a learning curve, and I'm treading water for now, but I'm still trying to sort things out.  

The Week Ahead:

• The lawn mower has been pleading with me to change it's oil (Really -- the hour meter was flashing "change oil" the last time I mowed), so I need to change the oil before I do much mowing.  I may mow part of the yard to get the engine warm, but it needs to be done.
• Do the revision work on Beginnings
• I cannot find my original download of the image, so I can't redo the author name on it.  That means I'll need to find another image, and I'm just less satisfied with the ones I'm seeing (why isn't this image still up there and available -- I'd buy it again if I had to instead of just re-downloading it).
• Figure out a newsletter template -- the one I'm trying to work on Aweber is not working for me.  Well, it's working, but I don't really like it.
• Do preliminary work for NaNo -- I'm attempting to do 100 500-word flash pieces, so I need to come up with a LOT of ideas to start with.
• I purchased OptimizePress, but I'm having trouble sorting out just how I'll use it.  They have a lot of tutorials on the member page, so that is probably a good place to start.
• Get stuff put away from the trip.  The house looks a wreck.

Now to cover the new gray

I got home Wednesday afternoon, and it's been great to get back into my routine. Very comforting, even if I'll be living alone on and off for the next couple months.

Good Stuff:
- Safe travel for both Eric and I. He came back downstate yesterday.
- I made it back in more than enough time to go to band practice. Singing praise songs for a couple hours was just what I needed.
- The traffic noise at the apartment became white noise faster than I anticipated.
- I found bedroom curtains on sale online. They're supposed to block both light and noise.
- Words! The morning routine has paid off this week. I might be getting close to the end, but it's hard to say for sure. Usually, I'm right up on top of 'the end' before I realize it.
- I'm heading to MN this week for another writing retreat. Hoping, hoping, hoping this one will have the plotting tools I'm missing. If not, I'll have to figure it out on my own because I won't be doing this next year. We have a savings account to build back up and frankly, I've had enough of hotels for a long while. 

Not So Good Stuff:
- While we're relieved that Eric has a firm start date for the job, we're not as happy that it's the 28th and not the 21st. I guess they need time to dig out from the furlough, but we'd like to get paid sometime. Thank goodness for our savings. The plus side of this is that Eric can stay here a few extra days instead of rushing back tomorrow.
- Would anyone be surprised to learn my house is a mess again? I didn't think so. The odd thing is, it seems more cluttered with the chairs from the living room gone. I might rearrange stuff a bit to make it more homey. Or better organized. Or to put off sorting and packing.
- Ryan seems stressed. It occurred to me this morning that the girls have moved twice, but his experience with moving was getting shoved in a cage and brought over here. The poor guy has no idea what's in store, but he knows something is up. It doesn't help that we've left them alone more this year than we ever have. I still have the Bach Flower Remedy for cats I bought when Jeli lived here. Maybe it will help.

So that's about it. I'll be gone all next weekend, so I'll see you when I get back.

Ready or not, here we go!

We've started moving into the apartment. Before pics are up on my blog. It's been a busy day, and we're still waiting on the gas company to show up so we can cook and take showers. They were supposed to be here between 11:30 and 3:30. It's coming on 6 now. Dispatch says the guy is running behind (no kidding) and they're sure he'll be here by 7. Sure would be nice if he'd get here so we can do something about dinner, let alone grocery shopping. We do have electricity, cable, and internet. Considering we haven't officially been here 12 hours yet, I'm impressed with that.

It's noisier here than I realized when we looked at the place. We're practically on top of a busy street, but otherwise the neighborhood seems to be pretty quiet. There is at least one Starbucks in walking distance, and frankly, it will be easier to walk rather than look for a parking spot.

The last week has been spent almost entirely on getting ready for today. It's all a blur, and off the top of my head, my major accomplishments have all included driving, mostly pulling a trailer. Driving in Dallas and Italy prepared me for living here. Thankfully, the trailer has been returned, and the van is resting in the garage.

We did make time, between our return downstate Thursday and our boomerang trip upstate yesterday, to hang out with friends Saturday night. Good food, scotch, fencing and laughter--just what the doctor ordered.

Eric still hasn't started his job. Don't get me started on the shutdown. Just pray for it to end so we can eventually start getting paid again.

So that's what's going on here. I'll be heading downstate Wednesday and hopefully things will settle down a little. Ideally, I'd like to settle into a rhythm of writing in the morning and packing in the afternoon. We'll see what happens.

Even God Must Get the Blues

While the week has gone well for me, there's been plenty of heartache among my old friends.  A junior high friend I went to church with lost her husband last Sunday night in a single car accident.  A high school friend's oldest son fell while doing home maintenance, hit his head and broke his neck.  Three days later, he died, leaving a young daughter without a daddy.  Then Val's daughter-in-law's younger brother had been missing for three weeks, but, thankfully, once the word got out, the brother turned up safe.

The Good Stuff:

• Mr. L devised a way for me to be available for mule duty (which I actually enjoy) at Hershey -- running his purchases to the truck -- while allowing me to get a small amount of work done.  I sat in a central location and worked while he shopped. The first day, I may four runs back to the truck and logged 13,500 steps.  The second day, I didn't need to make any runs to the truck, but I was available if needed and was still able to get a little work done even with the rain.
• Mr. L found an Ideal 85 slider Pepsi machine for the shop.  It looks similar to this (ours is in the light Pepsi blue).  It's loaded in the back of the truck now.
• Had dinner with friends in Gettysburg Friday night.  
• Ran into two couples we know from San Antonio on the grounds of Hershey on two different days.  Pretty amazing.
• Chocolate from the swap meet grounds is always fresher than from the grocery store.

The Not So Good Stuff:

• My MacBook Air is running out of hard drive space.  I had to offload some of my more static Dropbox folders to an external hard drive and the tell them not to synchronize with the Air.
• I ran out of free space on Dropbox this week and had to purchase space.  I briefly debated not doing that, but finally decided I value the Dropbox service and I may as well support them financially.

The Week Ahead:

• Get home
• Execute plan for NaNo, PLF, and writing when I get back to the house (I have a few add-ons to prepare to purchase for the website(s), and I have some writing to get to work on.  
• I'm feeling very unsettled lately.  Not entirely sure why, but it's probably partly related to this trip, which has been going fine, but still...

Tardy to the party

It's been a week. No news on the book front, other than SLIPPAGE is stalled. No surprise there, especially since I'm still in the opening parts. I always struggle with beginnings.

There are four people running for three seats on the City Council. I honestly don't know if I'll make the cut or not. I'll likely be happy and disappointed either way. Weird, huh?

Spent a lot of this week doing fun things with the granddaughter. We went to the AppleFest event at the community orchard, she had fun, I got a little sunburn. We went to a city fair in Laurens. She had a blast, gramma's feet got sore. And yesterday was the autumn Lions Club breakfast. Got there about 6:15, cleaned up the fire station for about 45 min, then I cooked scrambled eggs until about 12:30, and, after more cleaning, managed to get home around 1:15. Was a loooooong day of mostly standing in one spot. Very sore feet. Still. And I hadn't completely recuperated from the 5k last weekend.

We all have colds of varying degrees. Yay. All I want to do is sleep but I have to chase a toddler. Plus my weight is up, about 9.5 lbs, as of this morning. While I haven't been perfect this past week, I have not been 9 lbs of bad in 2 weeks. I went up almost 4 lbs since yesterday morning and while I did have a few pancakes and sausages (followed by a 7pt salad as the remainder of my food for the day) I did NOT have more than 12000 calories worth of cakes and sausage. There's no freaking way. Bill thinks I'm building a lot of muscle since I've upped my exercise. I just don't know, but I do not like it!!

Bill and I are taking another mini vacation this coming weekend to an art fair, so I'll be off the internet for a few days.  {{{hugs}}

On The Road, Again

Yes, the annual pilgrimage to Hershey, PA, to seek antique car parts that probably aren't there is underway.  I found a set of steps for Natasha.  She's twelve, and I don't think she has the spring in her step of a young cat anymore, and I want to help her get up on the bed more easily.  The carpeted wide steps in pet stores sell for around $80 or more, and I didn't want to spend that much. These are very narrow steps -- about 4" deep, more curio display width, I think, but they are about a foot wide.  The stair rails are made of rebar!  The steps are solid wood.  They are propped up with a poorly measured one by four, but Mr. L can fix that.  He pointed the out to me in jest, but I think they may do the job with very minor modification. So, we're lugging cat steps home. 

We may be stopping in a rival shop in that town on the way back -- they have a full set of 1910 Encyclopedia Britannica with index.  Library binding.  Apparently, this is a very valuable series, because it's the last edition where the articles were written by experts in the field without editorial input.  It was published simultaneously in all 29 volumes when previous editions were spread out over a number of years and got outdated before the edition was finished.  I'm thinking I need original paper before politicians started messing with things (realizing that always happens to some extent).  I feel as if I can't believe anything these days, so I'm looking for a factual foundation.  This encyclopedia set would contribute to my paper collection that does this.  It's be great for historical reference, too.

The Good Stuff:

• Mr L has laid out a pretty good route for the trip, and the plan this year is to retrace steps the same way we came.  
• I was sick from something earlier this week, and while that wasn't a good thing, I didn't eat much.
• I'm making small progress toward putting together my Newsletter list.  I'm going to have to delay publication to November, because I can't do a couple of things I need to do while on the road.

The Not So Good Stuff:

• I've been sick since the first morning of the trip.  I can't tell if I got something at breakfast that didn't agree with me or if I'm suffering the beginnings of a gall bladder attack or something similar.  I'm feeling much better today.

The Week Ahead:

• Do as much work as I can on watching PLF videos and homework, draft my Fiction Club documents and begin drafting the inaugural newsletter (I've decided it needs to be every other month instead of monthly -- I can do supplements if necessary).  
• I started working on a template on Aweber today, and was a little baffled by it.  I think I need to do my own template.
• Stephen thinks I should publish under my own name and not my Nat Rogers pen name.  I'm not opposed to that, but I've been doing non-fiction under my own name.  Thoughts?
• Survive the grounds at Hershey.  I've been feeling better, but walking around still brings on queasiness and a clammy feeling to my skin -- not as bad today as yesterday, though.

Y'all have a great week.

Interesting times ... so they say

It's been an interesting week. And I mean "interesting" in the sense of the ancient Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times." Let's see ... where to start ...

Well, of course, the heart health journey continues. Got to visit the ER again. Whee. But once again, they adjusted my meds, and my heart rate has been more stable since they did so. My cardiologist told me that sometimes it takes "a year or two" to get it right. If I had felt better, I would have leaped from the bed and attempted to feed her a bedpan. But I didn't, so she escaped safely. I'm told to have patience. Patience is not one of my many virtues. But I'm sure I'm growing as a person. I hate that.

 Also, the bills continue to come in. I have worked out a payment plan with two of the creditors; the hospital is still giving me trouble. But I only have so much money. I am going to pay them, but not as fast as they want. They have threatened me with liens, credit problems, etc. I cannot do any more than I can do. A friend who is an attorney told me that the hospital can huff and puff, but they can't make me sell my home or cash out my tiny cash-value life insurance policy or make me tap my even tinier IRA. All they can do is hassle me. So be it. I will continue to pay them what I can. The sooner they accept that, the better for both of us.

I have tried to do more chores around the house. I'm not keeping up, but at least I've been able to keep things picked up and the dishes done, for the most part. I remain tired all the time, but it seems to be getting better. I'm hopeful.

I signed up for Jean's newsletter and am looking forward to it. I've thought about starting a newsletter for my humor, but don't feel up to it, and besides, I'm just jealous that Jean is doing it. I'm sure it's more work than fun. And I am a fun-loving guy. I guess. Maybe someday.

 Speaking of Jean, and I was, she let me read her short story "Beginnings." It was charming and sweet. She does a great job in showing the children's personalities and characters. Woman has talent. She should write more. Someone nag her. I can't right now, but someone should.

Only one of my clients hasn't cancelled her contract with me. All the others wanted their books out faster than I'm able. Ouch. I'm hoping I will get better in time to get a couple of them back. The book for the client who has stayed with me should be published in November, I hope. It's a book of powerful and moving poetry. Can't wait for it to come out.

Tales from Bethlehem finally is on Amazon! That was good news. I also set up a PayPal link on my blog where people can buy a signed copy directly from me. So far, no one has. Not true. A friend did so I could make sure it works.

And several people whom I asked to review Tales from Bethlehem and Murder by the Acre (Second Edition) on Amazon did so. That was awesome!

And I also -- finally -- put out a family newsletter again. I was very proud of myself. I hope to do another one this week.

Speaking of this week, I hope:
- That I put out another family newsletter.
- That I don't visit the ER.
- That I am able to vacuum my house and keep up with the chores.
- That I work on the poetry book. I'm waiting for her to email me three more poems, book notes, and her bio.
- That I'm able to get 1,000 words on the Murder by the Mile rewrite. But I would be happy with 500 words. Any words.
- That I'm able to write another poem for Undying. I had hoped to put out this book of fantasy and science fiction poems this month. Maybe next year.
- That I can attend the writers group meeting Saturday.

So that's last week and now this week. Hope your week is awesome. I'm cheering for you!

Heading Out

We are leaving from church to head North. It's been a week:

-We met Vicky and Justin for lunch yesterday. My baby was wearing clothes from my closet, and they fit her. We joked about how my mom loads me up with stuff every time I see her, and now I'm doing it to Vicky, but she's excited because it's good stuff. :-) I told her to say no to the stuff she can't use.
- We met with them because a realtor friend from church came by to talk about what we need to do to list the house. Not surprisingly, her advice included decluttering, cleaning until it shines, and amping up the curb appeal. She also strongly suggested was paint half the house. Turns out, when buyers come through, they're less likely to buy a house with green or blue walls. Guess which two colors are most prevalent in my house? Not only that, but because of the comps in the neighborhood, we would be lucky to get what we need to pay off the house, let alone finish paying for the upgrades. So Eric suggested we rent to Vicky and Justin for what they're paying in St. Louis, and we could cover the rest of the mortgage. They'd effectively be paying half, so we'd be losing money, but we'd still have the tax write-off,  we'd be paying down what we owe, and Alex would have a place to stay when he comes on breaks to see Emma. We did stipulate no smoking in the house, no illegal substances (they had a pot-smoking roommate for a while), and one bedroom must be a guest room so we have a place to sleep when we come for St Louis festivals. (There are two we're going to help Jeff with.) They are interested but need to talk to their current landlord.
- Did I mention last week that my dad's friend's nephew referred us to a realtor in Chicago? We set up a house hunting trip for this week and she sent us a bunch of listings to look at. Friday, when our realtor was here, she called and said she noticed the listings we really liked were in the 'burbs, and she doesn't do 'burbs. She's been selling real estate in the City for ten years, but she doesn't know anything about the 'burbs. She offered to try to set us up with someone who could show us around out there, but we might want to take some time and drive around the 'burbs we're interested in. All of this on Friday!!! She couldn't have her freak-out on Wednesday, when we had more time to deal with it? And how do you sell real estate in four states and be unwilling to GPS an address in Arlington Heights? 
- We got on realtor.com and found a bunch of listings we're interested in. I went old school, printed them and put them in a binder so I don't have to mess with trying to look them up on my phone when I'm out scouting for a place to live. 
- We started working toward packing, but until we know how much space we're going to have, it's hard to know where to start.
- My coat closet looks lovely. So does the foyer.
- I did manage to get some good words in earlier in the week. Monday was a really good day. I'm hoping I can work past the stress and use the strange environment to my advantage this week instead of being distracted by it.
- One of the neighborhoods we're strongly considering has a Y with a pool and evening yoga classes! Yeah yoga!
- The weather in Chicago looks good, if a bit cool, this week. Guess I'd better get used to that.
- Depending on Eric's work schedule, I may be spending Friday checking out museums. If he has to work, and we're not sure if he will due to the continuing shut-down, I'll have to find something to amuse myself so we can check out of the hotel and go home when he gets off. I can think of worse things.
- Yes, the shut down may affect us. We don't know. The contracting people haven't been able to get a straight answer from the FBI office about whether or not Eric will be essential personnel. If he is, that would be good for now (he'll start getting a paycheck) but not so good in a snow storm. This is another area we're being forced to wait and see. He's supposed to start tomorrow, but he doesn't know where, other than the front door, or what time. He's not even sure of the dress code. Personally, I really wish he'd find something that wasn't government contracting, but apparently that's where the money is right now. At least the shut-down hasn't affected military retirement pay, so we do have some income. We won't starve, and our savings will cover the short-falls.

So that's how things are in Casa Dunno. Stay tuned. I'll report the blog-worthy details through the week, if there are any.