tambometrics

It's that time of the week again. ;)

Writing
All in all, about 2000 words of fiction this week, most posted here. Was nice to write again.

No new declinations for M. Still sitting at 5, and Kensington has had it a while (not sure who else) so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. It's very encouraging yet frustrating that all of the editors have enjoyed the book and/or my writing, but couldn't buy it. It'll find a home, somewhere. 

Life

Posty Office officially released the compiled data from the public meeting and all that mess, so in about 30 days we should have a definitive answer of if they'll close (already almost certain) and when the final date will be (probably 60 days after the definitive answer. As I know more, I'll post more, but we're likely relocating in September sometime. Still no real idea where, but Bill has volunteered to go to Rochester, MN, if they have an open job he's qualified for.

We're really hoping for Rochester.

Laura's still vomiting, but not as much, and all in all is doing really well. She looks awesome - got that 'glow' thing going on, I think, and she's taking a couple of classes at the community college starting July 5. VERY good news there.

My mood's been rather blue. Spent a lot of Friday crying. I really don't want to move and I'm still super overwhelmed.

House
Other than re-detail cleaning the kitchen and a few little things (like touch-up painting some scuffed-off spots on the moulding) the house is DONE. We've been on the market a bit over a week now, but have had no showings. Rather aggravating, but our Realtor's office is coming through for a tour on Tuesday. Hopefully that'll help. As much as I don't want to move, I DO want the house sold and all this done so I can quit fretting over it, if that makes any sense. 

Health
Down a bit more, but not much. Holding steady at 7.4 lbs down from where I was in mid March, when all this started. I really, REALLY need to exercise, but I am having a hard time feeling motivated. For once in my life I'm not stress-eating, it's more food avoidance, which is weird for me, but I guess it's okay, all in all. Bill and I talked about me going on Weight Watchers like you guys, but I just can't fathom adding One. More. Thing. to my already cramped and stressy brain. But I dunno. 

Got my one-year-post-lasik exam yesterday and everything looks great. I have 'weak' 20/20 in my right eye and am .5 diopter toward near-sighted in my left eye, too small of deviations to need glasses or more corrective surgery. All in all, I see pretty well, but things aren't quite as 'crisp' as I'd love (a bit 'smeary', especially if the light's low or if I'm tired), but I'm totally functional in my regular life and only need my reading glasses for reading small print, like on my vitamin bottles.  All in all, it's pretty good. 

Tuesday, I'm seeing a dermatologist about my stooopid Rosacea. Not holding out much hope for good news there, it's almost certainly an exercise in futility, but the redness, stinging skin, and bumpiness are really bugging me, so I'm going in. She's a new doc for me, and maybe, just maybe, she'll have an idea that might help.

Been trying to take my vitamins regularly, but I hate taking pills, so it's a struggle. 

Woke up this morning with a head cold and sore throat. Sigh.

Everything Else

Went to Des Moines today to visit with some extended family who were visiting from Oklahoma. Was great to see them and other local relatives I haven't seen in a while. 

Mostly things are going all right, just waiting for the big change that's coming. 

Week 24

We're 24 weeks into 2011. Here's what's been going on:

Polar Bear on the Loose (Revision, using How To Revise Your Novel):   I've been hard at work on Lesson 12 of HTRYN.  I posted separately and don't have anything to update, but this is an important lesson that will take me several weeks to finish, I believe.
 

750words.com: I've written at least my 750 words seven of seven days.  My streak is up to nine.  After Holly's experience with Facebook, being hacked, and FB shutting her account down as if she posted that junk, I realized I needed to get my 750words login off the Facebook login.  I inquired what it would take, and they've moved me to my Yahoo login.  (I wanted to know now, because I expected I might have to just delete that account and start over, and I wanted to do it before I got my streak built back up again.)  I'm just waiting for my patronage to get transferred, then I'll be deleting the Facebook 750words account.

Lesson to keep in mind -- don't have multiple logins dependent upon one source.  If that source disappears or you get locked out of it, you lose all the other stuff.  It hadn't caused any problems for me yet, but I didn't want it to.  Unfortunately, all the login methods for 750words seem to be dependent upon another source, but Yahoo has been reliable for me for 14 years now.

Internet Responsibilities:
- I've done the bare minimum.

Pets:
- The dogs had a great time at the resort.  When I picked them up on Monday morning, they were both out in the big fenced yard playing with three other labs who were being boarded, too.  Well, Dazzle was just trucking along the fence, but she was out and moving.  Millie was running and so were the labs -- they all seemed to be having a great time.

- The cats ran mildly amok.  The curtains on one of the kitchen doors were pulled down (it's a metal door, and they are on magnetic holders, so they're easy to put back up).

- I've found Dazzle lying down with her head up more this week than in recent weeks.  She's been a little more restless.  I put her outside this morning while I cleaned her room (I pick up the rubber mats, take them outside, hose them down and let them dry in the sun and mop her floor with a bleach and water mixture).  By the time the outside temperature reached 90, her room was ready, so I brought everything back in and set it up for her.  She was up and walking around, so I walked her around the yard a few times and brought her into the cool.  We're at 103 now, so she's been in comfort from mid-morning on.  

- Yesterday morning, I heard a horn honking in the driveway, and it was the mailman.  I opened the door, and he yelled, "Millie's off her chain!"  He pointed me in the direction she'd gone.  I thanked him and went for the truck (she will only come to the truck).  I drove around the block and picked her up across the street from the house.  She got to ride 100 feet in the truck, but she was happy with that.

Property:
- I dug sticker burs and mowed the lawn this week.

- I watered the yard

- I bought curtains for the bedrooms last week and hung them this week.  I didn't tell hubby, so he may be happy when he gets back on Tuesday.  I wanted to make sure I liked them before having to hear him grouse.  I'm calling them long-term temporary, because I'm sure he has something in mind that he'd prefer to what I found at Walmart, but we're no where near ready to deal with that.  (Anytime I suggest something for the house that doesn't fit the picture he has in his mind, it gets poo-pooed.  Lucky for him I'm not super particular.  Or maybe it's lucky for me.  Grin.)

- We made a run to the ranch last Monday and put down some more road fill.  Naturally, I brushed something that doesn't agree with me, and I'm itchy all over again.

Health:
- Pretty light workout week, but I've gotten some stuff done.

- I gained 1.4 pounds this week.  Not too surprising, since I've had a couple of good loss weeks.  I figure it's a normal part of the pattern. 

- I added 19.74 miles to Walk Across Texas.

And Then There Were 27

I'm on Lesson 12 of How To Revise Your Novel.  When I first went through my Polar Bear on the Loose manuscript, I came up with 52 characters. That was in Lesson 6.  Fast forward to Lesson 12 where I've gone through and redid my story based upon what I've learned I think it should be.  I'm relooking at those characters.

So many just made a brief appearance on the page -- or never appeared at all and were just mentioned.  Guess what?  Some of you already know the answer.  They aren't characters.  They're blinkies with human shape.  How cool is that?

As I'm redoing my character list for Lesson 12, I identified 15 blinkies, dropping my number of characters to 37.  As I continued through the list from Lesson 6, I'd already made notes about some characters uselessness.  They were simply too weak to live.  I rubbed out five more, dropping my total to 32. (This is fun!)

Finally, there were characters that could be "smooshed" together or merged.  They were fragmented and with enough therapy, I think we can eliminate five more characters by integrating them into characters with enough personality to remain in the story.  Which brings me to 27.

As I work through this lesson, I may still find a couple more blinkies and a couple more mergers. We'll see as I work through this a little more. These are tough economic times, right? Can't afford to have too many characters on the payroll -- especially if they aren't contributing.

Lesson 12 is huge.  I'll be working on it for several weeks, but it's an important step in the process.  It involves going through the characters, documenting each scene's purpose, and, I believe, marking up the manuscript some -- maybe even finally being able to "X" out whole sections that are nothing but dead weight to the story.  There's a lot of important steps here, and I'm trying to get them done right.

1035

Thanks for bearing with me. These are tonight's words, but it's after 3 am now and I'd better go to bed.

331

More of the scene - still more to come; it's maybe 1/3 done. Ish. I wrote 295 words on something else last night, too, so that's a total of 626 words for the day. Creeping up on that 750.

Is it okay that I post this stuff here? If not, I'm happy to stop.

Yesterday's words are below the cut (and you get to see some of what's in the box)

300

I wrote 300 words of fiction last night - not quite the 750, but 300 more than I'd done in a long, long time.  They're pretty stiff and out of practice, but I've put them below the cut, if anyone wants to see.

4 Metrics

I really don't have a lot to report. Still not writing - but I'll get on 750 words with Jean tomorrow. I WILL, dangit! - but the house is pretty much ready to go. Bill's still painting in the basement, and I need to detail the kitchen again, but otherwise the house looks sweet, especially the bathroom.

Been struggling with depression and stress. Weight is holding within one pound of steady - down about 7 lbs since all this erupted in March.

Laura and I took a walk tonight, the first in quite a while. It wasn't as long as y'all are doing - just down the street, around the corner, along the roads outside of the park, and back again, maybe half a mile or so, all together - but it was good to do.

I'm still not sleeping well, between stress and uncertainty and my problematic sinuses, but hoping as we finish up work on the house it'll settle down again.

Otherwise, we're all fine here. :)

3

It's been a busy day. I had church, and went from there right to work. Now I'm done, and I have no place I need to be until Tuesday at 6 a.m., which is good, because my van is in the shop. Eric took it for an oil change yesterday and they discovered it needs to brake pads, rotors, and bearings. I know, those aren't related to oil, but I have noticed it's been driving different lately, and that's one thing we haven't done on it yet.

Writing: I downloaded The Snowflake Method software the other day and started plotting Honor in more detail. I did get some other writing done, too, before that but not really that much. A few thousand words. I have high hopes for this software. If it helps me get the hard stuff out of the way so I can enjoy the rest of the process, I'll be a happy camper. If nothing else it should help with the synopsis.

Clutter: Hmm. Nope. I was doing good to vacuum and keep the dishes under control this week.

Health: Down another 2/10ths of a pound. I've slowed to snails pace. I have gotten a fair amount of walking in at work the last few days, enough to earn some activity points with steps. I'm thinking it's time to quit being stubborn and start swimming. I used to swim laps when I had to take my kids to the pool, but they don't need me with them now. It just seems like so much trouble to swim laps, but I guess if I do it a couple days a week it won't be too bad.

Misc: Gearing up for the next two waves of company. My family comes back in 10 days for Eric's graduation, and a few days after they leave, the Boys will be here for the reunion. I was looking at my calendar last night, and it's packed until July 9th, when the Boys leave. Then it drops off to, "work, yoga, band practice". Thank goodness. I've had the hazy crazy days of summer. I'm ready for a little lazy.

A happy second

I actually intended to post early this morn and beat Jean to the punch. But once again, she wins a race with me that she didn’t even know she was running! Jean’s a winner in all things, but I’m trying for a happy second now. Also, I have to post, or I'll have a mother hen from hell after me. (I've been warned this will happen.) So here's my latest update.

Writing: not much to tell here. I have mostly been working on getting reviews on Amazon.com for Floozy and Other Stories. Reviews help your books sell, or so they say. I never actually met anyone who bought my books based on the reviews, but I rarely meet the people who purchase the books through online retailers. I have seven great reviews, and I would like to have 10. I have also been attempting to fix the problems in Murder by the Mile. I have several chapters in Murder by the Mile that have turned out nicely. Unfortunately, they're surrounded by chapters that aren't so good. I truly think this is what happens when I attempt to write a book without an outline. I don't intend to make that mistake again.

Health: I've been walking as often as I can fit it in, and I've been attempting to walk 2 miles when I do walk. Sometimes I can only fit in one mile, but I’ve noticed one mile doesn't give me the workout that I need. In a couple weeks I have to see the doctor again about getting my diabetes medication prescription refilled.

Job search: No joy here yet, but I did take another course at the local technology center. It was Intermediate Excel. I didn't do as good this time. We rapidly got over my head. I had to ask for help several times. I think the instructor was somewhat frustrated at me, but when I stopped asking, other people started asking questions. Although I had taken the beginning Excel class, the material and instructor assumed more familiarity with the material than I had. Still, I got my certificate for taking the class and can add it to my ever growing resume. My resume, by the way, may be my finest writing. I see a time in the future when it will hang in a museum, and people will come from around the world to marvel at its simple, clean beauty.

Outside: Been working on my pool a lot. It’s a stinkin’ green mess, but it’s slowly getting better. I’m hoping to have it clean and sparkling by next weekend.

Writing again: Tomorrow I start writing in earnest again. I’m decided to not let depression and health issue totally derail my dreams. I have no plans other than being at my computer early tomorrow and working on either Murder by the Mile or Debt Free At Last! A Beginner’s Guide to Money Management. Or maybe something else as the spirit moves me, but so help me Josephine, I will be writing!

And that’s what’s going on in my life.

Week 23

We're 23 weeks into 2011. Here's what's been going on:

Polar Bear on the Loose (Revision, using How To Revise Your Novel):   Since hubby's been back home, I haven't gotten much work done on Polar Bear on the Loose.  We're on the road this weekend, so I've been focused on other things.
 

750words.com: I've written at least my 750 words six of seven days.  As some of you noticed, I missed writing on Thursday.  That broke my streak at, I believe, 359 days.

Internet Responsibilities:
- I've done the bare minimum.

Pets:
- The dogs are at the resort this weekend, and the cats are probably running amok at the house.

Property:
- I think I did something this week.  Can't really remember.

Health:
- Pretty light workout week, but I've gotten some stuff done.

- I am at 35 pounds lost on the WW program.  

- I'll add 18.77 miles to Walk Across Texas when I get back to the main machine.

Not very metric

Just a quickie post to check in. Most everything here is keeping on keeping on, but other than finishing touches in the bathroom and a bit of touch-up-painting, the house is ready to go. We'll probably list Wed or Thurs, after the bathroom's scrubbed and polished.

A couple of gals from my writing group came over for lunch and gabbing yesterday, and it was really fun. It was even nice enough outside that we sat out on the patio. Laura joined us. Much girl bonding was had by all!

Received another declination for M but it's already off to two other publishers. Yippee! I'm feeling kinda good about these two.

Planning on working on Dubric #4 today. Somehow. It's not that I have so much other stuff to do that I'm too busy and distracted, it's more an issue of me getting the focus and desire. But I need to get back to work on something, and I don't have any good ideas that are similar to M. So, I guess it's Dubric.

I hope you all have a great week!  {{huggs}}

Happy Sunday

This week we had at least a semblance of routine, and I wasn't quite sure how to react to it!

Writing: I did! A little, anyway. I got the first 1200 words of Honor, and all three of my main characters have been introduced. So far I'm even sticking to the outline, but I expect someone will go off on a tangent. After all, I didn't know until Thursday that the two guys were old school friends before they joined the Army, even though one is now the other's commander. I love that about writing.

Clutter: Erm, no. Have to get back to work on that. Company coming again in a few weeks.

Health: Down another half pound. At that rate I should hit my goal the middle of July, and then I'm going on maintenance until September 1, at which point I will decide if I want to go down 5-10 more pounds. My current goal is near the top end of where I want to be, so I probably will, but I'm not thinking about that right now. This last 5 pounds is enough to deal with.

Misc: Jeli goes to the vet on Thursday. Finally. Eric is out of town on business for a few days starting tomorrow. I'm working all next weekend. I think that about covers it.

Week 22

We're 22 weeks into 2011 and closing in on Memorial Day.  My favorite number. Here's what's been going on:

Polar Bear on the Loose (Revision, using How To Revise Your Novel):   I blew through Lessons 10 and 11 and am working on Lesson 12.  Lessons 10 and 11 was all about taking the things I've learned over the last nine weeks (year and a half, in my case) and mapping out the way ahead for the book.  In The Monastery, I came up with 78 scenes.  I put them in order and evaluated how much rewrite is required for each one (adding a few cards for the details I forgot that were still important).  There's a four card color scheme with red requiring almost a complete rewrite, orange half to three-quarters rewrite, yellow less than half rewrite required, and green for just minor rewriting.  I have 2 yellow and 2 green cards.  The rest are orange or red -- mostly red.

Then I got into Lesson 11, which involves calculating the right scene size and number of scenes for the length of book you want.  Since I had four scenes that basically worked, I took their average scene length and divided that by the length of book I wanted.  I had too many scenes, but that was actually a good thing.  I was concerned that too many of the cards were repetitious, so I was able to combine many scenes into one.  I was still short a few scenes on subplot, so I decided to add five scenes for Zero (Inuit's love interest and the father of her cubs).  I think it will develop him more as a viable character and should flesh out the story.  Pretty exciting stuff after all the trudging I've been doing.

 

Lesson 12 is where we evaluate our characters, and I anticipate this lesson will take me some time to complete, but I'm looking forward to it.
 

750words.com: I've written at least my 750 words each day and have a  current streak of 355 days.

Internet Responsibilities:
- I blogged this week

- Took care of a few FM beginning of month responsibilities.

Pets:
- They're all doing fine.
- I blogged about the cats and their complete and total domination.  Hubby, when I told him about Lady and Tarzan trying to get into the hamburger this morning said they were going to try to make his beef stroganoff.  (They love Daddy's cooking.)  Just a few minutes ago, I heard something in the kitchen, then I heard the plop of feet hitting the floor and decided I better check on things.  Sure enough, there's Lady on the counter amidst a sea of lentils.  I plan to make beef and lentil stew for supper tonight and had the half package of lentils on the counter.  I have to commend Lady and her housekeeping instincts, but sheesh.  (And yes, it's Tarzan's telltale foot plop that tends to alert me they're up to something, so he's just as guilty.)  I'll wash the lentils, and they should be fine to use.  I just chased her off my kitchen towel.  Nothing like being run over roughshod by a couple of 8 month old kittens.

- Dazzle is almost out walking me when she's trying to get by me to escape to the street.  I take this as a good thing.  Why is she so single minded about getting to the street?  I'm not sure, but she's had a long history of escaping the yard in the spring.  I guess her spring fever still burns strong. 

- My life has been ruled by dogs and cats for the last couple of weeks, but that is about to change next week.  Hubby comes back to town, and he'll take over -- or they'll all gang up on me.

Property:
- I got the yard mowed at the house

- I got the yard mowed at the store

- I shredded the sticks in the back yard

- I shredded nearly a full tub of linoleum over at the shop for road base material

- I got laundry done and general clean up around the house

- I got all the gas cans refilled (gas in town was down to $3.59)

Health:
- I've gotten plenty of workouts in this week -- mostly walking the dog, digging sticker burs in the yard, and mowing at two places.
- I am at 32.2 pounds lost on the WW program.  I officially have less than 100 pounds to lose.  That's pretty exciting.

- I'm mostly wearing XL T-shirts now.  I had to get a new belt, and I've felt comfortable enough a couple of days this week to tuck in my shirts.
- I added 23.51 miles to Walk Across Texas.

Tea, cookies, and conversation

Howdy! Here I am again. Thought I'd stick my head in the door and see what y'all have done with the place. Looks nice. Not sure about the wallpaper -- are those little doggies chasing ducks? -- but the furniture looks comfortable.

Tea would be fine. Unsweetened, of course. Gotta to keep the diabetes under control. Or at least make the attempt. Do you happen to have sugar-free cookies? Good. I'll take a couple.

What I've been doing? Just trying to sell Murder by Dewey Decimal, Murder by the Acre, and Floozy and Other Stories. Mostly Floozy since she's the latest to hit the shelves. Yeah, trying to make money. Listening to a lot of music. Keeping my house clean. Trying to walk as much as possible.

Walking has been easier than you might think because my car has been on the ailing list. The right rear light assembly stopped working. No brake light, no signal light. I've driven it a few times since this happened, and let me tell you, it takes forever to plan your day so you only make left turns. The replacement part should arrive today or tomorrow. Ordered it online, but it was still expensive. Need a car, though. If I don't get to those job interviews, the employers won't have a chance to tell me no. I wouldn't want to deprive them. Maybe hit them with a two-by-four, but not deprive.

Writing? Well, yeah. Not much on Murder by the Mile. Just bits of strange books and stories. No coherence. Babbling, really, but it's babbling at the keyboard, so I think it's progress.

I've always said a certain amount of angst was necessary for me to write, but I may be suffering from too much of a bad thing. I feel paralyzed a lot, unable to make any moves, and the ones I do make seem wrong. I think I'm thinking too much.

Well, there is such a thing, you know, as over-thinking even if Congress is unable to think at all. Over-thinking love, for instance, seems to be a sure way to lose it. And over-thinking life ... it can pass you by before you know it. The only lesson that everyone seems to learn is that life is too short for our dreams.

Hm, wandering off into angst again. Perhaps I can write a literary novel. They seem to run on angst and general all-around hopelessness. Or maybe I'm just restless. I remember a scene from a book (can't think of the title or the author) where the main character is immortal and he gets asked how he survives the long endless centuries with their pain, loss, and sorrows, and he says, "I keep wanting to see what happens next."

Well, I want to see what happens next. Don't you?

I thought so.

Delicious tea. Lipton? Really? Hm. Who would have thought?

Bad Plan Day

These last two days have been terrible for me WW Plan-wise.  The mental hunger got the best of me tonight.  I resisted pretty well yesterday -- it was the first day I really used my "What I didn't eat today" task in Things.  I took Millie for a walk in the early evening, and that took me past 8:00 pm, which, I have a Health Month Rule not to eat after, and I'm amazingly good about sticking to that one.

But today was another day, and it did not go well.  I used up all my daily points and finished off my weekly points as well.  I've earned 12 activity points so far this week but only have five left.  Wendy knows that translates to me burning through a lot of points already, since Saturday is the day my points reset.

This isn't necessarily a crisis -- If I am careful for the rest of the week, I can still come out staying on plan.  The Mouth Trap talks about having one day per week that's a Free Reign Day where you eat whatever you want.  I'm going to chalk this day up to that, and if I can recover and go back on plan for this week, I'll be fine.  If these mental cravings persist (I'm not physically hungry; it's a mental thing.), this isn't going to be a good week.

I do need to make a run to the grocery store tomorrow and do a fresh fruit and veggie restock -- I'm out of apples and peppers, but I do have carrots, celery, and onion.  OK.  Deep breath.  I forgot about the carrots and celery.  Whew. 

That's the good news.  I haven't BLOWN IT.  I took a detour.  I get more points tomorrow for the day.  I have some more exercise to do this week.  I can be ok.

Millie likes her walks; she wouldn't mind a bit if I took her every day this week, but she'd probably prefer to go in the morning when the streets are cooler.  I have to walk the yard for weeds.  I have to walk Dazzle around the yard (we look for sticker burs at the same time as she walks -- Dazzle helps).  I need to shred sticks sometime this week.  I need to mow the lawn (that's riding mower -- not much exercise there).

Yeah.  I think this will work.

tambometrics

Thought I'd better do my weekly check in.

Writing
Nothing's changed. Still no news, or new words of fiction. I simply don't have energy and opportunity coexisting in the same space/time continuum. 

Life

No new pregnancy drama, so that's good. My mood's been kinda meh, mostly because I'm mentally and physically exhausted. Spent some time hanging out with quilting gals (Deb and Tanya) and talking. It helped.

We're back to having no idea what's gonna happen with Bill's job. The postal center he wanted to relocate to doesn't have any openings and there are more and more and MORE places marked for closing. Workers are guaranteed jobs - somewhere - but even on the east coast they're having to just come in and sit for 8 hours because there are no openings anywhere to transfer to. It's all really scary.

House
Drywall work is done and we bought bathroom paint yesterday. Today, Bill's cutting granite tile and it's looking gorgeous. Both of the living rooms are spit-polished and cleared out. Working on finishing the kitchen and entryway scrub-down today.

Health
Down another pound or so. I'm pretty sure I have a sinus infection - my right eye, ear, jaw, teeth, cheek, and forehead all hurt. Been trying to be super diligent about taking my sinus meds and things. It seems to be helping. If I can't shake it on my own, I'll suck it up and go to the doctor. Dammit.

Everything Else

House is looking really good. Wish our moods were looking good as well. Mostly, though, everything's okay, just worried about the job and where we'll be in 3 to 6 months. :/

Checking In

Not much of interest to report this week. I sat in a courtroom every day. We had 5 days of testimony, and on Tuesday we should wrap it up. May has been a very chaotic month. Not bad, just not routine. I can't say I'm sad to see it go.

Writing: Other than reading research on my lunch breaks, nothing. I'm getting twitchy and I think I'm going to go ahead and start writing this weekend. I can fix details later. I have started my registration for ACFW in September. I just have to decide which agents I want to pitch to and pay for it. That's another good reason to do some writing this weekend.

Clutter: Nada. In fact, I have probably 4 loads of laundry to tackle. This jury duty stuff is like working full time, but it is easier now that my kids are grown.

Health: I packed my food every day, so snacking on the junk food provided in the jury room wasn't an issue. I only lost 2/10ths of a pound, but yesterday I splurged and shared a big piece of chocolate peanut butter cake with Eric, so any loss is a win at this point. I'm trying not to dwell on the fact that I only have 4 more pounds to my checkpoint; don't want to psych myself out. On the plus side, I was on my way home Friday and called Eric to see if he needed anything from Target. He said he was hungry, but he didn't know what for, so I picked up a variety of 100 calorie pack snacks which were a big hit. Past experience is my friend.

Misc: The kids still have not made Jeli a vet appointment to get fixed, so if they don't do it, I'm going to on Thursday. She's had a total of three rounds now, and it wouldn't bother me so much if she wasn't so darn miserable and marking territory on every piece of paper she can find. Poor thing. I have a feeling she's going to become a permanent fixture here, but we were pretty sure of that when they brought her here.

BTW, I know Stephen is around, but he hasn't posted an update in quite a while. Stephen? Are ya there? Are you mad at us? I know you're the only rooster in this hen house, but I'm pretty sure we haven't been henpecking.

Week 21

We're 21 weeks into 2011 and closing in on Memorial Day.  Here's what's been going on:

Polar Bear on the Loose (Revision, using How To Revise Your Novel):   I am still working on Lesson 10 -- the Monastery.  This is where, after looking through the manuscript several times looking for problems in the previous nine lessons, I sit down with blank paper and write a fresh line for each scene from just what I have in my head.  I've worked on it for six days this week.  Good thing we don't have to worry about scene order -- I've been adding a few I realized were needed earlier in the story today.

750words.com: I've written at least my 750 words each day and have a  current streak of 348 days.  For the month, I've logged 21,745 words this month. FYI, 316,592 words on the site since I began.

Internet Responsibilities:
- I blogged this week

Pets:
- They're all doing fine.
- Lady is driving me bonkers with her exuberance, but she's always been the kitten to push the envelope.  (They're both chasing after a fly, which has gotten between the sheers and the window, which means they're grabbing the sheers -- purposely purchased cheaply because we had the kittens, so it's not unexpected -- as they attempt to capture the fly.)

Property:
- Mostly just around the house stuff.  I've trudged through a few things on my to do list, so I'm not quite as bad as I feel like I've been.  It may be the Benadryl I've been taking to keep the itching down on whatever this contact dermatitis is from.  I'm not burning up the to do list, though.

Health:
- I've gotten five days of various workouts in this week -- mostly walking the dog and digging sticker burs in the yard.
- I am at 29.4 pounds lost on the WW program.  Lost my pound for the week.

- I realized I needed to reset the weight on my pedometer settings to twenty pounds less this week, which was kind of fun!

- I'm also thinking I need to unbox my XL T-shirts and put away some of the 2XLs (I think I'm at the in between stage right now, where it will depend upon how the T-shirt is sized within the size as to whether it will fit or not).
- I added 13.64 miles to Walk Across Texas -- a really low week (which probably reflects the sluggish way I've felt).

tambometrics

Life goes on. Mostly, things are okay. :)

Writing
Still waiting to hear from Atria Books, but no news is good news. I wrote one whole sentence on Stain of Corruption this past week, and found a couple of typos in M. Otherwise nothing at all writing related. 

I did, however, read a whole entire book, Still Life, by Louise Penny. Took me a long while to get past the frothiness of a Cozy - they're normally not my preferred mystery -  but overall I liked it. Was nice to read.

Life
Mood's kinda meh, but better than it was. Most of the house is packed up and put in storage, other than the bare essentials, and I really do like having less 'stuff' around. Now if I can only convince my family, and my own tendency toward gathering writing implements, kitchen doo-dads, and fabric. Since we're remodeling the bathroom, everything is coated with a fine plaster dust. Which is awful. And I try to dust it away, but it's right back. I'm not good with futility and have decided to ignore it until Bill's finished with the bathroom, aggravating dust or not.

Yard sale went great - we didn't make a lot of money, but we got rid of almost everything we'd put out. So that was pretty awesome. 

Our daughter's OB appointment went really great, other than the BF and his family. He got upset that he wasn't included in her pelvic exam experience, and, the following day, they demanded an immediate paternity test. We told them they'd have to wait until there's a baby. Bill and BF's mom had a rather terse email exchange, but all's quiet now, and any hope of reconciliation is over. Hope they leave us alone, at least until the baby's here.

House
Shower is in, tub's ready to go, just have to finish plastering the drywall. And painting. And GOBS of cleaning.  It's all looking really sweet!

Health
Down 6 lbs since chaos took over a month ago. One strange thing I've noticed is that I'm not chewing my fingernails (it's a lifelong nervous habit) and they've been growing so much they're getting in the way. Is that weird or what?

Everything Else

Pets are fine, we're fine, most everything's fine, just up in the air. And dusty. Lots and lots of dusty.

Look at this!

Floozy and Other Stories on Amazon.com

Yes, it's finally on Amazon.com. Lulu came through. I'm relieved and pleased. Now, go and buy one! Or review it! Or just look at the page and marvel at its beauty! :)

Back

I'm back and trying to get into the swing of things. Last weekend went really well. We had the expected pre-graduation drama and stress, but at the end of it all I managed not only to get through it without alcohol, I also did not gain weight. I was a little worried about the weight thing. Now it's a matter of dealing with a migraine today before I have to report for jury duty tomorrow.

Writing: I actually did get a little work done. I've been slogging through books the local library borrowed for me from outside the system, and I did a rough outline for Honor. I want to have the first draft done, and Hope edited before the ACFW conference in September, so I've got a fair amount of work to do. I'd really like to pitch Hope to an agent or two. Oh, and I need to start back to doing crits on the ACFW board. The rule is that you do three crits for each piece you submit, and I'd rather be ahead of the game when I start posting there. It would be great to be able to join a small crit group, but you start on the big one until you find the right people.

Clutter: No progress this week because of company here. Actually, if I stretch it a little, I can count the weeding Mom helped me with in the flower beds. We got a whole big leaf bag of weeds from three beds. I need to learn to enjoy yard work. It gets me out in the sunshine and it's good exercise. Any thoughts on how I can convince myself to like it?

Health: I'm down 15 pounds total and have 4 more to go until the first checkpoint. I have finally started finding clothes that are too big, and they go right to the donate box. I have at least 5 pounds to get into the skirt I want to wear to the ACFW banquet. (This is not obsessive long-range planning; it was too tight to wear last year so I tried it on to check progress. I think it will be a nice contrast to Eric's kilt.) Besides the weight, I've been having more migraines, but that's normal for this time of year. Keeping up with allergy meds is half the battle.

Misc: Um, yeah. I think that's about it. My focus is a little narrow at the moment--jury duty and research. Having trouble with the big picture today, but if I come up with anything else I'll come back and amend this.

Week 20

We're 20 weeks into 2011.  Here's what's been going on:

Polar Bear on the Loose (Revision, using How To Revise Your Novel):   I finished Lesson 8, whipped through Lesson 9, and am working on Lesson 10 -- the Monastery.  This is where, after looking through the manuscript several times looking for problems in the previous nine lessons, I sit down with blank paper and write a fresh line for each scene from just what I have in my head.  Worked on it for five days this week.

750words.com: I've written at least my 750 words each day and have a  current streak of 342 days.  For the month, I've logged 17,203 words this month. Buster added two more badges -- the Pegasus for 365 days in a row (my next goal, but it's nice to have a badge to go with it now) and The Space Bird (for 500 days in a row).

Internet Responsibilities:
- I blogged this week
- I've been slacking off in this area, but I'm not particularly concerned about it

Pets:
- Dazzle is doing better.  After being in the house for a week and a half, her sore appears to have healed. 
- Everyone else is doing well
- The kittens are still very curious about Dazzle, but they have no problem with jumping the gate and snagging her food if she isn't actively eating it

Property:
- Mostly just around the house stuff.  I've been feeling pretty lazy this week

Health:
- I've gotten six days of various workouts in this week.
- I am at 28 pounds lost (up 1.4 pounds from last week) on the WW program.  I fully expected this, and don't worry, this morning, I was down from last week's weight, so things are definitely still on track.
- I added 20.25 miles to Walk Across Texas.

Week 19

We're 19 weeks into 2011.  Here's what's been going on:

Polar Bear on the Loose (Revision, using How To Revise Your Novel):   Still working on Lesson 8, and I did so three days this week.

750words.com: I've written at least my 750 words each day and have a  current streak of 334 days.  For the month, I've logged 11,080 words this month.

Internet Responsibilities:
- I blogged this week!

Pets:
- Dazzle and Millie got their bordatella shots this week, but Dazzle also was seen for a sore on her left hip.  It turns out she has the doggie equivalent of a bed sore, so she has moved into the house (downstairs bathroom) to keep flies off her and to keep her clean and dry.  She's taking antibiotics.  She's so bony, it's hard to tell how she's doing, but she's eating well (usually the full canned food twice a day plus a bowl of dry dogfood we leave for her to snack on if she's still hungry).  We hope to get some of the 9 pounds back onto he that she's lost over the last year.  She gets walked around the yard several times a day now, too, so we hope that also helps keep/restore her strength.
- Millie loves going to the vet and riding in the truck.  She grinned and wagged her tail at everyone in Dr Valeri's waiting room while we were there.
- Natasha and Ajax are doing well.
- The kittens have been afraid of the dogs, so having Dazzle in the house has been a source of great curiosity for them.  We leave the dining room door open so we don't feel as if we've shut Dazzle off from the family, and the kittens spend a lot of time hanging around outside the gate into the bathroom fascinated with the dog.  When Dazzle goes outside, as she walks through the house, the kittens back off, but they aren't fuzzing up like they used to. (We failed to remember to acclimate them to dogs when they were very young.)  Then they go into the bathroom and sniff everything -- and eat the dry dogfood.  Odd cats.
- We're in Houston this weekend, so dogs are at the resort, and cats are fending for themselves until tomorrow night.

Property:
- I'm sure I've been doing something, but it seems mostly like household chores
- Hubby put color coat on most of the front wall of the house that he's been working on.
- Hubby made lots of dirt.

Health:
- I've gotten four days of various workouts in this week.
- I am at 29.4 pounds lost (almost six bags of flour) on the WW program.  I did meet my 10% goal and set another goal for another five percent (I need to lose a total of about 45% of my starting weight). Yes, I'm pretty thrilled about this so far.
- I have added up my miles for Walk Across Texas yet this week -- I'll do it after we get home.

Disappointed in Lulu.com

I've published three books with Lulu.com and have often recommended it to my poetry and writing classes and to the readers of my blogs. I withdraw the recommendation because Lulu.com has messed up the distribution of Floozy and Other Stories. After all this time -- 10 weeks and counting since its approval for their so-called GlobalReach Distribution -- it's still not available anywhere except on Lulu.com. You can't buy in on Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble or anywhere else.

And their customer service has been abysmal. Never any answers. Just canned responses and a plea for patience. I'm not even sure I've ever actually talked to a real person.

This is so disappointing. And so different from the previous books. I don't know if Lulu is going through growing pains or having personnel or money problems, but they have changed me from a satisfied customer to a non-customer.

This means Murder by the Mile will not be published by Lulu. I'm looking for other publishers now. If you have any recommendations, let me know.

tambometrics

Late again. Like 3 weeks. I would like to say I'll do better, but with all that's going on, I dunno if it's possible. Anyway, here goes.

Writing
Another declination for M - there have been three so far - and we're still waiting on Atria Books (they publish Jodi Picoult). Not sure if we'll make any changes after we hear from them, or just move on to the next batch of publishers. Did receive a nice royalty check for Ghosts this past week though, so that's good news there. 

Otherwise, I have not written a word in about 2 weeks. Not one word.

Life
Still super tired all the time and prone to looking for ways of 'disconnecting'. As a life long clinical depressive, I have to say upfront that I am surely depressed, but this is totally, completely, worlds different than my usual black hole of despair. And, ya know, I don't like this very much.

There has been much, much more drama with my daughter and her boyfriend (and his mother) and the pregnancy, and she's now back home with us. Which is better.  If it wasn't for the added stress of Bill's job and needing to sell the house - and, this week, prepping for a yard sale - I think I'd be in a much better place, mood wise.

House
Shower is ready to install, but since Laura moved home unexpectedly, Bill's been focusing on redoing her room, which we were going to do after the bathroom, but well, things don't always adhere to pre-established schedules. Especially these past few weeks. Her room's finished, other than painting the moulding and touch up on the walls, and we're hoping the middle of the floor looks as good as the edges when we rip up the carpeting tomorrow.  

Otherwise, the house is in general shambles, between all the drywall dust, Laura moving back and her stuff piled in the living room, and me trying to pack and prep for a yard sale. We've started taking some stuff to storage and the house will get better after the sale and home repairs are done.

Health
Down another pound or so. I think sometimes I forget to eat. Sometimes I eat to disconnect. I dunno. Laura and I have started (as of yesterday) walking every night. Have to keep that up because it's good for the baby (and for gramma).

Everything Else
Goz needs his shots this coming payday, so I have to get that done, and we've started dipping into savings to pay for all the stuff we need to get the house ready. I don't like that much, but it's better than going into debt. We spoke with a realtor last week and she's gonna come by next weekend - during the yard sale - for a quick tour and an initial plan, but we'll probably list sometime in late May or early June. Scary, not knowing what's going to happen with Bill's job, where we'll be forced to move to, or if he'll even have a job at all.  

I just wish something, anything, would be decided. All this uncertainty is awful.

Popping in

Here I am! A little later than usual, but I've been loafing today.

Writing: Not much. I've started character development on Honor, and I was very excited to find that the National Library of Scotland sells reproduction 18th Century maps. I ordered 2 in digital form, which I will likely print and tape to the book case next to my desk. Or maybe I'll clear the desk off and put them under the glass. That would be incentive to keep it cleared off. Anyway, that's all I did for writing.

Clutter: There is a little less. I got a lot of cleaning done last week, and yesterday Eric helped me knock out the two areas I'd designated for tactical nukes, thus saving our home and possibly our neighbors', too. He has a month break from classes, so I'm going to get him to help me downsize as much as possible. Wouldn't want him to get bored.

Health: I lost 1 1/2 lbs last week, so I'm back on track. The goal this week is to stockpile a bunch of activity points because Vicky has chosen to have dinner at Olive Garden next weekend after graduation. Hopefully, lots of activity points will minimize the damage.

Misc: Prepping for a busy weekend. I'm bringing Alex home for the summer on Thursday. My parents get in Friday, and Vicky graduates Saturday. Sunday there's church, and I'm singing Sunday night at another church with part of our praise band. Parents are planning to be here until Wednesday. That's what is pretty much dominating my life at the moment. I do have a stack of library books on my desk for research, and character development has been a welcome break. My house is finally starting to look like I want it to, though.

Not Gonna' Let It Bother Me

Having the WW site tell me two weeks in a row that I was losing weight too fast, and maybe I should make sure I'm eating all my points or maybe there's a problem and I should see my doctor has bothered me.  It's bothered me, because I know from long experience that weight loss is mental, and when my mental state is correct and flowing, weight loss comes easily and effortlessly.  I'm happy, thankful, and feel good about myself.

That one message has endangered that.  That ticks me off, but I think I can stop the slide (for lunch today I had 2 ounces of deluxe mixed nuts, a can of Pepsi Max, and eight (count 'em 8) WW Mini Bars (an assortment).  This classifies as a binge.  Almost like my mind is trying to convince my body that it shouldn't be losing weight.

Balderdash!  I'm on a nice glidepath.  I'm eating all my  daily points, all my weekly points, and even some of my activity points.  And the metabolism has been burning it up.  BUT.  I know from looking at my trends that after this last two weeks, I'll probably have about three weeks of stall -- what I call adjustment -- where my body adjusts to the new lower weight before it chews up some more.  I feel good.  I'm eating mostly well.  There is no reason to change anything now -- I think the rate of loss is acceptable.  If it hasn't slowed by by next March or it accelerates, I'll worry.  I see my Doctor next month for my semi-annual checkup.  If he's concerned, I'll re-evaluate, but this is something he suggested I do.

I'm going to put this noon's aberration behind me, consider today a Free Reign Day (from Mouth Trap), and resume my normally scheduled program.  Since I'm going to really blow points today (hubby will be making steaks, baked potatoes, spinach, shrimp cocktail, and wine for dinner tonight), I'm going to make sure I earn some extra activity points this week to compensate.

And I'm not going to let a machine derail my efforts.

Week 18

We're 18 weeks into 2011.  Here's what's been going on:

Polar Bear on the Loose (Revision, using How To Revise Your Novel):   Still working on Lesson 8, and I did so three days this week.

750words.com: I've written at least my 750 words each day and have a  current streak of 327 days.  For the month, I've logged 5586 words this month.

Internet Responsibilities:
- I blogged not at all this week!  Yikes.  I guess I just didn't have anything to say.

Pets:
- Dazzle and Millie were due for annual shots this month, so I took them in and had Dazzle evaluated.  She's weak (down to 31 pounds from last year when I believe she was 39), has a strong heart beat, and is alert and not senile.  Dr. Valeri asked if she was eating, and I said she was, but she seemed to be having a hard time.  That query line got hubby and I to thinking, and we concluded (separately) that we needed to begin a regimen of canned food.  Dazzle is very enthusiastic about this!  She eats most of it, and I let Millie finish off the scraps in the bowl (one can in the morning and one in the evening).  Then I put dry food in for the day in case she wants more, but I think she's having trouble with solids.  Since she's had a full series of shots in the last three years (everything was current as of last year), we're not going to subject her to vaccinations.  Except I have to take them both back in -- I forgot to get their kennel cough vaccination, and we're boarding them soon.
- Millie got all her shots and was very happy to be at the vets and ride in the truck.
- Natasha had some fluid coming from her left ear, so she got to ride along, but there was no infection.  Dr. Valeri stuffed some medicine in that was set to last for a week, and Tash's ear seems all better now.  When she plays with the kittens, she plays rough.  I figure a punch got thrown that snagged her outer ear at some point but we got it treated before it got infected.
- The kittens still follow us everywhere and are growing up nicely.

Property:
- I've been working water hoses in Central TX.
- Hubby is ready to put color coat on most of the front wall of the house that he's been working on.

Health:
- I've gotten four days of various workouts in this week.
- I am at 27.8 pounds lost (five bags of flour) on the WW program  and mostly two inches on all the measurements (only one inch on the arms).  The WW website said again that I was losing weight too fast.  This is still pretty exciting.  I lost almost 10 pounds in the last two weeks, so I can see why the site is expressing concern, but there were three weeks when I lost nothing.  Still, an average of 2.4 pounds a week is a little on the high side.  Heart and everything feels fine.  I mostly want to make sure I'm not losing muscle mass.  I'll do some calculations with my body fat measurements from my scale to see what that looks like.  I may need to make some adjustments in the exercise I do, check protein intake to ensure it's adequate, and I know there are some days I'm not getting as many fruits and vegetables as I think I should.  Mostly, I need to introduce some light weight lifting -- probably hand weights.
- I logged 19.03 miles for Walk Across Texas.

Lazy slob

I think it's important at this point to say that I'm a lazy slob. Although I seem to be busy all the time, when I go to list my activities, apparently I am a lazy slob. Particularly in writing and publishing. Which are supposedly my favorite activities. Instead I spend most of my time on chores, housework, yard work, errands, phone calls, worrying, watching TV, listening to music, reading other people's books, going to the library, watering my flowers outdoors, watering my plants indoors, laundry, testing my blood sugar, etc., etc., etc.

This is not to say that I don't have times when writing is the most important thing to me. Unfortunately, those times are in the minority. And often happen at two in the morning or when I am at some activity that's utterly bores me. But let me sit down at the keyboard and all inspiration vanishes just like a Republican’s heart or a Democrat’s morality. (I've decided to be an equal opportunity political party offender. If I haven't offended you yet, please understand that I will get to you as soon as I can.)

I've always been baffled that my lack the commitment to writing when it's been the only constant thing in my life (besides God and the church) since I was a child. I've often wondered if I'm more in love with the ideal of having written than writing itself. Or it could be that I'm a lazy slob. I'm leaning towards a lazy slob answer myself because it's probably more true than I would like, has lots of evidence to support it, and it's an easy answer, which appeals to the lazy slob side of me.

I'm so lazy I'm not even typing this right now. I'm using Dragon NaturallySpeaking, which is a voice dictation program. (I purchased Dragon NaturallySpeaking because I was worried about my ability to type if the arthritis in my hands worsens… And because I'm a lazy slob.) So when I talk about slaving over the keyboard, I'm really talking about talking over the keyboard.

It's a relief to finally tell you all that I'm a lazy slob. No more pretending about being productive or using my time wisely. I need to get me a bag of pork rinds and turn on some world championship wrestling, and I will finally be content.

Are you content? Are you a lazy slob? Let me know, but don't wake me up. I'm having a productive urge so I'm going to go back to bed until it passes.

(Not much of an) Update

Writing: I spent last week doing fill-in scenes on Hope and research for Honor; not much word count but I was working. I have a chapter in Hope to fix (the one gutted by the fur trapper expert) and then I can move to the editing phase.

Clutter: Virtually no change from last week, although I did get quite a bit of cleaning done in preparation for family coming for graduation (in less than 2 weeks). I have a detailed list in Things. This week I'll be working to knock out as much as I can in advance because I'm on call for Federal jury duty this month, and I don't report this week, but next week I might have to. If I still have a full list next week, I'll have to for sure!

Health: Pleh. I knew I blew my points while I was out of town. I didn't even try to resist dessert with lunch yesterday and I'm glad I didn't. I gained a pound. I'm doing my best not to be discouraged. The reason I started WW when I did was because I knew if I got to the point where the doctor was telling me to lose 100 lbs or my health would fail, I'd freeze up and not be able to do it. I figured 20 lbs (30 tops) was a lot easier to lose than 100. Now I'm not so sure. I am catching the clue that I need to ramp up my exercise some. I'm also wondering if I need to take a closer look at the kinds of foods I'm eating without getting so hung up on point value. For example, am I undermining myself by eating vegey burgers instead of lean beef? I was raised a carnivore, so maybe shifting to more vegetarian is throwing my metabolism for a loop. Maybe it's just adjusting slowly. I don't know. All I know for sure is I have 10 more pounds to go and I'm ready to see some actual progress.

Misc: Not much else productive; just gritching about stuff I have no control over, which really doesn't need to be vented on the internet. I'm getting better about saying something calmly and then shutting up rather than waiting to get to the boiling point and going on a big rant. I'm also getting better about not being passive aggressive.