Here We Are

Not surprisingly, time is still flying.  We're back for another week. And this is three weeks in a row where I feel uncharacteristically optimistic.  What is wrong with me! I can only attribute it to the new habit of jotting down three positives and why in my 750 words entry each day.  Nothing else has changed. 

I am mildly concerned about Mr. L.  He's long complained about not sleeping well, but he's been fighting this nasal congestion for seemingly months with no relief.  It seems like it's centered in his sinuses.  He refuses to believe he could have any allergies.  He's not sleeping well. He's always tired, and he doesn't have much energy -- approaching how he was feeling before he had his stent installed, but his cardiologist can't find anything wrong.  He's heading to SA this week for an eye appointment and an appointment with his cardiologist about another matter near the end of the month.  I'm encouraging him to get an appointment with his regular physician between those two appointments to see if they can ferret out what's bothering him now.  I think he plans to do this (he's good about going to his doctor when he needs to, and he trusts his doctor, so this should help).  He's napping now, and it's 11 am.

I think this will be the week I retire my larger size jeans with hopes of putting them in the next yard sale.  The larger size feels too "flappy." The next smaller size feels about right.  I hope I don't have to stay at this size for too long, because these jeans are more worn.  I may have to move back down to XL T-shirts, too, because these are feeling a little "roomy."  I like these changes.  I don't have dramatic changes this week.  My body seems to be adjusting to where it's at now.  I'm still at 20 pounds lost since January and three inches off my waist since I started measuring in mid-January, because this week has been what seems like a maintenance week.  I'm on track for my goals.

I upgraded to Timesheeter Pro (the free version was limited to 10 entries, and, while I wasn't there yet, I know I like the app).  It works very easily, and I'm finding it helpful in feeling more professional about my approach to writing.  I've been working on Kitty City this week.

I plan to spread PBOTL out on the table while Mr. L is in SA to focus on revision work for the week and a half he'll be gone.  When he comes back, he should be bringing me a table I can use to keep my work spread out on behind where I work on the computer.  (He's picked out a table from the shop to take to SA for keeping his printer on down there.)  I anticipate this will help me work for regularly on revisions.

The free corner of stuff is all gone at the shop, so we'll start a new one for next year.  We hauled two trailer loads of mostly dressers to the city dump for the city wide cleanup day when the city lets residents dump for free -- a $160 value for us.  I love seeing the open space that created at the shop.  We have more to go, but this has been a good week.  I'll work on putting away the yard sale stuff while Mr. L is in SA, opening up the showroom for him to resume work on the ceiling when he gets back.

My sister got the job. An answer to my prayers (and hers!).  She starts on the 16th, I think.  I get the sense this is at a level below her last job, but there is room for advancement, and it is in her field.  The team lead who was in on the second interview was impressed with her QA experience, and I believe that will be where her opportunity for advancement will be.  So thankful.  Her unemployment benefits ran out at the end of March, so this was crucial for her and her family.  Besides, I've heard it's easier to find employment from a position of being employed, so even if this doesn't work out in a positive way for her, she'll be applying from a position of strength if she should happen to seek other options.

I purchased Spam Sieve.  It's still in learning mode, but it seems to actually learn, which was more than I could say for Mail.

The flossing diet has been going great.  My teeth (and me) are happier when I remember to floss every day.  The check box on Lift is just the reminder I need to make sure I get it done everyday.

The Week Ahead:

• Mow at the store
• Put away yard sale stuff and clear the showroom
• Perhaps move everything upstairs at the shop to one area to facilitate Mr. L's plans.
• Work on PBOTL revisions
• Plan revamp of Things and email filing practices.  Neither seem right to me. Mail appears to have some capabilities I'm not using, and I'm going to explore them while I wait for an add-on to be revamped for Mavericks.  If I learn to use Mail's native capabilities better, maybe I won't need the add on.  At least I'll have a better idea of what I'm looking for.
• Evaluate the apps I use and delete the ones I know I don't want from my devices.  Simple decluttering in the electronic sphere.  There's a term for what I do, and Mr. L would be disdainful -- it's called quantifying my life, but for some reason, I feel better when I can mark things off and track things.  Apparently, a lot of other people do it, too. It'll be our little secret.  Shhh.

Too staggered to spring

Since our daughter got a second job, I am babysitting a LOT. Almost all day, every day (at least 8am-4pm, but sometimes 8-9:30) and I am POOPED.

POOPED, I say!

I've gotten back on plan with WW and haven't lost a bit yet. I'm tracking everything, getting my GHGs in, exercising... still sitting in the same spot. Ah well.

I can, also, feel my mutinous cyst now so that might (probably) be a contributing factor. Just have to stick to it and keep going.

Up here, we *just* got spring temperatures yesterday and there isn't any wintery stuff in the forecast, so maybe we're finally past it. I hope so, but my allergies are pretty miserable. The doggone trees keep wanting to get their sexy bits up in my sinuses, dang them! I have, however, been walking some in the evenings, sometimes w/ the kid in tow in the wagon, sometimes not, so that's good.

Morgan is off to publishers and I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but also trying not to think about it much. SPORE's off to a new set of publishers too. Hopefully something will sell soon.

We did some work to the kitchen this past week, just adding some counter space across from the dishwasher, and I'm liking the extra room. The new couch came today - like it gobs - and we picked out a different bed since the TempurPedic wasn't working for me and my neck and knees. It'll come next week, supposedly.

That's pretty much it for me. {{hugs}} and have a great remainder of your week, everyone!

Timesheeter Free

Per Wendy's recommendation, I'm reading TURNING PRO by Steven Pressfield.  Okay.  I get why you recommended it.  Totally.  Thank you.  He mentions the age-old line about 10,000 hours of investment before the work becomes worthy.

Wendy has mentioned tracking hours worked, and I know many others who do the same.  I've considered it before, but nothing's really handy when I sit down to work in a variety of environments.

Yesterday, I conducted a search on my iPhone App Store and found a highly rated gem called Timesheeter Free, and it looks like it will do what I want it to do. 

For grins, I figured out what my time is worth per hour, based upon my income and a 24 hour clock (no overtime for me).  It's a completely fictitious thing, but it may have some value at some point.  I can enter a variety of projects and tasks, then, when I'm ready to begin working, I tap the app, tap the time clock icon, select the project and task (or add one), click the green arrow to start the clock, and begin working. If I take a break, I tap pause, then tap the green arrow when I begin again.  Tap the red dot to stop.  I'm sure I'll forget at various points, but it claims to be exportable.  And, since I seem to respond to these types of self-imposed tracking systems in a generally positive way, maybe it will result in me working on more productive things than I have been to date.

Surreal

Wow, what a weekend! It was great to be back in familiar surroundings with friends. I spent one night at the house downstate, which was a little like visiting my mom's house. It was weird, but not sad. I had good crowds for almost all of my eight story sets and unknowingly auditioned for the Springfield IL Games next month.

Once we got the festival underway, everything was great. Before that I had to chase down sandbags to weigh down my tent because they moved the festival to a big parking lot the day before it started. The park where we usually are hadn't dried out from the snow, and it rained last week, too, so it was a soggy mess. The parking lot worked out much better.

The rest of the week wasn't without drama. Eric had a business trip to Minneapolis. We were on our way to O'Hare Monday morning when he got an automated phone call from the airline that he'd been bumped from his flight. He decided it would be simpler to rent a car at the airport and drive up. He called about noon Wednesday to tell me about the winter storm heading their way. He scrambled to get everything done and flew back Wednesday evening. Since the last leg of what would have been his return trip went from O'Hare to St. Louis, he cancelled everything except that and I picked him up right after I finished the sand bag drama. I was ready for a drink at that point, but honestly, once I saw him walking through the airport, everything was right in my world.

Today I'm tired and my voice, well, it isn't shot, but it isn't strong. Of course, allergy season kicked in last week. I have a van full of stuff to unload and schlep up 4 floors. Thank goodness for the elevator and my wagon. They've saved my bacon so many times!

Guess it's time to get back to reality.

Deuces are Wild

It sounded good.  The week went pretty well.  Here's the good stuff. (I had plenty of grumpy sessions, but I must be in a more manic phase--yes, it will pass--lately, because I'm only remembering positive things, for the most part.)

• Yard sale went fairly well.  A little over $100, but stuff we've been wanting to see go, went.  Yay.  And people who got it were happy to get it.
• Most of our free corner is gone. The big concern were the three tires we had, but someone took them today.  I can put the arm chair out early for the trash, and I'll bet it will be gone before it's trash truck time (I'll pull it before the trash guys come, because I don't want them to have to deal with it the day before we could haul it to the dump for free).  We're already looking for more stuff to put in the corner for the next yard sale.
• Mr. L's birthday went well, and he wants to do it again next year.  I heartily approve.
• Mowed the yard today.
• A-Z Challenge is going well. I need to write and schedule my "X" post.  It's called Xylophone, and all I have so far is a Fisher Price toy xylophone is involved.  The other 25 posts are done and scheduled.
• I'm so glad I got the post subscription list created.  A few people are signing up.  Some have also signed up for the fiction club, too.
• I came up with a variety of types of writing.  Most of the works aren't complete stories, but some complement draft novels and some are ideas that could develop into novels.  Mostly, I want to see what writing resonates with other people.  I'm not sure the Challenge is the best venue for that, but it's the best venue for bringing new people to the blog that I know of.
• My knee has been pretty good this week, but there's something wrong with both of them.  Probably not anything anyone will do about either of them, though.
• I wound up manually configuring the Mini.  Time Machine is virtually useless. A friend told me about an app called SuperDuper! that's highly rated, and I purchased it and am using it.
• I also got fed up with Apple's lousy spam filter and am trying Spam Sieve.  I have the trial version, which will work for 30 days.  If I'm pleased, I'll buy it, too.  It's in training mode, now.
• A high school classmate died unexpectedly this week.  I barely knew him, but still, he was only 55. 
• I've lost 19 pounds since the first of the year and at least three inches off my waist. Very happy with that so far. I have a long way to go.
• I began incorporating "three positives and why" in my 750 words writing eleven days ago.  It's supposed to help your overall outlook on life.  I wonder if I can attribute my overall upbeat mood when I sit down to write this missive to that?
• My sister has been seeing encouraging signs that she may have a job soon.  If you're inclined to do such things, please pray this happens.  Her unemployment benefits ran out at the first of the month, and this would be a huge positive.  The best part is it's even in her field.
• Stephen, you remain in my prayers that something positive that meets your needs will find you soon.

The Week Ahead:

• Gather junk to load onto the trailer for Saturday's City Wide Clean Up effort.  This is the day they open the dump to city residents, and they can bring their junk for free.  We try to take full advantage of it, and this year, we hope to make two trips.  
• My primary goal is to get rid of as much truly useless furniture from the shop as there is. I also want to get some rolled up rugs (they've all been wet, so they're clearly going to be no good) onto the trailer and gone as well. I can't tell you how many disintegrating pressboard dressers we have.  Nasty stuff. I have rolls of dried linoleum, but they're in a hard to reach place and will be the focus of another year.
• We only have one mattress to load on the trailer this year.  Yay!
• The second load, if we decide to do it, we hope to have more salvageable furniture to put on there.  What happened last year, while we were waiting in line for the dump, some people wanted some of the stuff we had on the trailer.  We gave it to them.  This load would be designed to be available to anyone who wanted it.  We noticed some of the dump guys holding good stuff out last year as well.  If it makes it to the dump, maybe they will know of a use for it if it's serviceable.  Either way, we want a lot of this stuff GONE from the building.

Sunny!!!

We've finally got a warm(ish) sunny day, and for the first time there's no snow in the two week forecast on Accuweather.com. I'll take it!

Good Stuff:
- I have the synopsis for Weeping Willow done. Now to polish the first scene and send it off to the Frasier.
- Worked out 4 times again.
- Found long skirts at the right price when I wasn't looking. I'll wear them primarily for barding, but they'll be nice to have for other occassions, too. I got a blue one and a black one. Yes, Stephen, if I layer one over the other, I'll be black and blue.
- Our church did a seminar on life transitions yesterday that was very helpful. Three hours well spent.
- We saw Divergent again. It was Eric's idea--the first time he hadn't read the book, and he wanted to see it again after having read it. Yeah, he reads fast. He's read the whole series this week.
- Started getting things together for Tartan Day.
- Found a kitty sitter. She walks my neighbor's dogs when she's out of town and comes highly recommended. Her rates are a lot less than I thought they'd be--just a little bit more than I was paying my kids' friend.
- I think Vicky is going to help us with the clan tent all of next weekend. It's going to be nice to hang out with her for a while.

Not So Good Stuff:
- While I don't have bad days per se anymore, I still have bad moments. Mostly it's unexpected things that make me miss the kids. Still, it's an improvement.
- The barometer has been a roller coaster lately and it's triggered three migraines for Eric in the last two weeks. I hope the weather stays stable this week. He's traveling again for work. Instead of flying back into O'Hare Friday, I'll pick him up in St. Louis for Tartan Day and we'll drive home together.
- Yes, that means getting ready for Tartan Day is solely my responsibility. It will entail packing what we have here, and then going downstate to pack what we have there as well as the boxes I couldn't bring the last time. The list making is in full swing! The nice thing is I can pack things and take them right down to the van. Hopefully that will minimize what I forget.

This Week:
- Pack gear
- Practice stories
- Eat well. Since Eric will be gone I can experiment a little more. :-)
- Get to the gym 4 times again.

Have a great week, y'all! I'll try to post pictures from the Festival on Facebook next weekend.

Walking on Sunshine

I feel strangely upbeat at the moment.  Don't worry.  I'm sure it will pass.  Grin.

I just vacuumed the parlor.  Lady and Natasha slept through it (for the most part), but watching Tarzan creep back in is hysterically funny.  Daphne came behind him, and while she wasn't quite as cautious as Tarzan (is still being), she's checking everything out as well. I changed the orientation on Lady's cage, and I think it is less intrusive for the room.  Mr. L may have a different opinion when he gets home from the shop, but we'll see. 

Our trip to San Antonio was reasonably fruitful, and it was the key to most of the week.  We drove down together on Wednesday, bringing Lady and Natasha with us, leaving the rest of the horde to fend for themselves in Central TX.  We met a friend for dinner at our favorite burger place.  We watched the Spurs on a muddy non-HD satellite connection (HD does spoil you) and worked on the jigsaw puzzle.  On Thursday, we went to breakfast, and Mr. L dropped me off at the Apple Store with the Mini while he ran errands.  The Apple folks were great.  I had my first Genius Bar appointment, and they got me right in. Unfortunately, it wasn't the simple upgrade to Lion I'd anticipated, because when I installed a new hard drive in the Mini, I didn't format it in the Journaled format, so it had to be reformatted.  That ruled out the upgrade install and resulted in my disk being wiped.  All my data is in Dropbox, I have a current Time Machine backup (but for some reason I can't get them to really work for me), and I've been using the Retina for anything serious since I got it and using the Mini for web browsing.  Having to wipe the disk is a just a hassle and not crucial, but I was disappointed.  On the bright side, I got the newest versions of iLife with this install.  The rest of Thursday was mostly relaxing and reading.  We went to our favorite Mexican restaurant on Thursday, but it's our regular waiter's night off, so we got someone else, who mostly rushed us through the meal, so we left feeling a little dissatisfied with our experience.  More puzzle time.  Friday morning, we went to breakfast, and Mr. L dropped me back at the house to rake live oak leaves while he went to his doctor appointment (the whole reason for the trip).  He got test results back from a test they ran last month, and the results were good.  He discussed some concerns he had with one of his medications and got a plan to see if it's causing the problem he thinks it's causing. Then he ran a few errands, came back to the house to get me, and we went back to our favorite burger place for lunch before driving back to Central Texas.

I'm glad we took Lady and Natasha with us.  They book seemed a lot less stressed than usual with fewer cats around.

Today, I'm trying to use Migration Assistant to restore apps to my Mini. It's been telling me there's "less than a minute remaining" since about 9 pm last night.  According to Activity Monitor, the app IS doing something, so I'm going to continue to let it run.  I imagine there are lot of ones and zeroes to flip, so I'm going to let it churn.  I'm doing laundry and a little light cleaning around the house while I watched Holly's webinar with Hitch from booknook.biz, which I missed on Thursday, because I was out of internet service range.  Stephen, you probably wouldn't have been surprised by anything in the webinar, but I found it eye-opening.

I emptied the water containers on the yard and refilled them with fresh tap water in preparation for returning them to the shop to be ready for next time we don't have water.  I replaced the insulating foam on the water pipes above the back porch, put some insulation back in place, and put the cat carriers back in the closet.  That translates to getting a lot of bulky items out of the kitchen and parlor. 

I got the lawn mowed before we left town.  I also got the ad submitted for the yard sale.  I did some work on A-Z posts.  I think I can get a few more scheduled.  I'm going to try to get more writing done during the day.  Mr. L likes to work on a puzzle in the evening, so I like to join him, but if I haven't done my writing, I find myself resenting him for not quitting the puzzle and going up to bed as it gets later in the evening, because I want to get started on my writing.  The only logical solution I can come up with is to carve out writing time earlier in the day.

The Week Ahead:

• Get ready for the yard sale (Mr L is supposedly at the shop prepping to paint the showroom ceiling now, so I can't do anything for the yard sale until he tells me the coast is clear -- this ought to be a very interesting week).
• A-Z Challenge goes live on Wednesday, so I have to finish more posts and get them up.  I'm good until "G."  G is giving me some trouble right now.  I'll get something.
• I can recommend "1-Minute Office Chair Yoga" on Lift if anyone was wondering.  I need to do each of these exercises daily, but for now, once every 12 days is better than nothing.  I'm pretty sure I'll begin putting together a more comprehensive application of these techniques fairly soon.  I'm going to let it build.
• Continue with mindful eating.  
• Probably a bunch of other things I'm forgetting.

Long Week

Funny how, when I was in the process of moving here, I was excited about the prospect of lake-effect snow but didn't really think we'd see much, being on the west side of the lake. Guess what I woke up to this morning? 23* and snow. :-/ Yeah, happy Spring.

Good Stuff:
- We spent yesterday at a local Celtic Festival. It was inside the Sears Center, the festival on the concourse and a soccer tournament in the arena. We had a good turn-out and lots of interest, although people kept asking how much my display items were. It's not the first time I've had to explain we weren't selling anything, but it was the first time I've had to do it so much. We got to reconnect with the Illinois Clan McDonald contingent, so that was fun. We'll see them in a couple weeks at Tartan Day, and they're going to work on getting me into a storytelling tent at the Springfield Games. I also talked with some folks from the local St. Andrew Society about storytelling at the Chicago Games, but of course the person I needed to talk to had just left. They have a smaller party for kids they may be in touch with me about.
- I made it to the gym 4 times, including the session with the trainer.
- My food choices were better.
- We went to see Divergent Friday night, not thinking that it's based on a YA book, and it was opening weekend. The audience was 3/4 tween, many of whom had ants in their pants while we waited for the movie to start. I got tired just watching them. They settled down when the previews started, though, so the movie itself was enjoyable. There are so few movies we both want to see.
- Connected with a small group of women for a weekly bible study. They're a fun group--teachers, mostly, but I'm told there's a journalist and a screenplay writer who come sometimes.
- Driving is getting easier. I don't tremble anymore when I get in the van to go out. I even parallel parked the other day! In traffic!

Not So Good Stuff:
- I got my first skirt made, and despite my careful measurement, it's tight in the hips. It's fixable, I think, but it will require taking it partially apart and putting in gussets, which I'll be able to take out later if/when I lose weight. It's a drawstring, so it's pretty forgiving, but the downside is it adds a little bulk to the waist. Over all, it wasn't a bad first attempt. When I do the next one, I'm going to use my hip measurement for the waist measurement to compensate for the "junk in the trunk." ;-) I probably need to kick in some extra, too, for seam allowance. Pinterest forgot to mention that part.
- I was supposed to go to counseling, but my counselor got sick and cancelled. We've rescheduled for this week.
- Despite my careful eating and exercise, I lost whopping half a pound. It's discouraging, but I guess a half pound a week is better than a sharp stick in the eye.

This week:
- Work on stories
- Sewing
- Exercise
- Keep logging food
- Start getting stuff together for Tartan Day

Loose ends

I've been at loose ends this week. I finished the upload, cover, and publishing of Creations 2014 on Monday night. So I have that empty feeling that accompanies the end of a project.

Still fighting a cold, but much, much better. A couple more days, and I think this snot-storm will be finally over.

Thursday night, I suffered the horror of having my 16-year-old Diamondtron monitor die. It was a great monitor. Weighed a ton, used power like an air conditioner, but had the resolution of a microscope. The manufacturer doesn't even make them anymore. I know because I tried to find another one.

I used an old LCD I've had for about 10 years until today when I went to Staples and found a new HP monitor. Better resolution than the old LCD, but not as good as the Diamondtron. It will have to do until I have a bit more money.

This week I'm going to see how I like this monitor. I have 14 days to decide. If it doesn't work out, I will take it back and try another one. This one was on sale.

Speaking of Creations 2014, the proof copies will arrive Wednesday next week. I'm looking forward to seeing how the cover printed. I think some of the graphics will need to be moved, but I'll know for sure when I have my hands on it and can use a pica pole to see.

I'm also working on plans for another anthology, this one edited by me. Tentative title: Blackbirds. I'm planning on including poems and stories with a darker tone. And I'm going to invite several writers I know to submit stories and poems that fit the theme. It's a project several months away from launch, but I find it clamoring for my time and attention.

Today we had a good writers group meeting. Lots of lively discussion about writing. Well worth my effort and time.

This coming week I'm going to:
- Keep up on my chores.
- Publish a family newsletter.
- Edit a friend's short story.
- Start editing on another friend's book.
- Update the blogs, including the one for the writers group.
- Start my heart walking rehabilitation program again.

Hope you have a great week!

I need another nap

Things here are mostly all right. I'm still adjusting to our new Tempurpedic bed, and by adjusting I mean I'm sleeping soundly (with dreams and everything!) but spend my awake hours cranky because I'm achy in my bones. It's mostly my spine and joints, and I don't like it. Apparently it's part of adjusting to the bed and can take almost a month to get through, but I am so, so frustrated, and tired, which is weird because I seem to be sleeping well.

Crap, I dunno. I'm just not happy.

Writing is stalled - nothing new to report there - but I have, maybe, had some progress with the weight loss. Maybe. I'd been slipping off the program for quite a while and struggling to get back on it - this past week I focused on the Good Health Guidelines and didn't worry much about anything else, but I did add exercise back in, yay! - and I lost a pound. I don't think I earned the loss (oy! the sautee burgers and sweet potato fries at a local burger joint!), but there it was.

However.

I talk on the phone fairly often with my writer friend Shirley (she writes witch mysteries and women's suspense) and we're both struggling with getting the words as well as other things. Anyway, we've given each other a challenge of sorts. I gave her a writing assignment, and she gave me an eating assignment. My assignment is, just for today, I will follow the plan. Just for TODAY. Not all week, or month or forever, Just TODAY.

She gave me the assignment on Thursday afternoon, and I started it yesterday. I tracked everything, followed all the GHGs, exercised... and was down a pound at weigh in. I blame Shirley for this, not my eating for the whole week. I'm going to keep doing this every 'just for today' until it's a habit. At least that's my plan. I will get up in the morning and tell myself that just for TODAY I will follow the WW plan. Go me!

(I think next week I'll add that mantra to writing, but we'll see)

We got the computers moved into the new office area (it's actually our entryway, or at least the initial room when you walk in the front door) and it seems to be working well. Bill and I both decluttered our desks, we bought a new rug... It looks really nice, just kinda odd to have right past the front door. lol Our new couch should come in a couple of weeks, but our old couch is moved to the new location and the overall layout seems to be working, too. Yay.

I've been doing some other decluttering, simplifying, tossing stuff. It's coming slow, but it is coming, so that's good.

We had a glimpse of spring mid week, but it's cold again and snow's in the forecast for Monday. Whee.

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

Land of Make Believe

I've always enjoyed the jazz of Chuck Mangione.  Not a bad week. Here's what went down.

• Lady has done well in the Halfway House mode.  I give her her medicine in the morning, and she has the run of the house until after 8pm.  When she comes downstairs or if she's already downstairs, she gets tucked into the cage for the night. She's spending about half her time downstairs and half her time upstairs.  She's only had one incident with Rossie, and it was at "the watering hole" upstairs one evening as I was getting things ready for me to go to bed, but I hadn't brought her downstairs to tuck her in yet.  She and Rossie have both been out in the open in the same room numerous times throughout the week, so the only problems seem to have been when their paths cross directly.
• Thankfully, we got the water pipes repaired and the water turned back on.  It took a day longer than planned, but it's done -- with shut-off valves instead of just capping the lines, so the process should work better when we decide to finish that bathroom.  Finishing that bathroom is a priority for me, because it just makes sense to have a bathroom with a hallway access. It isn't a priority for Mr. L, though, so it will be a long time happening.
• I did get a haircut.
• I spent one day running errands -- depositing checks into credit union accounts; making an appointment for my annual exam and to get my knee looked at with the VA; renewing vehicle registrations on Ft Hood, picking up prescriptions, and making a commissary run.
• I helped Mr. L set up scaffolding along the front of the house, and he began finishing work on the final coats of paint.  
• We dug some weeds and I laid down a pre-emergent weed preventative that is supposed to keep the sandburs from emerging later this year.
• I mowed at the store.
• I set up a list for people to subscribe to RandR blog posts.  I'm offering it in time for the A-Z Blog Challenge for people who want to read more but don't want to have to worry about finding their way back to the blog to do so -- the A-Z Challenge can be a hassle to find blogs you like as you're whizzing through.  I also began scheduling posts.  Which means I'm having to finalize those posts.  Eek. I'm putting a blog subscription signup form in the footer of each post for the A-Z Challenge.  I hope that's not too annoying for people.
• The queasiness seems to have subsided, which means my weight has stabilized, and I'm feeling hungrier.  I have, however, chosen a smaller meal at our favorite Mexican restaurant in town, and it turned out to be even smaller than I thought.  I also devised a few other techniques to help keep me mindful in my dietary ways.

What I Didn't Get Done:

• I didn't get any work done on PBOTL or evaluating my WIPs.
• Ag exemption not turned in -- Mr. L needs to summarize the terms of the verbal lease with the people who are making hay, and he's procrastinating about doing this.  We'll get it turned in before April 30th, but good grief.  Write the two or three sentences that will summarize it and turn the form in for Heaven's sake!
• Now he wants to begin work on the taxes when we get back from San Antonio oafter this trip.  I never knew what a procrastinator he was before we got married.  This has become more apparent than ever in recent years, and it bugs me.
• Then there's my procrastinating about the things mentioned above as well as working on the floors upstairs.  To me, it's different, because my deadlines are internal, and the ones he's procrastinating on are external.  An argument could be made that it's two sides of the same coin.

The Week Ahead:

• Accompany Mr. L to San Antonio on this week's quick trip.  The Apple Store said if I'd bring in the Mini, they'd install Lion on it for me.  That will bring the Mini to the newest version of OS X possible for it's hardware (I purchased this OS already, so I'm authorized at no charge, but they've pulled it from the App Store, so I can't install it myself).  We'll take Lady and Natasha with us, so Lady can get her medicine each day, and they both can get some outside time in the back yard.  The rest of the cats should be fine on towers.
• Finalize more A-Z posts and get them scheduled.
• Mow the lawn.
• Submit ad for yard sale to newspaper.
• Begin setting up for yard sale, planned for the weekend after next.

Still kicking

Things here are things. Some good, some meh, but nothing too bad. Been struggling with my diet, the blues, the book, hormones, and most everything else, but health seems all right overall, other than my regular season-change sinus issues, the family's fine, the pets are fine, most everything is fine, other than me inside of my head.

We bought some new furniture last Sunday, a bed and a sofa sectional. The bed arrived Wednesday and we're still adjusting to it. It's a rather firm tempurpedic w/ pillows and while the firm is great, maybe it's a little too firm? We've decided to give it a month. The sectional won't arrive until mid April. Our couch is just so, so sad and with 3 adults plus a very busy toddler, it's simply not big enough.

Anyway, that's pretty much it for excitement around here.

My agent accepted Morgan a week ago this past Friday and has started pitching it, no news as to where or what the reception's been. Also no SPORE news, other than the publishers all have it and are gonna read it, but they haven't yet. One would think that six months would be PLENTY of time, but alas it is apparently not.

{{hugs}} and have a great week, everyone.

Aaaaannnnd, it's 20* again.

That's okay, though. It's sunny, and we're supposed to be warmer this week.


- Alex and Emma had safe travel here and back, and we had a good visit. They got here about noon Thursday, and of course Eric had to work Friday, so we found our way out to Lake Michigan and the Navy Pier. Turns out, Emma has a cousin who lives here, so they got together for a little while at the bar next door. Emma was pretty overwhelmed by the city since she has lived her whole life on a farm in southern Illinois, but she seemed to have fun.
-  Had my appointment with the trainer at the gym, and as expected, she kicked my butt. She made some suggestions to tweak my diet--all totally do-able things, like eating all my carbs during the day and none for dinner so while I'm sleeping, my body burns fat instead of carbs.
- It took some effort and thought, but I got more protein and less carbs last week, at least on the days I tracked. I didn't when the kids were here. Protein shakes are my new friend.
- I got new stories from Jeff. Some of them I'd seen in other places, but he hasn't performed any of them for a long time, so they'll be more or less new material for Tartan Day. That's good, and not so good because it means I have a lot of work to do in the next couple weeks. It's like studying for an exam you have to take over and over again. The saving grace is that they're photocopies, so I can highlight them. I'm a visual learner, so that will make it easier.
- We found a camcorder on sale at Best Buy yesterday, so Stephen, I'm a step closer to having videos for you. Only one step, mind you.
- I didn't get words every day, but the days I worked were good. Well, decent. I'll have rewriting to do. Some of the conversations I wrote were pretty inane, but I think I got the gist down.
- Believe it or not, I really have nothing to complain about this week. I guess I must be getting used to living here. I will say I'm SO looking forward to warmer weather. It hit 80* in St. Louis last week. All my friends were Facebooking about it. Today I want to get on Facebook and yell, "HA!!!!!" because the forecast was for nasty weather today--ice, snow, sleet. I won't, though. This time. It's nice to feel hopeful again.

This week:
- Work on new stories.
- Write.
- Figure out bard skirt pattern. I'm using instructions for a basic A-line from Pinterest. I have a feeling it's not going to be as easy as they make it out to be!
- Remind Eric to order his Campbell Ancient kilt.
- Gym: 4 times, including the next session with the trainer.

3 Steps to Increase Productivity?

Here's a suggestion I just saw to increase productivity in three steps. I jokingly replied on Twitter: Step 1: Turn off computer. Step 2: Walk away. Step 3: Do something.  But, seriously, this guy's suggestion is as follows:

1. At the end the day I wrote down what I accomplished
2. At the start the day I wrote down what I wanted to get accomplished for that day
3. I wrote down the biggest frustrations I had during that day

According to him, he gained the most insight from tracking down his biggest frustrations during the day.  Apparently, it helped him find many inefficiencies and devise solutions.  Many of us do the first two, but do you think adding the third thing would help?  We do a variation of that here weekly, but this approach is likely to work better done privately to some extent.

What are your thoughts?

Storm Front

Actually, I think the physical storm is going to miss us, but I'm feeling unsettled inside.  Certainly as a result of a couple of weeks on the road, an unknown water pipe status, and a generalized feeling of falling further and further behind.

We are back in Central TX, and Mr. L intends, I think, to take a look at the water pipe situation tomorrow, but we won't have access to parts to fix it until Monday (because he didn't want to deal with it on Thursday afternoon).  This is not a problem, because we store 30 gallons of water at the shop, and we brought 15 of them to the house when we got back to town on Thursday.  We were in Houston Friday and most of today, and we have bottled water for drinking.  We have enough water for, ahem, sanitary reasons.

Mr. L is finally getting a fire under him to tackle several projects he's been telling me he's going to do for some time, and it seems like he's going to try to do them all in the next week and a half?  Something isn't going to work as he hopes.  I will provide assistance as he'll let me, but, knowing how he works, I cannot see this happening.  This should be an interesting week, and much of what I might hope to do for anything I want to do is likely to be pushed aside.

Last week with Cat from Germany went very well.  I also met several How To Think Sideways classmates who reside in Texas (two in Dallas-area, one in Austin, and one in the Hill Country).  This was a treat.  They all came down to San Antonio to meet up with Cat.

Mr. L had planned to take his truck in for service on Wednesday, but he decided to do so on Monday instead.  Good thing, because he didn't get it back until Thursday morning.  It needed new tires, a new driver seat pan, and a new power steering pump (covered under warranty) as well as a few other sundry nitnoid items.  $1200 cost to him for non-warranty work -- $800 for tires; not sure what the remainder was for.

Lady had a few incidents, both times while I wasn't home.  Mr. L put her in the cage, and he didn't know who she was discussing things with.  Now that we're back in Central TX, she gets a chance to try again.  We decided not to board her for this weekend.  We left early Friday morning and got back early this evening. I just gave her her medication before we left and as soon as we got home.  I felt okay with leaving her in the cage for that period of time, and, thankfully, the other cats didn't mess with her food or water bowl.

This was a lousy writing week for me.  Because I was pre-occupied with making sure Cat was taken care of from Monday to Wednesday, Mr. L became extra needy and acted like I'd abandoned him.  I've noticed if I'm ever paying attention to anyone other than him he gets this way.  I do the best I can to make sure he's not really abandoned, but I can't change the way he feels, if, in fact, that's what's he's feeling.  It annoys me, but it is what it is.  It's probably not going to get any better.

I kept up with my 750 words daily entry, I downloaded a few videos from Holly's site, I did a little writing planning, and mostly didn't get anything of consequence accomplished. I piddled with a few of the A-Z entries.

I've been feeling queasy all week.  Not sick, but not well either.  I'm feeling slightly better today.

The Week Ahead:

• Help Mr. L as needed to:
• Repair the water line
• Clear the showroom floor at the shop of all stuff so he can paint the ceiling
• Anything else he needs
• Get a haircut
• Get the ranch ag exemption sheet turned in to the appraisal district
• Begin working on taxes
• Work on cleaning the upstairs floors
• Work a little each day writing and revising -- even if it's only a few minutes
• Begin reading my drafts and evaluating for future work.  Begin building a queue for work planning purposes.
• Monitor Lady's progress and behavior

improving

Things are slowly getting better. It's also thawing here. I'm pretty sure one has to do with the other.

Good Stuff:
- Y'all know the best news already. If you check here, you can see if for yourself if you scroll all the way down.
- I had a long conversation with Jeff, whose illness has afforded me this opportunity. Not only did he help me put together a list of stories to tell little kids, he's going to copy some other stories he's had good luck with and stick them in the mail. It looks like phone and snail mail will be the way we work for a while. He has no plans to leave Kansas City anytime soon, and we haven't decided if we're going to trek all the way out there for the KC Games.
- Visited the Art Institute of Chicago with a friend Tuesday morning, which gave me a chance to ride the L. I now have my very own bus and train pass.
- Started therapy. It went pretty well, I think, for an initial visit. I'm going again this week.
- Eric was in Milwaukee all week, and I survived. ;-) I had been a little concerned about being in the city alone, but it wasn't a big deal.


Not So Good Stuff:
- Eric and I were supposed to meet with a trainer at the gym yesterday and our appointment didn't get booked, so we wasted an hour trying to get that straight.
- I packed all our spare blankets in a big suitcase and apparently left it downstate. It wouldn't be a big deal except Alex and his girlfriend are coming for a few days this week while they're on spring break. I did go by Target and found a pair of bedspreads that I'm sure will see good use here, but still.
- I've started tracking my food again, and while I've kept the calories within limits, I'm eating a lot of carbs. Even on days when I try to go low carb I end up eating a lot of them. And why does protein almost always come with fat? It must be a conspiracy. Keeping junk food out of the house does appear to be a good strategy. Even on the days when I REALLY want cake, it's too much trouble to suit up for the cold to walk across the street and get it.
- The warm-up isn't a minute too soon. For the first time ever, I think, I'm getting a little desperate to wear something besides jeans, possibly because I've pretty much been cycling between two pairs for the last few months. Probably 80% of my lower body wardrobe doesn't fit right now, and some of the shirts are tight. I went through three sweaters getting dressed this morning. This move has not been good to my weight.

This Week:
- Go to the gym a couple times.
- Write.
- Get ready for Alex and Emma.
- Remember to pick them up at the train station. (Like I need a reminder for that!)

Living on the Fault Line

It's been an interesting week.  Weather in Central Texas had wind chills of 6 for a couple of days.  I'd forgotten to cover at least one outside faucet before we left.  We set the thermostats to 50 before we left.  My bathroom scale recorded temperatures in the bedroom in the low 40s. We called a neighbor and asked him to stop by the house and check on it.  He confirmed the water was frozen, and he turned water off at the cutoff.  So far, so good.  Even if a pipe was broken, water wouldn't be flooding the house after the thaw.  I went up on Thursday to check, and, yes, there is a broken pipe.  Inside the house, unfortunately.  Fortunately, it's in the area of the back bathroom that has been plumbed but no fixtures installed, so once we find the break, we can just cap it off for now.  That's the one bathroom I'd like to have completed, because, to me, it's just stupid to have the only upstairs bathroom in one of the bedrooms.  The back bathroom has a door to a bedroom, but it also has an access from the hallway.  Unfortunately, a lot of the piping seems to be run through or have access via the closet on the back porch.  This closet has a vent in the floor that lets cold air from under the house into the closet.  When they plumbed the house, they used PVC (I hate PVC for just this reason -- it's brittle).  They insulated the pipes with that foam stuff you put over it, but when we get these hard freezes, that's not enough.  Clearly, we have to do a better job of insulating that back porch and the access to under the house.  There's too much open air access.

The way I could tell there was a broken pipe was from the water dripping onto the back porch after I turned the water back on.  I turned the water off as soon as I saw that, but there were a few puddles inside the house  as well as running down the wall inside the back door (right by the light switches -- I didn't turn any kitchen lights on from there).  I walked up the back stairs to survey the inside damage, and there was a little bit of water on the landing at the top of the stairs and even less inside the bathroom area. I walked back down the stairs to get supplies to clean up the water, and my foot slipped on a puddle, and my left knee bent more than 90 degrees rather suddenly.  It doesn't like to do this, so I felt immediate discomfort.  It has gotten better each day since then, but that was not a comfortable 24 hours.  I'm wearing a sturdy brace to keep it supported.  I don't think I did any permanent damage.  It feels more like I strained a few connecting tissue things.  Needless to say, I got the crux of what I went to Central Texas to do done, but I decided not to do several things I had planned because of the pain.  That three hour drive back wasn't fun either.

I went to pull out Polar Bear on the Loose to work on it and realized I'd brought the wrong folder.  So much for that.  My short stories all feel as if they are just a narrative and nothing more.  I'm annoyed about data caps on my cellular hotspot access. Why oh why doesn't Verizon have data rollover?  That would solve most of my problems.  Whose dumb idea was it to kill the DSL service down here in San Antonio anyway?  Don't answer that.  I know whose idea it was. 

We did get the two china berry trees taken down.  We also removed the barrier between the back yard and the interior side yard, so that area will be easier to keep mowed and cleaned up now.  The back yard has come a long way from the overgrown mess it was four years ago. 

Lady is responding well to her Reconcile prescription.  We've been able to leave her out of her cage all week.  It's nice to have her integrated into the household again.  We've had no incidents -- just a few warning growls from Rossie, which Lady appears to have heeded.

I met my first 5% weight loss goal this week (meaning I lost 5% of my starting body weight since January 1).  I went to set another 5% goal, and the Withings app said (essentially), "Whoa, there!  Let's take some time to stabilize here first."  What a good idea.  So I left the goal alone for a couple of days, then I reset it yesterday to my next goal, which I plan to hit between July and September.  At this point, I'm between sizes -- one size feels a lithe large and the lower size feels a touch snug.  Was it from the mindful eating approach or the 90 Days to A  New You on Lift App?  I suspect a combination of the two.  I finished the first time through the 90 Days to A New You plan this week.  I intended to roll it over and let it start again, but with the knee, I decided to archive it for a little while and start again when the knee is doing better.  When I'm back in Central TX and have was internet access, I want to do the Office Yoga plan.  I think it's about a week to ten days, and it teaches a different office yoga pose each day.  That one sounds fun.  I was going to do it concurrently, but I think I'll do it, then I'll consider resuming the New You plan.  I don't like to get too many plans running at once, because that gets difficult to keep up with.

I have developed a significant distaste to the limitations of 4GB of cellular data.  I must find a better solution.  I hate being restricted in my online access, and Mr. L doesn't like me to be absorbed in the computer the whole time we're someplace that has free WiFi.




The week ahead:

- Get Cat from the airport on Sunday night and get her to her hotel
- Meet up with her and the other Texas Sideways people on Monday for dinner
- Make sure Cat has transportation when she needs it and gets to see what she wants to see Monday through Wednesday
- Head back to Central Texas on Thursday, drop Lady for boarding, and troubleshoot where the water line break is in the house
- Get parts as needed and repair water line if possible.
- Spend Friday and Saturday in Houston
- Get some useful revision done in preparation for the A-Z Challenge.
- Probably some other things that are completely escaping my brain now

Forgot to say...

I was watching Dr Oz the other day and they were talking about magnesium. I take magnesium every morning but they said its better to get it from food sources so you can get it throughout the day. I started taking another tablet in the afternoon, and it's made a difference in my energy level. I've been getting more done in the afternoon and early evening. It's something we all seem to struggle with so maybe it will make a difference for y'all.

Rapid Roy (The Stock Car Boy)

Manu Ginobili (star guard for the San Antonio Spurs) blew out a sneaker in a spectacular way during a game this week, and the Spurs training staff had one for him to change into nearly immediately when play finally stopped long enough for him to sit on the bench for a minute to change the offending shoe.

We're in San Antonio.  Things are going reasonably well.

- Lady is one week into her medication.  She's more subdued.  She's not picking fights with the other cats.  Rossie has growled at her at least once, but Lady has not been aggressive in her behavior.  When we're not sleeping and home, Lady is out of her cage.  When we leave the house to run errands, we put Lady in the cage just in case.  We also put her in the cage overnight just so there's no chance she disrupts Mr. L's (or my) sleep with a potential altercation.  Ruby has taken to spending time in Lady's cage, and I've not chased her out when I've put Lady back in.  So, Lady has had company.  Including last night.  Ruby and Lady coexisted in the cage just fine, but at 7 this morning, I heard Ruby meow, so I let them both out. Delta was sleeping on the bed within a foot of Lady today, and didn't seem to be afraid of her.  Lady has been on the bed in the bedroom all day today -- which is right near the chair Rossie takes refuge under.  Rossie doesn't move about much during the day, so I'm not certain if Lady just wants to sleep on the bed, or if there is an underlying tone of aggressiveness here.  Time will tell.

- We got one china berry taken down, cut up, and out for trash pickup on Monday.  We plan to get the other one next week.  This corner of the yard is nearly rehabilitated.  It's been several years coming together, but it's getting there. 

- I'm starting the third month of eating mindfully.  I'm losing a few pounds a month, and I'm nearly ready to move down a size in jeans -- I've been wearing my next smaller size jeans interchangeably, and my larger size jeans feel pretty loose.  Here's the third month update on Medium.

- I'm doing a little working on Kitty City.  I have Polar Bear on the Loose here with me.  Lots of work available to be done.

The Week Ahead:

- Vote on Tuesday
- Take down the second china berry tree
- Write and revise
- Prepare for Cat's visit beginning on the 10th
- Keep an eye on Lady to see how she's adjusting to the medication.

broken record

Same stuff, different week. Mostly. I'm trying to cut myself some slack, although it doesn't sound that way. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who wants winter to *March* out of here!

Good Stuff:
- We joined a gym. It's across the street from Target and attached to a Panera. It also has a spa.
- I went to a yoga class, all by myself. I'll be making that a Tuesday morning thing, I think.
- I finally got a garage door opener after hounding the property manager for four months. We get 2 parking spots, and they only gave us 1 remote. The PM has been telling me you can only have so many remotes per opener, and if they program a new one for me, it will bump someone else off. Turns out the people who moved in downstairs this week got an opener for their side of the garage, and one for ours, and I happened to be downstairs when they discovered it. (More on that in a minute.) I mentioned I'd been trying to get one since sharing doesn't work so well, and he gave me the one that opens our door. So now I'll go to bat for them to get a second opener. They seem very nice, btw, and apparently the PM thinks none of the tenants talk to each other because we've caught him in two lies today.
- Got some words in. Not sure they're good words, but I counted them. I wrote 16 days in February, double the 8 I worked in January. I'm going to note the number of hours starting this month just to set up a baseline since I can't double the number of days again.
- I have isolated the bulk of my adjustment issues to the emptiness of my nest and a need to find my new identity and purpose. I thought I'd dealt with the Mom to Consultant transition, but I guess not. I'll tackle that in therapy.
- All the boxes are unpacked. That's not to say that everything is put away, but at least the boxes are empty, and so is the chair in my bedroom. The reading nook is taking shape.

Not So Good Stuff:
- I was going to go to another yoga class yesterday and the van wouldn't start. Of course it was parked in the front spot in the garage. We bought a new battery for it today, but the battery sits under a bar and the fuse box, and our socket set is downstate.
Plan B: We pushed the van out of the garage, intending to push it with Eric's car the half block to the mechanic's shop. Easy peasy, or it would have been if it hadn't been for the ice and snow in the alley we back onto. We got the van stuck on an ice bump and couldn't get it back over. The ice cut the traction, so Eric couldn't even move it with his car.
Plan C: Since the car was out, Eric drove around to jump it. Too bad the battery was so dead the starter wouldn't even click.
Plan D: We called a tow truck, and were told it would be an hour and change before they arrived. I stayed downstairs with the van for a while so Eric could get some research for his term paper done. That's when I met the new neighbors and got the garage door remote. The tow truck came sooner than expected, and he had a fancy pants battery jumper. Of course, it started right up. *Insert unkind name here* At that point, I came upstairs to get lunch and let Eric deal with getting the battery changed. The only good part about that happening now is that it didn't happen when I was driving back and forth, and it didn't wait until Eric goes out of town this week on a site visit.

This week:
- Start therapy
- Go to yoga
- Eat all my favorite meals while Eric is away
- Write. Maybe finish the book?
- Don't have another melt-down
- Maybe get a pedicure?

Oh, joy. It's snowing. Again. Think this will be the last snowfall? Jean, I would totally send all this to you if I could.

Walking among the dead

Today I walked among the dead. 

Not my dead.

Strangers in an old cemetery a few miles from my house.

Thought I might take photos...that the late winter sun might illuminate a particular stone or give a halo to an old weathered angel.

Instead I just carried my camera and walked among the rows of graves. Stopping to read a date or name. My feet crunched the old brown leaves. The few trees were bare except for a row of bedraggled evergreens along one side of the cemetery.

And I thought about life and how it goes so fast. How we can't hold our dead no matter how much we try, no matter how much we cry, they slip away when we're not looking.

I thought about those who have left us and how I miss them. My grandparents, my parents, aunts and uncles, cousins ... my baby brother ... My mother was so sharp, so smart, she would see right through your soul, and my father loved to laugh and loved to make me laugh. All those losses. Is that why we're ready to go at the end of our lives? Do the losses pile on until our spirit is ready to fly, to escape the burdens of sorrow? Or maybe we're just ready to meet them again. Maybe we're tired of not being with them. Maybe we're just tired of this earth.

I sat down in an old concrete bench beside an empty tree.

Across the rows, I heard a mockingbird and saw a robin. I watched a lonely cloud make its way across the pale blue sky. And I felt the stillness settle into me, the quiet calm that I call peace for the lack of a better word. I stopped thinking for a while, stopping imagining, stopped remembering.

For a few moments, the horizon held me. That beckoning sky. The endless heavens beyond.

Then I took a deep breath of the cool wind. I smiled for no particular reason other than it felt better than not smiling. I stood, walked back to my car, and drove back to my life.

Cautious Man

Cautious man, because that's what we are after coming home to a house ruled by cats for two and a half days while we went to Dallas for a swap meet and to see the kids.  So far, so good.  We closed off the den and the bedrooms upstairs before we left, but the cats jimmied their way into the front bedroom and the closet door was open.  Someone appeared to be desperate to vomit onto the bed.  Joy.

Mr. L suspects our inappropriately peeing kitty is sending a message that he or she does not like the World's Best Cat Litter I've switched the household over to.  And, frankly, if they are going to pee outside the box, I guess I don't much care for it either.  I'd far prefer to have cats using the litter box, and if that means using a litter I'm less happy with, so be it.  Despite that, I plan to keep making World's Best available for a little while, I also selected two other litters from PetSmart earlier today to try.  One is recycled paper, and the vet uses it or something like it.  The other is a walnut shell-based product.  Maybe it has a more clay-like consistency?  I got a small bag of each to try to see if it's better received.  Before we left, I made up a fresh box with only Tidy Cat in it, and that was the box used the most by the time we got home.  The other World's Best and World's Best/Tidy Cat mix boxes were used far less -- maybe by two or three cats, and Lady was boarded this weekend, so that means five or six (at least) cats prefer Tidy Cat.

I didn't want to leave Lady in a cage while we weren't home -- the other cats think it's great fun to stretch a paw to pull her food bowl to the side of the cage and eat her food, so we'd have had a hungry kitty when we got home.  Plus, I could see her water getting tipped over, and that might not have ended well either.  Since last week's experiment with leaving her loose while we were gone for almost twelve hours resulted in us arriving home to a cat fight in progress, we decided it would be best for everyone to board Lady while we were out of town.  This should have worked out well, because her medication came in (Reconcile -- kitty Prozac), so they planned to start her on it, so she'd be used to it by the time I get her on Monday morning.  I feel better about that, because if she has a bad reaction, they'll be there to help her.  I haven't heard from the clinic, so I presume all is going well with that process.

I got all the CDs fed into my Mac Mini and iTunes.  I did a little bit of database clean up (several albums imported as compilations when they weren't really compilations).  I haven't tested to make sure everything imported properly.  I have 384 albums (!) and 4587 items taking up 20.89G of hard drive space.  I can listen for 20.5 days before getting a repeat.  I was surprised to find that many CDs.  I found four bad CDs.  I found one I decided I didn't want, but I suspected Stephen might, so he now possesses that one.  One of the bad CDs, I kind of want, so I'm looking at replacing it with a different CD that contains all but one of the songs I want.  I may make an individual iTunes purchase for the other song, or I may not worry about it.  I mean, I have 4587 others.  Do I really need that one?  Probably not. I'll copy the iTunes folder to an external hard drive, and I'll have the full library available for either the Air for the Pro when desired.  I don't listen to music much, because I consider listening to music a private thing, so I don't do it when anyone else is around.  Also, Mr. L doesn't like ANY of the music I like (one insurmountable problem from being from two completely different eras on the cultural timeline).

I did a scene from Polar Bear on the Loose.  It's all wrong. I need to redo it.  I did a little other puttering for my short stuff, but overall, it wasn't a stellar writing week.  Talked with Stephen about the Secret Project alluded to last week.  Thinking and mulling.

I got the bare essential winter tree stuff done.  I still have plenty that should be done, but I got the critical stuff done.  I took the shredding upstairs but have to actually shred the stuff.  

I do have an extra George Strait album (found a dupe) if anyone like George and wants the CD, I'll mail it to you.  I believe it's the "Somewhere Down in Texas" CD.

Mindful eating is going well.  I wore a pair of jeans one size smaller this weekend (haven't been able to wear them for a year or more).  I have an older, bulky Tanita body fat scale.  I've been hankering for a fancy WiFi scale, and today I sprang for the Withings Smart Body Analyzer.  This thing is supposed to do weight, body fat, heart rate, and room air quality, automatically transmitting it to my app.  I synced the Fitbit and LoseIt! apps, and it should feed the weight and body fat data to those apps -- not sure how much of the other data it will share.

The week ahead sees us traveling to San Antonio to do spring tree work and other sundry items around the house down there.  We'll spend about 2.5 weeks down there, and I'm going to try to not have to go again for a while after this trip, but who knows what will happen.  That reminds me, I need to gather a few items for Goodwill and Half Price Books.  Those are two things I should focus between now and Tuesday morning.  That and getting the yard here squared away -- it needs mowing and bagging.  I got a new litter pan today, and I believe I'll bring that down there with us for this trip -- we only have two litter boxes down there, and the kitties might appreciate a third option.

looking up

Not much, really, to report this week. The only thing of note I did, apart from baking a batch of scones, was visit the associate pastor at our new church. I was hoping he could point me in a direction so I can get out of this gray haze surrounding me. Instead, we uncovered some deeper issues. Lucky for me, the church also has a counseling ministry, and the counselor gets paid by the church, not her clients. My first visit is in two weeks. Can't say I'm really looking forward to it, but having been around that block a couple times I know it will be for the best.

Oh, we did have more excitement with the roof leak. It stopped most of Sunday. Not surprising since the maintenance guy cleared most of the water, and what was up there froze again. What was surprising was that it started again Monday night. I woke up about 2 and heard it dripping. Tuesday morning I found water dripping out of two more pot lights, one in front of the stove and the other over the sink, and the drywall around the air vent starting to discolor. The roofers got here a couple hours later. Once I figured out the spot on the roof that correlated to the leak in my kitchen (and almost locking myself outside on the balcony with no cell phone), they were able to clear enough snow and ice to find the weak spot. They swept as much of the water away from those spots as possible and used a roofing torch to dry and patch them. Yes, Stephen, it was cool to watch. We've been dry since then, although the drywall on the ceiling might need patching. At the very least it will need sealing and painting. Not my problem. Being a renter is quite liberating, I must say!

Y'all have a good week.

I'm gonna be really early. I think. ;)

Glad this week's done.

I finished revisions to MORGAN'S RUN. Overall, it was very easy, except for one scene. I fought the darn thing for three days. One little thousand word scene. Stress galore. I know that sounds silly, stressing out over a measly thousand words, but I did.

It's done now. I don't like it - I loved the initial version - but it was, as far as I can tell, the best solution to the problem my agent had with the scene. Not sure when she'll get back to me on it, probably sometime next month, but it's done and I can move on to other things.

I admit to eating far too much to cope while stressing over the scene, and I got virtually no sleep, but I've slept quite a lot the past two days and have eaten comparatively little, so maybe things will even out. My weigh in is Saturday morning and I fear it'll be ugly.

We had a February blizzard this week which ended up being more of a February slush storm. I spent a good hunk of today shoveling ice. It was very heavy and tiring.

Things here are pretty much the same otherwise. I hope you all have a fantastic weekend and an even better next week! {{hugs}}

Listing

Listing today.
On my desk
Scentsicles, white winter fir
Tape dispenser
Swingline Stapler
Uniden cordless phone
Gooseneck lamp
Four (4) pen and pencil holders, including two I made with cans and art paper
Alaway allergy eye itch relief drops
Systane Ultra High Performance Lubricant Eye Drops
Oklahoma State University ceramic coaster
Two (2) copper rounds
Keys
Billfold
Ship deck prism
Choicemmed oximeter
Creative desktop speaker

Last Week
- Nearly finished the writers group anthology formatting. Need to put in two more items from the group and then decided what I'm going to have in there.
- Did household chores.
- Bought a walking DVD from Leslie Sansone, the walk-at-home fitness expert that Tammy pointed my way.
- Had lunch with a couple of friends, including my friend Gail who stopped by unexpectedly. We had a great three hours discussing poetry and life in general. Wish she lived closer.
- Survived yet another Valentine's Day without hurting anyone -- mostly because I couldn't shake that pesky police surveillance. Doing to have to up my game.
- Took a sack of books to the library to donate.
- Did better on my diet.

This Week
- Finish anthology formatting.
- Print proofs for writers.
- Print contacts for writers.
- Make agenda for writers group meeting Saturday and print.
- Edit and print last meeting's minutes.
- Hand out proofs at meeting.
- Get contracts signed.
- Work on a dang cover for the anthology.
- Update laptop and charge battery before meeting so one of our members can Skype in.
- Household chores.
- Lunch with a couple for friends.
- Work on Murder by the Acre. Even if I can't yet figure out how they're going to catch him, there are some Plot B scenes I can write.
- Read a chapter or two in the Bible each day.
- Walk with Leslie (see above) each day.
- Take more photos for my Year in Photos project.
- Talk to Jean about secret project.
- Post on Createslate, Stephen B. Bagley's Books, and 51313 Harbor Street.

That is all. Carry on. Walk proudly. Don't spit tobacco in public.

It's a smidge better than it was. Maybe. I guess.

Hey, everyone. Things here are still things. I am still blue. Diet is meh - I was down a pound this week, but probably didn't deserve it. Mutinous Cyst is still mutinying. Writing is still sorta stalled.

Meh.

I have written one little SLIPPAGE scene - about 2 pages long - so that's something.

I've received edits from my agent for MORGAN'S RUN, which is great, but I'm unnaturally slow going through them. I just can't seem to find brain focus. So far, all are merely line edits and little clarifications, except for one particular scene. Not sure how to fix it, yet, so I'm letting it stew.

I offered to go to Chicago to meet up w/ agent during an upcoming conference she'll be at and she was not really interested. I mean, she was accommodating, more 'okay, if you insist on coming, I guess I'll find time to see you,' not 'Sure! Sounds cool! I'd love to meet up!' Maybe it's a waste of time and money, I dunno, and it's not like we have a pile of business to discuss. Either way, we can't afford it unless something's sold by then so I probably won't get to go anyway.

Sewing machine is still screwed up. I have little hope for improvement there until a book sells, frankly. A couple of people have offered to loan or give me their sewing machines. I'm considering it, to help me stay sane, if nothing else.

Laura's been working a lot which means I've been babysitting a lot which means I'm tired. lol

That's pretty much it for me, I guess. A whole lotta 'meh'. {{hugs}} and have a happy week.

Take It As It Comes

Everything's fine.  Everything's awful.  Nothing's really wrong, and nothing's really right.  That's kind of where I'm at right now. 

Here's what's good, I think:

• Got some work done on Polar Bear on the Loose this week.
• Got some writing done.
• Paperwork seems to be gathered for taxes
• I enjoyed seeing my niece play soccer last weekend
• Did a session on the recumbent bike -- oh, my knees needed that. By the end, they were moving fairly well.  
• I'm still pleased with the minefield navigation of mindful eating. 
• I'll be meeting another writer from Germany in Mid-March who is traveling to San Antonio, triggering more Texas writers to travel to San Antonio to meet her, too, so I can look forward to meeting several Texas writers next month.
• Traveling to Dallas next weekend for a swap meet and to see the kids.
• Got the corner crape myrtle bushes trimmed and cut back in preparation for spring

The Not So Good:

• I'm not sure which is worse, living with ten cats or an unhappy husband.  Lady is still terrorizing Rossie, but Rossie has remained out in the open more despite that.  We think Delta is our peeing/spraying cat -- she's in the cage now to help verify.  Mr. L has a sore back, a sore right knee (welcome to my world), isn't sleeping well, and is frustrated with nearly everything -- mostly me, it seems.
• Just general dissatisfaction with a lot of little First World Problems.  I'll work my way through them -- no reason to worry. For example, we have a trailer plate that expires in April, 2014.  We're not sure which trailer it's supposed to go on.  Obviously, one of two trailers out at the ranch we haven't used in a while, but it's the niggling administrivia like that.  (The good thing is the renewal notice will arrive in the mail soon, and we'll be able to figure it out.)
• At the end of this month, we'll be spending two and a half weeks in San Antonio followed by a weekend in Houston for another swap meet.  We have lots of spring yard and tree work to do in San Antonio.

The Week Ahead:

• Make reservations for two for boarding -- Lady and Delta for different reasons can't be left loose and can't be caged while we're out of town, so the safest option is to board them while we're in Dallas.
• Get more work done on Polar Bear on the Loose.
• Continue work on A-Z Challenge posts
• Finish the bare essential winter tree work here in Central Texas
• More decluttering -- I have a box of shredding downstairs to take upstairs and shred, for instance, but there's so much more.

meh

Good Stuff:
- Bank accounts are set up. The guy at the bank was a hoot. He told me to give the city six months before fleeing to the 'burbs. Not hard; we're in our lease until October 1, and the thought of moving again makes me queasy.
- I haven't eaten all of my Valentine's candy. Not that we got a lot. There's a Fanny May store across the street, and we got a box to share. Really, really trying to limit sweets, but keeping it out of the house isn't easy.
- I drove to the commissary yesterday and chose the route home. Eric navigated when he needed to. I'm learning my way around.
-  There's a place about a mile from here that advertises southern barbecue. Southern IL, maybe; not the vinegar-based Carolina sauce I was envisioning, but they do a fabulous BBQ Eggs Benedict. I think manna must have tasted like Hollandaise.
- I found Whole Foods and a Caribou Coffee shop.
- Words were good this week. Friday was an especially good day. For me, not for my heroine. :-)
- The car didn't get towed.
- Eric figured out how to get all of our TV-related devices on one remote. So nice to have that back again.

Not So Good Stuff:
- The towing company didn't just knock the car out of alignment. They bent the adjustment bar on the left rear tire. Lunch last Sunday cost us about $700 when you consider towing fees and repair costs. Yeah. Welcome to Chicago.  FWIW, it's cheaper to park illegally on the street, and if the city tow truck damages your car, the city pays for repairs. The one bright spot is I found our mechanic, and he's at the other end of our block. You can't beat that for convenience, especially when the car isn't safe to drive. Thank goodness he's trustworthy.
- Our roof sprang a leak yesterday. This winter has been hard on roofs in general. The snow and super cold form ice floes that don't allow water to shed, so it soaks through the shingles. I know this because I saw a report about on the news a couple days ago. The maintenance guy came and did when he could to stop the leak but a roofer will need to do a permanent fix. Yeah for being the tenant!
- I'm probably just being hormonal, but it feels harder this week. I've been convinced for a couple weeks that my kids made me brave. Even when we moved to Italy I was able to hunker down and get things done. If I had to drive them to school, I just did it. Now that I don't have that motivation and don't HAVE to do things, I'm afraid to do them. I tremble when I have to drive. I avoid going places alone if I can't walk there. I'm skipping church today because Eric has a migraine. That never stopped me before. I hate this. I want to be that fierce woman, that mama bear, again, but I don't know where she went. If you've seen her, tell her to get her butt home. Now!

This place is a paradox. On the one hand, every single person I've met has been nice. I have yet to talk to one grouchy person, which is more than I could say downstate. OTOH, it seems like the city has an atmosphere of screwing people. The towing company is a case in point. I read the reviews of that company on Yelp, and they got all one star reviews, mostly because you have to give them at least one star. They have a reputation for towing everything in sight, even cars that are legitimately in the lots they monitor. I can't reconcile the two in my brain. I think I might have to find a job just so I can get out among people who will help me understand the culture here.

Here's to hoping the lack of hormonal tidal wave brings clarity and bravery.

Horizon

Didn't want the week to start without updating even if there's not that much to tell overall.

Progress:
-- Worked quite hard on the writers group anthology. It's around 90 percent done. Still need to format and place 12 works and develop some sort of cover. While there are several pieces in it that aren't to my taste, there are more that have surprised me. The quality overall is better. We have some excellent poems in particular.
-- Been reading Write. Publish. Repeat. by Platt, Truant, and Wright, three successful self-published authors of ebooks and serial fiction. The language is a bit rough--the f-word is used in many ways--but the advice is interesting, informative, and even inspiring. I recommend it. They also have a podcast, the Self Publishing Podcast. Tune in to get their flavor and see if it's to your liking. Here's link to their show: Self Publishing Podcast.  You can also watch them on YouTube. Warning: NSFW.
-- More decluttering. Made more progress in the garage and in my room. Also, my desk. It's better to not look at what still needs to be done. One decluttering task at a time.
-- Wrote a good poem.
Standstill:
-- Not doing as well on my diet as I have in the past. Cold weather seems to make me hungry. Hungry and sleepy.
-- Hate the ice and snow. And the cold, but the ice and snow in particular. We have been hammered in Oklahoma. Well, not as much as farther up north, God help them, but enough to keep me in the house. I am longing for spring, summer, sunlight, and warmth, oh blessed warmth.
-- Murder by the Mile. Sigh. I did a few things, wrote some words, cut some words, and ended up with less than when started. If I keep working on it, only the title will be left.
-- Had a couple of painful heart episodes. Less painful than what I've had in the past, but enough to ruin a couple of days.
-- Skipped my meds a couple of times. I shouldn't do this, but I hate the side effects. Not mature at all.
-- Have NO ideas for cover for anthology. It's open theme, which makes it tougher.
This Week:
-- Work on the writers anthology. Need to have the proofs available by the next meeting February 22.
-- Work on Murder by the Mile. Make actual progress.
-- Household chores.
-- Keep diet.
-- Exercise more.
Good News:
-- Weather is supposed to improve starting Wednesday. That will really help my mood.

Hope you have a great week!

Kickin'

I headed to College Station yesterday to hang out with my brother and his family.  Their daughter was participating in the Olympic Development Program Soccer event held there this weekend with the Oklahoma Select team.  She plays the goalie position, and she's pretty good.  Mr. L and I headed back today to watch her third and final game for the weekend.  Having a life really cuts into productivity around the house.  I guess I'll quit doing that for a while. 

Ajax came through his dental work just fine.  Tarzan is a healthy kitty, and Daphne is back to being an active, bright eyed kitten again -- Thank, God!  Lady is healthy as far as we can tell, but something is clearly bothering her.  Dr. Val is researching appropriate treatments to deal with her aggressiveness, with her preferred choice being a well known fibromylalgia medication -- assuming it can be safely given to cats and it is thought to be effective for cats.  If that won't work, she has a few other ideas.

Lady has gotten along quite well with the cats she's interacted with over the last couple of days.  Mr. L suggests we try exposing her and Rossie to one another with supervision about every ten days to see how things go.  Since my last experiment was ten days ago, we'll try again tomorrow.  Rossie's confidence seems to have grown, and we think that will help with the experiment.  She didn't regress last time, and we think if we continue to leave a time span between experiences, we may eventually find an acceptable point that will allow them to live peacefully together.  We hope, anyway.

I had a mixed bag writing, no progress on revising novels, but I did work on some shorter stuff.

While we were in College Station, we picked up some groceries and used $24 in coupons  -- thanks to some coupon clipping Mr. L did down in San Antonio while he was there.

We're nearly halfway through February.  How did that happen?

I've been forgetting to take some of my photos with meals -- usually the ending photo.  I'm trying to figure out what to make of it, but I do think the process has served me well.  Many of our meals are repetitive, so I've made most of the adjustments I intend to make in them for now.  The key of course, is to take a look at the meal and decide if there's anything I don't want from it.  I also want to taste and evaluate it for whether it's worth my time and effort and whether I like it enough to not only eat it this time but to eat it again.  I've been doing a pretty good job of doing that.  The other aspect the photos were helping with was timing, which is why the final photo is important.  The time stamps gives me the total time it took me to eat, and I can decide if that was reasonable or too fast.  (So far, too slow hasn't been a problem.)  If I forget to take the final photo, that piece of data is missing.  I'm also more aware of whether I'm hungry or not and when I'm likely to get hungry, so I can do better at only eating when I'm hungry.  I think I still need more work in this area, and I'm trying to decide what the best way to handle that might be -- short of the recommended process of making a note of it.  I just haven't done a good job of doing that.

Bills are paid and shredding is caught up.  Yay for that!

Sneaky has been hiding from us since we released her yesterday.  I'm sure she's fine, but I do worry.

The week ahead:

• Write and revise
• Hope all goes well with the internet upgrade tomorrow
• Declutter
• Lots of rain predicted for this week and chilly weather, but I need to find a window to begin trimming crape myrtles