A Berrying We Will Go . . .

It's berry picking time!

The kiddo and I went out blackberry picking yesterday! My plan was to leave the house about 8:30. The kiddo had a different idea and she was up and ready to go at 7:00. This should have given me a clue that my day wouldn't go as I had planned. It wasn't awful--well, yeah, it was--just not what I wanted or expected.

Together we picked 9.5 pounds. It took us about an hour, and we suffered only minor pokes and scrapes. I love modern berry farms. They provided buckets, gloves (too large and mismatched--didn't use--but they still provided them), they had the quart containers and boxes ready to go for the picked berries.

We got home and I edited for about an hour before she had her dental appointment, then lunch with Daddy, and a Sam's trip. We got home about 2. I wanted to finish my edits so I started back in on them, but the kiddo was doing her workbook stuff and interrupting me every three minute . . . plus she sings when she works. :-)

Oh, yeah and the cat barfed. Cleaned it up.

Then I made the crust for a blackberry pie--needed to refrigerate. Oh, and did I ever mention that I SUCK making pie crusts. I don't know what happens, but it always rips and I have to patch it. When I rolled out the top crust--I finally figured out the trick!!

Key word: PATIENCE. Yay! Top crust looked awesome. Popped pie into oven.

Oven has been doing scary things. Making HUGE pops when the pilot light ignites--too much gas escapes before it lights--it's so violent that the oven door pops open. S-C-A-R-Y

Oh, yeah, and the dog proceeded to barf. Cleaned it up.

Tried to edit. Story had something wrong with it. I didn't know what. ARGH!! Only 13 more pages and it SUCKS!!

Start dinner. Easy-peasy recipe, except I forgot to thaw hamburger meat.

Uh-oh, juice from pie bubbles over. Almost catches fire, but smokes like hell! I KNEW should have put a cookie sheet underneath it. Now we have scent of 'eau de burnt berry' wafting through the house instead of berry pie scent.

Fanning smoke out door, and invite the flies to join us for dinner. Oh, and did I mention that it's freakin' hot out there?! Over 100! Ick!!

Can't use oven to cook dinner, until burnt sugar juice is removed. Thank God for convection/microwave oven.

Start cleaning up messes. Everyone in kitchen, including animals. Proceed to snap everyone's head off. Hubby starts doing dishes. I walk away until dinner cooked. Hubby hands me a margarita.

Eat. Dinner good. Pie good. Sit to figure out what's wrong with story. Can't. It sucks raw eggs.

Hubby and daughter make quick escape to pool, leaving me alone with rest of kitchen mess to clean up. I don't care. I'm alone. *sigh*

We all tromp upstairs. I'm still cranky, but it's under control, until . . . kiddo tells me that I PROMISED to stitch her stuffed animals that have holes in them. I go ballistic.

Calmed down when child gets into shower and proceed to sew animals.

Hubby asks me what wrong. I start crying when I tell him it wasn't just one thing it was cumulative. I love my hubby, but sometimes he's so much guy. He says he's supportive of my writing, and he is in the technological sense, but he doesn't get how important it really is to me. And this Delacorte deadline is looming. Sometimes, I just need time alone to get through it.

Uhm, last time I got this emotional I was preggers.
Uhm, I'm almost 48 and I didn't have my period this month.
Uhm, is it menopause or something else????
Please say it's menopause!

Took two Tylenol PM's and went to bed.

Woke up at 5, staggered downstairs to work on edits. FIGURED OUT WHAT WAS WRONG!!!

Edits are now finished! YAY! Total word count: 46,876. I added roughly 7,000 words.
Now to prepare letter for Beta readers, and go through the spelling and grammar check one more time.

My Beta readers might not finish their read in time for me to make changes before I submit it to the Delacorte contest, but I'm going to sure try.

Write on!