Catching Up

Sorry for the quiet blog last week. I know it's hard to believe, but I really couldn't think of anything to say!

I wanted to write a blog titled, DON'T BE STUPID, but I thought it had too much negativity going on with the connotation of the word stupid, plus the negative of don't. This blog popped into my head when I received a generic thank-you note for judging a contest by the contest coordinator. The note was in Arial 10, while my name was in TNR 12. The whole point of that blog would have been to keep the font the same. I would have felt a little better about my judging efforts if the coordinator had taken the time to use the same font. As it is, I didn't feel appreciated or special because it was too obvious that it was generic. 

This goes for sending queries to editors/agents. Keep the font the same. 

Look, editors/agents are well aware that you are sending out mass queries. You'd be crazy not to, but have a little bit of professional in the manner you query them. 

• remember to change the addressee's name
• find out if you are querying a male or a female (Mr vs. Ms)--and yes, I have screwed this one up
• make sure you are using their LAST name instead of their first name in your query--ditto on screwage.

In other words, double check everything before hitting the send button.

On Saturday, my daughter had her first Long Course swim meet since last year. It was a mixed meet with under 12's swimming along with the seniors, which meant my daughter swam a couple of events that don't even count for her age group (50 breast and 50 back), but it's a good practice. Long course is a relatively short season, but it's intense. If you've watched the Olympics, you've seen the distance that the kids swim in Long Course. Just stand at one end of the pool and look. It's a long way to swim 50 meters, without the turn. 

She did well, qualifying for Age Groups with 100 Free and 200 Medley. Both of which were BB times. She had a good swim with the 100 Fly (a B time), but was still a few seconds from qualifying with OAG's.

The one thing I noticed with the long course swim, is that the stroke technique is pinnacle. If you swim a 50, there are no turns, just a dive and a sprint. With a 100, there is one flip turn. So if you lose time, it's due to small issues with your stroke. 

I told her to swim hard, but I don't think she swam 100% all out in all the events, maybe 80%. The indicator is how hard she's breathing when she gets out of the pool. Breathing hard = gave it her all. Not breathing hard = 80% effort. 

Just saying. 

And, I hate to say it, but I'm not surprised that the pool guys still haven't plastered our pool. I've lost track of all the times I've heard, "You're next on the list." for the last THREE weeks. With the Oklahoma wind blowing dust, pollen, and tree crap around, this is what our pool looks like now. They had to chip the plaster away from around the fixtures and the tile, along with putting holes everywhere. Believe it or not, they had acid washed this three days ago in preparation of plaster. 

Once they plaster the pool, we can't swim in it for a month. I'm starting to wonder if we will be able to swim in it at all this season! 

I'm almost finished with this next afghan. It was made from a bunch of my leftover colors, with the exception of the border, which is dark green. I'll see how it looks when I finish piecing it together and crocheting the border, but I'll probably donate this one to Brenda Novak's Auction. Since it had so many different colors, I have to put it on the floor to see if I've managed to mix it up enough. 

I try to post more this week, but I'm finally writing on the Mystic Elements stories and want to crank out as many words as possible. Another goal I have for this week is to update this blog, fixing my links, and updating the blurbs on the stories now that I know what the stories are all about! 

That's it for today. Later, Peeps!

Monday Morning Lagnaippe

I totally regret not making time to go for a walk on the weekend. The weather was a balmy 60 + degrees, but I had other 'stuff' to take care of, so I didn't walk.

This morning, it's 23 degrees with the wind blowing about 25 mph. . . from the North. Yeah, this is my penance for not walking when the weather was WONDERFUL!

 . . . and maybe because I goofed off last week and didn't walk a few days that I could have walked.

Oh, well, when the sun finally comes up, I'll bundle up in layers and take a walk. Afterwards, I'll stand in the shower for 20 minutes just to warm up.

At least I have a plan!

I've almost finished my afghan. It's taken forever for me to work on it. I think it has something to do with the 13 afghans I crocheted for the previous Christmas's presents. This afghan has been a PITA from the beginning. I had purchased yarn to use for one pattern, but I never could make sense out of the pattern, so I had to look for another pattern. Found one, bought more yarn and this is what I have finished piecing together. 

I couldn't decide which color to use as a border, so I decided to do a quick section of each color. I think I'll opt for the off white. Originally, I wanted to do the dark blue, but it didn't give me the finished look that I wanted. 

Yes, I have plenty of yarn to make you one, too. Just send $250 to my PayPal account, wait about two months and I'll take care of you! 

I'll probably crochet the border while watching Judge Judy this afternoon!

Today I plan to finish Blake Snyder's beat sheet for DRAGON. Oh, I still have my elemental series to figure out, but I thought if I could break down on of my stories, then I would have a greater understanding of this tool. 

Blake Snyder wrote the Save the Cat screenwriting books. Yes, I know I'm not writing a screenplay, but I need a tool to help focus my mind as I tend to jump all over the place and leap on tangent threads like a kitty eating catnip.

Theses books break down familiar movies into different genres, which helps you understand the core theme into the story. Blake developed what he calls his "beat sheet". This is basically a synopsis for what has to happen in certain time increments of a movie. It's sort of a combination of the three-act play and Vogler's Writer's Journey. 

What I discovered are some plot holes, which is a good thing! Now, I have to figure out how the characters go from point D to point H without it sounding stupid, plus amping up the tension. 

This is on my list of things to do today. 

I hope y'all had a good weekend, but now it's time to focus on healthy eating--especially me, since I made pizza for dinner last night. The crust was too thin, but when hubby put the pizza together (I make all the separate parts, while he builds it), he didn't go cheap on the cheese! 

I really don't want to weigh myself this morning, but I need to face that harsh reality!

Well, the sun is up enough for me to get my walking clothes on and brave the cold wind.

Later, Peeps!

Lagniappe!

I had good intentions of posting the final installment of my WDW Magic Kingdom rides, but that didn't happen.

Why?

Because I was having to do two major computer scans to remove some Trojan virus that managed to be riding the coat tails of one of the Disney maps I had found on Google Images.

I think it's gone, but it didn't seem to be one that was harmful to others. As it seemed to simply hijack my Google browser. *fingers crossed*

When I do finally get the ride blog written, the maps that I will be using as reference will be the one's I scanned off my own computer--hopefully sometime this week.

I guess today I'll post a little Lagniappe!  I forgot which version I'm currently working on!

I don't know about y'all, but early this year as I set my goals, I promised myself that I would read 50 books. I've managed to read 50--well, I'm reading number 50 right now--but I can't say that all of them were books as some were short stories or novellas . . . and one of them I never finished. I did note on my non-finished book that it was "boring". And life is too short to read boring books. 

And the last book to round out my list is:  House of Hades by Rick Riordan.

Wow! That man can write! And it's so much fun to see how he manages to make mythology come alive!

It doesn't help that my kitchen is torn up.

Hubs and I have debated about looking for a house around the kidlet's school to alleviate some of the driving issues. We've come to the conclusion that 1) we can't afford one, 2) the ones that we can afford would need some serious renovation.

So we decided to update our house. Little stuff, not a total remodel. And if we change our minds, our house isn't 'dated'.

To that end, hubs has ripped out the tile backsplash and is putting in glass tiles. I'll blog about it when the work is completed. He's still cutting tons of tiles to finish the corner and side. Yesterday, he put up half sheets to finish the walls and then worked on the outlet cuts.

It's really coming together nicely!

This weekend was also the kidlet's first Short Course swim meet of the season. Well, she did do a duel meet a couple of weeks ago, but that was more to get her head into the game.

Though she isn't 13 yet, she needs to work to get the times set for 13-14 year olds since the time Oklahoma Age Groups comes around (March), she'll need those times to qualify. Actually, she did quite well by shaving time off of everything she was entered in, BUT it wasn't enough to qualify for any OAG event.

But, as I said, she has until March to make those newer, and harder, times.

We'll see, since she will be moving up to the Gold team, she may just want to survive the longer hours of practice!

I'll be making candy again. I did finish five boxes of Sea Salt Caramels for the winners of the Brenda Novak auction last May . . . until hubs decided to rip my kitchen apart. So candy making will be put on hold until he's finished with this endeavor.

Though he should be finished sometime this week. As I mentioned, he has a corner and one side to finish cutting. Then one of us will have to seal the quartz pieces before he grouts the wall and then caulks the edges before I can put everything back on the counter.

This week will be a short school week as it's Fall Break. I'll attend Parent-Teacher conferences while the kidlet is doing a service project with her classmates on Wednesday. And she'll be home for a four day weekend. I hope to finally finish GNOME WITHOUT A HOME today. I know this picture book has taken me FOREVER to finish! I've been thinking about it a lot, but finding the time to sit and put the words to paper are tough.

Goal for today: GNOME WITHOUT A HOME

I also need to keep working on DRAGON DAYS OF SUMMER, as the kidlet actually read FOR WHOM THE BELL TROLLS and wants to see what happens next!

If I focus the next two months, I should finish DRAGON by the end of the year. It'll need tweaking, but it will be finished!

I guess that's all I have for now. I need to put my walking clothes on and wait for the sun to rise. Once I finish my walk, I'll finish my story!

Later, Peeps!

Crazy Week

This last week was cra-zy!

Not only did I expect some of it--the kidlet had half-day school with two finals every day, but a few unexpected things happened--the Shawnee, Newcastle and Moore tornadoes.

As I mentioned to my online writer's group, "We prepare for the worst. Pray for the best. And if all else fails, you bend over and kiss your a$$ good-bye." 

Sometimes it is simply out of our control.

But I love Oklahoma and the way Oklahomans know how to offer help and support for people we don't even know, simply because we all know it could have been any one of us in the same situation.

In a weird domino effect, one small thing can trigger events that are far-reaching, which is what is happening today and tomorrow. One of them was out of my control and, to that end, I will be on Mom-duty today taking her to the doctor.

On the other side of the spectrum, the hubs scored two tickets to the Taylor Swift concert . . . in Dallas.

Only two, not three.

I'm not going.

The hubs and kidlet will be spending quality Daddy-Daughter time together in the car and at the concert. Hubs wanted me to go with them, even suggesting I go 'shopping'.

Ri-ight . . . what is this thing you speak of? Shop-ping?

I don't shop. When I need something I go out and buy it. I don't spend hours looking at stuff I don't need or want.

I don't drive in strange cities.

And I don't drive at night.

Three for three strikes and I'm out! I guess I could sit in the car for 5 hours while they are enjoying the ticket perks. . . . nah, like that's gonna happen!

I'll be at home--worrying.

And hopefully, writing. Before the swim meet this last weekend, I finally figured out how to send a document to my Kindle. I began reviewing DRAGON so I could finish writing the story.

And I have to say, it's a pretty good story!

And I need to jot down the basic picture book story of, PIPER AND THE EVERBERRY SOCCER GAME. Tentative title, yanno. And start working on the pacing and wording. Right now, I have the 'black moment' at the beginning of the story and it simply won't do!

And I need to make sure the kidlet's swim camp stuff is packed and ready to go for Monday when we take her to camp.

There is always house cleaning and yard work to do.

Originally, I was going to take pictures of my roses and post them today, but if the weather wasn't gloomy, it was rainy or the lawn needed mown, or whatever. Now, the roses need to be deadheaded.

If it's not one thing, it's another.

But that's what makes life interesting and challenging.

Later, Peeps!

And it's still raining . . .

I've lost track, but this is day three or four of the rain.

"Rain, rain, go away. Come again some other day."

Don't get me wrong, we desperately need the rain. The last two years have been drought-ridden with horrendously hot summers. We're talking desert 110 degrees hot.

Hm, this kind of looks like my face right now, all dry and yucky.

And this is exactly the type of rain we need: slow drizzle, over a few days, with low temperatures. Perfect to soak into the ground.

But it's wrecking havoc on my walking schedule . . . and my weight.

Normally, I don't mind walking in the rain, but I'm so tired of the cold that I can barely force myself to go outside.

I would never do well in the Pacific Northwest. Cold and gloom are not for me. I need the sunshine. Maybe that's the problem. I need to buy one of those special lights . . . come to think of it, I think I've complained about the gloom in a previous blog, probably this time of year a couple of years ago.

Sorry. But I tend to repeat myself sometimes. . . well, okay a lot.

Today is busy, non-writing stuff, of course. I'm taking my mom to the beauty shop. Her beautician was the same lady who gave me a head of God-awful curls when I was fourteen. Come to think of it, that was about the time I decided to go to Mr. Kenneth's Hair Salon. That woman can wield a can of hairspray like nobody else I know. All her customers have the same 'style'. . . and, come to think of it, she closely resembles the 'beautician' in my Goblin's Apprentice stories.

So, in case you wondered, yes, writers take people from real life and we tend to mold them into story characters.

Because who would believe those people existed if they weren't fiction, right?

It's supposed to stop raining today and warm up tomorrow. Maybe by the time the weekend rolls around, it will be dry enough for me to work in the garden beds. My babies need fertilizer, ironite and a heavy dose of mulch.

Later, Peeps!

Lagniappe on President's Day

Lagniappe simply means small gift.

Today's blog will be many small gifts--color coded, too!!

President's Day--this used to be a nice three day weekend separating Winter Christmas Break from Spring Break. Now, it's becoming a dead time. Some places celebrate it, some don't due to Martin Luther King Day in Jan. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate Martin Luther King, but I sure wish it wasn't celebrated only two weeks after the kids go back to school!

Seriously warm weather--yesterday, I chopped my roses back. Yes, I know they don't recommend cutting them back until after IRS day (April 16), but we had another warm winter and they were sprouting all over the place. I'm feeling my age, when 2.5 hours worth of work sends me to bed right after The Amazing Race.

And as I was whacking on my roses, I found one dead one--expected--the Rio Samba floribunda was never really happy where I planted it. There are too many trees that have grown up and shade this area. I'll do a little research and find a Floribunda that can handle a little shade.

I also had hubs hatchet a couple of my mini-roses. Yes, hatchet, as in whack their roots in half. Minis are unlike most roses in that they grow on their own root stock and send off shoots. These shoots become new canes. Over time they need to be separated. One--Tropical Twist--had a root knot that was as big as a melon--it had been planted when we put in the pool about 13 years ago. I planted one root in the spot I removed it from and one in a place where I lost a mini in last summer's heat.

Gophers and moles are getting busy again. My roses were 'loose' in the ground. Not all of them, but enough for me to dig around and find their tunnels. I don't like gophers. They eat my rose roots. Traps will be set. Hubs doesn't like moles, because they dig up the yard. Moles eat grubs and not roots, but they definitely 'aerate' the lawn!

First time we cooked on the grill in months. I made one of my favorite 'fall-back' meals--fajitas. I use a seasoning from Pendry's that's wonderful. The family had normal fajitas and I had a salad with fajita meat and a dressing made from salsa with a little bit of Ranch dressing mixed in. Yum!

We tend to spend a lot of time in our yard. While I was cutting roses back, hubs was repairing a bunny-chewed electrical wire for our outdoor lights. This seems to be a yearly occurrence. I guess the bunny likes the low voltage buzz he gets. Together, but not too much togetherness.

That's it for today. It's time to feed the dog and get my walking shoes on. At 7:15 AM, the temperature is a balmy, cloudy and windy 59 degrees F.

Later, Peeps!

Weighty Wednesday -- Holiday Lagnaippe

I tried to think of one topic to talk about, but I had so many mini-thoughts that I decided to just give y'all a little lagniappe.

So . . . how did you do over the holiday weekend? Did you lose weight? Gain weight? Or stay the same? Even though it's just a day there's the pre-holiday and the post-holiday to deal with: family, friends, food, etc.

After my wonderful milestone of a 50 pound loss, I managed to gain a little. It wasn't just holiday weight though, considering I weighed in shorts for the meeting before Thanksgiving and jeans yesterday. Given the 1.6 pound increase, I'll have to be pardoned for one of those pounds due to the clothing--besides, I weigh at home BEFORE I go to WW (I don't like surprises!) and I only gained 0.6 pounds, which puts me at a total weight of 128.8 lbs. Still less than my goal weight of 132. I'm good with that. Now it's time to focus on losing that little bit of gain.

Thanksgiving is just the beginning of the party season until Christmas. This is the time of year that everyone dusts off their snacky-candy-cookie recipes and brings in large trays for everyone to eat. Have you figured out a battle plan for this occurrence? You might want to start thinking about it right now, because there will be temptations everywhere you look. Tins of popcorn will show up. Peppermint bark. Christmas cookies. Puppy chow.  . . you don't know what puppy chow is? No, it isn't the stuff you feed your puppies, well, it is, but it isn't the puppy chow I'm talking about.
Puppy Chow is a Chex-type cereal mix covered in chocolate and peanut butter, and then tossed in powder sugar, which makes it look like puppy chow. And it's evil. Definitely deliciously evil. Do not even attempt to try.

Holiday parties are also in the picture, office parties, school parties, social get-togethers. Do you have a plan of attack when parties include alcoholic beverages? Remember when the booze starts flowing so does your inhibition about eating or non-eating. Drink one or two glasses of water before going to a party and one glass of water in-between each glass of wine/mixed drink. Before you put something in your mouth, ask yourself if you really want to eat that Lil Smokie sausage or are you just eating to eat? If someone offers you something practice saying "No, thank you." Trust me, their feelings won't be hurt, they'll carry on and offer the food to the next schlub. If you do place a variety of food products on your plate, try just eating one bite, and decide if the item is worth it. If it isn't, don't eat it and toss it in the trash or let the server take your plate away. Putting a napkin over the top of the food is an easy way of making it "out of sight, out of mind". No matter how you look at it, the choices offered at parties are almost 100% NOT Weight Watcher friendly. You have to have a plan to deal with it.

Stress adds to the tension of the holidays, the need to get it all done, bought, wrapped and picture perfect. Are you serious? Look, it's your job to enjoy the season for what it's all about, preparation for Christ's birth. Don't allow yourself to get sucked into the frantic wackiness that comes with the season. If you have to hit the mall, don't do it on the weekend. Monday and Tuesday mornings are the most quiet. Traffic gets worse with crazy drivers. Stores are packed. Expect everything to take longer than expected. Get out early and practice your patience. Getting frazzled only sets a bad example for your kids, upsets other customers/drivers, and makes everything worse. Find your Zen, center yourself, take a calming breath and chillax. (yeah, the kidlet hates it when I use this term. Bwahahahaha!)

I haven't mentioned the weather factor, probably because we haven't had much change in weather in Oklahoma--other than cold and sunny. Though we desperately need rain, many parts of the world are getting too much rain, snow, or sleet. And if you have to go to the parties or shopping--stay safe.

Stay safe. Be aware of your surroundings, including people wandering around in parking lots. You don't want to become a statistic.

Stay hydrated. The cold weather does a number on your system, drying out your skin. Staying hydrated--water, please, not Starbucks caramel-macchio-frappio-chinos--do you KNOW how many calories are in those things?? Crazy number like 410 calories per 16 oz. Almost 1/4 of a normal calorie count of only 2000 calories! Is it really worth it? Doubt it.

And remember, it's easy to undo poor food choices from one party or one meal, but when you add a string of poor choices together, then it becomes a problem--a weighty problem--one you don't want to have to keep addressing.

Later, Peeps! Happy Holidays!

Computer and other updates

Computer: As you know last week I had some computer issues. The issues didn't stop when hubs replaced the mother board. After the board arrived, he did his magic in about 5 minutes and had the thing hooked up and ready to go, but when he was checking it it had some fluctuations in the readings, which made him think there was a power supply issue. And he had a few extra ones, so he hooked up one that was compatible and Voila! My computer was mine again! Though my poor netbook was chugging along quite nicely, it didn't have all the bells and whistles my regular computer does.

Along with this excellent news is that I didn't lose anything!

Contest Entries: I still have one more contest entry to judge. Another entry that I read, commented, but didn't score wasn't lost, so all I have to do is score it. Then I can dust my hands off with this contest.

Feeling better: I still don't know if I had a virus, or it was my normal allergy issues, a sinus infection, or female stuff, or what, but I've been feeling like crap for weeks--low grade headache, blah feeling, tired, not sleeping well, etc. Not bad enough to go to the doctor, but not my normal self. I'm starting to feel better and it made me think of the time many years ago when I felt like this when it turned out that I had mono. At that time, I worked in a hospital lab so all I had to do was have my blood drawn and do testing on it. Well, most of my results were normal. And then I had a brain fart that I needed to be tested for CMV (cytomegalo virus) and Mono (mononucleosis). The ladies in immunology a) laughed at me, b) said I was too old for mono, c) grudgingly performed the test. The test is very simple test. A drop of my serum is mixed with two other heterophile blood products, and clumping is a positive result. My test turned positive before the positive control. Yeah, I had mono.

I also had a flu shot last week and developed a swollen lymph node in my arm pit. It's a little less tender than it was a few days ago, but I'll keep monitoring it though I suspect it's due to the shot.

Reading: Along with making Christmas gifts, I've been trying to catch up on my reading. Last week, I read two books. The first one was my very first Piers Anthony book. Yeah, yeah, I know, I write fantasy and yet I never read one of the pioneers. My only excuse is that I'm more of an Anne McCaffary fan. Well, I read A SPELL FOR CHAMELEON. When I was reading it, I had to remember that this story was written in the 1970's when explanatory world building and introspective narration was the style. It was a good story, but I could see how it might be changed to make it more current, style-wise, that is.

The second book was Marilyn Pappano's PASSION TO DIE FOR. Wow, just wow. That about sums it up. This particular book is a Harlequin Romantic Suspense and I snagged it when HQ offered it for free a week or so ago. Normally, I don't read category romance, though I have read most of Marilyn's single title books (the Bethlehem books and her Rachel Butler books). This was a first for me. It's been a very long time since I've read category and this book was a wonderful re-introduction to the specialized genre. Though I was totally immersed in the Copper Lake story, I also paid attention to her turning points--with a Kindle, it's easier because there are no pages, just percentage to give the reader an idea of how much story is left to read--and her turning points were spot on the money of a 3-act storytelling. The interesting thing about this is that Marilyn doesn't 'follow' a guideline when writing her books, she's just a natural storyteller who knows the rhythm and pacing appropriate for the length of story. I need to write more on this topic, but I'll save it for another time.

I need to get my walk in now that the sun is rising earlier, and then after my shower, it's CANDY MAKING TIME!

Later, Peeps!

Weighty Wednesday -- Ramblings or Lagniappe

Two days ago, I knew what I wanted to blog about for today, so I didn't bother to write it down.

Yesterday, I  couldn't remember what it was.

Today, I'm going to simply ramble on and on, and maybe I'll hit a topic that means something to someone.

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As you all know, though I'm a WW Lifetime Member, I still have to weigh in monthly to maintain my LT status and my free meetings and etools.

Well, hooey to that! To keep myself accountable, I have to weigh in every single time I go to a meeting.

Yesterday, I gained 0.4 pounds. I'm still within my goal parameters, but it was a struggle for the previous two days to get it to that point!

IF I HAD NOT FORCED MYSELF TO 1) GO TO A MEETING, 2) WEIGH, THEN I WOULD HAVE EASILY STARTED THE DOWNHILL SLIDE INTO GAINING WEIGHT!

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Our Tuesday AM meetings are usually pretty full, but not yesterday. I'd say we had about 1/3 of the normal crowd. I don't know if it was because of the July 4th holiday, or vacations, or what, but studies have shown that if you skip one time because "oh, I'll lose what I gained by next week . .  ." The odds are against you to lose that weight. In fact, many times you'll keep gaining and the vicious cycle will start again!.

Trust me, I know. I've been there. Which is why I will weigh myself weekly. And if I'm over then I'll pay the fine and do the time to get back to my thinner me!

It's all about accountability, people.

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Yesterday, after my so-so weigh in. I gazed longingly at the jar of peanut butter. Instead I opened the jar of Nutella and took a nice scoopful out and proceeded to nosh on it.

Whoever invented the stuff works for the devil I say! It's EVIL!! Right up there with the Monster under the Bed! So good and decedent.

So what did I do?

Well, I taped up the jar of peanut butter, and then I proceeded to tape the jar of Nutella. I'm not talking that I put the jars into bondage. All I did was take painters tape (the blue stuff) and make an X over the top of the jar and onto the shoulders.

It won't keep me out if I'm determined, BUT it will make me pause and think about my choices. I've done this before with peanut butter (my personal challenge) and bags of chips. I just need another barrier to make me think about what I'm getting ready to do. Most of the time, I'll simply put the item back into the pantry and guzzle down a glass of water.

**Many times when you are trolling for food, you aren't really hungry, YOU ARE DEHYDRATED!**

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So after my almost tip-toe through the pantry, what did I do?

Well, I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies. From scratch.

Why?

1) it's been months and months since I baked anything . . . no, I didn't even need to look at the recipe. ;-)

2) hubby will take the rest of them to work. I have frozen baked cookies before, but I discovered that I like to eat them frozen = bad Margaret.

3) I refuse to buy the pre-packaged cookies in the refrigerated section of the grocery store--too tempting to eat raw, and too many preservatives.

So I enjoyed my afternoon of decadent behaviour of eating raw cookie dough and a couple of baked ones.

Did I count them? No, but I'm back on track today. And I'm good with it. 

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The problem isn't having cookies or chips or other treats. The problem happens when it becomes a DAILY treat.

I would much rather enjoy a couple of homemade cookies, or drive to Custard King for a small Butterball concrete as a ONE DAY treat instead of having them in my house tempting me for multiple days.

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Yes, losing and maintaining a weight loss does take some self control, but you build that up over time when you learn about your particular challenges.

You might have to totally remove the food item from your house, or refuse to go to certain restaurants because you know you'll order XXX (insert favorite fat-filled, sugar-filled, large quantity item here), but you can do it.

I have faith that you can succeed, and I'll be right there with you!

Later, Peeps!

My Sunday--not so typical

Yesterday, I didn't get my walk in until early afternoon. And it was HOT, like fry an egg on the asphalt hot. Okay, it wasn't quite that bad, but it was one of the hottest day's this year, or maybe it just felt like it.

So I'm hoofing it around the trails with my ice cold water, which lasted like 30 minutes, and you do realize that I walk for 60 minutes, right? So the water becomes tepid at 30 minutes and then HOT at the 45 minute mark, but by then I've polished off the entire 1.5 pints of liquidy goodness.

Oh, and did I mention the wind?

Yeah, it was blowing so hard that I thought I was walking backward at times, it reminded me of the times when I was riding Buster around the area and we were flying down one side, but galloping into the wind took about 3X as long. Good times, good times.

And I bet you're wondering why it took me until afternoon to go on my walkies, well, it was simply because we actually went to church and then to Mimi's Cafe for breakfast. Mimi's has a veggie frittata made with egg whites that was WON-DER-FUL! And turkey sausage. And fruit. Who would have thought turkey sausage was good?

Not me. But then again, sausage is all about spices and texture. Who cares what it's made with, right? Considering sausage used to be made from all the nasty stuff that no one wanted to eat.

And back to my heat stroke story  . . .

After eating a nice brunch, I had to start laundry which was the reason I didn't go for walkies until noon.
You want to know what's really gross about walking in the friggin' heat?

Sweat shins.

Yes, my friends, my shins sweat. They don't dew, glisten or what-have-you, they sweat as in beads of sweat. Like the bead of sweat that rolls down your spine until it gets sucked up by your butt crack type of sweating.

Er, is that TMI?

Too bad, this is what you get for a Monday morning.

You're probably wondering why I'm so scattered and flying off on various tangents, well, it's what happened two hours AFTER my heat stroke-induced walkies that did it.

My hubby and I drove my kidlet to camp.

And left her.

Last year, it was worse because we left town and flew to Vegas . . . and it was cooler in Vegas than it was here in Oklahoma. Poor kidlet didn't have any AC, though the did have fans in their cabins.

So the question for this week . . . What to do with myself for 5 days?? !!  Well, day 5 I'll be spending with my hubby since it's his birthday and I did ask to see Snow White and the Hunks . . . .er, HUNTSMAN. Sorry, but Chris Hemsworth is some serious eye candy!

To quote George Takai:   "Oh, my!"

And when I wrote this (Sunday night) I was also Skyping with a high School friend who was coming to town, IM'ing another old high school friend AND IM'ing a my writing buddy, Cyndi.

Don't you DARE say that I can't multitask!

Let's see what else I've accomplished Sunday:

• I refilled and organized the wine rack
• looked for my Lifetime WW pin (couldn't find it) :-(
• organized my hall closet
• finished laundry and ironing

Today, I need to--

• organize the freezer.
• check the pool chemicals
• fertilize my roses and trim
• toss the garden mulch
• pick up doggie poo
• take out the trash
• finish reading Brenda Novak book

Wow, I don't know what else to do? How about:

• reread TROLL and continue edits
• Plot DRAGON

Oh, so much to do and so little time to do it. Oh, and I can't eat much today because I intend to hit my goal tomorrow AM. Luckily, hubby is in meetings all day and into the evening and I don't have to cook for him. Green Monster smoothie here I come! Check out the recipe on Foodie Fridays!

And if I continue to blather on and on, I'll just get confused.

If you wondered, I wrote this blog as pure regurgitation of my thoughts. Now you know why I'm so nutso most of the time--there's just too much stuff going on inside my head.

Make them stop! Make the voices stop!

Just Kidding! I need those voices to tell me what to do . . . *tests finger against butcher knife blade*

Watch out, Peeps!

My week in a Nutshell

I have so many blog posts that I want to write, but not enough time to do it. In fact, I have a sticky note by my keyboard with ten very different topics, ranging from Harry Dresden (wizard at large) to Doppelgangers to the KDP Select program on Amazon to how romance is becoming less romantic (I think I've written something similar before!) to the physics of exercise and to weight loss head games. And this is just a few of the totally random stuff that dumps out of my head!

I'll write on one topic only to think of three more that are very pertinent. Shoot, I have enough Weighty Wednesday blog ideas to take up two months, but I want to write them NOW. I need to get them written, because the longer I take to write them the less I remember what struck me as important about the topic.

Yes, I have the attention span of a gnat.

Over the holidays, I read a lot of books, many of them I'm itching to tell you about, er . . . but most of the topics aren't reflected kindly upon the author. I accomplished reading 50 books last year and have already finished 2 books for this year. The third one is seriously slowing me down with a heroine that is TSTL (too stupid to live) and lust instead of romance. Yes, my eyes have rolled so much that I was afraid they would get stuck. Guess I'm getting too old for the 'new' romances that authors are cranking out. I want romance to come back again! And I have to say that this is a sad, sad state of affairs in publishing when a story bought by one of the big NY publishers and is fully edited happens to be this sloppy.

Which leads me to the topic of writing my own stories and editing. I'm woefully behind with editing TROLL. Last December, I started red lining a hard copy of this story. It bled the first fifty pages with a variety of problems, and then around pg 60, it flowed better and the story improved. I have to fix the first 50 pages. Now that doesn't sound like much, but when we're talking middle grade stories,we're talking the first 1/3 of the book. Editing won't cut it. I'll have to rewrite it from scratch. I'll take the basic topic of the chapter and go from there with it.

I've been trying to figure out what was missing from this story. I knew the voice of Kyte wasn't quite right, but I couldn't figure it out. You would have thought I had the voice nailed, considering I had just finished editing FAERIE and rolled right into the new story, but I didn't. Part of the reason might have been that I was working off a logline, but not bullet point chain of events.

Anyhoo, I figured it out two nights ago, actually, two mornings ago. I woke up and was laying in bed wondering about her emotional state. Kyte wasn't angry. She needed to be angry. The first anniversary of her dad's death was coming up. This should stir up a hot bed of emotions in a pre-pubescent girl. Now I need to reread part of GNOME to get the exact time of year her dad was killed.

I think this is what was missing. But I won't know until I start writing this story again. AND I'm not even getting into having to change the sneak peeks at the back of FAERIE. Yes, I'll have to correct and republish that one!

My to-do list for this week:

• write four more blogs
• keep losing weight and set goal weight of 130 pound. Barely in the weight range for my height, but it's a great starting point
• keep walking
• start writing TROLL again
• Invent three more caramel recipes
• write mouth-watering description for my candy to post on Brenda Novak's For the Cure auction that will happen in May
• Oh, yeah, critique a sample from a potential CP (critique partner). I think I'll use her for my Mystic Elements stories.--I was dumped before we even traded samples. The  . . . erm, writer wanted a free glorified copy editor. I don't do copy edits. Put a crowbar in your wallet and pay for them. . . *sheesh*
• Crit another 20K from another friend. I don't know what type of crit she wants. I'll just have to ask when she sends it my way.

I think this is it, but you know how stuff and life creeps up on you and smacks you in the kisser when you aren't expecting it!

Later, Peeps!
Have a fantastic week!

Brain Farts

Sorry this post is late today, but this time it wasn't totally my fault as my hubby was fixing my computer and by the time it was finished mirroring the DB, I was finished for the day!

I had a post all ready (okay, I had a title, but really no idea what to say!), so this post will be a bunch of brain farts.

• I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I really enjoyed spending the time with my family. We need to do it more often considering there are quite a few of us who live within 30 minutes of each other. But with our own hectic lives, that doesn't happen very often especially in winter. This is why we open our pool and general backyard oasis to one and all over the summer months.
• Over the holiday I did a fantastic job of watching my portion sizes and eating heavier fruits and veggies, BUT I really don't want to talk about Saturday or Sunday. :-( I did okay, but I also went into snacky-happiness mode and grazed more than I should have. Yep, all the sea salt caramels are gone . . . I shared most of them, but then  . . . well, I don't want to talk about it!
• Today is weigh-in day. I just want to stay the same, considering all that I noshed on during the last seven days. I thought I would exercise every day, but that didn't happen. The weather was partly to blame, but I could have gone to the gym to walk on the treadmill, but I didn't. Oi! Today starts my morning walkies again! YAY! Too bad it's below freeezing . . . BOOOOO!
• As much as I love our house, it is severely lacking in attic space and pantry space. We do have an attic that has an entrance in the top of our closet, but the roof line makes this a tough space to store any boxes, so we have a small crawl space that runs next to our game room. I am always amazed as to how much crap we can cram in there! Yep, this is where we store our seasonal items--mainly Halloween and Christmas--and suitcases. We pulled 10 large plastic boxes, plus an assortment of smaller ones that held Christmas stuff from this space. Who knew??
• I just finished reading a story by Fern Michaels A CHRISTMAS IN TIMBERWOODS. Talk about disappointing! It was a mish-mash of stuff. It wasn't a romance, though romance was in it. It wasn't a mystery, because the reader knew 'whodunit' within the first few chapters. It wasn't a psychic story. It wasn't a suspense. It wasn't much of ANYTHING. There was so much head-hopping that I got dizzy reading it. I should have looked at the copyright date before buying it--it was originally written in 1999 and not 2011. Blech! Don't waste your time buying it. If you want to read it, you can have the book, but you have to live close to me because it wouldn't be worth mailing it to you.
• The first Sunday of Advent was yesterday. Wow, I can't believe we are less than 4 weeks away from Christmas. I don't have my cards ready, but I do have a list. I don't have my candy made, but I have my fillings finished and a game plan. I don't have any Christmas stuff up, but it's out of the attic. I don't have anything bought or wrapped, but I have a few ideas. We're getting there.
• When I wrote down the last book I read, I realized that I only have three more books to read to make my 'READ 50 BOOKS THIS YEAR' mark.
• Which segued into looking at my progress on  my yearly goals. Some I reached, some I didn't. I'll probably post more about goals and goal-setting sometime during this month.
• Two final goals for this year--1) finish line editing TROLL, 2) finish editing TWIST OF FATE and send it to a Carina Press editor.

Well, that's it for now.
Later, Peeps!