Friday, June 26, 2020

Plotting Progress


Finally.

I went back to the number one tool in my writers toolbox and started reading. Again. Maybe for the dozenth time. Maybe the twentieth.

But things finally began crystallize in terms of one character's plot arc. I actually started with the latter half of the book and am now back at the beginning honing the beginning beats / scenes.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow morning's writing.

*

The county in which I live put a mask ordinance into effect starting today, Friday, at 6PM and running through 6AM Monday August 3rd.

*

Another wave of reckoning may be coming for the hockey world as a whole. Allegations of hazing, bullying and abuse are being reported at a startling rate and not just by adults, but by peers. A class action law suit has been filed.

If you're a parent or a grandparent of a child in any type of organized sports, keep a very keen eye on your child and the other children and the parents and the adults who have care over your children while they're playing.

It's heartbreaking to read these accounts.

On that happy note, have a good weekend.

*sigh*

Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Poldark



Ross and Demelza Poldark from Poldark.

I know I mentioned this in passing on Wednesday, but this really is a compelling show. Aside from my morning writing and exercise, all my other off work hours have been spent watching this.

Much to his continual detriment, Poldark stands by his principals and it's so interesting to watch the fallout. He gets small wins and his primary adversary gets many large wins and you just keep hoping that the villain will eventually get his comeuppance.

If you like historical settings and lovely accents and need something new to watch, give it try. I'm watching via Amazon Prime and it may also be available through PBS/Masterpiece Theater.

Hope your week is progressing well.

Monday, June 22, 2020

It's Raining, It's Pouring...


We've had a lot of rain this weekend as well as this morning. Thunderstorms, even, which is fine. I had a dog beneath my feet this morning while I wrote as a result of the storms.

On the other hand, I wrote more than the minimum word count this morning and got caught up. :0)

*

Yesterday, I took some time to cross stitch / relax and decided to park myself in front of the boob tube. As I was scrolling for a Star Trek series, I saw Poldark and decided to give it a try and, wow, I've really enjoyed it so far. It's about a man who returns home to Cornwall after fighting in the American Revolutionary War for Britain, to find his father dead, the woman he loves set to marry his cousin, and the copper mine he inherited not producing. Compelling stuff!

*

My body finally wandered back into ketosis, so yay. I'm still trying to incorporate a bit more fat into my diet, because I think that'll help me overall. I did discover a quick and oh-so-easy recipe for keto bread. I can make one serving at a time and make in the microwave. It has two options--one using coconut flour and one using almond flour.

I tried the coconut flour version and it was okay. I just slathered butter on it and scarfed it down, because I was really craving something bread-like. The almond flour version might be better; I need to try it. Anyway, you can slice it in half and use it as sandwich bread or make toast, so I'm looking forward to seeing how that works. I made meatloaf this weekend, so maybe a meatloaf sandwich might be a good dinner!

I also tried wedges of green cabbage wrapped in bacon, because bacon! Anything with bacon is better, right?? And it was pretty good. I had a wedge of cabbage and four slices of bacon left over, so I just chopped it all up and sauteed it in a skillet. That was tasty, too, but I'm wondering what the addition of some red onions would add... I'm also wondering how red cabbage wrapped in bacon would taste like. Maybe I'll try that next week.

*

Hope you had a good weekend and I'll see you Wednesday.

Friday, June 19, 2020

Wasn't feeling inspired on Wenesday...


The writing has been a challenge. I'm getting the word count until this morning, but it's not good writing.

On the other hand, you can't fix a blank page, so at least there's words and scenes, which can be improved upon and moved around as needed.

*

The keto-ing has been a challenge too. Sunday was reward day and, even though I went back on the food wagon as of Monday morning, as of this morning, my body hasn't gone back into ketosis. I didn't track it last time, so I don't know if it's taking the same amount of time or longer. But I'll keep testing and see what happens.

On a happier note, I'll get a reward day the week I go out of town. :0)

*

It's writers group weekend, and while we're not meeting in person, we are meeting via Zoom. I'm looking forward to seeing my fellow writers.

I do visit with my writer besties every Saturday morning now, which has been nice. We gab for a couple of hours and they've become accountability partners as well. We all proffer up goals for the week and then report back the following week.

I haven't offered up anything too challenging, but a couple of the others have really found it helpful to have to report in. It adds in just a little extra motivation for them.

*

And that's about all I got this week. Nothing exciting has happened and I'm not expecting anything exciting to happen over the weekend.

I hope you have a great one!

Take care--



Monday, June 15, 2020

Birthday Celebrations Continue...


Sorta!

The weekend was relaxing and fun as I enjoyed additional birthday fun. Not what one might consider standard birthday festivities, but my reasoning was because it was my birthday.

First, I decided to watch a movie. Not a thing I do often, because I'd rather read and it often takes a long time to just make a choice. But-- DD came across the movie Twister, which is long-time favorite of us girls in the family as well as part of a long-standing family joke. Usually when the weather's bad, we'll say to my Brown-Eyed Girl, "Hey you want to watch Twister?" So I texted my Brown-eyed Girl telling her we watching it and her reply...? "Is the weather bad?" hahahaha!!

After the movie, which took me to about 8:45pm, I hopped into Zoom chat with my JAG ladies. They get online every night at 8:30 to visit and gab. But as you all probably know by now, I'm in bed and generally asleep by the time 8:30 ticks around. But since it was my birthday...I checked in and said hello to those who were online.

On Saturday, DD and I went in search of a new screen protector for my phone as I've cracked mine again. Alas, Five Below was out, so I'll have to try again next weekend. While we were at the mall, we made a circuit through Michael's and came across some paw print magnets, which I bought for us to do a quick craft.

There's a Starbucks over there too and I opted to start my reward day and full half-day early and DD treated me to some sort of coffee creation. We also got ice cream on the way home. Mmmm...

Now, you remember that I'd lamented that DD and I were having bad luck trying to score squirrel corn? Yeah so, before the whole trip to Five Below, Michael's and Starbucks, we'd cleaned out the birdbaths.

And we finally made it to the feed store before they closed and scored us some squirrel and blue jay mix.

And then we got a wild hair to re-do the focal point (for lack of a better term) around the oak tree under which there's a birdbath--which is more for drinking than bathing because it's so small.

Anyway, this is getting way longer than I'd planned and y'all probably don't care about the series of events, but we went from this sad little area:


To this more-clean looking setup:



We also moved the other small birdbath from next to the big one and filled it with squirrel corn. DD mentioned she'd seen a small picnic table thing for squirrel corn that's still on the cob, but we found one that was more of a trough and ended buying that too.

And while we were at Lowe's we ended up with a second bird feeder as well as hummingbird feeder!




It's off in a different corner, and we didn't see any hummingbirds yesterday evening, so it might take a day or two for them to find it.


As an additional surprise, our lawn guy brought his chain saw and cut up that pile of branches from our fallen limb. Now we have that patch of lawn back--so yay. (You can see that section in that 1st bird feeder image.)

And then last but not least, DD and I worked on our little craft project that didn't get finished because the ceramic needed several coats of each color and I needed to get in bed. I'll show that off later. :0)

So all that to say, it was a lovely birthday weekend and I had fun.

Here's to a great week. Hope you're well.

Friday, June 12, 2020

Happy Birthday to Me!!






The perfect day would be having all three of my kids home, maybe at the lake or at the beach, and enjoying some pumpkin cake and really juicy burgers. :0)

Instead, I'll be at work, doing the usual. But that's okay too. I really like routine.

All birthday celebrations will have to wait for Sunday / reward day. And I'm okay with that too.

Have a great weekend.


Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Reward Day is Coming!


This coming Sunday, June 14th, is my next reward day. It'll have been three weeks since the last one.

I wasn't sure the original carb-fast worked, so I embarked on the second. As the days have passed, I've wondered... "Is it really working?" At first I wasn't so sure, but now I'm pretty sure it is for a number of reasons.

My belly pooch is the biggest fat store and the one I'm most interested in reducing. It didn't seem to be shrinking. But then I remembered that your body reduces fat from everywhere equally. So, the proof: I can comfortably wear my FitBit on the smallest band setting now, my clothes are looser, my bust actually looks smaller and, if I look closely at my tummy, it's getting a bit more wrinkly below the line where my underwear rides.

In addition, I bought some ketone test strips for urine and the first (and only at this point) test I took showed I had a goodly number of Ketones in my urine which is a good thing as those are a by-product of the body converting fat to energy. YAY!

During this process I have come to realize I need a little less protein and more healthy fats in my diet, so I'm researching keto recipes this week to implement for the next carb-fast. The other question becomes do I go back to a two-week plan or bump up to four weeks? I'm leaning toward two weeks because I really like reward days and I'll have an easier time staying the course during the other thirteen days rather than having to resist temptation for twenty-seven days. :0)

Hope you're having a great week. See you Friday!!

Monday, June 8, 2020

June is Pride Month



Considering the genre of my books, I figured I ought to give PRIDE MONTH a shout out!

Love is Love

Here are the covers of my latest books.

Book 1 ~ published October 2019


Book 2 ~ published May 2020



Book 3 ~ to be released February 2021






The book I'm hoping to publish in October only has a working title that I'm not fond of and hence no cover, although I maybe ought to get on that. :0)





Friday, June 5, 2020

The Birds are Back in Town


Since the advent of filling the bird feeder and making it available, we been visited by all kinds of birds.

Cardinals
Blue Jays
Woodpeckers
Mourning Doves
various finches
American Robin
Mockingbirds
various sparrows
the occasional chickadee
possibly a Starling

There are probably more species that I just can't identify, but we have a nice mix and it's a lot of fun to watch them come and go and to listen to them chittering and chirping of a Saturday morning.

The Jays and the Mockingbirds both like to chase the squirrels, but they occasional crack seed together as the squirrels are also fans of the birdseed.

Now DD and I have tried to get some squirrel corn, but the fates have worked against us so far as the two times we've gone to the local feed store, they'd closed a mere few minutes prior to our arrival. Walmart does not carry squirrel corn, hence our attempted trips to the feed store. Tomorrow!

Here are some not-so-great pictures...

Male cardinal in the grass...

 Male blue jay in the grass...

Female cardinal and some black bird that I can't positively identify...



Have a great weekend! Stay safe and take care.


Wednesday, June 3, 2020

The US Goes Back to Space


What should have been forefront in the news and much cause for celebration has been pushed aside due to more pressing and saddening events taking place across our nation.

But I'd like to give the Space Launch its due. For the first time in close to a decade, the US went to space. It was so fun to watch. And is hopefully just the first step on our way to a Space Force, which we are in desperate need of.

So I took some pictures of the TV and I'd like to commemorate that.









Tuesday, June 2, 2020

#blackouttuesday


Monday, June 1, 2020

RIP George Floyd


Our country is in a bad place. Still. Years later.

It should not be this way and yet...here we still are.

I know few details, but I do know this:

George Floyd's death was tragic, unnecessary, and horrific. The officers (who no longer deserves that title) should rot in jail.

I don't often comment on things of this nature, but it's time for the United States to get its collective act together and hold people accountable for their actions, no matter their position of authority, their financial status (or lack thereof), their color, their religion, or their sexual orientation. or anything else.

All men are supposed to be equal... Why aren't they treated that way?