Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Dilemma...

Remember the "cookie book"? I wrote a book for submission to an online publisher and submitted it back in January. I was told by the editor who received it that it could be 12 weeks before she got to it. That would have put us at the end of April.


The book is titled "To Linzer & to Cherish."

Instead, the editor got back with me within a couple of weeks, requesting/suggesting some changes to the submitted text (the first 1250 words of the book), which I made and resubmitted. She was satisfied with that change and wanted to see the whole thing after I read a book she recommended and applied the concepts as needed.

So...I reviewed and revised all 23K and sent it to her. Now that she's read the whole book, she's made another observation and requested an outline of how I'd make changes IF I were to proceed. If I tell her I want to make the changes and how I plan to do so, she'll request/send a contract...

Which sounds exciting, but I've spent way more time on this book this quarter than I anticipated and it's thrown me for a loop. I'm not working on the book I was supposed to be working on and I'm feeling a bit discombobulated in general. And this new directive which is somewhat time sensitive is yet another knot in the yarn of my life at the moment.

The offering of a contract sounds like I'll get in the Christmas anthology this year, which was the hope.

So what's the problem...? I'm not sure exactly. Part of it is that--I write the way I write and I have decent ranking numbers on Amazon. Readers don't care as much as editors do about a lot of things... And it's not like my writing won't be all the better for it, but just ugh...

Anyway...enough whining. :0) I told her I'd let her know by Monday, so my weekend will be busy...

Have a great week.

Friday, March 26, 2021

Stars Win for the Birthday Girl

What better way for a hockey fan to spend their birthday than watching their team play one of their best games of the season and win against the best team in the league--who was, coincidentally, the team that beat your team out of the Stanley Cup seven months ago...

The Stars have been inconsistent at best, crap at worst and have been unable to throw this particular monkey off their backs--until last night. Last night it all came together for them. Hopefully, they can carry the high of the win into Saturday and Sunday's games and beat another team they've had some troubles with this season.

In addition to the win, which I couldn't have planned, I did plan for a birthday announcement at the game...

Along with her name on the board, she's supposed to receive a goody bad with Stars swag. Well, due to COVID, they started mailing bag out instead of allowing them to be picked up at the game...

 But, let's see...there's a woman sitting outside of one of the fan shops handing out online orders. How is a birthday bag of goodies any different?? (They're not.) Oh and maybe if they'd mentioned it when I placed the order three weeks ago, maybe we could have had it in time for DD's birthday. *sigh*

But a good time was had by all and I even got to see the Reunion Tower Arena ball lit up for the first time in more than a month. Yee haw!

Tonight she'll open a couple small presents and enjoy a steak dinner.

Hope you have a great weekend.

Wednesday, March 24, 2021

Happy (early) Birthday DD!

Happy Birthday to my Darling Daughter and Hockey Partner in Crime...


Tomorrow we will be cheering our boys in Victory Green to victory--hopefully. Then Friday will be birthday dinner night. We've been enjoying pup-cakes all week at her request...

Have a great rest of your week.
 


Monday, March 22, 2021

Recipe of the Week

Meatloaf made with pork rinds For The Win!!

We love meatloaf, but it's usually made with some sort of bread crumbs, so we haven't eaten it much since Dan's been trying to eat more keto.

It looks like meatloaf, it tastes like meatloaf. I could taste no discernible difference in the flavor although some with more sensitive palates likely could. But we have a new keto-friendly recipe to add to the collection. Now if we could find an alternative to mashed potatoes...

I've tried the mashed cauliflower and it's okay, but it needs some tweaking. It's not my fave and a friend told me that cauliflower tastes different during different times of the year. Perhaps I had a more bitter batch the time I tried it. Also I didn't makes it from scratch, so that might have had something to do with it.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend....

Friday, March 19, 2021

USS Alabama & USS Drum

While in Alabama, DD and I spent a couple of hours tromping around two decommissioned naval vessels from World War II -- the battleship USS Alabama and the submarine USS Drum.

Here are some cool pictures for a quick view, but if you're interested in perusing all 180+ images, follow this link!






Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Whirlwind Road Trip

Well, we did it...

DD and me went on our whirlwind road trip to Alabama to visit the two Buc-cee's locations there.

On the way home, we also stopped at a Buc-cee's on the very outskirts of the Metroplex that we just hadn't had a chance to get to.

Pictures or it didn't happen right??

Beach Express location just east of Mobile.

Leeds location just east of Birmingham.

The Terrell location didn't have the city name on the sign, but here's a pic of the store... You're just going to have to trust me. :0)

While we were in Mobile, we did visit the USS Alabama and the USS Drum. Pictures will be along on Friday.

Hope you're having a great week. Catch you Friday.




Wednesday, March 10, 2021

Activate Reading Mode

Since the whole cookie book incident--I'm calling it that because the whole thing has really rankled me--I haven't felt much like writing or editing. The Dallas Stars schedule is not helping matters.

Regardless of my excuses, I really need to get to work. Instead...

I'm reading. A lot. Also--sleeping. See the aforementioned hockey schedule... I know, I know. I don't have to watch or go to hockey games. But I paid for the tickets, so I sorta do have to go, unless they get sold.

I probably won't get much work done between now and Tuesday since DD and I are going on a road trip this weekend. Once I'm back, it's back to work.

Back to a lot of things.

While I have been cooking healthy meals for dinner for DH, I'm otherwise eating a lot of stuff I shouldn't a not exercising much.

So...better eating habits, better exercise habits, better writerly habits.

Sometimes, though, you need a mental health break.

Hope you're having a great week.

Monday, March 8, 2021

Happy International Women's Day

to all the women who are pioneers in the movement for gender equality.

My mom was one of those women, in a sense. She was a single mom from the time I was two. I don't know all the challenges she had to face in being a woman on her own with a small child, but she stood on her own two feet, did what she needed to do,

Thanks, Mom! I love you. Hope you're having a super day.



Wednesday, March 3, 2021


It's barely mid-day as I write this, but it's already been a day, and I'm ready for it to be Friday at 5pm right now.

I could use a bubble bath and a drink and I don't say either of those things often. :0)

We've probably had in combination two dozen phone calls or emails for service calls this morning. Usually we're sitting at six to ten by this point in the day... Yeesh.

On top of that, my writers group is having some issues, so as "leadership" and for other reasons, I'm on call to help sort through that.

So that's my day.

And last night the Stars lost yet again. So it appears that this season is just going to be a wash due to injuries to key players and the very condensed schedule. They actually played well last night, but the other team's goalie and his goalposts kept us off the scoresheet. 😕

Hope your week is going better than mine! Take care and catch you on Friday.

Monday, March 1, 2021

Monday Morning Blues...

😑

I have them but not really because it's Monday. More because it's gloomy and raining, because my Dallas Stars have lost nine out of their last eleven games, and because there are some changes going on at work.

In Texas, all rain is good, even if several inches of snow melted into the coffers. But it's been cloudy for days and I'm ready for a bit of sunshine.

The outcome of sport shouldn't really have an effect and I know this, but it still stinks.

The changes at work aren't bad, but the transition is nerve wracking for me. (Also remembering that "change" is one of my words for the year. :0))

* * * * *

I spent a lot of writing time this weekend revising the cookie book for re-submission. My goal is to have them done and the new chapter one sent in by Thursday mid-morning. Theoretically, I could send chapter one in now, but I want to make sure I have the thread of resulting tweaks as close to complete as possible as well--just in case she requests the whole immediately.

KETO meals are going well. We've tried a couple new recipes and I have chicken-stuffed cabbage enchiladas on the menu for this week.

The dog got walked Sunday. I completely forgot on Saturday. It's easier to remember on Sunday because she gets bathed on Sunday afternoons, so the walk is the last thing she does to get stinky before we hop in the shower.

As you can see, there's not much going on...just the usual. Two weeks from now I'll be on my way back from a little jaunt to Alabama...

Yep, DD and I are making our run to the Buc-cee's just east of Mobile. I've been saving up my trips.

Hope you had a good weekend. Catch you on Wednesday.