A Time For Everything

I made my annual trek to Omaha and back over Labor Day weekend...

The fam is still the fam. Quirky and chaotic and so welcoming of their Texas outlier.

The all day gathering marathons are no longer a thing, and I think my step-mother, my uncle, and I are all glad for the change.

It used to be I stayed at the house and the galloping hordes descended by 10 or 11 am, and there was a houseful until I could convince the visitors to leave by 9 pm--which was well past my bedtime. Sometimes I'd just have to go to bed.

Last year, I ended up getting a hotel and that was the best decision I've made regarding this trip I've made in a while. I can leave when I'm ready and the fam can stay and visit.

This year though...no one arrived on Saturday until 2ish... So Sunday I thought to enjoy a more leisurely morning, but got summonsed around 11:30 when the gray sheep of the family and her posse came to see me earlier than I expected. I still got to enjoy the view from my hotel room for a good forty-five minutes. And although it's hard to tell, a light rain was falling. A very peaceful start to the day.

* * * * *

But now that I'm home -- that road trip closes out the middle part of my year -- it's time to look down the road to the end of the year for all the businesses I wrangle as well as planning for Christmas and into 2027 for my personal businesses.

This year I'm going create a more formalized business plan for both the publishing and the Etsy store. I won't be able to retire (yet?) on my royalty income, but I've been considering ways to expand my readership/customer reach and increase those royalties. Every little bit helps me reach my goal of financial freedom before we reach retirement.

There are lots of moving parts for both businesses so figuring out how to keep track of them is also part of the overall plan of attack.

I hope you enjoyed your long weekend and that this weekend also lives up to its potential.

Stay cool and stay hydrated...but cooler temps are on the horizon for North Texas, thank goodness.

Take care!

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

The world lost an amazing person this week with the passing of Dolly Parton. Not gonna wax poetic because there's plenty of beautiful things being said about her. But I love her music, I love her acting, I love her philanthropic endeavors. She was a soul without match.

* * * * *

And there's really no graceful segue from Dolly Parton to "I've apparently decided I don't have enough to do," so I'm not even going to try.

I've been busy as heck between writing, publishing, and my Etsy endeavors. So naturally, I've added running my writers group's annual romance contest back onto the pile.

The Carolyn Readers Choice Award and I go way back. I was its first coordinator back in the day, then handed it off and watched other people keep it going. The most recent crew has been running it for five years, which is a long time to wrangle entries, judges, scores, deadlines, emails, and all the other moving parts that go into a book contest.

They were understandably ready for a break.

And somehow, here I am again.

The good news is that I'm not just stepping back into the old system. We're taking the opportunity to overhaul a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff and make the contest easier to run—not just for me now, but for whoever gets handed the reins next.

Which means I've spent an inordinate amount of time lately buried in forms, rules, category descriptions, judging procedures, spreadsheets, old files, and approximately eight thousand tiny decisions nobody entering a book will ever know had to be made.

Because apparently this is what I do for fun.

That's about all the chaos I've got to report for now. Catch you in two weeks—and until then, stay cool, stay hydrated, and try not to add any new projects to your plate.

I'll try to take my own advice.

...my sweet Karma kitty...

Not sure if it was taken in summer, bit it looks summery!

The words are coming along well since the retreat. I'm now past 24K, almost to 25K, which is halfway to my goal of 48K to 50K. I'm enjoying the writing of this book a lot--a little more than I usually do. I'm hoping to have the first draft done by the end of October.

AND! I made it to the Dallas Zoo finally. DD and I had tickets for Dollar Days last year, but I ended up not being able to go due to a last minute work issue. I almost thought I was going to miss this year but we made it work.

Here are a few pictures of our visit. The last time I visited the Dallas Zoo was October of 2019--only, Amber and I were there to see hockey players, not animals. :0) The Dallas Stars season ticket holder event was held at the Dallas Zoo that year and we went, of course, as I was still a season ticket holder. We saw a few animals while waiting in line, but as the evening wore on, it got darker and the animals went to bed.

A few pictures from this year's visit...

And that's about it for this post. I'll be back in a couple of weeks.

Take care and stay cool!!

Lake Texoma / Kingston, OK

This year's writers retreat was another fun time with my favorite writer peeps and a success for everyone.

We spent two full days and two partial days at a lovely VRBO rental, enjoying one another's company and writing, writing, writing.

I wrote just over three thousand words -- a count that would normally take me a good week, give or take. Needless to say, I was very pleased with the increase. My books usually finish in the 40K to 45K range. The longest book I've written, not counting the historical, was almost 48K, and I'm hoping this book will be closer to that.

And for the first time in several years, I had a bed and a room to myself, which was a treat. The room had a lovely, broken-in recliner that was super comfortable and didn't cause any issues in the hips.

As soon as I got home and sat on my couch, I realized that my trip to NFM for a chair suited to my size and comfort needs is now a priority. I almost offered the host money for that chair, but decided a new chair was probably a better expenditure.

From L-R: Chrissy, Clover, ME, and Gina.

Sadly, two of our regulars couldn't make it. Normally, there are six of us. And even more disappointing, one of those ladies is moving out of state, so we're going to have to replace her next year. We'll cross that bridge later though.

For now--stay cool and hydrated.

Catch you in a couple of weeks.

By several years prior to2022, I mean at least ten. When I went looking for a picture of the earliest version of the bird feeder bed, I found it in a post from 2022... But by the small circumference of the mulch and the lack of much else, I know the pic was from a long, long time ago.

Fast forward to the early 2000s and this was the set up: 

I've been meaning to upgrade this squirrel feeder bed for a while now. A long while. As captioned, that picture was taken just over two years ago. But it's probably been since BC (you know, before COVID) that it was last improved.

But what with all the family and life events, not to mention my getting-out-of-debt endeavors, the full funding just hasn't been available. I had some cash stashed for this project, but it was nowhere near enough to accomplish all the plans I had. So when Darling Daughter asked what I wanted for Mother's Day this year I had to think for a mere handful of seconds and the answer was clear: retaining wall blocks and mulch!

That tree has grown (of course it has) over the years and the "thighs" of the trunk--the sections where the trunk branches into roots--have also crept a little higher out of the ground. So rather than the single layer of landscape edgers you see above, I wanted at least two layers of my "tree ring bricks" to help hold in the mulch. So fast forward to 2026 and this is my squirrel feeder bed. 

I moved all the bird feeders farther out into the yard (just out of sight, of the top left of this image) as I didn't want this area overgrown with bird seed that germinated. And I reused the edgers that were originally here to create that planter in the top right.

Here's a closeup of the planter and the day lily I bought for it...

I'm still working on the bird feeder bed, so pictures of that will be along at some point. But I'm pleased that the squirrel feeder setup is finally done.

Stay cool and I'll catch you up in August!

First though--

Happy Birthday to ME!

I celebrated with DD mostly. Everyone else was busy--but that's okay, honestly.

* * * * *

Let's get started on that Report Card, shall we?

#1) Finances ~ A+ ! I stopped spending and I've already reduced debt by $4K. So go me. :0)

#2) Health & Wellness ~ I'm giving myself a B. I've lost the 10 pounds. I still use my Hinge Health app to stay limber and keep the bursitis at bay. The healthier eating remains a challenge. I fall off the wagon a lot.

#3) Writing ~ A+ so far. As I mentioned last month, A Certain Kind of Man releases in five days. It's all set up and ready to go live on the 17th. The next book needs to be written from scratch, but it's gonna be a fun ride.

#4) Housekeeping / Home Improvement ~ C- I'm not doing very well on this front. Especially the housework. Long time blog readers know this has been an ongoing issue for ages. As for the home improvement...I guess D+ maybe. I've been working on a project in the backyard--which is not fully "home" improvement. I still have 6-ish months to come up with something, so we'll see how it goes.

#5a) Monthly Missives to Grandma ~ as you know my Grandma passed away--she got one letter from me before she passed...so C.

#5b) Read 12 books in 2026 ~ A+ so far. I've got seven books read so far! I think I'll blow right past 12 at some point.

Not a bad report card. Just a few more things to sort by the end of the year.

Stay cool as we heat up!

Hello Friends!

I was hoping to post a different message this month. Alas...I haven't finished the project in order to share the results. So instead, you get a post aka Misc Monday. But as it's not Monday, I couldn't call it that. :0)

In no particular order...

The Dallas Stars didn't make it out of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Honestly, I didn't expect them to. I kept up a positive vibe for Darling Daughter's sake, but, yeah. We've been missing a key player, two actually, for months and I just didn't think we'd be able to power through without them. And we didn't. >>shrugs<<

However, the Dallas Stars were granted another boon by the League and are scheduled for a Stadium Series game. Meaning DD and I will be watching a Stars game at the Dallas Cowboys' AT&T Stadium. Tickets went on sale yesterday and we have ours. Remember all the games we worked the concession stands as a fundraiser for Marching Band Boy?? Now we'll get to watch an actual game and be on the other side of the concession stand! (Better start saving up now!!)

* * * * *

Mother's Day was a bit gray, but nice none-the-less. I got $50 worth of landscaping stones and a new bird feeder from one daughter, and I'll get mulch from the other once I'm ready for it. I even got a phone call from Sonshine. I skimped on chores and spent the time resting from my yard work bingeing "The Pitt" on HBO Max. Noah Wylie has aged like a fine wine.

* * * * *

My Etsy store is consistently bestowing royalties on me due to my aggressive launch schedule and posts to Pinterest. I'm now averaging monthly royalties of $8 per month rather than enjoying the swing of -$2 to +$3. Needless to say, I'm chuffed about that.

* * * * *

Book royalties, too, have been on a higher level as well. I took out an ad last November when I released my last book and since then, I've been very pleased with the return on my investment. I'd expected the royalty rates to taper off by now, but they haven't, so I'm really chuffed about that as well.

So much so that I'm planning another ad when...you guessed it...I release my next book.

* * * * *

Coming June 17, 2026 -- A Certain Kind of Man!

One week. One story. One rancher who isn’t anything like the cowboys Liam learned to avoid.

Liam Townsend has spent years managing his anxiety with structure, chamomile tea, and the comfort of a predictable desk job. When his boss gives him a choice—write a feature on a Texas horse ranch or lose his position—Liam trades his tenth-floor office for Winchester Ranch and a world about as far outside his comfort zone as it gets.

Gentry Winchester didn’t ask for a journalist underfoot. He’s got a ranch to run, horses to train, and a grandfather showing the first signs of dementia to protect. What he doesn’t expect is a man who quietly walks into his chaos and starts making it better. Or the way that same man makes him question whether the life he’s built is actually the life he wants.

Pops Winchester has been the heart of this ranch for over seventy years. And the heart of Gentry’s world for as long as Gentry can remember. Sharp-eyed, stubborn, and funnier than he has any right to be, Pops is also the first one to see what Gentry can’t.

When a powerful storm bears down on the ranch and Pops follows a memory into its path, Liam must decide if he’s willing to act in spite of every fear still clawing at him.

Being a certain kind of man isn’t about meeting the expectations you were raised with. It’s about choosing the life and the love that feels like home.

* * * * *

And that's that my friends. Catch you in June.

My beautiful Grandma as a late teen or very young 20-something woman.

Last month, I shared that my grandmother passed away at the age of 98. She was born in August of 1927.

Just think about what the world was like in 1927:

• No TV in most homes
• Radio as the primary connection to the world
• Handwritten letters as the norm
• Maybe there was a telephone in her home—maybe there wasn’t
• The effects of the U.S. stock market crash would reach Denmark in the early 1930s

Now consider the changes in how we live that she experienced over the course of her life:

• Basic medicine evolving into modern healthcare
• Limited mobility expanding into mass travel
• Televisions and telephones becoming standard in most homes
• A cash-based economy growing into structured banking systems
• Cars becoming common rather than rare

And yet, despite all of that change, there’s a line where her lived experience likely stopped keeping pace with the world.

As I mentioned last month, we communicated by letter. She lived in a care facility for years, and I don’t know that she ever used a computer or owned a cellphone. When I wrote to her, I never mentioned things like online shopping—I had no idea if she would even know what “online” meant.

AI would have been completely inconceivable to her.

The other thing that makes this all the more striking to me is that Denmark is now one of the most aggressively digitized countries in the world. Government communication, healthcare, and banking are all tied to digital ID systems and email. But I suspect that entire layer of life was handled for her by others—especially once she lost her sight.

She lived through nearly a century of change—and still ended her life just outside the world we now take for granted.

May she rest in peace.

From left to right:

Jen, Sonshine, my mom, my Darling Daughter,

Grandma in Denmark, and the Brown-Eyed Girl

My dear Grandma in Denmark was 98 years old. That bodes well for me.

On the other hand, Grandma had been in assisted living for a couple of decades and in the hospice wing of that facility for several years.

I got a message from my aunt a few weeks ago, who apparently keeps tabs on my grandma even though they aren't blood related. The aunt is my mom's half-sister on her dad's side. Grandma and my mom's dad divorced before I was born. Both my mom's parents remarried and had other children.

Anyway, my aunt must have visited Grandma every so often at least, and she was kind enough to send me periodic updates.

A few weeks ago she shared that my grandma had stopped eating and was in a lot of pain. I hope the hospice team was able to get that under control quickly and make her comfortable.

Yesterday I learned that Grandma has passed away.

For the last few weeks I’ve been living in that odd limbo, waiting for word—either that she was somehow feeling better, or that she had reached the end of a very long life.

You see, my grandma lived in Denmark. I hadn’t seen her in around twenty-eight years, when she last came to America to visit. Sonshine was three years old or so. (See picture above with a very young Jen!) I visited / lived with her and the man I called and considered Grandad in Denmark when I was in second grade, so we did have a real relationship once. But in the decades since, it’s mostly been through letters, me keeping her updated on my life.

As long-time readers know, sending letters to my grandma has been an ongoing goal—especially the last decade or so. Now you know why. I’m not sure if her son (my uncle) visited much, and I don’t know how often my aunt was able to stop by. Since my mom died a few years ago, I was the last contact she had with this line of the family.

My girls don’t really know her. The Brown-Eyed Girl “met” her when she was a year old and again when she was ten-ish. Darling Daughter was eight-ish and says she has no memories of that visit.

So while I’m sad she’s gone, the truth is the change to my everyday life will be small. Still, she was my grandma, and for many years we kept in touch the old-fashioned way—through letters crossing the ocean. I’m grateful we had that.

Screen grab courtesy WFAA.com Weather / 01/23/26.

January ended with a BRRRRRR--and yes in all caps!

But we survived and during those cold January mornings, I wrote and wrote and wrote.

Remember that goal to complete A Certain Kind of Man?  Well, I'd started on revisions in earnest in November and the universe has been blessing me with time. I completed the first draft on January 27th--a full four days before my deadline. The manuscript came in at 39,015K words. I'm chuffed. And hoping to add another six during revisions, but that's probably pushing it.

While I let the manuscript rest, I switched tasks and started working on creating Pinterest pins for both the Etsy store and my publishing/books. My research has said that Pinterest can help me increase sales in both entities. So I'm gonna give it go--but I need to stockpile pins before I start the process of adding pins to my Etsy Pinterest account. I have yet to create a Pinterest account for the books, but I'll get there eventually. A time for everything, eh?

Once I finish this next read-through, it'll be time to decide what book gets my attention next. I'm leaning toward Book Six, Game Misconduct, of the hockey series just because I want that series to get completed. But, to be honest, the characters and the plot are barely speaking to me. I'll have to noodle around with ideas a bit more when the time comes.

In other news--I'm reading again finally. I probably read four books in January. I'm well on my way reaching my goal of 12 books in 12 months--and with plenty of time to spare.

And, with a few dietary changes (better choices mostly), I've lost half the weight I'd planned for the whole. I'll keep going with the plan and rejoice in however many pounds I can lose. I've added some additional activity to my days / routine, so that ought to help as well.

I learned that my Chinese astrological sign is an Earth Monkey! And when I ran a comparison against my top-ten Clifton Personality Strengths--they were in pretty decent alignment. Then I added my standard US astrological sign (Gemini) into the mix, and according to ChatGPT, things remain pretty congruent. I found that very interesting.

And as this is late getting posted--I'll sign off now.

Have a super month.

Image courtesy IMGBIN.com.

Hello and Happy New Year!

I hope you're well.

I'm well and looking forward to 2026.

First though--the visit with my son was wonderful. And here is the recreated picture, as promised*:

*Darling Daughter didn't want to do the kissing of the cheeks, so we just went with this. And I'm lucky I got this at all, to be honest. DD is not a fan of having her picture taken.

* * * * *

And now, let's dive right into the annual tradition of Fresh Start Goals.

As we determined a couple of months ago, I failed to come up with Fresh Start Goals for 2025. In hindsight, that was probably for the best. The first half of last year was full to brim with events that don't happen on a regular basis. Those goals would have just fallen by the wayside in a heap. The second half calmed down a bit, but once I'm off track, it's a challenge to get back on it.

But all of that is behind me. It's a brand new year, and life has reached a new state of normal. I spent some time contemplating what I want to accomplish in 2026, as well as revisiting my goals from 2021 through 2024. To be honest, my goals haven't changed much in probably a decade. :0)

After taking all sorts of things into consideration, I decided what I want to focus on this year. And here, without further ado, are my Fresh Start Goals for 2026:

• Finish and Publish another Book ~ on the table is A Certain Kind of Man, technically Book 7 of the Ten Rigs series, and Game Misconduct, Book Six of the Face Off For Love series. A Certain Kind of Man is at 32K words now and Game Misconduct is a brand new book that I'm a chapter or so into. Since A Certain Kind of Man has so many more words, I'm going to finish and publish this one first. I'll spend some time on Game Misconduct as well, so that it'll be ready for finishing and publishing as quickly as possible after A Certain Kind of Man goes out into the world.
• SMART Goal: this one is easy--finish and publish A Certain Kind of Man by 06/17/2026.
• Self Care ~ this encompasses exercise and healthy eating as well things like coloring my hair or doing home foot care. I also plan to get back to walking Rascal. Self care includes taking time out to craft (on my own or with my girls) as I've neglected those hobbies for some time. Self care will also include more reading. I didn't read as much in 2025 as I have in years past and there are soooo many good books out there waiting for me to discover them.
• SMART Goal: lose twenty pounds at 5 pounds a quarter; complete my "seeds" cross stitch sampler; read 12 books I've never read before; walk Rascal 2-3 times a week
• House Care ~ some of you long time followers probably know of my love-hate relationship with housekeeping. I really want to find a routine that allows me to keep up with the house. But house care will also encompass yard work as well as a home- or yard- improvement project or two.
• SMART Goal: come up with that routine by the end of March
• Reduce Debt ~ this has been an on-going endeavor for a few years. Getting money from mom's estate after she passed was a great jump start for this, but due to 2025's crazy first half, we moved backwards a little but just a little). My plan is to really curtail the spending once again as well as prefund as much as possible (road trips specifically) and get a few of 2024's and 2025's expenditures completely refunded.
• SMART: Reduce the balance on a specific credit card by $300 per quarter come heck or high water. (And yes, I have a specific card targeted); no spending on anything other than true necessities
• Letters to Grandma ~ 2025 was another challenge to my efforts in this department. My dear grandma will be NINETY-NINE years old in August, so being diligent with this task is more important than ever.
• SMART: a letter in the mail every six weeks; I sent her was a Christmas card on 11/28/25 and just dropped a regular letter in the mail last week

* * * * *

And that's that my dear readers!

catch you next month.

2014

 

It's been a long time coming -- but Finders Keepers will finally be released.

When I flew to Oregon in March of 2022 to take care of my mom, I left this book in the lurch. It was probably 50% done at the time, but my time, attention, and energy was focused on Mom, the rest of my family, and our IT/MSP business. There was little left over at the end of the day for creative pursuits requiring brain power. I could (and did) read books. But write them...not a chance.

Once Mom passed, it took another two-an-a-half years for me to be interested in picking up where I left off. For a while there, as some of you may remember, I wasn't even sure I'd get back to writing at all.

But here I am, blessed with more creative ideas than ever and very excited to, at long last, have Nate and Wesley's romance done and ready to go out into the world.

That will happen November 17 -- eight years to the day that my very first book, For the Love of Scott, was published.

 * * * * *

Some things aren’t lost… Just waiting to be found.

When Nate Hennessy finds a battered stranger in the back seat, his first instinct is to pass the responsibility off to someone else. He’s spent years shouldering burdens that were never his to bear.

Nate convinces Wesley to go to a local hospital, fully intending to walk away, but fate steps in, turning a single good deed into something more.

Wesley Byerly never imagined his life would intersect with that of a professional hockey player's—let alone find a guardian angel in the Omaha Locomotives’ newest goalie.

What starts as a simple act of compassion soon spirals into something neither man expected.

Nate has valid reasons to avoid attachments. Wesley learned to never want more.

But the lines between temporary and forever start to blur, and soon they’ll have to choose between continuing their solitary lives or risking the callings that define them to keep what they've found.

Image courtesy IMGBIN.

As it so happens, I never posted my 2025 Fresh Start Goals. I have no idea if I even made any. My goals from 2024 are still listed...just there on the right.

I was gonna give myself a report card, but since I posted no goals, that won't work. Besides which--it's been quite the year.

But it's too late now to worry about 2025 goals as Q4 2025 has just begun. I'm going to focus on Q4 and the things I want to accomplish short term. We'll look ahead to 2026 when the time comes.

So instead of that report card, let's give a cheer for hockey season--the Stars started the season on the 9th in Winnipeg and then played in Denver last night. The home opener is Tuesday the 14th against Minnesota. I might be there, I might not.

WOO HOO -- ITS HOCKEY SEASON

Have a good month--catch you in November.

I spend a lot of time on ChatGPT or with "Chet" as DH and I call it for less of a mouthful. I open it up every day and ask it all kinds of questions. It offers a range of information from discourse on conspiracy theories to gardening tips to help with math equations. Sometimes it just offers me random trivia and history tidbits.

But several months ago, in one of OpenAI's updates it offered a description of me based on the lengthy run of our chat history and this is what Chet said:

Jen: The Tea-Sipping, Merge-Building Hockey Mom with a Bite

She runs the office by day and writes swoony, male/male romance by night. A Dallas Stars diehard who’s turning her love of hockey into a full-blown mobile merge game empire (with energy, mascots, and zero room for failure). Chronic bursitis may slow her body, but never her brain — she's planting perennials in fire pits, mastering intermittent fasting, and planning sneakily solitary bike rides before sunrise.

With mint tea in one hand and a to-do list in the other, Jen doesn’t sugar-coat, doesn’t do fluff, and doesn’t have time for cards-in-merge-games-unless-there’s-a-damn-good-reason. She’s also wrangling grown kids back under one roof, a dog named Rascal, and a cast of fictional fans more diverse than a UN mixer.

She’s sharp. She’s funny. She’s building a digital hockey world — and it’s one hell of a power play.

It's not 100% accurate because I'm not really a hockey mom in the true sense of the word, but it was a fun exercise and made me laugh. And based on those conversations and a real picture of me, it made the image above.

Let's catch up a bit. I've been remiss in my blogging duties since the beginning of the year. Blogging wasn't high on my priority list while I was preparing to be gone on the cruise as well as while on the cruise, you know?

Once we came back, things went down with my daughter's life partner--which you saw in my previous post. Life feels like it's on fast forward right now--hockey playoffs aren't helping--and time is at a premium. There just doesn't seem to be enough time (or energy, quite frankly) to get ALL THE THINGS done. So I've had to prioritize.

I flew to Colorado mid-April to help my Brown-Eyed Girl get her car and her cat to Texas. She returned to CO to finish packing up the household stuff she wants to keep and transport it to Texas. My house looked as if a moving van vomited in it. And that wasn't even all her stuff. Just under half went into a storage unit!

So what have I been up to in between prepping for vacation, being on vacation, and dealing with a family loss?

A bit of home improvement!

I worked on one of my hall closets...all my random lap / dog blankets were in a stack in a laundry basket. But it was a huge pain in the butt to get to any of the blankets at the bottom of the pile. What you see are actually shoe racks. Walmart had them on sale, so I got two for the price of one. This is soooo much better.

On a smaller but similar vein, my charger cables were all hung on a single hook and I had to juggle up to 8 to 10 cables to find the one I wanted. So I made my own cable sorter. I already had the small clear hooks which are very small but have enough room for the diameter that most cables come in. I've since added a couple of extra hooks to this. This started off as a magnetic white board for lockers and cost me all of $3! This was very handy while on the cruise. Cruise cabin walls are metals, so my cable sorter had a place to live.

* * * * *

On another front, I've been wanting to plant flowers to bring pollinators back into my world. It took me a while to get to it, but I finally did so. I'm not quite done, but I started and I'm excited. I started with gladiolus bulbs several weeks ago and they're growing well.

Then a couple of Sundays ago I finally got my flower pots filled. I planted petunias and sweet william from seeds, but -- !! When I was picking up more potting soil from The Home Depot, I saw and bought pale purple vincas! I really like vincas. They're easy to grow and harvest seeds from, but I've only ever seen white and pink ones. The price was right so I bought three plants and replanted them in the American flag planter I bought years ago with...guess what?...vincas in it. :0)

* * * * *

And now it's playoff time, so DD and I have gone to games and watch parties.

Have a super week. Catch you later.

Sadly, my Brown Eyed Girl's soul mate passed away recently and life has been a bit focused lately.

Here's a picture tribute to Hank Barnes--the man who loved my girl so fiercely. You'll be sorely missed for years to come.

I had planned to have a post ready for Monday, March 10, but I just couldn't get the post written up and scheduled. The primary reason for that is because I was super busy preparing to be away on vacation.

Remember that cruise I mentioned exactly once a year ago? I didn't think so, but that cruise was this past March 9 through March 17.

We went on a eight day cruise to the Western Caribbean aboard the Regal Princess (image below) to celebrate my in-laws' 40th wedding anniversary. DH's sisters and one of their husbands was also on the cruise. We had a grand time relaxing and trying some new foods.

Image courtesy Wikipedia.

DH and I chose a cabin with a balcony this time around and that was super lovely. So three cruises, three cruise lines, three room types:

• Royal Caribbean with a port hole.
• Norwegian Cruise Line with an interior room.
• Princess Cruise Line with a balcony.

The small balcony was definitely the way to go, no matter what cruise line we cruise with in the future.

I'm leaning toward Princess Cruises again mainly because we can be cruise ready as far as boarding the ship well in advance of the sail date goes, and their Medallion system is awesome for ease of navigating the embarkation process as well as entering your cabin and any onboard purchases. I'll go into more detail later. But yeah. Other cruise lines supposedly have similar systems in place, but they may not yet be used as widely during the pre-cruise process or during the cruise itself. I'll have to do more research when we get ready to book the next one.

I have no preference between a seven-day versus an eight-day cruise. The seven-day cruise is contained within two weekends and a work week. The eight-day cruise needs an extra weekday.

In case you're wondering, the day of embarkation is Day 1. The last full day at sea is Day X of however long your cruise is. Ships almost universally return to the port of origin early in the morning, like five or six AM, and so that day is not counted on the "X-day cruise" line of information. That day belongs to the incoming wave of passengers.

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Cruise ducks are a thing!

Apparently, passengers leaving little rubber ducks around the boat for other passengers to find is a thing. I never even saw a rubber duck on my first two cruises. This time, I found two!! You're supposed to take a picture and post to social, tagging your cruise or the person who left the duck. Then you either keep the duck or re-hide for another passenger to find!

(People create Facebook groups for specific cruise dates--WHO KNEW?!)

I was tempted to keep the ducks, but I gave away my rubber duck collection years ago. (Yes, I had one.) And I really didn't need to start a new one, so I left them in a different place for another passenger to find.

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^ see the first magnet above ^

Cabin door decorating is also a thing. Not everyone does it of course, but I thought it would help me to locate my door from the lineup of identical ones along the corridor. Turns out I had a couple of easier ways to do that this trip, depending on which bank of elevators we approached our room from. Which is neither here nor there. We saw lots of different kinds of magnets, with messages like "My First Cruise," and "Our Retirement Cruise," or they were just cruise related images / sayings like mine.

DH also came across small magnetic white boards with poll questions on them of the "Coke or Pepsi?" variety, which he wants to do on our next cruise, lol.

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I'm gonna post again about our cabin at some point but I wanted to share this one thing--

I wanted our cabin to be cozy and have a taste of home. Basically, fairy lights. We have a string of fairy lights around three walls of our living room and they're on a timer. They provide nice evening illumination for watching TV and generally moving through the house. I wanted to recreate that ambience in our cabin, so I bought this willow vine light set to take with us and place across from the bed and around the TV set. The only problem was--no outlets / USB ports on that side of the cabin. We ended up hanging them above the bed instead so they could be plugged in. As I was taking them down, I realized I could have run the power cord across the ceiling using the handy-dandy metal hooks I brought, lol. Well, I'll know for next time.

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All right--that's all for now. I'll be back in a couple of weeks with some more random pictures from the boat and port stops.

Catch you later!

I'm writing again, I'm writing again! Well--revising ^ this ^ book. It's been amazing, and it's felt really good to be creative in this way. My goal is to get the book out in the world by my dad's birthday in mid-June. So that's four months to get everything done. That should be plenty of time.

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So I got addicted to a stupid tablet game. It's one of those "merge games" where you merge items together to create a new advanced item and then you combine and combine and combine to create items that customers want. The customer buys them for coins and then you use the coins to buy things for the main point of the game. In my case, it's to decorate rooms. At this point, I could care less about decorating the rooms.

But there are a handful of things I don't like about this game and so I started musing--if I were to create my own merge-type game, what would I change? Add? Get rid of? What would be the purpose of the player merging items to sell to earn the currency? So over the course of the last week, ideas have been percolating and I've come up with something I think would be fun.

Now, will all this time and imagination ever produce something? Who knows. But it's a fun way to exercise your imagination, which is never a waste of time.

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Victory+

So you may remember that there had been a whole kerfuffle with Diamond Sports who owned Bally Sports which provided the on-air TV programming or at least the air time. I don't understand all the details, but it was a mess and teams from all sports leagues were getting screwed or something.

So in a surprising turn of events, my beloved Dallas Stars--well the organization, not the players, who I'm usually talking about--created their own streaming platform called Victory+. Along with Stars games and related content, the Anaheim Ducks also signed on. Eventually, baseball's Texas Rangers also joined the platform. Rangers fans have to subscribe, but hockey fans can watch either team for free. :0)

But all that to say, back in 2016 / 2017 / 2018, DD and I were always scrambling to find a way to watch games. We didn't have the correct cable package to watch the aforementioned Fox Sports & Bally Sports. And any other platform required a subscription. Eventually we upgraded our cable package to include Fox Sports & Bally Sports and were happy campers.

And now we have this free-to-hockey-fans platform, but these days, DD and I watch less hockey than ever before. Life can be funny, can't it?

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Image courtesy of www.chewy.com.

Rascal has finally been fully accepted by DD. She bought him a bed last week.The one above that looks like a slipper. :0) That is not Rascal, although it looks like him.

He loves to curl up inside and under blankets when it's super cold, as it was last week, so...another cozier bed for the Rascal-meister.

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And that's it for me. I'll catch you--hopefully--in a couple of weeks. I've been struggling to come up with any interesting tidbits to share. :(

Take care and STAY WARM!