Do you see it?

     There is a stray cat around here.  Yesterday it was enjoying a long snooze in a sunny spot on the roof of the building across from us.  It sure is a pretty cat.  Nicest shade of red I’ve ever seen on a cat. 

     If my dogs liked cats, I’d be inviting this one in for sure.

     You all have a good one and stay warm.

Accck!!!!

      Air so thick and so hot you can’t suck in a breath without feeling as though you were sucking on a stove-pipe.  This isn’t summer this is hell, this is Texas not Pennsylvania weather.  If I wanted Texas weather I’d move there.  As you can see I don’t live there and after living there once, I have no desire to EVER live there again.  Some of us Yankees like the north and don’t transplant well.

     To my friends, what few I have in that state, I say sorry.  It is my truth that I hope to never darken the state line there again in my lifetime and my afterlife. 

     There’s a song “All my exes are in Texas” which sort of describes it well enough.  No, I’m not divorced.  I’ve only ever been married to The Curmudgeon.  If you know me, you know… ;D

     You all have a good one and stay cool.

When characters fight back

 

      She’s insisting she will not become romantically involved with her coworker.  Every time I try to write a bit of a love scene, she stalks off and won’t talk to me. 

    The sexual tension is there and she refuses to play with it.  I’ve tried bribery (If you play along I’ll write you a fabulous chase scene), coaxing (Oh, come on you know you like him), and threats (If you don’t let me write the scene I’ll wound or kill you in the next scene).  No good.  She won’t be moved. 

     I have a feeling she intends to hold herself aloof for her debut and then maybe she’ll loosen up in the second book.

     At least she’s talking to me and that’s a start.  My other characters have gone into hiding.

I have hit a milestone

 

     This is my 1000^th post!  When I began this blog, I never thought I’d keep posting daily for a long as I have.  I’ve only missed posting on days I was too sick to get out of bed or when I was away at my writer’s conference.

     I never thought I’d have return readers or, much less, a small following, but I do.  To you my dear readers I say thank you for without you I wouldn’t have made it to this milestone.

     You encourage me to keep writing even when I feel crappy.  Writing on this blog has become a way to keep my hand in while my brain is out of gear on my mysteries. 

     I hope when we sell the house and things are back to a semblance of normal around here I will have no more problems with my books and can finish them in short order.

     I promise you, if you hang in here with me during this rocky time, I will get them done.

OMG, I can’t believe we’re doing another one!

     After last weekend I knew we needed to do another sale.  Up at six really doesn’t sit well with me but I am doing it none-the-less.

     Do me a favor and keep all appendages crossed that we clean out the house today.

     (Groan)  I hate mornings.

Gremlins in the house

 

     We have a problem with gremlins in this house.  Things disappear, reappear, and disappear again.  Now I am missing a large tablet, several favorite pens, and a big package of double ‘A’ batteries.  Therefore, I’m guessing our gremlins needed paper, pens and batteries.

     Are our gremlins writers?  Did they need batteries for their remote controls?

     DH claims he hasn’t seen the missing items.  Gavin and Patty don’t have thumbs so they can’t write and I have no idea what the pups would need with batteries.

     If there were kids in this house, I’d know where the batteries went.  I’ve known kids who were guilty of swiping batteries from parent’s remotes to power their stuff. 

     Usually, our gremlins return the borrowed items.  I only need to be patient.

     Do you have gremlins?  What things do they borrow?

A multitude of things

 

     My desk chair needs replacing.  The hydraulics are dying and when I sit in it, it slowly sinks to level too low for my desk.  It makes me look like a three-year-old trying to type at Daddy’s desk.  Maybe, when we sell the house, I can afford a new chair.

     Over the next two days, I need to make some posters and flyers for our last-ditch effort sale of the MIL’s stuff.  We need the house empty so we can paint.  Painters don’t charge as much if they don’t have to paint around furniture.  Big surprise yesterday, one of neighbor’s came over to the house while G and I were there and bought $51.00 worth of stuff!  Yay, more money for the paint the house fund!

     We enjoyed a lovely PA Dutch creamy cucumber salad made from the cucumbers I picked a few days ago.  They were delicious.

     Things have cooled down here, a wonderful relief from the heat and humidity of the last few days.  I opened the windows last night and turned off the AC. 

     I hope you all have a lovely day today.

I do know where this day went

 

     I typed the letter to the insurance company and had DH sign it.  Then I made copies of the policies (again) and the claim form he’d filled out and mailed ages ago.  Tossed everything into an envelope and mailed it.

     I took the dogs out, ran to the grocery store, came home and worked on the pond, watered the plants, took the dogs out, and fed them.  After that I cooked our dinner, we ate, I washed the dishes, took the dogs out, and sliced cucumbers.  Then I put the cucumbers in a bowl, salted them, and put them in the fridge to sit for a couple of hours.

     I fed the fish.  I sat down to catch my breath for a little while.  I put eggs on to boil, cut potatoes into cubes and put them on to boil.  I cut celery and onions made the dressing for the potato salad and put it over the celery and onions.  I put that bowl in the fridge.

     Eggs done, cooled them, peeled and chopped them, and added them to the potato salad bowl.  Drained the potatoes and added them to the bowl.  Then I put the bowl in the fridge.

     I washed all the prep dishes. 

     I sat down at the computer and began to type this….

Life insurance, the never-ending story

 

     Back in March, when the MIL died we sent three policies into her life insurance company.  For five months, we’ve sent copies and copies, and more copies in.  So has the funeral home.  We kept getting excuses but no results.

     Yesterday we got a call from them saying they were cutting two checks for two policies.  Wait a minute guys, there are three of them.  Oh, yeah they can’t find the third one on their database.  Um, gee whiz, she never cashed it in.  It is paid in full, why don’t you have it in your records?  Um…they don’t know. 

     All three policies won’t cover funeral expenses and now they tell us they can’t find the third.  ARRRRGH!  DH feels like Charlie Brown and wants to bang his head against a wall.

Worn out

 

     We had another disappointing day.  G and I arrived very early and had no early birds this time—wouldn’t you just know it! 

     I don’t normally do mornings but for DH I did get up early two days in a row for this.  It was bad enough to drag myself out of bed after only two or three hours of sleep on Saturday but on Sunday, I got up an hour earlier.  Six freaking a.m.  I only do six freaking a.m. when I go to conferences!

     We will probably do at least one more day of this next weekend.  There goes another day of my life I’ll never get back.

I played with the camera today

An odd weather day

 

     It rained all around us yesterday but not a single raindrop fell in our neighborhood.  I had to water the vegetables.

     I harvested six large cucumbers and a jalepeno pepper.  There’s another variety of hot pepper out there that has one almost ready to pick.  I wish the tomatoes were ready, but they’ll be a while yet. 

     Two of the five eggplants have blossoms.  I look forward to them since this time I bought different several varieties.

     I hope you all have a good day!