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Archive for March, 2013

Sunday Update 3/31/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on March 31, 2013| 14 Comments »

I really don’t have a lot to say this morning. The three days I planned to write this week…well…it didn’t happen. Yep, life got in the way again. I sliced my palm on Thursday, had a church thing to go to on Friday night, had a sick husband on Saturday…. Yes, after all this stuff with his ankle, now he has a toothache. A BAD one. And all the emergency dental places he called weren’t working this weekend. He almost passed out yesterday, so I didn’t leave him all day. My mom went to the drugstore for us and filled a pain prescription he had. His regular dentist can’t see him till Wednesday, but he’s going SOMEWHERE tomorrow. This is hurting him worse than his broken ankle. So it makes me hurt, too, almost to the point of crying. 😦 And his face is starting to swell.

Oh, and I have a sick cat. It’s Oz throwing up this time instead of Willow. So it looks like a vet visit.

I hope everyone else had a better week!

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Black Dagger Brotherhood – Weird Expression

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on March 30, 2013| 9 Comments »

I recently posted about the Black Dagger Brotherhood Series by J.R. Ward. I mentioned the gangsta language they use. One of the reasons this bugs me is because sometimes I have no clue what they are saying. There’s a phrase in the book I’m listening to that’s been bugging me for days. I’ve tried and tried to figure out what it means. I don’t know if I’m just dense or if no one knows what it means. Anyway, here’s the phrase, and if ANYONE knows what this means, please tell me. It’s driving me CRAZY.

“It looked like he was going to pull a meaning of life and thin mint it all over the place.”

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Fitness Friday – A Disappointing Week

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on March 29, 2013| 8 Comments »

Okay, first the bad news. I knew this would eventually have to happen. A large weight gain. I got on the scale this morning and was up 2.5 lbs. That’s a lot. And the thing is…I didn’t really eat any differently than usual this week. The only thing I did was start back with my exercise. I hadn’t exercised in about two weeks because of my work schedule, but I got in a couple of days this week. That can be kind of discouraging when you actually do something good and you end up getting not so great results. However, I do know that the weight gain COULD be water weight. Also, I can remember when I was working for Weight Watchers, many of the members had a weight gain the first week or two after starting exercise. Me, too. So I did a little research on this, and I found out that when you start exercising, your muscle cells will hold water. I won’t go into the specifics, but here’s one article on the Weight Watchers website concerning that. Weight Gain With Exercise? So it could be that or just plain old water retention. The main thing to remember is this is an ongoing lifestyle change, not something that can make or break me because of one week or even one month. It’s a lifetime commitment.

Now the fun stuff. When I got home yesterday evening, my husband was cleaning out closets. He had started with the closet in my son’s room, the one who just moved out recently. I had some old clothes in there and my husband wanted to know what to do with them. I told him they were clothes I still loved and just couldn’t wear yet. Then we started in our bedroom closet. I ended up finding about three pairs of jeans in there that I could wear, along with a couple pairs of capris. So we sorted them into clothes I could wear now, clothes that I could probably wear about five lbs. from now. And clothes that I’ll be able to wear sometime down the road. It was really fun because I used to have some really cute clothes. One type of clothing I’m going to be so glad to get rid of is going to be the long, full, “hide-the-fat” skirts. LOL. Some of them are pretty, but not really my style anymore. I used to never wear stuff like that, but as I gained weight, I found myself buying more and more of those big skirts. No more. 🙂

Anyway, that’s my story. I’m disappointed, but not discouraged. And going through the closets showed me I had really made progress. I don’t feel those 2.5 lbs. My clothes didn’t get tighter. So I’m not worried. But I’m not going to post stats this week, because I don’t want to actually SEE the gain and the change in total weight loss. I’ll get back to that next week when I lose weight again. Not if. When. 🙂

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When A Book Makes You Mad

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on March 28, 2013| 13 Comments »

I really wanted to post this yesterday, but I had already done a post. I was so upset, I just went ahead and wrote the post and scheduled it for today. You guys know me. I’m such an easy going person. Very forgiving, very calm. Most of the time. But there are some things that just get under my skin, and the author of a book I just read really ticked me off.

Here’s what happened. I was reading a historical romance. (I won’t call the author out in public, because I don’t think that’s cool.) I’ve been reading this romance on my iPad while walking on the treadmill. It was really a nice little book. I always check my percentages and locations, and this was a fairly long book. I thought. It was getting close to the point where some things were going to be resolved, and I was far less than halfway through the book, so I was wondering what intriguing things were going to happen to prolong the story. I couldn’t figure out what the author had planned, but I figured it must be good to last through more than half the book. Was the heroine going to be kidnapped? Was someone going to get hurt and have to fight for their life? Were the heroine and hero going to have another conflict (there were many already) and was she going to leave and he have to find her? Oh, the possibilities! Then I got to 39% and suddenly they loved each other and lived happily ever after. What? Something was going on here! I had 61% more book to read, so what happened? Then I started skimming through the next pages. Excerpts! Reviews! Book covers! Oh my! First I was bewildered, then I was mad. This author had basically fooled readers into thinking the book was longer than it was. Now I’m perfectly fine with a few pages of this But 61%? Really? Needless to say, I’ll never read another word this author writes. Never. I don’t care if her books end up on the best seller lists and people rave about them (which I doubt will happen). I’m done. Authors…please don’t do this. Maybe do an excerpt of one or two of your books. List the rest as links on one page. Don’t take half the book to advertise your other stuff. Don’t lie to me. Don’t make me think you’re giving me more than you are. It’s very deceiving. You could lose a lot of readers this way. /End of rant

Note: I went to the Amazon page of this book, and there were a bunch of upset readers. I noticed there was now a note at the end of the description stating “Please note this ebook also contains several multi-chapter previews of medieval romance novels written by (author’s name)”.

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Wednesday Update 3/27/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on March 27, 2013| 12 Comments »

Well, work is still hopping at my full-time job, but it’s slowing down a LITTLE. Except on Mondays and Tuesdays. So here’s my plan for awhile. Instead of fretting about not getting writing done, I’m going to change my goals to only include three writing days per week. Those days will be Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. They seem to be my slowest days at work (and no work on Saturday), so there will be less stress. I’ve been coming home with headaches the past two days and feeling just awful. Then I feel bad for not writing. As soon as things slow down a little more, I’ll add Tuesday back. Then we’ll see how that goes. I want to focus more on my house since I’ve started working on FlyLady’s routines. I really want to have a house that is company ready at all times, with no scrambling to hide stuff in the bedroom. If anyone is interested in her way of getting our houses looking great, here is the website: FlyLady. I think it’s a great way to get organized, and when our houses are organized, other things in our lives follow right behind. 🙂

Have any of you tried FlyLady’s methods?

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Sunday Update-A Day of Reflection

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on March 24, 2013| 10 Comments »

When my best friend died two years ago, her husband gave me her set of coffee cups. These cups have faces on them, and the noses stick out. There are four, all of different colors. I was so glad to have them because these were the cups we always drank out of when I was in Indiana visiting her. So as I’m sitting here this morning drinking my coffee, my mind is on my friend and how much I miss her. And how proud she would have been of me for getting the 20 lbs. off. And how proud she would have been that I’ve written so many books. And she would be so glad that I’m still good friends with her husband, author Jonathan Eli. I miss her so darn MUCH. I miss her sarcastic sense of humor and her kindness. But she would have wanted life to go on for me, her husband, and the rest of her family and friends. So even though I miss her with sadness, I miss her fondly.

Looking back at some of the things I’ve accomplished, I realize I shouldn’t be so frustrated about my writing right now. Don’t we all have periods where we slow down for awhile? I used to be able to release at least three novellas a year. Or two novels. Yet I’ve struggled lately. I know that part of the reason was because I was feeling so bad physically when my diabetes wasn’t diagnosed, therefore, not controlled. Am I just having trouble getting back into the routine? So many things have happened to hinder me, especially my husband breaking his ankle. And at my full-time job, work has been overwhelming. Not the best of conditions for writing. The past couple of weeks, I’ve really been trying to focus on getting my house in order. I’m really seeing how much work my husband actually was doing before hurting his ankle. I haven’t been exercising because I’ve been only taking 10-20 minutes for lunch every day. That’s going to stop. I HAVE to make time for exercise. I haven’t done anything for about two weeks. Next week, I’m going to make a point of taking my full lunch hour so I can go exercise. Then I’ll feel better when I come home in the evenings, and I can get back on the writing. It’s time to take charge. I can call those customers when I get back. Those sales tax reports can wait just a little longer. I NEED to exercise.

Those are my thoughts for today. Now it’s off to get ready for church, a place where I can forget about everything for a little while and focus on the most important things. 🙂

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When the Masters are Asleep, the Dog Will Play

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on March 23, 2013| 8 Comments »

I don’t know if “play” is exactly the right word for this. Apparently, hubby and I both fell asleep while Duke was still loose in the house. When we woke up, Duke was in the living room, acting innocent. We put him in the laundry room, where he stays at night when it’s cold outside. So I got up this morning to feed the cats. I’ve been keeping their food in the room they stay in when we’re not at home. This is the mess I walked into. I knew the cats weren’t able to caused this kind of destruction. Duke had obviously done this while we were asleep last night. This is an entire bag of cat food. The bag itself was torn to shreds. The cats’ food and water bowls were missing, and I found them under the pile. This was a hard cleanup because there were bits of the bag all through the food. Grrrrrrr. Oh, and that’s the bottom of my office chair you see in the picture if you’re wondering.

mess

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Fitness Friday 3/22/13 – Better Than I Thought

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on March 22, 2013| 17 Comments »

I was really dreading getting on the scale this morning. I had gained a half pound last week, and I really didn’t think I did any better this week. When I’m not actually tracking my food intake, sometimes it’s hard to tell how well I’m doing. But when I got on the scale this morning, I got a pleasant surprise. I hit my 20 lb. milestone! I’m really happy about that and feel I need to celebrate and reward myself somehow. I haven’t figured out what I want to do yet.

I was a little concerned that my blood sugar is up a bit. Not bad. It was 135 this morning, which isn’t bad at all for a diabetic, but I was getting used to it being under 120, closer to 100 most of the time. I need to figure out what’s going on with that. It kind of makes me mad since I’m sacrificing sweets. I was eating at my mom’s church a couple of days ago because my aunt had died, and here in the South, you always have a big meal after the funeral. My mom and uncle, who are both diabetic, were eating dessert. There were lots of desserts there. I didn’t touch it. I told my uncle I really missed eating desserts. He said, “I’m not supposed to have it, either, but I usually don’t except on special occasions.” I still didn’t touch it. Uncle and Mom, if you’re reading this…I just had to tell! Ha ha.

Yesterday, I found a box of Whitman’s Sampler candy. SUGAR FREE! Pure bliss. It kind of made up for not having dessert at the church. Of course, I had to buy a box of regular Whitman’s Sampler for hubby. 🙂

Stats for this week:
Beginning weight: 193
Today’s weight: 173
This week’s loss: 2 lbs.
Total loss: 20 lbs.

Yay!

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Black Dagger Brotherhood

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on March 21, 2013| 20 Comments »

I’ve posted about this series before, but now that I’m further along, I want to talk about it again. I know many of you have probably read at least some of the Black Dagger Brotherhood books by J.R. Ward. And if you haven’t, you’ve probably heard of them. Kait Nolan calls them “crack”. And I really get that now that I’ve been reading them. I’m on book 7 or 8 or something like that.

What’s so special about these books? It’s hard to really explain that. One of the things I like is how she has two or three stories going at once. There’s always the main story, then another side story about one of the other characters, usually whom the next book is about. And there’s always a story about the “enemy”. J.R. Ward makes you care about the characters. And her characters are really, really flawed, especially the Brothers. Each one has his own problem to overcome. Sometimes multiple problems. These books always leave you wanting to read the next one. And that’s good writing. That keeps readers coming back for more. I do have to occasionally read (listen to) something else between some of the books. They are so intense and so sexual that I need a good mystery or detective novel in between.

Are there annoying things about these books? Most definitely. The language can drive me crazy sometimes. A “situation” is always called a “sitch”. That one gets on my nerves a lot. Today, someone “snagged” someone else a glass of water. They couldn’t simply pour a glass of water. Or get a glass of water. Sometimes those little things grate on my nerves, but just for a second. Then I’m back in the story. I know the spelling of the names bother some people, but I listen to the audio books (I love the narrator!), so that isn’t an issue. All authors have things, I suppose, that get on other people’s nerves. But if the story is good, and told well, then we keep reading. I’ll feel so empty when the series is over. I have two more books to read in this series before I’ve read all of the ones written so far. But the books are SO long, and I just listen to them in my car, so it will be awhile before I’m done. 🙂

How about you? Have you read these books? Which is your favorite? Does the language bother you? I’d love to hear about it.

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Random Ramblings About My Cats

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on March 19, 2013| 10 Comments »

I probably shouldn’t be doing this at work since I’m so busy, but most people get scheduled breaks. I don’t, so I just take breaks when I can. And this counts as a break. LOL

In the wee hours of the morning, while I was fast asleep, I was awakened by my husband saying, “Get off, get off, get off!” I jumped out of bed, and yelled, “What?!” His reply? “Oh, I was talking to the cat.” I did get a giggle out of that, so I wasn’t mad that he woke me up. Apparently, the cat was standing on his sore leg.

So in the last couple of weeks, my cats have caught two mice. They chase them and smack them around. When they are finally dead, they keep playing with them, batting them into the air. It’s really sad for me because I feel sorry for the mice. I’m just glad my cats aren’t the kind that enjoy tearing them apart and eating parts of them. I couldn’t stand having entrails spread across my house. *shudders*.

Here’s a funny thing. Our puppy, Duke (who is 30.4 lbs. and is only about 5 months old), loves to go grab washcloths or dishcloths out of the bathroom or laundry room and chew on them. The cats hide when he’s in the house because he chases them. But when he goes out, my female cat, Willow, goes to the cloth Duke has been chewing on and rolls around on it and rubs her face in it. It honestly looks like the thing is covered in catnap, the way she acts. Does anyone have a clue why she does this? She’s terrified of the dog, but she acts like she loves rolling in his scent. What’s up with that???

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