Lucky 13

I was looking through my completed stories and saw that I have 12 that are ready for editing.  For a short story book with dark stories, it seems more appropriate to have 13 in the book, so I need to get cracking and write another story (and get them edited) so I can get it published.

In other news, Candice has been suffering from a mystery illness for over a month now.  The doctor now thinks it is her gall bladder and/or an ulcer.  She goes in tomorrow morning for an ultrasound for the gall bladder, and sometime later this week or next for a throat scope to find out about the ulcer (and esophageal cancer possibilities).  Either way, we probably can't start and "hard" treatments until we return from vacation mid-June time-frame.  Of course, we are both fighting off a head cold right now, too.

I just started the sprinklers and cut the grass for the first time this year, so spring/summer has officially begun now.

Also, I need to take out the "missile" (luggage container that we mount on the roof of the Santa Fe for vacations) and rinse it out since it got a lot of mud, etc. in it in the rain storms last year before we were able to get it inside out of the elements.  We also need to start working on a "To Do" for getting ready for our vacation. (I'm pretty sure Candice just rolled her eyes as she read that.)

Anyway, that's all I have for right now, thanks for reading!

Lazy Saturday

I haven't written anything yet this weekend, but I have gotten something accomplished from my To Do list.  I carried out the recycling and trash from the bedroom.  That was all from my actual list, but in addition to that, I loaded the dishwasher and glued a broken piece to Gabe's combination miniature foosball/air hockey/pool table (though in fairness, I did that last night).

It has been snowing out all morning, making me reluctant to go clean my license plates and put the new sticker on them.  If it warms up later, I'll do it this weekend.

I need to also cut a board for Candice's witch cottage dollhouse.  That would require me moving my car out of the garage and staying out there long enough to move stuff off the saw and to cut the board, so if it warms enough to put the license plate sticker on my car, that is entirely within the realm of possibility for this weekend, too.

That's all I have for now, thanks for reading.

Recent Progress and Other Random Bits of Information

I did, in fact, manage to write some this past Sunday (640 words it seems after typing it up) on Forbidden Knowledge.  It's up to over 3200 words so far.  I don't know how close to the end it is though, it hasn't told me how it'll end yet.  I haven't written any since then towards it, but that's because a) it hasn't called to me to write on it, and b) I really haven't had the opportunity to write since Sunday.

I'm hoping it'll tell me the rest of the story soon, and then let one of the other stories start revealing themselves.  Maybe the zombie story, maybe the vampire one, maybe the werewolf one, maybe Red at Night (the companion story to Mary's Painting), maybe the time travel one, maybe the murder mystery, or maybe one of the other fifty or so stories that I've jotted down at least a kernel about...

That's it for the writing front, on to some of the "life" topics:

Donna's hand has mostly healed from her burn.  The skin is still a darker red than the surrounding skin, but other than that, it looks great and is pain free (unless she's trying for sympathy, then she can't use it for anything).  She started back to Day Care/Preschool today (she goes two days a week).  This fall, she'll be starting all day Kindergarten and Megi will be taking her slot (we assume/hope) at the daycare/preschool.  We really need to ask to make sure that plan will work out, but the lady in charge is never there when I remember (she's practically never there in the afternoons it seems).

Last night, Gabe had the annual class concert.  He did awesome.  Usually, he loses focus and stops singing along about 2/3 of the way through, and he never does any of the hand motions/signing that might go along with them.  but last night, he sang along for the entire show, and he did most of the motions, too.  You could tell that he really enjoyed the Star Spangled Banner performance where they beat some colored plates together and made several different sounds with them.  I'm not sure if Candice saw how much his face seemed to light up when they were doing this performance, she thought using the plates was hilarious and was trying to control her laughter the entire time.  :-)  I was especially impressed with Gabe performing the entire show because they did a lot of "rounds" and "complementary songs" which made it more difficult for him to concentrate.  We took him out for ice cream afterwards.

On my To Do list in the coming weeks/this weekend is:

1)  Finally put the new year sticker on my license plate.  I've had them for nearly a month now, I really need to put them on.  It's just been mostly too cold lately.

2)  Make some time to write.  I need to figure out a way to write at home where I don't feel like I'm ignoring my family.  Perhaps at the kids' nap time and Candice can work on her dollhouses at the same time so she won't feel the same about me.  We'll both be accomplishing something we want to do, and we shouldn't feel bad about doing it, because otherwise we'd likely just be doing nothing really.

3)  Try to get Gabe's name changed with the Social Security Administration.  It's been changed nearly four years now, we might as well let the Feds know about it...  This will probably be more likely a task for within the next couple of months, but it's officially on my actual To Do list, and not just my "I should do this" list.

4)  Help Candice wiring her dollhouses when she's ready for that and has bought the wiring kits she needs (assuming she wants me to help her).

5)  Clean the garage.  

6)  Carry trash and recycling out of our bedroom (I really should have done that before this morning since today was trash/recycling day).

I'm sure there's more for the To Do List, and I'll add to it as I remember it.

That's all I have for this blog, thanks for reading.

Quick Writing Update 22 February 2014

Last night I wasn't tired when we went to bed, so I sat up while Candice slept and wrote some more on Forbidden Knowledge.  After tying it up this morning (which is very difficult to do with a two and a half year old in your lap, by the way), it appears I wrote about another 750 words, which puts the text just spilling onto the fourteenth page including the title page, and it now stands at a little over 2600 words.

So, yay me.  I have to work crew tomorrow.  Hopefully things will go slowly so I'll have the opportunity to write more on it.  That of course assumes the story will speak to me tomorrow, too.  We'll see.

On a non-writing related note, I've made a lot of progress painting the kids' door nameplates, and hope to finish that stage of the process soon.  Next after that will be gluing the pieces on them and screwing the clips to them.  After that, I'll just need to tie the twine in place on each of them and put the hooks in the doors (and of course take pictures to post here).

That's all for this update.  Thanks for reading.

Today's Agenda 15 Feb 14

I have some plans for this weekend, and if my past is any indication, I'll either do none of them, or get really motivated and do all of them.  I don't seem to have a "go at a leisurely speed" setting.

So, what do I have on my list?

(In no particular order)

1)  Paint the kids' door nameplate pieces.  (I'll probably need to go to the bad place or a craft store to get a few more colors for this project.  Last night I bought some clips to screw onto them, so that they can also be used for leaving messages and surprises for the kids, too.  I only needed three, and they came two to a pack, but they were on sale for three packs for the price of two, so I have six clips now.

2)  Write some more for Forbidden Knowledge.

3)  Play some games with Gabe and try to teach him some sportsmanship, and that losing isn't the end of the world.

4)  Keep the kids away from Candice so she can get back on her schedule for building the dollhouse she is excited to put together.

5)  Finish assembling the nameplates and hang them (See #1 on this list)

6)  Go deposit money in the bank towards our furniture fund.  After this deposit, we'll be at 44% (including tax) of what we need for the new bed and mattress set we've prioritized as first on our list.  With the amount I'm setting aside each paycheck, we'll be getting it a year from now if we don't put any additional deposits in.  If we do, we get it sooner.  Our goal is to get it for each other for Christmas (and then we'll even be easy to shop for this Christmas as we'll need new sheets, etc. for the new size bed).

7)  Remember the other four or five things I had listed out in my head when I sat down to start writing this blog and do them, too...

That's all I have for this blog, thanks for reading.

One More Off the List, Three More Added

Not much more to report, except that I got the screen door repaired.  I also remembered several more things to add to the To Do List (buy and install new fans in Donna's bedroom and the Master bedroom).  Thanks to the dogs, I also get to do repair work on the deck to fix boards they broke, etc. because of their fear of the invisible fence.

That's all for this quick update.  Thanks for reading.

Backwards, You Say?

So, I finished the ventilation fan for Candice's glasswork studio.  Turns out the intake and outtake were reversed, so that the large hole I thought was outtake was in fact intake.  The intake is the most important part as it needs to take the toxic fumes away from the torch area and siphon them to the outtake.  So, having it wide open is in effect, bad, since it can pull air from basically all over.  So, I changed the design a little and it now is a better design overall because instead of taking it outside to use, it can be left in and has duct work to go through the doggy door and duct work that goes over to her workbench (though the latter needs to be trimmed down in length and fastened better to the fan.  We also used some spray foam

I used my router for the first time this weekend and used it successfully.  Now I feel confident for building the box shelves to hang in Donna's room, and for that matter, to build bookshelves and a better designed glass rod holder for Candice's art studio.  Once I figured out the direction to use the router and the speed control, the only thing I need to do better is to get a more low profile piece of wood to use as a guide, and to measure more precisely (though the latter was a given since I was only practicing and therefore wasn't concerned with precise measurements.

I set up the invisible dog fence this weekend, though I still have to bury the wire in places.  The dogs became terrified to go out in the back yard, so I lowered the intensity several notches and we put them outside agin.  Eventually they ventured out, and we discovered that the intensity was too low as they crossed over the boundary at some point, so we raised it again.  Now Bailey is terrified to go outside again, even when he really needs/wants to.  He'll be spending a good deal of time outside this week, so hopefully he learns where he can and can't go and becomes more comfortable with it.  One thing's for sure, though, they definietely won't be chewing the trampoline or jumping the fences anytime soon.

One side effect of the invisible fence was that they ran back up the stairs on the deck and forced their way through the gate that keeps them out in the yard and not chewing the deck furniture cushions as well as protecting Megi from falling down the stairs.  The gate had a latch on it that we use to lock it.  But because of the gap between the gate and where the latch was mounted, the latch only had two screws holding it in place so that the latch could connect with the side on the gate.  Their forcing their way through bent (yes bent) the slide latch because there were only two screws holding it.  So, I replaced the latch (and drilled two more holes through so it won't bend again) and also added a chain latch to the bottom part which is were they forced their way through, so the deck gate's functionality is restored again.

Candice and I got some exercise yesterday, only our second long walk of the year together.  Walks in warm weather are sort of a tradition for us, and a nice one.  It also has the added benefit of keeping us healthier than we would otherwise be.  She has a desire to runa 5K this summer, so we'll probably add some sprints into the walk soon.

We initially tried to take the dogs with us because we felt bad for them about the invisible fence thing, but they were absolutely AWFUL, so we turned around and took them home and went on a walk just the two of us.

So, I've knocked a few more items off my ToDo list.  The remaining list (minus those things I never wrote down, and thus promptly forgot) is as follows:

- Build, paint, and mount the box shelves for Donna's room.
- Fix the screen door
- Fix the trampoline screen
- Install sprinklers into the flower beds and make them more efficient in the garden.
- Turn on the sprinklers (once I get a good feel for when cold weather is over - we're forecasted for more snow Wednesday)
- Install bumpers on the walls where the closet doors bump into them so that they don't damage the walls
- Finish painting Megi's bedroom
- Level out the ground where we plan to put the pool
- Put up the pool after we get the ground leveled out
- Install security on our wireless router
- Sift through the sand under the deck to remove yet more goat head stickers
- Build Candice an actual workbench for her glasswork
- Build some bookshelves (because we need more)
- Design/build some corner shelves
- Get new curtain rods for our bedroom and for Megi's bedroom
- Get/install a new ceiling fan for Donna's room.  Hopefully, get it wired better than the old one where we can control the fan with one switch and the lights with another.
- Use the scrollsaw to make nameplates for the kids' bedroom doors.

That's all for this non-writing blog entry.  Thanks for reading.

Enough Already

Just how many words are there in the Eskimo languages for snow?  Regardless of your definition of a "word", the answer is "too much for us in the foothills of Colorado!"  I have no problem with it falling high in the mountains.  In fact, I hope it does, that will help the runoff and consequently the drought conditions.  But enough here in the lower elevations.  Let it just be rain.  And warm.

So this past weekend I didn't play around with my router like I had planned so I can learn how to use it (this becomes important when I start building shelves, etc).  But I did knock off one of the tasks from two blogs ago (I posted one I didn't broadly advertise where I presented knowledge about the word "lalochezia" and talked about the development of my writing projects - spoiler alert if you go read them:  I'm still in the idea phases only)  I raised Gabe's curtain rod so that it isn't in danger of falling down.  I also hung a new medicine cabinet in Grandma's bathroom.  This wasn't on the original list of things to do, but she wanted to go buy a new one, so I also put it up, too.

Hopefully, this weekend will warm up and I can do some more projects, but if it keeps freaking snowing, that isn't very likely.

That's all for this blog, thanks for reading.

Frequently Infrequent

So, in holding with my mantra of "whenever I get around to it," I haven't updated my blog in a while.  I frequently update it infrequently.

So, What has happened since the last post?

Well, it turns out that though my platelet count is in the normal range, it's too low for donations outside of emergencies and holidays, so I only gave blood and will continue to do so.

We still haven't done much more on painting in Donna's room-to-be yet.  We've still got one coat on the bedroom door, both coats on the the trim, and touch-up on the walls and ceilings.  Then I can move furniture in there and we can get started on Megi's room.

I still need to finish Candice's ventilation system.  Hopefully I can do that this weekend.  I have to make a trip to Home Depot to see about ducting and connectors (specifically one that I can bolt to the fan and connect the other duct work to it) before final assembly, since that will drive how big of a hole to cut into the board on the receiving side of the fan.  I also don't relish working in the garage when it's sub-freezing outside...

Gabe has lost two coats at school this year and was lucky to not have lost a third one.  He's currently grounded because he doesn't think the rules we impose on him actually apply to him and he does whatever he wants to do (like taking off and not wearing his coat on the school playground when it's 30 degrees outside and leaving it out there).  Hopefully his inability to play over the next couple of weeks will have somewhat of an impact on his ability to follow our rules.

It looks like we might be getting a visit from my sister-in-law next week all the way from South Caroilina.  I'm looking forward to it!

The fish are surviving well, though we did lose a couple due to the stress of changing environments.

Megi has claimed "No!" as her current favorite word, and she says it in a sing-songish manor where her inflections rise as she says it.  It's cute.  For now.  She's still a beast when she doesn't get her way and has been since 4 months old.  I'm not looking forward to her terrible twos.

Donna is starting to learn that she's not the princess she believes herself to be and that she has to do what mommy and daddy say.  Hopefully we get this streak of "entitlement" kicked soon, then we have to work on the crying about everything with both her and Gabe.

We haven't heard anything back from the IRS on grandma's taxes.  I have no idea how long it should take before we hear anything, but I said in our response that if we didn't hear anything back, we'd assume it was over.

On that same note, we filed our taxes this morning after they were "rejected" last night.  It seems we never changed Gabe's last name with the Social Security Administration after I adopted him and when I put his name in "correctly" it was "incorrect."  Add that to the list of things I need to do with the government about my kids (Gabe shows up wrong for my medical insurance, the paperwork with the VA to have Meg listed as a dependant on their system STILL hasn't finished processing.  I could care less about the extra $30 per month that isn't taxable - it won't affect my bottom line practically at all - I want her to be listed on my survival benefit plan in case the unthinkable happens.  Damn beaurocracy.

I still haven't gotten around to cleaning out the garage after the mice incident, either.  I doubt I will until it gets into the 60s or warmer either...

Many of the old members of Wordtrip are making a semi-honest effort at getting the site active again.  For those that don't know, it's a forum for writers once listed many years in a row as one of the top websites for writers.  Hopefully, it'll add to my motivation to get these short story compilations written and published.  (Shouldn't this paragraph be near the top of this blog since the intent of this blog is my life as an author?  Oh, well...)  I'm not able to be on it nearly as often as I used to be, but I'm trying to access it a few times each day to post and read.

Candice's business is going well, but she's thinking about moving it to another website instead of Etsy.  It's a dicey move since Etsy has a huge customer base, but the fees would be less per year, and it also adds the listing into Google shopping, which could increase the customer base (assuming the customer base isn't going directly to Etsy or eBay to do their searches.  If that's the case, it could prove harder to get it going good.  I think that's a better plan for leaving Etsy than starting her own website at this jucture because it's less work and she doesn't have to recruit her entire customer base.  One she's well established with a large customer base, then her own website is probably the way to go.  We'll see...

I did get the other hotels booked for the vacation this July, so it is all planned out and essentially finalized.

That's all I have for this entry, thanks for reading!

Mark a few more tasks off the list of things to do

So, what did I do this weekend?  Well, I started the coffins, and they're coming along slowly.  I'm gluing them now, and plan to carefully nail them after the glue dries.  I'll post a picture when they're done.  Candice will be painting a rock (or maybe two - I don't know) to mark the graves with.

I bought and installed new outdoor lighting for the house and installed it to include solar lighting along the driveway.  It looks tremendously better than the old lighting and the light for the deck is WAY better because it doesn't have a motion sensor (which couldn't be set to have the light always on).  The hearse project now has the "lamps" for the hearse to go along with the wagon wheels.

I also finished cleaning the garage.  Except for the mess I made by cutting wood.

Gabe had a birthday party and is enjoying all his presents.  Hard to believe he's 7 years old.

We also went and got Candice's hoses for her glass studio.  All we have left are two connectors, flashback arrestors and a regulator, and she's totally in business.  That and of course learning the techniques over again with the new, better torch.  I imagine she'll post something about them knowing her by her first name at the glass store in Golden despite only having been there one previous time in her blog (http://mistressmasochist.blogspot.com/) soon.

That's all for this time, thanks for reading!