Moineau Monday

moineau ~ small flat bastion that protects fortification when being built

You know, these Monday posts were much easier when I didn’t have a separate writing blog. Despite the fact I proudly proclaim myself an author on my banner, I’ve been trying not to talk too much about writing stuff because I have a whole other blog for that and I don’t want to repeat myself (although I do that with the poetry post, which I forgot to do Friday). You can, in fact, find it HERE.

I think to keep everyone from getting confused, I might indulge in a little housekeeping on my blogs during my vacation, which I think is mid-August. That’s right, I’m not sure when my vacation is. Technically, it’s the daughter’s vacation, but it means I’m freed up from babysitting for the week and I’ve already started making a list of things I want to get accomplished.

But in the mean time, I still live in a small town and other than babysitting I don’t get out much. Last week the hubby was on vacation which made my mornings a little easier because I didn’t have to take him to work, but it was a little disconcerting to have him hanging around when I came home from babysitting.

Okay, he wasn’t literally hanging around. He was keeping busy painting inside the house and staining the deck and a bunch of other stuff, but he had a definite presence that kind of threw me off my game. It was just plain weird. LOL

Friday I talked him into coming to the beach with the grandbaby and I, and a good time was had by all:

She was intrigued by a circle someone made of seagull feathers and insisted on playing inside it. Though you can tell one of her favorite things is to dig in the sand, she was very careful not to get any sand on the feathers, and if she accidentally knocked one over she made sure she set back up again.

Most of our time was spent playing on the beach, but she also got pushed on the swing, made Grappy go up in the pirate ship play structure with her, and we had a picnic lunch. Now that’s something I should have taken a picture of - the picnic lunch. It’s been a long time since I packed for a picnic and of course I packed way too much food. But at least no one went away from the table hungry. :-D

I’ve been watching the buds on one of my mini orchids with great anticipation for the last week or two and my patience was finally rewarded:

It’s one of the two orchids I have on my kitchen window sill, and I think it’s the only one that’s not pink and white. I have two orchids in the dining room that are just finishing a bloom run, and as per my neighbor’s advice, I am not cutting the bloom stalks. I did that on the other orchid in the kitchen and it hasn’t bloomed since, but one of the orchids in the dining room not only re-bloomed off the same stalk, it grew another one as well.

And outside my sweet peas are just starting to bloom. Just a couple of blossoms so far, so no pictures yet, but they should be in full colour when it’s time for my August garden update.

I can’t wait!

Mucronate Monday

mucronate ~ terminating in a sharp point

Do you think if we changed the name of the day to something else it would make Mondays more tolerable?

Yeah, I didn't think so.

I made an important discovery over the weekend. I've got a lot of books. :-)

Yeah, I know this really isn't news. But remember the SF books I was going through last week? Out of 14 or 15 boxes that I was offered, I only ended up with two full boxes and the daughter took a half a box. And quite frankly I was really regretting not taking more ... until yesterday morning.

Yesterday morning I found myself going through the two bookcases and large basket that hold my to-be-read stash of books, organizing them as well as trying to thin out the herd. Some were books I will read and keep, some were ones I will read and then discard, very few were ones I was willing to part with unread.

Still, I managed to fill three boxes with a mix of hardback and paperback books, and one box full of textbooks that will be great as kindling some night when we have a fire outside. I don't normally advocate for burning books, but these textbooks are out of date and all marked up, so I can't even donate them.

However, I still have two boxes of science fiction paperbacks, so really, I only got rid of one box of books. *sigh* But the good news is, I've been making more time to read lately, so maybe I'll even do a post about it on Friday. ;-)

This working for a living is for the birds. While the interviews I'm transcribing are really interesting, they're seriously cutting into my gaming time. And now that I've acquired all those lovely sci fi books, I kinda want to read them.

The audio I'm working from is pretty bad, which makes the whole process a little frustrating, but I'm hoping it'll get better.

The highlight of the week last week was the appearance of a mouse in the house. I heard some noises under the couch in the living room last week and one of the cats let me know there was something under there. So the hubby and I moved the couch and though I saw the mouse, we weren't fast enough to catch it. I think it ended up hiding inside the couch. Then, a couple of days later, late in the evening, it scuttled from under the couch, across the floor, and under the TV stand on the other side of the living room. Right in front of one of the cats. The TV stand is large and wedge shaped, so there was lots of room for Mr. Mouse to hide from the cat. Dante kept vigil for about an hour or so before giving up. We think the mouse escaped though the vent.

I don't know whether that is one brave mouse, or one suicidal mouse. ;-)

You'll notice that is no picture of the orchid today. Poor, sad little orchid. All of the buds did indeed open, but before the last one did, one of the blossoms fell off. I have no idea why because it was right in the middle of the stalk. And a couple of days later it's mate on the other side of the stalk dropped off too, so there are only eight blossoms still.

Guess I'm no longer the orchid whisperer.

Mulctuary Monday

mulctuary ~ punishable by a fine

The big news, for those of you who haven't liked my author page on Facebook yet, is that I have finished the edits on Lucky Dog. Finally. It is now in the hands of my editor and I fully expect her to return it to me in (electronic) shreds, wondering why it took me two years to finish this drivel. ;-)

Okay, maybe it's not quite that bad, but I did have to pretty much re-write the last half of it. But I managed to cut a little over 11,000 words from it, bringing the total wordage to just under 91,000. And I think it's a better story for it.

Now, unfortunately, I need to start thinking about a cover. The picture I wanted to use is unavailable, so I'm starting from scratch. I'm sure one of the stock photo sites will have something similar, it's just a matter of finding it.

If you're in Canada, you probably have the day off today, celebrating the birthday of Queen Victoria.

It's the twenty-fourth of May
The queen's birthday
If we don't get a holiday
We'll all run away.

Okay, so it's not really the 24th of May, it's only the 18th. Somewhere along the line it was decided to celebrate the queen's birthday on the third Monday in May, no matter what the date was. I'm resisting the urge to check Google to see if she really was born on a Monday. ;-)

Last night a few people were setting off fireworks. When I was a kid, I remember Victoria Day was the holiday that had the massive fireworks displays, and Canada Day was barely given a nod. I'm not sure when they switched places, but now Canada Day is the one that's heavy on the fireworks. Of course that didn't stop my asshat neighbors behind us from setting off some last night. After midnight, I might add. I looked up the town's bylaw regarding fireworks and discovered that the cut-off time is 11 p.m., however they'd already stopped so I couldn't make a complaint. But you can bet I'll be ready for them in July for Canada Day!

And finally, because I know you're curious, my orchid has opened yet another blossom. It brings a smile to my face every time I go into the kitchen. And there are two more buds on the end of the bloom stalk - is it possible I might end up with nine blossoms? That would be so cool!

Now . . . if I could only figure out how to get my African violet to bloom. :-D