Blog Archives
2010 Halloween preparations begin
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I went back to Spirit Halloween today. This time I took G and my new neighbor R along with me. This was R’s first time in a Spirit Halloween. She was glad we’d gone during school hours and she had a chance to scope out the place without her young daughter. Now that she knows how to find the store, she’ll go back and take her daughter along.
At one point, we all trooped into one room to check out some animated props. There was a clerk in there, R was right behind me and didn’t see him at first. When he said hello I thought she was going to have a heart attack. She jumped, she screamed, and then she laughed. The rest of the time while we were in the store every time he saw her he apologized…again.
I bought a large animated prop. I couldn’t resist it. I now have a cloth barrel that has a ghoulish zombie rise from it with eyes flashing, and jaw moving moans. Both of my friends watched me spend the money. They were entertained. True, it is more fun to watch someone else spend money.
Posted in Holidays, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Decorations and Props, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Halloween, Holiday, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
Note to self or What did I mean by that?
Posted by doggonedmysteries
You can thank Elena for this post, she posed the question that started it. “I write myself the most fascinating notes. Wonder if other people write themselves mysterious notes?”
Elena you aren’t the only one who does that. I often come across some cryptic missive in my handwriting and have no clue what I meant when I wrote it. Lately I’m finding measurements but for what I have no idea. Windows? Doors? A space for a cabinet?
Don’t get me started on the many Post It’s stuck to manuscript print outs that must’ve made sense at the time. Does anyone have an idea what ‘OP m to NC’ means? That was one of the easier ones to decipher.
It’s a good thing DH doesn’t shop for groceries because he’d never figure out the special shorthand I use for my list. Shr ch, frz sn, sp whl…etc. When he used to do some shopping, I had to write everything out for him including brand names.
How about you, do you write cryptic notes to yourself and then wonder what the hell you meant?
Posted in Misc, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
Passed the two-year mark
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Two years ago on October 3, when I began this blog, I never expected to see over sixty thousand hits. Heck, I was thrilled when I hit the one hundred mark.
Now, I’m just plain old grateful that folks like you read this blog. I’m happy you come back often and comment here.
I’m grateful for the patience that those of you who want to read my books have shown. I’m not world’s fastest writer. I do hope that when they are finally out there, they are good enough for you. I don’t want to give you shoddy work. I want to give you the best I can do.
I’ve made some good friends through this blog, and for that, I am grateful.
This has been a fantastic learning experience for me.
Thank you, Dear Readers.
Posted in Misc, My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
Can a dog lick a hole into his stainless steel food dish?
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I dunno but Gavin is certainly making a daily effort to succeed in doing just that. I can always tell when he’s bored because he goes to his empty food dish and licks it.
It’s as if he goes into a trance licking, licking, and licking some more. When I can no longer stand the sound of his tags rattling against the bowl, I tell him, “Dinner isn’t for several hours. Go lie down.” You can almost see him shrug and grin a gotcha.
I do know that dogs can bite holes into stainless steel dishes. This was something I learned at my mentor’s BT kennel. All of her stainless steel dog dishes had teeth marks and holes in them.
Fortunately, my two don’t chew on their dishes. That could be because their dishes fit into stands and they can’t get hold of the edges. I’m sure that both of them would make a game out of throwing the dishes about if they could.
I cringe at the thought of dodging flung dishes or having them crash into the glass of the curio cabinet.
(Normally I mix the posts up a bit, but with more rain all day and night again, the dogs and I were bored.)
Posted in Dog related, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Dog humor, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pet humor, Rescue Dogs, Writer, Writing
Wet weather wet dogs
Posted by doggonedmysteries
After having a dry summer, it seems that fall is making up for it. We’ve certainly had a lot of rain. It rained all day, all night, and all day again. At least this time it isn’t coming from the same direction as the last storm and the roof isn’t leaking. However, it did get chilly enough to turn the heat on.
It must be the cooler weather. Just when I think I have them figured out, Gavin and Patty change things. The crazy dogs have altered their schedules over the last couple of weeks. Instead of sleeping from seven to two a.m., when they go out for a last call, and then sleeping for the rest of the night, they are now waking at ten and staying up until midnight. From ten to midnight they race around the house playing doggie tag until they drop. Then they want to go out. After that, they zonk and sleep the rest of the night.
Gavin enjoys going out in the rain some days and others he doesn’t want to go unless he must. Today was one of those ‘let me out every five minutes’ days. Even with his short wash and wear coat, I don’t think he dried out until almost three in the morning. Patty on the other hand hates rain and is content to stay indoors until she’s desperate.
Posted in Dog related, Misc, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Rain, weather, Writer, Writing
Exercising the brain while writing
Posted by doggonedmysteries
As you can see by my reading list, I am reading Donald Maass’s book The Fire in Fiction–passion, purpose, and techniques to make YOUR NOVEL GREAT. It is an exhausting and slow read because there are exercises to do at the end of each chapter. No, I don’t mean I have to do calisthenics. I’m talking about doing writing exercises. The brain needs exercise too.
I’ve found that I can do the exercises, have fun doing them, and learn. However, when I’m expected to do this sort of thing in a writer’s conference session, my mind goes completely blank. I figure it’s because it’s daytime at the conference (usually morning and I don’t do mornings well at all) when this asked of me.
Hell, I’m never alert until the sun goes down. Thus, doing the exercises on my schedule seems to work fine. I wonder if I’ll feel the same way when I tackle his Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook. Don’t worry. When I do the exercises, I am using my books and it is helping with the rewrites.
Why do I do this? I have no idea. Mostly I am hoping all this work makes me a better writer so you, my readers, have greater enjoyment.
Tags: Arts, Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Brain, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Donald Maass, Family, Fiction, Fire in Fiction, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Reading, The Fire in Fiction: Passion Purpose and Techniques to Make Your Novel Great, Writer, Writers Resources, Writing
A hodgepodge for you today
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Every time I took the dogs out, I picked up small branches and twigs that the wind knocked down. The ceiling is drying out now that the rain is gone. The wind we had all day helped.
Surprisingly most of the danged squirrel’s nest is still securely wedged in the upper branches of the magnolia tree even though that squirrel has been gone for months. She was the first one relocated in our little relocation program.
We ate the little yellow sugar baby watermelon yesterday. The flavor was good but it’s not something I’ll plant again. There were too many seeds and the vines took up too much space for what little we got from them. I do wonder if that little red one out in the garden is going to be ripe before the first frost.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. After many years of fighting the beast, my sister died of metastatic breast to bone cancer at the age of 44. Therefore, ladies, I ask you please remember to do your monthly self-exams and get a mammogram. Gentlemen you can do your part by reminding your wives, daughters, sisters, mothers, aunts, grandmothers…well, you get the idea.
Posted in Misc
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Breast Cancer, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
After the storm
Posted by doggonedmysteries
With very strong winds gusting and pushing the rain from the south, our roof leaked again. This only happens when conditions are right and conditions were perfect. I cussed the weather and roof and set out the usual buckets. If we could afford it, I’d have that entire roof torn off and redone so it never leaks again.
Since we often have a problem with the power going out in fractious weather, I cooked the bacon for our BLTs early in the afternoon. This time our power stayed on much to our surprise. I told DH it was because for once I was prepared for the worst. I guarantee had I not cooked the bacon for our dinner the power would’ve gone out. I will keep that in mind for future storms.
I see we have some small tree branches down and there are a few plants in the garden that look like an elephant stepped on them. Today is still gray so I’ll wait for clear skies before I go out and clean up the mess. In the meantime, I have buckets to empty, walls to scrub, and more cussing to do.
Posted in Weather related, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Construction and Maintenance, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, weather, Writer, Writing
Update on that MP3 player and other things
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I went shopping today and ran across a 4GB SanDisk Sansa Clip+ on clearance. After comparing it to several other MP3s and the IPods, I went with it, not only for the price, but also for the ease of downloading my music to it. I am once again enjoying my favorite music while cooking, cleaning, and doing other menial tasks around here.
Due to some severe weather heading our way I might not be able to post tomorrow. Since I normally write my posts in the wee hours of the morning, the weather might put a damper on that. Do check back though just in case the front moves more easterly instead of north.
DH is still showing improvement in his walking so I have nothing but good things to say about Ampyra.
Patty has decided she wants ice cookies every night after their last out. She’s begun to sit at the freezer door and beg. Gavin waits to one side. He knows she has the right moves to get some for them.
Take care everyone and have a good day!
Posted in Misc, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Digital audio player, Disability, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Home, IPod, Life, Love, MP3, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, SanDisk, SanDisk Sansa, SanDisk Sansa Clip, Sansa Fuze, Writer, Writing
Now why didn’t I do that before?
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I’ve missed music. Lately the only time I’ve listened to music is while driving my car. What an idiot I am. A while back when my hard drive crashed, I didn’t put much of my music on the new hard drive. I have no idea why I haven’t done this. I have a couple albums on the computer and I have many more CDs I can download to listen to while I’m writing.
Tonight I remedied this and now I am listening to some of my favorite music. I realized afterwards why I hadn’t been listening to music as much. DH takes a nap every afternoon and I don’t play music because I don’t want to disturb him.
Duh, use the headphones. Yeah, but that means I can only listen to music while I sit at the computer. I need to buy a new MP3 player or something. Any suggestions out there as to which one is best? Do keep in mind that I am on a tight budget and need something I can easily download the music to from my computer.
The next test is will music jump-start my creativity. It used to let’s hope it still does.
Posted in Misc, Writer, Writing
Tags: Audio, Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Compact Disc, Craft of writing, Dead, Digital audio player, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Music, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Recordings, Writer, Writing
I won’t grow up
Posted by doggonedmysteries
It doesn’t take a lot to amuse me. DH stops at Mc Donald’s every day to pick up a happy meal breakfast for his mother. Most of the time, we give the toys to G for her grandson, or to my new neighbor across the street for her daughter.
Today I snitched one of the toys. I couldn’t help myself. Who doesn’t want a tiny skateboard to play with? It doesn’t matter to me that it’s a Clone Wars skateboard. What matters is it’s silly and fun to play with.
I’ve added it to my collection of silly things on my desk. I have a Scooby Doo with magnifying glass wind-up toy, a large winged gargoyle, and a skull that has dancing black roses coming out of the top all of which sit on my desk. There are bells, whistles, and even a set of dumbbells within reach. My pencil holder is a gargoyle.
I have a fancy magnifying glass, a magic wand, and a miniature treasure chest that holds my thumb drives. I use Winnie the Pooh pencils and there’s a walking robot pencil sharpener at Amazon.com that I covet.
Posted in Misc, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, I still like toys, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Peter Pan has nothing on me, Won't grow up, Writer, Writing
Doggonedmysteries 
And a big hello to all the spammers out there
Oct 3
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Cue Monty Python’s Spam music. I do enjoy reading some of the atrocious spam comments that come in. I admit, some of them I go ahead and allow just for chits and grins.
However, if you’re going to spam me please don’t go overboard in your praise of my site. I know better. Sugary overdoses of accolade make me want to go on a diet. I may be a gardener, but excessively flowery praise raises my hackles. Believe me when I say that you aren’t nearly as clever as you think you are.
Did you know that Akismet catches you every time? I am silly enough to slip a few of you through the barricades. I only do it for extreme cleverness, a particularly good turn of phrase, or if I am in a silly mood. Don’t depend on my moods.
For those of you that don’t have a web site through WordPress I will elaborate. Akismet is the spam catcher for WordPress and it does a terrific job. Some spam never even makes my spam folder. Those that do get past Akismet I must sort through and delete. I delete 99% but there’s something about that 1% I let through that I can’t resist allowing.
Posted in Misc, Writer, Writing
2 Comments
Tags: Akismet, Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Comment Spam, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Love, Monty Python, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Spam, WordPress, Writer, Writing