Blog Archives
Time management
Posted by doggonedmysteries
You have to be kidding. Me manage time? I wish. That’s as much a pipe dream as organizing the house. I’ve tried to do both and have yet to succeed.
It never fails to amaze me that no matter when I get up, the day doesn’t have enough hours in it for me to do the things I’d like to have done around here. Maybe if I could clone myself…
I’d need more than one clone. However, that would pose another problem. Where would I put my clones? This house is tiny. How would I feed them? If they eat like I do that would put a hurting on our food budget. Clones won’t work.
This, in turn, brings us back to time management. How does one manage time? I have no idea. I remain clueless. I’ve tried making schedules but between DH, his mother, and the dogs schedules don’t work. Something always comes up to scotch it.
I would try delegating chores and projects but when there’s no one else to delegate those things to, that doesn’t work either. I need more hours in the day, or in my case, the night.
How do you manage time?
Posted in Misc, My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, I need more hours in the day, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Time management, why can't I get things done?, Writer, Writing
Oh, the carnage in a rewrite.
Posted by doggonedmysteries
As writers, we all write phrases, similes, or metaphors that we find irresistible. We are in love with them. However, when we have someone read our offering and they say those certain phrases we hold dear suck, well that’s when we realize that no one else likes our attempts at cute, humor, or brilliance.
In that case, we need to slaughter them. (No, not the readers.) We need to kill those phrases, similes, or metaphors the readers find that take them out of the story. We must put our fingers on the delete key and get to work.
Yes, ouch.
Then again, you may want to keep those babies of yours because you find them to be brilliant. Remove them from the story anyway and store them elsewhere. Weeks, months, maybe years down the road, you’ll go back, re-read them, wonder why you found them to be so fantastic, and then be willing to let them die a dignified death.
We mustn’t fall so profoundly in love with our writing that we refuse to let our stories evolve.
I’m doing three different rewrites right now and you wouldn’t believe the carnage.
Posted in My blog, My books, 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, Revisions, Rewrites, Writer, Writing
How to repair a hole in a wall
Posted by doggonedmysteries
There’s a hole in the wall behind Patty’s crate.
How did that get there?
The idiot dog put it there.
Sure, blame the dog.
Really, she did it. No, she didn’t use a hammer or put her paw through it, she used her crate.
Patty is a high energy Bull Terrier. Patty will run full tilt into her crate and slam into the back of it. One of these days, I expect to find her unconscious in there with that I-meant-to-do-it look on her face. The last time she ran full tilt into her crate, it hit the wall so hard that it knocked a hole in the plaster. It’s not dry wall this is an old plaster and lath wall.
I will clear away any loose dust and plaster and undercut the edges. I’ll dampen the hole and edges, fill it with patching plaster, not quite even to the wall, and then score the surface of the patching plaster. Let it dry for 24 hours. Then I’ll apply joint compound even with the rest of the wall. This doesn’t have to be perfect since I painted the wall with textured paint, which I’ll apply after the joint compound is dry.
Have I done this before? Oh, yeah. Many times, between DH’s frequent falls and two high energy BTs I’ve become an expert.
Posted in Dog related, My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, comedy, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, DIY, Dog humor, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Home, Home repairs, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pet humor, Pets, Rescue Dogs, the dog did it, Writer, Writing
One flew over the cuckoo’s nest and I’m sure it was my MIL
Posted by doggonedmysteries
One a.m. thunder and lightning along with pouring rain. DH’s cell phone rings, waking him out of a sound sleep, and the police are on the other end of the line. I found all this out when he came downstairs set to drive across town to his mother’s, for the fourth time in nineteen hours. It seems that my MIL’s power went out for a few minutes and she felt the need to report the fact to the police. They in turn called us. Thanks guys.
The woman is going to be the death of him. Either that or she’s going send him to the funny farm post haste. This, by the way, is where she should be.
I swear she is certifiable, has been for at least 40 years. In fact, for 37 years her lights were on, nobody was home but the cuckoo, and he’s been screaming CUCKOO! Where’s nurse Ratchet when you need her?
The woman is nucking futs. I’d reserve her rubber room for her but the way things are going poor DH would probably be next door to her and I don’t think that would work.
Posted in Misc, My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, comedy, Craft of writing, crazy, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
The klutz was out and about again
Posted by doggonedmysteries
So there I was running the trimmer around the edges of the yard and the garden when I ever so neatly landed on my butt. Yep, the klutz was out and about again today. This time I tripped over the two bricks and the hose that extend from the filters for use while back washing the pond filter. The hose spewed a bit of water so my pants were also wet. I looked lovely.
Yes, there are bruises. I have one on my butt, and another on my arm that I have no idea how I got one there. I’m betting by tomorrow there will be more. Not to mention the stiff muscles I’ll discover that I never knew I had. I narrowly missed spraining an ankle, again. I’m ever so glad no one saw me fall it couldn’t have been pretty.
Falling once was bad enough, but not five minutes later, I almost repeated the same pratfall on the same two bricks and hose. By now, I think I hold the klutz queen crown firmly within my grasp. Next time I’m moving the bricks and hose before I begin to trim.
However, with my luck I’ll find something else to fall over. I’m taking odds on that.
Posted in Misc, My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, comedy, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
Is it a bear or Sasquatch?
Posted by doggonedmysteries
There’s a man, who walks his dog past our house. Sometime in the future, he will be a character in one of my books. He wouldn’t be a main character or even a minor character. He’d be a walk on.
He’d be one for one reason only and that is for the way he dresses or…um…doesn’t dress. The only reason I dread hot weather is that this man wears teensy shorts and goes shirtless or he wears a tank top with his shorts. It hit 92 degrees here yesterday. Someone gimme some bleach because I need to scrub my eyeballs.
Gentlemen, if you have more hair on your back than your Pekingese has on his whole body, wear a shirt. If you are hairy enough all over to be mistaken for Sasquatch when you wear shorts and go shirtless in the summer, you need to put on long pants and a shirt in public. Please not a tank top because that only emphasizes your hairiness.
If in addition to the hirsuteness, you have a beer belly that extends so far out you haven’t seen your feet in at least ten years, cover yourself.
Posted in Misc, My blog, Weather related, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, comedy, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
Who hid the Aleve?
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I didn’t count how many plants I bought on Monday. I did count them today. My jaw dropped when I hit forty-four. Yikes! I planted all but six of them today. Am I an idiot? Yes, yes I am. Because not only did I did dig thirty eight holes and stuff thirty eight plants into the ground I also dug out three large Iris groups, a few coreopsis, a couple of moss roses, two sedums, and by the time I finished, I felt as if the partridge and pear tree had come along for the ride.
Why did I dig up so much of my flora? (It barely put a dent in the garden) Wednesday, I was telling G that I needed to split many of my perennials this year. I knew she couldn’t take them. G’s tiny yard is already jam packed with flowers. For a postage stamp yard, it is gorgeous. I made the comment about wishing I knew someone who’d like some flowers.
M walks her dog past our yard daily, we’ve only talked briefly, and that was about Patty who wanted to eat her dog. Patty’s greatest desire is to wipe all dogs (except her big brother Gavin) off the face of the earth. I was sure I was on this young woman’s list of people to avoid. However, she was within earshot and I saw her eyes light up. I asked her if she gardened. She grinned. G and I introduced ourselves M told us her name and that she lived on the other side of the cemetery. The three of us talked for quite a while and M and I arranged for her to come for flowers today.
Around five, the yard is shaded, the rest of the time most of the gardens are in full sun. M arrived with a shovel and bin. I gave her a list of all I had available to split. We didn’t even come close to one of each item when we had filled her car. M will be back.
I still have a ton of iris to split, bleeding hearts are running rampant among the beds, and many other flowers that have bivouacked where they don’t belong. Jackie, bring a shovel and expect to work for your flowers. I’ll supply the coffee.
I’m sore tonight—not getting any younger. Where the heck is the Aleve?
Posted in My blog, my garden, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
Masochist or avid gardener?
Posted by doggonedmysteries
You would think that after spending four days away from home, suffering from self-induced sleep deprivation, and having the dogs and DH miss me, that for a day or two at least I wouldn’t go anywhere. If you thought that, you would be wrong.
Before I left for the conference, my neighbor and I made plans to go to our favorite nursery and do some shopping for our gardens. When did we plan to go on this expedition? We planned it for noon on Monday. Yeah, I never said I was the brightest light in the harbor.
What a fool I am. Besides having to do a ton of writing, I now have extra gardening work to do this week. Can you say masochist? Truly, because I didn’t buy a few plants, I bought many plants. I’ll be digging holes and planting for two days.
However, I couldn’t resist buying two of the black bearded iris since the one I had died two years ago and I couldn’t find any afterwards. Then I saw two different variegated ones and two more in colors I couldn’t resist. Have I ever mentioned that I have a weakness for bearded iris?
I needed flowers to plant in the cement flower boxes on the front porch. I saw other flowers that I thought would look nice in the side garden—and those too went on the little garden wagon.
I was there for tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants too and I found them. Then I saw the sugar baby watermelons and cantaloupe, not to mention acorn squash and patty pans. They were a tight fit but I got them on the wagon. I almost went to get another wagon but G mentioned that DH might kill me and that her hubby would make me ride home on the car roof if I overloaded their Suburban. It was close as it was. Between us, we filled the back and had to drop down and use half of the back seat. One more plant and I would’ve been on the roof.
Posted in hobbies, My blog, my garden, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
I’m back even though my E-mail says I’m not
Posted by doggonedmysteries
It’s 1:30 in the morning on Monday as I write this. I fell asleep in my chair around six in the evening Sunday. I’d had about two hours of sleep Saturday night. I believe that from Thursday night to Sunday I managed to sleep about 6 hours in total.
Unable to sleep because I am a night person, the night shift desk clerks at the hotel are my new best friends. (I hope you are reading this, girls.) I gave them Dove dark chocolate or Hershey dark Bliss candy every night as I haunted the lobby and slipped outside for a few cigarettes. They love me.
I would go to bed, truly I would. I’d put on my New Yorker magazine dog PJs (go read my, ‘I sent myself a PajamaGram) and I’d crawl into bed around two. I couldn’t fall to sleep and rather than toss and turn for hours I’d get up again. Tiptoeing so as not to disturb my roommate, I’d feel around for my light jacket, put the jacket on, load the pockets with chocolate, grab my cigarettes, and slip out the door.
I’d drop some chocolate at the desk and go outside to the designated pariah corner. One of these days, I’ll find the will power to quit smoking again—I did it for an entire year once. However, it’s not easy to quit when DH chain-smokes and he’ll never quit. So please don’t deluge me with the standard you’re gonna die comments.
Now if only I can turn off the E-mail away message on my E-mail. It is refusing to go away.
Posted in My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, comedy, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pennwriters, Pennwriters conference, Writer, Writing
My old printer isn’t happy with me today
Posted by doggonedmysteries
With the conference just days away, I set out to print my business cards today. My old faithful HP printer was not enjoying the task. The poor old dear wheezed its way through one page at a time. I had to sit at the printer and gently pull on the card stock so it didn’t stick. At this rate, it’s going to take me forever to print out what I need to take along with me.
It doesn’t mind grinding pages of manuscript. In fact, it almost sounds cheerful while it does. That’s a good thing because it is going to have to some major printing this weekend. Let’s not tell it, it may have a heart attack and I can’t go out shopping for a new one right now.
After the conference, I may have look into purchasing a new one. I don’t want too many bells and whistles, for fear if one thing goes wrong, I’m screwed. We’ll see. You never know there is the possibility that I might be sucked in by some raving beauty of a printer that promises me quick manuscript printing and great photos.
Posted in 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, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
The pups are after the compost bin again
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I have a compost bin. We do the coffee grounds, tea bags, any kitchen waste that’s not meat—all of it goes in the compost heap. There’s one teensy problem though. We put banana peels in there because they are great for the garden. The problem is with the banana peels I have to keep the bin blocked off so the dogs can’t get near it.
You see my dogs adore bananas. You could say they are bananas for bananas. We can’t open a peel without having the two dogs plaster themselves to our side until they each get some. Therefore, they would scavenge the peels from the compost pile if they could.
Last year Gavin tried his darnedest to climb into the bin because he smelled his favorite treat in there. In an instant he was stuck. I then had to climb over obstacles to pry him out of there. I need a better way to block the bin.
Yesterday Patty attempted a raid on the bin. With her long legs, she might have made it. It’s a good thing she was on the retractable leash at the time.
Posted in Dog related, My blog, my garden, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Dog humor, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pet humor, Pets, Rescue Dogs, Writer, Writing
Men-o-pause
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Sleep, it’s a great thing if you can get it. I had about four to five hours last night. My body prefers a good eight. It seems that with the dread thing called menopause comes less sleep. If it isn’t hot flashes waking me, it’s the sweats. Then again, there are those nights where it’s impossible to fall asleep.
DH can tell when I’ve had a bad night because when he greets me he gets a glassy glare until I’ve had my coffee. Sometimes he might even get a growl. He pauses in mid sentence, points to the coffee pot, and waits for the second or third cup to kick in. He learned over the years never to stand between the coffee pot and me when I first get up.
Mood swings aren’t fun and I’m glad I don’t have them too often. DH is thrilled. What man wants his wife to go from zero to sixty in three seconds? His car yes, his wife, no.
Life is ever changing, and to tell the truth, I’m enjoying the heck out of this time of my life. There’s a sense of freedom now that I don’t remember having when I was younger. Yep, call me crazy but I like this.
Posted in Misc, My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
Doggonedmysteries 