Blog Archives
Tax Season
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Dang, it’s here again isn’t it? This year we’ll take the MIL’s papers along with us when we get ours done and have hers done too. We did it last year because she was ill and now this year she’s in the hospital recovering from her nasty fall. Speaking of nasty falls, I do hope VP Biden’s mother recovers quickly from hers.
My neighbor already has her tax return. Normally we have ours by this time too but with all the running about we’ve been doing we’re running late. Dear Hubby made an appointment for us to get ours done so at least that much is out of the way. We need only show up with our paperwork and the woman who does our taxes is finished and has them filed electronically in fifteen minutes. No wonder we keep going back to her.
It’s a shame that there are no deductions for pets and their veterinary bills. Gavin’s surgery for the aural hematoma costs us a pretty penny.
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Dog humor, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Novel writing, Pet humor, Pets, Rescue Dogs, Writer, Writing
Bed bouncing Bull Terrier
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I’d taken Gavin outside and left Patty to her own devices for a little while, mistake number one. I’d left my bedroom door opened, mistake number two. I’d trusted Patty to wait at the kitchen door for her turn to go out, mistake number three.
I think she’d already decided to make a beeline for my bedroom as soon as the porch door closed. I wasn’t outside with Gavin for very long, just long enough for her to get into a little mischief. When we came inside, I expected her to be waiting by the door for her turn to go out. She wasn’t there but I heard the unmistakable thunder of Bull Terrier feet flying down the hall and then the steps. Poof, the naughty girl was in front of me trying to look innocent.
I took her out. When we came back inside, I went upstairs to inspect my room—the other two rooms had their doors closed. I was prepared for damage but was pleasantly surprised to find none–really, she hadn’t destroyed anything. However, the evidence was clear. She’d been jumping on my bed. Or, as we call it in this house, she’d been Bully Bed Bouncing. How did I know this? My nicely made bed was not so nicely made and my pillows were on the floor. SHE had been busy.
Posted in Dog related
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Dog humor, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pet humor, Pets, Rescue Dogs, Writer, Writing
What would someone find in your couch?
Posted by doggonedmysteries
In Spokane Washington, a woman bought a used couch for $27.00 and found she had a stow-away inside it. A CAT. Which brings to mind what someone might discover in mine later.
Knowing my dogs as I do there will probably be a Nylabone or three stashed away in my couch’s depths. There might even be some spare change. There’s a good possibility that a dust bunny or two may have stowed-away. It could be that the sock monster has used it as a place to stash his prizes. Maybe there’s a dog cookie or two but I doubt that because these two never let a snack pass them by, ever. You might even find some beads that pulled a mass escape when I was working on some jewelry.
That’s my couch. Now, it’s up to you. What would someone find in your couch?
Posted in Dog related, Misc
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Dog humor, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pet humor, Pets, Rescue Dogs, Writer, Writing
Flu shots, DH, and miscellaneous questions
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Dear Hubby hasn’t felt well for the last couple of days and tonight he thinks he’s figured out why. It seems that every time he’s with his Mother, when or right after she gets a flu shot, he gets ill. Could it be that she sheds just enough of the virus/antiviris that his contact with her gives him a mild case of the flu?
Why does my inner child play with matches when I’m already warm but refuses to when I’m cold?
If you’re the only person to show up for a meeting, is it a meeting?
Why is it that when you decide to have a quiet night reading, the phone that has been silent for weeks begins to ring every five minutes?
Why is it that if one dog is quiet, the other one decides to cut up?
If the damned squirrels can’t remember where the heck they’ve buried their nuts, why do they bury them in the first place. (You should see the holes in my yard and gardens.)
If you know someone is always late, do you tell him/her to come at an earlier time so he/she will arrives on time? (I do.)
Posted in Misc
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Craft of writing, Crafts, 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
Someone call the pool man the shallow end of gene pool needs cleaning
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Spike network has a new show called A Thousand Ways to Die. What I’ve seen in the advertisements makes me believe that particular end of the gene pool needs a good cleaning. Drinking gasoline to get drunk? Oh, please, there’s a person whose genes DO NOT need to be replicated.
The show on TruTV World’s Dumbest Crooks or what ever it’s called, shows more prime candidates floundering away in the shallow end of the gene pool. Have you ever read those dumb crook of the month articles? Yep, more chlorine please.
How about the people Jay Leno has talked to on his street walking bit? Do you think that some of them should pass their genes on to future generations? Oh, pool man!
I won’t even bother to mention Octomom since she already has passed on her genes to another generation. Heaven help them.
Posted in Misc
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Dog humor, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pet humor, Pets, Rescue Dogs, Writer, Writing
Of mourning doves and dogs
Posted by doggonedmysteries
My dogs aren’t supposed to be bird dogs. It’s not something that BTs were bred for but lately you’d think they were. For some odd reason I have two mourning doves who are hanging around the pond. After several days of them taking flight from under Gavin and Patty’s noses, the dogs are looking for the dumb birds, even pointing them. I say dumb birds because they don’t go far and return to the same place as soon as we walk away from the pond.
The dogs know I have a strict rule of no birds, no chasing them, no hunting them, and no killing them. But what’s a dog to do when they no longer fly away but run along in front of them? (If you recall from an earlier post, I won’t let the pups run loose in the yard until we can repair the fence this summer.) The doves are driving the pups crazy with this ground hugging nonsense. Although I think if the birds took flight, it’d really chafe under their collars.
Every time we go out now, they drag me to the pond where they will point out the doves. I keep telling them they aren’t bird dogs they’re BTs. I think they are suffering from delusions of Setter grandeur or Brittany fantasies.
Posted in Dog related, my garden, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Craft of writing, Crafts, 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, Pond, Rescue Dogs, Writer, Writing
When characters revolt
Posted by doggonedmysteries
What do you do when your characters pull a coup? In one of my books, they seem to be doing just that. I can’t get my protagonist on board with my ideas. The antagonist has gone willy-nilly into the background and the whole story line has gone to the dogs. Yes, to the dogs. It seems that they want to be the real stars in book four. No, there isn’t an excerpt to read. It’s not ready for that. It may never be ready for that.
Book four is an idea, one that I add to occasionally. I won’t get around to writing it until after I finish books one through three. However, even in idea form the characters are not cooperating. Book four has become a repository for scenes that don’t work in the other books. It might stay locked in a file under the title of The Big Book of Unused Scenes, or it may be the book where the dogs take center stage and the other characters blend into the background.
In any case, it’s where most of the brilliant but overdone doggy scenes I cut from the other books go when they don’t work.
Posted in Dog related, Misc, My books, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Dog humor, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pet humor, Pets, Rescue Dogs, Writer, Writing
MIL update, Gavin, and miscellaneous thoughts
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Dear Hubby’s mother has come down with a cold but she’s still working hard in her daily PT. The feisty old gal is quite resolute about getting out of the Rehab Hospital. It’s been a little over a month since her fall and she is showing no lack of determination. Dear Hubby is there every day while she does her PT, which I think is a great help in motivating her.
Gavin’s ear looks good and he’s been enjoying daily romps with Patty. Although, now when she gets a bit nippy around his ears she does get a scolding. You can practically see her roll her eyes at you. “Geez, I can’t grab his ears and you yell at me for dragging him around by his collar. What’s a girl to do?” The no collar rule stems from having to buy Gavin new ones too many times after she’d chewed through them (while they were still on his neck.)
We had a gray drizzly day today but it was warm. In between sprinkles, I did some clean up work on the pond. I won’t be able to do the major work until spring is in full blast.
Posted in Dog related, Misc, my garden, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Dog humor, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Fish, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Humor, Koi, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pet humor, Pets, Pond, Rescue Dogs, Writer, Writing
March, an amazing month
Posted by doggonedmysteries
A few days ago, we had snow on the ground and today the mercury hit seventy degrees. I love the capriciousness of March. It’s the Yin and Yang month of the year. Winter and spring battle for four weeks. We root for spring to win since by March we’ve had enough of winter.
Tomorrow spring will rule for most of the day but winter will make a raid on our evening. We will wonder if spring will rally in the next few days. My budding gardens say yes. Grass is slowly showing signs of life. Faster would nice so I don’t have dogs tracking in mud.
The Koi are hungry they beg for food now, and our frogs are beginning to creep out of the pond to hunt, more signs that spring will soon win the battle.
It won’t be long and I’ll be digging in sun warmed soil planting flowers and vegetables. By my back door, my chives are starting to peek through the mulch in their pot. The mint and lavender will soon follow suit.
Posted in hobbies, Misc, My blog, my garden, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Dog humor, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Fish, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Humor, Koi, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pet humor, Pets, Pond, Rescue Dogs, Writer, Writing
MS and the White House connection
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I’m a hard-core cynic. We’ve heard too many empty promises from politicians, TV and movie stars, and MS organizations.
Empty promises like when they (organizations, stars, and politicians) say they will help us pay for mobility devices and ramps to make our home more accessible, because so far, those have been completely out of pocket expenditures for us. When they say that there are support groups for Dear Hubby, because any we’ve found seem to be for newly diagnosed patients, and those with relapsing remitting MS. He refuses to sit through another ‘I-was-just-diagnosed-and-need-a-shoulder-to-cry-on’ session. It’s not from lack of sympathy on his part; it’s from overload on the subject. We’ve never found one that addresses the long term and secondary progressive MS issues.
When they say there are medications out there, we agree that there are, but again, they are mainly for people with relapsing remitting MS. Sometimes DH feels as though he’s on another planet when it comes to SPMS.
Will the Obamas’ personal connection to MS make a difference? I hope so. What will a White House connection bring to the table? So far, we’ve a promise of a reversal on stem cell research. This does hold promise for DH and others who have MS, especially those who have SPMS and PPMS.
Posted in MS related, My blog
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Dog humor, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pet humor, Pets, Rescue Dogs, Writer, Writing
Accentuate the positive…
Posted by doggonedmysteries
We didn’t hit the lottery this week. One hundred and seventy four million would have been nice. However, the sudden change to an entirely new tax bracket would’ve been mind blowing. (Imagine how popular one becomes when one wins a pot like that.) The phone rings off the hook, friends and relatives you never knew you had, crawl out of the woodwork, or out from under rocks. Makes me glad we didn’t win.
The weather is getting warmer and although we may have one or two more snowstorms sneak in here, spring is just around the corner. Yes, spring! The yard may be all mud but that means the fertilizer will sink in faster and the grass will be greener this summer.
Money is tighter so we’ll be home more. Less driving equals less pollution, this is good. We’ll shop at the farmer’s market more often because it’s closer than the supermarket, which means we’ll keep the local farmers in business.
The price of our electric is going up so that means we’ll turn on fewer lights, evenings will be more romantic by candlelight. This could be very good.
Tags: Author, Beads, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Dog humor, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pet humor, Pets, Rescue Dogs, Writer, Writing
Who is the ghost who did my writing?
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I’m not talking about hiring a ghost writer. I’m talking about reading your manuscript and wondering where in the world did that (paragraph, page, chapter…whatever) come from?
You’ve rolled along on your writing for days, and then you hit a bump that made you stop. You decide to go back and read over what you’ve written. Strange sentences jump out at you. It seems that someone else took over your keyboard and did the typing for you. Your characters are clumsy, their dialogue is stilted, the scenery has lost its luster, and everything that you thought was brilliant looks dull.
Do you stop and fix it? Sometimes if it’s bad enough, you might. Otherwise, it might be better to mark the spots where things took a downhill plunge to fix up later, and push on.
What do I do? I hit the ‘text highlight color’ and highlight everything that is weak. This way I can go back later and easily spot the areas I need to fix. When do I fix them? I fix them on those days where I am having trouble moving forward in the book. I find that if I go back and do my corrections I can often find the insight in my characters or their motivations that I need to continue.
Posted in My blog, My books, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Dog humor, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pet humor, Pets, Rescue Dogs, Writer, Writing
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