TGIF! Where is time going this year? I can’t seem to keep up! Okay, time to share five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

1. I have green nails that glow in the dark I haven’t taken a picture yet, but they are pretty cool.
2. I went to a big box hobby store yesterday and bought a few things to attempt to teach myself fondant work (for cake decorating). I’m starting with flowers and butterflies, and it’s going to be hilarious since I have no natural artistic ability. I’m strictly a paint-by-numbers-with-step-by-step directions type. But it’s all just for fun.
3. I’ve been keeping up with my yoga practice. I usually do it three or four times a week.
4. Yesterday I prepped enchiladas so that Wizard could pop them in the oven while I was getting my nails done (by my talented daughter in law!). That went great, but when I tried to pour out the cooled from frying tortillas, I missed the can and spilled vegetable oil onto my counter and floors. That was a joy to clean up, but I got the job done. Yay me!
5. Then I realized my cleaning spray bottle was nearly empty. I popped the top off, refilled it without spilling any and locked the top back into place. Except the top didn’t lock…when I picked it up, the lid came off and the full bottle of cleaner fell. But I caught it with no spills!!! I was so impressed with myself until about an hour or two later when I realized that someone in the process of catching that bottle, I managed to some tweak my bad shoulder. It’ll be fine, but how do I even do this stuff??? I couldn’t recreate that scene if I tried.

So that’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a great weekend!

I am so good at procrastinating! If I could find a way to monetize that skill I’d be rich, and then I could make more money off teaching others how to do it the point of all this procrastination is that I hit a wall so hard on this book, I was ready to totally give up. I stopped talking about the book, I didn’t dream about it, I couldn’t even make myself read any romances because then I just got upset at myself.

Wizard had to talk me off the edge.

Yesterday, I began to get a glimmer of an answer to fixing my heroine–her backstory and the inciting premise of the book were creating logic flaws that caused massive havoc in three drafts at the 100 to 150 point of the book. It’s been a tad frustrating. But I’m hopeful for the first time in weeks. Cross your fingers, friends!

So that’s my quick update before I have to run out and pick up a prescription I forgot about

Now I’d love to hear your Wednesday Update. Anything you want to share about your life, projects, hobbies or animals.

A weekend came and went exactly as my calendar predicted

So I’ve been stress baking. My latest thing had been working out how to build a chocolate peanut butter stuffed cookies.

And make it lactose free.

It’s like me writing a book, I can’t just do simple, straightforward storyline. Nope. I must complicate it to the max. Which, in case you were wondering, I have done with Primal Magic and now that book is so not working and we are back at page one.

But I’d rather talk about my cookie win. I did it, I figured out a lactose free chocolate peanut butter stuffed chocolate chip cookies. Tada!

Shoot, I just realized I should have taken a picture of the inside of one to show you the creamy chocolate peanut butter center. I only kept a couple and gave the rest away. Oh well. Trust me, it worked and got the approval of youngest son

If anyone cares how I did this, here’s the basic steps:

1. I melted a 1/2 cup non diary chocolate chips (I use Enjoy Life dark chocolate chips), and mixed in a cup of peanut butter, then added in a little sifted powdered sugar (I don’t know how much, maybe a couple tablespoons).  I let the mixture cool, then formed that into balls and froze them for a couple hours.
2.  I converted this CakeBoss Soft & Thich Chocolate Chip Cookies to nondairy, but swapping out a 1/2 cup lactose free margarine and a 1/2 cup butter flavored vegetable shortening for the 1 cup butter. I also increased the salt by a 1/4 teaspoon to compensate for not using salted butter. I took a couple tablespoons of dough and formed that around the frozen chocolate peanut butter balls, and then froze all the cookie balls over night.
3. I baked them frozen at 375 for 15 minutes and I’m pretty happy with the results. I bake them frozen so they hold their structure without spreading too much or the chocolate peanut butter center melting too fast and breaking through the outer shell of chocolate chip cookie dough.

The cookies made me happy.

And yes, I have been procrastinating on the book. Majorly procrastinating. I don’t want to go back to the beginning and start over, but…maybe I need to bake something else. Like a life-sized cake of the Statue of Liberty.

How was your weekend?

TGIF!! I’m trying to remember what I wanted to share this week

1. Monday was my birthday. I had a really good day. I had coffee with Biker Witch (my sister), got gorgeous flowers from oldest son, and went to dinner with Wizard where I had chocolate cake I didn’t have to make And then talked so long to middle on the phone, my arm and shoulder locked up, LOL. It really was a good day. Lowkey but perfect for this year, if that makes sense.
2. As I mentioned, the flowers are stunning. But…and this had never happened before…they aggravated my sinuses. I was NOT giving up these flowers. We finally realized it’s because the house has been literally closed up for at least 6 to 8 weeks with the heat, and the A/C is recycling everything. I put the flowers outside early one morning for a few hours, aired out the house, then brought the flowers in and found a great spot for them in the living room–away from the main living area. That solved it and I still get to enjoy the flowers.
3. Wizard saw the spine surgeon yesterday–the same one that did my surgery. I’m hugely relieved by this. I know he’s methodical and good. He’s ordering more tests that will get him more specific information, then we’ll develop a treatment plan. Wizard is handling all this remarkably well.
4. Here’s my practice cake for this week. It’s just a rather bland boxed cake, as I had 3 goals for this attempt (1) making a version of Swiss Meringue Buttercream for hotter climate, which means swapping out about 1/3 of the butter for vegetable shorting and putting in a little sifted powdered sugar. This version held up better. The original one tastes better, but even in A/C gets melty in my kitchen (2) practicing icing–I did better partly because of the amazing turntable Wizard got me. (3) doing a stripe technique. The small holes in the icing are from not rewhipping after the crumb coating and chilling. I didn’t care about that, I was working on technique   For a first attempt at this, I was happy.  Overall this cake taught me a lot.
5. I’m not sure what the weekend will bring. Anything could happen!

That’s my 5 random things, now I’d love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a great weekend!

I’ve been listening to audio books, but not reading. I’m looking for a recently publish un-put-downable romance to read. I prefer paranormal or contemporary, but there’s little that I actually won’t read.

Any suggestions???

Thanks!!!

Can you all believe it’s August??? This year is going so fast!

So my weekend was good. Wizard and I are deep in throes of House Fever, and shopping around. We do this every six months to a year,  then get frustrated and stop. It’s pretty routine for us, LOL.

Sunday evening, we went to Youngest son’s for dinner last night to celebrate my birthday (which is actually today). It was amazing. He BBQed tri tip and made cookies, while daughter-in-law made some cilantro rice. All things I love. It was a really nice evening.  While we were talking about houses, daughter-in-law looked up a house that’s pretty much around the block from them and showed us on her phone. I was sitting there thinking how danged lucky we are to have a daughter-in-law is was encouraging us to move into their neighborhood.

Today I’m meeting Biker Witch for coffee, then Wizard and I are going to dinner–probably at the Cheesecake Factory. Because Covid is escalating again, we kept our plans casual for my birthday this year.

I’ve gotten lost in the weeds on my book, so yesterday afternoon I printed my original notes on this book, and am mulling over some real problem points to solve the issues. The notes are really helping me get the right focus. I’m also accepting that the Wing Slayer books are complex to write, even if they don’t appear that way when reading them. And it takes me longer right now due to life distractions and limiting my time at the computer.

So that was my weekend, how was yours?