I really need to start embellishing on my life, LOL. So let’s see:

Friday I met Biker Witch for lunch. We walked around a bit, but didn’t do too much.  She wasn’t quite up to her normal energy. She’s fine, it was just one of those days for her. She’d deny it, but I could tell If I was emellishing, I’d have us rescuing an entire litter of puppies.

Saturday, I cleaned out one of my big file drawers dedicated to author business. I shredded three bags of documents so that was good. Twenty years of stuff is a lot, LOL It was an interesting tour down memory lane. It was a nice reminder of what I accomplished–all the books I sold or published myself, the negotiations that I went into with full confidence, including selling foreign rights myself (I used a literary lawyer to review contracts), all the signings and event I did, and I’d forgotten how many articles I wrote. I also stumbled on a series of early author photos, also kind of cool. Oh and the conferences! Those are always interesting and seeing friends I’d made over the years is priceless. (Yes, I miss it!)

Then Saturday afternoon we went to see Phoebe (my granddog) for her birthday. It was lowkey, but Phoebe loved all her toys. Every toy she got, she took her bed. Her parents bought her a huge bag full, and every toy went in her bed. So cute. At least until her mom rounds up all her toys and puts them away for her own good. But that makes it even better when she gets play time

Sunday, um…not much. I did some odds and ends. I had to run to the big box hardware store for a small item, then got sidetracked by kitchen cabinet hardware. So Wizard is at home waiting for this item to fix a toilet, and I’m looking at drawer pulls. But it’s all good, he was distracted by the football game, so he didn’t even realize I was gone longer than strictly necessary.

A little later, I was trying to read, but for the first time, I had to get out my notebook and made a few notes on potential ideas for writing. These are nothing spectacular, but I couldn’t concentrate on starting a new book till I spent a few minutes writing some random things down.

I decided not to bake a cake. I may put the pistachio cake on the back burner and start thinking about another cake I’d like to make in a couple weeks. But this cake will take some planning

See? Really boring right now. I know you’re lives are much more exciting. Dazzle me with your weekend adventures!

TGIF! I hope this week has been good to you. Let’s jump into sharing 5 things about our week:

1. I’m having baking withdrawals. I have a recipe for Pistachio Cake I’ve wanted to try. The serving suggestion is with cream cheese icing but that’s so heavy, I’m thinking white chocolate icing. Maybe I’ll bake that this weekend. (I’m also having some writing pangs, but I’ve committed to other things right now).
2. One of my granddogs, Phoebe, is having a birthday this weekend. Since she just lost her sister dog, Roxy, I made a special trip to the store to buy her toys to take over It makes me happy to do it.
3. While I was at the store, I got Maggie a toy too. I didn’t want her to be jealous even though she only plays with toys for a couple minutes at a time, LOL.
4. Speaking of Maggie, here’s she is just sitting in the sun, and minding her own business when I try to sneak up and take a picture. She’s ignoring me.
5. I made him homemade taquitos this week. I rarely do it because frying in oil is a mess. Wizard was so excited, he made up a taquito song and sang it All Freaking Day Long. He darn near got a plate of Brussel spouts (he loathes them) for dinner But honestly, she’s so appreciative that I like doing it sometimes. Wizard also never complains about simple, easy meals. Tonight I’m making steak salad from leftovers and he’ll be perfectly happy.

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

This week is getting so much better for me. Before I go on, thank you all for the kind sympathy on my granddog. We will miss, and always treasure the memories. I’m posting this one picture of Roxy not from sadness, but with a smile on my face and a wealth of gratitude in my heart for the years of love and happiness she gave my son and daughter-in-law. (This picture is from my daughter in law).

This last weekend, when I wasn’t running from one place to the next, I binge watched design shows. I don’t really care about the rest of  the house, but I love kitchens. They don’t have to be big or fancy, but they must have the right working triangle (between the sink, stove and refrigerator), good counter space, lots of storage and be light filled. I’m a fan of light and bright kitchens.

But according to the videos I’ve been watching, “moody” kitchens are starting to trend. Those a darker style. Okay, I just want to know–who thinks a moody space stocked with sharp objects is a good idea????

Wait, I know who–a writer! A moody kitchen could make for a great scene. I could make it work for romance, mystery or a thriller.

Which brings me to my question for you: Anyone else love kitchens?

So it’s been a happy and sad weekend. A little story–you guys remember the security guard I got in trouble from? So yesterday I came home stressed and knew I needed to go do one more stressful thing that day (more on that in a minute). So had about 40 minutes before I had to leave again. I ate two cookies (no one here will judge me right?), unloaded the dishwasher, then said looked at my dog who has been good as gold even though we’re leaving her for long stretches of time during the days. I said, “Maggie, screw it, we’re going for a walk and I’ll deal with the next thing when we get back.”

Maggie did the happy dance and showed me where her leash was in case I forgot

We headed back to the field, and this time, I stayed where I’m allowed to go. As I left the field to go home, I passed the new housing track guarded the security guard who’d previously scolded me. I waived to her. She got out of her car and started chatting. She was really nice. And all I could think was–on this day packed with stress, that one decision I made a week or two ago about not making this woman’s job harder paid off. She told me about her two dogs and her mom. It was a true break and gave a real lift to my day.

Sometimes, it pays to be nice. It cost me nothing but a tiny sliver of worthless pride in admitting I was wrong when I was wrong.

So one of the sad and hard things happening is one of my kid’s dogs is really sick. I can’t fix this. Money can’t fix this. Love can’t fix this. But I’m doing my best to show them the love and care they need. And I went over and told this special dog how much she’s meant to me taking care of my kids. We might get lucky and get more time with her, I don’t know.

But what I do know was this security guard got out of her car and offered me a moment of friendship when I really needed it (and didn’t even know it!) Life can be hard sometimes, but those moments of kindness and effort by people are priceless. The way we treat people can come back to us in such truly unexpected ways.

And to turn this to writing; readers LOVE these moments. We can use these small moments to help our characters make big decisions.

But for me yesterday, that moment of friendship helped me through a hard day. And I think I’ll always remember it. It didn’t alter the course of my life like it might in a book, but it gave me the reset I needed to be there for the kid that needed me.

So our weekend had a few tough moments and a few potentially exciting ones that I just can’t talk about yet. How was your weekend?

TGIF! Let’s dive head first into sharing five random things about our week.

1. I wish had more exciting things to talk about. Unfortunately Wizard and I are in this holding pattern as we wait on some things.
2. In the meantime we are cleaning and decluttering because we have set that as a goal for the year. It’s going to be a long process. See still boring, LOL. I only hit my head about three times pulling boxes out from the under the stairs closet One would think I would know better after 20 some years of living here.
3. A tiny bird got into our garage. This turned into a day long struggle to get this poor terrified creature to fly out. We tried everything we could think of, but he was so scared, he only flew in the top rafters and didn’t recognized the huge opened doors below him. I even tried the long pool net to catch him, but kept missing him, mainly because the rim of the net is heavy plastic designed for the bottom of a six foot pool and I didn’t want to hurt him. Anyhow, after hours and hours, we’d left the garage closed and dark, except for the man door to the side yard and (we believe) he finally flew out. I hope he goes on to live a full life free of the terror he must have felt in our garage.
4. My freezer is not big enough. It didn’t bother me when I had three teenaged boys at home. How is it we have MORE in our freezer than ever? I guess it’s because I don’t use as much food now with just two of us, so things like extra hamburger buns and cuts of chicken go in the freezer. Also I double some meals and freeze half for quick meals later. Still it seems illogical to me.
5. I’ve begun reading The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd and love it so far. I’m extremely late to this party as it was first published in 2003, but my daughter-in-law’s mother recommended it when I saw her the other night, so I bought it for my kindle. I love recommended books like that! This book isn’t a romance, it’s literary historical fiction which happens to be something I enjoy.

Didn’t I warn you all? Boring! Okay your turn to show me up with your much more interesting lives! Have a great weekend!

Another day got away from me. Some of it is me trying to deep clean plus a lot of life keeps popping up, so I’m going to write a quick blog sharing a couple bright spots in my week:

1. When were were visiting Turbo, we were all having lunch, and Turbo announced, “Grandma and Grandpa can’t leave until it’s dark outside.” It was so cute, he really wanted us to stay the whole entire day. We had to go home and take care of Maggie, but it’s so sweet. These years will pass so quickly.
2. I took Maggie in for a bath and the owner is so awesome. She knows Maggie’s name, but not mine, LOLOL! I’m good with that. She was calling her Maggie Happy Pants, which is true since Maggie’s always happy. And when I picked her up, she talked about how Maggie’s getting older. That may not sound particularly nice, but what I love is that she’s so invested in Maggie that she recognizes every little change in her.

So those were too bright spots in my moving-too-fast week. How about you?

Happy Monday! So overall my weekend was, well, a weekend Here’s the recap:

Friday, Part One: I got my hair done. So that was interesting. For one of the few times in my life, my hairdresser was telling me she has a lady who desperately wants a hairstyle like mine, but her hair won’t do it. I was half-complimented and half-laughing because it pretty much took me until this last year to accept that I will never have fabulous long and luxurious hair. Instead what I have is acceptable hair. So when I finally escaped my denial, I said, “Acceptable hair what would you like to do?”

AH answered, “Live free and wild with no limits.”

I said, “Heck no, we will scare small children and I mostly like kids. Plus we’ll make all the huskies and beagles howl in protest. Surely we can compromise.”

AH gave them some thought, then suggested, “A layered bob deal that you will have to blow dry straight and sometimes use a straight iron on when the weather is ornery.”

I agreed and we’ve been friends ever since. But I felt for whomever that woman was longing for a hairstyle her hair refuses to do. Been there, done that was practically Today Years Old when I gave up the dream.

Friday Part Two: After getting my hair colored, cut and tamed, I met Biker Witch for coffee. We talked for two hours before I even checked the time. Love that! I also tried a salted caramel cookie that I found delicious.

Saturday: Wizard and I went to breakfast which was lovely. Fortified with carbs and caffeine, I rolled up my sleeves and finished cleaning out my kitchen cupboards. That required taking everything out of my pantry which is not a walk-in, but quite big and holds A. Lot. Of. Stuff. It was a chore that resulted into a large bag of trash and a variety pack of sore muscles. But it feels good to have it done. I still need to Murphy Oil Soap the doors, but that’s a two hour, and much less painful project I’ll do sometime this week. I have to say, yoga has paid off in the ability to control myself into weird pretzels shapes to reach the dark, twisty corners of some very deep cupboards. So that’s a plus

Sunday: I made some more Hot Chocolate Bombs, partly as practice, and also to take one or two to Turbo (my grandson) when I go over there today to visit him. (His super patient parents may put me on supervised visits after this since they are so rich, LOL But they give him chocolate milk, so…that’s my excuse???)  Anyhow, here’s a pic of some of the HC Bombs:

And Maggie and I went for a walk on a gorgeous day:

This is the base of the Cleveland National Forest that goes for miles and miles. I didn’t go any farther than where I stopped to take the picture because I know packs of coyotes (and other animals) who would consider Maggie an excellent meal live back there. It was warm enough that I was also concerned about snakes. There are  safer dirt roads I mostly stay on but it was a beautiful spot if you appreciate raw land and I wanted to share it.

So that was my weekend, how was yours?