I spent most of this weekend watching the news on Hurricane Irma in between trying to work on Savaged Devotion. I’m writing this blog Sunday evening, and keeping my fingers crossed for everyone in Florida and up into Georgia.

Now for a some personal good news. I’ve had a secret since my birthday and I can finally share! So here’s how it went down. We had a family party for my birthday and while I was opening my gift, CPA Boy (oldest son) and his wife Special K handed Wizard a gift bag. CPA Boy said, “This is for you and mom.”

Wizard was confused. “It’s mom’s birthday.” And tried to hand it to me.

“It’s for you both,” CPA Boys insisted. “You open it dad.”

So Wizard pulled this out.

Wizard was confused, but I took one look I blurted out, “You’re pregnant!”

CPA Boy and Special K are expecting their first child! Special K is 3 months pregnant and I don’t have words for how thrilled we are.  CPA Boy has already read a bunch of baby books He’s going to be a great dad, and he chose the best woman ever to be the mother of his child.

Can you tell we’re excited?

So how was your weekend?

P.S. I’m aware that it’s 9/11, and I’d like to just say this. Life goes on, but we will not forget the who were hurt, died, sacrificed or rose to be a hero in one of our most desperate of times.

It’s Friday! Once again I’m stunned that another seven days have slid by.  Let’s do our Friday 5 where we list five random things about our week

1. What do you think of this for my Friday Five photo.
2. I went to the dentist yesterday. All is well, except they found a small sore on the roof of my mouth that looks a tiny burn. The dentist said to his assistant, “Let’s have her come back for a recheck next week to make sure it heals,” while he had his hands in my mouth. People I’m not proud of this but I think I snarled, a little bit like a really hungry, pissed off Doberman might.  Okay in my defense, all I do lately is doctor and physical therapy appointments, or chasing appointments or calling doctor offices and the insurance to find out why they aren’t doing what they are supposed to do. I’m a tad cranky about it. The dentist took one look at my bulging, bloodshot eyes and calming said, “You’re a smart woman. Why don’t you just call us next week if this doesn’t heal up?” LOLOL!! Then he said everything else was perfect and all but flew out of that room.
3. FYI I’m 95% the mysterious spot on the roof of the my mouth is from eating a meringue cookie fresh out of the oven. The cookie was mostly cooled, but the chocolate chips inside were not.  Wizard and I discovered that the hard way. And sadly, even after discovering that little detail, I ate a second cookie. To clarify, these are cooks made from egg whites which makes them healthy–ish
4. I started ripping my book apart yesterday and I’m actually enjoying the process in a slightly gleeful, demented and scary way. I suspect it’s just admitting to the truth that medical issues got the best of me and this book is going to be late after all my promises to fans. Somehow I just stopped worrying about fighting through pain and (normal) depression, and it freed up something in my brain to let the characters  tell their story. My process is always weird, but I was so busy being mad at myself and my body that I was shutting off my creativity.
5. Hurricanes! Um, I think we all need to find a way to spike Mother Nature’s coffee with my left over Xanax (from my MRI) and calm things down. I really hope everyone in the path of Irma gets out-of-the-way or stays safe.  As I’m typing this, it’s still headed for Florida and possibly the Carolinas.  In a side note, I have my conference in Florida Oct 4th. But that’s a minor thing, I just want everyone to be safe and not lose their homes.

Okay that’s my Friday Five, now it’s your turn! Have a good and safe weekend!

Hey I missed posting on Monday, sorry!  Nothing exciting to report over the weekend, how about you?

Now let’s move onto Wednesday Worthy. Here’s our candidate. Even though I just scooped him off Depositphotos last night, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen him a time or twenty before.

So what do you think? Is he worthy?

Happy Friday!

1. We normally go grocery shopping Tuesday mornings, but this week I had an appointment on Tuesday, so we went on Monday. As a result, all week-long we’ve been confused on the days of the week.
2. I’ll admit it–I love Princess Diana stories and have read or watched a few of the articles and shows coming out for the 20th anniversary of her death. What I liked about her was her imperfections and passion. I also came to admire her cleverness and media savvy. I don’t believe in any of the conspiracy theories surrounding her unfortunate death. My opinion is that speed, drunk driving and arrogance caused her death, and that makes it even more of a human tragedy–she was as mortal and prone to poor decisions as any of us. Otherwise, I’m not much of a royal watcher
3. I’m so happy that I figured out how to donate to the Houston Humane Society! I didn’t want to use my credit card, and they didn’t appear to take Paypal option. We had to deal with some identity theft not long ago, and I’m a tad paranoid, but I’m also an animal lover, and wanted to donate to a place that tries to reunite pets with their families (FYI, I’m not getting into a debate about shelters–I worked for one and I know first-hand how hard we tried). I struggled with this for just over a day before I remembered I had a Visa gift card that I was saving to buy some clothes for going to Florida. That card worked to make an online donation, and it’s a better birthday present than clothes! (And we also donated to the Red Cross).
4. I’m tired of the heat and it’s not letting up anytime soon. But we had two weeks of milder weather before this heat wave, so I really shouldn’t whine!
5. I actually fantasize about a full eight hours of sleep. Is that even a real thing, or is it an urban legend?

Okay that’s my Friday Five, now it’s your turn to share five random things about your week. Have a great weekend!

Happy Hump Day! It’s brutally hot here in Southern California. In a piece of good news, I had my appointment at the pain clinic and they are recommending a series of three shots. If all the stars align, I may be able to get one of two of them before going to Florida in Oct, which would be very helpful. Now Wizard and I are debating if I should do the shots with just a local, or under anesthesia. I’m leaning toward just a local and Wizard is lobbying hard for IV anesthesia. I was surprise at how strongly he felt about this, but I’m still leaning toward a local I just hope we can get this approved.

Today for Wednesday Worthy, I have a very important question for you all. But in order to arrive at a fully informed answer, you must first study these two pictures carefully.

Okay ready??? Here’s the question…chain or towel? I just can’t decide, although I think for me, the chain shot screams paranormal hero while the towel shot looks like a sexy contemporary. What do you think?

P.S. A shout out to Silver James for releasing Assassin’s Moon! And also, let’s keep Silver in our thoughts as she’s recovering from a mishap that she describes on her blog here. Get well soon, Silver!

This weekend was marked by concern for all the people in Texas dealing with massive flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. Both Wizard and I watched the devastation and felt so helpless. The one thing we can do is donate to the organization we believe does the most to help victims of disasters. But I wish I was there with a boat to help get people to safety.

Here in our area, we had another fire in the hills behind us spring up yesterday afternoon. This is the second one in just weeks, which doesn’t bode well for our fire seasons here. Once again, fire crews tackled it fast and hard, and by last night the fire appeared to be contained or out.  We’ll see in the morning.

In a bit of good news, I’m seeing some small improvement in my shoulder. I have two issues: One is scapula dyskinesis, which is supraspinatus muscle in my rotator cuff hitting bone when I move my arm a certain way. That’s what I’m working on with physical therapy, and I really like my therapist. I’m cautiously hopeful. The second issue is a pinched nerves, which I’m seeing a pain doctor for on Tuesday. I’m trying to keep an open mind about that and see how it goes. In the meantime, I still limiting my time at the computer to about 40 minutes to an hour.

All that said, I managed to write this weekend too! Justice and Liza are tired of waiting around for me to pull my act together physically. They have a love story to finish Completing Savaged Devotion will not only be a testament to their love, but my stubbornness in writing this book despite my current challenges, LOL!

And finally, my clothes still seem tight. I gave this issue a great deal of thought while I was eating Pepperidge Farm Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies, but I didn’t come up with a solution. Maybe I need another cookie???

How was your weekend?

Happy Friday! Let’s all list 5 random things about our week!

1. Wizard has conceded that I am better at picking movies for us to watch on Amazon Prime or Netflix than he is. This is HUGE. Wizard is better than me at a lot of things, so I’m walking around with a stupid grin over this tiny achievement
2. When we were grocery shopping on Tuesday, I asked Wizard to help me get a leafy green vegetable into one of those thin plastic bags in the produce section of most stores. He’s stared at the vegetable suspiciously. “What is that?” he demanded (while helping me wrangle it into a plastic bag). “Kale,” I told him. He was scrunched up his nose. “I’m not eating that.” But I assured him that not only was he going to eat it but he’d like it. He adamantly assured me he would NOT. Last night, I made the Kale Chips sprinkled with parmesan. Wizard had three helpings. LOLOL!!!
3. Wizard still has car fever, we just haven’t had time to follow-up. I imagine we’ll tackle that in September, but if not, we’re fine with our eight-year-old car until some time next year.
4. We’re pretty much all set to go to Florida in October. I’m so looking forward to it. Although I really need to lose a few pounds before then, so my clothes are more comfortable. But it’s hard to be motivated when I’m on limited activity. Wizard is too smart to say a word about that!
5. I saw a news story on Kitten Garten that made me smile. Someone donated a serious chunk of money to an animal shelter to provide a safe nursery for kittens too young to adopt and who need round the clock care. I love stories like that!

That’s my Friday Five. Now it’s your turn, I really want to hear five random things you’d like to share about your week!