It was pretty non stop this weekend as Wizard and I tried to get a handle on Christmas, and we’re making progress! I got most of the Christmas cards done, finished shopping for Wizard and got started on everyone else. And I’m thinking a lot of about Linc’s (CAGED MAGIC, Wing Slayer Hunter) book. But I need to focus on Christmas first.

So…Wizard and I finally decided to give up the fresh tree and get a fake one. Well actually, I’ve been tired of real trees for two years, while Wizard stubbornly insisted fake ones were too much of a pain. Then he suddenly changed his mind…thanks to a neighbor caving in last year and buying one, then spending fifteen minutes last Thursday telling him Wizard much easier it is to deal with a fake tree. Suddenly Wizard saw the light. Because you know, a MAN told him how easy it was.

Umm, yeah, moving on.

So Thursday night we went on a hunt for a fake tree. We went to Home Depot, Lowes, Target and found it! Loved the one at Target.

But they didn’t have it in stock.

So we drove twenty or twenty five miles one way to another Target. And learned there that the were Out of Stock EVERYWHERE IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE. (Somehow they couldn’t figure that out at the first Target).

Crap. So Wizard says. “You know what, let’s try Big Lots.”

But then we talked ourselves out of Big Lots and went to Wal Mart. DUMB MOVE! Apparently our Wal Mart stocks only Charlie Brown type of artifical Christmas trees. I have baby weeds in my planter with more to them than these trees–it was pathetic.  By then we were tired and cranky and went home, pretty much planning to forgo a tree altogether. I don’t even know how many miles we covered in total that night.

Then  Saturday  morning, Wizard went to help him mom out with some stuff and I ran errands. While out I decided to check out Big Lots. Bingo! I found a fake tree CHEAPER than we were wiling to pay. But the problem was I had the smaller car, so I waited until Wizard got home and told him. He’s like, “Let’s go!” We went and snagged the tree.

Easy, right?

The next morning we go to assemble it and guess what? The tree stand  is missing. It’s supposed to be included, it said so on the box!

We jump in the car and head back to Big Lots because we knew there was only ONE of the trees left the night before. When we walked into the store,  I swear to you, SWEAR!!, that the last tree was right there in a customer’s basket in the line to check out. Seriously. Wizard stopped dead and said, “Oh my God, that’s the last tree. Can you believe it?

Yeah, after the week I had, I totally believe it.  We are 10 minutes too late.

Long story short, (I’m kidding, this isn’t short at all!) a guy who works there came to our rescue, giving us the stand off the display tree.  And here’s the tree last night:

We’re both happy with it. The tree is pre lit with clear lights and we just put on a few ornaments. We really wanted to simplify this year so this works well for us.

How was your weekend?

I’m sorry for not answering blog comments on Wednesday, this whole week has gotten away from me. I’ve been fighting with the insurance AGAIN to get the meds I need which is a major time suck. But the revisions are pretty much done, about 40 pages of editing left, so yay! It should go in sometime today. This morning I have more errands beginning with a 7:30 am appointment, and we’re suppose to have a  torrential downpour all day. But once I’m home, as long as the power stays on, I WILL FINISH! 

Then this weekend, I’ll try to get the rest of my Christmas list together, do some cards, and at some point, we need to get a tree. This is my idea of perfectly decorated Christmas:

But I’m pretty sure that’s not happening

So what are you guys doing this weekend?

We shall not talk about my week so far. Even Wizard can’t believe the ridiculous frustrations. The only good news is I’m just finishing the revision today despite it all. I’ll still have to do a clean edit but it should go in Friday.

Anyway, I went looking for fresh meat um, I mean fresh candidates, but I seem to be a little hunk blind right now….I probably wouldn’t recognize a hot sexy man unless he buys me my own private Starbucks staffed with Hugh Jackman and Chris Hemsworth lookalikes on my own private Island with a house full of French bulldog puppies…oh and health insurance that provides the services without making me jump through flaming hoops that magically vanish…oops, I may have slipped into a rant.

Sorry.

So…I looked for a hunk but couldn’t find one, so I’m going to put up three from my private stash, and you can choose your own Wednesday Hunk! So what do you think? Wizard’s in the background, yelling, Say yes! Just agree with anything Witch says! She’s got Crazy Eyes.

All right, here’s Hunk Candidate #1

Hunk Candidate #2 ( I originally typed that Hung Candidate #2, LOLOL!! And I haven’t even touched wine or any alcohol at all!)

Hunk Candidate #3

So which one is your choice for Wednesday Worthy?

I’ve bought one Christmas present, that’s progress right? LOL! I’ll get on it soon. But first I have to finish this revision. I wanted to finish the revision over the weekend, then spend a few days cleaning it up. However BLB (Youngest Son and yeah, I know I should quit calling him BLB but it kind of stuck) came over Sunday. Wizard was gone racing, and BLB and I talked and talked. He’s doing amazing and worth any lost writing time to hang out with him.

Now for a quick subject change, somewhere around four in the morning on Sunday I realized that I had NOT yet pre-ordered our own Silver Jame’s book COWGIRLS DON’T CRY. I literally woke up and thought, Holy Crap, why haven’t I pre-ordered that? While Silver is a multi-published successful author, this is her first traditionally published book and that is a very special milestone. So yesterday I pre-ordered it at Amazon for my Kindle. Here’s the link   I’m looking forward to reading it when it releases January 1st!

And last, I’m sorry to say that Siri (my cell phone, a now outdated iPhone 4s) has been leaving threatening messages for Sammy (Wizard’s dumb Samsung–so dumb all it can do is talk and text. Barely).  Sammy keeps TOUCHING Siri. It’s creepy. For instance, I’ll put Siri on the charger, and when I go back, Sammy is right next to her TOUCHING her. But yesterday, we started finding little yellow post it notes stuck to Sammy with threats. Stuff like frying his battery, or dropping him down the garbage disposal.

Things are getting a little scary here

I’ve tried to have a talk with Siri and tell her that violence isn’t the solution. I don’t know if she’s hearing me….

So that was my weekend, how was yours?

So cool, the German edition of THE PROPOSITION released yesterday (Dec. 4th) on Amazon! They are releasing the trilogy in  two books instead of three, the first now and the second one in January 15th 2015. Here’s the link to the book on Amazon.de 

So in other news,  I’m two thirds of the way through the revisions on EXPOSING THE HEIRESS and holding my breath that this works.  This essentially had a been a “square peg into a round hole” revision to make it fit the new line. I hope I’m doing it, but I’m too deep in the middle of it to really know. So this weekend, more work. I’m hoping to get it done next week so I can tackle Christmas and get back to CAGED MAGIC.

And I’ve fallen in love with audio books! To relieve stress, right now I’m walking…and I’m doing a good two miles while listening to audio books. I swear it’s saving my sanity. I was MAD this week because it rained and I couldn’t go. Which is super petty of me since we desperately need the rain here in So Cal. And I can listen to audio books at the gym too, but I have to actually drive there Anyway, the book that I got hooked on is REAPER’S STAND by Joanna Wylde. The male narrator on that book is hot! So hot! Now I’m listening to REAPER’ S PROPERTY. Unfortunately there’s only a female narrator on this one, and not the super sexy guy  The point however, is audio books + exercise + stress relief for me.

What are your weekend plans?

These revisions are so much fun…yeah I don’t believe me either.

In better news, this guy made me laugh. He’s applying for our Wednesday Worthy spots but I think he might be in the wrong audition. He’s pretty clean cut, and most of our guys have a little rougher edge. On the other hand, I thought maybe you all should take a look at him and vote. I know, I’m asking a lot of you all, but I think you’re up for the challenge.

By the way, anyone know why Wizard is trying to take away my wine? It’s to help me plot, Wizard! Give it back!

Anyway…here’s the guy:

Oh good job! You’re all paying very close attention Now what’s your verdict, is he worthy? And don’t you think Wizard should give me my wine back???

So who went out shopping? I stayed home, I haven’t even started Christmas shopping yet.  I look at a few online deals, but didn’t buy anything. Mostly I worked. I’m about a third of the way into my revisions. I’m telling you this book EXPOSING THE HEIRESS and CAGED MAGIC are two of the most frustrating books I’ve ever worked on. But I hit a turning point his weekend on revising EXPOSING THE HEIRESS, and most of that is due to the fact that I had coffee with Biker Witch (my sister) on Saturday. We were just hanging out, when I was telling her what was going on with this book.

And I blurted it out; I feel so sorry for Hunt and Alyssa, I’m having to force them together sexually before they are ready. That was just a random comment, but it stuck with me all night, and the next day I realized what I had to do to make it work.

The point of this story is IT’S GOOD TO WALK AWAY FROM A PROJECT WHEN WE’RE STUCK ON IT. I’ve been doing that more and more lately and it’s helping. Plus having a sister like Biker Witch who will leaving me alone about it when I don’t want to talk about a book (sometimes I need to NOT think about it) and then listen when I’m ready is pretty awesome too

And now to the other side of writing.  So Wizard and I were watching some version of House Hunters that reminded me of a heroine I always wanted to write. So I tell Wizard about it, and he gets super excited. “You have to write this down.” And he’s throwing out ideas.

I’m like “Whoa dude! I have like four or five books to write before I can get to that.”

But Wizard has the solution to that. “So write faster.”

Seriously? LOLOL! I wish I could!

How was your weekend?