A good weekend. Saturday, we went to see Turbo. He’s an energetic little guy and usually good humored, with an occasional meltdown thrown in to remind us he’s a toddler I treasure the hugs and kisses. Also, he loves brownies. I gave him small one, then he tried really hard to charm me into a second one. I threw that on his dad by telling Turbo his dad said no, LOL! CPA boy accepted the blame with good grace and redirected Turbo’s attention. CPA Boy seems amused that I’ve gone from a rules-and-structure parent to a softy Grandma.

Surprisingly, when we got home, I had energy to do some more reading through my hard copy edit too.

Sunday, Wizard was gone and I got a ton of stuff done, including another 100 pages of the book edited on hard copy. Assuming I don’t find any surprise plot problems toward the end, I should have this book to my copyeditor on Friday. It will likely sit in her queue for a while, but that’s okay I have a lot of other things to take care of to prepare for publishing, and down the road, get to work on the Wing Slayers.

How was your weekend?

TGIF! This week came and went. I swear it was Monday, I blinked and Friday appeared. Okay time to share five random things about our week:

1. I read Wednesdays blog comments to Maggie, but life got in the way of me answering for her. I’m sorry!
2. Life has been irritating us this week. Nothing serious, just one of the annoying joys of home ownership. But it should be all fixed next week.
3. I finished my revisions, printed the book and am doing the hard copy edit. I also contacted my copyedited, and she’ll do her pass on the book in October. Progress!!
4. It just dawned on me I’m going to have to write the dreaded back cover blurb for the book
5. I think we’re going to see Turbo on Saturday. I’m looking forward to that, although I usually come hope wiped out. One day this week, I walked Maggie, went grocery shopping, spent a few hours helping Wizard move heavy concrete chunks around (don’t ask!) and take them to the dump, then I came home and worked straight through until dinner. But after playing with a toddler for three hours, I can’t get up off the couch, LOLOL!

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

Yep, there was a weekend!

I had a nice break Saturday afternoon when Wizard, me and Maggie went to middle son and his wife’s house. Wizard was helping middle son work on one of his R.C. Cars, and the two of them together managed to break it worse than when they started, LOL! Okay, the truth it was an old motor that blew up, which happens, but it’s more fun the way I tell it. In the meantime, my daughter-in-law and I sat out back with their two sweet and funny dogs, Jett and Hazel, and Maggie. It was a really nice visit.

We also did two video chats with Turbo since we didn’t see him in person. It’s pretty cool how technology can keep us connected.

The rest of the weekend, I worked, and yesterday afternoon, I finished this major revision pass. I’m pretty danged happy about that. Through this revision process I’ve deleted 57 pages, which should tighten up the book significantly and makes me feel better. I have to edit a few little things, which I’ll probably work on today. Then I’ll do another hardcore proofread/cleanup of the entire book. I’ll probably contact the copyeditor I use and see if/when she has room in her schedule.

That was my weekend, how was yours?

Today these guys and gals are my heroes:

I’m proud and inspired by how hard firefighters, and all the first responders, battle beyond exhaustion. They ignore politics and the dark side of humanity to do the work to save lives, and homes, but lives come first.

Who is your hero today?

Saturday was filled with Turbo kisses! He’s so affectionate with us now. And I love that when he gets here, he runs up the sidewalk, comes right in, says hi and just starts playing. He knows where his toys are, and what he’s allowed to play with. But boy, he was so tired after playing, going up and down the stairs, having fun with Maggie, swimming, eating chocolate and more playing. They left at 7 and he slept through until 8 the next morning.

Saturday was a bright spot in a hard week with the fires, and two police officers ambushed and shot while sitting in their car.

Sunday Wizard went racing, I struggled all freaking day with the last plot point driving me crazy. I need to nail this down today. If I can’t, I’ll be asking anyone I can find for help! A good night’s sleep might help me crack this code though.

That was my weekend, how was yours?

TGIF! Let’s go right to sharing five random things about out week:

1. Today is 9/11, the anniversary of the horrible terrorist attack that killed so many innocent people in the U.S. I will always be grateful to the first responders and civilian heroes who worked so hard to help those who survived, and take respectful care of those we lost. I went to the ground zero in New York a year after the attacks and will never forget how errie and surreal it was. And I’ll just mention while I had the opportunity to pay my respects in New York, I don’t forget the people that lost their lives in at the Pentagon or the field in Pennsylvania.
2. In a more cheerful note: I have baby bell peppers and tomatoes growing!  I didn’t take pictures because it’s awful outside.
3. By awful, I mean the smoke from all the fires in CA hang like a gloom that blocks the sun. We are not close to the fires here, that’s how bad it is. It’s not just CA, the whole West Coast is battling raging fires. Here’s a picture from walking Maggie the other morning about 6:45 am. Normally, it would be bright and clear, and I’d need sunglasses to walk toward the sun like this. It’s gotten worse in the last couple days. Everyone is feeling the effect of so much smoke, and I have a scratchy throat and burning eyes, which is not fun with contracts. Much worse, firefighters have been injured, there’ve been some deaths too. And it’s all so sad.
4. I’m 3/4s of the way into the book revision and have cut well over 50 pages from the first half. I have one more plot problem to figure out how to fix, and the rest is clean up. Another week to get that done I think. Then I’ll have to go through and edit because I’ve made so many changes and moved stuff around. After that, I’ll arrange copyediting.  I’m doing this, and so happy.
5. The plan is to see Turbo tomorrow! With the fires, plans are subject to change, but that’s the plan while writing this.

Now I’d love to hear five random things about your week! I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Sometimes Wednesday needs a cowboy:

Yea or Nay?