A Pint of Milk

I've not been doing much at all for the last few days, as I ate something that didn't agree with me. I stayed very close to the bathroom, and stuck to writing stuff and feeling sorry for myself. 

I have a pint of cow's milk in my fridge. Bear isn't a fan of the almond milk that I drink, and I don't usually have soy. Dairy makes me poorly, and I've had enough of that this week, and it doesn't really agree with DH either. So I got in the smallest practical unit for bear, because he likes cereal with either cow's milk or soy milk for breakfast. To the surpise of no-one, he didn't even open the carton. 

I'm frustrated by this, because now it's going to waste. If it was what I would consider normal times, I could offer it to a neighbour, preferably before it reached its 'use-by' date. However I hear the rows coming from the neighbours at the back, so I don't have the courage to knock there. Next door to the side never answers their door. They're lovely people and don't cause any fuss, but they never, ever open the door to knocking. Next door to that is empty and next door to that is someone where I can't say anything good, so I'm not saying anything at all. 

There are no houses in front of us. This is an old pic, but shows that the only ones that may be able to use up the milk are rats.

There are some young men doing thing with cars to the left of this picture, but after they abandoned a car in the middle of the street, and ignored us when we politely asked them to move it so that we could get deliveries, then we called the car in as abandoned after a few months, I don't think that we're on those sorts of terms. 

I'm annoyed at myself as I should have seen this coming and I hate the waste. Next time, I'll ask him to pick up milk for himself and I'll give him the money for it.

In other shopping news, I bought a packet of Overnight Oats. I've been making overnight oats for bear for ages. I used to get the tubs set up for him to pick up in the morning and he'd eat them when he got to college. It was just oats, chia seeds, almond milk (and he didn't complain about it then!), something like honey or agave sweetener, and cinnamon and he was fine with it. This had extra things like vitamins and stuff, though, and I picked it up on Tuesday in a moment of weakness. I feel a fool. I've spent far too much on what was described as overnight oats, but is also describe as instant overnight oats, ready in 3 minutes.

How can overnight oats be ready in 3 minutes? Doesn't it make them instant oats that can also be made the night before? I'll go back to the usual way after I've finished this packet. 

Writing stuff - I've finished the first round of editing on the complete White Hart collection. DH is checking it, but that's going to take some time. Then I'll check his edits, format, and attempt to publish. I should, in theory, be okay for the ebook, but it's pushing against the limits of the print book. It may not be possible. I'm going to have to work on this. Over a quarter of a million words takes up some space.

While that's going on in the background, I'm also collating the stories of Kane. I'll be adding a couple more new stories and I'll publish the collection at the same time as a separate novella that I'm working on. Because of the way that Amazon works, I'm going to have to take down all the Kane stories that are currently on my blog. I'll be doing that after Friday 13th March, which is as good a date as any when you're talking about ghost stories. I daren't post plans, as they never work out if I mention them aloud, but the collection of stories plus new novella should be along shortly after that. Please wish me luck. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

I Went Out

Today has been quiet. I spent a lot of time on writing stuff and I chopped up four punnets of mushrooms that had been on an excellent offer for the freezer. 

I haven't driven since early January. I hurt my shoulder, and then, when it was feeling a little better, I found the thought of it overwhelming. However, DH needs salad for tomorrow and I'm running a little low on the flavoured water that he likes, so I decided to go to Tesco. As I knew that I wouldn't be confident driving, I waited until it was late and the roads should be quiet before setting off.

I found it tough, I'll be honest. I was out of practice and feeling nervous, but I did it! I drove safely there, though it took me a few minutes to get up to speed. There was a reason that I didn't go out when it was busy. I didn't want to be a hazard. I nearly forgot to take a pic to prove that I'd been out, but I remembered on my way out, and I took a pic of houseplants that looked amazing and that I had no intention of buying.

I intend to go out again tomorrow, and again go out late. There is an Aldi which is around ten miles away from us. They have the habit of putting out Thursday's special buys late on Wednesday. I have my eye on the bedding, as mine is wearing out and I kind of like the blue stripes that are advertised on the website. It won't be a great hardship if I can't get any, as there are ruffles and I'm never 100% behind ruffles, but it's also a great reason to get me moving out and about. 

I hope that I'll have something interesting to post tomorrow. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Feeling Good

We had a wonderful weekend when bear came home. It was wonderful to see him. He looked happy and healthy, though tired, and he was so relaxed with us. DH and I were thrilled. We had gathered together a care package, with some treats like hot sauce and biscuits, and he took what he could carry back with him and we posted the rest for him to collect on campus. He said that he really appreciated the goodies and the thought, and it was a boost as he was studying. 

Other good news is a quote about repairing our roof. There's a few slates missing, and we have been told it's £200, not the £1,200 that the man who knocked on the door quoted. I suspect that we'll have some more repairs in the near future as our roof is quite old, but we'll wait and see what happens. 

This blog is incredibly useful sometimes. I didn't have a sensible pic for today, so I thought that I would crack on with a project that I've been meaning to tackle. I only had a short amount of time, but I dug out the smaller lucet and the brown twine. If you remember, I had a basket where I'd added cord handles with the cord made by the lucet. The post is here.

So far, the cord that I hope to use as a replacement looks like this.

Knowing that I ought to do something for the blog spurred me on, and I hope to finish off at least one handle by tomorrow. 

Writing stuff - Apart from working on the White Hart, I can confirm that the paperback is now available for Cats in the Bible, if you are interested. There is also this week's instalment of the Guest on my writing blog here. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

I'm sorry. I just realised that there were ads on here. I've closed down the account, and I didn't make any money from it. I apologise for not noticing it sooner. I want to make money, but I don't feel comfortable putting adverts here. I was aiming for my writing blog, but I couldn't get it to work. I'll see if bear can help me over the summer. 

And speaking of bear, he is home! He's visiting some friends tomorrow as they're doing things for their birthdays. We get to see him tonight, briefly tomorrow and then first thing Sunday morning. It's been wonderful to see him. He may be able to take the goodies from his care parcel back with him on the coach, as I only got the last lot a day or two ago and thought I would wait and see if it all suited him. It's so good to see him. We had a chance to hang out before he went to bed, and it was great. He looked tired, though. 

I've not got much to show as I've been working with writing stuff all day. It feels like my brain is leaking out of my ears. However, after much battle, Cats in the Bible is available as an ebook on Amazon, and print books should follow within the next ten days. 

I'm bunging a lot of writing stuff in the post here, because it feels all mixed up to me. DH and I are not getting any younger, and we want to help bear with university costs. We have a leaking roof, a leaking floor, extremely elderly wiring and a kitchen that was far from new when we got here in 1994 and is falling to pieces. The car has done sterling service, but the garage have been gently suggesting that it's time to replace her for some time. Therefore I've decided to monetise as much of my writing as I can. A lot of material from my writing blog is likely to disappear from there and go into some form of book. I'll share when and if it happens, but be aware that chunks may vanish. With that and the new stuff I'm working on, most of my blog is likely to be writing stuff. I still plan to look for joy, and I'm sure that I'll manage some pics, including the knitting. I think I need to do a few rows every day for sanity's sake. Mind you, now that I've said that I'm going to do something, the odds of it happening are greatly reduced! 

I've no sensible pics as I've been armpit deep in messing around with text, so in honour of the new book, I'm adding some cat pics from Unsplash. 

Photo by Loan on Unsplash

This made me smile. And this reminded me of evil cat when she was planning theft.

Photo by Leonid Privalov on Unsplash

And a tune that made me smile - AI cats singing country music.

There's a lot of AI cat music going on, and while some are significantly better than others, there are plenty that cheer me up. 

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have more interesting things to write about. 

Hugs and good health to all.

Making an Effort

I'm so tired, but I'm determined to post. I think that I'm killing off my houseplant. 

I think that I would be better off replacing it with a couple of spider plants. My brother has offered to rescue it. It perked up a little after I gave it a serious soak, but I suspect that it's not just the water, I think it's getting more sun than it would like. 

Writing stuff - I forgot that I reposted Research and the Author: Location, Location, Location here yesterday. It's not surprising. Amazon still haven't fixed whatever it is that's stopping Cats in the Bible from uploading. I'm wondering if it's because it's been on several computers, Windows 10, Windows 11 and then back to Windows 10. After all, it was first published in 2012. I'm seriously considering copytyping it up and seeing if that will work. I've also gone through the first 36 pages of 468 of the White Hart, checking for commas. 

I hope to be back with something more interesting tomorrow.

Hugs and good health to all. 

More Bewildered Than Normal.

It's Lent. I forgot about Lent. I usually like to do something positive for Lent rather than give something up. Not only does my willpower have the strength of damp tissue paper, but I'm quite restricted anyway. I hadn't thought about what to do. Normally it wouldn't be a question. I'd stop knitting for myself and knit only for the Mission to Seafarers. I really need new sweaters, though. If I'd been more proactive over Christmas instead of knitting the scarf, I'd be in a better place, and I should have been better as I need new sweaters and I have a room full of yarn. I'd even cast on the sweater with the yarn that's going to also be a triangular shawl with the leftovers. The pattern is easy and looks great, but the welt is a 'knit 2, purl 1' repeat which I know is going to reduce me to harsh language. 

But I feel that Lent is about a struggle. So I picked up a hat that I started ages ago. 

The darker knitting is the sweater-to-be and the bright blue and white is the hat in the making. After Lent, I need to buckle down and reduce the yarn pile. 

There's a lot of writing stuff.

Writing stuff - I've spent the last two days trying to upload 'Cats in the Bible' to Amazon. For some reason, the programme is having hissy fits and everything ends up in italics. It doesn't always stay in italics. It might be all slanty writing on page seven, for example, but if you advance to page eight, then flick back, some versions will be upright text, but with a pale blue background. Or they will be italics with the text in blue. And when I used a separate previewer, it all worked fine! I have not been calm about it. I tried all sorts of ideas, and none of the dratted things worked. In the end, I contacted Amazon help line. I thought that I must have missed something obvious. Apparently I didn't, as the very nice man/woman/person/bot who was dealing with me had to go away and think, then told me that they'd have to refer it to their team and they'd email me when they had it sorted out. Heaven only knows what's going on. 

I've uploaded the same text to a site called Draft2Digital, which is another self publishing platform. They distribute all over to bookshops in several countries. The obvious bookshop in the UK, for me, is Waterstones, and I knew that I'd uploaded the paperback version of Out of the London Mist to Draft2Digital who should distribute there. When I searched for it on the Waterstones site, three separate copies showed up, all at different prices. I have no idea why. If you ever want to get a hard copy from there, go for the cheapest. I get about 20p per copy regardless. Anyway, Cats in the Bible should in theory be available there soon. If you hadn't come across it before, here's the blurb from the back.

Everyone knows that there are no cats in the Bible. There’s plenty about dogs and pigs and even the occasional lion, but the housecat is conspicuous by its absence. Besides, everyone who has cats knows that cat stories expand to fit the space available, and anyone who has listened to a cat owner will know that stories about cats can be endless, so perhaps it was best that they were omitted. If you pay attention, however, the Bible covers principles for all sorts of situations, including cats, and it can be reassuring in the face of felonious felines.

Cats in the Bible is a collection of hilarious and true cat stories starring Lyssa Medana’s cats and their furry neighbours as they prove time after time that you can find a Bible verse for every occasion, whether it’s fighting with the vet, stealing food, or the dreaded bath.   

This is a fun read for cat-lovers everywhere, regardless of faith, as Shadow, Smudge and Smoke trot briskly from disaster to havoc to cuddles and back, ruling their hapless owners with an iron paw and stealing cheese along the way.

Hopefully tomorrow will be more productive. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Technically Awake

I seem to need a lot of sleep at the moment. I'm blaming it on the time of year. It's a nuisance as I keep lining up time to post here, then falling asleep in my chair before I get to it. Mind you, there's not been that much to report. I finished my scarf!

And I plan to get the use out of it immediately. It's six inches wide, around 15cm, and six feet long, around 180cm, and I adore the colours. I'll knit a hat to match at some point. 

The people doing the roofing on the house next door but one and next door but two knocked on our door and pointed out the damage on our roof. It's probably the reason why we had leaks during the storm. To be honest, I'm not sure about them, and they were very keen on us paying them $6,000 and getting a new roof. We could probably do with a new roof, but I'd like to hold off for as long as possible, and definitely while bear is at university. Besides, they left their vans in the middle of the street so I couldn't have got out if I was able to drive, and the rubbish from their work is everywhere. It's awful. DH is looking for other quotes, as we need a roof that doesn't leak, but I'm dreading the cost. 

Writing stuff - The latest chapter of The Guest on my blog is here. I should be in a position to publish the second edition of Cats in the Bible with a couple of new stories added within the next few weeks. I'm taking time to make sure that I've got it as error free as possible. Working out how to add a table of contents in a word document and then fiddling around with the dratted thing until everything is in the right font, colour and properly indented has left me mentally flattened and with the brain power of a pickled onion. 

Hugs and good health to all.