The AH Coffee Shop and Reading Room 09

[NuclearFairy]

Do they want to start driving again for some reason? Is driving you a factor somehow?

Getting my SO's car properly licensed was a five year long nightmare due to a title snapfu that was the previous owners fault. My roommate doesn't have a car of her own and didn't want to drive an improperly licensed car. But now that's not an issue and she's eager to start driving again.

 

[NotWise]

Eee. I hope she practiced a few times without a passenger.

 

[NuclearFairy]

I'll see if I can get my SO to do some ride alongs with her. She oftentimes sees criticism where none was intended, so it has to be handled delicately.

 

[MillieDynamite]

You'll get no argument from me.

I've been binging Cary Grant. They just don't make good movies anymore.

 

[iwatchus]

Laurel just approved the last two sections of my novel, set to appear Tuesday and Wednesday. It is a weird feeling to have it completely done. I have to watch to see if I will crash like I have when my other big writing chunks ended. I think I will spend today catching up on some reading I have been planning on doing.

And my last school year starts in three weeks. Even if I am only teaching half time now, I am ready to be fully retired, meaning I don't have to feel guilty about the grading I should be doing when I want to write.

 

[NuclearFairy]

And my last school year starts in three weeks. Even if I am only teaching half time now, I am ready to be fully retired, meaning I don't have to feel guilty about the grading I should be doing when I want to write.

Kids go back to school next week.

Maybe then I'll be able to read the stories that everyone has been torturing me with the talk of.

 

[GrantBricksly]

Good morning everyone! I trust everyone is having a good Monday so far.

I am almost done with Chapter 7, hoping to polish that off this morning.
Chapter 5 seems to be stuck in pending, which I'm not thrilled with...After a 2 month wait for Chapter 2-3, chapter 4 went through within a few hours. I was hoping I was done with having any issues...

But we'll see.

Anyways...I've officially stopped drinking Energy drinks. Gone cold turkey. As of right now, this is not a forever thing, its more of a system purge type thing...but the intention is also to then get back to using them sparingly at most. Unfortunately, this has also come at the same time that school is starting for the kids (Wednesday) so I am now starting to have to get up early again...and since I do not drink coffee....I've basically cut myself off from caffeine. So I'm waking up at 7, for the first time in 2 months (other than Saturdays for farmers market of course), and with no boost like I used to have.

Wish me luck.

 

[iwatchus]

Chapter 5 seems to be stuck in pending, which I'm not thrilled with...After a 2 month wait for Chapter 2-3, chapter 4 went through within a few hours. I was hoping I was done with having any issues...

My next to last chunk took three days to be approved, after the first chunk only took six hours.Approvals seem to be bursty. I am a little concerned aboutLaurel. I hope she is just taking some breaks. Hopefully, yours will be approved soon.

 

[GrantBricksly]

My next to last chunk took three days to be approved, after the first chunk only took six hours.Approvals seem to be bursty. I am a little concerned aboutLaurel. I hope she is just taking some breaks. Hopefully, yours will be approved soon.

maybe...but its now been 10 days since submitting it...

 

[NuclearFairy]

Good morning everyone! I trust everyone is having a good Monday so far.

I am almost done with Chapter 7, hoping to polish that off this morning.
Chapter 5 seems to be stuck in pending, which I'm not thrilled with...After a 2 month wait for Chapter 2-3, chapter 4 went through within a few hours. I was hoping I was done with having any issues...

But we'll see.

Anyways...I've officially stopped drinking Energy drinks. Gone cold turkey. As of right now, this is not a forever thing, its more of a system purge type thing...but the intention is also to then get back to using them sparingly at most. Unfortunately, this has also come at the same time that school is starting for the kids (Wednesday) so I am now starting to have to get up early again...and since I do not drink coffee....I've basically cut myself off from caffeine. So I'm waking up at 7, for the first time in 2 months (other than Saturdays for farmers market of course), and with no boost like I used to have.

Wish me luck.

I'm in zombie mode myself. I got maybe five hours of sleep last night before my body decided that I was awake, and then just as I was finally falling back asleep, the kids got up. I can't stand coffee though, so I'm also just toughing it out.

Good luck!

 

[TheRedLantern]

There was a punk show in the park this weekend. Four girls on stage. They were loud, energetic, and really pissed off. The crowd was full of kids with spiked, colored mohawks as well as a lot of older punks who never gave up the look. Mosh pit. Headbanging. Middle fingers everywhere. The lead singer girl jumped off the stage into the crowd and started pushing these moshing guys around with her free hand as she's singing. It was awesome even if punk's not your thing.

I was on the outskirts of the plaza where this was happening, just curious about what was going on, when the crowd near me parted and these two guys came through pushing an ANCIENT lady in a wheelchair. She must have been at least 80, but she was having a great time. Smiling. Clapping along as best as she could to this really aggressive, energetic music. A middle aged guy with tattoos completely covering his scalp, face, arms, and legs and a spike through the bridge of his nose gave her a fist bump as she went by.

Anyway I'm not so scared of getting old after seeing that.

 

[iwatchus]

I would have liked to sleep in a bit, but my cats insisted on being fed. I guess 6:45 is better than the 5:45 they have been getting me up.

 

[NotWise]

I would have liked to sleep in a bit, but my cats insisted on being fed. I guess 6:45 is better than the 5:45 they have been getting me up.

I won't feed the cats for an hour or an hour-and-a-half after I get up, and they don't seem to make the association between getting me up and getting fed. These are the first cats I've done that with and I'm perfectly happy not having a purring cat in my face whenever they think it's time to eat.

 

[GrantBricksly]

I would have liked to sleep in a bit, but my cats insisted on being fed. I guess 6:45 is better than the 5:45 they have been getting me up.

This is why I don't have pets...lol They can't wake me up for food or going out to pee/poop, if they don't exist...

 

[MrPixel]

I'm perfectly happy not having a purring cat in my face whenever they think it's time to eat.

I wish we could train the dog to not "remind" us like that. He gets fed at 8:00, AM and PM, and you can set a clock by him - starts whining at 7:00, gets intense by 7:20, C feeds him his "appetizer" handful of kibble at 7:25, he starts barking at us at 7:55, fed at 8:00, pills immediately thereafter, and don't dare wander off between food and pills, which C does frequently.

The problem is C has trained him to this by expanding the routine over the three years we've had him. I've watched it happen, she blows me off every time I try to tell her she has trained him to do this. Then we get into a fight about sleeping schedules because I have to stay up well past midnight to let him out ("accidents" if I don't), and he wakes her up at 6-6:30. So our waking hours are out of sync, exacerbated by naps to make up for lost sleep, also out of sync.

This is why I don't have pets...lol They can't wake me up for food or going out to pee/poop, if they don't exist...

Don't think this hasn't crossed our minds. But we love this creature, he loves us, and we've been through periods of an empty house enough to know how depressing it can be. He's 10, we've never had a Dalmatian make it to 13 and the vet reported "heart murmur" on our last visit. That said, he will have no successor. Our elderly lives are needing increasing and troubling amounts of attention as it is.

 

[GrantBricksly]

Don't think this hasn't crossed our minds. But we love this creature, he loves us, and we've been through periods of an empty house enough to know how depressing it can be. He's 10, we've never had a Dalmatian make it to 13 and the vet reported "heart murmur" on our last visit. That said, he will have no successor. Our elderly lives are needing increasing and troubling amounts of attention as it is.

I get that...and I don't begrudge anyone their desire for pets...

I had pets as a child. Dogs, cats, bunnies, fish, a pet squirrel, birds, etc. (literally had lots of pets.)
Then my first wife was obsessed with animals. We had horses, dogs, cats, guinee pigs, hamsters, etc... Problem was...she cared more for/about the animals than she did me...or even our kids...(still does) spent more time at the barn with horses, than at the house with me and the kids...so when we separated I was more than happy to let her take ALL of the pets. And After that, the only animals I allowed in my house was fish. And then we had problems keeping them alive... and the closest fish store (both for supplies as well as actual fish) is over an hour away, so that was the end of the fish as well.

Now, it's just no pets. (Though I have promised the kids that when we own our own house, I would consider a pet squirrel again)

 

[Duleigh]

This is why I don't have pets...lol They can't wake me up for food or going out to pee/poop, if they don't exist...

It just depends on how you train them. My dogs know that outside is their bathroom, that's why the dog door is there. We now have an invisible fence so they can go out front and monitor the Amazon driver's performance too. They eat at 5:30. Snacks mean it's bed time, and DO NOT interrupt dad when he turns on Crunchyroll... I would prefer an aquarium but I'm not quick enough to pet my goldfish.

 

[GrantBricksly]

Well, it took me 3 hours, and 2600 words, but I finished chapter 7

Now it's time for some editing, and then on to Chapter 8.

 

[AloneTooLong]

I'm getting caught up on the gardening. All the raised beds are clear and accessible for now.

I found a horn worm on one of the tomatoes and executed it without a trial. I only found the one, and it could have accounted for all the damage on one plant. I saw some damage on another plant that may have been from a horn worm, but it was limited and I didn't find the culprit. Maybe a bird or the wasps got to him, but I'll have to keep an eye on the plants.

The earliest cantaloupes have reached ~full size. I'll have to keep my eye on them, too. A similar variety last year went from almost ready to overripe very quickly.

I may be starting to figure out the gladiolas. All of the plants I carried over from last year originated from thirteen corms that my daughter gave me about fifteen years ago. Initially the batch included some fancy colors that have either disappeared of become rare. Now most of the corms I have produce one of three colors.

Last year I started paying attention to things I did that selected for color. It looks now like all of the fancier varieties are less robust than the ones that produce the three main colors. The corms are smaller, there are fewer side shoots, and they tend to be ready to plant later. So, when I preferentially plant large corms or corms that are already sprouting I select for one of the robust varieties. When I started getting more corms than I could plant, the fancy varieties were thrown away.

I bought some new ones this year, and I'm tagging all the fancy varieties so they get planted next year. So far I've tagged four varieties: a variegated purple, variegated pink, scarlet and crimson. There's a variegated orange that I've had before and haven't seen this year. Still hoping.

Later today I'll plant broccolini and slicing cucumbers in nursery pots for fall crops, and I'll pull off an ear of sweet corn to see how they're doing. I know they're getting close.

My WIP is progressing. I'm probably two thirds of the way done, and it's already long for the category. I'm pantsing this one more than usual. I know more about where I'm going than I do about how I'm getting there.

Most of our garden is 'done', i.e. gone; corn, most tomatoes, picked all the watermelons last week, cucumbers. Okra and peppers still hanging on. Kiddo is starting Fall seeds right now. I have daylily bulbs to 'move/thin' and have more coming in a month or so. Need to go pick basil, oregano, chives, dry them, crush them and put in jars. No need to water today; lots of wind and rain this morning.

 

[NotWise]

Most of our garden is 'done', i.e. gone; corn, most tomatoes, picked all the watermelons last week, cucumbers. Okra and peppers still hanging on. Kiddo is starting Fall seeds right now. I have daylily bulbs to 'move/thin' and have more coming in a month or so. Need to go pick basil, oregano, chives, dry them, crush them and put in jars. No need to water today; lots of wind and rain this morning.

My garden got a late start, some so things are just starting to bear. Tomatoes are still a ways off.

Our cats have a new toy they don't know how to play with. That's OK, because it seems to play with itself. It's a small ball with a lighted band around it that flashes and changes color, and it moves on its own. It rolls, and bounces and it can turn or stop when it hits things.

High tech toy. Low tech cats. They might prefer an old sock.

 

[Rustyoznail]

High tech toy. Low tech cats. They might prefer an old sock.

Or a box.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I finished a novel about a father-daughter incestuous relationship for an alternate pen name today. Now it's in the hands of my editor/publisher; it's 45,000 words until he whittles it down and makes me rewrite parts of it. Which he probably will do.

 

[Duleigh]

I finished a novel about a father-daughter incestuous relationship for an alternate pen name today. Now it's in the hands of my editor/publisher; it's 45,000 words until he whittles it down and makes me rewrite parts of it. Which he probably will do.

I'm closing in on the end of a romantasy. I took the core story of my story, The Enchantress, and stripped away everything that was Discworld fan fiction. I set A'tuin the enormous turtle free, gave the four elephants their walking papers, and inflated the discworld to a round world. It's been quite a project creating my own universe, and I had a lot of things I had to re-invent, like one of the core components that I overused - L Space. I even had to let The Librarian go. I'm aiming at major markets with this so we'll see what my publisher thinks. He's a d&d kinda guy, he may like it.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

This is why I don't have pets...lol They can't wake me up for food or going out to pee/poop, if they don't exist...

You obviously don't have the infamous Dominating Dream Cats™...

 

[Candy_Kane54]

I get to go to the dentist this morning. Oh, joy! I chipped a tooth while on vacation and it doesn't hurt or anything so I'm not sure I want the dentist to do anything to it right now. We'll have that discussion today and see what happens.

There's a fresh pot of coffee going and the teapot is hot. There are blueberry tarts and chocolate croissants on the counter for those who need a snack.

Hopefully, I'll be over in the corner working on my story later today (hopefully pain free). Until then, you're on your own. Just be careful with the cappuccino machine ...

Just found out that three of my stories have been forced to the top of the Lesbian Sex Stories all time list (#13, 38, and 43) due to whoever is '2' bombing the list so I can expect to get them knocked down shortly ...