Weekly Recap (again)

Wow, I been slackin’ on my bloggin’ this week. The week has gone by fast and that’s my only excuse. I didn’t write anything all weekend and have gotten 3,000 words a day the last three days. Today’s looking good for meeting word count too, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed. I think I pissed off the muse yesterday. Didn’t come out to party until about 11:30 last night. On the up side, it only took me an hour or so to get all my words but on the downside I spent the whole day up until then stomping around, sighing, and pounding my arms in the air. Tortured artist’s syndrome or some shit.

It’s been really cold the last few days. Like 5 degrees. This weekend wasn’t bad and we got our horseback ride in, as seen in the subsequent blog I wrote but failed to post for Monday. I’ve noticed that for me at least blogging is like working out. Miss a Monday, screw up the whole week. And speaking of Monday...

Monday
We watched most of the Superbowl last night. How ‘bout that run? I’ve actually never sat and watched a Superbowl before. I’ve never really watched an entire football game before. Well, except in high school. I went a few times to watch a guy I knew play. Not a big sports fan. I don’t understand most of them, except hockey. I don’t understand hockey either, but I enjoy watching it and have since my first years of college.

It was good to have some better weather this weekend. We got some ice buildup out of the stock tanks and got in a good ride on Sunday. It’s been good to see the sun, feel some heat from it. I think we all knew Phil the groundhog would see his shadow today. I would too if a guy in a top hat pulled me out of my nice warm den in the beginning of February. So all accounts seem to indicate that winter will last another six months. The cows won’t care unless they run out of hay and lick tubs. The calves have been feeling good. We’ve been rotating the horses and cows since we can’t keep them together or the horses gorge themselves on our precious round bales and don’t let the cows eat. So we let the horses out all day, lock them in the barn at night, and let the cows out to roam the chicken yard at night. The calves get out and run around, chasing Maxine when she quits chasing them.

Sonny and the Colt were good on our ride on Sunday. Surprisingly, Joseph came out to ride with us after he spent a week working up north. Very cool. I’ll convert that city boy yet. :-) Sonny was a little jumpy at first, antsy with all the wind, but we rode awhile, then came back to the barn and rode out again and he was fine. Joe did good too. ;-)

Got my 3,000 words today. No submissions, but that’s on the roster for tomorrow. Along with grocery shopping, etc. Gotta love that. And research. Lots of research.

Meanwhile back at the ranch...
Got a lot of reading done yesterday as I alternately tore my hair trying to find a way into the book. I finished The Golden Bowl by Henry James. Not a must read unless you enjoy meandering sentences, complex paragraph structure, and an annoying method of storytelling. Henry James is a great writer, don’t get me wrong. But sometimes the greats are too great for my poor brain to handle what the hell is going on in the story. I read Elizabeth George’s Well-Schooled in Murder over the weekend. Love her mysteries. And Miss Marple #1, Murder at the Vicarage, by Agatha Christie. Murder mysteries are just a nice detour from what I write and not necessarily classics, at least not in the sense of Dante and Plato. So I like the diversion. I’m also reading A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson, his tale of walking the Appalachian Trail. Love his writing style. Almost moved to Australia over it. Then there’s Philip Pullman’s Shadow in the North, the second to the Sally Lockhart series. I’ve been planning a book that takes place in Victorian England so Sally and Michael Faber’s The Crimson Petal and the White are helping me get into the mindset as I embark on the research. (Little note here: yes it is quite normal for me to have multiple books going at once. I get bored and distracted easily. It’s rarer for me to pick up a book and read it start to finish – see anomalies like Laurell K. Hamilton and Patricia Briggs.)

So that’s the weekly recap. Keep on keepin’ on. And thanks to those who left some input on what they like to see on the blog. It’s much appreciated.