Lauralynn Elliott's Blog, page 45
June 24, 2012
Sunday Update 6/24/12
Even though we are on a break between ROW80 rounds, I still want to continue to report progress on Sundays, even if just for myself. If not one person reads it, I’m still putting words down about what’s going on, so it helps me stay focused.
Writing: Mon-1119, Tues-1061, Thurs-722, and Sat-920. I’m a little disappointed in Saturday because that’s the day I have more time, but this Saturday I knew I was going to a wedding, so I felt kind of rushed. I’m one of those people who have a hard time focusing on something if I know something else is kind of hanging over my head. LOL
Exercise: Monday, Tuesday, and Friday I walked at lunch. 20 minutes the first two days, and 30 minutes on Friday. I have trouble getting back to work on time if I walk 30 minutes, so I need to start taking my lunch instead of going out. That’s another reason I had the plea on my blog yesterday for help finding foods. I want to start cooking more. Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday I rode my bike after work. That’s pretty brutal in 90 degree weather, but at least there’s a breeze when you’re riding that you don’t get when you walk. LOL
June 23, 2012
Where Can I Find Gourmet Food Items?
I love to cook when I have time. I’m ready to start cooking more, and I love my subscription to Fine Cooking magazine. The problem is finding some of the ingredients. For instance, I love European butter. It’s richer and tastier than American butter, and it actually keeps longer. We used to have a gourmet food store here in my town which was owned by the same people who own a local grocery store. Unfortunately, the gourmet store didn’t do well (I think the location was bad), so they remodeled the grocery store and combined the two. So now we have a grocery store that carries SOME gourmet items. Unfortunately, the Irish butter they used to carry is missing from their stock. I saw European butter on Amazon sold by a company call “igourmet”, but I’m not sure I want butter shipped to me. It doesn’t say how they pack it, and I’m afraid it will spoil en route.
Do any of you have places you order hard to find food items? I’m hoping I can find porcini mushrooms and fontina cheese locally for a rice dish I want to make. But it would be great to find one website, or maybe one seller on Amazon (it would be better if it shipped FROM Amazon since I have Prime) to order from. Any ideas?
June 22, 2012
The Pizza Test
I bet you’re wondering what in the world this topic could possibly be about, right? LOL. Well, I love pizza. I mean I love it SO much. I’m one of those people who have to have at least 4 or 5 pieces at a meal. Fewer than that, and I feel like I’ve been cheated. So, the pizza test. I knew that this would be the true test of whether or not I was serious about weight loss and better eating habits. So I picked up a Little Caeser’s $5 pizza and took it home WITHOUT EATING ANY ON THE WAY. Then, I took out two slices and put them on a plate. I sat down and slowly savored each bite. AND DIDN’T EAT ANYMORE. That’s right, folks, I ate only TWO slices of pizza. That’s practically unheard of! But I did it. I passed the pizza test. 
June 20, 2012
Final ROW Update for Round Two 2012
This has been a strange round for me. In the last three rounds of 2011, I wrote and published a novella for each. That’s when I did the Libby Fox series, which consists of Dark Relic: Vampires’ Curse, Secrets of the Wolf, and Search for the Vampires’ Curse. I loved writing these novellas, and I hope the sales of them pick up someday. My older works still do better than these novellas, or the compilation of them, Vampires’ Curse. I have yet to figure out what makes some books sell better than others, even when the ones that are selling aren’t quite as good as the ones that aren’t. Anyway, I digress and ramble. This round, I just couldn’t get my motivation together. I would have some days where I wrote, then many other days when I didn’t. This was so foreign to me, because I had always stuck to goals and written most days of each round. I don’t know what happened to me. I felt like I was so busy with other things in life and didn’t have the energy for writing, I guess. I really envy those who can write any time of the day because they’re not burdened by a time-consuming day job. I want to be in that situation someday. I WILL be in that situation someday. So I didn’t finish my current WIP in this round. But that’s okay because I can continue it in Round Three. No one is going to beat me with a stick for not meeting the goal I had of finishing this round. I LOVE ROW80. The word count has been good the past two days. Monday – 1119 and Tuesday – 1061. I think it’s really helped to stop focusing on a certain word count every day (usually 500) and just focusing on spending a set amount of time with my WIP. This has actually led to higher word counts, as you can see. So I feel like I’m really back on track.
Exercise and eating habits are going well. I planned to only report specifics about this on Sundays, but since this is the last check in for the round, I’ll do it here. I walked at lunch both Monday and Tuesday, and I rode my bike Tuesday evening. I’ve been leaving food on my plate and stopping when I’m satisfied. If I feel like having a burger, I have one, but leave off the french fries. Sometimes it takes just changing little things to make a difference. I buttoned a pair of shorts today that I usually leave unbuttoned and just zip up. Yay!
I look forward to Round Three, and I hope the rest of you will join me again. It’s been fun!
June 19, 2012
Eye Candy…with Music!
I LOVE Michael Johns. I had never heard of him until last year when someone told me he was on American Idol and how good he was. So I went on YouTube and he blew me away. Yum! This guy makes my heart flutter. Here are two videos for your viewing and listening pleasure:
This is a song off of his album, I think.
I love his version of this Dolly Parton song. It doesn’t sound country when he does it. LOL
June 18, 2012
Pictures of Daisy
I’ve had some people ask me to post pictures of Daisy, my new puppy who came to my house from who knows where. It’s really hard to get pictures of a dog that wants to constantly lick my feet, so I had to take these through the french door. That’s why the quality might be lacking just a bit. I was hoping she would come closer, but this was the best I could do for now.
The first picture is of Daisy, but you can also see my twelve-year-old dog, Chipper lying in the background, looking as if he’s dead. LOL
In this second picture, Chipper has roused himself and is looking to see what Daisy is posing for.
Adorable, huh?
June 17, 2012
Sunday Update 6/17/12
Whew, am I glad Vacation Bible School is over. I love the kids, but it wears me out! I haven’t exercised like I should because of the time factor, plus I just wanted to flop on the couch after VBS. I hope to get my bike rack back on my car this week and do some riding. I have improved my eating habits, though. I’m still doing pretty well at stopping when I’m satisfied and leaving food on my plate. I lost the two lbs. I gained while on vacation, and it looks like I might have lost another lb. besides that. I can’t tell because I weighed Saturday after eating both breakfast and lunch, and I usually weigh in the mornings before eating.
On the writing front, I only wrote three days last week, but it’s a lot more than I’ve been writing. Monday-714, Tuesday-901, Saturday-1725. Even though I didn’t write every day, I wrote a lot of words on Saturday, so that kind of makes up for it. If you take my old 500 words per day goal, I wrote about 6 1/2 days worth in 3 days. LOL
My new puppy, Daisy and my old dog, Chipper are getting along better. Daisy still barks at everything, especially the kittens. The kittens are still running through the house like maniacs when I let them in to play. They’ve knocked over my digital picture frame about a dozen times. As fun as kittens are, I really prefer grown cats. I can cuddle them and hold them in my lap. Kittens are too busy to fool with that foolishness. Ha ha.
June 16, 2012
Trouble with Timelines
While writing my WIP, I’ve found that the biggest problem I have is with time. For instance, if something happens on Friday, I have trouble remembering the next day is Saturday. Or I’ll have two Saturdays in a row. Stuff like that. Because I get so focused on the actual story, I forget about those things. Another thing is time of day. I had a scene in The Gnome where someone’s hair was shining in the parking lot lights. But it was daytime. In my defense, I had changed some things around, and the original scene had been at night. I just forgot to fix that. A beta reader caught it. That’s why we NEED beta readers. And two of mine are great editors, too. What made me even write this post is that I just had to cut part of a scene out because a vampire that is supposed to only be out at night came upon two women having a picnic in broad daylight. I liked the scene because one of the women is his potential love interest, and he caught her and her friend being silly and they had been talking about him. So I had to either cut that part of the scene or change the picnic to nighttime. It was easier and more logical to cut it.
Does anyone else out there ever have problems with time, or is it just me? I want to know.
June 15, 2012
New Puppy?
I don’t know what possesses a person to just drop off unwanted animals out in the country, hoping somebody will take care of the animal THEY weren’t willing to take care off. And, of course, I live in a rural area, so now I’ve acquired a new puppy. I guess we’re going to keep her because I don’t know what else to do. If we take her to a shelter, she could be euthanized. And our ARK (no kill shelter) is always full. And this puppy is so CUTE. My son has already named her Daisy Duke and calling her Daisy (sorry, Kait, I didn’t mean to have a dog with the same name as yours). When she first came a few days ago, she would bark at my dog, Chipper (who is 12 years old and doesn’t need that stress, LOL) like she was going to eat him up. I think they’ve finally made peace, though. A sad thing is that when this skittish little dog finally let me pet her, she lay on the deck with her front legs stretched out and her head tucked between them as if she were saying “ok, you can beat me now”. I almost cried. Was she mistreated before or was she just scared? I tried to get a picture of this cute little thing last night, but it was too dark. I’ll try to get something to post later. I have no idea how old she is, so I don’t how long it will be before we’ll have to have her spayed. My husband said she looks like she’s three or four months old. I’m thinking at LEAST that, maybe a little older. She has big paws, so she’s probably going to be big. She’s all one color, sort of a light brown. She has floppy ears. I have NO idea what kind she is. I’m already going to have to pay to have my male cat neutered in a few months, so adding cost for another animal isn’t making me happy. But what’s the alternative? I guess we have a new pet to add to our menagerie. So now we have two dogs and two cats. At least that pesky rooster that was coming to our house is gone. LOL
June 14, 2012
Twilight and New Moon Spoofs
My friend and awesome author Ruth Ann Nordin posted a video of a Twilight spoof from Phineas and Ferb. That got me thinking about a couple of spoofs a friend of mine did. He works with the youth of his church, and they did these videos for some kind of spring formal they had (an alternative to the prom). If you’re looking for sophisticated humor, DON’T watch these videos. They might make your eyeballs bleed. But, if you like your humor a little corny (and I DO mean corny!), watch on! The first one is a spoof of the first Twilight movie and the second is a spoof of the second one, New Moon. Notice how my friend Andy does the “Edward lips”. These crack me up every time I watch them.
