Archive | April 2021

Squirrelly Squirrel

They are really comical and they’re so bold that they either tell me off, or like with this one, give me a stare down. Who won? The squirrel, of course. It’s amazing how still they can be while trying to pretend they’re not there and how much they can flatten themselves against a tree. I missed capturing shots of the one hanging down to eat birdseeds from a basket. They are truly entertaining.

Another neighbor has dogs now. They’re little. Smaller than my dogs and they love them, but the little ones don’t love my dogs back. lol So, sigh. Now I have dogs on two sides and on the back, two different homes of dogs. It’s just the way the cul de sac in back is set up so I have two homes that back part of my property. I try to keep mine from barking. I let them out so early in the morning to potty, I don’t want them waking anyone who might be sleeping.

I’ve tried everything I can think of to keep them away from the wooden fence. I have pavers piled 3 high on one side, but the bigger dog there has been digging a hole under the fence to get to them and undermining my wall. lol I feel like I’m under siege. She barks every time she hears them out in the yard. They really just want to greet each other, but they bark and make a mess of the yard.

With the other big dog in the back, I placed timbers along the bottom of the fence behind the holly shrubs, but the dogs race along the shrubs and make a mess of themselves and my border. With the little dogs, I rearranged some little fencing panels I have, I loaned some to my daughter, but she loves them and won’t give them back, lol, and unfortunately, I can’t find anything like them or I’d buy more. I finally set them up where I hope I can at least keep the dogs away from the fence. My dogs don’t bark at the little ones. They love small dogs, but the little ones do bark. And I’m afraid mine will start digging.

Then on the other side is another big dog. She’s pretty quiet. So if she ignores my dogs, they ignore her.

And that’s enough about dog news. I’ve got to run to the grocery store, need to get some stuff done on my writing, and have to get my shot this afternoon. It will be the 2nd Pfizer shot. I had hoped to get it earlier in the day, but I can’t get it anywhere else. So either I will have to pick up little one late from daycare, or her mom will if she’s not in labor.

Have a great day!! I need to get a million more things done before I sleep.

Terry
“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”
Connect with Terry Spear:
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Flower Power!

Apr8

Blanket flower, sunny coreopsis, red gerbera daisy, lavender azalea, red rose

Lots of flowers in the garden. We didn’t get to do half of what we wanted to do. Life got in the way. Little one was running a fever first thing, so we ended up just staying home and she spent the morning watching cartoons, relaxing. I actually managed to get some writing done on the book and added 1600 words for the day while editing. Yay! We finally did play in the sprinklers late in the day. She didn’t take a nap. So we plan to do the things we didn’t do yesterday, but I’ll have to see how she’s feeling first and hope I don’t catch what she’s got!

Okay, she’s good today, so when it gets hotter, it decided to get cold last night, and poured rain–which is great!–we’ll play in the sprinklers again.

Tomorrow is my 2nd COVID vaccination shot so I don’t want to get sick and miss it!

Hope you all have a great day!

A Curious Giraffe

Apr7

This juvenile giraffe was so cute. He was a perfect model!

Beautiful day yesterday and today we have all kinds of plans, walking, gardening, icing an angel food cake, playing on a splashpad, planting flowers. Just all kinds of fun. The same tomorrow. I hope to take my granddaughter to a pond where they have all kinds of daffodils out right now and take pictures.

Well, still doing edits and not getting anywhere on word count, but I was way ahead. But it will get there.
Have a terrific day!

Bald Eagle Photo Art

Apr6

The bald eagle had been injured and taken into the zoo and cared for. It’s in an open pen so it can fly off as soon as it’s healed enough. It was trying while we were there, but it has a way to go before he/she can take flight. She was just beautiful.

I don’t usually get this many great shots at the zoo, but I’m glad that I did since going there is such a long drive and through the awful Houston traffic. I loved going to the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco, because the parking was great and I could go nearly at any time in the morning and practically had the zoo to myself. I used to have a zoo pass for that reason. Great for picture taking and just taking walks. I love the one in Omaha too because it’s even bigger and hilly, and you get tons of exercise.

Because it was so warm yesterday, it was a great day for weeding! I got quite a bit done. I picked up a new kneeling pad that isn’t as hard as cement like the other one! And that helped considerably. I just have to use it when my granddaughter isn’t here or she uses it as a resting place to lie down on. lol She’s a nut. I hope to get some more done today. It’s really starting to heat up. I like the 60’s in the morning. I feel more motivated to do yard work than when it’s 40 degrees out. But when it’s 40, no fire ants are out, so there is a tradeoff and I’ve noticed more mosquitoes are starting to arrive.

Still just doing edits on Billionaire, so not getting a whole lot done. I’m at 64K now, 16K to reach minimum word count goal.

We were out front taking a walk and then checking the flowers that had come up and she wanted me to take a picture of her sitting on a rock in front of the flowers. I need a little bench out there. But something that doesn’t rot or rust. A stone bench would be great, but they’re so heavy to move.

I need to go to the grocery store again. I didn’t get enough food last time!

Hope you all have a great day! I’ve got to get to work!

Speckled Easter Eggs

Apr5

My daughter and granddaughter made these special Easter eggs using dye, plastic bags and rice, then shaking the hard-boiled egg in one color rice bag and then in another until they had really pretty speckled eggs. She had mostly brown eggs, and they turned out really pretty!

I meant to get this out earlier, but I was distracted. I didn’t write anything yesterday, but decided late last night I wanted to go in a different direction a little bit in an earlier part of the book and I began editing to see where I need to go. Because of that, I’m having to make minor changes through several chapters, so working on that today.

Plus I had to get the garbage out and you know, I have a garbage bag, the weeds are beckoning to me and I began pulling weeds. Oh and flowers are coming out and naturally I had to take pictures of them. And then a pesky squirrel was waiting for me to fill the bird feeders and I had to take pictures of him. And then I was working on edits and remembered the blog!

Hope you all have a delightful day!!! It’s going to be 90 this week. Wait, I said I wanted a little warm up! Little.

Happy Easter!

Apr4

Bunnies and their shadows.

When my granddaughter saw this, she wanted to see what was on the other side. She wanted to see their faces. lol I told her they don’t have anything on the other side. You never know what will confuse a child.

For my avatar that we dress together on my writing game, I have lots of different things I’ve earned to dress her with. But some things are a no go. Beards, bushy eyebrows, scary face paints. We have to do it her way. When she’s not around, I can do it my way.

We’re having grilled ribs and some kind of sides for lunch. We’re way limiting dessert. My daughter has to watch it because of the baby. And I need to just watch it period. And little one doesn’t need it either. She was probably a year old when she had her first dessert for her birthday. A strawberry short cake with whipped cream and strawberries. We just didn’t feed her dessert. She didn’t need it.

So alphabet letters in plastic eggs and pennies will be what she’s searching for in the yard. She did get some candy that my son-in-law picked up for her preschool, but she’s limited on what she can eat of it. And she’s really good about it.

The other day though when I was asking her what we needed on grandma’s grocery list, she said, “Angel food cake!”

lol

*sigh*

Well, it’s not supposed to have too many calories, but the problem is the delicious double fudge chocolate that goes on it!

We’re finally into my last week of waiting to take the 2nd vaccine. I read where people who have had COVID already only really need one shot as a booster. If that’s true, then those who are just getting their first shots who have had COVID before could bring the numbers higher for those fully vaccinated–if CDC agreed that it would truly be the case. So far, just for Texas, we have 15% for fully vaccinated. That amount keeps going up as more people finally get their 2nd vaccines. I saw that West Virginia is doing really well. And it looks hopeful that 12-15 year olds will be able to be vaccinated.

I’m going to still try and get my daily word count. I managed to get to 64K yesterday. 16K to go! It doesn’t seem real. But we’re celebrating Easter in a bit.

Happy Easter!

When the Polar Vortex Hits Houston

Apr3

So this is what I envisioned happened when we had our polar vortex here in Houston.

I wrote 3,000 words yesterday, And that was it. I wanted to write more, but couldn’t come up with anything. So I groomed Max and watched the Serpent, I think it was called–about a serial killer in Thailand who was from France. Then I had the worst nightmare this morning–car stolen–couldn’t find the number for the sheriff, and I was at some cult place that took care of kids. I think it was from watching this limited series and how this Dutch embassy official had doggedly tried to gather evidence in the case of two missing Dutch citizens and no one cared. Not the embassy, no one. Then the murdering Frenchmen and his girlfriend ended up back in France and they said it wasn’t their problem. They’d murdered French citizens. It was a Thailand problem. And the only one who finally was helping was someone who worked for the American embassy when an American citizen went missing.

They finally arrested the guy and his gang in Thailand and a corrupt official was bribed and let them walk so then more murders were added to the list. The victims were all backpackers or travelers, and they’d rob them and then kill them. It wasn’t a good series to watch before bedtime, I guess.

So seven years later, the Dutchman, who had been after this case for years, sees a garbled made-up tale in a tabloid and he goes to the editor and tells him the real story. With pictures and the real names of murdered victims, he shares the real story with the tabloid editor, who takes the information and posts it. Now, someone takes notice!

Thailand Interpol police are involved because of a missing French woman in Thailand, so the Dutchman shares all the gathered evidence he has. Bodies are exhumed and now there’s a worldwide search for the serial killers. I think last night might have been his capture, but I couldn’t stay up that long.

So in my wolf story, I’m writing about a billionaire, and the paparazzi are always hanging about trying to make up sensationalist stories. But what if I incorporated something that was true in the story. Not this true story, but something else and the only way to get justice and put the person behind bars is to share the story with a tabloid?

See? Watching the whole series might have given me an idea, maybe not for this book, but even another.

Okay, well, I need to work on some more scenes today. I’m up to 61K. I thought I was up to 63K. I think that was wishful thinking. Well, today, I should be.

Have a wonderful day!!

4 Parrots All in a Row–Photo Art

Apr2

I finally manged to get a shot of the parrots all looking in the same direction! And not busy grooming themselves with beaks buried in their feathers or each other’s!

Yay, I found the photo art file! It somehow moved to another folder. I don’t know how stuff like that happens, slip of a finger and then all kinds of havoc is wreaked.

I managed to finish 3,000 words yesterday, which I was surprised I’d manage. Especially with all the things I did with little one all day.

I’m at 58K on Billionaire. With only 22k words left to go, I need to begin wrapping up this book! And that’s fun!

I finally began taking some plants outside. Hope it doesn’t get too cold out. My chives are coming up in the garden, but I have two containers of them indoors, so I repotted them outside. They’ll feel better in the sunlight. And I have a pink and green plant, not sure what it’s called, that a friend gave me and it also does better outside.

I got the other faux fur fabrics in, so I will enjoy making up some bears from that.

I noticed that it’s going to be near record colds for the eastern part of the states. Even we’re colder than normal for this time of year.

And we’re doing an Easter egg hunt–minus candy. Pennies and magnet letters that little one can set up in alphabetic order and then she can have Mrs. Potato Head as the big prize.

When I was a kid, we didn’t have a Mr. Potatohead, but a neighbor did who had grandkids. When my mother would go over and visit with her and take me with her, I loved to play with that silly thing. Now they have it again in the stores, so I thought little one might get a kick out of it. She loves it! Some things never change.

Hope you all have a great weekend coming up. My daughter is off tomorrow so I won’t need to pick up the little one and I’ll get more written, hopefully. It all depends if my mind will allow it.

Terry

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”
Connect with Terry Spear:
Website: http://www.terryspear.com
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TerrySpear
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Not April Fool’s!

Apr1

I was so upset this morning. I went to upload some beautiful artwork I did of 4 parrots together and my whole folder that I had all my artwork in is gone. I have no idea how that happened. I looked in the trash folder, just to make sure I hadn’t thrown it out by accident when I was getting rid of some other files yesterday, but I hadn’t.

I managed to get my 2,000 words in yesterday! Yay! That was because I had a 500 extra word count from the day before that I hadn’t counted toward that day–I usually wait to count it when I have a 1,000 words, and added a scene from another book that I had cut that amounted to another 500 words, so I wrote 1,000 yesterday.

We also put the two chairs together, did laundry and lots of fun workbooks.

So when I went to have little one put the washers on the machine screws for the chairs, she asked where the acorns were. To her, nuts are acorns. We have acorns in the yard. All the shows show squirrels going after acorns. Walnuts, peanuts, pecans, Brazil nuts, I have them all, but the only thing she equates nuts to are acorns.

I paused. “Acorns? Nuts!” lol “No nuts on these. So then we proceeded to put the two chairs together.

On the laundry, I have her push the buttons on the wash machine and dryer, trying to teach her to read the words: Power, Start. She has Start down. And when I’m reading books to her, I keep trying to teach her to read words that she’s seen repeatedly. It will come naturally. She recognizes Zoo, since it’s in a book about a Dr. Seuss book about a dog wanting to be in the zoo and she reads all the signs for me. She knows what Stop says because she reads all the stop signs, so if she sees it in a book, she recognizes it. But most of the time, she really doesn’t want to read. I did get her to read all the dogs in Go, Dogs, Go, and some of the more repetitive words, the colors, big, little, in, out, up, down, and articles.

She will sit and “read” out loud to herself, just making up what she things the words are. I tell her we have to know how to read so we can do all kinds of things. And it’s coming, slowly.

She’ll be here in a few seconds. Just trying to get a little bit of edits done before she does.

Hope you have a great day! It turned cold for us! But I think it will warm up later.

Terry

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"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy IS reality."

Archive | April 2021

Squirrelly Squirrel

Flower Power!

A Curious Giraffe

Bald Eagle Photo Art

Speckled Easter Eggs

Happy Easter!

When the Polar Vortex Hits Houston

4 Parrots All in a Row–Photo Art

Not April Fool’s!