What the Junk?!

Yup, I haven't posted since Saturday. Sorry about that, I meant to! Guess what happened on Sunday? I hit 50,000 words on NaNoWriMo. Yes, two days early! I still wrote yesterday and today and was able to bring it to a close. I'm pretty sure I'm done with my zombie 'epic' now.  I do need to write book three of my figure skating couple's journey. Maybe for Camp in or next year's NaNo. Tomorrow, I get to go back to the story I've been writing for over a year now. :) I had an idea pop in my head recently that I may have mentioned.  I wrote out some of it just to get it out. Not sure where it's going yet or if it's going at all! lol, It's pretty good though so I do want to use it. We'll see how that goes!  I'm happy to have NaNoWriMo completed for yet another year. ^_____^ OH! Also, I ordered myself a very nice present this weekend. I"ll update you on that when it comes.

Whee!  I did that today.  I had an event in my story. It is going to lead to a secondary event that I'll start tomorrow!  It went well, but I think I need to go back and add more details when I edit later.  It's going to be interesting with the next part, I think.  My people are in a compound after the Z Event. This is what the zombie apocalypse is called in my series.  Their compound was attacked by hostile survivors who wanted to invade. The invaders were attacked by zoms (what they are called in the books) and now the compound is surrounded by zoms. This means until they wander off, there is no leaving for supplies.  I have to get them through this and see what is next for them!  I'm not even sure.

One of the characters I introduced this time was going to be an older misogynist dude and it turned out it was a kid trying to act like an adult because he was alone and scared. I didn't see that coming and I"m writing this! lol, I need to work up a full character profile of him and the other new character I added.  I have their names and ages and a bit of background for the second one, but I need to flesh them out.  I have a character template that I got via Evernote that I use in Scrivener for my characters. It's easy to have a backup of them in my Scrivener binder and my Evernote. As I learned last November, ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR WORK. Thanks again Evernote! If it were for them, I'd have lost my first few days of writing last year and not been able to carry on until I could get my computer back to life!

I am finally getting up to the big idea I had for this book.  I am happy to be here. After I write all of this, I need another idea for a plot later in the story, but for now, I'm going to have a great time with this.  I have my characters in position and ready to go!  I'm trying to keep my writing around 1700 a day and I have that. I could go on, but I want to try to keep the daily momentum going.  I hit 7,000 words today!  Thanks, Zombies. :p

So far NaNoWriMo is going okay. I got 1759 words today. So far so good. I hope to have it a bit more interesting soon. So far it's boring, well at least I think so. It's probably not as bad as I think. We'll see!  I have a good story line to put in there. It's going the soon, I think. I'm trying to get 1700 words a day.  I started with a bit over that on day one and want to try to continue at that pace. I may write more of some days, I have before!

As for my pizza reward at 10,000 words? I still plan on that, but I have to decide if I want to get it from the same old place or somewhere new. I'll decide when I get there!  I am writing earlier in the afternoon and that seems to be working for me. I would like to get a few words in on my other story I've been writing on since right before last year's NaNoWriMo. I put it aside for a few days to get into my characters in the Z Event books.  I might add a few words to it tonight before I get off this computer for the night. 

So, we went thrifting again today.  We went to Pete's to eat and to the Salvation Army store and two Goodwill stores.  I found a few goodies.  In the Goodwill in Reidsville, my friend bought me a sewing machine!   I have wanted one forever. This was a Singer and it was only $15!  It works, too!  I found a manual online and downloaded the PDF of it to learn how to use it.  I'm quite happy with it as now I can mend things a lot easier. I may even be able to make some things to sell on Etsy! :) 

I found a Starbucks tumbler in the Goodwill in Mayodan NC, I also found a Wii Animal Crossing game! I don't have a Wii, but I couldn't pass up an AN game!  I also found a cute Sak bag in there and a shirt (Zombie Hunter), some candles, and a few other little goodies. It was a good haul.  I can't wait to try out my sewing machine. It seems to be all there. I just need to learn to thread it and what setting to use for what stitch. This will come in handy as I buy sleep pants and cut them off to make sleep shorts, now they will actually have a hem! :p At the Goodwill in Reidsville, I found a Simpsons Christmas DVD with four episodes on it.  It was a whole .99¢! It was a fun trip.  I took a few pictures of the sunset at different spots. Here are two of those:

I am going to post this and write a bit and then I'm going to crash.  I'm tired and I want to relax a bit.  I am not in the mood to write, but I'm going to write at least a paragraph. I'm trying to write every day. Its good practice for NaNoWriMo and CampNaNo is next month! I still don't know what I'm doing for that yet.

I have been reading some old stories tonight.  Actually, the short stories I did of my characters in my Zombie books.  I did different point of view stories for Camp one year.  I think it was 2019?  Anyway, I was re-reading those and forgot about the time and almost didn't post. I was about to close the laptop and then I realized. D'oh! I haven't blogged yet!  It seems I had something to post about but I'm not coming up with anything so I think I'll close for tonight. It's been a long day and I'm quite sleepy. I want to read some on book four of the zombie series and I plan to do that after getting off here and getting in my warm, cozy, bed.  It will be a lot warmer there than here at my desk! :p

I got all my things done today.  I went to a UPS dropbox and mailed back the laptop bag, I went by the park and got a Pokestop while out and then headed home.  I washed my hair, the bed linen, and my dishes.  I washed clothes last night and forgot to dry them until bedtime!  I went in to check on them and realized that I had never started them to dry in the first place. D'oh!  I had to put those away before drying my bed linen. It's in the dryer now and I just need to put it back on the bed and I'm done.

I pulled out my external hard drive and updated my backup to Time Machine.  I'm going to do that every Sunday.  It took a bit of time but nowhere near what it took to do the first backup.  I let it run while I did other things. It worked well.  I didn't write today.  The last few days, I have been re-reading my zombie books.  I had forgotten some things along the way.  I should have been taking notes because I think there are a few continuity errors that need to be fixed.  It's fun to re-visit my characters.

As for the writing I'm currently doing, I have a big event coming up.  It's going to be good, but I have to get in the mindset to write it.  I'll probably write a little bit tonight, not the exciting stuff yet, though! I don't want to get started on something like that this late.  That is how I end up looking up and realizing it's almost 1 am! It's happened before. :p

I am still not sure if I'm doing my zombie fic or the skating fic, but I am working on full character profiles for my skating characters.  I'm probably going with that to do for NaNo. If not that, a whole new one.  I do want to write more on my zombie fic, but I'm not sure I want to do that for this year's NaNo.  I might re-read the first four and see.  I have a lot of ideas for the skating story, so ...  Yes, I still have no clue which to do. :P

I had all the stuff in one notebook stack in Evernote.  I fixed that by making two stacks in Evernote.  One for the zombie books and one for the skating books.  It makes it easier to keep up with everything.  I love Evernote so much!  It's so dang handy!  I still use an Evernote template for my characters.  I write up the info in the template in Evernote. I keep a copy of it in there and I copy the templates into Scrivener.  That way I can reference it either way.  It helps to have those in Evernote for on the go since I always have my phone with me.

Hoo boy am I tired. I'm sorry for not posting the last two days.  I didn't get a chance to do any pictures of my TN's either as it's been overcast and rainy.  Hopefully, we'll get a dry, sunny day soon!  I got so much done today.  I put away a load of laundry I washed yesterday, I put away a sink full of dishes I washed two days ago, I wash my hair and I washed my bed linen.  I just need to put it back on the bed. I was going to do that and then post, but I knew I'd end up forgetting or running out of time, so I'm posting first!

Yesterday, when I went out, I noticed a light on my dash. I was showing my back right tire was low.  I went and got air in it. It was the same one that did that right before the beach trip in September.  I filled it and went ab0ut my business. I needed to run an errand for a friend later and it was on again.  I put some more air in.  I guess it must have a leak or a hole.  I had to run out today and noticed it was as low as it was yesterday when I started so I put air in it. I'm hoping to get it patched or replaced asap.  It is so frustrating. Having to worry and do maintenance every time I used my car was something I was glad to give up when I got this car. My friend did say that it would need a set of tires before too long when he got it for me, so I guess it is going to be time!

I am going to put my linens back on my bed. I can't wait.  I haven't sleep well this past week and I'm hoping that fresh, clean, bedlinen will help!  I have been trying to figure out what I'm doing for NaNo this year.  I can either do another book in the zombie series, book two of my ice skaters series, or something new and completely different.  I can't make up my mind and I need to hurry up so I can prep! Ahhhh!

I didn't really feel like posting tonight, but I don't want to get into that attitude of not posting. It was rainy and messy again today so I didn't go out and do anything.  I wish it would clear off already! I currently have a killer headache that I wish would go away.  I just took some ibuprofen a bit ago so hopefully, it will kick in.

I was looking at my Munzee app today and realized there are a LOT of Munzees that I haven't captured in my city.  I am hoping for a clear, cool day soon!  I want to go capture some.  I also want to deploy more at the beach in September and perhaps some other places too.  If my friend and I go on a hiking trail this summer, I'll try to deploy some then and look for ones to capture.  It's fun.  I just wish I had a local friend that was into it too.

My friend's son and stepson got into it about one day a few years back. It didn't last though.  It would be fun to have someone else to go around with and do it.  Even better if that friend had working air conditioning in their car! LOL!

I finished my zombie book last night and today I started another book. Not a zombie one, though. It was a collection of short stories.  It was a fast read and I finished it already!  Some of the stories were pretty good and some were just meh.  I am not sure which of the ones I have on my Kindle I'll read next.  I probably won't start one tonight as it will keep me up too late like the one did last night. lol

I finished my current read today and decided to give Kindle Unlimited a try. I already have four books downloaded from it.  Two true crime, a new zombie book, and the second book of a series I read the first book of a week or so ago.  Sadly the book I just finished and the one series before that are not on Kindle unlimited, but there seem to be a lot of interesting books.  I might find some new authors and that is always a good thing.  For now, I'm going to enjoy my free three month access to books!

Yeah, I don't know.  I finished the true crime book I was reading today.  I immediately was looking for something else to read on my Kindle.  You can search the Kindle store on it. You could on my Kindle keyboard but it was a much longer process!  I found a zombie book that looked pretty good for free. It's the first of a series, so I downloaded it.  I have read a little over half of it already! :P

Have I mentioned I love my new Kindle?  I love my new Kindle.  It's so small, even with the case and it fits nicely right into my purse.  I can carry it with me when I can go back in public again! Yay!  If the other books in this series are on Kindle Unlimited, I might just give it a go.  Three free months is a good deal!  I have noticed a lot of times when I find a zombie book that I like that I get the first in a series for free the rest are available to borrow with Kindle unlimited.  

I hit the 30,000 mark in Camp NaNo today!  It's going well.  I sit to write and it's just flowing. It's great. It's fun writing new characters. I love my zombie fiction characters, but these guys are pretty cool too.

In the mail today, I got the oldest Starbucks card in my collection.  It's actually the second one released in the US.  I was so happy to get it for a good price.  My dream card is the first one of course, but I was extremely happy to get this one!

Isn't it nice?  I loved adding this to my collection.   It's in great condition, too! Yay! I am only waiting on one package now and that is the other Kindle case I ordered.  

I haven't added one of these in a while, so!  How I'm using Evernote today:  I am copying the text of each day's Camp NaNo writing into Evernote.  That way I have a backup and I can read over it on my phone.  I find more things I need to fix this way! ;p

I am now only 557 words from 20,000 words.  That was my goal for CampNaNoWriMo but I will not be even close to being done by the 20,000-word mark.  Looks like this might end up being a full 50,000 words.  It's fun writing a whole different story and genre from my Zombie books.  Don't get me wrong, I love my Zombie series and characters and I will go back to them again.  This is fun.  

I am currently waiting for my dinner to finish up. I'm making my favorite hash brown casserole and I cannot wait to devour it all! LOL!  It's going to be so good and I have plenty for a few days.  Well, if I don't eat it all tonight! :P

It has felt like it should be Monday all day.  I don't know why, but it has.  I had to keep reminding myself that it was, in fact, Sunday!  I have my bed linen in the washer.  It would be in the dryer right now, but when I went to get it out, it didn't spin all the water out.  It hasn't done this in ages so I was not expecting it! I sent it to a drain and spin cycle and I'm waiting on that to finish so I can toss it in the dryer.  

I noticed all this when I went to start my pot of water to heat up so I could wash my hair.  I am so glad I got a haircut.  It makes washing my hair so much easier.  Less hair means less shampoo to rinse out!  Also, my hair gets wet enough to use the shampoo.  I am now sitting under the hair bonnet dryer drying my hair.  Feels nice under here!  After I finish up, I am going to relax and decide what I'm going to do for dinner.  I am trying to decide if I want something here or if I want to go get something.  I'm also contemplating going to Starbucks!

I finished my current puzzle today. I never did see the missing corner piece, so I just did a fix.  In the picture I took, it's hard to even tell a piece is missing. In person, it's a bit more obvious but not as bad as if there was nothing in that spot at all. It's the top left corner if you are curious:

Pretty good fix, eh? I thought so!  It's such s pretty puzzle, I hate that it's missing a piece.  I do have a piece that I could put in there but it's dark blue and it's obvious that it doesn't go.  This is a less subtle fix.  I can live with it.  

I am currently reading another zombie book. It's not the best ever, but it's not bad. It's a series and I don't know if I'll look into any of the other books or not.  I am right beyond the half way point so I'll be looking for a new read soon.  I have some on my Kindle that I have never read, so I'll check through there first.  I have books that I found for free on Amazon years ago.  I loaded them to my Kindle and for some reason or the other forgot them.  Some of the ones I've currently read are like this.  The current one included!  I have debated on re-joining Kindle unlimited.  I wish it was included in Amazon Prime.  That would be amazing.  There are some books you can borrow with Prime, but it's just not a lot of stuff I would want to read.  I have been enjoying the first reads each month.  Picking a book from a shortlist of them has been nice and I've found a few I enjoyed.  Those you actually get to keep instead of just borrowing them.

My library has ebooks you can borrow, but a lot of it isn't anything I'm interested in.  If I find a book online that sounds good, I'll check my library's ebook sight and most times they don't have it.  That is frustrating.  I am going to start looking into some new authors and seeing if I can find some to try that I might like.  

By the way, I just wanted to share something before I close.  When I finish a puzzle, I flip them over and tape them together on the back.  This way I can keep the completed puzzle.  Today when I flipped this one, I started taping and then moved my hand the wrong way and let me tell you.  The metal cutting surface on packing tape is SHARP and it will cut you. As many times as I've used packing tape this is the first and only time it's gotten me.  Lesson well learned.  That won't happen again. :P

I was up until around 3 am finishing my latest read (Zombie fiction). It was so good! I just found the second book in the series and loaded it to my Kindle to start tonight.  The first book was great, I'm hoping book two will be just as good.  

So, I got up at my regular time today and texted my friend.  He was in the middle of something but said he'd be on in a bit.  He got here around noon and we headed out.  We went first to Reidsville, NC to the Salvation Army store, the Goodwill store, and two pawn shops.  He went in those, I just thrifted.  In the SA store, I got a S'well bottle for .49¢!  Those things are expensive new!  I also found a Fossil purse!  It's the brown one you'll see in the pictures below.

We went to the Goodwill in Reidsville and I found a Starbucks mug, which I love, and a little table/container.  It was new in box.  The price new was $20 and I paid $8! I have a picture of it below too.  I put it together when I got home.  It will be a nice little storage unit.  

After leaving Reidsville, we went to Eden NC.  At the Goodwill there, I only got a little wicker Snowman basket.  He was cute and only .49¢.  We found a Salvation Army store that we'd never been to before and I got a ceramic jack o' lantern, a puzzle, and some watercolors.  The puzzle is the one with the fall trees. 

We ate while Eden at a little drive up place we love.  They have delicious cheeseburgers!  We left Eden and headed to Martinsville, VA.  We went to the Salvation Army store there that we found last trip.  I found another Fossil bag.  Last time I got a Fossil bag there I spent $1.50.  This one was $10!  It was red leather and I loved it. I kept debating on and finally just bought it.  $10 is not expensive and I actually love this bag. I'll carry it.

We went to two more Goodwills.  One is on the other side of Martinsville but not too far away and one is in Martinsville.  At one, I got a cute Jack o' lantern container and a pair of Ked like shoes.  The grand total? $3.50. Whoo hoo!  At the last Goodwill we went to, I found a cool tote bag that I loved, an Ipsy zipper pouch, and a cute Cake pop puzzle.  

All in all it was a good day! I got two 'new' Fossil bags, that little bin thingee, some puzzles, jack o' lantern goodies and more.  And now for the pictures!