Dear Diary

A 3742-post collection

Flash Writing for a Dollar a Day

Not that I'm complaining too hard, but writing on Steemit earns me roughly one USD per diem. That's $365.25 per year. That, on top of the $100-something I make off of Smashwords per year, that still puts my income inside of the poverty line.

At least it helps pay for food.

I am going to frelling make myself get stuff ready for publication. The cover for Kung Fu Zombies so I can prep it for Lulu, the actual Lulu copy, which has a smaller page size than the one I edit in, and basically prep for a sequence of dummins moments because Lulu doesn't warn people in advance.

I'm prepared for this to take all day, so it's probably going to take less than an hour.

Now I've covered all bets, you can check in tomorrow to see what comedy of errors has happened to get it at least up and available. Including ISBN 'cause y'all know I will upload a book twice to get that thing up there in print.

Beloved and I figured that I probably shouldn't try to sell my non-Amalgam stories, no matter how much fun I have with them, because Amalgam is my brand and most agents aren't used to dramatic changes in theme like I do.

So... every other year, it looks like, everyone will be getting "one of the weird ones" via Lulu and if I can swing it at the same time, Smashwords. I think Smash doesn't care if you publish something there as well. I'll check.

Updates as I know what's happening.

And also, I would love to get Beloved to finally fix the window. This time, it was exactly the right size, but I measured it too large, and the new window has to be cut down.

In health news - I have learned that my Guylian stash is worth a quarter of my total daily carbs per teeny tiny seahorse shape. So I'm off the one-Guylian-a-day ration and simply gorging myself on delicious delicious carbs during one day of the week.

Not this week, though. I have to quit the carbs until next weekend. And by "quit", I mean "stick to the barest minimum of". Because the body does need carbohydrates, it just needs way less than we thought.

I also invented something of a taste thrill - Cream of Chicken and Bacon Soup. It's a slow-cooker meal, so you can set it up and let it simmer all day.

Implements
  • Slow Cooker
  • Dipper or large container for water
  • Sharp knife
  • Stirring Spoon
Ingredients
  • 6 filleted chicken thighs
  • 8 Chicken flavour oxo cubes
  • 1 packet of broccoli and cauliflower
  • 1 small punnet of sliced mushrooms
  • 4 decent-sized carrots
  • Herbs and spices to taste
  • Water to fill
  • 1/2 cup of real cream
Method
  • Peel and chop the carrots
  • Roughly chop the bacon, set aside in the fridge
  • Place chicken, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, and carrots in the slow cooker
  • Add the oxo cubes
  • Add the water
  • Add the herbs and spices
  • Set to "automatic" for a majority of the day
  • Add the bacon in the last hour and a half of cooking.
  • When it's all ready, break up the chicken and stir in the cream

Everyone had at least two helpings. It's a very tasty soup and very good for the low spoon days. I've needed to conserve my energies, lately, because excess carbage, but I should be back on to recovery real soon now.

But since my Beloved is awake, it's time to get on with things.

Lurgi, Lurgi, go away

I've finished up all my blackberry pills, and I still have ur-lurgi symptoms. But I can breathe through my nose, and my brain seems to be functioning properly, so that's some improvement.

I'll see whether or not the Lurgi comes back. But the meanwhile will be spent with lots of ginger tea.

When I shake off the last of whatever-this-is, I will immediately take myself to the local quack and get my annual flu jabs. I don't want to be taking any

Read more »

Up to my eyes in it

So today is an interesting schedule. I have a plumber coming at an unspecified time. I have the cleaners coming. Both will want paying and I only have the cash for one of those people and I worry about that sort of thing.

Fortunately there are ATMs, and I definitely used the Suncorp account this morning. Huzzah. So after a short school run, I now have enough money for everyone including myself.

I also found out that the account I can access

Read more »

So much for plns

I had a nice, relaxing day mostly-at-home planned for myself, and like the best-laid plans of mice and man... they've gone agley.

The dude who mis-cut our window replacement now has the proper replacement ready. So I have to get all the heck way out there, measure it to check, and collect it. I also have to go get a parcel from North Lakes so that I can finally store all my rescue singles properly. Once they're cleaned and verified playable, of

Read more »

F-O-C-U-S

Lots to do.

I have a Chaos to take up north to see her shrink. I have to take the window replacement back to the dude who made it because he cut it too short. Which means that today is an enormous Leyland's Tour for me. Which means I should put dinner on now or I won't have the energy to do anything by tonight.

But I also have to take the dubiously reliable Elderberry capsules. I haven't been that fantastic at

Read more »

Aftermath

Okay, so sugar and lots of it does really terrible things to me. I have learned this now.

Following a breakfast of a Lindt dark choc bunny, a Guylian sampler1 and some sugar-free creaming soda... I had asthma, loose stools, and trouble staying upright.

At least until we headed off to Maccas for lunch for some grease-burgers and, in my case, the promisingly disgusting Cadbury Cream Egg McFlurry. It was actually more of a sundae with caramel sauce and definitely-not-cadbury-flakes on

Read more »

Happy Easter, everyone!

It's my morning habit to wake early, and this time, it's held me in good stead. I crept around the house like a thief in the pre-dawn light, delivering sugary goodness in the shape of bunnies and eggs.

Of course, Easter Sunday is a feast day. Which means that a majority of the family can indulge in all the carbage they could dream of. But just for the day.

Beloved has a rationable supply of chocolate, the lighter portions of which will

Read more »

Nothing much

There's not a lot of shops open, there's some things that need to be got, but that's pretty much all we have planned to do today. Beloved and I did get to play Warcraft together for a while, so that was some fun.

I have some tea brewing, which always helps my health and disposition. Today's recipe involves Elderflower and Peach Teas with two slices of ginger that have also been sliced into thin chips. That should be ready about now.

The

Read more »

Good Friday

I have nothing much at all planned for today, beyond writing today's Instant and the thousand words that allow me to slack off for the remainder of the weekend.

Beloved is at home, too, and I have faith that this will allow the new window-filler to go in and the mouldy old piece of fibreboard to get exiled to a hell where it belongs go out. Which should (note the qualifier) help improve my overall health and also help eliminate the morning

Read more »

Tea fixes everything

I've been bingeing on the herbal teas since I got crook. The addition of a little ginger to the pot has helped immensely. And also drinking an undertow-mug's worth1 of tea at a time helps. And it helps for a surprising length of time.

The cleaners didn't arrive yesterday. I can hope that they'll come today, but because Easter, everything's up to debate. Giving the kids a ten-minute clean-up task definitely helps. Especially since it's their gateway to having access to

Read more »

Glarghle

Lurgi confirmed. I am falling down with a thing.

Bugger.

I have Elderflower tea and a whole bunch of other teas, so I should have no trouble staying hydrated. I'm going to try and take it easy, but the day is a wee bit crowded.

I've just had a bunch of plumbers come in and give a quote on the sink fix. Later on today, I have the cleaners to help restore the house to some small form of order.

Hopefully, I

Read more »

Blarg

Sneezin' and Wheezin' Season has hit, I am sure. The sniffles that only plagued me in the bedroom have migrated outwards. The good news is that I am only slightly miserable, as opposed to the last bout of immense misery that had me pondering whether or not to break Keto for my usual cure of juice and ginger ale.

I still have to go out and get some bulk vinegar, and a replacement thing for the window. Because I was a dummins

Read more »

Procrastination is my co-pilot

I have work to do, errands to run, and stuff to acquire. So of course I'm watching YouTube instead of doing any of it. Go me.

But I did do some things to help with progress around the house. I also am instilling a new policy. The kids have to do one ten-minute task to help with the house before they sit down at their devices.

With luck and vigilance, this should help keep the mess down so that progress can be

Read more »

Day of Rest

I've had an entire week of running about. An entire week of fetching, hassles, setbacks, fetching, going, et cetera. I just want to spend an entire day of slobbing about.

But of course we have plans to fix a window above an AC unit. We filled in the space above the AC with fibreboard [which I said was a bad idea and Beloved said was protected by the roof] and is now slowly rotting into an unhealthy mess because cyclone season.

One

Read more »

Fun times ahead

MeMum actually won a li'l something in the Lotto, and each member of the family syndicate gets a little over $100 bonus. However, Mum doesn't trust the post office to get a letter to anywhere if it has cash in it, so I'm courier for Beloved's Mum's dividend.

What happened to sending a 'Congratulations' type card with said dividend inside? It's not like the post office scours letters for that kind of deal. But then I remember that there's change involved and,

Read more »