June Round-up

All things reading and writing.

Reading:

I was supposed to read, wasn’t I? Well, technically, I read a bunch of webcomics. That should count for something. And one I was way behind in so it was several long chapters to catch up. Took a couple of weeks. So, yeah, I’m counting it.

The webcomic is Unsounded by Ashley Cope. It’s about a crazy little girl with a tail and her undead friend going on adventures in a world filled with magic and wars and talking lizards. It’s way out there and has been going on for nine years so there was a lot to read.

So, this totally counts as reading.

Writing:

I didn’t do much this month. It started out strong with finishing a chapter of Uncalled For, but then I fizzled out as life got in the way. Daughter had a baby and the cats got hurt/sick so I had to take on some crochet project for cash which took priority over writing. I’m almost done with those, and with Camp NaNo this month, I’m hoping to get some more writing done. Only 5,360 for the month.

YTD total: 72,478

Streak: Still going strong with journaling at 911 days (since January 1, 2017)!

Editing/Finishing:

Actually edited something despite doing almost no other writing. Didn’t have to do much, but it was something. Also finished up a few chapters of Uncalled For and edited them. YAY!

Posting:

Uncalled For Actions (Girl Genius)

• Part 15 (backdated)
• Part 16 (backdated)
• Part 17 (backdated)

Of Macaroni Art and Making Grown Men Cry (Red vs Blue)

Six Sentences on Sunday

~*~Each Sunday, post six sentences from a writing project — published, in progress, for your cat — whatever.~*~

From Of Macaroni Art and Making Grown Men Cry:

“We looked it up, and it said that kids make macaroni art for Father’s Day.”

Wash rubs a growing pain between his eyes. It’s typically how all of his conversations go with Caboose. “Caboose, you’re not supposed to cook the macaroni first.”

Junior lets out a string of honks and blarghs. Wash doesn’t need to understand the words to get the meaning—Junior already tried to tell him that.

Red vs Blue fic: Of Macaroni Art and Making Grown Men Cry

It’s Father’s Day, and Caboose has a plan. It goes about how you’d expect a Caboose plan to go, so Wash reluctantly comes to the rescue. Part of the retirement fluff series.
828 words | [PG]

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Wash follows the smell of something burning into the kitchen. He takes in the scene—there is paper and markers and glitter strewn over the table, and a pot billowing thick black smoke. And in the middle of it all—Caboose and Junior.

“Caboose, what are you doing? You’re going to burn the entire base down.”

“Oh, it’s okay, Agent Washington. I took the batteries out of the smoke alarm, so it wouldn’t bother anyone.”

Wash stares. “That won’t stop-” He doesn’t bother to finish. Wash pulls the pot from the stove. He can’t tell what was even in it. “Were you hungry? You could have asked someone to make you guys lunch.” What does a Sangheili eat anyway?

“It’s Father’s Day!” Caboose says as if that explains anything.

“What?”

Caboose rolls his eyes like Wash is being the unreasonable one. “It’s Father’s Day, and I’m helping Junior make something for Tucker. Even if he is stupid.” He mutters the last part under his breath before putting on another glowing smile. “We looked it up, and it said that kids make macaroni art for Father’s Day.”

Wash rubs a growing pain between his eyes. It’s typically how all of his conversations go with Caboose. “Caboose, you’re not supposed to cook the macaroni first.”

Junior lets out a string of honks and blarghs. Wash doesn’t need to understand the words to get the meaning—Junior already tried to tell him that.

Craft Progress Report – May 2019

This blog was originally for more than just my writing, but I’ve neglected other parts of my life recently (recently being the last like five years). So I thought I’d post some pictures of projects I’ve worked on in the last month now that I have a working phone.

All things crafting…

• # of new projects started: 26
• # of projects finished: 25
• # of new projects left unfinished: 2
• # of old projects finished: 1 (projects started in previous months)

Total number of unfinished projects: 9

Finished Projects:

Hats for my new grandson! The bear hat pattern is from Mary Hodges. The rest are all from Repeat Crafter Me.

Other baby items: booties from Croby Patterns, a heavily modified blanket found at Yarnspirations that I gave to my daughter’s friend who had a baby the same day, a romper by Laura Savastinuk Designs that still needs buttons, and adorable flip-flops by Elizabeth Mareno that were too small because baby has big feet.

Other finished projects without pictures:

• Oliver Twist hat by Melody Rogers
• newsboy hat by Jenni Designs
• Presto hat that Arrow wore home from the hospital by Katherine Vaughan (also made one of these for my youngest son when he was born)
• blue striped hat of my own design that matches the blue striped blanket above (gave it away before I got a picture of it)
• placemat of my own design that now sits on our dining room table with a bowl of fruit on it

Started but unfinished:

• Another romper like the yellow and gray one, but this one is bigger and will have longer legs.
• Neon sweater (made one of these for Jack as a baby, but couldn’t find any of that stuff up in the loft of our garage
• ripple wave blanket

With the new baby, I had a lot of motivation to get some projects done for him. Most of the hats were too small for his big head, though, so we’re going to get some twine and clothespins and hang them for decoration because they’re too cute.

New Addition

Finally got some cute pictures to post of the newest family addition.

Introducing Arrow Finnegan…

Born June 7 at 12:47am. 7lbs, 3oz; 19″ long.

His daddy just adores him. Totally wrapped around his little fingers (just like grampa but totally not gramma, not at all).

Mom did great. Eighteen-years-old, and she made it look easy. Started induction at 10pm on the 5th, got the epidural around noon on the 6th, started pushing at 11:10pm, and he was born an hour and a half later. She’s a great mom–I’m so proud of her.

We finally broke down and got me a new phone. I’ve had the same one since 2013, and it’s been mostly unusable for the last two years with most of the screen untouchable. But the camera worked, and with a little trouble, I could get the photos onto my laptop to use, but when I went to upload the pictures of the birth, I couldn’t do it. My DSLR camera broke last year as well, so I was in tears not being able to take pictures of the little guy.

So I got a new Galaxy 10e. The quality is amazing (better than my old phone and the DSLR which is 12 years old). Can’t wait to get more pictures of this sweet boy.

Six Sentence Sampler

Slowly, the familiarity waned, and Gil pulled himself awake, slightly confused when he didn’t find himself in the greenhouse on Castle Wulfenbach. Or with Tarvek laying at his side, toes in the grass.

Just a dream, right.

With a heavy sigh, he sat up, stretching. The sent of wet grass hung in the air still from the open window near the bed.

Six Sentence Sampler

More Uncalled For Actions:

“But what?” He fiddled with the buttons on his coat, avoiding Tarvek’s eyes again. He hated being so insecure.

“But,” Tarvek said, grabbing Gil’s hand to get his attention, “too bad we already ate breakfast. It’s not really a picnic without food.”

Gil looked at their joined hands then slowly up to Tarvek’s smiling if blotchy face, relief filling him–maybe he hadn’t completely messed everything else.

Still at home waiting to hear back from my daughter that her labor has actually started. Last I heard, she was still 2cm after half the night. Going to try to get some sleep now.

Six Sentence Sampler

6/4/19

More from part 17 of Uncalled For Actions:

“Talk to me, please.” Gil felt tears welling in his own eyes and blinked them away–Tarvek needed him to be the strong one now. “Did I do something wrong again? I don’t understand–you know I’m stupid when it comes to, well, being around people.”

Tarvek shook his head, apparently unable to answer then just walked right past Gil into the small forest. Gil followed a few feet behind, his bloody fingers worrying the edge of his waistcoat.

On a side note… I’m almost caught up with my backlog of sentences for this story. I got horribly behind in March and nearly caught up in April, but never got the last six days done. Then I took all of May off. I now have only two more days from April left to write and then I’ll be into the June sentences which are resetting back to one sentence on the 1st. That should be quick to catch up. I’m hoping to be back on track this weekend (with part 17 posted today).

Of course, my daughter is being induced tonight so who knows when this baby will get here and how that will throw a kink in the works.

Six Sentence Sampler

6/3/19

From Uncalled For Actions:

He snatched Tarvek’s hand and started running, Tarvek struggling to keep up as usual. They wound their way out of the school and through the forbidden halls of Castle Wulfenbach, garnering some attention from the crew, but no one stopped them.

“Where are we going?” Tarvek finally asked when they started heading into a restricted area.

Gil tugged on his hand, but Tarvek dug his heels in, refusing to budge. “Don’t you trust me?” Gil asked, batting his extra-long lashes.

Tarvek chewed his lip for a moment like he was weighing his options or trying to decide if he did trust Gil–his hesitation hurt more than Gil wanted to admit.

Six Sentence Sampler

More Gil and Tarvek as kids from Uncalled For Actions:

Gil groaned–why was he being so difficult? “We’ll just say you thought you were better but you were wrong and felt icky after eating so went back to bed, okay?”

“Gil-”

“Come on, Tarvek, what’s one more day?”

Tarvek frowned at his bowl of fruit that he’d barely touched then sighed, letting Gil known he’d finally won. Gil pumped his fist in the air in celebration of his win.