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Thursday, July 10, 2014

July 10th Challenge

Hi it’s Christina –

Good Morning! Did everyone have a good night? Mine was nice and quiet.

Only Joe would understand the
graphic, but I had to do it. 
I did get a chance to chat with one of the authors whose book I edited, and that was fun. He’s at the stage where he needs to publish, so I sent him the templates so he could get started as well as links for getting his ISBNs and getting his copywrite. I also sent him the links to Caligraphics and Riverbench Publishing; I’ve used both for my book covers and I was happy with the results. If he wants something completely original, which I believe he does, he’ll need to go with Riverbench.

It was great talking with Joe, and I’m thrilled for him. This is an exciting time in his life, and I am so excited for him. He has some really interesting, out-of-the-box, marketing ideas, and I’ll be curious to see how they pan out. Marketing is not one of my strong suits, well at least marketing my own work isn’t, so maybe I’ll be able to pick up a few pointers from him.

I have no vested interest in the books I edit, but I do love being along on their ride with them. It brings me great joy to see others succeed.

The girls decided they wanted fro-yo for dinner – the once or twice a year the kids have dessert for dinner is no big deal. My hubby had a stomachache, so he didn’t want any dinner, and I was not making a meal for myself. It wasn’t until after nine when I realized I was hungry.

I had picked some green beans and some yellow beans from the garden. There was enough green beans to have with a meal, so I packaged and froze them. I had picked yellow beans the other day, and froze those as well, so what I picked yesterday was only a handful. I cleaned them and cooked them up, hit them with a few squirts of spray butter, and that was my dinner; not terribly exciting, but healthful and yummy.

The garden is doing well. I’m still getting one or two ripe strawberries every day. The most I have been able to pick at one time was six, but considering I didn’t think I would get any this year, I’m not going to complain. I hope next year they produce enough, at the same time, where I can actually make a dessert or something.

The radishes and peas are shot, it got too hot for them. I never did get enough peas to be able to do anything with them. I’m going to try to do a second planting of them in the fall. I thought for sure I’d have some nice sized carrots because the greens were 18” tall and the stalks were as thick as drinking straws, but when I pulled them out, the carrots were only slightly bigger than my pinky.

The tomatoes are a disaster. My hubby was supposed to stake them up for me, but he never got to it, so they are flopping all over the place, and they’ve commingled so I have big tomatoes growing out of the grape tomato plant and cherry tomatoes growing out of the beefsteak tomato plant. It’s all cafuggled. The corn stalks are as tall as me, but still no ears on them, and the cucumbers are bullies. They are choking out the poor eggplant I planted for my husband, and they are headed toward the zucchini.

The broccoli and cauliflower are growing tall, which is confusing me. I thought they grew in a head, like a cabbage. My pepper plants are still struggling. They are only 6” tall, the poor babies. Next year I’ll need to start seedlings in the house. It’s too much for them to grow from seed outside. I doubt I’ll get a single pepper this year. Surprisingly three out of the five artichokes I planted are growing, but not a single onion sprouted, and I planted over a dozen.

Considering this was really my first garden, I don’t think I’m doing half bad. This year there was a learning curve, and I will do things very different next year – like the cukes are going where the herbs are now, so they have the full back wall of the fence to climb. I’ll just dig up the herbs that reseed themselves and move them. The tomatoes will go in cages from the minute they are planted.

Also, I won’t have as much variety next year. I didn’t want to have an overabundance of anything, because I hate to waste food; but I didn’t figure six pea plants wouldn’t yield enough peas to be able to make one side dish for one meal. I did plant six yellow and six green beans, and so far I have been able to harvest enough for a side dish for three of each. There are more beans coming on, so I hope I’ll get at least the same amount.

Okay, enough about my garden. There was a photo I was planning on posting with this morning’s blog, but Lys forbade me. LOL. It’s 80’s week at camp, so she has been leaving here every morning looking like Olivia Newton John, blue eye shadow, side ponytail, slouch socks, an off the shoulder shirt with a tank underneath and matching headband. I think she looks great – as an 80’s throwback, not that she should dress like that always – but she said, no way, uh-uh, it ain’t happening, the photo goes nowhere. Although I’m really tempted, I will respect her wishes.

RV has an early appointment today, so I have an hour less time to work on FTQ, so I’d best be going. I hope you have a sensational day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

Use the following three: Parrot, Cerulean, Defenestrate

(Read this with a male, South African, accent, it’s how I heard it in my head – lol)

I am the king of the loft. I know it, but more importantly, I am the favorite, and all the other occupants know it too.

King & Honey
Honey would come home from work, briefly scratch the inferior canine behind his ear, completely ignore the flea bitten feline, and walk directly to me. “How’s my pretty bird? How is the most beautiful parrot in the world?” she would ask, as she stroked my luscious cerulean feathers and kissed my beak. She would often bring me a treat or a new toy. She never brought the others anything. They were Dears responsibility, not Honey’s. She only has eyes for me.

I try not to gloat, really I do, but it’s difficult. I am far superior, both in looks as well as in brains, infinitely higher up the food chain. I was, after all, able to foil their sophomoric plan to defenestrate me. Seriously? What purpose would it have to throw a parrot out the window? I am, a bird for heaven’s sake. Fools. It is instances like this which guarantee I will remain king of the loft.

Your Next Challenge is:

Dragons!

You have ten minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count, and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.

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