I'm A Voracious Reader : AVR Weekly News ~ 640th Edition

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by
Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer.
~ Recap the past week ~
~ Show what's upcoming ~
~ Share news ~
~ Display book hauls ~

Sunday ~ Meme ~ AVR Weekly News ~ 639th Edition
Tuesday ~ Audio Review ~ Sprinkles and Sea Serpents by Danielle Garrett
Friday ~ Meme ~ Friday Featured Spotlight ~ BBNYA Finalists Blog Tours: 13 & 12

Monday ~ Tour Spotlight ~ Miss Bennet's Dragon by M. Verant
Friday ~ Meme ~ Friday Featured Spotlight ~ BBNYA Finalists Blog Tours: 11 & 10
Sunday ~ Meme ~ AVR Weekly News ~ 641st Edition

Hello and Happy Sunday!

On the Home Front

Sunday ~ Did some laundry, but mostly read.

Monday ~ Up at 5:30 to take Kyle to work. After doing the usual morning stuff I started a load of towels washing then dove in to the "administrative" crap of my household. Made appointments for 3 of the 6 pets, made an appt for Kyle with the gastro to take care of the hemorrhoids (isn't until June?!), met with Hunter about the equipment shed, accepted a Lowe's delivery of pavers and landscape blocks, and was on hold with Disability for 30 minutes waiting for someone to pick up so I could find out what's going on with Trip's disability. Three letters came in the mail Friday. Two needed to be signed and sent back by the 26th (wtaf) and the 3rd just said to call. I got all that shit done and one of the forms could be faxed back instead so Trip and I ran to Goin' Postal to do that then hit up Food Lion for some things since we were nearly out of milk. By the time I was done with all that it was time to go pick up Kyle since Anna left work at 2:00. Came home, worked on the blog, fed the furries, and while everyone else had some Chinese leftovers to eat I scrambled up a bunch of eggs and fried a can of Spam to mix with some leftover white rice for my dinner. Then I finished Anna's taxes before heading to bed.

Tuesday ~ Up at 5:30 to take Kyle to work. Cold out! Food Lion is doing renovations so they changed their start time from 6:00 to 7:00, so I had to go home and putter until they opened. I forgot to pick up a cheesecake yesterday and Kyle was disappointed. LOL Trip and I worked outside all day. It was chilly with a breeze, but we wore shorts and t-shirts anyway. As long as we kept moving we were ok. I think it made it to 60ºF much later, but it was cloudy all day, so not as warm as that sounds. First I had him put up the kerosene heaters and fuel can. Then we cut up empty boxes for the recycling can. Next we switched out the burning barrel for a new one. After that I sent him up on the roof with the backpack blower to get all the twigs and limbs down. But when I was getting the blower out of the garden shed I looked up and saw a broken skylight on the Exterior Library. WHAT?! A big limb, mostly on the ground with some pieces still on the roof, is most likely the culprit. So I texted my contractor to see if they had a guy who could replace it. In the meantime I better get a tarp for it even though it doesn't look like it's leaking (yet) since it's double paned. We moved all of the cans with pine cones under the deck and brought the twig can down from the deck. We took the two new cans to the huge brush pile and filled those. Then we got to work on the brush pile. First we pulled out a good amount of small stuff to get a fire going and I tossed some leaves on there to really get it roaring. While I let it die down a bit we started cutting. But here's the thing...the battery operated chainsaw and pruners I bought needed to have the chains soak overnight in bar and chain oil which I did not have. So we used my baby circular saw and Trip used a small handsaw and we did as much as we could, which was more than I would have thought. Go us! Just as Anna and Kyle got home from work I ran out to ACE Hardware down the road to pick up oil. I put the chains to soak then fed the furries before whipping up two sausage quiches for dinner. Collapsed in my chair and vegged out watching Bones. Chris spent the night since he and Anna took tomorrow off. Went to bed around 9:30 and immediately fell asleep.

Wednesday ~ Up at 5:30 to take Kyle to work. Had to scrape the car window. Brrr! Puttered around until it was time to feed the furries then walk the dogs. At 9:00 took Rocky to the vet for some bloodwork (call back in the afternoon showed his liver values dropping from 149 to 136, so yay! We'll keep trying to cut chicken out of his diet since it looks like he's allergic to it) and his Proheart shot. Came home, roused Trip, put the chains on the equipment, and got to work on the brush pile. Wow. The battery pruners and chainsaw actually work pretty good! My chainsaw is only 10" so I can't do anything too big, but we steadily worked our way through a bunch of larger limbs, some at the limit of my 10" bar. The damn wind would NOT quit switching up! The smoke from the fire went where we went. Fucking bullshit! Gah! lol Chris and Anna eventually got up and picked up Biscuitville for lunch for them and us. So we broke to eat then got back to work. I am so over this huge fucking brush pile. And completely out of shape. And now we're sunburned too because there are no leaves on the trees yet and it warmed up to about 64ºF and sunny. Anyway, we quit around 1:30, Trip showered then took the dogs out. He rode along to go pick up Kyle. Kyle always showers on Wednesdays so I sent him in while I threw some more stuff on the fire and listened to my audiobook. When I figured he was done I let the fire die way down to mostly ash, came in, fed the furries, Trip walked the dogs, and I showered. Finally clean and smoke free. Leftovers for dinner.

Thursday ~ Up at 5:30. Took Kyle to work then swung by Lowe's to get a tarp, gassed up his car at BJ's, and stopped at Food Lion to get his Lemonade vitamin water which he only just said he was out of. Dude. I cannot read your mind. There is a board on the fridge to write items I need to restock. For fuck's sake. 🙄 Fed the furries, walked the dogs, then Trip and I got to work on the brush pile. Got hot today, almost 80ºF and no shade. Ugh. Made spaghetti for dinner. Trip and Anna went to Kyleigh and Oliver's soccer games. I sat outside and fed more brush to the fire until it got nearly dark out. I hate this fucking brush pile. lol

Friday ~ Up at 5:30 to take Kyle to work. Tired! Last day to get this shit cleared. Hot, hot, hot. Trip and I died like a 100 times. Ok, no we didn't. It just felt like it. Because it was hot out and I started a 2nd fire to burn brush. The wind kept blowing the smoke wherever we were which totally pissed me off. Both fires were so damn hot and the sun was relentless. However, storms were supposed to blow in around 5:00, so we started to see clumps of clouds speeding across the sky that occasionally covered that bitch up and gave us some relief. Bryant swung by to drop off their skidsteer for tomorrow and since he hadn't been back after the additions were done I showed him the kitchen. I mean, he'd seen the pics Hunter took, but let's face it, pics are never as good as seeing something in person. He walked in the house and his jaw dropped. He said it's like a whole different house. Probably the greatest transformation they'd ever done. I told him how much we love it all and that's no lie. Anyway, around 3:00, when the last of the big stuff was cut and tossed into a pile I sent Trip in to shower while I fed the 2 fires the rest of the little shit. There was still a decent amount of it and I didn't get it all burned until a bit after 5:00, but that gave me time to listen to my audiobook. Fed the furries then was finally able to get in the shower. Right before I got in the shower I went to the bathroom and it dawned on me that I hadn't pissed all day. Do you know how to tell when you are dehydrated? When your urine is dark yellow. And mine was the darkest I'd ever seen it. Uh oh. Severely dehydrated even though I drank 3 of my water bottles, a V8, a V8 Energy, some Apple Boost thingy I got at CVS, and 2 chocolate milks. I drank about 16 oz of water right then and another 16oz after my shower. It felt so incredibly good to wash away the sweat, dirt, and ash as well as the smoke smell. Ahhhhh! Warmed up some leftovers for dinner, had a glass of milk, a glass of water, and a mug of tea and watched Bones. I did not want to leave my Lazy-Boy. My feet hurt so bad. I'm covered in cuts, scrapes, bruises, blisters, and sunburn, but it's satisfying to have the job done. Rain did eventually roll through with lots of wind.

How we started.

How we ended.

Saturday ~ Up at 7:30 since Hunter, Larry, and another guy, Austin, were coming to grade the land and pour the footers for the posts for the equipment shed. They showed up a bit before 8:00 and got started. Chilly out! Brrrrr after yesterday. I fed the furries, walked the dogs, and started on the laundry room cleaning. Kyle and I got the litterboxes done before I needed to drop Trip off at the wasband's workplace for the Easter Egg Hunt that the grandkiddos were going to be at. Anna had to work, but she was going to drop by afterwards to join them and bring Trip home. Came home and went back to cleaning. Washed all the oddball things that had been piling up in the kitchen sink, then cleaned the sink itself, finished the laundry room, hallway, my bathroom, and did several loads of pet stuff, rugs, my smoky clothes, and towels. I wanted to go to the No Kings protest in Greensboro, but I needed to be on hand for when Hunter was done grading to set the corners for the shed. Good thing because he had it facing a bit different than I wanted. Changed the sheets on my bed. Kyle grilled hot dogs and brats. Ate then finished this post. I was ready for bed at 7, but stuck it out until a bit after 9.

Ready for framers.

Today I plan on doing as little as possible. Anna and April will be going to the movies. Kyleigh and Boone are going to church with their mawmaw, but Oliver wants to come here. So we'll babysit for a bit.

New Year's Resolutions/Goals
I thought I'd keep a weekly record of these so I can see if anything is getting done. 😆
More reading, less tv ~ Just some audiobooks.
Go back to the beginning and revamp old blog posts ~ Nothing this week.
Exercise ~ Worked outside all week.
Tidy up outside ~ Cleared huge brush pile.

Touching Nature: Chilly then hot and back to chilly. Ma Nature is treating us like a damn yo-yo.

Book News: I've finished some audiobooks, but written no reviews. Eep. Too exhausted this week to read.

Don't Touch That Dial!: Just Bones.

At the Flicks: Nope.

Cyberspace Playground: Wordle, Word Lots, Crossword Jam, Solitaire, the Finch app - if anyone wants to be friends just let me know.

Randomness: Always check out Google satellite images before booking.