AVR Weekly News ~ 669th 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 ~ 668th Edition
• Tuesday ~ Tour Spotlight ~ The Connection in Everything by Rich Marcello
• Wednesday ~ Tour Spotlight ~ Sisters... No Way! by Siobhán Parkinson
• Friday ~ Meme ~ Friday Featured Spotlight ~ TWR Blog Tour: One More Hour of Daylight

 

• Tuesday ~ Tour Spotlight ~ BBNYA2026 Semi-Finalist Spotlight: A Life in the Margins by S.E. Thomson
• Wednesday ~ Tour Spotlight ~ BBNYA2026 Semi-Finalist Spotlight: A Second Life Worth Living by Karen Lucia
• Thursday ~ Tour Spotlight ~ BBNYA2026 Semi-Finalist Spotlight: An Absence of Artificers by Emma Bradley
• Friday ~ Meme ~ Friday Featured Spotlight ~ TWR Blog Tour: The Connection in Everything
• Saturday ~ Tour Spotlight ~ BBNYA2026 Semi-Finalist Spotlight ~  TWR Blog Tour: Awakening: Book One Between the Birches
• Saturday ~ Tour Spotlight ~ BBNYA2026 Semi-Finalist Spotlight  ~ TWR Blog Tour: Child of the Dragon
• Sunday ~ Meme ~ AVR Weekly News ~ 670th Edition 

Hello and Happy Sunday!

Tomorrow marks 15 years. Wow. Where does the time go?!

On the Home Front

Sunday ~ Mostly puttered around since it rained until the afternoon and then the sun came out. Total rain for the weekend only came to 1.5". The constant bombardment of acorn munitions from the Oak Tree Platoon makes me wonder if it will be a cold winter. Anna had lunch with her friend Shelby. Mr. Puggles barfed twice in Anna's room. No idea why, but some rugs and a blanket need washing. Kyle and I made Snowballs (some call them Russian Tea Cakes) because Kyle wanted to take some to a co-worker. Unfortunately, we didn't get enough butter out to make a double batch, so we didn't have many left for us. Oops. Next time I need to remember to put a whole box of butter out to soften. 4 sticks make a double batch. Trip and Kyle finished off the taco meat for dinner. I had tomato soup and crackers.

Monday ~ Morning stuff, blog stuff, emails, phone calls, and annoying adult stuff. My oral surgery is 10/30. Oh, boy. Hope I wake up from the anesthesia. I made 3 packages of  Stir-Fry Udon with Korean BBQ style beef for dinner.

Tuesday ~ Morning stuff then a shower. Then computer stuff and listened to an audiobook. I swear to the fucking Book Gods, how does that damn oak tree still have acorns raining down on us??? Chris spent the night. He helped Anna finish off her curry leftovers. I don't remember what the rest of us ate. lol

Wednesday ~ Up at 3:45 to take Kyle to work. Apparently they are working on the parking lot (until the end of the year) and they are on OT for the rest of the month. So they had to change the schedule. 1st shift comes in earlier because they have to leave at 2:45, so 2nds shift has some place to park. Got back home at 5am. Went back to bed until 8. Got up, did the morning stuff, and puttered until 9:25. Took Anna to the oral surgeon to get her wisdom teeth out. She had 3 needing removed. The 4th one actually came in and replaced a molar she had out when she was a teenager. Her lower left tooth had the nerve in her jaw running between the roots, so they cut off the crown and ground down the roots a bit so the bone would grow over them. Yikes. No wonder she later complained that her lower jaw was hurting much more than the upper 2 that were removed. She was loopy for several hours after getting home. Once home and she was settled, Trip and I went to CVS for her 4 prescriptions and Food Lion to pick up soft foods for her. Jello, pudding, soups, ice cream. Spent time getting her drinks and switching out ice packs. Chris showed up. For a late lunch, I made Anna scrambled eggs and omelets for Chris, Trip and I. For dinner everyone but Anna had frozen pizza. For her, I warmed up an Autumn Squash Panera Bread soup I picked up at Food Lion.

Thursday ~  Up at 3:45 to take Kyle to work. Back to bed at 5am. Up at 8:30. Did the usual morning stuff then got Trip up to go grocery shopping. Anna was feeling a bit better so she took lunch to Chris and picked up a smoothie (eaten with a spoon - no straw!). Before Trip and I got back home she left again with Shelby who had an app't she was anxious about and since Anna was home she rode along for moral support. After hitting Harbor Freight, Natural Dog, Walmart, BJ's (groceries and gas), Five Below, and having lunch at Blue Ribbon, Trip and I got home just in time to carry stuff in, put away perishables (while Trip walked the dogs) and take off to get Kyle. By the time Anna got home (right before Kyle and I pulled in) she was exhausted and he lower jaw was still about a 7/10 for pain. She called the oral surgeon about it and he prescribed hydrocodone. CVS said it needed insurance approval. Such bullshit! She did not get it today and had to rely on the bulked up ibuprofen and Tylenol for pain relief. Dropped Trip off for Kyleigh's soccer game at 6pm then picked up more prescriptions and got Zaxby's for me (egg rolls), Kyle (Wings & Things) and a milkshake for Anna. By the time I got home with the food it was time to turn around and pick Trip up at 7pm. After picking Trip up, we stopped to get his Chicken Finger Plate. I was finally able to sit down in my recliner and eat my food around 8pm.

Friday ~ Repeat of Thursday. Hit Food Lion for groceries and more stuff for Anna to eat. Anna called the oral surgeon yet again about the pain and told him about the insurance delay so he prescribed something else called Ketoconazole which you cannot use with any other pain relief. After much adulting on the phone and live chat, I got that annoying shit done. I hate adulting.  While picking up Kyle I got the text that BOTH pain relief was ready at CVS. I told Anna that was going to happen. lol I don't know what the boys ate for dinner. Anna and I split a can of tomato soup and bread and butter. Chris spent the night. Rain started as I went to bed and the temp dropped about 20º. The wind picked up and The Oak Tree Platoon was bombarding the roof right over my fucking bed with acorn munitions. This shit has been going on for two weeks now. How are there any acorns left on that fucking tree?!

Saturday ~ Still raining. Up at 4:30 to take Kyle to work. Since he needed to be there at 5am, he was late. If Chris hadn't spent the night and needed to go in, too then Kyle would probably have been even later. lol He said he accidentally set his alarm for pm instead of am. Oops. Since it's cleaning day and I needed to pick him up at 11, I decided to hit up McD's for a sausage/egg/cheese McMuffin, hash brown, and tea for some fuel then when I got home I changed my bedstuff and washed them, started putting away all the groceries I hadn't put away earlier this week. Cat food, dog food, peanut butter (dogs), baby food (also dogs - for extra fiber), dog chewies, and stuff in the pantry. Tossed a load of towels in the wash, moved bedstuff to dryer, did up all the dishes in the sink and rinsed the recyclables that had been piling up from Anna's pudding and Jello cups. Then I scraped the leftovers of 3 big peanut butter jars (for the dogs) into another partial and set those soaking with hot water and soap. By the time that was done it was time to feed the furries and walk the dogs. Raining out so I got wet (and it's chilly at 50º). Dried off the dogs, changed my clothes, then puttered around until time to go get Kyle. Once home I did my bathroom, washed more towels, folded towels, folded bedstuff, did the laundry room (Trip's turn for litterboxes) washed/dried/put away petstuff, put in last load of towels. Vacuumed. Emptied trash. Rain finally stopped in the afternoon.

Today  I need to mop the main area and the kitchen. I also need to give the kitchen sink a good scrub and throw my clothes in the wash. Other than that? Who knows? Maybe read. Or nap. Or both. Sundays tend to get away from me though. I usually just putter around or scroll endlessly on Instagram. There are so many creative people out there! Why do I even have any streaming services?!

Mystery Tea

Monday ~ Huckleberry Happiness Black Tea ~ Black tea, elderberries, aronia berries, black currents, blueberries, hibiscus, cornflowers, huckleberry essence ~ best by 10/2023 killed the bag

We like this so I'm sad it's gone.

Tuesday ~ Blackberry Mojito Black Tea ~ Black tea, spearmint, blackberries, hazelnut pieces, blackberry leaves, lime essence, maple extract ~ no best by, but it's the pound I purchased in Feb. 

We love this one.

Wednesday ~ nope

Thursday ~ nope

Friday ~ Gratitude Blend ~ Black tea, orange peels, blue cornflowers, strawberries, raspberry leaves, bergamot oil, strawberry essence

Well, look there. Yet another bag of this one. lmao How many do I still have? Your guess is as good as mine. 

We have been drinking a lot of Bigelow Raspberry Royale since that's our Team Tea. With the Cleveland Guardians in the playoffs, the Carolina Hurricanes season has started, Trip's favorite college team, the Tar Heels, are playing now, and the NFL season is in full swing, it can be a lot of tea on some days. lmao

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 ~ Probably half and half. Mostly audiobooks.
Go back to the beginning and revamp old blog posts ~ Nothing this week.
Exercise ~ No.
Tidy up outside ~ Nothing.

Touching Nature:  I'm grumpy it was hot this past week. But Friday night a cold front came through and dropped the temps way down and we got some rain. We are still in a severe drought though.

Book News:  Finishing up audiobooks. I now have 90 reviews to write. Egads!

Don't Touch That Dial!: Still watching CSI: Miami. Speed is dead and Wolf is in. Once the stupid plot of Horatio's kid spools up, I'll be done with this one and move on.

At the Flicks: Nope.

Cyberspace Playground: Wordle, Word Lots, Word Search, Solitaire, Pokémon, and the Finch app - if anyone wants to be friends just let me know. I just downloaded Word Connect which is kinda fun. For now anyway. lol

Randomness:   

Carol's Nuggets of Wisdom: Did you know I graduated from the Barbizon School of Modeling waaaaaaay back in 1997? I forget how much I paid for all the classes, but when I graduated I was pregnant with Anna, so I never followed up with any of their "help" with assignments/work. I would not recommend them. I will say, I learned a lot and enjoyed the classes, but they are way overpriced. Look elsewhere if that kind of thing interests you. These days there are plenty of people on social media who you can follow for all of the same things I paid tons of money to learn. Go forth and soak up the knowledge.

That's it for me. AVR News Update signing off. May all your books enthrall you.

Chirp

One freebie, the rest on sale

Forever Her Duke

The Big Over Easy 

The Fourth Bear

100 Most Infamous Criminals 

A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping 

Dutch Courage and Other Stories