AVR Weekly News ~ 670th 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 ~ 669th Edition
• 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

 

• Monday ~ Tour Spotlight ~ BBNYA2026 Semi-Finalist Spotlight  ~ TWR Blog Tour: Clipped by KQ Watson
• Monday ~ Tour Spotlight ~ BBNYA2026 Semi-Finalist Spotlight  ~ TWR Blog Tour: Corruption by Alexander Veerbeek-van den Toren
• Tuesday ~ Tour Spotlight ~ BBNYA2026 Semi-Finalist Spotlight  ~ TWR Blog Tour: Devil Inside by Tom Lloyd
• Wednesday ~ Tour Spotlight ~ BBNYA2026 Semi-Finalist Spotlight  ~ TWR Blog Tour: Dogged by Michael R. Fletcher
• Thursday ~ Tour Spotlight ~ BBNYA2026 Semi-Finalist Spotlight  ~ TWR Blog Tour: Echoes of the EtherStone by Lucy A. McLaren
• Friday ~ Meme ~ Friday Featured Spotlight ~ TWR Blog Tour: Sisters... No Way!
• Saturday ~ Tour Spotlight ~ BBNYA2026 Semi-Finalist Spotlight  ~ TWR Blog Tour: Ember and Steel by Donna Morgan
• Saturday ~ Tour Spotlight ~ BBNYA2026 Semi-Finalist Spotlight  ~ TWR Blog Tour: Escape From Null by Rennae Kretzel-Gilham
• Sunday ~ Meme ~ AVR Weekly News ~ 671st Edition 

Hello and Happy Sunday!

On the Home Front

Sunday ~ Cool out. Got up after 9:30. But the dogs went out at 11:30pm, so I only feel a little guilty that I slept in a bit. Did the morning stuff. Laundered my clothes then folded and put them away as well as a load of towels. Decided to make Asian Pot Roast from a Drew Cooks recipe. Since it was a slow cooker recipe and not for an Instant Pot, I had to dig out mine. It was in the top of the pantry. I haven't used it since the eldest spawn gave me an Instant Pot one Christmas years ago. Anyway, I got that all going then started looking for a Halloween bowl I was sure we had. I looked everywhere then finally found it up on the top shelf of the pantry. Oops. So, what I really learned is: I need to get the rest of this shit sorted and put away. But it's so exhausting. Is that a catch-22? Feels like it is. lol I made 2 loaves of banana bread. Then later made rice for the pot roast. The meat turned out tough. Ugh. And the sauce was too sweet for me and Kyle. Anna and Chris liked it and Trip said it was ok. I didn't have any minced garlic to put in it, so I'm not sure if that affected the sweetness or not. Probably. In any case, if I make it again, I'll be sure to have the garlic and I think I'll leave out the honey. And I'll try making it in the Instant Pot instead. I think the rule is 20 minutes per pound. Chris spent the night. I stayed up too late.

Monday ~ Up at 4:15 to take Kyle to work. Chris left a bit before us. Went back to bed until 9:00. Oops. Anna home still from surgery though she said she's going to work tomorrow even though still still has that day for FMLA. She's out of time off and they earn time off for every hour they work. And since I need her to take me to the oral surgeon on the 30th and she has some medical app'ts coming up, she wanted to try to build up some time. This country is so fucked up. Picked Kyle up from work.

Tuesday ~ Up at 3:40 to take Kyle to work. Chris and Anna left for work before I got back home. Went back to bed until 8:30. Did the morning stuff, did some adulting then showered. Got to work on the blog drafting a whole bunch of spotlight posts for the BBNYA Semi-Finalists. Woke Trip up at 1:00 to take the dogs out then he showered. Went back to work on the blog. Anna was having some chest and shoulder pain and some pain when breathing. She had Chris take her to the ER after work, so I picked Kyle up from work. They ran a bunch of tests that all came back normal. Gave her a muscle relaxer. Said that all the meds she's currently on could be the problem (side effects), but the test results are reassuring. She's to monitor symptoms, eat before taking her meds and stay hydrated. Two things she's lax about. Since they didn't get out of the ER until around 6:30 they stopped and picked up food at Culver's. I made Chicken Udon Teriyaki-style for me and the boys. 

Wednesday ~  Up at 7am to feed the furries and walk the dogs before we headed out to the NC State Fair. I wanted to leave by 8am since it takes about 50 minutes to get there, but Anna took forever to get ready and it was after 8:30 before we got on the road. Fair was busy for a Weds! Weather was gorgeous. We didn't do everything we wanted to do, but did a good portion before we needed to head home to walk the dogs. After we did that we went out to vote early just down the road. Steady flow of people in our closest place which is in a mostly rural area, but we only waited maybe 15 minutes. I'm glad to see so many people voting early. We treated ourselves to ice cream after then headed back home. Fend for yourself for dinner. Trip ate the leftover Chicken Udon and I ate the leftover sirloin tips and mashed potatoes we brought home from the fair. No clue what Kyle ate. Probably cookies. Anna went to Chris's to spend the night.

Thursday ~  Up at 3:40 to take Kyle to work, back home by 4:45. Went back to bed until about 8:15. Did the morning stuff then got on the computer to manage emails, check sites for coupons and sales for grocery shopping tomorrow, and work on blog. Picked Kyle up at work. Anna spent the night at Chris's again. I don't remember what we did for dinner. lol

Friday ~ Up at 3:40 to take Kyle to work, back home by 5:00 because I stopped to fill his car up. Went back to bed until about 9am. Did the morning stuff then got on the computer to do a few things. I needed to go get groceries then planned to mount up Backpack Blower for Battle One of Leafageddon. However, I was still in my chair at 11 with no motivation to get moving. Ugh. I finally woke Trip up and we took off. Stopped at CVS for scripts then went to the vet for Artemis's allergy meds and to pick up a paper script for Captain Kirk to upload for Chewy. I am not sure why I'm having such a hard time getting his prescription food approved and added to my autoship, but this fucking problem has been going on for 3 fucking weeks. Went to BJ's for gas and groceries. The gas station was packed so we got groceries first. Luckily, the lines had died down by the time we were out, so I zipped over and filled the Pilot. It was a thirsty bitch. Down to only about 2 gallons of gas. NC has paused the state gas tax, so prices are down a bit. A total fuck up in my opinion. That money is supposedly used for roads and shit. So now there is no money coming in for that. Stupid fucking Republicans. The bill supposedly is pulling form another fund to replace that money, but I don't trust our greedy Republicans that have been entrenched for 15 years, getting all fat and happy on our dime. Anyway, I can't think about that anymore or I'll commit some crimes. We need a blue wave the size of a tsunami. After we filled the Pilot we went to Food Lion and then home. Unloaded, took the dogs out, and then I had Trip go up on the shed to clear the leafy shit from around the skylights. He used my handy blower for that. Once done, he carried the ladder up to the deck and I pulled out my trusty sidekick Backpack Blower for him to do the house roof. He cleared many munitions (acorns) as well as leaves and a surprisingly large contingent of sticks and twigs. I didn't have time to start my forward assault until after I picked Kyle up from work, but before I left I uploaded the script for Captain Kirk to Chewy. Once home, Trip got the Kubota out and we moved all of the critter food that Chewy had delivered over the last 3 days (4 big boxes on the front porch) to the garden shed. Then I cleared all of the Leafy Menace from the yard and drive, but the Acorn Munitions were too numerous to move in any great number. I did get them contained in the back yard, but elsewhere was not so easy. So.Many.Acorns. Once victory was assured I fed the furries, raked some of the drive, and took a hard won shower. For dinner I made a baked potato and a sandwich with Polish ham, swiss cheese, and mustard. I was tired but managed to stay awake until 10:00 when Anna came home from Chris's. With Chris. She took the dogs out, I gave them their nite nite snack, and went to bed.

Saturday ~ Got to sleep in until 8am. lol Did the morning stuff then got cleaning. Anna, Chris, and Trip went to Kyleigh's soccer tournament that began at 10am. I started with the laundry room since it was Kyle's turn to do litterboxes. I had to wash up an Instant Pot I'd forgot I left soaking in the laundry room sink then cleaned both cat water fountains. One fountain refused to start after I cleaned it. Fiddled with it for a bit then told Kyle about it. He looked at it and between us, it finally got going again. Whew. I did not want to have to replace it when it wasn't all that old. I got it after the laundry room was done last year. And that wasn't until nearly Thanksgiving. After doing all that I do to the laundry room and Kyle did the litterboxes, I started on my bathroom. While waiting for my mopped floor to dry I folded a load of towels. Anna, Trip, and Chris got home around 2:30. Kyleigh's team won the Championship. YAY! 🎉Once my bathroom was dry with the rugs put back, I took up the kitchen rugs, used the dust mop, and then mopped. Anna and Chris cleaned the bird baths, refilled them, trimmed the tomato plants, watered all the plants, emptied my composter and rinsed it then carved the pumpkin I bought her. I broke down my Chewy boxes, put the rugs back in the kitchen, scrubbed my sink, folded my clothes that I had washed & dried, folded the washed petstuff, laundered Trip's bedstuff, ate dinner (Kyle grilled brats and I made baked beans), then worked on this post. I am so tired and my back and feet hurt. I finished an audiobook while cleaning. My earbuds died partway through so I had to use my bluetooth headphones which are more comfortable, but fall off if I bend over. lol Chris spent the night.

Today  I think Anna and Chris are going to hit up the last day of the State Fair. I'm not sure I'll have the energy to putter. I should put my feet up and read. I'll probably make French Toast Bake for breakfast and maybe those cinnamon rolls with apple pie filling. I have some premade Halloween cookies in the fridge I can put in the oven, so I may do that. Friday I go to the oral surgeon to get a broken molar out and a fucked up wisdom tooth out as well as the molar that sits on top of it. If I don't wake up from the anesthesia, it's been a pleasure knowing you all. xoxo

Mystery Tea

Monday ~ Nope

Tuesday ~ Gratitude Blend Black Tea ~ Black tea, orange peels, blue cornflowers, strawberries, raspberry leaves, bergamot oil, strawberry essence ~ no best by date

Yes. We had this again. In fact, I rifled through the basket and found 4 bags of it. lmao So, this bag we killed and now we have 3 more bags. It's going to come up quite a bit more before the basket is empty of the old tea and we refill it with the next batch.

Wednesday ~ Zip

Thursday ~ Fresh Breeze White Tea ~ White tea, coconut pieces, green rooibos, mango pieces, orange peel, apricot pieces, apple pieces, coconut & passionfruit essences, calendula, blue cornflowers ~ no best by date

I used all that was left in the bag because I figured it's so old it's probably lost a lot of its potency. I like the white, green, and herbal teas since we can pretty much drink them right away instead of waiting for them to cool a bit from boiling. lol This is a nice slightly fruity tea. The coconut is really front and center.

Friday ~ None

Got our Plum Deluxe Halloween box in the mail. Need to try those out this week.

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 ~ Leafageddon Battle One

Touching Nature:  Gorgeous if a bit chilly at night/morning. 

Book News:  It's that time of year for the BBNYA2026 Semi-Finalist posts. So, there will be a lot of them. lol

Don't Touch That Dial!: CSI: Miami

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.

Randomness:   

Carol's Nuggets of Wisdom: Did you know that there is a difference between jail and prison? And cemetery and graveyard? Most people use them interchangeably, but that is incorrect.

Jail is for people who are awaiting trial or bail hearings and for people who have been sentenced to less than one year of incarceration. Usually run by local gov such as county or city.

Prison is for people who have been sentenced to more than one year of incarceration. Usually run by state or federal gov.

It really shanks my cell mate when crime shows don't use the terms correctly.

A graveyard is attached to a place of worship, such as a church.

A cemetery is standalone and not affiliated with any place of worship.

We have a graveyard nearby where the church was semi-recently torn down and is not being rebuilt. Is it still a graveyard? Or is it now a cemetery? This is the kind of question that pops into my head sometimes.

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

Chirp

Nothing this week.