Yesterday morning something odd happened. My blog post that was scheduled didn’t post. I had a small message in red type that said “Missed schedule.” That’s the third time it’s happened to me. I’ve made mistakes more frequently with my scheduling, like selecting p.m. instead of a.m. But how does WordPress miss a scheduled post? I thought it would happen automatically?
I want to know if that’s happened to anyone else?
Other questions I have for bloggers:
Do you schedule you posts in advance? How far in advance?
Where do you get your ideas?
What are your most popular topics?
What is a post you wrote that surprised you with the number of views and comments?
My typical morning trying to write three pages in my journal with Olive wanting my attention.
Yesterday we had plans to see the movie “Amsterdam” with our new friends who live around the corner. Yes, they are California transplants, too. It seems our neighborhood got filled with us during COVID.
Our neighbors bought the movie tickets and made reservations for dinner. I was looking forward to the movie because it stars Christian Bale and Margot Robbie. It’s directed by the same guy (David O. Russell) who did “American Hustle” and “Silver Linings Playbook.” Also, we never go out on a weeknight, so this was unusually fun for us.
My husband got a text from our neighbor that his wife got sick and they wouldn’t be able to go. They were going to the doctor instead. So they emailed us the digital tickets. Then my husband had an appointment in Phoenix. I was going to meet him at the movies 30 minutes away. Then he texted me that he wouldn’t be able to get away in time to make it to the movie.
Oh well. Best laid plans. Exactly where did the saying “Best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray” come from?
I looked it up and this is what I found:
best-laid schemes/plans, the
The most careful plans sometimes do not succeed. It was probably already a cliché by the time Robert Burns used the phrase in “To a Mouse” (1786): “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft a-gley [go often astray].”
I realized how much the cat adds to our daily lives when she hasn’t been feeling well for the past few days.
Olive refused to eat over the weekend and didn’t use the litter box. She spent most of the time under the bed in the dark.
I tried to tempt her with Friskies ‘Lil Soup. When I call “Kitty soup!” Olive usually runs to me and answers with a “Meow-oup!”
But to no avail. She wasn’t having any of it.
The vet pumped her up with fluids and meds, did blood work, took X-rays. They aren’t sure what is causing her discomfort, but hopefully the treatment will make her feel better. He said she has “obstipation” which is a new word I learned. It’s chronic or severe constipation.
I want Olive to get back to our routine, where she hangs out in my husband’s office in the mornings, sits on my lap in the afternoon while I read. She enjoys a good game of chase around the coffee table and sofa in the living room.
The vet discovered she has a gallstone that’s quite large with a piece broken off that’s moved into the bile duct. He’s not sure if that’s what causing her discomfort or not. He said it could have been there for years — or not.
Here’s the X-ray:
The gallstone is the white spotty thing to the left and the small piece to the right and slightly higher.
Naturally, I had to research gallstones and what causes them. One cause is high cholesterol. Another is too much bilirubin. I’m worried about the results of her blood work. The liver could be causing the issues. Not good.
I love the color of these cactus blooms. I’m surprised to see cacti blooming again.
We’ve had a busy weekend — post vacation. We picked up friends from the airport Thursday and they invited us over to their house for dinner the next day to repay us for our trouble. They lived a stone’s throw from us in Palm Springs and we both moved within a mile from each other in Arizona — without prior knowledge we were both doing that. Our kids went to school together from kindergarten through high school. Now our kids live near each other in the Bay Area.
Here’s a view from our friend’s place up the street from us. Woodpecker standing on the wall. I don’t know how it does that. There’s nothing to hang onto.
We had neighbors over for appetizers, wine and games. We played my favorite card games, Demon and Texas Hold ‘Em. Our friends brought over a game they thought we’d enjoy. My husband and I laughed when we found out it was Catchphrase. That’s a game our kids played endlessly at swim meets with their teammates under the pop-up tent. We’d be at meets for at least four hours and they’d swim a few minutes. Downtime was spent playing cards or Catchphrase.
It’s been years since I’ve played games and it was a hoot. We laughed and had fun. it was a perfect thing to do with people we’ve only known for a few months.
For appetizers I made deviled eggs, stuffed shishitos with honey goat cheese and sweet Italian sausage chunks on toothpicks with honeycrisp apples. Also a veggie platter that was barely touched.
Here’s the gorgeous sunrise Saturday morning.
I enjoyed watching the kitty watch birds and bunnies. The quail families are growing up!
What card games do you like to play? Did you play lots of games growing up? Do you think kids today play games or is everything on screens now?
A year ago today I wrote a blog post “What Makes You Happy.” You can read it HERE. You’ll notice a link to one of our favorite bloggers, LA.
In last year’s post, I included a list of things that made me happy. I thought I’d take a look and see if I can add to it this year. This is what I wrote last year.
This morning I was writing my daily morning pages and I wrote a long list of things that make me happy. I woke up feeling a little down, so my brilliant idea was to focus on what brings me joy and incorporate the things on my list in my daily life — or at least weekly. I had quite a list.
A few of the items were:
A trip to the ocean
A good night’s sleep
Working on a project I’m proud of
Spending time with family and friends
Swimming in the nearby lake
Swimming laps at the city pool
Reading a good book
Catching up with friends via the phone
Hiking
What can I add to the list? Here’s What Makes Me Happy 2.0:
Visits from my kids
Inviting friends over for dinner
Cooking
The Desert Botanical Garden
Musical Instrument Museum
Going to Costco with my husband and stocking up
Watching baby quail
Morning walks
Sunsets and sunrises
Reading blogs from my blogging community
Watching Olive the cat play
What makes you happy?
Do you find time to incorporate these treats into your weekly lives?
I’ve been fortunate to have two quick visits by my kids. They called my husband and asked what he wanted for Father’s Day. He said he wanted to see them.
My daughter’s visit was fun because she had a few days off and we got to spend a lot of time together. It’s been great to have my son here, too, but he works remotely so we only had evenings free to talk and hang out.
Both kids wanted my home cooking rather than going out. That made me smile. It made me mom proud.
I enjoyed watching my son work remotely. He wears a headset and stands while working on his computer. He’s either typing away furiously or conducting meetings, laughing, talking and smiling. He works nonstop from 8 a,m. until the evening when he finishes up with his last meeting.
I’m very proud of the adult he’s become and how hard working he is. Also, it seems this is a job he really enjoys.
Now that they’re gone I’m a bit sad, but happy that they are living their lives.
It’s back to me, my husband and Olive the cat.
What are you doing for Father’s Day?
Olive giving me that look before she jumps in my lap.
Olive hanging out on top of magazines with my stories inside. She doesn’t want anyone to read them.
I literally dusted off two picture book manuscripts that I wrote 20 years ago — thanks to my blogging community.
I was motivated again by blogger LA for her leap entering a writing competition. In her comments section, I lamented that I had not fulfilled my dream of having a book published. Another blogger along with LA encouraged me to keep going.
Although I’ve won contests, been published by magazines, websites and newspapers — that elusive book deal hasn’t happened.
I realized that it won’t happen — because I quit submitting to agents and publishers two years ago.
When I said I dusted off two picture book manuscripts, it’s because I discovered they aren’t on my laptop, nor are they on icloud. They’re on backup devices that no longer work with my current system. It has been 20 years since they were on my computer or backed up. That’s a lifetime in nano years.
I wondered if I had thrown out all my manuscripts when we moved? If so, my work would be lost. After searching the house and garage, I found two notebooks that I used to keep copies of my manuscripts, a spread sheet of submissions and a bevy of rejection letters. It wasn’t sad to look at the rejection letters, some had personal handwritten notes and were encouraging.
Long gone are the days of the snail mail submission with an SASE (self addressed stamped envelope). I won’t receive hand written notes or form letters in the mail. Everything is done online and many publishers and agents don’t send rejections. If they aren’t interested, they don’t respond. Fortunately, some do reject via email, so I’ll know from those agents and publishers if my submission got lost in the ethers — or not.
I quickly typed the two manuscripts into my laptop and I’ll be off pursing my dream once again.
What are your goals or dreams? Have you stuck with it or did it go by the wayside?
