I swear that I did one of those yesterday.  Was the week so crazy that I’ve lost all concept of time?  Probably.

Wish I could share the excitement, but it was really just things being busy once I went back to work on Tuesday.  Work and parenting were the usual.  Really nothing that is worth reporting in regards to that.  Left me too tired to do much in the evenings besides finishing the December posts.  The plan was to dive right into some outlining, but that took me until Thursday night.  Friday night is when I wrote this up because I sensed that I wasn’t going to have time on Saturday.

I think I mentioned that I got my flu and covid shots last Friday night.  Did that knowing it could knock me out for the weekend.  I had enough energy and focus to get a bunch of the posts ready.  Even better, I had the house to myself last Saturday and that meant no distractions.  That is until I got a low grade fever and exhaustion, so I crawled into bed around 10 AM with no intention of getting out.  Took me Saturday and Sunday to get through the comedy specials I had saved up.  Lots of napping, which wasn’t a bad thing in the long run.  Left the house on Sunday for some reason, but damned if I can remember what it was.

Monday was an off-day from school for me and my son.  This was for Diwali.  We had some plans, but he dropped a surprise project on my lap.  Had to take care of part of that like we’re doing today.  Thankfully, we got enough done to make it to ‘Black Adam’ and get to some video games.  Probably should go more into depth here.

How was ‘Black Adam’?  I liked it.  Not a perfect movie and certainly had its flaws.  The characters felt like they had more dimensions and the effects were better than I’ve seen in other superhero stories.  It did feel like the movie was supposed to be longer and I’ve heard it was chopped down to go from R to PG-13.  Not sure why critics tore into it so much since it set out to be a superhero popcorn flick and that was what it was.  Black Adam himself showed some level of growth, so it was nice to see a movie where the central character changes even if they possess god-like power.  I’d recommend for anyone who wants something just for fun and hasn’t been jaded by other franchises.

I won’t be getting any writing done this weekend.  My son is here and we have a bunch of stuff to do.  Homework, video games, Halloween prep, and I’m trying to convince him to give ‘Beetlejuice’ a try.  We’re both looking forward to trick-or-treating on Monday and are hoping it doesn’t rain.  His costume is ready, so I’ll try to post a picture here next Saturday along with the character he’s going to be.  He loves it and I’m fairly proud of the work I put into it.  Going to be a good holiday.

This brings up the question on what to do next weekend.  Part of me wants to take the time to make paperbacks for as many of my books as I can.  I probably need a full weekend to do that since there are so many.  Yet, I kind of want to tackle either the ‘Phi Beta Files’ notebook or the next Slumberlord outline.  Hard to decide, especially since I wanted to start writing that book during the holiday break.  I really should tackle the paperback project and try to get those all done before December.  That way I can make an announcement in time for the holidays and watch zero sales come in.  Guess we’ll see how many people really show interest in paperbacks.

Anything else going on?  I’m going to try a recipe called ‘Ice Cream Bread’ later today.  We got chocolate ice cream and rainbow sprinkles.  The videos I’ve seen make it look really good.  Fingers crossed that it works too.  If it fails, I’ll have a carton of ice cream to eat, which isn’t bad.  I’ll also have a giant container of self-rising flour, which is about as useful as an ingrown toenail to me.  Takes about an hour of prep and baking, so maybe I’ll do it right after breakfast.  Depends on how busy the kitchen is since we have a full house for a bit.

That really does it as far as the past, present, and future.  I’m not treading water as much, but I don’t feel like I’m going anywhere.  Not in regards to the writing thing.  Kind of hoping for one weekend where my son doesn’t have to study for a test, work on a project, or have an event.  This is what happened last school year where most of our time was spent on work and people around us kept making plans.  It really is around 8th grade where the workload becomes crazy and adults start pushing for kids to ‘grow up’.  We really do rush children into maturity as if a part of us wish we could go back to have some of that youthful freedom.  Guess it’s to prepare kids for how adulthood is about work, bills, maintaining the house, and leaving little time for real fun.  Not that I’m regretting growing up or feeling a little bitter about rarely getting a moment to breathe.

Goals of the week?

1. Halloween!
2. Help my son study and finish projects.
3. Get my son clothes for an upcoming Bar Mitzvah.  (Not his.)
4. Look into his holiday present.
5. Laundry.
6. Make ‘Ice Cream Bread’.
7. Makes a list of January blog post ideas.  (Maybe set up teasers and poems.)
8. Start in on ‘Phi Beta Files’ notebook during free periods.
9. Get things ready for paperback creations.  Need to list all of the books and make sure I’ve got the formatting down.
10. Video games.