On my end? Probably not a lot. I’m still reading. I’m beginning Holly Lisle’s How to Think Sideways: Career Survival School for Writers at a beta student. I’ll be working that (requires a new project — oh darn) along with planning the Twilight rewrite. I do plan to incorporate what I learn in the course as I move ahead with the rewrite.

On the home front, we did lots of trimming at the San Antonio house last week. This week, we’re doing lots of outside work at the Central Texas house as well. We got one pecan tree trimmed yesterday, and that was a massive improvement. We have two more to go. I trimmed hedges, and hubby has resumed moving gravel for the driveway today. On Monday afternoon, we got a little over an inch of rain (desperately needed), so that helped compress the last bit of gravel we’d placed on the previous trip up here.

We’re looking forward to heading to Belton for Belton Market Days tomorrow. After that, we’ll stop in the Temple Lowe’s where we anticipate getting programmable thermostats. Yes, plural. The Central Texas house has three air conditioning and heating units, and we want to program how they heat and cool to be a little more efficient while we maintain personal comfort.

On the retired front, I haven’t worn a watch since I arrived in Texas in May. I wake up every morning when I wake up — usually when ambient light in the bedroom hits a comfortable level (around 7 am at the moment). I work outside for awhile. This morning, I pulled vines from the front of the house. I’m nearly half done with that job, but I’m getting to the tougher part, so it will likely take longer to finish. The vines look pretty, but they are destructive when their little root systems attach themselves to the bricks, mortar, and wood and begin disintegrating it. Vines must go. They are also a nice place for snakes to shed their skins (based upon the several snake skins I’ve discovered so far). They are “beneficial” snakes, but I don’t want to encourage them too much with habitat. After pulling vines for half an hour, I mowed most of the front yard.

When I’m done working outside, I resist (or submit to, depending upon what I perceive to be his true need) my hubby’s pleas to join him in his personal outdoors torture chamber (my terminology). If I resist, I work inside for awhile, either on something writing-related or on household maintenance or organization. If I work outside with him, there are any number of tasks I could find myself doing — stomping gravel, moving boxes, moving equipment, painting. We have lots of painting to do. And we haven’t really started it yet.