Monday Musings: Moving In?

Well, maybe. I’ve been thinking about moving from Blogspot for a while now. It’s ok, but has less flexibility than I’d like. I’m playing around with WordPress, as you can see. Just the blog for now, not the whole web thing. So I spent a few hours on Sunday playing around in here. What do you think?

In other news- I did it. I sent a story out last week. Man, I had forgotten just how hard that is. Not the actual putting the package together, but the mental stress. I like the story. The folks who read it liked the final edit. But, naturally, as soon as I started thinking about submitting, I started ripping it apart in my head. And that doesn’t even touch the searching for a market issue. I can find a thousand tiny things in a three paragraph submission guideline that scream: Not Appropriate!! Even though, really, it is. I knocked it all down, and sent it off. Now, the waiting. Did I mention I am really not very good at waiting? Oh, well, let me correct that right now. I don’t like waiting. Not. One. Bit.

Speaking of submission guidelines, the particular market I decided on for my first try does not take electronic submissions. I didn’t think anyone still required mail only, but I guess I was wrong. And they wanted Courier New as the manuscript font. I know why. I just don’t like Courier. It does not appeal to my eye. I prefer Times New Roman. But I printed it out in Courier, of course, because it ain’t what I like that matters.

In home news, it seems Spring may finally be here. The weather has been quite nice the last few days. I’ve started hardening off some of the seedlings I planted earlier. All seem to be doing quite well. I will have some nice tomato plants for next month. The peas and other cool weather stuff I planted are growing. I cut a couple asparagus spears, also. First year for cutting, so still not a whole lot.

Putting a bit of a damper on things is my neck. I have what seems to be a pulled muscle that has been bothering me for quite a while. Had a routine appointment with the doctor last week, so I mentioned it. He poked and prodded, and said the neck muscles were very tight. Then he started poking along my back, and he’s saying things like: “Wow. Oh, boy.” and so on. I was beginning to think he’d found something weird, but it was just really tight all the way down my back. I guess that’s why it’s been bothering me more lately. So he put me on a muscle relaxant and anti-inflammatory, and I go see another doctor in the office at the end of May to get an injection right into the muscle. So far, the drugs aren’t doing much, other than the muscle relaxant may be keeping me awake at night. I have some flexibility on taking it, so I’m trying a few things to see if that’s it. I may be Just Older, but I think the warranty must be up, since more parts are wearing out!

Plans for this week: more gardening, hope to get the pond cleaned out and filter running, and the usual- laundry, vacuuming, etc. Oh, and there’s a little chili cook off on the weekend in Somers, CT. http://www.chilict.com/ If you are around there on Saturday, stop by. It’s the biggest cook off in New England, and should be a great time. We’re not cooking, but will be there helping out in the judging area. Say hello if you make it!