Nicely warm. :-)

Song of the day: “Time is on my side” by…the Rolling Stones, I think. Hmmm.

Let’s get this puppy going…and I’ve been saying that way too much these days. I think it is driving the family bonkers, but it just pops out every time something needs to get done. Hah.

Okay, first up, the new query letter sends. I’ve been goin the official way, keeping the letters simple, to the point and pretty much bland…and have had not a single positive response. Weird, huh. You do what all the sites and advice forums say and no one is interested, you write a letter that is “your own way” and suddenly there is all sorts of interest. I am so going back to my own way, I’m going to have to go for unique (as in, weird) anyway, seeing as I am exactly that. Hah.

Edits: there have been ups and downs, lefts and rights, and overs and unders (snort) but we’re slowly getting near to the finish line; only twenty five pages to go, yay. Admittedly, last night was one of those edits that had me fear we’d never get anywhere. Seriously, we got stuck on one paragraph for a solid thirty minutes. Aaaargh. We just couldn’t agree on how to have the sequence go, which is a total pain in the butt. But anyways…we did in the end get through the scene and called it a night, down there in the yard where we’d been watering the plants at the same time.

It was the first really warm day, (today too) by the way. We hit the mid thirties (mid nineties) during the day and at night we had the high twenties (high eighties) and for the first time since last summer I made use of my electric fan. It is a rather ingenious design, if may say so myself. You see, the fan fell a couple of months ago, and instead of throwing it out and buying a new one, I found this old TV suspension arm, removed the fan’s standard and slid the arm in place (fit without any hassle too, hah). Now the entire contraption hangs on my ceiling and cools of the bed without effort. No more spent than a couple of screws and still having a perfectly functional ventilator. Wonderful.

The zucchini harvest is…ehm, enthusiastic to say the least. I made this huge pot (a gallon or two) of zucchini soup yesterday and it was gone within an hour at most. Still, considering that today another eight zucchinis were ready to harvest, we’ll be eating soup again soon, hah. It was delicious though, so it really doesn’t matter.

Yesterday was a friggin’ busy day, in case you’re wondering (please don’t wonder, I’d just feel bad for forgetting something, hah), we didn’t finish until after two in the morning…and then had to get up again at nine fifteen today because grandpa had a flat tire in the village. Aaaargh.

But anyway, yesterday: we started early, brought tenant along to the old horse paddock where we proceeded to pour concrete under the outside gate, creating a smooth and sturdy drive sweep down to the supplies. Managed it in two shifts, too. Three hours in the morning, then after lunch and a short edit, another two, which brought the project to a satisfactory conclusion.

Afterwards there was of course the necessary stuff to do in the garden (when is there ever not, hah). We planted peppers, which had grown enough in their pots again so they had to go out, into the scary big world called our garden. Also another big batch of onions, leek, melons and pumpkins in the past couple days, so, like I said before, plenty to do in the yard. Not that I’d want it any other way, but I do miss the help of the siblings who are throwing all their efforts in the market thing. Personally I’d rather work in the yard twenty hour a day than spend one day per week on the market, but to each his own.

There was a dog fight, darn it; Sitabah, Knight II and Amri jumped on Julia (mutt), the bastards. I had to jump right into the fray to get the poor little one out and bring her safely up to grandpas. Poor little girl, she’s got a few nicks and scrapes, but she’ll be all right; nothing that won’t heal in time.

What with the full intention of doing some serious concrete pouring the next few days, grandpa and I picked up twenty bags of cement…which we had to fit around the flat-tired moped in the back of course. Now, the fun part about this is the young dude that works there. Personally a 35 kilo (70 pounds, give or take) cement bag is not what I consider hard work, but apparently the young dude (24 years old, at most) thought otherwise. I kid you not, but he got the forklift to take the pallet outside the building (after we’d parked right beside it, mind you) put it two feet away from the car so he had to lift it as little as possible.

I lifted about 14 of the things in the time it took him to lift six, and I doubt he liked it. Well he should cowboy up, and make use of the wonderful opportunity of working with heavy materials…in other words a fitness club that doesn’t cost a single penny. What, he never saw Rocky? The simplest stuff can be a way to be stronger, fitter and healthier. Hah

But I’ve got an edit to see to, more yard stuff to do, and…well, let’s leave it at stuff. Big brother’s impatient, and in all honesty, we have been taking more than enough time with this first edit. Gotta go.