The plan for today was to get To My Muse fully formatted and uploaded to Smashwords and Google Play, then work on editing Shifter Woods: Claw.

Ha. Hahahahahahahahaha.

I was in the middle of breakfast when I was reminded that T-Mobile was pinging Ramón and asking where the payment was so I sat down and paid all the bills. Then J.J. started yowling at me so I stripped out his bedding, put fresh on, put the soiled bedding in the wash and started that, gave him fresh water and treats on the table next to his bed, and cuddled him for awhile because I think he was as achy as I was with the incoming weather change.

At which point Jasmine climbed onto my table in the library and puked from a height on the rug, as she does. So I cleaned that up.

Then I remembered that I wanted to wash our bedding as well (and this has to be done during the day because it involves three comforters, a microfiber blanket, a body pillow cover, and a knee pillow cover. Ramón calls me the Greater American Nesting Female for a very good reason). So I grabbed the basket of clean laundry and washed sheets, went upstairs and stripped off all of our bedding, then remembered that I wanted to take pictures of the three quilt tops I’ve finished in the last months and a stripped mattress was the best way to photograph them.

So I spread the tops across the mattress and photographed them.

By that point it was now early afternoon and I needed something to eat so I polished off the last of the Italian wedding soup from a few nights ago. Moved the now-washed cat bedding from the washer into the dryer, loaded one comforter into the washer, started to head back upstairs … and Ramón wanted to discuss his plan of how we’re going to install a hatch in the fence behind our pool pump (because it’s caged with PVC piping and needs to be taken out and have various things cleaned/replaced). So we hashed out a plan of how to do that in two weeks when we have nice weather for the weekend.

Then J.J. started yowling again. I changed his bedding again, topped up his water and treats, stroked his head, and went upstairs only to realize that I needed to post my social media stuff, including making some TikTok videos. Worked on that and remembered that I had deal with the bedding being washed so I went back downstairs, moved the now-dry cat bedding into its storage area, moved the wet comforter into the dryer, loaded the second comforter into the washer and got that going.

Looked out the window and saw that the weather was sunny and perfect, ideal for cutting down all the frozen lantana in our back yard and hopefully clearing way for some new growth. Since we’re going to have cold and rainy weather for at least a week I decided to get it done now. Grabbed some secateurs, my gardening gloves, and a couple of garden trash bags from the garage and cleared out two beds’ worth of dead lantana branches and leaves, which left my arms itchy as all hell.

I then remembered that I still needed to make up the bed so I went back upstairs (why, yes, I climb a lot of stairs every day, thank you), put fresh sheets and pillowcases on the bed, put away the clothing that I had brought up, and went back into my office to format and edit.

At 4:00 PM. Spent two hours working on all that, then realized I felt like absolute crap from allergies and the oncoming weather change and asked Ramón to go out and bring some cooked chicken in for dinner. Which he did, bless him, and I spent the rest of the evening picking at To My Muse and monitoring our bedding and bringing pieces upstairs once they were dry (which requires two dryer cycles per comforter and I have to turn the comforter over so that the inner damp side gets hit by the hot air, which is why this needs to get started early in the day), reading news about Clarkesworld closing its submissions due to AI-written slush (more on that later), and finally taking a much-needed shower.

So if you ever wonder why I don’t publish as often as other writers, well, now you know.