Kid 1 and her boyfriend went down to South Padre for a short getaway. Once the school ends, prices at South Padre beach fall dramatically, and they were very excited about their 4 days getaway. They are supposed to be back Tuesday. Except there is a tropical storm and the area they are in is registering 85 mph winds and floods. They would have to drive through it the entire way up. So they are stuck and we ended up booking the room for a couple more days.
Kid 2’s dishwasher broke and died a sad death due to its very advanced age. New dishwasher was bought.
Someone opened a bank account in my name. We are on top of it. We have signed up for fraud alert, but even if we hadn’t, we caught it within minutes anyway because Wells Fargo helpfully sent out a notification. Given their prior history, I am mildly suspicious as to how this new account originated, but it is now frozen pending investigation.
We saw the cover of Ruby Fever. We sent it back. The less is said about it, the better.
Still waiting on Fated Blades preorder link, but it is good news. The delay is due to the publisher deciding to do a print edition, so yay! This “novella” is long enough to do a print.
My hair keeps falling out. Is it stress? Is it age? Who knows.
I am going to finish my cup of Harney & Sons Vanilla Black Tea and cook lunch, and then it’s back to Ruby Fever. How is your Monday?
Let’s see.
I’m hacking down our sunflower forest as it has mostly died out and most of the seeds seem to have been eaten. We know the seeds are mostly gone as the clouds of goldfinches which only deign to be in our yard from first to last sunflower seed have been decreasing rapidly. I’m laying the branches along our property line for another couple weeks in the vain home that the remaining seeds will produce a self-sowing sunflower fence line next year. The hope is vain because it is a very dry, very hot location in the wild part of our large lot and sunflowers need at least a drop or 2 of water.
I went to a meeting to try and convince the city to stop their plans to convert our Master Gardener volunteer-run garden from veggies to flowers. Currently all produce is donated to a food pantry.
Then I hurried home to join my book club because we were lucky enough to have the chief archeologist from the “Lost City of the Monkey God” speak to us. It is a great, true book reading more like an Indiana Jones movie than nonfiction. This makes given the history of archeology and the fact the author is a NYTimes journalist who also co-writes thrillers.
Tomorrow I’m back to the sunflowers and am going to try a new white lasagna recipe made with spinach, artichokes and prosciutto crudo.
And now, it is time for a new application of aloe Vera because of course the day I worked outside for 8 hrs is the day I forgot sunscreen.
My Monday was spent feeling the West Tower of Texas Children’s Hospital sway as a loud, high-pitched swoosh was heard outside. At first, I thought I was more tired than I had previously thought. I looked up at the windows of my patient’s room on the 12th floor and all three weighted shades had rocked towards the interior of the room, at a 30 degree angle, simultaneously. I had to look again, because, you know, I was tired, it was dark, and the patient and family were sleeping. The shades were slowly settling back to a stationary position, rocking back and forth. We didn’t find out that the eye of Hurricane Nicholas had passed through Houston until we were checking in to our hospital hotel rooms during shift change.
Then, I slept at the hospital in an exam room, which thankfully had a sink so I could take a Marine bath and rinse the sweat from my hair. After an uncomfortable days sleep due to lack of A/C, I woke up at 1640, and packed up my Disaster Bag. I put everything in the car, drove the 1.7 miles home to take a shower and lie naked on the bed under the ceiling fan for approximately 15 minutes. Alexa kindly woke me from a much needed, yet too short, mental nap. I put clean scrubs on, drove 1.7 miles back to the hospital, and I walked on to the unit at 1810. Then my Monday began.
There are other factors that could cause hair loss… stress and thyroid were brought up along with a few other things… if I repeat something already mentioned, I may have missed it, but want to make sure they are mentioned. I had a diabetic friend who lost hair when she was not watching what she ate and when she did, it would grow back… she called it rug hair, because it was short and stubbly coming back in. My daughter has a medical condition called PCOS where she has a hormonal imbalance which is causing thinning of hair in areas, and my hair was falling out due to a medication I was on, then taken off because of the hair loss… thankfully it came back! A need for certain vitamins or nutrients/diet could help, but the best thing would probably be seeing a doctor to rule out or find out if there is a medical or physical condition causing the hair loss. Hopefully it is something easily solved and the hair comes back!
Yay print edition!!!!!!
Subterranean some day??? ????
I just recently found your books! And I am fascinated by the series! I have read all of Kate’s books twice! I’m on my 3rd time around. Currently on Magic Slays…
Anyways, I was trying to find more information on Curran’s background what does it mean from the First line. And I came across Curran’s biography on wikia. I wanted to know, does it have merit? I couldn’t find anything on your website that references this information. Unless, I missed it some how…
Curran was born a year before the first Magic Wave to a military family. His father was a Marine and his mother was in the Army. During the first Magic Wave his parents transformed in to lions, realizing they would become Guinea pigs for the military if anyone found out they resigned.
Using some connections they had, they tried joining a pack not too far from the base, but it didn’t work. People saw his father as a leader and the Alpha saw him as a threat. When the alpha tried to claim his mom as part of his harem his dad killed him.
Afterwards Curran’s father became the Pack’s leader. He didn’t want to do it, but he had agreed because he felt responsible for killing the Alpha. When it became clear that he wouldn’t be taking on any new mates, one of the tougher females tried to kill his mom who was pregnant. His parents left after that.
Using the money they’d saved up they bought a large log cabin in Appalachians for its seclusion. They live alone until Curran was five when his sister Alice was born. Though jealous at first Curran grew very close to his sister showing her where the pick the best berries, where to catch the fattest fish and the best places to hide when she wanted to get out of chores or classes.
Curran was homeschooled, his parents were well educated and taught him and his sister to read and write. Literature and history were always easy for him but Math was harder. Using an old laptop he played scholastic games that taught him further using fun cartoon characters. His mother also taught him a little French.
When his father thought he was old enough, he started taking Curran out hunting and fishing with him.
For money his family mostly traded meat, some vegetables, corn, potatoes and Ginseng that they found in the woods. Sometimes when they got low on money or supplies, his father would disappear for a while and come back with presents and cash. Then we’d get to go to Gatlinburg for supplies. His family went to an amusement park run by a famous country singer.
Hey Gracie,
You can find this information in Curran’s POV, which in Small Magics together with a lot of other Kate Daniels short stories and other goodies https://ilona-andrews.com/katie-daniels-books/#small .
For a full list of all the books with connected material to a series as well as free fiction on the website, please see the List of Books here https://ilona-andrews.com/release-schedule/
I hope this helps ????
Brought my dog to the vet for lameness on Monday. After x-rays and a Lyme test they concluded it’s soft-tissue damage in his shoulder and perscribed 2 weeks of pain meds and crate rest, They also found he had a low-grade ear infection, so he has 2 weeks of meds for that, too. So now I have to tell my very cat-like Windsprite that no, he can’t jump up on the couch, or the bed, or the windowsill for 2 weeks, nor can he zoom (which is basically the end of the world for a zoom-zoom dog). At least it was the 7.5 year old and not the 1.5 year old x.x
I am having a difficult time with my pregnancy today and these blog posts are so soothing to my stretched nerves. Can’t wait for the novella and Ruby Fever!
Did anybody else stare at the dog’s legs and wonder why she posted an abstract photo of ostrich heads? LOL
My hair started falling out pretty bad when my thyroid went out. If you haven’t had it checked lately then you might want to do that.