Finished: The Haunting at Blackwood Hall by Barrymore Tebbs. 1 star; book #21 for the year. Okay, new rule: No matter how tempting it is to finish reading a book for the fun of dropping more than four dozen snarky notes in the text (perhaps a personal record), I need to stop wasting my time with crap reads. It was a wholly cliched plot rendered so sloppily that I was astonished to see an editor mentioned in the acknowledgements. The only reason I gave it one star instead of none was that the author, unlike perhaps 95% of authors I’ve read, properly used the word “led” as the past tense of “lead” – twice. Faint praise indeed, and the only praise he deserves. In fact if I didn’t know this book was published in 2012, I would have thought it was written by an “AI”.

Listening to: “Hey Nineteen” by Steely Dan, Ear Biscuits, “Meteorology” by Overseer

 I keep forgetting it’s Thursday because no grocery shopping today. Because no money to do it with. I mean literally none. And worse, because the Hulu bill was due today and I didn’t have enough to cover it. I haven’t even looked because there isn’t anything I can do about it today anyhow. And it’s the end of the month so all the other big bills are due this wekeend as well. I really don’t know where it all went, except I know some went to Ryann. I know, I need to earn more. The problem is trying to earn more without having to spend more to promote what I’m trying to earn with. Because where am I going to find a job at my age either.

 and oh christ not only bills but I have to refill my Jardiance tomorrow. Anxiety brain, activate! Like I said, though, nothing I can do about it.

 I made that pin today, and a pair of earrings as well. I think I’m going to do some more kid bracelets next time. I want to have a couple dozen before Con.

 My cold is still hanging on, mostly in my throat. Still have the gunk; still have the yucky tastefeel on my tongue.

 I don’t know what else I have to write about today. The weather’s gotten colder again after a few warmish days, but it’s supposed to improve on Saturday. Maybe then it will be spring finally? I know; what do I expect?

 I rediscovered my dry-erase notebook the other day. I had the idea that I could clean it up and give it to Alyssa, but I guess it had been sitting too long. Not even bleach spray would do the trick. Anyway, it was kind of weird looking through it. To-do lists and such, but also a lot of weird cryptic stuff that must have made sense to me at some point but doesn’t now. I know they were pretty old notes because there’s one in there about making sure Ryann returned her band tux. That had to be from her late middle school or early high school years. One note just said, “Heather needs help.” (Specifically or generally, I wonder.)

 The writing is still being a struggle. I’ve just been concentrating on Freed, but it’s being slow and painful because I don’t quite know what happened next. Are they going to confront the bad guys, or just sit around waiting for . . . something? It’s still the morning after the rescue. I also realized I’ve given myself a problem by having Sharrec narrate this book; namely, that somebody’s going to have to translate for Jann going forward. That is aggravating. But I can’t see a way around it without either letting Jann suddenly start speaking aloud, or rewriting the whole book from Arathel’s point of view. And I don’t want to do either of those things. Translation will soon get tedious. Maybe the Underlings can fix it somehow? I mean, if they can make everybody hear them, maybe . . .

Watched: Daredevil: Born Again, The Artful Dodger, The Pitt