Buddy the tracker

As you will see, a lot of these posts will deal with our dog, Buddy the Beagle, aka Buddy the Wonder Dog. Because he's a hound, he goes into "tracker" mode if he's on the scent of something. Around here, it's other dogs. It can't be allll the dogs in the neighborhood, so I don't know who his favorites are. Anyway...I took him out for his last walk for the evening and he immediately started sniffing and baying. We live right around the corner from a little restaurant (one of many around here) that has outside tables. Guess who they all stare at when he starts this routine? The only ones who find it a little amusing are the residents here at the condo who know Buddy. One of them was laughing in the parking lot. I yelled over, "We're tracking." lol The little guy is sound asleep now. I trained him as a puppy that his bedtime was 9:00. He has a routine. He starts playing with his squeaky ball around 8:30ish. He gets cranky around 8:45 and then it's time for his last walk and bed. He typically whines for a very very short time and, inevitably, in ten minutes, he's snoring. Speaking of which...bedtime for me, too.

My a%$ is draggin'

Went over to the house today to spread gravel. We had ten tons of it delivered Friday. Started in at 9:00 and shoveled, wheel barrelled, and packed it around the house. We started using the remaining stones for the drive, but got tuckered out. It was 90 and oppressive Friday and yesterday. Today was much better with a nice breeze. It's almost done now. Phyllis just has to spread a bit more. I mainly went over today so she wouldn't try and do it all. It's supposed to cool off here this week into the upper seventies THANK GOD. I'm gonna try to relax the rest of the afternoon and evening and hopefully get some writing in.

Buddy our beagle being bad

How's that for alliteration? AKA Buddy the Wonder Dog has hold of a dishcloth and is refusing to give up his prize. I think he's just tired. Okay, back from scolding said dog. lol Just finished with work work for the evening and am about to start on my book again...FUN work.

chilling out watching my Reds

Joey Votto is back!!! Yay!! Even though he struck out in his first at bat, I'm glad he's back. He's my favorite player followed closely by Jay Brucey. I'm about to turn it down, though, and work on my book. I'll glance up every now and then to see how they're doing. I'm missing Phyllis and Buddy tonight. Phyllis is visiting family in Cleveland. Buddy is with my mom and dad. He's so used to Phyllis being here during the day, we thought it best he stay with grandma and grandpa. He loves them, so he's okay. I'm the one who's lonely.

Did some rearranging on the first few chapters of the book. It reads much better. Time to get going with the rest....

going over to my parents' for Father's Day

I'm lucky to have two wonderful, accepting parents. I'm close to both of them. My dad is the one who instilled in me the love of the Game. I can still remember going down to the Reds games in the height of the Big Red Machine Era. We'd take in a business day special together. I also got my love of history from him. When I was a kid, we'd sit around and talk about World War II and the Civil War. Having him say he liked my book means so much to me.

I feel blessed this day, just as I did on Mother's Day, and just as I do every day of my life knowing I have the two best parents in the world. :-) Going to have steaks, hamburgers, and hotdogs on the grill. YAY!

working on next novel

I'm trying to keep up on my writing, but have had trouble concentrating after the release of Playing for First. I'm hoping I'll start to really get into it here soon. That's what usually happens...I get lost in what I'm writing and oblivious to other things. I'll attempt to write a page or two before we leave for dinner at 4:30...or at least have an idea of where I'm going to finish this chapter.

Welcome to My Blog!

Don't ask me if I know what the heck I'm doing, but I thought I'd give this a shot. :-) My debut novel, Playing for First, was released last Monday, June 8th. I'm still in a daze. I've scheduled my first book signing at Out Word Bound Bookstore here in Indy for Sunday, August 2, at 2:00 pm. We'll be getting back from Orlando and the Golden Crown Literary Society Conference earlier that week. That's good, because there'll be an autograph session down there with all of the authors. At least I'll have a little idea of what to expect. :-)

I don't know if anyone is checking this out, but if so, feel free to post a comment. I hope you enjoy the new book.

Chris