Karen Whiddon

I don’t get sick often, but when I do, I get hit with a doozy. This cold-that-won’t-end is still hanging on, even though my nose is so chapped it’s peeling and cracking and even bleeding.

One week and counting. Soon, it’s got to start easing up. Right?

Tomorrow I have tickets to see David Gray. His music has accompanied writing many of my books.

One of the lines in his song DRAW THE LINE resonates with me. It’s this: “Here we are buck naked yeah, but where should we begin? When it’s not the flesh we’re after, but the howling ghosts within.”

Beautiful, yes? I have all of his CD’s and am looking forward to hearing him live.

Back to the WIP.

Saturday. A beautiful, sunny day here in North Texas. Supposed to reach 68 degrees. And I’m still sick.

Blech. I slept ok last night, but woke up at 5:30 this morning feeling like I needed to cough up a lung. After tossing and turning half an hour, I went ahead and got up. Crept downstairs, turned up the heat, and made a cup of chai tea. Fired up the laptop and wrote until 7:30 when my husband got up.

It was nice. Really, really nice. Though honestly, I’d rather have been sleeping. And not sick. But hey, you can’t have everything, right?

It’s Thursday and I’ve been sick all week. It started out Monday morning with a sore throat and progressed from there. I actually went to the gym on Monday night. Tuesday I took the dog for a walk (one measly mile), and then last night I just sat around here and whimpered.

I’m not a big fan of being sick. Especially when my nose looks like Rudolph and I get maybe three hours sleep at night because of coughing and blowing my nose.

I’m hoping this cold/allergies/whatever will go away before the weekend.

And I’m dreaming of spring.

It’s Monday and I’m back home after a wonderful weekend in Shreveport, LA.

I headed out there Friday after work with my husband driving. It’s about a 3 hour drive, but usually more if there’s traffic, which there always is on Friday night. So it took about three and a half hours. I went to see the wonderful ladies of the NOLA Stars, the Shreveport chapter of RWA.

While there, I got to eat at my favorite restaurant, The Blind Tiger.

If you are ever in Shreveport and want some delicious, authentic Cajun food – go there. And they make a mean margarita as well!

Now I’m home and have to get back to work, both on the book and the day job. Better get to it!

Back to realty. I had an absolutely lovely last couple of days. My daughter turned – gulp – thirty and I took a half day off on her birthday and she and I went and had Spa Day. We got a massage and manicure and pedicure at a wonderful day spa. After that, we all went to dinner at PF Changes.

The day after her birthday, she and I went shopping. So much fun. I boguht some new clothes in my new, smaller size. We had lunch at Olive Garden – all you can eat soup and salad and breadsticks – delish! And shopped some more. We were supposed to see a movie, but didn’t. We finished up fairly early, so I hit the gym an hour ahead of time and got in a lot of extra working out. In addition to my normal stuff, I did weight and machines for about half an hour. All in all I worked out 90 minutes and by the end of the day, I’d burned 2450 calories! Wowzer! Usually I have to push to get 2100, which is my goal. Mall walking will do that for you, I guess. At least I know I burned off lunch.

This weekend I’ve got a conference with my pals at NOLA. It’s been a couple of years since I went to Shreveport. Looking forward to it, as I know my dogs are looking forward to having housesitters stay with them!

Well, gotta get back to the WIP (work in progress)!

Wow – time is flying. It’s March already.

I’m guest blogging over at Cathy Mann’s site on E-Harlequin this week, along with my pal Caridad Pinero. We’re tallking about Nocturne Bites. I hope you’ll stop by.

Here’s the addy:

http://community.eharlequin.com/forums/simply-series/catherines-mannly-men-karen-whiddon-and-caridad-pineiro

Well, my house (and my life) is back to normal. My brother picked up his giant dog and his girlfriend’s cat and now all I have to do is clean up the aftermath.

But first, I’ve got to get back on track with my writing. This Pack book is due May 1st and I’ve dithered around long enough.

My husband left to go to the lake place. He had to take down the new kayak that we got for Christmas, as well as put the purple martin house back up.

This is last year. We enjoy those birds so much.

I miss the lake. Can’t wait for spring.

Now, back to the writing. Wish me luck!

Yes, I know I’ve been gone awhile. I haven’t posted. I’m sorry.

So, to catch up – yes, I’ve been working out. Every night after work, except Tuesday when I had to go to a meeting.

Yes, I’ve lost weight (yay!) and am within three pounds of where I’d gotten to before the holidays.

My kitchen looks fantastic – all back together and normal. The grainite makes the room so warm feeling and I love the solidness of it and the sound it makes when I place a glass on it.

Finally, today is the last day I’m dogsitting my brother’s dog and his girlfriend’s cat. I’m not a cat person (sorry!), and this dog is ginormous, but he’s grown on me.

He’s a big dog, but has a HUGE heart. He’s goofy and clutzy and silly and floopy and sweet. I really like him.

Even though he’s 13 months old, these large breeds (he’s an American Bulldog) don’t mature until they’re two (or three) and for all intents and purposes, he’s still a puppy.

A giant, goofy, warm hearted puppy. No matter how irritated my other dogs are with his presence, he’s never snapped back. In fact, he appears genuinely shocked and hurt.

Honestly, I texted my brother and told him he couldn’t have the dog back. I think he realized I was kidding, but still…. I really like this dog. So does my husband.

And Ace likes him too.

A lot. (My boxer feels differently – look at his face!)

It’s Monday and I’m tired, but my kitchen is finally back to normal. I sealed the stone backsplash with stone enhancer – two coats. I rinsed all my pots and pans and put them back in the cabinets. I cleaned the granite, Lonnie hooked the stove back up, and everything was washed and put in its place. I also vacumned and dusted the rest of the house, and cleaned the wood floors.

I think my kitchen looks wonderful.

Yes, I still want to make the cabinets brown, but not today. Not anytime soon.

It’s good to have my stove hooked up again (it’s gas). Last night I made a pot of shrimp gumbo and we ate it over brown rice. Yummm.

Now today, I’ve got to get back to writing my book. While dogsitting my brother’s huge American Bulldog and his girlfriend’s cat.

He’s still not much older than a puppy and very overweight. He’s got a kind heart.

Well the tile guy (who showed up at 6:30 am yesterday morning) finished doing the backsplash around 3:00 pm. The plumber installed the faucet and garbage disposal and hooked up the new sink.

And it’s not done yet. Nope. I have to wait three days and then seal the tile with something called tile enhancer. There’s dust everywhere. And, while I adore the granite and love the tile, now I have to do something about the color of my kitchen cabinets (they’re painted – from several years ago).

Yup. The color of the cabinets needs to change. I haven’t told my husband yet. I’m thinking they need to go dark.

Anyway, here are pics of the backsplash, unsealed.

I’m told once I seal it, it will darken. It’s beautiful and goes very well with the granite. It’s soothing and calming and looks very simple and natural.

Finally, here is my awesome new faucet and my amazing new sink.