atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: Game on

Does posting the notes count as spoilers? I sure hope not…

I love how shamelessly nerdy this app is. I was never a tabletop gaming person but this was still really fun. And the intervals are getting longer. I was able to get through them like a champ. I felt AMAZING after this run, even though I was really tired after work. I’m glad I did it anyway.

I am back to my signature lunches. Since they’re around 500 calories, I wasn’t very hungry after my run. I just made some popcorn. It’s also cheap. I think it was a good day! I feel pretty energized considering PMS is kicking in. We’ll see how the rest of the week goes.

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atthequillsmercy

Lenni Reviews: “Scattering His Virgin Bloom” Vol. 2, by Aya Sakyo

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review and is rated 18+

Despite helping with Hana’s heat, Kaoru still hesitates to take him on as his mate. Kaoru’s sister, Marika as well as Hana’s brother Aoba, come into the picture to interfere in their budding relationship.

This was okay, but I feel like a bunch of stuff was set up and not followed through. The stuff with the siblings was not really an issue. Hana’s mother tries to set him up with a guy who’s a creep, yet is also involved with the coffee brand Hana works for. There were some really interesting ways for the plot to go, but we just get some smut and a shrug at the conflict before we get our happy ending. I don’t dislike it, but I gotta give it a 3 out of 5 for what could have been.

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Workout Dump: Welcome Back!

I am so happy to see Zombies Run back to how it used to be. I swear, I can hear it in the voice acting; the joy at getting back to what made the app awesome in the first place. It is a happy accident that things are more routine after my son’s surgery, and I can start running again. It feels great to be moving, even if I’m sore.

The medical bills and rising cost of… Everything has me getting more creative with my meals. I try to have more fruit, get jarred sauce on sale while I wait for my plants to grow, and use cheaper vegetables when I don’t buy the frozen ones. I make sure to take stock of what’s in my home and make do with what I have before I spend any more money on groceries than I absolutely have to. I think it’s going okay so far, but I am so stoked to see what my little indoor garden will give me in a few weeks. It’s going to be a very stressful summer, but I’ll deal with things as they come.

atthequillsmercy

WIP Wednesday: Healing Time

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My son’s surgery was on Monday. We were there about 10am and didn’t get home till 7:30. He did amazing. I am handling taking care of the drains and making sure the pain is at a manageable level. I can’t believe how brave this kid is. I dunno if I could have done all this…

Needless to say, I have not been writing much. I am working through some ARCs, but I don’t think I’ve stopped being scared for him since Monday morning. If he doesn’t text me back, my brain spins with the worst-case scenarios, and I have to lay eyes on him and hear his voice to make sure he’s ok. I don’t even want to go on the treadmill or leave the house for more than 10 minutes.

It’s only been a couple of days, and he’s already moving around better and eating more than broth and crackers. I still might take another week off work to make sure he’s able to get around and do things on his own if I’m gone all day.

As he gets more mobile, I’ll be able to get lost in the worlds I’ve created again.

 

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atthequillsmercy

It’s happening!

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No WIP Wednesday today. My son has his top surgery next week and we are running around getting things ready!

atthequillsmercy

Workout Dump: Busy, busy!!

This isn’t all my workouts since I’m in the process of getting things ready for my son’s surgery. It was very sudden; someone apparently cancelled, and they offered him the spot! I am very nervous and excited for him. I know he’s been waiting for this for years, and it means a lot of preparation for the post-surgery recovery and running around to pre-surgery appointments. I’m still doing the desk peddler whenever I can, and I’m counting moving furniture as a workout.

Those pickled red onions are still a fun addition, but now, they’re joined by some garlic scape chimichuri. I had some pork chops to throw in the air fryer, which was a great dinner. I usually end up with a dry, inedible mess when I try to make pork chops. I dunno how my Gramma did it… Either way, it was a success. I didn’t want to use heavy sauce and didn’t want to waste garlic scapes, that’s where the chimichuri came in. It has a kick to it (it’s garlic scapes, yellow onion, and garlic in olive oil and red wine vinegar). Whatever I’m doing is working because I am down to 206! I honestly don’t think it’s the food. I think it’s getting back into being active.

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Workout Roundup: It’s good to be back (mostly)

As I’m easing back into things, I did push myself a bit and ran at a really easy pace when I hit the treadmill. I’m pairing that with the desk peddler. I do just enough to get my heart rate up, and by the end of it, I can tell it’s working because I am so sore. It’s gonna be a while before this is easy again.

When I say I wanted more veggies, I mean I was desperate for them. I’m back to eating solid foods. I still have to be careful and only chew on one side of my mouth. I’m also watching my portions because I lost weight when I couldn’t eat anything more solid than mashed potatoes and oatmeal and I don’t want to gain it back. And as you can see, I’m big into those pickled res onions now. I make them really fast in the fridge and even put them on sandwiches (pics at another time). I feel so much better getting back to a normal routine. 

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Finally Watched It: Happiness (2021)

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It’s been a while since I did a Finally Watched It. I decided to talk about shows or movies that whenever I mention them, nobody really knows what I’m talking about. Plenty of people talk about All of Us Are Dead. I have watched that, which means the almighty algorithm feeds more stuff like it. That’s how I found this show. Here’s the blurb:

“Happiness takes place in the near future, where the release of a failed treatment drug “Next” has caused a worldwide pandemic known as the Lytta Virus, a.k.a. “mad person disease”. Those infected by Lytta experience short bouts of insanity and bloodlust, before completely regressing into a zombie-like state. The South Korean Military and Police forces try to contain the spread of Lytta and Next through extensive investigation and authoritative quarantine measures, while civil rights groups protest against them, believing the infected are still capable of normal human interaction.”

The best parts of this are Yoon Sae-bom and Jung Yi-hyun, our two main leads, before their apartment complex goes into lockdown, and their neighbors join the cast. They are very capable, clever, and have great chemistry together. It’s cool that the zombies are not zombies all the time, and while all the normal tropes for the genre are there, it was fun to watch! Except for the ending. I finished episode 11 and thought, “How the heck are they gonna wrap all this up in one episode?” Then they kinda tossed all out in there as rapidly as possible since there was only one episode left. Things were so evenly paced before that this felt like whiplash. I bet if they had one more episode or maybe made the last episode longer, they could have made it more satisfying. I didn’t feel like I wasted my time, more like there was some wasted potential. Worth checking out if you want some zombie in your K-Drama.

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WIP Wednesday: I don’t do April Fools

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I’ve been editing the completed manuscripts over the last week, but I’ve also resumed working on First Brood 4: Emma. Shelley (my Freewrite Traveler) has three spots. I’m using one for Emma, one for short smut, and the last for Dewey. Sure, I’ll crank out the short erotica to make some extra cash (I need it, I have no Patrons, and there won’t be any OT in the summer), but I need to work on things that make me happy for a while. 

  • Emma: 17,515
  • Smut: 161
  • Dewey: 15,778

I went back and forth between editing and writing today. That’s why the numbers aren’t that impressive. I’d like to finish both those big novels this year since I have book 5 in the First Brood series cooking in the back of my head already. Not that this series is super popular, but I love working on it. I started that back when I was a teenager, and somehow, it’s been a constant in my brain ever since. I did post the chapters of Emma I have so far on Patreon if anyone would like to see what it’s all about.

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Today’s Workout: I am such a nerd

We’re switching things up today and starting with what I ate:

Yes, I fell for the K-Pop Demon Hunters meals. I left for work early for the Saja Boys breakfast and stopped on the way home for the Huntrix ‘dinner’ meal. I… Okay, I don’t eat fast food very often. Contrary to my waistline, I eat McD’s once or twice a YEAR. Wendy’s can be quarterly, I haven’t been to Taco Bell in like… 5 years, I think? So, on the rare occasions when I do eat it, my system feels like this:

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Most of my meals are my own cooked food, leftovers of that food, or takeout from local places that I eat for three days. I am NOT used to 600 calorie breakfasts and 800 calorie dinners. I average 900 a DAY because of the Saxenda. It may seem boring to you, but I don’t even drink soda. I have water, seltzer water, or unsweetened teas (if not a cocktail or beer). Yeah, the meals were kinda cool, I satisfied my FOMO, and now I can go back to never eating this stuff because I feel SO SICK. I can see how this stuff makes you fat even if you workout, because I feel so sluggish and bloated. It was kinda worth it because I don’t have to do it again. I doubt they’ll do another promotion with a property that I made my entire personality for a few months.

I’m supposed to take a running day off, but when I was putting my food into MyFitnessPal, I knew I was gonna at least take a long walk. I propped up my iPad and ignored the timer until I hit 40 minutes. It helped the guilt of eating so much fast food in one day, but I still feel like crap. I’m gonna eat so light tomorrow… Why the fuck did I do this…

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