6th of Elul

Came back from a week-long vacation in Montana late Tuesday night. The internet connection at the hotel was awful, so I didn't post while I was gone. It's been a while. I was hoping to get back on track with blogging...Hopefully I will now. 

There was a lot more to Montana than I realized. I did go through a very small portion of the state when I was 5. We were moving from Kentucky to Washington by car. I don't remember much of what I saw of MT back then. 

It was unusually hot over there, and the smoke had made it's way to it, too. Perfect for vacationing there, right? Well, we would have gone through similar weather back home, so that part wouldn't have mattered. Actually, the air quality and smoke were much worse at home, so we were lucky that way. The smoke was from all the wildfires in Canada, Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, and Montana. We're all on fire here and there's no escape. It's much better today, and the air quality is finally in the 'good' category, but this may change on Monday. 

The cats went to their own 'hotel' called Alder Creek Pet Lodge. We had the most trouble with getting Rosie in the carrier. She has to have gone through some sort of trauma in the past with them, because she has such a visceral reaction. She struggles, cuts up the person who's trying to get her in, poops and pees, makes herself heavier, etc. I actually feel sorry for her. It shouldn't be such a scary and panic-inducing thing. I think she thinks that we'll abandon her if she's in it, too. Tasha was the most vocal on the way to and from it. She doesn't have such an issue with the carrier, but not knowing where she's going gets to her, I think. 

Tasha has joint problems, so she ended up in a 'cat condo' that's level and at the top, so she probably could watch the birds and lord over the other cats. It had a little cubbyhole for a bed, a partition separating the bed area and food/water/litter box area. Seemed actually pretty nice. She didn't have to jump. 

Rosie had a condo that was like a cage on wheels. There were a couple of platforms to jump onto. She doesn't like to jump often. I noticed they added another one to help her get around. Her litter box and a bed were on the bottom level. Her food and water were on the first platform. She was on the top platform when we came to pick them up. She kept rubbing me, too. I brought 4 toys for them. (2 for each.) They both got their stuffed carrot toys. Rosie's is a lot more beat up, and most of the leaves are gone. Tasha's just has bite marks. They both love their own carrot. It's cute. Anyways, Rosie had hid her carrot in her bed. She really didn't want anyone else to have it. Tasha didn't hide her toys...

They're so happy to be home now. I think the staff at their hotel treated them well, but they really just wanted to be home with their humans. At our hotel in Butte, MT, the housekeepers were weird. They asked if we wanted them to clean our room while we were away a couple of times. They didn't seem to do this to other people. 

Perkin's was in the same building as the hotel. That was somewhat dangerous. Perkin's is like a Shari's. They're also known for their pies and other baked goods. Their cookies, 'mammoth' muffins (they weren't as big as the muffins we get at home), and pies were very good. Pancakes were weird. Too salty and not cooked enough. So, I ended up having a muffin and melon for breakfast for a couple of the days. You could make your own breakfast, where in addition to eggs, you can choose what you want from the choices. I did this once. I chose a muffin, hash browns, turkey sausage, and melon. Seemed pretty decent, but a little too big. They apparently eat their muffins with butter, which was interesting. Also, they seemed to eat pies with a spoon. A little odd, but makes sense. There were subtle differences like that. Everyone said 'guys' a lot more often. It's considered neutral over there, too. I was surprised by how often they used it. 

We went to the World Museum of Mining. They had an interesting exhibit on dollhouses. There was also one on minerals. There's an area just outside the main building of the museum called Hell Roarin' Gulch. It's a recreation of an 1890s mining town. 

We also went on an underground mine tour. (It's also connected to the museum.) It was in the Orphan Girl mine going down to the 100 ft level. Apparently, we were the last ones to go down that far. It was starting to flood there. They can't stop it from flooding like that. I think the guide even said they don't really know the exact cause, but the water has been coming in gradually over time. It was fascinating down there. The only issues I had were how slippery it was at a certain point, the water dripping into my hair and down my arm, and feeling like I almost fell out of the 'cage' (it's like an old version of a lift) while looking up at the sunlight coming down from the surface. We had to wear hardhats with lights. We were given dog tags as souvenirs. 

Went to a pasty place after that. Miners used to grab them before or after they worked in the mines. The one I had had a filling of beef, potatoes, and onions. I liked the crust a lot. Just not the filling so much. The meat had turned into a block, there wasn't much seasoning, and it just wasn't that great. I ate about 2/3 of mine. Some people get it with gravy or chili, but it should be able to stand on its own. I have a feeling it was just that place's version of it that wasn't that good. I've had hand pies locally before, and they're amazing! 

We went to the Copper King (aka W.A. Clark) Mansion after that for a tour. That was definitely a highlight of the trip. There were a lot of cool and fancy things to see. It's apparently a bed and breakfast, too. I don't think they showed the entire house. We met the current owner, and had quite a conversation with her before the tour started. The tour guide was actually only 13 years old. Quite young for something like that, but she did well. She has 14 siblings, and is number 7. That's a lot of kids! Clark was a great great great grandfather of hers. (If I remember correctly...) So, it's been kept in the family. He also had many more mansions in places like Paris, New York, and California. Some have been destroyed. I wanted to tour the Clark Chateau, which was his eldest son's place. Just didn't have time right after the mansion, and it wasn't open when we were more free. Oh well. 

We went to the Berkley Pit after the mansion. The water in the pit is toxic. It's been mined too much in the past. If nothing's done about it by 2020, the water will overflow into Butte's water supply. So, they're trying to solve that. The color of the water was kind of eerie. A very light green-ish blue. There were birds flying near it, by they didn't venture too far over the water. It's killed off nearby wildlife, and the only creatures that seem to be able to live in it is a certain bacteria. 

The next day we went to Bannack. It's a ghost town. Only a few buildings actually impressed me. Most places were cleared out, and seemed almost identical to each other. The hotel, saloon, school, and a doctor's house were the most interesting. 

The Beaverhead County Museum in Dillon was cool. I liked the bear, pianos, old camera, mammoth fossils, and a horse and buggy display. There was supposedly a lot more to the museum than that main building, but we only saw another old school. 

Sparky's Garage was one of the best restaurants we went to. It's garage/car themed with some quirky decor. It's mainly a BBQ place. I got the BBQ brisket sandwich. Some of the meat was a little too tough to be in a sandwich, but it was great. The sauce was good. While we were there, a lightning storm started. There was a lot of wind, too. Most of it had stopped by the time we left. Made for a little show. 

We went to Virginia City. It's a ghost town, but also a 'living' one. It's considered an open-air museum. The town was founded in the 1860s, and in the 1950s restoration started for tourists. There are 200 actual residents now. I liked what they did with that ghost town. Also, apparently it's extremely haunted. Didn't see any ghosts, but the mannequins were a bit creepy. They have things like restaurants, shops, and a still in use opera house in addition to the 'museum' stuff. The candy shop was huge, and people, young and old alike, were going nuts with the candy. The fudge and 'chocoholic' sections did look awfully good. In a different shop, I got prickly pear taffy. I hadn't had prickly pear anything yet, even though I've seen a few candies made with it. It tastes kind of like watermelon.

We watched a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde play at the opera house. Afterwards, they did a Vaudeville show. I love Vaudeville stuff. They really played off of the traditional old Vaudeville tropes, yet put modern spins on them. Most of it was silly, but nice. The last couple of skits were sad and emotional. 

On the last day, we went to Helena. We first went the Montana Historical Society museum. That was really great. I like that they put some emphasis on the Native American tribes of the area, their history, and more. Many places just gloss over that stuff. I got wild huckleberry taffy at the museum store. It's strong, but good. After the museum, we saw the capitol building. That was very impressive. More so than I thought it would be. 

We also went to a place for lunch called Benny's Bistro. It was jazz themed. There were portraits of some of the greats in jazz, including Benny Goodman. We sat in front of his portrait. He was one of the most famous jazz clarinetists. I tried using him as an example to get into jazz band, both in junior high and high school. Both directors told me that clarinets don't belong in jazz band. I could see if it was a brass jazz band, but it wasn't. It pissed me off back then. We wondered if the restaurant was named after him, but the waitress didn't know. There were instruments strewn about the walls, too. I got the Montana Rancher. It's a roast beef, pickled onions, horseradish sauce, colby jack, and lettuce sandwich. Very hearty. I ordered a half serving, and I can't imagine how big the full would have been. It came with a thick rosemary tomato soup, tortilla chips, and a madeleine. We shared a peach cobbler, which was one of their specials. It was good except for the bits of pit in every other bite. They didn't pit it well. 

Dad managed to drive us all the way back home from the hotel in Butte in one day. Impressive. We started at around 9:30am. Got home at about 10pm locally. It felt like 11pm, because we started the day in Mountain Time. Locally, we're Pacific Standard Time. An hour difference, but I think I felt it. We only stopped for gas, rest areas, a really late lunch, and a ferry. We had pretzels from the ferry's galley for dinner. I had lemon pound cake for dessert. 

While in Montana, at the beginning I thought I'd stick to my 'diet'. Ended up being too hard to stick to. I just tried not to eat everything on my plate instead. 

I loosely followed it yesterday, and today I'm back to being strict about it. I feel better when I follow it. Again, it's sticking to a 1200-1600 calorie range (up to roughly 1800 for treat days), and keeping track of protein and other nutrients. Splitting the day into 5 meals, too. 

My phone has been getting worse with its battery power. It goes way too quickly. Much quicker than it did just a few months ago. Made it frustrating in MT, since I wanted to at least take pics. Might next month look into upgrading. Apple doesn't even support updates to it, and I've heard it's hard to get any repairs or support for it as well. It's an iPhone 5c. I love my phone, except for this new battery issue and occasionally glitching out on me. 

I spent a week away from studying Chinese. HelloChinese, the app I use for it, has a plant that you refresh with reviews and lessons. My plant was all shriveled up and dark brown when I finally got back to it. It looked sad. It's back now, but still sickly looking after the 2nd day back to it. I had a slightly harder time with pronunciation when I got back into it. Remembered a surprising amount, though. 

I played my clarinet today. I think I might finally get back to practicing it on a regular basis. Managed to practice for an hour this time. It really was just the cork and pads falling off that kept me from playing that long before. I thought I just had to work myself up to it. It feels great to play it again. I played some klezmer, Mozart, a generalized solo book (lots of classical, but also other types of pieces), and a Duke Ellington song. Quite a bit. I played much better than I expected to at this point. I might not play again until Monday. I used to not play during the weekend, or at least not on Shabbat (Saturday). I might go back to that. 

22nd of Av

It's been hovering at or close to 90 degrees since my last post. Haven't posted much because of it. Today and the last couple of days have felt somewhat cold but nice at around 70 degrees. That's closer to our 'norm' for the summer, which is mid-70s. 

Hopefully I'll get to posting more often this month, like I was doing back in June. Was going to post yesterday, but I accidentally tapped 'clear' while writing the draft, and lost it. Frustrating. I'm not going to do the 'monthly' thing today. Might not do it for the rest of the month, either. 

Haven't had my desktop on most of this summer, and might not until next month. It's just been too hot. This also has meant that I haven't been writing more of Alliance 3. I did get to brainstorming what will happen next, for a couple of days. 

The countdown deals (for ebooks) don't seem to be very successful. I kind of understand with things like sequels. The free promos have been doing pretty well. The next free one is for my memoir starting on the 6th until the 10th.  Even if I don't earn royalties during those promos, every 'bought' copy makes my ebooks and my author rankings climb. That makes them more visible to people, they're suggested more often, people notice me more, etc. So, while it might not benefit me right away, it might in the long run.

The Select terms for Alliance, Alliance: Dawn, and Sweet Endless Terror (ebooks) will be ending at the end of the month. Once that ends, I'll wait a couple of more days, then publish them on Smashwords, too. I have to mess with their manuscripts a little beforehand anyways. You can't back out of the Select term until it ends, and you have to remember to uncheck the 'renew term' option. It's exclusive to them during that time. It takes a little more time for Smashwords to approve them for their Premium Catalog. Once that happens, it'll be distributed to a lot more places. 

I won't get reports for my paperbacks from Amazon's distributors for a little while longer. It'll be interesting to see how they do. 

Something happened to Rosie the night before last. I noticed when I gave her a pat on the head before bed that night, that it felt 'crunchy'. I thought it was just my imagination. The next morning I could see something was clearly up with her fur. I have a hunch that Tasha, while up on the banister over the stairs, started throwing up, just as Rosie was walking by underneath. Gross. It was on the top of her head, one ear, behind that ear, down her back, and near the base of her tail. A chunk on her back looked especially like throw up. I dampened a towel in a warm water and tried to run it over all the areas. She kept moving around, and wouldn't let me dry her off. This made her clean the areas afterwards. So, that actually helped more. Later, I used her grooming mitt and managed to get most of what was left with it. It lifted off a lot more fur than usual and some of it was really stiff. There were still a couple of tiny patches near her tail. With her cleaning herself more and me using the mitt again today, it's practically gone. I feel bad that she went through something like that. I don't have cat/pet shampoo, so I couldn't wash it off of her. She also has claws...

I've gone back to being more strict about watching my daily calories and other nutrients. I try to shoot for 1200-1600 calories a day. Also, if possible, try to get to the recommended amount for things like protein, sodium, sugar, etc. I never make it to the recommended amount of protein, often am low on sodium, and end up close for sugar. Either a little under or a little over for sugar. 

While sticking closer to this, I usually end up with a lot of leftovers at restaurants. Restaurant portions are always so huge! I found (and bookmarked) out that most of the restaurants we frequent like Red Robin, Red Lobster, Elmer's, etc. have their nutritional info online. That makes it easier to figure out for portions. MyFitnessPal either doesn't have some of them or is usually not accurate. It's been eyeopening looking at them. Sometimes these places have so much food, I get overwhelmed. When I go, I usually guess and have half of it or I don't care how much I eat. With eating that way, I still end up overeating most of it. 

I'm tired of bringing home leftovers. Most things aren't great the next day, and it creates more clutter. To me, it's different with leftovers of things from home. With those on top of the restaurant ones, things tend to go bad (while sticking to my 'diet') before I even get to them. This creates a dilemma for me. I hate wasting food, yet if I eat everything it's very fattening (not to mention I might throw up if I could eat it all...). It's not my fault restaurants have such humongous portions, and I shouldn't have to compromise my health. 

I've decided to ask for smaller portions at restaurants. That way I can try and balance it. When I went to Elmer's for brunch recently, I ordered a pancake entree. (Specifically, cinnamon roll pancakes.) It usually comes with 4 pancakes, I asked for 1. They also left off the whipped cream without me telling them, which was a plus. It's just added calories. Normally their scrambled eggs are made from 2 eggs, I got 1. The chicken apple sausage normally comes with 2 links, I got 1. With all this, it greatly reduced the calories, and was decent with that and other nutrients for a brunch. I could eat the whole thing, too. 

It somewhat worked for Red Lobster that night. The waitor looked at me like I was talking gibberish when I asked for the salad and entree (with its sides) to all be halved. (I say somewhat because the salad wasn't really halved.) I asked for only one biscuit, too. I'm the only one who eats them, I don't usually eat more, and they make a lot of leftovers with a full basket. Dad got a reward through the app, with one of the options being a free slice of Chocolate Wave Cake. She didn't have any of it. It was almost comical looking when I only ate a 1/4 of the slice and a 1/4 of the ice cream. The whole thing was 1110 calories. That's an absurd amount. Half of it would have been too much. 1/4 of it's not bad. I had a 1/4 of a cinnamon roll at Shari's recently, too. The whole thing was even more calories than that cake. 

I've been keeping up with my Chinese most of the time. I'm surprised at how much I'm actually 'getting'. I recently realized they had a training section with games. Every day there's a new game to unlock using coins you've earned. I've done one on grammar, another on speaking, and today's was on listening. They're fun. I've scored high with them, too. I'm almost done with the current section. Just one more. They pack more into each unit as you go along. 

I finally took my clarinet to Ted Brown's to get recorked a couple of days ago. The mouthpiece cork had fallen off about 9 months ago. I played with it using dental floss in place of the cork for about another month. It was starting to do weird things by then. So, I hadn't played for 8 months. I was really itching to play again. It was also the first time a cork has fallen off from it. I've been playing it since I was 10, so it's close to 25 years old. They were surprised that it was the first time. The only issue it's really had is the keys getting bent. That's not often. They also added 3 new trill pads. They said the old ones were falling off. I did ask them to look over it to see if it needed anything more. It was ready the next day. Much faster than I expected. It seems to me they added a couple more pads than they mentioned. They only charged for the store's base charge of repairs and what they told me about. I also got cork grease. I haven't needed that in a very long time. New corks are thicker and more swelled up than the old ones. They flatten over time. The new ones need something to slick them up so they can easily be assembled. The cork grease smelled minty. Nice. My clarinet will smell good. I also need to clean it even more so now, since it wasn't touched for so long. 

I managed to practice it today. Yay! It felt good just to play. It was easier to play with the new pads and cork, too. Before, I thought it was just the muscles in my mouth weren't built up as much as they used to be. No. It was actually because of the old cork thinning down, starting to fall off, old pads not fully gripping, etc. I should have realized something was up, and that it wasn't about me practicing enough. (I had gotten close to an hour a day, that should have been a clue...) I might actually get back into it again. I'm more tempted this way. I think I should order new reeds online soon, too. I got a big box of them about 7 years ago. They warped a bit from sitting in a car that had the sun and heat directed on it the day I got it. They're really not meant to last 7 years normally. Might be even better with fresh ones. 

I've been watching the anime Juuni Taisen or Zodiac Wars. It's essentially a battle royale of anthropomorphized Chinese zodiac animals, and they're all assassins. They all have powers. They all had to swallow a poison-laced gem at the beginning. They're supposed to collect those gems from their bodies. Whoever gets the most and is the sole survivor wins. They only have 12 hours. The winner gets their wish granted and the antidote. Pretty brutal premise. They seem to be killing them off in reverse order of the zodiac. So, the boar was first. However, the snake was an exception. He died before the game even started. 

The rat's my sign, and normally it's the first animal going by the order. I like him a lot, and he seems to be the most intelligent, manipulative, can get out of 'sticky' situations, great survival instincts, has been goading people on passively, and more. Very much like how rat people are described to be. His power is called Killing All. He hasn't really used it yet. I think he's waiting for all the others to kill themselves and plans to fight the one that beats all the others. Smart. He's also very good at hiding. No one, but the rabbit, has really been trying to get him. A theory is that he's already won, but his wish was time travel. So, he's just playing it all over again. He seems bored most of the time, knows what people will do before they even move, knows them well, and the others feel like he's familiar but can't place him. Makes sense. He's more twisted than he seems. 

The rabbit's an interesting character, too. He's a necromancer. He's pyschotic and wants to make friends by turning them into zombies that work with him as a team. After they come back to 'life', they can still use their powers. The only way to 'kill' those 'friends' is to burn or freeze them. He can bring back dead birds, as well. He's very clever. I have a feeling he may not actually be alive himself. His eyes look the same as the others after they are turned into zombies. That would be interesting. Even if some of this show is predictable, there are a lot of elements that aren't. It makes you wonder how people will die, what their stories are, about their world, and more.