Stop what, you ask? No clue. But I’ll stop it tomorrow, whatever it may be.

Another hot and humid day. Summer has definitely arrived even if it’s official yet.

Today is all about horse racing. (And the short nap I took a bit ago.)

Reading: Finished up Styx and Stones and now I’m reading Murder on the Eightfold Path by Diana Killian.

This is actually true!

It’s kind of cloudy here this afternoon. It’s 87 degrees but the heat index is 94. Ugh! So glad I don’t need to go outside!

Nothing on tonight except reruns of Ghost Adventures. But, hey, it’s the first time I’ll be able watch the silly boys on my new TV! Which I still love, by the way!

Tomorrow is the Belmont Stakes!

I actually sort of did some writing stuff last night! I started going through the emails my friend sent me which had snippets of the steampunk story. So I’m patching them all together. Got about six pages single-spaced yesterday.

Reading: Still reading Styx and Stones.

LOL!!! I have used that excuse many times!

On this date in history:

• 1915 – The RMS Lusitania left New York City on her final voyage. Six days later, the ship was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland by the Germans. 1,198 lives were lost, including 128 Americans.

• 1927 – The first cooked meals on a scheduled airline flight (yes, they really did have airlines that early!) were introduced on an Imperial Airways flight from London to Paris.

• 1931 – The Empire State Building was dedicated in New York City.

This afternoon it’s all about horse racing. Later today we have the Kentucky Derby. I’m rooting for longshot Backtalk. I love the name. *g* Plus he’s a son of Derby winner Smarty Jones.

Then tonight we have a new episode of Doctor Who. I still need to watch last week’s ep. In fact, tonight for me is all about catching up on recorded shows.

Reading: Still reading Murder and Magic. I didn’t mention it yesterday but in addition to being an alternate history with magic, it’s also a series of short story murder mysteries.

Well, it might! In fact, it’s supposed to rain all weekend so this really doesn’t qualify as an excuse. *g*

After my looooooong day of backing up the external drive, when I tried to upload it to iDisk, it was almost finished (after almost 24 hours) when my Internet service went kablooey! So I guess I’ll try again tonight. But how annoying! I’m thinking I should back up my music separately from everything else. And my writing too. I guess there really isn’t any reason I couldn’t do that except that it seems like a lot of work.

Still need to try something a friend on Facebook suggested for the Houdini-like files on the new drive. Except I’m kind of scared to do anything, y’know?

I can’t believe this weekend is the Kentucky Derby!!!

Tonight on TV, we have new episodes of FastForward, Bones, Fringe and The Mentalist. However, I’m close to giving up on that last show. Love Simon Baker but the show is growing old for me.

Reading: I’m re-reading one of my older books, Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear.

Oh, now there’s a well-used excuse!

Great news yesterday. The second of three Navy SEALs was cleared of all charges! I am a wee bit worried about the third man because he’s the one charged with actually hitting the terrorist scumbag. But if he’s convicted I think the Navy and whoever made the early decision to charge these men are going to get a firestorm of negativity. Since when is it okay to coddle the terrorists at the expense of the innocent public???

One of my uncle’s quarter horses races tonight. Wish I could figure out if it’ll be shown on either of the horse racing channels.

The only thing on tonight is a new episode of Doctor Who, so I’ll also be watching recorded shows. Need to clear off some space from the DVR. It’s getting full!

Reading: Finished up A Tale of Two Demon Slayers which I really enjoyed. Now I’m re-reading The Bloody Tower by Carola Dunn. I was in the mood for an old favorite.

Next thing you know, they’ll be blaming I Dunno and Not Me. *g*

We’ve lost another television icon. Actor John Forsythe died on April 1st at age 92. He is best remembered as the patriarch of the Carrington clan on the 1980s TV show Dynasty and also as the voice of Charlie on Charlie’s Angels.

We have horse racing this afternoon. The Santa Anita Derby is being aired on NBC and the Illinois Derby is being aired on TVG (that’s Television Gaming not TV Guide).

Worked through five pages on the book last night.

Reading: I finished up Foul Play and now I’m reading the most recent Sofie Metropolis book Working Stiff. I’ve been waiting for this one forever!

Hmm. I wonder what you would use that as an excuse for?

It’s another bright and sunny day here. Supposed to get up to 67. Works for me! Tonight’s thunderstorms, however, I could do without. But it’s supposed to be sunny and warm again by Monday.

There is absolutely nothing on today except horse racing this afternoon on USA (why USA, I have no idea). So I’ll be catching up on stuff tonight. And working on family history.

Worked some more on The Book That Will Not End last night.

Reading: Still reading Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout. It doesn’t look like a very long book but the print is really small.

I think Daylight Savings Time is one of the most annoying things on the face of the planet. It doesn’t save anything. It certainly doesn’t save daylight. It just moves it around. And Congress claiming their expansion of DST is to save electricity by extending the afternoon/evening daylight? Guess what, that’s the stupidest argument I’ve ever heard!!! It’s certainly never saved any electricity at our house! Arizona and Hawaii are the only states that now don’t deal with this foolishness. And I wish I lived in one place or the other so I didn’t have to deal with it either!

Ahem. Anyway. I’ve been listening to podcasts this morning about the Law of Attraction. I know a lot of people who swear by this so I’ve decided to give it a whirl. If I can figure out what the heck I’m doing.

Spent most of the day yesterday working on family history. Found a bunch of duplicates which I merged together. Also deleted a bunch of people who didn’t connect to my lines. Not sure how they even ended up in my database. Unless I’d deleted the connection earlier after determining they weren’t really related to me after all. I’ll be doing more of the same this afternoon/evening.

Unbelievably, Rachel Alexandra got beat yesterday in her race. Not by much, granted, and she hasn’t run in weeks, so maybe it’s not too surprising. Last night I finally watched the first episode of the Brit show Survivors. Wow. Intense. The basic premise is a super virus spreads around the world and kills off more than 90% of the world’s population. Now the survivors have to learn how to, um, survive without modern conveniences like electricity, cell phones, running water, etc.

Reading: I’m still reading Serpent by Clive Cussler and Paul Kemprecos. Should finally get that finished tonight.

Beer goggles? That’s an excuse? For what? Fashion stupidity?

I’m still loving the show Who Do You Think You Are? I’m not going to complain (much) about the trials and tribulations of searching for my ancestors anymore. Last night former Dallas Cowboy (and Dancing with the Stars alum) Emmitt Smith worked on his family tree which included his great-great grandparents and beyond who were slaves. Tracing slave ancestry is incredibly difficult because there are very few records the further back you go. I guess that’s true for the rest of us, too, to a certain extent, but I think tracing slave ancestors would be awfully frustrating (at the very least) and sad.

Since it’s the weekend, I’ll be climbing back into my family tree and seeing what nuts I can shake loose. I learned just yesterday that one of my great-grandfathers divorced his first wife before he married my great-grandma. I’d never known he was married before! And I only found out because my aunt who passed away last year had a copy of the divorce decree. We ended up with all the family history stuff she had.

There are Derby prep races on the horse racing channel this afternoon which I’ll be watching.

Reading: Finished up Death of a Ghost. Now I’m reading Serpent by Clive Cussler and Paul Kemprecos. I thought I had read this one but it’s not ringing any bells at all, so I guess not. I love Kurt Austin almost as much as I love Dirk Pitt.

That may well be true but I’ve never used it as an excuse. *g*

We had gorgeous warm weather yesterday. Today? Not so much. But tomorrow they’re saying a high of 72. So I have hopes for another day of shorts-wearing.

It’s almost Spring and that means, horse racing! All the tracks in the States are gearing up for the beginning of Derby Season. Time to start figuring out which horses I want to cheer on.

So, tonight on TV, we have NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, Lost (can you believe there are only TEN episodes left until the show is over?! ), and the season finale of White Collar.

Read through and fiddled around with fifteen pages last night. I managed to avoid killing off any of the primary characters who are supposed to live to fight another day, so that’s a plus.

Reading: Now I’m reading Me and Mr. Darcy by Alexandra Potter which is quite enjoyable so far. It’s about a 29 year old New Yorker who keeps dating losers and bemoans not finding a man like Mr. Darcy. Then she goes on a literary tour of England with a bunch of elderly women and one obnoxious journalist. But at every stop they make on the tour, whenever she’s alone, Our Heroine runs into Mr. Darcy. Needless to say, she’s very confused about this. *g*

Forgot to add that I absolutely loved All About Evie and must snag copies of the next two books, pronto!