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I’m writing this on Sunday, December 1st, which is my birthday. I turned 63 today.
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Honestly, it freaks me out a little. That sounds like such an old age.
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And while I can tell that I’m older, I’m not old old, ya know? I spent time this morning, first stretching then doing a quick workout. I can still put my palms on the floor when I bend over (without bending my knees). I can still walk 10K steps without a worry. Sure, I’m somewhat out of shape, but that’s due to the year that I’ve had. I’m very focused on getting back into shape over the next six months. Honestly, it’s going to take me that long for me to lose all the weight and do all the work. Telling myself that I can do it in two months is just setting myself up for failure. Particularly with the holidays looming.
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Plus, I keep doing these. The one on top is a cranberry, orange, and pistachio white-chocolate ganache, that made for fantastic sweet truffles. The one on the bottom is an Amaretto dark chocolate ganache.
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Here they are in truffle form. I coated the white chocolate truffles in powdered sugar that I added blue luster dust to. Won’t do that again. You can’t see in the picture that I also added luster dust to the dark truffles. Those do have a nice sparkle in person.
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Now, as y’all may or may not remember, back in March of 2023, I switched over to a carnivore diet. After a couple of months on this diet, my brain came back. I’d stopped playing Sudoku about six months before then because the game had gotten too hard for me. Once my brain came back, the game was suddenly easy again. (And remains easy.)
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I’ve been looking for better games to play on my phone recently. Of course, if you watch the ads, every game claims to be designed for seniors, will help with memory and sleep, etc. Most of these ads are lying, of course.
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However, I have switched over to a few new games that I’m really enjoying. One is called Cross Math. It’s set up like a crossword puzzle, and you have to do very simple math to solve it. It also involves logic, because it supplies the numbers for solving the puzzle.
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For example, if you have a line that’s BLANK x BLANK = 10, and you only have a 10 and a 1 in your numbers (no 2 or 5) then you know that the solution is either 1x10 or 10x1, depending on the connected lines in the puzzle.
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I have really enjoyed playing this game. One of the features that I like is that you can turn the timer off. You can take all the time you need without something counting down. Seriously, timed games stress me out. They are not relaxing for me at all.
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That being said, I still solve an easy level Cross Math games in 30 seconds or less. The expert level generally take me a couple of minutes.
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I did get sick last week with a head cold for a few days. I discovered that I no longer enjoyed Cross Math. Easy level games were taking me three minutes, and I couldn’t finish the expert level. They’re back to being easy again now. But I think this game is now going to be my measure of brain power for the day, and a better measure than Sudoku.
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How about you? What are you doing these days to bring you joy, as well as to stimulate your mind?
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Hey! It's December! Ice & Berries is now generally available!
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A cozy fantasy tale of friendship, work, and going out into the world. Oh, and snow cones!
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When the Ice Elf Elbriarien Itamar—or just El, for short—fails to get her Mage Mark after her apprenticeship, she decides to leave the frozen north and head south.
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Someplace where snow doesn't stay piled up in corners during the heat of summer. Maybe walk barefoot in the sand next to the ocean. Perhaps even chuck out all her learning and take work in a bar. (A fate worse than death, at least according to her parents.)
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However, without her Mage Mark, El cannot legally practice spells or do complicated magic. Just little things, cantrips native to her Ice Elf heritage.
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Join her as she makes her way in a new life and a new city, finding friends, business opportunities, a love of snow cones, and perhaps, if she's lucky, a sapphic love as well.
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To celebrate the publication of my new cozy fantasy novel, my first cozy fantasy novel is now on sale for $0.99!
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The spell to transform Killian the champion fails. Instead of a worm, he’s transformed into a wyrm. Swell. Now what? Thus begins the story of Talon the dragon and his eventual battle with a god. Or something like that. It’s a lovely cozy fantasy filled with humor, found family, gods and myths, and breaking of the fourth wall.
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Also, to celebrate Blaze Ward's latest Science Officer novel, Exile, which is available now on the KRP site (after Dec 10th everywhere else), we've put the first Science Officer Omnibus on sale for just $2.99.
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Javier will survive the pirates. Will they survive him?
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