I suppose it’s time to update.

In one of my last posts, I said I was going to try to post more frequently. Spoiler: I did not. In fact, this June 17, 2026, post is the first I’ve made since August 22, 2025, so one could argue my posting habits have gotten worse. Oh well.

To be fair, a lot has happened in that time. I accidentally acquired another cat. Joxer—as he’s now called—showed up on my deck last September as a tiny little black fluff ball of terror. By October 30, I had trapped him, gotten him neutered, and somehow ended up with a third house cat. And by somehow, I mean I just haven’t let him back outside. Not that he seems to mind; he runs away from the door.

I’m almost certain I was the first human he ever willingly interacted with, and I’m still the only one he fully trusts. Though Tim can now occasionally sneak in pets with his feet—yes, his feet—unless food is involved. If food is involved, Joxer will bravely tolerate the larger human’s hands in pursuit of snacks.

I find him absolutely sweet and precious, though. He likes to chat with me, makes making the bed take twice as long because he firmly believes my hands should be petting him rather than straightening blankets, and follows me from room to room. He’s also become incredibly bonded to Neelix, my 14-year-old orange Maine Coon baby. He’ll just walk over to this giant, 19-pound ball of fur, and with all the elegance of a drunk pigeon, flops over right against him. Sometimes, Neelix grabs him and grooms him before a snuggle; other times Neelix just decides to nope away from the couch and let Joxer have it. Meanwhile, he and Lupin, my 7-year-old grey menace, spend their days chasing each other through the house with all the subtlety and grace of a freight train made entirely of eleven- and nine-pound cats.

I’ve also gone to a variety of conventions: Anime USA, Colossalcon North, and Colossalcon Prime, so there was some sewing involved. I was supposed to go to Ichibancon, too, but unfortunately, my paternal grandfather passed away that weekend. 

Honestly, my grandpa’s passing has shifted a lot of my life around. We weren’t physically close—he lived in northern Michigan, and I’m in western PA—but personally, the loss has been difficult.

He passed away on February 12, 2026, and his interment was just this past Saturday, June 13, 2026, the day after what would have been his 77th birthday. Though I swear the universe has conspired to fill every memorial item associated with my grandpa with typos. My aunt made a memorial book in March that originally said “Forever in out Hearts” instead of “Forever in our Hearts,” and while asking me to make stickers to cover this typo, I pointed out that while she had my grandpa’s picture and birth/death day listed, she wrote my dad’s name. My grandpa was Sr., and my dad is Jr. Oops! So I made two stickers for each book. 

Then, at the graveyard, I noticed that while the headstone is correct, his urn had the wrong middle initial! Ah, sorry, Grandpa. I don’t know why the universe was against proper spelling and such for you. 

In honor of my grandpa, though, I did expand my veggie garden. He loved veggie gardening, but since he can’t do it anymore, I nearly doubled the size of mine. It was absolutely how I expressed a lot of my grief, and I spent most of April working on that. Even got a nice little commemorative plaque, which I am proud to announce has NO TYPOS. My aunt thought there was one when I showed her, but no, that was intentionally done because it was what I called him when I was very, very young.

The new sections are currently growing zucchini, parsley, sage, onions, radishes, and beets. Plus some marigolds, nasturtium, and Johnny Jump-Ups for variety and pollinator stops. And maybe one day my anise hyssop seed will bloom. They’d be a massive draw for pollinators! But in case the seeds don’t germinate until next year, I ordered some plugs. So those will hopefully fill the space I want.

 Anyway, this is already a long post explaining why I haven’t posted. I could keep going on and on about my gardening adventures. Or cat adventures. Or sewing adventures. I made Fern from Frieren in a solid week, and it turned out beautiful! 

I also got a pickup truck! I never thought I’d be a truck-girl, but here I am. It’s a 2025 Ford Maverick Hybrid, and that hybrid part, paired with my gardening, is the reason it came to be. I went from a tiny car with my Fiat 500 to a tiny truck with my Maverick. 

Oh, and one week, I decided to teach myself how to crochet.

I intended for this post to be an update about writing and querying, but I think I will save that for another update maybe possibly hopefully within the next couple of days to a week. But my track record with blog posts does not really spark confidence in that. Please believe I’m better at consistently writing fiction than I am at writing blog posts. 😅

Anyway, tootles!