Coookies
Good morning,
Had a fun time last Tuesday doing some cooking and baking. We had already planned that I was going to make up a batch of my blind man chili on Tuesday for dinner. But, Monday evening I had remembered that in one of our cupboards I had found a bag of semi sweet chocolate chips. So, after doing some checking around, I realized we actually had all of the ingredients to make some chocolate chip cookies. So, Tuesday morning, while my roll of ground beef defrosted for my chili, I got to work making up a batch of cookie dough. Once I got that finished, I put it in the fridge to let it cool down for a while. I'm not a big fan of making cookies immediately after getting the dough ready. I always feel like it's way too sticky that way. So, I like to refrigerate my dough for at least a couple of hours. While that sat in the fridge, I got to work on making up a batch of my blind man chili. With that done and cooking away in the crockpot, I got back to work on creating an archive project. Last week I had mentioned about after the first of the year moving forward on releasing more stuff here on my Substack. With that in mind, I set up an archive where I will be able to keep everything. I want to make sure that stuff is saved and kept somewhere where it won't get lost. After getting all of that done, I got to work in the afternoon on baking up some cookies. I've always enjoyed being out in the kitchen baking. It's something my wife helped me years ago to realize I can do, and that I'm pretty good at. I had a great time out there in the kitchen baking up cookies and listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Talking Scared. It was just a really nice time. Yes, me, the guy who sits in his office close to a Pennywise mask, two mannequin heads, at least you hope those severed heads are fake, a badass pitchfork, and many many horror novels from my favorite authors surrounding him, loves to bake cookies. So, Tuesday evening we got to enjoy a wonderful hot bowl of chili, followed by a couple of yummy chocolate chip cookies for dessert. Really enjoyed my time in the kitchen last week, and glad I can do stuff like that from time to time so my wife doesn't always have to cook.
Worked outside a bit on my own last week. Wanted to try and get some of our outside stuff done and ready to go for winter. I figured if I could get some of it finished up and done, then it was less that we all had to work together on. So I went through our list of stuff we needed to do, picked out the things I could easily do on my own, and worked outdoors when it wasn't too bad out and got all of that stuff finished up. Gutters, oh what fun to clean out gutters. I'm joking, it's not fun at all. But, it needed done, so I got it done. I know my wife and kids don't like when I go up on a ladder, but I wanted to get those taken care of and done since all the leaves have dropped, and I wouldn't have to do it anymore this season. I wore gloves, to protect my hands from being torn up by some of the sharp edges on the gutters, and also because I'm terrified of spiders, and don't want any of those creepy little bastards crawling on me. I figure with the gloves on I can just ignore it if there is one and not know it's there . You know, since I can't see it and all. Spiders are affectionately known in our household as an "eight legged fuck that", and yeah, fuck that. Then, on Sunday, my wife, myself, and our youngest daughter went out and got everything else finished up outside. Leaves are done, all of our outside stuff is packed up and put away, snow blower is prepped and ready, and we are officially ready for winter. Not that I want it to be winter already, but at least now we are ready to go for the cold weather. Which, looking ahead at the weather for this week, it gets pretty cold here in Iowa later this week. Highs only up there in the 30s. So, really glad we got out there and got all of that stuff done. Now we can just enjoy burning wood in the fireplace and not have to go out and freeze our asses off to deal with any outside stuff. A big thank you to my wife and our youngest daughter for all of their hard work and help, I really appreciate you guys working so hard and the three of us getting all of that done.
Finished reading The Last Thing To Burn by Will Dean. Wow, what a hell of a book! I went between moments of nail biting on the edge of my seat, and moments of wanting to throw up. What a hell of a book. I've heard about this one, and decided I needed to find out what everyone had been talking about. Wow, just wow. The things that woman goes through, holy shit. I don't wanna say too much in case you haven't read it, but damn, don't know that I am mentally strong enough to be in that kind of a situation and deal with the horrors she faces. Uncomfortable as it was at times to read, I really think you should grab yourself a copy of this one and check it out. It's terrifying in the sense that some monsters are human. Give it a read, but be careful, it might break your heart. Great book despite making my stomach turn at times.
I also finished reading The Silence: Broken Aegis by David Adams. I liked this book a lot. It was some really good dark fantasy/horror. I don't read fantasy books all that often, but this one was damn good and I'm really glad I decided to read it. It follows four knights, a tower they find themselves trapped in, and a lurking evil that's trapped in there with them. It was really damn good! The creepiness, that evil, the terrifying visions there forced to deal with, and the not quite knowing if they're really in reality or not. Great book, definitely think you should go grab yourself a copy of this one!
Currently reading: Bat Eater and Other Names For Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker.
Currently listening: I listened to a playlist called All Our Favorite Songs, a playlist my wife and I put together of some of our favorite music to enjoy together, while I was cooking and baking. Love that playlist, and a lot of that music always makes me think of her. Otherwise, enjoyed listening to my Lacuna Coil playlist, my Disturbed playlist, and my Fleetwood Mac playlist.
Currently watching: as much college football as I can. We only have about one more week of regular season play, so I tried to enjoy as much Big Ten college football on Saturday as I could. The wife and I watched a really interesting documentary on Eddie Murphy on Netflix. It was fascinating and I really enjoyed hearing not only about his life and the things he's gone through, but what he's up to now. It was really quite interesting and definitely something you should check out. We also enjoyed another episode of season 2 of Landman on Paramount+, hell yeah, love this show! On my own I watched a new episode of IT: Welcome To Derry on HBO Max. Yeah, I've said it several weeks in a row now, this show is fucking creepy! But, I'm loving the hell out of it too! Awesome show!
it's a short week this week for me. My wife and youngest daughter have Wednesday through Friday off, and I'm planning on just spending time with them, our other kids, and just taking a break. Going to try to get some stuff done here over the next couple of days, writing work, some editing on some stuff, and baking some more cookies. Because you know, why not? It's always time for more cookies. Excited for the break though. I think my brain could use it. I've been doing so much with creating documents, folders, and building an archive, that I could just really use a break from everything. So, planning on enjoying time with family, hopefully some good food, some football of course, and just taking it easy.
Since I won't talk to you again till after Thanksgiving, I hope you have a wonderful holiday, you get to enjoy time with family and friends, you get to enjoy some good food, and you just have a wonderful break as well. You know, coffee always goes great with turkey. Just saying...
so, take it easy out there everybody, have a wonderful safe and happy Thanksgiving, enjoy some great food, and make sure you're drinking your coffee. Take care, and I'll talk to you again next week. Thanks so much, and a happy Thanksgiving to all of you!
Thank you for reading this weeks newsletter. I hope to see you back here next week. Be yourself, be original, and be bloody.
- Matthew R. Taylor
Find all of my books on Amazon, including my newest book Dark, at the following link. There you will be able to grab yourself my new book, along with everything else I've written and published. Thanks so much, and I truly hope you enjoy my fiction and poetry.