Chapter Fifteen - Targeting Paparazzi

The paparazzi were like roaches - they always seemed to spot food or in this case juicy gossip. And they never failed to congregate at our door. It was annoying, as we were celebrities now in our own right. Luckily we were in good with the Watcher because He doesn't like paparazzi either and occasionally gives us a helping hand.

That roughly translates into hurling multiple meteors from space. If that doesn't teach those paparazzi some manners I don't know what will. Of course getting one's property set on fire was a slight problem. But no biggie. It just meant that we had to get up and put the fire out.

Since my adrenaline was already pumping, I decided that since I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, I might as well start harvesting the plants. When the sun came up, I went outside, collected the debris and got the mail from the mailbox.

Of course, I got my usual tasks done during the daytime and River and I had some fun. That pretty much tired us out and we went to sleep. So did Sally in her dog bed.

The evening was quiet enough. Nothing exciting happened and our house didn't get burgled. All in all, that made it a good night.

I ate some cobbler for breakfast and River and I decided to conserve some water and shower together.

After dealing with harvesting the crops and milking the cows, I headed down to Aleister's to deal with getting some honey. Yeah...that probably wasn't the best idea in the world because when I went down there, I got attacked by bees. Evidently they weren't in a very good mood. Neither was I by the end of it.

Well, I managed to finish off the Uncommonly Good challenge which allowed me to now start planting eggs and cheese. That was going to make getting perfect eggs and cheese a good possibility.

I decided that I was going to get a flu shot in order to get me through the winter and a dang paparazzi decided that they were going to follow me. He who watches, zapped the living carumba out of that paparazzi. All 1B volts coursed through her in a matter of a millisecond. That was the only reason why it didn't kill her outright. It just gave her a really nasty shock.

There was a lot to do. River worked on her painting, while I used the chemistry table to discover more potions and Sally headed off to sniff out some more gemstones, rocks and other stuff.

...and of course, there was always time for woohoo...

Yeah, men have a one-track mind - me included.

Chapter Fourteen - Selling Paintings; Selling Produce

Mornings were always busy but of course we had time to acknowledge each other. It kept our marriage healthy. We always took the time out of our day to tell each other, "I love you" and well that sort of thing was what provided the glue to a marriage: each acknowledging that the other meant the world to each other. Too many times, people get absorbed in their own activities and the other starts feeling neglected. So we didn't want that to happen to us. Marriage takes work and a long-lasting marriage takes even more work.

After all that lovin', I had to head out and freeze my hind-end off massaging cow-teats. The cows gave us milk and I turned that milk into cheese. It kept us in grilled cheese sandwiches and in potential sales of cheese at the grocery store, quality pending. It certainly made it so that we had multiple streams of income coming in.

We managed to buy a potion table. At this point we were unsure of what we could use it for, other than to make a few potions that we could use to enhance our quality of life. And if we were able to make a potion that we could use to cut down sleep and wake-up well-rested on half the time it usually took, it certainly would help productivity on those busy days when we needed it.

Sally was always a diligent dog. Every evening without fail, she would be out there hunting for gemstones. If we didn't have Sally, our fortunes would probably be a lot darker. When the weather was colder, it was easier to hunt things out by night; no having to dodge traffic.

Of course, Sally would stay out nearly all night while we slept comfortable in our beds. We made sure to get the highest quality dog food to compensate her for doing that and made sure that we took care of her every need.

Breakfast usually, if we had eaten the night before was a quick meal, either a yogurt or a juice to top up the stomach for a day's work. Or if we hadn't and we were getting a bit hungry, we'd eat a meal.

After eating, I'd go milk the cows and collect the eggs from the chickens. It kept me busy. And considering the fact that I went into gardening as my career, I was slowly working my way towards getting the opportunity to plant some interesting plants. My usual first tasks of the day were always the same; deal with the livestock and deal with the greenhouse. Then afterwards, I would come in and go muck about at the chemistry table so that I could elevate my logic and discover some new potions that could possibly help us.

River worked on some more paintings that she decided to get done so that she would have a few more to sell. Each one put a lot more into our pockets; much more than I could get selling the produce from our garden. If it wasn't for Sally finding gemstones and River's paintings, we'd be a lot tighter in the wallet than we were now.

Well, sitting in my underwear in the armchair reading a cooking book sort of raised my cooking skill considerably, mind you. Even though it had been a garbage dump rescue and required some major cleanup and disinfecting, it was a comfy chair.

River decided that she needed to go out and get some books of her own too, so she headed down to the bookstore, while I headed out to the grocery store to dispose of my last few days of produce, which netted me a not-so princely sum, but at least it was something.

River came home to have grilled cheese for dinner, sometimes, you just don't want to have to deal with a whole bunch of cooking. But of course, she got a call from the local fast-food place wanting her to send over some of her paintings. She got paid for it. At least that was the good thing. Going out in the evening to sell paintings, she had to contend with black ice on the road and that could potentially be dangerous. But of course, she was careful.

Evidently I managed to make something explosive at the chemistry table. At least the only ramifications were that I got singed. Somehow trying to eat grilled cheese while being kinda grilled oneself sort of makes for an interesting dichotomy but I decided to forego the grilled cheese in favour of mac n' cheese. Don't know if it was any better.

Well, at least River made it home safely from the sale of her paintings. And at least Richmond had salted down their roads which made traction a bit easier; not by much though.