Reasons I am Friggin' Happy Today

1. Very productive morning, made more so by the handyman being late.

2. I put the screen in the front door.

3. The handyman has fixed the dishwasher and one drawer.

4. The handyman will next fix the sprayer and the other drawer.

5. Number Two's microphone arrived.

6. Jim Butcher's new book arrived.

7. My Entertainment Weekly has arrived.

8. Supernatural is on tonight, and it's new!

9. Bones is also on tonight.

10. My kids are awesome.

Explanations, Caveats, and Addendums

1. With the handyman coming, I had to clear out the cabinets and dishwasher, then I had a workshop lecture to post, some client work to do, family stuff, and bills to pay. I was running out of time for the last thing when the handyman called and said he'd be half an hour late. So I had time to finish all my downstairs office stuff and then move to my upstairs office (laptop on dining room table) before he arrived.

2. We've lived here 11 years. When we moved in, we had a three-year-old, and by the time she was old enough that I wasn't afraid she'd put her hand through the screen trying to open the door, Number Two was the perfect age to do so. After that, I was just lazy, I dunno. But today I pulled it out of the boiler room and swapped it with the full-panel glass insert. MAN, was that heavy. But it's safely downstairs, and we have the most awesome crossbreeze now.

3. Our house was built in 1962. It's not ancient, but it's old enough to need a fairly steady stream of work. Add the fact that apparently the builders or retrofitters never did anything properly (that's a whole 'nother post), and said work tends to be problematic in some way or another. The dishwasher is perpendicular to the cabinets (see left). It sits on the subflooring, while ceramic tile in front of it creates a nearly one-inch drop. The countertop did not originally have a side panel; it just rested on top of the dishwasher. When we had the cabinets refaced, the guy put in a side panel, but that meant there was an inch between the dishwasher and the counter. The dishwasher wasn't anchored. First time I opened the door, the whole thing tipped forward. When we replaced the dishwasher a couple of months ago, the installer positioned it all the way to the right so it would clear the drawer and cabinet handle. But when he anchored it, it must have shifted, because it was not only unable to be opened because it hit the door handles, it rubbed the side of the cutout space. Of course, I didn't notice until after the installer had gone. He refused to respond to phone calls or faxes or complaints to Sears, so we suffered. But NOW, the handyman (from Handyman Matters has raised up the dishwasher and moved it to the right and anchored it so it not only fits and doesn't interfere, it LOOKS good, too!

4. After we'd decided to call in a handyman to fix the dishwasher and the Drawers of Suck (slide bent, replaced it, it shredded the wood, couldn't find the parts to do it ourselves—the other drawer just needed anchoring in the back), the sink sprayer stopped working. I couldn't find a replacement locally without having to buy a whole faucet set, so I ordered one online. But when he tried to replace it, the hose that came with it isn't compatible with the connector under the sink, and the sprayer end of the old hose isn't compatible with the new sprayer head. He went to Home Depot and bought a basic replacement head but it didn't solve the problem, so we probably need to replace the whole faucet system. That sucks. And he still has to try to fix the King Drawer of Suck, so we're looking at a 3-hour bill, minimum.

5. Number Two saved up her money and subscribed to Smart Music. For her birthday we added the instrument microphone. That finally came today, and gives her the ability to self-tune her viola, as well as grade her playing. She's excited and now her entire afternoon is set. :)

6. There are a multitude of authors whose books I enjoy, and many I love. But I can count on one hand the ones I'll squee over and buy in hardcover the day they come out, or even preorder. Jim Butcher is one. He combines everything that pushes my buttons—paranormal shenanigans, snarky humor, heart-pounding adventure, and people who love each other so much they'd kill or die for them (and not just romantically; in fact, mostly not romantically). I read 12 pages while I ate my salad, and now the book is glowing on my table, enticing me. But I shall be a good girl and work on my revisions. After I finish this post, of course.

7. Entertainment Weekly used to come on Fridays, and sometimes, if the postal service was in a mood, not until Saturday or even Monday. But the last few weeks, it's been coming on Thursday, cementing that day in its spot as my favorite of the week.

8. I haven't talked yet about last week's Supernatural episode. Oh, right, because I did the recap at Supernatural Sisters. I loved how they covered the whole "But they've died before. A lot. So why are they just in heaven now?" problem. Their memories were erased! Easy-peasy! But it fits with the show. The angels wouldn't have wanted them to remember the afterlife, early on. I loved Ash, SO so much. "I'm cool with it!" Pamela's logic was not flawed, but I hated that she tried to manipulate Dean. I mean, life is life, and the afterlife is something totally different. Why should all those people give up the living just because the afterlife seems like it ain't so bad? Dean believes in the value of life so far beyond what anyone else in the Supernatural world believes. He's humanity's champion, and he won't ever give in, no matter how bad things looked at the end.

9. I like every show I watch. If I didn't, I wouldn't bother. Duh. :) But the only one that feels like a guilty pleasure is Bones. I have no idea why. Maybe it's just weird for me to like a very successful show.

10. Number Two's parent/teacher conference was last night, and it went very well. We learned something that kind of blew us away. And Number One gets inducted into the French National Honor Society tonight. So we're proud parents. :)

What's making YOU happy today?

Awesome Contest, Awesome Cause

Can you believe that a $10 mosquito net could save someone’s life? It can.

Go here to see how you can help, and enter a great drawing, too!

Entertaining Me

Whew, I've been absent a while. I actually had some things to talk about, too, and haven't found time or energy to post! Sorry. :(

So, here we go, I think in chronological order...

Life UneXpected
I'm done. Haven't watched the last two eps (three now), because the thought of watching shrill, whiny Kate makes my skin crawl and my stomach heave.

Parenthood
Still in, because I do love the family interactions (as Mary says), but not eager to watch each episode.

Thursday Night
I cannot BELEEEEVE how much I watch (i.e. DVR) on Thursday night. Starting next week, when everything's back, I'll have five shows to watch. Still loving all of them. (FYI, that's Bones, FlashForward, Fringe, Supernatural, The Mentalist; have to make sure there's no misunderstanding about that LOL.)

Anyway, Supernatural...

While I won't put "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" up on my top 10, I loved the episode. I mean, besides the fact that Bobby without a hat is just WRONG. And that as good as the actress playing his wife was, I liked the one from "Dream a Little Dream" much better. This one was too old, really—she matched Bobby's real age, not the age she would have been when he killed her. Still, she did a lovely job.

I won't rehash everything everyone else is talking about (the gore, the funny, the heartbreaking), but I wanted to talk about the thing that a lot of people took at face value and were disappointed with: Death.

Yeah, at first analysis, it seems kind of odd that after War's and Famine's level of power and destruction, Dead seems kind of lame. He raised 20 people? In Bobby's town? To send Bobby a message we never heard? Um...okay. Anticlimactic much?

HOWEVER! I have a theory, borne immediately of that oddness. I wondered if Death's power is diminished because his brothers' is gone. War and Famine aren't dead, as far as we know, but the source of their power (ring, souls) was taken from them. So maybe Death just doesn't have the juice, like if the brothers have a synergistic power relationship.

Plus, we've had hints about Lucifer. He's still powerful, of course, can never doubt that, but his vessel isn't strong, and it's weakening. Zachariah said Lucifer couldn't do much until he found a vessel, so it's almost a no-brainer that if his vessel is deteriorating, so would be his control. Maybe the message to Bobby was desperation, because he needs Sam so badly. Or maybe it's just a taste of what's to come.

So that left me feeling, in the end, like the show wasn't lacking, it was actually chock full of interesting stuff. :)

Friday with Jason Manns
Hot friends, hot music, what more can you ask for? Jason was as good...no, this was definitely the best concert yet. He played "Journey"! I don't think he's done that at any other venue I've attended. That's my definite favorite. He also did "Perfect Spot," my second favorite, and a couple of new ones from the CD, which I of course purchased and had signed.

How to Train Your Dragon
Believe it or not, this is the movie of the year. At least, so far. I have high hopes for Iron Man 2. But really, HtTYD was sweet, and funny, and incredibly rendered (even in 2D—3D is fine, but too expensive for not a big enough difference). The characters were all very well wrought, the storyline nothing really unique but still very well written. The flying scenes and fight sequences were exciting, and I got teary more than once, even letting out an "oh!" near the end. EVERYONE should see this movie.

There was only one thing that was kind of negative, but not enough to ruin the movie, of course. I don't understand why the Viking adults sounded like Scots while the Viking kids sounded like whiny Americans. The voices were all great and fit their characters (or the characters fit the voices), but it was a little weird. I guess we don't know what Vikings sounded like?

Random Comments

Nestor Carbonell is fantabulous.

Felicity totally belonged with Noel.

Human Target gets more interesting every week, especially as they bring back secondary characters from past episodes; love Leila, where's Martin?

Nathan Fillion rocks my socks.

I just remembered, my kid accidentally deleted Modern Family, and it's (hopefully!) sitting on my iPod right now. I'm off to watch it! (Or pout, if it didn't sync properly...)

What has been entertaining YOU lately?

Upcoming Workshop!

April 2010 — The Pirates Guide to a Successful Publishing Career
Presented by Natalie J. Damschroder

Dates: April 5-17
Deadline: April 2
Fee: $16.00
http://lowcountryrwa.com/online-workshops/#APR

Course Description:
Based on the line in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, that the pirates’ code is “more what you’d call ‘guidelines’ than actual rules.” In almost every case, the “rules” of writing and doing business in the romance industry are actually guidelines. The reality is that there is no one path to success, and even some things that seem absolute have exceptions or nuances. The key is to know enough to be prepared for any eventuality, understand the expectations of the genre and the industry, and “violate” the so-called “rules” intentionally and positively.

Natalie J. Damschroder is certainly not the only author to embrace the reality of the pirate’s code, but she was one of the first. Applying the line from the movie Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, that the pirates’ code is “more what you’d call ‘guidelines’ than actual rules,” she asserts that in nearly every case, the “rules” of writing and doing business in the romance industry are actually guidelines.

Being successful is not about copying another author’s path or habits, or following the Laws of Writing. It’s about taking in everything, determining your personal truth, and following your own path.

In this workshop, she addresses:
• craft
• the market
• networking
• contests
• and how best to achieve your own success, however you define it.

Instructor Bio:
Natalie J. Damschroder is the published author of seven novels and nearly two dozen novellas and short stories. She currently writes urban fantasy and romantic adventure. Over the nearly 17 years she's been part of the romance writing community, she has absorbed tons of information and has found that the Internet is like one gigantic game of telephone. She can't claim to have ALL the answers or be right ALL the time, but it's definitely one of her goals. A pragmatic, eyes-open approach to this business is her underlying philosophy.

Read more about Natalie at her website: www.nataliedamschroder.com

You can register for the following on-line class through April 2. Each class is $16.
FMI: www.lowcountryrwa.com/online-workshops/

Or email Online Workshop Coordinator, Veronica Alderson, lrwaonline@yahoo.com using the Subject line: LRWA ONLINE WORKSHOP. To subscribe to LRWA Online Workshop monthly mailing list, LRWAonlinecourses@yahoogroups.com

Thank you.

Veronica Alderson,
LRWA Online Workshop Coordinator

Random Thoughts

Today's randomness is brought to you by The Gab Wagon!

Waiting for Sunshine

The incomparable Sue Gourley/Susan Kelley bestowed this upon me. I can't say I agree that I deserve it, because this blog is sometimes FAR from sunny. :) But I thank her nonetheless.

It's been a few days since she posted this, but it rained all of those days, and today was gawjus, brilliantly sunny, so it seemed appropriate.

I'm going to mix it up a big and pass on this award to blogs of people I don't know personally. A couple might count as cheating, but I'm including them because they always make me smile. If this comes up in their Google Alerts, they can accept and pass on the award.

I Can Has Cheezburger (LOLcats)

I Has a Hot Dog (LOLdogs)

Amalah (mommyblogger)

The TV Addict (self-explanatory)

Around the 'Net

This week is Read an E-book Week! Guess what? I have tons of e-books. I mean, most of the books and stories I've written are available in various e-book formats. The story I wrote for Heartwild Solitaire Classic is also, technically, an e-book. :) But you can get a whole bunch for free this week! Maybe mine, I don't know, I guess it depends where you go and what the promotion is. I suggest you start here, at Jody Wallace's blog. She listed a bunch of stuff so why should I do more work? :) Thanks, Jody!

Speaking of e-books, Victoria Allen's new story, Aces and Eights is on sale!

On March 18th, the cover for CRUSADE, the new series by Nancy Holder and Debbie Vigue, will be revealed at WICKED SERIES on Facebook.

Vicki Smith blogged about Sam and Dean today at Supernatural Sisters today. It's quite funny and soooo true!

Monday I did some contest venting at The Gabwagon. It's not the kind you think.

March Madness has hit! No, not basketball, SUPERNATURAL. My friend Gail does it every year, and it's fun. And very difficult on occasion. Head over and vote for your favorite SPN episodes in head-to-head matchups! And make sure to keep checking as additional brackets go up.

The Good Kind of Busy

We had quite a weekend!

Obnoxious Parental Bragging Alert

Saturday started out with my local writers meeting, which was in a new venue that worked out very well. We had a great meeting, and it was especially wonderful to see everyone since our February meeting got snowed out. We had, like, 71% attendance, which is amazing.

I didn't get to talk to everyone, though, as I had to leave as soon as the meeting was over. Number Two was in a Math Meet! She missed it last year because when it was announced she'd committed to a soccer tournament already. But this year they were ready. To enter, anyway. LOL The program thanked all the parents who spent hours practicing with their kids. Number Two didn't practice, and she says none of her team did. Whoops!

They ended up going first of the 8 rounds (16 teams to start). She hated that! It was so nerve-wracking for her, and therefore for us. But WOW. They had white boards, but were doing all the problems in their heads, and buzzing in and answering immediately. The setup was 12 speed-round questions, where any of the 8 kids (4 per team) could buzz in and then had 3 seconds to answer. If they got it right, one point. Wrong, the other team had a try. After 12 questions, they did a Jeopardy!-type question, where they wagered up to their total points from the speed round, and answered the question as a team.

They won the first round 11-4! Then I had to go out to work the concession stand, and I kept running back and forth to check the bracket status, I was so afraid I was going to miss her next round! LOL They won the second round just as easily, 7-0. I was so proud of all of them. Two boys, two girls (only 5 of the 16 teams were co-ed, and most of those were only one girl), kids who work together in classes all the time and get along great, and who really supported each other. Best of all, they all answered questions. Most teams had one kid who answered, like, 10 or 11, and one who squeaked one in. I lliked how balanced hers was.

So then they went to the semi-finals, and of course it was going to be tougher. The questions were more complex, the competition stiffer. Two of our team members made a mistake and hit the buzzer too early (including Number Two once!) so that they didn't have all the info to answer accurately. And one of the boys kept getting flustered and giving the wrong format of answer (well, not "kept," it was only twice, and in two separate rounds). Anyway, bottom line, the end score of the speed round was 10-10. Of course, they both wagered 10, and both teams got the final question right, so they wagered again, and ended up tied 20-20. So they did a final speed round question, and Number Two buzzed in and got it! Woo hoo!

Unfortunately, they were outmatched in the final round, and lost by one point. That team had one kid who was just a whiz, and at least twice, they deliberately buzzed in early and lucked out with the question. The parents behind us really ticked off Number One. One father said the answers pretty loudly, though I guess they didn't carry to the stage. We heard remarks about our school, too. Slightly too much competition among the parents. The kids were all great, though, and we were extremely proud!

After that we went to dinner with the in-laws, and I had a great visit with my sister, whom I haven't seen in way too long. We brought them back here to play Band Hero, and Nana rocked the guitar, with Aunt Cindy bringing down the house with her singing! SO much fun.

That night was finished up with The Music Man, the high school production. Number One was on paint crew, and as a freshman was assigned a special task: because she did the wood panels on the train car so well, she was assigned all the wood on all the sets, for consistency. She did a REALLY good job. The show was top-notch, but the best part was leaning over to ask her, "what part of this set did you do?" :)

Yesterday was supposed to be more of a work day, but we shopped for new dishes, and had a lunch date, which was nice. Then we split up for Alice in Wonderland, as Number Two wanted 3D and Number One didn't. The movie was okay, though I dozed off about 3/4 of the way through. I did that at the musical, too. I think I should probably try to go to bed earlier this week. I need to recover from the weekend!

Coming Clean

Huh. I screwed up the rules. Honestly, I am NOT one of those writers who claims to be horrible at math. I've always been pretty decent at it. But somehow, I failed to add 1 to 6 and didn't end up with 7 things, but only 6.

Oh, well.

So, which are my truths and lies? Well, good liars know that good lies are always grounded in truth. So here's me coming clean:

1. I have been to several countries in Europe, and I don’t remember any of it.

This is 100% true. Some of the traveling was in utero, and some was postpartum, but all was before I was a year old. :)

2. When I was like 14, babysitting my brother, we got into a fight and I tried to stab him with a garlic press, and hit my hand instead. I still have the scar.

Again 100% true. I scared myself so badly when the blood welled up, I immediately stopped fighting with him. And went to tell the neighbor that no, even though I screamed I wanted to kill him at the top of my lungs, I didn't actually do so.

3. I have top security clearance because of my job at National Geographic, which means I could technically be told lots of state secrets.

HA! No one could have thought that was true. Pretty outrageous.

4. When I was dating my husband in college, his fraternity had a tradition that if a brother pinned his girlfriend, they carried him down to the sulfur spring, stripped him naked, and tossed him in. Then they gave him back his shoes and made him run naked back to the frat house, about half a mile. I got to see this happen to two of my husband’s brothers, but not him. He never pinned me.

Fully true. I think he gave me the pin after he graduated, but by then we were practically engaged, so it didn't count.

5. When I worked in DC, my aunt worked for Budget Rent-a-Car and she got me cars when I needed one for a trip home. One was a Lincoln Town Car. One was a red Mustang convertible. I kept that one a couple of extra days and took it up to 100 on the Beltway.

I hope she never reads this, that's all I can say.

6. In my summer job at Sarett Nature Center after my sophomore year of college, I got bit by all of the following: a raccoon, a barred owl, a black rat snake, a baby fox, an injured kestrel, and a tiny white mouse. Oh, and black flies.

Mostly a lie. I only got bit by the mouse and the flies. :) Someone else got bit by the black rat snake, when he was catching it (those puppies are FAST), and I don't think any of the others ever bit anyone.

Huh. I told more truth than lies. I guess I'm not that good at it after all! :)

Me? Lie? Never!

My friend Monica Burns tagged me for a very different kind of “award.”  I have to come up with lies to tell you people!  I don’t think I’m very good at this.  Certainly not nearly as good as Monica is!  But what the hey, I’ll give it a try.

First I’ll post the rules:

1. Thank the person who gave this to you. (Uh, thanks, Monica!)

2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.

3. Link to the person who nominated you.

4. Tell up to six outrageous lies about yourself, and at least one outrageous truth.

5. Nominate seven “Creative Writers” who might have fun coming up with outrageous lies.

6. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate.

7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them.

People are going to get seriously annoyed with me if I keep tagging them. No one give me any more awards! LOL

Okay, first the lies/truths.  Guess which are which.

1. I have been to several countries in Europe, and I don’t remember any of it.

2. When I was like 14, babysitting my brother, we got into a fight and I tried to stab him with a garlic press, and hit my hand instead. I still have the scar.

3. I have top security clearance because of my job at National Geographic, which means I could technically be told lots of state secrets.

4. When I was dating my husband in college, his fraternity had a tradition that if a brother pinned his girlfriend, they carried him down to the sulfur spring, stripped him naked, and tossed him in. Then they gave him back his shoes and made him run naked back to the frat house, about half a mile. I got to see this happen to two of my husband’s brothers, but not him. He never pinned me.

5. When I worked in DC, my aunt worked for Budget Rent-a-Car and she got me cars when I needed one for a trip home.  One was a Lincoln Town Car. One was a red Mustang convertible. I kept that one a couple of extra days and took it up to 100 on the Beltway.

6. In my summer job at Sarrett Nature Center after my sophomore year of college, I got bit by all of the following: a raccoon, a barred owl, a black rat snake, a baby fox, an injured kestrel, and a tiny white mouse. Oh, and black flies.

Who knows me best? Guess away in the comments!

I tag the following, who I know can be really awesome liars creative bloggers:

1. Victoria Smith

2. Jody Wallace

3. Ava Quinn

4. Tracy Madison

5. Misty Simon

6. Megan Hart

7. Gail at Stream of Conscience

Disappointment and Victory

I got some bad news this morning. It was business, and it's not a bad thing in the long run, but it's a blow and a setback and has left me feeling a bit adrift and at loose ends today.

BUT.

Then I played Wii Sport Resort, Swordplay Showdown.

I've been trying for MONTHS to get past level 18. MONTHS. I once spent 2 hours trying. I've gone long stretches without playing, but I'm sure I've logged many, many hours at it.

And it's kind of metaphorical, when compared to this setback I had. You see, I had certain strategies that let me get to level 18, but they failed at that point. Sometimes they failed immediately, sometimes I got to 91% (as in, I've defeated 91% of my opponents) before they failed. But I never, ever got through. I even went all the way back to the beginning once, to rebuild my score, get it as high as possible, hopefully giving me more strength/power to defeat my opponents. But nope, it didn't work.

There was a strategy I knew I needed to employ, but never got the hang of it. My brain and muscles were too trained in the old way. Today, after a bunch of failures, I made it work, and I got through level 18!

Man, you should have heard me shouting. LOL But it doesn't end there. Of course, I had to move on, and level 19 only took me a few tries. Level 20 was harder, with far more aggressive opponents, but I kept trying, and finally broke through and won. I am now Swordmaster! :)

So the lesson: Patience, new strategies, and calculated aggressiveness can lead to success. I think I'm going to have to employ that elsewhere.

Diet Effectiveness Backfires

So, my cat is fat. Or at least, she was. Maya, our oldest cat, was rescued from the pound only a few months after she'd given birth. The vet said she hadn't regained her girlish figure. It soon became apparent that she wasn't going to. Her belly was too pouchy. Ready to be filled, apparently, because over the next few years, she grew.

We gave her only a quarter cup of indoor formula cat food twice a day. That's, like, a quarter of what the bag said to feed an adult cat of her size. But she always went after the dog food, and even though we'd put it up when the dog didn't eat it, it wasn't possible to keep her away from it completely.

We never thought she was getting enough of the dog food to gain so much weight, nor did she ever get people food, but she still turned into Puddle Cat (she's on the left):


A while ago, because all three cats were getting into the dog food more and more, we cut back on that quarter cup of dry, indoor-formula cat food. Maya was only getting an eighth of a cup because she'd gotten so big. I noticed that it was working. She didn't puddle so much. Then Dolly died, and there was no more dog food for her to get into. And WHOA.

She weighs less than BG, aka Tiny Cat (the cat on the right in the above shot)!

Wii Fit has a Pet Stats feature so you can weight your pets, and that's how we know. Maya is still pouchy, but she's squeezable enough to get through the bars of the gate we have at the top of the basement stairs:


That's about 2.5 inches between bars. !!!

So that's the backfiring part. We don't mind Maya getting downstairs, but I'm afraid she's going to hurt herself. Every day, I hear her either coming up or going down, squeezing herself through those bars.

The gate is up to keep Frisbee from going down. She's a big cat, weighs more than the others because she's longer and a heavier breed (and got into the dog food, too), and hates to jump down from any height greater than about three inches, so the gate works. But I think we're going to have to take it down, and take a chance that she forgot how much she likes to pee on the rug downstairs, just to keep Maya from dislocating a hip or causing internal bleeding.

OR, we could just let her get fat again.

Nah.

So here are my kitties now:


Maya, No Longer Fat Cat


BG, Apparently Densely Packed


Frisbee, Always and Forever Demon Kitty

I Have Permission to Tell You This

Number One took an Intro to Foreign Foods last semester, a precursor to this semester's Italian Cooking class. She made an excellent Kung Pao Chicken for us all, and recently decided to make Fettuccini Alfredo, her favorite Italian dish, for family dinner.

We tried. Hard. I thought it was odd that it didn't thicken very much, but she'd done everything right, as far as I could tell, and we all made enthusiastic and encouraging noises as we dished up. On first bite, it was pretty good, although sweet. On additional bites, it tasted sweeter and sweeter. I got up to check the basil, to see if she used sweet basil, but she hadn't. Then I thought maybe the basil was old and had therefore changed flavor or something.

After a few minutes in which it became harder and harder to eat the pasta, I suddenly had a brain flash. An image, as I walked through the kitchen, of Number One measuring the flour. From a yellow canister out of the cupboard. Not the glass canister from the counter.

Yeah. She used powdered sugar.

I'll be a good mom and take some of the blame. I walked through the kitchen while she was measuring it, and I was there as she mixed it into the butter. I half noticed how bright white it was, and attributed it to the lighting. But it never occurred to me that she was inexperienced enough not to be able to tell that it was too fine or smelled different. And I wasn't actively supervising her or anything.

She tried again last night, and it was perfect. :)

Snow Day Madness

Phone call at 5:30 this morning. School canceled. Not just a delay! I was surprised, because the actuality had flagrantly defied the forecast. When I got up at 8, I snapped this photo:



People kept telling me bad things were expected, so I figured more was to come, and it was very windy. I mean, not windy enough to close school IMO, but buses do have a high profile and some undoubtedly go out into unsheltered farmy-type areas, so the wind would be blowing yesterday's 1/4-inch dusting across the road.

But my husband told me the roads all the way to work were dry, and he passes through a lot of unsheltered farmy-type areas. We've had flurries, sunshine, and what they call "snow showers" when it comes down faster than flurries, but doesn't stick. But nothing worth closing over.

I don't cast any blame, however. (I know, can you believe it?!) A news report I read talked about the horrible blizzard the Northeast got. Twenty or more inches of snow, furious winds that caused massive fires, tens of thousands of people without power. Even 20 inches of snow here in PA! The PA Turnpike was closed for 60 miles due to a 10-car/tractor trailer pileup. A friend down in York, about 30, 40 miles away, sent me a list of the active 911 calls this morning, with a dozen accidents. She said the plow never came to do her parking lot. We didn't even need to clear off the car! Turn on the wipers and the back defroster, and voila!

This has been an exceedingly weird winter.

So I tried to work this morning. Morning became "entire day." I got some vital e-mails taken care of, confirmed the tax refund came so I could order oil, and was heading into "actual work" territory when Number Two wanted to play Rock Band. I couldn't say no, of course. And then it was lunchtime, and then when I came to work more Number One finished researching her computer and we needed to do additional research and shopping to make everything work. So that took a couple of hours of the day, but it's ordered, and she's very happy even though it won't come until mid April. Gah. Then I had to get Number Two ready to go watch basketball playoffs with her grandfather and father.

I'm still in my jammies.

In my defense, Number One and I were going to go to the club after Number Two left, but she lost her iPod and the idea didn't appeal to her at all, so she went out jogging instead. I'm going to do some Wii Fitting and take a shower. Then I'll try to force myself not to call it a day.

*sigh* Snow days.

Circle of Friends Blog Award

Wow! I'm humbly honored that Vicki Smith passed on the Circle of Friends Blog Award to me! Thanks, Vicki!

Please check out her blog. She is by turns hiLARious (as are her kids) and profound, and reading her blog is one of my semi-daily highlights.

She made choosing who to pass it on to easier, too, by listing many of the ones I read. Since I did the Lovely Blog award recently, I get to cover those I missed!

Cindy Procter-King (please note the E in Procter, that's very important)

Tracy Madison

Monica Burns

Delightful Waste of Time

This is what I've spent most of my late afternoon/evening doing.

It's quite a complex thread. At first, it just seems to be a well-supported sigh of exasperation about yet another unfounded copyright infringement lawsuit. But then you start reading the comments, and you can't stop. (Where "you," of course, = "me")

I cracked up several times, such as the Vogon part, and the bun/knish/naif part. I really got a fit of the giggles in the early 200s. That might have been all the Nazi-Internet stuff.

But there was a bit of ego rollercoastering, too. I consider myself fairly intellectual (though my interests are pretty low-brow overall), sometimes bordering on pomposity, depending on the people I'm with. While I'd never call the commenters in that thread pompous, they are FAR more intellectual than I! Even with my college degree, I felt simultaneously uneducated and stupid, and proud that while I could never talk like that, I *could* understand everything they said. Mostly.

Then there were the dissenters, a couple of whom made cogent (albeit completely inaccurate) arguments but did it drive-by, and the one game defender who just kept coming back for more.

Alas, entertainment completely canceled out my unexpected bonus work time with the kids out of the house. I shall *keek* myself now.

Post Snowpocalypse Maintenance

For those who may not have experienced three feet of snow on their roof, there are aftereffects.  The snow starts to melt, and slides, and fills the gutters, and melts and refreezes, creating ice dams.

A homeowner can ignore these, hoping the weak winter sun will melt it properly so it does no damage, but that’s dumb, because it’s still in the 20s at night, so there’s no “proper” melting possible.

So today, to prevent major roof damage, my heroic husband went up and cleared part of the roof, then emptied the front gutter (the one on the side of the house away from afternoon sun—the back of the house didn’t have ice dams).  Here’s some of what he pulled out:




And, after working for two hours on the roof (up and down the ladder, chiseling at the ice, pulling two-foot-long chunks out and tossing them), he helped Number Two finish building this:


That fort is built with probably half the ice chunks, chinked with snow like a log cabin. Pretty cool, huh?

Me? I did grocery shopping, client work, committee work, and dinner. I’m such a good little housewife. *sigh*

Watch Kitty

I’m sitting in the dining room, working.  It’s evening, so of course there’s a lot of traffic on the street, people getting home from work, going out to dinner, etc.  Frisbee is our watch cat. She doesn’t cry for every car that goes down the street, but she does alert us when the neighbors are home, and we can tell a difference when she cries because one of us is home.

A few minutes ago, she was cryyyying and cryyyying and cryyyyyying, and even though she just (finally!) had her nails trimmed, I wondered if she’d gotten herself stuck in the screen again.  Nope.  Our neighbor was stopped right in front of our house, waiting for her husband to pull out of their driveway, and Frisbee didn’t seem too happy about the limbo—car running, person inside, no sign of them coming up to the house.

*break for chauffeur duties*

This has been a pretty quiet winter for me.  We used to have two dance classes a week, plus indoor soccer or winter training.  Number Two usually had an after school club once a week.  But they both quit dance when it interfered with soccer, and this winter Number One’s team’s age group got canceled last minute, and Number Two needed to rest her Osgood-Schlatter.

But it’s about to gear up again. Number One is on paint crew for the high school musical.  They lost more than a week due to snow and the make-up day, so they’re probably going to be stretching out their sessions. Soccer open gym starts next week, and it’s at a different school. So she’ll get home at 3:21 and need to be at open gym at 3:30, until 5:30, then go straight to paint crew, which starts at 5:30 and usually goes until well after 8. Homework and dinner will be after that. She usually goes to bed at 9ish!

Also, Number Two’s after school clubs will be coming back. It remains to be seen if she’ll do one, but if she does, it will mean picking her up in the afternoon, probably around the same time her sister will need to go to open gym.  I may just force Number One to walk between schools. They’re not far, and it certainly won’t kill her. :)

Oh, before I forget AGAIN, SciFi Chick/s is doing the Supernatural March Madness again.  I think this is the  third year, and she’s running preliminaries right now.  It’s always so hard to pick favorites!  Go check it out.

See What I Mean?

Starting Saturday or Sunday, the weather people started telling us whoa, look out, more snow coming!  They couldn’t tell us how much to expect, just that it would be “plowable.”  I heard a few places say 5-8 inches, someone else said 2-4.  Guess what we got?

Yeah, we got as close to nothing as you can get and still have snow fall from the sky.  It was supposed to snow from 2 yesterday afternoon until 7 this morning.  It started late, and stopped about 12 hours early.  I had to brush a dusting off my rear windows, but the streets were only wet.  Some were actually pretty slick this morning from refreezing, but apparently not enough for them to call a two-hour delay.

So THAT’s why I live permanently in the “wait and see” category for ANY predicted snow. :)

Okay, I promise, that’s the last I’ll talk about the weather for a good long while.

We have oil.  I’m on the second load of dishes in the dishwasher*, the house is warm, the kids can shower.**

*The boiler heats the hot water, so we didn’t run the dishwasher, and we don’t wash dishes by hand—that’s what the dishwasher is for! LOL

**Not that the kids minded not showering. They chose skipping over taking short ones.

We saw two movies last weekend.  Number One and I saw Valentine’s Day on Friday night, and it was awesome.  The theater was packed—and I mean PACKED, like I was the oldest one there! and we were wall to wall, elbow to elbow—with teenyboppers.  They were fine during the movie until Taylor Swift came on screen.  We missed more dialogue for the high-pitched screeches for her than the ones for Taylor Lautner.  What’s up with that?  But then they awwwwed for the characters outside their demographic, too, so that was heartening.

Valentine’s Day was built like Love Actually, with intertwining relationships. It was masterfully done, so that you never lost track of who was doing what and why, no story thread got short shrift, and we learned enough about every character to really care what happened to them at the end.  My two very favorite parts were surprises (though one could be figured out if you had the right perspective, and I do :) ) so I can’t mention them here.  MJ, you, especially, will like this movie, I think.

The other movie saw was The Lightning Thief, a family outing, which are rare as Number Two is outgrowing one level of movies but not quiiiiite there for the next level.  We all liked it, though it was so hard not to be annoyed at certain changes.  Some made sense for the transition from page to screen.  Some were totally unnecessary.  Like what happened in the fight with the minotaur.  But most of the casting was good (even if the gods were so melodramatic they all deserve a Razzie) and there was a lot of humor.  Definitely a fun movie, especially if you didn’t read the book. :)

This just in: Supernatural has been renewed for a sixth season!  Woo hooo!

*runs off to tell everyone*

Snowmageddon and Stuff

Geez, it's been a long time since I posted! A friend even e-mailed to see if I was okay because I hadn't posted about Supernatural. I know, it's enough to make anyone think I was sick or dead. :)

Mostly, I've been buried. We got another 18 inches of snow last Wednesday, on top of the two feet we got the Saturday before. That's not the official amount, but it's what I shoveled Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning. You know what's bad about that much snow? It's not the amount on the driveway. It's the amount on the SIDE of the driveway. When you have to lift every shovelful over your head, the job becomes three times harder. My husband was sick, so the kids and I did most of it. I wanted to cry every time I tried to toss it over the bank, it stuck to the shovel, hit the top of the bank, and rolled down into the driveway behind me. But we got it done.

And I learned something. I'd pulled my car into the carport so we only had one to clean off, because I hate cleaning them off and trying to shovel around them. I find shoveling the empty driveway far easier. But that's only when we have less than a foot. So for the snow we're getting tonight (I KNOW!), we're parking in the driveway. At the bottom, because there's just no place for the snow to go down there!

The kids hardly had any school last week. Two-hour delay Monday and Friday, one full day on Tuesday, off completely Wednesday and Thursday. They were supposed to be off today, but it's a snow makeup day. They have to make up March 12, too. The way things are going, I won't be surprised if they have to extend the school year. My kids are so good about letting me work on snow days and stuff, but despite that, it cuts into my schedule. I don't get up as early, I feel guilty if I ignore them all day, they do need me for some things, and then there's the whole shoveling thing.

The snow caused another problem. Well, really, it's all my fault. We're almost out of oil! We filled the tank, a rare occurrence, in December. I'd been watching it, but it had a quick slide between half a tank and a quarter. I planned to call for delivery, but with the chaos of last week, didn't call until Thursday, payday. I wasn't surprised when she said they were behind and couldn't come until Tuesday, but I hadn't thought about it beforehand. And of COURSE the temperature then dropped to low teens every night since. We've cut back on showers, not run the dishwasher (our boiler provides the hot water as well as the heat), used the fireplace, and cut the thermostats way back, and still had to get some kerosene to get us through. Do you know how long it takes to pour five gallons? It doesn't sound like much, but man, it's heavy. :)

I have to say, I don't know how people keep their thermostats at 65 all the time. I used to do that during the day, but then the furnace ran so much in the evening, it clearly doesn't save anything. Now I keep it between 69 and 71 most of the time. That's a little lower than other people in the house would like, but we've found it endurable. But 65 is so not.

Maybe it's the configuration of my house, which is a ranch. The thermostat is at the end of the hall, near the living room. It's always comfortable on that side of the house. Number Two's bedroom is right near it, she only has one exterior wall, and she sleeps in a loft bed, so she's always fine, even now with the temp low. But Number Two is on a corner, and the master bedroom is on the north corner. When the thermostat says 65, the master bathroom is 55 degrees. Our bedroom is probably about 60. In the spring, when we've been enduring 10-degree days for five months, 60 is heaven. In the dead of winter, not so much.

Okay, moving on. Enough about the stupid weather already!

Supernatural. I admit I don't talk about it as much here anymore because of Supernatural Sisters. But last week? OMG GROSS. That definitely takes the prize for Biggest Grossfest. Ugh. I'm not going to list the ways it was gross, we all know them. Let's talk about Castiel! I love that guy so much. "They're not incontinent." "I'm here." "Nobody likes it." Misha's delivery is golden. But come on, there's no logic for him being stuck in the same clothes all the time. Let him change! :)

I thought Jared did a masterful job with the addiction, and so did Sam. I hate the clown face (wipe it off before you head to the diner, buddy!) but the way he ignored the craving and did away with Famine was awesome. Dean's utter helplessness every time he watches his brother go badass is both poignant and frustrating. Dude! Cut off the damned ring already!

I don't think any of us buy Famine's assertion that Dean's already dead inside. I know he believes it, he talked about the hole inside him when he returned from Hell. But no one cares that much about people, especially strangers, and is dead. One of the commenters (I'm too lazy to double-check who) at SPN Sis said what Dean craves is peace, so that's why Famine didn't work on him. There's no way to gorge yourself on peace, none around to feed the craving. I think that's brilliant. Though the idea of a well-fed Dean? Oh, yum.

This final six-week hiatus might kill me, especially since it coincides with the Olympics and therefore hiatus for most of my other shows.

Fringe went on an even longer hiatus, joining Glee and FlashForward for Insanely Long Breaks. I'm slightly disappointed with the way they handled the whole Peter revelation. Why didn't Olivia notice it right away? Why not Peter before the building, when she realized she was scared? Why not in the daycare center, when she was selecting the 16 things from the other world? I get why they connected it to their "date," but her reaction was a little underwhelming, too. But oh, well. It was a good cliffhanger.

The problem with waiting so long to blog is these gigantic posts. You're bored (if you're even still reading), I'm behind on my work, and it takes up a LOT of space on the page. So I'm going to stop now.

The Snowpocalypse

Number Two went out a few minutes ago and measured our current accumulation. 20 inches! It's drifted higher in a few places. The weather people have updated the ranges so that where it was supposed to be 5-15 inches they're now predicting 20, and we're on that border between areas, so south of us might get 30, and we'll probably get close to that, as it's not slowing down at all.

It's kind of a bummer that it's happening, yet again, on a Saturday. I'd rather the kids go to school on the 15th (they're currently off, but it's a snow makeup day) and have had this happen yesterday, and still get my writer's meeting today! :( Oh, well, I think this is only the second time we've had to cancel in the 14 years I've been a member.

How's things in your neck of the woods?

Ranty McRanterton, and TV Comments

So the northeast is about to be blanketed with a storm system. It's pretty certain we're going to get the snow, since the system is massive and will definitely pass over us. But the predicted snowfall range is huge, from 5 to 15 inches. And there IS a precedent for the forecasters to be totally wrong. Several years ago we were supposed to get a similar dumping, and got not a flake.

That makes things tricky, I know. Here in central PA, we're on an edge whereby if the storm tracks just a few miles north or south of the prediction, it has a huge effect on how much we get. And someone half an hour south or east could get three times as much snow as we get here in my neighborhood.

So I always take a wait and see approach. I TRY not to be all superior and obnoxious about having to plan ahead. Like, a neighbor's son was supposed to have a sleepover, with activities at a nearby sports facility right around the time the storm will be ramping up. So it makes sense to play it safe and reschedule.

But what REALLY gets me in an uproar...I'm just glad this wasn't my school...A couple of local school districts—and I mean just up the road, one of them AWAY from the approaching storm—announced an early dismissal for today. Last night, before 9:00 p.m. Despite the consistent forecast that said nothing was going to start until rush hour, and the heaviest snow will be overnight. No, they had to get their kids home at 12:30. Those buses are driving around right now, in the ZERO precipitation. For what? Nothing. So they can inconvenience parents who had to scramble to make arrangements for their kids, so they can make some of those kids wait outside in the cold or be home alone because their parents never dreamed there'd be an early dismissal because NOTHING IS HAPPENING.

I've lived here 18 years, I'll never get over the idiocy obsessive overcaution.

~~~~~~~~~~
Enough of that. Some comments on recent TV:

1. I love the way Booth looks at Brennan.

2. I hate the way our local affiliate (I guess) decided not to air Better Off Ted this week, replacing it with an hour-long Ford infomercial.

3. Some people took my comment about Lost as an indicator that the show is over. I won't tease them for not seeing the massive amounts of promotion and media attention the last season premiere has been getting over the last two months. :) They don't watch anymore, why would they pay attention? Anyway, just to clarify—no other show I've ever watched in my life makes me feel the way I feel watchingLost. Tuesday's episodes bore NO resemblance to past seasons, even the first one, but watching it was exactly like watching season 1 again. I had all these "Frogurt! Arzt! Boone! CHARLIE!" moments. I struggled to decide if the timelines were simultaneous, what-ifs, or neithers. I mourned Juliet, and totally knew Jacob was going to take over Sayid's body when he was standing over him, talking to Hurley (unless that's not what happened, then I guess I was just being led by the trickery—and I don't care!). I'm so glad the show is back.

4. Because last week was massively busy, and I went away for the weekend, and I've been super-tired this week, my DVR is filling up. As of tonight, I'll have (may not be accurate, it's off the top of my head): Jimmy Kimmel and Nightline with Darlton; Life Unexpected; Human Target; 2 Numbers; 2 Fringe; The Mentalist; Modern Family; 2 White Collar; and 2 Leverage to watch.

5. Favorite lines of the week (so far):

"You shouldn'ta done that. I was supposed to die."

"You're psycho." "Lapsed."

"It appeals to the schizophrenic in me. Both of them."

"I don't understand that reference!"

6. I loved how they did the Dollhouse finale, though not what happened to Paul. It had its shock value, of course, but *sob*. It was intriguingly awesome that Alpha was "okay." I love seeing Tudyk in a heroic role again, even so short. He's been quite the bad guy lately.

7. Supernatural. Ohhhh, Supernatural. I know what I said about Lost, but don't worry, honey, you're still my favorite. I still love you best. If I had to choose, I wouldn't even hesitate to pick you. Talk about shock value—I totally sucked all the air out of the room when Michael showed up. And there wasn't much, after Anna shoved that pipe through Sam. (Did you notice the blood coming out of the pipe as he lay on the floor? Nice touch!) I knew Mary was pregnant as soon as she opened the door. My heart broke for Sam as he watched her, and when he talked to John. Castiel is cracking my sh** up every time he's on screen, which is not enough, let me tell you. Last night was a mean tease, breaking him and hiding him in a hotel room all episode.

So that's all I have right now. I have to go finish up some work in preparation for being holed up in the house all weekend. Yes, I'm succumbing to the weight of hysteria for the coming snowpocalypse (credit to my brother for that one). But I'm showing them. I'm NOT joining the hordes descending on the grocery store. I already HAVE milk and bread. So, HA!

Pbbbbbt.

First it was Whoa, and then I was like Whoa, and then it was just...Whoa

There has never been and never will be another show like Lost.

Whoa.

Beach Retreat 2010

Here's a sampling of our adventure. More photos are here.

Beach Retreat: A Running Journal

Friday, 5:55 p.m. Yay! We’re on our way to the beach!  I happen to be lucky enough to have a friend who bought a beach house, and five of us are going down to test it out for retreatability this weekend. We’re all packed into a Suburban, making dirty jokes and cursing people who annoy us. I’m carsick, but I won’t say so or Megan will leave me on the side of the road. She hates vomit. Not that I’m going to vomit, but she’s paranoid.

Friday, 7:02 p.m.  Dinner. All the chain restaurants are packed, so we stop at a diner.  Bix, who doesn’t travel well, orders a side of ham. Side to nothing, but hey, to each his own.  We make fun of the typos on the menu and specials list. For a special accasion, be sure to order off the sauteed pan menu.

Saturday, 1:59 a.m. After unloading, claiming beds, changing into comfy jammies, and talking forever, we all suddenly decide to go to bed.

Saturday, 7:12 a.m. My roommate got up to pee, which gave me permission to get up to pee, but now I can’t go back to sleep. Misty and Bix are whispering out in the living room. Misty boots up her computer. The chime galvanizes me and I leap out of bed. Yay! Writing.

Saturday, 8:59 a.m. I’ve only written 94 words. Smith’s Windows Live Messenger won’t autolaunch anymore, her iPod is working, and I’m excited to write. But it’s snowing, and I’m giddy. I’ve never seen the beach in the snow. And now Smith and Simon are eating bagels and that woke up my stomach. After Simon is done picking on me for being too sensitive (I moved my mug so it wouldn’t be in her way and she said “Are you afraid I’m going to contaminate your mug?” and I was like, “See, I knew you would think that, so I debated whether or not to move it!” It’s a neurosis. She’s decided to mean me out of it. Yay.

Saturday, 9:21 a.m. Megan’s finally up. I’m still eating, but the others are, of course, done. But now we’re all at the table sharing “how I slept” stories. Burkholder has multiple noses. Megan dreamed there was a tornado here, and we’re like her kids to her. Smith is a canine racist, thinking all black dogs look the same. 118 words

Saturday, 10:37 a.m. 627 words. Ate, showered, talked about adoption and stupid people. Starting a 20-minute writing challenge. Ready…GO!

Saturday, 11:05 a.m. We start walking, in the snow. After ten minutes, Smith and Simon wimp out. “Snow in my face.” “Too friggin’ cold.” Wah Wah Wah.

Saturday, 11:33 a.m. Bix and I reach the beach. Awesome! I’ve never seen the beach in the snow. Slightly disappointed because the wind is stronger here, so the snow on the sand is patchy. Take a few pictures, start to leave, but the ocean is calling me, so I walk down to the edge and watch it for a minute. Wind is fierce here. I want to go in the water—it beguiles me—but I’m not psychotic.  We head back and wave off the offer of a ride. We’re having fun!

Saturday, 12:05 p.m. We laugh at my frozen dredlocks.

Saturday, 12:45 p.m. I am way overstuffed from lunch. It was healthy, except for the cracker candy. Starting to write again now. Not planning to stop until it’s done. We’ll see how that goes.

Saturday, 1:45 p.m. 2785 words. We’re being so good! One chapter to go.

Saturday 2:07 p.m. 3218 words. Now the other three are driving down to the beach. I feel a little stupid, but WTH. I didn’t want to risk missing my chance to go there, if the others decided they weren’t going later. The two-mile walk felt good.  But now I’m cold and I don’t want to get wet again. Finishing the book now…

Saturday, 3:16 p.m. Sooooo close! 4980 words. Very last scene. But I had a desperate urge for Supernatural, and since the wireless signal is weak, I knew it would take a while to download. But even on my brand-new laptop, if the signal is too weak, iTunes locks up. Dammit. I need Sam and Dean.

Saturday, 3:33 p.m. Crap. About 3 pages from the end, one phone conversation left, and I typed a line that required me to go back and totally revise the big climactic scene.  I’m never going to finish this thing!

Saturday, 3:43 p.m. I just felt a surge of contentment. Four of us are working at the table, three on laptops, one longhand, all deep into our stories. The energy of creation is…oh, forget it, that sounds pompously fruity-tootie. Anyway, it’s awesome. If only the fifth member of our group wasn’t hiding in her bedroom…

Saturday, 4:55 p.m. 6,301 words.  Aaaaand DONE! The Supernatural episode downloaded on the second try. Plus, the book. I finished it. Yay!  I’m such a dork. I edited a little bit to make it come out at exactly 80,000 words.  It’s silly, because when I revise it later, it will change.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to goof off the rest of the weekend. I need to update my book’s timeline, make sure it all works right.  And maybe I’ll start revising Hummingbird. In the meantime, dinner is smelling awesome, and I have that SPN episode.

When I get home and have my camera cable, I’ll post snow!beach pictures!

Ah, Delusion

So I just took part in this Office Feng Shui class. I've always been too daunted by the scope of Feng Shui to explore it, but this was a basic, focused class, and it gave me some ideas. The biggest was the concept that physical congestion (e.g. clutter) can cause non-physical congestion. Things have been very slow and boggy for me for a while, and I figured hey, what can it hurt? So I decided I'd declutter my office.

It didn't seem that big a deal at first. I mean, sure, it wasn't going to be quick and easy. But I have a haphazard, hodge-podgy collection of "passion symbols"—posters, figurines, trading cards, puzzles, games, you name it—and some of the passions have run their course. Plus, I've been planning for a while to clean out my file cabinets. I had a vague idea I'd get it all done in one day, and I scheduled next Wednesday for it.

When a job is big and non-urgent, I can avoid it forever. But once I decide it has to be done, the need to do it builds in me and distracts from anything else I try to do. So I started the cleaning out today, just planned to get as far as I could. I started in the closet. Ruthlessness dominates. Some stuff is a no-brainer, but I'm getting rid of a lot of things that sentiment, practicality, or that "this would be great for something" feeling that never results in finding what it would be great for have filled up my closet.

Here's what resulted:

1. Two 30-gallon trash bags full to bursting.

2. Half a bag of clothes to be donated.

3. The immediate need to clean out my upstairs closet so I can stuff clothes into it that I don't fit right now but that I want to keep, and that are currently draped across my bed.

4. A trunk full of cardboard to be taken to the recycling bin.

5. A honking big monitor to take to the Computer Ministry.

6. A closet that is now less than half cleaned out.

Let me repeat that last part. Two hours of work cleaned out less than half a closet.

That's a little discouraging. Thinking I could do this in one day or even one week? Totally delusional.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
J and I went to see Legion tonight. Pretty good movie. Small in scope, despite the huge concept. Lacked motivation—no one ever asked why this particular baby, never mind explained it—but good acting can go a long way. The creep factor and the horror elements weren't overwhelming. It was mainly a study of what people do under certain catalysts. Of course, the focus was on Michael, the angel played by Paul Bettany, and he was tremendous. No surprise there.

I've also watched Life Unexpected this weekend. Spruce from "Ghostfacers" has a recurring role. All the reviews compare LU to the old WB shows, especially Gilmore Girls, and it had that vibe, though of course not the snap. I think I'll like it. It will at least get me to watch a couple more episodes. I needed something that "felt" like this on my viewing list.

Speaking of guest stars who were originally on shows I was obsessed with passionate about...Sean Maher was on The Mentalist this week. Simon from Firefly. Gosh, I've missed him. Oooh, I just looked him up, and he's going to be on Human Target this week! Double dose! There was a scene where SPOILER ALERT he was all covered up except his eyes, and we weren't supposed to know which secondary character he was, but I could tell immediately by his eyes. Jane knew him by his body language and syntax, and of course the voice was distinctive, but I knew him by the eyes before he'd said a word. Yes, I'm very proud.

That same episode had the sheriff from the "Yellow Fever" episode of Supernatural.

Okay, Number Two is ready for bed, so I'll stop there. Wish me luck with the Fenging this week!

Rock Slyde

I've posted about independent movies a few times, and here's another one. It came to my attention via Jason Manns, my favorite musician, who also happens to be a producer and actor and is involved in this movie.

Rock Slyde is a hardboiled detective comedy featuring Patrick Warburton, Andy Dick, Rena Sofer, and Elaine Hendrix. I don't think it got wide release in the theaters, but it's coming to on demand in April and DVD in May.

It's available for queuing up on Netflix now, and the more pre-release requests it gets, the better. So check it out!

One Lovely Blog!

A few days ago, Susan Gourley/Kelley generously gave me the One Lovely Blog award! I'm very honored, because as most of you know, I mostly just jump on here to be a know it all or spew about my day or rant about my problems (which are annoyingly minor) or brag about my kids (who are obnoxiously awesome) and stuff like that. There's no theme, no cohesion...it's just me. So being named for a grass roots award like this is very personal. Thank you, Sue!

Okay, first I'm supposed to list 10 facts about me, then nominate some new recipients of One Lovely Blog. Luckily, I followed the trail back a ways, and could find no rules about how many I can name. I don't think I can stick to three. :)

Stuff About Me You May Not Already Know, in Random, Off-the-Top-of-My-Head Order!

1. I'm overweight. That's the not the "interesting fact." A lot of weight loss material references eating massive amounts of food, like a whole cake. I've never done that. I never had binging issues. With one exception: Pringles! I can eat a whole can sometimes, though I never do it in one sitting. One day, occasionally.

2. I spent the summer after my sophomore year of college in Michigan, working at the Sarett Nature Center. I taught kids with a barred owl (Joey) on my wrist or a 6-foot boa (Charlie) over my shoulders, got bit by a wee little mouse, helped get a baby fox (Whizzer) and bunches of raccoons and an American Kestrel back into the wild, and mowed a lot of trails.

3. I spent the summer after my freshman year of college working a concession stand at the beach—Valentine's by the Sea. I took my breaks on the beach (lunch was usually a very awesome hamburger with bacon and onions, with fries) and when I remember it, I can recall smell of the salt breeze and the feel of the rough wood.

4. Vying with the previous two items for Favorite Job Ever, I worked at National Geographic Society for five months after I graduated. It was just an internship, and my sexist boss hired a guy for the permanent position I wanted, but as much as I love DC, we probably would have been less happy as a family, living down there instead of here in suburban PA.

5. I won 3rd place in the Ruth Davies Award for Excellence in Writing my sophomore year of college. It was for a paper on deforestation, which is very clearly not what I write now, but that award, combined with the articles I wrote for the paper when I was at Sarett, are what led me to become a writer, and to decide that at a relatively young age.

6. The job at National Geographic was mostly editing nonfiction abstracts for the 27th International Geographical Congress. I did my share of 500, split with one other guy. The abstracts were mostly written by non-native English speakers, so that job directly led to my freelance work.

7. I played the violin in 4th grade. I convinced my mother to let me stop after that because it made my arms tired and I wanted to grow my nails. I was a classic nailbiter in grade school, and it bugged me a little that I'd started to outgrow the habit but I had to keep clipping them so I could finger the strings. Every time I listen to "The Marriage of Figaro," I regret quitting.

8. This one might be a repeat: I was on the Equestrian Team in college. If I recall correctly, over the two years or so I showed, I won two fifths, a third, and a first. The horse I rode for the first was a retired Michigan State Police horse, and he's the sole reason I won.

9. If we'd had a boy, we'd have named him Mason James. Whichever of our daughters has children first is assigned that name for a boy child.

10. Every time we play Band Hero, Guitar Hero Smash Hits, or Rock Band 2 as a family, I have the lowest score. On easy.

That was harder than I expected it to be. Okay, now to pass on the award! Any of the ones in my blog roll are worthy. (Shoot, I just realized I didn't reinstate that when I changed my template. Bugger! Hang on while I update it...)

Well, good thing I had to do that, actually! Some of the ones I'd have awarded already got it. No sense doing it twice, right? So here are mine, chosen for how much they amuse me and brighten my day, and because my primary contact with them is online:

Meankitty/Jody Wallace/Ellie Marvel

Shannon Stacey

The Bandwagon

SciFi Chick/s

Happy Day

This has been a very full week, let me tell you.

First, the most important thing, I just know you're all dying to find out: Yes, I got my tea. It was in a different bag labeled "Winter Dream," so yay! :)

This was week 2 of the RWA PRO Bootcamp on The Healthy Writer. I'm running it with Keri Ford, and it's been excellent, but intense. In a good way. But I also did a workshop for an RWA online chapter, Anatomy of a Hook, and combine the two for exhaustion. The last time I did a workshop I had NO questions or comments and a couple of thank yous at the end, and that was it. So I was apprehensive. Don't know what was different, but there was tons of participation, many questions, and I did a lot of critiquing.

So I'm tired. But guess what? I got a little fiction done, too! So I now have two days in a row I can say "yes" on Habit Forge. That's a site I just learned about, via one of the attendees of the PRO Bootcamp. It's based on the idea that it takes 21 days to form a habit. You create one, and it asks you every day if you did it the day before. If you did, you say yes, if you didn't, you say no, and it starts you over at 1. If you get friends to sign up, you can track each other. I love the added incentive--I don't want them to see me fail! :)

The only problem is that I signed up yesterday, and last night it asked me if I'd done my goals the day before. Well, duh! No! I didn't start until the next day! So I already show a failure for the writing one. (The exercise one, I did do, so that one is a-ok.) I'm hoping this will help me prioritize, as I've been letting everything else shove the fiction aside, as can happen.

This morning I installed new RAM in my computer. I had low expectations. I thought it might help a little, but WHOA. I've been having mental orgasms all day. I know that's inappropriate to say, but I can't help it. It's so EXCITING to press the button for iTunes and have it open before I can blink. Yesterday, it took two minutes and I couldn't do anything else while I waited. Today, I sat there for two minutes boggling at how fast it happened. I can't understate how happy this has made me.

I had a bunch of errands to do today. It was supposed to be 2 stops, but I wanted a coffee, and remembered I had to drop off the cardboard so I had room for the kids' instruments this afternoon, and Number One got a book in at the library, and if I was going to Target I should go to Best Buy...

I ended up going to two Best Buys. We had some gift cards, and while I was at the library I checked my e-mail real quick, and had a $10 Reward Zone certificate, so I was all excited to get a new guitar for Band Hero, essentially for free. Except our Best Buy had none, so I went across the river to the other one. They only had the Rock Band 2 guitar. I'm annoyed that I didn't do any research beyond asking two store clerks in two different game/electronic stores if the games are all cross-compatible with the controllers (they said yes). They're not. Rock Band's guitar is not compatible with Band Hero, nor is it compatible with the Guitar Hero Smash Hits I bought. But I was looking for a Guitar Hero kit anyway, so research wouldn't have necessarily done me any good. Luckily, I went overboard and also bought Rock Band 2, so we can at least all four play while using one game.

The problem is...

We bought Band Hero because it seemed to have more songs that the kids would like. It does, but we play so much everyone's getting a little "over" those songs. So we were all excited to have the new stuff. But Guitar Hero and Rock Band have few songs the kids know. (Rock Band only has, like 22 available out of the 100+, I'm assuming until we unlock them? I have to figure that out.) BUT, we like the notes and imagery in Rock Band the best. So I guess we ended our two-hour session both pleased and disappointed overall.

Okay, I think I ran out of things to say. TV has started again, yay! I'm giving Human Target a try (the guy seriously reminds me of Colin Ferguson, I hope I get over that when I get to see the actual show and not just the trailer) as well as Life UneXpected. So expect some TV posts in the upcoming future (is there any other kind? And I call myself a writer).

Have a good weekend!

And the Random Continues

Football is over. Yah-huh, it is so over. Don't try to tell me there's a game on now. That's totally irrelevant.

Julian Edelman has definitely won me over. He's the only one who actually played today (besides Kevin Faulk, who won me over long ago). He ran hard, fought hard, even hurt. I'm thinking our whole "no third option" thing is no more. Except that Wes might not start next season...but we'll worry about that when we get there.

So, my Christmas stuff is finally put away. The tree was down last week, but yesterday the kids took down all their homemade decorations that they surprise us with every Christmas morning, and I took down and packed away the rest. Today we all pitched in to take down the outside lights, in 19-degree weather. Luckily, it was sunny and windless, so it was actually pretty nice out there. It feels good, having everything back to normal.

I drink a lot of tea, but it's your basic orange pekoe and pekoe black combo, like Lipton and Tetley do. Back in college, there was a specialty shop in town, and I exercised my first-ever credit card there quite a bit, trying a whole bunch of flavored loose-leaf teas. But when I still had some of them in my cupboard about six residences and 10 years later, I stopped trying to pretend I was cool like that. So...basic tea, cream and sugar, very boring.

Then I was in the Cornerstone Coffeehouse a week ago, waiting for my mocha, and I saw a package of tea. "Holiday Dream," it said. "China black tea with citrus peels, cloves, rose petals, almond bits, and genuine Bourbon vanilla pieces." That sounded kinda good. I picked it up, smelled it, and, after my eyes were done rolling in the back of my head from the pleasure of it, I bought the package.

And man, this stuff is as good as it sounds. I've been drinking it every night and sleeping quite poorly as a result. LOL I've barely put a dent in the package, but I want to run out and get some more, because it's "Holiday Dream," so they can't sell it all year. The only reason I haven't yet is because it's probably already gone.\

I was thinking this morning that I've seen Jason Manns more times than any other live performer (three times in one year!). But then I remembered I saw Trans-Siberian Orchestra in concert 7 times, so he's got a ways to go. Jason, if you Google yourself and read this, please take it into account for your tour schedule. The Salute to Supernatural in New Jersey would be a good start. Or middle. :)

Okay, that's enough rambling. I'm gonna go see if I can clear a few boards at Jewel Quest.

Various and Sundry

Breaking Daylight is out now. Buy it. While you're there, check out What She Deserves, which is still at number 10! Woo hoo!

Also get Kismet, The Keepers of Sulbreth, and hey, toss a Switch in there, too (just came out last week). Gotta mix it up, keep the brain fresh and stimulated. Among other things. :)

I'm sick to my stomach at the loss of Wes Welker. (For the majority of you, who have no idea what I'm talking about: Football. :) ) Reports are likely ACL and MCL tears (for some of you who don't get sports medical lingo: that's knee injury, surgery required usually, 9-month recovery period). So the Patriots made the playoffs, but without Wes, the most exciting player on the field. *sob* That's not just bittersweet, it's sour.

Good service:

I don't remember if I mentioned this before. Number Two's Kindle didn't work. Couldn't connect to power source, wouldn't turn on. Called Amazon on Christmas Day. She had a replacement three days later. Excellent service.

Okay service:

I had a bank problem. I sent a check for $10.00 to someone, but it came through my account as $16.06. They told me they deposited it as $10.00, so I contacted the bank. They looked at the crappy scanned image of the check, and luckily didn't give me a hard time about the zeroes. The last one got cut off, or was light and didn't image well, but the rest were obviously zeroes, not to mention the "Ten and no/100" written out. The CSR on the line was very helpful and it didn't take long to "fix." Except that it will take 10 days for them to correct the error and give me my money back, and it took me for-freakin'-ever to get a live person on the line. I couldn't get anywhere without entering my "User ID." I NEVER call the bank. I do everything online. So my user ID is one I changed. After hanging up and starting over three times because I kept getting stuck in a corner, and entering anything I could think of, it FINALLY told me the "User ID" is your Social Security number. Well just SAY that, then! Gawd.

2010 is shaping up to be no different, so far, from 2009. I'm working my butt off, but I'm still behind. Last night I found two corrupted files—massive manuscripts I was editing for a client. I managed to repair them and only lost 66 pages of proofing, which I had to input again, but I still had the hard copy. And I had to fix a few comments that went wonky, but that wasn't a problem. Still, redoing the work meant I didn't finish the job I was going to finish, nor did I get back to my own book (did do some work on it, though!).

I got a lot done this morning, but now I have to shower and finish laundry and take Number One's computer in for repair (FINALLY, I'm such a bad mom) and pick up stuff for Number Two and The Dad, and when I get back Number Two will be home and we'll have to Wii Fit for a while, and then I have to input the 47 pages of line edits I did this morning that are very intense and will likely take a couple of hours, which means I may not get back to my book at all today.

*pout*

Where's the extra two and a half hours per day I ordered for Christmas? Huh? Who got it?

I need to go take this up with Santa.

Of Course

I knew I was missing something! Please also buy The Keepers of Sulbreth by Susan Gourley. I think it slipped my mind because I'm getting it tomorrow—my order is already in! :) And while this book starts a new series, Sue also has a series capper out right now, One Good Woman (as Susan Kelley).

I think between Fredrick, Burns, and Gourley, we're covering half of popular fiction! LOL

I said I wasn't looking back on 2009, but I can't help doing my recap post for all the stuff I keep track of.

See this post for the 2008 stuff, if you're at all curious.

Exercise and Weight:
I didn't set goals for either in 2009. I weigh 3 pounds more than I did a year ago, so that's not horrible. It's not good, of course, but it's not huge. I kept track of my exercising but it was pathetic. I'm not gonna bother this year. Keeping track, that is. I'm determined to exercise. Wii Fit keeps telling me I need to be stronger.

Entertainment
Okay, this is sad. I read 107 books in 2007, 95 in 2008, and only 88 in 2009! That's gotta change. I also started but didn't complete 24. That's a lot less than the 40 I didn't finish the year before.

Here's a possible explanation: I saw 33 movies in the theater (including repeats, up from 22 the year before) and 29 on DVD/VHS and 1 on demand. I also watched Roswell seasons 2 and 3 on DVD, as well as Bones 1-3, True Blood, Entourage season 5, the first four seasons of Supernatural, and Firefly (again).

So, for 2010, maybe fewer movies, more books. :)

Writing
Fiction: 147,320
Nonfiction: 8,629

Total: 155,949 and OMG that sucks. That's over 84k less than 2008, which was 60k less than 2007. I don't think I want to analyze that.

My fiction breaks down into:
8 books submitted
3 full novels edited
1 novel completed, one nearly complete

That's actually pretty comparable to 2008, if you don't look at how much less I wrote as new words. Add 47 professional bios (not tracked in the word count) and some random website and marketing text.

I met 3 of my 5 goals for 2009. Here are my fiction goals for 2010:

1. Finish, revise, polish, submit Full Fusion
2. Process critiques for Hummingbird and prep for agent review
3. Revise More Than You Know
4. Revise Zoe (and give it a damned title!)
5. Write something new

That's all subject to change depending on contracts. That's positive thinking. I'm in the first blush of love with 2010, so that's easy. :)

I professionally edited 5,091 pages of various kinds of documents, from novels to nonfiction books to ads and brochures and websites (an increase of over 1500 pages over last year).

I compiled 12 columns for the Romance Writers Report (completely new task) and judged 785 pages of contest entries (nearly three times as many as last year). And finally, I critiqued 2,290 pages for 11 different people, which is about 1200 less than last year, so I think I made some people feel bad. :( I won't list initials this year. LOL

~~~~~~~~~~
One thing I didn't do so well this year... Cindy posted in comments last year that she was going to maintain a more positive attitude. I agreed to follow suit, and failed abysmally. 2009 was chock full of gloomy industry news, portents of doom, and us vs. them debates that made authors into little bugs crushed by the feet of the industry. It was quite depressing, and since I have no intentions of choosing another field in which to toil, there's no point in letting that happen. So if 2010 isn't the year that all turns around (or fails to come to pass), at least I'll do my best to avoid it.

And now, onward! To success and happiness for everyone I know. That means you!