I'm Such a Rule-Follower

I've seen this meme twice now, and I feel too guilty ignoring it again. So I'm taking a page from Megan's book (not her book, actually, though that's a lovely set of covers--scroll down if you click over, see her meme post) and posting just a PART of me.

Take a picture of yourself right now. Don’t change your clothes. Don’t fix your hair. Just take a picture. Post that picture with no editing. (Except maybe to get the image size down to something reasonable. Don’t go posting an eight megapixel image.) Include these instructions.

I didn't realize my lips are so damned crooked!

Wanna hear something weird?

I took Number Two to a local college's women's soccer game today. Guess who their opponent turned out to be? Never mind, you'll never guess. I'll tell you.

Ohio Wesleyan University!

What do you mean, so what? Haven't you memorized my bio? Sheesh. OWU is my alma mater! The reason I can check "Graduated College" in all those surveys. Anyway, I rooted for them instead of Messiah. They lost, 7-1. Messiah is scary good.

Football tomorrow! Man, I love fall weekends.

OMG That was AWESOME!

TOTALLY FILLED WITH SPOILERS! I MEAN IT!

On first watching, I loved everything about last night's episode of Supernatural. After discussion with some friends (some of us did a post-show chat last night, and I communicated with a few others about it) and a partial second viewing, I have a few nitpicks or less-than-thrillednesses. But overall, I'd say it was the best season premiere yet.

I recorded to VHS for a friend who doesn't have cable and watched a little as it recorded, taking notes. But the phone rang halfway through so the following thoughts will get less detailed and more sparse as I go. Please comment! I'm sure I'll have more to say later.

The flashes of Dean's eyes was excellently done. The bloody red, the panic, the screech. Then his sudden appearance in a grave.

Let's ignore the practicality regarding someone's ability to claw through six feet of dirt and just note the realistic rasp in Dean's voice. I wondered what Jensen had to go through to sound like that, because it was pretty real, and existed until he drank water in that store.

The blast area, the trees being down, with the aerial shot, made me go "Whoa!"

I don't like the new show logo as much. The wings are kind of cool, though too freak-me-out-ish, but the static reversion to season one...eh. I much prefer the colors and flames of the "going to commercial" or "returning from commercial" or whatever it is.

OMG, we get Dean in a t-shirt immediately! *hugs Kripke*

And Sam in a t-shirt not too much later! I know, I know, I'm jumping ahead, but let me just say...I love the filmed-in-July episodes!!!

When Dean was in that store...I know a lot of people will have something to say about his complete plundering of the inventory and cash register, so I won't bother. But I loved the detail--the cap from the water bottle falling to the floor when he's getting his drink. Drying his face on his shirt. Those kinds of things. Love it!

Which, of course, brings us to Dean examining his torso in the mirror. Despite my 13-year-old's inauguration into watching live prime-time TV, I rewound that part. I claimed it was to see if he had his tattoo (which of course I noticed the first time). They didn't buy it.

Jumping ahead again...I love Castiel. I hope he keeps possessing that guy. Several times my fellow fans have mentioned how ironic it is that an angel possessed a human in a demon-like manner, and the human is now going to die because he's been shot and stabbed. But I remind those people that Castiel restored Dean's body to near perfection after not only hellhound chew-toying, but four months decaying. He can fix the guy he possessed, easy.

Plus, he said the guy prayed for this. He looked a little rough around the edges. Like the guy he was in was living a bleak, hopeless life, perhaps one tainted by alcoholism or worse. Perhaps housing Castiel is his redemption, or part of it.

Okay, backing up...

When the TV, radio, etc., came on the first time, I thought maybe Dean was doing it somehow. Still thought it the second time. I wonder why Castiel tried a second time, knowing it didn't work? It kind of hints at the reality of the angels. That like demons, they have elements of humanity. Like the ability to make mistakes.

Whoops. Backing up again...

I loved the reunions. Again, it was all about the details for me. Bobby with the holy water cracked me up. Perfectly done. Dean fisting Bobby's shirt when they hugged. When it came to Sam, the hug tightened just a little at the moment when it probably would have ended. Some felt the reunions were a little flat, but I appreciated that they didn't drag it out, that everything kind of clicked. They went into mission mode, partnership...no wallowing in "bad four months" or whatever. Of course, on Sam's part, some of the glossing-over was due to his development of his abilities.

Why was it a rough four months for Bobby? Yes, he had to bury Dean, and felt the loss, and hurt for Sam, but was that all there was to it? If his wife's death drove him to drink, he was over it at this point, yet Dean's death led to bottles all over the house. So I'm wondering if there's been something else going on with Bobby, too.

I really liked that Dean asked why he was buried and Bobby's answer. It was what I expected, but they could have assumed we just knew that, and not addressing it would have been annoying.

Okay, I can't tell. Is the woman in Sam's hotel room (Cathy/Christie) the same woman with him in the diner (possessed by Ruby)? If she is, did Ruby take her over before Dean showed up, or after? If before, then she probably knew Dean was raised, which means Sam might have known, too, which might account for his low-key response to Dean's accusations (though if it wasn't that way, then I attribute Sam's low-keyness to maturity--he doesn't have to get defensive anymore).

I'm not buying that she was Ruby already. Ruby's too hard (though the actress didn't exactly try to emulate her attitude the way every actress who played the crossroads demon did, for example), and she wouldn't be interested in a physical relationship with Sam, so she wouldn't be hanging around in her underwear. And Sam's not that good an actor. He'd be behaving a little more weirdly, because Ruby wouldn't hide her presence, or he wouldn't expect her to, at least. I'm thinking, if that was the same woman, Sam just knew it was Ruby in there, either because of proximity or because of his abilities. Though he didn't seem to know the waitress was a demon, so maybe I'm way off and if I am, I don't think they did that whole element all that well.

Moving on...

I find it amusing and sad that Dean's all for going to the psychic for help, but Sam's a freak and he doesn't want him even thinking about using his abilities.

It bothers me (not in a "bad show!" way, but in a "boy, they're doing a job on me" way) that the boys are already lying to each other. I think Dean remembers more of hell than he's admitting, and Sam made a big mistake telling Dean flat out that he didn't go down that road. Things will be soooo much worse when Dean finds out now.

Okay, best part of the episode, bar none, was the iPod. The look on Dean's face when Sam said "I thought it was my car." The sheer JOY (in me!) when Jason Manns came on! And Sam's sheepishness at Dean's reaction. I loved it!

Speaking of looks on faces...Jensen nailed this episode. Every emotion was perfect, portrayed with subtle flickers of facial muscles or the look in his eyes. Where Jared seems to need a few episodes to feel Sam again, one would think Jensen had spent his summer in a pine box in the dark, waiting to get back with his crew.

Okay, here's where I get more vague 'cause from here I only watched it once...

If Pam knew Castiel's name, knew who he was (and I got the impression she did--at first, I thought he was trying to keep her from seeing some other being), why did she have to insist on seeing him? A name was better than a face. A face could be anyone, anything. A name can be researched. Though I do admit, the thing with the eyes was very effectively horrifying. Poor Pam.

The geography was kind of confusing. Dean drove his stolen car from Illinois to the Bobby Dimension (portals to every part of America!) and then had to go back to Illinois to get to Sam. Pam was four hours down the Interstate, but when Sam snuck out, he went back to Illinois to stake out the demons. Where did Bobby and Dean go at that point, to conjure Castiel? Were they near the hotel in Pontiac? Four hours from Sam?

I liked that they didn't drag out the question of who hauled Dean out, especially after hints about the beginning of season four implied that Dean was searching for answers for a while. His exact mission, what God and Castiel (if, indeed, it was at God's orders and if Castiel is really an angel and/or if angels really report to God) want from him, might go unsaid for a little while. But the mystery being at least partially answered right away is a good thing.

Best line of the episode: "You're not invited." We declined to explain that to Number One.

Evidence that Mommy needs to adjust pretty quickly to having a kid watching with her: When the mirrors over Dean were about to shatter and come down, I said "Shit!" rather audibly. It's not like she doesn't hear it at school, and possibly even say it (though I'm reasonably sure her profanity runs to milder words), I still strive hard not to curse in front of the kids.

So I think that covers it. I'm very happy. I can't wait for next week, and I'm soooooo glad it's only six days instead of four months!

Now please excuse me while I go check for Dean's *ahem* tattoo.

They're Getting Smarter, But *I'M* Not Stupid

When the phone rings at 4:19 a.m., it's never a happy call.

I should be glad that the one that came in this morning wasn't, say, my stepmother with news of my brother in Iraq. Or a frantic call from my mother-in-law asking us to meet them at the hospital. And I am. But I'm more pissed off.

We all know about phishing scams, right? Where you get an e-mail all set up in stolen HTML from a credit card company with a link for you to "verify your information." Well, they've gone low-tech.

Phone rings. I say hello. It clicks to a recording with a woman (who sounds just like most recorded messages) who says she's from Members 1st Federal Credit Union and my card has been suspended. To reach the security center, press one.

Now, I'm a pretty good waker-upper. It's really rare that I don't just snap into awareness and process things normally, even if I'm really tired. And I often start waking up sometime between three and four, and then keep waking up every 20 minutes or half hour until the alarm goes off. So 4:19 a.m. isn't a vulnerable time for me like it might be for a lot of people (clever bastards).

I don't have a Members 1st account of any kind, and neither does my husband (to my knowledge! LOL). And the recording didn't say what KIND of card. And since it was a recording and not a live person, they didn't say WHOSE card it was, which would be stupid because anyone could answer the phone. Every Christmas, when we go shopping for presents, our bank calls to verify purchases, either because we had a lot in one day or because we had a big-ticket item. If it was my husband's card, they won't talk to me. It has to be him. And it's a live person. So I knew from the get-go that this was a scam. But I was curious. So I pressed one.

The recording said again that my card was suspended, and to reactivate, press one. I did, and it asked for me to enter my card number. I mean, come on! THEY called ME. They're supposed to know my number. The whole thing is so obvious to be laughable. But it's also scary, because it will work. They will reach elderly people, people of diminished capacity, young people who don't pay attention or who are too busy thinking of sex and music to use logic, or even smart people who don't wake up that easily or are too distracted to think and who will pull out their Members 1st card, or even a different card, assuming that must be what the nice lady on the phone is talking about, and enter the number. And bam, credit card fraud that will kill their credit and follow them forever.

That really pisses me off.

I wasn't aware before today that this was a widespread issue. I checked the Members 1st web site today and they referred to it as "Vishing"--like phishing but with V for voice. Spread the word, so no one you know gets accidentally caught by this crap.

On a happier note...

...or at least, a more amusing one...

After the call, I had more vivid, intense dreams (I've been having them every night for ages). This one had something mundane, like housecleaning (dishes? laundry?) or soccer or something, with a mystical element. I remember waking up amused and thinking "mystical laundry" or whatever, but now I can't recall what the mundanity was. Anyway, between the call and the dreams, I was a little unfocused. I was thinking about our long-distance away games Saturday morning and thinking that was tomorrow, which means I was forgetting that today was only Thursday...

And then I remembered! Supernatural starts today! Woo hoo!

To whet your appetite:



(I didn't actually watch it myself, but enjoy!)

Around the Internet

When you see this, post another Supernatural quote in your lj (blog). Let’s see how long this can go on.

Dean: Are you drunk?
Sam: Yeah. So. Stupid.



I put up a review of Terminator: SCC on SciFi Chicks this morning (only a day late). Read my random thoughts on the second episode of the season.

One more day until Supernatural returns!

Consumering

It's a good thing the grocery store is less than a mile from my house. I'm there too many times a week. Yesterday I $75 worth of grocery shopping in the early afternoon. Two hours later, Number One comes home and needs cotton balls for her science experiment. So out I go again. It's like that several times a week.

Remember last month, how I had to fight with AT&T Wireless because they held on to my account for an extra day so they could charge me for another month? Remember how I asked politely, then less so, then yelled at the rep, and he put me on hold for 15 minutes but gave in at the end (sullenly and reluctantly)?

I just got my first Credo Mobile bill, and I had slightly less than one month prorated, and they started the billing on 8/11. Well, that doesn't work. AT&T didn't relinquish my account until 8/14. The day I activated the phones was the day I added the text service, and that prorated fee started the right day. 8/14. Could be infuriating, right?

But I called Credo, got a rep right away, explained the situation, and was given an immediate $6 credit with no argument. It's nice not to have to fight.

(I know $6 isn't much, but when you have a nearly $200 phone bill, every little bit helps!)

So kudos to Credo, and I heartily recommend them as a long distance and mobile phone company. (Don't forget, they also donate 1% of your bill to charitable causes AND give you free Ben & Jerry's ice cream!)

One of my pet peeves is slowness. It's a flaw in me, of course. I should have more patience. But people who walk slow bug me (when I'm behind them). Ditto people who drive ten miles below the speed limit. Sometimes they seem slow when they're doing the speed limit, but then I can't be annoyed because they're being good. Slow talking, slow thinking, even slow pacing in a book, movie, or TV show drive me nuts.

I like to use the U-Scan checkout at the grocery store so I have control over my scanning and bagging (mostly the bagging). I don't care if someone has six items or sixty-five. I don't mind waiting when the stations are full. But last night there was a woman who moved slower than molasses. I couldn't stand watching her, even though it didn't directly affect me. She wasn't old, and didn't appear to have any kind of physical deficiency (though that's not always apparent). She'd finished checking out and started moving her bags from the scale to her cart. I think she had one bag left when I moved past her and started my scanning. Granted, I only had one item, but I was done and out of there before she was.

That grocery store has a clerk who's often there when I am. She's very sweet, always greets me and asks how I'm doing and stuff. But it's kind of disconcerting when she's walking along, sees me, and stops to say hi and beam at me as if I'm a close friend and it makes her day to see me. Like it violates the code of comfortable customer service.

I know. I'm weird.

Hey, look at that! My post had a cohesive theme today!

Don't get used to it.

When Do I Ever Post Anything That's Not Randomness Anymore?

I can't seem to post on a single topic here anymore, even when I post more than once a week. Is that annoying?

While doing my post for The Gab Wagon today, I looked up all my Amazon rankings. Most of my paper titles are old, so their numbers are dismal (except Brianna's Navy SEAL, which was 658,733, which is higher than Megan Hart's Wish List and An Exaltation of Larks, and even her next book, Stranger! And yes, I measure myself against her All. The. Time. And usually come up wanting. :) ) Most of my Kindle titles haven't even achieved a ranking at all, but again, Brianna's Navy SEAL had an overall rank in the Kindle Store of 47,461. Since they advertise that Kindle has over 170,000 titles, that seems pretty good. I'm not complaining, anyway.

*Makes note to check ranking every day.*

Soccer season, the real one, is in full swing now. Both kids have played two games, both won both games, both are top of their divisions by either number of wins or goals scored/goals against. It's a nice feeling, especially for Number One, whose team has had varying levels of success but not this one. Number Two's team has yet to be tested, and we'll be up against a particular team (who beat us twice last fall) not once, not twice, but at least three times. We play them twice in the regular season and are bracketed with them in an October tournament. Should be interesting.

Football season, too, is in full swing. The Patriots are 2-0. They had a convincing win against the Jets yesterday. Matt Cassel looked good. Everyone can settle down now.

I have two really great things to look forward to this week. Tomorrow I'm going out to dinner with some friends. These are the ones I did the writing challenge with this summer. We're celebrating our hard work, discipline, and dedication. Someone's got to do it!

The other thing is, of course, the Supernatural premiere. There are two clips available online. One is, I think, the reunion scene, and I don't want to watch that one. I want to see it unfold. Even if I misunderstood what that clip is, I don't want to expose myself to too much. Anticipation is very high for this show, and if it's going to pay off, I want to give it the chance to.

However, I let a friend (damn you, Smith!) browbeat entice me into watching the second one, which showed the boys in their usual form. They were funny and gorgeous and belied implications by Kripke that their relationship is damaged. I can't wait until Thursday!

Number Two just got home. Must move on to the belongs-to-everyone-but-me part of my day now. :)

Mixed Bag

I'm highly amused by the difference between the media's talk about the New England Patriots' new situation and the perspective of the players from around the league.

Summary:

Media: OMG! SEASON'S OVER! PATRIOTS ARE ONLY TOM BRADY! CASSEL SUCKS! NO ONE ELSE ON THE ENTIRE TEAM PLAYS THEIR POSITION WELL!

Players: The Patriots didn't win because of Brady, they won because of the well-coached, dedicated, team-focused team that they are, and they will continue to be a challenge--nothing changes.

The truth, of course, is somewhere in the middle. Tom Brady's loss does change things, but it takes a team that might have been stratospheric (which we'll never know since the injury occurred only a few minutes into the season) and brings them down to the level of the rest of the NFL.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have a new blog! Well, it's more than a blog, and it's not MINE, per se. Okay, it's not mine at all, I'm just one lowly member of a fabulous group of women who like speculative TV. Today I posted my review of the season premiere of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles on SciFi Chicks. The site will have reviews and commentary, news and spoilers, and rousing discussions about the best in SF, fantasy, and paranormal television. Check it out!

~~~~~~~~~~~~
I really want my TiVo back.

Last night was the first night we watched anything we'd recorded using the new DVR box, and I HATE IT. Really, really hate it. Enough to pause the show and rant.

With TiVo, you have a list of shows you recorded. You click on the show, click Play, and it starts either at the beginning, or where you left off the last time you viewed it. When you get to the end, it takes you back to the menu.

We recorded three shows yesterday. Two and a Half Men (I don't watch that, J does), Terminator, and Prison Break. I went into the List, highlighted Terminator, and Selected it, then clicked Play.

Prison Break started.

I thought I'd hit the wrong show on the list, so I did it all over again. Same result. (This was about 9:10 last night, so just a little into PB, so it was starting from the point of the live show, not even at the beginning.)

I'm not yet familiar with all the features of the remote, so I started rewinding, and it was rewinding through T:SCC but geez, I don't want to have to take that time, or watch a whole show in reverse before I watch it in forward/regular motion. So I checked the cheat card and saw that if I hold the six-second jump-back button down, it will jump to the beginning of the show. When I did that, though, it jumped back twice, to the beginning of Two and a Half Men! Which I had to fast-forward through.

So okay, yeah, I have to learn the features of my remote and maybe read up a little on how the stupid Playlist works. I mean, gawd, am I gonna have to jump through 56 episodes of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody to get to Fringe?

Stay tuned to learn if Natalie Stops Being an Cantankerous Old Lady and Learns This Newfangled Technology or says F*** It! and buys a new TiVo box.

It Wasn't Supposed to Be This Hard

So yesterday was one of the best days of the year, and one of the worst.

Football season started! Woo hoo!

Tom Brady got hurt. Boo hoo.

Rumor has it that it's an ACL tear, though that rumor was spreading before he had today's MRI, so no one really knows for sure what it is. If that is the injury, he's out for the season. My first reaction to that was "great, now I'm not going to watch" but that's ridiculous. I don't watch for Tom Brady. And sure, the very faint possibility of repeating last year's undefeated season adds some excitement, but I'm totally spoiled. Most teams don't have that. Most teams don't feel, the day of the first game, absolute confidence that they'll win their division. So now we just have a new kind of excitement. The excitement of true challenge.

Even with Matt Cassel replacing Brady (and he played very well), the game shouldn't have come down to the last play. Our defense did fine, and our special teams really could do a lot better--but "fine" and "needs improvement" won't cut it for long.

But we won the Superbowl the first time with an untried backup, and we can do it again. I say "FIE" to all the pundits saying to stick a fork in the Pats. We are so not done.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Enough football. Have I mentioned that I have a new release? I think I have failed in that responsibility.

Letting Go I loved the idea of a May/December romance, even though "cougars" and young male boyfriends are all the rage. My heroine is far from a cougar. She's just a regular mom who's way too focused and really needs to let go.

Here's the blurb:

Single mom Samantha Pearson lives for her son, who's about to come home from college for the last Thanksgiving before graduation. But a snowstorm strands him at the airport, while Samantha is trapped in her house for days with his best friend and roommate Zack, a sexy twenty-two-year-old charmer whose flattering flirtations first embarrass her, then stir something forbidden deep in her soul.

What Samantha feels for the young man is utterly taboo, and she's determined to fight her growing attraction. But Zack, who fell for her the moment they first met, is equally determined to give Samantha all the pleasure and relaxation she never takes for herself...

You can read excerpts here and here and buy here. It's already available at ARe and soon to come at Fictionwise and for the Kindle.

Fandom Rocks Hard!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Dana Stodgel

Phone: 217-621-9970

Email: contact@fandom-rocks.com

FANS OF “SUPERNATURAL” RAISE THOUSANDS FOR CHARITY

Champaign, IL, September 5, 2008 - Fandom Rocks, a grassroots organization made up of fans of CW Television’s Supernatural, has concluded yet another successful charitable drive, raising thousands of dollars for two very worthy organizations, WriteGirl and Invisible Children.

This campaign, the third for Fandom Rocks, was the most successful to date, raising almost $9000 USD which will be evenly divided between WriteGirl and Invisible Children. The beneficiaries were chosen by fans through voting conducted on the Fandom Rocks website. Funds were raised among through site donations and a successful eBay auction, for which items were donated by fans and celebrities alike, including the cast and crew of Supernatural.

Fandom Rocks is grateful to everyone who participated in the campaign by donating auction items, bidding, and spreading the word about the fundraiser. Special thanks go to Sera Gamble and everyone at Supernatural for the autographed memorabilia provided for the auction.

Supernatural fans from around the world worked together to “give back” while bonding through their shared love and support for Supernatural, which they will be quick to tell you is the “absolute best show on TV!” Winners of auction items included fans in Belgium, Australia, and Japan.

Fandom Rocks is now preparing for their fourth campaign. Information on the organization and their work can be found at www.fandom-rocks.com.

Stealing from the Internets

From Avery Beck via Cindy Procter-King:

What Your Name Says About You

Your name says that you are mostly: Unconventional but unstable Your name also says you are: Ambitious but stubborn Dynamic but aggressive Thoughtful but slow

What Does Your Name Say About You?

Also from Cindy:



Hilarious!

Okay, the rest of this post isn't technically stolen. But while I was reading blogs before posting this, to see if there was anything else I wanted to steal, I found this at Tracy's blog.

I SWEAR, the stuff below? I wrote it all three days ago! I just didn't feel like going to find pictures for all of it so I hadn't posted it yet. So I don't know if I should be annoyed at Tracy for making me look like I'm stealing, or amused because of like minds and all that.

I Really Love My...

Ground Meat Chopper (Pampered Chef)

I make ground beef more than any other kind of meat. Tacos, sloppy joes, spaghetti, my own special turkey-and-rice recipe. And I really, really dislike large chunks of ground meat. I like it very finely chopped--it goes along with my fear of uncooked meat. So when PC came out with this chopper, I couldn't get it fast enough. It works much better than a spatula for chopping meat the way I like it.

Neo (Alphasmart)

I talk about this all the time, of course. I'm using it right now, as a matter of fact. I love that I can whip it out and jot a note or type an e-mail or work on my book or blog posts without having to wait for boot-up or being distracted by shiny new e-mail posts or IMs.



TiVo (TiVo)

I love DVR. I love that I can record two shows at once, and now that I have three shows on at the same time on Monday nights, I'm happy that we replaced our downstairs TiVo box and moved it upstairs. As I said in a previous post, I'm not thrilled with DirecTV's DVR and prefer the TiVo interface. But as long as I have the record-ability, I'm happy.

iPod Classic (Apple)

Mostly, I listen to podcasts about the New England Patriots and the NFL. I also listen to Pottercast regularly. Mentioning Harry Potter on here always raises my hits by like four times normal, but I keep forgetting that and not mentioning it. Anyway, even though the Harry Potter books are all done, Pottercast still has lots of fun content. Games (playing a clip from the audiobook for "Guess That Book," which you'd think I'd be better at, considering how many times I've listened to them), news, discussion of the last book--I like keeping myself in the Potterverse like that.

I also use my iPod for music, though there are a lot of songs on it I have (apparently) never listened to. Here's a sampling:

"Lean Back" by Terror Squad Feat. Fat Joe and Remy from Now 17
"Over and Over" by Three Days Grace from One-X (I just got that album, though)
"Dirty Water" by ZO2 from Tuesdays and Thursdays

The two songs I've listened to most? "Boys Break In" and "Dean Comforts Sam" by Christopher Lennertz from the Supernatural season 1 soundtrack.

And finally, I use my iPod for video. I have all the Firefly episodes and all the Supernatural season 3 episodes and the last two eps of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Oh, and Dr. Horrible. Ask me how often I watch any of those. Yeah. Not often.

Simplus (Boston)

I alternate bottles of this with bottles of my regular cleaner and conditioner, because a long time ago my eye doctor said she didn't like the all-in-one solutions because if they were safe enough to put in the eye, they weren't strong enough to clean the contacts properly.

But Simplus is used as a cleaner in the morning. At night, you pop the contacts out, drop them in the case, and you're done. That works for me, because at night I'm often too tired to clean them properly. Then in the morning, when I'm awake and alert, I clean and rinse them. Plus, the contacts feel more cushy with this stuff than the conditioner.

Cell Phone (Motorola)

It's the same cell phone Dean uses in the last few episodes of Supernatural season three. He'll probably have a different one with the beginning of season 4, but for now, we're the same.

That's much better than my last phone, which was the same one Gordon had in the episode where he becomes a vampire.



Whirley-Pop Popcorn Popper (Wabash Farms)

I'm a popcorn fiend, and it has to be real popcorn with real butter and salt. Microwave stuff stinks. I used to do air popped corn, but most air poppers shoot kernels all over my house, and I can't stand that. I had one that was self-contained, but as it aged, the popcorn got harder and harder in the center, as if it wasn't popping completely. So now I use a very little bit of olive or grapeseed or canola oil in this spinny popper, which is a vast improvement over our old method of shaking a saucepan over the stove burner when I was a kid. I have a flat-top stove now and can't do that.

I owe my awesome popcorn to my stepfather, who taught us how to toss the butter and salt for ideal distribution. This allows us to use less butter (in theory) and means you don't have to be sweeping your fingerfuls of corn across the bottom of the butter-soaked bowl to get the best flavor. Though I have fond memories of the family sitting around the TV and doing that.

What do you love?

Wild Wednesday

Discerning readers will notice I have a new blog template. Whatcha think?

In updating my Gadgets (see to the right), I found that Blogger has a whole bunch of new things. I added a few. It would be cool if you became a Follower, if you are a Blogger user--that will make me look cool, as opposed to foolish, as I do now, with ZERO followers. You can do it anonymously.

I know the Supernatural Gadget doesn't fit on the sidebar, but LOOK! New promo!

Scroll down a little and you can see not only the blogs on my list, but when they were updated (I'd point out that Misty Simon is on the bottom of the list, but she won't read this to notice I'm picking on her, so never mind) and even what kind of blog it is (or the blog's special icon, for Sophisticated Bloggers).

I was looking at my sitemeter stats and found that while my search strings aren't as fun as Shannon Stacey's are, they can amuse. Apparently, most people who find me randomly are searching for TV spoilers. Unfortunately for them, it's the shows I don't talk about that often. I also had "boys don't realize" and "secret sneaker liar" near the top of the list. The former took them to this post, the latter to a post that briefly mentioned the store by that name.

Mary tagged me with this meme.

Rules:
I am going to list three categories of books: 5 MUST Read Books, 5 Books on Your Nightstand, and 5 Look For These Soon. Anyone I tag should put these same lists on their blog but SUBTRACT one book from each list and ADD one of their own. (I've highlighted my additions) Then they should tag at least 5 more bloggers. It will be fun to see how the lists change as it goes around the blogosphere. Please come back to this post and leave a comment so I can see how the lists are changing as they go around the blogosphere!

(Since this is Book Buzz…please keep your lists to titles released in 2007-2009.)

5 MUST Read Books:
Not Without Her Family by Beth Andrews
A Mile in My Flip-Flops by Melody Carlson
Cast in Stone by Kerry A. Jones
Yellow Moon by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Bobbie Faye's Very (very, very, very) Bad Day by Toni McGee Causey

5 Books on the Nightstand:
Last Dance at the Jitterbug Lounge by Pamela Morsi
Nightswimming by Rebecca James
Pleasure by Eric Jerome Dickey
From Harvey River by Lorna Goodison
The Queen's Bastard by CE Murphy

5 Look For These Soon:
Wanted by Shelley Shephard Gray
After the Fire: A True Story of Friendship and Survival by Robin Gaby Fisher
Midnight: A Gangster Love Story by Sister Souljah
A Firefighter in the Family by Trish Milburn
Stranger by Megan Hart

I tag anyone who wants to do it.

Oh, shoot. My day is almost over! Number Two will be here in 20 minutes and I haven't eaten lunch yet. :(

Frustrations That Demonstrate How Good My Life Must Be If All I Have to Complain About Is This Petty S***.

Okay, the major one is not really petty.

I went to Barnes & Noble today after dropping the dog at the groomer. I wanted to pick up the Season 3 DVD for Supernatural, which came out today, and even though the 30% off that they advertise plus the 10% off I get from the preferred reader program don't bring the price as low as Target and Circuit City, I have a gift card that covers a lot of it, so I'd be paying less in real money.

But they didn't have it.

They had one copy they had special ordered for someone but they weren't stocking it. The clerk offered to order it, that it would come in 2-3 days, but I said "no, thanks" in a "don't bother" tone to drive home that they'd lost my business because of their shortsightedness.

Which of course cut off my nose to spite my face, because now what do I do? *sigh* I guess I'll order it from bn.com. It will be free shipping, and I can use the gift card, but it will take longer to get here. *sigh* again.

I have a writing dilemma that should really be an easy decision but has a bunch of factors playing into it.

When I took the dog to the groomer, they were doing construction in two different places and were alternating traffic, so it took me much longer to get there than it should have. I hate being late. HATE.

The holiday weekend means that my Netflix DVDs didn't get mailed back until today, so if my local center has the next disks I want, the earliest I can get them is Thursday, which means after that, I'll have to wait extra days because of the weekend so if I watch one each Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, I'll have to wait until Tuesday to get new ones again, and by then the TV shows will be on.

Stupid weekend.

I was just looking at my Netflix queue and it says I can upgrade to the next level (one more disk at a time) for only .42. That's because my plan renews in two days, when they would charge me $6 more for the next month. I actually contemplated it and was looking to see what the terms were, if I could downgrade right away, like, the day after they mailed my extra disk (the timing wouldn't really work, I'd have at least a month at the higher rate), but it had a reminder on my account that I'm part of the class action which means for my next billing cycle, I get upgraded for free! Yay!

Have I mentioned how much I hate my refrigerator? I tried to use Consumer Reports to guide my purchase, but no one ever has the model numbers that CR most recently reviewed, and the ones that were best rated or best buys were either too big to fit in my kitchen, or not the kind I want. Because I'm picky. I don't want grated shelves, I want glass ones. I want them adjustable. I want the freezer on top. And I don't want fancy stuff like the in-door water dispenser that I can't use without paying a boatload for plumbing hookup.

So I got the best option I could find, and it SUCKS. The frozen stuff is always freezer-burned, no matter how well I protect it. That never happened in the old freezer. Don't ask me for an explanation, because I can't give you one. A double-wrapped piece of meat should not be sporting chunks of frost after three days in the freezer. Hmmm...it just occurred to me that that could be a sign that things are thawing and refreezing. But no, I'd notice if anything was ever soft. It's not.

Also, the refrigerator area is HUGELY uneven. Stuff in the bottom and the back will freeze solid, while stuff in the center and top shelf will seem lukewarm to me. Not really lukewarm, like bacteria-growth temperature, but warmer than I like. I like my beverages and cheese to be COLD. But it's not, and the damned thing is too new to consider replacing, even if we had the money lying around to spend. If only I could justify claiming it as a business expense. I need them.

Last thing...

I hooked up our new DVR receiver downstairs, and moved the TiVo box upstairs. It's nice being able to pause upstairs now, and record a show (though we only have one satellite feed upstairs). But I'm not thrilled with the DirecTV DVR layout. It seems to take a lot more effort to do the same things. Some of it is a matter of adaptation, of course, but some is just more complicated. If I'd known, I might have actually paid money to buy a new TiVo receiver instead of taking the free one DirecTV offered.

Okay, enough complaining about petty s***. Tomorrow, I promise, I will have only good things to say in an upbeat manner. :)

Word Choice

My agent pointed readers to Elizabeth Bear's blog post this weekend, and I had a comment. She already had a ton of comments, though, and I was a little late, so I decided to turn it into a post.

As a reader, I want rich prose that informs the story. I don't want rich prose that is very enamored with itself and says "Hey! Look at this awesome turn of phrase! Aren't I beautiful?!" I read for story, not words. But I agree wholeheartedly that word choice is still important, that when she uses "drooped" no other word would do.

Which is why copyediting bugs me so much. I have been lucky in that my current publishers are very lenient in their editing. I had one story that I did a little battle on, over things I hadn't thought I would ever fight over but which I found far more important than I expected. Like I had one character say, "Ohmigod." The editor changed it to "Oh, my God," which does not convey the breathless excitement I intended. We compromised with "OhmyGod," which I still didn't like because "mi" with a short I and "my" with a Y do not sound the same. And it made me feel petty, but now Ms. Bear has made me feel vindicated.

But I've heard horror stories from friends about copyeditors who change voice, and change the meaning of sentences, and rewrite half the book, if not more. I believe in the collaborative relationship with editorial staff, but the burden is on the author to deliver the goods. When the average reader reads a flat sentence or section of a book and stops reading because they are no longer engaged, they blame the author. They don't think, "Oh, I bet the copyeditor changed some important stuff in there."

This is one of those "luck of the draw" things in this business, and one of my few real fears.

Vindication

I was almost writing a big rant right here in this space. It will be only a partial rant, and I had to pick myself up off the floor before I could write it. The end part is actual praise for customer service.

No big deal, right? Except it's praise for AT&T.

I've always avoided AT&T. They had a history of screwing over their customers, back when they were not only a huge conglomerate but basically had no competition. My cell phone company was sold to AT&T, and for a while the company I wanted to switch to kept saying they had no coverage in my area, which was wrong, but I wouldn't call them (you know me). I just kept checking the website. Anyway, this spring they changed their website and I could get their service but they weren't offering reimbursement for the early termination fee anymore, so I waited for my contract term to be up. And then Number One was going to Holland and I will admit that AT&T does have the best signal coverage and it was the easiest way for her to keep in touch from overseas.

So I finally switched last month. When I called to activate my new phones, they told me AT&T hadn't yet released the numbers so I had to call back the next day. This week I got my last AT&T phone bill, and they charged me for service from 8/14 to 9/13, even though my records showed I'd switched to Credo on 8/13. So I called them. And they said according to the terms of my account, AT&T doesn't prorate the monthly service and my bill cycle ended 8/13 and I didn't switch until 8/14.

The bastards held my service hostage so they could bill me another $60+.

Vintage AT&T.

So I told him that my new company showed my service effective 8/13 and that it was one day and if they ever wanted me back as a customer, they'd remove that charge from the bill. He said it was policy and he couldn't do that. I asked for a supervisor. He assured me he had authority to address the issue and that it was true and correct and laid out right there in my terms of service. I got pretty loud and demanded a supervisor again. During the 15 minutes I was on hold (he put me on hold mid-sentence, too--I really ticked him off), I laid out my argument for the supervisor. But when the CSR came back on the line, he said yes, if I switch in the future, they would want me back, so he removed that fee.

I was really nice after that. :)

So it appears AT&T is at least attempting to balance its bastardness with good service, and if I do switch again--which is a possibility, since Credo, a reseller of Sprint, doesn't have the signal power of AT&T--they aren't automatically off my list.

Switching is a low possibility at the moment, because Credo gives 1% of my charges to charity, and I've been a long distance customer of theirs (formerly Working Assets Long Distance) for nearly 16 years, so I'm reducing my number of bills to be paid. But still. AT&T smartly did not burn our bridge, and now I'm praising them publicly instead of vilifying them.

Maybe corporate dickheads CAN learn something.

Bogus Quiz

Are You Compatible With The Supernatural Boys?

More on Supernatural. Created by BuddyTV

A friend sent this to me. Most of the questions don't apply to the show or the guys at all, or at least not in any clear way, and one question is completely wrong. You can only kill a Wendigo with fire, which is not one of the choices for an answer.

When I took it again trying to up my compatibility with Dean, it only went up to 52%. And again re: Sam, it went to 50%.

Not that it matters. In real life I'm 100% compatible with both of them. You know, where real life = in my imagination. :)

Fall TV 2008 and Summer Movie Wrap-Up

As mentioned, I've been watching Angel to tide me over until the fall season starts. My local Netflix center hasn't had the disks, so they're coming from Michigan and Louisiana, and taking three days to arrive. It's killing me.

Anyway, I'm getting my DVR situation straightened out (moving boxes around the house) and planning the recording for the fall, and this is what I'm planning to watch this season (in order of the return/premiere):

Prison Break
I had a mini-marathon a couple of weekends ago when Blockbuster didn't have Angel and I caught up on the two-thirds of last season that I didn't watch. Yes, I stopped watching when they cut Sarah's head off. Yes, I'm going back because so is she. But I missed the guys. I love Michael and Lincoln.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
As I said during last season, Brian Austin Green elevated a decent show to very good. I can't wait for it to come back.

Fringe*
JJ Abrams. Nuff said.

Supernatural
I spent some time earlier this week watching the last three episodes of last season while I recorded them for a friend. The return can't be soon enough for me, even though it's two weeks earlier than last year.

How I Met Your Mother
My lone sitcom. I like the dynamics and the writing, but it's all Neil Patrick Harris for me. This is a show I don't rush to watch and wouldn't lament if it was gone, but I enjoy watching it a lot.

The Mentalist*
I don't remember what this show is about, I just know that when I first saw the write-up, I decided to try it.

Knight Rider*
I know. Mock me all you want. I wasn't thrilled with the movie they did, and my expectations are really, really low, especially given how little I liked the remake of my favorite childhood show, Bionic Woman. Nostalgia has me giving it a one-episode chance. Then we'll see.

Chuck
This show has me all confused. There was an episode aired toward the end of the "season," but not the last show, where the military woman told Adam Baldwin's character that the Interface or whatever it was called had been rebuilt, and he was to kill Chuck. Then there were two episodes burned off after that that didn't reference that at all. And it hasn't been on since January, I think, so I barely remember what happened at the end.

My Own Worst Enemy*
For no particular reason, I get an Alias-type vibe off this show. Not that I've even seen a preview. It has Christian Slater--oh. He was on Alias and he's a spy on this show as well as a regular guy--and he was a regular guy on Alias. Okay. There's a reason. Anyway, even if the writing is mediocre, he's bound to elevate it.

Pushing Daisies
To be honest, I'm not as ga-ga over this show as everyone else is. It's a little dull. One of those shows I enjoy while I'm watching it, but wouldn't care if I didn't have it.

Private Practice
I can't wait for this to come back, solely for the Del storyline. I am completely in love with Del and his love for Naomi. And yes, I know she belongs with Sam, but day-um. Being loved like that by a guy like Del is a helluvan ego boost.

The Ex List*
I think this looks cute, and it's a good counterpart to all my testosterone-driven choices. :)

Numb3rs
A nice, solid, reliable show with great characters and investigative science that always has me going "huh? how did they make that leap?"

Eleventh Hour*
Jerry Bruckheimer, who has a lot of cred with me because of Pirates of the Caribbean, though I don't think I watch any of his TV shows. Like others mentioned above, I don't remember what this is about.

Crusoe*
The latest-debuting show on my list, and the one I'm least certain of (besides Knight Rider). But it seems worth a try.

*Last year, I was so pissed off by the previous year's cancellations that I refused to watch any new show until it had at least 4 episodes and showed no signs of being canceled. It worked then, but for some reason, I care a lot less now, maybe because I don't feel that betrayal. I'm prepared to fall in love with a show and lose it. I think partly because there are enough returning shows that are safe to keep me in TV for a while.

So what are you looking forward to? What shows will you be watching?

~~~~~~~~~~~~
I finally got to see Hancock last night, and I want to know what the critics were smoking. Some of the criticisms were:

SPOILER ALERT although this late after release, spoilers should be a given.

It took a dark turn about halfway through

Um, hello! Sociopathic alcoholic superhuman! We knew that immediately, right from the trailer. Most movies get darker as they go along, until they get to the "black moment" when all seems lost. I didn't see any inconsistency there. Despite the humor (which was pretty dark itself), Hancock was who he was.

Charlize Theron being his wife was out of the blue

Okay, I knew this ahead of time, but still, the instant she saw him, there was something there. We knew immediately that she knew him, even if we soon learned that he didn't know her. I loved the worldbuilding, even if it came as exposition and backstory, and it really fed the bitterness of the climax.

Some other thoughts...

Michael Mann. Geez. It's a joke now, about how much he likes to destroy things, but I'm tired of it. It's more tolerable in a movie like this that has powerful emotion, too, but still. Totally gratuitous.

Jason Bateman. I sooooo want to see him in a romantic comedy. He's just made of awesome. I can't decide if they missed the boat on his character development with not getting enough of a reaction from him to the knowledge that his wife is technically already married, or if they did a really great job avoiding the expected response and having him just be secure in her love and their belonging together. Him chopping off the bad guy's other hand was fantastic.

Tonight I'm going to finally see Dark Knight, and my summer movie viewing will be complete. There are a couple of movies I didn't get to see, Wanted the only one that actually comes to mind, but I'll Netflix 'em eventually, when I'm done with Angel.

The fall movie season is upon us now, and frankly, there isn't a single movie I'm excited to go see. Not sure if it's too early to blame the writer's strike, or if it's just that kind of year.

How Can I Come Up With a Title When I Don't Have a Topic?

My cats have lost their water privileges.

Recently, I've been finding one of the two cat water dishes tipped over or splashed, or even just the mat under them wet. I took that dish away, assuming it was too tippable—it was just a "disposable" storage container—but it didn't solve the problem. I caught Maya—the good cat!—deliberately tipping over the other, more stable, meant-to-be-a-pet-dish dish. I'd just filled it, and the water cascaded across the freshly washed kitchen floor. So now they have no dishes. They mostly drink out of the dog's water dish, anyway.

~~~~~~~~~~
Why do kids always say, "Mom, I need a note" five minutes before it's time to go to the bus stop?

~~~~~~~~~~
I miss Doyle.

I'm watching Angel season 1, and Doyle was my favorite character. The way he died was great, well done, but the fact that he died has brought the show down in my estimation. And it was only the ninth episode! I didn't believe it until Wesley actually replaced him in the opening credits.

I looked up the actor, because to leave a show that early, I figured he had to have gotten something else, like a bigger role on a new show. But not only did he not get a new show, not only did he hardly ever do anything again...he died of a drug overdose three years later! It's tragic. My husband suggested that might be the reason he was canned, the drugs, but if it was, it didn't show in his performance. He was sweet and brave and weasly and Wesley has his points, but he just doesn't measure up.

~~~~~~~~~~
I felt borderline hypocritical yesterday, but then I realized I wasn't at all hypocritical, I was exactly what I'd always said I would be.

Number One has gorgeous hair. It's so thick, we can't find ponytail bands that will hold it properly. When she's on the soccer field, it looks like a horse's tail. And she's 13, so it's lush and healthy as well as long and thick.

Well, it was long. Almost small-of-her-back long. And it was due for a trim, but she wanted it shorter, like shoulder length. I lamented, but said it was okay. I mean, it's her hair.

A few years ago, my mother-in-law was telling me about a friend's grandchild who'd gotten a spiky mohawk and colored it some putrid color. I said "so what?" She didn't debate the topic, but the look on her face said I was nuts. I've always felt that hair is not worth fighting over; there are more important things to put your foot down on (facial jewelry is one of the minor ones—overnights with a boyfriend would be a major one).

Anyway, the hairdresser of course tried to talk her out of it, but Number One kept saying, "It's just hair" and "It's not like it won't grow back." So then Lisa, the hairdresser, was measuring how much she wanted off, and said if she went about an inch higher, she could donate it to Locks of Love, something she'd done once before, and she immediately agreed. We feel good about that—her ponytail was about the size of two normal ones, and it takes 15 to make a wig for a kid with alopecia. And when someone donates, Lisa doesn't charge for the haircut. So I wasn't going to argue.

But when she cut off that tail...oy. Some of the shorter hairs were at the nape of her neck. So instead of being just above her shoulders, it's just below her chin in front and barely at her neck in the back.

It's a lovely cut, with ragged ends and a great curve that looks adorable on Number One, and she's delighted with it. But I cringed a lot, and made noises in the back of my throat, and kept asking if she was okay with it--like it could be put back or something. That's when I felt hypocritical. But then I realized, I always said my kids could make their own decisions about their hair. But I never said I wouldn't be vocal about my own thoughts on the matter.

~~~~~~~~~~
I don't know why I keep reading Supernatural: Rising Son. Okay, I do know. I keep reading because I got the comic book store to put every issue in my husband's box, and once it's there, I can't make myself give it back, and I don't think to cancel it. But every issue, I hate it more and more.

BIG HONKIN' SPOILER ALERT

Okay, I can buy the storyline as an alternate "what if" scenario, but not something that really happened in the canon of the show. I mean, they made Sam a killer. He's old enough in the comic to REMEMBER that in the present. To remember that people were after him, and that he could do things. His visions wouldn't have been so out of the blue.

Worse, they made John a murderer. Not someone who hunts supernatural evil, but someone who pre-emptively kills men in horrific ways, and I just don't buy that of John. Sure, he was a terrible dad, but that's because he left his kids alone all the time and was obsessed with finding Yellow Eyes and raised the boys to have all kinds of issues. The John in the comics who's killing all these guys is not the John who would be in so much pain when Meg kills his friends. Murder deadens you, hardens you, makes you less able to connect to other people, and in the comics, this is happening way before he had "falling out"s with all his friends.

Plus, Dean killed a man, a regular person, and whenever that happened in the earlier days of the show, it was a Big Deal. If he'd first done it at age 10, he'd be a totally different kind of person in the present.

The thing I do kind of like—well, I guess I'm conflicted about—is that Lilith has been introduced as someone who wanted Sam way back when he was a kid. I don't like the details of it, what she's trying to do, and a lot of the worldbuilding in the comics doesn't jibe with the worldbuilding of the show. I mean, sure, if Kripke had the budget, he'd totally have a demon build a monster out of shattered train parts and have it go after the Winchesters. You can do more in comics. But the creation of a semi-sentient hunk of autonomous, killing metal? Doesn't belong.

Anyone else bothering to read them? Liking them, or not?

~~~~~~~~~~
So we got a phone call last night. I didn't answer, and I was asleep when J came to bed, so he didn't tell me about it, and we don't really cross paths in the morning until he's in the car. I found out from one of the moms at the bus stop that the call was an Instant Alert from the school superintendent, telling us to check the website and our e-mails. Apparently, there's a guy in a white van with brown curly hair and a tattoo trying to pick up kids. He tried at the high school and at one of the elementary schools. Not the one my kids go to, but one friends of mine have kids attending, and those schools are only two miles from my kids' and less than five from my house. Easily expandable territory.

This is where the balance of parenting gets so hard. I walk Number Two to the bus stop, but not Number One, and they both walk the half a block home on their own, with the other kids from the bus. That's the only place they'd really be vulnerable, and now I feel I have to meet them every day, or at the very least go outside to watch them get off the bus. I don't want to let Number Two practice soccer in the front yard, or walk up to her friend's house. Yet I don't want to make her a prisoner or be overprotective, either.

We were talking about this the other day, a group of us, about how when we were kids, we left the house in the morning and roamed the neighborhood all day. Parents didn't know where we were. At my cousins' house, we were often deep in the woods (probably not as deep as it seemed, but out of calling range) or way up the street and around the corner. We came in when the streetlights went on. No way can any of us let our kids do that now. There are more cars on the street, driving faster, and the risk of abduction just seems too damned high.

I bet it's not. I bet that proportionately, the risk is the same as when we were kids. What's changed is the information society. When a child in Florida gets abducted in a car wash parking lot, we hear about it almost instantly in Pennsylvania or California. With video. So 20, 30 years ago, if we didn't know someone it had happened to, it wouldn't affect our behavior. If we did have a personal connection, if we knew someone who'd been taken, it would scare us into taking precautions. Now, though, we know everyone. Everyone could be us. And we live our lives accordingly.

And we try to find a balance between giving our kids some independence and protecting them from the horrors out there, knowing that we don't really have that much control.

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school. Number One started eighth grade, her last year of middle school, and Number Two started fourth grade. For some reason, it didn't feel as "big" as the first day of school usually does.

Perhaps because both kids were pretty blasé. Perhaps because it was pretty damned hot this morning, and "first day of school" really seems like it should have the bite of fall, despite the fact that fall is nearly a month away.

But mostly, I think it's because of the weekend we just had.

When Number One was 8, she had the option of playing rec soccer or travel. She wanted to keep playing rec. I was glad, because I wasn't ready to dedicate full weekends to soccer. Weekends like this one.

Number One played in a six-game tournament in Gettysburg--three seeding games, one of which they won, and three tournament games, in which they wound up in the consolation bracket, taking sixth. The great part was seeing 15 of her 18 teammates together. It's early, but they're starting to come together. I have high hopes for this season, because usually their season record stinks but they do great in tournaments, at least having a run at the championship. Maybe things will be reversed this year.

Number Two played a three-game tournament in Downingtown. It was quite a wild time. The setup was to play three games in our four-team bracket. The team that won the bracket (based on points for wins, ties, goals scored, and shutouts) would play the team that won the other bracket in our "flight." So we played three really good teams with whom we were fairly evenly matched, winning two and tying the third, and failing to win the bracket by only one point. If it was all points based, we came in third.

But circumstances can sometimes suck. Going into the third game, we were one point behind because the team we played in that game had a shutout and we didn't. If we won outright, we'd go to the final game to play for the championship. We tied the game with them 1-1, a heartbreaking situation because the same girl scored both goals. Yes, every soccer player's nightmare. Of course, the important things were learning and having fun, and they all did that. And everyone was in good spirits when we left.

The other factor that made it wild was that in our first game, we had more injuries than we'd ever had in an entire season before, as far as I can recall. Two of our defenders went down in the first half after being kicked hard in the calf and ankle. Then Number Two, who plays goalie, got three of her fingers bent back badly enough to pull her off the field. She sprained the middle finger (still hurts two days later) and was icing it when not five minutes after she came off the field, our other goalie got kicked in the face and got a bloody nose.

Proud Parent Moment

Coach: "I need a goalie. Who's a team player? Who's gonna go in for me?"

Team: Silence

Number Two: "I'll go back in."

And she did, and she did great.

With all the injuries, I learned two of our parents (one of whom was on site) are doctors. The ER doc/dad who was there joked that he'd hold clinic after the game, but it ended up not being a joke, as he taped up our injured defenders before each game after that. So we're super-lucky. Retired college soccer coach for an assistant coach and our very own trainer!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, back to first day of school. We had the expected kinks, though they were worse than usual. The elementary bus was 20 minutes late, which means the kids were 20 minutes late getting to school. No explanation for why it was late. I was blown off when I called the school, given excuses about assigning seats at each stop, but we're the first stop! They have new bus routes and new procedures, though, and it looks like some things are going to have to change, because she was about 20 minutes late getting home, too. And one of the neighbors didn't show up. He wound up on a different bus or something. Scary.

Number One's day went smoothly. One of her teachers makes the kids do pushups for saying certain words or violating rules like not having a hall pass. She didn't have to do any, but finds the whole thing amusing. Her three closest friends are on her academic team for the first time, though she only shares one class each with two of them. They get to eat lunch together, which is nice. They've been close since third grade, even with being torn asunder entering sixth grade and all making new friends. It's always nice to see.

As for me...

I spent the morning cleaning, doing laundry, taking the cat for a nail-clipping, getting groceries, and going to the post office. That meant that 1) it wasn't the easy-going day I was looking for, and 2) it went way, WAY too fast.

But I'm glad we're here.

San Francisco Photos

Finally! Here they are!

I'll spare you all the sightseeing photos. For one, because they can be found anywhere. For two, because if I'm in them, I look horrible.

I'm also not posting (to everyone's relief, probably) all 39 of the conference-related photos. Some are poor quality. Some have a weird face being made by one of the subjects--those are held for future blackmail. Some I think are great shots but the subjects don't agree or withheld permission to post them (Lisa, I'm glaring at you). Some are repetitive, too, and I'm trying to keep this interesting. So. Here we go.

WEDNESDAY

This is probably the coolest thing I saw in San Francisco. I know, kinda pathetic, and someone told me they have them elsewhere, but *I* never saw one:





I had one more shot that was actually video, and it won't process properly. But you go in, do what you need to do--in a spacious, clean, unsmelly atmosphere with soap suds along the base of the wall--come out, the door closes, and the entire room gets washed. So cool.

Wednesday was also the day of sightseeing with my friends.


Me, Lisa Mondello, Pam Tracy, Libby Banks, Cathy McDavid



Wednesday night was the Literacy Signing, with 550 authors. I only took three pictures. Well, one of these was with Trish's camera, which got a better shot than mine did.

Me and Trish Milburn

The Giddy Monica Burns
(go see The GabWagon for why she was giddy!)

The approved photo of Lisa Mondello
THURSDAY

Thursday is about the Annual General Meeting and other non-exciting things, so not many photos here.

Me, Connie Newman, Barbara Rae Robinson

See? Not Very Exciting
This was actually just one of those freaky things, Trish blinked. She wasn't really falling asleep while that person talked.

FRIDAY

Lyndi Lamont, Catherine Snodgrass, Cindy Procter-King
Amber Quill authors

Me, flanked by ML Rhodes (left) and her mom (right)

SATURDAY

Cathy McDavid, Lisa Mondello (shh, don't tell her) and Me

Me with Libby Banks

I didn't get a good shot of Pam in her finery, so here's her Rita nomination upon on the big screen during the ceremony.

And one final shot, from Sunday:


It didn't occur to me until the last day that a lot of the birds I was seeing, I might never have seen before. It didn't occur until I was walking along behind this guy, a Brewer's Blackbird. I got all excited that I could log a new bird in my bird book, then realized my bird book is Eastern Birds of North America. But of course this one has a wide range and was in the book anyway. So I got to log it, but being able to do so means it's not exactly an uncommon species. Oh, well.

So there you have it. My SF trip in not-so-concise images and explanations.

Wednesday Wanderings

About 11 years ago, I got my hair cut by a new hairdresser. It was a perfect cut. I loved the choppy layering and the way the bangs fell. Right after it was cut, I went to Massachusetts for a wedding. When I came back, the hair didn't seem so perfect. I probably blamed my styling ability, or the way it was growing out or something. On one of my visits to my mother, still in Massachusetts, I realized the water up there was really good for my hair, because I loved it again.

Fast forward through the years. I have never had that good of a haircut since, despite going to the same person (with only two single-cut deviations, which also weren't as good as that first one) ever since. My mother died in February 2003, and I've only been back to Massachusetts once since.

So back in July, right before I went to San Francisco, I had my hairdresser do something a little different than the usual basic trim. I liked it, but the bangs were a problem. I had her revise them, and they were okay, though styling them was one-time-good/five-times-sucky. And even the "good" doesn't last more than a couple of hours.

But in San Francisco...I swear, it's all about the water. My hair looked great (by my standards--if you who were there and are looking at me all askance, going "oooo-kay," I don't want to know about it). It styled nice and stayed that way, and even when I had to restyle it late in the day and it wasn't quite as good, it was still better than it has been any day since I got home.

I'm done blaming myself, how long I let it dry, how I hold the brush, how much mousse and hairspray I use. It's 100% the water's fault, and now I'm depressed, because I'm not going to move from PA for at least a decade.

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I found a new drink this weekend. I'm a pretty boring person when it comes to beverages (I'm talking non-alcohol, but it probably applies to alcoholic drinks, too). I drink mostly water, milk, and hot tea, with the occasional mocha or Coke or even more occasional orange juice. For bring-your-own-beverage occasions I've been taking Lipton's White Tea with Tangerine. But last weekend, I found this:



Canada Dry Green Tea Ginger Ale. Wow, is it good! Crisp, and lighter than regular ginger ale. Now I have to see if I can buy it in bulk or just the over-priced convenience store bottles.

When I was looking for an image, I found a bunch of sites referencing the high amount of sugar in the drink. One said if you want the benefits of green tea, drink green tea. Well, I don't drink anything for the "health benefits." Plus, I just checked, and Coke has more sugar per ounce than this drink does.

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I had another topic I was going to put in here and now I forget what it is.

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Why do people use the word "sell" as a noun? It's a verb. You sell something by exchanging it for money. Once that's done, it's a sale. So when someone sells a book to a publisher, they have achieved a sale. It always weirds me out to see "congratulations on your sell!" If it was verbal instead of written, I'd think they were talking about going to jail.

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I saw Tropic Thunder this weekend, and I said I thought it was the best movie I'd seen all summer. J said Hancock was better, but I haven't seen that yet. It was consistently hilarious. I laughed more than J, which itself is kind of amusing because it's more his kind of humor than it is mine. But I'm pretty into the whole film-making and TV-making world. Without, you know, being in it. So I felt like I was part of the insidery stuff. The whole auditorium was cracking up, though, so it's at least partly universally funny.

Someone asked on their blog last week (I think Cindy) if it was over-the-top. I think it comes really close, but doesn't go over. There were some gory parts that I closed my eyes at while I laughed, and a kid-related thing that I had to cringe away from, but they followed that one, at least, with an end shot that saved it from being unacceptable--and made it even funnier, actually.

It's crude and gross and the Tom Cruise (who did not impress me the way he impressed everyone else--I just don't get the awe of industry professionals and critiques when someone "goes ugly") and Matthew McConaughey characters can be truly offensive (though MM's agent character shows flashes of heart). This movie is definitely not for everyone. My mother, for one. But it's a really fun time, and well worth the price of a ticket.

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I know I'm probably the winner of the 2008 Lamest RWA Attendee Blogger, not having any pictures up yet. I will try to do them tomorrow. Stay tuned!