Well, That Didn't Last Long

Remember way back last week when I kept raving about how well everything was going, and how much I was getting done?

Yeah. Not so much today.

Two hours searching for anacharis for the damned crayfish. Most of that spent in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Which meant I didn't get very much work done that I intended to today. I have a galley to proof for Renegade, my mid-July novella release. I also finished my revisions on Fight or Flight last night, which made me feel really good, but trying to print out the damned manuscript is what set off rage of Incredible Hulk proportions tonight (aided, I'm sure, by PMS).

My printer was running low on toner, so I kept having to take the cartridge out and shake it. I thought, last night, that the manuscript finished printing. It didn't, but when I resumed it this afternoon, it f*&%ing started over! And I couldn't get the damned printer to stop f*&%ing printing. Every time I turned it off or disconnected it, when I turned it back on it started over at page 1. I wasted guess how many pages? Almost exactly the number I had left when the toner cartridge stopped completely. So there was a trip to Staples, and the mammoth document is now fully printed.

In the meantime, after I shook the cartridge and put it back in at one point, I forgot to flip up the paper catcher again. That's not a problem for short print jobs, but this one dumped about 50 pages all over the floor. Spread very far and wide, in a near-perfect circle. When I tried to gather them up, there was no rhyme or reason to what had landed where. Page 212, 248, 223, and 237 were all together. That was quite a nightmare to sort.

Add a 100-foot outdoor extension cord that didn't want to coil properly, kids who didn't do as they were told earlier, and bad parents who gave in to a fast-food dinner, and I was raging most of the evening.

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TMI

Getting older sucks. It's an old story--the hair on my head is thinner (I don't have less of it, the hair itself is just thin) and I have almost no eyelashes to speak of. But of course I'm growing a mustache. It's reached noticeable proportions, so for the first time in my life I used hair remover on it.

Yeah. That went about how you'd expect.

I have patches where I apparently didn't apply enough, and I have to wait two days before I can redo them. I plucked a few of the longer ones, which is probably a no-no (I know you can't pluck beforehand). I have a little bristly line right at my lipline that I'm afraid to try to get because the directions say not to get it on your lips. And I now have a brown line along said lipline that wasn't there this morning. The area is, of course, sensitive to the touch, and the remaining hairs feel like boar hide. I'm really afraid of how it will grow in now, too.

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Funky Entertainment

We saw Wall*E this weekend, and it was delightful. I love anthropomorphized robots, and the tribute to Apple, Pixar's originator, in the computer launch tone used as Wall*E's signal that his charge is complete, amused me every time they used it.

I didn't really care for the implication about humans' future, but I won't whine about it. I'll just make sure I'm not one of those people, that's all.

I also saw Borat the other day. Didn't live up to the hype. I wondered if Cohen ever broke character to explain to people what he was doing. I also wondered if he deliberately chose a southern route. Southerners were not shown in the best light, though of course they were goaded. Still. Enough bigotry to keep me convinced I want to live no further south than I do right now. Not that, of course, all southerners are that way. I know plenty who are the complete opposite. But if we have as many bigots up here, they are at least more quiet about it.

And last night I watched Knocked Up. Again, not as charming or as wonderful as the critics would have us believe (I'm sure they were all caught up in the fantasy of having a woman like Heigl, with her distracting fake-but-squishy boobs). Ben could not be a bigger loser without being a criminal, and that made it impossible for me to believe Alison loved him when she said she did. The best friends were all a**holes of the first order, and the sister was horrible.

But I like Leslie Mann, the woman who played the sister. She was probably my favorite actor in the movie (with Paul Rudd). Heigl and Rogen were very good, despite the material. And Apatow's kids are totally adorable. They alone are enough to make me see another Apatow movie (provided, of course, they are in it). I was also thrilled to see Alan Tudyk being fabulous, and I loved Kristen Wiig. But really, the extras were far more fun than the movie itself.

Okay, enough whining. Here's hoping for a better day tomorrow.

OMGWhatACatch!

Everyone watch this--it's not your typical sports highlight. :)

Some Days are Amazing

I read an entire book yesterday. Not just an entire book: Eileen Rendahl's Un-Bridaled, which is 322 pages long. I started it in the morning, probably around 9-ish, and finished it a little before 11:00 p.m.

That's not really amazing. I'm a fast reader. People used to get disgusted playing Jeopardy! with me on the Sega because I read the questions so much faster than the rest of them. (I know. Sega. Dates me a bit. Imagine if I admitted we had an Atari and a Colecovision when I was a teenager kid!) Lots and lots of people can read a book in a day. My daughter does it every day of the week!

But what is amazing is all the other stuff I did during the day:

• Proofed six marketing pieces

• Critiqued a 59-page short story

• Did an administrative job for a client

• Completed three loads of laundry

• Folded and put away two loads of towels

• Edited 2 chapters of Fight or Flight

• Wrote 3+ pages of The Light of Redemption

• Attended a one-hour chat at TKA

• Took Number Two and one of her teammates to soccer practice

• Read a 31-page contest entry and completed the score sheet

• Various and sundry household things, like cleaning the litter box, feeding the animals, cooking and eating lunch and dinner

• Exchanging IMs and e-mails with colleagues

I've had busier days, I'm sure you all have, and I'm not really bragging, despite my high sense of accomplishment. What really amazes me is that a day like this can happen, yet rarely does. Usually, if I spend any time in IM or not ignoring my e-mail, I get far less done. My editing and administrative work always takes priority over the writing, and tends to derail me. Even if I make use of down time like soccer practice (which I did yesterday), it's still less productivity than I would have had in the same time frame without being at practice.

So what is it? Is it that Mercury going direct freed something? Is it that I got more disciplined and focused? Is it a weird space-time thing that makes it stretch at the whim of a higher power?

Who knows? Or cares. I'm just going to aim for the same thing today. Here's my list:

• Blog

• Finish administrative project, phase 1

• Take Number Two to the orthodontist and go to the library, comic book store, and grocery store

• Edit three chapters in Fight or Flight

• Work on my Romance Wiki

• Write some new pages on The Light of Redemption

• Judge another contest entry

And may you all have amazing days!

Writing in the Summer...and Spoilers after the Line

Today was a really good writing day for me.

I've had trouble getting settled into a summer routine. At least, that was my foggy excuse for not diving into revisions on my book. Turns out, it was pure fear, something I rarely give in to, and which I managed to hide from myself until today, when I had no external obligations to obfuscate things.

My kids started Camp Nana today, and from noon until evening tomorrow I'm blessedly alone (well, except for J, whose ignoring me right now anyway). With a little help from my friends, I broke the fear (easy once I acknowledged it) and plowed through 64 pages. And I'm pretty sure things are improved. I hope. *pushes away the panic*

So here are my goals for this summer:

• Revise Fight or Flight and send to agent
• Judge half a dozen contest entries
• Do something significant for my career at National
• Revise Hummingbird
• Write some new stuff.
  

I'm enjoying the summer now. Today is absolutely gorgeous, and while we're showing signs of needing rain, the sun and breeze and fresh air in the house (instead of A/C) are making me really happy.

Now, for the SPOILER about Supernatural (pretty mild, but if you're avoiding them, stop here).

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

Originally posted at TV Guide, then commented on by the TV Addict and Ducky, the character of Ruby is completely gone.

First, my positive response to that news:

It pleases me that they were able to write a budget-influenced change into the script in a manner that suits the show. There was no awkwardness or unbelievability in what happened to her character. I'll miss her and what she could bring to the show, but I'm intrigued by the idea of Sam learning his capabilities on his own.

I'm also looking forward to seeing how they handle all those guest stars they're referencing. Supernatural has the BEST guest stars. I mean, that last Lilith? Stellar. And I hate to admit it, but Ellen and Mary aside, this is a show about guys. I like it that way.

My less positive reaction to it:

I, too, am wary of the chick-of-the-week possibilities. I mean, season 1 was kind of like that, and that didn't detract from the show, but now that the world has been established and deepened, some recurrence would be better than none. I'd love to see some past characters back, like Lenore (the good vampire from season 2) and Tamara (the hunter from season 3), and that seems possible under the new structure. But honestly, I could watch nothing but Sam and Dean and be happy.

Okay, the other, bigger spoiler is about the title of the first episode for season 4: "Lazarus Rising," as reported by Watch With Kristin.

Since Lazarus was raised from the dead, I take it to mean Dean will come back immediately. *listens to sigh of relief all over fandom* We were pretty sure that when Kripke said Dean was in Hell for a long time, he meant before the show comes back, but it's nice to hear it (kind of) confirmed.

There are other possible connotations, too, what with Sam being the supposed antichrist and the logical person to be responsible for bringing Dean back and all.

Gail, how many weeks do we have left?

Ummmmm...

Man, have I gotten bad about blogging. I'd apologize, but I'm not sure anyone cares.

Anyway. Here are some things I've thought about posting, but haven't gotten around to because of:

• Family visits over nearly two full weeks
• Dance recital and rehearsals
• Work load
• Fatigue
• Ennui
  

Thursday I went to Jubilee Day, which the Mechanicsburg Chamber of Commerce bills as the biggest one-day street fair on the east coast. I have a bunch of skepticism about that.

1. Pennsylvania has no coast.

2. Mechanicsburg is a tiny little burg. How the hell do they know every tiny little burg's street fairs and the size of such?

3. They claim to expect 60,000 people at this year's fair. Since it's such a fluid thing, I don't see any possible way they can estimate that with any accuracy. First, there's no "gate." People can enter the fair in any of 100 different places, and no one is counted. There's no central place everyone goes where they could get any kind of idea, either. I don't know, maybe there's some demographic formula these things use to calculate an estimate. Still, it's one of those things you have to take with a grain of salt. Or a pound.

Anyway, Jubilee Day was kind of fun. The kids went on a ride that made horrible squealing sounds that sounded like "Oil! Give me oil! Before I break and dash two dozen people to their deaths from a height of 50 feet! At high speed! So they get flung all the way to the other side of the fair!"

We bought a bunch of stuff. Number One got flip flops tied with felt in her school colors that look pretty funky (supported the high school percussionists). I got a resin dragon whose tail wraps through a pentagram. I've wanted a dragon ever since I wrote the book that features a dragon hero that is apparently completely unpublishable. I also got some grapeseed oil and a Nana and Papa sign for my inlaws' garden.

There was a recruitment booth for the Marines (as well as the SEALS and the Army and probably more that I didn't see). Ironically, all the guys were of the same build as in the video in my last post, and they all were the same height and looked alike. But they were busy with other people so I didn't ask them about the video.

I've lived two miles from Jubilee Day for 9 years. This was the first time we went, and now that I've gone, I can affirm that I wasn't missing anything. Overpriced food and trinkets, crowds that can't MOVE down the street, mediocre bands, a petting "zoo" with, like, four animals. The old stationmaster's house and a tavern on the historic register were open for tours, and my husband loved those, but for me...I don't ever have to do it again, really.

I saw Get Smart last night. OMG, was it funny! I found myself marveling at how well done it was. The humor was often silly, but never over-the-top. Everyone had funny lines and funny situations, and there was no real winking at themselves, yet they didn't take themselves too seriously, either. Steve Carell was the perfect Maxwell Smart. He was more than competent, but not flawless. He had confidence that was backed up by hard work (and ability), but could laugh at his failures. Agent 99 had the right balance of disdain and partnership. Agent 23...well, my only disappointment relates to his character, but it's too spoilery.

There was a preview for Disaster Movie, which looks like the anti-Get Smart. Totally stupid, totally vapid. If there is any justice in the world, you'll all go see Get Smart twice so they make more movies like this (not sequels, just smart funny movies) and no one will go see Disaster Movie, so they stop cluttering the multiplex with that crap.

Next week is Wall*E and Wanted, which officially launch my summer movie season, as there is something coming out nearly every week after that (that I want to see).

In the meantime, I have to get Number One ready for her trip to Holland (making slow progress on that, and had a panicky moment on Friday when I realized it's less than a month away!!!!). Next week some friends and I are starting a challenge, since most of us have been hit or miss with our progress this summer. That challenge should will result in great strides in my editing, and maybe even some new writing.

Wish me luck!

Pretty Cynical

I love Marines commercials. They're very emotional, and make me think of the best of our armed services. This one has some pretty awesome scenery and cinematography, not to mention choreography.

But...I don't buy that they are actual Marines.

I mean, sure, the military homogenizes its ranks. Everyone wears the same uniform and has the same haircut. But they aren't all the same height and body shape. Maybe they scoured the ranks--or deliberately put together the ranks--to find such for this commercial. Maybe the best use of the Marines' time is drilling for hours and hours to do a cool bit on a commercial so they can recruit more guys who are 5'10", 175 lbs., and can stand stock-straight while spinning and tapping a rifle. And maybe it's worth the extreme budget to ship them out to all those different sites, risking their lives on a mountain edge. For a commercial.

But it just seems to me more likely that those guys are actors.

Anyone know?

Obsession and Stuff

I read somewhere--I don't remember exactly where, as the other day I was LJ-hopping and lost the exact reference--anyway, I read someone asking about the logo for Kripke scrap metal, which is the same as the logo for Kripke productions, Kripke being the creator of that TV show, Supernatural.

Now, granted, that question came about due to a Google alert. The person wasn't surfing scrap metal websites. But there were plenty of comments on that blog post from people who knew allllll about Kripke scrap metal and the connection to Eric Kripke, that magnificent bastard.

And my husband thinks I'm obsessed?

The ironic thing is that I can't point out the discussion to him as evidence that I may be passionate but I'm not talking about scrap metal, because the very act of me pointing out the post shows that I'd been reading it, which really belies my whole assertion.

And anyway, I found it very interesting that the Kripke scrap metal company has a link for Supernatural on their links page. So I am probably a bit above passionate, anyway.

Speaking of obsession, though...

I heard Jared Padalecki and Sandy McCoy broke up, after a very short engagement that followed a multi-year relationship. That's a "too bad" thing on par with hearing that someone you knew in high school but haven't seen in 10 years broke up with their four-year girlfriend or fiancé. I hear there are scandalous rumors and people taking "sides" and crap like that. I joke about passion vs. obsession, but that's unhealthy. People shouldn't be so intense about something that has nothing to do with them and never could.

On other topics...

I read a shortened version of this in Parade, I think. I had the same reaction as this post (scroll down beyond the video).

I'm sure those big-time authors would tell someone like me, who wrote the equivalent of three of their books last year, that I'm a hack and can't live up to the level of their magnificent prose. Whether or not they'd be right is a matter of opinion, of course, but more importantly, their attitude is a slap in the face of all their readers. That's what really drives the publishers to want at least a book a year. They want that because the readers want it. What higher compliment is there for a reader to close your latest book and immediately clamor for more? But no, they have to whine about pressure and hamster wheels and quality.

I have no idea what their schedules are like, but I know excellent writers who write more than one book a year, promote them, handle all the business of writing, and not only "have a life" but do some damned amazing charity work. And some who do all that, AND have day jobs.

If I could write one book a year and have the kind of income that would pay for both my kids' college educations in one check, I don't think I'd be complaining.

Global Telephone

You know those e-mails that are constantly circulating, warning us not to sniff perfume in parking lots, or to be wary of flyers on rear car windows or even about boycotting gasoline on a certain day, not to mention all the ones about viruses and worms and tricks and stuff?

I was reading the one at the above link just now, and it describes a progression of events that have led to the current situation, with one small thing getting spread and distorted as it's passed along.

It reminds me of that game we played as kids. You remember Telephone, right? You sat in a line or a circle and the first person whispered a sentence or phrase to the next, who passed on what they heard, and so on. The last person says what they heard out loud and makes everyone giggle, because it's garbled and silly by the time it gets to them.

The Internet has improved communication to the point that we are engaging in a continuous game of global telephone. I don't know how most of this stuff starts--someone bored or creative writes something and sends it to friends, maybe, or someone reads something and misinterprets it? Or someone who is uninformed puts out misinformation and others assume it's true because it's in writing (a phenomenon that precedes the Internet by hundreds, if not thousands of years).

What gets me is the laziness factor. Every single of these e-mails I get, I check Snopes to see how valid it is. Those people are exhaustive in how they research and respond to these things, and I'm always fascinated by the truth. Even things that are true usually have a lot more to them, and I learn a lot. And every time, I respond to the person who forwarded the e-mail with the link to Snopes. None of them learn a lesson for next time, however.

Some of these e-mails have, at some point in the forwarding history, a line that says something like "I checked snopes and it's true!" so people believe it and just pass it on without checking themselves. Or, I guess, they know I'll do it for them. *eye roll*

Most of this is innocent inconvenience or nuisance info. But you never know what kind of harm it can cause. What if someone did have a piece of debris stuck to the back of their car and didn't, for whatever reason, notice it until they started to back out. It's far more dangerous for them to continue driving with an obscured view because they remembered the e-mail that told them not to get out of the car than it would be to stop and remove the debris. An unlikely situation? Sure, but maybe more likely than a carjacker choosing your particular car and hanging around for the 45 minutes you're in the store, just waiting for you to come out and follow a script you're not aware of.

Anyway. Long-winded way to say...take a minute to check Snopes before you forward these things, please. (Though the people who keep forwarding me stuff don't read my blog, so I'm probably preaching to the choir--I apologize. :)

Not a Good Start

Last night, Number Two turned her ankle on the driveway and fell, scraping her knee pretty badly. I helped her into the house and into the bathroom to clean her up, and while I was working on her, the heel of my hand started to sting. I glanced at it, and the vein running up from my wrist looked a little pronounced, but there was otherwise nothing obviously wrong.

A little while later, that whole meaty part of my hand, just above the wrist on the pinky side, was red and swollen, and it appears--as you can see in today's photo, above--that the vein burst.

I have no idea how it happened. The vanity door fell off only my foot and I slammed it closed, but I didn't hit it, and that was, like, 10 minutes after I noticed the purple spreading out from the usual vein line, even longer since the stinging started. I don't remember any kind of impact or strain, and there doesn't seem to be any damage beyond the vein itself.

The swelling is down today, and the released blood appears to be dissipating (or migrating), but I can't rest it on anything. That hurts. Which means typing is more effort (though you're not supposed to rest your wrists when you type, I do when I pause) and mousing is awkward and painful. Despite taking Advil, the ache has spread from my wrist up toward my elbow, though my fingers are thankfully fine.

I finished a bunch of work last night, and am well on my way with the rest, but guess what's gonna end up suffering? Yeah, the fiction. That's what will get infinitely delayed, at least during the (hopefully, please!) short time it takes this to heal.

Dammit. Not a good start to my summer.

Update

Before I went on retreat a couple of weeks ago, things were head-spinningly busy, work-wise. Then I put all my clients on hold for four days, and when I returned, they were slow to load me up again. I was loving it. Then, today, one client whose project was supposed to be done by now finally gave it to me, and another gave me four things to do. And I got edits for my fall novella.

And, of course, that all hit the day before my kids' last day of school.

I'm not sure how I'm going to manage. Morning strings camp will delay the start of my work day until afternoon. My kids are really good about letting me work, but often when I'm working they are sitting or lying around, and I need to keep them active in a neighborhood that doesn't offer a lot of ways to do that. Doing that usually means me taking them somewhere, like the pool (where Number One lies around on a towel reading, anyway *sigh*).

I'm also trying to get my Romance Wiki stuff entered, as well as a friend's, and that keeps falling by the wayside. Plus I have about 15 household things that need attention, not least of which is getting estimates to replace our breaker box before it causes a fire. It hasn't caused a fire in 46 years, but the same box did in other houses, so we'd better get it replaced STAT. *sigh* again

Oh, and then there's the workshop I'm doing on The Anatomy of a Hook for my RWA chapter on Saturday that is about three-quarters complete.

On the upside, after tomorrow I don't have to get up at 6:20 anymore until the end of August. And I just found the notes I made at the NEC conference for a new book idea, and I'm excited about it, even though it will be a while before I get around to writing it.

Off to bed now, to better face the dawn.

Soccer Tan

When I was a kid, tan was tan. I lived in Massachusetts, so we went to the beach every summer. We were there from early in the morning until after sundown, and I spent as much time baking while I read a book as I did in the water or playing in the sand. "Tan lines" meant my bathing suit marks. And most of the adults I knew were the same. Some spent hours every day tanning, and didn't even have visible tan lines (no, they didn't tan nude!).

Then I got a little older, and a little busier. I got the farmer's tan (T-shirt sleeves) and the driver's tan (darker left arm than right). I got flip-flop tans on my feet (last year's is still hanging on!), and my face is a mess of sunglasses tans (reverse raccoon eyes and the bars at my temples from the arms of the glasses) and bangs tan (my bangs angle to the left and block the sun too well). I also have a shorts tan most summers, due to too little time spend in a bathing suit, and most of that with an Alphasmart on my lap.

This year, we encountered a new kind of tan:



Number One has played soccer since she was five (she'll be 13 next month) but that was always club soccer, with two practices (late) and one game a week. This year, she played JV for her school team as well as her club team, which meant she was on the field for two hours six or seven days a week from late March to mid May.

Which brings us to the soccer tan.

As you can see above, this tan is characterized by ever-darkening knees banding between brilliant white skin above (from the shorts) and below (from the socks, which come up to the knees to cover and hold in place the shin guards, for those who are unfamiliar with the game).

Near the end of the season, a favorite pass-time (like on the bus to games) was comparing legs to see who had the best tan. One of the subjects above was crowned the winner, as she had the clearest, straightest sock line.

Ahhh, the unexpected laughs that come with parenthood. :)

Good Stuff

Random thoughts on LOST:

1. I was not surprised Locke was in the coffin, because of how everyone felt about him at the end of last season. But Ben speaking made me jump as much as Jack did.

2. I think Ben has become my favorite character. He and Locke cracked me up. "You didn't find the anthuriums, did you?" "Well, I don't know what they look like!" That's "favorite character" as in "most interesting/multi-layered/fabulous actor" as opposed to "I love them and want to be part of their world."

3. I loved Sawyer's sacrifice. This season, since Kate left the Others compound, he has been tremendously compassionate and caring. Protecting Claire, going after her when the house blew up, not wanting to leave Hurley...and most of all, jumping off the helicopter.

4. Best part of the whole episode: Desmond and Penny reuniting. I hope that doesn't mean we never see them again (especially Desmond), but if we don't, at least we didn't have to wait two more seasons for them to be together.

5. Best quick moment of the whole episode: Jack's dad(!) telling Michael he could go now, but then him not having time to leave, so "go" meant dying, which is horribly tragic and I'm so mad that Jin is dead, too. I feel for Walt that he lost his father, but Jin's death is worse. :(

6. Speaking of death (and Claire): The explosion of her house seemed too big for her to have survived. So it's possible she was dead but didn't, like, realize it until her father came for her, and her spirit was what appeared to Kate, rather than her consciousness. On the other hand, how likely would it have been for her to be able to carry Aaron, for Sawyer to touch her? And wouldn't Miles have said something? He was traveling with them after the explosion. So I don't think she's dead.

7. How the hell will they find the island? Where did it get moved to? And how friggin' cool was that?

~~~~~~~~~

I just read a new book, A Little Ray of Sunshine, by Lani Diane Rich. I met her at RWA National in Atlanta two years ago. Her publisher was setting up for their signing, and she came out to entertain all of us standing in line forever. She was very personable and bubbly, so I got her books. And I really, really liked them, especially the straight romances.

I'm not sure after which book it was, but I sent her a gushy e-mail telling her I hated her for being so good, for making me devour her books so fast and having to wait so friggin' long for the next ones. I prefer to think the e-mail never got through, rather than that she was a diva who ignores her stupidgushy fans.

But then last year's books didn't click with me as well. The Fortune Quilt was a good book, but it was present tense, which I always find difficult, and the heroine picked the wrong guy. But that's a risk with having two potential love interests, and one I wouldn't trade for. That was also a problem with me, not with the book. Her regular romance wasn't as good, IMO, as the ones before it, but it was still enjoyable enough that I looked forward to the most recent one, the aforementioned A Little Ray of Sunshine.

OMG. I started it yesterday, and took the entire afternoon and much of the morning off to finish it today. I sat in Dunkin Donuts this morning and cried all over my bagel. And then again in my living room. My eyes were in a constant state of wellingness, my throat swollen, from the intense emotion in the story.

The book isn't a "romance" as usually defined. The focus was on the heroine's growth, the book all in her POV, and the "hero" off the page most of the time. But their reconciliation was a major theme that underlay everything else in the story, her becoming "worthy" of him. There was also a tightly interwoven subplot with her "angel" that was also excellent.

Anyway, it's the kind of book that makes you sorry it's over, and makes me marvel because so little happens. I gravitate toward action-oriented stories lately, and ones that concentrate so hard on relationships to the exclusion of external elements tend to bore me. Maybe I identified well with the heroine for some reason--or maybe it was just that well written.

Go get the book here.

Random Entertainment Thoughts

On the end of the season...

The only show left that I watch that hasn't finaled is Lost. I probably have unreasonably high expectations because so many professional TV watchers are building it up. I'm dismayed by the spoilers I've let leak through, but they already killed my beloved Charlie. Since then, I've just been along for the ride, which means it's pure fun with no emotional investment.

It's really funny. I used to watch so little TV, finale week meant nothing to me. Summer drought wasn't a problem. Now, I've got my scheduled worked so that not only am I able to spend the time on TV in the evening, I don't have energy for anything else. Which means...summer drought is depressing. I've increased my Netflix by one disk as a result. I know. It's very sad.

Speaking of disks...

I've gone through a bunch of movies on DVD lately.

We Are Marshall was good. I was a little distracted by McConaughey's obviously put-on mannerisms to make him like the coach he portrayed, which doesn't mean they weren't well integrated. I used to wonder why it took them so long to make this movie, but the ending explained it. It wasn't the typical success story. In fact, it was kind of sad. But they still managed to make the final game intense.

For Your Consideration was weird. It was all one note, beginning to end. No real turning points, no black moment, climax, or denoument. Well acted, I suppose, but kind of boring.

The Departed was intense. And surprising. The elevator scene had be gasping and gaping at the screen for a whole minute, then being pissed, and then cheering at the end, but in a kind of nasty way. A friend from Massachusetts had mentioned to me the Boston accents, and it was fun watching them get dropped all over the place, especially from the one guy who's a native Bostonian.

Next up: A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Babel, and August Rush.

I also saw...

Indiana Jones last weekend, with Number One. It was fun. Shaia LeBeouf was better than I expected, and I already expected him to be good. Cate Blanchett was classic villainess. Harrison Ford was his excellent self. But the story could have been better, with a lot less borrowing from the Mummy franchise at the end. It was worth the price of the ticket, but I didn't leave the theater feeling exhilarated, as I should have.

Oh, but one cool thing about it...one of the trailers was an extended one for Hancock, and it looks AWESOME. Jason Bateman is in it! I can't wait! (And when is that guy gonna do a romantic something? [Not in the near future, apparently, but at least he's busy!])

And finally, about the show that never leaves my mind...

I have pretty solid confidence that Kripke and company are not going to ruin my show. Granted, season 3 didn't engage me as completely as season 2 did, but that wasn't entirely their fault. There have been no real missteps with the brothers' relationship. The FBI thread could have been tedious and get in the way; instead, it got more awesome every time Henricksen showed up (RIP). Ruby was a very rare case of a performance that didn't live up to the caliber of nearly every other guest or recurring actor on the show, but I liked her, and I'm still intrigued by the questions she has brought up. I would have preferred Dean and Bela's relationship to be more "Bad Day at Black Rock" and less "Red Sky at Morning," but the way her part ended was excellent. And overall, the "war" that the network insisted on, plus the strike, meant less of a variety of storylines, but we got to focus on the main, most important one. And we got tons of humor, which I loved, and returning guest stars, which I loved even more.

The problem is, Kripke is taking evil delight in playing with us, I know it. There was a Mitovich Minute at TV Guide where he said Dean will be "cooling his heels" in hell for a while, and his bond with Sam will be forever changed. And now there's this:

Question: Thank you so much for the reassuring scoop about Jensen Ackles' return to Supernatural (as if any of us ever doubted it, come on!). But what I'm worried about is how much Dean is going to change. — Meredith

Ausiello: Yeah, well, can't help you there. Dean is going to change. Big time.

So here are some speculations on my part. They aren't spoilers, because they're all in my head. :)

1. "A While" can't really be very long, because they know how the fans reacted when the guys were separated in "No Exit." Granted, we complain less when the writing is better, and when the emotion is high, like in "The Usual Suspects" or "Mystery Spot." But we won't tolerate a separation of more than an episode or two. So it might be more of a referential thing, like we jump ahead in time a little when the season starts.

2. He said the bond is affected, and that Dean changes, but he doesn't say it's a BAD thing. Some possibilities: Dean gains some powers and that puts him on more equal footing with Sam; Sam rescues him from hell and ends his torment, removing much of the "I'm the big brother" perspective and putting them on more equal footing; Sam being away from Dean for a while gives him room to assert himself (did you notice, even when he tried to argue, and went around Dean, he still didn't actually override him to his face?), which puts them on more equal footing...well, I guess there's an obvious theme in my speculations. But doesn't that make sense? :)

3. I would like Bobby and Ellen to open the Devil's Gate for me and Sam when we he climbs out of hell after rescuing Dean. I also imagine one of those weedkiller chemical packs, you know, with the hose and sprayer? Sam will need one full of holy water when he goes into hell.

4. Bobby will need to keep Dean's body on ice while Sam saves him. Or maybe he should embalm it.

It's going to be very hard for me to get through the next wayyyyy too many weeks. It would be very nice of the CW to premiere this show in early September instead of early October, but they're too sadistic for that.

Oh, and one more thing. Not to end on a downer note or anything, but the rumor is that the CW may close next year. That would kind of kill a season 5, I expect. :(

Coming Out of the Dark

I am a technology junkie, curbed only by budget and something my mother instilled in me that always makes me think, "yeah, you want it, but do you NEED it?" Once I give in and get stuff like satellite TV and DVR, FiOS Internet, an iPod, or a GPS navigation system, I never want to go back. I can't live without Internet access or e-mail for more than a day. I was excited to hook up my new DVD player/recorder to the new flat-panel TV on Mother's Day, even though I'm not supposed to have to do any chores on that day.

Add to that my degree in environmental studies, and it may surprise you that it's only been a week since I adopted online bill pay.

It's true. I have a great fear of digital loss. Paper can be lost, of course. Thrown away, ruined with water, eaten by the cat (my dog doesn't have any interest in paper, but Frisbee loves shredding anything we leave lying around). But it's harder. Digital stuff can go "poof!" with little provocation and not brought back.

So, like, a decade ago, when my bank started holding on to canceled checks, I opted out of that and required them to send them to me. Never mind that in the 16 years I've had an account there, I maybe needed a canceled check one time. Maybe. About six months ago, I finally went paperless with my monthly statements, with all the bank accounts. It felt safe. After all, the bank had to be keeping accessible records, so that even if we had, say, an electromagnetic storm (see my story, The TreeKeeper, they'd have my statement when I needed it.

Banks have offered online bill pay for years. And it's not like I've had any fear of making payments on the Internet. I do it all the time, when payday falls too close to the due date of the bill. But I have other fears:

• Fear that the bank will fail to make a payment, I won't have proof, and I'll be labeled delinquent

• Fear that I'll overlook a bill

• Fear of a system failure, desktop crash, or complete loss of Internet

Last week, guilt overcame fear. I am tired of wasting paper--wasting even more of it when I pay a bill online at the payee's site--and even more, wasting time. It can take a few hours to enter the payments in Quicken and the checkbook (Quicken makes things easy, the checkbook is insurance against the aforementioned crash possibility and is easier to access to check something), write the bills, label and post the envelopes, etc. Not to mention, that horrible licky adhesive is probably giving me cancer of the tongue.

So I made the switch. And no gradual toe/ankle/knee-in-the-water progression for me. I set up a full bill pay account and entered all the bills, AND signed up for paperless billing wherever I could. And, of course, I love it. It's so much faster and easier and less wasteful, on both ends. It makes balancing the checkbook easier, because things clear faster. And it will save money, since I won't be spending it on postage or gas to go to the post office.

I'm still a little nervous. My routine is disrupted. The other day, I got a notice of a bill. Mid pay cycle. Printing the reminder notice would defeat the purpose, but I hate having stuff sitting in my inbox. Stuff in my inbox screams "handle me!" But if I took it out of the inbox, I might overlook it on payday, even though the reminder would be listed at my account site.

So I paid the bill.

Which means things are going to be totally messed up come payday. I mean, I'll pay the e-bills that come in, and that will leave maybe two bills on payday, and I'll feel like I'm missing stuff, and I'll panic, and I'll spend twice as much time researching what I'm missing as I would have spent under the old system in the first place!

Welcome to the 21st century, Ms. Damschroder. *eyeroll*

Reality Week, or Someone Stole My Brain

I don't watch reality TV.

Okay, there have been some minor exceptions. One of the HGTV fix-it shows, with a funny host, for a season because it was educational and funny and something I could watch with my kids without my brain leaking out my ears. And Dirty Jobs is pretty interesting sometimes. And I loved the first season of Queer Eye.

But all forays into reality TV were short-lived, and it's been a really long time. Four or five years. And I have never, ever watched American Idol.

But let me back up a little. A few years ago, when we got TiVo, my kids got into Dancing with the Stars. I thought it was good for them. Something really out of the realm of their experience. And it showed people working hard at something they might not be good at, and friendly competition, with a lot of respect and admiration for each other. When Drew Lachey did his freestyle, that was the first time I ever watched it. I've caught a minute here and there, but that's all.

Then Tuesday, Number Two read something in her book about 9/11 and asked about it, and she got sad and upset about all the death and loss, and wanted me near her. She also needed something to distract her, so she wanted to watch Monday's final dances. I had something to read while she watched, but...well...

Oh, come on! Jason Taylor is THE hottest man in the NFL! Look!



I couldn't NOT watch!

And then there's this:



Not only is he also very hot, he did serious damage to his elbow several weeks ago, so he's playing handicapped and in pain, and being a truly good sport about it all.

To top it off, it was pretty clear a woman was finally going to win. And she did!

None of that is really embarrassing. Here's the embarrassing part:

Wednesday morning. I'm at the health club, storming along on the treadmill, listening to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for, like, the eightieth time, and I glance up to see the three finalists on Good Morning America. I plugged in to listen. And...oh, the shame!...when I got home, I turned it on in the bedroom so I could see them dance a little on GMA.

*hides head*

That leads me to American Idol.

I have enough friends who watch the show, and I read enough People and Entertainment Weekly and blogs that I always know what's going on. I knew about the David vs. David showdown, and I didn't care. I mean, yeah, I like some of Kelly Clarkson's stuff, and I love Daughtry, but I've just never been interested in seeing them get to that point.

But this evening I was reading blogs, and saw this one and this one.

The latter actually had video embedded, but it was the description in the former that made me want to see a clip. As Cindy and Shannon are very different people, the clip on Cindy's blog was not the one that gave Shannon such...ahem...pleasure. So I had to find it. Which led to me watching not just 4 minutes, 11 seconds of American Idol but well over 10 minutes.

But I have to pretty much agree with Shannon. :)

So yeah, tomorrow I'll probably spend too much of my writing time downloading *gasp* AI tracks from iTunes. Maybe not even just songs. Maybe--oh, the horror!--video!

Geez, what's next? The Bachelorette?

Ack! Somebody please help me retrieve my brain!

But watch this first:

Can't Say This Makes Me Happy!

TRS Studio Diva Continues!

The Romance Studio's Studio Diva competition goes on to round two!

Click here to see the list of competitors. Click on the links to their web sites (instructions for what you're voting on are on that main page) and vote on the one you think is best! The bottom five authors will be dropped from this round.

Have fun!

Latsa Stuff

Number Two has become something of a sports addict. Instead of turning on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, she flips to the Big Ten Network. I hit the "Now Playing" menu of the TiVo, and find college softball, NBA playoffs, and tennis.

And now, she has truly gone over to the dark side.

She's watching hockey.

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

Speaking of sports...

I've just read a bunch of stuff about the Patriots, and the transcript of Belichick's interview, and reports about Matt Walsh and the absolutely ridiculous assertion by Arlen Specter (a senator for my current state) that Congress should get involved in the whole investigation. I agree 110% with Kennedy (a senator for my former state) that we have a few more important things for Congress to be doing right now.

(For the record, I never felt Congress should be spending so much time on the baseball thing, either.)

This is the thing that impressed me the most, however. It's common to see a simple, unemotional retraction or regret for a journalism error. It's really rare to see something this complete and heartfelt. Kudos to Tomase. I wish him luck recovering.

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Number Two had a soccer tournament today. She came home soaking wet and shuddering with cold, due to 50-degree weather and pouring rain. She took a long, hot shower and put on wintery fleece PJs. Two hours later she was in shorts and a T-shirt while we played catch in the sun and 70 degrees.

Welcome to April May in Pennsylvania.

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

I am home from retreat. I might post some pictures this week, once I get them uploaded, but a lot are not for public viewing.

We had tons of fun, laughed our a$$es off, ate too much great food we didn't have to cook or clean up, and were very productive.

Due to some editing of my novella and talking far too much too my roommate, I didn't have the most output this year. But I did get around 22/23,000 words written and wrote an entire novella in a day and a half. We did a cemetery run and had ghost cats in our room. Last year Megan dreamed someone was trying to shove her out of bed. This year it succeeded (in the dream) by pulling her big pillow out and dragging her with it.

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

I also would have likely gotten more writing done if we hadn't watched the season finale of Supernatural. Twice. Megan recorded it for us, and we watched it when she arrived Friday afternoon, and again after we went out for drinks Friday night.

Oh, my thoughts on it? How kind of you to ask!

In stream-of-consciousness order:

1. You could tell Kripke wrote it. There are a lot of really good writers on the show, and I know every script has some collaboration to it, but there was just the perfect combination of awesome lines (Antichrist superstar...Hell's other bitches...shut your piehole...totally should have been rocking "Eye of the Tiger" right there...and several more) and heartfelt emotion and violence and gore and creepiness and saving people, hunting things...I could go on and on but I'm getting tedious, I think.

2. You could tell Kim Manners directed it. Of course, there are also many good directors who have done the show. But Kim Manners just seems to get Kripke's vision, and he pulls the best performances from the guys and the guests, and he sets up great shots and times everything really well.

3. That little girl has a great future, if she wants it. MAN was she creepy! Her switches from dark to normal little girl were spot on.

4. It looks like we might be done with Ruby, or at least done with Cassidy playing Ruby. I mean, Bobby did shoot her in the chest.

5. I loved every minute of the show and can't wait to see it again tonight. DH hasn't watched yet, so I get an excuse. Not that I need one. :)

6. Dean getting shredded by an invisible hellhound was worse than seeing him impaled on a meathook, but not worse than seeing him crying for Sammy to help him.

7. Sam being able to block or withstand Lilith's power was AWESOME. I hope when Dean comes back from Hell, he had just enough time there to have some power of his own. That would be even awesomer!

8. Leave it to Kripke to turn something as piercingly exciting as Dean and Sam singing Bon Jovi into something piercingly painful. God, it hurt to hear Sam obliviously singing along, having reluctantly bought in to the abandonment of the song, as the lyrics hit home for Dean. Gah. *iz ded*

9. Watching with five other people is SO MUCH FUN. We screamed and squealed and moaned, and Megan pointed out yet again how freakishly often Sam says Dean's name, and they giggled over the bush in the middle of nowhere, the one with side mirrors, that no one would ever be suspicious of. (I wonder if that was a tribute to something? I mean, why bother hiding it? They were in a town. They could just park it in a 7/11 lot or something.)

10. Eighteen weeks is far, far too long to go without the boys. All I can say is that an actor's strike had really, REALLY better not happen. Suck it up, AMPTP!

Supernatural Denial

more cat pictures

Oh hai.

I'm on retreat. Doing great, thanks. Almost at 4,000 words for the day. But I'm having a little trouble at the moment...

See, it's Thursday night. Supernatural night. Supernatural SEASON FINALE night. And I'm on retreat. With no TVs.

There are four mega-fans on site right now. One who may be an even bigger fan than the rest of us! She keeps talking about the show, and hunting down a television tonight, or somehow downloading the show. The rest of us are a little more sanguine, because the plan is to follow last year's activities. Megan isn't coming until tomorrow. She's going to try to record the show so we can watch it on a laptop. If she can't, we should be able to get it from iTunes, but last week it wasn't up even late on Friday, so we might have a long delay. Worst case scenario, we have to wait until we get home on Sunday night. Not unacceptable, but certainly not the ideal.

And I took a nap this afternoon, and dreamed about Sam and Dean, so now that's all I can think of.

I don't think I ever posted my thoughts about last week's show. I loved it, of course. I knew nothing about what was going to happen, so it all rolled out perfectly.

I loved Bela's scenes, and her final moments, on the phone and facing the hellhounds, were incredibly poignant. I hoped she'd be part of getting out of Hell with Dean next season, but Kripke confirmed she's not coming back, so that's a bummer. Of the two, I'd so much rather have her than Ruby. Lauren Cohen is a better actress, she interacts more realistically with the boys, and it would be fun to see them teaming up again, still antagonistic toward each other but with the same goal, rather than opposing ones.

I also loved the brotherly tension. Sam's desperation and subsequent willingness to do anything. His tenderness with the girl, which showed that he's still the same Sam, no matter what, and his awareness of Dean's fear. And then Dean's fear, a mishmash of terror of what's ahead, and knowing he can only do one thing to avoid it without risking Sam's re-death.

I'm so afraid for tonight's episode.

I mean, of course Dean can't die for realz, and Kripke's comments of the direction of the story next season make me very, very happy, but someone said she's afraid the promo showed the last moments of the ep the same way they did last year (in the first half), and that will really piss me off/bum me out if that's the case. Cliffhangers a la season 1 are cool and all, but I prefer the way they ended season 2. Much more satisfying. And come on, the audience they currently have is going to come back. I want something much more surprising than that as the final shot.

But GAAAHHHHHH, I have to wait until whoknowswhenit'stoolatenomatterwhat.

I think I'll download last week's ep from iTunes, even though my laptop probably won't play it well.

Okay, enough angsting. Back to work I go! Aiming for 5k tonight...

Save Me!

Have you heard about Brenda Novak's 4th annual Online Auction to Benefit Diabetes Research?

In the first three years, her auction raised $250,000. Her goal this year is $300,000. The first $150,000 of that will go to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, while the additional proceeds above that will go to the Diabetes Research Institute at the University of Miami.

So obviously it's a good cause. I've always understood the basics of the disease, but recently had occasion to do some article writing on various aspects of it, and gained a much deeper appreciation for the constant care and vigilance it requires. I got exhausted just reading and writing about it. And both versions of the disease are on the rise, or so we're told.

This auction contains everything from custom-made jewelry to one-of-a-kind art, giant gift baskets to designer purses, tons of books, autographed sports and celebrity stuff, and guaranteed 24-hour reads by editors and agents. There will be a prize for the person who makes the most bids, and I...well, when I started bidding in the first week of the auction, I kinda went overboard.

I just bid on everything I thought was remotely cool. I figured there was still three weeks of bidding to go (the auction ends on 5/31) and there was no way I'd wind up with anything I'd bid on, never mind everything.

HAH!

While I have been outbid on 30 items totaling nearly $3800 (my limit bids for each item), I am still bidholder on 18 items totaling over $1400!

Help me!

Go here, register, and start perusing the items. Apparently I'm the only person brave enough to not hide behind a silly or coded username, so if you see Damschroder as the bidholder, PLEASE bid. For most items, you won't have to go very high to outbid me, and I'm too scared to bid again until I'm outbid on everything.

Good luck!