My Kids are Backwards

I'm sure all families are different, but there's an expectation that siblings fight a lot until one of them gets too big. Usually it's when the younger one gets big enough to hurt the older one back. (With me and my brother, it stopped when I tried to hit him with a garlic press, missed and hit my hand instead, and cut myself. I was so shocked at my capacity for violence I made sure it never got physical again.)

My kids have never fought. Two girls, 3 years and 8 months apart, you'd think they would have. Number One should have been overly annoyed by Number Two, who was certainly crafty enough to bug her sister deliberately and then play the bullied baby when Number One retaliated. But they never really went there, back when they were 12 and 8, a time I consider prime fighting age.

But NOW.

I started to leave to go to the bank, realized I didn't have my ID, and went back inside. Where Number Two promptly told me the following:

"She was blocking my view of the pantry so I couldn't get a snack, so I slapped her in the face. Very lightly! And she [insert woe-is-me voice here] grabbed my arms and pulled them behind my back and it HURT."

Number One comes out to the kitchen. "Is she telling you about how she slapped me in the face?"

Number One has reached 5'6" and has the nickname "Brick Wall" from soccer. Number Two is about 5'1" but plenty solid and capable of defending herself. They never fought like this before. WHY did they wait until they're 16 and 12 to start the fisticuffs?

Of course, they laughed at me. "We were laughing the whole time, Mom."

Yeah, that makes me feel better.

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Note: I sent this to my kids to get their approval before I posted. Number Two said "It's fine. I think it's quite funny." Number One said "yeah, it's fine. i don't know why, but i couldn't stop laughing!"

She doesn't know why?! Guess which kid is my favorite today.

Birthday and Christmas Highlights

I've been meaning to post ever since Friday, but I've been held hostage. By, yes, Angry Birds.

My big birthday gift was an iPod Touch to replace the iPod that was stolen in NY in June and so my husband could have his iPod back. I love the damned thing so much. I keep going back and forth between e-mail and Twitter and Facebook and the Patriots app and Angry Birds. I spent much of Christmas day troubleshooting my in-laws wireless network so we could all connect to it. (And much of the rest of it getting my father-in-law started with the Kindle he didn't want. He likes it, though!)

I did go get adjusted on Friday, because my back was worse when I woke up. It steadily got better until yesterday, and the way I was sitting or the jumping around during Catchphrase. I was teamed with Number Two and my nephew, both of whom preferred the Sports category, and my MIL, who excelled at the Entertainment stuff. We kicked butt in the number of words/phrases we guessed, but the other team (my husband, his sister, his father, and Number One) would drag out their clues/guesses so long that inevitably, we got the buzzer just before it buzzed and never had time to do one more. It was raucous fun.

My big present for Christmas was a new widescreen monitor. I f'd up my computer so I haven't loaded the Windows 7 I bought today, but I can't wait to do that so I can take full advantage of all the wide goodness.

Watched Doctor Who last night, and it was a decent enough Christmas special. It served mainly to make me long for the series to come back already. I'm tempted to go back and rewatch it all, because I have the Netflix app. :)

Some other highlights from Christmas:

Number One got a guitar, and she has barely stopped playing. She's teaching herself "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol and her fingers are purple. She also loves her gift from her sister, which is a soccer ball signed by Abby Wombach. It was an item in a silent auction at her school, and she didn't even think twice, just instantly bid $100 and chewed her nails the rest of the night hoping no one would outbid her.

The Patriots won on Christmas Eve. That was good, especially when they were down 17-0 at halftime. Wes Welker is on Twitter now, and yes, that's a major reason I couldn't put the iPod down on my birthday.

Number One also put together a special present for us all. We had to open her gift from us last. Each of us got a piece of a puzzle, that put together looked like this:

I bet no one else got this gift in 2011! :)

So what was your best gift or best part of the holiday this year?

I Don't Remember What I Was Going to Call This Post

This is the life of someone who blogs: Whenever you're doing something worth writing a post about, you think up the post while you do it. Am I right? You have the title and image layouts all planned, and some of the jokes or descriptions.

Unfortunately, if you can't actually write the post for a week, you forget all the details. Was I going to call it "This Would Exhaust Anyone" or "Annual Autumn Satisfaction" or Annual Autumn something cool that is completely irretrievable now.

*sigh*

Anyway.

Last Saturday was yardwork intensive. While Numbers One and Two and their father raked the backyard, I cleaned the gutters.

I love heights, so this is my job a few times a year. It would be safest to go up the ladder, clear what I can reach, go down the ladder, move it... But do you know how many friggin' hours that would take?! So I just sit on the roof, lean over to pull the leaves, maple seeds, and shingle grit mud out, then slide down a few feet and repeat.

The hard part is the trees. See the spruce poking up over the left side? We have those at three corners. They have more tree above the roofline than below it. If I don't take the clippers, hand saw, or chain saw up with me, I get poked all over the face and head by branches I'm ducking to reach the clogged downspouts.

I'm also very out of shape. My shoulders were super sore after I was done. Exacerbated by the raking I followed it with, as we swept 11 piles of leaves onto the tarp and dragged it up the hill to the front of the house four times.

Here's the result:

It's the biggest pile on the street, maybe the biggest we've ever had (there are a few feet to the right you can't see). We got to do all the leaves at once this year, due to the snow and wind and delayed pickup schedule. And we only have three maple trees! I always feel bad for people who have twice as many or even more. But then, those people probably cheat and use leafblowers or riding mowers, anyway. Our neighbor uses a massive riding mower for his 1/8-acre lawn. I have to admit, it looks gorgeous right now, like a carpet. But it's funny.

So that's our rite of passage into winter. Despite mild temps this weekend, we're bracing ourselves for a wet, heavy season. Hopefully, we get a few weeks off before the snow starts. Oh, wait...

Soccer-Filled Weekend

The soccer season is usually over the first weekend in November, but thanks to Tropical Storm Lee and the Snowstorm of October, we ended up having two games for each kid this weekend.

Both kids' teams had some pretty big obstacles this year. For Number Two, they had a new coach whose mom died a couple of weeks into the season, so she missed a lot of practices. They'd lost four players and taken on a couple of new ones, and the weather canceled a lot of practices. They had a really hard time meshing. But last week and this week they really came together. They'd gained confidence and comfort with each other, and played hard, coming up with enough wins to finish in second place in their division. The detail Number two is proudest of is Goals Against. She and her co-goalie held 7 opponents to a total of 7 goals.

Number One had different challenges. She had the same coach she's had since fifth grade (he's the best coach in the world, I swear!), but because of a big dropoff in participation at this level, they cobbled together a U19 team that had one senior, a handful of juniors, sophomores, and freshmen, and three 8th graders. Most of the girls hadn't played together, and they faced the same scheduling issues. Number One missed one game due to a groin pull and ankle injury, and was hobbled in others for the same reasons. Yesterday (Saturday), they played with only 7 players against 9 on a field sized for 11 on a side. They didn't win any games, didn't even score more than one goal all season, but they never gave up, never backed down. Today they played fiercely against an overly aggressive team. I'm incredibly proud of them and so glad Number One had the opportunity to play.

Number Two is in fine shape (though she might be sore tomorrow), but Number One is pretty battered. Yesterday she played in goal and was magnificent, but she had a "save" blocking the ball with her abdomen, which now hurts when she sneezes, coughs, or laughs, and tweaked a hamstring. The hamstring wasn't much of an issue today because she got kicked in the kneecap, so that pain overwhelmed the hammy. She can barely walk tonight. But she wears her injuries as badges of honor, so who can complain? She can rest for the next six weeks, until indoor soccer starts. :)


The blog tour continues! Today (Monday!) I'll be at Rosalie Lario's blog, where I talk about why I set my books where I do, and at Rachel Firasek's blog, participating in her month of thanks with a thank-you letter to my mom, who died long before she got to see me reach this level of success.

Tonight (Monday! I'm really messed up writing this post at midnight-ish) I'm doing a radio interview with BK Walker at 6:00 p.m. EST. Tell your friends, and come give a listen!

Now I am off to bed, visions of my Patriots' win over the Jets dancing in my head. :)

Versatile Blogger Award

A whole long week ago, the very cool Stacy McKitrick of Stacy's Rantings and Whatnot gave me this award.

Thank you, Stacy!

I thing "versatile" is a nice way of saying "unfocused and disorganized," but hey, that's what I'm going for, so yay me! :)

Here are the provisions of the award:

Thank and link to the person who nominates you.
Thanks again, Stacy! I was excited to discover her funny and interesting blog. Go check it out! Note: She's much better at brevity than I am.

Share seven random facts about you.

Hmmmm. That's always so hard! I'm sure I'll end up repeating stuff.

1. When I was around 6 or 7 years old, my best friend David Pleau and I used to pretend to be Steve Austin and Jamie Summers (Somers?). You know, the Six-Million-Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman? We made my little brother Andy be Oscar Goldman. You know the phrase "scarred for life"? Yeah, that's just about the epitome. Thirty-seven years old and he's still not over it.

Speaking of my brother...

2. He and his wife just had a new baby girl! Yeah-huh, that is too about me. I'm an aunt again, for the...thirteenth time. My mother would get a kick out of that number. :)

3. My first boyfriend was in sixth grade. He gave me candy or gum at school every day, and a tarnished necklace that he sent a friend to ask for back when he decided he didn't want to go out with me anymore. I told the friend to tell him to come ask for it himself. Pretty brave of me, considering he probably broke up with me 'cuz I could hardly look at him, I was so shy. We had one "date" at a roller rink.

4. I've owned one new car in my life. My first one. After Number Two was born, husband traded my car in for his company car, and I got his year-old Toyota Corolla, which is now 13 and counting. Because of the company cars, he's on his fourth new one. Number One is going to inherit the Corolla next year, and hopefully I'll finally get a second new car that *I* get to pick out *myself*.

5. I've never lived completely on my own. For a woman as fiercely independent as I am, that kind of galls. I wouldn't trade any of my choices for anything, but it's weird when I think about it. I had roommates in college, of course, and housemates at one summer job. I rented a basement room from a woman during my National Geographic Society internship, then moved straight in with my fiancé when that was over. Ideally, I never will live on my own, but it definitely conjures some "what if" scenarios from time to time.

6. I'm a bit compulsive about my e-mail inbox. I keep things in there if they need my attention, or if I read them on my laptop and they need to be saved on the desktop. As soon as something is addressed, it's gone. So I get intense satisfaction out of that 0 on my e-mail counter. It never lasts, alas, and often I end up putting off important tasks because I just can't take having anything in my inbox anymore.

7. I'm addicted to football podcasts. Specifically, ESPN's Football Today and the podcasts put out by the New England Patriots, mainly PFW in Progress.

(I think I just accidentally typed ALT+P or something, and this published early! Dammit!)

The writers of Patriots Football Weekly are raunchy and juvenile, they fight a lot and go on and on about the stupidest things. But I love them. I get all my New England Patriots news from them, and when I catch up to the podcasts and have nothing to listen to, I pout. Never mind the 1728 songs in my music library. Gimme my talk Internet radio!

Pass this Award along to 15 recently discovered blogs and let them know about it!
Oy. I've been soooooo busy* I haven't even had time to read the blogs I discovered years ago, never mind found new ones. But Stacy has a really long, great-looking blog roll, so head over there and click on a few of those.

Since I can't predict which ones y'all will click on, I can't notify anyone of the award. But I task anyone who is interested with passing it along (or appropriating it!) on my behalf. Consider it a "found blog topic." :)

Happy reading!

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*In case anyone was sad that they hadn't heard me whining in a while... I'm near deadline on Heavy Metal, facing the imminent release of TWO books (Behind the Scenes on October 31, Under the Moon on November 1) and all the attendant promotional obligation, working on work for two clients currently, with three more preparing to bury in an avalanche (not complaining, really!) and dealing with all the usual day job and family obligations that never seem to get lighter even when they really should. I'm grateful it's all relatively good stuff, and I'm maintaining the balance so far. But some things I love are suffering...like this blog, and keeping up with my far-away friends. :( I miss you!

Keeping-Your-Sanity Tip of the Day

If you have a bottle of dish detergent—the hand-wash-dishes-in-the-sink kind—and it's almost empty, and the top of the bottle is little so you can't set it on the counter upside down, and you decide to set it in a cup so you can efficiently and frugally use every last drop of soap in the bottle—eventually—and finally you do use the last drop and now the cup is dirty...

Well.

Be warned. If you put that cup as is into the dishwasher?

You're gonna wind up with suds all over your kitchen floor.

And it's gonna be on a day your kid's homework won't print on your printer, so you have to finally get around to running to Staples to get new ink for her own printer, while it's raining and putting on a spectacular lightning show.

On the same day that same kid's soccer practice was called halfway through due to that same lightning, throwing off your entire schedule.

If you're lucky, you'll have a husband willing to stand in the kitchen for over an hour, watching the dishwasher while you run another cycle, because the leakage was just so odd, with it being mostly suds, and you found no obvious problem with the door or drain, but the unit is so freaking full of soap...

So just save yourself the trouble and rinse out the damned cup.

So Random it's Got a Pattern

An article/blog post about building followers/readership/commenters said to remove the word verification from your blog, because people hate it. Doesn't seem like THAT big a deal to me, but I've never had that much problem with spam, so I removed it yesterday.

Today? Only comment was porn spam. *sigh*
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Back from New York! I'll post some pictures soon. Not ones of Lisa, because last time I said I could post it because she doesn't read my blog...and she read my blog. I room with her at RWA National, y'all, I'm not risking it again. :)

But there will be feet. And maybe some pictures with other people I didn't get permission to post. :)
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I could still use input from people who've read my books. Click here to take survey. I'm leaving the survey open indefinitely, so if you've come across this post months later because, say, I mentioned "Harry Potter," and you want to take the survey, feel free! :)
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Picked up tons of books at the conference. I'll be reading print books for a good long while now! :) Won a couple at the YARWA (YA writers group) meeting, and bought some at the Literacy Booksigning (raised over $46,000 in 2 hours!!!), and scored most at the publisher signings. My TBR pile was getting low; now I have so many choices, I can't pick one!
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Firefly was marathoning yesterday. I am DYING to watch the series straight through. Right this moment. But alas, I have copy edits and client edits and client proofing piling up, and too much responsibility.
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So here we are in July. July is Number One's birthday month, and guess what she got this weekend?

Her AAA card.

Ack!

So, yeah, getting her permit will be the big thing. Second only to a weekend at the beach and the last Harry Potter movie. She is very, very sad that it's almost over. I'm not, because I went through it with the last book. THAT was when it was all over for me. :( Anyway, I guess we're doing the midnight show and a sleepover, and she's marathoning the previous movies right before that. So it's a big month.
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Stay tuned for announcements about The Goddess Society and The Film Crew, celebrations of my fall releases, Under the Moon and Behind the Scenes.

My Favorite Part of Summer

I blogged yesterday about one of my favorite parts of summer, going to City Islanders games with my kids. Number Two told me to post it here, too, but I'm just linking to it.

The Islanders had a game last night, the first game in the Lamar Hunt Open Cup, and continued their time-honored tradition of losing for 85 minutes, then tying, and winning in stoppage time. So we go back next Tuesday! We've made the quarterfinals for the last two years, getting dumped by DC United, so expectations are high.

What's your favorite part of summer?

Google Guitar

Here's Number One's tribute to Les Paul.

Bonus points if you recognize the song. :)

Blogging Fiend

I am all over the place nowadays.

Friday, I posted some news and stuff at Supernatural Sisters. (Today, Theresa Meyers is a guest blogger there, and you HAVE to see her new book cover. It's DEAN!)

Yesterday I'm posted at The Gab Wagon about keeping out of Number One's college selection process, and how to strike a balance between letting her make her own decision and making sure she does it right.

I don't think I've mentioned that I have joined a new group blog, Everybody Needs a Little Romance. There are some fantastic authors talking about everything under the sun, a slew of book reviews, and now me. :) I blog every other Tuesday, including today, where I discuss how odd it will be not having Number One in the house. Come by and give me your advice. :)

Kane-etic Weekend

I hate country music.

I hate crowds.

I hate cigarette smoke.

So why was I enduring all three for nearly 4 hours last night?

For this:

Stinkbug Nightmare

Woke up early this morning (too early, when I went to bed at 1:30!) to go to the bathroom. Came back, sat on the edge of the bed. Picked up my water glass, put my mouth on the rim, and tipped it to drink. Something brushed the bridge of my nose. It felt like a hair. Which was really weird. Dim in the room, and my eyesight sucks bigtime, so squinted at glass.

At the stinkbug walking along the edge of my glass.

As stinkbug horror stories go, I can never top Vicki Smith's. But the thought of what could have happened if the bug hadn't been on the other side of the glass will haunt me for the rest of my life.

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My grandfather called me this morning by accident. He said whenever he's always screwing up with technology. What's funny is that he told the phone to "Call Mary" and it called me instead. I'm 37 1/2 years younger than him, and *I* don't bother with voice recognition! LOL

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My recap of "Unforgiven" is up now on Supernatural Sisters Head over and let me know if you loved it as much as I did!

Plus...I just watched "Like a Virgin" again. The actress who played the sister of the woman taken out of the airplane looks like Amy Grabow, who played Becky in "Skin" in season 1. I can't find anything confirming this. Anyone else see it?

Quick Hits

Tomorrow Susan Gourley will be interviewed here in relation to the second book in her fantasy series, The Futhark Chronicles.

About Sue
I write fantasy using my real name, Susan Gourley, and romance under the pen name Susan Kelley. I've been writing for nearly ten years and have two romance series and so far one fantasy series published or being published. I read as much as I can across many genres, including YA, suspense, thrillers, and of course fantasy and romance. I love for fans to contact me at: my email address. Or connect to me on Facebook. Or on Goodreads.

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I went to an event yesterday called Chocolatefest 2011. My father-in-law's neighbor gave him free tickets that he passed along to us. It was a cool event, with TONS of chocolate stuff. Candy and pastries and, the most creative, chocolate braised pulled pork with cocoa-infused Carolina barbeque sauce served over white cheddar/jalapeno grits. I didn't try that one because of the jalapeno. :)

I felt a little guilty, because the tickets were $50. The event was not worth $155 (Number Two qualified for the kid's price of $5), though it was well worth free! :) But it was for charity. So I bought a lot of raffle tickets for the big lovely gift baskets (and won nothing).

I was pretty chocolated out by the end.

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This interminable hiatus (aka hellatus, as we Supernatural fans call it) is killing me. A few of my shows came back, then left, and other shows came back, and now they left again and the first few are back. These fits and starts... I really, really miss Supernatural. I dreamed about Sam and Dean last night. They were letting me hunt with them. I think they were just being nice because I was about to die.

We tried The Cape. I really liked some of the origin details that ground the story in reality, despite the superhero factor. His trainer is a circus guy who's a thief! I'm pretty intrigued by Orwell, and am happy to see Summer Glau again. I was also eager to see J. August Richards (Charles Gunn from Angel, but very disappointed that he's a bad guy. Kind of. He'd better get redeemed.

I deleted The Event, because I'm just not interested, unfortunately. Surprisingly, I started watching V again, though I didn't intend to. So far, okay. I'm sad that The Good Guys got canceled (and I didn't even realize it before it ended!) and that Human Target is on TV Guide's endangered list. But happy that Castle and Modern Family (and Glee?) got early renewals.

I swear, it feels like the season just started. Must be a factor of getting old. I am 40 now.

That's all for today! Make sure to check back tomorrow for Sue's interview!

Globetrotting Apocalyptic Year End

Last night we used one of our family Christmas presents, tickets to see the Harlem Globetrotters. They're something I remember fondly from my childhood, though I've never actually seen them live until now. Seems like that's something worth having on your bucket list. Now I can cross it off mine! :)

Taking a Breath...Again

I'm sure this blog has been abandoned by readers, since I've been going for longer and longer stretches between posts. Things have eased back a little again, though, yay!

My line edits for Fight or Flight are done, turned in, and accepted.

Soccer is over, so no more practices and games taking up five days a week.

The fall play is this week, so paint crew is over, so no more daily pickups at school.

Freelance work has evened out, mostly. *knock wood so it doesn't dump on me again!* I like it spread out, of course.

Grumpy. And Stressed.

We won't talk about the grumpy. Suffice to say week 2 of the NFL was not as fun as week 1.

So let's talk about the stress. I can't stop thinking about my week:

I Love My Schedule, Except When I Don't

Reasons I love my schedule:

1. I don't have to leave for work too early, so the morning's not a stressful mess.

2. The half hour drive to work and home again allows me to keep up with the Patriots and NFL podcasts I listen to.

3. If I go straight home, I have two hours of time before the kids come home, time I can designate for fiction or freelance work.

4. Even after the kids come home, their homework time is still work time for me.

5. I can focus on soccer practices, school stuff, and my kids' needs without guilt.

Reasons I don't love my schedule:

1. I still have to get up at 6:30 because Number One leaves at 6:40. She doesn't need me, but I'm not letting her go without saying goodbye.

2. The half hour one-way commute carves an hour of wasted time out of my day.

3. I rarely get to go straight home. I always have errands to run. Even when I don't, two hours is never enough time to eat lunch, catch up on e-mail, address whatever volunteer stuff I have to do, do any freelance work that came in or was pending, and work on my fiction.

4. "Homework" time is also "tell Mom about my day" time, essential and only precluded by an intense deadline.

5. HA! Guilt will never be banished.

So on paper, my schedule looks perfect. In execution, though, I think I need to do some tweaking. This is the first full week of school, so I've cut myself some slack so far.

That's going to have to end.

Home Alone

Today is my first day off (from the day job) since school started. I've been really looking forward to it! A whole day to work, plenty of time to really dig in. And then I stupidly added appointments to my morning. And then Number One overslept half an hour, thanks to Simone Elkeles and Suzanne Collins, which necessitated driving her to school. I'd just dive in to work now, except those appointments mean I must shower.

Day...Derailed.

Not really. I can get back on track. But here's my plan for the day:

Things I Did This Summer

I love when I get a blog idea from someone else. :)

Things I Did This Summer

1. Coached a 3v3 soccer team to a close final race (but no championship game).

2. Edited 3 client manuscripts.

3. Chauffeured my kids to and from strings camp and biology lab, and a few soccer practices.

4. Attended the Salute to Supernatural in New Jersey.

5. Hugged Matt Cohen.

6. Got a job.

7. Picked up an editing client.

8. Worked on at least three different books (of my own!) at different levels (final final critique/edit, new writing, revision) but finished nothing.

9. Submitted multiple projects to agents and editors.

10. Compiled 3 RWR columns.

11. Sold a novella:


12. Commissioned a book cover:


13. Entered the Twitterverse (@NJDamschroder)

14. Went to Hersheypark (twice, counting tomorrow) and finally rode the Fahrenheit.

15. Since I needed a #15, today I sold Fight or Flight to Carina Press! Stay tuned for more details!

This Week's Goals

Several of my blogging friends regularly post goals for the week or day. I want to get into that habit, but don't expect to, since it's been a "want" for years.

But here are my goals for this week:

1. Talk to childhood best friend, whom I lost track of decades ago and haven't been able to find, who just found me a few days ago.

2. Judge the 5 contest entries awaiting my thoughtful and compassionate critique.

3. Actually do the assignments in the Savvy Authors workshop I'm taking, because otherwise, what's the friggin' point?

4. Write query letter for Hummingbird and start submitting to agents.

5. Read through Entanglement to get back into the story and continue writing.

6. Start formatting Soul of the Dragon.

7. Make follow-up appointment for hyperthyroidic cat.

8. Make eye appointments for me and Number One.

9. Camp Nana!

10. Hersheypark!

11. Number One's sports physical.

12. Prep for booksigning on Saturday.

Man, that's a week. I'm tired now.