writing

Well, I got almost to the end of the book I started during last November's Nanowrimo. It needs a bit more at the end. I'm sure it also needs a lot taken out and fixed in the middle.

I am re-reading it in a quick pass-through to figure out what it is that it needs at the end and make the most glaring corrections (Apparently, I couldn't make up my mind how long the heroine had been working as a nurse) and to think about the structure, etc.

Then I am going to either write the last chapter or make some notes for it and then put it away for a final edit of the book I'd like to shop around this year - Victoria and Henry's book.

Once I've done that and a query letter and found some agents to send it to, I need to get serious about editing the book I wrote in the middle of last year - Anna and Delaney's.

And only then will I pull this one (Lavinia and Franz) out again and do the hard work.

Oh, and I have some ideas for more books....

hang on. This one is post #1,000. anyway. Drought.

I misread the number when putting up the last post. It said that there were already 998 posts, so that last one was #999.

So yippeeeee!!!!!!!

Anyway.

According to the drought monitor map, our county is mostly in D0, which is abnormally dry, though some is finally listed as no drought.

And guess what? It's supposed to rain tomorrow!

Still a couple of years' worth to catch up on and they're saying the reservoirs aren't full yet, but it's still good news.

Post #998 - closing in on 1,000 posts

Only took me more than 3 years. Well, that's a bit less than one post a day, so I guess it's neither wimpy nor excessive.

Rough day today.

I tweaked a nerve in my back last night just stretching and so didn't sleep well and woke up even stiffer this morning, one shoulder higher than the other and unable to turn my head very far to the left. I felt a twinge under my right shoulder blade every time I moved my right arm.

So The Toddler caused me to spend almost 5 minutes changing her diaper and I yelled, so DH got up - bloody miracle, really - and I ended up leaving her here while I drove the boys to school. I don't have to look over my left shoulder too much on the way there, but managed it, then called my chiropractor as soon as I dropped them off. He told me he'd be in his office at 10 anyway to do paperwork and to come in.

So I come home and soon get a snotty, sarcastic call asking where I am because there's a field trip. Uh, we filled out those forms 2 months ago, right? Would you mind giving us a head's up the day before? My fault that I didn't have it written down, but I usually write that I'll drive if they need me, because all I have is a small car and I can't attend half of the actual events because I'll have the toddler in tow.

So I go to the chiro and we catch up and he tries to make my legs the same length again and then improves my mobility in my upper back with the pop heard around the world.

So I come home and there's a message from my sister that my dad is in the hospital again because he fainted again, just like he did last year.

So I talked to my sister and my mom. And we still don't really know why, so he's having more tests and at least it's not a blood clot or something from his knee surgery a week or so ago.

And DH tells me he won't be home until extremely late because there's this monthly meeting he goes to.

So I finally get DD down for a happy nap and finally lie down with my neck on a rolled-up towel and an ice pack under my upper back like I was supposed to do 2 hours before.

Oh, and I've been comfort eating. A lot.

And then I forgot DS1's karate gear so he'll have to go tomorrow.

And then pretty soon the boys are screaming and wrestling and running and fighting and I told them to get off of my bed and out of my room about 5 times and they were still szcreeching and kicking and rolling around and yeah, I totally lost my rag.

And then DS2 was totally not even trying to read what he needed to do for his spelling homework. And now instead of doing his math, he's bouncing a ball off the wall.

And did I mention that I have PMS?

scientific insight for the day

There was an interview on Fresh Air on public radio today as I came home after dropping the boys at school and doing the homework packets for DS2's class for next week. It was with Jonah Lehrer, who wrote a book called "How We Decide". I had heard part of the interview before when the book was out in hardback and now it's out in paperback.

Anyway, he talked about making a choice of cereal in the cereal aisle and how we can't hold more than 7 variables in our heads at a time and how we're primarily driven by emotions and people who have had an injury or whatever that takes away their emotions can't make decisions.

Anyway, at one point, he said that a study was done wherein some people were asked to memorize a two-digit number and others to memorize a seven-digit number. Then they were trotted down the hall and offered a snack (presumably before they were going to have to spout back the number). Twice as many two-digit people chose the healthy snack as compared with the seven-digit ones.

So.... is our inability to understand that eating at McDonald's every day will kill us due to too much Googling and too many decisions made already? Is eating due to depression because our brains are just too full of the sad thoughts and the emotions to make good choices?

I'm going to see if the library has this book...

more words

deez = cheese
bol = ball/bowl
boon = spoon

ban = pants
doo = broom

and then some sign language:
hands out with palms up = gone
palms down, waving back and forth = done
open and close mouth = fish

toddler words part 3

Daaaaa = ta da!
peeeeez = please
dangdoo = thank you
bemmee = bless you (bless me)
ite = light
now
mon = come on

bone = phone


I had some other ones, but can't think of them now

more toddler words

ousside = outside
in
dow = down
by = belly button
bye bye
ouchie
bop-bop = bottom
poopoo
dipey = diaper
meow = cat
arh! arh! = dog
broom-broom = car/truck


oopsie is actually more like "booptey" - at least it is today

and then there are all the sign language things...

oh and some more additions:

wawa = water
buhdee/tweetwee = bird
bih = fish
beer = bear

toddler words

dinny = candy
bool = milk
doo = juice
disdan = DS2
dasdan = DS1
bee beh = herself
my = mommy, my, mine
daddy
bee bee = baby, Elmer Fudd (because in one cartoon dream, he's naked except for his hat and what looks like a diaper made of green flowers, so in every other cartoon, he's also a beebee)
dass = dance
neeeeee = horse, cow
mo = movie
dit = sit
boopsie = oopsie
ball
boing boing = jump
ayeee = eye
dass = glasses
peen = paper
doo = show
gock = sock
peeean = pants
deep/nigh-nigh = sleep
book
dee-dee-dee-dee = ABC (as in Dr Seuss' ABC computer game)
bunny
open


NO

a smart/lucky penguin

http://arbroath.blogspot.com/2009/11/smartest-little-penguin-ever.html

Copied from TYWKIWDBI or whatever their initials are.

It's a 5 minute video, but if you start a bit before the 2 minute mark, you will see the pod of killer whales circling and chasing the penguin, who is frantically swimming and leaping from the water. And then just after the 2 minute mark....

And if I were those people? I would have started up the engine about then because the killer whales didn't look like they minded going through the people to get to that penguin, if you know what I mean...

bikes!

I've been asking DH to take the boys out to the school nearby and practice riding their bikes without training wheels. So a couple of hours after DH finally rolled out of bed this AFTERNOON (when is my lie-in?), I tried to kick them all out. By then, the Toddler was up from her nap and wanted to go, too. I figured that someone would need to watch her while someone else watched the boys ride, so it was a whole-family thing instead of me getting a break.

So the boys walked their bikes all the way down there and tried a bit and tried some more. DH held them up a bit, but mostly just let them go.

DS1 (the one who just turned 10) keeps hitting the brakes and putting his feet down and his knees flail out wide and so on. He was doing pretty well, but then wasn't getting anywhere at all, so he finally took a break and when he went back to it, he could go the length of the parking lot, including bumping over the speed bump.

DS2 (who is 7 1/2) tends to put his feet down as well and swerve all over the place, but he just kept going and going and managed to do the length of the parking lot a few times, including once where he went down and did a slow circle and came back. Wow!

They (and I) didn't feel confident enough in their abilities to keep going in a straight line or to go uphill for them to ride their bikes home, so we walked back.

So the Toddler had fun flinging herself down the slides in the Kindergarten play area and the boys are getting the hang of it. I'm trying to think of a safe place for them to ride tomorrow when that school we were practicing at starts up and we're still on vacation. DS1's bike doesn't really fit in the trunk - even if it did, I don't think both bikes would fit, anyway.

And yes, it was nice going for a walk with them. I had already done a good bit of writing and passed the 90K mark. A character caught the flu, which I hadn't planned on. Not that people generally plan to catch the flu, but you know...