Phyllisphamily

I have a blog?

2011-06-19T09:37:00.000-07:00

So anyway, 2 months later.

Seems like all my update are 240 characters or fewer on facebook. It also feels less like I'm talking to myself over there.

Planning for a trip to France. We're still in the early stages of where to go and what to see and all that. And don't even bring up where we're going to sleep, because I'll probably start crying.

And we'll see MIL, which will be great. It remains to be seen exactly when and if she will then decamp to Germany and when that will be and so on.

And geez, too many details. Right now, I'm focused on finding rolling backpacks for the kidlets. Maybe for me, too. We'll require them to carry a good portion of their own stuff that way. I don't know if that will be a hindrance or a help. When they're too tired to go another step or when DD is sleeping in the stroller or.... whatever.

But we have plane tickets and a hotel reservation (with park and fly paid for most of the time) in San Francisco. Yeah, 3+ hours just to get to the airport. Saved us $500 PER PERSON, though....

The end of a rough draft.

2011-04-20T19:57:00.000-07:00

The last 10,000 or so words have been like pulling teeth as I try to navigate a couple of fight scenes, a magical healing scene that goes beyond the healer's former capabilities, a couple of hostage situations, wrap up subplots, and realize I need to make certain subplots and characters and themes more prominent.

So now there's a rough draft and I will let it sit and stew for a bit before making major revisions. My critique partners have already been reading and critiquing, so I should probably add their changes in before getting it out of my head too much.

I have a side project I started a bit before and abandoned, and lately ideas for it have been popping back into my head, asking me to tell that story again.

Collaborative fiction (third grade boy style)

2011-04-13T13:18:00.000-07:00

T is my eight-year-old and W is another third-grader and son of a friend of mine, who drove them on a field trip:

"Then he and W and another boy, G, told a long saga about Big Pitts ( an enormously fat man who puts apples in his armpits and shoots them at others) and Giant Kung Fu Banana Slug Guy. G dropped out of the narrative task early on, but T and W kept the saga going for miles and miles, cracking up G and themselves. At one point, when it was T's turn, he began narrating, in a serious voice, "There was a lot of farting going on in the city. "
It turns out that Big Pits does not, as I suggested, own an orchard. Big Pitts buys the apples. he is a millionaire. he makes his money eating beans and selling his flatuence for greenhouse gasses. No lie."

going crazy on the pictures

2011-03-05T11:21:00.001-08:00

DH took the toddler to the Vernal Pools, searching for tadpoles

It was their next outing to the stables that she really loved:

Random pic of her after she bumped her head:

Birthday pictures:

DS1 owning the fun of playing with the Barbie vet set with DD. DS2 went and hid after I took a pic of him with it. Blackmail potential, you know.

Granny sent this box:

uhhh..... (that's not what was in it, though)

that time of year again

2011-03-05T09:50:00.000-08:00

The male turkeys get so busy showing off that they wander out into the street and don't want to get out of the way of cars.

I also don't see them eating much in our yard. I guess eating isn't cool. They hang around across the street while the females eat, though.

Notice their handsome, sky blue heads. Freaky, eh?

Also a good one here from last year: http://phyllisphamily.blogspot.com/2010/02/pictures-from-exhibitionist.html

And DD, who crawled on her belly, chasing them a couple of years ago: http://phyllisphamily.blogspot.com/2008/12/couple-of-large-boring-movie-files.html

It's been.... how long?

2011-02-17T20:56:00.000-08:00

I really should erase the link to my blog from the signature line of my email, because I hardly ever update here. I put little updates on facebook and I write and write and write. And rewrite. And edit.

Right now, I'm trying to write a synopsis. I have to say that it's immensely clarifying to go through chapter by chapter and figure out what I was trying to mean in them. I've made a bunch of little additions and changes in the manuscript trying to be sure I got the ideas across.

So anyway.

Laughing out loud (literally), the glamor of the author.

2011-01-10T12:07:00.000-08:00

I had heard that being a bestselling author was glamorous. More evidence here:

(their website isn't working right now and I had to get this out.)

http://jauntyquills.com/2011/01/10/glamorous-moi/

(never mind. It's working again)

(nope. direct link not working)

(go here: http://jauntyquills.com and look for "glamorous moi")

New Year's Resolutions

2011-01-01T15:20:00.000-08:00

1) get back to exercising. THREE times a week, not two. Haven't been to Curves in about a month now, so I need to decide if it will be there or not. Without a place to go work out, I tend to never work out, so I'll stay there for a while.

Though DH is going to have a new contract (YAY!!!) and might not be home when I need him to be. Which also might mean cutting back on volunteer work at school...

2) query agents. Get one to take me on. I'm thinking with my were-fox/shapeshifter story.

3) finish and edit French historicals as well. Amp up the suspense.

4) finish the book that I have not told anyone about. It'll be fairly short and I'm getting close to the end.

And to all a gooooood night!

2010-12-25T21:30:00.000-08:00

I tried. I did.

Most of the things on the boys' lists were either expensive ($250 Lego set?) or no-gos (a cell phone? You're 10. And you never make calls) or just not happening (pet).

So I found stuff they would like, not necessarily what they asked for.

I was also trying to get out a bit cheaper than usual - though I don't spend all THAT much any year.

So DS2 didn't like anything. At all. The remote control car he wanted - because his cars and only his cars never work right - DH got him an RC helicopter that is mostly uncontrollable. He got one, small lego set because I thought someone else was getting a big one for the two of them to share. He had already read one of the books (though he will likely want to read it again!). He liked the bathrobe until I went to take a picture of him in it. So, of course, the boring stuff like clothes were an affront and an offense.

DS1 was happier, but then, he got three small lego sets.

DD is pretty happy all around. She's easily pleased and we did get her stuff that we knew would please her.

I got some cool stuff and some chocolate. Woohoo! I'm waitin' and hopin' that my present from my brother was a couple of books that don't come out until the 28th.

DH didn't get a whole lot. He never tells us what he wants and then the slippers allegedly in his size don't fit him.

I'm trying to talk DH into the pet still. I think a cat or two would be great.

Right. Moving on into Christmas

2010-12-08T19:39:00.000-08:00

No shopping done yet. Not even stuff I have to mail.

Need to get oil changed in car and SMOG test and registration done by early January.

Tree is up and decorated. Spare decorations around the house. Need to do outside lights.

Need to bake Xmas cookies for cookie exchange.

Need to bake banana bread next Thursday for both kids' classes.

Need to get holiday presents for teachers. If I want anything shipped, I have to get BUSY. (right. ordered t-shirts for 2 of the 3. Not sure what to get for the last one)

And I swear if DS2 gets any more wound up about Xmas, he is going to spend it in... in... in the North Pole.

NaNo and my life

2010-11-30T13:30:00.000-08:00

I hit 75K yesterday and am now looking around and everything else I need to do.

DS1 has his red tip test (pre-test, I guess you'd call it) for his junior black belt on Friday. And he hasn't finished all the home stuff he was supposed to do, so unless his moves are completely flawless, he's not going to make it. He can do it in the spring and maybe he'll understand that he has to start early...

I keep meeting with my critique partners (the new one and the brand new new one) and this is the 2nd week in a row that I have nothing for them to read, really. I have to bang out a new ending and some edits to a book that one of them read for me. I also need to finish reading the stuff they gave me last week. So I shouldn't be on the internet.

And 2 parties this Saturday, then no parties at all after that, I don't think.

And Xmas shopping out the yinyang.

And some sewing. Poor DS2 has almost no long trousers and there are some in my sewing heap. Plus warm PJs for those who wear them and maybe a fleece for the boy who doesn't, because he needs jackets, too.

Right. Off to get the toddler down for a happy nap.

Curse you, perimenopause!

2010-11-20T15:46:00.000-08:00

Thirty-six freaking days. Which, hey, is better than extra short cycles, right? Only I was PMS-y for about three weeks and have been cramping for about a week.

Stupid hormones.

NaNoWriMo - 50K and counting!

2010-11-16T17:57:00.001-08:00

Two days ago, I wrote my 50,000th word toward a new novel. It was only the 14th, but I was really flying, with my characters thought about and my outline done.

So, big celebration! Woohooooooo!

I think I'm 3/4ths of the way through and since I hit 50K, I've been... well.... not writing.

OK, so I spent some time with the toddler today when I would usually have been trying to concentrate. I picked up the dang toys from all over the room that I'm working in (we have a LOT of toys). I read and commented on some chapters for my critique partner and have started revising a draft that she commented on for me (and realized that I managed to give her an older version - which I can't even find in my computer now, so where did THAT come from???)

I also have to get on DS1's case more, because he's way, way behind in the home practice for his karate black belt. Way. Way. Way.

And then, my characters have to spend another week in a carriage and go to the Paris region, where they have to find out if Helene's family are the ones who are trying to kill her. (SPOILER: They're not, really, but they're the key. And it wouldn't really bother them if she croaked)

The happy halfway dance

2010-11-07T13:15:00.000-08:00

I've written 25,000 words this week. Whew!

I'm still only about 1/4th of the way through the outline, having added some scenes. Some of it is repetitive and some dull, so there will be cutting. But only after Dec 1st.

But! Halfway through the official word count!

And looking at birds outside the window instead of writing more, even though I'm part of the way through a scene.

It would help if the kids weren't all being completely insane right now. All over the house.

more pictures. a.k.a. Toddler rules the camera

2010-10-31T12:55:00.000-07:00

She built these tracks herself, with minor fixes from me to make it so we could actually drive over the hills.

I take a picture while she tries to get the camera from me.

Then, the camera was all hers:

This was the pile of clothes that she wasn't wearing.

Then she decided I didn't need socks.

NaNo is tomorrow! (part 2)

2010-10-31T12:15:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking far too much about my NaNo novel. It might either keep me focused or else make me get really tired of it before I get done. I've always been a "pantser" instead of a "plotter" so we'll see.

The workshop I went to last weekend with Deb Dixon was really good, even though my brain froze at 3 and it went until 5. I do have notes, including ones she handed out, general ones about the topics, and ones about my upcoming NaNo story.

Of course, talking and reading about Goal, Motivation, and Conflict, I was sitting there thinking it was obvious and that I understood my characters, but trying to make a chart of their "GMC" is pretty hard. Like how do I know if something is internal goal or external motivation or wait... what?

So now some pictures out my front window:

Rose bush (where I just saw a mouse)

I noticed a couple of days ago that my red maple was suddenly RED

Yes, we still have leaves and grass. We don't generally lose the rest until late November when it finally frosts.

NaNo is tomorrow!

2010-10-31T12:04:00.001-07:00

Which means that Halloween is today!

The kids are ready, I guess. I'm not. I wore my "human" t-shirt to the Harvest Festival, so maybe I could put that on again.

The school's Harvest Festival was Friday. Here are my lovely children ready to head out.

Ninja and Beaver again.

Ninja, beaver, dinosaur enjoying an unhealthy snack.

We did the haunted house (pirate ship theme this year. I loaned them my pirate shirt and vest, so I don't have a costume) first and then DS2 started insisting he wanted to go home already. DH had dropped us off and had gone to do an errand, with the intention of coming back and hanging out with us. By the time he got there, we were all pretty much ready to go.

This morning in a "ponkin" t-shirt.

writing it right

2010-10-27T19:33:00.000-07:00

So... In meeting with my critique partner and in trying to edit a first pass through the were-fox novel I wrote in a month, I am discovering that it really is 2 books with the same characters. So do I try to expand each half to make a series of short-ish books? Or do I cut most of the first half out and/or repartition it as backstory?

I loved this book as I wrote it. I dunno. Maybe two books. The first half could almost be YA fiction, but the second really couldn't.

This is why authors drink.

I love writing, I just hate making my books readable.

Sunday rambles

2010-10-17T12:00:00.001-07:00

So far today:

I've spent far too much time hoping someone would post something funny on facebook.

I printed out Raley's coupons and went grocery shopping. With sales and coupons, I saved a lot of money, but still was well over $50, which is the cutoff for getting 50 cents off per gallon at their gas station. The Toddler behaved as she ran around in a Christmas sweater and charmed people.

We got two fairly large "ponkins" at $1 each (coupon!) and then paid whatever per pound for a smaller white one. I'll probably still take them to a pumpkin patch next week when they have half days due to conferences. Maybe even Apple Hill?

There's a neighbor across the way cutting with a chainsaw. I might take my computer and move someplace quieter, ie not right by the front window.

They are predicting a little rain for this afternoon. It looks, feels, and smells like it and there are already a few little sprinkles.

I'm getting excited for NaNoWriMo. I have an outline that I want to read over and add some things to. I'm also reading a book about Louis XIV and might even get to Mme de Sevigné's letters. Maybe. I got distracted yesterday by a contemporary romance by Jill Shalvis that I bought when it first came out about 3 weeks ago and which has been langushing, unread, until now. I also went through my library requests and put a freeze on everything that I could that's not a movie for the kids, etc. I'm already returning more books than I read these days.

We just had grilled cheese for lunch. "Grilled" in the sense of toasted under the broiler, because the Brits call that the grill. See? At least I amuse myself, right?

Peepee and poopoo in the potty sometimes seems like the biggest moment of the day, you know? Toddler's, not mine...

TMI again

2010-10-11T20:22:00.001-07:00

DD seems to have figured out how to poop in the potty.

She still wets her 'unnies' just slightly (or sometimes completely) every single time.

PICTURES

2010-10-10T16:24:00.001-07:00

A friend wanted this out of her yard, since her baby is 8. So we paid her and went and took it apart and I put it together alone, which took more brains than brawn, which is why it took me an extra half hour or so.

DS2 mowing. $10 for the whole yard, including trimming. I might pay more, but I have to do a lot of supervising and nagging.

I got a box of books and stuff from a blog I read, Book Binge, which was giving away stuff. So my pink-clad girl got the sunglasses and hat, at least for a few minutes. If they had fit better and if she ever ever ever kept a hat on, I would consider letting her keep them. The books are MINE, though!

picking and choosing.

2010-10-01T17:55:00.000-07:00

They had some other ones, and I'd really like a monkey with a typewriter, but these are good.

Intrepid monster-hunters

2010-09-30T19:41:00.000-07:00

Defending the homestead from monsters.

Maybe monsters don't notice her sneaking up on them if she doesn't wear clothes?

Neighbors' house: under lockdown. Watch out for those monsters.

Intrepid monster-hunters checking the mailbox.

Another week of DS1 cooking for the family

2010-09-30T19:31:00.000-07:00

raw meat! yummy!

weekly cooking pictures

2010-09-23T19:09:00.000-07:00

Well, we totally forgot about taking cooking pictures. He made shrimp fried rice this week.

So here's a bag of rice! And DS1 working at the computer!

Beautiful DS2

And the toddler doing some drawings:

That's a, um.... horse, I think she said?

And this one was.... Oh, beats me. That's my lovely rendition of a leaf next to it.

If you're going to rant

2010-09-20T15:45:00.000-07:00

about the state of education today

(based on an Oprah show, because you know that Oprah IS an expert in EVERYTHING)

then don't make the plurals of "moms" and "dads" with apostrophes in them.

Because guess what? Looks like the schools failed you 30 years ago.

Too Much Information, running through my brain

2010-09-19T20:58:00.000-07:00

Too Much Information, driving me insane.

Look away NOW!

1) when's menopause? 31 day cycle, then 26 day? And more than half is PMS?
2) And I know the toddler is potty training a lot earlier than her brothers managed it, but when they did it, they were fine with everything, except the occasional accident. She poops in her underwear. EVERY DAY. Well, not if she has a diaper on. Either that, or she holds it in.

There, now you can read again.

A book!

2010-09-19T16:33:00.000-07:00

Not necessarily a good book. Not even really ready to let other people read.

But I got to 85K words (almost) and I think it's a whole story. It's a bit shorter than I have done in the past and I know that there are dull spots as my narrator explains what she did over certain gaps of time - I either need to cut those back or make them more interesting and relevant to the story.

My brand new critique partner is reading the first five chapters and we'll meet again on Wednesday to talk about them. I read her first 5 chapters and nit-picked it to death. I hope she doesn't mind.

Anyway, it's a romance novel, but more on the chick-lit end of the spectrum. I wanted to cover a good portion of my heroine/narrator's life, not just the romance part. I wanted you to see how she has grown, mentally and psychologically, over the course of twenty years.

DS1 cooking dinner again last night

2010-09-16T18:55:00.000-07:00

And now he's typing up the recipe. Looks like we're in for a loooong night.

Layering cheese and noodles and sauce - making lasagna.

I believe the face was for having his picture taken, not about the quality of his fruit salad.

Everything ready, no lasagna yet. It always a lot longer to cook than the recipe I have says it will.

new computer!

2010-09-16T17:48:00.000-07:00

We gave up on the old laptop. Yesterday, I went to turn it on in the evening and couldn't even boot it up in safe mode. I'm in a bit of a panic because there are things on there that I didn 't back up, but a friend has loaned me a wire/plug-in contraption that we can (I hope) plug the hard drive into to get all my stuff and all the pictures and so on and so forth.

And most of the book that I spent this whole month writing, that's been flying out of my head and onto the screen? I didn't back it all up. Yeah, I hope this transfer doohickey works...

I'm wondering how I'm going to get my e-books off of there. I'm hoping I can re-download them, but not sure if it will let me put them all on a second computer. In good news: all my paperback and hardback books are over there on the shelf, perfectly safe. I guess in case of a house fire, it would be harder to replace them, but in case of a house fire, we'd be replacing the computer and e-reader anyway.

So now I have to get used to teeny-tiny writing on a giant screen again, instead of enormous writing and blue spots and scrolling back and forth and up and down constantly to read things.

I wrote 2500-ish words anyway today, writing the big fight scene and some of the aftermath. Still a couple of chapters left to go and that's it for a rough draft. Assuming I can retrieve it. Lordy, there's that nausea again. When did I start this thing?

Making pizza.

2010-09-09T18:53:00.000-07:00

So. Last Friday, DS1 was given an assignment to plan a dinner and cook it. I found out about it on Tuesday night. I made DS1 sit down and look at a website with recipes. He took almost 3 hours to find a recipe for pizza and write down the ingredients.

I said sorry, I don't make pizza dough from scratch, buddy.

We went to Trader Joe's on the way home from school on Wednesday and bought a couple of blobby bags of gooey TJ's pizza dough, some grated cheese, and some frozen vegetables.

And with the TJ's spaghetti sauce with some tomato paste mixed in to make the sauce, it was really good.

The helper

Cheese!

Cheese pizza baking

Pepperoni and half mushroom waiting to bake.

A small interlude as we wait for the pizza to bake.

And still interlude.

And revenge (interlude)

And dinner!

Ahhhh!

It was really good, too.

The experiment is still on-going

2010-09-04T19:14:00.001-07:00

As you can tell by my TWO tickers, I am working like crazy on my second project instead of finishing the one that I plotted out. I already have almost as many words written on the second one, even though I've been writing it for only a week

It's a lot of fun and I'm still getting to the really exciting parts.

The heroine might be a bit of Mary Sue, so that will take some work. And it might be crap, you know? The parts I've re-read I've liked, but they're nothing like anything else I've done. Well, maybe a bit like the other contemporary novels I started and never quite got to the end of.

Right. Back to work.

PICTURES including pretty pink princess flower fairy ballerina

2010-08-22T10:27:00.000-07:00

Pretty pink dress handed down. Here, she's spinning and it was just luck that I got such a lovely ballerina pose.

I try to take pictures and she wants to see them before I've even taken them.

DS1 trying to hold her still.

DD sleeps in our bed. DS2 crawled in this morning.

I got up to start the day and next thing I knew, DS1 was in there, too.

DH was trying to sleep.

"Where? Where? See!"

school preparation

2010-08-19T20:16:00.001-07:00

Well, I've struck out so far on getting the kids up much earlier so they will be ready for school.

We have about half of the stuff on their supply lists - and the meet the teacher day is tomorrow and i like them to have most of it by then.

DS2 keeps asking when he "gets to" go to school. Please remember that this is the child that it takes a crowbar to get out of bed on many school mornings.

We didn't do most of the things I had hoped we would do this summer, including very much reading and math practice.

We didn't take a vacation, either. Just as I was thinking that we really needed to get away for a few days, we found out my MIL has leukemia, so I'm being really careful with money because we'll need to go over to France really soon. Luckily, it hasn't been as hot this summer as some other summers we've had. Not that it's been comfortable, just slightly less miserable.

And the boys have still never ever gotten their rooms picked up.

rockin to REM

2010-08-16T14:45:00.000-07:00

pictures of a late summer

2010-08-16T14:40:00.000-07:00

Self-explanatory

See! Seeee! MINE SEEE!

Those boxes of cereal I mentioned on facebook.

Hey DS1! Hey! What're ya doin'? Come on. Come out. Hey! DS1!

writing again

2010-08-15T17:22:00.000-07:00

not very quickly, but school starts in a week. What I am doing is taking a story I started a few months ago (turmoil in Louis XIV's France) and then got stuck on. I have plotted it out now, moving the existing scenes around within the first half and then making notes on missing scenes and thinking it through from there.

I started this because I know the story is in there, I just have to get it out of my head and on the screen. Maybe this way, I'll have fewer useless scenes to cut. Maybe.

I also started to get serious about it because I had a new idea come to me, a sort of vision of the heroine's brother as he is confronted by his late wife's cousin at a siege in Franche-Comté.

(commence eye-glazing) It was a rather quick campaign in 1668 related to the War of the Succession between France and Spain. See, Louis married his 1st cousin (on both sides - they had all their grandparents in common. ew.) a Spanish princess who had a claim to the throne. They signed away the right to the throne in return for a huge dowry from Spain.... which was never paid. Nothing like cheating your own nephew for kicks! Louis then went and started conquering a bunch of Spain's possessions, like the Netherlands and Franche-Comté. Which happens to be the part of France that my husband's from. (/eye-glazing)

Anyway, he's there on a mostly useless, marginalized campaign, and his dead wife's cousin shows up, saying someone tried to kill his daughter. Oh, and she's so myopic, she's practically blind, back then when they didn't have eyeglasses. And I plotted it out after writing a couple of scenes and then figured I should really finish this other book first...

How cute is this?

2010-08-07T19:22:00.000-07:00

The boys (especially DS2) suddenly desperately wanted the Lego Passnger Train with power functions (motor and remote). between them, they had about $90, so I told them that they could do extra work around the house to earn the rest ("But whyyyyyyy won't you just buy it for us?" It costs $129.99, plus tax and you JUST HAD your birthday. But I'll put in about $20 if you let your sister play with it too.)

So they washed the car ($5 each), helped pick/pick up peaches ($2 each), washed the sinks and toilets ($1 per item cleaned), and mowed the lawn and clipped around the edges ($5 each).

So this morning, at almost lunchtime, they were adding up their money (still working on that with DS2...) and they had $120.08. And there was much rejoicing.

We went to Toys R Us (part of the 'money' was an old TRU gift card with $15 on it. And I surfed around the internet and no one had it cheaper) and they had just one. And there was much rejoicing.

So that's it. We have the train and track and motor and remote and 9 (NINE!) AAA batteries. I figure that hey, it's Lego, so when they get tired of the train going around and around, they can use the motor to build something else. And it's their money.

And so far, only one fight because "[DS2] has had more turns and longer turns and won't let [DD] play with it very much."

I'm thinking up a plan for allowances.

2010-07-21T20:18:00.000-07:00

DD in socks and sandals (and pretty sundress Granny made for her!)

new curtains in my bedroom! No, the 2nd from left is not exactly the same color as the others.

I figured I'd better post a picture of the other pretty sundress, too.

Sleepy time. Where's my spot? On the floor, apparently. Or squished in by DH, but with my legs in the bottom right corner.

DD can get the freezer open. It's a real fun time when she wants "wikeeeeen" (ice cream) and gets it open and starts to climb up the shelves. Since I took this, she has worked out how to get the fridge door open, too (it's bigger and harder to open)

DS1's half birthday cupcakes (totally forgot to take a pic of DS2's birthday cake! Oops!)

"watch a mooobie" says DD.

erector set: her first creation

erector set: the stink eye...

DD's haircut a few weeks ago

no, I'm not really updating my blog much these days

2010-07-21T20:00:00.000-07:00

So... Since July 3rd, what have we done?

Well, July 4th, for one thing. We did the neighborhood parade. DS1 helped carry the banner out front then helped hand out popsicles, DS2 helped put out water and lemonade for thirsty paraders.

We went to a friend's house for a potluck barbecue, but went to Folsom for the big rodeo fireworks instead of staying and watching them shoot off little safe and sane ones (We don't want safe! Who cares about sanity?). Considering the parking a mile away and walking up and waiting around, it was still worth it. Next year, I'm thinking we'll do the ones at the Sunrise Mall.

Then we did... um....

We went to see Toy Story 3, which was really good, even though it felt a bit disorganized. We had the medium-sized bag o' popcorn for 4 of us (3 kids and me) and it was HUGE, but we still ate almost all of it.

We might be going to see a movie with friends tomorrow. We keep sending emails and missing each other. I left a voice mail earlier today, but I don't think she has called back.

We're doing swimming lessons now and the last one is tomorrow. I can see from quick glances at the boys that they're really improving, DS1 especially. DS2 is much better, but he almost rolls onto his back for every breath. At least he's doing it to the side instead of to the front and stopping completely.

DD and I are in the baby and toddler class and she doesn't like doing the stuff she's asked to do. She blew bubbles the first couple of days, but didn't do it again until today. Some days, she'll lie on her back, some days she'll kick, one day, she even scooped with her arms a bit. But we're having fun :)

Otherwise, not much going on. DS2 refusing to read, DS1 reading anything he can get his hands on. No one practicing math facts. I'm not a good mom, am I? Only a month left of summer!

I should go download the pictures from my camera. I think there are some good ones on there.

DS1

2010-07-03T11:45:00.000-07:00

Writing? What writing?

2010-07-02T17:53:00.000-07:00

having a really bad week writing-wise.

Got a critique back and the critiquer totally pulled it apart. She was probably right about most of what she said, which is why it really sucks.

I can't seem to get last week's work together in my online class (and had a comment from the teacher that the story should start where I had my 1st turning point, so maybe I'm ditching the first 30% of the book?), much less started to work on the middle part, which was this week's assignment.And I haven't even written the end yet, so it's going to be the world's shortest book at this rate.

And any new writing has totally stalled out.

Plus, the toddler's nap schedule is all over the place and the boys are always wandering in here.

And my laptop still sucks.

Kiss Me if You Can by Carly Phillips ( a review)

2010-06-11T19:30:00.000-07:00

I got an ARC (Advance Reader Copy, aka Galley) of Kiss Me if You Can because I was the lucky blog reader whose name got pulled out of the hat. So I read it and figured I'd post a review for all five of my loyal readers, only one of whom reads romance novels.

Let me just say that I will probably pull a few punches because it was free and because the author comes across as genuinely nice.

It's OK. About 6/10. I liked it better than her "Lucky" books which were her series before this one.

The heroine seems so much more put together and balanced than what everyone says about her. I know some of that is meant to be that her family always treated her fairly shabbily because she wasn't as uptight and as much of an overachiever as her parents and sister, but it still came across as odd. She has a website business and is successful and travels a lot for the joy of it - doing some of her best work in Timbuktoo and Outer Mongolia and so on.

She always patterned herself instead on her wacky grandmother, but when Grandma ends up not having always had much of a moral code and the heroine (no, I can't remember her name) is thrown for a loop.

The hero feels like he failed at everything. He meant to be a cop, but had a shoulder injury and had to give it up. He was married to a stewardess who cheated on him and left him. He wants to be an author, not a journalist, but almost no one bought his first book and he has writer's block. His main problem with the heroine is that she likes to travel and sometimes goes on long trips, so he decides he shouldn't fall for her because she is therefore just like his ex. Neurotic much?

I mean, they almost break up because the heroine asks him to travel to Australia with her. Even if he doesn't want to quit his job so he can he becomes a fabulously rich author overnight (because surely we all know that's how it works!), surely he has some vacation time coming up? She usually travels for long periods of time, but even she should know she can take shorter trips and doesn't have to give up all travel forever.

When they have long conversations, the author pretty much says "they had a long conversation" instead of making it about anything, which would at least show us that they were sharing a bit about their interests.

They're brought together because he foils a jewelry robbery and the store owner's daughter offers him a reward, so he takes the ugliest, cheapest thing he sees, and it turns out to be a ring that was stolen in the 50's and it matches the ugly, horrid necklace that the heroine's grandmother only wears at home. He's also in the news and then featured on a blog of handsome, available bachelors (which subplot pretty much falls off the map about halfway through), and the jewelry store owner sees the ring and has to get it back so no one knows.

I felt the stolen ring plot was a bit silly, with the grandmother and her best friend providing geriatric laughs and being a bit over the top.

The sex scenes were hot, but we all know that good sex does not a great relationship make, right?

So it was a light read and a bit of fluff. Fun, but a bit frustrating.

revision, revision, revision, books, kids, and other stuff

2010-06-07T09:07:00.000-07:00

My class started yesterday!

I'm taking Lani Diane Rich's StoryWonk Revision class. She's an excellent writer and has been running these classes for a while - and I need all the help I can get with editing for plot, structure, and story.

So first week, we have to read the story without editing (hard to do, so I have made it a pdf and put it on my eReader) and write all the scenes on note cards, then identify the major turning points and where the Acts are (ideally 4 acts). It doesn't sound like too much, but, *ulp*

I'm still waiting for the critique of 10 pages that I won in the raffle at a day-long writer's conference I went to a couple of months ago. I need to email.

PLUS, I got a CC of the email to Joanna Bourne, whose 10 page critique I won in the Novak diabetes auction, informing her that I am the winner, so I need to get in touch with her and decide if I want the same 10 pages critiqued or a different 10.

And my laptop is ailing and is in the laptop hospital. I might just be dirty and overheating, might need a new video card. We should have news today, I hope. Definitely slowing me down on writing and revision, though...

And yesterday, I was reading one of the huge number of books I got at the library book sale (half price day on Saturday as I was helping at the sale and then I helped pack up the leftovers). I was wandering around the house with it and kept picking it up and thinking, "Hey, I already read this part. How in the world did I manage to put the bookmark in the wrong spot?" until I finally noticed that I had two of them - one from the sale and one from the library.

I did get some other doubles of things already on my shelf so wasted a whole - whoooo - $2.33 or something. I will either donate them back to the library for the next sale or else sell them at the used book store for more than I paid for them. (method to my madness).

DS1, my 10 year old, 4th grader, went to camp for the next two nights. My ickle baby boy! Strangely, there were nine kids out of the two classes (43 kids, according to ds1) who are not going along. One I know really didn't want to go and another his parents were worried about less-than-optimal supervision. I just remember having loads of fun at camp with my school (though sometimes being homesick) and I helped him pack and waved bye-bye. So we won't see him again until Wednesday, which isn't all that far away. And who knows? They're panning for gold up by Sutter's Mill, so he might end up making us all rich (hahahahaha).

DS2 got his thumb slammed in the hinge side of the bathroom door yesterday. DS1 was just closing the door - a bit too hard because DS2 was right there, so he's not completely blameless, but it wasn't one of their running and slamming times - and he somehow got his right thumb in the hinge. I really don't know how his right hand was in the hinge area, which is on the left side of the door, but there it was. I just heard the thump and the scream. So his thumb is swollen and achy and bruised around the knuckle, but he can move it, though not all the way, so I'm trying to decide if he needs an X-ray.

DD is potty training. It's going well. Mostly. Accident on the floor yesterday, but generally, if she has her diaper off, she remembers to use the potty without too much prompting. I'm not totally comfortable with her running around nakey-bop with older brothers, but that's more in my head than in theirs.

So that was our weekend :)

school pics

2010-06-05T15:49:00.000-07:00

not the good ones. just amusing :)

Maybe too late for my mom to see before she goes to conference!

lots and lots of PICTURES

2010-06-04T10:21:00.000-07:00

the neighbors got some patio chairs, so we got a new box!

reading reading and reading

2010-05-29T11:32:00.001-07:00

Not much writing around here this week. Tuesday, I got a big box o' books from B&N AND two other books from Amazon, which were a delayed birthday present. Oh boy.

So keep in mind that I actually have to faint from joy and/or drool all over a book to give it a perfect score. I am against grade inflation in colleges, too, can you tell?

And I'm not putting them in the order I read them, because I want you all to know about Rose Lerner.

Rose Lerner, In for a Penny. 8/10 stars - Wow. just wow. This is her first book (unless she formerly published under another pseudonym or something). It's the story of an early 19th-century wild-boy nobleman whose wild-boy father dies and leaves him in such deep debt that he marries a brewery heiress and gives up all his fun (drinking and gambling with his friends and going out with his scandalous mistress) and moves out to his estate, where everything's falling apart - not the house itself, but the lands and the people are all hungry and the other landowners and renters are right b*st*rds and so on.

She really gets deep into the class issues and the fear that the H&H both have of offending each other and of losing each other and of how they have a hard time communicating. She repeats herself a bit and goes a bit far on the melodrama, but what a good book.

I'm not sure where I heard of it, since I read about 20 different romance book blogs, but more people need to read this book. Awesome! (EDIT TO ADD: I must have seen it on the B&N book blog, where Eloisa James writes a column. EDIT AGAIN: or else it was when she did a top ten favorite romance list for dear Author? Anyway, she's being noticed...)

And if you have a Nook or the patience to read on your computer screen, they have it for $2.56 as an ebook. I have a hard copy, because though I have an eReader, I am actually a Luddite and if it's a book I would like to keep, then I want a real book, darnit.

Julia Quinn, Ten things I love about you. 8/10 stars - cute and funny, but not as funny as the one before it, plus I felt there were subplots that were set up that never got resolved.

Sherry Thomas, His at Night. 8/10 stars - angsty, but not as heartrending as her first two books (Private Arrangements and, um, the one about the chef? Delicious?). Her writing is so, so good that even though the plot felt a bit contrived at times, I loved it. Does she publish her grocery lists? I'd buy them.

Joanna Bourne, Forbidden Rose. 9/10 stars - spies and French Revolution and ... I was about to give some huge spoilers, but I won't. And her writing is every bit as good as ever, though I didn't get as strong a feel as I did in her first book of the cadence of French in the dialogue. Ditto on the grocery lists.

Lisa Kleypas, Married by Morning. 7/10 stars - A fairly typical Kleypas, by which I mean quite good, but no drooling.

And then there was a an anthology with stories from Catherine Anderson, Loretta Chase, and Samantha James.... Whose description I should have read more carefully because these were old novellas, reprinted. I had read the Anderson and Chase ones and hadn't even liked the Anderson one, so skipped it this time. And the James one was a bit meh. So that was a waste of six or seven bucks, ya know?

Next up, Indigo Blue, which is a Catherine Anderson re-issue, then, um, what else do I have? A couple of Guhrke from the library because she writes late-19th century London which is what I am trying to do, and, uh, well, I have 20+ books out of the library to be honest.

Right. Get on with it. Easier said than done.

2010-05-22T18:33:00.000-07:00

I've got to get my big girl panties on and get back to work.

The new story I'm working on is stuck, currently, so I need to think about where to go next and how to get there. I can put it on the back burner and read some more research material for inspiration for a while, but i also need to know where I am going to try to take it.

And the edits I've been doing of the 2nd book that I finished are languishing away in a binder. I've gone through about half of what I meant to do and stopped both due to the story mentioned above and the rejection letter, which was 10 days ago already.

I went to the meeting of my RWA chapter - the speaker, Jeannie Ruesch, is a graphic designer/ website designer and a novelist and talked about making a brand name of yourself - and sat at lunch with her and with a couple of other people I've spent time talking to at these things before. one is/was a life coach and between her and Jeannie Ruesch, they were shoving me back at work, reminding me that they've been rejected and rejected and yet now have contracts and one is published and the other will be soon.

So I came home all renewed and yet tired because being around all those people all morning wears me out, no matter how good it is. So the boys were using my computer to play on lego.com and I let them and instead I read a book and dozed off with the toddler.

I *will* get to work. I *am* a good writer.

And I am starting an online editing/revising workshop with Lani Diane Rich in a couple of weeks, so i am getting excited about that. I don't know which book I will choose to revise during the workshop, so i have to think about that a bit, too.

whining

2010-05-11T10:36:00.000-07:00

That's ME who's whining.

The little handle of my Brita UltraMax water filter pitcher broke. Just the teeny-tiny little knob that holds the handle onto the nozzle part, so while it's not catastrophic (especially because we've had the pitcher for ages and only paid a couple bucks for it at a garage sale in the first place), it's now unusable. I emailed Brita to see if I can get a new little handle. If not, I'll have to decide if we're getting a new one or relying on the fridge's water dispenser, which is slooooowwwwww.

I have a weird rash on my belly. I thought it was mosquito bites when the little dots first appeared two weeks ago, but they spread and raised up and itch like a... itch. I finally started using topical steroids left over from about 5 years ago when I had a really enormous rash. I hate using weird stuff like that, but it was out of control. I thought I threw the ointment away a long time ago and now feel bad because DS2 is allergic to something out in the yard, too and has suffered a couple of rashes and the benedryl ointment stuff didn't help much. Not that i wanted to use steroids on him unless absolutely necessary, but, well, poor guy.

And though I have been fake-gloating on facebook that I gave my cold to all of my kids as revenge for all the colds they've given me, it means that DD had a couple of bad nights. Last night, she had a hard time getting to sleep because she was coughing, but she then slept for a long, long time, so we were nice and rested this morning.

And I needed to be rested, because DS2 didn't want to go to bed last night and so was tired and cranky and difficult this morning - didn't want to get dressed, didn't want to eat breakfast, didn't want to tell me if he wanted hot lunch (grilled cheese) or a packed lunch, so he got a packed lunch because it's slightly cheaper and because I'd had enough by then. Oh, and it's standardized testing this week, so we'll see how well he does.

At least it's sunny today, so they will play outside at recess and maybe not be as hyped as they were yesterday.

Oh. and the big thing? (yes you have to read all the way to the bottom to get to the big thing.) I got a letter from the agent who had my partial manuscript and she didn't like it. So poop.

Better get to work on that query letter.

PICTURES

2010-05-09T14:03:00.000-07:00

The boys made a mobile last week out of the hangers in the coat closet...

DH took The Toddler for a long walk the other day. There's a riding stable about a mile and half away, at the edge of the riverside greenbelt.

And loads of rocks to throw...

a video of my kids

2010-05-06T14:26:00.000-07:00

It's a bit long...

I didn't upload this so much for the comic, slapstick stylings of my kids as for how thoroughly I was ignoring them.

Jayne Ann Krentz's Burning Lamp is quite good.

whinging about a book this time

2010-05-05T17:29:00.000-07:00

Since I like facebook, I tend to spend more time writing short status updates there and not rambling on over here.

The pollen is still hitting me hard, but the cold is easing away. or else it's all one or the other at this point. It's hard to tell.

I speed-read Dan Brown's Lost Symbol. Well, I started it a couple of weeks ago, but when my book group was postponed, I put it down and didn't think to pick it up again until a few days ago. Yeah, it was just exactly that un-put-down-able that I could put it down for two weeks. It's awkward, it's poorly written, and I had a hard time believing important plot points. Like that the CIA was involved in an investigation inside the US. They weren't willing to explain anything enough to get Robert Whatsis on their side and yet were perfectly happy to disturb a crime scene to the point that the CIA chick gave Robert Whatsis the ring from the dead hand because he said he'd give it back to his friend when he found him. Um... right.

So I can actually write a bestseller novel. Or at least I can write a couple of good novels and then coast at least as well as this one....

I liked the DaVinci Code. I know I'm not supposed to admit that, but it was interesting (if long-winded), and kept me involved in the story and suspending disbelief and thinking about it.

Well, I should save some of my words for book group this evening, right?

I need to go make some quesadillas for dinner. No cerveza or margaritas, because I'm going to drive tonight...

Birthday! Take a ch-ch-ch-chance.

2010-05-01T16:40:00.000-07:00

Well, I have a head cold along with the allergies I've been dealing with for a few weeks. I thought it was just extra pollen, but starting yesterday, i realized that it was more. I woke up with a blazing headache, so got up earlier than I would have liked. DH wasn't exactly leaping out of bed when the kids started making noise anyway. Maybe I'll sleep in tomorrow...

DH cleaned the car. I hate doing it, hate vacuuming in any form, and just can't get my head around paying a detailing place to do it, so now it's all happy clean as a birthday present. Thank you, Alexis :))

I baked a double batch of (box mix) brownies, some for the neighborhood dinner we're going to, and some for home. I made frosting from scratch, though. Well, I still have to mix it up, but I boiled it to the soft ball stage (har har) and am letting it cool a bit. I'm thinking of sticking strawberries on the one I'm taking out.

Oh, and I did vacuum the hallway because it was beyond dirty. I swept the dining room and kitchen, too, but not the living room, because when I was sweeping, there was stuff ALL OVER the floor.

I did not get to the library, though. I'll have an overdue book on my conscience and a fine that will be, oh 50 cents or so. Horrors!

And now I am contemplating what to wear out tonight. Ommmmm.... What I have on works. There, easy.

So, for my next year (year number, um... lots), I will: send queries to more agents and get signed on. Finish another book in the spring/summer and then another at NaNo time. Do massive editing on the books I have already finished so that they are pretty and shiny and salable.

I'm going to go check my frosting now....

Thursday night fun times

2010-04-22T19:41:00.000-07:00

She ain't heavy, she's my sister.

dancing girl

2010-04-22T18:21:00.000-07:00

We've been watching the French "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" with an Egyptian belly dancing star as the female love interest to Fernandel's horse-faced dummy act (sorry. Not my favorite).

I've been trying to get a short movie of The Toddler doing her belly dance.

Every time I turn on the camera, she either stops or starts doing a different dance. Tonight, DS1 started doing a hip-hop-like beat and here is the result:

Written yesterday and never finished:

2010-04-19T16:54:00.000-07:00

My head feels all funky today from all the pollen and lack of sleep and the chocolate I ate earlier and consequent insulin crash and so on. Three-fourths is pollen, though. So instead of doing any substantive work, i am going to ramble for a bit.

DS1, the fourth grader, has finally finished and done his report on the San Miguel Arcangel Mission, which is apparently a statewide curriculum requirement. I know more about it than I ever hoped to know, though I'm not sure if he does.

Next up is cleaning up the report and presentation for the science fair, which is coming soon. *sigh*

DS2 is reading so very very much better these days that I am thrilled to pieces. Still maybe not up to grade level, but getting close. He tends to know his spelling words until the test rolls around and then he spells them the same random way he did at the beginning of the week.

Neither of the boys is getting all of his school work done in class. They could be seriously good students if they would work faster and not get distracted all the time.

The Toddler is amazing. She's running and climbing and jumping so hard to keep up with her brothers. she's also talking more and more.

.
.
.
And then today - good book group last night. It was a bit of a progressive party, because we tried to go to a place in El Dorado Hills that has usually been open on Monday evenings and it wasn't. so we went another place, where the guy announced that they were closing at 8, which gave us time to get drinks to go. We ended up in a supermarket coffee shop. but we talked a lot about the book (The Invisible Wall by Harry Bernstein) and about other stuff and stayed later than usual.

and it's raining, so it's wet and chilly, but the air is getting cleaner.

and i went and worked out already. my head wasn't in it, b ut my body did a decent job, considering it was on autopilot.

just a couple pictures

2010-04-17T10:29:00.000-07:00

No more 98 pound weakling!

The church of San Miguel Arcangel. (before it got a brown roof and a cross)

Snowboarding, DUDE.

2010-04-02T15:08:00.000-07:00

I took all three kids up to the snow with the intention of letting the boys try snowboarding.

Well, I forgot my camera when we went to the snow. I was going to buy a disposable one, but ended up never thinking of it anywhere that I could get one. I'm just organized that way, I guess.

It's supposed to be about a two hour drive. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

So we drove up on Tuesday in a snow storm. It was crazy. And it cost me double the price for tire chains because I was buying them almost up to the snow line during a snow storm. Then it cost me $30 for the guy in a yellow jumpsuit to put them on at the side of the road. But they work, so fine.

It was insane. Totally insane. If I hadn't had hotel reservations, I would have turned around and tried again the next day. With all the stops and the slow going, it took almost 4 hours.

We checked into the hotel that afternoon and relaxed for a bit and then went out for a walk and threw snowballs at each other (there was about a foot of fine powder). Then i got DD to sleep and let the boys go to the sauna by themselves for a bit. No hot tub, which they would have liked better, but hey, now they've tried it.

We went out for pizza that night and by bedtime, DD was throwing a screaming tantrum so we all went to bed early. I was awake half the night for no apparent reason - I fell asleep and then woke up at 1:30 then was awake until almost 5. Yeah, it stunk.

So the next morning, there was another foot or more of snow everywhere, so we cleaned off the car and set out for the ski place, only to discover that the road between the side of Donner Lake and Donner Ski Ranch was closed. So the hotel I chose because it was 3 miles from the mountain? Yeah, not so great. So I drove out to the highway and made the loop back to the next exit and it turned out to be the wrong exit and we drove aimlessly and finally went and got bagels in Truckee and then back to the hotel to call the Ski Ranch how the h*** to find them. I had to go one MORE exit back, making it a 12+ mile loop instead of the intended 3 miles.

So we got there a bit after 11 to discover that all the lessons at 12:30 were full. Since I have no clue as to snowboarding, we then bought lunch in the overpriced greasy cafeteria and sat around until the 2:00 lesson. It turned out to be a good choice anyway, because there were only 2 or 3 other kids in their lesson group and 2 instructors. They went down the smaller hill 4 or 5 times with the lesson and then DS1 had enough. DS2 went down a couple more time and then we turned in their rented gear and called it a day.

DD and I wandered around the restaurant/lounge area and got snacks and put her snow pants and coat on and off and on and off to go out and back in and out and back in.

The roads were basically dry by then, though the pass road was still closed, so I went around by the highway with the chains still on, which is not a good idea with everyone else going 65. DS2 and I got them off when we got back to the hotel.

We ordered in pizza. Mmmmm pizza! And went to bed sort of early.

Thursday morning, we packed up and left - the pass road was finally open, so we made good time on the little, twisting road with steep rock faces covered with snow. No habitation or businesses along there, so they saved it for last, I guess.

DS1 didn't want to snowboard again and didn't want to ski, so I signed DS2 up for lessons and rented his gear and he went down the slope alone a couple of times. I got them hot chocolate and he drank it quickly before his 10:30 lesson.

DD and DS1 and I wandered around the restaurant/lounge area and got snacks and put her snow pants and coat on and off and on and off to go out and back in and out and back in. DS1 took DS2's scarf thing out to him part of the way through the lesson and helped him out it on. What a nice big brother. There were a lot more people there the second day and it was packed, so less amusing than when it was a little more open.

It was a lot colder on Thursday and had started to snow again, so when the lesson was over, I got him another cup of chocolate. He looked so completely tired and I couldn't stomach eating expensive grease again, so we left. He cried and cried.

Oh, did you notice something? I forgot to check out of the hotel and my pay-as-you-go phone was out of money, so DS1 and DD and I drove back to the hotel and checked out and then came back. Probably illegal to leave a seven year-old behind even for that half an hour and even though he was supervised in his lesson.

So the roads were wet, but not yet snowy again, though snow was coming down and blowing like crazy even down below 4000 feet. And my wiper fluid nozzles had frozen up, so i couldn't get the windshield clean from the spray from other cars. Yet another driving delight!

We stopped for McDonald's halfway back, just below the snow. DS2 was still mad at me and wouldn't get out of the car, so we got our food to go.

We did make really good time, though: just over 2 hours.

And boy, I'm still totally wiped out, 24 hours after we got home.

cover models - contemp ski romance

2010-03-28T18:20:00.001-07:00

First of all, the relaxed, apres-ski kind of guy. Chillin' after a hard day on the slopes. Hot tub later, baby?

And the rock and roller playboy, showing off his chest and six pack abs. Partyyyyyy!

Or maybe the hillbilly ski bum. Not sure.

Or oh hey. The hero who is overcoming adversity and learning to live and love again.

PICTURES (it really had been a long time)

2010-03-28T11:41:00.000-07:00

DS2 got his finger stuck in a truck today. So I laughed and got the camera. I was about to help him get it off with water and soap when he managed to pull it out. Sympathetic Mom of the Year Award for me :)

Um. Yeah. "hat"

We're all about the bling.

See? Bling.

And birdies :)

Kids. And then DH wearing out his knees. VIDEO and PICTURES

2010-03-28T11:36:00.000-07:00

Gorgeous cardigan from MIL - from last year and she' barely worn it (I don't want it to get dirty!). Anyone want a 2T-ish wool, hand embroidered cardigan?

Mountain climbing again.

DH throwing DD in the air.

PICTURES because it's been a while - DD's birthday

2010-03-28T11:29:00.000-07:00

"Eating" cake on her birthday. She was pretty much full from the mac & cheese already.

Reading "Go Dog, Go"

They have the most interesting things in the Dollar Spot at Target.

Stuff from DD's birthday, including stuff for the boys. It was a major haul!

lots of things, incl movies, teeth, and books

2010-03-23T10:11:00.000-07:00

The first Pink Panther movie really stinks.

We are watching "Josephine: Ange Gardien: enfin des vacances" for the 5th time. Melodrama and Deus (or Angel) ex machina. Yay. And every other line is, "Oh! Gaspard!" or "Eh! Gaspard!" or just plain "Gaspard!" It's the French version of that angel series with, um, Pa from Little House. With a dwarf, blonde woman as the angel.

DD is sharing her goldfish with her doll :)

Switching to "La Grande Vadrouille" which is better.

And yes, The Toddler watches far too many movies, generally on the computer next to mine and generally way above her comprehension level, and most often in French.

Maybe this kid will speak French? DS1 tries some, but DS2 is pretty stubborn about refusing to try to understand most of the time.

Change of plan. Back to Asterix et Obelix.

I have to go back and get my tooth fixed some more. When I bite down now, my lower teeth shove against the new crown and it aches.

I really want to work out today, too. Maybe this evening. I keep throwing out the spot in my back that pinches the nerve that makes it so I can hardly turn my head. I only went to Curves once last week because of scheduling, but also because my neck was killing me.

I need to get my partial and synopsis out to the agent I met a couple of weeks ago. One more run-through and then I swear I'm going to print it and ship it out. Fingers crossed...

I've been re-reading the second book that I finished a rough draft of. It's pretty good, though I need to work on the pacing and also on the placement of various flashbacks. Do I make the whole thing chronological? Or do I make them flashbacks? Or.... Well, I don't want to leave them out entirely, because the heroine is really badly marked by her childhood and without some knowledge of her past, she's just odd.

Anyway, I should go brush my teeth and get DH up (he stayed up late programming) so I can go to the dentist's.

whee! good, good day.

2010-03-06T20:20:00.000-08:00

This morning, we hauled the kids out of bed at o-dark-thirty and drove to Brentwood (the town in Northern CA, not OJ's estate).

I spent all day at a writer's conference thing, organized by my local chapter of the RWA (Romance Writers) and the chapter down there in the Delta area.

DH took the kids hiking up Mount Diablo (mouahahaha!) and stepping in cow paddies and then playing on the swings and slides at the park.

The morning speakers were two authors (one who writes romance) who wrote a book about writing, which seems to have ideas and suggestions and things to think about to plot and re-plot your novel. They were very good and I was excited and energized and seeing my way to understanding and fixing my novel.

And I won their raffle and got to choose to have them critique 10 pages from my novel. DUDE!

Then we had a lunch and a speaker who is a life coach and has a radio show. She was pretty good, but a bit rambly.

After that, they did the drawing for the raffles. I won a couple of magnetic boards for notes, etc that are very cute and I don't know where I am going to put them.

THEN the big win. I had bought ten raffle tickets for $6 and put several in the things i wanted most and one in most of the other prizes and I won a 10-minute pitch session with the literary agent who was about to speak next.

So I was trying to listen to her talk about the market and answer questions about genre and so on while scrambling to outline what I would say. I've never pitched anything before, I don't even have a coherent query letter.

I then didn't follow my outline, and was nervous and babbling. She asked me some questions and suggested a way to make what I said stronger (which I think I have some of, but which I didn't articulate well) and...

GAVE ME A CARD AND ASKED FOR MY FIRST THREE CHAPTERS AND A SYNOPSIS.

Maybe she was doing that for all the people who won the raffle, I have no idea, but O.M.G.

I told her that I had a zillion idea skipping around in my head for shifting some thing in my novel and she said that the offer to read the partial was open-ended. I obviously can't wait so long that she forgets she even came to California or anything, but I am going to give myself this month to see what I can do to the whole thing and make the first three chapters the best three chapters anyone has ever read of anything, ever.

And if anyone wants a full-color bookmark of a romance novel, I have about 20. About 20 postcard ads, too. I'll never go without again!

So we drove home. we stopped most of the way here and ended up at Dos Coyotes, a chain Southwest place that had hard cement floors and is NOISY. DS2 hated his nachos, DS1 liked his burrito. My burrito was fine, but nothing exciting. And now we're home.

I am so tired.

I guess this means I'm a real author, eh?

2010-03-02T09:43:00.000-08:00

I was reading my google reader blog feed just now (as I click around one-handed with dd on my lap drinking milk and maybe falling asleep) and came across this, by Robyn DeHart of the Sisterhood of the Jaunty Quills:

"Except when those character voices are for book ideas you have no business thinking about. Here I am diligently working on this book and yet I keep hearing these two characters from a new idea, and they’re having the most intriguing conversations. Now I know for a fact that that book, nor any other, will be any easier to write than the one I’m currently working on. But despite the fact that I know this, I’m able to delude myself. As if my muse is a siren seducing me with tempting morsels of a new and wonderful and shiny idea. It’s like chocolate chip cookies baking, that delicious aroma filling my senses and making my mouth water. That’s what this new idea is doing. I’m dying to write the proposal, dying to brainstorm the whole concept with my writing buds. But I try to keep it aside and focus on the task at hand."

Which is why I have this whole plot and characters for a Renaissance French book running through my head and I keep writing scenes, coming up with stuff as I lie in bed half awake, etc etc and yet I AM SUPPOSED TO BE DOING A FINAL MAJOR OVERHAUL OF MY FIRST VICTORIAN NOVEL SO I CAN START QUERYING. (yes, I put that in caps on purpose. I'm yelling at myself.)

Ah yes. This.

2010-02-25T09:33:00.000-08:00

I've been reading for a lot longer than I've been writing, so am reading this and nodding.

If I can DO that, then it'll all be good, right?

PICTURES from an exhibitionist.

2010-02-18T09:52:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year when the turkeys' faces exhibit their, uh, prowess.

Do I look maniacal enough? Like I'm going to eat her braiiiiinzzzz.

My knight in shining armor.

Ah, so that's what wiffle balls and white board pens are for.

Princess ready for soccer.

writing

2010-01-31T16:39:00.000-08:00

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.

2010-01-31T11:09:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-28T18:37:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-22T10:09:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-20T16:51:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-19T13:15:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-17T11:08:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-16T18:59:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-12T13:47:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-01-03T17:42:00.000-08:00

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...

pet peeve misspellings

2009-12-31T12:12:00.000-08:00

Ah yes. Time for some people to make resolutions regarding spelling.

(and yeah, I sometimes have trouble with affect and effect...)

Via Neatorama.

The coneheads are from ... uh... France, right? (pictures)

2009-12-28T17:32:00.000-08:00

THIS is a bakugan.

awww baby dolly (that's the one who's head is already ripping off. It now has a duct tape neck brace)

Christmas came just the same!

2009-12-25T15:12:00.000-08:00

Oooh. I missed one. Here's a typical, traditional Christmas sort of thing: half-dressed toddler eating raisin bran straight from the box.

me and my 3 chins

DD after a bath. she's turning out to be a bit of a nudist, like ds2...

Gingerbread people

ds2's frosted shirt

dd's frosted shirt (she's eating choc chips that were meant to decorate with)

ds1's clean shirt

Xmas eve, before all the gifts were out

silly kids - big ones in new PJs (and dd's shirt says, "Self-rescuing princess." Thank you David and Katie!)

ds1's PJ's

cinnamon rolls going fast

kids opening presents

a new doll

ds2 with his loot

spoons and Christmas stuff

2009-12-19T19:11:00.001-08:00

I was showing my kids how to hang spoons from their nose after dinner. Made me think of a certain high school friend who could hang one each from nose, chin, and each cheekbone. I hope I have a pic of that somewhere....

I was tempted to pick a kid and take him out shopping for his brother today, but stopped myself before doing something horribly stupid like going to Toys ya Us on the Saturday before Xmas.

I need to send a package to Ohio and one to Louisiana. The one to Ohio should be going Monday. The one to Louisiana needs a bit more in it...

Hey Mom, there are 2 packages from amazon coming your way for Dad and Chen. Well, one says it has shipped, but the other hasn't and I don't know why they weren't shipped together, but am guessing they're from 2 different warehouses. I was too cheap to have amazon wrap them. I am so not good with the whole presentation thing.

And shoving DH out the door with boys to force them to get me presents. Yeah, I am a tad greedy, but find Xmas depressing if no one I actually live with gets me anything.

Oh, and a Secret Santa gift for me arrived in the mail today. Woot!

And then I think we're all set. Some cookie baking to do this week and loads and loads of wrapping.

Right. Those Monterey day 2 photos I owe.

2009-12-15T16:41:00.000-08:00

boys being eaten by giant mollusk. (wait, these are still day 1)

day 2 - we went out driving and stopped togo down to play in the sand and waves. after a bit, some other kids from our school showed up. they were holding back the tide as it rolled in. I'm sure if we had stayed a few more hours, they would even have succeeded!

these are eucalyptus trees where there were allegedly flocks and flocks of monarch butterflies. we saw a few. none of my photos came out.

Point, um, somethingorother lighthouse

Xmas tree :)

2009-12-15T16:28:00.000-08:00

Super girl!

2009-12-15T16:24:00.000-08:00

Christmas party!

2009-12-15T16:21:00.001-08:00

More and more pictures

2009-12-15T16:12:00.000-08:00

DS1's class trip to Sutter's Fort

DS1 waiting for the wagons. Nice frock coat, eh?

Here's a shot of the waistcoat. And of a kid from his class.

Ummm....

The porta-potty across from our house, set up for the people digging big holes to turn off our water and install water meters. Nice view!

DS2's snow ball from the day it snowed.

Front yard.

yeah yeah, so I still owe pictures from Monterey....

2009-12-15T16:02:00.000-08:00

But these aren't from Monterey.

She has taken to getting her own breakfast...

DS2 wrote a story.

very sweet :)

Very, um.... sweet?

Leaves!

The boys went to a ninja day camp at DS1's karate school during the week before Thanksgiving. They got suction cup ninja throwing stars.

Ninja girl ready for action!

rain rain go.... go on and rain harder!

2009-12-13T16:28:00.000-08:00

Was wondering how we're doing on drought since it's been raining for 3 days. Mostly faint misty drizzling, but some actual rain happened, too.

So I looked at weather.com for the month and we have just over half of the average so far. Then I looked at last month and it was way below. We were ahead in October because we had one huge storm that dropped 3 inches all at once, but weather.com only shows current, last, and next months.

I looked at the drought monitor map and we're only at D1 - Moderate drought as of Dec 8th, which was before all this rain.

And hey, maybe we'll be back to *only* our usual perma-drought instead of extra drought...

Gimme an E! (book)

2009-12-11T14:26:00.000-08:00

A charming little rhyme by that Smart Beyotch, Sarah:

Do you like this hardcover book?
You should buy it! Look look look!

I do not like a hardback book
I will not read it, not that book.
I want to read it, yes, I do,
but not that hardback, no, thank you.

Will you buy it here, or there?
You can buy it anywhere!
This hardback book is just for you.
The only kind we offer you.

I will not buy it, here or there.
I will not buy it anywhere.
I do not want a hardback book.
I want to buy a digital book.

Would you buy it in a store?
If you buy one, will you buy more?
You can buy it here, or there.
You can buy it anywhere!

We only have this hardback book.
There are no others, if you look.
This hardback paper is for you,
and if you buy one, you can buy two!

I will not buy it in a store.
I will not buy one, two, or more.
I will not buy it here, or there.
I will not buy it anywhere.

I will not buy a single one.
Our transaction might be done.
I do not want your hardback book.
I want to read my digi-book.

We do not sell digital books.
We only sell the hardback books.
If you want e, you have to wait.
Until the hardback sales abate.
This digital is just a fad,
and in our viewpoint, very bad.
The only books are ones like these:
Buy in hardback, won’t you please?

I will not buy them, don’t you know?
This is why your profits blow!
I want to read your books, right now!
I want to read them anyhow!

I want to put them on a Kindle,
or Nook or Sony, and not be swindled.
I will not buy a hardback book,
not now, not later, you backwards crook.

Your clueless thinking blows my mind.
E-sales are climbing! Are you blind?!
See this finger, nice and high?
You can kiss my sale goodbye.

I’ll go online and find my book,
scanned page by page by pirate crook,
and you have lost all sales from me,
both now and in the future. See,
I do not want your hardback book.
I want to read my digital book.

bone chilling, my avoirdupois-padded behind.

2009-12-08T12:54:00.000-08:00

From the Sacramento Bee's blog.

"Bone-chilling temperatures are being reported throughout the Sacramento region with widespread frost expected to stick around until 10 a.m. this morning.

In downtown Sacramento, the 27 degree reading ties the all-time low for this date, set in 1972. It was even colder at Sacramento Executive airport, where 25 degrees was recorded."

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hot mamas (with babies in slings)

2009-12-08T11:57:00.001-08:00

Stolen from jeannette and well, about five other people in the last couple of days...

Rockin' the ring sling!

And no, I don't know how to embed YouTube videos. Why do you ask? ;)

I just spent an hour and half

2009-12-07T14:25:00.000-08:00

writing about 500 words.

They were having an argument and I am not sure what they were arguing about. I don't think either of them was really listening, they were defending against all the attacks they've had from other people in the past and just assuming that the other was giving up on their relationship.

But how to write that?

Let's say heavy editing is going to be involved.

Once I figure out what they were even talking about, of course.

I love kids (really feelin' the love today)

2009-12-03T19:56:00.000-08:00

Because DS1 is out tonight, I told DS2 we could go out to supper and he chose Burger King with a play structure. I had a burger I hadn't had before and then looked at the tray liner and it was a really disgusting quantity of calories and fat and wasn't very good. Back to the dry, bland salad. Sigh.

He took DD up with him into the structure and she cried only once in nearly an hour when she slipped and fell. Oh, and she fussed when I made him eat his supper instead of spending the ENTIRE time up there, but, well...

It was really great to see how well he took care of her when it was just him doing it. They've taken her up there once before and it was Calvin for 90% of the time. The novelty would wear off if he had to do it very often, but he was really fabulous with her this time. :)

DD is watching a Wiggles video and totally fascinated. Next stop: dancing. DS2 is allegedly doing his homework, but with Wiggles in the background, he might be having a hard time of it. Do the monkey oo-oo-ah-ah.

I love kids (part two)

2009-12-03T17:38:00.000-08:00

Because I only had to pick DS2 up from school today (DS1 being still at the Fort), we went and got a doughnut and then went by the library.

I left him in the car with DD when I ran in to see if the next book in the series we're reading had come in (it hadn't) and when I came out, DD was pointing out the owl in Jan Brett's The Mitten and doing the bird sign and tweeting.

He noticed the big cell phone tower just up the street and asked what it was and what it was for and why there weren't any more. So I drove a bit out of my way to the corner of Main and Madison to point out the one on the 99 cent store. Then we discussed regular telephone poles. I need to a learn a lot more about telephony....

I love kids

2009-12-03T11:54:00.000-08:00

My own kids and other peoples' kids.

As I have mentioned, I think, DS1 and all the 4th graders from their school are at Sutter's Fort today. We had to get to school early and were supposed to leave there at 8:15. They tried to get us to roll out at about 8, but DS2's classroom wasn't supposed to be open until 8:15. I walked him over and his assistant teacher was already there so she said he could hang out with her until school started. Phew!

Anyway, we loaded 2 of the burlap sacks that they had put all their clothes and sleeping bags, etc in for the night (they were all supposed to be delivered together, but didn't fit) and I loaded up DS1 and one of his classmates, whom I will refer to as J.

We are barely out of the school, when J asks about DD, who is sitting there silently staring at him. He then proceeds to say that his dad wanted a girl and will never have one because after his little brother was born, his dad was fixed. I then had to explain to him that when you fix a dad and when you fix a cat, it's not the same thing. I hope I stayed appropriate, but yeesh. I don't know your dad, and I certainly haven't seen his balls, but... So the subject of cats and kittens and fixing goes on for a while. And then the subject of how many years between kids. And then Wii Fit.

So anyway, I drove into Sacramento through bad traffic and fog, still sleepy because we had to get up earlier than usual, but with a grin.

Then once down there at the train museum, all the kids had to stand around in the cold (above freezing, but not by a whole lot) for almost 45 minutes because the drivers for the covered wagons were caught in traffic, too. Helloooooo, we're all here by just after 9, surely you can plan on getting down there and getting the horses hitched up on time? But anyway...

DD and I hung around and got cold and charmed 4th graders until they got in the wagons and then I drove over to the fort to drop off my 2 overnight bags. I went around the fort 1 1/2 times before I figured out where to pull up to hand them off. Then we came home.

DD is infatuated with a game we have called Hullaballoo. It's a speaker thingy that plays music and tells you which color or shape or whatever to get on. It's almost like Twister, but the pads are separate and the computerized thing calls out the move. So I proceeded to have to hear the stinkin' Hullaballoo thing for more than half an hour before DD wound down enough to nurse and then to start to fall asleep.

I cut a strip of fabric for a cravat for DS1, but decided to just let him button up his shirt all the way. And I bet he was thankful for the long underwear out there in the cold. He might have to strip down later today to take it off so he won't overheat, but I beet he'll be thankful for it again at bedtime because they'll be in a big, drafty room heated only by a wood fire and his sleeping bag is fairly thin (fine for sleepovers in heated homes). Brrrr.

NaNo let down

2009-12-02T17:27:00.001-08:00

Kind of wandering randomly around since NaNoWriMo finished a couple of days ago.

DS1 still needs a cravat or SOMETHING to tie around his neck tomorrow at Sutter's Fort. No respectable gentleman would be out without one. Poor guy's going to just have a hunk of black fabric. I just have to find the fabric...

Oh, and his shoes are all wrong. Too freaking bad. I am DONE. Well, except for the necktie.

After that... Xmas PJs for all the kids, new PJ pants for me (my zebra stripes have holes. I made them.... 4 or 5 years ago?), then The Toddler pulled out a couple of quilting mags and I was flipping through one and came across a pattern that I like, which seems to eb the one I kept the mag for. And I had a burst of inspiration and know what fabric I will use for it that's been moldering away waiting for a burst of inspiration. So my sewing time will be filled for a bit anyway.

Pizza for dinner tonight. I can't seem to come up with any ideas for anything lately, either.

I need to come up with a present for an English friend. I have a few vague ideas but am a bit stumped. Needs to be mailed ASAP, of course!

random jokey stuff

2009-11-28T10:38:00.000-08:00

Star Wars on facebook!

Via... Neatorama or TYWKIWDBI. One of those.

waning days of Nano

2009-11-27T17:24:00.000-08:00

Struggling to keep the plot going. they've finally arrived in Cincinnati, but not yet in Oxford, where I had meant to put half my novel.

I had less than an hour of writing time today, because the thunder woke the toddler from her nap. I have just over 7000 words to go to my self-imposed goal of 75K words and three days to do it.

drumroll....

60K words!

2009-11-23T20:08:00.000-08:00

Just 15K more to go to reach my new goal of 75,000 words this month.

Dang characters are still traveling. They're about to get a surprise in Pittsburgh and then travel on to Ohio.

I've been trying to get them to Ohio for the last 40K+ words. Travel in the end of the 19th century was much faster than at the beginning, but dang, these people seem to need an airplane...

a few updates

2009-11-20T16:25:00.000-08:00

On Monday - or maybe Tuesday? - I completed 50,000 words of fiction this month. Since then, I have hit a huge slump. But hey, I'm a NaNoWriMo winner again. Phew!

Since then, I have helped the 4th graders at the kids' school learn to sew with a machine (even though sewing machines hadn't yet been commercialized in 1847, the date of their reenactment at Sutter's Fort next month. I have also sewed a black vest/waistcoat for DS1, whose role is a 40-something year old businessman named James Reed. I need to find some sort of frock coat for him and some pants. And cravat and hat. Oy.

I also got the kids vaccinated for H1N1 at the county clinic. The line was really short last night when I just went by to check and hte boys got the mist and the toddler got a nasty old shot but recovered quickly. We're supposed to get a booster in a month. I wonder if the seasonal vax is still available, too?

We all have had sniffly colds for a week or so now. And DS2's friend who spent the night last Saturday has come down with strep.

We have a week off now to come down with or make sure we don't come down with a whole list of diseases.

And geez are we ever off to a flying start. The boys have been cranky and crazy and goofy and just plain pains in the BUTT for a few days. Especially the day we had a zillion errands to do. And now today. I think I'll take them to school all next week anyway.