Ready, set...

Almost time! It's almost time! It's almost November!

I'm itching to start on my novel... Aebli is ready to have her story told!

*twitches and bounces*

One hour, forty-seven minutes to wait.

*goes to clean a bit more*

Moose!

I made a moose cake! Unfortunately, I did not take a photo with my phone, so you'll have to wait until I find the right cords to hook up my camera and download pictures. But I made a moose cake!

Why a moose cake? Well, I'll tell you!

Tonight was the official kick-off party in the Georgia::Macon region for National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo (you know, that thing you keep hearing me talk about). I'm one of the co-municipal liasons for the area, and I went to the party. With a cake.

"But that still doesn't explain the moose!" you say. Patience, grasshoppers!

Years ago, the WriMos in Macon needed a mascot and a name. I still don't quite know how they got a moose, but that's what they chose. And they voted to name him Mickey. Please note that I say "they" rather than "we" - this was all before my time in Macon. In any case, the moose is our mascot, and this year, I carved a cake in the shape of Mickey, and decorated him all moose-like.

I've got to say, for a last-minute job, he turned out pretty spiffy. Spiffy enough that no one really wanted to cut him up.

I think, however, that I've been watching too much "Ace of Cakes," because when I first thought about doing it, I started to wonder if I would have the time to learn to use fondant, because it would be much smoother and more moose-like. Perhaps I should try to watch less of the Food Network... of course, my other option is to take a cake-decorating course!

Less productive than I'd hoped

I baked the cake. That's a start, right?

*sigh*

I'm a dumbass who was sucked in by the internet again.

*wanders off to try to clean a bit more*

Feeling lazy

I'm feeling very lazy. I'm not in the mood to blog. I think it's because I know that, starting at midnight on Nov 1, I'll be writing my ass off for a month. My brain is sort of going into a hibernation mode right now, preparing itself. The last thing I want to do in November is run out of ideas!

But I have been making myself useful! As co-ML, I've been assembling goody containers for the group. This year, I'm using mini Chinese take-out style containers, filled with mini pens, little Post-it pads, marbles (for when we all lose ours!), candy, and a few other things. I spent the evening filling them. Tomorrow, I'll bake and crumb-coat a cake, and print out NaNo bingo cards and Hipster PDAs. And I'll probably try to knit a bit, since that's not going to happen much during November!

NaNo time

It's that time of year again... it's the end of October, and I'm getting ready to do NaNoWriMo. I'm plotting and planning. I'm carrying a little orange notebook and pen around with me. I'm constantly thinking about what I can put in my novel. I've got this character that I'm absolutely in love with - and she was going to just be the sidekick. I think she'll end up being the MC.

I'm trying to get the herd of cats organized, too, with the help of another ML. Unfortunately, we suck at getting in touch, so it's a bit scattered. Hopefully, we'll be able to connect properly, and get things going. But if not, we do have our events divided up, so we can each take care of our own events without too much trouble.

I'm getting excited! In just 99 hours, I'll get to start writing! Squee!

Mmm, fall...

Today it feels like fall. The air is crisp, and scents are sharper. Things seem more intense. There's a bit of a chill outside, but just enough to need a sweater, not a jacket. The colours are bright and festive, a mix of greens and yellows and reds. There's a crunch underfoot as you walk.

And, of course, there's the smell of burning. It's not fall unless somewhere, someone is burning the stubble in their fields.

Falling apart

It's T-6 days to NaNoWriMo 2009, and I thought I was doing well. I have a plot. I have one very fleshed-out character and one reasonably-thought-out character. I have a notebook and matching pen. I have a flash drive. I have my office sorta clean, but not so clean I can't think.

But now my computer desk is falling apart. Literally. The keyboard tray is held by those little twisty things that you have to turn a quarter turn with a screwdriver to secure them onto the peg bits. Do you know what I mean? Anyways, one of them has decided not to work any more. It unscrews itself after approximately 20 keystrokes. With 50000 words to write, I can't stop to fix it every 20 keystrokes. And sometimes it falls off before that.

So I'm not sure what to do. I may spend NaNo with my keyboard in my lap... maybe I'll go out and invest in a wireless keyboard and write from my rocking chair... or something. Suggestions are welcome!

Five Hundred!

Wow... this is the five hundredth post in this blog! Not the five hundredth this year, of course, since I only post once a day, and, well, even in a good year, there aren't five hundred days...

It seems momentous, and at the same time... not all that impressive. I mean, I've had this blog for almost two years, and while I've been really good about posting this year, the previous year was not so special. I had planned to use this blog for fiction as much as anything else, and I've ended up being far more personal than I had intended. At the same time, I've done a good job of keeping myself satisfied with the level of privacy - I didn't go blabbing about my vacation plans until I got home (unlike the idiots out there who get themselves robbed).

If I had realized earlier today that this was #500, I might have planned something a little more special, but since it's three minutes until tomorrow, I think I'll just smile to myself, and plan a bit more of what I'm going to do on December 31 - after all, if I make it that far, I'll have made my goal!

So... much... food...

Went out for dinner with friends tonight, and the food was awesome! Nathan made steak... lots of steak... I think, between the four of us, we ate three cows. I have been digesting for several hours, and I am still painfully full. But I'd totally do it again. Mmmm...

I'm going to go digest some more now.

Character study in five minutes or less!

A small, furry hand reached out from under the bed.

"Don't even think about it, Beeper." Aebli didn't even open her eyes, much less roll over. The mouse lemur gave a soft squeak. "Don't try that on me. It won't work. You know that you're not allowed to touch my toothbrush.

Beeper gave a few more squeaks.

"I know it's in the bathroom down the hall. I also know that you were going to sneak out, one little limb at a time, and try to take it. No toothbrushes, Beeper."

The critter made a pitiful little noise, and Aebli rolled over in her bed, finally opening her eyes. "Don't try to guilt me into it. I know what a mess you made of my last toothbrush. Look, how's this? If you leave my toothbrush alone tonight, I'll go out and buy you a princess toothbrush tomorrow morning. It'll be just for you. Okay?"

Beeper blinked slowly, looking up at Aebli with her wide, brown eyes. Aebli shook her head. "I can't believe I'm bargaining with you. Fine. Two toothbrushes."

Beeper made a much happier-sounding noise and leaped onto the bed, crouching beside Aebli's head. She nuzzled against Aebli, who smiled, before closing her eyes to go back to sleep.

Look at what I made!

Isn't it nifty?

Thirty so far

I've been thirty for a couple of days now, and it has been less horrible than feared, so that's a good thing. I rang in the decade at a show in Vegas, which was pretty cool, and spent the first day of my thirties hanging with dolphins, lions, tigers, leopards, sisters, and cirque folks.

Unfortunately, on my third day of thirty, I started getting a sore throat. Today, on my fourth day of thirty, I've got a cold. Runny nose, watery eyes, sore throat, general ick - the works. Blah. And I've been stuck seeing patients at work instead of working on the computers. Double blah. However, all of these blahs are no worse than the blahs of twenty-nine, so I'm still willing to work with thirty. For now. *glares menacingly*

And on that note, I've got some chicken and stars soup (homemade!) calling my name, and 'The Princess Bride' ready and waiting in the DVD player in my bedroom (because it makes me get better sooner!). Good night, folks, and let's hope that my fifth day of thirty brings about some healing!

(Does anyone else feel like breaking into "The Twelve Days of Christmas"?)

Where the hell were you??

No, I didn't die or drop off of the face of the earth! I just didn't want the whole world to know that I was on vacation!

Go check out the backdated blogs from the 16-18 to read all about my adventures! But now, I'm off to bed, because a three-hour time difference sucks.

And now, the end is near...

So late yesterday afternoon, Mum and Karen and I went to see Bodies at the Luxor. If you haven’t heard of plastination, go and Google it now! It’s amazing! It was sooo cool! I wish that I could have made all of my anatomy students go to see it – it really puts things in context, and it’s way less smelly than the corpse lab. We spent a ton of time there, and both Mum and Karen enjoyed themselves, too.

Last night, we went to see Love at the Mirage, the Beatles-based Cirque du Soleil show. Holy crap. I’m glad I was sober for that trippiness! I wish I could think of more to say about it, but it’s such an encompassing experience that you just have to see it on your own. I thought I understood what a Cirque show was like from watching so many of their specials, but I wasn’t even close. It was amazing.

Today is my last day in Vegas. We’re heading out for breakfast, and then pretty much straight to the airport. I’ll miss this place…

What happens in Vegas...

So I’m now officially thirty. It’s not too bad… at least, not yet! We rang in my birthday at a show, and got a good group photo. :) There was much drinking done, but I woke up without a hangover – whee! We weaved our way back from the Excalibur without incident, although there were several times when we thought Donna would fall over – not from drinking (she was the designated walker), but from the new shoes she wore. They were gorgeous, and about five inches high! Karen’s great at walking in heels like that, but it was pretty new for Donna. I think what threw her off was the teeny-tiny pencil heel, which was very likely to get stuck in cracks in the sidewalk. She really had to watch where she stepped.

I think I might wear my own clothes today – yesterday, Karen played dress-up with me, and most of what I wore was hers. I didn’t mind, though! My sister has great taste, and I like going through her stuff. Of course, I really like it when her stuff actually fits me, too!

Forgot to mention Freemont Street on Friday! We headed down there on the bus, which wasn’t nearly as bad as I had feared it might be. The double-decker Deuce buses are really nice, and we had no trouble finding the stops. We played at La Bayou and got free beads (always fun). I didn’t win much, but that’s fine. There’s so much shiny stuff to look at in Vegas that I don’t always think about gambling…

Donna and May and I went to Sigfried and Roy’s Secret Garden this morning, and it was pretty cool. I got a crapload of animal photos, and I got splashed by a dolphin. I also managed to get some pictures of Beeper with the animals (sort of). Who’s Beeper? I’m glad you asked! Beeper is my travelling lemur. I found him at the outlet mall, and he was too adorable to pass up. I’ll add a photo of him to a later blog, but suffice to say, he’s just cute. Karen has Tutu the travelling elephant, who goes with her on all of her vacations, and gets photographed… I guess it’s kind of like the Travelocity gnome. Anyways, you’ll see lots of Beeper in the future!

Guess what?

Today’s blog is intentionally back-dated… that is, I am writing it now, and will be posting it later. Why? Because, dear readers, I feel the need to protect my privacy and my home, and because I’m an idiot who didn’t pre-blog. Today, friends, I am in LAS VEGAS!!!

Why Vegas, you ask? I’ll tell you! In a few short hours, I’ll be turning thirty. Despite the fact that ‘age is just a number,’ I’ve been freaking out about it. Part of me is worried that my friends and co-workers will make a huge deal out of it and embarrass me, and part of me is equally worried that it will just go by as another day and people will ignore it. So, in order to avoid both of those scenarios, I decided that I would turn thirty on my own terms, with people I trusted, so that I would have a good day.

I’ve come to Las Vegas with my mum, my sister, and my pseudo-sister and her sister. (Donna spent so much time at my place when we were younger that my parents called her their third daughter, so we’re pseudosisters. It works for us.) I arrived yesterday afternoon (after blogging about being up early!), and all four of them were waiting for me at the airport to take a limousine to the hotel! It was unexpected and sweet. :) We’re staying at the Mirage, which is a fairly nice place. We got an upgrade in our rooms because my mum told the front desk that we were celebrating my birthday, which was awesome! And the hotel delivered a complimentary bottle of champagne! I think we’ll crack it open tomorrow.

Mum and Karen and I had a nice, long breakfast this morning, and spent the afternoon shopping with Donna and May at the outlet mall. I hadn’t planned to spend quite so much time shopping, but we got some great deals. I’ve played a couple of dollars in slots so far, but not much. Perhaps tomorrow!

Mornings, blargh.

I'm up early. I'm up far too early for a day off.

But I get to see Mum today, so I'll try to let it slide.

*wanders off, grumbling sleepily*

Getting old

I swear, the older I get, the worse my memory gets. And it doesn't have to be a year older... just a day!

I've got this reader downloaded on my Palm (old-school tech!), and I know that I download books to read. But I can't remember the website. And I can't figure out where I put the bookmark.

*sigh*

I'd forget my head if it weren't firmly attached.

Mmmm...

...Schwann's...

I got ice cream today - Rocky Road (which is for guests only), Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Vanilla, Ice Cream Sandwiches, and Classic Schwann's Bars. Mmm... that's what happens when Daddy and Peter have a couple of beers with dinner and start thinking about dessert and forget that we still have pumpkin pie AND apple pie in the fridge! But I'm not complaining! I love the stuff, and the Schwann's guy will be back in two weeks to sell me more frozen goodies - yay!

Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving (in Canada), and I've spent the day with good people. I had a good meal, and a lot of fun. I'm a very lucky person. I just want to say thank you to all of the wonderful people in my life - you all know who you are, I hope, and I love each and every one of you. Thank you for making my life better, and I hope that I can do the same for you.

Ow, my legs...

I got new shoes: check them out.

I wore them shopping today.

My legs say, "Ouch, bitch!"

Stupid people shouldn't make signs

It hurts, it hurts! Quotation marks are NOT for emphasis!! This is at the baggage service counter for Delta at Hartfield. *sigh* And because Peter's baggage is missing, I have to keep looking at this sign... I hope they find it soon - I can't take much more of this!

Daddy!

Not that you've been expecting great things from my blog lately, but I may be even less creative than usual in my posting - not for lack of creativity, but because my dad's in town! I haven't seen him since I went home in June, and December before that, so I'll be squeezing in every moment of daddy-time that I can. He's only here for a week, so things should return to normal after that.

In the meantime, you can expect to see a little blogging, and probably a lot of pictures of the kick-ass Montreal stuff that he brought for me!!

Bruise update

It's slowly improving... The colours are rather spectacular, like the leaves on the trees outside. They're even changing like the leaves! But at least it doesn't hurt quite as much. It's weird that the middle part never turned purple,though. It went from white to yellow. Ick.

Story prompt?

Because sometimes, things just need to be shared with the world...

"She was looking at him intently, but went back to humping the bag. "

I'm not entirely sure what to do with this, because it's fresh in my mind and I know the original context. Perhaps after a few days or weeks, the context will fade and I can do something cool with it!

U2!

Just got home from seeing U2 live in concert! I can't hear and my throat is killing me from all the yelling and screaming, but I feel great! It was awesome - and they played two of my songs! That was the best early birthday present I've ever given myself!

I love making stuff.

I LOVE making stuff! Cards, scrapbooks, socks, sweaters, water bottle covers, plot bunnies... I just like making things. Tonight was a physically productive night (somewhat). It was not so productive in the story department...

I made cards tonight. Birthday cards. There's nothing quite as entertaining as pulling out the bazillion tons of Stampin' Up stuff I have and trying to figure out what to make. Well, no, I knew I was going to make a card, and I even knew which stamps I was going to use (because I bought the stamp set to go with a specific gift! But I won't tell you what it was just yet, because the recipient reads my blog!). All I had to do was figure out what the end product was going to look like. I think I'm pretty happy with the result. I must have been, because I stuck in an envelope and sealed it before I remembered that I wanted to take photos of it. *sigh* Taking photos of my cards was a really good idea in theory. It doesn't actually happen much in practice. I'll work on that.

Ahem.

Now that I have your attention, I would like you to know that I have nothing interesting to say.

Are you surprised?

Honestly, I haven't been doing much actual writing lately, although I have been doing a lot of plotting.

I'm very much a 'pantser' when it comes to my writing, in that I have no formal outline written down most of the time. I'm getting better about keeping a little notebook full of character info, though, and that's handy. I like to spend a lot of time thinking about my characters and getting to know them before I start writing. I think that's because my favourite novels and stories are very character-oriented. I love reading about someone who just jumps to life on the page. I just finished reading a novel from the book basket at work (I have no idea where the books come from, but there's a basket full of books in the lunchroom, and everyone can take from it as desired), and the characters sucked. The MC didn't grab my interest at all, his soon-to-be-ex-wife had no motivation for any of her actions, his girlfriend was one-dimensional, and his two partners were, well, boring. The only character with any grab was one who got himself killed halfway through the book. I didn't like the novel at all.

So I've been thinking about my characters for my NaNo idea this year. There are two MCs, and they both play important, though unequal, roles. They're floating around my head, and I keep putting them into different situations to see what they'll do. The female, SA, started out as a 21-year-old, fresh from college, but as I played around, I realized that she needs to be almost 30, and she's got all sorts of crazy-ass life experience, because she knows all kinds of random shit. The male, TW, is a bumbling sort of guy, but not in a really bad way. He started out as an idiot, but I've come to the conclusion that he's just not particularly good at what he wants to do for a living. He should just go get a job in advertising, but he's decided that he wants to be a PI. This is going to make a big difference in how he's written. I think I like him better as just inept, rather than an idiot. He's got to be lovable, after all.

I'm definitely liking the characters, though, and this pair has the potential to become stars of a series, which is exciting. I've never written anything with a sequel before... the thought makes me giggle.

And once more...

SingStar rocks my face!

@!#^@!

This is what my desk did to my leg. It's about 2.5" across and hurts like a bitch!

Impending doom

It's October.

How in the world did that manage to happen already?

I've been trying really hard to deal with my upcoming birthday, but the closer it gets, the less well I seem to be handling it. I don't know why I'm all freaked out about it. I've got plans to be with my friends and family, doing fun stuff. That's going to be a big load of awesome.

It's the number that bothers me.

Somehow, I feel like I should have done more with my life by now. I should have a career, not just a job. You know? Or maybe you don't know.

It's like an early mid-life crisis, but not quite as bad.

Man. I don't want to be around me as I approach 50!