3 outside the skinny blog

Good-bye 2011

2011-12-31T13:05:00.001-06:00

So everyone does end of the year wrap-ups. I'm not so into those for myself. I will say, for starting out so badly for me personally (fell on black ice and dislocated my elbow Jan. 28th, thus sidelined for 6 weeks), it has ended up significantly better (not difficult, given Jan. 28th). I retired Dec. 16th and am still adjusting to that, but I think it is going to be terrific. In terms of life on

The Last Week

2011-12-11T12:02:00.004-06:00

And I don't mean "last week" - I mean, I'm coming up on the last week of my fully-employed career-type working life. All kinds of things are bubbling to the surface now that I didn't expect. I'm a little thick about some things. It wasn't until just Friday that overhearing some co-workers joshing around opened my eyes to the fact that I'm leaving behind that social part of working - daily

2011-11-30T19:40:00.003-06:00

I DID IT!!! I finished my National Novel Writing Month Novel! Crossed the 50,000 word finish line about 10 minutes ago. Yowzah!BOY am I glad that's over with! I'm going to let this puppy marinate for at least a month before going back to it and seeing if it really is worth kneading and stretching and shaping and coloring to try to make it worth actually sending to publishers/agents.Now I need

2011-11-29T19:24:00.002-06:00

Here I am, 1,751 words from the Finish Line. I just wrote some 2,550ish of them. But I am just too beat to finish it up. I mean, it's the finish! It has to be given a certain amount of thought, and a special effort, not one dragged down by fatigue at the tail-end of the day!I'll think about how I'm going to wrap this puppy up all day tomorrow - then get home and have it done by 7 pm. Then to

2011-11-28T21:15:00.003-06:00

Yeehaw! I got my 5,000 words in tonight! Now I can sail on in to the winner's circle by hammering out just 2,500 words a night tomorrow and Wednesday night. PIECE O CAKE! AND!!! the story is right where it needs to be to end about then, too.A. Maze. Ing. I am SO stoked!

2011-11-27T19:28:00.005-06:00

40,000 words, and this contest is MINE!!!Yeehaw, folks, I'm going to finish this! NaNo's word counter tells me I have only to write 2,414 words a day now to get my 50K.I still don't know exactly how this story ends, but it has done enough surprising (to me), interesting things so far that I'm sure it will end, somehow.And now, I'm going to bed!...ETA: Uh-oh, I guess NaNo's counter thinks I've

2011-11-27T16:11:00.003-06:00

I'm finding this writing blitz to be much more tiring than I remember it, lol. As a result, I never did the third planned two-hour session last night, leaving yesterday's total a still-respectable 5,000 plus words.I just finished today's first two-hour session at a little over 3,000 words, also respectable. I'll take a couple-hour break and come back for the last time this weekend. I am pretty

2011-11-26T15:44:00.003-06:00

Pounding down the words!In two two-hour sessions today (one more yet to go!) I have written (officially, using the NaNoWriMo word counter) 5,038 words! Woo hoo! Another 2500 in the last session tonight, and I will have achieved today's goals!I can DO this! 8^DAnd just to add to the silliness, I'm posting a photo of the NaNo badges I've earned so far this time:"Oh, my," you say, "How do

2011-11-25T18:00:00.004-06:00

OK, I'm over the 30,000 word hump tonight! I still have all day tomorrow and all day Saturday to reach 45,000 - that's 7500 words each of two days. But I did almost 2,000 in a little under...say...5 hours. Heheh. Well, it's going to be a squeaker, isn't it? However, some of that time today I spent working on the plot, and also on some cooking and cleaning (seems to help when I'm stuck on the

2011-11-24T08:43:00.002-06:00

Now It Can Be ToldI'm going to retire Dec. 16th. I have plans. I couldn't say anything anywhere to anybody before I told my boss, and I waited until Nov. 15th for that. I'm going to CA to visit my son and his family for a couple weeks over the holidays, then coming home to Be Retired. Ahhh....I suspect - I strongly suspect - that the Ahhh... part isn't going to last longer than a couple-three

2011-11-19T14:47:00.004-06:00

Fell behind last week. Took several days off from the novel. I continued to think about it, and make notes, etc. And this weekend I'm on a big push to hit 40,000 by tomorrow night. I'm centering my whole weekend around it - three two-hour sessions wherein I get 3,000 words each session, both today and tomorrow, will do it. So far so good! I made 3,000 this time with 47 seconds to spare! (

2011-11-15T19:54:00.003-06:00

Fell behind a little bit. Took three days off. However, yesterday I devoted over an hour to plotting and planning, so I knew where to go when I sat down tonight. The joint's jumping now! We got explosions and fires and disappearing woman, schemes and nefarious skullduggery all over the place. About time, too, I say!Boy, is this thing going to need a lot of work when it's done. LOL

2011-11-11T20:44:00.003-06:00

Well, to my surprise, I did it! I got caught up to my 2,000 word a day goal tonight! This, after I didn't write at all the night before the night before last, I wrote the night before last, then didn't write again last night. I've been really tired, and my stomach's been burning. I suspect this is all about Week Two of NaNoWriMo. They told me there'd be days like this. However, despite my

2011-11-09T19:31:00.003-06:00

I'm using Scrivener to write this thing, and there seems to be some discrepancy between the Scrivener word count, and the NaNoWriMo site counter. Scrivener says I wrote 2030 words tonight, but when I put the total in the NaNoWriMo word count update, and checked my stats there on my NaNo Novel stats page, it says I wrote 1919. That's quite a difference! Oh well, I'll just go with the total

2011-11-08T19:48:00.002-06:00

No new words tonight - I had a plumber in to fix something here, and I bought a couple of ebooks on how to use the writer's program Scrivener, which is one of those incredibly powerful tools that have umpteen functions and layers and all kinds of adaptability etc etc, but which you can also just climb up on and start 'er up - but I spent an hour studying the first ebook. I needed one night off,

2011-11-07T19:43:00.002-06:00

Well, I made something happen in Owl Island tonight. I'm not sure it really carries the story forward, but I had to goose *something* into happening! Thank GOODNESS for re-write!Well, I"m being a good little NaNo - no second-guessing myself. Got to see this thing through to the finish line THEN worry about rewriting and editing to make it better.I'm satisfied with my progress for the first week:

2011-11-06T18:58:00.002-06:00

Another weekend over, *sigh*. But I made my NaNo goal today, and I got MOST of my household To Do list done. One thing I conveniently forgot was that I had intended to put the plastic over my windows this weekend. It's going to be more and more necessary, I'm afraid. It really IS fall -- and knowing Nebraska, winter could drop on us like a ton 'o' snow ANY day. So -- I will try to do a window

2011-11-05T19:21:00.002-05:00

What a nice day I've had! My friend Lin took me to see Une vie de chat, an absolutely enchanting short (70 minutes) French animated film about a Parisian cat with two lives, and the little girl and the cat burglar whose lives he enriches. I loved, loved, loved it! Then we went to a bookstore, and then we ate Italian at our favorite neighborhood place. Days don't get much better than that!And, I

2011-11-04T20:44:00.001-05:00

Made my goal of 10,000 words tonight! Woo hoo! Thing is, I think a lot of this is going to have to get trimmed in the rewrite. Oh well, at least I'm getting the story down. This is so much fun!

2011-11-03T19:02:00.004-05:00

Another good night on the novel! It's coming together, kind of. It's going to take me all this first seven days to even get all the main characters introduced, and it's going to be interesting trying to sneakily start the actual plot while the reader thinks they're just being introduced to characters - but then, I guess that's true of any novel. *slumps* Duh.Well, it's good to be writing again,

2011-11-02T19:26:00.002-05:00

So - another great writing session on the second night of NaNoWriMo. Over 3,000 words! Well, it's been fun so far. I'm going to run with it and build up as much of an extra (over 2,000 words a day average) as I can, because as sure as there's little green apples, there are tough, dry patches to come. But not this first week, anyway. All the experienced heads at NaNoWriMo say so, and my four

2011-11-01T19:29:00.002-05:00

OK! Well! This first night went very well. It feels great to be writing again! Woo hoo!I blocked off two hours but I'd reached my goal by about 1 1/4 hour. I'm reaching for 2,000 words a session - and two sessions a day on the weekends and holidays. I hope it goes this well all month! Ha ha ha, of course I do.'Scuse me, I'm going to go eat chocolate now. *g*

2011-11-01T05:06:00.002-05:00

Well, here it is. I'm even wearing my NaNo tee shirt. (I've adopted their camping theme from their July and August novel-writing month sessions, because I like it better than what they've come up with this time, well, I like this tee shirt better than the November one.)I aim to post at least 2000 new (and the first) words on the word counter tonight!

2011-10-29T20:06:00.007-05:00

My vacation in New England (now that I've got the NaNo announcement out of the way) was *fabulous*. I'd never been there except for one week a few years ago for a five-day conference; my friend picked me up and we spent about a day and a half during the conference hosting agency's business meetings (they didn't need us non-member attendees) and my friend took me around to a few interesting

2011-10-28T18:21:00.002-05:00

I got home from New England Sunday afternoon and have now put another week of work into the past. It's the Friday night before November 1, when NaNoWriMo starts, and I have made a few more notes about my November novel, but it's still frighteningly vague. I don't even know what kind of story it is! This is truly scary. I have invested a lot of myself, my money, and my friends' willingness to

2011-10-14T19:20:00.000-05:00

Bright & early tomorrow, I fly to New Hampshire for vacation at a friend's of many years. She's got a place in Maine, so we'll be going there, too -- I've never been to Maine. I've visited NH once, for a conference, and managed to squeeze in about a day and a half to spend with my friend -- the first time we met, after oh, gosh, almost twenty years of snail mail and email correspondence. We found

2011-10-04T20:44:00.002-05:00

Here it is October again. That, as you may know, is the month before November.Some of you may remember that I have spent other Novembers unsuccessfully participating (if you can call it that) in that annual global exercise in literary insanity called National Novel Writing Month. (aka NaNoWriMo) You might even remember the exact number of failures I enjoyed. No? Okay, four of them. I started

2011-07-15T10:10:00.004-05:00

In French, there's a term “faux ami” which means “false friend,” and it refers to French words that are so close to English words that we can mistake them for meaning the same thing – but they don't. One example, “librarie”: guess what it means in French. Nope – not library, but bookstore. The French word for library is “bibliotheque.”Other things than words can be faux amies. Well, friends

2011-06-26T18:37:00.004-05:00

One of my favorite "Paris" blogs is David Lebovitz's Living the Sweet Life in Paris. He's an American chef/baker/I'm not sure what-all, and his blog is 50 kinds of fun. He features recipes often, of course, and cafes and restaurants and just living in Paris yarns. He also plugs cook books he finds excellent, and I was so impressed with his writing about Serve Yourself: Nightly Adventures in

2011-06-18T10:10:00.003-05:00

The landscaping crew came out Thursday and planted 5 Bridal Wreath plants in the empty space out front, and one of them in the middle of the "bird bath" flower bed triangle out back. It would look a lot better if I'd plant some colorful annuals in both places. And scatter some grass seed to fill in the numerous small bare spots in the front (it gets about 100% shade all day long, plus there were

2011-04-17T09:33:00.001-05:00

Just what the title says. I was VERY fortunate with my arm; I've got full function back and no pain (just a little stiff when I straighten it hard, which isn't a function anyway). Went back to work March 9. And, finished my first pair of socks last week. I've got started on the second pair but O'Keefe bit through the yarn last night so I have to learn a new skill - the Russian join - to get the

2011-02-18T10:25:00.003-06:00

Well, I haven't kept this up very well...I did drive out to CA to spend a wonderful holiday week with my kids, and drove back without the slightest bit of any kind of problem. I had to rearrange my overnight motel city plans a couple times to avoid horrible winter weather but it all worked out fine in the end.Almost got through the entire month of January - then on the 28th, I slipped and fell on

2010-12-11T19:38:00.008-06:00

Since neither Congress nor the Executive Branch look likely to step up and defend my 4th Amendment constitutional rights (protection against unlawful search and seizure), I will be opting out of air travel this holiday season. I'll be foregoing an essentially "free" airline ticket (paid for out of my credit card "reward points") and instead spending more than half my savings on gasoline and

2010-10-16T20:10:00.006-05:00

So, the 2010 Paris week is over. Two dear friends came over to help me top off the week. Our menu tonight was:Biftek Sauté BéarnaiseGratin JurassienNavets à L’ÉtuviéePain et BuerreDessert:Panna Cottaavec Sauce aux CerisesAnd here's the dessert, as promised:And I'm so tired and full I can't move. Maybe I'll just sleep in my chair downstairs tonight....zzzz

2010-10-15T17:48:00.004-05:00

Tonight, my current favorite: Ratatouille! With some plain old biscuits and a little bit of cheese grated on top. Easy and delicious!

2010-10-14T17:44:00.002-05:00

Since I've got French class tonight, I made an easy omelette and just heated up the remaining baguette in the microwave. Tomorrow night! The ratatouille!

2010-10-13T18:11:00.000-05:00

OK, I have run out of energy before I’ve run out of Paris Week. I’m too pooped to cook ratatouille tonight, or even crêpes. I opened a can of Le Manwich and cooked a pound of le hamburger and I’m making Le Goofing Off tonight. No photo. Too fatiguée even to study any French.Bah. It’s not good getting old.

2010-10-12T19:31:00.003-05:00

I was going to cook ratatouille tonight but the day got away from me. I did my raw crudités, cheeses, and baguette. I had smoked gouda, emanteller, cheddar, and bleu cheeses. Green onion, carrot sticks, whole almonds, raw green beans, a little tomato, and little chunks of turnip. Hot baguette right out of the oven and butter, mm mm. I also have some Paul Newman's Own salad dressing of some kind

2010-10-11T19:07:00.005-05:00

So today launches my third annual Paris Week. I make myself simple French dinners all week, to recapture a little of that wonderful week I spent in the City of Light in October 2007. THIS time I'm going to make more of an effort to take pictures of my creations.Tonight it was something similar to Filet de sole bonne femme - from my memory of the recipe I followed in about 1972 from that era's

2010-10-09T18:11:00.003-05:00

One year ago today I quit smoking. Yay! I made myself a chocolate cake to celebrate. Probably not the greatest idea, but hey, it's something. I'll probably end up throwing most of it out. Today my nephew came over and painted my back yard shed for me. The old color was not nice. That's all I'll say, since it's no longer visible. The new color was scientifically obtained by the paint store lady

2010-07-09T20:54:00.001-05:00

The video problem was that my video player (can't remember which I have now) needed to be updated.

2010-07-03T19:56:00.002-05:00

Today must be Two Bafflements for the Price of One Day...#1: suddenly my Macbook won't play any kind of video - not even the Zazzle.com embedded thingy here on my blog page. ???#2: TWO people have now bought the Book Lover's Necktie I've got for sale at Zazzle.com. I'm delighted but completely surprised. Hope the recipients like them!

2010-06-20T13:22:00.008-05:00

Making ratatouille today. I'm thinking it'll be dinner tonight, then lunches for pretty much the rest of the week...unless I get sick of it, in which case I'll freeze it for later.Let me just say up-front, especially to my French friends, this is pretty loose-handed ratatouille; I consulted Julia but my version is getting simmered for several hours in a crock pot. If that turns it into mush, then

2010-05-31T10:01:00.002-05:00

For various reasons, I've not gotten started on the "9 Great Walks in 2009" program yet; the first one I planned got replaced by a trip to the zoo, and since I don't have my calendar here (vacationing in CA) I can't recall if there was another one this month that got omitted, or if there was only the one planned. Anyway, once I get home and back in the groooove, I'll start that delightful "

2010-05-02T12:15:00.004-05:00

Today's big project is prepping the milliards of cardboard boxes I've got out in the garage, for carting off by the recycling people. I saved boxes for many many months, while I was selling off my Robert's photography equipment. It's all gone now so I don't need all those boxes any more, and I can use the shelves they're on to organize the stuff I will eventually sell in a garage sale (target:

2010-04-28T18:23:00.002-05:00

I'm ridiculously chuffed right now. I just succeeded in mowing my *entire* back yard in one straight go. Years past, the first few mowings, I had to take a break in the middle...of course, while taking that break I had to have a cigarette...but I quit that in October...so...Huh. Could there be a connection? Nah. Probably not.Anyway, I'm exhausted and sweaty and my hurty shoulder hurts, but by

2010-04-25T16:30:00.003-05:00

No walkies this weekend. I think I've got bronchitis. Energy level 0. And, since I have the Envirothon (State level) next Saturday, I'd better not push my luck, health wise.Nothing else to report, certainly nothing interesting.Maybe next blog.

2010-04-21T08:17:00.003-05:00

When I'm reminded that I'm weird - by me.Yesterday on the way home I found myself weeping, hard. Why? Because I'd just emerged from an about-10-minute fantasy of me doing a music video to Charles Aznavour's "Dans tes bras" ("In your arms") - me singing and dancing all over the Pont Neuf in Paris, singing it as a love song to Paris. It was a great video, wish you could have seen it.But, Egad.Why

2010-04-19T21:15:00.002-05:00

I haven't had anything really worth blogging about for quite awhile, so I didn't bother. Things were going on – good things. I've been taking advantage of a new program with our health insurance by stopping smoking (last October) – they paid for the patches, and they provide a coach who called me up every 6 weeks or so to visit and touch base. That's about as much coaching as I want or need.

2010-03-13T10:09:00.003-06:00

So here we are on the cusp of Spring, and did I get my big winter project, the sewing and assembling of seven Roman shades for my downstairs windows, done? BWAHAHAHAHA!!! Of course not. MAYBE this weekend I shall finish the FIRST one. MAYBE using what I've learned from doing that one, I will rip through the others in short order. But not, my friend, before next weekend, when it really will be

2010-02-02T07:26:00.002-06:00

I've started a Zazzle.com store. You'll see the ad in the right-hand column. I keep adding new things.It's got items with photos from my Paris vacation of 2007, some scenery and features of western Nebraska, and a few designs I made myself with either MSPaint (yes, the primitive one) or photos and a photo editor.If it interests you, check it out. If it doesn't, no problem-O.

2009-12-31T17:07:00.003-06:00

2009 is almost over. Had some good times, had some bad times. I find myself curiously uninterested in recapping. I'm looking forward to moving forward, and I should say I feel like I did a goodly bit of that in 2009, thanks to the help of my friends and family. Love and thanks to everyone! And Happy 2010!

2009-12-10T17:11:00.002-06:00

I've been thinking a lot recently about how insignificant actions can have a way of becoming really and truly significant farther down the line. Two days ago, I got an email from a woman in another state telling me that she had got my husband's potato soup recipe off my web site in 2002. She said she had just got around to actually making it, and she said it was the best potato soup she'd ever

2009-11-27T09:59:00.003-06:00

Last time I was at PetCo, spending a lot of money on my cats, on an impulse I got three identical little beds for them. I got them for $4.99 each cause I have a PetCo card. Anyway, I figured, since I'm churning up the furniture upstairs pretty soon (major rearrangement), maybe they'd like their own beds, at least they'll be familiar when the whole world goes CRAZY. So I put two on the other bed

2009-11-26T12:04:00.004-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all!Yes, we're having a small, quiet T-Day with a roasted turkey breast, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, cranberry sauce (me), and apple pie & vanilla ice cream. *bliss*ETA: Thanksgiving feast accomplished! Now we're stupefied...no, actually, these easy chairs NEEDED to be held down for a little while, until it's time for the apple pie and ice cream.

2009-11-23T14:41:00.003-06:00

Just came across this interactive map where you can show the states you've visited. There's one for the world, too, but the only foreign countries I've been to are Canada, Mexico and France, so I don't see the point.However, I've been to quite a few states in the USA:visited 26 states (52%)Create your own visited map of The United StatesThough not as many as I'd thought. I see the East and the

2009-11-22T14:14:00.003-06:00

Got the scarf done last night, finally!Now a few days' break before starting my beret. I'm pleased with my first effort in some 24 -25 years. It refreshed my memory of continental knitting, and of course knitting and purling. Nice hobby. *g*

2009-11-20T21:40:00.002-06:00

I just saw "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" tonight for the first time, believe it or not. Most enjoyable, mostly (I thought it dragged a little bit, in places), and a little surprising in some ways. I am not an expert about cinematography, but I thought the cinematography was quite striking in places, and some of the imagery beautiful, even haunting, aside from the ridiculous carryings-on. I

2009-10-31T17:33:00.010-05:00

Once again, I have vastly underestimated the scope of a task, and ludicrously overestimated my own strength and stamina. It's just my front yard, for crying out loud. Knee-deep in leaves - and it includes the driveway, sidewalk, parking, and a car's width out into the street. I was determined to get it all bagged up today, Well, I got about 5/8ths of it done. I have to call that good. This old

2009-10-25T19:23:00.003-05:00

Made some progress on this scarf today. Almost doubled its length! I hope to finish it by Oct. 31. I even went so far as to look into what my next knitting project will be. It's going to be a beret! And if I can find it to buy, it'll be in a lovely Malabrigo chunky yarn of their color "Paris nights" (big surprise, eh?). Looks like the first few things I knit are going to be for me. My skill

2009-10-24T17:34:00.003-05:00

My poor Adams cat has a hurty foot. We applied neosporin and wrapped gauze around it last night and were surprised that it took him to this morning to pull the bandage off. Unfortunately, the hurty looked worse this morning. It's all raw between two toes. I finally bit the bullet and we took him to the vet at 4. Poor guy. He has somehow sliced the hide off the inner side of one toe pad. The

2009-10-19T18:00:00.003-05:00

So, I finally got the scarf frogged (heh heh, that's knitter's-speak for "unraveled") last night, and got the first repeat of six rows put on the needle. Then at lunch today I did another repeat, and on the way home another one. So 18 rows! And they're all perfect! Yay! No odd unexplainable gaps, no extra or missing stitches when I count them at the end of the rows...I think I'm making

2009-10-17T12:55:00.004-05:00

So here it is Saturday again, and I've been a non-smoker for almost 8 days. The patch makes it pretty easy, actually. I wonder how hard it is to get off the *patch*. I'll find out eventually. That will be a good day, when I don't have to mess with that any more. Not that it's complicated or difficult. Just a nuisance.My life is so exciting. Today I'm performing the Autumn Bathroom Change-out

2009-10-13T07:13:00.003-05:00

Starting Day Four of being a non-smoker. It hasn't been too bad. Just a few urges, quickly left behind. Of course, my Victorian/Lutheran ethic tells me I'm cheating, using the patch, but pbbt on the ol' V/L crap. Whatever it takes.The usual good effects of quitting have started appearing: my lingering chesty cough from the last cold (a month ago?) is going away (DUH). My mouth, for the first time

2009-10-11T19:39:00.003-05:00

My Celebrate Paris week is officially over now, with a pretty good dinner if I do say so myself, three good friends and several rounds of Mille Bornes none of which did I win. Mostly I put in a poor showing but it's all in the luck of the draw, I tell you! Anyway, I managed to pretty well trash the kitchen but a lot of it's in the dishwasher or the fridge now, so poor RH says he'll work at the

2009-10-11T10:23:00.003-05:00

Day One of no smoking went pretty well. Had a couple of moments of wanting a cigarette, but they were brief and weak - I *am* wearing the patch, after all. Got started on my scarf. Got a lot of housekeeping done.This morning we're off to the grocery store, then back here for a little more cleaning and a whole lotta cookin'. It's the culminating day of my Celebrate Paris week, and there'll be

2009-10-10T10:19:00.003-05:00

First snow of the winter. A little early. Hope it dries up and goes away, and the 98% of the leaves in this very leafy neighborhood, fall, before we get the snowfall that sticks around all winter.It's always so beautiful, the first snow.

2009-10-09T18:45:00.003-05:00

So, I'm trying to become a better person. Today (John Lennon's birthday, as it happens) is my last day as a smoker. When I get up in the morning, I'll be a non-smoker. I'm following a program sponsored by my insurance company, gives me a coach, gave me a kit and everything. I've made all kinds of preparations and I've been thinking about it a LOT.I'm using the Patch, under my Dr's supervision.

2009-08-22T18:21:00.002-05:00

I actually started a new short story this week. Havent got far, and what I've got will have to be lopped off for the most part, but it's a start.I'm wondering what's happening with The Book of Tentacles. Sam's Dot Publishing said they wanted my story "Jar of Peaches" for the antho, and it was supposed to be published this month (after a couple of delays) but I haven't heard anything about it,

2009-08-17T09:35:00.008-05:00

Over the weekend I finished that dress! I am delighted to have actually finished it - but it won't be making a public debut. The style turns out NOT to be Me. I look like a sack of potatoes in the thing. *sigh* Ah well, it'll make a good housework dress.Its real value was as a learning exercise. I discovered that by golly, I do remember how to put in a mean zipper! After making every mistake

2009-06-17T08:27:00.003-05:00

Lo! These several months later, and I'm actually working on sewing my first garment in *mumble mumble* years. OK, like, 15 years. It's a dress. A very very simple dress. (View C.) I'm re-making all my newbie mistakes, but it's great because I'm re-learning all that stuff. Nonetheless, this will be a housedress, not to be worn in public. But it's lovely fabric and light and cool, just what I

2009-03-27T10:30:00.005-05:00

!-- @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } -So once again, due to my own denial, lack of planning, what-have-you, I have a disappointment. My plan for today was to do a couple of housework chores then sit down to adjust the simplest blouse pattern I've got, and sew a blouse. I have two books "The Perfect Fit," and "How to Make Sewing Patterns," the latter

2009-01-31T09:52:00.001-06:00

I was remembering yesterday some of the clueless things I did in my young adulthood. I smile at my younger self from the vantage point of some 20 - 30 years' experience. I used to get embarrassed thinking about them but now I see, at least they were harmless and well-meant.I lived on a farmstead in northern Iowa during my first marriage, when my son was a toddler. We had farm cats, and we had an

2009-01-20T13:44:00.002-06:00

At long last, I can hold my head up and be proud of my country.

2008-12-27T17:45:00.001-06:00

Channel-surfing on a break between housecleaning chores, I came across a public access station showing a film of Omaha's recent history. They were interviewing various movers and shakers and wannabes about the Old Market, which started out as a neighborhood of warehouses and manufacturing buildings down by the Missouri River in Omaha's original downtown. My late husband, Bob, was one of the late

2008-11-15T10:11:00.002-06:00

I'm very discouraged today. I have been purchasing materials and planning to make a line of handmade items to sell on Etsy.com. I don't have a store there yet, because I need to have an inventory first, as well as logo, banner art, business card design, etc. But I've invested a couple hundred dollars so far in materials and equipment to make these things which will be aimed at people who I

2008-10-10T20:10:00.004-05:00

Friday night, yay!I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted anything here in Blogger. I've been on Live Journal a lot, though.Haven't written any fiction in months & months, though I think about last year's NaNoWriMo book every day. I just never get around to writing on it. I'm fractured into seventy different directions - work, house, yard, cats, selling my dear husband's photography

2008-03-15T22:13:00.002-05:00

Well, smack my head and call me Grannie.But wait until after August. That's when my VERY FIRST GRANDCHILD will be arriving!!!I'm in shock, I think. Geez, this is going to take some getting used to!This changes everything.I think.

2008-03-15T18:53:00.002-05:00

Trundling right along in my most-recent Grown-up Groove (having fixed the toilet all on my own last weekend), I loaded my lawn mower into my trunk this morning and took it to the mower doctor's place to get all fixed up for the oncoming mowing season. That sucker is heavy! And my rope and knots contraption to keep it from bouncing out of the trunk made the mower-fixer-guy laugh, of course, but

2008-03-09T12:09:00.003-05:00

I've been posting mainly in Live Journal lately, especially since Speculations Rumor Mill has closed down. A bunch of Rumor Millers have migrated to LJ to huddle together in our bereavement. Someone, bless them, started a LJ Rejection/Acceptance Community that sort-of replaces the RM's. So if you have R/A's you want to post, I suppose the easiest way is to email me and I'll tell you how to

2007-11-26T07:56:00.000-06:00

Your Score: PORTLAND!You scored 28% Style, 15% Climate, and 56% Culture!You are Portland, Oregon! Portland, the largest city in Oregon and seat of Multnomah County, is located in the northwest part of the state on the Willamette River. Portland has a diverse economy with a broad base of manufacturing, distribution, wholesale and retail trade, regional government, and business services.

2007-11-14T07:18:00.000-06:00

19,822 words total last night, about 1938 more than were there the day before. Not keeping up with the minimum daily average needed to win but I still got hopes!The NaNo experts say Week Two is when you become convinced you're writing pure crap, and they're right. For now, I'm just going for the word count, like Jack Torrance: "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." lol

2007-11-12T16:36:00.000-06:00

16,711 words as of Friday night - didn't do much yesterday so didn't post anything...But I've got a cute cat story today.My cat, Adams, is a burly boy who is constantly on the lookout for the main chance to escape to the great big outside world. He keeps sneaking into the garage through my broken screen door, when I'm not paying close enough attention. His nose is the first to the front door when

2007-11-09T08:20:00.000-06:00

12,142 words!Took Wednesday night off, I was just too exhausted. (Turns out I needed to remove the leveling shims from my bed's frame once I'd rotated and flipped my mattress - that teeny amount of slant was costing me whole nights' sleep! MUCH better now! Make a note: if you're sleeping poorly, check the level of your bed - head to toe and side to side.)So I needed to write 3334 words last night

2007-11-07T06:40:00.000-06:00

Easy night last night - I only needed about 550 words to hit my mark for Day 6, so I was really tired, so that's what I did. Got 'er up to 10, 032 words and called it a night. Back to the daily quota level tonight...

2007-11-06T06:52:00.000-06:00

Got 'er up to 9,460 words last night! Whee!Then looked at my NaNo page and saw that one of my buddies is at 41,000. LOLAh well, I'm very happy with my progress so far - I think this is the most I've written for NaNo this early in the month. Must. Keep. Writing!

2007-11-05T08:58:00.001-06:00

Came out of the weekend with a total of 7,023 NaNoWriMo words on my novel! And it's been fun! And that is the end of the first chapter. So far, so good.

2007-11-02T11:03:00.000-05:00

Yay, 2,001 words accomplished for NaNoWriMo Day One yesterday! Woo hoo! I'm on my way!And, yes, I did get to have my week in Paris, the first week in October. And yes, I do have tons of stuff to post, and photos to set up in Kodak Gallery. Things take time. I'm still absorbing much of what occurred in Paris. It'll probably be the only time I ever get to go, so I'm savoring all the memories

2007-04-09T09:13:00.000-05:00

Is this what relaxing feels like?I spent the weekend repeatedly making myself sit down and do nothing - well, sit down and read for pleasure.In the months since my husband died I've kept a small but steady series of balls up in the air. I have a list of Things to Do, large projects and small ones, long-term and short-term, for myself, for others, about the house, finances, disposal of things of

2007-03-16T08:58:00.000-05:00

In my 20's, I used to yearn - actively - for perspective. I'd be in the middle of some crisis - personal, employment-related, as a mother, a wife, a girlfriend (the latter two never overlapped, I hasten to add) - and in agony I would recall one particular incident when I was maybe 6, staying overnight with my grandma and grandpa (my dad's folks) when I got sick. Vomiting, diarrhea, the whole

2006-11-15T08:00:00.000-06:00

I didn't realize it'd been so long since I posted. Some "daily" blog, eh? Oh, well.I haven't kept up with the 1667 words/day required to finish NaNoWriMo at 50,000 words at the stroke of midnight, November 30th, but I've kept my hand in; I can still do it if I write 2,000 a day until then. Will I? I hope so. I could if I really set my mind to it. But even if I don't, it will have been well worth

2006-11-06T21:14:00.000-06:00

Feh. Only wrote 860 NaNo words today. On the other hand, I got quite a bit done at work. You know, where they pay me my salary. I know, I should have better priorities, but truth be told, I've been gone a LOT lately, unavoidably, and I feel like I owe them big-time. So, I just have to hammer out 2500 words tomorrow and I'm back on track. (i'm okay, i'm on track, gone too far and i can't go

2006-11-05T11:57:00.000-06:00

Got today's quota of NaNo words in and it's just now noon. Yippee! Maybe I'll get some more done tonight, but in the meantime I have groceries to buy, a comic book to buy, and some art to do. I sat down and wrote & wrote and got to a stopping point and quit, did the word count, and realized I was only about 350 words short of the whole day's quota, so I went back and wrote some more. It is SO

2006-11-04T21:02:00.000-06:00

I did even less than I'd thought yesterday; I only got about 470 words written. However, I have made up for it today! Up to 6,704 words now! And it's humming along pretty well. It's got more of a YA adventure, maybe YA horror feel to it, or it could be a mystery (I'm looking from the reader's point of view here), than I intended. I'm going for something a bit dark, but with a little comic

2006-11-03T17:22:00.000-06:00

I only got some 560 NaNo-words or so written this morning because I got to a spot where I have to draw a house plan. Quite a lot of the action will take place in this house and it needs certain attributes, so I have to draw floor plans. Then I can get the other 1200 or so words done tonight. Wish me luck.

2006-11-02T13:50:00.000-06:00

Day Two of NaNoWriMo and I'm at 2,996 words so far with the whole evening ahead in which to work on it more. I'm pleased with it so far!Kudos to everyone else in NaNo! Go forth and WRITE!....Friday Nov. 3rd Addendum for last night: final day's total: 3566.(That's the whole manuscript total.)So far, so good. And it's fun again, which is why I signed on for this insanity.

2006-10-31T18:29:00.000-06:00

I can truly say this year has been the best of times and the worst of times, with absolutely no exaggeration.But in a few hours the 2006 National Novel Writing Month commences, and once again, I've signed up! This time I'm really committed and I'm gonna do it. I shall try to blog about it daily and if nothing else maybe I'll post a photo of the chaos of my home office.

2005-12-06T08:27:00.000-06:00

I've actually made a study of efficient packing for travel. I've made it a goal to never have to check a bag at the airport. I'm getting pretty good at it, for short (fewer than four days) trips. I'm going to keep practicing. Packing light makes traveling so much simpler and easier.I toy, from time to time, with the idea of trying my hand at travel writing. It's kind of a silly idea, because

2005-09-26T11:21:00.000-05:00

About the Battlestar Galactica 9/23/05 episode:That rape scene from Friday night's Battlestar Galactica kept bugging me. It didn't harrow me, or "disturb" me – it provoked a lot of questions."She" is a machine – though capable of emotions, thought, and getting pregnant (this copy of Boomer IS pregnant by a human soldier, Helo). So what if they rape her? Especially since her kind is hell-bent on

2005-08-12T13:28:00.000-05:00

I'm one with the notion that we immortalize loved "ones" in our memories of them, whether they're people, animals, places or events.Reading the poem "The Rain Poured Down" by Dan Gerber (http://articles.poetryx.com/89/), a new thought struck me. In my memory there lives, will always live, a single tear: the first one I ever saw my father cry.I can see him now, crouching forward on a living room