Category: Uncategorized

I guess I’ve been doing a good job of keeping busy. Or at least keeping myself amused. I can’t believe it’s Monday again. Didn’t I just put the trash out? How could it be trash day again already?

Actually doing the trash this week was like an immunity challenge on Survivor. It rained all day yesterday (poured, thank you, for most of the day) and by 8pm last night there was a thin glaze of ice everywhere. And I mean everwhere. Junior and I were coming home from my sister’s house, and after we got off the highway, we were on a side street. At a curve in the road, my car wouldn’t stop, slow or take the curve. VERY tense few minutes – luckily I wasn’t going very fast and pumping the brakes and downshifting took care of things. Luckily I was only a mile or so from home because then I was in a blind panic about the ice…if I hadn’t stayed below 20mph I would have slid right through a stop sign (luckily, Sunday nights traffic is much lighter, and there are no commuters on that road so there wasn’t anyone coming in either direction.)

Oh, so then I got home, and had to do rubbish. My driveway slopes down…boy howdy, it was a fun walk down the the end of the driveway and back up again!

This morning I ran out to pick up the empty bins in only a sweater (it’s nice and sunny out!) and nearly froze to death. Oh my word, is it cold out there. Yahoo says it feels like -7 (wind gusts are 20-30mph) but I’m here to tell you it feels MUCH colder than that. My fingers were aching, and I was only out there 30 seconds to a minute! My goodness, is it just me, or is that a little chilly for March?

I need to go to the grocery store. I’m leaving as soon as I type this (and take a potty break). Man, I’m tired of grocery shopping. Well, it’s fun if you’re buying something “good”. But “good” is all relative. This week a LOT of my staples are on sale, which is very exciting. My poison of choice, Barq’s root beer is only 77 cents for a 2 liter bottle, limit 8 per customer (actually, all Coke products, not just Barq’s. THIS time I’m going to look at expiration dates. I don’t want to have to drink 14 liters of soda in 3 weeks.

Junior’s dad is home for the weekend, so he’s thrilled. His work has him in London almost constantly. It’s very not cool. But he’s visiting, and that’s all that matters, right?

I swear, I thought I posted something this morning. Then I left for almost the whole day (what? a whole day away from the computer? The shame!) and came back and…nothing.

So I’ll tell you this: if you go to Kmart to buy feminine hygiene products and Rescue Heroes figures, get a shopping cart. Juggling tampons and pads etc while you wander the store draws attention you probably don’t want or need. I’m sure Martha Stewart would have frowned.

I love people who take the time to think about stuff like this. See the list over at utter wonder?.

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Hey, Robert Blake, maybe after you asked five or six people if they’d kill your wife you should have figured they might TELL someone if YOU did it. And to those people who were approached: Could you have maybe mentioned it to Bonnie at some point? Are they facing any kind of charges for not going straight to the police when he asked?

I really wonder if it was his “celebrity” that made him think that killing another human being would improve his life. Does jail never cross anyone’s mind? It does mine. Every time I inhale, as a matter of fact. This would be the primary reason I’ve never done recreational drugs. Or shoplifted. And prostitution is out of the question because about 20 years ago I actually knew a girl who was arrested for that, and if I ran into her today (and I think I might have last week, which is why it’s fresh in my mind) I could think of nothing except the fact that she was/is a prostitute. We could both be in our 80’s and I’d be thinking that. Who needs to have that following you around for the rest of your life? (Memo to OJ Simpson: Take notes)

Oh, and all those of you out there who have been offered $10k to kill me, could you let me know so I can maybe buy a disguise or something?

(Hmmm. I wonder if I should go over and make this an Open Letter. Probably, huh?)

I have been editing my NaNoWriMo novel the past couple of days, and I have the big papercut to prove it (when did they start making file folders out of razor blades, I ask you?). Parts of it are not bad at all. I’m glad I waited so long before picking it back up, it really is letting me look at it with an unbiased eye. On a scale of 1-10 I’d say right now I’m at about a 5 for cutting out stuff that I think just pads it. That’s the worst thing – cutting stuff until suddenly 130 pages is down to like 50, and you know that it’s not really a novel any more and requires lots of fresh writing. Oh well, it’s part of the process. Right now I can’t picture myself writing new stuff for it, but I know I will have to, it’s not novel lenght to begin with. But maybe after this first pass I’ll make the first chapter available. Right now the story flows, and I knew very soon I’m going to hit the point where my plot took a left at the lights, and I’m going to have to decide which one works better and rewrite the other. See, if I hadn’t been trying to cram out 50,000 words, I would have done that THEN, not now.

On a related note (which is maybe what got me to pick it up again?) I’ve been reading a book published by a relatively new company, and the books I’ve seen (in CVS of all places) seem to be comic novels about being a woman today. The publisher is Red Dress Ink (TM) and the one I’m reading right now is Loose Screws by Karen Templeton. I’m not that far into it, but it starts with a thirtysomething woman being left at the alter. Check out the website, there’s lots of good stuff there. And I think my novel, if it’s ever finished, would be perfect for these guys. So I’m keeping an eye on them.