gargh. stupid windows. ^w closes windows in Windows and changes windows in simplemu* and i just got done typing up a blog entry and closed my stupid browser window. gargh.
AS I WAS TRYING TO SAY.
I have, if nothing else, certainly assured that there is a nice even distribution of cottonwood fluff all over the lawn. o.O And now I am sweating like a little piggy-wig.
I forgot what else I was saying. Oh. We need another hose to attach to the one we've got, 'cause ours isn't long enough to sprinkle the back corner of the lawn, which is looking very brown and dead. That's all.
I just walked entirely under the neighbor's sprinkler. *Not* what I intended to do. I managed to get just exactly in step with it so that I walked beside it for the entire arc of water and got rained on.
*drip*
Sunday was busy too.
I got up at 9, after lying around for quite a while and finally being no longer able to stay in bed. I had hopes Ted would get up soon and make waffles, so instead of eating breakfast, I made bread, cookies, and worked on Angles. Eventually Ted got up and did not want to make waffles, so I had a bowl of cereal to supplement the two cookies I'd already eaten, hung out online a bit, had some more cookies, and went biking.
23.3 miles is too far to bike on a bowl of cereal and four cookies.
I got back from biking (complete with a small sunburn, wah) and we went to dinner, where I ate a very great deal. More than necessary. But it was really good and I was really hungry.
Then we came home, watched the rest of season 4 Angel, which I was ENTIRELY satisfied with as a season, and Ted and Shaun took apart the dog run we've had in our back yard since October, and our back yard now looks both larger and cleaner. Yay them! Now we need to get more dirt to fill in the rest of the holes Chanti dug, and try to re-grass the dead grass areas, and ... yeah. Is good.
Thinks to do today:
1. walk the dog
2. go biking
3. clean the kitchen
4. work on Angles
5. clean my desk
6. start putting software on new computer
Wow. I've gotten a lot done today. Everything on my list except for biking, which I'll do after dinner.
We did our Sunday shopping today, because, er, well, we were out of a lot of things. Ted got his glasses adjusted and picked up his contacts, I got a pair of shorts, we looked at fencing stuff -- we think we're going to build a 3" cedar picket fence, rather than the 6" privacy fences all our neighbors have, because 1. we're not that private, 2. it's cheaper, and 3. Chanti isn't a jumpy dog, so we think the /need/ for a 6" fence is lower -- I vacuumed, I did laundry, I worked on Angles -- 60 pages edited, although the parts that actually need *rewriting* I haven't done yet because I'm STILL thinking about it -- I cleaned the back yard, I clipped lilacs (yum they smell good!), I ... busy day.
We went by the comic shop and I went over to get a yoga schedule from the yoga school. I want to take one yoga class a week during July. That'll be my step-up in exercise for the month. That's the plan.
Thinks to do today:
1. finish laundry
2. work on Angles
3. go biking
4. vacuum
5. clean up back yard
6. clip some lilacs for the house
We went to the new Charlie's Angels movie last night. I barely remember the first one, but my recollection is that it was obviously bad, but I was at least entertained by it. This one was just embarrassing. The only good bits, and I use good very loosely, were with Demi Moore, towards the end.
Came home and I went on a 21.5 mile bike ride. It probably would've been longer, except I told myself if I were interrupted by a moose, I would turn around and head back, and lo, I was interrupted by a moose. So around I turned, and back I biked.
Chanti and I went on a walk this morning. Going on a walk with her makes my hands tired, even when she's being relatively good. If we see another dog she flips out.
That's all I can think of to say, so far today.
miles to Mordor: 452.5
miles to Rivendell: 127.5
Thinks to do today:
1. Laundry
2. make bread
3. eat breakfast
4. call dentist
5. call hotel
6. call mortgage broker
7. drink water
Last night I went on a 13 mile bike ride. It rained on me for 11.25 miles of the ride. Hnf.
We watched the next several episodes of Angel, too, I think through episode 14. This season of Angel is *so* much better than the last season (the last two seasons, really) of Buffy that it pisses me off. While Joss hasn't written many (any?) of these episodes of Angel that I've been watching (not that I've noticed, anyway), the overall tone of the show suggests to me that he still has his finger in the pie. The fact that in the final episode of Buffy, he managed to pull out so much of the crap they'd done with the last two seasons of Buffy and make it -- well. The finale was anti-climactic, but they did a number of things that made me find it an acceptable end to the series, and frankly I wouldn't have thought that even Joss could pull it out at all, after the last two dismal years. So it pisses me off that the last two years of Buffy were so bad, because apparently Joss still had, and has, it in him to make good TV. Mutter.
I also got my Thor bust. It's very cool. Hee hee hee!
miles to Mordor: 431.2
Apparently 48ish hours is more or less enough to recover from soul-crushing rejection. Although I'm still not very hungry. Hopefully the Rejection Diet will knock a few pounds off and keep 'em off, though. (Take your silver linings where you can get 'em, I guess.)
The plan at the moment is to let her keep the manuscript for another three months, to re-read, as she wanted to do that, and at the end of three months I would like it to either be returned or destroyed. Presumably destroyed, since I didn't send a manuscript-sized SASE, but I'll ask her if she wrote any notes on the ms itself and if she did I'll send an envelope for her to return it in. I figure three months is enough time for her to re-read it, and, y'know, who knows? She could change her mind about it in that time.
When I'm done with my current project, I think I'll start working on Children of Proteus, and see if I can't have something put together for Tor by the end of the year. I'd like very much to do that -- get something to her by year's end -- because she was very positive about my writing and seemed genuinely enthusiastic about the prospect of reading more. And, as I am now armed with the knowledge of what she thinks my weak points are, I can keep an eye on those while writing a new book for her. So. That's the tentative plan.
Ok, that made me happy. Bosco's just called to tell me that the new Ultimate Thor bust is in, and that it's very cool (it is!) and that they've reserved one for me. Gooood comic shop. Goooood boys. I needed a little cheer. :)
Yesterday sucked, all in all. I went to bed at 8:30 and got probably ten hours of sleep. This morning Chanti and I went on a walk. At least I've gotten some exercise for the day already.
miles to Rivendell: 125.7
Ok, less shell-shocked this morning, so more details.
She really, *really* liked the book. A lot. So much so that she wants to keep the manuscript so her sisters can read it. But she doesn't think it's ready for publication. (Argh! It's good enough to give to family, but not to buy? Argh!) She wants me to go back to it in a year or so and rewrite entirely, with an eye to a bunch of specific things that she said. If I do that, she would like to see the manuscript again.
And she did say a *bunch* of specific things, all of which may have a point and not all of which I'm sure I agree with. I will think about it. At this juncture I'm not going to *do* anything about it, because I'm still a little shaky, but I'll think about it all.
She also says I'm a talented writer, which is nice to hear, and that she definitely wants to see more from me, which is /also/ nice to hear.
I'm still licking my wounds, though, so I'm not quite prepared to announce a new plan of attack. :)
Well, shit.
Anna at Tor turned down HEART OF STONE. It is an insanely *positive* rejection, but a rejection none-the-less.
Hm.
I don't seem to feel inclined to talk about it a whole lot more right now. I probably will in a couple of days. Maybe even tomorrow.
A request: if you want to say "aww", that's fine, but please don't yell, "Fuckers!" or say, "Bitch!" or anything, which I know I do to express frustration, but when I'm talking about writing and rejections and those responses end up on the web in comments, it makes me really uncomfortable. Thanks.
God DAMNED CAT. He shoved one of the new bowls off the counter and destroyed it. God *DAMN* it. God DAMN it!
I have actually gone to a local RWA meeting!
It was nice. The coolest thing was that Lani, who was the woman who talked to Shaun last fall when she was doing NaNoWriMo, and whom I emailed a few times, was there, and she has just sold her NNWM novel (I hate her) to Warner Books, so that's really *really* neat. So it was cool to meet her! :)
There were 7 people there, which isn't a very *large* number (and, okay, I'm spoiled, because the only meetings I've ever been to before were with Sarah in Sacramento, and there were /dozens/ of people at each meeting) and everybody seemed quite nice, and there are two published authors (plus Lani) and a couple of people who are just starting out, and the very nice president of the local chapter, none of whose names I remember.
No, that's not true. The two published authors are Wendy and Tracie; the newer women are Deb and J...Julianne? Something like that. And the president's name ... has entirely escaped me. We did a writing exercise in which we wrote a logline for a book we'd either written or were working on, so I did one for HoS, and that was actually kind of cool. Oh, what was it? This:
"Margrit Knight has found the perfect man -- only he's a gargoyle, and wanted for murder."
Anyway, so yeah, it was pretty nice, and I think I'll go again. :)
Came home and took Chanti on a mile-long walk and then Ted played fetch with her until she was too pooped to play anymore, which was pretty funny.
miles to Rivendell: 124.7
Homina homina homina (sorry about the popups).
Biked 15.5 miles last night. Beeeeeeeeooooooooteeful evening. Saw a momma moose with twin babbies. Pretty soon here I'm going to go fix my gallery software so I can upload all these pictures I've been taking. :)
I had the pleasant experience, this morning, of being able to button a pair of newly-washed jeans without a struggle of any sort. There may be something to this weight-loss thing...
miles to Mordor: 418.2
Ted and I just went to see Alex & Emma, which we probably enjoyed more than the movie is actually worth. It's cute, but the great parts about it are how very well the Alex character, who is a writer, is written. If you know a writer and you don't understand him, go watch this movie. It may not help you understand them any better, but honestly, writing is just like that.
Ted even took a couple of hours out of reading Harry Potter to go see the movie with me. I have such a good husband. :)
Now I'm making dinner, and in a little while I'm going to go biking, for it is beeeeeooooteeful out.
Everybody came over last night and Ted made his newly-invented Arctic lasagna, and it was very, *very* good. He also made stuffed mushrooms and garlic bread (actually Mom made that) and I made a very large amount of carrot cake, and it all went over well. Lots of fun. :)
Then all the rich food rebelled in my system and the hours between 2 and 6am were sleepless, so I ended up sleeping until 11 this morning. Then I read the first in A Series of Unfortunate Events, which was delightful, and then Chanti and I went on a little walk. Just a mile or so, but it didn't upset my tummy, which was good, /and/ Chanti is getting the hang of the 'heel' command, so it was really a pretty good little walk.
I have lost another 1.5 pounds. That's 8 pounds since mid-April.
miles to Rivendell: 123.7
I have the VERY BEST husband! Since we moved into this house, I've been missing my leather clogs what I bought at the v. expensive shoe store in Santa Cruz. They are v. splendid clogs and fit my fat feet perfectly. I loves them, I do. But I couldn't find them. And Ted has found them for me! I am happy! Yaaaay!
It's been a busy day. Got up late. Made bread. Shopped. Got a new jug (which immediately got chipped. sigh. Shaun fixed it, but this relationship is clearly doomed.) Got Harry Potter. Went to the post office & sent the VP app and the S&3 to the agent who's looking for paranormal. Made carrot cake. Cleaned the kitchen. Checked the mail. Had a rejection letter from F&SF. The fools, the fools.
Must go shake the cakes out of their pans. And then I will veg until 5, shortly after which I expect people to begin arriving. :)
*Best* husband. *beam*
Et voila. I have put together an S&3 for URBAN SHAMAN for an agent who is looking for paranormal, and an application for Viable Paradise, which is evidently still taking apps. Today, I feel like a confident writer! :)
GOD DAMNED CAT. He just fucking broke my new purple jug. Shoved it off the counter and shattered the handle. God *damn* it.
Ok, the Alaskan senators are evil, but at least Stevens is evil with style. :)
(Actually, Stevens is pretty cool, as a person. It's just his politics that are evil. He's been in office since Nixon, who tried to strongarm him into voting a party line on something--like Bush did with that Senator who defected a couple years ago--and Stevens bodily threw the two guys Nixon had sent out of his office, and told them he wasn't going back on the floor until the President came down and apologized in person.
...which Nixon did.)
Today I am going to do the following things which are good for me:
1. take Chanti for a lunchtime walk
2. take myself for an after-work bike ride
3. eat no more than 1 dessert
I may start keeping a list like this daily.
Bad Kit. I ate a lot of food today that is known to upset my tummy. Unsurprisingly, my tummy is getting upset. Bad, bad Kit.
OTOH, biked 13 miles.
miles to Mordor: 402.7
I didn't walk yesterday. I didn't do a goddamned thing yesterday.
I got up this morning to do DDR and still couldn't make it work even though Shaun showed me how.
Chanti and I went for a walk. I don't know, a mile or so. I need to cut my fingernails while we work on this 'heel' thing.
miles to Rivendell: 122.7
Not, despite appearances, dead.
Put the bonus check in the bank today. Then had the enjoyable experience of paying all the bills early, which will allow the bank account to lie fallow for several weeks and build up its money so I can continue to pay the bills early without there being any scrambling or waiting for checks to clear or anything. HOORAY. I have been saying for about the last three years that all we /really/ needed was a /small/ windfall, to get everything on a cycle where I wasn't robbing Peter to pay Paul (it's not quite that bad, but I really wanted to use that phrase), and now the windfall has arrived! How strange and wonderful!
I went over my minutes on my cell phone with all of my meeting phone calls and now I have a huge cell phone bill. We went and bought a landline phone that will let me use a headset with it. Fnrt. I will fill out an expense report for the cell phone calls for my company to reimburse. Fnrt.
I must call my grandma tomorrow.
I have had no physical exercise today. I did, however, have what may have been a perfect chocolate milkshake at the Burger Stop.
I also bought my plane ticket for Writer's Weekend.
That's about it.
We went over to Mom & Dad's for dinner with Deirdre and Gavin and Breic and Allison and Marge and Lizzie and Issac and dessert with all those people and also Branwyn and Juna, and it was v. good. Mom made really really yummy halibut and garlic mashed potatoes and broccoli and fruit salad, and strawberry shortcake for dessert.
I had a glass of water which I had sitting on a not terribly safe place, and Gavin kicked it over and broke it. Ten minutes later, I spilled my new glass of water. I said, "Fuck," and everyone else laughed and laughed and gave me a hard time about the water glass, until the end of the evening when someone mentioned to the newly-arrived Branwyn that there'd been some water glass problems, and she asked, "Was Deirdre involved in this?" and then Deirdre got all huffy and defensive and said, "NOOOOOOOOO," which was very funny. :)
Branwyn is teaching Arjuna sign language, which reminded my mother of two years ago at Christmas when we met my ... cousin of some sort (my cousin's daughter), Sarah, who also had been taught sign, and she luuuuuurves ice cubes, and kept asking for more, and they'd stopped giving her any because she was shivering and cold, but she asked for more, so Chris, her father, went and got her one, and as he went into the kitchen, I said to her, "Can you say "sucker"?"
And she said, "Suck-er!"
It was *awfully* funny. She said it the rest of the night. :)
And, um. Now I'm all sleepy. Oh. I went on a 10.7 mile bike ride tonight, too, that was good, and I plotted out a 1.75 mile walk to take through the neighborhood with Chantico, so that'll be good. Fewer bugs.
Oh oh and Deirdre and Gavin are probably staying up here through July 5th, instead of leaving Wednesday! Yay! Yay! *beam* I wil get to see more Breic! And more Deirdre! And more Gavin! Even if Breic drooled on me. There's a picture of me telling him how disgusting he is. :)
miles to Mordor: 389.7 (400! so! close! augh!)
Bonus check!
Bonus check which they withheld a full 33% of for taxes and whatnot. Sheesh.
Still! Bonus check!
El yucko. Managed to food poison myself and Ted with pot roast last night (who the hell ever heard of getting food poisoning from /pot roast/? but there was nothing else we'd eaten in common, so) and so the last day has been full of ick and tiredness. Fortunately for our tiny little brains, we were able to re-arrange the Family Gathering schedule, and so didn't have to do anything like entertain today. Which is good, 'cause Ted slept until 4pm, and I've been a useless lump.
I did go for a small walk. Oh, and I weighed myself this morning and have lost another pound and a half. That's 6.5 pounds since the middle of April.
miles to Rivendell: 121.7
Raaaaaaaining!
I went on a 14 mile bike ride last night at 11pm, got up at 9 and went biking again, and it's a good thing I did,' cause the last couple of miles it started RAAAAAAAAINING. It was fun. *beam* 17.2 miles this morning. And there's THUNDER!
miles to Mordor: 379.2
Ooh. This is a very cool and vicious t-shirt. I want one.
That's all I have to report thus far this morning. :)
Jeez o flip. I spent, like, a lot of hours tonight working on the Chance series overview, and it came out to only 861 words. I hate that!
I also went on a bike ride this evening. I meant to go on a rather long one, but when I was halfway done with it I had to pee so very badly that I had to come home, and I never went out biking again. Oh well! 9 miles isn't too bad!
Oh! Oh! I forgot to mention! Last night while we were leaving Allison and Marge's house, we saw a coyote! I'd never seen one in the city before! That was cool! It had a mouthful of dead bird or rabbit or something, and was waiting intently to cross the road.
Also, last night, Deirdre picked up her coffee and poured it into the cream jug, which we all thought was very funny. :) Mom got very confused, because she missed Deirdre doing that, and then she picked up the slightly-coffee-colored cream, and wondered if maybe somebody'd put a shot of Bailey's in it, or something. :)
ytd wordcount: 149,000 (cool!)
miles to Mordor: 348
The Chance beatsheets are done! Now all that's left is writing a 1-2 page series overview and a cover letter, and then I can send it out. Possibly tonight, more likely tomorrow night. But yay!
And gosh, now I'm only 52,000 words behind for my mid-year wordcount goal. I could catch up. That's only... 3000 words a day... o.O
ytd wordcount: 148,200
Busy busy busy. Went on a lovely 20.7 mile bike ride last night, and then we went over to Gavin's Mom's for dinner, and then we came home and went *tud* and then Ted got up much too early to go in to stupid stupid work and then Chanti and I got up quite a lot later and went on a mile-long walk around the neighborhood, which was not as much fun as the coastal trail but was much, much less buggy. And now the sun has gone away and so I'm very glad we went early.
miles to Rivendell:
Catie: 120.7
Laura: 169 (showoff!)
Ben: 153
miles to Mordor:
Catie: 338.8
Laura: 265
Holy cow.
I have just gotten email from AnnaG at Tor. She is halfway through the manuscript and likes it very much.
YAY!
1000 words rewrite credit on the Kitling story, and about nine hundred words over the last day or two on Chance beatsheets. So call it 1900 words, for a total of...
ytd wordcount: 146,600
My work has seen fit to give me both a bonus and a raise. I hereby vow not to complain about my job for at least a *week*!
Chanti and I tried going for a walk this morning, but we had to come back after only going half a mile out because the mosquitos were so very bad. I was all bug-doped, but Chanti wasn't, and she was utterly miserable. Despite that, she was *awfully* good. Good puppy. *hugs her*
Deirdre and Gavin and Breic arrive sometime today! Yay!
Sort of didn't do any real writing last night. Sort of, uh, watched more Angel instead. Up to episode 9 now. I'm enjoying this season of Angel a whole lot more than I enjoyed season 7 Buffy.
miles to Rivendell: 119.7
Today, on Electrolite, PNH says:
...books I’ve been reading or re-reading in the last few days: Sethra Lavode by Steven Brust. Shelter by Susan Palwick. Eastern Standard Tribeby Cory Doctorow. Currently reading: Newton’s Wake by Ken MacLeod.
Oh, that’s right, none of these have actually been published yet....
Which is followed by Jane Yolen's comment:
Note: I refrain from asking about manuscripts close to my heart. I want brownie points.
So it's not just unpublished authors! I feel so much better now! *LAUGH*!
Wow. I just got Angie's birthday box, which was full of amazing stuff! There is a great card, and a wonderful Gemini bookmark, and there are two copies of Beauty and the Beast, both illustrated, one by Marianna and Mercer Mayer, the other by Deborah Apy and Michael Hague, both of which are utterly gorgeous in /entirely/ different ways, a copy of Tam Lin, also illustrated, by Jane Yolen and Charles Mikolaycak (and inscribed, by Angie, "If it's not Scottish, it's crrrrrrap!" *giggle*), and lastly, a book of fairy tales with female heroes, The Serpent Slayer: and Other Stories of Strong Women by Katrin Tchana and Trina Schart Hyman, which looks amazing and not *one* of the stories do I know. Wow. Wow, so *very* cool! *Thank* you, Angie!
Now I must put these away and not read them, for I have work to do. Wow! Thank you!
First off:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHAUN! (Slightly belated; yesterday was his birthday, but I didn't log on!)
Got up v. late yesterday and went to see The Italian Job, which Ted and I liked quite a bit. Good heist flick. Thence shopping, and then home again to cook dinner, which Ted did, and made a lot of (hamburgers, hot dogs, homemade mac&cheese), and Mom brought over baked beans and lemon meringue pies. We all ate ourselves silly and then Shaun opened his presents and we hung out and then when Mom and Dad left Ted and I watched the 4th-7th (or maybe 6th) episodes of season 4 Angel and then went to bed *tud*.
I was going to do the Alaska Run for Women, which is a breastcancer awareness fundraiser, this morning. However, several things conspired against me. Mostly what conspired against me was that the entry fee for the race is optional (they ask for a donation, you choose how much), but the people they hired for their online signup has a $2.50 user fee, and that really pissed me off, and then I didn't send in the entry form. And there's no race-day signup, so instead I did a 5 mile walk (which was the length of the race) with Chantico this morning. It was very nice. Beautiful day out. We went down to the beach. Chanti was very very suspicious of the water, and wouldn't go in. :)
It seems, incidentally, that Chantico has been suckering me. She may not like the sprinklers, but she goes right outside for Ted. We seem to be playing a little dominance game. We are going to stop playing it, because now I'm pissed.
Then I came home and wrote 1200 words, which puts me over 10K, which feels like a significant enough number to announce what I'm working on. I'm working on Thunderbird Falls, the sequel to Urban Shaman. I'm moving along on it at a fairly decent clip, but I don't know at this juncture when I'm going to be posting it for my test readers. I need to see how the story develops, and find out if I'm just wasting time with this and getting back into the feel of the characters. So far one of the two items that have come up that made me go 'wtf' has already clarified itself into being Extremely Important, although the importance won't pan out for a bit of a while. Still. It gives me a certain amount of faith that things are going to work out.
However. I'm writing at about 1100 words a day and aiming for 3K word chapters, so it's not going blindingly fast and I don't know how far I'm going to get into this before I'm comfortable letting test readers start to read, so don't nag. :)
Man, would I like to be able to spend 4 hours a day writing. Someday.
ytd wordcount: 144,700
miles to Rivendell: 118.7
V. sleepy. Ran outta steam. Tud.
Dad came over and we went on a nice 4 mile walk and oh sure NOW it's clearing up but THEN it rained on us! Hnf! And uhm. Dad showed me how to make Chanti grok 'heel', and that made for a much more pleasant walk. We shall try it again tomorrow. :)
Wrote 550 words. Not v. many, but better than none.
miles to Rivendell:
Catie: 113.5
Jai: 91.1
Shoka: 124.2 (go Shoka!)
Heather: 96.75
Dave (going to Mordor): 327.7
ytd wordcount: 143,350
Bribed Chanti out the back door with a peanutbutterspoon. Will continue as necessary. Hnf.
Chantico has lost her mind. She won't go out the back door anymore. I don't know what the hell is wrong with her. It's very, VERY annoying. I don't want to /force/ her to go out the back door, because that's just going to deepen whatever association she's got with it being bad. Does anybody know anything about dogs? Does anybody know how the hell to fix this problem? Grnrngh. I'm pretty sure she's afraid of the sprinklers that have been going in people's backyards (they go tsch-tsch-tsch-tsch-tsch and she doesn't like it; she stands outside with her tail between her legs, leaning towards the house), so maybe she's just afraid of the backyard now, I don't know. As soon as it's nicer out again I'm going to try bringing her out and putting our sprinkler on and being out there for a while and trying to reassure her, but *man*, argh.
In other news, Geni just called in hopes I'd know how to get ahold of Emily who is now, we think, in Wales. Catie Murphy, International Messanger Service! So, Emily, if you happen to read this and haven't talked to either Geni or Louise, call me. Or, well, one of them. :)
On the plus side, I woke up at 6 this morning, rather than being embroiled in dreams that wouldn't let me wake until 20 to 8. On the minus side, I didn't actually get /up/ at 6. I just observed that I was awake, and spent the next hour semi-sleeping/drifting. At some point during that time, I turned over in such a fashion that finally allowed me to breathe, and then I didn't want to move anymore. Hate allergies. Hate hate hate.
Sarah, most wonderfully, has an opportunity to pitch a story directly to an editor at Harlequin's fantasy line! I cheer wildly for her! (I briefly regreted not having tried to sign up to do that myself, but then I realized I have nothing at all to pitch to them, so it's as well I didn't.) Good luck Sarah!
Ted decided to come home last night instead of staying at the university for the Shoshen Ryu nationals. His bed is more comfortable. :) But he's having a really good time at nationals, so that's good! Yay!
Um. I should get some breakfast and some water. And I should call Liz today.
Jai and I had a v. nice walk this afternoon, except for the part where we were beset by mosquitos. However, we walked swiftly and a breeze struck up and vanquished them, so all was well. :) It's nice to walk with other people instead of just alone!
I wrote 1066 words (but who's counting) and watched Four Weddings and a Funeral. V. nice evening. :)
miles to Rivendell: 109.7
ytd wordcount: 142,800
As I was making lunch, I heard a crash from upstairs. When I came up to investigate, this is what I found:
1. No Lucy on the monitor
2. Cat hair in my water jug
Very, very silly. My work sent me a webcam. I make no guarantees how long it'll be up, but it'll be up periodically, anyway. :)
Wow. Hungry. I should find an apple, or something.
Some months ago, I mentioned that I'd read several Pratchett books years ago and didn't much like them. Marith and Trip felt it was their duty to correct this, so picked the best of the litter and sent them unto me.
I've just finished the fifth of the five they sent me, and damned if every single one of them wasn't clever and silly. This one, Maskerade made me laugh out loud only twice, which was hardly any compared to some of the others, but even so, it did make me laugh out loud twice, and that's pretty good. :)
Chanti and I went on a 3 mile walk, as well, and I wrote 1200 words, so all in all it's been a fairly successful evening. Plus, I went on a 4 mile bike ride yesterday which I forgot to report.
miles to Rivendell: 105.7
miles to Mordor: 322.1
ytd wordcount: 141,700
I weighed myself this morning, and weighed 2 pounds less than I did Sunday when I weighed myself. While I expect this is sort of a water-weight thing, I thought I'd mention it to help encourage me not to eat lots of dessert.
Hm. Lemme know if you're having trouble clicking on the comments with this layout. It works ok with IE6 on Windows, but it doesn't seem to be working on, er, anything else. At least not on the top entry where the image overlays the words. I'll see what I can do to fix that. Sorry!
New site! Move down! Much better! Yay!
(Thanks to Sarah, who said, "You should do a Gemini site!" and this is what came out of that.)
Fwwsshh. It's a beautiful day out and I sulk at being stuck inside.
Shaun mowed most of the lawn last night. It looks very very nice. Except the patch of wild long grass that looks, well, all wild and long. *laugh* When he finally got done (finally, from Chanti's point of view, 'cause she sat with her nose pressed against the window watching him the whole time) Chanti went out and stuck her nose in the new grass and then just lay down and stayed there. *giggle*
I just opened the window all the way and Zilli is staaaaaaaarrrrrrring out it. Silly kitty.
Oh, forgot to mention, got a rejection letter on Josie yesterday. It was a nice one, for a form letter, but a rejection letter none-the-less. I think we've only got one to hear back from now. Cross your fingers for us. :)
Let's see, uhm, what else. I got most of my desk cleaned off this morning, that's a big plus. Must pay some bills now, and get some more work done. Meetings already this morning.
Boy, it's nice out. Can I go outside and play?
That was an incredibly pathetic walk, but at least it was a walk. 1.5 miles, at a snail's pace. Chanti appeared to have a good time, anyway.
miles to Rivendell: 102.7
To begin:
My parents have this terrible habit of leaving water in their water glasses after dinner. In years of clearing the table and putting the dishes into the dishwasher, I never quite learned that I should dump their glasses over the sink before upending them over the dishwasher. At least two out of three times, and probably more like four out of five, I would flip the glass upside-down to put it into the dishwasher, and pour water all over myself.
I got a splendid new water jug last week.
Last night Mom saw it and admired it and picked it up to turn it over and look at the bottom, and dumped the inch of water that was in the bottom of it all over her feet.
That was a very good birthday present. *beam* I laughed and laughed and *laughed*. *more beaming*
miles to Mordor: 318.1
Goals: year to date. Parenthetical statements indicate # achieved in May.
Words written
anticipated: 166,100
achieved: 140,500 (15,870)
Miles biked
anticipated: 500
achieved: 283.6 (135.1)
Miles swum
anticipated: 48
achieved: 19.3 (1.5)
Drawings drawn
anticipated: 44
achieved: 13.5 (9)
Books read
anticipated: 35
achieved: 33 (2)
Pounds lost
anticipated: 12.5
achieved: +2 (-2)
Wow, what a busy day. *Very* nice birthday.
I got up at 7:20 and went out to Eagle River to do the Diabetes Tour de Cure (and if you were thinking about making a donation to the ride and just happened to forget, well, heck, you can still make one through the end of June! Just click on that link!), which was really a great deal of fun. I did the 50K ride, which, according to my odometer, was 34.5 miles, which I did in 2:59:48, for an average of 11.5mph, (but who's counting). At nearly every stop, people asked me about the recumbent, so that was a lot of fun.
On the way out, Ted and I observed the Great Big Huge Ass Valley Hill, upon which TdC people were biking. It really is a valley, so it is a GBHAVH on /two/ sides; you can't get away with just biking the up or the down, nope. If you just do one, you're stuck at a bridge over Eagle River. That's no good. So we said to each other, "Wow, that's really going to suck," and indeed, it really sucked. It was like 3/4ths of a mile long. I didn't stop, though! I was proud of myself.
The *extremely* cool part, though, was coming /back/ on the GBHAVH. I hit 33.5mph before I put my brakes on. At 30mph, I said, "Woo!" and at 33.5mph I said, "Holy shit!" and braked. The path was not clear of gravel, and I *really* didn't want to wipe out at that speed. Plus, it was six miles an hour faster than my previous personal top speed record, and that seemed like enough for one day. :)
It was a very nice ride. I had a really good time. I'm glad I decided to do the 50K instead of the 100K. V. glad.
Came home and got in the shower. In the shower, I discovered that I'd apparently gotten colder than I'd thought I had, because my fingernails were blue. I'd never actually seen my fingernails turn blue before. Not v. attractive. So I decided to stay in the shower until my fingernails weren't blue anymore, and that took a long long time. In fact, I used all the hot water in the house.
I also used up whatever reserves of energy I had left and my blood sugar *crashed*. Nausea and dizziness. Gaaah. Not good. I tried to eat some soup but could barely get my hand to pick up the spoon; just seemed like too much effort. But after a couple of minutes of staring at the soup I managed to eat some, and then Deirdre called! She said, "*gasp*!" when I answered the phone, and then she and Gavin sang me "Happy birthday" quite beautifully. Gavin has a lovely voice, too. So that was really neat.
And they're coming up next week! I didn't know that! They'll be here for 8 days! I'm very happy! I'll get to meet Breic! YAY!!!! V. excited! *beam*
Breic made cheery little burbling 'bah blah aahb bah bah' noises in the background while we were on the phone,and Deirdre asked if I wanted to talk to him, so I said sure! And he got very quiet while I said hello, and Deirdre said that he was pressing his ear against the phone and listening *very* intently. *giggle* V. cute!
Uh. Oh. Then I had to go lie down for a while, because I was really just full of static noise. Very, *very* tired, very low blood sugar. I lay down and didn't sleep, because I was still cold and because I'm all wheezy today (yuck) and so mostly I was listening to my breath rattling in my throat like a party noisemaker. I did rest, though, and then Angie called and that perked me right up. She was calling partly to mock herself, because she has had a present for me that she's been smug about for /months/, and apparently it's still sitting on her kitchen floor, and so I laughed and laughed at her. :)
Then I asked how her bellydance performance had gone, but you're just going to have to read her writeup of that when she does it. *laugh* So that was lots of fun.
We went over to Mom & Dad's briefly, and then came back and Mom and Dad came over /here/ and Ted's Mom called to wish me a happy birthday while Ted cooked an astounding dinner.
Now, look. I asked for tacos for my birthday dinner. In my world, if you ask for tacos for dinner, you get... tacos.
When you ask Ted for tacos for dinner, you get tacos and enchiladas and spanish rice and refried beans, an entire Mexican menu.
I have a really cool husband. :)
I made a coffee-chocolate molten lava cake kind of dessert for my birthday cake, and it was VERY VERY GOOD. I'm extremely pleased with the recipe, which I got from my I Love Chocolate cookbook. The best thing about it is it that it only makes 5-6 little cakes, so there are no leftovers to tempt me! ahahah!
I got some good loot! I got the sunglasses last week, and Stargate: Season One from Emily, and Ted's parents gave me a check, which I spent on...
...the first sign of the Apocalypse.
I bought a Playstation 2.
I'd been /wanting/ one, kinda, because I really want to be able to play Dance Dance Revolution, but I really couldn't justify /buying/ one, because, well. Me. Video games. I think they're evil.
But I suddenly had this extra money to do with as I wished! And I wished to have DDR! So now I do! *beam*
'course, if I don't use it, I'll sell the thing in 6 months. So there.
Aaaaaaaaaand I also got ooh ooh a REALLY nifty set of color ink pens for drawing with, and a *very* funny piece of artwork from my parents: it has two kitties, in shades, clinging to a.. well. Fabric on a wall; it suggests 'curtain' to me. And they're looking back over their shoulders with evil little grins on their evil little faces, and it says: They were BAD KITTIES... and they acted as though they didn't even care!
*helpless laughter* I will put it up in my nook. I love it. *laugh* *beam*
And! And! Shaun got me Stargate: Season TWO! So now I have ALL the Stargate to watch--and I probably won't start until this fall, but yeah! Cool! Yay!
And Emily called to wish me a happy birthday and to give me a CR concert report (short version: they had fun), aaaaannnnnnd...
And now that I have written that all up, I'm going to go collapse into bed, for it has been a v. long and busy day!