Forty-two weeks into 2011. I think I have a creativity problem. For instance, each week this year, I've titled my post with the number of the week. No creativity. No imagination. Just the dry, clinical week number. I haven't heard Stephen complaining about sleeplessness, though, so I must be helping somewhere.
Granite Hill - I worked on it most days this week. Valerie did her Scrivener chat workshop with me this week, and as a result, I've discovered the art of searching stock photo sites for representative character photos. I now have photos for all my major and minor characters. I've never been one for description, but now I can visualize my characters, and that, believe it or not, helps them become more real for me. I'm trying to get some basics filled out in the character worksheets, too -- role in the story, background, internal and external conflicts. I'm going to try the George R. R. Martin approach this year, I think (what good is NaNo if I can't experiment with techniques, genres, voices, etc?) -- each main character gets his own story line (plays to the idea that every character thinks he's critical to the story), and they'll rotate through, Game of Thrones style. I'm not sure if that's completely nuts or not, but I'm going to give it a try.
Just in the time it's taken me to write this post, though, I'm rethinking that. In Game of Thrones, the characters are dispersed across the entire world. That's really the only way to tell that story. In Granite Hill, everyone is one small town. Maybe that's not the best way to go with this one. Hmm.
750words.com - I wrote every day. Still looking for an app (Mac OS instead of iOS) that will mostly duplicate the site. There are a few text editors that come close. Actually, if I could run WordPress as a stand alone app, that would probably do the trick. And, technically, I can, but I don't want to install my own little version of SQL on my machine to handle the database.
In addition to a word count feature, I want to be able to tell mostly at a glance that I've been writing consistently each day. Journal apps will sort of do the later but not the former. iA Writer seems to be the app that comes closest to what I want, but I'm not ready to spring for the $10 it takes to find out.
Internet Responsibilities - Just a few FM duties. Really pondering if there's any value to having marathons at the site at all. They just seem to duplicate stuff we already have, and I'm not sure that's productive.
Pets - I have Millie set up so she doesn't need to use the garage during the day anymore. Her doghouse is on the side porch, oriented so the north wind shouldn't bother her. He water tower is on the side porch just outside the side door, and I have her food bowl outside as well. With this change, I can keep the garage door closed during the day, and the birds are kept out. You may or may not believe the mess birds make when they use your garage as their local hang out, drinking from the water bowl and snacking on dog food. When we had the two dogs, there wasn't much we could do about that (short of getting the yard fenced, but that's not high enough on hubby's to do list, and I don't want to press him to do it, because, frankly, there are other more important things for him to do.
Property -
Busy week. Last week, we bought fall fertilizer. This week, I:
- Mowed what little growth we had with the electric mower
- Aerated in two directions
- Fertilized
- Watered twice to ensure the fertilizer gets into the soil. I'm finishing the back yard (yes, the part that has been left to fend for itself all year, because we didn't want to expend the resources to do anything with it -- I aerated and fertilized, and the fertilizer is getting watered in as I type).
- There is a tree down at the storage building on the west side of town. Actually, a tree top, but I couldn't find any trees missing their tops. Finally, I saw where one split from the base. It was hollow, so it has been dead for a while and just figured it out. I'll have to wander over there some time and begin cutting it up, but since I didn't notice it from the road, I'm not going to worry too much.
- Hubby is cutting up a neighbor's tree that finally fell into our back yard down in SA.
Today, I initiated cleaning cycles for the oven and the coffee pot. I got a rechargeable hand vac to make vacuuming the stairs easier, and it was so easy to take care of that task this week. (If you need this, look into Black and Decker's Flex, available at fine Walmarts everywhere -- and even the not so fine ones.)
Health -
- Ahem. Let's just say I think Natalie has been allowed to run amok for far too long while Jean was on vacation. Weight was up 4.4 pounds this week. Yes. We see where that got us.
- On a bright side, I resumed riding the recumbent bike this week. I also set up the Wii at the shop and began doing some basic balance and yoga workouts, adding a few minutes each day. I hadn't used the Wii in almost two years.
Other -
I was going to go to the Rockdale County Fair today, but I decided I'd eaten my fill of fair food without ever going this week, so I stayed home and have been puttering around the house. I decided yesterday to over eat the points I would ordinarily have overeaten on today in an effort to not begin the week with my weekly points depleted. It's just too depressing. So, I binged yesterday (country pork ribs, sweet potato, and a big bowl of zucchini, summer squash, carrots, mushrooms, and onions -- that got my veggie intake back on track for the day). That sounds pretty good, but I ate way too many of the ribs. Those critters pack a lot of points.
I took a couple Aleve the night before last in an effort to head off severe pain. Stairs were starting to give me problems, so I'm going to track when that happens, take a couple of Aleve, and see how often I need to do that. So far, it's looking like once a month. I may begin looking at the feasibility of reducing the Extra Strength Tylenol and finding the minimal dosage that allows me to live reasonably comfortably.
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