3/4 done with the year. How is that possible?!?

Nothing much has changed here other than SPORE's word counts are climbing. I'm nearing the 85/90% mark and I think I have about 12k to go, and it'll be DONE.

I can see the end!! YAY!!

Then I have to tighten, proofread, revise, get pre-reader input... y'all know the drill, so it's not done-done, but at least the first draft is closing in. :)

I was down about 2.5 lbs at Weight Watchers this past week, but I think I'll do better this coming week's weigh-in as long as I avoid pasta the day or two before. Pasta always makes me bloaty - I'm a bit gluten sensitive. But, still, that's pretty good. As of this morning, I was one pound from the lowest I've been since we lived up here. So that's good, too. What's even better is I went out to get some new shirts - my wintery wardrobe is simply too big and, frankly, old and ragged - and about half of what I bought came from the 'regular sizes' section of the store. How cool is that?!?!

Bill and I saw LOOPER today (it's a Sci-Fi Time Travel Hired Killers kinda movie) and we liked it quite a lot. :) Two thumbs up from the Jones'!

That's it for me. Have a great week, everyone!

Fiscal Year Closeout

It doesn't mean much to me anymore, but military and other government financial people are burning the midnight oil today to make sure everything evens out as they close out FY2012.  Me?  We're packing our suitcases and finalizing plans for the "The Big Trip."  Or whatever I can call it to differentiate it from previous other October trips to Mecca Hershey, PA.  I don't particularly care for this trip.  This highlight this year will be getting to see Wendy (insert heartfelt "Yay!" here) and Eric as we zip by their neck of the woods.  I'm trying to stay positive and approach this year's trip with a lighter heart and more enthusiasm.

The Good Stuff:

• Making good progress figuring out Joomla!  It's a pretty powerful platform, which makes WordPress look like child's play.
• I hesitate to say this, but I feel as if I can more easily get down on my knees.  I don't feel like I have to stop and spend five minutes figuring out how to make the transition like I used to.  Must keep doing these exercises.
• I'm putting this under good stuff, because the sense is we're going to have a good outcome from it.  Grandma went in the hospital Thursday night after going to her doctor in the afternoon and enduring a battery of blood tests and a chest X-ray.  The word we got was severe anemia, modified to be a severe infection (white count way high as opposed to a low red count), and then congestive heart failure.  Latest word is a blood infection caused by infected fluid on her knee.  She's resting comfortably and we hope the IV antibiotics they put her on when she got there are doing their work.  I believe the infection could cause congestive heart failure or at least the symptoms of it, so I suspect they'll continue treating the infection and monitor her heart performance (which I imagine will improve).  The question I have (and I'm sure we'll hear more on it) is whether there is any damage to the heart and if so, what the appropriate treatment will be for a 94 year old.  She was walking and taking basic care of herself before this brought her down last week, so I would hope she'll be able to do that again.  I think it's a matter of how much bounce she has.  She's always been remarkably healthy, so we'll see.
• I put it off a long time -- all week, actually, but I've gotten a fair amount of work done on PBOTL today.  I felt inspired and have been putting out fresh words the seem to be working.

The Not So Good:

• Did I mention I subscribed to a six month access to a website containing HTML, CSS, PHP, WordPress, Joomla!, and Drupal training?  I had a coupon code I'd paid $37 for but goofed upon registering for the site and wound up paying the full $99 subscription fee in addition to the $37 for the coupon.  Tech support was very helpful and supposedly corrected that, but I haven't seen the credit come to my credit card yet, so I'm putting it in not so good for now.  If the $99 credit show up in my account, this is definitely a good stuff entry, because the training is broken down into very basic steps and seems almost too easy.  But I'm learning stuff, so I think that's a good thing.
• My weight has ballooned the last two weeks (up nine pounds).  I'm not happy at the moment. 
• Hubby is still finalizing the route for the trip, and I think he's doing a good job of it, but we both feel as if we're behind the curve on this trip.
• I heard a cat crying outside yesterday and went out to look, and it was a 4-6 week kitten screaming by the heat pump.  As soon as it saw me as I came around the corner (we saw each other at the same time), it hightailed itself under the house under the A/C ductwork.  Now I keep hearing what I think is a kitten crying under my feet (that's where the ductwork goes).  I'm sure the kitten will be fine -- it looks like it's mama is trying to wean it.  I've seen a big orange cat in the yard lately, which I believe is probably the daddy.  There's a neighborhood gray tabby who I believe if the mama, because she's thin, indicative of a cat who has litter after litter of kittens without adequate time to rebuild her health.  She was lounging on the front porch last night.  She usually hangs out at the house behind us.  Hubby, of course, groans when I tell him this, because he doesn't want me adopting another cat.  I don't want to either, but I hate to see the critters suffer.  I'm thinking about becoming the neighborhood catch, neuter/spay, and release lady.  I don't mind the stray cats hanging around, but I don't want them reproducing either.  Hubby will not be happy if he finds out, but I put a bowl under the ductwork last night and three a handful of catfood in it.  It was empty this morning (I suspect mama and not the baby ate it). I put more in today, and it hasn't been touched.  Either mama moved the baby, or something will eat it later tonight.  This is only temporary, because we won't be around for a couple of weeks.

The Week Ahead:

• Finish getting ready for the trip
• Dinner with Wendy and Eric later this week (sorry, we're not driving by anybody else's house on this trip)
• Begin brainstorming for NaNo -- so far I'm bombing out on my efforts
• Have safe travels.
• Happy New Year!

Camp kitchen

Because you asked so nicely, here are pictures of the kitchen. I thought I had a photo of it assembled, but apparently I don't, so you'll have to see it in pieces for now. I have it set up in the dining room so I can put a coat of varnish on it. I'll try to remember to take a picture of the whole thing when it's done so I can post what it looks like assembled.

This is the base part closed,

and open. The white pot is actually my new chamber pot. Trust me, rain makes it less than preferable to have to leave to use the facilities!

Next section, which doesn't look like much,

until you open it. The dividers are removable.

The main "pantry" section

partially unpacked. It was crammed full of food, and I had cups and a small jar of peanut butter in the small bottom cubbies.

And the bread box with a basket on top. Two, actually.

Also pretty empty now that I've taken out the bread. Sorry, we needed it for breakfast this morning!

I'm home!

We got in a little before midnight last night. This morning, Eric cooked breakfast, and then we unloaded the van and trailer, returned the trailer (we rented a U-Haul) and ran some errands. Now my van is clean inside and out and all the seats are back in. Still a LOT of work left to do. We'll get to that in a minute.

Good Stuff:
- No travel incidents, but we did see a lot of police on the highway on our way to Ohio, which was odd because it was Thursday afternoon. Since we were hauling the trailer, we were going slow enough that it didn't even get our heart rates up!
- The weather mostly cooperated. More on that below.
- We had a nice day and a good turn-out for our renewal ceremony. In addition to the family that came ( Dad and Linda, Mom, Aunt Shirley, Vicky and Justin), Greg (of The Boys) and his mom flew in from South Carolina, and several of my dad's old friends (who have known me since I was little) showed up.
- We had more than enough food for everyone. I still have fruit and veggies left. Thank goodness because it's time to get back on the food wagon!
- Ate reasonably well, but we did have fry bread for lunch three times so that doesn't help the waistline. The good part is when we went grocery shopping, we stayed away from the cookies and chips, so I didn't have that temptation.
- Eric bought the last big pieces for our camp kit--a prep/dishwashing table (counter space) and a kitchen, which consists of 4 boxes that stack. They have cubbies and dividers inside for storing food and dishes and all the little fiddly bits that we need. (Matches, fire starters, dice to play Farkle, all those little things that tend to get forgotten until we're an hour from home!) It's going to be a lot more efficient to pack and use since I'll pack dishes and a good bit of food in the kitchen, eliminating at least a couple of boxes.
- No plague, scurvy, wild animals, or Methodist zombies, but there was a drunk guy the other night walking through camp yelling at Rod that he was going to kick his a$$. I never did find out if he found Rod, but he did get arrested. :-) Always an interesting crowd, but drunk and disorderlies are rare.
- Set up and tear down were a lot less dramatic than they could have been. A couple hours each for the most part, which I'm impressed with, given the amount of crap we had with us. This is not a cheap, low-maintenance hobby!

Not So Good Stuff:
- It stormed Friday night. Like, severe thunderstorm stormed. We almost lost our fly, but we heard the canvas pop when the wind got it and went out to save it. It spent the rest of the night crammed under the table inside the tent. It was scary for an hour or so.
- We decided to come home early because it's supposed to start raining this afternoon and continue on and off through Saturday. We didn't want to bring home wet canvas. It's so much more work to get it dried out. The upside is Eric can have two days off to recover and still go back to work a day early.
- I need a haircut. Desperately. I let it grow out because I thought it might not be so crazy under my kirtch, but enough is enough. I might be making an emergency call to the hairdresser this week.
- I'm pretty stiff. More so, I think, than I usually am after camping. I'm chalking it up to the firmness of the bed more than the work of building fires and hauling water.

This Week:
- Varnish the camp kitchen.
- Clean out the garage to better organize camp gear and increase accessibility.
- Wash and store clothing and dishes.
- Don't forget out the Highland Games this weekend. Friday and Saturday are shot.
- Celebrate our anniversary tomorrow with dinner and a movie.
- Write.

While Wendy's Away, Part 2...

I am incredibly awed and encouraged by not only her pluckiness and determination to become traditionally published, but by the incredible success of her journey to get healthy.

Dahling, you look MARVELOUS!!

{{huggs}}

While Wendy's away ...

Since Wendy's not here, I say we talk about her behind her back and tell all her secrets. I'll go first.

I think one of my favorite things about Wendy is how supportive she is. And I like her writing. She's a very good writer. And her red hair is the bomb!

Your turn!

Received an email, I did, I did!

I just received an email from Wendy who is trekking through the wilderness braving the elements and wild animals and scurvy and the plague and perhaps Methodist zombies ... That's not exactly what it said, but you can read between the lines.

The email reads:

"Camping! On my way home. Updates tomorrow. Maybe. Not even sure what day it is today..."

September is Winding Down

Time is zipping by, but it's been doing that for so many years.  It took a long time to get to fifty, and it will take a long time to get to one hundred, but it seems so much more futile.  No, that's not the right word.  Final, maybe?  Ominous.  Yes, I think ominous is the word I was looking for.  I'm not depressed, but ominous thoughts keep busting in on me at odd times.

The Good Stuff:

• What a transition, eh?
• Osteopath says he doesn't need to see me again unless I need him for something, and I'm to keep doing what I'm doing.
• A very little work done on PBOTL.
• Sorted the four boxes, but they aren't put away yet.  I did get some good trash from them, and that's out of the house.  Hubby found a few more.
• Chuck's children did a nice memorial gathering for him where people could share memories of their dad.
• Hershey route planning is nearly complete.  Hubby has put together a good route. 
• Got the refrigerator and freezer cleaned and refreshed after the power outage fiasco from last month.

The Not So Good Stuff:

• Hubby wasn't feeling up to under house work this weekend, so we didn't get that part of the weekend plans done. He did say he's feeling a little recharged, so a down weekend was probably what he needed.  He'll be back up here on Thursday.
• After a really good weight week last week, this week has been really bad.
• My grandmother is having a tough week, and her doctor thinks she needs to be in a nursing home.  Mom says they have a doctor appointment on Thursday.  We'll see how things go.  She'll be 95 in December (Grandma, not Mom).

The Week Ahead:

• Work on PBOTL.
• Begin gathering what we need to take to Hershey.
• Continue work on the boxes in the blue room.
• 
  

Where oh where have our Jean and Wendy gone?

Where oh where have our Jean and Wendy gone?
Oh where oh where can they be?

With them not here, our faces are long,
Oh where oh where can they be?

Pool Table

Seems I get my thoughts organized like the balls on a pool table, and then wham! Another thought comes along and knocks all the other thoughts various ways, and I start the process of putting them in order again.

Here's a few thoughts:

I can't make anyone buy anything. All I can do is offer them a product, talk about the value of a product,and hope the customers see it's worth their money. This is true for books, cards, cars, etc. Advertising agencies talk about "creating" a need in a customer, and I do believe you can influence a customer to think that they need a particular item, but it takes time and many ad impressions.

For self-published books, authors are the best salesmen. If the author doesn't sell, sell, sell, the book will die, die, die. Don't expect e-books to change that.

I don't like e-books. Oh, I can see their attractions and uses, but the best e-books seem to be the ones that were ported over from print books by the major publishing houses. The majority of self-produced ones are riddled with spelling and grammatical errors and simply bad writing. I have read several good self-produced e-books and a hundred or so bad ones. It's all well and good to say the gates are down and information flows free, but there's a lot of merit in having discriminating gatekeepers. I guess the consumers are the gatekeepers now. And maybe the technology.

And now some pertinent info.

Last week I mostly worked on Tales from Bethlehem. It's now in the hands in my first proofreader. He's found several errors so far, which I always appreciate. After he's finished (by the end of this week, I hope) then it will go to Jean to catch everything he missed. (No pressure, Jean!)

Saturday, I attended writers group and gave a very short program on the various rights authors can sell.

This week, I will
- Work on Tales from Bethlehem. Entering corrections and lengthening one of the final Tales and finishing another new Tale.
- Continue to help my two authors promote their books.
- Chores.
- Walk at least three times.

That's a bit vague, I know, but those are what I have lined up ... until another thought comes along.

Still a book, still a stick

SPORE is coming along a bit better - I will definitely finish chapter 19 tonight - but it's not moving as fast as I'd like, especially since there is one agent in particular who's ready to read it, and it's just not yet done.

So it must get done!

I joined Weight Watchers on Thursday. The meeting was all right, and everyone was super nice. So far so good on all of that, but it's only been two days of the eating (Fri and Sat). Managed to walk a little on both days, which surely helped. I can do this, but, dang, I'm already craving carby-cheesy things. ;)

Otherwise, it's all the same-o same-o here. I have two baby quilts I need to get going on as soon as I finish SPORE (picked up fabric for one today) but nothing else is really happening.

{{huggs}} to everyone. Have a great week!

Poking the book with a stick.

Pretty much the same-o, same-o here. Still struggling to get past the big hurdle before the rush to the end in SPORE - oh, why does this book fight me so?? - but I did finish all of my chapter graphics. Need to make a small word change to one - change an Arkansas town to one in northern Missouri - but otherwise, they're good. I'm on Chapter 19 and of course Sean is being a poo-head and not wanting to play. Oh well, I'll poke him with a stick long enough and he'll start moving forward again.

Life is mostly pretty good. Still so thankful that Laura's working. Woot! She worked every day this week, and is scheduled for Tues-Fri next week. Double woot! This was supposed to be just a 2-3 day a week job, but apparently they really like her and she's doing awesome. Least that's how it sounds on Laura's end. :)

Bill rewired the upstairs lights today, was a mess he'd been putting off for months, but we really wanted it done before winter. They were wired with the old cloth-wrapped wiring and some of the connections were crappy - Laura could only have a 40 wat bulb in her room or she'd blow her circuit - but it's all fixed now. :) Let's just say he cussed a lot crawling around in attic insulation and fishing wires through the walls. But it's done! Yay!!

I have decided I'm sick and tired of being fat and tired so I went to a Weight Watchers open house yesterday (Saturday) in Ames. Was the closest to our house, even tho it was more than an hour away. I could have driven up to Minnesota instead, there are so few options up here for that, but there are local Weight Watcher chapters, only they almost all meet on Tuesday evening, which I absolutely cannot do.  One place has meetings on Thursday evenings, and I'll visit them this week to see if I like it and think it'll help me. I really need a meeting, I think. I spend pretty much all of my time essentially alone (or with a 10 month old) since Bill, Laura and I all have our own computer activities. I'm freaking LONELY and I need to not be such a hermit. I'm also going to try to root out a TOPS meeting and see how that goes. So I guess we'll see.

I sent out 10 more queries last weekend, one rejection has come back but no word from the rest. Keeping my fingers crossed that the right agent will love my work.

{{huggs}} all around and have a great week!

Ahhhhhh....

Rain.  Steady, comfortable rain.  We've been getting it all day, and it's so welcome.  The front stretches from Dallas to below San Antonio, so thanks to Mother Nature, we've gotten a wonderful amount of watering done on the yards today at all the properties.  The rain has moved out of San Antonio now, but we're due to get some light drizzle for the next two hours or so.  For once, we got the wide part of the rain band.

The Good Stuff:

• Got to see the kids this weekend.  Had a nice visit with them. Delivered a bicycle hubby refurbished for our granddaughter to use at college.
• We got a bonus excitement.  Wednesday night, I learned my brother and his family were going to be at Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine for the weekend.  My sister-in-law's boss had gotten box seats at the Rangers game and rooms at the lodge for his employees, so it was an office outing for them.  I said, "Hey!  We'll be in town too, any chance we can get together?" We arranged to meet for breakfast Sunday morning.  Loved seeing them after two years.  Brother, sister-in-law, three kids, sister-in-law's mother, sister-in-law's sister, and nephew's girlfriend.
• I got a very little done on PBOTL
• I did get some research done on EBay
• Did some sorting -- made a good sized bag of trash

The Not So Good Stuff:

• I didn't ride the bike at the motel this weekend. I did exercises two out of three days.
• I should have done more work on PBOTL than I did

 The Week Ahead:

• Followup appointment with my osteopath on Monday. Adjust my stretching per his direction
• Of course more work on PBOTL
• Finish sorting the four boxes in the blue room and get them put away
• Go to San Antonio for the weekend for the memorial celebration for hubby's friend who died in August
• While there, finish the tub drain repair and make progress on the new support bracing for the toilet. (These are under house jobs hubby needs me present for as a safety observer.)
• Ensure Hershey preparations are put in motion.

Exciting week

Last week was exciting. That's the word I'm going to use. Exciting. I have other words for it, too, but exciting is the one that's fit to be heard.

I met three times with a man who wanted me to publish his textbook for the local technology center. I thought it was a great project and scheduled it to be published in October -- until I received the book. It consisted of about a fourth of his writing and ... drum roll ... photocopied pages of six or so other text books. In this 123 page book, he had only written about 40 pages of it. The rest he was stealing. Of course, he intended to pay me to type in those pages, and so it wouldn't be photocopied any more. He seemed to think it was the photocopies that were the problem and not the fact he was stealing another person's writing.

Why is intellectual theft so hard to understand? If another person writes it, it belongs to that person, and you have no right to copy it or publish it or make derivative works or do anything else with it unless you have the author's permission. (Unless, of course, it's in public domain, and none of those textbooks are.) It doesn't matter if you do it for profit or not for profit or for school or for whatever. I went over this with him. I looked up copyright law and showed that to him. And finally I realized he didn't want to understand or listen.

Despite the loss of the money -- and he would have been my largest contract so far -- I told him I couldn't publish it, and showed him how my contract with authors (that they must sign) specifies that the work is original.

He then told me that he had taken the book first to Staples, and when they saw the photocopied pages, they wouldn't photocopy and bind it for him, either. So he said, "I guess I'm going to have to type it up, and then someone will publish it and they won't know it came from other books."

I ended the meeting soon after that. People who will steal writing will steal other things, too. I don't want to do business with him ever. What galls me is that he attends my church and makes a big deal about his Christian witness. I feel sick about it.

Anyway, this left a hole in my publishing schedule. It occurred to me that maybe I could fill that hole with a book of my own. Over the past 12 years, I had written various Tales from Bethlehem, a retelling of the Nativity Story from the viewpoint of various characters. I had published them on my blog, in my family newsletter, as Christmas card inserts, and a local newspaper. I thought I might have enough material for a book, particularly if I included my Christmas poems and wrote a couple new Tales.

So that's what I'm going to do. Come October, people will get to read the tales of the stable boy, serving girl, cook, clerk, star, camel, donkey, and others. Jean -- awesome Jean! -- had agreed to proofread it for me. You've probably seen the cover on Facebook. If not, I'm going to post it here down below.

So what am I doing this week?

- Working on Tales from Bethlehem, of course.
- Chores.
- Publicity for Kelley Benson's book On Target: Devotions for Modern Life. His books should arrive Thursday. He's very excited about it, and so am I. He's doing a lot of publicity and work.
- Walk three times.
- Writers group meeting Saturday morning.
- Fight off the black dog. It's had me in its grip for a while now. Tired of it.

Hope you have a great week. And here's the possible cover for Tales from Bethlehem.

Wendy's week

Gearing up for the rendezvous. We leave Thursday morning and should have most of the afternoon to start setting up. Really looking forward to having MY wedding this time (the first one was really my mom's since she was my wedding planner), and the second honeymoon will be nice.

Good Stuff:
- Got a fair amount of sewing done, despite the jacket that has been fighting me tooth and nail. Seriously, everything I could have done wrong, I have. I've pretty much made the same jacket twice so far. The only thing left are the sleeve hems.
- I think we have everything we need, and it's all in the dining room or the garage. Packing should be easy.
- Ran 3 1/2 times (got caught in the rain Friday, so I only did half my run), swam twice.
- My Star of Bethlehem monologue turned out to be a skit read by two people--the star and an angel.
- We had some extra fellowship at church today--a light lunch in the parking lot. The weather cooperated, although it was overcast. It's been overcast all weekend.
- I'm going to try something different for NaNo this year. I'm going to do a collection of short stories. I don't plan to have a common theme beyond having a picture for each story which I'll use as a prompt. It's sort of an homage to 1,001 Arabian Nights. The working title is Thirty American Nights. The ulterior motive is, in theory, at the end I'll have several short stories that I can shop around to magazines/e-zines, thereby building my resume and maybe making a little money to put aside for conferences.

Not So Good Stuff:
- My garden has been neglected. I need to get out and pick tomatoes, check on the peppers, and I'm pretty sure I have potatoes ready to dig out, not to mention the brussels sprouts I need to plant for later harvest.
- My house is a disaster area, what with all the gear in the dining room and sewing paraphernalia strewn from the kitchen to the living room.
- Watched WAY too much TV this weekend. HGTV OD.
- Couldn't be bothered to step outside to see the Thunderbirds fly over my house, let go five miles to the base for the air show. It's not like I haven't seen them several times as it is, but usually I at least stand in the street to watch them. Yes, it's been a blah weekend.
- I'm taking the Scrivener class, and the lessons I've done have been really good. The bad news is I'm behind already, and I'm going to miss a week of lessons while I'm gone. Not a fan of playing catch-up even though I seem to do that a lot.

This Week:
- Meeting tomorrow to plan Christmas for church. 
- Pack up and go.

Coding for a better life

I spent a lot of last week coding the final submission of the second book from Many Rivers Harbor. It -- it being On Target: Devotions for Modern Life by Kelley Benson -- published Friday. I'm very proud of the cover; I think it's the best one I've done so far.

This book taught me a lot, too. I learned how to do several new things with Photoshop Elements. I learned how to do some coding on Blogger with their widget templates. I also learned of several things to add to my contracts.

Wait, we need a bit of Sinatra now!



There, that's better.

Anyway, I took what I learned from making Kelley's website and fixed a couple things in my sidebar on 51313 Harbor Street that had always bugged me. So even though that book's cover was a bit of a hassle -- I made 15 different covers before I had one that pleased us both -- I gained from the experience.

And now it's time to start a new project. I have two projects in front of me. They're different in that I won't get money until they're done. Still, I think I could do them both this month. We'll see.

But I was thinking of coding this evening and how coding can completely change the look and impact of a page even change the slant of what's written on that page. And I thought about how cool it would be if we had coding that could so easily change our lives. Of course, people will try sell their "coding" to you. Religions, self-help, mystics, they all have a new coding for you. But we seem to be hardwired for certain behaviors, and while these behaviors can be changed, it takes a lot of work. No easy coding.

Reminds me of how they used to "program" computers by actually moving wires and circuit boards. Laborious and time consuming and frustrating. Software made it much easier to reprogram computers. Human seem to still be hardwired.

Anyway, that's what I was thinking tonight.

This week I will:
- Publish and mail September family newsletter.
- Chose one of the two projects and begin work on it.
- Contact an author about his last payment to me.
- Take an author photo for the publicity story.
- Continue to update my blogs.
- Household chores.
- Walk at least three times.
- Pay and mail bills.
- Catch up on filing.

Wendy's Week

It rained! Thanks to Isaac and the cold front that came through, we've had something like 5". The grass is green again, and Eric had to mow for (I think) the second time this summer. Alex also did it twice when he was home.

Good Stuff:
- Ran 4 days, swam 4 days. I had a little soreness, but not much. Just enough to let me know it was there.
- Started getting gear together for the rendezvous. Our bed is done and all the pieces fit. It's set up in the dining room now; that's my staging area. Funny how I really don't miss the table.
- Managed to make some headway on the house. I keep finding Vicky's things hidden in little nooks and crannies. I'm filling a basket to take to her room. The goal is to have all her stuff upstairs this week. Maybe then I can start keeping the downstairs cleaner. It is easier now that both kids are out.
- It seems that I was in starvation mode. I've started eating more and my weight has gone down just a little bit.
- Started gutting KOC so I can more effectively weave the theme in.
- Finally decided on the last bit of decorative detail for my wedding dress and got the embroidery started. It should work up pretty quickly.

Not So Good Stuff:
- Our church is trying to start a ministry at a local college campus. Today we schlepped stuff to the campus for our first worship service--drums, projector, screen, keyboard, all that band stuff. Nobody from the campus came. We had our keyboard player's parents, friends of the bass player, and a couple people from our church. We think part of the problem is that the director of student affairs dropped the ball and didn't put out our flyers, but we're rethinking the strategy.
- Haven't gotten my jacket finished yet.
- Haven't even thought about painting the upstairs bathroom.

This Week:
- Continue exercise routine.
- Work on KOC
- Drag gear inside and start packing what I can. Make a shopping list and pick up non-perishables.
- Paint (maybe)
- Work on downstairs; decluttering and general cleaning. The carpets need cleaning, but I'm not doing that until after the rendezvous.
- Do some bard story research.
- Re-write the little monologue I did years ago for VBS about the birth of Christ from the Star of Bethlehem's POV.
- Post something on the blog. Maybe the Star monologue. ;-)

I didn't get arrested ;)

But you all already knew that. The experience of being a political activist (I use that term very loosely, btw) was both interesting and mind-numbingly dull. A single state trooper drove across the far side of the parking lot while we protested - I don't know if he even looked our way - and that was the closest we got to getting in trouble at all, other than when one guy brought his sign into the hearing and the secretary of state told him he needed to put it away, and he did without any fuss at all.

The hearing was BORING. O. M. G. More than two hours of listening to lawyers prattle at each other. Our side won - yay!! - and after the Republicans sued the Sec. of State over their ruling and dragged everyone into district court (seriously) we won again. Double yay! Last I heard, that was it but I won't believe it until election day. I gather the GOP is doing similar things all over the country. They're wasting a lot of people's time, money, and attention for what? To keep small and third party candidates off the ballot? In the suit before ours, they were going after a quirky old guy from Ames who just wanted to run for president. Was NUTS. This guy isn't a threat to anyone. It's just bullying and it's disgusting.

The whole process (and how the GOP treated the Ron Paul delegation plus several states- Texas, Maine, Iowa, etc, AND how now the 'winner' will pick who gets to go to the RNC, um, what happened to the PEOPLE being involved in the process, eh??) at their convention made me angrier than before at established parties and super PAC money. This crap needs to stop. On both sides. What happened to compromise and common sense, let alone common decency? Just because some faction has power and money does not mean they need to crush the opposition simply because they're 'other'. I want a better country, a fairer country where everyone matters, not just the wealthy or connected. I get more and more disgusted every day with the two-party stranglehold on us but, at least, seeing how things work at the state level encouraged me and gave me hope. The panel at our hearing (Sec. of State (R), State Auditor (R) and Attorney General (D)) were all kind, focused, and above all else, fair in their questions and comments during the hearing itself. Honestly, I thought we'd lost, that our evidence wasn't as strong as the mountains brought in by the GOP, but the state sided with third party candidates, and so did the district court. So take that super PAC poo heads! :p

I now have Gary Johnson signs in my front yard, btw. Bill even helped me put them up after he (a lifelong conservative) became disgusted at how the RNC treated so many of the attendees at the convention. I still need to put a bumper sticker on the car, tho. If anyone would like a bumper sticker or a flyer, let me know. I grabbed some extras and they'll fit in a regular envelope. ;)

Um. Other stuff.

Had another declination from an agent who'd was interested in Morgan but not SPORE. She loved my writing and query, but didn't warm up to Morgan's character and decided to take a pass. Was an incredible rejection, tho. Super nice. Another agency (they handle some really big biggies) called me on the phone and asked for everything I had. Which I sent, along with a promise to get them all of SPORE once I'd finished. Was the assistant to the head guy at the agency. Very nice gal and we had a good - but short - chat.  Hope I didn't blab too much but she told me that my genre-straddling stuff was precisely what they were looking for, so I'm hopeful. A couple of other agencies have both Morgan and Spore's proposal packet. Still keeping my fingers crossed, but the latest declination puts me at seven, so I need to send out more. Better get that list clarified tomorrow, er, today. :)

I've been making chapter graphics for Spore's chapters these past few days, and gak, they take a lot of TIME, about 1-2 hours each, by the time I figure out what formats the social medias should be, get it all typed in for each different format (some with sub-comments) then arrange in a pleasing yet readable manner. I'm done through chapter 15 (I need to go back and change a couple of things in 13-15 because by then the term 'spore' has also spread instead of 'zombie') but, anyway, I'm really, really tired of making chapter graphics and I don't even know yet if an agent/publisher will want them. But I think the book needs them, so they need to be done. Overall, the book is about 3/4 done, I'm on chapter 19, and I like it. Which is really WEIRD. I never like my books while working on them. Jean and our friend Maripat were a big help in finding the crap places. All of the line edits are done there, but I have a couple of patches yet to fill in.

Bill's job is still in sit-around-limbo, Laura got a good part time job that'll (hopefully) lead to full time in a couple of months, and my granddaughter is All Kinds Of Awesome.

Oh, I'm doing all right myself, a little tired, have caught my annual autumn cold, but otherwise just fine.

Blabbered enough. Have a great September, everyone!!  {{huggs}}

Nine Months Later...

We're still in 2012.  We had a cold front come through last night, so today is a chilly 84 degrees.  Despite my sarcasm, I much prefer that to 100 degrees.  I hope this sticks around for awhile.

The Good Stuff:

• I paused work on PBOTL long enough to design a really wonderful exhibit for Inuit.  I had to design it before I could rewrite the scene, because Inuit is looking over the plans, offering suggestions, and approving the construction.  My sketches won't win any awards, but it helps me see what should be there.  This is just the public exhibit.  The behind the scenes stuff is pretty bland.
• Bike and stretching is doing fine.
• Lost the weight I gained last week.  I'm on a fairly even plateau.  I'm going to need to make some changes if I want to get back in losing mode.
• Hubby moved his music to the shop and is putting it in file cabinets.  That means we have more room in the blue room.  The goal is to clean that room out enough to set up the bed.  This has gotten me kick-started on going through some boxes.  I wish I could say I was ditching stuff right and left, but I'm not.  Alternatively, I conversed with a high school acquaintance about how he has his EBay business set up.  I have a number of items that might move that way, and I could get them out of here.  There's always yard sale, donation, and trash after that.
• We got dog kennel panels moved to the shop.  There are three more in the garage, but they are okay where they are at--for now.
• I jotted down the daily goals for Backward NaNo.  I liked the way that went for me last year.  Usually the excitement of the first few days makes the >3000 word counts easier to do.  Then the declining goal for the rest of the month is motivational.  I didn't make the count every day last year, but I feel as if I got caught up sooner.  Once the daily goal is down, I add the total words month to date needed to be on track on parenthesis.  Once NaNo starts, I'll write the actual total words month to date, which lets me know at a glance where I stand.  I just do it in a notebook.  I suppose I could do a spreadsheet and track results from year to year and do all kinds of analysis.  Yes, that does sound fun to me.
• I replaced my bike headlight, because I thought when the batteries corroded in it they had done too much damage.  I'd cleaned up the contacts, but when I put batteries in, it didn't light.  Hubby put different batteries in, and it worked fine. So, other than the added expense of a new LED headlight, I have two headlights now, which is actually a good thing. 
• I bought my NaNo gear for this year and made my annual donation.

The Not So Good Stuff:

• The DRUDGE report headlines this week were all election-related -- and I'm sure they will be from now until November.  I can't imagine coming up with a NaNo story based on variants of what I'm seeing.  I'll revisit that idea another time, maybe.
• I called DPS -- never got a response from my web query.  My license was returned to them, because they mailed it to Alabama (how did the mailing address not get corrected during the renewal process?).  They will send it out again (hopefully to the San Antonio address), and I should have it in one to two weeks.  Even though I have renewed my license and they have it in the system as renewed, I can be ticketed for driving during this time after the temporary expired and whenever it decides to find me via the mail.  I hope this try goes smoothly, because I'm the primary driver on our October trip.
• Supposedly there is a driver license office here in Central TX.  I may stop in and see if they can issue me a replacement temporary even though they aren't a SA office.
• The third generation iPod is giving me all kinds of troubles.  I wound up wiping and reformatting the drive.  It took forever to get iTunes to recognize it. Now, it's hanging whenever  I plug it in and it tries to sync some podcasts to it.  I'm not sure it's worth this trouble, but I'm trying to figure the problem out.
• I have so much I want to read, and I'm not getting any of it read.  This is a bad year for reading.
• I used the remnants of hubby's marinade mix that I found in the fridge to season a pork roast and tossed the bottle.  Turns out, it was his mixing bottle.  Oops.  (He was not happy.)

The Week Ahead:

• Going to Dallas this weekend to hang with the kids
• Continue work on PBOTL
• Continue trying to figure out what to do for NaNo
• Continue sorting boxes and books
• Research what's happened with EBay since I last listed anything with them.  Consider firing up an EBay shop (or at least beginning to list items) in November.
• Continue stretching and riding the bike -- take the heating pad and my yoga mat (easier to travel with than the bulky fitness mat I use at home) to Dallas and use the motel fitness room for the bike ride.

Digging out

I mostly spent last week digging myself out of the piles of papers and chores that had accumulated during the frentic publishing process over the past two months. I had a break because we're waiting for the proof of On Target: Devotions for Modern Life. The book proof should arrive Tuesday, and everything will start up again.

I've been working on the Many Rivers Harbor website. It's currently hosted free HERE. Eventually, it will move to its own domain. It's a work in progress. If you can drop by, I would appreciate your feedback. I'm especially proud of the Online Bookstores page. I finally got all the spacing and formatting the way I wanted them.

A man contacted me about publishing his autobiography. Haven't made up my mind to do it or not. It would be major money, but also major work. His life is interesting, but the book needs hours and hours and hours of editing. And I think he has inflated expectations of the sales potential of the book. I feel cautious about it, but I'm considering it. The contact will need to be iron-clad, though.

This week, I plan to:
- Deliver book proof to author when it arrives, and it should arrive Tuesday.
- Catch up on chores. Seriously.
- Read above mentioned autobiography and make decision about publishing it.
- Walk at least three times at gym.
- Watch diet better. Have slipped over the last two months.
- Work on Tales of Bethlehem, which will be MRH's next book if I don't accept the autobiography.
- Continue to work on MRH's website. Can you think of things I should add there?
- Publish the September family newsletter.

And that's it. Hope you have a great week!

Wendy's late week

We went to visit the parents in Michigan for the long weekend. It was worth the long drive. I got to see my brother, and he behaved like a grown-up. So did I. ;-) Dad taught Eric to shoot a muzzleloader, which is much more involved than people think.

Good stuff:
- Mom, Eric and I went to the Michigan Renaissance Festival on Saturday. We did some shopping (Eric's Christmas present was the easy one this year), and the added bonus was seeing Tartanic, a bagpipe band we like. We had no idea they were going to be there. We bought some CDs and had them autographed, and I had my picture taken with one of the drummers. You probably saw them on Facebook.
- Talked to my parents about the importance of knowing how to text in case of emergency. They were far more receptive to it than I thought they would be.
- Got a lot of sewing done. The petticoat is finished, and the jacket should be with a few more hours' work. I hope. I didn't get into my sewing basket for the trip because it wasn't done enough.
- I swam and ran a couple of times each.
- Inventoried camp gear to make sure we have enough seats and dishes.
- Coordinated with the scribe for the rendezvous. She's set up our ceremony for public participation/viewing in the tavern tent, which I think is hilarious considering we got married in a Presbyterian church and couldn't have wine at the reception in the church basement. Not that it mattered at the time. I wasn't old enough to drink. It is quite appropriate since we're going Colonial Scottish. The reception is private, thank goodness, because I don't want to feed everyone who comes to the ceremony!

Not So Good Stuff:
- My diet was deplorable while we were away. I don't even want to think about what the number on the scale is going to be tomorrow.
- Dug some larger size shorts out of the Good Will box. This is both good and very bad. At least my procrastination saved me a couple of bucks.
- I'm frustrated enough with Weight Watchers right now to think about quitting for a while. Anyone know anything about starvation mode? I'm in loss mode, and some days I don't eat all of my daily points. I never touch my weekly points, and I almost always have activity points left over. The website was less than forthcoming, but I didn't have a lot of time to wade through it last week. The reason I haven't quit yet is that I feel like I should have some kind of plan in place before I do. No matter what I do, I need to drop another ten or fifteen pounds. I'm pretty sure it's not stress anymore. I'm supplementing B vitamins and feeling calmer.
- The cats are alternately clingy and not talking to me for leaving them over the weekend. They'll really be irritated when I leave them for a week!
- Didn't get much writing related stuff done. Hope to tackle that this week.
- My bard mentor ended up staying home in Kansas City to dog sit for a friend in the hospital. We'll see each other at the end of the month at the Scottish Games, and he's planning to stick around for a few days afterward, so we might be able to connect then. 

This Week:
- Write (obviously)
   --Type in revisions on King Or Country, rework applicable spots
   --Work on the snowflake for the Gilded Age novel (working name is currently Tim)
- Sew (jacket)
- Stain the camp bed frame and get it out of the dining room
- Start getting clothing and gear together
- Start priming the upstairs bathroom. Now that Vicky is in the process of moving out, the Manson Family Bathroom is going to be redecorated. (Note to self: take Before pics)
- Rearrange garage to better store camp gear and other crap. I mean stuff.
- Run/swim at least 4 times.

Time To Celebrate Your Labor

I hope Labor Day works out well for you.  You're obviously all off celebrating -- or that's what I'll believe for now.

The Good Stuff:

• The bike riding got easier this week.  No pain.  Smooth movement.  I guess all the rough edges got worn off.
• More (slow) progress on PBOTL
• Revised the blogging schedule.  Even less aggressive than before, but I think I will like it.  I'll give it two months to make sure.
• Ultrasound reveals only fibroids.  There are five potential actions to take as a result of this.  Two of them I've ruled out.  For now, I'm going to take the "wait and see," because the other two are invasive, and I'm not in the mood for it -- and the problem, at this point, doesn't seem to warrant them.  That just means instead of annual exams, I'll have to go in every six months. 
• Downspouts arrived safe and sound

The Not So Good Stuff:

• Weight went up a little this week.
• The water leak at the store cost us $60 additional dollars on the water bill.  
• A limb broke in San Antonio and broke half the power line at the San Antonio house.  That meant when hubby got there earlier this week for a doctor appointment, he could turn on a few lights, but the refrigerator and the air conditioner were not working.  He called City Public Service, and they had it fixed in about two hours.  He wasn't there long enough to do much with the refrigerator, but he tossed the stuff that had gone bad from the top and allowed the freezer to refreeze.  We threw that out this morning and put a new box of baking soda in the freezer.  Next time we get back to town, we'll have to devote time and effort to doing a thorough cleaning.  The smell isn't too bad, but I definitely want it to go away.
• I renewed my driver license in mid-July and the temporary they gave me until my permanent license would arrive expired yesterday.  The new license hasn't arrived yet.  I contacted the Department of Public Safety yesterday asking them what what happening.  The site says to give them two business days to get back to me.  I'm guessing they had an old mailing address in AL in the system and it went there instead of San Antonio?  We won't be back there until later this month, so even though I've renewed my license, if I drive and have a problem, I'll probably be in hot water.  Not happy about that.

The Week Ahead:

• Continue work on PBOTL
• Continue riding the bike and doing the stretching exercises
• Check the water at the store to make sure it's still not leaking
• Find a way to get the songs off my Third Generation iPod, reformat it for Mac, and get the songs and books back on it.  This is not working as well as it should.  I'm not sure why I care.  Maybe I should just reformat it and deal with it from there.
• Begin collecting Drudge headlines to see if I can make them into something coherent for NaNo
• Find a few more recipes that hubby might eat, get menu planning done for two weeks at a time.  Look for ways to make our regular recipes lower in carbs.  We want to get 14 into the rotation, and we only have about nine at the moment.