Slacking Off

Well, after seeing Colin and Brad and Sunday, what else can I post to top that? That's part of the reason I haven't posted: just another case of same ol', same ol'. I've also been very lazy this week. I've done some reviews on OWW, but my writing has been slow. Maybe it's time for me to leave Key alone for a while and work on something else, like Day or editing Lennon's Line. I might start over with Day, and I'm on the editing stage of Lennon's Line. Would anyone else like to switch the first part from first person to third person for me? I didn't think so. Maybe I just need more sleep to recharge my batteries.

And Dear NYer, what happened to the idea of you coming out to the Midwest sometime soon?

Dances with Mousetraps

As I stated earlier, Eugene and I went to a comedy show in Waukegan tonight. We had dinner first with Kristi and Lyle, so it was nice seeing them again. The performers in the comedy show were Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood, both of Who's Line Is It Anyway? I was worried at first I would have a variable obstructed view (behind a tall person), but I still managed to see the show well enough.

I can't even begin to describe how much we laughed tonight. I quickly reached the point where I started to cough, and then I got exhausted from laughing. Eugene must have more laughter stamina than I do. Here's a brief recap of some of the highlights (keep in mind this is all improv comedy):

* Five children on stage honking bicycle horns to make Colin and Brad change what they had just said. The kids did it so much Brad took the horns away from a couple of them.

* Brad "shooting" Colin's leg to stop him from break-dancing. (Well, Colin is Canadian, so I suppose it was for the best.)

* A "Sound Effects" game where one of the audience members, a woman, had to make sounds for Brad. Her bullhorn effects were so bad Colin said Brad had the "gay" button pushed on his bullhorn, and instead of making a booming sound, she just said, "Explosion." Even I can do better than that!

* Wearing edible orange underware, a bunny suit, and a sombero, Brad stole hamburgers and hot dogs from Jimmy Hoffa and tied the fourth amoeba with dental floss in Soakatoea with a catapault and a bowling ball. Don't ask me how I remembered all of that.

For the last game, Colin and Brad blindfolded themselves, took off their shoes and socks, and played an alphabet game on a stage covered with live mousetraps. (It was fun watching them go off on the table during setup.) Mousetraps got caught on their feet and pants; I cringed more than I laughed. By the end, Colin and Brad were throwing the mousetraps at each other. I'll never look at that game the same way again.

It was a great show, and if they come back next year, hopefully we can see them.

Final writing marathon update: this afternoon, I wrote 559 words. I think I'll wait until tomorrow evening to summarize the marathon; now it's time to go to bed.

Harmony Sweepstakes

As I mentioned in my previous post, last night we went to the Harmony Sweepstakes, a regional contest for acappella groups, in Skokie. (The winner gets to travel to San Francisco for the national finals.) We've gone to several of these annual contests, though we had to skip last year since it fell on Easter weekend. This year we were joined by our friend Jen. Eight groups performed for 10 minutes each; in between groups, the winning group from last year acted as hosts and entertained while the judges evaluated the groups. There was a wide range of groups this year: two married couples, a church group (we felt their song selections were too preachy for Skokie, which has a large Jewish population), a couple of younger mixed groups, and some all-male groups, one of which performed songs that can best be described as surreal. Although the surreal group was the most entertaining and won audience favorite (they performed an encore about Canadians), I heard after the show that they had gone over the time limit, even though one of their members acted strictly as a timekeeper. The winning group was one that we'd seen perform a couple of times before, so it was nice to see them win. I particularly liked their arrangement of "Last Train to Clarksville." The contest ended around 11:30, but we hung around to buy some CDs and see if any of the groups would perform an "Afterglow" (singing in the lobby). They didn't, but we bought four or five CDs, so that should tide us over until next March.

Today we might run some errands before driving up to Waukegean. We're going to an improv comedy show featuring a couple of actors from Whose Line Is It Anyway? Beforehand, we're going to get together with a couple of friends for dinner. Eugene also wants to go to a bookstore, so hopefully I'll be able to finish the last time of the writing marathon with some more words under my belt.

I Did It!

I made my quota for the week--one day early. Despite, cleaning, errands, and laundry, I wrote 623 words on Key. And yes, I did reward myself by scheduling an appointment for a facial at a spa. I won't be writing more tonight, though--we're off to Harmony Sweepstakes, a regional acappella contest. We've been there before, but this year we're going with a friend. I'll write more about it either tonight or tomorrow.

Productive Day

Earlier this week, we had a new instrument installed in our lab. We had some problems with it, but that was mostly because of our ignorance. The tech came out again to help us, and now things are going well. (Of course, I can't say what they are.)

My writing is also going well tonight: 797 words in Key. Nothing like promising yourself a reward to motivate yourself. Since we have plans this weekend, I figured it would be good to get some extra words down tonight in case I don't have enough time to reach quota tomorrow or Sunday.

Link to Writer Quiz

Since Russ asked for the link to this quiz, I thought I'd post it here so other people can take it:

http://www.blogthings.com/whattypeo...houldyoubequiz/


Did you take this one already, Sue? If you did, what did you get?

This Should Be No Surprise

You Should Be a Science Fiction Writer

Your ideas are very strange, and people often wonder what planet you're from.And while you may have some problems being "normal," you'll have no problems writing sci-fi.Whether it's epic films, important novels, or vivid comics...Your own little universe could leave an important mark on the world!

What Type of Writer Should You Be?

The HTML got screwed up again. It should say "You Should be a Science Fiction Writer" above the picture. (This is one of the quizzes from blogthings.com, since I think the link is also messed up.) And true to this result, I wrote 568 words on Key tonight. After this marathon is over on Sunday, I plan to treat myself to a facial at a spa--assuming I keep up the pace and continue meeting my daily goal.

I'm So Tired...

I'm not sure why, but I haven't been sleeping too well lately, and it's really catching up to me tonight. I did manage to write 500 words on the nose, but I'm not going to push myself to write more. I think I'll pull out the latest issue of Scientific American, read a little as I have some warm milk, and then call it a night. But before I go, I just want to say "hi" to Adam and Natalie if they're reading this. Eugene called them tonight, and it was nice talking to them. We need to call our friends more often; I keep meaning to and then get caught up in something else. That's what I like about this blog; it allows me to keep in touch with some of my college friends. Until later, then....

High Score!

I have a bad habit of playing games while I write. One of my favorites is Text Twist on Yahoo! The object of the game is to see how many different words (three to six letters) you can make from a six-letter word. You also have to get the six-letter word in order to advance. I'll play a round or two, then I'll go back to my story and write some more. Today I did well on both accounts. I wrote 607 words in Key, and I got a new high score in Text Twist. My previous high score was 151,990; tonight I reached 174,620. I had occasional help from Eugene; whenever he passed my computer, he helped me with the six-letter word if I hadn't already gotten it. But most of this was my doing. The bad news is that since Yahoo! logs you out every 24 hours, I passed my sign-in time and lost my high score. (And no, that doesn't mean I was playing for over 24 hours; I'm not that crazy.) Ah well, at least I can immortalize my score here.

What's in a Name?

Apparently as a side effect of being married, I've acquired the ability to speak/read Spanish. I've received a couple of flyers in Spanish, and last night during dinner, the phone rang. I got up to answer it, and the conversation went something like this:

Male Caller: Something unintelligible
Me: Huh?
Male Caller: Something unintelligible
Me: Sorry, I don't speak Spanish.
Male Caller: Are you Hispanic?
Me: No.
(End of call)

I suppose I could completely throw them off and try answering in Tagalog, but so far about all I've mastered is the names of a couple of dishes. I still struggle with "Thank you." Maybe I should just speak to them in German so we can play Phone of Babel.

Chugging Along...

And the word count for the day is 521 words on Key. I really ought to work on Day; I've been neglecting the outline for the last couple of weeks since Key has been coming along so well. I'm too lazy to do it tonight, though.

We called the photographer to turn in the error list. They said it would be another three to three-and-a-half weeks for the new photos to come in. That should be close to your birthday, Russ. Hopefully you'll get them by then, but we'll let you know when we send them out.

And In Other News....

Today Eugene and I invited my parents down for lunch. Their 47th anniversary is on Tuesday, so we wanted to celebrate. We also wanted to show them our album and give them their pictures. The lunch menu was salad, homemade wheat and honey rolls, pork chops with bread-and-spinach stuffing, additional stuffing baked on the side, wild rice, spinach sauteed with pine nuts and raisins, and fruit tarts for dessert. (We cheated with the fruit tarts and bought them from Jewel.) It was good having them over, even if Mom told Eugene too many stories about what I was like when I was younger. I guess moms like to do that.

We had a tango class again tonight. We didn't do as much dancing as we did last time, as we learned more decorations to the steps we've already learned. There's a possibility that our instructors will have yet another level for our class, but it's up in the air at the moment. It would be nice to have the practice, especially since we're only now beginning to talk more with our classmates. We might try going in a group to a dance club sometime. It would be more fun (and less embarrassing) to have other beginners to practice with.

Finally, I'm going to try posting that Personal DNA map again, since mine is different from what my friends have been getting.

Faithful Analyst

You are an Analyst

Your attention to detail, confidence, sense of order, and focus on functionality combine to make you an ANALYST.

You are very curious about how things work, delving into the mechanics behind things.

Along those lines, how well something works is usually more important to you than what it looks like.

You find beauty and wonder mainly in concrete, functional, earthly things.

You are very aware of your own abilities, and you believe that you will find the best way of doing things.

Accordingly, problems do not intimidate you, as you believe in yourself.

You trust yourself to find solutions within the boundaries of your knowledge.

You don't spend a lot of time imagining how things could be different—you're well-grounded in the here-and-now.

It is important for you to follow a routine, and you prefer the familiar to the unknown.

Your independent streak allows you to make decisions efficiently and to trust your instincts

You are balanced in your approach to problem-solving, not letting your emotions hold you up.

You prefer to have time to plan for things, feeling better with a schedule than with keeping plans up in the air until the last minute.

Generally, you believe that you control your life, and that external forces only play a limited role in determining what happens to you.

You are Faithful

Your trust in others, respect for tradition, and caring nature make you FAITHFUL.

Maintaining a few intimate relationships is more important to you than knowing a lot of people, and you share a lot with your close friends.

Those who have managed to get close to you value your camaraderie, and they know that they can trust you with anything; you're a good listener.

While you can usually see several sides of an argument, you often have a strong opinion as to which side is correct—the order of things is usually clear to you.

Your perspective on the world is based on careful observation, and you know a lot about how people feel in—and react to—many situations.

Your exploration of others' feelings has led you to believe that although people generally act appropriately, having clear social rules is very important to a functional society.

Time alone for reflection is important to you—you are introspective and aware of your own feelings.

Faithful is as faithful does—you expect those with whom you are close to be loyal to you, and you take betrayal of your trust very seriously.

And My Total Is...

516 words today on Key, for a grand total of 3,552 words for the week. I was more consistent this week, with the exception of Friday and Saturday. One more week to go....

Catching Up

Well, despite my poor word count yesterday, I made up for it today with 798 words in Key. I stand a good chance of meeting my weekly goal tomorrow after all. Still, it will be nice once this marathon is over in another week. It's good to push myself like this, but I do need a break every so often.

In between my writing sessions today, Eugene and I went to his brother's birthday party. As is typical of his family, they had a large party with guests filling the living room, dining room, and kitchen. There was also lots of food. We took pictures of Jason and Marissa, his girlfriend, with his cake. Eugene so some especially good ones, so I'll wait for him to send those too me before I post them. Besides, I have to admit I'm feeling too lazy to upload the pictures. Perhaps I'll take care of them tomorrow or later this week.

It's Time to Play the Music...

Well, it was last night. For our weekly movie night, Eugene and I watched a DVD of some classic Muppet espisodes with Elton John, Julie Andrews, and Gene Kelly. And yes, this was inspired by the recent Muppet comments in Russ's blog. We thought of you every time we saw Scooter, Russ, as well as Sara for the Swedish Chef. Fozzie (with an "O") made a couple of appearances, but Honeydew was only on one episode. I guess Eugene and I just aren't as popular. We dozed off for a bit afterwards, so I wound up with only 77 words for the night. Way below quota, bad Sandra! I had to spend the day cleaning the apartment, and then Eugene and I are going to his brother's birthday party. Tomorrow's going to be busy too, so we'll see if I make my weekly goal. Wish me luck!

Test Post

I had some problems with an earlier post tonight. I took a personality test on an online site, but when I tried pasting in the graphic, it didn't work. Hopefully this post will go through.

I wrote 522 words on Key and baked a batch of honey wheat rolls. I'd hoped to get a little more done tonight, but it didn't happen. Time to go soak in a bubble bath instead.

Anthology Update

Some of you may remember last year that I sold a short story to a fantasy anthology. It's an unusual situation in that the editor hasn't sold the anthology itself to a publisher. I hadn't heard anything from them since last July, even after I queried. Today the main editor finally sent out an update. It turned out that her original co-editor had to step down, but luckily another one joined the project and was able to help her. They plan to submit the anthology to a publisher next month. Cross your fingers that she accepts it. They do have some alternates in mind in case she turns it down, but it would be a great relief to learn that this book has a home.

My word count for the day was 547 words on Key. We spent part of the evening double-checking the extra pictures from our photographer. Russ, I'm sorry to say there were a couple of problems with your order. The photographer got the proof number mixed up for one of the pictures you ordered, and it looks like you copied down the wrong number for another picture. (It looks like you meant to order a picture of yourself, but instead you got one of Adam.) We'll go over the orders one more time before we contact the photographer. Hopefully it won't take as long to fix the prints as it did to get them back.

Wedding Photos!

Daily word check-in: 591 words in Key. I did really well before dinner, but towards the end the muse decided I'd done enough for the night.

As I mentioned yesterday, we got to pick up our album order from the photographer tonight. A couple of pictures for the album got mixed up, but they'll fix them for us. We're pretty pleased with the results despite the mix-up. We still have to review all of the orders for our guests to make sure they're correct before we send them out. Here are a few pictures I took with my camera as a preview:


Our wall folio. The top picture is of us with both sets of parents.

















Our album, in navy with silver lettering (to match our wedding colors). It says "Our Wedding" above the photo; in the corner are our names and the wedding date.











A sample page from the album, where Eugene and I walk down the aisle with our parents.











The final page, where we bid everyone good night. I think that's what I should be doing right now...

A Little Late...

Last month, Eugene and I met up with one of his cousins, who was visiting from Indianapolis. I took a couple of pictures, but I forgot to upload them until now.

Eugene, his cousin's son Carlo, and me. The last time Carlo was here (in December), he left his Gameboy in Eugene's car. I think that's the real reason he wanted to see us!









Eugene's cousin Alvin, Carlo, and me.

Quick Check-In

And the word count for the day was 501 words in Key. We'll see how off-Key they are when I revise. (Yes, I'll be here all week. Why are you leaving?) In other news, Eugene got to see a band of cats play instruments when he dropped off some rabies tags for one of his clients. She's an animal trainer who's appeared on Jay Leno and other shows. One of Eugene's cats at the clinic was hers and used to be able to play the drums and ride a skateboard. He saw cats play the drums, the piano, and a guitar. I don't think they're up to covering Beatles tunes, though.

We found out tonight that our wedding pictures are done ahead of schedule. We get to pick them up and start the sorting process tomorrow. It should be interesting to see how well the album turned out, since it was hard figuring that out.

I Made Quota!

Given the couple of days this week where I didn't meet my goal, that's good news indeed. I managed to write 756 words today for a grand total of 3630 words. I also managed to finish a chapter; in fact, the drive to finish is what put me over the top. I still haven't had a chance to do much with the outline for Day; hopefully I can tackle that this coming week.

Since it was Sunday, I did more than just write. Eugene and I had our Tango Level IV class, which was one hour of demonstrations/practice followed by an hour of dancing/putting it all together. Eugene finally found a pair of dancing shoes yesterday, so that helped him with the turns. Things are beginning to come together, though we still need to practice, practice, practice. Hopefully we can do so during the week. Eugene brought in more cookies again; he made two different chocolate-loaded batches. Perhaps that's why we're getting to know our classmates better. ;) We talked with some of them for a while after class, despite the thunderstorm. We then had sushi for dinner and came back here. Now it's time to get ready for another week.

1964: The Tribute

I had trouble accessing Blogspot yesterday afternoon, so I couldn't post my daily writing word count. It was 509 words in Key. I also finally managed to post a review of Melinda's latest chapter.

Yesterday I drove up to Waukegan to visit my friend Kristi and see a Beatles tribute band with her. It's no stretch to say that the trip from my place to hers is a long and winding road indeed. This was the first time I saw her apartment, and it's very nice. We talked for a bit before having dinner and then going to the show. We got there as the opening act was starting. Kristi got front row center seats through work, so the view couldn't be better. I was worried that I'd be deafened by the music, but we weren't next to the speakers, so it was fine. The opening act was a group called StockWood, the world's youngest Beatles tribute band. The drummer was only nine, and the other members didn't look as if they'd reached puberty yet. They weren't bad, although a couple of songs in the middle sounded off to me in an unexplainable way. The "George" player had only been playing for nine months, and his bangs were so long I wondered how he could see. I hope he was wearing a wig. I think they'd go over well at The Fest for Beatles Fans (yes, that's the official name) if they came.

The main act had much older members; they'd been playing for 22 years. They did two sets. Some Beatles tribute bands do several costume changes throughout their shows, but this group stuck to the early suits (Cuban heels and all) for the whole show. They also only played songs that the Beatles performed live. They were pretty good about staying in character, but of course their faces weren't those of the Beatles. The second half of the show seemed more energetic to me than the first half. At the end, Kristi got "John's" guitar pick, which I thought was cool. My voice was hoarse from singing (and coughing), so that's a sure sign that I had a good time.

It rained during the concert, and when we came out, it was quite foggy. I'd brought some clothes with me just in case I needed to stay overnight, so I did. As much I wanted to be home with Eugene, I didn't feel safe driving back late at night under those conditions. Besides, it gave me more time to talk with Kristi. Although we were both yawning, we stayed up until 1:00 talking about various things. The drive back this morning was much better, and hopefully I'll get to see her again in a couple of weeks when Eugene and I go up there for a comedy show.

Falling Behind

My word count for today is 373. It would have been better if I hadn't had one of those evenings where you get tired all of a sudden and need to crash on the couch for a while. Eugene and I watched a Sting DVD after dinner, so I crocheted a few rows of my afghan. I would have liked to have written afterwards, especially since I'm approaching the end of a chapter, but I was still too tired. Hopefully I can make up some lost ground tomorrow afternoon. I'm going to a Beatles tribute concert with my friend Kristi tomorrow night, so I may or may not blog before then. If not, I'll tell you about the concert Sunday.

Just the Words, Ma'am, Just the Words

Today's total is 558 on Key, which gets me over quota for the day but doesn't quite make up for yesterday. That's OK, though. For now, I want to start a crit that's been on my list for a few days. Poor Melinda was wonder what I'm doing, that is, if she doesn't know I'm participating in the writing marathon.

More Meat Than Words

I only wrote 301 words in Key tonight, but that's because a Sam's Club run took up a good chunk of our evening. We stocked up on almost every type of meat you can think of--chicken, beef, pork, fish, even sausage. By the time we brought everything home and portioned it into bags for the freezer, it was almost 9:00. The important thing is now I have plenty of protein to keep me strong for tomorrow's writing stint.

Liz

I got to talk to my maid of honor, Liz, tonight. She sent us a card yesterday, so I gave her a call. She was at choir practice but called me when she came home. I never know what her work schedule is like (it varies a lot, and she works weekends), so it's difficult to contact her sometimes. We talked for half an hour about movies, work, deer, and several other things. Hopefully next month when the wedding photos are done, Eugene and I can go visit her and bring her the pictures.

My word count for today was 594 words on Key. I don't think I'll get far on an outline or crit tonight, so I might just relax for a bit before turning in.

Daily Check-In

Well, I repeated my experiment from Friday, and this time it worked. I noted a couple of things I should discuss with my boss when I bring in my results tomorrow, though. Since I was working from home again, I was able to write two reviews today before turning to my own project. I wrote 539 words on Key. I'm noticing that even though I did write a rough outline of this part of the novel before writing it, I'm still improvising a lot of the scenes. That's not surprising; when I wrote the outline, it was very general, just summarizing that the characters were looking for Scott and what he was doing when they found him. Actually, I just pulled up the outline and realized I'm not following it as closely as I thought I was. Well, it's been a while since I've looked at it. Just goes to show why I haven't bothered with outlines in the past, but I do need to try them again and see if they will help me with Day. Maybe I should return to working on the outline for that and count the words towards my daily quota. (So far I've been only counting words that are part of an actual draft, which is why I've been focusing on Key much more than Day. I'm not sure how I want to go forward with that.)

There's still some time before bed, but I think I'll see what my husband is up to instead of sitting at the computer all night.

Not the Last Dance After All

It turns out that our teachers are going to teach a Level IV class, since there's enough interest in one. It'll run for the next three Sundays at an earlier time. There'll be one hour of class and one hour of dancing to music so we have a chance to practice putting all of the moves together. We could certainly use the practice. Our weekends are going to be very busy this month; in fact, we're scheduled to go to a comedy show the last session of the Level IV class. We can make it up privately, however.

It's too late to write anymore tonight, so I'm going to send in my total for the week. I managed 557 words on Key earlier, so my grand total is 4,271 words. That's a lot better than I expected I would do. The question now is if I can keep it up.

I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change

That's the name of the musical Eugene and I saw last night. It's about relationships, from dating to marriage to divorce/widowhood and beyond. The cast, two men and two women, take on various roles as they go from scene to scene. (One of them looked like Russ, especially in one scene where he played a lawyer.) Eugene and I thought many of the points made in these scenes were true-to-life. Some of the scenes were funny, such as when one of the women asks a man to bring condoms over when she makes dinner for him or when a family was driving along in their "car" (four wheeled chairs powered Fred Flintstone style), and some were touching, such as when a middle-aged man wonders if he should be less in love with his wife or when two elderly people find love at a funeral. (That was one of my favorite scenes.) We enjoyed this musical and would recommend seeing it if it comes to your area. I think it's finally finishing its run in Chicago.

We're supposed to get several inches of snow today, but that hasn't stopped us from doing the laundry or shopping for groceries, and it won't keep us from tango tonight. Before then, I'll see if I can do some more writing. I'm at 3714 words for the week, which is over my original goal of 3500/week. Let's see if I can keep that up or if I can make it to 4000 for the week. I also need to review some chapters. Sue was kind enough to tell me to focus on the marathon and not review her latest chapters, but two other people put up new ones. A critter's work is never done.

Signs of Spring

Earlier today as I was running errands, I was so warm I not only turned the heater off in my car, I even opened the windows. That's pretty amazing for a thermophile like me. Also, as I drove home, I saw a flock of birds in the sky. They were amassed like a levitating blob morphing into heart-like shapes. I can just see Ysabel (one of my characters from Day; she has animal magic) guiding them into even more precise patterns. Must make mental note for possible use later on.

Word count for the afternoon: 661 words on Key, writing an entire scene from Julia's POV. Whether or not it's a good scene remains to be, er, seen; I think I'm spinning my wheels and repeating things I've established in previous scenes. Still, at least I'm getting words down. Perhaps I'm finally letting my inner editor release her firm grip on my fingers. Besides, Key is in first draft mode; aren't first drafts allowed to suck? I don't have that excuse with Day, but again, I need to outline that. Perhaps I'll have some time for that tonight between dinner and our departure for the musical.

Speaking of dinner, I'd better preheat the oven and let the dough come to room temperature.

Is It the 3rd or the 13th?

It feels more like Friday the 13th than the 3rd. After starting my experiment right after breakfast and carefully tending it through the morning and early afternoon, it failed to work. I think what happened is I added some ingredients we've been using in the lab, and they didn't work with this recipe. I had to discard everything and call it a day, though I actually went to work for an hour so I could report what happened and obtain some new materials so I can repeat this project on Monday. Also, the endless string of zeroes happened to me twice more. I scanned my computer but didn't find any viruses or spyware. Hopefully it's not a hardware problem that will force me to send my computer in for service. But the worst thing of all didn't happen to me or even Eugene (who got stuck in traffic on the way home). We found out that a friend's brother died yesterday. I don't know what happened or how old he was, but that does make my problems trivial. But as proof that the circle of life continues to spin, we received a Save-the-Date from another friend for her wedding in June. (Save-the-dates are "pre-invitations" brides send out well ahead of invitations so guests can clear their schedules.) Also, despite all of this, I managed to write 681 words for Key. Whether or not these are good words remains to be seen, but that's another marathon. And besides, now it's time to see if Eugene is far enough along in his baking to watch our Friday night movie. Are you coming, dear?

Infinite Nothingness

That's what I got this morning when I tried to reply to a topic on one of my message boards: an endless stream of zeroes. I thought at first it was a problem with my mouse, but when I tried using the touchpad on my laptop, that didn't fix it. I opened one of my novels and got the same thing, even after playing with some of the keys. At first I worried the keyboard was damaged and that I'd have to return my laptop to Dell for service, which is something I've had to do before. Then I decided to reboot my laptop to see if the problem would disappear. Obviously, it did. Maybe I shouldn't be putting my laptop on Standby so much; I should have left it on overnight last night so it could run a virus scan. I can set up a scan when I know I'll be away from the computer for a while.

OK, time to check my experiment, then start writing.

Weekend Preview

First, the writing update for the day: 733 words on Key. Since we had leftovers tonight, I was able to get some writing done before dinner. That was very helpful. I haven't worked on the outline for Day yet, but since it's only 10:00, I should have some time for that before we go to bed.

Although the last couple of days have been routine, Eugene and I have some fun things planned for the weekend. I'm working at home again tomorrow; I'm running the same experiment I did last week with a couple of changes. After dinner, we plan to get some groceries and watch a movie. Saturday night, we're going to see a musical called I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change. I think we discussed going to see it a couple of years ago, but now that it's closing its run, we're finally getting off of our duffs and going to it. We only bought tickets this week, but luckily they were still available. It should be interesting to see what, if anything, this show has to say about marriage. Sunday evening is our final tango lesson. Eugene is planning to bring some of the cookies he made at Christmas time, so we'll have plenty of extra energy to dance to.

I'm not sure how much blogging time I'll get in after these events, so I thought I'd preview them now. I'm also not sure if this will interefere with my writing, but at least I significantly went over my word count a couple of days so far, so that should help.

Tonight's Word Count

It took longer than I thought, due to some distractions, but I managed 515 words on Key and finished a scene. I wasn't able to work on the outline for Day, though.

There isn't much new to report, so I think I'll call it a night.