Facial

Well, there hasn't been another deer sighting since the one on Monday. The most interesting animal story I have besides that one is the sparrow who wants to nest in our grill. He first showed up last year, singing from our balcony as if it was his. He even figured out how to squeeze inside our closed grill and started building a nest. We evicted him by taking out the twigs and leaving the grill open. Unfortunately, he came back again this year. We have a grill cover this year, and even though it keeps blowing off whenever there's wind, it has helped keep him out. But he still perches on the grill and tells the world it's his. How can I explain to him we don't accept seeds from subletters?

Anyway, during the writing marathon, I promised myself that if I made all four of my weekly goals, I would treat myself to a facial. I got a few of them at a spa last year before the wedding, and between that and the skin care products I used at home, I thought my skin looked better than it had before. So I went in today to prettify myself. The spa facial is more involved than the ones I do at home. It involves cleaning, steaming, masks, heat/lotion treatment for your hands, pore extractions, massage, and probably some other steps I've forgotten. Although the pore extractions can be uncomfortable, the whole process is a relaxing experience. In fact, the person who gave me a facial scolded me a bit for not relaxing enough! Afterwards, I wound up buying several skin care products she recommended. They're pricey, but I did make the ones I bought last year last for several months. I wouldn't do this too often, but perhaps I can manage to go a couple of times a year. My skin does feel softer and looks more even now.

I got home later than I expected from the spa, and between baking breakfast bed for tomorrow, cooking dinner, checking out the Internet, and writing a crit, I haven't done any writing of my own. Let's see what I can get done before I go to bed in a half hour....

The Muse Is Back!

I just wrote over 500 words in one of my stories. I don't think I've done that since the writing marathon last month, so that's a good accomplishment. Of course, I'm only halfway through critting Sue's latest chapter, and I have two other stories that feel neglected. Maybe I have time to work on one of them yet tonight, though I also want to sneak in some time playing one of Yahoo!'s latest games.

Doe, A Deer...

A female deer.
As I was setting up an experiment, my boss told me to "Come see." He and a couple of my co-workers were gathered around the receptionist's window. Outside was a deer browsing on the shrubs. There's a green belt behind our building, but I think this is the first time we've seen a deer here, especially during the day. She had her "good side" towards us, and something seemed wrong about it--too dark. My co-workers speculated she had been hit by a car. I went back a short while later to see if she was still there, and she was standing in the shadow of our building. That's when I took the picture shown here. I used my cellphone, which is why the quality is so poor. She limped as she walked, and she licked her wound (on the other side). Although you can't see it too well in this picture, she had some bare spots on her coat as well. One of my co-workers said something about reporting her to Animal Control. There was no sign of her the next time I checked, but I suspect she just wandered away on her own. Who knows if she'll recover or not; I just don't want to encounter her or one of her relatives as I'm driving home from work.

Eating Eugene's Eggplant

Today, Eugene and I resumed House Search 2006. We went to four open houses. One of them was a nice house and in our price range, but the location would have been bad for Eugene's commute. Two of them were out of our price range (though we didn't realize that when we stopped), and the other one, a townhome, was too small. Sigh. Guess we have to keep looking, though the Chicago area isn't the easiest place to find an affordable home. At least we're not on one of the coasts.

Afterwards, we stopped for dinner at Maggiano's, since we had a gift card. I had chicken and spinach manicotti, while Eugene had eggplant Parmesan. I've only had eggplant once and didn't like it (the consistency was too much like tomatoes, which I also don't like, though I have no problem with tomato sauce as long as it's not chunky). Ever since then, Eugene's been teasing me about it. Today I decided to be brave and try some of his. Perhaps the sauce and cheese helped, because it wasn't too bad. At least, the texture didn't remind me of tomatoes this time. Eugene was very impressed, though he now wants to put me on a 12-Step Eggplant Program. That's only fair if he tries something he doesn't like, like split pea soup.

OK, now let's see if I can get some writing done for once. I haven't done much this month, so I guess that compensates for the writing marathon I participated in in March.

Things I've Missed

Between my laptop being on the fritz earlier this month and our Internet being down for a few days, I haven't been blogging as much as usual. I figure this would be a good time to mention some thing I meant to blog about earlier:

Writing--I haven't said much about this lately. My main project at the moment is editing Lennon's Line. I've also been meaning to start over with Day of All Seasons and post the original version on OWW. I haven't been happy with the rewrite. I haven't decided if I should post the synopsis or the chapters; at this point, it probably would make more sense just to do the chapters. I'm sure that novel will be in for a major overall once I get a stack of crits on it. But the most important writing-related event this month is that the anthology with my story was supposed to go to the publisher on Monday. I didn't get a confirmation from the editor; perhaps he didn't get all of the author bios he asked for and had to postpone the submission. Hopefully all will go well, but I have no idea how long it will take for the publisher to decide on the book. Better distract myself in the meantime with my current projects.

Walking--A couple of weeks ago, I bought a cheap pedometer and started wearing it to work. I think I probably do more walking at work than the typical office person, since I'm not at a desk all day and move around the lab a lot. Some days I got close to or exceeded 10,000 steps a day, particularly if I wore the pedometer while working out on the treadmill. Other days I was a couple thousand off. I haven't worn it for a few days because I got some funny readouts (possibly from a low battery). At least the pedometer made me more conscious of how much I was moving.

Links--I just joined a blogring for members of one of my message boards. It's a small ring so far, but hopefully it will grow and bring some new visitors here. I should look for more of them; I'd like to join some writing-specific ones. I wonder if there's one for the OWW? I look at Sue's blog on LiveJournal, but it seems that a lot of OWW people also use that site. Sometimes I think I should have used that too, but it's more fun catching up with my college friends over here.

Random Zobmondo questions--These have come up when we play the game on our lunch hour. The wording might not be exact, but I'll try to get as close as I remember. Remember, if you answer, you must pick a choice; "Neither" is not an option.

If you were the last fertile person on Earth (I presume they mean the last fertile member of your gender), would you distribute your seed freely to all who ask, or would you pick and choose to improve the human race?

Would you rather travel back in time one million years or forward in time one million years?

If you were in a car accident, would you rather save your spouse or your child?

That's enough for now, I think.

Happy Birthday, Russ!

Tomorrow is Russ's (of Don't Think Twice fame) birthday. I met Russ about the same time I met Eugene: during my sophomore year of college. I'd met Eugene's roommate Pat through a class the previous year, and through him I got to meet Eugene, Russ, and several other people we're still friends with. Although I hung out with the whole group playing games on the weekends, I got to know Eugene by planning a surprise birthday party with him for Russ and Pat. (The best part of the surprise is that it was a month before Russ's birthday.) Since Russ indirectly helped Eugene and I get together, it's appropriate that he did us the honor of standing up in our wedding.

Some of the best memories I have from college are of hanging out with Eugene, Russ, and the rest of our gang: Uno games until 2:00 in the morning, various other card and role-playing games, going to the Nitty Gritty for Russ's 21st birthday (even though I was still a week shy of legal age myself), a summer road trip down to Chicago, eating fresh donuts from the bakery on Randall in the middle of the night, a Fourth of July picnic in the park where Oz brought his cat Zoey...the list could go on and on. I'm glad that we kept up our friendship since then. When I was in D.C. for my NCI internship, Russ was in New York City. He came down one weekend to visit, so we went to Arlington National Cemetery and a couple of other tourist places together. We've managed to get together with Russ and our other Madisonian friends several times; Sara (Sara with No H) hosts a reunion party every year around Thanksgiving. We also drove up to Minneapolis a couple of years ago to visit Russ.

If you've been following Russ's blog, you know he's a hard-working man and is a talented artist. He's also a kind, patient guy who's fun to be with, as you can tell by all the friends who visit his blog. Russ, both Eugene and I wish you a very happy birthday. We may be getting older, but at least we're getting older together!

And now here are a few words from my better half:

I'm not so sure about the better half. Anyway, it just seems like it was yesterday when we first met. I believe I was in the dorm room when you, Pat, and Oz came back from working out at the SERF. To borrow some song lyrics, "Oh what a long and strange trip it's been."

Anyway, let's take you on trip down memory lane. I'm sure you remember the surprise birthday party that Sandra mentioned above. Well, here are a couple of photos to jog that memory of yours.








Can you name everyone in this picture? I don't remember the name of the young lady in the red shirt, though.

I can't remember what gift you opened up in this picture, but Brian is not impressed.

The birthday celebrants under the table eating their birthday cake.

The next five pictures need some explaining. Freshman year, we threw a surprise birthday party for my roommate Pat. We reached a point in the party where we found clothesline in the closet and Pat just happened to be sitting in a chair. Well, we decided to tie Pat to the chair and decorate him. We even lifted him into the elevator and showed him off to everyone in the dorm until he was declared a fire hazard by one of the housefellows.

Anyway, when Russ realized that the party was for him too, the first thing he looked for was any kind of rope. Naturally, we said there wasn't any around, but he was very wary for a while. After eating cake and all of that jazz, we had them sit down and open their gifts. We slowly congregated around Russ while he was sitting down and looking at one of his gifts. On someone's signal, we pretty much jumped him. Boy, did you give us a fight. We had a person on each leg, Pat sitting down on your lap, and Paul placing a bear hug on you.

My, my, my. If it wasn't for Paul, the next couple of photos would not have been taken...

Aw, smile Russ. It's your birthday.

You make a wonderful... I have no idea.

The Med Scholars revel in their triumph.

This is a picture of the Gang during a visit to the Art Institute of Chicago. This was during the Summer of 1990?

This picture was taken in our friend Ed's apartment that I was subleting one summer. Ed was a sword and knife collector. Russ made a sketch of the Jim Morrison face on the flag in the background. He decided to make a boatload of xerox copies and place them everywhere (bathroom, shower, medicine cabinet, kitchen cabinet, etc.) We took a few liberties with the blade weapons and posed for this picture.

Russ, there were more pictures that we thought about posting, but we'll send you those later. I hope that you enjoyed your trip down memory lane. You are a fun and down-to-Earth guy. In all seriousness, you are a man of great character, work ethic and integrity. I am honored to call you my friend and to have you stand up in our wedding. I hope that you have a wonderful birthday and that there are many more to come.

It's Alive!

Our Internet, that is. We just installed our new modem and are online. It's so nice to have things back to normal around here. Or did I just jinx myself? Cue ominous music....

Down Time

Our Internet connection at home hasn't worked since Monday night. (bring up image of Munch's Screamer) This meant I had to do the Dreaded Technical Support Call--a few times, as a matter of fact. There may be a problem in our phone line, but the latest tech I talked to thought there might be a problem with our modem as well. So we went to CompUSA tonight and bought a new one. We haven't installed it yet; I'm blogging from Barnes and Noble while Eugene works on genealogy. Hopefully everything will be up and running by tomorrow. I have a special tribute/trip down Memory Lane planned for Russ. (I could do one for my friend Jen, whose birthday is today, but since she doesn't have a computer or use the Internet, it would be pointless.) In the meantime, I should finish critting Sue's chapters and then get back to editing Lennon's Line.

Drive and Eat

It seems that's all we did today as we celebrated Easter with both families. First Eugene and I drove up to Wisconsin to have lunch with my parents. It was pretty windy; I had to keep both hands on the wheel to keep the car in the lane. Heidi was happy to see us as usual, but she didn't insist on playing as much as she normally does. Either she was distracted by the weather (a storm passed through), or she's getting old like the rest of us. We had lamb for lunch, so I brought along a spinach and feta bread that was supposed to go well with it. Mom gave me a couple of early birthday presents: a silver Imagine pendant and a Beatles T-shirt. I guess she knows my tastes pretty well. ;) We hung around longer than we meant to due to the storm; even so, we wound up driving into it on the way back. We had dinner with Eugene's family at his aunt's house; they served ham, soup, and several traditional Filipino dishes. I watched a movie with Eugene's cousins while he gathered data about the family history. We got home around 8:00 and headed straight for our computers. I'm still not done with my crit of Sue's latest chapter, but I did a few other things as well.

Getting Better All The Time

My laptop is fixed. I had a little scare when I brought it home, as I had trouble connecting to the Internet. But once I repaired the connection, everything was fine. I just had a backlog of things to enter.

I did have some issues with my car's tire, so I'm going to replace it. Better safe than stranded somewhere. Sear didn't have the tire in stock, so I had to order it. It should be in next week.

I haven't been sick again, which is always good.

We've had some great weather the last couple of days. Even I've been wearing shorts, and it's got to be really warm before I, an avowed thermophile, do that.

Eugene and I are going to his parents' house for dinner with the relatives, so I should get a couple of things done before we leave.

Checking In

I need to turn the computer over to Eugene soon, so this will be brief. I didn't have much chance to post recently, so I haven't mentioned that I tangoed at work the other day. We were playing Zobmondo, as mentioned in a previous post, and I drew a card that challenged me to dance solo. I couldn't remember the music (you'd think I would after hearing the same songs at every lesson), and I was wearing the wrong shoes, but I still impressed my co-workers.

I'm waiting to get my computer back from CompUSA before I continue writing Key. In the meantime, I've been editing Lennon's Line, changing the first section from first person to third. It's more complicated than just changing the pronouns; when I have a chance, I think I'll write up something about it. Maybe I'll be brave and post it to the OWW mailing list.

There's probably more to tell, but that can wait for another night.

Home Sick

As if April hasn't already been the cruelest month.... It's sunny and nearly 70ºF today, and I spent a good chunk of it in bed shivering. I had some troubles with my digestive system this morning, but I thought I was over it when I went to work. I wasn't. I ran to the bathroom several times in the first hour, convinced I was going to vomit. Finally I decided I'd be better off at home and asked my boss for sick time. He was a bit aghast at first, saying "You're not? You're not?" a few times. I told him I wasn't. (Pregnant, that is.) I worried I would throw up on the way home, but I didn't. I huddled in the bathroom for a while, but after a while I went to bed. My temp was low, and I was shivering unless I stayed under the covers. I drowsed for a bit, but I felt well enough to read, so I finished a book. (The last time I was sick, I didn't even feel up for that.) I was lightheaded when I got up, and my stomach was a bit unsteady after I had some soup, but I think the worst is over for now. It might have been just a stomach bug; if so, I hope Eugene doesn't get it.

Flat Friday

This afternoon, one of my co-workers came to me and told me someone had reported my car had a flat tire. Sure enough, when I went outside to check, it was flat. This had happened to me last year, shortly before the wedding, when some new buildings were going up in the area where I work. I did what I did last year: I borrowed a pump from my boss, inflated the tire, and drove to Sears after work to have them patch the tire. As I did last year, I even got a haircut while I waited (though I skipped highlights this time). Unfortunately, things didn't so as smoothly this time. The technician couldn't find the leak at first, but they checked all my tires again and finally realized the patch itself was the source. They fixed it for free, but they told me if it happened again, I would need a new tire. Now if I could only get someone to fix my laptop; hopefully I can get someone to look at it soon to figure out if anything else needs to be done to it besides replace the motherboard. Eugene and I will both be a lot happier once I'm back on my own computer.

Would You Rather....

Listen to me talk about my still-nonfunctional laptop, or hear about the game we played at work today? OK, that's not a true Zobmondo question, but at least it serves to introduce this post. Russ and Sara may remember this game; Eugene and I brought it to the annual Thanksgiving dinner a couple of years ago. If you're not familiar with it, this games poses dilemnas to the players, who then have to choose one of the options presented to them. I brought this into work today, since we've been playing Uno so long we could discuss it on our resumes. It was a little hard to play, since we were short a person (the game calls for at least four people), but we made it work. The biggest problem with playing at work are the Challenges (tasks you must complete to advance a level). Some of them aren't work-appropriate, and some of my co-workers struggle to find alternatives. But the game does make lunch fly by. And no, no one has chosen to pick his or her nose yet. (Brian, are you reading this?)

In other news, I have a replacement motherboard for my poor laptop; now I just need to find someone to put it in. I can add memory, but this is more complicated and not something I want to try at home. Eugene and I are still sharing his computer, so I'm just keeping up with crits on OWW. Hopefully someday I'll have time to work on my own projects; I was lucky today to find a few minutes to edit Lennon's Line. This really hasn't been my month so far....

April Fool's Is On Me

In case anyone needs proof that I'm a complete klutz, I spilled water on my laptop yesterday. I had a glass of water near my computer, and I fumbled my grip as I picked it up. As I tried to blot off and remove the water, my laptop went out. I had to go somewhere, so I let it dry until I got back. At first I thought I'd lucked out, as I was able to turn my laptop on and surf the Net. Unfortunately, that only lasted for 10-15 minutes until my laptop died and stayed off. To make matters worse, I hadn't purchased an extended warranty last year. I called Dell anyway and, after figuring out I'd fried the motherboard (no surprise there), ordered a new one. That'll be a painful lesson to me: keep the drinks farther away from the electronics no matter how hydrophillic I am. I should get the motherboard by the end of the week. If I can't install it on my own or with Dell's help, I'll see if my dad can do it. In the meantime, Eugene and I will share his computer. I probably won't get as much done, but I think I need a break anyway.

Yesterday wasn't a good day for our tango dance instructor either. We missed the final class last Sunday when we saw Colin and Brad, so we made it up with a private session at her home. That went well; we may go dancing with the instructors and another couple from the class some weekend. Since she has two cats and has been too busy to bring them to a vet, Eugene made a house call after the lesson. One of the cats freaked out (we think he thought Eugene was someone else) and scratched our instructor. It was a long scratch, but fortunately it wasn't deep. She took it in stride, though.

OK, time to pull out the flash drive and check my files. I think I backed up last week, so I shouldn't have lost too much.

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.

One Step Up, Two Steps Back

Today I wrote 512 words in Key. I took a break from Day for reasons I'll explain in a minute. Most of this entry will be about writing, which will probably be of interest only to Sue. The rest of you can skip down to the end to find out what funny thing came in the mail for Eugene. I swear I had nothing to do with it!

Anyway, I got a couple of reviews on my latest chapter that really got me thinking. Both people commented on the lack of tension in the chapter, while the second person also said that I was going over the same ground that I've already established in previous chapters. I can see why my reviewers said that, and the rest of the reviews were well-written, balanced with strengths and weaknesses of my chapter. The problem with reviews like this is not with what they say; it's figuring out what I want to do to address their comments. I've heard it said on the OWW mailing list that quite often critters don't point out the real problem, but they do point out areas that need to be fixed. I'm not sure if I agree with that, but I think the reason the chapter turned out the way it did has to do with my writing method. I'm what they refer to as an organic writer, someone who has an idea of how she wants to begin and end a story, along with some landmarks along the way, but doesn't have every scene outlined in advance. I tend to improv a lot as I write, and I'm beginning to think that's why when I look at an early draft, I throw everything out and start over; I think of new things I want to do and add them for the sake of adding them. I have tried to outline a couple of my novels before writing them, but I never finished the outlines. Sue suggested outlining after the fact so I can get a better overview of what I've got. I think I should do that with Day. To be honest, I'm not happy with how this rewrite is going. When I posted the opening chapter, I got some comments on it that inspired me to rewrite the whole thing, but after the reviews that version got, I wonder if the original version was better. I wonder now if I should have just posted the original version of Day without trying to rewrite it first. Hence the same of my entry tonight; I feel like I'm going backward, which is not a good feeling after all of the work I've spent developing my writing abilities. Still, if there's one thing I've learned along the way, it's that protagonists don't give up, and I'm certainly stubborn enough to keep going. While I don't want to change methods in the middle of a writing marathon, I think I need to develop an outline of Day before I go farther with it. Good thing I have Key as a backup, but if I encounter a rough stretch with that, I may pull up a backup backup short story I want to write about Ollie from Key and try that one again.

OK, now that you've suffered through a long paragraph about writing and stories you haven't read, here's your reward. Today Eugene got an offer from the AARP. Yes, that is the American Association of Retired People. Their letter said he was eligible to join with full benefits, and they even included a membership card. For the record, he's a few months younger than I am, and I'm not getting these offers. Should I be miffed at the omission or happy? And if the AARP gives him permission to retire now, can he take money penalty-free from his IRA? For some reason, I highly doubt that.

OK, I think I should try that outline before I go to bed. Tomorrow will be another day and another opportunity to blog.

When Does Rock Become Classic?

First, a quick note of how many words I've written today for the OWW writing marathon: 612 on Day. I also finished a scene. So far so good; let's hope I can keep the pace up. Now on to today's topic....


Eugene and I have been noticing lately that our favorite classic rock station The Drive (which is very similar to The Lake in Madison; we even recognized an announcer's voice from The Drive when we listened to The Lake on our recent trip) is playing songs from the 80s and even early 90s now. I haven't heard Madonna or punk rock; instead, it's been songs such as "One Step Up" by Bruce Springsteen or Tom Petty's "Running Down a Dream." In a way, it makes sense that a classic rock station would play songs by these artists, though if The Drive really wanted to promote classic rock artists, they'd play songs from their more recent albums too. (For example, although I heard Paul McCartney's latest album played once at Barnes and Noble, I doubt I'll ever hear it on the regular playlist of The Drive.) Still, it bothers me to hear these songs on this station, and I had to think about why. I do like these songs, and while it may seem strange to hear songs from high school and college considered "classic," I'm not at a point where I'm worried about my age. (Ask me in five or ten years, and that may change.) The best answer I've come up with is that I've always defined classic rock as being from the 50s (yes, I do like some songs from this era), 60s, and 70s. If you stretch the genre to include later decades, then what does that make the Beatles, for instance? Very classic rock? Immortal rock? Geezer rock? Do we need new terms to define each decade of rock, or is it enough to refer to "60s rock"? At what point does rock become classic? Are there reasons for or against expanding the catalog of classic rock? How will doing so affect stations' playlists?

Plenty of food for thought here. If you have opinions, feel free to post them. I should browse over to OWW and read the latest review of Day.

Next-to-Last Dance

We started Tango Level III tonight. This class is only two sessions long, but the sessions are longer (two and a half hours). We're working on turns and making our steps "flow" with the music. We're even getting to the point where some of this makes sense. (grin) It's a shame that our last session is coming up so soon. Although driving into and back out of Chicago makes for a long Sunday night, the classes were a nice way to meet other people and get some quality time in with Eugene. We need to either find another tango instructor who teaches the same way this pair does or figure out how to keep practicing on our own.

March Madness Marathon

Well, March isn't until next week, but I've already begun the madness. I signed up for the writing marathon on OWW. It goes for several weeks (I think four), and you set your own goals for this time. I signed up for 500 words/day on my two main projects (Day and Key). I used to be able to do that every day, but with all that I've got to do these days it's been hard to reach that. We also have several things already scheduled for the weekends, so that may cut into my writing time. Still, I need to make my writing more of a priority. I haven't even done any for the last two days! So please wish me luck, and Sue, I'm sure you'll understand if my reviews of your chapters take longer.

Whew, It Worked!

Well, I finished my project, or most of it anyway. It's a long-term project, so I'll have to monitor it for a while after I bring it into work on Monday. It took a long time since I had to heat my ingredients up and then cool them down. That took the longest, but after I got past that part, things moved a little faster. I think I'm already sensing differences between the control and the experiment version, but we'll have to see how things develop. At least now I can finish my review for Sue and hopefully write for a bit before I start cooking dinner. Tonight's movie night, so I'll get to relax and crochet for a while too.

Tele-Experimenting

I'm doing something today I never thought possible with my job: I'm working from home.

I can't talk about what I'm doing, but it requires a stove. Our lab at work doesn't have one, so my boss suggested I do this experiment at home. It's nice; I'm even more casual than I normally am (no make-up; aren't you glad I don't use a webcam? Just kidding), and I get to listen to the radio instead of my whistling co-worker. His playlist is very limited. I also don't have to pay a toll when I walk from the office to the kitchen. But it's not all fun and games by any means. I started this project right after breakfast, cleaning the kitchen counters, washing my equipment, and boiling it in a huge pot of water while I took my shower. I also can't have any food in the kitchen (it might contaminate my project), so if I reach a point with this project where the stove is off for a while, I might run out to Subway for lunch. Does that count as a business expense? It would if I were traveling, but I'd feel funny claiming it for this.

Anyway, I hope this works. I've seen this procedure done before, but this is the first time I've tried it, and I wasn't too impressed with the instructions I have. I wound up rewriting them to incorporate our changes. But I also realized this morning that I forgot something crucial at work, and I'm at a point where I can't go fetch it. We'll just see how this batch works out without it. Hopefully, everything will go well, and we'll want to repeat this project with several variations. It'll be nice since I might have some down time to review/write while things cook.

Resistance Is Futile...

I have been assimilated into the Blog collective. Since I don't tan anyway and hate leaving the house without my laptop, I should fit in just fine. Oops, sorry, wrong collective...

OK, I admit it; I'm stealing this from Russ, who stole it from Sara, who was sent this in an e-mail, and so on, and so on, and so on...how much punctuation can I squeeze into this sentence anyway? Apparently a lot. But I figure it might be a good way to tell people a little bit about myself. Also, it gave me an opportunity to make the bad jokes I used above (Yes, I will be here all week; why do you ask?), not to mention put off writing for a few more minutes. (The writer's paradox: I want to write, but when I'm actually in front of the keyboard, the words dry up like a drop of water in the Sahara. Unless I'm working on something else besides fiction, naturally.) Anyway, I should just shut up and fill out the questions. I've "Xed" the things I've done below:

HAVE YOU EVER...

( ) Smoked a cigarette
( ) Drank so much you threw up
( ) Crashed a friend's car
( ) Stolen a car
( X) Been in love
( X) Been dumped.
( X) Been laid off/fired
( X) Quit your job
( ) Been in a fist fight
( X) Snuck out of your parent's house (does taking the dog out while my parents are still asleep count?)
( X ) Had feelings for someone who didn't have them back
( ) Been arrested?
( ) Gone on a blind date
( ) Skipped school
( ) Seen someone die
( X ) Been to Canada
( ) Been to Mexico
( X ) Been on a plane
( X ) Been lost
( X ) Been on the opposite side of the country. (New York and Alaska)
( X) Gone to Washington, DC.
( X ) Swam in the ocean (Pacific)
( ) Felt like dying
( X ) Cried yourself to sleep
( ) Played cops and robbers
( ) Recently colored with crayons
( ) Sang karaoke
( X ) Paid for a meal with only coins (Maybe if I got something out of a vending machine...)
( X ) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't?
( ) Made prank phone calls
( X ) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose
( X ) Caught a snowflake on your tongue.
( X) Danced in the rain
( X ) Written a letter to Santa Claus
( X) Been kissed under the mistletoe
( ) Watched the sun rise with someone you care about (too early for me)
( X ) Blown bubbles
( ) Made a bonfire on the beach
( ) Crashed a party ("everyone who ever went to college has...," but I think I'm the exception to this rule. Yes, I know I need to get out more. But I'm a writer; it's my goal in life to be attached to a computer. ;) )
( X ) Gone roller-skating
( X ) Ice-skating

Any nicknames? Ulbrichen, Ms. DNA
Mother's name? Olga
What is your favorite drink? Water, followed by green or herb tea
Tattoos? No
Body piercing? ears
How much do you love your job (1-10) 8.
Birthplace: Chicago, IL
Favorite vacation spot? Madison, WI
Ever been to Africa? No
Ever steal any traffic signs? No.
Ever been in a car accident? Yes
A, B, C, D, DD cup size? That's classified information. If you really need to know, I get to measure your privates with my foot. ;)
2 Door or 4 Door? 4 Door
Salad dressing? Bleu Cheese
Favorite pie? Eugene's Apple Cranberry Pie
Favorite number? 4
Favorite movie? A Hard Day's Night
Favorite holiday? Christmas.
Favorite food? Chocolate.
Favorite day of the week? Saturday
Favorite brand of body soap? Shower gel scented with Lily of the Valley. Before that, Ivory.
Favorite TV show? Does the news count?
Toothpaste? Sensodyne.
Favorite smell? Lilacs and lily of the valley.
What do you do to relax? Read or soak in a bubble bath.
Message to your friends reading this? Now it's your turn to fill this out.
How do you see yourself in 10 years? A best-selling author. It could happen...
What do you do when you are bored? Read my favorite message boards.

Dancin' in the Dining Room

I figured I should blog a little earlier tonight to make sure I check in before I get too tired.

Tonight Eugene and I finally did something we've been meaning to do for a while: practice tango. After a late dinner (we made a big pork tenderloin, and it took longer than we expected), we put on a tango CD from the library, slipped into comfy clothes and socks, and practiced our steps. I should say right away that our apartment was not meant to be a dance studio. Even if you discount the carpeting, the halls are too narrow for a sidestep, and we have too many piles of stuff laying around to create more space. Also, we didn't remember how our feet should go to get into the particular steps we wanted to practice. Still, we were able to practice going up and down while pressing our palms together to work on our connection. We also tried going into a position called the cross, in which I have one leg crossed in front of the other. You need to develop a certain amount of momentum to make this flow from the steps, and again we didn't have enough room to make this work very well. We need to find a bigger place to practice and to ask our instructors about certain steps again. Still, it's a start, and maybe we can try again later this week.

As far as working on other projects, I finished another row of my afghan and wrote a hundred words of Day tonight. Hopefully the muse will help me finish my current scene tonight and, if I'm lucky, decide if I want to keep the next scene or change that one too. Better get busy.

The Latest Picture

Since the Dear NYer asked to see what my hair looks like after I got it cut last week, here's the latest picture of me. I had my hair in a French braid most of the day, so it's probably a little more wavy than usual. The general shape of the cut is the same as what I normally get, though.

My writing's going slowly again, but I am making some headway on the afghan. I'm on row number 14. Of course, there's over a hundred rows, so it'll take a while. At least it gives me something to do while we watch movies.

Well, it's almost 11:00, nearly bedtime. Let me try switching stories to see if the muse likes that one better tonight.

Weekend in Review

Sorry to all for the absence. I didn't plan to take a few days off from blogging, but the last couple nights I just didn't feel like writing when I sat down in front of the computer. Too tired, I guess. So time to make up for it now.

I had today off, so I had a three-day weekend. Saturday I spent a fair amount of time cleaning; I straightened out the closet (and found the floor!), picked up the living room, unearthed my desk, dusted, and vacuumed. I also made pizza from scratch. I made the dough in the bread machine the day before, and I used a baking stone and our new pizza crisper. I think it turned out pretty well this time; I've had problems with the dough not baking properly in the past. After dinner and the laundry, Eugene and I watched A Day at the Races, featuring the Marx Brothers. It was pretty funny, especially when the three of them were in the same scene. Eugene wished there was a blooper reel, but I guess the movie itself was the blooper reel. I also worked on my afghan and crocheted a few more rows without encountering more Gordian knots. I didn't get much writing done that day, but I told myself I would make it up over the next two days.

Sunday was fairly quiet. I ran a couple errands and worked on a crit for Sue. We stopped in to visit Eugene's family and had dinner before our tango lesson. Since we were in Wisconsin last week, we missed class. One of the instructors worked with us to help us get up to speed. For a while, it seemed like we were getting the hang of things, but then we worked on a more difficult move, and it got a little frustrating again. Our other instructor said that was normal. We have two more classes at Level Three, which is as far as these instructors go. The classes will be longer so we have more time to work on turns. In the meantime, we really do need to practice at home this week, even if we lack space and the proper flooring. I didn't get much writing done Sunday either.

This brings me to today. Since I had the day off, I slept in a little and did some other things, like finish the review for Sue, return the DVDs to the library, and update my website. I added a new chapter of Key, (after over a year since I started the story), an essay about my short story sale, and a photo gallery of Oscar the whale and his trip to Madison. The main link to my website is below, but here's the one to the photo gallery:

http://www.sandraulbrich.com/wheres%20oscar.htm

I did manage to write a little of Day, but it wasn't as much as I'd hoped for. It seems that I never get as much done as I want, but then again, I have too much that I want to work on. At least I'm glad I had the chance to update my website. I also signed up for panels at WisCon, so we'll see if I'm assigned to any.

And Dear NYer, I'll see about getting Eugene to take my picture so you can see my haircut, but I might wait until tomorrow to post it.

Slow Night

Well, work went slowly today, and so is my writing tonight. I've spent more time playing games on Yahoo! than actually putting words on the screen. (Words from Text Twist don't count towards my quota, unfortunately.) So now I'm writing here about not writing. Makes so much sense, doesn't it? It's nice to get some words down somewhere, at least.

Eugene and I were going to watch a classic movie from the library tonight, but since he had to do something after work and got in late, we're going to save the movie for tomorrow. That should give me a topic for tomorrow's blog. I'm also going to make pizza for dinner; I already made the dough tonight.

I suppose I should stare at Day some more. Maybe I ought to switch to Key instead. Or maybe I ought to call it a night and just go to bed. It's supposed to get very cold tonight, and snuggling under the blankets is more tempting than revising Day at the moment. Hopefully tomorrow will be more productive.

Hair Again

Yes, it's a noteworthy event when I get a haircut, as I tend to put them off until my split ends have split ends. But it's been about ten weeks since my last one, so it was time.

I have to admit that even though I tried to change my hair cut last time, not only wasn't it noticeable (and it's weird to say that lopping off 4-5 inches of hair isn't noticeable), but adding a shorter layer to my hair made it more difficult to style. The shorter hair tends to come out of a ponytail, which eliminates some of my everyday hair styles. Good thing I can still French braid my hair; I like doing that because it keeps my hair out of my face. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I used appliances like a hair dryer or curling iron to do more things with my hair, but they don't seem to work well for me. I generally just towel dry my hair, comb it out, and go from there. But I have enough length in my hair to do something different with it every day of the week if I choose. If it was short, I don't know how I'd handle it; I'd have to figure out dryers and curlers and mousse, oh my! I did try bangs and layers when I was in undergrad, but I don't keep them cut, and they take forever to grow out. So today I had two inches taken off the back and left the layer in front alone. Eugene noticed the cut because my hair was still a little damp when he came home.When my hair is all one length again, I'll probably just keep it that way. I may let it grow a little longer again. If I get daring, I may go to shoulder length, but that's about as short as I'd like to go, at least for now. I guess I'm still traumatized by the boyishly short haircut I had as a kid. ;)

In other news, I've been working steadily on Day and have been making progress. Sometimes I have to stop and think of what to do with the changes that are creeping into this draft, as they always affect more than I think they will. I've been working a little bit on Key too, and last night I created a photo gallery for one of my web pages. Hopefully sometime this weekend I'll upload everything to my website; it's due for some new material.

What I'm Not Reading

As much as I love to buy books, it seems that these days I have less time to actually read them. Here's the current pile of books waiting for my attention:















I don't know how many titles you can make out, but I have a variety of books here, including science fiction/fantasy novels, history books, science books, writing books, Beatle books and magazines, and even a classic (Moby Dick, which I started reading on a trip several years ago and abandoned once I returned home). This doesn't include the book I just put in the bathroom basket or my latest issues of Scientific American and Locus, "the newspaper of the science fiction field."

When I really want to read a book, I can do so very quickly. I bought The Time Traveler's Wife Friday evening while we were in Madison, and I finished it Sunday. I did have some more free time to read this weekend, as I had breakfasts and lunches by myself while Eugene was in lecture. I once read four novels (between 300-400 pages each, I'd say) in twelve hours when I got home from college and needed to unwind. (These were the last four books in Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series. He used to be one of my favorite authors, and I was really interested in this series.) So I'm sure I could clear this pile if I 1): stopped buying new books (but wouldn't that cause the collapse of the publishing industry?) and 2): did nothing but read for a couple of months. Unfortunately, neither of these events is likely to happen anytime soon. I can snatch a few minutes to read here and there, but my best time to read is during my morning workout with Eugene when we're on treadmills. It also doesn't help that I subscribe to two monthly and one bimonthly magazine; I end up reading books between magazine issues. At least I have no reason to be bored. I do need to read a little faster before I buy another bookshelf just to hold my unread books.

Our First V-Day

Eugene and I have had many Valentine's Days together already, but strictly speaking, we weren't actually together on the day for many of them, since we were in a long-distance relationship for so long. Also, this is our first one as a married couple. So both of us wanted it to be special. I can't speak for Eugene, but it was fun for me thinking of things to do for him today.

Eugene got the "first strike" in today by sending me flowers at work. I was setting up an experiment when the receptionist walked in with a long box of a dozen roses and a box of truffles. My boss joked about being disappointed; he only got a couple of videos in the mail. Eugene's given me roses on quite a few occasions, but this is the first time he had them delivered. I called him to thank him and displayed the roses on my desk, where they'll remain until the weekend.

After work, it was my turn to put my ideas into effect. I wanted to cook a special meal for Eugene, including individual chocolate bread puddings for dessert. Unfortunately, I found a recipe on MSN.com, but it didn't print out properly. Luckily, I found a similar recipe in one of Eugene's cookbooks. I had to make a second trip to the store to get evaporated milk, but the bread pudding didn't take very long to make. It turned out pretty well; the only thing was that the chocolate chips on top got scorched since I had to bake the puddings in the broiler oven instead of the regular one. For the rest of the meal, I made sirloin steak, garlic wild rice, sauteed mushrooms, a spinach salad, and leftover vegetables. We also had a couple glasses of Shiraz with the meal. By the time Eugene came home, I had candles lit throughout the apartment, tango music playing in the background, and my tango dress and heels on (and an apron too). We exchanged presents after dinner; I gave him two books and a DVD; he gave me two books and two music videos. We had a very nice evening; as I told Eugene, "One down, forty-nine to go!"

Olbrich Botanical Gardens

Today while Eugene had his lectures, I went to the Olbrich Botanical Gardens. (The name may be similar to my maiden name, but as far as I know, there's no relation.) This may sound like the last place to visit in the middle of winter, but it has a conservatory of tropical plants and birds. I figured that would be a good place to take pictures of Oscar. I had to run back to the car for a spare memory card for my camera, but I still got some good pictures of Oscar and the birds. Here are a couple:
Oscar looking down at the bird feeding area.













Is he a rebel or just illiterate?













Despite the cold, I did walk around the outside gardens for a bit. They have some things there that I haven't seen before, such as the Rose Tower:



















And a temple from Thailand:
















After that, I hung out at Border's for a while. Although it wasn't much of a photo op, I did find a couple of books and wrote about 800 words. Then I bought a few things for work; picked Eugene up from his lectures; and drove down to Janesville, where we had dinner with my parents. Now we're back home and getting ready for another work week.

Dinner with College Friends

As I mentioned in my last post, we had dinner tonight with our friends Sara (she of No H fame), her friend Ken, and Brian, along with Oz, Lisa, and their daughter Charlotte. We went to Bluphie's; I'd never been there before, but the food was very good. Here are a couple of pictures:

Sara, Oz, and Charlotte.













Our gang: from left to right, me, Eugene, Oz, Charlotte, Lisa, Brian, and Sara. Thanks to Ken for taking the picture!











After dinner, we hung out at Oz and Lisa's house for a while, talking about everything from trips to our childhoods. It was fun seeing each other, and hopefully we'll get together again when we come up for WisCon in May.

Live From Madison, It's Sandra's Blog!

For the rhythm of my heart is beating like a drum,
With the words "I love you" rolling off my tongue,
Never will I roam, for I know my precious home,
For the city of four lakes I am driving.

I think of these (slightly modified) lyrics from Rod Stewart's "The Rhythm of My Heart" every time I come back to Madison. I fell in love with the city the first time I came here for state forensics as a teenager, and even though I now live in the Chicago area, I think of myself as a "Madisonian in exile." So when Eugene decided to come up here for some continuing education classes, I wanted to come with him. Of course, the fact that I'm married to him might play a small part in that too.

We got in last night and had sushi. Today, while Eugene was in his seminar, I went to Picnic Point and took some pictures with Oscar. I'll post them later on the website. Then, after navigating the detours through campus, I went to State Street. I hung out in a coffeehouse for a while, then bought some clothes at Wintersilks, had lunch at the Himalyan restaurant, and picked up a few thing at University Book Store. State Street has changed since the last time I was here; a few more stores, like Discount Den, are gone. Even The Pipefitter will be moving when its lease runs out. But it's still good to visit. Tonight we're going to have dinner with Sara and Brian. More later!

The Divine Is In The Details

High time for some writing thoughts here.

I've been thinking lately about how important details are to a story. Some of this was inspired by the book I'm currently reading, which is Conquistador by S.M. Stirling. The premise of this book is that right after WWII, a veteran named John Rolfe tinkers with his shortwave radio and ends up opening a gate to an alternate universe where Alexander the Great lived past the age of 30. This changed the course of history so much that Europe never developed the science and technology to discover America, so Rolfe finds a California occupied only by Native Americans. He promptly proceeds to bring his friends over, and they settle the area while maintaining contact with their original universe. The bulk of the story takes place in the near future, after this alternate world has been settled long enough for one of the original families to plot a takeover.

I bought this book because of this premise, which is similar to what I do in Lennon's Line. What really made me take notice of this book is the level of description and detail Stirling uses to develop his alternate world. You can tell that he's done his homework. The book teems with descriptions of the ecology of this alternate world (unspoiled in comparison with ours, but still artificial in that the settlers introduced African animals into the American wilderness). But Stirling doesn't stop there. He also describes the weapons his characters use with an ease that made me think, "He really knows his stuff." The towns of this alternate world also feel real. His descriptions ring true to life and appeal to several senses. While at times he piles so many details into a single paragraph that I skim over them, the overall weight of them makes his fictional world feel real. It's a level of detail I seldom see on OWW -- or in my own work even. Part of that could be that when I write, I focus on the characters, dialogue, and plot first. Setting tends to get worked around all of that after I reread it and feel it comes across as "talking heads," like a cartoon with no background. I do try to take more notice of descriptions when I'm writing, now that I'm aware of how important they are, but I'm still working on incorporating that ball into the juggling act otherwise known as writing.

There's another level of detail that's also important in writing, and that's sentence-level structure, word choice, and punctuation. In fact, the mailing list for OWW was discussing punctuation today. I'm on digest mode, so I always feel I'm getting the e-mails too late to chime in. There's no reason I can't post my two cents here, though. To me, it's never too soon in a draft to make sure everything reads smoothly. I understand that in many cases, text in the first draft may be rewritten or cut; I do that all the time myself. Still, it should be written as clearly as possible. When I post a chapter to the OWW, I don't want my reviewers to worry about sentence-level problems (though some of them do, and they do make good points). I want the text to read as smoothly as possible so that my reviewers can focus on larger areas such as characters and plot without being distracted. It's not necessary to have everything be grammatically perfect; people don't speak that way, so dialogue should reflect what real speech sounds like. And sometimes you can break the rules for effect. For instance, a sentence fragment can have more emotional impact than a complete sentence would in the same context. But in order to write an effective fragment, first you have to know what a grammatically correct sentence sounds like, and you have to use fragments sparingly. I've read online stories that were filled with fragments, and you could tell they were mistakes. Such stories are painful to read. Grammar and punctuation are details no writer can neglect.

The normal saying is that "The Devil is in the details." For me, that's also where the divine is. When the story works at the detail level, it's easier to read--and perhaps easier to write. And since creative writing is a way to access the divinity in all of us, why not take the time to do it right? For that matter, why not take the time to do everything around you correctly? This may not be possible, but it's something to strive for.

What Do I Do For An Encore?

I'm afraid I don't have anything as exciting as my Jeopardy! story to blog about today. At least I didn't have to cook tonight, since it was Eugene's turn. I spent a fair amount of the evening reviewing, but I did manage to write over 200 words in Day of All Seasons. Hopefully I'll have more time to write tomorrow. I also crocheted a little while Eugene made dinner. I'm currently working on a section with some fancy stitches, so it's a little slower than it was in the beginning.

I did see a news article earlier today that I thought was interesting. It's about a sting operation that caught a fake vet:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/02/08/undercover.fred.ap/index.html

I forgot to point this out to Eugene earlier; did you see this already, dear?

That's about it for now, I'm afraid. Don't worry; this weekend should be more interesting.