Happy Birthday, darksylvia!! ♥ I tried sending you a text message today but I'm not sure if it went through. The number I found for you is a year old and I forgot to add a "1" to the beginning of it. I am phone illiterate, I swear. *headdesk*

Recording for Episode 4 of The Dead Robots' Society starts in about an hour, if Ryan can make it. I'm my usual mixture of nervous and excited. I thought that by now, after almost two months of being involved in this podcast, that I would be over my jitters but they never seem to quite go away. They certainly don't stop me from doing what I need/want to do, I just find it...kind of interesting. I do feel bad about how my nerves got the better of me when I hosted Ep 3, though. I've made a mental note to make sure it never happens again.

Today was relatively uninteresting. Lots of catching up on housework. By the time I was done collecting it, there was a pile of laundry the size of a small dragon in the basement. Ugh. But I bravely donned my Master Chef shirt +2, grabbed Dragon's Bane and managed to get some chores done. Woohoo. Sadly, tackling the filth-spouting beast that is this house left me rather fatigued, and there hasn't been enough time between quests for a nap. I'm hoping my pre-podcast nerves will give me enough energy to keep from falling asleep mid-sentence tonight.

I do have some good news, though. I'm writing again. Yes, finally, after weeks spent hiding in Baldur's Gate, I have finally emerged and am slowly but surely tackling my giant writing related To Do list. I've sent off String Shift to my mom for the time being, because I really need her advice on what to do with the ending. (Also see: I am in need of one) The rest of my First Readers get it when it's actually complete and I feel at least a small modicum of confidence about making it public. Right now I can barely stand the sight of the thing, so I'm working on other projects to keep myself distracted. Slowly but surely I'm dusting off my outline for TSW, and am marveling at how silly some of my ideas were. I got so wrapped up in all the interpersonal intrigues that I forgot to have an actual, y'know, plot. Doing some serious rethinking on that one. And while Holly Lisle's Character Creation Clinic has some really good, useful stuff in it...it's just too complicated for me. I made profiles for my characters using her templates and while I remember it being really interesting while I was writing it, reading it is another matter entirely. It's hard to find the parts that I really need and there are a lot of questions I just shouldn't have bothered to answer, or that were answered elsewhere. I remember being exhausted after I wrote each one, too, which is usually how I feel when I think of Holly Lisle. I can't imagine how tired I'd be if I was actually her. Yikes.

Tonight I've also been taking a look at my original idea for NaNoWriMo '06...that story I had with the aliens and rayguns and stuff in it. :) It's good, but again, some of my concepts are quite silly. I totally over thought the whole "how to stop the bad guys" thing. Maybe playing Baldur's Gate recently has given me new perspective on this, but I can think of several much simpler, much easier ways to stop a band of mercenaries in their tracks then what I was coming up with last year. Seriously. The knots I twisted myself into over that were just ludicrous.

Also, tonight is momentous for me because I am doing what I swore I'd never do again: I am outlining. Right now. I have three chapters done. No, really. It's happening. I'm outlining. Me, the "do everything on the fly" queen. And I'm forcing myself not to go into exhaustive detail. I want to. There's a little part of my brain that's throwing an absolute fit when I tell it I'm not going to write down which family member calls my protagonist, or something like that. It rebels. It doesn't like to leave these details unsaid, because so many details come to me as I'm writing this outline, and it wants to say them all. But I'm resisting, and so far, I'm winning. I'm not sure if I should be writing these details down somewhere else or not, but I'm making an effort not to because I want to leave myself room to create within my outline. I don't want this to be like writing the book once, then doing it again later. We'll see how far I get. Still not totally sure what my ending is. But I have a fairly good idea. Better than what I usually have, anyway. ("What I usually have" being defined as absolutely bupkiss)

Wow. I just realized I actually got the trash done before 10pm. Go me.

Phew. Busy day.

Lots of chores to be done to catch up from my extended Thanksgiving weekend break. A lot of cooking was done as well. The Turkey Day carcass went into a stock pot last night and is still percolating on the stove, and I also made a butternut squash lasagna which was surprisingly easy with the new kitchen system. (Thanks so much mom!) Also made some baked goods (cranberry muffins & buttered biscuits) which ship out tomorrow morning. Hopefully they will be met with enthusiasm. I've decided that as soon as I pay off my debt to mom, the first thing I'm buying with my money are some new pajama bottoms. (And possibly a new pillow or two) All the pajama pants I've got right now are so short they're practically capris, and it drives me NUTS. After that, a laptop. And after that - saving up for England! =D I also plan to start submitting some of my novels around February, so who knows what that might bring. Just thinking about it makes me feel like my stomach's full of butterflies. Whee, nervous.

Um...that was it. Not much to say about today. A lot of chores and a lot of cooking. Dog Whisperer was a reapeat. :( I was so sad! I look forward to new Dog Whisperer every week and now National Geographic has let me down. I hate this trend of super-short television seasons. It's like you get five episodes and then OOPS! SEASON'S OVER! >=P Grrrr. Makes me mad. I demand new Dog Whisperer! *shakes fist at National Geographic channel*

I made a huge mess baking so I have to go upstairs and do another load of dishes, wipe down the kitchen, and adjust my stock to an appropriate temp for overnight simmering. Sigh. Better get to it. Tomorrow promises to be yet another busy day. G'night world.