To--*cough* I mean, um, on this 24-hour span of time which I've loosely dubbed "Wednesday", I, uh, did stuff. Yes. I am proud of the stuff I did, though it is hardly blog worthy. Mostly dishes. Loooots of dishes. Some laundry. Some cooking. I have discovered that I have a great love of currants, and have made some truly delicious currant/apple/macadamia nut muffins that I am trying not to snarf down at an unhealthy rate. I also cooked myself some greens for the first time in forever. Turnip greens actually aren't that bad--not nearly as bitter as I expected--though I liked them a lot better once I put them over some yummy basmati rice. So far I haven't been particularly successful in lessening the number of grains I'm consuming, but I have at least upped the numbers of veggies considerably. In fact I feel like pretty much all I ever eat are green things, rice products, spelt toast, and apples. That said, I can think of worse ways to live.

And to--*cough* I mean, um, this 24-hour span of time known generally as "Wednesday" I also WROTE SOMETHING. I know, try not to faint. It wasn't a very big something, but it was the beginning of another short story. (That makes three that I've started now...) I'm not sure if it's going anywhere but it felt good to write it all the same. And it was a pretty good chunk of text, too, if I do say so myself. (Which of course I would be, since I generally am not anybody but myself) I'm hoping I have enough energy and willpower to get into the habit of writing every night I come home after work, with the exception of weekends, naturally, since they are exhausting and I get home very late. (Speaking of which-- one of my favorite baggers is absent tomorrow and I'll only get to see the other one for an hour and 45 minutes! Tragedy! Woe! Sadness! etc. [insert flailing here]) Hopefully I can actually start to make some progress and start FINISHING some things I start and maybe, JUST MAYBE, I can actually make some money off these things. Like, wow. What a concept. *eyeroll* Not to mention it's kind of hard to podcast every week about writing when you're not actually doing any writing. Small but important caveat right there.

OK. It's really cold down here and I hear the call of some of that aforementioned toast. Oh, did I mention I also listened to some more Japanese lessons today? After putting them off for almost a year now? Yup! I did very good today. =D I even tried to listen to a new Italian podcast, but for some reason my brain rejected it utterly. Another day, perhaps. I'll stick with Japanese for now, since I seem to be well suited to it, and try and get my multi-lingual bagger to keep teaching me German. So far I've gotten...um...I think I remember how to say "half", "yes", "thank you", and "good afternoon" and I think I'm pronouncing "good evening" right but I need to double check. Not the world's fastest language course certainly but it's definitely fun. =D I'll have to get him to pick up the pace though since he is abandoning me this spring for YET MORE TRAVEL. CURSE YOU, BOY. (Just kidding. =D)

Ja ne!

Well, Gridlock was awesome. :) I cried for joy when I heard "the secret". I have several hopes in that regard, but I won't post them because they are quite spoilery and will probably turn out to be totally untrue. lol. Editing continues at a slow but acceptable pace. I'm not blazing any amazing trails but I am working every day, without fail, and that's important. I also think the work I'm doing is really helping my story move along, and that's a good thing. Found a new song I absolutely love. :) Made a couple of soups, one tasty, one not so much. For future reference, hot soup + blender = HUGE MESS, no matter how careful you are. I think I burned my pinky finger. (My second burn injury this week) Am in the process of checking out a slew of books from the library, mostly Jim Butcher stuff so I can see what The Dresden Files are like in paper form and if I love the books as much as I love the series. (Can't wait 'til it comes back, I miss Bob already! That would be Bob the ghost who's trapped inside his own skull, not Bob the USB drive who is currently hanging around my neck and has nothing to do with his aforementioned namesake) Not an amazing day, but not a bad one either. :) Oh, and I also finally came up with a subject for my podcast: editing. Not revolutionary, but also not the very well done "I'm a fledgling writer hear my struggles" plot. (Do podcasts have plots? I'm such a nerd) I think it's a good area for me to go into because it seems like everyone I talk to really hates editing and that's when you truly start questioning why you became a writer. Oddly enough, writing is usually the easy part. I'm not sure when I'm going to start the cast, though. I think I might have to get that "podcasting for beginners" book from the library again. Something to think about. :)

Only half an hour until a new episode of Good Eats. (My favorite thing after a new episode of Doctor Who!) Better get back to work. Ja. :)

Later edit: Every single Dresden book in the entire Knox County public library system - that's over a dozen separate libraries, mind you - has been checked out. I guess somebody beat me to the punch, eh?

OMG previews of episode 3 Doctor Who OMG *melts from excitement*

[maniacal fangirlish giggling]


Saturday cannot get here fast enough.

In other, non-Doctor Who related news, I made cupcakes today with my mom's stand mixer (awesome) and have officially edited 21 pages of my NaNoWriMo novel! Woohoo! Only 258 more to go...

Well, I think I've finally managed to catch up on most of the projects that got put off due to my illness. My "To Do" list is shrinking by the hour and things are starting to run smoothly again. Once I catch up with all the dishes and do a load or two of laundry all my boring mundane chores should be totally dealt with. :) I've gotten back on the writing horse and am continuing revisions on String Shift, and thanks to some encouragement from the awesome folks over at the ISBW forums I've decided not to give up on TSW. I also have a LOT of new story ideas burgeoning in the wings, and I'm keeping careful track of them in my diary. Some are little more than a few random scenes that have flashed through my brain, but I'm working on bringing them all together, organizing them, and making them a little more coherent. (There's nothing worse than having to hunt down scraps of story ideas that have been scattered through a dozen different notebooks) Sometimes it's really nice just to sit back on my bed and scribble down some random thoughts in a notebook. :) I've actually gotten several character profiles done that way recently...there's a particular story idea involving space pirates that I'm really psyched about at the moment. It was inspired by a dream I had last year, and the thoughts I wrote down in my bedside notebook are really kickass. In fact, I'm heading upstairs in a few minutes to do some more work on the plot and some of the different alien races. =D Fun!

In other good news, the spring rains came today. Earlier this month the weather was cold, bitter, and thoroughly wintry, and then the last couple of weeks have felt like diving straight into summer. In the middle of March. But the weather gods seem to have settled down finally and we're experiencing some deliciously humid and cool Spring weather. Mom and dad have planted some seeds on the back porch and they're all sprouting beautifully. We've got herbs, (dill, chives, basil) some flowers, cherry tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, and cucumbers. All of them are sprouting great, except for the lavender and sweet peas. (Flowers, not the actual peas) Those haven't come up it. It may be the seeds are too old, and that's OK. All of our old plants are doing really well, too. One of my two silver maple saplings didn't survive, but that's OK because the other one is doing fabulously. Seriously, this thing is taking off. It's huge, and it's putting on new leaves almost every day. It has literally gained several branches in a matter of hours. And, of course, because of the rain, everything's bright green and lovely. =D The humidity is sky high, which suits me, and when I step outside I can hear the little spring tree frogs singing their hearts out from every direction. And when I take Bruno for walks in the mornings, I get to see all the beautiful flowering trees. We've got all sorts here in Broadacres - Bradford Pears, Dogwoods, Redwoods, Weeping Willows, (My favorite - long, graceful sheets of fluffy pink flowers swaying gently in the breeze) Tulip Trees, and a dozen others I can't name. There's also an abundance of daffodils, hyacinths, and phlox blooming, which smells and looks amazing. Even the ugly, battered old tree in our front yard that the power company has mutilated to keep it out of the power lines is blooming again. Three cheers for spring! =D

Oh, I almost forgot - the baked goods biz has been doing great this week. I've introduced a new item, pocket pies, (You wanted me to make Cornish Pasties, Hel? ^_~ Well, now I can make you some fine pasties when I visit or any other time) which are selling really well. In fact, they're going so well that the batch of blueberry muffins (previously everyone's favorite item) I made for Tuesday's sale weren't even touched because everybody was so jazzed about the pies. I made one batch stuffed with sausage, eggs, and cheese, and another with a cinnamon apple filling. I made $15 in one day, which is more than I usually make in an entire week of sales. Awesome, huh? Mom and I are also discussing making things like casseroles and waffles, both of which I already know how to make. I can't wait to experiment with chocolate waffles. XD

I don't have oodles of extra cash, but I am slowly but surely buying things that I want and need. This past weekend I went out to Kohl's and bought a 14 day sampler of facial care products from good skin, which KICKS ASS. My face hasn't felt this good in...well, ever, actually. All the facial products I've tried up until now haven't really worked consistently, or they work only for a little while and then lose their effectiveness over time. They're also usually really expensive because they have to be all natural since I have uber sensitive skin and can't usually abide chemicals. But this stuff is a perfect balance of natural ingredients and chemicals. It's nice to encounter something that doesn't sting, cut, or make my face feel like dried leather. *coughProactivcough* =D I use their "all calm" system and would suggest their products to pretty much anyone who stood still long enough. I also bought a video game off Half.com, (great deals, btw, my purchase only cost about $7.50 and that's with shipping) the sequel to my all time favorite First Person Shooter, "No One Lives Forever". It's kinda old, I know, but the first version is SO much fun (I've lost track of how many times I've played through it) that I'm psyched about getting it anyway. And holy CRAP is it hard to find affordable video games these days! Everything at EB was $30 or over (unjustly so, I thought, seeing as how some titles were several months old or far too crappy to justify those kinds of prices) and eBay has gone completely insane. I guess the second handers decided they couldn't cheat people using reserve bids or buy it now auctions so instead they're going to hike up the shipping prices to make up for the fact that they're listing a game they bought for $50 at .99 cents. Dumbasses.

Anyway, I should go. I've already been down here an hour longer than I planned and this entry is probably already too long to read. Ja ne! :)

Well, I didn't get as much writing done today as I hoped I would. But that's not to say I had a bad day. Actually I enjoyed myself immensely. I took the dog for a really fun walk and took a long, relaxing nap afterwards. (To make up for the fact I was awake at FIVE AM THIS MORNING, grr) This morning, even though I was up very early, I got back on track with my Japanese lessons and actually listened to a few new episodes instead of just rehashing the old ones, and I learned quite a bit. Mom has had a lot of helpful suggestions on the short story front and, in a surprising turn of events, has purchased a fish! Said fish is on her desk at work. He is a beta named Bob. =D (She did that just for my benefit, since I am often complaining that things with long, complex names really just need to be called Bob) I am hoping to weasel a trip up there sometime this weekend so I can see Bob. She apparently went to Petsmart with Kimberly and along with Bob spotted a very beautiful Doberman/German Shephered mix for sale...if he hadn't been so expensive (and large - he's only two years old and he's already Bruno's size) I think we would probably have a new dog by now. ^_^() Not that I mind. Secretly I'd love to get another dog as a companion for Bruno, and also just because I think it'd be a lot of fun. Having said that it would probably morph into a horrifying disaster of epic proportions but there's nothing wrong with having a fantasy, I guess.

I also purchased Holly Lisle's "Create a Language Clinic" since it was on sale today. Not sure if I'm going back for the other clinic e-book, about creating cultures, even if it did look pretty cool. My debt to mom has finally been erased through baking revenues, it actually only took me a couple of months not counting my off time for the holidays. That's not bad, but sometimes it is kind of depressing to spend time baking something only to find out the next day you barely sold anything and made a whopping total of $6. Speaking of that, I need to make cinnamon raisin muffins tonight. And I need to start working on mom's website for the business sometime soon. I put that off for a long time, first because of forgetfulness and then because of the short story deadline. But I just realized it might help revenues considerably, so I think I'll redouble my efforts to get started on that. (I hate how you intend to do something and then thirteen other things come out of nowhere to keep you from doing it and a week later you realize you've done squat and end up feeling really guilty about it)

My dad says I have too much stress. He's probably right. Unfortunately I'm kind of fond of my stress in a really screwed up way. Need to work on that.

I can't think of anything else to write and I need to get baking, so matta ashita ne. :)

After a month and a half of putting it off, I just wrote 1,000 words of my 2,500 word Doctor Who short story in the last hour. =D I'm so happy! Unfortunately I have to stop now to go make pizza dough so dad can have hot pizza when he comes home from dialysis. It's so cold today I'm going to need to give it extra time to rise and stuff.

Yesterday was cool. I actually got to attend a real live writer's workshop with real live people and everything! The library was hosting Brian Griffin, who is apparently a local writer/professor/etc. I like him, he's funny. Sort of the stereotypical vision of the absent minded professor - thinning white hair, tweed-ish jacket, rumpled clothes, disorganized notes, terrible handwriting, the lot. But even if I do get kind of sick of all the quotes he uses as centerpieces to his topics of discussion, he's still an intelligent guy. I know this because the first class was full of stuff I alredy knew, which for once didn't annoy me because it was the stuff I've been absorbing from my different podcasters for over five months now. :) It was sort of like having Michael Stackpole, Mur Lafferty and Holly Lisle merged into one tweed jacket wearing body! Only less gross than that. Anyway, I did learn a few things, took some interesting notes, had fun, and will be going back next Thursday. That class should be a lot of fun since we'll be critiquing a few people's work. There were like forty people in yesterday's class so he couldn't take short stories from everyone, unfortunately, but it should still be interesting. Hopefully he remembered to ask for volunteers. ^_^()

I also picked up a copy of Nancy Kress's book, "Dynamic Characters", while I was at the library. I've spent most of today reading it and it is AWESOME. The first thing it says after the Table of Contents is "WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE, AND WHO NEEDS THEM?", which is hilarious since I often feel like saying that about my characters. "WHO THE HELL ARE THESE PEOPLE AND WHAT ARE THEY DOING TRAIPSING AROUND IN MY BRAIN LIKE THEY OWN THE PLACE?" The book is actually a lot like Holly Lisle's "Create a Character Clinic", only a little less structured and funnier. (Which is not to say that CACC was bad or totally unamusing) I've learned so much already and I plan on buying it as soon as I finish reading it/acquire money. =D Great book. I'm glad I heard Nancy Kress on "I Should Be Writing".

Dough time!

About three weeks ago on December 23rd, mom and I had a Saturday all to ourselves, so we decided to spend the entire day just making cookies. Some cookies would be for us, others would be for our neighbors as thank you gifts for mowing our grass. Some would be decorated and others would be just plain. We made chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies, peanut butter blossoms, coconut macaroons, and sandies. It was a lot of fun, and needless to say the house smelled spectacular for pretty much the entire day. Our chocolate chip and sugar cookies hit a bit of a snafu when they didn't rise at all and basically came out as flat as paper. We later realized our baking soda was completely dead and had to adjust our decorating plans accordingly, but things still worked out OK. I didn't get pictures of everything we made, but I did get pictures of our gingerbread cookies. (Which smelled AMAZING, btw, I LOVE gingerbread) Since we didn't have any men-shaped cookie cutters, we used the only cookie cutters we did have: Our Christmas themed ones that we've had in our family for as long as I can remember. The day after they were baked, on Sunday, I whipped up a huge batch of delicious and beautiful royal icing (Thank you Nigella Lawson for the recipe) and mom used some gel food coloring to make all kinds of colors. We whipped out huge cannisters of nonpareil sprinkles we'd bought a few days earlier as well as some random tubes of writing icing we'd picked up along the way, I sat down at a counter, and went to town. XD

( WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CUT CONTAINS COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF COOKIE PORN )

P.S. No, you haven't missed anything, there isn't yet an episode 2 of Picspam!. At the moment I'm just being all Star Wars-ey. XD

HA! I'm not dead Bones, just hibernating. Yeah. That's totally what I'm doing. I absolutely, positively did not lose an entire week watching the Star Trek: Voyager marathon on SpikeTV last week. Nope. Not me. I so did not wake up early at 8am so I could plant my butt in a comfortable chair at precisely 9am and stay there all day long to watch episodes of Star Trek: Voyager until 6pm. You know me, I'd never do anything like that!

=D

This is just a quick mini teaser update to let my friends know that I have not expired, have not been kidnapped by Swedish pirates, and that despite any rumors which you may have heard my offshore accounts in Aruba have not been infiltrated by a crack team of ninja gibbons. This is also where I'm going to tease you all by telling you about the cool British Sunday roast I attended last week, as well as the yummy Indian food I had on Friday, (my first experience with Indian food, I might add!) and that I haven't in fact forgotten about Picspam: Episode 2 and that it will eventually find it's way into this LJ before the end of the year. There may also be some content involving pictures of a large world map which I drew with my OWN TWO HANDS and is now hanging proudly over my bed in full color and detail, as well as some tales of adventures in cookiedom and whining about how I still don't have a clue what I'm going to write for that Doctor Who short story contest going on over at Big Finish. But right now I've got some chores to get back to and a couple of parental units to glare at, (just kidding) so the updates will have to wait until later.

Wishing you all happy holidays,
- 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.

Turkey Day was a success. The only thing that went wrong was that we didn't put enough salt into the brine for the turkey and as a result, it was not as moist and luscious as it usually is. Amazing how much difference one tiny half a cup of salt can make in that whole process. Oh, and the pies didn't work out so well. Mom, um, kind of got a little mad at Alton for his pie dough recipe...but we worked it out. While her pumpkin pie custards with heaping dollops of home made whipped cream (which I made myself) were fabulous and absolutely worth every delicious, velvety bite, the buttload of sugar my body is processing right now is reeeally taking it's toll. I haven't had to correct this many typos since the last days of finishing up TSW. My entire brain feels like it's slogging through mud, I've got a dull headache in the back of my head at all times, I can barely see straight and I'm just a tad dizzy. Concentrating is difficult. It's a very weird experience. Sort of like being half drunk and half hungover at the same time. Definitely time to back away slowly from the sweets and start clearing out again. Luckily this does not prevent me from having loads and loads of yummy Turkey Day leftovers, such as mom's home made dressing, (delicious!!! also I would like to add that at no point was the stuffing put into the turkey because STUFFING IS EVIL =D) heaps of mashed potatoes which I will be experimenting with soon, (I want to make potato pancakes like Giada) and of course the copious amounts of delicious turkey gravy which were made from a combination of my wonderful turkey carcass stock and the drippings from the oven turkey. Yum.

Mom has spent most of today revamping the kitchen, and is continuing to do so if the loud crashing noises I can hear coming from upstairs are anything to go by. I am ecstatic that she managed to do most of this without my help, which is good not only because my brain is seriously screwed up right now, but also because it's nice not to be automatically involved in a Huge House Moving Project for once. Dad has always done that to me and I hate it. I either participate and end up getting tired and cranky which makes everybody fight, or I get excluded which makes me feel like a useless lump of flesh, causes me to get guilty then cranky, and I spend the entire day depressed, snappish, or a combination of both. And of course since my dad often (also see: ALWAYS WITHOUT FAIL) mistakes sullenness for bitchiness, this results in more fights.

Wow. Totally didn't mean to go off on a rant there. O.o Stupid brain.

I'm going to go add some finishing touches to my NaNo and write down ideas for future projects (I've got about three new story ideas I want to pursue in the next three months) like I intended to do when I came down here over an hour ago. (Yes. I'm easily distracted.) I've decided to stick with my 50k-per-month plan because the change that has come over me during NaNoWriMo has been incredible. When I don't work, I get cranky and depressed, mostly the latter, and that's not fun for anybody. But when I'm writing, I'm more creative, I sleep better, and I feel more fulfilled. I don't think it will be a strain if I don't let it become one, and honestly I've got so much stuff coming out of my brain I don't think I'll have to worry about "fluffing up" my stories just to reach my word count goal. :) Still, I'll stay cautious, and will definitely take breaks if I feel the need to. As fast as I type it's quite possible I can churn out a 50k novel in two weeks and then spend the rest of the month resting or editing a previous work.

One thing is for sure, though: I am going to miss NaNoWriMo like you wouldn't believe. I already miss it. The excitement, the forums, the feeling of being part of something fun and delightful and uplifting...wow. This has been one of the best months of my life and I'm honored to stand next to so many writers. (Except the ones writing Sherlock Holmes porn. They can go stand somewhere else. FAR AWAY.) It's been a lot of fun, I've learned a lot both about myself and my writing style, and I think the lessons I've learned in the past 24 days will serve me well in the coming months, possibly even years, of my life and writing career. Yay for NaNoWriMo! =D