Okay, so I was chatty, then silent, then chatty - dramatic! - and then silent again.  I'm sorry, very sorry - last week was just a lot to handle.  No, my father's health isn't great - and I'm not supposed to know anything so I'm not going to talk publicly about what I'm not supposed to know.  There has been Other Family Drama, resulting in me turning rather anti-social.  I think after a few crazy weeks I need some down time, without the crazies or the distractions to sort of recharge.

But wait! This is me we're talking about - I hardly know how to do nothing, ya know?  Last week was almost an experiment in just that.  Oh wait - no it wasn't! 

Monday I did spend solo, warding off the world, cleaning, doing grocery shopping, etc.

Tuesday was Cover Girls, a monthly book club up in Plano my friends and I trek up to attend because it's just awesome.  I made cake-pops, which there are pictures of them in my Flickr.  I also made some book-pops with Dakota Cassidy's new book My Way To Hell done as a flag.  Super cute.  Check out my bakery success, fer serials.  Somehow, I'm not quite sure, but I wound up as the Teachers Pet at this event, lol.  The organizer, who turns to my friends and says, "I don't remember names, I'm sorry," proceeds to call me out of around 60 women for opinions and things.  It was funny and Certain People poked and prodded at me all night, but we were all laughing about it and really I didn't care.  Hey, it's flattering to get noticed!  You're lying if you disagree!

Wednesday was dance - but sort of a big night.  My dance school was featured by Groupon.com and Wednesday was the first night people could redeem their class voucher.  400 people signed up for the class!  400 people!  There are now two beginner classes on Wednesday.  I'm getting kicked up to the Intermediate Class that meets afterwards.  Sunday instead of just having Aliki's class, there will be two additional beginner classes taught by Neenah.  That's a lot of additional classes!  That's a lot of people!!

Thursday - Writers Date Night - and Cid forgetting the power supply.  It was a very beneficial night as I plotted out a new WIP and worked on some additional writing stuff I'm doing.

Friday - I think, don't quote me on this because I cannot for the life of me remember - I spent alone!  ALONE! HURRAY FOR ALONE TIME!

Saturday was dance class again - this one seriously kicked my butt.  We worked on floor work, and how to gracefully get onto the floor while dancing.  It's freaking Wednesday and my whole body still hurts.  The worst move we did was getting down on the floor, sitting on your legs.  Raise your butt up off of your legs just enough to clear your heels, and then move hips in a circular fashion while making your arms look pretty.  There are all sorts of directional changes and other things to do.  It also hurts like hell after not using those muscles seriously for a year!  We also did fifteen minutes of arm drills.  I didn't think this would be that bad.  Arms? Pshaw!  O. M. G.  The rest of the day I spent groaning every time I got in and out of my friend's car.  We went shopping in the pm for clothes.  I lurv shopping, and I lurv making people be my personal barbie dolls - because I never really played with them as a kid I guess I just like reliving that portion of my life now, right?  Did lots of great shopping, had dinner with some other friends and hung out for ages talking and whatnot so I got home uber late.  Now, I cannot just get home and go to bed, I have to like, unwinde and stuff, so I check my email and - So a few months ago I wrote lots of short stories and submitted them.  Haven't heard anything so I just accepted the silent rejections and moved on with my life.  Waiting in my inbox was a contract for a short story I'd written and submitted.  A contract to be published - and paid!!!!  I text'd tons of people, heck, you probably already know yourself but it's still fun to blog about!

Sunday was all about being at home and writing and reading and knitting and watching movies.  Really productive in some areas, I will say.  Started a new knitting project I'm excited about and will probably share pictures of later.

And this brings us to Monday - which was a random celebration of my impending published status and going out with the belly dancers to support Aliki dancing at Stratos.  Stratos is probably becoming my new, favorite restaurant, sorry McAllisters!  It's just a fun place.  Dance floor where the dancers dance every so often.  Amazing Greek food; I ate flaming cheese!  The waiters are almost all super cute.  And you get to dance!  Even on the tables!  Aliki got a bunch of us up to do a Shakira routine with her that we pretty much improved.  We did Greek dancing and some other line dancing - the only thing we didn't do this time - dance on the tables, lol.

So now we're at today - and today is another shutting the world out day, but only because there are books coming in on order today I'm crazy about and Must. Read.  The rest of the week is dance, writers date night and RA, so my live moves on in an ever persistent pendulum of crazy!

Yes, more book talk.  So almost right after I posted my last blog where I bemoan my writing - I read Janice Hardy's weekly Re-Write Wednesday blog entitled, The Frankendraft.  Now, this actually helped me to see that my story isn't buried, it's still plainly obvious - to me of course - and I don't see it as having some of the other bits she talks about - so maybe there's hope for me yet!  It's a little encouraging at least!  However, yesterday was all about indulging in a semi melt-down/pity-party about how terrible I was doing and woe is me, I should be doing something else!  I laid down around 11 on Wednesday night, got comfortable - and then - EUREKA! I had a brilliant idea I should have had ages ago when writing the first draft. I even twittered about it! And then I promptly cuddled up to my pillows to go to sleep.  Except then I was too consumed by the idea to do anything else.  In short, I got up and wrote until 2am.  I was very tired, please excuse the randomness as I tend to keep a blog in edit until I feel like posting it. This one happens to cover three days.

On another topic... I need to get my bangs trimmed, but the idea of sitting down in a chair while someone waves scissors around my head gives me nightmares of what happened last time.  They're just bangs - right?  I'm not ready to trust someone with the rest of my hair; I just want my bangs trimmed. Oh - well then I think I might need an eyebrow wax too.... Blarg - being a girl is expensive!!!

So I'm still reading through The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and I keep wanting to scream at it.  I find myself not caring about the MMC and really only about the bits on the FMC - unfortunately 3/4's of what I've read are about the character I don't particularly care about. Grrrrr!  At least last night she came into a more prominent role.  I'll save my other thoughts for my book review.  [edit] Finished last night. I want to burn the book.

I'm currently sitting at my desk wondering what reason I could have to try making Bakerella's new Oscar Cookies. OMG they look so YUMMY!

And yet more book drama - Macmillan takes a shot at Amazon in an add for a new book with the bottom text saying Available Everywhere Except Amazon!  Other book publishers are joining in on the whole mess and a friend and I have started a GoogleWave to keep a semi organized chronicle of all the stuff that's going on because - well - I'm a drama whore.

OMGOMGOMG - This just made my Friday! Robin McKinley shared the new cover of her upcoming book, Pegasus.  I'm super excited!!!!

See, after last week I knew this weekend would be a lot of fun - and I was right!! I love it when that happens.  ^__^

Friday I went with a friend to see Legion.  Now I wanted this movie to be good.  I know, I know - it was doomed from the moment you put an angel on it and expected me to take it seriously.  However, the first 3/4's of the movie I thought were done really well and though not exactly believable, were good and entertaining and drew you into the story.  That last 1/4 with the angel-car-chase and weird moment-on-the-mountain were.... like from a completely different, cheesy movie.  I liked the characters, even if they were a bit predictable.  Jeep gets my favorite character award for simply being named Jeep!  I liked his character, even if I thought he was foolish at times.  For the most part, I really liked and thought the characters and setting worked.  The plot wasn't even that bad - the dialogue during the last bit, however, killed it.  When an audience laughs during what should be the most poignant moment of the film - well - you know something wasn't done well.  My biggest beef with the movie - the name.  Legion was the name of a demon and I was totally ready for some demon interaction - which I didn't get.  Hollywood should have done a little more research and given it a better, more fitting name.

Saturday I made cake-pops (I have pictures... I will probably do a follow-up cake-pop blog because I have 20 more pops to dip that we didn't do Sunday. I should have been more like, hey lets all do an activity! CAKE-POP TIME!) and cleaned and did shopping stuff.  I also went out with some friends to Trinity Hall, which is always an awesome experience! And I saw my first karaoke!  I remember vagely having really bad karaoke at SAGU, but I never hung around or participated in it.  This was an interesting experience though.  Small room, lined with couches, and a big tv that played random Korean tv with the lyrics to whatever songs they pulled up.  It was fun!!  (even if I was a wallflower....)

Sunday was mostly cleaning and reading Recorded Attacks until people came over around 2:30 and we started knitting and crocheting and watching movies.  I think we watched Dr Horible's Sing-a-Long Blog, Star Trek (the new one), Connie and Carla, and Howel's Moving Castle.  I did a big chunk on the scarf I've been working on, which is good since I'm getting bored of it!!  I don't know that I want to do another circularly knitted scarf again.

So I'm getting head aches, and I think it's due to my eyes.  I need new glasses/contacts and I haven't done anything about this issue yet. I have one more set of contacts to go through and then I'll get my eyes checked.... I'd better switch contacts soon and make my appointment.  This whole hard-to-focus-on-stuff is a pain.

I look back at the last week and I failed doing some things I had hoped to get done.  So this week I will be more proactive!  First, I'm sort of excited about this one, I'm going to try my hand at embroidering cards.  I got the idea from the What Katie Does blog, which if you're a fan of tshirt surgery, you probably know her website, Oh My Stars.  I went through a phase in college where all the shirts I wore were taken apart and put back together in interesting ways.  Some better than others!  Anyways, I must refrain from saying more on this project until it's reached the recipient since I think there's a slim chance that person might read this.... *waves*  I will, however, update with pictures later!

[edit] I'm actually going to see about making a get-well card tonight after writing if I can grab the materials.  My boss had an emergency surgery this weekend so I'll make a card. I printed off one design and punched it out during lunch and then looked at the pattern... and realized I couldn't make heads or tails of it! Need a simpler something I think!

This week I want to eat at home more.  Except for Tuesday because it's impossible.  I have more than enough food to feed myself this week and I don't need to go out and spend money on food that is more fattening and less healthy than what I have at my apartment.  And I bought blueberries! YUMMY! I have a tub of that plain, vanilla yogurt.  Vanilla yogurt + blueberries = YUMMIER!!!!

I also failed last week on editing on my 2nd chapter of The Barking Dog.  Granted it's a huge undertaking because the chapter was ginormous but it still needs to be done and I totally dropped the ball in favor of other things, so this week I will redouble my efforts to not only edit that but write some more and do some more chapters in the Writing Magic book.  Most of my writing numbers have been either in my blog or rp related things this week, which is not what I wanted, but it was a really stressful week so I will forgive myself a little.

Also, I didn't do anything this last week.  I stayed up too late and struggled to get out of bed and just get to work last week. I want to try to get in bed reasonably this week and get up in the morning and do the whole Wii thing.  It makes me feel more productive about my day, even if it is only a little bit of exercise.  I should do it!

Alright, I have successfully rambled through my lunch of leftover lasagna from yesterday and will now proceed to muddle through the red items in my email in-box....

Okay, so I'm hosting a crafty day on Sunday at my place and this weekend is going to be spent cleaning, making cake-pops, revising The Barking Dog and doing things with yarn.  I'm excited!  Yes, it's really domesticated like, but oh well!  Was mildly frusterated to not find the candy melt I needed at the other Wal-Mart, but I found GREEN candy melt! I found that entertaining and might play with it a bit...  Also bought some more sprinkle options which are more Easter like in the colors but it's all about variety!!!

And then.... I found yarn.  I know I should start buying really quality yarns - but I'm still learning a lot so I don't think buying expensive stuff is justified - yet.


Okay! Time to get a little more cleaning and reading done before crashing!!!!!

I cannot pretend the weekend started out well.  Um, okay, so at the beginning it was fun but stuff happens, eh?  Friday I got off work and went and read The Last Olympian at BandN before going home.  However, I couldn't leave BandN without Redeeming Love, the book club book actually having being bought and since it was on one of those so very temping Buy 2, Get the 3rd FREE tables, I also got Maus Book I and The Zombie Survival Guide. They did not have Lament, which someone got me interested in, but that is probably for the best.  I am convinced the BandN by my apartment isn't the best.

My friend was supposed to go to a movie with me but we both got finished with what we'd been doing so late it just wasn't practical so we mutually decided - some other time would be better.  I then get in a heated argument with one person - okay, it was heated on my side.  Things were being launched at me that were personal and I got angry and said something I shouldn't have. No, it wasn't profane, just inappropriate - I was just rather upset.  A friend enters the conversation and starts telling me to be nice. Me - when I was the one standing up for myself.  This isn't the first time this person has pointed fingers at me when things turn heated so naturally it only made the situation worse because yet again I was of course the bad guy here for standing up for myself.  I think me being a girl and getting stupidly emotional about stuff is much to blame.

Saturday - ug - I woke up at 7:30.  My body really wanted to be up, but I was still rather exhausted.  Oh well.  I got up and went to Wal-Mart where there were hardly any people before noon and the cashiers were even standing around without lines.  It was rather incredible!  I bought all of the things to make cake-pops and was startled by actually finding lollipop sticks and five different colors of melt.  I was very thrilled that for my first attempt I wouldn't have to go searching around.  Anyways, enough about cake-pops. I have a whole blog devoted to the endeavor after all!

The youth group volunteer meeting was good, and I sort of met some of the other people but mostly talked to Brandy who I met Wednesday night.  I didn't stay for church; just wasn't feeling real well and for some reason I started feeling really depressed.  Don't ask me why; I can only assume it's due to female chemistry and bits from last night.  I know I take things too personally - it maybe my biggest fault.  Being told some of those things - if irrational - stick to me and I'll just have to deal with it.  If I weren't the way I am I wouldn't be me so I'm sure I'll be fine, that night just sort of sucked.  Worked on the cake-pops some more before abandoning the idea of finishing them and instead started Redeeming Love. Right now, 100+ pages into it - I hate it.  I really want to just put it down and not go on.  There are other books on my shelf of to-reads that I know I'll love.  That are on my master list of very important things to read in 2010.  Oh well.

Sunday - woke up not feeling well but I have cake-pops to do so took some medicine, had a small sit down breakfast and got to work!  The cupcake pops get the most layers so I started those first with the brown.  Learned I probably made those all too bit but I salvaged many more than I lost so I guess it all works out.  Home Group was good - apparently I missed the big church wide fast thing as well as getting the book we're going to be working through.....oopse.

Started feeling more sickly Sunday night and today's not been a whole lot better.  The day sort of passed in a blur.  I at least finished The Dreaded Book.

Woohoo! Third morning in a row I've managed to get my arse up and out of bed and do a 20 minute work out!  I'm proud of myself. And I'm actually startled that I'm feeling it in my legs; it's a really light work out, I have no illusions about getting an awesome, toned body.  I do hope to drop a bit of the weight I gained ....wait, I almost said this... last year.  Yikes. Last year.  I still sort of forget the magnitude of an entire year passing; I'm sure it'll hit me later.  According to the Wii I've lost a little over half a pound in the last three days.  I don't believe it.  If in a week I'm still decreasing, well then I'll own up to loosing half a pound, but I seriously find any results this quick to be suspect.

Last night I started a master plot matrix for Suspicion and .... dare I say it? I'm getting excited about revision.  Excited - yes! I can't wait to rewrite that first scene because I know I can do it better; I know a better way to incorporate more details than I did last time, to introduce the reader to the world better, earlier on besides the first blunt detail...

I probably won't get to that until Saturday, if not Sunday - and perhaps not even until next week.  Tonight I'm going to get off work, run home and get my nice, warm hoody and go to BandN and read the Olympian book, and buy Redeeming Love, our book club book I thought I bought off of Amazon.  I've been waiting for it to be delivered and went online to go complain and found that as I had purchased the book, the seller was updating that they were out of them - so my purchase was refunded and supposedly I should have gotten an email.  I didn't. I now need to go buy the book and get to reading.  Ug!  Anyways, if all goes well I will also see some late movie with Amanda tonight.  Saturday I want to finish the Olympian book if I don't Friday.  Then there's a church meeting at 4pm for the youth group, my friend's going to church with me, and I know I'll be too distracted to get anything done if it doesn't happen before the meeting.

And OMG there are a lot of movies out that I want to see!  Alvin and the Chipmunks, Leap Year, The Princess and the Frog, Did You Hear About The Morgans, Nine, Invictus, and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus which is strangely not playing in very many locations.  I think tonight it will be either Leap Year or Nine.

Plus I will need to start baking cake on Saturday night - because I want to have cake-pops ready for Home Group on Sunday!!  I'll need to decorate on Sunday morning/afternoon before Home Group.  And maybe I'll make another batch Sunday night if I don't go to my other friend's house.  Yes, busy weekends ahead.  Next week I will be taking advantage of every opportunity to relax because next weekend I'm volunteering my whole weekend to the church media team.  It's a good opportunity, but it's also a whole weekend when I'm starting to really try to get writing done.  I believe I will be selfishly taking Monday, Thursday and Friday to myself for writing, lounging and knitting purposes!  ....oh but I need to read....

Right - so I am still working my way through On Writing and loving it! Will read the Olympian book tonight and tomorrow at BandN, buy at least Redeeming Love for the book club and if I think I can read Isabel Allende's House of Spirit's before 2/1 when EA will be hosting the discussion on it, I'll pick that up.  Lastly, I believe I will be acting on my friend's suggestion and buy Maggie Stiefvater's book, Lament.  Not that I don't already have a hefty list of things to read already, LoL!

An update on my 1K a day.  I decided to go ahead and bite the bullet and created a spread sheet with all the stuff on it I need to track my progress.  I started on the 4th and have written as of the end of my lunch break, 6,007 words on various writing projects.  I expect this number to go up this afternoon, but I can honestly say I'm happy I'm doing this.  It's encouraging me to just write and go, go, go!

Blogs, blogs, blogs - have been a bit dry recently. Lots of recaps on last year or stuff about this year, whatever.  However, I just about keeled over when I read this entry from Rick Riordan's blog, Myth and Mystery talking about the new companion guide to the Percy Jackson series and - There Will Be More Camp Half Blood Books!!!!  Meaning he's not done with Percy Jackson's world! I'm very excited, in case you can't tell...

Oh my - I throw a good party apparently. I got up yesterday very early to bake four sheets of cookies and stick the brisket in the oven so it could cook for eight whole hours.  Yes, you heard me right, eight hours.  My beer battered brisket consisted of one can of bud light, half a cup brown sugar, half a cup chili powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper and one red onion.  My ten pound slab of meat cooked for eight hours at 250F, in hindsight I think it should have been done on 225, but oh well - what can you do now?  I spent all day cleaning and doing piddly things, even when Kyle arrived and we made a quick store run.  People got to my place around 5 and I think that's when everyone's sanity went out the window.  Kyle and I seemed to stick to the kitchen where at 5;30 we pulled the meat out of the oven and started cutting it into thick pieces; should I cook brisket again I will invest in an electric knife.  In the process of getting food out we broke Amanda's moms' crock pot in half, yes - in half. Something about putting it on a hot burner didn't go so well - so now I need to replace that.  Oopse!  Courtney broke a wine bottle - and I believe that's all the super drama for the night.

The food was good; the brisket only a tad bit more tough than I would have preferred, but oh well - it was far better than some I've eaten before!

As soon as the food things were cleared away - out came the cards.  I think we played Uno for hours; we had one game that simply would not end and we were yelling at eachother, threatening and generally being so loud I just knew my neighbors were going to show up any second to yell at us.  That never happened and the party lasted until 11:30 when everyone finally went home.

I really do have some awesome friends; I was amazed by the generosity of my friends - I got a set of Stars tickets, a B&N gift card, a yummie smelling candle, this super fun story telling card game, an awesome jump drive and I know I'm missing something, but it was all so awesome and I am touched by how thoughtful everyone is.  Hopefully we can do something similar again, but first I need to recover from THIS party. 

Really I wish I would have gone right to sleep last night, but I laid awake for most of it, tossing and turning, unsuccessfully sleeping so I'm very much tired today, but hopefully tonight I can really crash.  My parents are coming to take me out to eat tonight, so I'm looking forward to that - and giving them some brisket to take home because there's a lot left over.  Next time I'll cut it in half and save myself some trouble.  I'm sure I'll do a great deal of cleaning and taking out the trash tonight. My apartment needs it!

Right - blogs...in quick, no particular order....

Writing Excuses has a new episode up on gender roles; listened to it once, going to go through again this afternoon. Love listening to these guys!  Paperback Writer has a whole list of Christmas themed stuff on her blog; I wanna go back later and click through it!!  Fuel Your Writing is interesting - they have an article up on various Self Editing methods.  I'm such a girl; I don't care really about the whole Harlequin debacle, but it makes for great drama to read about and the Writer Beware Blog keeps delivering on the latest news!  I really adore The Inkwell Bookstore, but they blog about twice as much as I do so I'm limiting myself to one of their posts; this one is about Amazon opening a physical store!  I recently discovered Plot to Punctuation and their fourth installment of the NaNoWriMo series is up; honestly it's too soon for me to think about revising my NaNoWriMo as I still have yet to finish Premonition.  Doesn't mean I'm not itching to edit up Suspicion, but one project at a time, please and thank you!  Lastly, Nathan Bransford has a new blog layout that includes a forum section that I find awesome - check it out!

Right - back to work - lunch is over!

I've been up since about 8:30 am, which probably explains why I'm running about half an hour behind, but oh well!  So far I've made four sheets of cookies, sugar and gingerbread.  The brisket is in the oven - beer battered no less, hopefully I got the recepie right; it just said 1/2 a cup of chili p.  Now whether that's good old chili powder or like, chili powder you make chili sauce with is the big question... I used chili powder.  Me buying the beer, however, was just plain funny. I texted several people to get an idea what kind of beer I should get and the only person to really give me an opinion was Isaac who said Bud Light - so standing in front of the case staring at all of them, I was a little helpless until these two black men helped me. I'm sure they got a big laugh out of it later. I'm okay with that.

Now, I'm sure there are many wondering how the wedding went, right?  Well I'm going to pretend like you're anxiously waiting for my side of how it all went down so I'll appease the masses!  Friday we got up and were leaving the house at like 11 - which was when the rehearsal was supposed to be starting - oopse!  Dani gave me her camera and I proceeded to probably snap around 200-300 pictures over the course of two days.  The rehersal was quick; I lucked out and got to be escorted by the birthday-boy, Devon.  We giggled about the fact that all of this was happening on our birthdays.  His was Friday, mine Saturday.  We did some pictures, more decorating, ran to get some stuff we forgot about and generally got it all set up; despite the gazebo/archway thinggie getting there super late - like ten minutes before we absolutly had to leave to make it to the reception dinner appointment.

The reception dinner was at The Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant chain thinggie - and oh my goodness it was fantastic! We all ate until it was painful to eat and then ate more.  My favs were the cheddar starter one, the Burgundy wine fondue for meats, and the ying-yang mix of dark and white chocolate for dessert.We all had a blast.  By this time we were all rather well aquainted that it was just so much fun and we were all enjoying ourselves so much.  Our Hawaiin friend, lovingly called 5-O (yes, like "Hey Five-O! How's it going?")  It was really great seeing him and having him there; I haven't seen him since his graduation dinner I think so many years ago!!

Us girls took charge of the crashing 5-O, took him to his hotel because by this point because of flight delays and cancelations he'd been traveling for two days straight.  He was not fit to drive so after seeing him to his hotel we then went to get our nails done. I did not get fakies, I just got a polish job - for $20.  Probably the silliest $20 I've ever spent but oh well, they dang looked pretty for the needed 24 hours.  They're scuffed and icky looking now, but oh well.

I believe at this point we went back to Dani's house and  changed, then made a WalMart run for bridal make-up, and then to this amazing dollar jewelry store where we all sort of went nuts. I bought four rings, a few necklaces for presents and a purse for myself.  We had a blast in there!  Then it was back home for showers, food, final dress fittings, and stuff I will refrain from blogging about.  ~__^

The day of the wedding - got the bride up and out of the door for her hair appointment and then did my own hair - which took for freaking ever, but by the end it was a mass of curls and looked nice.  JD and I stopped, smartly, for food before the wedding.  We got to the church, did all of the pictures beforehand, and then seperated until the actual event.  I believe I cried about six times total, and when I say cry I mean a tear or two came out - except before when we prayed over Danielle in the bridal suite/hospitality room thing, I really did cry then.  The wedding was very pretty, very simple, very nice.  They did not use traditional music, which I liked, but it was still lovely and people who loved the couple were there and besides the minister dropping the unity candle - it all went off without a hitch!

For the rehearsal JD and I wound up serving most of it, so I'm not sure about what else happened as I was too busy cutting and serving cake and stuff to do much else.  Around 5ish I believe JD and I left from the church and leap-frogged eachother to Ft Worth where she went on home and I....sat in wreck traffic for an hour. It was lovely.

And now I leave to go do more cleaning.  I'll upload pictures later once I get bridal permission and such.

I think I've mentioned my obsession with blogs, haven't I?  I believe it's been mentioned before. So this is my post devoted to recaping blogs!

BookEnds gives a nice, encouraging blog about how - Hey! We all do it differently - on writing.  Yes, we are all different, and I'm a plotter, planner, and replanner when it comes to writing!  Well, Plot to Punctuation is a new blog on my list and in the few blogs I've read it's been worth while.  One of their latest gives a nod to the recent marathon writers and gives tips on revising characters, etc.  The very newest, coupled with the next link, gives some good tips on dialogue.  Gail Carson Levine's blogs are enlightening; her latest deals with dialogue and is called Talking Talk.  I know a lot of people during NaNoWriMo discussed having issues with dialogue and I always want to make mine matter more, so I'm for sure putting this one on my to-come-back-to-laters!

EA does another follow-up blog to some others she's done about a writer-agent relationship; again, very enlightening and what not.  I want to go back when I have time and read through that one and the writer-editor and dream client blogs for my own pleasure.

I'm putting this one at the end.  It's from Writer Beware and it's on the differences of Vanity Publishing and Self Publishing.  I think I need to reread it to make it make sense at this point, LoL.

Okay, so I've been telling my bachelor friend for a few weeks that I would do fish and I've not delivered.  Well I made Tilapia and a pilaf tonight.  Okay, so it wasn't really a pilaf, a pilaf is cooked in bouillon and mine wasn't but calling it pilaf makes it sound fancier.

Ingredients

• Thawed Tilapia Fillets
• Blackening Seasoning
• Creole Seasoning (Optional)
• Basil (Optional)
• Salt & Pepper
• Butter
  
• Rice (Minute Rice, Jasmine, Yellow, Brown)
  
• Corn
• Butter
• Green Peas
• Carrots

Utensils

• Pyrex Baking Dish
• Two Small/Medium Sauce Pans
• One Cup Measuring Cup
• Spoons
• Spatula

So you can get Tilapia frozen in bags of ten or so; one bag lasts me quite a while.  I don't love eating fish which is why I put so much stuff with it.  I'm slowly getting a taste for it.   Go about thawing your fillets, leaving them in the fridge or sitting out for a bit is the preferred way; I tend to soak mine in a lot of warm or hot water.  Once they're all nice and thawed out I pre-heat the oven.  Refer to the back of the bag of fillets for instructions.  This bag had 425 degrees, and cooking them for about 10 minutes.  I like to mist the pan with Pam; I had some issues with fish sticking to the pan before.

Now that the oven and pan are taken care of, lay the fillets down and apply a layer of the Blackening powder.  I use Old Bay, and I also apply a very thick coat of it.  For your first time, do a light dusting.  I like it laid on thick, personally.  Over this apply whatever other seasonings you want.  Salt and pepper I would highly recommend.  I added some Basil this time, simply because I had it and that's it.  I'm not altogether sure it did a whole lot for the fish, but it did for the rice - I'll get to that in a second.  This is your fish!

Pop the fish in the oven and think about the rice and veggies.  I did a simple rice and corn pilafish combo, but you can add green peas, carrots or whatever else you like.  I used normal, every day  minute rice I got from WalMart probably, but I've been told I should try Yellow Rice or Jasmine Rice, which I would like to eventually someday.  I prefer the mixed Gold and White corn that Del Monte has in most grocery stores.  When heating up the water for the rice I would suggest adding some Garlic Powder; this last time I added Basil and it was a good addition.  Drain all the water off of the corn when done and combine your rice and veggies.  This makes your pilaf!  When the fish is done and the veggies are done, you are done!

 I think I intended to wake up earlier than I did today.  Regardless, I was off to the pet store and Wal-Mart a little before noon - which is surprising because I usually roll out of bed around 1pm on the weekends.  That out of the way it was time to get down to business, that being getting the mock-up for my dress done.  Now it's worth saying that just about all of my sewing stuff in the process of moving twice - has just about disappeared.  Pins, thread, scissors, measuring tapes - I sort of had to replace all of it.  Thus - why I now sport a black wristie-pincushion with Project Runway emblazoned across it.  It's a super convenient thing to use, but I chuckle every time I look at it.

I cut out all the pieces to only realize there are some I don't need because I'm altering some of the pattern.  There's this band of contrasting fabric on the hem and I'm not going to incorporate that into my dress. I think it would just look weird; the fabrics I've chosen.  I think instead I would prefer to lengthen the skirt, add some more volume to it and if I have enough of the beaded fabric, do a layer of tool on the edge instead.  I think it would look a lot better than the way the pattern calls for it.


I was a bit excited when I realized the pattern calls for pockets.  I can't tell some of my stories, but in previous weddings I've been involved in I've been running around and needing to hold my camera or a phone or lip gloss or whatever.  Having pockets in the dress is going to be super de-duper awesome.  I'm glad I did the mock-up first because I sort of screwed the pockets up the first time.  I sewed the skirt, held it up and laughed at my mistake.

The first mock-up was incredibly too large.  Three mock-up's later I've decided I'll probably need to add darts and maybe do a fourth mock-up.  The last one I did I was on two sizes smaller than what the pattern dictated I should be. I think I could be one size smaller yet, but it's now after midnight and I'm sort of tired of crouching over fabric spread out on my livingroom floor cutting stuff.  I need a more functional table; the pub table is awesomely stylish but I think a normal one would be far more beneficial.  Oh well!

I'm not knitting right now; my left hand's hurting a bit.  I don't know if it's all to blame on knitting - it's the same hand and knuckle even that I broke a year ago almost.  I figure it's just the scar tissue and unworked muscles.


Okay - so I tried a Rachael Ray recipe from her website.  It's her Maple-Bacon Monte Cristo's and it's pretty good.  For just a sandwich it's a bit of preperation but I wanted to make them at least once; I'll probably fix up one for lunch and dinner tomorrow because it's just convienient now that I sort of have the stuff started.  This does create a bit of clean-up the way RR says to do it, so I would suggest making the bacon in the microwave.  I also substituted normal bacon for turkey bacon.  If you can tell from the picture, following the instructions and baking it for ten minutes burned the edges and created a mess on the pan.  I think less time if you choose to do it in the oven, or just do it in the microwave!

You prep the bread just like you would for french toast.  Again, letting the sammitch sit on the skillet for FOUR minutes - you get blackened bread.  Just melt the cheese and you're good.  I added some powdered sugar to my eggs for the bread; if you've had them in a restaurant the sandwich usually comes with a dusting of powdered sugar.


Right! So I'm out.  I should probably be sleeping....

So I didn't really think to share this one but I was hungry for lunch today and didn't really have anything left as far as the veggies I'd eaten with this hamburger and decided to do this dish and figured I might as well share it.  True - it doesn't really look very appealing, but it tastes good - at least to me!  I first made this probably when I was in jr high or high school and it's just been a good staple item since then.  A list of ingredients is at the bottom.

I took some ground beef I had left over; normally I use a whole role or half role of ground beef if I'm making it for myself.  I like to make it for weekends as a one dish serve all for lunch and dinner to last me till Monday.  Brown meat in a frying pan as normal; I like to add just enough BBQ sauce at this point to just lightly coat everything.  This gets the flavor into the meat better and keeps it more moist longer.  I like to add Garlic Powder and Onion Powder, personally, in addition to salt and pepper.

Once the meat is underway, start in on the rice and blackeyed peas.  Follow normal instructions for the rice; I normally cook two cups of rice to mix in with the beans and meat but you can add more or less as you desire.  I usually cut the amount of butter down to a single teaspoon, personally.  I like to drain the blackeyed peas before cooking and after.  I usually get a can of plain, simple peas - no ham or jalapeno style for me!

Now it's a waiting game.  When the meat is browned, the rice is fluffed and the beans have been warmed up I try to get as much liquid or grease off of all the ingredients as possible.  I strain the beans and wash them in hot water, and pour the grease into my old pea can to trash later.  In a large, pyrex glass bowl I combine the rice, beans and meat, give a few good stirs and then pour on the rest of the BBQ sauce.  I like a lot of sauce, others don't so there's no real rule as far as how much to add.

And that's it - Cattleman's Casserole!  It's not much to look at - but it's filling and good.  :)

Ingredients

• Ground Beef
• Instant Rice
• Blackeyed Peas
• Butter
• Salt & Pepper
• BBQ Sauce
  
• Garlic Powder (optional)
  
• Onion Powder (optional)

Utensils

• Skillet
• Two Small to Medium Pans
• Strainer
• Three Mixing Spoons
  

I made a pot-holder!  Well, really what happened was that while taking stock of what I have as far as yarn and what I have to try making a beanie out of - I ran across this.  I think I started it as a scarf but um, completely forgot about it, who it was for and everything.  So I ripped out a few rows, finished it and here we are! A very tightly woven pot-holder.

I'm starting to think I may be making my stitches too tight a lot of the time; I hold onto the needles really hard and am always tightening stitches and realized at work that my knuckles sort of hurt.  I don't think they're supposed to.

I intended to start the beanie cap, but realized I needed the circular needle thinggies... I'll have to pick some up and just work on my 'blanket' for now. It's well over a foot in vertical length and I tried counting stitches; it's more like 150+ stitches - eventually I just lost count.  Basically it's a lot of yarn.  I should have knitted different squares really and just pieced them all together.  Oh well - I'll know better for the future now.

And I watched the latest episode of the Tool Academy; oh my goodness!  It's trash TV, I know, but it's great just for the drama, crazy stuff that happens.  The latest episode was all about the guys learning to appreciate their girlfriends and oh my goodness!  The guys go into an outrage and trying to fight some of the crew, destroy stuff - it's just so nuts!  The guys get the taste of their own medicine having to watch their girlfriends taken out on a date by a 'true gentleman'.  They don't see that it's fair turn around, they just growl and throw a fit about how it's so unfair to them.  Such an interesting show...

So while taking my morning off work, I happened to watch the Rachael Ray show - I don't think I've ever done that.  I was intrigued by her cooking and that this chicka's going to do a year of Rachael Ray recipes because she's inspired by the movie Julie/Julia that I have yet to see.  Anyways, I poked around her recipe archive and was thrilled to see she has a picky eaters section!  She's speaking to my heart...  Anyways, I think that I want to pick out some of her recipes and try them.  I should try cooking new things - my cooking's getting a little predictable.  I'm probably going to be cooking up some Tilapia tomorrow night for our weekly gathering to watch The Office so I might see if there's something new and exciting I can do to it.

Now for a bit of my nerdy side.  A friend of mine watches this show called Kamen Rider - and to be quite frank I used to mock him to his face and secretly about it.  I mean come on - live action battling 'monsters'? Super dumb.  However, one night I was bored and watched an episode of the Den-O season and I've been hooked ever since.  The new season, called Kamen Rider W (here on referred to as W for short) just started at the beginning of the month; we're three episodes in as it has to be translated before links go up.  The new season fills me with a huge sense of nostalgia as it reminds me so much of when I used to play Dick Tracy with my friends growing up.  The two male leads - I love.  The female lead - I hate; she's so freaking obnoxious and like nails on a chalkboard!  I'm enjoying this season though; last season with Decade was a bit of a let down - even though I left off like half way through and have yet to finish it I've been told I'm not missing much.

Either tonight or Saturday I will make the trip to look for fabric for the bridesmaid dress.  I have an idea of what I think I want to do in my head but it could require a lot of work and I may just end up taking the border to one of those stitching shops and get them to do the embroidery and not do it myself - but that's if I go with that plan.  I need to see fabric first!  I plugged in the reference swatch she sent me for reference.  As far as I can tell it's either straight up acrylic or some sort of blend, a bit course.  If I can find this particular fabric I'd completely line the dress with something more comfy - it's also going to be December in Oklahoma so I'm considering lining whatever I make so I don't freeze; if the wedding's in the church I remember - I have distinct memories of freezing through a service already.... I don't wanna be a brides-maid-ice-sculpture or anything. Hmm, I hadn't even asked about shoes - what kind of shoes we're supposed to wear makes a lot of difference too.... *goes to text the bride!*

Okay, so I have a particular friend (who will remain nameless) who has recently moved out on their own and quite frankly - doesn't know how to cook.  There's some simple things I've made that I promised I'd show how to make but considering the states that have sprung up between us - I figured it was far more convenient to just put it in a blog and share with other people how I make a tasty Cajun Shrimp Pasta!  To the right you'll see a big picture of a lot of the ingredients I use. I will show individual pictures of them or link to them so it's easier.  Also, a list of the stuff needed is at the bottom.

I like to use small, salad shrimp - personally.  There's just something about huge shrimp that's always freaked me out and I just can't eat them unless they're fried and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt they aren't going to crawl off the plate and attack me.  Yes, it's irrational but whatever - that's me!  These shrimp are about quarter to half-dollar sized; I usually have to get these at Wal-Mart in the fish section of the deli.  They will need to be thawed out before cooking with them so you might want to think about tossing them into the refridgerator the morning you want to cook this.  Otherwise you'll end up soaking them in warm water or something like I usually do to get them thawed out.  In my experience it's best to thaw them first and let them sit in a strainer to sort of dry out before adding them to the sauce.  This way you don't thin the sauce with water.  :)

When you're ready to start cooking I would suggest starting on the sauce first.  The reason being it takes just a tad bit longer and you want some time to let the sauce sit and thicken before eating.  I like to use these powder mixes from McCormick instead of a jar just because the taste is different, less heavy and I just feel like I'm almost making something from scratch here! (Okay, not really but let me dream, okay?)  Directions are on the back of the packets but you basically add a cup of milk per packet to a pan - I would suggest a slightly larger pan than you think you'd need because milk boiling over is never a fun thing to clean up! 
Don't crank the heat up to high either.  Select a temperature that's a medium-high range; cooking food isn't about how fast you can get it all heated up - it's about creating something you want to eat.  The directions call for about 3 teaspoons of butter per packet - when cooking with two packets I, personally, do not add that much butter.  It's not healthy, blahblahblah, you get the picture.  I think I add 3 teaspoons regardless of how many packets I use - but that's me!  I like to add my spices at this stage, when the sauce is still all powdery and chunky and you look at it and think - I'm supposed to eat this?  Yup!  I like to add a lot of this Zatarain's Creole Seasoning, though there are a lot of other Cajun spicy combos out there, this is the one I bought when I first moved out on my own and it's huge and I'm still working on getting through it!
I also like to add a smattering of other spices; Watkin's Onion Powder and Garlic Powder are sort of staple items in my pantry, as well as a generic Itallian Seasoning.  These are optional and totally not necessary to the meal, but they're good things to have on hand to spice anything up.  I don't really like Onions but I do like the flavor a good bit of the seasoning adds and Garlic is Garlic and can make a lot of things have a bit more pep.  I add just a bit of each, some salt and ground pepper and once I'm satisfied everything's sort of mixed together well enough, I put the water on to boil for the pasta.
I like to use the bowtie pasta for this dish, but any is acceptable - they all taste about the same!  I'm going to trust that cooking the pasta isn't rocket science; combine water and pasta, wait for boil, add dash of salt, and let boil until pasta is moist and edible - and then boil a few minutes longer!  I say that because I usually cook when I'm hungry so I want it done now, not in a few minutes NOW!  So I don't usually trust my judgment of if pasta's done or not.

Now, keep an eye on the sauce!  I think half the time I accidentally let mine boil over and it's a pain in the arse to clean up later.  When the sauce reaches an almost bubbly, fluffy looking stage, I like to spoon in the shrimp which will do two things - reduce the temperature of the sauce and cook the shrimp slowly.  This is when you really want to start stirring the sauce occasionally so the bottom of the sauce doesn't burn and stick to your pot.  Burnt sauce is a pain to clean up as well!

With all your things on the stove, it's a waiting game now.  If you want to bake a roll or a croissant now's the time to pop it in!  You have just enough time to do something else, but stay close.  How much time am I talking about? I'm not quite sure; I've developed this cooking timer and I just sort of 'know' when some stuff's cooked long enough but whenever you question if it's done or not - taste test!  Pull out a piece of pasta and nibble on it, fish around for a piece of sauce covered shrimp and try it; if the pasta's moist and good, and the shrimp is warm - you're probably done! 

If you started the sauce before the pasta then the sauce should finish well before the pasta.  When the sauce is done, pull it off the burner and set on another one out of the way.  The sauce will thicken as it cools a bit.  This generally gives me time to watch the pasta boil just a minute longer before I strain it a few times.  An old trick a friend's mom taught me was when the pasta's been strained and is in the strainer, run water over it again!  It washes away something and supposedly makes it healthier - but it's pasta so um, good luck with that!

I like to have a roll or bread with this and cheesecake goes uber well with it too.  So I forgot to take a picture of the finished product but it's good.  Hope this helps!

Ingredients

• Bag of Mini-Shrimp
• 2 Packets of McCormick Alfredo Sauce Mix
• Some form of Creole/Cajun Seasoning
• 2 Cups Milk
• 3-6 Teaspoons Butter
• 1 Box Bowtie Pasta
• Onion Powder (optional)
• Garlic Powder (optional)
• Itallian Seasoning (optional)
• Salt & Pepper

Utensils

• Medium Sauce Pan
• Pasta/Large Pot
• Strainer
• Mixing/Serving Spoons