I'm cleaning today. Aren't you impressed?  Anyways, I took a quick inventory of everything knitting I have in these two baskets that fit nicely in my entertainment center.  I discovered a few things I didn't know I had - or that I had started. 

A scarf. I have no memory of ever having started this scarf.  Or who it might have been for.  Anyone recall asking for an absurdly wide, black scarf from me? I think it's 30 stitches across.....which is the width I made my friend, Kevin's, green scarf.  This is perplexing.


I'm not altogether sure what I originally intended this to be - but now I will call this my throw-in-the-works.  It'll be a slow process, but someday I'll make this into a baby-blue throw, which I will probably give away.


I haven't the foggiest idea of what this should have been.  It's an orange bath mat, maybe? It's not even on needles....


....It's a very large black square.  I have no idea what this is for or why I did it.  Do you?


I think this is left over from that first batch of yarn I bought with the intent of making shifter colored things.  I'm wondering if I could take it back and exchange it for a color I would actually use.


Navy yarn for something I never started.  I could see a nice, navy scarf, perhaps...I'm not crazy about it though, but for some of the things I'll be trying to learn in the near future it could be good to keep around since I at least like the color.

I actually know why I bought this.  The idea was to make a shawl for my bride's maid dress in Danielle's wedding, but as you can see, it didn't really happen.  I'm thinking of unraveling this, rolling it and making a scarf to give away as a present at some point or perhaps keeping for something else.  The yarns not very soft, but it is pretty for a sparkly thing.


These are new. I just bought these....last week? Not even a week ago!  I want to use them to knit a stripy scarf; I really like the colors and it's a yarn I've never played with before.  I think it'll be really fun!


This is another new purchase.  I got it specifically because I want to learn how to knit this headband pattern with it.  It's super soft, lightweight yarn and I like the charcoal color.


This is a scarf for a friend who demanded a scarf...that I have yet to finish.  It'll be done someday and I actually like both the yarn and the knitting in the round thing; I anticipate it'll be what I finish after this birthday present I'm doing now...


This birthday present to be exact.  My friend just let the cat out that her birthday is this coming weekend; I won't be able to be there for it, but she's hinted that she wants me to make her something as well, so here we go! A homespun scarf in her absolute favorite color; red!  I'll probably stick in a movie today once I finish the cleaning I'm currently ignoring and knit away at this for a bit.


This basket is my new project basket.  It was actually part of a present from my boss and after coming home, yarn decided to live in it.  Currently it has the finished green scarf, the gray and blue scarf and the red scarf residing in it as things that need immediate attention.  I discovered it's quite handy for shoving in whatever I'm working on and sticking on the back of the couch or in an out of the way spot for when people surprise me and come over to play Wii.

This was a present to myself - a late Christmas present.  It was on the list of things I wanted but no one got it for me - so I got it for myself! I have this terrible habit of passing by yarn and grabbing needles and yarn - as if you can only use the needles once - and I've also been guilty of grabbing more than one set of needles in some size I already have.  This is my attempt to solve that problem; a nice, neat organized place for all my needles....even the size 17 ones.

Well, that's my Knitting Inventory!

This is a rant.  I will not really apologize for this.

It all started innocently enough; someone asked me what I was reading and I responded I'd just picked up The Sea of Monsters tonight by Rick Riordan and I'm about halfway through it already.  The conversation then proceeded to spiral downwards as one person launched into how terrible and cliche these types of books are.  Perhaps they are a bit cliche and silly - but they're teen-young adult books; they're going to be a little cliche.  Unnamed person continued to go on at length about how high fantasy books are awful and people need to write more real, gritty, bloody books.  This person went on at length and continued to be utterly intolerant of anyone else's view.  It then made me want to laugh outright because it was then announced that said person was writing a book from the viewpoint of a sarcastic college student who experiences some abnormal things; which means that said person is basically writing a dream book about what they wish their life is about.

I generally don't react well to intolerant people.  I think that while I don't like everything, I can learn from it and appreciate the value of something I don't necessarily like - to other people.  It's kind of a way I operate universally; opinions, beliefs, all of it.  I will offer my own opinions, views or what have you and when it's offensive I'll state this is my opinion, you might not like it, but I'll just express it this once.  This happens a lot with religion; I have a lot of friends who are not even remotely friendly to the subject.  I have had the conversation many times when I explain what I believe, that it's important to me that my friends understand that, and if they don't want to hear about it - okay - I can live with that, but at least saying it once is important.  I do it nicely, but everyone's respectful.  I don't berate people for having a different opinion than myself - even if I think it's hair-brained ridiculously stupid.  I do not, however, take well to people who believe their way is the only way for something to be done. 

Of course the one thing I do believe in whole heartedly that is the only way - is Jesus.  In my mind believing that Jesus is the one true Son of the Living God, who was killed, resurrected, and sits at the Right Hand of the Father is the one and only way to enter Heaven.  I can - however as much as it pains me - understand that not everyone shares my belief.  There are things that this belief dictates that I, personally, think are wrong or not permissible, but I can also understand that not everyone sees things the way I do - and I can love them despite that.

I think that intolerance is an issue.  We aren't a segregated country anymore, but intolerance still ferments.  It grows into something else.  I'm rambling now, so I'll stop and go clean.  Maybe I've said something of value here, maybe I've just ranted about something that makes no sense to anyone but me. Oh well.

Okay, so I read the previous book, The Lightning Thief, in about twenty-four hours. I dashed that record to pieces; I started reading The Sea of Monsters around 5pm when I got home, with a break to eat, and also a break to run to the pet store and finished reading the whole book around 11pm.  It's good.  It's infuriatingly good!  I wouldn't want to start it and put it down - I'd rather just devote a handful of hours and read the book straight through.

The characters are just as greatly crafted, the setting wonderfully vivid, and the plot intricate and surprising enough you actually have to think about some parts of it.  I like that.  I also wish I knew the formula for creating a page-turner like this.  I'm eyeing the next book in the series wondering if I should start it tonight, or tomorrow - or even hold off until Sunday....

Go read The Lightning Thief.

I've discovered the three places I get hit by the inspiration train. 

• In Bed. Either from the thoughts just before I go to sleep, my dreams, or whatever I'm thinking about when I wake up, these thoughts have often lead to a creative gold mine.
• While Driving. I do a lot of thinking, playing music and mussing through stuff here.  It used to be more pronounced but even now I get a lot of good ideas while driving and thinking and listening to music.
• In the Shower.  This has been the place to go for the last few weeks.  Don't ask me why, I don't understand it, but I get in the shower, washing my hair, and I'm slammed by ideas.

So yes, maybe I'm strange, but these are where I get a lot of my ideas.  Yesterday I was in the shower thinking about this vampire short story I was writing - and just had this awesome idea.  Okay, I think it's awesome.  Anywyas, I realize that using it will completely take it out of the short story realm and plop it into novel length, but it has potential and could go somewhere, so I'm going to put it on the back burner and plot it out a bit better and go back to working on Premonition in the hopes that I can finish it in January and start editing Suspicion.  I'd really like to get both in some semblance of neatness in the next few months, truth be told!

Last night I went to go see Sherlock Holmes, I think I'll make a semi detailed blog about it that critiques bits of it - overall I thought it was good but I was not in love with it like so many seem to be.

Finished V for Vendetta, will write up a review of it later - I highly suggest reading it!  [edit] Review done!

I'm not sure what to read next; if the book club book came in today I should really start on that, if not the next book in the Olympian series after The Lightning Thief might tempt me to read it.  It's actually not as thick as the first book, so it will probably hold me through the weekend - even with my brother in town!  We'll see what I pick out tonight I guess.

I keep forgetting I have a rabbit at my place now; she makes noises around her cage that my Chins do not and it keeps startling me.  It could be that she's on the opposite side of my apartment's living-room from the chins for temporary quarantine purposes; Chinchillas are rather delicate creatures.  I'm going to run to the store tonight to pick some stuff up for Lady Gray - the rabbit - since she came to me with a cup for water, not a water-bottle, and has special bedding that I don't use considering there's a tray in the bottom of my Chin's cage.

I finished the green scarf I was working on for a belated birthday present for my boss and have since started another homespun one in red for a friend's birthday - which will also be a late present considering she just told me when her birthday was....Ug! Maybe I'll get a lot done tomorrow on it....I can hope, right?

This morning I was late to work - I've been cutting it really close, but this morning I was straight up late.  This is not good. I think I'm going to start forcing myself to go to bed earlier and kick people out of my apartment at 9pm.  I have noticed that I cannot go from having people over to being in bed; I need an unwinding period where I sit down and veg for a bit to get myself to a point where I can actually get in bed; problematic I think.  The only solution I can see is creating a buffer time where people are gone and I'm alone to get stuff done or whatever.  It won't be fun, I know people are going to not be happy about it, but I need to be better on top of things for work; it is what pays my bills after all!

In completely random news: men's razors are by far more awesome than women's.  I heard it said, I doubted it, I tried it, and omg was I wrong! I was paying about $10 for a package of three of those silky razors which did a pretty good job but $10? It hurt me to buy them.  I paid $4 and got six razors and the results are by far much, much better.

Nathan B posts a blog about how even in the book industry - where authors used to be drunken, druged up loons, it's not tolerted anymore - go read No More A-Holes. Plot to Punctuatin wraps up it's 2009 with a list of the Top Character Development Ideas of 2009. Are you a moralist? What do you think about stealing?  Go hit up the Fuse blog about To Borrow or To Steal.

I will admit here and now that I am so very biased on this book.  I really, really, really am.  If you didn't like the movie, if you aren't an idealist, you probably won't agree with me and I'm okay with that.  Really, I'm okay with disagreeing - just do me a favor and don't rant about how much you hated it for some such reason.

First - I have not read a comic much less a graphic novel in a very, very long time.  The first 50-80 pages were a struggle because I was getting far too distracted with the pictures, the detail, and most certainly getting confused.  Then I hit a roll with it yesterday and read the rest of the book all at once it seems.

I really like how Alan Moore does the setting; I've heard and understand Watchmen is similar in that regard.  I just find the whole alternate setting fascinating, how it's conveyed and made real.  I do wish he'd said more about the rest of the world - but maybe I missed some of the more subtle details on that account by plowing through it like I am known to do.  I really liked how the portrayed The Shadow Gallery, a maze of rooms and places, each with a distinct purpose that resonated with the government and yet was his own.

The characters to me were difficult to keep track of - but I blame that on me and not the writing.  I liked V in the book as much as I liked him in the movie.  I liked Eve moreso.  He really conveys deep charicters very well and I thought I had a good idea of how each of them were different, who they were and their motivations.  After those first 50 pages I steadily figured them all out easier, except for a few pages where I had to flip around to remember exactly who whats-his-face was.

The plot - I still adore it, even more in the book. I thought the movie was sort of abrupt, how yes the government was gone - but what now? I like how the book gives a continuing idea of it's not just one man, one event, one house-cleaning, it's a steady, persistent process.  The story was riveting and had me really going.

If you like the movie - read the book. You'll probably like them both better after wards.

You ever have those days that you get up and get ready and it's effortless and you just look awesome? That's me today. Unfortunately I'll be in the office by myself all day today, and I only plan on being home tonight doing housey things after grocery shopping.

I had a very strange dream last night and I will blame a good portion of it on a conversation we had over dinner last night about my friends cousin dating an Asian girl and his parents trying to learn how to say her Korean name instead of calling her by the American name she picked for herself.  So last night I dreamed I went to an English boot camp and had an Asian boyfriend who was very tall.  It was rather weird, because in the dream I wasn't there for the boot camp but met all the people in it - the Asian guy was one of them.  Through a conversation it was decided I needed to quit my job and do the boot-camp and in semi seriousness the Asian guy asked me to be his girlfriend.  I started the boot-camp late and got poked at for not really knowing if me and the guy were dating or not but we both said yes ... and the rest of the dream was a montage of me studying note cards.  I don't even want to know what this dream means!

I'm working really hard on finishing the green, angel hair scarf I started in October. I utterly failed at getting it done in time, but if I'm lucky I'll have it done soon enough and can move on to finishing the navy and gray scarf I'm knitting in the round and after that I have another scarf request or two...loosing count here! I'd also like to attempt something else....for my own sake.

So my friend Jessica asked me to babysit her bunny for two weeks; looks like Molly and Polly are getting a neighbor!!!!

I'm getting back into reading my blogs religiously.  If you have some time, and love reading other real life, outrageous drama, read Robin McKinly's blog about what another author posted on Amazon; read the blog!  Writing Excuses has a new podcast/blog up on Tragedy.  Paperback Writer has some great tips on places looking for novel submissions.  When I first got turned onto the Guide to Literary Agents blog I was really into reading it and I've slowly gotten bored with it - but it's the things they publish like this article on an Authors Platform that make me keep following them; not amazing news, but interesting and useful.

Whew! Okay, so a recap of Christmas and this weekend...GO!

Christmas was good; the roads by 10:30am had cleared and after a few miles of careful driving I cruised the rest of the way to my family's place at about 50-70 mph.  Not bad!  We had lunch since I missed breakfast, then opened presents and watched movies.  I have to say, I rock at gift giving; it's the best part of Christmas for me.  I have low expectations for the gifts I receive because it seems that even when I give my mother a list she gets stuff that's not on it and likes to ignore the bold, underlined, italicized and circled stuff.

I got what I wanted most: a new camera.  It's a Kodack, while I'm not crazy about, but I never said anything other than I wanted one and I'm just happy to have it! And it's blue!!!  Thanks to that, I will now proceed to document everything else with pictures.

I swung by my friend Amanda's place and played some games with her family Christmas night before going home and crashing.

Saturday I put together and figured out my presents.  First up was my laptop table.  I'm not sure how useful it's going to be, but I'm sure that it will be infinitely helpful for writing and stuff later on, just not to use at my couch.

I also got to enjoy my yearly chocolate pie my grandmother makes me. It's sort of one of the highlights of the season every year.


I watched The Muskateer as well during all of this and I think I've seen the whole thing before - but never all at once.  I seem to recall something about when it came out about the person who did all the fighting choreography did a big named oriental movie - which it was kinda obvious.  It was an alright movie, but if I'm going to watch a Three Musketeers movie, I'll take the '93 version please!

At some point all of this was done with and two of my friends came over and we all went to go see my life long friend, Levi Weaver, play at Ridglea Theater.  It was super fun because Jenny & Tyler opened for him and the other opening acts were all super good as well.  I felt bad because Levi was really sick and it was kinda obvious, but hopefully he gets better.  Here's some pictures!

If you're in the central Texas region, you already know what Christmas Eve's been like.  If you aren't from the area - well let me tell you I wish that I'd have been more cautious and had forgone the festivities in the desire for preserving my life.  I did make some concessions; getting my dad to come pick me and my friend up for the drive up to my grandmother's.  You see, day before Christmas Eve my thermometer read around 80, now today - well, yesterday I guess - it snowed most of the day.  I heard we got the equivalent of four inches of snow, however the ground was so warm that for the first like, six hours, the snow just melted instantly.  It took until about 3 or 4pm for it to start sticking, peppering the ground and all with a very thin dusting of white - and it didn't stop until a few hours ago!

I knew I should have stayed at home when at about 4:30pm when my dad's one ton Dodge pick-up truck fishtailed and almost slid into a silly car that thought squeezing by us on the shoulder was a good idea.  It only got worse and the sun wasn't even down yet!

The festivities at my grandmother's house were all sort of rushed; everyone got there and we ate and I started doing dishes. I didn't even finish them! We jump started the present exchange and once that was over we were out of there!  Only to find that 121 was closed off.  We'd run into an issue of closed ramps on the way to my grandmother's place, and it was only worse on the way home.  President GB, 121, the loops (620 & 112), 30 and 35 were all closed off to us and we eventually got squeezed off the highway in downtown Dallas and took side streets I remember driving from when I worked in the area until we got to 35N.  Talk about out of the way!

It was precarious going, most of the time we didn't go faster than 30, we were crammed in like sardines, holding stuff and not daring to breath in case something happened.  I stopped counting how many wrecks we saw and all the cars abandoned in ditches or spun out.  We saw one car skid across four lanes and go straight into the concrete barricades; it was one of those cars that was going far too fast.  At one point over the 183 Trinity River Bridge there were semis stranded there, just spinning, unable to get any kind of traction and everyone just kinda went between them like some strange obstacle course.  Yeah.  We fishtaled and almost hit people, it was crazy.

Getting to my apartment was like saying - hey lets go ice skating! The whole lot is frozen over; my grandmother even fell getting out of the truck to come in.  It was then that I decided that as much fun as it would be to be at my parent's place and get up for breakfast and opening presents - I really did not want to make that drive - so here I am, on my couch, watching White Christmas, with plans to drive to my parents place later once the roads clear and things are safer. 

Merry Christmas - stay safe!

Okay, so first off - my hair looks amazing! Went back and sort of mixed the two looks and I really like what we came out with, and the girl was so much more nice to me today.  I...might even like her as far as cutting my hair goes if we could have a reply of yesterday if there is a next time.  Oh - and pictures of the new hair!

And look at my super cool hair thinggie!  I'm sort of enamored with hair accessories right now, in case you can't tell by the headbands and this new hair clip.  I got a flower, but I just feel like it sticks out way too much. I love this feathery thing because it's mostly slick with my head.  Anyways, going to run out and grab some wax to give it that chunky kind of look - but the clothes need to be washed first!

Dear LORD and here it was in the 80's yesterday and now it's going to supposedly be a blizzard. OMG! Watch, it'll be a little freezing rain and everyone's going to freak out.  However, this means now that I"m riding to the Christmas festivities with my parents, in my dad's truck, and with my friend.  This is going to be a super fun drive - I just know it. 

I should have more to say, but since my hair got hacked I kinda blanked out, LoL, though I really like how it looks now!

It is Christmas Eve, it's time to get to all the festivities of the family and yes, I'm running out to make two last minute emergency purchases as soon as my pants are dry...and maybe my hair.  Have I mentioned I like Christmas?  Here's hoping your family has a great holiday season!  I'm off to get my place ready for just that.  ^__^

So, I went in with these two pictures as my references/options for my hair cut.  The first is what I really wanted, the second to demonstrate that I wanted more blunt layers.

Really.

Dear. Lord. I. Am. Tired.

I had an awesome weekend though!  Friday I went to see Avatar with my friend Lisa, which I posted a movie review on.  It was super fun.

Saturday around noon, my brother rolled in and we proceeded to spend most of the day shopping.  We always go shopping when he comes.  It's like, what we do.  It's fun and I spend far more than I really should, but I know I do that when he comes, so I was ready - so I guess I really didn't spend as much as I thought I would.  We shopped, went to PF Cheng's for dinner and played Wii.  Who would have guessed playing Wii was so much fun?  Amanda joined us after church and the three of us played Mario for maybe an hour before he had to go. Sad!  Amanda left after maybe another half hour or hour of playing; time sure does get away from you while playing that thing!

I stayed up a while longer and decided I'd take The Lightning Thief and read a few chapters in bed; I wound up staying up until 4am and pried the book out of my hands and forced myself to sleep!  Sunday I meant to get up and get stuff done quicker, but I was tired! I think I managed to get a pretty good chunk of stuff done, even read for maybe an hour before Amanda came over again - and we proceeded to play more Wii! It's really addicting.  After Chipoltle we watched the movie, Lars and the Real Girl. Don't watch it. I had a lot of people tell me how great and wonderful a movie it was. Total lies! It was awkward and weird and I didn't laugh at all; Amanda and I were watching the clock, so glad it was only an hour and a half long movie.

Amanda had to leave earlyish which left me on the couch, reading my book - until 11:59 when I turned the last page. I read the whole thing in 24 hours. Whoopse!  I'm suffering for it today; it's lunch and I'm looking around wondering what I can eat that will give me lots of energy to get through not only the rest of the work day, but we have the Book Club meeting tonight! For some reason it's starting at 5, but there's no way I can get to it by then, so I'll just be late, I guess.  I doubt my opinions of the book will be welcomed, but oh well. I also printed out a list of some of the best 2009 books for book clubs; I don't think they'll pick any of them, but they do sound like interesting, thought provoking books!

So while my brother was in town on Saturday - we went shopping. We always go shopping. In the check out line at TJ Maxx, I saw this book.  Now I knew there was a movie coming out with the same title, I had little idea that it was based off of a book but it didn't surprise me.  Snagging it off of the rack for about $5 I just got it, thinking I'd add it to my to-read shelf.  After my brother said he wanted to read it I decided I'd better read it awfully quick, well, I have two weeks before he's back, which is totally doable - except for my procrastination ability.

I picked up the book Saturday around midnight thinking I'd eek through a chapter or two and go to bed. I read until 4am.  I had to pry the book out of my fingers - at 4am.  I wanted to continue to read, just keep going until the book was done!  I read for about an hour Sunday afternoon and then after Amanda left I read from about 10pm until 11:59. Do you know what that means?

I read the entire book in literally 24 hours. LoL.

I was really surprised by the book, truth be told, because when I read the first two pages I wanted to roll my eyes at the idea of a twelve year old half-blood godling, because I started thinking about Harry Potter with the whole chosen-kid-who-does-extraordinary-things-adults-can't-even-do.  That idea lasted through maybe the third chapter before it was abandoned.

It is a young adultish teen book, clearly targeted at kids, so some of the aspects of character fit that genre so I won't go off about how most kids won't walk into a strange hotel and accept the proverbial candy-from-a-stranger in this day and age.  The story, the plot, the characters were all so very well thought out and as far as my sleep deprived mind could tell they stay true to form.  The plot even took me until the second half of the book to figure out! That doesn't happen with most books in this type of genre, so I was very excited about reading it!  I loved that the world of the Greek gods was translated into modern, westernized civilization.  I can't wait to run to Half Priced Books and look for the next book - I'm even excited that it's a series! And I am looking forward to the movie.

I haven't read any of my blogs recently that I'm subscribed to.  I've been so busy with end of year things at work that I just have so much to do and then when I'm done with work I've either hung out with people at my place or had some function I need to go to that has left me with little time for things like blogging, knitting or reading - which is sad! I mean, I absolutely love all the time I've been spending with my friends, I really missed them during NaNoWriMo, but a night at home spent in tidying up the place and getting to bed early would be phenomenal!

There have been a few nights that I didn't get to bed because there was a Wii party.  Dear LORD if I had ever realized that the way to get guys was to be super into video games, I would have been doing this a long time ago!  (Okay, not really, but the idea IS funny!)  Video games are guy magnets.  What's even more fun is that my girl friends are getting into coming over and playing it too, so I'm even more excited about it since it provides a fun, interactive game me and my friends can do.  I got a special on the DDR 3 game and the extra dance pad, so we'll hook those up tomorrow hopefully and have a blast!  Yes, people are already slotted to come over tomorrow, LoL.

The other thing this week was the tv show Sing Off, for which we got together to watch and be excited over.  That was fun!  Unfortunately the finale is Monday, which is the Book Club Christmas Party.  :( 

I have bought a ton of books recently; my to-read shelf is overflowing!!!  I need to read some of these, and quick.  First up will be The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan which will be a movie soon and my brother wants to read, so I need to be able to give it to him in two weeks time.  It doesn't look like it'll be a hard read, so I imagine I'll be done with it by the end of this next week. 

Here's the inventory of my to-read shelf simply because I want to share what I'll be reading: Two books by Christopher Moore, Fluke and Practical Demon Keeping.  Fluke I've had for ages but haven't made it through the first chapter.  I bought Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan because of an article on the Opera book club site; I can't recall the exact reason, but it was impacting enough I stared it in my little notebook.  I have Stephen King's On Writing, which is slated for me to read once 2010 rolls over to mark completing some of my 2010 goals.  I'm slowly gathering the Robin McKinley books to read during 2010 and so far I have The Outlaws of Sherwood, Spindle's End, The Blue Sword, and The Hero and the Crown.  There are several of hers I still need to get, but I'm taking what I can get at Half Priced Bookstores until I have to buy them new.  I also have The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson for some odd reason; again I read something, somewhere that said this was a good book to read - and I bought it.  Foundation by Mercedes Lackey, an installment of the Heralds of Valdemar world has been taunting me for about two months so far as well as Mistress of Dragons by Margaret Weis.  I have two graphic novels by Alan Moore, V for Vendetta and Watchmen; the former I really want to read, the latter will probably be skimmed over and sold off relatively quickly.  I found the first book in a Young Adult series by Garth Nix, the author of the Abhorsen Trilogy; the series is called The Keys to the Kingdom and the book is Mister Monday.  And that's it for now.  Gail Carson Levine's book Writing Magic has been ordered and I have yet to see anything on it's shipping; starting to get antsy on that one.  I'm going to borrow The Lovely Bones from Amanda to read as well... I need to get to reading!

I have started writing a small vampire piece; probably a short story young adult piece by how it's looking.  still struggling with how the main plot should go, but there are some great elements to it I'll enjoy writing yet mock myself for somehow falling into part of the current fad of vampires.  I should make them angels; angels are the next hot thing, duh!

And now, I will go read some of The Lightning Thief and sleep.

 Right, Avatar from the director of Titanic, NOT Avatar the Last Airbender; don't forget that bit, okay?  There are spoilers because I am discussing many aspects of the story so please read at the chance of ruining the movie.

I was skeptical about the movie.  I was a bit miffed when I heard the title announced right after I saw the first preview for the Airbender Avatar movie.  I've only seen one 'Book' of the series and I felt evilly disposed towards a movie that would steal the name of an established series and movie that was already slated to come out.  So I came into this whole thing a little biased.

With that said, I only went to see Avatar because a friend wanted to and it sounded like a good enough idea at the time.  I'm very glad I went to see it.  I'll cover various aspects of the movie in blocks, Setting, Characters and Plots.

I was very much impressed with the Setting of Avatar; when I heard about how much of the movie was done with computer created graphics I was very leery of how bad and cartoony the whole thing could appear.  While yes, there are some points anyone can argue just don't feel real - it's not real, you have to accept it as real in the reality that it exists which is not our own.  The setting is beautifully crafted; it's very clear that they really designed many aspects of the world.  The forest was so very alive with color and character, I would have like to have seen more of that carried into the wildlife of the world of Pandora.  While you got to see an interesting type of monkey, a horse like creature, something that made me think of a hammerhead rhino, two Pterodactyl creatures, some insects, a dog-like pack and a huge jaguar.  I would have like to have seen more, personally, for having spent three hours sitting there.  However, you don't really realize the lack of animals you see until later when thinking back on it; the world is created so beautifully.

Characters I'm going to divide into three groups; antagonists, protagonist, The People.

Starting with the group of protagonists; these are mainly human scientists who are forced to take in a marine, Jack Sully, into their highly prestigious ranks of the Avatar program.  He gets this because his twin brother dies, and I wondered where the grief was.  I get that there was a six year gap between when they left earth and when they landed on Pandora.  I thought that the group of people who made up the protagonist group was rather well developed, though I question: What happened to the other people who are/were in the program before they got there?  I thought that the transition Jack makes from human into his Avatar life could have been more marked.  I especially had a squeal moment when Michelle Rodriguez entered; I adore her from other roles, and hate that she's always the token tough girl who dies the martyr role.  I do want to pause and say that I applaud them for casting Jack Sully as a man bound to a wheel-chair; it made me like him much more.  Over all I really like this group, thought there could have been some more shown development between them.

The antagonists... Where to start? The antagonists were characterized by the kind of strong-arm military shoot everything in sight stuff that makes me sad.  I thought that the main bad-buy was too bad, honestly; it was like he was bad for the sake of being bad.  They could have used some more motivation, some more solid base for why he was the way he was and thusly the rest of the military.  There was a small faction represented by a corporate figure that explains the real reason they are even there; to mine a mineral.  I actually liked this figure, he made sense and at some point you saw the realization of their evil on his face.  I'm going to pause here and rant about the military aspect.  I'm getting tired of seeing movies that portray the military as this sort of wolf-by-the-ears entity, foaming at the mouth to devour anything and everything.  I really would like to see a movie that makes me believe in not only our military but others; yes I know that's a bit silly of me and it's not all that realistic, but I'd like to believe that not everyone in the army is a brainless idiot who shoots at anything that moves and takes orders without second guessing them.  I'm the kind of person who wants to be proud of those people who fight and serve for me to enjoy going to movies whenever I want to go.  I still tear up when I watch the news and they show pictures of solders who die, and even though a lot of bad things happen, there are people out there who do what they do for good and I'd like to see that in a movie sometime.

The People; that's what the indegenious people of the planet Pandora call themselves.  I thought they were beautifully crafted visually, and their culture, religion and ways very well thought out.  I was very much wrapped up in learning about them and their ways moreso than parts of the story.  Very easily one of the most dynamic elements of the story.

The Plot.  Oh my. Where do I begin?  It was fairly predictable in nature once I saw where the story was going.  I would have like to have been surprised by a twist, somewhere.  So a guy who has no training at all is put into a program? Well duh - he's going to be special; that goes with the viewers expectations.  I felt the story was far too predictable, I knew that he was going to be special, influential, he'd learn the culture and language, betray them and then champion them in the most impossible way.  You knew there was going to be a huge battle where The People almost lost - and at the last moment were saved, somehow!  I would have like to have seen the romantic element between Jack Sully and the female lead removed and for him to be more of a tragic hero instead; it's the director of Titanic. I expected to cry! I only felt disgusted at my consumerism and how violent people can be.  There was something else about the plot I really wanted to say, but can't remember....  For me, that extra *wow* factor in the story that just sucked me in was missing, however my friend that took me felt that very strongly and even said she teared up several times.

There were a few places where I found myself thinking of Fern Gully; those made me laugh.

I know I sound a little critical of the movie, but I did enjoy it and found three hours passed surprisingly quickly.  I would completely suggest going to see it at least once in the theater because you won't get the same experience at home unless you have a good sound system because the audio at times even had me looking around, expecting one of the people around me of making those noises I was hearing.

Really I have been doing stuff.  I've just not had time or the patience or the state of mind to compose much of a blog.  So far I haven't written a stinking thing other than co-writing.  People come over and play Wii with me.  And people come over to hang out.  And...I don't know.  I'm exhausted, and going to bed; will leave you with the few links I had compiled over the last many days. 

I wanna learn how to knit this!!!!! I need knitting help, I really do; I'm hoping that the crafty group we're putting together to start meeting in January will help me some.... I dearly hope so....

Ug - so I will finish my trilogy despite hell, high water or whatever!  However, I know the chance of it ever doing anything other than sitting lovingly on my shelf is a chance thing; this article underlines it and I can understand why. Doesn't mean I won't finish The Barking Dog!!!!

So I think my body finally revolted against me for this last month and some change; I took some medicine Thursday to chase my headacheyness away and the general ickyness was easy enough to ignore with people here.  Between getting off work, running to have my tires rotated and aired, snagging some "necessary" Wii accessories at Best Buy and having people over for The Office ritual and hooking up the Wii - I was rather distracted.  It was super fun, don't get me wrong, but at around 11pm I realized I was not feeling up to anything and when people left I laid on the couch, fully intending to fall asleep right there - but the pounding in my head and the prevailing icky feeling won over and kept me awake until around 4am.  I amused myself by dying repetitively at the Wii Mario game that apparently just came out.  I am terrible at video games, but it's entertaining enough.

I slept until around noon on Friday after calling in just because the lack of sleep and general sickyickyness was bad and sort of slugged around.  The dishes are almost, almost done from the party on Sunday.  I finally finished them up today - today being Sunday again.  Yeah.

Friday not a lot happened; I believe Alicia came over and we watched movies, played Wii and I wrapped presents and did a little bit of stuff - but not a whole lot really. Saturday was a good shopping day, the last bit of shopping got wrapped up today and I think except for the book club gift I'm done.  Yesterday Alicia went with me to church and then we went over to Amanda's house and played Gin Rummy for like ever; it was a lot of fun and I got to pick up some Chicken Express on the way and give Amanda's mom her new crock pot to replace the one we destroyed at my party. That's not a story I'm sharing for self preservation reasons!

Today has been good; I made myself get up before noon, did the last bit of holiday shopping, got some stuff for myself - as is usual in December - and now I'm home and have sucessfully cleaned the Chin cage, taken out one load of trash, and have the presents laid out on my floor for wrapping.  Home Team is next on the list and then we'll see where the day takes me!

And yes, Christmas makes me want to have children to spoil and share in the magic of Christmas; I really do like giving presents and making other people happy during the holidays.

Our book club book for the November/December read was A Redbird Christmas by the author of Fried Green Tomatoes, Fannie Flag. 

Let me first say that I do not like Christmas books - but I actually liked this one.  I think I liked A Redbird Christmas because it was not so much about how the characters celebrated the holiday, or what they did during the holiday, but instead about what happened between two Christmases that so changed the characters lives.  I like stories about characters I want to root for. 

In the beginning of the book you find out that the man character has a terminal illness and must move south for a warmer climate in order to not meet his end in the coming weeks - so he goes to Alabama!  Of course he goes there, doesn't everyone?  He meets a host of characters, most notably a Cardinal, Jack, with his own particular personality who is so interwoven through the cast of characters that this tiny little bird defines the rises and falls of the story arc with his presence - or lack of it.  I will refrain from giving spoilers of course, and all in all I very much liked the book - until the last chapter. 

Honestly it seems like the editor or agent for the book must have come back to Fannie Flag and told her to rewrite the ending - or maybe she wrote it like that intentionally - I'm not sure, but I don't like it.  The book, in the beginning, sets you up for eventual bad news, you're expected the demise of at least one character.... And then the last few pages happen and everyone, and I mean EVERYONE gets their happy ending - even the most unlikely characters for the most unlikely reasons.  There are two characters who would have inhabited the two towns on either side of the river at the same time when things were peaceable - why would they never have met? Everyone else had met.  I digress.  I think that for most people reading the book they'll like it, it's a Christmas book, it's supposed to make you happy and warm and fuzzy inside - I just feel that the ending was too forced and sudden.  However, for a Christmas book, it's a good read and I'd say better than many others out there.

I'm having one of those days where I just want to sit around and read and do nothing else; I'm even happily plugging away at the Book Club book - which is a Christmas book!!!!!!  I'll save my other comments for the book review.

I am slightly frustrated with myself;  I have yet to get Christmas cards out - I'm going to try for tomorrow since I also get paid tomorrow, which means I need to write and finish and print my letter today so I can write out all the addresses, most of which are still locked away in my phone as text messages.  I meant to be so much more on top of things this year! I rocked it last year.  Today will be putting the finishing touches on a terribly rambling mess of a letter I began yesterday and hopefully printing it out on the fancy holiday paper I bought at Target.

So again I could not hook up the Wii last night; I have a friend who is coming over tonight to help me with it and in preparation I want to go buy additional controllers and look at some games - though for now I'll probably just rent games.  I've invited some others, but I have no idea if anyone's actually going to show or not - I at least have some meat thawing though today is really one of those I - don't - want - to - cook days. 

I had a long conversation with my dad last night; he's such a funny bird.  He gets angry about everything and anything. Right now he's mad at my mother, and it was that reason he said NOTHING while we were all out at dinner because speaking during a conversation with her in the same restaurant - well that's just not acceptable! I think I've figured out why he's mad at her, but I already know she won't do anything about it and he's too stubborn to understand things if they aren't the way he wants them to be. Ug. I love my father. I love my mother. But I don't want to be like them.  Have you ever been that way?  Love someone, but want to be nothing like them?  My parents are both very autonomous people and it's almost like they clash more than they get along and it's so silly.  I couldn't live that way.  It's troubling to know about it, and feel like they both just need to sit down, talk about it and be okay - but know it'll never happen.  They'll just continue to run this circle and complain about eachother and so forth.

So I'm less excited about this next statement; I joined the Oprah Book Club today. (Now is it bad that I misspell Oprah regularly, or that spell check knows her name well enough to correct me?)  If you know me very well, you'll know I'm not a fan of hers, I think she holds far too much power and makes statements and decisions without many facts and affects far more people than she has a right to.  That said, she also does some very good things.  Now my main reasons for joining this book club are selfish and I'll let those out of the bag later on my Goals for 2010 blog - but if you want to find me over there, my screen name is CidWrites, because you HAD to have a sn with 6 characters.  I'll only use that blog to post my personal thoughts and reviews of the books, so don't expect much from that one.  I very well might regret even considering this....

It's Thursday, which means today is one of my designated writing days, yet I haven't written anything. I'm frustrated but still feeling slightly drained from November. I have ideas and goals that I plan on following up on, but I think it will be this weekend before I really write much of anything except rp posts - which are going really well.  I missed writing with my friends!

Books, talking about books - I just order Gail Carson Levine's Writing Magic book. She's the author of Ella Enchanted - of which I own the DVD, and have read the book.  Again, this is a purchase I'll explain with the Goals for 2010 blog that's stewing in my drafts, getting edits and additions and subtractions. 

I'm rather surprised at the lack of interesting bloggings this week; last week there was just so much stuff being blogged about that this week is a bit stark.  Not much worth sharing other than a few interesting articles I'm not going to bother to link.  I think that's it for now; I've had an aweful headache that after taking some medicine and eating lunch is going away so I'm sorry if the blog is a bit dull and boring today.

Really. It's far too cold; it's in the low 20's. This morning when I got in my car, I backed out and slid.  Apparently the water main broke or something, coating the whole drive in ice and I slipped all the way out to the drive way.  I very nearly called into work for the morning because that was crazy.  I also need to go get my tired rotated and aired up and stuff.  All this cold air is giving me low pressure notifications.

And I'm spending so much time away from home.  I haven't been able to get the Wii hooked up; I need to unbolt my TV in order to hook it up, but that requires another set of hands... My friend said he would come over tomorrow and help me put it together AND a new episode of The Office is on.  I'm looking forward to that.

I'm far too busy; looking forward to a weekend - At Home.  I didn't go to church tonight because I don't feel just amazing. It's so cold!  Tomorrow night should be a home night, but I don't know how many people, if any are coming over.  Friday night I plan on having it be a movie night and lots of sleeeeeeeeeeep.  Yes, I want to be uninteresting!

Wow, okay, so my parents came and visited me last night; other than my dad currently being upset with my mother over something unknown and not speaking the entire night - it was fun! If made slightly awkward by his silent, staring off into the distance, refusal to speak, presence.  My parents also bought me a Wii!  Now, I'd only said in half jest that I was going to buy one; they're rather expensive and once I really considered it I didn't think it was the best way to spend my money; with insurance going up 50% I need to cinch it in a bit.  But they bought me a Wii!! And I'm rather convinced I need someone else to put it together; I started trying to read the help guide for putting it together and got distracted by the bad grammar and started pondering writing things like the help manual to stuff....Yeah, never made it past the first page!  Hopefully tonight before the writing critique group I can get it together and feel successful!

I ran by Half Priced Books last night and found they had three Robin McKinley books; I'm sort of rediscovering her and going fangirl over them.  I now have The Blue Sword, The Outlaws of Sherwood, and Spindle's End.  I really want to read The Hero and the Crown first - so I believe my $10 B&N gift card will be going to getting that.  However, first I need to speed read the Fannie Flagg book, A Redbird Christmas, for my book club book. Arg! And I still have V for Vendetta to read, bought Watchmen because it was $7 and the comments on Writing Excuses actually made me curious.  And then I still have Foundation from Mercedes Lackey to read as well as the first book in a trilogy from Weiss and Hickman!!  *sigh*  I will probably go through the book club book first, then a McKinley book and slide V for Vendetta in then as I really do want to read it.  I will now be collecting the full roster of Robin McKinley books, I believe - so if you are in need of a Christmas present idea - go there!

Began discussing the Last Air Bender movie with some friends; I know the release date was pushed back because of the name stealing Avatar movie coming out this weekend, as well as the official name being changed.  I don't like Shameylanwhateverhisnameis - with the exception of The Village, which I really liked.  I've also only seen one Book of the Air Bender series, but it was good.  I've heard that the creators are collaborating over the making of the movie, but some of the casting looks questionable to me. I don't know, but it came up so I'm mentioning it in passing - Ha!

Today I signed away another chunk of my paycheck to pay for insurance - I never use.  Insurance was a drop in the bucket when I first got this job; I didn't have to pay hardly anything - now I'm paying a hefty sum.  Thanks Obama, thanks a lot. I wish I could just go without insurance; say screw it and throw caution to the wind.  It's really ridiculous how I hold a decent job, I don't spend an absurd amount of money, often less than I bring in, and I can hardly afford insurance.  I'm starting to rethink my big trip next fall to Georgia, that maybe it's not a good idea and I should do a staycation instead.  I know I stress too much over money, but it's because I'm not good with it - so I over compensate for my inability by being obsessive.  Yup. Makes perfect sense, doesn't it?  I'm thinking about picking up something else to bring in money on the side, like crafty things; people are always asking me to make them something so if I ask them to cover cost plus a little I'd make a little.  It's an idea and every little bit helps, right?

Bah - anyways - tonight was my first go at the critique group and it wasn't so bad. I took a very silly section from a short fairy tale I'm doing; I'm pushing myself to write in First Person and not over-explain everything.  I like it and the general response was very good and very encouraging.  I still need to finish it, but I'm actually excited about it and not dreading finishing it.

Anyways, I should sleep soon.

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.

So this will most likely be short, quick, simple, etc.

Tuesday was a very rough day for me; a lot of stuff happened I was not ready for, I was sort of running around trying to get everything finished or accomplished and left work with my sanity running for the hills!  I was super happy that my lovely Linda came over for a bit and hung out with me; we laughed and told funny stories.  I think we also decided that a craft-in night was necessary!

Having Wednesday off to sleep in a little and do more Christmas prep stuff was perfecto.  I probably - as usual around this time of year - spent too much, but it's always worth it!  I did actually get my darling tree topper, a lovely sparkly thing from Target and a few corresponding ornaments and a nifty garland to really tie the whole ensamble together. I must say, my tree looks hot!  Did a lot of cleaning, decorating and general prep for Sunday - because my party is still on! I think we're at 9 guests...and in my apartment, that's a full house!

We sort of jumped the gun and went Christmas light looking Wednesday night - because it was a fun way to hang out and chill and whatnot.  I think I went to bed around 1am - way later than I wanted to, but oh well!

Today was a comedy of errors.  My car was blocked in, thus preventing the origional plan for an early escape.  Instead I did some laundry, did stuff - and then the exterminator walked into my apartment... I was not really appropriately dressed for that sort of thing, but with a hoody I was great! He then proceeds to tell me my Chinchillas need to be out of the apartment for an hour because of the stuff he's spraying. Great. This delayed me yet even more! Finally, after all of the mess, I leave - only to get stuck in an hours worth of traffic seven miles from my apartment. Ug!

Finally got here; we've decorated for the reception, and are now doing other odds and ends and it's 8pm, and I'm already ready for bed!  Like seriously, I could crawl in right now and crash hard!!  I think we'll sleep soon - maybe after a movie or a snack run - or something.

Tomorrow we'll do our nails *sigh* I might be getting a fakie set because I have no nails to polish and paint.  Hopefully something plain and super short that will come off easy later!  Reception is like at 11am, then lunch then the nails I believe....then who knows? I'm sure there's a billion things for us to do!!!!!

I have yet to write anything else, really. I've thought about it, opened up my documents and my brain flat-lines.  I really want to finish Premonition, but it's just not in me right now.  I'm hoping after this weekend, probably sometime late next week when I've recuperated from the wedding and my own party that I will jump back in with excitement about it all and write, write, write!  I really want to, I really do - I just feel like someone who has strained their muscles too much and they need to rest.

And on that note, I will lay on this couch and stare into nothingness, and eat some Junior Mints.

I do intend to take something of a break AS SOON AS I FINISH PREMONITION!!!  Really.  I have some great ideas inside my head, but I need to let my gray matter turn solid again.  I want to knit!  I want to read this book that was suggested to me several times over that I FINALLY bought today on Amazon - Stephen King's On Writing.  Familiar with it? I've heard both good and bad things, but as I was listening to Writing Excuses and they suggested it, I just bout it.

Well yesterday was our last Monday-Nighters write-in at LM and I'm very sad to see it go.  I really liked meeting up with Linda and Lynne' each week and writing and all of the...odd things we'd talk about.  We all three hit our goals last night, me eeking it out shortly before the restaurant closed and celebrated by buying us chocolate tourt cake something or other. I was ready to go to bed early...and then couldn't sleep. I wound up picking up some knitting - only to realize I must have been on crack when I started this scarf.  It started out probably between 15 & 20 stitches, and widened to 26 - so I had to do the painful thing of completely ripping the whole thing to pieces, rerolling the yarn and starting over.  It's super soft, angel hair green stuff that fits our company's green super well and will - eventually - be a scarf for my co-worker.

So today starts the mad dash for Danielle's wedding.  I have GOT to put the hem in my dress, drop it at a dry cleaner, and start organizing stuff.  I'm supposed to go to the critique group tonight but I'm wondering if I shouldn't skip it in favor of cleaning and finishing the dress and the billion other things I really need to do.  I got ----

I need to pay bills!

Okay - now where was I?  Other things I need to do! I got roped into hosting a Christmas/TGIO/Birthday party, and I'm warming up to the idea - but it also means in depth cleaning and preparation for a party the day after Danielle's wedding.  I will survive, I swear!  And I've completely lost my train of thought.

Okay, I'm going to move my other blog or article references to the end of a my blogs.  With that said......

So poor choices are not just limited to Wall Street; Jane from Dystel & Goderich Literary Management discusses some of the frivolous things book agencies do.  I really, really, really like reading Nathan Bransford's blog; he usually has some really awesome thoughts and ideas and sees things from both sides.  He just posted a blog about taking critique letters and how best to respond to them; as I'm thinking about revising Suspicion it's really good to take these ideas to heart because I'll be facing critique group - eventually.  For now, as of Tuesday night, I'll just be observing and probably sitting on the sidelines plugging away still until I finish Premonition. 

There are a lot of blogs I'm hearing about that have nuggets of interesting stuff to say about revision, I should put those all together at some point, and print them out.  I'm still going to go back to Gail Carson Levine's blog Do Over when I start revising; it was a great blog, very inspirational and upbeat.  Today Inky Girl twittered Brian Yansky's blog on Seeing Your Mistakes; not anything super long or how-to, but a nice, brief read and encouraging.  Inky Girl really dishes out good resources and in the theme of revision, here's a back-blog from Paperback Writer blogger, Sheila Kelly on revision.  

I continue to love The Inkwell Bookstore blog for all of the random, fun, interesting stuff they post.  Their blog, Tuesdays' Tips for Flailing Writers is rich with links and stuff!  (One of them, Why Writing Rubbish is Productive, references NaNoWriMo.)  I'm still looking through it so it's really interesting and whatnot.  Check it out!

Back to work I go!!!!