Or just about. The TGIO party is tonight, and that's pretty much it. I'll write one more pep talk to send out.

All in all, it was a great year for me as an ML. There was a lot of excitement, especially from the newbies, and lots of things happening that we haven't had before. A Twitter, facebook page, google calendar, chat room--this last got pretty busy during the last few days as we helped some of our writers word war their way to 50K. We had 110 people post word counts (up from last year's 70+), and 39 winners from among that number. So many of them didn't come to a single write-in, party, nor did they post on the forums--which is kind of sad. They missed out on a lot of great cameraderie.

In other matters, I took the car to WalMart's Tire and Lube department for an oil change. The van really needed one. They changed the air filter, and told me there was some fluid leakage (probably something to do with the recall I got on the van last week. Need to contact the dealership to have it fixed.) I also got my hair cut.

I don't think I've been as dissatisfied with a cut as much as I am with this one. I had the majority of the length taken off, enough to donate to Locks Of Love once it dries. But the stylist gave me a "stack" cut, which is shorter in the back than it is up front. I thought the back was too short, and she didn't even up the sides, either. Probably would look better if the left side was as curly and fluffy as the right, but it isn't. The discrepancy is pretty obvious. I may go back and have her fix it. We'll see. At least it's only hair and it WILL grow back, even if I'm looking at 6-12 months for it to be long enough to cut again.

Well, I'm waiting for Hubby's call, though I may send the Girl out to fetch him. I feel like I've been in the car all day. And the doctor gave me a muscle relaxant and another script for naproxen for that pain in my side. I didn't mention the idea that I had about the kidney stone. He has also "prescribed" a pedicure.

I love the Pavane by Fauré as performed by Maureen McGovern and the Philharmonia Virtuosi of New York. Album is Greatest Hits of the 1900's. Hubby copied it from our album to a CD, and put it on my desktop. I can hear the little bits of album noise, but it doesn't take away from the glorious sound. If I can find this on actual professionally recorded CD (the whole album because there are several other pieces I love), it would be fab.

That is all.

Nuff said!

So, I'll put my NaNoWriMo widget in my posts.

I'm doing very well, actually. Chris Baty has a challenge of 15K by Monday; I think I'll take him up on that.

It froze up earlier today. The Girl was able to get it running again, but it froze up again, and I couldn't get it to boot. Said there was no hard disk, so I'm not sure what's up. I'm going to take it to the local "fix it with tech looking over your shoulder" tomorrow morning and see what they have to say. I have the laptop, but it's in great demand by everyone else in the family. I just hope I can recover what's on my hard drive.

sigh.

Gonna make this as quick and painless as possible.

Hubby: The meds seem to be kicking in. For a couple of mornings this week, he had good bg numbers. The dietician says he should take his bg before bed, and not before supper. That way they can see if the meds are working overnight. He's got an appointment for a diabetic nutrition seminar on Oct. 15. I'm going with him as I could use the refresher. He's found that some of the McDonald's around here serve diet Dr. Pepper, which has pleased him no end.

The Girl: She still needs to buy some books for her classes. She's finding her design class to be tougher than she thought. She's also reconnected with one of her friends from church (who no longer goes there either).

Boy #1: He's been asked to join the academic team; I tell him he should join because he's smart. He's decided to do NaNo this year; his English teacher requires that her students enter three writing contests during the year. She says NaNo will count for all three. I talked to her about it and about the YWP on Open House night. Who knows, maybe she'll join up, too. She also asked him how he could do so well in his classes (his progress report is all A's with just 1 B) when he reads so much.

Boy #2: He's back to afterschool stuff on Thursdays. Legos Robotics and Math Counts. They're planning on fielding a Robotics team this year; I can hardly wait to see how this goes. His progress report was good, too. He's only getting Bs in his Honors classes.

Me: I'm trying to get back into a lower-carb lifestyle myself, but it's hard. Writing is coming slowly, which isn't good as I'll want to pick up the pace for NaNo this year. Put up the next chapter of The White Winds last night. This story will be a good 300K when it's finally done. Let out a little squee when I got my 500th review! I'm going to try and wrap it up in October and get it out of my hair before NaNo I also need to work on my RP posts; that's my goal for today. 

Not much to say about the pets, except that Kami is doing things that both of our departed cats liked to do. She's killing snakes and trying to drink from the bathtub like Callie used to, and likes to come into the bathroom like Tika used to. Was quite the shock to find the present she left in the kitchen: a dead snake! Oh, and we lost one of the immortal striped danios. Down to two fish in the tank.

Rainy and cool today. Feels like fall. Wish it would stay this cool.

That's all for now. Over and out.

I found a link to a site where new desktops and themes are designed for XP. Since Microsoft doesn't create new ones for XP, just for Vista (I'd guess), and I wanted something new, I downloaded and managed to figure out how to install a spiffy new theme. Now my windows have cool new borders and my start menu has a shiny new look.

With that done, I decided to change my lj theme, too. It's not much of a change, just basically new colors. I still have to go in and customize my links, but it's the same style as the old theme, with the tag cloud I like so much. I should go looking for new themes and skins for other sites, like my Thunderbirds site. The forum and the gallery could both use a face lift, if there are some available.

I've been trying, without a whole lot of success, to finish my latest chapter. I also have a post to write for my RP. The whole running around with my head cut off on Tuesday (Hubby had a doctor's appointment, so I had to ferry the girl back and forth to college and him to and from the apppointment.) really tired me out, as did the whoopie pie baking spree that night. Tomorrow, Hubby will likely not be called in, which is okay as he has an MRI scheduled. His hearing, which hasn't been the best for years, has gone sharply downhill lately. He is having extreme trouble hearing anyone. He says he feels like there's fluid behind his ears, and like it fills up in the afternoons. My MIL suggests  he use a decongestant to see if that will help it drain. She thinks it could be a result of allergies, which is entirely possible.

His PCP gave him a steroid, which didn't seem to help much, and it's his ENT specialist that has ordered the MRI and a couple of blood tests, one of them genetic. It seems that the testing they did in the office just makes the specialist puzzled over my husband's condition. His hearing is flat across the range, instead of a curve, which is very unusual. The specialist did remark that he had the hearing of a 70 year old!

So, please keep him in your thoughts and prayers as we try to get to the bottom of this. Hearing aids are likely in his future, unless they can figure out what's going on and actually treat it.

Post a little bit of each WIP you have (or as many as you want to pick). No context, no explanations.

( The White Winds )



( Resolutions Redux )



( Overtures )

My dad, who I love with all my heart, has a habit of sending along forwards from his friends. It used to be that my cousin, Eddie, would send him just about any piece of junk that crossed his inbox, but recently I told Eddie off for it, and he may have either cut back or stopped. It would be nice if he had.

He also gets this stuff from his very old friend, Russ. Russ usually gets it from Eddie, so that my dad gets it twice! And a lot of times, it's stuff that so outrageous that I wonder how people believe it. Really. I do. It's the reason I have "Always check Snopes" as my signature on my main email account. One or two moments just checking out Snopes will debunk a lot of this junk.

Today Dad sent me a forward that has been floating around the 'net for probably nine years or so. It just irked me so much that my dad had sent it to me. I'm on the verge of asking my dad to not send me any forwards at all, but part of me doesn't want to do that. I don't mind the "you're my friend and I want to tell you so" forwards; I might not return them, or send them on, but I do appreciate the sentiments. And if something is actually true, I'd like to hear about that, too. Dad sent me one once that was true, and I passed it on, telling people I'd checked it out on Snopes and it was the real deal. But most times I just reply to all and tell people what Snopes said.

Maybe I'm just getting cranky about this whole forwarding business. I love my Dad, and I love to get emails from him. Just not these forwards.

Crossposted from my jf account. If you've responded there, don't feel you need to respond here, too.

So, Lady Sybilla accused me of bias in her now deleted Twitter. She asked partly_bouncy   to make me "refrain from editing" because I'm "quite close with FW" and my "edits are extremely biased".

Now, I'm usually "the diplomat" at Fan History. I don't have much (if any) wank to my name, and some have called me a "class act" in the past. IF I am biased one way or the other, it's usually based on how someone acts towards me/my friends/my family, etc.

Lady Sybilla's crazy actions have EARNED my bias.

I'm putting her on notice that, not only will I not "refrain" from editing the articles about her and her imaginary, illegal piece of second-rate fanfic, I will edit said articles boldly--and if she thinks I'm biased now, she ain't seen nothing yet.

Just felt like trying something new. I like the minimalist layout, but I wish I could mix and match bits and pieces. For example, I'd love to have this in a different color, but keep the nifty numbers and reply button (it now says "Talk to me!", which I thought was fun). And have the links for friends' page, user info, etc. as tabs across the top instead of links alongside my icon.

I'm nearly hopeless at CSS, so I really can't mess with the style sheets... I think. Maybe I'll work with it a bit when I have time.

Been working slowly on The White Winds, and I'm coming to the end of the chapter. It seems Alan's going to factor into this more and more, and Fermat less and less. Also, Rhea--my "Tracy sister"--has been poking me to write her into some situations that other writers have brought up, and has been giving me more background detail on her growing up. Problem is: I'm not sure how to slot this into the fic as it stands now. It would have to be mostly flashback... I had decided to do some of that, but not as much as might turn up now. It looks like this fic may turn out to be like the Brains fic: present day chapters interspersed with past ones. I guess we'll see how it goes.

The Girl graduated today in a smooth, respectful ceremony--much more respectful than her cousin's, where people were booted for loud, obnoxious shouting and sounding off air-horns while names were being called. She was easy to spot in the processional--my SIL had French-braided her hair and the braid went all the way to her butt. We made sure we were on the aisle she said she would come down so we could get pictures. She slipped me the money from her first art sale--the principal bought her horse picture for $100! So I guess that technically makes her a professional now! I'm so proud of her!

My bro took some pictures, and I took some with her camera. One of my bro's pictures is so good, I'll be using it as her official picture this year, and get it printed up for the relations. Here are a few that I took.
( cut for pictures! )

When we got home, we had a fabulous dinner with BBQ chicken (requested by the graduate), corn on the cob, two kinds of macaroni salad (one with tuna and one with salmon), five-cup salad, and decorated wacky cake for dessert. It was really good and everyone pitched in to help

The boys are now also officially out of school for the summer and I think everyone will sleep in tomorrow--for a bit. The animals don't like to wait for walkies and breakfast.

Just a quick update to say that my parents are in town and we'll be busy with them and the graduation. So I won't be online much for the next few days.

It's good to see them and visit with them.

My parents arrive in a week's time for the Girl's HS graduation, and I am working to clean the house a much as possible. With the Hubby home today, I hope to get some yardwork accomplished (by him and the boys, that is), while I clean the livingroom. The Girl has been working in the kitchen. I'm saving the bathroom for a day when few people are home--it will require lots of bleach and bleach-based products to get things the way they need to be.

Between cleaning bouts, I'll be trying to write. My muse roused a little bit from her coma yesterday and I got a tiny bit done. Still, there's so much more to do...

In any case, I won't be around much over the next few days. Just so's y'all know.

I just created an article on Fan History for my favorite webcomic, Girl Genius. It has a long way to go to be filled out properly, but I hope to get some other editors  to help me polish it up. I even created a new userbox, too; I love the creative aspect of FH.

If any of my fellow minions happens to see this, please give the article a gander and see what you can do. I don't want to give everything away in the "Canon" section, and the further I got into the storyline, the more I felt I had to tell. That's why it stops where it does. Also, any other links would be greatly appreciated.

ETA: I ran this past the crew at Girl Genius, and got a response back from the Professor himself!! He's cool with the idea of a Fan History article.

I got to bed at a relatively decent hour, but the muggy warmth of the room, my feet buzzing in pain, and worries about finances all conspired to keep me from sleeping any solid length of time today. So, I finally got up, took the dog out, and made sure my stories were all available on the family jumpdrive.

Plan for the day, for as long as I can stand it: write between bouts of baking and cooking, this morning; brainstorm in a similar way this afternoon; collapse this evening. Dinner will be ready when Hubby gets home, and I'm moving the laptop to the kitchen so I can keep going as much as possible. Won't be easy; but I think I can do it.

Overall, I'm convinced that I need to prioritize things so I can do the things that really NEED to be done, and do the things - especially in fandom - that I want to do/feel I should be doing.

For example: 
I need to be taking better care of our finances.
I need to be bringing in some money, somehow.
I need to take better care of the house.
I need to take better care of the Hubby.
I need to take better care of myself.
I need to spend more time listening to/correcting/playing with the kids.

Fandom stuff:
I want to finish my WIPs.
I want to continue my RP site.
I want to finish my Thunderbirds website.
I want to make my own personal site, and post my fan fiction there.
I have at least three stories that I want to write, new stories that are fandom-specific.
I want to finish my NaNo novel from last year.

This may mean dropping back/out of a few things. It definitely means spending less time online just putzing around.

So, you may find me online today, but marked as busy. That means I am busy. Whether it's with brainstorming, washing clothes, baking breads, making dinner... I will be busy.  I apologize if this puts you out in any way. But I need to do what's best for me and my family.