50,060 words...
AAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!
With 2 hours to spare too. And it's not a whole bunch of crap either. I can probably finish the novel (needs at least another 10,000 words) and edit it into something decent to share.
And now if you'll excuse me, my fingers are going to fall off.
The Last Day of NaNoWriMo:
I currently sit at 37,657 words.
I have a little less than 17 hours.
That's about 735 words an hour.
No problem!
Check back during the day for further word count updates (and hopefully a winner's icon)!
Edit at 10:30am: 41,001 I just pray that this is not the day I get hit with a serious case of writer's block.
Edit at Noon: ARGH! Kelly broke one of my favorite Christmas ornaments (Lucy from the Peanuts sitting at her Christmas decorated psychiatric help booth). She snapped off the top part of the booth, I'm not sure I can fix it. And Kelly also "finger painted" the carpet in the dining room with the Girl Scout's poster paints. I knew she was being too quiet... Plus I just remembered the twins have an indoor soccer game tonight so I've lost two more hours out of the day. *grumbles* 41,646
Edit at 3pm: 44,516 I'm kinda running out of things to write into the novel. I'm not at the ending quite yet but I'm trying to make sure I don't accidentally wrap up the whole story like a thousand words short of 50,000.
Besides Kelly being hell bent on destroying the house and Christmas decorations and Kyle picking on her every step of the way, today I've talked to one parent concerning a teacher our daughters share (her daughter thinks the teacher is mean? Ally's never complained) and then accepted 3 deliveries. Franklin Covey day planner refills (yes I'm a dork), 12 balls of white yarn for the girls' Christmas sweaters (although I'm still not done with the boys' and crap, they are now out of stock of it so I hope I don't need more) and part 1 of my 3 box order from Amazon. Which actually only included one Christmas gift and *drum roll please* Mindy's book Mommy Confidential
. I'm not going to start it until tomorrow or whenever I finish NaNoWriMo. Whichever comes first. (Hopefully the finishing part.)
Edit at 6:30pm: 45,545 The girls lost their soccer game 6-2. Frozen pizza for dinner (although I'll put it in the oven for awhile before I feed it to the kids).
Edit at 8:30pm: 47,550 The end is near! Completely off topic but go Bengals go! (Am I ever really on topic in the first place?)
I currently sit at 37,657 words.
I have a little less than 17 hours.
That's about 735 words an hour.
No problem!
Check back during the day for further word count updates (and hopefully a winner's icon)!
Edit at 10:30am: 41,001 I just pray that this is not the day I get hit with a serious case of writer's block.
Edit at Noon: ARGH! Kelly broke one of my favorite Christmas ornaments (Lucy from the Peanuts sitting at her Christmas decorated psychiatric help booth). She snapped off the top part of the booth, I'm not sure I can fix it. And Kelly also "finger painted" the carpet in the dining room with the Girl Scout's poster paints. I knew she was being too quiet... Plus I just remembered the twins have an indoor soccer game tonight so I've lost two more hours out of the day. *grumbles* 41,646
Edit at 3pm: 44,516 I'm kinda running out of things to write into the novel. I'm not at the ending quite yet but I'm trying to make sure I don't accidentally wrap up the whole story like a thousand words short of 50,000.
Besides Kelly being hell bent on destroying the house and Christmas decorations and Kyle picking on her every step of the way, today I've talked to one parent concerning a teacher our daughters share (her daughter thinks the teacher is mean? Ally's never complained) and then accepted 3 deliveries. Franklin Covey day planner refills (yes I'm a dork), 12 balls of white yarn for the girls' Christmas sweaters (although I'm still not done with the boys' and crap, they are now out of stock of it so I hope I don't need more) and part 1 of my 3 box order from Amazon. Which actually only included one Christmas gift and *drum roll please* Mindy's book Mommy Confidential
. I'm not going to start it until tomorrow or whenever I finish NaNoWriMo. Whichever comes first. (Hopefully the finishing part.)Edit at 6:30pm: 45,545 The girls lost their soccer game 6-2. Frozen pizza for dinner (although I'll put it in the oven for awhile before I feed it to the kids).
Edit at 8:30pm: 47,550 The end is near! Completely off topic but go Bengals go! (Am I ever really on topic in the first place?)
I drafted my Girl Scout rant. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment. The last thing I need is issues with an activity that I volunteer to do and give a lot of time and money to help the girls and then receive flack and no support from the parents. I'm probably over reacting but I'm a bit frustrated at the moment. I think I need to change the structure of the way I run the troop. I'm just... frustrated. It's for the girls, I need to remember that and try not to feel like an unpaid babysitter.
NaNoWriMo is on hold while I go to the bank for lunch money and the store for groceries. At home I need to clean the kitchen and start some laundry. I should also put away the empty Christmas ornament boxes.
If I still had a mood of the day, today's would be "Blech."
NaNoWriMo Word Count Update: 31,300
The fun part is that I've made my main character (a stay at home mom) completely uncrafty. She hates *gasp* scrapbooking too. So this is one of my favorite lines of the novel so far (while planning her son's 7th birthday party):
"It was no longer keeping up with Jones, it was keeping up with all the Martha Stewart wanna-be moms."
(Another mom had made a soccer ball pinata out of paper mache.)
55 hours and 18,700 words left.
Thin Mints and marshmallows are perfectly acceptable for dinner, right?
Amazon.com is trying to drive me insane.
The way I usually approach Christmas shopping is I kick it all off with the Black Friday sales. Awake before 4am to line up outside the stores in the cold, the run and grab, the insane deals, I love it all. And then after 8am on Black Friday, I avoid brick and mortar stores like the plague for the rest of the holiday season.
So yesterday I ordered the kids' Christmas pajamas from The Children's Place (enter the code H2MF6 to get 15% off your order). And then I purchased a few items from American Girl (couldn't find any codes, trust me I looked). Amazon.com is my default place for all the random stuff that kids want that doesn't justify a single order at another online place. So over the last few days I've been putting together a shopping cart there.
Mir at Want Not has warned about Amazon's goofy pricing practices. And sure, occasionally I've seen things fluctuate a couple of dollars here and there. But this one item is killing me.
I want to buy IlluStory for the twins. They are forever making books with printer paper and staples (or tape if they are desperate). So how cool would it be for them to have a hard bound copy of one of their stories with their own illustrations?
When I first saw this, it was priced at $25. That's a good price. Last night when Greg and I were discussing gift lists, it was $19.95. Woohoo! I left the screen up overnight and planned to order everything this morning (also on the list: bead jewelry sets for the girls, an electronic vault for Zach, miuchiz monster for Kyle and some stocking stuffers). This morning I put 2 of the book kits in my cart and the price is now $39.95. Each. WTF?!?!
So the question is, will it go down in price again? And when? The item doesn't qualify for free shipping so I need to figure that expense into the final bill too. I should just order all the other stuff (cause that's a great price on the vault) and deal with not having everything in one order. Especially since Amazon often ships items from one big order in like a dozen little boxes anyways.
If it helps, I'll go stand out in the cold at 3am tomorrow morning to get the $19.95 price again.
is trying to drive me insane.The way I usually approach Christmas shopping is I kick it all off with the Black Friday sales. Awake before 4am to line up outside the stores in the cold, the run and grab, the insane deals, I love it all. And then after 8am on Black Friday, I avoid brick and mortar stores like the plague for the rest of the holiday season.
So yesterday I ordered the kids' Christmas pajamas from The Children's Place (enter the code H2MF6 to get 15% off your order). And then I purchased a few items from American Girl (couldn't find any codes, trust me I looked). Amazon.com is my default place for all the random stuff that kids want that doesn't justify a single order at another online place. So over the last few days I've been putting together a shopping cart there.
Mir at Want Not has warned about Amazon's goofy pricing practices. And sure, occasionally I've seen things fluctuate a couple of dollars here and there. But this one item is killing me.
I want to buy IlluStory
for the twins. They are forever making books with printer paper and staples (or tape if they are desperate). So how cool would it be for them to have a hard bound copy of one of their stories with their own illustrations?When I first saw this, it was priced at $25. That's a good price. Last night when Greg and I were discussing gift lists, it was $19.95. Woohoo! I left the screen up overnight and planned to order everything this morning (also on the list: bead jewelry sets
for the girls, an electronic vault for Zach, miuchiz monster for Kyle and some stocking stuffers). This morning I put 2 of the book kits in my cart and the price is now $39.95. Each. WTF?!?!So the question is, will it go down in price again? And when? The item doesn't qualify for free shipping so I need to figure that expense into the final bill too. I should just order all the other stuff (cause that's a great price on the vault) and deal with not having everything in one order. Especially since Amazon often ships items from one big order in like a dozen little boxes anyways.
If it helps, I'll go stand out in the cold at 3am tomorrow morning to get the $19.95 price again.
Argh, I suck at this computer thing lately.
I feel like I'm years behind on blogging. There's the New York trip to talk about and I could mention Thanksgiving (which wow, that's a lot of work for 15 minutes of eating) and then this weekend we put up all the Christmas decorations. And just to prove how awful I've been, Greg has been updating his site more than I have here. (Greg will go months between posts so yeah, it's pretty bad.) He'd probably have more pictures up but he took some with the digital camera and I haven't uploaded anything.
NaNoWriMo: At 23,000 words. I kinda feel like I'm starting a marathon and all the other runners are already at mile 25. Since it's on my 30 before 30 list and I'm in a crazy Maryland versus some Texans (not the whole state just Austin and another city) writing contest on the forums, I really really need to finish. Today I will hit 30,000 and then try for 2 ten thousand word days with an extra day just in case. It's do-able. Right? Right?
Quote of the Day: "Stop the world, I want to get off."
Happy Black Friday!
(secondary title: Bah Humbug...)
I went out this morning at 4am because Toys R Us had Robo Sapien and Cube World for half price. I scored those but didn't get the 1 gig MP3 player for $30.
Next to Target. Bad, bad decision to even stand in line to go in. They really didn't have any toys that the kids wanted in the first place so I was actually looking for a gift item that Greg wanted to give. Except there was a huge fight over those at an end cap (seriously, people were pulling them out of each other hands and screaming) so I didn't get it. I don't think I've ever walked out of Target empty handed before.
Onto Staples where I bought a few things for Greg, 1 gig thumb drive ($8!) and a wireless keyboard and mouse set for $20. He asked for those so it's not a big deal that I'm mentioning them here.
I went to Kohl's at 7am (they opened at 5am here) and I was surprised that I was actually able to pick up some toys still. Although I waited in line for an hour. Which drained all my energy and made me miss shopping with either my in-laws or my sister and mom. (Hence the Bah Humbug.)
Unfortunately Greg's sick (probably that awful head cold thing I had a few weeks back) so it looks like I'm done shopping for the day. Which is probably good because I'd likely fall asleep in any line I stood in.
NaNoWriMo update: I haven't written anything since before the New York trip so I'm still sitting at 20,000 words. 7 days left, this could get interesting...
Hmm... I'm not sure my roaster is big enough for the 17 pound turkey I bought.***
Thursday's Menu:
Breakfast- cinnamon rolls (by Pillsbury)
Appetizers- crescent dogs (you know, those little sausages wrapped in crescent rolls), veggie tray, and shrimp (kids' pick and it was on sale)
Lunch- turkey, green bean casserole (for me since no one else seems to like it), noodles (Amish noodles, found the local Amish store just in time!), mashed potatoes and gravy (both from scratch), Indian baked corn (new recipe, looks like a fancy cornbread type casserole), stuffing (which will not be in the bird, ick, and is also Stove Top since I don't have a tried and true from scratch recipe), cranberry sauce (I'm making it from the berries but I have a can of the jellied stuff just in case), and store bought rolls (which will probably end up burnt because it seems to be a family tradition).
Dessert- pumpkin pie, pecan pie, sugar cookies (which the kids will decorate in the morning, I might regret this one later), and chocolate chip cookies (for me cause I'll need some chocolate and didn't want to make another dessert)
This turkey thing is making me a wee bit nervous...
Quote of the Day: "Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence." -Erma Bombeck
*** Edit: It does fit, I just pulled the roaster out of the garage and checked. And packed away with the roaster, I found a lovely white oval serving platter that I received for Christmas. Thanks Liz!
Out of frying pan, into the fire...
I was so glad Sunday to be home and out of the hustle and bustle of New York City. And then I realized I was still in the hustle and bustle, just in Maryland.
All the Girl Scout cookie stuff has to be finished up this week. (Did you know that all these cookies are worth over $2000?) So I've been scrambling to get the extra boxes sold, collect money, and make all the proper deposits. I never want to see another Thin Mint.
The kids have two days of school this week and they are half days. What's the freaking point? I had 4 parent/teacher conferences yesterday (Emily sees a specialist for her reading). It's so funny how different the kids are academically. Zach's really smart but rushes and makes mistakes. Emily rarely makes mistakes but she goes sooo slooow and has a mean perfectionist streak. Ally's very good natured and is average in everything. Weird kids.
Oh Lord, there's this Thanksgiving thing this week. This is the first year ever that I am cooking the entire meal myself. We decided with all the driving over the past month and the fact that we'll be driving again over Christmas break that we should stay home this holiday. Which means I have to cook. I kinda think the 8 hour drive (although we ended up in traffic last year and it took 11 to get back home) may be worth it so I don't have to cook. I do have the turkey and it's defrosting in the fridge. The rest? Um... Oh I have pie! (pecan and pumpkin from Market Day)
I have 9 days left of NaNoWriMo and 30,000 words to write. Maybe I should be more concerned but I wrote 9000 one day last week so I figure if I can do 5000 words a day starting today, I'd actually be done on Sunday with 4 days to spare.
Christmas? What's that again?
OMG BLOGGER IS WORKING!!!!!1!!
*deep breath*
You have no idea how frustrated I've been since last Tuesday because I COULDN'T BLOG. This morning I was *this close* to switching blogging software. Transferring 1085 blog posts formatted for Blogger over to a new system is a rather scary prospect though.
Yes, Kelly turned 4 last Tuesday. Yes, we're back from New York. Yes, we had fun and saw all the stuff (Empire State, Statue of Liberty, Times Square, Central Park). Yes, we got turned around on the subway and ended up in the Bronx (or was it Brooklyn?) for several tense minutes.
We are home. Pictures to follow...
More importantly, Blogger is working for me again!
*happy dance*
Happy 4th Birthday Kelly!
Kyle and Kelly posing in front of Starbucks
More pictures:
1 year
2 years
3 years
ACK! It's Monday!
Drove 15 hours over the weekend to visit our friends for 19 hours (7 of which were spent sleeping), more on that tomorrow.
But the big news that is causing all the !!! is we're going to NYC on Thursday!
So basically I have to do all my regular daily/weekly stuff and plan a trip. Cause Greg has this thing about planning one trip at a time (so Connecticut was first) and now we have about 3 days to plan NYC. We have the hotel booked. And... We have the hotel booked.
So to save myself some time this is the email I just sent Greg (note: when I mention 5 adults it's Greg, me, my sister-in-law, mother-in-law, and father-in-law, we're picking them up at the airport Thursday morning as we drive up to NYC):
Hi!
Empire State (copy and pasted from their website):
102nd Floor Observatory:
The 102nd floor Observatory has reopened as of November 1, 2005.
Admission tickets are only sold at the Observatory ticket office, located on the 2nd floor of the building, at a cost of $14 in addition to regular admission tickets.
Me: Regular Admission tickets are $18 per adult, $12 per 6-12 year olds, under 6 free. (Or $126 for 5 adults, 3 kids) It would be an additional $98 for the 102nd floor (assuming Kyle and Kelly are still free) The regular Observatory is at the 86th floor. The Observation times are from 8am to 1am (the next morning!) so there's no real time limits on us. I think we could purchase the regular tickets online (printed at home) and then get in line at the Empire State to purchase the additional $14 102nd floor. (There's no discounts either way.)
******
Statue of Liberty:
Me: The Ferry Ride round trip is $97.50 for the 10 of us including "fees". Tickets are picked up at the will call station at Battery Park (where the Ferry departs/returns). The limited "time passes" are 8:45-11:45 (86 available at the moment), 10:45-1:45 (180 available), and 12:45-3:30 (290 available). Basically the time passes means the times we are allowed to enter the Statue of Liberty building and they only allow so many people at a time (hence the available number). The first ferry time is at 9:30am and they run every half an hour and it's a 15 minute ride. So basically we need to pick a time window to be at the Statue of Liberty and I will order our ferry tickets. If we don't care to enter the Statue of Liberty itself (which is free, they just limit the number), we can buy the ferry tickets (same price) and visit the island. Ferry tickets themselves are good any time for like 6 months.
******
American Girl Place
Kelly can't go to the show (6 and older). And we can't get reservations for the cafe on either Friday or Saturday, they are completely booked (I called). Oh well...
*****
South Street Seaport:
The Free Friday night from 5-9pm place I mentioned. Basically on the east side of the island on the same street lines as Ground Zero (about 8 blocks away) or a little northeast of Battery Park, Statue of Liberty Ferry (12 blocks or so). Also near Wall Street.
*******
Subway
Cost: The cost is $2 per ride, no matter how far or how many times you transfer (as long as you don't pass through the turnstile gate; if you do, another fare must be paid). Purchase either tokens (coins for each ride) or a MetroCard, which can save you money on multiple rides. Options include the $7 one-day Fun Pass and a pay-per-ride card ($10 for 6 rides - the sixth ride is free - but you may put any amount onto a MetroCard).
Me: I found our 2004 map so assuming the subway lines haven't changed, we have info on that. Kelly is the only free rider, Kyle's 4 inches over the height limit
I think that's it for now. I'm going to get showered and run errands. I'd like to order both the Ferry tickets and Empire State (assuming you don't want to do the 102nd floor thing) today just so we don't lose any time waiting on tickets. Kinda bummed about the American Girl place. Oh well, more money to spend on other stuff! I'm also currently printing out Central Park maps and restaurant lists from MapQuest that will be around the areas we are visiting. Send me the info on the NJ to NY ferry and I can print maps. Let me know if there's any other info you need!
Love,
Katie
Anyone have any great NYC tips/restaurants/ways-to-keep-from-going-insane? Thanks!
Borrowed from Busy Mom:
Drinking: Tea with milk and sugar but looking forward to a Pumpkin Spice Latte.
Listening to: Kyle and Kelly color Thanksgiving pictures. (Even though all the stores have skipped this holiday and moved on to Christmas. I just want some Turkey towels for the half bath, is that really too much to ask?)
Mental Jukebox: (Do you think we should update "jukebox" to "playlist" yet?) "When you were young" by The Killers
Pondering: Why those stupid brown bugs (that pretend to be "ladybugs" but aren't because real ladybugs are red. And where did all the real red ladybugs go? I don't think I've seen one since I was like 10) ... Oh yeah, why those stupid brown bugs make their way to my bathroom to die. They aren't anywhere else in the house and the bathroom doesn't have a window.
Ignoring: Girl Scout cookies
Next up on the To Do list: a shower, followed by dressing Kyle and Kelly (she's currently wearing her flower girl dress from my sister's wedding), and going to a tire place to get new back tires put on the van
NaNoWriMo Word Count: 19,775 I wrote about 8000 of those yesterday.
View:
Tomorrow we are going to Connect-i-cut (you should see how I say Mass-a-chu-setts) to
Ah, freshly cleaned carpets...
I don't know why I bitch and moan so much about steam cleaning the carpets because they are so nice afterwards. Well until the kids forget to take their shoes off or go running through the house with juice boxes.
I think I was premature with announcing the end of my cold. It's still hanging in there. Lost 1 pound of snot, 4 more to go. I'm soooo tired, it's a chore to stay awake. Yeah I hate reading about other people whining about being sick so moving right along...
I'm annoyed with all the toy catalogs we've received lately. I kept a few out of the newspaper and mail because I wanted gift ideas for the kids and somehow the ads have fallen into the wrong hands. There's a serious case of the "I wants!" around here. Followed by my reply: "Yeah I want a million dollars and a maid but that ain't happening either."
45 days until Christmas (give or take, don't expect much from me today) and I'm already thinking "Bah Humbug."
Let's have a Pity Party!
I have whine and cheese to share. (And Girl Scout cookies.)
I'll go first:
Somehow I've gained 5 pounds in one week (I'm hoping it's all the snot in my head from this damn cold). The scale said 142 this morning. That's pratically the weight I was back in February when I went on the whole diet thing for several months. I am so freaking out right now, it's not even funny.
I really really have to run a bunch of crappy errands today (including Best Buy returns *shudders*) because I skipped out on all of them yesterday when my kids were being brats. Seriously we went into one store and they acted like crazed rabid monkeys so I called the rest of it off and we went home.
Also today? It's raining.
I have to clean because we're hosting the Cub Scout den meeting tonight. (At least Greg is in town.) I don't want to clean. I don't want the house a mess either but I'd rather be knitting or writing or draining five pounds of snot out of my head.
Have another glass of wine and a few more Thin Mints. Lord knows I really shouldn't be eating them.
Okay so we're back in business at katiefleck.com *breaks out the vodka and Thin Mints to celebrate*
I transferred the posts over but lost the comments. I'm sure there's some way to get them over here but I don't want to risk screwing something more important up. Plus well, I'm feeling rather lazy.
Or not so much lazy but I have other things to do. Like go vote! Some of my neighbors are really big into politics (as in hosting a fundraiser for a candidate at their lovely home and then driving around with a big trailer of political signs. Seriously, they've driven by twice this morning.) My kids are way too into this voting thing too. A guy down the street is running for something (me? not so big into politics) and every time they see his sign, they say "Vote *insert last name*, Mommy!" Okay so I need to go vote for that guy. And probably won't vote for anyone else. Except maybe for the Green party candidates just cause I feel like wasting my vote. (Which pisses Greg off. He's the political guy and yet isn't registered to vote in Maryland. Go figure.)
My cold is going away. The sore throat is gone, the sinus pressure is gone. I still have drainage issues so now I have a stuffed up nose and sound sick (when before I sounded fine but kinda looked like death warmed over).
NaNo is going slow... I tossed up the first Chapter on a separate page if anyone wants to read it here. I'm kinda bored with the novel, writing the mommy scenes is killing me. I was afraid this was going to happen when I picked the Mommy Lit genre. I like to write to get away from the boring stay at home mom stuff (one of my favorite quotes: "I write because I want more than one life; I insist on a wider selection. It's greed plain and simple. When my characters join the circus, I'm joining the circus." -Anne Tyler). So if I want to stick to my original plan (which I think is a decent story line), I just need to suffer though those parts. Or I can go a little crazy and throw in some plot ninjas and make it totally worthless as a salable piece (although who am I kidding?) but the writing will be easier. We'll see. I'm now behind about 9,000 words from today's goal of 17500. Weeeee.....
Lalala Test 123
Must Write Crappy NaNoWriMo Novel...
Actually I kinda like this year's plot. Course don't I say that every year and then end up cursing my writing muse for deserting me halfway through November?
The plot: A stay at home mom goes to an art museum trying to do something nice for herself (she was an art major in college but gave up painting when she had kids) and accidentally gets involved in an robbery. Wrong place, wrong time sort of thing. The fun part is that no one knows except the detective who is trying to pin her as an accomplice because she didn't tell her husband or friends about the museum trip in the first place (cue over paid clueless teenage babysitter). So I have these nice normal mom type scenes (so far have written about hockey practice, a trip to a craft store, and watching Blues Clues) and then the scenes where the detective is bugging her and she's trying to solve the mystery on her own so that the detective will stop bugging her. The gist is how every stay at home mom sort of wants to be pulled out of her mundane ordinary life but now that this character is, she's fighting to go back to "normal."
All that said I'm way behind in my word count. Weekends are usually bad for me writing-wise because the kids and Greg are all home and demand attention plus there's soccer and hockey games and freezing outside selling Girl Scout cookies (I so need to be pushier in this department). My best writing time is right after the kids get on the school bus until about noon when Kyle and Kelly want lunch. So of course the big kids are off school today and tomorrow (end of the quarter teacher in service and election day). November is such a crappy month to try to write a 50,000 word novel.
At 9:45am the count stands at 7002. By conservative estimates I should end the day with 12,000. By my "November sucks!" schedule I need to be at 15,000. Over doubling the size of my current novel in one day. Even through the cold medicine drugged haze, I think that's a wee bit crazy.
In other news, today is my parents' 30th wedding anniversary! Woohoo!
Oh did I mention that I also HAVE to go to the bank, Girl Scout store, and Boy Scout store today? Yee-haw...
Yeah I know you don't actually catch a cold virus by being out in cold weather but someone explain to me why else I would feel like crap this morning (headache, stuffed sinuses, sore throat) after spending 3 hours last night selling Girl Scout cookies in 30-some degree weather? We didn't do so well either (only sold 36 boxes, last cookie booth sale was 81) so I kinda wish we had skipped the whole thing.
To Dayquil (and be spacey) or not to Dayquil (and be stuffy), that is the question...
Did you know that I get distracted easily?
Seriously! This is why I scrapbook, sew, read, knit, quilt, write, blog, read blogs, sleep... (Well the last one is when my brain says "Enough!" of the project jumping and shuts down.) I can't stick to one project for more than a few days, a week if I'm lucky. NaNoWriMo is always a huge stretch for me because the rest of the year, I'll edit a few paragraphs in some other novel collecting dust on my hard drive and call it a day. For months. Look, something shiny!
I'm having trouble with the project jumping again at the moment. See Tuesday I decided to look up some of my ancestors online. (I like Ancestry.com so far.) Some of my relatives did a ton of work and research a long time ago and have traced my family tree way back. Like arriving in the colonies in the 1630's way back. As in I could join the Order of the First Families of Maryland (Doesn't that sound a bit stuffy? Also not sure if I want to fill out miles of paper work and provide a library of book references). But it's cool! Because hey I'm living in Maryland! And my ancestors helped found the state! This should totally get me a discount on my car insurance or something.
(Okay so this really isn't of any interest to anyone. Greg's already told me to be quiet about the subject, it's not that exciting.)
Now I want to travel to Charles County and St. Mary's County to dig through their historical libraries just because. I have this image in my head that driving there will be like going back to the 1600's and I'll find all sorts of fun stuff about my ancestors. (And money. Damnit they risked their lives to worship their religion, there should be something in it for their great-times 10-granddaughter. Give or take a great). And then I have to remind myself that those counties are going to look just like the rest of Maryland with subdivisions, office buildings, and strip malls every mile. Plus the fact that most of St. Mary's County's records were destroyed in an 1832 fire and there likely won't be anything to find. (Damn fires, this problem pops up a lot in genealogical research.)
But the project jumping... There's this little thing called NaNoWriMo going on this month. And being a Girl Scout Brownie leader. And knitting Christmas sweaters and stockings. Plus traveling to New York City and a friend's house warming party. A 30 before 30 list to work on. And I finally sold something on Etsy so now I should sew up more items to sell. Oh and I have children and a husband and a house to take care of (nice afterthought there huh?).
Is this really the time to chase after dead people from the 1600's whose bodies are probably buried under an interstate and a 7-11?
Sure! Until the next thing comes al... Look, something shiny!
Okay so here I am at my blogspot address again (I did a fancy redirect, aren't I cool?). Edit on Nov 7th: Seem to be okay back at original site
(Will.not.say.bad.things.about.Blogger. Want.other.site.to.work.again.)
Eventually I hope that I'll be able to post again at katiefleck.com. But from the Blogger message boards, a bunch of people have been having issues with ftp connections since Saturday. I post my entries via ftp to my server at Bluehost. I'm not exactly positive what that means but whatever, it's not working and it's not Bluehost's fault. There doesn't seem to be anything I can do from my end without completely saying "screw Blogger" and switching to Typepad or Wordpress or Movable Type (or stone and chisel). I'm really not ready to make such a big jump like that. I like Blogger, it works well for me. Well when it works...
It's been seriously killing me not to update so that's why you got redirected here. And so now I'm updating about not being able to update. Can someone please hit me in the head with a floppy disk a few times?
Halloween went well, we have way too much candy. Back in Ohio, we'd easily give out 600 pieces of candy. (I'm not joking, ask my in-laws.) We barely gave out 200 here and that was handing out two or three pieces per trick or treater. Therefore I overbought and we have an entire unopened bag of 100 pieces. Plus the candy the kids brought in. Anyone want some candy?
NaNoWriMo is also going well. My goal is 2000 to 2500 words a day as opposed to 1,667 (50,000 words divided by 30 days, give or take a word) because my November schedule isn't going to allow me to write every day. Currently I have 4,668 and it's the middle of Day 2. Things always go well in the beginning, it's that 30,000 word mark and about Day 25 that kill me.
Now I must
Emily as Padme, Ally as Queen Amidala, Kelly as an Ewok, Kyle as Yoda, Zach as Darth Vader
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