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Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:23:48 GMT

Gifts for moms who have everything?

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:16:48 GMT

My mom's birthday is coming up and Christmas is just around the corner, too. I want to try to come up with something different for my mother this year. I did good last year with the digital picture frame. That was a huge hit. I'm not going to kid myself that I can outdo that in sentimental value and just plain neatness.

So I typed in "gifts for moms who have everything" into goggle and got gifts that moms already have. Clothes, jewelry, flowers, treats, and sentimental gifts like digital picture frames and scrapbooks. None of the idea are unique. None of the ideas thrill me.

My mom has way too many clothes. She had to get rid of some this year. She has way too much jewelry. She's not big into flowers and she's on a diet. I can't mail something too big. Her main hobby is darts, but she already has a professional board and a special set of darts that she uses that my father had given her. So she's not going to want new darts.

Does anyone have any unique gift idea suggestions?

Another Monday morning

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:14:23 GMT

I didn't get a lot of writing done over the weekend. I've over 23000 words now in the NaNoWriMo challenge. I don't feel the push to do it fast this year. I'm happy with how the story is going and I'm having fun with it. That's what matters.

My weekend wasn't terribly interesting. Errands and groceries on Saturday. Then a walk in the woods. Man, the weather has been so nice lately. Rare for November.

Our phone line continues to be all static-y. It's been doing this for almost two weeks now. I know the phone company has been working again on the lines to add in their new cable, but sometimes I can't even hear the person on the other end of the phone.

I saw Zombieland yesterday since it was a five buck movie. It was amusing, but not a film that I'd recommend to anyone. More ways to kill zombies. It seems like a competition in Hollywood these days to see how many ways they can kill things.

All of our trees have dropped their leaves except for the one in front of our house. It's still green on one side. We've been putting raking off as we wait for the leaves to fall. Meanwhile, leaves from the oak trees in the neighbors' yards keep blowing into ours.

Writing and writing

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:23:10 GMT

NaNoWriMo word count: 13260.

Keith asked me is it even a challenge for me any more. Yes, it is! I know I'm going to hit snags and bumps in the road. Sometimes the beginning is easy because I get so excited. Then there's the middle where I need some stuff to happen, but I have to think of other stuff to fill in the space between those things and to get them to the point where the important stuff happens. Endings are rough for me, too. I don't know exactly how this novel is going to end. I say I'll figure it out when I get there, but most of the time, it's not that easy. It has to be exciting, but it also has to make sense.

NaNoWriMo 2009

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:31:53 GMT

I'm off to a good start. I'm at 6440 words right now and I like the way the story is going. Of course, with NaNoWriMo, I write in scenes for a fast word count that I might not keep when I edit it later. I remember a fellow NaNo participant a few years back said she wrote 1500 describing a person taking a long shower just to get her word count! I'm not that bad, but I add in more descriptions or more of the protagonist's thoughts than I might normally when writing. I don't have a title yet for my novel, but that's not unusual for me. It will come to me eventually.

Here's the synopsis: Inari Thane had a hot one-night stand on her 30th birthday and the gorgeous man left with her a surprise gift. She thinks he has forgotten her, but she can't forget him. She's having his baby. The pregnancy isn't a normal one, though. The fetus is growing at twice the normal rate and Inari suddenly finds herself stalked by frightening things. Cut Donnelly knows what is happening to her and he offers his help, but even though she's very much attracted to the handsome man, she doesn't know if she can trust him. Inari will have to put her life in his hands or she may fall prey to the vicious predator that is hunting her.

Halloween was fun. We had 70 kids before we ran out of candy. Lots of little girls dressed as princesses and boys as cowboys. We left at seven to go to a party and we saw at least 20 more kids coming down the street. I bet if we stay until eight thirty, we would have gotten twice as many trick-or-treaters. It's good to know how much candy we'll have to buy next year. We had fun at the party with good food and friends. Most people left pretty early. Yeah, I guess we hang out with friends who think they're old! We stayed and watched a French horror movie. I'm sort of disappointed that all the horror movies have stopped playing on television. I liked being able to turn one on any time I felt like it. I guess the Christmas movies won't be long coming, though!

Happy Halloween!

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:13:15 GMT

I've been having a hard time deciding what to dress up as. I've shopped around and nothing has inspired me. I've thought of some silly ideas, but I'm not the type of person that can pull off silly. You have to have a certain attitude to go with those types of costumes. I dug out my pirate wench costume from four or five years ago. So that's what I'm going with if some great idea doesn't strike me in the next few hours.

Floating along

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:35:36 GMT

Just floating along and not much going on. I haven't been much in the mood to write, but I need to get a short story done this week because NaNoWriMo is only six days away!

I've been watching a lot of horror movies on television. I watched the whole Alien series on Saturday when it was on AMC. I can't believe it's the 30th anniversary of Alien! It's still one of my favorites.

I have a Halloween party to go to this Saturday, but I have no idea what to dress up as yet. Any suggestions for an easy to do costume that I can do at home?

Who picks the music?

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:04:27 GMT

Every weekday morning, I wake up with my husband at 7:00. I don't need to get up in the mornings. I have nowhere to go, but I like to keep our schedules the same, so we're awake and sleeping at the same time.

I do the bathroom thing and then go turn on CNN. Yes, waking up with Robin Meade. I want to strangle her sometimes! I watch the news until 7:08 when they go to a commercial. Then I turn it to the Weather Channel to get my Local on the 8's.

I commonly wonder who chooses the music they play as the local forecast is going on. During Christmas, it's usually Christmas music, but at other times, I don't know what got into these people's heads to make such a decision. Lately, they've been playing party pieces with the sounds of people at a party or maybe watching a band play in the background. There's talking, laughing and cheering. This morning, it was some sort of peppy pop instrumental. The people were clapping their hands and saying something. I couldn't pick out what they were saying. Something like "Flamingo," "Domingo," or "Go, Bingo!" It's not morning music. I don't want to hear people having a party at seven o'clock in the morning. It's irritating.

Sometimes I really wish that I liked to drink coffee.

Not a purse

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:01:59 GMT

I've never carried a purse. For some reason, this shocks people. They figure since I'm a woman, I must have a fetish for purses. You know how I dislike stereotypes. I don't carry a purse not because I'm rebelling against the stereotype. I don't carry one because I've never had a need for one.

As a child, my mother would give me old purses to play with. I tossed them in corners where they grew dusty and she eventually gave them away to another little girl or sold them at garage sales. She would tell me that when she was a child, she and her friends would play with purses all the time. They'd fill them with trinkets and pretend to go out on the town. They would sit down and trade their little valuables while they had a tea party. All things girl should do. I never did any of those things.

While I went to school, I always had a backpack. I could carry anything I needed in that. Why would I want to lug around something else on top of it? I never understood why girls had to have a backpack and a purse. It still doesn't make sense to me. Then so many of them would forget their purses. I know so many women who have forgotten their purses in various places. Why put so many important things in a bag that is easily lost or has a huge target on it for thieves?

During college and university, I would still have my backpack. The times I didn't need to lug that around, I had my single piece of ID, bus pass, key without a keychain, and money clip in my pocket. If I didn't have a pocket, I'd slip it down the side of my Doc Marten's. I never lost it. I didn't have to carry around anything. I never had a need to bring anything else.

These days, I have a thin wallet. I only bring the ID I need in that wallet. The rest is kept safely at home. I can't imagine ever risking keeping everything of importance together in one wallet or bag that I might lose.

Lately, I've been having to carry around things that don't fit in pockets. Documents for doctors, immigration, job hunting, etc. I usually bring a book for all the time I spend waiting. Sometimes a bottle of water and a snack. It can become a juggling act at times.

I have a canvas satchel that I use at conventions to carry around my things. It's big enough to fit a laptop in. Not very convenient to carry around for regular errands. So I've decided I need something for those times. Not a purse. No. I don't even like the look of purses. What I want is something very specific: an aged leather men's messenger bag. Just like Indiana Jones had.

If I type in satchels online, I get purses. I have to be very specific about what I'm looking for. The internet and any store I've looked in have been determined to sell me a purse. No! Do not want.

Oh, but the price of these messenger bags! Expensive. It's something I'm going to have to wait for and save up. Yet I have it very firmly in my mind that is specifically what I want. It gives the look of professionalism and character. Kind of adventurous, too. You could tell all sorts of stories about a bag like that. Yes, that's what's right for me.

No, it's not a purse, dammit!

Sunday the 11th

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 17:26:50 GMT

Happy birthday to vanedave! Please go check out his site at www.nycomedyunderground.com. Awesome and hilarious guy.

Happy Turkey Day to all the Canadians!

Happy day for my husband because we're going to see his favorite band play tonight. Check them out at Roger Clyne and The Peacemakers. I hope they're not on late. Yup, I'm old. I don't like staying out at bars late. I think the only place I've stayed up really late recently is the drive-in.