It came to this?

After years of darkly imagined tales of the perfect soldier. After volumes of super hero stories with telekinetic heroes that bend metal with their mind. After our love affair with science fiction tomes where people walk think things into being... it's all come down to this:




I ask you - have we given up? Has the super secret project X the government's been keeping under wraps been abandoned and they said "eh, so the super soldier thing isn't going to work out - let's just release the technology to Toys R Us so kids can move a ball through a maze for Christmas."

I am underwhelmed.

It pays to be last

when you're talking about stops on the So You Think You Can Dance Tour! We got a 3 1/2 hour show with all manner of fun and hijinx. Sooooo fun. We saw Brandon kick Melissa aside and dance Juliet's part with Ade. We saw Evan do Brandon's solo with him in little white shorts. We saw a silly string war. And a slide show with all the favorite moments of the tour at the end.

I felt like I was leaving all of my friends behind, too.

But, I did eventually remember I wasn't actually on tour with them. I think I'd have been an asset in some way.

I won't go into the footage of the "two brothers" during the audition. It's still a little raw for me. Thanks for understanding.

Shout out to my sister

Because she ROCKS and got me tickets to go see Evan and crew at the So You Think You Can Dance tour! WOO HOO!!!!!

She also bought me tickets to go two years ago, and I had a blast - or as much of a blast as one can have while 9 months pregnant and physically miserable. Pregnancy and I don't play well together. I can't wait to go as a normal human being!

Catch up post

A few things I've done while I've been gone (from the blogosphere)

1) Taken the cover off the furnace intake vent and crawled halfway into the (aptly named) crawlspace to look for a missing ipod touch. I did not find it, but did find three toothbrushes which tells me that I had good reason for thinking that Mystery Man might have shoved the ipod down there and solves the mystery of "where do all the toothbrushes go"

2) Tried to scissor cut my silver persian fur-nephew who has a deep, deep phobia of groomers. Confidence is a good thing, people, but knowing the limits of one's talents is also a good thing. My talents with cats extend to scratching them behind the ears, dangling catnip in front of their little paws, and trimming nails. Now I know.

3)Been both elated at the discovery of the "new adult" contest that St. Martin's is running for upper YA/adult crossover books, because Lamplight is about 18 year olds who have graduated from high school, - and devastated at seeing the first entry is for a steampunk book. Must. Finish. Book.

Revisions should be done by the end of the week, so I'll have lots of time for fun things like blogging!

A few things

I've been a single mom all week, and half of last week, and half of the week before. I've shut down all auxillary systems and am only running life support. For me that means getting the oldest to school and back. Feeding the kids. Putting them to bed. Taking Boop to get her hair cut after she hacked half of it off with scissors. You know that reaction shot in cartoons, where the character drops his eyes to half mast and looks to the side. Calvin's dad is making it in the third frame. I make that look a lot.



Here are some of the things I've been fielding around home:

Boop: Mom, why do houses stand still but people move?


Later, I found her rolling a rolling pin* while I was making her nachos.
Boop: Look at this great rolling thing I found!
Me: That is what we use to make sugar cookies.
Boop: Great! Let's make cookies now to go with my hots?
Me: Your hots?
Boop: That's what I call cheese and chips, you know, because they're hot?


While eating lunch...
Boop: Can I have a refill of chocolate milk?
Me: In just a minute.
Boop: No! I need it now! I mean, I can't drink my cheese and chips, can I? Especially the chips- they're kind of hard, you know?

* rolling pin is a weird term. It's so weird that as I was typing it I thought, 'it can't really be called a rolling PIN. Why is it a pin? It's gotta be called something else and I just haven't had enough coffee to figure it out. But I googled "rolling pin" and that is indeed what it's called. Why? I have no idea.

Agents and babies (no, no big reveals inside)

Still working on revisions around here. Remember when I said I liked revising? Yeah, not so much. But I'll like it when I'm done and I'm over halfway.

I've noticed a new obsession with me. I've been obsessively reading stories about people who sign with agents - not in a way like I'm trying to will it to happen, or I won't be happy till it happens. I've lived enough to know there's always something, so be happy now or not at all. But it feels very much like when I was pregnant with my first baby and I was obsessively reading birth stories. Although that was a bit more macabre, because I focused in on the ones where things went horribly wrong so I'd be "prepared."

Then, I had my baby (after being sure for an entire month I'd be the only human being never to actually give birth and I'd stay pregnant forever) and then birth stories were not that interesting. Not even my own. And it wasn't an easy birth, but all that really mattered was that I survived (barely) and had a baby on the other end.

I suspect The Great Agent Hunt will feel the same on the other side. That I'll think "well of course I have an agent, the important thing is writing well" like published authors say. And I'll actually believe it. Just like now I absolutely believe pregnancy eventually ends, but try telling that to me at month nine!

And the thunderstorm just woke up my littlest guy - gotta go!

A lovely day for a walk

What does one do on a lovely fall morning, with bright sunlight and leaves all over the sidewalk, but take ones delightful young offspring on a walk.

And so it begins.

Soon after this, I found myself on the sidewalk pushing a double stroller with my not quite two year old standing on the back footpad and my four year old "riding" her three wheel Disney Princess stroller.

Yes, I did see bright sunlight and multicolored leaves. Here is what I heard:

Mom, wait, you are rushing me!
Mom, I don't want to go this slow.
Can I just hold the stroller while I go?
Can we walk in the street instead of the sidewalk? It looks easier.
Wait, I can't touch grass and there is grass in my path.
I think I should walk the scooter through the leaves.
If you don't hear my wheels - then STOP!
What did I tell you about my wheels? Do you remember?
I don't want to turn around yet, we just started!
Why are we going so slow? *
You can't hear my wheels, can you?
I just want to catch up with you, but you keep going too fast!
Do you remember the time my sister pushed me down and hurt me? **
MY WHEELS AREN'T TURNING!
I can't go any further.
I can't walk.
My legs are too tired.
HELP ME!

And that was when the scooter got slung over the back of the double stroller and Boop managed to drag herself the last 50 feet to our front door.

Welcome, fall, welcome.


*This is about the time Mystery Man decided to walk

**the one time her sister ever knocked her down was while she was riding her razor scooter and cut too close to Boop. Boop has tackled her at least 567 times, yet whenever we pass that particular corner, it is brought up again.