In case you're wondering

what a Seattlite is thinking right now about the signing of Ken Griffey Jr.... I'm thrilled. We love Junior here. That's his name, just Junior. He's like family. Welcome back my friend.


Incidentally, I'm studying some baseball history for my next novel project and it's so, so much fun. I may be posting fun tidbits here and there so stay tuned. I realize that I can't write two books at once (as my DH points out, I can't even READ two books at once) but I love to have one in the planning stages while I write the other.

And this is a spoiler alert for American Idol (scroll down)









HOORAY!!!! For Alexis and Danny. I might be a little bit in love with Danny - don't tell DH. ;) But I love them both. They are my picks for the finale. I have no need to see the other 24. Let's just skip to the last week right now and Danny can just barely edge out Alexis and they both get record deals. End of story. The sad news is that now I'll be completely emotionally invested in each episode. *heavy sigh*. Let's not have a repeat of the sad send off of Michael Johns. I expect all of you to use your telephones and use them well at the end of every episode!

Things of note

1) Bejeweled 2 is addictive. (And for what it's worth I now hold the high score in the House of Mystery) My dad claims he's a better speller because of a little gaff over "opponent". You tell me what's more important. Today, I'm going with gaming prowess.

2) I just discovered this blog: misssnarksfirstvictim.blogspot.com - she does a "secret agent" feature where you can submit the first 250 words of a WIP and a "secret agent" critiques it. This time the agent was Kirsten Nelson and it's pretty fun to read the comments. I'm hooked. Are you sensing an addiction theme?

3) I'm twiddling my thumbs (and playing bejeweled) waiting for my groceries to arrive. Oh the perils of safeway.com

How Starbucks saved the day for DH

DH is traveling again. Ugh. It's not too bad, he's only going to be gone for a day and a half, but I have one very emotional 8 year old. She's now experimenting with rhythm with a tamborine, while her brother plays the electric keyboard on his walker and her sister runs around the room with her hands over her ears because Wilbur is getting stressful. You know that fable about the mouse pulling the thorn from the lion's paw? Apparently that is high tension for a 3 year old Boop.

So, I've been up for an hour and a half and already am thinking there isn't enough coffee in the coffee pot.

Speaking off which, coffee saved the day for my DH. He left at 6am for Portland and apparently stopped for Starbucks right off the bat. This surprises no one. Sadly, when he ordered his triple mocha he realized he had no wallet. So he asked them to please set his mocha aside and he'd be back to pay for it - which he did, much to their surprise. I am not surprised my DH returned for his mocha. Who would leave an orphaned mocha?! They thought it was a rough way to start a day but he thought it was providential that he missed his wallet with enough time to go back home for it.

Way to be glass half full, DH! If he'd waited till Tacoma to buy coffee it would have been a sad day indeed.


Time Out - the Mystery Man just handed me Tivo because he likes to dance to the Handy Manny theme song. I know this because he answers me now. The conversation goes like this:

Me: You want to watch Handy Manny?
Him: GAH!

That's "yes". "No" would be an irritated grunt.

Now we're listening to Wilmer while Mystery Man turns in circles and stomps his little feet and Betty Boop is gonna grow up and wonder why she only dates boys with sexy, hispanic accents...

Why iTunes rocks and Happy V Day

Yes, they reversed all of my charges! YAY iTunes!! They also gave me detailed instructions about how to turn on the shopping cart feature so I can "carefully review my purchases". Yes, I'll be doing that.

I hope you are all enjoying V-Day. I bought heart stickers for my girls, one of which is trying her best to embody the spirt of Valentine's day by wearing her red heart shirt, red heart leggings, and reading her book on St. Valentine to her siblings.

As for me, I'm just glad to have DH back. We have a date planned for the near future and for today our present to each other is to not put any weird pressure on each other. Just enjoy the evening. It's sometimes the best present when you have three little monkeys running you ragged!

Reflections on my favorite repair man

So far, I've been refunded a grand total of $2.14. I'm only out $21 now. Yay me.
DH is on his way home, so I've been diligently starting all of those projects
that I'd declared would be finished before he got home. Me and my big mouth.


Currently, I'm watching Handy Manny with the monkeys and wondering what it says
about me that I have a little crush on Manny.

He really does have a great voice.

Maybe I just have a crush on Wilmer Valderamma.

Also, I can't help but pick up on the sexual tension between him and Kelly, while at the same time wondering if he'll ever really notice Kelly and how long she should wait around for him before moving on and marrying the fire chief. She'd have a good life with him, but would she constantly be breaking things around the house so Manny would have to come over?



And would he be over his thing with Carmela the artist, yet?

These are the things I think about. Or try not to.

Maybe it's time to switch to Sesame Street...

Bedtime Stories

First, I might be getting the stomach flu, which was truly inevitable, but ya' gotta love the timing with Dear, Dear H on the road. Hopefully I don't actually go down till he gets back tomorrow night.

In the midst of me trying to hold it together tonight, the little darlings chose not to stay in their beds. Betty Boop loves to "cuddle with a real, live thing" not a teddy bear, so her sister gets the job. Sadly, Boop does not always (ever) exercise excellent self-control, which is when I generally get a report on her abuses - exessive cuddling, hair "combing", hugs around the neck way... too... tight, you get my drift.

Tonight, she comes downstairs all by herself. I ask her why she is downstairs again and she said, with a cheery little grin "I guess I was annoying my sister."

Typically the sister tells me this.

"And I thought we would need to talk about it."

Well, ok then... I start in with "You know, your sister is a really good sister to you..." only to get cut off.

"I know, but I am the one bothewing HER!"

Clearly she took that in a different direction than I was intending it. So I just sent her back upstairs and told her to stop being annoying.

"Okay!" She said, "Check on me in twenty!" With a cheeky little thumbs up.

18 hours and counting till DH returns...

It's gonna be a long day

I woke up to a receipt from iTunes for an entire season of How I Met Your Mother.

Thanks Mystery Man, thanks.

I've added "turn off one click purchasing" to my to do list, today.

Short post

* I am up over 22,000 words. YAY!
* My Little Betty Boop is able to keep food down after a week of not doing so. She's also regained 3 of the 6 pounds she lost (20% of her bodyweight) So, that's a Yay.
* DH is travelng. Boo.

The red head says "I long to see his face."
Boop says "I long to see his footpwints. His human footprints."

Apparently she knows something I don't.
I don't know how well I'm holding up. I've heard long winded expositions from my oldest about why Grandma never "goes bonkers" (maybe she has more experience with kids... maybe she's just more fun...) Just the sort of critique I was looking for this week.

OK, that's all I've got. I've been experimenting with the healing power of chocolate today. I'll let you know how that goes. I was all set to make chicken soup with rice and spinach tonight, but the thought of eating anything remotely healthy made me want to curl up into a pill bug.

I've got two more days to get through this week - three next week. I'll update you on my sanity levels later.

Spectacles and Diversions

Well, folks, I'm at about 1/3 of the way through my first draft for the current WIP. Yay! That's a little over 20K words right now. Things are taking shape! I'm trying not to panic at all the things I have to go back and weave in, but that's part of the process, or so I keep telling myself.

In other news, my eldest daughter just got her first pair of glasses. She looks so darn cute! She was pretty sure that we were all just delusional and she could see fine, as long as her teacher used the right color pens on the white board. But a couple of eye tests and a cute pair of frames later and we made a believer out of her. In fact I think those are her exact frames up there in the corner. She's now such a convert that when I asked her if she could see her brother (something I often call out after he's wandered away from me) she responded, "No, I don't have my glasses on." Um, ok, but he's ten feet in front of you and at 24 pounds he's pretty visible.

Also, I'm pretty sure my Mystery Man created a diversion today by dropping his bottle behind the sofa so I'd set my netbook down. He then made a beeline for the netbook. He's a crafty one, I tell you.

One Word

I don't even want to talk about how sick I am, or my poor little Betty Boop who's been throwing up for two days. Ugh. Bleh. Nuf said.

I would like to recommend a couple of books instead - One Thousand White Women and The Tenderness of Wolves. Both set in the 1860's or thereabouts - one set in the American West, the other set in the Canadian Backwoods. I'm finding myself drawn to stories set in that time period about the American West in particular, homesteading, pioneers, and specifically the meeting of cultures. Simultaneously you have the high culture of Victorian England brought over to America in parts of New York, Chicago, Boston, etc, you have people who literally start with NOTHING and build houses, lives, farms, and you have Native American cultures that are completely different from the other two, yet rich and with their own history and wisdom. I've always been a city girl, and loved stories about the city, set in early to mid 20th century, so this is a departure for me and it's really fun to learn about a whole new setting.

I'll also say, that by way of hook, One Thousand White Women has it all sewn up. The book starts with a historical event, the Cheyenne Indians requesting 1000 white women in exchange for 1000 horses as a way to merge the two "tribes." The US Government said no, but what if they'd said yes... so great!!

That said, if anyone has recommendations for historical fiction or narrative non-fiction in that vein, I'd love to hear them.

And, I'll leave you with one word, and one photo that has made me smile today. It's officially on my wish list. The word? Bassettdoodle.