Karen's Place

Goodbye Blogger

2006-12-13T10:57:00.000-05:00

I was going to wait until Dec 31st to do this (new year, new addy type thing) but I've decided why wait.

Good bye Blogger. You were once a great playground for writers, readers, lurkers, and people wanting to pass a few minutes getting to know what strangers are doing. Now you've become a big pain in the ass.

You can follow my future ramblings at
http://ksteele2.authorsabode.com/

Things I've Done/Haven't Done

2006-12-08T12:10:00.000-05:00

By way of
Annalee Blysse
01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain - then rappelled down a rope into a very long, dark cave. Then climbed back out again many hours later. Sometimes I really miss the mountains.
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula - amazingly soft and silky
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea - I'm cheating on the definition of "at sea" here - on the beach, by the ocean.
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars Now I really, really miss the mountains.
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer - This thing is not like the others..
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud - One word - College.
64. Played in the rain - 64a - Played touch football in the rain and mud
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage - I think it was 4th grade. Long, long time ago
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
98. Been to the Great Barrier Reef
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication [Do books count?]
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life

How about you?

Banks are evil

2006-12-08T08:01:00.000-05:00

It's Friday, and I should be looking forward to so many things - the quiet morning with the kids off at school; going to a basketball game tonight and listening to Sean call the game (listen live here, or listen to the podcast after); the weekend, with a Christmas party and a birthday party; the cold clear December day that brought us our first true taste of Father Winter.

Instead, as soon as I get Samantha off to school I'll get to waste yet another morning navigating the automated phone trees of banks and credit card companies, set up I believe with the sole intention of frustrating us until we throw up our hands and let them keep our money. The more frustrated you become, the more useless departments the person who finally answers the phone will find to transfer you to.

Listening to Sarah Mclachlan's "Wintersong" to calm myself. It's not really calming, but it is beautiful.

Do You del.icio.us ?

2006-12-07T10:58:00.000-05:00

http://del.icio.us/ksteele2

How did I never realize just how incredibly useful this is before? I've stumbled through the site a few times, and always thought that it didn't look appealing. Then when I looked at it again yesterday, the pieces all lined up with a mental click and suddenly, I fell in love.

Hate it when you bookmark a page on one pc, and then can't remember the link when you're on your laptop - or at work? Never go through that again! Upload your favorite lists from all your pcs, add the "post to del.icio.us" icon to your toolbars, and you'll never use the Bookmarks page again.

It was this "post" thing that really had me puzzled at first. I didn't want to post - my stalkers know I've got enough places to post with Blogger, Wordpress, Vox, Flickr, Myspace, and forums. But that post option? It's really "add". You're adding a favorite place to your online list of favorite places. And when you add a place (lets say, sweepstake places), you can see 84 people who have also listed that as their favorite. And then you can see what other sweepstake places they have linked. Hey, this looks like a cool site - I'll add it too!

Useful. Entertaining. Borederline addictive. What more can you ask for with web page bookmarking?

Depth

2006-11-30T16:48:00.000-05:00

Montgomery just came out of his room wearing a black tee shirt. Usually, this near-teenage son of mine considers tee shirts of any color fit only for sleep, and that period of post-sleep that lasts on the weekends until I threaten to withhold food or tv. Tee shirts are not a part of his fashion statement. But today, it is. And it's black. Oy.

After somewhat gracefully accepting the hard time I gave him over his new wardrobe (What? What? WHAT?? - he added a new word to his vocabulary along with his new shirt) he told me a joke. I'll leave you with this :
Why are three dimensional games better than two dimensional games?

"They have more depth."

Cheers and Jeers

2006-11-30T16:22:00.000-05:00

Cheers to YBP Library Services for their plan to distribute eBooks to academic libraries. Where they lead, may many more follow! Details here.

Jeers to Blogger. Oh, how I am coming to loathe you. Today's wackiness began with me not being able to leave a reply on a friends blog. This has become such a regular feature of Blogger that I have all but given up commenting on Blogger blogs; I typically read them through the rss feeder and don't even click through to try. But today someone pulled my heartstrings and I really, really wanted to comment. Only to be told to "Type the characters you see in the picture above." But there WERE no characters, there was no picture above. Then I came here to blog about my disgust, and was told repeatedly that Blogger was unavailable.... try back later. Hopefully after I'd cooled down.

Blogger, you've about ended your usefulness to me. A change has been a long time coming.... This link will soon be moved!

Ha. Take that.

I'm sure they're shivering in their timbers over my intention to move my free blog elsewhere....

"I guess we'll have a good Christmas after all"

2006-11-28T16:39:00.000-05:00

My tree is beautiful. Definitely a top 5 tree. Maybe a top 3. It inspired this quote from Samantha : "I guess we'll have a good Christmas after all."

I'm not sure what made my four year old think we weren't going to have a great Christmas in the first place, but looking at the tree is definitely enough to inspire one to visions of a good Christmas.

Sean's mystery headaches have mostly tapered off. After our scary trip to the ER last Friday night he spent most of Thanksgiving weekend in bed doped up on Vicoden. This morning he woke up with chest tightness and a bit of coughing, so off he went to the DR. Now I'm not saying it's mental, not at all, but he left here at 2pm breathing fine and came home at 4pm wheezing and gasping for breath after they told him he may have bronchitis. Drugs are inbound - cough medicine with yet more morphine and antibiotics - here's hoping he feels better soon. Hopefully by the weekend; he's got a tournament in Orlando Sat / Sun.

Samantha and I are going down to help with registration on Saturday; we were planning on coming back right afterwards, but now he is worried he will be too tired to handle finishing it up. And Montgomery has his Duke TIP test Saturday morning (yay for aunts that will get out of bed at 6:30 on a Saturday to drive my kid across town, since Sean needed me to go with him!) - I'd hoped to be here to take him and pick him up, but now it looks like we won't be back by the time it's over. I'm trying not to think about the last time we stayed at this hotel, when the bedtop deflated and I couldn't walk for weeks. Happy thoughts! Block out the bad memories!

Sick-and-wheezy is hungry. Looks like it's time to go brave the empty pantry and turn bread crusts, broth, and frozen lima beans into a feast fit for the bedridden. I knew I needed to go shopping today....

2006-11-15T11:18:00.000-05:00

My back has gotten a bit better every day. I can sit for up to 30 minutes without cringing and moaning when I finally stand up. Yes, that is progress!!

The laptop is on it's last legs, and only boots up when it wants to - yesterday it decided to play nice, so I got some of what I've written longhand typed up. Ran out of time after only about 10 pages, but it's progress. Unfortunately I'm not going to make the Golden Heart deadline now (which is today!!) - I'm just too far behind. But I've got several friends who entered, so I'll keep my fingers crossed for them. And I signed up to judge; should be able to learn a lot just from looking at others entries this year, and be ready next year with my own.

Starting to get excited about the holidays. Found a great web site that tracks all the Thanksgiving sales ads http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com/index.php
and just the thought of shopping is getting me all excited. And I see some great deals on there. So now I'm torn - get up early and shop with many other people there (ugh! People!!) or stay at home and miss the deals? Going to be a last minute decision I'm sure.

We're having dinner at the in-laws this year. As long as the weather stays nice (fingers crossed) it will be a great day. With the Broncos playing at 8, we'll be eating by 6 so Sean can make it home to watch the game. The table will seem much quieter without sis here this year; I'm trying to get over it. (sobs quietly) I'm on bread (sourdough, cheese, and yeast rolls this year)and dessert (pumpkin pie, apple pie, and a third not-decided-may-have-to-test-a-few-in-the-next-week variety that will be something new and exciting. Or it may be cherry. Which doesn't pass as new, but is always exciting. Or at least delicious.

Time to get up and move around a bit before my spine fuses together. Is it bad that I've gotten used to it makeing firecracker sounds when I stand up?

On the fly -

2006-11-05T11:22:00.003-05:00

HowManyOfMe.com

There are:
350
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

And there are 104 people sharing my husband's name, 65 sharing my daughter's name. My son is unique!~

Catch-up Sunday

2006-10-29T10:58:00.000-05:00

Things to get done before Wednesday-

update chapter website for contest that starts next month
update chapter website Bookshelf
write letter to judges for contest
write book review (just one! And it's not even late!)
finish phrasing out the last 5 chapters of Krissy's story
stop eating the now 1/3 empty bag of Reese's Peanut Butter minicups that I sat behind my desk to keep it safe from the kids til Halloween. Ha, who was I kidding? I should have asked them to hide it to keep it safe from me. Hope the trick-or-treaters don't mind if they end up getting granola bars and raison boxes this year.

More You've got Mail

2006-10-28T07:34:00.000-05:00

I love checking my email - you never know what's going to be there for you.

This morning, it was a email from an editor asking for revisions. My first revision request!

The editor had two things she'd like me to change to make the story what she'd be looking for. Basically, it comes down to writing a few more scenes, this time from the hero's POV.

So yay! All I've got to do is find the time to write the scenes.
**************

Today I'm supposed to take Samantha to a Halloween party at The Corner (where the two beach towns meet). We had a lot of rain overnight and it's still pretty dreary looking, but should be clearing by noon. This is the first year Montgomery hasn't gone - it's going to feel a bit odd, not having his costumed ghoulishness with me. But he decided he's too old for trick-or-treating this year, and even wants to stay home to do candy duty while I take Samantha out on Tuesday.

Then, he decided he was old enough for haunted houses. Real ones - like Universal's "Halloween Horror Nights". Last night he and Sean went down and were properly terrified by chainsaws, splatters of unknown warm fluids (supposed to simulate blood, but just water Sean assured me when I had my own horrific vision of doing laundry), screams and spiders and haunted houses. I think they lasted about 30 minutes before they fled for the relative quiet of Islands of Adventure and did a few theraputic Spiderman rides. I haven't talked to them yet today... wonder how late he was awake with visions of chainsaws in his head.

The Montgomery genes carry on

2006-10-26T17:33:00.000-05:00

Driving home tonight, the conversation in our car.

Hubby : You're Little Miss Attitude tonight.
Daughter (with the full I'm-four-and-I'm-the-princess-scorn): I am NOT Little Miss Attitude.
Me : Samantha, say "I am NOT Little Miss Attitude" again.
Daughter : "I am NOT little Miss Attitude Again."

It took four years, but there it is - proof that no matter how far from the Montgomery family dinner table I take her, she is still my grandfather's great-granddaughter. And my fathers granddaughter. And, I say with pride, my daughter. 100%.

Very Short Stories

2006-10-26T09:06:00.000-05:00

This link is going 'round the blogs, but I was laughing out loud at some of these so I just had to share.

Very Short Stories - actually, 6 word stories.

Such as :
"Longed for him. Got him. Shit.
- Margaret Atwood"
and
"TIME MACHINE REACHES FUTURE!!! … nobody there …
- Harry Harrison"

Follow the link if you're entertained enough to want more.

The kids are off school tomorrow - weather make-up day, for those hurricanes we didn't get this year - so it's feeling a bit like Friday around here. A busy one - my desk is still buried. I can see the piles much more clearly than usual, since I'm sitting on an excercise ball and my eyes are about 6 inches higher than the desk surface. Will let you know tomorrow if this really helped my back. I think I'm going to need a shorter desk if it does.

Listening to : Nirvana - Nevermind

Halloween music

2006-10-24T09:33:00.000-05:00

Is there really any Halloween music? I don't mean the cheesey cassettes of creaking doors, wolves howling, and high-pitched screaming that you pick up on the endcap for $4.99. But actual songs about Halloween, with music and lyrics and such.

I can't find any. So I'm listening to other holiday music.

Someone go pick my mom up off the floor, she probably just passed out reading that it's still October and I've got the Christmas cd's playing.

Sis, "Oh, Holy Night" never sounded so good.

Just like Daddy

2006-10-22T07:15:00.000-05:00

Some days I look at her, and it's just like looking at her daddy.

Who are you?

2006-10-20T09:42:00.000-05:00

Mom often mixes up her kids. We just didn't know she did it in writing too.
(Thanks to Mike for saving this visual until he could show us what we've done to our parents.)

On Fence Building

2006-10-18T07:30:00.000-05:00

Today is supposed to be day three of fence building. We're down to the last bit - three more 8 foot sections, which means 4 more holes to dig. I write "supposed" because it is raining right now - just a drizzle. Hoping it's not enough to stop us, since we're already overdue getting the equipment back and if it's not back by noon today there will be even more of a charge.

Woke up at 4am. Was dreaming that the neighbors came over, looked at the fence, and kicked it down. Not our real neighbors, but fictional dream neighbors three doors down the hill. We don't even live on a hill. We don't, as far as I know, have neighbors that will kick over our new fence either. And I really hope the new fence can't actually be kicked over by a few irrate teenagers and one pissed off soccer mom.

Sean is in bed, aching and sore. I'm up, but very sore - my knees have taken the worst of it, from carrying lumber and from the up and down of getting down on the ground to clear bushes and standing up to put it in the trash.

More later - hopefully, the fence will be DONE.

Travelin' days

2006-10-11T18:00:00.000-05:00

Seems like Sean is barely back home, and now I'm going to be taking off. I think my trip will be a lot more fun than his - I get to go see my big sis, my lil' sis, my big little brother, my other big little brother (why'd he have to ruin what was a good thing by getting big?), Mom, Dad, one brother-in-law, one sister-in-law, two nephews, two uncles, two aunts, two cousins, one cousin once removed, one boyfriend-of-cousin, and a partridge in a pear tree. Or some Bluejays in pine trees at least.

Even though many of these people are from Alabama, and even more of them have once lived there but have since fled the state, all of them are people I'd be happy to call friends even if they weren't related to me. Even the republicans in the bunch.

Tonight is laundry, and packing, and baking, and saying goodbye (again) to the hubby. And drinking a bottle of Shiraz that I decided not to take after I noticed it had a screw on cap. (Wine snob? Not me. I just prefer to travel with corked wine.)

And come tomorrow, I'll be on the road again.

What are you reading?

2006-10-10T10:30:00.000-05:00

I haven't had tons of time to read the last week - a few pages here and there between the house sanitizing and the carpool and the work and the writing - yay, the writing has been happening again! But I've got about 20 books in my "books I really want to read" pile, another 100 or so in the TBR, and three I checked out from the library a week ago and haven't touched yet. Something I do way too often - check out books I know I don't have time to read. But they look so good! Like a big fat juicy peach sitting on the shelf begging me to come along and take a nibble, and I just can't pass it up. Tasty.

Right now I've got "Dusk" by Tim Lebbon sitting at by my bed waiting to be picked up and devoured. My hand keeps wandering to pick it up, and I'm promising myself as soon as I finish this short story I can do it. So it's sort of a carrot and stick thing. Finish writing my story and I'll let myself read it. Since I usually have very little self control, we'll see if I can actually hold out until it's done.

Read any good books lately?

Goodbye friends

2006-10-09T09:39:00.000-05:00

It's so hard to say goodbye before heading off to school.

Cleanliness

2006-10-08T09:52:00.000-05:00

I've done a lot of cleaning the last 10 days - office, bedroom, and my car especailly. Those three spots are the hardest for me to maintain with any sense of order. The office because it's really the hub of our house, with it's three workdesks, tv, laundry area, and huge floor space Samantha spreads her dolls out in most days. The bedroom because if Sean is home, he's usually stretched out in there with food and drink working in bed (maybe because he can't see the surface of his desk to work there?). The car because Montgomery eats breakfast in there five days a week - bad habit, but most days he'd just skip it instead of giving up that extra 10 minutes of sleep - and Samantha brings along whatever she's playing with when it's time to go somewhere and then abandons it when we get back home. Since most days average 2 hours and 4 trips in the car for her, she ends up abandoning a whole lotta "crap".

It's so much easier to clean with Sean gone. My main cleaning method involves a very big garbage can and disposable cleaning wipes. Throw everything you can away, straighten what's left (ideally, nothing), and wipe off the surface you know will stay clear of clutter for less time than it takes the dog to sniff out a trespassing cat.

The one spot I can't touch is Sean's desk. The last time I did, he couldn't find anything for weeks. Somehow, he knows exactly where everything on his desk is. My brain locks up just looking at it, so I try real hard not to.

The car, there's really no excuse for. I told the kids they're going to have to get neater, or stop taking things with them. Let's see if the threat of no food and no toys can keep them neat for a while.

If not, they can start riding with their dad.

One of the many reasons ...

2006-10-07T14:28:00.000-05:00

... that I love my husband is that he never even asked if we could name our child ESPN.

Note to any parents who think you are being unique by doing this - you aren't. At least 4 other parents have beat you to it.

Happy birthday Laura

2006-10-07T08:09:00.000-05:00

My sister-in-law's birthday was yesterday - I'm sure she wouldn't want me sharing a number with you, but it comes after the 35th and before the 40th >G<. She was stranded part of the day in airports, but made it back in time to meet the family for a drink at Shelby's Coffee House. Much fun while we listened to the music of a live performer (although I've got a feeling most of this guys music came off the cd player buried in his equipment and not off his actual playing of the instruments). The sun set, the full moon rose, and the kids (young, and young at heart) danced to their hearts content.

We finally had to say goodnight after two sets. Then Laura and Tim headed out for a night with their friends, Jim and Ali took Madison home, and me and my two headed to our own quiet house.

It's always so quiet with Sean gone.

He'll be back from his 10 day west coast trip tomorrow night though. Counting the hours!

Little Bronco Fan

2006-10-03T18:21:00.000-05:00

Peeking out of my cave here...
One of the dozen ways I've fallen behind the past month is putting up pictures. And once I fall behind, it becomes "Ugh - I'm so far behind - I'll do it tomorrow...."
And then tomorrow becomes next week, and next thing you know it's been a month with no pictures. Grrr!

I know I'll have many, many pictures to put up when I get back from my trip next weekend, so I'm trying to get caught up before I go. So here's one from a few weeks ago to show you I'm trying!

I've also got three websites to update, a newsletter to publish, a short story to finish, and a months worth of invoicing sitting on my desk waiting to be done.

Sounds to me like a very good time to go snuggle with the Bronco Fan and read "The Missing Piece Meets The Big O".

Good health fairy, where are you

2006-09-27T07:49:00.000-05:00

So about the time I finished yesterday's post, Sean started feeling a little queasy. Then more than a little. That escalated into about 12 hours in the bathroom. Poor guy.

In the middle of all that I went to get Samantha from school. I did my third "are you feeling ok" check of the day (everyone else is falling apart, how could the four year old escape it?) and finally got the answer I'd been expecting for a week - "My throats a little sore. And my tummy hurts."

Two hours and one strep test later, it was official - strep 4, Steele family 0.

Sean actually thinks it's strep 5, Steele family 0, since there was a puke stain on the floor that no one will claim and he's now blaming it on the dog.

So today, Montgomery is off to school mostly healthy - please, let him stay mostly healthy enough to make it through the day.

Sean is huddled up in a ball on our bed, every muscle in his body exhausted by his battle with the bowl. Less than 48 hours from now he's supposed to be on a plane to the west coast for 10 days.

And Samantha is quaranteened until her 24 hours on meds passes, so no school and no dance class. But she feels GREAT. Wants to go to the beach, or the park, or her cousins, or the store, or anywhere that isn't in this house of sickness. Can you blame her?

My desk has work I can't even remember coming in, from my week long "I'm not sick; let me sleep" denial phase. All of it due out yesterday, except what was due out the day before.

Can I even tell you how much scrubbing I'm doing to try to find and kill these damn germs that seem to have taken over my house?

Oy. Happy Wednesday!

Creepin' back to good health

2006-09-26T11:12:00.000-05:00

Got my voice back this morning, yay. I sound like a barfly from Tennessee, one who's been drinkin' and smokin' since she could walk, but at least I can carry on a conversation. My daughter wants to know when I'll get *my* voice back - she seems convinced I somehow got back someone else by mistake. The antibiotics have finally beaten down the strep. Unfortunately my headache is back.

Montgomery is still home from school - today, it's a stomach bug. Or something he ate. Either way the symtoms are the same - him in bed, me scrubbing carpet and every inch of his bathroom. Poor kid. (Although I was saying poor me when I was cleaning at 5am.) He's perked up a bit in the last hour; hope he's back on his feet by tomorrow.

Only three days til Sean leaves for Palm Springs. I hope we can all be healthy for a day - dare I ask for two?? - before he leaves.

Went to the chiro this am and was shocked to realize it's the last week of September. Samantha's preschool was setting out their pumpkin patch. Fall really snuck up on me this year.

Why does Barbie need a dog that poops?

2006-09-23T17:36:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting in my semi-delirious state (5 days sick now, and about to break down and go to a dr) appreciating the fact that Avatar: The Last Airbender has my kids attention for 30 minutes. That's 30 minutes that I probably won't have to move. And it's 30 minutes we're not watching "Barbie and the Twelve Dancing Princesses", which we have seen more than two dozen times in the past 4 days.

And like raw brocolli across my raw throat comes the grating sound of ... Barbie. Noooo!!! Make it stop! But it's not Barbie and her eleven sisters (one set of twins and one set of triplets, if you're wondering at the whole 12 sisters part). It's "Barbie Doll & Tanner Dog".

Just as I'm relaxing, I realize that Mattel has gone too far. This dog doesn't just fetch like a real dog, and doesn't just love treats like a real dog. This dog poops. Craps. Relives himself of solid waste - "goes potty" as the website says.

Why, Mattel? Why would you think even for a second that Barbie needs a dog that poops? What mother of little children, and likely cats / dogs / other living animals, wants to chase plastic poop around her house when she's got plenty of the real thing to worry about?

Unable to believe my eyes, I had my son rewind the TiVo so we could watch it again. Yep, that dog is popping out the poop on tv. Although really, it looks more like rabbit poop than Golden Retriever poop - if real Goldens had pellet turds instead of those big stinkin' mounds my sister-in-laws dog lays down, the world would be a happier place. But even fake pellet shit doesn't have a place in my house.

Right now, I'm thinking two things. If anyone gives my daughter Tanner the Crapping Dog for any reason, that person will go on my .... er, crap list. (Sorry, couldn't resist.) And second, I bet this thing is going to have great resale value on eBay.

I've gotta rememeber to check Walmart, if I'm ever healthy enough to shop again.

Producing a Flawed Product

2006-09-05T05:49:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite reads the past month has been Jane In Progress, the blog of Jane Espenson. Among other claims to fame she has a degree of connection to Joss and the Buffyverse. I mourn the lack of great writing on TV the last few seasons; in self-preservation I think I have searched out some of my favorite script writers, hoping to see where they are now and what I can look forward to from them. Sadly for me many of them have moved away from TV production to the big screen.

Did that first paragraph ramble on or what?

My point, yes I had one, was that Jane wrote over the weekend one of those Great Truths. Not just a writing truth, but one that you can take to many situations and know it as Truth. She wrote, "...our ability to detect flaws is far stronger than our ability to avoid producing flawed product." It's easier to go to a restaurant and say the meal was terrible than to stay home and cook it ourselves. Easier to criticize the politicians making choices than to do the work to find ones that make choices we support. And yes, easier to find flaws in the books and TV shows we see than to write better ones ourselves.

But don't let that stop you from trying. Better to produce a flawed product, than none at all.

Off to work on my own flaws. Happy Tuesday!

Labor Day plans

2006-09-03T09:07:00.000-05:00

Dinner last night with the inlaws. Just Samantha and I - Sean has a 36 hole event in Orlando this weekend, and Montgomery was off on a birthday trip with some classmates. Dinner was a good time, but once the kids started going nuts at 8:30 I scooped up Samantha and headed out. When all my time is spent telling my kid not to do the things other kids aren't getting corrected for (spitting water on the floor; picking kiddie furniture up and swinging it around; dunking toys in their drink and then spreading the liquid joy around the leather furniture) it's time to go. Normally my little angel (!) wouldn't do any of the above; but when her beloved companion gets away with it, she assumes she can as well. Not.

Montgomery had a fantastic time at DisneyQuest. I'd never even heard of it - they call it an "Indoor Interactive Theme Park", which is evidently another way to say video game mecca. The parents who took him must have the patience of a turtle trying to cross I-95 on a holiday weekend; they not only drove 4 boys on the cusp of teenagehood 2 hours down the road, they spend 8 hours in the 'park' (really a 5 story warehouse type building) and then took them all out to dinner. Met them in town at midnight to pick up my son - the other boys all live across town - and was snuggled in my bed by 1. Montgomery says it's "pretty cool" - a glowing recommendation from him. Samantha was so worn out enough from her midnight trip that she slept in until the late, late hour of 8.

Tropical Storm Ernesto this week left me a few limbs down in the yard - one 25 footer - and some leaves in the pool, so there will be yard work and pool cleaning in my immediate future. And then a quiet day at home tomorrow - I'm very happy with the philosophy that living a mile from the ocean means never having to actually go to the beach. Much prefer a swim in the (clean) pool and some chicken and 'dogs on the grill.

Read a few really great books this week - started off with Christina Dodd's "Trouble in High Heels" on Tuesday. Great read, a bit of romance, a bit of suspense. Then on Wednesday, Nora Robert's "Morrigan's Cross". Also fantastic, and the first of a three book series. I love it when she has a trilogy that comes out quickly - three books in three months. I know I've got something great to look forward to. And then Thursday I read Christie Golden's "On Fire's Wings". Golden was a new-to-me author - can't wait to get more of her books. Fantasy with just a bit of romance; she also has written quite a few books in the Star Trek Voyager series, and has a trilogy coming out set in the World of Warcraft universe. I still occasionally play WoW, so I'm hoping those will be good.

Unfortunately the other two Luna books I picked up this week haven't grabbed me yet. I've read the first two chapters of both, and haven't been tempted to go further. This is why I don't usually buy Luna - these were trade paperbacks, so $15 each for books that aren't engaging me makes me cringe.

Lucky for me I've got something to look forward to - JR Ward's "Lover Awakened", the third book in her Black Dagger Brotherhood series, comes out Tuesday. I got turned on to her books (vampires and slayers in New York) in Atlanta and have been looking forward to this one's release. Can't wait!

Happy Sunday - hope your weekend is filled with family, friends, and a good book or two.

Wednesdays child is full of woe

2006-08-31T12:35:00.000-05:00

I can't get the childrens rhyme out of my head today. You know this one? It goes -

Mondays child poem

Mondays child is fair of face,
Tuesdays child is full of grace,
Wednesdays child is full of woe,
Thursdays child has far to go,
Fridays child is loving and giving,
Saturdays child works hard for his living,
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.

I'm a Wednesday child, and the first time I heard this as a kid I remember wondering why being born on Wednesday had to be so bad. Everyone else on that list has good things going on for them - good looking, graceful, a traveler (now that's what I'd be picking!), loving, giving, hard working, "bonny and blithe and good and gay" - hey, Sunday rocks! Want to bet a Christian wrote this dity?

But why do we Wednesday kids have to get such a bad rap?

Tea is better for you than water -

2006-08-27T15:51:00.000-05:00

- or so the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition tells us.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5281046.stm
Good news for me, since my tea intake is way up lately. My body has taken a strange dislike to coffee, and most days it isn't worth the hours of indigestion that follow my preferred daily half-pot. Since late spring I've been weaning myself off the java, and now I'm (sadly) down to less than a cup a week. I've missed my coffee; I'll miss it even more when cool weather finally hits us around ... December. Guess I've finally got a reason to be glad Florida gets mild winters - a short cold season to suffer thru without my morning jolt. Studies show green tea may help ward off cancer and Alzheimers - yet more reasons to refresh from the leaf, not the bean.

I'm keeping an eye on the tropics this week, as most of the gulf and east coast is. Ernesto is giving Haiti a rough time today, and is slowly moving north. So far the storm is tracking with more of an easterly curve with every update; we may get lucky yet again and have this miss us by many miles. Fingers crossed.

Let's Say Thanks

2006-08-24T06:16:00.000-05:00

Dad sent me an email this morning with a really cool site.
Let's Say Thanks.

It's a great way to send a message to the people who are actually standing on the frontline in the "war against terror".

Now if only Xerox would give us a quick and easy way to send a message to the people who are sending the soldiers there.

**(You don't actually need Xerox for that... you can Register to Vote, or send a message to any of your representatives. Don't forget to Vote!)Publish

"I wish..."

2006-08-20T11:20:00.000-05:00

"I wish I could not have a brother, like Madison doesn't have a brother." - Samantha Steele, age 4, random thoughts.

Blogger Beta

2006-08-19T20:39:00.000-05:00

I got an invitation to Vox on Friday. Yeah, I know, just what I need - another web community site to suck more of my time up. But... a few good friends who live thousands of miles away are active there, and not active anywhere else I play online these days. So I played around and made a site there.

I had my invitation sent to my gmail account. Blogger is owned by Google, who owns Gmail. And within 24 hours I had gotten an invitation to have my Blogger account expanded to the new Blogger Beta. Coincidence? hmmm...

Anyway, so I've heard that the new and improved Blogger allows tags (or labels, as Blogger calls it). It's something that I've missed - or at least it's been missed by the anal-organizational part of me, the same part of me that loves Google Spreadsheets, although not as much as Excel, and color coded file folders, and sock drawers sorted by lenght and color.

So I played around with the new 'improved' version. And what's the first thing I find out? There is no HTML editing yet in this shiney new beta! Is it just me, or is that a step backwards in flexibility and customization?

Anyway. Meh. I've got my labels, and lost my shiney template.

Vox is pretty nifty, although it has it's own limitations. It' has limited templates as well (is it really that much of a challange to let us add our own html and css to your nice web portals?). It doesn't have a customizeable links page at all, unless you're trying to link to someone on Vox. But it does have a very cool catalog system built right into the site, that lets you keep track of your books, videos, music, and photos. And since Vox is owned by Yahoo!, who also owns Flickr, there's a direct import of your photo's from Flickr.

Which comes in very handy for something else Vox does - the Vox hunt. It's a photo scavanger hunt. Today's is "Take a picture of something striped." My picture of something striped turned out needing a bit of editing, which has to be done on the desktop, and I'm way to comfy in bed with the laptop... so it'll have to wait til tomorrow. But it's a great reminder to break out the camera - and yesterdays Vox hunt was for a "Tall, Cool One" - there were some great pix in that set!

And Vox also does a Question of the Day. Today's was "What was the last wedding you went to? Were you in the wedding?" I wasn't feel particulary creative as I tried to recover from a near-death-experience disguesed as a family get-together, but hey - that question tickled my memory enough to get a few lines out of me.

QotD:
Here Comes The Bride
Aug 19, 2006 at 7:30 PM

What was the last
wedding you went to? Were you in the wedding?
Last one was my baby sis's wedding almost two
years ago! They had the ceremony in a classy ballroom, and
the reception was in the same room immediately after. Great wedding!
Major points for food, bar, music, and all the family making it to the event
with no drama.
Bonus points for the 3 year old that got
'lost' and started a security lockdown of the entire hotel and galleria who was
found 10 minutes later going potty.

I'm not trying to make anyone link-surf here. In fact, I'll probably make a habit of posting my Vox info here - I'm making the effort to stay connected to my friends over there, but I'm not making anyone follow me around the web ;)

Hope you're having a good weekend! And if you'd like to give Vox a try, leave me a comment or send me an email - I've got a few invites to give out.

Friday Techie Facts

2006-08-11T09:15:00.000-05:00

I stole this from Dakota, who admits it came from someone else, via someone else, etc...

TECH-OLOGY

Number of contacts in your cell phone? 89
Number of contacts in your email address book? 274
What is the wallpaper on your computer? none - I keep it blank
What is your screensaver on your computer? the monitor turns off after an hour idling to save power
Are there naked pictures saved on your computer? No! I hide incriminating things where the kids won't find them. My computer would be the first place they'd look.
How many landline phones do you have in your home? 3 different lines, 5 phones (4 of them 2 line phones), and a fax machine
How many televisions are in your home? 6 that work
What kitchen appliance do you use the least? The dishwasher - it's been broken for 2 years.
Number of computers - 3 desktops and 3 laptops that work
Number of email accounts - err. 9 active, but they all funnel into my gmail account now.
Number of game systems - 5 systems (PS1, PS2, XBox, XBox 360, Nintendo 64); 4 handhelds (Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Gamboy Advance, Gameboy DS) *most of this is my son's
What is the format of the radio station you listen to most? NPR
Favorite gadget - my Sidekick cell phone. Since I activated the email and web browsing features, I am in love with this thing. I spend less time checking email, since I can see at a glance that no one wants to talk to me about anything but penis enlargement and refinancing my mortgage.

How about you?

How Karen lost her groove

2006-08-07T15:57:00.000-05:00

It's been a long summer. Going to be even longer, since it's officially not over for another September 23rd, but getting my largest bundle of joy off to school to start his 7th grade year marks at least the beginning of the end for me.

Next week the smaller bundle of joy will return to school (pre-K : where my baby thinks she's a big girl and starts asking to wear lipstick). And I will start grasping at the slender threads of sanity that are still within reach, hoping to emerge from 2006 a non-institutionalized person.

Not that there hasn't been plenty of fun this summer - there has. My two favorite sisters (ok, both my sisters) visited with their families. There was the week long trip that I'm still recovering from. Summer football, and weekly radio shows, and a golf tournament (sometimes two) every weekend. A family situation that is still unfolding that has kept us on our toes around the inlaws.

And not nearly enough time to write, either blogs or books.

Now it's time to start getting that groove back. 6am wakeups, and 9:30 bedtimes - summer is definately over.

I've never been so happy to welcome the fall.

2006-07-31T20:00:00.000-05:00

(This is one big-ass post, consolidated from the blog I actually posted on during my trip to Atlanta last week for RWA National. There was barely time to update one blog; no way I could manage two! And after 9 hours on the road with kids today, it's just not in me to manage more than cut and paste. So if you haven't read this yet - hope you enjoy seeing the conference through my eyes.)
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July 29, 2006
Notes from Friday
It’s quiet around the Marriott – and the Mall – this Saturday morning. Last night was a big party night for people (editor parties, agent parties, writing group parties, seems most everyone had someplace to be). There was celebration into the whee hours as people let loose after a long day of workshops and book signings.
Having neither editor or agent, I was lucky enough to attend the “second annual unofficial PRO dinner” organized by La Juan Snider. There were over 100 writers who got together to talk about having hit that big step of having finished a book (or two, or 11), but not yet published one. The absolutely fabulous Deidre Knight was the guest speaker, and she gave an amazing talk about working for what you want. A great line she used was the title line from a Tim McGraw song – “How Bad Do You Want It”. And she drove home really the same point that Nora Roberts had put so well at the PRO workshop on Thursday morning. Writing is work. It’s magical; it’s amazing to be able to sit down and create people and worlds from nothing more than imagination and dreams. But it’s also work. And if you really, really want it, it’s work you’ll pour your heart into willingly. Just because that’s what it takes.
Earlier on Friday, I had one of those shit-to-sugar moments that sometimes come. About two weeks before conference my editor appointment (with Pamela Campbell of Ellora’s Cave) had been canceled. Erin Frye from the RWA office worked for several days and didn’t stop until she’d gotten me another appointment – this time with Tara Parson of Harlequin. I was very happy with that, so I was more than a little disappointed to step up to the appointment table yesterday and find out that Tara had also been forced to cancel her appointments. Before I could even get too disappointed she asked if I would like to see Hilary Sares from Kensington. Yes! I would definitely like to see Ms. Sares.
A 20 minute wait later, there I was sitting down pitching “Tonight, Forever” – the werewolf story – to Kensington. And 5 minutes later she was handing me her card and asking me to send her the complete manuscript.
This one needs more than a little polishing, but now I’ve got an actual face to go with a name, and an invitation to submit. I was walking on air when I left. So much so that I went all the way back up to my room in a daze, before remembering that I had a workshop to head to – one where the very same Hilary Sares was on the panel. I raced back down and tried to sneak in quietly (of course it’s hard to sneak when the end seats are all taken and you have to climb over 5 people to get to an empty seat) to hear the latest on what Kensington is publishing and actively acquiring.
Also Friday, the Passionate Ink chapter of RWA had a lunch for over 200 guests at the Georgia Acquarium. Catered by Wolfgang Puck, it was absolutely the best meal I have had all week – tops even Ruth’s Chris. Gorgeous setting, with our own window into the Beluga Whale tank to entertain us. And we had some fabulous speakers – editor Raelene Gorlinsky from Ellora’s Cave, and agent Roberta Brown. That will stay a highlight of a trip already filled with fantastic moments.
My total fan-girl moment yesterday came when we left the Aquarium. I’d driven over to help get the goodies there, and coming back we squeezed in as many people as could fit – which ended up being 7, after we popped up the jump seats in the back of the wagon. About halfway back to the hotel I realized I had no idea who was navigating for me (yes, I can get lost on a trip that has 2 turns and needed a navigator) so I craned my head over to try to read her nametag. After swerving to miss the truck I almost rear ended attempting to be subtle, I finally reached over and picked up her nametag off her chest to see who it was. And “OMG. Jordan Summers is telling me where to go. Jordan Summers is in my car!” Then I looked in my rearview mirror and did a quick count, and realized I had 5 published authors (I think all Kensington authors) in my car, along with my new great friend (and I’m sure soon to be published author) Robin. It was a total geeky happy moment. I’d like to say I carried if off with grace and composure, but I’m pretty sure I gushed all over them.
I got us back to the hotel without hitting anyone, although someone from the back asked if I learned to drive in New York…. What do you think that meant?

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Notes from Thursday
Fabulous day of information and meeting people. And a great start to conference!
Started the day with the PRO workshop. I was a bit late getting there (it’s nice my customers need me, but it would be nicer to have a true vacation without having to squeeze in an hour or two of work in the morning first!) but walked in to workshop by agent Meg Ruley, who reps for Jenny Cruise. She offered some tips – network! Make friends with booksellers. Find the young, hungry staff at the agencies. To find an editor you think will love your work, find the authors YOU love, then find out who reps them.
Next we were treated to a great panel with Jenny Cruise, Bob Mayer, and Molly who runs their website. They gave some good info on why having a great website is so important. Jenny talked about how, just as your agent presents you to your editor, your website presents you to the world.
Bob talked about blogging, and how to have a blog people will actually want to read.
And then Molly got into some specifics about what you’re looking to have for your website. And how much a professionally designed one costs. $1500 - $5000 is “reasonable”. Ouch!
A great Editor panel was next. Tracy Farrell from Harlequin, Cindy Hwang from Berkley, and Raeline Gorlinsky form Ellora’s Cave talked about some trends in the industry, and what they’re seeing and looking for.
-Tracy Farrell said mass market sales are weak. This was the first of many industry people I’ve heard give this same quote. She said the Romance industry overall is still strong – “Romance is a strong part of a challenging (and challenged) business.” Harlequin is looking more at epubs and other alternative pub’d authors, and looking at more diverse subgenres. Not just paranormal, but paranormal with a twist, for example. And Tracy is evidently not personally a vampire fan ;)
-Cindy Hwang talked more on the theme of Romance being strong, but publishers facing challenges. She personally judges lots of contests, and has found several new authors that way. She’s looking for “complex characters and delicious heroes”. And she talked about prolific and disciplined authors, as did Tracy.
-Raelene talked mostly about looking for fresh subgenres at Ellora’s Cave. Editors are tired of seeing the next LKH or Feehan clone. They’ve seen great sales from male/male romances in the last 6 months at EC – and women are the ones buying them. To get the attention of an editor, you need to really push the genre envelopes.
And then the highlight of the morning – Nora Roberts came in to deliver the Keynote. After a slight delay while the Marriott tried to move us to another room (how rude!), we were treated to a fabulously inspirational talk on the Magic of writing. And the hard work that it takes to keep that magic working. Nora is as great a speaker as she is a writer; it was wonderful to hear her speak.
Then it was off to lunch, and a lunch keynote that had me all but falling out of my chair laughing. Meg Cabot was hysterically funny as she talked about her path to publication, and the stories behind getting her book turned into the Disney movie “The Princess Diaries”. I’ve never read her before, but after hearing her speak I can’t wait to dig into the two books we got at the luncheon and see if she’s as funny in print as she is in person. Her talk made an otherwise bland lunch worth sitting through. (Since my last meal had been the Ruth’s Chris dinner, maybe it’s not fair to call the Marriott food bland… but really, there’s only so much you can do with chicken served over grits.)
The RWA Annual Meeting was after lunch. I was truly shocked at the low turnout. There are over 2000 writers in Atlanta, and less than 10 percent went to the meeting. They missed out on a heartwarming, sincere moment as Gayle Wilson thanked her board for all their help the past year, and spoke about some of the “Wow!” moments of her year as president. She is such a sweet, sincere, and gracious person. RWA has been served very well this past year by having her lead us, and I’m sure she’ll continue to be an important part of directing RWA in the years to come.
Thursday night I had two parties to go to. I started at the RWA Online party – the party for the online chapter I’ve only been a member of for a few months. Some fantastic people there, and I was sad to leave after only an hour. But I was already late at that point for the Romance Diva’s dinner at Azio’s. The Diva’s had 2 very large tables in the corner, and I squeezed myself in at the head of the table where I could take some great pictures. Then forgot to take hardly any. (There are a few up over at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ksteele2/ ) We ate and talked and laughed for hours, then headed over to a bar at the Marriott to do more of the talking thing. And then a lot of the dancing thing. I’m trying not to post anything to incriminating, but a VERY good time was had by all. Maybe the movies will make it up someday – but I think I better get a waiver signed first….
I headed off to bed at the early hour of just after midnight. Friday is a big day, including my editor pitch. Don’t want to show up for that with eyebags and a hangover!

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July 27, 2006
The Shelli Show
RWA National is underway!
The conference kicked off with a huge event last night, a literacy signing at the Marriott Marquis. It’s a great kickoff event, since it throws thousands of people into a large ballroom on the first day (first for most of us), and gives us a chance to mingle among the rock stars in the literacy signing, and introduce ourselves to the authors and to the friends we haven’t met yet. Many authors tend to be naturally shy - we voluntarily choose to spend most of our time all alone staring at paper or screen. An event like this is sort of sink or swim - get out there and mingle! So mingle I did.
And I met so many people last night that the names quickly began to blur together. I found my roommate Lia almost immediately – she is as wonderful in person as she was long distance. We said a quick hello, then headed off to find all our favorites. I did a quick lap around the room to see which authors were sitting where and who had long lines – Nora Robert’s line was already stretching around the corner of the room she was sitting in, and up next wall. I shot a quick picture and decided not to stand in line – hopefully I’ll get another chance to say hi to Romance’s biggest name.
Found the fabulous Sylvia Day, had time to talk to her for a few minutes as well. Romance Diva’s own Gemma Halliday was signing - and sold out in about 90 minutes! I had to circle twice to get through to say hi to Sasha White as well, but was lucky enough to get a few minutes to chat with her once I did.
So many authors, and not enough time to talk about them all. And books everywhere, tempting me with their bright glossy covers, bold titles calling to me “Buy me! No, buy me!” I got out pretty light - I could carry my purchases without breaking a sweat. My roomie didn’t get out quite so easily :
I don’t have time here to write about all the people I met last night – so moving on! (There are pictures on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ksteele2/ - if you see a picture not labeled please leave me a note with who was in it! I’ll update them later.)
After the signing there was enough time for a quick shower, then it was off to Ruth Chris’ for a late dinner. 15 of the Romance Diva’s piled in two cabs (literally piled into the one I rode in – they are supposed to seat 7, and the driver had to have a seat to himself). Off we went to a fabulous, mouthwatering, MEAT dinner. There was also wine, onion rings (it’s the south – of course you can have onion rings with a nice glass of Zin), sautéed mushrooms, creamed spinach, and too many other great foods that I can’t remember. Jax’s Tuna looked yummy; Shawn’s Ribeye had me excited; my Petite Filet was absolutely perfect. Although how 8ozs of mid-rare perfection can be called petite puzzles me…. It made me a very happy Diva.
Another packed and stacked cab ride back to the Marriott. Then it was off for a nightcap. Found more Divas, Inkers, and friends I hadn’t met yet in Champions, and let the giggles begin.
Robin, Lia and I were wayyyyy to seriously into a conversation about ebook publishers when a flash of blue out of the corner of my eye. What was that? That was Shelli. Shelli doing what she could to make sure we were all having a fabulous time. The Shelli Show must be seen to be believed for all it’s fabulous abundance - and so, for you :
Workshop time is here! More later.

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July 26, 2006
Check in Goody Bag Books
Yay! Much book goodness in the checkin bag. 18 :

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July 25, 2006
Atlanta on Tuesday
I passed through Atlanta on the way to Bham today, just long enough to drop off some boxes, check in for conference, and make a run through the goody room. Few quick notes :Beautiful hotel. Room checkin was moving smoothly at 4pm - hope it’s as smooth at 4pm on wad.Conference check in was unbelievably fast. It helped that no one ele was in line. Yay for Tuesday checkin!The Avon bag with 18 assorted print books was a sweet gift bag.
The mall is a wonderful thing.
Off ro bed to recover from 10 hours in the car with kids. Zzzzzz….

One more thing crossed off the list.

2006-07-24T12:45:00.000-05:00

Last night I had a dream that I showed up early at the Literacy signing, volunteered to run security on Nora Roberts signing table, and then she never showed up. Neither did anyone else - there were only about 25 authors, about 100 “fans”, and no books. Just a bunch of computers that the authors and fans used to chat to each other with - while in the same room. So I can cross “have a wierd dream about Atlanta” off my list - that’s taken care of! At least it woke me up early so I could be at the car dealership by 7 to get my oil changed and tires checked
Went to start packing my bags, and found a stain on one of my pairs of pants. Oh no, a wardrobe malfunction! Packing is now on hold until more laundry can be done, and the stain hopefully removed.

Off to the stain wars, wielding hot water and the power of Shout!

(Pictures from the Bobcats didn't happen - my camera battery was DOA. /headslap. Was a great game though, and the Bobcats won 29-7 after holding the Savanah Warriors scoreless for 58 minutes.)

In two weeks, you can look for not only pictures, but behind-the-scenes reports, as I will be taking over gameday operations. Please, try to contain your exctiement, I can hardly hold myself back as it is.)

Head eating aliens

2006-07-23T06:52:00.000-05:00

I started a new book last night and got half through it before I had to sleep. And had weird, crazy, alien abduction dreams as a result of it. Why couldn't my alien experiences been more like Kyra's? But no, I get the aliens that want to eat my head off. And my arms, and my legs, before having what's left for a midnight snack. (Kyra's story, The EmpressesNew Clothes, is quite good if you like alien abduction erotic romances where the hero's intrest lies in loving you, not making a meal out of you - and I do - can't waiit to finish it.)

Also read the new Laurell K. Hamilton Anita Blake book this week, Danse Macabre. I had a great time through the first two thirds, then the last part of the book just lost me. The book's premise is that a vampire ballet, the Danse Macabre, is coming to town, and Anita has to attend in her role as the human servant of the vampire Master of the City. But there's so much else, so much internal conflict / angst / struggle to deal with who Anita has become going on that the actual plot is stuffed into the last 150 pages of a 500 page book. It felt rushed. Left me with a wierd feeling of "why'd you have to do it like that?" I recommend it - LKH is still a fabulous writer - but it's not one of her best.

Cleaned out the car yesterday - tomorrow it's up bright and early for an oil change, the last thing I have to get done before my trip this week. And burned a few cd's for the car (Phantom of the Opera, the two cd set, should keep Samantha happy into Alabama).

Today it's family day - and football. Go Bobcats! Pics of the team to come later.

Fun with email

2006-07-19T18:23:00.000-05:00

One more note for the day - looks like I won't have an actual editor appointment in Atlanta at conference. The one I was scheduled to meet with had to cancel her trip altogether, and all her appointments had to be dropped.

I've got backup plans to meet and talk with the editor I really want to be with (same publishing house), so I really think it's going to be ok. I'll let you know how my super-stealthy-approach works after the trip ;)
---------------------------------

I had a short email pop up this afternoon that made me snicker.

For quite some time now I have been receiving emails intended to be sent to you that were inappropriately addressed. Please send out an email to your entire contact list indicating that your proper email address is
(my email address). Even some of your online shopping purchases have sent me billing information and spam email as a result, which is indicative of you mistyping your email address yourself. Please correct this on your side.

Thank you,
(person-with-a-similiar-email-address)

Do you ever get email clearly not addressed to you? What do you do with it? This person was able to track me down because my true email address was in the previous conversation part of the email (gmail is so nice to keep track of it all nice and neat). And really, I was glad that he did - this was information that was timely and needed a quick response.

I emailed the three other people involved in the email conversation and asked them to check their address books, then emailed the person-with-a-similiar-email-address letting him know that I appreciated his forwarding the email, and would try to keep my contacts from bothering him in the future.

Ten minutes later he emailed an apology for the bit about my shopping habits and typos - adding that there is of course yet another ksteele who he is getting spam for. And then he forwarded me some more of my email.

So I thanked him again, but I was starting to laugh by now. I've often muttered about having to add a number at the end of my email address, instead of just my having my initial and name. Now I see the other side of the coin This poor guy. was the first person with a name like mine to register his email address at gmail - yay! But for the rest of his life he's going to be getting quite a collection of spam.

And somewhere out there is a similiar person at AOL, Bellsouth, and a few other sites where I've put a number after my name. Next time I have to become a numbered name, I won't mutter so much about the choices. It could be worse - I could be wading through the spam of every number that comes after me.

Updates

2006-07-19T07:21:00.000-05:00

I've been trying to clear off my desk of a few things before I head out of town next week. After doing filing, order processing, invoicing, and putting away the scattered junk the kids like to bring to show me and never cart off again, I was left with : a take out menu from a chinese restaurant I've never eaten at shuffled in with the invoicing; a few thank you cards I need to finish and get in the mail; an empty chocolate bar wrapper (hey! who's been eating chocolate at my desk and not sharing?), and a stack of mail that came a few days ago addressed to the previous resident - who moved out almost 9 years ago, and died almost 7.

I left the mail sitting on the corner of the desk - maybe today is the day remember to make that grueling 60 foot walk out to the mailbox - and tossed the menu and wrapper. Yay clean desk!

Samantha got a good report from the doctor this week, so she's off the medications. Now we wait and see if she gets another flare up. Good news there.

Montgomery is next up at the doctor. He's got a vacination due before he can go back to school, and has a typical 12 year old's dislike for needles. "They" really need to find a method of vacination that doesn't involve long sharp needles piercing the skin.

Time to put that clean desk to work now - hope you have a happy Humpday!

It's the little things. (Or, the littler things)

2006-07-15T17:18:00.000-05:00

Had a happy happy moment today when I tried on the dress I bought for a big party, and ... it fit! It was a size too small when I bought it last month, but I just could not pass on it. Not only is it gourgous, but it was over 75% off. I told myself I'd be really, really good and maybe I'd be able to fit into it by the 29th. And now - I can! If that doesn't make a woman happy, she's even less dress concious than I am. And that is hard for me to imagine!

The BJ's sale catalog was in the mail when I got home, and I think I may have a bit more shopping in my week. They've got memory cards for my camera on sale - a 3 pack, with a total memory of 1.5GB, for $49. Since my wonderful camera has had a woefully small memory card since I got it, I don't think I'm going to be able to resist buying that. They also have a luggage set on sale for $69. We've needed new luggage for years (we've got a couple of beat up carry on bags, and a huge duffal bag that has wheels but no strap to pull it by).

And then sis IM'd me that she picked up some books for me at the used bookstore.

It's the little things that made this Saturday happy. Hope you had a great one too!

Playing catch up

2006-07-12T07:22:00.000-05:00

It's mid-summer, mid-week, and mid-month (close enough!). I must be in the weeds. Old restaurant term for so far behind I can't tell if I'm coming or going; sometimes nothing else will do. Ohh, very much so.

Samantha's doctor was pleased with her progress so far. We go back next week for another check, and hopefully she can come off the meds. She's regained full vision in her eye - thank you so much for all your good thoughts and prayers. It helped me tremendously.

Two weeks from now I'll be on the road. I get a little more excited every day. In the back of my mind is the thought that this is the first time I've taken a "vacation" without my kids and husband, and I am absolutely loving it. What does that say about me?

Difficult day

2006-07-07T10:18:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a tough day. Samantha's follow up at her dr for her eye did not go well, and the dr sent us down to Nemours Children's Hospital to see a pediatric opthamologist.

Right now she has some damage to the left cornea that is interferring with her vision. She's on a different medication, every 2 hours for the next 4 days, and he'll recheck her then.
I'm trying to learn as much as I can about her condition, so I can at least know what questions to ask when we go back.

It's going to be a long weekend.
~~~~~~~~~~
On a happier note - Sean's bday is today. The man I love will be 'older' than me until I catch up again in December. I love to call him an old man during that 5 month gap.
We're having lunch with his family at 1, then we're supposed to go out tonight. We may just do dinner and cut the night short - depends on how Samantha is feeling, and if she settles down for the sitter easily.

For now - off to shop. What do you get the man who has only one hobby (golf), and gets every golf goodie he would ever want - and more - through his work connections?
I'll let you know as soon as I figure it out.

July goals

2006-07-06T09:35:00.000-05:00

My Very Busy Week has ended. Baby girl is now officially 4, big sis and her brood have headed back home after 4 days of Florida fun, and we still have half the summer to look forward to. Here we go!

The RWA conference is now less than 3 weeks away, so it's deadline time. I've got some work to do between now and then writing!

So :
1 - 10,000 words a week on Krissy's story
2 - rework the first chapter of Desire

Still not sure which story I'm going to pitch at my editor conference. I think Krissy's story is the stronger one, but I want to pitch a completed work, not something that isn't done. So if I can't finish Krissy's story by conference, I'll pitch Desire - it's finished, just needs a new opening.

19 days to write!

Fun days ahead

2006-06-28T20:42:00.000-05:00

The next week will have it all. Fireworks, strawberry cake, water parks, a space shuttle launch (*knocks on wood*), St. Augustine site seeing, a birthday party, cook out, and a house full of family to share it with. Not sure how much updating I'll have time to do here once sis and her six kids roll in during the whee hours between Friday night and Saturday morning, but now you'll know what I'm doing!

I started the preperation today by beginning the shopping. Friday, I'll begin the cooking - and probably won't stop until the 5th, when they leave and I demand my husband buy pizza and other take-out for a week while I recover. But for now, I've got cooking on the brain. First up - German Potato Salad.

This recipe isn't exactly like Grandma Montgomery used to make, but it's pretty close. I like to add a bit more vinegar, until it's tart enough to make your eyes water. Goes great with a cold beer ;)
German Potato Salad

1 1/2 lbs. potatoes
8 slices bacon, fried until crispy
1 whole onion, sliced to please
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. coarsely ground pepper
3 stalks celery, sliced to bite size
1/4 c. boiling water
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/4 c. cider vinegar

Boil potatoes until tender (not mushy). Slice into a deep bowl (peel if you like, but I like the skins and leave them in).

Fry bacon until crispy. Remove to drain, and saute onion and celery until slightly soft. Add salt, pepper and sugar to the bacon pan (keep the grease - I didn't promise this was going to be healthy). Add water and vinegar, simmer until it thickens. Pour over potatos and toss lightly. Serve warm.
Makes 6 servings.

I can taste it already. And it goes great with brats and burgers!

Is today the day?

2006-06-25T08:11:00.000-05:00

Samantha spent yesterday afternoon with her "nanny" (grandmother), going shopping, to the beach, running up and down the stairs in their three story house. She was still wired with excitement when she got home, so it was close to 10 before she finally gave in to the forces of exhaustion.

She woke me up at 7 with her usual pitiful call of "Mommy...." This is usually followed by "I'm wet. It's time to take a bath." Today, all she said was "Is today the day my cousins come?"

"No honey. 6 more days." I'd already taken down her child gate, expecting she'd be ready to get up.

"Ok. I'm not ready to get up." And she rolled over and pulled the covers up.

Huh? Ok...

I crept off to my own bed, sure she would change her mind before my head hit the pillow.

90 blissfully quiet minutes later:

"Mommy? Is today the day my cousins come?"

She's just a little bit excited!

Six more days, and my big sis, her hubby, and their six kids will be here for a few days of sun, sand, cookouts, birthday / 4th of July parties, and probably a few late nights that will make me feel old again. I'm not sure who gets more worn out, the kids or the parents. I'm not sure why the parents aren't smart enough to put themselves to bed before they get totally worn out. But all the three (almost four) year old wants to know is.... are they coming today!!!???

Today will be more house cleaning, and a birthday party for one of Samantha's classmates. "Nanny" is taking Montgomery to see a movie this afternoon, and maybe keeping him overnight as well. And now I know how my morning will start everyday this week.

"Mommy? Is today the day my cousins come?"

Then ('86) and now ('06)

2006-06-24T07:01:00.000-05:00

Then ('86) and now ('06)
Originally uploaded by ksteele2.

Last weekend was my husband's 20th high school reunion. At pretty much the last minute, we decided to go to two of the three events. Since both of them were parties less than a mile from our house, and a good friend of his (good in the "I haven't seen you since high school" sort of way) was coming all the way from Oregon, he felt a bit lame in staying home. So off we went.

Friday night was a check in / registration / say hi kinda thing, at the hotel. We walked into the hotel and checked all the conference rooms for a formal sign in, then saw a big posterboard written in marker, "EHS Sign in - room 505". We looked at each other, laughed, and headed for the elevator.

Room 505 had close to 40 people crammed into a 2 room hotel space. I spent about an hour staring at faces, trying to recognize someone, before it hit me - I'm NOT going to know anyone! Have another beer Karen.

We had fun playing 'then and now', and stories were told of skipping chapel for breakfast (that's what they called it anyway); being drug before the honor council, graduadion; parties where friends broke things or lost things or parents had to come pick up people that shouldn't have been driving. Groups broke off to go get dinner, and around 11pm I realized that hours had passed and we were still having fun. Whee ~

Saturday afternoon was the "official" event at the school, but we skipped out on that - Sean had a golf tournament. That night was a cookout at the house of an alumni - that was the big fun. Bar BQ on the beach, "awards" ceremonies for people who had traveled far or saved a life, and watermelon suffused with vodka. Ahhh, high school, you seem so close at times...

If the party had ended there, we would have probably just had fond memories of people then and now. But oh no, as midnight approached, the night seemed too young to let slip away. So we brought a few people back to the house (ack - a house that I had not! cleaned! I hate having people's first impression be of a messy house), sat out by the hot tub and had a few more drinks, and kept the neighbors awake laughing and talking for a few more hours.

And had the hang overs to tell us we weren't 17 (or 18) the next morning.

Maybe in 20 more years, we'll be smart enough not to think we have to relive high school by trying to prove we can drink as much as we want to and stay up until the sun is rising.

Or maybe we'll do it all again, just to show we're not that old - yet.

Signs of life

2006-06-23T10:57:00.000-05:00

I've had an absolute absence of energy this week. To the point that some mornings, getting out of bed sounded like more than I could handle. Ugh. Not sure why I've been so tired; probably a combination of kids wearing me out and not enough sleep. But anyway.

I moped around the house yesterday, and when I finally let the family know it was a choice of hotdogs or hamburger helper for dinner Sean took pity on me. Took the kids to football practice with him, and then stopped and got pizza after. Wow, did that three hours alone improve my energy and mood.

It also wiped Samantha out, and she slept in until 8am this morning. Which means *I* got to sleep in until 8am!!!

So today I've so far:
done 4 loads of laundry, cleaned 2 bathrooms, cleaned the kitchen, caught up the paperwork that was waiting on my desk for 4 days, organized the July book updates for the Passionate Ink website (I'm now officially co-webmistress there, whee~!~), packed Sean's bags, completed three logos, updated the spreadsheet tracking all the books and promo items that came in this week that came in for Atlanta (I voluntered to drive the items if anyone that's flying wanted to ship their promo stuff to me). Checked in on a few writing sites that I've neglected this week. Made notes on the chapter I should have been working on this week - those 5000 words a week don't seem to be writing themselves, so I guess I'm going to have to break down and do it >G<.

And it's not even lunchtime!

Hope your Friday is as productive (or not) as you want it to be. And that you get a chance to experience the joy of a good nights sleep, and the energy that comes with it :)

Errand day

2006-06-16T08:31:00.000-05:00

After a crazy week (I may find a chance to write about it later), I have no time to do more than cut and paste today.
So I bring you :

Star Wars Horoscope for Sagittarius

You are superbly wise and have been known to spread your wisdom widely.
You are impatient and pushy when people take your teachings too lightly.
And your philosophical side always peeks through.

Star wars character you are most like: Yoda

What is Your Star Wars Horoscope?

I think they had me pegged at "impatient".
Errand time. Happy Friday!

Sunshine and Blue skies - after the storm

2006-06-13T16:18:00.000-05:00

Sunshine and Blue skies - after the storm
Originally uploaded by ksteele2.

And.... we're off! The 2006 hurricane season is out of the gate.
Alberto blew through here last night and today.
3 inches of rain, one large limb down (in the yard, not on the house), and some gusty winds.

Submitted

2006-06-12T08:12:00.000-05:00

Sent off "Hunting the Huntress" at 8:40. Had five minutes of fantasy, involving an editor on the other end immediately opening my email, diving into the story, and firing me back a gushing "I love your story" email by the end of the day.

This was quickly killed when I got the auto responder email. "Our initial response time is one to two months. For submissions that pass
initial review and are placed in queue for an acquiring editor, response time is
two to twelve months. We do want to give every submission fair and unrushed
consideration."

Welcome to the real world ...

High school reunions

2006-06-10T19:52:00.000-05:00

This year is one of the Big Ones for reunions. Hubby and I are both "celebrating" 20 years since graduation. Two decades since we fled the stench of mandatory gym class and other assorted hells that filled our high school years. (Seperate high schools, in two different southern states - Florida for him, Alabama for me.)

I've never seen a high school that wasn't totally divided down the clique lines. Maybe they exist, but not that I found. For hubby, he was a cross country runner - so he was a nerdy jock (come on, if it's not football, basketball, or baseball in the south, it's not a true Jock Sport). A nerdy jock that liked to party - most of his stories from high school involve which parents were out of town, and who was to drunk to drive home. He at least had a regular crowd of casual friends that stuck together, mostly to get away from the fact they weren't in the "it" crowd, the true jock crowd, the smart crowd, or any other of The Crowds. I was just a nerdy geek. A nerdy geek that also had a 20-30 hour a week job, so there was pretty much no hanging out at school even if I'd wanted to. Which I certainly didn't!

So neither of us were scarred by our education years. We just ... survived them. And left without a look behind.

Neither of us carried highschool friendships with us into adulthood. He had one (1) friend that actually stayed a friend long enough to be best man in our wedding, but that ended on a bad note not to long later. I haven't talked to anyone from my graduation class since shortly after graduation.

So why would we even think about our 20th reunions with any desire to attend? When the invitations first showed up, we tossed them without even a comment. Then we actually talked about one, and we had a good laugh about it. When the sixteenth (maybe it was the nineteenth... I started loosing track, but these people do NOT let up) came, we actually discussed it. We agreed that we had no desire to inflict that sort of pain on each other. I'd rather repaint the house in the midday heat of July. He'd rather sit through a ballet. In other words, it wasn't going to happen.

And then last week his mother found out. And in short order, she convinced him that he needed to go to Network With The Alumni.

So, because I'm such a supportive, understanding, got-your-back kind of wife, I am now commited to actually attending a 20th high school reunion. I can only be grateful he wants to network with his ex-classmates, and not mine.

I spent part of today staring into my closet. And realized I have nothing at all to wear to a cocktail reception on Friday night. I am going to be forced to buy a gown to wear (ahem. Golden Heart / Rita Award night, I got ya covered!). And because I have absolutely nothing to wear to a beachside evening cookout, I guess I'm going to have to break down and buy something for that too.

The things we do for love...

More Googley Goodness

2006-06-09T13:27:00.000-05:00

Google Spreadsheets.

So much in love with shiney new toys, it's unnatural. (Hey, that should be a slogan for something.)

Which is better

2006-06-06T21:31:00.000-05:00

Which is better... turning up in a google search for karen steele is dead or pictures womans sexy usa?

I think I'll take the sexy womans over the dead.

Bedtime. Not enough caffine in the world to keep me up tonight. Dream well!

Two eyes is too much beatifulissness

2006-06-06T12:52:00.000-05:00

Monday goals

2006-06-05T07:43:00.000-05:00

Goals for the week -
Clean the office. I've been writing in the library all weekend, and a three year old with markers, stickers, and scissors had an art-catastrophe on and around my desk. Yikes.

Finish Warrior's Mate. I was near 9,000 words (and they are mostly edited words - I can't write very well, but I'm learning to edit with the munchkin on my lap) when I shut down to go to bed last night. 2-3,000 more.

Finish spreadsheet for Krissy's Story; I want to finish the first draft by RWA in July. And it may be a Golden Heart submission.
***

Slept in this morning. Had a wacky schedule all weekend, with getting up at 4:30, naps, then up late because of the naps. Got quite a bit done, but woke up this morning asking myself "Is it really Monday already?"

Sean starts his new "schedule" this week. Mostly it's being down at Inside Golf by 10am every day, and staying until 7ish (one or two days he'll head out at 3). It works out great for him - with the laptop, he can take care of all his other work for the golf tournaments and football team. Just means we won't see much of him during the week - Monday he'll go straight from Inside Golf to the radio show, Tuesday and Thursday straight to trivia shows. Wednesday is the one day he'll be out early and come home - guess they'll be my favorite day of the week for a while!

Samantha starts her new "schedule" this week too. Tuesdays and Thursdays at a summer program in the mornings. Her cousin goes to this school, and they'll be in the same class, so she's been counting down the days since March.

Have you slid into your summer schedule yet?

Inside Golf in the news

2006-06-04T15:37:00.000-05:00

From today's Florida Times-Union :

The inside scoop on a cool round

New business brings golf to downtown area with simulators and air-conditioned comfort.

By GARRY SMITS, The Times-Union

Mary O'Donnell doesn't play golf, but she does know how
popular the sport is on the First Coast. She also was of the opinion
that activities in downtown Jacksonville were at a minimum, especially
during weekdays.

"Really, all there is to do is eat and drink,"
said the California native and former employee of the city planning
department. "The new library is certainly nice, but in most big cities,
there are a lot more things to do."

O'Donnell and Sean Steele, director of the American
Golf Tour of Jacksonville, have just added something to the downtown
mix. Last week, they launched Inside Golf, an indoor facility featuring
two computer simulators, two other netted hitting areas, an artificial
putting green and lounge area.

Inside Golf is located on the second floor of an office building at 140 W. Monroe St., near Hemming Plaza.

O'Donnell, the president of Inside Golf, and
Steele, the marketing director, are banking on the fact that more than
a few of the thousands of people who work downtown and play golf will
want to practice or play simulated games during their lunch hours or
just after getting off work. There will be beer, wine and soft drinks
available.

Future plans include merchandise such as golf
apparel and equipment and transportation offered to and from downtown
hotels and the convention center. It's possible to get in nine holes on
simulators within 30 minutes, and 18 holes within an hour. For now,
here's the price structure: $25 for a half-hour and $45 for an hour,
with membership packages available.

Inside Golf is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, and by appointment on the weekend.

"We want people to think of this as a virtual
country club," O'Donnell said. "From the golf to the lounge, we offer
many of the same things. The big difference is that they can play golf
in the air conditioning instead of the 90-degree heat."

Inside Golf has been more than nine months in the
planning, since O'Donnell got the idea. Steele came on board earlier
this year with the expertise of running his amateur tour.

"I think I've got a pretty good handle on what
golfers in this area like," Steele said. "We're just trying to give
them what they like an in indoor setting, close to where they work."

The two simulators are likely to be the biggest
draw for the facility. They're among the most realistic currently
available, with one featuring a series of fictional, animated courses
in mountains, seashores and even Scottish layouts. The other simulator
has animated versions of actual courses, such as Pebble Beach.

Using clubs provided by Inside Golf (more equipment
is coming from Lauden Golf) players hit balls off mats, with the swing
path and ball flight measured by sensors in the floor. The balls are
then projected onto the screen, and go flying down plush fairways, or,
in the case of mishits, into rough, water, sand and high grass - just
as in real golf.

After the ball comes to rest following each hit,
players receive information on the screen about how far their carry and
total distance, their clubhead and ball speed, and yardage remaining to
the hole. The simulators also provide ambient sound such as birds
chirping, wind blowing and the sound of balls hitting the water.

The most difficult aspect of playing in the simulators is the short game.

"It can be a little frustrating at first, but it
doesn't take long to get the hang of it," said Terry Wilkins, who tried
his hand last week. "But this is very realistic."

Of course, players have other options. They can hit
balls into a net or putt. The lounge, with easy chairs and a TV, offers
a break.

And the entire facility offers something more to do downtown than wining and dining - such as driving and putting.

A weekend of memories

2006-05-31T12:01:00.000-05:00

(While I was writing this, Sean called. He took the just-repaired laptop in to the office for the first time today. )
"I think something's wrong with the laptop." He sounds pretty calmn, how bad could it be?
"What's wrong?"
"I plugged it in and opened it up and got the green light to come on but the screen is staying black."

Hmm. Maybe he walked away and the screen saver came on? Maybe the loose connection is back to haunt us?

"Try closing the screen and opening it back up." That's what used to work when the connection was loose.

I hear him click it shut, then open it back up. "Nope, still black."

Hmm. What could it ... (*insert lightbulb flash*)

"You're sure you turned it on?"

I love my non-techie husband...
****************
This past weekend was one of those happy moments you don't want to let go of. A really long, three and a half day moment. So much that for the last two days I've held off writing about them, knowing that once I put the words down in past tense, they'll really be past. History. Finished.

But it's time to let them become history, and just hang on to the memories of good times. So here, in no particular order, are some good times from my last few days.

Sis, My Brother-In-Law (MBIL), and MBIL's son My Nephew (MBILS,MN) came to stay with us for the Memorial Day weekend. They drove straight through Thursday night, getting here in the 1amish hour Friday morning. Happy was hearing their voices out in the driveway "whispering" over who needed to carry in what bag.

More happiness was having the first bottle of red opened and the hot tub going on in the next 30 minutes. More happiness still was having Sean finally get home from Trivia and tracking down Chris, and sitting outside for hours talking and drinking our way through a second bottle.

Friday was one long happy, with our introduction to Pink Lemonade Margaritas** (recipe at the end), V-8 Pina Coladas (psst... I don't think MBIL knew he was drinking V-8), sunshine, laughter, and much food. And a cd mix titled, appropriately enough, Cheese. "Everybody was Kung Fu fighting!" Chocolate Chip Cheesecake for MBILS,MN. Outdoor movies at The Flag Pavillion with 2500 other people, and leaving after watching the cartoons and the opening credits to Jurassic Park Late night conversations. MBIL telling stories of Europe while Under The Influence of Hottub.

The beach, made happier by leaving the beach and jumping into the cold pool. Lunch by the pool. Afternoon naps. Cooking too much food to fit in the lowcountry boil pot. More wine, more food, more water. Sis and I making so much great dinner that absolutely no one had room for dessert. Serving MBIL's Birthday Pie in the hot tub anyway, singing and candle required.

Drinks by the river. Phantom of the Opera! Front row seats! Hot young conductor. An old man snoring through the first Act (happy in a snickering sort of way). Last minute birthday shopping with sis. No one being at my house an hour before the birthday party starts (including me!). Forgetting the ice and all but hanging up on mom (ok, that wasn't a particularly happy moment, but it was memorable!) Sis being the best co-cook ever. Cooking a kick ass dinner, and having a safe delay spot 20 minutes out of serving time (because this is my husbands family we're talking about as guests - punctuality is not a strong point). 12th birthday party for my son. Strawberry Cake, Strawberry Icing, Strawberry Ice Cream with the box butchered by an ice cream opening novice. Realizing at 11pm that 3 nights in a row with 4-5 hour sleeps are catching up with me. Sitting outside at midnight and realizing I wasn't going to make it to 1am...

BIL's Birthday Blueberry Pancake breakfast, and wishing it wasn't Leaving Day. Then a very quiet house, still echoing with memories of 3 days and 4 nights of laughter and love.

Hope your weekend was filled with memories of your own.

**Pink Lemonade Margarita Recipe.
(Yumm!)

1/4 cup Tequila
2 Tablespoons Orange Liquer (Triple Sec, Grand Marnier, Orange Napoleon, etc)
2 Tablespoons pink lemonade frozen concentrate
3/4 cup ice
2 Tablespoons Sprite (or equivalent)
Sliced Lemon to garnish

Mix first 5, pour into glass, garnish with lemon, drink.
Repeat as long as you can. I'm thinking, with 1/4 cup tequila and 4 Tablespoons mixer, it's not going to be that long.

(After I finished this, my non-techie husband called back.)

"OK, I've got it on, now how do I get online?"

"Look down at the bottom of the screen, there should be 4 or 5 icons - hover your cursor over them and tell me what they say."

"Ok." Slight pause while he figures out how to use the touch pad instead of a mouse. "The first one says Boomtown Wifi Network, Connected, Signal Strenght Very Good."

"It says you're connected?"

"Yes."

I cough to cover the giggle. "Ok. See the Mozilla icon on the start bar?"

"What's Mozilla?"

Another cough. "See the Internet Explorer icon? It looks like an 'E' down next to Start."

"Yes, I see that." He sounds puzzled.

"Click it." Pause while he clicks. "What happened?"

"A window opened and it says Google." I can hear the amazement in his voice. "That's it?"

"That's it."

"Thanks! Love you!"

"Love you too."

2006-05-29T15:56:00.000-05:00

Enslave Me Sweetly by Gena Showalter

She has the heart of a killer, and the body of an angel. . .

Eden Black walks among humans, protecting them from the murderous evil of other-worlders who abduct and enslave. And though she appears to be human herself, Eden is an alien, a Raka, distinguished by her golden hair and skin, and gifted with the ominous ability to kill without remorse – and with total accuracy. That is, until the fateful night she has one shot to eliminate her target, a human slaver – and misses.

“Failure” is not in Eden’s vocabulary. Neither is “partner” – but that’s what she is forcibly assigned after recovering from her disastrous mission. A sexy, steely-nerved human agent, Lucius Adaire enjoys nothing more than sparking the fury – and rousing the desire – of the fiery female assassin to proud to admit defeat. Locked in an assignment they cannot afford to lose, Lucius and Eden find themselves bound in two high-stakes, heart-pounding games: the dangerous web of kill or be killed, and the erotic dance of seduction. . .

Showalter first demonstrated her skill at blending sizzling romance and nail-biting suspense set in a convincing futuristic society in Awaken Me Darkly (2005). She now continues the roller-coaster-like adventure in an equally entertaining tale that will please a wide cross section of readers. *Starred Review* Booklist.

Order your copy from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or BooksAMillion.

For more information, visit Gena’s website at http://www.genashowalter.com and her blog at http://www.genashowalter.blogspot.com

Ooops

2006-05-23T07:51:00.000-05:00

Left the water sprinkler running all night. Sean got back from his radio show about midnight, did his usual half ass park on the curb / in the grass, and tore up the turf all along the roadway. Blech.
But at least he turned the sprinkler off on his way in.

Bragging moment

2006-05-22T13:18:00.000-05:00

Sean just called from the school - he'd gone to check out Montgomery a few minutes early, since he was downtown by the school.

Two teachers came out in the hall and stopped him and told him that our only baby boy (ahem) received perfect scores on all sections of the FCAT testing. For friends not in Florida - this is the state standardized testing. These scores are used to judge the job the school is doing teaching, and how well the kids are learning. Last year, only 16 students out of all grades (approx 129,000 students) received perfect scores on both sections. It's a very big deal ;)

He goes to a great school - it's a magnet program with a gifted program for technology and science students. And right now, I'm about as proud as I can be of what he's accomplished this year.

Critique me!

2006-05-19T11:12:00.000-05:00

I was taking an early lunch break, and reading through my Bloglines to catch up on messages. And what did I see over at The Knight Agency blog?

Friday, May 19, 2006

Winner of the Critique

Thank you to everyone who posted their questions and thoughts on a TKA message board! These responses are really going to help us push forward successfully with our many ideas.

Now, the answer you have all been waiting for...

*Drum Roll Please*

The winner of the free critique...

Karen of Neptune Beach FL

*applause*

Congratulations! Thanks again to everyone for their participation!

I'm just a whee bit excited!
Going to polish the first chapter of Warrior's Mate tomorrow and have it ready to send next week!

28 hours and counting

2006-05-16T15:35:00.000-05:00

Yikes, half of May has slid away. That's ok - the best part is still to come :)

The kids have 7 more days of school before vacation starts. That's 28 more hours of childlessness (Samantha only goes from 9-1). Not that I'm counting.

Sis will be here for a visit in 10 days! Phantom of the Opera is in 12 days! Son turns 12 in 14 days! Nope, not counting.

Mother's Day was a lot of fun - Sean was able to be home in time for dinner, and we had his Mom and Dad, and his sis, BIL, and their daughter over for a late dinner. Three moms in the house, and guess who had their feet up watching golf while dinner was cooked? Men! Not complaining though - I know what to expect from the men in this house, so I planned an easy menu. Was a great night. And did I mention Sean was able to be home in time for dinner? Made my day. Samantha gave me a bead bracelet she made in preschool; Montgomery managed to forget it was Mother's Day, even though I told him all day that we were having people over for dinner. That's my son!

The new cord to the mosquito magnet finally came yesterday, so we're slowly sucking all the nasty little swarmy bugs from the neighborhood into the pit of doom once again. Sooooo nice to be able to leave the back door open, especially with the weather dipping into the 60's today!

Jim and Ali kept Samantha last night. No special reason; she just called me yesterday and said "Would you like me to keep her?" I was unnaturally happy to have this happen. Sean took Montgomery to school this am too, so I was able to go back to bed at 6:30 and sleep until 8:30 for the first time in ... ages. This would have been a great thing, except my sleep was haunted by a 2 hour dream in which I kept trying to tell Sean he had to get Montgomery to school, and he insisted it was more important that he teach our 11 year old son how to shave. Think I'm having issues with my son almost being a teenager? Nah....

Close to wrapping up Warrior's Mate. Ignore the word count in the sidebar... I haven't had time to update it in a week. Hope to have this one done before sis gets here. Ten days, and (not) counting!

Books, bugs, birthdays - Today's post is brought to you by the letter B

2006-05-13T10:37:00.000-05:00

Just a few random notes before I run out for a day of errand running, hopefully puncuated by pizza and Beer.

Books -
Read The Perfect Weapon by Amy J Fetzer a few days ago. I picked this one for my May TBR book over a Brianna's Mommy. Had to let this one perc for a few days while I decided if I liked it lots, or just liked it. The problem was that I loved, loved, loved The Naked Truth. Fast paced, great hero and heroine, really well done dialogue. Once I picked it up I could not put it down. And the blurb for TPW made it sound just as great, so I rushed out ('k, if two weeks later is rushing) and got it to read. And it wasn't as good. My biggest complaint? There were frequent scene breaks, almost every two pages. Quite a few times there would be two scene breaks on the same page. I just could not get into the book, since every time I was sinking into a scene I was yanked out and put in someone elses head, or thrown out of that scene altogether and put in another one. The book itself was good besides this one flaw; but it made it impossible for me to just roll with it. I kept shaking my head asking myself "why... why???" Note to self - scenes need to be more than 300 words average length.
Breakdown :
Title: The Perfect Weapon
Author: Amy J Fetzer
Year published: 2006
Why did you get this book? I loved The Naked Truth
Do you like the cover? Yep
Did you enjoy the book? Yep
Was the author new to you and would you read something by this author again? Not new, will look for her books again
Are you keeping it or passing it on? I'd loan it to one or two friends, but it's a keeper
Anything else? I hope her next book doesn't have quite as many scene changes

Read Urban Shaman, by CE Murphy. This book has been really talked up on a lot of blogs and authors forums lately, so I expected to love it. Maybe I expected it too much - I liked it, but not it was not love for me. I guess part of it was my expectations. I thought it would be a romance. Everyone I heard raving on this book is a romance writer. This book has no romance. There is a hint of romantic intrest - with her boss - and this looks to be the first book of a series, so maybe we'll get romance in the next one. But... it's her boss. They're cops. That's just a big ick to me. Partners, ok, but I don't like the boss / subordinate romance potential. And then, it was in first person. I'm really not a fan of first person; a few authors do it well enough I don't notice. This one was close, except for the first 70 pages or so. They needed to be about 20 pages long. There was so much first person I'm Having A Terrible Horrible No Good Day there, I almost gave up. Luckily the action finally did kick in, and then I couldn't put the book down.

Neither of these were bad books. They're just examples of what makes a book not work for me. Other people have read and loved both these books, so take my comments as just that - mine.

Bugs - my mosquito magnet is still not working. I ordered the power cord, and a replacement octonaol pack, at the same time. The octonal came in 2 days; it does me no good with no power cord. My back yard is a swarming mass of blood sucking fiends until the cord gets here.

Birthdays - Montgomery's 12th is coming up at the end of the month. It just hit me a few days ago that this will be his last "childhood" birthday. Next year he'll be in his teens. I want to do something special, but he's already To Cool For Mom most of the time. I'm a bit stuck on ideas here. He doesn't want to have friends over, doesn't want to go to Orlando, doesn't want to do much of anything. Except get presents (money, video games and more video games) and have cake. In that order.

Any suggestions? I'm open to just about anything!

I hope you dance

2006-05-10T20:23:00.000-05:00

Weekend wrapup

2006-05-07T19:37:00.000-05:00

It's closing on nine pm on Sunday night, the end to another weekend.

I think the weekends have become the adult version of summer. Remember that feeling when the bell rang signaling the beginning of summer? And it would stretch ahead of you , full of promises of lazy days, late nights, no responsibility and endless days and nights to do all you dreamed of doing? Then in a blink of an eye it was August, and school was calling you back.

So the weekend is gone. Lot's of yays, a few ughs.

The worst ugh was looking out back today and seeing the termites swarming - in May!! Termites here usually swarm in late Feb or early March. I spent almost 20 minutes in the yard trying to track them to the swarm point, and finally lost the trail at our NW property line. They may be coming from the backside of our shed (not a great loss - the previous owners built it as a gardening shed, but it's always been one strong wind shy of collapse); I think they're more likely coming from one of the houses west of us. Or even from a dead stump in their backyard.

On the yay! side, I'm happy with what I wrote this weekend. Fell short of 1000 words a day, but I'm sitting at 2700 and know exactly where it's going. Still on track for hitting 15,0000 words by midmonth. That's as much as I can ask for.

Also yay! the tickets came to Phantom of the Opera. Front row. With sis. End of the month. I can't wait. It will be my second live performance, and her (5th? help me out here) - well, more than second. But the music, the costumes, the sets, the story... I can't wait to see it again.

I had more to write about tonight, but the kid's cold finally caught up with me and it's kicking my butt. Going to pop a few cold pills and snuggle up with the honey to watch Soprano's...

Hope your weekend had more yay's than boo's!

Mosquito magnet killer to General Manager

2006-05-04T08:30:00.000-05:00

Mosquito season is here. I wasn't really thinking about it, beyond filling the propane tank on the Mosquito Magnet a month ago. (*Mosquito Magnet - bug killer on propane steroids. Quietly efficient, it keeps our backyard amazingly mosquito free. Quite a feat, since we live about 200 yards off the marsh.)

Then yesterday, my darling husband bought a lawnmower. After over 13 years of having our yard sporadically cut by a friend with a lawn service, he finally caved in to the knee high growth and decided to take care of it himself.

If you know my husband, your jaw probably hit the floor. Mr Home Improvement he isn't. Of the two of us, I'm the fixer-uper, and that's a scary thought. It's also the reason that the week before we have company come to stay we spend hours and hours frantically running around with hammers and nail guns, trying to prop up things that are droopy and cover up things that are broken. But anyway.

Took him 2 hours to put the mower together. Then he had to go buy a gas can. Then after 15 minutes of staring at the can, he asked me how to attach the pour spout to the top. Then he started mowing the grass.

Five minutes later I decided to take a picture. He just looked so cute. My man, cutting grass.

And then he turned to me (that's when I took his picture... see that "oh shit" grin on his face?) and said "Did that black power cord running across the sidewalk go to something important?"

That black power cord, of course, went to the mosquito magnet. The only thing standing between a summer of outdoor fun, and a summer of curses as the bloodthirsty hordes chase us inside until November.

"Idiot." That was the nicest thing that came out of my mouth. Of course I had to yell it, since the lawn mower was running. Any neighbors who were outside now have a wonderful opinion of my man.

Luckily for him, the day did get better. There's a new football league in town, and without going into way To Much Information about minor league football, last night they offered him a position as General Manager. Yay! I think this makes job number 6 (I've got to count - I can't keep track - Golf Tournament Co-ordinator; Tennant Printing sales; Radio Show Host; Trivia Host; Inside Golf sales manager; yes, this is number 6, General Manager of the Jacksonville Bobcats).

He thought about it for all of about 2 minutes. I guess he realized he had no future in yard maintenance, so he'd better find something to keep him out of the house more often...

Fun with Slideshows

2006-05-01T14:48:00.000-05:00

Thank you Sylvia Day for today's "Things I spent 10 minutes on when I should have been working" update :

Click me! (It's a picture slide show; very neat, and I can't wait to have more time into making one as neat as her's is!)

Busy, sleepy Mondays

2006-05-01T09:40:00.000-05:00

That was Samantha on Saturday afternoon. That's pretty much how I feel today, except there's no nap in my schedule for today.

It was a great weekend, just a very long one. Friday night my sister-in-law had her premier art show at Shelby's, a coffee shop in Neptune Beach. I don't know enough about art to classify what she paints (modern maybe?) - maybe someone else can title it for me.

We had a great time, and since it wasn't in a formal gallery we took the kids and let them dance and play out in the courtyard. Which means they had a great time, and they were nice and tired by the time we left. There was a wonderful band out there, and the weather was gorgous. A nice night for sitting outside and having a drink, which I also did while the kids were doing their dancing thing.

Saturday Samantha was up by 6. It was yard work day, but I convinced myself it was going to rain and skimped over all but the major stuff - blowing off the patio with my new leaf blower (vroom vroom) and cleaning the pool. Let Samantha swim for a bit, then took the kids out for a movie and dinner, since it was going to rain so they couldn't play outside. Except it never did rain... ah well. By six I was curled up with a good book. It was too good really - I ended up picking up the sequal (ebooks baby - no need to run to the store to grab the next in a series, just log on and download it!) and reading it as well. Turned my early night into a very, very late one.

Sunday I was wiped out from my late night and Samantha's usual pre-6am wakeup. Tried to get some writing done in the morning, but Samantha was in no mood to give me peace. "Mommy. Mommy. Mommy. MOMMY!" So we baked bannana bread and cleaned house, while I tried to convince her that 71 degrees and no sun is too cool to swim in. She never did believe me, but I finally distracted her with Cinderella. For a bit, anyway.

The weekend slipped by, and now we're back at Monday. Sean is headed home from his long weekend even as I write this, ready to hand me 340 score cards to be entered online. That should keep my busy... Later this week we have to start laying out our next project - writing the media guide for the Jacksonville Bobcats. I wonder if that counts for a writing credential?

Weekend to-do

2006-04-28T08:41:00.000-05:00

Things to try to squeeze into the next 3 days (including today)
1 - write the last 4 scenes for Secrets of Desire. That should get me at 25,000 words (I've been hovering at 18,000 for the last week as I chop and add - err, edit - the original). I want it done by May 1 so I can work on something for the Dorchester American Title III contest. Deadline is June 1 - not sure I'll have it done by then, but I'm going to try.

2 - Yard work, and more yard work. 'nuff said

3 - Chat online tonight at Romance Divas, with Beth Orsoff. If you've ever wondered about books to movie rights, pop in and see what she can teach you.

4 - Sleep. Samantha has skipped nap, swam herself to a 6:30 exhaustion passout, then been up at 4am the last 3 mornings. I can't keep up with her much longer....

Calgon! Take me away!

Tagged I am

2006-04-26T18:53:00.000-05:00

Elisa is spreading the love (hey, not that kind of love!) with the tags today. So, here we go... 6 things about me.

1 - I love chocolate. The taste, the smell, the feel of it sliding down my throat. I didn't like chocolate all that much until about 6 months through my first pregnancy, and then wham! those hormones kicked in and they never really stopped. Hormones 1, Karen 0.

2 - I like rain. I also like snow, and clouds, and thunderstorms, and even the occasional severe weather warning gets me all excited. Not quite as much as chocolate though. Sunny days get old after about 30 minutes, but give me some good meteorological disturbance and I'm a happy camper. (Not literally; if I ever camp I do want sunny weather. So that was a terrible metaphor.)

3 - I don't like judgemental people. Which is rather judgemental of me.

4 - I had to get a brake job today, and it cost more than the new lawn mower and the hot tub repairs combined. So the new lawn mower and the hot tub repairs are being put off til May.

5 - I'll read anything from cereal boxes to war and peace. But if you come to my house and see a book in the bathroom, and a week later that same book is in the bathroom, it's probably not a book I'm liking very much. It's a desperation book. "Hey, there is absolutely nothing else to read - I'll carry this in here with me, but not bother to carry it out with me when I leave." If you come to my house and find YOUR book in my bathroom, don't pout to much - I do eventually finish the books in there. It just takes a while.

6 - I'm not so big on talking about me, so #5 was probably in the category of TMI (To Much Information). Aren't you glad I'm done?

So I'm ~~torturing~~ tagging Deborah, Annalee, Laine, Shawn, Zinnia, Lauren, and Carla. Last 6 posters here. (See, you DO get noticed when you comment!)

What does this picture say to you?

2006-04-23T11:26:00.000-05:00

View from my window 1
Originally uploaded by ksteele2.

1 - Someone really needs to clean her windows.

2 - Why are you inside doing dishes on a beautiful day like that?

3 - are those two lizards on the inside of the screen or the outside?

They were on the inside. We seem to be having a lizard population explosion this spring. My non-scientific theory is that the warm winter (we never got a freeze at the beach), and early spring (hello - 90 in early April?) has the lizards reproduction in hyperdrive. The babies, which are usually only an inch long this time of year, are already 2 inches and some of them longer.

It's not unusaual to have lizards on the outside my kitchen screen - that wall gets the afternoon sun, so there are sometimes a dozen or more running around on it. But usually only one or two a season find their way through the tiny gap at the top to the inside.

Guess that picture is saying something else to me...

4 - It's time to get a new kitchen screen.

Friday's are for relaxing

2006-04-21T17:49:00.000-05:00

Feel like I was more productive today than I've been in weeks. Probably has something to do with seeing Samantha laughing and splashing in the pool (brrr... water is still only 73 degrees... not warm enough for me!). Or with the yard and patio being watered, blown free of leaves, and looking GOOD for the first time since last fall (only took 2 hours and a trip to Wally's for a leaf blower and 2 dozen bags). Or with the kids being mostly happy - thank you Papa John's. Or with the two rum and oj's I drank with / after the pizza.

Probably it mostly has to do with the rum and oj's. But I'm ok with that.

Sean's out of town for golf tournaments, so my weekend will be more yard work, paperwork, and probably a few hours driving Montgomery way across town to work on a school project he sprung on me at 3 this afternoon. He goes to a great school, but the kids are pulled from all over a city that is 840 square miles. We live on the east edge of that, the other two kids are on the west edge of that. Makes for some long commutes when they have to get together.

We're getting the hot tub fixed (it needs a new pump) in early May. Sitting here looking at it now, wishing it was working... Think it will be a bubble bath night after Samantha is in bed.

So that's my relaxing Friday. Hope yours was too!

Happy Wednesday

2006-04-19T08:43:00.000-05:00

Just popped over to the Writer Babes blog, and found out I am a random winner of a book download, Enforcer by Lauren Dane. Lauren did a chat with us at Romance Divas a few weeks ago, so I'm looking forward to this one - I love reading books by authors I've met, either in person or online.

Thanks Lauren! Can't wait to read it.

When Dell met Alienware

2006-04-18T18:01:00.000-05:00

Yumm.

Link.

"Dell tips its hat toward its new acquisition, Alienware, as it releases its XPS M1710 Gaming Laptop. Available in Formula Red or Metallic Black, it's packed with an Intel Core Duo processor, NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GTX 512MB graphics, 4GB of RAM, SerialATA hard disk and a 17-inch 1600x1200 display.
Doesn't look too bad, either. Heck, it even has a backlit touchpad. Nice. Pricing starts at $2600, $3400 loaded.[Dell]"

Billy Crystal (Harry):There are two kinds of women: high maintenance and low maintenance.

Meg Ryan (Sally): Which one am I?

Billy Crystal (Harry): You're the worst kind. You're high maintenance but you think you're low maintenance.

Whenever I start to drool over something like this, I realize I'm high-maintenance wannabe. I don't expect to ever have that particular laptop sitting on my ... well, my lap. But damnnnn. It sure would be nice!

So how about you? Low maintenance, hight maintenance, or just a wannabe?

Easter Happiness

2006-04-16T05:06:00.000-05:00

Happy Easter to you!

I had my easter goodie waiting for me when I woke up this morning. An email, from the Stroke of Midnight contest, notifying me that I am a finalist in the paranormal / FSFF (that's futuristic/sci-fi/fantasy ) division. Yay!! Winners to be announced in Atlanta this July.

This is the werewolf story that I had let gather dust since entering it. Lucky they only need a hard copy of the entry itself, not the entire ms, by Monday!

Hope your Easter contains lots of love, laughter, and at least one moment to remember with happiness the rest of your life.

The view from Buckets

2006-04-14T15:43:00.000-05:00

The view from Buckets
Originally uploaded by ksteele2.

Days like today are why we live near the beach, even though neither hubby or I are beachy people. Give me a clear pool over murky water and jellyfish anyday.

Buckets just reopened after closing for three months to remodel, so this was my first time back. We got there just before noon and were one of only a dozen tables, but by the time we left the crowd was starting to line up at the door.

It was just under 80 when we got there, and Buckets had all their walls open. (It's a newish decorating style here for restaurants - they put garage doors where the walls would be, and roll them up on pretty days - which is most of the year from March to October. Makes pretty much an open air restaurant.)

The fence keeps people from walking straight in to the restaurant off the boardwalk, but there was a steady flow of bikini clad babes and droopy trunked boys (most of the "babes" and "boys" were in their teens) flaunting their already sunkissed flesh. With the schools closed for Good Friday, it seems most of the city hit the beach today. Just over the sand dune, lies the sand and surf.

The food was good, not great. Very average food actually - wings, burgers, salads. Shrimp, oysters, and crawfish. Full bar if you want a drink. What we got all came out well prepared, if unimaginative. To give them credit, for a beach front restaurant where you're paying less than $10 a person, well cooked in a great atmosphere is about the best you can ask for. And they do that very well.

I miss First Street Grill (our old 'sunny days are here' lunch break). It's sad to see the condos going up where there used to be the best restaurant at the beach - great views, AND great food. But Buckets does have one thing First Street didn't - boardwalk views. The boardwalk offers a chance to see all of mankind, and all of his beauty - and warts - without leaving the comfort of your dining seat.

But to the man who walked by picking his oversized nose, and to the woman who walked by right behind him in her undersized shirt (complete with black bra hanging out the sides) - I'd really prefer to see less of your warts, so up close and personal to my lunch.

Looking at the squishy thing.

2006-04-14T08:45:00.000-05:00

Looking at the squishy thing.
Originally uploaded by ksteele2.

Almost Easter

2006-04-13T11:19:00.000-05:00

It's almost Easter - just a few days away. I spent the morning trying to decide what the kiddies were going to find in their baskets this morning. What happened to the days when you threw in some jelly beans and a chocolate bunny, a few peeps, some malted eggs, a Reeses peanut butter egg or three, and called it a day?

Oh no. Not anymore. Now, even Easter has to be healthy. But not too healthy. Because lets face it, an easter basket with no candy at all isn't much of a basket when you're 11. Or 3.

It took me almost an hour, but I finally found just the right balance of candy treats and non-candy treats to say "Happy Easter". And hopefully, it also says "I love you so much I wanted you to have a few sweet treats because I know you love them, but don't smuggle them into your bedroom when I'm not looking and eat them all after bedtime." And definately, I hope it says "brush your teeth after you eat them". A movie each, sunglasses, Barbie hair sets and Yu-Gi-Oh cards for the appropriate munchkin. One small chocolate bunny each, one Reeses egg each, and one handful of loose candy each.

We'll color eggs on Saturday (which the Easter Bunny will ignore in favor of hiding penny stuffed plastic ones, since he evidently comes so early in the night he worries that the eggs would go bad). And we'll have dinner at the in-laws Sunday night, not without the usual serving of family strife and drama (this year, it was my husbands lack of intrest in family dinners that instigated the angst - go figure!). And on Monday we all get a day to recover - no school for the kids, and I've cleared my calendar of work as well. Happy Easter to us!

So what kind of goodies will be in your baskets this year?

Fan Faire Atlanta pictures

2006-04-10T10:22:00.000-05:00

Fan Faire Atlanta pictures
or, Geeks at play.

I was, for several years, a pretty 'serious' gamer. I don't think I watched tv at all from 2001-2004 (Buffy excepted), unless it was during dinner or while I was working / gaming. Good times, good times... but eventually, staying up til 2am to kill another dragon got to me. Because you know, that dragon was just going to pop up alive again the next day. Or five days later, depending on his spawn cycle. Anywho.

I don't game much at all anymore (and yes, the verb is game, not play - gamers don't really take themselves casually enough to describe what they do as play). EQ, EQ2, and several other games are still installed on my pc, but I haven't logged on in months. I found out a funny thing about myself - I'm much too competitive to "play". If I can't be the best, I really don't want to be in that other world. Logging in for 30 minutes between finishing work and picking up the kids wasn't making me happy at all.

I still have some great friends that I met through gaming though. Some of them were/are guild mates. (For the non gamers, a 'guild' is an online family. And you wouldn't believe how closely you feel, how well you know someone you've spent 14 hours clearing VT with until you've done it yourself. Shard farming, anyone?) Some of them are people I met while I ran a fan site myself. But the really cool thing that hit me while I looked over these pictures was how the parts of my life have overlapped.

This is the same hotel that RWA is holding their conference at this summer. So while I skipped Fan Faire, I'm eagerly looking forward to spending 5 days in July listening to workshops in these same rooms, and drinking a few refreshments in these same bars. If only they'd have that same game room set up, I'd be in heaven...

Thanks for the pictures Merry. Hope my conference is as fun as your faire!
Karen
member of Relic, guild of Unrest

Summer registration

2006-04-07T09:00:00.000-05:00

Went to register Samantha for the summer session at preschool today. Had the shocking news that they only have space on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Rah-roh.

So there will likely be much more mommy time this summer than I had originally planned on. Since every sentance out of her mouth these days starts with the two words "Mommy, why..." this could be a painful period of adjustment for the two of us. For me, while I learn to take a deep breath before explaining why we have to drive on the roads instead of on the sidewalks. Again. For her, to understand that mommy loves you even if she sometimes doesn't want to answer 1,512 questions before breakfast.

National Tartan Day! and Conversatons about God

2006-04-06T17:16:00.000-05:00

It's Natioanl Tartan Day!
I'm not sure why this makes me so happy. I don't claim a family tartan; my only experiences with wearing tartan involved generally icky school uniforms.

Of course pictures like this may have something to do with it...

Conversations with a 3 year old.
I'm driving home from grocery shopping with Samantha today, and she's humming some little happy happy song in the backseat. Not really paying attention to what it is, but I'm happy because she's happy, and then out of no-where-land comes the question "God makes the flowers grow, right Mommy?"

Being happily non-commital on others views of religion (as long as these hypothetical other people aren't imposing their unwelcome views on others), I was temporarily stumped on how to handle this query. In the knick of time came an NPR news brief on happenings in Washington today, inspiring me to do as the politicians do - don't answer the question, redirect! "Did Mrs. L teach you that?" (Mrs. L is her very sweet, likely Methodist pre-school teacher. Lovely woman.)

Sending my child to a Methodist preschool, I probably should have been ready for questions like this, but my son escaped his 3 years of Methodist preschool blissfully uninspired to question me.

"Yes. And she said God makes the rain fall. Does God make the rainfall Mommy?"

Oh boy. Now, this same teacher has given lovely lessons this year on planting seeds, zoology, insects, and rainbows. All of these lessons involved actual science, at an appropriate preschool level. So how do I tell her that no, it's not so much God making the flowers grow and the rain fall as it is the forces of nature at work?

"Did Mrs. L teach you that too?"

"No. That was Miss B." She hums a few bars of the same song as before. "But I can't remember the other two parts. Only the flowers and the rain."

Suddenly it clicks for me. "Samantha, is there a song about God making the flowers grow and the rain fall?"

"Yes Mommy. What's the rest of it?"

Whew. Theological crisis averted. It's all just a song. A song that makes me cringe with it's less than correct message, but as long as it's just a song I can live with it.

But next time my baby asks me if God made the flowers, I'm going to have to have a better answer ready. Hope she gives me a year or two to think about it. Three would be better... I could tell her to "google it".

30 boxes

2006-04-04T10:49:00.000-05:00

Someone sent me a link to a nice web based calendar. I played around a few minutes today, and it has some possibilities.

30 boxes

I don't like that it won't give me a mini-calendar badge to put in a web template, which would then show a month-at-a-glance. It will generate a month list, but ... it doesn't LOOK like a calendar.

It would work great for people who need to share a calendar and want to be able to see who's doing what/when. I can't get Sean to even make a schedule; the chances of him making one, writing the information down, and then actually keeping with it are ... Nil.

My search for the perfect online calendar continues...

Monday morning notes, delayed til Monday afternoon

2006-04-03T11:32:00.000-05:00

It's National Library Week (April 2-8) - take the time to love a book.

My busy weekend - writers conference, getting Sean packed and organized for both a tournament and an overnight trip last night - had me sleep deprived. I crawled back in bed this morning. Good timing I found out, since it's also National Nap Day. Yay for naps, and sisters who recomend them.

Eighty two degrees here in April feels so good. Another few weeks and we'll be in the 90's, and I'll be ready for fall... If only we could skip the broiling months of summer. And the hurricane season.

After a year with ESPN, Sean and Chris ended their contract and have moved to 1010 here locally. They're excited about the move for several reasons - come fall, 1010 is putting up a much larger tower, and the signal strength will be literally 25 times what it was at ESPN. So their show will be heard in a much larger market. They're also looking forward to bigger support from the station for big events - with ESPN, they were forced to do their own work 100 percent on getting credintials, and had no station support. To many bigger fish in the pond. The show will still be Monday's, moving up one hour (6-8pm instead of 7-9). You can listen online at their website. This happened pretty quick, so the station site isn't set up with any promo's yet, but we're hoping to get that going over the next week weeks.

FCRW Conference

2006-04-02T06:58:00.000-05:00

Back from my first writers conference... here are the details. Warning - long post ahead!

Friday night was an introduction dinner, followed by a panel and Q&A with the 2 editors and 2 agents who would be with us for the weekend. There were between 50 and 60 people there for the dinner, and it was a great time to say hi and meet the people around you. I had the good fortune to blindly sit next to Carla Swafford, president of the Southern Magic (Birmingham) chapeter of RWA. Wonderful person, and we talked a bit about the Birmingham area and what we write. She was a finalist in the Beacon (the writing contest that goes along with this conference) - good luck Carla! Also at my table was a woman named Catherine, who had just found out about the conference through Sisters in Crime - I've never checked their website out, but she was quietly intrested in everything going on.

Met a woman named Ellen who lives only a few miles away from me, and we chatted about local coffee shops, shopping, and living at the beach. One published local author, and her agent (Caryn Johnson, who was one of our weekend agent guests) also sat with us. Another member of the local chapter, then Mardis, agent from NCP, filled out our table.

Short Q&A pannel after dinner with Madris (New Concepts), Caryn (Firebrand), Vivian Beck (Vivian Beck Agency), and Melissa Jeglinski of Silhouette. Melissa was very warm and down to earth - somehow I had pictured her as this powerhouse take charge woman, and although she definately had an air of self confidence, she was also the most approachable of the four. If I were to pick one to sit down with at a bar, not knowing who they were, she would be it. Caryn was very funny. Sharp, witty, a bit of New York in her speech patterns - quick and to the point. Vivian was more slow and thoughtful in her resonses, but came accross pretty much exactly as in her chat here last week. "Write a good story that wows the readers, and you'll find an agent / editor". She's from the south and has a slow, thoughtful way of speaking. And Madris was also very southern... detailed, open, and thorough in her responses.

Joan Johnson is the Keynote speaker, and she said hi briefly. The comment of the night that stuck in my head was when Melissa was talking about how profitable it can be writing for Silhouette. (The conversation was about authors making the break from category to mainstream fiction.) Joan (commenting from the audience) said "I haven't written a book for Silhouette in 10 years, and I made still $150,000 from them last year." That will perk your ears right up...

Saturday morning started off with a worksop by Joan Johnston on "Writing the Unputdownable Novel" at 9. Great tips and information. There were only about two dozen people there for it - quite a few of the people who stayed at the Marriott for the night had made very good use of the networking time, and had ... ahem... fun after the workshop ended Friday night. Those of us that made it to the workshop had a great hour!

At 10, there were two different workshops available, so we had to choose. I picked a POV workshop being given by Tracy Montoya, and brushed up my skills. She was very sweet in person - gave a great workshop in spite of having been given "the plague" by her husband. She sat down next to me for the following workshop, and I had a chance to once again rub elbows with the published.

I picked an editing workshop at 11, which ended up being almost directly quoted from a book I've already read. I hit the coffee table a few times during this one.

Lunch was actually really good! Buffet style, and the food much better than the night before. Carla, Catherine, Anita, Ellen and I shared a table again - this time Vivian Beck (the other guest agent of the weekend) and Melissa (from Silhouette) joined us. We had quite a long table talk about the south, since there were so many true southerners there (Georgia / Alabama / South Carolina) - and that somehow evolved into a discussion of sheep farming ... and all I've got to say is, if you ever raise sheep, you should evidently dock their tails. That's all I've got to say about that.

There was a book sale the hour after lunch, and a book signing as well, but I took the time to go to a quiet corner with my cup of coffee and prepare my pitch. I was starting out the afternoon with a pitch to Madris of New Concepts Publishing. Either I was over prepped or she was trying to hurry things along; when I finished in two minutes she didn't have any questions at all, but asked to see the full manuscript. Yay!

Since the pitch went so smoothly and quickly, I was able to make it to a 2:30 workshop. This was the only one of the day where I really wanted to go to both workshops, so had to make a decision. I think I choose wisely - the plotting workshop talked about several things I've had problems with (that "sagging middle", the middle part of a book, especially), and I think I got a lot out of it.

And then the last workshop I went to was a panel on Sexual Tension. Four very different authors (Christian / Inspirational, Suspense / YA, Historical, Erotic Romance) gave us a update on how sexual tension is handled in the different genres. And yes, there needs to be sexual tension, not just sex, in erotic romance! Great talk, and we were able to ask questions at the end, so pretty much anything we wanted was there for us.

That was the end of the workshops, and my first conference was wrapping up. Except... raffles! There were a ton of gorgous baskets donated by authors and agents, and a whole table with critique offers by authors / agents / editors as well. I had gone light with the raffles, only buying 5 tickets at first - then two more right before the end, when I saw two more critiques that I wanted a chance at. And I ended up with 2 out of 7 winning! I can't say for sure if it was the last two tickets I bought or not, but anyway... I won twice!

Marianne LaCroix will be critiquing my first 25 pages. And Jaci Burton will be critiquing my synopsis and first 3 chapters! I met Marianne at the conference - she's a wonderful person, and I can't wait for her to read something I'm targeting to Ellora's Cave, since she writes for them. Jaci I haven't met in person, only online - she was a guest at a chat a few weeks ago, and I had several emails with her while setting that up. Another great author I'm happy to have read my work soon.

So that is the bare bones of the conference. I loved meeting some fellow writers, both pub and pre-pubbed. Hearing about some of the other's struggles made me feel a lot better about my own. Hearing about their sucesses inspired me - I've got so much I want to get done this year, and feel all worked up and ready to tackle it.

I'm more excited than ever about Atlanta, and made plans with a few people I met to hook up and compare notes on what we get done between now and then. And my biggest goal, reinforced from the weekend, is to have something ready to pitch at Nationals to Silhouette.

So that's what happened at my first writers conference! How was your weekend?

The Peter Potty : Training Urinal

2006-03-29T18:50:00.000-05:00

I don't know why this made me laugh. Maybe because this boy is just so darn proud of his potty :

From Gizmodo :

Why is it that all those potty training toilets for our sons are of
the sit-down variety? Because women control the world, and are biased
against men who mark their territory around the toilet while stand-up
peeing. Well, boys, no longer will your son have to suffer the
indignity of peeing like a girlie. Meet the Peter Potty, the toddler
urinal. It even has a flush system—fill
the top reservoir with water and empty it from a tray on the bottom.
Which is useful, assuming your two-year-old can pull down his pants and
undies, grab his wee-wee and manage to get any of his pee into the
basin without being distracted by the Wizmark Interactive Urinal Communicator you put in the there for fun.

According to its creators, "The PeterPotty is proven to reduce the
potty training age for boys by an average of six months..." While the
website does not provide any research proving this claim, it's sure to
be related to the confidence your son will gain by learning to pee all
over the floor and toddle away from his mess without looking back. It's
never too early to teach him that cleaning the toilet is a job best
left for his sister, mother or maid. The Peter Potty is available from
major retailers for between $39.99 and $49.99.

March 29??

2006-03-29T09:53:00.000-05:00

I looked at my calendar this morning and had to do a double take. Only two days left in March? What the hell did I do all month?

Most of it seems to have disappeared into the black hole where my memory should be. (Heaven help me if Alzheimer's every sets in... I already don't have a lot of memory to loose!) I know there was work, and a trip to see my family, and more work. And lots of busy days and nights. But the details of it? Whoosh. Gone. Good thing I have this journal to remind me of at least some of it...

Busy end of the month coming up. The usual work stuff, and then - my first writer's conference. The First Coast Romance Writers conference is Friday and Saturday, only about a 20 minute drive from here. I went back and forth about going... I am not a member of the local chapeter, so I won't know ... anyone? Although I've chatted with some of the members online, so I do hope to meet some of them there. And there are a few great workshops set up. Last week I finally decided to go - then, as soon as I registered, found out there was going to be a babysitting crisis. Grr.

The weather has also turned nice, which means the kids are starting to give the pool looks of longing. It's not helping that Samantha's new favorite movie is Mermaidia.

Last night she ended up swimming through the house. With no shirt on. Ended up with a touch of carpet burn on her tummy.

I'm wishing my brother were here to clean the months-neglected pool ... Mike? Where are you? Guess I'll have to find time today to get out there and do some serious vacuming / chemicalizing. If it stays in the 70's, my little mermaid will want to be in there even if she turns purple after five minutes.

Q&A with Chrissy Brashear of Samhain Publishing

2006-03-27T20:06:00.000-05:00

We've got a great Q&A session this week at Romance Divas!

Join Romance Divas on our forums from March 28-30, 2006 to chat with Christina Brashear. Publisher of Samhain Publishing, Chrissy is ready to answer your questions on the world behind the keyboard and screen of publishing. Her editor-in-chief Angie James will also be stopping by, to answser questions specific about submissions and Samhain's lines.

"Born and raised two miles from a uranium processing plant, Crissy swears she really isn't glowing, it's just your imagination.

Crissy has been a lifelong lover of books—a born reader. She was maliciously tricked into going to kindergarten on a promise that she would be taught how to read. She came home that first day still unable to read and has not forgiven her family to this day, she has a long memory. Romance novels helped Crissy survive the years of being an active duty military wife and the long periods of separation from her own real life hero. He who moves a library with every relocation and with minimal complaint has to be considered a hero.

Crissy's been educated in office management and as an administrative assistant, though she refuses to obtain a degree because of the speech course requirement—fear of public speaking. Her job history covers a plethora of subjects ranging from retail, admin in a Total Quality office (Great experience), banking, insurance and finally to information technology before applying all her learned skills to the e-publishing arena. She applies not only her life experiences, common sense but also her own judgment as to what an average reader would want or think—after all, that's what she is—when making decisions or thinking of new ideas for her companies."

You can visit Samhain Publishing at www.samhainpublishing.com

Link to the Q&A is here!

Google Pages

2006-03-24T09:13:00.000-05:00

I played around briefly with Google Pages this morning.

My Google page

Not really sure about this yet... but my first impressions :

It's very simplistic. It's meant to be used by people who don't have any web coding knowledge I guess, so everything is just very, very simple. No html or css. Type your text in the little boxes (Header, Sidebar, Main Content, Footer). Pick your layout (no sidebar, one sidebar left, one sidebar right, two sidebars). Publish.

You can add links and pictures, but you can't code them to put in borders, or change size and layout.

If I find a way to change the look of the site outside their very limited 41 "looks" (mostly just variations on the same theme, done in different colors) and 4 layouts, I could see this being a popular choice for people wanting a quick and easy self-managed website. But having so few choices to personalize the page is a big minus for me.

Still alive

2006-03-23T20:31:00.000-05:00

Hi, just a quick note to say I'm still alive. Just haven't had time to do the essentials (Work? Food shopping?) and definately haven't had time to play (write).

Had a great trip visiting my sisters, and squeezed in a trip to visit David as well. Drove home Tuesday, and spent all day Wednesday playing work-catchup. I've gotten through the essentials, but there is still an overflow in the "To-Do" box that has to be gotten through tomorrow.

Last night was the TPC party at the Marriott in Sawgrass, which is probably the biggest social event I get to attend during the year. Several thousand people attend from the golf world (or people with money to belong to the more exclusive country clubs), including PGA officials and players. Last nights theme was "A Tribute to Motown", so great music and great food themed to go with it. The music was better than the food this year, and neither topped last years combination of the Beach Boys and seafood. Most of the big name golfers skipped the event - with tee times starting as early as 7:30 this morning, and millions of dollars in purse money, I can understand that ;) Did see Fred Funk - the rest of the golfers, that were there, I had a lot of "he looks familiar" moments but no names to put to the faces.

Best part of the night though was getting to spend so much time with the hubby. He and I don't get to go out just the two of us much, our schedules don't allow it. But his parents kept the kids overnight, so we were able to stay out as late as wanted, up as late as we could keep our eyes open, and sleep in late this morning. Especially after my 5 day trip, it was great to have the time to spend together.

He's off tomorrow to run a tournament in Orlando, and he's taking Montgomery with him, so Samantha and I will have a girls weekend. Hopefully by Sunday I'll have dug myself out of the weeds and be on top of things again.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2006-03-15T17:25:00.000-05:00

I'll be on the road on Friday, so I'll wish you all the luck of the Irish today.

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Authors,

2006-03-14T16:27:00.000-05:00

Authors, we need you. No, really.

One of the biggest questions that everyone wants to know, but no one wants to talk about, is those cold, hard numbers. How big are your sales, how high your advance, what's that payout for your work.

Brenda Hiatt keeps the only actual listing I know of at her website. But she can't do it if authors don't send her the info.

So published authors, this is your chance to do your part - anonymously. Brenda has been doing this long enough, and giving workshops at RWA on her findings, that I don't think anyone needs to worry about your information or anonymity being leaked. She's trustworthy, and she does this to help us all. Please, help her, to help us!

Permission to forward :

QUOTE
What's up on my website is my latest update, but I'll be updating again soon for the workshop I'll be giving in Atlanta. (I have to get my handout in by mid-May, so I'll be updating in time for that.) I'm always wanting current info, so please do send any and all authors my way! What I specifically need for each book is:

Publisher
Year of sale/year of release
Which book it is of yours/for that publisher (1st, 5th, etc.)
Advance
Standard royalty percentage (for regular retail sales)
Total earnout to date (INCLUDING advance)
Last 4 digits of ISBN # (not included in handout--this helps me spot duplicates)

Everything is always kept totally confidential--I strip names before I even paste the figures into my file for the next update. Thanks!

--Brenda

Please email your information to Brenda at BrendaHB@aol.com. And please spread the word - the more authors that help out here, the more informed the community overall will be.

Do you glom? and other reading notes

2006-03-13T21:13:00.000-05:00

Heavy readers (and most writers) know what it means to glom. To find a new author, or new subject, and read it to the exclussion of all other matter. Defined as " To seize upon or latch onto something", in reading terms it translates to seizing an authors backlist and reading your way through it.

Usually it's done with an author you just discovered and absolutely fell in love with. Readers new to Nora Roberts have a serious 'glomfest' ahead of them, with something like 160 books to wallow through. Although it isn't all about quantity - I've happily glommed authors with as few as 5 books to their published names (Laurell K Hamilton when I first started reading her).

Looking at my recent reads - the last 10 books - I realized I have once again glommed. This time, it wasn't author specific, but publisher. Brava, published by Kennsington. Erotic romances, and most of them novellas. What about them made me want to read and read and .... well, read some more?

Part of it is that they are all pretty damn good books. Name aside (the whole Bad Boy thing just begs for a laugh), the writing in all of them was way above average. In fact, only one of the Brava's I've read is something I won't recommend. The rest - hey, if you want something different, spicey, and short to read, pick up a "Bad Boy" book.

I am getting ready to glom Karen Marie Moning's Highlander series. I read one of them last year, and just got a great bargain on the other 6 in the series. They're somewhat historical ("highlander" = Scotland), somewhat paranormal (druids and fey), a bit of time travel, lots of romance, and from what I read great storytelling. Should be a happy weeks worth of reading.

Tonight though, I'm taking a break from my glomming. I have in my inbox "All I Need" by Sally Painter, and I can't wait to sink into it. Sally was a guest at the EC author chat last weekend, and we had such a blast. I can't wait to read her book, and hopefully find a new author to add to my glomming list.

How about you? Do you glom? And if you do - who?

Grilled Pancakes

2006-03-11T12:22:00.000-05:00

I had one of those "what if..." moments this morning. I was putting away last nights dishes, and Samantha wanted pancakes. Both normal parts of a Saturday morning. Then I saw my George Foreman grill, still sitting out on the counter from last nights grilled shrimp and mahi, and that's when I thought ... "what if I just made the pancakes on the grill." This thought had nothing to do with not wanting to wash the pancake skillet. Nothing at all.

But figuring that the worst thing that would happen was that Samantha would end up with raison toast for breakfast if the pancakes were a flop, I went ahead and gave it a try. Pancakes have never been easier.

First, the set up. Since the grill was already out, I just had to slide a plate under the front legs to make the cooking surface level. I use a pre-packaged pancake mix, so my little helper pulled that out for me. Add a whisk and a measuring cup to mix/pour from, and we're all set. Coffee and laptop are optional accessories. Plug in the grill so it can get hot while you're mixing. I used the highest setting, and it made 3 minute pancakes.

Measure out the mix and water, and let your helper get to work. Or, if you find yourself without a helper, stir it yourself. It's just a little wrist action, it won't hurt.

Now pour the batter onto the preheated surface. Hopefully you've propped up the front of the grill so your batter doesn't run out onto the countertop. See ** below.

Close the lid, and let it be for about two minutes. If you smell burning pancakes, it's a good sign you'll need to lower your heat setting. High worked for me just fine, and there was no burning involved. This is a good time to drink that coffee or check out some messages online. Do it quick though - those pancakes are almost ready to eat.

After two minutes or so, open the lid. With my grill, the tops weren't cooking quite as fast as the bottoms. But they are holding their shape very, very nicely. Slip a rubber spatula (no metal on the grill please!) under an edge and flip those babies over. Mmmmm. Looking good. Close the lid for another minute. Good time to grab the syrup and pop it in the micro for 30 seconds, if you like your syrup warm.

Now open the lid and look. You should see ready to eat pancakes! Ok, they're shaped a little oddly - but you know, those ridges are great for catching the syrup and holding it there. Mmmm.

Time for the taste test.

She likes them! She really, really likes them!

Cleanup was a breeze. Wipe off the cooking surface, wash out that mixing cup and whisk, and you're done. And the pancakes tasted yummy perfect. Who'd of thought George Foreman would make great pancakes too?

**I'm going to assume that if you're going to try this at home, you've got the intelligence to do some simple things. Like level out your surface by slipping a plate under the front legs;

don't dribble batter into the screw holes or any other openings; and for heavens sake don't touch the grill surface with your bare fingers after it's hot. Because, you know, its hot. Children should not be pouring the batter, or flipping the pancakes, or in any way touching the grill. Because, you know, it's hot.

So now I'm wondering what else I can cook on my Foreman Grill. Suggestions? What's the oddest thing you've ever cooked on yours?

Friday Moive

2006-03-10T12:58:00.000-05:00

For your Friday movie viewing :
(This is the short one - there's a few longer ones if you look to the right in the sidebar. Warning - 3 year olds who sing and dance are probably only cute if you know the 3 year old singing and dancing. Ahem.)

"Super Samantha Steele"

Ellora's Cave Chat tonight!

2006-03-10T07:24:00.000-05:00

Romance Divas will be hosting a chat with several Ellora’s Cave authors on March 10th, from 9-10 pm est in our chat room.
Come with your questions and meet some of your favorite erotic romance authors.  Denise A. Agnew, Jaci Burton, Kate Douglas, Kate Hill, and Jory Strong will all be ready to heat up your weekend.  Read on for a bit more about these incredible authors.
Denise A. Agnew’s award-winning novels have been described as suspenseful, erotic, edgy, thrilling, romantic, and adventurous.  One thing they share is that they are all exciting reads.  Romantic Times Bookclub Magazine called her romantic suspense novels “top-notch” and her erotic romance PRIMORDIAL received a TOP PICK from Romantic Times Bookclub Magazine.
Denise has lived in Colorado, Hawaii, and the United Kingdom, giving her a lifetime of ideas.  Her experiences with archaeology have crept into her work, as well as her numerous travels through England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.  She now lives in Arizona with her real life hero, her husband.  You can find out more about her extensive booklist, and Denise herself, at her website - www.deniseagnew.com.
Jaci Burton is a multi published author, with over twenty-five books published by erotic romance publisher Ellora’s Cave. Jaci writes in multiple genres, including paranormal, contemporary, futuristic, fantasy and BDSM. Among her many awards to date are the Cupid and Psyche Award for Best Contemporary Erotic Romance, the Road to Romance Reviewer’s Choice Award and two Reviewers Choice nominations by Romantic Times Bookclub Magazine. She is a member of Romance Writers of America, Romance Writer’s Ink, Passionate Ink and EPIC.  Jaci has recently contracted with Bantam Dell for mainstream paranormal romance, and with Berkley HEAT for erotic romance. These books will release sometime in 2007.

Jaci lives in Oklahoma with her husband Charlie who inspires her to create stories about sexy, stubborn alpha males who don’t always do what the heroine wants them to. She has three children-two grown sons and one teenage daughter. She loves animals, has five dogs and one fish who keep her company while she writes. Her favorite activities are travel, reading and long afternoon naps.  Find out more about Jaci, and check out her bookshelf, at www.jaciburton.com
Kate Douglas has been privileged to call writing her profession for almost thirty-five years, producing everything from radio copy to news stories to contemporary romances and erotica. With thirteen titles currently in print, numerous ebooks with various publishers, and eight more books in her erotic paranormal Wolf Tales series scheduled through 2008, at least she knows what she’ll be doing for the next couple years!
Kate and her husband are currently dividing time between two homes while they remodel the house in the mountains where they hope to settle when her husband retires. When she's not loading or unloading the car, Kate's either writing or playing with the grandkids...and trying to figure out when she can go to Hawaii to see her newest granddaughter, Ella, born Feb. 6.  Visit her web site at www.katedouglas.com
Kate Hill is a thirty-something vegetarian New Englander who likes heroes with a touch of something wicked and wild. Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in publications both on and off the Internet, and she has over twenty books available at Ellora’s Cave.
When she's not working on her books, Kate enjoys reading, working out, and researching vampires and Viking history.
Visit Kate’s website at www.kate-hill.com
Jory Strong has been writing since childhood and has never outgrown being a daydreamer.  She’s written several series for Ellora’s Cave, ranging from romantic suspense, to paranormal, to futuristic.

When she's not hunched over her computer, lost in the muse and conjuring up new heroes and heroines, she can usually be found reading, riding her horses, or hiking with her dogs.  Learn more about Jory and see her full book list at www.jorystrong.com
Our chat on Feb 24th was great fun – you can read the transcript in our forum archives if you missed it.  But make sure to mark your calendar, you don’t want to miss this one!

Google Calendar, deux

2006-03-08T21:58:00.000-05:00

Techcrunch has some drool worthy screen shots up of the much speculated about Google calendar beta. Oh boy.

As I've grown comfortable with gmail, I've looked for calendar options that can compete with Outlook. As I've grown used to using multiple pc's, I'm looking for software options that aren't based on my desktop, but hosted outside - and available from any pc I'm on at the time.

Google Office? Hopefully coming soon to a web server near you.

IBM Thinkpads and Trackpoint

2006-03-08T20:43:00.000-05:00

My new laptop came right as I was putting the burgers on the grill for dinner. Oh boy. Decisions, decisions.

Luckily everyone but me likes their meat well done. I was able to at least make sure my ebay buy booted up while the burgers and 'dogs did their thing.

To make what could be a long technical story short, everything is working great. IBM Thinkpad A22m, with no manual - so lots of buttons that I'm trying to figure out what they do. And a trackpoint. How exactly does this thing work?

Still getting used to that. I use keyboard shortcuts for a lot of things instead of the mouse, so it's not going to be terrible - but it was a rough few minutes getting used to it at first. The burgers were quite well done.

Have one "issue" with the wireless card, I can't get a connection when I have WEP turned on. For now I've disabled it, but tomorrow I need to figure out how to get password and laptop to play nice together.

Battery holds a great charge - was running for over two hours just off battery before I plugged it back in, and the monitor showed it still had fifty percent charge. Most of that two hours was spent rebooting while I tried different configs on the wifi card. Not sure how that affected power use.

For now I'm off to install much software. AntiVi, AntiSpy, and AntiMal. Work. Maybe a game or two ;)

But yay! I have rejoined the land of wifi. Freedom!

Laptop withdrawl

2006-03-07T17:27:00.000-05:00

It's been almost two weeks since my laptop broke, and I'm suffering severe withdrawl symptoms. I feel so out of touch without it!

Most nights PLD (pre laptop demise) I had my umbilical cord to the world on the kitchen counter while I cooked. I'd browse the news sites, seeing what had happened during the day. If I made it through the serious news, I'd browse through the dozens of blogs I check out a few times a week.

After dinner was reading time. Sitting in my chair, with Samantha snuggled in close to me, catching up on who's done what lately.

Later in the night, snuggled up in that same chair with a glass of wine, or snuggled up in bed sans wine, reading an ebook.

Without this end to my day, I feel off-kilter. I'm at my desk before breakfast checking emails, and there through dinner. Then back to the desk after Samantha's in bed. Or, when I can't stand the thought of sitting back down at the desk, I go and watch tv. I've watched way to much tv the past two weeks.

Tomorrow, UPS should be bringing me my new-to-me laptop. I've got all my software ready to install, and my chair is waiting. I'll rejoin the world of the mobile connected, and it will be a Good Thing.

Now, I've just got to make it through tonight. NCIS and House, anyone?