A little more detail on the turkey and the shopping...

Thanksgiving was quite nice. I stayed at my sister's - we saw Harry Potter on Wed (she hadn't seen it yet so I sucked it up and sat through it again...of course the fact that I really enjoyed it had a lot to do with my martyrdom of course :)) and cooked turkey on Thursday.

I've cut apart a turkey before but I can't say it was with any artistry actually...still, a turkey sandwich is a turkey sandwich.

Friday morning was a shopping adventure to parallel none. I can honestly say I've never been shopping on "Black Friday" before...and not much in this world could induce me to go shopping at 5:00 in the morning. The sun wasn't even up. But, my sister was. And she was leaning over my bed (well, her bed...her house...I was sleeping in it).

She planned the battle-attack Thanksgiving morning: lists of sales, times, products, the whole nine yards. She's an inveterate shopper, talented too.

So, away we went. Travelled light - only a tiny little wallet purse so nothing would weigh us down, keys, and sweaters so we wouldn't get too warm in the stores. And did you know that, at 5:45 in the morning, Wal-Mart's parking lot is PACKED and that people are even MORE serious at shopping than my sister's little lark? Let me just say that it's a side of humanity I'm not too sure I care for.

But we had a good time and that's what's important. AND we got a tremendous amount of shopping done. I do have to admit that most stores have some absolutely amazing deals before 11 am on the day after Thanksgiving. I'm glad we went. I enjoyed the time with my sister. I think I'm done with that side of retail now.

Snow, turkey, shopping and sleep...

What a wonderful way to spend one's days.... No writing to speak of, but I got quite a lot done on my knitting sampler. The snow was unexpected and quite beautiful. We were emerging from Harry Potter, nine in the evening, and I thought they were joking when they said it was snowing. But there it was. I got to clean off the windows of my car for the first time this year. I loved it. Here's to a long, snowy cold winter.

Wierd dreams lately...working on that.

A boat, some odd doings in the harbor, and a little sprinkle of magic...

And that's it...the makings of a story. And words, words always help a story along. One word after the next...

Well...second week is almost past...and I have some flax golden tales to spin...

Well...today wasn't the ultimate

Ok...so today wasn't the ultimate in writing experiences. In fact, I spent most of the day procrastinating (when I wasn't making lists of things I need to do and contemplating how I should be doing them and when I wasn't at our school open house and when I wasn't eating dinner, or watching a movie, or talking on the phone and helping to revise an essay or.... well, you get the point).

Most of the writing I did do (all 600 words of it - give or take a bit) was done after midnight - AND while I was watching "Dark Skies." It was an interesting movie and I suppose it was made to become a tv series by the way it ended. Seems I recall that it was a series for a while. Point here is that I probably could have skipped the entire movie anyway and spent more time on writing. But, I didn't.

So now, for a bit of sleep. We're off school tomorrow so I can do that ever-present pile of laundry and grade some papers. THAT will be good.

The iron tounge of midnight hath told twelve. Lovers to be, tis fairy time....

Summer Reading Lists

I decided to go ahead and "archive" my summer lists. Basically, I wanted to clear up the side bar and figured this would be a good way to remember what I've read. I've never actually tracked the books I read quite like I did this summer. I've been trying to keep track since school starts but, frankly, I haven't been making the updates consistently so most of the books end up in the "already been read" part of the column. Such is life.

2005 Summer Books Read

• Warprize


• A Passage to India


• East of Eden


• Simply the Best Home Decorating Book


• Stitch n' B*tch


• Vogue Knitting, Fall 2005


• The Compass Rose


• Guardian of Honor


• The Trouble with Harry


• The Sweater Workshop


• Knitting in the Old Way


• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phonenix


• East of Eden


• Encyclopedia of Chrochet


• 180 More - Poetry picked by Billy Collins


• Golf for Women


• Interweave Knits


• The Rule of Four


• Shadows and Myths


• some book about a detective in Ohio hired to find a lost cat


• The Amazon Strain


• An Angel in Stone


• Night Bites (eh - premise is out there)


• A Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass


• Unearthed


• Do You Believe?


• Tattoo Blues


• Sophie's Last Stand


• Monument by Ian Graham


• Wait Until Midnight


• Derik's Bane (eh)


• The Paid Companion


• Undead and Unwed (so funny)


• Undead and Unemployed


• The Modern Library Writer's Workshop (wonderful advice)


• Simple Abundance


• No Plot? No Problem

Now we're getting there...

I spent a couple hours at the cafe with a group of NaNo-ers working on the novel. Laptops are a beautiful thing. And, I got quite a bit accomplished. I was suprised at how quickly I was able to produce 1,322 words actually.

Of course, I still have no plan. It's all just evolving as I make it up. But I'm having fun.

The NaNo-ers seemed very personable. I was about an hour late but they still made room for me. We were squooshed in a corner and my laptop was literally a LAPtop. But, it worked out pretty well. Actually, it took me out of the center of the conversation (because, while I was there, I wasn't pulled up to the table, just sitting in the circle) so I think I got more done than I otherwise might have.

I'm glad I went too because I discovered that, about forty-five minutes into it, I was about to go round the bend with not being able to stop and distract myself. I wrote through it instead...and found a second wind and a lot more words...and a couple new characters...and an exploding...well, I'll leave that for now.

Happy writing! I'm catching up...