Now That's a Fish!

Approximate length: 32-34"

I have no idea on the weight, I didn't ask.

This Carp was caught in the creek that runs in front of where we camp. (and yes, much swimming is done in that creek) Sunday night, my brother-in-law managed to hook the whopper. Getting it to the bank was a chore. Not to mention he had a huge audience. This isn't the first fish of this size to be caught there, but it'd been a while. (Last time we had this much excitement he caught a huge snapping turtle in the same creek.)

We had a great weekend. Very busy, but the perfect kick off to the camping season. I would have loved one more day, but we're back to the grind already. Getting everyone up for school was difficult and I can't say I blame them. I hit the snooze button until the last possible minute.

Eight more days of school. Which means I have ten days to finish my book. We'll see. I do have a slightly higher word count now, but I'm hoping by tomorrow there's a significant change in that word meter.

Summer's coming.

Are you ready?

Pirates!

Okay, so you got lucky!
I am completely fried this morning - grumpy with a capital G - but the movie was totally worth it!

Warning: Possible spoilers ahead.
I've seen the first and second movies repeatedly. I won't go into the first movie because, let's face it, everything about it was fantastic. The second movie, however, gave me a different opinion every time I saw it. I loved it, then hated it, then just hated Elizabeth, then Jack. (yes, I know - wash my mouth out with soap.) I hoped this movie would bring the series back around and make me love everyone again.
It did.
Keith Richards was perfect as Jack's father. Once again, Bill Nighy knocked my socks off as Davy Jones. Love the accent and his tortured soul. The characters we already know were fantastic. The new ones equally as great. Plot twists, unexpected developments and lots of very funny moments. And...Holy. Cow. Will Turner. Holy. Cow. (My actual reactions are a little more extensive than this, but this blog has a PG rating) Still love Jack, but Will definitely had it all going on.
If you go, stay until after the credits. There's an extra scene there that'll make you glad you did. (In other words, watch your liquid consumption - you'd hate to have to run out of the theater to empty your bladder and miss it.)
Yes, the movie was long. (not quite as long as I previously stated though) There wasn't a single time I checked my watch, nodded off, or took my eyes from the screen. I didn't want it to be over! There will definitely be another theater viewing before the DVD arrives.
In the meantime...

I need more sleep!
Behave!

Thursday Ramblings

Happy Thursday!
A new cliche will arrive soon. Once Misty and I agree on one. I just know you're missing that terribly.

So, I went down to switch laundry and found the dryer door open. Since our cat disaster, I don't leave the dryer door open. Someone did. I leaned in to pull the clean laundry out, and guess who was taking a nap inside? Yes. Our male cat, Kramer. Total heart attack/bad memory for me. He had the nerve to give me one of those indignant looks - like I'd just taken his food away or something. If you know my cat story, you'll appreciate my total terror.

I ought to be in premium shape tomorrow. Late night last night, a very long day and evening today, and then I'm meeting a bunch of friends to catch the 11:30 viewing of Pirates. 186 minutes - which means I'm not getting home until around 3am - if I'm lucky and depending on how much post movie chatting there is. Tomorrow is another really busy day, and at this point, it doesn't look like decent sleep is on my horizon until tomorrow night. There's no way I won't go though! I'm so excited! If you're lucky, I'll give you my opinions tomorrow.

If you're not lucky, it'll be Monday.
Enjoy the holiday weekend! Do lots of chores, but make sure to relax!
And most of all...
Behave!

The Bird

Well, there he is.

You don't get a good idea of his size, but look at that beak! (No wonder I got a boo-boo!)

I'm searching for a full-sized pic of him and will post one when I find it. He's really beautiful and full of personality. And loud. Very loud. Did I mention loud? Ear-splitting shrieks and cries that happen as soon as he believes you're no longer enamoured of him.

He talks too. His vocabulary is constantly growing. My sister has to watch that he doesn't pick up certain words and has cautioned everyone to watch their mouths. Usually he has to hear a word repeatedly to mimic, but sometimes not. We've been trying to teach him how to say "precious" for ages. No dice. He's kind of like a 2 year old though, and will repeat the most inappropriate things.

K1 cannot stand Captain. Captain cannot stand K1. It's a vicious cycle. K1 walks in the room and the bird goes into some kind of freakish attack mode where he bobs his head and snaps his beak threateningly. That didn't make for a very pleasant weekend when I bird-sat last summer.

So there you have it. And you all thought I was making him up!

That's all for now.

Tuesday...

Today is one of those days where a cloning machine would come in handy.
But that has nothing to do with anything.

My uncle got on his plane very early this morning. We gathered at Mom and Dad's last night for a farewell dinner of Super Secret Family Recipe Spaghetti. (Well, the sauce is super secret, the noodles aren't. But you get the picture.) Everyone was there except for my brother-in-law, who had to work and couldn't leave. We talked, laughed, took pictures and tried not to think about the fact that this was our last night with him here. His visit was wonderful and he will be sorely missed.

Hopefully tomorrow, I'll post a picture of my sister's macaw - the one that bit me on Mother's Day. Guess who forgot to grab the camera last night?

Behave!

Retreat!!

I could put a whole page of exclamation points - that's how great the retreat was. See the slippers? Not mine, but that should give you a general idea how relaxed the atmosphere was.
Day One:
I arrived a little before 10am, after getting the kids off to school and stopping by my mom's for a quick visit and birthday wishes. I spent a few minutes getting settled in my room and saying howdy to the rest of the group, then I was off and running on my new story "Deadwood". Spent the day writing, with breaks for meals, chatting and much laughter. Then a much longer break while we waited for Natalie's exciting news, dinner, Supernatural watching and a trip into town for celebratory drinks and embarrassing tales. We were back at the retreat center by 11 and by midnight, I had 35 brand new pages. I'd just finished a spooky scene when I decided to call it a night and ended up totally freaking myself out.
Day two: Lots more writing. A walk to the nearby cemetery where Natalie conjured up a strong wind by saying "Bloody Mary" and standing in a dead circle of grass. Lots of talking and then back to the pages. We broke for our annual game - a riot and fantastic break after so much mental work. More Supernatural watching and then back to work. By this time, it was around midnight and I'd just polished off a large energy drink. Which meant I didn't go to bed until 2:30 am. But also gave me one of my highest page count days, if not the highest count ever, of 50 pages.
Day three:
Needless to say, getting up in time for breakfast was difficult. I'd just gotten out of the shower when Vicky B. knocked on my door. (The acoustics are kind of strange there and my reply of "I'm naked" was heard throughout the entire 2nd floor.) Breakfast, and then the prize drawings - which were awesomely cool. We didn't have to check out until 11am, but since my brain had started misfiring I packed up and headed home.
I can't wait until next year. Somehow, I am now the retreat chairperson for 2008. I'm excited and a little nervous. But the retreat runs itself, so my job will most likely be an easy one.
That's all for now...

Clean Dishes?

My sisters dishwashers.

Nezzie and Bella.

Okay, so the picture's a joke. (It took a few tries and a lot of spaghetti to get the photo and still this is the best one.)

Anyway.

Tomorrow morning I'll be on my way to the retreat! I'm so excited! Since this will likely be my last post until Monday, I need to take care of sending a birthday shoutout to my most awesome and fantastic mom.

Happy Birthday, Mom.

Words cannot describe how much you mean to me.

Your support and friendship always lift me up.

Thank you for everything. You're the bestest.

Behave!

Oh My Achin'...

1. Foot - from the huge splinter I got on my brother's deck. B only managed to dig half of it out so far.
2. Pointer finger - my sister's macaw, Captain, decided our former friendship was over and totally nailed me with his huge, sharp black beak. Twice. I don't know how I offended him, but obviously I did. So not only does my finger hurt, but my feelings do too.
3. Thumb - don't know what I did, but it's been a constant source of ache lately.
4. Jaw - popped it out of the socket eating shrimp on Sunday and while it's back in place, the muscles are tender and it's still making my head hurt. This is common for me. And no, I don't want to talk about my options in getting it fixed.

No pictures today.
Chalk that up to me constantly forgetting my camera this weekend. And I haven't had time to download anyone elses pictures.

That's all...
Behave!

A Very Good Surprise

First off, Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms!
Now I can finally tell you what's been going on around here. For weeks, my siblings and I have been keeping a really great secret from our parents. Our uncle, our Mom's baby brother, came to visit. We wanted to surprise her and I'm happy to say that somehow we managed it. Somehow - with pretty much everyone else knowing what was going on, including the kids - she had no idea. Saturday night we picked him up at the airport and arrived back at my sisters. It was a great scene. Perfect.
And we're having a great time getting to know him again. We haven't seen him in nearly 14 years. Mom's seen him somewhere in between those years a few times, but it had been quite a while. Yesterday we hung out at my brother's, eating great food and talking up a storm. It's really fun to hear their stories and learn more about our grandparents. All I can say is, it's very clear where all of us kids get the obnoxious sense of humor. Our mom has always blamed my dad's side of the family. Well, after hearing some of the stuff they did, there's no doubt in my mind.
Posts may be a little sporadic this week. There's a lot of socializing to do before I leave for the retreat, but I'll try to get some pictures up before then.
Behave!

Where did the day go?

Been running around like a chicken with my head cut off today. I'm dreadfully tired, but have to wait until K1 gets in. Soon, I hope.
If you check out Misty's blog, you'll see I got myself in a little hot water for saying she grunted. I guess all I can really say is that she wasn't singing. (She'll get me for that one too.)
One week until my writing retreat. I am so excited. I do feel bad for those that are going Thursday. They'll miss the season finale of Supernatural. I'm sure I'll be on the phone - reassuring that Sam did not die.
What an episode. I'm not commenting since I haven't had time to process everything. But what's sticking out in my head the most, besides how Eva turned out and that creepy as heck girl demon, is how did Sam's mom know the yellow-eyed demon? Hmm...
K2 had auditions for "Rag Time" tonight. She'll definitely be in the production, but we won't know if she's a principle or not until call backs - sometime this weekend. Looks like we're in for another crazy summer around here.
Well, that's all I have for now - disjointed and confusing as it may be.
Behave!

Finished Product...

Sweet, huh?

Misty's Tattoo Day

<--- Pre-Tattoo...Does she look a little nervous?
<--Finding the right spot

(transfer)

Let the needles begin


<--Work in progress.






As you can see, it's been an exciting day. Misty got her tattoo. The cover from her next release featuring Ivy, "Something Old, Something Dead". (I don't know exactly when it comes out. Check Misty's blog for that info.) I was lucky and got to go along. Well, for at least part of it. I had to leave to pick up her daughter and my kiddos, so I haven't seen the finished product yet. When I left, the black was nearly done and the whole thing was coming along nicely. I'm not sure what Misty's frame of mind was, except that when I told her the shading part looked painful, she only grunted. (Yes. I k now she'll pay me back for that one.) I can't wait to see the finished product. And yes, I will post a picture of it - hopefully tonight.
I'm next. If I can just figure out what I want.
The guys at "Visual Addictions" are awesome! Misty was referred there by my brother-in-law and I'll be returning for mine (if/when I ever figure out what I want).
Behave!

Useless as...

Yep, it's another cliche day.

Today's started with:
Useless as a screen door on a submarine.
Which totally cracks me up.
But we also have:
Useless as a pay toilet in a diarrhea ward
Useless as wet toilet paper
Useless as a pocket in a pair of underpants (it's the underpants that makes me giggle)
Useless as a piss hole in the snow - (totally makes me wonder. Why would anyone even come up with this? It really doesn't make any sense, where the others mostly do.)

I love the 'useless as a screen door on a submarine' one. To me, it's like a bad comedy, where the actors are all stereotypes and the plot is as cliche as the saying. They prepare to submerge and fill with water, because the stupid guy only shut the screen door. Of course, everything comes out ridiculously okay in the end. Still...the phrase makes me giggle.

Don't forget to head over and check out Misty's take on the cliche!

That's all for Monday.
Behave!

Tagged...

Natalie tagged me.
So here goes...

Here are the rules:
1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

8 random facts/habits about me ...

1. I love diet soda and will never drink regular soda.

2. I cannot sleep in socks, or with my feet covered.

3. I hate to wear shoes.

4. I will not use a bath towel more than once. (Yes, I know this creates extra laundry, but too bad. If I had my own bathroom and could be guaranteed no one else used it, I might feel differently. But...ick!)

5. When I was pregnant, all four times, the sight, thought and smell of eggs made me very, very sick.

6. If I forget to hang shirts up from the dryer, I will rewash them so I don't have to iron.

7. I am really a very shy person.

8. I have never flown. Well, besides once when I was 9 months old. And I was in an UltraLight not too long ago, but I've never been in a "big" airplane that I can remember.

I'm supposed to tag 8 people. But the 8 people I know have already been tagged.

Enjoy the weekend!

Next...

See that?
That's the next project around here. I think I mentioned it before. Bricks will be there. Soon. I hope. B started digging this hole late last summer and through the glory of Murphy's Law, it's still just a hole. With some sticks, balls and now a few volunteer Maple trees.
The plan is to work on it this weekend, in preparation for the stone and sand that has to go down before the bricks. It extends farther to the lower right, making a path beside the back porch and all of that needs dug out.
As long as I can find the batteries for the camera (I just bought some and they're gone), I'll try to post photographic updates. I'm excited to finish this because then I can work on my gnome garden. (And for the obvious reasons - no more dirt hole) My parents gave me lots of cute little gnomes for my birthday and right now they're in a box in my dining room. And flowers. Red flowers in pots around the perimeter of the patio (out of the way of the basketball hoop).
Maybe only exciting to me, but since this is my blog I can be that way. :)
Behave!

Finished! and Random Thoughts

I finished the *shiny* new book without a title last night. It's shorter than I expected, and needs mucho editing, but it's finally done. I say finally like it took me months to write this when in truth, it took me 33 days. Out of that 33 days, there were 18 days I didn't write at all. Since 8 would have been my normal "days off", that means I wrote the book (technically) in 23 days. Which means nothing to anyone but me. It'll probably take the same amount of time to edit it, but that's on my summer list.
What's next?
Well, the next two weeks are packed with outside obligations and I have a ton of critique work to catch up on. And a stack of books to read. My writing retreat is looming (15 days) and I want to plot something new to begin on that weekend. So while I won't be adding up page counts, I will be insanely busy.
The book I start on the retreat will be finished by the time school is out. Then, the summer will be spent taxi'ing kids to various activities, editing and trying to have at least some semblance of a summer vacation. If this summer is anything like last year, that'll be a miracle.
That's all for now...