Evel Knievel dead!

He was like an icon from my childhood. Don't misunderstand, in the world of all the things that comprised my childhood, Knievel doesn't make it into the top ten, maybe not even the top 100, but he was a big part of Saturday afternoons in those Dark Ages--you know--BC--Before Cable.

Back in the days when there was only network TV and the randomly available VHF channel, ABC Sports ruled Saturday afternoons. There was college football, which bored me to tears in the fall, and then there was the ubiquitous car race, but other times there were all kinds of awesome things going on. The Wide World of Sports rocked! I enjoyed ice skating, and skiing, and tennis, and basketball, and if there were Olympic trials going on, we had a ton of cool sports. There was swimming, and synchronized swimming ( a little nod to Anna, wink) and just all kinds of things that I truly enjoyed.

And then, there was Evel Knieval.

That guy was a psycho. Whenever he was on I couldn't decide if I wanted him to be successful or wipe out. They were both amazing. Well, actually, the crashes were pretty spectacular. I remember when he tried to jump the Snake River. What an idiot. Or, what a brilliant guy. Either way, it was incredible entertainment.

Who could figure out what drove him? I know what fascinated me was "the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat." He sure shared in both.

In retrospect, the outfits were a bit Elvis-y over the top, but hey, it was the 70's.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Who's the most beautiful mother in the universe? Mine, of course.

the old guy next to her is pretty okay, too. she seems to like him.

Al Gore would be so proud

It turns out that getting a locally grown tree is better for the environment. You can read the yahoo article about it here.

We've been going to a Christmas tree farm and getting our tree every year since we moved up here. To think all this time we've been doing right by the environment.

Almost makes me want to get a plastic tree just to be contrary.

Not.

The Parade of Ugly Light Displays

It's that time of year again, when I charge up the camera and go on a pilgrimage through the streets of our fair burg in search of horrendous Christmas displays. We've spied a few tacky ones already, and the house with the usual odd assortment has already loaded up and assaulted the neighborhood with it's brand of holiday cheer.

We also spotted the first nativity set in a wonderland of candy canes and snowmen. I'm waiting for the family that always decorates their RV in chasing lights, so in the meantime I'm just preparing the route.

Truly a scandalous tradition, and not a very nice thing to pass on to the kids, but I figure a little more cynicism in the world isn't going to break anything.

Meanwhile, I'm dredging up the purple candles, which incidentally, is the appropriate decoration for the moment.

See you soon with some silly pictures!

not the typical after turkey day meal

...but I was hungry, and it was tasty. You got a problem with that?

I thought so.

aaaaah. I love my recliner.

Just sat down after a long day of cooking and cleaning and chilling. We had a weird and random Turkey Day feast of ham, black beans and rice, sweet potato casserole, corn, Italian sweet bread (think pan de media noche), and a bunch of experimental desserts that turned out pretty good. I made tocino del cielo, which I'm not a fan of, but John likes, and I made capuchinos, which were a hit and surprisingly easy to make. Christy made key lime pie, and there's a huge piece waiting for me tomorrow.

Dinner was late because Vic's friends joined us after they had hit several homes for a cultural variety. It was a delightful meal, and Nigel smiled for a picture, and poor David had to suck down a shot of Limoncello (and Effy got into the action with a taste). Even Susan K. joined us for a round of mockery and incoherence.

All in all, a pleasant evening. Even Suki participated.

And afer a turbo kitchen cleaning, me in the sink and Jonathan drying and putting away, I am relaxing in the recliner watching a movie with Vic and updating the blog.

Contentment is the word for the moment. Satisfaction. I have no longing for anything other than my family, our quiet lives, and maybe a little foot massage. That would be nice.

it's fall!

I so enjoy this weather. The leaves are already red and yellow, and every once in a while I can get a wiff of somebody's wood-burning fireplace. Our fireplace is gas, so that makes it clean and easy (which I like!). It loses a bit of authenticity, but I'll take it. I still get flames and I still get warmth. Only, no soot.

The temperature, as usual, is a bit wiggy. Some days coldish, some days warmish. Still, not HOT which is great.

Anyway, took a little walk with the poochie while everyone was asleep, and enjoyed the crisp early morning, and really paid attention to the squirrels and pine cones falling.* Ah, nature.

*This hippie moment brought to you by me, in a pensive, caffeine-free state. I'm off to make some cuban coffee to rectify that.

Leaf Blowers and Other Complaints

So I don't care what the vet said, the dog is in fact blowing her coat. One of us needs relief, as the Jerry Clower jokes goes. She's scratching like the beast that she is, and I am looking for sharp objects to poke in my ears. I win, becauseI discovered the merits of lathering my ears with Vick's VaPoRub, the Cuban cure-all. The pooch just has to wait for someone other than me to brush her coat. In the leaf-blowing department, there will be no bright ideas to bring the yard tool into the house to take care of the hair problem.

Which of course leads me to the real rant about leaf blowers. I saw a lawn company blowing a GIGANTIC amount of leaves off the property that they were evidently hired to clean. The house and very big yard were absolutely PRISTINE. It's one of those homes that appears in magazines, and is so beautifully manicured that it looks pretend. A CGI house.

And then, I got really pissed off. Those landscapers were blowing the mountain of leaves across the street into someone else's property. Let's just say, that house looks a little bit more natural, a little bit less manicured, and now, it looks a GREAT DEAL more VANDALIZED.

Is there such a thing as leaf vandalism? If there isn't, there should be. I was truly offended by what I saw. Of course, all I'm doing is ranting about it here, but still.

Are you still there?

Even I feel like I've disappeared off the face of the earth.

Only. Not.

I haven't posted a real entry in a while. Instead, I cleaned the office. Thoroughly. Many sneezes later, I find it relatively inhabitable. Mostly. There's still a lot to throw away.

And then there's a small matter of being hyper allergic to the new dog, and a sudden and violent reaction to cigarette smoke.

So, lot's has been going on and most of it very exciting! A small recap:

***
John chaperoned an overnight high school trip to Valdosta. Somehow, and to my extreme amusement, he has cemented his reputation as scary and unapproachable. He brilliantly thwarted a multitude of sneak expeditions, and now he has been recruited to repeat the performance in Savannah. At some point, kids with sense pulled out chairs to watch the fools try to escape his watch. Morons (the sneaks, not the good kids getting entertained).

The One-Act Play State Competition went well, and our troup placed third in the state. Not bad for their first time! I'm proud of them!

I got my first royalty check for the books, and let me tell you, it's very nice to see some cash flowing in from all that work. Hopefully, the Composition Companion will be a nice little cash cow that will allow me to do other, more creative stuff. Who knows?

The dog has tested me at every turn, and besides a forgiveable tendency to sit on the sofa in the living room (she watches the back yard all day and gets agitated if I close the blinds), she pulled a little trick that wasn't all that funny to me. In retrospect, any neighbors watching got their fill of entertainment. I made the mistake of walking her without the choker, and she refused to come back inside the house. Instead, she threw herself on the grass and stretched in the afternoon sun. I was stuck outside for 40 minutes, trying to get her back in the house. The more I pulled, the slacker she got. It was a real battle of wills. Finally, I threw myself on the grass, too, and decided to soak some rays. That's when she decided that it would be better to go inside. What a little wench.

Back to the trenches writing for That Catholic Show, and I have a couple of creative projects that I'm working on.

And NaNoWriMo? Totally abandoned, but I got a really good 10k bunch of words for me to continue with as I can.

That is all. Maybe this broke the ice and I'll get back into daily updates.

Irony, part II

Paris Hilton is helping drunk elephants.

I swear, I thought the WGA strike was still unresolved.

November 12 of 12

Pre-empted

Party Animals

Check out the "viejos." Very nice.

The Miami Connection Comes Through

Evidently people really are reading this blog, as I got not one but two! links to the story about the King of Spain telling that little weiner of a despot to "shut up."

Thanks to Christi and Pop for the articles. However, Christi wins the prize> she sent along an audio link.

I'm still laughing here. Sadly, it's not going to fix things for the Venezuelans, but ....

the King of Spain (the real one, not Reagan)

The King of Spain told Hugo Chavez to shut up. Brilliant. I want to find the Spanish text.

If only the rest of the world would join him.

Meanwhile, the article states, he had to call Fidel for a little bit of fake posturing to perpetuate the lie that the old geezer is alive. He actually laments that his phone doesn't have "speakerphone."

OMG, I thought the writer's were on strike. see below

Jesse Jackson, WTF?

So, like many people, I am following the Writers Guild of America strike. There's all kinds of news swirling around, so typically I go to their site to see what's happening. This afternoon, as I coasted through to see if there's good news on the horizon, I encounter this article, which states in passing that Jesse Jackson was there.

Why?

I mean, WHY?

Really, this guy never held any sway with me anyway, but what in the world is he doing walking that picket line? Oh wait, the media is there. What was I thinking. and here I thought he was actually doing a good thing.

Then it dawned on me. His speech writers are the greatest fiction writers in the industry. Now I get it. Silly me.

Irony

Prayer at the state capitol. Hmmm.

Happy Birthday, Yo

Who is the coolest synchronized swimmer? Ever?

Yeah, I thought so. Check out the snazzy warm up. I want one.

an evasive post

Oh dear, I see that instead of writing the novel, I'm posting here again, and for the record, I'm not participating in the blog-a-day thing, so this is me, in an avoidance behavior.

I'm sitting in the living room with the recliner turned around facing the back yard, and I am enjoying the warmth of the sun coming through the windows, and the random wind gusts that makes the leaves fall. It is a gorgeous autumn afternoon; I'm feeling a little under the weather; my hubby make me some tea, and the dog is asleep at my feet.

I'm feeling too content to do any more writing. I think I'll just take a nap.

7448

continued writing

Posted a Monday Musings this morning over at Rosary Army and there sucked up my alloted universal word count for the day. Had a productive, if limited, opportunity to work on the nanowrimo project this afternoon. I'll return to some more writing tonight, but posted a word count now, anyway, just for the sake of continuity, and to make me feel bad for not meeting the day's quota. One of my writing buddies, Sammy, who posts on the 12 of 12s here, is way ahead of me at over 8,000 words, so at the very least I am probably shamed into catching up tonight.

That's a good thing.

7448

The problem with NaNoWriMo

The problem with NanoWriMo is that I tend to use up all the words I have, and never get around to posting here. Couple that with the fact that I have a couple of other writing obligations (well, that's a strong word, but well, let's call them commitments) and I just never get around to here.

Not an excuse or a whine--just an explanation. I invite you to join NanoWriMo and you can read the novel in progress. I've already got several thousand words in, so we'll see how that develops. I think I'll post a word count on the blog like I did last year while I was trying to finish Darknet.

Essentially, I learned some things with that novel that I'm trying to avoid with this one, and I hope to have a better developed story. I think I had a good concept with Darknet, but the race to finish was greater than the content at the end, and so I'll work on that this go round. How to finish with the same energy I start with? Yeah, I'm thinking that if I can figure that one out, and sell it, I could be rich. LOL. Not.

anyway, I've put some energy into researching and gathering information for this novel, from a concept I had outlined a couple of years ago, so hopefully after such a long incubation period I will be able to produce something readable.

Now, I gotta get back to the story.

6,710/50,000