You'll Be a Song I'll Sing

About a week and a half ago, my Palm T|X fell from our phone cabinet and my keys went with it.

The screen itself appears to be holding together but there’s funny business going on underneath.  Where you see yellow in the picture, the dead grey pixels are slowly taking over and spreading out.  It’s getting difficult to see people’s addresses and phone numbers in my contact list.

I started off with a Palm V.  I’d play Mahjong while waiting in long lines.  There are years of Palm archives on my computer that contain contact and calendar information.  If an appointment wasn’t on the calendar then it didn’t exist.  It took me a long time to figure out how to use Graffiti so my letters were recognized.  I bought a keyboard for it thinking I would write story ideas into the memos but the keyboard never worked right.

When I thought my Palm had been lost in a recliner I bought another one to replace it.  After a week or two, I really dug into that recliner and found the original one.  I kept the one with the better buttons and sold the other one to my friend Rob.  He loved having it, but left it on top of his car one night after work and drove off without it.  Rob was distracted when he answered his cell phone.  He did find it, but it was in such bad shape he bought another used one.

A few years ago my husband decided I needed an upgrade.  He knew I wouldn’t do it myself.  My Christmas present was this Palm T|X.  It had color!  Sound!  Wifi!  Bluetooth!  I could no longer play Mahjong during long waits but I could read books with the Adobe Reader.  Or check my email at the airport.  Or figure out from imdb.com what movie my family was watching while at the Topsail Beach house.  One of the really cool things was color coding all my calendar entries.  If it was Orange then I was going to see a movie.  If it was Pink, then I had something writing related to do.

Palm stopped making the T|X in March 2009.  A few months ago the Palm OS stopped on mine and I had to upgrade to a higher version.  I found out the hard way it couldn’t setup recurring tasks like the old OS.  Put a check mark in the box and it would not generate the same task for the next week; I missed that feature.  And the desktop calendar didn’t show the color coded entries.

It looks like an iPhone is my near future.

Mirrored from Amber Stults - Book Reviewer and Author.

Yesterday morning at the end of Sammy's walk, sleet began to fall.  Then on my way across the parking lot into work it began to snow.  It was still snowing this morning.

It's a heavy and wet snow.  Came home last night to find my husband unburying the driveway for me.  Sammy was inside the garage but went running out when I got home.  He and I played in the snow while my husband shoveled.  Sammy found a snowball I threw at him and proceeded to eat it.  Then he chewed on every stick he could find. 

Our streets never get plowed.  Someone was nice enough to bring a truck with a scooper on front down our side street.  It makes it much easier to leave the house.

Went to my husband's cousin's baby shower - their first kid - and had a good time.  Got them a taggie, two custom burp cloth and bib sets, The Monster At the End of the Book and Open Me... I'm a Dog.  Was announced to all I can by their baby boy clothes anytime.  :)

I'm in the Great White North for the first time since 9/11.  I haven't been avoiding the country; it just never worked out for me to return here.  

Barney Stinson has his "get psyched" mix CD and now I have a "me and amber" playlist my husband put together last night.  I know some of you may disagree, but no road trip is complete unless you hit the road to "Dancing Queen". 

No snow is predicted for our destination.  We encountered it in the Cleveland area.  The whirling snow was reminescent (bad spelling at the moment, forgive me) of the snow dervishes in EQ but much more beautiful.  Visibility was very low and we were stuck behind a salt truck on the freeway.  I should have brought my tennis shoes with me.  Walking around the city in snow boots is not very comfortable.  Or I need to get a pair of boots that look like tennis shoes.

We made what I think is good time.  Left at 9am and hit Canada about 2:30pm.  Husband is at a movie right now.

I headed to Eaton where I had an Orange Julius (they always make me think of my childhood in California though I don't recall ever drinking them there) and went window shopping.  I picked up two Canadian books - February by Lisa Moore and Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson.  Indigo had a table of books for fantasy and science fiction lovers.  There were two stacks of Spellbent by las but I didn't have my camera with me. 

There is an exhibit titled "Canadian Snow Geese" by Michael Snow I was able to see at the mall.

On the way back to the hotel I stopped at Tim's and got a chili.  Ate it with a Jones Cane Sugar Soda.  Now I can identify the "different" taste of Mexican Coke.  I wasn't sure if it was the water, the cane sugar or the bottle.

There are a few ways I know I'm not in Ohio anymore. 

• There are trash and recycling bins on the streets and in the malls.
• I was charged .05 for a plastic bag at the book store.
• Instead of an Applebee's on every corner I spy an Elephant and Castle or Swiss Chalet.
• And of course, there are more Tim Horton's than Wendy's.

In October 2009 I was fortunate to meet, very briefly, one of the smartest and prolific authors of my time, Francine Prose.  She was in town to talk about her latest book, Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife.  The format for her visit, she said, was different from her other stops to talk about it.  She would discuss the book and research for it, read some passages, and then take questions.  Honestly, it felt like a master class to me and I envied her students.

Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife is not the book she originally set out to write at all.  Prose wanted to write a novel with a teenager as the main character and what better source could there be but Anne Frank? (I’ve had Prose’s Reading Like A Writer on my TBR pile for years but I promise this is the year I will read it!)  From there she got so caught up in Anne Frank as a writer that she wrote a different book altogether.  Many multiple published authors believe if you want to write well that it’s good to know why or how other writers were able to pull off an idea or theme successfully.

The last week or so I’ve been taking mental notes on Kate Atkinson’s One Good Turn. I know this will not be my first reading of it.  Back in November 2006 I wrote over 15,000 words of a novel originally titled Untitled 2006 for lack of a better name.  As always, I thought an appropriate title would spring up along the way.  In One Good Turn Atkinson has one event happen seen from multiple points of view and then slowly all the people who witnessed the event are tied together.  They’re strangers so they don’t know they’re connected.  In Untitled 2006 I had one event happen and then began writing a chapter about each key person who witnessed or was part of the event but overlooked the extraordinary thing about it.  But I ran out of steam after a while mainly because I didn’t know what that extraordinary thing was.  After several years I still don’t know but that doesn’t mean the day won’t come when I will have that answer.

Mirrored from Amber Stults - Book Reviewer and Author.

As promised, here is the goose I cooked for Boxing Day. I used a recipe supposedly from Julia Child. After brining, I steamed the goose on the stovetop and then roasted it in the oven. It was delicious!

Today's pickup included a stewing hen, rib steaks, lamb chops, 6 pizzoronis links (I think they might be pepperoni made with beef and pork), a chuck roast, 3 pounds of hamburger and 2 dozen eggs.

I still have a dozen and a half eggs from last time.  Husband has been enjoying egg dishes for breakfast once a week.  I really must make a quiche!  I made Italian Beef with the last chuck roast and that turned out well.  My husband kept smelling something good and couldn't figure out where it was coming from since the oven wasn't on.  We had sandwiches one night and another night had the meat with rice and lentils.

The last two weeks I've read The Outlander by Gil Adamson and Spellbent by Lucy A. Snyder.  They're different (although they both have gun totin' heroines) and both full of awesome!

I have a book giveaway on my site for Liza Palmer's A Field Guide to Burying Your Parents.  Other than the blurb I knew nothing about it and really enjoyed it.

My 2010 is off to a wonderful start.  Sammy let us sleep in only to make sure we knew he was awake by his yakking.  Poor little boy brought up bile stuff.  I must not have given him anything after 10pm like I usually do to keep his stomach from getting upset.

And I'm not being sarcastic at all.  The year is off to a wonderful start!

I had a shwarma sandwich tonight for dinner with lettuce, red cabbage and all the other stuff I normally don't get on it.  No problems three hours later.  Yay intestines!

This holiday was a little odd. My parents went out of time (and still aren't back yet) and we usually spend Christmas Eve evening with them exchanging gifts with that side of the family. The office closed at noon and an early Christmas miracle happened - I got to leave at noon with everyone else. We had dinner at Surly Girl Saloon and got to see their new menu. Let me tell you... I had the Slammin' Salmon with rice and beans and there was not a single bite left on my plate.

Sammy isn't so much our straight man for jokes as he is the butt or catalyst of our jokes. Christmas morning he's jumping up and down from his excitement at going out for his morning walk. This is not entirely unusual. My husband says something to him along the lines of, "I almost think you're as excited as a little kid waiting to open presents on Christmas morning." Of course this makes me laugh.

We wait around until it's about time to go to my in-laws. My husband decides Sammy gets a present from us this year. He gets to celebrate Christmas with us! Even though it's wet and a little bit muddy we pack him into the car. Surprisingly, he does well. He walks under the branches of the Christmas tree to see what's there. He won't go down the basement stairs which is kind of funny - they are carpeted closed stairs so we thought he'd willingly go down them. Instead, he stands at the top stop, leans his body over and cranes his neck as far as it will go just so he can maybe see or hear what is going on - just like at home. My in-law's house has an open loft type room upstairs. Sammy figures out I am up there but it takes him a while to figure out how to get up the stairs. And once he's up there he has a tough time figuring out how to get down the stairs. He's used to jumping off the last few steps into our hallway. And at my in-laws he would hit his head against the wall if he did that. Sammy only barks a little bit while there which we were so happy about.

Grandpa loves visiting with Sammy. Grandma will pet him but can really take him or leave him. When we sat down to eat dinner I can't remember what she said but it was something like, "I have my jello, my coffee and we're all sitting down to dinner. Get lost, dog!" We never know what she's going to say and it usually makes us laugh. Sammy was just standing between her and Grandpa - he wasn't even begging or anything.

We did the usual at the in-laws where we opened the presents in our stockings, passed out presents, opened presents and then ate dinner. This year we had molded jello, green beans w/ham, wheat rolls, beef tenderloin, roasted red potatoes and black olives. Dessert was ice cream with berry cobbler or apple cobbler.

We were there longer than we thought we would be. Got there around 2pm and left around 8pm. Once I was home there was a message from my brother that he left at 2:15pm. About fifteen minutes after we walked in the house he called again. He and his wife had gone to see Sherlock Holmes. They were watching tv with their friend, Nikki, who we hadn't met. So we went over to exchange gifts.

They have two dogs. One is a pit bull mix and a very sweet dog. The other one is a Shiba Inu. It bit me once on the back of my thigh and caused bruising. It's growled at my dad and in September it bit my mom on the hand while she was petting it.

We exchanged gifts, watched some of SNL's Gilly Christmas special and then decided after 10pm we had to leave. I still had a goose to brine! From the way the Shiba Inu was acting I knew it was looking for trouble. He kept trying to get close to me and now and then would tentatively lick my fingers. My brother tried to keep us apart. When I stood up and reached down to get my coat he lunged for me. My husband had a good view of it all. All I heard was snarling and I thought at first I'd stepped on the dog's paw but I realized I didn't feel the paw under my foot. If anything, the dog got my pants leg but not my skin. My brother had put his body in front of the dog and yanked the leash/collar to put more distance between us.

After getting home, I decided to make the brine in the morning because the goose should only be brined for 4 - 8 hours. People were expected at 5pm. It would take 2 and a half hours to make the goose. More on that fun later!

So far I've used the ground beef (tacos), rabbit (rosemary rabbit), a chicken (simple roast chicken) and a couple of the eggs from the CSA pick-up. Tomorrow my husband is picking up a goose.

This week I made some chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter cookies. All my attempts at peanut brittle throughout the month were failures. I went to a pie baking class where I made an awesome pie crust. It went towards a pumpkin pie that didn't last long.

Saw The Road this weekend and wasn't as depressed afterwards as I expected to be. I haven't read the book yet so I can't compare the two.

Yesterday I picked up my half shares (for November and December) from my meat CSA and I am a happy girl. I have ideas going through my head of different things to make. The next pick-up is at the beginning of January so I have plenty of time!

Contents included:
2 chickens
2 dozen eggs
1 rabbit
ground beef
1 rib steak
1 swiss steak (thick)
1 chuck roast
6 or more pork neck bones (for soup or meat pasta sauce)

The Zoom Family Film Festival is going on at my husband's work. It's been all weekend and today is the last day. His parents came with me to see The Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation and today my parents will go with me to see Mr. Bug Goes to Town.

Most of the presents for the holidays have been bought - and nearly all are wrapped. Holiday cards are on their way from the printer (husband figured out from a spanish instruction book how to use the self-timer on our camera - the spanish one was all I could find) and I bought the stamps yesterday to mail them out.

There are fireworks exploding in the office because I won. And Sammy sleeps underneath my chair instead of hiding like he usually does when the fireworks go off during the summer.

I am celebrating my 50088 words with miniature toblerones.

I know my LJ posts are pretty boring for the month. Things should be more interesting in a day or two.

My Total Word Count right now is 45078. I've got a lot of writing to do tomorrow to get caught up. It's my last chance this year.

This weekend I have been pushing to write the rest of the words for this year’s NaNo project. 

On Friday I had 59.9% of the words written.  That’s just under 30k.  My husband saw so little of me yesterday he didn’t realize I never got out of my pajamas.

Today my total word count starts at 38911.  I have completed 77.8% of the project and have 11089 words to go before I can cross the finish line.

I feel a little bit like a bike rider going down a steep hill.  The pedals are going too fast for my feet.  I can barely control where the bike is going but the wind in my hair makes me feel alive.

Mirrored from Amber Stults - Book Reviewer and Author.

Today was a good writing day. I am happy with my number of words written and didn't feel like I gave up too much today. I was able to watch a few programs on the DVR and have meals with my husband.

Total Written Today: 5899 (yeah - I guess I couldn't squeeze out one more word. lol)
Total Word Count: 38911
11089 Words to go or... 5545 words written the next two days.

I did not take advantage of any Black Friday sales and stayed away from most shopping places. I wrote a little bit this morning, went to see Fantastic Mr. Fox with in-laws, aunt and husband. Then we had a late lunch at Tip Top, and ended up at the North Market where we got Jeni's ice cream for dessert. I bought a pint of Dark Chocolate, which I've never had, for home.

Once home I got sucked into internet time and then took a two hour nap. Writing commenced on the crappy non-power saving laptop. When it began to lose power I switched to upstairs. (I am saving money for a new laptop.) Fortunately, all of my words were still in my document on my USB Drive.

3043 words written today. Total word count is 33012. I can still finish my Nano project but I need some big pushes. I am going to try and get as much done in the morning as I can so I won't find myself at 10pm wanting or needing to write another 3000 words.

Happy Thanksgiving! If you're not celebrating then I hope you have a good day!

I'm going to update the maps on the Garmin and get some writing done before I head out for the Thanksgiving feast. Total word count as of midnight is 25664.

I am still plugging away at my NaNo Project.  At 24,020 words, my Excel spreadsheet estimates I will be done on December 11th.  I will keep writing one word at a time to get to the finish line.  My goal is still 50 thousand words before December 1st.

Because I spent very little time getting to know my characters beforehand, I do get surprised by my characters or the plot.  Tonight my main character revealed something personal about himself.  Apparently he was an aspiring Olympian in his younger years.  He never made the US Olympic archery team and quit practicing after college.  I should have known a nickname like “Dead Eye” might have something to do with his aim.

At 48% of the project done, I am almost finished with the uphill climb.  Soon I’ll be on the downward slope.  Before I know it, my worry will not be “where will I find all these words” but how to tie up the story before I reach 50k.

Mirrored from Amber Stults - Book Reviewer and Author.

It was the first day to pick up my meat CSA and it didn't go as planned. I did get to get my hair and eyebrows done like I had planned. My shampooer was a man and I can now understand why some women find a man washing their hair sexy. However, all I could think about was how he was massaging my scalp using the same techniques (and some of the same places) as I massage Sammy to calm him down.

470 words today brings me to the precipice of 20k. My total word count at the end of today is 19917. Only 30083 more to go! :)