Almost the 4th of July

Seems like a good day to blog. We seem to have access again, though I wish the storms would come back. :-)

Happy 4th to all, especially to those who are celebrating while their loved ones are on boats or in planes or in barracks in another part of the world. I pray that soon you'll all be together again.

Big times around here. Beloved tore a tendon in his bicep so he's all splinted, recovering from surgery. Girlo has a job. Music to any graduate's ear. Son has working email. Music to his mom's eyes! :-)

I'm revising proposals and working on new stuff. Writing, writing, writing. Gotta make up time after post-surgery care for beloved.

I keep telling myself to break away and swim. Good grief, I was about to whine about not dragging myself out there because of the heat, but we're about ten degrees cooler than usual for this time of day! I'd better go haul any adventurous snakes out of the pool and take their place!

Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday! And, no, girlo, you may not have the hamburgers with swiss cheese and mushrooms a day early. Tonight is fish and pasta!

Falling Behind--Satellite Anyone?

We've been having the usual satellite issues. I can't even bring up blogger at home. However, for a quick chat, come visit at Twitter.

I'm also taking Candace Havens' Fast Draft class. I'm writing like crazy on a brand new proposal even though I have two proposals to finish, but I wanted this challenge, and it's refreshing to just go with the flow instead of over-analyzing myself half to death. If you're a writer, you should try this. Especially if you've had any confidence issues. You have to produce so quickly you have no time to worry about confidence.

Normally, I wonder if I could possibly be writing well if I'm writing this fast, but this class is chasing the critical voice right out of my head! I need to post a mental "No Vacancy" sign to fool the critic into thinking it's full in there!

It's Thursday!

And I have a few writing moments today. Shhhhh--don't tell anyone. Actually, I have a critique I need to do first with some work time, but I might do an hour of each.

Then I need to buy soil conditioner, some more plants for the flowerbed, a dimmer switch for the dining room--and something or a set of somethings with which to produce dinner. Then I have to set out six beautiful tomato plants our extremely kind neighbor gave us. (I'm guessing he's noticed what bad gardeners we are?)

Throw in a toilet cleaning and you've got the glam life of a writer! :-) I'd love to be a little glam. I'll bet you have to wear shoes to be glam. (So, clearly not for me!)

Stuff on Wednesday

Time for a "randomness" post.

The shoe trend: how I love shoes, and I'm feeling absolutely deprived because I will literally never be able to wear four-inch heels. But if you had to describe me by my feet, I'd come out looking like Fred Flintstone. I had to wear shoes to my daughter's graduation. Just shoes--nothing fancy. I still haven't recovered. Must practice before National this summer.

Next: I've mentioned my weakness for Another World, a "classic" soap? Suddenly, all those actors are doing commercials. All right, it's Cass, Frankie, and one of the Jamie's looking mighty delicious! :-)

When did morning news "presenters" become celebrities? In their own minds, I mean?

Why am I suddenly willing to be sarcastic on my blog? Need to stop that. Not nice.

No-need-to-talk Tuesday

You know when you're out of sorts and you can't find something pleasant to say, it might be time to do as Grandma suggested: If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all. I kind of thought that was going to be my plan.

But I can talk about the weather. It's nice and cool. Unexpectedly, unbelievably cool. Only 45 degrees, and the house is even a little chilly. We'd already reached the stage of tropical despair some folks celebrate as summer. I really need to move to the tundra because last night as I walked, even the sun seemed slanted in that end-of-summer light. I had to caution myself to remember fall was not arriving. But I was a little excited anyway! :-)

Bittersweet Monday

Wow. Almost a month has passed since I last blogged. What a month it's been.

Our daughter graduated from college with a B.S. in Nursing. That doesn't tell you everything. She's escaped the roommates from hell. She won another clinical award for her compassion and nurturing care of patients and their families. She finished a mountain of tests and papers, and shared a research project award. She walked on Saturday, with a big grin on her lovely face, despite enduring the heinous roommates, the exhausting work, the fact that she was torn between visiting family and the fun of the last week of undergraduate college, and the need to finish moving out of the dorm.

I'm so proud of her I could bust, and yet, I'm also a little sad. She's moving on now, and it's what she's supposed to do. She's independent and intelligent and she's eager to make her own way.

I'm a little sad because she won't always be down the hall in her room, and she won't always ask me if I want to go read in the comfy chairs at B&N, and simply--she won't live under our roof any more.

Our roof is going to feel pretty empty.

Tuesday--Doin' my homework!

When I was a girl, my aunts and cousin could all knit, but I could only crochet. Knitting looked so confusing that I never ventured to do it. I love crocheting, and I made up patterns to make clothes for my Barbie (when she wasn't shooting the rapids--storm-swollen streams in our share of the Tennessee woods)with GI Joe. I also made up a pattern for a cool (read dramatic) sweater with a pointy hood and bell sleeves. Very monk-like, perfect for the teenage girl I was at the time! :-)

I still love crocheting, but I'm not afraid of knitting now. A few weeks ago, I was wandering the square in town with a friend, and we stumbled across a new shop devoted to all things knitting. They had a note in the front window advertising classes so I darted inside before I could change my mind and decide I didn't have time to finally learn to knit.

Might have been a mistake. After two Monday nights of making new friends and laughing through a two-hour class and dreaming of all the lovely new things I can make out of beautiful yarns (fiber, the truly adept seem to call it), I only have time to knit!