NaNoQuerMo

Just a quick post today.

Congrats to all those who have finished with their NaNo projects. I've heard fun was had by all.

As it is the last day of the official NaNo, it is also the last day of NaNoQuerMo.

My stats --

13 queries out

1 rejection

1 full request

Which, as you know, sent me into hyperspace for about two weeks. Still no word on anything else. (Which is why I only sent out 10 more...I know these won't come back until after the holidays and I'm perfectly fine with that.) So there you have the official NaNoQuerMo stats.

Anyone else want to share?

Hugh Grant

Good Monday Morning everyone. I hope your weekends were filled with lots of leftovers and lazy laying about.



Anyway, this morning's post is about Hugh Grant. I was never a Hugh Grant fan. Oh yeah, sure I liked him, he was kinda like Keannu Reeves that way, he was cute, but meh, not really for me. Don't get me wrong, I ADORED him in Sense & Sensibility (even Monster Baby loves him as Edward) but Notting Hill, Bridget Jones Diary, Four Weddings..., nah, Hugh just wasn't...IT.

UNTIL I saw him in Music & Lyrics with Drew Barrymore. (I'm a few years late but older movies are like my TBR pile only these are TBS --To Be Seen)

Now I don't know if I loved him in this because he was finally playing a character I could relate to -- he's older, cynical and just a little jaded -- OR if it was because he could sing. (If you haven't seen the movie yet, do find it and watch. I don't think you'll be disappointed but this post isn't about that.)

It's about doing something you've never done before. Hugh Grant sings. Who 'da thunk it. Don't get me wrong, he's not a very good singer, not like Michael Buble by any sort of the imagination, but he does have a very lovely voice.

I Wiki'd him and read the article and it said that Hugh Grant had never sung before. (This article also said he doesn't have CD's for music and he doesn't listen to any but I don't know how that could be -- doesn't everybody listen to music at some point or other???)

ANY-HOO, I also watched the director's notes and Hugh talks about how he had to LEARN how to sing, and play the piano for this role. (Being in the theatre in another life, yes, you do have to learn how to sing for performances and how to read music and such) however, I found it extraordinarily amazing that Mr. Grant did so. He doesn't seem like the sort of movie star who would do that.

But he did. And it was pretty good.

And so my darlings, all of this leads me to ask -- is there something you've learned to become better at what you do? As writers we're always learning (or at least supposed to be learning) how to be better at our craft...what was something you've learned that you hadn't known before?

(I'll say that I learned how to blog. You all know about my crazy technological fears, so I think blogging was something I overcame to become a better writer. Meeting all of you has certainly helped my craft. Oh, and comma's. I learned about comma's.)

Thankful

Monster Baby has been practicing what she's going to say at the dinner table tomorrow -- what she's thankful for. The quick list -- Mommy, Puppa & Yo-Yo, Spotty, Fluffy, Henry, her toys and her new school.

My short list -- my daughter (The Biggest Monster Baby in the world whom I love with all my heart), my parents (of course), my writing (without which I would die) and

YOU!

Yes, that's right. YOU. ALL OF YOU. Each and every single pixilated face in my followers list and then some.

If it hadn't been for the blogging community, I wouldn't be where I am today in my writing. This blogosphere is the find of the century as far as I'm concerned, better than any book, any manual, any course I could have ever taken at college.

YOU are always so giving with advice and good cheer and commiseration, it's hard to even think of one person in the real world who gives me as much as all of you do. YOU make me laugh and cry, and think about my stories and what real writing is. YOU are the BEST colleagues I could have ever asked for and what I have been given is a gift -- a true gift -- of which I am profoundly thankful.

Please drive safely, don't eat too much, and be thankful for what you have. There is always somebody else who has less than you.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Technologically Challenged

I asked my daughter last week what she wanted for Christmas. She said a remote controlled dog. (Which I thought was insane, we have two perfectly good "real" dogs she can play with.) I said I would discusss it with Santa.

I asked her again, the other night, what she wanted. She said, (are you ready for this) "... a phone that has pictures, and movies, and songs. You know, the kind the kind that has the best games."

Logical Mommy replied, "I don't even have a phone like that. Why do you want that?"

And she said, "Phone games are smarter. I can beat all the levels on my game-girl and my computer (both by LeapFrog). I want to be challenged."

I almost dropped what I was holding.

I hate computer games. (Remember how old I am for a second here. Some of you may not know what I'm talking about.) I never played Pac-Man. Don't really know who Pong was... or was it Kong. I never desired to hang with Super Mario. I cried when they took the pinball machine out of the club I was working in and replaced it with some race car driver machine that all the guys loved.

I typed my stories for YEARS on a Smith-Corona. My big thrill was when they came out with the eraser tape dispenser. I balked at getting a computer. I got a word processer instead. (This was when computers were expensive, they were practically brand new to the modern era.)

Give me a man tool, for inside or out. I can understand that. Give me a recipe. Give me laundry, a weed-wacker, or any other physical task and I'm on it. Ask me to do anything other than write my stories with my brain -- forget it. You should see my checkbook. (But that's really math and that's a whole other post.)

I am Technologically Challenged.

I am scared to death to start a Face Book account. Dont' even talk to me about Twitter. I have no idea what a hash tag is...(but if I had to guess, I'd say it has something to do with potatoes) and quite frankly, I don't want to.

Thinking of starting a web-site has me sick to my stomach. I write in different genres with different pen names...does that mean I need three different web-sites? Oh. My. God. What have I gotten myself into?

As a writer, when I'm doing my physical tasks (and there are many at my house), that's when I do my best writing. If I'm lucky, it makes it to the page. I've been noticing lately, I'm using pen and paper. I don't know why.

Perhaps because when I started writing, way back when (when the dinosaurs were alive) I used pen and paper. It has been somewhat of an awakening. Does it make a difference in my writing? I have noticed, what goes down on the page is longer, more verbose, purple, if you will. When I transfer it to .doc, it becomes less.

Is modern technology wiping out my need for the more elegant language of times past? Sometimes I like to let the words on the page linger for a second, give me another way of looking at something, the -ly's, the adverbs.

I've watched our world transform in the last 40 years from Leave it to Beaver to The Jetsons. It's a scary thing to me. I guess I've been reincarnated in the wrong era or something.

I've been thinking for quite some time about getting Monster Baby her own, real computer. (I won't let her use mine. She crashed my last one and lost 60k of the orginal MASQUERADE ms.) My cousin Tommy is a... (see, I don't even know what he is but I call him a computer genius)...computer genius and made me my computer from spare parts. His kids have had their own computers since they were born. (Both of them are now on the "Fast Track Elevated Learning Program" at their school. Got this info from my cousin, his mother, yesterday.) Tommy can download all kinds of games and things for Monster Baby so she can be "challenged". Which might not be a bad thing.

When she's older, I can watch over her shoulder while she opens my FaceBook and Twitter accounts for me.

How do you feel about modern technology?

Pumpkin Pie and the Cousins

Good Monday morning everyone. I hope all is going well this fine day. This will not be a post related in any way, shape, or form to writing. Just so you know.

I'm recuperating. From what you may ask -- well, I'll tell you.

My cousins are coming in this afternoon for the holiday week. I was supposed to make the pumpkin pies over the weekend. (From real pumpkins -- how much fun...)

Buuuuttttt.....my mother got it in her head to rip up the hallway rug Thursday night. 3 feet wide, 20 feet long. She's not supposed to be doing heavy physical labor. My father is a mess. Guess who had to help.

Fast track to Friday afternoon, where we spent almost 2 hours finding a rug to lay down in the hallway so the cousins wouldn't have to look at the subfloor. I told my mother we could paint the subfloor brown, so you wouldn't really notice it under the new rug. That was the plan. Simple Easy Quick. Right?

Saturday morning my father said he would go get the paint. (He felt a little better.) He came back with cheap laminate to lay down on the subfloor. Huh? Okay, I'll go with it. How hard can it be? Problem is, they have door frames. So we had to cut grooves in the laminate. Which, for most normal people, wouldn't have been that much of a problem. My father (who is a master caprenter and can't do anything without a ruler, level and square) took almost 3 hours to cut grooves in the laminate. Guess who had to do the rest?

I have been on my hands and knees for two days (because even though most normal people can lay a laminate floor in 4 hours, my father was looking over my shoulder.) I had to pull up the staples from the carpet, fill in holes with wood filler, sand those, vaccuum twice with the shop vac (that I had to drag upstairs from the basement) and then I had to cut the bottom of the door frames off so the laminate would fit UNDER the door frames. How much fun was that? Sawdust, grit, my mother bitching about the shop vac making more dust, how was she supposed to cook.) Then my father sat and dictated how I should lay the laminate, carefully, perfectly, because we couldn't afford any mistakes. (He'd made so many mistakes cutting the door frames he didn't think there would be enough to finish the floor and was damned if he'd go back and buy more. He forgot I could get down on my hands and knees to cut the door frames, so he was thinking maybe they should put in a real floor now. Argh!)

Needless to say, I didn't make the pies.

Do you do stuff like this? Have you ever taken on a DIY project that was supposed to be simple and it turns into Godzilla meets This Old House?

*** I did get to make the pumpkin pies this morning -- although, I dropped the mixing bowl into the other already poured pie, and it erupted like Mt. Vesuvius. All OVER the kitchen counter, the cabinet on the other side, the canisters and ALL the utensils in the pitcher. Down the counter cabinets and onto the floor. Luckily the dogs were in the house and they ate that. My cousins are arriving at ten.

Friday's at the Piedmont Grille

On the menu today – Thanksgiving

Today I thought, I would share with you some helpful hints I’ve picked up over the course of my years as a chef to help you deal with cooking the bird next Thursday. Seems the least I could do considering I haven’t had a contest yet.

Anyway, for those of you cooking this year, here are some quick tips –

If your bird is frozen when you buy it, take it out on Monday to defrost. Still in plastic wrapper, put it in the kitchen sink when you get up in the morning. Put it back in the fridge Monday night before you go to bed. Leave it in the fridge until you are ready to cook. (Unless you live somewhere its 70 degrees, then only leave it out until lunchtime.)

Wash your turkey inside out. I know it’s a pain, the guts and juice splatter all over the place, and you drop it twice on the floor, never fails, but you have to rinse it out. And pat it dry, especially inside the bottom. Don’t leave water pooling in the guts.

I cook my stuffing the day before (sometimes two depending on what else I have to cook) and keep it cold until I stuff the turkey. NEVER stuff a cold turkey with hot dressing. (I could explain about the salmonella and possible botulism but I don’t want to take up too much of your time.)

Loose Measurements –

Pinch – two fingers or half teaspoon
A Little Bit – three fingers or full teaspoon
A Sprinkle – product around the circumference of the bowl or quarter cup
Handful – 4 ounces or half cup

Remember your pets. DO NOT give them fat, cooked, or not, skin, raw or cooked, or gravy. Too much fat content can mess with their billirubins and cause them to go into liver failure. (We lost a dog because of this one year and it was not fun. He got into someone’s trash and ate a coffee can full of leftover grease and turkey fat.) NO BONES for either dog or cat; they splinter and could lodge anywhere.

If its’ cold enough, I use my car as a temporary fridge. Especially the day after Thanksgiving. (I did go shopping one year with pies and half of a dessert tray under my hatchback. Needless to say, that year, I spent too much money because I had ready food.)

Remember why you’ve come together. I always forget when my mother is bitching about my father who’s watching the game too loud and Monster Baby already dirty before my aunt and uncle and cousins get there. You know, the family crap. It’s what keeps you going back, year after year, even if the bird is too dry and Uncle Vic is still kind of icky. Love the ones you’re with. Or at least fake it. Especially when your sister-in-law shows up with her sparkly new whatever.

My biggest suggestion, and I know I shouldn’t even bother with this because I know, as writers, you already do this – Make a list of what you need to do. Prioritize. Make a menu. This will help you focus. Make a time chart for the oven, what needs to go in at what time so everything is hot on the table. Make a list of things to do if guests (children, husbands should ask – Do you want me to do something?) By the end of Thanksgiving Day, I generally have about six pages of written notes. (I have a scrapbook full of stuff, someday I’m gonna write a real book…)

If you have any questions about thanksgiving recipes, or cooking, or even kitchen utensils, please feel free to ask me in the comments. Have a great weekend.

My Muse

Tara asked me yesterday if my newly found muse was hot. Yeah, I would say so.


Strictly speaking, I would never go out with him, he's got that whole bad boy thing going on and as much as it pains me to admit it, I don't know what I'd do with him.
BUT to just gaze upon, while he rests his feet on the back of my couch while he dictates his next S.N.I. Yeah, I guess I could put up with him. Besides, he's wicked funny and loves to get my goat. Cad.




Isn't he just the cutest li'l thing.


He reminds me of Peter Pan, with the whole lost boy image, flying here, there and everywhere just to get into trouble. But damn, he does have some good ideas. And he does look good in a kilt. (Sorry, no pictures to be found.)