August 2001

Birthdays, Thoughts and a Surprise

Happy Birthday to Abstract Thoughts. It's three years old today. Pretty amazing to me. Like a child, my journal has gone through a lot of changes. Like a toddler, I had my "terrible twos" phase where my journal was more of a grocery list of things I did instead of something more meaningful. It took a comment from Michael from Baker Street on his "Journals I Read" page about a year ago for me to realize it.

That one comment made me change the way I wrote it in this journal. Instead of daily, I write about once every 3-4 days about things that are interesting and moving to me. If I don't have anything fairly important to say, I don't say anything. I'd rather go another day than write something that is just filler. I think it's worked out pretty darned well. I only have 15 people on my notify list, but there are a lot more who read me.

I guess that's important to me. As much as this journal is for me, it is also for my audience, too. For me to share. Sometimes I forget that - which is not necessarily a bad thing. I don't censor myself as much.

Lots of "Odds 'n Ends" today.

So far, so good on the Atkins' program. I'm enjoying the food, not being hungry and remembering my vitamin. I have to say, though, drinking all that water has been hard for me. I'm running to the bathroom every 60-90 minutes. But, I'm managing to get the 64 ounces of water in my system daily. My treat diet soda doesn't count and of course, because of the aspartame, it is incredibly bad for me. But, I need my sweet, so, I'm sticking with it.

As I thought, pretty much, if I'm not specifically concentrating on something like work, writing, sex or Marrach, I'm thinking about food. What I ate. What I will eat next. What will I do for the next day's food so I don't feel deprived.... and so on. I figure I'll be like this for the next 2 weeks. Then, I'll settle down and get comfortable with the program.

I've noticed that I have very consciously and deliberately not called this whole thing a 'diet' because I hate that word and associate it with things that don't work. I use 'program' because that's what it is and because I always succeed at programs and plans. Especially when I put my mind to it. I got myself out of debt that way. Going on 18 months being debt free. I'm very determined that this will work.

I guess that's why I've suddenly taken a keen interest in my appearance and the clothing I wear. I've deliberately worked to not have ALL black in my wardrobe and to have clothing that make people look at me. Admittedly, I wasn't consciously thinking like that when I bought my "Why, yes, this is my chest - please look at it. No, no. Really. I don't mind." shirt. I just really liked it on the model. It's a black tank with STAR spelled out in bright shiny rhinestones across the bust. *hehehe* It was amusing to watch my co-workers' eyes bounce from my chest to my face and back again - repeatedly because the shirt is just that eye catching.

I'm so easily amused these days. That's a good thing, I think.

Surprisingly, I got a call from Ice. It looks like he's going to come out and visit me really soon before he goes on to do something super secret in Washington DC. We are shooting for the end of August so that I can take him to ConQuest. I wasn't sure I was going to go for the whole weekend but if Ice is here, I definitely am.

He wants to meet all my friends and he's wondering if they will like him. I've no doubt that they will because he's such a neat guy. Johanna met him some... six years ago... when he last came out to visit me. It should be pretty interesting to have him meet my friends in "convention mode." He's only played Hunter, so I'm going to make sure we get him into a Hunter game over the weekend.

It's funny. When I was thinking about how long it's been since he's seen me, my first thought was, "Damn. I was a lot skinnier back then." But then, I shooed that fear away. It really doesn't matter if I'm skinny Minny or two ton Tessy. I'm still me and we're still the best of friends. It's our hearts that count.

I think beyond Robert, he's the only one from college that I've really kept in touch with. I guess that makes him my third longest running friend at 11 years. Just behind Robert at 12 years and Casey at 14years (we went to high school together for a year). Ice and I have always had a strange kinship of understanding and respect. Oh, sure, we used to fight some but never a lot. I think we've gotten closer since we left college. I know I've missed him a lot.

Maybe, someday, I'll move out to Washington DC.

Nah. But it was a nice thought. I'll just have to lure him to the west coast.

In any case, it's going to be wonderful to see him again.

Tarot Card for the Day: Three of Pentacles

Hopeful, Astonished, Suspicious

From the Scale...
I got on the scale this morning. It's been one week since I started the Atkins program. This was the test to see if I was going to pay for eating so well or if the hype was true. The slide started at 323 and the balance was heavy. *hrm* For a lark, I slide it 320. Still way heavy. 318. Still heavy. 316. Starting to shift as if almost balanced. 315. Balanced.

315. I lost 8 pounds?

My emotions jumped all over the place. Happiness and astonishment were replaced by suspicion. No way. I ate like crazy over the last week and I lost 8 pounds? 1-2 was expected. 3-4 would have made me happy. 5-6 would have made me ecstatic. 7-8 makes me suspicious. Why such a big drop? Is this a water weight thing? I had weighed myself on Monday morning, just like last week.

I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth but realistically, I know there must be other factors involved. I wore my nightgown instead of a towel. I was coming off my period. It's the first week of a diet program. Etc... Still. I lost 8 pounds. *grin* Let's hope that the trend keeps going. Maybe not as dramatic but still in the same downward direction.

I have learned a couple of lessons in the past week, too.

1. I really need a good cook book. I seem to have forgotten how to cook.
2. I really wish I had a gas stove.
3. Splenda (an artificial sweetener) is your friend and not a poison like aspertame.
4. Diet Rite Raspberry soda is lots yummier than Diet Mountain Dew and has no caffinee.
5. Carbolite Dark Chocolate is a Godsend. No carbs and does taste like real chocolate.
6. Carbolite protein chips start out good and end up like sand. *yuck*
7. Trader Joe's!
8. The moment you go on a diet, your co-workers will offer you homemade food.
9. I miss my morning garlic bagel.

Miscellania...
Don of Black Gate sent back my Marrach feature for 'one last tweak' and I added the bit he wanted but it bumped my word count from 1925 to 2190. I really tried to keep it under 2000 but I was unable to whittle it down any further. But, it was finished up and sent back on Sunday.

I bought Neil Diamonds "In my Lifetime" CD box set last week. Wow. It really brings back memories of Belgium and growing up with my parents. I never realized just what an established performer Neil Diamond was and still is. He's unique, though. He doesn't fit into any real category. Not jazz or rock or alternative. I guess he is his own category - a Solitary Man - just like his first major hit. If you like Neil Diamond, you'll love his box set.

I finally got to see "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and I completely understand the raves over it. Wow. What an incredibly beautiful and stunning movie. The fight scenes were poetry in motion. The scenery was awe inspiring, the storyline was engaging. Unfortunately, it did have a fairly typical ending for that type of movie - success at great cost and sacrifice. Still, this is a 'have to get on DVD' movie for me.

Gamer Gossip...
I got to play two long time 'on-hiatus' games this weekend. Friday was Waterdeep with my character Fiona. Alex, Johanna and Bob were there. We had a good beginning. I know we're finally going after the "Godstalker" who has been killing priests and clerics of all religions seemingly 'randomly' but no one has been able to get a clue on him or her. This is bad because Fiona is a cleric. Having the PC sign over her head states that eventually, she'll become a target. Should be fun.

Saturday was the table top version of Casting the Runes. Interesting game with some problems but I had a lot of fun over all. The only bad thing that happened to me happened because I was stupid. I walked into a trap, knowing it was a trap because I was 800 year old gangrel and could handle it, dammit! Well... I sorta didn't count on the flame throwers. I became one crispy critter and was staked and blood bound.

Though, it was pretty slick. When I first woke up, I didn't even know what day it was. I was bound to my childe but I didn't know it and it was more to make sure that I didn't freak out when the Sabbat took over the city. However, being gangrel and already having my clan leave the Camarilla 2 years before, I wasn't particularly upset. But, I got upset when someone hurt my childe. That made me almost kill the Ventrue Elder. It was pretty cool that most of the Sabbat characters considered my character the most dangerous one to watch out for.

So, Casting the Runes is now a Sabbat game which is fine by me. I'll see how it goes.

In the Family Way...
Finally, I talked to my parents this weekend. Dad is doing a lot better but still hurting. He wasn't amused by the talk of the 'wilted flower' get well card but took it in stride. They both are doing well and are looking forward to seeing us for the family gathering at Christmas. Apparently, my brother is doing well. That's good. Rather ironic that my parents, some 2500 miles away, hear from my brother more often than I do. I suppose that's OK. We don't really get along.

Tarot Card for the Day: Three of Pentacles, Inverted

Sweetened Dog Food

The Discoveries never cease on this Atkins Program. I had my first encounter with protein bars this week. I figured that protein bars might be a good lo-carb way to go to eat in a hurry. Unfortunately for me, as you can tell by the title, it all didn't go so well. Fortunately for me, I tried a couple of different kinds. Here are my results. Note - have a LARGE glass of water with each bar. You'll need it.

"Pure Protein" brand. 10 carbs per bar. Taste: Sweetened dog food. How gross can you get? I mistakenly thought "More carbs than the others, it probably tastes better." Oh, foolish, foolish mortal. Out of a 1-10, I give these bars a 2.

"Ultimate Lo Carb2" brand. 3 carbs per bar. Taste: Lightly sweetened foo. In other words, it doesn't really taste like anything. There is a vague taste of sweet and the flavor it is supposed to taste like but, in essence, it's like chewing flavorless gum. The consistency isn't too bad, though. Not grainy. A little dry. Out of a 1-10, I give these bars a 5. Eatable but not pleasurable. They will do to fill a hunger.

"Atkins Advantage" brand. 2.6 carbs per bar. Taste: Lightly sweetened something. The best of the bunch that I tried with, surprisingly, the least amount of carbs. The taste is acceptable but not necessarily yummy. At least, there is a flavor and it's not dog food. Good consistency and not -too- dry. You won't be taking a drink of water after EVERY bite of the bar. Just most of them. Best taste and satisfaction of the three. Out of a 1-10, I give these bars a 6. Good enough. You won't be cringing at the thought of eating them. Filling and occasionally tasty. I'll even go so far as to give the flavor Lemon Chiffon a 7. It was actually fairly good.

I'm still searching for a better, yummier protein bar. If you have any ideas, toss them my way. I would dearly appreciate it.

However, on the good side of things, I have discovered that Hansen's diet Black Cherry soda is fabulous! No carbs. No calories. No aspartame. No caffeine. It's yummy, sweet and pretty decent for being a soda. Definitely a treat for when you've drunk all the water you can stand.

Tonight is dinner with James and Laurel. Yah!! It's been a couple of weeks since I saw them. They were all at Gen Con. It was kinda weird not talking to either of them on a near daily basis. It made me realize just how close we've grown together. I enjoy spending time with them separately or together. I'm sure the war stories of the convention are going to be amusing.

Looks like I won't be going to the Pittsburg Fair on Saturday, though. I've been talking with Sam and he's going to be teaching me how to use Skoto's development tools so I can work on Horizon Station. I've reviewed the five rooms he gave me and have suggested changes. Now, he wants me to make those changes. So, I have to learn how. Cool! Soon, I'm going to be actually building sections of the Station.

Sadly, I've let my writing go again. I'm only vaguely working on the next "Hucked Tankard" tale and the next "Tales of Castle Marrach" tale. I really need to kick myself in gear on this. I'm not sure why I'm dragging my feet. Maybe because I've been reading a lot more lately in order to get away from the computer. I just finished a Steven Burst novel and I'm three-fourths of the way through the second Technomage novel. I didn't have time to finish it last night. I had to leave Galen helpless within the lair of the enemy who had just disabled his tech. I'm just itching to get back to it and find out how he gets out of this mess!

Speaking of writing... I'm still casting about for a topic for my August poem. I really hate this feeling of non-creativeness. I have some vague phrases in my head but nothing is coming to me like it used to. Words like water used to come from my fingertips. Now, I have to go digging for inspiration. I'm not used to that feeling.

Tarot Card for the Day: Four of Pentacles

Carb Cravings & Smoking Out the House

I've finished week two of the Atkins program and I've lost another 1.5 pounds. Not nearly as exciting as last week but a -lot- more believable. So, if I can keep a downward trend of 2-3 pounds a week, that will be excellent. I think I'll add exercise this week in the form of walking.

Also, this week, I had my first really bad carbohydrate craving. Thursday night, I was watching TV and a pizza commercial came on. It started me thinking about pizza, of course, and my favor part of any pizza - the crust. For a moment, I could almost literally taste the pizza crust - hot, chewy, crunchy bread. I was drooling at the thought. It was the hardest thing in the world to turn, drink a lot of water and munch on some of my special chocolate bars until the craving went away.

Actually, I'm pretty proud of myself. I held onto my willpower during dinner at Laurel and James' house as well as at dinner after the CAST game. It's not easy, but I'm hanging in there.

Speaking of dinner at James and Laurel's, it was truly a dinner to remember. Mostly because of the lead up to dinner where Laurel smoked out the house with the kabobs. It was so bad, we really thought the neighbors were going to call the fire department. We are pretty sure that it was the bacon grease in the oven. There was a thick haze throughout the whole house. But, once Dave got the fan pointed OUT of the house to draw the smoke OUT, (instead of in where it was just swirling the haze) things cleared up a bit.

Dinner was a lot of fun. I got to hear a bunch of war stories from GenCon and some old stories from Dave about the MonkeyCow - a story worth hearing if you ever have the chance. Also, I got Dave's end of the story on him and Jenny-Lynn and what's happened there. MAN, that woman has balls! I was shocked at some of the things that Dave told me. I have to say that I'm glad that that's all in the past now.

Yesterday was the CAST game. Apparently, not nearly as exciting as everyone was expecting. Anabeth is the Clan Whip now. She's also starting to make her mark in the court, just having discussions with people. Sometimes tense discussions. I really enjoyed a conversation with the court sheriff, Bone, over stereotypes. It was interesting telling a 7 foot brujah that he was falling into society's trap by stereotyping people by Clans. Anabeth was wondering how far she could push it before Bone just pounded on her.

Also, she is pretty stunned at the Seneschal's 'negotiation techniques' with visiting Anarch leader. He stated he didn't care about all the surrounding territory. Also, he gave out strategic information about resistant cells. But, he didn't ask what the Anarchs wanted in return for their help. He didn't offer anything, so the Anarch asked for some outrageous stuff. Anabeth took notes and is going to be telling everything to her primogen, asking if this was some sort of obscure Elder negotiation technique that she didn't understand yet.

Johanna and I were discussing her Network 23 set up that she is doing. I'm not sure if she's actually going to run a game or this is a Convention game or what. But she had to explain to me what Network 23 was and where it came from. Then, she posed her quandary.... what kind of TV shows would there be that aren't snuff or pornography that would still be outrageous. That stumped me. So, I've been thinking about it. Admittedly, some of these shows are snuff, but are amusing and outrageous enough in concept that I still have to mention them.

Lifestyles of the Poor & Unknown. A La "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous." Picking out some poor unfortunate person or family living in squalor to expose to millions of views in a "Look at this, isn't it horrible? Aren't you glad it's not you?" kind of way. Extremely exploitative.

What Kind of Bigot Are You? Based in a world not even 100 years out of segregation, wars and the like, it is very politically correct to be tolerant of everyone. However, we all know that this is not true. Deep inside, everyone has a bit of prejudice. This game is to reveal the contestants true feelings on various races, alternative lifestyles and controversial political themes such as abortion or the death penalty.

The S&M Hour. A daily show about BDSM, what it is, why it is and techniques for tormenting and teasing your submissive or bottom. There can be a wide variety of shows on this from different points of view.

The Obscure Job hour. A show that showcases odd or unpleasant jobs like deodorant sniffer or medical side effect tester or swap drainer and other such obscure jobs. Maybe link this is "Lifestyles of the Poor & Unknown" for an hour of "Aren't you glad this isn't you?"

Slave for a Week. A show about what happens to normal everyday people when they compete for prizes by allowing themselves to be auctioned off as a slave to the highest bidder. They are required to do anything and everything their owner tells them to. A camera crew follows them 24/7 for that week.

Darwin Was Right! A game show based around the notion that Darwin's theory of Evolution and how nature works to weed out the weak, stupid and sick. Events will include the Lightening Strike, Camping at the River of Certain Death, Lion wrestling and Poison animal handling. Moderate to high death rate. Kudos to Casey and Greg for thinking this one up.

Executioner for a Day. A game show about people competing for the honor of choosing the execution method and administering it to whoever is up for execution that day. Maybe add in the extra bad taste of competing for which person to execute, too. Say, three people for execution. If they are not chosen, they get to live another day. Execution methods include everything from lethal injection to hanging to firing squad. Obviously, high death rate.

That's all I could come up with. I'm surprised that I can't think of anything else that is both outrageous but not porn or stuff. Man, what jaded society we've become.

Tarot Card for the Day: Four of Pentacles, Inverted

Busy, busy, busy... Oh, Wait... Termites??

I'm such a bad girl. Almost a week since I updated. Not my fault, really. I've just been so busy working and working and writing and playing and writing. In fact, I should be writing right now but I'm avoiding it like the bad girl I am. *hehehehe*

Gosh, in the last week, mostly, life as been normal. Working at work. Playing when I can but I've actually spent a lot of time writing this week. Mostly on new Edanya stories. (Yeah!) I've pushed myself (somewhat kicking and screaming) back into the saddle, whether I like it or not. Sometimes, you just gotta do that. I did it by scheduling a new story performance even though I had no stories written. Ah, yes. Nothing like a deadline to kick a writer in the ass.

Let's see. Big news this week. Well. I've started exercising. Yep. I've added two 30 minute walks per week. In a couple of weeks, I'll bump it to three 30 minute walks. Then, who knows. Maybe I'll add in the health rider on the days I'm not walking. But, I'm not rushing myself. Especially since I've discovered just how physically out of shape I am. You know... I remember when walking was easy. Piece of cake! Now, oy, by the end of that 30 minutes, I was quietly dying. Both my left ankle and knee were complaining and I was lightly panting and not just from the sun, either!

Also, confession time... I'm sure I went over my 20 carbs yesterday... but you know what? Don't care. Dave cooked some extremely delicious, lightly floured venison. I had 2 pieces and I don't regret it one bit! I had been good... no, excellent... all day on my carbs (Not actually by my choice but that's another story.) and I was not going to deprive myself of venison. So, there. *grin*

Now, as to why I had been good... well, you see... we have no kitchen floor. It started out that we were going to get new tile put down in the kitchen. Donna was, that is. Then, on Thursday, it was discovered that we had termites. Subterranian ones and ones than ate the floor under the dishwasher. So, we had to get a contractor in to replace part of the floor before the tile could go in on Monday. That was this weekend. There's no going in the kitchen at this point.

Did I mention that Donna is leaving town for 5 days on Monday? No? Well, she is. But, she doesn't want me to stay home to deal with the contractors because "They're bonded and I trust them." Did I mention that sometimes, Donna seems monumentally naïve? No? Well, she is. Hopefully, Scott will be home to deal with the Contractors because I can't afford to take anymore work off.

In any case, I haven't really been in the kitchen for the better half of a week now.

On the lighter side of things, I got to play Fiona and Stratha this past week. Both good things. The D&D game was frought with peril for all of the main characters as we brought in the new characters... but it was amusing, too. The Aberrant game was lots of fun. A good healthy dose of kicking ass and taking names while dealing with some of the more personal issues of covert superheros having loved ones in danger from a government who takes no prisoners. A really nice balance of butt-kicking fun and character development.

Tarot Card for the Day: Five of Pentacles

Ticking Time Bombs of Writing

I finished up both stories for Edanya's performance. I'm a little disappointed that my Hucked Tankard tale "Beneath the Blackthorn Battlements" didn't go over as well as I had hoped. I thought it was pretty amusing. Then again, half the castle is in mourning. The second story, 'The Romance of Augustus & Liliane' when over really well, despite... or maybe because of... my first heckler in the audience. He was heckling because he doesn't like romance stories. All in all, it wasn't too bad. Both stories were a bit over 2000 words each.

I have to admit, I'm sitting on a ticking time bomb of a writing idea. Maybe not as big as Johanna's ticking time bomb, but big enough. I don't want to write too much about it here because it'll make me want to write more. Suffice it to say.... it's an idea about vampires as an alien race and the main protagonist is about to go home.

But, I know I can't work on it. Not right now. I need to stay focused on the Tales of Castle Marrach and the Hucked Tankard tales. Those are the ones with the chance of being published in a novel of short stories in the next year. So, I really need to regularly work on them. And even if I didn't, I still have "Through Raphael's Ring" to work on that I haven't since I've started working on the Tales of Castle Marrach and the Hucked Tankard tales.

Still, my little ticking time bomb keeps niggling at me. Hopefully begging to me, 'just a prologue short story... that's it... please?' and I keep having to shove it off so I can get this other stuff done. I feel like my stories are spoiled children begging to play.

I lost another 1.5 pounds last week. That makes it 11 pounds total in 3 weeks, despite my minor cheatings. Not bad, I say. Not bad at all. I've started up a weekly results page if anyone is interested. This week has been hard on me. Mostly due to my period. I am more hungry and more emotional. I'm also trying to kick some bad habits like eating when stressed.

Yes, I did cheat again. *sigh* It was an engineering offsite potluck lunch. There was very little there that I really could eat beyond what I brought. So, I tried a little of this and that. I'm sure it was over my 20 grams of carbs, even though I tried to stick mostly to my hotdogs. However, I did have enough of the other stuff that I felt bloated and tired (maybe that's party the period).

In any case, I have decided two things. I'm gonna be good, really good, for the rest of the week. Then, when I begin the 5th week, I'm going to bump my carbs to 40 a day. That opens up some veggies and foods that I've been really missing like corn and nuts. But, I'm still going to shoot for the 20 a day. That should give me a happy medium to work with.

This weekend is going to be really busy for me. Friday night, I might be going out to dinner with my friend Kimberly. Saturday, web work in the morning and Sekt Valir in the evening. Sunday is the CAST game. Somewhere in there, I want to being writing, too. Maybe Sunday morning or evening. Maybe I will write up that plot idea for the Castle Marrach Rememberers that has been knocking around in my head for a couple of days, too.

Tarot Card for the Day: Five of Pentacles, Inverted

Goal #1 Reached!

From the Scale...
Much to my complete surprise, despite my period last week, not drinking water on the weekend and my minor cheating at the Engineering potluck, I still lost weight. 2 pounds. That's a total of 13 pounds to date and I've reached my first goal of 310 pounds. *cue fanfare and crowd cheering*

Let's see. I feel good. I'm not going hungry and I'm starting to notice changes in my body. I've noticed that my knees hurt less on stairs. That's good. I've noticed a change in my body. My chest is smaller. That's good and bad. *grump* That's the only good thing about being overweight, a decent sized chest. But, as they say, last place to gain weight, first place to lose it.

Although I did reach my first goal, I'm actually not going to make any reward DVD purchases until next week because I'm spending next Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday at a Gaming convention. I think I should wait to see if I can make it though the convention without gaining weight. Gaming is where I have the hardest time not munching. I'm going to have to be really good with drinking water and keeping my hands busy.

Dreamlines...
I've been having a lot of dreams lately. I've just been to lazy to drag my happy butt out of bed to record them. I think, some of them I've been having lately deal with my anxiety in dealing with my new diet. I remember one bit of a dream where I really wanted to eat a hotdog but after one bite, I felt so guilty that I ate the rest of the hotdog without the bun. I finally recorded a weird one from this weekend.

The Bear Clan - In the last of a series of dreams about being in a house, I am taken from my house and clan to be married into the rival clan, the Bear clan, much to my dismay.

Gamer Gossip...
I spent the weekend gaming. First, in Sekt Valir where we finally ended a cycle of the God weapons and now have to deal with how to get rid of them so that they are safe but may be called upon again in the future when it is needed.

I've also been pondering having my character, Eris, get pregnant. She's been married for about 3/4ths of a year now. But, I'm a little afraid of the kid that would be born, directly descendent of both the King of Winter (2nd generation) and the All-Father God (4th generation). Then, again, it can't be too weird in the motley of kids that the rest of the party as had: Part dragon, part Queen of Night, the Wrath of a God born from a living node, the Albino girl child with a third eye, the Bane born of rape who will be the leader of the Enemy, etc...

You know, the more I think about it, it sounds like when this game ends, we may jump into the various destiny filled children, our characters are having, to fight the great conflict will determine how the fourth age will go for the world of Sekt Valir.

Sunday was the CAST game. Anabeth has been tossed the job of being in charge of investigating one of the main plotlines that I know is not able to be solved because it is the special October dark ages game. So, all I have to do is point at people, tell them to research things for me, then analyze the data I get back. I have to admit, I am pretty good at that. It was a pretty low key game for me. I mostly sat there, formulated my battle plan and got people to do things for me. I did lightly butt-heads with Alex's character, just because I've discovered that Anabeth either has a death wish or is just really aggressive/ballsy when it comes to those things she wants. That was kinda fun.

In the Muse...
So, my ticking time bomb is still ticking away but I've gotten stuck on a bit of scientific reality in this creative and intellectual stimulation that keeps my mental hands busy while in commute traffic. I need to know if there anything unique about our sun concerning the radiation or the ultraviolet light it emits. Only, I don't know where to look for that. Unfortunately, until I have that information, I'm stuck on the background story.

The one good thing I can say about this ticking time bomb is that it hasn't named itself, nor have the two characters I've been thinking of named themselves. Usually, once that happens, I'm toast and the story insists on being written. Right now, we're still at concept kitten "come play with me" stage.

On the Home Front...
My house is a disaster zone. You know, if it was just my rooms, I wouldn't care but it's not just my rooms. Donna was being nice and hired a guy from her church who, at the time, needed the job - instead of getting a professional contractor. So, in the last 3 weeks, we've had a kitchen skylight partly put in, a new bathroom window, a new kitchen floor, Donna's room ripped apart to have some new stuff put in and the room painted. All of this stuff was supposed to be finished last week.

Obviously, it's not. Donna is sleeping in the livingroom with the microwave cabinet. There is nothing in the kitchen still. It is really hard to cook and deal with things when the tables are in the dining room, the microwave is in the livingroom and you have to cook in the kitchen.

I'm just tired of the house being a disaster zone. It's ok for my rooms but not the whole house. It makes me really glad that Cherney and I are spending four days at a hotel for the convention.

Tarot Card for the Day: Six of Pentacles