This movie is forever confused in my head with Mad, Mad, Mad World. Both of which I think I saw when I was like eight years old, or something like that. Of course the title is a lot more fun than my post will be, but isn’t that the way of the things?

As a result of a a series of events beyond my control I was sent to work at the supervisory union today. (And probably tomorrow as well.) Mostly I was answering phones, which is something I can pretty much do in my sleep. I have no problem talking to people. And talking, and talking, and talking… Let’s just say I’m okay communicating with strangers. But one drawback to my assignment was that they didn’t have a computer for me to use. The second drawback was a paucity of callers. I overcame these obstacles by asking for some lined paper.

The upshot being sixteen hand written pages on the new Bree novel.Yay me! I’m not sure how many words that works out to be, but not a bad haul on a day I had to be at work. I’d say I should do that more often, except that I now have to type those pages into my computer, and while I can revise while transcribing, it’s going to take me a while. That’s the down-shot.

I thought for sure I’d written a post for today. Maybe it was one of the ones I sent off to Alastair. Rats! Then I pop in here and nope. No post. No draft post. No scheduled post. No post.

This must be one of the things that MUST BE CHANGED! I don’t even have any good pictures to post – although I did get my new car yesterday and it’s very pretty. I haven’t taken a picture yet though.

Wait! I may have a picture of a Blue Jay you haven’t seen yet. (or maybe you did. Rats.) Oh well here are some pictures to delight you!

The first two are very poor pictures of how I finally found a use for my finance books. It’s obvious reading them didn’t do me a darn bit of good! However they were very handing for propping up a little table so I could keep my feet warm while writing. that’s a wood stove behind the table.  After that I think we have birds. Pretty blue jay for sure.

Saturday, January 14, on my way to chaperone a group of students to the All State music auditions I hit a slick spot on my hill and slid off the road onto a stump. It wasn’t fast, the airbags didn’t go off. But it sure did some damage. I thought maybe you’d like to see. And if you don’t I’m showing you anyway, because I’m a showoff like that. I’ll post pictures of the new car – if I ever get one. After spending the entire day last Saturday driving cars and dealing with people (some good, some not so much) I came home to have my husband question my judgement. I’m now on strike. We can stay in the doggone rental car for the rest of the year. I’m done.

Fun, huh?

Look what came in the mail today! It’s so exciting.

You don’t know what this is? Well I didn’t either when it came in the mail today. I’d forgotten that about a year ago I wrote a writing exercise for a book on writing mysteries! It’s called Now Write! Mysteries - part of a series of books on writing - and I’m thrilled with the company I’m keeping. There are some exalted names in there with mine. It makes me almost giddy.

At the risk of offending someone (I’m bound to leave people out in my excitement) I’ll do a little name dropping. Hallie Ephron writes about Choosing Details to Reveal Character, Harley Jane Kozak does The Telling Detail, and Steve Liskow talks about Voice and the Private Eye. Character Arc Versus Story Arc: Developing a Succesful Series Character is brought to us by Kate Flora, and Keep the Pages Turning comes from Thomas B. Cavanagh.

There are tons more. Mine’s called Using Everyday Activities to Create Conflicting Emotions and Increase Tension.  I can’t wait to get into some of these exercises. Did I ever tell you that a lot of my scenes for Moonlighting in Vermont were written first as exercises? I find it’s a good way to stretch my fictional world and expand the story beyond my limited imagination. And they sent me two of these – FREE! I’m going to think up a fun way to give away my other copy. When I do that you’ll be the first to know! (and for the non-writers among us perhaps I’ll give away a print copy of one of mine.)

I’m talking over at the BettyVerse today. (www.bettyverse.com I don’t know why I can get the link to work today. Word Press must not like me.)  Too bad I spent so long trying to figure out what was wrong with the link I’ve forgotten what I was writing about. You’ll have to go over and check it out.

I was reading Reinventing Fabulous, no wait, it was Jenny Crusie.  I was reading away, sitting on my bed, facing the window and I happened to look up – and there, looking right at me was a blue jay. It occurs to me I should have asked him what he was trying to tell me. But I didn’t.

I love having the feeders outside my window, as I think I’ve said ad infitium. I REALLY like birds. Not in an I-identify-with-them way, but in a they-make-me-smile kind of way. One silly jay ran into the window the other day, he was trying to chase off a second jay and kind of lost sight of where he was in the air. Luckily he didn’t daze himself.

The feeders are very quiet today. It’s cold and grey and windy. I’m under my covers even though it’s only 3:00 in the afternoon. Old farmhouses don’t necessarily heat well. Still there’s lively music in the house and the kids are laughing in the kitchen. They are supposed to be doing homework, but at least they aren’t fighting. I like hearing them laugh.

If you’re lucky I’ll post pictures of my winter desk this week. Or maybe I’ll tell you what happened when I went looking for a car. Stay tuned for the excitement. We’ll get started on that just as soon as I have a nap. And make dinner. Oh and it’s back to work this week. But stay tuned. It’s bound to be fabulous.

I grew up with the Beatles. My mother loved popular music. She loved classical too, and played both on the piano. We always had a piano, I couldn’t imagine my mother without one. And my older brother was born in 1954 so he was a perfect age for the Beatles. I was a little young for them, but as their music was always in the house I loved them too. Especially Paul. So terminally cute with those puppy dog eyes. I dreamt of meeting him. Or maybe George Harrison, but Paul was cuter. John was too serious and Ringo – well I could never imagine getting romantically involved with a guy named Ringo. (Sorry Ringo, you seem like a great guy, but there it is.)

Just recently, within the last couple of months, I saw Paul on Saturday Night Live and was very disappointed. He wasn’t playing or singing all that well. I forget what the song was but it was so bad it was pretty unrecognizable anyway.

My younger brother sent me Paul McCartney The Space Within US for Christmas. Having seen that dismal SNL performance I wasn’t thrilled, But Ed said he and his wife really enjoyed it, so tonight I gave it a try. I should have known I’d like it – my little brother is much more in tune with the world and he has really great taste.

I started to smile immediately. There is something about watching Paul’s audiences sing along with him that is so joyful. And the music? Fabulous. I don’t know where Paul found his band, but they know their stuff, they sing well and they are entertaining. Every song made me smile, and I wished I’d known about the concerts when they were happening. If you like the Beatles or the Wings or just Paul this is a must have video. There are interviews and cameos and songs.

Paul McCartney The Space Within US is a feel good video that will put a bounce in your step and a song in your heart. For real.

Have you seen the movie Tangled? A very fun flick, as I may have stated here before. Animated, but lovely.  Well in Tangled one of the scenes is off an entire city releasing sky lanterns. I thought that looked very magical and on the off chance there was such a thing I googled them. I was very excited to discover they were so real you could order them on Amazon. It’s hard for me not to love Amazon. I know they aren’t the best thing that ever happened to book stores, and I love book stores, but man – you can buy anything on Amazon and never even leave your bed.

I wasn’t exactly sure how a sky lantern was going to work so I ordered one and my youngest daughter and I set if off one night in the beginning of December. It floated up into the sky and over the valley before it finally went out. Perfect, in fact. It was perfect. So I ordered a boat load more of them and invited my friends to come over New Year’s Eve at dusk to set them off.

I’d need a lot more people and a ton more lanterns to have anything like the scene in the movie, but on the whole it was very fun and kind of magical to watch the lanterns floating up in to last night sky of the year. And we have pictures! So here you go – next year you can come join us. I’d like a lot more lanterns going up at once – so bring your friends!

I took a few of the pictures but most of them are Steven Timian’s photos. He has a nice camera and he does a lovely and very thorough job. Thanks Steve!  The very last two or three photos are of a poor lantern that had a huge tear in the side. It hovered jsut at ground level for the longest time, but then it finally began to climb and it ended up high in the sky despite it’s shortcomings. It was a slow starter and a late bloomer. Kind of like me.

These are thumbnails so click on the picture to see the whole thing in a bigger size.

It’s Friday the thirteenth. My experience with this day is that they tend to be anticlamactic and boring. Luckily it’s also Friday (hence the FRIDAY the 13th) and at least we have the weekend to look forward to.

I never know what I might see out my window when I wake up in the morning. The other day this little fellow was about four feet from my face when I woke up. (Julie this is a feathery, fly-ee kind of creature so you may want to avert your eyes. – Or maybe it’s just feline creatures that you aren’t simpatico with?)

It was kind of fun to see a woodpecker. So far it’s been Chickadees and Blue Jays. I’m not sure which woodpecker this guy is – I recognize the red-headed woodpeckers. This one might be a Downy Woodpecker. I love to watch the birds. Putting feeders outside my window was the best idea I ever had. It’s lovely to look out the window and see someone new fluttering around every day.

This morning, or was it yesterday morning? Any way I looked out to see another lovely sight. Red sky. But the storm didn’t come until today. I think we had some flurries yesterday, so the red sky was justified, but today we got serious weather. We closed school early and went home to bake cookies and laze around.

Here are a few pictures of the Red sky. Unfortunately the color didn’t show up the way I wanted it to, but we’ve got what we’ve got!

By the way, I don’t know if I’ve remembered to mention this before, but I’m loading my photos onto the photo page and if you’d ever like one for your personal use feel free to download. I only ask that if you use it in any sort of public forum such as a blog or a book that you give me credit. It’s a small way to thank you for visiting my blog and listening to me ramble. I appreciate that y’all do that.

And yes, we have a power line running right through our yard. I mostly try and ignore it. Hopefully they’ll get around to moving them out to the road before too long.

I’m sitting on my bed with my computer on my lap, thinking about getting some work done.  In the room above me two clarinets are singing as the boys practice for band. In the room behind my back I can hear Sense and Sensibility, the movie version, is playing. I’ve watched it so many times I can picture the scenes in my mind. I like the Colin Firth version the best, but this isn’t a bad version.

While I typed that the TV switched to the football game, but undoubtedly it will switch back after the score is apparent. Oh the game’s over, but now it’s 60 Minutes instead. I wonder what happened to the movie? My son just asked why all the guys on 60 Minutes are old. The Clarinet playing has finished. Now the movie is back on.

I need headphones. It’s very difficult not to be distracted with so much going on.

“Lizzie, loan me some money.” Oh and now Mr. Wickham is paying for ribbons.

Must. Focus. On. Work.

It’s impossible. What I need is a little cottage a ways from the house where I could hide out and have quiet to get some work done.

It’s surprising how different I am year to year. I’ve been known to totally ignore everything going on around me and produce copious amounts of work. There were times when getting up at 5 am was easy enough to do. I’ve also been able to write at work at times, working my schedule so that I can write when students are working.

Apparently this year my way of coping is to take days off work to write. That’s what I’m doing tomorrow. I do have medical appointments as well. But instead of rushing back and forth to work, I’m staying home, writing, going to appointments, picking up my children and hopefully writing some more.

It’s a good thing I’ll have some quiet tomorrow because now there is an argument in the kitchen where children are doing homework. However, #2 son has apparently been cracking his knuckles and #1 daughter is giving him what for. She is not at all wishywashy about her distaste for the noise he makes with his joints. Not that I blame her, I detest knuckle cracking as well.

So you see, I’m very ADHDish this evening, my attention flitting from one distraction to the next. I can hardly wait to be alone. (Crossing my fingers and knocking on wood, because you know the minute I said that the universe was going to take that as a challenge and with my luck something very noisy and attention catching will happen here tomorrow!)