Ahead of the Game!

I never watch the morning talk shows (unless I just happen to catch a couple minutes), and I never, ever watch the The Early Show. In college I got into the habit of watching The Today Show while eating breakfast, and I've been a loyal (if only occasional) viewer since. But I was glad to have caught it today, because it gave me the idea--TEN WHOLE MONTHS IN ADVANCE--for my sons' next birthday party. It will be a Quidditch Match! Obviously no one will be flying, but even without that, doesn't it sound intriguing??

**Sidenote: If you haven't read Harry Potter or seen any of the Harry Potter movies and don't know what I'm talking about, the best I can give you is, 'Get with it--you're missing soooo much!**

Apparently there is a college Quidditch craze sweeping the nation, with organized teams at sixty-five colleges, and that number growing. Rather than flying, you must run around with a souped-up H.P. style broom between your legs, and you wear team t-shirts, shorts, and capes! The three goal posts (can't remember what those are called) stick up out of the ground, and the Chasers try to get the Quaffle through the hoops while the Keepers try to keep it out. Meanwhile, the Beaters are pelting everyone with Bludgers. The creme de la creme is that the Snitch is actually a person dressed in gold/yellow running about with a sock or something hanging off him. To win and get an extra fifty points, you must capture the sock.

Now, admittedly, played at the college level, this sounds a little ridiculous (it looks it too--watch the segment here), but for a bunch of seven and nine year old boys, this sounds fantastic. I think my dad could totally get into the game if offered the chance of pelting these poor defenseless boys with beach balls. So many possibilities! Capes and brooms, and someone in a golden outfit! Fantastic!

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E! Big Plans.

We are back from a trip to the lake just in time to wrap up a busy Spring Break. Now it's the final push (9 weeks) until summer... (yikes!) The puppy has been keeping us busy and is quite the little sweetheart. Today is my first day with her without any of the boys and so far, so good. No accidents, no problems.

After spending an hour last night perusing Disney World options, my husband gave me a project for the day: use the Disney customizable process engine to fiddle with dates, park options, dining options, amenities, etc. We're in the early stages yet, researching our options, hoping maybe to schedule around Disney's winter holiday celebration. Any suggestions would be welcome.

I haven't been to Disney World (& Epcot) since I was in the fourth grade. And I've never been to Disney Land. I've looked at the park map for the Magic Kingdom, and so many things have changed. It'll probably seem all new to me too, and of course I've never been to Animal Kingdom or Disney's Hollywood Studios. Even though this vacation is still in the nebulous stages, it's exciting for me to have one vacation, at least, taking shape. I like to know what I can look forward to, vacation-wise, and up till now, 2008 has looked bleak indeed.

Recommendations

I watched two very good movies this past week, and while I'm quite late in getting my reviews out (they both came out some time ago), I couldn't resist. The first was Big Fish, directed by Tim Burton. Touted as a Wizard of Oz sort of movie, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but I really, really enjoyed it. The story was told in a series of flashbacks, which I thought was handled beautifully. I'm not familiar with Billy Crudup, the son in the movie, but I loved his voice and freckles. Recommended.

Number two was the 1999 version of Mansfield Park with Francis O' Connor. I thought she made for an absolutely lovely (if somewhat lacking in frailty) Fanny Price. Much of the story was left out, but it would have to be to keep the movie at a suitable length. All of the characters (Jane Austen wrote so very many into her novels) were well-cast, and the whole movie was very enjoyable indeed. Also recommended.


In books, I'm sad to say, I haven't done much lately. Not since Silent in the Sanctuary. Right now I'm reading Earthly Pleasures by Karen Neches and enjoying the sheer creativity of it--it's a novel about how things really work in Heaven. Hopefully I can finish it this week as I have The Secret of the Crimson Rose by Lauren Willig on hold at the library.

Done Deal

We've rallied. My husband found another dog for us on Friday, and we've now had her the whole weekend. She's as sweet as she can be--very loving and playful, and she's been keeping us very busy. Since we never had a chance to name the dog that was our first choice, we decided to stick with Indy. We think it suits her.



I did manage to sneak in some writing today, after several days of not having any time to spare. I was sort of 'out of the zone', but not so much that I hadn't been thinking about how I wanted to deal with the next part of my scene-in-progress. So...it struck me as odd how much trouble I was having with words. I wasn't having trouble with the writing, per se, but I'd type my sentences, go back and read them, and words would either be completely off, like I'd have typed 'hand' instead of 'hair', or else I'd mistakenly use a word's homonym. Unless it was the nap I had right before this mixed with the spike of caffeine from my can of RC Cola, I can't say what might have caused this odd twisting of my thoughts.

Tomorrow is the first day of Spring Break--a full week of two little boys and one little girl puppy. May I snatch at any time to write and blog that I can...

Sad (and slightly suspicious) News

We didn't get the dog. My husband went to pick her up at 6:00 p.m. Wednesday, and the lady never showed up, so he called her. She started the conversation telling him the dog had gotten sick that morning with distemper. She eventually came around to the reality that she'd had to put her down.

Now this is awful in and of itself, and we are all very sad about it, but I can't help but be appalled at how poorly this woman handled the whole situation. She didn't call!--she told my husband she didn't have our number, but he reached her at home, and we'd sent our phone number in an email and sent her an application for the dog that included our phone numbers. Not only that, but if she didn't have the number, she could have just shown up to break the news. We were picking her up at a Petsmart that this woman works out of regularly. And then, my husband had to work the information out of her. She told him the dog was sick, and he asked, 'So where do we go from here?' And eventually--eventually--she worked around to it.

I hope she didn't suffer too much.

Hodge Podge

It's been almost a week since I blogged (or admittedly read almost anyone's blog), and I'm happy to be back. I've just been absolutely swamped with a multitude of things and have barely spent time on my computer, let alone on the Internet.

Last Wednesday night we drove out to the country to see a dog we were thinking of adopting. Thursday I worked, Friday I hit the new BIGGEST IN HOUSTON Target one exit down from me and positively chocked full of stuff. Then I hurried back home to be the Mystery Reader for my older son's class. It came out that I'd written a book, and the main questions they (2nd graders) asked after that were:

1. Does your book have pictures?
2. Why doesn't your book have pictures?
3. Are you writing another book? Will it have pictures?

We went on in that vein for some time.

Then Saturday we had a birthday party and another visit to The Target (with my husband and kids for new dog stuff). Sunday was a girl's shopping trip at the Houston Galleria, yesterday I had a sinus headache ALL day, but still managed to get some writing done (yay!), and then today I got called in to substitute at work because too many ladies were out. For those of you who aren't aware, today is Johnny Appleseed's death-day. We thought it was his birthday, but oops!, he was evidently born in September. We did apple-stamping and apple-counting, read the story of Johnny Appleseed, and had an apple snack. All very festive.

And tomorrow, we get our new dog. We're currently thinking of calling her Indiana or Indy. Hopefully I'll squeeze some writing in before I have to pick her up, work on Thursday, and attend my son's school Easter Egg Hunt on Friday. Whew!

Nipples and Such

Excerpt from this morning's email from my sister:
"By the way, I saw a nipple in Walmart."

Now this could mean anything, but it just so happens, I have some context for this odd insert. Last week while on the phone, I casually mentioned that I'd heard from a source of unconfirmed reliability that Walmart doesn't stock romance novels that feature a male nipple on their covers. I can only assume my sister, ever the efficient curiosity-seeker, took it upon herself to test this supposition.

Evidently, the claim is bogus. A bit of quick-thinking and sure-footing sleuthing cracked The Case of Walmart vs. The Exposed Man Nipple.

Brava, sister!

And from my mother, a very interesting link on Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day...

Books and Nothing Else

It's not that I haven't had time in the past few days to blog. I have just had an impossible time trying to think of something to blog about. I have no funny anecdotes to share, no Mother's Day Out nightmares, no social/political commentary, and nothing going on with the writing except that: I'm writing, steadily and as much as possible. So...no news is either good news or boring news, depending on how you look at it.

I have been reading though, somewhat. I've fallen in love with Deanna Raybourn's Lady Julia Grey series that I discovered via Stephanie's blog several weeks ago. It reminds me, sort of, of Tasha Alexander's Lady Emily Ashton series, and I love them both. Both are set in late nineteenth century England, and have widowed women protagonists solving mysteries and living by their own rules. Tasha's next one, A Fatal Waltz is out later this year.

Two nights ago, I also finished An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. Veeerrry interesting. I liked it, I really did, and it was different. About a child prodigy who wants to be a genius, it was the story of his post-high school road trip with an Arab friend ("I'm not a terrorist.") during which he tries to work out a mathematical equation to explain the nature of his nineteen failed relationships with girls named Katherine. Your curiosity is piqued, isn't it? There's an Appendix as well, explaining the actual math behind the equation, but I admit, I didn't read it.

Alas, that's all I have to offer...