Do You Know What Sucks?

Ear infections. I've got a doozy. I blame those frickin' Sea Monkeys and their germ warfare. I'll get them yet, my pretties.

Until next time, Citizens.

Those Dang Sea Monkeys!

When we last left our intrepid heroine, the sea monkeys were in the process of converting the freakishly large carny goldfish to their evil soggy side. They've been providing it cover in what I believe to be a Mak'tar stealth haze (30 imaginary bonus points and much respect if you get that movie allusion).

So the battle lines have been redrawn. They've expanded their territory from the upstairs bathtub to the fish tank on the first floor. That is a serious act of aggression. No longer will I endeavor to convert them to become my minions. They will no longer get a pass. I mean business.

I've started with some psychological warfare of my own. I thought, what would the natural enemy of the sea monkey be, besides myself? Answer? Big industrial sized sponges. They'd suck up all the water in their habitat. Then I thought, what is the most terrifyingly annoying sponge on Earth? Answer. Sponge Bob Square Pants.

I'm going to go out and buy fifty Sponge Bobs and add them to the aquarium pronto. Next, I will be installing this toilet in our upstairs bathroom. Right next to the tub.

http://files.myopera.com/FlaRin/files/AquariumToilet.jpg

I'm done negotiating. I'll be mixing up some mustard gas for the tub for complete and total annihalation of the sea monkey tribe. Once I'm done toying with them, that is. Bwaa haa haa haa haaaaaaa!

So, what are your home improvement plans? Hopefully they include some diabolical laughter. It's good for the soul.

Stamina

The youngest Urchin is now officially a public school student. She goes to half day kindergarten. On the bus. Which means I don't have to spend half the time she's there driving back and forth to drop her off and pick her up.

Translation: I have almost three hours in the house by myself!

And to those who read this blog who are writers, you know what the underlying meaning of that statement is. I get to WRITE!

I started writing when the youngest Urchin was a little over one year old. She just turned five. So for the past four years I've been taking stolen moments in chunks of ten to twenty minutes to write. And, astoundingly, I haven't finished a manuscript. Go figure.

But now, I have almost three glorious hours of morning, when I'm not already completely frazzled, (okay, getting them on the bus in the morning does have some frazzle-like qualities) to sit and work on my w.i.p. Astounding.

The first week I was disappointed with myself. I only wrote for about an hour each day. I'd get up and wander off to do some housework, check on a suspicious noise (I live in a house built in 1826 and am completely fearful of ghosts.), check my email. I tried to write it off as my miniscule attention span. I own this shirt for a reason.

picture from whatonearth.com

But what was really happening was I needed to build up my writing stamina. For years I wrote in this disjointed way. Now I needed to work up to marathon proportions. (Thanks to Misty and Natalie for backing me on my theory.)

And so I've begun. I'm up to a little over two hours a day on my writing. Which is exciting, but as with all writers, other things pop up in the process to stall or derail us. But one problem at a time for me.

So, have you had any writing epiphanies? How do you like to write? If you had a house to yourself for three hours, what would you do?

Fun With Life Sized Lite Brites

Enjoy!

Roller Derby Plus One

pic from eventful.com

Yes, there's another fan girl on the roller derby express. Natalie Damschroder - who's book, Under The Moon is out this month- (Check out my previous author interview with her here.) attended last night's bout with Misty Simon (Her latest book, What's Life Without The Sprinkles, is coming soon from The Wild Rose Press- Check out her previous author interview with me here) and myself. And I think it's safe to say that she's hooked.

Though our team got trounced, a fun time was had by all. It was great to get out of Chez Quinn for good behavior, though the tracking anklet cramped my style a bit. But what I liked most was meeting with good author friends and talking about writing. In the middle of the month. I don't usually get to do that more than once a month at our chapter meetings. Awesome.

A close second was eating at Neato Burrito. Man, I love that place. I keep threatening to compose a sonnet about all the wonderful goodness encapsulated in that eating establishment. It's not just the great food. The ambiance is a major factor as well. And their sour cream-feta-jalapeno salsa will need its very own verse at least.

We had a good time, saw some great roller derby and the freaks were letting their freak flags fly in force last night. I saw some truly wonderful characters that I admired from afar who got my writer juices pumping. Because some of them will definitely be making cameos in my stories. Just like my backyard carnies.

I almost rode my motorcycle to the bout, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. It's been a rough summer for me. I've only been out on the cycle about three times. And I'm jonesing for a ride.

*sigh* Doesn't she look so lonely?

So what did you do this weekend?  Do you go anywhere in particular to watch fun, real-life characters? What would you write a sonnet in tribute to? Inquiring minds wish to know! 

Vigilante Knitters

So the new thing with those crazy youngsters today is Yarnbombing. Remember that post I did, lo those many years ago about the people knitting sweaters for trees? Well it's grown into some insane proportions.

picture from The Telegraph

And I have to say, that my earlier skepticism of this activity has evaporated and heartfelt admiration has taken its place. It was the pompom on the end of the tank's gun barrel that won me over.

pic from seaviewweavers

TimePhotos has a nice sampling of some knitting graffiti. I particularly liked the legwarmers on the immense statue in France.

So what form of harmless craziness would you inflict on the world if you could. Obviously mine is this blog. What would yours be?