Rennaissance Festival 2007 - Day One

Rennaissance Festival Pictures
I arrived at Ren Fest at 9:45, just in time for the opening banter and arrival of the king. This year they have a special entrance for season (fairever) pass holders. It was funny how many of those are the Rennies in garb. There were very few folks on our side of the wall in mundane clothing. The same guy who has been here for the last two years as deputy is playing the sheriff this year while the cute deputy, Roper, is gone. :( King Henry arrived on horseback and in we went.

The first couple of hours were all about replacing and repairing so it went like this...

1. Leather Rose: New hair slide and hair stick. Thanks, Big Rob for putting in my new purple slide. Hair slides are lengths of leather lacing strung with beads and they hold your hair into a kind of braid, keeping it neat and off of your neck.
   
2. Hope's Journals: New pen with leather and copper wire wrapping with a green feather at the end.
   
3. Milestonne: 3 leather laces, one for my bodice, one for tying my chainmail balls to my belt and one for extra.
   
4. Somewear Beyond: Replacement for my dragonfly/jester coin that was lost last year.
   
5. Tideline Salvage: One titmouse (which I later lost), one bodice rat with pirate hat (hat lost almost immediately) and one shoulder rat. I have no luck with these guys. The pirate one I had last year got eaten by Harley! I've got to figure out how to keep one alive for more than a day or two.
   
6. Catskill Mocassins: Just mooning over custom made, custom fitted boots. They start at $429 with design elements starting at about $200 and up. Guess who is NOT getting a pair of these boots! Thanks, Linda, for letting me try them on and dream. Maybe if I win the lottery...
   

I finally finished shopping around 11 or 11:30 and wandered down to the Globe Theatre to see what was playing. I decided to skip the Pirates Royale and kept going. I stopped by to say Hi to Heather at the juggling school. She said I'm doing better, but I'm still lifting my hands too high in the air. I played for a bit and then got on the move again.

I stopped by Unicorn Strings to see Gene and meet his new employee. I've forgotten her name and I didn't think to write it down. I'll ask her next time I see her. Gene was busy selling, but he waved when he saw me and told me that Mary and John didn't come back this year, which is a bummer, but Sarah will be back, she's just sick today. It turns out that the new gal is Big Rob's (Leather Rose) girlfriend. We chatted for a bit and she's from Last Vegas, too. I didn't stay long, though, because I didn't want to interfere with Gene's sales.

I went looking for the laser woodcutter who makes those great pins. He has had a guest booth the last two years, but he's not there this weekend. I need to replace my chaos symbol pin, the one that fell off of my psaltery case last year. That reminds me, I need to solder the other pins closed this year so that I don't lose any more.

I ran into the "hippie" couple from church and we chatted about the heat, which was considerable... high nineties and it felt at least ten degrees warmer thanks to humidity. I also ran into Jack Sparrow and his lady and I got a picture!

About 12:45 I found myself at Bullseye, which is the clothing store that has the great wooden shelf that is always so shady and comfortable but has a great view of three corners. I sat and rested with the new fan I had gotten and juggled a bit. A russian family sat down around me and their three young boys had lots of questions about my chainmail juggling balls, my unicorn shoulder pet and the bird that perches on my staff. I thoroughly enjoyed their company and was sorry to see them go. I sat there and rested as I wrote in my notebook. My new pen ran out of ink, though, so I had to go replace it.

After doing that, I headed to the Globe Theatre. I got there just in time for As You Like It to end and got a great seat for the first Shakespeare Skum show of the year. They did Richard III and it was fun, not as good as Romeo and Juliet, but better than King Henry the V from last year. The actors kept forgetting their lines, but they're so good at what they do that it just made it funnier. After them was the Bloody Drama Comedy Show. They did the soothsayer bit and one person in the audience asked, "Who would win in a fight, Picard or Kirk?" The soothsayer (the two new guys in one robe) said Kirk. About half the people booed and half cheered. Bob (everybody's favorite guy) said, "No fighting, we're all geeks here!" Which, of course, got a big laugh and a cheer, because indeed, we ARE all geeks, and proud of it.

The final show I saw was this year's King show, which was infinitely better than last year. It's still a little unsatisfying, because it's only part of a whole, but King Henry gave a funny and warm performance in a very short period of time. The young girls next to me kept saying, "Poor King... I want to hug him and make him feel better" I wonder what Fred, the video editor our company uses on our videos who also happens to play King Henry, would say to that.

Suddenly at 3:00 I realized I was lightheaded from the heat and humidity and decided to come home early. I stopped to get a bubble wand for Harley and headed for the TinkTerra. It was a good day, but I was no longer having fun. Besides we're celebrating my Dad's birthday today, so there was a good reason to come home early.

I had a great day today and I'm glad it's just day one and I still have 18 more to go!

Arguing

Dad and I went on another walk tonight, but on the way to the B&A trail we got in an argument. He insisted that we had walked north yesterday while I had spent most of my lunch hour looking at maps of the trail and knew for a fact that we had gone south. The trail runs from Annapolis to Baltimore and we walked south from the Marley Station Mall to Jumpers Hole road. However, the simple, hand drawn map I had printed showed the mall south of Jumpers Hole road and Dad kept insisting I had to be wrong. I finally blew up at him after explaining less and less patiently that the map was wrong... that I had looked at three official maps for an hour that proved I was right... that logically it was impossible for us to have gone North... etc, etc, etc. I was really rude finally, and I am sorry about that, but I think I know why I overreacted.

Everyone who knows me, knows that I will NOT argue about facts unless I am 100% sure I am right. I have had too many unpleasant experiences with siblings who love to make me feel stupid if I'm wrong, to ever take a chance arguing about stuff I can't prove. But my own father doesn't know that about me? That bothered me. I don't care about the map or the facts, I knew I was right all along, but that's not the point. If he knew me half as well as my most casual acquaintance at work he would know to trust me if I state an absolute fact. He could have trusted me over the crappy map, but he didn't.

Sometimes I don't think we have a good relationship at all. I love him and I know he loves me, but we don't seem to connect like Mom and I do. I wish we did, he means a lot to me. It's not just because he's a guy that we don't connect. Most of my best friends are men and I never have a problem connecting with them. While I was growing up my dad was a fabulous listener. Whenever I would be really upset my dad would be the one to listen to my problems and offer advice or comfort or both. But now he just tunes me out. Can you love someone and still not care about them? I wonder.

Walking with Dad

With Ren Fest only 11 days away, I have got to get serious about getting ready. I dropped off my Ren Gear at the cleaners (I couldn't face all of that ironing) and I'll pick everything up next Thursday. They might as well store them instead of me, right? I have my Fairever pass and I psaltery all ready to go. I need to practice the psaltery and juggling, but it's not the end of the world if I don't.

Mostly I'm worried about all of that walking, up and down hills, for 18 hours a weekend. I have been sedentary for the last year and I'm not sure I'm up to it. So Dad and I and Harley went walking on the B&A trail tonight. We did almost 3 miles and I didn't get tired at all until the last half mile. That's not a bad start. I'd like to go every day this week and next so I'm as ready as possible for the 25th. Then I'd like to keep doing it almost every day until my birthday because Harley needs the exposure to strangers, bikes and other dogs before his new obedience class starts. Isn't it great that his class starts on my birthday? Tomorrow I'm going to carry a water bottle and a spray bottle. A water bottle for drinking and a spray bottle for Harley. I can't seem to get his attention off of the bikes and other dogs, but I am sure the spray bottle will do the trick. Besides, he got a little overheated tonight, so it won't hurt him to get a little wet. Not that he'll see it that way...

Happy Monday!

I have to start blogging more often because I have too much to say for just one entry a week.

First, the good news, my big project launched successfully today. Yay! This is the one that has kept me at work for 12-13 hours at a time. The one that I thought would never get done. There is still a lot to do, but those things can be done post-launch. I'm so happy.

This weekend was nice and quiet. My parents were busy on Saturday with my dad's brother, so I took the day and used it for all of the errands I have been putting off, combining them with shopping, of course.

Back in December I bought four pairs of glasses at Penneys so I could use up my whatchamacallit money that had been deducted from my paycheck for medical expenses. I should have used that money for the dentist or doctor, but I put it off too long and I really did need new glasses. Unfortunately, out of four pairs of glasses, four of them were defective. So, I took them back to be fixed and she was able to fix two pairs on the spot and will send the other two in for repairs. While I was in Penneys I went in and got my hair cut, something I've been putting off for 6-7 months. It's nothing special, she just cut off a couple of inches of split ends.

I was way overdue for an oil change on the TinkTerra, so I stopped at a Jiffy Lube near the mall. While they changed my oil I walked over to a bookstore nearby. It wasn't really my kind of bookstore, it had all of this weird new agey stuff, but I found a ring and bracelet I liked. I can shop just about anywhere.

Mom had given me a message that the game I had ordered at the game store had come in, so I drove over to my favorite mall, Savage Mill, and told them that I didn't know what I had ordered, but whatever it was, I wanted it! They checked their records, but I hadn't ordered anything since the Shut the Box game I bought for Dave (coworker) for Christmas. Turned out later that it was the Game Stop store calling about a Nintendo DS game, not the Savage Mill game store. It worked out ok, though, because I finally managed to be there on game night and I played a game with some total strangers. The game, whose name I can't spell, was a lot of fun, but the people were annoying. Still, I had enough fun that I might go back.

While I was at Savage Mill I ran into the woman who owns the dance studio where I've signed up for a yoga class. She gave me and a couple of other women a tour of the studio. It's beautiful, I can't wait for class to start on Thursday.

Sunday was quiet in comparison to Saturday. Mom, Harley and I went swimming at a friend's pool in the afteroon. Well, I swam, Harley doesn't like it and Mom didn't feel like it. In the evening we played a new game I bought at the game store on Saturday. It's a card game and it's called Showbiz Shuffle. The object of the game is to produce movies while giving each other production problems like tempermental stars and drinking problems. I liked it, but it's going to take time before I am completely comfortable playing it. There are a lot of rules to remember. Dad was having trouble reading the fine print, but seemed to enjoy it, ok. I think we'll try it again. I should have bought the game I played at the store, but I had already gotten the card game and didn't want to spend any more money.

Just so you know, Harley did great at obedience class. He sat, he walked on his leash without pulling and he actually played with one of the other dogs. I told Mom that we ought to think about getting him a little sister, but she wasn't excited by the idea. We did agree that if we did get him a sister, she would have to be called Scooter. I'll wait a year and then we'll see. I don't really want another puppy until Harley is fully trained and I'm sure I'll have time to spend with a fourth dog. I offered to give Indiana to a good home, but she didn't think much of that idea, either. You never know, maybe I can get Scooter for my birthday next year.

Finally, for now, my diet is going really well and I've posted a hefty loss for the first week. Double yay!

Quiet Saturday

Today was the first Saturday since the first weekend in May when I didn't have anything planned. I woke up at 8:30 this morning and thought "8:30 is good, but 9:30 would be better." Five minutes later, my arms were asleep and I had trouble seeing my watch. It was 9:30! It felt more like I passed out than like I went back go sleep. Usually when I sleep late I have vivid dreams, but not this time. I needed the extra sleep and I'm just glad I was finally able to get it.

I kind of goofed off until about 11:30 and then I started cleaning my room. The bed was covered with all of the clothes that fit while my closet was full of clothes that are too small. I hauled out and boxed up the smaller clothes so I could put away the ones I have to wear because I can't seem to get back on the South Beach wagon. I didn't toss out the smaller clothes, they're in a box in the basement just in case, but I'm losing hope that I'll ever need them again.

One of the plans for today was to take out the old air conditioner and put it in my dad's office and put the newer, better one in my bedroom. I'm super sensitive to heat and I can't sleep at temperatures over 75 degrees. Unfortunately, when I opened the window, I lost my grip on the a/c unit and it fell in to the bushes below my second story window. Oops, sorry Dad! We won't tell him, maybe he'll never notice. He's been in bed all day because of his cataract surgery yesterday. I don't blame him, if I had an excuse to sleep all day, I'd take it, too. We got the new a/c unit in my window and I put my room back together about 6:00. Mom and I watched Freedom Writers, and it was ok. Kind of depressing for most of it, but it had a happy ending so it's not all bad. Movies like that are like broccoli... you know they're good for you and they're full of all kinds of good things, but you would rather be eating ice cream. I am a junk food movie addict. I like things like Pirates of the Caribbean or Pirates of Penzance or pretty much any movie with pirates in the title, actually. I want to laugh and/or be scared and end up in smiles at the end. I don't want to have to think too much. I felt sorry for the husband. I can relate, that woman would make a saint feel selfish and unworthy.

I'm heading to bed in a few minutes. I have to work on my book tomorrow and I need to catch up on more sleep before work starts again on Monday. Seriously, I need a vacation.

Random Dog and Cat Pictures

I bought some Halloween costumes on sale from Disney. Not for me, of course, but for the dogs. I couldn't wait four months to see how they looked, so we tried them on and took pictures. When I uploaded them to the computer I found some other shots of Harley, of course, and some of my mom's siamese cat, Caelidh, and even some pictures of my cat, Bugsy. He's the long haired gray one. My favorites, though, are the ones of Dad sleeping, surrounded by half the household.

Random Dog and Cat Pictures

Long Week and Even Longer Weekend

I have a big project going on at work this week and I didn't get as much done as I had hoped. I had actually hoped to finish it and I'm only about halfway done, so that's not good. I can't think about it now, though, because it's the weekend and I have homework for my writing class to get done, I have to finish reading my novel and rewrite a scene from the book. I also committed to 20,000 new words, don't forget and I'm not sure if rewriting counts, so I have to get some new stuff written. Then there is Father's Day on Sunday and I've done now shopping for my dad, yet. I'm a terrible daughter. We are going shopping in the morning, I just hope I find something.

I have three web sites to start and/or finish this weekend and I'm restarting the HTML class I'm teaching on Wednesday so I need to prepare for that. My workspace and bedroom are in truly awful shape, but I won't get time to clean this weekend. I would like to get out my new art supplies and play with them, but that's not happening either. I also have a ton of new scrapbooking supplies which won't be coming out for a while.

My friend, Alice, has a weaver's and spinner's guild meeting at her house on Sunday and I've been dying to go see all of her stuff, but I don't know if I'll be done with everything in time for that.

With all I have to do, I'm still taking time to blog. Aren't you proud of me?

New Writing Class

A couple of years ago my dad and I took a memoir writing class at the college. We enjoyed the class and the other people in it so much that we all formed a writer's group that has been meeting monthly ever since. The teacher from that original class is part of our group and now she is teaching a class called Advance Your Fiction. Dad and I signed up for it and I went to the first meeting last night. He couldn't go because his forensic locksmithing organization has their convention this week. It turns out that the lady next to me is another Ren Fest geek and we kept getting into trouble because we couldn't stop talking.

Our teacher, Susan Moger, asked us to set a goal for the four week class. I wrote down on my paper that I was going to read my rough draft, all 100,000 words, and then add 10,000 words to it. But the one guy in the class other than my dad said that he was going to write 15,000 words so I scratched out the 10 and made it a 20. The ren fest gal said, "You're not competitive at all, are you?" No, of course not. I just like to have a bit of a challenge!

My project at work is foundering. I am doing my best, but I don't know if it will be good enough. We have a meeting about it tomorrow and the whole thing might take on a completely new direction. How frustrating. At least the uncertainty meant I could come home on time with a good conscience and I'll deal with tomorrow when it gets here. For now, Harley and I are going to bed!

No Rest for the Wicked

Let's see, on May 5th I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. The following weekend was my three day camping trip to Virginia. The weekend of the 19th my mom and I went shopping and saw Spidey 3 and Dad and I went to our writer's group meeting. Last weekend was four days of Balticon 41. That's a lot of busyness for an entire month of weekends. You would think I had earned a rest, right? Not hardly.

Today we went into DC for Learning and Product Expo: Art! DC 2007. They had a juried show with one of my mom's pictures in it. They didn't have the good taste to give her an award for it, but it was an honor just to have a picture in the show. It's not my favorite of her pictures, but you can judge it for yourself here.

I bought a lot of art and scrapbooking supplies and we took a watercolor class together. I was actually enjoying the class until the end. The teacher asked me to take my picture to the front of the class so he could demo something on it. I was so flattered until he took out a spray bottle and splattered all but a tiny spot with blue paint and then splotched a couple of ugly purple flowerlike objects on that one spot. It was horrible. My mom knew immediately that I was very angry and leaned over to reassure me that she would help me fix it, but it was too late. The entire picture is ruined. It wasn't good before he destroyed, but now it's hopeless. I would think I was just being picky, but one of the other students and I talked afterwards and she gave me her sympathies because she was appalled at what he had done. It was the very end of the class and I think he got in a hurry and just didn't care what he did. He's probably so used to slopping these things together that he forgets how much work this is for students. Idiot.

Tonight I got out my new colored pencils and pad of paper and tried to do the first of the exercises in one of my books. It turned out pretty badly. I guess I should have saved my time and money and done a little computer art instead. At least with computer stuff you can always hit CTRL-Z and undo the mistakes.

I'm ready for a break, but I won't get it anytime soon. Next weekend I'm meeting with my accounting client to talk about his website and his bookkeeping and one of the guys from work wants me to redo his website. In the meantime I'm working on a complete solution for the 30 Stories in 30 Days website and I still need to rewrite my novel and figure out whether or not it's salvageable.

Anyone want to guess why I haven't been blogging lately? LOL

Camping - May-12-2007 PM

Is it really camping if you take your laptop, iPod, PDA and Blackberry? At least I left the portable DVD player at home. I didn't do much with the iPod except listen to it while driving around, and I left the PDA on the charger the entire trip. But I chatted with my best buddy, Chris, online and sent multiple emails and talked on the phone to my mom a few times. In fact, when the car charger for my Blackberry broke I took a 12 mile trip into town to find a Radio Shack and buy a replacement. While I was there I bought a new digital camera to replace the one that I brought with me. It has been acting up for a while, but I thought it was a battery problem. It is a power issue, but the problem is with the camera, not the batteries. I got a really good deal on a 6 megapixel Samsung so I will have pictures to post almost as soon as I get home instead of having to wait for them to get developed. I have a bad habit of letting film sit around for years undeveloped, so I don't like to count on film cameras if I can help it.

The weather stayed beautiful all day today. It clouded up a little this morning but that just kept it from getting too warm. Just to be on the safe side, since I couldn't go swimming during the warm part of the day, Harley and I took the aforementioned trip to town. The guy at Radio Shack was great about letting Harley wander around the shop with me. I found the plug right away and then I tried to find a little something for my mom. The problem is that she already has every conceivable gadget. The poor guy would suggest something, like an iPod or digital camera, and I would tell him that she already has multiples of them. We just couldn't come up with anything she didn't have. It wasn't a total loss, as I found the camera I mentioned above and got a plug for my Blackberry. Oh, and I also got a new toy for Harley. A dragonfly that actually flies! He's going to love it. Actually, he does love it, because the Radio Shack guy gave him a demo and Harley went nuts.

We stopped at a little craft/gift store on the way back to camp and I got a couple of little handmade gifts for my mom. Most of the stuff was pretty awful, but I got her a tote bag and eyeglass case made out of matching kitty cat fabric and a set of wind chimes. She'll probably hate them, but that's what she gets for having too much stuff already.

On the way back I saw an enormous sign advertising a Berry Farm. I turned around and went down this side road for about three miles to find this farm. It was worth the trip. This place was so neat. They had a little shop with every possible kind of preserves and honey. I bought all of the sugar free kind except for the fig preserves, yuck. I also got sugar free blueberry syrup and sugar free maple praline syrup. I'll let you know if they're any good. I found some goat's milk lotion for my mom, too. I don't know what goats had to do with berries, but they had a bunch of them for the kids to pet. I didn't get to go back there because Harley was being a butthead, but I did see the one on the feeding platform 20 or so feet in the air. Pictures will be forthcoming soon. I will look up the name of the place and let you know. It's on the jars of preserves, I'm sure, I'm just too lazy to look it up right now.

I had lunch at the farm. They had a little snack shack with hamburgers, hot dogs and barbecue sandwiches. They also had strawberry shortcake, of course. I had the strawberry shortcake with ice cream. The cake was still warm and fresh and the strawberries were delicious. I bought a quart to bring back to camp but now I'm wishing I had gotten an entire flat of them. I can't remember the last time I had strawberries that actually tasted good. These were amazing, ripe and freshly picked and sweet. I wonder if I'll have time to stop on the way home. I would have to leave a little early, but it's something I can take home that I KNOW my mom will actually love.

We got back to camp about 2 and have been lazing around ever since. I read for a few hours before starting the fire at five. Harley has decided he loves camping if for no other reason than the food. He has this trick he does to get food. He finds something he knows you want and he brings it to you and then he waits for his treat. While I was roasting the first hot dog, I saw him looking around and I knew he had something on his mind. Suddenly he saw the stick I had been poking the fire with for the last two days and he picked it up and brought it to me. It amazes me, not that he found the one stick out of many that I had been using – it would have my scent all over it, but that he made the connection that this was something I cared about. This dog is too smart to be as obnoxious as he is. Because, no matter how fun and funny he is, he was really obnoxious to strangers on this trip. One really adorable little girl of about four years old tried to pet him and he tried to nip at her fingers. He also nipped at one of the campground worker's feet when the guy was talking to me. I will find an obedience class for him asap. I can't have him behaving this way. He is just too smart to act this stupid.

After dinner I took Harley out to the big open field in front of the campground and we played with bubbles until he was worn out. Now I'm sitting here, typing and listening to the kids across the way play with their boats. From what I can tell they have a paddle boat and a canoe and they're having a great time. I took a couple of pictures of them, too. I don't know how noisy it got around here during the day, but this kind of noise I don't mind. The sun has gone down now and it'll be dark soon. It's almost 8 and I'm already getting tired. Harley is tuckered out. He's flat on his side on the blanket on the ground next to me, not even noticing the kids across the pond.

Mom said that she mentioned to my dad today that things are much quieter and easier without Harley around but my dad said, "But I miss him!" Notice, neither of them said they missed me! More in the morning.

30 Stories in 30 Days Has Begun

I don't know if you remember, but I decided to do a challenge similar to NaNoWriMo. I'm trying to give myself a break from my novel and force myself to look at new ideas, so I came up with the 30 Stories in 30 Days challenge. I was going to start on April 1, but that wasn't possible, so I began on April 2 and will run it until May 1st. I know, it's a little off, but then so am I.

The rules are simple, write 30 stories of at least 1,000 words for 30 days. If you write a story that is more than 3,000 words, it counts as 2. If you write one that is more than 6,000 words, write a novel!

I started a story yesterday but it wasn't going well. I started another one this morning, but it was having problems, too. Finally, I started one during the drive home tonight and it went as smoothly as silk. It came in at just about 3,000 words, so I can count it as two. That means I'm right on track!

My dad started this challenge with me. He finished the NaNoWriMo challenge before I did, so he'll probably show me up this time, too. I don't care because it means I get to read more of his writing. There is nothing in the rules that says your story has to be fiction, so he's doing memoir pieces. I may do one of those later this month, we'll see. The story I started this morning was from Harley's point of view, but it wasn't working. I still like the idea, but I'll have to start over.

It's not too late to join us, you know. If you can't catch up, do 28 stories in 28 days. Anything is better than nothing.

Feeling like a failure

It's the 26th and I've only written 35,500 words this month. I have no chance of finishing on Wednesday, not without missing a couple of days from work, and probably not even then. I am glad I got that much done, but I let myself down. I should have written more this weekend. I should have written more, period. It was a lot easier to write in November, probably because it was the early part of the book and the stakes weren't so high. Now I'm at the end of the book and I want it to be perfect. That's slowing me down more than any other factor. I wish I could just finish this thing and get on to the rewrite stage. I am going to hate this book before I'm done if this keeps up.

Onto other things... After playing with Harley and the laser pointer he came up lame the next day. He must have hurt his foot while running around in the dark. He wouldn't put his foot on the ground most of the next day and was still limping into the following day. I guess that wasn't as good an idea as I thought it was.

I took him out with me yesterday to try sledding for the first time. We had about 4-5 inches of snow and it was good, wet snow so it was really slick. He liked it when I let him run around, chasing me, but he didn't like riding on the sled. On the other hand, he jumped on Dad's back, and rode him down to the bottom of the hill. Unfortunately, I had already put the camera away, so I didn't get that taped. The snow is already mostly melted today, so no more sledding. I hope we get one more sledding day this year. Last year we only had two sledding days. I want more!

I finally saw the finale of Beauty and the Geek tonight. My favorite guy, Nate, lost, but he was happy about it. He felt that the only way that his horrible partner (my word, not his) could learn anything from the experience would be if she lost. So he told all of the housemates to vote for the other team. I love that boy. What a great heart he has.

Harley Stories

I have two Harley stories tonight. First, I took Harley outside with me when I went to get my iPod out of my car. Harley is a fun dog and we love him to bits, but he has one really bad flaw. When he sees something moving, he chases it, whether it's a rabbit, a bird, a butterfly, or a car. Since we have no fence, that gets dangerous. Usually he is leashed outside, either tethered just outside of the door or on a leash when he is walking with me. Unfortunately, that means he doesn't get very much exercise except when Dad takes the dogs out to play fetch. Tonight, I wanted him with me, but I didn't want to put him on leash, so I tried something different.

I took the laser pointer outside with me, which he loves, and distracted him with it. He ignored everything but that laser dot, and because it was dark, he could see it better than ever. He was having so much fun that I started swinging the pointer in bigger and bigger arcs, and before I knew it, he was racing from one end of our yard to the other. So, I took him down to Mom's art studio and the students stood at the back door and watched him chase that thing as far as I could make it go and back. He probably ran half a mile or more, just running back and forth after the laser. By the time I was tired, he was panting, but still wanting more. I decided to stop while he was still enjoying himself. I think we have found a new way to get his exercise.

Mom and Dad bought me Nintendogs for Christmas, but they weren't able to find the Nintendo DS Lite anywhere. We have been looking for it ever since, and today Mom found one. I played with a little Sheltie puppy I named Penny (after my Sheltie that died last March) and it was loads of fun.

Harley, however, hates it. It has a voice recognition feature and you teach the dog its name and some commands. It freaked Harley out when I talked to the virtual puppy. He got very jealous and climbed up on my chest, putting himself between my face and the game. I have never seen him like that. I finally put the game away and played with him. What else could I do?

More Plotting More Writing

I thought last Saturday that I had worked out all of the plotting I would need to finish the book. But in the last couple of days I realized that my pacing was off. When I finished last night's section with them stopping to take a nap only a sections from the climax, I knew that I had a problem. Mom and I went out to Olive Garden and talked about the problems. She claims she is not a writer, but my mom is clever and creative and we managed to rethink the ending sequence. I am excited because I think this ending is going to work well.

I have had trouble getting my butt in the chair and my hands on the keyboard, but I finally started writing about 6 tonight. I got 3,845 words written, bringing the total for this month to 14,152. I am only 3,705 words behind schedule. If I manage to get more than 4,000 words done tomorrow, I will be less than a full day's writing behind. It would take 5,491 to get my completely caught up. I know, too many numbers. Did I mention that I used to be an accountant?

The story is getting pretty exciting. I wish I could share it with you, I would love your feedback, but you may have to wait until it goes on sale to read it. At the rate I work, that could be a decade or so. You won't mind waiting, will you?

I put a little content on the 30Stories30Days.com website, but I am just testing out some applications. I may move it to this server, I have to talk to my friend and see if he has room for another of my websites. I am pretty sure I will be doing that challenge in April. Any of you thinking about joining me? It is less of a volume commitment than NaNoWriMo, but it will take more creativity as you will have to come up with 30 plots, 30 sets of characters, 30 settings, etc. You might want to start jotting down ideas but remember, you shouldn't start writing until the day the challenge starts. There are no prizes if you finish, but I would be happy to give you a certificate showing that you did it. :)

I should be getting to bed, I have a lot of writing to do tomorrow, but I am waiting for my dad to get home. He's been in Cuba all week and should be home in about ten minutes. Mom and I have missed him, but maybe not as much as the dogs have. They love their grandpa.

Meetings Galore

I spent almost the entire workday in meetings. The morning and all of lunch was taken up in a meeting with the owners and sales staff, trying to get them excited and educated about something new we have developed. Some of them got it, some didn't. It doesn't seem complicated to me, but then I've been doing this whole web thing for years. Some of them are like my dad and go online only to get their email and would prefer not to do that, either, so this is going to take a while for them to understand.

Most of the afternoon was spent teaching my HTML class. I started out a couple of months ago with eight students, and now I'm down to two. The two that are left really want to learn, so it's ok with me. I just wish I could have inspired the others. I love teaching, but maybe I'm not that good at it.

I wrote in the car on the way to and from work, so I managed to get about 1100 words done today. I am very much behind schedule. I should have 10,714 done and I'm only at 4,066. I have got to pick up the pace or I'll never make it. The story is coming along, but I just wish it would hurry up. I'm impatient to see how it all turns out.