Rennaissance Festival 2007 - Day Two

Renaissance Festival Pictures

I arrived at Ren Fest at 10:05, just in time to hear the King order the gates of Revel Grove open. I just wandered and window shopped for about forty-five minutes. I got a couple of good pictures of King Henry and the dancers but nothing else much happened until I got to Unicorn Strings. There I bought a new book, Big and Easy Songbook, and spent some time chatting with Gene about Harley and dogs in general. Ashley, the new girl, asked me to teach her to play Amazing Grace, which is the only song I play reasonably well on the psaltery. I did, but she's having trouble with playing three notes as one. She'll get it soon, I'm sure. Gene is a great teacher. I hope they don't mind me hanging out there. It keeps me from getting lonely or bored when I'm there all alone for nine hours a day.

Gene told me about a book he recommends, Pattern Recognition by William Gibson, so I pulled out my Blackberry and ordered it from Amazon. I would have gotten the other one he recommended, but it was too expensive, so I just emailed the name to myself and put a hold on it at the library when I got home tonight.

While I was there, I got out my psaltery and played until my hips started to hurt. Then I sat down on the bench across from them and Princess Anne, King Henry's new prospective wife, stopped to listen to me! I get really fumblefingered when someone is listening but I managed to make it through Amazing Grace with only a couple of mistakes. She was very gracious and it was fun to be part of the show for just a few minutes. It's funny, I know these guys and gals are just normal people playing parts, but (maybe it's my history in that online roleplaying game) but I can't treat royalty like commoners. I have even met King Henry out of character and know his real name, but to me, at Ren Fest at least, he is the king. It wouldn't be nearly as much fun if he weren't.

After a while I packed up my psaltery and walked down to get chicken on a stick for lunch and watched the Rat Man show while I ate. He is so corny and funny and shameless. I wandered toward the Globe Theatre, picking up a couple of pewter trinkets and then chatting about writing with the guy at the chair store. I sat outside of Bullseye and played for a few minutes before making my way to the Globe Theatre. I watched lots of shows today, and my back is hurting from the backless benches, but the shows were all good. I was glad to see that the regular "Other Guy" from Bloody Drama Comedy Show is back. I like him a lot, not as much as Bob, but that's a given. Shakespeare Skum was in rare form today, something about the heat probably. Then, I hadn't planned on watching the Washington Revels, but they sort of guilted us into staying after Shakespeare Skum, and I'm glad because they were good.

I have been tempted to cheat on my diet this weekend, but have not done so. I had a few too many almonds today, but nothing else that I shouldn't have. I was tempted a few times, either by smells or by habits from last year, but I resisted and I am so proud of myself. I really hope to lose weight this fest, rather than gaining like I did last year.

I ended my day at Unicorn Strings, picking up my new book which I hadn't wanted to carry. Gene tells me that he is designing a new version of his psaltery, using CAD and computers to do the cutting. I don't understand it all, but I can't wait to see the results.

Unfortunately, I realized as I was talking to Gene that somewhere after the Globe Theatre and before Unicorn Strings I had managed to lose my purple and green flogger. I went to lost and found, but it wasn't there. I am losing way too much this year, which is odd because I didn't lose much of anything last year, just a pin and a pendant. I can't really replace this thing, because Leather Rose doesn't make those anymore. It's not like I NEED a whip, it's just a prop for my garb, but it was one of my favorite parts of my look. Bummer.

Tomorrow I leave on a corporate jet to visit the Xerox offices with my boss. Ooer! Don't I feel important. I guess I'd better get some sleep. Only five more days until I can go back to Fest!

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...

Harley's Profile

This is what I wrote in on the Student and Dog Profile for Harley's application to the Dog Owner's Training Club of Maryland beginning obedience class. Do I sound like a wacky doggy mama?

Harley is an extremely bright dog and knows lots of tricks because he's so much fun to train. Unfortunately he is not obedient, being too spoiled for his own good. His sit/stays are solid, his recalls are not. He walks well on a leash but doesn't heel. He likes people once he knows them but he is hand shy and prefers not to be touched by strangers. He is dominant by nature but knows I am the boss, although he runs roughshod over my parents. He did well in the Petsmart class we just finished. I only put him in that to accustom him to other dogs while I waited for your classes to start this Fall. We can't wait!

So, what do you think?

Two weeks and counting

Ren Fest starts in two weeks and a few hours. You can check the counter to the right, if you need to know the exact number of hours, minutes and seconds. I paid for my Fairever pass today and should get it back in plenty of time. I had to email them my information and then call to pay over the phone. I know this is all about history and times of old, but c'mon people, get Paypal! I worked it out, by using the Fairever pass and going every day, of course, I am only paying $4.21 per day. That's an unbeatable bargain, isn't it?

With Ren Fest so close I pulled out my Unicorn Strings bowed psaltery so I can start practicing. I am so rusty it's scary. Not that it matters much, because I overtightened a string I was tuning and broke it and now I can't get it replaced. No one I have talked to has strings small enough and even if they did, none of them will even try to replace it. I tried, but I broke the string I had both times I tried and now I have no string left and can't replace it. I know I can get John to fix it at Ren Fest, but I didn't want to have to wait that long. He's going to be so disgusted with me for not practicing. Well, maybe not disgusted, but definitely disappointed.

This weekend I'm going to pull out all of my Ren gear and try it all on. I've lost some weight, so the stuff that was getting tight should fit again and I have new pieces to mix in. At last count I had something like five skirts, four or five chemises and two bodices. I also have a couple of gypsy hip scarves. With all of that, I should be able to do some really creative mixes. Maybe by the end of Ren Fest I will have lost some weight and the smaller of my two bodices will fit again, but in the meantime there's the one with the steel boning. I like the smaller one because it doesn't flatten out may top, but both of them are nice. I show a LOT more cleavage in Ren gear than I ever would otherwise, but that's not a bad thing, right?

My sister and her youngest son, Josh, were here for a couple of weeks and just left Monday. Harley and Josh became best friends and Harley has been moping around since he left. I know Josh hated to leave him behind, but there is no way on this earth I would let Harley leave me.

Speaking of Harley, he has his obedience class graduation tonight. I gave him a bath this morning so he would look his best in his pictures. It's all a little silly, but will make a great scrapbooking opportunity. It reminded me that I wanted to sign him up for the Dog Owner's Training Club of Maryland beginning class. I downloaded the dog profile and sign up sheet and sent them off with my check today. I probably sounded like a crazed doggy mama with my long notes about him but I wanted to be sure they knew what he is like. Maybe I'll type that up in another post and you can tell me if I sound nuts. I know I AM nuts, but that doesn't mean I want to sound that way.

Sorry it's been so long between posts. Look for more about Ren Fest in the next few months.

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!

It's a Monday

Harley is better, which is a huge relief. He's still not back to 100%, but he's better. I was up for an hour in the middle of the night cleaning up after him last night, so I'll be happy if I can just make it through the night tonight. I have my writing class tomorrow and I need my sleep.

I stuck to my diet all day today, and even harder to believe, all evening, too. I'm craving carbs in a big way, but I'm committed and I will NOT cheat. What I didn't stick to today was my plan to write more on my book. I got a page or two dictated this morning but this afternoon neither I nor my laptop were working well, so I gave up and listened to one of Diana Gabaldon's books on tape, instead. "Lord John and the Private Matter" if you're interested. I liked the book just fine when I read it but the man who did the audiobooks is awful. I remember he ruined another book for me, too. He makes the book almost unlistenable and that's saying a lot for one of my favorite authors.

I've almost finished my big project at work. Considering it was supposed to be done and in testing mode a week ago, that's not anything about which to brag, but at least it'll be done in time for the deadline. I just would have preferred more time to test and debug before it went live. Too late now, unfortunately. I have a huge pile of projects that have been waiting for me to finish this one, so I can't finish it quickly enough now.

I need sleep!

Harley is sick

Harley ate something that didn't agree with him or he picked up something at the obedience class Friday night. He's had the runs since Saturday night and is getting dehydrated. He felt well enough to play with bubbles yesterday but then was sick again during the night. If he's not better tonight, I'm taking him to the vet. There is no vomiting and he has a good appetite, so I am trying not to overreact, but it's hard not to when you love a dog so much.

In other news... I plotted out twenty or so new scenes to add to my book. Some of them aren't true scenes, just extra bits and pieces, but I think they'll round it out a little bit. I'll start working on the writing of those today on the way to work.

And finally, I'm restarting the South Beach diet today for real. I have "restarted" before but didn't make it past day three. This time is different. This time I am fully, 100% committed to it. I am going on Phase 1 and won't go off until I've gotten rid of these crazy carb cravings. I know how to lose weight, I just haven't cared more about losing weight than I did about my next chocolate or fast food fix. I appreciate any support or prayers you have to give. I know exactly how hard it will be, I've done it before. But, I also know how rewarding and exciting it is when my weight starts to drop. I have too many reasons to lose and only one reason... addiction... to cheat. Wish me luck.

Obedience Class

Harley started obedience class tonight. It's long past overdue, but at least we're finally starting. The teacher is so young! He's in his early twenties and seems like just a kid, but he's good with the dogs and has quite a bit of experience. Harley liked the food he kept handing out, but wouldn't let the guy pet him. Harley did pretty well until my parents stopped by to say hi. From that point on all he would do is look around for them. We were in the Petsmart (not my first choice, but the only class I could find for right now) and every passing shopper became a distraction. I have no intentions of telling the teacher that I have been training dogs for ten years before he was born, nor that I taught obedience for five years. Let him think I'm an idiot, it will be less embarrassing that way. Harley is a lot of things, but obedient he is not.

He struggled a little bit because I've taught him so many tricks that he has trouble with the simple stuff. Just last night I was working on hand signals for all of his tricks. Many of them he already knew, but I added a couple of new ones. By the end of ten minutes he was doing all of his tricks with hand signals alone. However, in class, he wants to do his tricks instead of simply learning how to watch me.

It's going to be a tough class for me, because I am used to the old school methods with slip collars and leather leashes and sit and heel and so on. This deal of feeding the dogs to keep them quiet and having to treat them with food for every bit of attention from them just bothers me. Using a piece of food to teach a trick is one thing. Using food for obedience is something entirely different. I will go along with it and give it a fair shot, but it's not my style. I prefer the methods I learned 20+ years ago. Does that mean I'm getting old?

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

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!

Camping - May-13-2007 PM

Pictures of George Washington's Birthplace

I have never been to Mt. Vernon to see George Washington’s home, but I have now seen his birthplace. I’m not a big one on heroes, but I’ve always liked GW. I am so glad I took to time to go there. I almost didn’t, but after getting up so early and breaking camp before 9 am, I had lots of time to kill. The lady at the visitor’s center (her name was Pocohantas – she said her mom wanted to give her an unusual name) told me that last night's rainstorm was even wilder than I had realized. It didn't just seem bad to me in the tent, the visibility was so poor that it took her three times as long as normal to get from her daughter's house to her home. See, it wasn't just me, that rain was crazy.

I got a private tour of the spinning and weaving shed, which was the highlight of my visit. The tour guide/ranger lady had only been at this site for a few months so she didn’t know much about the equipment. I got a special thrill out of identifying several niddy noddies and drop spindles. She even let me try a couple of the spindles. They were just replicas, but fun nonetheless. It made me wonder how much more fun the blacksmith, cooper and other craftsmen’s tools would be if I knew anything about using them. It’s funny how knowing what something is and how it is used turns it from just a dusty, strangely-shaped hunk of wood into something fascinating. One of the other highlights of the tour was when one of the other guests sat down at a replica harpsichord/spinnet and played a minuet for us. He knew a lot about the colonial period… more than the tour guide lady. All in all, a lot of fun.

It was so early and cool from the rain that he was perfectly happy sleeping in the TinkTerra while I walked around.


Berry Farm Pictures

I took him in with me when we went to our next stop… the berry farm. We went back for another strawberry shortcake ice cream combo and a flat of berries to bring home. I really need to do something to make that dog behave better in public.

The rest of the trip was just a long drive home. It wasn’t that long, really, I was just so tired from the rain the night before that I could hardly keep my eyes open. We got home about 2 and I just now got finished unloading the car. I still have a lot of stuff to put away. Now I am blogging and Harley is sound asleep in his bed beside me. It was a lot of fun, but now I need to go back to work so I can get some rest. (cliché, I know, but true)

Camping - May-13-2007 AM

I'm sitting in the TinkTerra, the haunting aroma of wet leaves, damp nylon and dirty laundry wafting through the air. Harley shivers on the seat beside me, upset because I won't let him help tell our story. A tropical breeze (hurricanes are tropical, aren't they) dances through the leaves above me. My feet are wet, my clothes are wet, Harley's nose is wet. (Maybe my nose is wet too, I'm not saying.) As you may have guessed, we had a touch of rain last night.

It started about 11:00 with a loud bang of thunder. Harley forgot all about the frogs and dove under the covers with me. He wasn't happy when I crawled out of the tent to try to put the firewood and charcoal out of the coming rain. I could have saved my time because it did no good. Only the stuff that was actually in the tent or the car stayed dry, and not all of that. I can't say just how bad the rain was because it always seems worse when you're in a tent, but it was pretty bad. Thunder, lightning... all the special effects. It reminded me of my childhood and why I hate thunderstorms. Being older and wiser, I wasn't frightened... much. I distracted myself by chatting with my other good buddy, also known as Chris, and checking the weather on my Blackberry. By the time I had typed a few semi-coherent sentences on the tiny keys of the Blackberry the thunder had lessened and it had settled in to rain. I don't know how long the storm lasted, I fell asleep at 12:30 or so and it was still going strong.

Everything was wet when we woke up at 7:30 this morning except for Harley, I and the backpack containing my books and this laptop. We were going to light a fire and have breakfast, but I discovered that the charcoal and wood were soaked through and so was the one folding chair I had stacked them on. When I went to pick up the bag of charcoal, the bag disintegrated, and wet charcoal fell into the gallon or so of water in the chair's seat. Don't ask me why I didn't put that stuff in the car. My only defense was that I was tired and stupid. After a shower and a change of clothes, I decided to pack up the tent. It only took me about an hour and a half to get everything in the car. I don't know what we will do today, but we'll not stay here. With my only chair soaking wet and black with charcoal, I have nowhere to sit and nothing really to do. Besides, once I start packing, I can't seem to stop and now that I'm packed up there doesn't seem to be much sense in staying here. I think we'll go try to f ind George Washington's birthplace and see if they allow pets at all. At the very least I should be able to get some pictures.

Harley is shivering too much, I need to go. I'll finish this later today. Isn't camping fun??

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.

Camping - May-12-2007 AM

I slept really well last night once I let some air out of the air bed. I have a double decker air bed that can be split into two if necessary. It's nice, but I found out that if you put too much air into both mattresses, you rock around on top like a ship on a stormy sea and capsizing is all too real a possibility. I made both mattresses a little gooshier and all was well. Harley didn't sleep very well, though. He is afraid of the dark and he lay on my legs and shivered from cold and nerves, staring out over the pond. It's funny, when we camped in the woods of Pennsylvania the frogs were so loud it made your ears bleed but camping here next to the pond, the frogs made very little noise. I had a small battery-operated fan that I bought yesterday at Walmart and it masked some of the night noises so that Harley could sleep. They don't bother me, but he's a wuss. I woke up a couple of times in the night to add a blanket to the bed, and at one point I turned the fan off but Harley got so agitated that I turned it back on and pointed it towards the ceiling. No, he's not spoiled!

We got up about seven this morning and while I puttered around, Harley found the tracks of some small animal that had wandered across our campsite. I had a heck of a time keeping him from waking all of our neighbors with his barking. We are the only ones here in a tent, so I didn't worry about it overly much. Before breakfast we went for a bike ride. When I first got Harley I thought about buying a bike trailer so that he could ride behind me while I biked. Now I'm thinking about getting him a harness so he can pull me up hills! For a small dog, he's about 15 pounds, this dog is fast and strong. We only went a mile or so because I didn't want him to overdo it, but he was having fun. Even wearing his collar there were times he was pulling me because he thought I was going too slowly. I let him for a few minutes, just to see if he could, but then I discouraged it because it's bad manners. Speaking of bad manners, he had to challenge everyone we met on our ride... other bikers, dogs, squirrels, birds... I have got to get this dog obedience trained!

After the bike ride we came back to camp and I lit a fire with some charcoal and a couple of remaining logs from last night. It's been burning for over an hour now and shows no sign of running out of fuel. Harley and I shared a couple of marshmallows, but it's too early for hot dogs. We'll save those for dinner, I think. I need to get ice and clean up the campsite a little, but otherwise the rest of my day is free. The campground is doing some kind of “clean up” party today because this is the first weekend of the year in which they are open. I declined to volunteer. I don't mind a little work, but I have a lot of mindless activity planned for this weekend... biking, napping, reading, napping, sketching, napping, writing, napping, and maybe even some sleeping. I don't mean to be a party pooper but I'm not here to work as free labor for the campground.

Harley is sleeping on his blanket on the ground next to me. I'm sitting in the screenhouse on a folding chair while I type on the laptop. The weather is beautiful. They predicted thunderstorms for this weekend but yesterday was clear and sunny and not too warm. This morning started out sunny and looked like it was going to be hot, but now the clouds are coming in. If it rains, we'll either hole up in the tent or go for a car ride. We are only a couple of miles from George Washington's birthplace and I think Robert E. Lee's birthplace is nearby, too. I wanted to find some fun shops to find a present for my mom for Mother's Day, but I don't think that's likely to happen. There's a big antiques barn down the road, but I don't think they'd allow me to take Harley in and it didn't look very promising anyway. Honestly, I just want to hang out at the camp today, but it's good to have an alternate plan. I just hope the clean up crew doesn't make too much noise. Already there is a camp employee raking leaves at the campsite next door. At least she isn't using the leaf blower like the guys were yesterday. I need some ear plugs. Maybe I'll get out the iPod. I wonder if I have any nature sounds I could listen to. More later.

Camping - May-11-2007

Harley and I left the house at about 9:30 in the morning. I didn't even start to pack until after 6 Thursday night so I was in no hurry to get going. Also because I didn't pack until the last minute, I had forgotten a dozen things I needed (or wanted) for the trip. We stopped at Walmart to get a tarp and a couple of other items and I planned on stopping once we got closer to get the hot dogs, buns and other last minute food items. The directions I got from Mapquest took us to a dead end that may once have connected to the campground, but no longer did. I called them and got good directions and we finally got here about 1:00. Unfortunately, by the time I realized we were close, there were no grocery stores or even drugstores around. We checked into the campground and I picked a site overlooking the pond. I have pictures, which I will get developed and share with you later, but they should be worth waiting for. This is a very pretty campsite. There are quite a few bugs, but I brought Mom's pop up screen house and we have been fairly safe so far.

Before I could get the tent out of the car, I had to unload the bike from the trailer hitch bike rack and remove the rack. I could have gotten the tent out first, but I didn't want to fight with the bike while I did it.

Camping Pictures


It took me about an hour to put up the tent. It should have been less than half of that, but Harley refused to help. He stood to one side and offered suggestions, but they weren't very helpful. On the other hand, he was diligent about chasing away any stray bugs, dogs, squirrels or children that wandered by. I got the tent up with a minimum of injury and we went back to the office to finish registering and to buy some bug spray. I found out that their “store” mainly consists of bug spray, marshmallows and a paperback trade in. I drove a couple of miles back down route 3 to the nearest convenience store and bought some cheese, ice, diet sodas and so on. They didn't have any beef franks, just weiners which I refuse to eat. I came back to camp, set up the air bed and unloaded the car. By then I really wanted a swim but it turns out the pond is not open for swimming at all and the swimming pool is closed until Memorial Day. I read for a while and then, getting hungry and not wanting just peanut butter and cheese, Harley and I went back out on the road. We finally found a small local store which smelled heavily of cigarette smoke and dirt and had the most peculiar dog wandering around in it despite the fact that they sold open food. He really was odd, he was half golden retriever and half welsh corgi. He had the face, body and coloring of a golden, but his legs were 1/3 the normal height. Very funny looking.

The local store had beef franks! We came back and lit a fire and I toasted hot dogs for Harley and I and we shared a few marshmallows. After dinner it started to get dark and I was worn out from the lack of sleep all week and the work of setting up the tent and camp, so we drove to the bathroom and I took a quick shower and got ready for bed. I read for a while (Tamora Pierce's Trickster's Queen) and then we walked back for one last potty break before bed. Now it's about 10:30 and I'm off to sleep.

Going Camping

I had a couple of vacation days I had to take or I would lose them. Since work is so busy I decided to take one here and another there instead of trying to take them all at once. So, I have tomorrow off and I have packed all of my camping gear into the TinkTerra and Harley and I are going to leave at the crack of noon tomorrow. We are staying at a campground near the shore so I am taking the bike with me. Harley loves running next to the bike and I like to ride where the ground is flat. It's too hilly around here for it to be much fun. It took Dad and I over an hour to put the bike rack together. It meant I had to take off the Tinker Bell trailer hitch cover, but I'll put it back on as soon as I get back. We'll only be gone until Sunday, and I'll do my best to blog about it then.

New Harley Page

I was preparing a sample javascript page for my advanced HTML class at work. It takes a while to load, but otherwise it's pretty neat.

The Many Faces of Harley

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.

Harley's First Birthday

Harley had the world's best birthday yesterday. We played with bubbles, his weasel on a stick and the laser pointer. That's like a trip to Disneyworld for him. We also had all of the traditional stuff... cake, ice cream, presents, a mechanical rat.


You can view the pictures here.

It's done!

The book is done, at least the rough draft is, and on Harley's birthday, too! I have pictures for you, of Harley's birthday, not the book, but you'll have to wait until tomorrow for those. I actually finished at 12:02 this morning, so Harley's birthday is technically over, but who is to say that my clock was accurate to the minute? Besides, if I want to say I finished on Harley's birthday, I'm gonna. After all, the book isn't actually done, just the rough first draft. I have about 102,000 words written and by the time I'm really done, I'll have half again as many, I think. So, I can say I finished on Harley's birthday because the few words I wrote after the clock ticked over to 12 could be officially part of the rewrite, so there.

Anyway, it feels amazing to have this much done, and I'm actually looking forward to the rewrite. In the morning I'll have probably come to my senses, but at the moment, I'm feeling pretty good about myself and my book. Yay for me!

Dog Day

Today was a dog day, especially for Harley. We went outside this morning and played with all three dogs. Maverick chased his flying squirrel frisbee while Dad and I played with the new parachute toy I bought at Franklin's yesterday. (Franklin's is a restaurant/store near work that has some of the most interesting stuff for sale. The chocolate cake is pretty darn special, too.) Mom got out the "weasel on a stick" toy and fished for Harley from the deck. We played until Mom got cold and Dad wandered off to change a lightbulb or something.

I played with my Nintendogs a while and took care of my Showdogs while I finished watching Return of the Jedi and a movie about the making of Star Wars. I still say the people at work who claim Star Wars was a regional thing are crazy, especially after watching the special, but that's beside the point. I cleaned my room and Mom, Harley and I made the bed. It's a queen size waterbed, so it takes at least two of us. Harley's help was completely dispensable.

My writer's group meets here tomorrow, so we ran to Sam's Club to get some cookies, blackberries and grapes to serve them. I know, weird combination, right? I took my buddy Chris with me via my Blackberry. (Same name, different fruit... no, not Chris, the Blackberry. Chris is not at all fruity!) Then we all... Mom, Chris and I... went to the dollar store and looked at My Little Pony notebooks and stickers for Chris.

When we got home I took the dogs outside with the giant bubble wand I bought at Walmart and introduced Harley to bubbles. He loved them. Btw, if you have been wondering what Indiana was doing while all of this was happening... he rolled on his back once and stared vacantly off into space the rest of the time. That's the height of excitement for that poor dog.

Harley helped me nap by chewing on my toes and fingers and, after dinner, I took him outside for a run around in the dark with the laser pointer. After all of that excitement we put on the Harley show for Mom and Dad and now he's collapsed on their bed while I blog.

(Notice... no writing. I'm still stuck on that darn island!)

Harley is freakishly smart

I have had smart dogs before. Penny, my beloved Shetland Sheepdog, was so smart that I used to swear she could read my mind. She knew a number of off the wall commands like, "Penny, I'm cold" which just meant that she needed to get up and cuddle closer on cold winter nights. Maverick is smart but in a lovely, gentle, regular-dog kind of way. He's obedient and fun and remembers to do what he's told more often than not, but he's not going to win any science fairs if you know what I mean. Clark, Indiana's son, was so smart he would jump in my window and get my pillows so that he could take them back out through the window and sleep on them. (Indiana is so stupid his doggy IQ is in the negative numbers, but that's a whole other story.)

Harley is a freak. Harley is so smart it literally weirds me out. It took him a little over a week to learn to roll over on command, but it took less than a week for him to learn to shake hands, speak, sit up and beg, walk on his hind legs and dance on his hind legs. Each weeknight for one week he learned a new command. It got to the point that we were running out of tricks to teach him.

Earlier today Mom asked me how I would teach him how to play dead. I rolled Harley over on his back, told him "Play Dead" and gave him some praise. I told Mom, "that's how."

Tonight, we were running through his list of tricks while I fed him itty bitty pieces of cat food. Mom said, "Tell him to play dead." So, I did... and he did!

I had never shown him other than the two second demonstration I gave her earlier, but he remembered and did it, not just once, but over and over. Ok, that is an-alien-who-only-looks-like-a-dog-mated-with-your-doggy's-mama kind of smart! I once read a book with that subject (great book) and one of the signs that the dog was half alien was that it would wind its rope around a tree and then unwind it. Harley does that, too. I'm telling you, it's not a coincidence.

He isn't even a year old yet and he's already smarter than most men. If this keeps up he's going to bypass even some of the women I know. In another year or two he could even get as smart as I am... nah, no male could ever do that.

R & R

I decided to take a couple of days of Rest and Relaxation before tackling the task of finishing the rough draft of my novel. I read a chapter to a tiny writer's group I belong to at work and they were very complimentary. The problem is I'm reading this stuff and thinking it just isn't good enough. I have never been good at rewriting and I'm worried that I won't be able to polish it up as well as I need to so that it can find a publisher. I also worry that I can't retain all of the great advice I have been reading lately and I won't be able to apply it even if I remember it. It sucks being a perfectionist.

I found a game that Harley likes even more than the laser pointer. I dragged out a toy I bought for him last year and he went nuts. It looks a little like this. It is basically a horse's longe whip with a bit of sheepskin at the end. It acts like a doggy fishing pole with me dragging the sheepskin lure along the ground around me and Harley dashing around to get it. If I go in circles long enough, he cuts right through the circle and tackles it. A few times he hit it so hard that he rolled over, but he always came up with the toy in his mouth. We played for a looong time today, and he has been more quiet tonight than he ever is, usually. I wish I had video to show you just how much he loves it.

I have been really disappointed in American Idol this year. Only Chris Sligh shows any promise at all, everyone else is boring, boring, boring. I wish I had Season 2 on tape, I'd just watch it instead. I know that no one will ever compare to Clay Aiken, who could, but I keep hoping that someone will come along that is almost as good or as interesting. It's not happening this year, I'm afraid.

As long as I'm on the subject of TV... what do you think of Lost and/or Heroes? Isn't it fantastic to have two shows on TV that get it right? For some reason TV really lets us down when it comes to Fantasy or Science Fiction. For ever Twilight Zone there are a dozen My Favorite Martians or Battlestar Galactica. Other than Quantum Leap, which really was more about the people's stories and less about fantasy or sci fi, I can't remember any show I've liked better. I don't know why everyone is complaining about having to wait for the answers to all the mysteries. I'm enjoying it exactly the way it is. I just wish there were more episodes in a year... would one a day be too many?

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?

Slogging On

I'm trying not to think about word counts tonight. I'm so far behind that it will take a miracle for me to finish my goal. I'm trying to focus on finishing my book instead. This thing is like the neverending story. It keeps growing and growing and growing (kinda like my waistline.)

If I ever finish this thing, and that's a big if, it's going to be a lot longer than I had originally planned. That's not a bad thing, as long as it's well written. I hesitate to go back and read it for fear I'll find out it's all crap. I know, I know, every writer goes through this, at a certain point we all hate our own stories and think we're hacks. But, we can't all be wrong, can me? Some of us have to suck. For every Diana Gabaldon or Diane Duane or Dianna Wynne Jones there are a thousand, even a hundred thousand wannabes. (What is it about the name Diane, anyway. I just realized that my main character's name is a form of the shared first name of three of my favorite authors... weird. I need an Edgar, an Isaac and a Georgette now, too.)

Ok, I'm rambling, enough for tonight. Time to take Harley and go see if I can dream up another story idea that will torture me while I try to put it on paper.

Let it Snow

They are predicting snow and ice over the next 24-48 hours. I am hoping for enough of it that I can stay home and sled with Harley. I don't think it will happen though. Can you imagine being one of those people stuck in 11 feet of snow right now?? I love snow, but that's too much even for me. Besides, you can't sled in that much snow. A good foot or two would be about right. Enough to keep me home from work but not so much that I can't sled. I bought Harley a new sweater tonight to keep him warm over the next few days. It has a snowman and a puppy on it and he looks so cute in it. Of course, he looks cute in everything. I'll try to get a picture but right now it's two hours past my bedtime.

Plotting the Ending

Writing has been moving really slowly on this book since the end of November. When I first sat down at the beginning of November and started this book, I spent almost a week plotting it out, section by section, chapter by chapter. The only problem is, I left the final third or so of the book unplotted. It just so happens that when November ended, I had gotten right to the end of the plotted portion of the book. Ever since I have been writing less and less effectively. I am not good at the jump off the cliff and see what happens kind of writing. I need to know what the major (and minor) plot developments will be, what everyone is supposed to be doing and where they are all going. Without that safety net, I don't write much at all. That's fine with short stories maybe, but with something as long as a novel, it's not happening.

This morning I sat down to write and nothing was happening. So, I went in and found my mom and we talked about the ending of the book. (Mom just called me into her room to yell at me. I had given her the four pages I wrote this weekend and she wasn't happy because I left it at a cliffhanger. Oops!) Now the book is planned all the way through the end and all I have to do is write it. Writing takes time and can be tough, but I find it infinitely easier than plotting. Characters, dialogue, setting, all of these things are fairly simple stuff. It's figuring out why they are doing what they are doing and how it all works together that I struggle with.

In other news... Harley and I went on a bike ride tonight. That dog only weighs 14 pounds or so but he can easily run faster than I can pedal. He just flies down the road, ears flapping in the breeze. I thought I would have to buy him a trailer for the bike, but now I'm thinking I'll just harness him to the bike and let him pull me.