Darn. Missed it!

I have this ritual at night before bed. I log off the game, clean out my email and make one last swing through ICanHazCheeseburger to get my fix of ridiculously captioned cat photos.

Last night, there was a post which announced it was National Beer Day. How could I have missed this? It was probably good, however, as I only have one beer and we weren't raiding and there weren't very many people on. I'll save my beer for the weekend.

It was also National Underwear Day but I am not posting any graphics about that.

Beverage: English Breakfast tea

Deb

Helps the writing process.

It's very, very quiet in the office today. I have taken, at 11:00 a.m., exactly three phone calls and the second one was a wrong number. There is no one else here and it's going to be quiet for the next 3 days.

It's perfect for writing.

I worked yesterday on the ending to the World of Warcraft story I've been working on for almost a full year, with 6 months in the middle when it didn't seem very important. I'm up to Chapter 14 but the ending called to me and I finished the final battle chapter last night and the last chapter of the novel this morning. Now, I just need to connect Chapter 14 with these two.

I realized yesterday, that I tend to work much better if I have something to munch on. It needs to be of the "finger food" variety. I always have tea or juice or water or soda, but I kept looking yesterday for something to nibble and I don't have anything in my office desk. There are plusses to that as I don't spend my days idly nibbling on M&Ms.

Back over Memorial Day, the last time I did a huge swing through the grocery, I chanced upon these Jelly Bellies. The idea of soda flavored beans was appealing so I bought a bag. It lay unopened on the kitchen table for a month and a half and then I decided to try them. I had difficulty opening the top and when I did, the bag popped, sending a shower of jelly bellies everywhere. It wasn't the whole bag. I scooped up what fell on the table and tossed what went elsewhere.

The cats thought the jellies on the floor were great fun to chase around. I still find the occasional one that someone batted into the living room. For the last few weeks, however, I've been finding them here. I'll scoop cat food out of the container, pour it into the bowl and, oh look, jelly belly. In this case, I missed one and the girls simply ate around it.

Today, I decided my lunch would be cut strawberries, pea pods with dressing in which to dip them, yogurt and 2 peanut butter sandwiches. Unfortunately, my bread is all moldy so there are no sandwiches. I knew I was going to work on the story, so, seeing the bag of jelly bellies on the table, I added it to the lunch bag.

Do they help with the writing process? Sort of. When I get in the writing zone, I can forget to eat and drink. I'll crank out words, 15,000 in the past two days, grab a sip and couple of beans, and dive back in. Do they taste like the sodas they supposedly represent? Kind of. They do last longer than a 12 ounce can of them, however. I won't eat this whole bag. It's way too sugary. It's just the whole mastication process seems to coincide with the thinking process.

Now that I have blogged for the day, it's back to the novel. Chapter 15 explains more of the story but I have to take a group of people to find the demon. Time to write another battle scene.

Beverage: Scottish Blend tea

Deb

The Next Read

I finished the ghost book last night. As it turned out, the end of the book was an unabashed advertisement for the religion of Spirituality. Instead of staying with ghosts and legends, it dived into Spirituality and mediums. Perhaps those can be aligned with ghosts but when it started touting mediums as a way to contact your dead ancestors or loved ones, the author's credibility in my eyes tumbled. Take out those 3 chapters and it would be a mildly entertaining read. I'll add it to my collection of Scottish literature to go on the table at Highland games.

What to pick after that? The stacks are tall, about 4 feet tall. There's everything from autobiography to science fiction in the stack. After looking at each book's spine, I chose this.

If you are keeping track, this is book number 4 for this year. It's hardly the pace I would have normally consumed books, but I did finish 5 magazines last month after only reading 3 in June, and I've finished one magazine already in August.

I remembered last week how, earlier in the year, I would come home, grab the paper or a magazine and sit down in the living room to read. Pilchard would jump into my lap and we'd have "us" time. I got away from that but resurrected it last week. She loves it and I do, too.

It really is the purr-fect way to end a day.

Beverage: Huckleberry tea

Deb

Is it that time already?

One of the craft catalogues I get came yesterday and it was a whole catalogue of Christmas. Everything was on sale. I leafed through it looking at all the wonderful things thinking, "Oooh, Patt would like this. Sheila would like this. Terry would like this." I also knew that even if I had disposable income and could purchase those kits containing an item one of my friends would appreciate, the kit would go in a drawer and would sit. It's a nice idea but the reality is that, as a Sagittarius, I have started so many projects that lie unfinished in a drawer.

I do recall that one of my New Year's resolutions was to finish something, anything, that's been started. I haven't done that. I haven't even considered what I would finish.

There is a small twinge of guilt because crafting used to be relaxing and give me pleasure. With the lack of funds, if I'd actually sit down and finish something I would have Christmas gifts. I have hundreds of magazine accumulated over 30-odd years with thousands of ideas. I just need to decide that's what I'm going to do.

I noticed that Hobby Lobby was promoting their Christmas stuff already. I am not ready to think Christmas. There was more rain this morning. We've had a total of 7 inches so far, over 24 hours. Yes, there's water in the basement. I need to go to the hardware store and get a couple of bags of gravel as there's a couple of holes in the driveway that are nasty with all this rain. It's hard to think that Christmas is a little over 4 months away.

My first Christmas as a married person, we made all our gifts. I started in August and was done by mid-December. It was a delightful Christmas. I am not sure that anything was saved, but there was a sense of accomplishment. The fingers aren't as nimble and the eyes aren't as strong, but a small voice tells me that although the people I'd give something to has expanded, if I just sat down and worked on things, I'd get something for each one of them done. I have, pretty much, everything I need. There would be little to no investment of cash. Just time.

Hmmmm, I do need to take some time off just for me...

Beverage: Huckleberry tea

Deb