Random Things
State of the LJ: I've decided that since I have a permanent account (and lots of great perks) anyway, I'll tentatively keep my LJ unless I start hearing of some concrete heinous stuff going on through its pages. Only I HAVE MOVED myself mostly over to DW at this point. That's probably not fair to my lj friends who are still reading and commenting, and I'm sorry. I do check in every now and then, but most of my activity has moved.
The meeting yesterday went really well. As so often happens, Ivy had no problem making friends. I didn't see the talent show, but Ivy got lots of compliments on his keyboard playing. They seemed surprised that he is self-taught and even more surprised when I said it's only been like a month or 6 wks. Wish I hadn't missed it, but the adult talk was good too.
I've been trying to get a GOOD garden going this year. I'm so out of shape that I can't seem to work on it for large stretches at a time, so I've been trying to go out a couple times a day when it's not raining. I suck at hoeing. Josh is a whiz and zips by so fast, so he helps me some on his days off. I had to beg though. As of now, I have strawberries left over from last year, carrots and onions which haven't come up yet (it was sets from last year, so I hope they still work...), lettuce, spinach, and three bell pepper plants. Two of those are the purple bells that Josh liked so much. I bought those and the greens as already started plants, so at least now it looks like something's growing.
I still have to get my '3 sisters' going. I've never tried that before, so I was hoping to give it a go this year. And I have a big chunk set aside for brassicas and wintery green type stuff, but I don't know if I'll get to it. I may just have to plant my tomatoes and potatoes there, because I'm not sure I'll get a second plot done like I wanted. Not if Josh doesn't fix my tiller soon.
The lawnmower is also breaking. It's been hard to find the part we need, but I think I finally found one online. Not sure if it's the right part number, as the booklet we had for the mower burnt up in the building fire, but it looks like the same thing. I'm going to order it today and keep my fingers crossed.
I need a camera. Cell just isn't cutting it for me. I'll have to work a new one into the budget somehow.
Camp NaNo is going decently but not exactly swimmingly. I'm on track to finish my revision wordcount goal, which was basically an estimate for the end of the draft. Only, about half the damn thing is going to need some serious rewriting, so I won't finish by the end of the month like I'd hoped. I'm taking out an entire storyline that doesn't work. The NaNo stuff from last year is very choppy compared to the beginning/tightly revised portion I have. I went from 5-6k word chapters in the beginning to 900-2000 word chapters for like the whole back half, and that pacing just doesn't work. So after trying to cut so much in the beginning, now I'm going to have to go back and expand some chapters somewhere, too. I need to go back to all my original notes for main and sub plots and figure out which areas need better fleshing out. I should probably add in more description, because I'm told that's my weak spot (as in, I often ignore it, just letting the reader imagine what they will).
I'm still eating pretty healthily. I'm drinking a pepsi or two a day now, and I need to watch that, but I'm also still drinking away the lemon water.
It's getting close to my hard time of year. I didn't even realize it until I started wondering why I'm thinking of mom so much. The anniversary of Hell Week is looming. I'll post more about that another time. But I've been thinking of mom a lot, and I miss her so much. I also know she wouldn't approve of Ivy's coming out, and that makes me sad. Hell, I waited until after she died before I stopped acting like it was a secret that I like girls. I wish I'd challenged her more about her anti-“gayness”. She was so progressive in literally every other way. I'll never understand it.
Still working this money thing. I'll let you know when it starts working.
The meeting yesterday went really well. As so often happens, Ivy had no problem making friends. I didn't see the talent show, but Ivy got lots of compliments on his keyboard playing. They seemed surprised that he is self-taught and even more surprised when I said it's only been like a month or 6 wks. Wish I hadn't missed it, but the adult talk was good too.
I've been trying to get a GOOD garden going this year. I'm so out of shape that I can't seem to work on it for large stretches at a time, so I've been trying to go out a couple times a day when it's not raining. I suck at hoeing. Josh is a whiz and zips by so fast, so he helps me some on his days off. I had to beg though. As of now, I have strawberries left over from last year, carrots and onions which haven't come up yet (it was sets from last year, so I hope they still work...), lettuce, spinach, and three bell pepper plants. Two of those are the purple bells that Josh liked so much. I bought those and the greens as already started plants, so at least now it looks like something's growing.
I still have to get my '3 sisters' going. I've never tried that before, so I was hoping to give it a go this year. And I have a big chunk set aside for brassicas and wintery green type stuff, but I don't know if I'll get to it. I may just have to plant my tomatoes and potatoes there, because I'm not sure I'll get a second plot done like I wanted. Not if Josh doesn't fix my tiller soon.
The lawnmower is also breaking. It's been hard to find the part we need, but I think I finally found one online. Not sure if it's the right part number, as the booklet we had for the mower burnt up in the building fire, but it looks like the same thing. I'm going to order it today and keep my fingers crossed.
I need a camera. Cell just isn't cutting it for me. I'll have to work a new one into the budget somehow.
Camp NaNo is going decently but not exactly swimmingly. I'm on track to finish my revision wordcount goal, which was basically an estimate for the end of the draft. Only, about half the damn thing is going to need some serious rewriting, so I won't finish by the end of the month like I'd hoped. I'm taking out an entire storyline that doesn't work. The NaNo stuff from last year is very choppy compared to the beginning/tightly revised portion I have. I went from 5-6k word chapters in the beginning to 900-2000 word chapters for like the whole back half, and that pacing just doesn't work. So after trying to cut so much in the beginning, now I'm going to have to go back and expand some chapters somewhere, too. I need to go back to all my original notes for main and sub plots and figure out which areas need better fleshing out. I should probably add in more description, because I'm told that's my weak spot (as in, I often ignore it, just letting the reader imagine what they will).
I'm still eating pretty healthily. I'm drinking a pepsi or two a day now, and I need to watch that, but I'm also still drinking away the lemon water.
It's getting close to my hard time of year. I didn't even realize it until I started wondering why I'm thinking of mom so much. The anniversary of Hell Week is looming. I'll post more about that another time. But I've been thinking of mom a lot, and I miss her so much. I also know she wouldn't approve of Ivy's coming out, and that makes me sad. Hell, I waited until after she died before I stopped acting like it was a secret that I like girls. I wish I'd challenged her more about her anti-“gayness”. She was so progressive in literally every other way. I'll never understand it.
Still working this money thing. I'll let you know when it starts working.