In no particular order:

1. I’m done with the galley’s proofing. I managed to correct 39 instances of the word ‘snow-cat’ that was hyphenated when it shouldn’t have been, un-capitalize ‘gift’ unless it was at the beginning of a sentence, and thoroughly convince myself that I suck as a writer and should never be allowed to put thought on paper unless it’s a grocery list.

For those of you who are alarmed by this sentiment, those of you who have been around awhile may be thinking that this is sounding very familiar. It should. By the end of BOUND I was certain that I was the world’s most boring human. When people talk about how hard writing is, this is one of the reasons why. The other reason is when other people tell you that you suck and are the world’s most boring human. Some validation is not good!

2. We took the kids (pictured above–they really are wonderful little craptoasters, aren’t they?) to a snow park today. They had a lot of fun–except for Ladybug, who wandered around in her snow coat (to quote ‘Christmas Story’, ‘looking like a tick ready to be popped’) and didn’t get to do much of anything except take off her hat and mittens, and then have us put them on again. The Cave Troll got to go sledding and tubing, and she was left with mom. By the way? None of us own snow-boots–this snow park thing was sort of a wild hair. I fell down four times. I’m a big woman to be falling down that much. There’s a reason the snow park isn’t tops on my list of ‘to do’s’. There’s also a reason we have no pictures of the snow park. No one was foolish enough to give me a camera.

3. Speaking of being a ‘big woman’, we’re gonna need Brunhilda and her cattle-prod, because although I did document much of my eating, I also managed to gain a pound. (And no, I didn’t document eating 5,000 calories a day–swear to Oueant, god of honor, that I was being good.) The nice lady said ‘some people take two weeks to really take off’. That was nice of her. I decided to reward her by explaining that I’d been up ’til 2:00 a.m. proofing my galleys for five days straight. I’m sure there was food on this table when I sat down some of those nights that was not there when I got up, but for the life of me I can’t remember what it was. And oddly enough, it did not seem to ‘document itself’–which, considering my earlier conscientiousness, sort of pisses me off. You’d think the food, at least, would cooperate!

4. We’ve updated the website. Huzzah! You can see a picture of the front cover, before they make the changes I asked for, since I thought the title and author elements were out of proportion. No matter–what you can REALLY see is Gala’s wonderful artwork. Artwork that I just remembered I forgot to thank him for in the acknowledgments, although that’s not something he would know to look for, and having his signature on the front cover is going to be a big enough thrill for him. Damn. Remember that good feeling I had about having my proof form in? Good feeling gone…

5. I have to start school tomorrow. *shh* Don’t speak. I’ll be in denial until the alarm goes off.

6. I have discovered a new band–the Dropkick Murphys! Has anyone heard of them? (For some reason, Julie and Bells, they make me think of you…funny, since I’ve not even heard your voices!) They are a Celtic Rock Band–no, not Enya, or Celtic Woman. These guys are Irish in the truest ‘bar band’ sense–they are hyperfrenetic, drunk, and mean. (I don’t know if they’re really drunk or not–but I saw them performing on the Letterman show and they worked off more calories in five minutes than my whole family does in a day.) And they KICK. ASS. And, corrupter of the young that I am, I turned my kids on to them immediately. Now I’m going to have to go listen to the lyrics carefully–they can deal with swearing, violence, and sex, but there might be other objectionable stuff there that I’ll have to debrief. Damn. It’s my parental duty to listen to kick-ass music. I’ll just have to bear it. Soooo sad.

7. I’ve finished one of my post Christmas presents–a pair of handwarmers for a student. They’re too big…but I’m hoping a little help from the drier might fix that!

8. *sob* I’ll see you all on my lunch break tomorrow. *sob* At wwwooooooooorrrkkkkkk!!!!!! (wail wail wail and carry on…)

Peace out!

325