Road trip coming up!!!!

Song of the day: “Bad Liar” by Selena Gomez. Such cute song. Am not at all bothered by having it in my head.

So this is going to be a real quickie post, even though I owe you guys more than that, after the “radio silence” of the past couple of months, but what the heck. I promise I’ll make it up to you…in part with the news that soon you’ll be able to follow my upcoming trip, with, hopefully daily updates of the where and hows and whatevers of the road trip through the USA together with big brother. Yay!

It’s been and incredibly busy couple of months. I know I have said that before, but besides the vacation coming up, there’s quite a few changes that have been starting to take route.

First off, big brother got some good news, which involves him finally getting a permanent contract at work. Yay, for him. He likes the job. It’s varied, a challenge, and he knows his thing. Can’t ask for more than that.

Second bit of good news is that our book “Girl in the Misty” Finally became a bestseller at all the big outlets online.  It hit various number spots on Amazon.com (in multiple countries, thank you very much) and managed to get as far as #37 of all their books. Wow. On iTunes we got to #10, I kid you not and B&A we actually got till #2 Yay! Was all very exciting for a couple of weeks and an absolute pleasure to see that it was indeed was possible. We didn’t make the USA Today bestseller list, especially because the sales didn’t shoot until two days before the list was made up, but it was close, I think…or I like to think. Hah Received some wonderful reviews, too, not to mentioned tripled our ratings on Goodreads, which is always a good thing.

Thirdly, another job change lies ahead of me. Nothing wrong with the catering one that I had, but an opportunity came up, another offer was made, and I felt I had no choice but to take it with both hands. I’m gonna be a cook. Yes, you read that right. I, am going to be a cook. A paid one at that. And not badly paid either. And it’ll be a challenge, and I really enjoyed it on the occasions that I worked over there, combined with my other job, which was a pain in the behind, not to mention exhausting. Two jobs, and then trying to get another book ready to start sending out? Practically impossible. Got one more day…what do you think? Will I make it? We’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we?

The new job will involve live cooking, which is a lot of fun, considering you get to talk with people and cook at the same time. Of course that is not all. There’s also prepping work, and cutting and mixing and making desserts…sooo many desserts. That’s the least favorite bit for as far as I’m concerned. Way too much sweetness.

Well, everything is ready for the trip. Bags are packed, house has been cleaned and organized for the house sitters, paperwork taken care of, everything triple checked, route completely set out, stops planned, people to see (at last), places to see and even a big part of our rooms already booked. Starting to get a wee bit nervous about the whole thing. I mean, this is the biggest trip I have done in ages, and to the other side of the world, no less. Exciting and scary a the same time, if you know what I mean. On the one hand, can’t wait to see it all, and on the other hand…OMG! OMG! OMG!

Car has been having some trouble. Both of them in fact. Had to call triple A myself once, because the engine stalled. Thankfully it wasn’t anything serious. Regretfully big brother’s is now also having trouble, so that means we have to deal with that as soon as we get back. Darn it.

Did quite a bit of experimenting with cooking, but the greatest part of that was that I was offered to arrange a big dinner for the CEOs at the company I now used to work for. So much fun. Got to set up a 3 course meal (well, I made a 3 course with three options per course so they could chose) and then serve it, which is not an easy thing, since there were products to order via places that only had order numbers and descriptions, rather than pictures, not to mention a limited amount of time to prep and actually cook before it was serving time. But it worked and everyone was happy and liked the food, so all went well…which was a relief. You know how I can stress about stuff like that. Hah

Well, that about sums it up for me this time ‘round. I hope that internet won’t be a problem for me over there, so I’ll be able to post blogs about the entire trip and let you all see where I’m at.

Looking forward to it.

Cross-eyed...a little anyway.

Song of the day: “Calling Heaven” by the Kelly family. Weird why that one popped into my head, considering it was from the late nineties, but then, who can find thought or rhyme in the way the friggin’ brain works. Luckily this rather sad song was yesterday, today it was, “It wasn’t me” by Shaggy. Fun song that cracks me up every time.

Okay then, let’s get this over with, then. I write things down, whoever’s reading this will breeze through it, and then we can both continue on with our lives. Hah.

Yesterday mostly involved getting into the swing of “Calamity’s Luck”, which will basically be a romantic comedy. I manage to read about twenty pages of the fifty that I wrote more than three years ago. The story is still good, but we’re going to need to do a lot of editing in the next few days, before I can start on writing new material. I had fully intended on just reading through the lot and get started while big brother started on the edit, but while reading, I got so many ideas for changes I wanted to make (this was today) that we just got started.

Once my brain started to turn to mush, we got out the big board, we’d set it aside for this very purpose, so we could start writing out the plot-line, characters, events that have already occurred and ideas that I want to add. This is the first time that I’ll be working with a planning board, so we’ll have to see how it ‘ll work.

So let’s get to the activities of the past two days: Oh yeah, I’m finally putting together a new wardrobe closet, ‘cause let’s face it, the old one was literally falling apart, aaaargh. It took a bit of work, taking out a section (because the closet in question was three inches too high for my cabin) and then putting the bottom back on. It worked out brilliantly, by the way; you can’t even see it. The closet, now standing in my bedroom, is wood with glass, not too deep, and slightly wider than the old one…the only bad thing, that tonight, after a full day with me being more than a little tired, I still have to put the clothes in.

Also, the little drawer cabinet I was making, worked out, and is now standing in my cabin, yay. There was some scrambling there at the end, when it became clear that due to the painting of all walls, the drawers were a little too big. Had to make some adjustments by widening the cabinet by half a centimeter, so now it’s good, hah.

There was glass cutting, carpentry, and lots of planning involved since yesterday, and of course two full runs that work like a charm on getting me completely worn out of the evening. Nothing works better than being cross-eyed at the end of the evening to help you fall asleep within three seconds of hitting the pillow.

Lots of wind blowing the past few days. Really strong storms that make me a little disoriented at times, if for no other reason than that it’s making so much noise. The dogs get a little freaky because of it too, looking like their eyes are going every which way from sheer nervousness. Strange. Luckily the winds should stop next month or so…or at least that’s what happened the last few years. We’ll just have to wait and see, I guess.

Well, I’m gonna stop now, considering I still need to do that darn closet. Hah.

In a hurry and I can't think of a title. Hah.

I’m only a fraction too late this morning, rapidly going through the morning rituals so I can start on the day. Only a little bit of reading, then getting dressed and heading down to the house with the dogs darting around me in their usual melee.

Beautiful weather today: The sun is shining brightly overhead, the temperature is pleasant, and the wind strong but not chilly. Wonderful, and it reminds me of the years when we went to Spain during our travels.

Once inside the house I get to the laundry first, deciding that I might as well get that particular chore behind me and am pleased to see that due to the change in the weather conditions everything has dried properly during the night again.

The usual feeding, and setting the kitchen to rights follows, after which big brother and I settle down with our computers to work on a pitch letter to send to publishers in the near future for one of my full length novels.
It is a slow and tedious process, involving the bare essentials and catchy phrases while still maintaining a professional tone. I hate it, but it has to be done.

A couple of hours later, having eked out a basic letter, we head on out to the car, intending on a trip to the local landfill when we find that something is wrong with the car and it refuses to start. The battery appears to be empty again, causing considerable frustration to us both as we open the hood and take the battery out to see if we can fix the problem by putting another in it’s place.

It doesn’t work, and in the end we resort to placing the old back, and connecting it to the charger while we set out to gather the variety of junk piles that have been placed along the path during the past few months and the projects we’ve been involved in. The truck bed is rapidly filled to full capacity, creating a much wider path for our car to traverse up the mountain on any given day. It is rather nice to see the yard turn neat. Hah.

While we’re hauling junk the wind is rapidly building up to full force, and as dusk descends the temperature starts to drop, making me somewhat chilled by the time we return to the house and eat the meal little brother has prepared. While returning inside, I notice that Yadzia is limping and feel considerable concern when I can’t figure out what is causing it.

He doesn’t appear to be experiencing a lot of pain but since he’s on rather heavy tranquilizers I can’t say if this latest problem is just a matter of some weakness in the limbs or something more severe. I guess I’ll know later tonight by the time the 24th hour of his medication arrives. If he’s in pain then, something is wrong.

During dinner we watch an episode of “The Closer” and after eating I set an old, small coffee table on the kitchen table and start to sand the top and scrape the legs with broken pieces of glass. When finally the last remnants of the old paint are removed the new varnish can be applied, at which time the show is over.

We turn off the TV so we can focus on the papers that need to be filled out for our upcoming passport renewal. It’s a terrible hassle, really, and so unnecessary all things considered, but it needs to be done that’s a fact.

After we get most of it done, we spend another hour or so going over the pitch letter and doing some random writes for the book, when midnight arrives and with it the time available to get everything done.

A long discussion in my room follows, as big brother and I talk about our most recent concerns and plan on what needs to be done in the near future. There is so much to do, and relatively speaking so little time to do it in. It is a rather daunting task that lies ahead, but like everything else in life, it has to be done.