Blank!!!

Song of the day: “Try” by Nelly Furtado, which was literally blaring into my head again this morning for no apparent reason. And that while I had the same artist with “I’m like a bird” yesterday. Maybe Nelly’s on my mind. Hah.

What’s been going on…yes, can you feel the blank coming up, I can. Hah. What’s up, what’s up. I think the pressure of this blogging thing is weighing on my shoulders, ‘cause the moment I start thinking of what I’m gonna write about in the blog, there’s a brain-freeze going on. *sigh*

So, I’m thinking, I’m thinking. Oh Gawd, yes, the read-through edit: Big brother had done thirty pages the other day, and just when we were about done for the day (five friggin’ hours!) my computer suddenly crashed. *gasp* I know, I had heart palpitations, almost had a nervous breakdown and swore a blue streak. We managed to recover 28 of the pages however, so…phew.
Seriously, I was about to hit the roof…if there had been any, considering we were sitting outside on the terrace. Hah.

Book chapters are in the mail, yay, and I feel stressed out about it, as usual. What if I did something wrong, what if I missed something, did I put the right address, write the right name, was it double spaced as is standard, etc. etc. It continues on endlessly, and I know I checked it all seven times at least, an yet I keep thinking of it. Drives me bonkers, I tell you.

Okay, yesterday there was a trip to Marbella, picking up a friend who spent the night. Her positive comment about sleeping over: the quiet is so wonderful, no people arguing…or copulating next door! Hah. Not that I can blame her. I would imagine that the quiet is rather wonderful if you’re used to living in an apartment close to a restaurant and noisy neighbors.
Apparently, the occasional dog bark and howl don’t count as noise. Hah.

We worked on the water works, naturally, and the first part is almost done. Same goes for the path that leads down from the bus. Nice lazy steps, on grandpa’s insistence, so it won’t be as steep as it used to be.

There was carrot soup, zucchini soup and of course, our favorite, potato with beets and cheese, which we literally devoured yesterday afternoon, right after the edit. Oh my, it was absolutely friggintastic. Hah.

Dogs are doing grand, Lhabana (Labrador) is losing weight at last, and Gada is happily toddling after her and Amri. So strange how she’s always bugging Amri, who snarls and barks at her for her to leave him alone, and then, when I keep her out of the way, he’ll come at her as if the say, “hey, why aren’t you bugging me?” Hah.

But anyway, that is about it for the past couple of really boring days. Just normal gardening stuff, and chores, such as cleaning the ears of Carla (cocker) who had a wound underneath the matted hair. Poor Carla, he really didn’t like the treatment, but in the end we managed to clean the culprit and send him on his way again.

Gotta go.

Keep yer fingers crossed. ;-)

Song of the day: “Si tu no vuelves” by Miguel Bose and Shakira. Beautiful song, but with the way my voice is acting these days, ya really don’t want to hear me try to hit the high notes. I don’t what the heck is going on, but these days I sound like that woman from that “Bette Davis eyes” song, Kim Carnes, I believe. Rather annoying since, back in the day, I used to be able to do Sarah Brightman. I’ve a feeling that this has been happening since I started speaking English so much; it has completely altered my voice. Weird.

So let’s get to the interesting bit, as to why I have very little to report project-wise and why I have been eating, sleeping and drinking Word for the past couple of days. A TP requested to see my “Saving Nina” and just wrote me an email right out of the blue (I know, what nerve to just hit me like that! Hah) asking to see more than the query letter I wrote.

I punched big brother, seriously, I kid you not, I did! I had to. I opened my mail, saw the subject line of the title and opened it. Next thing I know I punched big brother in the shoulder (he was after all sitting right beside me, and wasn’t responding to my wheezing “hey, hey, looklooklook…look gorrammit”…well, my choice of words was a little less colourful, but you get my drift.) and was pointing frantically at the screen by the time he tore away from the conversation he was having with grandpa, and blinked at me stupidly. *breathes in deeply*

Sorry for the long sentence there. Hah.

But anyway, we had promised ourselves not to read through Saving Nina again in the event someone showed an interest, but of course couldn’t hold ourselves with the wonderful opportunity to coming along. I think both our OCD tendencies combined into a massive force, and before you know it…right after all the necessary shores, such as watering the plants…
We were stuck behind the computer reading through the first chapters that were requested.

While watering, I had this massive text going through my head, so I was basically screaming for big brother to take down pen and paper while I was standing there with the hose. The adjoining letter was in my head and I had to get it jotted down before it escaped again. I slammed the water pistol into his hands, snatched pen and paper and flopped down on the slope to start. Through out the watering session this procedure was repeated three times, giving me a letter of exactly three smart, funny and informative paragraphs (or at least, I think they are, hah) that should whet the editor’s appetite, if nothing more. If not…well, then I guess I made a mistake in picking this one. What with all the positive responses in the past year, I have come to the conclusion that apart from the errors that I, as the writer, am unable to detect, it all depends on taste now.

I mean, let’s face it, I didn’t send the dratted manuscript out to known snarky agents just to test their responses. I am sure that at least three of them would have totally trashed it if it had been grammatically incorrect, plot-wise miserable, and typo-ridden. Since all responded with stuff like, not entirely “right for me” but fascinating premises, I’ve decided to go for a-matter-of-taste. We’re all human after all, and tastes diversify. One person’s cake is the other’s poison and all that.

But anywaysssss…we managed to go through the elected chapters (which was vastly reassuring, I tell you. We didn’t get stuck anywhere and found only three typos, yay), write the follow up letter, cut paper (what’s with US letter size, by the way? Why can’t I just send A4, it’s a world-wide accepted size, isn’t it?) check everything fifteen times, and then hand the envelope over to grandpa who put it in the mail 36 hours after the request for more. Can I just say that I was properly impressed with our expediency? I mean, seriously, we didn’t even forget to feed the dogs or water the plants, hah.

Gawd, I hope this editor is not going to hold the lack of a SASE against me, ‘cause it is literally impossible to get it done from here. I’ve been trying to get it done somehow for at least seven years, but have had no luck whatsoever. There’re those international coupons, naturally, but a vast amount of publishers find them to be a nuisance, and, since all the terrorism stuff, the US postal service no longer offers service of offshore postage. Frustrating, I tell you. If I could I would just by a hundred stamps somewhere and have them send over, but how I would get that done I still don’t know. Ah well, let’s hope the editor takes pity on me in that regard; life’s about taking risks after all.

I still can’t believe this one is interested, I mean seriously, this one actually has authors I positively love…not just like, but LOVE with capital letters. *sigh* Moving past it, because, let’s face it, the book has to do the work from now on, and it is completely out of my hands. No amount of wishing, hoping and stressing is going to get this thing done faster or in a most satisfying fashion. Until there is news, either good or bad, life will continue on as usual.

Tenant is doing well. She had her doctor’s appointment today and all her stats were great. She was cheerful about that we walked all the way down to the greenhouse terrace, chatting pleasantly. Even now she’s sitting in the sun just a few yards away, enjoying her latest book.

Tallis (crossbreed) is doing well, we removed the tube from his cheek yesterday, and in a few days we will be able to remove the remainder of his stitches. He’s happy as you please, too, so all in all there was little lasting damage from the entire debacle.

Knight II is really enjoying the extra bit of attention whenever he goes along in the car and gets to run free for a bit. I have the idea that he is a little calmer during the evenings, which is definitely a plus because, let’s face it, he’s a menace; just the other day he came barging towards me at top speed and decided to rear up by the time he reached me, and planted his front paws right into my ribs…JEEEEEEEZ! Talk about cracking nuts. I literally felt my ribs protest and had to lean on the table a bit to catch my breath. I’ve really got to work on his obedience a bit.

Other than that, there’s the normal yard work, of course, digging out some more of the future water works, and just normal stuff. Really nothing too interesting, so I’m going to leave it at this and get back to work on the old projects.

Walking the Knight. :-)

Song of the day: “All this time” by Maria Mena. It’s been a while since I had this one, I think, so that’s a plus, considering that yesterday Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody was pounding on the inside of my skull over and over again. Nothing against Queen’s BR, mind you, it is naturally a classic and pretty darn brilliant, but if you’ve got Mike Myers as Wayne and his nerdy pall head-banging in your mind’s eye, while you’re at it, the whole is a bit too much. Hah.

I would like to say that something extraordinary has happened in the past couple of days, of which I can spout eloquent verses for a page or two, but no, just and average couple of days that were just the usual busy.

Gardening cannot be excluded, of course, and considering this was the weekend, which the younger sibs picked for the watering chore. That meant, of course, that big brother and I had some extra time to tackle other tasks.

Two paths got our main attention, on the overall, the one leading from the carport to the courtyard and the one leading from the bus to the yard. The first one we finished pouring the majority, bringing the entire path leading downward about halfway. Yay. The second one, bus-yard, was mostly working on constructing a little wall that will allow us to even out the slant and at least get a wheelbarrow (if not tenant) down into the yard. I’ll have to remember taking pictures, just for the heck of it.

Weeding is a constant these days, not surprisingly of course, but boy those suckers are growing. Now, on the most part I don’t mind them, seeing as a lot of said “weeds” are wild herbs and give the most delicious tastes to carrots, beets and even cauliflower. It is quite amazing in fact the spiciness of our own veggies, and the differences, they’re awesome. The same veggies in a different spot can taste completely different and that is an extraordinary experience.

We are finding the first fist-sized melons, by the way. Honey melons (American football shaped) and cantaloupes; both are now competing, and we’re going to see who wins. Hah. The Sandia (watermelon) is growing fast too, so there might be a race going on soon. And the tomatoes…oh my gawd, kilos and kilos of ‘m are appearing all over the place.

The in-between edit that we’re doing while we let the big edit project settle is going well, we’re half way through the novella now, so progress is being made. The minds are flexible, allowing for short and simple solutions are possible…which is a requirement for work material that is already copyrighted. There are days when I regret not being able to make big adjustments, of course, but it is good practise to have such limitations; it requires quick and smart thinking. Hah.

For the most part big brother and I have been putting five to six hours in computer work while sitting outside by the greenhouse terrace. That way tenant has some company while we all enjoy the shady and windy spot. It sure makes the summer bearable…though admittedly the weather is still acting funny. Like today, there are clouds again, and even a sense of rain, which would be outrageous this time of year, but we’ll see how it goes. Even just the clouds are saving us a mint in watering costs.

Knight II went along on a gravel pick up, and I allowed him to run free for a bit. The big lug is getting way too little exercise, so it is necessary. Heck, he was out of breath before I was. Hah. He enjoyed it, though, which is the most important thing.

For some reason I ended up with a split lip the day before yesterday (seriously, don’t ask, it’s embarrassing) and the stupid thing has been bugging me considerably. Grandpa, on the other hand, got something in his eye yesterday, which meant a quick trop to the emergency room where they washed the dratted kernel out in just a few minutes. He was all cheerful again when he got back from it, so very relieved that the thing was out.

Well, that sums it up, I guess. More light editing to do…gotta get that finished before we get back to the big project…and then back to work on the paths.