Song of the day: “Everything falls into place” by Sophie Ellis-Bextor. It’s driving me a little bonkers. ‘Tis not that I don’t like the song, really, it is just that the chorus is stuck, rather than the entire thing. Aaargh.
At the moment the thing keeping big brother and me busy is going through basic formatting of the manuscript. Indents, lining, etc. Gotta check everything triple. Also the colons, semi-colons, exclamation marks, em-dashes and…well every punctuation mark except for the commas, which will get their turn during the (last) paper edit. Checking commas really is only doable in context.
Added to that we’re also still tackling the query letter, which should be interesting, professional, funny, casual, direct and everything else that I can possibly get into it. Yep, them TPs require the absolute best you can give. It’s exhausting, but necessary, I fear.
Strange weather again. Yesterday was splendidly summerish, sunshine, clear blue sky, a fresh breeze from the sea and it was just great. Then today…we’re in the clouds again. Seriously, it is starting to freak me out. This really isn’t normal. Can you imagine that I am constantly sniffing the air, just to make sure that it’s clouds that are surrounding us and not smoke? But no, there is lots of moisture in the air, a chilly breeze from the sea and so much clouds that I cannot even see the body of water that usually reaches as far as the eye can. *sigh*
Tenant is basically taking daily dips in the pool now, and loving every minute of it (not today, I’m thinking, she does get cold fast). Yesterday we were doing her exercises and she actually managed…hold onto your hat…to make a boxing motion with her left arm. Yay! That’s a definite first and it is spending. I mean, squeezing her hand, stretching her arm could be dismissed as reflexes, but bending the arm and then thrusting it out straight implies actual control over the motion. Double YAY!
Sitabah (Weimaraner) once again scaled the carport get yesterday…yes, she does that about four to five times a day, jumping up and down of a 7 foot gate…and proceeded to land wrong on her front paw. Stupid dog. Seriously, it was a disaster waiting to happen, but will she listen? I think not! So now she is limping, seeing as she sprained her friggin’ paw. Looking miserable for it too (still going over that gate though, aaargh), being all pitiful and keeping her “poor” paw mid-air, right until she wants to go after something and uses it carelessly.
When we went to get rocks the other day, I took Knight II (Great Dane) along, of course, seeing as the big lug has to run when I can squeeze the activity in…but, he’s stubborn that way and wouldn’t show a single inclination to do any actual running while I was going back and forth with rocks. Seriously, the moment I took my eyes off him (six times in total) he’d sneak back to the car and settle on the back seat. Lazy friggin’ dog. Really, it made me want to give him a kick in the butt…which I didn’t, of course, but the temptation…*sigh*
I even tried a tennis ball (‘cause he doesn’t even look at a rock or stick, grrr) but he’d just watch it bounce, with that really stupid expression of “huh?” on his face, take it in his mouth once before turning around and lying down on the macadam. He’s so exhausting in his laziness, darn it. He does love driving a lot, FYI. He’ll stretch out on the back seat, his head between the front ones as he stares at the road streaking past.
In the yard we have been putting new onions in the ground. A nice big patch too. The beets are just about done, and we have been enjoying them on a daily basis…boy, are they nice. I also transplanted the last few Cherry tomatoes from the pot to the ground and finally put the Pecan tree down in the yard. It’s doing wonderfully and looks so very nice.
As to projects. At the moment we’re mostly sawing wood for the carport partition that’s on the schedule. Lots of slats and I get to paint them…maybe even tonight…yay! Hah.
Also we’re going to add another piece of roof to the old horse stable, so we’ll have more storage abilities…this will be necessary, considering the younger sibs are increasing on their market scheme, by placing an add for people who have small house hold appliances they want to get rid of, which they then pick up. Yesterday, they got a big load, sooo…storage is necessary.
Well, I should get back to my colons and semis…after that there are lots of stufsies to do.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
2nd edit Done! Yay.
Song of the day: “The banana boat song” by Harry Bellafonte. Seriously, I keep seeing Michael Keaton’s Beetlejuice.
So let’s start with the good stuff…I FINISHED THE 2ND EDIT!!! Oh-my-gawd! We were 16 pages away from the ending yesterday morning, and then, before I knew what hit me, we were at “the end” last night. It was a little anticlimactic, really. Here I was, steadily reading (out loud, mind you) going through the story, the final fight, the near death scene and then…poof, it was over and done with.
Of course there is still the 3rd and last (paper) edit, but since that tends to go much faster, because I can basically do it anywhere, we should be ready with ATOL by the end of the month, or in the first week of the next one. *deep breath* Meaning that we have to get going on that query letter if we want to start sending it out to publishers before fall, darn it. Sure, we’ve worked on the friggin’ letter off and on for the past few weeks, but still…I don’t know if I can handle the new pressure. Hah.
Just kidding. The new steps are always scary, but fun too. It’ll be interesting if we’ll be able to draw the same positive responses for ATOL as we did for Saving Nina. Of course I think it is good, but it will be fascinating to see if any of the editors will think so too.
Other than that, there’s not all that much is going on at the moment. I don’t know why, but on the overall it is just daily stuff that’s keeping me busy. Laundry, the dogs…as a matter of fact I just took Knight II and Chaos for a swim in the pool and almost got bowled over for my efforts. Seriously, Knight was feeling a tad overheated and just stormed in, splashing all over the place. Chaos, on the other hand was very civilized about the matter (good Chaos). He barged into the water like the tank he is and proceeded to swim three circles—tail held high—before he calmly made his way up the stairs to pose in the glimmer of sunlight. Gawd that dog knows how to strike a pose. Hah.
I don’t know what the heck is going on with the dogs by the way; for some reason they are once again attacking the fences and literally rip apart laminated metal in their efforts. Even now big brother and grandpa are fixing the man-sized hole they made just yesterday afternoon, little bastards.
While watering the plants and planting some onions yesterday we also took the opportunity to pluck a full crate of tomatoes, which are being canned (or at least trying to) right this instant. We’ll see how it goes. The zucchinis are finally going down in production a little, and the large field where the biggest batch grew we have turned the earth, added a natural fertilizer (two year old dog poo, yeah I know, it sounds icky, but the stuff works really well) and planted potatoes, yay.
We did a calculation and figured that in order to have nine months worth of potatoes we’re going to need fourteen patches a year of the stuff. It should be doable, but we’ll see.
Considering big brother had to do some maintenance chores throughout the house, a leaky faucet, a broken ac in mom’s bedroom, etc, I spent lots of time alone in the yard, weeding like mad. I’m proud to say that I yanked two patches free of the infernal stuff, creating some space for the remaining plants still in the greenhouse. Hah.
I finished two Tess Gerritsen novels and started on the third (this one not a Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles story, by the way) and have to say that so far I don’t really like “Life Support” I might change my mind later on, but not yet.
I did enjoy the Rizzoli and Isles, one, though admittedly the one that was mainly narrated from Rizzoli’s point of view drew me more than the one with Isles in the lead. I guess the first (Rizzoli’s character) is more to my liking.
Well, I’m going to leave it at this, it is time to start on the query letter after all, and, well…I don’t know what else to talk about anyway. *sigh*
P.S.
I changed the layout. What do you think? Good, bad, or just meh. Hah.
So let’s start with the good stuff…I FINISHED THE 2ND EDIT!!! Oh-my-gawd! We were 16 pages away from the ending yesterday morning, and then, before I knew what hit me, we were at “the end” last night. It was a little anticlimactic, really. Here I was, steadily reading (out loud, mind you) going through the story, the final fight, the near death scene and then…poof, it was over and done with.
Of course there is still the 3rd and last (paper) edit, but since that tends to go much faster, because I can basically do it anywhere, we should be ready with ATOL by the end of the month, or in the first week of the next one. *deep breath* Meaning that we have to get going on that query letter if we want to start sending it out to publishers before fall, darn it. Sure, we’ve worked on the friggin’ letter off and on for the past few weeks, but still…I don’t know if I can handle the new pressure. Hah.
Just kidding. The new steps are always scary, but fun too. It’ll be interesting if we’ll be able to draw the same positive responses for ATOL as we did for Saving Nina. Of course I think it is good, but it will be fascinating to see if any of the editors will think so too.
Other than that, there’s not all that much is going on at the moment. I don’t know why, but on the overall it is just daily stuff that’s keeping me busy. Laundry, the dogs…as a matter of fact I just took Knight II and Chaos for a swim in the pool and almost got bowled over for my efforts. Seriously, Knight was feeling a tad overheated and just stormed in, splashing all over the place. Chaos, on the other hand was very civilized about the matter (good Chaos). He barged into the water like the tank he is and proceeded to swim three circles—tail held high—before he calmly made his way up the stairs to pose in the glimmer of sunlight. Gawd that dog knows how to strike a pose. Hah.
I don’t know what the heck is going on with the dogs by the way; for some reason they are once again attacking the fences and literally rip apart laminated metal in their efforts. Even now big brother and grandpa are fixing the man-sized hole they made just yesterday afternoon, little bastards.
While watering the plants and planting some onions yesterday we also took the opportunity to pluck a full crate of tomatoes, which are being canned (or at least trying to) right this instant. We’ll see how it goes. The zucchinis are finally going down in production a little, and the large field where the biggest batch grew we have turned the earth, added a natural fertilizer (two year old dog poo, yeah I know, it sounds icky, but the stuff works really well) and planted potatoes, yay.
We did a calculation and figured that in order to have nine months worth of potatoes we’re going to need fourteen patches a year of the stuff. It should be doable, but we’ll see.
Considering big brother had to do some maintenance chores throughout the house, a leaky faucet, a broken ac in mom’s bedroom, etc, I spent lots of time alone in the yard, weeding like mad. I’m proud to say that I yanked two patches free of the infernal stuff, creating some space for the remaining plants still in the greenhouse. Hah.
I finished two Tess Gerritsen novels and started on the third (this one not a Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles story, by the way) and have to say that so far I don’t really like “Life Support” I might change my mind later on, but not yet.
I did enjoy the Rizzoli and Isles, one, though admittedly the one that was mainly narrated from Rizzoli’s point of view drew me more than the one with Isles in the lead. I guess the first (Rizzoli’s character) is more to my liking.
Well, I’m going to leave it at this, it is time to start on the query letter after all, and, well…I don’t know what else to talk about anyway. *sigh*
P.S.
I changed the layout. What do you think? Good, bad, or just meh. Hah.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
No time for edits, darn it.
Song of the day: “Misfit” by Amy Studt again. Weird; I woke up and there it was. It’s been going ever since.
Yesterday was a busy day for sure. Basically big brother and I were out all day, going back and forth from home with barely a minute to spare in which we could do the necessary edits. Heck, if we managed six pages through the course of yesterday it was a lot, darn it.
First of all we had to go to the garage, where the mechanic had to check if the packing they recently replaced was holding…it didn’t, at least not entirely, we had to bring the car in this morning to have a worn bolt replaced…then we had to go to the insurance company. Seeing it is on the other side of the mountain, it was a thirty minute drive extra at least. We had to pay grandpa’s moped insurance, and considering we were there anyway, I took the chance to ask about my policy to see if the podiatrist was included. It was. Phew. But that’s for later.
That don we had to head over to Málaga to the ITV (technical inspection for vehicles) which is obligatory every six month for our all terrain Land Rover. *sigh*
We came through with flying colors. Such a nice young technician, all amused about them silly foreigners and waving us through asap because, well, it’s such a bother. Hah. I didn’t mind, really, especially not since that meant we could head the heck outta there under an hour. Yay.
Once home, and after a quick, very late breakfast, big brother and I managed a page and a half of the edit before tenant arrived and it was time for me to help her exercise in the pool. She had fun at least, and the water was wonderfully refreshing on what was turning out to be a wonderfully hot day. Good news part is that her left arm is making an effort in trying to help keep her balance, so that means that the reflexes are working at least.
The swimming party took a little longer than expected, so afterwards I had to hurry getting cleaned up and dressed for my doctor’s appointment in the village. I arrived only five minutes late…and then proceeded to have to wait in the waiting area for 45 minutes before I got to see the podiatrist.
Oh my…seriously, in my books he would be like “doable” in ways of looks. Tall, broad, unshaven, buzz cut, and charmingly hapless with his English. Oh man, he’ll have loads of female patients, I’m betting. Hah. Made me laugh just looking at him, and I really had to stop myself from helplessly shaking my head every time he turned on the charm with an embarrassed little smile as he tried to explain something.
But anyways…sorry, got a little distracted there, hah…turns out he’s going to have to make me some sort of insoles, which means that I have to come for another visit, this time at the other clinic, where they’ll make a mold and fit me with some. Other than that, mister brilliant suggested I wear lots of high heels in summer, because it would alleviate the pressure on the hurt part. How I’m supposed to wear heels while working the yard and doing construction, I don’t know, but at least I’ve got plateau thongs that’ll do in a pinch. It won’t be comfortable, but what the heck, it isn’t anyway. Hah.
After that was done arrived home in time to help grandpa out with some “home improvement” stuff in the carport, pet the insane dogs, that were of course feeling neglected, and then went down into the yard to water the plants.
The first melons came out, thank you very much. The sugar babies do their name justice. Tomatoes…well, like expected they’re coming from the plants by the score like expected and I see us eat lots of them yet. Luckily the dogs like them (and zucchinis) too, so we’re sharing. Hah.
We finished the last three hours of the day with a very slow edit, because, let’s face it, I was just about ready to hit the sheets with my eyes firmly shut…so I figured I might as well do that. I was in bed at 2:15 in the morning, which was way too late, considering I could barely get my eyes open this morning. Ah well, tomorrow’s another day.
Yesterday was a busy day for sure. Basically big brother and I were out all day, going back and forth from home with barely a minute to spare in which we could do the necessary edits. Heck, if we managed six pages through the course of yesterday it was a lot, darn it.
First of all we had to go to the garage, where the mechanic had to check if the packing they recently replaced was holding…it didn’t, at least not entirely, we had to bring the car in this morning to have a worn bolt replaced…then we had to go to the insurance company. Seeing it is on the other side of the mountain, it was a thirty minute drive extra at least. We had to pay grandpa’s moped insurance, and considering we were there anyway, I took the chance to ask about my policy to see if the podiatrist was included. It was. Phew. But that’s for later.
That don we had to head over to Málaga to the ITV (technical inspection for vehicles) which is obligatory every six month for our all terrain Land Rover. *sigh*
We came through with flying colors. Such a nice young technician, all amused about them silly foreigners and waving us through asap because, well, it’s such a bother. Hah. I didn’t mind, really, especially not since that meant we could head the heck outta there under an hour. Yay.
Once home, and after a quick, very late breakfast, big brother and I managed a page and a half of the edit before tenant arrived and it was time for me to help her exercise in the pool. She had fun at least, and the water was wonderfully refreshing on what was turning out to be a wonderfully hot day. Good news part is that her left arm is making an effort in trying to help keep her balance, so that means that the reflexes are working at least.
The swimming party took a little longer than expected, so afterwards I had to hurry getting cleaned up and dressed for my doctor’s appointment in the village. I arrived only five minutes late…and then proceeded to have to wait in the waiting area for 45 minutes before I got to see the podiatrist.
Oh my…seriously, in my books he would be like “doable” in ways of looks. Tall, broad, unshaven, buzz cut, and charmingly hapless with his English. Oh man, he’ll have loads of female patients, I’m betting. Hah. Made me laugh just looking at him, and I really had to stop myself from helplessly shaking my head every time he turned on the charm with an embarrassed little smile as he tried to explain something.
But anyways…sorry, got a little distracted there, hah…turns out he’s going to have to make me some sort of insoles, which means that I have to come for another visit, this time at the other clinic, where they’ll make a mold and fit me with some. Other than that, mister brilliant suggested I wear lots of high heels in summer, because it would alleviate the pressure on the hurt part. How I’m supposed to wear heels while working the yard and doing construction, I don’t know, but at least I’ve got plateau thongs that’ll do in a pinch. It won’t be comfortable, but what the heck, it isn’t anyway. Hah.
After that was done arrived home in time to help grandpa out with some “home improvement” stuff in the carport, pet the insane dogs, that were of course feeling neglected, and then went down into the yard to water the plants.
The first melons came out, thank you very much. The sugar babies do their name justice. Tomatoes…well, like expected they’re coming from the plants by the score like expected and I see us eat lots of them yet. Luckily the dogs like them (and zucchinis) too, so we’re sharing. Hah.
We finished the last three hours of the day with a very slow edit, because, let’s face it, I was just about ready to hit the sheets with my eyes firmly shut…so I figured I might as well do that. I was in bed at 2:15 in the morning, which was way too late, considering I could barely get my eyes open this morning. Ah well, tomorrow’s another day.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Hairy fight.
Song of the day: “Waka waka” by Shakira. Funny song, and for the Fifa world cup. Didn’t hear all that much of it during the football season, but then, it was not as if I was listening to radio or whatever.
Strange weather today. I am literally in the clouds at the moment, and for this time of year that is practically unheard of. It’s weird, I tell ya, absolutely friggin’ weird.
No matter though, for the plants it is absolutely fabulous, and since anything that is fabulous for the plants means less watering (ergo money) for us, it’s is all good. Hah. Who knows, it might actually rain. *gasps*
So what’s been going on. Not all that much admittedly, but I’ve managed to keep properly busy. There was the yard work, of course. We raking in the tomatoes at the moment, reaping what we sow and all that, hah, and getting approximately 10 pounds a day…which means that we have had ratatouille, soup and today tomato pizza. Yum! It’s absolutely delicious. Five different types of tomatoes layered on the dough, with silver onion slices, diced garlic, fresh basil, chives, oregano and pepper slices. All of that finished off with a mix of Parmesan, cottage cheese and Gouda cheese and you’ve got one heck of a pizza. You should try it some day. I mean seriously, just standing beside the oven smelling the stuff made me drool.
Other than that we’re still getting more zucchinis, I know, no big surprise there, hah, sunflower seeds, peppers, cucumbers and onions. We also had our very first sweet corn the other day, by the way, and it was so darn delicious that I could have stuffed my face if there had been more than a handful available, darn it.
Edits are going splendid…at least they have been since the day before yesterday. First there were seventeen pages in one session, and just yesterday afternoon we raced through twenty-seven friggin’ pages that just flowed smooth as a quiet river in summer. Warm, fun, and easy. Can’t have a better day than that, I assure you.
My reading at the moment consists of gift books. Seeing as I’m still on the no-book-buying-budget/diet, a friend took pity on me and gave m a nice pile of thrillers. For the past week or so I’ve been going through Tess Gerritsen’s Rizzoli and Isles novels, and am finding some enjoyment in them. There are some boring moments, but on the most part I’m properly entertained. Perhaps I should write a review on them in the near future.
Oh my gawd, I just tried my chard pizza and it is absolutely divine. I just might have to stop writing a moment to properly enjoy it………..
Okay, I’m back.
What else…well, yesterday we took the opportunity of a free evening from watering the plants (the younger sibs take that particular chore in the weekend) and poured concrete in the last part of the carport, which is now looking splendid, thank you very much.
Now either we’re going to pour waterworks this afternoon, or we’re going to work on the insides of the basin walls, it’s still up for debate.
It did mean that we were late going inside last night, of course, and that while I had thought that we might actually be in the house before dusk, darn it. But no matter, the floor is done and that means we finished two projects in one day…
Gawd, almost forgot. We also put in the last woodwork of the greenhouse yesterday. Yay. Painted it and everything, so now, as the months go past we’re going to add pane after pane until fall arrives and we’ll have a fully functional greenhouse. Hah. It’s looking great, in case you’re wondering and yes, I will be sure to add pictures in the near future when I need to post all those others I’ve been promising to put up for months now. *sigh*
Last night there was a rather nasty fight between Sonia and Chamea, by the way. Stupid cocker and Irish Setter have been mortal enemies for years, and yesterday they suddenly decided to see who was strongest, again. I couldn’t do anything either while big brother was trying to tear the two apart.
Of course the office door was shut, so I was trying to keep Knight II away from big brother, while trying to keep Jelly and Bambi away from Knight. At the same time, I was trying to get middle sister to understand that she had to get Koefnoen, Micky and the other morons trying to get to the fight in front of the door, out of the way so I could at least take my pack out of the mix. Aaaargh.
Finally she understood, managed to get Mati (black lab) who just barely got a bite out of Knight’s flank…Knight then of course yelped, tried to bite Rhumba before I managed to burst through the door in his pursuit and chased him and the rest of my pack out of the courtyard. Phew. By the time I got back, big brother had managed to get Chamea and Sonia apart. So all that was left for me to do, was shout at the all the others, and nudging them apart until peace returned at last. Yep, those are the fun things of living with a pack of approximately ninety.
Gotta get to the edits, big brother is starting to look at me impatiently, hah.
Strange weather today. I am literally in the clouds at the moment, and for this time of year that is practically unheard of. It’s weird, I tell ya, absolutely friggin’ weird.
No matter though, for the plants it is absolutely fabulous, and since anything that is fabulous for the plants means less watering (ergo money) for us, it’s is all good. Hah. Who knows, it might actually rain. *gasps*
So what’s been going on. Not all that much admittedly, but I’ve managed to keep properly busy. There was the yard work, of course. We raking in the tomatoes at the moment, reaping what we sow and all that, hah, and getting approximately 10 pounds a day…which means that we have had ratatouille, soup and today tomato pizza. Yum! It’s absolutely delicious. Five different types of tomatoes layered on the dough, with silver onion slices, diced garlic, fresh basil, chives, oregano and pepper slices. All of that finished off with a mix of Parmesan, cottage cheese and Gouda cheese and you’ve got one heck of a pizza. You should try it some day. I mean seriously, just standing beside the oven smelling the stuff made me drool.
Other than that we’re still getting more zucchinis, I know, no big surprise there, hah, sunflower seeds, peppers, cucumbers and onions. We also had our very first sweet corn the other day, by the way, and it was so darn delicious that I could have stuffed my face if there had been more than a handful available, darn it.
Edits are going splendid…at least they have been since the day before yesterday. First there were seventeen pages in one session, and just yesterday afternoon we raced through twenty-seven friggin’ pages that just flowed smooth as a quiet river in summer. Warm, fun, and easy. Can’t have a better day than that, I assure you.
My reading at the moment consists of gift books. Seeing as I’m still on the no-book-buying-budget/diet, a friend took pity on me and gave m a nice pile of thrillers. For the past week or so I’ve been going through Tess Gerritsen’s Rizzoli and Isles novels, and am finding some enjoyment in them. There are some boring moments, but on the most part I’m properly entertained. Perhaps I should write a review on them in the near future.
Oh my gawd, I just tried my chard pizza and it is absolutely divine. I just might have to stop writing a moment to properly enjoy it………..
Okay, I’m back.
What else…well, yesterday we took the opportunity of a free evening from watering the plants (the younger sibs take that particular chore in the weekend) and poured concrete in the last part of the carport, which is now looking splendid, thank you very much.
Now either we’re going to pour waterworks this afternoon, or we’re going to work on the insides of the basin walls, it’s still up for debate.
It did mean that we were late going inside last night, of course, and that while I had thought that we might actually be in the house before dusk, darn it. But no matter, the floor is done and that means we finished two projects in one day…
Gawd, almost forgot. We also put in the last woodwork of the greenhouse yesterday. Yay. Painted it and everything, so now, as the months go past we’re going to add pane after pane until fall arrives and we’ll have a fully functional greenhouse. Hah. It’s looking great, in case you’re wondering and yes, I will be sure to add pictures in the near future when I need to post all those others I’ve been promising to put up for months now. *sigh*
Last night there was a rather nasty fight between Sonia and Chamea, by the way. Stupid cocker and Irish Setter have been mortal enemies for years, and yesterday they suddenly decided to see who was strongest, again. I couldn’t do anything either while big brother was trying to tear the two apart.
Of course the office door was shut, so I was trying to keep Knight II away from big brother, while trying to keep Jelly and Bambi away from Knight. At the same time, I was trying to get middle sister to understand that she had to get Koefnoen, Micky and the other morons trying to get to the fight in front of the door, out of the way so I could at least take my pack out of the mix. Aaaargh.
Finally she understood, managed to get Mati (black lab) who just barely got a bite out of Knight’s flank…Knight then of course yelped, tried to bite Rhumba before I managed to burst through the door in his pursuit and chased him and the rest of my pack out of the courtyard. Phew. By the time I got back, big brother had managed to get Chamea and Sonia apart. So all that was left for me to do, was shout at the all the others, and nudging them apart until peace returned at last. Yep, those are the fun things of living with a pack of approximately ninety.
Gotta get to the edits, big brother is starting to look at me impatiently, hah.
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