A Hard Days Bite, book reviews, and happy knitting.

So tonight, I did what I said I was going to do.
I sat down, without anyone around and worked a bit on the miscreant chapter 5.

Well, in truth I only worked on it a little. I worked on the end of it, which is where I was the most stuck.

I've got more I've got to work on in the middle of it, and bridge a few key areas, but the end is what was making me feel guilty- I just didn't have a good feel going on the end of the chapter.

I moved on to chapter Six, which was written months ago... Honestly months ago. Like I had this chapter started before I even finished chapter 1. I might have to tweak 5 a little bit more to make 6 work a little more smoothly, and there are a few kinks, but we'll see what James has to say about it.

It was a quiet evening in, which is what I needed.
Yesterday, I was stuck at the auto shop getting my car worked on. I was a good car mommy, and finally got the O2 sensor repaired. Gee... all in all, I've only got just over 800$ worth of work left on my car for it to be "spiffy". But thats all normal stuff, like I need a new battery as mine most likely won't last me to the summer. Or certainly not next winter. I need my coolant changed, as apparently it is Chocolate milk like right now. And a few other various things, but all in all no big deal. The expensive part is always the "labor" sigh.

Today I went out and bought myself a spiffy memory foam pillow, hopefully my neck won't feel broke in the morning.
Went to the dreaded Walmart to pick up some sinus meds to avoid getting sick *knock on wood* and had a most horrible interaction while there. Seriously, employees were called over, and end result was Mother of Mine speaking to one of the managers to
inform them of how upset we were. I'm not going to go into details, but it's all due to some crazy bitch who even went so far as to bust out and start screaming at me that she was going to "pray for me" WTF?! I didn't do anything other walk past her.
Again, not going into it, but it was just bad.

Came home after that, and just chilled. Started laundry, took a shower, and started watching a few flicks.

Mother of Mine borrowed my car and drove to Denver (Littleton actually), for a Blair supper night with some of the clan members. Which allowed me to work on my knitting, and also work on my chapters.

So, quick little reviews:

Key Lime Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke:
This one seemed a bit odd, as the story went everywhere but the investigation. Yes, there was investigating.. but it just seemed a bit scattered. You got to see more of the real Mike, and also more of Norman, and again I can't seem to want to choose between the two of them. For a while there, I was very Team Norman, but now Mike has shown a side of him that really makes me like him more. The recipes were a little meh... I certainly won't be frying candy bars any time soon, but the book was all in all enjoyable. Though one thing, yes the story seemed a bit scattered.. it didn't seem like "filler" like previous novels.

Midnight Brunch by Marta Acosta:
I had the same issues with this one as I had with the first one. It feels like "wah wah wah. Everyone thinks I'm a slut because I'm Latino." Where in truth, seriously.. if you dress like a slut.. what do you expect people to think?
The reason for her to stay at the spa was so plot contrived it was ridiculous. I don't care how desperate someone is to prove themselves in a working way, if I was being treated like a doormat by some egotistical actor, and practically being blackmailed.. well they could kiss my ass. And for the main character who is supposed to be some "strong female" she did absolutely nothing but cave and give into every whim and demand of every man around her. The story was passable. And I still really _want_ to like the books. I may or may not give the 3rd book a try. It all depends on my mood. To be honest, the only character I have really grown to love is Edna.

The Day I Swapped my Dad for two Goldfish by Neil Gaiman:
Absolutely adorable and fantastic a story.I cannot wait to own it and read it to my future children. Neil Gaiman is once again brilliant with his story, and it was a very endearing story on how sometimes what you have is better than what you think you want, and what you'll do to get what you want. Most certainly a brilliant read for both adults and children alike.


I know i have a few more books that I've read recently, but meh... just ask if you want to know about them.

I've also been watching a few things recently:
I just watched "The Incredible Hulk"
Okay, I actually enjoyed this one. Ed Norton is always meh in my opinion. But the fact that they had a cameo with Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark (Iron Man) was totally awesome. It wasn't nearly the garbage that they did a few years ago. Including a cameo with the original Hulk. Come on.. you gotta love that!
Tim Roth is like as always the best baddie in the world. I love him.

The Journey to the Center of the Earth:
I also enjoyed this one. I only saw it in 2D, but it was cute, and very family fun entertainment.

Get Smart:
Yes, the new one. It was.. surprisingly enjoyable. I was a huge fan of the telly show growing up (and i've got season 1 on my library queue), but honestly, this wasn't as bad as it could have been. Yes there were a few more fat jokes than necessary, but they were actually done in a tasteful way. Anne Hathaway as Agent 99 bothered me, as I didn't remember Agent 99 being such a bitch, or so competitive. So yeah, I was not fond of that.

Rescue Me season 4:
I was shocked at this season, so much happened, but at the same time not. It wasn't like previous seasons where they went for the shock value. It was more... "real" to me. The season finale was also unlike any season finale I've seen in a while as it was just quite, and yes there was something "drastic" but it wasn't the main character in a house fire for once.

Hu$tle season 3:
I love this show, and season 3 was just as good as previous seasons. Seriously if you have not seen Hustle go and see it. Great British tv.

Crap, there are a ton more things I've seen recently but I can't recall them at the moment.

I know I know I've promised a report on Repo. But I want to do it all justice when I type it up.

Knitting news:
I feel very accomplished!
I have successfully mastered Seed Stitch at the moment. YAY! Seeeeeee pretty huh???






I also, have successfully (today even!) completed a swatch of the Moorish Tile pattern. Woooooooot. It's a bitch of a pattern for a noob like me. But I was determined. I'll get photos up eventually.

The good news, is that SquibStitcher (or Pygstiches she's known as one of the blogs I follow here) over at Ravelry is being totally totally awesome for me. She's a dyer. And she's totally willing to play with Bamboo yarn for me to get the nifty colors that are not available in most shops. It's a battle. I guess people don't think that those of us who are allergic to wool and most yarns, actually you know.. LIKE colors, and cool looking yarn. But so she's totally awesome and is going to make me cool yarn. I foresee her getting a lot of my "splurge" money lol.

Well, I guess I'm done rambling for now. Kinda just enjoying watching Ranma 1/2 - I'm so glad they put that on DVD. I love that show.

holy crap. It's 10:10 at night. It's sooo past my bedtime. Sheesh. I'm pathetic. lol.

Well, wish me luck on getting more chapters written, or at least bridging the gap between the chapters I already have written. I do have quite a few chapters already done that fall after chapter 6.

Rambling again.. Sorry.

A Hard Day's Bite update.

So, as a writer.. I've been slacking. Thank goodness I don't yet do this professionally, as I would be well behind deadline etc.

The reason for lack of updates about the novel is because there hasn't been anything to update.

Due to work, work, and work... with a smidge of a life thrown in, I haven't had much chance to write.

I've been coming home brain dead and basically unable to do anything.

Also, I've been doing a 8 books in 8 weeks thing, and so if I'm home and awake, I've been reading.
I took one night off from reading so that I could work on a new kind of knitting stitch. Which lets just say once I figured out allllll the details, it went smoothly. Prior to that.. noo.. it was not going so well.

Well, I'm less than 100 pages away from being done with my 8N8 event, so i can go back to reading at my normal speed.

The only thing I've accomplished recently is I did in fact type up many of the pages I was lacking in digital format.
I need to once over my notebook and make sure I remove any pages I've typed up, and type up the ones I haven't.

Even with the lack of moving forward, I still feel there is progress. My brain is still constantly seeing the scenes, and on the drive into work, I realized I need to start writing down one of the important scenes. This is my next goal. write out that scene, and I'll feel accomplished.

Now, I haven't sent my pages off to anyone as of yet, because I still haven't finished chapter 5. Yes, I know.. I've been working on that chapter for far too long now.
But the truth is.. I haven't touched that chapter.
Maybe I just need to steal the laptop upstairs with me one night, lock myself in my bedroom, put on some of my inspiration music and just attack that chapter. Then I will send it off to James for first edit.

-Yes James, incase you were thinking I wasn't going to have you as my editor, thats not true. I just haven't had anything to say to you, even after I got over hurt feelings time.

Maybe I'll do that tomorrow. I'm finally back to my normal schedule at work, I'm no longer working 12 hour days (hence the not being able to write when I get home and being brain dead), so tomorrow I'll be getting off of work at Noon. woohoo.

Reading update:
Bed Book: 100 pages away from being done with A Breath of Snow and Ashes
Couch Book: Less than 100 pages away from being done with Key Lime Pie Murder

I already have Carrot Cake Murder and Candy Cane Murder waiting for me at home, but I'll no longer be in a rush. I also need to hunker down and read the Hellblaser GN I have at home, as it's just gathering dust and needs to go back to the library soon.

Well, I'm avoiding work. I really shouldn't do that. We finally got caught up after a week of nightmarish work. So... look at me go.. this is me going back to work...

hmm I might have to check Ravelry one more time...

I miss the Dragons...

I miss the dragons.

What does that mean?

Well, imagine it's Saturday or Sunday morning (I can't recall which at the moment, but I believe it is Saturday)... and you hear the noises of the world as the sun comes up.

A few years ago, this sound was "whoooooosh" along the lines of what you would hear from a dragon huffing in his cave. (Obviously, my dragon is a cave dragon)

It was comforting. It was reassuring. It meant the sun was up, and the sky was clear. I knew what the day was going to be like before I even had to open my eyes.

How is this?
Well, when I lived in Boulder, I lived in "Twin Lakes" which meant, quite literally the two lakes across from my house. Of course the view to the lakes (or lake in my view) was mostly obscured by the surrounding trees, but it was still nice. And right near our house was the best field for the Hot Air ballooners to lift off from.
The would only be out on days that were clear, and they would be out there to greet the sun.
Which means, I would hear the whoosh of them filling the balloons and taking off.

Every weekend now, I think of that, as here in Colorado Springs.. I do not hear the dragons.. I instead hear the mighty shrill call of the scavenging beast.
For some reason this great beast hunts in the territory around my house also at dawn... before the hour of 7 even... Which means in winter, before the sun even starts to kiss the sky.

Why the hell does the garbage truck come before 7 am on a freaking Saturday?

This boggles my mind.

The rest of the week, when the mighty scavenger comes around, it's in the middle of the afternoon, and there are days I have to have a territory showdown to get to my parking space. If you show fear, it will attack. Remain calm, calculate just how much you can inch your own mighty steed (or Tortoise in my case) past it's mighty hind-quarters, or wait for it to finish foraging and to move on to the next food stash it has.. all the while of course gnashing your teeth to show that you are not giving in and allowing it to take over your territory, but instead have chosen to not fight that day.

But the Saturday morning I think bothers me the most, as it does not tell me at all how the day is. It does not give that comforting whuffle of a happy dragon. It's call is shrill and annoying...

I miss my dragons.


And this is where I shall leave it today. I am not kidding.. Though I will not discuss those ancient and nightmarish birds that some modern people have named "ghetto birds". Those of course are left for another day.

Off to go read more Key Lime Pie Murder (Joanne Fluke) and also work on my stitches.

I promise, I promise, I will post about Repo soon.

Petition for Hamlet

I promise, I promise I will update soon.

But just a little announcement.

GO SIGN THIS!!!

David Tennant In Hamlet

What is it? It is a petition to get the production of David Tennant in Hamlet onto DVD.

Even if you don't like Hamlet. Or you don't like David Tennant. Please, just do it anyway. There are people who do enjoy it and I for one want to see it, and I know I'll never get to the UK in time to see him performing in it.

Hamlet is one of my favorites, so please.. at least do this for me!
And for those who don't know David Tennant was in Doctor Who.

I'm excited.

I'm stuck at work for a few more hours, then tonight I am off to Denver for a squeee inducing night of fun.

Terrence Z, and Allison from Rocklove jewelry, and Bill Mosley (actor), and also the director who's name is escaping me.. Will all be at the show tonight.

I can't wait.

But the reason for this post..

Is...

Holy crap...
The man has only been in Office for one day.. not even a FULL day yet, and he is already getting some serious shit done.

Read the article, and just let it sink in.

This, solidifies why I am glad the vote went the way it did. I can't wait to see what else he does.

I have a feeling it's going to be a very busy first 100 days.

Obama Executive Pay

What would you sell your soul for?

Please forgive any spelling errors. I am on my work computer, therefore.. it sucks and I really don't want to deal with formatting issues by typing it up in a word doc first. Deal with it.

Isn't it funny how you can be talking to someone, and suddenly remember something from highschool?

Something that makes you giggle, and for me, something that I have decided needs to go somewhere in my Neverwas world.

(Umm for those just tuning in... Neverwas is what I am calling my vampy world. So, hopefully when my books are published, it will be the Neverwas Series or something along those lines)

Something so simple as selling ones soul.
Yes, this happened to me in highschool.
Someone decided they wanted to sell me their soul.
For Starbucks.

Here's the catch.. They had to drive to Starbucks, and bring me back a hot chocolate.

Now, I did not prompt this at all. But it really did happen.

Then a few months later, Bedazzled came out with Elizabeth Hurley and Brendan Fraser, and you see something quite similar only involving MacDonalds.

So no, I am not stealing the idea from that. I very much did have someone's soul sold to me for coffee.

So this has now become a little anticdote in my little written world.
After all, apparently I have had quite a humerous life at times.

This little trip down memory lane made 376 words of just quick jotting.
Of course thats not the entire chapter etc, but I just wanted to get that particular part down now. It will be incorporated somewhere later.

It amused me.
And look at that. I wrote something.
And as I wrote it at work, I forwent the notebook and just typed it straight into a digital copy. Woo hoo. Don't have to wait for this one to finally get typed up.

Girls night, knitting, Repo- oh my!

So I meant to blog days ago.
Obviously it didn’t happen.
Last week is a slight blur… I think there was snow involved at some point.

Friday, yes.. it did snow. I was leaving work my early time like always, and I got home, promptly got sucked into a book due to Mother of Mine using the laptop.
6 hours later, I’m still reading the book and I get a phone call from Hunny of Mine worried as he hadn’t heard from me, and the last he had heard from me involved driving in snow. I am lucky I have such a sweet hunny.

Saturday involved driving to Denver to have a girls night in. With Katte and other Denver people I know.
Meaning people I used to know via the RenScots.
As it was the Renscots “Fortnight” party, which Mother of Mine, Katte, and a few others were refusing to go to due to twats being twats, we had a lovely night in. Though, I must say I had forgotten how much Mary gets on my nerves. But I think that’s just the whole close minded republican attitude she puts out there. I wanted to smack her and tell her to look at the Global picture of everything. Yes, she was whining about Obama creating jobs but “not seeing the problems that will occur because we aren’t setup to deal with trying to rebuild the infrastructure.” Umm.. yes… yes we are. We cant get steel to make bridges? I think Pittsburg will have something to say about that. Jobs in the medical industry? Umm.. sweetie, that doesn’t mean being a nurse. Quit your fucking bitching. You do not have a job. You whine about not having a job. GET A FUCKING JOB. Don’t say “Well, I’m NOT going to go into the medical industry” cause guess what.. then you deserve to be unemployed. Gah! I say Gah!

Unfortunately I did get one of my migraines at the party. Don’t know what caused it. The Chinese food we had in Aurora? The massive amounts of Wool I came into contact with when going to the yarn store in Aurora? Not finding the right needles at the yarn store? The thrift shop where I found the bag and a few belts for my either GraveRobber or steampunk costumes? (dude the place smelled)
There are many possibilities.

Michelle and Bill brought over a nice wine. I haven’t had red wine in a long time. No that did not cause my headache. It was a sweet wine. Most likely too sweet for anyone else, but as a Port drinker, it was nice for me. I had a glass and a half, and enjoyed it. It’s been far too long since I was just able to enjoy a glass of wine with friends.

Spent the night down there, luckily my headache was gone by the morning.
Had breakfast.
For the most part, I have darn near finished my Purple and Grey scarf that I was originally making for Dot. I absolutely cannot find any more of my purple yarn, which is ridiculous as I know I haven’t used it all up. So it’s hiding some where. So this scarf is going to be shorter than my Slytherin one, and it won’t have as nifty fringe. I refuse to go out and buy a brand new skein of yarn for this scarf as I will not need that much. (And I don’t like the yarn that much to want to use it for another project. I’ve found much neater yarn that doesn’t bug me)
Headed back to CoSprings a bit after 12. Mostly I wanted to get home because the weather was turning, and it was now a Sunday. Sunday needs to be spent recuperating.

Chilled the rest of Sunday.

No, I have not typed up my pages yet. And the past two nights no I have not written anything. That doesn’t mean I don’t have ideas. It just means I’m not kicking myself in the ass to do it. Yes, I feel lazy.
I’ll try to at least get a page written (typed) up tonight.
I’ll get around to it. Really I will. But the way I look at it, is right now my back ends up tweaking so much at the end of the day that I just cannot have the laptop on me at all.

Okay, I’ve avoided work as much as possible right now. I guess I should go back. Yesterday we got our asses kicked. It was good for the desk, but it just means I’ll be busy the rest of the week playing catch-up.

Oh, and also I found out that Bill Mosely is going to be at the Denver Repo Road Tour show. Sweet. If I was a horror flick fan, I would be pissing myself about now. Either way, it's another cast member I can get to sign my poster. Sweeeeet.