Year of Reading

Here's a clip I think all you readers out there might enjoy!



Want to play the same game in comments? Post a sentence or phrase from whatever you're reading in the comment section.

Fun times!

It's hard to believe my little boy is now eight. The kid was always off the charts (think fat, not chubby and tall for his age!). He keeps outgrowing the length of his pants, but he's slimmed down though he eats like we don't feed him. I looked at him last night and couldn't help but remember the toddler who always wanted to be in my arms. I pulled him onto my lap last night after everyone had left and his sisters were getting ready for bed. We talked about when he was born, a baby (we called him Bo-bo then) and his day.

Finn had an awesome birthday. When he arrived home from school, his nana, papa and three cousins were already there. He had a "No Homework" coupon he'd been saving for his birthday (smart kid!) so he got to play instead of do schoolwork.

Kudos to his baseball coach for letting Finn bat first, with the new bat he'd opened right before we left for the game, and just making it a really special game for him. Finn just beamed the entire evening. The team sang Happy Birthday to him at the end of the game. The snacks we gave out at the end, cupcakes and treat bags, were big hits with the team, too.

After the game, we ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant (Finn's choice!) then headed home for cake. Finn wanted a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake. Hubby was in charge of this, along with the bat. He picked this tasty one that had chocolate chip ice cream and white cake. A good compliment to the chocolate cupcakes we'd handed out at the game.

Presents topped off the evening! Even Chaos wanted in on the action. Finn got a set of sport things (tennis racket, golf club and bat) to use with the Wii and money from my parents, a Flix thingy that is like a digital VCR for kids and a huge set of Pokemon cards from my sister's family, money from his Grammy and a bat, electronic Monopoly game, pair of track pants, The Bee Movie DVD and a hardcover book about Darth Vader from all of us. A pretty nice haul for an eight year old! Needless to say, he had no complaints.

Now to move on to the First Communion! I ended up not ordering favors (ran out of time with being sick and didn't think to plan ahead) so that means I have to make them. I'm still trying to figure out what to do for those. Right now I'm thinking little organza bags I saw at the Dollar Tree (6 for $1) filled with candy and either a rosary or a prayer card. I have to run to the local Catholic store today and see what they have.

Any one have any suggestions? I'm open to ideas!

Birthday, contest and a new prize!

Today is my son Finn's 8th birthday! He's got a Little League game tonight so we're bringing cupcakes and goodie bags for his teammates and will go out to dinner afterwards. His grandparents and cousins are coming, too!

Luckily he agreed with his upcoming First Communion on Saturday that two parties so close together might be too much so in June we'll be taking him here for a belated celebration. I realized yesterday I had no presents for him so ran out after church yesterday (while waiting for my critique partner to send back my chapter and synopsis) to do a little shopping.

Talk about a hectic day!

But I got it all done, including the proposal. I emailed it to HMB a little after eleven o'clock last night. Now to continue writing the book while waiting to hear what my editor has to say. Fingers crossed there aren't huge revisions!

On to this week's contest winner... In honor of my son's birthday, I let him pick the winner. He chose number 37.

This week's free book winner is Virginia. She won with a comment on the post, Kitties on Patrol. Virginia, please pick a book from the list here and email me your selection with your snail address. You can find my email via the contact link on my website. And even if you've won a book or coupons in the past, please include your mailing address. Thanks!

Last week's winner windycindy chose a book from my backlist, Santa Brought a Son. I love Christmas books and that was my first time writing my own. As to what I posted to Limecello about wishing I could go back and rewrite the book she choose, I just meant in the ten plus years since I wrote that first book I've learned so much about the craft of writing there are a couple of things I would have done a little differently now.

For the month of May, the prize for my weekly blog contest will be a $5 amazon.com gift certificate. With a book due in and being so far behind in mailings right now (sorry still haven't managed it yet!), this will make my life much easier.

I spent most of my weekend writing. What did you do?

Panicked

My proposal is due tonight. I told my editor I'd have it there when she got to the office. She's nine hours ahead of me so the countdown has begun.

I have three chapters and a synopsis, but it's nothing I'd want anyone except my critique partner to see right now! Needless to say the contest winner won't be announced until tomorrow. Sorry, but I'm running on fumes right now (two late nights in a row for me) and I also have to teach tonight so that will take up a huge block of time.

Hope you're having a good Sunday!

Talk to you later!

Love,
Melissa

A Progressive Dinner

Last night hubby and I attended a progressive dinner we'd purchased at a fundraiser in Janaury. I'd heard about that type of dinner party before, where you go to different houses for different courses of a dinner, and was curious to see how it worked. Three families who lived in the neighborhood were the hosts. Of course, I forgot my camera. Sorry!

Nine of us started at the first house a little after six. Cocktails (Cosmopolitans, sangria, beer and wine) and appetizers were on the menu. My fave were the meatballs. So yummy! The table was decorated in pink with gerber daisies and a pretty piece of fabric artfully put under and around the dishes. She also set votive candles among the food. I decided to stick with the pink theme and had a Cosmo.

We walked to the next house where we'd be eating the main course. The dining room table was all set with lovely china and flickering votive candles. The salads were already on gold chargers. Each place setting had a glass of water with a lemon slice and a glass of champagne with a strawberry floating inside. The meal was delicious. This house served: beef dish with mushrooms and gravy, mashed potatoes and sauteed green beans. Red wine was also served.

As we made our way to the last house, I appreciated the exercise after all that tasty food! The temperature had dropped, but it wasn't too cold. At least it was dry. Not a rain cloud in sight.

At the final house, the dining room table was set with a lovely white damask table cloth that must have taken hours to iron, her grandmother's china and gold candlesticks. The traditionally set table was so lovely. Coffee was served along with a mouthwatering cheesecake with strawberries. A selection of chocolates (truffles, toffee, etc) was also brought out. A perfect way to cap off the evening.

All through the night, I kept thinking they'd set the bar high for those still putting on dinners (that would be hubby and I!) One of the host couples as well as one of the guest couples will be attending ours at the end of May. It's a Texas BBQ so won't be nearly as fancy, but still I felt the pressure building up after the wonderful food and good time last night! I also realized we should have had asked another couple to host us rather than doing it ourselves. That had never crossed my mind.

We mainly do family type dinners (pizza, steaks, think easy kid-friendly food) when we have people over. Which isn't often! What about you? Do you entertain much? If yes, what's your favorite thing to serve?

Fear

Yesterday I learned something about Chaos. She is afraid of manhole covers. We had parked near one during the kidlets' piano lessons. She would not get out of the car nor would she get in the car on that side. She wanted nothing to do with the thing. She wouldn't go near it. We had to use the street-side door to get in and out for her walk.

Chaos' reaction got me thinking about fears. Not the ones most people share (losing a loved one, illness, death, failure, rejection, etc) but specific to an individual.

My youngest is afraid of zombies. This one makes perfect sense to me. Not too many people I know would invite a zombie home for dinner. Though I'm not quite sure if she's realized saying she had nightmare about zombies (or 2000 nightmares as she did this morning) is a free pass to sleep with mommy and daddy.

My middle child is afraid of dogs. This has made the process of getting a dog very interesting, but he's doing great with Chaos. He's all smiles when he's with her. And you should see the two of them run together. So sweet! I'll be curious to see how he reacts the next time we're around Angus or another dog.

My oldest is afraid of bugs. She doesn't like them in any shape or form, whether the crawl or fly. I understand this one, too. Bees and wasps terrify her. She was stung while rolling down a grassy hill and disturbing their hive that was in a hole. A traumatic experience for all of us! The little one was also stung and she still screams anytime she sees a bug that flies.

Angus, our surrogate dog, is afraid of electronic flashing toys. We have to put away the Millennium Falcon toy when he's here. The thing really scares him. Poor doggy.

As for me, if you've read this blog you know I have a fear of heights. Climbing has helped a little, but it's still there. I remember being on my first (and so far only) multi-pitch climb last summer. I made the mistake of looking down. Even though I was anchored in with no chance of falling, I was clutching onto my partner's arm. I was light-headed and oh-so dizzy. It wasn't a good feeling. But I don't know if I've ever mentioned my fear of ants. Yes, I'm afraid of ants. Deathly afraid. I'd rather face a room full of snakes or rats or pretty much anything else, including man eating beasts. Silly, I know, since I could just squash them with my feet, but fears aren't always rational.

When I was in a little girl, I had a turquoise ring I loved. I was playing in the front yard of a friend's house and somehow the ring ended up in a garbage can. I reached in to get it and had to dig around until I found the ring. When I pulled my hand out, my arm was black because it was covered ants. I dropped the ring and screamed as I tried to get them off. I never went back for the ring and to this day I can't stand the sight of ants. I still have nightmares about it. When I was older and living in Mountain View, California, my apartment got invaded by ants. I was so freaked out I had to ask a neighbor, who I had only seen in passing, if they could help me because I was shaking and crying and afraid to go back inside.

What are you afraid of?

And before I forget, I'm blogging at The Wedding Planners today about weddings in the movies! And yes, there are YouTube clips.

Have a great Friday.

Covers

Since so many of you liked the link to decades of Mills & Boon romance covers last week, I thought I'd share a few more links having to do with romance covers.

The talented Liz Fielding has cover artist Larry Roibal on her blog this week. You can even ask him questions so be sure to pay a visit! If you're interested in seeing cover art without all the words on the cover check out this page on Larry's website.

Silhouette author Suzanne McMinn blogged about the infamous AFS (Art Fact Sheets). You can read her post here.

Okay, back to work for me. I need to finish up Chapter 2 so I can move on. I decided to do some rewriting last night so didn't get as far as I'd hope. Plus I fell asleep while working. I decided to call it a night at eleven. I didn't want to chance my iBook falling off my lap! Especially since I'm sharing that lap with not only my computer but an almost fifty pound dog. Yes, Chaos has decided my lap is where she wants to be. Especially when I'm writing. She's here now and I've got my computer off to the side.

So what's the strangest place/position you've ever fallen asleep?

Kitties on Patrol

The recon began last night. Captain Spirit ventured out of headquarters to be the battalion's first scout. She kept to the high ground (i.e. the staircase). No doubt the numerous viewings of Star Wars 3: Revenge of the Sith has led to a feline force to be reckoned with. Obi-wan would be so proud of his Tabby-wans.

Spirit peered through the bannister at the large, furry, four-footed creature who had invaded her territory. Trying to make sense of the takeover, she slowly moved lower and lower to get a better grasp of what they were dealing with. A face to face encounter with the large panting beast resulted in hissing. The brave captain stood her ground while the intruder retreated. No shots were fired and no blood drawn. Though if lightsabers had been available, it wouldn't have been pretty.

A secondary scout, Lt. Rocket, set out to join his captain in this daring mission. A meeting on the staircase almost resulted in a fight between the two officers, but clearer minds prevailed when they realized a party of two, both of whom still have claws, made more sense than facing the unknown giant alone. The lieutenant made the crucial error of retreating too quickly up the stairs. The lightening quick Jedi reactions of the tall person who feeds the troops kept the situation under control. The result-no casualties.

Corporal Smalls, however, remains MIA. She is the one with the most experience against this type of enemy but has been suspiciously absent during all reconnaissance missions thus far. The captain asked for an explanation, but has been ignored. The corporal has only been seen in the mess hall during meal times and when she ducks under cover.

Fortunately, the Chaos factor remains low.

So how was your night?

Trying to Catch Up!

Today's one of those days I don't like very much. I have a meeting at the place where we're having my son's First Communion Dinner, two of the cats have to have their blood drawn for rechecks and that's only beginning. Phone calls to dog obedience programs, orthodontists, the list seems endless.

Somewhere in there I also need to write. That's got to start moving it's way to the top of the priority list since the proposal is due Monday!

We are having fun with Chaos. I had a long chat with her former owner last night about how things were going. Chaos doesn't like getting in the minivan very much. This morning I had to lift her in when it was time to take the kidlets to school. We're wondering if it hurts to jump in after she had her stitches. Something to watch. The good thing is she's very happy every time we get home!

I've done this quiz before, but with the newest addition to our family, thought it might be fun to see where I fell. Of course, I can't remember what I was before.

You Are: 40% Dog, 60% Cat

You and cats have a lot in common. You're both smart and in charge - with a good amount of attitude. However, you do have a very playful side that occasionally comes out!

Are You More Cat or Dog?

Hope you're having a good day!

Chaos Arrives!

Sorry for the delay in posting this. Yesterday was so busy! The kidlets had their annual Irish dance recital. I had a class to teach last night. And I hadn't had any alone time with hubby all weekend.

So Chaos arrived on Saturday. This picture is right after she'd come in. We did take a video of that moment, but it didn't turn out like any of us expected. The kids didn't say a word. They just stared. At me. At the dog. At Chaos' owner. I guess they were stunned speechless. It was very strange since I thought they'd be jumping up and down, screaming and laughing. We must have done a pretty good job in letting them think they wouldn't get a dog.

The kids warmed up pretty quickly to the idea though. Soon they were beaming, all wide smiles and bright eyes, as they showed Chaos the backyard. A part of them still can't believe it. They kept asking yesterday, "Do we really get to keep her?"

I asked if they wanted to keep her. The answer...a resounding yes!

They have been having so much fun with her. The poor dog gets taken on walks all the time. They rub her all the time. When Chaos was having a tough time sleeping that first night, Mackenna asked if she could take her out of the crate and sleep with her on the couch. Chaos is already top dog around here! She's going to be as spoiled as our cats.

But we are setting a few rules. During meal time, she's supposed to stay on her cushion. Mainly because I don't want the kids feeding her from the table. When we go out during the day, if she doesn't go with us, she goes in her crate.

Chaos also met the cats. She was wonderful with them. The cats not so much. A lot of hissing and growling. It's going to take time.

Last night, she had trouble getting settled for the night. We decided to close all the doors upstairs and give her full reign of the downstairs and upstairs hallway/landing. She did much better and has both her crate, her pillow or the couch where she can finally sleep.

Anyway, Chaos is an awesome dog. We are enchanted and in love with her. Even Hubby. All his reservations about getting a dog have seemed to disappear. After the dance recital last night, he skipped his program at the church to go home and be with Chaos instead. He had never fed Angus until I got sick, but he's already feeding Chaos without being asked!

This morning Chaos and I drove him to the airport. He told her to be good and take care of us. It was one of those heart melting moments. I have a feeling there are going to be a lot more where Chaos is concerned. It feels as if our family is truly complete now!

As you can imagine, our weekend was so amazing. How was yours?

Another free book winner!

Things have been a bit chaotic around here :-) I wanted to get the free book winner announced before we have to head out in a couple of hours to the Irish Dance recital. If I have time, I'll put up a full Chaos report. Otherwise, I'll do it tonight. But as a little teaser the kidlets didn't have the reaction I'd thought!

Here are your random numbers:

38
Timestamp: 2008-04-20 18:04:23 UTC

This week's free book winner is windycindy. She won with a comment on the post, Chaos is coming! Windycindy, please pick a book from the list here and email me your selection with your snail address. You can find my email via the contact link on my website. And even if you've won a book or coupons in the past, please include your mailing address. Thanks!

Last week's winner limecello chose Fiance For the Night. That was my very first book. Sure wish I could go back and rewrite knowing what I know now!

Hope you're having a great day!

Tag I'm it

My friend and fellow continuity author, Shirley Jump, tagged me. I usually don't have time for these, but since all I was going to post about was my excitement over getting Chaos tonight I figured I'd give it a shot. Don't want to bore you all!

This one is about random things. Since I'm pretty random, I thought this would be easier than some of the other ones I've seen. Here are the rules:

Tagging Rules:
a. Link to the person who tagged you.
b. Post the rules on your blog.
c. Write six random things about yourself.
d. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
e. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment at their blog.
f. Let your tagger know when your entry is up.

Here are my six Random Thoughts:

1. I think donuts are the perfect breakfast food. If they have chocolate and sprinkles even better. Add fruit to the plate and you've got three of the food groups! The kidlets agree with me.

2. I'm not big on buying myself things (unless I need something specific for a reason or it involves climbing or skiing) but I love to shop for other people. Whether I'm buying gifts or a friend asks for help putting together a new wardrobe, I could shop all day, not eat a thing and not get tired!

3. I was on the field during The Play. It was the Big Game between Stanford and Cal with four seconds left. My freshman year. I played clarinet in the Stanford Band (aka LSJUMB). We were standing near the field waiting for the game to be over so we could play. The clock ticked down, the play was over and we'd won! We started celebrating by storming the field. We weren't the only ones either. We just happened to be in Cal's end zone. One problem, the game kept going. And the rest, as they say, is history.

4. I haven't met many celebrities, but I did meet Hayden Christensen at Circus, Circus in Reno, Nevada (you can read about it in my July '05 archive) and Robbie Williams at a Kentucky Fried Chicken in London back in summer 1996. I was introduced to him as a girl from San Francisco who had no idea who he was. Robbie was very nice and posed for pictures with me. Other people saw us, realized who he was and came over. One of the people I was with sent me a Take That cd when I returned home and I figured out I had heard one of their songs on the radio.



The very first song I ever used as I wrote a book came off that cd and it was sung by Robbie! It was for my second book If the Ring Fits... and this is it.



5. Even though I'm getting a dog tonight, I'm a total cat lady. Though I'm not single and don't wear white turtlenecks (though I wear blue ones!), I wear clogs.



6. I'm not a big TV watcher, but I couldn't live without music.

And my tags are going to:

1. Tori Lennox Amy Addison
2. Dru
3. Brandy
4. Sarita Leone
5. Marianne Arkins
6. Devon Ellington, who I'm sure has no clue who I am, but I read her blog!

Have a great Saturday!

TGIF

I've been praying Friday would arrive. Hubby has been in New York all week. I'm counting the hours until his plane touches down. Right now I've got 13 1/2 hours to go. Needless to say, it's been a difficult week.

I'm feeling a little better thanks to the Neti Pot I purchased the other day. I know it sounds weird to be pouring water in one side of your nose to have it come out the other, but it works. Using this has been my only relief this week. I've even managed pages on the new book! If you want to read more about the Neti Pot, here's an article from the New York Times.

I also found out last night that Chaos will be coming on Saturday, not Sunday! I'm going to run to Costco this morning and buy her a doggy bed.

What are your plans today?

Romantic Movies

I'm still not feeling great so want to conserve my writing for the proposal. It's due on the 28th and I'm way behind from being sick!

Here's a montage of clips from romantic movies set to one of my favorite songs. Enjoy!



If you want to know what clips were used, hit the menu button, copy the url address and pay a visit to YouTube. The person who made it listed all of the movies in order of appearance.

There were several clips I had no idea what they were, but would like to watch now. One of them is Mary Bryant. What about you? Where these familiar or were some new to you?

Have a good day!

100 Years of Mills & Boon

I write for Harlequin Mills & Boon. The Mills & Boon office is located in Richmond which is outside of London. 2008 marks the 100 year anniversary, the centenary, of the company. To celebrate, there have been special flashes on books, Dear Readers letters to mark the occasion and various events.

If you'd like to see a range of M & B romance covers over the decade's check out their facebook photo albums.

Do you have a favorite romance cover?

Chaos is coming!

It looks like Sunday is the day!

Chaos had her stitches removed and is doing great. The vet asked the woman of all her dogs why she was giving this dog away. My heart just broke. You see, Chaos belongs to the rescue coordinator. She's giving her dog to us because she thinks Chaos would be happier living with a family. After talking to us about the rescue available, she thought we'd be a great fit for her own dog, who loves attention, but now has to vie with three other dogs. That's true love, don't you think?

To make my life easier, she offered to gather all the supplies we'd need and bring them with her and Chaos. She's going to drive the doggy to us. That way she can see where Chaos will be living. All we need to do is set a time.

And we're not so far away that we can't visit or leave Chaos with her when we travel. I think we get the better end of the bargain, but she's happy for her beloved Chaos.

The kidlets still don't know. Someone sort of spilled the beans this weekend, but both Tom and I were quick to say "No!" to the question about getting a dog. I later called him to explain. He'd figured it out on his own. The kids have been asking questions about Chaos for weeks now. Rose was peppering me about her yesterday.

A few more days. That's all we have to wait. Fingers crossed the secret remains, well, a secret!

Anything coming up in your life that you're looking forward to?

Slow Me Down

Not being able to do much when my head was all stuffy gave me some time to visit and play at my favorite time wasters. I hadn't been to a few in a while. I stopped by Free Rice and Websudoku, but didn't stay long. Both of those required thinking. So I headed to YouTube where I hit the jackpot!

I found the perfect song for my heroine's character and the first song for the book's soundtrack that I use when I'm writing. Even better, Pride and Prejudice clips are set to the music. How perfect is that?



With that in mind, I tried to picture what she looked like. I came up with that, too. Scarlett Johansson!

So even though I didn't get a lot of pages written, this will help me. Listening to the songs are a quick way to put me into the story so I can start writing right away.

I still haven't figured out who will be the inspiration for my hero. He's a web developer. Irish descent. Dark hair with green eyes. Have any suggestions for me?

Free Book Sunday!

I added my backlist to the books you can win. I was hoping to come up with some new prizes, but getting sick got in the way. Hopefully by May, I'll come up with a new idea or two for giveaways. I'll also be in charge of the contest at The Wedding Planners in June, the month my book is out, so I'd like to come up with a big prize for that one, too. If you have any ideas, post them in comments or email them to me!

Here are your random numbers:

6
Timestamp: 2008-04-13 17:15:15 UTC

For a program that's supposed to be random, it sure seems to like the lower numbers lately!

This week's free book winner is limecello. She won with a comment on the post, Better Late Than Never! Limecello, please pick a book from the list here and email me your selection with your snail address. You can find my email via the contact link on my website. And even if you've won a book or coupons in the past please include your mailing address. Thanks!

Last week's winner Sarita Leone chose Santa Brought a Son. Hope you enjoy it!

I'm taking it easy today though Im hoping to get some pages done. Writing still has been hard for me. I will be teaching my class tonight. Sunday's class only runs through the end of April so I don't want to miss any if I don't have to.

On the kitty front, the medicine seems to be making a difference. Spirit is opening her eye a little now. Before she always kept it closed! Thanks for all your well wishes!

Opening Day!

Today marks the official start to Little League season in our area. This will be Finn's third year playing. He's very excited. I may have posted this youtube video before, but it's perfect for today!



I also wanted to tell you that Shirley Jump is giving away a great prize this month on the Wedding Planners blog. She'll pick the winner from those who post comments so head over there and check it out!

Have a good Saturday! Hope the sun is shining where you are. It looks like it'll be a beautiful day in the Pacific Northwest.

Go Devil Rays!!!!

Blogs

I read an article on Death by Blogging at Sarita's blog yesterday. I knew blogs were popular, but I had no idea people were making a living, well, blogging. That just boggles my mind. Anyway, it got me thinking about blogs and how people find them.

I use google a lot. I've found some great sites that I wouldn't have normally discovered if I hadn't followed links. I decided to see check how people ended up here. I went to my sitemeter account and checked the search terms used by the last 100 visitors to my blog. (That's all I can track.) Here they are:

Melissa McClone (2)
Ben Barnes smoking
Annelise Robey Jane Rotrosen Agency
Mothers Addicted to Irish Dance
Filthy Fifty Workouts (2)
Melissa 7
Clubsport Flashpass
Harlequin Special Treat
Crossfit Michael
Crossfit Good for Climbers?
Disney Princess rain gear
"broken arms" blogspot family

Interesting. Only two people were looking for me. One was looking for my agent. The others, especially the Crossfiters were probably surprised when they ended up on a romance writers blog!

How did you find the blogs you read? Do you google and follow links?

And has everyone discovered Google Reader? As usual with anything technology related, I was late to the party, but Marianne and Dru explained how it worked and I love it! So much so I want to add more blogs to it. Any suggestions?

Relief in sight?

I couldn't take it any longer so I went to the doctor's this morning. They put me on antibiotics. I'm hoping this works. Not sure how much more I can take!

I got an update on Chaos. She is recovering nicely. All she wants to do is play though and that's not allowed due to her stitches. The vet also ran a bunch of tests just to make sure she's healthy and everything came back normal!

Not much else to say. It's pretty boring when lying on the couch or bed tires me out!

Is your day boring, busy or exciting?

Angus and the Cats

Given the imminent arrival of Chaos, I decided to see what the cats' reaction would be to a dog. I held onto Angus' collar and brought him into the cat's sanctuary, aka as our bedroom.

To my surprise, nothing happened.

Spirit didn't move until Angus took a step toward her. Then she only raised her head and looked at him. Rocket continued lying in the laundry basket.

I brought Angus a little closer. Spirit held her ground, but hissed. When I brought Angus toward Rocket, he had the same reaction as Spirit. Hissing, that was all. I was so worried they might run! Huge sigh of relief.

Poor Angus though. I think he thought he'd found new friends to play with. Of course, what he really wanted to do was make a bee-line for the bathroom where the cat food was!

Here's a clip with some really cute cat pictures. I like the song, too.



I'm spending another day in bed, what about you?

Win a book today

Liz Fielding is the guest blogger at The Wedding Planners today and she's giving away a signed copy of her current release, The Bride's Baby. You have to read the excerpt and answer a question in the comment section. Easy!

Spirit, my cat, has a problem with her left eye. It's taken me a couple of weeks to get her an appointment with an animal eye doctor so that's where we're headed this morning. I'm no better than I was this weekend, but she needs me so I'm going. It looks as if my little one may be coming down with what I have, too. Not good.

Hope you're having a good day!

Better late than never...

I really wanted to get this done today! Looks like I made it.

Here are your random numbers:

3
Timestamp: 2008-04-08 05:04:08 UTC

This week's free book winner is Sarita Leone. She won with a comment on the post, Thanks! Her comment mentions purple as being her lucky underwear color! Sarita, please pick a book from the list here and email me your selection with your snail address. You can find my email via the contact link on my website. And even if you've won a book or coupons in the past please include your mailing address. I no longer have anyone's address. Thanks!

Last week's winner Limecello chose The Passion of Simon Blackwell. I'll get out a bunch of the books I need to still send as soon as I'm feeling better. But those two winners still have not emailed me their addresses!

Time to call it a night. My kitty, Spirit, has to see the eye doctor tomorrow. I don't really feel like driving her there, but I think she'd do better with me rather than hubby so I want to get as much sleep as I can and hopefully feel better!

What have you got going on Tuesday?

Still sick

Sorry I never posted the winner of the free book. I'm still sick and feeling too bad to do it now. I'll hopefully be feeling better later and canl get to it. I couldn't teach my class last night and I cancelled my class today. A weekend in bed and I'm worse. I hope this isn't turning into a sinus infection already!

Angus arrived yesterday for a week stay. The kids have been having lots of fun with him. He's keeping me company today.

Hope you had a nice weekend!

Blah!

Thank goodness I decided not to take the kids skiing yesterday. The head cold from hell hit yesterday morning, about the time we would have been taking our second run of the day.

I hadn't been feeling all that great on Thursday, but had no idea it would get this bad, this fast. I spent almost all of Friday in bed except for taking the kidlets to Burgerville for lunch and running by Hollywood Video to let them each pick a movie for the weekend (Game Plan, Underdog, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium). I did manage to get all the laundry folded with the kids help. Not exactly the day off from school any of us thought it would be.

We have company coming for dinner tonight so I need to recover quickly. The house needs to be cleaned, groceries bought, you get the idea. I wonder if it's too late to chug Airborne. I'm sucking on cold-eeze as I write this.

Hubby asked me if I was milking it, being a hypochondriac. Yeah right, as if I can force all this stuff out of my nose and eyes at will. Give me a break. But it led me to this quiz.

You Are 24% Hypochondriac

You can deal well with being sick - even if your symptoms are a little scary. You're occasionally prone to worry about your health, but only when you have pretty strange symptoms.

Are You a Hypochondriac?

Hope you are healthy and happy and having a great Saturday!

Pride and Prejudice

I've mentioned before how much I love Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. The book, the movies, everything about it. My current project has the heroine and hero discussing the movies so I hopped over to You Tube to watch a few clips and be inspired. I haven't done that, hanging out at You Tube, in awhile due to giving up time wasters for Lent, so I had a bit of fun. And even though I wasted time watching all these, I had already written all my pages done for the day so it was okay.

Here are a few things I found you might enjoy.

The actual Pride and Prejudice trailer:


Lion's pride trailer:


Pirates of the Caribbean trailer:


A Hairspray trailer:


The BBC version trailer:


Beauty & the Beast trailer:


I'm not sure what this is, but I had to share it:


In case you couldn't figure it out, the stalker Ken doll in the red jacket is Mr. Darcy.

Which one did you like the best?

Chaos

If you've read this blog at all, you are familiar with the usual suspects: me, hubby, kidlets, cats (Rocket, Spirit, Smalls) and surrogate dog (Angus). Well, soon there will be a new addition...Chaos.

You might think our life is chaotic enough without adding more chaos to it. True, but this Chaos is different and if her name is anything to go by, she will fit in just fine.

Meet Chaos. She's a two year old Norwegian Elkhound. We fell for the breed that night at the fairgrounds. It was love at first sight for us when we met the dog herself. And then after spending time with her, we couldn't imagine a better dog. Everything we wanted, everything we hoped for, we found with Chaos!

We left on our spring break vacation the day after we met her and the entire trip, she kept coming up in discussion. More than once while we were doing something, it felt as if something were missing and we all realized it was her. Hubby and I exchanged cards for our anniversary yesterday, but finding out we could get Chaos was the best gift we could have given each other and our family.

We won't get her right away. She was spayed yesterday so needs time to heal. The timing should work out well. We're dogsitting Angus from Sunday to Sunday so it wouldn't be the best time to introduce Chaos to our household. She needs things to be normal when she comes for the first time.

Needless to say, I was so excited last night, it was hard to sleep. I'm dragging a little today, but I don't care. Happiness trumps tiredness hands down.

We haven't told the kids yet. Everyday I get asked about Chaos. Yesterday, Rose asked if Chaos had her operation yet. If they knew she was coming to live with us, it would be non-stop questions until she arrived. I can only take so much so I'm going to wait until it's a little closer to give them the news or we might just surprise them. We haven't decided yet. Any thoughts on that?

Also, we'll be entering a whole new world with Chaos and want to be the best family we can for her. Does anyone have any doggy suggestions for me? Also any suggestions on introducing her to the three cats would be appreciated!

Thirteen years ago today...

Take a guess then go to The Wedding Planners and read my blog post to find out if you were correct!

Love,
Melissa

A few things!

I've been busy writing! Hard to believe, I know, but the plan is working. I'm only one page behind where I should be. I managed four pages yesterday. Not bad for a manic Monday, but hubby was a total dear and did the driving yesterday afternoon so I could write.

What else has been going on around here besides laundry?

Well, my talented webmistress, Barb, just updated my website for my June release. Here's an excerpt if you're interested in taking a peek at SOS Marry Me. There's also some info on the News and Fun Stuff page, though if you read this blog, I'm sure you've heard it all before!

I also wanted to tell you about a new contest you should enter. Long and Short Reviews blog is giving away a book each day in April. Pretty cool! All you have to do is post a comment on the book you want to win. The only catch? You have to post the day the book is reviewed. Be sure bookmark the blog and check in daily!

On today's agenda, I'll be climbing at the rock gym and writing! What about you?