Baby Dolphin

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If you haven't seen the pics of a baby La Plata river dolphin rescued in Uruguay, here's a link to the Real Coastal Warriors Facebook page that has them. She's absolutely adorable! She was so young when she was found she still had her umbilical cord attached. If you can't get to the Facebook page, here are the same pics on Global Animal.

If you haven't heard about her, here's an article from glogalanimal.com. Isn't she cute?

I really want to finish up the revisions today so better get working on it. I've been fighting something, too, so trying to lay low and just write. I can't afford to get sick. Too much going on right now.

Hope you have a nice Thursday!

This Cat Haz Swagger

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A bunch of my friends are besides themselves holding onto their tickets with great anticipation for whatever new Twilight movie that's coming out. Me? Not so much. Even though I was invited to join them for dinner and the opening showing, sparkly stalker vampires don't do it for me. But I can't wait for this movie:



Here's another trailer for it:



Are there any movies you're looking forward to seeing?

Three

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This LOLcat is a great illustration for what having three kidlets is like. "I'm not talking to you!" It never fails one is made at the other two. "You're never allowed in my room again!" Sometimes it's justified, other times not so much. But fortunately the "never" or "not" don't last long.

With Smalls' passing we're down to three cats. I'm not sure which is worse kidlets arguing or cats fighting. Twice in the last twelve hours, Yoda and Spirit have gotten into it, too. Hissing, paws flying, growling. The problem is Yoda and Smalls used to play. He wants to play with Spirit now, but she wants no part of it.

Any threes in your life?

Halloween Prep

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When I saw this LOLcat, all I could think was Yoda, my black cat, would look so cute in a Darth Vader Costume!

Halloween is getting closer1 Yesterday as I revised the soccer book (serious cutting and writing a new chapter), the family decorated the house for Halloween. The lights are hung outside and stuck into the ground along the edge of the lawn. The tombstones are also up and a few other things.

We've already been "booed" in the neighborhood. That means someone rings your doorbell, but when you open it all you find is a bag of Halloween candy with a Boo note. Of course, the candy hubby bought is almost gone already. I need to buy the candy we'll pass out on Halloween night. We have over a hundred or so trick or treaters each year.

I heard about a pumpkin patch that sounds really cool. I'm just hoping for a break in the weather. Would rather be tromping around when it was dry.

Have you started getting ready for Halloween?

Cuteness

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Such an adorable kitty! I was surrounded by cuteness yesterday. My daughter and I drove with up to the Puget Sound Norwegian Elkhound Association's yearly meeting with three others and three puppies! I've got pics, but don't have time to get them off my cellphone right now.

Mackenna and I got to hold pink puppy and orange puppy for hours! We also got to play with Grand Finale, who is getting so big! We also met up with blue puppy, now known as Louie after a character in Casablanca, once we arrived in Lacey, Washington. They are the definition of cuteness. Definitely experiencing puppy envy at the moment.

Anything cute you want to tell me about?

Haunted House Redux

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A couple of days ago, I posted a link to a blog that had pics of people going through a haunted house. The expressions and the captions were humorous. I've never been through a haunted house like that so I was wondering what they might have seen to scare them so much.

Here's a clip from the Ellen show showing someone going through a haunted house. It doesn't look that bad, but I'm guessing she's in the dark and we can only see what's happening because of the camera. Her reactions are very funny. Take a peek...



Enjoy your Saturday! I plan on enjoying mine!

Star Wars Dogs

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It's no secret that I'm a huge Star Wars fan so it'll come as no surprise to anyone who is a regular reader of this blog to understand why I think this link is the height of awesomeness.

What will you find if you click on the link? 50 dogs dressed in Star Wars costumes.

Even if you're not a big fan of Star Wars and/or dogs you should check it out. The Ewok doggies are the cutest things! And I think a couple are wearing the same Yoda costume Rose wore when she was two.

And just so you think I wouldn't dress up the kidlets the same way I might my cats and dog, think again. These thumbnails are from 2005 when we had Darth Vader/Anakin, Padme and Yoda as trick or treaters. And yes, the animals have worn the Yoda costume in subsequent years. Well, at least until they shook off the head piece.

Hope you have a fun-force-filled Friday!

Faces of Fear

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This cat's expression fits right in with these people. A camera was hidden inside a haunted house in Niagra Falls, Canada. The pictures are funny and so are the captions on this blog post at sfgate.com. I wonder what they were looking at that was so scary!

I'll be spending my day revising. Hope you have a nice Thursday!

Fashion Fun with Scarves

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My friend Tiffany posted this YouTube video on her Facebook Wall. It caught my eye when I saw it on my newsfeed. Fashion is something I research for books, not for myself. But this was cool. I have a couple scarves and will definitely try wearing them differently after watching this. The video is a quick (approx. 4 minutes) showing 25 different ways to wear a scarf.



If you're like me and need more instruction than what's above, you can check out the companion videos that go with each of the 25 ways of wearing a scarf. She tells you the best kind of scarf to use and then tells you how to tie them.

Here's Companion Video #1:



Here's Companion Video #2:



Here's Companion Video #3:



Here's Companion Video #4:



Have fun scarf tying! And possibly buying!

Not a Fire Hydrant

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When my cats want to piss me off, watch out! All bets are off as to whether they'll use the litter box or destroy something. But it's easy to find the motivation behind their actions. Reasons can range from no food in their bowl, dirty litterbox, lack of attention, jealousy, etc.

A cat, however, would never pee on someone's leg. But a dog, pissed or not, would.

I know this because it happened to me last night.

My Norwegian Elkhound Chaos is too smart and good mannered to do something like that. But I can't say the same thing about a male dog named Milo.

A little backstory first. Rose joined 4-H this year. We won't be doing hell week aka dog days at the county fair. (That was my one caveat to allowing them to continue with the Clark County program rather than switching to a nearby county where the fair commitment is a reasonable amount of time.) But they'll go to meetings, attend fun matches and enter fair events that require only a couple of hours of herdmenship duty. (I get only a couple weeks off from writing a year and seven days at the dog barn at fair is not where I want to spend my vacation days. I've learned the last two years trying to write during fair does not really work.)

Last night was the first 4-H working meeting of the year (i.e. kids and dogs doing obedience training.) Rose will be borrowing a dog to use, (Mackenna uses our Chaos) but last night she practiced with Chaos to gain some confidence and figure out the routine before she tries it with a new-to-4H dog. When it was just Mackenna in 4-H, I usually sat in the car and wrote during practice, but Rose is too young to be left alone with a dog who is over half her size so I stayed.

One of the 4-H teen leaders brought two dogs to the meeting. As I was standing there, she asked if I'd hold the leash of one of them. I did. A few minutes later, she switched animals. As I chatted with another mom, Milo, the dog who's leash I held, lifted his leg and peed on my leg.

I jumped back as soon as I realized what he was doing, but not quite in time to miss both my pant leg and shoe from getting wet. None of the parents could believe it. Neither could I.

Maybe he sensed I'm a crazy cat lady and not the canine equivalent. Maybe he thought my khaki pant leg was a fire hydrant or tree. Maybe this is what male dogs do. Maybe he's just a rude dog.

Practice hadn't even begun yet, and I didn't want Rose to have to leave, so I cleaned up as best with a paper towel. There wasn't much I could do about the shoe, however. Needless to say, over an hour later, I was so happy when I arrived home and could change!

That was my evening. How was yours?

Best Part

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I'm waiting to hear the best parts. Read them, that is. I'm in the middle of revisions on my soccer book. The part where I'm having to dissect everything that's on the page. It's a lot of work, but I'm hoping it'll pay off at the end. That's why reader feedback is so nice. It lets authors know that all this writing and rewriting is worth it!

Hope you have a nice day! I've got to run one errand, attend a 4-H meeting tonight and the rest of the time will be spent revising. I'm looking forward to it. I usually can't say that on Mondays!

Sunday Soccer

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The above picture reminded me of Yoda last night. He wasn't making a mess, but both of his toys made a lot of noise. It sounded like he played all night long. And yes, I'm tried this morning.

We had to be at the soccer field a little after eight. It was wet and cold, but Finn had a fun time. The team won!

Now it's time for more soccer. My soccer book that is. I'm working on revisions. It's coming slowly, but that's okay. I want to get it right and that takes time.

Hope you have a nice day!

Soccer Day

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It's a soccer Saturday. Two games today. In between I have revisions to do on the soccer book. In the book, my heroine's brother and sister-in-law are reservists deployed overseas. The LOLcat above made me think of them this morning. There is a cat in the book, too, inspired by my Rocket!

For your viewing pleasure...even non-cat lovers might get a smile from the latest Simon's Cat!

One of those weeks...

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I wish I was calm like the little tiger, but unfortunately I feel exactly like this kitten. I want Hubby! He's on his way home from another business trip, and it's been another long week.

How long?

On Wednesday, I told hubby if the travel (his third trip in as many weeks) wasn't going to let up then to ask his boss if they would move us closer. It was one of those weeks where I wondered if I should have stuck to having furbabies, not kidlets. But even the cats and the dog were misbehaving. Not fun. Especially when I started the week refreshed, not on deadline and ready to have fun.

Now I'm getting rid of the cable TV, back on deadline with revisions that arrived a few days ago and wondering how many more books I'd have to write a year to afford boarding school.

Needless to say, I'm looking forward to the weekend. Are you?

RIP Steve Jobs

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I'm still half-asleep. But the dog and cats wanted to be fed so I'm up. Also needed to make sure the trash got put out. My son didn't want to do it in the dark last night so he's doing it in the dark this morning. Who knows what goes through an eleven year old boy's mind?

When I finished the classes at church last night, I had a text from hubby saying that Steve Jobs had died. I wasn't surprised but it's sad. I've used Macs since they were introduced in 1984. Stanford put them in the Engineering Library where I worked. One of my dormmates, Tod, purchased one. I've been using Macs ever since with only a few thankfully brief periods on PCs during my engineering career.

I still have every Mac I've ever owned and they all work. The Cube is set-up in the play room and makes for a fun-non-internet computer for the kids to use. I think the Power Mac might still be there too. Hubby doesn't get my love of the machine and operating system (he's PC to the core), but he's indulged my all things Apple mentality.

I lived in Palo Alto and around the surroundings for many years. After I left my engineering job to write full-time, I also helped a friend and his partner start a venture capital firm. Silicon Valley hi-tech was my world for many months which is where my first book, Fiance For the Night, came from.

I never met Steve Jobs, (a good thing since I would have been a total fangirl) but knew others who did. A few friends attended business school with his wife at Stanford and told me, an aspiring romance writer back then, about their meeting for the first time. The story inspired a "cute meet" between a hero and heroine in one of my unsold books.


My condolences to his wife, children and friends. Steve Jobs was a visionary. "That vision thing" of his changed the world. RIP, Steve.

Here Kitty, Kitty...

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I'm sure my cats think I'm an idiot. But yesterday, we visited some cats who may have thought the same thing, but were so happy we stopped. Where were we? The humane society where Yoda came from.

Yoda was too young to physically live there. He'd come from a foster home when we saw him at the Black Cat Adoption day at a local PetSmart. But yesterday when I mentioned we'd adopted him from them, the manager of the cat shelter remembered him. She pulled up his record on the computer.

We couldn't believe how little and scrawny he'd been. I showed her a picture of him now. She was amazed how big and healthy he was now.

This no-kill shelter keeps healthy cats loose. They are free to roam in their assigned rooms. No cages, just lots of cat trees, boxes, open kennels with blankets, etc. There are low places for them as well as high ones. There are big windows to let in natural light, but also darker places for them to go if needed.

The first room we visited contained full-grown cats. Some stayed where they were and let us come to them. Others wanted attention and made sure we knew it. Finn had a blast playing with a black cat. Two jumped onto Mackenna's lap when she sat down. Rose kept going from one to another. I made sure those staying in place got love, too.

Then we went to a smaller room for younger cats. There were a couple of mature ones to teach them manners. One little guy wanted attention so badly. He was not going to be ignored. He pretty much forced me to hold him. He closed his eyes and just purred loudly. It was so sweet. A different one pushed another cat away so he could get attention from Mackenna. He settled in to her arms and was quite comfy.

It was so hard to leave, but we're looking into volunteering there so will be back!

Hope you have a nice Wednesday! My day will even crazier than usual because my co-teacher is sick. In approximately thirteen hours I'm looking forward to getting in my jammies and relaxing. Just have to make it until then!

Tuesday love

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This kitty mommy carries her kitten around in her mouth. This human mom carts her kidlets around in a minivan. Though not until later this afternoon. Yes, I have almost an entire "day" at home.

I love Tuesdays. I don't have to be anywhere until the afternoon. Some parts of my scheduling actual worked out the way I planned! Is there a day of the week that you love?

My revisions on the soccer book arrived in my inbox yesterday. I've printed things out to look at then figure out. In the meanwhile, I'm finishing up a chapter on the continuity so I'm at a logical stopping point.

Contest Time!

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I meant to post the September contest winner last night when I got home from the coast, but I had family who wanted my undivided attention. The furbabies were not happy when an hour after I walked through the door we headed out again to Mass. Sometimes this means we come home to a mess, but thankfully not last night!

The winner (#43 selected by random.org) of the $10 gift card is Sarita who commented on my post Big Cats and Laser Pointers. Sarita, please use the contact link on the menu bar above to send me your email address and whether you want an Amazon or B&N gift card. You have seven days to contact me, or I'll pick another winner.

Thanks to everyone who entered. I'll be giving another $10 gift card away this month. Same deal: comment on blog gets you an entry. I'll post the winner on November 1 (or as close to that date as I can.) The winner has seven days to contact me.

As for our writing retreat, we wrote in the morning, took a walk on the beach, had lunch at McMenamins, then drove home. I really needed the weekend away and can't wait to do it again!

Where do you like to getaway to?

Beach House

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Instead of a beach in a box like this cat, my friends and I have a real beach complete with sand and waves. We're a couple blocks from the water. What more could we want? Well, except more chocolate. And more pages. And more time here...

If you want to know more about what we've been up to, Jenna wrote a great recap of your first day of the writing retreat here. And here is her recap of day two. She has more pics than I do!

So yesterday afternoon we took a little excursion from our writing. A break, so to speak. We drove to the Chinook Winds Casino and attended the tryout for Wheel of Fortune. This was not my idea. I'm sure if you read this blog you know I only watch about an hour of TV or less a week, but Jenna wanted to do it.

I'm so glad we did!

Imagine a casino bingo parlor filled with Wheel of Fortune fans (minus the few like me who went along just because.) It was freaking hilarious. I'm not kidding. Much better than any of the shows I've ever seen.

The host, Marty, and the Vanna White wannabe whose name escapes me were very funny. But the best part were the people from the audience who were selected to "try out." As soon as their names were called they ran to the stage ala "Price is Right." They were taken backstage then led to the front where they sat in chairs. Then, in groups of five, they stood and individually interviewed by Marty.

Not funny, right? Except something happened to these people. It was as if the disembodied personality of a game show contestant was floating above the stage. As soon as the person stood next to Marty with a microphone in front of their face, this "game show persona" erupted. All but a handful had the exact same personality. I wondered if they'd practiced this at home.

I don't watch game shows so maybe they all do and just knew this was what it takes to be selected to be a contestant. But it was both bizarre and fascinating and utterly hilarious. I had to wonder what Marty, the host, thought of all this. He was very quick with the comebacks. In fact they were zinging back and forth at lightning speed.

We also got to see a belly dancer, an air guitarist and two men who danced. Not exactly pee-your-pants funny, but definitely laugh-out-loud-this-would-have-been-worth-paying-a-couple-of-bucks-for funny.

Alas, Terri, Jenna and I were not called to tryout. We weren't alone. But unlike the hundreds who left after the last five contestants were called to get in line again for the next tryout, we opted for a late lunch at the casino. We sat in the seafood restaurant in a window seat, enjoying the view and eating. Jenna called it "lunner" since it was to be our lunch and dinner.

Back home we wrote for a few more hours before pulling out another set of DVDs to watch about writing craft. I fell alseep during part of one. It was just too dry and a bit out there for me. I wanted something more concrete and readily adaptable to romances without much fiddling or tweaking, but that's just the engineer in me.

Unfortunately that meant my external journey (i.e. the Outer Conflict) of my story remained a mess. So even though it was late, I put on one of the workshops from RWA NYC and we listened to that. That helped, but I still wasn't there. (Remember, I'm working on a continuity so this isn't my story or characters.) Jenna and Terri, being the great friends and writers they are, helped me figure out a few things. Yay team!

This morning I'm going to see how it all fits together as I jump back into writing the new proposal.

Not that we'll have that much time. Our weekend writers retreat is almost over. (Insert tears and sniffles here.) We have to check out of the beach house at noon today.

I will be happy to see hubby, kidlets, cats and dog. Mackenna sent me a text saying the cats really missed me, especially Yoda. I miss the family, but I've gotten so much out of this time away. I feel recharged and refresh. The well is no longer empty! I just hope I can get away like this again!

What are you up to today?

No Kitty

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I'm not sure who this No Kitty is more like—my cat Spirit or my dog Yoda—but it fits both to a T! Except it would become a No Doggy instead.

I'm on my writing retreat on the Oregon Coast with two romance writer friends.We met yesterday in Oregon where we piled all of the stuff into my minivan. It amazed me how much stuff three writers need for a couple of days of writing! We arrived in on the coast around lunch time. We ate a Thai restaurant, then headed to the outlet mall to walk around until we could check into our house. Of course, we all ended up buying something!

The beach house is bigger than we thought it would be. 4 bedrooms and 3 1/2 baths. Lots of places to write as well as an ocean view from both levels. We're already planning to come back!

We wrote for a while (I started the continuity!) then headed to Mo's (famous on the coast) for dinner. Afterward, we returned to the house where we watched the Michael Hauge DVD on writing Romantic Comedies and Love Stories.

We all had our laptops and would stop the DVD to fill in our characters' internal conflict charts and discuss what we were typing. It was great to brainstorm and figure out the various parts of our characters' internal make-up! By the end of the DVD we had both the hero and heroines of our new projects figured out! Yay!

Today will be writing, a walk on the beach and perhaps a little fun if we can squeeze it in. (More about that if we go through with our plan!) Tonight we plan on plotting our stories using a Michael Hauge/Christopher Vogler DVD! I can't wait.

Update: I just realized it's October 1st. I will announce the winner of my September contest on Sunday night, October 2nd, when I get home. So sorry about that, but I totally forgot with the writing retreat. And a new contest for October starts today so enter by commenting. More on that one Monday!

Hope you are having a great Saturday! What are you up to?