My Recent Comments

Good luck on the job search, Susan, and congrats, Carrie. If I had to look for a new job at this point, don't know what I'd do. And I love benefits! Ellen has great suggestions.

"1. Cut your hair really short and decide you look good in baseball hats." Yes. I don't do ball caps (too curly) but spending a rock-bottom minimum of $75 a month to keep my hair colored and styled (such as it is) is sliding way down on my list of priorities.

"2. Move into a yurt--they are low on the upkeep scale." I can't live with clutter but never have a cleaning day anymore, just do ten-minute cleanups, a la Flylady. Amazing how that keeps the house liveable and me sane.

"3. Ride the bus." I've been telecommuting for the same employer for more than ten years and still miss my old bus commute. So much writing got done and it was a wonderful transition. Now I'm at my home office desk all the time.

I want to add a 5: Find a way to take time off and do something other than write. Looks like I won't be taking vacation until October this year and that is really, really dumb of me.

Yes, Holly, I'm also wondering what your "normal" Super voice will be like!

Christyne, happy birthday, and didn't you already get your birthday present?

Sally

Christyne, hurray! Such wonderful news!!

Jody, welcome!

I love the snippets, too. it's amazing how fast a reader can pick up on a writer's voice.

Sally

Susan, how sad about your niece. So sorry.

Carrie, lots of good luck with your ongoing job search... too bad you have to get one.

Deb, it's easy to miss 500 messages around here!

Sam, have you tried a paddle-float rescue with a stirrup to get back in your kayak? It's like using a stepladder. It's my favorite ever since I warped my shoulder trying to haul myself into the boat while the tide was dragging me under the boat.

Not that we've been in our boats since we moved six months ago a quarter mile from a lovely river!!!!! Argh.

Happy Canada Day (a bit late) and Independence Day! No plans for us since DH will be on fire dept. duty. Despite two brief showers in the last couple of days, we're having a drought and expect mucho flames where they're not wanted. There's a fireworks ban on but why should that stop anyone?!!

Sally

I'm insanely busy (aren't we all) but had to stop by and congratulate SR author Brenda Novak on getting onto the New York Times bestseller list with her latest single title. Brenda deserves it and she's a terrific inspiration. I am so delighted for her!

Cheers,

Sally

Speaking of fires, there was a 3-alarm fire in DD's apartment complex on Monday while she was at work. Fortunately her building was untouched, but we didn't know that for hours. Fifteen families were displaced and the Red Cross was there as much to help the firefighters as the victims---temp was in the high 90's and the firefighters wear about 70 pounds of gear. Scary to see pics of bright yellow flames shooting out of the whole rectangle of a balcony.

Also, the podcast is now up with Wanda Ottewell and Victoria Curran talking about submitting to SR. What a helpful presentation! And the two of them together sound like merry witches... or the good fairies in Cinderella.

Here's the site: http://www.eharlequin.com/store.html;jsessionid=78EEAADAFF6F46A808FF54A546EA5CEB?cid=749.

Sally

Beautiful pics, Annie! Looks like your trip was food for the soul.

Ellen, what wonderful book-geeky pics of the distribution center. Love them!

Carrie, congrats on your DS graduating. You may not recognize him when he gets back from Alaska.

Chrystine, congrats on winning that breakfast. That sounds like the highlight of the whole conference.

Commiserations on losing auction bids. Fingers crossed for you all with sick kids, school problems, illness.... Congrats on new desks, multiple TVs, end of school year, grads.

Hurray for you, Kim! What a huge house!

Chelle, finaling in that contest was sneaky of you! What a great way to give your ms. another chance.

Tasha, see, there can be something worse than a lizard in your life! Did you get a lizard?

Holly, have a wonderful and well deserved break.

Kay, welcome back!

We turned on the Stanley Cup game by accident, looking for Jay Leno. Ten minutes into the second overtime we gave up and went to bed. Guess that makes us not fans, lol.

Linda, that's what I want to know--what are they doing in those bathtubs? Especially separate bathtubs?

Funny that the subject of trucks and shifts came up. We need something strong for hauling stuff locally, so we're considering buying a neighbor's 1978 Ford 150 V6. It has 150k miles on it but it's built like a tank and will probably last another 100k. The stick shift was a shock even though DH and I both have older manual cars. When DH test drove the truck, it stalled and we rolled backwards down a long 30-degree hill. Luckily, we missed landing in the neighborhood fishpond. But we still might buy it. I get to test drive it next---yikes!

A hundred degrees here today with a 40-mph wind...real fire weather.

Sally

Annie, so glad you're back! I'm looking forward to seeing those photos.

Kim, sorry about your gall bladder. As if you didn't have enough going on.

Anna, 72 at 10 am sounds nice. Ami, frost??? It was 103 here today and the weather pattern is going to be stalled for the next week. Hope that doesn't mean more tornadoes north of us. We skipped spring and went right into August. Amy, send us some of your rain. Everything is still green here, but it won't be for long.

Susan, if I turned off my monitor, my typing would look like 2e o99io8i3 5y8w w8hd3... That happens with my little green Alphie 3000 sometimes but I love it anyway. The real problem is that it clickety-clacks when I type, which I find distracting, and I can't go fast enough on those keys. I have a Dana, too, and the keyboard is wonderful, but the processor is slow, so I type faster than it can capture. I thought I'd use it more than my laptop, but no. BTW, the Dana is supposed to go on line but I've never been able to.

The 3000 is excellent for making quick notes on other projects that flit by when I'm working. And both it and the Dana turn on immediately. Best of all, they don't get automatic updates! I hate those things. Sometimes computers are like cars that are constantly in pieces in the driveway when you need to get to the store.

OK, I'm off to work out before I turn into a chair shape. Have a lovely cool/warm/hot/windy/wet/parched evening.

Sally

OK, you're getting me all mixed up. I'm in the middle of plotting a new story but if I start packing instead it is definitely not my fault!!!

Thanks for ungrouching me.

Sally

Wow, I sure sound like a grouch! rofl

Sally

Rae, I saw a headline this morning and thought of you: Woman Wins $20M Over Baby Stuck in Birth Canal. Yow!

Amy, I spectated (gotta love those back constructions, too) the Bay to Breakers a few years ago and saw some of the nekkids. Amazing how incomplete people seem without clothes. They didn't look too happy to be doing it, either.

DS still lives in San Fran and loves it, though he and his adorable girlfriend are thinking of moving to Boston for a new job. So cool that your DD's an engineer! She'll need to get one of those sleek SF businesswomen's pantsuits.  

Tasha, looks like a lizard is definitely joining the family. You'll have to post a pic. Want to have a lizard-naming contest?

Ami, super congrats on the request! Slam dunk it, girl.

Kay, have a glorious trip! You post pics, too.

Holly, condolences on the truck. DH's 21-year-old Honda is still running great, though the last mechanic screwed up the alarm system while feeling around in the car's guts. That is one noisy alarm, guaranteed to awaken any neighbor within five miles. This wonderful car's days are numbered. We're starting to eyeball passing pickup trucks covetously. My beloved Volvo, which is old enough to drink and vote (in that order), may last another ten or fifteen years. I bought it hoping to keep it until something better than cars was invented, and that might happen.

We'll probably hit triple digits again today. Beautiful morning, though. Lots of tweedlebirds tweedling and a breeze in the live oaks up here outside my second floor office. I never lived anywhere before where I could hear the wind coming from a half-mile away. It sounds like the surf. I'm kinda missing Cali... not missing a whole lot about Cali itself, mostly the outdoorsy things we used to do. (Not that we did many our last two years there... just woik, woik, woik.) I need to get on the water again. My kayak's so dried out, I swear it shrank.

Fantasyland? I don't like margaritas (sorry, how about a nice Shiraz?) and cabana boys make me nervous. Hard to believe, but I don't like to ogle men, and any man who's there to be ogled (love that word) doesn't seem that masculine to me. But it would be great to take some days off from work. Maybe soon. Sooner. Memorial Day's coming just in time.

Sally