Why I love my husband--Reason #271

My husband found this article.

Short version: Someone has stolen gold bathtub (worth nearly a million dollars) from a hotel in Japan. According to the article, the tub was not bolted down.


My husband: What? They couldn't afford rivets?

I adore him.

Countdown Milestone

Hey! Lookie at my Backwards Bush counter over there at the right! In 22 hours, it will finally drop below 600 days! A cause for celebration!

AWOL

Sorry for being AWOL. Sometimes life just gets away from me. I've been working on establishing those healthy habits I discussed at the beginning of the year. Better late than never, right? The first 2 weeks of May I went to the gym twice a week. I went 4 times last week and (including tomorrow) I'll have gone 4 times this week. My goal is to get up to 5 times per week. Next week the gym is closed Monday for the holiday, so I'll do four times next week and to five the following.

It's difficult establish two daily habits at the same time, so my writing is sliding. I have been reading research books daily (or nearly every day) though, so I am still connected to the new project. Could be worse.

This weekend I want to write a scene or two and try to figure out my characters a bit. Maybe I'll even cut out some stuff for a collage and buy some supplies. We'll see.

Los Angeles Is Burning

My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone dealing with freaky weather this week. There are fires here in So CA (Catalina, Griffith Park, & Featherly Park) and I'm worried about the people, animals and historic buildings. Pray for rain. Sigh.

One of my favorite bands is Bad Religion and here are the lyrics to a song that came out a few years ago:


Los Angeles Is Burning by Bad Religion

Somewhere high in the desert near a curtain of blue
St. Anne's skirts are billowing
But down here in the city of limelights
The fans of Santa Ana are withering
And you can't deny the living is easy
If you never look behind the scenery
It's Showtime for dry climes
And bedlam is dreaming of rain

When the hills of Los Angeles are burning
Palm trees are candles in the MURDER wind
So many lives are on the breeze
Even the stars are ill at ease
And Los Angeles is burning

This is not a test
of the emergency broadcast system
When Malibu fires and radio towers
Conspire to dance again
And I cannot believe the Media Mecca
They're only trying to peddle reality
Catch it on Prime Time
Story at nine
The whole world is going insane

When the hills of Los Angeles are burning
Palm trees are candles in the MURDER wind
So many lives are on the breeze
Even the stars are ill at ease
And Los Angeles is Burning

A placard reads "the end of days"
Jacaranda boughs are bending in the haze
More a question than a curse
How could hell be any worse?
The flames are stunning
The cameras running
So take warning!

When the hills of Los Angeles are burning
Palm trees are candles in the MURDER wind
So many lives are on the breeze
Even the stars are ill at ease
And Los Angeles is burning

To those of you dealing with fires, floods and tornadoes in other parts of the country, I send you white light and prayers. I hope all will be well very soon.

Crazy-busy

That's the state of my life right now, crazy-busy. How about you? I'm learning a new job at work, I'm trying to establish a new healthy routine at home--walking Lulu nightly and getting up early for the gym 5x per week--and I'm trying to write too. Michele and I haven't been checking in with each other. Bad girls. Our agreement was 15 minutes per day, every day and checking in every day. Oh well. We've both been working a lot. We'll get with it.

Tonight I'm baking a layer of a sheet cake for my Sister-in-law's grad party. I'll do layer #2 tomorrow and put it all together Fri night. That's my plan anyway. Wish me luck. I have my local chapter RWA meeting on Sat and the party is after that. I want to finish up the cake on Friday if possible.

What else? Lulu has been kind of bratty this week. A few weeks ago she ripped up the couch in the patio and that was when we decided she needed nightly walking. Last night we were both on the computer and ignoring her a bit--I'll admit it. We were going to work for a few minutes and then take her for a walk, but she didn't want to wait. So, she decided it would be fun to bite the corner of the wall. She put her big bully mouth around the corner and started biting. Thank God we heard her and told her no right away. Then we went for a walk! Bulldogs are so funny, so different than Akitas. They like to bite on everything. Aside from that she's an absolute love--everyone's favorite dog at the dog park. Such a sweet girl, so well mannered and friendly.

Just now my sweet girl grunted at us, stood up on her back legs and boxed her paws at us. She wants to go for her walk. Better go.

What's been going on

The day job:
Tomorrow is officially one month since I started training T. She's really come into her own in the last week. I handed over most of my files and almost everyone who usually calls me is calling her now. We have yet to go over every single little thing, but we share an office now, so it's going to be a much easier transition than if we didn't. Yeah! Tomorrow is her birthday and she's taking the day off. I hope she has a nice time. it will be interesting trying to do the job with everything at her desk. :)

Also, today I was given my first lesson at my new job. I totally get what T's been going through this past month. The hour-long overview was a lot to take in, but I'm so excited about learning this new job. I'm a perfectionist and I often get frusterated when learning something new because I feel like I have to be perfect right off the bat. Everything I'm learning will be new so there's no way I'll be close to perfect for a very long time. Surprisingly, I feel ok with it and I'm excited about what lies ahead. It seems I've learned much from T this last month as she's learned from me. Work, the ultimate adventure.

On writing:
My WIP is moving right along. My plotting is nearly done and I've been reading tons of research material. I wrote the first couple of pages Sunday just to get a feel of my Protagonist, the (still) nameless witch. I don't really know her yet (purposely) and I'm going to continue my quest for knowledge of all things Witchy, Wiccan, Spells, Werewolf and the like for a while.

It feels good to work on something new, though. While I dearly love my Healer story, I was stuck for a long time. Working on something else feels like such a blessing to me. I'm actually making progress. Being stuck on the other story made me feel like a failure, but this feels productive. I bet all kinds of ideas will pop in my head for my Healer story as I work on this Witch story, especially since so much of what I'm reading (herbs, spells, etc.) is related.

Life:
Life is crazy-busy right now and will be for the next month. I'm trying to organize myself so it won't make me too crazy. I don't really like it when things are too scheduled, but I'll deal with it. Some of the stuff I'm reading for the WIP about meditating and channeling power is really interesting and I've tried it a bit. It really works. How cool is it that something I needed for research might help me deal with some of my daily stresses? Writing is so much more than just putting a story together. It affects all areas of your life.

Book Fun:
Please join us in the Cherry Forums for Book Club. May 1-May 15 we are discussing Ice Blue by Anne Stuart, the infamous Sister Krissie. :) She will be with us May 1-7 to answer questions and gab. We've already had some good conversation today and we'd love to have you join us too. I am the moderator for Ice Blue and I've read this book, as well as the previous two Ice books, Black Ice and Cold as Ice. The category is romantic suspense and they are very, very good.

That's all for now. I hope you are all having a great week. :)