Free Republic

I think I’ve told the story of (pre 9/11) forgetting that I had a package of guitar strings (coiled up wires, essentially) and an old metal alarm clock in the pocket of my coat one time coming back from Europe. Got their attention, though they didn’t do anything other than examine them closely. Yes, I’m an idiot. Not sure *what* would happen in this day and age.

We finally got one in Olympia a bit ago. I sometimes do my week’s shopping there...even with the fun stuff, it’s often cheaper than the regular grocery. Artichokes for under a dollar this week, for example, and good prices on other produce, and interesting pasta, and whole wheat tortillas...and on a lot of things, their prices on dairy are better than Wal-mart, even.

Current favorite chocolatey things: Power Berries. Dark chocolate covered...something or others. Acai and something else, I think. Tart, but wonderful with the chocolate.

And the one here sells all SORTS of cholesterol medicine...so to speak.

And that is actually one of the biggest points against e-books, in my view: yes, I can fit a ton of them on one little device I can carry everywhere, but first I have to buy them, and I have to buy them new. Currently I get most of my books used. Or from the library. My library is starting to "loan" e-books, but only in limited ways. For the most part, if you want anything other than a select few books, you gotta pay the full price.

Ha! There you go.

She’s arrived at brother’s. There was talk of me picking her up tonight, but she didn’t seem all that thrilled about the idea of getting right back into a car again and I decided I didn’t want to drive to *town* in the dark on a Friday night. So I’ll go get her sometime tomorrow. I have folks coming throughout the day to look at various for-sale stuff, though, so I dunno when I’ll make it up there.

I know, I know. ;-) I’m putting off dishes until last, but I guess I have no excuses when the time comes.

Yeah, I’m figuring on just buying a stack of newspapers. Cheaper than bubble wrap. Still requires finagling, though. I have to stop at a *store*.

Sister apparently has arrived in Washington, so there’s that.

What should I make her do first? Hm. Floors? Takin’ out the trash?

We’ll have to figure out the best route, too. The shortest way from this direction is twisty, and on some pretty narrow roads—OK in the car, but probably not fun with a trailer. Maybe we can look at Google Maps over the weekend or something.

Yeah! Perfect for me, really. So much so that it seems too good to be true and I’m waiting for reality to come crashing down. ;-) It’s a rental, but just the right rental: cute little house with a big back fenced yard for Cisco, nice neighbors, out away from town, and *right* on the bike trail. As in I walk out the front door and there it is, just a few feet across the road. So I can ride to work in nice weather, and ride for fun, or walk/run Cisco whenever I want.

I’m supposed to be out of this place by the end of the month, which is approaching with alarming speed.

I already signed a rental agreement, but I’m still worried somehow something will go wrong before I’m actually *in*.

I’m more worried about the not calling back than the garbage, ‘cause my mind keeps thinking somehow I’ll be found out as resident of a scummy trailer and this whole move will be called off and I’ll be stuck here. Irrational, I know.

But the garbage pickup account dealie is also the one last thing I don’t have set up—power’s set, cable’s set, mail is set to forward...all that. I don’t like holes in my completion. ;-)

I have an appointment first thing in the morning on Monday, so I figure we could do a load right after that, maybe nine or nine-thirty or so? And then we (brother and sister and whoever else I can recruit) can load while the farrier’s here. Sounds good. If I can get all the boxes in there over the weekend, that first load can be all the boxes, and then furniture later.

I don’t think the loading will be too bad, unless I’ve obtained a washer and dryer by then. But driving and parking the trailer seems like the harder part. :-\

I need newspaper for dishes and other breakables...haven’t figured out where to finagle some yet. Most everything else I’m not currently using is packed, but not yet in the trailer.

I have next Monday and the following Friday off. Hopefully it’s enough, with the weekends thrown in. Brother seems convinced that we can do most if not all of it Monday, provided he does much of the organizing and loading of the furniture. ;-) Hopefully by then I’ll just have the bed, the good desk, miscellaneous bookshelves and the dresser. Not much else.

It’s all made tricky by the fact that he really only gets Sundays and Mondays off, I probably won’t get the key until Monday, and this month ends on a Sunday. Can I lobby for a leap year?

Meanwhile, I have a sister out there somewhere who may or may not be arriving at some point. We don’t know exactly where she is or where or when she’s likely to show up and have no contact information for along the way.

‘Cause I needed more drama this week.

Oh, and the trash people won’t let me pay ‘em without permission from my new landperson, who hasn’t yet returned this afternoon’s call, which probably just means she’s busy, but I’m antsy about it. I’m not going to feel like this is real until I’m really there, I’m afraid.

I sold the little oven today. *snif* End of an era.

Paint Moot?

Just saw that. One of my favorites. *snif*

I soooo need to get DVD copies of “Kiss me Kate” and “Show Boat” and “Anchor’s Aweigh” one of these days.

Yep. Frightening, huh? And I currently have four nieces and a nephew, plus the one on the way. We’re gonna take over the world....

Yeah...when I came out here, my oldest niece was a few weeks old. Now, she’s over four, a little chatterbox who is learning her letters and numbers, and she has two younger sisters.

Time flies!

For that matter...remember the brother who was at Entmoot? He’s married and they’re expecting *their* first. Very cool...but it still throws me for a loop sometimes. I hear “Sunrise, Sunset” playing in my head once in awhile....

Whoa.

Also to put things into perspective...I think I arrived in Washington on the 12th of February. Four years ago. Four years. Just...dang.

My problem is that I have no clue where to really start with the writing submission for publication thing. And every time I try to read up on it, I get lost and intimidated and give up again.

Maybe some of us should make next year NoPubYe (or at least NoTryPubYe), and figure it out together. (Was going to abbreviate Hobbit Hole Novel Publishing Year...but that just...sounds weird.) We’ve talked about it before, but I don’t know that any of us really pursued it.

I also have a bunch of short stories kicking around. They pretty much all need major rewrites / editing / fleshing out, but at least a few would be OK with a lot of work. I think those might be easier to start with, publishing-wise.

Considering I’m in the throes of my annual resentment toward those who treat NaNo as a race while insisting they *aren’t* treating it as a race, I’m not sure I should even be speaking to you....

But I do need an editing month. So I’d be in for that. I’m within a few chapters of finishing ‘08, and ‘07 is close, too. Both are worth editing, unlike most of myprevious NaNo efforts.

I actually wrote all year this year for once, with very few breaks. This NaNo is a slightly uptempo start on yet another new story instead of the equivalent of a couch potato running a marathon. So there’s that. And I think my story is going to be pretty good. It’s lterary fiction this time around (no magic or inexplicable science or nuffin) with a good mix of serious and not so serious characters and a rotating point of view to keep me on my toes.

Indeed. :-\ The time change makes it a little easier to drag oneself out of bed in the morning, but I hate driving home from work in the dark and all that.

The critters haven’t gotten used to new feeding times, either. Or waking times, for that matter. Halvah decided to bang cabinet doors at four this morning, new time.

Gorgeous wood! Makes me wish I could see it in person—I love the way the figuring looks 3D as you rotate it under light.