Flex time

Today I heard someone on the radio say, "President Obama says that the 6 month moratorium on deep sea drilling will be here for some time."

Um...duh? Won't it be here for...6 months???

Is it wrong that every time my husband asks if I'm writing or blogging that I get embarrassed? I'm embarrassed by the fact that I have been writing on every scrap of paper and in the back of every school notebook since I was about 12 years old and I still haven't produced a single thing that is a.) finished or b.) publishable.

Is it wrong that I have yet to make it through the most recent J.K. Rowling documentary (where they followed her around for a year while she was finishing Book 7) because I know that I can write just as well as she can and probably better--but I can't complete anything?

These are things that I rarely voice, but as no one reads this anyway, I've decided I can start using it as a diary of sorts.

Bad mood. Probably the result of too many veggies and not enough brownie. :-)

A rose by any other name...

The outside petals of this rose were dying, so I took it outside to see if it could be salvaged. While outside, I dropped it on the barbeque by mistake. This is the result.

"but I'm le tired!"

The good thing about learning French on iTunes is that you can listen over and over to the pronounciation of all the words.

The bad thing is that I have no idea how to spell any of this crap.

Vive le France! (Maybe...if that's how you spell it...)

Yes. I'm learning some conversational French. The school at which I work sends students to France each Spring and we often take on at least one French student a year ourselves so I could say that I'm learning to better interact with our student population.

But let's be serious here. I want to go to Paris and Provence and really...anywhere that will have me where I can look at fashionable people, spectacular architecture and eat great food. Currently I don't have anyone to lead me around the country to translate so I guess it's up to me!

For those of you who don't know, iTunes has a ton of free podcasts to help you learn other languages. Now, the Rosetta Stone they are not, but the one I'm using called "Coffee Break French" gives you pretty good 15 minute lessons.

Au revoir!

Q&A

If I could ask just one question of any fiction writer it would be, "Once you have a general idea about a story, how do you narrow down and actually decide upon the details and plot points?" This is the thing with which I have the most trouble.

For example, I had an idea for a story about a boy (or a boy and a girl, possibly related or possibly neighbors) who inherits (or finds) a key that will lead him (or them) through a door into another world. In that world he (or they) will find doorways to 3 other worlds (making a total of 5 worlds). The keys to those worlds are being held by an evil sorcerer (or perhaps they've been lost...or maybe some are lost and some are held by the evil sorcerer) and he (or they) meet(s) up with a number of people who are hoping to get the keys back with the "good guys." The sorcerer doesn't know that the Earth key is in this world (or the sorcerer DOES know, and is hunting him/them down).

And so on. I have a number of stories like this, and they all end about 1/4 of the way through because as I write I start to think of other ways the story could be told and I can't make up my mind as to how to continue. I don't want to write myself in a corner in book 1, decide there should be a sequel and not get to write the story that really should have been written if I had only made the right choices in the first book. (Not that I should be thinking about writing 2 books when I haven't even written 1, but I like to plan ahead).

Any suggestions? Not that anyone reads my blog besides my Mom...but you never know. And Mom--I always love to hear your suggestions. :-)

"Tell me if this hurts."

Sorry kids. No pictures today. Trust me, you wouldn't want them. This story begins at the denist's office...

Last week I had a filling in one of my back upper teeth. I had originally thought that it was a cracked tooth, but it turns out that it was a cavity. Fine. I've had fillings before--not so much fun--but fine.

Just in case though, they did some poking and "tooth sleuthing" both of which have various amounts of pain associated with them. In fact, the whole thing was started by the doctor saying...

"I'm going to tap (BANG) on some of your teeth. Tell me if this hurts."

(The doctor says "tap" but I insert "BANG" because that's what it feels like to my skull sometimes.)

In the middle of all the "tapping" however, it started to occur to me that this was an absolutely Byzantine method of determining whether or not something was wrong. We have put a man on the moon, we have discovered that in a group of matter and antimatter--more matter will survive in the Universe, we have electricity and hybrid cars and phones that take pictures and play music. We as a society are healthy and wealthy enough to pay people exorbitant amounts of money to sing songs that they didn't write, and to play games and pretend to be other people for a living...and yet the best way we can come up with to determine if your tooth is dying is to keep banging on it until it hurts.

And it's also a terrible method because it doesn't work. I was in such excruciating pain after this "standard" procedure that I went back to the dentist on Tuesday (Where they banged on my teeth again) and told me that maybe I DO have a cracked tooth. Then I went back today and they did stage 1 of a root canal! Thank goodness really. I was feeling so terrible. But believe it or not, that meeting started by the doctor saying,

"I'm going to tap (BANG) on a few teeth and you tell me if it hurts."

You've got to be kidding me.

You light up my life

I really am a cool-color kind of person. I will take blues and purples and greys and greens over reds, oranges and yellows every time. That being said--an entire house full of cool colors can be kind of boring. If you're anything like me, here are a few things you can try to warm things up this Spring:

1.) Painting the inside of a lampshade. I've heard that painting the inside pink can warm up the compact flourescent bulbs--but I have the kind of lamp where the inside of the shade is exposed. I'm thinking metallic gold.

2.) So yes...I have large expanses of blues and greys on the walls. Also, most of my furniture is square. So I'm thinking of trying to find something in a natural material, with a bit more fluid of a shape--like a natural wood side table or a mirror framed with shells or stones.

3.) Another option is to go with pops of colors from the opposite side of the color wheel throughout the room. My blue walls could easily be the backdrop for an orange or yellow accent.

4.) Finally--pattern. Mixing patterns is something from which I have traditionally run, but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. When mixing patterns, 2 of these things should be the same about the patterns: scale, color, or the pattern itself. If you have two paisleys that are the same size, but different colors--that's okay. Stripes and polka dots with the same color scheme and approximate scale are okay. A large-scale damask and a small-scale plaid with none of the same colors....that's not going to work so well. Another hint here is to choose an odd number of patterns to display. (This actually goes for all accessories.)

Mixing patterns doesn't necessarily "warm up" the room, but adding texture always adds another dimension, which is essentially what you're trying to do anyway.

If you try any of these techniques--feel free to share pictures! I will post mine as I work on them!