My Chatty Post

I feel chatty today.

At work, I sit in a back corner by myself with few human interruptions, so I don't talk much there. And since my husband switched to evening shift--working six days on and three days off--I only see him in passing these days. Ergo I only have one two-year-old left in my house to talk to and even she has started saying, “Shhh…” if I sing anything around her now.

So, that leaves...well, you guys to jabber at, sorry. And I have all sorts of strange topics to discuss!

Mother’s Day

So I came home on Wednesday from work, turned into my driveway and found this…my Mother’s Day present!!

2012 Mother's Day

I know, I know. Why would my husband give me a crappy old red truck with a flat tire for Mother’s Day?

No, no. It’s the two trees there are my present. They’re oak, I’m told, and the leaves are supposed to turn red in the fall. We decided last year that my Mother’s Day presents would be trees…or maybe just yard stuff. It’ll be a tradition. So, now I have four trees (last year, we got two Maples), and two flowers. It’s getting crowded around here, huh?!

2011 Mother's Day - Last Year

2011 Mother's Day - This Year

My trees from last year are much smaller that this year's haul. I must’ve been a better mom this year. Not really though..hmm, maybe this is an incentive for me to be better. Anyway, see how much the Maples have grown. Okay, so it's not much, but give them some time.  They'll grow!

Writing: Like Coloring on the TV

I can tell that showing you how my trees are growing is boring…almost like watching the grass grow, huh? So we’ll subject change.

My kiddo has taken a liking to the children’s show, The Color Crew. We bought her some crayons and a coloring book, which she loves. She still doesn’t know how to color inside a line yet, but she has at least started using different colors to scribble over specific parts of a page.It's progress.

But...a few weeks ago, I walked into the living room while she was watching The Color Crew, and she was standing right in front of our new big screen Wi-fi TV we got for Christmas with my royalty money with a crayon in her hand.

“Look, Mama, look. I color,” she cried with pride and pointed at the screen.

I looked, and saw crayon marks all OVER the bottom half of the screen.

Well, after clutching my hair in both hands and screaming, “NOOOOOOO!” the pride instantly dropped from her face. Her eyes growing big, she threw all incriminating evidence over her shoulder, and dashed to the couch where she hid her body on top of the cushions.

I was too upset to rage at her further, but I did pick her up and march her back to her crib (aka, the jail cell) for a time out. She cried the whole way.

Later, I felt bad about her misery. She looked so happy about what she’d done. She’d just followed The Color Crew’s advice and colored like they said to do.

Made me think about my stories. I put so much time and effort into them and a little bit of my soul before I rework and rework and rework it some more. In my head, it’s perfect. I'm just so proud of what I accomplished.

Then some critique partner, or editor, or reviewer, or whatever comes along and clutches her face in her hands before screaming, “Nooooo! That’s all wrong.”

It’s not until that moment, I can more objectively look at my masterpiece and think, “Oh, crap. Look at that. That’s just wrong.”

So now I know:

1 – to put away the crayons whenever my child is watching The Color Crew and,
2 – I’m really blind when it comes to my own story. I NEED someone else to look at it to see what I can’t see.

Side note: Washable crayon marks come right off a television screen with the use of glasses cleaner and wipes.

Flash Drive Update

So if you keep up with my blog at all, you might know I accidentally bent the heck out of my flash drive that stored ALL of my writing endeavors on it. I’m doing okay with the backup files I did manage to make, but I’m beginning to get to the point where it’d be real handy if I had a few certain files that are on that drive.

So last week, I found a computer place that said they may be able to solder (whatever that means) the broken points back together and retrieve some of the information. I put down $30 which covers the first thirty minutes of work.

I have awful listening skills, so I couldn’t remember if they said they’d call me when it was finished, or if it’d be ready the next day. Eight days passed with no call, so I called them. My files are not retrieved yet, but someone is "on that." And now I know....they’ll call me when it's ready.

But ack!! Eight days have passed, and I’m seriously hoping I don’t have a huge, ginormous bill whenever this is finished. Maybe $30 covers all of it.  I hope so.

Fingers crossed there.

eCookbook

And finally, last topic I’m going to chat about…

I haven’t mentioned this on my blog yet, so I’ll mention it now since I’m obviously on a talking roll. A group of authors who blog for The Writers Vineyard put together a free eCookbook (but the main person who handled all the big and fine details was Michael Davis…give the man a big hand!).

Anyway, the cookbook is now available at for your reading and cooking pleasure at a few places like:

• Linda Kage's Website (PDF) 
• BookYards (PDF) 
• Champagne Books (PDF) 
• SmashWords (PDF, Kindle MOBI, Epub, RTF, and LRF)

Funny story: I put this link for the cookbook up on my Facebook page on Wednesday, then came into work on Thursday to a co-worker telling me her husband makes spaghetti lasagna (the recipe I contributed to the cookbook) all the time. She prefers it to regular spaghetti. So there you have it: proof my recipe isn’t nasty!

***

And with that, I’m all talked out! I wish you all a happy Mother’s Day with lots of memorable cooking adventures (that don’t involve catching your oven on fire).  Have a great weekend!