Vampiric vermin, I swear

Aaaaugh. I feel like for every one thing I get done, three more crop up. Like a nasty game of Whack-a-Mole. With moles that bite my ankles.

Since my last entry, this is what I’ve accomplished:

• finished “Braceleted,” walked to the PO, mailed it.
• continued on to the library and dropped off items that were due.
• decided not to write the next story on my list, for various reasons.
• got the assignment for the overnight Denise Little Workshop story, wrote it, and turned it in. (It’s called “At the Mirk and Midnight Hour.” Can anyone guess the reference?)
• read most of the DLW stories for the first assignment.
• downloaded all of the new stories to read.
• finished the draft of the March issue of The Oak Leaf for Ken to proof.
• went to the gym (Friday).

Still to do:

• gobs and gobs of e-mail, which includes things like “could you call me when you have some free time?” (Free time? Aaaugh!), two ongoing contract negotiations, and…I don’t even want to look and be reminded.
• read all the new DLW stories.
• write the next story on my list.
• ideally get The Oak Leaf ready and copied today or early tomorrow so I can take issues to the Costumed Fighter Practice tomorrow.
• grocery shopping for the next week or so plus food for the potluck picnic after the Costumed Fighter Practice.
• go to the gym (today and tomorrow).
• apply for more freelance editing/writing jobs.

Once more into the breach…

To do sounds a lot like to doom

Many, many things to do today. It didn’t help that I didn’t set the alarm correctly. About all I’ve accomplished so far is breakfast (leftover Chinese), ablutions, a quick read of e-mail, and lunch (leftover Chinese). We also walked to the Farmer’s Market and came home with lots of fresh fruit and veg, and of course prior to that we planned meals for the next week or so.

But now it’s almost 2 p.m. and I still have to…

• read-through “Braceleted,” which I finished last night (9K words) and clean up all my little bracketed notes to myself.
• walk to the Post Office and mail “Braceleted.”
• possibly continue on to the library because I have this niggling feeling something’s due.
• ideally write another story for a fast-approaching deadline. I have no idea for this story, and the theme is pretty open. Argh.
• read all the stories for the Denise Little Workshop, which actually starts tonight. Even though I’m not there, I need to read them all so I can follow along. Also, I don’t know whether the overnight assignment for the DL Workshop will come tonight or tomorrow. Argh squared. (Although I’m excited and looking forward to the challenge.)
• try to finish The Oak Leaf as much as possible, even though I’m still waiting on some things. Which the authors have not even told me if I might get or not.
• deal with Kingdom Chronicler stuff, since that slipped lower on my To Do list over the past week, and can’t slip any farther.
• power through as much e-mail as I can.

Ken’s said he’ll handle dinner (spinach-and-feta stuffed chicken, couscous, steamed asparagus). We’ve committed to going to Scribal Guild tonight to help with scrolls, and I really do want to do that. It’s sort of the reward for all this other stuff.

So instead of going to the gym for cardio, it’ll be a walk. Not nearly as intense, but better than nothing.

And now it’s time for me to dive in and get to work! Let’s see how much I get done.

Updatey-do

Oops. Didn’t mean to drop off the radar there!

Writing Challenge Update:

Kinda tanked on that one. :-( 3K the first day. 1K the second day, every last word of which was forcibly chiseled out of my brain by a one-armed dwarf wielding a broken pick-axe. Basically, I couldn’t figure out the crisis/turning point. On Day 3, I worked at CB&TL with Tanya, who at the end of our session listened to me wail and came up with a partial solution. I wrote about 500 words that day, then not enough to count on Thursday and Friday. Bleah. I took the weekend off, did admin work on Monday, and wrote 500+ words last night.

Today? Must. Finish. Story. because it has to be mailed ASAP. I’m at CB&TL now. Wish me luck.

Fitness Update:

Much better success to report here! We basically hit our goals every day last week (except for abs/back work on one day), including getting up early on Saturday to hit the gym before we got on the road. Sunday was our off day (it’s a 6-day/week program), but I think rocking out to Styx counts as some exercise.

I felt mostly awful this past Monday, so we had an “Active Rest” day. The idea is that on day there’s no official cardio workout, you still try to fit a little extra cardio into your day: if you work in an office, get up once an hour to stretch and walk around; park at the far end of the parking lot; take the stairs instead of the elevator. That sort of thing. So we scrubbed and cleaned the upper part of the house, which included removing almost everything from the bathroom.

Ken reports that he’s lost 3 lbs. I seem to have gained 2. But I’m officially weighing myself/taking measurements only once a month, so I really don’t care. What’s important is that I feel so much better already. My hip doesn’t hurt at night, I’m more limber, I have more energy.

Everything Else Update:

Saturday we headed to Upland to spend some time with our friends Nanci and Lenny. We all went out to dinner at a British pub, and then Lenny went off to his evening job, and the rest of us enjoyed the music of up-and-coming band MeVsMe.

The next morning, we were up bright and early (hah) to head to the Fontana Raceway. Not because any of us have a whit of interest in NASCAR, but because Styx was playing a morning show there.

Oh, and one song was televised. :-) Look, Ma, I'm on TV!

We had lunch with a bunch of friends afterwards…or, sort of. Originally it was to be the four of us, and I requested The Old Spaghetti Factory, and everyone was amenable. Then it grew to nine of us, and three people didn’t want to go to TOSF, and I wanted to be accommodating. A local restaurant was chosen, which turned out to be a glorified Denny’s and was, unsurprisingly, packed on a Sunday at brunch/lunchtime. So in the end, we didn’t all get to sit together, which was the point of doing lunch together. (We were split into two booths.) The food was okay, but uninspiring. Sigh.

After that, we went to visit our friends Dianna and Ron and Eleanor, and had a lovely afternoon seeing their new house, chatting, having a yummy light supper of tabouli salad over spinach, hummus, pita, olives, baklava, and wine (the latter two items being our contributions). Eventually we were forced to tear ourselves away and get home and feed the cats, who were quite happy to have us do that.

Okay. To work now. Wish me progress!

So happy

I don't even have the words to describe how beautiful this cover is. All I know is being in it makes me so happy I could weep.

(Click on it to see it bigger. The bigger version doesn't want to center properly on this page.)