Journal Entry

Still a little drunk, even after two hours and a three-mile walk.

I had a pretty good day. Work was a little rough this morning. I did not sleep any better, and I was late getting in again, and then I had an angry email from an engineer to whom two hundred pages worth of technical manual was owed. That is, I owed him a completed section on Controls and Indicators, and I didn't have it finished. He's also in Wisconsin until the eighth of August, so I didn't think he really needed it that soon, but I guess he's got good internet access and a lot of free time. So there ya go.

So I banged that out and emailed it to him, and that made for a stressful morning, considering I had that same fatigue thing going on. Then in the afternoon I finished up a bunch of little things I'd been putting off (after the morning's wake-up call on things put off). Among them (and the only one not work related), I did finish those last two pages. Actually, I also did some heavy duty rearranging of the pages that went after those two, and that was something I knew had to be done, so there was a little more work left than I'd been implying. But, yeah, I finished that, so that's two novels written in July '07. Not too shabby.

I was late leaving work because of that, but traffic wasn't too bad. D-- had offered to buy us a pizza for dinner, so I was pretty excited about that. When I got home from work, I made a quick run to Blockbuster to drop off some movies -- which reminds me, I meant to make a note to myself to spend my next three free rentals on Freedom Writers (y'know what, shut up!), The Number 23, and Perfume: The Story of a Murder. 23 was all rented out, and I'd picked up the other two but I found something better while I was there. I'd still like to get all those, though.

Also, 300 is out on Tuesday. I'm just saying, is all.

Anyway, I got back from Blockbuster and D-- was there with the pizza. We also had a box of wine that he bought us ages ago for the Gordons' housewarming party. By way of greeting card, he'd scribbled "Congrats Bitches!" on the box, right above the spigot (or "bunghole," if you want to use the proper term). Well, T--'s parents are coming in this weekend for her birthday and, while we don't hide our alcohol consumption from our parents, she wasn't too happy about the horrific profanity greeting them whenever they opened the fridge. So she asked us to get rid of it.

Umm....it has to be three or four weeks old by now. It was still nearly as good as the day we opened it, though. I've got to admit -- boxed wine has its advantages. So I had three big glasses, T-- had one, and D-- had two or three. I was definitely buzzing while we watched a couple episodes of Dead Zone.

Then D-- and I went for a walk, and spent the whole time talking about our writing project. We've got some really amazing material to work with. I'm more and more impressed every time we discuss it.

But, yeah, we went for our walk, then he went home, and I'm going to go to bed. 'Night.

(241.6)

Journal Entry

Is it only Wednesday? Ugh. I feel like it's been weeks since last Sunday.

I haven't been sleeping well, all week, and I've been feeling absent and spacey during the day. I blamed it on Benadryl on Monday, but it's more than that. I'm just...ugh.

Anyway, Wednesday's done. I woke up late this morning and barely made it into work at all. I've committed my regular day off already (a week from Friday), because I'm supposed to go down to Dallas to help K-- help his mom move. I dunno, it's a weird situation. Anyway, that's not available, and I have nearly two days of leave available, but when we make the contract transition next week it gets cashed out, and I need the cash to pay for T--'s birthday present, so that's not an option.

So I went to work. It was pretty awful. I was, as I described earlier, entirely useless all day. I was there, though, and that's what counts. Actually, I did get the last of my paperwork turned in for the contract transition and I got my new badge (the old one expires next week), so that's all business taken care of.

I didn't finish KJW. As I described in yesterday's post, I basically had four pages that I had to write today, to finish the novel. I only wrote two, and inexplicably (or, well, explicably, but it's a really long and boring explication) those last two pages are going to be a real bugger to write. I should get it done this week, but for having only 600 words missing, it's just unreasonably tough.

Anyway, got home from work and I was way too tired to vacuum the floors as a favor to T--, so I played with the baby instead. Halfway through that process, we got a call from N-- inviting us to dinner at a Mexican place next to church. We used to eat there every week on Wednesday, until it went under new management and the new people stopped selling the dish that every damn one of us would order. So we went once under the new management, didn't like what we got, and stopped going there. That was over a year ago.

Anyway, T-- was supposed to make biscuits and gravy for dinner, but we felt adventurous so we took D-- with us (he'd come over for some free biscuits and gravy) and met K-- and N-- for supper. Afterword, T-- went to church with the other two, and I was taking D-- back to the house when he suggested we get a drink somewhere. There's a bar within walking distance (or, as I like to put it, "stumbling distance") of my house, but I'd never been there. It's a sports bar called "The Dugout," and since I despise baseball, I always assumed I'd hate the bar. We stopped in, though, because I didn't feel like driving three miles to Henry Hudsons.

We sat down at the first booth we saw, and then realized there was a framed, autographed Roy Williams jersey hanging above our booth. Not bad at all. Also, they had a whole ad full of Red Bull drink specials. It was a really cool place, and we're definitely going to have to try out the Sunday night specials with K-- some time.

So, yeah, we burned an hour that way, and I was kinda flying by the time T-- got home from church. We watched an episode of Dead Zone and then it was time for my walk. She was kind enough to offer me the use of her iPod, and I took her up on it. I've got to say, it made a huge difference. I can't believe how fast that walk seemed to go. It actually was faster, too, because I was listening to fast-paced music and walking in time with it. So, very cool.

Anyway, I'm going to go to bed now, and with any luck I'll fall asleep right away. I certainly need it.

(239.1)

Test, test

This is just a test.

Journal Entry

Tuesday, July 24th
I've said it before and I'll say it again: if I had an ounce of self control, I'd be the perfect man.

Ugh. So, no, I didn't walk last night and I didn't post to Xanga, either. I did have a really fun evening, though.

Yesterday, as the blog post shows, I finished up the backstory for King Jason's War (B28 and B29, the latter of which is the love story post). That still left eleven one-page vignettes to write, but I was able to get half of those done, too. So, in spite of a pretty unpleasant set of work projects (a couple of which were new, so I'll be complaining about them for a while yet), I had a pretty good day at work.

I also went and picked up T--'s birthday present while I was out -- an iPod. She's been wanting an mp3 player for ages now, and by all accounts the iPod is the best one out there, so there ya go. Only the best for my baby. Also (and this did not escape my notice), if she ends up getting bored with it any time soon, there is a commutative property that works out to "only the best for me," and I've got no complaints about that.

Anyway, I'd convinced D-- to watch AB for us so I could take T-- out to a birthday dinner. Her parents are coming in this weekend to take us out somewhere nice to eat, so I recommended we pick somewhere nice to drink, while it was just the two of us, and get us some delicious margarita. We settled on Poblanos, which actually served both purposes. Delicious dinner, and a fantastic frozen margarita. Yumm.

Then afterward we went by Hobby Lobby to look at picture frames and check out the sales on scrapbooking stuff (hey, it was her birthday!), and then we called K-- and N-- to see if we could come over and watch Psych, in spite of the late hour. And then we called D-- to see if it was okay for us to stay out a while longer. Oops. Anyway, AB had been good for him up until that point, so he said sure. Sucker!

Psych was a good one, and it was fun seeing K-- and N-- again. After that, we went back home to figure out iTunes and try out the new iPod. And, of course, that led to searching for some new music because the gigs and gigs of it we already have isn't sufficient, and I got caught up in that and forgot to go for a walk or read any Harry Potter.

So, eleven o'clock rolled around and I finished listening to "Okie from Muskogee" or some nonsense, and then I just headed to bed and crashed. Tonight...tonight, maybe I'll go for a walk. Maybe.

(238.8)

The Love Story in King Jason's War: Part Two

Robert brought more than just the horses. He had cold meals wrapped in butcher’s paper, for lunch and supper, and a change of clothes so Jason wouldn’t have to go spend a day in the woods wearing his court apparel. He also had two good hunting bows, and a wicked-looking skinning knife in case they actually shot something. The two of them, out hunting, never had yet.

He also brought Myriam.

Jason hadn’t noticed her at first, as he was working out details of his plans with the captain of his guard, but she stepped out from behind the horse Robert was leading and up onto the marble steps next to Jason, bouncing on her toes to get his attention. He cut off mid-sentence and turned to her.

“Well, good morning, Myriam.”

She smiled. “Good morning to you, Your Highness. Might I have a word with you?”

He tilted his head, curious, then looked back to his guards. “Give us a moment, captain.”

The guards withdrew some way, and kept a space clear around the king and Myriam. Robert glanced their way, a sly smile tugging at his lips, then busied himself checking the horses’ saddles.

Jason ignored them all, his eyes on Myriam’s. “How can I help you?” he said.

“Robert says you’re going away for the afternoon.” She brushed a bit of lint from his shoulder. “I understand you need some time to think, and—” In an instant, her bravery broke, and she looked up at him, eyes wide, “Oh, Jason, how are you doing?” Her voice shook with concern for him.

In spite of himself, Jason’s head half turned, pulled toward the Tower of Justices at the foot of the hill, but he forced his gaze back to hers. “I’m well,” he said. “I’ll be fine. It will take some time, but I’ll be fine.”

She peered into his eyes for a moment, searching for the lie, but finally nodded. “Good,” she said. She leaned her head against his chest. “I wanted to be there with you this morning. You know that, don’t you?”

Jason nodded. “I’m glad you weren’t,” he said. “I don’t think I could have handled it, with you there.” He shuddered. “I wouldn’t have wanted you to see that. It’s a gruesome thing.”

She sighed. “I know.” For a moment, she said nothing. When she spoke again, she sounded like she was buying time. "What did the Council say?"

He answered her anyway, shrugging. “They will make me king if I will give them their war. They said it as plain as that.”

She nodded. “That’s what you expected, too. And now you’re going away with Robert to think it through, to decide?” He nodded. She said, “So you really don’t know your answer?” He shook his head. She said, “I understand.”

He said, “I’m glad of that. Myriam—” She took a deep breath, and he felt her steeling herself for something. She pushed away from him, so that she could meet his eyes again, and cut him off with a finger on his lips.

“Jason,” she said, “will you marry me?” Her eyes were serious.

He laughed, but cut off at the dangerous look in her eyes. He put warm hands on her shoulders, and said, “Myriam, you are not supposed to ask me that.”

“Jason, I love you. I have seen your darkest days, and I loved you through them all. I want to see your brightest days, and love you through those, too. I know what today means to you. I know all the things you are going to be weighing, hundreds of different opinions and thousands of lives hanging in the balance, and I want you to know this. No matter all the weighty issues that depend upon your choice this day, I am not one of them. I want to be your wife, whatever you decide.”

He bent down and kissed her then, and didn’t care who was looking. For a long time, he lost himself in that kiss, and when he finally stopped, he said, “Myriam, I love you.”

She nodded. “I know.”

“You give me strength when I am weak. You give me courage when I’m afraid. You give me hope, when everything around me is failing.” He sighed. “When my heart is aching, I think of your smile to get me through it.”

She laughed at that last. “Jason, you don’t have to say all that. I just wanted you to know—”

“I know,” he said, then he sank down onto his knee before her, in the sight of a thousand of his citizens and all the Council, and he took her hand. “Myriam,” he said, “will you be my queen?”

“Yes,” she said, and tears shone in her eyes. “Yes, yes, yes, King Jason. I’ll be your queen or your farmwife, whatever you would make me. I choose you.”

He rose, and caught her in a tight embrace. She smiled against his chest, curled her fingers in his hair, and said, “You make me proud, Jason. Whatever you decide today, you make me proud.” Then she pushed away from him, and he reluctantly let her go. She met his eyes. “Now go,” she said, “and make your decision. The whole nation waits to hear what it will be.”

He held her gaze for a moment longer, then swung up into his saddle. Robert was already mounted, and side by side they rode down High Street, beneath the shadow of the Tower of Justices and then on through the Summer Gate. Outside the city, on the long highway into Terrailles, they broke into a gallop and let the horses run. The miles rolled by, as the sun made its way into the autumn sky.

Journal Entry

I feel like I've spent the whole day mowing, from sunup to sundown. In truth, it's been a little less than that.

Back to work this morning, and really not as bad as I expected. I had clean, easy work to do today. I had a meeting last week with the engineer, in which we went over a two hundred page document page by page, and marked down every change that needed to be made. That was brutal, but once it was done, the actual change process is fairly simple. I spent the day today working on that.

I also had some time over lunch, and some free time in the afternoon that I spent working on KJW. I typed up B23 and B24 and B25, which I had written over the weekend, and I had to write a thousand words to finish up B25, which is about half. I got most of that done in the morning. Then over lunch I wrote out B26 and B27, and then as I was bragging to T-- and K-- about that at the end of the day (over GMail chat), I got so caught up in it that, instead of going home from work, I wrote B30 (which is the final section of the book).

Now, some of you are math whizzes out there (I'm looking at you, Toby), and you'll have figured out that I skipped B28 and B29 in that paragraph. That's okay. It amounts to twelve pages between them, and I already know what happens (the Council offers their allegiance to Jason if he'll support the war, and then Myriam asks Jason to marry her -- it's complicated). Twelve pages, and I could probably do that in a day, if it's a slow one. If not, it's a small matter to finish it over two, and that still leaves me two more to type up the handful of vignette pages that I need to finish the story out (a smattering between N16 and N29 -- N30 got cut).

So there you go. Most of my day centered around King Jason. That, and an air conditioner modification to our long range radars in high ambient and high corrosion environments. Not around a lawn mower at all.

But I got home from work, intending to do the laundry as a favor to T--, and found she'd already done it. So instead, I spent an hour playing with my computer as a favor to T--, and then headed to Edmond to mow my sister's yard as a favor to my brother-in-law.

Now, let me take a moment to expound on mowing my sister's yard. First, I hate mowing. I really, really hate mowing. Nobody enjoys it, but I hate it, to a very unreasonable degree.

But my little sister lives in Edmond which, for the most part, is filled with nazis. K-- and N-- insist this isn't true, but they do such a good job taking care of their responsibilities without anyone asking, that they'd never have a chance to notice nazis anyway.

Should I capitalize that? Nah, I'm not going to bother. I'm generalizing far beyond the context of the proper noun anyway.

Okay, so, S-- lives across the street from a particularly awful lawn nazi. Really, a complete asshole. I try to avoid language like that on my blog, just because I want my mom and dad to start reading it, but in this case it clearly applies. Also, there's going to be a lot of it in this post.

So, I've already established a little bit about my likes and dislikes. Specifically, I hate mowing, but I hate nazis more. And S--'s asshole neighbor is a nazi. They're both true things about her, I don't know which one causes which, but they're definitely mutually reinforcing.

Anyway, so I get--

Oh! (Yes, I just interrupted myself. Deal with it.) I also really hate talking to people I don't know. It makes me extraordinarily uncomfortable. Even people I know sometimes make me nervous (brothers-in-law for instance, even the ones I like...which, so far, is all of them, amazingly enough... huh, I just realized that).

Buh! Benadryl is making me dopey. Anyway, so I get to S--'s house, and have to do this whole complicated rite to get the necessary doors unlocked and the dogs locked away in their run in the back yard. It's like a puzzle game. I'm Link, out there opening the garage side door so that I can unhook the lock on the back yard gate, but I have to open the dog run gate before the side gate or else the dogs will escape, and then I'll have to chase them down and once I'm carrying a dog under both arms I cannot work the latch on the back yard gate so I have to go through the house or garage, but that requires that I already opened one or both of those doors and left it open....

Seriously, Legend of Zelda stuff here.

Anyway, so I beat the first two levels of that, and then there I am with the lawn mower out on the driveway out front, and who's standing out in their driveway across the street except that very asshole neighbor, chatting away with a bunch of friends. Now, as I understand it, she's supposed to be the sort of nazi who leaves notes, not the sort who talks to you, but since I already think she's an asshole, and I hate having to talk to strangers, I just assume she's going to want to talk to me, so I get this big knot of hate going in my gut.

I force that from my mind, and yank the cord on the lawn mower. It goes guh-guh-guh, real loud, but doesn't start. All six of the people on the neighbor's driveway look at me, and I probably blushed (yeah, I'm that bad). It's really no big deal, though, because you often have to prime a lawnmower, so I gave it another yank, and guh-guh-guh, but it doesn't start. So I look all over for some sort of primer (that's what mine has, a little vaccuum button sort of thing), but there's none. I try again, three or four times, and every time I pull the cord all these strangers look at me and I'm all, "Gah!" in my head but (of course) say nothing out loud, and I'm just praying the stupid thing will start.

I go through that whole process two or three times, and each time I prod or poke some other bit sticking out of the side of the mower engine, until finally one lever ends up working. So the lawnmower pops to life, roaring real loud, and my adoring audience all look over again and I'm half expecting them to burst into applause, but they're not actually as interested in me as I thought they were. Right after that, though, they all split up, leaving only the neighbor's stupid-looking family standing out on the driveway.

So I start mowing...walk walk walk. Right, this is the part I hate under perfectly normal circumstances. And this time the neighbor is watching me, and I'm thinking to myself, "I'm pretty sure that one's the asshole nazi one," and she just watches me cutting back and forth, and it's really getting to me.

Then, as I'm making a turn, she walks across the street, and smiles at me, and says, "It looks nice, huh?"

And I said, "What?" I had to yell over the motor (I think that last little bit I poked was the throttle, and I probably turned it all the way up, and I didn't turn it back down -- so it was loud). She said basically the same thing, and I shrugged and walked on around (which is my way of not talking to people), and when I got back she nodded, still smiling, and said the same thing.

So (see, I'm not good at being openly rude to people who don't get it on the first try), I let the lawnmower die, and I sighed, and I said, "Huh?"

And she said, "It makes a big difference, huh?"

Now I was cutting the grass a lot shorter than it had grown, because J-- keeps his mower set low, so there was a dramatic difference, but it really didn't look that bad to start with. Anyway, I hated this lady before she said the first word, so I wasn't about to agree with her. I shrugged. "It's not that bad." And she looked like she was going to argue, and I spent all day writing about people who talked over someone who looked like they were about to argue, and I guess that got to me because I said, "Y'know, I don't live here. This is my sister's house. I'm just mowing the lawn as a favor because she's got this asshole neighbor who's always bitching about her lawn."

And she just stood there, her mouth open. I don't really talk like that to strangers. (I sometimes use much dirtier words, but only for laugh factor, and only around friends.) And I could tell this lady was highly offended by what I was saying, and I was pretty sure no one had ever chastised her for all the hell she'd given my little sister, so I shook my head and said, "I can't imagine living next to someone like that. I'd go insane. It must be real hell, huh?" Y'know, pretending I didn't think she was the asshole neighbor (and kinda covering my ass in case I had the wrong chick). Then I jerked the cord, because I was ready to be openly rude again, and finished mowing the front yard.

So...apart from finishing two novels in one month, that's about the coolest thing I've done this year.

*Contented sigh*

Now! Back to my list of things I hate! So, we start with mowing, and then move up to nazis, and talking to strangers is somewhere in there too (it's no longer relevant to the story, so I'm not going to labor over its ranking). There's a few other items in the list. Dogs, but that's sort of a low-grade hate, so it goes near the bottom. Now, chasing around the yard after dogs I hate, that's higher up, but still probably not as high as mowing. Stepping in dog poo, though, that's right up there. Probably equal to nazi.

So, dogs, chasing dogs, mowing, nazis, and stepping in dog poo.

You know what's worse than stepping in dog poo? Mowing dog poo. Wait, just in case that image isn't completely clear in your head, I should expound upon it. Not just mowing over dog poo but, because you've got no choice but to follow the mower where it goes, stepping in the greasy puddle left behind.

So, anyway, that for about forty-five minutes, and then I came home and mowed my own yard (which, you'll recall, is something that I hate) just for a not-awful medium in which to get some of the mess cleaned off my shoes.

Hmm...y'know, reading back over it, this blog post really needs some disclaimers at the top of it....

Anyway, mowing my yard took another forty-five, and it bled the last of the sunlight from the sky, and the last of my energy from me, so there's no way I'm going for a walk tonight. I did technically finish earlier than usual, though, so I had time to do an extra long blog post. And I wasted it writing this filth. Can you believe it?

Okay, I'm going to go read Harry Potter now. I'm up to chapter eight. In book one! Can you believe it?

I'm starting to sound like the guy at the end of Hudson Hawk. I'll go before I start tossing out worse expletives than I've used so far.

(240.4)

Journal Entry

Just got home, at ten to eleven. Home safe, though, and it was a fun weekend in Little Rock. The older I get, the more I appreciate my relationship with my parents.

As I said earlier, morning came way too early today. We got to church on time, though, and I got a section of KJW done during the sermon. Then we had Friday's for lunch, and got home just in time for AB to take a nap. We decided to let her sleep her fill, then feed her, and then get on the road. That should've put us out of town by 3:30, but she overslept and T-- didn't feel like waking her.

It was a funny scene in the Pogue house this afternoon, with S-- and T-- and Mom all three reading Harry Potter (and at pretty close to the same rate). Dad spent some time downstairs on the computer, playing WoW and such. I got started on another section of KJW (and got it finished on the drive home, when we stopped for dinner) so that leaves me just five left to write.

Between packing things up and long goodbyes, we finally got on the road at 4:15. I drove, T-- read Harry Potter. We stopped at a Hardee's for dinner, and spent some time there (as I said, I had time to write). Between that and the extra stops for the baby, it was a six and a half hour trip. That is stretching the limits of reason.

Still, as I said, we made it in safe, and the weekend was worth the cost of travel. I hope everyone else had a good one. I am not looking forward to work tomorrow. Then again, when am I ever?

(241.8)

Journal Entry

Saturday, July 21st
Yesterday was a slow and easy sort of day. I woke up around nine, and Mom made me some bacon to go with my breakfast croissant. Then Dad and I played some WoW for a couple hours (I spent most of it fixing Mom's AddOns and getting them updated). I also got to chat with N-- some over GMail. Around one, we met Mom and T-- for lunch at Chili's.

After that, I talked Dad into going to see Live Free or Die Hard, which K-- and N-- insisted was great. So, based on their suggestion, I had to convince Dad that it was great (he had strong doubts). Anyway, I'd spent most of Friday night and Saturday morning working on that, so by the time we finished lunch (and the girls took AB with them to do some shopping), he was about ready to risk it.

When we got to the theatre, though (and he explained to me why there was only one theatre in town worth going to), we learned that we had a little over a two hour wait until the next showing of the movie. Unexpected setback, but we were caught up in a conversation about writing anyway, so I gave him some general advice, and we talked through the plot of a novel he wants to work on, and that burned about an hour.

Then we got tired of standing, so we slipped into an empty theater to sit down, and half an hour later we got to watch the first ten minutes of Transformers (which was enough to convince Dad that he needed to see that movie, too) before we headed over to our actual theater to watch our actual movie.

It was phenomenal. Way too close to the plot of Josh's story in Sleeping Kings, which is always infuriating, but it was such a good job of making another Die Hard that I find it hard to complain. Awesome, awesome flick.

It ended at 7:00, and we came home so Dad could grill up the steaks for a fancy multi-course French dinner that Mom had put together. We had salad and beets, then the steak, then a delicious cheese tray, and then coffee and dessert. It was awesome.

After dinner, around 9:00, my little sister called to say she was nearly halfway here, so Mom and I stayed up reading. She was working on the new Harry Potter book, and I picked up her copy of book one (T-- is reading our copy of book seven, and I've only read through the series once, so I decided to reread while T-- reads the new one). S-- got in right around midnight, and I helped her bring in some bags before going to bed. After that, church came way too early this morning.

Journal Entry

Dateline Little Rock.

We got up way too early this morning, in order to be an hour late getting in to Little Rock. We were anticipating arriving between noon and 1:00, and somehow got in right at 2:00. We grabbed some breakfast on our way out of town (which was pretty much factored into the noon-1:00 schedule), and then stopped at Kinko's to pick up a fax for T--. That didn't take more than a couple minutes. We did have an extra stop or two on our drive, though, and with AB's needs, that's probably what took all the extra time.

Anyway, it's a brutal drive at five hours, and adding another one doesn't make it any better.

When we got in, Mom told us all about their France trip (they just got back from eighteen days in Europe), and then we picked up Dad from work and got some lunch (Arby's), and then came back to the house where Mom pretty much immediately started making dinner.

She was excited about dinner, and for good reason. She made us up a fancy meal inspired by their time in Italy, including some amazing bruschetta (ask anyone, I usually hate it), calzones, and gelatto for dessert. And then some really weird Italian lemon thing for a digestif, but I liked it. At 40% alcohol and amazingly citric bitter, what's not to like?

Then we tried to find a Harry Potter release party worth going to. We tried out a Books-a-Million (I dropped Mom and T-- off, and went to a Kroger to buy diapers), and then tried out Barnes & Noble (I actually had to hang around for that one). It was a lot more fun than the first, but we still decided after about an hour of bustle and noise (with still another hour to go) that it wasn't worth waiting around, when none of us were going to stay up to read the book tonight anyway. Mom's got hers on reserve (and T--, too, though hers is reserved in OKC), so we came home a little after 11:00, and the girls will just go pick the book up tomorrow morning.

I've thought about going out walking. After a day in the car, I really ought to, but I've had a pounding headache all day, and it's late, and I just want to go to bed. I did get another scene of KJW done on the drive, so that puts me up to B24, which I can probably find the time to write tomorrow. If I get one or two more done this weekend, then I could finish the book by writing one scene per day next week (which is a very attainable goal). So, yay.

Journal Entry

Today was a much slower day than I expected, and I turned it into a productive one. I was able to finish three sections of King Jason's War (which leaves only eight more). That's pretty exciting.

Then we got to have dinner with B-- and E--, which is always fun. We ate and talked for a few hours, and I sent them home with copies of my short stories as homework. Hopefully they don't mind.

Then I went for a walk with D-- and we talked story stuff. Now I'm needing to restart my computer so T-- can watch something on the XBox. Sorry for the hurried post, but I'm thinking it's better than nothing.

Journal Entry

Wednesday, July 18th
I spent nearly the entire day at work yesterday filling out paperwork for the contract transition. It was wild. I had set aside yesterday to get that done, but really figured it would take maybe an hour. It took six. And that made for a very long day.

Got home, and our friend Vicki was in town for work and she'd stopped by to hang out with T--. That was pretty cool. It's always fun to see Vicki again. We chatted for a while, then got a call from K-- and decided to go hang out with K-- and N-- for a couple hours. Vicki wanted to spend some more time with AB, so she offered to watch her for us. It was very kind of her.

We picked up some Subway on the way over, and had dinner with K-- and N--, and then watched the first episode of the new season of Psych. That was fun.

Then I dropped T-- back at home, and remembered that K-- needed me to help him pick up his car (and I'd forgotten to do that while we were there), so I went back to his place, and dropped him off at his car. We got to talk some, which was nice. Then I got home and found Vicki still there, which was a pleasant surprise (I'd kinda figured she would leave right when I dropped off T--). So I got to talk with her some more, and to say goodbye before she left.

That ended up being around 10:30, and I had to work this morning, so I skipped my walk last night. I also haven't gotten any writing done for the last couple days. I'm hoping to jump back into it, maybe over the weekend, but we'll be in Little Rock so I'm not sure how successful it'll be.

Tuesday, July 17th
Tuesday really wasn't interesting. Same as Monday, but on Tuesday. I played WoW, and went for a walk.

Oh! T-- experimented with making chicken fried rice using Rice-a-Roni instead of rice, and I think we were both really surprised just how well it turned out. Awesome stuff.

Journal Entry

Feels like old times....

Today, I came home from work, sat down at the computer and logged into WoW, and that was my whole evening. For more than a year, I did that pretty much every weekday. Then I hadn't really played WoW at all for more than three months.

I'm not relapsing. I'm just working a special project, and that ends tomorrow night. Tomorrow night will probably be a lot like tonight was, though. I made some excellent progress tonight.

Then, yes, I did go for my walk. A little early, even, because I need to get to bed early tonight. I've been missing out on sleep lately, and I'm tired of waking up tired. Hopefully this will help.

I did get another six pages of KJW done over lunch. I've only got one segment left before I'm in the final portion of the book (it's divided into three big chunks), and I've already got that last segment laid out, so I should be able to get it done tomorrow during lunch. That would be pretty exciting.

Okay, I'm heading to bed. Later.

Journal Entry

I got six pages written at church. That finishes B19 (the "B" stands for "backstory" and refers to one of 30 6-page segments that take place in the narrative past -- there are also 30 1-page vignettes that take place in the narrative present, and I have all but 6 of those done).

So I guess that's 72 pages that I still need to write.

After church, we were walking out into the parking lot with K-- and N-- and the smell of Johnny's Charcoal Grill was so overwhelmingly tantalizing that we couldn't resist. So I had a delicious theta cheeseburger for lunch, and we shared a meal with good friends.

Then we came home and T-- took a nap while I played some WoW. D-- came over around 3:00, after he finished up at the gym, and then we three went to see Harry Potter while K-- and N-- oh-so-generously watched AB for us. I can't begin to express how grateful I am for that.

So, within the same weekend, we got to see the movie. Not as good as Transformers, but that would really be something of a stretch. Easily the best of the Harry Potter movies so far, though. My favorite book is the third, but this movie blows the third movie right away.

After the movie we had a slice of pizza at a New York-style pizzeria right across from the theater (at D--'s insistence), and that was quite awesome. I pointed out that it would be an awesome place to go while drunk (there's a handful of really cool bars in the neighborhood), and we noted that the restaurant is open until midnight, so that's on the "someday" slate.

Then we picked up AB, and ended up back at home around 10:00. D-- agreed to go for a walk with me, and we spent most of it discussing the writing project. I'm more and more impressed at the depth and detail the world is taking on. I can't wait to get some of the real meat of it on paper. But, then, I'm also really enjoying the little glimpses the short stories give. I've gotten such positive feedback so far, and that just makes it so much easier to keep writing (even if negative feedback is more useful for the material itself).

(239)

Journal Entry

I went to bed fairly late last night (just check the timestamp on my blog post), and woke up at 8:30 this morning to mow the lawn. I should've waited two hours. For one, I was still exhausted. For another, the grass was still wet. It was awful, but I got the job done. My lawn is really starting to look pretty nice, which is surprising considering the (small) amount of work and money I've put into it. I'm going to chalk it up to Social Constructionism (about all I did to make it look better was decide to start making it look better), and get on with my life.

I don't write well at home. I can't remember if I've talked about that before or not, but I really can't do much writing at my home computer. I'm great at scribbling down pages during a boring business meeting, or during an hour at work, waiting for an engineer to get back to me with markup. And my very most productive time is during a 20-minute sermon at church on Sunday morning. I've written more chapters during those little bits of time than everywhere else combined.

When I was in high school, I wrote at home. I was good at it. One night, after watching Empire Records for the first time, I sat up all night finishing a novel I was working on (I mentioned that last night in less than glowing terms). I'm not saying now that it went well, but I put out a hundred pages sitting in the basement typing on my dad's crappy little PC.

I can't do that anymore. There's too many distractions at home. I'm not blaming T-- for it, I just can't lose myself in another world when I'm at home. My world at home is too pressing.

I like to think that if writing were my only job, things would be different. But, then, the idea of renting a cheap office space to go work on my novel for five hours a day isn't altogether unpleasant. It could have a certain charm.

Anyway, I tried to write today. After I mowed and got cleaned up, I sat down at my computer and slid up to the keyboard with the full intention of slapping down two chapters of King Jason's War. But it didn't happen. I didn't write a word. I ended up playing WoW to help my dad level one of his redundant paladins instead. It was frustrating.

T-- had a crop from 1-6, and I'd already made arrangements to spend that time over at K--'s place (N-- went to the crop, too, so I knew he'd be free). We had a lot of Tatoo and Redbull, and played several cheesy little games on his new XBox. Time passed way too quickly. One of the games we were playing, I recommended to him because I'd read somewhere that everytime the reviewer loaded it up, he lost track of time while playing it. I considered that high praise. Also, at this point, having lost track of about six hours at it already, I can definitely confirm his analysis.

So that was fun, but over way too soon. I came home and played some more of my dad's character on WoW, and T-- made us a couple turkey sandwiches, and we watched The Dead Zone. That was our whole evening. At nine she said she was going to go to bed, and I said I was going to go for a walk, and we watched two more episodes before we got around to following through on that. But she did hers, and I did mine, and now the house is all dark and quiet, and I'm quite exhausted.

It was a good day, though. I'm looking forward to tomorrow. Maybe I'll finish six pages of King Jason's War while McElroy talks about one of King David's. It could happen.

(236.8)

Journal Entry

Friday, July 13th
Fridays are always slow days at work. Half the office is out on Regular Day Off on any given Friday, and those who aren't are often on leave. Or comp time, from travel. For whatever reason, there's rarely more than a handful of people in the office, and those who are there don't usually expect too get much work done.

Today was no exception. I still have a long-running project to work on, and I made some real progress on my section today, but the hours seemed to drag by. I had a couple hours comp time of my own, so I spent one of them to leave early, when I just couldn't take it anymore.

It wasn't all bad, though. Over my lunch break I worked on King Jason's War, for the first time in over a year, and I got a significant portion written. I had trouble, though. Every time I went to reference the main character by name, I typed "Josh" out of habit. And when I went back to correct it, "Ja" became "James" before I could finally get around to "Jason." I probably spent as much time hitting backspace as I did actually typing.

It felt good to make progress, though. I have a very rigorous outline for that novel (it was an experiment), and it's easy to finish a piece and see just how much progress I've made toward the end. I've got a dozen pieces left to do, and the book will be done. That's probably two weeks' worth of work, if I worked hard at it, but I'm making no promises.

I did spend my whole walk thinking about that story, though. I worked mostly on the ending (since the beginning and middle are written). There's a devastating development in the last third of the book, and in the story I wrote today I set the stage for that. While I was walking tonight, I figured out how to develop it, how to make that scene build from here to the end of the book, and it ought to be heartbreaking. I've never tried to write heartbreaking, so I don't know if I can do it, but it's in the outline. We'll have to see what happens.

We had big plans for tonight. After work we were supposed to go downtown for dinner at Abuelo's, and then to the biggest movie screen in the state (Cine Capre at the Harkins in Bricktown) to watch Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Dinner was delicious (it always is there), and K-- and N-- joined us for it. Then we went to wait in line for the movie (for over an hour) and B-- and E-- showed up in time to chat with us a little before the movie started, but after that AB had other plans for us.

Really, the movie was just way too loud for her. T-- had thought she would sleep through it, late as the movie was, but we had no such luck. T-- couldn't focus on the movie, and she was fighting AB the whole time, so we ended up walking out an hour in and heading home. It was frustrating, but no big deal in the long run. We got refunds for our tickets (the lady at the counter was very nice about it), and we'll just have to see the movie another time. I hated leaving our friends there, though.

It was 11:30 when we got home, and I've already told you about my walk. I'm going to finish my water now, and then it's off to bed. I have this feeling, this energy like I could finish King Jason's War before dawn, but I've done that once before, on a different novel, and it turned out awful. I'm going to get some sleep, and pace myself.

Journal Entry: Thursday, July 12th

Wow. It's been a long day, and I've got an early morning tomorrow.

We were supposed to have a big goodbye lunch for our departing Branch Manager today, at Steak and Ale. I can't really justify a steak lunch these days, financially, but I was looking forward to giving in to social pressure. Unfortunately, the guest of honor got stuck in an airport last night, so the lunch was postponed until some other convenient time. So I had mediocre Arby's and wished it was a sirloin.

That was really the day's only disappointment, though. I did have an abominably boring meeting this morning concerning the contract transition, but I'd brought a pad and pen with me, so I spent the whole two hours working on a short story. Then I spent lunch working on it, too. Then, at the end of the day, I came home and worked on it while T-- made dinner.

Then I went to Transformers with D-- and K--. We invited B--, but he couldn't come. Work demands, or something lame like that. When the movie ended, I turned to the other two and said, "I think that was the best movie I've ever seen."

So there you have my review. I don't need to go into a lot of details. They talked me down from that analysis, but at the very least I'll finally be forced to divide "best movie ever" into categories by genre, now, and this one definitely wins "action/adventure." It does what an adventure movie is supposed to do. Fun. Awesome.

I'd heard that it was not a disappointment, from the type of people who expected to be really disappointed by it. So I went in without that expectation. I went in expecting it to be good. I did not expect it to be flippin' fantastic! But it was. Good movie. Go see it. I'll be glad to come along.

Anyway, that was from 8:00 to 10:45, and then as D-- was dropping me off at the house, he asked if I was planning to go for a walk. In all honesty, I wasn't, but I had the right shoes on so I said yes. He and I went the full route, and I spent most of the time thinking about the short story I'd started in today's meeting.

And then I got home from the walk, and finished it. It was a terrible idea. I should have gone to bed. I really should not be up this late. But it was so strong on my mind, there's no way I could have fallen to sleep. And now it's done, and I've got my favorite story so far. It does so many things, for the larger story, and yet I think it's also compelling on its own. Maybe not in its current form -- it's just the rough draft -- but I think it has the potential to be awesome.

That's three stories in two days. That's a pretty big deal. I'm excited. I'm also wondering if I'll write another one before the weekend's done. I would like to, but I've got kind of a lot of recreational activities planned. We'll just have to see what happens.

(237.6)

Journal Entry: July 11, 2007

Today was a strangely productive day.

I've talked several times about my various writing projects. I don't know if I did so publicly, but I mostly decided to go ahead with the idea of writing several short stories to get into the swing of the collaborative novel I'm going to be working on. To that end, I spent most of the last week working on ideas and even text for a short story about one of "my" characters.

Today, over lunch, I typed up what I had written and then just kept typing, filling in the rest. By the end of lunch, I had a 6,000-word short story written. That's pretty exciting.

Then I had a quiet rest of the afternoon at work. I left early, to pick up AB from E--'s place, because E-- had to go see the doctor (she was at E--'s because T-- spent the day in Tulsa for work). After I picked up AB, I went home and put her in her bed, and then sat down at the computer.

I didn't really feel like playing Civ or WoW. Finally, I decided to take a stab at some of the ideas D-- and I had discussed on our walk last night, for another short story. Apart from that walk, I hadn't put any thought into the story.

Around five, I got invited over to K-- and N--'s for some dinner and some XBox 360. Of course I went, leaving my story with about a page written. When AB got really fussy around 7:00, I brought her home for a nap, and spent the rest of the evening working on that same story. Before I left for my walk, it was done.

So, yeah, I wrote two short stories today. That's kind of a big deal, I think. D-- read them both, too, and he really liked them. So I consider that a major victory.

I did go for a walk, and then came home to find D-- waiting on GMail chat. We discussed the stories, and I made a few quick changes that I'd thought of during my walk. Now I'm going to go to bed, but I'm heading that way in really good spirits. I'll have to discuss it with D--, but I may be able to share those stories with you soon. If you have my email address and you'd like a copy, I can certainly provide it that way (or hard copy, if you ask nicely). Just let me know.

(239.2)

Journal Entry: July 10, 2007

I left one thing out of Saturday's account: by the time I was done working in the yard Saturday, I had over 70 fresh mosquito bites. I counted them as I treated them. It was bad.

Sunday, July 8th
On Sunday, I had a headache. The crippling sort, that rather stops you doing anything else. The sort that interrupts your thinking. As a result, T-- and I didn't do much on Sunday. We went to church, and stayed for the fellowship with K-- and N-- and N--'s mom (who went home on Sunday). After that, we stopped by B-- and E--'s to get some speaker wire so I could finish up the work K-- and I had done on Saturday. We also hit Blockbuster while we were out and picked up three movies: Breach, which was surprisingly good, but pretty slow, as well as Happily N'Ever After from the makers of Shrek, and Gray Matters which has Heather Graham in it. So far, we've only watched Breach.

Anyway, we got home and T-- ran some errands while I watched AB. Then her friend Rebecca came over to crop. While they did that, I finished fixing the TV, and then vegged on the couch all afternoon. I played some Civ, but not much. Mostly I sat still with my eyes closed, because of the headache.

Then that evening was when we watched Breach. It ended at 9:45. I usually go for a walk at 9:00 so I can be in bed by 10:00, since I have to wake up at 6:00 on weekdays. It was late enough, and I felt awful enough, that I decided to skip my walk Sunday night. I didn't post on my blog here, either, so that's two resolutions broken Sunday.

Monday, July 9th
And both again on Monday. Really, my headache persisted through the day Monday. T-- got a lot done during the day, while I was at work. I, on the other hand, accomplished almost nothing at work, and then almost nothing when I got home. I'm pretty sure I have nothing to report for yesterday, except that I didn't walk, and I didn't do a blog post.

Tuesday, July 10th
This morning, I finally felt better. I had to wake up early, too, to finish an urgent project for work that I should have completed yesterday, except for the headache. That was also part of my excuse for not walking last night -- the importance of my being on time to work today. Anyway, I showed up early and worked hard, and finished a special project well before lunch. It ended up...creeping, so that the same project ended up taking my whole day, but I'd finished the part I was assigned by early in the morning.

I went to lunch with D-- and got to check out his new iPhone, which is really pretty cool. Then back to work and I spent the rest of the afternoon working on this project (which has nothing to do with my long-term responsibilities). It's the sort of project that has lots of little gaps throughout the day as I hand it off to other people to collaborate, so during those breaks I worked on Josh's story.

First I wrote up the Post Mortem discussion I'd been toying with since last week. Then I pulled out my Word document of the novel and cleaned up all the section breaks between blog posts, to make it look like an actual novel in structure. I thought that would be a week-long process, but I was able to finish it all this afternoon, which means my brief rewrite in the month of July is a lot more likely to actually make deadline.

Then I came home in time to watch T-- give away one of our kittens. That's a big deal. We've been advertising them for a while now without any takers. Now we just have two more to get rid of (and one to keep). We owe this one to Craigslist. Glad we thought to post there.

I also made chili for dinner, and helped T-- out by doing the day's dishes and taking out the trash. After that, I went for a walk with D-- (so, yes, I'm back on track), and then came home to write a blog post (so there's that, too). Overall, it was a really good day.

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Journal Entry: July 8, 2007

Saturday, July 7th
Today was a long day.

First, in spite of my insistence that I should go to bed instead of writing last night, I did stay up late. I didn't write, though. I was up until nearly 3:00 finishing this week's Civ game. It was a monumental victory, but probably not worth the late hour.

I'm not sure exactly when I got up this morning. It was between eight and nine. I spent a couple hours working on our finances, plotting out a general budget through December, and then I watched AB for a couple hours while T-- went to try to find someone interested in a free kitten. She found no one.

When she got back, we discussed what we should do about the kittens, and I ended up finally checking out Craigslist. I'd heard and read a lot about it, but I hadn't actually visited before. We placed an add for the kittens on there for free (the cheapest ad in the Daily Oklahoman is $60). We're going to see what kind of results we get before spending money on it.

Speaking of which...is anyone interested in a free kitten? They're adorable and friendly, and litter box trained. What more could you want? Eh?

Around noon K-- showed up to help me with a couple projects I'd been waiting on for a while. We were going to put a faceplate in the wall for my rear speakers (they're already wired through the attic, but the wires were just hanging out of a hole in the wall), and then T-- also wanted me to hang an outdoor swing for AB. The best tree for that required a much taller ladder than I have, thus the need for K--'s help.

Also, he's got this wood saw he's been bragging about for three weeks, so I asked me to bring that along to clear some of the deadwood out of our big tree out back while he was up on the ladder.

Everything but the swing ended up being a lot more work than it sounded like it should have been, based on the descriptions I just gave.

We had some...difficulties installing the faceplate for the speakers. For a while, I thought I was going to have to call an electrician, or possibly spend a whole Saturday working up in the attic to fix the problem. In the end (for very odd reasons), it ended up being a lot less painful than that, but what should have been a 10-minute job ended up taking over an hour as we tracked down and resolved that extra problem.

Then we went out back. I have tons of overgrowth among the various trees and bushes in the backyard. While K-- started climbing his way-too-tall ladder like a little monkey (meaning "without fear"), I stayed on the ground and worked on the yard. He started on the deadwood, to get that cleared out before we hung the swing. While he was sawing away, I got out the power hedge trimmers and set to work on the mess along out back fence.

Then he took a break, and I took up the saw to cut some trunks too thick for the hedge trimmers. I fell in love.

Okay, that's a little over dramatic, but it was an amazing wood saw. It cut through live wood like nothing. We piled up all the limbs and trees (I cut down whole trees along the back of our house, to keep their roots from damaging the foundation) in a big bunch on a muddy, grassless area in my back yard, to wait for Big Trash Day (now a month away). That pile came out about five feet tall, twelve feed wide, and six feet deep. That should give you an idea how much work we did.

The difference was amazing. It opened up the yard a lot, and it's going to make ongoing maintenance a lot easier. It also gave us a clean, clear place to hang the swing, which K-- did really quickly and easily. AB's already taken a ride in it, and she seemed to have a pretty good time. There'll probably be pictures on T--'s blog any day now.

After that, our friend Julie and her man came over for the evening. We had chicken soft tacos and played Wii. They'd never played before, so we got to show off all the Wii Sports games, and then Carlos asked me to show him Zelda. Between us (after a couple hours of trying) we figured out how to catch a fish, and progressed through the puzzles pretty quickly from there. It was so funny seeing how much fun he had using the remote like a sword to control the character's sword fighting. That really was pretty cool.

And that stretched on, even after T-- went to bed, we were still playing Zelda. Fun stuff. Around 11:30 they decided to call it a night, and I reluctantly convinced myself to go for a walk (even after all that work this afternoon!). I'm home now, and my water's gone, and I've got church in the morning. No Civ 4 this time, really. No writing, either. I'm off to bed.

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Journal Entry: July 6, 2007

Just back from my walk. It was invigorating.

Today was slow, and mostly uneventful. We had a meeting at work, and I'm relinquishing some of the authority I'd been given last fall (with no pay to supplement it), so that I can resume control of the IETM project that had been canceled in the spring.

Things are in flux, it is safe to say.

When I got home from work, I spent some time playing with AB. T-- made some delicious spaghetti for dinner, then I played some Civ (I'm close to a win, on the game I started Tuesday) while she started watching The Dead Zone. I've got the first four episodes, and over the course of the night she's watched three of them.

At nine she reminded me to go for a walk. I spent the whole time working on a short story for my project with D--. I'm having some trouble with it (as I knew I would), but at the very least I have a pair of scenes that I think are pretty involving. I'm just not convinced that, between them, they make up a whole story. I certainly have a beginning and middle, but I'm not sure about an end.

We'll see what happens when I get into it. I'm tempted to start on it now, but I'd be up for hours. I've had enough late nights this week. Besides, sitting on a story for a little while is always more likely to help it than hurt. I think I'll head to bed.

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Journal Entry: July 5, 2007

Tuesday, July 3
On Tuesday, I finished my second novel. I wrote the epilogue to Josh's story, the first volume in the Sleeping Kings trilogy. Nobody needed that amount of detail (if you're reading this blog, that event was nothing like a surprise), but it's a dramatic enough thing for me that I wanted to spell it out.

Really, the rest of the day is just a blur. On Tuesday, I finished my second novel!

Work sucked. It was a bad day. Shouldn't have been -- a lot of people were gone because of the holiday (turning a day off into a five day weekend, through clever use of leave), and I usually really enjoy days like that (I never have enough leave saved up). There was just a lot of unpleasant work to do on Tuesday, though, and I wanted to be elsewhere.

I did get off work an hour early, and then for the evening K-- and N-- came over, and N--'s mom, who is in town visiting, and we watched the Season Finale of Stargate Atlantis and the Series Finale of Stargate SG-1. That was kind of a big deal, too. We've all been watching SG-1 for years now, and it's easily the best long-running sci-fi TV show I've ever seen. Watching it with K-- and N-- was a lot of fun.

Oh, and I had three 7-and-7s, because they were there.

They stayed kind of late, but since I didn't have to work the next morning, I didn't really have any excuse to skip my evening walk, so around 9:45 I headed out. When I got home, I found T-- chatting with D-- (he'd tried to reach me on my cell phone, but I hadn't taken it with me). I checked in to see why he was trying to reach me, and he wanted to go see Live Free or Die Hard. There was an 11:20 showing.

I knew better than to take him up on that offer. But I did anyway. I called K-- and B-- both (it was nearly 11:00 at that point) to see if either of them wanted to join us, but they were wiser men than I. D-- picked me up, and we went to the mall.

I guess because it was the night before the holiday, they were closing showings (probably based on the sales during the day). So when we got to the ticket booth there were no showings of Die Hard, but there was an 11:20 of Transformers. I pointed out that I would get in a lot of trouble for going to see Transformers first, without... well, really, anyone whose initials I use on this blog. So we agreed not to tell anybody, and asked for two tickets.

And, would you believe it, they were sold out. So we decided to go to Hudsons for a few drinks. But when we got there, it turned out it was karaoke night. Loud karaoke night. Bad karaoke night. And the place was packed. We finally found a couple seats, waited ten minutes without hearing from the waitress, and then left without placing an order.

From there, we went to Fox and Hound Pub, and it was a much more pleasant environment. I had nachos and a Jack and Coke and Long Island Iced Tea (and around the first sip of the Tea, I was thinking, "Man, I shouldn't feel this tipsy..." and then I remembered the tree 7-and-7s from earlier and said, "Ohhhh..."). We talked for a couple hours. Good times. I finally got to bed around 2:30.

Wednesday, July 4
At 3:00, 4:00, and 5:00 in the morning, AB woke up (and made sure we knew about it). T--, generous, loving wife that she is, handled it. Still, it was not a lot of sleep even for me. I ended up getting up for real around 7:00, because she needed me to take care of some stuff around the house before our guests came over. Meanwhile, she went to a parade up in Edmond with N-- et al.

Wednesday was N--'s birthday, and it being the 4th, that always means some pretty dedicated celebration. This year was no exception. I spent a significant portion of the morning at Wal-Mart, buying needed goods, and then came home just as D-- showed up with the meat for a cookout. I started the chicken marinading, made up two batches of salsa (Mild, which I was told by experts was still too spicy, and Extra Super Hot, which K-- said was, "actually hot this time," meaning it was probably pretty close to Extra Super Hot).

On a whim, I mowed the back yard real fast, realizing we'd be cooking out on the back porch, and possibly playing K--'s yard game (backyard bolo, or golf horseshoes, or whatever you want to call it), so short grass would help. It's not a terribly big back yard, but it had gotten hot, so I was already at a simmer by the time guests started arriving. I took a Benadryl, too, because of the mowing.

Guests started showing up around 1:00. K-- and N-- with her mom, my little sister with her whole family, B-- and E--, D-- was there...all told, we had 13 people in our house, not counting the zygotes. Considering that, the whole afternoon went amazingly well.

We grilled burgers and chicken and brats, and a selection of vegetables N-- had brought, and everyone said it was all delicious. We had two extravagant desserts, by way of birthday cake, and some delicious ice cream by way of Blue Bell. We invested a significant portion of the afternoon in eating, and of course there was chitchat throughout that, and as people started falling asleep standing up, we realized it was about time to split up. My sister's family left to get the kids some rest, and B-- and E-- left to get themselves some rest, and those of us who stayed mostly crashed out on couches. We turned on the Wii and showed N--'s mom how to bowl, and wasted a couple hours that way.

Then, around evening-time, we headed out to Bethany for a big Independence Day carnival they were throwing, with the expectation (of course) of fireworks at the end of the evening. This year, for reasons having to do with the penultimate scenes in Sleeping Kings, I was looking forward to the fireworks more than at any point in the last two decades. We picked a good show, too, and I was not disappointed.

Before that, though, we had to find parking. They'd set aside a big field for parking, but when we got there we learned it had been closed off because of all the recent rains (and the risk of getting stuck in the mud as a result). So, instead of a parking spot within sight of the Live Music stand, we had to find a place somewhere in town. And everywhere within a couple miles was off-limits, as clearly indicated by the "Road Closed" and "Towaway Zone" signs posted everywhere.

It turns out, though, that by simply ignoring those signs and slipping down a street we weren't legally allowed to be on at all, it became quite simple to find a really fantastic parking spot. So that solved that problem.

Then there were the long hours waiting for the fireworks to begin. We walked around the carnival, but couldn't convince ourselves to spend money on any of the mediocre attractions there. We did buy some of the mediocre fried foods, and delighted in it the way one does in such a scenario, but that quickly passed. Oh! I tried out a 1920's door-to-door salesman voice that worked out pretty well, so that was something accomplished.

S--'s family showed up about an hour after we got there (so 7:30-ish, but that's just a guess) and B-- and E-- showed up shortly before the fireworks (so, two hours later). Figuring out landmarks to meet up with B-- was an adventure in itself, but we managed to rendez-vous behind the port-a-potties, and all was well.

The fireworks show was spectacular.

We got home around 11:00. D-- had stayed at our house all evening watching AB for us (he's not a big fan of fireworks). I invited him to go for a walk with me, so we did the usual route and talked of life and things. It was fun. Afterward, he went home, and I got to bed around 12:30.

Thursday, July 5th
Today, significantly less happened. Oh! I mentioned earlier that I never have leave saved up to supplement a holiday, but I do get a regular day off every pay period. I was able to move mine for this week (that should have been Friday) back a day, so I could recover from the merriment of Wednesday.

To take full advantage of that (and much in need of it), I'd vowed to sleep until noon. Instead, I ended up getting up around 8:30 so I could watch AB while T-- went to the chiropractor. I played Civ 4 all morning, and had a couple leftover burgers for lunch. At 1:00 we headed over to K-- and N--'s place, because N--'s mom had invited T-- to go see a movie with them ("them" being the girls -- it wasn't the sort of movie that guys go to). I took AB with me and hung out at K--'s place for the afternoon.

We downloaded a game from XBox Live Arcade called "Band of Bugs." I'd heard favorable discussion of it in a Penny Arcade newspost, so we decided to try it out. It's a surprisingly fun game. It's a combat strategy game, that simple to play but has a surprising level of complexity to it. Could be a lot of fun. We had just started trying the multiplayer out when the girls got back, and T-- and I came home.

I spent most of the evening playing Civ. D-- came over to pick up his iPhone, which he'd had delivered here, and he hung out all evening getting it set up. T-- and I watched some TV, and had a frozen pizza, and...I dunno. She probably did a lot of work. I just played my game.

At 8:45, I did the dishes so T-- wouldn't have to (after yesterday's party, some had piled up). Then, a little after 9:00, I decided to go ahead and go for a walk. I'm glad I did. At this point, I've only missed once. I want to see how long I can keep that up. I spent most of the walk working on an Afterword for Josh's story, which I hope to get typed up and posted tomorrow, but will do sometime in the next week. Just to let people know where the story stands, really, and that it'll be a while before I start posting Sarah's story.

And then I came home, and typed up a ridiculously long blog post. That was my holiday weekend, in the middle of the week. Now I've got a Friday that'll probably be pretty quiet, and then another weekend that I actually get to spend at home. I'm excited about that.

I'm going to bed. Later.

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Journal Entry: July 2, 2007

Biggest news of the day: I finished Josh's story. I won't post the last three pages until tomorrow morning, because that's what my schedule says to do, but it's done.

The book isn't quite finished there. I've got an epilogue -- a single scene that ties up the book, and reframes the whole story you just finished reading (if it works, anyway). I plan to post that on July 4th. So, the real end is very much in sight. Josh's tied up the way I wanted it to, too, but I'm not sure if it reads the way I want it to. I'll require extensive reader feedback to figure that out.

When I got home from work today, I learned AB still isn't gaining weight as fast as the doctors want her to. That's pretty frustrating, mainly because the solutions involve making T--'s life a lot less convenient. And there's already a person in this family filling that role. There's no room for AB to help out with that!

I also discovered that my computer was off (we had a power flicker during the day), and when I tried to reboot it, it did something really wonky. I got that fixed, though, by swapping the jumpers on the hard drive and DVD drive. They'd been giving the BIOS problems anyway, and K-- suggested making that switch a month ago. It solved the problem.

Then I did some more yard work, because we're hoping to have people over for a cookout on the 4th. The bugs have been terrible, so I did another (different) treatment, to hopefully get that under control before Wednesday.

After that, the evening was already well on its way to 7:00. We watched a little TV, had some pizza, and I played Civ. Then I went for a walk, and thought through the dialogue for the closing scene of Sleeping Kings (and a little of the rewrite of the intro). That went pretty well. I'm looking forward to writing it.

For now, though, I've got to get to bed.

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Journal Entry: July 1, 2007

Seething with fury. I'd already typed up through Saturday night when my Firefox did something weird, and I lost it all. Grrrr!

Friday, June 29th
Our friend Julie is in town housesitting for some family for a couple weeks, so she stopped by Friday night after work to drop off some bead jewelry for T--, and visit with us some. Once she'd had her fill of AB, she went to hang out with T-- who was at the church for a crop.

Around 7:30 B-- and E-- came over, and E-- was so generous as to offer to watch AB while B-- and I ran out for supplies. We hit Byron's Liquor Warehouse where I got some Seagram's 7, because B-- had never had a 7 and 7. He'd also never had a Tattoo and Redbull, so I suggested we go by a grocery store and pick up some Coke and Redbull for that. It didn't occur to me, somehow, that I also needed 7-Up. So B-- had his first Tattoo and Redbull Friday night (and his second, and his third), and we both had our first Seagram's 7 on the rocks. It was pretty good....

We also picked up some magnificent barbecue while we were out. When we got back, we ate, and drank, and talked. We also turned on an episode of Firefly, but twenty minutes in we paused it because AB was fussing, or something on that order, and never ended up unpausing it. We talked much of days gone by. It was really fun.

Around 11:30, they headed home. I kept telling myself as soon as T-- got home, I'd go for my walk. She got home, and I didn't. Six days in, and already I've failed my goal to walk daily. I stayed up until midnight, posted Saturday's Sleeping Kings story (so it'd show up on the right date), and then went to bed.

Saturday, June 30th
Saturday, I didn't write at all. Instead, I slept in, to a dramatic degree. I finally got up and around sometime around 11:00, and discovered that it hadn't rained at all yet today. So I went out and mowed, as I'm sure 90% of the homeowners in town did that morning. I also sprayed the foundation of the house for bugs, and moved several piles of branches out to the curb for big trash day.

In the afternoon, T-- and I ran up to Old Navy so I could finally get the new shorts I've been yacking about all week. I got a pair of jean shorts and a pair of workout shorts, both of which are extraordinarily comfortable. I'm very satisfied.

Then in the evening, Julie came by again. We visited some, and after she mentioned she was a huge fan of the Deschanel sisters (and explained who they were), we ended up watching Big Trouble, which she had never seen before. That's always a fun one. Then we watched Happy Texas, which is on the same disc, and also she'd never seen before.

Shortly after that, she headed home. I stayed up to play some Civ, and then around 11:30 realized I hadn't gone for a walk yet. T-- argued that my yard work should count, but since I'd skipped the night before, I felt bad. So I went, full route, as fast as I could, and felt a lot better about myself. When I got home, I crashed.

Sunday, July 1st
And this morning, I felt awful. Between the work and the workout, I was sore all over by the time I woke up. Worth it, though. One week in, I weighed myself this morning and I've lost eight pounds in the first week. It tends to go like that, though. The first ten fall right off, and then nothing for a month. I'm not looking forward to that.

We went to church, and then came home and I wrote up today's Sleeping Kings post. Only three more to the end of the story! I'm really excited about that. I guess I've said that every day this week, haven't I? Forgive me. It's a big deal for me.

This afternoon was a little bit lazy. We watched some Andy Richter Controls the Universe, which was a fantastic show, back when it was on. We also watched She's the Man, a rough take-off of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night in the same vein as 10 Things I Hate about You. It's not as good as that one, but not as bad as it could be. It burned a couple hours for us, is what I'm getting at.

Then I spread some weed-n-feed on my yard, and then D-- went with us to Friday's where we met K-- and N-- and N--'s mom for dinner. It was a really fun evening. I don't think I remember a time a group like that has been that talkative. For pretty much the whole time we were there we had at least two conversations going simultaneously.

And, of course, the food was delicious. T-- and I split the Jack Daniels Tower (ribs, chicken, and shrimp), and I had a Redbull Berry Blast Slush to drink. It was interesting.

Came home, then D-- and I went for a walk, and spent the hour talking. After that, he went home, and I came here, to type this up. And Firefox lost half of my submission and I had to retype it, and you can bet your ass I'm still grouchy about that. But now I'm going to feed the kittens, and then I'm going to bed.

Hope you had a good weekend. This next week should be interesting, given the mid-week holiday. I'll keep you posted.

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