Stubborn Leaves
by Lynn Daniels on Wednesday, December 3, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Today is a special day in my household; it’s my SoundGuy’s birthday. He’s– well, let’s just say he’s a lot older than me. Centuries. Eons. No big plans, though. I’ll pick up a cake at the grocery store and I picked up a gift for him. His birthday is tough with gifts, as so much of our money is going toward Christmas.
Kind of like how my birthday is tough because it’s right before Valentine’s Day. I think he got the shorter end of the stick, though.
I’m taking a few days off of writing to do some crafts. LittleDude’s teacher has a baby due soon, and I’ve got to get her gift finished so LittleDude can take it to school with him on Friday, her last day before maternity leave. I’m also trying to make a bunch of ornaments for the upstairs Christmas tree. This will be our first year with an upstairs Christmas tree, and I thought it’d be cool to have one with all homemade ornaments. I don’t know if I’ll get enough made before Christmas, though, so that upstairs tree might be pretty naked.
Maybe we’ll just dub it Naked Tree.
Oh, and it’s December! Do you know what that means? It’s time to check in with Huey, Dewey, & Louie in my front yard. If you need a refresher on last month’s look (for comparison purposes, of course), you can find that post here.
Now, for December’s pictures. What a difference a month makes! I just went out and took these about an hour ago, so they’re extremely up to date.
Here’s the first picture. As you can see, the leaves have most definitely changed color. You may also notice that many of them are still clinging to the tree. The bane of SoundGuy’s winters.
Picture #2. SoundGuy actually foiled my plans this year. The leaves you see strewn across the yard are those that have fallen after SoundGuy’s gone out twice during the last month and cleaned them up! While many of the leaves are from our trees, we’ve also got a forest across the street that deposits beaucoup leaves in our yard.
And finally:
I realized that I had managed to decapitate the trees in the first two photos. That’s what I get for being a smart ass and running outside in my t-shirt (it’ll only take me a couple seconds!) to get the shots. In 46 degree weather. I’m lucky I was able to hold the camera steady. Seriously. So anyway, here’s Huey with most of his head intact to show how many leaves he’s still holding on to.
And now I leave you. I’ve got to get crackin’ on that baby blanket! Have a great day!
How Was I to Know
by Lynn Daniels on Monday, December 1, 2008 at 7:41 am
I suppose I should add a disclaimer: not my child
NaNoWriMo 2008 is over. I didn’t realize there would be such a letdown once the NaNo site officially said “NaNoWriMo 2008 is over“. I was riding such a high last night after finishing, reality hadn’t hit me. But this morning…
SLAM!
Suddenly, I’m faced with a big question. What do I do now?
During NaNo, because I’d loafed so much in the beginning, it came down to the wire. I found myself with very little time left and lots of words yet to go. Naturally, I buckled down and spent every available minute writing. Yes, I discovered that hard deadlines work very well for me.
I’ll ask again. What do I do now?
No hard deadlines. Other than my own desire and pride, no real reason to finish Chester and Rube (I absolutely will, though). I’ve got time — not much, but there is some — and no need to fill it all with writing.
Knits 1200 stitches a minute!
Okay, I’ll come clean. Part of me was looking forward to the end of NaNo. I wanted time for my other pursuits, too. Like crochet. I want to start crocheting ornaments for a small Christmas tree I’ve decided to put upstairs.
And knitting. My Ultimate Sweater Machine (my second one — SoundGuy can’t figure out what he did with my first one) arrived early last week, and I’m dying to put some yarn on that baby and make something. I just have to figure out what to make.
But with all the yarncraft I plan to do (and I plan to do a lot), I still want to write. I want to finish Chester and Rube. I want to finish Emma’s yet unnamed story (and decide if her name is going to be changed to Desiree). After having so much fun writing Chester and Rube I’d like to try my hand at another similar-type story. Just for fun.
And since I work better with a deadline, I learned of a site through the NaNoWriMo forums that does NaNo-type challenges all year called Dream Writers. I signed up. I’m not sure yet if I’ll use it, but it could just be the kick I need. Or it might kill NaNoWriMo 2009 for me. We’ll see.
Despite the initial Oh, no. NaNoWriMo is over letdown, it’s starting to look to me like I won’t have trouble finding things to fill my time. How about you?
Happy Butt Wiggles All Around
by Lynn Daniels on Sunday, November 30, 2008 at 9:24 pm
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I DID IT! I DID IT! I DID IT! I crossed the 50,000 word threshold just moments ago, and am now a NaNoWriMo winner! The sense of accomplishment I’m feeling at this moment is almost comical, considering the story I’m writing is not one I ever intend to submit for publication. I chose this story because I thought it would be fun, because I felt I could let my imagination run wild with it, and because I thought it would be the ticket to making writing fun for me again.
It was all those things. And now I’m a National Novel Writing Month winner!
GO ME!
Thank you, Chester the duck with the smart blue felt fedora and Rube the giant purple dinosaur, for being so willing to put up with all the crazy things I’ve thrown at you. And I promise you that even though we reached our word count goal, I will see this story through to the end and I will make sure you foil the nefarious plans of the evil Centipig and his army of pigapede minions.
Thank you.
P.S. In case you’re curious, the song playing in my headphones when the You Won! NaNoWriMo image came up was “Let Me Let You Go” by Pride of Lions.
No Saturday Shot
by Lynn Daniels on Saturday, November 29, 2008 at 10:45 pm
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Sorry, there won’t be a Saturday Shot this week. I’ve realized that if I write my little butt off, I can actually finish NaNoWriMo! At this very second, I’m at 42,753 words. Just over 7,000 words away from calling myself a winner. I’m hoping to get another 2,000 words in tonight. If I can do that, despite having to take my mother to the airport tomorrow, I’m fairly confident I could get the last 5,000 words in before midnight and call myself a NaNoWriMo winner. 
Please keep your fingers crossed for me. I’ll return to regular posts on Monday.
Or tomorrow, if I finish my 50,000 words early enough. 
Eat, Drink, & Be Merry
by Lynn Daniels on Thursday, November 27, 2008 at 9:26 am
Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends!
And to those of you who don’t celebrate Turkey Day, happy Thursday!
WordPress Upgrade
by Lynn Daniels on Wednesday, November 26, 2008 at 3:46 pm
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I’ve just upgraded WordPress to the latest release, version 2.6.5, across my entire website. Please let me know if you come across anything that’s not displaying properly.
Thanks!
Candygram My Big Purple Foot
by Lynn Daniels on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 at 12:50 pm
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NaNoWriMo Day 25
It’s not looking good for me. Five days left, and I’m not even halfway done. And with my mother in town, my writing time during the day (also known as my alone time) has been drastically cut. But I never say never, and I’m still plugging away. Keep your fingers crossed for me, would you?
In the meantime, Chester and Rube were caught in a tornado but managed to find shelter with a number of other animals in a cave. And I don’t know why I did it, but one of the creatures in that cave turned out to be a landshark, although it’s never actually said.
Very slowly, a figure began to emerge from the dark recesses of the cave. An odd sort of creature, the likes of which Rube had never seen before. His eyes were flat and black and on the sides of his head. His mouth huge, teeth pointed and sharp. His body was long, ending at the point of his nose.
Rube leaned forward. He grabbed Chelsey from the top of his head and put her back on the floor. Setting his jaw, he stepped toward the strange creature. “What are you?” he asked.
“Plumber, ma’am,” the strange creature replied.
“I’m not a ma’am,” Rube said. “And you don’t much look like a plumber.”
“Candygram,” said the strange creature.
“Candygram my big purple foot,” Rube said, his voice hardening with frustration. “Now, what are you?”
“I’m only a dolphin,” the creature said. His head was turned, and he kept one flat black eye fixed on Rube.
Rube the dinosaur was going to contradict yet another answer he was sure was a lie, but the sound of the wind outside the cave stopped him. It howled. It roared. It sounded like it was going to try and tear the cave apart.
I love that I can do strange things with this story and it doesn’t matter.
Now I’m going to see if I can’t sneak in some more writing time and get those loveable critters to the Land of the Larrys.
This Time Chester is Giant
by Lynn Daniels on Monday, November 24, 2008 at 7:11 am
This is so cool! I’ve played with word cloud creators before, but not one the creates in color. Created at Wordle using Chester and Rube as it sits right now:
click to enlarge, opens in a new window
Playtime is over. Back to work.
11:54am ETA: What would talking animals call a tornado if they didn’t know the word tornado?
Give Me Back My Arm!
by Lynn Daniels on Sunday, November 23, 2008 at 1:20 pm
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NaNoWriMo Day 23
Yesterday was a good writing day. Today’s been a good one so far, too. Chester and Rube are 2/3 of the way to the Land of the Larrys, and they’ve just been caught in a massive storm. A tornado is heading their way, and they’re fighting to get into the safe haven of a cave in Hallowed Hills nearly 30 yards away. And the wind is more of an impenetrable wall than a wind. And it’s raining. And there are frozen balls falling from the sky.
Oh no! 
What ever will they do?
Right now, I’m doing laundry, watching Scrubs, and getting ready to eat some chicken soup that I hope will calm my tummy (LittleDude yelled at me earlier for saying tummy — he called it baby talk 
). Then I’m hoping to get some more writing in. If not now, then later tonight after everybody’s gone to sleep.
Oh, and before I go, I blognapped this from Andrew:
Created by Bunk Beds.net
The lesson learned here is I should never ever put myself into a situation where I’d be chained to a bunk bad with a velociraptor. I guess admitting I would probably cry like a sissy when he bit my arm off wasn’t the right answer. 
Saturday Shot 22 NOV 2008
by Lynn Daniels on Saturday, November 22, 2008 at 11:42 am
For this week’s shot, we’re back in Yellowstone National Park, and back at Artist Point, and once again looking at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
From yellowstonepark.net:
The canyon is approximately 10,000 years old, 20 miles long, 1000 ft deep, and 2500 ft wide. Predominately made of Rhyolite, the canyon appears painted with deeps reds oranges and coppers. With the Yellowstone river, upper falls, and lower falls, it is not surprising that canyon is used by many artist as their inspiration.
It’s fascinating, picturesque, and the site of a few deaths. In fact, the week before we arrived, somebody stepped off the marked path in order to take pictures and ended up falling into the canyon to their death. Scary, yes? But it does stress the importance of paying attention to the signs the park posts everywhere showing where you can and can’t walk.
Follow the rules. 
And have a good weekend. 
Random Photo
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NaNoWriMo 2008
