Sorry I didn’t blog today… had one helluva day! I had a crash course in InDesign. BUT I got the project finished and I expect there will be only a few tiny tweaks left in the morning and then I can package it up and send it off to the printer.

Whew.

But I’m tired. Mentally and physically exhausted.

And next week is Banquet Week. I don’t even want to think about all I have to get done before Friday morning.

I better start making that list now…

FINALLY! I passed the mid-way point for the NaNo project.

Go ME!

I guess some folks were having trouble commenting on the new template, so I switched it back. It was something I was trying for a new project I’m developing.

So.

I give AT&T quite a lot of money every month. Between telephone, cellular, and internet they get a nice chunk of change. They would have gotten more had their television through UVerse not been such a big POS. I’ll stick with satellite, thankyouverymuch.

Anyway.

I’ve decided to transfer my telephone to Vonage, since I know have a continuous broadband connection through – guess who – AT&T. Don’t get me wrong – I love their Internet service. It’s lightening fast. It really is! But I’m sick and tired of coughing up money for them.

I filled out the online thing for Vonage Monday night and pressed send, all happy. They were going to get the phone number transferred for me and everything. I go off to Starbucks for the evening only to come home to an email from Vonage stating they can’t transfer my number becuase I still have DSL on my phone line.

WHA…?

I haven’t had DSL for a couple of months.

But as it turns out the scumbags at AT&T still have it listed on my account even though I’m not paying for it anymore and I have their wonderful fiber optic.

So now I have to call fucking AT&T (pardon my French) today and get them to remove whatever it is off my account, get a confirmation number and then call Vonage with the confirmation number so they can complete the transfer and I can keep my telephone number.

And if AT&T gives me one ounce of trouble, I’m canceling everything from the internet to the telephone to the cellular bill. Stick a fork in me. I’m done!

Oh, yeah, and I wrote.

(AND…no you aren’t crazy…I’m trying something new. Don’t worry, though. I’ll probably go back to the other template in a few days…hehe)

I can’t believe the long holiday weekend is already over. How sad is that? It was a nice one, though.

Thursday I spent the day at my mom’s with my sisters and brother and their spouses and kids. Now that most of the kids are grown up, things are a little different than years past. At least the Sweetie Boy had a cousin his age to play with. He and Z got along great.

Friday we put up all the Christmas decor. Sweetie Boy helped. I was amazed at how sore I was the next day. I hung up a lighted garland around the front door and put out my yard art. It looks great. Next year maybe I can get lights up on the house. Anyway, we just hung out at the house on Friday and didn’t do much of anything. I let the baby boy play games and watch cartoons.

Saturday came and he went back with his dad. I puttered around the house wondering what to do with myself. I watched Lord of the Rings and then started some laundry. Exciting, eh? Then I got to work on Take Me I’m Yours. I wrote about 5000 words this weekend. Felt good. I’m nearing the 24,000 mark. So close, yet so far still. I won’t make the 50k but that’s all right. I’ll at least finish the book.

Anyhoo… as I’m sitting at the computer writing, I keep hearing these noises in the living room. So I finally get up and it turns out the Cat Cat has decided that all the shiny pretty things on the tree belong to him. I’ve had a time keeping him out of the tree. And then of course, I wrapped some presents to the Shiny Pretty bows on top belong to him too. After kicking his butt (and putting all the balls higher on the tree), he gave up for the day. He sat beside me in the office while I wrote and drank an entire pot of coffee all by myself.

I woke up at 7 on Sunday morning still thinking about the book and got up, made another pot of coffee, turned on the satellite hard rock radio station and got to work. It seems I can work really well with all that music playing. For some reason it keeps me focused.  I wrote for a couple of hours and then yakked on the phone to Sysenlaw.

Later that day, a good friend came and picked me up and we went to the mall. I know, crazy right? But the mall we went to wasn’t all that packed. And he did the driving in the crummy weather so it was all good.  We walked around for about four hours, had lunch, chatting, and just had a really great time. Then we went to the bookstore – a favorite place for both of us – and browsed a little. And then it was off to Pottery Barn because I’d never been in one. They had LOTS of shiny pretties! Anyway, we picked out furniture and he did the math in his head on how much we’d be spending. They had these awesome bookshelves I was salivating to have.

So he took me home shortly after that and by the time he left it was after 7 and I cooked a pot of potato soup and watched Desperate Housewives and Brothers and Sisters.

And then it was time for bed. How come those four days went by so durn fast?

Oh well. At least I got some time off to spend with my sweet boy. And now it’s back to the grind. Blah!

It’s Thanksgiving! I’m off to my mom’s for the day with the baby boy. We’re planning to eat, drink and be very merry!

Hope everyone has a great turkey day

I’ve been having a time on deciding what to blog about. I’m super busy at work and the kid keeps me hoping on the weekends. I am writing off and on (mostly off, sadly) but the story is still exciting to me and I’m really starting to enjoy the characters quite a lot.

So anyway… I didn’t know what to blog about and I started to think about my life. Shocker, I know. My life is not all that interesting but every now and then I get a curve ball that I never saw coming.

I was dating this guy who was in the restaurant business and, well, if you’ve ever dated someone like that than you know how challenging that relationship can be. We had a great time together but he also lived an hour (plus) away. So. Not only did we have a long distance relationship (this is DFW – everything is long distance), but he was a single dad and a restaurant owner.

After nearly a year of canceled dates and frustration, I finally called it quits. It’s still painful because he was an awful lot of fun but you know, fun and frolic can only go so far. At least as far as I’m concerned. There was no real hint of a future (in my opinion) and I just wanted to know if it was even possible.

So.

Right about the same time as I was breaking up with the restaurant guy, a really good friend (yes, a boy) had asked me to go to the movies. So, thinking it was only a strictly platonic date, I went. We had a grand time and, since he hadn’t seen the house since I moved in, wanted to come by after for a visit. Well, things took a turn after that and let’s just say there was some smooching involved.

He was my date to the Loreena McKennitt concernt last month and he comes over about once a week to watch Moonlight with me. He’s very sweet and kind. He makes me laugh and we have a nice time together.

So a few days ago, I had some trees trimmed and instead of hauling them off, the guys piled them at the curb in front of my house. Of course, the trashmen wouldn’t pick them up (even though the limbs were bundled) and so I was in a quandry as to what to do. And you know what? My knight in shining armor came to the rescue. He hauled off those limbs for me and then told me he’d be back to mow my backyard (since I’ve been a bit sick and under the weather with allergies lately).

The little things. That’s what matters most, I think. It was just that small gesture of removing those limbs (an eyesore!) from the front of my house and disposing of them for me. I think I’m in love.

Just goes to show you, a man doesn’t have to have a lot of money to make a woman happen. All it takes is hauling off tree limbs.

So last night I stayed up late because I felt pretty good. I got in about 2K on the NaNo project and then hit the sack close to midnight. Then I coughed until well after 1 am.

I was so ticked by that. I tried everything too. Sitting up, elevating the head, lying on the couch. NOTHING helped or worked. I finally took some allergy medicine to knock me out. At last, I got to sleep and stopped coughing.

This morning my chest is sore but…I’m not coughing. GO FIGURE! I can’t win. This is going to be the day where I don’t cough. And tomorrow will be the day I DO cough. I just have a feeling that’s the way it’s going to shake out.

Anyway… I haven’t had a chance to spend much time on the NaNo project, but after last night I’m real happy with the way the story is going. I had to stop and do some research on art galleries and read some bios on artists so I could figure out what type of artist my hero is. I learned a lot and saw some totally wicked art. Plus I wrote his bio…and it works well.

And now I’m off to church! I hope I can get back to the WIP later today…

I’m so glad it’s Friday I could cry.

For the first time in a very long time, I had to call in sick to work on Wednesday. I have been fighting this upper respiratory thing for a couple of days but if finally took its toll on me. I doped myself up and laid on the couch and watched Rear Window with James Stewart and Grace Kelly. Then I went and crawled in bed and slept for about three hours. I work up at 4 still groggy and feeling lethargic.

I decided it was the allergy medication making me feel that way so I stopped taking it. By Thursday afternoon, I felt nearly normal. I’m still coughing, though not nearly as bad, and have daily headaches. The headaches are from (a) coughing too much and (b) sinus pressure. It sucks, actually.

So I didn’t get any words in on Wednesay and Thursday was a game of catch-up at work. I waded through the email and got caught up. The banquet is nearing and we have a ton of stuff to do still. I have lots and lots of printing to get done for certificates and name tags and what not. I started setting up the certificates today.

Anyway, that’s boring and enough of that.

After I picked up the Sweetie Boy on Thursday, we headed to the store so I could pick up some of the items I needed to make my pumpkin bars for the Thanksgiving potluck at work. The recipe is very easy and they came out so yummy. I even made the icing.

The recipe says to wait until completely cooled to cut and put on the icing. Of course, I couldn’t wait that long. They were almost cooled when I cut them into squares and put the cream cheese icing on them. They still fell apart somewhat as I iced them. Oh well. There was one casualty for sure. And besides, I had to test them to make sure they were fit to take to the office.

I’m taking them to my mom’s of Thanksgiving as well because they are super easy to make. Besides, we have way too many pies and stuff for dessert. This will be something different since it’s sort of a cake.

I did get my website updated the other day. Oh and I’m shopping around for a new blog template to try out. I’m thinking I need a facelift. What do you think?

I forgot one winner on my list:

Jennifer Y gets a copy of A Break In Time. Congrats, Jen!

Okay I know it’s WW today and all but I wanted to announce the winners of yesterday’s Release Day!

Winners who get Nice Girls Do:
Eva S
Dee
LindaH
Caitlin

Winners who get A Break In Time:
Christy H
Vicki
Eleyne

Okay so I know I said I was only giving out three – but what the hell. You’re all winners!

I’ll be emailing the books out today. So, Congrats, and happy reading!

Now back to WW and this week’s edition – Man Meat. YEAH BABY

Today’s the day!! It’s Release Day!

Nice Girls Do, the fun erotic romp, hits the e-shelves today over at Samhain Publishing. Click here to go to my author page at their website and then just click the book cover that looks just like the one at the left.

I’m very excited about this book. It’s the second installment in the Coffee House Chronicles (after Talk Dirty To Me) and stars Mark and Cara. They were really fun to write and I enjoyed spending time with them at The Bitter End Coffee House.

Here’s a quick blurb about the book:
Even nice girls can be bad…

Like good coffee, the longer Mark and Cara’s desire brews, the stronger it gets. And once their passion percolates, there’s sure to be plenty of steam…

Sound good? If that’s not enough for you, then check out this quickie excerpt that will leave you panting for more:

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