Claws

I broke down today and got acrylic nails. I used to have them years ago, but probably when I was belt-tightening my budget I gave them up, thinking I would grow my own fingernails. Now, I've never, ever been able to grow my own nails before, so why I thought I could is beyond me. But after years of putting up with my horrible nails, which not only look bad but which crack and break in various painful ways, I've decided to go fake.

There's a place just a few blocks from my house, run by a Vietnamese couple (of course). The man, Hung, did my nails. He seems to know only a few words of English: "Full set fifteen dollars," "Pick color," "Square or round?" and "Put hands on table dry fifteen minutes!" But he does lovely work, and I got to watch a Vietnamese soccer movie while he did.

We had more huge storms today. Rained and rained. I just can't get over this weather. Highly strange but very welcome. I finished one of my workshops for RWA and I did some more reading/taking notes on my plot book. Also watched crime shows while I worked on my mosaic tabletop (not so easy with the new nails!) and folded laundry.

I heard a Western kingbird outside my window for the first time ever today. I've seen them in the neighborhood, but about eight or ten blocks away. I like them, with their lemmon-yellow tummies. Also, they're a kind of flycatcher so they'll eat bugs. Hope they stay around.

Thanks for visiting,
Kara

We have a winner!

The winner of my Beach Bag contest is Chrissy Dionne of Cloverdale, Oregon. Congratulations, Chrissy, and thanks to everyone who entered. I'll have a new contest soon and I'll announce it right here first!

Today was another lazy day. I just don't know what's come over me! I was a total bum. I read, I ate, I walked (at least I did that) I worked on my mosaic while watching TV. I was watching this show about a clinic where they treat extremely obese people. I watched, like, four episodes of this show.

Why does this fascinate me so? Is it because I can look at these huge people and feel superior to them? ("Well, I might have fat thighs but at least I'm not THAT bad.") Or is it because I can root for the underdog? I have to admit I'm always very inspired when I read or watch a story where a person loses a lot of weight, I guess because I know how hard it was for me to lose 25 lbs.

I started my mosaic table for real. There are 15 feathers; tonight I did one. Maybe I can do one feather per day.

The owls are back but they are most irresponsible parents. If they ever succeed in hatching actual chicks I hope they do better.

Thanks for visiting,
Kara

Some Days ...

I just don't know what to blog about. Today was such a normal day. I wrote (though I didn't make my writing goal), I watched the birds (nothing too exotic, though the brown-headed cowbird was a little unusual), I walked to the library, and I went out to dinner with Rob for Date Night at Grill 400.

I got started cutting tile for my mosaic table top. It takes a while to get the hang of it. This project is so huge--I can't wait to actually get started gluing the tile. I think it won't be so scary then.

I am supposed to do a bike rally tomorrow--40 miles. I can't imagine why I said I would, since I haven't been on my bike for weeks. Maybe it will rain!

Have a fabulous weekend,
Kara

MOB Page-O-Meter:

332 / 400 (83.0%)

Proposal sent to editor

Glad that's out of the way. My editor kindly agreed to accept my manuscript via e-mail, which saves me and my agent lots of postage. (It doesn't really save trees because my editor will ultimately print out the manuscript.)

Now I'm back to work on the MOB book. I spent most of the morning inputting changes from previous critique group sessions and polishing and printing the next ten pages for my meeting this week. Later on I was able to write a few new pages. It's nice to be working in fresh territory again.

My porch is done! Today Arturo packed up his ladders and empty paint cans and disappeared, but not before making one final appeal for me to paint the rest of my house. (What, do I look crazy? This has been a nightmare.)

The rest of my day was the usual stuff; birdwatching, walking, mosaic. I'm working on my full-scale pattern for the table-top now. I've never done anything even close to this big, so the logistics are a bit daunting. But if it's a disaster, I'm sure I'll learn a lot from it. All mosaic artists have to learn some how.

Thanks for visiting,
Kara

MOB, Page-O-Meter:

268 / 400 (67.0%)

New Recipe

I had one leftover leek, one russet potato and some leftover vegetable broth, so I threw them all together. I checked Joy of Cooking for seasoning ideas, but basically I just made up the recipe as I went along. (I guess it's hard to go wrong with soup.) It turned out really good and even Rob, the onion hater, enjoyed it.

Arturo swears he only has one tiny bit of paint touch up to do, and my porch will be finished. I paid him everything today but I made him swear he wouldn't disappear until he'd finished everything. (Probably not a wise decision on my part, but I couldn't be a hard ass about it. He's such a sweet guy.)

I worked some more on my mosaic design for my table, and I think I know what I'm doing now. I decided not to do whole birds, but feathers. It's a more abstract pattern and will be more forgiving of mistakes, I think. Now it's a matter of transferring the pattern to a full-scale piece of paper and getting started.

On the bird front, I saw a Carolina chickadee--first time this year at my feeder, though I saw lots of them at the Nature Preserve. I am glad to have him back--he's a funny character.

I actually did some writing today. I went over Rob's revision suggestions for my boat proposal and made some changes. He wants me to add sexual tension, though, which is what I'll focus on tomorrow, after I finish my line edits.

Have a wonderful week,
Kara

More work on cupboards

Weekends are my big home improvement days, and I was determined to finish my cupboards. so after a nice breakfast at Norma's, I coerced Rob into going to Lowe's with me to buy shelf brackets and the wood for one last shelf, painted ceramic knobs for the doors, and some other stuff for my mosaics--like some chocolate brown grout and a ceramic tile cutter.

As usual, what should have been a thirty-minute job (installing brackets and putting up the shelves) took hours due to my incompetence, but it's done now. My shelves are bee-u-tiful. I still have one more to install and some hooks, too, but that's for another day. At least one of the cupboards is completely done and I can move everything into it. Arturo and his workers showed up and started working on my porch roof again. Surprise surprise, they found a bunch more rotten wood. Another $200 when all is said and done. Kind of makes me wonder what shape the rest of the roof is in.

Neither of us wanted to cook, so we went out to eat again. Rob got a chocolate milkshake for dinner. I had a Jumbo Jack and fries. I'm not sure which of us was more nutritionally irresponsible. But at least we got some exercise walking to The Jack and then to Carnival to buy stuff for breakfast tomorrow.

This evening I grouted my mosaic picture frame (for the last time, I hope) and tried out the new tile cutter. It's slick! Once I figure out a design, I think I'm ready to work on my table.

Hope your weekend is going well,

Kara

Rob's home!

This morning I drove to the airport to pick up Rob after his trip to Montreal. Though I've enjoyed my quiet week, it was nice to see him.

I only got five pages written today, but I worked some on my line edits for GOOD HUSBAND MATERIAL, which comes out next January. I love my new editor. She is so precise, and every change she makes is for a good reason (like saving me from my wordy self, or changing words that I repeat too much).

I worked some more on my mosaic picture frame. All in all I'm not thrilled with how it turned out, but I learned some valuable lessons with this new technique. I'm thinking of doing a design of a BIRD for my table, maybe a couple of doves since I have so many of them in my yard.

We went out to dinner to Vitto, our favorite Italian place in Bishop Arts. It's a beautiful evening. It looked like rain earlier but so far it hasn't happened. Nice and cool and breezy.

Thanks for visiting,
Kara

MOB book Page-O-Meter:

264 / 400 (66.0%)

Polishing

Did lots of editing and polishing on boat proposal today. No new birds but I saw a yellow warbler at the park when I went for my walk.

Very quiet today. Phone didn't ring at all, thank goodness. During the few weeks before our recent election, the phone rang every five minutes with recorded messages, all of them annoying.

I glued down my mosaic. Tomorrow is the great unveiling, to see how it turned out. Right now the face is covered with paper so I can't tell.

I was also a major couch potato today. When Rob's not here it's more tempting to channel surf--no witnesses. (Contrary to popular stereotypes, Rob NEVER channel surfs.)

Thanks for visiting,

Kara

Uber Creative

Today I was creative in three different ways. I wrote, I worked on a mosaic, and I cooked. I also watched birds and walked to the post office. It was a good day, a really good day, especially because I finished the rough draft on the boat proposal.

I grouted my mosaic. I'm still experimenting with this new technique so the mosaic itself really is nothing special, just a random picture frame. I will take a picture when I'm done, if it works.

The new dish I cooked was supposed to be leeks and cheese in phyllo dough. But since I couldn't find any phyllo dough at the grocery store (what kind of a store doesn't have phyllo?) I had to settle for Pillsbury Pop-n-Bake crescent roles. It didn't turn out as I'd hoped it would--not at all flaky. But it wasn't terrible. (Okay, so I ate FOUR of them for dinner.) I've never cooked leeks before. In fact, I'm not sure I really, truly knew what a leek was until today, though I've eaten leek soup. (It's just a giant green onion.)

I'm off to check in on the barn owls, then I'm going to read more of Lisa Gardner's HIDE. Great book so far, one of her best, I think.

Thanks for stopping by,
Kara

BOAT BOOK Page-O-Meter:

49 / 265 (18.5%)

The IRS

Yeah, I spent three hours of my day (four if you count travel) at the IRS office just so I could give them back a check they sent me by mistake. (It was tempting to keep it, but it would have fouled up my 2006 taxes and they would have sent me a bill, with interest and possibly penalties and general snarkiness. Hopefully this will help me to avoid any such unpleasantness.)

The good news is, I took my baby computer and wrote during the train ride and waiting room, so I got my pages done. Page-O-Meter: (243/400, or 61%) The bad news is, the roofers showed up at 7:00. That's 7 p.m. They worked well past dark and I have no idea whether my roof is done, but we might be due for more storms tonight. Last night's storms did not do my half-built roof a great service.

So. Tonight I worked on a new mosaic, using the "indirect" method where you glue the stones face down on a piece of paper, then grout from the back, then flip it over and glue it to the surface (in this case, a picture frame). It's supposed to ensure the surface of the mosaic is nice and flat. So far I've done the glueing. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Thanks for visiting,

Kara

My roofer fell off the roof ...

And the IRS doesn't want to take back the money it erroneously sent to me. Has the world gone crazy?

Arturo, my roofer, wasn't seriously hurt, but he did discover more rotten wood that must be replaced. It ws hard to get any writing done with the hammering and sawing going on outside my window, but soon I will have a brand new and beautifully painted front porch with a new roof, new gutters and everything.

As for the IRS, I'm going in person to explain the situation and try to get them to take back the check. (If they don't, when they process my tax return they will find a discrepancy and I will get a bill with interest and penalty--this according to my CPA). I must say, the IRS people I've dealt with have been very nice. ("Cash the check. It's your money.")

Despite the distractions, I did manage to eke out my 10 pages. I'm up to 233/400, and I wish I had the Page-O-Meter, but the one I used to use is defunct and it's just too much darn work to build my own.

I started a new mosaic tonight. It's really just an experiment, trying a new technique, so I didn't go all out with the design (since I might have to toss it). But if it turns out I'll take a picture.

Thanks for visiting,
Kara

Painting woes

My simple little paint job has turned into a leaky-roof/rotted-wood disaster that's costing twice as much and taking twice as long as I'd hoped. As my father would say, "Ah, the joys of home ownership."

I wrote today, walked to the library and Fiesta, worked on my mosaic then decided it was beyond salvaging. I threw it away. Part of the learning curve. My den is covered with grout crumbs and dust!

We got a good rain last night and this morning. Yay, rain. Maybe it's putting a dent in the drought.

Thanks for stopping by,
Kara

A New Bird

I saw a new bird today, a Swainson's Thrush. Actually, I only got a fleeting glimpse of the bird flying, but I knew it by its song, thanks to the birdcall tapes my sister-in-law, Amelia, sent to me. They are more useful than I ever would have thought possible.

I also watched cycling on TV and worked on my mosaic. Quiet day, nice.

Thanks for visiting,
Kara

Book ready for the mail!

The last thing I had to do was go over the synopsis for TAKING DOWN THE DEVIL. Editing a synopsis is never the most fun thing in the world. I got it down to 9 pages and it more or less matches the book now. (9 pages still too long, I think.)

It's all boxed up and addressed, ready for the post office tomorrow. What a great thing to scratch off my list.

I also hung the clothes rod in my new "coat closet" today (one of the cabinets I painted last week). Thought it was going to be a 15-minute job--drill a couple of holes, put in a couple of screws. Then I discovered that the clothes rod I bought was too long. So I got out the hacksaw and started cutting, and I broke the blade. I have no idea how that happened. So I got out the less desirable hacksaw and kept sawing while I watched Rachel Ray and Gina de Laurentis cook stuff. Finally, an hour and a half later, I got it done.

Then I made the bean soup that Gina de Laurentis made, and it was so easy, so there was a hidden benefit in my difficulties.

I worked some more on my mosaic picture frame. It's going to be pretty when I'm done. I'm really enjoying getting back into the mosaic-ing. I'll post a picture sometime soon.

Oh, one more thing--MY CONTEST. The deadline has passed, and I'll announce a winner tomorrow. Thanks to everybody who entered and watch the blog and the website for a new contest coming soon.

Best,
Kara

Pages Written: -2 on synopsis
Where did I walk: Norma's, of course--it's Sunday! 3452 steps
Treasures: none
Affirmation: I have a clear path to my success!

I love to color!

Today Rob and I went to an all-day workshop presented by Margie Lawson, called "Empowering Characters' Emotions." (Hint: the workshop is available as an online class at www.writeruniv.com probably well worth it.) I knew this was going to be a fun workshop when we were instructed to bring with us three chapters of a work in progress, five different colors of highlighter, and a red pen.





Now, I've analyzed books (mine as well as others') with highlighters before. But Margie had us tracking some slightly different aspects--things like nonverbal communication and what she calls "visceral" reactions. It was eye-opening--really. As many years as I've been attending writing workshops, it's unusual these days for me to hear something new. But I liked this and I might even use it.





The picture above is my first couple of pages after I got done. We worked all afternoon and I really only got done with about eight pages--it's work!



We stopped in at Microcenter to look at the $399 laptop but decided it didn't have enough oomph for us. Then I bought a wireless card for my baby computer, but I couldn't get it to work. The computer is really old, so I guess there was a compatibility problem.

We ate leftovers in front of the TV and watched another episode of "Firefly." I'm still not sure I like this show, but I like it enough to keep watching. Later I worked on a mosaic project.

A full day. I even cleaned the kitchen, which was starting to get pretty extreme.

Oh, you have until midnight tonight to enter my contest! (that's midnight 3/31). www.karalennox.com, click on the contest link.

Thanks for visiting,
Kara