Well, holidays are proving themselves to be tough on writing (and blogs)!  Let’s see if I can quickly summarize what’s been going on…

I drove into Saskatoon yesterday, for a quick visit with Ann and Pauline.  It turns out that I managed to land on Pauline’s birthday for the second year in a row.  Dumb luck, I call it.  The date is now in my calendar, so instead of fluking into it, I can actually plan it out next year.  Since it was her birthday, I picked up lunch.  And, since I picked up lunch for Pauline, I got Ann’s as well, which kinda threw Ann into a funk.  She recently got a part time job, and with the extra cash she was making, wanted to pick up the tab for all of us.  Me, being the thick skinned scum-bag that I am, didn’t pick up on her sense of pride, etc, etc.  I’m hoping by the end of the visit, she was over it a bit.  My bad.

Darryl and Diane came over for a two day visit before that.  That can make Gramma’s house a little tight, let me tell you!  We ended up with six adults, two kids, and Abby (yes, they brought the dog).  Abby was brought up to be a house dog, unfortunately she is quite large, which can be problematic at times.  She’s a great dog though, which helps a lot.

That just about summarizes the last three days.  I’m actually posting this on the fourth, in the morning, but I’m going to date it to yesterday.  The eternal optimist in me thinks I may actually get out another blog entry today.

It looks like I can’t post this at all… the server seems to be down, although every other system appears to be up.  Figures.

Reading
Blue Bamboo – Japanese Tales of Fantasy – Osamu Dazai

Writing
I haven’t actully gotten any writing done, but I have managed to think up another sub-plot for the novel.  It should increase the scene count, which should in turn increase the word count a bit.  At my current scene count (outline only), I’d guess I’m at about 80,000 words, and I need to be at 100,000 at least, so the extra scenes should help.

I must have built up some pretty bad karma.  I ended up going to the same store three times today, to replace the same item.  Two of them didn’t work right.  Aaargh.  And last night, I came home and found my 4 year old tent up against the stucco of the house, trapped in a corner by the wind.  By the time I extricated the damn thing, the fly was completely shot.  It had more holes than Swiss cheese.  So, I bought a new tent, and it is HUGE.  It’s a two room tent, so Marnie and I can be separated from the kids.  We’ll see how it holds up tonight, since the boys and I will be in it… with a 70% chance of rain and thundershowers.

I’m off to Calgary tomorrow for a couple of days.  I’ll try to post while I’m there, but we’ll see what happens.

Reading
Kushiel’s Avatar (Jacqueline Carey)

Writing
I looked at some of my old stuff, and although parts of it still sing to me, most of it sounds stilted and uninspiring.  Maybe it’s the mood I’m in, maybe it’s really just all crap.  It’s never been bought, so it’s probably crap.  I’d better snap out of this funk, or I’m never going to get anything written.  Is this what writers block is?

A. R. Yngve has a good post on ‘losing your nerve’ here http://aryngve.blogspot.com/2005/08/losing-your-nerve.html

Nothing much to say today, and it is the weekend, so I normally won’t post (I think).

I asked Gavin to look after the house/plants/garden while Marnie and I are gone.  It’s easy money for him, but he is nervous about killing everything.  He’ll let me know on Sunday.  If he says no, there’s a company in town that will do it as well, for the same money we offered Gav.  So things should still live in this dry spell while we are gone.

We all went out for dinner to Marnie’s bosses house.  I set up their computer, and they fed us.  We all had a good time, I believe.  The kids had a blast, and another very late night.  We finally got them into bed at 10:30 or so.  Once again, Marnie and I carried them in and put them into their beds, already sleeping.

Reading
Kushiel’s Avatar (Jacqueline Carey)

Writing
For those that write Science Fiction, heck even for those that do not, this site has some excellent and up-to-date information for you. http://www.eurekalert.org