Scraps of Me …

A long awaited picture (well, long awaited by at least 2 people) of the new car.  I call her Fiona - she’s blue and tiny and I love her.  If I had known that gas prices would freeze as soon as I got a fuel efficent car I would have done this last year.  The price of gas has not changed since I picked Fiona up 2 weeks ago.  This is good, of course, but kind of ironic because the whole reason I got the car was because the price kept going up and up and up ….

Yes, I did pick up my car on Friday the 13th. And it’s wonderful! No, I don’t have a picture of it. All of my daylight hours since picking it up have been spent either at work or driving in said new car. It had 16 miles on it when I wrapped my greedy little fingers around the steering wheel. It’s now got somewhere close to 1000. Tonight I have to take the middle child to school for a function he’s working and I’ll take a picture with my cell phone then.

The girl child is at her father’s house until I don’t know when and she left The Tiz in my car. I can’t stop listening. Really, I should just take it out.  All the songs sound the same (except for the ones I skip) but they’re catchy.  What I really want to do now is call my mother and find out if she ever found herself listening to ‘my’ music when I wasn’t in the car…

Found a new show to occupy my time with, In Plain Sight on USA.  It’s pretty good though I wasn’t so sure for the first episode.  It follows two US Marshalls who work with the Witness Protection Program in Albuquerque, NM.  I never would have figured a show set in Albuquerque but hey, it works.

The new season of The Closer starts on July 14th and I’m hyped about that.  I’ve enjoyed this show since it premiered 3 seasons ago.  Clever, good mysteries and good interpersonal relationships.

Let’s see - we might as well continue the TV thing here.  Right now I am also enjoying The Next Food Network Star.  It’s about as close to reality TV as I’ll get to watching.

Lest you think all I do is watch TV - put your fears to rest.  I DVR most of them and watch them as I can.  Thank goodness for DVR.

Well, off to get something for dinner and then to bring the middle child to school.  I’ll try to get that picture.

• Gynecological exam
• Cutting the boy child’s hair (please note all references to the ‘boy child’ refer to the 13 year old living with us)
• Eating shrimp for dinner. That’s it. Just shrimp. Oh, and cocktail sauce.
• Eating the brownies with marshmallows the boy child made for dessert.
• Going to bed with it cool enough to breath.

Tomorrow’s Highlights

• FRIDAY
• Maybe getting out an hour early cause I made up 3 hours for my lovely female exam and it only took 2.
• PICKING UP THE NEW CAR!!!!!

Saturday’s Highlights

• Possible date with the husband wearing the new dress he doesn’t know about yet.

This is some sort of spree isn’t it?  The heat finally broke today so I don’t expect to blog much until there is more perspiration involved. LOL

Today was pretty busy at work - I officially moved to my desk on the floor.  While I’m still considered in training for the next 2 weeks they took us out of the nest.  Getting things set up, getting system access, having meetings and a training presentation took about 4 hours out of my day.  I ended up staying three hours late because I have to go to a doctor’s appointment on Thursday and am not sure how much time I’ll miss.  Figure if it’s more than three hours I can stay late on Thursday again.  It was nice being there after hours though - very quiet - I got a lot done.

It was nice to move back into my ‘cubical kingdom’ though.  Many people can’t stand the idea of being in a little box like that all day but I’ve always liked small enclosed spaces.  Used to close myself in the closet to read when I was a kid.  And I’ve still got enough OCD tendencies that it gives me great comfort to have my stuff placed ‘just so’ around me while I work.  I’ve given up keeping my home ‘just so’ (thank you Lexapro) because with kids and pets it’s a loosing battle.  Yet at work, at my desk, it’s just me.  So I’ve got my freaking N’Sync picture up in it’s frame.  The Peter Pop is pinned to my wall and I’ve got my bottle of hand lotion in front of my keyboard.  My own little slice of nirvana.

Speaking of OCD tendencies…I really need to take the darn Ashley Tisdale CD out of my car.  *just called to the girl child to tell her to remove it from my CD player*  I’ve been listening to it so much it’s almost embarassing.  I’d rather go get the new NKOTB single “Summertime” and have that on my OCD list. *headed to My Space to listen to it*

Oh, and because it’s been awhile and I just need a picture.  *squee* Sean Connery.

Great song that was.  But that’s not what the title of my post means.  It means that for the first time in I can’t remember how long I’ve posted 4 days in a row.  The main reason is in the picture over here on the left.  It’s 6 pm at night and it’s still 90.  And the dew point is 67 which is, according to Wikipedia, “Somewhat uncomfortable for most people at upper edge”.  Um, yeah, whatever.  It’s miserable.  I’m one of those people who does not react well to humid weather.  I don’t particularly care to sweat.  I don’t like to get dirty.  I’m a girl.  A pretty girly girl too. And this weather makes me cranky.

Just wanted to share.  I now have to go set up eBay listings for my son who wants to sell his model train stuff.

Some one should write this down - blogging three days in a row.  When is the last time that happened?

Blame the heat I say - it’s been in the 90’s with 100% humidity here and I’ve pretty much kept to the basement.  A fan and the lights off and I’m fairly comfortable.

My time in the basement has not been in vain though!  Yesterday I reconnected with a dear friend from high school (thank you Classmates.com) and spent several hours on the phone with him catching up.  It was wonderful.  Friday I mentioned I was looking for him but ended up frustrated cause he was no where on the internets.  Then when I got up on Saturday morning I remembered Classmates.com.  Hadn’t been there in well over a year.  In fact I had to reset my password because I didn’t remember what I had used.  Once I got into the site I saw there was a message and it was from him.  Over a year ago.  Talk about a God thing.

I’ve also spent a few hours and a few thousand words just building the story I was talking about on Friday.  We’ll call it Charlotte for now since I don’t have any sort of a name in mind.  What I do know is she’s a Psychologist with an obsession for shoes and purses.  She’s got a bit of a chip on her shoulder and her yearly vacation is going to go totally haywire.

Did I ever mention that the photo on the top of this blog is one I took?  It was in Texas in April.

Anyway, off to research modern day pirates.

The Fantasy Fiction Tour, featuring fantastic authors of Christian Science Fiction & Fantasy, has announced tour dates in October 2008 on the West Coast!  Here is the official press release:

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE:

A NOVEL IDEA

Eight Fantasy Authors. Six West Coast Cities. One Faith

DALLAS, TX, June 5, 2008— “West coast or bust!” is the rallying cry of eight Christian fantasy fiction authors—representing eight separate publishing houses—on a fun-filled grass roots mission to spread good news about the fast-growing genre now blazing hot once again with the ongoing releases of the Narnia movies. This fall, the “Motiv8 Fantasy Fiction Tour” has set its course due west to visit hundreds of fans at scheduled book-signings, school and church programs, humanitarian outreaches, and a book fair, October 4-11. For information, visit www.fantasyfictiontour.com.

More Authors, More Heart in 2008

The popular adage “the more, the merrier” best explains the Fantasy Fiction Tour’s decision to double its membership to eight authors in 2008. Two women and six men wearing medieval cloaks and armed with swords of steel—and truth—comprise the eclectic band of faith-based storytellers. Though from different publishers and parts of the U.S, the authors are bound by their love for God and the fictional worlds, characters, and themes they have created in 37 ground-breaking novels.

Also new is the sojourner’s partnership with Character 4 Kids, a charitable outreach to place good books with moral character and values into the hands of needy kids in hospitals and after-school programs.

The History

On a shoe-string budget and a prayer, in 2007 the first-ever Christian Fantasy Fiction Tour, known as the Fantasy 4 Fiction Tour, successfully launched with four authors caravanning to events in 15 cities throughout the eastern U.S. The unprecedented initiative drew the attention of fans, industry peers, and mainstream media who conjectured, “Could the next Harry Potter be a devout Christian?”

While interest in other literary genres has declined over the last several years, Christian book sales have steadily grown at a rate of about 30 percent with annual revenues reaching $2.4 billion.

Meet the Authors

The “Motiv8 Fantasy Fiction Tour” will feature the following authors, founding and first-time respectively:

• Sharon Hinck is a wife and mother of four from Minnesota. Sharon was named 2007 “Writer of the Year” at Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference. In March, she released The Restorer’s Journey, the third book in her popular Sword of Lyric (NavPress) fantasy series for women. She is also author of the non-fantasy, award-winning The Secret Life of Becky Miller and the upcoming release of Stepping into Sunlight.
• Bryan Davis, a former computer professional living in Western Tennessee, is the author of two best-selling series for youth, titled Dragons in our Midst and Oracles of Fire. In May, Bryan debuted Beyond the Reflection’s Edge (Zondervan) , the first book in his new fantasy series Echoes from the Edge, and the second book of the series Eternity’s Edge will release in October.
• Christopher Hopper is an international speaker, recording artist and ordained minister who lives with his wife and two children in northern New York. Christopher’s first book was the popular Rise of The Dibor, The White Lion Chronicles, and his latest book The Lion Vrie (Tsaba House) released last June.
• Wayne Thomas Batson is a public middle school teacher from Eldersburg, MD and author of two best-selling young adult fantasy series The Door Within trilogy and Isle of Swords (Thomas Nelson). His latest The Isle of Fire, the second in the Isle of Sword series, will release in October.

• Donita K. Paul is a retired school teacher from Colorado, whose passion for literacy compels her to speak in schools and libraries about the importance of story. Dragon Keeper Chronicles (Waterbrook Press), her five-book series, has won acclaim.
• LB Graham is a teacher at Westminster Christian Academy in St. Louis, MO. LB is the author of The Binding of the Blade (P&R Publishing), an epic five-volume series for fantasy readers of all ages. The much anticipated final installment in the series All My Holy Mountain will release in June.
• Jonathan Rogers grew up in Georgia near the swamps and riverbottoms where his The Wilderking (B&H Publishing) fantasy series is based. He holds a PH.D. in seventeenth-century English literature from Vanderbilt University and currently lives in Nashville, TN.
• Eric Reinhold is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, who lives with his wife and three children in Longwood, Florida. Eric began writing youth fantasy to satisfy his children’s impromptu requests for bedtime stories. Eric is founder of the non-profit foundation, Character 4 Kids. Ryann Watters and the King’s Sword (Creation House) the first book in The Annals of Aeliana series, was released in May.

The 2007 Fantasy 4 Fiction Tour was covered in the Washington Post, Fox News, Christian Retailing magazine, Beliefnet.com, Publisher’s Weekly magazine, and The Associated Press’ Everything Sacred broadcast, among other media outlets.

For more information about the Motiv8 Fantasy Fiction Tour authors, scheduled events, book titles and blogs, please visit www.fantasyfictiontour.com.

It’s just that I never seem to find the time to say it here.

Now that I am not on the phone all day at work (though I still do use it quite a bit) I’ve got plenty of words left over when I get home. My job is wonderfully interesting and I really, really enjoy it but I don’t want to say too much about it on the blog. Too many horror stories about managers and supervisors finding their employee’s blogs and then those employees getting fired. I simply can’t afford to get fired cause I didn’t think before I typed or published.

My family is wonderful - hubby got promoted to Technical Sergent at work. It’s taken almost 4 years to get there and I am so very proud of him. Kids are good. The middle child has done very well after moving up here last September. He’s doing great in school - got inducted into the Jr. National Honor society which is quite cool. Today his class went to The Great Escape (and it drizzled all day, was HOT and HUMID) and tomorrow he goes to a band competition that lasts all day. Right now I’m listening to him play Guitar Hero.

The girl child is doing amazingly well in school. Somehow it all seems to have clicked this year. She’s made honor roll 2 out of the 3 quarters they’ve graded already. We’ll see how she does this last quarter. This is the time of the year she usually totally slacks off. She’s too interested in doing things outside rather than paying attention to class. I’m still stunned that she’s 13 now. That I have a 13 year old child. How mind bogglingly fast it all went. How quickly the next 5 years will be sure to go. *sigh* Time really never moved until I had a child of my own.

Number one son is finishing up his junior year and heading into his senior year of high school. Again, something that happened with mind boggling speed. He was only 6 when I met him, just in Kindergarten and now he’s on the verge of graduation. Hubby and I have been talking to him about his future - college vs the military - and it’s a bit overwhelming for all of us. As always he’s done well in school too. Continues to play Viola in the band and the cadet commander of the CAP squadron we 4 out of the 5 of us are in. Right now he’s hoping to get a job, his first one and he and his father have an appointment with the Navy recruiter next week. That should be interesting, to say the least. I still need to call back the Air Force guy for an appointment with him. We want to know how they can help us with ROTC and paying for college.

We just purchased a new car, a 2008 Honda Fit. With the price of gas over $4.00 per gallon we just can’t keep using the van. It gets a whopping 18 miles per gallon on average. Our new little sub compact will get closer to 28 miles per gallon. I’ll miss the van, the space and all. I’ll miss not having a car payment too. But even with the car payment it’ll still be cheaper in the long run. Smaller gas tank, more miles per tank then we’re getting now and less in mmaintenance.  Our van is over 105,000 miles now.  Only had 16,000 when we got it 4 years ago.  With the girl child going to her father’s every other weekend, the travel to and from the city for the boys and going to visit family from where I used to live we drive the living daylights out of our cars.  The Fit will be literally right off the truck.  When we went to look at it earlier in the week they were sold out.  The new batch is due in next week and we are taking one of those.  It’s what we want, we know it.  Paul has ridden in one and I’ve researched the daylights out of it online (thank you MSN autos!) so we really on confident in our choice.  The bank already approved the loan so we are waiting on delivery and then we’ll get the insurance taken care of and go sign our paperwork. Yippee!  I’ve never had a new car.  It’s a horrible investment.  New cars generally are.  But again, we drive the living daylights out of our cars so we’ll get our money’s worth.

Another reason I haven’t been blogging? I’ve been reading.  If you haven’t checked out my 2008 Reading List go take a look at what I’ve done.  Lots of reading.  Lots left to do too.

But….with the reading I’ve reawakened the writing bug.  I’ve got a story kicking around in my busy brain - an urban fantasy romance type thing.  Involving a pirates, a trust fund heroine and a stowaway.  *runs off to make a few quick notes*

*this post is taking forever because nearly every paragraph I write is sending me off to do something else - like update my reading list, sort my book shelf, make notes for the new story, doing Google searches on an old friend from high school and shopping for more books on Amazon*

So I’m listening to the High School Musical soundtrack.  What can I say, I’ve got a teen aged daughter and I’ve grown addicted to ‘her’ music.  I admit it, I listened to Ashley Tisdale all the way home.  After I dropped her off to her father.  That translates to a 35 year old woman listening to it alone for a good hour.  And it’s not bad.  It’s not great.  But it’s good.

Oh!  See, I just went off on another web hunt and remembered that Catie Murphy posted a few days ago that she’s working on the next Walker Papers book!  I love these books. *oh, got lost at Wikipedia.com.  Back now*

Ahhhh, I’ve got too many ideas in my  head for this new thing now.  Off to make notes and write snippets.

For those of you who were not fans of the 80’s boy bands you most likely have no clue what the subject line means.  But, if like me, you were deeply obsessed with any group of young men who put out a pop record you know exactly who NKOTB are.

New Kids On The Block!  Though hey formed in 1984 they didn’t get their first big hit until 1988 with Please Don’t Go Girl.  In the great year of 1988 I was all of 15 years old.  Ahhh, 15 years old.  I was in the height of my poetry phase.  Deeply involved in the angst of being a teenager.  And while I wouldn’t go back to those days for all the money in the world I’ll gladly take back the upbeat pop music.  And if it’s a boy band.  All the better baby!

I really like the new single, Summertime.  Nice bubblegum pop.  You can hear it on their MySpace page.

The other day I was scanning radio stations while driving to work and I heard that one of the reasons there are some 80’s bands who are reuniting is because today’s generation (my children) are not listening to and buying music the way previous generations did.  Advertisers and record companies hope that by getting me excited by hearing the music of my childhood I’ll take my kids to their concerts.  Um, well, yeah I surely would if I could find tickets close to home for less than $200 a pop.  I like my 80’s music but not quite that much.  I’ll take my kid’s route of downloading an MP3 from Amazon or iTunes for less than a buck.

No matter how you spell it though - I’m all *squee* and fan girl because NKOTB have a new album coming out.

Boy bands rock!

Today is the first day of training with actual disability claims here at work. It’s been a long 4 weeks of classroom training - which is not my strong point. I don’t do well, as a rule, with lectures. When it comes to learning I am a hands on, figure it out yourself sort of person. So I am really looking forward to getting into the hands on aspect of the training.

Mother’s Day was good at our house. Hubby had to work so the girl child and I went out to eat and to Barnes and Nobles. I got myself a few books and ordered a recipe program from Amazon.  Happy Mother’s day to me. 

Well - off to start my work now.  It’s been a slow start while they get the claims the 14 of us in the class are supposed to work with but hopefully once we’ve got our stuff the day will go by quickly.