Met with our contractor today and picked out the bathroom fixtures for the master bath and the upstairs bathroom as well as the faucets for the bar in the new family room and the new half-bath in the basement. We discussed different options and one thing I'm looking forward to is putting a deep tub with the jets in it. Nothing like a whirlpool bath after a long aggravating day.

It also appears that they're hoping to get started on the kitchen renovations sometime next week. wishweaver and I will be busy hauling stuff downstairs into the new pantry once they give us a definite start date. It's tough . . . I want to have most of it done now, but we still need the food, dishes, glasses, etc. until they're ready to gut it.

Oh, the joys of home renovation.
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As mentioned in the entry subject, the NFL held its draft today. Personally, I think the Chiefs made out like bandits, picking up Glenn Dorsey (DT), Brandon Albert (OT), and Brandon Flowers (DB) with their first three picks. I would have loved for them to have tried to trade into the 2nd round again to pick up a defensive end, but given all the holes in the Chiefs' line-up, it's going to take a couple of drafts to fill everything we need.

Still, this is, by far, the best first day draft I've seen for the Chiefs in almost twenty years. I can't wait to see how things go tomorrow.
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I need to finish my slides for the Maryland Writer's Conference for Saturday. It's my second time representing Writer Beware at a convention, but the first time was presenting the annual report at the SFWA meeting at NASFIC. This is my actual first time as a presenter/representative.

Yes, I am nervous, thanks for asking.
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Did some work on Childhood's Tears while my daughter had an appointment this morning, but since I didn't transcribe those words onto the computer, they'll have to wait for tomorrow's word total. I did work on Chronicles of the Sea Dragon tonight after I finished listening to the draft and the myriad discussions about who did well and who fell on their swords. I added 1010 words to the list.

Not sure how much I'll accomplish tomorrow. We're going down to visit with my collaborator, April, and her family tomorrow. We'll be going over my first pass at Chapter Eight for Shattered Mirror while we're down there. Depending on when we get home afterwards will determine whether I stay up and write or just crawl in the sack.

Which I'm getting ready to do now.
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Words for Today

1010 / 1000 words. 101%

Progress on CSD: Dragon Couchant

91343 / 120000 words. 76%

Words for 2008

129239 / 366000 words. 35%

Well, it's been a great weekend here at Casa Blanca.

UCM won their homecoming game with Missouri Western, the University of Missouri (not my alma mater, but I did grow up about 12 miles from there) crushed the high-powered offense of Texas Tech 41-10 and by hook and by crook, the Chiefs slipped past the Oakland Raiders 12-10.

Also, we went back to the Maryland Renaissance Festival today. Got to see the two groups I really wanted to hear perform - Mediaeval Babes and Wolgemut. Also, watched a great Punch and Judy show, saw Shakespeare Scum deconstruct Henry the "V" and enjoyed watching the Fight School demonstrate broad sword, bastard sword, quarterstaff, transitional rapier, rapier and main-gauche, short sword and cased rapier (florentine style).

wishweaver picked up some nice faire garb for next year and I picked up a very nice wooden mug for use both there and when I'm working on my stories, as well as the two Mediaeval Babes CDs I hadn't bought yet. I'll be adding them into my iTunes Library tomorrow night.

Although, I will admit, going to the RenFest meant I blew off my writing for today (bad author, bad author), but I got quite a bit done yesterday and I'm three chapters from finishing the breakdowns. I'll try to make it up tomorrow night while the daughter-unit has her vision therapy. Then it's time to write the first chapter and start editing both.

So, have a good night, Live Journal.

Started feeling better today. wishweaver got ahold of the tree cutting people and they came out and stacked the wood lying in our back yard for the neighbor who wants to use it as firewood. Also, the stump wasn't quite as high as it appeared yesterday. Apparently, they had stacked the two largest pieces back on top of the stump to get them out of the way. *rolls eyes*

Wish had much better luck talking with the owner of the company than she had talking to the workers. She almost had to call their boss and have him explain that "yes, they did have to do the work they contracted for, which included stacking the wood." *rolls eyes again*

Watched the ballgame this afternoon. *sigh* I have to give the Chiefs Defense props. For what had been a much maligned part of the team, they really stepped up today and gave the Colts all they wanted. Who knew the offense would completely fall on their face? I mean, they intercepted Payton three times, ran one back to the 9 yard line, forced the Colts into three field goal attempts in the first half and in general, played their hearts out and got NO help what-so-ever from the offense. What a change from the last time we had a play-off team. This was a game we could have won and should have won.

Got some good writing in this evening. I decided that for right now, I'm going to probably alternate between Chronicles of the Sea Dragon and Shattered Mirror to keep fresh on both of them. At least, that's the plan until I hear something on the Dr. Who or Star Trek fronts. I expect if one or both come through for me, they're likely to be very short suspenses, but there's no reason to get started until I know what the licensor and the editors want me to do.

Words for today

1,288 / 1,000 (128.8%)

Progress on Chronicles of the Sea Dragon

31,830 / 95,000 (33.5%)

Words for the year

8,663 / 365,000 (2.4%)

San Francisco 26 Denver 23, with 1:56 left in overtime!

Chiefs are going to the playoffs!

We play Indianapolis in the early game on Saturday and I'm looking forward to seeing this one.

Given the way both teams play defense, definitely take the over on the spread!

*pictures of me doing the happy dance have been deleted to preserve the sanity of readers of this blog*

4 things had to happen for the Chiefs to make the play-offs: Chiefs had to beat the Jaguars, Steelers had to beat the Bengals IN Cincinatti, Patriots had to beat the Titans IN Tennessee and the 49ers had to beat the Broncos IN Denver.

As of 4:48pm EST:
1) Chiefs 35 - Jaguars 30.

2) Pittsburgh 23 - Bengals 17(OT) - Bengals miss a 39 yard field goal attempt with 12 seconds left and Steelers win in overtime on a 67 yard pass.

3) Patriots 40 - Titans 23

Watching the Broncos/49ers game with renewed interest.

Currently 3-0 Broncos . . . keeping fingers crossed.

There are a ton of things to be thankful for today and everyday.

I especially want to thank wishweaver for putting up with me!

(Oh, and the fact that my Chiefs beat the stinkin' Broncos tonight just capped it off.)

Actually, the last day of the convention was the most relaxing for me. I packed out of the room, stored my stuff at the front desk and headed to the convention center. Ran into Haley Garwood and visited with her in the Dealer's room for a while before going around to find the were-guild . . . I mean, the presents for wishweaver and the daughter-unit. I picked up some nice tee-shirts (A Dragon reading books for Wish, a Cowthulu tee for my daughter and a "Girl Genius" shirt for myself). There was another tee I'm going to have to order from them (they were out of my size by Sunday). It's like those I (heart) something shirts except this one is black with red letters that says "I (Godzilla) Tokyo". What can I say, I'm a sucker for the big guy.

After a while, I ran into Les Haven, the pro coordinator, and he hooked me up with a ride out to the airport. Unfortunately, they were leaving at 2:30, so I had to cancel out of my only panel on Sunday. Probably just as well, I was starting to feel pretty brain-dead by that time after all the Saturday panels. Caught up with some friends and just hung around the con until about noon. Then it was back to the hotel to get my stuff, wait for my ride and watch some football.

Arrived at the airport so early that they wouldn't check my bags at the self-serve counter (no more than 5 hours ahead of your flight, in case you're wondering). So, after getting my boarding pass, I had to go stand in the regular line and they had to contact their supervisors to see if they'd let me check my bags that early. Luckily, they agreed to take it. My gate was only four from the security checkpoint and there was a sports bar next to it, so I hopped up on the bar stool and immediately wondered what the hell was going on . . . Arizona 14, KC 0? That had to be a misprint. No . . . once again, the Chiefs have decided that I need to die of a heart attack well before I reach 50. I must say, the final score made me very happy (Chiefs 23, Cardinals 20), but as wishweaver will tell you, I take my football a little too seriously for her taste.

After the game, found a place near an electrical plug and finished up my college homework while we were waiting for the plane to arrive. Once we reached altitude, I turned on the iPod and listened to Boston Blackie solving crimes and telling bad puns all the way back to D.C.
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I probably should have taken Monday off too. I went into work and since we couldn't go to the client spaces to work, one of the people thought I should read the project requirements documents and the System Architecture Document (there's a reason it's called the SAD, people). OH, MY, GOODNESS. I was reading through these and I had to keep wondering "And this has WHAT to do with my position on the project?" It was a painful day and I wound up taking off early just to save my sanity.

At least class went well Monday night and I turned my Animal Farm paper in. I don't know what kind of grade I'm going to get on it, but at least the teacher liked the title of my paper.

Now, I'm doing some minor tweaks to the finished Harbinger manuscript and hoping to hear back from the Agent. Well, I'm really hoping the Agent will reply asking for the rest of the manuscript. Heck, I'm hoping I'll get positive request from all my currently submitted proposals and such, but that might be a tad optimistic.

Back to the grindstone.