Frankie says... I hate this blog title. But I'm tired.

It has been a long week. Luckily, it was a nice enough day. It was my
day to bring breakfast to work. And even though several people were out
today, one of the ones that was there said it was the best Friday
breakfast yet. So that helped.

I made homemade pop tarts. They really are pretty awesome.

Plus, I got some actual writing done on my NaNoWriMo novel. Even after switching novel ideas on the first day, I still ended
up bored with what I was writing. So four thousand words in (still
behind on my word count), I gave up on the storyline and just started
writing anything. Basically, I just had all the characters I've ever
carried around in my head burst in on the storyline and take over.

And just as anyone but me would expect, as soon as I stopped worrying about
trying to eke out a good story, suddenly the writing got really good. I
like the last bit I wrote more than anything I've written in ages.

FINALLY!

I should relax more often.

Can today be over now, please?

I'm not having the best day. I'm having a guilty day.

First of all, there was a mixup on a file at work. I feel like it's my fault, although my boss has assured me several times it's not really anyone's fault, just one of the mixups that was bound to happen with us changing our ownership, our procedures, and our computer system all within a few months of each other. So even though she says it's not my fault, I'm not entirely convinced. So today I listened to her doing damage control while I took care of my own work.

Then I came home and sat on Bagheera. We have a black cat and black chairs. She was curled up in a tiny, cute ball, and I didn't see her. She seems to be fine, as she was almost immediately jumping in my lap and purring while I scratched her belly. But I still feel guilty.

I don't like guilty days.

Day three, and the obsession is setting in

Ok. I can do this.

I got up over 2500 words today, which is about halfway to where I should be for today. If I just focus and make some effort (and turn off the wi-fi and go in the other room), I can probably get up over 4000.

I can do this.

Current word count: 2507

Second day setbacks

I had every intention of posting my word count so far. I'm not at the normal goal (1667 words a day, which means I should be up to 3334 words today). I'm am most definitely not there yet. I think I'm actually somewhere around 1600.

Notice I said, "I think."

Because I left my flash drive at work, so I have no idea what it is exactly. Or exactly where I left off in the story.

So I'm improvising. I'm picking up at the end of the scene I was writing. I'll connect the dots tomorrow. And hopefully get caught up.

It's a busy week. Luckily, I have not one plan for this weekend. Maybe I'll make cinnamon rolls, but that's it.

And so it begins

It's November! NaNoWriMo has begun!


Expect much ridiculousness from me this month. From what I remember from the last time I did this, it's a pretty silly ride. I plan to enjoy it.

Current word count: 0. That won't last long.

Adventures with livestock

I am a bad blogger. It has been an entire month since I last posted here. Shame on me. Shame!

Plus, I've been busy doing awesome things, so you'd think I'd want to post about all the awesomeness.

My life is getting ridiculous again. I'm loving it.

Par example: Last weekend we went to the Taos Sheep and Wool Festival. I got a big bag of yarn and stuff, and a tiny sunburn on just one shoulder. I'm not sure how I managed that. I think I must have been somehow facing the same way all day.

The festival was so much fun though. I met other another knitter from Santa Fe, and her daughter and granddaughter from Phoenix.

And we saw a whole passel of knitting-friendly livestock. First there were the traditional sheep:


That one in the middle refused to come out of the middle. He was trying so hard to hide the indignity of being the only one that was shorn. It certainly wasn't because he was cold. It was at least seventy-five that day. Maybe eighty. Unseasonably warm for Taos.

Next we saw the alpacas.

They were very shy and stayed huddled in the middle so you couldn't really pet them much. The Boy Creature managed it, and said they were very soft. I'll have to console myself with petting the hand-dyed alpaca yarn I bought instead.

I did love the sound they made, though. It's sort of somewhere between a cat's meow and a sheep's bleat. And they did it over and over. I loved it!

This next little guy is a baby yak.


And when I say little, I mean about the size of a labrador. He was adorable, though. It was too hot for him, so he mostly just laid around and panted, poor little thing.


Last but certainly not least, were the angora bunnies. I'm crazy about these things, to the point that I considered getting one before we got Bagheera.


These are some of the most ridiculous-looking animals I've ever seen. They look like a normal bunny got put in the dryer and they puffed up into these giant dandelion type things. And they're huge. I'd seen pictures of them on the internet, and I thought they were the size of normal bunnies. But they're two to three times that size! And now I'm glad I didn't get one, because you pretty much have to be endlessly combing that fur. And there's a lot of fur.

It was a super fun day. I almost wish they had one every month. But not really, because I'd go so very broke buying yarn, and I'd never knit it all up. I already have too much as it is. But that's the way I like it.

And the other thing that's making my life more ridiculous: I signed up for trapeze classes again. I'm so excited! I will soon have super cool bruises again! That'll make wearing skirts to work interesting, once we get to doing ankle hangs.

It's starting to feel more home-y...

Happy cat:


Happy Kat:


It's been an eventful week.

On Wednesday we got the kitten. She's about five months old, and we can't figure out what to name her. Her foster mother was calling her Maya, but we don't like that. The names that have come up so far are Eleanor Roosevelt, Queen Elizabeth the First, and Bagheera. I suggested that last one, although I've since learned that I'm remembering my Kipling wrong. I thought Bagheera was female for some reason. So I guess that one will get pulled off the table. Our kitten is very sleek and velvety and panther-like, though. Just on a much smaller, more timid scale. She's very, very timid. I'm hoping she grows out of that, although not out of the part where she's too timid to use her claws.

The kitten is currently curled up in the Boy Creature's lap, and the Boy Creature is asleep. It's rather adorable.

Today I got the bookshelf. It was free. One of my office mates was standing in the empty office across the hall with the facilities manager talking about what furniture to keep and what to get rid of for the person who's moving into said office. So I called out, "Are you giving furniture away?" Ten minutes later, they delivered the bookshelf to my office door. Apparently it used to be in the registrar's office, because people kept coming by to drop off files or ask a question, and they'd go, "Hey, that looks awfully familiar. What's it doing here?"

Sadly, said bookshelf did not fit into my wee little Honda Civic at the end of the day. It got about halfway in and wouldn't go any further. If we'd had some rope, we could have tied it down and it would have been fine, but we had no rope. Luckily, we had a friend with an SUV who was kind enough to come help us out. So even though I still have four boxes of books yet to unpack, I'm happy.

Even though it won't help the fact that I was already reading two books at once, and I just put a third on hold at the library.