Awards Don't Suck

The Blondster has won an award for her art.



She won the City of Alexandria Award for her self-portrait (it's in the picture, between two of her abstracts). It's kinda cool, because she had to be chosen to participate in the gallery showing, and then to win from that selected group was really something for her.

I'd like to bow and take credit for all of this, I really would, but as my stick figure drawings are disproportionate and Quasimodo-esque in their collective attractiveness quotients, I can't.

My father, however, were he alive, could take a big, proud bow, as this vein of artistic skill was passed down (skipping a generation) from him. He painted as a sideline all the time I was growing up - made some decent money, every once in a while, painting abstracts on huge canvases, on commission, in the 1960s.

How about you all? Any relatives with talents that skipped a generation, or that seemed to appear out of the blue?

My voice thing, and a list of where else to visit...

Okay, here's mine.

It wasn't what I was gonna do. I was gonna read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, but TB couldn't find it, and neither could I. So, we settled on Ten in the Bed, a rhyming and counting book the girls loved listening to when they were very young. We'd pile animals up on the bed with us, snuggle in and read, and they'd scream and laugh in the shrill, ear-piercing little-girl way as we tossed the animals over the side to bedroom floor oblivion as they were counted 'off' in the book, and then the girls would climb down and throw the animals back in bed at the end. Sounds silly, but it was loads of fun.

We had a snafu with our YouTube deal - The Blondster's Mac has just about had it with all the stuff she's got crammed on it, so the video stopped when we reached 'four' in the countdown. Sorry, our dramatic finish was lost.

Here you go: Ten in the Bed (or Six, Flying off TB's Bedroom Chair, if you're being all picky).



Here's who else is up:

Aerin (her link is in the comments)
BT
Janey
Whirl

I think McK, Pete and Sylvia may be coming along soon, and maybe a few others.

Robin Jr.'s so damned lonely at school...

She just sent me this picture from one of her friend's Facebook things. (I'm not allowed on there, or anywhere near. Gee. I wonder why?)

God, sometimes I miss the old days; but even so, I'm certainly happy she's having a nice time making her own.

Voice Thing on Sunday, March 22nd...

..using Janey's idea of reading from a favorite children's book. I love this idea.
When I mentioned it to The Blondster, she told me she wanted to choose the one I read. So, there you go. I'll be reading one of her favorite 'read to me, Mommy' books from when she was very young.

Can't wait to hear yours!!

In Other News....

1.Happy St. Patrick's Day!!! It's also our 10th wedding anniversary today. We're going out soon, to a French restaurant called, oddly enough, The Bastille, in Old Town Alexandria. (Irish heritage that I am, I called an upscale Irish bar and restaurant called O'Connell's, also in Old Town, to see if we could get dinner reservations there. The guy just laughed in my ear.)

2.McK (see link on sidebar) dreamed a weird dream, baby. She dreamed Whirl and I went on a date. She has a contest. Go check it out! You can bet your ass I'm writing a contest entry for that one. Due in by Friday.

3. EE's Book Chat for Neil Gaiman's book, The Graveyard Book, is coming next week. I've never read Neil Gaiman, in all honesty, had never heard of him before a couple of years ago, but I can tell you, this book of his is a wonderful read.

4. The Blondster has art being displayed in a gallery exhibit in Old Town, and there will be a reception for she and her fellow artists this weekend. I'll post pics and links next week, after our Voice Thingy this weekend.

Goin' out now to tie one on with the French. Bye for now!

Time for a communal voice post?

It's been a while now; I read Whirl's post this morning that he's in his own "I'm just about at the novel-writing finish line" funk, and lots of the rest of you are working on staying free from the clutches of the Koala Claw (those are a very good thing, those claws - they jumpstart brain cells on a dime).

Do we have time for a voice thingy?

What's the topic?

When's the date?

I feel skittish.

Loosely connected from the feet up. Or the head down. Easily irritated. Fussy.
Halfway pissed off, and halfway sad. I feel like a funeral should've taken place, but it didn't, and here I sit, out in the wind with no resolution.

I feel this way because I finished my book two weeks ago. I thought I was absolutely finished with it, edits and all. I had a mean, long list. A really good one. Comprehensive. And I felt so good for a few days. Utterly triumphant - it was bliss.

Now, I don't feel any bliss at all.

Now, I'm waking up thinking about how I should've taken that out, or added this in.

And it's not just silly stuff. I'm only rehashing the parts I had the most trouble with. The parts I was pleased with, I'm still pleased with. But the parts I fought my way through - apparently I only thought I was ready to say they were 'there' (wherever the hell that is).

I'm gonna give this a few more weeks to stew before I reread beginning to end - you know, just let things settle, so I don't make mistakes, swinging back and forth on what I think, and screwing my novel up in the process. I don't think it will take much, but I do have a yellow legal pad, and my notes are going on it as I tool along, thinking.

So, please forgive me if I need a little babysitting right now.

When you guys have written something, do you sometimes get this unfinished feeling running along inside you?

Pics of Robin Jr & The Blondster

I've just been granted new pictures of my girls. Right after I said The Blondster was now a brunette, she dyed her light again.

So...here's Robin Jr....



and here...




And these were taken of The Blondster over the course of this weekend:






and....



After all of our pictures this past week, thought you might like to see a few more.
Anybody else?

Here's "The Answer Key"

Hey you all,

It's gonna take me a bit to go through and count all the answers. I'm hurrying, and I'll edit this post as soon as I have them all counted up, but in the meantime, here is the list of Who's (Actually) Who:

1. Sarah

2. EE (shockingly)

3. Kiersten

4. BT

5. Whirl

6. Chris (a/k/a rhinothongbutt, for a while)

7. Aerin (on the left)

8. Robin

9. McK

10. Paca

11. Deb/WW (on the right)

12. Pete

13. Janey

14. Sylvia

And the winner is (no pulling names from a hat necessary): Janey!!
Janey picked 12 right - which is freaking amazing.

Next one down the list were McK and BT, each with a strong '10 right'. Whirl was third, with 9.

Janey, all I can say, girl, is you've got 'the sight'. I thought these were damn hard, and I knew the answers! So, you deserve your reward/award thing. Just pop over to Sparky's and check his Book Chat list (past or to-be-read book, it doesn't matter) and let me know whatcha want, and it will be on its way.

Guessing Game

Okay, finally, here they are. 14 pictures. 14 guesses.

For time zone fairness purposes, the original idea about "the first person in the comments to get the most correct answers, wins" thing has to go out the door. AND, for fairness, no peaking at the picture title - most are hidden kinds of titles, but even so...

So, here's the deal: this time tomorrow, I'll check all the guesses (first set by each person) and the ones that are tied for most correct answers, I'll put little pieces of paper with the conestant's names(literally) in a golf cap, and The Blondster, without looking, will pick the winner for the EE-Book-Chat book of his or her choice.

So, here is the list of the fourteen of us who are pictured (anyone can play the guessing game). Enjoy!!!

Aerin
BT
Chris
Deb/Writtenwyrd
EE
Janey
Kiersten
McK
Paca
Pete
Robin
Sarah
Sylvia
Whirl

#1


#2


#3


#4



#5


#6



#7(little girl on the left)


#8


#9



#10


#11 (girl on the right)



#12



#13



#14

My Boo Boo Bears are Broken Up

...but they're not even remotely broken-hearted. (I really should write country music lyrics. Damn. I don't even like country music. That's what comes of being from good, strong, redneck stock.)

Anyway. Last summer, Robin, Jr. and The Blondster were all happy, mushy, cushy with their boyfriends. We even hauled the guys to Wales with us for our summer vacation.

(This is EE's idea of a joke - pretend sunglasses on Robin, Jr.'s boyfriend, who was suffering in my original pic from a major case of red-eye.) And OK, yeah, it is funny. Especially now.



Now the world is topsy turvy. Robin Jr. is a blonde now, and The Blondster is brunette. Slightly redheaded, actually. And they've broken up with their boyfriends.

The (former)boyfriends are not happy.

The (former) girlfriends...are.


Coming later this evening, or early in the morning, the picture guessing game.