Monday, March 29, 2010

Monday, Monday...

The week and the day was to start off on a pretty promising note.

We were going to pick up a sizable check from a client and our immediate pressing financial worries would be temporarily checked.

The weekend was beautiful *and* productive. Our backyard jungle was returned to it's state as a backyard with a lawn--well, lawn is a relative term as any real grass has been taken over by weeds. But it looks fine when it's mowed, and as long as it's green...

Our patio was cleared of all the random debris and weeds, and hubby and I tried to enjoy an al fresco breakfast but it was a might too chilly for him.

Huh? What? He was too cold? That's an amazing turn of events as it's usually me trembling with bird-chillies. I must be approaching "the change."

The weather in general is bright and sunny, but still cool. Perfect camping weather.

But this morning at 6:45 we get a call from one of our best clients--their building was broken into and their server and five of their PCs were stolen. So now we are on high alert to turn around a new server, five PCs, and find their data from backups and get them up and running.

Chaos! I hate chaos. Meanwhile, all our other plans get pushed to the wayside. On a positive note, we're making a decent chuck of change as we can charge priority rates, and insurance should pay for it all.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Another birthday...

...another year closer to freedom. Or so my husband said yesterday. Each year older our kids grow, that's just a year closer to them all going out into the world on their own.

Yesterday was our younger daughter's twentieth birthday. As I've mentioned previously, she's a pretty good kid. Going to school, working--oh, wait, her daycare closed and she's unemployed at the moment. But she'll be looking for a job soon. Luckily for her, she doesn't have any bills at this point. She has very little drama in her life, thank goodness. I have quite enough from the older daughter!

The celebration was low key as we were all suffering from lack of sleep the night before, so by nine we had all gone to our separate corners.

We've decided that all the kids will be out of the house by July 5, 2014. What's significant about that date? Well, my son will graduate high school that year and then the day after fireworks season, he'll be on a bus to boot camp! Okay maybe not. But we all need dreams, right?

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Dream Editor...

In more ways than one...

This past weekend, I attended my writing chapter's writing conference. When I say I attended, I mean that I was at the hotel where it was being held. And instead of attending the main presentation by Michael Hauge, I manned the agent/editor appointment "desk" all day, keeping the appointments flowing and on time. The chapter brought in two agents and two editors for conference attendees to pitch their books to. I was able to meet them all and chat with them off and on all day.

One of the editors was Adam Wilson from Mira Books/Harlequin Teen. Poor guy was under the weather this weekend and had to deal with a flow of crazy women all day Saturday, plus crazy Texas weather, including snow! I tried to make sure he had everything he needed--hot tea, coffee, water, food...whatever. He was quite nice and such a cutie. The picture he sent for our chapter's web site looked nothing like him, so when I came face to face with the current look of Adam Wilson, well, I was smitten. Auburn hair and facial scruff. Um, yum!

I got to talk with him Sunday morning a bit about Harlequin's teen line, so that was a treat. So if I ever decide to write a stinkin' young adult historical, I know where I'm sending it!

But I'm bummed 'cause my good friend Marty had beers in the hotel bar with Adam and she didn't call me and I missed a chance for a little more face time with Adam. Ah, well... ;)

Aside from that, I got some writing and revising done, which was very nice, too.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Time passes...

Is it really March already? Spring has sprung here in North Texas, thank goodness. I am tired of being cold and of high electric and gas bills to keep me warm. This is the short period in which those things even out once more.

Time marches on as they say...my younger daughter will celebrate a birthday next week. It'll be a happier occasion than the last b-day we celebrated, I'm sure. I even have a present or two or three already purchased. Pretty good by our standards. Usually, I am running out the day of any given birthday to buy gifts. But this daughter is easier to buy for and I have seen things here and there as I have been out and about and purchased them. It does feel good, I must admit, to have it partially out of the way. Now if I can just remain so proactive and get cake mix, frosting, and the rest of the gifts purchased (and wrapped???) before the actual day of her birth, then I really celebrate.

Time heals all wounds...or so they say. My daddy died two days before Thanksgiving last year and we buried him two days after. A tough holiday, to be sure. I wasn't that close to my dad, sad to say. He even said last year (around this time) that he didn't know if he'd live to see another Christmas. All the usual regrets apply so I won't list them. But I still miss him, and the tears sneak up on me every now and again. A certain song or seeing a skinny old man with a receding hairline and a full-beard.

Time flies when you're having fun...so time alternately drags and rushes by. Fun comes in small bursts that are gone much too quickly, the other stuff seems to linger. But what is fun?

Fun is hanging out with your soul mates--I have various ones. My writer friends who understand the lure of the beckoning keyboard and an active muse. My online fandom friends who share the joyous squee of the BBC's Robin Hood and especially its leading actor, Jonas Armstrong. (Oh, we haven't had JA eye candy in awhile, so here you go...go ahead, click on the image to see it bigger!)



And the most important of my soul mates: my husband who becomes more of a soul mate the longer we are married. (Seventeen year, this July) A good thing, no? My younger daughter, who, as I mentioned in the last post, is very much like me and makes me laugh. And my son, whom I adore. He's fun to watch, to listen to, and spend time with. He keeps me young(ish).

Monday, March 8, 2010

The Other Daughter...

What can I say about my younger daughter? I won't lie...she's moody and stubborn and strong-willed and has an attitude more often than not. I don't know how many of those descriptors apply to me at her age. (Mom??)

But she is also amazing and quite the opposite of her older sister. This weekend she bought a laptop for herself. She was so excited and I was so proud. Not that I didn't want to buy her one, because I would have liked to reward her for attending school (college) everyday and doing her homework and going to work. But I feared she would not respect the money I spent and not care for/respect the laptop as well as she should. But now--it's her hard earned money and her computer. Yeah, mostly it's a toy, but she will be able to do her schoolwork on it, too. I hope that she will take care of her new toy/tool and learn the lesson of taking good care of one's belongings.

And in other ways, she reminds me so very much of myself as a young person. She'll say, "C'mere, mom, look what I did/made." So I go and see, and I have to laugh out loud because it's something I probably did or might have done once upon a time.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Happy Birthday--

My oldest baby turned twenty-two yesterday.

It wasn't the happiest of birthdays. I'm sure she was disappointed with her small/inexpensive haul, but a) I didn't really have the money to go all out and b) she's in financial straits and I wasn't giving her anything she could sell.

We had cake and visited for a bit then everyone went their separate ways for the evening. And that was it.

I want to know what happened to my beautiful, happy, sweet little girl? When did she turn into a secretive lying shopaholic delinquent?

The other two are fairly normal kids...they lie occasionally, what kid doesn't? They both attend school. They are both social with the family; well, the youngest more than the middle. They are both happy and fun to be around--except when the middle pushed the youngest's buttons, but that's sibling interaction. I hope...I wouldn't know first hand. I didn't have any siblings until I was twelve and, even then, we didn't live together.

Sigh...