Cat pics and more...

Here are some cute cat pics, taken over the last couple of days. I can't help but snap shots of them whenever they do something cute *g* - click to see a larger version:














Other than that, I've been working on stuff for the move today. And my expenses for our taxes. I start every new year vowing I'll keep better track, and in 2005 I did a little better, using the Expense feature in my Palm, but I'm still scrambling to get the last few things entered *sigh*. Poor Sean, he has the patience of a saint when it comes to me and my less than organized ways.

I have to admit this morning that I played around with Google Pages, and created a little site for myself there, where I'm going to post some of my history related articles. I figure this is a good way to archive them, just in case something happens. I have so much stuff backed up, but what with the move, I'm even more nervous than usual about losing things.

Speaking of the move, considering the weather here today (windchill somewhere around -30ºC) and the weather out there (about +10ºC), I'm having absolutely no doubts about what we're doing. The next couple of months will be tough, but I've had enough of winter!!!

My writing is on hold for today - we have errands to run after Sean gets up from his post work nap, but I hope to get some work done tomorrow, at least a little, once I've done my set moving-related and business related tasks. And I have a writers group meeting Wednesday evening, which means I'll take something along to read aloud.

And one more Earthquake related note - Sean found the link to his report on the even stronger one we had here back in 2002. If you've ever wondered what my dh sounds like on air, you can listen to him here - click on the Audio Report in the top right-hand corner of the story. You'll need RealPlayer or another audio plug-in.

Teresa

Currently Reading: Book for review
Also Currently Reading: finally finishing Pandora's Breeches by Patricia Fara
Link of the Day: The British Empire

And the earth moved...

under our feet!

Yep, while I was at my critique meeting the other night, a minor earthquake rattled the region. We thought at first it was wind, but then the floor started to shake and we knew it was yet another of the small quakes we feel in this area every couple of years. During the one in April 2002, Sean was working on the 7th floor of a building and he really felt it sway.

As always, certain sectors of the media have been blowing it waaaaay out of proportion. Apparently some people were really frightened. Hmmm, now I'm thinking most people on the West Coast of the US would just laugh at them - what we experienced was definitely a small rumble. Nothing more and certainly not even remotely scary.

Historically, only two in this general area have caused any significant damage - one in Montreal during the 18th century and one on the border of Ontario and NY State in 1944.

Not much more to report - must get on with daily chores *sigh*. I did get some sleep this weekend - even had a nap yesterday afternoon. The kitties quite enjoyed the day - we had the fire on a lot of the time *g*.

Teresa

A quick Friday post

This is going to be a quick post. I didn't sleep well again last night and have been caught up with business related stuff. Did manage to get some more work done on my ms, including filling out yet another conflict worksheet, to help me clarify my characters. Now I just have to remember to back everything up!! Am working on a critique for one of my cps as well (we have a meeting tonight).

Happy Friday everyone!!

Teresa

Link of the Day: Tess Harrison's brand-spankin' new website

It's midweek and...

I'm feeling kinda meh. Well, that's partly cause my old friend Insomnia decided to pay a visit last night. I went to sleep ok, but when Sean got up just after 2:30 to get ready for work, I couldn't go back to sleep *sigh*. I tried for a while, then watched tv and cuddled with the kitty. Just before 6:30 I finally gave up completely and showered, then baked breakfast food for Sean for the rest of the week. At least the house smells good now :-)

Yesterday I did more character work, then noodled around with the family tree of my heroine, Madeleine. Something went weird with Legacy last night and I now have a sinking feeling I might have lost everything I did *deep sigh*. Haven't dared to open the programme yet and see. Later in the afternoon, Sean and I went to the gym - we'd been very lax for a while, so have now vowed to get there more often. After all, we'll need muscles to pack!!

Anyway, I guess I should open Legacy and see what's up. Darned software. *grumble, grumble*

Right - one more thing - Rene, Melissa and I have another blog, just for writers/readers of historical romance. Come see us over at Ainsley Park!

Teresa

Currently Reading: Book for review
Link of the Day: Storm reveals long-lost wall at Fortress Louisbourg

Great minds think alike....

Kelly and I share the same brain pattern:

Your Brain's Pattern

You have a dreamy mind, full of fancy and fantasy. You have the ability to stay forever entertained with your thoughts. People may say you're hard to read, but that's because you're so internally focused. But when you do share what you're thinking, people are impressed with your imagination.

What Pattern Is Your Brain?

I really did look at the others, not wanting to be a copycat, but the above is really what appealed to me most. Interesting to see if other writers feel the same way :-)

Lynn mentioned how busy I am - yep, but we don't have to juggle children's schedules. If we did, well, I think I might be going mad at this point *g*. Then again, we might not be making this move so soon if we did. Likely wouldn't be affordable.

I DID get some writing done yesterday. After procrastinating ALL morning. Did some work on my antagonist and continued to work on Henri's timeline. I picked up this idea from Gaelen Foley - in her article Prep That Book!, she mentions that she gets to know her characters by creating a "year-by-year character biography". This sounded really cool to me, so I decided to try one for Henri. Of course, this also meant playing with software ;-), which I LOVE to do. Unfortunately Timeline Maker isn't quite flexible enough for this, so I'm using the timeline feature in Legacy. The idea is to go year by year with your characters from childhood on and include info on what they were doing as well as what was happening in the wider world. She concludes this section of the article with the following: "Through research, you can gain an understanding of what kind of lives real people had in that period of history and how far you might be able to stretch that in a believable way for fictional purposes. Various plot twists for what may have happened to the character along the way in life will be a lot more believable if you have a historical precedent on which to model your character's experiences."

The rest of the article is just as helpful - I recommend reading it :-)

Teresa

Currently Reading: Book for review
Link of the Day: Vote for Best Dialogue Scene in RT's American Title Contest

A busy weekend...

Well, ok, some of it was spent recovering from our dinner on Friday night. NOT that I had tons to drink, but there's no doubting I'm 40. Give me more than a glass of wine, and my head is really heavy the next morning. Still, we had fun, despite the rather, shall we say, invigorating trot through the -20º C weather.

We ran a bunch of errands during the day on Saturday, including visiting a children's bookstore opened recently by a friend or ours from university. Later we went out again and found a copy of Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit on DVD. We knew it was out and wanted to grab it while we could - not only do WE love it (watched it again Saturday evening), but we figure it's a good one to have on hand when children visit us.

Yesterday was cleaning day, followed by grocery shopping - though Sean did the majority of the cleaning! Did manage to take some time in the afternoon to do more work on the soundtrack for my current ms. I also made a start on one of the two books I have to review for the HNS this quarter - it's really good and kept me reading quite avidly, though I did have a couple of minor quibbles. Still, it won't be hard to finish! Then I got my fix of Grey's Anatomy for the week - as always, a very cool ep, though somehow I missed the bit where they diagnosed what was causing the female patient's episodes. If someone else knows, could you please enlighten me as to how they figured it out and what it was?

On tap for this week is more work on my ms combined with more move-related tasks. Will be juggling the two. And I have a critique meeting this Friday, which means I have to get my butt in gear and start reading my cps' submissions :-)

Cute cat trick of the week: Cleo figured out how to get the furnace grate out of the floor in the living room. After I went to bed last night I heard a strange noise and went to investigate. She was looking curiously down the hole she'd uncovered. Glad I found her in time!!! Silly kitty. OTOH, she and Chloe seem to LOVE their cage. We've left it out for them and they spend a lot of time playing in it. Hmmm, wonder who they'll feel when it's in the extended cab of a truck!!

Ok - on with my work.

Teresa

Currently Reading: Book for review
Link of the Day: Gabrielle's fantastic website - UPDATED!!

My blog is worth....

I got this from Tess:

My blog is worth $10,161.72.
How much is your blog worth?

Happy Sunday!

Teresa (in oh so cold Eastern Ontario)

Responding to Comments

Melissa wrote: What a cute pic! We had to banish our kitty out to the garage last night because my cold must have been making me very vulnerable to my allergies - I was sneezing up a storm around her.

Glad you got the truck! And my husband makes those Tim the Tool Man noises all the time. It's a guy thing that I doubt I'll ever understand.
---
Oh, poor kitty. But understandable, considering your cold! Glad my dh isn't the only one to make those ToolMan noises!!


Larissa wrote: Aww...how cute! I just love pictures like that!
---
Yeah - often they look adorable like that UNTIL they hear the shutter open, then they move *g*.


Gabrielle wrote: Oh, they're so sweet!
---
I know! It's so great they've become such fast friends. Will make travelling with them in a cage for 10 days much easier!!


Kelly wrote: I agree Tess. I thought it impossible for her to outdo The Carpetbagger which was my personal fave, but I think she may just have done it. And she mentions Sir Robert has two brothers. I hope that means we get their storie too! I'm about 3 chapters from the end and I can't wait to get home at the end of the day and read it.
---
So - did you finish it? What did you think of the end? I too would love to read about Robert's brothers.


Gina wrote: They are adorable! My kitties are too big or too old to jump up on anything but the bed or sofa these days and it's a good thing. I still get hair in the keyboard, though, because I always use my laptop in bed.

Is that a picture of Good Queen Bess in the background?
---
LOL re the hair. Yeah, we get it everywhere too. In fact, we still find fur from our OTHER cats, though they've been gone quite a while now!

Yep, it's Bess - a little tray with her pic on it. Have on of her daddy as well. Sean's late grandmother gave me them when she moved to a nursing home about 11 years ago. She knew I'd appreciate them.

Teresa :-)

It's a wild and crazy morning...

here in Eastern Ontario. Over the last 24 hours we've had snow, freezing rain, rain, then more freezing rain and now snow and winds gusting up to 55 kph! (See pics in the post below) The cold wind is because Sean and I are going out to dinner tonight - walking to the restaurant nearest us. Our fave. One of the things about living here I'll really miss.

Glad y'all liked the photo of the kitties :-) And yes, they're sweet and adorable. When they're not tearing around the house after each other like little speed demons! Up and over the furniture etc.

In writing news, I got more work done yesterday on my Summaries - typed in some of the stuff I'd written by hand and added some extra as well as coming up with a new chart for the Romance Thread, dividing the main points of the romance by Act. And I added the FDin30D Formatted Capsule Template to my notecards in WriteWayPro.

Last night I finished The Bride Ship *sniff*. It was soooooo wonderful. Really, I didn't want the story to end!!! I wish I could put my finger on what made it so special - partly it was the setting, but there was something intangible, especially about the hero and heroine, that just sucked me right into the story and made me never want to leave! Deb is a great writer - if you've never tried one of her books, I highly recommend you pick up this one and see for yourself :-)

I blognapped the following from Lynn:

Teresa will have to write:

I will not lie on the ground and tell people they don't want to know why I'm lying there

'What will you have to write on the chalk board?' at QuizGalaxy.com

and

Teresa -- [noun]: A master blogger 'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Hmm, looks like I'm well on my way, considering all the blogs I already have *g*.

Happy Friday, everyone!

Teresa

Link of the Day: My pbwiki (yeah, like I NEED another way to procrastinate, but hey, it looks fun)

Pics of the wild and crazy weather

Below are some pics I just took. Click on the thumbnails to open them in a separate window for a better view:












Of course, the camera really can't capture everything, at least mine can't *g*. Still, it gives you some idea of what it's like here!

Teresa

Everyone say awwww....

Click on the pic to see a bigger version - it will open in a new window.





Yep, those are my girls. Aren't they sweet? I love when they cuddle together like that. I took this pic yesterday morning.

Anyway, in writing news, I wrote a personal piece yesterday. Thought I might read it out at my local writers group meeting last night, but decided when I got there that I still wasn't quite ready to share. The meeting itself went well - we had several readings and one of my cps dropped by with her new baby and her older daughter. It was great to see them and hold the wee one.

So, Sean picked up his truck yesterday. And man, was he excited!!! Kept making that Tim Taylor noise *vbg*. Boys and their toys. Still, I'm happy with the truck too. First, it's RED! Yep, I'm a sucker for red vehicles. Plus, it's pretty darned comfy inside. Now we just have to convince the cats of that *vbg*.

I read more of The Bride Ship when I got home from my meeting. The romance is building slowly, but so beautifully. Deb really captures that breathless feeling we've all experienced. With just a few words, she conveys all the excitement, nerves and aching vulnerability of those losing themselves in each other. I think this is her best book yet!!!

Teresa

Currently Reading: The Bride Ship by Deb Hale
Link of the Day: Debut author Elizabeth Hoyt's website

More blognapping

this time from Kelly:

Your Candy Heart Says "Hug Me"

A total sweetheart, you always have a lot of love to give out. Your heart is open to where ever love takes you! Your ideal Valentine's Day date: a surprise romantic evening that you've planned out Your flirting style: lots of listening and talking What turns you off: fighting and conflict Why you're hot: you're fearless about falling in love

What Does Your Candy Heart Say?

Teresa

It's cloudy and warm here this morning...

and I'm waiting for the guy from the window place to come give us an estimate on the broken pane in Sean's office. The kitties are asleep on my desk again, after chasing each other around for about an hour *g*.

Thanks so much for all the congrats on the house sale!!! It's such a huge weight off our minds, though much of it's been replaced by the whole packing, moving and building thing. Still, we toasted with sparkling shiraz and took great delight in the big red Sold banner across the sign :-) Considering some of the houses on our street have taken months to sell, we're very relieved - we have great agents!!

---

On the writing front, I didn't get much done in the afternoon yesterday. We took my mum to the airport, ran errands on the way home, then I went out for a walk. After that, I printed off some stuff to work on, only to have cats bounce into my lap when I sat down in Sean's office to work there while he did his own work. BUT, I did get some more brainstorming/story notes done in the evening. I'd rather have been reading The Bride Ship, but figured I really needed to make some progress while I had the time. Came up with a few more plot points, which is good, as my Summary Outline was looking pretty bare there for a while.

---

I just blognapped this from Lynn (LOVE the word blognap, Lynn :-) ):

You Are The Wheel of Fortune

You represent the cycles of life, death, and rebirth. You embrace change, the the ups and downs of life. Fate is something you accept, even when you could possibly change things. Big things tend to happen to you more than other people. Your fortune: Something huge is about to happen in your life, and you have little control over it. You must accept your destiny, but luckily it is good fortune that has come your way. Big things and big changes are about to come your way. And while things will be intense for a while, they will be followed by a period of rest.

What Tarot Card Are You?

---

Our Valentine's Day was pretty quiet - we'd actually started it on Monday. I needed cheering up, so Sean brought out the chocolate and sparkling shiraz early, but we exchanged cards yesterday. His to me was really cute! Though Cleo tried to eat it *deep sigh*. On Friday we're doing dinner - a joint celebration of Valentines and the 18th anniversary of our first date (Feb 16, 1988)! We're looking forward to that.

So, that's about it from me today :-)

Teresa

Currently Reading: The Bride Ship by Deb Hale
Link of the Day: CrusieMayer blog (Jenny Crusie and Bob Mayer)

We sold the house!!!

Yep, that's right. Two weeks to the day from when it went on the market, our wonderful agent Tara dropped off the signed conditions paperwork. Only thing is, we're now leaving at the end of April, instead of mid-May as we met their closing date of Apr 28.

The reason I stopped blogging about the house last week was because the first offer fell through after the prospective buyer failed to meet the conditions. Last Sunday our house went back on the market and we had three more showings. By that evening, we had another conditional offer and signed off on it. Everything went as planned, including the second house inspection this past Saturday - it was a three hour one, so the kitties had some good practise time in the car :-) Yesterday afternoon, Tara flipped the sign to SOLD!!!

This morning I have to call the movers to get an estimate done!

Will try to get some writing done this afternoon.

Teresa

Currently Reading: The Bride Ship by Deb Hale
Link of the Day: The History of Valentine's Day

The famous tape dispenser...

Yes, I know this sounds weird - but there's a good explanation!

As it's Valentine's Day, the chat Sean had throughout his morning news run with the host of the show centred around romantic things he's done. The subject of the tape dispenser came up - a gift he gave me a few years ago. One which totally mystified the store clerk - Sean mentioned he was buying it for me as a gift and the girl looked at him as though he was nuts! Anyway, Sean knows me oh so well, and sure enough, I squealed with delight when I unwrapped it.

During the course of his on-air conversation, he never revealed the special nature OF the dispenser, so I figured I'd post a photo of it here:





As you can see, it matches the pencil cup. I also have a letter holder that matches (the latter two were bought separately), but Cleo kept knocking it over, so I put it away.

So, what unusually romantic thing has your significant other given you?

Teresa

Currently...

Tess posted this yesterday, so I figured I'd give it a whirl today:

current clothing: My USask black fleece pants, red long-sleeved t-shirt, black cotton cardigan and socks
current hair: brown, curly and badly in need of a cut
current mood: sleepy
current refreshment: coffee, black and strong
current annoyance: that I woke up at 4:30 this morning and couldn't go back to sleep
current avoidance: laundry
current smell: Freeman papaya shampoo
current thing you ought to be doing: working on my characters' timeline
current thing or things on your wall: calendar, framed pictures, bulletin board with photos of my dh and me and other inspirational stuff for my writing (photos, quotes etc)
current IM/person you're talking to: I don't do IM - would get waaaaay carried away with it if I did *g*
current jewelry: wedding ring, engagement ring, double heart ring I found in a pool when I was a kid (no-one claimed it)
current book: The Bride Ship by Deb Hale - the wonderful story is rolling right along.
current worry: where do I start?
current favorite celebrity: Canadian women's hockey team
current obsession: getting our stuff ready to pack!
current love: you mean other than my dh? anything dark chocolate
current longing: to be able to click my heels three times and have everything moved to BC
current disappointment: that I didn't get to go skating on the weekend
current lyric in your head: Hmm, nothing going through there right now!
current music: nothing right now - I'll probably pop a CD in later
current favorite book: see Current Book
current favorite movie: Pride Prejudice 3
current wish: that we finalize our house-building plan soon :-)
current happy thing: kitties sleeping on my desk - Chloe has her paw around Cleo - everyone say "awwwwwww"
current undergarments: Hmm, now that's just a tad TOO private!
current desktop picture: pic of the house we want to build
current plans for tonight/weekend: not sure yet - it all depends on what I get done today :-)

So what are you currently doing?

Teresa :-)

Link of the Day: Women Who Ruled: Queens, Goddesses, Amazons 1500-1650

Today's post is...

here.

See y'all Monday!

Teresa (only slightly hungover after a party last night)

Word Cloud and more...

Tess pointed the way to this cool feature - a Word Cloud based on the words in your blog. I immediately had to play around with it. Here's mine:



Yesterday I did some more work on my plot and more brainstorming. It also meant further clarification on my characters' goals. I came up with a couple of things I hadn't realized before - or I guess that should be, my characters revealed things they now want me to know. And then I admit to having taken a wee nap, after not sleeping well on Wednesday night, but my slumber was interrupted by the doorbell. It was the delivery of the blue prints for the house we want to build!!! Needless to say, I couldn't wait to get those puppies out of the box and start poring over them. NewsGuy got home soon afterwards and joined me, so we spent a lot of time looking and planning. We're adding a mud room a) because there will be lots of mud out there in the rainforest and b) to help contain the cats somewhat - I don't want them escaping into said rainforest, and two sets of doors will be way better than one at preventing that.

I watched ER last night and found it was a pretty good ep. LOVE that Luka and Abby are finally back together and happy. The one thing that did confuse me is why everyone assumed that Clemente was the one who shot Jodie? I mean, it was obvious he really cares for her - so why wouldn't anyone believe her crazy ex did it? And what's with Callie Thorne being typecast as a sex-crazed looney? I mean, Jodie isn't much different from her character Sheila on Rescue Me. Not that she doesn't do it well, but I liked her better on the last couple of seasons of Homicide: Life on the Street (a show I still miss).

Anyway, today I have to get some more stuff into the computer - I've been doing a lot of handwritten work, but if I don't start inputting it soon, I'll be overwhelmed and I like having everything recorded electronically.

RE: Comments on the great truck trek - glad y'all enjoyed the story :-) And yes, Hershey is great and sorry for making everyone crave chocolate! Sean has found a couple of likely trucks - I saw them yesterday and sat in them, so he's going back by himself to look them over again.

And yes, you'll all note I'm still reading The Bride Ship - savouring it, in fact. It's wonderful so far - makes me want to visit Halifax again! I don't take a lot of time to read these days, and with this particular book I'd rather take my time than gobble it up too quickly. *g*.

That's all for today, folks :-) Happy Friday!

Teresa

Currently Reading and Loving: The Bride Ship by Deb Hale
Link of the Day: Beginners' Latin, courtesy Early Modern Notes

The great truck trek...

We spent yesterday afternoon truck shopping. Yep, you read that right - truck shopping. We need a big pick-up with an extended cab AND a longbox - apparently something that's not easy to find. NewsGuy had done lots of online shopping, so we set out. Only to discover that the second town we were heading for was just a little bit further than we imagined. But as it was a lovely day, we kept going and enjoyed the scenery. Unfortunately the trucks there weren't quite what NG wanted, so it was back in the car (it was after 2 by this point) and back on the road. We headed for a pub we'd eaten at while out on the motorcycle a couple of years ago (our tummies were rumbling), only to discover it's closed on Wednesdays during the winter *sigh*.

So it was back to Perth and the Timmy's there. Reliable Timmy's, where we know we can get half-decent sandwiches and a mostly clean bathroom! Ok, and a couple of doughnuts From there we set off for Smiths Falls and another truck. Along the way, my sweetie-pie says, "Hey, we can go to Hershey! Do you want to go to Hershey?" Is the Pope Catholic?

So after inspecting yet another truck (we couldn't test drive it cause it still needed some work) we made our way through SF to Hershey. Now those of you who've never had the pleasure of visiting a Hershey plant will be interested to learn that even before you get out of the car, you know where you are. The smell of chocolate surrounds the factory. And when you actually leave the car and approach the doors, the rich smell invades every pore - breathing outside Hershey is pure heaven (can you tell I'm a tad premenstrual?). Anyway, we get inside and trundle about for a bit, seeing what's new then pick up some Extra Dark Chocolate, some Extra Dark Swoops with Almonds, Twizzlers and other assorted treats. Yummm. Definitely something I'll miss once we're in BC - easy access to the Hershey Factory *g*. OTOH, it was 10ºC and sunny on the coast of BC yesterday...

As a result, I got no writing done, though I did talk writing with a friend of mine when I dropped by her place for coffee before NG got home from work. And Tuesday I spent time working on my ms soundtrack - which is more useful than it sounds as it means I have to think about songs and the plotting points they represent :-)

I too forgot some stuff in my Fours yesterday - can't believe I didn't clue to Pirates of the Caribbean as one of the movies I can (and have) watched over and over. Ditto Casablanca!!! And High Society! And, like Kelly, I forgot about Grey's Anatomy and Missing - LOVE those shows too.

Anyway, I should get on with my day now. Lots to do!

Teresa

Currently Reading: The Bride Ship by Deb Hale
Link of the Day: How to Show, When to Tell at Flogging the Quill

Responding to comments from yesterday...

Kelly said, "Thanks for the synopsis article link. I need all the help I can get with them!"

You're welcome :-) I know I always need help with synopses *g*.


Melissa said, "I love brainstorming and figuring out all the little details. Even though it's frustrating and hard sometimes, it's still worth it in the end.

I'd say that trying to include every chapter in your synopsis is a mistake, especially if you're writing a very short synopsis."


Yep, brainstorming sure is fun. And glad to know I'm not the only one who feels that way about synopses.


Lynn said, "You have a black and white fur notebook? I bet that's more inspirational than mine. Mine says "diaper and feeding schedule" on the cover. I needed a notebook and it was the only one I could find after my husband took all my new spiral notebooks to our storage unit."


LOL - the notebook has black and white fur from young Cleo the kitty sitting on it!!! Nothing more exotic than that *g*. Apparently my powers of description need sharpening :-)


Annette said, "I don't think of synopses being written by chapter; I tend to write them by major turning point. I suspect that would mean most of my chapters are referenced, but definitely not all."


That's how I tend to do it too. Big relief, I suddenly thought I'd been doing things way wrong forever!!



Teresa :-)

A series of Fours

Rene tagged me yesterday :-)

Four Jobs I've Had
Camp Counsellor
Library Assistant
Teaching Assistant
Buyer's Assistant

Four Places I've Lived
Ottawa
Kingston
British Columbia (in the very near future)

Four Movies I Watch Over and Over
A Knight's Tale
The Princess Bride
Lady Jane
Shaun of the Dead

Four Places I've Vacationed
England
Bahamas
Maritimes
Saskatchewan

Four Favorite Dishes
Lasagna
Tortilla Chips and Guac
Carrot Curry Soup
Saag Chicken

Four Sites I Visit Daily
Single Number Reach (to pick up our company's messages/faxes)
Google
Blogger
RWA listservs

Four Places I'd Rather Be Right Now
England
France
British Columbia
Bermuda

Four TV Shows I Love
House
The West Wing
Law Order (esp CI now Chris Noth is back)
Heartbeat

Like Kelly, I'll leave y'all to tag yourselves, as I think most people I know have already been tagged :-)

Teresa

Currently Reading: The Bride Ship by Deb Hale
Link of the Day: Why history and all that is a Good Thing (article at BBC History Magazine)

I found Henri!!!

Here he is.

I stumbled on this section of the Met's site and started scrolling through the paintings and found this one. Coincidentally enough, both the artist, Antoine-Jean Gros, and the subject of the portrait himself, François-Pascal-Simon Gérard, trained with David, about whom I wrote my MA thesis. Yet more serendipity :-)

He's about five years younger than Henri, but as soon as I saw him, I knew he was right - doesn't he go well with Madeleine?

I've printed him out as well, so now I just have to find a frame for them.

House News
Looks like things will take a little longer to wrap up than anticipated. Tuesday looks like the day now.

However, we DID find the perfect house for us to build out west. Yeah, I know I've said this before but THIS time, I mean it *g*. It's called Swede Hill and was designed by an arcitect in the Pacific NW. It will fit in perfectly on the land that we have. Just seeing it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside - I KNEW it was right!!

Re: writing the other day
Well, I didn't get any done *deep sigh*. Forgot I hadn't done a full virus scan for a while, so the hour I would have spent at the computer writing was taken up a) by AVG scanning and b) doing a last minute clean of the kitchen before the building inspection.

The kitties did pretty well, though when we first put Chloe in the cage she started this heartwrending meowing. It was awful - she was like a caged panther. Still, once in the car, she settled down - especially after we put a blanket over three of the cage windows.

When we got home, I had to finish the Chris Lawford book before our bookclub meeting.

Anyway, I need to go bake Sean breakfast food for this week. He's only go a few more on this shift and I like to make sure he has healthy options to start the day.

See y'all tomorrow :-)

Teresa

House inspection day...

Yep, we're heading out again with the kitties later today so the building inspector can do his thing. I've been keeping the house clean all week, so other than a quick check of the bathrooms and getting the cats into their new, more spacious cage, there's not much to do. So everyone cross their fingers that all goes well, so we can clear that condition as well and finalize the deal.

I got some more planning done on my book yesterday. Though I admit to having wasted time playing around with various plotting/outlining programmes. None of them quite worked and something major went wrong with one of them, so I finally just adapted a form from reliable WriteWayPro and went with that.

Then Sean and I took advantage of the glorious weather here yesterday to go for a walk and look at pick-up trucks. We saw a couple we're interested in - will have to see what comes of it. The move is coming up fast, so we have to make some decisions about transportation out there etc. Think we've finally settled on that.

Am hoping to get more writing done this morning - moving on to free-form brainstorming the middle section of the ms. Not sure how much I'll come up with, but figure it's better to try than not *g*. And tonight we have our bookclub discussion of Chris Lawford's book - should be interesting. I've enjoyed most of it, but have some minor quibbles.

So that's it for me for today :-) Hope everyone has a happy Friday!

Teresa

Almost Finished Reading: Symptoms of Withdrawal by CKL
Next Up on my TBR: The Bride Ship by Deborah Hale
Link of the Day: Miss Make a Movie - blog for the documentary Who's Afraid of Happy Endings?

Snitched questions from Margaret...

First - thanks for the good wishes for Bob. Haven't heard yet today how he's doing - hope it's ok. A really big thank you to Larissa for sharing her advice and offer to help :-)

Ok, now on with today's post. I'm snitching Margaret's list of questions or, as she termed it the Hangin it all out there Quiz. Hope you don't mind, Margaret - but I had fun reading your answers and figured I'd give the questions a go myself :-)


WHAT TIME DID YOU GET UP THIS MORNING? Woke up--6.30 a.m. Got up--7.40 a.m. (Cleo wanted to cuddle) Complete consciousness restored (by caffeine)--still waiting for that *g*.

WHAT WAS THE LAST FILM YOU SAW AT THE CINEMA? Narnia

WHAT’S YOUR CURRENT FAVOURITE T.V. SHOW? House (though I'm not watching it, so Sean and I can watch the reruns once he's off the early shift) Heartbeat. My Name is Earl. Rescue Me (on hiatus). American Chopper (the ep with Sr and the boys in Edinburgh was hilarious)

RECENT BOOK YOU READ AND ENJOYED? The Other Side of the Story by Marian Keyes.

WHAT DID YOU EAT FOR BREAKFAST? A bowl of Nature's Path Flax Plus cereal.

WHAT’S YOUR MIDDLE NAME? Jane.

WHAT’S CURRENTLY YOUR MOST FAVOURITE MUSIC? Hmm, so hard to choose - U2, Enya (Amarantine), Kate Bush (Aerial)

YOUR FAVOURITE COLOR? Royal Blue.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE CUISINE? Indian. Mexican. Thai.

WHICH FOODS DO YOU DISLIKE? Veal. Mussels.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE QUICK SNACK? Almonds. Dark Chocolate.

FAVOURITE SANDWICH? Brie and cranberry on whole grain.

WHAT CHARACTERISTIC DO YOU MOST DESPISE? Selfishness.

FAVOURITE ITEM OF CLOTHING? My U Sask black fleece lounging pants.

IF YOU COULD GO ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD ON VACATION, WHERE WOULD YOU GO? Hmm, this one is really hard. There are soooo many places - but for fun, I'll answer Poland.

WHAT IS YOUR BEST PHYSICAL FEATURE? No idea, really. I'm not satisfied with most of me. But I guess, if pushed, I'd have to say my neck and/or my high cheekbones.

WHAT WAS YOUR MOST MEMORABLE BIRTHDAY? Probably this past year's, when I turned 40 and celebrated with a party :-)

FAVOURITE SPECTATOR SPORT? Hockey.

GOAL YOU HAVE FOR YOURSELF? To finish my new ms this year.

MORNING PERSON OR A NIGHT PERSON? Hmm - well, I don't mind waking up early, but I'm not really very effective when I do, so I'd have to say I'm more of a night person.

PETS? Two cats.

WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU WERE LITTLE? A princess. A gymnast. A writer.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CANDY? Brookside's Dark Chocolate Cranberries.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FLOWER? Creeping Phlox. Violets.

WHAT DAY ON THE CALENDAR ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO? February 16 - on that day, Sean and will be celebrate 18 years together :-)

WHERE IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE EVER BEEN FROM HOME? England.

SMALL THINGS YOU REALLY ENJOY? Sipping wine on the deck with Sean and watching kids play soccer in the field behind our house. Curling up on the chair in Sean's office while he edits stories for the next morning (an evening ritual here). Waking up to find Cleo curled in the crook of my knees or cuddling Chloe while she purrs in my lap.

ANY NEW AND EXCITING NEWS TO SHARE? Other than our conditional sale of the house and the impending move to the West Coast, nope - can't think of anything :-)

Teresa

Recent book purchase: The Bride Ship by Deborah Hale
Link of the Day: Plunging in - Where to Start Your Story by Deborah Hale

Thanks for all the good wishes...

re my wrists. They're much appreciated. I'm still in a great deal of pain, so must keep things short once again.

We sold the house conditionally!!!! Yep, assuming all goes well with the building inspection on Friday, we'll finalize the deal. Both exciting and a tad nerve-wracking as there's now no turning back. Come the end of April, we'll no longer have a house here, so we'll have to move *g*. We still can't believe things moved so quickly.

The kitties were a little easier to get into the cage yesterday, though Chloe did hide under the couch in the basement. We stopped at the pet store and got them a bigger cage - with mesh windows and a way bigger door. We'll be taking them out in it regularly, to get them accustomed to the car before the move in May.

And speaking of cats, please send good vibes to my sister's cat, Bob. He's diabetic and she had to rush him to the vet yesterday when she found him under their spare bed, paralysed and blind - yowling his poor kitty heart out. She'd given him his insulin in the morning, as usual, so they've no idea what happened. He's now at the vet's on a glucose drip. Poor baby is only 12, so they really don't want to have to make the decision if they don't have to. The vet said his sight might come back. Hope so.

Anyway, I'd best rest my wrists some more or they'll never get any better.

Teresa


UPDATE ON BOB

He's going home this afternoon. It seems he suddenly no longer needs insulin - which is why, when my sis gave him it yesterday morning, he almost died. Sheesh. I gather it does happen - Sean's grandmother was diabetic for a while, then suddenly stopped being diabetic. Anyway, he's doing better - can at least partially see (follows movement etc) and is almost normal again (well, as normal as dear old Bob has ever been *g*). So now they just have to keep an eye on him.