Got dem empty house blues...

yep - it's kinda weird, rattling around in this place with no furniture etc. The cats have adjusted, though - this morning we could hear them running, jumping and skidding around on the hardwood with complete abandon *g*.

Thanks, everyone, for the support and encouragement re my GH scores :-) I really appreciate all the kind words. And really, I'm fine. I met with my local writers group for dinner and drinks last night, and they were all shocked by those low scores. Far more so than me *g*.

Kelly tagged me with the following fun meme:

Six minutes to yourself - how would you spend them: Sipping a hot, non-fat, one pump hazelnet latte.

Six bucks to spend right now - how would you spend it: A bag of Brookside Chocolate Covered Cranberries

Six items you'd leave behind if your house were on fire: (1) Every bad picture I ever took (2) my makeup (good excuse to get new stuff) (3) my dressy clothes (4) my hairdryer (5) every knick knack I ever owned and kept for whatever reason (6) all the dust bunnies under the bed

Six items you'd grab if your house were on fire: (1) My husband (2) my cats (3) my reference books (4) my purse (which has my backup thumb drives) (5) my photo albums (6) the little girl and boy statue my dad brought back for me on a business trips years ago.

Six words you love: Sweetie, let's go out for dinner.

Six things you want to accomplish before you leave the earthly plane: (1) Make writing my career (2) travel extensively through Europe (3) get our house built (4) get my motorcycle license (5) ski an expert run at Whistler (6) watch my nieces and nephews grow up.

Six people I tag: Annette, Rene, Sarah J, Brenda, Nienke, Janna

GH Scores...

So I finally opened the envelope, just before we went for dinner. The judges either loved or hated my entry - 3, 3.5, 7, 7.5, 8 - which put my overall score in the lower half, despite the fact that three of the judges obviously liked what they read. I've heard of other people who had this happen this year as well. But I'm not dwelling on that. Only on the fact I got three really good scores :-)

I've heard that having a strong voice, one people react to either positively or negatively, is actually a good thing. Two years ago my scores were all in the middle range. Very interesting.

Well, I'd best go move the (now empty) recycling boxes from the end of the driveway. Oops - just made it in time as Sean got back with the Starbucks coffee - he has to back the camper up and it's easier without blue boxes scattered in his way.

Anyway, now he's back, I'd best sign off and get ready to resume last minute stuff. By 8:30, the kitties and I will be ensconsed in the camper again.

Teresa :-)

A day in the camper...

Yep, you read that right. I just spent my day in the camper. The removal people came to start packing and loading quite early this morning. Soon it became clear that the cats just couldn't remain in the house, so we put them in their cage and took them out to the camper. It seemed easiest just to have me out there with them, so they didn't freak out completely. So I sat out there all day - of course, it was the coldest it's been here in a while (we didn't want to run the heater too much) - and read, did some story work, napped a bit and played with the kitties.

The house seems so strange now and the cats are a wee bit confused. Imagine their confusion tomorrow when pretty much everything but us will be gone!! Hope they'll be ok.

I got my GH scores in the mail today. Haven't opened them yet. Too scared to. Maybe later.

Off to scare up some dinner!

Hope y'all had a great day :-)

Teresa

Currently Reading: A Map of Glass by Jane Urquhart

Cats help us maintain sanity..

and our sense of humour, by doing cute things like this - Cleo appropriating Chloe's fave cushion:




The funny thing with this pic of Chloe (taken late last night), is how she managed to squish herself in there without getting stuck, but as she was out this morning and we didn't hear any yowls, I guess she managed somehow!! If you look closely, you can see the second smaller basket that caused our confusion. I considered trying to get her out after taking the pic, but she seemed comfy, so I left her to her own devices, knowing she'd wake us up if she neede help extracting herself *g*:




Kitchen mostly organized as of yesterday, mail forwarding arranged, more boxes packed and laundry done. Had a lovely time with my CPs last night - we ate cake, drank tea and chatted, though I did keep having to pull Cleo out of the diaper bag (one of my CPs brought her 2 month old with her).

Lots more to do today!

Teresa

Currently Reading: Never too Late by Cathy Kelly
Link of the Day: Scott Walker's Musical Almanac (a radio feature I really enjoy)

A quick check-in

and likely one of my last for a while. We'll see.

However, I had a wonderful surprise in the front garden yesterday. My hyacinth bloomed!!! In fact TWO of them did :-) Ok, so they're a little spindly, but hey, it's the best result I've had from these bulbs since planting them:




When I came in from taking the photo and went into the kitchen, I found this:



Now, technically, she's NOT allowed on the table, but she's just soooooo cute. And with all the disruption going on round her, it hardly seems fair to kick her off while she watches the world go by.

As for the packing etc, I spent yesterday carrying all the books from various locations upstairs (our bedroom, the spare room and Sean's office) down to the basement. Yep, hard on my wrists, but not nearly as hard as what Sean was doing - wrapping the packed boxes with cellophane, then tape. The collarbone he broke years ago hasn't bothered him this much in a long time - poor guy. We also packed CDs, DVDs and cassettes, as well as our record albums (yep, we still own some *g*) and all my cookbooks.

Today it's laundry, then, when Sean gets back from dropping the truck off for one last service, it's time to pack winter clothing, pictures etc. I can't start till he gets home cause he has to put the boxes together.

My critique partners are coming over this evening :-) A bittersweet meeting, but we know we'll all see each other again. Though I'll miss our monthly get-togethers.

Ok - time for brekkie now! Happy Friday everyone.

Teresa

Currently Reading: Never too Late by Cathy Kelly
Link of the Day: The Enchanted Forest (one of many places we'll see on our trip)

Truck and camper united at last...

Sean had the camper put on the truck on Monday afternoon. It's pretty cool. Still not sure what the cats will think, BUT there are lots of windows for them to look out and several levels for them to bounce around *g*.







Here's Cleo last night. She always has a little rest after dinner, then runs around like a crazy thing again!



It's a good thing we're moving somewhere with lots of windows - as you can see, like most cats, they're obsessed with what's going on outside:



Today is clothes packing day :-) Simple and quick (well, for the most part). And I did get a break yesterday, going to have my hair permed. Wanted to have it done before I left, not only cause it was definitely time, but because my stylist has also been a friend for 20 years - I'll really
miss her.

Thanks for all the good wishes on the move! In some ways it still seems very unreal.

Ok - on with the day :-)

Teresa

Currently Reading: Never too Late by Cathy Kelly

More pics...

snapped over the last few days.

First up is Cleo, startled by me taking a photo. Now, you'd think after all the photos I've taken of her ancd Chloe over the last half year, she'd recognize the sound of the camera, but...




Meanwhile, Chloe has discovered the cushions from our old love seat. Sean threw them down the stairs, intending to take them to the garage. Only Chloe found them first, so they've stayed put as she loves them so much *g*.



When she's not on the cushions, Chloe loves to climb. Here she is on top of the bookcase behind my desk - she was thrilled to discover the magazine racks that used to sit on top had gone!



Well, back to work now :-) We're making slow but steady progress - trying to keep things organized as we pack so we can find things easily (or more easily) on the other end. Once I've posted this, I'm going to pull out my absolute NEED books - the ones I MUST have to write, and put them aside. Then I have to do some more shredding - poor little shredder, it's done a lot of work over the last few weeks!!

Teresa

Currently Reading: Never too Late by Cathy Kelly (yep, the glom continues)
Link of the Day: UK Historical Romance

Happy Easter!!!

It's a sunny Easter here :-) I'm taking a few minutes out from stacking books to post some pics from the last week or so.

First, here's a pic of me with my friend Ellen (w/a Sharon Page) at my party the other night. I'm waiting to hear from the others about having their photos on my blog. The party itself was wonderful - great food, even better company and lots of chatter.




and below are some of the recent chaos in the basement. It's been somewhat tamed now, but as you can see, the cats think this is great fun!












Back to stacking now! I'll check in again when I have a chance, but we're getting down to the crunch at this point.

Teresa

Link of the Day: Author Jen Holling's website (check out her For Writers page)

I got this from Rene's blog. She asked that we go to Wiki and list three "fun" things, two birthdays and one death that happened on our birthday, so here's mine:

Events
1665 - The London Gazette, the oldest surviving journal, is first published.
1885 - In Craigellachie, British Columbia, construction ends on the Canadian Pacific Railway railway extending across Canada.
1934 - Premiere of Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini at the Lyric Opera House in Baltimore, Maryland, United States.

Births
1867 - Maria Sklodowska-Curie, Polish-born chemist and physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics and in chemistry (d. 1934)
1913 - Albert Camus, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1960)

Death
1713 - Elizabeth Barry, English actress (b. 1658)

---
In other news, we took Chloe and Cleo for feline leukemia vaccines yesterday - they will likely come in contact with other cats out in BC, so we really didn't have a choice. This morning when we woke up, Cleo was really lethargic and not too hungry. I gave it some time, but by 8:30 it was clear something wasn't quite right. Fortunately our wonderful vet was able to see her at 10 and said she was having a mild reaction, so had a fever. Just like me, Cleo obviously doesn't take to vaccines (my arm is always sore for days after I have any kind of shot.) The vet gave her an anti-inflammatory and Cleo has perked up - wanted food when we got home, then cleaned herself thoroughly. And she just interrupted my blogging by sitting on the stairs and meowing very loudly for MORE food :-)

Other than that, I'm in the midst of doing all the necessary phone calls for cancelling accounts etc. And tonight I'm going out to a party thrown by some friends - though I've given strict instructions that no-one will say goodbye, only au revoir. Somehow the French (and Polish - do widzenia) parting phrases seem a lot more cheery to me. We had a lovely dinner out with our bookclub last night - much food and many libations were consumed!

Must sign off now - still so much to do before the party tonight.

Teresa

Currently Reading: Always and Forever by Cathy Kelly
Link of the Day: Sarah J's reports from this year's BEA!

It's getting pretty real now...

Yep, there's no doubt we're moving *g*. Sean is taking our old spare room bed and his late grandmothe's old couch (sniff) to the Goodwill today, along with more books I'm dumping and other assorted stuff. And most of my office is in boxes, except for the absolute essentials. Plus I made the last reservation we'd need along the road in just over two weeks.

Sean's job is News Director at CKAY on the Sunshine Coast. It's a brand new station, not quite on the air yet - that happens in late May. He's excited and really looking forward to working there.

I've one last RTTA entry to judge. My wrists are so sore these days, so I'll be glad when it's done. Will have to take a couple of hours out on Friday or Saturday to type in my comments.

The kitties are starting to get a little suspicious and confused. Not sure what they'll think when the couch disappears - they love playing on and under it. But there's not much for it. It's really old, Scotty peed on it any number of times (he got kinda leaky late in life) and it's held up by 2x4s, so really, there's no point moving it. I'd meant to post pics of all the chaos, but my camera decided to have problems, so that won't happen for a while yet.

Ok - I'd better eat breakfast, then get on with my phone calls for today :-)

Teresa

Currently Reading: Always and Forever by Cathy Kelly
Link of the Day: Creating the History Story (this is a link to a .pdf file)

A quick Monday post

Lots to do today, plus my wrists are really sore.

But, I do have time to upload yet another photo of Stardust and her new baby:




Teresa

Currently Reading: Always and Forever by Cathy Kelly
Link of the Day: Write That Novel

More of the baby llama

Everyone say "awwwwwwwww"




She has to wear the coat cause it's still chilly enough that a baby llama needs protection.

Our niece Nylah's favoured names so far are as follows: Moonbeam, Moonshine, Moonstone and Beatrice (have no idea where the last one comes from ).

Teresa

A visitor to our front garden this morning, movie night and more news from the Coast....

After Cleo had eaten her breakfast, I noticed her down by the front door, looking VERY excited, so I went to investigate. At first I saw nothing, then I noticed what she had - you might have to squint a bit to see what I'm talking about - here's a hint, it's brown, fuzzy and hops:










Sorry about the glare from the flash - my camera battery was dying as I was trying to snap the pics! Maybe I should check under my rose bush for Easter eggs?

Oh, and I'd meant to post this the other day. For some reason, the girls treat the front hall as their "playroom". I guess maybe it's because it's really light there and they can take a break to watch out the window *g*. So I came upstairs around noon the other day, glanced down into the hall and saw this:





At least they're neat when they leave their toys around!

Movie Night
We had a ball! Watched Love Actually - one of my favourite movies. I definitely need my own copy so I can watch it come Christmas time later this year. It's the perfect Christmas movie. I don't normally like Hugh Grant, but enjoyed his performance in LA. And the soundtrack is fantastic! We had lots of eats, fun chat and everyone loved the movie. A fantastic evening!

And Last, But Not Least
Sean got the job he wanted!!! More details to follow, but suffice it to say, we're really happy. He'll be working 10 mins from home and will be able to ride the bike in year round :-)

Hopefully more pics of the llama soon.

Well, I should get on with my day. Right, I forgot to mention, I actually got some character work done yesterday. I stopped in at Starbucks while out running errands and made some good notes about my heroine, Madeleine, while sipping on my latte and munching a ginger cookie.

Ok, really - that's all for now :-)

Teresa

Currently Reading: Always and Forever by Cathy Kelly (this is a serious glom session, folks)
Link of the Day: This one is courtesy of my friend Sarah

A surprise on the Sunshine Coast...

So, Sean and his dad got home yesterday evening to find quite a surprise waiting for them. Similar to the surprise waiting for my mother-in-law earlier in the afternoon when she went to the llama shed to check on their feed (long time readers of this blog might remember the pics I posted of the llamas last August). She was thinking that Dusty, the older llama, was getting a little plump, so maybe she should cut back on her food a bit.

Into the shed she walks, only to notice something quite unexpected. This:




Pretty cool, huh? Turns out Dusty wasn't getting fat - she was pregnant! And was probably just pregnant when she moved into my mother-in-law's last summer. Isn't the baby adorable? I'd no idea she'd be so big! I'm sure our niece is going to be THRILLED. Have to admit, I'm looking forward to seeing the baby when we get there in a few weeks.

Sean and his dad missed all the excitement. But they did have fun skiing - here's a shot of Sean enjoying the slopes:




Back here at home, I finished judging another entry. Hadn't got much done on Wednesday as I had to go to the doctor for meds - my sinuses finally convinced me to go. As suspected, I have a sinus infection so am now on antibiotics :-/ But I'm starting to feel better, so that's good.

Last night some friends came over to test out a game called Timetripper. It was fun and Paul will be posting a review of it at some point on his website.

Have errands to do today (in the rain) and tonight, we're doing a girls movie night!! Am looking forward to it :)

Happy Friday!

Teresa

Link of the Day: A brave man sets out on the quest of a lifetime.

Another of Sean's trip photos

He says he used the self-timer and balanced the camera on his backpack in the passenger seat *g*. Very resourceful, is my Sean :-) Click on the photo to get a slightly bigger version - he's sending them on dial-up, so he's reduced the size considerably.

Teresa

Horseshoe Bay by 4 pm!!!

That's right, Sean made it across Vancouver and to the ferry terminal at Horseshoe Bay by 4:00 yesterday. Traffic wasn't too bad, hence his good time. He called me from there, to let me know he was safe and since the lot was barely crowded, he'd make the 5:30 ferry with no problem.

The pictures he emailed me from Canmore finally got to me. Here's the one I like best:




Today will be spent cleaning the motorcycles *g*. He says they look like he actually rode them across the country!

----
Comments from Haloscan - they seem to be back! Yay! They only disappeared when I altered the auto message Haloscan left when I reinstalled them. Now, the message I got said I COULD edit it or delete it, but as that didn't actually work last time, I'm just gonna leave that message there.

It's another cool morning here - frost on the grass and there's a bit of snow floating about. Must finish judging my entries today, once I shake the sinus headache I woke up with.

Teresa

Currently Reading: Someone like You by Cathy Kelly
Link of the Day: Gibsons, British Columbia

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Reverting to old template and loss of comments explained...

Because we're changing ISPs, I'll have to pull down photos from our server, including all the images used in customizing my template. I figured I'd best change the blogger template now, while I remembered, rather panicking at the last moment and messing things up.

As it is, I lost all my Haloscan comments - including those from today. Sorry :-(

Oh well - guess we'll just start again :-)

Teresa (who finished emptying her tall filing cabinet and marked, then piled a bunch of boxes)

-----
ARRRRGGGGH - now my haloscan comments have disappeared again!!! Oh well, I'll just leave it for now and see. Time to start thinking about dinner.

Canmore last night...

Yep - he got past Calgary and stopped in beautiful Canmore instead, putting him that much closer to BC. Hopefully today his drive through Rogers Pass will go well and he'll be up on the Coast by nightfall. Of course, much depends on the drive and what time he hits Vancouver rush hour. That's never fun, though at least he won't have to cross the Lion's Gate (not that the Iron Workers Memorial bridge is much better, mind). We're still hoping he'll make that last ferry and be welcomed by his parents and Tiva the dog :-)

Back here, I had a good day. Went to lunch with a friend, came home and talked to Sean when he checked in, then trundled off for a brief walk to get some groceries. Once home, I tackled my filing cabinet and emptied three of the four drawers!! Read some after dinner, then watched my tape of Grey's Anatomy while putting away laundry. Chloe decided Sean's t-shirts didn't really need folding - they made a better bed. She curled up on them at about 10:30 last night and didn't move from them till about 6:30 this morning!

It's snowing here this morning *groan*. Nothing major, but still. And people ask me why I'm moving to the BC coast (see the current weather there in my sidebar).

Off for coffee with another friend soon, so had best eat some brekkie :-)

Teresa

Currently Reading: Someone Like You by Cathy Kelly
Link of the Day: Angela Booth's Writing Blog

----------
UPDATE!!

He's now on the Coquihalla (the super highway from Merritt in the interior to Hope in the Fraser Valley), so should get to Vancouver in about three hours or so! Hopes to make the 7:30 ferry up to the Coast :-) The weather there has been good (knock on wood).

Back to packing boxes.

He made it to Portage la Prairie!!!

yep, that's right, Sean went past Winnipeg to Portage la Prairie. Talk about a long day, but at least he had a good drive. :)

I was very relieved to hear from him when I did. Today he's already well on his way towards Calgary. If all continues to go well, he'll (knock on wood) be on the Coast tomorrow evening.

As for me, I spent yesterday playing with my new Opera browser (it has some advantages of Firefox, though a mix of the two would actually be perfect) and even set up a blog over at the Opera community. Then I judged another entry, dictating most of my comments via Dragon Naturally Speaking. Now I'musing a stand-alone mic, instead of a headset, it's far better at understand what I'm saying *g*.

Around 3, my mum came over and we went out shopping - it was a beautiful day, so we walked down to the shops and spent some time browsing, before going for dinner at a Mexican place that had just opened. Yum!

By 8, I was curled up in front of the TV, glued to West Wing. Wow, this election campaign storyline has been fantastic (except for the live debate ep, just couldn't watch that). And last night they left us hanging at the end. Arggghhh.

L&O,CI and Crossing Jordan were both repeats last night, despite the info in our tv guide (grrrrrr), so I read more of my Cathy Kelly book instead, with Cleo on my legs for company :-)

Today I'm going to lunch with a friend, but other than that, more office packing is on the agenda.

Teresa

Currently Reading: Someone Like You by Cathy Kelly
Link of the Day: Historical fiction author Elizabeth Chadwick's Blog

Georgian Bay in the spring...

Sean took this yesterday afternoon and send it to me:






Isn't it lovely?

He made it as far as Wawa last night and went to bed early, so he could be back on the road by 6am this morning. At this point I'm guessing he's about half-way to Thunder Bay, but hopes to make it to Winnipeg by this evening.

Meanwhile, here on the homefront, Madeline and I had a lovely dinner and a good old-fashioned natter :-) I was in bed by 10:30, watching the boys on American Chopper and by midnight, both cats were on the bed with me. Unfortunately, Chloe decided to get up at 5:30, which, with the time change, means I didn't get much sleep. Oh well - it's a beautiful day here today, so I'm sure I won't suffer too much.

Happy Sunday!

Teresa

So, he's off...

he left early this morning. And I mean, early. Before 6 am.

That's right, Sean is now officially on his first-of-two, drive across Canada adventures :-)

And I'm actually pretty calm about it, calmer than I thought I'd be. Probably because it's not snowing here, only raining a bit. And because I figure that freaking out really isn't going to help me or him. Instead, I'm filling my day with lots of busy stuff.

Turns out one of the first things I had to do was ring Sympatico tech help, because I couldn't collect my sympatico email. And what do I find out? That somehow they manged to mix up "Cancel my account in 30 days" with "Cancel it NOW." Yep, that's right, even the tech guy was confused. "You're right, Mrs. Eckford, it says '30 day cancellation - I'm not sure what happened. You'll have to call our business office on Monday morning.'"

Thank goodness we already have our telus account, though it's dial-up *sigh*. Not that it stopped me from getting a tad angry - though I did apologize for taking it out on him.

Now I just have to hope no-one tries to send me anything important on my sympatico account until I get this cleared up. Sheesh. Fortunately I have a box of Timbits here to help with the stress.

Moving Stuff

Things are coming along on the moving front. I have a lot more of my office cleared out, though still have yet to tackle the tall filing cabinet. All the files and assorted office bits and bobs in there need to be removed and put in boxes.

Chloe and Cleo, needless to say, are thrilled with the presence of so many new things to explore - mostly things into which they can climb *g*.

I was going to post a photo of the chaos here in the basement, but without the high speed connection to upload the photos, it'll have to wait now until next week. I'm sure it won't change much between now and then, though - the boxes will just shift locations!

Writing Stuff

Nothing to report, except that I didn't final in the Golden Heart. Strangely enough, I wasn't nearly as disappointed or upset as I thought I'd be. Maybe it's cause I've so much on my mind with the move and all the excitement/anticipation involved in that, but I also think it's cause I recognize that not finalling isn't any lasting indictment of my writing skills. Of course, how I'll feel after receiving my scores in a few weeks is another matter, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Anyway, that's about it from here. It's a grey morning, but I've lots to do inside (including loads of laundry). Plus a friend is coming over later to do dinner with me. We haven't seen each other in months, so we'll have lots to catch up on. She hasn't yet met C&C - they'll love her as she's a real cat person.

Happy Saturday, everyone :-)

Teresa

Currently Reading: Someone like You by Cathy Kelly
Link of the Day: Beauverre
Extra links of the Day: Maggie Toussaint's Writing Articles, Part 3 of Janna's reflections on Story Evolution