magick musings…

…is my new mantra.

I keep thinking things are going to slow down, but no cigar.

We had a wonderful busy, busy weekend.

Saturday, GW took my car in and had the oil changed. AND got it washed. What a guy!

And then he took me shopping for clothes! Yes, girls – for clothes! We actually had fun doing it! There was no whining, no griping, no ‘are we done yet’?

And GW never complained either, LOL!

Yep, I can hear all the women out there gasping with jealousy. Sighing with envy.

Sorry, girls. But he’s mine.

After shopping and having lunch, we rented a few movies and piled in our chair the rest of the night to take a rest. Trekking from one end of the mall to the other is rather quite taxing you know.

Movie #1: Whiteout
Don’t waste your money. Premise was good, but couldn’t carry it off. Boring.

Movie #2: Legion

***Spoiler Alert****
Okay movie. Did not EVER explain why the child was the chosen one to save humanity. GW and I got into a debate about it. He related it to the Terminator movies. I debated back saying that at least you knew John Carpenter had to be saved because he was going to lead the rebellion against the machines, but in Legion it never said why the waitress’s child was THE one. No clue whatsoever. I personally think that God was testing both Gabriel and Michael. But what do I know. If you see the movie and figure it out, please enlighten me.

Movie #3: Paranormal Activity:
Okay movie. Had some scary moments. Predictable ending.

Sunday we went grocery shopping and then to Lowe’s where we bought a trellis and a pink mandeville. Had a special place in mind to plant it and if it covers the area I want, it is going to be beautiful. I so love tropical flowers.

Monday, I had to bring my netbook to Comp USA for some work on it. It became so sloooowww that it was driving me crazy. I almost cried as they pried it out of my hands so they could take a look at it. I am not sure what was wrong with it, but now it works at the speed of light.

loveit, loveit, loveit.

I had to purchase a new Norton internet security program for it because it was expiring in a few weeks, but Symantic offered a $50.00 rebate so I got the newest and greatest for only $29.00. Not bad.

While my netbook baby was at the shop getting a check up, we were invited to some friends for the rest of Memorial Day where we swam and cooked sausage and veggies on the grill. GW grilled the corn after I got those puppies all lathered up with my special herbed butter and they were the hit of the party! He didn’t have any charred spots like yours truly seems to get occasionally and it was so crisp tender and tasty. Yum!

Yesterday, I was like a cleaning machine. Moved the furniture around and swept and mopped and dusted and scrubbed and laundered and now the house is rockin’ clean. Cooked a pork tenderloin on the grill with roasted asparagus. I just love days like that. Clean house. Great dinner. And then watched 2nd day of America’s Got Talent tryouts. Gotta love that Howie!!!

~Sandy

Thank you to the millions who have died so that I may live my life in peace and safety.

(Sorry this is late. Had it set to post and it didn’t).

~Sandy

GW: Hey, Babe, we just landed. Don’t know which gate we’ll be at so I’ll call you as soon as I know.

Me (looking up airport address on the internet and plugging it in the GPS): Okay. I’m at Geri’s which is not far. Won’t take long.

GW (5 minutes later): Hey, Babe, here’s the gate number.

Me: (following the GPS instructions) Okay, I’m only about 15 minutes away. Will meet you at the baggage claim.

GW (15 minutes later): Babe? Where are you? I’m waiting in baggage area.

Me (as I notice the airport is behind me but GPS telling me I’m going the right way): Um, I’m on my way. Will be there soon.

GW (5 minutes later): Babe? You okay? Don’t worry about parking and getting out. I’m waiting out front now.

Me (traveling down an empty side road with airport still behind me. FAR behind me. MILES behind me): Um, sure. I’m fine. Just ran into a bit of traffic.

GW (10 minutes later): Babe? What’s happening? Think you’ll make it here sometime tonight?

Me (arriving at an empty field. Nothing but weeds and dirt. Planes flying low above me. GPS keeps repeating I’m at my destination): Um, Sweetie, almost there.

GW (10 minutes later): Babe? Where are you? I’m waiting in the one hour parking garage now. Waiting.

Me (sweat rolling down the back of my shirt as I try to find my way to the airport by following the landing planes. GPS turned off after third annoying ‘turn around, you’re going the wrong way.’ ): I see the airport. I’m sure I’ll be there any second.

GW (15 minutes later as looks at me with that all knowing look): You got lost didn’t you?

Me (looking innocent): What? Of course not! Why would you even think that? Sheesh! Givemesomecredit….OKAY! OKAY! I got lost!

GW: Why didn’t you use the GPS? That’s why I bought it for you. All you had to do was turn it on, look up airports on it and click on the one you want and it automatically pops the directions right into it.

Me (banging my head on the steering wheel): You mean you don’t even have to look up the address and plug the address in?

GW (shaking his head): No, Babe, you never want to do that with an airport. That way will just get you lost.

~Sandy

…every year our local RWA chapter holds it annual awards luncheon.

This year was one of the best we have ever had.

Friday night was our members only get together and we met at Geri Foster’s beautiful home. The morning started out with strong thunderstorms in our area, so we all held our breaths and frantically checked flight information every five minutes to make sure the guest editors would make it and not be stranded somewhere they were not supposed to be. But they both eventually arrived as did one of our guest speakers Christie Craig.

It was wonderful getting to know Editor Laurie Rauch of Samhain, and Deb Werksman of Sourcebooks. They both were so nice and friendly and funny and it wasn’t long before we were all laughing and having a great time. Ya’ know, editors are real people just like all of us. Very approachable. And they like to talk and visit and meet people and have fun. So I hope they enjoyed it here as much as we enjoyed having them.

Christie Craig was hysterical and if you ever get a chance to hear her speak, don’t miss it. And just ask her the story about a pick’em up truck, a cowboy, and a mattress. But remember not to be drinking a beverage when she tells it. Or you will be snorting liquid out of your nose. I shared that story with GW and even he was laughing out loud.

Rachel Caine was awesome! She is a successful published Young Adult author, a super talented one, and I am so totally in awe of her now. I have read several of her books, but will be downloading some more on my nook for my digital TBR file.

A day of inspiration, motivation, fun, laughter, and a nightcap of the Cheesecake Factory. What more does a writer need?

~Sandy

…to GW!

I love ya, Babe!

~Sandy

I love Spring, but not fond of Spring Fever.

This weekend, we worked almost the whole time in the yard. Planted 6 knockout rose bushes, 5 hanging baskets and 5 large plantars with various colorful plants. Killed weeds. Killed ants. Took motrin.

I don’t know if it is because we worked so hard or if Spring Fever plays a part in it, but I crash so hard at night. In front of the TV. And then don’t sleep well at night.

So not getting as much writing done as I should. Because I sleep when I should be writing, and then lying awake trying to sleep thinking I really need to be sleeping so tomorrow I can write and not sleep.

I know, doesn’t make much sense to me either.

But, I am writing a little. Very little. But there are words every day added to the story.

Must find more energy and time to write.

On the cooking front: last Friday night, I roasted some corn on the grill and it was awesome. After husking them, I mixed some herbs from the garden into soft butter, added salt, pepper, and a dash of garlic and spread it on the corn and cooked it over the fire for about 8 minutes or so. Even GW said it was pretty darn tasty. I also roasted some yellow squash.

Sunday was GW’s turn to cook and he grilled marinated flank steak and steamed corn in their husks on the grill.

I so love that gas grill!

Here’s a cute joke about Spring Fever:

Four high school boys afflicted with spring fever skipped morning classes. After lunch they reported to the teacher that they had a flat tire.

Much to their relief she smiled and said, “Well, you missed a test today so take seats apart from one another and take out a piece of paper.”

Still smiling, she waited for them to sit down. Then she said: “First Question: Which tire was flat?”

~Sandy

I have discovered a new way to cook food.

The gas grill.

Not that I’ve never eaten food off the gas grill, I’ve just never cooked on a gas grill before.

And it totally rocks.

With spring hiding behind the corner, the weather has had some very pleasant days. So, tired of eating burgers and steaks and such from the kitchen, we pulled out our new gas grill and cooked some burgers.

Out of curiosity, I asked GW to show me how it works. Being the patient man that he is, (and being married to me makes it a pretty tough job staying that way, LOL), he went through all the steps from preparing the grill, lighting it, watching for the correct temp, cooking, and then shutting it down. I dilegently took notes because I am such a visual person. Not to mention forgetful, but… I won’t mention that.

The burgers were great! Mouth watering great!

So a few nights later, following my written down instructions, I fired up that puppy, seasoned up some chicken breasts, threw on some hand picked rosemary from our herb garden, and I have to brag on myself…

They were the best chicken breasts I’ve ever eaten!! Even GW said they were awesome. And that is high praise coming from someone who is a much better cook than I am.

So, today we were at Lowe’s and we picked up a humongous book on how to grill which has about a million recipes included which all contain a picture of the finished product.

I am pretty fascinated with some of the grilled vegetable recipes I can’t wait to try it this week. Bought some corn on the cob, some peppers, and some squash to try, but forgot the eggplant. Not sure we even like egglplant, but the recipe looks delish. Told you I was a visual person, LOL!

Today, we’re making stuffed peppers. Yum! And he and I are such a good team in the kitchen. When he cooks, I clean. When I cook, I clean.

Wait a minute….

~Sandy

Last June I finished my first Young Adult novel, When Darkness Falls. Of course, being the way I am, never wanted it to see the light of day. But, Dennie, Michelle, Brenda, Geri (all writer friends of mine) and, of course, GW kept after me as to why I wouldn’t submit it to an editor or agent. “Put it out there. Get some feedback. See what happens.”

But it sucks, I cried. It’s awful, I moaned. It needs more revision, I whined.

So it sat. Hid under my cyber bed for almost a year. I tried to forgetaboutit. And almost succeeded.

Until…

At the beginning of each year, my local RWA chapter has us make our goals for the new year. I diligently wrote out mine. Two of them included:

I really wanted to attend Nationals.
I really wanted to attend Nationals in PRO status.

But in order to attend in PRO status meant I had to actually submit – and get rejected – by an editor or an agent.

And I wanted my PRO status. I wanted it bad enough to take the plunge and send my first novel baby out into the world.

As Dennie, said, ‘It’s a win-win situation. If it gets excepted, you win. You get published. If it gets rejected, you win. You get PRO’. And the benefits of being PRO are so worth it in the long run.

I thought about it for awhile and with Dennie and Michelle and Brenda and Geri, and of course, GW’s prodding and pushing and encouragment, I worked up my query letter, attached the required pages and, holding my breath, clicked the send button!

In today’s digital world, it doesn’t take long for answers and I got mine back swiftly. My first rejection letter! You can’t imagine how excited I was. With the help of our chapter’s president and PRO liason, the required paperwork was submitted to RWA and I received the notice Friday that I now have PRO status in the RWA publishing world.

Now, you may be thinking that getting rejected is a bad thing. Well, it’s not.

So wonderfully put in the email GW sent when I announced the good news:

It is one more step toward my ultimate goal.

Thanks, Babe!

~Sandy

..several weeks ago we had some very special company visit for a couple of days. So we came up with some ideas to entertain them and ended up having a wonderful time. And we got to experience some things that we’ve (or at least for me) have never done before.

First thing, we went to visit the CSI exhibit and the Museum of Science and History. We were given three crimes to solve and, be assured that you can sleep soundly now, we solved all three. The streets of North Texas are safe again.

It was strange because on the first crime scene, you miss a lot of clues because you aren’t trained what to look for.

As you move along to each station – blood spatters, fingerprints, guns and trajectories, and even how figure out how long a body has been dead according to the life cycle of a blow fly (that was the only ick factor for me), then at the next crime scene, you get better at what to look for. Then you take your findings to ‘Grissom’ and solve the crime and he gives you the thumbs up if you are correct.

Here are just a few of the pics we took.

The spring weather was absolutely beautiful so we decided to something that I had tried to do once, but was not so successful.

Even though I live in Texas, the only time I’d ever tried to ride, the horse 1) kept trying to bite me and 2) kept trying to run into a fence and knock me off – which he/she/it nearly succeeded. So, I got off and never tried again.

But not to be a partypooper, I became determined to try again. This time I would show the horse who was the boss.

Princess was wonderful and a perfect lady on the hour and half trail ride and she let me think I was in control the whole time, but only she and I knew the real story.

Next on the agenda was a comedy club that featured a hypnotist. I had never been to a comedy club before and have never seen a hypnotist perform so I was anxious to see how it all worked. He was very good and very funny and very entertaining. I had always swore I would NEVER let anyone hypnotize me because of a deep rooted fear of being made to cluck like a chicken or share any secrets I didn’t want well…shared.

But when he asked for volunteers to come on the stage, my butt left the chair and my feet climbed the stairs. To this day, I don’t know how that happened. (I’d only had ONE glass of white zin. I promise.) Next thing I knew we (all the volunteers) was being told to physically relax, stare at a clear crystal ball he held in his hands, and to empty our minds the best we could.

Now, if you knew me as my loved ones know me, relaxing my body and my mind is next to impossible. Both are constantly on the move. So, to make a long story short – I was kicked off the stage because I was one of the few who could not be hypnotized.

Probably better that way. He didn’t promise not to make us bark like a dog.

For the rest of the weekend, we ate out, cooked out, and generally just enjoyed everyone’s company.

It was a wonderful few days and so sorry to see everyone leave. But now I know: 1) I can look at a crime scene with a whole different perspective, 2) I CAN ride a horse, and 3) I CANNOT be hypnotized.

~Sandy

Have a wonderful 2010 St. Patrick’s Day!

~Sandy