Our First Lay-on-the-Beach Day!

(Kitty) It's funny how quickly your attitude can change from one day to the next. Yesterday - not such a great day for either of us. Today - heard it was going to be in the 90s/30s, so we decided to go to the beach, early to avoid the crowds. Got there about 11am (which means we left our place about 10:45am and had a very pleasant walk), and then walked along the water's edge till we found a place we liked. We set up an umbrella because I would be crispy without one, even with excellent sunscreen.  {grin}

It was a very pleasant two hours - lying in the shade for me, sun for John, reading, then had calamari and chips at noon. Shared our shade for an hour with a little girl next to us who wanted to take a nap. Then we walked through the water on our way home - got nice and wet in some big waves. Bought an ice cream sandwich each on the way home. Threw our clothes and towels in the washer as we walked in - have I told you lately how much I LOVE owning laundry machines??!! Took a shower and now John is playing a game over the Internet with some friends from the US, and I'm watching Grosse Pointe Blank on cable. (I love that movie!)

This must be part of what God meant when he said His mercy is new every morning. No matter how bad a day can be (or just not great), tomorrow always has potential for something better - like a day at the beach. Or even better - a day at the beach early enough in the day to beat the crowds! LOL!

Interested in a Story?

(Kitty)  I've been thinking and wondering on and off for several years if I'd enjoy writing a newspaper column. The biggest drawback to getting started is that I probably wouldn't be paid a dime, and I'd have a weekly deadline anyway. I'd also thought about writing a serial - a story that is published a scene or a chapter at a time. Again, potentially a lot of work for little reward... even though I'm pretty sure I'd enjoy doing it.

Lately, I've been thinking that allowing money to rule every career decision is not necessarily a wise career decision. This morning I read in Colossians 3:23, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward." So I started thinking, well, why not? I'll be working at my writing with all my heart, and you can't "practice" enough in any form of art, so I only had one more question:

Are you interested in reading a weekly or bi-weekly serial? If so, I need to hear from you here or by email.

I would probably start at the beginning of January - a good time for new beginnings. I could test out a few ideas I already have, or you could give me an idea here. I'll choose whichever sounds the most fun and get started. So would you like to read about:

• angels and demons
  
• elves and fairies and dwarves in a modern setting
  
• superheroes in a modern setting
  
• fairy tales re-imagined
  
• young adult fiction (like Harry Potter or Twilight or Inkheart)
• something else
• OH YEAH - Ann just reminded me - something set in Sydney (duh!) LOL!
  

I'm not going to write/post something that I intend to send to publishers, so it needs to be something I find fun enough to write knowing I'll never get paid for it, and not epic in length. If you don't care what I write, but you'll still come read it, let me know that, too!

If no one responds, I may take that to mean no one will want to read it, and I may decide not to do it. So let me know!

Forced to Clean

(Kitty) How can so much time go by between posts and we don't notice it? Is life going that fast? Sheesh! Well, I'm going to a Hen's Party tomorrow, so I'll take pictures and post them and tell you what a Hen's Party is later.

Today I'm just writing to say hi - HI! - and tell you we have a reason to finish getting unpacked stuff up off the floor. We're having company Sunday! I found a box of office supplies with file folders and last night while watching TV I took the dozens of pieces of paper lying around in piles and organized them into different folders - "do now", school, receipts, file, etc. The floor near the end of the couch where I sit hasn't looked cleaner/neater since we moved in! LOL!

Today in between writing spurts I'm going to take all the pots and pans from the floor and the kitchen table and figure out where to put them. I'm going to clean the cupboards before I put them in because I'm not thrilled with the quality of work the professional cleaner did before we moved in. (Why can't I find a "Monica" from Friends to clean? I'd pay her well!!  LOL!) Because it's a big project, I haven't done it. But maybe I can do it in pieces and still put my writing first today.

The third thing that will make the place look more organized is to take the new shoe rack John just put together and put it in the laundry room and put our shoes on it, and to take the little three-shelf table/cart some friends gave us and use it, at least temporarily, as bathroom storage. Right now all our toiletries and personal items and cleaning products are still in boxes stacked next to the bathroom sink, with a few things on a tray on the floor. The bathroom was remodeled to be cool looking, I think, and it is, but it has NO PLACE to put stuff. No under the sink cabinet or anything. I looked at buying a bathroom cabinet and it's about $100. That's not gonna happen right now! (Maybe ever.) So we'll try this table/cart and see how it works. At least we won't have boxes sitting on the floor. That'll be a step up.

John and I have said this ever since we got married - if you know you need to spend some time cleaning your house, or putting things away better, or straightening, or whatever - just make a date to have guests over later. Then you have a deadline! LOL! So - thanks Andrew and Mel for wanting to come to our house for dinner Sunday! LOL!

Sculptures by the Sea

(John) This weekend Kitty and I went with a co-worker, Greg, to an art event called Sculptures by the Sea. It happens at the beginning of November every year where local artists in Australia set up their work on the footpath from Bronte Beach to Bondi Beach. There was work done in every medium and size and place. It took us about three hours to see everything and experience the best art of Australia. I will include some here and some some in the slideshow. Click on the image to see the bigger size.

 

 

First Week of NaNo

(Kitty) One week of novel writing down, three to go, and I'm really happy with how it's going! I've written 7386 words this week, about 30 pages. Yay! I'm about 5000 words behind in where I wanted to be, but on the other hand I've never written so much in the first week!

The story is a fun one for me, so I'm happy to be working on it all the time. Problem is I can't work on it all the time! I have to get groceries and eat and go out with friends and sleep and shower and all of those things. So...

I'm going to spend the weekend doing fun things with our friends like going to see Sculpture by the Sea on Saturday. But whenever someone isn't talking to me or keeping me focused on something else, I'm sure I'll be thinking about my book.

Let's just hope I don't run into any light poles while my head is in the clouds.

National Novel Writing Month

(Kitty) November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and I'm participating once again. It's a worldwide challenge to write 50,000 words - about one book - in 30 days. Writing every day of the month, that's 1667 words per day. But I am going to write Monday-Friday, so I have to write 2381 words a day to make it.

Today I wrote 2651 words! That's 2719 total since I wrote 68 words after midnight on Saturday. Hurray!! So on the first day, I'm already ahead of where I needed to be! Let's see if I can keep it up! LOL!