In Which Not Great Things Happened

We've had a bit of a rocky run in my house the last few weeks. It started with things and animals breaking, then it culminated with a Breaking and Entering. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

So instead, here is a list of bad things that have happened in my life over the last month.

Miggory Sow Guinea Pig has injured eye.

Resolution: Trip to the vet and eye drops fixes her corneal ulcer after a few days



Harriet B Suit Guinea Pig has injured eye.


Resolution: 3 trips to the vet in two weeks. Eye drops, ointment and medication all finally get her eye back to normal before the vet is forced to remove it.


Yvie Crazy Cakes (yes, Crazy Cakes is her middle name. Which makes perfect sense if you get to know her) comes down with UTI.


Resolution: Trip to the vet for meds which fixes her up in a few days.


Ceiling in brother's bedroom starts to have water spots and mold.


Resolution: Problem caused by sweating AC ducts. Twin and I have bought duct insulation and will insulate ducts and replace ceiling tiles.



Mice in basement ceiling have become bolder, crawling on Brother's wall scrolls while he sleeps and making mice nests in workout room insulation.

a mouse was here ...

Resolution: Plan trip (once the finances recover and we actually find time) to nearby natural pest store

Kitchen faucet leak becomes so bad that cupboard below is flooded and warped.


Resolution: Twin and I once again use plumbing talents to replace kitchen faucet.



Dishwasher breaks.


Resolution: Plumbing skills only go so far. We're forced to buy a new dishwasher (and are able to get the above beauty only with financial help from our awesome parents)


AND, the most recent and worst bad thing:

House is entered by stranger while we are sleeping. My phone, Twin's purse and TWIN'S CAR are stolen. Burglar leaves all garage doors open and George escapes Saturday morning before I realize something bad has happened.

this is how he/they left the doors

George says there's nothing in the world that will convince him to stop once he escapes outside

Resolution: I managed to catch George after five minutes of panicked running around in my PJs. Police came and, like us, don't know how someone got into our keypad locked garage to then make it into our house. A few hours later a neighbor found Twin's Purse and my phone ditched under their apple tree, but so far Twin's car (named "Jeepers" because she's a Jeep Liberty. She even has a vanity tire cover with said vehicle name embroidered on it) has not shown up.
Locksmith has come and rekeyed house locks since burglar now has Twin's house keys.


So. Lots of crap. Still, I'm really hoping we get Twin's jeep back. After the police left and the insurance was called we went to Renfest, because we were dammed if we were going to sit around moping all day. Even though we're broke, I still spent some money at Renfest, because shopping therapy sometimes helps. But that will be a future post.

And, on the plus side, it was Brother's birthday yesterday. We plan on doing our usual family meal and gifts this weekend.

So, how have things been for you lately? Good? Bad? Just Mediocre? Share!

UPDATE: Police came to our house in the AM to tell us that a neighbor's garage had been broken into, a door handle on their car was busted and the burgler...how to put this politely...took a shit in their garage. BUT, while the officer was poking around he found a ticket issued for Jeepers two days after Jeepers was stolen. The ticket was for expired tabs (which is hilarious since Twin's been putting off paying for them due to said above expenses). The officer said he would link our case and their case.

UPDATE 2: The police recovered Jeepers!! They found Jeepers, but unfortunately the guy wasn't driving her at the time. BUT, after a bit of investigation, they found the guy with Jeeper's keys in his pocket. He was arrested for first degree burglary because he entered our home and will be going to jail. He was also linked to other burglaries in our neighborhood. So Yay! Everything turned out OK. And seriously, how dumb a thief can he be that he just drives the jeep around like it's his car and he hasn't stolen it. Especially after he already got one ticket.

In Which A Great Thing Happened

That's right.

I FINISHED MY WIP!

Well, just the first draft. But let's get serious here, that's the first major step.

And what does finishing a first draft entail? Why it entails A MOTHEREFFING DANCE!





And maybe a fist bump




So. That was good. It ended up just shy of 80K which is awesome. Lots to play around with there. I was really pushing hard the last two weeks. I would just be exhausted in the evenings after writing so many words. Now I have to begin the revising and editing. I think it will need a fair amount of revisions, but nothing I'm not up to.

Mostly, I really really really want to be able to participate in Authoress's Baker's Dozen Auction this year, it was really the motivating factor on keeping me working at such a hectic pace. So, I've got a few months to get this MS in tip top shape, which means hectic revisions from here on out.

LET'S DO THIS!!

Friday Fun

Yay it's Friday!! Finally.

Seriously, Mom's been so busy writing lately that she hasn't been giving me the attention I need, NAY, deserve

Good thing I've got George to hang out with.




Onto the fun!!



see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!




see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!





see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!





see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!



see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!





see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!



80's Dating Video Montage

In Which Teenage Alien-Hybrids Don't Know How Good They Have It

So I had a post planned for today, but then, when I went to write it, it kinda seemed like a bad idea. So I scrapped it. Instead you get a mishmash of a post which probably won't make any sense, though I could be wrong about that.

I'm so so close to being done with the WIP. If I'm super lucky, I may even finish the first draft today. That would be awesome. It's taking up so much of my time. I'd really like to be able to get back to doing some of my usual chores on Sundays instead of writing, especially since I prefer to do no writing in the evenings or the weekends. Not if I can help it.

Also, I'd love to free up some time to look through my collection of short stories, to see if anything is even close to being something I can work with. The magazine I submitted Hole Ridden to back in January personally asked to see more of my work. Which, I'm not going to lie, was SUPER EFFING AWESOME!

Or, at least it would've been if I A) had something else prepared for submission (I don't) or even B) had time to write something new (Ha! Yeah right...)

Ah lack of time, my oldest enemy.

THIS is why I want to the super power from Out of The World. You know, where she freezes time, but can unfreeze people by touching them?


example of her powers at 0.53 seconds. Feel free to stop watching after that. I did.

Do you know how much sleep you could get? Or the books you could read?

Not to mention people you could rob.

Just kidding. I'd only rob banks.

So. How's your WIP coming? Give me an update, and I'm serial. I actually/really want to know how it's going.
Don't make me stalk you...

In Which I Have A New Obsession

"A new obsession?" you ask.

Yes. Yes I do.

What is it?

Why, it's PINTEREST!

"Pinterest is a Virtual Pinboard.
Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.
Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests."

So let's say you're on a website and you see an awesome picture of, oh I dunno, a cat. Because, you know, the interwebs is bereft of cats. So you click your little "pin it" button, select which pinboard you want to add it to, add a caption, and voila! It's pinned, while linking back to the original source.

The best part about pinterest is, you can repin - so if someone pins something to their board and you love it, you can repin it to your board. The original pinner still gets credit AND the original source link is never lost, so you can repin to your heart's content, knowing you can always get back to the original pinner, or the original source.

Or, if you find another pin that you like, but you don't really want to repin it to one of your boards, you can "like it". Your account will keep track of your likes as well.

You can also comment on people's pins, and use @mentions to draw someone's attention to a specific pin.

Better yet, if you have an etsy shop (and I know a few of you do) you can install an easy "pin it" button next to your etsy items. So then if someone sees something on your shop they love, they can pin it on their board and it's like FREE ADVERTISING.

Seriously, guys. I. Am. Obsessed.

You can request an invite to get started, and once you do, you can make as many pinboards as you want. I currently have 6. Here's a list of mine, with examples of my pins.


Books, Writing and Stuff: Anything to do with the aforementioned title

Home, Garden and Cooking: OMG, guys. I have found THE MOST AWESOME recipes on pinterest - I find anywhere from 2-6 a day. I actually had to stop looking at pins of recipes because I found too many

I'm actually making these potatoes tonight!

Tattoos: A pinboard to highlight all the awesome tattoos out there

Themes I Love: A pinboard specifically for themes I love (for no specific reason), like paths, doors and doorways, eyes etc. Similar to the next board, but with more focus







Inspiration: I use this pinboard to pin things that creatively inspire me and make me want to write a scene or a story. Seriously, sometimes I look at this board or the Themes I Love board and they just hit me in the gut





Awesome Things: Which is kind of a potpourri of "awesome things" I find on the interwebs or on other people's pinboards. Honestly, it's probably my favorite pinboard because it makes me laugh a lot.










If you decide to sign up, you can follow me by clicking on any of my boards. If you do, I'll be sure to follow you back! I'd love to have more pinning friends. You can also find my whole pinterest account by clicking on the little red Pinterest banner on the right hand side of my blog.

Hope to see you there!

Friday Fun

Hi All! Yvie's back after an extended vacay to once again start your weekend off right - with fun!

Vacation, though, was no big deal for me. It's not like there was a special "dog day" where everyone showered me with gifts and stuff. I mean, they SHOULD have, but they didn't.

Instead, I had to go to the vet because I was peeing so much and now I have to take some pills for a few days. Stoopid infections. Could've been worse, though, I guess. I could've been one of the TWO piggers that had scratches on their eyes and ALSO had to go to the vet. I've been there. No thanks.

Onto the fun!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!



see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!



see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!



see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!



see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

Watch this video. Trust me. It's amazing

In Which Summer Flies By

So here we are, mid august already. Can you believe it? Where the hell did the summer go?




We're also in the midst of WriteOnCon. Are you participating? I had plans to go cray cray with it this year, but, just like last year, it's kind of poor timing for me. I reeeeeeally want to finish my draft asap (maybe this week) so it's kind of a "do I spend time at the writing conference, or do I like, you know, write?" conundrum for me.

Writing seems to be winning out. Good thing you can rewatch all the live events and stuff.

Writing has also interfered with both my QueryTracker Forum visits AND some of my blog visits. I recently switched up my schedule a bit. I used to read blogs in the morning and write in the afternoon. Now, though, I've flipped that. Writing needs to come first. So, while I get back into the groove of visiting all your blogs, you'll probably see comments from me later in the day. Hopefully the drafting will be done asap and then I can really get back into the interwebs groove of things

I always seem to forget how actually busy I get in the summer, especially once renfest starts. MMMMMM...renfest food...

This is probably a good note for me to remember - don't start a new WIP in the summer. If I need to write, to distract from queries or something, short stories are probably the way to go.

So, how's writing going for you?

In Which I Return

Well, I'm back! The vacation was actually over last week, it just took me another week to get back to the Internet grind of things.




This post will just be an easing back in, with a list of what I did on vacay. Wednesday's post will be back to more writerly things (also, are we all ready for Write On Con?! I...am? I guess we'll find out later this week)

Anyway, here is a list of things accomplished on vacay (which was actually a staycay, meaning we hit up things to do locally instead of travelling anywhere)

1. Cousin's Wedding
2. Breakfast at Hell's Kitchen
3. Picnic with extended family with kneeboarding and tubing
4. Visit to the Mall of America - hit up Minnesota Sea Life Aquarium
6. Tour of Target Field and lawn bowling at Brit's Pub.
5. Sports Day: Disc Golf, Racquetball, Bowling (I bowled the worst three games OF MY LIFE)
6. Minnesota Zoo
7. Valley Fair (local amusement park)
8. More racquetball, board games.
9. Paintball

Coming up this weekend and next week is the beginning of RenFest and the MN State Fair! I'm going to be bu-sy.

Anything exciting happen over the last two weeks?