It's a really good thing I'm not working today

Because I sooooo didn't mean to stay out until 2:15 last night. Yeah...not so good. Especially since I'm sick. I left work early yesterda afternoon, came home and crashed for about four hours. I got up when Myles got home from work and tried to force-feed myself, since I hadn't eaten a thing all day. I sat on the couch watching TV and going through some emails, started to feel a little better. But I'm one of those people that sleeps and then feels great, but the long I'm awake, the worse I feel. Around 8:30 Myles came into the living room and asked if I was feeling any better. I told him yeah, I was. Turns out, our buddy Alex, one of the ushers in the wedding, just got accepted into a surgical tech internship and wanted to celebrate. He was out drinking at my FAVE bar, Nine Irish Brothers Pub, so we met him over there for what was supposed to be a beer so that I could be home by 10 to be back in bed. Didn't happen. Alex bought about three rounds of shots, and Myles and I kept ordering one Irish brew after another, ended up hanging out with one of the owners, and before we knew it, it was 12:30. Then we headed over to BW3s for just one more, which turned into food and two more. =P And before I knew it, I wasn't getting home until after 2. Yeah, not so good. So, I woke up at about 7:30 and I've been up ever since...coughing like an eighty-year-old lady who's smoked all her life. It doesn't sound pretty AT ALL. Hopefully I feel better before tomorrow so when I go up to my mom and dad's I'm not miserably sick on my supposed-to-be great weekend. Especially since I'm pretty sure what I had planned tonight isn't going to work. I don't particularly want to be around my two-year-old neice and get her sick. That's no good. =(

Oops

I know, I've been a horrible, neglectful blogger.

I was all caught up with everything this past weekend, so I spent the whole weekend working on the yard with Myles. I didn't get any of the Spring cleaning done that I wanted to, but the yard looks really good. =) I'll post pictures of it later. I'm a proud mama. Or something like that.

I'm also taking Friday through Sunday afternoon/evening off and heading to my parents' house for the weekend. I'm looking forward to not even having the option of cracking open my laptop. Myles and just about every single one of my friends tell me I work to much. And to be honest, I was feeling a little burnt out a few weeks ago. But I'm feeling good now.

Just offered a contract on a really good book by Rita Oberlies that I'm excited to start working on. Plus, it's got baseball in it. Woo hoo! I come from a MAJOR baseball family. There's nothing better than taking the South Shore from South Bend to Chicago and catching a Cubs game. I used to do that a lot back in the day. It was a great excuse to skip school. =)

Hope everyone else is doing just peachyfied (my new word.)

Looking forward to a long weekend

I haven't been around much this week. I've been spending a lot of time at my friend's house with her and my neice, and I've been working to get everything at working and with editing ahead of the game, since I'm taking next Thursday-Sunday off of EVERYTHING. Myles and his buddy are headed out east to my's mom's and Friday morning I'm heading to my parents'. I'm really looking forward to four days of no work. =)

And that's really all I have to say. =P

Our engagement pictures

A few weeks ago we had our "engagement pictures" taken. Here are some of the ones I like the most. =)

Someone please explain to me...

Why a commercial for osteoperosis and breast cancer prevention medicine for post-menopausal women states a warning that woman who are breast-feeding, pregnant, or may become pregnant shouldn't take it.

Huh? I mean, seriously. If you're POST-MENOPAUSAL chances are, you don't need to worry about becoming pregnant or breast-feeding.

Just a thought.

It NEVER fails

Everytime you make a stupid decision, a whole bunch of things come up and bite you in the ass. Yeah, and it's happening today.

This morning, Myles and I went grocery shopping. We left shortly after we woke up at 8:30 because the kitties were out of food and were NOT about to let us forget about it. Plus, it's not like they can forage for themselves in the house and find some. But, I digress...as I always do.

As we were walking from one side of the other (Why can't they just keep the cat food and shampoo on the same side as the food?), we happened across the TVs. Anyone who knows Myles knows that once he gets an idea in his head, IT'S THERE. Until it comes to fruition, it's there. He decided to wander through the TVs and compare plasma versus LCD to see if there was a real difference in the picture quality. (For those of you reading this who know Myles, you know how is he and this makes sense to you) And what did we find but a 50' plasma TV on sale for...well, it was $400 off. That's all you need to know. =)

What happened? You guessed it--we bought it. So yeah, I love it, I love TV...I'm obsessed with TV. It's ALWAYS on in our house. I can't really work without it on, so even when I'm editing, I have the TV on, just on a lower volume. But, I digress again.

We got home and got it together and Myles wanted to watch the movie Signs. This was actually really sweet, because that was the first movie we ever watched together. After we watched it, I figured I'd better clean. First, I cleaned the master bath, which we both hate at the moment. The seafoam green on the walls has to go. And the linoleum tile in it is shot. The previous owners had somehow let water get on the floor over and over, so the tile is really crappy around the toilet and between the toilet and the shower. We haven't done anything with it because we want to do it in travertine, which isn't cheap. As I was cleaning, I thought "Shit, for what we just spent on that TV, we could have redone the flooring in here."

Then I checked the mail. Myles had to have a procedure done last month...after insurance, we have to pay more than a few hundred dollars. Ugh.

Plus, then I started thinking, for the money we spent today, we could have flown out to Washington for Dawn's big birthday bash this weekend. Grrrrrrrrrr.

Now I'm wondering what's gonna happen now.

Seven Things I Hate (right now)

1. The price of gas. Duh. It's disgusting to me how we are suffering and having to choose between food to eat and gas to put in are cars, two essential things, while Haliburton and all the other oil companies are seeing their biggest profits of all times. How in the hell does that work? And why is NO ONE doing anything about it?

2. Illegal immigrants. They come and suck off our system, don't speak our language...Grrr. I mean, I have NO problem with people coming here. Not at all, but dammit, if you're going to do it, do it legally. And learn the language we speak here. I wouldn't move to China and expect everyone there to learn to speak English to accomodate me.

3. The gravel lot at work I have to walk through to get to the building after I park. It really sucks to walk through gravel in heels, sometimes stilettos. Sure, I could park in the pavement one, if I wanted to pay an extra $150 a year for the privelege of doing so. Actually, I work here, why should I have to PAY from my check to park in the first place?

4. My job. I have to do way too much for way too little. They just keep piling the work on and expecting me to hop right to it. If I was getting paid to do a $50K a year job, I'd do $50K work. If you don't even pay me HALF of that, then don't expect that I'll be all eager for more work. And my raise in July will probably be a whopping 15 cents an hour. Please. You may as well spit on me. That doesn't even cover the cost of the gas I use to get to this shithole.

5. The fact that my brother is risking his life in Iraq and I really don't even know why. Does anyone else know why we're there or have a valid reason for it? Cuz I sure don't.

6. The fact that we got all of our TV shows back (Finally) but only for three or four measly episodes. What's up with that? Then we'll get back the wonderful world of crappy reality TV.

7. And last, but not least, David A. from American Idol. Dude, I mean come on. Do people seriously like him? Someone should just give him a puppy and send him on his way. For real.

Four bucks for a gallon of gas?

Can you believe that? I'm absolutely disgusted right now. Hell, I gave up smoking and now I'm wondering if I should start smoking again and not drive. It'd probably be cheaper. Someone has GOT to do something about this. Our country is so screwed up right now. Between gas prices, food prices, illegal aliens and the war in Iraq, we're just about screwed. Have you heard the latest? They're going to be giving Social Security to illegal Mexican immigrants. How the hell does that work? I just don't get it. I'm actually a citizen, and the illegals get more crap than I do. I'm thinking that Bush can take his measly $600 bucks and shove it, if ya know what I mean.

Can you tell I'm just a little peeved today?

The good thing about guys hitting on you...

Is that even when they see a ring on your finger, they're still stupid enough to buy you a drink. Myles encourages it...it's less money I spend when I go out. He was off at a Cubs game yesterday and bumming around Chicago (my absolute favorite city) and I headed to my best friend's house after work. She was having a Pampered Chef party and afterward a few us went out to our favorite bar. It was a decent time, but by the time we get there at 10:30, I was losing momentum. I'm odd like that. If I get to the bar by 8:30 or so, I can close it down. But if I get there late, it's no good.

But for the first time ever, I bought a GUY a shot last night. A guy I've never met before and wouldn't know from Adam. And no, I wasn't trying to hit on him. He was there with his wife. lol Jason, my best friend Misty's cousin, is the DJ at Cox's, and when this other guy went up there to sing a song, Jason announced that the guy had just gotten back from Iraq on Thursday. So, my friend Tara and I each bought him a shot since my bro is in Iraq and her husband is. I think he was surprised that a couple of girls bought him shots, but he understood once we told him that we have loved ones there right now.

Tomorrow we're heading up to South Bend to see my mom for Mother's Day and go out for a family dinner. =) I'm looking forward to it. But I'm REALLY looking forward the last weekend in May when I take Friday through Sunday off from EVERYTHING. NO computer, NO Purdue job, NO housecleaning, NO cooking. Going to South Bend and chillaxin' with the parents and brother while Myles and his buddy head out to My's mom's in New Hampshire.

Being realistic

I recently read something on a loop (God, don't even ask me where or whom. I couldn't remember that if you tortured me), and it really stuck out to me. The author had had a manuscript rejected and was talking about how the letter said that the story wasn't realistic enough. This led to a discussion of "stories aren't supposed to be real."

Well, sorry to tell ya, but, yeah, we editors like to see come realism in the story. A lot of it, actually. And yes, in fantasy and sci-fi, too. What we mean by realism is, would that reaction take place, would he/she really say that, etc.

For instance, if you have a story where a woman is actually a demon and her lover is a minister and she finally gets around to telling him what she is and he's like "Okay, cool, I love you anyways", *big breath* that is NOT realistic. I mean, think about it. If a character finds out someone cheated on them and automatically forgives them, no argument, no questions, that's not realistic either. I'm not saying people don't forgive, but if your spouse ran around on you and you found out, wouldn't you be just a leetle bit pissed off?

I'm not going to go into this anymore, but this is what "realism" is. Not whether or not the story really happened or "werewolves don't really exist" or anything like that. Of course that stuff is fake. Duh. =)

I am sooo happy

I got to talk to my brother yesterday. =) He called me while I was at work and I pretty much said screw work...my brother calling me from Iraq is WAY more important than anything I'm doing here. =) I got to talk to him for about a half hour, and believe it or not, all he really wanted to talk about was my wedding. He's really excited for it, but I think a lot of that is simply because he'll be on leave from the war and he'll get to come home and see his family and his girlfriend. I adore his girlfriend. So, yeah, I was elated yesterday. We talked for about a half hour. Basically, until his phone card ran out and cut him off in the middle of a sentence. It was so great to hear his voice.

I'm a little irked at Myles right now

Well, not so much Myles as it's his boss.

Tomorrow, Myles gets to go to Chicago for a Cubs game and dinner at one of my fave Chicago pizza places downtown. I'm sooooo jealous!

The kicker of it is...Myles doesn't even like baseball. I don't even think he knows the first thing about it other than that a guy throws a ball and another guy tries to hit it with a bat. Yeah. While I grew up in a HUGE baseball family. My cousin was the top pitcher in northern Indiana, and we all played softball. Plus, Chicago is my fave city and the Cubbies are my fave team. Hell, when I was in high school, my friends and I used to skip school and take the South Shore from South Bend to Chicago to go to Cubs games. You could go there the day of the show and get box seats for like $8. It was great. We'd wander around Clark street for a while and head downtown and then take the last train back to the Bend.

But Myles is just happy because he gets to get a days' pay for going and drinking beer and not being at work.

Life is SO not fair.

Finally!

Jar Jar Binks (Jason Castro...don't you think he looks like Jar Jar with his hair?) went home last night. It's about damn time. I've been waiting and waiting for him to go. I kinda liked him in the beginning, and then not so much. And David A., too. I liked him in the beginning, but now I'm over him. Completely over him. He's too sappy and, grrr, he just annoys me. I'm all about David Cook. He's my man.

Yay!

The pussy-catticus has returned! I was elated when Myles woke me up yesterday morning at 1:30 in the morning. He was all vigilant and didn't come to bed until Piper was found. It was sooo cute. :) So he watched for Piper and finally saw him outside and got him.

So yesterday we went and got them new collars and tags. The collars and tags we had sucked. The cats could always get them off, and the tags had our old phone number and address, so they were no good. So now, they have new blingin' collars and new tags. Now if anyone sees Nikon or Piper manages to get out again, they'll never be mistaken for strays.

In other news, we went and voted yesterday. First time I've ever voted in the primaries. I've always waited until the "regular" election. But I've decided it's important to take a more active role in this kind of thing. I mean, you can't realyl bitch about the president or the state of affairs in this country if you don't even vote. That's my opinion at least.

And in even more news, I feel super good about all my editing stuff right now. I'm completely on track with everything. I have no edits to do right now other than a final to go over (which I'll be getting done in advance) and edits that I'm waiting on to come back from authors. So yeah, it's really good right now. I've got nothing out with Loose Id and I've got one thing I've got to do this weekend for MLR Press. So for once, I'm not all stressed out about having to get stuff done. Life is good!

What I thought was going to be a nice evening...

Turned out to be a total piece of crap. :( I got home and got caught up on all my emails, went through FLEs, sent out some rounds of edits...so I was feeling really good and about to make dinner. When IT happened.

My cat Piper, who's always attached to Myles and I when we get home, wasn't around. I realized it had been a little over an hour since I got home, and I still hadn't seen him. So My and I looked around the house like three times. No Piper. We even checked places he couldn't possibly be, and he was no where to be found. So then we went outside looking for him (He is NOT an outdoor cat) thinking that maybe he managed to get out. Still no Piper. We drove around the neighborhood. We walked around the neighborhood. We talked to every person we saw outside and on the street. No one else had seen him either. :(

So then we went to print off some pics of him and buy some signs. We made them up and now Myles is out putting them in the neighborhood. I am so bummed right now. Myles got him for me for our six-month anniversary. We've had him for almost four years now. We picked him out together when he was a kitten. :( I've been off and on crying all night, and well, I don't really cry. So this is a BIG deal. I just hope he turns up.

Can I go to sleep now?

It's only three and already I've had a full day of...stuff. :P I've been editing (I finalized one today. That's the second this week. Woo hoo!), I went grocery shopping, I've got a load of laundry in the dryer and one in the washer, I've swept and mopped the floors (I HATE the ceramic tile in this house...it's this grey and white color, so it ALWAYS looks dirty to me, even after I mop), I have a red velvet cake in the oven (Impulse buy at Wal Mart), I cleaned up the kitchen, and I've spray-painted some blacks frames white for my mom's Mother's Day gift. Whew. And I'm not done yet. :P I have more editing, more laundry, dinner to make, laundry to put away, and a couple of bathrooms to clean. Whew again. And I'm sure I'll find other stuff to clean, too. Oh, and sweeping the stairs. Have I mentioned I'm a bit of an OCD clean freak? =)

Hopefully everyone else is having a bit more of a relaxing weekend than me. I'm saving it all for the last weekend of May when I got to my parents' for the WHOLE weekend when Myles is out of town. No laptop, no work. God, I can't wait.

I cried today

For anyone who knows me, I'm not a cryer. It's just never been me. I don't cry in movies, I laugh. I don't cry over stuff. I. Just. Don't. Unless it's REALLY touching, and something today really touched me.

Remember when I posted a while back, about a little guy I know that has brain cancer? I read a blog and saw some pics today that made me cry. AJ is starting to go through radiation and chemo and his hair loss has begun. Yesterday, his dad (who I work with), brother (who comes into work a lot now, Austin is an awesome kid), great uncle, and grandpa all shaved their heads so AJ wouldn't have to go through it alone. That is just so awesome to me. I'm posting a link to AJ's blog for everyone. Keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

http://prayforaj.wordpress.com/

Submissions

I only have two more stories left to read and then I'll have ZERO submissions left to go through. And I still have a couple more spots left in my 2008 schedule. Grrr. Send me some good ones, people!

Divinity in Chains by Danielle Devon

I'm two days late, but I had a release on Tuesday. Woo hoo! A GREAT book by Danielle Devon.

In the beginning there is always darkness…

Aramon’s blood runs hot for the ravishingly beautiful Eliyn, the mysterious young woman who seemed to appear like magic out of the woods, lost and alone. But as Garde Lumia of the kingdom of Kinra, he is bound by duty to his country and the divine family he has sworn to protect.

Aramon must marry according to his high station, the laws of the kingdom have no care for the desires of his heart.

Eliyn lost the only family she has ever known to the barbaric Viscans, and is grateful to the royal family for taking in. She knows Aramon would willingly defy his king to bond with her if she would only say the word, but she is mindful of her low-born status. All she can ever have of him are nights of forbidden passion.

Then a dark ship appears on the horizon, a ship bearing Araqael, the Night Lord cast from the heavens by the goddess herself. The centerpiece of his plot for revenge is his intended bride—Eliyn. The world would be hers to command if only she would take her place at his side. She must choose between the demon who could offer her everything and the man who could offer her nothing but his heart.

But Divinity has other plans…

Go read an excerpt, or better yet, buy it! =)

http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/divinity-in-chains