Wednesday's Boxer

This was me on the way to work this morning.

Beverage Alert

OK, folks - I know it's a pain to click on a link and take my word for it that this is worth your time, but trust me. Set down your coffee. Make sure you've swallowed, then click here.

I got the link from Agent Kristin - this is Bookseller Chick talking about why life is not a romance novel. :)

Do boxers fetch?

That would be a yes....

More tofu crumbles

So yesterday I made the tofu crumble recipe with masala sauce. I cut corners and bought it (all organic, no scary stuff or GMO's), so it didn't take me nearly as long this time. I just mixed some of the sauce with olive oil and water so that it would soak into the tofu more, rather then sit on top. The crumbles absorbed the sauce perfectly!

Then for dinner, I made jasmine rice and sauteed some veggies, added more sauce and combined them all. Yum! And I took the leftovers for lunch today.

I'd also like to recommed Lara Bars - they are unprocessed, whole foods, just smushed into a bar. They are gluten free, dairy free, vegan, kosher, and all around yummy! It's great if I run out of time to assemble trail mix.

Where you go, I will follow... or not

It's Tuesday night and the Gilmore Girls is still collecting dust in my Tivo. I just read that the theme of this season is... consequences. That makes for some fun tv!!! And I think it's just crazy that there were almost no consequences for Rory and her homewrecking fiascos of season 5, but Lorelai makes a mistake and we devote a whole season to... consequences.

Riddle me this, Batman... how does she choose this:

over this:

or this...

or this or this or this, for heaven's sake

I mean, suspension of disbelief only gets me so far.

Monday's Boxers

Pile o' boxers

Sunday's Boxer

An angel for Sunday...

More thoughts on food

1) Quinoa flakes

I just discovered these. I thought my days of hot cereal were over. Oh no, my friend! The great thing is that because of the protein in quinoa, you feel really good and energetic after eating it. But... even with milk, brown sugar, and raisins - it's not oatmeal. It's still all "sprouty" like regular quinoa. Still, thumbs up overall!

2) Black rice

Really more of a dark, dark purple. First off - don't be fooled, this is a whole grain. So, imagine brown rice, but chewier and, well, black. The other funny thing is that the water in the pan turns aubergine, and you really don't want to get it on your shirt. But... there's so much to it that you really don't need much to fill you up - and it has a higher protein content then regular rice. The story is that the emporer of China (the bag doesn't say which one...) decreed that this rice could only be grown by him - so they call it "forbidden rice"... ooooo.... ahhhhh...

Saturday's Boxer of the Day

Well, hello there....

Friday's Boxer of the Day

You lookin' at me?

I love this idea!

So, when I'm stuck for inspiration I can plan my launch party. Just like this lady did.

I'll need a fishing theme instead of a hunting theme, but it sounds like a blast!!

Boxer(s) of the day

I really don't think I can come up with a caption to do these guys justice! Enjoy!

Fall TV Lineup... and a rant

Sure, everyone loves the crisp air, the fresh apples, school starting up again (would someone tell me that my daughter isn't the only one to make dust angels in the gravel when she's hot at recess??) But my favorite part is the new shows!! YAY!

Here are my thoughts on the fall lineup thus far:

1) Standoff - starring Ron Livingston of Office Space fame and Anna Esposito (evil chick from Alias). I mentally gave this a B after the first episode, but it jumps up to an A after the second episode. I really like it and recommend it.

2) Jerhico - Eh. Love the setup, not so hot on the execution, but it gets a few more tries to see if it goes the way of Standoff or more like Surface from last year (that's not a good way to go).

3) Studio 60 - Ah, Aaron Sorkin. I adored Sports Night like the characters were my best friends. I loved West Wing almost as much. I see great potential here. And, I will say that there is a Christian character who isn't a straw dog opposition character, or all syrupy and annoying (7th Heaven anyone?) She actually talks like a Christian that I'd know from school or church. I'm very interested to see what he does with her. He wrote religion very sensitively in WW, in fact, it's one of the ways I could tell he was gone - Bartlett's attitudes toward religion changed markedly. So, a big hopeful we'll see for this one!

4) Meerkat Manor - ok, not a new show, but new to me. It's on Animal Planet. They follow the "real life travails" of a family of Meerkats in the Kalihari. Last season ended with a cliffhanger about the fate of brave Shakespeare as he was defending the pups against the enemy Lazuli family. Be ok Shakespeare!!! We find out Friday. :)

5) Kidnapped - so far an A - good concept (a guy who retrieves kidnapped people) - good execution - seems like a hard concept to carry through, but so far so good.

6) Smith - Eh... don't like the concept, but I do like the execution. Everyone seems evil. They need to show me real fast why I should want any of them to make it. But, it gets another week.

And I'll take this opportunity to plug Lost, starting next month, can't wait! Also anxiously awaiting The Nine next month.

I have yet to see Gilmore Girls. Those of you who know me know that it's really the closest show to my heart, and it was new last night. It's mocking me from my Tivo box right now. Here's the thing, here's my open letter to Lorelai (or whoever's writing her today)....

Luke waited for you for EIGHT YEARS and you couldn't be patient for a few little weeks while he deals with his CHILD? After all those years of putting Rory first you don't get that??!!!

OK, my real issue here is that it isn't even a little bit true to her character. Sure, she's been a tiny bit selfish in the past. She yelled at him when Jess and Rory got in the accident and it wasn't his fault, but this? No, this isn't her and I personally feel betrayed as a fan. I think that Amy Sherman-Palladino was irritated with the way things went and turned the show on it's ear before she left, but really, why take it out on your fans.

So, I'm not watching till I hear things work out for Luke and Lorelai and then I'll catch up. I may have a long wait, but so be it. I have to protect myself. ;)

Not just a pretty face!

This woman's boxer, Fletcher, saved her life today. Read about it here on Boxer World.

I'll summarize, a rapist in the neighborhood came to her door, and thinking it was her kid running back from the bus stop, she opened it. Her dog went ballistic on the guy and he turned and ran.

In Fletcher's honor, I'll post his picture today for my Boxer Hero of the Day!

Boxer of the day

You didn't think I'd forget, did you?

He wants to play!!!

Tip of the day

If you are using a "smart" hair dryer that shuts itself off when it gets too hot, and the dryer does just that... don't just set it down and walk away.

The dryer will eventually cool down and turn itself back on and you will jump to your feet thinking:

A) Someone broke into your house to dry their hair in the bathroom

or

B) There are poltergeists in your bathroom drying their hair

C) The hair dryer turned itself back on will be the *last* thing to occur to you.

And I don't even want to think about fire hazards...

Tofu, I'm not scared of you!

The Lemke's made their first foray into the wild world of tofu last night. OK, maybe this doesn't seem too crazy to the rest of you, but I've always been a little intimidated by it - how *do* you cook it?? And I don't like anything remotely resembling the texture of mushrooms, so it really did pose a problem.

Last night I made tofu crumbles. I'm linking to the recipe, but in summary, I took 2 lbs of tofu (extra firm) and pressed and dried it to get as much water out as possible, then I *crumbled* it into a bowl. It looked kind of like feta crumbles (not such a scary thing). Meanwhile, I made a sauce with hoisin, rice vinegar, sesame oil, red pepper flakes, ginger, and garlic. See the recipe for proportions, but know that I at least doubled the hoisin. I love that stuff! Once it all simmered together and then cooled I poured 1/2 of it over the crumbles. Then I baked them for an hour to get a lot more moisture out of them.

That was the hard part - but I have a lot of this, so it's gonna be a short cut from here on out. For dinner, then, I just sauteed veggies I had on hand (onion, red pepper, 'shrooms, green onions) and added some of the sauce from the tofu. Then tossed the tofu in and served it over jasmine rice. YUM!!!! The crumbles took forever, the actual dinner took just minutes.

Gigi loved it and ate it by the fistful - Kira, not so much, but she didn't actually gag like with the eggplant, so that's an improvement!!

Another very special boxer of the day

This boxer pic is courtesy of a friend and blog reader, and as she pointed out, the boxer wants to be a writer, too!

Dinner tonight

I made eggplant parmesan and an upside down apple cake. Here's a burning question... I've been committed to "whole foods" so whole wheat flour would be a necessity, except that I can't eat wheat. So I have gluten free flour that is a blend of rice, soy, and potato flour. How do I know if this is "whole" or "refined"? I have no idea.

Anyway... eggplant parmesan, I created this from several recipes:
1) slice eggplant into 1/4 inch slices
2) dip in egg, then in flour mixed with salt and pepper
3) fry lightly in olive oil (I learned that 2 skillets is ideal here)
4) layer in lasagne pan
5) pour marinara sauce* over eggplant
6) cover in grated parmesan and mozzarella cheese
7) bake till cheese is golde

*I always make my own sauce, but this time I did a simplified version - just sauteed some onion and garlic, added a can of tomato sauce and some basil and voila

The cake was easy too - just chop up some apples and put in the bottom of a pan - bake till soft. Remove from oven and toss brown sugar on top. Then mix up 1 c flour, 1 c sugar, 1/3 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp almond extract, 1 egg, 1/3 c milk, 1 stick butter and pour on top. Then bake till it looks done. :)

YUM!!! The meal scored rave reviews from Randy (despite having ordered eggplant parmesan for lunch - the cad!) but Kira barely choked it down. The cake however was a hit with both of them. Here is a transcript of what was said in the car on the way home from school today:

Me: Kira, I made you dessert today!
Kira: What is it?
Me: Apple upside down cake
Kira: I have 2 questions: What's for dinner, and how much of it do I have to eat to get dessert?

That's my girl - cut to the chase. :)

Word count

I broke 50,000 words! WOOO!!!!!

Check out that sidebar! --->

Boxer of the Day

I love brindles!!! Don't you just want to cuddle him!!

On coming in this morning

"Hey Robin, do you need a new badge? I see you managed to make it through the front door alright!"

Everyone's a comedian...

Boxer of the Day

It's been a while - the love has not waned:

This morning

I could mention the hour plus commute, the fact that I needed to get to a bathroom for over half of it (yet still drank my entire latte - makes you question what I have going on upstairs), or that I fell flat on the pavement right in front of the front door at work (in flats, no less) - but I think this email sums it up:


Good Morning Robin*,
I think we have your keys down here at The Security desk. If you want to come down and get them, it will be here for you.

Clearly, I'm not operating with a full deck today, and as already noted, I *have* had my coffee.

Beware, those that cross my path on this Wednesday!!!

*please also note that my keys have nothing with my name on them and I do work in an office building of several thousand people.

Back in gear

After a kick in the pants from my buddies over at the I Should Be Writing forums, I stopped planning and started writing again. I have a lot of great ideas for how to build in more tension, more plot mirrors and knots, but if I'm not putting the words on the page it won't get done. So, I did another 500 words today - still not a lot, but I'm ramping back up! I think I know where I'm going for the next 10,000 words or so, and that should be good enough to build up the momentum.

Here it goes! I'm still trying to finish by 10/31 and it's fast approaching!

Dinner

It has come to my attention that some of my blog readers are doing the UltraMetabolism plan and are sometimes at a loss for what to eat. So, I'm going to put some of my meals up here for ideas. :)

On the table last night...

Quinoa Rigitoni with Marinara sauce and Harvest Salad

Quinoa pasta is great b/c it has a ton of protien and cooks in 4 mins!! The marinara was sauteed carrots, onion, garlic + a can of crushed tomatos, fresh basil, bay leaves, marsala wine and salt.

The salad was chopped romaine hearts, diced apples, raisins, bleu cheese crumbles and olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Kira then very cleverly kept telling us all that dessert was a secret and somehow had us all driving her to the bakery for a caramel bar. I'm still not sure exactly how she pulled it off, but it was expertly crafted over the evening!

Frugal Reader Update

So, within a day of listing books I've had requests to ship four of them giving me 5 credits. YAY! So far I've requested "When Washington Was in Vogue: A Love Story" and it's shipped already. Yay, again!! I have 7 books "wish listed" to ship when they come available, also. Thumbs up, so far. :)

Frugal Reader

I have a new favorite thing: Frugal Reader. I'm especially primed to like it, because earlier this week I took a bunch of books to my favorite local bookstore, and was only able to sell 2 for a whopping $4.50 in store credit. Woo hoo.

With this plan, you list the books you're willing to part with. Then you get 1 free credit for listing 5 books (10 for 2). After that you get to shop!! You can pick a book from someone else's list and they'll mail it to you for you to keep, or relist when you're done. Everytime you send out a book (usually for $1.59 in postage) you get another credit.

What about the library? You might ask. Or you might not if you knew my track record with library fines.

Cold Mountain II

I just read that Charles Frazier sold his follow-up to Cold Mountain for EIGHT MILLION DOLLARS based on ONE PAGE.

Actually, I feel a little badly for him - as crazy as that sounds. Because now he has eight million dollars worth of pressure while he's writing his book. It's hard enough to write and not feel like a total hack when maybe it's just your own eyes on it. Knowing someone's paid EIGHT MILLION DOLLARS for it, has to make that self talk all the more extreme.

Good luck to you, Charles!!

How to Write a Novel

I just found this web site thanks to Mur Lafferty and her podcast:
How to Write a Novel

I've added it to the sidebar ----->
but also wanted to draw your attention to it if your at all interested in writing. I think she has great advice and I'm going to start work on the spreadsheet right now!

My favorite bit of advice is to give it a working title that motivates you like "Go little novelist, go!" and put it in a great big font. Now there's some good advice!!

Update

1) I paid my debt at Starbucks today and they told me that they let people do that all the time (skate if they don't have money) and they often come back and pay them. It made me feel good, even though I forked over $8 for lattes - yikes!

2) Update on the Robin Rennaisance - I've lost all the Gigi baby weight. YAY! Sadly, I still have 10 pounds to go to get back to a pre-Kira weight, but I already feel human again. We're still doing the Ultra Metabolism plan and eating lots of vegetarian meals which are cheaper (nice, since the organic produce is so stinkin' expensive). But I'm a little sick of quinoa pasta, so I need to find some new recipes...

3) The novel - poor little word count meter looks stalled, I know. Here's the thing I'm learning. I can turn out the words for a few weeks, then I need to take some time to work on the plot. This is because I don't outline, but the last book I wrote on plot eschews outlining so I feel vindicated.

However - I feel like I'm not making any progress when I take the time to plot. I'm hoping when I actually complete this novel I'll be more comfortable with my process. But for now I'm still fighting the "you'll never get done!" demon on my shoulder.

4) Evidence that I need my head screwed on straight:

• I've lived in Seattle for 24 of my 31 years and worked at this client for over 3 years... and got lost on the way to work today
• I work in a campus of several thousand people and discovered today that the security guys know me by name. I'd like to think it's because of my winning personality - but really, I'm sure it's my habit of needing a temporary badge because I've left mine at home.

Why I love Starbucks and humanity in general today

Because if you order your drink and then realize that you've left your wallet at home, having given it to your 1 year old as a chew toy, they'll just smile and hand you your drink and say "catch us next time."





Fortunately I had enough change in the bottom of my purse to tip them!
Cheers!!!

PS Sadly, this is not the first time this has happened, and yes, they've given me the drink each time.

To be fair...

Here's Gigi looking cute after that last messy baby post!

When babies don't nap...

They tend to fall asleep in their high chair where mom has put them with a piece of chocolate* while she tries to get dinner made.

*dark chocolate - full of antioxidants - practically a health food!

Crapometer update

In case any of you were wondering, I did not get into the crapometer this round. There were 500 entries and 100 were chosen by a random number generator. I might have the guts to post submit my begininning to Evil Editor, but I'm just not sure it's helpful because he only looks at the first 100 words. Unless I set someone on fire in the first paragraph, I don't know how I'd make a great impression in that short a space, but we'll see. ;)

It's probably the best outcome, anyway, since I'm learning a lot by reading all of the entries over on Miss Snark's blog, without actually being snarked myself!

Off to Kindy!

Kira went to her first day of Kindergarten yesterday. I really thought I'd collapse in a heap of tears, but all the psyching myself up for it seemed to work. I didn't really fall apart till I went to Starbucks afterwards and felt sad that I didn't have my little coffee buddy with me. ;0 And she cried when she heard that I went to Starbucks without her and made me promise her I'd never do that again....um.... sure. ;)

First let's reminisce for a minute:

This is a rare picture of a sleeping Kira. Don't be fooled - she didn't do much of this. And now...

We just arrived in the parking lot....

This would be right before she said "So, when are you going to leave?"

YAY! The first day is done!!!!

Happy Birthday Little G!!!

Little Miss Greta Giselle turned 1 this Labor Day weekend. Where in the world did the last year go? I know it sounds cliche, but I do think this is the fastest year of my life. Wasn't she just this big yesterday...

Apparently that was an entire year ago. Here are some pictures of Gigi's birthday:

Check it out - I baked a cake. I can't bake as a general rule, but managed to pull off a gluten free birthday cake...

And here is the birthday girl:

And one of her sister enjoying the party:

And all ready for bed after the big day!

Paging the tooth fairy...

My baby girl has her first loose tooth! Kindergarten and a loose tooth all in one week. WOW!!

Boxer of the Day - action shot!

Thursday's boxer of the day is a great advertisement for why I'll leave the ears alone. How cute are floppy ears!!!

The Crapometer is back!

I'm submitting my query and first page to Miss Snark's Crapometer tomorrow. She has a 12 hour window for accepting entries and then chooses her favorite 100 to filet on the blog. I'll let you know if mine's been chosen.

If not, I think I'll go ahead and submit to Evil Editor. I've held off on EE's services so far because I'm really not at the querying stage, but I the Crapometer only comes along every so often so I polished mine up and am putting it out there.

Wish me luck!

In other news...

The title of this local news story is Psycho Killer Racoons Terrorize Olympia.

I don't think it needs any more of a plug than that. Those first four words together in one sentence pretty much have me hooked!!

Thanks to my sister for the link. ;)

A very special Boxer of the Day

This is a very special boxer because it belongs to my Aunt. I haven't met this little sweetie in person (yet) but can't wait to!! How cute is that face?!

This particular color combo is called "Flashy" because of the "flashes" of white on her chest.

Cliches

Here are a couple of addictive web sites by defenders of words and their intended useage. If you ever bristle at an overused analogy or trite cliche - these are for you:

http://tommangan.net/banned/

http://www.newswriting.com/groaners.htm

Some of my favorite entries:

Motorists - Where have all the drivers gone? Don’t fall into the DMV Handbook trap.

Plunge, Plummet - Ever notice that nobody just falls anymore? Newton’s Law applies. No matter what word you use, you hit the ground just as hard, so keep it simple.

White Supremacist - Putting aside its obviously non-conversational tone, “white supremacist” sounds too lofty. It’s more than those lowlifes deserve. Most of them probably don’t even know what “supremacist” means. It’s also inherently racist. Somehow we never use “supremacist” without “white” before it. Violent radicals of different hues tend to be called “separatists”, as if no member of any non-white race would dare think in “supreme” terms.

Why We Fight

I just saw Why We Fight. It's terrifying. I saw Farenheit 9/11 and was able to dismiss a lot of it as Michael Moore being Michael Moore (I think he's pretty irresponsible with his facts in order to make his points). This movie isn't something you can dismiss.

What I found really troubling was how the private sector that manufactures weapons is so integrated with the government - now we have contractors doing the work of military - it's just peeling potoates and shining shoes now but it's a scary trend.

They also talk about how an aircraft carrier is sold. And did you know that a piece of the B-52 is built in every state in America so that if the government tries to discontinue these there will be outcry?

It's disturbing.

Here's a good sound bite "when war becomes this profitable, you're sure to see more of it."

I'm not saying there aren't just wars. I'm not saying that I wish Saddam were still in power - I think he was horrible - but the term "power corrupts" seems very apt after watching that film and it seems that the locus of power is in wealthy corporations more than anywhere else.

The Corporation is another good film talking about corporations being the new United Nations.

Comments welcome - I'd particularly like to know how some of you reconcile your feelings about any good outcomes from a war that may or may not be just. For example, I've heard people say that of course Saddam was bad and it's good that he's gone but that the war in Iraq was still unjust.

Things I'm mulling over these days...

Novel update

So, the word count meter hasn't moved in a few days. My characters ran off and did some things that weren't in the outline and I have to regain control. It's all good, but I hate to not see that meter moving forward. Stay tuned!

Monday's Boxers

So, no boxers over the weekend. I tried, but Blogger was having issues uploading photos, so I'll give you a twofer today. :) Needless to say, Boxers like to play with other boxers.

I'll just add that I took an unexpected detour on Sunday to Greenlake, aka "Dog Mecca" and I was treated with seeing two, yes TWO, boxers being walked right past me. They were identical brindles with white stripes down their noses and on their chests with floppy ears. Ahhhh....!!! Much like the fawn boxer in this photo, but brindle where this one is fawn.

Friday's Boxer of the Day

For today's Boxer of the Day we have this little beauty, a brindle flashy looking very inquisitive.

Notice the natural ears. Boxers have traditonally had their ears cropped so that they stand up straight. I just learned that this was because they were bred to hunt and hold wild boar. It was very likely that the boar could rip an ear, which would have been a very serious injury before 24 hour emergency vets. Now that they don't hunt, people are leaving their ears floppy which I love.

I hope you're all enjoying this new blog feature. The "find a boxer" quest continues. I've found 2 potential breeders in British Columbia and one right here near me. I'm creating my list of breeder questions and the investigation begins!!

Thursday's Boxer of the Day

This sweetie is a brindle boxer. It looks like she's waiting for her friends to come over and play. Don't you just want to give her a cuddle?!

Another party in the blog!!!!

Check out that word count, baby, I'm halfway done!

WOOO!!!

It's all downhill from here! :)

Just for fun, let's do a little word count recap. I picked the novel back up this year with 17,000 words done. I beat my head against the keyboard for the next 6 months and in mid-June had a whopping 21,000. Now, two months later, I'm at 45,000.

I think the lesson I can learn here is that as much as I hated taking the time to outline the book in June, it was clearly time well spent. It's about as much fun as coming up with a new system to do laundry or getting the baby to sleep in her own bed, but worth it. (Not that I've conquered those other two things...)

A note on white boxers

First, today's Boxer of the Day:

Seriously, how cute is that.

So the scoop on white boxers is this.

First of all they are not albinos - as you can see with this little beauty, they often have a spot here and there and certainly have pigmentation even without spots.

Second, they can't be shown. This is very similar to white German Shephards. The difference between the white boxer and the white shepherd is that Shepherds are truyly just a different color. Whites can be bred with whites, but are usually not bred with black and tans or other shepherd colors. They are almost a sub-bread with their own unique personality traits. (They tend to be more lively and willful. I can attest to this from personal experience.)

White boxers on the other hand are not bred to be white because they have a higher tendency toward deafness and blindness. I don't know if this was just bred in along with the color like the willfullness in the shepherds, but the incidence is high enough that it is considered irresponsible to breed specifically for the white color. That said, a boxer can be shown with up to 25% of white on it's body - breed two of those dogs together (they're called Flashy when they have white on them) and you're likely to get an all white boxers.

Sadly, these used to be euthenized (the horror), but now are more often sold to pet homes. So long as they are not born deaf or blind, their health is not compromised by their color in any way and they make fantastic pets.

Needless to say, I'd be more than happy to be a mommy to a white boxer should the opportunity present itself. :)

Just as Elmo was wearing a little thin...

Sesame Street has a new fairy-in-training!


Our household is very excited about the new addition! Welcome, Abby Cadabby!!

Boxers

I can't explain it but I've suddenly become obsessed with boxers. Those who know me might not think this is completely out of the realm of what's normal for me, but I assure you - this is another level, completely above and beyond my normal puppy obsession.

Here is my boxer picture of the day. There will be future boxer pictures as I try to hold on till I can buy my own.

Nate the Great

I went to pick up a few books for Kira to enjoy her last few days of summer with late nights staying up reading. Soon I'll be enforcing bed time and getting her up early for breakfast... but not just yet.

So, I decided to try a chapter book series for her. I think The Magic Tree House is a little beyond her and I don't love Junie B. Jones, so I found Nate the Great. We love Nate!

Here's why he's so great - I'm admit to being a little bit of a literary snob. I love genre fiction and fun reads but if the prose is bad I can't get through it. So many kids books keep the sentences short and simple, but I worry that it's hacking away at the part of their brains that develops a literary sense of style and that they'll never learn proper sentence composition if they're reading stilted, cropped sentences.

The beauty of this series is that the sentences are short and simple, but it's in the style of the hard boiled detective, so it works. Nate is a miniature Sam Spade. The whole book is fun to read, firmly rooted in a literary style, and endearing.

Here is an excerpt from Nate the Great and Me: The Case of the Fleeing Fang:

"Where is Fang?" I asked.

"He ran away," Annie said.

Rosamond nodded.

"Now you have a new case," she said. "Nate the Great Finds Fang."

I, Nate the Great, did not want to do that.

Fang's teeth get bigger every day.

Esmerelda spoke up.

Esmerelda is wise.

"Nate can't solve cases today. This is his day off."

"No problem," I said.

"I will teach all of you how to be a detective. I will teach you how to find Fang. Come in."

I, Nate the Great, said to Annie, "First you have to remember. Remember if there was anything different about Fang today. Any reason why he might run away. Then remember where you last saw him. Remember what he was doing. Remember who was there."

Annie said, "I got Fang ready for the party. I didn't have time to give him a bath. So I feather-dusted him."

"You feather-dusted him?"

"Yes. It makes his fur nice and clean."

Party in the blog!

Robin got promoted today. WOOO!!!

Update

It's been a while since I've posted some pics of the kids and I know I have friends and family viewing the blog... so here are some udates.

Miss Greta just turned 11 months old last week and has been walking for about 2 months now. She can stand up without holding anything, pivot, sit down and get back up, and do most of the intricate walking maneuvers. She still only goes about 10 feet at a time, but she's finessing it.


Miss Kira starts Kindy in exactly one month. (Picture of her in a uniform coming soon!) We're all very excited and I keep having to remind myself that I'm not going with her. She's enjoying these last days of summer with abandon before she starts the great adventure that is school.


... 4th of July - can you see the attitude in that girl?

and Kira as Flower Girl...

Now this is encouraging

Agent Kristen tells us today how a killer query letter (and of course a good manuscript to go along with it) got her brand new author from sending a query to receiving a contract from Bantam in TWENTY FIVE DAYS!

She links to her new author's blog where she posts the query letter for the rest of us to learn from. I think lore has it that Stephen King was rejected 75 times or something atrocious like that and this lady hooked an agent and sold her book in less than a month.

I know I'm feeling better about the world of publishing today!

EWWW!!!!!

I'll sum up for those that don't want to read the whole story, here.

The bottom line is that according to the UK's Dailymail, cell phones have more bacteria than toilet seats and you should swipe them regularly with antibiotic wipes.

Three guesses as to what I did just before typing this post.

More bacteria than toilet seats... think about holding one of those up and talking into it. EWWW!!!

Warning

Doing an image search on Google for "white boxer" doesn't just bring up dogs. Who knew they came in see through mesh?!

Book Review

Robin's recommendation for best book of 2006 is...

Swing, by Rupert Holmes. (Techincally the hardback may have come out in 2005, but lets not quibble...)

It's set in 1940 on Treasure Island in San Francisco and full of detail about swing bands (of course), the world's fair, prohibition, and other things that I can't mention without spoiling the plot. I've honestly not read a mystery in a very long time that does such a fine job of holding my interest on every page. Although it's a page turner, this isn't a book that you read quickly to find out who dunnit. You'll enjoy each and every sentence. And the writing is tight. Everything matters. Nothing is filler. Run to the library today!!!

Also... the author is a composer among other things and you can dowload the score to the book at www.rupertholmes.com - complete with musical clues. And he's serious, there are musical clues.

Disturbing realization

I just realized that all of my favorite singers/musicians have one thing in common: Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Chris Isaak, Brian Setzer, Lyle Lovett, Chet Baker...













all have a pompadour hairdo. How is it that my musical taste is defined by hairdo? That's just odd.

Bert's It

The classic Ernie and Bert routines are up on You Tube:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search=sesame+street+bert&search_type=search_videos

Kira nearly hyperventilated watching "Bert's It". I also recommend "Heeeer fishy fishy fishy!"

Kira's gonna love surfer boys

All four Lemkes are in the car, being quiet, a rarity for Lemke's, when Kira says...

Kira: I think Chet should have blonde hair.
Me: Oh really, why?
Kira: Because boys with blonde hair look good.
Me: Oh...?
Kira: Yeah, especially when it's kind of low, you know?

On facing fears

A conversation had in the kitchen over a cantelope.

Kira: Mama, you can cut a whole cantelope now!
Me: Yes, I can
Kira: You faced your fears! And the knife didn't break.
Me: That's true, it didn't.
Kira: So we can get whole cantelopes now. That's good because the half cantelope was more expensive then the whole cantelope.
Me: Ok then (thinking that I still really hate cutting cantelope)
Kira: You know, sometimes I have to face my fears.
Me: Really, what are your fears?
Kira: Oh you know, getting the Cellar Ghost in Squeegie's (Luigi's) Mansion, or eating red peppers at dinner. When I grow up I'm never eating a red pepper again. Bleh!
Me: OK hon.
Kira (sighing in delight at the cantelope and walking off muttering): Mama cut a whole cantelope.

Clearly the key to impressing your kids is to set expectations very, very low....

Fun links for the day

Set your coffee cup down before clicking - you've been warned. This lady reads POD's (publish on demand books) to find the diamond in the rough... needless to say it's mostly coal out there and here's her list of opening lines that make her close the book and not read any further.
http://girlondemand.blogspot.com/2006/07/opening-paragraphs-of-recent-pods-that.html

This one may use some naughtly language, again, you've been warned. If you want to know what your web site would soung like in jive, just gizoogle it.
http://gizoogle.com

And, on a not so humorous note (although looking at them does make me chuckle) check out the wave of the future:
http://www.commutercars.com I see these all over Seattle - seems like a great idea, although the idea of assembling a car does have me a little worried. A crib is one thing, but "honey, let's put together the car!" makes me twitch a little bit.

Film Noir podcast

For anyone who loves Film Noir, check out Out of the Past - a podcast that takes it's title from the 1947 film starring Robert Mitchum and Kirk Russel by the same title.

They have a fun academic banter going (complete with "academic humor") and seem really energertic about Film Noir. It's fun to listen to if you enjoy the genre or the cross over hard boiled detective stories of the same era.

Coffee *is* a drug!

This morning I managed to require only one half cup of coffee to stave off my usual caffeine headache. I haven't gotten by on this little coffee since I was trying to get pregnant with Kira (and I felt like a wreck). Even when I'm down with the flu or recovering from surgery I manage to get some coffee down my throat. So today, I was very proud of myself. So happy with myself, in fact, that I thought if I needed another half cup in the afternoon that would be fine. So I did have that second half cup. And I could *feel* it - not in that jittery over caffeinated way, but I could actually feel the blood vessels constricting through my temples, and feel my jaw tensing up.

I recently learned that the reason we addicts feel a caffeine headache is that caffeine restricts the blood vessels in our head, thereby letting through less blood. So, when we don't have coffee, the blood goes rushing through making our heads throb. Of course, better circulation is a good thing if you can handle it.

I feel like I just discovered my best friend has been robbing me blind while I had my back turned. How could my beloved coffee be doing this to me?! The very things I've complained about, tense jaws, pounding headaches, whacked out metabolism... seem to have some roots in coffee.

So, this week should be my last caffeinated week - after that, it's decaf all the way, baby!

How to cut a key in half without breaking a sweat

First, open your trunk by inserting the key

Next, pull out your back breaking humpback producing laptop bag

Put said back very precariously on shoulder

Now (this part is important) slam the trunk shut by grabbing ahold of your keys and pulling

If done with enough force this should dislodge the laptop bag from your shoulder while your hand is still connected to the keys

The bag should then fall straight to the ground, separating your hand from the trunk.

Look closely, you know have a key in your hand, and the other half neatly lodged in the trunk.

*To make your morning extra fun, do this on a day when you experimented with a soy latte and the EMT's arrived at work, shutting off the elevators so you have to climb 6 flights of stairs with the above heavy bag. Also, you should have a key that needs programming and costs well over $100 to replace

Pet Peeve #386 (approximately)

When writers give their character a cell phone and then make said character's significant other #1 on speed dial. Does no one who writes actually own a cell phone? Number 1 is always voice mail, people!!!

I suppose there may be some carrier somewhere that doesn't preprogram their phones with #1 as voicemail, but for the rest of us in the country - how about you make "Sweetie" #2.

This is very closely followed by writers who think that their readership has never seen a computer and say things like "he moved his fingers across a black square in front of the keyboard" (that would be a touchpad) "he hit it twice over a little picture of a file and a list of documents appeared on the screen" (translation: he opened My Documents).

Probably your reader ordered your book from Amazon with her very own fingertips. Give us a little credit, please!

T4, T3, T2, and other things my body isn't making correctly

So apparently my thyroid numbers are all pretty normal, but I'm getting worse. He surmised I may have Lupus (I don't think so), Rheumatoid Arthritis (I know I don't), Candida, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, or who knows what else. Great. I was pretty discouraged till my darling husband whipped out his new book, Ultrametabolism. Apparently, I'm nowhere near alone in this phenomenon. Many, many woman have undiagnosed inflammation, infection, and underactive thyroid.

Starting Monday, I'm going on a detox plan to eliminate all the possible culprits from my diet (the most likely offender is evil gluten). Not even my beloved coffee is safe (it's a drug, Randy says, and I'm an addict - well, true). Next, relaxation techniques (which I've always thought were silly - who needs to relax when you can get a latte?), exercise is already in place, supplements, herbs, and a new thyroid medicine - Armour Thyroid.

And the Robin Renaissance continues!

Authors are wonderful people

On Thursday, I went to hear Susan Kandel talk about her new book, Shamus in the Green Room.

As it turns out, there were only a few people at the reading, and although I didn't intend to tip my hand, with my first question she asked if I was a writer. Well, yes, I'm working on it.... so she asked all about my book and was very encouraging. She spent a lot of time talking to me about her process and what worked and gave me some great advice.

Then Kira and I went up to have our book signed and she pulled out a picture of her youngest, Maud. Naturally I had to say what a fantastic name Maud is, which is when she asked Kira her name and lo and behold her oldest is Kyra. A connection over names is a true connection if ever there was on! So, she signed my book with very encouraging words and I left walking on air thinking that if she could do it, I could do it. I didn't even want to see which other writers were coming because how could I duplicate that.


Well... Saturday night we found ourselves back at Third Place Books and I noticed that the room was set up for another reading - in 15 minutes. Trevor Scott was coming and he wrote thrillers which are very similar to mysteries, so why not stay and listen. I did, and again, there were only a few people and again, he talked mostly to me about process and the business and all about writing for an hour.

Then came the book signing... at which point he pointed to his business card and said that if I sent him some pages he'd be happy to look at them and offer suggestions.

That's pretty much the equivilent of the book signing lottery. It NEVER happens. People try forever to make a connection with a published author and it just doesn't happen. I think my jaw is still on the floor of the bookstore.

Mental Head Smack

Tonight I get to hear author Susan Kandel talk about her new book, Shamus and the Green Room.

Not a Girl Detective came out last year. I'm borrowing the synopsis from Powells.com rather than link to it. This is one of those things that makes me smack my head and wish I'd thought of it. I would have so loved to have written this book. I'm a big, BIG Nancy Drew fan. At least I get to read it and hear the author:

Biographer and amateur sleuth Cece Caruso freely admits that she spent her youth idolizing girl detective Nancy Drew, a fantasy that undoubtedly influenced her grown-up job writing biographies of dead mystery writers. But as Cece will discover driving down the highway in her Jackie O. sunglasses and a borrowed baby-blue Cadillac, some fantasies die harder than others.

Researching the life of Carolyn Keene, the pseudonymous author of the Nancy Drew mysteries, Cece meets a flamboyant collector of Blue Nancys, the original books with blue covers. When he finds out that she is taking a road trip to Palm Springs to snoop around at the annual Nancy Drew fan convention, he offers her the use of his swanky vacation house. But the last thing Cece expects to find lying around the swimming pool is one very dead body.
In a race against time that takes her from a secret enclave of restored Victorians near downtown L.A. to the driest stretches of California desert, Cece will have to channel her former idol and then some to unmask a sly killer — before he comes after her. Of course, it helps to have a knockout collection of vintage clothing, though Cece prefers Azzedine Alaï a semigloss knits and Halston silver sequined berets to Nancy's prim suits and gloves.
Filled with wit, energy, and clever twists, not to mention one smart, hip heroine, Not a Girl Detective is pure entertainment.

The new book is right up my alley also - it features a biography of Dashiell Hammett, allusions to The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man, and a leading man named Rafe. Oooooo....

A new Sister in Crime

Agent Kristin just recommended Sisters in Crime for mystery writers. Hm, I checked it out. Looks good - it's for published and unpublished female mystery writers. That's me! WOO! But, not only that, they have just one local chapter in Washington State and it happens to meet on my day off, five minutes from my house.

I'm doing a happy dance and signing up right now. WOO!!

Oops

According to Agent Kristin starting a novel on a plane is terribly overdone. Guess where my novel starts. ARGH!!!! Admittedly, there is no "place scene" like she talks about. I pick it up as the plane lands, still, I'd been thinking I needed to add a chapter zero, now I really think that.

I've had to take a mini-break from writing to read a book on plotting. I knew I was having trouble getting to the next scene and now I know why. Also, now I have to change the plane scene. I like to move forward, and quickly at that, so I'm not really enjoying this little break to analyze the plot, but hopefully the novel will be all the better for it.

OK, back to plotting...

The Robin Renaissance...

has begun. Today marks day one with my new personal trainer, Kiel. The pantry is being emptied of all temptations. I've learned how I was doing the exercises all wrong. Let the games begin!!

(look for a ticker being added to the sidebar...)