Super Sabado: on habing a bad code

Thank goodness human respiratory viruses don’t travel through the web, otherwise you’d be a mouth breather right now—just like me—with wads of tissue wedged up your nose so you wouldn’t drip on your keyboard.

But that’s what’s so great about the Internet. Not only is my web page not contagious, but the moment that I throw open the doors to my virtual Mexican restaurant, the mountain of used-up Kleenex by my side magically disappears.

My nose dries up, I lose 30 pounds and develop a lovely tan. The laugh lines and the dorky reading glasses vanish, too, although I can’t do much about my wardrobe as I have no head for fashion, even in my dreams. Let’s just say my virtual wardrobe doesn’t contain a single Honors label in it.

Before I start today’s Super Sabado, though, I’d like to highlight a post that should put all of our lives in perspective, cold-free or not:

This is my daughter. She is 18, and attends Dawson College in Montreal. This afternoon a gunman entered the school and started shooting students.

—Feith, of Dear Leonard.

We don’t have cable or network TV, so I don’t know what the U.S. television coverage was like, but in our local newspaper and radio stations the outing of LonelyGirl15 got more coverage than this school shooting in Montreal did. (I got 99% of my news on the subject from the Internet.)

Feith’s daughter is okay (thank you, God!) but my heart goes out her as well as to the other victims and their parents.

Today’s Super Sabado is about making things over, starting afresh, reassessing our lives and reaching our goals. Perhaps it was the anniversary of 9/11 or the shooting at Dawson College, or maybe it is because fall is coming—or possibly it’s just my cold medicine—but I definitely feel a sense of wanting to live our lives to the best of our abilities. Don’t you?

Let’s lift our margarita glasses and toast to Feith and her daughter, and to those of us whose lives are changing.

This one is for you, Mark.

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You know, you just can’t stare cancer in the face without coming away with a sense of needing to live each day to the fullest. Well, that, plus realizing you need to look through your wardrobe to mark a certain outfit with a tag, “Bury me in this,” or your husband will have you laid out in sweatpants and your t-shirt that says, “I childproofed my home, but they keep getting in.”

TC of Fish in My Hair, who looks mighty fetching in her compression hose, we might add.

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It’s silly really, to be upset over a child I’ve never met, but there it is. Your mom’s a nut job. She loves you though, here or not.

Erika of Mom of Two, who should understand that there are plenty of us nut jobs out there.

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i have so many dreams.
(one of them is to paint for
one month in china. now this
is dangled in front of me.)

Cyn of and miles to go before i sleep, on working a dream without shortchanging her family.

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There’s a Toilet in My Kitchen…

…and a Refrigerator in my Living Room.

Undone Lady, with an undone home, thanks to remodeling.

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The stencil came in the form of five 30-inch x 12 1/2-foot-long sheets of newsprint paper that had to be attached to the ceiling with sticky tack. Which, naturally, didn’t stick, except to occasionally pull off chunks of paint

Jamie H. Talithia, of just a little something to read before bills…, doing a little renovating herself.

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Beaming-like-the-Morning-Sun-Department: My short fiction piece Ornamental is up at Wild Child Publishing.

Bernita Harris of An Innocent A-Blog, with some good news and a wonderful story.

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You can now read my latest story, “A Thousand Manisfestations“, at Wild Child Publishing.

Dana of Dana’s Tea House, with even more good news! Go, Bunions!

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Can they ignore the attraction to one another long enough to figure out what the killer’s next move is before they both become casualties in an unknown battle?

From Denise Belinda MacDonald‘s newest book Deadly Mistakes. And we remember Dennie when she was an unpublished writer!

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During the Thrillerfest conference held in Phoenix in July, M.G. Tarquini and I had the good fortune to escort Barry Eisler and J.A. Konrath for two days of their book signing tours. This Friday, Spinetingler will publish our co-written story about our trip featuring the authors’ approaches to marketing, their friendship and their great sense of humor.

Tomorrow’s the 15th of September, a red-letter day because that’s the day that the fall issue of Spinetingler Magazine goes live. That’s where you’ll find an interview, written in narrative fashion, by the Inestimable Elizabeth Krecker and I.

M.G. Tarquini of Genre Neutral and Elizabeth Krecker of Plein Air Sketches. Here’s to M.G. and Elizabeth, on an interview job well done!

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My mind is scrambling to figure this out. Is this some new agent communication form? Or maybe she wants it typed so we have a written record of the call. Perhaps she’s trying to see how comfortable I am with technology. OR maybe she’s deaf and I never knew. Yeah, that’s it, she’s deaf despite the fact I had had a conversation with her at a conference and she responded without any problem. Maybe it’s a test. She wants to be sure I’m tolerant of people with disabilities–aren’t all good authors?

Jaye of Jaye’s Blahg, giving an excellent demonstration of a wickedly clever imagination. Jaye, we really do wish she’d been a deaf agent testing your tolerance of people of disabilities!

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One comment kind of threw me though, the reviewer said that they like more vanilla in their Regencies. As I haven’t any ‘hot’ scenes or dialogue in my chapter, I have to ask, “What does this reader mean by ‘vanilla?’ What is vanilla? I don’t know, but now I want an ice cream cone. 🙂

April of Desperate Writer. We don’t know what they’re talking about either, April. As a rule, we generally prefer chocolate mint in our Regencies.

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“I knew you — ” he said, then backed away to pull something off the printer, and didn’t finish. He was about my age, shiny bald, with a blonde goatee, and wore wire glasses. He wasn’t bad looking, but I didn’t have a clue who he was. I looked at the name on his shirt. Al. He smiled. “You don’t remember me, do you?”

Lesia of Southern Writer, bumping into her past in the most unexpected places.

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I had a diary once when I was thirteen years old. It was pretty boring too. The worst part about it is that I was so worried that my father would find it and read it that I wrote in codes. Twenty plus years later, I can’t decipher a word of it!

Secret Squirrel, whose blog may be many things, but NEVER boring.

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I realize it’s about opening my eyes. It’s about living more in the present moment and leaving the future to unfold without obsessing over it. It requires tackling what I can tackle in the here and now without investing all my energy in the someday when. Someday when the kids are grown. Someday when I live in a warmer climate. Someday when I am writing in a more disciplined way. Someday when I’m really happy with my space, my house, my collection of things, my wardrobe, my weight. Someday when I quit smoking.

Feith of Dear Leonard, and if any one of us is seeing things clearly right now, it’s Feith.

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Then son asked, “Well who is going to entertain me?”, and I looked at him and said “Well what am I chopped liver?”. Then son said, “No, you are the walking money”.

Laurel Wreath, whose son also sees things very clearly.

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I know I showed you last time Simone went to the grooming parlour but I think she looks so pretty with her Sicilian haircut that I couldn’t resist putting her on.

Welshcakes Limoncello of Sicily Scene, on Simone, the most elegantly coiffed pup in Sicily.

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So forget the whole I-made-a-baby-book-for- my-firstborn-but-was-too-busy-to-do-the-same-for-my-second- born thing. I’m making a baby book for my kittens that my children will have to flip through one day, saying, “Mom, how come you made a book for them but you didn’t make one for me?”

Honey of Meet My Muse, who has succumbed to the Kitchen Channel: All kittens! All the time!

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If there is a cuter dog on this planet, I dare you to show her.

Jamie of Lunacy for Beginners, on the fetching Jack Russell/Lab/Beagle mix known as Savannah.

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She’s all of about 6 lbs and she is definitely on puppy speed. She is constantly zooming around, squirming, pouncing on Auggie, etc. At one point she was standing in his food bowl, drinking out of his water bowl.

Susan of Church of Angst, on a new little bulldog named Frieda who has yet to learn her manners.

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Not only am I not a classical scholar, but I’m afraid Coco isn’t either. While I’ve tried encouraging her efforts at blogging (and Lord knows I need an omnipotent administrator around here), she just isn’t developing an interest in basic reading the way I’d like.

Eric of Classical Values. What he doesn’t know about Coco is that the lovely pit bull lass has become a competent driver during Eric’s recent trips.

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Class 1
How To Fill Up The Ice Cube Trays — Step by Step, with Slide Presentation.
Meets 4 weeks, Monday and Wednesday for 2 hours beginning at 7:00 PM.

Bonnie of Bonnie Writes, listing off some very interesting community college courses for men.

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I can almost hear the reply. “Yeah, she talks to herself all the time and sometimes she falls on her ass. Watch out for her dogs, though. Otherwise, that one is harmless. Just ask Half-Rack.”

Kristen of A-Mused Chaos, repeating what local deer have been saying about her lately.

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That ageless “hairy lemon” is back in our (Aussie) newspapers and media yet again……To smack or not to smack your kids?

Michelle of Justitia, who lost us at the hairy lemon.

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It is understood that Ms Hilton, fearing that Lindsay Lohan may have cornered the hoo-hah flashing niche, sought Sponge Girl’s counsel to discover a newer, edgier activity she could make her own and even trademark.

The Amazing Adventures of Sponge Girl. First we get the hairy lemons and now we get the flashing hoo-hahs… what is next?

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Well, I’m off to make Macaroni and Cheese with extra cheese (I have 3 kinds to put in) and bacon bits …this is medicinal Mac and Cheese, I need all the extras.

Dink of Ink Blog, setting us firmly back on terra firma was medicinal Mac and Cheese. Whew!

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I was hip and I was oh so cool, especially when I was struting my 11 year old stuff to the song “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’ ” Such good times, but like I keep saying, I wouldn’t go back for any amount of money in the world. I sure would like to have a pair of these boots though.

Wander of Wander’s World, looking back to the days when boots were comfy and came with their own soundtrack, too.

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“The dryer sucks?”
“Yes. Major suck-ola. It takes two hours or more to dry one load of clothes. That is why it sucks.”

Ms Karen, who recently learned she was drying her clothes in a vacuum cleaner.

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And for those of you who’ve made it through to the very end, here’s a commercial that taps into the idea that even if we don’t know why things happen, Somebody else does.

What Now – What Next – video powered by Metacafe