March 26th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

I’m having some serious issues shaking the cobwebs out this morning. My day started in a panic when I woke up at 6:45 because my alarm didn’t go off. (Dani’s bus comes at 6:46.) I ran into her room like a crazy lady yelling, “Get up! Get up! Get up!” I’m so proud of my teenaged daughter, who got up, got ready and got to school on time, and didn’t grumble once about having to rush around like an nut because mom overslept.

We were out the door and pulling out of the driveway by 6:59, and got to school at 7:08. Needless to say, I did not have time for a cup of coffee before we left, and even though I have had two already this morning, they don’t seem to be working. I don’t do it often, but I think today warrants a third cup.

Although I did not have time to wash the kitchen or bathroom floor, I did get the entire house straightened up before the survey people arrived yesterday. They were two lovely ladies, one of which was here from Brazil, and shocked me when she admitted she was thirty years old. I would have sworn she was a college student here doing an internship. Anyway, they stayed exactly an hour, asked all sorts of questions about the personal care products we use, and even took photos of some of them, then handed me a $100 Visa gift card and left.

Let me tell you, that was the easiest $100 I have ever made, and I have decided that since steak is on sale this week at ShopRite, and my family is coming over for dinner next Sunday, we will be grilling steak for dinner (yeah, I’ll have to freeze the steaks, but it will only be for a few days, so they’ll taste fine). So, I need to get thirteen steaks, thirteen nice sized baking potatoes, a few fresh crowns of broccoli, and I’m going to as my mother-in-law to make corn, since everyone loves her corn.

So all that’s left is my birthday cake, which I’ll pick up from Costco late next week, and everything will be done. Costco makes this layered chocolate trifle cake that is absolutely TO DIE FOR. It has layers of dark chocolate cake, dark chocolate mousse, light chocolate mousse, white chocolate mousse, chocolate ganache, and shavings of white and dark chocolate. It’s an orgasm for your mouth. It takes great restraint not to pick one up every time I go to Costco. Heck, one time I was craving it so much, I threw a party at my house so I had an excuse to purchase the cake. True story, LOL.

Since there are only five days left until April 1^st, AND on April 1^st I will be starting Camp NaNoWriMo again, AND will be working on Faerie Tale Queen, AND I will be posting a chapter every few days on Facebook so you can read along, AND since this is a continuation of November’s NaNoWriMo story, I will post three chapters every day on Facebook between now and April 1^st, so you can get caught up, or refresh your memory, and don’t have to hunt through all my old posts in order to find the story. (Yes, that sentence was an editing nightmare, but it served its purpose.) Please remember, the chapters posted are exactly as I have typed them, they have not been edited AT ALL, so there are bound to be MANY mistakes. If you’d like to point any out, that’s perfectly fine, and I don’t mind, but know I haven’t even reread the work yet, which is something I do before it goes to the editing phase. There are still holes which need to be filled, and I have to go back and tweak some things as the story unfolds. Okay, enough said, I’m sure you can figure it out.

I did manage to get the one editing piece off to its author yesterday, so today, it’s on to the next one. I’m currently on page 307 out of 630. That means I need to edit eighty-one pages a day. Now, that may not seem like a lot, but trust me, it is. Depending on how many edits there are per page, the average is about fifteen pages an hour. One saving grace on this one is, the author has been getting my edits in installments, so for this second half of the book, I can abbreviate my comments and he’ll know what I mean, or simply highlight something and not even have to leave a comment because he’ll understand.

On that note, I should get going since I need to be on page 388 before I can call it quits for the day. I hope y’all have a wonderful day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

That was the most bizarre combination I have ever seen…

I love mutts. I find they are a much more desirable pet than a high-strung, high-maintenance, pure bread. One of my mutts, Mitzi, was a combination of a Shepherd, a Sheltie, a Pomeranian, and a Corgi. She looked like we stuck a German Shepherd in the dryer and shrunk her. She was the sweetest and smartest dog ever, one I doubt I will ever stop missing. Now we have Colby, who is a Collie Golden mix. He is a gorgeous dog. He looks just like Lassie, but in varying shades of gold.

I also recently saw a puppy who was a mix between a Pomeranian and a Husky. Oh my goodness, talk about a beautiful dog. He was the size of a Pomeranian and had the same hair like a Pomeranian, but he was black and white like a Husky, with a Husky’s piercing blue eyes. I know I have said that after Colby’s gone (which won’t be for at least another ten – twelve years), that I didn’t want any more dogs, but after seeing that Pomeranian/Husky puppy, I would have made an exception.

Now, those are all instances of a mutt combination which has turned out incredibly well. There is one I remember quite distinctly that did not turn out as well. Baby was my mom’s best friend’s dog. Please don’t get me wrong, Baby was a very sweet dog, but she was the most bizarre combination I had ever seen. She had a snout, if you could call it that, like a pug, the tiny head of a wire haired terrier, the fur of a border collie and the body of, well, a potbellied pig. She was hideous looking, but extremely lovable. 

(true story - other than Colby, the pictures were pulled from the internet, and are not the actual dogs, but as close as I could get.)

Your Next Challenge is (I’m going to cheat and use one of the prompts from last night’s writing group):

Write a story about a Ghost and something Red (it can’t be blood).

You have 10 minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.

September 26th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

 

I woke this morning to the first light of dawn peeking through my window. It took a moment for this fact to register in my sleep fogged brain, but when it did…AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! The alarm didn’t go off! I jump up and start running around like a chicken on fire, for now it is 6:47 (a full hour and forty-seven minutes beyond when I should have woken up), the exact time my daughter’s bus should be pulling up. I get my daughter up, call the school telling them she’ll be late, make her lunch, shove it into her back pack, then, low and behold, guess who comes down the hall ready to go… my daughter. She managed to get ready in less than fifteen minutes! We jump in the car and I get her to school…and, are you ready for this? Five minutes before the bell!

 

So now that I’m up and three quarters of the way to the grocery store, I decide to go shopping for the things I needed to bring up to my other daughter this weekend.  (She sent me a list.) I get all the food things on her list plus a few extras and I’m back home by 8:15, just in time to wake my hubby up for work. Not exactly how I wanted to start my day, but it has been surprisingly productive thus far.

 

Now all I need to do is make sure I locate the remaining things on my daughter’s list, get the car packed up (the groceries have already been stored in a bin and it is in the car), and then get our own stuff packed for our trip. I’m so excited. I haven’t seen my baby in over a month and I miss her!!

 

The school has a bunch of activities planned for the weekend, but the last thing I want to do is sit in lectures and presentations, so we are going to kidnap her and take her apple picking instead. We will all go to Saturday night’s dinner sponsored by the school, but other than that, I am going to be selfish. We will be getting there around ten on Saturday morning and then we’ll be leaving around three on Sunday, so that’s less than thirty hours. I want her all to ourselves for as many of those hours as possible.

 

It is spirit week at Champlain College, and below is my daughter’s dorm’s entry for the stoop decorating contest. The theme is "America the Beaverful" (they’re the Champlain Beavers). If you look at some of the other photos, many of the other Freshmen dorms only have a few kids participating in the contest. Then when you see the photos of the upper classmen’s entries, you realize what a big deal the event is; something Freshmen probably had not anticipated. Now I’m not saying my daughter had anything to do with this, but after four years of events similar to this at her high school, I think she may have had a part in rallying her dorm mates into action. Another photo showed several more kid participating, but it wasn’t a clear shot, so I chose this one instead. (My baby is right in front with the striped scarf.) They are singing the Star Spangled Banner for the judges.

 

I hope you have a great day, and happy writing!

 

Your Last Challenge was:

Just one bite…

       

That’s all it took. Just one bite. And now look at me. I’m a mess. But how could I resist? It looked so good. Sitting there looking so luscious and sweet, it was practically calling, “Eat me…eat me.”

I knew I shouldn’t have. I remember what happened the last time. I knew the results could only get worse, but I just had to have a taste, just one little bite. Now I look like a cartoon character! My mouth resembles a plunger. My skin has a brindle effect, and the effort it is taking not to scratch has me practically vibrating.

 

That’s it, I give up. It originally started as a vampire theme, but that didn’t work either, so I deleted it – all three sentences I managed to write. It was more on the lines of “Love at First Bite” as opposed to “Dracula” anyway. Dang, when I posted the challenge yesterday, I thought it would be a good one. Guess I just wasn’t feeling it today. It happens. Better luck tomorrow…

 

Your Next Challenge is (something a little different):

 

Start your story with “Sundays always meant…”

 

You have 10 minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.