December 12th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

Baby it’s cold outside! It’s only 20 at the moment, even with the sun up, but I’m not going to complain, because it’s 7 at my daughter’s college, and one of my readers posted it was -16 by her. Just think, it’s only 98 days until spring! J

I’m so proud of myself. I only have one Christmas present left to purchase, and I will be doing that before my writing group on Tuesday because the store is right around the corner from the Princeton Public Library. Now the trick is going to be finding the few gifts I “put somewhere safe”.

 

All I’m missing is a jar of preserves I picked up for my mom while I was in VT – we call her Grannie, and the label was from Grannie’s kitchen or something like that, so I got it; and the two signed Monty books I got for my great niece and my cousin’s daughter – those I’m most worried about, because that was their main gift. UGH! I hate when I do that, and the sad thing is, I do it every year. I’m pretty sure that would fall under the “definition of insanity”.

 

I have about an hour’s worth of cleaning to do today, no sweat, and I still have to get the door prizes done, but that can wait until Saturday if necessary. The one thing I did forget about, which absolutely has to be done today or they won’t set in time, is the Venetian layered cookies. These will be my contribution to the cookie exchange, because they are a favorite.

 

I still have no clue how many are coming. I sent the evite through Facebook, and I don’t think a bunch of people I invited got the message. I know when I went back over the list, there were six people I had sent invites to, but their names were not highlighted and I had to resend the invitation. A couple of people I talked to said they never saw it, and sure enough, their names weren’t highlighted either, so I had to resent those as well. I’m convinced FB hates me.

 

Update on my quest to hit the 500 mark by Christmas – I only need 56 more. It has been a whirlwind 36 hours, because just like I do on Twitter, I try to do on Facebook – if you “like” or “follow me, I reciprocate. Speaking of Twitter, is there anyone out there who can give me Twitter 101? I am completely baffled. I went through about three weeks where I was getting several new followers every day – don’t know what I did to trigger that, but I wasn’t going to complain – and now I haven’t had a new follower in a week. Okay, not true, I have, but my number of followers hasn’t gone up so I guess a couple unfollowed me. Probably because I’m Twitter illiterate and inadvertently snubbed them somehow.

Okie-dokie, I had better get this show on the road. I hope you have a fabulous day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

 

Battling the storm with French toast…

 

Oh no, there’s a storm coming! Let’s all run out and buy up all the milk, eggs and bread they have at the store. Seriously folks? Really? Your idea for weathering a storm is by making tons of French Toast? How’s that going to help?

Perhaps fifty years ago, when modern conveniences weren’t as readily accessible, this approach would have made much more sense. Then, if a major storm hit, you could have gone without power for a couple of weeks, but now, unless you're getting hit with something the likes of Super Storm Sandy, chances are pretty good, you’ll be up and running again in a day or two.

Now I’m not saying you shouldn’t buy milk, eggs and bread before a storm if you happen to be out or running low, but is there really a need to purchase multiples? If, by some freak accident, you are out of power for over two weeks, the milk would be spoiled and the bread would be stale anyway.

Wouldn’t it make much more sense to stock up on non-perishables and things like bottled water, candles and matches? I’m just saying…

 Your Next Challenge is:

My life is a (Sit-com, Drama, Soap Opera, Broadway Play, Reality TV Show, Musical, whichever) and why.

 

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.

December 11th

Hi, it’s Christina – 

Just a quick post today and no challenge – sorry. I spent my extra time this morning trying to drum up more “likes” for my author’s page in hopes of hitting the 500 mark by Christmas.

I have to leave in a few minutes so I can get my car serviced before my trek to Vermont on Friday, and while I’m out, I need to swing by the chiropractor then pick up some of the last items on my Christmas list and stuff for Sunday’s cookie exchange at my house.

When I get home, I need to pack away all the Christmas decoration boxes, clean up the house and begin prepping for the Cookie exchange – get all the stickers for the cookies written, print out the tickets for the drawing, wrap the grab bag gift, print the recipe cards, and make the door prizes.

YIKES! I have an awful lot to get done before Sunday and before Christmas. I don’t have a single present wrapped yet. So, I’m out of here. Have a wonderful day & happy writing!!

November 15th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

Happy Friday world!

In the afternoon yesterday, I took a break from writing and ran over to Bed, Bath & Beyond because I was out of EZ-Cup filters. For those of you without a Keurig, these are tiny single serve coffee filters you put into an adapter, so you can use your own coffee instead of a K-cup. Unfortunately, I cannot get these at my local grocery story, so I usually stock up, because 3B is about a twenty-five minute drive.

I needed to return my birthday present too - yes my birthday was almost eight months ago, but I couldn’t find what I had done with the receipt – so this was a multi-purpose trip. When I returned the gift, I had them put the credit on a 3B card, because I figured I would use it all up for Christmas shopping anyway, and that’s pretty much what I did. I got something for my in-laws, for my mom, something small for my hubby and a ton of stocking stuffers for the kids. It was a very productive trip.

I did however get two non-Christmas gift things. One of the items was a new roasting pan for Thanksgiving. Our old one met an untimely demise earlier in the year. The other thing I picked up was a FuRemover duo brush. I had never seen one before, it looked interesting, and quite frankly, at this point I’m willing to try anything to avoid having to completely shave Colby. I figured for $7 it was worth a shot. I LOVE this brush, and so does Colby.

 

Colby hates, hates, hates being brushed. He won’t sit still. He bites at the brush and whoever is brushing him. It’s a traumatic experience for all involved. Let me tell you, with this FuRemover brush, he sat there for over half an hour and let me brush him. He did not bite at the brush or me, not even once. I was able to remove a majority of his mats, and then I was even able to use the brush to remove all the dog hair from my jacket sleeve (I was brushing Colby outside). This was $7 well spent. Okay, no more product endorsement, but I really wanted to share this one with you.

So if I write about 2,300 words today, I’ll be caught up. Yeah! Just in time for the weekend when I can’t write as much and I will fall behind again. LOL. What can you do? The world still keeps turning, even during NaNoWriMo.

If I get moving, maybe I can pad the numbers going into the weekend. So, I’m off to write. I hope you have a fantastic Friday, and happy writing!

 

Your Last Challenge:

 

You decide to take a photography class for fun. For your first assignment, your teacher tells you to go to the park and simply snap photos of anything that catches your eye, then bring the film back to class to be developed. When the pictures start to develop, your teacher teases you about how the assignment was supposed to be a variety of things in the park which caught your eye, not one subject. Having no idea what your teacher is talking about, you look at the pictures and notice, there is a man in every single scene, staring back at the camera.

 

Oh my God, she’s right. He’s in every single one of these shots. But how can that be? I was all over that park, at one point I even spun in a circle snapping random shots as I went. Here, these, six, seven, eight. This isn’t possible.

 “Karen, can you come here?”

“Sure Sarah, what’s up?”

“I swear I didn’t see this guy while I was taken these. Can you show me how to blow these up so I can get a better look at him? Maybe then I can figure out who he is at least.”

“Strange. We won’t be going over that skill until much later in the semester, but I’ll tell you what. I don’t have anything scheduled after class. We can do it then.”

The two hour class felt like ten to Sarah. She couldn’t concentrate on the lesson, she had no idea what the homework assignment was, all she could think about was the mysterious man in the photos. At last, the final student left the room.

“Here.” Karen said as she handed Sarah some papers.

“What’s this?”

“My notes from today’s class. I could tell you weren’t with me tonight.”

Sarah grimaced, “I’m sorry. I couldn’t stop thinking about those pictures.”

“So, let’s go figure this mystery out.”

Their next hour was spent in the dark room. Sarah was thankful the only thing Karen requested from her was for her to hand Karen things from time to time.

Finally, Karen flipped on the lights. “Okay, let’s see what we’ve got. What the heck?”

“What’s the matter?” Sarah asked as she came to look over Karen’s shoulder at the photos.

“Something’s screwed up. Somehow the film must have been double exposed. Look, when I blew the area with the guy up enough so you could make out the features, he became almost transparent.” Karen said as she handed the photo to Sarah. When Sara gasped, Karen asked, “Do you recognize him?” Sarah nodded and her face had turned pale. “Well that might explain it. You must have taken these pictures, something malfunctioned in the camera, when you took the photos in the park, and you took the park photos over the old photos.”

Sarah began to shake her head halfway through Karen’s plausible explanation. “The film was brand new and so was the camera. The park was the first time I used it.”

“So who’s the guy?”

“My husband.”

“Did he go with you to take the pictures?”

Sarah shook her head and a tear trickled down her cheek, “My husband died last year.”

  

(The last line took me over the ten minutes, but I had to added it.)

 

Your Next Challenge is:

 

 

 

 

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.

October 18th

Hi, it’s Christina – 

I lied … or maybe just fibbed a little. I said no blog today, but I needed something to do while I drank my coffee and woke up. There just won’t be a writing challenge today and I still can’t tell you why or what I’m up to. J

Believe it or not, I got a good chunk of Christmas shopping done yesterday. I found several gifts and I’m very pleased with myself. It’s not even Halloween yet! I always pick up things here and there during the course of the year, but they are usually little stocking stuffer items. This time, I actually have presents.

Next week, I am going to gather all of the “finds” I have collected thus far and get them sorted out, so I know what I have already and know what I still have to get. The trick every year is to try and find where I stashed the items. It never fails, someone will be get a gift this year, which was intended for last year, because I found it while sorting. A good deal of my holiday pre time is spent scratching my head saying “Didn’t I get…?”, “Where did I put…” and “I forgot I got this for…”.

Okay, coffee is done and I need to get rolling. I did want to leave you with a parting photo. It appears my sweet, beautiful kitty cat, Sunny, is getting into the spirit of the upcoming holiday. I snapped this picture Wednesday night and I thought you would get a kick out of it.

 

I hope you have a fantastic Friday, and happy writing!