This and That

I took the grandkids to another birthday party today.

They had a blast and loved the party gifts. They didn't want to play pin the tail on the donkey, but when musical chairs were played, that was a different story. At least for the eldest. It's so much fun to watch them laugh and play.

Speaking of playing, I received a couple of new fragrances today. Now I want to make soap and lotion. I can't wait to try out the new fragrances. But I have to wait. I have another box arriving with some wickedly wonderful stuff for lotion.

I hope this last week isn't a sign of the winter to come. We've had snow. And more snow. And even more snow. At least it's been light snow, but still, I'm not ready for snow. This is one of the banana belts of Alaska. Where's the rain that usually melts the snow?

Sadly I have to work Thanksgiving Day. Worse yet, I have to work Black Friday. I hate shopping. I hate crowds. Why in the hell am I in retail right now? This is not a good time of the year to be in retail.

The research for the writing is going slow. On the days I get to research it goes pretty smoothly. Too bad there are too many days between research days.

Here's to calmer days.

More cleaning up

I removed my email address from the blog. That email address was getting so much s*p*a*m that I couldn't find real emails.

I also removed my personal website. It appears there is a problem with it since I can't get it to load nor another website that I knew was hosted by that site.

It was with great regret that I removed the link to Pamela Joy's website. She's been gone for a little over two years. Her website wouldn't pull up, so I guess she is truly gone from us. Which is too bad because her website was filled with so much information about Alaska. She was a beacon of light to many who dreamed of moving to Alaska.

I also removed several blogs that are no longer active.

In time I'll add more blogs that I find interesting or amusing.

I knew it would happen

Yes, I lost my blog look. It's gone.

I hope you like or can tolerate the new look.

This week has been a week of bringing in the food. Okay, buying the food. I bought a couple turkeys. We smoke our Thanksgiving turkey. We can smoke two for the same price as we smoke one.

I didn't have room in the freezer for two turkeys so one is in the back of my car. That's the beauty of living in Alaska. This time of year we never run out of freezer space. We have the big outdoors available.

Speaking of Thanksgiving...we don't know what we're doing yet. Sometime today the schedule for next week will come out. I think I have everything we need. For whenever we have Thanksgiving at our house.

Here in Alaska, especially this far out of town, everything is nice and white. Looking out my door or windows the season is here.

At work the other day a co-worker who has only been here a couple months said that winter was really here now. I bit my tongue so I wouldn't laugh. All I can say to that is maybe. In this part of Alaska next week we can have 40 degree days and rain. All the snow could be gone. This is one of the banana belts of Alaska. Snow today isn't a true prediction of what tomorrow or next week has in store for us.

Google Ads

I don't pick the ads. Google picks them.

I do not support the one that suggests you skip the literary agent. Hello! That's just plain silly. In this day and age one must have a good agent to get anywhere with their writing.

Oye.

Housing cleaning

Actually, blog cleaning. I have some dead links and some links to blogs that have since gone quiet.

It's time to update my links area. Add some new friends, remove some of the silent bloggers.

It's like a question I saw in the comments area of Marilyn from France. Someone asked if nothing remained the same. No, it doesn't. Life, all life, is about change.

So, over the next few weeks, I'll make a few changes of my own. To my blog. To my life. To a lot of things.

Research

I'd forgotten how much I love researching.

I'm not sure why I forgot that fun fact. After all, I do a lot of research when creating a new product for the soaping company.

Actually, it's amazing how similar the two types of research are. As I read information, I keep asking the same question: what if? What if I substitute this oil or butter for that oil or butter? What if I use this is a story and instead of the character doing this, they do that?

So the pursuit of the perfect story is underway.

On other fronts, the grandkids are doing great. They went to their first kid's birthday party this week. They loved it. We still have a lot of work to do with them to get them to where they interact with other kids.

This one is for...

About two years ago I stopped writing. I didn't mean to stop. It just happened. One day I didn't write. The next day I didn't write.

As time passed I cancelled my subscription to Publishers Weekly.

I stopped reading agent blogs. I stopped reading writers blogs.

Before long I realized I had stopped.

I even unsubscribed from almost all my writing email lists.

There were a couple I kept though. They weren't very active, so it was easy to remain.

Even when my computer died and I lost all my writing, I was okay. I didn't cry or bemoan the fact I lost all that work.

Then one of the email writing lists has become active.

At first I deleted a lot of the posts. Then I started reading a few.

Now I read all the posts.

And now? I want to write again.

I want to take one of the stories and completely rewrite it again.

The question is: which one?

It will probably be An Alaskan Requiem.

So, for my friend who has silently been waiting for me to say these words, I want to write again. I'm ready.

But today I have an important date with two little kids. They are going to their first ever all kids birthday party.

After the party, I'll come home, pull up a blank document and write.