RESULT!

edited to add: My gold star!

Technorati Tags: NaNoWriMo

VERY Bad Kitty!!!
Originally uploaded by Planet Vicster.

This was what remained of the Triple Chocolate Breakfast Cake. He was even nice enough to leave a bit with the frosting on it. Or maybe he was just saving it for later and I got home too early and ruined his plans for a late-night snack.

That (Miss) Billie is such a damn finicky eater. If there is anything besides Science Diet (dry) Hairball formula in her dish, she will glare at me and walk away. Because of this, I don't have to worry about what she'll get into when she gets bored and/or hungry.

The other thing I'm thankful for is that, somehow, Simon can metabolize chocolate without dropping dead. Because when I came home last evening, I found that he had helped himself to my Triple Chocolate Breakfast Cake from Specialty's that I had set aside for this morning's brekkie. Mind you, I had that thing sealed in a Ziploc bag and stashed wayyyy in the back of the shelves in the kitchen so he wouldn't find it. But, oh, a bored, chocoholic cat is a Very Bad Thing when I'm not around to supervise his every move.

He managed to not only find the cake, but he somehow got it off of the shelf, miraculously without noticeably disturbing anything else on the shelf. He dragged the bag into the living room, tore a hole in it and ate about half of the cake.

OK, just about every book on cats that's out there says that chocolate is deadly toxic to cats. The Dog and Cat First Aid book says to induce vomiting and haul his ass straight to the vet. (Well, it doesn't say exactly that. I'm paraphrasing.) According to the texts, even small amounts of chocolate (baker's is worse than milk chocolate) can cause heart failure and all sorts of other calamity that I don't even want to think about right now. Well, this wasn't the first time Simon got into chocolate and the worst that happened before was a bit of intestinal upset. But he hadn't eaten as much as he did last night, so I was very freaked out. I phoned the 24-hour emergency vets down in San Leandro. They asked what he ate, about when he ate it, how much he weighed and how he was now. They recommended bringing him in (but I'm guessing that was to cover themselves in case he got really sick later). But they said if he was okay at the time, that I didn't need to rush him right over, rather, I could just keep a close eye on him and bring him in if he gets sick.

Since this emergency vet's office basically siphons $90 off of the debit card as I walk through the front door, I elected to keep Simon home and watch him closely. I tried to not be too freaky but caught myself on several occasions wondering if he was having symptoms. "He NEVER sleeps on that spot on the carpet! Does he? Is he laying there because he's lethargic? That's a symptom. It's in the book." And then, when he didn't want to settle down in bed and go to sleep I worried that the chocolate had induced the hyperactivity that would be a marker for heart failure. After hyperventilating for several minutes (me, not Simon), I realized, DUH!!! He's on a sugar high! Still, even though Simon really was just fine, I had a fitful night, never really sleeping. Every time he stirred, I sat bolt upright, worried that he was having a seizure. And (I continue to do this today) every time I heard him scratch around his litter box, I sprinted into the bathroom to monitor his, ahem, output.

This afternoon, I'm very pleased (and relieved) to report that Simon remains Just Fine. Thus far, I think we'll get through his chocoholic rampage with just a dickey tummy (though his appetite is completely normal). And for this I am extremely thankful.

But the last 20 hours have made me realize one thing: If I ever do have any (human) children, I will probably never be able to sleep again.

Technorati Tags: cats, furkids

This is going to be fun and highly addictive!

(BTW, here's my profile and the beginnings of my catalog.)

I seem to be on a good 15,000 words per week pace right now, which means that I should have this novel "finished" by next weekend. That ought to leave me a few extra days in November to edit, and hopefully add to the word count. (I certainly won't do anything that subtracts from it!)

The East Bay NaNoWriMo group had a "halfway" party last night at Juan's Place in Berkeley (super yummy Mexican food, if you've never had the pleasure). It was great getting to meet fellow NaNo'ers (WriMo'ers? Nanners???), including Megan, the goddess who makes those fabulous gold stars, and Chris Baty, the guy responsible for this November Madness! It was an evening of good times, good food and interesting conversations. But when it came to talking about my novel, I found myself feeling really uncomfortable. Part of it is that hearing about other writers' novels just made mine sound inferior, but part of it is that I just wasn't quite ready to divulge it to the public yet (no matter how sympathetic an audience I had). If I ever want to publish anything, though, I'm going to have to get over that insecurity real quick. It's no use writing a novel if I'm going to keep it to myself!

One of the interesting things about participating in NaNoWriMo is that it has me thinking about all of the other things I might accomplish, given a 30-day deadline (and the possibility of public humiliation if I DON'T meet the target).

Technorati Tags: NaNoWriMo

Well, I squeaked by getting my gold star for this week. As of Wednesday, I was solidly a couple of days ahead in the word count quota, only to be derailed by one of my migraines on Thursday. Friday I just couldn't be arsed to write. I'm kind of in that place in the novel writing process where the fingers are typing through tar and all of the scenes rattling around my brain come out as random as lottery ping-pong balls. I decided the only way to get past this little bit of block was to just write through it. But the last 2,500 words or so have been hell to get out, I'll tell you what.

And as if that all wasn't BAD ENOUGH, my two main characters decided to run off for a romantic weekend, which just was NOT in the script! I finally chose to allow it, rather than keep fighting them on the issue. But they know that I'm well vexed with both of them for throwing my plot off. (Because, galdangit, this is absolutely NOT A ROMANCE NOVEL!)

Outside of a couple of things I need to take care of today, I'm gonna be pretty much holed up today, trying to get this story back on track.

NOW GROOVIN' TO: Cocktail Trees from the album "Old Wives' Tales" by Exene Cervenka

Technorati Tags: NaNoWriMo

Muchas Gracias, araneae for making these nifty gold stars for us East Bay WriMos (or are we NaNos?) who meet or exceed our word quota for the week!

Unfortunately, I didn't make it to the write-in at the Alameda Literati fair yesterday (stupid cold!), and I was feeling fuzzy enough that I took a break from writing as well, but still spent the day obsessing over characters (many of whom, still haven't revealed their names to me). I'll probably hit it again this afternoon.

First, though, there's a neglected kitty-boy who really wants some of his mommy-and-me play time.

Technorati Tags: NaNoWriMo

The more observant of you out there may have noticed that I have now enabled comments on this here blog.

I've repressed my inner control freak and have elected to NOT moderate comments before they're posted. Also, I have chosen to not force y'all to go through "word verification" to post comments.

NOW, having said all that, if I start getting comment spam, or people start acting exceedingly rude, I reserve the right to change my mind and make y'all verify the word, spin in your chair three times, place your hands on your monitor and say, "pretty please".

Please, people, do not make me unleash my inner control freak!

Technorati Tags: site updates

Feel free to ignore this ;-)

The gods "blessed" me with a nasty cold this week. I took advantage of this "down" time to work on my novel. (you know, it still sounds so feckin' weird to say that...) Of course, I'm not going to delude myself into thinking that my TheraFlu-influenced prose will garner me a spot on the New York Times Bestseller list. However, I am a few days ahead on my word quota (Yea!). I figure I could stop writing and not start sweating it until Sunday night. However, I am hoping to attend the NaNoWriMo write-in at the Alameda Literati Book Faire tomorrow. That is, if this stupid cold gets a little more manageable. (It's now at the nagging cough stage, but at least I think I can start detoxing the TheraFlu from my body...that stuff is almost worse on me than the cold!)

Oh yeah, the new working title is: "It Seemed Like a Good Idea At The Time".

NOW GROOVIN' TO: Achin' To Be from the album "Don't Tell A Soul" by The Replacements

Technorati Tags: NaNoWriMo

My yet-to-adopt-a-title NaNoWriMo novel is coming along. I started it at 12:01 a.m. yesterday and by a little after 1:00 a.m. I had knocked off just under 1,000 words. I still hadn't really come up with character names; I decided that wasn't as important as assembling a cast list with some general ideas about who these people are. My main characters took on names as I started writing them into the story. In fact, I didn't get around to naming my "heroine" until I was on the ferry heading toward work yesterday.

So, at 1:04 a.m. I decided to call time and get some sleep. During the day, as ideas came to me, I'd jot them down on my pad of post-it index cards, things like the reason why Max is so happy to take Buster for walks (so he can sneak a cigarette or two). When I got home I had my supper, played with the furkids, then set about writing. I had set myself a minimum two-hours writing time, but was on a roll, so it ended up being more like 2-1/2 hours. By the time I knocked off for the day (around 10:00 p.m.), I had 3,334 words. Exactly double my daily quota.

If you're keeping score at home, that's 3,334 down, 46,666 to go.

That's the good news.

The bad news is, I wasn't feeling all that great yesterday. I decided it was allergies again, because my sinuses have been waging the "is it a cold or is it just allergies" battle for a couple of months now. I was wrong. For whatever list of stupid reasons, I went to the office this morning. You know how you feel rotten but think, "maybe after a cup of tea I'll feel better...okay, maybe a shower will make me feel better...maybe the fresh air on the ferry ride will do the trick..." Yeah, none of that helped. By 10:00 a.m. I was making my way back to the Ferry Building.

By 2:00 this cold was in full rage. No voice, sinuses that won't quit, a head that feels like there's a bowling ball inside, you know how it goes. My aching body permitted me one last burst of energy, so I used it to run to the store for TheraCold and to make a pot of black bean chili (with loads of chipotle pepper) and, as long as I was upright, I threw some lentils in the crock pot for some Dal soup (I crave acidic and spicy food when I get colds).

And, so far, I can't be arsed to work on the novel. Gah!

Maybe I'll feel better after I've washed the dishes and had a cup of tea...


NOW GROOVIN' TO: These Days from the album "Life's Rich Pageant" by R.E.M.