Sunday, November 30, 2008

We stayed home for Thanksgiving this year. I haven't done that since leaving for college... nine years ago.

Things I learned this weekend:
Elaine woofs in her sleep.
Elaine is a sock hand.
Turkeys take a long time to roast.
Cranberries require a great deal of sugar.
Surprise bunny!
Space is really, really big.

Now, can I edit 35 pages in the one day left of November?

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

The light of Elaine's life is an escalator. Any escalator. When she sees them, she wants only to be on them. If she can't be on them... Well, that's not so much fun for anyone. I figure that the intensity of Elaine's love will wane over time, but in the hope of expediting that process I took her to Fred Meyer tonight and let her ride to her heart's content.

After fifteen loops (once up and once down, so thirty total rides), Elaine switched to the non-motorized stairs. A couple more trips like that should do the trick. I just wish I'd known to start the process before going to Orycon -- where there were a lot of escalators. I don't mind riding escalators with my munchkin, but at Orycon... Well, there were so many other things to do!

I did manage to make it to several panels a day anyway, and Daniel and I spent a long time hanging out listening to the filk circles. The songs were widely varied, but some of them were amazing. Bits of them keep churning up in my brain and getting stuck in my head, days after the fact. Filk flotsam. Next time, Daniel plans to bring his guitar so he can do some singing too.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Daniel bought me an early X-mas present: a necklace featuring a glowing Swarovski crystal, powered by an internal white LED. He gave it to me early so I can wear it at Orycon this weekend. A science-fiction convention is definitely an appropriate place for such a technological piece of jewelry.

The best thing about the necklace is that it's actually bright enough for me to read by it. The LED perfectly lights up one paperback page. It's like having a super-power... Wherever I am, no matter how dark it gets, I'll still be able to read. (As long as I have a book.)

Saturday, November 15, 2008

A friend pointed me towards the filk classic Grease Wars -- a fifteen minutes medley of Grease songs that tells the complete story of Star Wars IV. I've been listening to it, over and over, ever since. It's like the science-fiction musical (already a great thing) version of a turducken. Admittedly, I've never eaten a turducken, but what a great idea! Well, Grease Wars smooshes Star Wars inside of Grease just like a singing space chicken inside a duck inside a turkey. (A singing space turkey.)

In other news, Elaine has officially been declared "cuter than a cat and more fun than a dog." Oh, and she can walk up and down stairs like a normal person now (no crawling) without any help.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

We got a milkshake to split tonight. Usually, we split them two ways, but Elaine recently learned to drink from a straw. It was a pretty thick milkshake, so I offered it to her. I figured she'd try sucking on it, get nothing, and give up more easily than if I denied it to her entirely. Boy was I wrong. We ended up getting a second straw. That way Daniel and I could take turns sharing with Elaine, because she was not about to stop sucking on her straw until all the chocolatey, milky, creamy goodness was gone.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

My editing has been ranging widely between being barely on track to finish the current draft by the end of the month and not having a hope in the stratosphere of doing so. Basically, I have to edit about six pages a day, but I keep missing days. And then there'll be three page passages that take an entire hour of hack'n'slash to fix, which is a lot of time for me to pull together in one sitting. More than I can manage most days.

Of course, then I'll hit a ten to fifteen page patch requiring only the most minor, cosmetic changes. (Orange becomes spotted; Abyssinian becomes Egyptian Mau.) And that puts me right back on track. Today, I hit one of those, so I'm feeling good about reaching my goal. Tomorrow? No telling. Either way, though, I'm over half way through, and that feels good.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Elaine is shaping up to be a good little carnivore.

Now, I've explained to Elaine about chickens and how, being fierce carnivores, we eat those fluffy, flappy little creatures. So, she knows the connection between the birds she says "bock" at and the tasty meat we eat.

Last night, our friend Jade came over and grilled some chicken. Elaine really enjoyed it, and when she wanted more, Elaine pointed at the plate and said, "bock."

She's a fierce little chicken eater. I'm so proud.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Halloween, apparently, is all about the dogs. Costumed dogs, wandering around U-Village. We took Elaine to the trick-or-treating there, but she had no interest in the people standing at store entrances, handing out candy. Instead of trick-or-treating, she went trick-or-woofing. She didn't gather a bag full of candy, but we wouldn't have let her eat candy bars and lollipops anyway. She did get to pet and hug a whole bunch of big dogs.