Thanks Giving. Thiving.

I decided to go all out on Thursday and make Tene and myself a proper Thanksgiving feast. I think it turned out well!

The meal itself was completely Paleo, sticking with our newish diet. I was really proud of myself for being able to find so many tasty paleo dishes - and for making them all!

We also got to talk to my family over Skype, after some initial connectivity issues (due to my laptop running Linux, Tene had to help me set it up properly so it could use the microphone, and there were some troubles on my mother's end as well, but I'm not actually certain what those were). It was nice to see my grandparents and the step-siblings who were still around, even if it was just through a webcam. My grandmother tried to get me to promise to visit over Christmas - we're still working out what our plans are going to be for then.

But the feast! It was a marvelous feast, and I was quite proud of it (we still have leftovers!)

I started out with an appetizer (told you it was a feast) of spinach stuffed mushrooms - the recipe I used asked for panko bread crumbs, which I substituted out for a little bit of almond meal (which has almost the same consistency). These were gone by that night, 30 of them, eaten by Tene and me! They were really delicious, and are definitely something I want to try again.

Then for the main meal, we had the turkey (of course, what's Thanksgiving without a turkey?) that I roasted myself (first time I have ever tried to do anything like that). My first observation when I started doing stuff with the turkey, though, was a not entirely pleasant realization. Turkey is gross.

I find most raw meat to be unpleasant, but for my first time working with a whole bird ... well, I can't choose anything else except that turkey - as a whole - is nasty. Especially since they store the "giblets" and neck inside the thing for selling. I didn't want anything to do with those. And cleaning the turkey out? Yuck. That's definitely something I'm willing to not do very often.

But the turkey ended up very nice! I used a cheap roasting pan for it, put a couple of pieces of onion (amounting to about a half) and some fresh thyme inside, covered the thing with butter and salt and pepper, and then stuck it in the oven for three hours. It was still moist and was cooked all the way through and was just tasty.

I also made roasted Brussel's sprouts (a standby that I'm glad is a normal part of our eating habits), some baked honey carrots and oranges, asparagus with an interesting bacon vinaigrette, and another of our standbys - sweet potatoes and onions. None used any extra sugar (the carrots had a little bit of honey added, and I put some agave nectar on the sweet potatoes), and all ended up really delicious.

And then I broke Paleo for our desert - a really tasty, very dark chocolate and rich flourless chocolate cake. Because it didn't use flour I'm pretty sure it was gluten free - making our Thanksgiving definitely friendly to those who can't have gluten. The cake had an added cup of sugar in it, plus the slight dusting of powdered sugar on top. Then there was the whipped cream (whipped by Tene) made from sour cream, heavy cream, and some more powdered sugar.

Unfortunately I didn't bake the cake quite long enough. It was still delicious (and we ate the whole thing), but next time I'll need to remember to leave it in the oven a little longer - either that or flourless cakes are just normally a bit thicker, I'm not sure which.

I think I should add an electric mixer to the list of things I want, if only to save Tene's arm from all of that stirring and beating.

After having a lot of fun cooking all of this and feeling proud of myself for a job well done, I started thinking - I think I might want to host a dinner like this once a month, invite people to come and eat some good food and hang out. It would give me a chance to really practice my cooking and baking skills, and it would help Tene and I strengthen our social circle here, both of which are good things, I think. It would also be somewhat of a challenge (for me) to find the recipes I want to make, and then cook them and have them done in time for people to come share with us. The Thanksgiving meal I made was delicious, and I'm glad I did it, but I started late and we didn't actually get around to eating it until seven or eight Thursday night. Time management just isn't one of my strong suits.

The joke in today's title comes from a series called Look Around You, in which it is an ongoing thing. Specifically from the Water module. Bless you, ants. Blants.

Letters Letters Everywhere!

NaNoWriMo is going well. I'm a two days behind, but I'm planning on spending most, if not all, of tomorrow writing up a storm (finally got Pandora and Rdio onto my cellphone, so I don't even need my laptop to be connected to the internet!), and hopefully I'll get back on track. I must write the life of this intriguing mail carrier!

I fell behind because of two things: One, I got tired of my story and plot. So I time warped into the future of my character, added a second character, and stuck them in a Gaslamp Romance. It's turning into a cute love story - and is going to include some themes about what I want from my own life. Second, I'm sick. I picked up a cold somewhere and I've felt more or less terrible. I've also been less than stellar emotionally, and I really should go see a doctor soon for recommendations to ... a lot of things (gyno, sleep therapist, psychologist, psychiatrist, a doctor (or dentist, but a doctor is preferred) specializing in the jaw ... the list never ends).

Speaking of health, I went to the dentist two weeks ago and found out that my life of no cavities ever was over. I had five of the little buggers. One for each of my back-most molars, with one of them having two! Well, I scheduled a visit to have them taken care of (and a deep cleaning). I was scared and nervous about two things - the shot, and the drill.

Before the first appointment to take care of the right side of my mouth I had never been conscious for a shot in my mouth. I've been numbed before, but always under sedation - once when my wisdom teeth were removed (I was 15 or 16 at the time), and nearly two years ago when I had my front gum repaired, both times I was put under sedation before I ever saw the needle come at my mouth. After talking to some friends I was less worried (apparently Novocaine is different then whatever the used to numb my eyelid for that surgery/biopsy, which burned before numbing), but still a little anxious about the thought of a needle piercing my gums. More than that, I was worried I would freak out at the sound of the drill - and of the drill drilling away my teeth.

I did the best I could to explain my fears to the dentist, who ended up prescribing me some Valium, which I took, and which allowed me to get through my appointments with few problems (my iPod helped too). I've decided that Valium is fine and good for serious circumstances that make me feel really anxious, but it's quite overkill. I ended up coming home and sleeping it off afterward.

After the break I'm going to type up some letter to people I've noticed while driving around Palo Alto and Mountain View, otherwise, that's it!

NaNoWriMo 2010 ....

Yep, despite failing the last three years, I'm going to be attempting NaNoWriMo again this year.

So, as usual, starting Monday the first of November, 2010, I'll be attempting to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. That's almost 1700 words a day. I'm nervous, but I know I have plenty of time to do that (7 pages a day? Totally within reason, I think). I'm more nervous that I'm *also* going to be doing some other things: making Christmas presents for people being the Big Thing that I'm thinking about right now. Every year I start on such gifts too late in the season to get people their gifts by Christmas ... or I just give up. This year I've decided I'm going to start working on some of them tomorrow - and my plan is to have them given away or shipped off by 1 December (except in the case of one friend, Zoie, who I'm sending her gift to by 15 November, because she's leaving for Japan in early December).

This year I've decided to do some preparation work. Writing by the seat of my pants has failed me miserably the past three years, so it's time to try something new. I'm planning on having a rough outline, characters, and setting and plot built before November first, so that if/when I get stuck on things I'll have a way out. Less writers block is my intended goal, and I'm really hoping it works out the way I want it to.

Here's to the End

So this is the end of NaNoWriMo for another year. Last night was the last time I had a chance to write and have it go toward my wordcount, and midnight was the time to get my novel verified.

So how did I do? What did I learn?

• I never got above 15,000 words. True, this is more than I have written in years, and I'm back to wanting to write and create, but obviously this isn't quite 50k. So I didn't win (again) this year.
• If I'm writing about something that has some basis in real life (like, say, Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes) I should actually know those stories. The story of Hansel and Gretel has a lot of elements that I didn't know about (for example, Hansel and Gretel weren't originally given names, those were added later to separate their story from another story. Originally they were "Little Brother" and "Little Sister." Also it wasn't their father's choice to abandon them in the woods - his wife (their stepmother) pressured him into it).
• Next year I should write something that doesn't require so much research, because researching things that I want to write about is way too fun, and it makes my writing time a lot shorter. So ... nothing based in reality (again: No nursery rhymes or fairy tales or myths. This path ends badly).
• I really need to learn time-management. Like, a lot.
• Staying up until 3am to write may seem like a good idea at the time, but in the end it just leads to messing up my sleep schedule (which in turn messes up my writing schedule and makes me not want to write the next day .... until it's in the wee hours of the morning).
• I should get a laptop. Like, really. Sitting straight up is so not comfortable for writing a long thing. Maybe I need a different chair instead ...
• I learned that when I get sick I need to keep writing, even if I feel like crap.
• I got my imagination back a little! I've been getting more random stories popping up in my head. I almost scratched Never Ever After and started writing a completely different story halfway through.

Overall, even though I didn't win this year, I'm still glad I tried. I'm glad I'm writing a bit more, and I've gotten back a little of that passion to write.

Just wait until 2010 NaNoWriMo. Just wait.

Broke 10,000!

Today the NaNoWriMo site was down for a few hours, and now the Progress Reports are gone. I'm just going to have to make my own, I think.

But that's not the OMG HUGE NEWS that I have to share. That news is ........

I broke 10,000 words in my writing session tonight! WHOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Sure, I should be up to 15,000, and I'm not ... But I broke 10,000 words! This is the farthest I've ever gotten in my three years of participating in NaNoWriMo! I can easily get another 5,000 (well, actually nearly 7,000, because now it's November 10, which means - 1,667 more words) out tomorrow. I have a vague plotline of the next few chapters - they include Red going insane and nearly killing Goldilocks, and Hansel and Gretel (my insane twins with attachment disorders, homicidal tendencies, pyromania, and claustrophobia) will be making their appearance soon too!

Wow, I need sleep.

First Week

So, I meant to update every day about how my story is going ... in part to keep me writing. But
then I got sick over the week, and Tene got very very sick, and my writing tapered off at 5200 words. I haven't written in days. As of today I'm supposed to be just over 13,000 words. I'm going to try to reach that number, but I don't know if I'll be able to do it. I'm rather stuck on my story, I don't know where to go with it.

For research I've thought of picking up a copy of the DSM-IV, after all my story takes place in an asylum, and I would like to have the patients have realistic diagnoses. But, I don't want to waste hours on research when I have limited writing time. Maybe I'll pick up a copy for the rewrite.

Oh, but look! In the left sidebar there is now a widget to show how many words I've written! Hooray!

Anyway, I should get back to writing.

First Day

So NaNoWriMo has officially begun. My word count at midnight was 2351, so a bit above today's goal (1667). I added a widget to the left side of the blog, but it doesn't seem to be working quite yet. I'll give it a few days. Hopefully they're working on it.

I decided to go with the dark fairy tales story - but I changed it up a little. Instead of writing an entire story just on Little Red Riding Hood, I decided to make the world of Faerie a little bit darker.

Most of the kids you've heard about in fairy tales and nursery rhymes didn't actually end up living happily ever after. Their experiences were often so horrific that they became tainted with the darkness. Most of those heroes and heroines reside in the Never After Asylum - a place for everyone from those who are simply neurotic, to those who are criminally insane. At 14, a year after her harrowing experience with the wolf, Little Red Riding Hood is admitted to the asylum. But what happens behind the closed and barred doors of that dark place?

So, that's what my story is. I'm really excited, obviously.

As of today, I have written a very short prologue, and part of my first chapter. Red has just entered her grandmother's home.

NaNoWriMo - I'm a glutton for punishment

Yep, I'm a glutton for punishment. I'm trying out NaNoWriMo again this year, after losing the last two years. I'm not positive what my story this year is going to be about. I'm debating working on the story I started last year, but I think I'm a little too attached to it to try that out. I have a different story idea, but I'm not sure how well I can pull it off.

The story I'm thinking of doing is a darker (and obviously longer) version of Little Red Riding Hood's story. Maybe continue it all the way until the after-effects of meeting the wolf and being eaten. One problem I may have is that I don't actually know the "original" version of Little Red's story - I've only ever heard the Disnified version (where she and her grandma are saved by the helpful woodcutter and live happily ever after), I also don't know if there is a different version (Wikipedia doesn't seem to think so, at least, none that are more violent than the one I grew up with as a child).


If I don't do that, then I'll try the story I wrote last year, about my assassin barmaids who come from a village that pretty much raises all their people to be assassins (kinda like ninja villages, but with magic).


Besides, how could I not do NaNoWriMo this year? Look at the little bookrobot! He's a cutie!

Gearing Up for NaNoWriMo and Other Stuff

That's right. Next month is National Novel Writing Month and once again I am a participant. I'm nervous (obviously), definitely hoping last year's crash and burn doesn't happen again, and also very excited. I'm working on accumulating the things I need for my story, but I have an idea (that came to me during a nap the other day ... ) for at least the start of the story and 3 characters. We'll see where it goes from there.

There are a few things that worry me about NaNo this year.

• I haven't had creative juices flowing freely in months. Even going off of my meds hasn't helped much.
• I still haven't figured out the "balance school, work, and homework" thing yet, much to my chagrin.
• I has no laptop. Which, truth be told, isn't that bad of a situation. Just means it'll be harder for me to work when I'm at Tene's.

So, I do perceive issues. There is also that I'll be worrying about Avi, who has developed a steadily-growing tumor, and other things going on in my life right now. But, I'm going to attempt NaNoWriMo, and win or lose, I'm going to do my best.