This week's down the toilet...seriously!

Good morning!






Sorry I've been missing this week. I had every intention of doing a lot of writing and submitting and editing and blogging. Turns out, none of that got done.





I'd like to blame it on the kitten, but let's face it: Last night's drama was just a drop in the proverbial pool of real life that I jumped in this week.





Monday started with me losing my voice completely after a long weekend of single parenting and being sick with a horrifying sore throat. Hubby came home Monday night, but Tuesday and Wednesday were all about just getting healthy and getting my voice back. (I couldn't even sing Rick Springfield songs in my car...that's how lost my voice was!)



By last night, I was ready to settle down, watch some Survivor Season 9 on DVD with the Girl and enjoy the man free house since Hubby and The Boy were on their way to the Lutheran Youth Rally in Northern Wisconsin.


That's when Junior decided to try his paws at jumping onto, and then into, the toilet.


Not a problem until you realize that I use those tidy bowl blue deals that make the toilet water lovely and dark blue. Not good for kitties.


So, a series of calls and $65 later, (did you know there was a kitty poison control? Me either! And they take major credit cards right over the phone!) Junior puked and all was well.


So here we are at Thursday. I have a day to pack and drag the clan kicking and screaming to to the northwoods where we're supposed to spend a weekend with the g-parents and extended family. (10 people, two bedrooms, one bathroom. How much fun is THAT?) Now I hear from my mother that she and pops won't be there. Ummmmm, WHAT?????????? I can't even begin to anaylize this latest chapter in the passive agressive tangle that is my relationship with my mother (read "dream in color," you'll get a good flavor of that.) but the long and short of it that I am now in charge of cooking and caring for 7 other people in a building roughly the size of my basement, with all the comforts of said basement. And the whole reason I was commanded to show up was to get the kids together with the grandparents.



But enough excuses. I haven't written. I haven't written one new word in two weeks. I did submit "Lies in Chance" to The Wild Rose Press. The rejections I've gotten on this project have been all over the place. Some like the story, but not the writing. Some like the writing, but not the story. (I know, I don't get that either.) Some like the story and the writing, but not the characters. (I can't make this up.) And some like the story, the writing, the characters, but not the fact that it's a story with multiple points of view. It's exhausting trying to figure out what editors and agents want! And this is why, if my friends at The Wild Rose Press don't have a home for it (and they may not, since this isn't a romance in the strictest terms.) I'm going to dip my toe in the self pub waters.



So watch for that in the next 45-60 days.



Meanwhile, I have been working on my creative non fiction project over at my other blog http://itcanonlyhappentosarah.blogspot.com/ My hopes for this also lie in the self pub world, something sort of along the lines of the late, great Erma Bombeck. The working title for that project is "Stalking Rick Springfield and other Habits of the Middle Aged Woman." Pop on over to that blog and let me know what you think!

Meanwhile...go forth and WRITE! (After you purchase your copy of Dream in Color!)

Reflections on the new addition...

So yesterday the family trekked over to the Waukesha Humane Society. We haven't been there in a while. The Boy is not what you'd call a pet person. (I don't blame him...pets take up a lot of energy and love and then they die.) He loved our cat Snickers, which we had to give away eons ago because we thought The Girl was allergic. (We're still not convinced she's not...)

Anyway, our quest for a dog is over. The Boy is far too anti dog for us to consider one. And getting a small dog from the Humane Society that doesn't have mental defects is sort of like trying to get a teenager out of bed during summer break. It's simply not likely. And, since I won't have the time, energy, or money to deal with a big dog until the children are done draining my resources, we changed our sites.

We started looking at a cats.

Now, I thought this process would take at least as long as our hunt for dog. There would have to be many, many viewings. There would have to be considerations. There would have to be a lot of time.

Nope. 45 minutes. That's all it took.

See, it's KITTEN SEASON!

Who can resist kittens? After ten minutes there I wanted to take at least three of them home. And I don't want a pet. (Putting down my beloved Snowflake, the hedgehog, three years ago took a lot out of me.)

But there he was, they called him Scooby. Black and white and mewing all over. Playful and entirely the cutest kitten of all the kittens in the place. I wanted to get Babs, the four year old female who was declawed and looked pretty laid back.

Nope, we're getting Scooby. We're picking him up today. We're going to rename him...probably Jasper, because, well, he looks like a Jasper to me.

I'm not bonding with this cat! I'm not, I'm not, I'm not!

But his cute little face.....