I'm a winner, baby!

50,437!!!

On a side note, Kansas City has nearly 12 inches of snow on the ground. Big storm. Kind of glad I missed it.

And yes, I will update the lab with the rest of the novel. But not tonight. My plans tonight are to watch television like a zombie. Mel likes comedies...and brains...

47993!

Ack! I'm so close it makes my head hurt.

Maybe if I realyl buckle down tonight, I can cross 50k. But one thing is clear, I am no where near finished with the story line of this thing.

43K

Just crossed the 43k mark. I had a three thousand word day!

And hanks to Omouse, who leaves encouraging messages on my answering machien and Verve who leaves encouraging messages in my email.

I can do this!!! Yar!

New Ian goes wireless!

I just finished installing my spanking new wireless network.

I tried to do it yesterday but Earthlink has a tricky trick they use to get you to pay an extra $7 a month. Del spent nearly four hours last night trying to hook up the network. He's awesome for trying.

So today I called Comcast to see what they would charge for a modem and networking...As it turns out, even with the Earthlink tricky tricks, they are still a little cheaper. So I ponied up the money and here I am cruising the interwebs from my kitchen table. Cool. The $7/mo also includes up to 4 wireless devices and 10 wired computers. So I feel like having a "use my bandwidth party".

I just crossed 40k during lunch. If I can do another two thousand tonight, I think I can do this.

Live! From the New Ian!

Santa Chewbacca came early this year. I got my spanking new laptop today, a HP dv2000. It rocks.

Right now we're fighting to get the wireless network installed. Apparently, Earthlink has made it very difficult. Del is helping. Actually, to be fair, Del is doing all the work and I'm "helping". I feel like a monkey with a stick compared to him. Thank you, Del! You're great!

We've no internet access on the network at the moment so I'm piggy backing on a neighboring network. Cool.

Word count is 38k as of this moment. I felt the need to celebrate. Now, back to writing.

Those damn rolls (Thanksgiving Story1 )

Mom made a batch of refrigerator roll dough last night. You know, the fantastic roll recipe. This morning, I get u at 7 to make the rolls (as was the task assigned to me.) Only one problem, the dough did not rise. It was rock hard.

Damn. Mom had a moment of panic. "We don't have time to make a new batch!"

"We do." So I mix together a new batch and stick it in the frig. Of course, I though Mom did something wrong. Had to have left out an ingredient.

Now it's two hours later and the dough didn't rise! I know I didn't do anything wrong. I have no idea why it wouldn't work. Maybe's there's something in the air...something that kills yeast. Who knows.

Now Fran's off to the market for rolls. I'm all bummed about the rolls.

Hi from Kansas!

Just a quick word. I'm currently at my mom's, stealing a cuople minutes on the computer.

Word count is 32,500 approx. I haven't been doing as much writing as I would like.

Oh, I'm staying that night at Mom's new house. It's very nice. Very blue. And for some reason, I'm staying in what i refer to as the "Jesus Room." There's a freaking picture of Jesus on the wall and the Lord's prayer. It's weird. Not a single item of religious parafanlia has ever graced my mother house but know Jesus will be watching me sleep. Creepy.

Thanksgiving

It's 4:45 AM and I'm leaving in thirty minutes to catch a plane home. I got that quesy stomach feeling I get every time I fly.

I'm taking a laptop to do some writing. I've already let the family and friends know that I will be writing two hours a day. Nothing shall disturb me. I will not fall behind on word count. But, I will be sans internet. No updates. I'm still at 28k. I haven' t been able to write with dentist appointments and packing and all the other crap that seems to pop up in Nanowrimo.

Delmar had a good idea. Nano should be in January. There's a 3 day weekend and no major holidays (besides New Years) to worry about. I'm ready to petition a Nanowrimo January.

Anyway, Andy will be all alone this trip. He origianlly planned to go but with the new job, now has zero vacation time. It's funny, when he had vacation time, he never used it. Now he does have it, all he does is complain that he has nothing of the thing he never used before.

Hrothgar's been sleeping on the suitcase. He always seems mad at me when I go on a trip. Aethel doesn't know what's happening yet but she seems really excited that both monkeys are up so early andis following me around meowing.

Happy Thanksgiving. See you in a week.

I'm am in ur hard drive, stealing ur internets

This made me laught so much I literally cried. I think my favorite is "im in ur couch, stealing ur change." And I enjoyed the sammich one, also.

23k, by the way.

Week Two Freak Out

Wednesday, the start of Week Two, I had a minor melt down. With work, not getting home until 5:30, the phone ringing, cooking dinner, taking Andy's car to the mechanic, and the phone ringing again...All my writing time evaporated. I was left with a paltry 60 minutes. And I'm leaving in a week to go home. I have to pack. I have to clean the fucking apartment. I have to buy all those crappy little toiletries you need for a trip. Fuck. I was in full panic mode.

And I wasn't like I couldn't not answer the phone and talk to my mom, it's my mom for crying out loud! I have to talk to her. It's just...I seriously was going to change the message on the answering machine to "Hello. It's Novemember and NaNoWriMo. Unless a fmaily member has been born or has died, I'm not answering the phone. Talk to you in December."

My plans were thwarted by not being able to find the manual and figure out how to record a message. Sorry. I know this bugs Omouse as the pre-recorded computer voice is a little stark. Creepy, actually.

The good news is after my Freak Out, I channeled all my energy and wrote three thousands words the next night.

Having crossed the 20k mark, I feel a little more confident, but I want to be at 30k next Friday before I leave for Kansas. I'm not planning on getting much writing done so I'd like to have as much done as possible. If I do a thousand words a day, I'll be very happy.

20,208!

Lots of updates in the lab. So stop bugging me about not posting.

Liberty Memorial

Today is Armistice Day (which you know) and NPR had a really interesting interview with a guy who'sbeen recording the last living World War One vets. There's only 14 left in the US. The youngest is 106. The oldest is amazingly 115. And there was a mention of Kansas City's Liberty Memorial.

The Liberty Memorial is a beautiful piece of art deco. It is also the largest WWI memorial in the country. Unfortunatly, when I was live in KC, it was also falling apart and in a seedy part of town. I'd always see it from th highway, barricaded by fencing. Apparently, huge chunks of concrete were falling off so there was fencing to prvent hapless people getting hurt.

When I moved away in 2002, it was just starting a restoration. And now it's done! Apparently, as of 9/20/06 it became the National World War One Museum. Cool. Unfortantely, it will be closed from 11/13 to 12/2 - the days when I'm actually going to be home.

Damn it! I think I'm never actually meant to go to the Liberty Memorial, which sucks because I voted for the two-state tax to fix the damn thing. I think I may still go to the memorial, just to actually get close to it.

17028!

I can't believe it...I've almost caught up to Omouse. Of course, she didn't write last night.

Andyway, I had a Week Two Melt-Down. I'll write about that little misadventure when I get home this evening. Right now it's 7:55 (a.m.) and I need to eat breakie and go to work. I was just so excited about catching up, I had to post immediately.

Oh, and I have a legal question posted on the forums. Help me! Becuae if you don't read the post, I'm just going to ask your opinions anyway.

Week Two

It's the start of week two and I'm ahead (12777) of the minimum word cournt. Not as far ahead as Omouse, but pretty good for me.

Yesterday was election day and I took great joy in not voting for Rick Santorum. Apparntly, so did lots of people in Pennsylvania. Last night, after the polls had closed, I got the final telephone survey. Silly me, I answered. Anyway, they wanted to know the reasons I did or did not vote for Santorum. I said, "Because he's bigoted and filled with hate." And it's true. I embarressed he was my senator. But not anymore.

Guess What I've Been Doing

I posted three new sections of the Nano novel in the Lab. Check it out, Omouse, and stop bugging me about posting.

Oh, and Omouse is on my machine leaving a message RIGHT NOW but I'm too busy posting to answer the phone. Sorry.

10779, by the way. I plan on gaing some ground tonight. Too busy at work to get anything done. You know, I was working.

10484

Just a quick blog to brag about my word count: 10,484! It's such a nice change to be ahead of the word count.

And on another note: lactose-free eggnog rocks!

Tomorrow I'll post what I've written.

It's here!

It's Nano time! I'm at 3000 words thus far and Omouse and Iambe have left me in the dust.