The Sorting is all fixed - send your thank you cards to Rudius Hagrid. Squee!

http://www.leakylounge.com/index.php?act=rgs

OK, I get this is not something I personally can do anything about. Not a dang thing.

So ignore me when I say I'm feeling like a failure right now.

But we were supposed to start sorting for HBP yesterday and it's been a complete, unmitigated disaster - and I'm completely helpless to do anything to fix it. Gah!

Stay tuned...

I've got so much on my plate right now, I don't know how I'm going to do this, but I woke up a couple of weeks ago with an actual idea for a story, so... here goes nothing.

And because I'm all about sharing, here's a calendar similar to the one I posted last year - it helps you plot out a number of words to aim for each day, with little quotes and inspirations along the way. I've got mine saved as my desktop background.

migratory.deviantart.com/art/NaNoWriMo-Calendar-67541594

I really, really, really strongly recommend that you NOT click behind the cut to read further if medical stuff and pictures gross you out. Trust me. I'm posting this here instead of facebook because the cousin whose house it is, is my friend there, and I don't want to cause her any further trouble.

We went to the sticks to see family on Thursday, and a dog on my cousin's farm ( attacked Sam. )</div>My precious boy, who has never been afraid of anything in his life, is now terrified of all dogs except for his own Charlie. When we got back to Dad's house in the city, one of the neighbor's dogs came running over to say hello, and my sweet little guy unleashed a scream unlike anything I've ever heard from his lips before.

*snort*

This week has set me way behind.

5,010 / 50,000 (10.0%)

At least I've got the weekend to catch up!

It looks like I'm ahead of the game, and I am, but don't be too impressed - I know ahead of time there's at least one day this week and possibly two where I won't get any writing done at all, so I'm trying to work ahead a bit this weekend. I managed 2149 for day one and will try for about the 4000 mark today. Wish me luck!

I was so busy at work this week with my series on energy drinks and elections prep, I totally missed this:




At least it's got the trailer for the Christmas special on the end. *tries to console self*

So, I spotted this at nanowrimo.org - people who have figured out (cleverly) how many words we need to average each day, put it into a motivational calendar, and set it as their desktop background. This one was my favorite - http://quoteymcquote.deviantart.com/art/NaNoWriMo-Calendar-2008-97759346

Here's to typing until the keyboard catches fire! :) 

I've tried NaNoWriMo twice before now and didn't manage to finish either time - admittedly, one year the reason I didn't finish was because I broke my middle finger. Just a hairline crack. But boy, it made it so not fun to type!

Well, this year, I've signed up to give it another shot. Despite the fact that I have once again injured my right hand - including the middle finger - in an accident so embarrassing that I'm telling people I was helping orphans rescue a stranded kitten from the roof instead of what really happened.

But I think I've got a plot I can live with this time. The 2006 attempt died before it could really get going because I was attempting this Revolutionary-era historical fiction that had my eyes crossing from the hours of research. This time, I'm setting the thing inside a radio station. If I need to do research on that, I think I should quit my job! :)

Yes, we did get snow above 9,000 feet on Monday - but it's been really pleasant here in the relatively lower altitudes (meaning about 4000 to 5000 feet, where most of Salt Lake City sits) - blue skies and low humidity with highs around 75 every day. I'll take it! 

Meantime, we just got back from our camping trip to Bryce Canyon National Park. Thought I'd share the pictures - Sam is so tall and handsome these days. *sigh* But just for fun, here's one of hubby and I at Red Canyon, apparently the site of a standoff between Butch Cassidy and the Garfield County Sheriff of the day: 



The boys (hubby and Sam the Boy Wonder) head back to school on Monday - fall break is over. But it was nice while it lasted! 

Weather forecast for Monday: 

Snow at the higher elevations.

What?!

What kind of crazy state is this? 

I knew I should've taken the job in Phoenix. :P

OK, there wasn't a job in Phoenix. *sigh* But... snow in August? 

What a crazy, busy, unbelieveable summer! And it's already over at our house - year-round school means Sam the Boy Wonder and Hubby went back in early August. They're off for a couple of weeks, then back to the grind the week after Labor Day.

Not a lot else to report. Our apartment is cramped compared to the house we sold in Virginia, but we've managed to make it work. It still boggles my mind that rent on a two bedroom apartment in Utah is more than our house payment in Virginia. I keep telling myself we'll have a house again someday, but I don't see how!

Random weirdness: I was covering a story in downtown SLC on Friday, on what you could more or less call one of the main drags, North Temple Street. I parked the truck so I was in close proximity to a gas station, because I was getting reaction from the "man on the street" about gas prices. (Utah - third highest in the country. Go figure!) And here comes this guy WEARING A PYTHON AROUND HIS NECK.

I should've taken a picture.

I should've gotten out of the truck and asked him why on earth he was wearing a snake.

I should've called my news director and written a story about Snake Man!

I chickened out. No way was I walking up to a guy with a snake around his neck! But it goes down in the book as easily the weirdest thing I've seen in ten years. And I'm a journalist - I specialize in news of the weird, OK?

For the most part, my foray into the mountain West has been smooth. But every once in a while, something comes up that makes me absolutely sure I'm a stranger in a strange land!

I think you can officially consider me a Utahn, however. I've been introduced to that culinary wonder known as fry sauce, and I pronounce it good. I first encountered fry sauce at that Salt Lake City institution, Crown Burger. It's just a burger joint, but they're all over the place here, and they put a slice of pastrami on top of the burger. I haven't been brave enough to try that yet, but they also serve gyros, souvlaki, regular burgers and even corn dogs. You could say it's very well-rounded -- as most other burger joints would just have the burgers.



But I digress... the first time I forgot my lunch and had to walk over to Crown Burger to get something to eat, I was a little taken aback when the lady behind the counter asked me if I wanted "fry sauce". I didn't want to out myself as a foreigner, so I said yes.

Fry sauce, legend has it, was invented when the owner of the Arctic Circle restaurant chain (also Utah-based) started mixing his ketchup and mayonnaise together to save time when dressing burgers. One day, he dipped a fry in the sauce, and the rest is history.
So that's all fry sauce is -- ketchup and mayo mixed together, though different restaurants here have a different ratio for it, with some leaning more toward the mayonnaise side and others more toward the ketchup. Some even mix in a bit of relish or barbecue sauce or vinegar. Purists insist ketchup and mayo only is the way to go.

My friends at Wikipedia tell me fry sauce is not peculiar to Utah -- it exists in similar form though different names in Iceland, France, Argentina, Germany, the United Kingdom and Puerto Rico. But I assure you, fry sauce is not something I had ever come across east of the Mississippi River!

I'm amused to learn that while my friends and family always thought I was weird for liking lime Jell-O best as a kid, Utahns consume more lime Jell-O per capita than any other state.

Oh, wait -- I forgot I had "biffing it" up there in the title too. Well, that's kind of embarrassing, but apparently if you've not been exposed to many winter sports, it's not a phrase you will have heard. There was a story about a dog who "biffed it" after being thrown from a car my first day here. I thought for weeks the dog was dead until I fell on the ice in the parking lot, and my roommate asked if I was OK since she saw me biff it. Apparently, if the fall isn't spectacular and embarrassing, it's just a fall.

Doesn't that sound like the name of a bad 80's movie?

Oh, wait.

But seriously, I've been kind of scarce this week as I'm dealing with the first actual dental emergency of my adult life. (Well, there was that bit with the dry sockets and the wisdom teeth -- but that really wasn't an emergency so much as it was just plain frustrating.) Chipped a molar over the weekend -- actually, lost a sizable chunk of molar. I was eating chips and salsa, and it felt like I had a piece of popcorn stuck back there all of a sudden. But to my horror, I found when I put my finger back there -- the backside of that tooth was just missing. I have to have swallowed it!

What's weird about this is, I have actually had nightmares before about this exact thing happening -- the sudden and unexpected loss of a tooth or breaking of a tooth. Vivid ones, too -- to the extent that when I woke up I had to reassure myself I had all my teeth. I even went so far in the past as to look up what the heck a dream about losing all your teeth is supposed to mean -- even though I don't believe in dream interpretation! :D (Although I did appreciate the irony of the disclaimer on one site suggesting that on occasion, a teeth dream means you need to see the dentist.)

It is perhaps significant that I never had the teeth-falling-out nightmare before I had my wisdom teeth removed, which was such an unpleasant experience overall that I waited five years afterward before I could gather up the courage to go back to a dentist. (No cavities when I went back! I was so proud.)

But in the reality, I wasn't at all freaked out. It didn't hurt (yet) so I went on about my business and made plans to visit a dentist the next day.

Getting the crown put on was actually more painful than what happened -- and I am in fact still a bit sore, so I've been living off pasta and Chinese food, as both require less toothwork. I will have to go back to get the permanent crown put on in a couple of weeks -- the one in place now is a temporary one, which I've been instructed to be careful with.

At least I had fun looking at all the toothy dreams.

So, my new favorite website is running this contest... and the winner gets a trip to Vegas. So please go vote for my lolcat:


More on the online Poker Cats Contest

And if you want to, enter your own. I'd go meet you in Vegas. I'd be willing to make that sacrifice for you. :D

Able to club unruly members over the head with the Club of No Snark... fitted with the wand of the Lily to encourage thoughtful discussion and the breastplate of the Stag (not sure what it does yet)... accompanied by her faithful companion, Charles the Begging... I am... really bored!!!

Well, here we are in sunny and tropical Salt Lake City, Utah. (I'm kidding, of course.)

We got here about 8 p.m. local time Wednesday night, after four days and ten states of driving a Chevy Venture mini-van towing a small U-Haul trailer. Did I mention the almost-five-year-old boy and the almost-six-year-old beagle? 22 hundred miles, baby!

Anyway, I haven't remotely tried to sign onto Leaky yet -- I'm pretty swamped trying to get squared away and unpacked while also showing Hubby and Sam the Boy Wonder a bit of the town. I'm almost afraid to check my e-mail! But I thought I should put an update here so you all would know I am safe and sound and still kicking.

Hugs and happy new year!

Becky

It was sunny and the sky was clear. That was what was so strange about it, six years ago. I was sitting in my "office," which at the time was literally a production studio about the size of a closet, and the TV over my head was on, but muted, as I scanned the newspaper and the wire and worked out a game plan for the stories of the day. I just happened to look up -- and see the smoke coming from the first tower. I thought it was a fluke. I think most of us did. Until that second plane hit the second tower, which I watched unfold on live television. Within seconds, the phone was ringing and the boss was calling to ask me to go to the federal building downtown, to a small town nearby where of all things a counter-terrorism expert who'd predicted Al Qaida would attack the US lived, to the airport after it was shut down and tourists and business travelers were stranded. 

In one sense, it was a day that felt like it went on forever, a day filled with adrenaline. I wrote stories that day that never made it on the air, because the towers collapsed and the Pentagon was hit, and we stayed in "network" news for several days. When I finally did make it home that night, late, I remember sinking to the couch and just bawling. 

Gladly, I will endure any inconvenience at the schools, at the airports, and even in the malls -- if it means we never have to face another day like that day. There's a part of me that's a little sad that Sam, who was born after 9/11/01, will never quite known what it was like to be alive before our rude awakening. But another part of me knows we are more vigilant, that we will not let our guard down again, as the unfortunate result of that terrible, sunny day.

May we never forget what we learned and what it cost.