That is a problem

There are words we are not supposed to overuse. My favorite word to not overuse is 'that'. As a general rule of thumb, if you have a sentence with 'that' in it, read it out loud twice - once with 'that' in the sentence, once with it omitted.

If the sentence makes sense without 'that', you could probably leave it out.

Caution:

If you are concerned you are using 'that' too often and decide to trade it for 'which', be sure 'which' fits in that place. Perhaps 'that' is necessary.

Here are some words I love to overuse:

it

was

look

could

anything ending in ly - my favorite!!!

Something to work on. That(mwahahahaha)'s all for now. What are your favorite words to overuse / not overuse?

Enter the lion tamer

It took much leaping and flailing and gnashing of teeth, but my lions (aka horses, but one would not expect horses to be so gnashy) have a new home.

This weekend had a large list of Here is where I went wrong. This is the winner:

Saturday was best marked by an inappropriate choice of underwear. At times, it is nice to know some part of your outfit is adorable, even if no one can see it. I should have considered when cutting stall mats to line the bottom of a horse trailer, a specific bending technique is required (adorable underwear is not). Occasionally this technique allows the display of what should be left unseen. As it was, I ended up looking like a washed-up cabaret dancer with a strange flouf of flamingo-pink ruffle sticking out of my jeans whenever I dropped my guard. Awkward.

But wait, there's more:

Sunday saw one horse successfully trailered - where I come from, trailer is a verb ;) - and one horse determined to resist travel (its not for everyone). Ropes were broken, as were camel backs. A final decision was made and one horse made the journey, the other was left behind.

Safety before pride.

Our new boarder is a fabulous woman with a trailer that makes mine look like a tin can on wheels. She offered to pick up Lion#2. 10 minutes and a little determination was all she needed. My ferocious pal was loaded and on the way to his new home. I have officially dubbed her the Lion Tamer (but I probably won't tell her-I'm not taking any chances of her thinking I'm a weirdo).

You know how it is when you meet a person and just have that good feeling about them? That's her. She even teaches riding lessons!

This should cross the last bit of crazy off my to-do list. Hopefully life will shift into a bit of a slow down for a while.

How about you? Have you ever:

• Worn inappropriate underwear?
• Met a person and thought they were just too good to be true but known/hoped they weren't?

1000 Places to See Before You Die

This is one of my favorite books. 1000 Places to See Before You Die by Patricia Schultz. Because of its weight, it is what I like to think of as a coffee table book, rather than a travel guide book. As in, if I were to travel somewhere, I would not bring this book on the trip with me. I would leave it on my coffee table.

Whenever I go on an adventure, I enjoy looking in this book to see if there are any points of interest to visit. I jot any interesting points down (in a notebook) or circle the locations in the purse-sized travel guide I plan to bring along. When I return home from my adventures, I add any interesting bits of information I have accumulated to that particular entry and rank it (ex: 5/10, 10/10).

Now, lets be honest. Very few people will every see every place in this book, but it can still be fun to try (if you are one of the few, consider me jealous of you). If you happen to be in the area, it might be worth it to check out the recommended locations in these pages.

Here is where I turn this book into a game:

Whenever a family member goes on a trip, I make them consult this book (or do it for them). When they return home, I also have them review anywhere they have visited (everyone has their own ranking system - stars, some are out of 5 instead of 10 - it doesn't matter as long as it is understandable) and sign and date it. I may never see all of these places, but perhaps my family will over time.

I recommend you pick it up and give it a try. You may find you have already visited some of these spots. Perhaps even in your own home town.

The one that started it all

This book is the reason I believe no matter how cool they make ebooks, they will never completely replace the real deal.

This is a copy of Marguerite Henry's Misty of Chincoteague I found in a used book store. It is also the first signed book I have ever owned.

Every time I hold this book in my hands, I realize not only am I holding a book I love, my favorite childhood book, in fact; I am holding a book Marguerite Henry held. A book she signed. A book she personalized. It wasn't meant for me, but it was meant to be special.

Sadly, I will never get to meet her. She died in 1997, but this book allows a way for me to connect with one of the people who had a positive influence on my life. That's right writers; like it or not, you are influencing a person's life.

In the same way some people get excited about going to concerts or have favorite athletes, I have an affinity toward authors who positively impact my life with their writing. I have built up a small collection of books signed by their authors. Books meant for me (Books someone else will own one day).

There is one thing I know about this one. I think I knew it the first time I held it in my hands. No matter how many I obtain, there will be something about this one that gives a little extra tug at my heart.

Make me believe you

Have you ever read a book where you just didn't believe what is happening? I don't mean agree with specific viewpoints, I mean BELIEVE IT IS REALLY HAPPENING. It can go on and on and you just want to call, "BS! I don't believe you!". How can a story have so much room to share and leave the reader feeling hollow? Perhaps it is because a story's length provides just enough rope to hang one's self with.

Take song lyrics, for instance. How long is a song? Two minutes? Five minutes? A person is not expected to sit down with that song for 7 hours. After two minutes, a person can love a song, hate a song, feel indifferent, listen to it until every word is memorized. A song has an infinitesimal amount of time to share its message. The message might be random, vapid awesomeness (nothing wrong with that if you ask me), but every now and then you'll come across a set of lyrics that can tell you exactly the person who wrote them felt in less than ten words. Less than five.

• "Love is a first"

• "I want you to want me"

• "Like the red sea, she split me open"

• "I'm not going to write you a love song"

• "When a heart breaks, it don't break even"

I like to think there has to be one special thing a person does in their life. Everyone does special things every day, but there is one extraordinary thing that will stand out when all is said and done. The trick is, you won't know what it is until all is said and done.

In that same tone, every task performed repeatedly in one's life will have one moment that out-shines the rest. Even buying milk - I don't know how, you figure it out and let me know when you do ;)

What it all boils down to is you can write a story, or a song, or a letter. But don't censor it to become something you think another person will want to see. Write what is real. Write what really happens. Don't say, "She's wonderful and exciting," when what you really need to say is, "She's as hard as AC/DC, she gets my thunder struck."

I can't see the fire in your eyes, but I want to read it.

Deleted

Canned worms, a la mode

Have you ever heard the phrase, "That's going to open up a whole new can of worms" ?

Have you ever said it?

Have you ever wanted to open a can of worms anyway?

Have you been instructed to open one?

Have you ever secretly handed one to your significant other and said something like, "Honey, can you open this for me? You're so strong."

Significant other flexes muscles, "Sure, hand it over. All you have to do is twist the - wait a minute! This isn't a pickle jar! There are worms in here!"

"Fine! I'll do it myself!"

"Fine!"

No?

... me neither.

Personally, I prefer time to open canned worms. If you do before you're ready, the result is similar to that of opening a bottle of pop recently fired from a cannon. No good can come of this. (ps - Good luck convincing your significant other to open a bottle of pop recently fired from a cannon)

Anyway, I got an email today saying something along the lines of, "I got the lid off the worm can for you. Get started. Yesterday."

Funny thing is, as hard as it is to open up a can of worms, I've always got a can of whoop-ass on hand.

Time to get the can opener.

Random awesomeness

Check out the new business card. I mean, look at it. It means business. You may notice I'm going through a bit of a phase where I am into ninjas :)

Well, actually its a trading card. My sister works at an art gallery and they had a make your own trading card night.

The point of the game:

Make a trading card, stick it in a binder filled with completed cards and choose a new one.

I got a little attached to mine and she said I could keep it.

Anyway, mine is now a business card. The problem is I only have one.

Here is my plan:

Next time someone asks my for my business card, I'll hold it up and say, "Here it is, but you'll have to fight me for it."

A challenge

My home is overrun with notebooks. I can’t get to sleep unless I have one on the nightstand. If I don’t have one, it is inevitable that I have some random idea pop into my head right before I fall asleep and I am faced with one of two options:

Option 1: Try really hard to remember it, fall asleep, wake up knowing I needed to remember something but am not sure what, spend all day trying to remember, have it pop up again in my memory right before I fall asleep.

Option 2: Write it down somewhere.

The thing is, once I have something written down, I fall into that headspace of, “Its down, its safe. No worries.”

Now, keep in mind I am tired, the lights are off and the idea probably isn’t that great. Sometimes, its GET FABRIC SOFTENER. Others, I'll flip through in the morning and find a page that says things like: rabbit, he farted, push them.

?

In a nutshell (help, I'm in a nutshell), I leave myself a random trail of bread crumbs and hope I can follow them come daylight.

Some days, I’ll read something and think, “What a great idea, sleeping Stephanie solved the problem waking Stephanie couldn’t.” Other times, what I have written is 100% indecipherable (see attached photo). Either way, sleeping Stephanie enjoys it - one morning I woke up with my notebook in one hand, a pen in the other. I gripped them so tight, my arms were stiff the next day.

Anywho, even if doing this makes me seem like a bit of a nutso, it works for me. I'd recommend it for anyone having trouble sleeping, remembering things etc.

Today’s challenge:

I scanned something I wrote down one night and was totally excited about. If I hadn’t been so tired, I would have got up and put it in my computer right away. Instead, I wrote it down and went to sleep. I woke up, grabbed my book and saw what you see attached to this post: a bunch of scribbles.

10 points to whoever can first translate my sleep-scrawl ;)

... she chortled

There are an amazing number of words used to replace the word said. These words can be both a blessing and a curse. The right combination and you feel like you are living in the book. Over-application and you want to stab your eyes out with a pen knife. At least I do.

Today, I tackle chortle.

Let’s be realistic – I have perhaps chortled twice in my life, at least one of these times, I am sure tequila was involved.

I have only ever seen one textbook-defined chortle I can be certain wasn’t just a jolly laugh or a merry chuckle. It was Thanksgiving, my niece was three and she was eating blueberry pie.

Well, she wasn’t eating it; she was shoving it in her mouth. Without chewing or swallowing. She was beginning to resemble a small rodent when she looked up and met my eyes.

I don’t know if it was the look of disgust on my face or the simple joy of pie, but she opened her mouth and laughed. It was one of those big belly laughs that make everyone in the room join in hysterical laughter until tears run down their faces. Her eyes made those cute little rainbow shapes, she was smiling and around all that pie, her laughter had a sort of loud gurgling quality. If I weren’t laughing, I probably would have thrown up. That, my friends, set the bar pretty high for all other chortles wishing to follow.

My recommended usage of the word chortle: 1 per story. More if pie is involved.

What do you think?

Its all about the he said she said

There are two things you should know about me.

Thing 1: I have an addiction to office supplies.

Thing 2: I have a limited short-term memory and go crazy if I think of something I might need to remember for later.

Thus, the avalanche of little notebooks I keep in my house, my purse, my car... To write down random stuff.

One of the things I did in one of them is write down a collection of words. Words I like, words I find most descriptive under a specific circumstance, words that describe other words.

In this post are the list of words I collected to be used in place of said. It is a list I both hate and worship (check out tomorrow's post to see why). I've found these words in books, online, by listening to people talk (TV, radio, humans).

My suggestion is not to take this list with a grain of salt, but to use it the way one would use salt.

There are a number of different salts to be used in cooking: sea salt, kosher salt, rock salt, celtic salt etc. They may all add a special something to a dish that plain old table can't quite achieve, but they all serve the same purpose - to make the food taste salty. The amount of salt added to a dish are not exponentially related to its deliciousness, regardless of the quality or variety.

Consider yourself warned ;)

contested cited discussed asked appeased

continued claimed disclosed replied approved

contradicted coaxed disrupted blinked argued

chimed contributed comforted divulged began

articulated cooed commanded echoed sputtered

assented counseled commented elaborated assumed

countered communicated emphasized assured coughed

crabbed cackled cajoled calculated called

caroled cautioned challenged craved cracked

cried criticized croaked cautioned crooned

cross-examined chanted cursed charged chattered

chided chipped in chimed in chirped choked

chortled complained conceded concluded concurred

confessed confided confirmed consented consoled

crowed drawled droned debated decided

declared decreed delivered defended demanded

demurred denied denounced described determined

dictated directed disclaimed enjoined enumerated

equivocated estimated enunciated exhorted exaggerated

exclaimed expiated explained exploded exposed

faltered foretold fumed gagged inquired

insinuated volunteered ventured prompted supplied

thundered hesitated added agreed corrected

whispered hesitated abjured accused acknowledged

added addressed admitted admonished advised

advocated affirmed agreed alleged allowed

alluded announced answered apologized appealed

asserted assured attested averted avouched

avowed blubbered blurted blustered boasted

boomed bragged breathed broke in brought forth

babbled baited bantered bargained barked

bawled began begged believed belittled

bellowed condescended

• I don't know how to put a table in blogger. If anyone knows how, I'd appreciate a heads up - I'll give this list a bit of a tidy (the OCD in me goes crazy that the list isn't alphabetical and perfectly lined up).

Hit me

I'm out of town so here is a little something I've jacked from my facebook page ;)

Original post date: Sep 22, 2008.

I had a list of things I wanted to do on our trip to Vegas (if you say Las Vegas, people will ask you if its your first time visiting. Saying Vegas is cooler). Some of the things were from my then-bucket list. Some are strictly Vegas-specific:

• See a Vegas wedding. (Didn't happen)

• Convince the happy couple to let my husband and I be witnesses. (Self-explanatory)

• See the Freemont Street Experience. (Pretty cool)

• Say, "Hit me," while gambling. (Still have no idea where this applies)

• Say, "Let it ride while gambling. (This phrase also escapes me)

• Wander through a CSI set. (No dice)

• Meet someone famous. (Actually happened - Alexis Bledel - Gilmore Girls, Hello, MY FAVORITE SHOW!)

• Go up the Eiffel Tower, see the Bellagio water show. (Did both at the same time)

• Have a daiquiri in one of those Eiffel tower drink bottles. (Stood in line for half an hour. Didn't have ID on me. Got my husband to buy it. Because I didn't have ID, the guy wouldn't sell to my husband. Had to go into the Paris casino and skulk around while he waited at the bar (on advice from the street vendor). Never did finish it. Had the world's worst headache the next day. Avoid at all costs!)

• Go to White Castle (have an adventure to do so if necessary). (Didn't go. Another trip to the States will be required for this purpose alone)

• Buy air. (The more I think about it, the shadier it seems - didn't do it, no regrets)

• Pull a crank on a slot machine. (Some of the older machines have cranks, but they don't pull. I suppose they're not fast enough to meet most people's gambling needs)

• Ride on a roller coaster (Did this. My first one. Pretty much forced my husband to go on it with me. As the man behind us yelled, "There's no time to be scared!" - As we crashed around and spun upside-down for no good reason, "Who's idea was this? That's right, it was yours; you big, dumb idiot," which I later shared with my husband. A passerby though I was verbally abusing him. My bad. I clung on so tight, I had bruises on my shoulders and shins. Still can't sleep on my side or cross my ankles)

• See someone being arrested. (While waiting in line to take the bus back to the hotel from Freemont Street, a man jaywalked in front of a cop car. The cop got out, started patting him down, wandered around writing things down, then handcuffed the guy. Thats when the state trooper showed up. There was a minor dispute between the two law-enforcers. Then another cop showed up. We got on the bus. A man asked the bus driver, "So, is it really an $1100 fine for jaywalking?" - The bus driver replied, "Oh yeah, Las Vegas drivers are crazy. We'll kill you," (WE'LL??!!!???), "Its a $200 fine. I hit a guy once. I paid it. He was here, then he was over there. Its your fault if you get run over. $200 is nothing. I paid it.")

• See Elvis. (I walked by him on the street. He was in street clothes, but it was obviously The King)

• See a pimp. (This wasn't on my list but I did see one wandering around a casino. It was either a pimp or Kid Rock. Hard to tell the difference.)

Thats all I can think of for now. Its such a funny city.

Eviction notice

Without a doubt, the current economic situation has lead to some terrible outcomes, the worst being lost jobs for people in Canada and the US.

There are a few (selfish) things I did not expect would come of it. For example:

• The bubble-bath section of the drug store has undergone a major downsize. I don't even know if my favorite bubble-bath is made anymore.

• Book publishing is down. If I am being realistic, my chances of ever having a book published are 0, or at least very poor (the last thing anyone should ever accuse me of is being realistic). ;)

• Skyrocketing hay prices. Prices are so high, the stable where I kept my equine pals (from now on referred to as The Lions - a pet name I gave them when we were young and wild) will no longer be operating. That's right folks, my boys are being evicted.

Thus begins my search for a new home for The Lions.

This new home should include some or all of the following:

• Minimal mud over extended periods of time.

• Room to run.

• Sturdy barricades to ensure The Lions will remain in their allocated "room to run."

• Shelter from wind, rain, sun.

• Delicious, dust-free hay.

• Experts on-site who will give friendly, helpful advice / drive me to the hospital if I fall off while riding and forget who I am.

• Absence of experts who give snotty quips that make me feel bad about my horses / myself (ex. "Well, you can tell your horses are used to getting their own way..." - Of course they are used to getting their way. I'm a student who has no time to ride and am not that great of a rider when I do. Some things are best left quietly ignored - like me lying in the dirt.)

• Sunshine and lollipops as accepted forms of payment.

Updates to follow :)

Fishies!

Meet my new friends - The Goldfish Quints! - stage left (I had 'stage right' earlier but my artistically inclined sister informed me stage left and right is based on where the actor is standing, not what the audience is seeing *insert vague memory of drama club here*).

What fun :)

If you never see a blog post on this site again, its because every time I sign in, I spend all my time feeding the fish.

What's that? You want in on the fun? Use your mouse and click anywhere in the box and feed will appear.

My tension has dropped 50%. Easily. I would display my tension level drop using a metrics bar but for the life of me, I can't figure out how to add the darn things. Tension levels rise when I try to add one. Again, this would be visible on the metrics bar ;).

Any suggestions for fish names?

All writing is good writing

All writing is good writing is good writing. It may not all be fit for human consumption, but I feel it has its place.

The fear of bad writing should not hold us back. It should propel us forward. How can we learn without trying?

How can we get better without trying?

We need to try.

Courage comes from the ability to face one's fears and to move onward in spite of them.

At times, I don't know what is more frightening, the fear that the writing will never be good enough or the fear that once the snarls and rough edges are cleared away, something shiny will emerge. Once you are holding this object in your shaking paw, what do you do with it?

But it doesn't matter if we don't try. If we won't practice flapping our wings, we will never learn to fly.

On Villains

Here is my thinking: Villains are not villains because they were born to be evil / forced to become evil. Or, at least, not all are.

Not all villains are even evil, but there is something about them we need to be the "bad guy."

People have different thought patterns, chemical makeup, etc. There are psychological disorders behind people doing terrible things. Control issues, products of one's childhood and so forth.

Thus, there is room for a villain who does terrible things because they have sadistic tendencies, but I don't think every villain should be so for this reason. There can be more than one villain in a story. There can be more than one type of story written.

As intriguing as the character arc of the hero / heroine can be the character arc of the villain. A villain who does a terrible thing because they feel they must can be more sinister than a villain doing a terrible thing because they think it is fun. There is that added sense of urgency. That feeling of desperation. It isn't the same as a villain embarking on our equivalent of an exciting trip to Vegas.

A trip to Vegas could be just as fun as a trip to Atlantic City. The villain doing something they must does not have the option of going to Atlantic City. They have their ticket to Vegas in hand. One way. Once they get there, they have no time for the strip. Strictly a business trip.

There is something about that emotional stake to up the level of depravity in a villain. I don't mean they have to do something absolutely crazy and insane to be a villain (I don't know who this villain is, they might be the quiet, sneaky type). I mean their intentions should be believable.

In some ways, there can be layers to who the villain is as well. Our hero could be someone else's villain. Mr. Rochester keeping his insane wife locked up in the attic is the one example that always pops in my mind. We love him. Jane Eyre loves him. I bet his insane wife is of a different opinion, even if he has her locked up for what he considers "her own good".

For all I know, I am someone's villain. You are someone's villain. Each person, trying to go through life the best they can is a villain to another.

Realistically, I am probably far too boring to be another person's villain, but how do I know? How do I know my trying to do good in my life isn't inadvertently harming another?

Personally, I have a bit of a flair for the dramatic, so my villains tend to be more outgoing with their evil-doing than the everyday inadvertent villain, but I still like to think about their motivation. They likely possess a general sense of what is right and wrong. They may feel bad about what they are doing. Would they feel worse if they did "the right thing"?

Why?

Every good story needs a ninja

I remember reading somewhere about the ninja cliche. I can't remember it verbatim, but it goes something along the lines of: unless you are writing a story about ninjas, don't toss one in just to make things exciting. Ninjas are exciting. Boring stories cannot be made so by the addition of a ninja.

Here is where I think every good story needs a ninja: during the writing process.

That's right folks, there are times when you must set aside the love your own writing to sharpen that katana.

How many of your adverbs actually need that -ly ending? How many adverbs are truly necessary? Slash away.

How many times does the first word of one of your sentences start with (verb)ing? Hit one with a blow dart.

Do you use the same word repeatedly? In the same passage? In the same paragraph? In the same sentence? Knock those spare words away with your nunchakus (numb-chuks to the Napoleon Dynamite fans in the crowd).

At first, it is difficult. Handling so many weapons with ease is not simple. Every now and then, there is a risk of getting cut and no one likes getting cut. No one likes the pain, but its like ripping off a band-aid. The longer you leave it on, the more gross, fuzzy, sticky stuff gets left behind (I am a firm believer in the fact that there is no painless way to remove a band-aid, with the exception of a public swimming pool).

Personally, I hate doing it. I especially like the -ly verbs. LOVE THEM! But I don't need them. Carving away the crutch verbs and words is a bit of work, but there is that wonderful sense of accomplishment once it is done.

Know it is possible.

After all, the most important weapon to the ninja is not a physical object at all. It is their mind.

Backup! We need backup!

So here's the story. At the writers group I attended last weekend, I learned something interesting. If you are writing a romance, there should not be more than 10 pages in a row where the hero and the heroine are not together. Thinking about it, this makes absolute sense. It is after all, a story about the relationship between two people.

This also threw me into a panic, because I knew for a fact I had big chunks of time where the hero and heroine aren't together. I just didn't know how many pages each chunk of time took up. I started sifting through my book.

Something strange happened. I couldn't find a scene. It was that feeling of, "Where did I put that thing." I knew I had written the scene. I knew where it should be. The scene that followed it was in place. Where was it?

It was gone.

I had this flashback to a couple of times where I had trouble saving (some sort of little warning popped up), but then the warning went away and the file opened again so I forgot about it.

Now, I remembered the warning.

My computer's memory always seems to hover on the edge of full (I have an iTunes addiction but refuse to seek help). My theory is the file made room for the new information by getting rid of some old stuff.

Here is where I rejoiced:

I had backed up my work! I don't always do this but there are some things that are just easier to back up than not. This story is one of them. After a frantic ten-minute search, I found the little folder with back-up versions and one of them had the missing scene!

Much rejoicing.

Now, I was curious. I did a bit more sleuthing and found another scene was missing! Guess where I found it? In the same backed-up file!

It may sound like I am bragging about my back-up skills, but in reality, I am just amazed this worked out. As soon as I knew my scene was missing, I had assumed it Lost Forever. More than once, I have written a school report only to have the computer crash and all my work lost. Finally, I learned the ctrl+S trick and life has become much more pleasant.

So here is my tip of the day: This very moment, pick your most favorite file (or most important file). Heck, pick all of them, and take some time for a little bit of back-up. Stick it on another computer, put it on a disk, email it to yourself, print it out. You just never know when you will be glad you did.

Now, back to counting pages.

The Little Red Hen

In the real world, the Little Red Hen does not eat the bread.

In the real world, the Little Red Hen ends up roasted and served on the table for supper.

There are times in life when one has to stop and realize they have become the Little Red Hen. Unlike the Little Red Hen, one cannot make a snap decision at the end of the story and say, "I have made my decision. I am putting my foot down. No bread for you." Once this point has been reached in the real world, the time required to lower a foot is exponentially higher than the amount of time it took to raise it.

My point: Don't be the Little Red Hen. But don't be the Duck either.

One of the best things about writing stories is never having to be the Little Red Hen.

I suppose there may be some authors out there who have wearied of writing for the masses and only write for themselves. They may consider themselves The Little Red Hens of the writing world. The late JD Salinger comes to mind. Anyway, this title assignment comes nowhere near something that could be applied to myself in this context, so I am going to go ahead and stick with my previous statement.

One of the best things about writing stories is never having to be the Little Red Hen.

If the Duck and the Marmot want bread, they know they will need to plant their own wheat. As for the Hen, she knows from the start the bread tastes better if you grow your own wheat, water your own wheat, chop your own wheat, grind your own wheat... random farming and cooking references related to wheat.... Bake your own bread.

Every now and then, you might need to stop by the neighbor's house to borrow a scythe or some other device to remove the occasional noxious weed that creeps into the mix, but that doesn't mean your neighbor is baking the bread for you. It might mean lending them your tiller if they need it.

And the whole way through the process, the best part is smelling your bread cooking. Even when the wheat it is still in the ground, you catch an occasional whiff in the air and it smells warm and buttery.

However, at times it can be difficult to keep this in mind. Especially when being measured for the roasting pan.

Writer's group

I have joined a writers group. A group of writers have allowed me to join their group. Whichever way you want to look at it.

Either way, last Saturday, I got to sit in a room full of writers and talk about books and writing and listen to other writers and hear about their group adventures and IT WAS SO EXCITING! As a friend of mine says when she is in a good mood, ILOVECAPSLOCKS!!!!!!!

At first, I was nervous about being a stranger asking to join a group of people who already know one another, but it was wonderful. Everyone was so interesting. There was tea. Did I mention there was book talk?

I can see why people rave about these things. Looking forward to the next meeting!

Avatar etiquette

There is that unspoken / spoken rule that Canadians, in general, are polite.

Too polite.

Excessively polite.

Embarrassingly polite.

What I should let you know is while Canadians are polite, they also have a high set of standards for politeness from others, especially amongst themselves. Here is an example of what I mean:

My husband and I went to Avatar. Now we want to be blue. Anyway...

Halfway through the show a man got up (we think he had to go to the washroom). He opened an exit door, but it was a door to the outside world.

HERE IS WHERE HE WENT WRONG:

He walked away without ensuring the door was shut. He walked across the front of the theatre and went out the actual exit.

MEANWHILE:

Sunlight was streaming into the theatre! While Avatar was playing! ARGHhhhh!

HERE IS WHAT I DID:

Step 1: I decided I would shut the door (Avatar was on. Who wouldn't be inspired to be a hero?). With my goggles still on. I almost fell down the stairs.

Step 2: I took my goggles off, ran down the stairs, across the theatre, shut the door, ran back across the theatre, up the stairs, across the aisle, sat down and put my goggles back on.

Here is my point: people who pay a small fortune to watch an amazing 3-D movie do not want that experience ruined someone with bad manners. Someone letting in the daylight (ahhh, I'm melting!). Especially in the middle of a battle scene.