With no offense meant to anyone...

If you want a good laugh, go here: http://www.palinaspresident.us
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If you need me, I'll be in TV LAND

Holy Procrastination Batman...

I got out of the writing routine during my sister's visit and am having a major hard time getting back in the saddle. Here I am, at my office (others call it the Library) and I'm blogging instead of progressing my word count.
Bad me.
Very bad me for circling a bunch of shows in the T.V. Guide that I want to catch this week. I feel so unproductive sitting in front of the idiot tube, but honestly, I've needed the escape!!
Caught that new Christian Slater pilot last night "My Own Worst Enemy" and I like it. I REALLY REALLY like it. Very cool premise, excellent acting (of course) and I'm afraid I just might be hooked.

Tuesday night is turning out to have quite the lineup: House, Eli Stone, Fringe and Mentalist. Thank goodness for time-shifting because three of them are on at the same time. And according to the 'regular Tuesday scheduling', so is My Own Worst Enemy, but I caught it on a local Canadian feed last night at midnight, right after the Mentalist. My sister -- who is back home now -- was pissed that I got to watch it a night early (neener neener neener!!)

And speaking of sister-dear, she had me watching The Unit, -- also a good program, but I'm not sure if I'll stick with that one. We'll see. It's a Sunday night thing and I don't know if I'm prepared to be stuck in front of the tv THREE nights running. ACK! I can feel my mind turning to mush and the mountain of TBR's growing to dizzying heights.
If everyone can please just stop writing/releasing books for a year or two so I can catch up, that be great. Thanks.
;)

And now YOU, fellow bloggers. What new shows or old shows coming back are you tuning in to?

Oh - one last message to Canadians: GO VOTE!!!!!!!!

RIP Owen Yee, 2004 - 2008

It's been a happy-sad week for me. Happy because I had a wonderful visit with my sister and brother-in-law. My sister is so amazing... soft and even-tempered to my dramatic shenanigans. And my bro-i-l (ha - BROIL -- love it) who ate all my cooking without complaint. That was a big job for him, believe me!!
It was difficult to say goodbye yesterday, so I avoided the airport scene and sent them off with my hubby.

Sad week as well as we bade farewell to little Owen Yee, who succumed to cancer at age four. It's been such a difficult journey for Owen's family, from the diagnosis a year and a half ago, a year of treatment, which they initially thought was successful, until the supposed final MRI this past May showed that the damn tumor came back. Poor child went through three brain surgeries, aggressive chemo, bone marrow transplant and radiation, but in the end, the horrible disease won.

I just returned home from the funeral and my hands are still shaking. My heart aches for his parents -- loosing their baby is surely worse than death itself.
For myself, looking at the small little box at the front of the church and knowing that my own four year old was at home watching Toopy and Binoo ... I was indescribably torn.

When I got home, my son, so astute for his age, wrapped is warm little arms around me and said "Did you say goodbye to Owen for me, Mommy?"

Tonight, as we sit down for our Thanksgiving meal, I know exactly what I'll be giving thanks for... For having the privilege of knowing a cheerful child whose soul will live on in those whom he touched.

Full House

My sister and bro-in-law are visiting from 'up north'. I LOVE it when they visit and not just because my sister keeps my kitchen sparkling clean and my early-rising b.i.l. has a Tim Horton's coffee waiting for me when I wake up... (though that's reason enough, trust.)

They're great company, fun to hang with and the kidlets luv 'em to pieces. It's all good.

We dragged them out with us for our Sunday hike. The leaves are finally beginning to shake loose so the walking paths were strewn with maples.

Speaking of maples:

This is my tree-hugging sister:

Sis and bro-in-law trying to contain my oldest son, who's decided he's too big for hugs, kisses or any adult-physical contact...

The kids with their Unc...

Oldest boy falling into the creek despite being told repeatedly not to put all his weight on one shaky branch. I even jokingly pulled out the camera and told him if he was going to fall in, I didn't want to waste a perfect picture opportunity. Of course, within 10 seconds, he toppled. I clicked about six photos of him going down, so when viewed in slide show, it's an impressive action montage :)

I should add, so you don't think me a callous mother, that the boy-child wasn't hurt and the creek water wasn't terribly cold :)

No fungus or tree growths this week (sorry, TL!!)

Thanks to my fellow writers who commented on my last post. Nice to see I'm not the only one with writerly ADD. One less thing to feel neurotic about :D

And no writing for me this week -- not while I've houseguests to hang with!

Probably no blogging, either, so I'll say adios until next week...

Shoulda

I should have been writing.
Should have been painting the bathroom.
Should have been getting the guestroom ready for my sister & brother-in-law's arrival tomorrow.
I SHOULD have been concentrating on the Canadian election debates!

But noooo...
This Canadian gal was GLUED to the American Vice Presidential debates last night. Overall, it was an excellent exchange with no major gaffes by either candidate. Sara Palin was not the train wreck that many expected, and I for one, was relieved. IMHO, I don't believe she should be in the position for VP, but I didn't want to see her humiliated (again) either.
Again, imho, Joe Biden, with his thirty-odd years of experience in the political game, was a clear winner. His familiarity with the issues and his comfort with the discussion gave me far more confidence than the woman who was primarily forced to defend the record of John McCain.
Opinions? I'd love to hear them, whether you agree with me or not ;)

A final note on writing... I've now passed the 25K mark on my latest WIP. The story is flowing at a pretty good pace (for me!), the momentum is still there and God willing, I may actually finish this one!! I mean, look at my sidebar. For heaven's sake, I can't seem to finish anything I start. Some for good reasons (I was over my head with the historical and the paranormal) and the others just got set aside because the muse INSISTED that I move on to *insert name of current wip here*.
My fellow writers - how do you deal with this?? How do you stay focused for so long on one project?

For the love of autumn

I LOVE AUTUMN!!!

...and not just for the Pumpkin Spice Lattes at Starbucks.

In my part of the world, we've had a gentle journey into fall. Up until this past weekend, we were still in shorts, the trees are still mostly green and the weather has been lovely. The Kinsons decided to take advantage of all the goodness and go for a hike.
And we needed to tear the kids away from the Wii :)

This one looks staged, don't you think? But this is how I found it, no kidding.

Sweetness and Light on the forest path.

We live in an area with primarily deciduous forest, but I grew up in an area that was a mix of deciduous and coniferous. They're both incredibly beautiful, though the conifers don't change color or drop leaves... instead they provide much needed greenery in the dead of winter.

My obsessions with 'growths on trees' continues.

And isn't this a neato plant?