Vote for Me!!!

I have finished my story! I submitted it to the First Chapters competition, and you can view it, and more importantly, vote on it, here.

Go now! Vote now! Woo-hoo!

And, pass the word on to EVERYBODY YOU KNOW.

The End. (It felt so good to type those words.)

Stranger Than Fiction

So, as if it wasn't weird enough that it happened once, Bob ended up under the house again. But this time, we DO NOT KNOW how he got there. This time there was no access hole for him to easily crawl into. We think he *may* have gotten outside and *somehow* found a way to get under the house, but then why couldn't he get out that way? We really just don't know how he did it. Do you know how strange it feels to walk around your house, calling for the cat, and you can hear him meowing, but you CAN'T FIND HIM? And then you think, "surely he's not under the house again; it's just not possible!" Maybe we should take him on the road--Bob the Disappearing Cat.

Also, did you see the movie Stranger Than Fiction? Great movie. I think I may have to add it to my favorites list. Not sure yet, I've only seen it once, but I really, really liked it.

And for even more on the subject of fiction, more story will be published on the NaNo blog today...

More of the Same

Same being this. I thought I could link the word "Same" in the title, and it turns out I can't. Or I don't know how to, which amounts to the same thing.

Chloe brought this paper home a few days ago.

Translation:

Who are you?: I am a beautiful princess.
What do you do?: I lay in a bed waiting for my prince.
Where are you?: I am in a high tower.
How? Because a mean queen put me in the high tower.
Why? Because the queen does not like me.

What's funny (other than the paper) is that I was looking for the "same" blog several days ago, when I first started this post, but couldn't find it. Then today, I was looking at several archived blogs (mainly Brooke & Adam's, and then mine), and then I just kept reading my old blogs. (You know what? I like me. I think I'm pretty funny sometimes, and I can be a good writer sometimes.) In any case, I stumbled across the "same" blog, so I figured I'd finally post this blog.

And in totally unrelated news, the cats disappeared for a few hours yesterday. We're midway through remodeling our living/dining room, and several things were going on that could have led to the disappearance of the cats--there was a lot of loud noise, and the front door was open. But what turned out to have happened was this: As part of the remodel, we're refinishing the hardwood floors in the room. There was an old, ugly, non-working floor heater with a great, ruddy vent (sorry, watched Harry Potter recently) right in the middle of the floor, so we had it removed and patched/laced the floor where the hole was. To remove the floor heater, Henry (our contractor) had to go under the house. The access is in our bedroom, under our tall armoire. Henry and his worker moved the armoire, Henry went under the house, removed the heater, and came back out. All was well. Several hours later, however (after everyone was gone and the kids had all gone to bed), I looked at Aaron and asked if he'd seen the cats. I'd heard someone meowing not 30 minutes earlier, but thought nothing of it. I looked over the whole house three times, went outside 10 or 12 times and called "kitty, kitty, kitty", but we could not find the cats. Then, it came to me--what if they had gone under the house? It turns out that, yes, they had. We moved the armoire and pulled up the floor and called and called and called, and after several minutes, Bob showed up. We still couldn't find Molly, so Aaron went under the house (only because he didn't want it to stink if she died under there), and after a few minutes of him crawling around, alternately calling and cursing her, Molly suddenly appeared right under the hole, purring like all get out. Those poor, stupid cats had been under the house for about 6 hours at that point. (Angie, keep your cat comments to yourself.)

And, most importantly, the reason I began looking at archived blog posts today is that March 10th is the one year anniversary of the day baby Zach was born and died. Has it really been one year? I've tried for several minutes to express what I'm feeling today, and I just can't. Sadness, hurt, grief, hope, fear, love, excitement. There's a lot to think about, but today, we remember. We remember Zach. Baby love, we miss you.

The end of the drought

I have posted to my NaNo site.

Please don't kick me.

If you want an invite, let me know.