18 Degrees

Nephew #1 would be in shock. He posted a note on his blog the other day that he woke up cold - it was 72 degrees in Hawaii that morning. Aw, poor baby. (Excuse the dripping sarcasm.) It's what you're used to, I guess. To me, 18 degrees when the kids head out for school is practically shirt-sleeve weather. My friends and family from up North know what I'm talking about. But yeah, down here, and maybe even for Big Brother Brett out in sunny CA, 18 degrees is darn cold!!

Major progress. My desk still looks like a paper storm hit, but the good news is I printed myself copies of both manuscripts and have been working furiously and steadily on read-throughs and edits. By Wednesday of this week, we should have a synopsis in place for the first book (the WIP you got so tired of hearing about over the past several months). The second book (the NaNoWriMo 50,000 words of junk that has turned into a pretty golly-darn good story) is shaping up nicely as well.

So that's my update as far as the writing stuff. On the family side, The Tall One and her teammates managed to fairly soundly defeat their intra-county rivals Friday night. I heard lots of compliments on my child's play, and at the risk of boasting she did play a great game. The best I've seen her play? Maybe not - and in my defense, she didn't think so, either - but still there was something a little different about her and it was noticeable to everyone else, apparently. The WGH says I didn't see it because I watch her play all the time. Maybe - all these other parents watch her play the same games I do. Regardless, it was a fun night, victories for both the girls' and boys' teams, and we're 1-0 in district play, 5-1 overall on the girls' side. I'd say that's a fair start to the season.

My primary goal this week is to post something every day - the ulterior motive being that I not be subjected to the barrage of emails I get from my dear, sweet, thoughtful friends who miss me when I don't. ;) You guys are too much, and I love you for it. The secondary goal is to actually write something worth reading. Topic ideas and questions for me to answer are more than welcome.

I'll definitely be waxing both poetic and nostalgic this month, looking back over the last year and all the things that have happened ... and gearing up for 2007, which will be here (and probably gone again) before we know it.

In the meantime, read a book!

=) JB

"Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well."
-- Voltaire (French Philosopher and Author, 1694-1778)