Trip to California

Our Trip to California

California was wonderful. I'm tempted to move back. Getting there, however, was quite a trial.

We arrived at Little Rock airport about 5:45 am for our 6:55 am flight to Dallas/Ft. Worth. There had been severe storms all night long, but it seemed to have cleared by the time we got to the airport. However, it seems that there were still storms between Little Rock and Dallas, and we had to wait for our captain to reroute us around them. Then they found a mechanical problem in our plane. By this time the passengers for the second flight to Dallas had begun to arrive. When it became apparent we wouldn't make our connection in Dallas for San Jose, we called the airline and rebooked a later flight to San Jose. They started boarding the 8:30 flight, but brought them back when we were told that DFW was closed. So we rebooked again. We couldn't get a flight to San Jose until Friday morning, so we instead booked ourselves on a flight to San Francisco. (SFO had been our first choice when we were originally booking our flights; that itinerary would have been several hundred dollars more for the three of us.) Finally, at 12:05 pm we boarded our flight to DFW. They promised our luggage would also be rerouted to SFO (yeah, right).

The flight to DFW was fine. We had a nice lunch in the airport and waited for our flight to SFO. That flight was delayed about an hour and a half, but no big deal, we thought. The flight was fully booked (more than 70 passengers on the stand-by list by the time we boarded), and we were seated separately. I slept most of the way to SFO.

Our luggage did not make it to San Francisco. It was in San Jose. Our pre-paid rental car was in San Jose.

The luggage office at San Jose would close at 11 pm. The next Airporter bus to San Jose left at 10 pm. It was a 45 minute trip.

We got to San Jose just in time to rescue our luggage. The rental car office would be open until midnight, and we managed to get there just before they closed.

When we left San Jose for Santa Rosa it was a good 12 hours after we were originally scheduled to arrive in San Jose.

The weekend was wonderful. The wine tasting, rehersal dinner and the wedding all were phenomenal, and we had a chance to get to know Ken's family better. We visited Jack London State Park (which encompasses his ranch and the home where he and his wife lived) and Coit Tower. We drove around San Francisco before a superb dinner at Alioto's (thank you, Natalie!) and heading back to San Jose. Our flights home were on time and uneventful. The photo on the left is the Golden Gate from Land's End; the one on the right is the Bay Bridge and Ferry Building from Coit Tower.

What I'm Reading
Grave Peril by Jim Butcher (#3 Dresden Files)

What I'm Knitting
Prototype stole with Red Heart Super Saver.
Skirt with Takhi Torino (for Mom).

Where I'm Going
Arkansas Writers Conference, first weekend in June, in Little Rock.

Vacation's over; back to work tonight.

A Little of This, a Little of That

We're off to California this week to see my nephew Casey married. We'll have four days in the California Wine Country/Russian River area.

Now for a writing concern...

There seems to be some confusion among writing conference presenters (not singling out anyone specific) regarding active/passive voice and transitive/intransitive verbs. The opposite of an active (action?) verb is not a passive verb.

Voice has to do with where the action of the verb is directed. An active sentence is John hit the ball. A passive sentence is The ball was hit by John.

Verbs are either transitive or intransitive. Transitive means action. Both the sentences above use transitive verbs. Intransitive refers to verbs of being. Mary enjoyed the ball game. This sentence is in active voice, but uses an intransitive verb.

I just grit my teeth at conferences when presenters say, "Use action verbs, not passive ones." That's like saying "Eat Granny Smith apples, not Valencia oranges."

There's my ranting for the day/week/month...

Apologies for the dearth of posts. I've been very busy with Spinetinglers work, and working nights still gets everything topsy-turvey. Of course, if I were working full time days, I'd have just as little time and energy for other activities.

Interesting news

One of the books I edited for Spinetingler's last summer, The Second Tour, has been chosen as a text for Sociology classes at the United States Air Force Academy this coming semester. Wow!

I'm gimping around these days -- a severe (worst I've ever had) leg cramp (doctor called it a muscle spasm) resulted in a torn muscle in my calf. I spent all weekend on muscle relaxants, but it'll be a while before the tear heals. I love it -- 8 years in martial arts with no major injuries, but a leg cramp while watching TV puts me on a cane for the foreseeable future. So much for my plans to add a new exercise routine to my weight loss program.

Speaking of weight loss, I didn't gain nearly as much as I expected to over the holidays. That's no excuse, I know, but still, not gaining is still a good thing. I intend to get back onto my Weight Watchers program, hoping to lose another 50 or so pounds this year. Then again, not regaining the weight would be ok. (I don't want to sabotage myself by setting unreachable goals.)

The brochure for the Arkansas Writers Conference came last week, with the prompts for their contests. Once my head is clear (muscle relaxants do that) I'll see about entering one or some of them. I will be attending, needless to say.

Another New Year

Well, so much for blogging more frequently last year. I sort of dropped off the face of the internet it seems since June.

But now it's a new year and a good time to start things afresh. Encouragement about regular (at least weekly) blogging wouldn't hurt, if only to know someone out there is reading.

For now, let me send best wishes for a joyous holiday season (no matter which group of winter holidays you observe) and a healthy and prosperous 2009.

Hope to hear from you (I know you're out there, though I can't hear you breathing).

Thanks for your comment, Heather!

Yes, some time ago I joined a writers group based in Conway. I enjoyed the meetings and the members, but they weren't comfortable with the explicit nature of some (most) of my work -- and I read them one of the tamer stories, skipping the really explicit parts. Since I didn't have anything much less explicit, I quite going to meetings. I didn't have the heart to tell them that one member's weekly Sunday school lesson (which she read as her work of the week) offended me about as much as my steamy romance offended them. Oh well.

Not being a morning person by nature, I haven't made the attempt to join the FWCA (Fiction Writers of Central Arkansas for non-Arkansan readers). Now, with gas prices so high, I'm not likely to. I do, however, attend both the Arkansas Writers Conference in June and the White County Creative Writers Conference on Labor Day weekend.

The Little Rock Science Fiction Society (LRSFS) is putting together a writers group that will meet sometimes in person and sometimes on-line. If your work is at all speculative, this might be the group for you. LRSFS meets the 1st and 3rd Saturdays at Barnes & Noble -- on Chenal the 1st, McCain (North Little Rock) the 3rd. The website is www.lrsfs.org.

I'm a member of several on-line writers groups, most very specific as to topic, and to Writing.com. I've made some wonderful friends on those lists, some of whom I've actually met!

Yes, I'm still here

I know I haven't been posting regularly -- or at all for the past few months. Working nights and sleeping days works well for me, but since I share an internet connection with everyone else in the house (up to 5 of us, depending on who's home), my time on line isn't necessarily my creative time.

To catch y'all up (I presume someone's reading this from time to time):

When I went to work at Wal-Mart last October, I weighed 267 pounds. That's not something I'd admit to anyone besides my doctor, but in just getting off my butt and working 32 hours a week I started losing weight. By the beginning of March I was down to 244, and had stopped losing spontaneously. Inspired by a story on NBC's Today Show -- one of their Joy Fit Club stories -- I logged onto WeightWatchers.com and signed up. I had successfully lost weight (many years ago, before baby #3) with Weight Watchers, and I knew I could do it.

This week I weighed in at 218.

I've lost nearly 50 pounds (total) and have only 80 more to go!

More news:

Jeanie has graduated from NYU and come home for a while; James has finished his freshman year at Subiaco Academy. His quiz bowl team won their regional title, and was featured on our PBS station (AETN) for the state finals in their division. Though James (the only freshman on the team) didn't play, they were all introduced. They took second place -- a very good finish for such a small school. (In Arkansas, private schools "play up" a division in all competitons, so they were playing public schools a level larger than they.)

I just started a new position with Wal-Mart -- I now work in the accounting office 2 days of my 4 day-a-week schedule. It's a raise of 4 pay grades, and I love the work. maybe eventually I'll be able to work more in the office and less on the sales floor.

This weekend is the Arkansas Writers Conference, and I'll be there both days (though I don't know how long I'll be able to stay awake on Friday, coming off working all night). It's also the weekend for the Texas Scottish Festival at UT-Arlington, and Mom and Jeanie are off to spend three days with Men in Kilts.

I recently edited an anthology of horror stories for Spinetinglers. The book will be available 6 June 2008 from http://www.spinetinglers.co.uk/. I hope to edit more stories and books for them as they ramp up their fledgling publishing company.

That's about all for now -- I'll try to post more frequently -- at least keep y'all up on my weight loss. Coming up is my mother's 80th birthday, hubby's birthday, and our anniversary. June is such a busy month!

(Belated) Happy New Year!

No, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, but the holidays (and working in retail, the holidays start in October) took all my time and energy.

Family

We had a wonderful Yuletide -- not quite all the family (niece Natalie, her husband and son couldn't join us) got together at my sister's home for a couple days of celebrating and way too much food. Now everyone has gone home, back to school, or off to see in-laws, leaving Hubbie and me alone. Don't get any romantic notions -- remember, I work nights and tax season has started, so Hubbie's working a second job until mid-April.

Music Question

While listening to "Music of the Night" (from Phantom of the Opera) on my new MP3 player (thank you, Santa), it occured to me that if one didn't know the story of Phantom, one just might think the song was sung by a Vampire. Any comments?

Paul Potts

I was listening to the CD from the British talent show winner (like American Idol), Paul Potts. He's totally untrained, but a superb tenor -- the first time I heard him sing "Nessum Dorma" I was in tears. He outdoes Michael Crawford on "Music of the Night" with a stronger low register and clearer high notes. I hope to see/hear many more recordings from Potts.

New Years Resolutions

I have two main resolutions this year (no, one of them is not losing weight; that's a given): One, to get my house in shape (clean is the operative word), including remodeling the kitchen; and Two, to get back to writing. Having my own computer again will help that (sharing computers in this family is a lose-lose situation). Now I just have to figure out how to get my old files off a dead computer (power supply input is damaged, and the battery is run down, but the hard drive should be OK). Part of the writing resolution includes blogging more frequently. It would be nice, too, to have some comments from time to time (hint, hint).