awesome Dr Hawass

for those who know me, you know I am a history geek and I love interesting historians and the like. here is another of my faves. this is  Dr. Zahi Hawass. he is a brilliant archeologist/ Indiana Jones/ legend kind of guy. he's also known as the Pharoah. kind of not a touchy feely guy. he runs his digs like a king. I have been eating up the Chasing Mummies series on history channel. I would so love to meet him but I would hate hate hate to piss him off. he's like the Einstein of Egyptology. so cool.
check out his website DrHawass.com and be like me and become a fan.

the T in T shirt

look at this. Timmy in his tighty whitey drawers just looking Timalicious. I know I shouldn't say that but this kid is just the deal. and that is why they have him selling undies. cause chicks will buy them for their guys. anyway, I'm still sick. I woke up today after taking nyquil. that stuff is unbelievable. I slept for like 14 hours. it was the best sleep ever. although I had weird dreams. I wish I could take advantage of this time to write but unfortunately my head is cloudy and I can't come up with sentences that make sense so I'll just have to wait.

conflict is confusing

I think I've posted this pic before but I'm in the mood for it so it's dealers choice. I've been working diligently on my wip and have filled in a few more plot holes. I am going to have to ask Maddy's daddy about some police procedure and investigation info to make it more realistic but I'll get to that later.I've also got to find some more conflict. I've got loads of internal conflict(like my life) but I don't know if I need some external conflict as well. and I don't know if the romance is enough. I'm stuck by the plot detail of my mc is dating a vice detective who is investigating a case somewhat related to her side business so she is constantly worrying about him catching her. she has the internal conflict of hiding what she's doing from him and not being honest with him but is that enough. it's not like she has conflict over what she's doing. she's conflicted about what would happen if she got caught. but that's it.
conflicts are tough to map out. I'd rather write a book about the fun and adventures of what she's doing but unfortunately there must be conflict.

meet me at the saltbox house in my mind

OMG look at this. isn't this perfect?! it's huge, has two fireplaces, has property and is such a perfect little salt box reproduction. I love saltbox houses!!! problem is it's not here. but as hot as it's been I would consider relocating. starting the day out at like 90 degrees with 90% humidity is getting old. by noon  it's hovering around the high nineties and is unbearable for doing anything outside. this sucks. when I was a kid, it wasn't a problem but now I am starting to seriously dislike it. I could use the indoor time to write and I should but today I didn't. instead I found this gem and fell in love. I will make it be my perfect little place to visualize when I am in a bad mood.
thanks to all the great birthday comments and wishes! y'all are wonderful. my annual depression is gone and replaced by the customary optimism that usually follows. no sense dwelling. onward and upward.

oh snap, my crappy birthday

well kids, it's official. it's the 17th and I'm officially one frigging year older. and I hate it. not that I am older. once I hit 30 it all went down hill but I hate how nothing really has gone off the way I intended.
it's been a bloody depressing week for me and all related to another year going by and feeling like a major fuck up. I never feel this way at new years only at my birthday. for some reason it makes me take inventory of all the things in my life that never turned out the way I wanted. which is bad because if I don't get it together I am going to be off on Maslows hierarchy of needs. 
I'm writing this on the 16th after finishing my last bottle of Two Paddock Picnic Pinot from mad sexy Sam's vineyard and hopefully tomorrow after a day at my thankless job I will be okay for another year. maybe when I wake up I will be in L'occitane with limitless spending privileges. or tiffany & co.
anyway happy birthday to the members of the 7/17 club. you other three how I know share my b-day rock!

my Bettie!my hero!

isn't she awesome? I love her. she was so beautiful and such a beautiful spirit. I love the fact that she lives on and is still so imitated. she was an original. sigh. I'm in a very Bettie mood. I just watched the Notorious Bettie Page. love love love! sometimes I wish I could channel her in my everyday life. to have her style and spirit. maybe in my next life!

me and etsy are NOT good for each other

so last night over an hour of my time was sucked away by etsy. these are just a few of the things I fell in love with. one of the items, a lovely necklace like the one above, sold. curses! but I love etsy. there are so many wonderful finds on there. I buy from the artists on there all the time. I have found beautiful jewelry, hilarious shirts and that awesome leopard coat that I wrote about earlier in the year. I can't wait for cool weather to bust that baby out.
etsy is like a vampire for me. a magnificent vampire that sucks my time and money and in return gives me treasures like those above.
the items above are the dancing pearls necklace from fleurdelune jewelry (sigh), victorian lady vampire top hat from newoleansmagpie and the boots are vintage black granny boots from pistol poppy.
everyone should visit these amazing sellers and their treasures. and don't forget to comment on my blog birthday post to be entered in my birthday giveaway!

Timmy would know!!!Timmy is MADE OF AWESOME!

I just had to post this because well, you know how I feel about Tim Tebow. Look at him. I just LOOOOOOVE him. he is on the cover of Madden '11 NCAA and I'm buying it. of course that means I'll have to buy a ps3 too but that's okay.
anyway, this is the easiest decision I've made today. right now I'm wrestling with some serious decisions re: LIM. I'm leaning toward giving up on it. it might be temporary but it might not. I think I've written a book that doesn't really fit anywhere. it's good but not  easily categorized. if I do, it will be disheartening but not the end of the world. I'm kind of used to events like that so I'll be able to deal. FUNdraiser will probably be an easier sale anyway. I've gotten some super advice but this is the direction I'm leaning / <--get it?
I wish I could channel Timmy. he makes awesome decisions. he decided to play harder than any other player and then he won the national championship.

happy birthday blog! and a giveaway!!!

okay so it's not a birthday cake per se but it's a frigging sweet cake! zombie hello kitty. and it's still cool even though zombies scare me.
I missed my own blog's birthday. LOL. for some reason I thought it was more toward the middle of the month but apparently it was the 8th. So in honor (belated of course) I am having a giveaway!!!
I'm giving away a 25 dollar iTunes gift card to one lucky blog follower as a thank you for following me! Just leave me a comment and be a follower and you will be entered.
I really am blessed by my awesome followers! thank y'all for everything!!

meanwhile...stuck at home

isn't that lovely? I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE old (17th to early 18th c.) gravestones. I have a book about them and I have just about worn it out because I am constantly looking through it. I love the primitive art and decoration of them and the symbology of the motifs. sigh. one day I am going to the north east and making my own gravestone rubbings of these treasures so I can frame them and display them. I'm drawn to this angel in particular. don't know why but I am.
last night I must have looked through databases of old gravestones for hours. I am coming down with a dreaded summer cold and am kind of stuck at home. 2 of my friends are at conventions and loving them so I am sending happy karma their way. each deserves the awesome time they are having. hearing their stories made me want to go to dragon con again but alas it is the weekend of the triathlon in september and since I am registered, I am committed to swim, bike and run. which will be equally awesome but in a different way.

Kiwis and chalk at the gym

I had a blog visitor from New Zealand!!!the magical land where I want to run away to and live. In my Samolicious fantasy mind I wish it was Mr Central Otago Winemaker himself but sigh it probably was just a  fun kiwi blog surfer. I hope my friend comes back! I heart NZ!
Happy Birthday Cori! one day late. I love you!!
now that all my randomness is out of the way...or is it? if you don't hang around very often, you might not know I am training for a triathlon. it's a sprint distance so you can tone your laughing down some. it's in september but it has been kind of funny so far. when people hear I'm doing this, first they look at me like "you're joking, right?" then they look me over head to foot. LOL. I think that's funny. underneath this insulating layer of pudge are some awesome muscles. anyway, yesterday while doing my bike workout, I looked around the gym and discovered that I was the palest person in the joint. by a long shot. I'm talking I looked like chalk compared to these people. so then I thought I'd share my pale weirdness with my friend  Suzannah and sent her a text message. however it went astray to someone else. lol. then I resent it and it made it's way to the right person. I'm still trying to talk her into doing the tri with me but so far nothing. oh well. yesterday I rode about 14 miles in 50 minutes which isn't bad. thank goodness for my ipod. I was fading fast until planet rock and the spice girls came on.
p.s. the person who got the stray text message thought it was funny and had a very helpful suggestion.

this post is brought to you by the letter E...for eccentric

this apparently has something to do with geometry and ellipses but I want nothing to do with geometry so I am just taking it for face value. I enjoy eccentric people. I consider myself to be one. although sometimes I have to rein it in because in our small town if you are eccentric you get socially shunned. meh. I wouldn't care but since I fear for my child's social acceptance I play along. most of the time.  like I said, I enjoy eccentrics. usually they are the most creative and interesting people. Issac Newton was known to be an eccentric. so was albert einstein. go eccentrics.
one of the characters in my WIP is an eccentric. she's quickly becoming my favorite. I identify with her. I'm going to have to be careful not to like her enough to let her take over the story. she dresses fun, has a lot of snappy sayings and really is just her own person despite social dictates. maybe she is me. who knows?
so I'll just run along now. by the way, I'm wearing shortalls with an orange tank top. I also have my purple hair extensions in. hey, I'm at home and free to be me.

what do you do...Pentagon City edition

this is a picture of pentagon city in arlington. the mall is in the background. what does this have to do with anything you ask? well, I'll tell you and thanks for asking. but I'm irritated right now. big time. so I am looking for things that put me in a nicer state of mind. this is the mall across from the apartment that numero uno lived in. I associate it with happy memories i.e. my first trip ever to D.C and to visit him. we had a bunch of fun that week. and in retrospect I realize what awesome powers I had back then. I suppose you could file this under the think happy thoughts category. I'm pushing out my bad feelings and replacing them with this. if I concentrate, I can smell body shop banana shampoo and smell campfire smoke from mt. vernon. memories of good times with mr on a pedestal numero uno. (I know I said I wasn't posting any more about him but memories of him are like ativan) cosmic good thoughts to him and his family.
I feel extra guilty for being irritated on H.H. The Dalai Lama's 75th birthday. it's probably more bad karma for me on top of the bad karma for smashing a HUGE ASS spider with a broom this morning. it's compounded by the fact that we had coexisted peacefully because I walked right past it 4 times. I didn't have my glasses on so I thought it was either a hairball or something Maddy drew. but when it crawled I panicked.so the wheel turns and I owe more.
but back to my original thoughts...what do you do when you are having bad thoughts or a bad day that's escalating irrationally? just curious.

flag waving bears!

Happy 4th everyone. I hope everyone enjoyed food, festivities and fireworks but took a moment to remember what today is all about.
spent the day cooking and letting my mind wander, which is a good thing. cleared out some things that had been bothering me and recommitted to the triathlon in september. spending time resting was not doing me any good. so back to the gym I'll go tomorrow. also was able to think some more about my WIP. more plot holes got plugged up. it's funny to me how ideas come at odd times.usually they are times that I don't have a way to write them down. amazingly enough I managed to remember what I thought of. now if they work remains to be seen. like I said, since this isn't paranormal it's proving to be a challenge. I wish I could throw in a vampire or at least a ghost. but I guess you can't do that in real life. also I came up with another idea but it will have to germinate a bit more. it might only be suitable for a short story, which I have never written.

a kiss is just a kiss...or is it.

I love this pic. The nurse in the pic passed away recently but the legacy of this picture will live on. I've been giving a lot of thoughts to kisses in novels. there are so many different types of kisses. social kisses, air kisses, grandma kisses, first kisses(those ROCK) and so on. kisses are important. they convey so much and to me they are the closest and most intimate form of contact. it seems like all of your senses are funneled into that one act. you even close your eyes to experience it. I wonder where that came from. and the first time your lips meet your intended, you brain goes wild and showers of sparks begin. they can also be deal breakers. if you get a bad kisser you are in big trouble. i.e too wet, too stiff, tonsil swabbers and the list goes on. lots of times in novels kisses are severely neglected.and they can add so much to the depth of a character. think about it... weren't your opinions of a date shaped by their kissing ability? I went back and paid special attention to first kisses in Life in Moonlight. I mean, kisses are important. even to vampires.

you'd think

I am not able to settle my mind enough to write. I am flush with opportunities but I really haven't written squat. part of the problem is whenever my daughter is gone, I am out of sorts. I need to channel all that free energy into writing but so far I haven't been very successful. the foil hat is looking pretty good. does anyone have any good ideas or tricks on how to focus your energy. I'm open for suggestions!