In For a Penny, In For a Pound

So DH has been getting dirty and banged up, digging and making our new walls in our lower backyard. His vision formulated over many years is being played out in dirt, mud and paving stones. But if several carloads of stone can make a wall, what can palettes of stone do? I guess we'll find out.

Maybe we're actually building a castle wall instead of short walls .

Last night right after work, DH and I went to our local building supply store and ordered FIVE palettes of stone to be drop-shipped to our house on Tuesday or Thursday. That's 700 paving blocks. Of course, when they bring the palettes, all they'll do is leave them in the driveway. From that point, DH will have to wheelbarrow them down to the yard. He figures it will take 2-8 hours for him to move them with our rusty, decrepit wheelbarrow on a wooden brace that is semi-rotted out. (It's a really old wheelbarrow.) We've had a new wheelbarrow for a few years, but haven't assembled it yet. I assume eventually, (maybe after this shipment), we might break down and assemble it. Maybe. Or maybe not.

We have a new wheelbarrow, but it's been in
pieces in the garage for more than two years.
Maybe it's time to assemble it. 

In the meantime, I have 700 stone blocks being delivered next week, and the Olympics to watch. The calendar is progressing along, time is passing quickly and I have SO MUCH to do before September. This weekend is Irish Fair, an outdoor festival that we love going to. We're skipping it this year, even though The High Kings and Gaelic Storm will be playing and we love both groups. Next week Renaissance Festival starts. I won't miss opening weekend, although I don't mind missing a few times after that. We'll have to play it by ear.

Today's swim will be in the outdoor pool - an Olympic sized 50-meter pool. While watching the Olympic swimming events this past week, I'm just amazed at the speed the swimmers can put out swimming in a pool exactly like the one at my local YMCA. I'm nowhere close to that kind of speed. Nope - nowhere close. But it's a lot of fun being in the water every morning. Have a fun weekend, I'll be back on Monday.

Another Day, Another Week

We had a wonderful time at Irish Faire yesterday. We arrived about 10:30am, walking in and there was Chickie coming towards us, so I didn't even need to phone her and find out where she was. She shared the day with us.  We got our names written in Gaelic, they had to do Chickie's via phonetic spelling, DH was Seamus and my Sandra ends up being Tairngirin.  Who knew?  It's rather pretty sounding :-)  Parking was easy and only $5 (last year they had a shuttle system that also worked really well, but this year they suspended that). The attendance was high, as befit a beautiful summer day. I dressed knowing that I would be in the sun, and since I can't tolerate sunlight, (no, I'm not a vampire, just very sun sensitive) I had on my hat and wore my Kashmiri shawl from Shruti to help cover my arms and hands. It worked out well, I did get a small sunburn at my neckline, but that wasn't a problem. DH got a really weird sunburn down the back of one leg, I hope it comes through in the pic. Apparently he didn't get his sunscreen evenly applied - LOL.

The High Kings were great, as expected.  We had a nice patch of shade under a tree to watch them with.  We didn't get a great view, but we also didn't cook.  The hot weather without clouds was very hard on all of the performers.  We all indulged in shopping (only bought a hat for DH to help him with sun) and food with drink.  I had 1 Guinness, 2 Harps, 1 Black Current Iced Tea, 1 Root Beer Float, 1 Fish & Chips (oh so good!) and two Irish Whiskey Bar-b-qued Port sliders.  Perfect! Expensive, but perfect! We left about 6pm and returned home totally sated and happy.  Now...back to the grindstone - LOL.

Stumbling Steps on the Road

I have to thank so many of my friends for coming up with a variety of suggestions for my post from yesterday. I did download Dropbox and hope that may help me to keep things currect a bit easier, but there were also many excellent suggestions that I think I can incorporate into my own story recordkeeping. A bit of thought over the next few days and I'll have a system in place before I get much farther in my story.

 I'm running super late this morning, took time to catch up on some new chapters from some of my favorite authors instead of actually writing and taking care of my Emails. Shame on me. I'll be enjoying Irish Faire tomorrow, listening to bagpipes and The High Kings, looking at men in kilts, and lusting over Celtic harps. Happy weekend.

I Used to Have a Life

I used to have a life.  I remember it.  I would go out on weekends, I wouldn't be chained to the computer.  But over the past week I dove into the actual writing of my character Helyanwe's story, and it is obsessive.  By the time I went to sleep on Sunday, I had already written 12,090 words in this opus, and I'm barely into Section 1.  I am estimating, based on those numbers, that this opus will run at least 100,000 words.  But that could be vastly underestimating my run.  I have chapters in for crit right now, and eventually they will be posted in my usual places - my LJ page, as well as Silmarillion Writers Guild and Fairie. 

12090 / 100000 words. 12% done!


What remains of open time in my life, at least for the next several weeks, just ended yesterday also.  This coming weekend is Irish Faire, then Renaissance Fair starts for the seven weekends after that, and in between everything else is my BFF Sharon's annual visit (Yippee!!!) and the State Fair.  I won't have a Sunday off until after October 2nd!  By then we'll be through our summer and into the beginnings of our winter, something which in many places usually masquerades as autumn.  Oh well, no rest for the wicked, or the good either.  Play well today, children :-)

Time is Running Out

It's the end of July.  My BFF Sharon comes to visit on the 1st of September.  Sometime between now and then I have to get my house clean!  This has now become a HIGH PRIORITY ITEM and may push artwork into the background for a while (bummer).  I have the Tut Exhibit this Sunday, next Sunday is open, the Sunday following that (the 14th) is Irish Faire (listening to The High Kings - YIPPEE) and the Sunday after that is the beginning of Renaissance Faire which will take my Sundays until October 2nd.  Time????  What Time???? 

So, I'll have to devote several of my studio days, and probably some nights when I usually beta or work on my own writing to cleaning.  The bathroom needs to be scrubbed down totally.  I need to replace a leaking feed pipe to the toilet in Sharon's bathroom, and I need to clean the living room and finally finish cleaning up the den (which is a total mess from last year's flood - yes....I know....last year -sigh-).  But, this will have to become high priority because I refuse to let it go for much longer.  So....I pulled out of BFAC, I am not accepting text or illustration for the next Big Bang which would take place in the fall and have a February total due date, I didn't accept Ardor in August writing assignment and I may not accept Slashy Santa unless things really start to get cleaned up here.  So very frustrating to have to give up studio time, but it's the only time I have off by myself where I won't get interrupted. 

Now...off to my shower and then, to breakfast before I begin photography at the shop.  Or, maybe I'll write some more instead....hmmmmm......decisions, decisions :-)