Yours truly is the new webDIVA of the RWA Chick Lit chapter website.

I’m so thrilled! And while all the things I’ll be doing for the website are more inner workings, I’m in charge of the updating! Woohoo!!

Color me thrilled! I’m thinking that’s a great shade of red?

In other news, I’ve just finished judging and being a coordinator for the Beau Monde’s Royal Ascot contest. I read some really amazing work and am thrilled that I didn’t mess things up royally (as a coordinator).

Pop over to the portfolio and you’ll see some new additions.

Ok, there is your 5 second update on all things dealing with me!

Have a great Summer!

Here is what you’ll get:
A complete wordpress website design and set-up from Haven Rich Web Designs. This package includes installation of wordpress (if required), custom design and set-up on your host. This package is valued at $750 plus a $50 wordpress installation.

And right now it’s going for only $2. TWO WHOLE BUCKS!!

Check it out and BID!!

Today however, I blame the cats for a whole other reason. In one of their energy bursts they knocked over the trash under my desk, where I also had like 10 pairs of shoes hiding. No longer! Nope, today I had a domino effect blow over me and I can only say it’s the cats fault! They knocked over the trash, which meant I had to clean it up. That lead to me having to get Starburst wrappers out of my shoes. Umm, to prevent this happening again, I put the shoes where they belonged…ah, not under my desk.

And because I was picking up the trash and thought it best to go ahead and take it out,  I figured I’d clean off my desk and get all the trash off of there too. So now my desk is all pretty, clean and *cough* organized. It feels so empty! But this didn’t end the surge of energy.  When you take the trash out you must replace the old bag, unless your my husband and then you wait for someone else to do it. Off to the kitchen for a new trash sack. Look, dirty dishes. Why not go ahead and clean them while I’m grabbing a bag…hmmm. Ok dishes are DONE! I don’t normally toss them into the dishwasher until around 3, but hey, a bit early never hurts.

I then walk back into the office, of course forgetting my trash sack. Retreaving it, I also grabbed a tea from the fridge and sat down. The offending cat jumped on to my now clean desk and meowed at me! It was as if he was telling me that all my movement was putting him off! Perhaps disrupting his nap time or some such thing. The nerve of the fuzzy brat!

So in my defense of todays unexpected cleaning splurge, I blame the cats! And now, I’m exhausted. Blasted critters!

Instead, I’m going to blog about dang ole’ weather. Yesterday had me quaking in my house slippers. Because you know, authors live in their pjs and slippers. BTW, I should be queen of that rule!  Checking the mail,  no really the postal kind that you have to go outside to get (should I mention in my pjs cause I’m lazy like that?). It had begun to sprinkle when I came in from my bit of exercise for the day I sat down ready to Challenge at Romance Divas. I knew it was going to rain, the clouds were heavy and gray, the smell was in the air and all that normal “it’s going to rain today” stuff. Anyhow, I’m happily moving along in the Challenges when only a few of us were left in the room. By now the weather had gone from a light sprinkle to “Oh my frigging gawds was that a cow!”

It was then I decided it’d be a good idea to check weather.com because lets be truthful, I’m in the south and we’re kinda known for twisters. Low and behold, we’re under a WATCH! Not a warning, where the chances of a tornado are like slim, oh no, a WATCH! Barely having typed this information into the chat and hitting enter I hear a loud BOOM. My world goes dark! Suddenly my heart picks up it’s lazy pace and goes for a marathon.

Would now be a good time to mention I have a huge fear of being home alone, stranded if you will, while the weather is bad? I mean, I can handle raining, high winds and stuff. But come on… there is like no where to hide in this house if a twister comes and we don’t have a storm cellar.

So, being a night owl and have mastered walking in the dark I know exactly where a lighter is and get two candles burning. Then I wander through the house and manage to find an old desk phone. Yeah, they still make the kinds that have to be plugged into the wall and have cords. I know, I was shocked too! Anyhow, I get it hooked up and call my hubby. Guess what he says? “Oh we’re under a tornado watch!” My thoughts: No, really? Grrr!!

A bit nervous, I ask where I should hide. Yeah know, just in case. He offers his recommendations, which totally goes against everything I didn’t pay attention to during those drills in school. I hang up and glance out the window. Golf ball size hail. Nice! The rain begins again only this time it’s doing a lovely circle pattern, whipping around in all sorts of directions. Care to guess what my fragile nerves are thinking?

Oddly enough, my cat Phoebe, who would rather be left alone unless she needs food, decides she wants to be all up in my lap. I hold her and she’s nuzzling against me as if it’s her dying wish to love of me. Now I’ve heard cats have a knack for predicting really bad weather. I tuck this thought away hoping it won’t freak me out more. That didn’t fly!

Some more pacing about my office, rethinking the advice my husband gave me, I decide to give up on being stressed out and lay down. After all, I’ve been really sick and had been thinking of taking a nap anyhow. Laying there, I can hear every little sound outside magnified by 100! Finally I manage to fall asleep.

Several hours later the sudden shock of blinding lights coming on wake me up. I squint to focus at the alarm clock, 5:46pm. Damn! The power went out long enough to annoy the crap out of me but not long enough where I didn’t have to actually cook dinner. I pull myself out of my comfy spot under the blankets and then try to reconnect my laptop to the internet so I might access the damage. *Smacks head* Duh, I unplugged the phone cord from the router so I could use a standard phone. Get it all hooked back up and my mother-in-law calls. I hear: “Blah blah blah, two tornadoes…” What? You mean there were two? Holy crackers!!

Searching the net and the news stations I’ve seen no proof or reports of these two tornadoes but hey, she did say a cop told her about it. Jury is still out on if I believe it.

And that was how I spent yesterday. Nice right?

Oh and for those interested, weather.com says it’s suppose to rain for several more days. Lovely!

I’ve no doubt that it shall recover, but now that it has been removed, I wonder what Sabbath and Phoebe will take over next. They’ve already decided that my office chair is theirs for the taking as soon as I stand up and step away. They insist on typing in cat, which equals random numbers in strange patterns and sometimes locking the F7 button. And despite my constant protest, they’ve decided that my glasses make for a great toy to bat around the house while I’m sleeping.

Now you might ask why these fuzzy hellions of mine still breathing, but I must admit, they are oh so darn cute! But let me say, I do have a line.  If crossed, it will result in severe punishment. Perhaps even banishment from the office kingdom.

My books! They haven’t noticed my huge collection of books that sit in what is better known as the library (aka an open closet with tons of shelves). Maybe it’s only a matter of time, or maybe they know if they step over this one boundary that they’re paws are mine!

For now, I shall keep taking their latest treasures and putting them in safer places.

What do you hide from your slaves or other fuzzy masters? Fuzzy masters could possibly include the spouse, but I wouldn’t tell them that if I were you.

I’m thinking it’s pretty awesome myself, but then I designed it so of course I’d say so.

Please don’t mind the other parts…umm they aren’t done yet. I’m working on it though.

1. Link to the person who tagged you;
2. Leave a comment on their blog so that their readers can visit yours;
3. Post the rules on your blog;
4. Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog;
5. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post;
6. Include links to their blogs;
7. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Yeah ok..thinking…

1. My favorite color is purple, but I’m sure you can guess that, so I’ll also mention that my favorite non-purple color is burgundy.
2. I lost my two front teeth by hitting the first steps on a bus I was getting on. Ouch!
3. I’m addicted to White Tea with Raspberry! Yum!
4. I know how to sew but don’t know how to cross stitch.
5. My favorite gemstone is a sapphire. Not my birth stone but man do I love it!
6. Painting is a favorite past time, but I firmly think I suck at it. Seriously!
7. I don’t like milk chocolate! I do like white chocolate though.

I’m not going to tag anyone, mostly because it would require too much thought right now and I’m brain dead! Perhaps next time! Oh and warn me!

2. Go to wardrobe and collect bag in which present is contained, and close door.

3. Open door and remove cat from wardrobe.

4. Go to cupboard and retrieve rolls of wrapping paper.

5. Go back and remove cat from cupboard.

6. Go to drawer and collect transparent sticky tape, ribbons, scissors, labels, etc.

7. Lay out present and wrapping materials on table, to enable wrapping strategy to be formed.

8. Go back to drawer to get string, remove cat that has been in the drawer since last visit, and collect string.

9. Remove present from bag.

10. Remove cat from bag.

11. Open box to check present, remove cat from box, replace present.

12. Lay out paper to enable cutting to size.

13. Cut the paper to size, trying to keep the cutting line straight.

14. Throw away first sheet because cat tried to chase the scissors and tore paper.

15. Cut second sheet of paper to size by putting cat in the bag the present came out of.

16. Place present on cut-to-size paper.

17. Lift up edges of paper to seal in present, wonder why edges now don’t reach, and find cat between present and paper. Remove cat and retry.

18. Place object on paper, to hold in place, while cutting transparent sticky tape.

19. Spend next 20 minutes carefully trying to remove transparent sticky tape from cat with pair of nail scissors.

20. Seal paper down with transparent sticky tape, making corners as neat as possible.

21. Look for roll of ribbon; chase cat down hall and retrieve ribbon.

22. Try to wrap present with ribbon in a two-directional turn.

23. Re-roll up ribbon and remove paper that is now torn, due to cat’s enthusiasm in chasing ribbon end.

24. Repeat steps 12-22 until down to last sheet of paper.

25. Decide to skip steps 12-16 in order to save time and reduce risk of losing last sheet of paper. Retrieve old cardboard box that you know is right size for sheet of paper.

26. Put present in box, and tie down with string.

27. Remove string, open box and remove cat.

28. Put all packing materials in bag with present and head for lockable room.

29. Once inside room, lock door and start to re-lay out packing materials.

30. Remove cat from box, unlock door, put cat outside door, close door and re-lock.

31. Lay out last sheet of paper. (Admittedly this is difficult in the small area of the toilet, but try your best!)

32. Seal box, wrap with paper and start repairs by very carefully sealing down tears with transparent sticky tape. Now tie up with ribbon and decorate with bows to hide worst affected areas.

33. Label, then sit back and admire your handiwork, congratulating yourself on making good of a bad job.

34. Unlock door, and go to kitchen to make drink and feed cat.

35. Spend next 15 minutes looking for cat, before coming to obvious conclusion.

36. Unwrap present, untie box and remove cat.

37. Retrieve all discarded sheets of wrapping paper, feed cat and retire to lockable room for last attempt, making certain you are alone and the door is locked.

38. At time of handing over present, smile sweetly at receiver’s face, as they try and hide their contempt at being handed such a badly wrapped present.

39. Vow to yourself that next year, you will get the store to wrap the thing for you.

Please note these are not my cats, but with 7 of them, I have been through all these steps…DOZENS of times!

Sad right?

I know what you’re saying, how can I dare call myself a writer or aspiring author if I’m not actually writing. You might know about my personal strifes I’ve been dealing with and my debilitating “blah” mood. Well, I plan on making an amends to this situation, in hopes that I’ll be forgiven of this horrific crime.  And here’s how I plan on doing it:

I plan on writing a small, but steady, goal each day. Think of it as NaNo, only not as high a word count.

I figure this will help get me out of this writing slump I’ve fallen into. Something else that will help is I’ve slowly began to crawl myself back out of the hole of slug (read depression) I had been dealing with recently. Despite having horrid migraines these past few days, I’ve actually felt rather well…mood wise anyhow. My body felt like death warmed over. But the point is, if the dark yucky mood is lifting that means I can get things back to where they should be. That is always a good thing!

So, to start this off on the right track, I’m going to say chow to you for now and go off to write. Wish me luck!!