Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Bruises, Flashes & the Mystery of the FTP

More thunder and lightening this morning that started as soon as I got up to write. I did a little longhand, then it seemed to ease off so I went downstairs to the computer, managed about 15 minutes before the worst of the storm hit and I had to shut down again. Luckily I had time to print off a hard copy of the scene I was working on. So up the stairs I went to write it out the old fashioned way. Except that my dog was stressed out from the lightening and decided to plop all of her 45 pounds on my midsection. I compromised and used her as a desk. She didn’t seem to mind.

More weekend happenings – I finished my website. Tried to ftp it to my host and nada. Wouldn’t work. Kept telling me to check url address or my network connection. Network connection is working fine, and the url is as it should be. Sigh. Thankfully Gary, my web host guy is helping me because I followed the directions and beyond that I don’t know what to do. Hopefully it will work because I put a lot of hours on that design and I love the way it looks. Plus I want to get this up and running before my queries start going out in September and I can’t afford to pay to have it designed for me right now, although that would be my first choice. I’d love to just hand the design off to Gary and ask him to duplicate it from his end because that would be easier as far as keeping it updated, etc. Hopefully I’ll be able to do that by the end of the year, in the meantime, I’m stuck with using Publisher. Provided I can get it to work.

Went to a family reunion on Saturday. That was actually a lot of fun. It was my Mom and her siblings and their kids, and their kids’ kids, plus my grandmother and two of her sisters. We had a surprise wedding shower for my sister since a lot of the family members hadn’t been able to make it up to the one I held a few weeks ago. She got some great stuff, the weather cooperated, got in a hayride, I got eaten by mosquitoes, ate enough plank smoked salmon to sink a ship (my uncle made 3 different kinds and I had to try them all), and didn’t get asked once why my little sister was getting married before me. I never know what to say when I get asked that. As if there is an actual answer other than…uh…luck of the draw? Anyway, it was good to see everyone.

As far as writing, yesterday was a civic holiday here in NS and I spent the morning writing. Made some good headway and once I input the changes I made longhand this morning, I just have the last scene to revise, which actually requires very little revising and then I am done. Well I’m done this part of the revision. Then I have to go through and read it all over again to make sure everything gels and there are elements in one scene I realized I don’t need anymore so that has to come out. I’ve managed to shave about 30 pages or so off the original manuscript, bringing it down to just under 400 pages. I also managed to outline the first 6 chapters in my contemporary which I am still searching for a title on…

And my luck ran out as far as ugly shin bruises go. I have this nasty habit of using my shins to stop line drives when I play softball. I blame it on years of playing soccer. Anyway, I have 4 weeks til the wedding and what happens? I get the mother of all bruises. Granted, it was a spectacular play. I stopped the line drive with my shin (the cringe heard round the diamond as the smack echoed throughout the field), scooped it up in my glove and hurled it at Dave who was covering 2nd base for me. But this bruise is HUGE. It’s about the size of a softball and all black & blue. I’ve been icing it which hopefully will help, but this baby is ugly. Capital UGH. And the color scheme clashes horribly with what my sister had planned for the wedding. Usually these bruises take about 3 – 4 weeks to heal on me, so I’m hoping it’ll be gone by the time the wedding gets here.

And that’s it – the weekend wrap up.

10 comments:

Melissa Amateis said...

It must have been the weekend for family reunions. I had one and I've seen several other people were at one, as well.

Yikes on the bruise! I stopped a line drive with my knee once while playing softball - it STILL hurts sometimes!

Anonymous said...

There's a green cover-up makeup you can use to cover the bruise plus some foundation once the wedding approaches.

PS I only know this because my mom uses it to cover up weird allergy facial rashes. It's spectacular.

Bailey Stewart said...

Sounds like the writing is going well.

We sure could use some of that rain - storms and all.

Yikes on the bruise - but I did have to laugh about how you got it - sorry.

Maxx said...

*shakes unbruised head sadly from home plate*

Kelly Boyce said...

You would think after all this time I would learn to put the glove down in front, but my legs just seem to have faster reflexes. I pretty much count on having big bruises covering my shins over the summer. Maxx can now attest to that since I've dragged her onto the team.

Tess said...

Wow, sounds like a fantastic weekend :-) Glad your weather cooperated for the softball and reunion. And sounds like it was a doozy of a storm this am. I LOVE storms.

Glad to hear you also managed good progress on your writing :-)

Maxx said...

The only physical deformity I show from the game is a weird tan on half my chest

Shelli Stevens said...

Oh I so hear you on the 'when are you going to get married' bit. *Rolling eyes* Although I think they've given up on me!

Ouch on the bruise! It always has to happen before an event where you need good skin. LOL.

Julie S said...

Man, that's one exhausting weekend you had! I love long weekends...probably a little bit too much. WTG on the great softball play.

I can't wait to see your new website! That's cool that you designed it yourself.

Have a great week!

Anonymous said...

Best of luck with the FTP, been learning all that by the seat of my pants...and now I remember why I don't play softball ;) Hope that clears up in time--sounds like a great play!