Still around...

Things have been crazy around here lately. My nanowrimo novel (a murder mystery set in a radio station in 1939 Chicago) is coming along nicely. As of right this second I'm up to 19,572 words and going strong. I do believe I'm going to make it this year! Of course, it helps that I see my niece Jessica's word count every time I log into the website (and it's almost always higher than mine!) I haven't been able to meet up with any of the local nanowrimo participants like I'd hoped, but the month isn't even halfway over yet. There's still time.

We've also been very busy tracking down furniture on craigslist, seeing it, and having it picked up and delivered. It would be much easier (and much more expensive) to just go to a furniture store and get this stuff, but there's something treasure-like about finding things at garage sales and craigslist. For me anyway. I found the pine farm table I've been looking for for weeks for a third of what it would cost new. And I think due very strongly to Miss Kate's adorableness (and the owner's desire to get it out of his garage) got the matching china cabinet thrown in for free... you can't beat that. Maybe I'll get around to taking some pictures of everything one of these days.

Kate's got two teeth coming in (one on top, one on bottom) and is motoring around getting into everything. She crawls on her elbows like she's doing a Marine boot camp obstacle course, but it seems to work for her. She certainly gets where she wants to go... unfortunately, for mom and dad who now have to pay very close attention.

I probably won't be around very much here on the old blog until things calm down a little more. Maybe after my novel is complete - fingers crossed?

Glutten for punishment?

I've decided to attempt nanowrimo yet again. For those of you that don't know what that is it's a crazy exercise in which people all over the world try to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. (That's 1666.666666... words a day if you do the math.) I've tried twice before and never made it past the first week... This year I'm going to try to meet up with some others in the area that are also out of their minds. Maybe some support will help me finish?

This year's novel is going to be a mystery - I hope - inspired by my recent readings of the Lady Julia Gray series by Deanna Raybourn and the Aunt Dimity series by Nancy Atherton (both fabulous, by the way, if you're into romancy and/or historical mysteries). I already have a fairly good plot in mind and, according to the founder of nanowrimo, that makes me ahead of the game already. Wish me luck.

A new member of the family

This is "kitten". It's just "kitten" for now pending approval of my name suggestion... She's courtesy of my sister's boyfriend's cat, Luna, who found herself in the family way a few months ago.


Kitten is adjusting very very well to her new home. She's already conspiring with Kate to gain access to the oh-so-fun and super slidey Cheerios. Kate happily knocks them off of her tray to kitten waiting below ready to bat the little things under every piece of furniture in the house.

Swing time

Probably one of the best things about the new house (in Kate's opinion) is the little playground at the end of the street with the baby swing. Unfortunately, there are no swings to fit Mommy's back end, so for now she swings alone.

In the mood for something heartwarming?

Check out this short story from NPR on how "stealing" a book from the library changed the entire course of a boy's life... it's really inspiring.

All moved in

Not the best photos for showing what the house actually looks like, but you do get some idea of how buried in boxes we are...

I know, I know

The last thing we should be doing one week before moving is acquiring a bunch of new stuff... but the moving boxes I ordered won't get here until Monday, so what's to do on a beautiful Saturday morning but swing by a few garage sales? And we scored some great things...

Like this well-used, but still very functional Burley bike trailer. We haven't been able to go on bike rides together all summer because there was nowhere for the little miss to ride. Problem solved. Here we are testing it out for the first time.

Getting the okay before heading out

After the ride - looks like somebody liked it

I also found a never used bread machine (and already made a delicious buttermilk wheat bread with it), a brand new fondue pot, and new Kate clothes - the prize being almost new size 12 month snow pants for $3.

But that's officially it. No more buying. Onto packing up all the stuff we already have.