NaNoWriMo Eve!

It begins at midnight, but I'm not staying up that late! I'm going to get a mass email out to everyone in my region and then go to bed so I can be productive tomorrow. I have to really be on my game to get everything done. Luckily, I shouldn't have too many interruptions, so I can really focus on the newsletter and a grant application.

So good luck, NaNoWriMo participants! We will be going on this journey together. It should be an interesting one.

Odds and Ends:

1. House Stuff:My trashcan wasn't stolen by a crackhead. It was taken mistakenly by a neighbor who, like me, was too lazy to write their house number on it. I spotted my old trashcan (the one where the rat, errr, raccoon that was hungry had chewed a hole in it). I could've let my neighbor keep my old trashcan (he took it so he must like it better, right?), but I switched them back. I like

Vampirate - the proof

Okay, some people asked for proof that I actually dressed up as a vampirate for the party at the theatre, so here you go! The party was a blast. I'm posting the pictures somewhere else on the web so that the other board members can access them, but I haven't quite decided where yet. I'll post the link here when I do.

Noah's blanket

Here are a couple of pictures of Noah's blanket so far. I'm using the Moderne Log Cabin pattern from Mason Dixon Knitting (a wonderful book!)

One great thing about this pattern is that it's totally garter stitch, which is great for mindless knitting in front of the TV, which is usually what I do. I'm trying to get a lot done on it now before November starts and I spend every waking moment in front of the computer, working on Downward Spiral. Here's a close up of the stitches:

It's going to be done in shades of green, yellow, and blue. Those are his favorite colors, so I had to use them! If this works out well, I'll do one for Hannah and one for Kohl. Well, I have a different idea for Hannah's, but I'll have to see if I can figure out how to do it before I commit to it. But at least I have a fallback! This is so much fun to knit!

Odds and Ends

I guess it's time for more randomness.1. Stolen TrashcanAnother blogger had their trashcan stolen recently in DC. They jumped through the proper hoops and got a new one in a couple of weeks. I can't go that route because I HATE dealing with the DC goverment and I can't go two weeks without throwing out garbage while I wait for a new can. (if you put the bags on the street without a trashcan, you

crash!

I know I haven't posted in almost a week, but there is a good reason for that. My computer crashed! It was horrible. I lost everything that was on my computer, including my notes for NaNo. Luckily, all my novels and works in progress are backed up on a portable hard drive and on disk, but I didn't back up my notes. Stupid, I know. I'm also happy to report that I didn't lose any of my photos or music because they were backed up on the portable drive too. I did have to spend hours putting programs back on the computer last night and I reconstructed a lot of the outline that I had finished.

The worst thing was losing my internet favorites. All the freelance job boards, the writing forums, the knitting sites (with free patterns!) are gone now. I also spent some time last night trying to save favorites again. It really makes me want to save all my favorites online somewhere in case this happens again. I'm pretty sure there's a way to do that. I think Google offers that service.

Another thing I did last night was to put my ideas about Draha into FreeMind to get a clear picture of the series. I spent about an hour putting in the different aspects of the story and getting used to the program. I really love this program! I think I might even use it to organize projects at work if I can figure out exactly how to use it for that purpose. It's so helpful to be able to see all aspects of a project and how they relate to each other just mapped out on the screen. I've always been a fan of brainstorming on paper (or screen). It really helps me organize my thoughts.

So anyway, that's why I haven't posted. I'll do an update on my week later, but for now, know that I'm back!

Thief!

I stole a trashcan today. You might be wondering why I stole something that the city gives away for free. Well, I put my trash out this morning and when I came back this afternoon, my trashcan was gone. Initially I thought someone stole it.HIN: I'm calling the cops. It should be pretty easy to find. It's green and plastic, like every other trashcan in DC, but mine has a whole near the top