Dude, Where's My Muse?

March has gone by so fast.

Sure, I lost about a week of it feeling icky but still there was another twenty-some days in there.

Looking forward to April though, hopefully that means the piles of snow here will melt away and it'll start to get nice and warm. I can start my flowers inside thanks to my trusty mini greenhouses, still not sure what all I'm planting. I'm thinking at least a flat and a half of pansys because they can go anywhere. And maybe some snapdragons? Decisions, decisions. Plus I've got about thirty seed packs to go through and see what's going where. Yup, my gardening habit, almost beats the book habit :o)

April also means the start of the NHL playoffs. Should be good. Too bad Phoenix isn't in it. Like dad said last night, they're really coming together and playing great hockey. They could have made some noise in the playoffs. Not sure who I'm cheering for yet, esp. since grumble grumble Dallas only has 1 player I like on it now. The rest, er, not so much.

Oh before I forget, since we're writers, if you write paranormal romance swing by
http://alg.livejournal.com/81163.html
She's looking for paranormal submissions and rom. suspense (though with that one, I think she said you must be pubbed) Still might be worth a look.

What's everyone else looking forward to next month?

So a couple weeks ago I tried to update the drivers on the speakers or the sound card...can't remember which. But the driver didn't seem to take and somehow I deleted it. Rebooted a few times and finally managed to get installed again, but don't think it was the newest version.

Fast forward to today. Since the little above debacle, the comp's been a little slow. So I figure no sweat, I'll go back and restore the settings to the 18th. Yeah that'd be great, if the restore feature worked. Three times this morning, three different restore points all coming up as 'cannot be completed' Grrr. Ended up going by the geekstogo forums to find out what I needed to do, did a safe boot command thingie and it seems to have set it back to that date, though I can't be a hundred percent sure since it didn't make a new restore point to tell me that it was successfully completed. But fingers crossed it worked. Now I get to play with a utility to try and optimize my settings. Fun. (erm, maybe?)

Feeling a little better. Wasn't feeling too hot most of last week and this weekend.

The research of laptops is slowly going on. I've heard some horror stories on Dells & I think Sony's? But I know to steer clear of Dells which seem to be the only ones reviewed online, followed by weird obscure brands I've a) never heard of and b) doubt are available north of the border.

Still trying to discover the difference between the AMD thing and the other processors. Can't I just find a nice simple laptop (okay, simple might be the wrong word, I want one with a dvd burner and possibly a tv tuner so I can record stuff straight to dvd, thereby causing less arguments of 'YOU HAVE ENOUGH VHS TAPES ALREADY' and me sneaking them into the house *g*)

Other than that, writing is well slow going. Didn't do much when I felt crappy and dad's making me take vacation days since he now fears I'm getting old and grey before my time. :o)

Let's see, what else...RAW wasn't bad last night, really enjoyed the Cena segement. (Okay duh obviously right? They showed the man working out *g* And he has a hella fine bod...) If I could afford wrestlemania I'd be getting it pretty much strictly for that match alone. And maybe the Edge/Foley one, because man I hope Foley unleashes a can of whoopass on Edge. About time someone finally beat him, I think the last match Edge actually had his a$$ handed to him was that steel cage match against Hardy. Shawn vs Mr. McMahon should be interesting, but I'm just not as excited about WM as I used to be. Maybe not enough build up this year?? I dunno.

nothing as interesting as new hero material or locations for Vegas hijinx.

Nope, starting to look at laptops. And I'm SO clueless about computers.

So anyone who has a laptop, any thoughts on what to look for?

Since I'm feeling decidedly blah today (a whole week of it sucks) and not much in the mood to put words on the computer screen...let's continue the Sonny Crockett love fest. Might toss someone else in for good measure...

Miami Vice style :o)

Feels like I'm stuck in a rut right now. I'm so tired of working on Sabrina. And its really starting to feel like there's NO end in sight on the story. Though I did manage to scribble down a timeline and bit of synopsis (short, very short) during RAW the other night.

Other than that, nothing new to report. Old partials are still floating I guess in the black hole between here and NYC. Guess I really should call canada post one of these days and see when they cut off the date for refunds. $15 out the window. Great fun I say, great fun!

Doesn't quite look like it here. We're buried under the snow from the weekend and I think we're still getting more. Yuck. I think maybe we got a little spoiled having no snow till the first week of March but really. This is insane, it looks like the North Pole outside! Any minute I'm expecting elves or for those of you who saw the episode of Conan in Finland, some laplanders to jump out from behind the snow piles! :o)

To try and make it more like Spring (though I confess I forgot yesterday or is it today?) I bought some seeds yesterday. Found the ones they were all sold out of Wal-Mart, Dahlia - Stargazer mix. They look pretty but I thought the colors on the wal-mart pack were brighter. Oh well, have to check next time I see them. Maybe its just a bad print job. Grabbed a couple others, one I planted last year from another brand (cheaper then Fothergill's. So may go back and grab a 2nd pack) and a few new ones to try out. Got some nice english daisies but the front says annual and the back says bi-ennial, so what gives? Have to do some online research.

Watched hockey last night. First they said #4 might not play because of his ankle so I put the new tape in figuring if I didn't see him in the first five minutes I'm switching over to the live RAW but he was there so I watched the whole game. First, a quick rant on the 2 Dallas announcers. They never EVER say who the scratches are when the game starts. Maybe its a canuck thing and I'm spoiled, but I'd like to know before the halfway point of the first if he's a scratch or not. But back to the game. Horrendous ice. Absolutely horrible. And the flow to the first period was bad. Boring as heck. Second period picked up a little and the third...well bad. Bad for #4. Bad for the stars. Just plain BAD. And I like how they immediately blame it all on him. Uh hello. Turco's in net, he can't stop a puck? Like dad said, too bad it hadn't happened to Zubov (sorry so not a fan of that guy. Highly overrated, much like Prongs. Makes me long for the days of Brew...)

Enough of a rant, got hit with a new Bombshell story idea when I woke up this morning (dreamt the car chase) and my Don Johnson poster showed up yesterday! Yay so I have amazing eye candy right beside me right now till I can hang it up :o)

One of my wonderful friends is having her book released today. Nell's CINDERELLA SUBSTITUTE is out any minute. Swing by her blog to say hi (http://nelldixonrw.blogspot.com)
and moonlit romance to get her ebook! http://moonlitromance.com/

Considering my mind's in a fog (blame blurbing and chapter 2/3 for that) I only have to share my favorite line from last night's episode of Miami Vice on deja vu.


Sonny's definitely hero material. Hmmm...

While blog surfing last night I found a couple great blogs. But the only one I can remember this morning is now over on the sidebar, Dusted By Whimsy. Check it out. Great pics of Writer's desks. Such a cool idea. Its neat to see how different people's writing environments are.

And to go along with it, there's another link to go along with it, http://www.paigecuccaro.com/html/the_cave.html

I saw this awhile ago and lost the link till now. More writers desks :o)

The one thing I can say is I feel a little better about mine lol

So today was a complete and total day off. Which was nice for a change. Went out for the day. Had some lovely fries doused in vinegar and a coke *sigh, I love caffeine*

Managed to get to an author chat too this evening which I didn't know about till I came home and won myself a book. :o) Always exciting in my world. Starting to think though I should have bought 2 bookshelves instead of 1 lol

In writing news, blurb is semi finalized for Sabrina's story. Just need to revamp the last sentence a little and all will be okay -- I think. I hope? Might test out a query this weekend, not sure yet. Still need to figure out how many US stamps I have left, thanks to the great partial mystery of September.

Other than that, nothing real exciting going on. Its cold. My pretty flowers are still on my desk.
Oh and I got back my first roll of pictures from the Dallas game. Can we say Extreme close up of Mike Modano? I think we can. He was skating by so fast...well I'll scan and post it this week so you can see. Its like half his face I think. :oD

My dad just bought me flowers :o)

I now have a very pretty vase of carnations and daisies on my desk. Isn't that sweet! hehe

Just had to share.

That would be me.

For not updating in oh about a week.

But its been a hellish week. So forgive me.

First off, what I predicted, came true. He didn't play in Edmonton. Why they couldn't dress him and put him in the damn lineup I have no clue. Even if he played 5 minutes, at least he would have been playing and I wouldn't have felt like I threw a hell of a lot of cash away to sit there.
*sigh* But in funny moments, I was sitting there cheering apparently so loud and hard for Dallas the guy beside me thought I knew someone on the team *g* Had to almost laugh at that one.
But I did get on TV a few times when we watched the game on tape. Good shot of the jersey when one of the guys was getting ready in the shoot out lol

And then, they played him not only 2 nights later in Calgary, oh no he dressed and played last night in Vancouver too. Count me just a wee bit p.o'ed on that one.

What else...had the headache from hell last night. Seven hours of extreme yucky horrible pain. Nothing really seemed to work. And it was the kind that you couldn't do anything with it just made it worse. But I think its sorta gone. Came back for a bit this afternoon but I found my tylenol and took a few which seemed to help. Fingers crossed it stays far far away. I need to try to get back to exercising at least a couple times a week and that headache just isn't going to help any.

Other than that, I think I'm back on vacation again. As one of my good buds said, I'm back to overthinking and thinking too much which might lead to not so good things. So I'm taking a couple more days off. Sabrina isn't going anywhere. I haven't queried anyone on it so no one's expecting anything. Good time to do it I guess.

So I should be really excited right about now, tomorrow night's my first NHL game in about three years. I've got a really great seat...AND now the rumor's out my fave player may not be playing, he'll be a healthy scratch. (3rd game in a row)

Oh freaking goody.

I may be pained to cheer for the Oilers if Dallas pulls this BONEHEADED stunt.

Blah.

Off to steam and listen to DJ's Heartbeat cd.

Don't know what else to call it :o) If you want to help title or retitle Sabrina as the case may be, swing by Olga's blog , she's holding a great contest!

Well I got one of my ebay purchases today :o)

Not the poster, though hoping for that to show soon. Got my Don Johnson LET IT ROLL CD. Woohoo, can you guess what I'll be writing to this weekend?

So I had something in mind when I signed in tonight, more mumbles and rambles (since dad's now convinced I don't talk, I mumble?) Anyways, I found out I've written 175 posts, this one being 176. Am I really that talkative? Who knew? :o)

Anyways, I'm in the midst of Sabrina blahs. I'm tempted to call in to the clairvoyant tomorrow night and ask my one question, never mind if this is going to be a good year or if I'm to sell anything, nope...what's the title of this d@mn book!

Yes that's right. The title is still eluding me.

*head on desk*

I've spent all week trying to do the title, trying to do the blurb. Its a good idea. I know it is.
But these two just will not shake themselves loose from the cobwebs in my brain long enough to give me the SMALLEST hint of what it should be.

Nell came up with a lovely title for it on Monday. I had it typed in as the new folder name. Then I made the mistake of rereading 60 some odd pages. Began thinking, not quite so Vegas Voodoo. :o( So back to the drawing board.

In other news, watched the Dallas-Phoenix game on centre ice. Was nice to see REAL hockey again. But, a) the dang looping centre ice commericial during the 1st intermission, 3 times back to back. Argh!!! It was making me loopy!! And then started up again b) Okay, I never realized it before, but I'm darn sure now centre ice picks up the feed, delays it a few minutes and then puts it in. Because, hold on, during said loop it cut in to one part then cut out and three minutes later? There's that bit in full form. And we missed the Mike Modano interview somehow. Goody. Thanks a lot *insert eye roll here* So the game wasn't bad, MC got some nice points. And then my fave player for some reason tried to put MC through the boards. And then poked him with the stick. I do believe I stared at the tv in shock for a moment, checked the numbers on the VCR and will go back to it later to double check. Oh! And he threw a hit. Wow. Maybe the olympic break was a good time off afterall :o) lol But way WAY too many penalties; way too much fighting (not sure I like the newest guy on the team. Let me guess, he'll try and fight George on Tuesday. Great)

Well enough rambles, off to check email and watch the 1am showing of Vice.

Time's flying by. Doesn't seem like its been two months since Christmas or almost three months since Dad's shoulder surgery.

Vacation going well. As promised no actual 'writing' is being done, though I am playing with titles and trying --keyword-- to do the blurb. The joy of being a writer never ends does it? *g*

But in more exciting news, picked up a few seeds at Wal-Mart yesterday. I have a bunch of my own from last year I saved but didn't manage to get any Lobelia so I got two colors of that and a nice red alyssum seed. Thinking of doing one pot all red flowers if I can manage, with maybe some white thrown in. We'll see how that turns out. Still need to find the one I saw last time we were there and now they're sold out of :( Another couple weeks and I can start some of my plants indoors. I have 4 flats I usually use (great ones with a capillary mat so I don't have to water from Lee Valley) so trying to figure out how much of what to plant. Definitely want pansies. And snapdragons. See what all I can fit in.

Other than that...nothing too exciting. Adding to my TBR pile. Got Jill Shalvis' HER SEXIEST MISTAKE in the mail today, can't wait to read that one. Plus I have two other blog reviews to put up this week over on eHQ.