Twue Love!

This past week I have had a couple of reminders about my favorite movie.  This is not a cinematic masterpiece.  It doesn't have an astounding (or even surprising) plot.  It has no major wonderful special effects.  The dialogue is cheesy, the costumes impractical and the cast was virtually a bunch of nobodies or half-knowns.  However, if I were stuck on that proverbial deserted island with only one movie to watch (no one has told me yet how I would play it) it would be Princess Bride.  Yep.  The movie with fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles... (Doesn't sound too bad.  I'll try to stay awake.) 

This past week Peter Falk died.  He was the grandfather who tells the story to his grandson, stuck at home sick.  And yesterday on TeeFury Fezzik was the subject of their daily shirt. (Buy it so the artist won't hurt.)  (If you don't check out TeeFury on a daily basis you should because they only release a single design each day for one day only and then it's gone.  The topics range from Firefly, Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, TMNT, LOTR, POTC, Harry Potter, Buffy, comics, basically anything that strikes a fancy with current or nostalgic pop culture - today it's Calvin Ball.)  And from that (I'm assuming) there was a flurry of tweets on Twitter quoting Princess Bride.  It also didn't help that the question of the week last week was "If you had a million dollars what would you buy?" and someone wrote down "Andre the Giant's left hand."  (Don't ask.  I don't know.)

So if this movie isn't a cinematic masterpiece, what is it that makes it my favorite movie?  Simple.  It's brilliant.  It has fantastic witty and quotable dialogue that can be used in so many different situations.  I can't think of another single movie that has so many quotable lines than Princess Bride.  Off to the store to do a little swim suit shopping?  The line that chases you out is "Have fun storming the castle." To which you are then obligated to call back, "Do you think it will work?"  It will take a miracle.  As you wish is the exact same in our family as I love you.  And I have learned over the years to never end a sentence with "I mean it" because one of my children will respond with "Anyone want a peanut?"  Even when I am angry and about to explode.  In a hurry to leave for something and the others in your party are not fast enough for you?  Out comes the fake Spanish accent and "You donna suppose you could speed things up?"  That guarantees the response, "If you're in such a hurry, you could lower a rope or a tree branch or find something useful to do."  When the oldest teen sleeps in until afternoon they are usually greeted with "You've been mostly dead all day." 

I love the score for this movie.  There are lots of Dun-dun-dun-duh's that are so reminiscent of old westerns.  It's climatic when there is fighting and swoony when it is romantic.  And there is kissing (They're kissing again.  Do we have to read the kissing parts?)  A movie with kissing can't be all that bad and because the kissing is generally made fun of in this movie even a seven-year old boy can watch it without being grossed out. 

There is much to be learned from this movie as well.  For instance if someone is all dead then the only thing you can do is go through their pockets and look for lost change.  There is nothing better than true love (except for a nice MLT where the mutton is nice and lean and the tomatoes are ripe).  Life is pain (, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something). There are no R.O.U.S.'s in the Fire Swamp (Rodents of Unusual Size?  I don't think they exist.  THUMP!  And there always has to be a thump after I don't think they exist otherwise it isn't funny).  Mawwiage is a bwessed awwaingement.  (Do not try to quote the Impressive Clergyman unless you can do it correctly.)  And always remember: never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line!  Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Thunk!

Need a new insult?  Princess Bride has got some good ones including:  you wart-hogged faced baffoon,  miserable vomitous mass, unemployed in Greenland (I mean really, that would be so horrible!) and my favorite "Humperdink! Humperdink! Humperdink!" 

If you have never seen it, I pray you, get a copy.  Invite some of your most silly (or better yet serious) friends over and eat chocolate (it makes it go down easier) and drink a bottle of brandy.  Learn the lines. Quote the lines.  And above all live for True Love!  It's inconceivable that someone wouldn't. 

Share with me some of your favorite quotes.

A brand new job!

Each Monday night I go to my local Barnes and Noble bookstore for knitting night.  We are one of many groups of "Noble Knitters" who meet at their bookstores to share our love of knitting, drink a beverage from the cafe and surround ourselves with books.  I don't know about the other "Noble Knitters" around the country, but I can say that our group of knitters loves books.  Adores them in fact.  We often share books around or recommend new books or break out into mini book club discussions while sitting with our knitting in hand. 

Recently a sign was posted at the store that they were looking for a new bookseller, particularly for the Digital Section.  In other words they needed a Nook salesperson.  My daughter immediately said I should apply.  Three people in the group asked if I had.  I mentioned it to my spouse and he said I should definitely go for it.  So, oddly, I did.  I wasn't looking for a job.  I don't need a job.  Somehow, though, I have found myself employed.  So tomorrow is my first day of real work.  I have already been to the New Employee Orientation, wherein I learned what to do if I am robbed at the cash registers, what to wear, and gave them the name of who to call in case I fall, bash my head open and have to go to the emergency room.  (That isn't as funny as it seems as I am a complete klutz. The likelihood of that happening are greater than you would expect.) 

My biggest concern hasn't been if I will do well at my job.  I love books.  I've been a librarian and have worked in a bookstore in the past.  I adore my Nook.  When the cat knocked it off the table and cracked the inner screen I cried (and bought a new Nook and now I have insurance for it).  I am not afraid to cross train to help in other departments.  I'm not even worried that they will like me as I know most of the employees and they know me.  None of the normal things that a person is worried about when beginning a new job are much of a concern.  My big concern was "What am I going to wear?"  Yep.  My wardrobe.

Now if it were winter I wouldn't worry too much as my winter wardrobe is much more work-friendly than my summer wardrobe.  My summer wardrobe is made up of flowing skirts, camisoles, lightweight shirts to layer on top of the camisoles and espadrilles.  Not really bookstore friendly clothes.  So I went to my favorite clothing store chain (aka thrift stores) and spent under forty dollars to spiffy up my wardrobe.  I came home with four pair of nicer slacks, three buttoned tailored shirts, and a new purse.  OK, I didn't need the new purse, but it was brand new, never used, and met all my needs (a place for my Nook, a place for my knitting and a place for all my other crap that I have to carry with me).  Surprisingly (or maybe it shouldn't be) I had all the grown up shoes that I could possibly need for work.  I have hemmed the two pair of pants that were too long and ironed everything nice and crisp for this week. (The down side to having grown up clothes is that so many of them require grown up work like ironing.)
I will say that Project 333 really helped in making this wardrobe as I was able to think of the things I was purchasing in terms of how they would work together to create a bigger looking wardrobe than what I actually have.  How do the pants, shoes, and shirts all tie in together to create more outfits than just four?  It helped me limit what colors I aimed for at the store and kept me looking for things that could cross over seasons as well.  I'm looking forward to experimenting with this new wardrobe to see how much I really did learn from that experiment.

The big challenge is going to be remembering to blog.  Hopefully work won't get in the way of my fun times.

Catching up and a new challenge

I keep thinking about really cool things that I want to blog about. I'll even make a note about it. Sometimes I'll even find the perfect graphic to pair with it. And then you know what? Nothing. That's right. Nothing happens. I think about blogging, but thinking about it and actually doing it are two different things. So I'm challenging myself for the summer (starting today) to blog every single day, even if it is just a line or two. And since I love lists and schedules are like lists, I've decided that I am going to have a schedule so even my readers know what I'm supposed to be blogging about. Radical, eh? Not really, but I'm pretending it is.

What's your schedule? I'm so glad you asked. Here it is:

Mondays: Mindless Ramblings (this could really be about anything)
Tuesdays: 10 on Tuesday (I get these e-mails so I might as well utilize them, right?)
Wednesdays: Adventures in Knitting
Thursdays: Book Reviews
Fridays: On Writing and/or Publishing
Saturdays: Sumptuous Saturdays (look for recipes or cooking tips)
Sundays: Thoughts on spirituality and how that relates to my love of knitting, cooking and writing

But, today is Friday and this doesn't look like a post on writing or publishing. You are so write (write - as in writing, get it, hahahahaha - I'm so lame). Seriously, though, yes; today is about writing and/or publishing and my journey there.

What is going on? I'm back into that wonderful flurry of writing where I have a million book ideas all screaming to get onto paper first. I love when this happens because I find that I am creative in other aspects of my life as well. For instance I get knitting patterns in my dreams (that actually can work, not the abstract three-dimensional hat knit on seven needles and needing two other sets of hands to accomplish). I have also finished a major re-write of the first book of my witch trilogy and have a few friends who are beta reading it for me. I'm working feverishly on a synopsis and good query letter for it. I think it is one hundred times better than the previous rendition. I've also finished a major edit on my NaNoWriMo book and have started a sequel to it which is going very well. This book also deserves a synopsis and a query letter.



So why aren't you writing these synopses and query letters? Because I suck at writing synopses and query letters. They always seem lame or I feel like I'm rambling. I've read probably twenty books on writing query letters and mine always look either cookie cutter or really lame. Sometimes I think of writing a really bad query letter with all that agent's pet peeves written in a very sarcastic-yet-understand voice, but never send it because I doubt very seriously the agent would ready it with the same voice that is going through my head.

Are you doing anything to try to remedy this lack in your writing skills? I am. It doesn't mean that it is getting any better, but I am trying each day to write a two-paragraph synopsis of my book. It usually ends with me deleting the entire thing before I toss my laptop across the room, but I am working on it. I was supposed to go to a writing workshop this weekend, but there weren't enough participants and it was cancelled. I signed up for the one in July and hopefully it will make.

Can you tell us about the book(s) you are working on right now? Kind of. As I mentioned earlier I am writing a sequel to my NaNoWriMo book which was about knitting a sweater for a boyfriend. This one is about knitting a wedding veil. The other book I am working on is written in the voice of a dystopian man who lived through the changes that happened in his world and is now dying.

That's about it. Tune in tomorrow when I will be talking about Birthday Cake! (Because it will be my birthday and cake and birthdays go together even though I'm having tacos and margaritas tomorrow and not sure if there will be any cake at all, but that's a post for tomorrow.)

The anticlimaticness of it all

Today is a sad day. You strive and work and toil and write a fantastic novel (at least in your own unbiased opinion of your own work) and you are proud of what you have accomplished. And then you log on to NaNoWriMo and realize that they have reset all the stats from last year. You are left with a zero word count and you no longer have a purple bar under your name declaring you a WINNER! Your novel information is blank and you feel like all your work from last year has been wiped away. Erased. Deleted. It was all for nothing because now there is this zero under your name. A big fat black 0! There isn't even recognition that you even wrote a novel last year. I wept. And then I ate a turkey pot pie and felt a little better.

And then I sat down here at the computer and realized that I don't have my novel idea for this year even half formulated. Perhaps I'll write another witch book. Perhaps it will be the next installment of my vampire series. Maybe another romance. Although, I like writing in the young adult genre more than romance. Maybe it will be a whole new story with a whole new genre and a whole new idea with a whole new cast of characters. I just can't decide. Last year it was so easy. I knew I wanted to tell Aria's story. I knew that it was only going to be the first of a three part set. I knew from a dream how it was all going to play out. I knew the characters (at least most of them) and I knew I was going to enjoy it. And then 84,000+ words later I sat staring at the finished novel and wondered how I'd done it so quickly.

And now it is T-29 days and counting and I have no enthusiasm. All because Chris Baty reset my word count.

Perhaps I need tea and chocolate.

Distracted by all things

Today has been one of those days where I have been distracted by any and all things. I got up this morning, did my thirty minutes of Wii Fit and then sat down to have my breakfast and check my e-mail. That's when the distractions started. Something in my e-mail prompted me to go look up something and then my Rice Krispies got soggy. I ate the blueberries around the mush.

I hopped over to Ravelry to look something up and then had an angry cat demanding her sip of milk. Now before anyone gets upset, let me explain. KiKi is over sixteen years old. She's quite deaf (can hear high pitched noises), her vision is starting to get a bit blurry, and she startles quite easily. We've also recently gotten a new kitten (a sweet darling little part Manx/gray tabby) who hasn't learned that a glare, a hiss and being knocked into the next room means "leave me alone" from our alpha princess. Her lap of milk in the morning is part of her daily routine. She expects it and gets quite put out if I decide to have eggs or oatmeal or a bagel. Her serving size is about a tablespoon and it is demanded. I oblige to keep from being killed in the middle of the night.

Of course after my royal chewing out by the Queen Supreme of All Catdom, I realized that I had less than an hour to get myself and Emily (my oldest child) out the door for our local Wednesday morning SnB. (That's Stitch and Bitch for the unenlightened.) I showered, woke Bubblegum Head (her hair is currently a delightful bright pink) and we ran to the bookstore, assuring the one other person who ventured out in the hot and muggy Florida "sunshine" that we were indeed on our way, albeit late because, well, I got distracted because I found a Wii Fit strategy guide and was delighted to find out that after I log 100 hours in playing Wii Fit my little piggy will turn gold. (This wee Wii Piggy has yet to turn gold.)

When we finally returned home I sat down to write, but of course realized I was too hungry to write so I went and made myself some lunch. Ate lunch while watching my children play Wii Fit (OK, it's new to us, so very distractible.) I again force myself to go write. Can't. I read the group boards on Ravelry. I read the news. I check the weather. I check the mail (the real kind that someone actually delivers to your house). I then get this fantastic idea that I need to work on the quilt that I have neglected for the past four years. It's completely pieced and I even had the batting on it, it just lacked a backing and the actual quilting. So I piece together the backing and get it all sandwiched and pinned. I sit down at the sewing machine and realize that I've never actually quilted with this machine before. I can't get the large spool to sit like it is supposed to on the spindle which is supposed to hold the giant spools of thread. So I find smaller spools of thread. I then decide that it would be a good idea to load a few bobbins ahead of time. (This part isn't so much distraction as time-saving in the world of quilting, but nonetheless, it did halt me from diving right in.) Finally I have the right foot on, the quilting table installed and I set to work. I'm just free-styling the top and pretty satisfied with the way things are going. I'm whistling away. When ...

The bobbin carriage goes all cablooey! Parts are going everywhere. I stop and open the machine up to discover that maybe I should clean my sewing machine more often. (I've done one half of one of twelve squares on the quilt.) I clean it. I reassemble the bobbin carriage. I get everything put back the way it is supposed to. I continue. I get through three and a half squares when the bobbin carriage goes cablooey again and the needle bends in half. (The bobbin carriage has had a running problem, but it has not given me any problems in two years with all kinds of weights of fabric.) I change the needle I reassemble the bobbin carriage. I decide I need a drink. I settle for water as there is no good wine in the fridge and one really shouldn't drink and quilt (just as someone shouldn't drink and knit or drink and write - although the latter is rather amusing the next day.)

Water reminds me I have to go to the bathroom. The bathroom is reached by going past the computer. Perhaps I should check my e-mail again. And Ravelry. Oh, and I just thought of something I could put in my book. I start to write. Someone says something about dinner. I go cook. Then eat. Then decide to do a few more minutes of Wii Fit which turned into forty-five minutes. Finally it has quieted in the house. The boy is in bed. The girls are quiet in the living room (TV or a game or something.) So I sit down to write again (after again checking my e-mail and the news). And I write (drum roll, please): Carlos tried to smile, but it didn't come out very well. "There are...

There are what? There are enough minutes left in this hour for me to go blog about what I have not accomplished today. Maybe I should just go to bed. I'm sure once I am there, something will interrupt my sleep.

P.S. Google spell check does not like the word cablooey.