“I Try” — Ben Taylor

and Ben’s dad, with Carole King.

and… the Queen of YouTube, folks, Ben’s mom, Carly Simon. (She fractures me on YouTube, go find some of the clips and watch them. She’s hilarious.)

Happy Mother’s Day, y’all. Enjoy the weekend.

“There will never be/no love at all.” — Peter Tosh

“When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese dip.”

–- Ignatius Reilly in “Confederacy of Dunces”

“It is an ironic habit of human beings to run faster when we have lost our way.” — Rollo May

Today I actually want to write, so I will. I would prefer to not break up any kid fights, fix meals, do laundry, or take care of demanding cats. Thank you, universe, for helping on this. If you could, please?

Continuity is a bitch with novels, it turns out. (That’s what I’m working on. A measly little 315 pages and 91,061 words of continuity.) Because if I’m reading a novel, and in one spot the character is 24, and in another spot all of a sudden she’s 23, that distracts me and I can’t enjoy the book. I mean, unless we’re going back in time and I’m going along for the ride, that’s different. Nit-picky, nit-picky. I am no Marge Piercy, let’s just say that. I don’t need to be — there can only be one, when it comes to Marge Piercy. (Go read her if you haven’t already — astounding writer. Start with “Gone to Soldiers” and then read “Woman on the Edge of Time.” She wrote “Gone to Soldiers” as eight separate books, I think it was, then wove them together. Goddamn.)

Do you go over books with a fine-toothed comb, when you read, or is it just me? Please advise.

— wm

“A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants.” — Chuckles the Clown, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”

Sun is out again today, it’s fantastic. A guy came by to look at our floors — hardwoods, here we come! (I miss the oak hardwoods from our old house, but that’s about all that I miss.) The carpets, the cats who shed about two pounds of fur per day — allergies, asthma. Enough. We’re getting the bids and I can’t wait until we get the project started. (Make that “finished.” heehee.)

We just got our new copy of the “National Geographic Kids Almanac 2012” in the mail, yay! (Free copy for review, so here’s my disclaimer. Again.) My kids really enjoy these almanacs, they’re jam-packed full of fun stuff.

And another disclaimer… now that I’m retired and working from home again (wait… I thought I was retired? OK, writing = not really retired, eh?), I’m going to check out the marketing sites a little more often, BzzAgent and Vocalpoint, for starters. So if I am reviewing products (that I’ve received gratis) I will let you know. I also highly recommend signing up for some of the marketing sites, if you like to check out new products, or if you (like I do) have kids at home who love getting freebies in the mail.

For example, I just wrote this, then went to check the mail. Voila! There’s a coffee cup (paper, wrapped in plastic) that says, “take a break from aftertaste.” OK. I open it up, and there we have… chocolate! No. Damn. Coupons! For Breve Creme — one free pint, on them. And a string of cents-off coupons. I would have rather had a free cup of coffee. It’s the middle of the afternoon and I could use a jolt. But this is all right, too. So there you have it. Breve Creme.

Just remember, I never promote something just for the hell of it, even though I know that sounded like it (Breve Creme… mmmm Breve Creme) and I’m going to continue to give you my honest opinions on stuff. (Even though you’ve never, you know, asked me for ’em.) Or I will, anyway, once I try out this creamer. Dammit, maybe I should stop by Starbucks after I get the kid from school. So no buy-offs here, got it? Got it. Good luck getting any book reviews out of me, though… so busy writing that I’m not able to read as much as I’d like lately. Ah, well.

Here’s a magical recipe from the Sweet Suzanne (go buy her book, too! She worked hard on it):

Baby Reds with a Sprinkle of Magic

Ingredients

2 pounds small red skin potatoes, halved or quartered
1 tablespoon, extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
Salt (if you want) and pepper (I used seasoned pepper)
2 tablespoons, 3 or 4 sprigs, fresh thyme, leaves stripped and
chopped

Directions

Fill a skillet 1/2 full of water and bring water to a boil. Add
potatoes, simmer 13 minutes until fork tender. Drain potatoes in a
colander. In the pan you cooked the potatoes in, heat over med-high
heat, the extra-virgin olive oil and butter. When butter melts add
potatoes. Season potatoes with salt, pepper and chopped thyme. Coat
and brown the potatoes, turning occasionally, 7 or 8 minutes.

QOTD
“What am I doing? Nothing. I am letting life rain upon me.” — Rahel Varnhagen

i asked Steve to change my password on my Facebook account and lock me out. so he did. It’s just… awesome. Awesome is an anchovy word, according to my son, i.e., “a word that is used too much, like ‘awesome’ or ‘cool’ or stuff like… who knows.”

Anchovy words = bad.

Being off FB = AWESOME. It sucks the brains out of my head, that’s why.

now what do I with all my free time? hahaha. Writing all week, wish me luck. the sun is out, it’s a good day over here. i am thinking of my Oregon friends and Internet friends in different parts of the U.S. and the world who aren’t having such an easy time right now, and… i am hoping things get better for y’all, soon.

that’s all.

— wm