Castle in the Clouds

I finished it. Finally. 1000+ pages. Done! And I only skipped about 10 pages of the world's longest, preachiest, most repetitive soliloquy ever uttered by a single character. I have mixed feelings about the book. I thought the philosophy and social commentary were very provocative. I'm not sure I agree with half of what was said, but I must admit the story forced me to think. In fact, it forced me to think so often that I would read 5-10 pages and find myself needing a break just so I could digest what had been said, hinted at, or talked around. I think the need to stop and think had a lot to do with the parallels between fiction and our current reality. Oh, sure, things aren't quite as dreadful for us as they were for Rand's characters, but the potential is there. I think that's the most disturbing thing about her book. The exposure of underhanded greed and the corruption of governmental power in her book echo our current situation. The truth is there was so much p...

Jenny's bridal shower June 2005 006 Originally uploaded by moonchylde7782 I had forgotten about this picture. While browsing through my sister's Flickr account, I ran across this photo and thought "I should favorite this". Then I thought "I should share it with the world. Look how cute we were!" Thanks for uploading this one, Chrissy. I'm totally stealing it!

Last night I was home alone with the boys. It was about 10:30 when I heard the first one. Over the next 15-20 minutes I heard another three or four shots, which seemed to be coming from the woods to the south of my house. Sure, it might have been some poacher out there in the woods hunting raccoons. But maybe not. Is raccoon even in season right now? Is it ever? And I didn't hear any dogs baying as if they were hot on the trail of some ring-tailed bandit. After peeking out my windows and seeing nothing but darkness, I grabbed the phone. If my neighbors' lights would have been on and I didn't suddenly feel very alone and vulnerable, I probably wouldn't have called 911 to report what I was sure were gunshots. The dispatcher's first question was "Are you sure it's not fireworks?" Oh no. Not again. With those few simple words I had a flashback to when my husband and I were dating. That night I had called him, insisting I could hear gunshots, when he remind...

Yep. We're going to sign both boys up for summer school this year. I'm sure neither one will be very happy about going an extra three weeks, but the hubby and I both think they could use the time to build or, at the very least, retain their knowledge. Both of them have the same weakness and need a bit more time to advance to a more acceptable reading level. Sometimes I wonder if they're really my kids. I mean really. How could I give birth to not one, but two, non-readers? I don't understand! Were they switched at birth? Has some sinister super-villian put a hex on them? Is there bad reading mojo in our house? I don't get it. Hopefully a few extra weeks of reading, writing and math will help them become stronger students. Hey, a mom can hope!

I love long weekends. This one was spent mostly at the campground. I've added a few pictures to the Camping Trip Set on my Flickr account with pictures of our weekend. If you don't have access, but would like it, let me know. I've been uploading more and more pictures over there. In fact, I think I have close to 140 pics stored there now. Anyhow...this weekend. Camping. It was lovely. We couldn't have asked for nicer weather. It was warm and sunny. It sprinkled for a bit on Monday morning, but it cleared up before we even had a chance to roll out of bed. I, of course, am sunburned. Let's just say Rudolf doesn't have anything on me! Even with lotion and some pampering, I am already beginning to peal. Yuck. Still, it was worth it. I love playing kickball, baseball, and soccer with the family. Soccer kicked my butt, though. I was ready for a break about fifteen minutes into the game. Luckily, so were most of the other adults. After a small "...

You know the drill. Copyrighted, All Rights Reserved. Blah, blah, blah. If you missed the first two installments, you can find them here: Hunted : Part 1 Hunted: Part 2 And now for the conclusion: She had not slept well that day in the fully darkened room in the back of the tavern. She had awoke before the sun had fully disappeared behind the horizon. As soon as the last rays fled the night sky, she had fled into the night, praying he would be unable to track her. That had been nearly a century ago. Sometimes she would settle into a town for months or even years before she felt his presence. Always, she had deserted her belongings and current lover without notice to flee into the night. She had often wondered if he had found her home and the human’s she had enslaved to her—she had never felt the need to become another vampire’s master. The thought of him in her abandoned homes was maddening for she was certain he had killed every last one of her men, just as she had killed that...

Yesterday we had our final meeting of the year with my son's teacher, the Special Ed Coordinator, and the Principal. The goal of the meeting was to set up a 504 Plan , something his ADHD diagnosis makes possible. The Plan lists a series of accommodations the school and his teachers must take into account while educating our boy. Some of these accommodations are very minor. For instance, the first thing listed is that he should be seated in the front of the classroom near the teacher. More aggressive accommodations are that he's given extra time on writing assignments, as well as opportunities to re-do his homework if necessary. Weekly communication is supposed to occur between the teachers and me and/or my husband. A checklist is supposed to be put in his locker to help him remember to grab his homework. Nothing too taxing for him or the teachers, in my opinion. The highlight of the meeting was the fact that no one uttered one word about retention. They plan on passing him int...

Can I just say I'm so grateful to see the end of Soccer season approaching? Not because I don't enjoy watching it, because I do. Immensely. There's just something about watching a sport your children enjoy. It makes the whole sideline spectacle a bit more involving than watching them kick up dust balls or pluck blades of grass from the outfield. Still, it's time for the season to end. This four nights a week business is insane. So, while I'll miss shots like these, I'm not going to miss running from here to there every night of the week.

Originally uploaded by Krheiser Well, I promised a picture and here it is. My new hair. I LOVE IT. It now only takes me about five minutes to do my hair instead of 45. No more blow drying. No more curling. At least, not for a couple weeks. I'm hoping it'll last through our big vacation. Sure, it might relax quite a bit by then, but at least I won't have to wrestle, cajole, and declare war upon it. You know, like every other morning for the last year or so. Oh, and the beautiful girl-child in the picture is my niece. This picture was taken the night of her dance recital. Isn't she beyond adorable? Pouty face and all? (She was actually giggling two seconds later, but you'd never know it by this photo!)

Miracles of miracles, I actually attempted to work on the WIP last night. Of course, trying to watch American Idol at the same time didn't help, but I think I know what has to happen. I need to remove about 2K, maybe more, from the end. I went in the wrong direction. I think I've been fighting it because the writing is good (well, mostly) and it seems like such a waste, but sometimes backtracking and remapping is necessary to making things work. The ending wasn't coming to me because I had screwed up. I had taken the "umph" out of the story, right when the "umph" should have pushed through to the climatic moment. So. Deleting. That's on tonight agenda. After I get my hair done, of course.

Although the blog may not reflect this simple truth, I'm still here. I've been incredibly busy with the boys' sports. This week we've already had a baseball game and a soccer game. If they don't cancel, we have a baseball game tonight and another soccer game tomorrow. On Saturday we have three soccer matches - two for the oldest boy and one for the munchkin. Busy! I'm going to miss a significant number of these games this week, though. Tomorrow night I'm spending the night at my Mom's because I'm carpooling to an off-site workshop in one of the state's bigger cities. I'm going to use this night away from home to get my hair done. I'm very excited about this. I'm so ready to have a new look! I'm scheduled for a perm and a cut, and while I feel bad for the lady who has to roll this mop I call my hair, I'm very excited. I'll post pictures sometime this weekend. Friday night my niece has a dance recital. She's five now a...

Nice block, buddy! Originally uploaded by Krheiser I caught this bounce off the belly shot at last night's game.

DSC_0147 Originally uploaded by Krheiser My dog absolutely loves sticks. She loves it when you throw them. She loves it when you wag them above her head and make her jump. But, mostly, she just loves to chew them up into little bits of pulp.

I happened to stumble across this today and thought I'd share. http://greensboro.rhinotimes.com/Articles-i-2008-04-24-177772.112113_JK_Rowling_Lexicon_and_Oz.html Tell me your thoughts and I'll tell you mine. ( Hey, I've got to do something to get the comments moving over here!)

I really thought this feeling would disappear after I was done with school, but it hasn't. Even though the hubby did the grocery shopping last night (he's so much better about sticking to a budget than I am!) , I still feel like I hardly accomplished anything. Here's what I did manage to do: Dinner 2 loads of laundry Supervised punishments of two little boys who decided to have a tussle at daycare. My house looks pretty good right now thanks to their inability to be near each other without launching a full-scale attack. Read one chapter of Peter and the Starcatchers to my boys & my nephew Watched entirely too much television - at least 3 hours. Here's what I didn't squeeze in to those few precious hours after work: Writing. I have a feeling I'm only about three chapters away from "the end". Packing the camper Writing. Did I mention how close I am to finishing the rough draft of this project? Exercise. I'm supposed to be training for the C...

I know it sounds terrible, but I'm glad its raining right now. The little guy's first baseball game has been cancelled, which is just fine because the wonderful Athletic Association in our town doesn't really believe in communication. Hard to believe in today's techy world, isn't it? I know! Anyhow, we thought we were having their first practice tonight, only to find out that it was actually their first GAME. Apparently no one bothered to let our coaches know the schedule. Not that the rosters were communicated all that much earlier. But, thanks to the rain, we don't have to worry about our kids going in to their first game stone cold. They should get in at least one practice before the season starts now. So, yay for rain! Not that I really care about baseball. If you know me at all, you should know sports are pretty low down on the priority list. (I know a bunch of you men just winced...well, maybe just a couple of you.) What I do care about is the spare tim...

The handiwork of the mutt who didn't want to be left at home...

I was so sick yesterday. I made it - barely - through the first soccer game, but I knew there was absolutely no way I could stand on the sidelines for another hour. After checking with the coach, I left my oldest to play his game and went home to lay down. Don't worry. Hubby made it home in plenty of time to go watch the end of his game and pick him up. Me? I was in bed. Call it a virus. Call it the flu. Either way, it wasn't pretty. Even though I haven't - you know - in the last 12 hours, I can still feel the effects. My stomach is plain tore up! All I could think of, though, while I moaned through several miserable hours, was how difficult it must be for those women who don't have a wonderful, loving, patient husband who takes care of them when death seems like a reasonable alternative. I can't even begin to express how thankful I was for my hubby yesterday. He didn't only take care of me, but did the dishes, packed up the youngest for an overnight trip, and f...

Kind of in a funky mood tonight. After playing FF XII for a couple hours tonight, I headed down to the basement to do some laundry. The kids have soccer in the morning and I hadn't seen either jersey since their last game. After searching high and low for them, I found one in a clean clothes basket and one at the bottom of a dirty clothes pile. Once my Soccer mom duties were attended to I could focus my unenthusiastic attention elsewhere. I say unenthusiastic because blah pretty sums up exactly how I've felt all week. Tonight has been no exception. Blah. So, scrapbooks. My laundry area is located right next to my "scrapbooking room" in the basement and, while I didn't feel like scrapbooking, I was feeling a bit nastalgic. Pulling one album after another off the shelf, I sat down and travelled back in time. I revisisted weddings of good friends and family. The journaling, written years ago when the memories were still fresh, reminded me of Jessica's pani...

This is a continuation of last week's short story (it's not nearly as short as you think). I plan on posting the thing in its entirety on Friday Snippets, so I'll be sure to link to previous entries so you can keep on track. Hunted : Part 1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As she waited for him to reach her, she allowed herself to relive the fateful night that had resulted in nearly a hundred years of running. She gloried in the resentment and self-righteous anger. The room was dark, not a single candle burning. Yet, the room was not empty and its inhabitants were not asleep as she stepped through the doorway. Although the darkness was complete with the moon and stars hidden behind a heavy curtain of clouds, she could easily see every detail. Her nocturnal eyes noted every detail of the painting on the wall, the small chip on the edge of the wine glass, and even the pattern of the grain on the tabletop. Yet, she paid these things little heed. She was not interested in the room. ...