Another Busy Weekend

Friday night I attended a local writer's group meeting. Once upon a time, I used to be a member of this very group. I read and critiqued for several months, but life interfered and I dropped out. Recently, I ran into one of the group members and was invited back. Although I live quite a distance from where the group meets, I decided to give it a go anyhow. I'm glad I did.

There were a few members who I remembered and who seemed to remember me. Strangely enough, they actually remembered one incident in particular because they had been outraged on my behalf. I hadn't realized it at the time, but it's nice knowing the fella's opinion on what I should or shouldn't be writing hadn't gone unnoticed. Although, honestly, I took his words as an ass-backwards compliment after I thought about it. I had just finished reading a vampire or historical romance (can't quite seem to remember which) and he told me, "You're too good of a writer to be writing this kind of stuff." He might have used slightly stronger words when referencing my choice of genre, but that doesn't really matter.

Apparently, the rest of the group took exception to his remarks and had words with him. I don't remember that, so I'm thinking it happened "off stage".

He's still a member of the group, but he wasn't there this last Friday. I'm curious to see if history will repeat itself when I read in front him the next time because I still write vampires and fantasy and romance. I'm not and never will be literary.

The good thing is the rest of the group, which has shrunk significantly in size over the years, doesn't seem to mind. Actually, many of them write in the same genres I tend to gravitate toward. This is a good thing. No, it's a great thing because having crit partners who understand your genre is invaluable.

Of course, my weekend consisted of more than just Friday night. Saturday was full of activities, too. It was the last weekend of soccer for my boys. I took the oldest to his game (approximately a 30-45 minute drive) while the hubby took the youngest to his. I needed to get a few more pictures of the oldest in action because most of his games had taken place in rainy weather. Thank goodness there was sunshine and light cloud cover for his last game. Otherwise the balance of soccer photos would have leaned heavily in the favor of my youngest. Now the pile is more evenly balanced.

After coming home and puttering around the house, I met up with my sister and her kids for a photo shoot. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get three little kids to look in the same direction and smile at the same time? It's nearly impossible! But after taking a little over 100 snapshots, I got about 10-15 keepers. Yes, 10-15. I'm still learning!

Here's some of my favorites:

There are several more loaded onto my Flickr account, so go there to view them. And remember to sign in! If you don't sign in and you're not included in my Friends and Family list, you won't be able to see much of anything.

After pictures we ended up having a bonfire. The fire was sizeable, but we didn't have many people show up. In fact, it ended up being just me, the hubby, my sister, and my hubby's best friend (his wife was working late). My sister's man made a cameo appearance via the cell phone, which resulted in a bit of good-natured razzing by my intoxicated hubby.

Sunday was spent at home doing a whole lot of nothing. I did some homework, played Final Fantasy (which I would have beat if the dog hadn't unplugged the PS2), and did a little bit of housework like dishes and laundry. Oh, and the hubby made killer ribs in his smoker. Yum!

And that about sums up my weekend. What did you do?