Big Houses

They live in the big houses on the tall hill
The ones that glisten with superiority
And shine brighter than their children
They watch us from tinted windows of black SUVs
Looking at our red cracked skin and little paint chipped shacks
Their babies travel to country clubs and Hawaii
Our babies travel to Iraq, Afghanistan and to Arlington
The valley is covered with crisp folded flags
And little purple hearts

Sardines

I am one of those people who love to eat sardines. Today I purchased 8 tins of sardines. When I go to the grocery store and reach for the sardines people look at me as if I was buying a Hustler magazine. The checkout clerks ask me if I actually eat "those things". "No - I am purchasing them for garden fertilizer" is my standard reply. Yes, I know they smell funny and still have their scales and guts but they taste good.

One time I was at the Twin Cities Marathon Pre-Race Expo in Minneapolis. Two college age girls were handing out free tins of King Oscar Sardines. Business was not good even though these delicaces were "FREE". I went past their booth 5 or 6 times until it became obvious that I was hoarding their offering. Finally one of the young lady's asked me if I wanted to "take a case". It turns out that the distributor had hired them to handout four cases and once these were distributed their job was done. I could not believe my luck. Well these sardines were packed 8 to a tin - I guess one could say they were packed by "family unit". The mom and dad and all the brothers and sisters. It was then that I found out that sardine families were limited to 8. In my case I found 64 tins or families. Using my engineering mind I quickly determined that I had 512 sardines. My Gosh - I had an entire "village" of sardines.

Well I took these to work as my wife would not allow them at home. I put them in my desk and used them to punish my co-workers for the better part of 6 months. I always had fun disposing of the empty tin after I ate a family. I would sneak around until I found an empty office and quickly deposit the tin in the empty office's garbage can.

I guess one could say that sardines taste good but smell bad. It is obvious that most sardines shower infrequently.

Anyway - Give them a try. They're good for you!

Turkey Day 2005

Happy Thanksgiving to all who may stumble across this. Today I am having a nice relaxing day of doing nothing around home with my family. I don't get to just sit around very often as I am always on the go. We went to a local supper club with my parents so we didn't even have to do dishes today! I am looking outside at our bird feeders. We have a patio door with 13 bird feeders outside. The wind chill is -15 degrees F and the wind is blowing 40 mph. The birds are working hard to stay on the swinging feeders. I am sooooo relaxed I feel like mush......

Been Away Too Long ....

Well, it has been awhile since I last made a post. I worked very hard on my NaNoWriMo novel but came up short! I found that there were some days when I fell behind on my word count and this led to a snowball effect where I ended up to far behind to get caught back up. I am not used to outright failure but I really did it this time. I learned some things from the experience that are valuable on their own. First, a novel is difficult to write. Second, I need to learn to type! Third, I will need to more carefully map out my plot next time. Life's a learning experience and I am learning as I go. I am already anxious for next year!!!!!!

Almost Time to Write......

Well, A few more hours and my first NaNoWriMo novel will begin. Believe it or not I still do not have a plot! I'm just going to go with it and see what happens. In other words I will just start putting words on paper and see how my Pulitzer Prize novel developes (yeah right!). I am most worried about my available time to write since I am a perpetually over committed person to begin with. I will however work hard at making time to do this. I am goal oriented and writing a novel in one month is a quantifiable goal which works well with my engineering mind :)

This last weekend I took my 16 year old son duck hunting for diver ducks on Green Bay. For three days we got up at 4 AM and were out on the big water while it was still dark. Lots of big waves, windy weather, and lots of ducks. We had a great time! Ran our 18' Lund Alaskan with a 60 hp 4-stroke a minimum of 15 miles every one of the 3 days.

Tonight I took the 10 year old trick-or-treating. That was a great time for both he and I. I never get tired of watching little kids participate in this holiday. Great Fun!

Grisham, Clancy, Lewis, Rowling, prepare to be joined by a new world famous novelist - Me!

Reading....

I am one of those book addicted people. I used to only purchase a book when I finished reading the only other previously unread book I owned. Not any more. If you gave me $10,000 and turned me loose at B&N I would run out of money before leaving with everything I like. If I never bought another book I could never read what I own before I die. I absolutely love books! Any type of book - fiction, non-fiction, you name it I would read it. If I became blind tomorrow you might as well just shoot me. Books to me are like an addictive drug. When I travel for my job I bring two suitcases - one with books and a smaller one with clothes. No one can ever understand why I need two suitcases for short trips and they cannot understand why I sweat when I carry the larger suitcase. Well if you want to know it is filled with books! Imelda Marcos was top shoes what I am to books. I am also a fussy book person. I hate books with bent, dog-eared, or otherwise damaged covers! I once spent 2 months reading a novel from the library. I recall it was 31 chapters. At least that is what the table of contents indicated. A previous borrower (bastard for short) had torn the last chapter out of the text. Oh yes - did I forget to mention that the book was out of print and to this day I do not know how it ended? I'm like Rodney Dangerfield. I get absolutely no respect!

Bird By Bird

Last evening I attended our local group's NaNoWriMo Kickoff Party at Barnes & Noble in Appleton, WI. What a great group of people! I believe there were 7 people in attendance with all levels of experience represented. I was obviously a novice having never participated in NaNo. Our area coordinator Stacie gave each of us a goodie bag with lots of fun stuff inside. I look forward to keeping in touch with this group as NaNo progresses. In the mean time it is T minus 5 days and I still do not have a plot!

At the party Stacie recommended a book entitled "Bird by Bird" by Anne Lamont which I purchased. It gives advice to writers of all ability levels and I am having a great time reading it. It is not only informative but at times hilarious. Strongly recommended.......

Tonight we carved pumpkins. Our 16 year old feels he is too "mature" for such an activity so the 10 year old and I completed this annual task. He had fun designing the face and scooping out the seeds. I did all the "knife work". He was very proud of his pumpkin when complete. In general it is a very basic facial design.

It seems as if as the week progresses I get more tired from lack of sleep. Too much to do and so little time.........