Wot’s this? Egads! It’s a journal entry! O_O

Blogging/journaling is such a wonderful idea. In theory. I really do like doing it, too, but half the time my ideas for entries come to me right around the time mom starts telling Cami and I that we have to start on chores… By the time I’m sitting down to actually write something, I’ve mulled said idea over to the point where it’s unrecognizable. *looks mournfully at ded and mangled remnants of the thought-that-would-have-been*

So what you’re stuck with here is what is left of my mind after a Saturday of cleaning…

I don’t know if anyone remembers, but a while back I mentioned having a particularly vivid dream—the closest I’ve ever had, I think, to having my subconscious construct a plausible story in chronological order. ^^

I was extremely excited about it, but unsure if it would actually make a good story once written out. So I’ve let it sort itself out for a while, and now, quite out of the blue, I’ve had ideas coming thick and fast. I do believe it wants to be full-blown novel. O_O Though far from writing itself, inspiration has been pretty easy to come by, and I’m having a ton of fun with it. 

In other news: I’ve started recording my mom’s book, “Purposeful Planning” (it’s at www.phyllis-sather.com), for her to put in her “booth” at an online homeschool conference. I thought I’d hate doing it (the sound of my voice on most recordings = much cringing), but I’ve actually really liked doing it, and Mom seems happy with it. And now I have to create a banner for it before the deadline too… 

The ongoing remodel (of super chaos- and disorder-causing powers): Just the hall (leading from our bedroom to the bathroom and the rest of the house) left to tile. Dust continues to fly, and Cami and I continue to be trapped either in or out of our room these days. But we do have a bathroom again, and it is lovely, which has been a cause for much celebration. Still, I can’t wait until the mess moves upstairs to the next bathroom, and we can move back down-stairs… =P

*crawls out of her comfy Introvert Hole* Hullo world!  =D 

Karate continues to be brutal, but I think I may survive the experience. Maybe. Yesterday, we spent most of the lesson learning self-defense moves (specifically, what to do if someone bigger and stronger grabbed you by the wrists or arms), and the first suggestion the teacher had was to spit in their face. Hehe, this is one I wouldn’t mind testing out on Eric (along with foot-stomping, screaming, and kneeing him)… No, honestly, I lurv my little brother. I do. *bg*

Heh, me and journals... I always lapse into laziness fairly quickly ("No! You don't say?", gasps the general audience. :P).

Yeah, I'm not REALLY busy in RL, but I've had a ton to do online lately with responding to all the loverly reviews I've been getting for my stories. It was really, really stupid of me to post two stories at once, but I'm almost done with my second (non-LOTR) story. So, a little of the pressure will ease off after I put "The End" to that WIP (I am never posting a work in progress EVER AGAIN). Besides admining for the SNWCG, the LOTR RPG site I belong to is finally starting the game back up! YAY! I'm very excited about that. =)

In other news--I got Lymes disease! At least, it seems probable, since the antibiotics appear to be working. For a while there my left arm/wrist hurt too bad to use. Which is another reason for my lack of presence online lately. One mysterious ache down, ten more to go. But I'm going to see my physical therapist today, and I'm optimistically hoping she'll have found some miracle cure for chronic back-pain (and has been keeping it very hush-hush...for some reason).  I'm also going to go see the rheumatologist  too, some time this year, so if PT doesn't help, maybe he can... Yeah, I'll just be optimistic. =)

Oh good grief, this is going to sound whiney...but, I'm not making all these physical ailments up. Feel free to plug your ears, though.*g* I'm probably going to need glasses soon!  I'd really rather have contacts, just 'cause...I would. But I don't need eye infections on top of everything else, and my Mom's already prone to dry-eye problems, so I'm just not going there for the time being. Sometime, though, I think it'd be fun (in a freaky way) to get those cat-eye contacts, maybe in green.... *bg*

Anyways, that's the end of this hypochondriac’s account for now. I'm sure I'll be back with more injuries later. Hehe...

Ick. The cold is still clinging. Seems to be going in this fun cycle: bad cough, sore throat, congestion, congestion/bad cough/sore throat--all together now! :P *weezesnifflemoan*

Anyways. We're leaving (again), to go to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, where my dad gets his required annual  medical training.  The rest of us just tag along and spend the day shopping around town, getting lost, and generally having fun. :) Although, usually, we have to also do our state testing there (required by the state until you're 16), this is the first year none of us have to, since Eric's turned 16 now. (The state doesn't care if you're over 16 and stupid. *g* Not that passing those tests really proved you're all that smart...)  This time our goal is to shop until we find living room furniture. *groan* Amazing how many different tastes in furniture five people in the same family can have. LOL. Our living room has been doubling as a storage room for too long, though, so I hope we find something. What I'm REALLY looking forward to about this trip, is that the hotel we traditionally stay at has the SciFi channel... *bg*

The tree studio is really coming along! Eric's been taking lots of pictures, too, so I'll have post some on here when I get back. I've been up there several times, now, and it is going to be awesome. Of course, I'm really having to work on getting rid of any lingering fear of heights! The tree is located on the side of the hill, so one one side it's not too far down, but on the other side it's nearly 20 feet straight down, and just keeps on sloping all the way down to the stream below. Yup. I'm working on my previously undiscovered acrophobia... Once the boys get the railing up, I think I'll be able to enjoy the view with a little less vertigo. ;)

Ta for now!

P.S. Thank God FF.net seems to be up and running again! Hopefully, updates for The Weight of Power should be more reliable now (but I won''t be posting until after I get back from Mayo, in a little less than a week). For those of you who still haven't recieved the alert: chapter 11 is up. ;)

 Yes--I'm accepted! :)

It doesn’t sound like I’ll be able to post many of my past stories, since they don’t meet their requirements, but I will be able to post “The Weight of Power”, at least. I’m not 100% about what else I will be able to archive—just sent back an e-mail asking for clarifications—so we shall see. It’s exciting in any case.

Oh, I must mention one thing, I found very encouraging in the acceptance e-mail. It said, “I [Nilmandra] do know several people who are reading your current story and have recommended it for SoA…” Wow, let me give a heart-felt thanks to those “several people” whoever you are! I appreciate the recommendation very, very much.

Since it does't appear that I'll be able to archive everything on SOA, I think I will start polishing and uploading stories to N&N as well. It will be nice to belong to a site where the staff actually care about your opinion, and respond to e-mails... (Michelle's terrific about both. ;)

Well, in celebration, I have two random (but hopefully interesting) things to post. Firstly, a music video for Josh Groban’s song “Don’t Give Up (You are Loved)". Everyone else has probably heard it (I’m always way behind on newly released music), but if you haven’t, you really should. :) Here’s the link for that:  http://youtube.com/watch?v=ls7ila3srzI

And, here’s something neat that was sent through on the Aragorn Angst mailing list: http://www.bookblog .net/gender/ genie.html --- the “Gender Genie” analyzes your writing and tells you (supposedly) whether or not your style is more male or female. Kind of neat. (Apparently, from the part of my writing that I tested, I do write like a girl. *g*)

Heh, and yes, I realize neither of those links have anything to do with my post, or each other... LOL. Beginning to see where I got my nickname? *bg*

I really should go on the S.N.W.C.G. and have a proper nail-biting session about this, but I thought posting here would do for now at least... IjustrequestedpostingrightsonStoriesofArda. *trembles* It's not that I'm actually nervous or anything--the worst they can do (and likely will) is refuse. But... *big sigh* ...it would be so nice to have a site like that to post on, as opposed to FF.net. It just looks so "safe", and sheltered, and comfortable, and selective--in a good way.

Maybe it's this latest flamer on FF.net that's got me so skittish (actually, I'm more aggravated with that "person" than afraid). The ugliness said person has created is making me rethink my archiving options, since in addition I’ve been seeing such a general downhill trend on FF.net. Basically...I'm just hoping to have posting rights on SOA, so I have a second option. And I really don't feel like waiting three months to re-submit myself, only to possibly still not be accepted.  However, I'm just going to expect rejection (*sniiiifle*), but hope for a go-ahead. If I'm not accepted, I'm thinking I'll make HASA my "backup" archive, and/or Naice a Nilme (http://www.naiceanilme.com/). They’ve been comfortable to navigate as a reader, so I think I’d probably like them as an author.

In all honesty, though, I don't know if I'll be able to kick my FF.net-habit.  Actually, it's the reviews I'm addicted too. *hangs head* I guess I've really gotten attached to the readers over there, and I think I'd feel rather lonely posting on some of these sites with out the kind of colossal support I’ve been receiving (I can’t believe, sometimes, how many reviews I’ve been sent for different stories!). But, that's a ways off, I think. I'm sticking in there for the time being. We shall see. Maybe FF.net will get new management (i.e. real honest-to-goodness PEOPLE instead of automated-message-sending-computers. GUH.).

Oh, and, by the way, the swelling starting going down yesterday and my ankle is doing just terrific today. *bounces about gingerly* For a while there, my other leg was beginning to hurt from all the extra use, so I've very happy to have my left one more-or-less back in working order. Plus I don't have to sleep with an ice-pack anymore. *cheers* All in all, though, I think this has been a wonderful experience. An author needs to experience injuries before dealing them out the characters, no? *looks sternly at Muse* Nooo, this does not mean I want a concussion next… However, I will be writing this experience down in my little book of “How to Write Realistic Injuries: A Collection of Real Life Experiences” *g*  

I come to post this afternoon feeling like an extreme idiot. An extremely pained idiot… Today started out lovely—sunny, warm, but not so warm that our beautiful snow would melt. Very nice out. And, my sister and I were going with our mom to a brunch and ladies’ get-together with some of the women from our church, and after that meeting the boys in town to see a movie (“The Ultimate Gift”—coincidently, it was a wonderful movie, I would highly recommend). All in all, it was looking to be a fun day. And then I left my bedroom. Yes, be afraid, be very afraid… 

It was really neat. The owner (our neighbor) showed us a video all about how coffee is grown, harvested, and roasted--I didn't realize quite how much work it is!  Since good coffee has to be grown at high elevation--which usually equals uneven terrain--they can't even use machines to harvest it. The weather is also hot all year-round in the places where coffee is grown, so, even on the same tree, the berries ripen at different times. That being the case, it has to be done manually in order to differentiate... Oye, but it looks like mundane work (I don't think I'll ever throw the dregs away again :). 

Snow, and lots and lots of it... Yay! I've been waiting for a blizzard like this all winter, but the weather's either been too warm (thus making our lovely "snow" rain :P), or freezing and not snowing at all. But now we've got  oodles and oodles, and it doesn't look like it's going to be completely letting up until Wednesday. :D The best of it is that it's the weekend, so dad's home, and we actually get to be snowed in all together. If it gets worse, we might not even get in to church tomorrow, so Cami and I'll have to call and try to find someone to take over Sunday school for  us... Bleck. *hates the phone* (Have I mentioned that I have very odd phobias?)

WoOt! We got to see an episode of Numb3rs last night. I loved it but, but I do think we're going to have to wait until we're somewhat "done" with Stargate before really delving into it...  But it'll be nice to have something to look forward to later, and I'm really, really enjoying Stargate. ;)

Well, I'm off to couch-out completely this afternoon, and hopefully get some writing done... :)

Just some random randomness...

- The allergic reaction seems to be going away.  Hurrah!  Maybe I won't be stuck using an  ice-packs when the next cold front moves in.  I'm VERY excited about the snow they're predicting by next Sunday. :D Yay for cold (as long as I'm not sleeping with an ice-pack anymore).

- I'm really starting to like the TV show Numb3rs. Now, that could be exciting, but you see, I'm still formally in denial. It's a phase I tend to go through with every fandom. Right now,  our whole family is really enjoying Stargate SG-1 (a fandom I also went through a phase of denial with), so it's probably not a good idea to "get into" another series at the moment. But--oh!--it looks so chock-full of brotherly  goodness I can hardly wait to see an episode! Yup, I haven't seen an episode yet. These days, when I'm in this particular state of denial, I prefer to surreptitiously go in the back door by casually reading fanfiction, and watching the occasional clip of it on YouTube... I mean, that way it's not like I'm really into it or anything, since it's not like I'm spending any money on it or anything--right? *g*

- We (my siblings and I) watch three kids every Wednesday, while their mom and ours have an afternoon together to talk. Today we're having a birthday party for Keegan, their 6 (now 7) year old. *bg* I haven't been to a kids' birthday party in so long, this could be kinda fun.... :)

So, I'm off to put the candles on the cake! *bouncy*

I've had mysterious problems for several years with pain in my neck (no, not my little brother, he's a sweetheart :)). As a result, I usually bring an ice-pack to bed to put on my neck and numb it all up, so its easier to sleep.

Newsflash: Ice-packs and below-freezing temperatures do NOT mix well.

I really, really do enjoy cold weather as a rule, but the last thing I've wanted to do lately is snuggle up under the covers with my nice, cold block of ice. *shivers* So, naturally, as any (relatively) sane person would, I've only been using the ice-pack when my neck is really bothering me.

Then, of course, I have to break out in this lovely allergic-reaction type rash. (A rash, which I might add, neither my doctor-father, nor a podiatrist, have a clue as to the cause of...) And guess what? The only thing that keeps it from itching like crazy and keeping me up all night is--yup, you guessed it--an ice-pack. :P

And, of course, the rash can't be somewhere like my hand, which I could stick out of the covers without too much trouble. It has to be on both my heels. So now I am sleeping, in the middle of the winter,  with an ice-pack under my feet... Forget those nifty old bed warmers--the ones you fill up with nice, HOT embers from the fireplace? I'm a TRUE lover of the cold. *smiles wanly through chattering teeth* Oye, I don't think I'll ever quite thaw until spring...

*hunches off to find some hot coffee*