Sidetracked

This has been a good year for a lot of things, but not for noveling.
Oh well.
I've been having some good fun lately that have prevented me from blogging or NaNoveling regularly. This weekend, for example, could have been spent virtuously laboring, but instead I went up to a friend's cabin in the mountains and hung out and snowboarded and whatnot. It was not my usual weekend thing, and that was a very good thing. I had lots of fun and was not at all virtuous.
Yay! It's about time! I've been working too much of late. I've been noticing a need for ever more frequent stress-relief.
If that means I won't "win" NaNoWriMo this year, then so be it.

On the Stove Again

...Just can't wait to get on the stove again...

I was trying to use up stuff in the fridge and made this delightful concoction:
1 red bell pepper
handful of snap peas
some carrots, chopped
handful of mushrooms, sliced
Sauteed in butter until they are tender-crisp.
Add some freshly cooked spinach linguini and some pasta herbs (oregano, basil, etc.)
Salt and pepper to taste.
Just before serving sprinkle on some feta cheese.

Yummo!

Busy Times

For those who know of my phone related woes -- hopefully they're over. I went to Verizon and got a new phone (pictured at left). Let's keep our fingers crossed on this.
The family (parents and tios) have come and gone. It was a great little break in the routine. We went on the Pike's Peak Cog Railway and visited Manitou Springs, Estes Park, and Rocky Mountain Park. We had dinner with extended family and ate out at some very good restaurants.
In all, it was wonderful.
They left early on Tuesday and I had asked for all of Tuesday off, so I decided to go snowboarding in the afternoon. I just went up to Loveland Basin, since I was concerned about my knee, full of trepidation. Turns out I had a perfectly lovely time. I got up there in 45 minutes, someone gave me their lift ticket in the parking lot (I lost it somewhere on the mountain, but that didn't matter, since I was already past the point that they were checking for lift tickets), I had zero problems with the knee. That's not to say I didn't fall down a lot. Somehow I'm still as novice a boarder as I ever was. I boarded for about 2 hours, and on the way back home stopped at Costco, where I saw they had The Complete Calvin and Hobbes for $80. Seeing as it's $100 on Amazon, I experienced a rare moment of allowed impluse buying and got it on the spot. I've been working my way through it, and it's all as delightful as I remember.
So you see, I had a good day.
Yesterday I went to see a couple of funky bands at Herman's Hidaway with my friend Kat. She's a lot of fun, and I'm really glad I went, but I'm also glad I got to spend nearly the whole day at home (see previous mention of a visit to Verizon's store).

The only downside to all this fun I've been having is that I haven't been very diligent about writing for NaNoWriMo. Let's see what I can do about that, shall we?

In the meantime, you can read this lovely excerpt on words by John Scalzi from a book he's working on. I can guarantee you that most, if not all, writers have felt this way at one time or another.