Proud Mommy, Keep On Writin'

My son has been participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) activities for three years now, starting at the age of six, but this very night, something momentous has occured at my house. Namely, he participated in his very first Forward Motion "Word War" - pics to follow!

So proud. Squee!

Caught the Bug

Methcillin-resistant staph aureus - aka MRSA. Yep. Got it. It cropped up on the sixth day of my second honeymoon and has been plaguing me ever since. I've been off work since it was cultured on the 17th. Two courses of antibiotics, a rather painfully botched attempt to lance the abscess, and two weeks later, it's still hard, swollen and occasionally painful.

Driving the Dream

I've decided to blog the trip and any future vacation/driving trips/etc. on a new blog face. Please see Driving the Dream for more info and pics. Warning, it's going to be a bit bandwidth intensive.

Completing the Journey

Honeymoon 2007
Day 1

After working all night at the hospital, sitting around until 9am was a bit of a chore, but I found a few things to occupy myself with until Aaron arrived. As soon as he got there, I repacked a few things in the car and congratulated him on remembering to pack almost everything. Who needs a comb anyway?

About midday, we hit St. Louis and decided to actually go up the arch this time. To be perfectly honest, the walk there was the best part. Pictures to come.

The ride to the top was... interesting. We went up in a tiny little, egg-shaped compartment with 5 people stuffed inside. The view from the top was merely ok though.

From St. Louis, we continued on to Kansas City, MO. The barbeque was nothing to write home about, but then, it was difficult to find a place that actually sold barbeque. We ended up at Famous Dave's on the strength of Gary Burbank's suggestion.

We really enjoyed the drive and just being together though, so after our 14 hours of travel, we collapsed gladly into a very nice, clean hotel room just outside of Kansas City.

Hit the Road, Jack

Good news: the wonderful charge nurse on my unit has made arrangements so I can leave a day early on my vacation. Aaron will be picking me up around 9:30 and we'll be heading into Kentucky on the way to St. Louis.

Bad news: this means Aaron will have to pack the car all by himself. Yikes.

More from the road, when I get a chance, including pics(assuming Aaron remembers to bring the camera.)

Nah, just kidding. He's a brilliant man. I'm sure he'll do just fine. :)

On the Road, Again

Aaron and I have both been so busy over the last couple of months that we never got a chance to sit down and plan our anniversary trip. Between that and the special number this year - the big 10 - Aaron asked me yesterday if I'd consider finishing our honeymoon. Ten years ago, we were rather rudely interupted when we totalled our car in Gillette, Wyoming. The plan is to drive back out to Gillette and continue where we left off, making our way east toward Ohio by way of the Badlands, St. Paul/Minneapolis, and a handful of other landmarks.

Here's hoping that finally finishing the trip won't mean the honeymoon's finally over. The last ten years have been wonderful and I hope the future holds more of the same.

On the writing front, I'm still working toward my goal of getting this revision finished by Oct 31, to clear my writing calendar for NaNo in November. It's looking like a strong possibility that I'll be working on Sevenfold.

Seven, Little Scouts

Rather than cluttering up my main blog page with stuff about the novels, I've devoted a new blog to the trilogy. You'll find it in the link next door.

In other news, Anthony's scout camp was a success, from the standpoint of him having had fun. From the sleeping and staying warm and dry front, not so much. In any case, he ended up crying toward the end of the day from missing his old pack. I think it was the marching songs and the pack-feel more than anything else. This group is composed of dozens of individuals, doing their own thing rather than the tight knit group we're used to. I spoke with the CubMaster and the Scout Leader about getting more involved and about getting the boys doing more teambuilding exercises, like marching chants and whatnot.