Welp, I'm over halfway through the comp entries. Loving it so far. So many approaches to the theme, too. From the love of baseball to some really nice, interesting romances. Keep 'em coming, folks. Still more than a week to go. 😊

"Beam me up, Bear," said WG as she stood sweating.

Quote by Sherzahd
I was born with the rhythm of a broken washing machine and the vocal range of a confused goose during mating season.

Yay. Someone else who makes self-deprecating comments about their musical abilities. 😊🤣

Quote by Meagananne1986

Remember, Mendalla. Molly told us the story doesn' t have to lead to romance. Your entry is very good!

Oh, that's not Calico Cupid I am talking about there. That story got dropped from being my comp entry fairly quickly. Besides the lack of any real connection with the theme, it probably needs a couple thousand words to be done right. It will go up after the comp and after the other story I decided not to enter, so maybe later in August. 😊

Quote by WriterGirl

The Odyssey due out next year.

I don't know. Nolan doing Homer is interesting but Damon as Odysseus? Not sure about that one. And Tom Holland might be getting a bit old for Telemachus but I can kind of see it.

I have had poems that I kind of set to tunes in my head but have never really set out to deliberately write a lyric. That said, I love a good lyric and some of my favourite lyricists are also published poets (Leonard Cohen, for instance) so I think the idea of approaching it as poetry is a sound one. If I was going to try writing lyrics, I would probably listen to and read the lyrics of some of my favourites in the style of music I was targeting to get into the mindset, then see what came out of me rather than thinking about it too much. The thinking would come afterward when I started editing and trying to make it fit a tune. But more likely, I would just write poetry that had a nice, regular pattern so could be fitted to a tune easily. Among my current poems, Spooky People is the one that I can most easily see becoming a song.

Quote by gillianleeza
It became an issue when we realized they have well water, and when the power is out, it can't pump water to the house.

Ugh. Been there, done that at our family cottage. Instead of well water, though, we're pumping water up from the lake into a treatment system. We didn't have showers there in my day, though. Just used the lake as a bathtub.

Mine is up!!

https://www.storiesspace.com/stories/humor/calico-cupid

Quote by WriterGirl

And then there were ten! :worship:

And eleven is in the queue. 😊 (and maybe more, I can only speak to one)

Quartet. Piano is nice but I love hearing how the instruments in a small ensemble interact.

Modern (20-21st century) or "Classical" (19th and earlier) classical music?

Quote by rolandlytle

I recently finished reading the 'Foundation' series after watching the TV series. I liked the TV show, but I forgot how wonderful the books are.

How far did you go? There's the original trilogy, then Asimov's additional sequels and prequels from the eighties that tied Foundation to his robot novels, and then the Second Foundation trilogy written by three other sf authors commissioned by the estate after Asimov's death. I read the original trilogy around the time Foundation's Edge, Asimov's first sequel came out but didn't get through all his add-ons let alone the post-Asimov works.

Iced tea as long as it is unsweetened (hate sugar in my tea).

Cat or Cello? (the McGuffins in my two possible comp entries)

I have not played Life in so long (like, 40 years or something) that I would have to go with Monopoly. Haven't played it in a long time either but I played it so much, a lot of it is burned into my brain and I know I played with my son and his buds occasionally so that makes it within the last 20 years or so. I think my son's copy is still upstairs, though maybe he took it to Ottawa at some point.

Watch a sport or play a sport?

Quote by WriterGirl

I’m working on a cover for a book of my scribbles for my son and my sister. I tried to incorporate some things from my stories. Here’s a couple I’m thinking about…

I kind of lean to the first one but couldn't say why. As Roland said, both look nice.

Quote by rolandlytle

The Wedding was great. One of my nephews is a preacher in our church, and he led a beautiful and inspiring ceremony. I was happier than I have been in a decade.

Oo, a minister in the family. We had one when I was a kid. My grandfather was a minister in the United Church of Canada. None of followed him in that calling though. I probably came closest and while I do have a lasting interest in theology and liturgy, just didn't feel I could do the counselling and support part of ministry. My nephew's father-in-law is a pastor in the Missionary Alliance but they had the youth pastor (a friend of theirs) be the officiant for their wedding so the father of the bride just had to lead a prayer.

Glad it went well. I haven't been to a wedding in a while. My cousin's son had a nice young lady with him at my aunt's funeral so maybe I'll get the chance eventually.

Good morning!!

Having your son and his partner show off their new place sounds like a good use of a weekend. Have fun.

I'm now 11 years past Dad's dementia but I hear both of you. It's rough seeing someone go downhill like that. Vibes to all concerned.

I've got three possible stories for the comp, but I'm pretty sure the newest one is going in. It works best in the Flash format while the other two really need more than 1000 words to do their stories justice. And one of them doesn't really fit well in the Summer Love theme, even. Will be best on its own. So I've got an entry that just needs editing plus my next two SS stories.

Fresh Tobermory Grotto coffee is on as are Assam and English Breakfast teas. Cold drinks are lookin' good. Kettle is available if there's some other tea you prefer. And there's brownies.

Not much of a sports watcher but I seem to lean more towards footie these days. That said, the World Cup is only every four years and the Stanley is annual, so I can watch 4 Stanley Cup finals for every World Cup final.😁

Card game: Play for cash or for fun?

I have a new idea that feels great in theory. Problem is, not sure how to really, clearly tie it to the theme. We'll see.

6718, I'm getting quite irate

Quote by rolandlytle
They got here Monday and are getting married tomorrow at 10 am. I am so excited!

Congrats to your son. A wedding with two grands out of the box sounds grand. have fun.

Quote by rolandlytle
Can I enter it on the 1st or before the 1st?

Usually entries stay open until end of day on the due date but I forget which time zone they use. Molly could tell us better (once again, I wish we could @ tag in this software).

Quote by verbal
Cats! Yay!

The cats had you at gunpoint, didn't they? 😜

Oo, Bear brought goodies. All is well here. A bit fatigued for some reason. Didn't sleep the greatest last night so that's likely part of it. Heard that the contractors might be out to start on my driveway next week so there's that. I have a new idea for the comp but haven't had time to take a crack at it yet. Cats are involved (the one I have in hand involves cellos and headbanging).

Quote by Molly

They have it set so that all outside chat sites are blocked. It does include InstaG. One of the last large batches of spammers to come through were using links.

Odd. I am pretty sure the software I use can block the links without blocking just the use of the name without a link. Oh well, now I know. Have a good one! 😊

An album about the end of the world (due to a Cretaceous-level asteroid impact, not any human action) sounds ... well, grim. And I suppose it is. But in the hands of Dutch musician-producer-songwriter and all-round musical genius, it also generates some fantastic music. The first release, The Final Song, was a complex fourteen minute piece of prog with four vocalists including Arjen himself.

The second pulls back, presenting a sad, melancholy ballad mourning a child who will never get to grow up due to the coming catastrophe. When one of the singers is also the mother of two young girls, that only ups the emotional ante. Arjen is joined here by Floor Jansen, stepping back for the final minute to let Floor have the mic and do what she does best ... powerful, emotional singing ending on a belt to bring the house down.

And on that first song I mentioned, one of the vocalists was Floor's little sister Irene, who is a formidable vocal powerhouse in her own right.

Movie. I'm a terrible dancer (my wife might have other ideas, though)

Rock out or bliss out?

Quote by JamesPBear
Don't do it so much in Winter as Lady Jay doesn't appreciate snow drifts in the house.

I actually don't mind opening them for a bit now and then on days when it isn't snowing but my wife is highly cold averse. And I'm not even a polar bear. 😉

Quote by AnnaMayZing
The Green Manalishi (with the Two Pronged Crown)

That has got to be one of my favourite song titles ever. I haven't listened to much of the Peter Green Fleetwood Mac. First encountered them when Rumors dropped in 1977 so have been a fan of the Buckingham-Nicks-McVie lineup since I was a kid.

Was watching the full video of After Forever's set at Pinkpop 2004 (the band ran from 1997 to 2009 roughly). Amazing to see a 23-year-old Floor Jansen in action and realize how much of the Floor I watch today was already there and how much was still to come. This is lifted from that video.

I have a 1000 word story. Needs work, but I can submit it if nothing else comes to me. Still a bit skeptical about it, though. Seems a bit too much like my Sounds of Silence entry from last year (only 7 months ago) so might sideline it and see if another idea pans out.

Good day, all. Still a bit steamy here but the smoke has moved on. Freshened up the hot drinks and made new pitchers of iced tea and lemonade.

Hope all are well.

Seafood. Quite fond of it, really. We just had seafood chowder (mix of salmon, mussels, squid, scallops with potatoes) for dinner the last couple days.

Rice or potatoes for a starch?

Traditionally, I've gone horror. Not so sure nowadays. I seem to have a romantic streak.

Contemporary romance or historical romance?