Wah! My former employers have just canceled their promise to let me use a copy MS Office free for life. Looks like I have to plunk down $150 for a home version of Office within the next 45 days. I refuse to buy a yearly subscription ($100/yr), and my experiences with OfficeLibre were not encouraging. Grrr.

More tasty greed-shaped cookies please!

Quote by DenimAngel

grumbles stupid people who are in charge of negotiating MLB MORONS!!!

The MLB 2022 season is DELAYED

Grabs a cookie and some hot chocolate

Yep. The billionaires thought the millionaires were making too much money. So everyone loses. Most of all the game loses. Fans and credibility and money.

I look to have an actual calm day ahead of me - we'll see if that lasts. It's warm and sunny and I am going to try to climb back into the novel today.

A coffee and a greed-shaped cookie please.

Scooby snacks! Thanks Sara!

Long day. My daughter was in the ER last night, but all appears to be well now. Whew! Life is short, but parenthood is long.

The house sold fast this weekend, for more than I expected, which is cool. A bunch of dumb little details are gonna follow, but it should all be over in a month.

MLB is currently in their 11th straight hour of talks, with tonight being the last day of negotiations. They’d better get their sh!t together or they are gonna lose a LOT of fans. Probably not me though. I’d prefer to watch and b!tch about it.

I’m grabbing a cup of decaf and a couple Velma cookies and kicking back with a book.

And…we just accepted an offer on the house. Higher than I was expecting, so yay! Weird to work hard for a month and a half, and have the thing sell in 48 hours. Not that I am complaining.

I suppose I should want to celebrate, but staying home and hanging out with Talia sounds like a pretty good celebration already.

So, coffee and cookies are on me! Some Velma-shaped cookies please!

Good luck with the peepers on Monday Ape.

I'm so sorry to hear about your dog, Red. It sounds like you found some healing in the ceremony and dignity with which they handled the remains. I have a paw print of our beloved Minky on the wall of my office.

Woke up to actual house offers today! We'll be fine, I think. The house looks really nice - way nicer than when we lived in it! All that work is beginning to pay off.

And I am taking one more day off. I will edit a bit, but mostly I will rest on my laurels and wait for offers to come in.

Coffee and a home-shaped cookie please!

And...the house is on the market. I feel like I'm crossing the finish line in a marathon. It looks great. I'm psyched.

Plus, it's nice to be cashing out of the real estate market on the apparent eve of World War III (nervous laugh).

So, me and the cats will be kicking back and celebrating today, on No Talia Thursday, with an anxious eye on the news (the cats are very interested in geopolitical politics). I may putter around on editing some short stores, but I'm basically taking a day off.

Talia and I are debating going to see the opera of The Shining, at the Elle Caulkins Opera House, as a celebration. It's supposed to be really good, and I've never seen an opera before. Plus, IT'S THE SHINING!!!

Coffee and a peace-shaped cookie please.

Quote by Ceebees

Watched Parallel Mothers. A beautiful film by Pedro Almodovar staring Penelope Cruz. Deals with friendship, motherhood and romance against a backdrop of the history of the Spanish Civil War.

Loved this movie. Almodovar can do no wrong.

So I'm not a big Vin Deisel fan, but he made a great sci-fi movie called Pitch Black, and a goofy but fun sequel called Chronicles of Riddick. There was a third movie made that for some reason slipped under my radar, and I found a couple nights ago on HBO. Simply called Riddick. Good sci-fi, if not quite as good as the first movie. David Twohy wrote and directed all of them - he's from the X-Files writing room.

That X Files writing room is responsible for a lot of good TV and movies. The Sopranos writing room too.

I'm sure I'll end up doing something today, but I have absolutely nothing planned. It's Decompression Day, I have declared! House is done as it is gonna get, jury is over. I will start writing again, but I think I am gonna wait a day. Today I am just gonna see where the day takes me.

Happy Wednesday everyone! No Talia Wednesdays is switching to No Talia Thursday, so she's around. So are those doofy cats.

You sneak up on me with that boot, Sara, and the cats are gonna get you!

A coffee and a boot-shaped cookie please!

Okay, I am done or mostly done with all my recent obligations. I'd love to be part of this anthology and I'll have a version of Monster ready by the end of the week (I promise changes will be minor!). Do I just send you the .docx, WriterGirl? Do I need to do anything else? I've been a bit out of the loop on this.

Quote by Brad_Naylor

I thought MITHC got off to a great start. I believe it could have, and should have, been fitted into two seasons. Like a lot of these kind of shows, once they get an audience they tend to milk it. I think LOST is a good example of shark jumping. Westworld also went on for too long. All the best shows I've seen pull you in, take you on a ride and know when to stop. Breaking Bad was a good example of knowing when to stop. It left me wanting more and that's what makes it great. That's just my opinion though.

I didn’t watch Lost, but I agree about Westworld. Started out great, and with a bunch of great ideas, but then spent so much time building out a whole “mythology” they lost all immediacy. I assume they were borrowing a page from Lost in doing so.

Really looking forward to the last season of Better Call Saul.

And the verdict is.....GUILTY! GUILTY! GUUUIIILLLTY!

If it's not clear, jury duty is over. We voted guilty. We found out afterward that he has a BUNCH of felonies he's currently on trial for we didn't learn about before. So, in hindsight, he was definitely guilty.

It was a good group of people in the jury. We got along well.

Did a few house chores for the sale on Thursday. Now I am gonna kick back and just chill for the first time in a very long time.

Sorry about your ankle, Sara (reminds me of an old Salinger story, Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut). I'll sign your cast!

Elyse, you have great taste in crushes - you pick my favorite actors. Oldman, Rickman. If you start crushing on Sam Rockwell (one of my very faves) I may begin to suspect you have a spy in my household.

Coffee and a guilt-shaped cookie please!

I've got an account for 50 free images legally available from DepositPhoto for book covers if you want to browse them. I've probably used 10, so would be free to share. They are good, and there is a lot of variety. Message me if you are interested.

The house is as ready as it is gonna be. My back is screaming at me. But it's cleared out, and cleaned, and staged.

Jury duty continues tomorrow.

Sigh.

It'll all be in the rear-view mirror in a few days.

Coffee and a patience-shaped cookie please.

Quote by WriterGirl

Nicola gave permission! Woohoooo!

Nice!

I'm in jury duty next week, and after that my house hits the market, so if I don't react to the project much, it's just temporary - too much going on right now! I'll have a revised/polished version to you as soon as the dust clears.

The option of real names or virtual seems smart.

Jury duty. I'll likely be scarce for the next week or so. I'll pop my head in when I'm done.

My house goes on the market next week. I'd sure like to be there to supervise the finishing touches. But I suppose this is my obligation as a citizen, and it looks like it'll be interesting at least.

Coffee and a cookie please.

Tale Winds?

Can we polish if the polish takes the story over 5000 words? I had to cut like crazy to fit the word limit and I would love to have an extra 200 words or so to play with,

My apologies to anyone who felt left out. That wasn’t my intention, and I genuinely don’t think it was anyone else’s. Writing is hard, and people’s egos are understandably on the line.

The anthology sounds like a wonderful idea.

Congrats to the winners of the comp! It was a good one - I gushed on the comp thread so will not do so here.

Lazy day house-wise: I am handing out checks but doing no more heavy lifting, at least for a day. I need to let my back recover. 9 days til we hit the market.

Huge snowstorm hitting tomorrow morning. I may have jury duty (I call in to find out tonight), and may have to drive through the snow to get there. Still, despite the poor timing, I've always wanted to serve on a jury. Lotsa good story ideas, if nothing else.

Sorry for all the snow is about to hit you, Sara.

"A writer's victory for sure" is a good way to put it Pingu. VV, congrats on that REALLY well deserved first place win. And congrats to JLB and Ceebee, and to all the other runners-up. And congrats, of course, to everyone who attempts the impossible task of writing a story and putting it out there for others to read. What a courageous act writing is.

Great comp, great stories, I enjoyed reading every one of these.

Happy Valentime’s Day everyone!

I am supervising workman at the old house when I should be locked in a cozy V Day embrace with Talia, but sadly, I had to rush out of the house after we exchanged gifts to be here. Wah! Still, I should be home soon.

The Super Bowel was fun. Not a big football fan, but I sorta enjoy the hoopla. Now, we can all focus on MLB shooting themselves in the foot and alienating the entire fan base by postponing the season to grab a few more dollars.

But hey, the sun is shining, it’s V Day, and the work here is progressing nicely. I not gonna be writing 5 days a week again until the house is ready, which is making me a little crazy, but I shan’t complain.

RIP to Reitman, he really was a talented director, as is his son. Those movies will have some legs. They’ll be watched and enjoyed 50 years from now.

One of those cookies and a hot cup of coffee would be perfect.

Ugh. On what should be the last dumpster load. My back is barking, as my Dad used to say. Still, we are very close to being ready. 13 days away.... It does feel gratifying.

I quit writing. I'll start up soon, but I'm scared if I write without my head fully in it I'll just f it all up anyway. So, a little 1-2 week break until this house stuff is settled.

Not to get political, but what's up in Canada with the truckers? We don't get a huge amount of coverage. I assumed it would peter out, but it appears to be getting kinda weird and dangerous.

Coffee and a dumpster-shaped cookie please!

My genuine condolences, Red. Pets really fill a life with love and fun and loyalty. I'm glad he went peacefully.

Overslept over an hour this morning. I must have needed it. I worked HARD yesterday. More work today - dumpster number three is pulling up in about an hour, and the Sisyphusian (sp?) task will continue.

Baseball starting on time is looking less and less likely. Grrr.

A coffee and a key cookie please!

I'm an adult?

Good morning all.

Good luck on the move, James. Sorry about your knees, Amelia.

Red, that sounds like quite the scare! Slurred speech! Glad it was just thin blood.

Going over all the stuff we had stores in the basement today, and packing it up or tossing it. Lots of memories of my Dad and my wife in there - it's sure to be a bittersweet day. Swimming in memories, lost in conversations with ghosts.

No Talia Wednesday, but the cats seem unconcerned. We should get them little cat calendars, so they know.

Hey, where the frik is PING!? Have you left again? Don't make me drive up to Canada and kick your ass....

A coffee and a home-shaped cookie please.

Quote by Mendalla

Quote by DenimAngel
We should have a group field trip to Germany

I'd be down with that. I've only been to Berlin and that was in the early nineties not long after the Wall came down. The entire East side was one big construction zone (we stayed in the former West Berlin but my wife's conference was in the East, IIRC).

Quote by verbal
MLB owners are meeting for three days

To actually down something or just have a party to celebrate. I'm sure there's some arcane way they still make money hand over fist even if there's no games.

Another day, another dollar. I am increasingly looking forward to retirement, I find. Not sure what's changed, but the resurgence of joy in my work I had going for a while there has fizzled out now. 3 more years if I stick with my current plan.

Putting on some lemon ginger and green tea for the evening crowd. Refresh the coffee, too, in case any of the Aussies or others already in tomorrow pop by.

MLB labor talks are just the millionaires vs. the billionaires. I just want a full season.

Yeah, the first wave of Covid let me retire early. It really is life-changing, in all the right ways. Hope you get to pull the trigger soon. I've really enjoyed this last year.

And on that note - I JUST CRACKED 60K WORDS. Coffee and cookies are on me!

Watched Moonfall last night, as predicted. It’s pretty bonkers, in a good way. Makes no sense, like, at all, but a likable cast (Halle Berry and that Game of Thrones guy) and a genuinely kinda cool third act. Lots of conspiracy theories. I enjoyed it. Nearly empty theater - I can’t understand how movie theaters are even open.

Should be a calm day at the old house, so I am gonna write today. This stop and start rhythm isn’t good for the words - takes me so long to find the groove.

MLB owners are meeting for three days starting today - fingers crossed we have a hasty conclusion to labor talks and don’t miss any of the regular season. Unlikely, but hope springs eternal.

Coffee and a cinnamon cookie please!

Quote by Mendalla

Quote by verbal
I might even go see an incredibly stupid sci-fi movie tonight (Moonfall) in celebration.

Emmerich does teh stupid so well, eh. I tend to enjoy his movies but with my brain disengaged. None of them holds up terribly well if you start thinking about them.

He does stupid really well. Michael Bay just generically blows crap up, Emmerich really brings the full-tilt weirdness. 2012 made absolutely zero sense. I've seen it 3 times.

Talia wont go, but she will pick me up and drop me off (which allows me to partake in substances sure to enhance the stupid). I may bite the bullet and go.

Things are progressing nicely at the house, and my irritability has fled.

I might even go see an incredibly stupid sci-fi movie tonight (Moonfall) in celebration.

Quote by CuriousAnnie

Quote by verbal

I've got like 5 stories to read for the comp. and should hit them tonight.

At the old house most of the day today, most of the day tomorrow. Recarpeting and another dumpster. Jeez! One day I will write again. Actually, I did about 3000 words last week, so I shouldn't be complaining. And yet I am.

And for Sara, ambition-shaped cookies, shaped like books! And a coffee!

Happy Monday morning all; a warm weekend so lots of outdoor activities including the garden which is a mess as this summer is unusually wet. Himself is five months today, I have so come to understand the saying: "The days are long and the weeks short."

Lol I envy you the 3000 words in a week, two competition stories in two months was hard enough.

I adore the cookies (or biscuits as we would say in these parts,) already have three of those books in his library which he seems to like - mind you, as he can't move, he cant escape being read to. I am sure he would love the biscuits too, but he knows nothing about sugar yet.

Thanks Annie. Great to see you writing and to read your story. Ape is right, I have tons of free time these days (though not this week!) and so can devote my days to it. When the kids were little I found NO time to write. It eased up for me very gradually.

Good morning all.

Carpet guys showed up 3 hours early, wondering where everyone else was. This is gonna be a long day. Not even gonna try to write. Meeting four guys to coordinate them and set up the timetable for the house going on the market in...17 days!

I'm irritable already.

A coffee and a book-shaped cookie please!