A Possible Ending In Sight... Maybe...

My stories run up and bite me in the leg -- I respond by writing them down -- everything that goes on during the bite. When I finish, the idea lets go and runs off.

-Ray Bradbury, science-fiction writer (b. 1920)

Not usually what happens to me.

For me, I usually get a nibble that lasts for a little while.  Then it runs away.

A few days later another nibble.  It runs away again.

It goes on like this for a while.

Reminds me of grade school when a boy would like you, and he'd come up and slug you.  The action is repetitive, somewhat painful, but the end result can be something awesome.

Right now, the nibbles are few and far between.  As it stands, I have about a week and a half to finish my "serial killer" story, and then it's a new year.

And hopefully that new year will bring me something great... something much better than what I've been dealing with so far.  And I'm not talking about my loving family and friends and the little things here and there.  I'm talking about the aggravating bits, the enduring of crap, the waiting for the "you'll get something soon, honey" moments that never seem to happen.

It's difficult to stay positive, but I try.

And here we pause for a comic strip break.

Penny Arcade (http://penny-arcade.com/) "Usurpers, Plural" strip dated 12/12/11

To fill the void of not-writing, I had turned to the one thing to comfort me in my time of need: the internet.  (Mainly cuz I'm out of booze.)

If a writer stops writing, and no one's around to hear it, can you still hear them cry? 

I checked my email, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and caught up on several of my comics - Penny Arcade being one of my faves.  I read this and immediately shared it with Maggie C., who later told me that I was an artist.

She always says the sweetest things.

And back to serial killing.

While drinking and gaming at a friend's house, I took a pee break (I had fueled up on a lot of beer.  Don't look at me like that.  I was helping.  Just ask Kathy.), and while in the ladies room, I had an epiphany.

Why are most epiphanies found in the bathroom?  (No, that wasn't the epiphany.)

I was trying to figure out how to have a mundane figure out who the killer was, and then it struck me.  (No I'm not sharing it with you now.  You'll just have to wait.)

I'm not really sure how I'm going to write it, but I've started to.  It's sort of coming together... sort of.

Another comic break!

Wondermark (http://wondermark.com/) strip dated 12/16/11

You can thank Jaquas for this one.  He posted it to my Facebook just for me.  And you know why it's funny?  Cuz it's true.

My cat is currently reminding me that her ass is toxic.  Why can she never make her catbox smell of roses and cinnamon? 

Pardon me while I deal with her foulness.

(time lapse)

All right, I'm back.  Now she's just being anal (no pun intended) cleaning up litter and whatnot.  I hear her in there scratching/pawing all over thinking "Did you explode in there?  What the hell are you doing?"  One of these days I'm going to find markings on the wall like akin to things you'd find carved into trees or park benches or whatever.

It would be cool if that were true I found Portal "the cake is a lie" sketches.

Yeah.  I'm a nerd, and it made me laugh, so deal!

Back to the killing...

So yeah.  I need to go back and do some editing for fluidity sake.  I also need to add things to make transitions a little better.  I just took the time to write here since I wanted to write here more often than I have been.  The plan is to head out of town to see my family for the holidays by the end of the week so if that's the case, you won't be hearing from me for a few days since my mom's place has no real internet access.  Also I'll be spending most of my time with my family and hopefully getting to see Margrit (aka SEESTER) so I don't think I'll have any real time to write.  Maybe during my insomnia moments I'll be able to finish or work on my story (which at worst case scenario will be posted when I get back), but yeah.

Maybe I'll just leave the minibook at home when I leave and just bring a notebook and a pen.  (Ohhhh, kickin' it old school.  WHADDUP?!?!?)

All righty.  I should really hit the sack.  I'm going to the movies with Leah G. since her husband Jim G. does not want to go see The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  (I am her date.)  I had hoped to read the book before watching the movie, but I do want to see the movie.  She listened to the audiobook and LOVED IT!  A chic I temped with at the beginning of the year watched the foreign version first after reading the book and thought it was crap.  Everything I've been hearing, the US version is WAY more spot on.

I can always read the book next year.  *grin*

All right.  I'm going to go now, but before I do, I'll leave you with one more comic (which I found today).  I like nerdy humor, and since I'm passionate about writing, writing is one of the things I'm nerdy about.  With that said, I share with you and then hit the sack.

I Love Charts (http://ilovecharts.tumblr.com/) strip dated 12/20/11

Time for bed.

Later my lovelies.

Have Goodness!
Rae




PS... In case it needs to be said, NONE of the comics are MINE.  (Websites noted below each comic.) Kthnxbye.

Would It Help If I Bashed My Head Against The Wall A Few Times?

Hey, I almost had an achievement!

-Dutch from the video game "Halo 3: ODST"

Damn!  Damn!  Damn!  With some more Damn!  And a side-order of Damn with an extra heaping dollop Damnitty-Damn-Damn-it-all-to-hell!!!

Now that I've got that out of the way... I'm stuck!  (And not like "Timmy fell down the well" kind.)

So I've talked about my goal of having all my story blogs (as represented by the lovely tabs above) with 2011 posts and then by the start of the new year (which is frakkin two weeks away) to update all the story blogs on a somewhat more regular basis.

All that was left was my "Wheels" story blog (which has the least on it since it was started last with much intention to have more on it than it actually does), but it's proving to be more difficult as time goes on.

The story on there that it posted is not my best work, but hey... it was my first try with my brother's prompt generator.  (One of these days I will remember to post a pic of it).  But that's what happens when you try something new, right?  With each attempt you hopefully get better and better.

I'm not sure attempt number two will be any better than the first one.

With the bits I was given via the "Wheels" prompt generator, I looked at it and thought "How the frak am I going to be able to make anything from that?" 

Then I started writing.

Then I had to kill someone.

Now this couldn't be just a regular "oh someone got mugged and a gun accidentally went off" kind of thing.  The killing was intentional.  And the killer isn't caught. 

But there's more.

The murder turns out to be one of a string that have happened.

And a civilian is supposed to track down the bastard responsible.

You heard me.  A civilian. 

I feel like I'm kind of out of my element on this one since I'm not really a suspense/mystery writer.  I'm more of the slice of life, stuff that's sort of happened to me but altered a bit, sci-fi/fantasy/horror-ish weirdo.  Straight up murder mystery writing is not my thing.

First I tried my hand at several beginnings... and eventually settled on one (for the moment though I'm still not happy with it).  Then I introduced the victim that starts it all and how that person died.  Then I transitioned back to the main character and how he's found other victims and their link...

And that's where it ends.

Now the intro bit took a while.  Eventually I beat the crap out of my OCD, made a couple notes, and forced myself to move on.  The next part took a bit of reworking and OCD brow-beating to move on from there.  (I was stuck with how to kill the victim.)  When I got to the last part, I was having issues with what the main character would do.  Would he stay where he was?  Would he relocate?  What kind of person would he be compared to before? 

Blah de blah de blah...

I have to say though I have been most impressed with the last bit that I wrote.  It was all coming together nicely, flowing from my mind through my fingertips over the keys.

And now... I'm stuck.

Being a writer, I'm also a book lover and being so have been to various author events.  One author once said that there was no such thing as "writer's block"... that you're basically just stuck until you work through it and are unstuck.  Since I heard that, I don't like using the term "writer's block".  It sounds kind of negative and defeated-like.

Which is kind of how I feel right about now.

Every time I open the story doc, the cursor just blinks at me in a belittling way that makes me want to smack it with a truck the size of Texas.

Meanwhile the voices in my head have been stirring.  The kids are getting rather chatty.  They haven't knocked on my door so far in their "Mommy!  Look at me!  Look at me!" way but I can hear their murmurs.

There's IC and GA as well Chloe and my NaNoWriMo novel attempt from last year.  There have also been stirrings from the novel project Jim G. asked me to co-write with him.  (That's been sort of put on hold due to life being a little on the chaotic side.)  Some of my other kids have been making a little noise, but I'm hoping they can either entertain themselves long enough to let me finish this story or possibly offer some insight as how to proceed.

Maybe I can find some help in a bottle of beer.

Now if I just had some beer.

Later my lovelies.

Have Goodness!
Rae

The Kids Won't Let Me Kill (What's Up With That?)

"This place feels so unfamiliar and yet I know it well.

I think i used to belong here."

-from the song "Spanish Doll" by Poe

The kids are restless again... only this time, it's more than just IC and GA.

Chloe (from my first novel pre-NaNoWriMo) is starting to talk to me again.  I thought she'd be busy with her art and such, but nope.  She's got some things to say about her story.  Her whispers in my ear haven't been as constant, but combined with the other kids and their chatter, it's been a little distracting.

I've been having random voices chatting about in my head during the day.  Sucks that I don't have a Matrix-like USB port in the back of my head where I can just download the voices into a thumbdrive and save it for later.

But nope.

It hasn't helped much since I haven't been feeling up to snuff these past couple days.  I'm better now, but sheesh... I wasn't great before.

Thursday night I was hanging out with Leah G. and Jim G.  We had dinner, watched some shows, hung out.  I had a bit of a headache which was sinusy-related.  I snacked on some chips before mealtime so as to not spoil my dinner, and I was drinking water (since sometimes my headaches are dehydration-induced).  Perhaps the headache was from not having eaten yet that day.  Insomnia had kept me awake again for most of the night so I didn't actually fall asleep until the sun came up.  In trying to get some rest, I got a text from Leah G. about coming over.  She picked me up around 4pm, I went with her to the store and then it was off to home.  The headache had started earlier that day but was weak.  I had hopes that food would help which would fill my stomach leaving me not hungry and with enough grub in me to take some meds.

Yeah.  No.

Jim G. got a cold pack for the back of my neck which helped the back of my head (since the pain went from the front left of my head to the back leaving the top of my head untouched).  Getting cold from the pack, I curled up on the love seat and draped a blanket over me.  We watched Burn Notice (which is one of the shows he reviews).  I think I nodded off for small bits at the end.  Then he disappeared into the office with his notes to finish his review while Leah G. and I chilled in the living room.

The pain got worse and started to make me feel nauseous.  Jim G. thought caffeine might help and made me a cup of coffee.  I had taken a Sudafed a couple hours before and with the mild nausea, I did not want to tempt fate with other meds.  I wasn't truly sure the coffee was such a good idea, but when you're in that much pain, you'll try almost anything to stop it.  He made me a small cup as I sat on the love seat and disappeared back into the office.  I had debated on grabbing a can of soda from the fridge instead since I thought that would go down easier, but I just concentrated on being still and willing the pain away.

Usually I hang out late, but I asked Leah G. to take me home.  Jim G. put my coffee in a travel cup and hugged me.  I hugged Leah G. as well even though she was taking me home since I didn't know what state I'd be in when we got to my house.

The drive home was a little painful.  They don't live that far away from me, but I sat there awkwardly, breathing in a lamaze kind of way, staring at a fifteen-degree angle appreciating the view of part of the dashboard and my knees.  When we got to my house, I eventually made it to my room where I just collapsed with my cat next to me and died...

... for about six hours.

Yeah.  That's right.  I slept for about six hours.

For some frakkin reason my body thought it needed to be awake.  There were no car alarms going off or garbage trucks or dogs barking or whatever.  I just apparently HAD to be awake.  I checked my phone.

It was 2:30am.

All the water I had been drinking needed to be set free so I meandered to the restroom and let it loose in the wild via the plumbing.  I avoided the mirrors on the way back to my room (one in the bathroom, two in the hallway) and tried to die again, but my body wasn't having it.

Still feeling headachey and tummy-icky (though less so at this point), I popped open the minibook and attempted to entertain myself.  I had hoped that I'd tire of the internet and head off back into the blackness, but no.  YouTube and Hulu and Twitter and Facebook proved to be distractors (<=== is it just me or does that sound like a Decepticon line of Transformers?  Five robots that transform into YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Hulu and your email.  Together they form DISTRACTOR!) 

Yeah.  I've lost it.

Anyway, I tried to get some writing done in the process but the serial killer thing didn't get much attention.  IC and GA got some time.  It wasn't much, but what there was turned out to be about GA... and I introduced his mother.  There was also mention of his father.  Wow.  Perhaps I am turning this into an actual story.  Goodness me!

My head was starting to ache again so I grabbed the coffee I hadn't touched since I got home (sleep and all that, you know) and sipped at it cautiously in case it told my stomach to do something funny.  It was cold though yummy.  (Jim G. had brewed me some half-caff.)  I also noshed on the apple Leah G. didn't use in her dinner recipe (which was YUMMY by the way).

It was plump and delicious.  I must ask them what kind it was since I have no idea.  I just know it's different than the usual ones I snack on.

Sleep finally came again well into the lighted hours.  Head was less crappy, but my tummy was not amused.  I cuddled up with my kitty and proceeded off into Slumber Land.

As I tried to nod off, for some reason my favorite song from Maroon 5's "It Won't Be Soon Before Long" album was stuck in my head ("Won't Go Home Without You"), but the thing was every time it started to play in my head, it would immediately transition to "Never Gonna Leave This Bed" which is from their recent album "Hands All Over".

Yes, I'm a fan.  Problem?  Tough.  Get over it!

So I grabbed my mp3 player, buried my face into my pillow, and listened to Adam Levine sing, "I asked her to stay, but she wouldn't listen..."  I replayed the song several (billion) times.  I even have my own video version of the song that plays in my mind when I hear it.  I was like that with all their albums.  It's just how my mind works.

Don't judge me!

The fragmented sleep I got Friday left me in bed most of the day.  I ate some cracker-like cookies when I eventually got up.  I popped open the minibook and proceeded to check into the world via the interwebs.  My head started to hurt again so I used my nasal decongestant spray to hopefully unblock stuff... which made my nose a little runny... and then I wiped at my nose with tissue and it came away a little bloody.

Yay!  (<=== that was sarcasm in case you were wondering)

Eventually I got hungry enough to leave my room, so I shoved some tissue up my nose and headed into the kitchen.

Landlady: (passing me in the hallway) Hey.
Me: (mumbling while shuffling since yes... my left calf was still slightly Charlie-horsed and my foot was stiff/sore for some reason) Hey.
Landlady: You okay?
Me: (mumbling again) Head hurts. Bloody nose.  Tummy hurts.  Leg's bothering me.
Landlady: Oh.
Me: (mumbled sarcasm) So other than that, I'm great.
Landlady: (laughs)

I reheated some broccoli mushroom chicken and rice my mother had sent me home with from Thanksgiving and brought it back to my room to eat it while watching some Hulu.  (I need to time when I watch American Horror Story better so I can watch it just before bedtime so I can have interesting dreams.)

I've had weird dreams lately anyway (partly maybe due to the sleeping aid pills I've been taking on occasion or just because my brain is possessed).  One of my dreams had me wake up in a bedroom that looked like it was part of a log cabin or cottage (wood walls, etc) but it was really nice.  I had no idea where I was so I peeked through the blinds and saw a town I didn't recognize.  Then it turned out that I was there to marry some royal someone or other to further the royal line.  At first I protested but in true romance novel, Lifetime movie fashion, I got to know the guy (who in my dream was HOT and great in the sack... kind of like a cross between the Sheriff from Once Upon A Time and Henry Cavill from The Tudors.)  We ended up getting married and living all kinds of happily ever after.

And for some reason I was really comfortable walking around naked.

Again... don't judge me.

Anyway, veering off topic.

I started writing again only this time it was Chloe's turn.  IC and GA had gone off to play or whatever, and Chloe was telling me about her interactions with other people in her story.  So I started writing about that.  (Right now she's about to have Chinese food with a friend and tell him a big secret.  Way to go, Chloe.  That's mighty brave of you.)

And that means nothing to any of you since none of you know the story.  (Sorry.)

So here I am now trying to finish this post to so I can try and go to bed.  I have nothing to do this weekend due to being stranded at home, and I can't afford to go to a friend's dinner party (boo hoo for me, I know), so maybe I'll do laundry (I have one load) and clean my room and maybe write more.

I also have some Hulu to catch up on.  I have Being Human and Terra Nova to finish up as well as two episodes of New Girl.  I'll probably have a new episode of Grimm tomorrow as well.  And I've been re-watching Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip (thank you YouTube).

I'm an Aaron Sorkin fan.

Nothing much else to report.

Well, I wrote a few things over at Everything At Least Once.  Other than that, I've been trying to be a serial killer whenever the kids leave me alone long enough to be one.

Since this is my main page, I'm trying to write more often in it than I have been (it looks like I've been averaging a post a month... and that's just sad, yo'!).  I checked over at my friend's (in my head) blog - The Bloggess - and she writes like every two to three days... and she has way more going on writing-wise than I do.  So I should be able to keep up with that.  She is my writing model.

And hopefully by the beginning of the year I'll have my story blogs updated in a timely fashion, and I'll have many subscribers and people to chat with via my blog and maybe I'll be discovered by someone who saw my blog and thought it was clever and funny and great, and that person will give me a cool writing job because I'm so cool and...

... and maybe I'll wake up one morning with a nicer rack, slimmer waist, and awesome skin.  My hair will magically be tame and do my bidding, I'll be able to eat as much as I want and not gain weight, I'll be debt-free, I'll have a house made of gold, a unicorn ranch, and Hollywood will be beating down my door.

Yes, dearies.  That was more sarcasm.

Baby steps, woman.  Baby steps.

Later my lovelies.

Have Goodness!
Rae

A Serial Killer and the Voices in My Head

"You're just jealous because the voices talk to ME!"
-Unknown

Why is killing people so hard?

Usually it's relatively easy, but for some frakkin reason it isn't now.  Perhaps because I've always done it in onesies and twosies.  Never a sling of them.

How does one get into a serial killer mode?

Music usually helps.  Perhaps I shall peruse my collection of auditory inspiration and crank up some Disturbed or Linkin Park or some other helpful band.  Maybe that'll help.

I wipe it off on tile, the light is brighter this time
Everything is 3D blasphemy
My eyes are red and gold, the hair is standing straight up
This is not the way I pictured me
I can't control my shakes
How the hell did I get here?
Something about this, so very wrong...
I have to laugh out loud, I wish I didn't like this
Is it a dream or a memory? 
-from "Wait and Bleed" by Slipknot

Yeah, I think that's a good place to start.

In other news, the voices have started again.

I'm the kind of writer whose characters speak to her.  (I've always considered myself a healthy schizophrenic which I guess is helpful for a writer, but my characters - my children - are additional voices to add to the cacophony already running amok in my noggin.)

Now the kids are usually polite, clearing their throats in an "um, excuse me" kind of way.  If the kids are in a story I'm working on, that usually works in my favor.  I find them helpful.  But if I'm working on something else, and they try to get my attention, I have to pull the "not now, honey... mommy's busy" card.

And usually they understand.

Usually...

I suppose some explaining is needed here.

As a writer, I collect words, phrases, sayings, names, etc, that pique my interest or strike a chord in me that thinks I could use it in a story someday.  Some time ago (I'm talking years here), I created this lovely name for a character.  (For the sake of this post, I'll abbreviate the name as IC.)  I just loved the name.  Sure, perhaps being the writer, I'm a little biased but let's not pick nits, shall we?

So I had IC tucked away, just a name - no background or physical attributes (though I'd always imagined it to be a girl's name).  I didn't have a story for her yet, but I kept her with me in case one arose.

A couple years later I created another character name - this one we'll abbreviate to GA.  Same thing as IC - a girl name with no story, details, etc.  That was it.

So with the new goal of updating my story blogs to be current as of this year, I was on a roll with updating every single one of them, but this last one has been giving me grief.  (Yes, the serial killer one.)

Wait... I need a refresher...

I... I stand, not crawling, not falling down
I... I bleed the demons that drag me down
I... I stand, (for nothing), not crawling, (the center), not falling down (of calms within the eye)
I... I'll bleed, (for no one), The demons, (but myself), that pull me down (for me and no one else)

- from "Not Falling" by Mudvayne

Ahhh, that's the stuff.

Where was I?  Oh that's right.  My kids.

Every time I open the file on the minibook, the cursor often blinks at me as if to say, "Go on... I dare you."  More often than not, I lose the battle.

Damn you blinking cursor.  How I loathe thee.  *grumble*

Mid-last-month while I worked to "get my serial killer ON", these little voices started pecking at me.  As time went on, they grew more and more persistent (all the while remaining polite as punch).

IC & GA: *clears throats*
Me: (continues to write, swear, eat chocolate, writes again)
IC & GA: *clears throats louder*
Me: (continues to write, swear, whine about lack of chocolate, writes again)
IC & GA: *clears throats even louder*
Me: (giving up for a moment before minibook suffers my wrath) Yes?
IC: Hello.
Me: Yes?  Hello.
GA: Hi.
Me: Can I help you with something?
IC: We need to talk to you?
Me: I'm kinda busy at the moment.  Can it wait?
GA: I don't think so.
Me: I really need to get this done.
IC: But we need to talk to you about something.
Me: What about?
GA: Us.
Me: Both of you?
IC & GA: Yes.
Me: (stares at blinking cursor, wishing for a stiff drink) Okay.  I'm listening.

We started chatting.

As we talked, I had my planner out that my friend Maggie C. gave me at the beginning of the year.  It's a writer's planner with little goodies and such to assist the writer with... well... writing.  I had noticed when initially looking through it that it had a "starter line" on the first of every month.  I had gone back and flagged each starter line.  I had always wanted to do something with those lines and while I talked to the kids, I flipped to January 1st and read the first starter line.

Then I opened a new Word doc... and starting typing up some stuff up off the top of my head.  That made the kids happy, and they went off to play for a while.

Admittedly I didn't write much, but it was something.  And it made the kids happy so it was a sort of "win-win".

I put it away and headed back to serial killer stuff.

Excuse me for a second.

Relax while you're closing your eyes to me
So warm as I'm setting you free
With your arms by your side there's no struggling
Pleasure's all mine this time

-from "Scream" by Avenged Sevenfold

I'm back.  Thanks for waiting.

While out at my mother's for Turkey Day, I actually wrote stuff which is hella odd since my time is limited and the vibes there are usually just wrong for creativity.  But thanks to insomnia, I had some time on my hands.  Granted I should have been sleeping, but insomnia said, "Oh no no no.  If I have to be awake, so do you.  What shall we do to pass the time?  Play some rummy?  Brush our teeth for the hundredth time?  Pick random body parts and test their limits?"

I opted to be productive and try to write... something?  Anything?

I ended up working on the serial killer story, polishing up the segments I had already written and making them into one somewhat cohesive story leading up to the investigative serial killer part.

I must say, I felt rather accomplished.  *takes a moment to high-five self*

That productivity only lasted one night sadly, and it wasn't until I got home that the kids decided to pay me another visit.

IC & GA: *clears throats*
Me: (staring at story, coming up with nothing, and welcoming the distraction) Yes?
IC: You okay?
Me: Just a little frustrated, but what else is new?  How're you guys?
GA: We've been all right.
Me: I'm glad.
IC: But...
Me: But what?

We chatted some more, catching up on this and that.  Then they went off to play with the other kids leaving me alone with the blinking cursor.

So I did what any Writer Mother would do: I opened IC & GA's story and made that blinking cursor my bitch!

Awww yeah!  Take that!  Put your mockery in your pipe and smoke it, wench!

Eventually my steam left my body.  I saved my work, shut the minibook off, shut the lights, and curled up in a ball letting the darkness and sleep take me.

Their story at present is pretty rough.  I have vague ideas about things, like when to reveal more details about the kids (GA is a dude now.  Who knew, right?) and all that, but as far as an actual story?  Yeah.  I couldn't tell you.

For some reason, when I need an opinion on something, I immediately reach out to Maggie C.  I tried sending her what I had written via Facebook, but apparently I'm too much for Facebook, so I ended up emailing it to her.  (I'm still waiting to hear back from her.)

I hung out with Jim G. & Leah G., and when I told them about the kids, Jim G. said, "You could have sent it to me.  I'm a writer.  Hello?"  I honestly hadn't thought of him since his work schedule has been crazy as of late, and when he's home, he's usually watching shows and writing reviews for them for TVLine, catching up on well-deserved sleep, spending time with his wife (Leah G.), or playing SWTOR.  But now his schedule's back to what it once was, and he's back to riding the train, so he's got time.  (I sent it to him tonight when I got home from their house.)

The kids seem happy for the moment.  I can hear them playing, but they haven't needed to talk to me again.

Meanwhile, I'm making headway on the serial killer thing.

Wait a minute.  I need one more hit.

All I've learned, IT'S LIKE POISON
All I've done, INSIDE MY VEINS
All I've seen, ITS LIKE VENOM
All I know, IT'S ALL THAT REMAINS 

-from "Bulletproof" from Five Finger Death Punch

Yumscious evil!  So tasty.

So yeah.  I would say I'm about halfway, maybe more than halfway actually, done with the killing thing.  I'm currently setting it up for something.  Hopefully I can do it.  I don't think I've written something like this before (meaning this scenario), so it's a bit of a challenge for me.  Hopefully I can pull it off, and people will like it.  (Due date is by the end of this year or sooner if I can manage it.)

All righty then.  I think I've blathered on enough.  It's almost 5am (frak you insomnia), and I have stuff I need to do when I wake that requires some sleep.

Tra la la.  Teedle da.  Hibbledy hobbledy.  Shim sham sha-boing.

And you can quote me on that!  *grin*

Later my lovelies.

Have Goodness!
Rae