I actually caught up with everything (ok, most of it!) over the weekend!  And, did a wee bit of writing.  I love the proposal I’m working on.  LOVE. IT!   Best stuff yet!  Why couldn’t I write this good with the first books?  Ah, live and learn I suppose.   We all evolve.  The older I get the mellower I get, and yes, like a nice bottle of cab, I’m getting better.  Better in the sense that I don’t let stuff get to me like I used to, I’m very comfortable in my skin, and well, just happier in general. 

I’ve always been a happy person, but now, I find myself smiling a little more. I think I’ve really learned to be grateful for the blessings I already have. All I have to do is look around at my family and that seals the deal for me.  My cup runneth over. 

Okay, so, today, I have to get to the post office!  Hah!  That’s a big fat maybe!  I have to finish up the prize packets, and I have to write!

What’s on your agenda for today??

Karin*

C’mon over and say howdy.  Were talkin’ fairytales and self-help books!   I just read Lisa Rinna’s RINNAVATION.  Loved it!  I got my glow on!  

http://romancebandits.blogspot.com/

Karin*

  Such sad news.  She was a fighter.  How tragic tho’ her son could not be beside her.  I’m angry at him that he took that from her.

Sigh.  Okay, back to prepping the house for bunko tonight.  I knew I shouldn’t have volunteered.  Too much other stuff to do!

Karin*

Hah!   I bet you thought I was gonna weigh in the current RWA drama!

NOT!!

Nope, it’s all about me, I’m afraid. J

I’m at that place again where all of my procrastination has caught up with me, and it’s slammed me against a wall! 

So, I am still processing all of the prizes.  No surprise there!  It is on the top of my To Do List for this week.  I am also way behind on a proposal I have been mulling for several weeks now. While I began writing last week, I hit a wall, and finally have enough to keep going.  And I need to continue.   I need to pull in, stop blog hopping (not!) and just put my nose to the grindstone and get stuff done!

Which means, I’m going under for the next week.  At least until I get these prizes off to all of you patient ladies and the proposal to my agent.

But I did want to comment on the Jon and Kate Plus 8 deal.  I heard they’re separating? Would someone who watched the show share all the deets please????

Ciao for now, chicas!

Karin*

Almost!  It’s camp time. Hubby and the boys including my fil and sil have been gone since early Friday morning.  Sigh.  I must be getting old.  Usually I can’t wait for a quiet house, but this year, even though my daughter has been home but working, and my mil and I have been keeping busy, I have felt like vital organs are missing.  As I type this I’m getting all emotional.   What the hell is up with that?  I mean don’t get me wrong, but I always look forward to camp time. Always!  I mean c’mon.  I don’t have to worry about anyone but myself!  No one asks me what’s for dinner.  I can watch the movies I want to watch (and boy have I!  He’s Just Not That Into You, Australia, Bride Wars, Sex and the City, and Nights in Rodanthe).  I can go to bed when I want and get up when I want.  I can not get dressed if I don’t feel like it.  It’s wonderful!  Sort of.

I miss my boys.  All of them.  I miss their voices, their scents, their messes, their humor, and their vitality.  I want them back.  Now.  But I’ll have to wait.  They’ll be home soon, happy but exhausted.  We’ll sit at the dinner table tonight and say a prayer, thanking god for all he has given us and as we celebrate Father’s Day, the boys will laugh and regale us, the women they love, with anecdotes and stories of the weekend.  I’ll smile, and laugh, and gaze at each one of their happy tired faces and say a silent prayer of thanks to God. For he has truly blessed me.  It’s at times like this when I realize how rich I am. 

LOL, of course tomorrow, I’ll be yelling at them to pick up their shoes, and take out the trash, while they’ll be asking what’s for dinner and if I can help with a project.  And you know what? It will be my pleasure.  Because most of what I do for the men in my life is a happy chore.  I wouldn’t change a thing.

Happy Father’s Day to all the great dads out there!

Karin*

I have seen two out of the five movies up for last year’s Best Picture category, and one many folks said should have been nominated. 

Slumdog Millionaire, is in my opinion one of the best movies I have ever seen.  It was not only cinematographly beautiful to watch, it was just as brutal to be there with the characters as they, against unseeming odds, survived.  And continued to hope and love.  I cannot express in words my heartfelt love of these characters.  I just can’t.  But it’s there, and even after watching this movie two months ago, I think of it almost daily.  It was, for me, that powerful. 

I have also watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.  I liked it.  A lot.  I like Brad Pitt, and I enjoyed his character.  I enjoyed the story.  But it was no Slumdog Millionaire.

Last night I was hell bent on watching the entire first season of The X Files.  Believe it or not I have never watched one episode.  So I Netflixed the first season.  I watched the pilot episode on the flight to Wisconsin a couple f weeks ago, and have yet to find the time to sit down for a few hours and watch more.  So, last night after hubby went to bed, my son and I decided to do a marathon.  Except for some reason my DVD player downstairs would not read the disk.  Grrrr.  So we scrolled through the Pay Per View listings and after my son coaxed me, we decided to watch The Wrestler. I really didn’t want to watch it.  I’m not a Mickey Rourke fan.

From the beginning the movie was slow.  It was a sad and poignant story with no Rocky moments. I thought Marisa Torme as stripper Cassidy and mom Pam was awesome. I thought Mickey Rourke as Randy the Ram was awesome, but I wondered as I watched him stumble along how much of that character really was him?  It made me sad to think much of it was.  There was a lot I liked about the movie, more than I didn’t like.  I loved how tho’ he was a has-been, the Ram was lovingly embraced by his fellow wrestlers, and fans.  I loved the peek inside of professional wrestling, and the camaraderie there is amongst the cast. I loved how the Ram, after all those years of wrestling, and as broken down as he was, still loved what he did. Surprisingly, I loved a lot about this movie. The only thing I didn’t care for was the pacing.  It was slow from beginning to end. 

When the movie ended, and it could end no other way than it did, I sat silent for a long minute then said to my son, “You know, there was no other ending that would have worked.”

He nodded and said, “I know.  It would have been wrong for everyone.”

There was a lot of buzz about this movie not being nominated for Best Picture. So, I asked myself, was this film deserving of an Oscar?  I didn’t think so last night.  I didn’t think it stood up to Benjamin Button, it came nowhere near Slumdog.  But this morning, The Wrestler is still on my mind. Ram and Cassidy/Pam and even Ram’s daughter. Maybe I was wrong?  I plan to watch the other films that were nominated, Nixon/Frost, Milk and The Reader, I’m also going to watch Slumdog again.  I can’t help myself.  Yes, it was brutal, and terrifying, and heartbreaking, but it was a wonderful story of love and triumph and it still makes me smile.

Have you seen Slumdog?  What is your favorite movie this year?  And what makes a movie a favorite for you?

Karin*

Yep, time for me to stop procrastinating, and put my gargantuan To Do list together, and just freaking do it!

Here’s just a peek of what I need to accomplish today and this week:

Today’s list:

Write blog.  Check! J

Visit my daily blogs

Reduce inbox to less than 10, currently it’s at over 190 but some of those are new.

Buy all the gift certificates for 8 Days for 8 Knights winners.

Find out why, when the bookstores have ordered MASTER OF CRAVING, they can’t get it.

Walk, and take both dogs.

Put together Cabi order.

Write 3000 words (easy peasy, this new idea is flying from ma fingertips.)

Read at least three chapters of the book I’m currently reading, (my new goal is to read at least one book a week!)

Continue to promote MASTER OF CRAVING

Keep Twitter fresh and update Facebook and Myspace

Tomorrow:

Walk

Read at least three chapters of the book I’m currently reading.

Write 3000 words

Package and mail all books to 8 Days and 8 Knights winners

Package and mail all of the other goodies to the 8 Days for 8 Knights winners

Package and mail all other promo blog winners their books

Go to post office (hate that place L )

Clean desk, again.  Maybe find another gift certificate? 

Continue to promote MASTER OF CRAVING

Keep Twitter fresh and update Facebook and Myspace

By Friday:

Put together finical package for refi (I HATE doing this kind of stuff!)

Pay bills (even worse)

Read daily

Write 3000 words daily

Walk at least one hour daily

Continue to promote MASTER OF CRAVING

Keep Twitter fresh and update Facebook and Myspace

Have ALL of the winners’ packages on their way to them!

Purchase the proper software to add windows to my new Mac Book.

Whew!

So, what does your To Do list for today or this week look like?

Karin*

Over at MurderSheWrites!  Oh, and I’m also at my BFF Tawny Weber’s place (click on the blog link)talking about much nicer things. 

Karin*

Ok, so I will admit, I have never seen one of their shows.  I have no interest.  I don’t follow the Octomom stuff either.  But! But, with every channel and every website and every gossip rag raging on an on about Jon’s affair, Kate’s affair, their impending divorce and how much every one HATES Kate!  I find myself knowing far too much than I want to know.

So, I have an opinion.  I came to this conclusion after chatting with a bunch of the WisRWA gals Saturday night over a few glasses of wine.  Here’s what I remember hearing.

One:  Kate does pick on Jon.  She’s hard on him in fact. Ugly hard.

Two:  Kate is the driving force of the show.

Three:  Jon quit his job to help out at home.

Four:  Jon was also going to go back to school.

Five:  Jon isn’t that much of a help and hasn’t enrolled in school.

Six:  Jon is a putz. 

My thoughts:  From what I have seen and heard: Jon is weak in character. So not hero material. He’s been quite content to allow Kate to use/exploit/whatever you want to lash out and accuse her of doing, the fact that they have 8 kids, to further their means.  Big deal!  If I had 8 kids and someone came to me with big bucks and the offer of a reality show, damn straight I’d take them up on it.  It costs almost 100K to send a kid to a second rate public California college, and that doesn’t include expenses!  Do the math!  Kids are expensive!  With 8 she needs help, and not the lazy ass kind Jon is offering.  Domestic assistants, cost big bucks.  The more you pay the better the employee (in theory anyway).  Housekeepers cost.  Give me a break!  The woman needs domestic help so she can be a mom!  Kate is a businesswoman.  She needs a business assistant!  Hell two or three of them! Give me a break people!!  Why is everyone so hard on her?

And then there is her weak-ass husband.  Would someone slap him?  Wah wah wah.  I’d be riding his ass too.  She’s doing it because she’s frustrated that he hasn’t stepped up, and since she has, she’s catching all the flack.  No, she isn’t perfect, but damn if that woman isn’t made of steel and seeing to the current and future welfare of her children.  And yes, damn it, herself!

Is she perfect? Nope, not even close. But I bet you a hundred bucks if her limp noodle of a husband turned into a man she’d back off the bitch wagon real quick.

I say, leave her alone.

So?  Am I totally off my rocker?  And for what it’s worth, most of the WisRWA ladies I was chatting with think Jon’s a worthless wuss too.

Thoughts?  Opinions? 

Karin*

GIRL!!!!  

I am so damn excited I can’t stand it.  I knew I didn’t care whether I was going to have a granddaughter or a grandson, but what I didn’t realize until after the sonogram was that I had been unconsciously stressing about the baby’s health.  Hey, it’s what I do: worry!

My son-in-law was so nervous while we waited for the doc to come in I had to laugh. Here’s a guy who was as cool as a cucumber on his wedding day, patiently waiting at the altar for my husband to hand over our daughter. But today, he was nervous and fidgety and it was making me nervous and fidgety!

So at first, my granddaughter was not cooperating.  The umbilical cord was between her legs and the doc couldn’t get a good shot.  But while we waited for cooperation, the doc went over that baby front to back, up and down, backwards and frontward, inside and out.  I was leaning over her shoulder asking what was what, although you could see her little face (she’s gorgeous btw) and hands and feet and arms and skeleton so clearly it was like she was right there, instead of in my daughter’s belly.  And when the doc was finally done with her examination of the baby, I asked her, “So everything looks perfect and healthy?” 

She looked up at me and said, “Yep.” 

I broke down and cried.  I was so relieved!  Then the cord slid to one side and the doc said, “It looks like a girl from here.”

My son-in-law said, “Great, three generations of Beezies.”  It was priceless.

So, I have a granddaughter!!!  Hubby is ecstatic, and my sons are already honing their hunt-the-bastard-down-and-kill-him-if-he-hurts-their-niece skills.

I already bought her coming homing for the hospital outfit 6 weeks ago.  I had a hunch…

So, along with this wonderful news, I want to just say to the ladies of WisRWA, Thank you for making me feel so welcome!  To my new friends, Cat, and Megan and Renee, and Heather and Thea, and Trish, and Jody, and both Anns, and to all the others, thank you for making the con so memorable.  To my dear friends Edie and Liz, hugs and kisses. I heart you both. To Liz S and Kathleen P and Marilyn, and Donna K and Stacy N it was so nice to finally meet you face to face! (although Marilyn and I have met before, but it was so nice to see you again!).  I came home dog ass tired, and swore when I got off the plane, I wasn’t going to travel all day for any con!  But by the time I told hubby about the weekend, I said, “I’d do it again.  And I will if they invite me back next year!”  hint hint.

I also wanted to let y’all know I’m going to be guest blogging over at my friends Greta’s place tomorrow.  http://idonotwanttowaitiwantthebooknow.wordpress.com/

C’mon over and harass me.  And give me a few days to get all of these prizes together.  I have a busy week ahead and might get a wee bit more behind.  My mailbox is overflowing with emails I should have returned weeks ago.  Bad, Karin.

Ciao, chicas!

Karin*