Hiya guys!

I hope you’re still around. I apologize for not posting as much as I’d intended, but lets see you spend too much time at a computer when you could be at the beach in Hawaii.

Anyway, I think I’ll have lots of pictures to share with you, but here’s a small spattering to get your juices flowing.

This is a picture of Diamond Head (just outside of Honalulu) from the airplane.

This is me (or my toes anyway) lounging in a hammock.

Our hotel

And finally, sea turtles!

Hiya guys!

I hope you’re still coming around even thought I’m not here. Well, that is if you’re not to busy playing with Kendra (which it looks like you might be).

Hawaii is beautiful. I had planned to keep up much more than I have and I apologize for that, but it’s hard work sitting in a hammock all day staring at the ocean. (To be fair, I only sat in the hammock for about two hours).

The flight was EXTREMELY long and we had a bit of trouble but we got here and I slept last night.

This morning I bid the hubster adeiu as he went to do Astronomy stuff and I strolled the resort. I saw dolphins and sea turtles and fish galore!

I’d hoped to upload some pictures but the wireless connection that I’m stealing is really slow. I will probably pay for internet in the room some time this week and hope to post them then so make sure you keep checking back.

Well, hope it’s not too cold/rainy/yucky/etc where you are. It’s BEAUTIFUL here!

Aloha! (That pretty much can mean anything you need it to mean at the time).

Check out Kendra Clarks Yahoo Group. From the 24th through the 31st, she’s having a big old Halloween party featuring excerpts and prizes and, uh, other stuff.

Even I’ll be participating from Hawaii!

I leave for Hawaii bright and early tomorrow morning (actually it’ll probably be dark and early).

There’s one week left to enter my big October contest (enter by clicking on contest to the right and answering the questions). You’ll get something cool from Hawaii (yet to be determined).

I’m taking Jill Shalvis’s Get a Clue and (at least one) of PC Cast’s Goddess books. I’m also going to check Target for Suzanne’s 2nd PAX book (my fingers are crossed).

Other than that, my day will be spent packing and making lists (I like lists).

I will be checking in from the Big Island, hopefully with pictures, thoughout the week.

Otherwise, everyone have a great weekend and a wonderful week!

So when the Hubster came home last night, the cold had moved to his chest. So he sounded like Barry White. Hee Hee. Funny, but now I’ve got Barry White stuck in my head.

I realized the other day that for a writing blog, I don’t really talk much about writing.

Ah well, whataya gonna do?

I think part of the reason is because it’s not going well. Writing lately has been like pulling teeth. I kind of get down on myself thinking that I should be able to average 15 pages/day every day.

And lets just say that lately, I haven’t. I don’t think I’ve written more than 8 pages/day in two weeks. But still I’ve got close to 60 pages of work to show for two weeks. That’s not to shabby.

I think I have to remind myself that some stories are harder to write than others. No matter what.

I’m having trouble with this story because I’m balancing a very fine line, trying to keep it lightish while the hero has bascially had his life ripped apart. I assume you can see my problem.

But, I’m also trying to write a much cleaner first draft.

While in the past I’d have a lot of “INSERT APPROPRIATE WORD HERE” this time I’m trying to actually take the time to think of the word I’m looking for.

Anyway…don’t they say, slow and steady wins the race…baby.

Or has it?

Well, the hubster has come home the last two days whining about being sick. Judging from the way he was acting last night, he was quite obviously on deaths door.

I was trying to convince him that he should be staying home today. We’re getting ready for our trip, he doesn’t want to have a head cold for our 24 hours of being in airports, etc.

But he got up and went to work today claming that he felt fine. Why? Because he’s going to play video games with the boys tonight.

Around me he’s on deaths door but around other people he’s got a little sniffle. Butt head. And yes, he does read this.

Anyway, the worst part of this (besides him being a huge FAKER) is that he’s brought germs into my house.

I hate germs. Seriously, I’m about half a step away from Howard Hughes - after all that Aviator crap.

I’m the one who always walks around with that waterless hand sanitizer stuff. The hubster’s sick, but I’ve washed my hands practically raw in the last two days. When he moves from one spot to another I spray the spot he just vacated (unfortunately all I’ve got at the moment is febreze so mostly I’m just making the germs smell good.)

I’ve gotta go wash my hands again…

I just found out that I live in the 5th most expensive place to live in the country. Woo! And don’t tell me that I don’t count ’cause I live on the outskirts. Trust me it’s not much cheaper here.

In other news. I’m starting to prepare for my trip.

Actually, the hubster and I are starting to aruge about our trip. We don’t really do vacation the same way.

My idea of a vacation is to sit somewhere with a book and a drink with an umbrella and not move for a good chunk of the day.

His idea of a vacation is to, like, do stuff.

I like to sit and watch people and the ocean.

He likes to do stuff.

We’re already starting to argue about hiking to a volcano. First of all, I don’t really hike. I don’t really like outside that much. I’ll go, but I hike at Emma speed. I like to stop and look around - every ten feet or so. You never know…the scenery might change.

So basically, I envision myself getting left behind on a hiking trail.

Does anybody wonder why I’m a little concerned? I guess I just have to make sure I’m the one with the car keys.

I like to volunteer for things.

It’s a weakness I have.

Right now I’m the cohostess for the KIA “Dance ’til you Drop” Writing Marathon for RWAOL. It’s a month long writing marathon started to get mss ready for he GH. Most people aren’t necessarily writing for the GH, but the page counts are amazing! It’s fun, but to make it even more fun, we do a lot of work. Every night we right updates, not necessarly on writing progress (though some of that) but about random stuff. So it’s fun, since I get to be creative. You know, since I’m barely writing myself.

I also somehow volunteered to run for the VP of RWAOL. If I’m running against last years VP though, well, I’d vote for her instead of me.

I’m ALSO the (co)Program Director for the Maryland Romance Writers for next year. Last night, the other Programming girl and I met with the new President (old Programming) to talk about some ideas for next year.

So, if anyone who reads this and lives not too terribly far from Baltimore (we meet very close to BWI) and would like to come speak to us, shoot me an email. (What? So I’m trying the lazy way, you can’t blame me.)

I’m also a moderator for several forums for Passionate Ink and do a weekly roundup of things happening there (when I remember).

Anyway, what all of this basically means is that I haven’t had time in several days for my own writing. I’m starting to see a problem with this volunteering thing.

So, what do you do with all of your free time?

No major plot spoilers to follow but lots of my opinions…

I saw it on Saturday and I have to say I was pretty darn disappointed.

I mean, I guess it was much better than some other movies (a lot of other movies) but it wasn’t nearly as good as the show. I kind of felt like they dumbed it down for the masses. And the reason I liked Firefly so much was that it was smarter than most other shows.

They kind of left out the whole Western part of it. I mean, a Space Western is genius. A space movie is just like lots of other movies.

I wanted to know why Shepard Book wasn’t on Serenity anymore. Also it was never made clear that Inara was a companion, nor what a companion actually was in the movie. I mean, the tension between Mal and Inara works much better if you know she’s a whore.

And if Simon already knew as much as they’re claming he did at the beginning of the movie than wasn’t a lot of strife of the show unnecessary? In the movie they tell us that he knew she was psychic all along.

Of course, that was one of the things that bothered me most about the whole series. If someone had actually taken the time to sit down and talk to River than pretty much a lot of stuff could have been solved. The whole series was a bunch of minor misunderstandings.

I think Kaylee had some of the best lines in the movie and there wasn’t nearly enough Jayne (or his hat, or songs about him).

I don’t want to put any major spoilers in, but I just refuse to beleive that some things happened and I assume that anyone who has seen it knows of which I’m speaking.

And I loved the relationship between Mal and River at the very end. We kind of got a hint of it at the very end of the series (if you watch them in the order in which they’re intended) so I’m glad we got more.

Anyway, there’s my basic wrap-up. Let me know what you think if you’ve seen it.

Yes, another chance for you to win cool Halloween stuff. This contest will go all weekend. What do you have to do this time? Tell me a Halloween Joke.

Here’s one to get you started:

Q: What do you call a fat Jack-O-Lantern?

Give up?

A: A plumpkin!!!

Tell me as many jokes as you’d like and in as many comments as you’d like. You can enter as many times as you have jokes. The winner will be picked on Sunday by the Hubsters random number generator.

And for Soup Saturday - last night I made Tortellini Soup.

Like always, I don’t measure, but I cooked some onion, pepper (I used red and yellow) and carrots until soft. Then, added a can of tomato sauce. Cooked that for awhile then added some chicken broth. Cooked until everything was nice and soupy and then about 10 minutes before serving added Tortellini.

Remember that the tortellini about doubles in size when you cook it. Serve it with a little bit of parmasean cheese, and Yummy!

Have a great weekend and I’m looking forward to the jokes!!