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Journal Entry: July 5, 2007

Tuesday, July 3
On Tuesday, I finished my second novel. I wrote the epilogue to Josh’s story, the first volume in the Sleeping Kings trilogy. Nobody needed that amount of detail (if you’re reading this blog, that event was nothing like a surprise), but it’s a dramatic enough thing for me that I wanted to spell it out.

Really, the rest of the day is just a blur. On Tuesday, I finished my second novel!

Work sucked. It was a bad day. Shouldn’t have been — a lot of people were gone because of the holiday (turning a day off into a five day weekend, through clever use of leave), and I usually really enjoy days like that (I never have enough leave saved up). There was just a lot of unpleasant work to do on Tuesday, though, and I wanted to be elsewhere.

I did get off work an hour early, and then for the evening K– and N– came over, and N–‘s mom, who is in town visiting, and we watched the Season Finale of Stargate Atlantis and the Series Finale of Stargate SG-1. That was kind of a big deal, too. We’ve all been watching SG-1 for years now, and it’s easily the best long-running sci-fi TV show I’ve ever seen. Watching it with K– and N– was a lot of fun.

Oh, and I had three 7-and-7s, because they were there.

They stayed kind of late, but since I didn’t have to work the next morning, I didn’t really have any excuse to skip my evening walk, so around 9:45 I headed out. When I got home, I found T– chatting with D– (he’d tried to reach me on my cell phone, but I hadn’t taken it with me). I checked in to see why he was trying to reach me, and he wanted to go see Live Free or Die Hard. There was an 11:20 showing.

I knew better than to take him up on that offer. But I did anyway. I called K– and B– both (it was nearly 11:00 at that point) to see if either of them wanted to join us, but they were wiser men than I. D– picked me up, and we went to the mall.

I guess because it was the night before the holiday, they were closing showings (probably based on the sales during the day). So when we got to the ticket booth there were no showings of Die Hard, but there was an 11:20 of Transformers. I pointed out that I would get in a lot of trouble for going to see Transformers first, without… well, really, anyone whose initials I use on this blog. So we agreed not to tell anybody, and asked for two tickets.

And, would you believe it, they were sold out. So we decided to go to Hudsons for a few drinks. But when we got there, it turned out it was karaoke night. Loud karaoke night. Bad karaoke night. And the place was packed. We finally found a couple seats, waited ten minutes without hearing from the waitress, and then left without placing an order.

From there, we went to Fox and Hound Pub, and it was a much more pleasant environment. I had nachos and a Jack and Coke and Long Island Iced Tea (and around the first sip of the Tea, I was thinking, “Man, I shouldn’t feel this tipsy…” and then I remembered the tree 7-and-7s from earlier and said, “Ohhhh…”). We talked for a couple hours. Good times. I finally got to bed around 2:30.

Wednesday, July 4
At 3:00, 4:00, and 5:00 in the morning, AB woke up (and made sure we knew about it). T–, generous, loving wife that she is, handled it. Still, it was not a lot of sleep even for me. I ended up getting up for real around 7:00, because she needed me to take care of some stuff around the house before our guests came over. Meanwhile, she went to a parade up in Edmond with N– et al.

Wednesday was N–‘s birthday, and it being the 4th, that always means some pretty dedicated celebration. This year was no exception. I spent a significant portion of the morning at Wal-Mart, buying needed goods, and then came home just as D– showed up with the meat for a cookout. I started the chicken marinading, made up two batches of salsa (Mild, which I was told by experts was still too spicy, and Extra Super Hot, which K– said was, “actually hot this time,” meaning it was probably pretty close to Extra Super Hot).

On a whim, I mowed the back yard real fast, realizing we’d be cooking out on the back porch, and possibly playing K–‘s yard game (backyard bolo, or golf horseshoes, or whatever you want to call it), so short grass would help. It’s not a terribly big back yard, but it had gotten hot, so I was already at a simmer by the time guests started arriving. I took a Benadryl, too, because of the mowing.

Guests started showing up around 1:00. K– and N– with her mom, my little sister with her whole family, B– and E–, D– was there…all told, we had 13 people in our house, not counting the zygotes. Considering that, the whole afternoon went amazingly well.

We grilled burgers and chicken and brats, and a selection of vegetables N– had brought, and everyone said it was all delicious. We had two extravagant desserts, by way of birthday cake, and some delicious ice cream by way of Blue Bell. We invested a significant portion of the afternoon in eating, and of course there was chitchat throughout that, and as people started falling asleep standing up, we realized it was about time to split up. My sister’s family left to get the kids some rest, and B– and E– left to get themselves some rest, and those of us who stayed mostly crashed out on couches. We turned on the Wii and showed N–‘s mom how to bowl, and wasted a couple hours that way.

Then, around evening-time, we headed out to Bethany for a big Independence Day carnival they were throwing, with the expectation (of course) of fireworks at the end of the evening. This year, for reasons having to do with the penultimate scenes in Sleeping Kings, I was looking forward to the fireworks more than at any point in the last two decades. We picked a good show, too, and I was not disappointed.

Before that, though, we had to find parking. They’d set aside a big field for parking, but when we got there we learned it had been closed off because of all the recent rains (and the risk of getting stuck in the mud as a result). So, instead of a parking spot within sight of the Live Music stand, we had to find a place somewhere in town. And everywhere within a couple miles was off-limits, as clearly indicated by the “Road Closed” and “Towaway Zone” signs posted everywhere.

It turns out, though, that by simply ignoring those signs and slipping down a street we weren’t legally allowed to be on at all, it became quite simple to find a really fantastic parking spot. So that solved that problem.

Then there were the long hours waiting for the fireworks to begin. We walked around the carnival, but couldn’t convince ourselves to spend money on any of the mediocre attractions there. We did buy some of the mediocre fried foods, and delighted in it the way one does in such a scenario, but that quickly passed. Oh! I tried out a 1920’s door-to-door salesman voice that worked out pretty well, so that was something accomplished.

S–‘s family showed up about an hour after we got there (so 7:30-ish, but that’s just a guess) and B– and E– showed up shortly before the fireworks (so, two hours later). Figuring out landmarks to meet up with B– was an adventure in itself, but we managed to rendez-vous behind the port-a-potties, and all was well.

The fireworks show was spectacular.

We got home around 11:00. D– had stayed at our house all evening watching AB for us (he’s not a big fan of fireworks). I invited him to go for a walk with me, so we did the usual route and talked of life and things. It was fun. Afterward, he went home, and I got to bed around 12:30.

Thursday, July 5th
Today, significantly less happened. Oh! I mentioned earlier that I never have leave saved up to supplement a holiday, but I do get a regular day off every pay period. I was able to move mine for this week (that should have been Friday) back a day, so I could recover from the merriment of Wednesday.

To take full advantage of that (and much in need of it), I’d vowed to sleep until noon. Instead, I ended up getting up around 8:30 so I could watch AB while T– went to the chiropractor. I played Civ 4 all morning, and had a couple leftover burgers for lunch. At 1:00 we headed over to K– and N–‘s place, because N–‘s mom had invited T– to go see a movie with them (“them” being the girls — it wasn’t the sort of movie that guys go to). I took AB with me and hung out at K–‘s place for the afternoon.

We downloaded a game from XBox Live Arcade called “Band of Bugs.” I’d heard favorable discussion of it in a Penny Arcade newspost, so we decided to try it out. It’s a surprisingly fun game. It’s a combat strategy game, that simple to play but has a surprising level of complexity to it. Could be a lot of fun. We had just started trying the multiplayer out when the girls got back, and T– and I came home.

I spent most of the evening playing Civ. D– came over to pick up his iPhone, which he’d had delivered here, and he hung out all evening getting it set up. T– and I watched some TV, and had a frozen pizza, and…I dunno. She probably did a lot of work. I just played my game.

At 8:45, I did the dishes so T– wouldn’t have to (after yesterday’s party, some had piled up). Then, a little after 9:00, I decided to go ahead and go for a walk. I’m glad I did. At this point, I’ve only missed once. I want to see how long I can keep that up. I spent most of the walk working on an Afterword for Josh’s story, which I hope to get typed up and posted tomorrow, but will do sometime in the next week. Just to let people know where the story stands, really, and that it’ll be a while before I start posting Sarah’s story.

And then I came home, and typed up a ridiculously long blog post. That was my holiday weekend, in the middle of the week. Now I’ve got a Friday that’ll probably be pretty quiet, and then another weekend that I actually get to spend at home. I’m excited about that.

I’m going to bed. Later.

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Journal Entry: July 2, 2007

Biggest news of the day: I finished Josh’s story. I won’t post the last three pages until tomorrow morning, because that’s what my schedule says to do, but it’s done.

The book isn’t quite finished there. I’ve got an epilogue — a single scene that ties up the book, and reframes the whole story you just finished reading (if it works, anyway). I plan to post that on July 4th. So, the real end is very much in sight. Josh’s tied up the way I wanted it to, too, but I’m not sure if it reads the way I want it to. I’ll require extensive reader feedback to figure that out.

When I got home from work today, I learned AB still isn’t gaining weight as fast as the doctors want her to. That’s pretty frustrating, mainly because the solutions involve making T–‘s life a lot less convenient. And there’s already a person in this family filling that role. There’s no room for AB to help out with that!

I also discovered that my computer was off (we had a power flicker during the day), and when I tried to reboot it, it did something really wonky. I got that fixed, though, by swapping the jumpers on the hard drive and DVD drive. They’d been giving the BIOS problems anyway, and K– suggested making that switch a month ago. It solved the problem.

Then I did some more yard work, because we’re hoping to have people over for a cookout on the 4th. The bugs have been terrible, so I did another (different) treatment, to hopefully get that under control before Wednesday.

After that, the evening was already well on its way to 7:00. We watched a little TV, had some pizza, and I played Civ. Then I went for a walk, and thought through the dialogue for the closing scene of Sleeping Kings (and a little of the rewrite of the intro). That went pretty well. I’m looking forward to writing it.

For now, though, I’ve got to get to bed.

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Journal Entry: July 1, 2007

Seething with fury. I’d already typed up through Saturday night when my Firefox did something weird, and I lost it all. Grrrr!

Friday, June 29th
Our friend Julie is in town housesitting for some family for a couple weeks, so she stopped by Friday night after work to drop off some bead jewelry for T–, and visit with us some. Once she’d had her fill of AB, she went to hang out with T– who was at the church for a crop.

Around 7:30 B– and E– came over, and E– was so generous as to offer to watch AB while B– and I ran out for supplies. We hit Byron’s Liquor Warehouse where I got some Seagram’s 7, because B– had never had a 7 and 7. He’d also never had a Tattoo and Redbull, so I suggested we go by a grocery store and pick up some Coke and Redbull for that. It didn’t occur to me, somehow, that I also needed 7-Up. So B– had his first Tattoo and Redbull Friday night (and his second, and his third), and we both had our first Seagram’s 7 on the rocks. It was pretty good….

We also picked up some magnificent barbecue while we were out. When we got back, we ate, and drank, and talked. We also turned on an episode of Firefly, but twenty minutes in we paused it because AB was fussing, or something on that order, and never ended up unpausing it. We talked much of days gone by. It was really fun.

Around 11:30, they headed home. I kept telling myself as soon as T– got home, I’d go for my walk. She got home, and I didn’t. Six days in, and already I’ve failed my goal to walk daily. I stayed up until midnight, posted Saturday’s Sleeping Kings story (so it’d show up on the right date), and then went to bed.

Saturday, June 30th
Saturday, I didn’t write at all. Instead, I slept in, to a dramatic degree. I finally got up and around sometime around 11:00, and discovered that it hadn’t rained at all yet today. So I went out and mowed, as I’m sure 90% of the homeowners in town did that morning. I also sprayed the foundation of the house for bugs, and moved several piles of branches out to the curb for big trash day.

In the afternoon, T– and I ran up to Old Navy so I could finally get the new shorts I’ve been yacking about all week. I got a pair of jean shorts and a pair of workout shorts, both of which are extraordinarily comfortable. I’m very satisfied.

Then in the evening, Julie came by again. We visited some, and after she mentioned she was a huge fan of the Deschanel sisters (and explained who they were), we ended up watching Big Trouble, which she had never seen before. That’s always a fun one. Then we watched Happy Texas, which is on the same disc, and also she’d never seen before.

Shortly after that, she headed home. I stayed up to play some Civ, and then around 11:30 realized I hadn’t gone for a walk yet. T– argued that my yard work should count, but since I’d skipped the night before, I felt bad. So I went, full route, as fast as I could, and felt a lot better about myself. When I got home, I crashed.

Sunday, July 1st
And this morning, I felt awful. Between the work and the workout, I was sore all over by the time I woke up. Worth it, though. One week in, I weighed myself this morning and I’ve lost eight pounds in the first week. It tends to go like that, though. The first ten fall right off, and then nothing for a month. I’m not looking forward to that.

We went to church, and then came home and I wrote up today’s Sleeping Kings post. Only three more to the end of the story! I’m really excited about that. I guess I’ve said that every day this week, haven’t I? Forgive me. It’s a big deal for me.

This afternoon was a little bit lazy. We watched some Andy Richter Controls the Universe, which was a fantastic show, back when it was on. We also watched She’s the Man, a rough take-off of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night in the same vein as 10 Things I Hate about You. It’s not as good as that one, but not as bad as it could be. It burned a couple hours for us, is what I’m getting at.

Then I spread some weed-n-feed on my yard, and then D– went with us to Friday’s where we met K– and N– and N–‘s mom for dinner. It was a really fun evening. I don’t think I remember a time a group like that has been that talkative. For pretty much the whole time we were there we had at least two conversations going simultaneously.

And, of course, the food was delicious. T– and I split the Jack Daniels Tower (ribs, chicken, and shrimp), and I had a Redbull Berry Blast Slush to drink. It was interesting.

Came home, then D– and I went for a walk, and spent the hour talking. After that, he went home, and I came here, to type this up. And Firefox lost half of my submission and I had to retype it, and you can bet your ass I’m still grouchy about that. But now I’m going to feed the kittens, and then I’m going to bed.

Hope you had a good weekend. This next week should be interesting, given the mid-week holiday. I’ll keep you posted.

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Journal Entry: Thursday, June 28th

Heh, this is getting very confusing. Every day this week, I’ve written a post on alexpoet about yesterday, and a post for SleepingKings that’ll go up tomorrow. It’s wiggin’ me out.

I guess that can end early next week, though. Teehee.

All I’ve got left is the action sequence, and the epilogue (also known as the “denouement,” which is French for when we finish off the bad guys). There was a lot of setup that had to go in before I could get to the action sequence, and I was pretty concerned about getting through that, but as of today (tomorrow, in terms of public viewing) it’s done. And, actually, the scene I wrote today was another of those few scenes I’ve had in my mind since day one. In my opinion, anyway, it went as well as I could have hoped. Feel free to judge it harshly, though, and say so in the comments, when you read it tomorrow.

Yesterday was another muggy day. Seventeenth day in a row that it’s rained (and today makes the eighteenth). That has been wild. I found out yesterday I’m on the list to get green-badged (which is our way of saying “moved from contractor to Federal employee”), which has several long-term benefits for me. So that’s pretty cool. Otherwise, the changes at my work are still in flux.

T– went to Tulsa for work yesterday, and left AB (I’m just gonna call her “AB” — it’s an unGoogleable nickname, so I’ll use it without the dashes) with E–. After work, I picked her up and chatted with B– and E– for a while (catching them up on my work situation), and then headed over to K– and N–‘s place to drop off a printout of the most recent SleepingKings posts, for them to read on their trip this weekend. While I was there, I learned (erroneously, it turned out) that I didn’t have any bottles for AB, so I had to rush home to feed her when she got fussy. Not before I made a delicious mini-pizza, though. Hooray for leftovers.

So, by that point it’s already 7:15. The only milk we had was frozen, so I went ahead and gave AB her cereal while the milk was thawing (we usually do those two in the opposite order), which is a horrific mess. Possibly the most unpleasant thing I do with my baby (she hasn’t started making the really awful diapers yet).

Usually, T– does the feeding (and the diapers, for that matter), but she didn’t even get out of Tulsa until 7:00, and the baby was hungry. So I fed her cereal, and then changed an explosively dirty diaper, and then gave her a bottle, and then changed another explosively dirty diaper. It was a wild night. Then I put her in her bed, went out to the garage to feed the kittens and change the litter box, and by the time I came back into the house, AB was sound asleep.

Ten minutes later (which is to say, 8:45), T– got home. We talked a little bit about her day, and then I went out for my walk.

Remember what I said about it raining? I was out for about fifteen minutes before it started to sprinkle. It got progressively stronger, and by half an hour it was really seriously raining. I decided to keep at it, though. Every single block on my route has a turn that will basically lead me straight back home, in a shortcut. The night before last, though, I only half did my walk, because D– was with me, and he was wearing flip-flops. So I decided, rain or no, to do it right.

By the time I got home, an hour after I left, I was drenched. Sodden. Quite inundated. Still, there was a little bit of satisfaction knowing I stuck it out. So there’s that. I’m at five days in a row, now. It’d be easy to skip tonight, because I’m hanging out with B–, but I’ll bet I can talk him into going with me. We’re planning on getting drunk, anyway, so he should be quite suggestible.

Have a good weekend. Enjoy tomorrow’s Sleeping Kings. It’s a good one.

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Journal Entry: Wednesday, June 27th

Okay, no meeting yesterday, but by casual email it was officially announced that my boss, our Team Lead, is going to be Acting Branch Manager (that is, he’s stepping into the shoes of his previous boss) until a permanent replacement is found. In addition, he’s going to be interviewing for the position.

Admittedly, I haven’t worked for that many bosses in my time, but from what I have seen, I’m just amazed by this guy’s style. I would love to see him in the permanent position (not least because he fully supports what I do, and some of my grand long-term ambitions). So, that’s definitely good news.

Are some people super sensitive to cumin? That’s my only explanation. I did use a lot more cumin than usual in the latest batch of chili, but it was still nowhere near “so spicy that you can only taste the spice, not the meat or other flavors.” That’s how T– put it. I had the leftovers yesterday, and I still don’t get it.

I also, yesterday, wrote out today’s scene for SK, which ended up over three times longer than my normal target for a daily post. That’s okay. I expect it’ll happen a lot between now and the end of the story. I’ve decided to write entire scenes in one sitting, instead of breaking them up in manageable blocks. It’s the sort of burst-productivity that you can only get over short periods, but I’m close to the end.

On that note, I keep thinking (and even saying), “I’m about ten pages from the end of the book.” Thing is, though…yesterday’s post alone was 10 pages. And I’ve got at least six more like that. So I guess there’s more to it than I realize. Maybe after editing it’ll be 10 pages total, but that’s still a long way off.

I’ve been listening almost exclusively to hip hop music as I’ve been writing Josh’s story (the first book of Sleeping Kings). Also, incidentally, Josh’s character has already claimed to be a hip-hop fan. We’ll learn tomorrow that he’s got a Luda Kris ring tone. It works well with his character.

Sarah’s character (the focus of the next book), isn’t likely to be a big hip-hop fan. I’m thinking more country, and on that note, I’m considering switching all my stations to country music until I finish the second book. It’ll be a little bit brutal at first, but it’ll help me get thinking in the right direction (her approach to the world is radically different from Josh’s), and I’ll probably get accustomed to it pretty quickly. I listened to a lot of country back in high school….

In case you’re wondering, I’m thinking rat packers for Dave (I’ve actually already shown that in the story, with the whole crew singing along to “My Way” in his car), and probably classical music for Nate. Possibly contemporary christian stuff, like B– listens to. I’ll have to get him to play me some and see if it makes any sense to me.

Last night we met D– and K– and N– at Jason’s Deli for dinner, then the guys went for snowcones while the girls went to church. I got to keep the baby. After snowcones, I dropped off a couple movies at Blockbuster, and then D– and I went back to the house. The baby ate her cereal, then sorta flipped out. She went from perfectly happy (giggling and cooing) to just all out screaming in less than a minute, and we couldn’t get her to calm down for the rest of the night (until T– got her to fall asleep). That was pretty brutal.

I did go for a walk at 9:00, and D– tagged along. We spent the walk talking about story ideas for our project, and then got back to the house and kept talking about it for another hour and a half. I’m thinking it’ll take longer to get off the ground than he expects, so don’t let me get your expectations up for anything cool in the near future, but it will definitely be an exciting product when we get it going.

I firmly believe I can finish Josh’s story in the next week. I’ve got a plan. I just have to put in a couple hours a day. If I do that…what next? I talked to D– about that on my walk last night. I could roll straight into Sarah’s story, and keep SK going, but that’s going from the burst energy of finishing off a three year old novel, to starting from scratch at page one.

Alternately, I could finish up King Jason’s War. I’ve got…I dunno, 80% of it done. Maybe a little less in prose form, but I have such a detailed outline that that’s got to count for extra. There’s a chance I could keep up my pretense of self-control and get it finished by the end of the summer (before we’re scheduled to go into actual production mode on the project D– and I are working on). There would be a real psychological advantage to knowing I had three novels completed (even if just in rough draft form). On the other hand, KJW is no good as a first novel. I’m confident it will sell well once my world is established, and I’m in love with the story, but I wouldn’t want to try to pitch it anytime soon, and it seems like I should be focusing on more saleable stuff.

One of the things D– wanted to do, to try to build up the saleability (in the form of market interest) in our novel was to develop a lot of satellite short stories, involving interesting characters and events only loosely related to the plot of the main novel (or trilogy, or trilogies), but emphasizing the unique aspects of our setting. He’d intended all along for that to be a form of prewriting, for us to get to know the characters before starting on the real deal, so it would make a lot of sense to go ahead and invest myself in that, once Josh’s story is done.

On the other hand…it’s sort of a short window before I get actively involved in our joint project, and it sometimes feels like I should be closing out open projects, or maybe cranking out the easy opener stuff for Sarah’s story, so I’ll have a base to work on when I come back to it in a year or two….

This is the sort of stuff I spend my day thinking about. This, and rotary joints breaking down, and air conditioners that will fix corrosion problems, and doubling all my workload in order to maintain an Interactive Electronic Technical Manual parallel to extensive paper documentation…but all that stuff is boring. That’s my job. Count yourself lucky I mostly keep that stuff to myself.

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Journal Entry: Tuesday, June 26th

Yes, I went for my walk last night. I did the longer route that I’d come up with, too. It still only took 45 minutes. I’m hoping to find a convenient route that’s right at an hour.

Hmmm…. I just read that Denise Richards is having a luau at the Playboy Mansion. That sounds like fun.

Yesterday I stopped on my way home from work to pick up D–, who’d lost his car key, only to discover when I got there that he’d found it. No big deal, I’d only been waiting five minutes or so, and I’d spent that writing the next scene of SK in my scribble book. But then when I went to leave, I discovered just how many people work there. It was fifteen minutes to get out of the parking lot.

T– made some delicious chicken fried rice for dinner. I’m glad she decided to experiment with that. I’m really enjoying it. Also, it’s another dish that makes for tasty leftovers.

We ran to Blockbuster while D– watched the baby, then I played some Civ while T– watched “According to Jim.” Or possibly According to Jim. I’m not sure about TV shows….

Then I went for my walk, like I said. I spent half of it praying, and covered a lot of ground. Then I spent the second half planning out the Lake Pontchartrain Bridge Massacre. Err…for Sleeping Kings, that is. It should be exciting. It is in my head, anyway.

Then I was in bed by ten. Good for me. This morning at work we’re supposed to have a Branch Meeting to cover the rumors I mentioned a couple weeks ago. I’ll let you know if I learn anything that I can legally reveal on the internet….

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Journal Entry: Monday, June 25th

I made chili for dinner last night, which was delicious. T– and D– complained that it was too spicy, but I don’t get that. I’m not exactly good at predicting how spicy something will be, while making it, but I can usually tell exactly how spicy something is when I’m eating it. And last night’s chili was not particularly spicy, in my mind….

Anyway, no matter where you come down on that debate, all parties agreed that it was tasty. So yay. I really enjoy making my chili, and it always makes for at least one lunch of leftovers.

I made some salsa, too, for the party last Friday night, and we snacked on that some last night before dinner. It was fantastic. I spent all day planning to go home and eat some salsa, and then I did. It’s not often I follow through on my ambitions like that, but so rewarding when I do….

Okay, fine, speaking of that: I went for a walk again last night. That makes two in a row. If I can make a week, I’m going to buy some new shorts to celebrate. Here’s hoping.

I got home around 9:40, and I’ve decided to try to drink two full glasses of water after walking, so I stayed up to do that. And, while I was walking, I spent the whole time reviewing the rest of the plot of Sleeping Kings (or, specifically, the first book), and while I was drinking my water I decided I really needed to get some of those ideas written down.

So I wrote out a synopsis of the rest of the book, with target dates for each segment. It took over an hour, but when I was done…I think I have something that’s very doable, in a really reasonable timeframe.

Someone in Texas is reading Sleeping Kings. They started on page one last Friday. I’m guessing it’s either my aunt or N–‘s step-dad, but they haven’t left any comments yet so I don’t know for sure. Time will tell.

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Journal Entry: Sunday, June 24th

Closer and closer….

My comment yesterday was, “hopefully I’ll get a couple more pages written.” All told, I got eleven pages done (T–‘s parents’ church is a kinda long-winded one). Most of it is mediocre stuff, but it gets me from where I am in the story, to where I want to be (where, hopefully, the quality will pick up as I write through the climax).

At this point, I know every single event that needs to happen between now and the end of the story. There may be a couple extra bits that present themselves for inclusion, but I’ve got, not just an outline, but the actual story in my head. I just need to write it down.

I’m getting a little bit ahead of myself, though.

Yesterday, after church, we had some amazing steaks. T– had agreed to give her mom some design advice for the relatively new house, so I knew we’d be sticking around for a while, so I took A–b– downstairs to watch some TV while we waited. We watched parts of Men in Black and that movie where Tim Allen and Kristie Brinkley go into hiding in an Amish community, and Hitch. I recommend the Will Smith ones, again.

That’s from past experience, though. Yesterday I didn’t really watch them. I fell asleep, with A–b– on my chest. I did a lot of napping this weekend. Apparently T–‘s parents both asked her at different times why I didn’t bring along a computer this time (I usually do, and then spend the whole weekend glued to it). Turns out leaving it at home didn’t make me any more social — I just ended up sleeping.

I did get a lot of good rest this weekend, though. Yay for that!

On the drive home, T– and I had an amazing conversation. One of the best conversations about us that we’ve had in years. I found it very encouraging.

When we got home, around eight, I dropped T– off to feed the baby, and ran up to Pizza Hut to pick up a couple P’zones, which were quite delicious. We watched some TV while we ate, and by the time the episode was over, it was already nine.

I’ve been telling myself for a week now that tonight I’m going to start going for a vigorous, exercisey walk every single night. I hadn’t followed through on it once. Then, during yesterday’s conversation, among a lot of other things, I told T– about that conviction in the hopes she could help hold me to it. So, last night, after eating way too much P’zone (it was really good), and only being in my home for an hour after a weekend away, I made myself spend the second hour home going for a walk, in spite of the excuses.

It was good, I’m glad I did. I think I did about a forty minute walk last night (my goal is closer to fifty, and probably at a significantly faster pace than I managed last night), and while I was walking, I put together all the pieces I was missing to finish Sleeping Kings. I discovered a couple extra scenes, a couple really strong plot twists that’ll make the impending battle a little less one-sided, I think. And I got some good exercise while I was at it.

Then I woke up this morning with incredibly sore legs. I’m going for a walk again tonight, anyway. It’s important enough to make time for. I get that.

Today’s been slow. Work is dull, and I’m only making progress at a snail’s pace. Around here, they just call that job security.

Hope everyone had a good weekend.

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Journal Entry: June 24, 2007

Friday, June 22nd
Friday night, we didn’t end up doing the Family Fun Night. It was rainy, and the event was an outdoor event. As far as I know they didn’t cancel it, but I wouldn’t have wanted to be there.

Instead, we went over to K– and N–‘s for the evening. We made mini-pizzas (which were delicious), and played some Guitar Hero, and talked a lot. S– and J– were there with their two kids, so it was a pretty wild night. Fun, though. Although, as far as Guitar Hero goes, I got a lot worse.

We went home about 10:30.

Saturday, June 23rd
We woke up around 6:30 in order to be on the road an hour later. T– had two big events in Wichita yesterday: a baby shower at 11:00 and a wedding at 4:00. Also, we delivered one of our kittens to T–‘s brother’s family. The original plan was to drop it off on the way to her mom’s house (thus the early start time) but her dad and I ended up taking it over there while T– and her mom were at the shower.

I’d had some hopes of cranking out the last twenty or so pages of Sleeping Kings this weekend, since yesterday should’ve been a pretty empty day for me. I’m kinda popular with the Charboneau clan, though, so I didn’t have quite the amount of free time I thought I would. So, all told, I got about a page and a half written.

After the wedding last night, we came back to T–‘s parents’ place and watched Zoom: Academy for Super Heroes or something to that effect. It was pretty much awful. Not awful in the way a kid’s movie is awful, but awful in the way an awful movie is awful. Just plain awful. Don’t watch it.

Then last night I had nightmares, for the first time in forever. The horror-movie type nightmares, not the how-am-I-going-to-get-the-taxes-paid kind. It was wild.

Right now, I’m just waiting for it to be time to head to church. With luck, I’ll get another couple pages written while we’re there. Afterwards, John’s supposed to make us steaks. I don’t figure we’ll head home until late afternoon.

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Journal Entry: Thursday, June 21st

Ah, finally got around to having a wasted evening last night. Well, a lazy one, anyway. I did nothing more notable than working on SK over lunch yesterday during work, and when I got home, I crashed on the couch for most of the night.

Played a game of Civ, and watched a lot of TV with T–. Numb3rs and New Adventures of Old Christine, to be precise.

Tonight, we’re going to Family Fun Night at OC. Tomorrow, we’re headed to Wichita for the weekend. I may or may not update over the weekend. We’ll see what happens.