Rachael

I have in the oven right now either a miracle or a disaster. I layered pasta shells (cooked), white beans, Amy’s mushroom soup, green beans, tuna, scallions, and cheddar cheese. It’s either going to taste great or horrible, and I have no idea which way it will go. I love casseroles. I just don’t know how to make them with things lying around in the freezer and cupboard. How do you do it?

While you think about that and while we wait for that to cook (oh, I HOPE it’s good — it has to be dinner all week at work), why don’t I show you a few pics? I’ve been hanging with my godson Dylan quite a bit this week. I just remembered that perhaps it’s my knitterly godmom duty to make him another sweater for Christmas, since he’s almost grown out of the cabled one. I’m broke, so I hied me down to Michaels (gasp) and found some adequate wool (Lion maybe?). Green and brown, soft enough for a baby, anyway.  I headed with my goods to the counter. I was buying six balls, so I’d be able to make Mom a scarf/hat set to match, if I have time. I mentally calculated what I thought it might cost on my way to the checkout. Thirty bucks, I figured, for six skeins. I hadn’t actually looked at the price. Then the gal rang me up. $15.25. Dude. For six balls. Why am I so addicted to The Nice Stuff? This cheap stuff doesn’t suck like it used to, huh?

So pics (I almost forgot):

    My baby Pickle

    Pickle with his mama

    My baby with a tiny hat

   
    My baby’s baby, Harriet

Casserole beeped! It’s done! I’m scared!

We had a little music party over the weekend, and it was FUN! We invited strictly musicians and a smattering of fiber folk, so we would keep the party small. It didn’t work. Musicians know lots of cool people, and the house was packed.

I felt like such a grownup. I remember a long, long, LONG time ago, I must have been five years old, maybe less, I wandered out in what was my middle of the night and found my parents having a small soiree in the living room, one that I had been unaware of. My mother wore an elegant short sheath, and she held a cigarette in one hand, and was leaning back against the couch, laughing. I was STUNNED at how cool my mother was, and a little offended that the woman who wore jeans and cleaned up vomit (I was a throw-uppy kid) could be so glamorous. She swears she remembers nothing of this, and if she was holding a cigarette, it was only a prop. More power to ya, mom. You looked awesome.

I kinda felt like her the other night. I’d been in sweats all day, cooking since ten in the morning, hanging white lights in the sunroom. At about four, I went to the store and bought masses of potted flowers, took the dogs for a walk, then came home and Got Glam. I have this dress I got at a thrift store a couple of years ago and have never found the opportunity to wear. I busted it out. It’s kind of hard to see in this shot, but here:

It goes just below knee, and I love it. It fits like a dream, and back then, they knew how to make a dress that had room for hips, chest, AND belly. It had a little belly pouch, and I definitely have a belly to put in it.

Lala got appropriately schmancy, too, see?

This was Before Party. (Man, I’m glad I didn’t take an After Party pic. It took four hours to clean yesterday.)

The food! (Lala set all this up, this and the drinks table, while I was primping, so she gets major bonus points.)

The drink!

Aren’t we FANCY? Cut limes AND lemons! Toothpicks! People, the parties I’ve had in the past have involved Tecate and one jar of olives of unknown provenance, dug from the back of the fridge. Maybe a half-eaten bag of chips and some Oreos. I exaggerate, but not much.

There were also party dresses:

   
    Miss Idaho in Mizrahi (really, Target, dude)

    Cousin Fondue aka Noodle, in Santa.

Harriet wore a lovely little number that accidentally matched my dress, but she avoided the camera. She’s the smartest one. Clara was crated for most of the party and didn’t have to wear anything. She’s not fond of crowds, and she’d already eaten all the feta, so she was good with her bone in there.

And there were musicians:

Even very young ones:

A good time was had, I believe. I think the last folks left at about three, and because we live in Oakland, if the cops were called, they wouldn’t have had time to check on it until the next day, so we’re good. And the floors are now mopped. I’m happy.

lala sent me this link, from the Los Angeles Fire Department blog. (Isn’t it fitting that they have one? Cute. It probably has hair and makeup people, too.)

You know that whole static buildup thing at the gas pump? That you thought was crap? Like how you’re not supposed to get back into your car while fueling, or use your cell phone?

It’s not crap. Check it. Scary stuff. (Not gory, though, safe for the fire-phobes like me to watch.) Even though I work for a major metropolitan fire department, I never knew this could actually happen. And I’m one of those that always carries a major charge, shocking myself hugely every time I get out of any car, open any metal door….. Yikes.

I am in love with Michelle’s sweater. Isn’t that brilliant? Isn’t she smart? I want one, JUST like it.

I’ve had mild insomnia for the last couple of nights – not too
badly, but annoying. I’d call it hyper-wakefulness, rather than real insomnia. I finally fall into sleep and wake a few minutes later. I
change position, lie there for a long time, staring at the backs of my very
interesting eyelids, fall asleep, and wake again fifteen minutes later.

But tonight, now that I’m at work, of course I’m exHOSSted.
I could sleep like a log. Even the fact that we’re watching Narnia on DVD isn’t
helping. What a good movie this is. 

I haven’t written much of anything since “winning” Nanowrimo
two days ago – I think I’ve earned a little rest. Not much of one, though, or I’ll
lose the momentum, and I want to push through this book and finally END something.
I never end my books. This time I would like to, and I would like to try my
hand at editing a book. I think I’ll like that.

Also, I’ve become supremely lazy in the last two days. I don’t
want to do ANYTHING. I would like to lie on the couch and then get someone to
carry me over to the bed. Unfortunately, I have quite a lot to do. (Quite a lot
of partying and carrying-on, also, and it’s nice that I’m only working ONE DAY
(night) this week and being paid as if I’m here all week – gotta love a job
which has shift-swaps, especially if people owe you.) 

I apologize: None of my thoughts fit together. Like this
one, which I’ll share, even though it’s all non-sequiturish. I am thinking
about maybe not watching so much TV. Or getting rid of it altogether, if Lala doesn’t
mind. I haven’t asked her yet, but she’s said in the past that she doesn’t need
it. I like it much more than her. It’s my relaxation – my Tivo saves all my
little indulgences, and then I curl up and watch, and even if it’s only ten
minutes a day, I feel all pampered. But then other days, days off in which I
could be writing/exploring/adventuring, I spend all day catching up with TV
shows. I don’t need that.

I must, however, wait until Heroes and the Amazing Race are
at their end-of-season before I really think about that crazy move. I may be
considering going clean, but I’m not ready to go cold-turkey yet.

https://rachaelherron.com/ive_had_insomni/

I did it.

Today, I hit the 50,000 mark with the word stabbed. Actually, the hero and heroine are making out in a pantry, and he gets stabbed with a knitting needle. Thought that was a good 50,000 word . Two days early, yo!

I’m about 2/3 done with the novel itself, and NaNoWriMo was such a wild ride that I think I’m going to continue using its momentum. I’ve written 50,000 words before. Four or five times before. Maybe six. But never all at once, never in four weeks. It feels like an astonishing victory and I can’t wait to get home (I’m at the little mama’s house) so I can upload the work and see my progress bar turn to the winner’s purple bar. Isn’t that silly? I can’t WAIT to see it go purple.

Crazy plan, man. Crazy plan for these Oakland people to think up (you know it’s based here, right?) 70,000 people worldwide signed up, and I know as of this writing, 4883 have finished.

Make that 4884. Oh, yeah. Little victory dance in my chair. Uh-huh. DaWEET, daWEET, woopwoopWOOP! That’s the way, uh-huh uh-huh, we LIKE IT. Uh-huh uh-huh.

That was the dance. The finishing party is on Friday, and I get to go, having conned someone into working for me. I can’t wait. CAN’T WAIT. That was so fun. You have to do it next year. Seriously. SO FUN. Plus, then you don’t have that excuse that you have no time to write. You do, too. I actually got more running time in this month than I have in the longest time — I was better at time management somehow.

OH MY GOD.

I’m so happy.

*Edited to add – HEY! They’re calling me a 2006 Winner already, even though I haven’t officially sent in my words! See, the box at the top on the right? YIPPEE!

*Edited a second time to add: Further proof that I can’t talk anymore, not while writing this much. While I was reading the recipe card, I told Lala I wanted to make oatmeal kittens. WHILE I WAS READING THE CARD which clearly said oatmeal cookies. Well, come on. Wouldn’t everyone like an oatmeal kitten? How cute would that be?