All Things Sucky

        If you head over to the Muffin tomorrow (Friday) you can read my guest post.  (I'll put in the real link when it hits the blogosphere.) If you stop by, you'll get the scoop on "sucky."

     Chris Rock meets Letterman meets Sioux...(How can you resist?)

     And because I love the way Bruno Mars moves, here's Uptown Funk. (Watch his footwork. He's incredible.) Apparently this song was almost ditched, but Mars added the low, almost-not-there "doh... doh doh doh, doh doh doh...doh," they worked on it, stayed true to it and now it's all the rage...  

       So what's stopping you? Mark your calendar for tomorrow, and thanks for stopping by today. 

Fun for Everyone

      I missed posting on Thursday. I was busy exhaling after finishing report cards while I simultaneously tried to avoid a certain staff member who was waiting for me to finish the 2nd quarter writing assessment scores (54 kids, 9 skills to score per paper, with 7 possible scores for each skill) and lined up the gods of sleet, hoping to press them into service this morning.

       No such luck. The rain in Spain (and St. Louis) stayed mainly on the plain...and it stayed unfrozen.

        While I was procrastinating with the writing assessments (after all, I am the Princess of Procrastinators) I got to play some fun games with Monster Pup. I'm planning on getting a patent on them and pitching them to the investors on the show Shark Tank. Here are Radar's thrill-a-minute games:

• Out of Your Socket--You take one end of his rope toy and he grabs onto the other end with his pearly-whites. Then he shakes and yanks on the rope with such violence, you arm is nearly yanked out of its socket.

• Poop! Poop! Who Gets the Poop?--Radar has developed into a master recycler. He will eat no poop before its prime (which means, according to his discerning palate--that he'll eat fresh-from -the-sphincter poop, he'll eat frozen poop, he'll eat old, dried-up poop). You may think you've poop-scooped the yard, and then you see him chewing something. Approaching him is the signal for him to speed up his chewing.

• Naked Blonde Mud Wrestling--Okay, he is a blonde and we do mud wrestle in the tub, but he's not completely naked. He does have a collar on.

        If you have a dog or cat (or a clever guinea pig), what games do they play? Mr. Wonderful on Shark Tank will probably want more than 3 games as part of my package deal. Otherwise, he might be reluctant to invest $350,000 for 25% of the business... 

You Asked For It

      Avert your eyes if your eyeballs are sensitive to flashy brilliance. But come back at the end... where a smidgen of pride flourishes and where darkness returns.

         Yes, this one of my new Crocs. It was given to me by my enabler husband. Of course, in this picture the strap is not where it is supposed to be. I wear my Crocs in the tres chic way--with the strap pushed to the front, so that it protects the top of my delicate size 11 foot.

        If you head to The Muffin on January 16, you can read my guest post. It's David Letterman and Chris Rock and writing advice... all rolled into one--and I only used one set of ellipsis.

        That's right, ladies and gentlemen. Just one. I had to slave over the post, paring it down from 147 sets of ellipsis--revising and drafting over and over--until I got it down to a single, solitary set.

         And now for the dark side. (A little Eddie and the Cruisers for you, Val.) One of my stories, "The Handler," had made it to the next-to-last hurdle for Chicken Soup's Thanks to Mom. Well today, it ended up lame. It leaped up, intending to clear with air to spare... only to crash into a mangled heap. The CS people said my story should be sent to the Pulitzer Prize people was being cut.

         What disappointment have you recently stared down? Minds that are licking their wounds want to know...(Hey! I had myself so reined in with those enchanting ellipsis, I had to let loose at some point...)



         

        

New Year, New Books

       It's a new year, and that means a new year for reading.

     The first book I'll finish in 2015 is Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken. If you've caught any of the numerous interviews of the author, you'd know that while she was working on this book, she dealt with a debilitating disease which prevented her from being able to leave the house for months at a time. Dragging herself to her computer took all of her energy. (It makes me reluctant to whine about my writing obstacles.) And yet she still pushed herself.

         She wrote Unbroken without ever meeting Louie Zamperini in person. Instead, they spoke for hundreds of hours over the phone. After the book was finished, the two finally met. Hillenbrand said not meeting him was an advantage. As she wrote his story, she didn't have an old man in her mind. She had a hellion-of-a-boy in her mind as she wrote about his childhood, she had a handsome young man when she was working on his college days, and so on...

     I'm only 1/4 through it (100 pages or so), but am thoroughly enjoying it. However, since I am trying to finish procrastinate when it comes to doing my report cards, I can't spend too much time reading.

      What is the first book you are going to finish/read in 2015? Procrastinating minds want to know... 

Out With the Old?

      For Christmas I had the opportunity to throw away my reliable Crocs. Here is a picture of Ol' Trusties if you missed my earlier post featuring these stylish shoes.

Warning: The photo below is not intended for all audiences. Only the strong of heart and sturdy of stomach should gaze at the picture below.

        The reason why I was tempted to toss these still-good shoes in the trash? I've gotten new Crocs--leather-topped Crocs--from my husband, and I received a gift certificate for a Crocs store from my daughter. (Hi, I'm Sioux and I'm a Croc-aholic. I can't help myself. My addiction is out of control because my family are enablers.)

         I would show you a picture of the new ones, but they are so dazzling, your eyes would be blinded by the sight of them. And Sioux is all about the concern for others (unlike the son of her blogging friend and fellow Croc-lover Val, a young man has no concern for anyone else).

          I'm not a big resolutions kind of person (I never keep them) but I do have some goals in mind--goals that I'd like to achieve.

• finish my WIP/NaNoGoneWrongo from a few years ago
• stretch a little as a writer (which means submitting to varied publications and writing in different genres)
• complete some digital writing pieces (this is mostly for work)

         But if the title of this post made you catch your breath--if you were terrified I was going to throw away Ol' Trusties--have no fear. Those shoes will still be chosen to put into service when I have to tromp across our muddy backyard... or when I simply want to be reunited with a couple of old friends.

       What is something old you'd like to get rid of/you've already gotten rid of? What are you going to replace it with(if anything)? Minds in denial want to know... 

   

AllI Want for Christmas is

      These are the things on Radar's Christmas list this year:

• a bigger yard (he's already dug so many holes in our yard, we're getting lost tourists who wonder if they've finally found the Grand Canyon)
• owners who plan on overindulging in spiked eggnog (so they will take lots of naps, which means he can dig without getting interrupted)
• a broken bathtub (so when he does get especially muddy, he doesn't have to suffer the indignity of a bath)

    Have you noticed a theme?

This is Radar--not quite nine months old--at a Purina event.
The last time we weighed him, he weighed 66 pounds and 6 ounces. 666.
What an apt number to pin on him...

As for me, I got a book not long ago--Jodi Picoult's most recent novel--from Half Price Books. It was a gift to myself, since it's new and I had a coupon for a 50% off discount. If I get a book store gift certificate or a couple of other books, it will be a perfect holiday because I'll have my husband and kids and granddaughter together, along with my in-laws.

What are you hoping for this holiday? Festive minds want to know...