Week in Review

Sorry for the light posting this week. The stress of job schedules has left us both tired and non-creative. Let me try and make up for it and hit the high spots that I left out.

• Costume for Halloween? Nothing much. In fact I'm ashamed to call it a costume. My team at work decided to go with a theme and all dressed as 'Alice in Wonderland'. When this was first discussed I quickly grabbed the spot of the Cheshire Cat. When der tag came we hadn't prepared anything. As a result I wore a crazy colored poncho and a paper smile hanging from my glasses. Didn't even wear the smile that long because it kept getting in the way.
• Halloween highlight? The FP Gal brought Relia into work dressed in her tiger costume. She was adorable! We did a quick tour around the office so everyone could see her and then mother and child ran off. (I'd share pictures but our camera is off visiting her brother.)
• Wednesday night we fought the squirrel. This little critter had gotten into our attic and promptly fell down the vent into the basement. Not loose in the basement, just trapped in the vent down there. We unhooked part of it (a part that the FP Gal thinks they can chew through) and tried to chase him out the coal door. It took a long time and wasn't fun for anyone.
• Did you know that if you poke a squirrel with a bit of plastic tubing, they just growl unhappily?
  
• Very early Thursday (I waited until midnight) I started my novel. And promptly hated it. All of the things that I loved weren't enough to make a story. None of the characters were any fun. The thought of spending the next month listening to these dreary people filled me with dread.
  
• Thursday afternoon I decided to go to a fall-back story that I had prepared. The idea is simple and can be summed up with the idea of modern ships doing a 16th century style exploration job on a new planet. I love this idea and if someone would write this book I would sprint to the bookstore to buy it. The only problem is that I don't know even close to enough about ships and other nautical stuff to pull this off. I thought about collaborating with my brother but that will be too time consuming.
  
• Later Thursday afternoon. What if I...(don't spook the idea). What if... Say, could I save my original idea by making it just part of a larger story? A quick discussion with the FP Gal made me think I could. (She probably deserves sainthood for putting up with this kind of crap. I really do appreciate it, hon.) So, full speed ahead!
• Friday at work, I got a bonus package. Not to go into too much detail but for tax purposes they've come up with some kind of way to reward us by doing some shopping for us. I got a computer game and a Paul Simon CD. The game looks like lots of fun. The CD? Eh.
  
• Saturday morning brought some shopping, Target and grocery style. While driving around we test drove the aforementioned CD. The last song literally makes the FP Gal cry. The rest just makes you want to listen to his earlier stuff.
  
• Saturday evening took us over to my Mom's for dinner with a large part of her side of the family. Lots of fun and Relia was exhausted by being held so much. Actually, everyone was exhausted as the yawns appeared around 630p or so. Good thing we get an extra hour tonight.