These are the twits I twitted.

• 19:11 My whole body hurts, but it has been a good day's Moving! #

1. I love daffodils. They bloomed and faded while I was busy. I love lilacs and wisteria. I only noticed today that they are in full bloom. The days and weeks keep zipping by me. I always have more things to do than can possibly get done in a day. Oddly this makes me feel like I've become boring. People ask me whats going on in my life and I have the same answers to give. I'm still shipping merchandise. I'm still working layouts. I'm still behind on housework. I still intend to get outside and garden, but probably won't actually do it. All that stuff is interesting to me, but it is hard to make it sound interesting in the 60-seconds-or-less answer a polite social inquiry calls for. Alternately, the person asking the question is a good friend and has already heard all the details of routines. So, despite the fact that being a partner in a cartooning business is out of the ordinary, I feel boring.

2. This week I tried to make an appointment with our family doctor, only to be told that he is on extended sick leave. It turns out that he has cancer, a nasty sarcoma that has already metastasized. The prognosis is not good. For ten years Jim has been there for my kids anytime they were sick. He's the one who sent me to the hospital when Gleek was knocked flat with RSV. He is the one who helped me figure out which medication Link needed for his ADD. He weighed my babies and measured their growth. He knew all of us by name and always greeted everyone with a smile and a handshake. He long ago made the shift from doctor to friend. I know it is illogical, but it feels wrong for a doctor to suffer from cancer. Somehow it seems like doctors should be immune. I like the other doctors in the office, they are all very qualified people, but I will miss Jim. My kids will miss Jim. I miss him already.

3. Both a close friend and a person whose blog I read, have been suffering from eye problems. This has me paying much more attention to how much I depend upon my sight for the things I do and exactly how my vision works. Then Howard handed me a mini to look at and I had to move it farther away so that I could see it. My hand expected my focal length to be in one place, but my eyes needed it two inches further away. Add to that the fact that my eyes are tired and achy a lot lately and that when I take my glasses off things look different, but not worse. I think it is time for new glasses. This is a logical assumption since I've not had my eyes checked for about 6 years. (Not urgent, then no money, then no time) So the logical brain says "new glasses" and the hypochondriac brain is convinced that I'm going to go blind and that it is just the first symptom of a terminal illness. Hypochondriac's wild theory is supported by these other evidences of eye trouble, perhaps it is a plague of some sort, or maybe a psycho marketing ploy for the movie Blindness. And then I shove paranoid hypochondriac back into her little box and tell her to shut up until I need to write creepy fiction.

4. I finally figured out how Link can get out of the shower smelling just as dirty as he went in even though he swears he uses soap. Tonight I squirted out a small amount of shampoo for him and he gasped "That much?" He further informed me that he doesn't usually wash the top of his head because he doesn't want shampoo in his eyes. We then spoke in detail about how he needs to wash all over with sufficient quantities of soap. He got out of the shower smelling really clean for the first time in weeks.

My character is back home and working on becoming a Level 2. At which time, she is going to become a weaver.

The battle over Exeter Castle took longer than expected because of the game mechanics. Finally we formed one big army of about 80+ players and attacked the castle. This caused the system to abend and at 4 am (GMT +1) Wednesday morning, a group of French software techs, with pencils, papers, and dice, hand calculated the battle stats for over 110+ players. For some reason, not only did this huge clash happened without anyone dying, but no one got injured either. Imagine the odds of that.

I wrote a nice victory poem to commemorate the event, which was such a success that even one member of the opposing side praised it, though he said I got the good and bad guys mixed up.

( The victory poem... )

Since then my character has been asked to join one knighthood. While researching this knighthood, I talked to a friend I made during the battle and she said I could join their knighthood instead. I chose hers because they are more organized and I can be her squire without offending someone else, whereas the other knighthood has two other friends of mine in it and right at the moment they are not on the best of terms. (They both had feeling for the same lady and then there is more in their past, etc.)

Anyway, off to change one of my cornfields to a sheep pasture...

I felt the need to blog about this... and I figured the people who might be able to relate best would be those of you here.

I'm LDS, but inactive. I've been only a couple of times in the past couple of years. My husband is not a member.

We don't mind the missionaries coming over, in fact, even enjoy their visits.

I've always felt a strong tie to the church, but for some reason, the last couple of years, felt panicked or even on edge in situations where I was actually at a church activity or ward meeting outside of my parents' ward--which is the one I grew up in. I still believe the gospel, but can't seem to handle attending the services or activities in any sort of comfort.

In the past, the missionaries have come to our house frequently, either to hang out, to relax, to do laundry, or to have dinner. From time-to-time, they've even encouraged me to go to church. But they've never really focused on my husband.

We recently moved to a new place, and into a new ward. Once our records were moved--which they did rather rapidly--the missionaries of the new ward showed up on our doorstep. These ones are different. They enjoy coming over for the visiting, but they notice my husband. One of the first things they asked, while my husband was running something outside, was if he'd taken the discussions. Since that point, they've focused on slowly getting to know my husband, and having conversations with him. Feeling out what his beliefs are, and how much he knows/understands about the church. ((Even I haven't been entirely sure about how much he knows.)) So far, they've had one real conversation, but it lasted a little over an hour-and-a-half.

I think it went over well, but I'm not entirely sure. I'm almost afraid to ask him what his thoughts are. We seem to have very different ways of thinking and communicating, so we often hit a brick wall when we try. We've got new ways of trying to get past this, but sometimes... eh.

The missionaries stopped by this afternoon, apparently they'd scheduled another appointment--somehow, I missed that particular aspect of the conversation--but my husband wasn't home. So I guess they'll call us back.

I really don't have any questions, I don't think... I may need advice, but I suppose I'd need a real question before I could ask for the advice. I guess I just wanted to get this out to people who might have a better idea of what I'm talking about than the general audience of my blog friends list.

Yesterday was really long and full of tests.

Originally published at Eric James Stone. You can comment here or there.

Over the past few years, I’ve used Google and Wikipedia for a lot of research for my stories.  Over the past couple of days, while doing research for my latest novel, I’ve come to appreciate YouTube as a research tool.

For example, here’s how to use a bobby pin to get out of handcuffs:

And here’s how to disarm someone who has a gun:

Part 43: Drifts is up.

K is all alone in the snow covered mountains. Well, not as alone as she thinks.

http://www.schlockmercenary.com/blog/index.php/2008/05/17/im-a-twit/

Dunno if I’ll use it much, but here’s my twitter page. My cousin Kurt pressured me into this…

Thanks to twoofdtm for posting this; it is worth reading, so I pass it on.

The Invitation

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon...
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us to
be careful
be realistic
remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.

BY Oriah Mountaindreamer

News Flash: The city of Ann Arbor's Adopt a Park program is holding the 2008 Adopt-A-Park Kick-off event Today, May 17, 9 a.m. – noon. Neighbors from throughout the city will be rolling up their sleeves to volunteer at 10 participating parks — Burns; Fuller; Hannah Nature Area; Hunt; Huron Highlands; Landsdowne; Liberty Plaza; Maryfield Wildwood; Wellington; and Wurster parks — for planting, mulching, general clean up and, of course, camaraderie and fun. All ages can participate.
To sign up, or for more information, contact Adopt-A-Park Program Coordinator Anna Shipley at 734.996.3266 / adopt-a-park@a2gov.org, or Natural Area Preservation Volunteer Coordinator Jason Frenzel at 734.997.1719 / jfrenzel@a2gov.org.

Below are the latest days "tweets" as of 3 AM Central Time. 06:10 @thefunkygrail You made me wiki. Referring to this? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casshern 07:04 Cripes, a lot of people awake early today. So says my gmail contact list and twitter posts. 18:27 Mario Kart should be rated M-Mature - is.gd/fRB . It takes all of my willpower to not chuck turtles at passing cars. 18:38 @Ihnatko Album has yet to hit the streets... is.gd/hIO 20:39 I look for any excuse not to run. Yesterday it was cutting the lawn. This evening it was kayaking Thole Lake for over an hour. 21:34 Listening to Psapp and gathering stuff for tomorrows retro game party. mondaynightgeek.com/?p=69 22:39 @Ihnatko I don't have itunes. Can you post your list in a place that doesn't require an app?

See my comments as they happen on Twitter

These are the twits I twitted.

• 22:49 I am here. It is Ottawa. Weds is beautiful. Life is good. Man I'm hungry. #

Today I saw a picture of Kiki three years ago. I remember at the time the picture was taken, I thought she was getting really big. Now I look at that photo and she looks so small. Kiki has gained nearly a foot of height, slimmed down, and developed curves. My little girl has turned into a teenager. Thus far parenting a teen has been pretty easy. Of course I've only been doing it for less than a day, so I'm not going to rest on my laurels.

Parents are frequently frightened of the teen years. Perhaps I should be, but I'm not. I like that Kiki is growing more independent and responsible. I like that we can have increasingly complex conversations. Yes we're going to have some struggles as Kiki strives to create her own identity as separate from our family, but mostly I think it is going to be fun. Babies and toddlers and preschoolers are cute, but teens can play games that I enjoy playing.

Kiki is now a teen and the adventure has only begun.