Ooooh Weldy!

Alright a quick note. This weekend the weather finally gave way to decent and I got out into the garage and the yard. Tonia was, as always, working in the bathroom trying to get the 30+ year old shower plumbing apart. Jordan and I were in the yard spreading some grass patch and raking up old dead grass. I have to admit that I truly hate yard work. I love trees and grass, and I don't mind mowing, but I hate the bull a guy has to do to try and keep the grass green. Whenever someone decided what a lawn should be they should have picked crab grass or dandelions. Those grow with no problem.

Anyway, I decided on Sunday to break out the welder I received from my wonderful folks for Christmas. It is a very compact and handy unit that is pretty much dummy proof. It's only 110v so I can plug it in wherever and weld away.

That's the little Hobart on the left. Tonia decided she wanted a new piece of modern art for our guest bathroom so she commissioned me to make a small bowl shaped candle-holder out of washers. Note the shoes, Heathrow, even awesome for welding as well as walking. Still rockin' the Airwalks!

I, of course, felt that there was a slightly better use for the item. Am I wrong? I don't think so. After the welding was done Tonia gave it a quick aged spray paint job and here is the final product.

It's not perfect, but it turned out pretty neat. Because of my first time success with welding I think my next job will be the Litchuania line of bike frames. I'm sure I could get Lemond to put his name on them. Here's what I'm thinking...

Ooohhh Cha!! I'm on it!

A long blog break.

It's been a fair stretch since my last blog and for that I apologize. I'd say it was because we were busy, but that would be a lie. In typical North Dakota fashion the weather has been a roller-coaster. The weather has swung from 60 degrees down to twenty. The snow melted then fell again in earnest. Then it melted again and snowed again. It has been very frustrating. Now the temps are good, the snow is melted, but the North Dakota wind has come on full force. I think it was easily blowing at 25 mph two days ago. Today was beautiful and I was able to give the 1600 a little stretch. Hey Dave, how about a road ride this weekend? Let me know.

Because of the weather we have tried drastic measures to keep Mario's feet clean to avoid the mud in the yard.

They were a bit labor intensive to get on him, but they really seemed to work out. All-in-all it's just easier to wipe the dogs feet rather then making him deal with the indignity of wearing golf club covers on his feet. They will be returned to Fleet Farm.

Tonia and I just passed out 6 year anniversary and since we're planning a trip to Ireland this summer we just had a quiet evening eating some steaks and watching a movie.

Mario however, felt he needed to enjoy the steak as well. So while Tonia was out potting some new vines for the pergola and I was getting the grill fired up, Mario decided to have a little taste. In a matter of minutes, both New York strip steaks were gone into the mighty gullet of the hound. For some reason he snoozed comfortably the rest of the night. We thought he only liked pizza; guess we'll know for next time. This is him digesting and looking sorry, sort of.

On the home improvement front not a lot has happened. We've done a little work on the bathroom, but not much. Tonia was busy helping Kelli with her Bid for the Mrs. North Dakota pageant and celebrating her month long birthday.

I spent a week in Sheridan, WY. Not a lot to report about that week. They do have a Starbucks, but I ended up working long hours and did not get as much time writing as I would have liked.

On the writing front my concerns about running out of ideas seemed to be all for naught. Since finishing my first Novel I have written three short stories and the forth one I started is now over 20,000 words and is at least a novella if not yet another novel. We'll see.

I gave the novel some good resting time and decided to start editing, but I hate editing so it is very slow going. I think I am about 30 pages in. I will say right now, that editing sucks. I must soldier on.

That's about it for now. I'll post some pics of the bathroom next time around.

It is written!

Just a quick post to let you all know that my first Novel is offically written. Now starts the long editing process and search for an agent.

It finished out at 125,288 words and printed in double spacing she is 400 pages.

The title for now is "The Factory at the End of the World", however, Tonia already expressed a distaste for that title. I guess after a few of you read it you can give me feedback.

Thank you all for your support so far. I'm guessing I'll need it just as much in the days to come.

More Milestones and a Battle with Eleanor

Firstly, I want to mention that there have been great strides in the bathroom progress. We have now fully cement boarded the shower and the floor. Here are a couple pics:

And here is one showing the suburb curb work Tonia did on the shower pan. She formed it all by hand. It's at the very bottom of the picture.

In working on the bathroom we took the toilet off and found the shut-off to be very leaky. After keeping an ice-cream pail under it for a week or two and changing it daily we decided to change the shut-off. Now anyone who knows us, me especially, knows that plumbing is our Eleanor. We've had water dripping through our houses in the past and gone days with the main off trying to finish things. Tonia has gotten a lot braver about it, but I am still a bit leery. So since Tonia can be brave so could I.

Usually when I plumb I buy a dozen different pieces and plan on returning 11 of them because I can never get it right. Tonia bought 1 shut-off. I had Thursday and Friday off so I decided to help out and change the shut-off. It was a solder connection so there is plenty of room for error, but once on it would be on for good. By some miracle the shut-off attached on the first try. However, while heating the pipe to do the soldering I managed to apply the torch directly to my finger and Eleanor strikes again.

It's not much, but dang that plumbing anyway! However, the shut off went on like a champ!

Also on my day off I installed a new fixture in our stairwell. The fixture hanging there when we moved in was clearly original 70's cool.

After the adventure of getting the extension ladder into the house I got this lovely new fixture hanging. And a big thank you to Kelli Z. at the Lighthouse for helping Tonia find just the right fixture.

On the writing side of life, as I said I've had some time off from work so I've been spending a lot of time at Caribou Coffee and I have been averaging about 3000 words a day. Turning in those numbers I shot past my 96,000 word mark mentioned in my last post and I am now at 116,000. That being said, my bench mark was around 120,000 and following the plot that number will be fairly close to where the book ends.

I've killed off several of my main characters, a couple of which really affected me. I've never written about any one long enough to become attached to them. I've always read about authors talking about how hard it is to write about a character's death, and I've always thought it was a lot of crap, but it isn't. You really become fond of these people and the plot kind of makes its own turns and suddenly your favorites are lying on the ground, dead. It's kind of a drag.

Anyway, I've got a couple more days of vacation to burn up so I'll be taking off Thursday and Friday again. I figure the book will be done this week. I'm not going to lie; I'm a little freaked out. I've never finished a novel before and I'm afraid that there is only one in me. Nothing I've ever written before has flowed like this. What if it never does again? What if I am a one hit wonder? In addition to that I don't want to think about a next book while I'm still writing because I'm afraid I'll loose my way on this one.

Also, I'm really dreading editing over 300 pages of text. I'm afraid Dick and Alane will refuse the envelopes when I send pages to them for editing, if their still interested that is. Plus, this has been the focus of my mornings for the entirety of 2008. What'll I do now? I'm a little freaked out.

How I survived Hobbs without Calvin

This last week I traveled to Hobbs, NM for work. I was a little disturbed to find out before I left that the town had no coffee shops. I'm not talking about just chains. I mean no coffee shops at all! Now I've become fairly dependant on the coffee shop vibe to help me put down my daily words so I was worried about being able to get my word count in. Plus, I wake up at 4:30 every morning now. The idea of waking up that early and trying to write in my room at the Lea County Inn did not appeal.

When I arrived at my hotel in Hobbs I saw that it had been completely filled by me and a Mennonite group. All I saw throughout the hotel were long chin-strap beards on the guys and frumpy ladies with little hats covering their hair buns. They had completely taken over the breakfast room where I would normally use as a fall back to do some evening writing so I knew right off that was out. When I asked the guy at the desk if there was a Starbucks, Caribou, Dunn Brothers, Seattle's Best or any other coffee house in town he laughed and said the best coffee in town was McDonalds. That did not bode well for me.

Luckily there was one other chain in town that was 24 hours. IHOP. So every morning I cruised over to IHOP and drank a pot of their tolorable coffee and wrote. A side note about Hobbs, NM. This is a very blue collar town filled with oil men, farmers, and construction workers. Most of the inhabitants of the town worked in one of these fields all of which are booming. Retail and restaurants are hard up to find workers. So IHOP was only opened during the hours of 5 to 11 because of this shortage. The same to be said of WalMart. Every morning I was at IHOP I watched the one waitress run from table to table. I felt bad for the lady, but I was easy with my oatmeal and pot of coffee; I didn't take up much of her time.

In the evenings I wrote at a wine bar called the Pacific Rim and they, at least, served Starbucks coffee so that was good. I was able to write well every morning and every evening, but the vibe was just not there. On Wednesday morning, my last day in Hobbs the waitress must have been sick because IHOP didn't open at all. I spent an hour trying to find anywhere to go, but nothing was open. I ended up eating at McDonalds and choking on what had to be, the worst cup of coffee ever.

That afternoon I drove back to Lubbock, TX where I was flying out the next morning. On the way there I drove past this house, which, rumor has it is owned by a Mennonite. It's all brick, huge and looks to worth more than all the other houses in the area. It's neighbor is a rusted brown moble home.

Lubbock, two hours away and home of Texas Tech, has two Starbucks. As soon as I arrived I drove strait to one of them and promptly drank a cup of their finest brew and wrote up a storm. After that I had some supper at a Jason's Deli, which make a fantastic Rueben by the way, and found my way to the other Starbucks in Lubbock which happened to be on the Texas Tech campus. I was surrounded by college people who were all very friendly and I was in heaven.

All in all I was able to write around 10,000 words while on my adventure in the southwest. Not too shabby. Before I left I submitted two stories. One of which I sent to Weird Tales. I have sent quite a few stories to them, and keep getting rejected. I think I'll take the Heather Abraham approach to it. Just keep submitting until they publish me out of frustration.

And it is a momentous day today, as this morning at Caribou I past 95,000 words. This is officially the most words I've ever written for a single story. I hope to keep the flow going.

Not too much to post about the house this week. Tonia was busy with other things and I was gone, not that I contribute much. I'm certain there will something to report next week.

The Nation of Procrastination

So here we are with two weeks past and the bathroom has progressed slowly.  Tonia was able to do her water test and the first layer of the shower does not leak.  So that is a success.  Today Tonia has been adding in walls and some of the other touches she needs to get done before we mix and pour the next layer of mortar in the shower.

I would like to put more pictures in this posting, but that leads me to the real reason why I have not updated more recently.  When we purchased the new Mac we bought a wireless router.  That wireless router as sense connected all of our PC's to the internet.  So being a wanna be nerd I said, "Hey, that would be great if I turned my PC into a server and Jordan and Tonia's computers could file share with that and use both the printers."  So I went to work on it and at first it worked like a champ.  The key words being "At First". 

Now I'm going to through some back story in.  You see, Mac's are so intuitive to the needs of the user that when loading pictures onto the Mac the Mac automatically shows them how you would want to see them.  However, they are not actually flipped.  So, when I load the pics from the Mac onto the Blog the pics show as they actually are, on their side.  Because of all of this I said, "Say, since my wireless network is such a champ, I'll download the camera onto the PC and load grab the pics through the network."  Well of course that has yet to work again for me.  Now I know I could just post from the PC or add the pics from the PC into the blog as I need them, but darn it I'm like a dog with a bone on this one.  I know it should work this way, so of course I will not let it go until I get it.  So, long story longer, I have spent any time I should be updating the blog, I've spent it fighting the wireless network.

On another note Mario is getting better.  He was given four different medications from the vet.

He's pretty much convinced that everyday is a treat day because the meds are wrapped in cheese and they are so delish!  His hives are now just scabbs and are starting to fall off so that's kind of gross.  He's still a little listless, but he always was a little listless.  The meds make him thirsty all the time and have made him have to pee a lot more as well.

I am still writing at Caribou every morning and thanks to Jordan's need to go see a thrash metal band at the Red Raven Expresso house I was able to write over 3000 words on Saturday.  I've been keeping up pretty good numbers, though I've been lazy about posting them here.  The novel is just over 73,000 words now and still going strong, though there are a few characters that have been running off and doing unexpected things so we'll see where all of that leads. 

 

Hopefully, next week I'll have progress on the bathroom to report as well as a working networks and an additional 10,000 words on the novel.  Oh, and since I've received another rejection letter via e-mail that means I have only two short stories out for publication and I need to get back to editing and spending copious amounts of time on Duotropes and send out some more tales.  Perhaps I will even listen to Brian and try sending 'On Your Left' to Dirtrag.  We'll see.

Why does Wisconsin Hate the Litchy's?

Little Mario

What a crazy and busy week. Goals on Tonia's side were far from met. However, being drawn in a hundred directions make home improvement slow work. With the goal of having the first layer of concrete down in her tile shower base before we left for Brian and Heather's house we started strong enough. I got the old tub drain cut out while Tonia cut and installed a second layer of sub-floor. She installed the new drain and I tore out some unneeded studs.

That, sadly, was where it ended. Tonia, being the interior designer for her office as well as general all around maintenance gal, was called in to paint the new office. After that because Mario in his bi-annual shedding, we had to take him to Shaggy's Dog Wash where we scrubbed out a good-sized chihuahua's worth of hair.

After that it was a long drive and a short visit to the Abrahams in Wisco. As always we encountered weather as soon as we got across the border. Wet snow and fast dropping temps made the road treacherous and slow. This happens every time we go into the cheese state. Watching cars fishtail and seeing them in the ditch we slowed down and made it through. Wisconsin fails to destroy us again. Or does it?

After seeing Body Worlds and wiring the Abraham basement Mario started getting sick. He threw up on the Abraham's rugs, sorry about that, and he broke out in hives and stopped doing anything at all. We left on Sunday and he was still under the weather; the poor little fella slept all the way home to Fargo. Today I took him to the Vet since I'm a nervous dad and he hadn't eaten since Saturday. He had a temp of 105 and they did blood work and are keeping him over night. Happily they called and said the antibiotics seem to be working and he ate some food so he should be able to come home tomorrow. Wisconsin will not be happy until it destroys the Litchy's one at a time!

On other notes, because of the busy week I only got on the trainer a couple times and managed somehow to gain a pound. I can't understand how seeing as I ate like I always do and did no exercise. It will be a mystery forever.

Writing on the other hand I am doing quite well. As it shows on the left, I was just shy of 10,000 words this week. Even in Wisco I braved the horrible drivers and icy roads and wrote at the Beans 'n Cream coffee house in the early mornings. It is a very nice establishment with some delicious Joe and excellent decor. As of right now the novel is past its half way mark, but not by much. The book is sitting at 56,028 and there is a lot left to be said. I've been working my life around writing it and intend to continue.

That is about it this week... I leave you with the results of the Photobooth on Tonia's Mac.

What can two talented women do with a high-end design computer and time on their hands??

Oh and by the way I'd love to date you Foxy, as long as you take me to the prom.