So much going on!

Once again I feel as though I must apologize for my inability to blog on a regular basis. So not unlike Brian I am going to cover a couple weeks in one post and try to get into a better flow. As Brian mentioned we were out at their place in beautiful Wisco. On the way out there we stopped in for a evening with Alane and Dick.

At Brian and Heather's place we had a good time watching the Tour, playing with the hounds and playing at various parks. We also went on many bike rides and played a little baseball which was very, very pathetic.

The weekend was fun and went by way too fast. After that it was a mad dash to get home because two days later we had to take off to find out about our next big announcement!!

Just Kidding!! Its only a FOOD Baby!!

The announcement is that we are moving. We spent a very long week looking at houses and seeing some very odd things. Like this odd little add-on in one house that was a combo bedroom-bathroom with carpet right up to the stool and a huge sunk in tub.However, after looking at over 40 houses and putting close to 700 miles on the rental car we ended up putting in an offer on this little fellow here.We're still not sure if we're going to get it, and our house here in Fargo is still for sale, but we are hoping everything falls into place.

On the writing note. My first novel is in the hands of my dedicated readers and I am hoping to hear some feedback soon. My second novel is written and is in the cooling stage while I edit the first one. I've thrown out a couple short stories in between, but I think I've gotten the bug in my ear for the next novel so we'll see what comes of that.

Oh and here's Brian's punishment for me moving Tonia away from him.

It would take how long to walk from Sabin, MN???

Sorry for the long gap in blogging. I've been a little busy with travel and various other projects. In fact I am in Phoenix right now chilling, if that's possible. In recent news the bathroom continues to move forward. I don't have any photos with me, but I intend to get some after Memorial day since its a day off and for once Tonia and I will both be home to work on it.

For the past three weekends Dave and I and sometimes Greg have been going on some pretty good rides on Sunday mornings. The first weekend (well posted on Dave's blog) we did around 35 miles on the road bikes. The following weekend Dave and I rolled out on the gravel. He was on his Cross bike and I took the Top Fuel out for a stretch. I think we put down a similar 35 miles. This last weekend Dave and I took off again and we decided it would be road bikes again.

We rolled into Minnesota and head out toward Sabin. We went out on Highway 75 to Sabin and even through Sabin out to Baker, MN. However, there were no cross roads that were paved. Once we past Baker we deiced to turn around and head back. Just as we were passing through Sabin again there was an odd sound coming from my rear tire. It sounded an awful lot like air escaping from a rubber tube. I had a flat and neither Dave nor I had a tube. Tonia was in the Cities with Kelli, and Jodi so I could not call her, though it was 8:45 in the morning Tonia would not have answered the phone even if she was home. Jenn had little Henry to look after and everyone else I could think of to call for a pick up ride was out of town.

Finally, after a discussion Dave and I decided for him to time-trial himself back home to get his car and roll back to pick me up. We were sitting at about 20 miles from home so it was a Herculean effort on Dave's part to get home as fast as he did. I would say I was only walking for about an hour so he made some hella good time. Without Dave I would have been walking for roughly 7 hours to get home. I walk at 3.3 miles per hour per my computer. Once again I thank you Dave.

What really bothers me it that I would say I was passed by at least 20 pickup trucks none of which stopped to offer help. I was passed by an older couple on their bike path bikes who asked if I was okay and if I had a ride coming. Another rider stopped to see what was up and after scolding me for not carrying a tube he checked his own supply and discovered that he had none my size. I appreciated his attempt at help as well. I know now that I would stop to help a stranded rider in the middle of nowhere who was walking their bike. It's just the right thing to do.

Any way once Dave got me home I took Jordan to the mall and ran straight to Paramount Sports to by two tubes and a hand pump for carrying with me from now on. I will try to be a little more prepared.

As Brian mentioned on his blog I will be riding with him in the cities and visiting Alane and Dick. I am looking forward to both.

In other news I have started sending out pages from the novel to dedicated readers and Brian and Heather have already given me their feedback. Both have given fantastic feedback and it has been monstrously helpful. Thanks guys! I'm sticking with digital because I cannot waste that much paper. I will be working forward into the next set of pages to send out soon. Here is a pre-emptive thank you to all who are helping me out. Thank you!

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.