Whew! Glad that's done!

 

And a day early, too. Glad to be done except now the story is really just starting to cook. I'll keep working on it but I have to pay some attention to my paid vocation somewhat in December, plus I like to distract myself with something called Holidailies. Then, of course, there are the Holidays with a capital H. But maybe I'll do things differently this year. The N&T story has some momentum and if I fart around too much I'll lose that. On the other hand, if I take it a little easier I might come up with something more fun.

Anyway, I'm not going to do anything write now. Right now, I'm going to go knit something. Sit on the couch. Watch football, even.

Word of the Day

sar·coph·a·gus

  [sahr-kof-uh-guh s]  Show IPA

noun, plural sar·coph·a·gi  [-jahy]  Show IPA ,sar·coph·a·gus·es.

1.

self-storage

Available Wi Fi Network

At least it's secure.

Word of the Day

fainaigue

  \ fuh-NEYG \  , verb;

1.

To shirk; evade work ....

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fainaigue

Where in the World?

Since you asked, we are at N20.66 W156.45 (For reference, home is N47.56 W122.25.) We are north of the equator and not too far from the international date line which means if we traveled west from here it, we would find ourselves somewhere in tomorrow land.

This is an interesting time zone map. You can see that in the Western Hemisphere the times zones run parallel to one another for the most part. But not always - we are due south of Alaska but in a different time zone. Hawaii doesn't participate in Daylight Savings Time so sometimes the time difference between Hawaii and Alaska is one hour, sometimes two. Sometimes two hours between here and Seattle, sometimes three.

But look at the Eastern Hemisphere. Time zones are all jumbled up. You can change times zones moving north or south as easily as east or west. Traveling to Tehran to India would require you to change both hands on your watch, the big one by thirty minutes. In Nepal, you'd have to move Micky's big arm another fifteen minutes one way or the other, depending on where you traveled from. And, forget about wearing a watch in Australia. You'll never figure out what time it is there. Just ask someone, if you need to know.

I'm not in Australia but I took off my watch anyway. Much better for work avoidance*.

(*Truth in advertising disclosure: I'm still writing every day. Some days it feels like work. I have 42,000 words for the month of November and I'm eagerly looking forward to the end of NaNoWriMo. Total word count is 55,555 and I'm just hoping there's a story in there somewhere worth reading. Time will tell. The question is, what time zone will I be in then?)

Yeah, I'm Here

BMW ended up replacing a sensor but a week later I was still time traveling so I went back (to BMW, not in time). By now I had staked out an area in the showroom as my office so I plugged in and got to work while they charged me another $120 to make another diagnosis.

Result? New battery.

Duh.

I've passed the 30,000 word mark in my insane attempt to write 50,000 in the month of November. This puts my total word count (since mid-October) over 44,000 which will deliver me to the mid-point of the novel sometime today.

Which means somebody has to die.

Come Again?

Feeling cranky today. It's beautiful outside and I'm inside, stuck at Portland BMW while they charge me $120 to figure out what's wrong with my car. I know what's wrong with my car - the clock is losing time. Hubby has offered two possible reasons for this:

One- I'm traveling backwards in time five minutes. This could come in handy if I get into an accident or miss my turn. Or,

Two- I need a new battery.

This is my second visit to BMW for the same issue. Last time, they said the battery was fine but I needed a new sensor of some sort. Fine, give me the new sensor, I said. But here I am again so we're back to time travel or I need a new battery.

Everything else is working fine and I'm not getting any other messages from my car - like an idiot light that says "Time to Change Your Battery, Idiot" which makes the time travel option the most likely culprit at this point in time.

The good news is the coffee is free here. The bad news is I've had two cups already and I'm getting slightly agitated which isn't good because I was probably a little agitated when I got here already.

In other news, I've written over 21,000 words for Nanowrimo for a total of 34,600 words in my latest Now & Then novel. But it's hard, I'm bored, I'd rather do something else, I want to quit, this is hard (did I mention that?), whine, whine, WHINE! Oh, and I have a life that's starting to get mad at me for neglecting it and I just want to take a day off but then I'll fall behind - and we're back to whining.

Maybe I need a sanity break. Can I just go back to bed now?

Irony

During tax season, I'll write anything to avoid work.

During writing season, I'll go out of my way to do tax research.

Avoidance is a tricky thing to master.

Maybe if I go back to bed, I can avoid it all.

Today's Moral Dilemma

An accountant walks into a Starbucks....

Before you get all excited, I went there for "a friend." Okay? It wasn't for me. But I did by myself a sandwich  and, in doing so, I also depleted the remaining balance on my rewards card so that's done.

But, here's my dilemma: Does "buying local" rule out a massive coffee conglomerate if the massive coffee conglomerate is located in my hometown employing thousands of people and buys from local vendors? I'm not sure about how much they buy from local vendors but I made sure to read the label on my sandwich and it was made right here, in Seattle.

So, now what?

Lost in Chapter Eleven

“Thirsty Coventry, from Channel 7 news outside Now Investigations Headquarters,” she spoke to the camera, “speaking with Wynott Now.” She turned to address Wynott, stepping between him and Tsosumi. “Mr. Now, I understand you’ve been privately contracted to locate Hy and Flo D’Way who have been missing for several days now. Can you tell me how your investigation is going and what leads you are following up on?” She asked, thrusting her microphone in Wynott’s face.

“Actually, we haven’t really...”

“The investigation is going extremely well, Thirsty, although we aren’t at liberty to discuss details. As you clearly noted, the contract to find D’Ways is private.”

“And, you are?” Thirsty turned to Tsosumi.

“I’m Wynottt’s best ... I’m Mr. Now’s best ... assistant. He has several.”

“Any suspects in the case, Miss...?”

“Margeaux Away. No suspects as of yet but we do have one person of interest: Kandy Barr, who works as a stripper at Candy Stripers. We do think Ms. Barr warrants more attention in the matter.”

“Do you think we will see Kandy Barr behind bars?”

“It’s too early to tell but  she could be excommunicated - barred for life.”

“Mr. Now, any more information you can give us?” Thirsty was excited to have the scoop on the other news stations and wanted to milk it for all it was worth.

“I’m sorry, I don’t I have much to add to that.”

Tsosumi gave him a look that said, “Say anything.”

“Frankly, Kandy Barr melted under interrogation but any further information must be kept under wraps at this time.”

“There you have it straight from Now Investigations World Headquarters. Thank you Mr. Now and Miss Away. This is Thirsty Coventry for Channel 7 News where news travels fast.” She held her gaze into the camera until the cameraman signaled he had finished recording the segment.

“What was all that?” Wynott asked as they entered the office.

“Don’t worry, it’ll never make it on the air.”

“How do you know?”

“She had some spinach stuck between her teeth.”

Somewhere in Chapter Ten

Justin, Wynott, and Tsosumi stayed to witness the sudden mayhem as reporters rushed in, clamoring to get a statement from anyone who was willing to talk into a microphone.

“...of course The Water Works seeks to safeguard the quality of water for all persons within economic stability models that have been meticulously reviewed by various experts in the field of...”

“...it would be premature to enter into any negotiations about the location of a new factory, not to mention insensitive to the heirs who understandably...”

“...most available water is unusable due to salt content or contaminants so the issue of paramount importance is to safely store and transport safe water which can take any number of forms....”

“...Tinkerbell.”

Somewhere in Chapter Nine

“Okay, how about this? Potato chips have a bad rap as junk food.”

“That’s because they are.”

“I keep telling you. It’s not about reality. It’s about perception. They already try to get you to think it’s a healthy product by listing all the things that’s not in them - no MSG, no trans fat, no preservatives, et cetera - and all the things that could be potentially be good such as natural oils....”

“I notice you haven’t mentioned actual potatoes yet.”

“Exactly. I’m thinking about contacting the snack division of Condiment Conglomerate and pitching an idea for a new marketing strategy and it’s simple. Add ‘Made With Real Food Ingredients’ to the package. It’s vague but it implies there are potatoes in there. More importantly, it suggests their competitors don’t use potatoes or that their potatoes aren’t real. That suggestion alone is all you need for a competitive edge.”

“Why not add ‘Does Not Include Arsenic’ and suggest that it could be a cure for cancer?”

“Because, they probably do contain arsenic.”

Blew It!

It's a top down day and I didn't drive the top down car! Haven't seen the sun today. But haven't seen rain either. And, that counts.