Never-ending Fanfic

I have written over 100 pages of fanfic in Microsoft Word and I'm far from being done. Over 40,000 words in one fanfic alone. Wow.

I guess I won't have to worry about being able to write enough words for a novel, several of which I have planned out or started. I think I'll celebrate page 100 by starting yet another novel. This one is science fiction and I've had the idea for a while now. In fact, I have two unstarted science fiction stories, one of which will will likely be a short story. Wish me luck, Reader.

This Guy is Funny

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYP3jhqUC3I

Tubby Tragedy

The kids and I were watching clips of cartoons on youtube.com and came across a Teletubbies slide show. At the very end was somebody's sick drawing of Tubby death. Sick bastards. Our 7-year-old told our 4-year-old that the Teletubbies were dead. She believed it and kept talking about it and even shied away from toy Teletubbies. I explained to her that they were ok, but she wouldn't believe me until I went to the PBS Kids website this morning to show her. Poor kid. Just so you know, the Teletubbies are just fine. They're not dead, they're not sick, they're ok. I'll have to preview everything from now on.

Fiesta Time

Hello, reader. It's Saturday again. This afternoon, we are off to my in-laws' for a "Mexican Fiesta". There will not be any Mexicans there(I asked), nor will there be anything even remotely Mexican besides the food(which itself is reason enough to go - Mexican food is awesome).

I am making this:

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Mexican Chicken and Rice

2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 med. green pepper, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 can(8 3/4-oz.) whole kernal corn, drained
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup salsa
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt
1/2 to 1 teaspoon chili powder(opt.)
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 to 1 1/2 cups uncooked instant rice
1/2 to 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

In a large skillet, saute chicken, green pepper and onion in oil until chicken is no longer pink and vegetables are crisp-tender. Add corn, broth, salsa, salt, chili powder, and pepper. Bring to a boil. Stir in rice; cover and remove from heat. Let stand for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork. Sprinkle with cheese. Cover and let stand 2 minutes or until cheese is melted.
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I use maximum cheese, if not extra. I love cheese. I have no idea where I found this recipe. Either the internet or a cooking magazine. It's delicious. Definitely worthy of a family fiesta.

The Invisible Parent

My husband has a superpower. He can become invisible to children. If they need something, they can be standing right next to him, but for some reason have to come and find me to solve all of their problems. It's like they don't see him. I sure would love to borrow this power for a while.

Saint Soapbox Debate #3

Well, it seems participation has dropped. Debate #2 was awfully short. Here's a nice controversial topic for our third debate:

The War in Iraq

Is the war in Iraq a legitimate part of the War on Terror?

Lost, but not quite...

Have you ever gotten lost in a place you know you should know your way around? That happened to me today. There's a little lane out in back of the barn that leads through the fields and to a back road. Easy enough to see where it goes from this end, but I've never taken the lane coming back by myself before.

I was bringing the 4-wheeler back from the neighbor's along that back road and I couldn't find the far end of that little lane. It should have been easy to find, but it wasn't. I could see the barn from where I was, but I couldn't find my way back to it. I found what I thought was the lane, but then I found myself sourrounded by corn and soybeans and figured it was the wrong way. I did know where I was, so rather than drive around like an idiot in full view of other neighbors, I took the long way home, which brought me around the in-law's place down the road, and a half-mile stretch of highway. I think I might have run the 4-wheeler out of gas, cause when I stopped, it did too.

I really need to learn how to navigate around my home.

Something to think about...

I used to be a very quiet person. For the first fifteen years or so of my life, I hardly said a word. Then for some unknown reason, I began to talk. Since then I have this odd combination of shy/quiet in person and talkative online.

Sometimes, I think I should go back to being quiet and especially apply that to the Internet. Why? Because I usually end up saying something stupid, thoughtless, and/or downright embarassing. There are many times I am thankful for having kept silent because I found out later that I misinterpreted something and really would have made a fool of myself.

Saint Soap Box Debate #1

Since I haven't yet got suggestions to choose from, this week's debate topic will be Blogger's Choice.

And the topic is:

Paparazzi: celebrity vs. privacy

Should being famous include sacrifice of privacy?

Let the Debate Begin....

This is a brand new feature here at the soap box. I will host weekly debates, to be conducted in the comments. The debate will go on for one week only, after which time, the comments will be turned off and we will move on to a new debate. Please keep your arguments clean and try to stay on topic.

What would you like to talk about? All suggestions are welcome. At the beginning of each week, I will choose a suggested topic at random.

Comments

I just realized that I failed to enable the comments option on every single post I've made this year. So, I have gone back and republished all of them.

Words of Wisdom from Me

Life is a journey back to our beginning, a great ride on God's boomerang.

Happy Birthday, America!/Pizza Hut sucks!

Happy Independence Day, reader! It's America's birthday! Or, as my 4-year-old says, "Makaka bothday". She asked me if "Makaka"(America) could have a cookie. Isn't that sweet?

We went to the small parade in a town about 4 miles from here. This year's parade ran a little longer than usual. We decided to leave a little early, so I gathered the children from the roadside where they were catching candy(with supervision) and there it was. My dream car. The most heart-stoppingly beautiful automobile ever manufactered. And I was close enough I could have reached out and touched it. Awesome!

Then we met up with the in-laws again at Pizza Hut. Keep in mind the building number is 666. This particular Pizza Hut is plagued by lousy waitresses. The service sucks and always has. Every Independence Day, my husband's family eats lunch at Pizza Hut. Every year, they debate returning. I guess this year's experience was the final straw. The local Pizza Hut has officially lost their patronage.

The place wasn't especially busy. There was only one other table occupied when we arrived. We waited twenty-three minutes just to get our cheesy breadsticks. It took thirty minutes to get our pizza. While I don't mind the seven minute interval between appetizer and entree, the overall wait was ridiculous. This wasn't just a random occurance either. This happens almost every time we eat there.

I picked up a few of those "how are we doing" cards and passed them out to various family members. The customer service department will be hearing from us.

But, it's still a good day and we have lots of leftover pizza.

Names

Naming trends are something I just don't understand. Some celebrity makes it big and suddenly a significant number of newborns are named after him/her or the character he/she portrays. Are their parents under some strange assumption that the babies are somehow connected to their namesakes? Or did said celebrity simply remind America that the name existed?

One of my favorite names is Caitlin. Thanks to the soap opera Sunset Beach(brought to us by the late Aaron Spelling, may God rest his soul), we now have several second graders named Caitlin. One local teacher complained because she had four Caitlins of various spellings in her class at once. Seeing as how most Caitlins are now 7-8 years old, we need a new crop, so come on, America. Bring on the Caitlins!

Then there are mysterious names, such as George. I, for one, have never met nor heard of a child named George. There are, however, many adults named George. Where did all the Georges come from? Are they born fully grown? Do they grow up using nicknames to keep the true number of Georges a secret? This George conspiracy must be exposed!

Blogs

I know what you're thinking, reader. Two posts in one day. It doesn't happen very often. Banner year for the soap box.

As I sit here, sipping my seasoned(read "day-old") coffee, I am surfing the internet, reading other people's blogs. There are some really fascinating ones out there.

For a fun blog-reading experiment, I started following links from blog to blog. I found quite a few that were more interesting to me than my own, but perhaps I am ill qualified to judge my own blog, as it's all old news to me.

What is it that we find so fascinating about reading other people's thoughts, stories, experiences, etc.? Is it the comfort of connecting to another person without the responsibility and emotional risk of a two-sided conversation? Or am I overthinking this?

What do you think, reader?

The Wonderful World of Fanfiction

Fanfiction(fanfic), for those of you who don't know, is fiction based on characters of television, books, or movies. It is just for fun and nobody makes any money from it.

I started writing fanfic about 7 years ago, but gave up on it, leaving a great cliffhanger ending on my story. I still haven't finished that one.

This year, I started writing again and I had forgotten how much fun it can be. I write my stories in installments, which I post on a web forum. I write short installments, so I can stay ahead of the postings(I only post one part a week).

Feedback is the best part. It's so much fun to be able to interact with my readers.

Fanfic is great practice for those with serious literary aspirations. There is little pressure. Your readers don't expect your work to be good or even necessarily believable, but they let you know when they really like it.

I highly recommend it as a writing exercise or a relaxing hobby.

We Are Running the World???

My mom talks about how the "grown-ups" are supposed to be running things, not people her age. Now I know what she's talking about.

Now people my age are doing important things and helping to run the world. It's kind of scary. When did this get dumped on us? We shouldn't be running anything. We're the kids.

I can't even begin to imagine my children being old enough or mature enough to do anything as important as running the world, but it's not so far away.

All you parents out there, remember that you are not raising children, you are raising future adults. Those cute little kids will one day be making important decisions that will affect everyone and everything.

Funny Names

This site has a list of names(some of them clever) people have used.

http://members.aol.com/pinjunkie/

Super Mom to the Rescue

This morning I had a crash course in speed baking. The kids with summer birthdays have assigned "birthdays" during the regular school year. Yesterday, my 3rd-grader found out for sure that hers is TODAY. I had to bake cookies.

I decided to bake sugar cookies. I got the dough all mixed up and realized it had to chill for two hours! This is one of the reasons I never bake sugar cookies. It might help if I read all of the directions first though, huh?

So I wondered if maybe I could chill it faster in the freezer. I didn't get to find out because I subsequently forgot about the dough and went to bed.

I woke up this morning, hit the snooze button, then remembered the cookies. (This "Oh Crap" moment brought to you by tired mothers everywhere.) It was almost 6:00 a.m. and I had to wake the kids up and the baby was crying. This was a job for Super Mom!

I had about 45 minutes to bake cookies and get kids off to school. Chocolate chip cookies to the rescue. I could practically make them in my sleep. I'm not talking "break-and-bake" wimpy stuff. I mean real cookies. [I would like to take this moment to thank God for microwaves, babies who decide to go back to sleep, and ovens in which you can bake a dozen and a half cookies at once.]

The dozen came out nicely, but the half dozen were overcooked a bit(read darn-near burned). So, I figured some poor kids would just have to be satisfied with smallish extra-browned cookies. Luckily for them, I managed to get another dozen baked and cooled enough to replace them before the bus came. The day is saved!

Now I shall hang up my Super Mom cape for the day.

Breaking News!!

I was out for a walk about an hour ago and I heard a few sirens, which isn't all that unusual. I was just headed for the house when I noticed that two fire trucks were up the road at the neighbor's house. That was the entire local fire department!

Our neighbor to the south likes to rebuild and customize classic automobiles. He was driving this nice black something-or-other(sorry to disappoint any enthusiasts with my lack of knowledge here) that he drives quite frequntly. When he got near the house of our neighbor to the north, his car caught fire.

Nobody was hurt, except the car. They put the fire out, coasted her down the hill to Neighbor South's driveway, and pushed her into the garage.

Hopefully, that is all the excitement for tonight.