Thanksgiving 2009

Happy Thanksgiving! 

My NaNoWriMo word count stands at 45,027.

The turkey breast is in the oven.  The ham and the sweet potato casserole await their turn. Cranberry gelatin salad, green beans, and pies are done.  Guests are bringing rolls, dressing, fruit, and broccoli casserole.  Gravy is a last-minute project.  Floor has been mopped, bathroom has been cleaned.  (Kitchen is still a mess, but there's time to clean it.)  The house smells good.

My family is all healthy and together.  We have a roof over our heads, clothes on our backs, shoes on our feet.  We're warm and comfortable and well-fed and we love each other. 

I often forget that many people don't have those things. 

I will be making time in the next month to do something that makes life a little better for someone.  This month was for me, but it's time to turn my focus outward and let God love someone through me.  That is, to me, what "giving thanks" should mean - that we not be complacent about what we have or envious of what we don't have, but that we set our faces toward making things better for everyone.

May your Thanksgiving be so blessed.

Image is Happy Thanksgiving by *Gracie at flickr.

Week Two, NaNoWriMo 2009

I'm a little behind.  (Ba-dum-bum.)

Hindered by feeling yucky, and the fact that people need clothes ironed and lunches packed and bathrooms cleaned, yada yada, and the fact that in all this mess, somehow I'm actually expected to go to work, I haven't been working as hard as I should.

Not to mention that I got mad at one of my characters and didn't want to write about him at all, and I got bored with the other major character - she was too nicey-nice.  Well, I fixed that all right, mwah ha ha!  She's going to do a few questionable things, and that's fun to write about. And I started fleshing out an uninhibited minor character, so that should help too. Tonight, the 18th, I should be at 30K words, and I'm not - I'm sitting on 29,213.  But it's still doable.  In fact, if I stop blogging right now, I could probably go write another 1000... okay, probably not. 

Scents worn in week two:
Tom Ford Black Orchid Voile de Fleur - stupid name, lovely scent.  Plum, white flowers, and a milky, ambery base that is sweet and smooth without being sugary. In fact, the drydown reminds me of creme brulee.  One of the few that lasts and lasts on me. Makes my sweaters smell great.

Teo Cabanel Alahine sample - Wow.  This freebie sample is a favorite of Abigail's - see her review at IsmellthereforeIam blog here.  Smells like, for some reason even I cannot pinpoint, Christmas.  In fact, what it's reminding me of is the Madrigal Dinners we chorus students produced at college: clove oranges, curried fruit, dusty music books, lit candles, slightly-musty costumes, evergreen branches hiding the Federal style mouldings on the ballroom walls... not that I actually smell all of that, but I think I'm getting olfactory illusion here.  Which is nice, actually.  Mad Dinners were so much fun.

Sonoma Scent Studio Tabac Aurea custom blend - I had this huge, head-over-heels emotional reaction to the standard version, only slightly marred by the patchouli it contains.  It's nice patch, actually - grassy and fresh-smelling, not dusty and not the synthetic-y "clean" patch that seems to inhabit so many mainstream scents lately.  But patchouli has a way of simply hijacking my nose away from the whole composition, so that all I smell is patchouli.  Laurie Erickson was kind enough to make me a few custom samples to choose from: one with no patchouli, one with 50% patchouli, and one with a different grade of patchouli.  I think the 50% patch is winning, at this stage.  I love it.

Just like last week, I highly recommend that you go smell something good, read something good, and hug someone you love.  And I'll add one more: eat something good.

Image is Butt by Shooting the Kids at flickr.

Week One, NaNoWriMo 2009

So, how's it going?

Pretty good.  At least, I've written five of the seven days, and am sitting at 13,912 words with loads more to come and no writer's block so far.  Also, everyone has eaten this week, including two bottle-fed calves named Davy and Beth, and no one has run out of underwear.  (Must give props to The CEO for doing laundry, though: ten loads.  Eek.  Note to self:  don't add any more children to the family.) I'm still looking waaay, way up at the top of the hill, but I can see it.

Scents worn this week:
Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille sample.  Smells like gingerbread, which is kind of nice if you like that sort of thing, which I do, but it's ungodly expensive for something that smells like, hello, gingerbread.  Honestly, I'd rather just bake some.
Guerlain Chamade vintage parfum de toilette.  Smells like spring.  Is allllll wrong for this time of year, but one of my characters wears it. 
Coty Ex-clam-a-tion!  Smells like rose+violet+face powder, drenched in syrup.  Was this an advance entry into the "I'm a teenager, I must smell like dessert" running?  Same character wears this one at a different stage of life.  She prefers Chamade, and I must say, so do I.
Guerlain Shalimar Light/Eau Legere, two different versions.  Review may show up this week, if I manage to post it.  Watch this space...

I have instructions for people who want something good to happen to them this week:

Go smell something good, even if it's just dry leaves outside and some homemade gingerbread inside.  (There, now you won't owe Tom Ford $170 for the 50ml bottle.  Or you could put a pouch of flavored pipe tobacco next to a bottle of Bath and Body Works' Ginger Vanilla body wash, and pretty much get the same experience.)

Go read something good.  Comic books are fun, but they do NOT count.  Sorry. You only get a pass on this one if you have a newborn baby at home.

Go hug someone you love.

You have your instructions.

Image is Montsant, climbing up hill, by Monique vd Hoeven at flickr.