Category Archives: doing it wrong

Late Summer Is Here

Posted on August 12, 2018 by Pamela

My favorite lemon cucumbers! For the first time in years, I have an amazing crop. I picked about ten this week and there are at least four more out there. I eat them like an apple.

Is late summer here or is September considered late summer?

I still think of summer in terms of the school year rather than the calendar. I love when it feels like summer is winding down. It’s darker when I get up in the morning and at some point, the nights will feel cooler.

I still have only had a few tomatoes. The plants out front aren’t doing great and the ones in back are on the verge but still not producing ripe fruit.

I have a couple of funny volunteers that are the only ones doing anything and enough for a snack while I’m out in the garden and that’s it.

My neighbor offered zucchini from a huge out of control plant, and I’ve wanted to try this summer minestrone with pesto. (no zucchini photos to go with this statement)

I’ve also been meaning to try more savory pies, and the food section had this tomato pie with pimento cheese topping. I’m not sure about it, but I think it would be fun to try.

The garden becomes overwhelming quickly. I’ve got potatoes that need to be made into a salad. And I intended to grab some beets and cook for Chlodnik later this week. I see three different spellings in my browser and I can’t bring myself to link to one of these lifestyle cooking blogs with 87 photos and long stories. It’s cold buttermilk and beets with dill and cucumber and really yummy to one person who lives in my household.

Another one of my favorite things about this time of year is the goldfinches in the sunflowers. They go nuts all morning long, flying around the garden and they are so pretty and almost like a cartoon bird.

Our toilet has been running for months and this weekend I finally tackled it. It’s not a standard flusher, but you can find a movie showing you how to repair anything these days. I did the video and put it all back together and more running. I ran around the house like Rocky. Until about an hour later is started a new noise: SPHSHSHSHSHSHSH! SPHSHSHSHSHSHSH! SPHSHSHSHSHSHSH!

After additional research and testing, I decided it’s time to bring in a pro. It’s ten years old, let’s just replace it.

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Giant Project is Finished. Almost

Posted on August 7, 2018 by Pamela

Project went to the editor on Sunday. I’m still catching up on everything. I updated my list and put about 30 things on it. This weekend will be all projects and errands and some social stuff.

Oddly, I’m itching to get into the next book. Weird.

This evening I went out and took a whole bunch of garden update photos and my camera card died. I feel like technology is abandoning me this week. I’ll try again another day. I ran out and took this with my phone. This blue hubbard squash is going to make so many things.

A couple of weeks ago I tried a new recipe using a pork roast and tomatillos, green chiles, and a bunch of other stuff. You throw it in the slow cooker all day.

I was describing the recipe to colleague and he missed the part where I said to take the meat out and shred it. He just heard, put the immersion blender in it and go to town. He’s like: What? This doesn’t sound good at all.

It was funny at the time but now that I type it out is seems stupid.The recipe was delicious.

Two weekends ago were very bad with the neighbors, partying until 5am on Friday and then 3am on Saturday. A different neighbor complained (yay!) and it’s been quiet ever since except for last night some people came in at midnight — just loud enough to wake me up. Their capacity to be social and active in the middle of the night is amazing.

I got up and closed the windows. Woke up at 3am and was hot and stuffy so opened them back up. Bob had a technology malfunction at 4am and woke me up and then the alarm goes off at 5:15a. Needless to day, I’m not my normal sparkling self.

More updates this weekend.

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Clarion West Beg-A-Thon Week #5

Posted on July 21, 2018 by Pamela

Greetings! I have had the house to myself this weekend and very few obligations so I am hunched over the computer cranking on my manuscript.

Sorry, I didn’t do any marketing. It’s partly because I don’t like it but mostly because all my brain juice is used on revisions or mandatory life responsibilities.

I will have have some amazing garden pics soon. There is a blue hubbard squash the size of a baby out there.

The Clarion West class of 2018 has one more week of the workshop. To my best recollection, at this point I was never more tired in my life and I was tired of deli sandwiches for lunch and wanted to see my husband again but also completely in love with all my classmates and couldn’t believe it was all going to be over soon. I hope the current class is having a great experience.

According to my latest progress report, there are over 200 participating writers in the fundraiser and they’ve raised just over $15,000. I met and exceeded my $100 goal, finally sent in my match plus some extra because I sponsored all my classmates. Thanks everyone for your support. There is still time to donate. Honestly, you can donate anytime you want. If you wake up in November and feel like there’s money burning a hole in your wallet, feel free to donate then. Here are some suggested people to sponsor:

me
Theresa
Maggie
Carol
Tracy
Leslie
Neile

Or pick other writers that interest you: The Group.

If you prefer to send a check here’s an address:
P.O. Box 31264
Seattle, WA 98103-1264

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Clarion West Beg-A-Thon Week #2

Posted on July 1, 2018 by Pamela

I successfully completed my week #2 goal which was 7 days of no writing. I cheated a tiny bit one day when I accidentally read an article about dialogue. As soon as I realized it, I shut my browser.

During my break, I did all kinds of things that I normally never do: I hung out downtown with my sweetie and saw Malcom Terence read at Powell’s, I went to a happy hour celebration for one of my sweetie’s colleagues, I watched epic amounts of World Cup soccer, I finished three books that I had sitting around here half finished since January, I went to the Farmer’s Market, I went to see Isle of Dogs.

It went by fast.

I’m back at it again, working on cleaning the ms. up. I have not done any marketing things yet but I’m sincere in my intent to do so soon.

Thanks to everyone who donated so far. Still plenty of time and all donations are appreciated. Here are links for me and my classmates and workshop administrators.

me
Theresa
Maggie
Carol
Tracy
Leslie
Neile

Lots of other writers — find someone to sponsor here: The Group.

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Socked in the Jaw

Posted on June 10, 2018 by Pamela

I spoke too soon and completely jinksed it. The neighbors woke me up 3 times last weekend including twice in one night (11:30am and 2:30am), there have been six cars parked there since I got home last night, they woke me up at 2:30 and 4:30 (!). Mom must be away again. argh.

Last week I was running some errands and had to transport various awkwardly shaped items to and from the car. In the process I managed misjudge what I was doing and hit my jaw on the corner of the car door really hard. I have a relatively high pain threshold and I still had to stand there for a couple of minutes with my eyes watering. It made me think of all those movies and TV shows where the hero gets beaten up and/or shot and then rappels out of a building and leaps into a helicopter and flies off to save the day. That wouldn’t happen.

I was out in the garden earlier looking for greens and I found raspberries. If it ever stops raining I need to get back out there and harvest.

Ms. is cooking along, still more slowly than I like, but I will meet my goals one way or another.

Coming soon: Clarion West Beg-a-thon. It the 10 year anniversary.

68512 / 75000 words. 91% done!

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The Good Place

Posted on June 3, 2018 by Pamela

There’s this comedy TV show called The Good Place that’s about this woman who dies and ends up in the Good Place when it seems that she should have ended up in the Bad Place. We’re already through a couple of season but I’m not going to spoil the story.

This season there was a bit where a character from the Bad Place is strategizing things that could be bad and one of them is this room where the New Yorker keeps coming and piling up, no matter how fast you read you can’t catch up.

My love/hate relationship with the New Yorker continues. Way more love than hate. More like love/exasperation.

Right now I’m powering through the summer double issue as fast as I can so I can go a whole week with no New Yorker. The double issues have this thing where they put short pieces in the middle of longer pieces.

I just realized that I cannot skip around in a magazine. I have to read from cover to cover. So when the article is interrupted I have to stop and read whatever is next and finish that before I go back to the first article. Yesterday I was reading a story that I wanted to finish but then it was interrupted.

“Just skip over and come back to this,” I told myself.

But I could not do it. I had to read the stuff out of order. Why does my brain work this way?

Last month was drier than normal and I was not on my watering game so I think my berries suffered a bit for it. One of the blue berries looks kinda sad, too.

The book is still there and still waking me up at night and still inching closer to completion. Backwards on the wordcount again.(GAH!)

67476 / 75000 words. 90% done!

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I Just Wish Someone Would Ask Me About My Privacy Settings

Posted on May 28, 2018 by Pamela

If you’re concerned about this website and privacy, please be assured that I haven’t the slightest idea how to exploit your privacy, nor do I have the time or energy to learn how, should I decide that your privacy could be of some use to me.

One item that’s been on my list forever is my passport. I knew it was expiring at the end of this year and I didn’t want to leave it for the last minute. But then I never got around to dealing with it. There’s a passport photo place downtown but it’s not super convenient. When the weather was terrible there was always an excuse not to go over there.

I finally set aside a day when I could go over and take care of it on my lunch break when I was informed that paperwork that was supposed to be delivered months ago, would arrive at the exact time I intended to get my passport photo.

Another couple of weeks went by and I was determined. When I looked up the address of the photo place to confirm I knew where it was, I found a passport photo place right next to the office. The whole thing took 10 minutes including the time to walk over there.

Renewal was sent off and new passport has arrived. I can go abroad. Someone buy me a ticket.

Tomatoes went into the ground this weekend. I planted four plants all from Territorial Seed because I had such great luck with them last year. (Non spon!) Katana and Bumble Bee are two. I can’t remember the other two. I wish I could write copy for tomato plants. “Our most delicious and beautiful and easy to grow and tasty and pretty and prolific tomatoes.” I originally put way more plants in my cart and I had to get a grip on my sanity.

Here’s an update on the neighbor situation:

It is one million percent improved. The party moved elsewhere. I have been sleeping with the windows open. (Please o please let me not jinks it by writing this.) There are still a wide variety of cars coming and going but I have no complaints. The renter and I talk when we see each other. One of the young people (wearing a fedora) said hello the other day. I am no longer stressed about the situation

The book is barely under control. If I die today, someone could look at my draft at have a clue what I was trying to do, but if I die today, please don’t look at it.

I still have a couple of major scenes to write, many scenes that need to be filled in, and lots of tidying up to do.

The hardest thing about this process letting things go around the house. Well, the hardest thing is all of it, but one main thing that gives me endless grief is being forced to abandon the yard and ignore clutter and be super half-assed about social interactions. I’m not the kind of person who can look at a giant basket of laundry and not fret about getting it done.

If all goes according to plan, this will be off to beta readers in a few weeks and I will take a very short break and enjoy some World Cup games before I buckle in to finalize it.

68591 / 75000 words. 91% done!

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Second Verse The Same As The First

Posted on May 20, 2018 by Pamela

My sister-in-law and I have the fun task of going through my mother-in-law’s recipes and cookbooks. That isn’t sarcasm. I am looking forward to it.

This is a preview from a cookbook she already gave me.

She is a big orange sherbet fan.

I am not. I love cold frosty desserts but I’d rather have nothing than sherbet.

I loved the annotation on this recipe.

I am still plodding in place on this thing: .

The meter is not reflective of the epic amount of work I’m putting into this. I am now waking up at 2am and fretting about it. At one point I came to the conclusion that it would have to be scrapped except then what?

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Enough With Terrible Websites

Posted on May 18, 2018 by Pamela

I uploaded this photo last weekend and then never had time to write a post.

Mother Nature schedules everything using my soccer schedule. Early season match in March? That calls for 40 degrees and driving rain for the duration. First midday match in May? Ninety degrees, you’re welcome!

I bought a sun hat and sprayed 45 spf all over my arms, feet, and neck-front and back: TWICE. Plus I put one of those waterproof 45 spf special for your face all over including my ears and into my hairline. We only had the sun on us for half the time and I was hot and sweaty but not lobstered.

Tomorrow we have a nooner but supposedly it will be 75 and partially cloudy. I’m still going to drench in sunscreen.

The Project of Everything: URGH. I am still losing more words than adding. I am still fighting back distress about the whole thing and giving myself positive feedback. Words are going to fly out of my brain when I need them, right? Hopefully a better update at the end of the weekend.

Today’s Technology Rager: My doctor clinic emailed me a note about a preventative exam I need to schedule. I can’t get into my account. It says my password is wrong.

I went to change password and they asked me a security question. I don’t have the slightest idea what answer I might have given since the thing does not exist for me. I probably made something up but when I do that, I usually write a note on this piece of paper next to my computer with approximately 9000 pieces of information that I need to get into websites. I wrote nothing on this item.

Now I’m all worked up and I couldn’t take care of the problem. I had to send an email to the help desk which says it will get back to me in 72 hours. Well, yahoo. What’s that? Monday?

I already know what they want from me because they also robocall me on it. Also: I ALREADY HAD THE EXAM AT THE CLINIC.

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Everything Changes, Everything Stays the Same

Posted on May 6, 2018 by Pamela

Here’s a shot of the irises. They only last about a week and they’re kind of a pain. I don’t know why I feel bad every time I accidentally pull some of them up. Pretty while they last.

Here’s Percy — look how cute his leaves are. I found some fig forums online so I will be learning everything about figs. People who love figs are very passionate about figs. People who don’t know about figs are sad.

This is a giant dark opening behind the alien bush and inside the hedges in the backyard. Every time I do yard work there, I imagine a growling clicky sound like you hear in a horror movie while some unsuspecting lady hums while gardening and a giant creature with claws and teeth gets ready to tear her apart.

If you don’t hear from me, that’s what happened.

Still trying to fix the 90% draft and some sad back tracking happened this week. I nuked two chapter because they were a huge mess and sometimes it’s better to jettison stuff than try to fix it.

64163 / 75000 words. 86% done!

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