Monthly Archives: October 2007

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I’m so grateful for that!

This Monday is Thanksgiving, here in Canada. I cannot wrap my mind around that.

First of all, it’s October. We have not even celebrated my birthday yet, although you are welcome to start doing that at any time. Let alone Halloween.

Second, it’s on a Monday. Weird.

However, that is not going to stop me from making a Thanksgiving dinner. Shocked? Amazed? Scared? It’s ok, I understand. I haven’t been completely forthcoming with you. I’ve been cooking all sorts of things. I’ve made Beef Stroganoff. Twice! I can make the homemade Mac and Cheese that Arifa makes for me when we get together. Myself! I have several chicken recipes I make regularly. And I’m on my way to recreating Buca di Beoppo’s excellent Lemon Chicken. Last night was Too Lemony, but I’m getting closer. I look forward to getting my Alton Brown cookbooks out of storage someday. Along with my beautiful red Kitchen Aid mixer.

Oh sure, every once in a while I manage to ruin every single dish in a meal, and we have to have sammiches. But I would say that I’m successful about 8 out of 10 times. And while Thanksgiving is ambitious, I’m going to give it a whirl anyway. If it works out, I fully intend to make another one in November. Otherwise, I won’t know when it’s time to start Christmas Shopping.

However, we are not having turkey. There is not a turkey small enough for only two people. We have a tiny kitchen, a tiny refrigerator that features a tiny freezer. I don’t think we even have room for a turkey in this place. I was going to just get one of those turkey breasts instead, but the truth is, I like dark meat. I think it will still be thanksgiviny as long as I have pumpkin pie. And stuffing. These are the dishes that MAKE THANKSGIVING for me. There will be smashed potatoes. And I’m making my mom’s bean dish for Wil. It has all the good things in life in it, butter, sour cream, cheese, almond slivers. But it also has green stuff. And I am deadly allergic to cooked green stuff. Truly.

So, instead of turkey, I am going to roast a chicken. I’ve decided to make Beer Can Up The Butt Chicken. My friend Marie did it once, and not only did she say it was delicious, she provided me with step by step instructions. With pictures! So I’m going to give it a try. Tomorrow, I’ll ask Wil to pick up a six pack on the way home from work, and let him keep five. That should make him pretty thankful. And isn’t that what Thanksgiving is all about?

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Canada

Once you go Canadian…

I’m watching the television right now, a Seattle station. A preview came on for the 11 pm news with a story about a woman who wants a Canadian husband, American men need not apply.

Honey, I totally get it.

I gotta stay up and watch this.

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nanowrimo

I decided to do a Reply All for those who may not know.

Aries asks: What’s nanowrimo? Can I join (I mean, if it’s cool and all that)?

And the answer is: Hell Yeah! To both questions.

NaNoWriMo is a National Novel Writing Month. It’s a contest for people who have always wanted to write a novel someday. The basic gist? Write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. It’s all about quantity, not quality. Not caring about quality gives you the freedom to write anything. Sure, a lot of it is crap. Most of it is. But unless you feel free to write crap, you won’t discover the good stuff. The little gems amongst the crap. Crap jewels.

People say to me, this doesn’t sound fun. But they are wrong, it’s HELLA fun. (ok, if you don’t like to write, it would not be fun.) There are writing groups in every city in America, pretty much. And many cities in Canada and around the world. There are kick off parties and wrap up parties. People meet throughout the month to write together. It can be as social, or as solitary an experience as you want.

You can’t start until November 1st, 12:01 am. And you have to finish by November 30th, 11:59 pm PST. You upload your novel to word counter and it validates your word count. No one reads your words. You could type “marshmallow” 50 thousand times and no one would be the wiser. But what’s the point of cheating? You are only cheating yourself. There are no prizes. It costs no money to sign up and it gives you the excuse to not do housework for a month. Because you are working on your novel. You are a novelist, dammit.

This is my 5th year. I won in 2003 and 2004, but did not complete my 50k in 2005 or 2006. I blame Wil. Ok, really, last year I should blame World of Warcraft which I started playing in November. Which Wil introduced me to, so it’s still his fault. I just ordered our 2007 NaNoWriMo t-shirts. I think I have enough NaNo shirts to wear one every day of the week, with an extra 8th one left over for laundry.

To read more about it, and to sign up, visit their website. But be warned, it is extremely slow right now. This happens every year when they launch the new site on October 1st, and people start to flood the forums. My nano name is, naturally, Jodiferous, and feel free to add me as a writing buddy.

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nanowrimo

NaNo-YAAAaaAAaaY-Mo!

Hooray hooray!! October is here.

October is my favorite month, as you all well know. Today is Registration Day for NaNoWriMo! Of course, if you’ve done it before, you are already registered. But the forums go live. . I’m going to have to change my location to Vancouver. NaNoWriMo is my one and only plan for meeting people and making friends. If this doesn’t work, I don’t know what I’ll do

The website goes live tonight. I’ve already sent in my annual donation. I cannot WAIT to order our t-shirts. HOORAY HOORAY!!!

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