Friday, November 25, 2005

Quick Thanksgiving Post

Argotnaut has expressed her desire to not have look at the zombiefied picture of her on my blog when she checks it out. So here's a quick post to bump that horrific photo down the page a bit.

Thanksgiving was lovely. I made a Tofurky feast with steamed green beans. I love the Tofurky boxed feast, which features Tofurky roast with wild rice stuffing, cranberry/potato dumplings and gravy because it's tasty, quick, and reasonably easy to prepare. Just chuck some taters and carrots in with the roast, baste it with a glaze made with soy sauce and orange juice, and shove it in the oven. However, that means for Christmas I must make Argotnaut's favorite Buddhist meat-like vegan loaf and garden sauce, which takes about two hours to prepare and dirties every pan in the house. But it shore is good!

Also good was that the football teams I was rooting for won (or, to be more accurate, the teams I was rooting against lost.)

Most of all, I'm thankful for my lovely, wonderful wife, the health of my family (including me!) and pets, and the fact that we live in a part of the world where I don't have to worry (much) about militias busting down our doors.

Now I must return to novel writing! I'm only at 36,000 words, or about 3,000 behind where I should have been yesterday. So must pound away!

In closing, here's photo of Buster. For some reason, he's been taking to jumping up on my shoulder and settling down. It might be love, but I think it's more likely the nice warm sweater!

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Halloween -- now with more zombies!

I've been so busy with the novel writing that I forgot to post some of our Halloween pictures. So here are four:

Zombie Argotnaut!


Zombie Quarterback!
Actually, I used my Brian Urlacher jersey and a blue t-shirt I had to create a Jonathan Quinn jersey. Jonathan Quinn is no longer with the Chicago Bears because, well, he played quarterback like a zombie! Lack of mobility that made oak trees look spry in comparison, the quick decision-making ability of a sloth, and general "Lurch-ishness." Believe me, Chicago Bears fans were terrified by the reappearance of the not-so-might Quinn!


And to round out the set:

Zombie Dog!


And zombie baboon!
This was in fact a photo that was featured in a New York Times article about why we need to sleep (turns out, nobody's really sure). But the photo was so funny I had to include it. Looks like Argotnaut before her morning cup of coffee!

Friday, November 04, 2005

NaNoWriMo Excerpt

I've been good so far about hitting my 1700 word per day quota. I'm now up to 6800! The National Write a Novel In Month web site allows participants to create a profile. Those who are interested in reading a short excerpt from my forthcoming novel can go to that web page and click on the "Team 2005" tab. Once there, search for an author with the name "Noyes" (for my alter ego the Right Dishonorable Reverend Noyes). That search will bring up my profile and an excerpt! Lucky you!

I'm finding that bearing down creatively on my writing is energizing other creative areas of my brain. I woke up the other morning with a pretty good song stuck in my head, with lyrics for a chorus and everything! That never happens. Well, rarely.

As the experiment goes on, I'm curious to see what other effects might manifest themselves. Perhaps pulling my hair out and screaming "what the hell did I do this for? Um, I mean, For what reason did I do this!?!?!"

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Anniversary gift: Insanity!

Thanks everyone for offering your happy anniversary wishes. I'm very lucky and very happy to be married to Argotnaut. We will have a nice anniversary dinner this weekend after her midterms. Tonight, she's bringing home burritos so I don't have to cook. Is she a great wife or what!? Besides, I think the third anniversary is the "refried bean" anniversary, isn't it?

While she is busy with her studies, I'm busy with my "write a novel in a month" project. I hit the 1700 word quota yesterday, and, if the coffee kicks in effectively, 1700 today shouldn't be a problem. But as the thing goes on -- well, it'll be a real challenge. I remember reading about this project last year, and one of the organizers said, "If you get in trouble and have nothing to write about, introduce a pirate. That always helps."

It may come to that!