Friday Fiver.

1. The weather has been amazing. Love it! This weekend (hubby's birthday) should be fun. I think we'll see the Transformers movie, eat way too much Trader Joe's key lime pie, and go birthday gift shopping.

2. Writing assignments are here! They are super-duper. I am really excited. This is going to be so much fun.

3. Way too much work to do. Job buried me, freelance work is going too slowly. Grrrr.

4. Feeling more organized on the writing home front, however. I do have a book proposal idea to turn in in the next few days. Excited about that.

5. Really getting pumped up for London in the fall. My manager welcomed a visit while we are there. It would be fun to stop in at the office and meet everyone. We'll see. So far, we have way too much to cram into a week anyway.

Have a great weekend!

Progress.

Fireworks were good; food was great; company was better. Back to work today.

I did make some serious progress with writing projects this week. I have two essays I've been polishing and I am sending them out to markets. I picked up two magazine writing assignments this week and I am sending some book ideas to an editor at a major publisher to present to her editorial board. Fingers crossed that I get some positive feedback.

I've determined to short-circuit some processes. I believe a writing process should encompass the shortest distance from here (idea) to there (publication/payment). Thus I've decided that I will move quickly to get to the next stage of feedback. The point is that if I'm stuck and it's not at a feedback stage, I need to push it forward as quickly as possible. The only time I'm waiting is when someone else is making a decision and those waiting times should be spent concocting new ideas.

Good stuff. And it's working, because I'm making progress.

Keep moving forward.

Happy Fourth!

I'm really late with this blog post today. It's odd to not have to be on a conference call or have a zillion things to do on a Wednesday. This day is usually one of my most productive.

I am listening to DJ Tiesto all day. He remixes classical pieces and to me, these feel so patriotic and pensive. Very appropriate for today's celebration of freedom. I saw on a sign yesterday "Home of the free, BECAUSE of the brave."

Hear, hear.

Thank you, men and women of our armed forces. Thank you, families of these brave souls. Thank you all for your sacrifice. You are beloved and prayed for constantly. Come home soon!

Have a wonderful and safe holiday today. And for those in the Pacific Northwest, drink plenty of water. It's gonna be a scorcher. 95 here. Woohoo. I'm off to sit in the sprinkler for a while before we head off to our buffet of parties.

Have a great 4th!

Marie Antoinette and the iPhone

Two things on my mind.

I watched Marie Antoinette for the third time. Yes, a bit obsessive, I know. But if you haven't seen it yet, read Antonia Fraser's book too. Start reading the book and then watch the corresponding parts of the movie. The story comes alive. Marie Antoinette lives and breathes in our world, and I, for one, really (finally) grasped the raw power of revolution and its dangerous "slippery slope." Marie Antoinette was a tragic figure, raised for one purpose, and not even considered until just before her marriage as a probable queen. Her life was sacrificed for Austria and then for France.

The iPhone reviews are starting to show up on the Apple forum. A technology writer I know has a compendium of the problem areas on his blog: Erik Sherman

I will definitely be waiting for the second or third model of the phone. Thank goodness for my Blackberry, which does everything except play music and locate the closest smoothie place. Using it does make waiting for a usable iPhone much easier.

Two hours of conference calls today so far and it's only 9 am. Learning a lot and really excited once again to be in this spot.

Finished five books over the weekend and last night. I am making progress on my reading list.

Keep Moving Forward.

Accomplished

We reformatted the iTunes computer over the weekend. What a task. I vacuumed out the garage on Saturday and then started to paint lawn furniture, but that turned into a bigger task than expected because really we needed to sand off the four other layers of paint and give it a new base coat. So, the chairs are sanded and clean and tonight I'll prime them and tomorrow night I'll paint them. They'll be ready for the big 4th of July party, I hope!

In writing news, I came up with multiple essay topics and began to work on the first of them. I came up with two very good book proposal topics and began to work on one of those. I also finished Ferriss' 4-Hour Workweek in a record two hours and feel so much better about moving to Texas in the fall. We can do this. I'm almost done with Annie Dillard's On Writing and Anne Lamott's Traveling Mercies. Really enjoying both of those books.

We went through a neighbor's open house yesterday, only 200 square feet larger than our home, same age, almost identical house plan, just as private and large of a backyard. The price is fair (but a great indicator for our possible selling price) and they will get it, but it may take a bit of time. Housing prices have not dropped, but rather than 65% of homes selling here, just 30% sell now.

So different from when we were in the market trying to buy. What a circus that was. We put an offer in just 7 hours after the house was on the market. We were the first ones to see it. They accepted our offer (full price) and signed an agreement on Friday about noon and we set off to an out-of-town wedding that weekend. Monday we returned to find out that a bidding war had begun for our home and people were offering thousands more on top of the full price to get it away from us. Our sellers were loyal and stayed with us. We're very grateful. We still just really love this home and if we do have to sell, it will be with a bit of regret and sadness. We've really customized several things to just how we like it, and while of course, we'll just do similar things to the next house, this is our first home.

Off to study work style guides and AMA today. An important editorial meeting discussing them is tomorrow and I want to be on my toes!

Probably work on an essay, the book proposal, and the fiction later today.

Keep moving forward.