Unique Friday Fiver

1. Saying tooty-fruity drink to some UK colleagues makes them very uncomfortable. Estrogen-focused ethanol drink works better. (Or just estrogen-focused drink, which is a virgin margarita.) It's Friday in the UK and my colleagues are off to celebrate the weekend. I have a few more hours to go.

2. I am a quick CSS learner, but I am a terrible graphic designer. I am fiddling with the blog on Wordpress and will let everyone preview the new look soon. Not now, it is just terrible.

3. Craving brownies. Good thing a friend is bringing them tonight to our weekly Wii party! Must not eat sugar all day to prepare.

4. My filing piles are overwhelming. Need to make time to deal with those next week. Excited about springing forward this weekend. It will mean less sleep, but we are headed to spring! What a great thing! I'm a poet, and I know it!

5. Memoir fallout continues with this internal memo at the New York Times:

Times Memo: No More Single-Source Profiles
NYT standards editor Craig Whitney sent new guidelines to the newspaper's staff by e-mail to prevent another Seltzeresque embarrassment:

"Single-source profiles of people who are not already well known quantities are traps we have fallen into twice in the past year or two, and that's too often. Until publishers start fact-checking their own nonfiction books, and that'll be the day, we should remember that profiles of unknown authors should always include reporting from other sources -- not just surrogates of the profilee like agents, publishers, lawyers, etc. -- to verify the most important facts. But even when there's no book involved, the same rule applies. If we can't find ways to check key facts, names, graduation claims, etc., we should hold the story until we can verify them, and if we can't, we should be suspicious. Live and learn...."

Currently listening to: Gone (Sun)
Currently reading: Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This

When It Rains, It Pours

Extremely good day yesterday for several reasons:

1. Got a hefty rebate check from Costco; time to stock up on toilet paper! LOL to the BS2 buddies on the forum--"no spendy!" Woot woot!

2. Got a new freelance client that I think will be a good fit for my biz; ongoing work with a great team.

3. Hubby got a new job working for an awesome team, with a nice hefty raise, for a very well-known company. Woot!

4. Several online buddies wrote me to commiserate on me not being able to find anything in the COACH catalog, but asking me to make clear that my despair is not giving up hope that the perfect 350-dollar purse will appear at some point in my future. I agree. I may be done with COACH, but I am not done with amazing bags. In fact, I'd say that I'd rather have one nice 350-dollar bag, than five less than stellar 70-dollar bags as Nicole at Making It Lovely put it so well. We're headed to London and possibly France in mid-May and what a great opportunity to buy leather goods. Harrods here I come!

ps to that--my good buddy, J, just got her amazing COACH bag yesterday, and because of her coupon, a refund on another bag that fell apart, and a very good hubby, she was able to swing this final bag purchase. It's the "Last Bag" for both of us from COACH. We intend to throw a celebration for it this weekend, which will probably include a sacrificial dance.

Okay, okay, no more purse talk. Sorry, Jamie.

5. All this crazy goings-on have made writing tough, but I did get the prep work on the new novel series going yesterday. My NY editor is almost finished with the previous novel and promises editorial feedback next week. And next week begins the start of the writing group (Jen and I are adding a few people) with a blog, web site, marketing platform, and publicity in the works.

Today there is fog instead of sun, but I don't care. We've had enough excitement to last all month!

Currently listening to: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Currently reading: Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This (Luke Sullivan)

Writing Schmiting

I buried myself in editing yesterday and wrote late last night once the returns started coming in from TX and OH. Interesting day. I think people are taking a closer look at Barack Obama and his policies. I know the WSJ (not the editorial page) is and they haven't really been for the past few months.

I have to say I'm glad for Hillary. This is her dream. She's wanted this her entire life. I won't be voting for her, but I'm happy for her.

Just priced plane tickets to London in mid-May. I'm going to try and see if I can spend nothing for this trip. Since I bought everything I need last fall. Yes, I'm on a very odd "spend nothing, save everything" kick. It's a funny thing, my mood. I even got a 25% sale coupon for the COACH store and I want nothing to do with it. Nothing. It even seems stupid to spend hundreds of dollars on a purse. I tell ya, this mood.

Reading a lot too. Have a pile of marketing books and cds to go through this week.

In case you haven't heard, memoirs are getting hit hard once again. Authors are making up their books as if it's a cool thing to do. Don't even get me started. Instead, see here, here, and here.

Currently reading: Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This
Currently listening to: The Vogues

Staying Busy as We Wait for TX and OH to Vote

So I found a whole bunch of stories that were interesting.

Wikipedia founder living large? The scoop here.

Yet another memoir writer made it all up. Another one confessed last week, although hers was more pitiable.

So I caught the 20/20 story on the Royal Family last night, did you? Really interesting. Especially as I'm headed back to England in May for work. Working on extending the trip so that hubby and can travel around the country a bit while we're there. I want to go back to Oxford!

Also have embarked on a Meryl Streep movie-athon. I added all of her movies to my Netflix queue years ago after her Devil Wears Prada triumph, but just am beginning to see them all now (that's just how Netflix works). The first was Sophie's Choice, based on this novel, and I can't get it out of my head. Haunting, whimsical, layered, evocative, and depraved. It's a vivid picture of the Holocaust. It stuns you. Meryl's award for that movie role was absolutely deserved.

Waiting to hear what happens in TX/OH today. I hope the drama continues. We need to hear more from all candidates about how their plans to lead us in the next four years are better and we need to make sure those plans work, not just sound good.

Currently listening to: Sarah Brightman
Currently reading: Free Agent Nation (Daniel Pink)

Monday Again

Had a great and very productive weekend, but it's back to work today.

In book talk, a great book review from the New York Review of Books on Wikipedia that looks interesting. I'm reading ravenously about upcoming books, probably because I'm trying a book "no-buy" period until June or so. We're out of bookshelf space to the max, plus I've got plenty to read already, so I'm just making lists and checking out from the library these days.

Worked on the new novel idea this weekend quite a bit. Feeling good about that work. Slowly thinking my way through plot issues. I also worked on my web site upgrade. I have to decide how many web sites I really want to build. There may be a way to lower the necessary number, which works for me.

No word on novel or essays, but I'm keeping plenty busy with marketing and my color-coded schedule in iCal (yes, I've gone completely bonkers over color-coding iCal a week at a time). For one thing the colors are so much fun and for another thing, I seem to do better with a schedule and a block of time with a to-do list rather than a daily to-do list that always has too much on it. Definitely accomplishing more each day.

Happy Monday!

Currently reading: History of the Ancient World (Susan Wise Bauer)
Currently listening to: conference call with London on comorbidities scores