It’s hot and miserable here, with construction type people in my house working to fix my kitchen after the water leak, my email is piling up to scary heights, and I’m desperately trying to find time and quiet to work on CAGED MAGIC to get it in shape for the editor next week. Frankly, I need help…so I called in these guys:

What do you think? Are they worthy?

I’m back to a crazed work schedule, desperately hoping to get CAGED MAGIC back to the editor next week. Adding to the stress, the restoration work on our kitchen is supposed to begin Tuesday. Should be…interesting. But I did get a break this weekend, baking cupcakes and going to CPA Boy’s to celebrate his birthday since we had to cancel the previous week. All the kids came, and we got to play with these two:

Cookie exhausted after we all left

Corky hamming for the camera

And these are Chocolate Kaluha cucpakes with a mousse-gnache I made using this recipe

How was your weekend?

My website went through updates, and now when I log in, I have to do math to “prove my humanity.” I kid you not. Apparently the ability to do math proves we’re human. Calculators and computers will be so sad to learn that In any case,  I absolutely hate it. It’s just annoying more than anything. I can actually do simple math but why should I have to? I thought that was the point of usernames and passwords. Making me jump through more hoops just to get into my own website is frustrating.

Hmm, it seems I’m suddenly a ranty witch With all that’s been going on, it’s pretty funny that I’m losing it over something like a simple A+B=C math problems that takes me about 3 seconds to complete.

In other news, I’m working my tail off now that I have a reasonable handle on revising CAGED MAGIC. I’m also finalizing details for the release date and will announce it soon. My assistant, Anna, is making plans too. Exciting times! And scary. CAGED MAGIC is a huge, some would say, insane risk. But risk keeps life interesting.

This weekend will probably be quiet, maybe we’ll see CPA Boy and for sure, I’m working. What about you guys? Any weekend plans?

I’m working feverishly, determined to get this revision done despite my resembling some kind of carnival fun house lately.  I do have to tell you guys this one little thing though because…well… my days of being classy are clearly over. So we had the insurance estimator out yesterday and both Wizard and I were tired. Like…walking into walls tired. Oh wait, I can be fully rested and caffeinated and still walk smack into a wall. Hmm…what’s another description of tired?

Oh, I know! I was so tired I didn’t even want wine. Yeah…that tired

So anyway, the guy’s doing his job, measuring, calculating, punching into numbers on his computer, making graphs and I’m just trying to stay out of his way.  So I step back in a doorway where the insurance adjust can’t see me.

But Wizard can.

And Wizard’s being all manly and serious. Discussing numbers and timelines, and you know being profession and all mature.

So I flashed him. Wizard, not the insurance adjuster. Okay I didn’t actually flash Wizard, but I lifted my shirt and inch or two as if I was going to do it.

OMG…you had to see Wizard’s face! His eyes went wide, and a second later, his mouth twitched as he tried not to laugh. Totally priceless! And yet, he kept talking away with the insurance guy. I know, I know, so immature of me. I used to be so grown up but lately, I’m finding maturity overrated.

Also, I woke up enough to have some wine after the insurance adjuster left.

And just so you know, the very nice, professional and insurance adjuster had no idea. I promise.  Only Wizard knew what wickedness I was plotting. Oh and now all of you too

Now that you’re all wondering if I’ve lost my mind (probably), let’s move on to Wednesday Worthy. Here is this week’s candidate:

So what do you think? Is he worthy?

Holy Water Leaks, this was so not how I thought my weekend would go. So Friday night, I was cleaning the stove after dinner, and noticed a water stain on my stove top.

Then I felt a drop on my hand.

I looked up and saw water dripping down the microwave. I found more drips, and looked right to the wall where I saw the ripples in the paint. Not. Good. I knew we had a leak.

So my kitchen  looked like this a couple years ago when we updated with granite and new sink and faucet:

While there’s more updates we’d like to do someday (like lighting and a new fridge) I love my kitchen, it’s my happy place. But it wasn’t very happy this weekend. See that header above the upper cupboards with the row of six pictures? There was a water leak somewhere behind that.  The restoration crew had to come in Saturday and strip out the cupboards and microwave, cut holes and find the leak. Once they did that, the plumbers fixed it.

No mold and no lasting damage, so Yay for that! We caught the leak when it was a slow drip before the pipe burst and became a true disaster (pure luck). The next step is 48 hours of a jet plane in my house: Just kidding, these are the driers/blowers/dehumidifier things that only sound like jet planes. But they are making sure everything is absolutely dry so it’s all good.

It’ll take about a week to get back to normal. So far, everyone we’ve worked with on this, from our insurance to the contractors, have been awesome and reduced our stress. Thankfully this didn’t happen last week when I was recovering from surgery or a couple weeks ago when Wizard was recovery. And Wizard is retired so having him around really helps too.

Sadly, we didn’t get to see CPA boy for his birthday but he understood (obviously) and we’ll reschedule for next weekend. I’m also rescheduling a dress shopping/lunch date with my friend because friends always understand that life throws us curve balls.

That said, I’m pretty much exhausted with all this. And I still have to fix my tooth (once it’s healed and it’s healing “perfectly” according to the oral surgeon) plus deal with what appears to be a cyst in my ankle according the the orthopedic doctor.  Also Wizard is having an ongoing issue with his foot too. None of this is serious, just sort of stacking up to the point of being really tired.  All I want to do is write, but life doesn’t always work that way.

However, I will get CAGED MAGIC done and back to the editor as soon as I can. And one thing that thrilled me is that the copy editor for EXPOSING THE HEIRESS contacted me to tell me she enjoyed working on the book, and  “I was completely hooked the whole way through and there were times the suspense was so intense that I actually forgot to breathe.” I’ve never had a publisher copy editor do that before, so I am wildly happy about it.

So how was your weekend? I really want to know guys!

Writing is hard. Okay that’s my wisdom for the day…LOLOL!  I have a beta reader (Marianne Donley, a writer and a friend!) helping me get the set up of CAGED MAGIC in shape and she’s asking killer-good questions and really helping. But I need more butt-in-the-chair time.

Enough of that. So after all my protests, I have to confess that I caved into Wizard. For the first time ever, I will be flying first class to New York for the RWA conference and Rita Award Ceremony. I fought Wizard on this for a week until something dawned on me…

Wizard is doing something NICE. It’s his version of sending flowers to congratulate me. Only Wizard doesn’t send me flowers. Most of the time, Wizard’s grand gestures are stuff like pouring some wine, unloading the dishwasher, running errands for me, vacuuming the house or once in a while, buying me my favorite chocolate truffles. All of which I love. But this time he wanted to do something with a little bigger for my Rita nomination — send me to NY, including flying first class.

When that finally dawned on me, I did a completely turn around. I told him yes and graciously thanked him. He was thrilled, and I realized how stupid I was being. So now I truly am excited and appreciative. We booked the tickets, it’s all wonderful.

And then there was last night.

We were making dinner and talking, I was telling him, again, how excited I am to go and to fly first class.

Wizard looked over at me and said, “When I pick you up, you’re going to get off that plane, look me with your big Beagle Eyes and decide you’re never flying coach again.”‘

Ummm…what? Never mind the flying coach because, hello, I’m cheap and we are not wealthy, so yeah, I will be flying coach. But…

BEAGLE EYES???? 

I choked and then laughed. Then I choked again because I was trying not to laugh, and laughed harder. When I finally could talk again, I’m like, “Did you really just say Beagle Eyes?”

He did that confused guy thing, you know that expression. “Yeah, you have huge brown eyes. Don’t beagles have big eyes like that?”

I kid you not. He said that with a freaking straight face. So I checked my facts. “I have eyes like a beagle?”

He nodded, trying and failing to hide his smirk.

And I couldn’t even smack him because he’s being all kinds of awesome about me going to NY, dang it.

By the way, Wizard was more the welcome to go with me, he debated for a week then decided not to go. But it was totally up to him.

So, this weekend is another busy one. We’re going to CPA Boy’s (oldest son) on Saturday to celebrate his birthday. He’s just coming up for air after a super busy tax season. And Sunday I’m going shopping with a friend to begin looking for a Rita dress, but mostly just to have fun. And I’m working in between that.

How about you guys? Any plans for the weekend?

I’m feeling so much better and more energized this week compared to last week when I had the minor dental surgery. Thanks everyone for all your good thoughts!

Okay so you guys know the drill. Here’s our candidate:

Do you think he’s worthy?