And so, now we have the answer to the age old question: “WAR. What is it good for?”
sheesh.
Well we’re two days into NaNoWriMo this year and I’ve barely broken the 2k barrier. However, there are quite a number of reasons for this especially as it is different from last year:
1- Oct 31 was a Sunday and I couldn’t stay up past midnight to write since I had a very early morning for Monday Nov 1st.
2- No computer. Riding in the train Monday and today and drinking coffee at Cafe Depot, I’ve been writing longhand in my notebook. It’s still hard to imagine this was how things used to be.
3- Limited time. 2 hours on the train and 1 for lunch every day. Not enough, especially longhand. (and today is worse since I can’t take lunch due to Meeting restrictions! ack!) I should be happy with the amount I’ve actually done as I know it’ll go up dramatically as I re-type it and add to it at the same time.
4- Renovations need. I’m still putting the finishing touches on the basement. Not taking a large amount of time, but an hour here and there is an hour taken away from writing.
5- Baby! Last night I finally found out where Karine was staying thanks to Taras! So, Chantale and I jumped into the car (ignoring supper) and drove off to Maisonneuve Rosemont Hospital to say hello to Karine, Adam, and newly-born Mathieu! 🙂 Karine looked super! Still glowing and oh-so-happy! Adam looked weary yet very proud, too! He’s progressing nicely in replacing his blood with coffee 🙂 And Mathieu… oh, what a sweet little baby! Peaceful, legs and arms pushing everywhere, and looking very much like Adam 🙂 It was great seeing them all 🙂
6- Food! Well, after that visit, Chantale and I decided to get some food and headed out to Clyde’s in Pointe Claire for some chili-nachos, fries, and a pitcher of beer 🙂 Mmm! Good times 🙂 Unfortunately, by the time we got home, well, there was no time for writing. Oh well.
And that’s today! So, tonight, it’ll be: finish off the “office” section of the basement with a sealant, have a bite to eat, and FINALLY begin typing on my computer! We’ll see what my word count looks like after that 🙂
By the way, when I’m not here, you can find me over at the Montreal section of the NaNo Forums 🙂
How frustrating is this?
The new Student Minister at church has a sister who’s a physiotherapist. In fact, she’s William Hurt’s personal physiotherapist. Whenever he’s in town, he stays with her. Yesterday, it was Reformation Sunday and she, of course, came to church. So did he. He sat two seats BEHIND me. I did NOT see him or get a chance to talk to him!!! ARGH!
How frustrating is this? VERY!
In talking with Chantale, she mentioned that I should have posted pictures of the house, especially after my earlier post. With that in mind, I figured I’d upload some pics to the new livejournal facility and then link them here 🙂
You can see the other two in my Home Life site, but here’s one of our favorite ones 🙂 You can click on the image to see a larger version (and the others in the gallery)
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| Kitchen A Beautiful sight! Took our breath away when we walked into the Dining Area from the Living Room and saw THIS! |
Just came back from lunch at Cafe Depot with my two artist buddies Gabriel Morrissette and Johane Matte. Besides the usual banter of Comicopia and what’s new in the biz, I wanted to see how things are going with them. Gabriel just got back from Toronto after having been asked down to the Chickadee celebration (and since he’s been drawing Daisy Dreamer for so many years now…) and spoke of finding some reference material to the D.Q. work he’s doing with a certain Porter who shall remain Alan J 🙂 Johane spoke of the work going on at A2M and specifically about a new Scooby-Doo game coming out for Playstation soon. We also caught up on RuffToon and Sequential Tart. Got copies of two Dog Savage sagas I want to send to Dean Haspiel plus other copies of Horus for Francisco. So I like giving my friends exposure, so sue me 🙂
It was a nice get together which, sadly, doesn’t happen often enough and usually ends too quickly. Made nicer by the new Chocolate Raspberry coffee Cafe Depot was debuting! Mmmmm! Sure got ME hooked! 🙂
The great thing about “celebrating” Halloween at work is the CHOCOLATE!!!! 🙂 … The bad thing is the chocolate… ooooh… I haven’t had this much candy sugar-rush since last year’s xmas party…. 🙂
No painting last night. The time was limited due to working late and secondly because Chantale and I took the time to start placing things. We set up what would/could be the Family room as well as the “Work Office/ Table” area where the kids do their homework and crafts (and I use for putting together Comicopia). We cleared out the next area to be painted, though, so I can get started on that tonight.
It looks good. Real cozy. Set up in such a way that once I get started on NaNoWriMo on Monday, Chantale can spend the time with me as well. At least this way we won’t have to be separated with me downstairs and her upstairs the way we were last year. It’s going so well that I’m actually really looking forward to Priming the walls in December. 🙂
It’s nice having a home. And it’s absolutely wonderful that I’ve been blessed enough to HAVE a home. Especially after all the shit I had to live through in the past. Life has been rough, and I’ve been kicked around plenty, but as I’ve said before (and over and over), ever since Chantale came into my life, she’s been liking a Shining Star, lighting my way and lighting my life. And I don’t care how corny that sounds. Because of her and of what we have together, we’ve managed to build a life (fighting the elements the entire way) and have a house we could never have dreamed of owning.
I sometimes think back to my days of living in apartments and struggling with money, etc, and know just how lucky I really am. I’m proud of where we are, and I’m proud of the house we have. I don’t have the biggest house, nor do I have the smallest, but I have the best. A house filled with warmth, love, and laughter. And that is nothing at all to be ashamed of.
Wow, I’m tired this morning. Even after deciding to take a break from the painting last night, I still didn’t get enough sleep. I guess it doesn’t help that we’ve been frisky every night this week which obviously causes us to go to sleep later and later every night 🙂
I think today will go by quickly. It’s Jeans Day for Centraide today, so I’m quite comfortable in my running shoes, jeans, and Team Canada Athens 2004 jersey 🙂 Chantale and I came downtown together as she’s right this minute sitting in an office at SNC Lavalin for her second interview. I know they want her there, they just need to find the right fit 🙂 And I know she’ll be better off working there than at a bank. Here’s hoping for some good news soon.
This weekend should be nice. I’m quite looking forward to getting a haircut on Saturday as I’ve been feeling much too shaggy lately 🙂
And on that note, I better get some caffeine into me or I’m just gonna fall over. thump.
Random thoughts. Just because the alternatives are: I update all the time or I make large updates. Updating all the time is sometimes a little frustrating, and making large updates requires a lot of time which I don’t have. So, until things get settled again… 🙂
– How cool is the fact that Kevin Smith (Silent Bob) and Jason Mewes (Jay) will be on Degrassi? If I lived in Toronto, I would definitely go see him on November 18th…
– J.K.Rowling is lending her support to a fund-raising effort benefiting those with Multiple Sclerosis. The Harry Potter author generously spent thousands of pounds to rent Powderham Castle where a charity black-tie masked ball will be held on Nov. 1st, 2004.
– I’ve been having fun working around the house for a while now. Hanging 4 bikes on the ceiling of a garage was something I’ve never done before and although tiring (balancing on a 6 foot ladder while screwing in large hooks) was quite satisfying when finished. There’s still that little period of adjustment that comes with walking into the garage and seeing what looks like a bike race, upside down, on the ceiling. 🙂 After having painted the garage floor a few weeks back, I think it’s safe to say we’re ready for winter parking now. And considering the amount of frost on the car in the morning, it’s just in time.
– I’ve sectioned off portions of the basement and have begun painting the basement floor recently. It’ll be nice to be able to walk around down there and not always be freezing, plus easier to keep tidy. (dust on cement is just not noticeable!). Filling cracks was easy and fun, and the actual painting is going really well. When Chantale saw what I was up to, she was a little discouraged thinking it would take months. I told her I could have it done within 5 days max but I’d try to have it done within 3. Unfortunately, due to a few time setbacks, it might end up being 5. However, that’s not a big deal at all. The important thing for me is to finish by October 31st so I can devote November to NaNoWriMo without worrying about anything else 🙂 And for that, I’m on track!
– November will be NaNo. No time to think about anything else (Reviews, Fast Fiction, or My Eyes Can See, probably included).
– In December I want to get going on plastering all the walls and getting two coats of Base White on them. As much as it would be nice to do the garage as well, I think I’ll save that for the summer and concentrate on the basement and stairway. Again, my goal is to have it all done by the 31st so we’ll have something “new” to show off when the family comes over for New Year’s Eve celebration 🙂
– That’s it for now. Maybe more later 🙂
Yup. Just busy. Lots of stuff going on in my head but also in the real world 🙂 Comicopia deadline is today so I’ve been scrambling around collecting stuff. Yesterday I spent the day at a Web Tech class ensuring what I’ve been sending folks on has actually been worthwhile. I’m happy to report that it was indeed worthwhile and the instructor was a good guy, too.
Now I’ve gotta dash again! But before I do, I wanted to let everyone know that I’ve added a domain link to my Parenting page so instead of having to go through the long way of going to savageland.com and clicking on Parenting/Fatherhood, you can now get there directly via the Aragona Info Domain
I just had lunch with Mark Shainblum 🙂 It was great to catch up on our lives and various projects and talk industry and comics biz 🙂 In fact, it was so nice that it put me in quite a good mood 🙂 Now let’s hope it lasts the rest of the day!! 🙂
Mark still has his site up at NorthGuard and is also still writing Canadiana with Sandy Carruthers.
