...and Looking Ahead

It’s the last day of 2009 (good riddance!) and apparently, I’m supposed to come up with some goals for 2010. The whole “goal” thing seems to be coming at me from all corners this week. Everywhere I turn, I’m being told to SET GOALS.

I should warn you…I’m in a menopausal funk, and my cat has been throwing up all over the house all day. She doesn’t act sick. Basically, I think she’s adding her own touches to the décor. Bleh. As a result, I’m bordering on crabby, so my goals may not be as high-minded and optimistic as I’d like.

But here goes…

1. I would like to stay in closer touch with my friends this year. I think I may have used this one last year. Not sure I did all that well in fulfilling it. I’ll try to do better.

2. As for writing, I want to have my current manuscript’s second draft completed by March and a polished version ready by May. On one hand, that seems like plenty of time. On the other hand, OH MY GOD, I need to spend more time writing.

3. Spend more time writing.

4. After two failed years of this particular goal, I’m not going to even pretend that I can write a short story each month and/or pitch and/or write a nonfiction piece each month. Not while trying to attain goal #2. So I’m shooting for a more reasonable goal of writing a couple of short stories AFTER I finish the manuscript. And I hope to pitch a handful of magazine articles to Pennsylvania Magazine over the course of the year. I have one about ready to go, so that takes care of January.

5. I can’t tell you this one yet. I will in a couple of weeks, if not sooner. I promise. A few of my close writing friends already know my plans, but everyone else will just have to make wild assumptions for a while. Or email me and maybe I’ll tell you.

6. I can tell you this one, though. It would appear that I’m going to be president of the Mary Roberts Rinehart (Pittsburgh) chapter of Sisters in Crime for 2010. I guess this isn’t really a goal. Hmm. Let me rephrase it. My goal is to NOT SCREW UP the Mary Roberts Rinehart chapter of Sisters in Crime during 2010. There.

And that’s all the goal-making I can handle for now. Happy New Year! May 2010 be a huge improvement over 2009 in so many ways.

Looking back...

Traditionally, the week between Christmas and New Years is a week of reflection over the past and making goals or resolutions for the future.

This morning, I’m still solidly wrapped up in reflection.

The first half of the year passed in a frenzied blur of conference planning. It was
the biggest task I’ve ever taken on and I feel stronger as a result. I made lots of contacts and new friends. And I learned a new meaning for gratitude: having a major event come together and be a success with no monumental disasters in the process.

And never having to do it again.

I spent the biggest part of the second half of the year playing catch-up. I finished the first draft of my current novel. I wrote and sold two articles to Pennsylvania Magazine.
I spent quite a bit of time with my hubby at our new camp. Family obligations had kept our vacation time to a minimum for the last few years, so being able to escape for a weekend here and a week there was nothing short of bliss. We also tackled some home improvement tasks, which have made our home look and feel new again.

However, the last few months have provided a new kind of stress. The struggling economy has hit home and left the future of Hubby’s employment in question. We still don’t know what the coming months (or even weeks) hold for us in that department. And that uncertainty tends to cast a shadow over what otherwise might have been considered a glowing 2009.

Next: Looking ahead to a new year and a new decade.

Photo Friday: Merry Christmas...

...from my home to yours.

Katz Family Saga Continues

Cat Update: All creatures love to make a liar out of me. The kitties put in a return appearance yesterday morning. Four of them, at least. Pip’s back (gray kitten with big eyes), but the black and white mole-killing kitten is not. Torte cat is still missing, too.

It’s Wednesday, so it must be my day to blog at Working Stiffs. I’m giving everyone a chance to dredge up memories (and perhaps ghosts?) of Christmas past. Come on over and share your memories and traditions, no matter how odd.

An Empty Barn

It’s a good thing I posted those pictures of the Katz Family when I did, because they’re gone. All of them. Packed up and moved.

That’s what I want to believe. I don’t want to think of all the horrible reasons they may have vanished. After all, they’ve taken trips before and come back.

But the barn has been empty for days. The neighbors’ cats showed up this morning begging for a handout (yes, of course I gave it to them. I’m a sucker for kitty faces). However, I know where they live and know they’re only trying to make me feel better.

An empty barn is a lonely place.

Trading One Problem for a New One

In recent months, I’ve grown weary of my satellite internet service. Two years ago, I loved it, but back then it was either satellite or dial-up. No sooner did I sign the two year contract than DSL became available out here in cow country.

With satellite, when it rains harder than a drizzle, I lose my signal. If storms approach from the south, I lose my signal. If the dish gets coated with ice or snow in the winter, I lose my signal. If…well, you get the idea. And even when I have a signal, it’s slow. Not as slow as dial up, but close.

Last night, I learned that my order for DSL had gone through, and it was ready to be installed. Notice I said “last night.” I’m not a night person. Nor am I a morning person. I’m more of a two-hours-in-the-middle-of-the-afternoon person. I know these things never run smoothly. So why, you may ask, did I even attempt the installation in the evening instead of waiting for morning? AFTER my coffee, of course. The answer has to be impatience. And the eternal optimism that, for once, it will all fall into place like the directions say.

Ha!

The installation went well. Until I tried to access my Outlook email account. The one all my business emails come through. These blasted little boxes kept popping up demanding my user name and password. Plus I couldn’t SEND any messages. I tinkered with the email accounts options for a while and nothing seemed to work.

Which led me to remember a life lesson I’d learned (or been reminded of) this past summer when I was at that marvelous yoga retreat. Solving one problem only creates a new one. Example: A lonely girl thinks she’d be happy if only she had a boyfriend. She gets a boyfriend, but he’s not very thoughtful and wants to spend too much time with his buddies. So she thinks she’d be happy if only he’d marry her so she could “fix” him. They get married and now all he does is lie around the house all day and drink beer and demands she clean the house and cook dinner for his buddies who come over to watch the game on their TV. Now she thinks she’d be happy if only she’d get a divorce and have the house to herself again.

In my case, I’d solved my sluggish internet problem only to gain a massive email problem.

But, hey! That’s what tech support is for. Right? RIGHT??

After giving the tech lady with the thick accent access to my mouse, she managed to freeze up my computer. End Task wouldn’t work. She must have muted her microphone because I didn’t hear her swearing, and I knew she had to be cussing like crazy in some language I don’t understand. What she did manage to accomplish was change some numbers in a box labeled “Port.” I didn’t know what that meant, but the emails which had been stuck in the Outbox went. However the idiot dialogue boxes asking for my username and password kept popping up. Tech lady would click OK and they’d go away, only to pop right back up.

She finally told me I needed to un-install and re-install Outlook and hung up, grateful, I’m sure, to be done with me and my buggy computer. But from watching what she was doing, I’d formed some ideas of my own about the problem. And within ten minutes, I had it fixed.

Okay, I fixed the business account (the password had somehow gotten typed in wrong at some point). I still get the pop up boxes for the new email account provided by the new ISP. My solution: I deleted it. Wasn’t planning on using it anyway. I’m still getting a pop up box when I first log in, but it goes away and stays away when I close it. I figure I’ll deal with it during my two hours in the middle of the afternoon when I’m fully awake and caffeinated.

Katz Family Photos

I know I owe you all a catch-up blog, but for today I'm afraid the best I can do is provide you with some photos of the Katz family in my barn.

The black and white tuxedo kitty closest to the camera is the same little one who had the mole in the earlier post. The torte on the far right is the newest member of the clan. They brought her with them when they returned from their last "trip."

This one, I call Patch. When I figure out if it's a boy or a girl, I may try to come up with a better name.

The gray baby with the big eyes is Pip. No reason.

By way of an update, there are currently only three of them here. Pip, Torte and Patch. The rest, including tuxedo kitty, have taken off on another of their adventures.