Weekly Random Rollup

#1. This week's been a little wonky. Here in Utah we've got this little holiday called Pioneer Day. It's basically the day the pioneers decided to settle what would come to be known as Utah. July 24th every year. And in Utah, it's like Christmas and the Fourth of July put together--except BIGGER. Which is all fine and dandy, except when it falls in the middle of the week, as with any holiday falling in the middle of the week, it throws off all the routine of the entire week.

#2. The holiday's nice, leading to a 2-day work week at the day job, and while much of the rest of Utah is off gallivanting with me, I forget that it's not a holiday anywhere else in the world and that stuff still needs to get done. But now that it's Friday, let's get us back to schedule with a general Friday, Happy Dance!

#3. The Avengers is on Netflix. Do you know what this does to my productivity? Revisions seem to be taking just a little bit longer, because I just can't pass up hanging with Iron Man and the gang! I thought I was doing pretty good since I finished watching all the available episodes of both Supernatural and Fringe in the last few weeks. 

#4. Something awesome: sharing eats with friends! The lovely Nichole Giles is visiting from Texas this week and we had a chance to get together for dinner, share some food, and just catch up in general. Thanks for making some time for me in your busy visiting schedule, Nichole!

#5. I've finally discovered the delicious properties of steamed artichokes. I've never made them before and was a bit nervous as to how to go about it, but thanks to some helpful friends and easy to follow web instructions, the family and I have found that we LOVE artichokes, especially dipped in melted butter or a yum mayo+balsamic vinegar sauce. Oh, the goodness...

All right, well hope everyone has a great weekend! 

Weekly Random Rollup

#1. Didn't I swear I was going to be a better blogger? It would be nice if I actually, yanno, followed through, huh? It's almost halfway through Friday and I JUST realized I didn't have this post up yet! Ahh, silly me.

#2. I think tattoos are cool. Not all tattoos, and not on everyone. I just think the ones that have special meanings are the best. They can be sweet and simple, or amazingly detailed. The talent that some of the tattoo artists out there have is astounding. But, alas. I will never get a tattoo. Why? Because I'm a chicken. There, I said it. So in the lieu of actually going under the needle, I've started doing this to myself and my children. A red heart on the side of a foot and a promise on a pinky! Gotta love fine point sharpies!

#3. We have a dog. She is a boxer. Her name is Lucy. But we had an "incident" yesterday, so for the foreseeable future, she shall be known as The Damn Dog or TDD for short. The incident, you ask? The Damn Dog ran away. So we moved a few weeks ago and we've not done a great many walks in the new 'hood with TDD, given that she runs around like a maniac in our huge backyard nowadays. Yesterday, she slipped out the door and took off. She is Husband's dog, but conveniently Husband was at work when this happened. So 3 miles, 4 parks, 2 neighborhoods, and 7 really nice strangers later, 2 chickies and I finally caught up to her. Ugh. Don't let that cute face fool you. She's trouble.

#4. Speaking of moving, this is IT! Tomorrow is the DAY! By that I mean, we'll finally have finished getting all of our crap out of the old place and either over to the new one or into the trash. I CANNOT wait! We've unpacked all the stuff we need to live on, but there's all the stuff that makes a house a home that's left and I am just looking forward to making our new house more homey! Also, in case any of you didn't know, moving sucks. And I don't think I ever want to do it again.

#5. Blogging's kind of tough, isn't it? Over the years since I started in ... 2008, Holy Crap! I've been blogging on and off for FIVE years and I didn't even realize it!! ... Anyway, I've sort of been wondering what do you like to hear or read or discuss on a blog? I mean, there's so much information out there on the interwebz, what do you find interesting? Open forum, kids, voice your questions, concerns, any bloggy thoughts you may (or may not) want to hear from me, or even just share any emotional outbursts you may have! I'm open ears!

Listening from Utah... Have a great weekend!

Weekly Random Rollup

#1. I swear I'm going to be a better blogger. Said me, for the billionth time. This is one of the things I miss most, though, the sharing of randomness of my week. So while I'll try to be better blogging during the week, I'm going to commit to this! I've even decided it needed a new snazzy name, the Weekly Random Rollup. (Okay, maybe not that snazzy...) AKA, stuff that happens that doesn't get its own post and may have been mentioned in 140 characters or less at some point during the week.

#2. I owe you guys a post on my recent travels. Mostly so I can share the beautiful stuff I saw while I was on the road traveling for #dayjobtrip. And I've recently been on the road far more than I like, but hopefully as we ease into the summer, I can spend less time on airplanes. We've already talked about how this year's summer plans include a big fat STAYcation. There's no place like home! Anywhere cool you've been recently, or are planning to go this summer?

#3. Over the last couple of months, I've been to so many awesome book signings in SLC! Nichole Giles, Sara Zarr, Margaret Stohl, Stephanie Perkins, Ally Condie, Shannon Hale, Natalie Whipple, and Elana Johnson! They are wonderful to meet and if you ever get a chance to see them live, you need to go! This is one of the (many) reasons I LOVE living in a writerly mecca!

#4. Supernatural has recently, like in the last year, become one of my fave shows. One of the reasons it took me so long to watch is because I'm totally chicken when it comes to things ghosty and haunting related, so it took weeks, WEEKS, I'm telling you, for me to make it through the first episode. But Dean Winchester was there, encouraging me to overcome my fear every step of the way. Oh, that smolder...


And now that I'm (im)patiently waiting for season 8 on Netflix, I've started watching Fringe. Which, to be honest, is like the slightly unbelievable and probably highly unreasonable scientific explanations for anything that would've happened on Supernatural. Plus, yummy Peter Bishop with his witty and sarcastic remarks definitely makes you want to believe.

#5. I cannot believe it's July already. JULY! How has this year flown by so quickly? I feel like we've seriously not done enough in the first half of the year and are going to spend the second half of the year making up for it! Does anyone else feel that way?

We're off to find things to fill the weekend! Have a great one, all!!

Random Stuff Friday

1) It's been a while right? I've been spending lots of time on airplanes and really long car rides recently, so hopefully you didn't miss me too much while I was gone. Actually, I'm on a plane right NOW. It's also a little turbulent and I'm not diggin' the bumps right now. Makes it hard to type, fingers keep slipping to other keys.

2) I spent this week in the Baltimore area for a #dayjob training. And I swear one of our facilitators looked just like this:

Except wore pants and wasn't furry orange. It was ODD.

3) Are you a writer who cooks? Are you a cook who writes? Do you love food and books? Or maybe just food? If you fall into any of the above categories, have you checked out Pots 'n Pens? It's a fun blog about writing and food and writing about food. You can find all sorts of recipes that writers use to help get a little more time for wordage, there's author interviews with fave recipes, and did I mention I'm a contributor? Yeah ... head on over and check out the Easy Peasy Capellini recipe I shared this week, super easy and super YUM!

4) What are you guys reading this weekend? Anything good? I'm trying to decide if I want to reread something or if I want to read something new. I'm taking part in the Clockwork Prince Read Along that @MundieMoms is hosting, but I've been sporadic in keeping up since I didn't have the space to lug the big ol' fat book across the country with me. Other than that, I'm totally looking for recommendations!

5) I love naps. I think they even outrank nighttime sleep. And when you have time zones issues, they are even better! Like when you have to get up at 1am Utah time to catch a flight that gets you home at 10am Utah time, you've already been awake for 9 hours if you can't nap on the plane (for whatever reason). Yeah, so far I've been awake since 1am after only about 3 hours of sleep, a short 20 minute nap during takeoff, and now ... I'm really looking forward to getting home and crawling into my own bed for a real not-sitting-upright-nap.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Random Stuff Friday

1) The weather in Utah sucks right now. Between the inversion, aka pollution, trapped in the valley and the frozen rain, yeah, not so awesome living in Utah right now. It hurts to breathe.

2) That means lots of time indoors. Reading and writing, woohoo! But also trapping three kids inside and that basically voids out that woohoo. Boohoo.

3) Every time we drive past a Taco Bell the kidlets yell "Doritos Locos Tacos!" ... whoever named that was a marketing genius. And after so many months of this, 7yo and I finally caved and stopped by to try some. And they are everything their name screams! It's a taco wrapped in Doritos. And you can never go wrong with anything wrapped in a Dorito. Remember Doritos 3D? Yum! For reals.

4) You know what sucks? Traveling so much and being so tired that you can't even keep up with the shows you watch even though you only watch them online! Yeah, I technically "watch them at my convenience" but they're only available to stream for a certain number of days on the official websites and, uh, yeah, when you miss one, it's TERRIBLE!

5) Speaking of TV, Husband and I recently (like a few weeks ago) discovered Supernatural. And I have grown to appreciate just how delicious Dean Winchester is. Sam Winchester does this weird nostril flare thing and yeah. Totally not as delicious.

All right, peeps! Have a great weekend! Hope you have lots more fresh air than I do!

I Can See Clearly Now

I've been wearing glasses since 6th grade.

Umpteen number of years later, I'm still wearing glasses, but guess what???? As you read this, I'm GETTING LASIK!! Sorry about the yelling. I'm just really excited about waking up in the morning and being able to see!

I'm excited about opening a book and not having to literally have my nose buried in it to see the words if I don't have glasses or contacts on.

Not that I'll stop having my nose buried in books, but that could actual just go back to being a saying.

So I'll be all drugged up for most of today - Valium is my friend - and then hopefully I'll be back just in time for some Random Stuff Friday, when I can see all of you clearly!

Random Stuff Friday

1) I have not written down any resolutions. Yet. I don't know if I'm just mentally refusing to accept any set goals (clearly I have commitment issues), or if I'm just in denial. Or maybe it's because I think resolutions shouldn't just be set in January. I'm not sure which argument I'm going with yet. Maybe it means I should just make "stop procrastinating" my first resolution of 2013.

2) Check out what the BiL gave me for Christmas: Noise canceling, sends me off to my own world, Beats by Dre. Complete with Monster cables. I don't know what that last part really means, technically speaking, but apparently they don't make them like this anymore and he had to go 3 different stores to find them. So now I will plug them in, enter the universe I've created in my head, and get some writing done! >>> Sorry I don't have a picture here because Blogger is being lame - AGAIN! <<<

3) Husband is anti-Apple products. Took years to convince him to let me get my Macbook. Let's not even discuss the iPhone. I might be possibly thinking about maybe considering getting an iPad. Eventually. Have to start the negotiations now. At some point in the future. For now, my Macbook will have to do.

4) I still have a HUGE stack of TBR books that were released in 2012 and before ... but I'm already working on my 2013 MUST HAVES. Anything out there that you guys recommend I add to my pile? A few on there already are Clockwork Princess and City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare, Icons by Margaret Stohl, Crave the Darkness by Amanda Bonilla, Prophecy by Ellen Oh, Senshi by Cole Gibsen, Pivot Point by Kasie West, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Tucholke, Transparent by Natalie Whipple, Let the Sky Fall by Shannon Messenger, and that's just to name a few. What else should I look forward to getting?

5) It was 16* when I backed out of our garage this morning. It was 13* when I dropped 7yo off at school--less than a mile from our house. It was 11* by the time I got the 2 younger kids to daycare. And 9* when I parked in front of the dayjob offices. Apparently as the sun gets higher today, the temperature gets lower. I think I'm taking this as a sign to spend the rest of the weekend in cozy warm sweats with big thick socks, lots of hot tea, and, of course, the laptop for writing and the TBR pile for some good reads.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Random Stuff Friday

1) I'm in the playoffs! This first year of ever playing Fantasy Football and my (randomly drafted) team finished the regular season in the #1 seat and we're in the playoffs! Woohoo! I stand a chance of winning! *knocks on wood* Not bad for beginner's luck, right?

2) I've been reading like crazy recently. The problem? I need to get some writing done. Like, 25,000 words worth of writing in the next week or so. It's just ... there are SO MANY fantastical reads to be read! Gah!!! What to do!! ... not that I'm procrastinating or anything... *whistles*

3) Netflix has spoiled me! The lack of commercials is a godsend! I love it! Especially since I have limited TV watching time (what with reading + writing + family + day job + etc... seriously, not that I'm procrastinating or anything),  no commercials = AWESOME ... here are some of the shows we've watched recently: Sons of Anarchy, Nikita, The Glades, and we're currently in the middle of Season 2 of Supernatural. Love that I don't have to wait days/weeks/months until the next episode! What are some of your favorite shows that I need to add to the queue?

4) They mentioned this on the radio this morning ... but with the end of the year coming ... does anyone actually remember their New Year's resolution? Did you follow through or did you lose steam somewhere between there and here? Just curious.

5) It's Margarita Night! Every few weeks, a few girlfriends and I get together and, well, have margaritas ... or (insert cocktail of choice here). Gives us a chance to catch up, have some girl time / talk, and just generally decompress. So with that in mind, *raises glass* margaritas for everyone!

Have a great weekend!

Random Friday Five

1) I took 2 months off from blogging. It was technically 70 days as of yesterday. It was sort of an unplanned hiatus, as in, I meant to blog and then just kept forgetting. Then when I went to blog, I felt like I didn't have anything to say. So I didn't. It's all a vicious circle of rambling, I tell you.

2) I love food. And next week is Thanksgiving. Woohoo! It's my favorite holiday of the year! I mean, food, family, food, football, food, and no pretense on gift giving, major decorations, or any of that red tape. It's all about appreciating. And the food. It's a lot about the food too! What's not to love, right?

3) Speaking of football, well, more like mentioning of football ... I'm in a Fantasy Football league this season. Except I forget that's what it's called and I keep calling it Final Fantasy football. My strategy for drafting my team? Criteria #1: Do I recognize this player's name? -if yes, draft. Criteria #2: Is this player a former Ute (UofU all the way!!)? -if yes, draft. Criteria #3a: Does this player have a cool sounding name? -if yes, check picture. Criteria #3b: Does this player look like they would be a nice person in real life? -if yes, draft. Pretty scientific, right?


4) 4yo came home from preschool the other day with a crown. She'd earned the very prestigious Alphabet Crown - meaning she knows all her letters and sounds. She proceeded to wear said crown all day. To the grocery store, out to dinner, chasing the dog around. It was a big deal. It made me think that writers should get crowns too. When you get to The End - in whatever form, be it your first draft of the ms, your final revisions, even the dreaded synopsis, you should be crowned for your achievements! And not just any ol' crown. I'm talking Toddlers & Tiaras Miss Grand Supreme crown. The kind bigger than your head. I thought a gigantic sparkly crown topping the sweats and t-shirts I write in would be AWESOME. For whatever reason, she didn't seem quite as excited about the idea. Can't imagine why ...

5) I am totally NOT a Twihard, but I did brave the crowds with one of my bestie girlfriends who had tix to see Breaking Dawn Pt 2 last night. My thoughts? There were not enough SPARKLES!! For more of my thoughts, check back next week -- we have pictures!

Have a great weekend!

How Authors are Like Batman or My Theory on Blogging

*waves* Hi.

I know I've been sporadic in blogging. Life gets crazy sometimes.

Over the course of the past year or so, I've noticed a  wave of change within the blog-o-sphere. Maybe it's just me, but maybe not. Here's what I have noticed:

#1) People are blogging less. Those who used to consistently blog 5 days a week, are down to 2-3, if that.

#2) Topics of blogs are becoming redundant. This could be because of the blogs I'm following? Because these bloggers I follow are now at a different place than they were when I first started following them? Because people have less time to draft new blog posts, so they recycle old ones? I'm not sure.

#3) There's just less going on in the bloggerly world. With Twitter, Facebook, personal websites, Tumblr, GoodReads, Instagram, and everything else out there, I think people are reaching their limits with social networking and trying to stay connected. So they have to draw the line somewhere.

With those observations in mind, here's my theory on blogging:

The landscape of the virtual world has shifted to a point where priorities have to be made. Those priorities are generally chosen based on both audience-reach AND an author's comfort level. Some prefer Twitter or Facebook, others maybe a blog post here and there, but what it comes down to is OPTIONS. Authors are now more like Batman: with a whole arsenal of (interwebzy) tools on their utilty belts.

So really, don't feel pressured to use anything you're not comfortable with, because there are so many to choose from! Pick your tool and use what works for you.

Random Stuff Friday

1) I've been about 4 weeks off soda / coffee (essentially caffeine) and each morning I am still waking asking myself "WTF was I thinking??" Still not sure the answer to this question...

2) Had a girls night with a good friend. Dinner and Magic Mike. Channing Tatum (yum!), Alex Pettyfer (needed a shower & shave), Matt Bomer (definitely not Neal Caffrey). I mean, awesome, right? Well ...

Then had convo w/my 20yo sister.
Her: What did you think of Magic Mike?
Me: Different than I expected.
Her: How?
Me: Grittier. It was a really good story, though. I liked it.
Her: You're a nerd.
Me: I know.
Her: Who goes to a stripper movie for the story???
Me: A writer.

3) You may have seen on my FB, but I recently discovered and lovelovelove this new line of products from a company called Norwex. If you are at all conscientious of the environment, or being chemical-free and gree in your home, or you just want to cut your cleaning time by up to 75% (mememe!!), check it out HERE! I don't usually endorse any specific products, other than, yanno, books or writing related schtuff, but this was something I had to share. Why? Well, because if you can clean your house that much faster, you get that much more time to read and write!! Duh.

4) We start another #APirateTrip in about 6 days. And 15 hours. Not that I'm counting down or anything.

5) Althought it's been more than 100 days, we're doing a traditional Laotian 100 Days Rememberance Ceremony for my mom this weekend. Modern-day schedules simply didn't allow for us to be able to do the ceremony at the actual 100 days, but I don't think Mom will mind. So this weekend = Family time :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

A Great Cause

I don't generally use my blog as a means to solicit, but this is a great cause supported by one of my dear friends. I know there's always a cause to support, someone who needs help, both here at home and abroad, but this is one of those situations where it really does put into perspective what we are so lucky to have.

L.T. Elliot is a part of a team working to raise funds on behalf of special needs kids in Nicaragua. The Los Pipitos School in San Juan del Sur helps educate and enrich the lives of children who, due to their limited abilities, would be otherwise unable to take advantage of a regular classroom education. In early August, volunteers are going to Nicaragua to bring school supplies and funds to help keep the school running.

 

About The School

This special needs school provides an educational experience for the mentally and physically disabled that a regular school cannot. Their goal is to help their students develop to their full abilities and be able to live as normal and independent lives as their disabilities will allow. Disabilities range from cerebral palsy to Down syndrome to mental retardation and brain damage. Beyond the classroom, they provide activities that these children would not otherwise be able to do, including teaching them to surf, dance, and make music.

What they need

It costs the foundation $150 per month to pay for the teacher’s salary and $200 per month to pay for bus transportation for the students at the school. Many of the students are confined to wheel chairs and live in communities with dirt roads; therefore if the foundation does not transport them to school then they will not be able to attend. Also, they desperately need school supplies. Unfortunately they cannot rely on the postal system to receive the supplies so they rely on visitors to bring supplies with when traveling to Nicaragua.

How you can help

All children deserve an education, and too often special needs children are overlooked. In order to keep the school in operation for another year, it's our intention to raise $4,200 to go toward teacher's salaries and the cost of transportation for the children. The remaining portion will be used to buy and transport school supplies as well as help the school to buy new chairs, desks, and chalkboards for the classrooms. Help these children by being the change you want to see in the world. No contribution is too small: $1, $5, whatever your can give; every dollar counts. Time is short and we need your support to give these children hope for a brighter future!

http://www.indiegogo.com/CasaLlanta?c=home

You can follow the cause on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HelpLosPipitos

Should Be

Tomorrow there should be cake.

There should be ice cream.

There should be singing and smiles.

And fifty-two candles.

And Mom.

July 9, 1960 - January 12, 2012

Miss you, Mom. 

Random Stuff Friday

#1) Happy Friday! I don't know about you guys, but however weird it may be to have a holiday in the middle of a week and get that day off, I could really get used to having a "mini-weekend" in the middle of every week!

#2) Remember how last week I told you about our family's big fireworks and bbq extravaganza? Well, we were very careful, what with all the fire restrictions and wildfires burning in Utah right now, we even had a couple of people assigned as firefighters, just in case. Everything was going great. And then a police officer appeared. There was that OMG moment everyone had. Followed by a "It's only June 30th. You have to wait until July." Followed by a big group SIGH. At which point my cousin, Captain Fireworks, decided we would postpone the rest of the show until Tuesday night. Especially since if we kept going, we figured the officer would come back and give us the $10,000 fine and no one wanted that. How's that for extravaganza?

#3) I've been working through revisions for L'Agent and finally caved from attempting to revise on the computer. I'm old school when it comes to revisions, which is something I'm trying to work on, what with the movement to be all green and environmentally friendly and what not. But I printed out my ms. All 309 pages of it. At least it's on recycled paper, right?

#4) It's officially 13 days until our family vacation. Can I just say how excited I am? Things have been turning a bit into a loony bin around here and I canNOT wait for an escape!

#5) Yay rain! Yesterday it rained in Utah after 38 straight dry days. And we desperately needed it! It seems there's a new fire somewhere in the state everyday, but yesterday's moisture definitely helped to quell that. And cool things off for us a bit too!

Hope everyone has a happy Friday and a great weekend!

Quote of the Week

"It would be great on this Monday morning, if Gmail would actually, yanno, let me open my email."

me

... already, it's one of those days *sigh*

Random Stuff Friday

1) yesterday I thought it was Friday. Then someone was so kind (mean!) as to tell me that it was only Thursday. So that whole mix-up is probably why I just realized now, at lunchtime on actual-Friday, I hadn't written this week's blogpost yet.

2) the pitfalls of semi-routine traveling is that when you end up coming home a day early (huzzah!), you forget it's a day early and then you think you're a day ahead only to realize the actual day is one day behind what you thought. confused yet? see #1

3) so remember how last week I was telling you the excitement around Maczilla? Oh, did I forget to tell you that is what I named him? Well, silly me. Well, now I'm sitting around suffering from severe buyer's remorse. Is the buying-nice-things-for-yourself just a me or does anyone else constantly deal with this? Probably not, right?

4) in celebration of NOT getting on an airplane for the entire month of July, instead, the Aphayrath family is getting ready for another #APirateTrip! This time we're headed up to see some dear friends, Husband will get to do some salmon fishing (hopefully!), and I will get to finish up my revisions and get them to L'Agent by August!

5) but before vacation, we've got our big huge family 4th of July shindig going on tomorrow night. The kids get to parade on festively decorated scooters and bikes, AND there will be tons of fireworks, food, and family. All you need for a summer night, right? Oh, and we've been told there's a 2-shot penalty (for those of age) if you're not appropriately patriotically dressed.

All right, I'm off to take the bubs shopping for some red, white, and blue and hopefully be up to dress code!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Random Stuff Friday

1) Advanced apologies for the possible ramblings and incoherency of this post. In the last 3 days I think I might've gotten about 6 hours of sleep. Ahhh, how it is with a sick baby...

2) I have my first deadline. Well, one that's not self-imposed anyway. I've got revisions due back to Agent by August 1. It seems like a long ways away still, but then I start thinking about things like, oh, how I have a day job, all the kiddie and RL stuff, like sick kids and family vacations, and how June's already more than half over and wow. August 1st is coming fast. Wish me luck!

3) Yesterday was the 2 older bubs' reading group (Thursday nights) at The King's English. Do you know how difficult it is to hang out in a bookstore of awesome and NOT buy anything? It totally sucks.  But since I bought 5 new books last week, I promised Husband no books this week. Why would I make such a commitment you ask? Well....

4) I have succumbed. And anti-Apple Husband has relented. I am now the proud owner of a MacBook Pro! My very first computer, ever, was an Apple Mac. Desktop. Mid-90s. Oh, how ahead of my time I was! Now to work on retraining myself from the PC stuff back to Mac. Any tricks and tips are welcome!

5) One good thing about a sick baby is that it limits the plans you can commit to, especially over the weekend. All I've got on the books for now is a long overdue hair appointment. Hoping for a long quiet and restful weekend of recovery for the little bug and hangout time with the older bubs.

Have a fab weekend everyone!

Random Stuff Friday

1) A big fat happy 7th birthday to our oldest bubs today. She's helped plan the day and there will be zoo fun, froyo, shopping, and lots and lots of treats!

2) Thank you to everyone for the kind words after I announced my signing with The Gernert Company! You all are amazing and I am blessed to have such wonderful people in my life, both RL and virtual! It's been a long road, filled with success and failure, celebration and tragedy, and I am so thankful to have you to share it with!

3) Last night was the first session of this summer's Kids' Reading Groups at the indie bookstore in Salt Lake City: The King's English. The girls had so much fun! The teachers running the groups are wonderful. And even 4yo who has been having severe separation anxiety issues didn't even notice when I walked away to do some bookshop browsing! Looking forward to the coming weeks at TKE! (P.S. To you locals - they are having their semi-annual sale right now and HOLY WOW, the deals are fab! Go if you have a chance!)

4) Speaking of books ... my to read pile is HUGE. And I just picked up some Gayle Forman, Emily Wing Smith, and Kristen Chandler last night. Plus, Agent is sending me some Alyssa Sheinmel ... and I'm so excited to get back into my writerly and readerly groove! Still taking Need To Read suggestions, though, so if you've got one, toss them this way! I'm open to anything, right now!

5) Lastly, I'm having one of those laundry weeks where I just want to throw out all the clothes in the house and start over. The piles are taking over!! Gah! So instead of doing the laundry, I think I'm just gonna head out to play with the bubs today. It is a birthday afterall.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Random Stuff Friday

Welcome back to another installment of "Otherwise Amusing Events Occurring Within the Aphayrath World" also known as "Random Stuff Friday"

#1 - We give our old cell phones to play with. The bubs LOVE pretending they have phone calls or are text messaging their friends. The other day I was driving to Home Depot with Hubs, all 3 bubs, and brother-in-law-who-now-lives-with-us (who will heretofore be known as "Bil"). 3yo was playing with my old Samsung Glyde - not an advert for the phone, as I totally hated it - when Bil asked her what she was doing. 3yo: "I'm texting to Twitter. Duh." Hubs turned to me. Me: "Ohmigod, she is totally my kid."

#2 - One of the best reasons I found for following some of my favorite places on Facebook is finding out about events that might take a while to learn of otherwise. Case in point: The King's English (SLC's awesometastical indie bookstore) does summer reading groups for kids, run by teachers, where kids are broken out into appropriate age groups, given reading lists, etc. It's like book club! And lucky for me, the timing of both kids' sessions are the same, which means I'm gonna get an hour once a week to hang out at my fave indie bookshop! Woohoo!

#3 - It's a pirate life this weekend at the Aphayrath house. Jake and the Neverland Pirates, that is. All my pre-planning efforts were for naught when 3yo decided she HAD to change the theme of the party 2 weeks ago (I've been gone for 1 week), so now I'm scrambling to get everything ready. *sigh*

 #4 - I've not seen The Hunger Games movie yet. Nor have I read the book. *ducks flying tomatoes* I've not seen the Avengers yet. I don't know when I will. Here's my reasoning why: there's been so much hype, so much positive gushing, just so much ... much that I'm not sure if I want to experience any of these for fear that I will be so devastatingly disappointed because of all the gushing there's just no way any of these could live up to my expectations. Irrational fear? Yeah, probably. Is there someone out there who can convince me otherwise? I'm not sure ...

#5 - I really want to have something else amusing for you here, but yanno, I just don't. So hope everyone has as awesome weather as we do here in the Salt Lake valley (mid 70s all weekend!) and an enjoyable weekend. Catch ya later!

Working Too Hard

There is such a thing.

I hope people realize that it is real and not just one of those cliche things that people say.

I bring this up because today is technically my Friday from day job. I'm supposed to be off after today, but we'll see if this really pans out: I still have SO MUCH work that needs to be done before I'm off.

You see, I'm heading out to California for some family business and won't be back in town until Sunday night. Then first thing Monday morning, I leave for another business trip, this one taking me to Baltimore for all day meetings for nearly a week. I won't be back until late Thursday night. The day before Husband's big 30th birthday, which I've also got scheduled off. So basically, all work that is due between now and the end of March has to be done TODAY!

Plus, I've been trying to lay out my plans to get myself back into the writing groove, with a couple new projects tugging at me for attention.

Needless to say, there's lots of running, running, running.

And yesterday, in my uber-day-job-productivty, something happened to tell me that I've been running too much over the past several days:

My good (not!) friend, Migraine, decided to stop in for a brief visit last night. Just long enough to knock me off my feet for several hours and keep me from working after I got home last night.

So just a reminder to all those out there who feel that pressure of working (whatever you may be working on) too hard, too long, too much ... really, it's okay to take a few minutes and have a break. It's way better than to end up out of commission and lose hours.

Luckily, I'm up, rested and refreshed today, so here's to some uber-productivity and NO visits from any not-so-good friends!

Happy Tuesday everyone!