Welcome to my daily blog. If this is your first time, I'm a romance writer and a misplaced city girl currently living in the wild Sierras. I tend to have a lot of I-Love-Lucy moments that I share here but sometimes we talk about books, TV, and our favorite cookies. Okay, my favorite cookies. In any case, please feel free to comment by clicking on the Comments at the bottom of any entry. If you're too shy, that's okay, just know I love having you.

March 3, 2010 | Filed under: Stuff

So I wrote up this long blog detailing my woes of locking myself on the deck while shoveling snow and getting terrorized by a kami-kaze raccoon, but Word quit on me and lost the whole entry.

I recovered thanks to a rack of double stuffed Oreos.

So now I’m lazy. Here’s what I’m writing right now. It’s rough. It’s unedited. And I was high on cookies when I wrote it:

Lilah reached for the leash – yes, the damn ornery duck had a leash – and slipped it around Abigail’s neck.

“Quack.”

“Shh.” Then she grabbed the box of babies.

It was damn heavy, but she had her dignity to consider so she soldiered on, turning, only to bump right into Brodie’s broad chest. “Excuse me.”

He backed up enough to let her move, helping her support the box with an ease that had her envying his muscles instead of drooling over them.

“You’re really walking?” he asked.

“Well when I skip or run, Abigail’s leash gets tangled in my legs.”

“Smartass.” Brodie looked into the box at the two puppies and pot-bellied piglet. To his credit, he didn’t so much as blink. “They potty trained?”

“No.”

He grimaced. “How about the duck?”

“She’d say yes, but she’d be lying.”

He exhaled. “That’s what I was afraid of.” He took the box from her, the underside of his arms brushing the outside of hers.

And though it was warm enough outside, she shivered. In response, his curious gaze briefly touched on hers. “You okay?”

“Peachy.” Nothing that a good man-man orgasm wouldn’t cure … “But what are you doing?”

“Giving you a ride.” He narrowed his eyes at the duck on the leash. “You. You will behave.”

“Quack.”

Without another word, he strode to his truck and put the box inside, leaving Lilah no choice but to follow.

She looked down at Abigail. “You heard him,” she whispered. “Be good.”

Off to shovel some more. And maybe eat some more Oreos.

March 2, 2010 | Filed under: Stuff

So I have a little spider phobia. As in I can’t even look at them. This wasn’t that big of a problem for me when I was a Los Angeles girl. But up here in the wild Sierras, one can’t have silly fears.

Especially since we get these, gulp, wolf spiders. They’re big and hairy and aggressive and they FREAK ME OUT.

This morning I was brushing my teeth with I saw it out of the corner of my eye. A big ass spider in the corner of the sink. Waiting to kill me.

It was too.

So I went screaming from the bathroom, spitting toothpaste everywhere. Middle came running. “I’ll save you mom.”

I gave her specific directions to the spider and she nodded. I went downstairs and made breakfast and got everyone out of the house and started writing … It wasn’t until that night that I remembered to thank Middle for getting the spider.

“Oh,” she said, biting her lower lip.

“You DID get the spider.”

“Yes.” She shook her head. “Except no. I forgot.”

She forgot. We went running to the sink. Spider gone. It’s running free in my house, waiting to get me for ordering its execution.

I have to move now.

March 1, 2010 | Filed under: Stuff

The answer is no. Is it warm yet?

Dammit, no. It is not warm yet. I dream fondly of a hot sun and sand between my toes…

So does Ashes.

Oh and question of the day. We were watching Amazing Race last night and Alpha Man said it would be fun to do that show. I nodded vaguely and kept my panic to myself. No. It would not be fun to do that show with Alpha Man. I’m fairly certain we wouldn’t survive it. One of us would kill the other. So here’s my question. Think of the person closest to you, whoever that may be. Could you do Amazing Race with that person? Without killing them?

February 26, 2010 | Filed under: Stuff

So I’ve been sick and neglected to tell you that Middle’s basketball team made the playoffs and they are playing today in the State Championships! So exciting, and we’ll be traveling to that game here in a few. (Middle in white)

While I’m gone, feel free to talk amongst yourselves, eat cookies, or buy SLOW HEAT.

Which, by the way, went back to print this week for more copies. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

Now I leave you with a shot little cartoon. Notice the woman on the bed. This is how I feel. A lot.

Oh and PS — here’s what I don’t recommend: attempting to talk intelligently with your editor while on cough syrup with codeine (my new best friend, btw), take a bath with a book (fell asleep and dropped the book, sob!), or do laundry (um, Alpha Man? Sorry about the pink underwear.)

February 25, 2010 | Filed under: Stuff

I’ve been sick. I need a Mountain Barbie post. BAD. So here’s one of my faves:

So normally Mountain Barbie goes to work every day with Alpha Man. She’s a job dog. She guards his truck (read: she licks anyone who comes close), she guards the job site (read: she chews on the tools) and keeps things in control (read: she naps most of the day). But when Alpha Man was laying out some wood flooring last week, she was stuck home with me after chewing up some very expensive wood and being asked to not come back.

The first morning, I was upstairs cleaning up a little bit before diving into the writing when I realized that she was too quiet. This is never a good sign. Not once has it worked out where she was quiet for a GOOD reason. I went to the top of the stairs to peek down and saw something suspicious on my couch.

What the heck? I zoomed in. That can’t be . . .

Oh, but it was. She’d helped herself to the couches and was taking a nice snooze. ON THE COUCH. I said “Mountain Barbie! What do you think you’re doing?” And she opened exactly one eye and said “aren’t we on vacation today?”

February 24, 2010 | Filed under: Stuff

Update:
How do I admit that it was all FIVE? Sigh. It happened, people, I actually was too sick to eat cookies. I am marking this as a historical event, as it has never happened before. So … winners were drawn from the correct guesses and are #6 and #55. Email me with a few book choices and your snailmail.

Original post:
Okay so I’ve messed up the past two contests now. One I forgot to name winners for, and then I apparently can’t count and named winners who don’t exist.

I blame the Nyquil.

So let’s try this again. Which of the following things happened to me yesterday? Take a guess and I’ll choose a few winners from all the correct guesses.

1. Cried over the Friends season two episode where Rachel and Ross kiss, and when Alpha Man caught me at it, I told him I had something in my eye.

2. Got lost snow shoeing less than 100 yards from my house.

3. SLOW HEAT WENT BACK TO PRINT, YOU GUYS ROCK.

4. I forgot to change the kitty litter and the cat pooped right outside the box to make her point.

5. My neighbor made me cookies and thanks to my bad cold, I actually didn’t want them.