Summer's in Full Swing

Katie's at the beach this week--without her computer!!!!  She did take a paper printed version of her manuscript so that she can continue with her revisions, but she decided to make it a real vacation and leave the Mac at home.  Of course, she's not completely out of touch . . . she has her iphone.

Katie reports that the water is turquoise and the beach is wonderful which makes the waiting game for her submissions easier but revisions really, really hard.

I'm here in Oxford.  At home.  With my girls.  Trying desperately to keep them from killing each other.   I know, these angelic faces couldn't ever utter a cross word.

I think the Mississippi heat is getting to all of us--100 degrees and 500% humidity.  It's almost too hot to swim, so I think we'll watch Wimbledon.  Whew, I'm thankful that I had last week to get some work done.  

And, today we are going to make a strawberry-rhubarb pudding cake.  

When we were in Nashville last week, we visited the non-profit food distribution center, the Second Harvest Food Bank, where my niece is working this summer.  It is an amazing operation, run by volunteers (mostly)--many of whom are former caterers and restaurant owners.  They are fixing healthy meals to distribute to homeless shelters throughout Nashville.  For a sampling of some of the foods they are cooking up, check out Nancy Vienneau's blog.  She was cooking Greens, Straw and Hay for lunch when we were there on Friday.  Yummers!!!

sf

The Big Apple

I just spent an incredible weekend in NY with my husband as the grand finale of "SF's Fortieth Birthday Extravaganza."  I have to say that I absolutely love that city.  Nothing energizes me more than walking those streets and soaking it all in.   My husband was in meetings on Friday, so I had all day to bump around--stepping in and out of shops, markets, museums and galleries. Then, we got to do fun couple-y things for the rest of the trip.

I am sorry to say that I took zero pictures because, well, then I would have looked like a

tourist.  I also skipped the surgical mask because, well, then I would have looked like a goob.   I actually saw ONE mask the whole weekend, but you would think from the nightly news that everyone was running around New York wearing oxygen tanks and space suits because 

of the dreaded killer swine flu.  Okay, full disclosure--I was a tiny bit obsessive with

the Germex.

Here are some highlights:

ABC Carpet and Home--truly the most blissful place on earth.

Music at Bemelman's Bar at the Carlyle Hotel--

wonderful jazz and we were surrounded by Ludwig Van Bemelman's stunning murals.

A gigantic pastrami and corned beef on rye at the Carnegie Deli.

Frozen Hot Chocolate at Serendipity (thank you Miss J for the rec)--we also ordered a piece of carrot cake so we could have something healthy.

MOMA--Perfection!  

Plus, we had drinks with friends and watched the Derby at their fabulous Park Avenue apartment and had dinner at a groovy little Spanish place in Gramercy Park.  Such a wonderful weekend!  And then look at what I got to come home to . . . 

peonies!!!

Have a great week--sf

Ahhhhh. . . beach.

This weekend is Fall Break which means no school for the kiddos on Friday or Monday.  What a perfect time to sneak in a little beach trip!

I am fortunate enough to have a generous aunt with an empty beach condo this weekend, so we're heading down this afternoon.  My poor husband is in the financial biz, and I think it will be good for him to be out of the office for a couple of days (although, he's a little worried about being gone right now . . . okay, he's a LOT worried, but we will have telephones and wi-fi).  My dad will also be there with his boat, and he says the redfish are biting.  

I know I'm probably being a little too hopeful in thinking of doing some writing this weekend, but I'm going to try.  I'm still working on my WIP with the help of Scrivener.  By putting synopses of each chapter on notecards and getting to stand back and look at my work as a whole, I have discovered tons of plot holes.  But, I think I've found a really cool way to fill these holes, and I've been doing lots of strange, kooky ebay research.  My favorite thing about Scrivener is that I can look at my research file--pictures, text, web pages--in split screen while I'm typing my manuscript.  No more back and forth clicking between different files and bookmarks--it's really cool.

I think Katie's even a convert to the Scrivener way of writing . . .