Vicarious Rocky

Hey! I have a clean basement! Barb and Earl came and transformed our damp, cluttered shit hole into a seemingly dry, organized storage area. Tah-Dah! They should seriously hire themselves out. Now I just need to transform the garage & attic in a similar manner using their example. Even if we can't sell the house, it will be lovely to live in a place that has had all these face lifts.

Speaking of face lifts, I had a lovely lunch with Pam and Joanna and Pam gave samples of fancy face cream for old people. I have yet to try it. Denial? Probably laziness. But I will. The wrinkles are asking me too.

The building purchase continues to chug along. I think all is well. No one, as it turns out, has time to update me daily about the process and so no news is good news and there is still no news.

Life is changing . . . slowly . . . and I am getting kind of impatient with the lack of resolution and impending uncertainty. Of course, this is life, right? And we build the illusions up around it to pretend things are stable and predictable. Then change breaks through, and we're all shocked and dismayed. Humans. Ridiculous lot, really.

Like always though, even though change is uncomfortable, there are a lot of prizes and fun at the end of the transformation. I am not 100% sure, but it looks like we're going to close on a building in two weeks for SageRock, and the Lewis family is going to move into the attached apartment! I LOVE this new place. So much so that I try not to think about it too much because I know these things get delayed and derailed even more so in the commercial world.


So, we'll be engaged in true city living. Back to apartment living -- on a busy street in a neighborhood that my kid won't be riding his bike in without supervision. We can walk to the grocery store, live across from the fire station, near the bus stop and freeway. Unlike city living though, we do have a large yard we can fence in for Indy. But the place is 6000 sq ft + a Full 6Ksqft basement. He totally doesn't need to go outside to play. ;-)


The apartment is one room short for comfortable "lock the door and just live in here" kind of living. So, we plan to create a common area for the business and us personally (top left) that will have the dining room table, couch, projection TV, coffee table, etc. The best part though, for "taffy pockets" and her cheap-ass husband, is the combination of expenses. We are fantasizing daily about access to the SageRock network, phone, security, gas, electric, water, sewer, trash. We will save CRAZY amounts of cash. And then to top it off, the business will someday (not now, thank you recession) build and pay for everything. The fence, roof, landscaping, etc.

We started with a business in our homes, and now, we get to be homeless people camping at the business.

I have been kind of strangely busy since Christmas not doing anything in particular. Well, that's not entirely true. There was the Holly and Alex visit. School started back up. We had to clean up the Christmas debris (although those outdoor lights are not taking themselves down. What's up with that?) And I have been doing a fair amount of work at the Salvation Army soup kitchen.

I took a break from writing but am starting that back up again. Romance novel #2 is underway with next year's contest deadline in mind -- end of November 2010. I have confidence I can submit a new RWA entry because I have been re-reading this year's submission and am very sure there will be no letter coming about being a finalist. Yeesh. Nothing like letting something sit to see it's a giant piece of shit. Well, actually, that's not true. It has some merit. But I have lots of notes about what needs fixed. And it ain't just grammar. So I have been working on that in conjunction with the new book. There is another contest, for this first manuscript that I have my eye on. It has an August deadline. So draft 2 (or maybe it is 3?), could be ready for that.

We were watching video from the Christmas when Indy had just turned two and he was such a sweet little boy. I am happy to say he is as sweet as ever. I am so glad the world hasn't beat the gentleness out of him. He is still considerate, inquisitive and loving. Here are some pictures of him from earlier years that I found in our Kodak gallery this morning and really liked:

Every year, The Lewis' fail to send X-mas cards but we rarely fail to take this insane picture of all our Christmas shit. Here it is:


Here is 2005 (our first one). I love that Indy looks like a little baby doll:



I forced Sage to skip 2006 (I hate the clutter as we delay taking this pic / In hindsight I would not have done this had I known how steadfast he would become with this tradition)

Here is 2007

Here is 2008

It takes special people, true friends, to embed themselves into a family environment at Holiday time and call it a "vacation." But that is just what these two did for 5 lovely days. My favorite thing about these visits are the relaxing mornings of chatting and the relaxing dinners of chatting. And because this is the case, we tend to eat a lot and drink a lot of coffee. Puurrrfect. And the cats are sweet to have waltzing around too.

But we didn't just sit on our asses. Holly and Alex got some nice walks in and there was shopping, cooking (you do have to stand up for that), and a trip out for First Night, which included ice skating. I especially enjoyed seeing Indy so happy to have loved ones in the house. Sometimes his love was subtle; other times he was actually attached to a leg. I had that urge as well, but I have all kinds of self control.

Here are some pictures: