Mice and Corn

The monsoon is here! It is time for those of you who live in Southern Nevada to PLANT YOUR CORN! Yes, you may have thought it was too late to put in a garden this year, but the trick with corn is to wait until the humidity goes up and then plant. With the soil as warm as it is, the corn just pops right out of the ground and shoots up - all you have to do is water it. By the time it starts to tassel the weather will be cooling off and the tassels will not shrivel up and die in the sun, like they would have if you planted corn in March or April.

In other news, we have mice again. There is a place in the garage where they can jump up into the walls, and a hole in the wall at the bottom of the stairs where they can easily get into the house. I patched the hole in the wall and set out the trap.

The very best bait for mouse traps is toasted peanut butter. Spread a little peanut butter on the trigger, then brown it with a match for less than a second. We had a very stubborn mouse that would not touch the trap no matter what we put in it, until I tried the toasted peanut butter. At least he died happy.

Insurance Adventures

I got a bill yesterday from the ophthalmologist (yes, it took me about five tries to spell that word). The bill was something of a surprise. It took me an anxious three weeks to get the referral, then it took me six weeks to get in for an appointment, and now apparently my insurance company won't cover the visit because prior authorization was not obtained.

I guess that obtaining a referral is not the same thing as obtaining prior authorization. If I'd known I needed to do that I would have filled out paperwork, sent faxes, driven across town, donated blood, whatever it took! WHY DIDN'T SOMEONE TELL ME!

When I called the insurance company I found out that the doctor's office was supposed to obtain the prior authorization. However, I'm the one who signed the paper that says if the insurance decides not to cover it, I have to pay. I haven't got the doctor's office side of the story yet - I intend to go in and talk to them in person.

Stuck on Chapter 6

Five chapters, 14,696 words, and now I'm stuck! I wrote the first paragraph of the next chapter and then deleted it. Then I tried an entirely different direction, wrote another sentence, and deleted that too.

I'm at my first major crossroads in the book. I have laid down almost all of the pieces of the story, now I have to start putting things in motion. I'm constantly fighting the temptation to read back over what I've written. I know what I've written. I just wrote it. I don't think re-reading it will help me. I must look forward!

I didn't waste my writing time today. I did some more research. Maybe I have been so busy lately I haven't had enough time to think about what I'm going to write next. I'll get it.

I Love You Mommy!

My husband and I signed up to do a dance number at the church pot-luck social and talent show. This would have been fine, except I have a three-year-old child, and someone brought Nacho Cheese Doritos.

First, my three-year-old stands at the buffet table, munching Nacho Cheese Doritos right from the bag. Then he comes over to our table, where I have cut up a hot dog for him. He pats me on the back, and on the shoulder, and on my chest. "I love you, mommy!" he says, and kisses me on one cheek, then goes around and kisses me on the other, and then does it again.

"You've got cheese powder all over your shirt," my husband informs me.

And on my face too, no doubt. At my first chance I run to the ladies' room and try to scrub the cheese powder off with a wet paper towel. Fortunately, I had worn a black shirt.

The dance number went well, even if I was a little cheesy.

Look Mommy! It's an Oscillating Circuit!

In Livermore, California you can tell the town is full of engineers. The neighborhood playground is decorated with ABC's, 123's, and circuit diagrams.

There's something odd about this circuit diagram, however. The people who planned this geeky playground attraction were obviously not the same people who installed it. Positive goes on top, negative on the bottom, folks. This circuit diagram has been installed upside-down. Hundreds, maybe thousands of children will grow up to find themselves very confused in electronics class.

How Did They Do It?

How did anyone ever write science fiction before the internet?

If I want to know what crops can be grown in Northern New Mexico, what sheep like to eat, whether the people could make hydrogen peroxide or chlorine bleach with materials they might have on hand, how they would grind their own gunpowder, or the best way to deflect a 2 km asteroid, it is all a few clicks away on the internet!

Working on this book is so much fun because it concerns lots of things I am very interested in and already know a lot about. It is easy to fill in the gaps in my knowledge with a cruise around the internet.

Patriotic Pancakes

My husband made pancakes shaped like the United States of America for breakfast on the 4th of July.

I finished the harp case last night, so that marks the end of another major project! And now, for my next trick, I will draft a 120 page post-apocalyptic science fiction novel for 9-12 year old readers in less than two months.

Now that I have a satisfactory plot in mind and some solid character development hammered out, I feel like I could just sit down and write the whole thing. It surprised me to discover that after a certain point in the development process the scenes and dialog simply flowed into my head the way they always do, even though this is a fresh new world with fresh new characters I have never worked with before. I wake up in the morning and have exciting new ideas, just like I did for my other books. On top of that, this time I've had so much fun researching Titan II missile silos, anthrax, and asteroid deflection techniques. Maybe I'll stick to science fiction from now on!