Wile E. Coyote, Inventor and Genius

I'm thinking this is rather suspect, considering that I rarely post -- and when I do post, it's about nothing...

Halloween

Can you guess who's who?


I did the vampire's make-up, and even I was scared!



The princess and the pumpkin (this one's much better large IMO -- just click the image)



Sisters


October 2007

Role call

I'm curious. I know people read this blog or at least stop by, for the sitemeter tells me so. But who's reading? And from where? And how many people did I lose when I up and changed the url without warning?

Come on, comment. You know you want to.


October 2007

Happy Hump Day

Today for breakfast, the girls and I started reading Romeo and Juliet. (For the record, we also had peanut butter toast, apples, and orange juice.) They went off to school muttering the last line of the prologue:

What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend

and quarreling over who gets to read Juliet.

I swear, the older they get, the more enamored with them I become.



Digging deep in the archives for today's photo -- April 2006

That was interesting

Am just returned from a writing conference in Surrey, BC. And, well. It's embarrassing to claim to be a writer and have words fail you, but words are failing me, for I'm still a bit dazed. In fact, I shall be walking on air for the next few weeks. The very long story made short is that in addition to four days worth of workshops, sessions, round-table lunches and all sorts of wonderful things with editors and agents and writers, on Saturday I had a one-on-one session with Diana Gabaldon, a NY Times bestselling author. And, well. She liked what I'd brought along of one of my novels (an alternate historical fantasy based on the life of Elizabeth I). She liked it very much, so much so that she had no suggestions for improvement and told me she would buy it if it were in print. Whoa.

That's, um.

Whoa.

As luck would have it, immediately following my session with Ms. Gabaldon I had an appointment with a rep from an agency that I like and respect very much. And. Um. Well. He also liked what I'd brought along to the conference and the novel's overall premise. So much so that he asked my permission to keep the excerpt, got my email and phone number, and asked me to please send him more chapters plus a detailed novel outline. (He also talked to Ms. Gabaldon about my novel after our session had ended, but I didn't find that out until later.)

I am...I don't know what I am. I called Pete shortly after the agent session, and was completely incoherent. I'm still incoherent. In my reality one does not sit down with a NY Times bestselling author and hear the words, "I would buy this if it were in print," and "I'm looking forward to reading this when it is in print,"; nor does one then go right into an appointment with an agency's rep and get an invitation to submit one's work. And agencies and bestselling authors do not talk with each other about one's silly little novel...Who am I? What universe is this? Am I even awake?

I can tell you this, though: even if this goes nowhere, even if the agency sees more and decides they're not interested in representing this novel, this is major validation for the last six or seven years of shitty first drafts and endless revisions, doubt, sleep deprivation, and sometimes despair. In fact, I do believe that this alone will be enough to keep me going for at least another six or seven years.



July 2007

Wet, grumpy eagle

I'm hard at work finishing up the first draft for yet another novel, so photography's been mostly on the back burner this month. I do have two bookings coming up, though, both for children's portraits -- and the new novel's first draft is almost done. Whoot.

In the meantime, here's another shot of our MN Zoo eagle on a wet and rainy day. By the way, I highly recommend wet and rainy days for Zoo visits. You get wet, yes, but you also have the Zoo mostly to yourself. It's grand fun.


August 2007

Property of the city of Eagan

Two of my photos took first and second places in Eagan's annual photo contest in the "Eagan at Play" category -- and now belong to the city, not me! That's sort of weird.

1st place

Sunset at Cascade Bay



2nd place

Fun at Cascade Bay



Also, I've finally updated the url for this blog so the title and address match...you'll want to update any bookmarks or feeds you've got for it:

http://yonsaucywench.blogspot.com/

Back to school

Bittersweet (thanks to Midway Cyclist for the title)


September 2007

Blueberries

August 2007

Pete

August 2007

How we've been spending our summer

August 2007

Last night

August 2007

Re: the Minnesota bridge collapse. We're all OK, and I hope all the rest of you and yours are OK too.

Bald eagle

Took the kids to the Minnesota Zoo today...Man, it was hot. I think even the eagle was sweating. Or maybe it was just sticking its tongue out at me.


July 2007

Reflections

March 2007

Seems appropriate, somehow, as this is my last day of work and I am indeed reflecting on things. What I've done, where I'm going...I wonder what I will be doing a year from now?

Little ghostly girl

May 2007

How bad is it that Morgan was home sick, and I took pictures...

(In my defense, the lighting really was phenomenal that morning. It would have been a shame to have not taken a shot or two. And look, now Morgan has photographic evidence of how terrible her childhood was! I can already hear the conversation with adult!Morgan and her therapist: "When I was sick, did my mother take care of me? Nooooo. She took pictures of me being sick!")

Grainy goodness

May 2007

Don't worry, Joe -- the feed isn't broken. I really am posting twice in the same week!

Saturday Sunset

2007 Lamon Loungeabout, 6/23/2007

I'm sporadic at best about updating this blog, but this is bad even for me. Obviously, I've been busy. Work, writing, kids, the usual stuff. That's about to change, though: effective Friday, I'll be voluntarily joining the ranks of the unemployed and hanging out with the girls for the summer. Among other things, we've got season passes for Cascade Bay and a family membership for the Minnesota Zoo, and I expect that by Labor Day we will be tan and totally sick of water fun and zoo adventures -- and possibly each other too! ;-p

As far as what I'll be doing after Labor Day...that's a good question. I suspect I'll be employed in some way, but what that way will be...hmm. I'm exploring the pros and cons of freelancing (writing, editing), photography (anyone want to volunteer themselves and / or their kids for a free add-to-my-portfolio photo shoot?), and of course the traditional work-for-someone-else Mon. through Fri. gig I've been doing for the last several years. That last one really doesn't thrill me at all, but self-employment, while a very attractive concept, is also a rather scary concept. So...we'll see!

In the meantime, I'm going to bang out Second Novel's third draft, take lots of pictures, work on some home and garden projects, and have a really fabulous summer with my kids. Well, and my husband too. ;-)

(I will also try to remember to update this blog more than once every two or three months.)

Long delayed Texas pictures

Wow, it took me forever to get this online! (Sorry, Julianne.) Suffice it to say that we had a great time visiting the Texas Crew and exploring Texas. We were sad to say goodbye! (But happy to return home to Pete.)

Here are some highlights from the trip -- taken with ye olde pointe & shoote, so the quality is not great:

Gordon, TX, en route from Dallas to Abilene



The beach at North Padre Island



Winning Shamus and sea turtles at Sea World



Texas Splashdown!



Mud pies and other fun in Abilene



Outside IHOP after the farewell breakfast



We miss you guys! Come visit us soon!

Could you say "No" to a face like this?

I couldn't. So now we have another dog. Meet Bailey, a portly little 6-year-old beagle / basset cross.



We brought her home from the Humane Society yesterday. She likes big and little people, is getting along very nicely with Theo, and loves to cuddle. She's also taken over the furniture.



Her former owners surrendered her to the Humane Society almost a week ago; she's had a pretty rough time of it. I think she's missing her old family something fierce. She was very well-behaved and quiet last night but didn't sleep much, if at all. This afternoon she finally relaxed enough to collapse for several hours.



We like her lots. We hope she'll like us too. :-)

X-posted to my blog.

Then and now

More photos for Julianne, Michael, and Jacob!

A humid morning in July



A snowy afternoon in March

Snow!

For Julianne, Michael, and Jacob, who haven't any of their own. See you soon! :-)

Eye of Emma

I'm all obsessed with eyes lately. Does it show?

Emma was a total trooper for this little photo shoot, by the way. That late afternoon sun was painfully bright, but she stuck with it. Thanks, Emma!


February 2007

Pete

Pete says I never take any pictures of him.


January 2007

Ppppbbbbbllllllttttttt. I do too! (He just usually doesn't know it. 'Cause I'm sneaky, I am.)

How we spent our Saturday afternoon

A few weeks ago the girls came home from school with flyers about a little cheerleading mini-camp put on by a local high school. They were absolutely dying to go do it before they even got in the door. The feminist in me died a dozen deaths, but their hearts were set on it, and so off they went.

The grande finale was real live cheerleading at a JV basketball game. I have not been to any sort of any basketball anything since I was about 17. Damn, those bleachers are hard.





Morgan got bored fast and then spent a lot of time playing in the bleachers instead of cheering.




Emma, however, loved it.

February, 2007

Us

February 2007

Eye of Pete

February 2007

It's cold, we're goofy

"Make a funny face," I said.


February 2007

So she did.

A rare self portrait

This is what 36 looks like.


February 2007

If you're me, anyway.

Fish lips

This is what you get when Morgan agrees to "model."


January 2007

The kids were off from school and Pete and I were off from work for MLK day. Since the four of us had a long weekend, we took an extra day of vacation and went to...Chicago. (Not exactly the tropics, but it was warmer than Minneapolis.) And now I have a new work-PC background:

A cold and blustery day

Lake Michigan, January 2007

We did a lot of fun stuff, including a visit to Sue (the T-Rex at the Field Museum), the Shedd Aquarium, and the U-505. We also didn't see the sun once while we were there, and -- like here before the snowstorm on...Monday? Sunday? (what day did y'all get that snowstorm, anyway?)...everything was drab and brown with unending grey skies above. It was actually very nice to get back into town yesterday morning and see 1) clean white snow and 2) blue skies and sun.

In other news...wow, my last post was December 9th. I'll have to double check, but I think that's a new personal best for time between blog entries. So, what have I been up to?

There was Christmas -- we hosted for my husband's side of the family the weekend before Christmas, and then spent Christmas weekend with my side of the family.

There was New Year's Eve/Day -- which involved going through a snow-and-ice storm to get to New Ulm, MN, where we were meeting friends. The Cities to New Ulm is usually an hour-and-a-half to two-hour drive; that day, it took us four hours and involved roads reduced to one lane, multiple vehicles sliding off the roads and/or crashing into each other, and general weather insanity. Thanks to Pete's mod driving sklz we made it without any incidents, but I'm not in a hurry to do that again.

And then there was the novel -- which is now finished (huzzah!) and off to my writing group for review/critique. That's been a HUGE time suck and the biggest reason why I've been ignoring this blog and everything else that's ignorable. (Remind me never, ever to try to finish a novel over the holidays. Ye gods.) I've got one final, post-critique pass to do, and then it's well and truly done -- and then I'll move on the next one. I'm telling you, the fun just never stops around here...