Busy Gal!

OK, it appears I'm back in action, thank the good Lord!

I walked this morning before it got too hot. It was close to 90 here today and is supposed to hit 90 tomorrow, so I'm also thanking God for air conditioners. Up here in the Pacific Northwest it's very humid and anything above 82 degrees is really, really sauna-like and awfully miz'able unless you happen to be a hot-house plant. (I'm not. Too much extra blubber on my body for that designation.)

Our riding mower isn't back yet so Jackie mowed the lawn (or much of it) with the push mower this afternoon when she got home. I was fast asleep in front of a fan, since I started working again at 5:15 this morning and wrote until after 3.

Much as I adore writing, it does wear me out! It takes a lot of brain work to keep coming up with unique turns of phrase without sounding so far out that the message gets obscured by the prose. What I write must sound conversational and imbued with personality, and of course far from dull when I write for businesses. It has to work like a tractor beam: it has to capture the reader on the first line and hold them till the last one, and then prompt them to action. There are hundreds of different ways to do that. It's finding the right one to fit the style and personality of the business that takes some doing... but it's also what makes a job creative and fun. (And ultimately exhausting by day's end, but in a really satisfying way.)

I completed two more rewrites today for a client and bid on several more projects. I expect I'll get a number of them.

In case I don't get back to this blog before Saturday, I hope all you U.S. of A. folks have a fabulous 4th!

Oh! Hey!

My kitties turn 13 on the 4th. (That's the day I decided they were born, since they were a wee bit over two months old when I adopted them in mid-September 1996.) I considered naming them Yankee and Doodle or Doodle and Dandy or Yankee and Dandy but ultimately decided to remain sane and named them Archie (because he arched like crazy whenever I petted him) and Ashley (because he was the color of ashes and had already been named Ashes by his rescuer before I adopted him). So Archie and Ashley it is.

Alas! Everybody thinks Ashley is a girl because of his name, his long flowing mane, and his flirty, feminine ways. (Is my "fur son" gay?!) But I named him after Ashley from Gone With the Wind (even though I'm not that old!), so he was definitely named after a fellow!

Can I help it if most Ashleys these days are female?

What else? That's about it, folks! Have a great evening and Friday and weekend if I don't get back to you before then -- or even if I DO!

P.S. I'm approaching 950 blog entries here at Almost Famous. I might make it to 1K by August 1st if I keep going like this! Goodness...