ooops...

I forgot it was my week to blog over here. I kind of spent the weekend ignoring my computer completely. I'm trying to wean my family off the electrical umbilicals BEFORE the boys get their school issue iPads.

And I'm thinking about getting one for myself, soonish. Before GRL.

Anyway, many things to do and it's getting late, because 48-ish hours without touching even my phone? Yeah, there's TONS of wading I'm going to have to do online.

Read things! Be happy!

Fantabulous Friday!

I guess it's my week for the fun stuff, huh?

I'm getting all excited for hockey season -- rookie tournaments, training camps, preseason games, then in about 27 days (but who's counting?!) the regular season! Woohoo!

I admit I'd love it if I lived somewhere closer to a place where I could actually *watch* hockey on the regular without having to pay for NHL channels/website access, but hey! & I'd really really love to be able to watch women's hockey... *sigh*

So for today, here's a comic about a gay boy from GA who used to be a figure skater but is now a hockey player at the NCAA level -- the link is for the start of the "official" comic, but the extra material makes the world so much richer & more immersive (but even at that, the "official" comic can serve as sort of a hockey primer if you're not really sure what's going on).

So please, enjoy Bitty, Jack, Shitty, Ransom, Holster, and the rest of the Samwell Hockey Team. :D

Check, Please!

Minion is tired...

(Just a little humor to get us started)

So it's been a long couple of weeks -- the people I *know* who read this already know about last weekend and what a mess it was. The good news is: My life goes back to normal today! Well, normal-ish, anyway. I mean, my AC is still broken, my car is making some funny noises, and we can't afford to fix either of those situations, BUT. The kids are all in school, no one is sick or in the hospital, and the rest should be fixable by next week, so. We're good.

On the other hand, I think my kindle has bit the dust: I've been charging it, and... well, you know how they have this little light on the bottom next to the place where you plug the cord in, & the light is orange when it's charging & green when it's fully charged? Well, the light is green. But the screen is just showing a big empty battery & won't budge from that. Which, I mean... I don't exactly *mind*; it's not like I really USE my Kindle that much. I just don't like it, for whatever reason. I'm not really sure I can explain all the reasons, but it just doesn't work for me. I much prefer my Sony (which, sadly, is probably pretty close to being D-E-D dead also, but since they've stopped *making* them I need to find somewhere where I can play with a variety of toys & see if I can find one I like. I tried a nook last time I was at B&N & it didn't quite work for me somehow. I am picky, I know.)

Anyhoo...the primary reason I own two reading devices is that one is mine-all-mine and the other is a combination of I-hate-Amazon's-DRM-but-love-the-freebies, I don't want to buy my sons their own ereaders for at least a couple more years yet but it's convenient to have a couple of ereaders with appropriate books on for when we're stuck waiting somewhere & they run out of things to do, and... well, there are a couple of other reasons. Like, I want to read something *right now* & the pub will email it to my kindle so I don't have to go through the rigmarole of finding cords & hooking up the sony to the laptop & downloading & blah-di-blah. Instant gratification. It's a Thing.

On another, but vaguely related, note:

I've found that several books that I've enjoyed over the last several years are being re-edited and re-released. I'm...not entirely sure how I feel about this, honestly. They seem to vary from "a few minor typos & continuity errors fixed" up to "completely revamped, with 20,000 new words!" and almost all with a new publisher (& sometimes the old publisher is simply not in existence anymore, which means if something happens & I want to redownload, I'm outta luck). But I'm in this position of trying to decide whether it's worth spending my meager book allowance on, essentially, rebuying a book I already own. Many times it comes down to "Did I love this book enough that I'm going to search it out so that I can read it again?" Of course, part of the problem is that when I see a title by an author I love, if it's a re-release, I immediately check to see if I already have the original version. When I do, I want to read it, RIGHT NOW PLEASE, but I also need to decide first if I'm going to want to repurchase & read the newer version -- if I *do* then I probably shouldn't re-read just yet.

It's not like buying yet another copy of Redwall (because between my kids & myself, we've reduced two copies at least to fluttering loose out-of-order pages) or Good Omens (because I lend it out & never get it back, or DH loaned it on his last deployment & lost track of who had it, or I just like to throw a copy in periodically when we donate stuff to care packages going overseas).

I do kind of have something particularly Cherie-related that I'm dying to re-read but can't because it's hopefully going to be seeing new life soonish with a new publisher but I can't remember if that is public knowledge yet or not...

Tuesday Newsday!! It's today, it's today!!

Fly like an Eagle is live!!

Go on. Get you some. 

Available at the M/M Romance Group. 

Monday's Mayhem and Foolishness: A Labor of Love for Labor Day

So...before I take off on my Labor of Love tangent...do you know why Labor day exists? Believe it or not there actually is a reason. I found a cute little explanation of the whys and wherefores of Labor Day right here. Check it out if you want to know why we celebrate the day in September instead of May, and how Grover Cleveland and the Haymarket Riots played a part in influencing our end of summer bash. It's kind of nice to know why we get that first Monday in September off.

Alright, not that that's taken care of... where the heck have I been?
Erm...

I had a fairly serious operation back in April, and by the time I'd recovered enough that I should have been back writing up a storm I had instead fallen and wacked the hell out of my noggin.

Yeah, the old grey mare she ain't what she used to be.
Seriously.

I already suffer from TBI or traumatic brain injury... and this blow to my head sent all the symptoms that had started to fade right back into full effect. So I'm ridiculously forgetful--pretty sure I dropped the ball on a bunch of stuff this summer, but I cannot for the life of me recall what exactly I forgot.

I have to make lists for everything.
Like going to get a cup of coffee from my own kitchen.
One day I tried for almost two hours to get a cup of coffee. I kept forgetting what I was doing every time I got half-way down the hall from living room to kitchen. It would be really funny except I've been letting folks down. Appointments forgotten, blogs not written, stories written out of order. Sheesh.

Thankfully, I've found a willing sacrifice--erm minion/personal assistant willing to work for peanuts and another minion/organizer/keeper of my brain. Between the three of us and my wonderful editor Val I'm hoping to get back on track in the month of September. This past week's trial run has gone pretty well. Except for the stuff I forgot to tell my minders to remind me of.

*facepalm*

Eh, it's a work in progress. Writing is like breathing to me, and far from laborious usually. I have high hopes that with some more rest and time my dodgy brain will start to tick over reasonably again, allowing me to get back to writing at a faster than snail-zone pace.

I'll keep you posted.
This has been Cherie Noel, live from the front lines of my battered brain.

Take care babies. Guard your noggins. Having a battered brain is a bit of crap, so seriously, keep your brains from bouncing.