Mass carnage and a dry writing week.

I opened up the kiln on Friday and received a little surprise. Twenty carefully crafted, painstakingly assembled dinosaurs and dragons met their doom sometime during the night. It's unsure what happened; bad clay, air pockets, steam..who knows...I sure don't. Tomorrow, I have to tell them. Them, being the twenty fifth graders who created the now extinct herd.

Have to say, I'm a bit nervous.

Oh well. Life isn't always perfect is it? It was a crazy week of ceramic projects. I think I have over two hundred little pieces to fire and glaze, so I guess losing twenty isn't so bad. Strictly in a number sense.

Didn't have any free time to write.

It pains me to say that. In the five years that I have been working on my craft, I've always found the time to at least dabble. It was bound to happen, I suppose. But I don't like it. I miss my characters. I need my fix.

It's 90 degrees in Santa Barbara today. Beautiful. Clear. Crisp. The roses are fantastic. Perfect beach day. But I think I'll stay inside and write. No dinosaurs legs or dragon wings on my mind today...just my characters.

But before I do, Jen over at Jen Robinson's Book Page tagged me for a Meme. I did this meme not long ago, but thought it would be fun to tagged more people. (Not sure if this is against Meme rules!)

The questions are similar, so I'll only fill in the ones that I didn't answer before. Scroll down to "I've been tagged" to get the rest of my answers...

The rules, once again, are:

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read the player’s blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

What were you doing ten years ago?

What are five things on your to-do list for today (not in any particular order):

1. Buy a bouquet of flowers for my daughters Brownie Leader, then pick up my daughter from Brownie Camp and ask her how her tummy feels after hurling in said Brownie Leader's car on route to first ever camp out.
2. Pop in my Kathy Smith's "Lose Weight with Weights Vol II" DVD and exercise for the first time in a week.
3. Drive home the two fourteen year old boys who have taken up residence in my home.
4. Print out the fantastic critiques from my online critique group and rework my chapters on my YA novel.
5. Look at my family's master calendar and organize the week, organize my own week and work on my fundraising mural project.

What are some snacks you enjoy?

I said chips before, but right now I'm loving sugar snap peas. Tey are so plump and sweet right now.

What would you do if you were a billionaire?

What are three of your bad habits?

I'm going to change this to good habits!
1. I eat three balanced/healthy meals a day.
2. I exercise at least three times a week (mostly!).
3. I'm very efficient and therefore, get alot done in a day.

What are five places where you have lived?

What are five jobs you have had?

What five people do you want to tag?

Writing pal Laura over at Laura's Magic Day, my new critique partner, Sarah Rettger at Archimedes Forgets, super-skilled critique partner Christine at The Simple and the Ordinary, an author with the best blog title out there(and her last name isn't bad either) Robin Palmer at Keep your glass slipper...I'd rather wear slippers, and finally, super interviewer/illustrator/ writer from my SCBWI region, Tina at Tales from the Rushmore Kid.