I mentioned before that I had deadlines that would have me working over Memorial Day weekend. Unfortunately, work wasn't the only thing that made my holiday weekend un-holiday-like: My brother-in-law relocated to Denver this weekend to take a new job at Michael's company. We knew it would make our weekend busy, but we didn't expect that it would make it quite this crazy and stressful.

My brother-in-law was supposed to leave Saturday night and get in on Sunday, but loading the truck took longer than expected. In the end he didn't leave until late Sunday night. Then it took longer to make the trip than usual because he couldn't drive the truck more than 55 or 60 miles per hour. To top it off, the trailer that was pulling their second car blew several tires, and they had to wait for more than an hour for a Uhaul mechanic to come rescue them.

Because neither my brother-in-law and his wife had slept Sunday night, Michael and I drove out about three hours to meet them. We took turns driving so that they could get some rest. Unfortunately, we didn't arrive at my brother-in-law's new home until about 10:30 last night. We unloaded about half the truck into the garage, stacking boxes haphazardly, until we could reach their bed and a couple of blankets. Even so, it was 12:30 by the time Michael and I left — and since both Michael and his brother had to get up early this morning, neither of them got much sleep last night, either.

What did you do over the holiday weekend?

Labels: holidays

I keep remembering with a start that this weekend is Memorial Day weekend. For the first time in several years, we don't have any plans to go on vacation or do something holiday weekend-ish.

It's just as well, too, as I'll probably be working. I have a couple of deadlines set for tomorrow-ish, and I'll be scrambling to finish those up (I hope) by the end of today. Even if I do succeed in that, however, I still have some other work that I've neglected for the sake of these deadlines, so I anticipate playing a little catch-up this weekend.

Even more notable, since I've been thinking of next week as a full week, I've also been planning it as a full week: Although I don't have anything due on Monday, I do have several projects that I told clients I'd have finished by Tuesday or Wednesday. Whoops...

What about you? Are you taking Memorial Day weekend off to do something fun, or — like me — are you stuck working through the holiday weekend?

Labels: holidays

I hope all the mommy writers had a great Mother's Day!

I, for one, spent Mother's Day with my "fur children." We took a walk in the morning, and in the evening I rode my horse and spent some time at the barn.

How did you spend your Mother's Day?

Labels: holidays

Today is Easter.

Last Sunday evening, I had a mild moment of surprise when I realized I didn't know when Easter was going to be. I actually thought it was last Sunday, until I heard someone say something about the following weekend. We're not Christian, so it wasn't a big deal, but it was something of a start when I thought I'd missed it entirely.

So if you are Christian and do celebrate Easter, happy Easter!

If you aren't and don't, then happy pagan fertility day! I'm sure you'll find some appropriate way to celebrate it...

Labels: holidays

Earlier, I posted about my horse's Christmas present. Our dogs got Christmas presents too this year: Emma got an extend-a-leash and Grace got a new bed.

Theoretically.

Emma was an only dog for four years, so she doesn't really understand the concept of anything not being for her. (We've tried getting them each an identical dog toy, and Emma just takes both.) So when the bed arrived in the mail, Emma assumed from the get-go that it was for her.

She was right there, acting very excited, while we opened the box — though how she already knew it was something for a dog, I have no idea. And as soon as we put the cover on it and put it on the floor, she got on it and didn't get off again for quite a while.



Eventually, we were able to get Grace onto the bed for a few pictures.





Unfortunately, the bed has become 85 percent Emma's, leaving Grace to take over Emma's old bed. This arrangement satisfies our ultimate goal, which was to replace Grace's lumpy old bed with something a little better for her hip. Grace does occasionally get the opportunity to sleep on the new bed, so I guess her Christmas present wasn't a total failure!

Labels: holidays

Amy Derby recently blogged about Christmas with her rabbits. Her posts (and her crack about a "Christmas in July" post) reminded me that I had some similar posts I wanted to make. This one is about Panama's Christmas present; I'll post later on about the dogs' Christmas presents.

For Christmas I bought Panama a Jolly Ball to keep in his stall. The in-laws had one in their pasture when Panama was there, and it was cute to see his little donkey friend carry it around by the handle.

Unfortunately, I haven't had the pleasure yet of seeing Panama play with his Jolly Ball. It keeps moving, so I'm assuming he does. It also appears that he keeps trying to share his toy with his neighbor, since the ball often ends up in her run or under the fence between their runs.

Just recently, I decided to tie the Jolly Ball up on the fence. We'll see how they like that.

Next up: Grace and Emma's Christmas presents. (And for that one, I have pictures!)

Labels: holidays

I don't often take time completely off of writing, but yesterday, after spending the morning at the barn, I decided I needed a day off.

My unscheduled day off went great. Here's how I spent it:

* I bought myself lunch at Burger King on the way home from the barn to satisfy a craving I've been having off and on for several weeks.

* I watched a movie in the afternoon (something I've only done once or twice since I started freelancing).

* I browsed the Internet for about half an hour, without even a pretense of trying to work.

* Michael and I made and ate dinner together, then went to the grocery store.

* We watched a couple of episodes of The Sopranos.

* I finished off the day with a hot bath.

Although I started feeling a little guilty a little later in the evening, I still maintained my day-off mindset. I have days when I don't get much of anything done, but this is the first time in a while that I've planned it that way.

The relaxed mood was difficult to shake today, but I still don't regret my day off. There is something amazingly satisfying about watching a movie in broad daylight — it made me feel like a kid on summer break. I also think it was more fun to take it off at the last minute — if it had been a planned day off, it would have been filled with other obligations, and I wouldn't have had the same ability to kick back and relax.

I highly recommend the experience to any of my over-worked, over-stressed fellow freelancers!

Labels: holidays

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, my resolutions for 2007 didn't go so well. Nonetheless, I have an even longer list of resolutions for 2008. Some are business-related, and others are concerning my personal and family life.

Business first, of course:

1. To dedicate the first hour of each workday to my own projects, with the larger goal of completing a novel and two ebooks within the course of the year.

2. To finish and launch my long-overdue website updates.

3. To increase my annual income by a third.

My personal goals for 2008:

4. To pay off 75 percent of my credit card debt.

5. To keep in better touch with my friends, especially those I neglected in 2007.

6. To get pregnant! (Yep, we've decided it's time to expand our menagerie... er... family.)

What are your resolutions? If you would like to share, please feel free to comment with your resolutions or a link to your own blog post on the subject.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Labels: goals, holidays

We're getting more snow here tomorrow: another 4 to 8 inches in Denver (though if they are as far off as they were on the last storm, we may be in for a downright blizzard). Michael is planning on taking public transit to work, and I'll forego my visit to the stables in order to stay home and work, all warm and cozy.

Which brings me to another reason tomorrow is important: It's technically my first day back to work after Christmas, assuming Michael goes to work. (If it's bad enough, his company will close, though that's a rare occurence.) I have work lined up already, of course, so I won't be able to stretch my vacation any longer — though I do have a light enough load to allow me to take it easy until after New Year's.

Labels: freelancing, holidays, Michael, news

Just like last year, our white Christmas made national headlines.

The article comments that by mid-morning we had already gotten as much snow as had been predicted for the entire day. Actually, I'd say we surpassed the original forecast by mid-morning: As of yesterday, they'd still been predicting 2 to 4 inches of snow. This morning they decided it would be more like 4 to 8 inches, but by mid-morning we'd already gotten that.

It didn't stop snowing until mid or late afternoon.

Michael and I have taken it easy today — we're watching movies, and for dinner we'll have the sweet potato soup we were intending to take to my sister's house. Tomorrow we'll try to make it to the stables to see Panama, and to my parents' house to visit them. (My sister and her boyfriend are taking his mother skiing tomorrow.)

I haven't been working the last couple of days, but I've used the time to get caught up on my blogs. It's been nice to do some writing that is entirely for my own pleasure.

How have you spent your Christmas?

Labels: family, holidays, Michael, my horse Panama, news

Last year, we had two blizzards this time of year: one a few days before Christmas, and another just a week later. The result was that we had an extra-long vacation around Christmas and New Year's, but that we were also snowed in for several days each time.

Unbelieveably, I think our snowstorm this year might have trumped last year's. Although we are technically getting less snow, getting it on Christmas Day has impacted our Christmas plans much more than last year's blizzard did: We're pretty much snowed in, which means we won't be going to my sister's house for Christmas dinner as planned.

I'm also disappointed that we won't be able to go to the stables today — I really wanted to visit my horse on Christmas. I even have a present for him, but I guess it'll have to wait until tomorrow.

Labels: family, holidays, my horse Panama

I hope you are all spending time with your loved ones and not on the computer, but if you fall into the latter group, here are some pictures to cheer you up.

This was the picture on my Christmas cards this year:



The inside read, "Next year it'll be a one-horse open sleigh."

The Santa hat photo shoot was quite an experience. In this picture, Panama looks like he's had too much egg nog:



Here are some other Santa hat photos. Panama was actually pretty tolerant of the whole thing: Once he realized I really did want him to keep the hat on his head, he just looked at me like, "Okay... What now?"





Merry Christmas, everyone!

Labels: holidays, my horse Panama

I mentioned the other night that Michael put up our Christmas tree. Well, he did more than just put up the tree: He also decorated a little with the Christmas lights. They look so nice that I decided I just had to take some pictures and post them on my blog.

Here is the tree. I took this picture with the lights out and my camera set on "night portrait," because I liked the effect:



Here are the lights in the kitchen:



And here is one of the windows in the office, with my desk lamp on...



...and with the lights off. (I couldn't decide which picture I liked more.)



It's starting to look a lot like Christmas...

Labels: holidays, Michael

This ought to demonstrate how un-Christmas-like the season has been for us so far: Michael and I only just started our Christmas shopping today.

I don't want anyone to peek and find out what they're getting, so I'm not going to list the gifts here. But I will say that I think everyone will love their gifts.

In general, though, Michael and I don't have as much to work with as usual right now. My reduced work hours and our decision to move Panama to a more expensive (albeit more convenient) facility, combined with a few other factors, has made money a little tight lately. It's mainly bad timing, as I expect to be able to work longer days again two or three days out of the week once we get Panama moved, but it still sucks to be nearly broke around Christmas.

Besides the money issue, Michael's job has also been considerably more stressful lately. Unlike my work, though, a lot of stress at his job isn't balanced with a higher income. (Usually, when I'm stressed it's because I'm working a lot, which in turn means I'm earning more.) Poor Michael has said that it hasn't felt like the holidays at all — and I suppose it really hasn't.

It's starting to feel more like Christmas, though. We took the picture for our Christmas cards last weekend. The cards came a couple of days ago, and I'll have them all ready to send out on Monday. (I'm thrilled with the cards, by the way. I'll post pictures from the photo shoot on Christmas Day.)

Michael also put the Christmas tree up tonight while I was working, which should help a lot. However, getting ready for Christmas this late means that before we know it, it'll all be over. I hate doing it this way, but there's just no way around it: We're having a very harried Christmas.

How is your holiday season shaping up?

Labels: holidays, Michael, my horse Panama

Deb Ng posted today about her goals for 2008. In her post, she mentioned that she met her goal of increasing her income by $10,000 in 2007.

Unfortunately, I haven't been as successful in my goals for 2007. Here they were:

1. To revise my NaNoWriMo novel and get it ready for submitting

2. To submit my NaNoWriMo novel to at least one publisher during 2007

3. To start work on my next novel

4. To double my freelance income in 2007

The only one of these goals that I have achieved is number 3, starting work on my next novel — if you consider a detailed outline to be "starting work."

Although I didn't double my income in 2007, by the end of the year I estimate I will have succeeded in increasing it by 50 percent. I am disappointed that I can't say "I did it!" — but I guess it's not a bad achievement, particularly for my second year of full-time freelancing.

However, I also somewhat achieved this goal in another way. In my post, I commented that part of the reason for this goal was so that I could afford to stable my horse in town. While I didn't manage to double my income, I did still manage to bring Panama out here!

I haven't yet decided on all of my goals for 2008, so those will come in a later post.

Labels: editing, freelancing, goals, holidays, my horse Panama, NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, plain ol' fun, publishing

I've noticed a trend: Every time I go on vacation and get away from my regular freelance work for a little while, I come up with at least one (and usually two or three) good story or novel ideas. It's like taking a break from the less interesting work I do — and the stress that comes with it — opens my mind to more creative thought processes. As a result, I am returning from this vacation with as strong a desire to concentrate more on fiction as I've ever had.

This particular visit, I came up with three good novel ideas. All of them were triggered by something we saw or talked about while driving, and each blossomed into a full-fledged novel idea within a moments of the thought entering my mind. Being a good little writer, of course I jotted all of them down (I keep a notepad and pen in my purse for that purpose, among others). However, I can't help but think that I would really like to actually write the novels, rather than a few notes about my idea.

Inspired partly by my creative inclinations during this trip, and partly by my failure to even start my NaNo novel this year, I have decided to shift my focus somewhat. Although I can't afford to give up my freelance work entirely (and, anyway, I have several clients I wouldn't want to give up), I am going to change up my schedule a little to allow for an hour a day of writing fiction.

I've long thought that "whenever I have time" I'll work on some fiction at the end of the day. Something about that plan doesn't work, though, because I haven't written fiction since NaNoWriMo ended last year. So instead of placing my fiction hour at the end of the day, I'm going to do it first thing (well, after I get back from the stables). That schedule will ensure that I am forced to squeeze a little fiction into every day — not to mention it'll be a good way to warm up for my freelance work, since I'll start my workday with a little more enthusiasm.

At any rate, that's how I envision it working out. I'll let you know if it really works out that way.

Labels: fiction writing, holidays, NaNoWriMo 2007, novel writing

Although I ended up having some work to do over Thanksgiving week, Michael and I had a pretty good holiday. We started out our week by going back to the bed and breakfast we stayed at when we got married — not the honeymoon, but our wedding night and the couple of night leading up to it. We also went back to the winery where we had our wedding, and bought several bottles to bring home with us.

Besides celebrating a mini-anniversary, we also browsed local book stores and antique stores. We found a nice period hanging lamp for our breakfast nook, and I got some cool old coins and an old photo, all of which I'll blog about in a future post.

After our little side trip, we stayed the rest of the week with Michael's parents. Everything from there on out was the typical family visit activities: visiting Michael's brother and his family, spending time with all of the horses (including my mother-in-law's 7-month-old colt), etc.

Well, almost everything was typical. Michael caught a 24-hour flu while we were there — Thanksgiving night, in fact. He was out of commission Thursday evening through Friday afternoon, and still wasn't feeling up to having a belated Thanksgiving meal Friday evening. As a result, we stayed one extra day — so that we could see the family a little more on Saturday, but also so that Michael was also recovered enough to sit through a long drive.

So today — Sunday — we finally made the trip back. The week has inspired a lot of blog posts, some of which I have already started writing, and which I will post over the next few days.

Labels: holidays

People take things for granted -- it's just human nature. That's why I'm okay with Thanksgiving as a holiday, no matter how politically incorrect it is. I know that there was never any happy little Thanksgiving feast where the pilgrims and the Indians sat down together, held hands, and sang "Kumbaya." For one thing, the much-lauded pilgrims were actually self-righteous, priggish jerkoffs who were responsible for massacring the local natives. By another account, the first Thanksgiving in actuality marked the failure of William Bradford's attempts at a communist community. (I wonder if Joseph McCarthy knew that his "one nation, under God" had its roots in communism?)

But wait, I'm getting sidetracked. I'm not okay with the myth of Thanksgiving, but I am okay with the holiday itself. I think it is good to remind people to appreciate what they have in their lives.

So without further ado, this is what I am thankful for this year:

* A wonderful husband... whom I married in a beautiful 1920s-themed wedding earlier this year

* The career I've always wanted... for which I don't have to dress up, drive in rush hour, or deal with office politics

* A happy, healthy horse... who is learning more every day

* A beautiful home... that we own

* ...And pretty much everything else in our lives. We have wonderful families, pets, and lives. What more can I say?

Labels: family, freelancing, holidays, home sweet home, Michael, miscellaneous, my horse Panama

In my posts about my working Labor Day and my unsuccessful attempts at a vacation, I mentioned my Big Project. I think I mentioned this a little while back, but I had a big project that I accepted over the summer. I had done the same project last year, and found it way more tedious and exhausting than the pay justified. By the time they asked me in March to do the project again this year, though, I had completely forgotten how miserable I was last summer, and I accepted.

This project has been a thorn in my side since June. The paychecks have been hefty, but still not enough when you consider the amount of work I have put into earning them. I figure if I would have focused solely on this project, it would have been a month's work of work, easily -- but the client wanted it in two weeks, initially. Ha! And even if they had been reasonable and given me a month, I can't just go and ditch the rest of my clients for an entire month!

Ultimately, the project took three months to complete (while maintaining my other clients), and that was with a lot of weekends and evenings worked. I've been looking forward to having it done for a long time now, but since I didn't finish Thursday (my self-imposed deadline, but one I shared with the client), I felt I needed to continue working over the weekend. Then, to make matters worse, the client contacted me around midday on Monday with revisions he wanted the same day.

By the time yesterday rolled around, I was so burned out that I took all day to do something that should have taken only two to three hours. As a result, I was depressed and lethargic for most of the evening. Michael suggested we celebrate, but I couldn't even bring myself to do that -- somehow, I just couldn't shake the feeling of the project looming over me. After all, that's where it's been for the past three months!

Realistically, I should have at least a few days off now that it's over, to allow myself to recover before I launch myself back into other client projects. However, it doesn't seem like that will happen, as I still have plenty of work to keep me busy -- probably for several weeks.

Labels: burnout, freelancing, holidays

Do any of you find that it is virtually impossible to take vacation time? The busier I have gotten in my job, the more difficult it seems to have become to take time off. Most of my clients are totally understanding when I say I need a break, but unfortunately all it takes is one demanding client to ruin a vacation.

Sometimes I think the only time I actually get my scheduled time off is when I go somewhere and make myself physically unavailable. Taking a vacation on my couch just doesn't work, because certain clients seem to think that I'm home, so I might as well be working!

I had grand plans to turn my Labor Day weekend into a vacation. Michael took Friday off of work, so my goal was to finish my Big Project by Thursday evening. I was also going to take yesterday and today off. Unfortunately, none of that worked out.

At least I had today off... Or so I thought. Then it occurred to me that my horse may be arriving Thursday evening or Friday morning, which means I'm not going to want to work on Friday. So instead, I think I'll be working today and tomorrow, and taking Friday off.

It's still a day off, and the nice thing is that it will be attached to a weekend. However, there are two problems with this plan:

1) Work almost always has a habit of spilling over onto a day off.

2) It won't be the day of lounging around and reading, which is really what I've been dreaming of.

However, I already know that if I take today off, I'll end up not wanting to work after my horse arrives, and probably having to work yet another weekend to make up for it. I want this weekend to be completely work-free, so I think I'm just going to have to suck it up and work today after all.

Labels: freelancing, holidays

One of my regular clients is based in Taiwan, and so has different holidays than we do in the United States. Last week, I remembered to write to tell my contact there that I'd be off today for Labor Day. She asked about the holiday, so I looked it up -- for most of my life, it's been a day off of school or work, and that's it.

It turns out that Labor Day was started in the late nineteenth century by the unions. It was supposed to be a day off for working class folk, who in those days often had to work six days a week, twelve hours a day (or more!). Even children were subjected to this. Labor Day was started as a reprieve for these workers.

The irony is that Labor Day is now primarily a professional holiday. The only people I know who observe it are professionals -- business people and teachers, to name a few. (Students get Labor Day off because their teachers are professionals, though to them it's simple because it's a end-of-summer holiday.) Although factory workers may still get this holiday, the biggest group of low-income workers -- retail workers -- still have to work on Labor Day.

The masterminds behind the holiday are probably rolling in their graves right now.

My Labor Day wasn't the day off I had intended, either. I've been working to finish up my Big Project, and although I thought I would be done by the end of last week, I ended up working off and on throughout my holiday weekend. I should be able to finish tomorrow, after which I am taking the rest of Tuesday and all of Wednesday off, but I'm still disappointed about the weekend.

Wish me luck finishing my project in the morning. The sooner I get it done, the sooner I get to start my own holiday!

Labels: freelancing, holidays

Last night -- Friday night -- I worked another all-nighter. From 1am to 8am, I worked on finishing the copy for a client's website. (Sadly, as a result I slept until 4pm -- goodness knows what this will do to my schedule.)

I've decided to take the weekend off -- something I haven't actually done in what feels like eons. Usually, if I'm not working all weekend I'm trying to find time to work all weekend. As productive as I have been recently -- increasing my billable work hours each week, completing the backlogged work I have been accumulating -- I feel I deserve a little break. (And no, it actually doesn't have anything to do with Easter being this weekend.)

Anyway, Monday will be here soon enough, so I'm off to read a little and enjoy my reprieve.

Labels: burnout, freelancing, goals, holidays, R and R

In April of last year, Michael's picture appeared in Glamour, along with a corny quote from me. This Valentine's Day, Mr. Perfect appears in print again!

You can make your own romance novel cover here. I got the idea from Kristin King and Julia Temlyn.

Anyway, our Valentine's Day ended up being a two-day event, thanks to the snowstorm we had yesterday. Although the roads were still passable, we didn't feel like going anywhere in the snow, so we postponed our dinner plans and occupied ourselves with the, um, other types of Valentine's Day activites. Tonight we celebrated Valentine's Day, part II, with dinner at our favorite sushi restaurant.

Labels: holidays, Michael, plain ol' fun

Happy New Year's to everyone!

It seems a good occasion to reminisce about the past year. I am happy to report that I achieved both of my New Year's resolutions for 2006: to publish a piece of fiction, and to start work on a novel. In fact, I went beyond the original resolutions: I published two short stories, and wrote a whole novel.

Encouraged by my luck with 2006's resolutions, I have formed a few more for 2007. They are:

1. To revise my NaNoWriMo novel and get it ready for submitting,

2. To submit my NaNoWriMo novel to at least one publisher during 2007,

3. To start work on my next novel,

and

4. To double my freelance income in 2007.

The first two resolutions I am hoping to fulfill during the early months of 2007, followed soon after by the third. In fact, I am hoping to write two novels in 2007 - one by November and another during November, when I do NaNoWriMo again.

As for my income - my main goal is to start making enough extra a month that I can afford (among other things) to bring Panama out here in the spring or early summer. Stabling a horse in the Denver Metro area is expensive, and although I could find less expensive stables by putting him a 45-60 minute drive away from me, I want Panama close enough so that I can visit him and work with him daily. He'll be almost two years old by then, and I will need to work with him a great deal in order to make up for the lack of attention and training he has had so far. I don't want to have to worry about just barely squeaking by each month, either, which is why I want to double my income rather than simply making enough more each month to pay the stabling bills.

Well, there you have it - my goals for the New Year. If you would like to share yours, feel free to comment to this post. Best of luck to all my readers in 2007!

Labels: editing, freelancing, goals, holidays, my horse Panama, NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, plain ol' fun, publishing

As promised, the snow storm dumped a good deal of snow on us overnight. We haven't tried figuring out how much, but I would estimate we got about a foot. We made national news again, as some parts of the state got another two feet or more. This is supposed to be a double storm, too - another wave of snow is supposed to come tonight and tomorrow, although it sounds like it might be focused more to the east of where Michael and I live.

In any case, Michael didn't go to work today, so we have another extended holiday weekend. Sort of - I still have one more article to write before my week is officially over, but I'll most likely do that late tonight, after Michael is asleep.

Labels: freelancing, holidays, Michael

Our next big snowstorm started today, only a week after last week's blizzard. I've never seen two huge snowstorms come so close together in Denver before, and the weather man in a clip I watched online said the same thing. Our roads have not even recovered from the last snow, and in Colorado - where the snow usually evaporates in a couple of days at the most - that says a lot. I fully expect we won't be going anywhere for a few days, particularly because it sounds as if the snow will continue all weekend. (So much for everyone's New Year's Eve celebrations!)

At about 10:15 this evening, we peeked out back and saw that the power line to our house was hanging extremely low, with snow wrapped around it like insulation. We were really worried that it was going to fall, but of course you can't just go and knock the snow down, so instead Michael tossed a couple of snowballs gently at the cable. He hit the line once toward the end nearest the house, and a little snow fell. Then he moved down and tossed a snowball toward the lowest-hanging point of the line. When the snowball hit, the line bounced up, flinging snow everywhere! The line is all clear of snow now, although it is most definitely hanging lower than it used to be.

This snow is clearly much wetter and heavier than last week's snow was. I hope we don't lose power. I can live without the TV, stove, or even the microwave, but I'll be lost without my computer! Of course, as long as I keep my laptop battery charged, I'll have nearly four hours of battery power to fall back on, but I'll be without Internet, as the DSL modem plugs into the power outlet.

So let's hope I don't lose power - I have a couple of articles I need to finish tonight and tomorrow, and for that I need my computer and the Internet!

Labels: freelancing, holidays, Michael

I knew yesterday's traffic would set a record, but I didn't know how high that record will be. Goodness only knows how long it will take me to set a new record: yesterday I had 1,509 hits on my website, with 343 unique visitors. (In other words, my visitors were looking at a lot more than just one page.) I checked my Active Meter log occasionally throughout the day, and for the most part the traffic seemed to be coming from my article on Writers Weekly, although a few visitors are still coming over from Deborah Ng's End of Year Blog Plug.

Today looks like it could be similar: I already have 286 hits, with 81 unique visitors.

In other news, it looks like we're in for another big snowstorm here. The weather is predicting 12 to 18 inches, although they've been vacillating on when they think the bulk of it will hit. This time they started talking about it days in advance, urging everyone to stock up on food and prepare for several days indoors, and as a result the grocery stores were practically taken by force last night. In any case, it sounds like this storm won't be quite as bad, but still a rather major storm right on the heels of the last one. The streets hadn't even cleared up yet, so I don't anticipate going anywhere again for a few days.

Oh, I do love getting snowed in!

Labels: freelancing, holidays, plain ol' fun, website maintenance, website traffic

Don't get me wrong - I care about other people's beliefs. In fact, I say "Happy Holidays" quite frequently around this time of year. But even though I am not Christian, I don't get offended when people say "Merry Christmas" to me. And yes, I celebrate the holiday.

As an agnostic, I celebrate Christmas - and say "Merry Christmas" - because it doesn't have anything to do with Christianity.

No doubt I've pissed a few people off now. But hey - where in the Bible does it say that December 25th is Jesus' birthday?

That's right. It doesn't.

In fact, December 25th was chosen as Jesus' birthday by the Romans, about 300 years after Jesus' death. And why did they choose December 25th? Because the people already celebrated December 25th as the birthday of the popular pagan diety at the time - Mithras, or Mithra, the sun god. That's right: Rome wanted the people to convert to Christianity, so they did a little jimmy-rigging to align Christianity's holy days with those of the religion the people already followed. (That's also why Christianity celebrates the Sabbath on Sunday, when the Sabbath is actually Saturday.)

And December 25th didn't first belong to Mithras, either... This day has been named the birthday of many gods throughout the ages, all the way back to Osiris, one of ancient Egypt's gods. So you see, there isn't anything special about December 25th, except that everyone likes it.

But what about the presents, you say? Aren't they reminiscient of those the three kings brought on the night of Jesus' birth?

Actually, the Christmas tradition of giving presents isn't original to Christianity, either. This tradition also goes back to ancient times. In Rome, the pagan god Saturn was believed to bring everyone gifts in December. And in Egypt, a diety named Bes brought presents to all the good children. Sound familiar?

That's right - there IS no Christ in Christmas, because all of the traditions that we have put together and called "Christmas" have been borrowed from other, more ancient religions.

This doesn't mean that Christmas cannot be a deeply holy day for you. Since we don't know the actual day of Jesus' birth, December 25th is as good a day as any. In other words, I don't really care how or why you celebrate Christmas.

I do care, though, when people start insisting, "Put Christ back into Christmas!" He wasn't the first one there, guys. To be perfectly fair, we should also then be putting Mithras back into Christmas. And Osiris. And Dionysus. And Thor. And... and... and...

Regardless of what religion you're coming from, though, the season is supposed to be about love and generosity, and I don't see anything generous about trying to deny other people their own reasons for celebrating. So whether you are celebrating Jesus' birthday, Mithras', or Osiris', or whether you simply are celebrating a season of giving, I wish you a...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!


Want more information?
Pagan Claus: The Real History of Christmas Customs
History of Christmas

Labels: diatribes, holidays

The snow is still falling! Emma - our 75-pound dog, the size of a shepherd - almost disappears in the snow when she goes out. Our snow storm made national news - in the article they say we've gotten two feet of snow. I think it's quite possibly more.

Although the snow is supposed to stop today, the sun isn't supposed to come out until tomorrow. I have a feeling most of the city will be closed down well into tomorrow.

The bad part of this is that I wasn't done with my Christmas shopping - but by the time the snow melts enough to go anywhere, it'll nearly be the big day! I'm also hoping the snow doesn't delay Michael's biggest present, which is coming by mail. We didn't get any post office service today, and I'm rather doubting we'll have any today, either.

In a little bit, Michael and I are going to go outside and play around in the snow. We need to clear off my car again (and probably his, too), and then I'm hoping to make a snowman. I haven't done that in years! Hopefully the snow is moist enough - last night it was still quite powdery and resistant to packing!

Labels: holidays, Michael, miscellaneous, plain ol' fun

I want to know who wished for a white Christmas this year... Whoever you are, you've cursed us all!!!

We knew last night that there was supposed to be a serious snow storm dumping two feet of snow on us over the next couple of days. However, we were still surprised at how quickly the snow started coming down this morning.

Michael woke me up at 6:30 this morning to tell me that it was snowing pretty bad. Over the next hour, I convinced him to stay home today (with the help of two failed attempts to leave the house). By eleven o'clock, his work had closed anyway, meaning that he only had to take a half-day of vacation time.

Early in the afternoon, we let Emma out to go pee and play in the snow. She seemed stunned when she fell knee-deep in snow, but she quickly rallied, peed, and bounded around the backyard for a little while. We noted how far the snow came up on her legs, and measured when she got inside: about 8 inches.

Now, even though I have work to do, I knew it wasn't going to happen this afternoon, with Michael home unexpectedly and the excitement of the snow day. So instead, we did about the only thing we could do: we watched a movie. About halfway through, we stopped the movie, and bundled up; we cleared off my car (so that the weight of the snow wouldn't crush the T-tops) and played with Emma a little. This was as it was getting dark, so we didn't stay outside long, although we're planning to play in the snow a little more tomorrow afternoon - maybe even build a gigantic snowman. When we came inside, we again measured the depth of the snow on Emma's leg: about 14 inches now.

In a little bit, we'll eat dinner and watch the rest of our movie. (It's a long one!) Later this evening, I should have a chance to catch up on the work I was supposed to do today. I don't regret leaving it for later, though - it's been a perfect snow day.

Labels: freelancing, holidays, miscellaneous

I just can't believe that Christmas is less than a week away.

I'm not ready for this. I didn't even realize how much of my time jury duty had eaten up until I started thinking about getting ready for Christmas. We only put our tree up on Sunday, and although we've discussed putting lights on our porch, we haven't gotten to that quite yet - and I'm not even sure we will.

Christmas shopping is the real struggle. First of all, I only managed to do about half of it earlier in the season, and absolutely none of it during the two weeks I had jury duty. So here I am, with less than a week to go, realizing that I will have to brave the crowds of Christmas shoppers (which I hate).

Additionally, money is a problem. I didn't get much writing done during the two weeks I had jury duty, which means I didn't get paid. And although I do get $50 a day for jury duty, I won't see that check for a little while yet. (Someone at the courthouse said it would be before Christmas, but I don't know that for sure. It's usually supposed to take 2-3 weeks.) I'll be fine once I get paid for jury duty, but until then...

Being broke at Christmastime sucks.

Getting caught up from my two week hiatus has been difficult, too. I have a lot of work that I want to get done before Christmas - preferrably by the end of this week, so I don't have any work to do over the holiday weekend.

There have been a few successes, though. I have been working pretty steadily so far this week, and I have almost caught up with my work on two of my quickest-paying gigs. And I finally thought of (and bought) the perfect present for Michael. That means I only have my dad left to shop for (aside from a couple of other little gifts for Michael).

I do my little blogging break is about over - I need to get back to work.

Labels: family, freelancing, holidays, Michael