Saturday, July 14, 2007

Updates

Today Ken and I saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Good movie, awesome special effects. The movie cut out a lot of the book, but all the major plot points were there. You'd be completely lost, though, if you hadn't read the books. Also, this movie is a good illustration of the magic of books; nothing on screen can be as scary, emotional, or real as stuff we read. Did I dislike the onscreen Professor Umbridge? Sure. Did I hate her? No. Did I enjoy the Weasley twins' "screw you" scene? Yeah. But did I want to stand up and cheer and almost cry because they're so frickin' cool? Nope. Was the death at the end sad? You bet. But did I cry and bemoan how horrible life has been for Harry? Nope. You get the idea.

Another rejection. Note the Reject-o-meter.

Ken has been in the process of tearing out our deck. We're going to rip out the concrete patio, put in a stone paver patio, build a new deck, put in a fence, and build a brick outdoor-kitchen type deal. All before then end of September. Anyway, today Ken discovered the remains of long-dead furry little animal. At least, that's what he thought it was. I gave it a close inspection and found the vertebrae, and about a foot away, a little skull. It's been dead a looooong time, a year or two at least. It looks like it may have been a bunny. Poor bunny.

Working on the climax of Stormy Weather. I'd like to get through that tomorrow. I'm getting dangerously close to having a bona fide second draft. Ken and I bounced around ideas for my ghost story and I think I've got a fun idea going. Both of my previous published works (!!!) have been a little dark, so I wanted to go light and fun with this. We'll see how it goes. I'd like to have a first draft done of that by the end of this week. Fingers crossed!

5 comments:

kate.innuendo said...

The backyard plans sound kickass. Ken is handy, right? I remember your basement being awesome.

kate.innuendo said...

P.S. Your word of the month is adamant. It always reminds me of Adam Ant who was an 80's rock star. He sang that song, "Goody Two Shoes", which has my name in it:

Don't drink don't smoke - what do you do?
Don't drink don't smoke - what do you do?
Subtle innuendos follow
There must be something inside

Kelly Swails said...

I haven't thought of that song in forever, and now it's stuck in my head. Thanks. :P

I think the backyard is going to look awesome when it's all done. Ken is quite handy so I'm sure it will. It'll be nice to actually use and enjoy our back yard for a change.

Bridget (& Jimmy) said...

Good thing Ken isn't taking any classes this summer! Didn't you guys just build the deck? Oh well. Sounds great!
Has the cat that tormented your cats on the deck been back? That cracked me up!

Kelly Swails said...

B: We built the deck 5 summers ago ... so, we sort of "just" built it. You know how Ken gets--"This is all wrong. It must be completely redone. Today."

The cat hasn't been back. However, a big gray cat yowled in our backyard last night around midnight. Apparently our backyard is the cool-cat hang out. Who knew?