I lose track of time occasionally. The only way I know it's the weekend is that the gym closes at noon on Saturdays, and from there we go to Subway for our weekly splurge on the 12" roast beef sub we share.

But these last few days, I've been working hard, mostly on writing projects. I finally finished the first draft of Spells on the Sly -- which is to say, I've printed it out, hole-punched it, and got it in a ring binder -- and Husband-man is proofing it even as I type this entry.

I have lots more work to do with it. Apart from making the corrections he'll be marking for me, I'll be making a few revisions and additions of my own. Then I need to format it the way the publisher wants me to. I've never had to do that before, and it's going to take me a while to "encode" the manuscript.

Right now, though, I'm enjoying taking a break from it. There are a couple of other things I could be doing -- turning a couple of charts into lists -- while he's proofing, but I'm giving myself a mini-vacation. He's only got about 80 pages left to read, but that'll take him a couple of days. Not only can he only spend 2-3 hours a day on it, but he's reading it really slowly to be sure he catches any spelling errors or left-out words or left-off letters and sentences that don't quite make sense. He's the best proof-reader in the world, I think.

Meantime, I've sent out a couple of submissions for inclusion in two anthologies, one about dolls (!) and one about coming out as Pagan. Seems to me I've entered a couple of flash fiction contests, too, but my only reward has been enjoying writing to the prompts. That's fine -- I enjoy it a lot!

With my co-author Carol Garr, I've been revising Wicca Behind Bars for Mother Earth Ministries-ATC. Most of that has been about correcting typos, but we have added some information and rephrased a few sections. I'll be printing it out and getting a few copies made in another day or two.

The other thing that has taken up some of my time is my attempt to rework my website. (That would be www.AshleenOGaea.com) Not long ago I attended a website workshop sponsored by the Society of Southwestern Authors. It was really informative, and it inspired me to spiff up my site.

I've redone almost all the pages, and reorganized the heck out of it. I published the new stuff right before lunch today, but an hour later, the old site was still on line. I have no idea how long it should take before the new pages replace the old ones!

Bought a new camera the other day, too. Our old Canon PowerShot 520 (?) finally got too annoying to tolerate. The shutter has to be pried open with a fingernail, and persuaded to shut again with several gentle taps. The shutter delay was a good two seconds, and it took ages to process one photo and be ready for another. We might've been able to at least clean it, or have it repaired, but either option would've cost almost as much as the new camera.

So now we have a Canon PowerShot A720 IS. Haven't used it much yet -- just a couple of obligatory first pix of the cats, to make sure it was working. We have, however, read the book that came with it. Looks like it's smarter than we are!

It has the capacity, according to its book, to make moves as long as 55 minutes. We'd want to get a special memory card for that, and I haven't yet checked to see how much that card would cost. But Mother Earth Ministries might like to make some CDs for inmates -- about Wicca and of rituals -- and this ~might~ be a less expensive way to do it than buying a digital video camera.

We actually have a machine that will make DVDs out of regular videos, but it doesn't work very well, and it transposes them in real time, which means it would take ages to copy the tapes (given how many times they want to stop and have to be started over) we have -- and we'd have to go through everything to figure out which segments to copy, too. Then again, to make new movies specifically for this purpose, we'd still have to write at least the outline of a script and find a time when several of us could get together. Scheduling is tough!

We've got dr's appointments coming up, too. I suffer from what they call free-floating anxiety, which means I get freaked for no particular reason, so anticipating my annual physical and Husband-man's annual appointment with his cardiologist is something of an ordeal. I usually end up taking a few extra chill-pills.

But one of the appointments I made for June is with the eye doctor, and that doesn't bother me at all. Why not? Because seeing the eye doctor doesn't fall into the "medical" category. It gets counted as "shopping," because it means new lenses, and thus, new frames. (We last got new Rxes four years ago. In that time, the frames have gotten ooky.)

The last time I got new glasses, I changed the shape of my Regular Glasses from John Lennon round ones to oval, and that was a big deal. I'll probably get something very close to that again, for my Regular Glasses. For my sunglasses, I might get even wilder than I did four years ago (with a frame shape that's like a cross between cat glasses and aviators), and maybe get a colored frame. And for my Computer Glasses (middle distance), which are now tortoise shell framed, I might even go with ... rhinestones. Woo hoo! Going absolutely nuts in my old age, yah!

What else is new? Oh, yes! How could I forget!
For an on-line class (Pagan Parenting 101) I'll be teaching for the Woolston-Steen Theological Seminary, I had to get a web cam. I don't really know how to work it yet, but .... The USB cord that came with it wasn't long enough to reach my hard drive, so I had to get a USB hub.

As soon as I got one and set it up, the BBC America catalog came, and in it was a new item: a USB hub that looks like the TARDIS, and makes the dematerialization noise when you plug something into it (and when you press the demo button, and now and again, just when it feels like it). Well, I had to have it, so now I've got an extra four-port USB hub. I hope I never need it -- I already think I have too many periferals -- but there was no way I wasn't going to have the TARDIS on my desk.

We're barbecuing -- well, technically, grilling -- tonight, and we're trying a new hamburger recipe. Well, technically again, we use "Gimme Lean" faux ground round, 'cause we don't do much real red meat anymore. I saw the recipe in a magazine, and showed it to Husband-man, and he agreed it was worth trying. I don't know if he's going to get all the specified ingredients, or try a couple of the substitutions I suggested. But I do know it's gonna be gooooood!

I hope your weekend -- and your summer vacation, when you get one -- is also goooood! Bright blessings (and don't forget your sunscreen!)

Ashleen





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