The Week Ends Again

[mmerriam]

The classes at VLR are moving along well. I'm pretty much done with everything except Mobility and Braille. I'm still taking Woodworking and Cyber Lab, but really, I can leave those behind at any time. The current best guess is six to eight weeks before I complete the program.

careswen and I, for the third year in a row, went to the Irish Faire. Friday night wasn't as crowded as a Saturday, and the weather couldn't have been much better. We didn't go so much for the merchandise or exhibits, as those do not change drastically from year to year, as for the music. We saw our local favorites, the Tim Malloys, followed by an Irish rock band called Seven Nations, which we enjoyed, then the night ended with Gaelic Storm, who we've been wanting to see, but because of other engagements have missed the last two times they've come to town. They were excellent performers and, although we had to stand to see the stage, we enjoyed ourselves. I do have one question: Is there some rule that says every Irish/Celtic band MUST play I'll tell me Ma? Not that I don't like the song, but every band played it last night. Outside of the music all we did this year was eat, drink, and buy CD's. I can tell you that Summit Brewery makes a Stout, and while it is decent enough, it is not Guinness by any stretch.

careswen's family is coming up from Oklahoma over the Labor Day holiday. So we will start setting up guest quarters sometime next week, and deciding what Minnesota thing to take them to this year. There will, of course, be the obligatory trip to the casino, since there is no casino gambling in Oklahoma. It's always fun to have them up, but this also means we will probably have to travel south for Christmas, which spells yet another brown Christmas. We've only managed to get them to come up for the holiday once, and not only didn't it snow, there was no snow on the ground. I ask you, how the bloody hell can there be no snow on Christmas in Minnesota?

As the prep for the visit starts, and the visit itself happens, I don't expect to get a lot of new writing done. I plan to work on new text today, Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday as much as possible. After that, I will content myself with editing and submitting for the next three weeks or so.

Once classes at VLR have finished, I expect to be able to focus on writing the novel, with the goal of having the first draft completed by Thanksgiving.

I took The Foundling off the Online Writers Workshop. I have enough crits and suggestions to see what needs to be done with the story. Polish will now be applied. Over The Bridge will be sent out by Monday, and Callooh Calley shortly after. I also have a couple of new short story ideas I want to pursue.

So I'd better stop writing Live Journal and get back to work!

In Peace
Michael

Comments

[damncutekitty.livejournal.com]

I went to the Irish Fair for a little while Sunday evening. It was a lot of fun, but I found the food and beverages to be horribly overpriced. Plus vending via tickets is always annoying. Good music and cute children doing Irish dances made the whole trip worth it, though.