Gail Dayton's Blog: Dreaming in Daylight

Didn't get another blog posted last week here on my own blog. I had two last Thursday in other places. I blogged at Whipped Out about making salsa from scratch (or from tomatoes, onions & peppers, if you can't get any scratch (Ba-dum-ching!)), and I also blogged at To Be Read the same day. So you can go read those posts.

I was coming home from the parents' on Thursday when those blogs posted, so I wasn't in a position to tell you about them--and I've kind of been on a computer break since then...

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I suppose I could say the insanity strikes again, because it does strike every year--but this year's version just hit last week.

I was running around frantically trying to get ready to go accompany parents to the doctor's early last week, and be ready for my RWA chapter party on Tuesday, when someone reminded me that the meeting was the third Tuesday, and therefore this week (tonight) rather than last.

It wasn't that I got the dates mixed up. I knew it was the third Tuesday. I just thought last...

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Ian would get me if I capitalized anything but the first word in that title. He's the (English) editor I work with at my mini-p.t. dayjob at the newspaper, and I spend a great deal of time knocking down capitalization before I send stuff to him. So I will try not to overcapitalize out in the world of blogging as well. (By English, I mean that he is from England. Not that he edits English, which he does but...oh, never mind.)

My last blog was about writing stuff, and I'd like to have readers re...

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I've seen a number of articles and blogs about writing contests for the unpublished lately, whether they're worth entering, and just how much they are worth. On the whole, I'm in favor of them, if you know why you're entering and what you hope to get out of it.

I actually personally know of only one all-genre writing contest sponsored by a non-profit writing organization. I'm sure there are more, but the Frontiers in Writing contest, sponsored by Panhandle Professional Writers is a pretty good...

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I have noticed a lot of clamor floating around the Internets about vampires, and how many people wish they would go away. "No more vampire books!" they cry. "Vampire movies--HATE!" and more things along that line.

There are also a lot of hilarious reviews of the Twilight saga movie New Moon. I love these review/recaps. They are SO true. I thought there was too much standing around looking angsty (though they might have been constipated--hard to tell.)

And yet...I enjoyed the movie. Really. (A...

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We're going to visit family for the holidays. My older son, the buttermilk pie lover, thinks it can't be Thanksgiving if he doesn't get buttermilk pie. The recipe makes two, so there are two pies in the freezer waiting to be packed. The younger son's girlfriend requested pecan pie, which also happens to be my favorite, so I baked a pecan pie yesterday. I buy ready-made pie crusts, because --well, you know why. And there are 2 pie crusts in each package. I made 3 pies. I had a pie crust left o...

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I've been out of town. I blogged about it here.

I guess that's why it doesn't feel like it's been that long since I posted a blog. Because I did. Just not here. Oops. Sorry, y'all.

And when I got home from coping with all of that, I had medical stuff, plus Ian at the newspaper wanted me to work extra last week, so I did. Then I had a thing Saturday, and... well, it was just really, really busy.

So, anyway--I did have some pretty good news today, after weeks of running like a crazy person. Heart'...

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That's what I need. A subject for my blog. The weekend was far busier than I wanted it to be. I really wanted a lazy weekend, but the fella wanted to Do Stuff. We went to the Wings Over Houston air show and saw the Blue Angels we missed in San Francisco. We hurried home to be there for trick-or-treaters, and got exactly four kids, in two families--two kids each. Then we went over to friends for drinks and snackies. It was fun, but I was ExHausTed.

The week has flown by. I feel like I've been w...

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When I go to conferences or retreats or workshops, I believe that if I learn One Thing that will help me (even at cooking lessons or art classes) in the future, then the event was worth my time.

So at the end of my wonderful weekend near Waco (Valley Mills is about 25 miles NW of Waco, but it's not alliterative), we had a session of "What did you learn at the retreat this weekend?" I honestly don't remember what everybody else said. Maybe by the time I get to the end of the blog, I will. There...

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Or maybe it was a Treat for Writers.

I went on my annual pilgrimage to Valley Mills with my writer friends for the Heart of Texas writers' retreat.

The place we go isn't fancy. There are cobwebs in the rafters, and the floor slopes across the back room from the bathroom to the back door. There are 3 bunk beds, providing room for 6 to sleep, and a double bed at one end of the front room. (There's a kitchen at the other end.) There is no heat unless you light the propane heater--and we didn't li...

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