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Renee's Scattered Brain
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Renee
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Jun 11, 2009 02:42PM
I was going to ask you but never mind, I think I get it now. Go-to-new-thread. Okay.
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One of my favorite things to eat when I was little was called taco su (but it was probably spelled different) SO anyway it is octopus, crab and sea weed all mixed up in a mini salad thats really good. I used to get my mom to look at me just when I had a tentacle sticking out of my mouth so I could gross her out. great fun.
I've tasted seaweed and you know what it tastes like? The bottom of the sea where all the fish poop and whatnot goes. Blech!! Crab is okay, but do you have to go ruining it by putting tentacles with it? Tentacles Wendy, they are tentacles. I think we can all agree I'm not the craziest person here. There can't be much nutritional value in tentacles. They have little suction things on them don't they? mwahh-that's the sound of me gagging.
You reminded me of what else is gross-sushi. Who thought of that nasty treat? I have tried it, and I didn't just try one thing. A friend and I went to a sushi bar and tried several things, kind of like a munchie platter you'd get at a regular bar except with nothing that tastes good. It was all gross, the flavor, the texture, the smell, just wrong. How do you swallow that seaweed, I just chewed and chewed and I tried to swallow but it came right back. Now I know I have a sensitive flapper, but it's not that sensitive. I should be able to get it down before it jumps back up.
Tentacles, can you imagine Bucky? Someone eating an alien looking thing like that? I might keep dead bodies around but I'm not eating them. That is really crazy. Snails are gross too. Have you ever really looked at a snail? I mean like in the wild, in their natural habitat. They are gross. They leave a trail of SLIME behind them. It's like snot. If you eat snails you are eating snot. Nutritional value? zero. They aren't even filling. You'd have to eat like a million to be full. I know they're an appetizer, but aren't appetizers suppose to make you hungry?
Oh ya,I almost forgot. I met a lady today who used to be a technical writer. Is that the proper term? Her husband wrote weekly columns as 5 different people in a magazine. She won an Oscar for her writing. Amazing, I think. they own a little internet cafe here and she has an Oscar sitting at home. I asked why she still doesn't write and she said it got to be too overwhelming. She'd like to try fiction, but has no time. I told her that's no excuse. There are no kids at home, make the time.
She said maybe. An Oscar!! I'm still in shock. They are the nicest people and I've seen them here for a while. Very smart, friendly, and all of that. She was an editor for a few years after she stopped writing and loved that. They left the city and the craziness of deadlines and agents to come here to run a cafe.
You never know who you will meet. I think it's fascinating what you find out when you take the time to ask questions. Of course I'm a talker. I don't know if you noticed that. I like words, I like to write them say them, sing them, whatever. So a walk to the post office could take me all morning. I usually stop four or five times to talk to people and the kids are like "Moooommmm!" Except when it's the crazy lady who trips on the street and bums smokes and then spits all over you when she talks. I'm not being mean, she really does. I gave her a smoke once and she followed me home! I detoured, went into stores. I thought I lost her once but she wasn't far behind. Then I just gave up and headed home. I was unlocking my door and she's still behind me. I said, "I'm sorry, but you can't come in." She said. "Okay." and looked at me. Just stood there looking at me. I went in and locked the door. Then I closed the blinds and curtains and shut off all the lights. She wandered away eventually.
Nope that's the one I won't talk to. There are a few others, it's Tweed, and I have to tell the kids not to make eye contact. If you don't make eye contact you can safely pass by. The kids know now, and will tell the daycare kids the same thing.
My (ex)brother in law is Korean and he and my foster-sister used to own a place in Portland Or called I love Sushi- and that is where I aquired my taste for sushi and loads of other things. I think half the fun of eating the octopus was grossing my mom out. It was mostly just chewy.
My favorite kinds of sushi are pretty tame like the california roll (crab,rice,avacado,cucumber rolled up together) and the summer roll (like a salad wrap with shrimp inside a rice paper wrap.
Yum. All my kids love it too. WHen I get some, I have to buy 3 rolls of it. the 5 kids finish off 2 by themselves and eat some of the third too. They'll eat a whole package of sea weed all by themselves too. THey love it. I think it tastes like salty fish.
Anyway we have some about twice a month except for during the lean months- like now. Fred meyer has imported some good chefs so shockingly enough, we have good stuff here in pocatello- a good 16 hours from the ocean.
On the flip side- I dislike all spicy foods. I'm a wus. I can't handle it so most tai and mexican food is out unless I am making the tacos myself (I go heavy on the tomatoes and salad, and really light on the spicy meat).
And that's cool about your lady with the oscar- Ididn't know writers got those.
It was one of those ones that they do "before" the show. The ones they give out for the behind the scenes stuff. She told me what it was for and I can't remember. I'll ask her again today. They told me a great magazine to read if I wanted to look at proper style, etc was the Economist. Sounds like a great read, not.
OOOh ooh can I read it while I poke my eyes out with hot pokers and think of numbers in my spare time?gag- what a name.
Other fun magazines to pick up when you need a good snooze:
The horticulturist
the accountant
the pediatrist
the plunger
the grass clipper
Oh, and my favorite, the weeder.
I used to love anything cultural: mexican, thai, chinese, japanese. I loved the adventure of trying something new, and I would find the tiny, authentic restaurants. I was dubbed honorary Chinese by a coworker because I'd eat with chopsticks and pick the strangest things off the menu (frog legs, octopus, whatever).I can't do that anymore. I have Celiac disease (where the immune system treats a substance called gluten as a poison and attacks it and in so doing destroys the small intestine). The last time I went to a Chinese restaurant, the chefs couldn't speak English and their son had to translate. That was a mistake. I spent 8 hours curled in a ball and the next 24 hours sleeping.
The weeder sounds fun. Oh-you meant like weeds in the garden. No that's boring. Yeah, I passed on the copy they offered to loan me. Said I'd get my own.
Poor rita. I use chopsticks too. what a bummer to have to stick to boring ol American food.Renee, we don't have those kinds of "weed"s here. For shame! and all this time I thought it was cigarrettes you were smoking.
I swear I haven't smoked that in years. I did try it however, and I did inhale, and then I went loopy and puked and never did it again. Occasionally I get second-hand stoned when I'm out with friends. Three of them smoking that and me, just watching and playing games. I get home and I'm starving and up until the wee hours. Maybe a little paranoid too. THe second hand stone is worse than just smoking the darn thing myself. I try to make them go outside but they just laugh at me. Her little porch has no windows that open and I'm sure when we open the door to leave it looks like we've got a fire inside.
Hah, I can just picture you saying "Jeez, lookit all the colours man! Like, wow, how intricate..."
Renee- that was my dad's experience with drinking- drink, get vioulently ill, wish you were dead for the next 12 hours while you keep one foot on the ground to make sure it is still there.I think I already told you guys my one drug experience. My 13 yr-old buddy and I noticed that opium was the main ingredient in some medicine in the cabinet. So being young and stupid, we took more than the label said and then goofed around pretending to be high (we weren't). Unfortunately the medicine was an anti-diarhea prescription strength thing so neither one of us could poop for four days. Yup we were stupid.
Paul;I wish it had been like that. Sadly it was even more pathetic. I went from giggly idiot, to couldn't speak to save my life, to very paranoid and wanting to fight some big guy who was laughing at me. I puked on him. He was a sweet man, it's a good thing I chose him for a target. He got my brother and his friends to take me home. I was only 16 after all, what was I doing in a bar?? My brother was of age and they just let me tag along all the time. God, Courtney and Kennedy will have no older friends and I will be checking the bars every time they say they're sleeping over somewhere.
They are going to hate me, but I've already played all the tricks they can think of so I'll be on them.
Good for you Renee. Paranoid moms keep their kids safe. It is better to have an over-worried mom than to suffer some of the things that happen when moms just "trust" that the friends and everyone will be fine wherever they are.
My kids are all so little that I can't imagine dealing with that. Right now, I'm still trying to teach them how to stay out of the road. Well, my littlest. The older two know.My husband and I rarely drink, and at this time, our kids don't even know what alcohol is. But it was interesting, trying to explain to my inquisitive 7-year-old, why the cops were making the neighbor boy's mommy do funny walks in the middle of the road and why they put her in hand cuffs and took her away.
Courtney is the only one among her friends who isn't allowed to go wander around town for hours on end. I just think there is no reason for a ten year old to be out without an adult, anywhere. I've let her and Logan go up to the school after hours to play, and they've gone to the store for me, but they never go alone. They have to take the cell phone and come home every hour.
My kids are now 26 and 24. Mainly they're OK, but my son drinks too often and too much. He really can't handle booze, but he keeps on trying. Still, how can I criticize him for doing things that I do all the time? I'm just better at it than he is.When much younger, I took just about everything going - a few times. Purely experimental, you understand. It never became habitual, or even regular, if you discount the ceremonial use of mescalin. It's all tapered off over the years, and, apart from the occasional spliff, my kids don't touch drugs either.
For which I'm profoundly grateful.
I think many people try things like that at least once. My younger brother was 23 before he had a drop of booze. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen. He didn't enjoy the hangover so he rarely drinks still. Weddings, Christmas parties, and maybe the occasional night with the boys. I on the other hand, tried smoking at 15, liked it. Tried drinking at 16, liked that too. I never drank on a regular basis like my friends. I worked full-time and went to school and I hate hangovers. I did go into work once or twice still drunk, my boss knew it and made me work harder. I waitressed and she made me clean the restrooms, the grill, the cooking oil(gross)all stuff I didn't usually do.
my parents were pretty open minded about it, they figured if they took the mystery away from it, didn't forbid it and make it seem more fun, we'd lose interest fast. I did, my older brother took longer. He doesn't drink at all now.
I don't know how I'll handle drinking and drugs with the girls. Probably lots of yelling and crying.
Oh, I forgot my word count yesterday. 2002, my old goal but at least i reached one of them. I had kids until seven thirty so I couldn't get a lot done. I was goofing around here too. I'll do better today.
Stupid yard sales, too much junk I need. My legs are so freaking sore. Hello Eustace, is that coffee for me? STill not talking huh? How did you make the coffee? I think you guys are doing a lot of things while I'm gone. Leave the booze alone, that's all I ask. Maybe I should get you fellows someone other than Ginger for female company. There are a lot of nice ladies who come in here who won't take kindly to you guys leering at them. What's that Ginger? You look upset. Well, if you want to be the only hen in the henhouse that's fine. Sorry boys. Maybe when Ginger is gone...My mother called at 8am wanting to go yardsaling. Sure sounds fun, I can do housework and write when we get home. Yeah! We walked all over town to every yard sale. It's like sell all your crap day in Tweed. One street had a sale at nearly every house. I got a double stroller (for the daycare), a game, cookbook, Coffee/espresso/cappucino machine (unopened brand new) and bunkbeds for only $50. Good job for me. Oh we went for lunch too. The bunkbeds I traded for Kennedy's Mate's bed which has a broken drawer, so that was free (they're like new!!) Oh I got a dresser and night stand free too. Lady was like, do you need a dresser because I have one my daughter gave me and it doesn't match. You can have the night stand too. It's so cool, it's red/wine color with a mirror and it's one of those long double drawer ones. The top is black leather and so is the frame around the mirror. It goes with the girls' stuff nicely. Pretty good for $50. THe trick is to hit the rich people's sales, the ones with more money than brains. They think they're doing a community service or something by letting us take their stuff. I say hey, if they want to get rid of perfectly new stuff, for nothing, I'll take it. The coffee maker is my favorite, when I learn how to use it, I'll be shaking from all the caffiene I'll be drinking. It was a wedding gift the lady said, and she doesn't drink coffee. Well la-dee-da! I do!!
So I've spent the last two hours taking apart Kennedy's old bed and moving it to the girl's house and picking up the bunkbed and putting it together and cleaning up the horrible mess in the kids' rooms. Oh my god, it's awful. Now I have to clean the rest of the room then go dye my mom's hair and fix her eyebrows.
Later I'll write I guess.
Hey Renee! I hope you're having a super awesome weekend!
I think I'm done with all of the boring stuff anyway, now for the fun stuff. Ferret cage, here I come!!
Renee- good for you yardsale-ing. I think most all my furnature and accessories are from those or the second had store. WHy buy a $13 pair of shoes for the baby who will out grow then in a matter of months when you can get a bag of shoes for a dollar at a sale?That is, all my stuff except for my bed- you gotta have your own new bed. Second hand is just yucky for those.
My bedframe isn't new, but we have bought mattresses. Same for the kids. When I traded for the bunkbed, I kept my mattress and she kept hers. I had an extra double mattress for the bottom so it worked. I love second hand/thrift stores. Most of my closet is from there. The other half is Walmart.I'm putting my word count in now because I'm darn tired from moving crap and walking all day long. I dropped a mdf bed frame on my toe and messed it all up. It hurts bad.
Anywas 2478 words today. Weekends i think are going to be hard to reach 3000, we like to do stuff outside with the kids.
Ya- old frames- but new bed!Awesome word count byt the way! You rock!
Thanks, I'm finding that having to report in here makes me schedule time. It's great. I'm making huge progress on two stories. GAWI is well over 100 pages now! Jack get jerkier every page. He's killed two people and is working at 3 and 4. I'm stopping at seven.
Is he creative in his killing? You'd think after the first few it would get redundant if he wasn't creative. "Ho hum, gotta kill another person. Maybe I'll pick up some sushi on the way home."I;m just kidding, Nothing you write would be redundant I'm sure!
Oh, that was the problem with Arthur. I had to set him aside because it was, here we go with the saw again. So far with Jack, both murders have been different. His wife was allergic to bees and kept a kit with her when she sat in their garden. Jack moves a bee hive and plants it in bushes near the pool. What happens is she dies, but in a twisted kind of way, it's not his fault. Police don't even look at him.
The second one is is partner. Jack is a contracter, he knows buildings and things like electrical, gas lines, plumbing. He messes with the guy's gas lines. Now the twist on this one is that they guy was sleeping with Jack's wife. he was totally in love with her and is devastated over her death and felt really guilty because he's done some things to sabotage Jack. So he tries to kill himself, has second thoughts, calls 911, the emt's come and one goes into the basement to get some stuff for him, lights a lighter and BAng, they're all dead and the police think the partner was off his rocker and set them up to die. Jack gets away again.
The next death is a competing contractor that his partner fed some info. to about Jack's business practices. i'm not sure how he'll die yet. I've been toying with a few things. Then I've selected his cousin who is blackmailing him, but he's in trouble with the mob, so he may get murdered by the mob thanks to a tip from Jack. Next will be the girlfriend who is getting to be a pain in Jack's ass. I'm not sure how she'll go yet either.
I need two more people but I'm sure over the course of writing the story, they'll come to me.
What do you think? Have I kept it moving and different enough that someone won't get bored? I worry about that.
Yup that sounds really good. I like that he does it in such a way that he's not really responsible. The bees were brilliant. I'd look at macheinery maybe, like someone operates some sort of big moving thing (a seamroller, a tractor/combine, a factory thing, even a branch multcher- maybe he puts a hook on the branch trimmer that catches the guy whe he's feeding trees into it and he gets sucked in. Once those things get a hold of a tree they really grind it down).
that's an interesting idea. I was thinking along those lines. They both work in construction, big buildings, clearing lots. This guy rarely gets his hands dirty buy maybe something can make him check the jobsite one day. A runaway steam roller, the breaks don't work or something. Those move really slow though. Scaffolding collapsing? Maybe. Wrecking ball, now there's an idea. But again, how?
Maybe the assignments as to what needs checked could get mixed up. SO the wrecking ball could be ordered to move, just when the guy is told to inspect the inside wall of the building. Of course it won't be the main guy who does the ordering, he'll have it pointed away from him somehow.
See they are in competition though so they wouldn't be on the same site. This guy is trying to take his business over. He is a rich guy who bought himself success and jack has worked for it, coming from nothing. I need to find a way to get rid of the guy, Jack has to have a hand in it, but twist it so he won't be caught. It's turning out to be more difficult than I anticipated.
At least your brain won't get tired. THis is good stuff to think about! Muah-ha-ha!You know, I heard about a darwin award being given to a man who pushed his shoulder against a skyriser window to prove how strong it was- and of course the window fell out and the guy fell to his death. Construction deaths happen all the time. I say again- muah-ha-ha!
Something to think about. Maybe Jack could call him to one of his job sites telling him he's willing to sell out. The guy comes and boom! the place is timed to be blown up right at their appointment time. Ooops! i don't know why that guy was here man, he was the competition. he's been sniffing around a lot though. Sad really, his greed got him in the end.
The competitor would go to all these new sites, to do a price quote. While he's there - snakes? A disused well, with the wooden cover rotted away because Jack's dumped termites and/or wood-destroying fungi on it? Lure him over the well cap, and boom, he's down with the pissed-off snakes.
Oh, you are brilliant Paul, an old well!! Maybe not for the competitor but the girlfriend has to go and he can't afford to have another person close to him die "accidentally". If she were do be dumped down an old well, never to be found....perfect.Now the competitor, they do a lot of large projects, malls, new homes, etc. Their bidding is largely done blind. The client would put out a tender for bids and companies have so much time to put their bids in based on plans given by the client, lowest price often wins. Occasionally one who can get the job in less time but at a slightly higher price would get it. I'm basing this on the practices of the contractors who came into the lumber yard i worked at to get materials quotes from us. I would take their list and give them our best price for them and they'd use that for their bid. They wouldn't go to the site very often unless they had won the bid.
However, Jack could do something to compromise one of the sites. I'm not sure yet what he could do. I'll have to think on that. I have a contractor friend who I could ask. he might get funny though, wondering why i'm really asking how you'd sabotage a job site. He thinks i'm a little nutty. Don't know where he'd get that idea.
Well, you know, a lot of these sites have toxic waste in them, used as landfill. Largely untraceable. So Jack could overquote for a site, the competitor would get the job, and would then visit the site...Of course, that would involve a mole in the competitor's office. Who would get suspicious that Jack hadn't used the information he/she had given him to get the job for himslef. So the mole would have to go. One thing just leads to another...
That one could be his undoing, asuming he ever gets caught.
I don't want him to get caught. Should I give away the ending? It's great, I think. Maybe I should finish it and you can read it and then not tell me the ending sucks because I am so proud of it. There's a twist at the end. Oh, I want to tell you I really do. I'll just say, he doesn't get caught.
Stupid people who make me get up at 5am for their kids and then don't show up. Gonna have to turn them into an end table or something if they don't smarten up. Where's that coffee? **stops suddenly looking at the table.** Ginger? You are not a chair and a chair doesn't sit on top of another chair. It's just not how it's done. Toby, why would you let her do that?**separates Toby and Ginger** Really I'm too tired for your shenanigans guys. I lock you up to keep you in place and you break the locks. Why do i waste my money on these things if you're going to ruin them.No one will come in here if they know you guys move around like this. It freaks them out, we've had this discussion. Look at Eustace and Bucky behaving the way that they should. Eustace, you must encourage them to be good next time. You are in charge when I'm gone. Otherwise, Wendy will be measuring you guys for more lamps. Don't ask what she makes the shades from. You don't want to know.I didn't post yesterday's count because I went to bed and I was tired. It wasn't 3000 but it was more than 2000 so I'm happy. 2545 to be exact. Bringing the 2009 total to; 160,667 words.
I should get to 3000 today since the baby hasn't come. Apparently it's okay to make someone get up early and not show. We'll be having a discussion that's for sure. Making me get up for nothing is not a good thing. Not at all.
They should be shaking in their boots. The rath of renee is nothing to trifle with, just ask the furnature.
I know, first they don't pay me and now they don't show up. I don't like where this is going at all. Why do people force me to be mean? Why can't they just let me be the nice person I try so hard to be?
They don't pay you? I'd take issue with that.
Poor Renee;You know, if they're going to misbehave, maybe it 's time for you to start learning how to make bondage furniture.
I'm up at 5:30 am for the kids... the four-legged variety, almost every day when I'm home. At least they appreciate it.
I do tend to get up early anyway to write and have my coffee in peace, but to have to get up, to lose the opportunity for more sleep if i need it, makes me angry. In this case it isn't the first time. Grrr!
Occasionally I get a nap. Through the week it's a little difficult with the daycare kids here. My 5 year old doesn't sleep all night so i can usually convince her to nap, and if I only have the babies here, i try to get them down at the same time. It rarely happens. Today, I will need a nap and I just might get one.
Just thought I should mention my word count for yesterday. I seem to hang around the 2500 mark lately. I like it, it's comfortable. 2526 words for yesterday, I'm going to aim higher the rest of the week. Maybe I'll break the 3000 mark more than just once. I'm sailing along through Jack's story, maybe I can have it finished before the end of July. I'm already close to 40,000 words in that one. I still have four books, 7 chapters each to finish, I'm really excited about this one. I hope it's as good as i think it is. It's been fun to write anyway.
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Books mentioned in this topic
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (other topics)Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (other topics)
