I hope all my American friends had a nice Thanksgiving. Mine was pretty good, spent with good friends who made the meal effortless and the day relaxing. We had a lazy day in today, too. Alicia isn't well, having lost her voice from the cold she's fighting now, so we decided to make do with in-house entertainment. Movies, games, leftovers, fun. The tree is up, but we're waiting on decorating to let the cats get used to having it around. We didn't want to decorate it and then find it tipped over the first night they're left alone with it, lol.

I'm going to start my Christmas cards at the end of next week, so this will be my last call for one. If you haven't already commented, just head on over to my card post and do so. I want to spread Christmas cheer!

Craig's mother is in the hospital with something viral. She probably could have fought it under normal circumstances, but she's been on various drug protocols the past year to try and fix the joint thing that attacked her last Christmas, and her immune system is compromised as a result. She's going to be fine - they're letting her out on Monday, most likely - but she can't come here for Christmas. Which means the FIL isn't coming, either. It'll be the first Christmas the kids have had without their grandparents there. I feel a little guilty, because there's nobody else to come to try and fill our house, but the kids understand. It's still a loss, though. Hopefully, they'll be able to come in January or February to make up for it.

I have been bad, bad, bad about posting. I want that to change, but I know it's unrealistic to expect it to. So just a quick update.

The MIL is doing better. She's still not 100%, but there's definite improvement. Thank you to everyone for your well wishes.

My mood and emotions are all over the place. There is no logical reason. If there was, I'd eradicate it because I hate feeling like this. I'm sure Pepper's sick of it, too. Crying jags suck.

As of this morning's weigh-in, I've lost 23 pounds. I didn't gain over the holidays, which was my primary goal. There's still a long way to go, but slow and steady is working for me.

Girl Scout Cookie season has started. Enough said.

I'm getting a new laptop any day now because this one is dying and is starting to scare me.

24 and American Idol both starting this week is very, very good. Though it's weird watching television at night again.

Well, I got my smut done yesterday to get our submission in. Hopefully, they like the anthology pepperlandgirl4 and I put together. My solo story is about an ex-priest who sees demons and the artist who falls for him.

I'm in catch-up mode on house stuff for the time I was gone. We're supposed to take part in a neighborhood yard sale on Saturday...ha! Yeah, I'm not so sure that's going to be happening. But we'll see.

What else...? Oh, did I mention my in-laws and Craig's aunt (the widow of the uncle who just passed) are coming for 5 weeks starting the 29th? And I leave for Utah on the 30th to go see Pepper, lol. Only for a week, and it can't be helped with the timing since that's all about Pepper's graduation and seeing Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová (the pair from "Once") perform. I'm *really* looking forward to it.

Fic keeps taunting me. I have the two little ficlets I've written for LAS so far this round that I'll post some time, and now that the worst of my edits are past for the moment, I can go back to working on getting everything ready in the new LLG website. At the rate I'm going, I won't be done until Christmas, lol.

Which means I should probably get off the computer now and get ready for my day. Hope everybody has a good one!

Where have I been the past week? Well, on Thursday morning, we packed up our car and headed on a cross-country trip. I am no longer in California. Right now, I'm in Michigan, sitting in my aunt's living room, just a couple miles from Lake Michigan. I'll be here for the next 2 weeks, as we are having a scattering ceremony for my grandmother, I'm seeing family I haven't seen in over a decade, and celebrating my mother's 59th birthday. Then we drive back to California. Then on the 17th, we fly to England. So needless to say, I'm going to be a lot of places other than home over the next couple months. :)

Our internet was out for most of the day again. AT&T was around testing our line and modem again, because it dropped out on us over the weekend again, and Craig called to get them to expedite the issue. Turns out it's the modem, which requires us to get another one. So, I'm updating while I can, because until Craig gets a new one (and fingers crossed he brings one home with him), I risk it dropping out without notice. *sigh*

On the fanfic front...I'm going to start posting my new fic on Wednesday. I have 5 chapters done, and I imagine #6 will be done by Wednesday. Writing plot comes so much faster for me, lol. Anyway, it's called A Soul to Seduce, and is a heavily plotted, AtS S5 ensemble piece. It will have Spuffy in it, but it's also going to have Wes/Faith and Lindsey/OC. And drama. Definitely.

The inlaws arrive tomorrow. They're here for 2 1/2 months. Enough said.

Other than that, the original writing front is going strong. My vampire 3some book is practically writing itself. I have 13k already in the 12 days since I started it. Considering I've also written alomost 18k on the Spuffy fic in that same time period, I'd say things aren't going too badly right now, lol. Did the cover art questionnaire for Price of a Tattooed Soul, and everything is rolling merrily along.

And now, it's off to dinner. Hopefully the internet won't fail me tonight. :)

I was feeling quite good about today when it started. I got Beg posted last night, and I had half the next one done. Then I went out and did my errands and got back to two bits of not so nice news.

Turns out my grandmother has gone into renal failure and has been hospitalized again. A transplant and dialysis are impossible, so it's probably only a matter of time before she goes. The toxins have impaired her thought processes and she's confused all the time, too. It tears me up.

Beyond that, I also found out that my favorite person in my uncle's family is dying of cancer. This was my real shocker. Grandma's health has been poor for a little while and so I was mildly prepared for that. Hearing that Mel - one of the most gregarious, funny, generous people of my childhood - is dying rocked me. So my day went downhill from there. My in-laws were incredibly supportive and tried to cheer me up by bringing cinnabon home from the mall. I decided to indulge.

I'm still trying to get my pictures off my camera. I'm hoping to have those up soon. Those will be something to brighten everybody's days hopefully. :)