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 survived my day leading Girl Scouts. And actually got a ton of compliments on how well it went. So now I can get some decent sleep. No more dreams of being completely shunned at my high school reunion. Or getting mauled by a tiger. And all the cookies we made are going into work with Craig tomorrow...except for the two peppermint fudge dream cookies I ate. Oops.

However, I'm going to share that recipe soon. All the moms nicked at least 2 of those, so it wasn't just me. They're absolutely delish.

Can this month be over, please? It's just been awful. First, we lost the contest (and we're still in limbo about our stories). Then yesterday we got a rejection from Ellora's Cave...on a story they already rejected over a year ago. In fact, we already published it with Samhain. And yet someone over at EC dug it out of some slush pile and found it necessary to reject us a second time. And today, I got notification that the very first book I had ever e-published, "Chains of Jericho," is being released from the contract, and that the rights are getting reverted back to me. Which means it's now homeless.

So...yeah. I would like to be done with all this awful stuff now, please.

So today was probably my first foray into what it means to be a Girl Scout mom. I mean, I've been taking Alicia to the meetings, and I hang out when it looks like my help might be needed (and when I can be assured that I'm not going to be too thoroughly annoyed), but really, my participation has been pretty minimal.

( Cut for boring Girl Scouts stuff )

Wow, it's been over a week since I posted? That's not right. I'm still here reading every day, but my life just seems so boring and mundane that it seems silly to post about it.

- I ended up letting Alicia join Girl Scouts. And being there for meetings. And the woman who leads it is as bad as I feared. Her daughter is awful. She's a little prima donna who, if she doesn't get something she wants or something doesn't go her way, "hides." What that means is she runs from the room all melodramatically until her mother - who is supposed to be the leader - has no choice but to go off after her. I've agreed to help with leading a meeting or two, mostly because I hate seeing it be such a waste for the rest of the girls who are used to E's antics. One of the younger asked R, who was on the softball team with E last year and is in the same class this year, what she was doing. R responded with a dismissive wave of her hand, "Oh, that's just what E does." Which is sad.

- I have watched zero new television. We haven't even watched most of the premieres of the shows we already liked. I have however been reading a lot. Like...( Some of the books I've read in the past six weeks )

- My weigh-in stalled last week. I don't know if I'm retaining at the moment or not, but I'm following to the letter and not cheating so I'm hoping for a drop soon. It looks like there might be one this week if yesterday's reading here at home is any indication.

- I know we have Halloween and Thanksgiving to get through, but I started wrapping Christmas gifts this week and stowing them away. Yes, I'm one of those insane people who buys throughout the year and is done before Thanksgiving.