The Mop is Mightier than the Flyswatter and other stories

Advance notice: I will not be blogging next week. Lou and I have a road trip planned through Montana, Yellowstone, and Colorado, in which we plan to visit my best friend and Lou's college buddies. This is our summer vacation, and I'm taking it off the internet--no blog, no email, no Facebook, nothing. Don't get me wrong: I love the internet. But I also like vacations.

Apart from visiting friends, I plan to spend time with Lou, read, and work on my book. That's pretty much it. But I'll take the camera and try to have some pictures to post later on.

I'll be back late Monday Sept. 1st, and hope to have the next installment of the blogalectic with Mr. Pond posted that day (did you know he cooks and apparently enjoys haggis? and since I had to look haggis up on Wikipedia, did you further know that there's a sport called haggis hurling, which does not in any way involve vomit?) Please forgive me, though, if the post doesn't happen until Tuesday. I'll do my best.

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The kitchen floor is damp from a mopping, all the chairs are in my living room, the refrigerator holds several pounds of hamburger for the book club party tonight, Lou's computer is accepting some of my CDs into his iTunes with great reluctance, and my to-do list is slowly getting checked off. Things got delayed temporarily for a frightful battle with a hornet in which the mop was involved. The mop and I won.

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Writerly link of the week: How to Write a Query Letter. I have written numerous versions, preparing to query in the fall... provided I can finish this revision... and thus far, am dissatisfied with the lot. I might be overthinking it.

Also, since I'm still floundering in long unchanging frustration with the first three chapters of my book, here's a visual for revision that gave me a little encouragement to keep going. I keep looking at it partly because it's a cool Ninja picture.

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Funny line of the week: Wow. I clicked through my Google Reader in such a stupor after returning from camping that I can't remember who said what. But a quick visit to my Twitter feed got me a laugh:

@alexcarpenter: I am on hold and the music is "Nanana, heyheyhey, Goodbye!" I don't think they ACTUALLY value my call, or want me to stay on the line.

The random wrockers I follow are an endless source of entertainment. :)

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Lou is home from work, so I'm going to go spend some time with him, work on dinner, finish organizing the house for the book club party, get the Stuff Christians Like audiobook into Lou's iTunes so we can listen while driving, and write up a shopping list for the road trip. Also, I could really stand to clean out my purse.

May your week be pleasant and relaxing!