Motivational Failure and other stories

Lou being away for three days makes Jenna make this face:

:-|

Meh. The whole world is meh. I have no motivation. Last night, I left dirty dishes in the sink and stayed up until one AM reading Twilight.

* * *

Look what came this week, though:

I'm in a book! That I can hold in my own two hands!
And now I can read everyone else's essays, too!

The mysteriously-truncated document has been fixed. And if you bought the book when it came out with part of my essay and the entirety of the back matter missing, email me and I'll put you in touch with the editor.

* * *

Last weekend, Lou and I tore out all the juniper and shrubbery on the front of the house. I am thrilled. I'd like to put in roses and rhodies and all manner of flowery things. Thus far, however, I mostly have a few sticks in the ground to mark where things are planted. But remember how it used to look like this?:

Now it looks like this:

Which picture doesn't do it half justice, partly because it's too much in the shade, and partly because the new little sweet peas and snapdragons aren't visible. But give it time. At least it doesn't look like a shrubbery-overgrown CPA's office now.

In other gardening pretties: I have no idea what these are, but I love them.

Also, I've got a baby pumpkin plant! I put the seeds in the ground three weeks ago, and thought I'd have to replant. All of a sudden, just yesterday, up one came. No word on the zucchini, yet.

The beans waited well past their supposed germination time, too, but have been popping up quite cheerfully over this past week.

But the showstoppers of the week have been the laburnum and the pink rhododendron. Once upon a time, somebody really loved this little 'bit of earth'. I'm grateful to get to take up their mantle.

* * *

Writers' link of the week: Colleen Lindsay on authors and self-promotion. Ah, how I'm grateful to live in the age of the internet.

* * *

Music of the week: Rambling about the house this week, I put on the first ever mixtape I made for myself, which I'd pretentiously titled Liebesfeier. And other than that I've tired of Howie Day's Collide, the mix is still completely awesome. I must say.

This song, the closing piece from that disc, is some of my favorite pop songwriting ever. If you're not keen on slightly out-of-balance live performances, there's a better quality recording here.



* * *

Random amusement of the week: Turns out, I have the same birthday as Dwight Schrute. Who knew? What fictional character's birthday do you share?

* * *

With a fellow book clubber wanting to borrow my copy of Mark Shea's By What Authority, and the ever-present urgency to get querying, I'm going to see if deadlines can't restore some of my motivation. Oh, and I haven't cleaned house yet, either.

Meh.

Happy weekend, anyway.