How to catch a (plot) bunny: Hide in the grass and make carrot noises.
WORD COUNT: 26,984
What do carrots even sound like, anyway?
I just want to stop being angry -- or at least if I am angry, over something that matters. I don't mind telling you, this is how my dad ended up; it took a stroke or two to make him less bitter toward everyone, especially the people in his own household. (Crap, I am reading what I just typed and wondering to myself -- in real life, it's not so much that Winston Churchill didn't get along with his dad but that he was even more reserved with him than typical of Victorian households -- whether I'm writing a passage from my National Novel Writing Month story "President Churchill" or recounting my own life. Or what I fear my kids grown up might say about me ...
But let's get to the point. For me and my house, this weekend was the weekend to get stuffed with food. Saturday was my father-in-law Robert's retirement party, the one which he was utterly surprised by (Robert and his wife Sharon round the corner with me and their kids and grandkids shout "Surprise!" Robert responds: "For what?") and there was a notice in the church newsletter which he never reads and a post on Facebook which he never reads and I didn't post a note in my postings because I knew one of the sisters would moan about it. Family and friends came in, there was plenty of food (Robert's daughters spent the bulk of two days making it!), and it went very well.
Sunday morning at church after Sunday school -- I truly wish I'd filmed some of this, the first class of the Sunday school rotation play "The Birth of Jesus: Through Joseph's Eyes". I wrote it, but what made/makes this really work is the class performing with the puppets and not like they're half asleep! Jaxson who played Joseph and Maeli who played Mary and the shepherds rang loud and clear, but it's Wyatt as the angel who spoke to Joseph who stole the show. Besides human puppets, we also have many animals, and for the angel he wanted to use the moose. We did the Scripture lesson before this, don't worry, but it was so much fun and funny too! This is when class was worth teaching.
Our church's youth group served a turkey dinner with all the trimmings that afternoon, and after a few hours at home I went to a chili cook-off held at First Lutheran among eight area churches and Minot State University's campus ministry. Since I'm the only chili eater in my house (last year when Martha and the kids came with me they took themselves to Burger King and left me to "feast") I got to walk there myself, two blocks and then cross Broadway. Got to try "Cincinnati chili" which comes with spaghetti as well as Elisha's "O Master, there is death in the pot" chili (an Old Testament 2 Kings reference), vegetarian chili (is there such a thing?), Dark Side [of the Force] chili ...
And the "Lutheran chili" contributed by members of my own congregation at Bethany Lutheran. Turns out the secret ingredient in that which made it so, but not overpoweringly, sweet was Jell-O. (Not "jello", for it's a trademark, as "gelatin" in the sense of "Jell-O brand gelatin" is not.) See, you learned something. And so am I as I'm writing this, of a few ways to pad my word count -- which during NaNoMonTh [November to the uninitiated] is nothing to be ashamed of. Monday after work got Vicks for the kids who'd been coughing up a storm, and today Sarah still had to stay home due to a 100 degree plus fever. And this is just the abridged version, I'm sure I've slept through more!
Now go away, I'm working.
David
What do carrots even sound like, anyway?
I just want to stop being angry -- or at least if I am angry, over something that matters. I don't mind telling you, this is how my dad ended up; it took a stroke or two to make him less bitter toward everyone, especially the people in his own household. (Crap, I am reading what I just typed and wondering to myself -- in real life, it's not so much that Winston Churchill didn't get along with his dad but that he was even more reserved with him than typical of Victorian households -- whether I'm writing a passage from my National Novel Writing Month story "President Churchill" or recounting my own life. Or what I fear my kids grown up might say about me ...
But let's get to the point. For me and my house, this weekend was the weekend to get stuffed with food. Saturday was my father-in-law Robert's retirement party, the one which he was utterly surprised by (Robert and his wife Sharon round the corner with me and their kids and grandkids shout "Surprise!" Robert responds: "For what?") and there was a notice in the church newsletter which he never reads and a post on Facebook which he never reads and I didn't post a note in my postings because I knew one of the sisters would moan about it. Family and friends came in, there was plenty of food (Robert's daughters spent the bulk of two days making it!), and it went very well.
Sunday morning at church after Sunday school -- I truly wish I'd filmed some of this, the first class of the Sunday school rotation play "The Birth of Jesus: Through Joseph's Eyes". I wrote it, but what made/makes this really work is the class performing with the puppets and not like they're half asleep! Jaxson who played Joseph and Maeli who played Mary and the shepherds rang loud and clear, but it's Wyatt as the angel who spoke to Joseph who stole the show. Besides human puppets, we also have many animals, and for the angel he wanted to use the moose. We did the Scripture lesson before this, don't worry, but it was so much fun and funny too! This is when class was worth teaching.
Our church's youth group served a turkey dinner with all the trimmings that afternoon, and after a few hours at home I went to a chili cook-off held at First Lutheran among eight area churches and Minot State University's campus ministry. Since I'm the only chili eater in my house (last year when Martha and the kids came with me they took themselves to Burger King and left me to "feast") I got to walk there myself, two blocks and then cross Broadway. Got to try "Cincinnati chili" which comes with spaghetti as well as Elisha's "O Master, there is death in the pot" chili (an Old Testament 2 Kings reference), vegetarian chili (is there such a thing?), Dark Side [of the Force] chili ...
And the "Lutheran chili" contributed by members of my own congregation at Bethany Lutheran. Turns out the secret ingredient in that which made it so, but not overpoweringly, sweet was Jell-O. (Not "jello", for it's a trademark, as "gelatin" in the sense of "Jell-O brand gelatin" is not.) See, you learned something. And so am I as I'm writing this, of a few ways to pad my word count -- which during NaNoMonTh [November to the uninitiated] is nothing to be ashamed of. Monday after work got Vicks for the kids who'd been coughing up a storm, and today Sarah still had to stay home due to a 100 degree plus fever. And this is just the abridged version, I'm sure I've slept through more!
Now go away, I'm working.
David
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