Deftones

We went to see Deftones last night in Tempe. They were amazing. The difference between seeing one of your favourite bands and seeing a band you like is incredible. I knew every single song, so I didn't really care what they played. I rocked out to the whole gig. Whereas with bands I only sort of like, I'm constantly wondering what they'll play next, and if it will be a song I know or like, rather than just enjoying the music.
They played a surprising amount of songs from Adrenaline and White Pony, which was good, but a little unexpected. But it was cool. Bored and 7 Words work really well live. And my appreciation for the new album quadrupled, or something. The most I listen to it, the more I like it.
So yea. I'll totally go see them again if I get another chance.

More nano stuff.

I'm almost at 50,000. I'm exactly half way through my book half way through the month and it feels great to be on schedule. I had a really bad weekend last and fell behind by about 4,000 words (or a day and a bit). But I've been doing between 4- and 5,000 word days and have finally caught up. The nanowrimo stats page tells me that at this rate I'll "finish" tomorrow. I'm so happy right now. I really feel like I'm achieving something.

I should try not to fall behind on my daily wordcount

Catch up days are so hard. I barely wrote 2,000 words yesterday, so today I had to do over 4,000. I kinda feel like I'm never going t get to 90,000. Even though I'm on track, I kinda feel like I need a break now. I'll probably be fine again in the morning, just writing so much is tiring. I thought I could use some old material to speed things up a bit today, but it didn't really fit with what I wanted. Ah well. Might go play thief for a bit now. Dinner first, though.
Or maybe lordkilljoy will come home and we can watch more Supernatural. We're almost finished season 2. I'm really enjoying it, especially this season. It feels like it hasn't dragged nearly as much as S1. Can't wait for S4 - Castiel. Oooh. I feel like this entry is brought to you by my 19 year old self. Ah well.

I'm off for food now.

Sedona Hike

I'm exhausted right now. I'm trying to get my word count for the day done (and catch up on yesterday) and it's just not happening. And why am I so tired? Well...

We went out on Thursday and one of the lads mentioned, rather off handedly, that they were going to Sedona on Saturday. "Are ye going hiking?" I asked. They were. And I knew I was going with them. I found out on Friday that they had a free space, and not too bright and early on Saturday we set off for Cathedral Rock.
The hike was amazing. I'd really wanted to go for a bit of a walk when we were there last, but lordkilljoy wasn't up for it. So less than a month later I got my chance. The hike itself was short, but steep and we took a few breaks to catch our breath on the way up. We got to the saddle - a flat patch of rock between two steep drops - and ogled at the beauty of the place. It really is incredible. But that wasn't all. The trail went on a little more to a higher, narrower saddle and just standing there (in a vortex), surrounded by orange-red rock seeing the sun shining from the pristine blue sky and making the rock seem to glow was spectacular.
The descent took about half the time as the ascent - the whole hike taking us only two hours. With a good part of the afternoon left, we headed out the other side of Sedona to Slide Rock Park. It was nice - we had a bit of a warm-down walk around. But it was nothing compared to Cathedral Rock. I dipped my feet into the creek and the water was freezing. So cold that no matter how often you dipped them in and took them out again they never got used to the frigidness of it. But it was lovely to cool my feet down after the hike.
We came home then, had a lovely barbecue and by then I was fit for nothing but bed. And it seems I didn't get enough sleep, because I feel really tired now having done nothing more strenuous than walk around a pumpkin patch / farm / autumn celebration thing. Ah well. Maybe food will help. And maybe I can catch up on the word count tomorrow.

writing like a madwoman

Happy November!

NaNoWriMo started today. I want to get cracking on book 2, so this is my motivation to get the rough draft (draft 0) out of the way. I'm going for 90,000 words over the month - 3,000 words per day. I got just over that today, but I feel a bit like a runner who's full of energy right now and is going well in the first part of the marathon. We'll see how things go as the month progresses. Anyway. I'm definitely going to have to rewrite the first 4 pages (because it's abysmal exposition and z being whiney) and I'll see how the rest of the story shapes up before making decisions on the rest of it.

Halloween was good fun. I got my costume finished - very rushed by the end, but it turned out well. Bookclub and the Saturday out were both good. The quality of costumes over here seems way better than in Ireland (or maybe I just wasn't paying as much attention to what people were wearing).

Have I mentioned we're going to see Deftones? I can't wait. I've been listening to them a lot recently.

I don't have a whole lot of other news. :scratch head: I guess I'll go.

NaNoWriMo

I suppose I should mention that I'm doing nanowrimo this year. I'm thinking of doing something very stupid and trying to get all 100,000 words of draft one of book two done over November (or there-abouts). I figure if I have 33 chapters and each chapter has 3,000 words that'll get me to 99,000 which is close enough to 100,000 to me. That means I have to write a chapter a day (that's where the "there-abouts" comes in, because that puts me three days over). And that's why this idea is stupid. On my best days in previous nanos I could write 4,000 words in a day, but that happened only a handful of days and I was exhausted by the time I'd written that much. I'm not sure I can sustain that energy for a whole month. Even to have a chance I'd need an immaculate outline, which I don't have at this stage. But there's still time before November.

First, I have to get my Halloween costume finished. I'm almost done with it. I have a bunch of fur to sew and the bodice to make and I have to put velcro on all the pieces to make them stay on me. Then it's just finishing touches and a bit of painting (and a paper mache shoulder guard - which I'm working on tomorrow) and I'll be done.

Our trip to Flagstaff was really good. We went to the Grand Canyon on Tuesday, the lava cave and meteorite crater on Wednesday, and Sedona on Thursday. Sedona is amazing. I want to live there. I drove there from Flagstaff, and we decided to go the scenic route (which is also the shortest distance). Oh wow. The drive was something else. We went over the mountains and coming down the other side was nothing but breathtaking vista after breathtaking vista. It was so beautiful. And the weather was perfect. Warm, but not too hot. The town itself is nice, if touristy. I wanted to see a vortex (how could I not want to visit a vortex - it's Sedona, you practically have to visit one) but either there was no parking or we had to hike (which lordkilljoy wasn't up for). So I'm going to go back some day and visit a vortex by myself. We just went home on Friday because it was raining. I can hear a voice in my head going: "Call yourself Irish? A little drizzle puts you off?" Yes, well. I hate rain. And living in Arizona has made me hate it even more.

Gravy makes such a difference

Dinner last night was amazing. I made bangers and mash and it was better than any I've had in a restaurant. They always try too hard, and add extra things into the mash or make their gravy overpowering. Mine was a perfect blend of buttery mash, salty-spicy sausages and sweet onion gravy. Delicious. I did do the restaurant thing of making a little mound of spuds and standing the sausages around it and pouring the gravy over the top. Nom nom nom.

I also made pumpkin pie yesterday. I was totally excited putting it into the oven, because the raw filling and raw base tasted amazing. What I didn't realise is that pie is not a straightforward thing to bake. So the edge of the crust got burned (badly enough to mean that it doesn't taste nice, but not so bad that you can't eat around it) and the filling didn't cook up properly. It was still quite liquid-y coming out. That didn't stop me nibbling at it while it was still warm, and I was less than enthusiastic about the taste. Somewhere along the way the sweet, rich flavours of the raw things had gone missing. So I put it in the fridge, but didn't forget about it. I had a small slice for breakfast (because even flavourless pie is better than dull cereal) and was pleasantly surprised. I think the flavours must have come back as it all rested together. And possibly pumpkin pie is better cold. So yea. I'm looking forward to eating the rest of it for breakfast over the weekend and next week, and desert and probably lunch, too. A whole pie is a lot to get through by yourself. I would invite friends over to help, but I don't think it's good enough. I don't want people thinking I'm a bad cook (because I'm not).

Did I mention we're off to see deftones in November? I'm so excited. I can't wait to go. I've wanted to see them since 1st year of college. And now it's happening.

I don't think I have any other news.

I think I made yeast

So it's no great secret that I hate doing the dishes. I'll let them pile up and overflow the sink until, eventually, it's gets bad enough that I wash them. I got around to doing them today and there was a pot which had been used to cook potatoes. Just boil them, nothing else - not even a bit of salt in the water. When I took the potatoes out of the pot, I left it by the sink (didn't empty the water or anything) and when I got to it today I was expecting a really bad smell (the lid had been on up until now). But I was pleasantly surprised by a fresh yeasty smell when I opened the lid. It was quite lovely, actually (if you like that smell). I felt really bad throwing it down the sink. That was living yeast I just killed. I would have loved to experiment with it making bread, but I don't know if it can be extracted from the water it was growing in.

I bit my tongue this morning eating breakfast. The rest of breakfast had a distinct flavour of blood to it. It's still sore now.

Ooh. Big news. I'm making studded leather armour from Skyrim for halloween.



I fell in love with this armour the first moment I put it on (almost a year ago - it was the first set of armour I picked up. Actually, I loaded up my second ever save, because I knew I'd get references easily, and it was kind of nostalgic seeing my lvl 38 stealth character all the way back at lvl 5). I wanted to cosplay it all the way back then, and now I have a good excuse. I'm going to try working with craft foam - because it's cheap and available. I'm doing up the pattern now, and I've got the waist bit done out on paper and just putting it around my middle made me really excited. I have high hopes that if I actually manage to get this done it's going to look amazing.

I would like to note here, too, that Guild Wars 2 is the most fun ever. lordkilljoy and I have been playing almost every day since it came out.

Disneyland

Ahhh, I don't even know what to write, we did so much. We spent about 10 hours in the park on Friday and about 9 on Saturday, and I'm pretty certain we missed out on loads of stuff. You could spend one whole day just watching performances. The good thing is that we got to go on all the rides we wanted. California Screamin' (the rollercoaster) is the most fun ever. I wanted to go on it 5 times, but we only made it 3. I get the impression that lordkilljoy wasn't such a raving fan as I was. We ate a bunch of wonderful food and didn't get fat because we walked so much. We'd get back to the hotel each evening and not be able to move for the soreness of our feet.

So California Screamin'... I was a bit intimidated at first, because lordkilljoy had said it was a bit daunting. And I'd not been on a rollercoaster in years and didn't remember how cool they are. So we get into the car and I'm all "ooohhhhh, scary" and we get launched (0 to 55mph in 4 seconds) upwards and then - it's the most amazing thing ever. We're coming around the top, ready to take the first big drop and all I can think of is "I'm flying." And that's it. I can't think of anything else except being a bird and looping across the sky and it's the most amazing feeling ever. And I don't want it to end, but it does all too soon. We queued up again straight away :P

I've had disney songs in my head since Thursday night when we caught a duelling pianos show (not so much dwelling as two guys singing along with each other and getting the crowd singing). Actually, Thursday night kicked off the whole weekend really well. We got in after 7 and went for dinner. We didn't even know there was a show on in the restaurant, and happened to be sitting right by the stage. That fun led into Friday for all the rides, and Saturday for more rides and the parade, and Sunday for shopping and the swinging ferris wheel and serious disappointment that California Screamin was closed and we couldn't go on it one last time.

And then we had to go home. Which was sad. But a bit of an adventure. We had a rather elemental journey back here. Wind, earth, fire and water in the form of a duststorm with lightning and rain. That was pretty spectacular. I'd been taking pictures of the clouds and waiting to see a rainbow (which I didn't - note to self: If I find myself thinking the weather is fit for rainbows, I should look out for duststorms instead) when I noticed this dark line of cloud in front of us. I sort of wondered if it could be an oncoming duststorm of if it was just thick clouds on the horizon. But as we drove closer we saw the road kind of vanish into the sand. And it got closer and closer, and all of a sudden we crossed the divide from clean air to wall of sand and we couldn't see more than 3 or 4 meters ahead. It was deadly (meaning cool). We pulled over and marvelled at this freak of weather and I got really excited to have gotten the chance to experience a real live haboob up close. And it did not disappoint. We were amazed at cars and trucks that didn't pull over, and it was kind of freaky seeing their lights disappear just a few moments after they passed by.

I wish I could think of all the cool little things we did and saw. Maybe I'll write them down as they come to me and make a post of them.

First Fitting

So, apparently, I'm not a size 12. I'm a 10. I kind of knew this, but I assumed pattern sizes were different to shop sizes. Anyway. The dress is huge. I had to sew all 8 seams at 23mm, rather than 16 because it was just so big. But at 23mm seams it fits amazingly. So I don't know what to do with the actual dress. Cut the seams to be sewn 5mm smaller, or sew a massive seam. I'm a bit afraid cutting them smaller for fear of messing up the design. What's really annoying is that 12 was the smallest size of this pattern, so if I wanted to go to a size 10 I'd have to buy the pattern again, which I'm not about to do. I haven't sewn the arms and top yet, so I'm a bit afraid that with my bigger seam allowance it won't all fit together properly. Hmmm.

I don't have any other news.

Dress part 4

I didn't update over the weekend. Not for lack of progress, but because Guild Wars 2 came out and when I finished sewing for the day (which was early, I'll admit) I went playing. Over the weekend I got the princess seams and the pleats done. Today I put the whole thing together and tried it on. It's too big. I knew it would be, because with about 2 seams to go, I realised I'd been sewing the wrong seam allowance. I'd been sewing 13mm, when I was supposed to be sewing 16mm. Sigh. Anyway. I'm just going to sew 3mm inside all the seams around my torso (no need to do all the way down - the skirt is wide enough not to notice). So It's looking kinda cool - even for a mock-up. The skirt is massive. I think I'll need about 3 petticoats to pull it off. I have one and the material to make a second, but don't know where the third will come from. Ah well. That's a worry for another day.

Guild Wars 2 is amazing. It's the best designed game I've ever played (or at least MMO). I actually prefer playing with lordkilljoy than on my own. The game is really set up for doing things together. And there is so much to see and do, and all the cities are beautiful, and the storyline is fun, and I just want to play all the time. One of my favourite things is the dye system. You can change the colour of your clothes as often as you want, so when I get bored of one colour, I simply change it to another. But what I really love is that they make it so accessible. In GW1, you had to buy / trade or find dies and you could only use them once. So to make your whole outfit red, you had to get 6 (or whatever number) red dies. And If you wanted to go blue then you had to get 6 more dies. It was really limiting. Whereas in GW2 when you find / buy / trade a die it gets added to your collection and you can use it as much as you like. It's a small feature, but the game is full of helpful little elements like this that make it a pleasure to play.

Yea. I don't have much other news.

Dress, Day 3

I got about what I thought I'd get done today done. So that means the rest of the material is cut and ready for sewing. Now, start the procrastination machine. I'm so scared of messing up that I don't even want to try. Is that perfectionism at work, or is it something else? And this is only the mock-up. Okay, worst case is that I waste a few days when I realise I've done it wrong and have to go again. No big deal. Right. Tomorrow I start sewing.

As I wrote that sentence my brain went: have I forgotten some vital step, something that happens after cutting that isn't sewing? Ah well. It'll be fine.

Right so. We're off to the pub for a few drinks with friends. I almost forgot to update today, let's hope I remember tomorrow - because I want to have these journals as a sort of step-by-step guide for the next dress I make.

Dress Part 2

Today I got half the material for the mock-up cut out. Cutting material takes ages. From laying out the pattern pieces properly, to pinning them to the material to actually cutting. I'm starving right now and my back is sore from leaning over the whole afternoon. And after it was all cut I had to mark the places where stitching starts and ends. I'm really hoping this stitching becomes clear when I get to the instructions, because right now I have no idea what it's about.

So yea. I get to do it all again tomorrow. But I should be faster because I found the best way for me to cut the fabric while staying within the lines of the pattern.

Other news of note: we pushed Disneyland out by a week. We hadn't realised it was a bank holiday when we booked, and I imagine the park will be packed. So that's a bit sad, but let's hope it means our trip will be even better because the queues won't be so long.

I need to get myself a dress icon.

I'm making a dress

Ever since lordkilljoy sent me a link to some 50s swing dresses a few years ago, I've been obsessed. I think they are the most beautiful dresses a woman can wear. But they are way too expensive to buy and I've contemplated making one for ages. So, last week I came across (very accidentally - I was looking at a random craft tutorial generator) a beautiful pattern - the most different I've seen - and I had to make it. It's vogue 2903, and it looks like this:



I bought the pattern, read the instructions, got material and notions (look at me using proper terminology) and today I cut out the pattern pieces. It took ages and my hand was killing me from holding the scissors by the end of it. I went super-carefully, ironing the printed sheets first then cutting exactly on the lines.

I hope to get the mock-up material cut tomorrow. And maybe start on the sewing that. :) It's going to be so cool. I'll update again (tomorrow I hope with the rest of my progress).

Perseids

We went out into the countryside to see the Perseids meteor shower on Saturday. We drove for an hour, and the lights from Phoenix still stained the northern horizon. I don't know how far we'd have to go to get away from it, but farther than I'm willing to travel.

Anyway, we pulled off the highway and lay on the car, looking up at the sky. It wasn't perfect, though. There was a little cloud cover and the stars weren't the most visible ever. We did get to see a few meteors, though - which was cool. I saw 3 or 4. Tiny little streaks flashing through the sky.

The local fly population was out, and we were both paranoid about being bitten. So we ended up not staying long - only 20 minutes or so. A rustle in the bushes nearby sent us on our way with images of murderers in our heads - or at least in my head, anyway.

Still, it was fun. I drove us and I got to use the headlights for the first time. That was really exciting. Evil, sardonic Ria was all, "You are so sad," but I didn't care. Ooh - another fun driving thing - not related to that night - is that I've been driving our car since January, and more frequently since June. Today, I learned how to use the win-wipers. 8 months and in all that time I haven't been rained on until now. Amazing. I love Arizona. Okay, that might be too strong a word, but it is amazing having blue skies every day. I don't think I could ever get bored of it. Or ever learn not to feel aversion towards rain.

I've nothing else to say, really. Bye, then.

Ooh - actually, I did want to say that I think River acted as our shield and took all the mosquito bites on Saturday night. She kept moving around and fidgeting on Saturday night and today she's been scratching a little.

I'm such a lazy person

I don't know if I've mentioned on here how much I hate doing the dishes. I really do. There is no worse thing to do, in my opinion. Messing around with dirty water, getting it all over you and the kitchen. Scrubbing (I don't actually mind this part), rinsing, drying. I skip the last part. If there's something worse than washing the dishes, it's drying the dishes. The towel is wet after one pot and for the rest of the endeavour you're not really accomplishing much except putting towel bits all over your nice clean dishes. So I lie a towel on the counter and let the dishes drip onto that until the air dries them. Air doesn't mind drying dishes.
Anyway - I had to do the dishes today (our AirConditioning is still broken and I couldn't have the man see the ginormous pile of pots and other non-dishwasher things that had stacked up. and they had gotten a small bit smelly.) and it took me ages. The whole counter - about 1.5m x 1m - is filled with them drying. So that's done now anyway. I tell myself I'll try to do them as they occur from now on, but I know I won't. The weekend will come and I won't feel like doing it and then it'll be Monday and there'll be too many to face so I'll leave it til Tuesday, when there's even more and it's not until I have no pots and no pans left (and I have many) that they'll get done. Sigh.

I made French onion soup today for lunch. It was good. Not quite as good as that which you'd get a restaurant, but I didn't have 2 hours to let the flavours really develop - because I was hungry. The onions were slightly too crunchy and the broth wasn't quite flavourful enough. But it was good for lunch.

I can't think of anything else.

A recipe I have to make again

Lunch today was inspired by WholeFoods' cabbage crunch salad. I improvised based on the ingredients list and another cabbage salad recipe. And here it is, preserved for posterity.

Serves 1 very hungry or 2 not so hungry people

Ingredients

1/2 head of cabbage
2 tbsp silvered almonds
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
1/2 tbsp mirin (sweet japanese sauce) or any sweetener
1 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp light flavoured oil
1/4 tsp salt
pepper

Method

1 - toast the almonds by heating a pan over medium heat (or slightly hotter) and tossing the almonds until brown, about 3 minutes. be careful to watch them - it only takes a short while to go from toasted to burned.

2 - mix all the ingredients and enjoy.

So there we go.


We stayed up last night watching Curiosity land on Mars. Well, we missed the actual landing, but tuned in about 20 minutes after. The people on the team were so excited and happy. It was great to see. And it'll be really interesting watching the photos come in from Mars over the next few years and seeing if they find any remains / evidence of life.

We went to see Total Recall on Saturday. I really enjoyed it. It was pure action sci-fi with some very fun ideas.

Not much else happening.

baking

Some might say I've finally lost it, but I say: this is for me as well.
I made dog biscuits today. They involve 5 different flours, eggs and chicken stock (along with other baking necessities - like yeast). It was the most dough I've ever worked with. I even had to split it into 2 batches to roll it out because the counter space wasn't big enough. The recipe makes 200. I needed 4 trays to fit them all into the oven - thank goodness our oven is truck-sized (okay, not quite). They are in the oven now and will be until tomorrow morning - they get annealed. I can't wait to try them, they sound amazing. And with only 24 calories each, both me and River can snack on them without worrying that we are eating too much.
I also made "biscuits" for the very first time. I feel so American. So, they aren't really like scones. They are more like little nuggets of soda bread. They're dense - not fluffy like scones. And they were so simple to make. Yeay for food processors.

Yeay for baking.

Air Conditioned

We got our air conditioning fixed today. It started dripping a bit and, being very pro-active, we got it seen to before it got any worse. So it turned out that the level of freon in the system had diminished (ooh, there's a nice word) and ice was forming on the unit, and it melting was what was dripping. Anyway, the maintenance guy topped up the freon (his words were, "I charged your unit." No you didn't. It needed its gas topped up. You don't charge gas. Americans are annoyingly loose with words and grammar. Ooh, another thing that seriously annoys me (because we've been watching a lot of Olympics) is when presenters say, "He medalled in swimming." No he didn't. He got a medal.) So anyway. It seems to be working much better now.

It does trouble me that the freon had vanished out of the system, though. Clearly we have a leak somewhere. And that's CFC simply pouring out into the atmosphere. It worries me. I think the guy just refilled it, rather than actually searching all the pipes and valves for a leak.

I can't think of anything else to say. Things are much the same as ever here. Ooh, I did make risotto for dinner today. It was yummy, but unfortunately I'm not so partial to al dente rice, so I ate it wishing for the rice to be a little softer. According to the internet it takes 40 minutes to get it really soft. 40 minutes of stirring is not my idea of fun for dinner.

Right. Bye so. I'm off to buy some blue thread to alter a pair of shorts which are too big.

Short Update

In the last week I've:
made berry frozen yoghurt (tastes amazing, needs about 15 minutes to melt a bit when it comes out of the freezer for good texture)
washed my hair with baking soda (going well so far, no greasy or dry hair)
fainted (whacked my knee on the table, pretty certain the dog had free reign to lick my face)
made griddle bread (just like Mammy used to make when we were younger - at least that's what my flawed memory tells me)
gotten loads of writing done (am 2/3 the way through the final, final edits - at least before a publisher gets at it)

Now. I get a star for productivity.