California vacay recap, in which Very Special Things happen

I am back from CA! We had a lovely, restful vacation in Palm Springs and, despite my misgivings, I LOVED the desert. More importantly, my sinuses loved the desert. I've been back in CT for 3 1/2 days and I've had 2 megrims and 1 killer sinus headache already. (Those are migraines for those of you who don't speak Ye Olde Englishe.)

On Sunday, we had a lovely barbecue with our friends Peter, Bill and Jason, who happen to have a vacation home in Palm Springs. I hadn't seen them in over a year and it was great to catch up. Bill volunteers at the San Diego Wild Animal Park (he's a cheetah expert posted by the cheetah habitat to answer any questions visitors may have).

WHICH BRINGS ME TO THE VERY SPECIAL THING THAT HAPPENED!

Oh em gee, people. The Wild Animal Park is a phenomenal facility and you should all visit it someday if you can. It's unbelievable. The animals are in these amazing, enormous habitats that both allow visitors to observe them and allow them to exist in an environment that's very close to their natural habitat. They're given privacy. Natural barriers are used wherever possible instead of cages and fencing. It's just freaking amazing.

One of the coolest exhibits they have is this open area that mimics the Serengeti (or whatever)--many different types of animals co-exist in the same enclosure as they would naturally. Rhinos, giraffes, cape buffalos, gazelles, zebras, etc. with a watering hole and native vegetation and OH MY GOD IT'S SO AMAZING.

And...

For some extra money...

You can do this:



That's Willow. She's eating Acacia leaves (not my hand). But that's not all, people. Oh-ho-ho no, it's not. Because I also did this:



!!!!!!!!!!!!! THAT IS A PICTURE OF ME FEEDING A GREATER ONE HORNED RHINO. !!!!!!!!!!!!!

*dies of teh excitement*

Dudes. We freaking fed two giraffes, Willow and Kizzy, and Kaia the rhino. Like, WITH OUR HANDS. I touched a rhino. I! Touched! A! Rhino! I gave her apples! I petted her nose! I touched her funny wiggly lip! I saw her baby tusks! I watched her wet nostrils sniffing around the slats for more snackies when there were no more!

I am in love.

I have to say that the giraffes were hilarious and adorable as well. I shall now torture you with more pictures:

Ben wanted a kiss from the cute widdle giwaffe (whose head weighs almost half of my entire body weight).


Check out the tongue action! It's a little hard to see because her purple tongue is blending in with Ben's shirt but it's curled around the acacia leaf!


bebbeh!!



Honestly, I could bring Blogger to a screeching halt with all the freaking adorable pictures and video I have. I suppose this will do...for now. ;)

We had a few more adventures but it's getting late and I've got to get to bed. More updates to follow!

The writing retreat

First, don't forget to check out my early review of Marjorie M. Liu's A WILD LIGHT and enter to win a copy here!

So! Yes! I went on this mysterious "writing retreat" last week and left all of you with nothing but pictures of shoreline sunsets and adorable yellow labs to remember me by. So sad. But I am back now!

The truth is, I went on my (mostly) annual pilgrimage to Canada (or, Canadia, as I affectionately call it) to visit my family. More specifically, Bouctouche, New Brunswick. I wasn't lying about the whole writing retreat thing--I devote a large portion of the vacation to writing and, in fact, busted out 10K on TLOS while I was there (w00t!). But I was also there to get back in touch with my Canadian roots.

Here are a few highlights:

I purchased this AWESOME chair + awning, which enabled me to work on my laptop outside in the sun!! (Note: Working not pictured below. This photographic masterpiece is entitled 'Drinking of Canadian beer after meeting daily word count goal'.)



Another wondrous fact about Bouctouche: You can purchase six pound tubs of margarine in the regular grocery store. I didn't capture the true scale in this picture, but they were approximately the size of my freaking torso. These people do NOT mess around with their butter products.



Also available? Pregnancy tests at the dollar store. They did cost a whopping $1.25, however. Perhaps a marketing ploy to boost your confidence in the results?


This magical delicacy:


This is a poutine rape (prounounced poo-tin rah-pay). It's a regional thing specific to New Brunswick, as far as I know. Basically, you take some salt pork and surround it with potato and then boil the whole thing until it becomes a gelatinous brownish and/or grayish mass, as pictured above. Mmm-mmm. Tasty!! Actually, I used to love them when I still ate meat, back in the day.

Despite my snarky pictures, New Brunswick is freaking gorgeous. In Bouctouche, there is a huge Eco Center (excuse me, Centre) with a really long boardwalk along the dunes. It's beautiful and educational, as well as helping to preserve that portion of the coastline. It's also my favorite place to walk at sunset. It's quiet and peaceful, and the shoreline is dotted with herons looking for their evening meal.



Oh, Canadia. I shall miss you in the coming years.

Hello, Hello!

I'm back from Canadia! I had a lovely week visiting with family and revisiting some well-loved placed I only get to see once a year. I missed all of my LJ pals though, naturally. ;)

Oh, and...

I FINISHED THE ROUGH DRAFT!!!!! WHOO-HOOOOOOO!!!
I was an insane hermit all week, locked up in the cottage with my laptop. It was all worth it at 2 a.m. Friday when I typed those magical words: The End. Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh.

And now, because I've waited a goddamn year to see this stupid thing full:

127,145 / 120,000 (106.0%)

I celebrated the next day by reading Marjorie M. Liu's THE IRON HUNT (oh.. sooooooo good. review to follow!) and making henna designs on my cousins for 5 hours. That last may not sound like as much fun as it actually was, but I really enjoyed it. Pictures to follow as soon as my cousin sends them on.

Today...today, I admit, I'm a bit lost. The almost panicky desire to write is most unexpected. I thought I would collapse into a vegetative book-reading, movie-watching, scrapbooking, mindless-computer-game-playing coma for a few weeks and then nudge myself back into the required revisions. Instead, I'm having to nearly force myself to read and relax and leave the WIP the hell alone for a while. I desperately need some distance from it before I can get a decent perspective on exactly how good/bad it is and what I need to do to it (besides rewrite the entire end fight scene ha ha, okay not funny) to make it better.

There is still a fight scene that I have to write. I might work on that a bit over the next week or so. But then, it's getting put AWAY for 2-3 weeks. So there. Nyah.

In the meantime, I need to pull plot ideas for Book Two and The New Series Idea out of my ass brilliant mind and get those outlined. This is something I'm not so good at. It took me a lifetime--literally--to come up with a book-worthy idea for the draft I just finished (!!!). Where do you all come up with your ideas? Not the whole outlined plot, necessarily. But where does that first blush come from that let's you know you just might have something you can build into a novel?

Also, I thought this quiz was interesting so I took it. I'm rather pleased with the results. A. The word 'cuddleslut' rocks. B. Anything that compares me to Kaylee and Hiro is okay in my book. C. Hello? Pics of snuggling puppies? Win.

Your result for The Attachment Style Test...

The Cuddleslut

You're mostly secure, but sometimes you need a little extra reassurance to make it through the tough times. You are usually affectionate and sweet, and you find it easy to fall in love. An encouraging word from a crush or a loved one can motivate you for weeks.

Fictional character with whom you might identify: Kaylee (Firefly/Serenity), Hiro Nakamura (Heroes)

Other Attachment Types:
Secure:	The Unicorn	|	The Cuddleslut	|	The Free Agent
Preoccupied:	The Cling Wrap	|	The Squid	|	The Insect
Fearful:	The Doormat	|	The Leper	|	The Exile
Dismissing:	The Hermit	|	The Stone	|	The Player
Confused:	The Waffler

Take The Attachment Style Test at HelloQuizzy