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Awww... nano.

This year is the fifth year that I've participated in National Novel Writing Month. And it's the fifth year that I haven't made it to 50,000 words. Last year was the closest, with a final word count of over 30,000. This year, I hit 7,631 words. Which is barely a short story.

Sure, I could cheat and paste in 50,000 words from the other ten months of this year. I'll admit I entertained the idea for a while today. I also considered trying to write the other 43,000 words between the hours of 6:00pm and midnight tonight.

The fact is, November is just an awful month for me and writing. There's always that one entire holiday week around Thanksgiving which involves six-hour car trips and hopping from relative's house to relative's house. I don't anticipate next year being any easier, seeing as though there's a presidential election (not to mention other, smaller races) and I work in politics.

So sayonara for Nanowrimo this year. Maybe I'll hold my own, personal Nano in February, when the icy, gale-force island winds keep us all locked inside.

Have it all

I've had this dream in the back of my head for a while now that if I someday won the lottery, I'd buy everything advertised on a single channel for one day. Every single item.

Clearly, I don't have the cash to do that for real, but tonight, Trevor and I decided to find out what exactly we would get if we did. What if you just couldn't help buying everything you saw advertised? What would you end up with?

During Wheel of Fortune, we wrote down every item which was pitched to us during the 7:30 to 8:00 time slot. We started with commercials, then added a few items that were pointed out for sale during the show.

Our highly non-scientific rules were: We wrote down any product which was showcased for purchase. Superpages.com had an ad for their services, but since we wouldn't spend money on their website, we left them out. Multiple items in the same commercial were fair game, as long as they were specifically mentioned either verbally or in print (e.g. three cars in one manufacturer's commercial).

We were off to an auspicious start when Wheel stopped the game to feature the Surf's Up DVD with a clip from the film. I had hope that a kid's movie would bode well for a future variety of products, but we later found that most ads fell into two categories: cars and drugs.

I figured that cars would figure highly in the ads, but I never guessed we would end the show with a whopping eight vehicles. They ran the gamut from minivans to pickup trucks. Not even Jay Leno needs that many cars.

Apparently, the average Wheel watcher has high cholesterol, constipation, headaches, sinus congestion, visible scars, stiff joints and a cat. Here's the list with price tags:

Our grand total was $183,424.50 of product exposure for a half-hour of television. Then again, we could save $4 by getting the Friendly's Sundae free with the purchase of an entree!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Here we are in New Jersey, spending time with both sides of the family today. Apparently it is summer here in New Jersey. It's almost 70 degrees and no wind. The three of us are a little out of sorts what with there being no wind (at all) and no frost on my appendages.

Sunset over Isle La Motte

Check

I think I used every single tool I have yesterday. Since we moved in, I have been trying to get around to stripping, painting, hanging, etc. the original kitchen door between our kitchen and porch.

The door is a classic door with a large piece of glass covering the top half of it. It was originally coated in about 10 coats of nasty old paint, gouged from who knows what, had rusty hinges and had no trim on it whatsoever.

Our contractor took care of the trim, but between Tara and myself, we took care of it. Tara sanded it down a few months ago, and then yesterday I planed down the bottom half, sanded the door jamb, painted it a nice green color, installed the hardware and hung the door (with Trevor's help).

I still have to touch up some spots (where I was a bit overzealous in hanging the door before some spots were dry), we have to scrape the paint off the glass, and I need to paint the threshold next. So almost done, but at least it's hung.

Side benefit, it's quite a bit warmer in the kitchen with the door closed. I have a picture of the door, but Tara isn't awake yet so I can't find her SD card adapter.

Twitter IRL

This week, I got to use Twitter for a real-world application. I was stuck on Rt 89 South here in Vermont, which is a rarity for me....welll anyone. There is never any traffic here. After about 20 minutes I realized that I get news updates from my local television station WCAX via their WCAX Twitter account.

I sent a direct SMS message to them via Twitter asking them for an update on the traffic, and within 10 minutes they posted a tweet about what was going on! How cool is that? It didn't help me get through the traffic any faster but at least I was connecting with my world while sitting there!

Alli is famous-ish

Tara's sister Alli, the budding ornithologist is famous(ish), She was featured in a recent article for The Journal News, a paper from the lower Hudson Valley in New York.

Check it out!

Tired in Toronto

If there was a Canadian sequel to Sleepless in Seattle, it would be called Tired in Toronto. Or at least that's what my slightly addled sleepy brain is thinking right now.

I have been traveling basically non-stop for the last six weeks, spending at least two to three nights a week in a hotel and living in airports. It's a really great thing for me to be doing, as I am making a lot of new contacts, finding leads for E-Commerce and moving things forward but I am getting a little worn out. The weekends aren't long enough to recouperate once you include all the family activities and chores (yes, we are still unpacking boxes).

Next week Tara has to travel, so I get to stay home. I am really looking forward to finishing up some end of the Fall chores, hanging with Trevor and catching up on some sleep. After that I only have one more week of travel before a week of vacation, so I should be all set to move into a busy December.