Alison Kent's Blah Blog

. . . or maybe you haven’t noticed I’ve been absent. And that’s fine. Lately, there hasn’t been much reason to stop by here except to enjoy the very cool autumn theme.

Just looking at it makes me want to bake pumpkin muffins, and I may do that today.

Fall has finally arrived, at least temporarily, and I love the cool weather (meaning temperature in the sixties), though I am really missing the sun. It’s been raining for days, and I could use some Vitamin D. Anyhow, here’s what’s been keeping me away:

1) I was sick with the first true head cold I’ve had in years. I’m finally feeling better, though the allergies just won’t let go. It’s ragweed season, and until we get a frost, I figure I won’t be able to breathe right, but at least the coughing and fever are gone.

2) There have been a lot of family things going on. From car troubles to illness and surgery to long work and school hours to a bunch of upcoming birthdays and holidays to plan for. Oh, and Sam’s going to have a baby sister or brother next May or so.

3) I’ve had a lot of web work to do, and will be having even more over the next few weeks as my business partner is having a baby – an event that might actually be happening today as there was some early morning activity indicating it’s baby time!

4) I’ve been watching The Shield. All of it. It’s my latest TV show crack, and I’ll probably be posting about it soon and relating it to what I love about writing characters that pop.

5) I’ve been writing, but not so much WRITING as pondering what I’ve written. It still counts as writing, but it doesn’t feel like forward progress since much of it is the fine tuning projects require to make them work. The pondering isn’t so easy with a head full of goo, so that’s been an impediment as well.

6) While sick, I went to the Heart of LA Readers Luncheon. I was feeling better when we went, but I got to feeling worse while there, so was thankful it was a single afternoon event. Had great fun meeting online friends and have some goodies from the event to give away. Just need to sort and compile into prize packs.

7) I went brown, with red low lights, and still some blonde. The hair color is actually dark blonde, but it’s more brown on me. It’s causing some confusion for @cuppacafe.

8) I’ve been doing a lot of Internet cooking. Some of the recipes have been a hit and others not so much. Some haven’t turned out as shown but were still good, and others were just blech. Most likely my inability to follow directions; you wouldn’t believe how often I skim right over a step or read a measurement wrong, sigh. I just got new glasses, so can’t blame the eyes. More like the brain is pulled in so many directions it’s out of processing power. The adventures in cooking have included baking bread in @cuppacafe’s new bread machine. He finally decided he wanted one (he’s the bread baker) so we’ve been experimenting with that.

9) I’ve been putting together the Website for the new women’s fiction chapter of RWA. I’m not designing it or building or coding; I’m only helping implement a WordPress magazine theme to serve the chapter’s needs. Very excited about the new chapter and will post here once the site is live. The anticipated launch date is 11/01.

10) I wish I could say I’ve seen a good movie, or read something I couldn’t put down, or been wrapped up in the new fall TV season, but none of that has happened. Too many other things going on I guess, not to mention my addiction to The Shield taking up my entertainment time. The only new show I’m sticking with is Flash Forward and the only returning shows I’m watching regularly are House, Lie To Me, NCIS, and Criminal Minds. The others I catch on Hulu if the mood strikes. It doesn’t very often.

And that’s about it for what’s been going on with me. What about you?