I’ve been sitting here trying to decide what to write about today. There’s been a little of this going on and a little of that. Enough to keep me hopping, but no one thing really jumps out as a blog topic. So I thought I’d give you a sampling of everything. I met with my critique group yesterday and they gave the thumbs-up to my re-write of Chapter One. So except for a few minor fixes, I can focus on tinkering with Chapter Two now. My goal, by the way, is to have the first three chapters done before we leave for Williamsburg. Mom is doing well. We go back to the surgeon for another post-op check on Tuesday and he will likely once again give her the go-ahead to use her cane. I confess to being a little gun shy about this. Last time he OK’d her using the cane, one week later, she dislocated again. Of course, things are different this time. Or at least I keep telling myself that. My recovery from gum graft surgery went much easier this time around. I was feeling better after a week instea...

I am up to Chapter two of the new book. The body has been discovered. Now I’m stuck on a small detail. How did the victim die? I know who did it and why. I just don’t know how. So my goal for this morning is to brainstorm and figure this out. It may turn out to be another case of writing a scene that never makes it into the book, just so I know what went on off camera. Regarding my gum surgery, I woke up this morning with a very sore mouth, but the nerves seem to have settled down a bit now. I get my stitches out Friday. Thank heavens. They’re driving me nuts. But it’s a very short drive. Come on over to Working Stiffs . It’s Wednesday, which means it’s my day to blog over there about my experience at this week’s Citizens’ Police Academy. We had the guys come in from the SWAT team and it was really cool. I got to handle a Bushmaster M-4 assault rifle. Very cool.

I have survived yet another gum graft surgery. This time has gone easier than last time, so far. I qualify that with the memory that last time I felt worse on days four and five than I did on days one, two, and three. And I haven’t tried to eat anything yet this morning. Perhaps knocking on wood is in order. I’ve been steadfastly following doctor’s orders to take it easy. Friday I slept most of the day. When I wasn’t sleeping, I was reading. I finished Nancy Martin ’s MURDER MELTS IN YOUR MOUTH . While it wasn’t quite as funny as Nancy’s previous Blackbird Sisters Mysteries, the complications came so fast and furious that I hardly missed the humor. Now the big question remains WILL THERE BE AN EIGHTH BLACKBIRD SISTER MYSTERY? She did wrap up the ending rather neatly… On Saturday, I did some laundry between napping and reading. I breezed through John J. Lamb’s THE CRAFTY TEDDY in that one day. John’s Teddy Bear Collector’s Mysteries are what I’d have to call cozy police procedurals wit...

The good thing about an appendectomy is that once you have one, you never have to have another one. The good thing about a gum graft is…well…there isn’t any. I had one last year . It was nasty. And it was only the first of seven (or more) that I will need over the next few years. Tomorrow, I will be having my second one. I’ve noticed that this blog gets a fair amount of hits from people Googling information on gum grafts. So if you’re reading this because you’re hoping to find out how bad they are or that they aren’t as bad as you’ve been led to believe, let me just tell you THEY’RE WORSE. I won’t go into graphic detail. Suffice it to say, I will be spending the weekend stoned on Vicodin. But I’m trying to make the best of it. Since I won’t be eating much for the next week or two (my refrigerator is stocked with tapioca and cottage cheese), I’m spending today binging. I had pizza for supper last night and finished the last of it today for lunch. As I write this, I’m savoring a Sarris ...

I stepped on the scale yesterday for the first time in quite a while. The number that stared up at me was a number I had never seen on my scale before. I knew it was going to be bad, but I never expected THAT. If you think I’m going to fess up to what that number was, you have a stranger sense of humor than I do. I blame part of it on the fact that I’m trying to put some meat on my mom’s bony frame, but it’s me that’s gaining the weight. The other part of the problem is that I’ve been eating too much and exercising too little. Big surprise. I do have an easy (albeit painful) solution to some of the excess poundage. I am scheduled for yet another gum graft surgery in a couple of weeks. As a result, I will be on an involuntary fast for a week or two. I think I dropped seven pounds in two weeks last year during the recovery. If there is anything good about gum graft surgery, it’s that it does double as an effective weight-loss program. However, seven pounds isn’t going to put me in the pl...

Last night, hubby called from work to say, “Guess what? I’m on vacation tomorrow and Friday.” And sure enough, there is was on the calendar. You know you’re too busy when you forget about having vacation days. We have to turn in hubby’s vacation request form in January. On one hand, it’s nice to dream about vacation days when you’re knee deep in snow. On the other hand, it’s darned hard to be realistic about what you plan on doing eight or nine months down the road. Let’s face it, if I’d have know back then what all was about to transpire in 2007…well, I’m not sure what I’d have done. Crawling under a rock wouldn’t have changed anything. There was just no escaping it. Anyhow, I have no idea what we were thinking about, what plans we imagined when we selected September 13 and 14 as vacation days. As of yesterday, Mom is back at the Washington County Health Center. And as of yesterday, I have a cold. So the idea of a vacation sounds good, but I’m not sure about the reality of it. Perhaps...

Yesterday, I went for my one-week follow-up appointment with the periodontal guy. He said the graft looks great and he removed my stitches. He also gave me more pain pills. I go back in two weeks. By then, he says I should be a happy camper. I’ll be the judge of that. Afterwards, my mom and I hit the stores for our weekly grocery shopping. When did Easter become a bigger shopping holiday than Christmas? My family never did much for Easter anyway. A basket with some plastic straw and a few jelly beans and chocolate bunnies and eggs. And some real eggs died with onion skins. But the lines at Giant Eagle and Wal-Mart indicated something more than eggs and candy or even family dinner was in the works. Our last stop was Wal-Mart. We stood in the check-out line for over a half hour. I was in the process of bagging my order when I glanced back at Mom, who was behind me in line and saw her clinging to her cart, almost on the ground. I rushed back to her and caught her and asked her what she wa...

I gave everyone an extra week on the March Word Watcher Challenge, but now it’s time to assess how we all did. Sound the trumpets. I finished the first draft of my current mystery novel. Yippee! It’s a long way from being ready to go to my agent. It’s not even ready for my preliminary readers. But it’s a first draft. And it’s done. I typed those two lovely little words (THE END) last Friday while looped on pain meds from my gum graft. (In case you’re wondering, my mouth still hurts!) Since then, I took this week off to do things like visiting my cousin, visiting friends, recording business expenses and balancing checkbooks. I mailed in the stack of rebates for various purchases that have been piling up. I can actually see the top of my desk! I admit that I’m chomping at the bit to get back to my novel. I have notes from my critique groups stacked next to my computer, ready to be incorporated into what will become the second draft. There are holes in the plot that I know how I intend to...

I have one word of advice for anyone who must go through a gum graft procedure. DRUGS. It’s been many years since I had that first botched graft, but the pain stands out clearly in my memory. Possibly because after Friday’s procedure, I’ve revisited it. The big difference between then and now is the pain medication. I think I remember being on prescription-strength Motrin the first time. This time the doctor wrote me a prescription for Vicodin. I spent most of Friday afternoon and evening and all day yesterday napping. It’s a good thing I didn’t have anything scheduled for those two days. The napping was good. I’ve been sleep deprived lately and now I’m about caught up. In between Vicodin-induced snoozes, I finished reading a couple books, browsed at a writing magazine, did a miniscule amount of housework and washed a couple loads of laundry. My cat thinks I’ve finally wised up. Sleep lots, move around a little, grab a bite here and there. Which brings me to the eating part. Friday, ea...