Diversions. Another form of procrastination. And in case anyone didn’t know, I am the Queen of Procrastination. Saturday, I took a day off my revision version of Nano to proctor the written exam for Pittsburgh police recruits. I’d done this a couple of years ago and found it interesting, so I agreed to do it again. I arrived at the convention center at 8:30 in the morning and joined other bleary-eyed proctors setting up the room for the testing. I was assigned to section G and pretty much knew from past experience that my section wouldn’t fill up. But we still had to go through the motions. Label the tablecloth with section-row-seat numbers. Lay out cardstock, answer sheets, test booklets, and pencils. Other important tasks involved stuff like locating the restroom. Always a vital piece of information. We had our orientation at 9:30. And at 10:00, we positioned ourselves by our assigned tables and the doors opened to the recruits. Roughly one thousand aspiring police officers ...

The Dashofy Revision Version of Nanowrimo is going quite well. I only need three more pages to make my first week’s goal. It won’t happen today because I’m spending the morning proctoring the police recruits testing for the city of Pittsburgh . I’ve done this before. It’s an odd combination of interesting and mind-numbing boredom. All the interesting stuff happens in the first hour: setting up the testing area, orientation, watching the shiny-faced eager recruits enter the room and be seated. The rest of the time is spent walking around the same table, making sure no one cheats. That’s the boring part. But it’s a way of giving back for the Citizen’s Police Academy experience. Later, I’m heading to my friend Jessi’s house for a Breeders Cup party. The Breeders Cup, in case you don’t know, is the richest day in horse racing. And it isn’t aired on network TV, which is all I have. So for the second year, I’m hanging out with Jessi and her family and watching it there. It’s fun. I’ve p...

Yes, I’m still up to my eyeballs in revisions, which explains my absence. However, I crawled out of my cave yesterday for some “research.” Sort of. I received an email a few weeks ago, sent to all members of the Pittsburgh Citizen’s Police Academy , seeking volunteers to help out in the first responder training for the new police recruits. I’ve many times taken part in these kinds of things from the other side. When I was in EMT training, we had to practice on pretend patients. And while I worked on the ambulance service we’d have mock disasters and training drills to hone our skills. So this seemed like a chance to give back. I arrived at the police training academy with thoughts of being covered in fake blood, having practiced my agonized moaning and shrieks of pain. Instead, I was assigned the role of a woman with a history of congestive heart failure presenting with shortness of breath. So much for the blood and the screams. Rich, the EMSI observer, gave me a script of sorts. The m...

The G-20 is in Pittsburgh this week and I'm at Working Stiffs today blogging about it.

Is it true? Or is this another cruel rumor meant to tease me and then break my heart? Is Pitt Girl returning? I can only cross my fingers and hope. Any time something newsworthy (especially if it ranked as extremely stupid) happened in Pittsburgh, my first reaction would be: what’s Pitt Girl going to say about this? And she never disappointed. Until she closed up the Burgh Blog. But after nearly a year, it’s back . Right now there’s only a promise of something big coming and her archives. PLEASE let the “something big” be her return. With the G-20 Summit coming up, we’re going to need her perspective on the insanity taking place in our city. Come back, Pitt Girl!

Folks who live in the city escape to the country to get away. Those of us who live in the country often seek out more urban settings for our weekend escapes. Our usual vacation spot, Confluence, isn’t exactly urban, but as I’ve mentioned in past blogs, I can jump on my bike and ride into town anytime I need to mail a letter or pick up a few things for dinner. Here at home, shopping involves a half hour drive to get anywhere worth going. This weekend, I went even more urban, though, when a writing friend of mine, Mike Crawmer, invited me to meet him and a co-worker for a bike ride around Pittsburgh. Mike is what I’d have to call a “serious bike rider.” For his fiftieth birthday a few years back, he biked across Pennsylvania. Me? Fifteen miles is a long ride. I think my maximum was 22 miles one day. Parts of the ride were considerably different than my usual route. We rode along a graffiti-covered wall, past the county jail, and into the city. We crossed the Smithfield Street Bridge and ...

I'm over at Working Stiffs today with my photo diary of last Thursday's memorial service for Pittsburgh's fallen heroes.

It’s been a hectic week. And I suspect there are several more hectic weeks in my near future. Thirty-four days until my conference coordinator duties are over. I was about to celebrate that fact until I realized what it means. No more putting off the unfinished portion of this week’s to-do list until NEXT week. There are only a very few “next” weeks left. Panic attack! Breathe. Breathe. Okay, I’m better. Here’s a summary of what I’ve been doing. Last Tuesday, my Sisters in Crime chapter gathered at Mystery Lovers Bookshop along with a couple of book clubs to have dinner with author Harley Jane Kozak to celebrate the release of her latest novel, A Date You Can’t Refuse . It was nice to see Nancy Martin there, having climbed out of Deadline Hell. As I mentioned on Wednesday’s Working Stiffs, I spent Thursday in Pittsburgh at the memorial service for the fallen heroes of Zone 5. I’ll post a photo documentation of the day THIS Wednesday on Working Stiffs. Suffice it to say it was exha...

I'm blogging at Working Stiffs today about my personal reflections on the police officers who lost their life Saturday morning in a quiet Pittsburgh neighborhood.

I can’t bring myself to write anything without first acknowledging the horrible events that took place in a quiet Pittsburgh neighborhood Saturday morning. Two police officers responding to a “routine domestic disturbance call” were gunned down as was a third officer coming to their aid. I will post more extensively about the shootings and how they touched me Wednesday on Working Stiffs. For now and for here, let me report on a much more pleasant topic. Friday evening, I battled the traffic (why must they tear up every single stretch of highway I must travel, all at the same time?) to head into Mystery Lovers Bookshop for Laura Lippman’s latest visit. I am a HUGE fan of Laura’s writing. I want to write like her when I grow up. (Okay, okay, so she and I are the same age. Let’s not get picky.) But I confess, I’ve been known to keep a notebook at my side when I’m reading one of her books so I can jot down some of the wonderful word choices she uses. What the Dead Know is one of my top al...

On Sunday, Hubby and I made our yearly trip to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Oakland (Pittsburgh). I have a love/hate relationship with that part of the city. It's a really cool place, but I find it much cooler if someone ELSE is driving. Anyhow, I am blogging about the museum and its dinosaur exhibit (complete with photos) over at Working Stiffs today. Come on over.

On Saturday, I served as a proctor for the written exam for the Pittsburgh Police recruits. Today, I'm blogging about the experience over at Working Stiffs . Come on over.

I'm over at Working Stiffs today with the second installment of my experience riding along with the Pittsburgh Police...including a link to video of what I ALMOST got to be a part of.

I'm pulling double duty today. Double blog duty, that is. It's Wednesday, so I'm over at Working Stiffs . Today I blog about my ride-along with the Pittsburgh Police last Friday. Also, my friend and critique buddy, Donnell Ann Bell invited me to guest blog on the Five Scribes . Over there, I write about Yoga, Mediation, and Murder and how my two careers converge. Please pop over to both blogs and join the fun.

Sometimes a gal just has to play hooky. My duties as 2009 Pennwriters Conference Coordinator kicked into high gear this weekend as we prepared to apply for a grant. I basically needed to plan the entire conference in four days. Mind you, the conference isn’t until next May. But I needed as much detail as I could gather and put together. Nothing like a deadline and a little pressure to force me to focus. Saturday, I spent about ten hours at the computer working on the thing. By Saturday night, my brain was fried. Sizzled. Burnt to a crisp. Calgon, take me away! Sunday morning, I basically turned over what was left to Pennwriters’ president, vice-president, and this year’s conference coordinator with orders to “deal with it.” Hubby and I were outta here. Every year, Pittsburgh hosts the Three Rivers Arts Festival in the heart of the city. Every year, I say I want to go. NOT every year does it happen. More often than not, the festival comes and goes before I realize time has escaped me o...

Because of Memorial Day, we had no Citizens' Police Academy this week. But it's still Wednesday, so it's still my day to post over at Working Stiffs . We're having some fun today with local speech patterns otherwise known around here as Pittsburghese. Yunz come on over n at.