Summer Slow Down

Is it me or does it seem eerily quiet in romanceland? Posts on both loops and blogs I frequent seem to be way down. I know I'm busy with wrapping up the school year (which always seems to be crazily busy) and trying to get deep into book #3 so I can enjoy the summer vacations we have planned--maybe everyone else is, too.

We aren't doing anything exciting--a trip to the "Gold Country" and maybe a trip down south to Disneyland for my daughter's birthday. The "big" events will come at the end of summer when the Romance Writers of America's national conference comes to San Francisco and then in September when I head across the pond to the UK.

So what about you . . . have you been busy getting ready for the summer? Any big trips planned (BTW, it is NOT okay to tell me you are going to Hawaii!)? Are you planning to go to RWA this year?

A mouse, a server and a bad tooth

What do those all have in common? They are my excuses for being so quiet this last week.

Christmas has become such a production last year my husband and I had the great idea of doing something different next year. So last week I started investigating Disney World. Well, let me tell you--it is quite a project. I am now the proud owner of two DW travel books and am a subscriber to numerous "mousesaver" type of newsletters. Don't get me started about the review sites. There are so many they can make your head spin. My husband said "information overload" and he's exactly right.

As my friends and family can attest I am something of a "Julie MacCoy." Those of you old enough to remember the Love Boat will get the analogy. I love to plan vacations, research all the available options, and find the best deal. This is absolutely impossible with Disney World. They have 22--count them--22 Disney properties. If you call the Disney "vacation specialists" everything is quoted in packages so it is very difficult to price out individual items. Usually one thinks of "package" as getting some kind of break for purchasing a bunch of things together--i.e. rooms, food, and tickets. Not so. I don't think it saves you $5. Special deals around the holidays...forget about it. Not saving SOMETHING goes against every bone in my body. When I get a bee in my bonnet I won't stop. So there I was obsessively researching every possible avenue. Can you say headache?

But the fun doesn't stop there. On Saturday, my email decided to stop sending emails. Thankfully I could still receive them. This has happened before and it typically sorts itself out in a day or two. Not this time. Apparently, after doing a little searching on-line, my internet provider (ATT) decided to change their server settings which meant that their customers had to change theirs. Dutifully I poured over the ATT site, printed off instructions and, holding my breath, tried. Nothing worked. It actually made it worse because I stopped receiving messages too. So then came the phone call. After a lengthy call of trying different things, the guy finally figured out that because I've had DSL for so long I never had an account created, thus the new server couldn't authenticate my email. UGH. Two days of computer stress later it was fixed.

So what's more fun than computer problems? How about root canal! Yes, on Saturday and Sunday I realized that something was definitely wrong when my normal tooth pain (I have quite a bit normally) turned into something more painful than . . . I don't know what. I told my husband I could see why in the old days people would pull out bad teeth with plyers. It hurt so much I was thinking about it. So today I had root canal.

What a fun weekend...huh? At least I hope I have a good excuse for being so quiet. Violins anyone? Off to pop the pain pills!

Brenda Novak's Auction For Diabetes

Fellow Diva Brenda Novak's annual auction for diabetes started this week and there are some amazing items up for bid, including a "HIS and HERS" item from the McCartys. I packaged a signed set of the MacLeod trilogy with a signed card and ball from the 2004 World Series--my husband Dave was part of the 2004 team. I'm also part of a mentoring program with the Divas. So definitely check it out! All the money raised goes to a great cause. What Brenda has done amazes me--I can't imagine how she manages to organize and hold a huge auction like this, take care of 5 kids, AND write fabulous books. Makes me feel like a serious slacker. I can barely manage to get dinner on the table. Sorry, kids, it's pizza again tonight . . .