I've been inundated with spam comments. Anyone else having this problem? I finally disabled the comment ability on those posts that were getting slammed (I wonder what the difference between "locked" and "disabled" is?)

Anyway, yuck. If this post gets spam comments too, I'll just have to make this journal into a no-comment blog, like Neil Gaiman's! Ha!
;-)

My husband and I are home from our vacation to Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida!  We lucked out with the weather; it was warm (upper 70's most of the time) and sunny.  Couldn't have asked for better; especially when we knew at home it was snowing, sleeting, and 12F **shudder**.  Driving home, we saw the 'carnage' on the interstates from the ice storms that had happened only 24 hours before; it was seriously like a movie set from Twister, we saw so many mangled semis and vehicles in ditches.

Our main reason for going to Universal (other than my husband has never been before) was of course the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  A smallish corner of the Universal's Adventure park, it was easily the most popular and most-attended place.  Luckily our hotel room keys got us in an hour earlier than the unwashed masses (ha) so we did get to totter around Hogsmeade without having to constantly dodge other people and avoid stepping on toes/getting our toes stepped on.

What was possibly even more fun was looking at the variety of house colors our fellow fans/vacationers would choose.  More Hufflepuffs than I'd have imagined, and not nearly as many Ravenclaw as you'd suppose.  Of course the majority were Gryffindor, but I'd proudly say there were almost an equal number of Slytherin being represented.  And often, the staff of the parks in other areas (security guards, cashiers at other stores) would raise a fist to me in solidarity when they'd note my scarf and shout, "Go Slytherin! Best house!" 

One retail store worker informed us that there are serious talks of expanding the Harry Potter park into other parts of the Adventure park. Which would of course be wise; even though the books are all out and the movies are finished, there seems to be no slowing down of fan interest.  Universal would be stupid not to capitalize on our willingness to spend our money on more attractions.

So, I'm happy in the knowledge that my farewell to the little village of Hogsmeade, with its snow-capped peaked rooftops and crazily-jutting chimneys, was not my last. We will be back. :)

What are your new year's resolutions, if you make them?

Mine are:

1) lose the last 15 lbs and keep them off
2) make exercise/walking a priority of every day
3) practice my ukulele! Become good enough that I can shave my eyebrows like Amanda Palmer. (Not really.)
4) keep up with my cleaning-the-house schedule better (so I don't have to clean everything at once when we're expecting guests)

Shouldn't be too hard. :)  Best of luck to all of you!

I'm sort of under the impression that no one really comes to Livejournal anymore; Twitter and Facebook seem to be the places to go these days.  But, there are still times, I think, when it's kind of nice to write a whole paragraph of something. Not that I have all that much to say.

Big changes coming up soon - I'm quitting my job as a librarian and will be trying out my hand at farming along with my husband.  Long story short; my husband and his father have been doing the farm thing together for years, but my father-in-law is getting older and slowing down.  He's 80 and not in the greatest of health due to a bout with lung cancer and stress from his wife having an aggressive form of dementia. Essentially, the time has come for my husband to have to get some more help for the farm.  That help will either be in the form of finding and training someone willing to do hard work for only a few months out of the year at a time (and taking the risk on how dependable that potential employee might be) or... ME.  

I was recently promoted to manager of my department at the library, and I hated it.  I already didn't feel much like a real librarian, doing essentially the same job as our copy cataloger (I have an MLS- she doesn't even have a college degree) but moving into management meant I wasn't doing ANYthing remotely like a Librarian does. And, let it be known that I said it first - I do not like people, and managing them is my idea of the ninth ring of hell.

So the time was ripe for me to find a new job... and since my husband so conveniently has a job opening, everything just fit into place.  If this goes well, I will also be looking into starting an apiary and seeing where farming honey and beeswax takes us, too.  Perhaps there's even a future for us in home-brewed mead.

... it's Region 1 (UK) but if you've got a computer that will play other-region DVDs, you should totally get it.
 
Lookie:
www.youtube.com/watch

... that on Nov 5, 1955, Doctor Emmett L. Brown came up with the brilliant idea for the Flux Capacitor, which, of course, is what makes time travel possible. So let’s all take a moment today to celebrate this man and his amazing contribution to science and modern life. Happy Flux Capacitor Day everyone!

I know a lot of people stay up until midnight on the first day in order to get a jump-start on their daily 1,667 wordcount.  I almost never do; for I am old and I do love sleep. 

In the past I've posted blurbs from my motivational write-a-novel-in-30-days books.  This year, I'm not going to bother: if by now you haven't gone and bought those books yourself, then you're missing out.  In particular, this one by NaNoWriMo founder Chris Baty, "No Plot? No Problem!"

Another useful tool has emerged in recent years - "Write Or Die" by DrWicked.  I've used this tool a few times when I just need to get myself out of my own head and write the words.  It's very motivating when that screen turns red. 

Good luck to all the other WriMos out there.  Let's get these books written!

Just in case you didn't know that.

And soon, it will be Halloween.  And then, it will be my 7th wedding anniversary. 

Just in case you didn't know that, either.

(and, also, beginning of NaNoWriMo. WOO.)

And as Vox went under, it's HERE that I'll be posting up my whining and complaining about how I can't write, am not creative in the least, why am I doing this stupid thing anyway, etc. etc.
Lucky you!
(Is anyone even still on Livejournal?)  *listens to crickets*

Anyway; this year, my NaNoWriMo will be a little bit different.  I'm already working on a non-fiction book, and I'm going to use my month of NaNoWriMo to give it a little kick in the pants.  Because NaNo is about writing a NOVEL (ie: fiction) I'm going to make my nonfiction into fiction!  I know what you're saying. Gasp, she's crazy!  I know, right! What a hoot! The world will be torn asunder with this outstanding breaking of the laws of genre!

Regardless of any Black Holes of Genre-Breaking that might occur due to my outrageous disregard for rules, I'm hoping that by the end of November I'll have an entertaining, perhaps even mildly amusing work of fiction/nonfiction.