I’m actually quite upset about this, because I’m still feeling crappy, congested and sick. (But littleQ isn’t sick, so that’s good!) But that’s no excuse! I’ve failed NaBloPoMo! … and only by like half an hour!

Woe is me…..

Now I’ve just got to make sure I get my novel to 50,000 words by the 30th, or else I’ll really feel like a failure

Technorati Tags: nanowrimo, nablopomo, feeling sick

It’s no surprise that right when the Indian summer came to an end, I got sick.  It was unusually warm right up until the very beginning of November, and a few days after it suddenly got chilly I woke up with gross phlegm stuck in my throat, which has seen fit to go on ahead and keep manufacturing more and more and more.  I’ve also started coughing a little bit, which I hope doesn’t persist.

littleQ has caught whatever the hell it is I have, which I was hoping he wouldn’t, considering I haven’t been feeling 100% for a few days now, but my poor baby woke up at about 6AM this morning and vomited on the bed , so it’s off to the doctor for us both on Monday if we’re still feeling icky by then (or sooner if he starts feeling worse.. I hope not…).   I hope it’s not Strep =\  Right now littleQ is sleeping, so hopefully when he wakes up he’ll be his usual loud, rowdy and bubbly self.

Anyone else out there with a ridiculous immune system that decides to take a little break at the change of season, EVERY season?  Seriously!  I would move our little family to Florida if I wasn’t so in love with the fact that NYC so kicks ass (LOL) and doesn’t get crazy hurricanes (well not usually, at least).  But I guess the hurricane issue would only be a problem if we lived near the coast, right? 

Ah whatever it doesn’t matter I highly doubt we’ll ever move out of New York, and mrQ doesn’t even want to move out of the city.  He’s acknowledged that it could be an option, but it would have to be somewhere relatively close to the boundary.  I grew up on Long Island, so really, I don’t have that weird aversion I’ve noticed some people get about moving to the ‘burbs.  As far as our nabe, it’s actually somewhat suburban-ish… but that changes if you go about 5 blocks one way.  Really - there’s this main road somewhat near our house that acts as a boundary… and you can tell the difference right away.  Silly city.

Technorati Tags: sick, illness, autumn, fall, change of seasons

Okay, I posted this up over at MamaDivas and Tips from the Money Goddess, so I figured I might as well post it here, too.  Basically, I’m looking for people who work from home, specifically work at home parents, but that is not a requirement… as long as you work from home, I want to hear from you.

Here’s the post:

If you’re a work at home mom or dad, please contact me!  I’m looking for work at home parents to interview for my website all about legitimate work at home opportunities, legit surveys, legit sites to get freebies, and more: Tips from the Money Goddess.  Please contact me by November 25, 2007 if you would like to be featured, along with your business (if applicable), on Tips from the Money Goddess (and syndicated right here on MamaDivas.com), please contact me with the following information:

1. Your name and your online alias (if you use one)
2. A brief description of your job/business
3. The URL to your business website, if applicable
4. Answer this question: Why do you want to be featured?

I’m hoping to feature at least 4-5 work at home parents, each from a different industry.  In fact, if you work at home but are not a parent, I’m interested in hearing from you, too!  If you have a blog or a business website (or both), this is a great opportunity to get some exposure, whether or not you need it, lol.

Please pass this on to other work at home parents whom you feel may be interested!

So, if you’re interested in being interviewed and have your business website(s) and/or blog(s) featured, just give me a holla (lol).

Technorati Tags: work at home, wahm, work at home mom, work at home dad, work at home parent, interview, home business, freelance

Here’s a little tidbit of disturbing news for ya: The National Children’s Museum’s Chief Operating Officer is busted for child pornography.

What the f***?

The Time Out Kids Blog asks:

What’s your reaction to this story? Should Singer get the max? Did he deserve to lose his job? Do children’s museums need stricter background checks?

I answer:

My reaction is, well, he sounds like a messed up dude. He’s 49-year-old father of two, described by a neighbor as “perfectly nice”.. bet nobody ever guessed what his secret hobby was. He should get the max penalty that he can get for this offense. Yes, he deserves to lose his job.. it’s a CHILDREN’S museum for chrissakes… even if it’s been closed since ‘04 and isn’t opening till 2012. What else would they do… let him keep his job and hope that by 2012 everyone’s forgotten about his secret hobby? As far as background checks go, I think every job where a person will be working with children or people of ANY age for that matter in a trusting environment like a museum needs a nice, strict background check… as strict as they come.

Of course then the following question must be asked: what do you do for those people who fall through the cracks? The people who haven’t been convicted and so don’t have records that prove their depraved ways?

Technorati Tags: National Children’s Museum, Children’s Museum Chief Operating Officer, perverted people

Patrick Moberg has found his dream girl. Ah, the power of the internet.

Technorati Tags: romance, nyc, 5 train, Patrick Moberg

I was making meatloaf for dinner tonight, but I didn’t have enough beef, so I added a whole ish-load of tofu, as well as basil, and some previously canned Chinese mushrooms I had leftover from when I made Cha Gio the other night.  I didn’t really follow any recipe, because well, I usually don’t need a recipe for meatloaf.  I suppose I should have looked one up though, you know, before I added all that tofu, before I kneaded in all that basil I probably shouldn’t have added and before I mixed in those Chinese mushrooms that just didn’t go with the Worcestershire or the ketchup.

I tried it with bread, and it tasted yucky.  I tried it with rice, and it wasn’t as yucky, but still quite gross.  So, though I feel kinda bad about it,  in the end it went in the garbage.  It’s a good thing we had some leftover Ziti from my mom.

Technorati Tags: recipes, meatloaf, food disaster

Well, my story and its characters are slowly but surely taking form.  Maybe in a few days I’ll post an excerpt so that people can mercilessly critique my work in progress.

Technorati Tags: NaNoWriMo

I just came across this website, NYGirlOfMyDreams.com, which is one page with a single image that lists details about a missed encounter on the NYC subway system’s 5 train. It also looks to be hand-drawn. (click on the images to see screenshots)

Apparently, a bloke named Patrick Moberg saw the girl of his dreams on the subway yesterday, Nov.4th, 2007 at 9:30 p.m., and then he came home, bought the domain name and then uploaded the picture on his site. According to the whois information, this domain was purchased just last night. It piqued my curiosity because this guy just met saw this girl last night, and instead of posting about it on his MySpace blog or on every one of his friend’s profiles on Facebook, he went ahead and created a website…dedicated to finding her. Awwwwwwwwww.

So… it is romantic…. but in today’s day and age, it can also be classified as….. well… odd. I do have a theory though that this could be one of those “fake” things designed to get bloggers like me writing about it…. like lonelygirl15 before all the secrets were uncovered….

For the sake of romance though….I hope it’s not fake, and I hope, Patty my boy, I hope you do your drawing justice… you know, regarding the claim that you are not insane.

If this is not a joke, and you are not crazy, then good luck finding your dream girl ;-).. and I hope she’s not crazy, so that if you do find her, all this wouldn’t have been a waste of your time

Oh I’m a sucker for romance.

Technorati Tags: nyc, new york city, subway, 5 train, union square, bowling green, missed encounters, Manhattan, Patrick Moberg

I am really so grateful that my parents are as generous as they are and are nice enough to babysit :-).

Last night two of cousins and I, the same ones who were with me when we met Tila, went to a Japanese restaurant that turns into a karaoke bar on Friday and Saturday nights from the hours of 10PM and 2AM. They advertise having over 17,000 songs to choose from, but that is no exaggeration on their part.

Apparently one of my cousins actually goes there quite often. She has an amazing voice, and has captivated the management, bartenders and bouncers so that not only did we get all of our drinks on the house, we also had our songs bumped up, hehe. Ooooh VIP treatment LOL.

I know, I know, you’re dying to know if I sang, and what song I sang. Well, first my cousin with the connections sang the Grease classic “Summer Loving” with the bartender. At this point, her sister and I still hadn’t worked up the courage to sing, but two Malibu bay breezes later, we relaxed and were pretty pumped to go. The three of us belted out our rendition of Lady Marmalade(Xtina, Pink, Mya, and Lil Kim version), complete with my cousin rapping Lil’ Kim’s part, and I sang “Total Eclipse of the Heart” (Old School style, of course… you’ll get it if you watched that movie, lol) with my cousins backing me up.

All in all it was a pretty entertaining evening. With the patrons’ song choices ranging from “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” to “Detachable Penis” to some song by P!nk to “Defying Gravity” from Wicked, as well as a few relatively bad obscure song choices, there really was a wide diversity of musical tastes in the crowd, and it was fun!

Now it’s back to the keyboard though… I’m so naughty I only wrote about 200 words yesterday :(… so I’ve got to catch up. NaNoWriMo is definitely not for the faint of heart… (or the LAZY, lol)

Technorati Tags: karaoke, bar, singing, nanowrimo

Remember to fall back

Well I’ve almost met my word count quota for the day.  I actually didn’t get much writing done today.  I wrote about 3,100 words yesterday, so I’ve only got 250 words to go.  Ach… I’ll catch up

In other news, it’s starting to get chilly here in NYC, and since it’s November 2, the Christmas commercials have started eating up airtime on every basic cable channel on TV.  I love Christmas, but I’m also not a little kid anymore.. it’s my turn to spend ridiculous amounts of money for everybody and their grandmas.  I haven’t been to Bloomie’s lately but I’m pretty sure every nook and cranny of every single location is covered with fake holly, berries and obnoxiously sparkly wreaths.  Don’t get me wrong though, at least Bloomie’s decorations aren’t overly tacky, and they do the job of getting me, and the however many millions of other shoppers there are, in the brotherly, gift-giving, money-spending mood of the season.

But at least for the rest of this month, my only focus aside from littleQ’s and mrQ’s health and happiness, will be my budding novel :)  Hey, if you’re lucky you might even get a chance to read it when it’s done hehe.

Technorati Tags: nanowrimo, national novel writing month, writing, novel, author

Alrighty, I’m sitting here at my computer, and I’m determined to make good use of these hours in the middle of the night when I should be sleeping, but usually just don’t. At this point, I have one sentence down.

It is recommended that you break up the 50,000 word minimum equally over the thirty days of November: 1667 words per day. I think I can do this:: that’s equal to about 3 decent sized blog entries, or one relatively long entry. I can do this. Basically I’ve committed myself to letting my creative juices flow forth for at least 1667 words of super kick-butt fiction each day, plus at least one blog entry every day, as per NaBloPoMo. Yep, I can do this

Let the writing begin =P

Technorati Tags: NaNoWriMo, NaBloPoMo, writing, national novel writing month, national blog posting month