November 10, 2007
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First Things First
I’m home from our last cheerleading competition of the year. The girls did well, but we were announced as the second place team. “Oh, well,” we thought–until we got our scoring sheets. It seems the judges deducted 20 points from our score for doing tumbling (cartwheels, etc.) because we were in the non-tumbling division. We were quite surprised at this since we told the organizers that we did a basic level of tumbling and expected to be placed in the correct division. Our head coach (and another coach whose team who had the same issue) went to the organizer. We didn’t expect any change to our placing, but we wanted to make sure that this didn’t happen next year. The woman apologized profusely and said that she had forgotten to instruct the judges that we were not to be deducted for tumbling. They awarded us our 20 points, and we were in first place!
We didn’t tell the girls until we all met for supper at nearby restaurant. It wouldn’t have been kind to rob the joy from the girls who were announced as first place. So, there were two “firsts.” But ours was the real one.
For being a coach this year, I was given a pretty bouquet of roses and such and a $75 gift certificate to the mall! Woo!
Random Pictures
Your’s Truly, the winner of the “First to Blow a Bubble from the Bazooka Gum Given out with Every Check at Baby’s” contest (local competition, our table only)
Fall–Circleville Road
(I took the second picture from the driver’s seat. That’s my inspection sticker on the dashboard in the corner of the picture.
Shhh…don’t tell anyone.)
Another super thing
about today is that I woke up and felt a bit better from this cold!
Granted, it might only have been 10% better, but it was the first time
in a week that I could see any improvement. YEAH!The NaNoWriMo novel is going well enough. I’ve written over 15,000 words, but I’m feeling very unmotivated tonight.
What
should my princess in exile with her handsome prince and her maid who
are all being chased by a bad guy and his cohorts do? Give me some fun
plot twists, scenes, or new characters! I’ll name a character or place
after you. Really, I will. Just ask Lord Farley.
Comments (25)
Hehe, I have taken pics while driving too. But I was going verrrrry slowly, and I was on an abandoned road.
That picture of you is hysterical!
I was never very good at blowing bubbles… plus, I always hated having a sticky face.
The $75 gift certificate sounds amazing!
The princess, prince and maid should all go parachuting off a cliff.
That is cool that they went back and made it right.
Hm you could have the maid “double-cross” the princess accidentally in some sort of accidental information leak in an unknowing conversation with one of said villan’s cohorts… and then work frantically to undo the damage…
Sounds like a fun time at the cheer elading competition.
Photos are beautiful and I think diriving that road would be almost spell binding with the beauty of fall there.
Have a good rest of the week end.
He just informed me of the fact… also that he thought my namesake should be an old mad crone
.
Sure I’ll do my best to do said propelling! And the timing of A’s predicament is indeed just
.
Yay! for the 1st place thing.. Those pictures came out really good.. You do a better job than me.. I do my best but I ain’t no photographer.. lol
It has been ages for me since I chew bubble gums.. I can’t chew them anymore cuz they would aggravate or flare up my TMJ.. No fun in that to deal with the pain in the jaws.. Dentist and Doctors have told me not to chew bubble gums or something that require lot of chewing..
Beautiful fall pics! Congrats on the first place at cheer competition and congrats to YOU for winning the first to blow a bubble contest at your table! Awesome! That was a good, kind thing they did by making the scores right when they messed up how they scored your team. They did the right thing and that’s so nice to hear. Have fun writing your book! You can always introduce evil twins, ghosts, portals to another world…time travel…throw in a kidnapping, or horse chase scene. How about a shipwreck on a deserted island? FWIW I LOVE it when authors talk a lot about the food, the clothes, the jewels, the little intricacies of court life, and the furnishings. Weird, I know. I LOVED Forever Amber ( the book) and Marie Antoinette ( the movie directed by Sophia Coppola) just for all those wonderful details.
Congrats on the cheerleading — the first place and the being finished part. And your fall pictures are gorgeous. Makes me want to take a trip up north. As to your plot twist, I don’t have a creative bone in my body this morning, so no characters named after me.
Keep up the hard work, though.
Congratulations to you and LibbyK for the cheer competition victory yesterday! What a day! I am truly proud of both of you for the efforts you put into this season. I hope you coach again next season – I think you are perfect for it.
How about throwing in some mistaken identities? The princess is really not the princess….the maid is, and there was a cradle switch years ago?
Congrats to all the cheerleaders and their coach!
Mary, I am so embarrassed, did you not get my email?? I sent you a Private Message via Xanga thanking you for your kind gift. I sent it the day after I received the gift. My mother and I sat on the couch for several evenings in a row taking turns reading the book out loud. I have read the entire book, and loved, loved, loved it!!
My mother is now reading it herself, and she has even subscribed to No Greater Joy magazine. She loved everthing about the book, their website and their advice.
I really, really, hope that you find the email that I sent to you, because I’m so embarrassed that I received a gift and you never received my thank you note. (blushing!!!)
My heart was so touched by your kindness and generosity. Please check you Xanga inbox, it would make me feel much better for you to find an outdated note of gratitude!!! (lol)
Your Friend, Cass
Love that bubble! The photos are gorgeous.
$3.79 U.S. would be $3.55 CAD at the current exchange rates. Would that I could buy a gallon of milk for that price! And yes, our dollar is worth more than yours at the moment. Isn’t that weird!
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The handsome prince should really be an informant who is keeping the enemy posted on her movements. He is under the spell of a wicked enchantress who wants him for herself.
Sorry about the competition.
Nice bubble
Great pictures and I’m glad you are feeling better.
Whatever happens, please don’t let the princess get pregnant! Do you think I’ve been in alternative school too long?
I’m glad you’re feeling better too.
here’s a few plot twists from other writers:
- prince gets ambushed/knocked-out-cold/betrayed/imprisoned — Frank Dixon’s Hardy Boys series
- prince leaves princess for a few minutes in the woods to do some scouting, and meanwhile the bad guys come and take her away, and the rest of the book he is trying to rescue her, and their paths keep almost-crossing but never truly crossing until the very end — Edgar Rice Burroughs
- introduce another “almost-hero-like” character, who ends up with his own subplot and whose story intertwines with the Main Couple’s story, and who (depending on the seriousness of the novel) ends up giving his life to save theirs at the end (e.g. “The Secret Ways” by Alistair MacLean), or else, finds a nice woman and gets married (e.g. Austen’s ‘double weddings’), or else, has some wierd/exciting transition that signals a sequel (Demetrius in Lloyd Douglass’ “The Robe”).
For extra interest, you could have the princess writing letters somehow to the prince (if they’re separated) which get lost or misunderstood, so that there is a major misunderstanding between them (best is when they are both self-sacrificially helping the other person in different ways, but the other person doesn’t know/doesn’t understand/doesn’t realize it somehow (but the reader knows), and then at the end they realize the depth of the love that each has shown for each other all along)…
Another thought is to add some more ‘humanity’ to the bad guy / cohorts (or, to only one out of the group of ‘bad guys’, who eventually ‘becomes good’ / ‘saves the day’ in the end) so it’s not just a one-dimensional badbadbad guy(s).
Have you ever read Stephen Lawhead novels or Sigmund Brouwer novels? Or the abovementioned Alistair MacLean and Lloyd Douglass? I utterly despise Lawhead’s and Brouwer’s worldviews (I didn’t always though), but their writing technique (in terms of weaving together fascinating novels/plots) seems really powerful. MacLean and Clancy also have some powerful plots and intrigue, though there is too much darkness, violence, and vulgarity in their works. Lloyd Douglass’s “The Robe” is great all around… though it rambles a bit, some parts are awesome (e.g. the part where Marcellus works in the melon fields). Lewis’ “The Horse and His Boy” might be another source of inspiration… the hero is utterly un-self-conscious of his own heroism, and is so lovable for that reason…
Umm…. I think they should hide out in a peasant’s cottage, and the princess should fall in love with the poor farmer’s son while she learns the value of hard work. Meanwhile the maid could impersonate the princess and throw the pursuers off the trail.
No need to include me in the character list. I’m already in a James Bond movie. I’m happy
Congrats to the cheerleaders and to their much-appreciated coach!!
You and your pictures are beautiful!!
Nice bubble & beautiful fall pics! Most of our leaves are down here & I enjoy seeing others’ now.
Congrats on the cheerleading competition!
You don’t want any storyline ideas from me! I love to read & would love to be able to write, but writer’s block is a constant companion! lol
Hahaha Yes, I was quite pleased with the bomb threat. Thanks so much!:)
Love the fence pic, and I’m glad you’re feeling better!
Congratulations to the team!
It looks like a beautiful area.
Glad you are on the mend. You have been fighting that cold for a long time! Have you tried Cold MD or Airborne? I have been beating one back for several weeks with Airborne. Wow, you are “The girl with the hair”. -You are probably too young to remember those Breck commercials.
RYC: Thanks for trying! I’m flattered you took the trouble to compile them. I am waiting till Quartus, the family tech guy, comes for Thanksgiving.
RYC: Yes, that is definitely a different floorplan.
Hi! thank you for commenting on my webpage!
yours is quite beautifully done.
thank you!
I also like the name “teacher person!”
very good!
Mrs. N