Polls

Inquiring mind wants to know:

1) How often do you clean your bathrooms?

2) Clorox wipes, cloth rags and spray bottle, or sponge and bucket?

3) And how do you care for your granite counters?

4) How often do you wash your hair?

5) How much time do you spend on Facebook or reading blogs every day?  (I figure most people underestimate this figure.)

6) What's one thing you want to learn more about but somehow never make the time to study?

Quiz

I am too tired to create original content tonight. (And my internal editor is fried too, even with the support of AutoCrit.)

So, a plug!
I love Brenda Novak's 5th Annual On-line Auction for Diabetes Research. Want a computer? Vacation? Stack of autographed books? Critique of your manuscript? Click on over!

Also, a quiz!
(or two)
I took What Kind of Blogger Are You? and What's Your Blogging Personality?
I got You Are a Pundit Blogger and Your Blogging Type Is Artistic and Passionate, respectively.
Yeah? Apparently not.

You Are a Pundit Blogger!

Your blog is smart, insightful, and always a quality read. You're up on the latest news, and you have an interesting spin on things. Of all the blogging types, you put the most thought and effort into your blog. Truly appreciated by many, surpassed by only a few

What Kind of Blogger Are You?

Your Blogging Type is Artistic and Passionate

You see your blog as the ultimate personal expression - and work hard to make it great. One moment you may be working on a new dramatic design for your blog... And the next, you're passionately writing about your pet causes. Your blog is very important - and you're careful about who you share it with.

What's Your Blogging Personality?

How about you?

Huh. I Forgot What I Was About to Say.

So I guess I'll just do the title of the first post of every month for last year meme thing, since I forgot to do it in January. Two forgettings cancel each other out, right?

2008 in Blog
January: Big, Fun, Scary
February: At Least I'll Go To Bed Before Midnight
March: St. Louis Bloggers Carnivals 8 and 9
April: Feeding
May: Nothing To See Here
June: Successful Venture
July: I (Briefly) Lost Ellie Today
August: Cool
September: Friends Are Friends Forever . . .
October: Whine, Slap!
November: National Novel Writing Month Is On!
December: Pastor's Advice for Better Marriage: More Sex

On second thought, I'm no longer sure I see the point of that exercise. Perhaps if I had more descriptive titles it would make more sense. Thanks for sitting through that. Posts in the queue include a brief discussion about sex, so, you know, come back again and stuff.

25 Random Things

(This is a Facebook thing, and I don't do the Facebook social app things. But I like the people who tagged me, so here I am . . .)

Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

(To do this, go to "notes" under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)

1. I have an addictive personality.
   
2. I once called in sick to work because I wanted/needed to finish a book. (I was also sick, but that has never stopped me from going to work.) I did not allow myself to read unassigned fiction during the semester in college.
   
3. I am, therefore, careful about things that are considered addictive.
   
4. I am totally a snob. Just not about the usual things.
   
5. I quit chewing my nails years ago, but now pick at my lip until it bleeds instead.
   
6. I am a mess of conflicting desires and opinions.
   
7. I want a huge, gorgeous house.
   
8. But I think it's selfish and environmentally unsustainable to use more than one needs. Our house fits us fine. Sigh.
   
9. I would love to spend a day a month at a nice spa, having pedicures and massages.
   
10. But I would be horrified at such a wasteful expenditure of money, even if I could afford it.
    
11. I whine about paying more than $15 for an item of clothing. (I shop rarely, and often at clearance sales.)
    
12. But I know that to make clothes cheaply for people like me, the working conditions for some poor girl across the world are probably terrible.
    
13. It can occasionally get a little depressing inside my head because of all this junk in there.
    
14. But I'm really not a sad or depressed person! I make babies laugh! I cried on election night and watching the inauguration!
    
15. I am still uncomfortable around adults with developmental disabilities and those who behave unpredictably. (I am working on this.)
    
16. I want to be a writer.
    
17. Really badly.
    
18. I mean, I am a writer. And I have no need to be Dan Brown, but I do have a certain measure of success that I'd like to achieve in my dream career.
    
19. I used to be skinny. (Like, couldn't donate blood because I didn't weigh 100 pounds skinny.)
    
20. Now I'm not. By a long shot.
    
21. I really enjoy sleep, but have a very hard time making myself go to sleep at night.
    
22. My nightly oral care routine (read: brushing my teeth) is 5 different steps and takes nearly 10 minutes.
    
23. I love coffee. But only with milk.
    
24. I want to travel the world with my children. (But sometimes just taking them out to dinner is exhausting.)
    
25. I am secretly very very lazy. I just hide this behind a screen of keeping very busy.

Which reminds me, I really need to go. I've got a couple of lessons to prepare for later this week, 3000 words of fiction to write, laundry to put away, a house to tidy, bathrooms to clean, a birthday present to wrap, several packages to mail, a book to finish, an over-full Google Reader, and hundreds of emails that need responses.

Personality Type

When I was a kid, my family went to Presbyterian Synod School at the University of Central Missouri every summer. If you've never been to a synod school, I hardly know how to describe it. We stayed in the dorms, the 5 of us in a 2-room suite connected by a bathroom. (I have no memory of where my youngest sister slept, though I bet she does! Lilsis?)

All day there were classes and workshops and music and art and . . . fun stuff. As a preteen and young teen, I was very excited by walking around campus, going to classes without my parents, and eating meals in a dining hall (with a soda fountain! and soft serve ice cream! our favorite was to fill a class with ice cream and cover it with every type of soda).

One year, when I was 13 or 14, my class took a Myers-Briggs personality test. I was an INFJ. My husband recently had many of his co-workers take a Myers-Briggs-type test as part of a team-building exercise, and I took it just for fun. You can, too!

Now, I am an INTJ. The difference? I used to be more feeling, now I'm more thinking. Well . . . yeah. I grew up! But seriously, this transition makes sense to me; as a teenager, like many teenagers, I felt everything so acutely. As I grew up, that toned down a bit.

I don't mean to suggest that adults who are "F's" are immature. But it makes sense as a description of me. The "Thinking" thing is a trait I've attempted to cultivate, practicing and concentrating and focusing on hearing, analyzing, and responding to arguments intellectually rather than emotionally. Both types are necessary, of course, but I made a conscious effort to shift my balance.

Anyway, I like the description of me (though it's not all accurate). And the suggested careers? Not so much!

INTJ - Scientists, engineers, professors, teachers, medical doctors, dentists, corporate strategists, organization founders, business administrators, managers, military, lawyers, judges, computer programmers, system analysts, computer specialists, psychologists, photographers, research department managers, researchers, university instructors, chess players. They have a particular skill at grasping difficult, complex concepts and building strategies.

E=2 Extraversion
I=9 Introversion
S=5 Sensing
N=15 iNtuition
T=12 Thinking
F=7 Feeling
J=16 Judging
P=3 Perceiving
You are an INTJ

6 Random Things

Many thanks to TheMikeStand from Speak into the Mike for tagging me.

This is a familiar one that goes like this:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.
6. Let your tagger know when your entry is up.

6 Bits of Sarahlynn:

1. I've never had a cold sore. For some strange reason, this is very important to me (probably because it seems very important to my mother) and I freak out a little whenever anyone with a cold sore holds/touches/gets too close to one of my children. I've been known to irrationally coat them with antibacterial goo afterwards (and, yes, I know that cold sores are caused by a virus, not a bacteria. Still, alcohol is somewhat effective at killing lots of things.)
   
2. I used to chew my nails. A lot. I've stopped that (though I do chew at my cuticles sometimes) and replaced the habit with picking at my lip. My bottom lip on its right side. Which often makes me look like I have a cold sore.
   
3. Thinking of sores, I've told you about how I once shaved my eye, haven't I? With a razor blade, while trying to shave my armpit. (I'm both a perfectionist and a touch near-sighted.) I had to wear an eye-patch to jr. high school for half a day, which was mortifying.
   
4. My eyes are brown, but they were greeny-hazel until just before I turned 3. The books say that eye color settles in the first year, but that's just not so. Ada's eyes are very similar to mine.
   
5. As far as colors go, I don't have a favorite one. I also don't have a favorite book, movie, song, or quote. Why limit myself? I can tell you what I'm enjoying now and what I enjoyed 10 years ago. But a single favorite? My mind spins uselessly.
   
6. I gave up music because of Eminem (and Limp Bizkit and Kid Rock, etc.). At some point, I got so frustrated with hating the lyrics of the music I liked - I'd already given up most rap - that I just switched my radio permanently to NPR. And, later, toddler tunes. Despite being a (lapsed) musician, the lack of music in my life (except for lullabies and constant toddler tunes) hasn't bothered me.

As you see, I cheated a little. Each item links to the next; the list isn't completely random. That made the game more fun for me, so I encourage this modification to those who are interested.

Now I'm supposed to tage 6 of you. But, sadly, I haven't been reading blogs (other than the professional writing/editing/agenting blogs) in my reader closely enough to be sure that I'm not tagging someone who has already done it. If I've double-tagged you, please just ignore it!

1. Jessica at Daughter of Opinion
   
2. Scott at Chaotic Revelations
   
3. Abby at Abby Monroe is Here!
   
4. Oh, I hate tagging people. So, to everyone who is interested but hasn't done who hasn't done it yet: have at it! And let me know that you did.
   
5. 
   
6. 
   

Short on Sugar

Perhaps you've heard of Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs. The same editors are compiling a new anthology, Short on Sugar, High on Honey. Bittersweet Love Stories. These stories are longer, 7-13 words (no titles).

This is fun:

In the end, Cass kept the baby; it seemed so important to Mike.

I've changed it again. I might keep doing this; it's fun!

Privilege

Alas, a meme. Courtesy of PeripateticPolarBear.

(You're supposed to bold those that are true for you.)

• Father went to college.
  
• Father finished college. (Plus a Masters and two Doctoral degrees)
  
• Mother went to college.
  
• Mother finished college. (Plus two Masters degrees)
  
• Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor. (my cousin is a physician and my grandfather was a professor)
  
• Were the same or higher social class than your high school teachers.
  
• Had more than 50 books in your childhood home.
  
• Had more than 500 books in your childhood home. (I am told that all those boxes in the basement are full of books, but those are just the ones that won't fit on the shelves that are in every single room on the two upper floors.)
  
• Were read children’s books by a parent.
  
• Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18.
  
• Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18 (clarinet, saxophone, dance, more dance, gymnastics, swimming, tennis, etc.)
  
• The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively.
  
• Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18.
  
• Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs. (well, they paid for all of my room and board.)
  
• Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs.
  
• Went to a private high school.
  
• Went to summer camp. (one weekers only, e.g. band camp, etc.)
  
• Had a private tutor before you turned 18.
  
• Family vacations involved staying at hotels. (though our pop-up camper was the preferred venue)
  
• Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18.
  
• Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them.
  
• There was original art in your house when you were a child. (sure, my mom made some things for the walls)
  
• You and your family lived in a single-family house.
  
• Your parents owned their own house or apartment before you left home. (I assume that having a mortgage counts as "owning," but I could be wrong here)
  
• You had your own room as a child. (except when I briefly and mistakenly chose to share with a sister)
  
• You had a phone in your room before you turned 18. (I didn't, but my younger sister did.)
  
• Participated in a SAT/ACT prep course. (MCAT - yes)
  
• Had your own TV in your room in high school. (My parents would have sooner died. My sister, on the other hand . . . )
  
• Owned a mutual fund or IRA in high school or college. (I did have a CD)
  
• Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16.
• Went on a cruise with your family. (does Paul count? No, I guess I was an adult at 26.)
  
• Went on more than one cruise with your family.
  
• Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up. (so very, very many)
  
• You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family. (I still have no idea how much my parents make or what their expenses are; they don't talk about money around us.)

Um, wow.

And The Winner Is . . .

Keribrary with her suggestion about a dye job! I've given up on an amusing anecdote as an opener. No matter what I do, this story seems to want to start with an argument, so it will. And the hair color conversation at the beginning, while appearing trivial, will introduce the story's most significant conflict and be the biggest (yet still subtle) clue to whodunit until the big reveal at the end.

Ecoeclipse gets the honorable mention for the eco-guests suggestion, two of whom are important characters in this scene and throughout the book.

As Keribrary's prize, she gets to have a possibly unflattering caricature of herself written into the novel! Keri, your choice: appearance, name, personality, or the whole package. Just let me know in comments.

Thank you to all who made suggestions, especially Keri!

Play With Me?

Argh! The exposition fairy has dumped her whole bag of boring exposition dust all over my first 5 pages, and it's really hard to clean it all out.

Usually, I have lots of great first lines that go nowhere. Unusually, I currently find myself with a very good idea of where I'm going but am having trouble finding just the right way to start.

So I'm having a little contest, if you're game. Winner gets to have a character named after her or him!

Chapter 1: I'm introducing all the main characters and setting the stage for the novel's developing conflict at a dinner party. So far, in addition to a lot of dialogue, there are long paragraphs about birding, open source software development, and a computer game that I've invented for the purposes of this novel. I have strategies for cleaning up the exposition, but would love to have a catchy way to begin, other than with the corny joke one of my characters has just made. Again. ("Red or white?" "Blue!" [holds up energy drink])

In the comments for this post, supply me with an opening gambit that I love (an idea, which I'll write into an opening line that fits with my narrator's voice) and you get to have a character named after you or your favorite pet. For people I know, winning will offer you the chance to have me remove the possibly offensive caricature of you from my novel. Deadline Sunday night. Hit me!

What Dog Breed Are You?

I found this one way too much fun. Via Rob.



Border Collie
The Achiever

You've heard about this "second-place ribbon" thing, but really don’t ever plan on getting one. Not a chance. Highly competitive, you keep one eye on the Best in Show prize and one on the rest of the pack, making sure you're always at least one paw ahead. You love your family and enjoy the company you keep, but you'd trade all of them in a heartbeat for a corner office and some meaty stock options. When you're not licking your professional coat, naked skydiving and triathlons keep you entertained. You idolize the top dog and will do so until you sniff out a way to take over the company and do a little "restructuring."

How do they know me so well? My only criticism: that shaggy collie coat! No, thank you.

Sarahlynn needs . . .

On a friend's blog I found this exercise: Do a google search for "[Your first name] needs", and discover what the Internets think you really need.

That sounded interesting.

I only had one hit. It was a comment on my husband's blog from an opinionated friend of ours, suggesting, "Maybe Sarahlynn needs to Get involved in the rocking Ellie back to Sleep."

As if I'm not . . .

3 Things Game

Psycho Kitty asked; I must answer:

3 names you go by (that won't give away my
identity):

1. Sarahlynn
   
2. Sarah (only men call me this)
   
3. Mama (oh, aren't I original!)

3 screennames you've had:

1. Sarahlynn
   
2. Book Addict
   
3. Lady Sexy (I was in college. It was a long time ago. I really have no excuse for this.)

3 physical things you like about yourself:

1. My body did great with childbirth
   
2. I'm proportionate
   
3. I like my hair, though it could use a good cut

3 physical things you dislike about yourself: (Only 3?!)

1. Weight
   
2. Weight
   
3. Post-childbirth hemorrhoids (aren't you glad you asked?)

3 parts of your heritage:

1. Scots/English
   
2. Liberal
   
3. Presbyterian (yes! Like Bill Frist!)

3 things you are wearing right now:

1. Rings from Paul
   
2. Glasses
   
3. Toenail polish

3 favorite bands / musical artists:
I'm reaching way back to before my life was all toddler tunes and NPR.

1. Ani Difranco
   
2. R.E.M.
   
3. Too Short (OK, that's from way, way, way back)

3 favorite songs:
You know, I really suck at listing favorites. I don't even have a favorite color.

1. Olivia Newton-John - Twist of Fate (When I was 9)
   
2. R.E.M. - Drive (When I was 18)
   
3. Barenaked Ladies - One Week (When I was 25)

3 things you want in a relationship:

1. Trust
   
2. Laughter
   
3. Slow burn

3 physical things about the preferred sex that
appeals to you:

1. Smell
   
2. Skin
   
3. Confidence

3 of your favorite hobbies:

1. Reading and writing
   
2. Tivo
   
3. Sleeping

3 things you want to do really badly right now:

1. Get in shape
   
2. Travel
   
3. Have no debt

3 things that scare you:

1. Sharks
   
2. Spiders
   
3. People I love getting hurt

3 of your everyday essentials:

1. Sleep
   
2. Diet Coke
   
3. Lotion and chapstick

3 careers you have considered or are
considering:

1. Publishing
   
2. Writing
   
3. Mom

3 places you want to go on vacation:

1. Alaska (alas, alas, Alaska)
   
2. Yosemite National Park
   
3. Great Britain

3 things you want to do before you die:

1. Ensure that everyone I love is comfortably taken care of
   
2. Write fiction and have it published
   
3. Raise happy, healthy children

3 ways you are stereotypically a boy:

1. I'm assertive and direct - skip the chitchat and let's get to work
   
2. I direct strong emotion and pain inward
   
3. I can belch on cue

3 ways you are stereotypically a chick:

1. I like to cheep
   
2. My mother is a hen
   
3. Someday, someone will eat me for dinner

3 celeb crushes:

1. Kate Jackson from Scarecrow and Mrs. King
   
2. Courteney Cox from Family Ties
   
3. Orlando Bloom from The Lord of the Rings

3 people to play next:

I'm cheating. These are people who don't blog but should.

1. My Mom
   
2. Lisa
   
3. My sisters

Preguntas para Portia

. . . from The Winding Sheet. (Jessica, check her out. I've "known" Portia online for a long, long time. I can't believe it never occured to me to point you two at each other before.)

1) Did you ever think about not having a baby? (And, on a related note, have you read my friend Jessica at Daughter of Opinion?)

2) Do you still game?

3) Are we placing too much emphasis on kids' self esteem? (I couldn't pass up a Christina Hoff Sommers reference.)

4) Winter, Spring, Summer, or Fall?

5) If you came into an income of $100,000/year aside from your job(s), what would change in your life?

Interview with a – well - with You

Here are your questions:

Mypetrock:

1. You wanted to and you didn't. Do you now wish you had?
   
2. What do you want for dinner next Wednesday?
   
3. Which fictional character would you be, if you could be any fictional character?
   
4. What's your least favorite part of being a parent?
   
5. When we were in college, what inspired your interest in mentoring young people with developmental disabilities?

Salamasond:

1. If you could wave a wand and get rid of Ellie's Trisomy 21, would you do it?
   
2. What is your favorite thing about yourself?
   
3. What do you miss most about where you grew up?
   
4. What's the monster under your bed?
   
5. What's the best book you've ever read?

Princess of Everything (and then some):
First of all, welcome! It's nice to meet you.

1. What are some of your favorite verses to "Wheels on the Bus?"
   
2. You have a tail?
   
3. What is the best part about your job?
   
4. What's the worst part about living in Texas?
   
5. Where have all the cowboys gone?

Zoe (Delany's questions made this harder!):

1. Why reptiles?
   
2. Do you get tired of Dorothy jokes?
   
3. As an android, do you have trouble expressing emotions?
   
4. You dropped it where?
   
5. In what ways might a fish need a bicycle?

------
The Official Interview Game Rules

1. If you want to participate, leave a comment below saying "interview me."
   
2. I will respond by asking you five questions - each person's will be different.
   
3. You will update your journal/blog with the answers to the questions.
   
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the same post.
   
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.