Projects undertaken in the Unfocused household in the waning days of 2008:
- I made a shield for Unfocused Girl’s impromptu Athena costume, using a cardboard cake circle and duct tape.
- Mrs. Unfocused hung Unfocused Girls’ giant paper mache sea creatures from the ceiling of the kids’ room.
- I started a new short story, because I need a break from outlining Project Hometown and I wasn’t at my desk to work on the revisions of Meet the Larssons.
- Mrs. Unfocused made a quickie Bolt birthday cake for Junior. No pictures — I’ll post photos of the more elaborate one she’ll make for his birthday party in a couple of weeks.
- We learned to play two of the games the kids got from Santa: Clue, Jr., and the Scooby-Doo Haunted House 3D board game.
- I started teaching Unfocused Girl how to play chess.
- I made Junior cry by capturing one of his pieces when he demanded that I teach him chess, too.
We don’t have any particular plans for tonight — we’ll probably watch a movie with the kids, stage a fake countdown around 9pm, go outside and make some noise, then put them to bed and go back downstairs to have some champagne. Or some more champagne.
Happy New Year to you and yours, and here’s hoping 2009 is a better year overall than 2008 has been.
The Unfocused Life 
We have Clue Jr. too. It’s pretty fun. At least they make it so it is not a murder mystery. That would be a little rough on the kids.
Happy New Year!
Yeah, we have the original one, and Unfocused Girl loves it, but it’s too much for Junior. Happy New Year, to you & yours, too.
Yes, a pox on 2008! Here’s to a Happy Publishing New Year! I would love to see the Bolt cake.
I will absolutely post a photo of the Bolt cake after Junior’s party. The Mrs. is ridiculously good at cake decorating.
And Happy Publishing New Year indeed! Any word from the agent yet? Is it unreasonable of me to keep checking my email, looking for word on any of the three short stories I have out even though it’s a major holiday?
Nope, not unreasonable. I check email twice a day hoping for a reply from the agent. She last contacted me on Dec 1. She said I’d hear back “in a couple of weeks” which I think is the definition of A MONTH. Tick, tick, tick…..
I think you should drive to NYC and camp out in front of her office. Seriously, they like to see that kind of dedication.
One of the places I have a story pending review has an online status checking page. My story is still “pending review,” and as of 10:45 this morning, there are 336 other stories pending review, and they last sent a response on December 29. That’s last year!
I have a feeling she’d have me arrested if I did that. She runs her agency out of her (I think) Long Island home. Probably wouldn’t appreciate me stalking her. The most frustrating part is that this is only round one – query and sample chapters. Her “yes” would be merely to read the whole mss. Then, she’d have to say she liked it and wants to represent me. Sigh.