I just wanted to let you know that I did survive the weekend. Saturday was Xmas shopping with in-laws, which was a blast. No shortcuts were taken, and to be sure M drove.
Yesterday was grocery shopping, then we went to see Xmas Lights. See, there is a place in Tucson, a subdivision that does up Christmas lights for the whole place. It’s called Winterhaven. And there were ALOT of lights. It has been a thing to do for free in Tucson for years.
They did an awesome job, there was one corner that was a Griswold Christmas light fight going on, one guy had his yard wired for lights on it, along with everywhere else!
Another had a Frozen theme with soap bubble snow, that looked amazing!
Then there was the mystery of where Royal Ember’s flock had gone for the winter solved.
There was laughs to be had, along with my nephew being thrilled with lights as well as playing with M.
All in all, I have been busy the entire time I have been here, either resting (like today, too many people at Winterhaven!) or being so busy we had no time. But this week M and I are all alone at the house, and it might be time for us to relax.
I am on a slow connection, so if you want to talk to me, be patient. I really have to work on some chores this week, mostly making cookies and chocolate covered cookies, my peanut butter rice crispies dipped in chocolate, crunch berries treats, snicker doodles, chocolate covered pretzels. And wrapping for people. Since I am OCD on wrapping, everyone trusts me to do it for them. lol!
I had forgotten the cards to mail out for the Xmas cards exchange, so I bought new ones, and will send out them as I receive the cards. Sorry, I had to forget something! This time was a little more than normal. I was excited to get here!
Now I am off to write. Hopefully, some fun stuff that you guys will like!
I am sending this out, even with it erroring out on me. Hopefully, 4Padfoot can fix the error on the home page of the contest.
As most of you know, I am in AZ, and on a metered connection that is better than what I am using now. However, the metered connection, 9 days in, is 75% used. The only thing I can think of is the Windows 10 or maybe the game I am playing though it is NOT online.
So I have the one that they have here. There is a reason that I do not like to use it often since it is slower than molasses.
I am having a wonderful time!!! It snowed here, enough that we actually have some left on the edges of things. And the stairs are a menace to me since they ice over every night. But nights like tonight, when I can go out and see the millions of stars with my naked eye, make it where I love this place.
I have been resting, playing games, reading some (since the stupid iPad….grr!!). I am also going out with people sometimes, sleeping in, laughing so hard my tummy hurts and so on. I am cooking, which thrills his parents to death. LOL! And it looks like I am doing Christmas dinner here.
I have also written the first chapter of the sequel to All I Want. It drops a bomb on your guys from the start, and I am looking forward to seeing where the muse takes me on this one!
I also finally got my laptop up to where I could do the banners. I had a slight issue with getting the sizing box to come up but finally got it to turn on. Since I had done all the names on the banners before I left, it was simple. Except… That is when I got the notification that the data was running out, and since that data includes the phones, I need it!
But I finally got it all to work, and fixed the names on the pages, added the banners, only to have the homepage of the contest not allow me to update it. Grrr…..
So while I can, I am sending this out.
Congratulations to our 1st place:
2nd:
3rd:
4th:
I have to reiterate, I loved doing the banners to these stories!!! The only one I am disappointed in is The Snow Globe since I actually had it snowing inside the snow globe. If I get the chance, I will see if the laptop will render it better than the desktop.
And that last call for you guys to vote? Thanks!!! It was a clear win, and in fact, I think you changed the results! Wow!!! When I asked for votes, you answered!
Authors, thanks so much for submitting, I was stunned to see the diversity in the entries, as well as when I found who wrote what. None of them did I guess right. NONE. Thanks for entering, as well as giving me a fun time making the banners! Without the entries, this would not be much of a contest! You can answer the reviews, as well as post the stories on your sites.
And readers, thanks for leaving reviews for the ladies who wrote!! Without you reading and voting, there would not be anyone entering!!!
Please keep an eye out for when I return, I will be doing a new contest at that time.
For now, have a Happy Holidays. I will be sporadically online on Facebook, but probably not here. It takes forever to pull up Facebook alone, and this one? Actually it is faster, but I am not wanting to waste the data doing it unless I am saving to this place.
Now I have to deal with M. He is trying to tell me that he is Natsgirl. Sure sweetie… But he is pouting. Personally I think he is getting too used to everyone picking on each other, and thought to have fun, until he found the name of the author… Not that he wanted to claim any of the others. *snickers*. Enjoy!
First, Happy Holidays to everyone that is here. Since I am literally am over the world, I wish to let you know you have my good wishes for the season. As the darkest night of the year approaches, I hope your world is full of light, love and happiness.
Merry Christmas to those that celebrate it, as well as a Happy New Year from the Kittyinaz family. (including the pets!)
I am so sorry!!! Thursday was a wash for me… Hubby had me try a game, and I loved it (civilization 5). But when everyone got home, the news that we are leaving early caused a bit of a ruckus.
Yes, we are leaving Texas for AZ this Friday instead of Monday.
What does this mean?
Time is short, and I have alot to do. It didn’t help that this past weekend was a busy one with my mom. I spent Saturday with her and the boys, as well as spending the rest of the day with my brother and them at their town’s snow day. Which was funny as hell watching people play in something I saw everyday when I was little and played in. It was also fun to think back on those days adn share them with my brother who can barely remember the days.
Yesterday was a visit to Grandma Kitty, as well as a pampering day for both of us after standing in lines in 50 degree weather for the boys to ride everything. Yes, I got a pedi courtesy of Mamakitty, and gave myself a gift of a manicure. It was so nice not to have to do my own nails! And it got rid of some cramps from the day before.
However, the weekend ate into time I had planned to spend on other things.
So, today I am finishing the cards I was working on at 2:30 this morning. (I am up only because of a kitten who could not understand Mommy needs to sleep more than 4 hours). I will be getting the names on the banners, and work with someone to finish the contest in case something goes wrong on my end to put the badges on them.
The contest closes the polls on the 15th. And you may want to try to vote for your favorites… might.
I will be also working on getting the chapter of Clocks ready for you guys, but that will be it. I have way too much to do, and things are piling up. So I will be working on all of that. I will be online today, but if I don’t answer you, it is because I am busy doing something else, or hopefully getting my mifi delivered. Stupid Murphy, we know he took it.
Damn, sitting here, I am thinking of more stuff to do, so I need to be off. I wanted to let you guys know what is going on, and why I am being a bad bad kitty.
Now I am off to fight with the computers, (yes computerS) try to do banners, (which I got one done before the computer needed to restart) and get these Christmas cards out. Once I am out of stamps, I am done… sad thing, is I am hoping to get one out to all the betas!
See you guys later today, or at the latest tomorrow.
Enjoy the Christmas banner that the most awesome 4Padfoot made!
I know.. too puny for this time of night. Or day if you are on the other side of the world…
It’s been a long day, but I wanted to give you this chapter!
Right now, I am decorating my computer, as 4Padfoot plays with the backgrounds to decorating the site for Xmas. Since I am leaving in two weeks (yeah!!!!!!), and will be gone until the 18th of January, I will not be here to really deal with the Xmas stuff. (as well as me decorating the posts… warning!)
*Sighs*
But I am excited for the upcoming trip. I made a list for my iPhone that is just the Xmas songs and the more popular songs right now. It’s only 813 items, nowhere as long as the other ones. IT’s two days long, so it should be good for the trip, and how my hubs and I like to skip a song if it doesn’t fit the part of the road we are on.
Now here is the bad news. I am officially on vacation. The ladies are on vacation. Everyone is on vacation.
Well, except 4Padfoot for emergencies. And she will probably play while the boss is away.
But what does this mean??? Means it is time for me to write….
See, I have this week, which I will be more around than any afterwards. But next week? I will be running around, making lists, researching things and so forth.
And trying not to murder my iPad.
Seriously.
I have to turn it off, bend the edges and then work it for about 10-15 minutes before repeating. What is it doing? It’s called ghost touching. I can lay the thing down, walk away and no one close to it, and you can watch it move around, open apps and so forth, all on it’s own.
Yeah, it sucks.
But I will be backing up the laptop that I will be using, putting the last touches on the banners (the names and so forth) and putting the files I will be using on a thumb drive in case I can’t use the google drive. I can’t think of why I cannot, but I am not taking any chances.
Making lists, and checking them twice, and wrapping all the stuff we have already. I will also be taking the traverse for an oil change and all that fun stuff.
The weekend before we leave, Connor will need to be washed. And we will be packing the Traverse that Sunday, so all I have to do is get up, get ready and leave with the dog. Well, stop and grab me a Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper to help me wake up.
LOL!
OK…
So some reminders..
First up, is the Christmas Contest is live and ready for you to read. Go forth, read, review, and then vote for your favorite! There are some seriously great stories in this bunch!!! And have you found the easter eggs in the banners?
I will mention that the swan has the words from the story on it….
Yes… I did put that much effort into it!
The other thing, is please remember the Amazon link!!! It does pay for things that we use monthly. I know Cyber Monday is coming, so I am not only putting the link in the pretty picture, but also as words. I saved the link as my Amazon link to the site. That is all you have to do, is click through the link once, and it will give me credit on it.
I hope you enjoyed your turkey (or whatever meat or non-meat you had), pie and so on. For those outside the United States, I hope you enjoyed your day and are ready with the rest of us Americans ready to watch the traditional Winter Sport called…Black Friday.
Oh, my god. I have gone out not to buy a single thing, but instead I went to watch the freaking idiots trying for bikes jumping over racks of cacti. Actual story!!!!!!
For those of us here in the US, (traditionally) the end of Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the Christmas season. I adhere pretty strictly to this. While I may do Christmas shopping early, I do not put a single thing in the house until tomorrow, nor do I normally listen to Christmas music of my own accord.
This year was different. I started on Sunday and started to work on the banners for the stories.
Wow…. just wOw. You guys knocked me out of the park with these stories!!!
I will tell you each and EVERY one of the banners have hidden easter eggs in them. Once you read the story, you hopefully can pick on them. And a couple have extra easter eggs that I was all giddy in adding little details.
Have fun trying to find the goodies! I had alot of fun putting them in. Some are going to be hard to find… some easy once you read the story.
I also tried not to make it too easy to figure out the stories ahead of time. I will say, I had a heck of a time with The Wish, I did two different banners. The snow Globe has an animated version that looks fantastic, but never loads up right. Dreams was a blast to make it fit. Thanks for the Distraction let me play with perspectives. Christmas Eve Blues looks like the least altered while being one of the most heavily. That Christmas tree took forever to work in right. A Christmas to Remember has pictures that I made in it. Which M laughed when he realized that I was taking a lot of time to get the pics just right when you guys probably won’t notice them. Paper was harder than it looked. I tried for Christmassy themes, and while the banner I ended up with the frist time fit it, it wouldn’t be to the casual observer. So I added the clock for reasons you will understand when you read it. And then there was A Viking and a Swan. That one was the hardest for me, since I had to reach out of where I am comfortable to make it.
Authors, I hope you enjoy the banners ad finding your easter eggs!!! Just remember, there is no replying to any reviews until the end. Otherwise, you will be disqualified. There is no mentioning what story you entered, though you are more than welcome to say that you entered or just plug the contest!
Voting ends on the 15th.
Now, I am off to relax. I made a full turkey day dinner, all by myself! The only help I got was a pack to the stuffing from M, lifting of heavy stuff, and M and Mamakitty cutting the turkey while I made the gravy. I rocked the turkey, it came out, perfect temp and so very moist. I did a little dance when that happened!!!
Click the banner to be taking to the listing for the entries.
So enjoy reading, vote on yours, and leave some reviews for the authors who worked hard to get these into us!
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