A friend and I are writing a mystery together. We've been working on this bugger for about three years and its about halfway done and has been languishing in our computers for at least a year.
We had someone slightly (if you know anything about the publishing business, you know how laughable this statement is) interested until that particular line was shut down, locked up tight and the windows were boarded shut.
The book idea then went to my friend's agent who suggested the addition of a few plot lines. Lines that required knowledge greater than what she and I possessed. So. There it sat. My friend went onto write a historical all by herself and I wrote nada save for blog posts and devotional articles for my church newsletter.
But. The manuscript has to come out and play again. And I'm a little afraid. I've been assigned a new character point of view and I've got to write it so she can move forward. And I committed to exactly that. She writes every week, which means I will have to do the same. I've grown very content reviewing the work of others, knowing full well that I don't have the drive that so many of them do, to have my words read. I did. But I don't. And the more I read and review the more I feel like I have even less to say.
This should be interesting. She's offered to take over what I'm unwilling to do, but it's a commitment I made, and I love the characters and the writing with a buddy has been fun. So. Back in front of the computer I go. Writing the voice of a male detective. Definitely out of the frying pan into the fire. Title of the book. Out of the Frying Pan. Hmmmm.
In our 6 month Cut the Crap fast, we each grabbed two days a week for assigned tasks. One of us sends health tips to the others, one of us sends devotional or scripture passages to the other two and I was assigned words.
I've found some fun words, words that have been meaningful or dovetailed into what is going on in our lives. I've also found words that have convicted me or caused me to pause and wonder if I don't need to stop and rethink the way I'm doing things.
A word I recently found did just that.
VITIATE
PRONUNCIATION:
(VISH-ee-ayt)
MEANING:
verb tr.:
1. To impair or spoil the effectiveness of.
2. To corrupt.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin vitiare (to spoil, injure), from vitium (blemish). Earliest recorded use: 1534.
As I ran across this word, vitiate, meaning to corrupt and spoil, I couldn't help but notice the VITI beginning. I know vita is a Latin root word meaning something to do with life... so are the two connected? I looked up Latin roots and found this page full of fascinating parts and pieces of words. http://www.english-for-students.com/vita.html. This site didn't shed anymore light on Vitiate or even give me a connection, and I didn't dig any deeper.
But the impairing, the spoiling, the corruption and the possible connection to life just kept poking at me. And I wonder if we really aren't sometimes our worst enemies. The choices we make. Do we often chose to vitiate our own lives by choosing things that bring corruption and spoilage and death? Those hundreds of daily choices, what we will say, think, do, eat, drink? Are we making choices toward vitality or choices toward vitiatity?
This weekend was a whirlwind of activity...some for fun...some for necessary. I don't know why I let things pile up and finally wait until the possibility of death via pile collapse looms, but I do. After all day Saturday, not kidding, cleaning, chopping, cooking I was totally able to enjoy a clean, chaos free home and a great time with family. My Dad,
yes Pat, has a birthday on Wednesday and I had the fam over to celebrate. Pumpkin cheesecake bars, Grandma's chocolate cake with the frosting that makes your eyes sweat, home-made from actual pumpkins pumpkin pie by 24 and Naan bread prepared and rolled out by Toad-Boy's sweet wife. Grilled meat, veggies, salad...yum.
Great night, and my brother whom I've never bested in any game, stayed for a few "hands" of Bananagrams. I STOLE this win from him. He had a lousy J to place and 
had been in the lead throughout the entire game. But I swooped in and scored. Yes!!!!!
And though we were so sad that the sun set at 5:30ish, I did get a beautiful shot of it's "goodnight."
I lack a good pictorial spread, and anything of substance to say but feel compelled to litter the WWW with my thoughts and opinions once again.
So I turned to Plinky.
Out of the five prompts/questions I decided to truthfully : ) answer whether or not I've ever lied about my age.
Here goes. No.
I don't think so. I remember buying Malt Duck (how nasty, nasty, nasty was that ? Yuck!) when I was below drinking age, but we knew of a teeny mom and pop gas station that sold the foul brew to just anyone. So. Not for the purpose of drinking illegally.
And, even though the number makes me cringe sometimes, I don't lie about my age to seem younger than what I am. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty thrilled that though gravity and the gray fairy have caught up with me, that I don't look my age. There is nothing that makes my day (and possibly ruins 24s) as when someone thinks 24 and I are sisters. Yes!!!!! And when I was in my mid-thirties and we frequented amusement parks I'd love the guys who promised a prize if they could not guess your age or weight. (I would have never picked the weight guy...ugh....there was a stupid scale!!!) They always underguessed my age by a mile. Yes!!!!!! Thanks, Mom and Dad, for the genes.
Today...I got my eyes checked. And they strongly suggested I go ahead and consider the bifocals since that is inevitable. And at 48....sooner than later. Nope. I will wear the new glasses to see movies and signs better, but I will fight bifocals....until I cannot fight any more (probably because I can't see the weapons/enemies. : )
Oh. It does help to refuse to act my age.
Fans of this trio of games. Reviews from Good to Best! And no link because you can find them all over the place...get the best dealio.... fun times. PAIRS IN PEARS (GOOD)
We are Bananagram fans. So the idea of new games - Pairs in Pears and Appleletters built up some serious excitement.
Neither of the new games quite hit the potential of Bananagrams. Without the predecessor, either of these would have been new, fun and creative.
Pairs is a very fast moving game. The goal is to create two or three two word sets. Ideally, you will have matching "suite" letters (there are four different suites) which increases the point value of the win. The more letters you use, the better the score.
We played several "hands" then moved on to Appleletters in the same evening. All of us (five from age 24 to 52) preferred Appleletters to Pairs in Pears but loved Bananagrams the best. One of the fun things that we didn't do but thought of would be to turn all the tiles face down and play a huge memory game or turn it into a rummy type of game where you collect suites of letters. If you have Pairs, be creative and see what you can come up with. If you haven't purchased Pairs in Pears and are wondering which of the three to buy, Bananagrams is the best in our opinion, but Pairs wouldn't be a waste, especially if you can get a good deal.
APPLETTERS (BETTER)
Appleletters is very similar to Scrabble without the point values and without the board. The players take turns and build off each others words but in a snake pattern. Portabilitywise, Appleletters is great. I love the cute little Apple carrying case. But for off the charts fun and games, I still would choose Bananagrams hands down. Appleletters is quicker than Scrabble, and easier because you have more tiles to choose from. Kids would benefit especially if they are needing fun help in the spelling department. But again, if I had to choose I'd pick Bananagrams.
BANANAGRAMS (BEST)
If you are looking for a fun game that is portable and versatile, look into Bananagrams which has become our family’s favorite game. We’ve hauled it to two different states, introduced it to two additional state dwellers who visited and got hooked, and played it internationally with a visiting German student. The game is simple. Think individual Scrabble "boards" (without the board, tile holders or points), for each player, with the added benefit of playing with loads of tiles at a time and the ability to move, remake or change your words at will. You can “dump” and get rid of a difficult letter replacing it with three others that may or may not be better ones at any time throughout the game. When a player uses all the letters he/she originally drew (plus the dumps), she/he calls "Peel" and everyone grabs one more letter, and so on, until there aren't enough letters for every person to "Peel" one. In that case the person who finishes wins "Bananas!". Simple as that.
You can play with multiple people or even as solitaire. The more the merrier, but either way it's fun. You can make easy adaptations and add your own quirks to the rules to make it your own. It moves quicker than Scrabble and is less frustrating than Scrabble, too. You don't keep score via points, nor do you have to deal with someone taking your perfect spot. Bananagrams would be perfect for beginning spellers as well as classroom fun with vocabulary words. We really love this game.
