Weightiness

Well, for the first time ever in my life, I've had a doctor tell me I need to gain weight. ;-) Seems I'm gaining a bit slow. We're officially at 20 weeks right now and I've just gained a total of 4 pounds so far. We're half way. I can hardly believe it.

We had the 20 week ultrasound today. Got some good pictures. We've got a real wiggler. The ultrasound tech was surprised I haven't been able to feel the baby yet, considering how much movement was going on. But it's about the time when I should start feeling it soon.

Well. Off to eat something. Gotta keep up my end of the deal.

Soap, soap, soap

I made soap yesterday with Erin, one of our neighbors. She's also at home during the day and she was interested in learning how. We had a lot of fun. It's more fun to do projects with someone than alone. She'll be back today this afternoon when it is time to cut the soap.

She's a nice lady and just unloaded a bunch of maternity clothes on me, which was nice. I don't think I'll have to buy much now. She's close to my height (a bit taller) and has two young boys. Real cuties.

We made two batches of soap. One has shea butter and rose hip oil (and cinnamon fragrance and red kaolin clay) as the non-standard ingredients (by non-standard, I mean not one of the base oils I use: castor, palm, olive, coconut, etc.) and the other was Illipe butter and tea tree oil. Hopefully they all come out alright.

I should make up another batch or two to use up some more of the oils I have. They don't last indefinitely. In a "it's a small world" note, Erin's husband is a chemist and he works for the same company that I'd bought most of the oils from. Bizarre.

Scattergories

(Got this from Janet)

SCATTERGORIES...it's harder than it looks!
Erase my answers , enter yours, send it on, including to the person who sent it to you.
*Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following...
*They have to be real places, names, things..nothing made up!
Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial.
You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question

WHAT IS YOUR NAME........Kimberly
VEHICLE: ........................... Kia (I can't think of any others that start with K)
TV SHOW: ............................ King of the Hill
CITY IN TEXAS:.................... Kerrville (had to cheat and look one up...why Texas?)
BOY NAME: .......................... Kane
GIRL NAME: ......................... Kristen
OCCUPATION: ...................... Knight (well, it used to be)
CELEBRITY: ......................... Keira Knightley
FOOD: ................................. Kefir
SOMETHING FOUND IN A BATHROOM: ..... Kleenex
REASON FOR BEING LATE: ...................... Kleptomania
CARTOON CHARACTER:........... Kim Possible (isn't that a cartoon?)
SOMETHING YOU SHOUT: ....................... Keep it on the road!

Nothing, really

When people hear that you've sold a book (and by people here I'm referring to non-writers, since I can't imagine a writer would say this) and that it is a book for kids/teens, the first thing they seem to say nowadays is "Wow, is it going to be the next Harry Potter??" or something to that effect.

Honestly, that's really annoying.

It's not that I wouldn't like for my book(s) to make me a multi-millionaire. But the chances of that are so slim it would be like winning the lottery. Maybe not quite that bad, since there are other things involved than luck, but still.

There are hundreds of talented authors out there and the vast majority of them are still working at another job while writing. Even for those lucky enough to "just" be an author, most still rely at least partly on the income of a spouse. You don't become a writer because you want to be a millionaire. You become a writer because you can't imagine doing anything else.

Of course, there are the big huge names like Rowling and King and others. But they are exceptions to the rule, not the standard. And it is a bit of a self-perpetrating thing...once you reach that upper echelon (through whatever combination of luck and talent), publishers put more effort into advertising you, and your books show up on the NY Times Bestseller list and people buy the books because they see them there, or maybe Oprah pitched the book on her show...

I guess what I'm saying is that my goal is to be a writer; it isn't to be a household-name-mega-millionaire. Not that I would turn that down, should it become an option. :-) But it isn't what I'm thinking or dreaming about. I'll be really happy if enough of my book(s) sell that I can continue writing them. I'll be really happy if there are people out there who like to read them.

Vote for my fat cat Grace

I'm not even sure why I did, but I entered my cat fat cat Grace in the Cat Connection Cat of the Month contest. So, hey, go vote for her :)

Tired and random

I suppose part of it is the pregnancy thing and part of it is I just stayed up way too late last night, but I'm just desperately tired. Like a wrung-out washcloth. Like a celebutante at 7 AM the next day. Like...well, like Paris Hilton. But I guess that's a different kind of tired.

Actually, I shouldn't harp on poor Paris. I don't know anything about her, really. Who knows, maybe she's a really nice person.

Heh.

Anyway.

Pam is all excited about her upcoming nupital celebration (why does no one use that word?). She's already planned out most of it, even though she's got a long way to go. But she's a planner.

Lisa still thinks I'm the weird one in the family (and truth be told, given the alternative, I'm perfectly okay with that). She was asking me about whether we'd started looking at baby stuff already (not really, just a little) and her direct quote was "You're going to get all weird stuff, aren't you?" I'm not even sure what kind of weird stuff she's talking about. But my idea of weird and her idea of weird are vastly different. I remember she visited one time and wouldn't drink my organic milk.

Mom, on the other hand, doesn't usually comment on my supposed "weirdness" but she didn't sound all that enthused on our possible girl name (Dessie, Tony's grandmother's name). She's like "Oh. That's different." But I'd rather have something a little different (but not totally out there; don't want to traumatize the kid) than one of the "top 10 baby names for 2008." I remember being in the fifth grade and being one of 5 Kimberlys. And I can't tell you how many Emily and Ryan kiddos I've seen running around.

I'd kind of like the middle name to be Coraline, but I'm not sure about that. I like it, but probably like in the book, everyone would just mispronounce it as Caroline.

Tony is doing good. He's cranking along on his blog and going all international (well, at least Greek. Some Greek blogger liked his chicken cacciatore recipe).

Harley is still doing his Darth Vader cat thing, but we can't get him to take allergy pills. He foams at the mouth when you try it. If I could get him a little Darth kitty costume for Halloween (and actually get him to wear it), it'd be perfect.