Busy Little July Bee
Mood:  caffeinated
Well, it's been another 3 weeks since I wrote and needless to say it's been busy and hectic. I hate playing catch up like this but hey, what can you do?

Our trip was Catalina was fun for everyone but me.  Since Joseph is so young, I was really the primary looker-outer for him. He loved the golf cart rides, but he's at that age where he wants to explore and sitting still is a challenge for him. (It was a challenge for Andrew too at that age.)  Brent fished - ALL THE TIME.  It was annoying, to tell you truthfully. I found an hour here or there while Joseph slept so I could read a book - "Once and Always," by Judith McNaught.  It was a good read and put me in a "romance" mood.

The golf cart parade was fun.  The family had two golf carts, but I wanted to see the parade so I sat on the curb in the shade with Joseph (of course!) He slept for a little bit but when the USC marching band came by he woke up and was a little fussy. (Can you blame him?) The fireworks were nice over the bay and lasted about 15 minutes.

When we got back we began to rearrange the house because Joseph needed his own room.  We made guest bedroom his room and moved guest bedroom downstairs to the computer room.  Then we put the computer room in the nursery.  The project still isn't done. Brent painted the guest bedroom and Joseph's room and there's still more furniture arranging and curtain buying to do.

Joseph had his evaluations for the Regional Center.  He needs speech, occupational, and child development therapy.  They will start after 01 August when the funding comes in.  We're looking forward it.  I think he'll start to thrive once he gets it. My Mother in law said he said, "Cheese" 8 or 9 times last night when he was eating a cheese pizza. We were very excited by that.

Andrew & Joseph started American Red Cross swim lessons last week and they have another week of it. The lessons are at 9:05 am which really taps out my morning, but Andrew is doing really good and is working on his stroking.  

I'm doing good on my Weight Watchers and I'm down a total of 19 pounds.   I'm half way to where I want to be, but it's been hard.  It helps that Brent is on weight watchers too.

As for writing, I haven't gotten much done.  I did a couple of book reviews for ONCE AND ALWAYS by McNaught and AGAINST A CRIMSON SKY by Martin which is about Poland in the late 1790's.  I found the book very interesting.  It surprised me and I enjoyed reading it.  My next book is THE 13TH TALE.

I've slowly but surely been tackling my writing project, my novel of THE WOLF'S KISS.  Right now I'm re-reading, editing the opening chapters and draft the next arc of the book.  I do most of that at work and quite honestly it depends on the position I'm at as to how far I get done. I'm on the radio today so I hope to write a chapter at least.

I'm still  over my mentions in the lasted WRITER'S DIGEST magazine where they listed the Popular Fiction winners and honorable mentions.  

Smiles,
Steph

Our Day at Disney & some Weight Watchers Thoughts
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: Life

Well, we left at 8 in the morning and managed to beat out rush hour traffic which was nice.  Our trip didn't take long to get there - about 1 hr. 15-20 mins.  The weather was actually nice. It wasn't scorching hot.  We met my mother-in-law & Richard when we got there and they got there just a couple of minutes before we did. We rode "Pirates" with Joseph and then went to eat at "Zocalo" (the Mexican place) because we thought it was weight watchers friendly. Joe was a good egg, not too fussy. Then Brent & I rode Big Thunder mountain which was nice. Carmy & Richard watched the boys for us. We hadn't ridden the same ride together in years. haha. 

We took the boys to fanstayland and Andrew rode dumbo while we took Joseph on the carousel. Joseph really liked it, but he was tired. Andrew & I did the teacups and then we went to tomorrowland. Brent and I did Space Mountain.  We got some souveniors. Joseph finally passed out around 3:30 and slept for about an hour.  Andrew & I did the Jungle cruise and someone gave Brent fast passes for Indiana Jones. Brent and I hadn't gone before but I didn't think the ride was all that. It was okay. It was like an amp'd up "Star Tours." Andrew & I did the Mark Twain riverboat and then we took a ride on the train that went around the park.  We had a bite to eat at the Plaza Inn. It was AC'd which was nice and gave us all a chance to cool down. Brent took Andrew to Star Tours and I took Joe to the carousel.

At dinner Joe kept saying, "milka, milka, milka." I gave him his bottle and started slurping up his milk.  When he really wants something it's amazing how expressive he can be. Joe for the most part was pretty quite, just looking around and taking things in.  Joe and I posed for a picture with Woody but Joe, like Andrew back when he was Joe's age, was shy and tucked his head into my shoulder.  Finally, around 8, we departed. I wanted to stay for fireworks, and I'm sure the boys would have been good about it, but Brent, like a poop, wanted to leave.   It was a fun day. 

Weight watcher-wise I thought I did good. I got a lot of walking in and I tried to make better food choices, but I think Brent made a little bit better choices than I.  I stayed the same when I weighed myself so I was happy about that.  Today, I'm going to try to go to the gym and get some weights in before we go to Catalina tomorrow.  My weight goal during Catalina is to 1 make good choices, 2 portion control 3 continue to get some physical activity in, focusing on cardio since that would be the easiest.  Can't get to weight watchers this week unless they have a meeting in Catalina, which I doubt so I'm going to have to stay tough for an extra week. haha. Wish me luck!

FYI - I posted some Disney pics of us in my photo album if you get a chance to check them out.

((hugs))
Steph

 

Hopefully, soon, when I catch up on my emails & my Writing.com contests, I'll be able to get back to some of my writing. 

Catching up! Yikes it's been a while
Mood:  caffeinated

Well, it's been so long, I owe you an apology. And I don't even know where to start. How about 1 JUN? Haha!!

Well, I celebrated my 40th birthday on 6 Jun. A good friend from work, Lori Powell threw me a birthday party at the Gordon Bierch restaurant in Burbank.  My classmates, Sarah & Jessica showed up as did my carpool buddy, Judy.  Lori made a really great scrapbook filled with memories for me and I got some great giftcards - thanks to my peeps for my giftcards. I was working with a trainee who gave me a coffee thermos which I LOVE.  It's the perfect size for work - and I take it everyday.

Andrew's school let out on 12 Jun.  He enjoyed kindergarten and will be moving on to the 1st grade.  Joseph still doesn't talk.  He knows "dog" but that's about it.  Oh, he knows Dada and Mama, I think but only really uses them when he's excited or upset.  He does understand a lot. Like "no." He HATES that work and he'll do things like bring you the ball if you ask, but he's just not much of a talker.  We'll be having him evaluated by the Regional Center to see if we can't get some speech theropy for him. Those appointments are going to be in about two weeks.

I changed my hours at work and went back to the "swing" or "pm" watch as we call it from 2 pm to 10 pm. There are pros and cons to it. I like sleeping in, and I like that my family is better adjusted to those hours.  I've been able to get back to the gym and I even went back to my Weight Watchers meetings.  The cons?  Well, I liked getting off at three and I liked the DRAMATICLLY less workload on Day watch. I liked having the evenings to watch a little bit of TV.

Right now, I'm on vacation. We've got trips to Disneyland and Catalina Island for the 4th of July. 

Writingwise, it's suffered because of my schedule. It's hard to find the time to get on the computer. I've got a couple of chapters to update and I'll be posting new "FLAMES" here in a sec. We also wiped the computer and "reset" it, and that took a couple of days to do.  I'll slowly but surely be getting back into the swing of things so bare with me.

If you get a chance - check out the latest copy of "Writer's Digest." They list the Honorable mentions and I'm listed in the magainze for my stories, "The Peenemunde Secret," and "The Wolf's Kiss."

Smiles,
Steph

 

PS - I just picked up a book by Judith McNaught called "Once and Always." I'm about five chapters into it where Victoria has just met Charles and Jason.  Any thoughts?

Catching up on Life
Mood:  energetic

Well, it's been a busy couple of weeks so I thought I'd catch you all up as to what I've been doing...

Can you believe it? How time flies, huh?  So much has happened I hardly know to where to begin.

I know where to begin:  Three weeks flew the coop and I'm just now finding a spare minute to write.

I've been writing, but it's been slow.  I did a couple of short stories and finished them up. I got my entries off to the Writer's Digest 77th Annual contest. The deadline to enter has gone and past so I'm crossing my fingers. hehe

I got involved in Writing.com's MASP program where you write articles for other sites.  For me, it was rewarding but time consuming. I had to research the articles and put something together. I was able to put together 10 articles, but I wish I could have done more.

On the homefront, I took my boys to the California Strawberry Festival on 17 May. We had a great time.  Andrew rode on the kiddie rides.  I had to go after work though.  We got the festival at 4:30 and we left around 6:30.  They did things with strawberries I didn't think possible.  My favorite was the strawberry nachos. They were very sweet. They had strawberry beer, chocolate strawberries, strawberry kabobs, pizza, etc... it was crazy. They also sold strawberries by the crate. Here's a link to my Strawberry Festival article that I posted on Associated content if you want to check it out:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/776021/a_day_at_the_california_strawberry.html?cat=8

The Friday before we went I was playing with Joseph, my 20 month old and he had a habit of throwing his toys. I was reaching for the toy when he launched it. Right at my nose.  Boy did that hurt.  Joseph was very contrite and cried more than I did.  Poor thing. I was concerned because earlier in the year I was seeing an ENT for my allergeries and he told me I had a deviated septum.  I went back to the ENT who said the good news was the deviation was still okay and I didn't need surgery, but that yes, Joseph cracked/broke the nose.  The swelling has finally gone down.

I also discovered I had TMJ issues.  I can't even begin to type out what TMJ means but it has to do with the joint where your jaw connects to your skull. It used to pop but then it stopped, but all of a sudden, I would have to chew a certain way. I would bite into something and a blast of pain would just shoot up my jaw.  I saw my dentist who gave me a nightguard.  He said he believed the pain was being caused by me grinding my teeth at night. Since I've been using it, the pain has gone away.

Last week I took the boys to the Greek Festival in LA down on Balboa/Plummer.  It was very crowded and Joseph's stroller was not easy to push around.  For dinner we had lamb chops, pork solvaki, and calamari.  Andrew and Joseph loved the calamari. {e:smile}  They had an area for souvenir, goods, books, and a play area for the kids.  There was greek music and dancing.  It was a lot of fun but I can't wait until I don't have to take that stroller again.

At work, I have a trainee which has limited my writing time.  A couple of projects that I've managed update are:

THE WOLF'S KISS - I thought I was ready to find a publisher, and I went to use the Reader's View program and I got some great feedback. I've gone back to the drawing board, to an extent and I'm working on a new draft. It just goes to shows that your first inital draft is not the final product.  More and More I'm coming to believe that the first draft is where you get to know the characters.  This new draft I'm working on, I have a much better grasp on my characters and what their goals and motavations are.  If you want to take a look at the project here's a link to my Writing.com account:

http://www.writing.com/main/portfolio.php?folder_id=1312489

I've also been toiling away on my FLAMES OF MADEOC story, which I try to update weekly on MySpace.  I hope you've had a chance to read it.  I like where it's going and it's fun to write.  I just want to give a shout out to my friend, Starr, for creating the characters.  My story is a fan fiction of her saga and I can't do the characters justice as she does them. 

 

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to troll my usual writing/publishing sites, but I hope to do that soon.

I really don't have any writing projects on the publishing block and I know I have to get back to "Twilight Over Moldavia" soon. It's been close to a year now that I've put it aside to work on other projects and I have to get back to it. 

Where does the time go? On June 6th, I'll be 40!  Even I can't believe it...

((hugs))
Steph

Wow! I can't believe it! #2 - Writing & current publishing trends
Mood:  caffeinated

Wow! I can't believe it! My blog here is going to be 1 year old this month.  I'm tickled pink about that. Later on in the month I'll put something together to celebrate.  Any suggestions? hehe.

#2 - Writing and thoughts on current publishing trends.

 There are a couple of agent that blog which I like I read.  One guy is Nathan Bransford.

You can find him at http://www.nathanbransford.blogspot.com/

He comes across as honest, decent and departs a lot of practical knowledge about the traditional publishing arena which I'm trying to break into.

He put up a link to an article in the NY Times (YOU'RE AN AUTHOR? ME TOO.) were it was talking about books and publishing.  Over 400,000 books were published last year, up from 300,000 the previous year.  Self-publishing was the driving force of it.  The article implied though you might not get the quality you're looking for if you do self-publishing because there's no quality control.  Anyone can publish a book, using that mind-set.

It was pointed out that Self publishing makes publishing affordable.  Susan Driscoll, IUniverse's CEO said that a majority of writers using IUniverse barely sell over 200 books. 

Heck - and I can tell you this - IUniverse has a wonderful publishing system put in place, but the marketing falls back on the author and most authors find it hard to market. They're simply out of their water, or if they do understand it, it's too time consuming to pursue - they'd rather get back to writing!

I have to admit, that's the driving force for me to find a traditional publisher. I have no time to focus on marketing and I'd rather be writing.  I've just wrapped up a paranormal romance I've been working on, but the 5 agents I quiered said, "Not what I'm looking for."  Reader's Views offers help with book proposal  so I'm hoping they'll be able to help me out here. 

Is self-publishing the wave of the future? I think there's a strong demand to it because people like the concept of being "published" but I think traditional publishers are going to stick around because they offer the quality control that readers can count one.

Whewww.. That said, let's move on to something else. I'm curious -

A - what was the LAST book you read?
B - what book are you reading now?
C - what genres do you like to read?
D - where did you buy your last two books?

Me?  A - Last book I read was "Rehearsal," by LK Hunsaker.  It was over 600 pages and a time consuming read partially because reading time is limited.

B - I am currently reading "Against A Crimson Sky," by James Conyrod Martin.  The book is about 300 pages. I just started and am about 50 pages into it. It's about a polish noblewoman in the late 1700's when the Russian invaded and partioned Poland. It's something a little different for me, but it's historical and that's the appeal.

C - I like to read, romance, supernatural, true crime, true life stories.

D - I bought my last two books online. It's too hard to get to a book store with little ones.

Smiles,
Steph

 

 

Review for: "Rehearsal, A Different Drummer"
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: Writing

Well, I just finished reading a book called, "Rehearsal, A Different Drummer," by LK Hunsaker. You can find find her Writing.com as "Voxxylady," and on MySpace.

I enjoyed the rich characterization of the book the most. My favorite character was Kate. She came across as very real to me. Susie's loyality to her friend was very commendable.  As for the guys, I liked Evan the best.  He was a true, steadfast friend throughout. For me, he's the kind of guy that I wish I'd known growing up.

The time period of the novel is the 1970's. I thought Loraine did a great job capturing the feel of the 70's.   Here's my review. 

*******

Rehearsal, A Different Drummer

By: LK Hunsaker

623 pages

ISBN 0-7414-3267-6

$26.95

Infinity Publishing

 

Rehearsal assembles an ensemble cast to tell the story of a rock band, Raucous, that comes of age in the 1970's. The main plot focuses on the relationship between Evan, Susie, and Duncan. Ultimately, Susie pursues a relationship with Duncan, leaving Evan, her childhood friend, to wonder where he fits into her life. There are various subplots involving Kate and Mike, and the band's adventures on the road as an opening act for an established band.

 

Hunsaker tells an engrossing tale that takes the reader through every facet of the character's lives.  There are numerous references to the 1970's that evoke the era. The characterization is "spot on," but the pacing slows the reader down. A satisfying ending leaves the reader looking forward to the sequel.

 

Latest Review for "The Wolf's Torment"
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: Writing

Just wanted to share a review with you that I received from Floyd M. Orr. He’s a got a blog where he reviews IUniverse.com books only.  I didn’t know this.  He requested a copy of the book when he saw the press release.  Here’s his review that he posted on his site:

 

This is the only book review at iUBR that was not requested by the author. I specifically asked the author if she wanted a review after I discovered The Wolf’s Torment and researched both the author and the book. I did this simply because I am always looking for a good werewolf book, and this one looked promising. I had an intuitive feeling about the book and I was not at all disappointed. This is Miss Stephanie’s fifth book, and you can view the others at her website. Her unusual variety of subject matter among the five releases reminds me a little of someone known as Tabitha.

The Wolf’s Torment is a soap opera full of romance set in Moldavia during the mid-1860’s. A young prince is just graduating from college in London when he is called back home by his father to prepare to rule the kingdom. His father is dying of syphilis he had contracted through a life full of mistresses and affairs. The young Prince Mihai has been betrothed since he was a boy to a princess from a neighboring kingdom. The first of Mihai’s problems is that he is bringing his pregnant mistress with him to Moldavia. He had become best friends with a classmate in London, so he is taking Viktor with him to be his close aide and confidant. Prince Mihai marries Princess Theresa as planned, and Viktor marries a servant girl who works at the castle. Both couples go off on their separate honeymoons and excitement begins to happen. The understatement here is quite intentional, since I don’t care to give away plot details in my reviews.

Ms. Cardin is a big soap opera fan, and the bubbles just keep on poppin’ throughout The Wolf’s Torment. Mihai’s mom was a witch, as is all of Theresa’s family. Viktor is more in love with Theresa than he is with his own wife, Sonia. Mihai cannot make up his mind what to do with his mistress on the side, and of course, Theresa loves Mihai’s side order who never seems to vanish from their lives. Everybody wants a baby, so everybody works really hard at making babies. Did I mention the wolf pack? Did you know that werewolves smoked pot after coming down from an excursion under the full moon? A few vampires even make cameo appearances, but it’s the werewolves and their witch mistresses who steal the show. This is not your traditional gothic horror story. There is some real innovation in the many subplots of S. G. Cardin’s book, in which the reader becomes more entangled and fascinated than frightened by nightmares.

There are a few issues clawing the exquisite furniture of The Wolf’s Torment. The error count is a little high, and these are nearly all the obvious result of incomplete proofing of the text, with misplaced and missing common words being the prevalent infraction. Most of the dialogue is a bit too simple and stilted, but I wonder if the author was simply trying to imitate the formal speech of the era. There are far too many short, declarative sentences, the overall effect of which is an amateurish compositional style. These issues taken together keep The Wolf’s Torment from being declared as top dog, meaning that it is a four-star book and barely misses the brass ring as the best werewolf book I have ever read. The cover is outstanding, and even the laminated bookmarks Stephanie uses are the best example of the standard template supplied by iU that I have yet seen. She even uses printed ballpoint pens in her promotion, as I do. She has included a Prologue, Epilogue, and Question and Answer section in the book, too, adding to its complete, professional look. A six-page Deleted Scene has been tacked onto the end, too. Although this is an innovative idea, I would much rather the author had simply included it within the text. When I reach the end of a good novel with a surprising, striking ending such as the one in The Wolf’s Torment, the reading of a tacked-on, mundane passage dulls the shock.

Stephanie Cardin has created a romance full of werewolves and witchcraft that excels with its plot twists and unusual storyline. I cannot say definitively that it is the best werewolf book I have ever read, but it is bitingly close. The story develops slowly. If you read only the opening chapters and do not continue, you will never know what a mistake you made. The Wolf’s Torment is a tale of lust and deceit that you won’t soon forget. Keep your silver bullets handy

********

I think he’s "spot on" with the review and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate him looking at my book.  If you want to check out his review site, here’s a link:

http://iuniversebookreviews.blogspot.com/

 

Catching up...
Mood:  caffeinated
Now Playing: Daughtry

The theme of my blog has always been my adventures in the writing/publishing world. My first series of books,  "Destination: Berlin," "All That Remains," "Are Your Dirty Little Secrets," "Across the Fickle Winds of History," and "The Wolf's Torment," have been self-published.  I don't mind being a self published author, but it does require hard wor to market and quite honestly, as a working mother, it's hard to do it.  I've got to balance a full time job, being a full time mother, and my own writing projects.  That said, I've always wanted to break into traditional publishing. 

Traditional publishing offers help.  With an advance, my writing will help to pay itself off.  An agent helps me to get a publishing contract.  The book will recieve help with publicity and marketing.  My current project I'm working on, the novel version of "THE WOLF'S KISS," (a paranormal romance) is a project I feel strongly about that can help me break into the traditional market.  Back on 7 March, I quiered about 5 agents to see what they had to say.

 Here's an update on those queries:

I’ve gotten 3 replies back to my queries so far:

Helen Breiwieser - I received a photocopy letter saying they weren’t taking on any more new clients, but check with AAR for another agent.

Jennifer Jackson - I received a letter with an authethic signature saying the project just didn’t appeal to her.

Jessica Faust - I receieved a letter with an authentic signature saying the project just didn’t appeal to her.

I was curious. Why? Obviously my opening didn’t "grab" them. I couldn’t figure it out. Then my good friend, Debbie Tinker, switched to day watch (at work) and I knew she wouldn’t mind reading my story. I let her look at it and her feedback was invaluable.

Debbie said she didn’t understand the whole "mysterious stranger" thing. Why didn’t he just say who he was, she asked? Why make a big mystery out of it. Why was Matthias at Lord Archibald’s in the first place? Why did he stay for the ball?

Well, hell - I guess my attempts to build mystery fell FLAT so I retooled the opening, (there’s now a NEW verison that outdates the one I’ve posted!  ) identifiying Matthias as Count Duma, explaining he was there on a business trip, and that after seeing Katherine, he decided to stay for the ball. I think it smoothes out the bumps of the opening. I’m on vacation now, but I’ll let Debbie look at it again next week to see if it works.

That said, I’ll be identifying 5 more agents to query soon. As soon as I do, I’ll put the list up.

To help me establish writing credits, I've been entering the WRITER'S DIGEST competations over the past couple of years.

Right now, I’m working on putting together my entries for the Writer’s Digest 2008 77th Annual Competition. I’m going to submit 4 entries and I might submit a 5th, I’m still wavering on that. Here’s my entries:

THE BURKHART BEAVERS - a children’s story about a family of beavers where the boys learn to share.

SPONTANEOUS DECISION - a mainstream entry about a 911 dispatcher.

THE WATCH TOWER - a genre fiction entry about Bran castle and the legends surrounding it.

A TIME AND PLACE - a genre fiction entry, romance, about two young lovers in Canada in the 1930’s.


With my honorable mentions, I have a couple more writing credits under my belt which I can add to my query letters. Every little bit helps.

 Hope you're off to a good month.  I'll be posting my newsletter soon. Check out my messageboard for my April/May contest.

 

Honorable Mention in WD's Pop Fiction Writing Contest!
Mood:  happy

Just wanted to share some great news with you. I'm a firm believer in the Writer's Digest writing contests, and I've been entering since 2006. Yesterday, while I was at work, they called my house! When I got home Aunt Alma broke the news to me. I was excited. I called back the Writer's Digest rep today while I was on break at work.

While I didn't win 1st place (haha!) I had two stories place as "Honorable Mentions" in the genres they were entered in. The rep I spoke to, Niki, told me I was the only author in this year's Popular Fiction contest that had two stories score as Honorable mentions. I was excited to hear it.

Here's the stories I submitted:

THE WOLF'S KISS - Romance
THE PEENEMENDE SECRET - Thriller/Suspense

I'll be getting these stories up shortly, but for now if you want to find them look in my SHORT STORIES FOLDER on Writing.com at http://www.writing.com/sgcardin

Agent Blogs and misc...
Mood:  caffeinated
Now Playing: Amy Winehouse

Happy Leap Year!

Well, it's been another week until I've been able to pop into here, sigh. That said, I just wanted to do a little pimping.  I love this guy: http://www.nathanbransford.blogspot.com/ He's Nathan Bransford and he's a literary agent who blogs out of San Fernando.  I really like the tone he takes in his blogs.  He comes across as down to earth to me.  He had a great post about word counts a couple days ago which really hit home with me. When I was working on TORMENT, my first, rough draft hit over 175,000 words.  Too much for a first time author.  When I did a manuscript review with IUniverse they told I was too wordy and had to cut it down.  I tackled the uncomfortable chore of editing and sliced and diced and got the manuscript down to 125,000 words, which falls in his Nathan's recommend word count range of 40-150K words. With THE WOLF'S KISS, I'm up to 53,000 and I'm almost done.  I just have to write the ending which might take me up to 60,000. I can't wait till I finish too.  Then the hard work begins - finding literary agents who want to take on a paranormal romance.  Any recommendations? Smile. As for my week, it's hetic, as usual.  First off I'm down on my Nano.  I've pretty much max'd out my 8 gigs with shows of the Tudors.  This conflicts with the fact I want to download a couple of political podcasts so I can keep up the primary races.  Sigh...My husband says he'll get me CLASSIC for my birthday - in June.  I guess I just have to be patient. It been hard to do any writing at work this week. I was on the non-emergency line and it's draining to try and write between listening to non-emergency police problems. Wednesday, I helped Brent shop at Costco before going to work. Thursday, I stayed home with the kids while Brent went to the dentist and took our 4Runner to the dealer to get a major service since it hit 60,000 miles. Can you believe it? 60,000 miles since Sep 2005. I'm a driving whore! We did manage to find a babysitter at the last minute and go to our favorite French restaurant out this way called, Le Chene. My husband tried the buffalo ribeye which he loved.  I played it a little safer with NY strip in borderlaise butter.  Now we're plotting our return trip. We also did some planning for our mini vacation we're taking in April. I think we're going to visit California gold country up near Sacramento and then we'll visit the train museum in Sacramento before going on to wine country. My hours at work change on Sunday.  I'll be working from 6 am to 2 pm. It's more of a normal day, but it's harder to find child care in the morning hours. It was a challenge trying to get this month covered. Rock out with Amy Winehouse.