So my super-IT hubby has been playing around with our desktop. Found an interesting new program called “Fences” that you can use to clean up your desktop. See all those neat gray squares above? They are quite literally fences, adjustable and vanish with a double-click–kind of like a cowboy round-up for the icons cluttering your desktop. Beautiful, organized and customizable. I have no idea where to find it, but if you google “Fences computer program” you might find it yourself.

In the end, I bring this up because the desktop has been on the fritz – internets wise. When it is working, I am too tired to blog. When it’s not working, I am struck with a plethora of ideas to blog about. Crappy kind of deal. But my sister in law has finally brought us her old laptop–which she has been kind enough to give to us–and it manages to siphon a decent connection .. wait, did I say siphon? I mean.. it creates a magical, unknown internet connection that I can use to go online.

Yes. Magical.

Here I am once again. Ready to blog my little freckled heart out.

***

I’ve been reading like mad with the internets not working. I’ve decimated a couple Bentley Little books, some Richard Laymon’s, a J. F. Gonzalez novel and a few miscellaneous others. I’m currently grinding deliciously slowly on Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods.” I’ve heard so much about this book, I was hesitant to pick it up. I didn’t want to read it and end up disappointed somehow. Thankfully, Gaiman is every bit the author he is made out to be (as though I didn’t already know that) and while I’m only a couple chapters in so far, it’s already been an amazing ride.

Soon there will be a couple of book review blogs. Look forward to those. Especially one of the Laymon books. I was shocked by part of the novel–but in a completely, “just WOW” kind of way.

***

For the writing news, my novel is chugging along.

You know how they always say that when you’re writing a novel, you shouldn’t set it aside to work on whatever totally cool and much better idea occurs to you? Well, I knew that would happen. Even some of my longer short stories had other ideas intrude on their intimate time with the right half of my brain.

But I’ve already noted down about 3 different ideas for novellas or full length novels. If I’d known it would take starting a novel to get ideas for other works, then I would’ve started the novel seriously a long time ago.

Huh. Who’d a thought.

***

Now, when it comes to writing stories, I always try to keep things realistic. You know, can’t have something completely, totally outrageous happen to your characters, otherwise you lose your readers because they know it’s completely unbelievable.

But something completely outrageous did happen to me just Sunday night. Something I didn’t think would happen to me–that my kids were too old to make this kind of mistake.

Yeah, never underestimate your 4 year old.

So, Sunday evening, the kids are running around, playing a combination hide and seek, knights vs. dragons game. I am in the living room, relaxing with a can of Coke and the television. Ah, the most evil of sirens.

The kids disappear into the kitchen for a second–I assume to head back outside for a last five minute play before the sun goes down.

Suddenly, my daughter comes running into the living room, mouth hanging open, semi-crying and doing her “OMG this is awful!” jig. A wiggly, wormy type of shaking/dancing that I’m torn between laughing at and worrying about.

She’s pointing at her tongue, and I barely understand the garbled mess of words fleeing her mouth. I make out just, “Tastes bad,” “cookies” and “burns.”

Now I’m scared and confused, so I race her into the kitchen again to rinse her mouth out. She’s gargling and spitting into the sink, all the while I’m asking her what she put in her mouth, did she swallow anything.

Michael, my dearly beloved soon to be in kindergarten 5 year old son, is pointing to some bits of white, creamy looking stuff that’s crumbled on the kitchen floor. He says, “Alex took a bit of that because it looks like the inside of a cookie.”

I realize, immediately, what it is.

It’s deodorant. Unfortunately, a used deodorant that has been sitting on the extra table in the kitchen, awaiting disposal or putting away.. Hey, we just moved a couple.. uh.. months ago and sometimes it’s hard enough taking the kids to school, keeping up with laundry, dishes, cooking, vaccumming.. let alone sorting out the piles of unpacked junk — or semi-unpacked junk lying around.

Well, for whatever sad or sorry reason the deodorant was on the table, she took a big bite out of it. Spit it out immediately–rinsed her mouth out very well and then brushed her teeth.

And complained later that it looked just like the inside of her Oreo cookies.

Yup. That’s the kind of outrageous circumstance I would generally avoid writing about in a story. But since it’s happened… well.. I have to wonder…

Anyone else’s kids mistake deodorant for the cream inside of a cookie?