Friday Five. Do you *really* need the link or do you know where it came from? :p

A day late and a dollar short. Yes, I'm supposed to be writing. Shh.

1. List five things you'd like to accomplish by the end of the year.
- Finish writing my first book.
- Fix a Swedish Christmas ham for M. (That's the tradition. He gets to pick something he's homesick for and I make it. This year it might not happen if he doesn't find me a recipe and buy me the stuff. I'm making that his responsibility, since I know nothing about ham.)
- Do lots of fun work with the new fun zine project and hopefully have it ready to go somewhere.
- Develop a writing plan to keep at it after November is over.
- Send a card to my friend Susan, who is much better at cards and letters than I ever will be and sends me into spasms of guilt whenever I think of her.

2. List five people you've lost contact with that you'd like to hear from again.
- Barbie, who was my separated-at-conception twin and best friend from high school. Her DAD got us confused once. Did not come to my wedding; have not heard from her since.
- Josh, who was Barbie's boyfriend in high school and part of the foursome that I spent all my time with. Did not come to my wedding; have not heard from him since.
- Michelle, who was my best friend when I lived in Memphis. She moved back to Colorado after I moved back here, and I haven't heard from her in about three years now.
- Jamie, who was my best friend from Columbus (Georgia, that is) in second and third grade. We sent letters for a while, but it's probably been ten years since I've heard from her.
- Roxie, a mud friend who disappeared off the face of the earth almost two years ago during a trip to the Bahamas with her husband.

3. List five things you'd like to learn how to do.
- Stop worrying and feeling random guilt.
- Knit.
- Speak Swedish fluently instead of this half-assed thing.
- Frame stuff in a professional manner.
- Cook the freaking chicken/pasta dish that I've been whining over since Trevino's closed.

4. List five things you'd do if you won the lottery (no limit).
- Buy/build a wonderful house.
- Invest, invest, invest.
- Buy the boy an Aston Martin and a fully restored Volvo P1800. Ha. (Bet you thought I'd say Jaguar, didn't you, love?)
- Give money to family, but also enroll certain ones in a mandatory money-management course if they accept it. (Fully serious.)
- Travel widely. Maybe even to Australia. ;)

5. List five things you do that help you relax.
- Read, preferably a romance.
- Tat, preferably while watching television.
- Cook, preferably something special and delicious.
- Bathe, preferably with bubbles and a book.
- Snuggle, preferably with M. Ha, got you. ONLY with M, of course. ;)

You never say hi, you never say much, you never make an effort to stay in touch.

I'm at another down in my novel. I'm not far behind, but I don't want to write any more and I've just about convinced myself not to worry about it too much tonight. I don't work as well on the weekends as during the week, so I think hey, might as well wait until Monday and throw myself at it. I might make myself write another 500 words and then see how I feel. It's another "what happens next" problem.

I'm currently quite excited about a brand new project, although that's not the reason that I'm behind in my novel. Of course, it doesn't help. :) It's an e-zine that we're starting, as suggested by carrieb. There are eight people at the moment tossing ideas at each other and we're having a lot of fun with it so far. At least, I am. :) I'm really beginning to feel like it could be something quite good in the end. I'm sure you'll be updated about this more later on.

The weather is incredible.. about twenty degrees F higher than the average high. It was about 72 today and brilliantly sunny. It's been such a weird year for weather.

Alright. Friends-only thing. I got creeped out, I'm over it. This friends-only experiment made me feel like I have something to be ashamed of or to hide, and I do not. I've given it a few days, but I still feel uncomfortable about it, so even though I hate being wishy-washy about , it's over. My compromise is that I'm going to selectively hide my archives and questionable posts in the future. I'm not going to dwell on this, though.

Oh! One last thing before I try to write again. I mentioned the dogs that my neighbors have. The crazy barking dogs? They haven't been barking at all lately, which is very weird. Anyway, what I wanted to say was that their cage is MUCH bigger than I thought it was. Probably three times as large, so you can stop worrying about the doggies now. :) There's also a neighborhood puppy named Ozzie. It actually belongs to someone, but it runs around outside freely. It's very very friendly and very very stupid. It was really pitiful because it got hit by a car a couple of weeks ago, and my niece was extremely upset. It followed her up to the road when her and my dad were zooming about on the golf cart, and someone hit it. She was sure that it was her fault, so she felt bad. This is a dog that chases cars.. from the front, so it being hit by a car might have been healthy for it in the long run.. it just doesn't see vehicles as a threat. Anyway, it just hurt one of its front legs, and is running around down here again, although it doesn't walk on that leg. It hops along at full speed, but in this awkward little run.. I've been calling it Ozzie Kangaroo. It's so cute.

But it still chases cars. I don't expect it to live too much longer, poor thing.