11.17.98

    Still hanging in there. Walking dogs in the mornings and working on various websites in the afternoon. Right now my web work is a little slow so it's time to pick up on the slack. Now that I've got a routine going I can use these spare hours to possibly utilize my college degree. Wouldn't that be a shock?

    I really need to get in some freelance writing. I think I'll start out doing a few short features for the newspaper T. works at and then do some more background work for a much longer article that I have had at the back of my mind for ten months now. If I have spare time during the day then why shouldn't I write? I have no idea how much T.'s paper pays for small articles but I'm hoping that if I get the other article written that I can draw some serious cash.

    Big magazines like Rolling Stone or Harper's will pay quite a bit of money for a good, feature-length article. The magazine I'm aiming this one at pays around $2,000 for a good feature. Of course, it could take months and months to see that money. But, I'm a writer! Pshaw with money!

    Last Saturday, I took T. with me to go sailing and he had a good time. I think he was a little dubious about meeting some of the webgrrls that I sail with and he definitely was adverse to getting out of bed but I think he got a bigger kick out of it than I did. Unfortunately, the haze had returned by Saturday and the view of the coastline was pretty crappy. But, we did get up close and personal with a gaggle (herd? school?) of sea lions! They were piled into a buoy and on top of large, metal drums used for docking big ships. They barked at us and swam all around the boat. Wish I had had a camera.

    Speaking of cameras — we finally got our honeymoon photos, $109 dollars worth, and they turned out boring. I can't believe what pathetic photographers T. and I were. Granted, I was never attempting to capture our whole vacation photographically but I can't believe how many mediocre rolls of film we shot. For instance, I made a big deal about how many beautiful and vibrant flowers there were everywhere yet I neglected to take a photo of a single one. Also, there's only one photo of T. and I together and we both think that we look awful.

    So, I think this is a nix on ever getting that Honeymoon Diary done. I was planning to just scan in photos and then talk about our trip, and I still might, but the photos won't do it justice. You'll just have to take my word that Maui was beautiful and T. and I had a lot of fun.

    Today is a bit overcast. There's a nip in the air and it feels like winter. Well, it feels as close to winter as it's going to feel down here I suspect. I'm kind of hoping I'll be able to sneak away to Montana a little this Christmas so I can see my parent's new house and do some skiing. They now live about a quarter of a mile from the Bozeman ski area. It's a little resort that doesn't cost much. It gets pretty busy once school lets out but other than those times the runs are fairly uncrowded.

    It was so chilly this morning that I didn't even break a sweat. I just enjoyed kicking through fallen leaves of red and gold and playing with the dogs. I'm surprised at all the flowers that are still around. I suppose this is why so many people love Southern California. Up in Oregon the wind would've pulled the petals off of the last of the summer flowers by now.

    In one neighborhood that I walk in there seems to be an abundance of Birds of Paradise. Have you ever seen these flowers? They're orange and blue and have thick green stalks. They're very spikey and they scare the bejeezus out of me. These flowers look like they might bite or spit or shoot poison-tipped thorns at you. When I was a kid I had a hardback, "I Can Read!" book of Sleeping Beauty. There was a picture of Beauty pricking her finger on the spindle of the magic spinning wheel with a huge drop of blood on her finger. I remember looking at that for great lengths of time and thinking what an awful lot of blood that was just from a little spindle. (Who know what a spindle is anyway?) The Bird of Paradise flower kind of reminds me of that. They're kind of fantastic to look at but I would never have them around my house.

    In Beverly Hills, on the other hand, there's a whole different entity to be wary of — cow flop. It seems that some of the hoity-toity people of the 90210 zip code like to have steer manure (so reads the side of the bags) raked into their yards. Man, it stinks to high, holy heaven at some of these places. I guess the owners never have to smell it since they probably go from air-conditioned Rolls Royce to air-conditioned garage. And, of course, I'm the one who has to keep their dogs from pouncing on the poo and rolling in it like Bill Gates with stock certificates. I find it faintly ironic that the wealthiest suburb in the world smells like a field of manure.

    Moo.