In Word

Thought this blog was dead?  Mostly, but not beyond resuscitation.  Those of you who comprise the handful of daily visitors…whoever you are, you rock.

This past week was a milestone in the world of speech and debate, with our first ever qualifying tournament of 2010.  It was spectacular.  Need I say more? (And, yes.  For those of you wondering as to my excuse for blatant bloggy abandonment, speech and debate is the best one I’ve got.)

Pictures courtesy of Toni:

Posing with the 2010 January Warmup apologetics champion, who also happens to be a lovely friend of mine.

More lovely friends! (Josie, this one’s for you.)

Funny guys (who also happen to be really awesome debaters).

Hannah celebrated her 18th birthday at the tournament.  Pictured are two pretty awesome gals.

Flowing outrounds.  Go ARC!

Slightly hyper?

More fantastic debaters!

Waiting on the awards ceremony, and getting just a tad bit crazy on Mountain Dew.  Or maybe that was just me.

ARC at the end of a very awesome tournament.  Congratulations, all of you!

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Two years running, this blog has celebrated the New Year by remembering the old one—that is, remembering a few of the quotes and conversations that made me laugh so hard that I wrote them down.  So without further ado, I give you the 2009 Quotables:

“I was tempted with the same tempt as you.” ~Anna

“If God made me a superhero…” ~Patti

“I’m obsessed with facial hair.” ~Brian

“Beth is a corrupt guard.  She’s eaten everything.” ~Alex B.

“I shun the bush.” ~Avery

“We’re just acting guy-ly.” ~Paul

“I don’t have a very good mind.” ~Patti

“I look like a fruit.” ~Brian

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created evil…” ~Hope

“Do something epic.” ~Jonathan

“There are too many boys here.” ~Elizabeth

“As musicians, we are trained to intimidate.” ~Mrs. Fletcher

“I don’t want to get married, because I’d be shy.  I’ll hang out with you till I die.” ~Patti

Jonathan: “I think the reason we don’t get stuff done is because we don’t know what to do.”
Me: “Yeah…”
Jonathan: “You really should see The Last Samurai.”
Me: “I have a different theory for why we don’t get stuff done: someone has a 10-second attention span.”
Jonathan: “I’m glad you see the need to change.”

“You’re the best mom on earth.  You too, Daddy.” ~Michael

“I believe Beth.  Teenagers don’t lie!” ~Patti

“Oh my goodness.  You are a deeply strange child.” ~Gabrielle

“Do you think he got grown-up-napped?” ~Patti

Happy New Year, everyone!

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Then, of course, there are those times in life where you almost have too much happiness to handle it all.  I’m sorry I’ve neglected this blog for the past couple weeks—maybe it’s because we’ve just been enjoying ourselves way too much.  A few pictures from Hope’s visit:

(Photography credit goes to Toni.)

Aside from having lots of fun, there’s been loads of things going on around here.  Debate tournaments, Christmas concerts, parties, and more…but it’s a great time of year.  And who knows—if I stop having fun long enough to think about this blog, you might see a few posts about all the excitement.

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Wow.  How did that number get so big?  Apparently November is slipping by as fast as the rest of the year.

Yesterday, I wrote a little bit for the first time in…seven or eight days.  Yes, I’ve done it again and saved all the work for the last week and a half.  I don’t know why I can’t just be normal and write a little every day like everyone else.

Current word count is 22,079.  About 4,000 from the past 24 hours.

The story itself is absolutely laughable.  I don’t think I have enough plot to believably fill the 50,000 words, so it’s become almost a character study—getting into the brains of multiple characters, playing around with dialogue, and realizing that the main character I intended to write about is by far the most boring one in the story.  Bummer.

I guess that’s NaNoWriMo for you.

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On Saturday, ARC journeyed to New Braunfels for the first round robin of the year.  It almost goes without saying that we enjoyed ourselves, hung out with lots of cool people, and had abnormal amounts of fun talking about the environment.  I mean…what else would we do?  (LD people, you don’t have to answer that question.)

Happy debaters—and a happy debate coach!

Former partners, turned LDers.

These guys…well, they had lots of fun.  Maybe more fun than should be humanly possible.

Danielle and Christina, two loverly ladies.

It’s just kinda fun to scare people with the Maisano/Morgan name.  (The initial fear doesn’t usually last long, but oh well.)

Afterward, we went out for dinner and checked out ballots.  Fun stuff.

So, it was a good day.  Full of friends and debates and candy and pizza and all sorts of awesome things.  What could be better?

(For those of you wondering about NaNoWriMo…no, I’m not giving up just yet.  Yes, the word count widget on the right is accurate.  It’s so much more fun to make an epic comeback in the last week…right?)

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Word Count:  15,056.

Yes!  I wrote 56 words over the past three days!

But I also went to the lake with wonderful friends, had a fun orchestra practice, worked on essays for school, and edited and (almost) memorized a speech for competition on Saturday.  It’s been a good week.

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I found this note taped to the counter tonight while I was babysitting.  Perhaps something that needs looking into?

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Hurrah for reenacting!  Today was a living history day at our local fort—quite small compared to others we’ve been to, but still lots of fun.  I have way too much fun dressing up, I guess.

Anna and I, enjoying the chilly weather.

We were in charge of the “butter table.”  Fun stuff, that. (Please note sarcasm.)

I must say, we had the cutest helpers ever.

It was a good day.  I’m not sure why it is that chores around here are such a pain, but we can spend all day doing old-fashioned chores and find it enjoyable.  Odd what familiarity can do to a thing.

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My little siblings are the best.  Somehow, they always have a unique take on some aspect of life.  In the case of my only brother, Michael…well, his take is more unique than others.

While babysitting the kids yesterday, we decided to play the classic game of Life.  You know, where you get to spend inordinate amounts of money on TVs and sailboats and jockeys for your racehorses?

Well, Michael decided “life” is just kinda tough.

Me: “Michael, you got married!”

Michael: “…Can you just put another guy in the car?”

Me: “Absolutely not!“

Me: “Aw, you had a baby girl!”

Michael: “No I didn’t!  My wife did!”

I guess that’s just life.

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Word count: 0

Novel title: Unknown

Countdown: 29 days

NaNoWriMo 2009.

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