Lovely fellow goddess TerryS sent me a potential FROS member in the form of Aussie actor Craig Horner. Now, you guys know how I love Aussie actors . . . and this one is pretty hot, hot, hot!

Horner is in the series LEGEND OF THE SEEKER:

and:

and this one, too:

Here he is in normal, every day garb:

An no, SPANK ME NEWS is not a naughty site. Go ahead and check it out!

Meanwhile, let’s all thank TerryS for her kind contribution! Have any of you seen this show? Is it as good as this hunky actor makes it look?

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As most of you know, I live in Orange County, California. A week ago today, some 30,305 acres burned here. I took all these pictures from my front yard except for the last one, which I snapped at my local Costco yesterday.

I’m lucky. Other than the awful smell and the thick smoke and the falling ashes, everybody in my family came through fine. My sister, in Yorba Linda, was closest to the fire. Her husband, a sergeant at a neighboring police department, was reassigned to help with east Yorba Linda evacuations and looting patrols. Every Saturday night we meet at one of our houses for the tradition known as “fast food night”. Last Saturday we went to my sister’s house. Halfway through dinner her husband called and said, “I want you to get the boys into a car and take them to Suzie’s house. Now.” Five minutes later, the police cars started going up and down the streets, announcing a mandatory evacuation.

I took my nephews and their dog to my house, where a half hour later the rest of the family, cars loaded to the roof, rendezvoused. So we spent the night at my house, kids, dog, 6 lizards, 1 bearded dragon, and 2 portable fish. I think the rest of my neighborhood felt pretty safe with a police SUV parked across my driveway after my brother-in-law was relieved for the night.

Somehow my sister ended up packing everything they needed – clothes, toothbrushes, deodorant, diapers, favorite toys, family pictures, valuables, deeds, insurance papers, etc., plus all the pets. The only thing she forgot was her makeup, which to me proves that she’s a mom. All of which had me thinking: What would I have packed?

My sister informed me that I would have fried while trying to decide whether to take the Han Solo or the Aragorn statue, getting the appropriate boxes (because, you know, a large part of the figure’s value is in having the original box), then going back for Captain Jack Sparrow, Luke Skywalker, Gandalf, Wolverine, and Kermit the Frog. And their boxes.

There are things you know you take, like the insurance papers and the family photographs, computers, etc. But if you had 15 minutes, what would you make sure you had with you?

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I feel kind of bad about it.  I forgot it was my turn to blog until about a half hour ago, and as I racked my brain for something really cool to blog about (Iet’s face it–K-Ha’s look-alike daughter is a tough act to follow), I realized I have absolutely nothing to say.

The things on my mind are sort of self-focused these days.  I have a book due November 30th, and one due on the heels of that.  I never plan my books this way, but it always seems to happen.  My old dog Hugo will be 14 in January and has recently developed all the signs of canine dementia, which includes disorientation at night, which means lots of middle-of-the-night barking.  We’re working on meds to see if we can’t fix that, but its been pretty miserable.  Oh, and Jack London is facing a lay-off.  Seriously.  It gets more and more serious every day.

When life gets a little heavy, I like diversions.  I wish I could go see the Nutcracker Suite.  I wish I could knock off in the middle of the afternoon and take a break from bleak economic news and go see some movies.  I wish I could go to Harold’s, one of my favorite clothing stores, which is going out of business and having this huge blow-out sale.  I wish I could spend an afternoon in a bookstore and buy tons of books and then read them.  I want to do fun stuff!

For someone who didn’t have anything to say, I managed to put some words on the page, didn’t I?  Here’s my question of the day:  What would you go and do if you could drop everything and have a few hours of nothing but you-time?  Have you ever had one of those days where you really didn’t have anything to say?

P.S.  The nutcracker in the photo twirling me about is the actual Jack London.  He hates when I do stuff like that.  hahahahahaaa

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When I was a kid, I fell in love with Michael Jackson’s Thriller video. I loved the story with the music; the great, fun dance; but especially the lyrics and great beat.

I’m not here to admit that I used to do the Thriller dance in front of the television set . . . or that I can even do it today. But ah . . . yeah. I could. I can.

And I do.

Last week, my daughter’s band started shooting their own music video and it has been fascinating hearing all of the little tidbits of the filming process. Here, take a look. The song is called JUST SOME GYPSY — the words ‘rough cut’ just refers to the fact that this isn’t the final version of the video.

Oh, and if you’ll take your cursor off the black square when you’re done clicking the ‘on’ button, all of the controls buttons will disappear and you’ll get a better view.

Just Some Gypsy ROUGH CUT from justin on Vimeo.

So . . . can you dance the Thriller dance, too? Were there any music videos you used to (and still) love? Do you like my daughter’s video? And do you have any suggestions for the band, Plainclothes Tracy, for the final cut?

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My daughter at college called last weekend. She actually calls more than I thought she would, sometimes just to chat, so I am a happy mom. Anyway, she was so excited because she’d gone to a special symposium at the university’s museum – on cuneiform. Now, in case you need a brush up on your Early Western Civ, cuneiform was the first written language, created by the Sumerians about 5000 years ago (give or take). It was later adapted by the people of Mesopotamia. Now you’re remembering, right?

Just nod. That’s what I do when my daughter calls me with all of the wonderful things she’s learned or seen. She was so excited that night – she’d held in her hands a 5000 year old tablet inscribed with cuneiform. Now, I knew this was spiffy, if for no other reason than it was freaking 5000 years old, right?

But it was more wonderful to hear her so thrilled about it. I get to see the world open up, through her eyes. Experiencing her thrill was a rush of its own. Then I started thinking about the things that thrilled me then, and thrill me now.

- At age 8 (give or take), I got to hear a real live astronaut talk to our elementary school about his adventures on the moon. I went home and pored over my planet books (back when Pluto was still a planet, dang it) and re-read The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet. I wanted to be an astronaut back then.

- At age 13 I won my first writing contest – for my angst-filled book on a girl whose father returns home after years of being a POW in Vietnam. I’d bartered my English-teacher-neighbor free babysitting to get her to type it up (as I hadn’t learned to type then.) It was almost 50 pages long, double-spaced. I waxed lyrical even then, LOL.

- At 19 (on my birthday), I said “yes” when my husband asked me to marry him as we stood on the steps of the US Senate building.

- At 35 I skied down a mountain for the first time. Okay, it was the bunny slope, but I went down on two skinny little sticks and lived to tell the tale. (I actually lived to totally embroider this tale from a bunny slope into a double black diamond slope, but I do make my living telling stories, so there you are.) My heart still beats like a kettle drum when I think about how simply exhilarating that was.

- At 37 I sold my first book. Still gives me goosebumps to recall.

- At 26 and 30, I held my newborn daughters. I’m not sure it gets much better than that.

Except when they call from college to tell you, the thrill in their voice, that they just held a 5000 year old piece of inscribed rock that totally floats their boat – because they know you’ll be thrilled, too.

What’s thrilled you over the years? What’s thrilled you most recently? What totally floats your boat?

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Helllllo, my beautiful fellow goddesses! I thought it was time for a nice, fresh quiz — something to lighten the days as we all wait for my next book, TALK OF THE TOWN, to hit the stands in — oh, wait! It comes out TODAY!

My, aren’t we all the lucky ones! Yes, that’s right, TALK OF THE TOWN comes out TODAY! Woohoo!

Allllllrighty, then! Let’s jump into the quiz, shall we?

1. Have you ever checked a spouse’s, partner’s, or boyfriend’s mail or email? Have you ever done it and FOUND something?
2. Do you believe in love at first sight?
3. If someone gave you $1,000 right now, and told you that you HAD to spend it ALL on yourself, what would you buy?
4. Favorite number? What made you pick that number?
5. Favorite color? Why that color?
6. What’s your most-dreamed-of Christmas gift this year?

Ok, my lovely goddesses! Here’s your FRIENDLY GODDESS QUIZ! Now, get to answerin’!

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Before crew, there was water-skiing. Another sport that takes place on water, involves scanty clothing, and lots of hot guys. Do I look stupid to you?

Water-skiing was the sport that consumed me in high school. My family had a tiny cottage on a small lake in Massachusetts and the thing to do was ski. All the teens on the lake, and there were quite a few, skied. We skied from an hour after sunrise until dusk. We competed against each other for perfection and finesse and pure strength. At the end of the summer we competed in the Central New England competition. Doing well in that competition was our ultimate goal.

Oh, and falling in love. As a teen, what other goal trumps love?

We fell in and out of love, endured infidelities, jealousies, and changing allegiances while wearing bikinis and cut off blue jeans, doing it all while cruising the lake in powerful motor boats.

It was a golden time.

Hey, at least we were out of the house, getting lots of physical exercise. Ahem.

By some miraculous combination of events, the guy on the lake asked me out (YES!) and then a few dates later asked me if I wanted to double with him. No, no, it’s not what you think. He wanted me to be his mixed doubles partner for the upcoming competition. In eight days. (Um…yes?)

The things we do for love.

Did I love him? Of course I loved him. He was the guy. I’d been in love with him from afar for a year already.

The events in water-skiing competition, at least back then, were Slalom, Jumping, Tricks, Barefoot, and Mixed Doubles. I heard they dropped Mixed Doubles a while back because it was deemed too dangerous. For the girl.

The things we do for love.

Here’s a photo of us after 8 days of constant practice. We won second place. I won the guy, too. You didn’t doubt me, did you?

What nutty, wonderful, unexpected thing have you done for love? Would you do it again? What wild, amazing, crazy thing has someone done for you?

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