Fifteen Minutes of Delusion

We had a great week - lots going on. It's almost too busy sometimes. But it's a good kind of busy. Last Saturday, we went to a BYU-Hawaii Alumni reunion at L&L Hawaiian Barbecue in Plano. It took us 90 minutes to get there, but it's still a lot closer than Kaneohe. We had a good time and good food. The girls did okay with the food, although their favorite was the malasadas. Yeah, that sounds about right. This weekend was really, really busy. It started on Friday night, when Anna went to the Valentine's Masquerade dance at the middle school, which was rescheduled after the big snow a couple of weeks ago. She said only 10% of the attendees actually danced, and 90% of the kids practiced the fine art of wallflowering. Sounds about right for a bunch of 12- and 13-year olds. Saturday morning, Alyssa and I went to Ft Worth for the Cowtown 5k race. It was all of 29 degrees when we left - brr! We dressed up nice and warm, though. Compare that picture of Alyssa and I to this ...

Okay - so it's been ten days since the last roundup. They have been busy days, and I'm doing good to get this update posted at all. I traveled to Utah last week for work, and managed to have some fun while I was there. One of the things I did was go to the Devil's Food Cake book launch party for the lovely and talented Josi Kilpack. I talked my mom into going with me. You can read more details on my writer's blog . I'm giving away a copy of the book over there, so you'll want to check it out. While I was driving on dry streets in Utah, Kara and the girls enjoyed a record-setting, school-closing snow storm. They made cookies, too. Lots and lots and lots of cookies. I went to the UVU Culinary Arts School Valentines Dinner with my dad and Candy. The dinner was great. The next day, my nephew Nathan was baptized. I got a picture of most of the cousins. Plus one of me and Nathan. Then on the way home, I ran into my friend Ron at the airport. I had Monday off work, so...

It's been a great week. In addition to my publishing contract, here's what's been happening: This should have been a couple of weeks ago, but I forgot - I took the test and applied to be a 2010 Census taker this summer. It's just part time short term, and hopefully will help us build up a little better savings buffer. We've been making cookies like crazy for the girls to take in their lunch. Here they are frosting the chocolate cookies we made. The girls both had friends in the local high school production of Oliver, so we went this past Friday. It was fun - even when the fog machine set off the fire alarm during the last scene. I'll be traveling to Utah this week for work. Looking forward to seeing family and friends. It's going to be a bit of a whirlwind trip. Pizza crust recipe - there have been several requests, so here it is: 1 package yeast 1 cup warm water 1/2 tsp sald 2 tsp olive oil 1 c whole wheat flour 1 1/2-2 1/2 c all purpose flour cornmeal Diss...

As those of you who are my Facebook friends already know, today I signed a contract to have my novel published by Cedar Fort Inc , a regional publisher based in Springville, Utah. Wooo Hoooo! And now the real work begins. They actually made their offer based on the submission I sent in last September, yet I've spent the last three months or so revising and rewriting. The updated story is much stronger. It's also much longer - by about 40 pages, which is how many pages Cedar Fort wants me to cut . So I've been working on going through and trimming out a bunch of stuff. Not fun. But I have a few ideas how to make it work. Another thing they asked for is a new title . I guess The Flight of Na Pua Lei doesn't work for them. I've come up with a handful to give them, but I could really use your help - hence on my writing blog, the contest for this month is the title game . So far I have one suggestion - left as a comment on my Facebook blog simulcast. Now's your cha...