Home Alone 2: Lost in North Carolina

Wendi and Jo are gone for an unprecedented second trip to her parents', and I'm once again home alone. This is very good timing, as I'm exactly ten chapters away from finishing the first draft of Something Wicked - and I have an ambitious Friday finish in my sights.

So what was the first order of business? Playing the Wii, of course. Although I should note that I am no longer playing my friend Paul's Wii. I'm now playing with my own Wii. (I know, I know. But please, let's keep this clean - this is a family blog after all.)

The story of how we actually FOUND a Wii to purchase is one perhaps best saved for a later blog - or over a game of MarioParty 8 - but I will say that when I finally found a place that said they had two in stock they only had one left by the time Jo, my Dad and I got there fifteen minutes later - with another two callers supposedly on the way trying to beat us there. Had the second been there we would have bought it for Wendi's sister Niki, who actually has scouts around the United States on the lookout for a Wii of her own.

So, after one week of owning our own Wii (and having to start all over at establishing records and benchmarks) I've yet to improve upon my Paul's Wii best in golf (par for a nine hole course). I have nonetheless practiced and progressed far enough to be rated as a "Pro" golfer on the system. So I always have a career on the Wii PGA circuit to fall back on if the writing career doesn't pan out, I guess. I've also become a "Pro" level bowler - and I've managed to blow my old Paul's Wii high score out of the water with a 268. (Which I hit today.) I attribute that success to the Guide to Natural Bowling book I picked up in Spruce Pine, North Carolina a couple of months back. To my chagrin though, I've been unable to reach "Pro" level in baseball - my favorite sport. I'm getting close, but the computer opponent really gets tough on you when you get better, and I don't know any other way to combat him. Perhaps I'll have to buy a hint book. Which will of course cement my status as loser supreme.

So, um, back to the novel - which I really am eager to get back to. We just spent all day yesterday at the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games in Linville, North Carolina, which was the original inspiration for the setting for Something Wicked. I was recharged and re-invigorated - and came up with nice tweaks to a couple of scenes I had already planned. We also purchased four CDs from great bands we heard - Albannach, BarleyJuice, and Mother Grove, all of which I'll be listening to as I finish the book. I hope to mention one or two of them in the context of the book too.

All right - I've played the Wii and I've blogged to begin my Home Alone sequel, so I'm off to write. Writing updates to follow -