How do you spell ... ?

Today's the fifth annual Spelling Bee for Literacy, and the Writers' Block will be competing - decked out in our fancy new foam blockhead hats.

This little guy was one of our table centerpieces our first year. He's been gathering dust in my office for five years.

I'm sure we'll lose again, but it's all for a good cause.

Check back tomorrow to see how we did.

Have a bee-you-tee-ful day!

Write on

Hi out there. Has everyone given up on me?

I'm sorry. I've been suffering from a huge case of writer's block. And also total slovenliness.

I've known for some time I needed a kick in the pants to not only get back into the swing, but to really work on honing my skills. So I joined a writing group a few weeks ago. It meets on Sundays at 10 a.m. every three weeks. That means that on the days we meet, I don't go to church. I could go to the 8:00 service, but so far have failed at getting up early enough to do that and complete my writing assignment.

Uh, yeah. Writing assignment. I'm doing this voluntarily.

When I sit down to work on whatever I'm going to share with the group, I realize how out of practice I am. Most of the writers in our group are stretching their creative muscles with fiction writing. Every attempt I've made at fiction seems contrived ... and just plain yucky. So I go back to the twisted chronicles of my reality.

So that's some of what I've been doing.

While I did finally vacuum and dust and clean the downstairs bathroom and haul a bunch of boxes of stuff to Goodwill yesterday, I've been avoiding all manner of outdoor home maintenance, much to the chagrin of my neighbors. Why, oh why, did I decide to become a homeowner???? Will someone please tell me? (Last weekend's big accomplishments were finally hauling the Christmas tree to the basement and replacing the light bulb above the back door. Woo-hoo!)

Slowly but surely, after an especially extra-long winter, things are beginning to move. And while I won't promise to post daily - at least not just yet - I'll try to check in here at least a few times a week. I hope you'll join me.

I live for lunch

... and dinner and breakfast and brunch ...

I've known for some time that I'm one of those "live to eat" people, rather than "eat to live" people. For me, it's not just food as sustenance, but food as experience ... and most of all, fellowship opportunity.

My favorite part of the work day is going to lunch. The call starts going around the office around 9:30 or 10 some days to find out who's "in" on going out. I like to postpone the leaving as long as possible, otherwise the afternoon is sooooooo long. But I'm nearly always up for the outing.

Lunch is when we get to know each other and learn about one another's real lives, outside of the work environment. Our favorite place serves mounds of hot tortilla chips and vats of fresh salsa, over which we've shared all kinds of tidbits about our lives. It's the perfect lunch-time establishment, where the service is amazingly fast, the food is delicious, the price is right, and we get maximum time to refresh and refuel before heading back to the salt mines.

So, you're probably wondering about Mr. Potato Head over there. Isn't he cool? Misty brought him in one day and I had fun rearranging his face (I guess all the parts are back in the right spot here). This photo of Mr. P reminds me of how sedentary I was for almost 4 months. And now I have to make up for it. So I joined the Y. And now, even though I'd rather stay in bed sipping coffee and reading? I'm going to drag my butt over to the church and see if I can help with cleanup day. (So much more fun than cleaning my own house, which has reached new levels of grossness.)

Who knows? Maybe we'll eat lunch together, too.