Sorry to all my readers for my being so conspicuously absent this month. I have been busy participating in National Novel Writing Month.  I have now finished my manuscript (first draft). It comes in at 51,530 words. Completed in one month despite the fact that I work a full-time job, Project Runway was airing the latest season, Iron Chef America was airing their episodes of chosing a new Iron Chef, and we had Thanksgiving holidays.

Whew. I'm done. For now. I'm going to rest my poor aching fingers. I wrote about 11,000 words during the first part of the month. Then I had a dry spell for about 7 days when I didn't feel like writing at all. So I basically wrote the last 40,000 words over the past 7 days.

Now I am putting the manuscript aside for a couple of weeks to let it fester and ferment. Then I will begin the process of the first re-write on it.

I stumbled upon this blog about tiny houses and I am fascinated. I love the idea of tiny houses and I want to build one on my land in Mississippi at some point in the future.

To visit the Tiny House Blog click here. They have some great ideas well worth reading about.

This past weekend we went to the Texas Renaissance Festival near Plantersville, Texas which is the largest renaissance fair in the world. Last year we had such a terrible time with traffic that this year, we resolved to get there right when the festival opened in the morning. And since I am such a stickler for schedules and punctuality, we did indeed get there at 9 am on Sunday. Traffic was light and parking was a breeze. We were parked right near the front entrance.

It is difficult to describe exactly what to expect at the festival to someone who has never been. I have been going there since 1985 and it has been growing each year as they erect more buildings and add more attractions. They get about 25,000 people per day, according to the average attendance numbers. They are only open on weekends the second half of October and all of November.

The main attration seems to be the food and shopping. You can spend some serious money on food there and for the most part, the food is very good. Everything from Polish food to Greek food to German food to English pub food. Drink prices are ridiculous but that is to be expected at these sort of events.

And there are lots of costumed people roaming about. For the most part, everyone seems to abide by the dress code of the Renaissance years. But there are always some exceptions. Like the people who come dressed in chains. And nothing else. Not a sight for childrens eyes, let me tell you.

And then we spotted a swamp monster. I am sure there were swamp monsters back during the Renaissance years as well as today, but I didn't think it was particularly fitting with the theme that someone dressed like that for this festival.

The Texas Renaissance Festival website

Here is a blog well worth following:

Trans World Expedition

Nicolas Rapp decided to spend the next year driving around the world and he started this week. He is driving a Toyota Landcruiser outfitted with a tent on top. He has a friend who is joining him for the first leg of the journey through North and South America. He left from New York City and is now in Virginia. I hope you enjoy following his story for the next year.

I will have to admit that I was not at all fond of the blogging platform that came with my website which is built in Dot Net Nuke. So I searched around for another blogging module and happened upon the SunBlogNuke blogging platform. After a few misunderstandings, I now have the new blog up and running. My old blog had been moved to another page of this site under the tab Blog Archive.

The link to SunBlogNuke in case you would like to acquire your own copy of this program: click here