Summer colds are the worst!

I have had the worst summer cold. It's nearly two weeks in and I'm only just now beginning to feel like a human being again. I still sound like I've got marbles up my nose (which is interesting, as I'm not actually stuffy, per se, nor do I have a headache, so where the stuffy sound is coming from is beyond me) and I'm a little tired, but not so badly I can't function. Despite the financial setback it is causing (well, $120 overall, which is at one and the same time both a lot and not really all that much) I've sat out on the writing these past two weeks. I think it was a good decision overall, as it gave me ample nap time and reduced my stress load ever so slightly.

I have, however, begun a new venture with my writing friend. We're going to be doing a travel guide to our home town highlighting some of the hidden tourist treasures in these parts. It's exciting! My next task is to start up our joint author's blog, get an email up and running and figure out what sort of business cards we should print up. The business cards will be very helpful: We can start conversations with people about the project, asking for suggestions. If they can't think of anywhere at that time, we can at least give them our contact info for later use. We figure it might not sell like hotcakes, make us household names or multi-millionaires (heck, we'd settle for multi-hundredaires), but it will get our names out to the publishers and serve as an example of what we can do. At this point in my game, it's all about what I can do and proving it, so this is a perfect idea.

Fortunately, I do enjoy travel, even the local kind, so it's right up my alley subject-wise. We're going to have a lot of fun doing the research, I can tell. And it's so much more exciting than my freelance writing duties (at the present; I'm sure I'll get over it.)

Another something I really need to be getting on with is getting my fiction writing back on. I've let it slide, what with one thing and another, which is really bad. I shouldn't let those skills wither! Well, what skills I have, that is. I was thinking of setting up a blog for that, too--a private one, probably, just somewhere I can go and put my stuff up and let my editor friend (not the one I'm writing with) read it and check out what I'm doing. She can give me a better gauge of whether or not I'm slacking. I hope. It's been so long since I sent something her way, I hope she hasn't forgotten how I write!

I should also like to note that, for the very firstiest time, I've actually sorta-kinda designed something! Well, I used a published stitch pattern as a basis, so it's not really a unique design, but I didn't like some of the particulars about the stitch so I charted it and changed it to suit. Silly, isn't it, how something so simple can leave one with a real sense of accomplishment?

Here's a pictorial preview:
I know it's hard to see, but a lot of that is lighting and the pre-blocked state of the scarf (for a scarf it is.) I'm tentatively calling it Rose Garden, although that is subject to change. As it gets blocked out (or maybe not; I can't tell how long it will be just of the yarn itself, it might not need lengthening) something else might come to me. I'm crap at naming things. Blog posts, stories, pets...you name it, I can't.

I must, as the Victorians say, take my rest--I have a ticket for tonight's symphony, and I've been looking forward to this one. My favorite piece is being played (Rachmaninoff's Vocalise), and I'm willing to put up with the rest of it as long as I get to hear that! But a nap will be needed if I'm to cope with the leftover of the cold and driving and the people smushed up against me in my seat.

I hate colds.