Nnnn!

Annoyance: ( all that money math I did? is wrong. They're taxing me twice. )

But I digress. In other news, I have managed to not only synopsize but scene-outline the Barbarians Novel, and I have several things that I have not had before in the two years now I've been working on this thing:
1) a villain
2) a plot, including a motive for said villain
So go me!
I also have a large number of the outlined scenes already written, even though this is a major plot about-face. Most of the book, it seems, is actually done. Also, my characters are fully developed and I've finally standardized on the names. So, that's pretty goddamn awesome. I've just written a turning-point scene for the new outline and am quite pleased.
The fact that I've entirely given up on transitions for the moment and am writing the scenes as though they were the beads on a necklace which I am then going to have to string together? That doesn't bother me at all. I am elaborately not caring about that. This approach has worked for me in fanfiction, and has allowed me to get more stories out than otherwise-- don't worry about the overarching scheme, just write the scenes you want. And so I'm trying that out in origfic and seeing how that goes.

In other, other news, my baby sister Ann the neatfreak may well come out to visit me today. She's negotiating with train schedules and cellphone-plan renewals. (My mom! is getting! a cellphone! holy shit. Again, I digress.)
While some might be distressed at the prospect of a neatfreak coming to visit, I am not. No. Because she is a hands-on neatfreak, which means she jumps for joy at the chance to help other people organize their messes. In high school she listed as a career aspiration "Kicking Martha Stewart's Ass", and this was before M.S. had been to prison, so... She likes to organize and clean things, and I have plenty of things for her to do here.
I like to organize and clean too, but not when it's my own shit. Well, I do, but only with motivation. And Ann? She has "motivation" tattooed on her metaphorical bicep.

Only downside is that she's vegetarian and all I have in the house is frozen weiners and left over split pea soup with ham. So I have to go grocery shopping. But she can help me do that. If I ever find out when she's arriving.

Meanwhile I need to break the hero of my novel's heart before she gets here, and then I have to stomp on it. Is this novel full of Hunka Man Angst? Why do you even need to ask? It's mine. Of course it is.
Poor guy.

Wow!

I've just discovered whole new levels of pain!!
Check this out:
I just reached into my back pocket to pull out my wallet, which was uncomfortable to sit on. By some chance, my index finger slid along the open top of the wallet, and the plastic credit card holder slid under my fingernail and cut me, rather badly.

Not only did it sting like a motherfucker, it also immediately began to throb painfully because my hands were filthy with the slime of rotting things from the sink, which I had just been attempting to clean out. I am not very good at plumbing work, nor am I good at dishes: I am drenched to the skin and most of the kitchen is under water at the moment, and I had sat down to answer Z's IM about when he was coming home from work and whether he needed a ride.

So, knowing that the last thing I need, as I am about to be dropped from my health insurance, is an infection under my fingernail, I went to rinse my throbbing cut in some rubbing alcohol, hoping to stave off infection.
Guess what?

Well, I've been doing dishes for the last couple hours, so of course I'm starting an eczema flare on my hands.
If you get rubbing alcohol on a fresh eczema flare?

It HURTS LIKE A MOTHERFUCKER.

I'm discovering WHOLE NEW WORLDS of pain. This is AWESOME. My day RULES.


It's enough to make me wish I'd done as Z does on all his days off, and had just sat down to surf the Internet over a cup of hot chocolate. (Lest you think I snark, he said himself that's what he does.)

And when I IM'd him in my frustration?
He told me to chill, because what better reason to chill than having a 4-day-weekend every week?

additionally

I managed to set my kitchen on fire and cover about 3/4 of it in oil while making dinner.
Fortunately I got the fire put out right away.

Then I broke the tea ball.


I have a self-imposed ban from the kitchen for the rest of the night. I may not even go in there tomorrow, at this rate.