Timelies! Livejournal's back up and I don't have anything to say.

For me, losing a cup size (or several) is one of my main motivations for losing weight.

Dear Kristin's breasts,

When Kristin loses weight, you don't have to lead the way.

Ain't it always the way?

Not always. Since I've lost weight, I've gone down in band size, but my boobs have stayed the same resulting in a larger cup size. I went from a C to D/DD.

Pfft, no taking down!

I'm fine, really.

I'm picturing your pelvis stomping off to its room, shouting "I HATE YOU WHY DON'T YOU JUST LET ME GET A TATTOO EVERYONE ELSE HAS ONE I HATE YOU SO MUCH!"

Hee! Very most funny.

Bwah! But also, {{{Deena}}}. What on earth does that mean?

It just means my pelvic muscles are all crap and never recovered from the post-partum fun of two babies too close together, so we'll have to work on making them stronger and less wonky.

so we'll have to work on making them stronger and less wonky.

Soon you'll have a pelvis like Elvis.

two babies too close together

What is "too close", asks the woman who lives in a state where young mothers push an occupied stroller with a toddler hanging on while obviously pregnant with the next one?

I love that boneless warm sleeping-baby weight.

Yeah. I got it from a cat last night and was thinking "Wow, now I understand why some people decide their cats are babies."

The baby never clawed me, but then the cat never spit up on me. It's a toss-up.

One of the best feelings in the world is having a human being utterly limp on your shoulder.

That is too close. Though, really, part of it is my age and part of it is that neither pregnancy was easy, so I should have taken a longer recovery time between the two. It seems it takes the body longer to bounce back when you have a baby at almost 40.

That makes sense, Deena. Pelvic ~ma to you!

What is "too close"

I think most OBs recommend waiting at least a year between pregnancies, to give your body time to recuperate. Although someone I know told me her OB recommended 18 months after a C-section.

One of the best feelings in the world is having a human being utterly limp on your shoulder.

Sara was just asleep on my chest. She's such a snuggler, too, sometimes it's hard to remember to put her down so I can get things done rather than just limping out on the couch and enjoying it.

Owen pulled himself to the standing position in his crib. At 3:00 a.m. And then couldn't figure out how to get out of it. I had to get up and rescue him.

This is one reason we put Annabel in sleep sacks at night. She can still crawl in them, but she can't pull up and cruise.

I had a teacher that not only required them, but didn't allow you to veer from them. That might be what got my hackles up about them. It is natural, during the course of writing, to be inspired by a better idea. With fiction, it is almost guaranteed to happen.

That's just evil, and I can't even imagine why she did it, unless it worked for her, and she's one of those people who can't imagine that other people's workstyles differ.

I'll never do a UW romance writing extension class that some people in my RWA chapter rave about, because the instructor was a speaker at one of our meetings, and her required methodology would drive me crazy and kill every bit of creativity I have. She makes you start with an outline, then do synopses of increasing length until you have a 50-page synopsis. Only then does she let you start writing the book!

Obviously, this must work for some people, or she wouldn't be teaching it continually to full classes. But I can't imagine what one would do with a synopsis somewhere between a quarter (for a short category romance) and an eighth (for long single titles like what I write) the length of your entire book! I'm afraid I'd feel like I'd already told the story and wouldn't have any energy and enthusiasm left for my first draft.

That said, part of what I've learned about the difference in writing a 400-page novel vs. a 10-page term paper is that for the former, outlining is my friend. My first novel was such a big rambly mess, nearly 500 pages of 12-point Courier for the first draft even though it barely had a plot, because I just made up everything as I went along.

So for the wip, I wrote a 2 1/2-page plan of events, just the barest outline of the plot. I realized that without even trying I'd come up with a neat three act structure (hurray for me, I'm finally learning to plot!). Since I know about how long I want the final product to be, I know that if Act I ends much after p. 150, I'm rambling too much.

Anyway. We'll see how it works. I might come up with an entirely different method for Novel the Third.

Plei, I love Lillian Elizabeth.

I'm fond of Clara, particularly since it was my grandmother's name, but I think it would be hard on a modern child.

No more so than Annabel, Lillian, or Emeline.