On the road with Mr Cooper

For New Years this year we pulled up stakes and met friends in Palm Springs. One of our own conditions was that we would only go if Mr Cooper would go along as well.

Cooper is a handful. When we had Lola and him together it was too much to wrangle him. He requires two people's focus to be out in polite company.

So this was his first hotel vacation. He has done AMAZING. We have also been very lucky to find two hotels that not only accept dogs, but welcome them.

We spent our first night at the Ace hotel. Super cute, well appointed and not soundproof in the least. After 2 am the official party around the pool ended and seemed to take the next hour to move directly above our heads.

This afternoon we moved to The Parker. It's a delight. As far as Mr Cooper is concerned, The Parker wins "paws down" due to his welcome bag of water bowl, treats and a toy. He didn't even care that they brought him the all pink girl's welcome gift. He was thrilled to have a toy to gut.

Happy new year to all from me, Lyle and the most spoiled dog I know, Mr Cooper!

Countdown to Zero

Zero Words by New Years

Okey dokey. I'm on a roll. I'm done slicing and dicing, and it's a good thing. A few days ago, I said to my dear on-line friend (I hate the word "bloggy") Amy Nathan that if I keep chopping at this rate, I should be down to zero words by New Year's. Maybe as the ball goes down in Times Square (10 - 9 - 8 , etc...) I could be counting down my last ten words. That would give so much more meaning to the New Year! Amy suggested I use this marketing ploy to my advantage, since it would be much cheaper to publish books with no words. Good point. I'll add it to my query.

Birthday Spoiler Alert
Meantime, hubby just left for LA for four days. He hates to travel for work more than I hate him being gone. (Hate. That's such a strong word.) The bad news is, his birthday is Tuesday and we won't be together to celebrate. The good news is he gets back on Thursday, which just happens to be... my birthday! (Yay!) So, dinner is on for my special day. (Presents, unfortunately, are out this year. Hopefully, next year things will turn around for us, and by "us" I mean the world.)

Celebrating the Festival of Lights
In case you're wondering, I never got ripped off because my birthday is one week before Christmas. That's because we didn't celebrate Christmas. In my house, birthdays are birthdays, and Chanukah is Chanukah. Besides, you never know when Chanukah will show up. It could be the beginning of December, end of December, or maybe even sometime in the middle. Perhaps even late November. It's very fickle.

Much to my mother's dismay, my modern-day family and I are as far from religious as Sarah Palin is from smart. We do, however, celebrate by turning the lights off, lighting the candles (often on several menorahs - the more candles the more beautiful), and taking turns saying what we're grateful for. Then we sit quietly and watch the candles burn down. It's pretty Zen.

Well, kids, I'd better get back to throwing nouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives on my dwindling word count pile. I'm at an interesting juncture where my mc's are at a country club dinner being pursued by rich, attractive members of the opposite sex. I'm dying to see how it turns out!

What are you up to in your WIP (without giving away any trade secrets)? And, how do you celebrate the holidays?