December Quinn, Erotic RomanceStacia Kane, Sexy Urban Fantasy

First, yes, I didn't post yesterday because of the holiday. It still feels weird to celebrate US holidays (I got so used to sitting around half the day wondering where everyone was, then remembering it was Memorial Day/Labor Day/MLK Day), but we did; we grilled burgers and hot dogs with my mom and her husband, and a good time was had by all.

Afterwards we sat around on the screened porch discussing all sorts of things. I specifically recall a long period of discussion about Wallis Simpson and Nazis, in which the hubs and I talked about our honeymoon visit to the Imperial War Museum in London. (If you ever have a chance, you really should go; it's a very cool museum.) Our general agreement, unsurprisingly, was that both Wallis and the Nazis were Very Bad.

Of course, the day did set me seriously behind on my wordcount. But sometimes it's important to sit around with family. Especially when part of that sitting around is remembering the people who fought and died for us, and why.

But cooking in someone else's kitchen is weird, isn't it? You don't know where anything is, and you keep reaching for things--your trusty wooden spoon, your favorite pan, a specific seasoning or spice--that aren't there. It can put one a bit out of sorts. I always feel like everyone is watching me when I try to cook in someone else's kitchen. It's generally fun to do, but still. I miss my own kitchen. I really miss all my cooking tools and things, which are not expected to arrive for another few weeks; not to mention we have no home to put them in. They'll all go into storage, but at least at that point we'll be able to go there, open a box at random, and actually touch them. Ahh.

It's especially hard because the house has satellite TV. Which means there's like a million channels, large numbers of which are either sports or infomercials. Point being, the only channel I know by number so far is The Food Network. And so that is what I have been watching, pretty much nonstop. The Food Network. Which I do love; I mean, there's always something on the Food Network, right? It may not be the greatest show, but it's something. So it's on almost all the time, and it's making me want to cook. Which you all know I like doing, at least most of the time.

But in the main it's nice background noise. Something I can tune out while I type, but when I glance up there's invariably something interesting happening.

Sometimes I listen to music when I write. It works especially well when I'm stuck, but not as well when the words are flowing. I either don't hear the music at all, which is more likely, or I stop to listen to a particular song and lose the flow.

Okay. One other thing:

Mark Henry is over at Bitten by Books today, doing some video-blogging and hanging out with readers. Pop on over there for some fun.

But before you do, tell me. What do you have on in the background? Does it change according to what you're doing?