A Life of Crime and Chocolate

Happy birthday, French! That's great news!

Mr. M, I hope you get well soon.


Urgh, I know I live in Scotland but it's just far too hot right now. I've had heatstroke the past few days combined with restless nights because of the heat. Don't get me wrong I don't want it to start raining but it can do with being just a wee bit cooler here right now...

I'm psyched. Got an e-mail today saying I'm in the fall session of the Citizens' Police Academy for Fairfax County (only 40 slots in a county of almost a million people). We'll meet once a week for 10 weeks, 3.5 hours per session, and hear about things like narcotics investigations, bomb squad work, SWAT team, crime scene investigations, police training, and crime analysis. This'll be great.

Happy birthday, French! I'm so glad you got to take Blake home.

Get well, Mr. M.

Vagough, that sounds really neat. They had something similar in the last town I lived in. I never had the nerve to try to get in. Please tell us about it when you go!

lizmonster said:

Vagough, that sounds really neat. They had something similar in the last town I lived in. I never had the nerve to try to get in. Please tell us about it when you go!

Click to expand...

Absolutely! The sessions are all on Thursday evenings, starting September 12, except the last which will be on a Saturday. We'll spend that morning at their firearms range and driving track. I'm excited!

I had my first proper breakfast and I wasn't sick... that is good news.

Hooray for birthdays, police academies, and not throwing up!

Still sunny over here...

onesecondglance said:

Still sunny over here...

Click to expand...

It's like you live in some weird, alternate England. Reality-check: Are your cars steam-powered?

Nice that you're feeling better, Mr. M.

To all those that live in Great Britain, I feel for you. It's too hot here too. It does still cool down at night, but not as much as I'd like. I am at the point that I LIKE overcast days, cuz then it's cooler.

Vagough: that sounds really neat. Never heard of anything like it. Police work is always fascinating. But duh, this is MTS!

Does this mean that you will be on patrol, or what?

I was talking to my mum who is from Scotland, and she was saying that even though its typically cold, when it gets hot, it's a really hot heat.
Here I am in flannelette pyjamas robe and the heater on full ball because I can't handle the cold.

I got myself an iPad today as a gift to myself from myself. I'm a little bit in love with it I think, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.

Mr Mitchell, glad you seem to be on the mend.

French, I love my ipad. I post more from it than from my computer. And I'm addicted to candy crush (seriously silly game).

Vagough, that sounds like so much fun! I freely admit I'm jealous.

Hot here, too. I have friends in Texas and Arizona. So I can't really complain. But I'm pretty much over the 97 degree temps with high humidity.

Happy (belated) Birthday, French! I hope you have a wonderful time. So glad you and Blake are back home.

Shakesbear said:

TIDY not CLEAN! Well, maybe a bit cleaner than now, but not a lot.

Click to expand...

I have a motto when it comes to housework. Clean enough to be healthy - Untidy enough to be happy. You rock, Shakes.

vagough said:

I'm psyched. Got an e-mail today saying I'm in the fall session of the Citizens' Police Academy for Fairfax County

Click to expand...

That's awesome! Good for you!

tarak said:

The drama of that weekend was balanced out by a partial request for a query I'd sort of forgotten about.

Click to expand...

Congrats, tarak, that's fant..... wait. A partial request? You mean, they couldn't even complete the request? Really! Agents have no respect these days.

<-- really.

tarak - I missed the thing about your partial - great news!

French - my mum has an iPad and won't be separated from it. She asked me last night for advice on a level of Angry Birds!

("Er, fire the birds at the pigs?"
"I've completed the level, I just need three stars!" <== totally not the parent I get my obsessive perfectionist nature from )

French, happy birthday.

Yes, I am on the mend now and going out tonight.

onesecondglance said:

tarak - I missed the thing about your partial - great news!

Click to expand...

Missed that one too, tarak - that is excellent!

onesecondglance said:

French - my mum has an iPad and won't be separated from it. She asked me last night for advice on a level of Angry Birds!

Click to expand...

My poor husband has been an iPad widower for years now. I take the thing to bed with me. Lately I've been playing Plants vs. Zombies until about midnight - I can't let my cute little Zen Garden plants go without water, now, can I??

...What were we talking about?

lizmonster said:

Missed that one too, tarak - that is excellent!

Click to expand...

Me, three. Congrats!!!

GailD said:

I have a motto when it comes to housework. Clean enough to be healthy - Untidy enough to be happy. You rock, Shakes.

Click to expand...

I like the motto! May have to print it out and put it next to the dust notice!

Tarak - me four - congrats!

It is very, very hot.

onuilmar said:

Me, three. Congrats!!!

Click to expand...

+1 = 4!

GailD said:

Congrats, tarak, that's fant..... wait. A partial request? You mean, they couldn't even complete the request? Really! Agents have no respect these days.

<-- really.

Click to expand...

LOL. I would have to make that sort of mistake on a forum for writers. I also got an R today for another query I'd forgotten about. So I have a partial and a full out there. And two queries drafted. So maybe I'll send those out today. At this rate, it will be 2020 before I finish querying everyone on my list.

Oh dear lord. I was all prepared to send my partial and re-read the email. He wants a synopsis, too. Guess I know what I'll be doing the rest of the night.

Shakes, I agree with Gail about the clean motto. My mum always says 'its clean underneath the dirt,'

tarak said:

I missed all the food talk. Or maybe the cake blurred things. It was tasty. And quite boozy. It helped dull some of the pain of spending my weekend with people who apparently never left high school despite having graduated at least twenty years ago. The drama of that weekend was balanced out by a partial request for a query I'd sort of forgotten about.

Click to expand...

That's fabulous news, Tarak -- congrats!

onuilmar said:

Vagough: that sounds really neat. Never heard of anything like it. Police work is always fascinating. But duh, this is MTS!

Does this mean that you will be on patrol, or what?

Click to expand...

It does sound neat, doesn't it?! Previous CPA classes have been given the option of doing a ride-along with a patrol officer if they like. The following blog gives an idea of some of the things they do, or at least have done in previous years. I'll let you all know how it goes once the classes start!

http://gwenhernandez.com/citizens-police-academy/

tarak said:

LOL. I would have to make that sort of mistake on a forum for writers.

Click to expand...

Tarak, you're awesome. (I have a sick, twisted sense of humor when it comes to the written word.) Sorry about the R and good luck with the synopsis.

Apologies for the absence - my parents have been staying with me for the past couple of days. How is everyone? I've just been diagnosed with blepharitis, which is an inflammation of the eyelid. That's a fancy way of saying that I woke up yesterday looking like someone punched me in the face. Pretty sure I would have remembered that!

Oh, and I was reminded that I'm off to see a gig in London on Thursday night which I'd totally forgotten about. Main problem there being that I've since arranged (having forgotten) to be in Scotland that day, so I'll be trying to get there straight off the plane... which will be fun.

onesecondglance said:

I've just been diagnosed with blepharitis, which is an inflammation of the eyelid. That's a fancy way of saying that I woke up yesterday looking like someone punched me in the face. Pretty sure I would have remembered that!

Click to expand...

Unless they punched really, really hard. Quick, how many fingers am I holding up??

Sounds like you're burning the candle at both ends. Stay sane.