Hello, December!

The craziness of NaNoWriMo has come to an end.  I was not sure if I would hit the goal of 50,000 words by November 30th but I was lucky and finished up on November 22nd. I'd like to say congratulations to everyone who participated whether you hit your goal or not.

What I wrote this year is not destined to be worked on more and turned into a book. Some years I know that what I wrote deserves an extended life and I begin to edit it.  Some years I know that a story I wrote does not get an extended life. This years story is not so lucky.

Things have been busy as I had to retire the dishwasher and install a new one. I am not done cleaning up the yard and putting items away for winter. The weather has been a bit of a roller coaster as it's been pretty mild most days.

I am not doing well in my Hockey Fantasy League but I wasn't expecting much to begin with. It's my first time being part of a league and the whole fantasy world. It's one thing to do March Madness and pick teams but the hockey has required a lot of my attention. There are only eight teams in the group I'm with and in last place. I do have to say that I'm tied for last with two others.

I have won two weeks back-to-back, almost won last week but I was beat by a lousy 10 points. This week I have a 30 point lead going into the final two days of the week so I'm hoping I can pull out a miracle win this week as the person I'm up against is in first place.

My team doesn't have a lot of star players on it as I went for more consistent players and ones whose names I actually recognized.  My knowledge of today's hockey world is slightly limited but it turns out I recognize more name than I thought. Just don't ask me to name the team they are on.

The Commissioner of my league introduced me to the rest of the group as a die-hard Chicago Blackhawks fan. I found that funny as I would not call myself a die-hard.  Do I watch games? Sure. Can I name more than one player? Yup. Do I know how to pronounce Captain Jonathan Toews' last name correctly? Yup.

I do own two Blackhawks t-shirts, one is a regular shirt and the other an Andrew Shaw shirt. I owned if for two months and then they traded him to Montreal. Bummer.

As the weather turns colder for some of us and retreat indoors, writing is a good activity to occupy one's time.  I hope that I have that luxury as this time of year my writing falls off a bit. Once I make it through the holidays I should have more time.

That's it for me.

Rock on!
~Maynard