NaNoWriMo: Round 2 and Ode to an Oven

So you may have been wondering where I've been... the answer is: writing.  Writing like a crazy person fox.  NaNoWriMo has been something I've always wanted to do, and since I'm no longer working there was no reason not to partake this year.  What I'm always surprised by (still, after writing for years and years) is how fast characters will just take flight and go in directions you'd never think of/expect.  What started as a ghost story has become more of an exploration of how one life -and death- affects everything around it.  It's told from multiple perspectives - the person who died, the mother, the landlord, the new tenant.  Not at all what I was expecting to write when I sat down November 1st.  That's always the best part of writing in my opinion; just seeing where your characters take you.  It's kind of like having kids, except without the diapers and having to feed them.  But oh my goodness it is hard.  It is the hardest thing ever to turn off that inner editor and just write and write and write.  I've caught myself countless times going back trying to edit things only to realize, hey, you only get 20 days to write 50,000 words... are you really going to worry about editing right now?  "Difficult but worth it" is how I would sum up NaNoWriMo.  (But really, aren't all things worth doing kind of difficult?)



Also, our new range was just installed and I am so so thrilled.  There are seriously not enough exclamation points in the world to convey how happy I am to get a working oven (especially in time for the holidays, and especially because DM's parents will be visiting!)  For a comparison, here is our old stove:

To be fair, this was not a bad stove.  It was a Kenmore and came with the house (can't complain about free), but the oven stopped working about 6 months ago and refused to heat up.  And while I can't prove anything, I highly suspect the front burners were crapping out on it as well because they took forever and a day to heat up.  Also, plastic knobs.  And years and years of caked on... I assume it's food... that was here before we moved in.  Yeah.  Kinda icky.

The new one is a really nice convection oven (which I've never had but I've always wanted to try), it's stainless steel and has (for unknown reasons) a button for pizza and chicken nuggets.  Did you just read my mind, Frigidaire?  Oh yes you did.

 

I have been laboring over what to bake first - if you know me, you know our oven has been broken for about 6 months now which was pretty much a death sentence for me because I'm a baker - cookies, cupcakes, cakes, brownies...mmm... I can actually feel my waist expanding just by thinking of all the stuff I can do now.

We are going to spend many happy hours together, new oven.