Peanut and Buttercup were up early.

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This is Buttercup saying “Merry Christmas”. Don't ask me why she looks so crabby…maybe she thought she was getting a stocking full of cashew but didn't…?

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Peanut tried to kiss my fingertips but couldn't quite reach them. :)

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Kuro says hi!

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Awesome dinner with Hero Material (it was doubly awesome because I didn't have to cook):

Appetizer:

Our rose champagne:

Garlic toast – salty & garlic-y with lots of olive oil:

Pasta w/ crab & tomato cream sauce. It was very delish!

Broiled tai. Very nicely flavored.

Beef with green sauce. Tender and flavorful:

Christmas cake!!!!!!!!!! The frosting was the best. Super light and fresh white cream with strawberry topping. The sponge cake with super moist and soft. Sublime. Yum!

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Lovely illuminations:

Carriage:

Cinderella's pumpkin carriage:

Heart trees!

Train:

Ship:

Christmas tree with solar-powered lights:

Afterward we watched Avatar in 3D. It was good although some parts were very predictable.

How was your Christmas? :)

I'm planning to do fast draft for my WIP 1st draft. Basically this is how it works for those of you who've never done fast draft before.

You write 20 manuscript pages* a day for 14 days. That's it. That's your fast draft. (For the math-impaired, you'll end up with a 280 page manuscript, which is about 70k, assuming that each page has 250 words.)

I'm going to start on August 15 and giving myself an extra day since I'm flying to Asia during that time. Anyone interested?

If so, comment here or tweet me @nadialee. I'm going to post my progress, etc. using #writegoal and #fastdraft.

* I use Courier 12 double-spaced, 25 lines per page.

I realized that I haven't blogged in over two weeks. Yikes. How the heck did that happen?

Mostly, I've been just busy and occupied with other things and didn't even think about it. I'm working on some secret revisions only a few people know about, getting ready for my trip to the States (which involves going to the local immigration bureau office)…

Oh and I'm back in rehab for neck & lower back pain. It seems like I go there every summer. Last year, I was stupid about it and waited until July, and basically couldn't sleep for weeks due to the most horrendous neck pain. Talk about lost productivity.

This time we did an MRI, and the doctor confirmed that I have a couple of herniated discs. The good thing is that with some extensive (and very long) PT & exercises, I should be able to manage the pain and lead a normal life. The bad thing is that the pain I have all along my spine can cause a horrible migraine. (Which is probably the reason why my head felt so awful recently…) The doctor ordered me to come back ASAP after my trip to the States to resume my treatment. If he had it his way, I'd stay in Japan and get rehabbed three times a week.

P.S. Buttercup had babies. Again. (I think this brings us up to 21 hamsters, total.) They're incredibly cute. However, since Buttercup is under some delusion that she is starving (she isn't; we give her tons of food every day), she always pushes her kids out of the way to get the most delish treats. *shaking head*

No, not my books.

My hamster babies.

Buttercup delivered six babies several weeks ago. As adorable as they are, Hero Material and I just could not keep them. Four hamsters are more than enough for us to handle.

So on Thursday, we took them to the local pet store where we bought Shiro and Kuro and gave them to the exotic pet lady.

Let's just say that I was highly depressed about that. I really adored the babies and spoiled them as much as I could while they were with us.

Today we stopped by the pet store to check up on them. Fortunately, they had their own aquariums with their own water, toys, etc. They looked very small and happy inside.

Hope they find a new home soon. :wub:

P.S. Here's the picture of one of the babies we had to give away.

mood: neutral (that's the only way to describe it)
Shiro's current weight: 25g
why Kuro's bad: he bit Peanut's scent gland so hard it bled
why I'm hopeful about Shiro's recovery: Shiro fought Buttercup (51g) and was able to hold her own
why my hamsters fight: I have no idea
how much I spent on stationary today: $20

Sorry I'm been terribly remiss with my blog. I've been very blue about Shiro's weight loss and just didn't want to blog about anything.

I've been continuing to work on All the King's Women. The 1st draft is rough, but it has all the main points. :) I also came up with more ideas for the setting that I like.

Also I got the Devil Falls galley. I can't believe it's coming out in print in August. It seems so soon! :)

mood: very worried
Shiro's current state: barely visible

Hero Material weighed Shiro today. Since Friday, she lost two more grams. I held her very gently and felt her tiny bone moving against my hand. She's incredibly thin now; I'm afraid she's wasting away.

I bought some of her favorite nuts — cashews and pistachios — and put them in a bowl with all her other treats (bits of walnuts, whole-grain European bread, sunflower seeds, hard biscuits, some nutri-blocks). She had little yogurt, but that's about it. She totally ignored the stuff in her bowl, and I almost cried since I have no idea what to do. I'm hoping she gets up later tonight and eats all those high calorie food.

P.S. I'm keeping her away from other hamsters so they don't steal all the nuts! Peanut's quite chubby (and incredibly active) and I know he'll eat all the treats from Shiro's food bowl if he can reach it.