The people at Blue Calico are so nice. They sell dinnerware from the Burgess Dorling & Leigh's Middleport Pottery, the oldest continuously producing pottery in Staffordshire, England. Burgess Dorling & Leigh, maker of Burleighware®, is the only pottery in Stoke-on-Trent which makes all of its blue and white ware using the ancient transfer-print process.

I have the Blue Arden pattern and my teacup saucer broke, and they said they would contact the Pottery to find out if they have extra stock or could have one made for me since they don't make the particular teacup and saucer set I have anymore. Aren't they great?

I am a blue and white dish fiend! All my dinnerware is blue and white, and I especially love English dinnerware. I have Burleighware and Spode. I also love Denby too, and would buy them if they made blue and white dishes.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm at home now and my tummy is completely distended! I didn't eat breakfast hoping that would help, but I ate too much and I now my tummy totally hurts. Oh well! I had a fun dinner at my friend's house. Her fiance's son and his wife and kid were there and a guy friend of ours hadn't seeen in years, who brought two fo his friends.

I made maple glazed carrots and broccoli with a crunchy bread crumb topping with orange zest. I found the most heavenly citrus zester! It's so delightful to have a tool that makes your cooking chore so easy. I'm going to have get one for all of my friends. Who doesn't need a amazing citruz zester!

I spoke to M-Square this morning before he took off to see his kids. I miss him, and I guess if we stay together I'm going to have get used to him having to be with his kids during the holidays. I think the next time I have thanksgiving it will be somewhere in Orange County with M-Square and his kids.

My aunt from Hawaii called and I told her about him. She liked that he once played football for University of Hawaii. My cousin is going to look him up in the alumni database to see if she can find anything about him. My cousin, who is an assistant DA on Kauai, went to undergrad and law school at UH.

But my Thanksgiving day wasn't a wasted day. I got up early and did two loads of laundry and then cleaned out my storage closet. I'm going to make a trip to the Salvation Army this weekend to give away stuff. I've got to start paring down my possessions if I'm going to move to Southern California in six months.

I attended the screenwriting group last Sunday and everyone was very nice. I wrote a log line and synopsis for the screenplay I wanted to work on, and got really great feedback. Since I got along very well with the group, they told me I could stay. This screenwriting group has been together for 15 years so I was a little intimidated joining such a long-standing group. But it worked out fine.

One girl was saying how she rewrote her script 99 times, but it was worth it because her agent optioned it. She has another script that is currently being looked at by all these Hollywood production companies.

Madeline is great! She gives very constructive feedback and she definitely knows her stuff having been a TV writer for many years. I didn't feel so bad about my long-distance relationship with M-Square when I heard that Madeline's boyfriend lives in Houston. She used to live there and that's how they met, but then she relocated to LA. He works for NASA and has a good job and since he doesn't have long to retire, he stayed in Houston.

A really good friend of mine who lives in Irvine, met her husband by chance when he was down there visiting. They dated for nine months long distance until they decided it was serious and he relocated his job to be near her. They've been married for a long time and just adopted twin boys. She told me to go slow and to be very sure before I relocate. She said to wait to see if we were still togther by our one year anniversary before I even consider relocating. That's six months away.

It seems like a long time but I know it's not. The time will fly like it usually does and is. Hopefully M-Square's job will get better. I really think he should stick with it because the opportunity for profit sharing is great, but if it doesn't calm down I think he'll leave.

I think I am fighting some kind of stomach flu because I come home exhausted and my tummy keeps hurting. I so haven't felt like writing since I'm not feeling very well.

I just sit on my bed and watch tv and then fall asleep, but it doesn't matter how much sleep I get because I still wake up not feeling quite well.

M-Square is still having work problems and that's too bad. It's so hard to have a relationship when your work life is just stressful and you just want to quit your job. Some days are better than others but on the whole, he is feeling very rotten and stressed out.

We won't be spending Thankgiving together since he is having his kids over. It's way too soon for me to be meeting them.

I got into a little fender bender with my car when I accidentally knicked the side of my apartment building as I was pulling into my very narrow opening. I am usually so careful but not this time. OUCH! The bonehead accident cost a pretty penny to repair, so maybe it's just as well that I'm staying home and not spending any money.

On a whim, I asked my boss if it would be okay if I relocated down to Southern California and kept my job and she said it was fine. She lives in Orange County and flies up here every two weeks. My company wouldn't pay for my relocation, but I could work out of our LA office which is near Marina del Ray.

So for now, I have decided to job hunting. I think it would be better if I have a job if I ever decide to move closer to M-Square. Relocation is stressful enough without having to find another job. There's a guy who works for my company who is relocating down to LA and keeping his job, so it can be done. I had lunch with a girl from the LA office and she said a new guy just got hired in the LA office who is commuting from the Newport Beach area, and I'm thinking if I ever move down there that we perhaps could commute together.

I wish I knew what to do to get over this illness. My stomach is constantly hurting and I have these little aches and pains, not to mention I get tired very easily.

I can see lighting outside of my window and I'm hearing thunder. I can't even remember the last time that there's been a thunderstorm in San Francisco. It's so weird!

Talk about Do-Gooders Writing Bad Propositions! Dummies wrote a ban on handguns in San Francisco, which is of couse well meaning but dumb! SF is running out of money and now the City is going to spend money to defend a stupid law because the gun lobby is suing us. The only people who makes good in this scenario is the damned lawyers! Didn't people expect this to happen? And if they did, wouldn't it have been better not to even put the proposition on the ballot? Talk about fiscal irresponsibility ... I knew this was going to happen so I couldn't vote yes on it and sure enough the suit gets filed immediately.

It's so interesting to read about the riots in France. The French government seem to have absolutely no idea what to do. Some are saying the French riots are the results of multiculturalism gone wrong. You have to wonder if they're right. The best thing about assimilation is it makes people have a common bond, and having a common bond makes sense for people living in community. But anti-assimilationists have been haivng a free reign in the culture wars and I'm wondering what they are saying about the French riots. I'm sure they're theorizing that it's all economics, but is it? That's just way too simplistic don't you think?

Rainer Werner Fassbinder made a film in 1974 called "Ali-Fear Eats the Soul" and I think his commentary on the issues of immigration in Germany was a harbinger of the future. If he were alive today, Fassbinder would say that riots were in France were inevitable and that France should have been planning for it to happen.

I am now at 10,011 words, which means I am caught up for my word count for Sunday. I am taking a break before I work on tonight's word count. I really like the working in on hour increments and then taking a break. Hopefully, I'll be able do get two writing sessions done tonight and stil make my word count for today. But we'll see.

The 49ers lost and I think I will have to do more solid hours of writing to get to my 10,002 word count total for the day. I like writing in one hour increments and then taking a break. That was the advice on the Nanowrimo website and I'm taking it. I'm up to 6,238 words. I have about 4,000 words to go.

Maybe I need to write at home like this more often. I'm sitting on my bed listening to the classical music station and I have the 49er/NY Giants game on and I'm tying on my laptop. When I was writing earier, I had the Raiders/Kansas City game on. It's kind of almost like being in a cafe. There's music and I have something that I look at when I feel bored.

The 49ers are losing, but it's only the end of the third quarter. It would be nice if they could pull it out like they did last week and win. It's cold and wet and foggy outside. I went to the greek fruit and veggie store to buy some blueberries. Blueberries were like $4.99 per box. God, that's expensive, but I need my blueberries.

I am behind in my Nanowrimo word count. I'm supposed to be up to 10,002 words as of today, and I'm only at 4,163. I think I can get caught up today if I have three one-hour writing sessions. So I'm listening to the classical music station and watching the Oakland Raiders Kansas City Game football game.

I got the phone number of a woman from Los Angeles who is leading a screenwriting group in Cupertino once a month from a friend of mine. I spoke to her at work on Thursday and had to pitch my screenplay idea to her. That was nerve-wracking. But she liked in and invited me to her all day November 13 session. I have to bring a log line for my screenplay and a one to three page synopsis.

The woman's name is Madeline Dimaggio and this is her website; Create a Script. My friend has taken her seminar seven times and has written seven scripts. She says the woman is fantastic. Her seminar is six weeks long and I already missed the first session, but Madeline said I could come to session # 2. The seminars are held once a month for six months. I would have to start wriitng my screenplay right after I finish Nanowrimo in time for the next session in December, if I decide I like the group.

Madeline suggested I come to the November 13 session to check out the group and if I decided I like them, then I would continue. None of the people in the group has sold a screenplay although a couple of people have have agents and with scripts that have been optioned. My guess is these people are also novelists if they have agents. I've taken screenwriting classes in the South Bay before and most of the people I met at these seminars were novelists who had published books and agents and wanted to sell a screenplay. The friend who recommended this seminar has a published non-ficiton book and an agent and is working on her second book. She's trying to break into ficiton and screenwriting.

I pitched Madeline my silicon valley gold digger's story and told her it was a comedy. I was so not prepared to pitch that story and actually haven't thought about it in years. I really should be working on my baseball screenplay, but I haven't finished the second draft yet and I already know how I'm going to rework the final and third draft so I don't really need any help there.

I've never written a comedy before. When I was taking acting classes both of my acting teachers said I had natural comedic timing, so I'm curious if that sense of timing will translate into my writing. One of my acting teachers said my comedic timing was so natural that he couldn't see me doing anything but comedy. He said I reminded him of Elaine May, whom he had worked with in New York. Elaine May wrote "Heaven Can Wait" with Warren Beatty and adapted Joe Klein's "Primary Colors" for the screen. So we'll see.

Comedy is supposed to be hardest genre to write. You can't write funny. I know when I was acting I never did anything to be funny, and whatever I did just was comedic. I kept telling my acting teacher that I didn't know what I was doing that was so funny, and he said because I was a natural and I was always like "whatever".

As I've been typing, Oakland is now leading Kansas City 23-20 and there are only five second left in the game. There's some guy on the Oakland Raiders coaching staff who looks exactly like M-Square. I wonder who that guy is. He's the bulky bearded blondie guy. Oh well, Kansas City just scored a touchdown. Game over. Let's hope the 49ers have better luck.

I just checked the Oakland Raiders' website and if you want to see M-Square's twin, his name is Rob Ryan who is the defensive coordinator for the Oakland Raiders. Check this guy out; Rob Ryan - M-Square's twin. How funny.

Today was Day 1 of Nanwrimo and I wrote 1,726 words. I am starting work on my novel series, "The Elf Girl Chronicles". I never did find that piece of paper with the screenplay idea that I came up with in January and wanted to turn into a novel, so I figured why not start work on my novel series.

I titled the novel, "The Elf Girl Chronicles Book 1: The Prophecy". But boy writing it tonight was like pulling teeth. I didn't know whether to write it in first or third person. I started out in first which was fine for an introduction I suppose, then switched to third person to tell the rest of the story.

Talk about bad, bad, bad first draft writing. But oh well, at least I'm writing and I made my word count. I didn't even draft an outline, which is so not like. I'm going to have to draft an outline this weekend, because I won't be able to write without a road map for very long.

And names, I didn't even have time to come up with good character names, so I am so making them up as I write. Oh well, it's only a very badly written first draft right?