We had a nice, relaxing weekend with Carrie's parents, spending Friday night at the Colony Hospital Bed and Breakfast in Bishop Hill, IL, and on Saturday we looked around the town itself.

Carrie was convinced the old hospital would be haunted, but we didn't see anything unusual during our stay! The town was nice and picturesque, and we did our bit for the local economy, visiting the antique stores, museums, shops, and a restaurant.

On Sunday Carrie went with her mum to do some shopping, and in the evening we made them dinner (mushroom-stuffed chicken). We also watched the first part of that NBC made-for-TV earthquake movie, 10.5. The effects were very well done, but the acting and plot were pretty weak. The second part is on tonight. I'm not sure yet whether we'll bother watching it...

Carrie's parents left earlier this afternoon, so now it's just the two of us, our cat, the fish and a frog :)

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I was extremely busy last week, with the usual job-hunting routine as well as cleaning the apartment and packing. Despite it all, I managed to get two critiques done and wrote some flash fiction at the last minute!

When Friday afternoon rolled around, I didn't think I'd have a chance to get a story done for the week. I was trying to write something based around the crit group's weekly word, but instead I ended up with ideas for two short stories (which I didn't have time to write just then) and a scene. Two hours before Carrie got home from work, I managed to come up with another idea and had the story done before we left for Bishop Hill.

Today I did a little polishing on the new story and sent it out. A rejection came back for another piece, so I sent that one out again. Two submissions in one day - can't complain about that!

2004 Stats:

2004 Word count:	12,130
Stories written:	5
Total submissions:	13
Total acceptances:	0
Total rejections:	11
Waiting for response:	4
Books read:	6
Fiction Mags/Chapbooks read:	11