Thanksgiving Balloons and NaNoWriMo update

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! We went to see the balloons being blown up for the parade (pictures below), then had a big beef dinner (not a turkey fan), and a relaxing weekend. What did you do for Thanksgiving?

On to the real purpose for this post: balloon pictures! When you try to take pictures of the balloons while they are being blown up, you’re at the mercy of how the balloon is positioned and how many people get in your way while you are aiming the camera. These three pictures were taken with my cell phone and came out okay, although pics from other years have turned out better.

Hello Kitty

Kool-Aid Man

Wimpy Kid

So just how big are those balloons, anyway? They’re HUGE! Here’s a picture I took of Buzz Lightyear in 2008. Three people happily posed for scale … okay, they weren’t posing for me, so I blurred out the faces, but it’s still a great picture to show the scale of the balloons.

Buzz Lightyear

You might be wondering how they manage to find space to blow up all those balloons. What they do is close off the two streets on either side of the American Museum of Natural History and line the balloons up along each street. Here’s a picture from 2008 that shows Horton in between Shrek and some holiday balloons.

Balloon Line Up

Here’s another example. Remember the Kool-Aid Man picture above? Here’s the wide screen shot that shows him sandwiched in between Sponge Bob and a football and another balloon.

Balloon Line Up

If you want to see the balloons next year, be prepared for lots of people. The crowd is always wall-to-wall, even before you get anywhere near the balloons, and especially once you get there. It’s inadvisable to bring small dogs and strollers to this event, although some people bring them (it’s an easy way for a pet, child or adult to get injured in the crush of the crowd). Here’s a picture of the 2007 crowd. It’s a little blurry, so it’s hard to see past the first couple of rows, but it’s all people, as far as the eye can see (and no balloons in sight yet).

Blurry Balloon Crowd

After Thanksgiving weekend, it was back to writing my novel, because today is the last day of NaNoWriMo. Did you finish? I didn’t, but I’m ok with that (I’ve finished other years). This year I wasn’t able to start until Nov. 8th and I wanted to take the time to write a novel I like, instead of a novel that can’t be salvaged. I haven’t written much so far but I like what I’ve written. For the first time, I know what’s going to happen and how the book ends. I didn’t outline though ~ I’m still more of a pantser than a planner! The first chapter has been written, rewritten, and polished. Chapters 2-4 are about to get rewritten and polished, and the rest is back story that I probably won’t use.

You might have noticed my new fancy word count meter over in the sidebar. I made two to show how much I’ve written and how much I’m keeping so far (chapters 2-4 are in the keep section, even though they’re scheduled to be overhauled). Want your own handy, dandy progress meter for your blog, or website? Here’s the meter I’m using. It’s simple and works really well.

Good luck to all you NaNo novelists trying to finish before midnight! Type faster; fix later!