Friends

Last week my mom and I went to Montreal for the day to meet up with my sister. I forgot my camera. My sister took a few shots but my mom too a ton. I've been trying to get them from her all week but I either

• haven't received the email she supposedly sent
• fail to understand how she can send an empty folder as an attachment to an email
• discovered that the file she finally put on the CD she gave me once she conceded the multiple failures of her email and attachment capabilities is actually the SHORTCUT to the folder the files are in and not the files themselves

So this is what you get:

One photo of me and Clyde, the largest cat in the world.




Also, while there, my sister gave me her tiffin. I've only used it once so far and without any careful planning so it's not as cute as naughty_bride's bento experiments.





It looks like it doesn't hold much if you compare it to the strawberries, but they are mutants and quite large.

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On this day:

In 2007 - mourning the loss of tv heroines
In 2006 - it was actually a tofu dog
In 2005 - I was painting

Things we learn about storytelling from watching Indy J movies:

1. You can kill the cute monkey if it's an evil Nazi monkey.


Any others?

The Navajo Nation sprawls across northern Arizona, into Utah, and New Mexico. It's 26,000 square miles. Very often getting from here to there involves a drive through Navajo country. It's some of the most beautiful geography in America -- the scale of things -- distances, objects, vistas, is astounding. I got myself stuck on the wrong side of the Colorado river yesterday for about sixty miles but the pay-off was getting to see this marvelous moonrise.

Due to some strange acoustics, the grackle outside my bedroom window sounds like it's inside my closet. The felines are passing-confused. I am drinking coffee, pondering a plot twist, and resisting the urge to go down to the 9th Avenue International Food Festival and nearby flea markets. However, should any New Yorkers be reading this and want to encourage me in dereliction of my duties... And lo, it rains, rewarding my decision to stay home, eat leftover lamb pie, and work....


A reminder: Brenda Novak's charity auction is still going on. You still have the chance to bid for the right to have your name (or the name of a loved one) used as a character in HARD MAGIC Bidding is here. Last bid was $155, which is about half of the winning bid last time I did one of these for the Emergency Medical Fund for SFWA! And this one you can put on your credit card, and get points as well as a tax deduction!

And for those of you with a proposal in your hard drive but no idea if it's any good, Best Agent Evah Jennifer Jackson has a one day auction (starting in about 10 hours or so) for Evaluation of a Proposal and Drinks (it says at RWA but she's willing to adapt it to other conferences as well). Speaking as someone who has had both crit sessions and drinks with Jenn a few times now, it's well worth a bid!

And now I must go shoot that grackle, because it is So. Damn. Annoying.

After school her mother takes her Hello-Kitty schoolbag but the girl keeps wearing her Hello-Kitty sweater, apron style. The two of them stroll home to Villa Montcalm; at the corner they consider the shop but the woman's purse is empty.

Afternoon rain. A woman carries her umbrella across the street and along the church. At her car, she takes paper from her windscreen and throws it to the ground. It's bright pink, advertising a road-closure for the feast of the Holy Trinity. As she drives away in her tiny car, thunder over Paris.

1704 words on Seven for a Secret tonight. We have found the plot, and it is progressing. I'm still not sure exactly how it plays out, but Sebastien is the Scarlet Pimpernel.

17,000 / 30,000 (56.7%)

If there weren't this damned convention mucking up my week, I could have this done by next Monday.

*falls over in front of the television*

Today, we bought a brand new car. We'll be getting it on the 31st.

We could drive to Toronto and back without filling up.

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On this day:

In 2007 - 2
In 2006 - 1
In 2005 - 3

Saving Horses, one Thoroughbred at a time

The line that killed me: "On occasion, Condurso-Lane said, a pair of horses standing in the field together will appear to nudge one another, then dart off together in a straight line, as if reliving their past."

*sniffle*
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In other news, I fled the computer to have a Day Out, which included the Superheroes costume exhibit at the Met (interesting but not, IMO, amazingly well-done unless, like me, you adore certain designers and can have fun mocking academic copy-writers), kamikazi shoe-shopping, post-theater dissection of the current staging of Macbeth over a carafe of wine and damn good Italian food, and one of the top ten phrases you never want to hear a tourist in Times Square say: "is that a real gun, Maureen?"

(it wasn't)

[also? I should not be allowed anywhere near Times Square/the Theater District on Wedesday afternoons or Saturdays. The urge to kill is nigh overwhelming. Farking tourists, learn how to walk!]

EtA: best street theater sight: a guy waving a variety of bumper stickers on a theme of "Cheney/Satan in 2008: The worst possible President"

Tomorrow, back to work. For now -- falling over and making like a sleeping thing.

Dear Bear's Brain:

A corpse of drum majorettes is very different from a corps of drum majorettes.

Love, Bear.

Blue Poppies

Just taking a break.
 
I am cleaning out my computer/junk/spare bedroom/garbagecan/storage room in preparation for a visitor arriving the end of June. It is a cousin H's age and she is here from England for ten days. We are thrilled she is coming and it is a great motivator to get this room clean!! There will be trips to drop off stuff at Value Village and spare magazines to the hospital, and bags of stuff to donate to whoever needs/wants it. I also have to figure out how to efficiently store all my packaging, shipping materials etc. Big job this!

Today is a rainy drizzly day so it is perfect for this kind of cleanout. I have been listening to various radio stations from around the world thanks to my computer being in here. Found a terrific one playing old French chansons, was listening to Putumayo for a while, then  a traditional Iranian  station, some Bollywood , and now I am thinking some Celtic music might be nice. What fun.

H is at a conference at Acadia University  for the weekend. She'll be home tomorrow. I am going to see a film with a friend tonight. Not sure what yet, but I'll be sure to have a big bag of popcorn! I cannot watch a movie at the theatre if I don't have popcorn. Just walking into the cinema and smelling the stuff gets me going:)

at horseshoe bend last night i was overcome by a crippling sense of vertigo. sheer cliff, 500 feet straight down. i was still sixty feet from the edge when i said "no way am i going over there" -- it took me half an hour to get up the nerve. later some high school kids came out and this one kid tried to freak out his girlfriend by climbing out over the edge and hanging on the side of the cliff. i thought i was going to faint. i swear, the bottom of this gorge must be littered with corpses.

when i looked at the photos later i realized they were no good because the sun was behind the canyon and blowing out the sky. so this morning at 5:30 a.m. i went BACK and did it AGAIN. i'm still shaking.

(you should be very proud of me)

Well, this is excellent news...

( A starred PW review of INK & STEEL, which is indeed, rather spoilery )

162.9 miles to Lothlorien.

In other news, I will never understand how my body can be competent one day and inept the next. I managed a jog for about a half mile out and a half mile back this morning, but mostly twinges in my right hip, both calves, and my right shin meant I walked the rest. In urban wildlife noted, however, I did see a cottontail rabbit in the middle of a residential street at around 6:45 am. And two lovely dogs out for a morning constitutional with their persons--a German shepherd and a springer spaniel. I am so very dog-deprived.

The cat opines that SHE is not dog-deprived at all, thank you, and also that she would like to warm her feet up on my thigh. So move the laptop, Monkey!

The very first tulips come into my garden in late March - early April, but the most lavish season for tulips is late April - first half of May. There are quite a few "show-rooms" for them in all parts of the garden. These are some of the beds, as they looked about a week ago.   --   Самые первые тюльпаны появляются в моём саду в конце марта, вместе с крокусами. Но особенно пышный сезон для тюльпанов наступает в конце апреля, и длится до второй половины мая. В разных местах сада в это время как бы выставки тюльпанов, вот некоторые из "выставочных залов" я покажу. Так они выглядели примерно неделю назад.


1. Front flowerbed:  Tulips and Paperwhite Narcissi (Paperwhites).  --  Клумба перед центральным входом. Тюльпаны и белоснежные нарциссы (папирусообразные, или papyraceus).

  

 

15,250 / 30,000 (50.8%)

1214 words today, which took all day. It has not been a day for flow. I was hoping to get closer to 2200. But sometimes you take what you can get and tomorrow is another day.

We're watching the BBC's Planet Earth, which is stunning, and some cats are on the screen. Erin (almost 5) says, "What are those?"

"I think it's a jaguar," I say.

"Why would a jaguar be where it's snowy?" she asks.

"I don't know."

It turns out it's a snow leopard. Bailey (8) comes into the room. "What's that?"

Erin says, "It's a snow leopard. Dad said it was a jaguar."

"Jaguars live in the rainforest," Bailey says, half disgusted.

"I'm sorry. I am duly chastened. You guys are too smart for me."

"I read," Bailey says. "You just read stupid blogs on the computer."

So there it is. You guys need to start smartening me up, eh?

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Tolkein has no sense of either plotting or pacing.

Bailey and i are almost done with the Hobbit, and I just wanted to throw it across the room.

I mean, yes, Peter Jackson has no concept of pacing either (see The Return of the King and (heaven help you) King Kong), but a lot of that is already there.

I think this is the result of his fascination with anglo-saxon and middle english literature, which is similarly unsatisfying.

Discuss.

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9 days of school left.

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80 degrees all of a sudden.

Gin and Tonics.

Yes.

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Still trying to decide what I think of the BBC's Buffy-esque sexed-up Harry Potter series, Hex. Both female leads are wonderful, but the "villain" is such a bleh. What's up with that?

at the table in the AM with 3 wonderfully profeminst men yesterday

"don't all women have the wedding fantasy from when they were young?"
me, "hail no- I didn't ever have that fantasy. and yes, I've been in love with men and proposed to-
even married once, but, it was not something I was exactly gung ho about...I was talked into it...sort of coerced by family and even a friend or two"
I read the shocked expressions and continued,
"I remember "That Girl" with Marlo Thomas...I don't remember what her career was or what her stupid boyfriend was up to-
I remember a killer hat and wardrobe and a briefcase!  My fantasy was to have a briefcase!"

and no, I don't like shopping (I didn't mention it's cause I haven't ever had the money to really shop)
I don't care about make-up and hair as much as Television would like you to think i do.
I'd rather buy books, programs, education..."
after reading more confusion and listening to them say , "wow. seriously. etc"
I confirmed for them, "yes, I'm straight and yes there are many other women, who also do not have a wedding fantasy and are straight"
We then discussed whether marriage is better for men or women...
we disagreed, brought up good points...
and I realized the only man i had a desire to marry was the one - the only one- who didn't ask.
hahaha

Tight features the work of Nora Almeida, Aaron Belz, David Berman, Sommer Browning, Michael Carr, Shanna Compton, Buck Downs, Jill Alexander Essbaum, Gabriel Gudding, Matt Hart, Mike Hauser, Katy Henriksen, Mark Horosky, David Huddle, Lisa Jarnot, Robert Kelly, Evan Kennedy, John Koethe, Maurice Manning, Chris Martin, Joseph Massey, James Meetze, Andrew Mister, Ryan Murphy, Jess Mynes, Daniel Nester, Cate Peebles, Arlo Quint, Morgan Lucas Schuldt, Sandra Simonds, Ed Skoog, Kathleen Winter, and Charles Wright.

It's been unusually warm here in the sleepy village of Arcata. So warm I spent yesterday in only a t-shirt with a fan propped beside me, fanning my denuded lust nuggets and my meandering member of amorous mirth. I sat at my desk and finished writing -- well, almost finished -- a chapbook manuscript titled On a False Spring. And I read a lot of poetry: Rae Armantrout's Veil, Pam Rehm's Small Works, Chris Rizzo's The Breaks, Jess Mynes' Landscape Odes, and various other books. 

Today it's going to be just as hot so I made sure to escape my cave for provisions early, before it gets too oppressively hot. The humidity here -- I live beside the ocean, you dig -- is ridiculous, and with this heat, it's like trying to breathe while having your face saddled by the shaggy anus of a wild yak. Right, but you catch my drift.

I'm looped.