The only thing worse than a ruthless beast who-wants-his-morning-walk-dammit are two ruthless beasts who-want-their-morning-walk-dammit, and shove slippers in your face to get you out of bed and follow you around the house and plant themselves in front of you as you eat breakfast and begrudge you every mouthful because. They want their walk, dammit.

I was only running a half-hour behind schedule. Jeez. You'd think it was the weekend or something, and that I might want to, you know, sleep in.

The guilty parties are both sound asleep now, having walked, sniffed, and competition-peed for close to an hour. It's a lovely morning, sunny and 60F. Unfortunately, the wet spring allowed for the birth of mosquitoes by the truckload. Long sleeves a must.

Work for a few hours. Then, grocery shopping. Errands. A squirrel decapitated a lovely red begonia, so I may look for a replacement. I need more birdseed. There's always something to do.

...I promise.

The Cubs won this afternoon, and at 26-16 are leading the NL Central by two games. They also now have the second best record in the majors.

Yup, I know. It's only May.

Because it's Friday, and some of us could use a laugh or two.


http://view.break.com/502351 - Watch more free videos

( list's gettin' kinda long )
Monday, 28 April: 102 words

23,117 / 120,000 (19.3%)

No more metrics for the foreseeable future. I need to choose a different path.

It's almost June. How did this happen? Received a letter from the local women's health center reminding me that it's time for the annual 'mash 'em in the copier' appointment. I thought, dammit, I just went through that. Then I remembered that I had gone around the time Mom entered the hospital last year, so yeah, mid-June.

( Read more... )

When the day begins rainy and windy and even the dogs seem depressed, it isn't a good idea to try to write an utter downer of a scene. I don't know how I wound up in the middle of this particular scene, but I'm here and I need Out. There needs to at least be sunshine when I write it.

There's this funny interlude. Maybe I need to noodle with that for a while...

Swiped from equesgal

( The kindest cut of all )

Still light outside at 8pm, which is one of my favorite things about spring into summer. Shopped. Bought two altheas and planted same. Cleaned the gutters. Fixed a solar lantern, fashioning a new hanger/handle from a piece from a wire hanger.

What I didn't do was touch the lava rock. Got started too late. Didn't feel like hassling with the landscape cloth. Have decided that hassling with landscape cloth is one of my least favorite things to do in the world. Would rather clean out a gutter with my bare hands, and did just that.

Baked banana bread, and watched cooking shows. Covet a really nice sauté pan.

Tomorrow's Mothers Day. Bought a big bouquet, those big daisies and smaller daisies and some strange blooms I swear are orchids, and set it in the living room. Mom's African violet, which is the only one she was ever able to get to bloom, is showing a couple of buds. She loved spring. Gardened for as long as she was able, grew roses and vegetables. But she was very, very proud of that violet.

A/C has been PM'd. I was concerned for naught, apparently--tech said the unit is in great shape. He said that what really helped preserve it was the square of fencing--complete with gate--that Dad set up around it after it was installed. Dog urine apparently plays hell with A/C units, corroding the coils. IIRC, Dad learned that lesson when we lived in a rental years ago--the landlord split the cost of a major AC repair with us, and the reason for the repair was corrosion caused by dog urine.

My PSA for the day.

Working from home today, ensconced in teeny third bedroom/office with two dogs, one of which smells like the inside of a gym bag. Soon the A/C guy will be here, and I will have to close the office door to keep Gym Bag in here with me. I think I'll live.

It's a little cold to be checking out the A/C, which means it will get colder still in here. Have coffee. Have donned sweatshirt. Have opened window. Damned cold.

Glad it's Friday.

One week to go in the 70 Days of Sweat program, and, well, after all the bally-hoo...not much wordage to show. Was it a waste of time? No. I rethought the beginning of the wip several times, and think that now I have the makings of a decent opening in which something happens within the first few pages. Other plot drivers knocked on the door and made themselves at home, and I'm not sure I'd have thought of them if the guilt over lack of word production hadn't spurred me to thinking.

I hate to think that I require true panic in order to write. It doesn't bode well, it really doesn't. It also doesn't make sense. I cleaned off my desk yesterday, and uncovered a stack of magazine articles I had set aside for research. Local crimes. Industrial espionage. Gene therapy gone wrong. Maybe my interests fall into certain set categories, but they're my interests and I like them and working them into stories is the best thing in the world. And there are new stories there to be mined, but first I need to finish this one.

1 December. D-Day. That will be, I am afraid, the only date that will spur me onward. So, here it is.

Bathing smelly dog.

At least it wasn't full immersion. Oneside of neck and shoulder, which was all he was able to push into the pile of crap before I stopped him.

And collar. Will need to wash the collar.

New primary sump pump and battery back-up installed. Toilet has new cut-off valve--the old one required a grown man using channel locks to turn--and innards. Backyard water tap has been replaced--no more drippydrippydrippy.

I was concerned about existing sump pump after I heard on a radio repair show that the switches have a life expectancy of about three years. I remember when Dad put that pump in, and I swear it was over ten years ago. As it turned out, the unit was close to Fail, as were the toilet innards.

That's why I write books, so I can spend the money on house stuff no one ever sees.

But, happy now.

Next appointment is Friday, when the A/C guy comes to PM the unit.

My desk is covered with stacks of paper.

I just got rid them, dammit, and they grew back.

So I lost the acting panel, but I was really looking forward to the reading and, well, maybe next time.


Reading: Good Reads, Chocolate, and Scotch

Saturday, 1:00-2:15 P.M.
Conference2

Kristine Smith
Gregory Frost
Pat Murphy
Carol Emshwiller


Title: Let's Build a World

"We'll start with some categories (tech level, economic system, climate, races, etc.), get ideas about each of them from the audience, select the best ideas in each category, then watch the panelists writhe as they try to figure out how to make them work together. "
Sunday, 1:00-2:15 P.M.
Capitol A

M: Benjamin Rosenbaum
doselle young
Naomi Kritzer
Kristine Smith

...and the roofers are here. They turned onto my street just as The King and I were headed up the drive post-walk.

After some initial "our yard--just letting you know" barking, the guys are sacked out in my office. I'm ready to go to work. Waiting for the plumber to call.

I'll be glad when this is done.

Tried to watch Revenge of the Sith. Gave up.

Couldn't Hayden Christiansen have bothered to, well, try? You know, make an effort?

Watching Bourne Supremacy. Loving Bourne Supremacy.

But. I know all about muscle memory and instinct and training that becomes second nature and all that. But if you are suffering amnesia and do not remember anything about your background or your life before a certain point, and only a little here or there of what you were before, is it reasonable that you would remember all your deadly assassin skills, how to vanish and how to tail? The languages you spoke?

Different areas of the brain? Or was it a very specific injury that was explained in the first movie?

WARNING: SPOILERS ABOUND--READ AT YOUR OWN RISK

Only managed to put down lava rock over about 1/3 of the birdbath garden. I got started too late, and needed to do more weeding than I anticipated. It took me three hours to do what I did, and I figured at the rate I was going, it would be after sunset before I finished.

So. To Be Continued.

Roofers will be working tomorrow, so I will be doing day job stuff from home. Hoping the plumber will call so I can get that wrapped up before Wiscon.

I will be very happy when I no longer have to make arrangements for people to come to my house and fix things. It was a rough winter.