escape yourself and gravity

AO3 Statistics Meme

Fri, 21 Apr 2017 15:00:39 GMT

I have 97 stories, adding up to 439,838 words. All together, they've received 170,762 hits.

Top Five by Hits:

1. I Never, Criminal Minds, Morgan/Reid, 2009, 2,627 words, 17,196 hits.
2. Good Reason to be Late, Criminal Minds, 2009, Morgan/Reid, 526 words, 6,262 hits.
3. An Excuse to Get Hurt, Criminal Minds, 2009, Morgan/Reid, 4,360 words, 5,321 hits. (A rare dark-ish fic from me.)
4. Life is Good, Criminal Minds, 2009, Reid/Rossi, 1,213 words, 4,827 hits.
5. Not So Alone, Criminal Minds, 2009, Hotch/Reid and Rossi/Prentiss, 2,263 words, 3,925 hits. Part one of a season-long series of episode coda fics.

The conclusion I draw from this: People will always love Morgan/Reid best. Also, I was a crazy multi-shipper for Criminal Minds.

Top Five by Kudos:

1. I Never, Criminal Minds, Morgan/Reid, 2009, 2,627 words, 1,424 kudos.
2. Good Reason to be Late, Criminal Minds, 2009, Morgan/Reid, 526 words, 280 kudos.
3. An Excuse to Get Hurt, Criminal Minds, 2009, Morgan/Reid, 4,360 words, 190 kudos.
4. Role Reversal, Criminal Minds, 2010, Hotch/Reid, 1,090 words, 185 kudos.
5. Life is Good, Criminal Minds, 2009, Reid/Rossi, 1,213 words, 4,827 hits.

The conclusion I draw from this: Spencer Reid really is the Criminal Minds fandom's little black dress. He looks good on everyone.

Top Five by Bookmarks:

1. I Never, Criminal Minds, Morgan/Reid, 2009, 2,627 words, 258 bookmarks.
2. Life is Good, Criminal Minds, 2009, Reid/Rossi, 1,213 words, 42 bookmarks.
3. Good Reason to be Late, Criminal Minds, 2009, Morgan/Reid, 526 words, 35 bookmarks.
4. Alpha Male Syndrome, Criminal Minds, 2009, Morgan/Rossi, 22,775 words, 23 bookmarks.
5. An Excuse to Get Hurt, Criminal Minds, 2009, Morgan/Reid, 4,360 words, 33 bookmarks.

The conclusion I draw from this: My Morgan/Rossi Big Bang fic made a surprising appearance here. I guess that means there are so few Morgan/Rossi fics that people like coming back to reread this one? :D

I just have to say, where the heck are all the Harry Potter fans on AO3? My most popular HP fic is
A Life of Obscurity, which was a 21,096-word Snupin Santa fic. It has 1,499 hits, 70 kudos, 5 comment threads, and 24 bookmarks.

I wonder if this is a result of the ways fandom has changed over the years. My HP fandom involvement was almost entirely on FictionAlley and LiveJournal, and of course, starting in 2007 LJ started going downhill, and I started porting fic over to AO3. I...honestly don't remember what happened with FictionAlley, though it seems like there was some drama that led to people moving to AO3?

My poor little The 100 fanfics get very little attention--probably because I'm such a fringe-shipper. Not many people looking for Bellamy/Jackson or Bellamy/Monty slash out there, I guess. :D

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Monday's accomplishments

Tue, 18 Apr 2017 02:06:49 GMT

I'm pushing up against a couple of deadlines, so of course today I had to clean out my closet.

*sigh*

In my own defense, I made a lot of progress against one of the deadlines this morning. I was multi-tasking by running laundry while working, and I made the mistake of stepping into my closet. It's been bothering me for weeks now, and with the Tiny Wardrobe Tour lecture coming up in a week, I just couldn't take it anymore. I pulled everything out of the closet, switched winter clothes for spring/summer clothes, vacuumed, KonMaried the closet clothes (not the dresser clothes, those will have to wait until next weekend), and rearranged the closet a bit.

It's a large closet. I've considered setting up a tiny desk and sound system in there to write. I definitely plan to use it as a sound studio when I get around to recording my audiobooks.

Anyway, it is now a pleasure to step into the closet, and I have perhaps 50 pieces of clothing hanging in it, and now I have one last hour to work on the writing deadline before I need to go to bed. Also, my back is killing me.

Boss is out for the next two weeks, which means our staff is effectively down by a third. There are four of us who work there, but one doesn't do any public stuff if she can help it (and who can blame her, it isn't part of her job description). So I'm working extra hours this week and next, which will be lovely for my bank account but not so lovely for my writing and Etsy time.

Tried a recipe from angelofthenorth tonight--the Sweet Potato and Pepper Soup was delicious!

Tomorrow I start the work week, and hopefully finish one of my two deadline projects.

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Hello new DW friends!

Fri, 14 Apr 2017 17:58:54 GMT

Time to jump-start my DW account! I'm making the move. *sigh* I miss the good old days of LJ, but those days have been gone for so long now. The problem is, my friends didn't move en-mass to any one location, so I have a bunch on Facebook (bane of my existence), some on Tumblr, some on Twitter, and some here at DreamWidth. I guess it's time to make some more friends! :D

I'm not very good at regular journaling anymore, but I'm going to try to default to DW instead of FB. Fandom was always a huge part of my LJ existence, and I know that's partly why I've dropped off the regular posting. I'm not active in Harry Potter fandom or Criminal Minds fandom anymore. I'm only semi-active in The 100 fandom, and that's more writing fic than reading it. And since I'm neither a Clexa stan nor a Bellarke shipper (I'm a slasher and fringe-shipper), I tend to avoid that fandom on Tumblr.

ANYWAY. :D

Hello to any new DW friends! I'm a huge nut for Tolkien's writing, I also love Elizabeth Moon's Paksenarrion books, Narnia, Prydain, The Dark is Rising, Robin McKinley's books... I'm trying to read a bunch of #OwnVoices books this year, mostly in the speculative fiction genre, but I also love YA books. I'm a casual gamer--I play Skyrim and World of Warcraft, and also have an in-person Pathfinder group that plays monthly. I'm pretty much a "hit-it-hard-with-a-sword" kind of gamer.

I have three cats: Eowyn, Strider, and Eustace Clarence Scrubb (who probably doesn't deserve that). I'm 40, I'm single and was terribly relieved last year when I realized I'm not weird, I'm just aromantic. I enjoy romance in fiction, but am allergic to it in real life. Ew.

I work at a museum and love it, even though it means I'm broke most of the time. I'm also an indie author and have published epic and urban fantasy, and am currently at work on the next in my epic series. I also have a story coming out in a specfic anthology about horses later this summer.

I grew up evangelical and Republican but I got better. I now refer to myself as a red-letter Christian, in that I believe Christianity is meant to be a true reflection of what Jesus said and did--love your neighbor, feed the hungry, care for the sick, help the poor, etc. I have lots of friends who are not Christians, and I think those friends have made me a better person as well as (hopefully) a way less annoying Christian. :D

I'm a huge history nerd, particularly medieval studies and the US Civil War. I love hiking and bird watching. I dabble in nature photography. I still like Pokemon Go even though I never played the older versions.

I grew up in Indiana, and yes, we do call ourselves Hoosiers. Not all of us are Mike Pence fans, either. I aspire to live somewhere without winter, hopefully Austin, Texas.

Oh yeah, and I'm an expressive, so despite being an introvert, I tend to just throw my opinions and feelings out there for people. Congratulations, you may now know more about me than you wanted to! :D

Now I need to go buy a paid DW account and port over all the icons I'm used to having. LOL

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Shameless Self-Pimping

Thu, 15 May 2014 02:37:01 GMT

Because I am just lousy at LJ these ~~days~~ years...

I've got a self-hosted occasional blog at my personal website. I've also got a Facebook page for my original fiction. I decided to post here about them, especially since my second piece of fiction is releasing in ten days! :D

If you like pirates, thunderstorms, weather magic, assassins, sword-wielding princesses, gay princes, sailing ships, whales, intrigue, diplomacy, and stuff like that, you might like my writing. Stormsinger is a short (about 8500 words) that released last August. Stormshadow, releasing in ten days, is about 40,000 words. A third work, Stormseer is currently being written when I'm not flailing about doing stuff like final revisions, etc.

Here, check out the cover:

Isn't it gorgeous?! :D

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2013 Reading List

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 18:47:02 GMT

So last year I read 64 books, 7 of them non-fiction. I can't seem to break that 10 non-fiction books barrier. Maybe this year. Of course, I did read a lot of white papers for work, and some of them were almost book-length. And I have been working my way through another non-fiction book for work, but I haven't finished it yet. Oh well.

2013 Reading List

The Well of Ascension - Brandon Sanderson
The Far West - Patricia C. Wrede
The Hero of Ages - Brandon Sanderson
Social Media 101 - Chris Brogan *
Kitty Steals the Show - Carrie Vaughn
The Lightning Thief - Rick Riordan
On Writing - Stephen King *
Keeping the Castle - Patrice Kindl
Dark and Stormy Knights - ed by P.N. Elrod
Libriomancer - Jim C. Hines
A Million Suns - Beth Revis
The Last Knight - Hilari Bell
Rogue's Home - Hilari Bell
Player's Ruse - Hilari Bell
The Raven Boys - Maggie Stiefvater
Rebel Heart - Moira Young
Speaking of Jesus: The Art of Not-Evangelism - Carl Medearis *
Cinder - Marissa Meyer
The Silver Chair - C.S. Lewis †
The 100 Thing Challenge - Dave Bruno *
The Magician's Nephew - C.S. Lewis †
Red Letter Revolution: What if Jesus Really Meant What He Said? - Shane Claiborne & Tony Campolo *
Song of the Beast - Carol Berg
Elantris - Brandon Sanderson

* - non-fiction
† - reread

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I will be so glad to see November 7

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 03:41:21 GMT

Wow, hi LJ! *dusts off blog* How is everyone doing? I have been focused so much on work and novel and SWC blog that I have been almost entirely absent here.

I love my job. Every single day I go to work and feel like I have made a difference to my coworkers and employer, and that I have given an excellent experience to our visitors. I don't think there's any way I wouldn't like a job where the mission statement was to "celebrate and renew belief in the power of the individual spirit to affect American history and culture." And one of these days, I'll even finish reading Ben-Hur.

About three weeks ago I swore off Facebook until the election was over. Too much vitriol from either side of the aisle, and frankly I was tired of losing respect for people I had always liked. Tonight I took a cool quiz at www.isidewith.com and, to no great surprise, learned that I side 76% with Barack Obama. (What surprised me more was that I actually agreed with Mitt Romney about...well, um, anything.) The website had sharing links, so I took a deep breath, bit the bullet and outed myself on Facebook as someone who's voting Democrat this year.

Of course, now I'm too cowardly to go read my friends feed, with its three lonely liberals. Ah, the loneliness of being a moderate. You may get to poke fun at both ends of the political spectrum, but you also have twice the number of people pissed off at you. *G*

Because of a request one of my beta-readers made, I've been spending my writing time this week working on an episode in the backstory of five characters. It's not something that will appear in the novel, except as each of those five people remember it from their various POVs. But the more I work on it, the more I love it, and I'm gaining all sorts of new understanding of these characters I've been living with for...um...over 22 years now. Well, most of them. Poor Ranulf, he didn't show up until draft 3, I think. *G* Anyway, it's fun.

I'm not doing NaNoWriMo this year. I made a miserable attempt at Camp NaNo this summer, which consisted of me signing up for it and promptly refusing to write for nearly two weeks straight. That led to some consideration of my novel-writing process, and I decided that, while NaNoWriMo is awesomely fun, I have learned all that it has to teach me at the present, and I really want to concentrate on finishing my current novel revision. So I'm setting NaNo aside for 2012. I may go back to it in future years, but not this year. NaNo taught me how to plot a novel, and NaNo gave me characters like Zeva and Edmund and Fithian, and I will forever be grateful that I discovered NaNoWriMo. But this year, it isn't in the cards.

In other news, still looking for a second part-time job. Retail and waitressing are out, unfortunately, because as much as I love my job, it requires a lot of energy for someone who is an introvert. I think adding a second job that requires too much interaction with the general public would make me a wreck. And in the meantime, I'm squeaking by financially. I had to borrow $10 from my dad until payday on Friday, but since that $10 is going to keep his and mom's cell phones working along with my own, I think that's okay. And one of these days I'll get around to selling my Gaiam balance ball chair and that Boonton ware I inherited from Gedna and have no use for.

A while ago Eowyn brought me a present, in the form of a not-quite-dead mouse. I'm not afraid of mice, but I don't particularly want them in my bed, so I carried her back downstairs (mouse firmly in her jaws) and put her in a large box. She proceeded to kill the mouse and jump out of the box, leaving the mouse behind to feed me, I guess. I think she's getting the hang of this hunting thing. :)

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A decade

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 00:47:54 GMT

Wow. I just realized that today marks my 10th anniversary of my LJ. What's awesome is that means I have known some of you all for ten years now. Not many--my friends list has changed so much over the past decade--but a few! LJ is a lot different than it was when I first joined. Not only the company and service it provides, but also the culture here and how everyone uses LJ. I know mine has become mostly a real-life journal, instead of fannish, and that seems to be the case for a lot of my friends. And some of the friends I first met on LJ, I actually interact with more on Facebook, or the phone or text messages.

Still, I love my LJ friends, and I hope none of you go away. While I crosspost from Dreamwidth these days, I really am still more active reading-wise at LiveJournal.

I'm posting with this icon because I think it's the oldest one I still have.

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Kitties and tropical storms and stupid things that break

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 01:20:18 GMT

Well, we're expecting what's left of Isaac to hit any minute, if you listen to the news. Early predictions were that Isaac could "erase" the drought in some parts of Indiana. Way too late for the corn crops, of course, and every projection I've heard since has lowered the expected rainfall. Not that I mind. We could use the rain, but we've already had more in August than in May through July, and even though I mowed the grass a week ago, it needs it again. And Dad broke the mower yesterday.

>.<

Seriously, what does it take to get a break around here? Or, um, a nonbreak?

The Cub Cadet has been broken since May, and we haven't fixed it because the Snapper was running fine, and we didn't have the money to fix the Cadet. But the mower Dad broke? Of course--the Snapper. So we dropped the Cadet off at the service place today, which means I'll have a non-zero-turn mower I have to use for the rest of the season. Ugh. But at least it has a drink holder. *snort*

Speaking of breaks...

My PC is still giving me fits. It behaved itself for about two weeks, making me think my problem was fixed. Then this morning it froze in the middle of doing something, and I had to power it down with the button. When I restarted it this afternoon, I had to go through three hard reboots before it settled down to actually work. Urgh.

Took the kitties to the vet for their shots this Monday. Strider embarrassed the hell out of me. The assistant weighed him and he was fine. Then Dr. Jon listened to his heartbeat and checked his ears, and he was not pleased about that. When Dr. Jon gripped his head to look in his eyes and mouth, Strider flipped out. He hissed and growled and came off that exam table like he had a rocket under his butt. Jumped to the windowsill, where Eowyn was waiting patiently for her turn, and landed on her, then almost climbed the window shade before dropping down under my feet. I tried to grab him, which earned me a nasty stripe across the back of my hand, then Dr. Jon told me to let him go. Strider stood in the middle of the room, surrounded by four people and a very unhappy sister, and slunk off under the sink, where he growled and hissed copiously for quite a while.

I was SO SHOCKED. He has never behaved like that in his life! It was worse than one of Merlin's freakouts in volume, though he didn't actually bite anyone, and I'm not sure he intentionally swiped me. But he was very loud about warning everyone off, that's for sure. He hid under the sink while Dr. Jon ignored him and did Eowyn's exam. She wasn't pleased, but she behaved herself very well. I think she was more shaken up about Strider than the exam or shots. Dr. Jon had to get The Net, which he used to capture Strider and (mostly) immobilize him, so he could give him the two shots. And then we realized that Strider had pooped on the floor. >.<

Neither of the kitties like car rides, but I'd held Strider on the way to the vet, and he'd been completely content once he could see out the window and everything. He didn't get that privilege on the way home. Strider got put in the backseat of the car, carrier draped with a towel, while I rode in the front seat and held Eowyn in my lap. Strider let out a couple of growls, but calmed down pretty quickly. When we were about two miles from home, Eowyn started panting really bad, which panicked me a little. We got a little water in her, but she wasn't really thirsty. Once I pointed the A/C vents right at her, though, she started doing better. I got her inside ASAP and made sure she was okay.

The funny thing is, we left Strider's carrier on the floor in the garage for a minute while I settled Eowyn. (I was planning to isolate him if he didn't behave.) Eowyn walked around meowing as I carried his box up the stairs. He was acting just fine, so I let him out. Eowyn went up to him, sniffed him, and stopped meowing. I think she thought I had left him at the vet!

They were both lethargic and not very hungry for the first day after the shots. Eowyn snuggled up on my lap every single chance she got. In fact, Monday night I slept on my back in one position all night, because she was lying on my stomach when I went to sleep, and she was lying on my lap when I woke up, and my back freaking killed me. LOL Strider was very sleep and a little subdued all Tuesday, and it took Eowyn several hours to forgive him for jumping on her. I know he'd taken a chunk of her belly fur off, because I had to pull it off his back claw when he came out of his cage.

They're both fine now, and adorable and well-behaved as ever. They're getting along fine now, too.

I'm sort of terrified of taking him to the vet next time, though. I think I'm going to schedule them for different days, so he can't, at least, traumatize her again next time.

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Random things

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 18:08:15 GMT

I have changed my LJ layout. ~~I'd love to apply that to DW as well, but I can't be arsed to work out if it's possible. :P~~ ETA: Not only is it possible, it isn't as difficult as I'd feared. And actually I decided the layout I made for Innerslytherin was more appropriate for my writing LJ, so that's where I put it. This layout is by scholarslayouts.

So far it has rained more in August in Indiana than it did in May, June, and July all put together. This is nice for our yard and garden, but I fear it's too late for the corn crops. Soybeans might yet be all right. The resurgence of my allergies has proven that there is, in fact, a connection between how much rain we have and how allergic I am. This reinforces my goal to move to the desert at some point in my life.

I have written a whopping 1583 words in August. >.<

I would really love to put some of my old writing together in a document to sell for a couple bucks on Smashwords. The dilemma is that I don't want to self-publish the things for which I would like to pursue traditional publishing. So I want to self-publish old old writing. So the writing is quite possible (probably) sub-par. But I don't want to take the time (away from my fantasy novel rewrite) necessary to even read it and decide if it's shite. Anyone feel like doing that for me? LOL

My sciatica is acting up again. I'm taking Advil intermittently for it, and I've explored yoga, but I honestly don't have the patience/discipline/whatever to make myself do the yoga every day, so I have yet to see benefits for that. But at the moment my right leg is tingly and my right butt cheek hurts like a bitch, which means I've been sitting at the computer too long and need to do some stretching. I'll walk out to the mailbox as soon as I hit post.

This is Mom's first day back at work. I intended to use the empty house to my advantage, but instead I am sitting here not being productive. Argh.

I got a Starbucks card yesterday. Damn those green coffee lime refreshers!

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Things going on

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 03:50:11 GMT

So I love my job. Seriously love it. I GET to go to work every Friday and Saturday, and it is awesome. The more I learn about Lew Wallace, the more I adore the man. And it's so much fun to share that love with people who come to the Study.

I am, however, not making a lot of money. As in, hardly any. So I am still hoping that another historic location in town will get in touch with me regarding some part time work.

In have changed my mind about Camp NaNoWriMo and dropped out. As soon as I signed up, I think I got this mental block. As soon as I deleted my profile, I got unblocked. I think I may have come to the end of NaNo's usefulness to me. It's fun, but honestly, I have to find the motivation to write within myself, and I have been, and I no longer seem to need the camaraderie of NaNo to keep my word count up.

Except that I have backslid a great deal this month. Of course, Mom goes back to school this Wednesday, so I am trying to enjoy all the hanging out time and all the accomplishing projects time that we have left. Today we hiked a little over four miles at our local state park. It was awesome.

We saw a yellow-billed cuckoo today. First one we've seen there in years. We saw a cuckoo in Trinidad (a squirrel cuckoo, I think), but it's neat to see the local one. :) Our cuckoos don't really say "cuckoo" though. There's a little "coo coo coo" noise, but the awesome one is the "c-c-c-c-couwl couwl!" It's a fun bird to listen to.

Eowyn has caught five mice in the past four days. Friday night she caught one and we threw it way out in the yard. Saturday night she caught one and brought it upstairs to me. I was at the computer when she jumped on the bed and I realized what she had in her mouth. I carried her back downstairs, mouse still in her mouth, and ended up taking the mouse outside. Then Sunday she wasn't downstairs for two minutes before she had her first mouse. I felt bad for taking them away from her, so I put her and the mouse in a big box and let her play with it for a while. Then Strider jumped in the box, took the mouse, jumped out, and ran for the upstairs. I had to chase him and take the mouse away. These wretched, adorable creatures. They must really want to feed me mice. >.< Eowyn caught another mouse 15 minutes later, but it got away down a hole to the crawlspace. Then about an hour later, we heard growling from the area of the stairs. Eown had caught a mouse, was holding it in her mouth, and was growling around it at her brother to keep him from stealing her mouse!

She doesn't seem to know what to do with them once she catches them though. I let her play with that one until she seemed bored, but the mouse wasn't badly hurt when she was through with it. I carried it well out into the field and dropped it in the beans. Hopefully now that Mom and I sealed up the hole to the crawlspace, the mice won't get back into the house. :P

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Insanity, thy name is me (AKA Camp NaNoWriMo)

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 16:52:23 GMT

Just signed up for Camp NaNoWriMo. No idea why, except that, hey, I wrote 32K last month, so I ought to be able to write 50K this month, right? Especially since my goal is to finish the original novel revision by August 30.

Let's hope, anyway.

Also, I'm signed up as a sponsored camper, so if I raise $50 in donations I get a nifty pen, and if I raise $100 in donations I get a nifty poster. So if y'all are so inclined to sponsor me, please click below.

http://www.stayclassy.org/fundraise?fcid=206981

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Update on my lovely second-degree burn

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 05:14:49 GMT

Though apparently they are calling them partial-tissue-thickness these days, or something like that.

Anyway. The lovely Resolucidity has been offering her expert opinion via photo messages and text, but there is only so much nursing that can be done long distance. *G* Since I haven't had a burn like this in my life, I finally decided today to go to urgent care, just for my own peace of mind, if nothing else. I ended up seeing the guy who is my dad's now doctor, so that was a plus. In many ways, because DAMN that guy is cute. Also probably 12, but cute. (Disclaimer: 12 is an exaggeration based on how young he looked in comparison to how old I feel; I am not attracted to 12-year-olds.)

Anyway. The doc said that I have been taking good care of it, doing everything right, except for the fact that I only realized two nights ago that the Neosporin I was putting on has been expired for two years. *headdesk* He also said it didn't matter that I had waited a week to come in, because the first few days would have been a "wait and see" scenario anyway. He was at first concerned that the middle part of the burn might be third-degree or full-tissue-thickness, but was relieved when I said that it is tender to the touch. No nerve damage, in his opinion. So good news all around, basically.

He gave me a prescription for an ointment that works to enzymatically debride the necrotic tissue from the eschar, which is basically fancy doctor words for a dead-flesh-eating-ointment. So I guess I have a thin layer of zombie medicine on my leg right now. He said to mix that with some (NON-expired) Bacitracin and keep the wound covered at night and when I am out and about, and that my healing will be measured in weeks, rather than in days. But in general, that's pretty good news. And $96 wasn't too much to pay for peace of mind and knowing I won't need skin grafts or anything. Of course, the Santyl (sp?) ointment was another $103 (OMG) but again, worth it just to be able to say I have dead-flesh-eating-ointment on my leg. :P

So anyway, just so you all know, my leg is not going to fall off, and I am out doing yard work again, but staying well away from mufflers and other hot objects.

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Yard Work HURTS

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 04:22:28 GMT

So Friday was the day Mom and I planned to do some work on our trail. She's been out of school for about a week now, and we've been working our way through gardening and yard projects over the past week, with Wednesday off for hiking. And Friday was my day. We have about 3.5 acres very far out in the country, and on one corner of our property, we let progression take its course. We stopped mowing for about 5 or 10 years, and in that time, a lot of little trees grew up. Unfortunately poison ivy did too, but we're working on that. Anyway, several years ago, we cut a trail through that little woodlot, from near the mailbox curving around to the very front part of the front yard.

Side story - last week, there was a deer in the front yard, and I grabbed the camera to snap a couple of pictures. We see deer all the time, but we never get tired of them--though we do get a bit exasperated when they eat the garden or important trees! Anyway, the deer saw me coming and ducked down into the trail. Mom and I decided to hurry up and see if the deer was still on the trail, because we thought it would be a neat picture. She went around the outside of the woodlot and I went along the trail. The deer was nowhere to be found! Not on the longer trail or the little connecting trail, not running across the field, not anywhere I could see hiding in the underbrush... Then apparently, Mom went around the opposite direction from how I was going, and suddenly she couldn't find me either. She thought I'd vanished!

Me, I'm just cranky that apparently our trail has a door into Narnia, and I go on that trail all the time, but I've never made it to Narnia. *grumps*

Anyway, Friday I was apparently feeling extra klutzy. Earlier this week, while mowing, I drove an autumn olive brancy into my knee and scratched it all up, then later was attacked by a tulip tree that didn't think I had enough scratches on that knee. Then while we were working on the trail, we hitched a wagon to the mower (not a little red wagon, but a proper hitchy-type wagon). While trimming tree branches and such, I took a step back, hit my calf hard on the hitch, and fell over backwards, scraping my elbow on the way down. I was terrified I was falling into poison ivy, but fortunately the spot where I landed was clear.

As I was getting up, Mom said, "Be careful of the muffler! Don't burn yourself!"

Clever as I am, I replied, "In all the years I've been mowing this yard, I've never once burned myself on that muffler."

Famous. Last. Words.

Two wagon-loads later, we were almost finished with the trail and ready to move out into the open areas to do the sides of the woodlot. That adds just a little more tragedy to the story, because it was only the close quarters along the trail that caused my downfall. I was trying to get between the equipment and a rather large hickory tree. Squeezed between them, paused to look at something, and a couple seconds later let out an ear-splitting shriek as I realized that my leg was melting off.

Yes, I had pressed my calf (the same one I bruised earlier) against the muffler. I looked down and had a five-and-a-half inch streak of bright red running up my calf. We didn't have water, of course--we were drinking Gatoride-like stuff, and I thought the sodium and such would hurt if I poured it on the skin. So I sprinted to the house and stuck my leg in the sink. Which, let me tell you, is an incredibly awkward pose, even though the vanity is pretty big.

I've been fortunate, though, that taking 800mg of ibuprofen whenever it starts hurting (which is sometimes 6 hours and sometimes longer) has kept the pain to a minimum, except when changing the dressing. Showering was especially not fun. Anyway, tonight I'm venturing to sleep without a bandage on it. It's healing pretty well, but I'm worried about the cats, especially Eowyn, because she has a habit of curling up against my legs, especially my calves. I may end up shutting the cats out of the bedroom when I go to sleep. :(

For the curious, I have a picture of the trail and two pictures of the burn behind the cut.

The trail where it happened. And yes, that tree on the left is the Shagbark Hickory in question.

The burn a couple hours after it happened.

The burn tonight, about 60 hours after it happened.

In the meantime, I totally feel guilty for subjecting my protagonist to hot irons when he's being tortured by the bad guys. Then again, he has a blood-drinking sword that will heal him. I am not so fortunate.

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Dear World of People Smarter Than I Am...

Sat, 26 May 2012 02:15:56 GMT

Will someone please explain why it is that, if caffeine is a diuretic, I always pee waaaaaaaaay more on the days when I'm drinking 24 oz of Coke and 32 oz of water, than when I'm drinking 48 oz of Coke? Because frankly I'm starting to doubt what people say about caffeine. :P

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Criminal Minds finale reaction

Thu, 17 May 2012 04:06:41 GMT

SPOILERS AHOY!!!!

Will and JJ and Henry are the cutestest family ever. I know I've had a soft spot for Will LaMontaigne ever since he showed up. What can I say? Men with southern accents kill me. Kill me dead. (That might be why I also find Wade Kinsella so freaking irresistible and want to strangle Zoe Hart, but that's another show...) I loved seeing them together, all three of them. And I freaking love that Will is still a cop. I don't know how he manages it, considering JJ's job and the promise she later mentioned about Henry always being with one or the other of them. I sure hope that rule just goes for work issues.

Also, I confess, I really like Beth. Or, at least, I like the idea of her. Henry likes her, Aaron likes her, she likes them, it's a nice thing. I still don't like the way she faked a cramp to beat Hotch when they were training, but oh well. And I like seeing Hotch smile.

Okay, it was adorable seeing Reid and Garcia together at the con. I am astonished that Kevin apparently broke it off when Garcia said no, though. I mean, I knew she blew it, but wow. That's interesting. I spent the whole episode wondering if they were gonna patch things up.

Rossi coming out of the hotel at 9 am was...weird, but when I saw Strauss follow him out, I threw up in my mouth a little. I like Strauss, sure. Far away from anyone in the show. Sorry, Rossi. I judge you.

Thank God we could contrast that with Prentiss and Morgan hanging out. Yes, folks, it's official, I have switched my hetship to Prentiss/Morgan for serious. Rossi being with Strauss made me sick to my stomach. Literally. That was gross. He loses.

Okay, so anyway. The case.

What the fuck? The motivation there was sooooooo thin. And they never ever talked about why Izzy needed the partners. I was expecting there to actually be a reason, since it was brought up early in the profile. Also, it was funny seeing Josh Randall on CM, since he was a Steinkellner on Grimm earlier this season. I love it when my fandoms collide. I did think Tricia Helfer did a bang up job with her role. But we already knew she could play sadistic, didn't we?

Let's see...I knew from the moment we saw Sandy Jareau on the cast list that it was going to be JJ and Will getting married...or at least, I was pretty sure. They did a decent job of making me wonder if JJ's mom was just going to show up for his funeral, though. Except for the way Garcia & Kevin never really patched things up. I wasn't sure if that PoTuS remark was supposed to pave the way for that, but it didn't seem to fly. So. Okay. I was fairly confident Will was going to survive.

Also, I've always wondered how people like Will walk around after having lost so much blood. I mean, seriously, I donate a pint and it just about kills me. I've never lost that much blood in a traumatic fashion, but I've always assumed shock must feel like my reaction to losing a pint, except way worse and with serious pain from whatever trauma caused the blood loss. And poor Will, the neighbor was right, he did look like hell.

The scene in the train station was awesome, though. I loved the bit with Emily and Will. Ha, one of my old RP characters saved the other's life. Excellent. (Even though her reasoning made abso-bloody-lutely no sense to me. It worked, so whatever.)

JJ kicking Izzy's ass was way awesome. I confess, slow-mo in action scenes always makes me roll my eyes, but that roundhouse kick was like, DUDE! You took Morgan's hand-to-hand lessons and PWNED them! What was up with the clip ejection, though? That was over the top.

I was expecting another extended fight scene with Morgan and the unsub dude, so it was actually kind of a relief that Hotch just shot him. Made me think of that dude with the sword and Indiana Jones shooting him. :P

JJ & Will's proposal made me squee and clap my hands and rewind, rewatch, and squee and clap my hands all over again. That? Poetry. *happy sigh* And yes, it DID take her damn long enough!

The scene with Derek & Emily? Okay, yeah, that was when the tears started to flow. Wah. I'm still pissed as hell at Paget for leaving, because of the whole ingratitude factor, and frankly, I won't bother seeing what she does next, because I couldn't give a shit. I liked her on this show. Not some stupid comedy, 99% of which I hate anyway. So I'm still pissed at the actress, but wow. She really made that scene work. And there was such truth in the writing! (Been thinking about this since she came back? Yes, we all know that, haha.) And Derek. Guh. Poor man. "I miss you already." Derek, you're ready to settle down, right? Because you could totally have a long-distance-relationship with someone living in London. :D

And then hearing Over the Rhine's arrangement of "O Little Town of Bethlehem" during JJ & Will's wedding was just....weird. Cool, because I freaking love OTR and that makes me happy, but a Christmas song? Even though it was instrumental, I know have a Christmas song stuck in my head. But it's all good, because that's my favorite Christmas carol, and I love Detweiler's arrangement, so it's all good.*

And I bawled all through the wedding, and sniveled through Emily dancing with everyone, and threw up in my mouth a little bit when I saw Strauss dancing with Rossi, and then I felt better when I saw Emily dancing with him, and then sort of died when she was holding on to Derek at the end when she said her last little bit.

*sigh*

I wonder if my three-degrees-of-separation connection to Rick Dunkle is enough leverage for me to get him to throw in little hints next season that Derek is seeing someone in London on the sly. *G*

* On a semi-related note, anyone feel like going to Madison, Indiana, with me this Saturday? OtR is playing at the Ohio River Valley Folk Festival.

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Mother's Day

Mon, 14 May 2012 03:41:23 GMT

Had a pretty nice Mother's Day, and Mom says she did too. She woke up with a migraine, and Dad and I both woke up with a headache. Weird. But anyway, skipped church, slept in, and had a casual lunch. Then Mom and I headed to town. We stopped by the library, where I picked up a couple of books about Linux, and then headed to our nearest state park, Prophetstown.

We've always been a bit disappointed by the park, mostly because there's not much in the way of hiking. It's a prairie habitat park, with some river flood plain. Not a lot of trees, and very flat. But they did a very nice job making it a family-friendly park, with miles of paved bike trails and several nice playgrounds and picnic shelters. It's just not a great place for gung-ho hikers the way we are.

Today, though, we were pleasantly surprised by some changes to the park. They've expanded a trail into some woodlands, so we were able to see some new parts of the park. The new trail goes down along a small stream and boggy area. At the furthest developed part of the park, there's a nice viewing platform over the slough. Between that and our hiking in the prairie area, we were able to add some lifelist birds today.

We did a day-trip up to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Friday (and one last Friday as well--they're taking off scheduled snow days at her work) and this past Friday I saw a Common Yellowthroat, but Mom didn't. Today, she got a very good look at one, so she was able to add that.

We also saw a Great Crested Flycatcher, which I have been wanting to see for a while now. Gorgeous yellow belly and cinnamon-colored wings and tail, with a gray crest. He gave us a very good look and did some hawking for bugs while we watched him. We also saw a couple Brown Thrashers and a Gray Catbird, both of which we have at home, but love to see anyway. There were Eastern Bluebirds flying around. We've had a couple of those at home too, but we never seem to get them to stick around. This weekend we put up a second bluebird box (the wren moved into the first one we have) and are hoping the pair will nest here this year.

Other birds we saw were American Redstart (both male and female), and a pair of Dickcissels. They are striking birds. At first we thought they were a type of sparrow with yellow on the head, but then they turned and we saw they were bright yellow underneath with a black bib. Gorgeous little things, and I got some very good shots with the long lens, I think. We also saw an Eastern Meadowlark, Indigo Buntings, Mallards, a Great Blue Heron, and a bird we're tentatively calling a sandpiper. We're wavering between Solitary Sandpiper and Spotted Sandpiper, but until I get the pictures downloaded to the computer and we can compare them, we won't know for sure.

Then our last bird, after we left the park and were driving back towards town, was a gorgeous adult Bald Eagle that flew right over our car. That was exciting! We know they're growing in number and even had one in our own back yard once this winter, but it's never any less exciting to see one. It's good to have such proof they're coming back so strong from the DDT crisis back in the 70s and 80s.

Over the past two weeks, I've added probably a dozen birds to my life list, including five migratory warblers. I honestly think our trip to Trinidad & Tobago taught us to be better birders. We're more willing to take the time to really get an identification. I'm doing a better job at learning to bird by ear (though for whatever reason the Northern Cardinal fools me a LOT). My Audubon iPhone app has really helped, too. I still use my books to flip through for a tentative identification, but what really nails it for me is being able to listen to the bird calls on the app and compare them to what we're hearing. Seeing witchety-witchety-witchety in the bird book is one thing. Knowing for sure you're hearing it is another (the Common Yellowthroat, for instance, says witchety, but I think the American Redstart's teacher-teacher-teacher also sort of sounds like it.)

Anyway, we finished up with ice cream from Coldstone Creamery, and then came home to watch the Baskerville episode of Sherlock on PBS. A pretty good day, for sure!

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Xubuntu = love

Fri, 11 May 2012 02:13:19 GMT

I've had an Acer AspireOne D260 netbook for two and a half years, and it came with Windows 7 Starter Edition preinstalled. The netbook has 1GB of memory and a 1.66 GHz processor, but it was never quite enough enough to handle the load of web surfing and Microsoft Word. I took the netbook on our trip to Trinidad and Tobago, and it was adequate for downloading pictures and uploading them to Tumblr, but not truly satisfactory.

Recently, I've had a horrible time making myself sit down at my desktop computer to work on revising the novel. I have an iPad that's okay for actual writing, but horrible for editing and revision. I haven't found a writing app that doesn't mess up the formatting in Word. Not even QuickOffice, which ought to be perfect. But it turns tabs into spaces instead. So annoying.

Anyway, I finally bit the bullet and installed Xubuntu Linux on my netbook. It's like having a brand new computer all over again! I can't quite figure out how to make it as pretty as I would like (I know, I know) but considering the fact that my real complaint with the netbook was that it has always run painfully slow, even while only word processing...

I've decided I love Xubuntu. :)

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Kitty Play Tower Pictures

Tue, 01 May 2012 21:39:58 GMT

A couple of people expressed interest in seeing the kitty play tower, so here are some pictures. :)

Some details I shall mention beforehand:
- I was building this out of lumber scraps I already had in the garage. Leftovers from other projects, etc. So it's a little irregular in size and material. *G*
- Dimensions are roughly 35" wide by 27" deep by 4' tall, basically because I had an old table-top that could serve as the base and was 35"x27". I had two 2x4s I could use as the corner posts, and they were 8' long, so I cut them in half for a 4' height.
- I had originally planned to use 4x4s for the corners, but 2x4s work fine.

This is how it looked when we thought we were nearly finished with the construction part. I knew I had some things I wanted to add, but it was all stuff I could do inside the house. Of course, when we tried to get the durn thing upstairs, we ended up having to cut off the overhanging part of the top level, but oh well. :P

I did add a piece of thin board with big holes cut out of it. The kitties like to play through and around things, so I used a doorknob drill bit to cut 2" diameter circles out of the piece.

You'll also notice that what I thought was a clever little spot for kitties to peek at the next level...

...was incredibly enticing to Miss Eowyn...

...and turned into a rather nervewracking (for me at least) doorway. I ended up cutting the board back to make that space bigger and easier to fit through. I was having visions of coming upstairs and finding her little back end stuck in the air.

You can see in this picture that I built a ramp. What we discovered right away is that it's WAY too slick, if you're just using a board for a ramp. I'm going to cover it either with rope (like the two scratching posts the kitties love so much) or carpet, just to give them some traction. With their claws, carpet would be fine there.

On the bottom level, I used some scrap burlap we have and attached a double thickness of it around three sides, using a staple gun. That has been a HUGE hit. My kitties both love hiding under the dustruffle of the beds, and Eowyn in particular loves to hide in my closet in the bottom of my dresses and capes.

Behind the holey wall I decided to stick one of their cozy beds that doesn't see much use. I thought maybe it would give them a comfy place to curl up. Mixed results, but I'm leaving it for now.

I'm planning to add some carpeting to the horizontal surfaces. I may also do a bit of padding on the top layer, maybe some padding and fleece on there instead of carpeting. I'm not sure. They both love fleece blankets, but I want to make sure the footing on the top level is steady enough. I also didn't design the top entry hole quite right. I'm going to try adding another 2x4 across the side space, to give them something to balance on. In the meantime I've moved a short table and a storage box next to the tower, to allow them to easily and safely get up and down from the top level.

But all in all, the kitty play tower has turned out to be a pretty decent hit. I find them on it a lot. Eowyn is downright frightening when she lurks in the bottom behind the burlap and lunges out to attack the feather stick. Strider has always enjoyed sitting and looking out the window, and I find him on the top level, looking out into the night a lot.

And sometimes lying on the top as if he's king of the world.

Which, y'know, he is. :)

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Dear allergies, please stop trying to kill me.

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 04:52:03 GMT

This past week I have spent almost every waking moment struggling to breathe through both nostrils and not sneeze more than once per minute. I noticed yesterday that the honey locusts are blooming. Bloody trees are gorgeous, but they are responsible for my current misery. I take Zyrtec and Nasonex on a regular basis anyway, and this week I've been alternating between Benadryl, Mucinex, and Excedrin PM (it has Diphenhydramine HCl in it same as Benadryl). The few times I could actually breathe, I had that awful hot, dry, tight feeling in my sinuses that makes my head ache.

Okay, enough whining.

I've been picking radishes by the double handful this week. I've decided the Sparklers are a keeper. The Crimson Giants aren't quite as nice, but they are giant. I ought to go see if the farmer's market is running yet this year. I could probably make some cash.

Last weekend our Cub Cadet broke. Again. Same stupid plastic fan that broke last year. Wait, let me clarify--same stupid EIGHTY DOLLAR plastic fan that broke last year. We bought a Cub because they're supposed to be quality mowers! Plus our Snapper and Craftsman mowers haven't been all that great, and the John Deere they used at the church was AWFUL. So earlier this week, since I was allergically miserable anyway, I got out the 20-year-old Briggs-Stratton push mower. I have to prop it against the concrete step to get it started, since whoever invented push mowers was obviously a man with biceps the size of AHHHNAAAALD. But I got about half the front yard done. We have over 3 acres. The first two years we lived here, we didn't have anything but that push mower. I was also 20 years younger. LOL My arms and hands have hurt all week.

Today Mom and I decided to finally build the kitty play tower that Dad has been promising to build for eight months. :P We did a bang-up job...once he finally deigned to help us. Before that, I swear, it was like Laurel & Hardy with power tools. What's sad is I have pretty decent building skills, but my measuring and engineering skills leave a lot to be desired. Also, I frequently forget that old maxim: "Measure twice, cut once."

>.<

All the same, the kitties seem to like it. I put curtains on the bottom floor because Eowyn likes to hang out in the dresses in my closet. I put holes in one of the walls because they like to reach through and around things while playing. I put in a little hidey-hole under a ramp to the third floor. The fourth floor is a big viewing platform for the window. I still need to get rope to glue to the posts and the ramp, and a piece of carpeting or fleece to tack on the top level so it will be comfy for lounging. They seem to like it, though.

I'm starting to question whether Eowyn or Strider is the dominant kitty. I used to think it was Strider, and I thought Eowyn was getting fat because she binged. But lately I've noticed she actually initiates most of the fights, and ALL of the licking-battles that turn into biting sometimes and cuddling other times. She is a truly prodigious size now. I need to get her to see Doctor Jon so I can get his input on this weight thing.

It might have to do with the spiders. She has killed and eaten two spiders this week, and tonight she killed a GIGANTIC spider. I didn't let her eat that one, because I was afraid it would crunch. But I had to get Mom to take it away from her, because every time I tried to pick her up, she grabbed it in her mouth first. Eek!

I'm typing all this without my right thumb, which is actually really annoying. Didn't realize how often I use it, but I obviously hit the space bar with my thumb most of the time. I was holding Strider and about to do a traumatic ear cleaning, and then Eowyn jumped into a box she plays in, saw something scary (a few of her toys) and jumped out immediately and violently. Scared Strider, who struggled to get away and ripped a two-inch gash in my thumb that instantly started bleeding and wouldn't stop.

Anyway. That's what I'm up to these days. That and slooooooooowly working on my novel, and failing to find a new job because I'm not applying myself hard enough. Or know what I want to do. Or anything.

So how are all of you?

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Pottermore

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 21:29:08 GMT

Larch with dragon core, twelve and a half inches, surprisingly swishy...

...a black cat for a pet...

Sorting--

Wait.

WAIT!

This...this can't be happening.

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Question for traveling types

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 21:49:23 GMT

About to head off for a quick trip to the south to see Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. Mom and I got a vacation in January, but Dad didn't get one, and he's itching for a Civil War fix. *G*

Problem is, I'm working hard on learning to travel light, and I'm already taking the novel revision along with me. So do I pack my biggish dedicated travel journal, which I only started using last year, and didn't take to Trinidad & Tobago since I was traveling light there? I have BIG handwriting, so I can't use a tiny little notebook. But Junior size would be okay, and take up less room than my oddly-shaped 9x8x1 inch vacation journal. *sigh*

So anyway, that got me wondering about what other people do for travel journals.

View Poll: Travel records

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Random post of randomness

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 23:46:44 GMT

1. I got a new desk chair today. Huzzah! It seems impossible to find cheap rolling task chairs with no arms. The ones I could find were either available only online (I want to sit in it first, TYVM) or $70, and no way am I going to pay that much for a chair at this point in my financials. But the Gaiam ball chair just wasn't doing it for me. I think if I could make myself sit in it properly, it would be okay, but I tend to straddle it more than actually sitting, and it was putting my sciatica-ridden hip even further out of whack. But I stopped at the local Staples on a whim today and found a task chair on clearance for $27! Woohoo!

2. If anyone is interested in buying said Gaiam ball chair, I'm taking offers. *G* I can keep using it as an exercise ball, but it's just taking up space, and if someone is hankering to try it, I have one for cheap.

3. Have been working on the novel rewrite. Open submissions at a small press that interests me starts on April 16, so I'm doing what amounts to a double-NaNo from March 13 - April 15 or so. Double, because the novel is going to be at least 100,000 words. If I'm lucky. The last draft clocked in somewhere around 200K, which is just too damn long for a debut novel. Fortunately it also featured much Pointless Walking (TM) and since I don't want people to call this "the next Belgariad!!!" I need to cut some of the walking out anyway.

4. Working on the novel was difficult to make myself do, when sitting at the desk wasn't very comfortable. Hence a great deal of my excitement at finding a cheap and appropriate chair.

5. I also bought Mom lots of seeds for her garden today. Can't believe it's been in the 80s all week. In MARCH. Geez, if this is how the spring starts, I am worried about how hot the summer will be. Last year the summer was insufferable and we broke a record for days over 100 or something like that. I would really prefer to stay in the low 90s if possible.

6. I got a coupon off a case of Dr Pepper 10, so I went ahead and bought it. Now I am torn, because their commercials offend me, but it really does taste good. I bought a case of Diet Dr Pepper to see if it tastes as good as I remember.

7. I read a novel recently published by a casual friend of mine. As in, a real publisher, a real novel, with advances and royalties and everything. And...I hate to say it, but the novel mostly sucked. I reeeeally wanted to like it. Fortunately she's a casual friend, really just on Facebook terms. So maybe if I don't mention having read it, she won't ask what I thought? :/

8. Had Little Caesar's for supper. Mmm. Happiness for $5.

9. Okay, there is no #9. I just wanted to keep listing.

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sigh

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 10:16:47 GMT

I like being single. I really do. I prefer being single.

But still... That moment when you learn that a truly wonderful man who could have been yours...that just wasn't quite the right man for you...but who you still adore...now has a girlfriend who posts on Facebook that she loves him?

It still stings. A lot. Because if I were just a little less independent-minded and solitary? That could have been me.

...

Still, I haven't seen him this happy in a long time. So I'm glad for him. I'm just a little bit sad for myself, even if it was my decision to end it.

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Back in the cold again

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 05:19:12 GMT

Well, I'm home, and I'm finally starting to feel recovered from my trip. LOL We had a lot more relaxing time while we were on Tobago, but then we had a 20-hour day of traveling home, flying from Piarco (Port of Spain) to Miami-Dade, seven hour layover at Miami with a last-minute gate change, Miami-Dade to Chicago-O'Hare, then to Indy. We got up around 4:30 to get Piarco in time for check-in and some duty-free shopping (hurrah, two bottles of rum for less than the price of a single bottle in the US). At Miami we had plenty of time to go through a painless passport processing and customs, though it was fun trying to repack one of our checked bags to hold two bottles of rum and one bottle of rum punch. LOL But we did it, and then had plenty of time to kill at Miami. We arrived early in Chicago, so we had about two hours to kill there before our flight to Indy. Thank God Dad was waiting at the gate for us when we got home. I think I would have cried if I'd had to drive home at the end of that day of traveling!

The day after we got home, we were hit with about 3 inches of snow. Bleh. Then over the weekend we had thunderstorms and yesterday it was almost 50. Today we had sleet and snow and then sleet again. No kidding. Seriously, I miss the Caribbean. I've got to find a way to vacation in Tobago more often. In the meantime I've been listening to a lot of soca music and trying to make myself believe it's not bloody cold outside.

By the way, anyone know how to repair a piece of bamboo? I brought home a bamboo pencil holder with a hummingbird and the word Tobago carved on it. Gorgeous little thing, but it spontaneously cracked all the way from top to bottom. I imagine because it's ridiculously humid in Tobago and ridiculously dry in Indiana. :( I just wish it had split down the empty portion, instead of right through the middle of the hummingbird. :(

I haven't heard back from the university. Since they wanted to do second interviews during the two days after I returned from Tobago, and start the new hire this week, I am assuming that means I didn't get picked. I'm not heart-broken over it. Secretary III isn't the best-paying position in the world there, and I've applied for a lot of other clerical positions there. I've also applied repeatedly for Writer-Editor positions, and it's annoying me that I am consistently being passed over for those. How many technical writers can there be in north central Indiana who want to work at the university? And why won't the university give the creative writer a shot? *pouts*

The kitties were pleased to see me return home. Eowyn is, if possible, snugglier than ever. She is also, if possible, fatter than ever. It's not that I object to her being a bit plump, but she is positively obese. That can't be healthy. I'm thinking about scheduling her to see Dr. Jon and get his opinion. She gets quite a bit of exercise when I play with her, and she has never even tasted canned cat food, let alone people food. But I do believe Strider is the dominant cat, and I've seen Eowyn defer to him if he wants to eat at one of the food dishes first. I wonder if that makes her overeat when she does eat. I just hate to have to go to feeding times, since I've always just given my cats free access to the dry food dishes so they can eat when they are hungry. It's the most convenient thing for someone who (when employed) is usually away from the house 8-10 hours at a stretch. I suspect Strider has stayed so lean because he never sits still except when he's asleep. When awake, he's incredibly fidgety, and he's better at entertaining himself than Eowyn is. Anything sparkly and he will chase it, whereas she pretty much restricts herself to strings, which require a human at the other end. She makes an occasional foray into feathered toys, but more often than not, that means chewing on feathered hair clips or dream catchers, which displeases Mommy, for some reason. :P

Mom and I are still posting stuff from our trip over at our Tumblr. She is typing up her journal of the trip. I only wrote a journal for two bloody days, proving once again that I am a crap diarist. *sigh* I also haven't written a thing since we got back. I have a short story idea niggling in the back of my mind, but I haven't put anything down on paper but a couple of concepts.

I can't seem to find any recipes for roti that look like the roti we ate at Asa Wright. It makes me incredibly sad, because I thought it was delicious, especially with the split pea soup over it. I wanted to make some of that for the TNT party we're going to have to show our pictures and whatnot to the family. :/

In other news, since coming home, I've decided I adore the new Sherlock, which shocks me. I've also become addicted to Hart of Dixie, though I can't decide what couple to root for. So many love triangles! And I think I am caught up on Criminal Minds, but my computer's DVR crapped out on me while we were on vacation, so I am not sure. There was "Bittersweet Science", then "True Genius" while I was on vacation, and then tonight's "Unknown Subject", right?

Anyway, I think that's about it for now. Anything exciting happen in your world while I was gone?

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Posting from Piarco International Airport

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 13:32:15 GMT

We're sitting in our gate waiting to board our 20-minute flight to Tobago. We're on a 50-seat prop plane, which Mom is looking forward to since she's never flown on a prop. The Caribbean Airlines planes are very pretty with the lettering in purple and a flower and hummingbird on the tail.

Yesterday we had a guided hike at Asa Wright in the morning. Then we did some more hiking on our own. In the afternoon we had a different tour guide, Harry from Germany, pick us up and drive us through Arima and Tunapuna to the Pax Guesthouse. We had tea and finally got a closer look at the Orange-winged Parrots, which was exciting. We also saw a Yellow Oriole, which was another new bird.

Last night there was a night walk along the drive at Asa Wright. We saw several land crabs, a Great Antshrike, and TARANTULAS. OMG *shudders* and yet I was strangely fascinated.

This morning we're on our way to Speyside, Tobago, where I am really desperately hoping to be able to sit and relax on the beach. I know we have a waterfall and rain forest to visit, and a glass-bottom boat ride to Little Tobago Island, but I am in some desperate need of down time, and the beach sounds awesome. Especially since I am not a natural extrovert, so I've spent a lot of time feeling like I have to be up or on for all the people around us.

Looks like they're going to start boarding, so signing off for now. Keep good! :D

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