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

23,117 / 120,000 (19.3%)

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.

I always have a hard time getting going on Sunday. I think it's only 630am, and I can sleep for at least another hour. Instead, it turns out to be 730am, King has already shoved two slippers in my face and is digging under the bed for another shoe, and the birds outside the window are racketing away. "GET UP, YOU LAZY SLOB. YOU WANTED SUNSHINE, WELL, IT'S HERE."

It is a beautiful day. Mid-60s so far, and blue sky sunny. Took both guys for a mile or so walk this morning, and may have pushed Mickey a little too hard (unlike King, who could walk for miles). But Mickey was at the backdoor and all excited and it would have broken my heart to leave him.

Much sniffing and competitive peeing. Truth be told, I think the warmth got to both of them--neither of them looked real perky as we maneuvered back up the driveway.

I wish I didn't have to wrestle with that lava rock today, but oh well. Just fed the guys--will give them an hour, then take them out with me. If King does snack on something untoward, at least he will have digested most of his lunch.

Treated myself to some bruschetta spread (tomatoes/olive oil/basil) and shredded parmesan on rosemary-olive oil bread (broiled it--very good) along with a glass of Sebeka Cabernet Pinotage, my current fave inexpensive wine. Topped it off with another of Polidori's truffles. Lust, I think. The pomegranate/bing cherry in dark chocolate. Very good with this wine.

Speaking of wine, I will admit that sometimes I buy a bottle because the label caught my eye. This week's snagger--Pinot Evil's Pinot Noir. A drawing of the three monkeys on the label. French. We'll see.

I've been posting a lot lately. It's like talking sometimes--something happens, and it's like, "oh, I must blog this." I need to ease off, at least through the summer and the first draft of the wip. Take anghara's post to heart. Get on with it.

But it's hard. I keep in touch with friends here. Learn the latest news. It will be like giving up my seat at the corner coffeeshop.

But I do need to cut back.

This isn't how you do it.


By way of swivetfeed

Raked the backyard in the cold&drizzle. Not the best idea, given that I'm still recovering, but I had to get it done today.

Two hours and four lawn bags later, I am fairly certain that I have eliminated the most obvious wood bits that Himself would find tasty. In the process, I also gathered lots of branches and pine needles and other winter wreckage. I then let HRH loose in the yard for the first time in several days--he dashed about, danced around with some toys, and grabbed a bite of something that may have been a bit of dirt with a bit of mulch. There are still fragments out there, but the ones I did find were pretty sodden and very soft. If he eats one of those, not too concerned. Not too concerned about a bite here or there. I was worried about big pieces, and I think I got all those visible above ground.

Tree Guy came. Crabapples will be sprayed over the next several weeks.

Toilet has behaved since this morning. I am assuming, however, that this episode served as a warning shot across my bow.

Polidori Chocolates arrived. I tried the Truffaldino and the bonus Marshmallow with a cup of coffee, and they were both very very good. I'm reluctant to try any more until my taste comes back 100%, because it isn't fair to the chocolate.

The sun finally emerged late in the day. More sun tomorrow. First will come a quick round of grocery shopping, followed by a date with 25 bags of lava rock and a roll of landscape cloth.

Son of a bitch.

Just before it started, I thought just let them all get through the race.

I used to love to watch horse racing, but I'm developing a serious aversion. It just seems like the horses can't take the pounding.

A very firm jiggle of the handle had silenced the toilet for the night, but usage this morning set it off again. Further attempts at jiggling handle didn't help--something is not seating properly, allowing the water to slowly trickle out of the tank and trigger the fill. Yes, according to all the handyman websites, this is an easy fix, but these websites do not use as examples 30+ year old toilets with tank innards made of Corrode. If it turns out to be just a flapper problem, I will be surprised.

Too much to do. Took King for a walk, then waited for Tree Guy who was supposed to arrive at 8am to look at rusty crabapples. At 830am, still no sign. Called Tree Guy, who was running behind, or had not yet gotten started, or something. Rescheduled for this evening. Called plumber and left message about back-up sump installation and other matters, including the toilet's new trick. Drove to hardware big boxes, purchasing pump, battery, and acid at #1 and 25 bags of lava rock at #2. Home, to find toilet still draining/noisy, but not as much. Jiggled handle again, and was rewarded with silence.

Waiting for passing showers to Pass, Already! Then will feed pups, and commence the raking of the backyard. I should make the first pass with King in the house to make sure I get the most obvious junk out of his way. He'll then be free to root out the less obvious junk, but not until he's had an hour or two to digest at least part of his lunch.

Saw nice orange landscape stone at BB#2 that was a closer match to my chimney brick and so much prettier than BRICK RED LAVA ROCK. Sighed heavily. Bought lava rock. Too far along to back out now.

And how is your Saturday? she asked through clenched teeth.