Yes, this is a fish blog. Feel free to skip or squee as your preference.

First of all, everybody is fine. In fact, I've been having some fun with our CSA produce and the goldfish. I've always heard that goldfish like peas, but frozen peas are hard on their stomachs unless you defrost them (because why? Because goldfish will attempt to eat anything dropped into the tank IMMEDIATELY). So, usually it's too putzy for me to bother with. Ah, but I have fresh, organic peas from the CSA box. Now, I should say, mostly *I* have been gobbling them up, but I decided to see if Joe and Fergus liked the tiny, not-normally-worth-the-effort to shuck peas. Boy howdie, did they!

Now a few peas at lunch time has become our new game. Joe, in particular, loves them. I can feed him four or five under-sized ones, or one or two chopped up normal-size ones.

Also, thanks to a surprise royality check for Tall, Dark & Dead, I'm starting up the new upstairs tank. My plan is, for once, not to impulse buy everything. I did sort of impluse buy the tank already: it's hexagon shaped and five gallons. Less wide, but taller than the previous upstairs tank. But I'm going to try something I've always wanted to do... aquascape, which is to say a heavily planted tank. I've always admired, but never been able to pull off, those densely planted tanks you see at the good commerical shops. My dream is to have a kind of jungle of plants and then add a school of tiny little guys (more neon? Something similar like white mountain minnow?) who can dart about playfully among the folliage.

But I'm not going to even THINK too much about fish yet (except to when I start planting, so that I can have plants that might, say, like hard/soft water, whatever goes with the fish. Though I might actually try doing plants I like FIRST and finding fish that fit.)

I'm actually hoping to establish the tank for MONTHS before I add a single fish.

My first purchase after the tank is going to be "eco-complete" (name brand) substrate that's supposed to be ideal for heavily planted tanks.

I'm off to go research some aquatic plants now. Wheee!

I'm not usually the sort try "healthy" recipies from magazines (if I'm going to use a magazine recipie it will be from the decidedly butter-and-Bourbon variety of "Southern Living.") Especially if they involve a food processor. BUT, I just happened to have all the ingredients for "Women's Health"'s Zucchini and Dill Soup on hand, and I thought, what the hey, it'll used up the CSA zucchini I have left.

One word: yum!

For lunch I had this and several slices of my not-so purple potato bread.



ZUCCHINI AND DILL SOUP

Grate a couple of zucchinis (I used what I had on hand, 3/4th a good sized zucchini). Cook a chopped onion in butter until softened, then add the zucchini and stir until softened (5 minutes or so). Add vegetable or chicken stock (I had some homemade chicken stock in the fridge. I put in just enough to cover the zucchini-onion mixture) and bring to a boil; simmer for about 5 minutes, then puree until smooth. Season with salt and pepper (I recommend lots of pepper for a good kick) and lots of fresh, chopped dill (I used almost five, thick sprigs).



Last night's Gaylaxian's meeting was great. I met some new people, hung out with old friends, and mostly talked about home owning, movies, and how much the publishing industry sucks. Strangely, I was invited back for September, when they're going to read APOCALYPSE ARRAY.

But talking about the series again energized me to get to work on the prequel and I wrote almost a thousand words forward last night. Yipee. There's hope for this thing yet.

Yesterday the mail carrier delivered Mason's Marvel Adventures All-Ages SPIDER-MAN #52, "No Substitutes" (Mark Sumerak).

As usual, I brought it to school and Mason devoured it in the back seat. The nice thing about this routine? On the days I bring comics, Shawn and I can have a mostly-interruption free conversation about her day. Mostly because Mason will still sometimes blurt out with, "Shhhh, I'm trying to read!"

I ended up reading the issue myself, and I want to make one comment about it. First of all, I love the all-ages titles, and I'm only bummed that they stopped producing Fantastic Four All-Ages, because those were Mason's favorites. My theory? FF is too science fiction, even for comic books. I mean, they go into space on a regular basis. I'm not sure a lot of kids these days find that plausible... I mean, unlike, say radioactive spiders giving you super powers.

Anyway, in Spider-Man all ages, Peter is still a high school teen at Mid-town High or wherever. In this issue, he's leaving the public library and, thanks to his Spidey-senses, stumbles across a secret cabal of villains (psuedo-"Hydra" types). Anyway, he accidentally leaves his biology report on at the scene of the crime after beating up the baddies, and picks up their top secret plans (conveniently in a similar manila file folder) instead. The next day, Peter is mortified to discover he doesn't have his homework. But thinks it's going to be okay when there's a substitute teacher, Jessica Drew (Spider-Woman to those in the know.) No, she comes down hard on him and puts him in detention, which Spidey is kind of grateful for because he's realized that maybe the bad guys might now know his secret identity thanks to his mix-up.

Little does he know that Spider-Woman has his biology report which she found at the scene, and she thinks he's an agent of not-Hydra. At any rate, adventures ensue and, of course, Spider-Man and Spider-Woman end up defeating the evil not-Hydra's plans to blow up Times Square.

The best part of this issue, however, is that the author, Sumerak, finally punches through one of those superhero tropes I hate. The trope (or maybe it's better defined as a crutch) is that people can spend all day with the alter ego of the superhero, talking to him/her, and somehow not recognize their mannerisms and/or voice behind the mask ten minutes later when the hero comes to their rescue. I roll with that because it's so common that I tell myself that the Marvel Universe is populated with people who either chose to ignore the obvious (in the case of Aunt May and MJ "denial isn't just a river in Egypt") or are merely, in the words of my favorite Lois & Clark episode, "galatically stupid."

In this issue, however, at the end when Spidey says he has to leave before the not-S.H.I.E.L.D agents arrive to debrief the heroes to protect his secret identity, Spider-Woman lets him ago with a "you've helped tremendously--" (then, after he's swung a good distance away she says in smaller letters, thus quieter,) "Mr. Parker."

And he never notices. I think it would have been even more awesome if she had just said "Thanks, Mr. Parker," and for him to go, "You're welcome" and zip away, and never notice that he'd answered to his real name, because don't you always figure that might happen some day? (And actually Bendis plays with that in the New Avengers when Daredevil accidentally calls Spider-Man "Peter" in front of Captain America and then stops and says, "Uh, you know Spider-Man is Peter Parker, right?")

I love stuff like that.

In other news, I made purple potato bread with the left-over purple mashed potatoes from Sunday's dinner. (We got blue/purple potatoes in the CSA box.) My biggest disappointment? The bread isn't pinker. It's very subtlety pinkish... at one point the dough was very lavender and I had high hopes that it would bake into a lovely, soft purple. Nah. I'm so bummed. You really can't tell I used purple potatoes at all.

We still have a lot left from the box. I have 3/4s of a zucchini, about the same amount of yellow squash, most of a bag of pea pods, a few more potatoes, a tiny shred of the romaine lettuce and the fennel. It will be gone in time for the next box, which isn't until NEXT Thursday anyway.

I've been neglectful about my BroadUniverse membership and just got kicked off the listserv (without the "e"!) I filled out a renewal form, but am waiting to send it in with the next batch of bills. As long as I'm back in business by Gaylaxicon, I should be okay since I'm hoping to take part in the BU rapid-fire reading there. Which I can't do, if I'm not a member.

Speaking of Gaylaxicon, as I mentioned I stopped by their booth at Pride and ran into Don Kaiser who told me that the Gaylaxian reading group was going to be reading and discussing MESSIAH NODE tonight at 7:00 pm at Turtle Bread (4762 Chicago Avenue, Minneapolis). I talked to Shawn, and I'm going to go. I'm not sure I remember MESSIAH NODE, but it might serve as inspiration for the prequel, as this is the most Mouse heavy book I wrote.

Anyway, somehow I ended up writing a small novel again. Wow, I must entertain myself.

A ton of things happened over the weekend, and most of them were a great deal of fun (even Mason's attempt to run away from home, but I'll get to that.)

As usual, I didn't spend a huge amount of time at the con. Since I'm local, I kind cheat. I drive in late morning/early afternoon (depending on my first panel) and usually skip out early, although this Friday I stayed wandering the halls/pool parties until well after midnight.

My very first panel was probably my best. It was "Tricks of the Trade: How to Publish and Not Perish" with Catherine Lundoff, Mark McLaughlin, me, and Pat Rothfuss. Ironically, Pat had just been complaining about how many of these writing panels involve a lot of people agreeing with him.

We didn't.

Almost all of us had some point of contention with everything Pat said. His first point was that all you needed to do was "write a good book," I jumped in right away with, "Actually, I disagree." Because, you know what? I wrote a good book. I wrote a book good enough to be published by Penguin USA. I wrote an national award-winning book. Where's that book now? Out of print. So, no, writing a good book does not mean that you will *not* perish.

But to his credit, Pat rolled with all the enthusiastic yelling and visual aids (it involved Mark's fingers, but not in the way you're probably thinking) very well. In fact, it was very much what I hope for on a panel. Everyone listened to each other pretty well. Everyone had something they were passionate about. We asked some tough questions, like, why do crappy books (you know the ones *cough*TWILIGHT*cough*) become run away bestsellers? We didn't really have a lot of concrete answers to those questions, but I do think we imparted a bit of wisdom about the publishing industry in amongst all the good-natured bickering.

Pat and I and Dave Hoffman-Dachelet and his wife Rachel and various other random folks ended up hanging out and just chatting in the hotel's bar until we finally wore Pat out some time around 11:30 pm. I was still wound up and ended up wandering the halls until I bumped into Robert Subiaga and ended up at Kruschenko's with Captain Kirk.

Speaking of which, dream come true or what? The first moment I stepped into CONvergence, who did I spy just hanging out in the hallway??? That's right: CAPTAIN AMERICA. I had to interrupt him to tell him that I so proud that he was defending America, I was a big fan, and, oh, congratulations on no longer being dead.

That was Friday.

Although earlier during the day, Mason ran away from home. He'd had enough, apparently, when Mama told him he could not have a cookie before diner (our rule is: "growing food first," which we got from our friends the Jacksons.) Anyway, for some reason this ticked off enough he decided to leave forever. He stormed out (well, of course, first he had to pull over the stool to unlatch the top "kitty airlock"), and then he took a piece of sidewalk chalk and wrote: "Good-bye" (exactly so without the quotation marks, but with the hyphen and the "e") at the top of the stairs and then...

... because he's not allowed to cross the street alone, he paced back and forth angrily on the sidewalk.

I'm sorry, Mason, but it was _so_ cute.

Eventually, he came back for diner. So it all worked out. (I love that kid.)

I showed his picture to pretty everyone at CONvergence, too. I'd been hoping to bring him to the con on Sunday because I know he would have FLIPPED to see all the superheroes he knows, the Jedi, Stormtroopers, Star Trek officers, etc. It would have made his day. But, there's always next year.

Saturday at the con was good, but nothing outstanding happened. I had the "Meet the Wyrdsmiths" panel, "Writer's Groups: The Secret to Success?", and the BroadUniverse Rapid Fire Reading. I ended up borrowing one of the New Wyrd chapbooks because I wanted to read from "Jawbone of the Ass" which is going to be coming out this year in SHE NAILED A STAKE THROUGH HIS HEAD edited by Tim Lieder, whom I got to meet on Friday (also making it extra especially cool.)

I had to skeedaddle early on Saturday because Shawn and Mason and I had plans to grill out and do all the traditional 4th of July stuff. We didn't want to go to the Taste of Minnesota and fight the crowds, so we had this brilliant idea to go to Mounds View Park across the river from Harriet Island to watch the show... with about a millon other people who all had the same brilliant idea. We didn't end up beating any crowds, but we did have an awesome view of the fireworks and Mason got to stay up very, very late which, for him, is almost better than pretty much anything.

In fact, he was all wound up after the fireworks that he asked if he could stay up "all night" reading. We said, "sure," thinking he'd pass out quickly... which is what we did. Somewhere around 3:00 am, I got up to go pee and I was like, "Mason?" He was still up reading. He'd finished reading the STAR WARS novelization and was nearly done with EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. I would have let him continue to stay up (I mean, what the hey?), but I thought he would be way too cranky in the morning... turns out we all over slept until almost noon. Which is something Shawn and I haven't done since we were sans enfant.

So Sunday was kind of a wash, except I did make a full chicken dinner with all the fixin's for dinner as well as a fine egg salad with dill for lunch... topped with some very expensive cheese from the new-to-our-neighborhood THE CHEESE SHOP. We got petite basque (a sheep's milk cheese, don't tell Shawn,) which was divine. And a lot of fun to get since I just walked in and told the women behind the counter what flavors I wanted it to go with and they let me taste a bunch of cheeses. I felt so French (in a good way.)

Okay, enough of this. I must off to writing.

Some of the things that I bought in our recent trip to HalfPrice Books were a few single-issues of “The Amazing Spider-Man” title, written by J. Michael Straczynski.

40 / 481 “Sensitive Issues”
42 / 483 “A Strange Turn of Events”
43 / 484 “Cold Arms”
44/ 485 “Arms and the Men”
45 / 486 “Until the Stars Turn Cold”

Which, by chance, is almost a complete story arc, and, as a bonus, I actually read an issue or two preceding so I knew that Aunt May had recently discovered Peter’s secret identity. I didn’t know, however, that Pete and Mary Jane had separated, so it took me a couple of issues to realize that she wasn’t just off in L.A. for a movie shoot, and that when Petey misses her (uh, because he’s in the astral plane at the time) at the airport it’s a REALLY BIG DEAL.

The superhero story involves a crazed entrepreneur who decides that it’d be cool to upgrade Doc Ock’s mechanical arms and, you know, rob banks and generally cause havoc. Octavius is tricked into giving over the arms by being offered a job as a consultant to a cybernetic research company or some such. Anyway, of course, even though he’s initially overcome, Doc Ock is able to get his arms back and start kicking his doppleganger’s a$$. This happens, for once, not in NYC, but LA (which turns out to be quite convenient.)

The soap opera (which is my favorite part) has to do with how awkward it is that Aunt May now knows and Mary Jane knows, but neither of them knows that the other one is in on the BIG secret. And, of course, Peter is trying to apologize for being in the astral plane when he should have been at the airport, but MJ is having none of it. She’s getting tired of being second on his “to do” list (even if number one *is* saving the world.) And, wouldn’t you know it? The movie she’s involved in is a superhero movie (Brad Pitt as “Lobster Man!!”) and her role is to play the first girlfriend who is killed by the bad guy and makes Wolverine, er, “Lobster Man” go feral and get stronger or whatever. This plot device allows MJ and her co-star to have a lot of revealing conversations about what it’s really like to be a super-hero’s girlfriend and what might motivate someone to BE a super-hero.

I love any comic that deals with the “reality” of being a hero, so I’m a sucker for this particular storyline. And, honestly, I’m beginning to realize that I’m a big fan of the way Straczynski writes Peter Parker/Spider-Man. He lets us explore some vaguely uncomfortable issues, like, at one point the Brad Pitt stand-in says to MJ that he thinks that the girlfriend of a super-hero is fooling herself if she thinks she’s anything other than a doormat, because, really, at the end of the day, he’s going to save the world, not hang out with the girl.

And, of course, that’s exactly what she’s dealing with.

That and I love that Aunt May hates that Peter is constantly in harm’s way… it made me hyper-aware that every punch landed was going to leave some kind of mark. We see him at one point putting on make-up to disguise a facial bruise, and, of course, May notices because those things are never good at real cover-up (heck, it doesn’t always do that good a job at hiding acne, which it’s supposed to!) And, that just gets my mind going, you know? How *does* he hide all his bruises from his students/colleagues at school? (Peter Parker, if you don’t know, now teaches high school science in the inner city. Apparently the benefits of being a freelance photographer for the “Bugle” sucked more than working for the New York City School District, which is almost hard to believe….) But, anyway, what must they think, that he’s in some kind of fight club or something? That MJ beats him up?

I suspect Stracznyski deals with that at some point. He seems to like teasing out these kinds of “what ifs” which is what makes him a writer after my own heart.

Even though this issues are WAY old, if you find them in collection I heartily recommend picking them up.

Also, I’d promised a review of sorts of “Outlander” the movie starring Jesus (from Mel Gibson’s film in Aramaic) as a space alien who lands in Norway in 700 A.D. and accidentally brings with him the last of a vengeful a alien species, who just happen to look a bit like mythological dragons. It’s “Alien” meets “Thirteenth Warrior.” And it’s kind of cool.

Boing-boing or Gizmoto (where Shawn first heard of it), I suspect made it seem much cooler than the reality, but there were several bits I enjoyed tremendously. First of all, the love interest (played by MJ Parker! No, although she was a fiery red-head,) kicks some serious butthocks. SPOILER! She actually kills both aliens, not the hero. And, speaking of “heroes” this guy isn’t typical. First of all, it becomes clear that his people in general, and him in specific, are responsible for genocide of the alien race that’s now trying to eat the humans. We get some pretty grizzly images of bulldozers shoving burnt alien bodies into gigantic mass graves. I thought at this point our sympathies were meant to be stretched, that maybe after this reveal, the hero would, you know, grow some morals and decide instead of mass slaughter, he’d make some kind of peace with the poor, oppressed aliens. Nope. Worse, the visuals we get imply that maybe alien #1 is (or was,) a pregnant female because suddenly a smaller alien appears on stage. And we kill them both.

The end.


But, you know, our hero falls in love and adopts an orphan, oh, and become king, so I guess it’s all good. I also thought that our hero would inject a little modern/alien thinking into Old Norse and let the heroine, who, in point of fact, saved her people, become the queen, but no, he totally accepts the badge of kingliness and rules happily ever after, I guess.

Maybe she liberates herself in the sequel. (No, there isn’t one.)

However, there’s a cool skiffy bit where, after our dude crash lands, we find out that Earth is an abandoned seed colony, which explains why he’s bipedal and presumably can intermix with the locals, as it were. Also, he doesn’t start out speaking English (or Old Norse, as the case may be.) There are subtitles (from alienish) at the beginning and then he’s injected with language skills Matrix-style, and then everyone speaks English. Which, you know, is enough hand-waving for me, honestly.

I’m not entirely sure I’d recommend it, but it’s cool for its genre: Viking/Space Aliens. It’s certainly something to be seen.

Yesterday, despite NOT being Mason's favorite parent, he and I went to the park. In the way of my little nerd, we brought along books to read. (New LEGOs catalogue arrived!!!) We started at Mirriam Park, but quickly discovered that it was empty and very cold. So, after a quick stop back home for sweaters and such we headed for the River Road (Saint Paul side.) By chance we ended up reading on a park bench right next to the Desnoyer Park extension (a little paved path that disappeared into the woods towards the Mississippi River.) After hanging out on the park bench just reading for a half hour or so, Mason decided he was up for a little adventure. So we checked out the extension path. It took us down to the river's edge where Mason spend several hours just finding large rocks to toss into the river. We watched some people on the opposite shore play with their dogs on a wide sandy beach, and then we followed the trail awhile until Mason found some easily climbed sandstone cliffs and including one weird little crevass that in a horror film would have housed some giant trapdoor spider, but as it was, was a great place to slip and climb in the white sand.

Mason soon declared this was "the best day ever." So, while I might not be the parent du jour, I get to share the very best days with him. I decided that was a pretty good deal after all. :-)

He's aggitating to go back to the River Road today, and we may do that, although we have a new LEGO Star Wars game at home to figure out. Mason joined Half Price Books' Summer Reading Program, wherein if you read at least 15 minutes a day for seven days a week you get a $3.00 coupon to use at the store. Mason exchanged three weeks worth of reading yesterday and bought the game, a sticker book, a Marvel All Ages "Fantastic Four" graphic novel, and, of course, Mommie and I bought a ton of stuff (although Mama sighed and said that nothing compares to Uncles and we'll just have to make time to get over there before her next business trip to Seattle in the next week.)

Anyway, we're hanging out at the coffee shop right now and I think Mason is at the end of his patience for sittin' and reading, so I may have to keep things short.

Here's my CONvergence schedule:

Friday July 3


7:00 PM: Tricks of the Trade: How to Publish and Not Perish


Saturday July 4


11:00 AM: Lyda Morehouse Signing

12:30 PM: Meet the Wyrdsmiths

2:00 PM: Writers Groups: The Secret to Success in Fiction?

3:30 PM: Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading


Oh, and hey, we have a Senator. Whoot!

Driftless Organics rules.

First, I'm incredibly happy that we decided to do the half-share, although given the quality and variety of things we're getting, we might consider upping to full next year. I just finished the last of the spinach from our first box. A few days ago the potatoes were starting to look ready to sprout, so I quick made up a big pot of mashed potatoes for dinner and then made the rest into kattofel knepfla (potato dumplings, a traditional German dish.) The recipie is a bit nit-picky, but the results are worth it. Especially fried in bacon fat. Yum.

The only item I have left is one green garlic bulb. I had a bit of trouble knowing how to use the green garlic. We make tons of recipies with garlic, but the green garlic isn't quite the same as traditional so... but I did manage to use it mostly up.

But, check this. Get a load of what we're getting next (with any luck. They can't 100% promise):

All Red Potatoes
Broccoli
Chard
Cilantro
Fennel (only one bulb - sorry...)
Garlic Scapes
Green Zucchini
Parsley
Snap Peas
Snow Peas
Strawberries
Yellow Summer Squash

No one in my family is particularly fond of cilantro or fennel (I know, we're complete rubes, with unsophisticated taste,) but strawberries!!??? Whoot! Holy happy eating, Batman!

Like, this is all real food. No bok choy! (No offense, Ger... but I STILL don't quite know what to do with it.)

In other news, Shawn got "Outlander" from Netflix over the weekend. It stars the guy who played Jesus in Mel Gibson's Aramaic film, and can best be described as "Vikings versus space aliens." Shawn read a rave review on Boing-Boing or Gizmoto or one of those cool geek sites, but I have to say it was surprisingly entertaining. Next up? A Norwegian film (in Norwegian) with zombie Nazis. Whoot!

When I have more time I may write a review of "Outlander." The squish morality in it is kind of fascinating.

Also, Mason is home for the week. No, he's not sick again, this is just one of those random weeks off at the year-round school has. Of course, Mason and I planned to go hiking and swimming and it must be sixty degrees outside! (15 C to our internatoinal friends.) It's light jacket weather! Very strange for nearly the first week in July. July is traditionally one of the hotest months. Mason was born in July, on a day in the 90s (32 C.)

I stopped by Pride for a few minutes on Saturday (the not-as-incredibly perfect weather day), and wandered around a bit. Honestly, normally I skip Pride. Shawn hates crowds to the point where she faints if it gets too busy, and Mason isn't really quite old enough to care terribly much (plus there are still the ocassional "Oh My!" bits out there, which I think he could probably wait to see.) I went because True Colors (formerly Amazon bookstore) asked me to stop by and sign stock, which I did. I like them, so even though I had to park a million miles away and hoof it in, I did.

This weekend I'll be at CONvergence. We were going to go to our friends' cabin, but with the convention it's a bit too much driving for me. I'm bummed because Siren supposedly has some awesome small town 4th celebrations, although I'd miss most of them anyway thanks to the convention. Anyway, when I remember I'll hop over to their site and grab my schedule. It's nothing spectacular, but if you're there and want to find me that's where I'll be.

Otherwise, I'm sort of feeling down. The cold gray weather? Or the fact that, out of the blue (not precipitated by a fight) Mason casually said, "You know what I've been thinking? I like Mama better." Okay, I know he's just a five year old, and he doesn't mean it to hurt me, but WTF? And then he says, "Hey, let's go to the park! You can chase me!" and wonders why I look at him like he's a space alien (and not the fun kind that Vikings hunt.) I did explain to him that even if you feel a certain way, you don't always have to tell people. Especially if you think what you have to say might hurr their feelings. This never occurred to him. (However, this isn't the first time he's told me he prefers his mama.)

Anyway, I'm off to the park! To chase Mason! Whoot.

So I (as Tate) posted a very similar "whine" over at MySpace about the article on self-promotion/author websites that I did here, except I asked my blog readers what they were looking for in a MySpace blog. Did they want more content? Did want contests? That sort of thing.

For one, I got a response. Relatively large response, too, give how little traffic the MySpace blog usually logs. Maybe six people answered, and they all pretty much said the same thing: "Nah, don't work that hard. We kind of like hearing about the weather."

First of all... there are still people on MySpace? Actually, I knew there were. Tate has more MySpace friends, and I have more Facebook friends. I'm not sure what that really means, other than the fact that once I realized that, I started making sure I put up new MySpace content more for Tate. The Lyda MySpace page is really pretty static. Both Tate and Lyda are fairly active on FB. I talk myself, if nothing else.

Anyway, I found that fairly fascinting. It continues to prove my point that what *I* think readers really want from an author's website or blog is just a chance to see who they really are... you know, sneak a peek into their daily life (which is why cat/dog/pet pictures are popular). I know that when *I* google a new favorite author that's part of what I'm looking for. I usually also want to know what else they've written, where I can buy it, and if they have any short stories squirreled away in anthologies I've never heard of... so I can run off and get those too. (Sometimes, admittedly, I google other authors just to see how they've designed their web site an if they seem cooler than me, and if so, by how much.)

But that's just because I'm totally unprofessional like that. Speaking of articles that made me sit up an take stock, kellymccullough posted this link on Wyrdsmiths to Lilith Saintcrow's blog, and now I'm paranoid that I'm totally "Z." (Okay, not really, but as I said over at my Tate blog, I can completely understand the impluse that produces "Z." I've handed out my share of business cards. I think I'm awfully cool and usually have no compulsion about sharing that fact with everyone I meet.)

Anwyay, I need to eat. My folks are coming up from LaCrosse today in order to take part in "grandparents' day" at Mason's school tomorrow morning. I've mowed and tidied up, but if I don't get food into myself I'll be more of a babbling idiot with them than usual...

Hey, salad anyone?

So, I'm feeling a bit nobody-loves-me whiny today afer reading this aritcle via davidlevine because I suck (in my Tate persona) at the whole contest, games, downloadable extra thing. And, of course, my Lyda Morehouse website is, and has always been full of that sort of thing, since its inception and it did NOT help my books stay in print at all. Which goes to show you that, really, not much helps when it comes to self-promotion. I have hardly lifted a finger to promote Tate, and she's wildly out-sold anything I did under my own name.

This makes me weirdly grumpy.

I'm jealous of myself.

However, I did find this bit of information kind of telling in a way that the article doesn't really explore: "[Stephanie Meyer of "Twilight" fame, whose website is currently the most visited of any of the fiction authors they studied,] [has] got a daily blog, and more than any other site in our study, she has links to fan sites. Fan site links appear to contribute to loyal audience traffic."

Of course, this is NEWS to the publishing industry. The rest of us say, "Duh."

It also amused me that the authors of this article appeared surprised that people liked seeing pictuers of Sue Grafton's cats. To which I also say, "where have you people been? This is like internet 101."

Anyway, enough of that. I could probably rant about the publishing industry until my head exploded, and then where would I be? I have no brain and a lot of cleaning up to do. We can't have that, now can we?

Yesterday I wrote about 1,000 words on Tate's young adult series, which (if I may complain just a BIT more) flipping writes itself. I mean, seriously. I sit down with the laptop and an hour later I have a whole chapter. It's insane. And more than a little frustrating (see above and the being jealous of your own alter ego). Meanwhile, I'm still trying to decide what I want to do with the Mouse prequel. I like my do-over, but I'm still lacking direction. Alas, even when it sucks, my writers group perfers the Mouse stuff because it's at least science fiction, even if it's BAD science fiction....

In food news, my friend Barb came over with some of their CSA extras, so now we're well stocked on greens and radishes again. Hmmmm, a salad for lunch anyone?? Mason and I decided to be mischevious last night and we went out to dinner at the Chinese buffet on University Avenue that's just about four blocks from our house. Despite the crushing heat (and few measily drops of rain), we walked, which was actually surprisingly pleasant. Then seanmmurphy stopped by for an evening chat on the porch, which was lovely (although Mason had a hard time putting himself to sleep, and didn't end up in bed until almost 10 pm, which is astoundingly late for him on a school night.) Still, we slept in until almost 8 am this morning since we didn't have to talk mama to work, and so I think it mostly evened out.

Despite Shawn being in D.C. I managed to remember to pack Mason's lunch AND give him is backpack, which I think is pretty amazing. Then, I went to work out, though I did forget my cell phone at home, but I remembered to write down my first ten random .mp3 songs to share on a Facebook meme sent to me by John Jackson. Keep in mind these are my work out .mp3s, so they're mostly stuff I chose because it's "dancable."

1. "Hands Clean" by Alanis Morisette
2. "One Reason" by Tracy Chapman
3. "Stray Cat Strut" by the Stray Cats
4. "Breakfast at Tiffany's" by Deep Blue Something
5. "Dragula" by Rob Zombie
6. "Rack 'em Up" by Johnny Lang
7. "Silent Legacy" by Melissa Etheridge
8. "Bang Go the Bells" by Babylon A.D.
9. "Paved Paradise" remix by Counting Crows
10. "Tangled, Tortured Hearts" by the Dixie Chicks

I have another list of music that's on my more extended .mp3 player that probably much more accurately expresses the horrible, yet ecclectic musical taste I have, and it goes like this:

1. "Angola Bound" by Aaron Neville
2. "They Can't Take That Away from Me" by Billie Holliday
3. "Captain of the Nightengale" by Stan Rogers
4. "Suds in the Bucket" by Sara Evans
5. "December" by George Winston
6. "Pour Me" by Trick Pony
7. "Belfast Town" by Irish Anon
8. "Hunger Strike" by Temple of the Dog
9. "Goodbye Again" by John Denver
10. "Mrs. Steven Rudy" by Rascal Flats

Uh, yeah. That me.

...You were a good fish (although very beleaguered.)

It is my sad duty to inform you all that Typhoid Mary, our one remaining tetra in the five gallon tank who bravely survived (for several weeks) the attack of the moldy, zombie horde, died yesterday of an unknown cause. She will be missed by family and friends. She leaves behind no next of kin (see zombie horde of the molding eyeball fame....eeeewww). A "seaside" memorial service was held. Mason Rounds officiating.

Gucci, gucci, you were a good fish.

After a short period of mourning (seriously, I only just turned off the heater), I plan to break down the five gallon tank and throw it out. Given that it started life as a hospital tank, and then housed several very strange and tenacious illnesses, I think there is no amount of bleach in the world that can rescue this tank. On a more positive note, Shawn says that when more writing money arrives I can get a new tank... which does get me kind of excited. I've long wanted to try a biotrope (?) tank... you know, the kind that has an environment exactly like the Amazon river basin or some such. It's probably too complicated for me, but I have a book that tells me how to do it. Fear me! Fish nerd armed with book!

In other news, I broke down and bought a vegetable today. I know! Look, all that's left of the CSA box is some spinach, arugala and potatos. Whole Foods had corn on sale. Yes, it came from Georgia or some other far off place, but it looked so... yummy. I only bought two ears, though, since Shawn is off on her business trip to Washington, D.C.

Okay, I'm sweating now. Time to retreat into the air-conditioned bedroom.

Right now I'm suffering from a bad sun burn. On Saturday, the family and I went up to Siren, Wisconsin to hang out for the day at our friends' cabin. We had originally planned to go for the whole weekend, but Shawn is off for a business trip to D.C. and didn't want the hassle of packing/unpacking/repacking. (Travel generally makes Shawn nervous. VERY nervous.) So our compromise (I really, really wanted to go) was that we'd head up just for the day. No packing invovled. Of course, Shawn still managed to pack several bags, but, for her, it was pretty restrained, only the swim bag and a change of clothes... oh, and the "bathroom bag" just in case.

Mason and I had a great time kiyaking back and forth across the lake: we did it twice, actually. There's a public beach almost directly across from their cabin, so we kiyaked over so Mason could play on the playground equipment and, weirdly, on the beach. I kept saying to him: "You know, we have private beach just over there." But my little Leo is very social and he really just liked being in the water with other happy, screaming kids... even though they were strangers.

We didn't do anything official for Summer Soltace, although I think getting sun burned is a fine tradition on a solar holiday.

We came back to discover that one of the filters on the tank in the thirty gallon tank quit working. Luckily, I have a smaller back-up filter that continued humming along, so I just left it until this morning when I ungummed the works and got it going again. We have a lot of java moss in that tank and the filter sucks it up on a regular basis... well, enough had gotten wound around the spinner/motor that it completely stopped turning. Anyway, the point is it's going again and I think the fish are MUCH happier. They're goldfish, after all, and they produce copious amounts of waste.

In other news, Mason has some serious garden magic. I told you we started a patch of a "Victory Garden" rather late in the season a week or so ago? Well, everything has come up, even the corn. The amazing this is that I did almost nothing to prepare the soil. I just turned over sod and left it for a couple of days. I didn't even really remove or break up much of the sod. Any seed that Mason touched has totally sprouted. To the point that I'm going to have to thin the rows already if we want anything to actually mature. He's got carrrots, radishes, peas, corn, sunflowers, and watermelon all growing like weeds. In my garden? Real weeds and not much else.

My mother is a good gardener, and I'm beginning to believe the green thumb must skip a generation.

Our CSA box is almost depleted thanks to Shawn's desire to have my "faux restaurant-style salad" for dinner last night. I make it a kind of big meal by adding a grilled bit of chicken (usually cajun spiced) on top, along with a sliced hard-boiled egg. But we snarfed up most of the head of buttercrunch lettuce, some of the green (actually purple) onions, spinach and arugala. All our radishes are eaten, as is the kohlrabi.

We still have a ton of potatoes, though, and one head of brocoli (which I think I may cook up for lunch.) But this is just right for us. Not a lot of waste, and we won't be getting another box for another whole week. (I was REALLY worried about getting more than we could handle, so this is wonderful.)

After lunch here, I'm off to write in the one air-conditioned room in the house. This year, Shawn and I decided (ahead of time, for once!) to put the air-conditioner into our bedroom. Unlike Mason's room, where it has been in the past, it's actually big enough to sleep three in an emergency. Plus, there's a good outlet in there so I can write. If only the big computer with internet connection fit in that room too!

Hope you're all well, and happy New Moon.

We got our first box of CSA veggies yesterday, and I just ate half a kohlrabi. They are AWESOME raw. Thanks to dddragonlady for the encouragement to try it raw with a little salt. At the risk of a vegetable version of "it tastes like chicken," kohlrabi in my personal opinion tastes very much like a raddish. It has a very peppery bite, a watery crunch, and just hint of its cabbage family origins. The only good advice I read before chopping it up was to remove its skin/casing. It's not easy to figure out where the edge/rind/casing ends, but if you eat it raw the casing-bits are really tough and hard to chew (I accidentally missed a little, so I now have personal experience with that.) I just sliced mine in half and pared the tough outside off with a sharp knife. I also saved the greens because they're edible and can be prepared ala mustard greens and other Southern delights.

Also, I am extremely pleased which our choice of Driftless Organics. We get a box that was intended for a "couple" and which comes only every other week. I think the amount of veggies we got is very manageable on that schedule. The other nice thing is that Driftless washes and bags a lot of the various greens and whatnot. Our spinich and arugala came in lovely little baggies all ready to just pull out and toss on a salad. The head of buttercrunch lettuce needed a bit of washing, particularly at the crown where dirt settled, but I always wash salad stuff anyway. The potaotes also came in a small bag, and look lovely. The two head of brocolli is just about one more than I normally would buy for a two week grocery run, but Mason actually adores brocolli cooked and raw, so I suspect we'll be able to eat that up in no time.

I did make a culinary mistake last night, as I did not properly identify the green garlic, which I mistook for green onion. Thus our chicken/cheese flautas were a bit on the garlicky side, but actually still pretty tolerable. Now that I've conquered kohlrabi, I'm going to have to do a bit of research into how to use green garlic, which obviously I can't even pick out of a veggie line-up, as it were. I think I was thrown because the farmers list of possilbe box contents included both green garlic and green onions (which in our case are actually purple), and I think that threw me. I thought the purple things must be the garlics and the white bulby ones the onions. Nope. Other way round!

But there was only a single, solitary kohlrabi, which is now already half eaten... so I doubt I will need any elaborate recipies to get rid of it. And, like I said, the fact that everything came in such managable sizes and containers, I'm right pleased.

I really need to get writing now, though, as I allowed myself to be distracted this morning by a bit of astrology. I signed up for an on-line study group for astrology, and the instructor posted everyone's charts. I totally had to go find out what kind of weirdos I was sharing the class with! (Actually, they're not all that, but I am the only Scorpio and probably the only one with that kind of I-could-totally-dominate-you-while-stabbing-you-in-the-back attitude. They're probably all at home looking at my chart thinking: eek!)

Anyway, we almost had to cancel plans to head up to our friends' cabin in Wisconsin because Shawn has an unexpected business trip to D.C. on Tuesday, but we're hoping to get up there for a day-trip at least. I'm going to bring my laptop (and my astrology books! and maybe some kohlrabi!!)

We got a note from Mason's school on Thursday reporting that some kids had come down with something that might have been Swine Flu... well, wouldn't you know it? Friday night Mason is sick with ALL the Swine Flu symptoms: headache, chills, fever, cough, sore throat and fatigue. So, even though he has recovered very quickly, he will be spending the next five days home with me. And, any of you who hung out with me (or Mason) over the past few days... check your symptoms!! And stay home if you need to!!!!

In other, much more fun news, on Saturday, I went to a car auction and we bought a new car!! It's a 2002 Ford Taurus, blue, flexible fuel, with an amazing 76,000 miles on it (which is sublooper* for us. We rarely get used cars with less than 100K.) The price was right within our price range (and if I am a carrier of Swine Flu a zillon people were infected by me.) Actually, according to Steve, the guy I went with, it was actually not very crowded for a car auction. The auction part was very exciting. There was a professional auctioneer and crowd "handlers" and everything. I got kind of wound up during the bidding although Steve and I had strategized about when and how to stop bidding. We were going to stop at a certain price, which I did, and the car seemed to go to two people who were tied. The auctoneer decided to open the bidding up again, and one guy dropped out. I raised the pice spontaneously (by $100) and the other guy bailed. Sold! To number 16! Ack, me??? Yes, me!!!

It's a great little car, though. If Mason wasn't axious for me to get playing som Insanaquarium I'd tell you all about it. The most exciting thing is that we are actually replacing our old Taurus before it dies. Something we've NEVER done before. I feel so grown up.

------

* Subplooper is Mason's new word, which he describes as follows: "Adjective, super-dooper."

Last night at Wyrdsmiths, the reception of my newest re-vision of the prequel was met with a resounding, "Uhm." My favorite part was when Eleanor declined to critique it until she'd heard whether or not everyone else was going to completely trash it. After Bill made happy noises that I was at least making progress, Eleanor decided "well, if Bill likes it, it's probably okay."

Wow.

So this morning I am starting again.

I have no fraking idea why I am struggling so much to write this book. I decided, however, that I'm still missing essential Mouse-ness somehow, and have decided to riff on an off-handed suggestion last night to write a short story about this article (forwarded to me originally by naomikritzer) that had inspired one of Page's footnotes (which were too long, too many, and not funny enough. *sigh*).

The book now starts like this:

"You know you're living in a true sh*t-hole when the army won't even send real soldiers. Drones they call 'em. Mohammad and I call 'em "parts."
Here comes another one now. It rolls smoothly on the wavy, shifting sand dunes that fill the narrow roadway between the crumbling buildings and half-buried stalls. Its motor chatters as it pings and ticks and whirs to itself, like the mutterings of an old, lost soul in this ghostly marketplace."

That has more something... more *je ne sais pas.* I think it will eventually lead me back some places I'd been before, but I need to see them all again with fresh, science fictional eyes.

I've been depressed all morning, though I did sit and compose a bit of the new stuff out in the backyard (horray for laptop batteries and outlets in the garage). The sun on my skin felt great and I was visited by a mangy, calico cat who sat and watched me suspiciously for several moments before rubbing her scent glands against the picnic table just to let me know it was hers. Later a squrriel buried a few nuts or seeds or just randomly dug holes like they're wont to do, and a juvenile robin sat on Mason's jungle gym before fluttering off to greener pastures, no doubt.

I really kind of want to give in to my cravings for a Coke or some chocolate, but I went to the gym this morning and realize that it would take more than thirty minutes on the eliptical to sweat off that one can of Coke. Bleah. Perhaps tonight I will drink too much Mike's Hard Lemonade and watch more of "The Closer." Although Shawn's friend Liz is coming over for homemade pizza -- the dough is rising even now, which should be fun, and distracting from my writing woes.

Well, nose to the grindstone. I may write a bit of Tate's YA, since that practically writes itself at breakneck speeds.

*double sigh*

You can all be offically jealous of my lay-about lifestyle now. I just spent the past two hours sitting outside in the backyard writing.

Yeah, it *was* awesome.

I haven't done the dishes or anything. The only thing I did was that when I felt the old I'm-writing-restlessness come on, I got up and pulled a few weeds and planted a couple of terra cotta pots as toad houses. (I loved toads a child, and would love to encourage them to hang out in my backyard. I haven't seen many in the Twin Cities, though.)

Now that I've come inside, I'm all irritated. Some days it really doesn't pay to check the internets. It just makes me cranky.

But I should go have something for lunch now, before I get wobbly and irritated. I'm thinking about making myself something with eggs and possibly spinach because the day is yet young. Mason challenged me to write 3,000 words today, and, after school, we're all headed to Como Town because they're having free rides at the amusement park between 4:00 pm and 8:00 pm. We're taking Mason's best buddy (this year, at least,) and meeting up with his Mom afterwards for hot dogs. Then, unless it is cancelled for lack of interest (or profound irritation), there's supposed to be Wyrdsmiths' meeting tonight.

Speaking of writers, I really regret not going to the Yeti Birthday Party meeting last night. On Wednesday nights, I have a scheduled chat with one of the mentors from my Witch School. At one point I considered heading over to Yeti afterward, but Shawn talked me into staying home for whoopie. My mentor forgot about it, and so I shot her a quick email hoping she'd see it and pop over. I ended up waiting around in a chat room (talk about feeling like a loser!) for a half hour, and then gave up. Shawn and I had planned a little "The Closer" and then into the whoopie, after Mason went to sleep, but, thanks to some crossed wires on my part, Mason didn't end up asleep until late. We ended up watching TV and very little whoopie was had, although I did kick some serious butt on "Bejeweled" and topped my all-time high score. (Yes, I was sublimating. Why do you ask?)

Still, I'd been particularly craving the company of smart, witty, funny people earlier that day and I'm sure I would have been more than satisfied in that regard at Yeti had I only gone.

All well. Perhaps next month.

...cuz I'm trying to write.

Had one of my "you forgot to go to the convention" dreams last night. I have a LOT of reoccurring dreams. My mind seems a bit lazy, honestly. I reuse set peices, houses, and other dream scenery. But I have this particular dream often, and it goes like this: I'm at a convention party late in the evening, Sunday, the last day of the con. I realize two things: 1) I never registered and 2) when I go find registration, I get the list of panels that I completely missed. Usually, there is one that is just about to end, and I spend the rest of the dream trying to figure out where in the hotel the room is that this panel is supposed to be.

This is really just a riff on my "you have one more class in high school / college to take / teach and it's a month into the semester, you can't find your locker, class list, class room, etc."

I actually took an on-line course on dreams, and I was disappointed in the information about reoccurring dreams (there was almost none). I have a zillion of them, and when I poll people I know many people have similar ones.

Anyway, back to work!

Do you ever wonder if the Universe protects you when you're about to say/do something stupid (or possibly offensive)? I was all set to type something rather racey into my FB status line when my pathetic excuse for an internet provider crashed. (What the frak good is "local only" when you're dialing up???) Anyway, the moment it took to reconnect gave me the pause for introspection enough to change the wording enough to be more vague.... and safer.

Thank you, Universe. I owe ya one.

I don't really have much else to report. Mason's trip to the planetarium was a big success. Apparently, the instructor who did the show was HI-larious. Mason repeated his jokes several times during the evening, though I'm still not entirely sure what they accually learned. I asked Mason, "So did he show you all the planets?" And I got, "No, ima, we painted the sky." Huh? But then, talking to a five (almost six) year old is often like that (which is secretly why I love going along on the field trips... so I know what was supposed to have been the point of the thing.)

In other exciting news, we've gotten word that our first CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) box should be arriving next week. They sent along a list of things that might be included, such as.... (drum roll, please)... kolrabi. Yeah, I had a vague memory of my grandmother making something with kolrabi, but I had to look it up too. Kolrabi is apparently more favored by Germans than Americans, and was described as a turnip with a cabbage-y taste. It's apparently quite tasty raw, if you get young ones (which I presume these will be, as it's quite early in the season for kolrabi.) You can also eat the greens. But finding recipies has been a challenge. Luckily, Shawn's family is German in heritage (actually Germans from Russia, but they still eat kolrabi and that's the point!) so we had a German cookbook (in English) wherein I found four or five recipies that included kolrabi.

But if any of you have good advice about the usage of kolrabi, I'd love to hear it. The rest of the stuff I know what to do with. I think we're expecting radishes, spiniach, arugla, and... something else that didn't particularly scare me, but I can't remember any more.

Anyway, that's the excitement around here. (I know, my life is utterly fascinating, yes?)

I don't know if you noticed, but it's Monday. I woke up in a foul mood today, and was very snippy with my family. I'd blame the weather, but I actually like cold, rainy, dark days and God/dess knows we need the moisture. Though the weather might have a little to do with it because for the first time in a long, long time the sound of thunder woke me up last night. At first I didn't know what it was, then it rolled again and I was like, "Oh, okay, nothing fell. It's just a boom of thunder." I slept rather fitfully, and Mason called for "snugoooos" (snuggles) not long after.

Despite the dreariness, I went outside this morning and dug up the spot for Mason's garden. I know it's late in the season, but Mason really wants to try a Victory garden this year. He's got a number of veggie seeds: corn, peas, beans, carrots and tomatoes (which I doubt we'll plant, because no one in this entire house LIKES tomatoes and it's FAR too late to expect them to grow.) And some flowers: zinnias and sunflowers. Anyway, the ground can wait for him and the weather now, as I put some garden fabric over the top to keep the weeds mostly out.

My big plans for the day is to make some tea and strain the soup stock I made from the left over chicken bits from last night's impromptu feast. We'd planned to make a whole chicken, but to it I added brussel sprouts with almonds, mashed potatoes, homemade french bread, and lots of gravy. I also made a fresh cherry pie, although I have to say that apparently Betty Crocker really likes cherry pie to taste like merischino (sp?) cherries. Not my favorite, but not too bad hot from the oven with enough cool whip.

Oh, and I'll be writing, too. I got the first chapter of Tate's young adult novel done, though I think it's lacking one scene, which I'm going to put in today. Then it's on to chapter two and hopefully some Mouse later today. Fingers crossed. I think some tea will help get me in the mood on this dark day.

Also, Mason is off on a field trip without me (gasp!). They're going to the planetarium today. Should be fun. I can't wait to hear all about it.

It's finally raining here in Saint Paul. It started early this morning and has been soaking us non-stop all day. We need it badly, though it meant that there was no "bouncy house" at the birtday party Mason attending this afternoon for a school friend. Mason, of course, asked after it in his very precocious way and informed me that, "it most assuredly will be here next year."

The party was a lot of fun, despite the fact that it was regulated to the indoors. The mom had crafts ready, and they have a relatively newer house with a finished basement for the kids to roam around in (as well as exciting toys, like marble puzzles, as well as board games of all sorts.) Mason had an awesome time. I only feel a bit bad because we got his friend a series of books he already had the first five of, and now I can't find the reciept for them to make an exchange.

Last night Shawn and I finally watched "Life Without People." I had no idea David Brin was one of the commenters in that! And, secondly, it's the kind of movie I've been thinking about a lot afterwards. I keep looking around thinking, "Huh, how long would it take for THAT to be overgrown." The movie did wonders for my sense of my own gardening skills, however. Clearly, the fact that my garden is recognizable as intentional at ALL is a major testimony to my abilities. And, when things get overgrown I'm just going to say, "Look, it's an experiement in 'Life without People.' I'm returning things to their natural state."

I do see how they could make a miniseries out of the idea though. I had a lot of unanswered questions, myself. They made the whole "and then the animals return and the entire ecosystem rebounds" idea seem like good grounds to promote genocide, yet, only in one instance, did they talk about invasive species and their effect. (In the movie it was some kind of foreign muscle that cogs the Hoover dams cooling pipes.) But, I was thinking: what about all the work the DNR does to keep native species healthy and not overrun by invasive aliens, as it were? I mean, it's great that the wolf and deer population would boom, but wouldn't the purple loosestrife boom too? And what of the one butterfly that lives only on wild lupine that tons of gardeners in the Upper Midwest intentionally plant (and cultivate, etc.) in their gardens? I think that the documentary director/writers focused way more on how much better earth would be without us (which I can agree with, for the most part,) but at the expense of full-picture-ness, I think.

Also, I'm totally craving the next disc for "The Closer" (a cable TV show starring Kyra Segwick a.ka. Mrs. Kevin Bacon, that's really just a jazzed up police procedural for a quirky priority homocide team in Los Angeles, but which is surprisingly addictive.)

Mason right now is reading, even though it's past his bedtime. He's getting one of those nights where he can stay up as long as he likes as long as he's reading. I stopped in at HalfPrice Books to get the present for his friend's birthday today, and they had a summer reading promotional called "Feed Your Brain." If kids log in at least fifteen minutes a day reading every day, they're eligible for a $3.00 coupon. Mason has decided this is a challenge to read as much as humanly possible.

Who am I to dissude him?

I'm going to log-off now and see what other Netflix we have around the house and try to convince Shawn it's time for popcorn and a movie.

I'm not the sort to feel general uneasiness, but today is starting out strange and somewhat... je ne sais quois.

The first odd thing that happened this morning was that when Shawn, Mason and I headed to the car to begin the various trips to work and school, we discovered our neighbor's tree completely toppled. At first I thought: Holy shit! It's so dry the trees are just falling over! This is not as crazy/stupid a thought as you might initially think. When it was really windy here the other week, another neighbor's boulevard tree snapped in half, weakened by the drought. (These are small trees, not fully grown ones.) Anyway, upon closer inspection the tree seems to have been half sawed and then broken. Which then led us to wonder: Why? By whom? And to what end? (And, being the neighborhood busybodies that we are: who the frak is going to clean it up???)

Shawn is on that last one. She's emailing the city people probably even as I type.

The other odd bits actually occurred last night (as probably did the tree vandalism/accident). One: our cat Apollo, who died several years ago, seems to have returned in ghost form. 'Pollo was never very bright, nor could he see very well, both of which made him very sweet and endeared him to us forever. But, on thing he used to do in the middle of the night was stand on the landing and make a very distinctive meow that we always took to be him saying: "Hey! Hey, are you guys here???" To which we always responded, "We're [fill in the blank, i.e., in the TV room, bedroom, etc.]" Last night (and not for the first time, either,) I swear I heard 'Pollo. We have another talker in the house, Mr. Inky, but his meows are very different (plus, no offense to 'Pollo, but Inky is smarter... if he wants us, he jumps on the bed and meows in our ears.) Often, too, Inky sleeps at my feet. Anyway, I heard 'Pollo last night and I muttered, "We're upstairs, 'Pollo!" and, just like 'Pollo always used to do I hear a sort of "Murph" (his "okay, then") and then silence. Just like 'Pollo always used to do.

Very odd.

Also, it was a restless night, in general. I'd had too much caffeine at Wyrdsmiths and was stimulated by all the interesting people, conversation, writing, etc., and wasn't exactly sleeping soundly (what, with 'Pollo) and, apparently, neither was Shawn. Shawn has always been a sleep talker. I have a ton of funny (and sweet) stories of the things she's said and done while competely and totally asleep. Normally, I listen in and take notes to tell her about what strange (and/or wonderful) things her subconscious does at night when she's not paying attention. Last night I was so tired/wired, that all I noticed was that she was sitting bolt upright in bed and talking up a STORM. I just yelled out (not unlike with 'Pollo) "Honey, you're talking. Go to sleep." Which she did, only to pop up later and start talking again.

Weird night.

Plus, I think I had dreams that involved being in Cairo again, running from someone or something. I don't really know.

Today I'm feeling just sort of out of sorts and I don't much feel like doing anything other than gardening and napping, despite all my book deadlines and the fact that Shawn and I are going to go grocery shopping in about ten minutes.

Sigh.