Bits and Pieces

Did you ever stay up late, then oversleep the next morning, and then you wake up, look at the clock, but before you can say "OMG" you realize you absolutely positively have to get to the bathroom or else, and then while you're in there, the phone rings, and they don't leave a message, so then you wonder who the hell called you at that precisely inconvenient moment in time instead of earlier, when you needed to be awakened and weren't in the bathroom? Me neither.
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I'm glad I'm married to a man who, while we're stopping by the store for ice cream cones, will pick up a package of little catnip mousie toys, then come home and gleefully hide them all around the house for Katycat to find on her nightly hunt.

And who also makes Bluebell Homemade Vanilla ice cream cones for us every night.
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Are you going to watch Bush tonight? Me neither.
Actually, I'm going to get the details later on CNN and then email Senator Cornyn (Tex.), who was on CNN yesterday trying to sound supportive of Bush's plan even though he admitted it was a long shot. (That's a gambling term, only he's gambling with lives.)
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Tomcat and I choose a book every once in while to read together, and this time it was Hannibal Rising, Thomas Harris' prequel to Silence of the Lambs. It was excellent, as one would expect from Harris. One of the members of my writers' group has a wonderfully evil character in the novel he's writing, and last week we critiqued a chapter which delved into the character's childhood. I mentioned to him that he might want to read Hannibal Rising for comparison. We all had an interesting discussion about whether a chapter like this was even necessary. One member said that kind of evil cannot be justified. But I don't think either my critique group friend or Thomas Harris was trying to "justify" their characters' action. It was just interesting to read about the events that led the characters to express their inherent evil in a certain way. ("Evil" meaning "sociopathy.")
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My friend Grace, the artist's, daughter turned 14 yesterday. This is not happening. She is wearing makeup. She has her hair highlighted with red and yellow. Red and yellow as in primary colors red and yellow. That's because her father won't let her get blue and purple highlights. This is not happening, either, because in our g-g-g-generation, hair was a huge issue that we used to upset our parents, and now this man is saying okay to red and yellow, but getting upset and putting his foot down at blue and purple. Dear Boomers, don't you remember what we all used to say? IT'S JUST HAIR! But then, as someone once pointed out (I don't remember who), if you remember the 60s, you weren't really there.
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That's all for now. Oh, if you ever call me and don't get an answer? Leave a frickin message already.

When in doubt, kill someone

I'm enjoying our writers' group so much. This week, I didn't submit anything on my WIP, Gino's Law, because everything I've written on it so far has already been critiqued. Instead, I brought my blueprint, which is a 36" x 28" piece of brown drycleaners' paper with the three-act story mapped out in pencil, complete with the turning points and a timeline at the bottom.

I'm just past the Midpoint, and I've hit a wall. The scenes I had planned for this part of the story don't seem very exciting, and I suppose that's why I've been doing everything I can to avoid writing them - you know, like organizing dresser drawers, working a jigsaw puzzle, and surfing.

When I unrolled the blueprint and asked for help, the immediate response from one member was "Kill another character." Another person said, "Have Gino set a trap for the killer." And another's suggestion was to have Gino accidentally kill someone while he's trying to find out who set him up for murder." God, I love these people.

Um, ?

Miers resigns as White House counsel

Asked why she was leaving, [White House Press Secretary] Snow said: "Basically, she has been here six years."

[waving my hand wildly in the air] Um, Mr. Snow? Mr. Snow? Bush and Cheney have been here six years, too, didja know that? Mr. Snow?

Give Peace A Chance

A million people in Times Square last night, singing John Lennon's Give Peace A Chance while waiting for the ball to drop. Did you watch it? We did, at our friends' party, and then we all went out on the porch, fired some poppers with neighbors, and wished each other a Happy New Year. Imagine, a million people. I wondered, could this finally be the year we give peace a chance?

Maybe not.

Happy New Year, Anyway!

Anyway! *

Let's do what we can to make this a better year.
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* Poll: Americans see gloom, doom in 2007

American Death Toll in Iraq Hits 3,000
(which, btw, exceeds the number of Americans killed on 9/11)

Hope for the New Year

I want to focus on hope this year.

The November election was, at last, a glimmer of hope after six long years of darkness.* By the narrowest of margins, the religious fanatics no longer control Congress and the fascists in the White House have been put on notice. The moderates of both parties have scared the bejeebus out of the far right kooks who have taken over the Republican party, and hopefully, the far left Congressional leaders of the Democratic party.

Yes, there is reason for hope, slim as it is, that reason will prevail and the three branches of our government will be representative of the country's majority, which is moderate. This glimmer of hope, as I see it, is very small and in danger of being snuffed out. The only way to keep it going is to pay attention, for each and every one of us who care about the future of this country to write to our representatives, to call them out when they endanger us, to hold them accountable, to demand that they represent us and not the lobbyists.

It is up to us. It has always been up to us, but we became complacent and let the wackos gain control, with heartbreaking results, as we have seen. See, the reason I say that hope, although it is there, is very slim, is because I have very little confidence in people to actually follow through and hold Congress' feet to the fire. But then, Dallas County went Democratic in the November elections, which gobsmacked everyone, so maybe people will continue to pay attention in the coming year, after all.

Hope, like love, must be a verb this year. We have to pay attention, stay informed, and take action.

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* For those who think the word "darkness" is melodramtic, let me say this: The President of the United States thinks that a supernatural being that he calls "God" told him, personally, to invade a sovereign country because that would, somehow, help prepare the way for the Second Coming. Countless thousands have died because of this deluded man's decisions, including nearly 3,000 American servicemen and women. This was all in response - bear with me here if you can, because there's no logic - to another deluded man's belief that the presence of non[Islamic] believers on "sacred soil" in the land of Mecca was blasphemous to his supernatural being that he calls "Allah," so he brought down the World Trade Center towers, which killed nearly 3,000 Americans. Why the first deluded man invaded Iraq and deposed Saddam Hussein, who had nothing whatever to do with the second deluded man's actions is a mystery, but it somehow made sense to the first deluded man's, um, brain.
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Our species may well be in a transitional evolutionary phase wherein we either use our minds to survive or become extinct in consequence of idiotic religious behavior.

-Baubles of Blasphemy-Edwin F. Kagin

Rope Dancing

Shrub proves to Daddy Bush that he is a man.

Can what's left of our troops come home now?

In A Funk

Blick. I'm in a funk. Writer's block. Blogging block. Constipated with words. Or full of it, you might say. Ew. See? Terrible analogy.

Knowing I need to write. Staring at the keyboard. Which produced this profundity:

Thank goodness for keyboards; otherwise, we'd have to operate our 'puters with
our bare hands.

How sad is that?

This is how sad - I am the Tagee of an alphabet meme, and I am going to answer it right here, right now. You were warned.

A- Available or single? And so, it's come to this.

B- Best Friend? Tomcat, who is also the love of my life.

C- Cake or pie? Cake. Icing optional.

D- Drink of choice? Coffee. Hot and black (no, that's not a reference to how I like my men.)

E- Essential item I use every day. Fork.

F- Favorite color: Red.

G- Gummy Bears or Gummy Worms? Ick.

H- Hometown? Wherever my home is. I was born in Smalltown, Texas, but haven't been there since the age of one.

I- Indulgence: Half-Price Book Store.

J- January or February? Yes. (WTF?)

K- Kids and names: Scruffybutt and Katycat.

L- Life is incomplete without? Music.

M- Marriage date: I always date before marriage.

N- Number of siblings: Two.

O- Oranges or apples? Yes, but for comparison purposes only.

P- Phobias or fears? Both.

Q- Favorite quote?: For every action, there's an overreaction (from Maxwell, my ex, and the subtitle of my WIP, Gino's Law.)

R- Reasons to smile: Hoss' b**g, CuteOverload.

S- Season: Tarragon's my favorite.

T- Tag 3 or 4 people. I'll tag one. Dan Rockstar is so due.

U- Unknown fact about me: I can rewrite a dream while I'm dreaming. Do other people do that, too?

V- Vegetable you don’t like: Beets, but it's not personal.

W- Worst habit: Starting a blog and then not keeping up with it.

X- X-Rays: They're why I don't go swimming in the ocean.

Y- Your favorite food? The ones with large amounts of cholesterol.

Z- Zodiac sign? Aquarius.

Words

Well, for a blog with a banner that says, "My God, It's Full of Words!" this must have been a disappointment lately because I haven't had much to say!

My blogging muse isn't consistent, sorry to say.

The things that are on my mind aren't all that blogworthy, or at least they don't seem so to me. Some subjects seem too weird or too deep, while others seem too shallow and not weird enough.

I mean, is the blogosphere* really clamoring for my musings on the force of gravity? alien visitations? atheism? global warming? Or, how about the number and kinds of spring bulbs I planted the other day? my cholesterol count? what I got for Christmas? this crazy Texas weather?

I just don't know. I'm thinking that next year, I'll:

quit blogging,
or blog very sporadically while continuing to keep up with your blogs,
or start blogging about all the deeply weird, plus the shallow boring stuff to provide a daily update for this "blog full of words."

You have been warned. :)

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*i.e., my three or four regular readers

Tell Us Tuesday #11

Is it better to give than receive?

Miracles Happen

Happy Holidays from Scruffybutt and Katycat, who for the moment are behaving themselves in my sleepy presence.

A Very Merry PC Whatever!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS !

Christmas Stockings

Lisa and Bart are ready for Santa in the Happy Wings Hotel that Tomcat built for them.

I made these, except for the cat's stocking, which I found at PetSmart. I made a cat's stocking back when I made the others, but gave it away when our last cat, Hopsing, died. Now I wish I had kept it because we sort of inherited Katycat with the house.

P.S.

By popular demand, I've changed my Gravatar, which hasn't been changed since the time John, who has chronic foot-in-mouth disease, substituted my profile pic for a hippo's butt. Blogger didn't save the pic, fortunately.

Awwwww...

My Scruffles in her Christmas dress = adoramous!

We tried the hat on Katycat, too. She was NOT amused. (See her pic HERE.)

Silly Saturday #10

Has it snowed where you are yet?

A Writing Meme

I got this from Cynthia, who has a great blog and she posts some amazing pictures she's taken from time to time. Definitely worth checking out! She wrote this meme herself.

1. Do you have a favorite writing instrument?

I write on the computer. My hand cramps up if I use a pen or a pencil. Besides, typing is faster for me. (I was a legal secretary for 25 years.)

2. Do you imbue said favored writing instrument with special powers; for example, the ability to jump start your work?

The computer doesn't jump start my work. However, I've noticed that if I take my laptop, Harriett, with me to say, Barnes & Noble, I get more writing done than if I'm at home. I think it's because at home, I'm thinking of all the stuff I "should" be doing instead, whereas if I've gone somewhere specifically to write, then I'm more focused.

3. Are you superstitious or analytical about your muse?

Not superstitious, not analytical. Just in awe. When a character takes over, when a scene writes itself, when a plot thread suddenly becomes whole cloth, a part of me sits back and watches, simply gobsmacked by the process.

4. Is it better to write or to have written?

For me, to have written. Writing doesn't come easily to me, and since I'm basically lazy, I'm often daunted by the work.

5. There is a certain celestial alignment present in many famous writer’s astrological charts. Whether or not you believe in astrology, is there something different about you that made you a writer?

I've always been in love with words and with reading (Saturn in the 3rd House, in mutual reception with Mercury.) Being introspective and naturally curious about everything helps, too (12th-House Cancerian Moon conjunct Uranus.)

If you’re a writer and so inclined, consider yourself tagged. (Thank you, Cynthia.)

Who Dat?

This is Scruffybutt, in her Dallas Cowboys T-shirt, after the Saints' win on Sunday night.

The fabulous bowl in the foreground was made by my father-in-law, who took up ceramics only a couple of years ago!

And here's the artificial, prelit tree. We can't get over how real it looks, even up close.

It's Been a Frustrating Few Days

First, I was sick with some sort of 72-hour bug, and then when I did feel like logging on, I discovered that I couldn't make comments on anyone's blog, not even my own. Not only that, I could only log on to Blogger from my laptop, so if I was going to post something to my blog, I would have had to get out of bed and go downstairs to do it. Why not bring the laptop up to bed? It's portable, right? Well frankly, I didn't think of that until Friday, when it was finally safe to drink coffee. The synapses in my brain won't fire without caffeine, okay?

I've just spent an hour or so catching up on everyone's blogs. You guys are fascinating! There are so many blogworthy things going on in this world. I love it.

I'm about a week behind on Christmas stuff, so on Friday I went shopping in my PJs, in bed, with my laptop. Surf, point, click, done. I even muttered a couple of fa-la-la-la-las.

Today we put up the artificial tree we bought, a 9' majestic fir, hinged, prelit, with pinecones attached. It even came with a stand. Sent Tomcat to pick it up last Monday while I was in bed recovering from a yucky medical procedure, he set it up today while I sipped some wine. Surf, point, click, done. Fa-la-la-la-la. No more going out in the freezing cold to choose a tree, bringing it home, getting needles all over the place, trying to get the tree in the stand, putting the lights on, remembering to water the tree...

I hear there's even a Christmas tree spray scent. I'll just Google that right now! Fa-la-la-la-la.

Yes, I'm definitely getting into the Christmas spirit.

Tell Us Tuesday #10

Tell us, this year will you send out

Generic Christmas cards,

Personalized Christmas cards,

Personalized cards with family picture on them,

A Christmas letter (Hoss has a swell fill-in-the-blank one you could rip off),

Christmas emails, or

No cards at all?

Friday Catch-All

Scruffybutt and our cat, Katy, are going to become friends, I'm sure of it. We moved the old sofa upstairs to make room for a new one, and Katy promptly took it over. While she was curled up on one end of the sofa, I sat on the middle seat with Scruffybutt in my arms. Then I put SB on the other side and petted both little sweeties at the same time. Soon, SB curled up and Katy purred. Awwww. I got up quietly and took this picture seconds before they both jumped off and went their separate, furry ways.

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Yesterday I had plans with Pooks, Grace, and a couple of other Anglophiles I hadn't met yet to see the Queen. But yesterday it was in the low 20s and we had ice on the roads, which was later dusted with snow. That's because for the preceding two days, when we originally wanted to go but couldn't because of various conflicts, the weather was clear and in the upper 70s.

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Tomcat and I went to see Dallas Opera's dress rehearsal of The Barber of Seville. What a hoot! Count Almaviva demonstrated his willingness to fight by adopting the Crane pose from The Karate Kid. At first we thought that was a little over the top, but then hey, why not? It's a comedy. Thanks to Grace's hubster for the tickets.

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Speaking of Tomcat, have you noticed that Tom Cruise and what's-her-name have stolen that catchy name, no doubt from this very blog? It's TomKat this and TomKat that. Oh sure, they spell it with a "K," thinking that would make it legit somehow (sort of like getting married after the birth of their child.) I'm suing.