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| I never quite get it, when some otherwise mature intelligent someone says, "Oh I met Some Celebrity and I turned into a blithering ninny!"
So naturally it was just a matter of time, right?
On Saturday, we left a pitifully terrified and decidedly un-hurricanelike Cobie in the care of my brother, former Desert Storm flight deck ordnanceman, and Mr Moth drove me across six look-alike Ohio counties to Wooster Ohio, where the Buckeye Book Fair was in full swing. He drove me because a.) he wanted to, and b.) I was a bit concerned about what driving east-ish in the morning and west-ish in the afternoon would do to my sun-hating cataract eye.
We went to meet up with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) onegrapeshy, aka Jen, who was signing her excellent YA novel Say the Word, and another_wip, aka Pam, who was  helping out. But since I already own both of Jen's published books, I didn't like to take up space around the table that could be used by new readers, so Mr Moth and I went on a tour of the fair.
On the tour, the first thing I learn is, book fairs where the authors are present are awkward. Because if you pick up a book and then set it down again without buying, that's rejection. I would fail as an agent or editor, because I can't reject people easily enough. So I wander around trying to look at books without making any eye contact. Then I notice every author had a name-on-a-stick sign clamped to the table, and the sticks are tall and the signs are well above seated eye level, so I start reading those, and then I see the name THOM.
 Huh? That sounds familiar. I scan the books on that table, and realize OMG. It's the Follow the River guy!
James Alexander Thom, that is.
Whereupon I promptly turn into a blithering ninny, the details of which I will withold to protect whatever shreds remain of my dignity. Let's just say there was gushing involved.
Afterwards, Mr Moth told me that when it was my turn to speak to Mr Thom, I hesitated, not long but for a second before stepping forward, and some woman behind me started in, "Step UP, step UP, it's YOUR TURN, step UP!" and then he stepped between her and me, using his amazing super power of Wall-Likeness to protect me, but I was so far gone I never noticed any of it.
Afterward we have a Pepsi and wander around some more until I recover some of my brain whereupon I remember that someone--not the author, who had  been away from his table--had said something to me about witches. Witches during the Revolution, no less. Interesting premise, I'd said, but I'm still addled from authorlove and can't remember where I saw those books, so we tour the entire place again until I find witches during the Revolution, which turns out to be The Patriot Witch, by C.C. Finlay, whose name also should have rung a bell since I have seen his name around the blogosphere, right here on LJ, even. It is high time I read one of his books.
After the fair ends, Mr Moth, Jen, Pam and I go to Starbucks--a first for Mr Moth and I, and I believe Pam as well. Jen signs my copies of Say the Word and Before After and Somebody in Between and then I promptly slop coffee on them both. Thankfully neither is damaged, and we have a nice visit.
Eventually it's time to go home, so we do. Why does it always take so much longer to get home than to anywhere else, even when the distance is the same? We arrive to discover that Cobie is out from under the sofa, although he stayed under there for five hours! He never did warm up to Uncle Squabby, either, although the Child Formerly Known as Zor had a good time playing Resident Evil 5 on the Xbox with him.
And now there is just one small dilemma to be resolved. Book fair books, plus I'm still reading my library books, but also Under the Dome comes out today, and I did not think I would have the money to purchase it yet, but then...a check came.
Decisions, decisions.
This is a refreshing change from not being able to find anything I want to read. | |
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| Across a starry night my heart traveled,
to be found by another.
Sweet, sweet kisses abound.
I am made whole again.
To love another,
to feel again.
Fingers entwined,
gentle touch upon thy cheek.
A look of love through eyes of blue.
Heart catching,
a sigh of remembrance.
Oh so beautiful,
moving through light and air.
Rope caught in strong hands,
muscles taut, balancing.
A tumble at seemingly random,
a flash of hands catch tightly.
A stop, a pose, a bright flash of color.
Another tumble through the air.
Grasping, pulling hand over hand, rising higher.
Flowing gracefully through space,
like floating on wings.
A whisper of awe escapes, from lips of love.
Such beauty, such grace.
I see you.
I remember,
I remember your face the first time I saw you.
I remember the night you came to my house
I remember you being frightened that night
I remember you telling me your plans of wanting to kill yourself
I remember being glad I was home to answer the door
I remember holding you in my arms while you cried your loneliness
I remember keeping you close from that point on
I remember you pursuing me, even though I told you I was too old.
I remember the daily phone calls
I remember the rides to work together
I remember you visiting me and going to lunch
I remember the warm hugs after work
I remember you declaring your love for me in the parking lot elevator.
I remember you saying it didn't matter if I didn't love you back
I remember you flying away to Nepal
I remember telling you that I loved you on IRC for the first time
I remember you spending all night in the Bangkok airport
I remember seeing your face light up when I greeted you at the gate
I remember the ride in the back of the car holding you tight
I remember the kisses while you held me
I remember you asking me to marry you in the middle of the night.
I remember turning you down repeatedly.
I remember you buying The Princess Bride to prove your love.
I remember the look on your face when I finally agreed.
I remember the ride to the courthouse.
I remember asking if this was the right thing to do.
I remember you saying this is what you always wanted, that age didn't matter
I remember you saying this is forever when I cried
I remember you saying "Trwue Wuv" on the way back.
I remember how happy and excited the first time I called you husband.
I remember the first text saying "I love you wife".
I remember all these times...
I remember walking down the aisle towards your shining eyes and beautiful face in my white dress.
I remember all our friends sharing the day.
I remember feeling your hand in mine as you promised a life together for all of time.
I remember the wonderful time we had at Disney land
I remember you falling asleep with your head in my lap.
I remember your nightmares and sleepwalking.
I remember gently holding you and soothing you back to sleep.
I remember being snuggled up against you during the night.
I remember you falling asleep with your hand on my belly and I got a rash.
I remember every time you took my hand it was a sense of comfort.
I remember all the walks and kissing under the trees.
I remember you being the first person I wanted to see when I woke up from surgeries.
I remember you slamming my ass with the car door and how it became a joke between us.
I remember how anytime we took a drive you put your hand on my knee.
I remember getting butterflies in my stomach when you did that.
I remember teaching you to cook.
I remember sharing kisses and hugs while we cooked together.
I remember you making chocolate chip cookies for me.
I remember all these things.
I remember the morning the first litter of kittens were born.
I remember the look of excitement on your face when you woke me up to tell me.
I remember sitting next to you as we peaked into the box to look at them.
I remember the raspberry cake
I remember walks in the park hand in hand
I remember camping trips
I remember canoeing down the Russian river
I remember the first time I saw you perform
I remember being so amazed at you beauty
I remember thinking I am married to this beautiful man
I remember thinking I was the luckiest woman in the world
I remember how wonderful and proud I was to have you in my life.
I remember all the silly jokes and comments we shared.
I remember hunting for Christmas trees and watching you cut it down.
I remember you somehow always just managing to miss hitting me with it.
I remember the happiness and the laughter.
I remember all this...
I remember the day you blew a hole in my chest
I remember your smirk and laughter as you ripped my heart out
I remember wondering where my kind and gentle husband went
I remember a different life
I remember a whisper of a different time.
I remember this is not my life but another
I remember nothing.... - Mood:melancholy
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| staying up this late every night might contribute to how tired I'm feeling, for instance, right now. Okay, 124 more. How hard can that possibly be? *peels back eyelids* 70 more. I have bloody heart burn I'm so tired. Now, 73 words over. Okay, call that done. 15604 / 50000 words. 31% done! | |
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| I write in the most haphazard fashion, really. Forward and back with a few characters I barely know, no plan and only the vaguest concept of plot.
Last time I did NaNoWriMo it was all written out of sequence and I never really finished the story because I couldn't figure out what the plot climax was going to be. I had an idea in mind, but then I hated it and thought it was utterly stereotypical, but I couldn't figure out what it should have been isntead. Fortunately I passed 50,000 words and was able to abandon it in its unfinished state. What a relief!
This time feels similar, although I think the potential climax is based on a much stronger idea, so at least there's that. If I ever write said climax of course.
However, more to the point. I just wrote a half a page that I LOVE. I feel actually proud of what I have written. That's a nice moment to have. I wish I could curl up and go to sleep though, I'm tired. But no, more words. They won't be as awesome as what I just wrote, but that's okay. | |
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| Due to circumstances beyond my control at this point, I need to move back in with my family. Unfortunately, my kitties can't come with me (everyone else in the house is either allergic or asthmatic, so they will eventually hospitalize or kill somebody). So, if you're in the Chicago area (or are willing to come here to get them), here's YOUR chance to give two unbelievably awesome cats a forever home! ( Come meet Sam and Deana! )They've been microchipped and spayed, but they're due for their rabies booster shots. I would love to re-home them together if at all possible. As sad as I am to see them go -- if they can go to a great home, I would be so ridiculously happy. - Mood:hopeful
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| Did I tweet yesterday? I did!
Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter | |
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| Got out of the OR around 6. Had a great day in the OR, actually, some good cases. And loving the new FMR1. She basically got done everything that needed doing on the wards all before 8:30. Most before 8:00 -- before we finished rounding/consenting. It wasn't much, but in comparison to the other junior... who would have taken all day and still not done it... As it is he should have done half that work and didn't do any of it, and didn't even do anything to make sure it had got done as far as I can tell. Never went to the wards. Never checked in with either me or the other junior. Was in the other OR, fine, but so was she until I pulled her into my OR. She checked in a couple times, made adjustments and basically did everything on the wards that needed doing. Even when he stopped into my OR to ask if he could go home, and I told him to find out something from the ward, he didn't. Anyways. Faran started her education today. Had her first ride. Sounds like there was some good insight from it. I'm hopeful, very hopeful, that this will all help with her ground manners but mostly with her not being all inverted at the neck. There's no reason for the head up business -- I don't ride off the reins and I don't balance on the reins, I don't need to and so there's no reason for her neck to go stupid. But it does. Because I can't push enough from behind. RNB can. And Faran is apparently, from reports, strong and tough in her way, but not freaking out about the correction. So this is hopeful? So far. So she's off limits for now. Still went to the Barn tonight. Tucson had his jumping lesson. This is the alternate rider, the girl who is riding him every other week to help school him over jumps, who is a stronger and more experienced rider and who can get after him when he doesn't feel like doing his changes (he did them lovely today). I then took Anton for a toodle around and he's doing great since they fixed his cube issue. Go figure. Timothy/straw is not as good as alfalfa/maize. The cube company messed up the labels. Poor guy. So much happier now. Still stiff. His breathing was rough too, but it's injection day and last week's would be wearing off by now. Since the barn was almost empty, and nobody in the arena, I let him have a roll and a wander by himself while I put stuff away.  Anton smells different than most horses. It's probably the herbs and stuff he gets for his breathing. But he smells sweeter. For some reason I find it very soothing. Just sayin'. | |
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|  Miki says: Shine!  Shine with love, kindness and brother/sisterhood, of all that's gentle, of all that's good. Bring out the bling in you! | |
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| Lately I’ve been going bonkers at Markeroni. While the general trend is upwards, for the last two or three weeks it seems like some new glitch has been thrown up that’s cost me from 2-10 hours of effort to fix. The last straw was the bug I found this morning with direct-logging. I knew about one bug and was taking care of it, but hadn’t realized another had formed in the meantime.
This is clearly unsustainable, not to mention stressful and frustrating so it was time to do something about it.
When I converted Markeroni over to version 4.0 a year ago it was something that started as a different project. My NaNoWriMo last year was to create a manual for Markeroni and it turned into a complete rewrite instead. Now, I still have loose ends from that rewrite, and that’s part of what’s slapping me in the face just now. I’ve been busy, and now I’m even busier, but I just can’t ignore it any more.
So, today I started going through all my programs with a fine tooth-comb. Those last loose ends are going to be tied up and I’m going to use what I find out to start building a manual. Heaven forbid that anything happens to me before I get old, but if it does, I want someone else to be able to carry on Markeroni. Right now they’d just look at my code and run away screaming.
It feels like I’m taking a great step backwards, but ultimately be a big step forward. Here’s what I’m doing on each page:
(1) Taking a note of which database tables are being used. (When I’m done I’ll also be able to figure out which ones are not being used, and act accordingly.)
(2) Taking notes of where, with what I have learned in the last year, a program can be made more efficient.
(3) Taking notes of all the variables used, so that I can make those uniform across the site and maybe use more global variables
(4) Putting in debugging/error message statements when they are missing
(5) Taking notes of where something doesn’t appear to make sense
(6) Changing the format so the code is clearly legible
(7) Adding comments
(8) Updating all the mysql queries, especially those that insert something into the database.
(9) Fixing any bad HTML that I come across.
It’s slow going. Today I worked on six programs, albeit six important ones, and it took me around three hours.
It’s a PITA. It will have to count towards my NaNoWriMo word count. But it should make my life easier in the longer run.
This was cross-posted from Raven's Range. You can comment here or there, but if you could bring yourself to comment there rather than here, that would be very nice.
Here's the link to comment over there | |
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| Well, crud.
I thought I'd found a place for us. Then I told the listing agent I had an assistance dog, but according to federal and state law that shouldn't be a problem. Suddenly the unit was rented out by another agent and the company doesn't have anything else in our price range.
I'm tempted to drive by and see if the place really is occupied, and file a housing discrimination lawsuit if it's not. Because yes, I *am* that much of a bitch, thankyouverymuch.
Today was my lost day to meds. Tomorrow is getting all the medical records. We'll find a place. | |
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| Just a few random shots of Jasper...the possible Bombay! Evy the lil princess, and a guest appearance by Kodi the dog. xposted ( Cats, kittens, and a dog, oh my ) | |
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| I cannot even begin to describe just how craptacular the past few days have been. Nor do I really want to. Stuff happens and we deal with it. That's the way life works.
I made a really delicious dish tonight with nothing but half a package of spaghetti, a little garlic, some olive oil, some salt and pepper, and an egg. It came out disturbingly well. My tastebuds want more, but my stomach is completely full.
I am tired and definitely not rotated fully into the night shift. Nap time! Hopefully I will be ready by the time the shift starts tomorrow night. - Mood:groggy
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| My new foster kitty! This is Woo Woo. Well, that's the name she came with. Her parents are Mr. & Mrs. Woo. Dad was a full-blood Himalayan and mom was a Siamese/Snowshoe mix. I've got her to try to socialize her because at her first adoption event for the shelter, she was hissing, spitting, clawing and biting. I've renamed her Witch Hazel (or just Hazel to her friends). Partially because it fits and partially because I don't care how much baby-talking she gets, I'm not calling her 'Woo-woo.' Just. no. ( Picture of Her Royal Highness! )- Location:home
- Mood:amused
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| détente: (n) The easing of strained relations, especially in a political situation.
moreen: (n) Originally: a strong ribbed worsted fabric with a watered finish, used esp. for making curtains and furnishings in the 18th and 19th centuries. Later: a watered furnishing fabric made of wool, cotton, or a mixture of these; (more generally) any heavy fabric with a watered finish.
syringa: (n) Any of the shrubs of the genus Philadelphus, especially P. coronarius, the mock-orange, having creamy-white strongly sweet-scented flowers, cultivated as an ornamental shrub.
ponticum: (n) A purple-flowered evergreen rhododendron, Rhododendron ponticum, originally of Spain, Portugal, and Asia Minor, but extensively cultivated in Britain during Victorian times, now widely naturalized and often regarded as an invasive weed.
bombard: (n) 1. The earliest kind of cannon, usually throwing a stone ball or a very large shot.
2. The ball or stone thrown by a bombard.
3. Bombarding volley, shot
4. A bomb-vessel or bomb-ketch
5. A leather jug or bottle for liquor; a blackjack. Probably from some resemblance to the early cannons.
6. A toper; a bumbard.
7. A deep-toned wooden musical instrument of the bassoon family.
8. A foot reed-stop of an organ.
toper: (n) One who topes or drinks a great deal; a hard drinker; a drunkard.
bumbard: (n) 1. A bumble-bee, a drone;
2. Also figuratively a droning person, a driveller.
saraband: (n) 1. A slow and stately Spanish dance in triple time.
2. A piece of music composed for this dance or in its rhythm, in which the second note of the measure is commonly lengthened.
3. A kind of Persian rug characterized by a pattern of leaf or pear forms.
ingurgitate: (v) 1. To swallow greedily or immoderately (food, or, in later use esp., drink).
2. To eat or drink to excess; to gormandize, guzzle.
3. To gorge, to cram with food or drink.
4. To swallow up as a gulf or whirlpool; to engulf.
5. Of a river: To discharge itself into the sea.
capacious: (adj) 1. Of such size as to take in or hold; able to contain; having the capacity of or to (with infinitive).
2. Able to hold much; roomy, spacious, wide.
3. Qualified, adapted or disposed for the reception of; Of capacity or qualified to do something.
lieutenantry; also lieutenancy: (n) 1. The office of a lieutenant.
2. Delegated authority or command.
3. The term of a lieutenant's office.
4. The district or province governed by a lieutenant.
5. The body of deputy-lieutenants in a county. Also, in the city of London, the body of commissioners (sometimes incorrectly called ‘deputy-lieutenants’), now usually appointed annually, who perform the duties of a Lord-lieutenant with regard to the militia and volunteers.
6. The bodies of troops under the command of the Lord-lieutenants and commissioners of lieutenancy.
weet: 1. To know (a fact, the answer to a question); also with clause as obj.
2. To know of something.
convolvula: (n) A winding plant.
enbonpoint: (n) Plumpness, well-nourished appearance of body: in complimentary or euphemistic sense.
lucerne: (n) 1. A lamp, lantern.
2. The leguminous plant Medicago sativa, resembling clover, cultivated for fodder; purple medick.
medick: (n) Any of various Eurasian and North African plants, chiefly yellow-flowered, constituting the genus Medicago (family Fabaceae (Leguminosae)), which resemble clovers but have spirally coiled, sometimes spiny, seed pods; spec. one of those grown for fodder or green manure. Frequently with distinguishing word.
accouchement: (n) Delivery in child-bed.
quoin: (v) 1. To secure or raise with a quoin or wedge.
2. To provide with a quoin or cornerstone.
(n) 3. Originally: an external angle of a wall; an outer corner of a building. Subsequently also: any of the stones or bricks serving to form this angle; a cornerstone.
4. An internal angle or corner of a wall, esp. of a room. Also: a recess in a wall, as for a gate.
5. In Printing: A (typically wedge-shaped) device used to lock up a forme of type.
6. In Gunnery: A wedge-shaped block used for adjusting the elevation of the barrel of a cannon. Also: a wedge used to keep a cannon securely in position.
7. Nautical: A wedge placed between or among casks stored on a ship, so as to prevent them from moving.
8. In Building: The keystone, or any one of the wedge-shaped stones, of an arch.
9. An angle; an angular object.
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| Something passed the House, but what the fuck was it? I've got limited time and if there's a comprehensive story about the contents, it's buried under tons of coverage of the politics.
The one thing I know for sure is it excluded abortion. I've heard some of what it promises to do - like eliminate pre-existing conditions - but not how (A direct ban? Loophole filled clauses? Subsidies?).
If anti-abortion rules are what the house considers a compromise, who knows what other shit is hidden within the size and complexity. Given how little concrete information I have, I'm not prone to see this as a win and fear it may be a loss.
As I wrote some time ago, something is not always better than nothing. If the something is a chaotic bill which will hard to fix once it becomes law, then nothing is the better option. I don't want to wait years to discover the hidden flaws and sneaky giveaways, then the additional years as various groups block corrections.
Even after months on this, it seems more like the PATRIOT act than the New Deal. Except with 100% more anti-abortion.
Until I find out more, those of us who actually want universal health care may find Joe Leiberman a slight blessing hidden within a temper tantrum. | |
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| Just one little picture of Bimmy enjoying his nap time.  - Mood:amused
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