An update on things going right or nearly so in my world:

• Nominated for Parsecs.
• Working on 5th (?!) Zulu-5 Story
• 11 babies outside my back door! From 2 litters born several weeks apart.
• Figured out how to put map files in Open Arena
• Have lost 66 Lbs.

Caveats to above:

• "OMG, I could have sent a better submission! WHAT HAVE I DONE?!"
• "Working" on the 5th Z5 Story means sitting at my desk in the Temple writing out the jumbled mass of scenes in my head one to an index card with the intent to somehow make some kind of outline of them, and wondering how the frell am I going to turn this goopy mass of aimlessness into a coherent story.
• 11 Babies means 18 lb. bags of cat food every week, and realizing I needed to get automatic feeders for DragonCon, and spending $100 at PetSmart. Then the smallest give me the most disgusted look when I put the 3 gallon water tank out for them as if to say, "You expect me to drink from THAT?"
• Sure, I've got new maps for OA... and now the sound has gone out on the laptop.
• Have lost 66 lbs but my metabolism has adjusted by slowing my heart rate by at least an average of 10 beats/minute. So I will have to begin exercising to keep the metabolism up to burn off the remaining 40 lbs. Grrrr....

Other than that, the Stargate guy I met at LibertyCon sent me a nice e-mail saying he was starting to read the print-outs of the stories I gave him, so hey... one of them is "Wings of Icarus", tho, and I've warned him at least twice that it's slash, so if he sends me a disgusted e-mail re "Jack and Daniel SLEEPING TOGETHER?! WTF?!" he was warned. If he gets through that without squicking, then I have no fears for the copy of "Seeds of Invasion" I put in with it. 'Nuff said.

Well. I'm sitting here doing this while I let my lunch go down before I go to the gym. (bangs head against keyboard)

So much for being a professional lazy slob.

What will cats do for entertainment when the negligence of humanity has killed off all the bugs and birds?

They'll chase screensavers.

Makes me wish I was living in Portland.

In other news, Boo still hasn't come home.

*sigh*

Boo has been missing since about 3 AM today. I let him out in the middle of the night as is his wont and he hasn't come home as of now, 9 PM.

Green things and expectorations. I suppose I'm back.

Well, if you haven't been keeping up with the news through other sources, I have indeed begun my newest book. In fact I'm about a quarter of the way through the expected word count at about 25k words. It's called Telaon. For wordcount updates and other news on that, check my Atrocious Adventure infosite, the link for which is in the links at the right hand side of this page.

Aside from that, I had a bout of strep throat last week that totally knocked me off my pins for several days. Quite frustrating. But I'm better now.

Yesterday I decided I wanted to get out of the house for a while and went up to North Chattanooga, ostensibly because I wanted to see if New Moon still carried the extensive collection of Swarovski crystals that I remember. I've got a small collection myself and after finding a place online that sells them the whole thing just went nuts (www.sundropcrystal.com). My crystal collection is in fact providing the visuals for the crystals used by my characters in the new book. Currently I'm trying to figure out an effective and stylish way of displaying them all, which may require some craftiness on my part. They must be suspended from a hanger of some sort, and so I must think a while on this. At New Moon they have a tree branch, which is certainly effective. I've been hanging them from the gooseneck light on my altar in the Temple, but I have too many now and they would pull the light over. I think this is going to require a trip to Home Despot.

Dealing with spoiled cats at the moment. It's a beutiful day outside and not cold but Boo is freaking out thinking he needs to come in/go out ever two or three minutes. He's out at the moment so I'm trying to ignore the frantic scratching at the window of my computer room. It can't be doing either of us any good for me to be yelling at him all the time. It doesn't work anyway.

Well, I guess I'm off to go do my writing for the day.

Games you can play with your cat:

Chasing cat food pellets across the floor.

Playing fetch with hair ties.

Alien Flashball.

Yes, folks, it's the first video game you can play with your cat.

My cat Fuzz likes to sit on the table right next to the computer and watch me play this. Occassionally it gets to be too much and he decides it would be better as a tag team effort and tries to hit the flying balls himself. Only problem: he uses his paws, not the trakball.


He's also an immensely educated cat now. He enjoys watching science show videos on Google Video. We've watched all of Cosmos, The Elegant Universe, and Nova's "This Old Pyramid" together. He really does pay attention. He sits here beside the screen and watches it with every sign that he's paying attention. Sometimes he even tries to sniff the screen or bats at the people or things moving on it, but not in his Matrix-trailer "must KILL NEO" kind of way.

So at least one of my furry children is getting an education.