Confessions of a One-Track Mind

1955 - 2011


After 36 hours without internet, I learned late last night that my friend Susie, the oft-mentioned "S" of Schnauzerland, has passed. She went peacefully in her sleep at home, and her loved ones are saddened, but not overly surprised, as her conditon (both mental and physical) was precarious for some time.

I find myself distracted and remembering incidents and factoids...the time we changed a flat tire on her convertible in eleven minutes flat because she had a term paper that HAD to be turned in within an hour. How she always got patty melts at Dennys and Eggs Benedict at Perkins. Her wedding (She was 20 minutes late, which was totally par for the course) and the reception afterward, where her dog Grover attended wearing a cumberbund. How she'd usually forget to mention something during a phone call and would ring right back, beginning without salutation, "And another thing---" Garage sailing together---it was truly amazing how much stuff she could pack into a two-door Camaro!---ceramic shows, and the jaunt we took to West Palm Beach for molds.

In the interests of not speaking ill of the dead, we will not discuss the disasterous time I tried to vacation with her, or all the times she'd chew me out over things that happened weeks before. My memory was always better than hers; I remember a fair amount of acrimony, mostly over trivia, but it's all meaningless now. Better to remember the canasta games where we laughed til it hurt, the cuddly puppies, the companionable hours spent doing ceramics, soaks in her jacuzzi and the way she included me in her holiday plans as a matter of course. She helped fund my trip to Brooklyn when my brother died unexpectedly, for which I'm grateful.

Susie, I'm going to miss you.

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I know, I know, turkey is traditional, but there's only one of me. If I want turkey, I'll run out an get a package of Hillshire Farms lunch meat, which is already cooked and sliced, and even allowing for to and fro and shopping time, it's still much faster than cooking a whole bird.

By contrast, I don't seem to get ham nearly as often. This one is courtesy of Aldi, spiral-cut, so there's no wrestling with sharp knives. (Combined with frustrated hunger, sharp knives are BAD.) IMO, there are also more tasty things you can do with the leftovers. Ham and cheese sandwiches, macaroni and cheese with ham, ham and eggs. Pork and beans: Ha! That will dent my bean stockpiles! And turning the last of it into soup in my crockpot will be a treat on a cool day, maybe with a side of cornbread? Yum.

My plans for Thursday are simple: I'm going to stay home, watch the Macy's parade, the dog show that's on after the Macy's parade, and spend the afternoon quietly noshing with a side of TV. Nothing fancy, no drama.

I've heard nothing from Schnauzerland; tried calling a couple times, no answer, nor at T's work. I wonder how things are going on with them, but I have no desire to join them for dinner, whether it's home-cooked or hotel-based. I want to put the drama-llama out to pasture, thanks.

Maybe I'll excavate enough of the office that I can put up my pink Christmas tree over the weekend. Won't that be fun?!

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I just had a call from T, letting me know they're coming home tonight rather than tomorrow as originally scheduled. I think it's safe to guess that things didn't go too well. S has probably been drunk the whole time, and knowing her, I wouldn't be a bit surprised to find out that she caused a scene/some kind of trouble. It wouldn't be the first time. It's T who I feels sorry for.

So now, I'm trying to do four things at once: Pack clothes, toiletries and food---including perishables---burn a couple CDs of the stuff I've been downloading---which has to be converted to MP3 from wav? whateverthefuck---try to figure out where I'm going and in what order aftr I leave---jolly.

The good part of it is, I will be home tonight and *not* have to run back over here after movie night and SPN. (Tonight's movie is "Taking Woodstock", which I have long wanted to see.)

There really is no place like home.

Holy hand grenade. This place is a mess.

I arrived at Schnauzerland about a half-hour ago, and I'm aghast. And really, it takes A LOT to gross me out. There's litter everywhere, the refrigrator is worse than mine before Mb went through it, and the master bedroom is so bad, I'm thinking seriously of sleeping in the twin bed in the spare room.

Six nights of this?! Wish me luck!

S & T have postponed their departure for a day due to the death of one of the schnauzers last night. Now they're down to two, who are younger and healthier and louder and more obnoxious, but hey, schnauzers....

Stormy was the dowager bitch of Macs's harem. I'm not surprised that she's dead---her health has been poor for several years---but the timing is unfortunate. Although, it would've been worse if she'd died while they were away. *shudder*

Now, she can see and she's not limping around. I hope she's frolicking with Macs on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge---and with Grover, whom she never met, but he was S's old dog. (He was 12 or so when she got Macs, and Grover was a very good influence when it came to house-breaking.)

Good-bye, Stormy.

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This afternoon, I was at WalMart doing some banking, when I happened to wander through the Clearance section. Oh, summer clearance specials in Florida are A Very Good Thing. I found shorts at $5 a pair...my favorite pair of denim shorts gave up the ghost last month, and I've been feeling deprived. These are JMS brand, knit, and I gleefully popped for 5 pairs: Light grey, dark grey, black, navy and purple. Shazam! I'm set for shorts! (Because here, shorts are darn near a year-round thing.)

I also stitched up a few frayed spots on the summer-weight pink gauze slip dress I got at Goodwill last month---it gives me something easy to schlepp down to the mailbox in or run to the store or whatever. It took me all of ten minutes while I was watching "The Dog Whisperer". Every time I see some 'zine article trumpeting a "No sewing!" how-to, I grumble a little. They're contributing to the fall of western civilization, I swear!

Tomorrow S & T are off for their timeshare in Key West, which means I get to occupy "my" timeshare---Schnauzerland. The fact that there is air, a hot tub and a bg ol' flatscreen TV makes it as good as a timeshare in my book. It's a scant block from the beach, and a change is as good as a rest, as they say.

With that in mind, I'm treating it as a week of luxury. (As much as one can when providing one's own meals and contending with a plethora of yappy little dogs. God, I miss Macs!) This evening, I'm going to do laundry and pack so I can take off in the morning and all will be at the ready.

Tomorrow, I've got a haircut scheduled at noon. Time for a fresh cut! I'm taking the gift card I got from CF and heading over to Barnes and Noble after the cut, where I'm going to acquire a few things to amuse myself with while soaking in the hot tub or lounging on the beach. TV fodder is ample---aside from my Trauma DVDs, I'm taking my calendar---marked, so I can catch all the new shows and season premieres next week. And setting the DVR, just in case!

Yes, I *am* going to have a good time!

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I got really ambitious in February: I'd started a fic in mid-January and began posting a chapter a day in February. It was 75% done when I began, and although I bogged down while writing a full-scale gunfight and wrote nothing for a whole week, I was far enough ahead by that point that I *still* got it done on schedule. That was "Clockwork Mexico", a crossover between OUatiM and Silence of the Lambs.

Yeah, screwy combination, I know, but Katherine Martin (the girl in the pit) was such a pivitol character and so underused...I'd written two solo stories for her, "If You Give a Grizzly Bear a Beer" and "Twilight Reflections", and I had a good time hooking her up with El Mariachi. (foreverhermit, you'll laugh: She was a hired assassin. I also did a couple stories tied in to the Banderas movie, "Assassins". Are we sensing a theme here?!)

During the course of posting "Clockwork Mexico", I gained a fan and a friend: kukkurkurat. Our correspondence led to a lot of brainstorming, and produced several new enthusiasms....

I was still writing a lot of Depp, but other fandoms were starting to creep in: Harry Potter (where I slashed Neville and Draco, with Neville as the dominant one), assorted Vin Diesel fandoms (not much of a stretch, as I'd been picturing him as Shadow while writing "Wisdom's Gate"), and a little Brosnan-era Bond. Kukkurkurat and I both fancied Riddick, and our chatter led to "It Takes One to Know One", a Pitch Black prequel, and "Beyond Blade Runner", a crossover with guess what?

It was toward the end of the year that mojavedragonfly pointed me in the direction of Yuletide, and on October 31st, I signed up here on LJ. In those days, you had to fulfill a New Year's Resolution to join, and I ended up writing "The Twenty-five Dollar Shoebox" (O Brother, Where Art Thou) and "Feliz Navidad" (Janet Evanovich: Stephanie Plum).

S and T spent Christmas in Hawaii, so the holidays found me in Schnauzerland, I wrote what turned out to be my final OUaTiM story for Yuletide, and got an absolutely marvelous story based in CJ Cherryh's Merchanter/Alliance Universe.

It was a pretty good year.


.

It's been a long day. I've had *maybe* four hours of sleep---could NOT get comfortable last night. Got up, showered---a word of advice, gals: Put on your bra BEFORE you paint your nails, especially if you're in a hurry. Irridescent lime green, of course, to match The Hat.

J arrived in a timely manner, we got there with time to spare, and The Hat was a hit.

The pastor of Kat's church spoke first...actually, he sang first, to a canned countrified version of...I don't remember what it was. I've heard the hymn before, but the title escapes me*. Anyway, between the Baptist karaoke and the fact that the guy reminded me of Robin Williams channeling John Wayne, I was glad to have a veil to veil my smirk.

Pastor then gave us a lengthy harrangue of preachification. I sat quietly and thought seditious, heretical things.

GK took the podium and gave us memories of her mom. She choked up when thanking her hub for holding down the fort so she could come down to visit, and then at the end, when she sang "The Yellow Rose of Texas".

Then I said my piece (under the cut below), and the pastor, who was sitting behind me, actually let loose a couple 'amen's. I didn't lose it, for which I'm grateful---I must've gotten it out of my system yesterday.

After the service...unfortunately, S and T showed up. I talked to S last night and she was fine, but today, she was wasted. J and I were both pretty ticked off, but making a scene certainly wasn't going to solve anything. They showed up at the luncheon at the church, too, and S reminded me of Kat toward the end, with the dementia...she wasn't carrying on the same conversation as the rest of us.

Lambie Pie gave me a stack of books...I'm not into the vamp stuff at all, but she swears it's hilarious. Hey, free books...free is good, right? We'll see.

Tomorrow morning, GK's hub leaves with Things 1 & 2, and in the afternoon, we (meaning her, her brothers, their wives and I) will get together at Kat's place and start divying up what's left. Fingers crossed, that means I'll have a microwave by tomorrow evening.

And now, a long overdue nap. Thanks for all the love and support, youse guys. It's helped.


***
( My eulogy )

* "How Great Thou Art".
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I've been the recipient of an email requesting the please of my company for turkey dinner at Schnauzerland this evening (a little advance notice would have been nice!), so we'll see what S & T have been up to. I just hope she isn't contagious. I don't want to risk passing anything on to Kat.

I spent much of Christmas afternoon at the C's---it was so funny, I've moved in and taken care of their dogs numerous times, so they now me very well. The little one (a Jack Russell-Cavalier King Charles mix) was so excited to see me that when she charged the screen door, she went through the solid panel at the bottom. The whole thing popped out, although PJ said he wouldn't have been surprised to see a little Rosie-shaped hole in the door.

A half-dozen other folks from church showed up, there was a lot of food---I felt like I was eating all day long, not something I dislike---and we had a lovely time. AI and I exchanged gifts---I made an art-glass necklace for her, and she made two heavily beaded bracelets for me.

Yesterday was my afternoon at the movies. Sherlock Holmes was fun---I *DO* want to see it again. Red took off as soon as it was over, which was disappointing---I would've liked to schmooze---but it was great while it lasted. We both want to see Clash of the Titans, Spartacus: Blood and Sand (John Hannah!) and Sorcerer's Apprentice. She was intrigued by Date Night, I am less so. We both bounced up and down at the trailer for Iron Man 2---May 2010! Yay!

I confess, I did a little extra-curricular shopping while I was at The Avenues. Lane Bryant had 60% off on clearance merch---I got a little brown velvet vest trimmed with little brass studs and grosgrain ribbon. It hooks just under the bust and really shows off what I have in the way of tits and a waist. It makes me think of RenFest---which I miss something rotten!---but it isn't too costume-y. And it was under $20, marked down from something like $39.50. Not TOO infernally extravagant.

Also hit World Market for a fix of CHowards Violet Mints, which I absolutely adore and can't find anywhere else. Talked sternly to myself and didn't get too carried away---*did* get a calendar for next year: Comfort Food, complete with pix AND recipes. Didn't get any of the 75% off ornaments, 50% off accessories, 20% off food.

All my Yuletide offerings have been commented upon. And that's all I'm going to say about THAT.

On the site "Is it Yuletide yet?" (http://www.isityuletideyet.com/): I can't tell you how much I wish I had put a hit counter on this damn thing!

I remember my first Yuletide; it was the year I was house-sitting at Schnauzerland because S & T were spending Christmas in Hawaii. The story I wrote as a gift has the distinction of being my swan song for the Once Upon a Time in Mexico fandom. I was also very much into Pitch Black; I was simultaneously working on "It Takes One to Know One" and what I eventually titled "Beyond Blade Runner" (slash crossover).

Last year was pretty good; I wrote a Stephanie Plum fic (two out of three of the Plum fics I've written were for Yuletide, the other was a SPN crossover) and a treat for Anne McCaffrey's Crystal Singer Trilogy.

This year---well, give it a week and you'll see...!

Some of you may be wondering where I've been all weekend. Some of you may have been busy with your own lives and not noticed that I wasn't posting. Some of you may think that I'm full of myself. Hmm, maybe so.

Anyway, after gorging on Thursday---no kidding, there was salmon and prime roast beef and apple-walnut salad and a pretty good key lime cheesecake---I was kind of weighted down.

Friday---what *did* I do on Friday? The shuttle's sonic boom woke me up before 10 AM. We had movie night at church---UP, which I'd seen at the theater, but surprisingly, I was the only one who had. Got home and watched White Collar, which I'm quite smitten with. (In my fanon, Neal Caffrey is the illegitimate son of Templeton "Faceman" Peck.) There will be fic! Eventually....

I can say that fall seems to have breezed on through in the space of about two weeks and it's gone and gotten nippy. Overnight between Friday and Saturday, I found myself awake and shivering under a sheet and a quilt, despite wearing a long-sleeved nightshirt. Saturday, I washed a heavy comforter, and last night I was cozy and comfortable.

Yesterday, J and I and two helpers went down to Melbourne for a training session, and one of the gals got chomped by accident. The exercise was supposed to see how the dog would react to people running in his territory, IE the backyard, and she got a little too close to him (on his leash) when he snapped at her. It was a single puncture, nothing that needed stitches or awkward exlainations at an ER, and the dog seemed apologetic afterward. Other than that, he was pretty calm---J's been working with him for a while---and from what she and the others say, he used to be a regular maneater. His owner was freaked out, but the rest of us weren't. I've chosen to project an energy that says I'm furniture, nothing to get excited about, and so far, it's worked.

I'm writing---deadline is next Friday---and found out yesterday that Kat departs on her trip next Saturday, not Wednesday as I was thinking for some reason.

While I was at Schnauzerland on T-day, before we left for the Radisson, I got some largesse. S has been going through her massive, jam-packed walk-in closet and is getting rid of everything that's too big for her. Since she's currently in the vicinity of a size 10, that's just about all of it. There wasn't much in my size; there's one two-piece ensemble---I was with her when she bought it and have lusted after it ever since---I can get the top on, but the buttons pucker, and the waist of the skirt is definitely too tight, but maybe I can wear it to Thanksgiving dinner next year, wouldn't that be a kick?

Meanwhile, I got a very pretty skirt, 3X, new with tags, a floral print in purples, greens and aquas on a black background. It's long---ankle-length maxi without even trying!---and I have at least six colored tops to wear with it, and a few black ones, although I think that's too much black, personally. Today I wore it to church with a short-sleeved sweaterish top in a soft celery green, and I belted it with a black belt I got a couple years ago---this is the same belt that wasn't working with the black PVC jacket I was talking about the other day. I'm getting a lot of use out of it now that I've got a waist and can use it to definite the same.

Today I went to church, came home and took a nap. Nothing special, but nothing tragic, either, so it's all good.

This morning, I had a call from Schnauzerland: S and T have invited me to dine with them on Thursday at the Radisson. Oo-la-la, oui, oui! C'est posh! They had me there two years ago and it was awesome. Ice sculptures and a piano player for atmosphere and massive quantities of excellent food. I'll tote a massive bag and plenty of Tupperware...maybe an ice chest in the car for good measure.

They're editing their back bedroom for visiting relatives next month; I became the recipient of a cheap-ass bookcase that will match several cheap-ass bookcases I already own. If I can just get the far wall of the middle room cleared out, I think I'll have side-to-side bookcases for it. He brought it over and dropped it off a little while ago, and while he was here, I capitalized on his muscles and got him to drag out the dead 70s rug and the IBM. I never heard back from BC---oh well, his loss!

With that gone, the southwest corner of the dining room is vacant, giving me a chance to move things around and hopefully instill order. In particular:

1. I have a very large Rubbermaid bin crammed with hammered aluminum. I really need to winnow through it---when I first began collecting, I grabbed everything I found, just because it was aluminum. I'm more discriminating these days and I only have so much room to display them. Plus, I need to figure out where to store what I'm not displaying.
2. After living with them for several months, I'm not wild about the curtains that are up over the sliding glass door. Two reasons: They don't have enough volume to fill the opening, and with the sun behind them, you can't see the pattern. Time to explore my fabric stash for something better.
3. I want to change the chair seats---I have two chairs that match the table with nasty 90s colors on the pads. They don't match ANYTHING in my house. I've got some cotton canvas striped in fall colors which should be an improvement. Orange, red, tan and brown---and there's just enough to do the two chairs AND make a matching squared-off tablecloth. I can do that next month on the sewing machine at Kat's.

Orange seems to be emerging as the dominant color of my kitchen/dining area. Not that there's anything wrong with that---my love for the color goes way back---and it works with the cranberry reds that are accenting the living room. Even my old couch is orange---but that's not staying, it's too icky.

Here it is, late November, and I'm just now finally getting to where I have any energy at all to get shit done. None too soon, because it's pretty horrible. But! I feel like I've gotten quite a bit done the last couple of days. Even if I'm not having Thanksgiving dinner there, my dining room shows an improvement. Waiting for T's arrival, I cleared a bunch of crap out from in front of the garage door---it's been there for months---and I grabbed my big outdoor push broom and swept the driveway. Inside and out, there's progress....

The canasta party was definitely a mixed bag. It ended up being just the four of us: S, her adult daughter J, sbjb and me. We all go back 25 years or more, so it was the kind of familiarity that had us bantering insults, timing jokes for maximum spit takes and considerable off-key singing, much of it mine. (I'm a baritone.)

S stayed awake through it all, which was better than some previous evenings, although her concentration wasn't that hot, and she demonstrated an annoying tendency to mumble things, so if she was more than five feet away, we kept asking, "What?!" I ended up being her partner, and somehow we managed to skunk Team Taurus. (No, I did *NOT* stack the deck.)

Okay, look---I'm not being catty here: S looked like hell. She's five years older than I am, but right now, she looks like Kat (who's 12 years older that she is and dying of lung cancer)---she's shrunken and pale and her arms are covered with bruises. It's alarming. She said to me in as many words that she's addicted to her sleeping pills and whatever else she can coax out of her doctor. She's down to 116 pounds; I'd gotten her a matching shirt and pants in a tropical print for cheap, supposedly a 12/14 in White Stag: They fit her like baggy pajamas. She was talking about all the stuff she can fit into now, but doesn't seem to comprehend that low weight doesn't automatically mean healthy and being able to wear something doesn't necessarily mean it's flattering.

At the end of the evening, S got a wild hair and pulled out a tape meaure and some index cards. We weighed and measured each other and wrote down the results, and S said that in a year we'd see them to see who was healthiest. (I'm going to take it as a good sign that she thinks she'll still be here in a year.) Didn't ask her to quantify her definition of "healthy".

Yes, I'm going to share my info---y'all know I'm not shy about shit like this. S has the same kind of balance scale I do, the kind with big notched blocks for 50-pound increments and a smaller sliding block to count of the individual pounds. On her scale, after four pieces of pizza and 2 liters of diet cola, I was 317 (exactly 201 pounds more than S).

My measurements were:

Bust -- 54"
Underbust -- 47"
Waist -- 51"
Hips -- 60"


That's a good few inches less than the last time I measured---although that's at least two years and 30 pounds ago. Go, me!

==================================

9:45 AM, ETA:

Mind you, this morning on MY scale, I was 310---of course, that was less full and stark naked. (Yes, I also have a balance scale, in fact, it originally belonged to S's mom---I "inherited" it after we cleaned her place out after she died.) I don't usually weigh in shoes, but S said she'd broken a glass recently in her bathroom, so I wasn't taking any chances.

I wonder how little I'd have to weigh for all my numbers to be in the "40s"? It would make buying bras SO much easier!

Let's see...I've got my second load of laundry in progress, done all the dishes I pulled out of my room last night, and scheduled a canasta date at Schnauzerland. (S called out of the blue---last time I saw her was July 4th, when she was massively out of it. Today she was rational and coherent---and I'm glad, because as aggrevating as she can be, we go way back and I don't want to lose her. Come play with us, sbjb! It's on Saturday 10/24, 7 PM.)

The actual number of dishes removed---because "all" the dishes sounds like towering stacks---wasn't that much. Two aluminum trays, a plastic plate and an oval platter. Not much, though they shouldn't have been left in there to begin with. The flatware situation was worse---multiple everything---but at least it's now accounted for and tended to.

I've made it to the closet! Yay, go me! This involved going through multiple boxes of books, semi-organizing them and stacking them in the corner. Yes, the xame corner I was talking about moving an actual bookcase into, but I really don't *want* to do that. I have other plans for that bookcase. So for now, I'm boxing the books I run across, and there have been quite a few. And yet, what will sorting and consolidating, I have *more* empty boxes then when I started.

THAT'S where that went moment: Lifting a pile of clothes and finding the canvas satchel I last saw when I brought it back from house-sitting---in July.

You're kidding, I have WHAT?!: Back issue of TV Guide with Jessica Alba on the cover and a story about season one of Dark Angel.

I found scads of other good stuff---my brown plaid mary janes, thread that matches the purple pants I need to stitch up, assorted items of clothing---so all in all, I think it's been a productive couple of days. Especially if I can wash the two comforters that have been sitting there since I kicked them off the bed in spring.

Now I've got clothes to be hung up, and I can get to the closet to do it. While I'm in there, I need to do some trying on and thinning out, as we're having another clothing swap at church in November. Honestly, it seems like I wear certain items most of the time, so what the heck is the rest of it?! I'm going to try to fill those two empty boxes!

In 48 hours, I'll be in Tampa, yay! (Let's hope it doesn't rain.)

The fireworks on the beach were lots of fun. It was supposed to start at 9---it was late---but despite the plethora of electric lights up and down A1A warning that unsanctioned fireworks on the beach could cost a massive fine, there was plenty of amateur activity.

I hung out with T and his brother L---S was out of it---and we watched and schmoozed. S's decline was one topic for discussion---we agree that unless she pulls herself out of it, she probably isn't going to last more than another couple years, if that. I've known her for 25+ years, and I've seen her go to extremes, but this? She's the only one who can save herself, but she's let go and is drifting.

I left the guys to it sometime around 10. Drove back, still plenty of pyrotechnic activity going on alongside the causeways. Stopped by my local WalMart for a couple things and bumped into someone I haven't seen in quite a while---a mutual friends of ours, missybrat---you'll know who I mean when I say he's doing the same thing there that he was when he worked around the corner at WinnDixie. Was much pleased when he said how good I looked---was wearing a tan top with black and white print, brown capris---nothing special---but he commented that I'd lost quite a lot of weight. Considering that when he last saw me I was still with HWSNBN and I weighed around 393, er, yeah. I mentioned this and named numbers, which seemed to surprise him, but they're only numbers---I roll my eyes when I see one of those tabloid covers picking on someone who WEIGHS 200 POUNDS!!. Oh, please. I haven't weighed that since the second Nixon administration!

All was well until I walked up to my front door and saw the dreaded pink tag: My water's been cut off. This is unfortunate, since I seriously need a shower before church tomorrow. Luckily, Kat invited me to come stay with her before I departed with the C's. She took pity because of my lack of a/c, but that plus lack of water? I intend to set an alarm for Very Early tomorrow and see if I can zoom through her shower and still make it to church.

It looks like the coming paycheck is half gone already. Yikes, what a life! But all things considered, I'd rather be me than S.

Still at Schnauzerland. Hair has not been done, as I realized at the last minute that I had the chemicals but not the applicator bottle. Oopsie! The car is mostly packed up, I know S&T are on the road and may be back at any time, although I'm hanging around in hopes the weather will cooperate for fireworks. (9 PM) Made a soda run to Publix and crossed paths with CapeGypsy, who commented favorably on the hair.

Discovered to my chagrin (chagrin that I didn't notice this a week ago) that they have the OMG-every-single-premium-channel package---was up til 4AM watching DeVour---and yes, I've already seen it at least five times, but never on a humongous HDTV. Oh, teh pretty!

I was invited to go shopping with sbjb, and declined because I'm here and she's there and I was getting ready to watch Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which I hadn't seen...it's a good thing I'm familiar with the book, since it turned out that it was---wait for it!---dubbed in Spanish! I had a pretty fair idea of what was going on, although I had plenty of time to notice how many subplots were elided or dropped completely. The more I see of the young thing they've got playing Neville---with a Scots accent, no less!---the more I want to get back to my Neville and Drake 'verse---although my Draco is more like a young David Bowie than Tom Felton....

Yesterday at work was dead slow. I got a wild hair and did some scribbling...none of the usual suspects: I revisited Jericho, something I started at least a year ago. Kind of a 21st century western, with Deputy Bill and Jonah Prowse as a two-man posse on the trail of Bill's sister Melanie, who's been abducted by some post-nuke brothel keepers. There's probably not a huge audience for it, but it's been lurking in my head for a long time and seems to want to be written, so...at least I've done something with it.

I started a SPN/DeVour crossover...during the writer's strike, I think...and I've been thinking about that one, too. So many bunnies, so little time. I've got a bunch of stuff started, maybe a chapter or two complete, and along comes another bright idea and away I go.

It is raining fish right now, but that doesn't mean anything. In Florida, a lot can happen weather-wise in four hours.

Am back at Casa C after 8+ hours at Schnauzerland. It turns out that S's definition of "sandwich things" means Hot Pockets in her freezer, and not much else. (Meaning, I know what I'll be taking with me to work for lunches this week.) There was a chocolate cake under a translucent dome on the counter---I *wish* I'd checked it before going to Publix, as it turned out to be dotted with green mold when I made to pounce on it after dinner (turkey on sunflower seed bread with gruyere cheese, yum!). There's ice cream here, so I'll live.

Schnauzerland isn't the same without Macs. Stormy wheezes and Sunny barks when I come in but otherwise ignores me. PC (cat) is out more than she is in, not much there to bond with. In contrast, Rosie likes chasing a tennis ball (so did Macs), Bear is mellow, greets incoming people in a fairly dignified way, is seldom underfoot but is still friendly, and Gizmo (cat) is somewhat more affectionate than PC, but is present about the same amount of time.

Given the choice, despite the fact that S's bed is by far more comfortable (and NOT up a flight of stairs, either), despite her hot tub, I'd rather be here. I get along better with the computer, for one thing. The C's have interesting books, which S&T don't, and I've never had the sense of nagging dread that I was going to eat something or move something or somehow fuck up badly enough that they were going to Go Off on me. Also? I feel like they really value me/my services. It's not just a matter of money---AI left me some special 'gourmet' shampoo and some fun 'zines to look through, there are tasty things in the fridge---and they ask IF I can stay, not for granted that I can't possibly have anything more important to do.

So when the C's ask, Can I?---My pleasure. Any time. And it looks like the next time is going to be...next month. More a/c, yay!

However, S and I go back to...circa 1982. A long damn time. I'm bad at making 'no' stick when it's her. Even when the answer is HELL no with a cherry on top. Mea culpa....

Just got off the phone with S, who claims to have one foot out the door and the other on a banana peel. T was allegedly in the car tooting his horn. A mere 30 hours later than planned---that's not even a record!---which amuses the heck out of me.

I'm home, have snagged the parcel from my mailbox---haven't opened it yet, but I'm gleefully anticipating Jim Beaver's memoir, Life's That Way. Many thanks to pwcorgigirl, who, when I grumped that it isn't in our local library system, offered me her gently-read copy.

Watched last night's Harper's Island, oh my. Am going to hold off on Royal Pains---I have no doubt USA will rerun it.

Surprisingly, I'm not as wretchedly uncomfortable as I have been for the last few weeks, perhaps because I've been cool and happy for a few days, so it isn't cumulative misery.

Next up, I'm going to head over to Schnauzerland. I have learned not to take anything for granted, so I'm going to check the fridge there BEFORE I hit Publix. (It never fails---if I stop at the store, there will be tons of everything. If I don't, it'll be a bag of limp lettuce and some squishy tomatoes.)