This is why I'm so often barefoot...

I shared this picture earlier today on Google+ (I'll be posting my thoughts on G+ tomorrow), but it was cute and thought that the rest of you would enjoy seeing it.

In regards to my NaNoWriMo experiment, I'm a bit behind if I'm going to reach 50,000 by the end of the month, but that's okay. I'm getting through the hard part right now--at the end of this chapter I should hopefully be able to let loose and fly without providing context/exposition every fourth paragraph. That's the hope anyway. Still, I'm averaging not quite 1,500 words a day. I'm happy with that!


Total Word Count: 16,026

Holly: 1, Shelob: 0

"Watch out, Sam. There's a spider web across the length of the kitchen."

I'd just finished eating the last piece of bacon, tormenting Nala mercilessly the entire time. The cat has on more than one occasion licked up the bacon grease off of a plate if no one's watching.

She's a smart cat.

Sam was in the process of packing his lunch, and I'd looked up just in time to see a single thread of the web glinting in the morning light. Heeding my warning, he came to a dead stop, looking for it. I pointed it out to him, and he tore off a paper towel and proceeded to knock it down, no spider in sight.

"That's weird. Definitely not a cobweb," he noted as he threw the paper towel away.

"Don't tell me things like that," I shuddered. Spiders and I... well, we're not friends. "I'm just wondering how you'd missed it."

Sam shrugged. "It was up pretty high."

Knowing my fear of spiders, Sam proceeds to amuse and distract me as he finished packing his lunch. In the course of cleaning up breakfast, all thoughts of spiders and webs disappeared from my brain. Mission accomplished, he kissed me and then headed to work.

Later in the afternoon, I realized that there was far too much blood in my caffeine system. Understanding the direct relation between my writing and caffeine intake, I walked back into the kitchen to make another batch of coffee. I set it to brew and then tidied a few random things around the house while I waited. Re-entering the kitchen, I poured myself a mug and went to fetch some half-n-half from the fridge.

Walking along I caught a glimpse of black and felt something brush against my hair. Immediately I started batting at my hair, thinking a fly had somehow managed to get into the house and avoid the cats. I look around, surprised that I cannot hear it buzzing.

Now, my eyesight isn't the best in the world. In fact, it's pretty atrocious. Because of this, I often make assumptions based on the general size and color of objects.

So here I am, batting at the air about my head like a madwoman at what I think is a fly, when my brain repeats what it just realized: I cannot hear the fly buzzing. Pieces snapping into place in my brain, I shrieked and ran into the laundry room. I pulled clothes away and ran my fingers everywhere, trying to find any trace of the bug. Coming up with nothing, I turned and looked back into the kitchen.

Sure enough, there in the middle of the kitchen, hanging at about head height, was a spider dangling at the end of its thread. In my delusional state I'd been playing tether-ball with an arachnid.

Blood pounding, adrenaline pumping through my system, my vision tunneled down to where all I can see is this spider. Briefly I toyed with the idea of exiting the back door and walking around to the front of the house and just waiting for Sam to come home so he could deal with it. I discarded the idea, unwilling to call my husband home to deal with a spider yet again. (Yes, this has happened on multiple occasions. I fear, loathe, and hate anything with eight legs. It's irrational and I'm not proud of it, but there you go.)

Eyes darting about for something, anything, to deal with this intruder, they lit upon a broom in the corner. I reached out and grabbed it, not comprehending the fact that the dustpan was still snapped onto the end of it. I spun around, broom in hand, and with a resounding crash I smacked the spider out of the air and to the floor.

What followed was five minutes of me pounding the broom and dustpan into the floor with all the incoherent rage and violence of any murder done in passion. When I finally stopped, all that was left was a shattered dust pan and a messy ball of spider guts.

Breathing heavily, I slid down the wall and sat on the floor, closing my eyes and waiting for my body to calm down. Minutes passed, and when I opened my eyes I could not help but start laughing.

Nala was licking up the remains of the spider, purring the whole while.



Total Word Count: 14,544

Just like riding a bike

I promised all of you that I would be back on July 7, and true to my word I have returned.

Yes, I know you have missed me greatly. Rejoice! For the time of parting has passed.

Or something like that.

It was nice to take a break from the blog for awhile and not feel guilty about it. It's probably something I'll do again at some point. For now, I'm excited to be back, and I'm going to try and make it worth your while.

(Notice I've made no promises as to how successful at that I'll be.)

The past month has been filled with good times with friends and family, games, books, movies, and a plethora of happy memories. Hopefully at some point I'll remember to share them with all of you. If not, just know that the past month has been put to good use.

And now, to celebrate my return to the interwebs.... a cat picture!

Cat Variations 6

Sorry this didn't post yesterday. I was in a happy place hanging out with Literary Cat and Adorable Nurse, and didn't notice the glitch until this morning. 

Similar to the previous batch that was mostly a straightforward edit, this set focuses on trying to make the photos soft and gentle. Cuddly even.

Of course, the only cat that's truly cuddly is Nala, though Tiger tries to pretend otherwise. Techie wants to be cuddly, but has no clue how to go about it. At least he doesn't hide quite as much as he used to.

(For the longest time, Adorable Nurse refused to believe that Techie actually existed.)

Which kitty would you want to cuddle?

For high-res versions of the pictures, please visit their Flickr album.

Previous treatments include black and white, seventies, summer, dusty, basic.

Cat Variations 5

Most of what I've done thus far has involved aging the pictures in some way. For this next treatment, I decided to try a more straightforward feel to them. Most it involved enriching the colors and a little basic editing. Of course, some photos reacted better to the process than others.

For your viewing pleasure, a basic treatment:

To view high-res versions of the pictures, please visit their Flickr album.

Previous treatments include black and white, seventies, summer, and dusty.

Cat Variations 4

As I've mentioned before, I've spent a good deal of time going through old family photos, scanning, labeling, and touching them up. Some of my favorites are pictures from the turn of the previous century. While I know that my cats would never in a million years stay still for the old technology to capture them, it's still fun to pretend.

With that in mind, for this next treatment I tried to make them look like old, dusty portraits.

Has anybody found a favorite yet?

To see high-res versions of the pictures, check out their album on Flickr.

Previous treatments include black and white, seventies, and summer.

Cat Variations 3

I almost left Techie out of this particular batch, because he absolutely refused to stay still when I took this set of pictures of the cats. Then I found the one included here that I'd overlooked several times. You don't see his pretty eyes the way you can with the girls, but it's the best picture of the lot.

For this next set, I wanted a hazy warmth. Something that made me think of lazy summer days, especially since Tiger looks like she's drinking up sunshine in these pictures. I'm fairly pleased with the way they came out. Of course, I'm more interested on what you all may have to say.

Without further ado, the "Summer" treatment:

To see higher res versions of these pictures, check out their album on Flickr.

Earlier treatments include black and white and the seventies.

Cat Variations 2

It's amazing to me sometimes the differences that Photoshop can make in certain pictures. For this next set, I wanted them to feel like the pictures my Papa took back in the seventies. One of the results was that everything ended up with a blue-green tinge to it, which made Nala's pictures come out so much better than in the black and white photos. By the same token, I feel like Tiger's pictures were much better in the black and white treatment.

Once again, let me know your opinions on the pictures. I'm too close to the project to have an objective view!

Here are my kittens again, this time with a "seventies" treatment.

To see higher res versions, please see my Flickr account.

Previous treatment done to the photos was black and white.

Cat Variations 1

I love cats. I also love taking pictures.

Especially taking pictures of cats.

In addition, I love playing with Photoshop.

Best part of playing with Photoshop? Playing with pictures of cats.

For a bit of fun and variety, I've decided to do a series of posts containing (for the most part) the same set of pictures with different treatments done to them. I'm curious as to what are people's favorite shots and styles, so if any strike your fancy, please let me know!

To begin with, we'll start with a black and white treatment:

If you'd like to see high-res versions of these pictures, take a look at their album on Flickr.

We are not amused

Yes, Tiger finally got us to open the box. She even shared it with Nala.

Snuggle buddies

Made my very first lolcat today...

I hope you like it!




Pssst. Go vote for it!

Context

For about a decade of my life, I worked in theatre in one capacity or another. Over the course of that decade, I had a 20 foot A-frame ladder dropped on me (three times), I fell off the stage (more times), I fell in holes on the stage (twice), fell down a flight of stairs (once), and fell off a truss (once). Those are just the major injuries--doesn't include burns, cuts, sprained ankles, etc.

I tell you this not to make you feel sorry for me, or to comment on my klutziness, or even to brag in some perverse way. I'm telling you this to make my next few statements make more sense.

(It's not whining, it's context.)

The past two days saw snowfall (on Wednesday) and sub-zero temperatures (on Thursday). This meant that every part of my body that was damaged over the time I spent in theatre flared up with pain and refused to let me get anything done.

Yes, even blogging.

And, unfortunately, I won't be getting much blogging in today, as it's finally warm enough that I can move around the house and accomplish things. This is good because the poor house has been neglected (Sammy has been amazing about trying to get the essentials done, but he is working from home as well), and as such most of today will go to whipping it back into shape.

This evening, Rapier Wit and Literary Cat will be coming into town for the weekend, and we're hoping to spend a good deal of time with them. At the very least, tonight will be D&D and tomorrow will be Zios (mmmmmm... good stuff) and general hanging out.

All this to say, if you don't hear from me until next Monday, I promise I'm not dead, just out enjoying the world. That's not to say it's an impossibility I'll post stuff between now and then, but the chances are significantly reduced.

For that, here's a picture of a cat:

This is Nala when we were living in Dallas. Picture courtesy of Sherri.

How was the trip?

*bat* *bat* *bat* *bat*

Opening one eye, I see Nala's nose a mere inches from mine. With a sigh I reach up and scratch her ears, then close my eye and try to go back to sleep.

*bat* *bat* *bat* *bat*

Nala's decided I've been lazy enough for one morning, it's nine o'clock, and by golly she's going to bat at my face until I get up and get dressed.

For a brief moment I consider opening a Chinese restaurant, but decide she's too cute and I love her.

After stumbling out of my bed to brush my teeth and get dressed, I proceed to continue stumbling to the coffee pot before sitting in front of the computer.

I wonder what everyone's up to today? I think to myself as I open up Facebook.

Oh look, the local university has closed down for the third day in a row. They never did that while I was in school there. Kids these days... Hey, my friend posted pics of her wedding dress! She's so pretty. I hope I can make it down to Houston for the big day... Wow, I wish I was going back to London soon, lucky dog...

Having caught up on all the little updates that Facebook provides, I then move over to my blog reading, starting with people I actually know.

will's kid is so gosh darn cute. Makes me want a little one of my own. Literary Cat has posted new list of books for me to check out, awesome! Ah man, she's got a cold too. Can't blame Sam for this one--he hid away while Rapier Wit was in town. Aww, thanks Sherri! I now know exactly how much snow fell 'round these parts...


*   *   *   *   *


You may be wondering why I just posted a snippet of my morning routine--it's setup for this fascinating op-ed over at Mashable about how social media is making us more like our grandparents' generation.

Here's the core of Josh Rose's argument:

Our grandparents talked with their parents. Family dinners were an essential part of life, not to mention ball games, religious discussions, family outings and just plain hanging out on the porch. But the culture of our parents’ generation became somewhat more escapist; James Dean, punk rock, The Outsiders, TV dinners, video games, and yes, even the Internet.

But, a good portion of our grandparents’ sensibilities are back today, thanks to social media.

Kids aren’t blocking their parents from their Facebook profiles — well, OK, some are, but not all of them. Teens are texting their parents about their comings and goings. And although it looks a whole lot different than the Cleavers’ family dinner, in a strange way the book is wider open today than it has been in 100 years. Because of blogging, tweeting, checking in and status updating, the lock is off the diary.

Additionally, emotions are more accepted. Pain more vocalized. I know someone on Facebook who is dealing with cancer and posts regularly about that for all her friends and family to see. We are rediscovering what we once knew inherently; community makes us less lonely.

And in many ways I see that reflected in my own life, as shown in the snippet up above. Even though I live in a completely different state from a large swath of my friends and family, I still know when people are going on trips, what the weather is like there, and how everyone's kids are doing in school. Having grown up in a small town, that doesn't seem very strange to me, as I typically knew that information about the people in the community. But I can see how it's easier now than it was when I was a kid, and I can also see why this is such a novelty for many people who did not grow up in a town of 10,000 people.

What do you guys think?

Mama, what's all that white stuff?

Apparently old man winter decided that by golly he was going to prove that yes, he is still around.

Last night about an hour or two before we decided to call it a night, we started hearing the freezing rain hitting the roof.

Then came the thunder snows.

Growing up, my Mama always told me that if it was thundering when you were receiving snow, then hold on to your hats, folks, you were getting at least a foot of snow.

When I got up this morning, there was a nice thick layer of snow on the ground, and while it was snowing, it wasn't very hard.

I grabbed my camera and took some shots, figuring that it was likely the end of the snowfall for the day.

Oh boy was I wrong about that!

We've gotten a few more inches of snow since then, and currently if I look out my front window I can just barely see the house across the street.  Supposedly it's going to start tapering off here in the next couple of hours, but I'm not going to hold my breath until I see it dissipating. After all, I think that's for the city. Weather underground indicates that my town will be receiving snow until 4 or so.

We'll see how it turns out.

(Yes, I'm skeptical when it comes to weather predictions, why do you ask?)

Sam decided to stay home and work out of the back office today, which was wise in my opinion. It's always a bit weird when Sam decides to work from home--it goes back to that whole quantity time thing.

That, and it's 9 degrees Fahrenheit outside and feels like -15. While my heater is doing an alright job, it's still bloody cold inside, and all I want to do is snuggle up with my Sammy.

My Papa always had this pearl of wisdom in regards to cold: "People say cold is better than hot, because you can always put on more clothes than you can take off. Thing is, unlike heat, cold hurts."

Just ask my hips and my knuckles.

The kitty cats have been fascinated with all of that white stuff falling out of the sky, even though I know for a fact that all three of them have been through snowstorms before. Then again, Nala and Techie are originally from Dallas, so perhaps it's a bit more novel for them.

Doesn't explain Tiger though--she was born in this part of the country, and lived up north for several years.