Month: November 2015

CARNAGE

Buster brought in 4 RATS yesterday, laying them all out in a row downstairs.  He’s killing them all so Jeff doesn’t have to deal with rats which have died in locales where they are like to rot or little bits’o rat everywhere, just secure tail and trash.

THE HEATER IS NOT BROKE.  It merely has an absurdly sensitive orientation sensor and Buster probably knocked it off its flatness while jumping down from my desk.  Everything a-ok there.

Took a walk down to get cream yesterday morning.  It was a crisp crisp morning so I wore the mitts my mOm knitted for Katie that I somehow ended up with and the cute animé hat Keith got me a couple of years back.

Later I went to the interview.  It’s always interesting seeing myself and all my imperfections as a potential employee reflected through someone else.  The poor little gal who interviewed me.  I hope my pity for her didn’t show.  She’s probably just barely making a living at what she’s doing, but she was wearing a thousand dollars’ worth of clothing and a freaking expensive watch and had the coldest, limpest handshake I’ve shared in probably years. I thought that when she shook my hand it was probably the first time her hand had felt warm since the last interview.  Stupidly big office, in one of the industrial/office complexes on Still Creek. The entire courtyard had so much bird shit in it I felt ill walking through it and you all know me as being somebody who can deal with disgusting with fewer collywobbles than most socialized women. Drove away thinking what an incredible waste of time it was, but I’m still going to send her my references.

Then got beer and various foodicles, why not, it was on my way home.

Then we caught up on the Librarians and Robot Chicken, etc.

I have no idea what will happen to my writing energy if I get a job.  We’ll see. I know I can work and write, but it needs a ‘specially calm kind of job to allow me to think about stuff and write.

Jeff is awesome.  He has been helping me with technology (backups), when he’s not trying to pull info out of third parties and disposing of rats.

Word count over 7000 as of today.

Tomorrow the bday party for Katie. I already got her her present, and I’m not talking about it in a public forum, but most of my friends already know and so my expression of precarious and secretive amusement is thus explained.

Heater’s dead

The little heater I bought (20 bucks) to warm my room has burnt out already. I will ask Jeff to look at it but it is probably DED. Sigh. I didn’t notice until just now, but I think it must have quit a couple of days ago, my room has been FREEZING.

Yesterday Paul called (woke me from a sound sleep at 2 pm) and said the weather is shit but it should stop raining for the next 1.5 hours so we went to Oakalla.  Twice stuff snapped off trees and fell close to us but no harm done and then he feasted me at India Bombay Bistro where I had OKRA and chicken vindaloo. (They have an okra dish that is so good Paul and I had no difficulty polishing it off.  Kingfisher beers to round off the meal, and then Paul had to drop me home so he could go off and fetch Keith who was just back from Victoria.

Word count now stands at 6310. So not exactly a big day yesterday, but satisfactory.

I should take a walk and get cream for coffee at some point this morning.  I think we’re going to take a walk in the rain (in the novel.)

Current count 5813

What an amazing 57th birthday I had!!

I ate a meal I didn’t cook for brekky (left over Desi Turka chicken tikka masala with rice pulao), I ate a meal I didn’t cook for lunch, for Jeff feasted me at Switzerland Chicken, and I ate a meal I didn’t cook for dinner, as Mike feasted me with pan fried oysters and new potatoes.

We watched all the rest of Black Sails more or less because we couldn’t help ourselves.  Then I watched the season 3 teaser trailer just to drive myself nuts; god willing and the crick don’t rise I’ll have more in January around Conflikt time.

I brushed and degunked Margot and avoided being killed on the stairs by Buster.  My rapid increase in wordcount you can tell for yourself and I shipped off some new stuff to mOm.

I got phone calls wishing me a happy birthday from Mike, Katie, my mOm and ewishes from Patricia and DJD. Absolutely nobody on facebook wished me a happy birthday.  258 facebook friends and you get a prompt for friends’ birthdays, but not a sausage (hey I needed the message about social media not being as important as my flesh and blood friends…)

I slept over at Mike’s so we had just enough to drink to be festive but not to drive, and I do not feel muzzy headed this morning so I think I titrated the dose properly.  ASBACK BRANDY BE GREAT YO. Tecate Beer tastes like a man complaining of an unhappy marriage.  I shall not drink that beer again. I even wrote 185 more words last night while I was here.  It was a particularly writing sort of day.

I got prezzies! A foot soaker tub and a headrest pillow for air travel.  SO HAPPY and so very unexpected, but I’m not too old to appreciate it.

I wrote a letter to my MP and ran a load of laundry and backed up my documents.

am I not awesome!?

Lots of writing yummy food and yes I know I am a big kid. And we’ll feast again on Katie’s bday on Friday, yay!

Weather’s the pits and the wind’s going to come up but I’m snug where I am and it’s wonderful. Vitamin D and probiotics make me a better person.

 

OH AND ONE LAST THING. I have an interview with a job agency on Wednesday.  Just came right out of the blue.  Isn’t that a perfect thing to happen on my birthday?  Nothing likely will come of it but you never know, and I got all those nice new work clothes from EShakti, and nicer bras and underwear too over the last six months so if I DID get a job I wouldn’t be going O M F G what do I wear tomorrow. So really, a spectacular day.

While I’m all bubbly and babbly….

TOBY STEPHENS PULLS HIS BEARD AND IT MAKES ME HAPPY gratuitous Black Sails reference. Especially since it’s really his beard, and did you know he’s Maggie Smith’s younger son, and married to that Plowman actress who played Sarah/Osiris for 4 seasons on SG1?  Screw Kevin Bacon SG1 is where the connections really fly.

Deadwood of the Caribbean

Higher body count and more cannons but you get the general idea. That’s Black Sails, which I heart so much only the prospect of there being two more seasons is preventing me from panicking about there only being 2 or 3 more episodes from season 2 before it runs out.  I honestly want to go straight to Jeff’s door, bang on it and say IT IS MY BIRTHDAY I want to BINGE WATCH THE REST RIGHT NOW. He’d probably agree though, and then what? We have nothing awesome in prospect right now except mopping up on seasons 6 and 7 of The West Wing.

Current word count 4379. Things are a little smoother after a rocky start. Glykeria has arrived at Raven’s door.

I have applied for ISBN numbers for my ebook editions of the novels.  Two weeks to wait.

Getting irritable over no Alex except for two seconds when I went to meet his momma at London Drugs and he was asleep.

Weather here is damp and nasty.

Margot got her Sunday dinner last night (I wait right until 6 pm to give it to her) and she SANG FOR HER SUPPER which was three anxious little merps – she can’t actually mew since she had the surgery. Then she stuffed her face in the dish and ate like she had no expectation of ever receiving food again from anyone.  Every time she slowed down, she’d back away with that funny little caterpiggle in reverse movement, pause, and then she’d jam her little face in like a front end loader and scarf again until she ran out of breath.  I watched her eat, it was a tender combination of hilarious and sad.

So many of my friends are having pets die and animals put down right now the Rainbow Bridge is getting crowded. Love your people critters and your fur critters as hard as you can!

word count at 3650

I am following along with Raven, who is living alone on Saltspring in a rented cottage, and Pharos, who is attempting to do a podcast while his little brother messes things up at random, and Theo, who is trying to understand how humans do medicine.

The writing is going reasonably well, not as voluminous as one would like of course, but that’s hard to manage all the time.  Sometimes the writing seizes you like this, but mostly it doesn’t.

Wrenchingly sad about Paris, but not enough to drape my blog with red white and blue.

 

Beautiful evening

3381 words so far

Mike took me to Horizons restaurant for an early birthday dinner.  I had arctic char and the chewiest – and I mean chewiest – brussel sprouts I hadn’t actually picked myself.  The waiter took them off the bill (sides are extra).

Anyway I’m back at home after breakfast at Amelia’s.

I am feeling very good.  Mike and I played and sang for a while this morning, and I recommend it as a way to start the day.

I was horrified and saddened and filled with the desire to be kind and compassionate and generous in response to the Paris attacks.  Life on earth is uncertain and never long enough. Love each other while you can.

 

 

Black Sails

Black Sails Season 1 overview (no spoilers).

1. Like other historical and pseudohistorical shows, dialogue is a blend of the high-toned and the many bad swearz low-brow. Both have their charms.
2. Costumes are not 100 % but close enough that you won’t want to kill the designer. Guys look good with open shirts and neckerchiefs, okay?
3. Anne Bonney is played by a tiny little woman with a deep, deep voice (Clara Paget). Heart. Who has a BDSM relationship with her partner. Yeah.
4. SO TIRED OF THE MAGICAL NEGRO CHARACTER. I mean no disparagement to Hakeem Kae-Kazim, classically trained Old Vic actor, but it’s a one note character so far (must repay the woman who taught him to read even if her plots etc etc) although they do manage to subvert the ‘I will suck up anything as your faithful family retainer’ meme a teeny bit.
5. SO TIRED OF THE MAGICAL WHORE CHARACTER. But DAMN she is hot, and Canadian. So. She ain’t Inara but she’s mesmerizing.
6. Despite this show being Long John Silver’s backstory (yup!) there are long stretches when he doesn’t appear. When he does appear, he prods the plot along like Satan himself. And he’s played by a fresh faced Australian lad who’s also quite cute.
7. They save it until later episodes, but there is peen.
8. Don’t even try to predict what will happen next.
9. Scenes of pirates putting in their false crazy teeth before a fight heart heart heart.
10. REALLY REALLY AMAZING FIGHTING SAIL SCENES. Like the best ever shown in a tv show. If you like Patrick O’Brian you may enjoy the show just for that.
11. Guns misfire. BWA HA HA HA HA !
12. Ship’s kitty! d’awwww
13. Ew, 17th century medical procedures.
14. As previously mentioned, somewhat period instruments orchestrated by Bear McCreary for your musical pleasure.
15. And otherwise, very evocative and clever sound design.
16. If you can go longer than 15 seconds without thinking that Hannah New playing Elinor Guthrie (previously she was the Princess from Maleficent) is actually a smarter and nicer version of Cersei Lannister, you’re a better person than I am.

 

Also 310 words yesterday.  Something very weird happened and now I am wrassling with my characters for control.

Clouds

Check it out. I remember the time mOm and I saw a wide assortment of lenticular clouds, including the classic porthole UFO and airship models….

We’re gonna have a wet winter…. I can feel it coming on.

Word count was 650 yesterday on the new novel.  I promptly took a wrong turn.  I may have to rip it all out like a lousy knitter. Word count each day until it’s done is 603 – that will get me finished for the 1st of April next year.  I nearly clarned Keith when he said, “How apropos.” OR I could tell myself word count is 4400 words a week and not worry too much about when I do it.  Somehow I think writing every day is better, but I cannot really understand why that is.

Keith came over last night and I sprang for Chinese food from Spring Garden, our restaurant since Chong Lum Hin closed (still not happy about this).  I also just learned that Roundhouse Pizza, reliably the best ‘za in the ‘hood, has closed. VERY VERY SAD. Must find replacement, and that will not be easy because it’s all institutional crap like Domino’s BARF and Panago DOUBLE BARF.

Anyway all of the food was delicious, but the man who delivered the food was so cheerful he literally put a scare into all three of us. I wish I was kidding.

Today I’m having lunch with Sue at IHOP and having thinky thoughts about remembrance.

Lovely walk

The sun came out yesterday and Paul and I walked in the neighbourhood and had a little snack afterwards.

Today I am cheerfully assembling book II – the chapters need to go in the final order. I know that you’re supposed to write things in sequence, but that’s not how I do it.  So I read and review and add and cut and try to get it into a reasonable order, and mix up the fast with the slow, etc. I’ve already been at it for an hour.  —- and a couple more hours go by and I’m done.

When it’s the right time it’s easy.  mOm you can expect the mss soon by email.

Happy sad happy work happy

Some dumbass jumped off BC Ferries yesterday and triggered a full on dual ferry search and rescue mess.  SO GLAD I WAS NOT ON THAT FERRY going to see my mOm.

I am eating coffee and pecan pie for breakfast.  This makes me evil but that’s okay.

SADFACE no Alex today.  He and Katie have a chest cough and I do not want to get it or bring it home to Jeff, so maybe later.  And later runs into Victoria trip, and like that.

Yesterday off to Mike’s for the afternoon, then we had an early supper at the Korean ramen place across from his apartment on Kingsway.  The gyoza were good but I’m glad I didn’t order what Mike did, because if that was spiced mild, the hot could be used for spot welding.

NOW I AM GOING TO WRITE I HAVE NO EXCUSE ALEX IS NOT GOING TO BE HERE TODAY.

221 words yesterday

Not much but Little By Little I guess.

Raining very hard here for quite a while, it’s ever so dreary outside.  All I want to do is jump in the car, drive to the place of foodicles and buy 200 DOLLAR WORTH OF JUNK FOOD AND NOMschlurpNOMNOMschlurpGROWLshlurp IT ALL DOWN NAAAAOW!

I get to see Alex tomorrow.

Margot appears to have completely recovered from her surgery.  Her eyes are bright and her demeanour normal.

I think I have fixed my laptop overheating problem with Jeff’s input.  I knocked down everything in Chrome that could be heating things up in the background and now my average running temperature is literally 30 degrees C cooler than it was day before yesterday.  This means my laptop is no longer likely to just DIE abruptly although I’m sure it shortened the life of both the battery and the CPU.

 

Little bit of Alex, no writing

Oh, it was so good to see baby Alex today.  He was in wonderful shape, running and playing and being cooperative and stubborn in pretty much equal doses. Paul fed me and the kids and Alex and we had a quite jolly get together. Keith has set up a meditation room, and I approve.

I have a really bad case of dyspepsia that’s lasted 24 hours now.  I may be breaking out Tums before this is over

Full breakfast, no words

I didn’t write at all yesterday but that’s because I was too busy napping and getting fed and irrigated.  I am now awaiting brekky at Mike’s place, having consumed my morning cawfay.  Mike took yesterday off, which is good because he was feeling crappy.

Starting to feel healthier now that I’m not welded into my beddy bye.  You can make neck muscles either seize or hypertrophy and that affects your carotid arteries which is not to put too fine a point on it hard on your brain.  Immediate result my low level migraine crap has more or less stopped, yay.

This was the view from Taverna Greka yesterday.

View from Taverna Greka Nov 2015

 

 

421 words yesterday

86927 is the current word count.  What it will look like after editing – generally things get shorter – is anyone’s guess.

Went to see Otto – my friend, not my mandolin – for coffee yesterday.  He has hopes, having lost the lease on his ceramics studio, to getting another one in Port Coquitlam and I really hope so because it’s only two minutes from a kiln and he’d have 24-7 access to it.  He gave me a lift home.  It was very wet yesterday and I walked down to Coming Home Café and got wet from my crotch to the ground; the rain was coming in sideways under the umbrella.  Fortunately with my current temperature control issues I merely felt pleasantly cool.

Working in clay, boy howdy. If I feel like getting up in the middle of the night to write (at my grandfather’s desk – you will all be happy to know that I am no longer writing or internetting in bed, guh — but I am allowing myself to read in bed) it’s easy to do.  I stumble across the room, fire up my brand new ceramic heater because by gadfrey it’s chilly in here and then I write, or pretend to.  Right now rather than pretending to I’m going to get up and get the coffee I forgot to bring upstairs when I went downstairs to practice.

ZEEEE! but first a few words about our sponsors, the cats. (Sorry, I’ll hack my feet off and eat them before I insert sound effects in my blog, so the ZEEEE! was an attempt to jam in some old-fashioned imaginary radio magic. Okay, it didn’t work but goddamnit I tried.)

MAN the cats love the new regime of warm and cold wet cat food in a seemingly endless supply.  They are used to one can every two months and the rest of the time they are on kibble; and solid snax. Buster now does the leap in the air and clap his paws together almost every time I give him the snackies, except about once in ten he’ll roll on the carpet and with one slitted eye commanding my compliance direct me to just drop it now, there’s a good chap. This is usually when I try to snack him up midday, when he’s normally up a cat tree and out cold.

He is so cute when he sleeps on the couch downstairs.  Sometimes nobody but Jeff will do, and Jeff obligingly holds himself so as accommodate whatever bizarre assemblage of furry cubist limbs Buster’s arranged himself into this time. Other times he Wants Mama’s Skritches and I become increasingly deranged in my attempts to scratch his chin while Jeff looks on with alarm. He extends all his limbs like Nijinsky, flops around with so little regard for feline dignity that it seems clear his early socialization was with very good tempered dogs, and cares not for what you squeeze or touch, almost as if he’s in some kind of neurological state of pleasant inebriation.

Margot is shedding like crazy.  I had noticed that stressed cats do this, but this is like the February snow storm of cat fur came early, and I am disgust.

FML, back to work. Or not.  WHo is it tHat mesSAges me? I hear the ting ting that I’ve gotten a message. Forget message get coffee. ARGHH TOO MANY DECISIONS.