Dear Chest Cold,

It's not at all nice to infect all of us at once; I mean, how many horrible hacking coughs can one hoursehold have? Too many, I say. How about you let up on a few of us? I'm getting real sick of being sick, and certain members of this family cough way too loudly way too often for the rest of us to sleep.

Sincerely,
Me

Right now:

• I just took a very unsatisfactory shower (the thing broke and they only got it half fixed before the holiday), but I feel better anyway
• I have a horrible cold--sore throat, coughing, mucus, the whole deal
• I broke my favorite teacup while I was busy not sleeping last night because my arm was just enough asleep (when the rest of me wasn't) to affect my grip
• Mom replaced it with her antique Chinese tea cup from when we lived overseas, and it's lovely, but now I'm afraid I'm going to break that one, too
• Nasal irrigation is really gross when you have a head cold, but it helps so much
• I wish City of Bones was out already so that I can go see it right now
• Making nail polish has made my synaesthesia more noticeable; I'm always concerned about what color things are now, and it's a little weird, but also feels like I'm using my brain for the right things for the first time in a long time
• I had no less than five ideas for middle-grade stories series the other day; I've never written middle-grade. Now I feel the need to read a bunch of it to refresh my mind on how it works.
• I'm suddenly in love with the Rubaiyat poem structure; lets see if anything comes of it
• My feet are cold, but there's tea in my belly
• I've been having a melancholy week; this holiday season is off to a great start, mentally and emotionally (sarcasm mark)
• I can't wait until I get all my books up here and out of storage; I'm dying to reread some of them

Shonagonisms: Things I know from living with a cat

• You don't own a cat; they just sort of agree to live in your house and act like it's theirs.
• You can't train a cat, but they can totally train you.
• Scoop the litter box all the time--like, every time you look at it--to keep the cat from peeing on anything else.
• Corollary: Keep the litter box as close to the toilet as possible to facilitate easy scooping.
• The stinkier the food and the closer you feed them to your bed, the more the cat will love the food.
• A warm cat on a cold day is proof that god loves us.
• It's totally not weird to refer to cats as 'babies' even after they've been alive for more than a decade.
• Expensive cat toys will be ignored; gum wrappers, scraps of paper, old string, these are acceptable and fun, but only when you're not looking.
• Other cats are all jerks to your favorite cat, even when they're getting along.
• Catbeds are unneccessary; stacks of papers you need to access, narrow spaces that shouldn't be lay-on-able, your pillow when you need it, the middle of your view of the TV, the middle of the book you're currently reading, these are all places for cats to sleep.
• A kitten sitting on your foot is the best reason not to get up and do something you don't want to do anyway.
• Cats can take care of themselves, they just like it better when you do.
• Furry alarm clocks are more accurate than mechanical ones.
• It's totally reasonable to spend a day following sunspots through the house.
• Every cat remembers, from before it was born, that it's related to lions and was once a god. Act accordingly.

Monthly Me: November 2012

Unpacking the trunk of the car, the stupid hood fell on my face.
My feet are a mess.
Laser cats totally attacked me and I got photographic proof!
The house is all full of weird unintentional tableaux.

Monday Inspiration - Harry S. Truman

"It's not the hand that signs the laws that holds the destiny of America. It's the hand that casts the ballot."

- Harry S. Truman

Today's inspiration comes from The Daily Love email!

Yarn

A resurrected post from an old blog that I got in my inbox through one of those reminder email things, and still info I think is good to know!

notes for future crafting:
- you can make yarn out of nettles and it's similar to hemp yarn
- other fibers to find: recycled silk, banana, flax, bamboo, natural cotton
- yaks make yarn, too!
- added to sheep, goats, llamas, alpacas, rabbits, fuzzy cats, camels
- i wonder if hairy cows make down? or, like, buffalo or elk or moose or something like that?
- and alaskan musk oxen! (called qiviut)

info to find:
- how to spin all these renewable natural fibers myself / how much of each plant is needed to make a viable amount and still have growing populations?
- how to recycle things that have already been clothified into new yarn
- is there such a thing as a home-built mill? how do you do it?
- directions for building home-made looms
- directions for building home-made spinning wheels
- places to get these lovely things on the cheap to figure out how they work...
- how to raise yarn animals, how many are needed, and what else they can be used for (milk? maneure? meat? pest-plant control? oils, like lanolin?
random other things i don't know about?)

Video: Doctor Who Is A Religion

Help make the Ars Magica game a reality!

You may or may not know that I'm a writer and sometimes editor for Black Chicken Studios. We now have a new project, and we could really use a little Kickstarter love to make it real. What do you think?

Black Chicken Studios, working under license from Atlas Games, is delighted to present a new simulation role-playing game for the PC. After 25 years and 5 editions, Ars Magica will at long last be paid tribute in a single-player, turn-based video game. Authentic to the original, this is a faithful, beautiful, and accurate depiction of covenant gameplay and the RPG’s legendary magic system during a dangerous century in the Stonehenge Tribunal. With your help, we’ll bring Ars Magica: Years of Conquest and its tapestry of wars, intrigue, invasion and, above all, magic to life!

Quote - Eckhart Tolle

To complain is always nonacceptance of what is. It invariably carries an unconscious negative charge. When you complain, you make yourself a victim. Leave the situation or accept it. All else is madness."

- Eckhart Tolle, German born best-selling author.

Source: TheDailyLove.com email newsletter

Babysitter Tales - Ball

The baby, A2, and I were out in the carport to get some sun, and he decided he wanted to play a game. We had the basketball, but he gets bored with that because he isn't all that good at bouncing it yet, and he isn't strong enough or tall enough yet to make baskets, so he came up with a new game.

It goes like this:

He has two rocks, a big one and a small one, and he moves them up and down the stairs in some sort of pattern while I hold the basketball and wait on him. When they both get down to the ground, through whatever arcane logic goes through a two-year-old's head, then he runs over and grabs my skirt from behind and moves me back and forth and up and down the driveway until I'm just where he wants me to be. Then, he pushes on my butt with both of his hands and yells "go!" and I have to shoot the basket. Meanwhile, he runs around me and picks up this big stick with all these skinny little branches at the end and tries to catch the ball as it comes down, but he won't look at the ball when it's in the air because it's too sunny and so he has his eyes all squinched up and his head turned to the side. 

Then we start all over again.

We did this for maybe half an hour. Normally, the baby's repetitions get to me after a few times; I know he's learning things for the first time, but it gets tiresome. This, though, was actually fun, and he was so cute as he moved me back and forth just so.

It's the newest game on the block. Everyone'll be talking about it.