Category Archives: Words Words Words

New Desk!

HRH picked up my new desk from Kino Kid last night. It’s new to me but previously used and loved by her, being the writing desk she had in storage. It has a lovely pine board surface, chunky slightly curved legs, and an antique stain… I love it. For almost eight years now I’ve been using the Ikea clear-varnished pine desk I found in the As-Is and while it’s perfectly serviceable, Kino Kid was looking to find new homes for some furniture and I’d been wishing I could have something less functional and more aesthetically pleasing. So we helped each other out.

My office looks huge. My desk looks tiny and neat and focused. I need a narrower low shelf unit to house my printer and provide a bit more storage, but other than that I’m very happy. A smaller desk means less clutter, and a happier me.

It occurs to me, however, that the cats aren’t going to be so happy now that there’s less room in which to writhe as they attempt to distract me from working. In fact, there’s not a lot of cat-friendly room once the keyboard is put in place. This is not necessarily a bad thing…

Morning

One of the perqs (no pun intended — oh, all right, yes it is) about having Karine working in the basement office is that she brews the most delicious-smelling decaf coffee that leaps out and clings to one’s soul when one goes down to switch the laundry, saying, Drink me! Drink me! .

And she shares it.

It’s Really All The Cats’ Work

A few years ago I was posting insane word count during a NaNo, and someone joked that I had one or more of the cats churning out slush for me.

I’m sure everyone will be grateful to know that Nixie is not, in fact, contributing to this latest book.

(I have a new desk! I’ll be replacing this one sometime this week! Hurrah!)

What We Did On The First Sunday Of August

Ever since I can remember, the first Sunday in August has been the Highland Games.

I’ve remembered it too late to schedule it in over recent years, or we’ve been busy, but this year we made it. We packed up both godfamiles, and off we all went for an afternoon out in the gorgeous sun. There wasn’t a spot of humidity anywhere, and there was a decent breeze, thank goodness.

HRH wore his kilt — of course — and Liam wore the tiny kilt that my grandfather got for me from Edinburgh when I was a wee little thing. They stopped a lot of traffic.

Liam loved the massed bands; he loved the drums and the pipes (not a surprise at all, considering his heritage and the cousins who play both); he loved all the dogs he saw; he smiled at and charmed just about everyone he met. He reached for a total stranger to cuddle with her, but it was fine, because it turned out that she was the wife of one of the members of Salty Dog, a local Celtic band that HRH used to hang out with lo these many years ago. And she was more than happy to cuddle him a bit before heading off to the beer tent where the band was striking up. He absolutely was not interested in napping, or eating that much; too much to see! to do! to hear! The one thing he wasn’t happy about was the cannon that was part of the opening ceremonies. He’d been fine through the display of musketfire, but when they fired the cannon he was looking the other way. The sudden sharp sound surprised him more than anything else, so there was a bit of angry crying. But after he’d cuddled with each of us and had a bit more milk, he was fine and interested in the bands marching onto the field.

I came home with badly sunburned shoulders, despite the amount of sunscreen I slathered on before departure. But apart from that, it was a wonderful wonderful day, one of the best I’ve had in a while. The massed bands at the opening ceremonies were, as always, worth the $10 admission fee alone. And it felt really special to bring my son to his first games, as I’d been brought to too many to count while growing up.

When Typos Express What We’re Really Thinking About

Ah, subtext.

In essence, Brigid is a goddess of transformation, and smiting is perhaps the clearest example of this.

What, me, annoyed at something? Why do you ask? (Or perhaps that ought to be “still annoyed at something”, or “more of a similar something”.)

Smite is such a lovely word. Of Germanic origin, you know, giving us our Anglo-Saxon word “smith”, meaning “to hit”. Lots. Against something hard. Perhaps I will begin using this word more frequently. As in, “Move or I will smite you.” Or, “Stop telling me you know me better than I do, relative stranger, or there will be smiting.” Or perhaps, “Say one more thing about how I work — or worse, should work — and you will find yourself smitten.”

Liam Update

Almost a full two months after the fact, there are finally pictures from Liam’s birthday weekend up:


Liam’s First Birthday Weekend Extravaganza!

You may notice the page looks a little different from the earlier photo albums. Someday I’ll get around to recoding the old ones to match the new design and the new site. You know, in all that spare time I have.

ESTC Update

Total words, ESTC: 6,356
Total words today: 1,513

Well, that’s about all there is to say about that. Mousme‘s presence kept me writing when all I really wanted to do was lean my head back against the chair, close my eyes, and fall asleep.

I’ve lost my USB jump drive, which is annoying but not a crisis. I carried it in my purse as the ultimate backup of all my novels and NF books, complete or in progress. I have no idea where it’s gone. I’ll need to buy another one soon because even emailing myself copies of in-progress work makes me nervous about the possibility of servers melting down and so forth.