Wow. What a week that was....

( Spoilery blatherings about 'Torchwood: Children of Earth' )

And now I'm going to bed, there to fight off the bunnies that are now gathering in their uncountable hordes....

Per the New York Times: A couple of weeks ago, the Iraqi Kurds quietly passed their own constitution, to be voted on in a later referendum. Our own Veep, already in Iraq to facilitate negotiations between the Kurds and the Iraqi Arab government, opined that the move was "not helpful". In response, one of the members of the Kurdish Parliament evidently said of the Baghdad government "This is a punch in the face. We are fed up with them."

Not so much with the diplomacy, that. Serious honesty points, though.

So, we headed then from the Hemlock Bluff Trail down the road to the Peck Lake Trail. None of the trails we walked on Wednesday were very long- most of them ranged from two to four kilometres- but you can forget that two kilometres walked on a city sidewalk can be very different than two kilometres walked up and down and over rocks and tree branches on a park hiking trail. We certainly had a work-out for the day by the time we finished our fifth trail.

(Photo: John's footprints after wading in the Oxtongue
River on the Whisky Rapids Trail.)

( Even more rocks and trees and water, but, yay!, no more rain. )

It's July. It's July in California, the state where the only seasons are "wet," "dry," and "actually on fire." So why, can anyone tell me, am I wearing a sweater and running a space heater more often than not? It's like my state—never a paragon of sanity to begin with—has completely taken leave of what few senses it had to start with, and I am not even a little bit amused. Bring on the summer! I want tomatoes and nectarines and basking alligator lizards, dammit!

At least we're getting the annual tarantula invasion, as the spidery little darlings come down off Mt. Diablo and spider their way around the city, checking things out before hiking back up the mountain to get laid and eaten, in that order. It wouldn't be July without the occasional random tarantula.

I managed to score the last pass to a free screening of (500) Days of Summer at the comic book store on Wednesday, and hauled my mother along to indulge me in my utter adoration of Zooey Deschanel. Mom wasn't aware that they actually did things like that (free advance movie screenings), and was totally enchanted. I think it's more the "free movie" than the "sneak preview," but that's because I'm a geek and she's not. Sometimes we just see that more clearly than others.

In other summertime news, I'm getting ready for the San Diego International Comic Convention, where I'll be rooming with Jeanne and Rebecca (Rae ditched us, but we love her anyway) and actually working the convention as an attending professional. Behold my total and crippling terror! It doesn't help that both my publishers will be there, so I'm going to have to be on my best Disney Halloweentown Princess behavior. I mean, really. Where am I going to find the time to crawl through the many, many booths looking for horror swag? I ask you.

So in summary, the weather is broken, the spiders are large, my mother is amusing, and the convention season is upon us. Woe.

What's up with y'all?

Our 11 year old son's comment, watching a Star Wars episode on Cartoon Network: "General Grievous has some real anger management issues." When I started laughing, he looked at me and said "Seriously. He does."

You've got to wonder where they get it.

This was a day for signs on trucks to make me stop and think. The ice cream truck with the loud ringing bells that I encountered on my way home had a "Free Iran" sign on the front. Predictably, I completed it in my head as, "...with every purchase." I can truly imagine some kid complaining that he didn't get his free Iran when he bought his popsicle.

More worrying, however, was the one I saw at lunch. It proclaimed that it belonged to an information management company named Recall. They didn't seem to be offering vacations. (I just have to keep reminding myself that Philip K Dick wrote fiction.)

V1 of one Mahtowa song done ... one more to go. And a Toyboat song to get done as well

Oh, and a very mean cover song(s) that I will probably do at tomorrow's show

edit V1 of my first Toyboat song is done as well

Bright and early Wednesday morning we headed from the hotel to Algonquin Park and the hiking trails.

(Photo: John and I express our feelings about being soaked to the bone on the Hemlock Bluff Trail.)

( More rocks and trees and water and rain. )

It's now one week until my office closes and I start working from home. I'd already packed two boxes of seldom-used references, but there's a lot of stuff that just can't be broken down until the last minute.

Today, I ceremonially packed up all the personal stuff from my desk, the breakable items not so much wrapped as enmeshed in bubble wrap. That box will spend some time in storage in the basement, at least until I find out whether I'll eventually find a place where I can work from that isn't home that's closer than a 90 minute commute from my house.

To the first approximation, that's being voted on next Thursday, when the Sun shareholders vote on whether not to accept Oracle's offer. After that, if the acquisition goes through, there's some possibility of jumping to Sun's Itasca office.

We'll see how it goes.

[I'm thinking I need to find a more seasonable picture of us. The leather and wool coats seem a bit too much for July. Even in Minnesota!]

We're playing at the Coffee Grounds tonight!It's one of our favorite coffee house stages in the Twin Cities. Hope to see you there.

8:00 Friday July 10, 2009
THE COFFEE GROUNDS
A neighborhood coffee shop, open seven days a week
651-644-9959
1579 Hamline Avenue Falcon Heights, Minnesota

I am updating my phone book ... If your number has changed recently, and you think I should have it ... please post it here. If you think I should have your number for whatever reason, post it here

Comments are screened.

Keep in mind that if you give me your phone number you stand the risk of getting a call from me when I am on the road, traveling headset jockey that I am ...

... the_magician here ...


As you know, nelladarren loves spiders, they are her favourite creepy-crawlie ... so I thought that as a treat you could go look through google images or somewhere and post up as a comment to this thread your favourite spider photographs!

She'd love that

( and I'm far enough away that I might escape without getting killed! Here's my favourite! )

Last night I attended my first dance here in Cape Breton and what an experience it was.  The dance was at Glencoe Mills, up into the hills off the main coastal highway.  When I got within about 14KM, the roads became dusty dirt tracks....the car churning up clouds of dry dust in it's wake .  I finally arrived in Glencoe Mills....I was early...the dance was due to start at 10pm.  Glencoe seemed to consist of a cross roads, a large white clap board church, standing proudly on the hillside and a small white clap board hall.  It wasn't long before a cloud of dust heralded the arrival of more people.....the fiddle player fro the night...the dance was a family dance..so no alcohol allowed in the hall...the fiddle player passed around beer to us all as we waited to get in.....we chatted, drank and tried to avoid the mosquitoes...the people here are really fiendly.....and it really makes a difference.....everybody is willing to chat and pass the time...

As 10pm arrived people slowly turned up...I entered  the hall, payed my $6 and had my hand stamped by an old guy on th door.  The hall was smallish but had a fantastic wooden floor with bench seats around the outside.  The dance got underway.. the fiddle and piano started up...the music was so driving, unbelievable just a fiddle and a piano but the most driving dance music i have ever witnessed.

The dancers took to the floor and started stepping....percussive steps which made the whole hall bounce to the rhythm.  There was a good mix of locals and tourists...the tourists were the ones sat at the side with cameras.  The dances where really informal...no callers or explaination....usually a few figures cycled around the square set formation.  The locals leading and guiding as to what to do when.  Brilliant fun and amazing to dance..lots of space to put in your own percussive steps plus some familiar figures, swing, promenade, chain.

There were maybe 5 minutes between the sets and then streight back in.  No interval..just dancing.  The hall was hot but outside the air was refreshingly cool and people sat out on the hall steps cooling off.  About 12:20AM there was a break in the set dancing and locals got up to show off their step dancing.  One at a time taking to the floor to show their best steps.  After about 15 minutes of people of all ages doing amazing things with their feet, there was time for one more set.  The dance finished at 1am and people took to the dirt roads for the journey home.

I had just enough petrol left in the car to get me back to my motel but I think i could have just floated back after such a great night.  The dance contained all the best elements of community folk dance events - great music, friendly people of all ages and a joy in just getting up and trying the dance. 

I have 6 more events to visit while I am here...I hope they are all as good as this one!

... on my next CD I want to do some good (after all the evil I did with the last one ... I'm really sorry that Limburg was sucked into that dimensional vortex and that the rats came back to Hamlyn ... but you can't blame me for Hamburg, it was like that when I got there!)

So ...

... I'm going to do a charity auction ... I will wear *any* outfit (no matter how silly or revealing) on the cover of my next CD ... all you have to do is pledge five euros and tell me what outfit you want me to wear ... a group of people who don't like me (so that's all of you really!) will go through the list and pick the weirdest, sexiest or most revolting and I'll wear it on the cover ...

... or for ten euros you can pick a word that I will have written across my forehead in big black marker that I have to wear all day for the Saturday of a filkcon ... it can be as silly, sensible or rude as you wish ... extra points if you can spell it correctly!

And for fifty euros I will wear it on my forehead the next time I'm flying somewhere and so it will be seen by checkin, security and all the passengers on the flight ... remember it's all for charity! [1]



[1] the_magician wants a concertina or melodeon!

... where I was a perfectly normal, intelligent, fun, and wonderful blonde with lots of good friends who liked my music and were pleased to see me ...

... thankfully I woke up! Ewwww, what a *horrible* dream ....!!


I'm *not* a human being, I'm a MONSTER!!! And the sooner you get that through your puny heads, the better!

Hah, your puny intellect is no match for my mighty weapons!!

Now I must return to my secret research lab (they think I'm just there to teach classes, little do they know my real purpose .... to overthrow the rule of that tyrant Colonel Harlan Sanders and reveal the "secret" of his secret recipe!


I *know* the secret recipe is part heroin, part breadcrumbs and part Martian poop ... and when you find out that they use WHITE breadcrumbs that will put you off those chicken zingers forever!!

And I can see you, the_magician thinking about changing this entry just because you have guessed my password (I've changed it now, it's not "KFCsecretLoveChild17" anymore! Far too easy to guess, my fault)

... did I ever tell you that I collect cheeses from around the world?

I have a collection of over 4,000 different cheeses, from tiny packets from onboard aircraft to very large wheels of cheese from England and France and as far away as Australia.

It's a fascinating hobby and I'm glad to announce I'm the Guest of Honour at next year's Culture-Cult Convention, where I'll be wearing my new samurai outfit made entirely from sliced cheese ...

... admittedly it does have both good times and bad ... like the last couple of weeks where the temperature was over 30C and I have no airconditioning (and no refrigeration since that incident last year where they found my collection of voles I was storing in the fridge ... I pointed out that I'd made them little fur coats and that none had died ... but they still took my fridge away ...) ...

... and yes, the brie and other soft cheeses are perhaps a little runnier than I'd really like, but the plastic sheeting on the floor means it doesn't drip down into the flat below so it's ok, really.

You're all welcome to visit, but please remember to remove your shoes before coming in ...

... everyone except the_magician who wrote this vile slander about me!

.... I've not wanted to tell anyone this, but ... well, I needed the money ...

... and to cut a long story short ... I'm carrying Paris Hilton's baby!

The money is good, and they said they needed another airheaded blonde [1] so no one would suspect ... and I wasn't doing anything important anyway ... so for the next six months I'll be sipping champagne and sniffing coke, so that the baby will come out and know what his/her mother will smell like!

But please don't tell the press, they'd only try to email me, and my internet isn't working, especially my ability to post to LiveJournal (see footnote 1!)




[1] so air-headed, that I gave the_magician my password!

Got back from Algonquin Park yesterday. Good times.

(Photo: Welcoming sign at the West Entrance Gate to Algonquin Park.)

( Trees and rocks and water and rain. )