The Storyrain Blog

Throwback Thursday - my first cat, Ladyjane, brought to me as a kitten by my mother when she came to visit. (We named him before his balls dropped.) I was seven or eight. My father was not particularly pleased. Ladyjane looked very much like my current oldest cat Aristotle, or Aristotle like Ladyjane, I suppose, with the same cuddly, affectionate nature.

These kittens are currently being fostered by my friend B, who rescued them and their very young mother (who's already gone into the Austin Humane Society adoption program). They are lovely and socialable and four of them are black and white, which is the best thing for a kitty to be. They'll be available for adoption at AHS as of Friday or Saturday.

 


( More pics thisaway... )

Over my long weekend I went to Zilker Botanical Gardens and chased butterflies around trying to get good pictures of them. Only got a few:




Lily pond action and some obligatory cats (it's been a while) below

( the cut... )

Am thankful. Here's some cats and a hat and a Happy Thanksgiving.
( this way for pictures... )

This being a picture post.

The Pedernales River

( click for froggies and other creatures... )

 

Last week I scheduled another test for Aristotle with the vet, an ultrasound, which is expensive, and for which they have to arrange for a special tech to come in with his equipment (meaning it's not an appointment you cancel). Then I realized a couple days later, that it was scheduled for the anniversary of the death of Tavi, the cat I had before Aristotle and Sula. Tavi traveled all the way from Downeast Maine to Austin with me, watched over the writing of my first published novel, and was, of course, a much loved dear companion. Then, I had a sitcom on last night and a character talked about how she had a dog when she was a kid and it went to the vet for a routine procedure and never came back.

And, then, for jeezub sake, when I brought Aristotle to the vet to drop him off this morning, the assistant greeted me by saying, "Is that Sula?"--my cat who also went to this vet who died a while back. Oh random coincidence and subconscious primed to hear certain things!

I don't have a conclusion to draw, other than, yes, I am awaiting a call from the vet somewhat nervously. (eta--just got it, he's fine; we suspect mild pancreatitis and some IBD).

So here's a conlusion, if you're going to read things into stuff like this, you may as well read that this means Aristotle, in contrast, is going to live until he's well old, 20 or so, a long and happy life.

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In other news, the lofts water main sprang a bad leak late in the afternoon on Superbowl Sunday. So, water shut off. The city is turning it back on for us, theoretically, evenings 5:30-7, mornings 7-8:30. In practice, this is more like 5:50-7pm and 7:45-8am...but I still managed to get the hot water heater on and glory in a hot shower last night (by obssessively checking the faucet every few minutes to see when the water was on so I could get the heater on asap). Hot water, water in general--it's good to be reminded not to take it for granted.

Dear GOP and libertarians, maybe you should think about that. Infrastructure costs money.

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Last week was...rocky. So over the weekend I bought myself some expensive salt caramel dark chocolates. One of those with a London Fog--decaf Earl Grey w/a shot of vanilla and steamed soy creamer--of an evening is a nice way of being kind to oneself. Or meself, anyway. Tea and chocolate, tea anc cake, tea and fruit & cheese. Tea.

First, a post I heart, combining a meditation on daily routine and appreciation of life by way of some novel writing process from the Sunburst-award winning A.M. Dellamonica. Plus a gorgeous example of one her photos of nature. Yum.

Second, today is book day for Beth Bernobich's Passion Play from TOR. She talks about the book here; you can read a preview here, and find a glowing review, here.
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Had buckets of hail in the night. Scaramouch and Tinker: Halp! Halp! Fire! Flood! *run around in circles and bang into things* Poor wee-brained teenage kitties. Aristotle was in bed with me, not particularly fussed, though alert and keeping track of all the racket--both atmospheric and catly.

Happily there was some rain with the hail.

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Dayjob has been busy, which puts a crimp in my writing progress, but the words continue to accrue...slowly. Maybe it's more of an accretion...

Some pics. First, a book my friend E gave me when visiting recently. It's one of the Andrew Lang books, the Red Book of Animal Tales, but a very old hardback edition, dated 1899, though I don't know if it's first edition. I have a bunch of the different color Lang fairy tale books, in the paperback Dover editions, but not this one. It's a beautiful book...

 

  

 

And some pics of the cats...Tinker was briefly determined to become a manicurist:

Scaramouche and Tinker inspecting the paper recyling...
 

And my glow in the dark kodama, also from recently visiting friend E:
 

 

 

 

Or, transparency and object lessons for others...

One of my goals in novel writing, since my first novel, is to bring together my two favorite kinds of novels in one, melding the page turner with the lyrical love of language novel. Since some of the reviews for The Z Radiant called it a page turner while others liked its lyricism, I felt like I was somewhat successful.

( in which I muse on where I failed... )
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Got the cats a rolling food dispenser, this thing; preliminary results: it's a good idea. They like it, it keeps them active all together as a little pack batting it around and eating one or two pieces of kibble as they shake them loose. I lessened their morning feed to balance it out.

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I haven't watched it yet, but Heartless: The Story of the Tin Man, up on Tor.com, looks interesting. 

The seond half of Meghan McCarron's "We Heart Vampires!!!!" is up at Strange Horizons, here.

Apparently, even the OED can be wrong; the dictionary definition of "siphon" has been wrong for 99 years.