Domesticated?

Don't tell them, but the new boys are slowly becoming domestic cats:

They have NEVER shown any previous interest in boxes and bags until recently.

They will join us occasionally in the morning lounge session.

And most importantly, one of them has become... [cue dramatic music]

A lap cat!

MORE THAN ONCE!

More than twice!

Cocktail Expert

 I just got back from a historic preservation conference and because I had just finished the fourth of four deadlines, I ended up taking a session purely for fun: Cheers to Heritage: The Cultural Significance of Cocktails. The speaker, Frederic Yarm was a fantastic speaker.  Not an expert one, but a passionate and informed one. He's got a Harvard PhD in biochemistry and is a bartender and author.
He went over the history of craft cocktails through it's near demise during The Prohibition (it wasn't the fantasy we experience going to a speakeasy today) and its rebirth. He talked about the 1919 Great Molasses Flood and other writers like Charles H. Baker Jr and Dale DeGroff. He's been very generous and posted his slide deck on LinkedIn. I recommend checking it out!

If books are more your jam, he's written two books: 

Drink & Tell: A Boston Cocktail Book

Boston Cocktails: Drink & Told

During the happy hour "marketplace" (not coincidentally immediately after the session) Fred bartended and the line was long, but it was worth it. I got a Saratoga and while  I'm not a rye whiskey fan, I am when it's mixed with cognac, sweet vermouth, bitters, and Benedictine. It was delicious.

Hope you have gotten to enjoy yourself a little lately!

Taking Back My Social Media Presence

 Facebook was fine for a while (16 years this month, almost to the day!) but it has been taken over by "sponsored" stuff and ads I'm just done.  Done.

So, you can find me and anything short I want to say at bluesky here: @casaanana.bsky.social

And for anything more substantive, I'll post it here.  I thought about starting a new blog, but there's entertainment value in seeing ancient posts.

I'll also keep this short for now.  I tried to restart this blog back in 2022 and the draft was never posted because I tried to update readers on everything that's happened since the last post.  Not this time; no long screeds.  This time, I'm going to assume my readers are my friends and followed me elsewhere in intervening years.  If you have a question, let me know.

I think we are going to have to experiment with security and permissions, but we'll see how this goes.

Welcome back!

Considering NaNoWriMo

I hadn't been thinking that I would do NaNoWriMo this year, since I have been too busy to write for longer than I can remember.  But I just realized something.  It starts tomorrow and:
a) Glen has his son this weekend, so my time will be more free than usual and I might be able to start strongly enough to make up for next weekend being completely booked. (Saturday, I have a meeting for WiD and plans to visit with Janiece, but those are my only extra-curricular commitments for the weekend.)
b) My nephews are no longer within driving distance, so my usual "every other week" visits are no longer on the schedule.
Hmmm... maybe I can try it this year.  Would be nice to play around with words again.  Have no plot or characters or even a genre picked out, but hmm... maybe...

Seeing Myself Clearly

Thinking about who I was in high school because of a reference on FB today made me think "that's an interesting subject for a blog post."  I came to my much neglected blog and find, to my amusement, that I have a draft that was written, but never posted, about 18 months ago.  Granted, the post says something about the end of my journey rather than the beginning, but I'll include it here, unchanged from the words I wrote over a year ago.  It's interesting that I never posted it, since it refers to (and may be the only blog post to date about) a really significant shift in my life.

The thoughts that brought me here were these:
My one regret for my high school days is that I didn't embrace the friendships that were offered to me.  Through Facebook, I've been able to reconnect with some of them and then my visit to MD for my 20th HS reunion cemented these reconnections.  It was never that I doubted the merit of the people who offered their friendships.  Many of them are generous, creative, funny, intelligent, and thoughtful.  What I seriously doubted was my own merit.  I didn't know at the time that I poisoned myself with the thought that I was unworthy of deep friendship and that if people really got to know me, they wouldn't like me.  I'm not entirely sure what I thought they wouldn't like, but I do remember thinking they'd find me boring.  If I could send a message to that girl and say "Don't listen to that!  It's a lie!  A pretty egregious one at that!"
I don't know where the lies came from or if they're just standard propaganda from the teenage brain, but it took me 20 years to overcome them.  Luckily for me, I learned from my mistakes and enjoy the blessings of friendship from some really wonderful people. 

And now, my thoughts from Feb 2, 2012:
A couple years ago, I got Lasik surgery on my eyes.  I'd been extremely nearsighted since the fourth grade.  One of the amazing things that I felt after the surgery was that I could dispense with all the old thinking about what I could and couldn't do.  I could see my toes in the shower.  I could read the clock at night.  It was invigorating.  Once my eyes had healed and returned to normal moisture levels, it felt like I had brand new eyes.

Now, I've had a breakthrough in my inner vision that is similar in concept and effect.  For a long time, maybe even as long as I'd been nearsighted, I've been unable to see myself clearly.  I thought I was unattractive and unlikeable.  I don't know why.  Maybe there was logic behind it, but I doubt it.  Almost 20 years ago, when looking at myself in the mirror, I suddenly heard the crap I had been telling myself.  Thus began a long long journey out of blindness.  A little over a month ago, I suddenly had a breakthrough.  My vision of myself has cleared and I have dispensed with old thinking about what's possible and not possible. 

Like the Lasik surgery, this seems to be a permanent shift, thank goodness. 

Editor's note from the present:  the euphoria has died down a bit, but the new vision of myself has stayed.  It's a lot like falling in love with myself and going through that always wanting to cuddle and hug myself phase to a more grounded this-is-it kind of love where I can actually get things done, but when I look over at myself, I smile.

Running

Because it's so so true. Kudos to the originator of this graphic. Wish I could thank you personally.
Sad that I'm putting this up here right now when I am not only working on my knee, but also recovering from bronchitis and feeling further from a return to running than ever. However, I freakin' WILL get there eventually and I'd like to store this hilarious and true graphic here while I work on it.
Also stored here for posterity is Janiece's moving post about why she runs and minus the running 8 miles thing is true for me too.  In fact, after I get "running" back into my "things I can do" column, I'm going to work on my endurance and see exactly how far I can run.

'Tis the Season (for Muppets)

Just heard an instrumental Carol of the Bells and it made me think of this rendition.

 [sigh]

 I love the Muppets!

Kindle Reading

When I first got my Kindle last birthday, I was ecstatic and cautious all at once. After all, I have an enormous pile of to read books that occasionally gets whittled down by me changing my taste in books and giving them away. My fear was that the impulse buying issue I have in bookstores that leads me to avoid them in the same way an alcoholic avoids bars would be free to deplete my bank account unchecked.

My fears were thankfully unfounded. I do impulse shop, but mostly from Pixel of Ink's free (or nearly free) daily listings. I prefer to visit the website rather than get the email notifications, mainly because the former has pictures and the latter, only text. I highly recommend it if you're in tough financial straits because you can get some good, well-reviewed (by readers) books in a decent range of genres (ie. not just romance).  I do have a pile of cool books I might end up reading, and a shorter pile of must reads, but they no longer take up so much space.  :)

My other big discovery was Instapaper. The site calls it, "A simple tool to save web pages for reading later." For example, say you're websurfing during your lunch hour and you encounter a neat, but very lengthy article. In the past, you might bookmark it for later, but you'd have to remember it was there and be on a computer to read it. With Instapaper, you click your "Read Later" bookmarklet and through the magic of computing, the article is sent to your Kindle via your Amazon account. That means it comes over wirelessly. Now they have iPhone and iPad and Android apps for those wanting to read it that way too. I've been using it for a couple of months now and it is super cool and very easy to use. I highly recommend it.

Now, if only I had more time to read...

Blogging Breakfast

(I've been too busy to blog, but I'm determined to try and keep it up...)

To continue my blog's trend of posting yummy pictures, here's what my brekkie looked like this morning.  As usual, it was delicious.  :)

Mis en place (toasted sesame oil not shown)

Final product

Blog Reboot

This isn't a true reboot (or would that be "reimagining?").  I've been tempted to do so and have been ogling Squarespace for a little while now.  But I'm not sure it's worth the expense for just a blog that has, for the last year and a half been mouldering in obscurity.  When I'm back into a good routine and feel better about having something that is linked to my full name, somewhere I can promote my activities (writing, architecture?), I'll probably look at Squarespace again, but right now, I think this will have to do.

I've been thinking lots about writing recently, especially since I went to Worldcon (Chicon 7) and have started watching The Story Board, a Google Hangout once a month, moderated by Patrick Rothfuss.  I have more to say on the subject of writing, but will leave it for another post, as I really ought to get back to things I'm "supposed" to be doing.  Also, so I have something in the bag to post about next.

And finally, I will do NaNoWriMo this year.  I considered writing with an audience (like this woman is doing) but considering how exploratory this year's effort will be, I think I'll simply blog about my progress and my discoveries during that progress.  A bit like an explorer's journal entry, rather than taking you on the excursions themselves.

Anyway, welcome back, dear readers and if you're a new reader, there's plenty of old posts here if you're curious what I'm about.

Enjoy!

Improvements

Moonlight Scotch Broom plants were on sale at the local nursery and, since there was one on the property when I got it (way overgrown, but did not make the move from the patio area to the side yard) I thought it might be nice to have a new one -- in the side yard, as originally intended.
The hole digging went much more smoothly than I expected, so now I'm enjoying one of my birthday presents (bought with a gift card): Family Guy: Star Wars Trilogy. I'm not generally a Family Guy fan* but it is really good (especially the first one, Blue Harvest).  I highly recommend it to any Star Wars fan.  (And for any of my friends, you're welcome to borrow mine.  :)

*I once dated a guy who disliked South Park because of Cartman, but loved Family Guy. I, on the other hand, dislike Family Guy because of Peter, but love South Park. The humor of this was not lost on me, as both are extremely similar, boorish and unpleasant. 

Me and Work

Last weekend, I did an experiment about working first, then playing later. It worked in the sense that I got lots done (and needed to). It also confirmed for me that my internal rhythm does not suit that particular saying. I worked the entire weekend and did not actually get any "play" because of several factors:
- If I am "on a roll" and getting somewhere on my neverending to-do list, I won't stop because of some arbitrary stopping point. This is why I work late during the week and why I rarely go into work early. My most productive time is in the afternoon, so it's hard for me to stop working during that time.
- I have a strong habit of needing to "finish" a task before I stop. This often manifests as needing to finish the chapter or a scene before putting a good book down, finishing a knitting row or sequence before putting knitting down, finishing a task at work before stopping for the day, etc.
This, paired with my morning attention patterns:
- I'm often late for work because I get distracted and start emptying the dishwasher (which, of course has to be finished before I leave), reading an article in a magazine, taking out the trash, etc.
- The above distraction at work as well makes it difficult to get a lot accomplished in the morning. I'm checking my email, catching up on what I missed online at the end of the day before, etc. (I rarely get online in the evenings anymore. It really screws with my bedtime.)

The conclusion is, I'm not going to feel guilty anymore that I play first and work later. Life is too short to fight your inner nature, and as long as I get stuff accomplished sometime and it doesn't negatively affect others, who cares when I get it done?

A Case for a Hermitage

1. When you are a hermit, no one comes to your house, so they don't see the cat hair on the couch or the drips of spaghetti sauce on the stove top or the crumbs on the counter and think "TSK. Doesn't she ever tidy this place?"

2. When you are a hermit, you don't see anyone, so they don't look at your clothes and your hair and think "TSK. There's a stain on the collar of his shirt. And his hair is much too long. Would it kill him to get a haircut?"

3. When you are a hermit, you don't interact with anyone, so you don't have to be afraid of accidentally offending someone or hurting someone's feelings, as if you were some sort of lumbering cave troll who backs into someone's favorite heirloom vase and sends it tumbling to its doom.

4. When you are a hermit, you don't tell anyone what you do, so you can spend your time as you really honestly like. If you feel gardening that day, you can spend the whole day covered in dirt. If you feel like sitting in the sun reading a book, you can do that without someone thinking, "What a lazy bum. Doesn't she know there is grass to be mown, weeds to be pulled, leaves to be raked and plants to be watered?"

When you are a hermit, you are insulated from judgment. Sure, the people in the town 40 miles away, where you go to get supplies think, "Strange old duck. Half the marbles have rolled away," but they only think that on the day you go into town, every 3 months or so. And the rest of the time, you're free to be yourself.

More Hobbity Goodness

I swear, this is not going to become a Hobbit Blog. Eventually, when my knee is better, we'll get back to pictures of tasty food, camping trips, maps of motorcycling trips, etc. But for now, I'm (quite literally) sick and tired and will post a cool link instead of saying something pithy.

Hey, look at this cool link for some beautiful Russian illustrations of The Hobbit! I love the furry legs on Bilbo and Smaug is gorgeous. I'm pretty sure the dwarves would object to being depicted like something out of Snow White, but the simplicity of the drawings is lovely.

Hobbity Goodness

Filming has begun on The Hobbit! SQUEEEEE!!

When I heard Martin Freeman had been selected to play Bilbo, it seemed the perfect choice.

The director, Peter Jackson, said Freeman was born to play the role. "He is intelligent, funny, surprising and brave, exactly like Bilbo, and I feel incredibly proud to be able to announce that he is our Hobbit."

It thrills me silly to think that they have made such a good start. (Granted, they've been having other troubles up to this point.) A good start on the translation of the story is what I mean.

I'm not sure how much I'm going to follow the production. I love knowing how movies are made, but I usually see that stuff after I watch the movie. Here are a couple spots to follow the news:
The Hobbit (movie) website
The One Ring dot Net

And finally, for your entertainment, click here for an interesting comparison of production promotion photos from the LotR movies and the Hobbit movies. Taken a decade apart. :)

SQUEEE!

Surgery Update

Well, that wasn't a particularly successful "thread." It turned out that feeling crappy and having to lounge far enough back that my knee is above my heart is a pretty good deterrent for getting online.
Here's the update:
It's almost two weeks after the surgery. I initially had a bad reaction to Percoset and was switched to Vicodin, but even the milder side effects of that were intolerable to me. A week after surgery I ditched the pain meds in favor of ice and Tylenol. I'd resort to a drink if it were a particularly hard day.
I've been doing PT for the last 9 days. It took me a bit to figure out how to work in 3 one-hour (45 min. exercising, 15 min. icing) PT workouts into my schedule, but I think I've managed it. I just got back from my second PT appointment and while I've got good range of motion, I've got to continue to work on it and I've got to concentrate on maintaining a good, natural heel-toe motion when walking. Tough to do with a brace and a crutch, but I'll work on it.
I slept all the way through the night last night... Yippee! Actually, yesterday was a good day. I worked from home (went in to work the day before) and had my knee iced and elevated most of the day. The swelling had gone down considerably and I was in less pain.
Today, not so great, as I am out and about and not being able to be as diligent, but... oh well.

I'll update this post later after my appointment with the surgeon in about an hour...

Surgery Thread

This story will be told in installations, as I am too tired for long term computer use today.

Yesterday afternoon, I had my first real surgery, with IVs and anesthesia and whatnot. It was surgery to replace my ruptured ACL and to trim back torn pieces of my miniscus.
The process went very smoothly and all the nurses and doctors were funny and professional at the same time. I wasn't hungry all morning, since I had stuffed myself with pad thai the night before. When they took me into the surgery room, I lay down on the bed and they laid wonderfully warm blankets on me. The anesthesiologist (a very funny guy who also volunteers to help poor children in Guatemala) started applying sensors to my body and said something about me feeling a sensation when the anesthesia starting to enter my bloodstream, and then... nothing. I woke up from what seemed like a deep sleep (I think I even had weird dreams) in a strange room. Oh, yeah, I thought, I had surgery today. It was the recovery room, of course. I have to admit, it feels very weird to think of being unconscious and people doing thins to me and my body without my direct knowledge.
From what I hear, I was very pale coming out of surgery, but my color gradually returned as the time progressed. My mum was able to come in and sit with me both in pre-op and in the recovery room. Stacey also came by and helped by keeping my mum company and then helping us by leading the way back home. (Thank you, dear Stacey!)
So far, I've done a lot of sleeping and taking pain pills on a schedule. Mum made a yummy barley, mushroom, and parsnip soup and plying me with yummy eats like sauteed Portabella mushrooms on toast. I've been drinking water pretty constantly (I was going to the bathroom every 3 hours last night) and have been getting handier with the crutches.
So, every side effect but one have been minimized. I'm not nauseous and the pain is well managed, but I get tired very easily. In fact, I feel another nap coming on.

Later, a description of how I got the injury, what the surgeon did and how she fixed it.

Thank you, everyone, for your help and support!

Double Take

Here's an interesting website for the graphic designers in my acquaintance:

Copycat Covers

Not only similar covers -- nearly identical ones! Tells me there are too many books being published or two many artists not being hired.

The Approaching Cliff

I've been at work both days this weekend and have realized why I'm actually looking forward to my knee surgery. It's because for good or for bad, this pace of work will STOP. Granted, part of the reason for this pace of work is because of the impending surgery. There's a reason my house gets dirty and cluttered when I'm busy and this time, it can't. It can't because dirt and clutter that accumulates before the surgery will be there for weeks after it.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to the change. I know it's not a vacation, but with the right preparation, it can be a welcome lull in my life.

Shrinking or Just Wrong?

A couple decades ago, I would have sworn on a stack of Bibles that I was 5'-8". Then, a few years ago, Krissy and I were fooling around with measuring our heights and I discovered I was really 5'-7".  I have to admit that though I made the mental change and stated the more accurate height when asked, I didn't really believe it. Must be some kind of mistake! Yesterday, decided to check again. Yup, I am definitely only 5'-7" (less at the end of the day).
So, my question is... did I shrink already, or was I just wrong the whole time?
The things we ponder in the night.