Quote, and Ramble. Coming up with titles for blog entries makes my sympathize with painters who title their stuff, “Woman with Plastic Frog #1, Woman with Squeaky Duck #2,” etc. Jeez, it’s hard enough for me, and I like words better than pictures. Doyce sent me a quote that made me laugh out loud: “Any […]

Snow. Ray has pink “fleece” gloves (the kind that’s flat, not the kind that looks like sheep’s wool). They’re warm, they stay pretty dry inside, and they don’t slip off unless they’re meant to. All good. One problem. Yesterday I pelted Ray a good one. She picked up a handful of snow, ran after me,

Repression. Ray’s in the bathroom, screaming about being naked, and clutching her chest. NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKED! NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKED! I say to Lee, “I can see where repression would be a logical thing.” NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKED! NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKED! “How so?” NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKED! NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKED! “Imagine trying to keep all that bottled up for twenty years.” AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! BAM! BAM! BAM! “I guess so.” I go

Saucers. I’m in a coffee shop, drinking coffee out of an oversized teacup and saucer. Cute teacup; it’s all in Russian and there’s a big star on the saucer. No hammer and sickle, though — it’s a cultural Russian thing, not a political Soviet thing. The saucer has a curved edge and a small circle

Election. Here’s your rare political post. Bush won. What an idiot. Daschle’s out. I have mixed feelings about that. More GOP seats in Congress. F@#$ me, why don’t we try anarchy for another four years instead? It’ll be survival of the fittest without the smarminess. Why hasn’t Bush been impeached, instead of re-elected? Why, oh,

Aaaaaauuuuuughhhh! It’s that time of year again. Not the holidays. No, it’s that time of year that every amateur writer anticipates and dreads: National Novel Writing Month. I’m not going to write a new novel this year. I’m still working on the one I started January 03. But I am going to try to finish

Flip test: passed! “There was nobody there. Which meant, of course, that somebody was there.” — Suzanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell. (Paraphrase) That’s the random quote that made me buy this book. This isn’t a book whose writing makes me jealous. No! Even better. It’s a book whose writing probably makes those writers

Vyser si voko!* How to swear in 165 languages — the Swearosaurus. *Literally, “Shit out your eye!” in Czech.

Laptop. Two days before we were going to start seriously looking for a laptop, a deal we couldn’t pass up occurred at Best Buy. I really don’t know enough to be impressed (other than as a second-hand affair), but I can assure you that people who know enough to be impressed were a) impressed or

Story stuff. I’m still working, just not making as much progress as I thought I would. I figured out something this morning, if you can call digging up more problems figuring something out. Anyway, the beginning of my story is confusing. You start out with more characters than the brain can keep track of, and