Barbara Hambly's Blog, page 35

Personal worst

Actually, the 5k wasn't that bad. It took me an hour and fifteen minutes to do the loop around the Rose Bowl parking-lots and the golf-course above the Bowl, and I became very footsore and my knees and back felt awfully creaky, and I was passed by EVERYBODY. But, I'd taken the precaution of bringing my walky-stick, so I was good. Before I was quite halfway around I (and a LOT of the other "casual walkers") were being lapped by the gung-ho 10k folk.

Since it was for animal rescue charities, a lot of folks brought their dogs. And being dogs, they were pretty much happy with whatever was going on, and most of them looked like they were pretty stoked at seeing all those other dogs. Laurie (of www.partyknowitalls.com) was working the cat-tent, and the cats - though safe in large cages - weren't nearly as cheerful about the whole thing. There was a massive goings-on going on - 9 different adoption groups, bands playing, booths selling or sponsoring all kinds of products, LOTS of dogs. I had one look around after the 5k, then limped back to the car and drove home to spend the rest of the day grading exams.

Many, MANY thanks to all those who donated to sponsor me on this walk. Your contributions will go far toward helping animals who are suffering or in danger through no fault of their own.

Down to the wire again

I realize it sounds horribly stuck-up to say so, but I'm finding The Magistrates of Hell a TOTAL page-turner, and it's VERY hard to have to set work on the manuscript aside and turn my attention back to school-prep which MUST be done today. I suppose it's no worse to say I really love my own writing, than it is for my Level-85-Cook friends to say they'd rather eat their own cooking than that at most restaurants...

Many thanks!

Whoo, thank you all for your help! I knew the case would probably screw up anything I could look up in my Latin books, and figured I'd better get it checked out before I went ahead.

You will all be publicly thanked.

There isn't anybody out there who can check my bits and pieces of Chinese, is there?

Latin alert

I need the phrase, "God save me," in Latin (or Spanish).
You'll get "special thanks to..." in the front of the book.

Defending the Fort

Though Damsel is old and fragile and arthritic these days, I still take her for short walks, which always pass the house of a neighbor who has a large dog of some variety in his responsibly walled-and-gated back yard, and one or two chihuahuas who are small enough to slither under the gate. These guardians of the turf fly into barky hysterics every time any other dog passes the wall (as is their duty). Damsel likes to pee  outside the gate, to annoy them.

This evening as I passed, one of the chihuahuas had gotten out, and was standing in the driveway. He saw Damsel, flew into vociferous rage, braced his little feet, barked his little head off (while Damsel just stood there and looked at him - she's a Pekinese and is NOT impressed) - then he turned around and darted back to slither under the gate again. And it wasn't easy, he had to wriggle and struggle and push to get himself under, but evidently anything was better than the danger that another dog (even one his own size) was going to call his bluff.

I love animals. They're so completely free of bullshit.

Down to the wire

I'm in the final trimming stages of The Magistrates of Hell, and extremely pleased with it. It often happens that as I'm finishing a project, some final piece of research will turn up that adds something vital to the story - in this case, last week I acquired a book called The Phantom Caravan, the memoirs of a fellow who was in the British Foreign Office only a decade or so after James Asher would have been... and who served in Peking, which is where Magistrates takes place. FINALLY, I was able to get descriptions of what the city looked like THEN, plus a wealth of little details about England and the foreign service.

I love it when things like this turn up. The ms goes in this week - after which I hope I'll be able to take the time to pull together a couple more short stories.

It's autumnal and pleasant here, and there is the second round of exams to grade. WAY too much to do.

Happy Birthday, John, wherever you are

Happy Birthday John Lennon. Some of us still miss you like hell.

A gentle reminder...

Just thought I'd update for those just joining us:

In two weekends I'm going to be doing a charity 5k for pet rescue, and am soliciting donations. All donors will have their names (and those of their pets) pinned to my shirt for the walk. I've raised my minimum $250 already - I'd like to contribute more, if I can.

Go to www.racefortherescues.org and hit the button for "Sponsor Participant" - type in my name. I'll be on the team for my favorite small pet-rescue group, Molly's Mutts 'n' Meows (www.mollysmuttsandmeows.org). My friend Laurie, who runs the Party Know-It-Alls blog (www.partyknowitalls.com) has also promised cookies to whoever donates $25 to HER participant page, so you actually have a choice, if you live in the LA area. (Laurie bakes hands-down the best brownies and cookies in the galaxy. I'm not kidding.)

It is meanwhile a gorgeous morning, after a rainy yesterday and a cold night. It'll be a day of grading exams, doing laundry, and drinking barley tea, an evening of slaughtering giant spiders on World of Warcraft before I go back and teach frakking EARLY tomorrow morning.

And, I keep forgetting to mention, Barbara Hamilton's #3 Abigail Adams mystery, Sup With the Devil , is now available! (That's the pirate-treasure one). Still no word on whether Berkeley is going to buy more of them.

The Dark Lord on his Dark Throne

Well, for those of you who lie awake through the night, sweating in torment at the question of where DO the Evil Galactic Emperors get their thrones from, wonder no more. While trolling around the downtown Garment District of LA with my friend Victoria (www.victoriaridenour.com  - PHENOMENAL historical and steampunk costumes and custom wedding-dresses), we wandered a little from our beaten path and found a store called Cabochon which does indeed specialize in jawdropping non-standard furniture, including, yes, black-lacquered carven thrones fit for a Dark Lord. Amazing Empire and Victorian chaise longues, a huge assortment of Victorian "balloon chairs" (those things with the canopy that rounds up over the seat), astonishing hat-racks, beautiful Empire vanity-chairs. In places like that - which range from gorgeous to WAY Out There - Victoria and I always try to pick Best In Show, i.e. the weirdest thing on the floor. She voted for a white-enamel balloon-chair with upholstery in Hello-Kitty pink velvet. I still hold out for the 6-foot Mexican crucifix that had been converted into a hat-rack. ("Somebody's going to hell," commented Laurie - www.partyknowitalls.com - when I described this to her.)

The shop next door - Home Mart International - had a lot of the same wares, plus miniature furniture (period chairs and couches) in EXACTLY the right scale for the large-size Volks super-dolfie, for those of you who are in quest of just the right gift for your ResinBabies. Both shops are on Wall Street, Cabochon at 818 Wall and Home Mart at 824, almost directly behind Michael Levine's and up a block.

It was wonderful to have a friend in town for the week-end, but I'm now WAY behind on everything. This weekend also involved dim sum at the Empress Pavilion - widely acclaimed as some of the best dim sum in LA, and those of you who've never had dim sum, it's an amazing experience - followed by a matinee of Mozart's opera Cosi Fan Tutti, wonderful beyond words.

And now I will be returned to my regularly scheduled life.

grading exams

I want to tell my students, "If you're going to write the essay portion of the exam by cherry-picking information verbatim out of the multiple-choice section of the exam, PLEASE make sure that you're copying the CORRECT answer." But of course they'll all deny they did this.

One of the true/false questions: Hammurabi's Code was developed to keep state secrets safe from Assyrian agents.

And lo and behold, in the short-essay portion of the test that asked about Hammurabi's Code...

sigh.