Sarah Monette's Blog, page 52

North American House Hippo

While we're waiting to get socked in the face by the snowstorm currently working its way across Wisconsin, have this lovely mini-documentary (via rysmiel ) about the North American House Hippo.

A Brief Report from the Word Mines

Today I have revised "To Die for Moonlight," adding 1,400 words and a plot complication. 7,700 words total now and back it goes to mirrorthaw to see if the improvements have improved things.

(My Samsung printer totally just made a noise like a jet engine powering down. Dude. I knew it was mighty, but not that mighty.)

I have also paid bills and dealt with some house stuff, plus feeding the cats, medicating the Elder Saucepan, and putting food and water out for the feralistas. (If you run the water hot and put it out in a plastic bowl instead of metal, they have a fighting chance of getting a drink before it freezes solid.) Oh, and feeding and medicating me.

I know I'm finally coming out of the ankle-related slump, because my to do lists for the word mines are getting too complicated to keep in my head again. The current one looks more or less like this:

1. Query Apex re: "Learning to See Dragons."
2. Revise "To Die for Moonlight."
3. One more pass through "Hollywood and Vine," mostly for clean up.
4. Editing pass through "The Devil in Gaylord's Creek."
5. Submit "TDfM," "H&V," and "TDiGC."
6. Implement fix for the broken bit of "The Witch of Arvien" and inflict on mirrorthaw and matociquala to see if the story runs now.
7. Revise the nameless story about the knight, the wizard, and the giant mutant telepathic bear. (Also, find a title!)
8. Finish "Hope is Stronger than Love" for Shadow Unit .
9. Finish Thirdhop Scarp, kicking and screaming all the way.
10. Write the missing scenes for The Goblin Emperor and hope for edit letter soon.
11. Essay for Projekt that I think is still Sekrit.
12. Next EQ essay for tor-dot-com.
13. Read and review Brave New Worlds ditto.
14. New werewolf story? (First line: The werewolf had hooked his iPod up to the stereo and put it on shuffle.)

And from there, the To Do list merges indistinguishably into the first lines meme.

Cat Diaries

This little movie was filmed by cats wearing cameras (here's Charlene Butterbean modeling hers); it gives a great sense of what the world looks like from a cat's perspective. (I'm especially fond of the shot of the caught and wiggling cockroach.) Also, it is deeply charming.

::kicks world::

Really horrifically unpleasant dreams (I think my subconscious was punishing me for championing nonhuman species' right not to be Evil Hordes, because the aliens in these dreams--hoo boy), followed by this (about which I am so furious and heartbroken that I just . . . there aren't any words for how much I despise the people who did this) and this (ARE YOU HAPPY NOW, WISCONSIN VOTERS? ARE YOU?)--I pretty much hate everything right now.

So the bit in Fellowship where the Balrog leans down and goes GAWOAAWOARRRR!!! in Gandalf's face? Yeah. Like that.

Storytellers Unplugged for December

"I'm a Member of an Evil Horde! Ask me how!" is live at Storytellers Unplugged. (Also, if WordPress had comments turned off earlier--I couldn't quite tell--they're turned on now.)

Otherwise, my day was eaten by the ophthalmologist, so that's all the content you're getting from me.

Announcement: blogging for Tor.com

I have started blogging for Tor.com; I'll be doing book reviews, and also analyses of various things, like I've done over here in the past for Dorothy Sayers and Due South and the like. I'm starting with Ellery Queen (yes, building on some of the posts I've made here), and the first post is live over there.

5 things: Sunday with snow

1. Yesterday, the CEM of The Tempering of Men started its journey back to New York. If it doesn't get there by Tuesday, it's because of UPS, not me and the $74 I shelled out.

2. Yesterday, also, I had my first full-length dressage lesson since July 31st. (I'd had a couple of lessons previously, but they'd been much shorter, as my dressage instructor has been very careful and cautious about overtaxing my ankle.) This morning, my thighs are telling me ALL ABOUT IT. I have never been so happy about sore muscles in my life.

3. The orthopedic appointment on Friday went very well. My orthopedist was amazed at the range of motion my ankle has achieved; it was much more than he'd expected. (The word "awesome" may have been used. *g*) I have the green light to start weaning myself from the lace-up brace, and I don't have to go back to the orthopedic clinic until June.

4. These three things need listing because, otherwise, I've had a crappy week--due mostly, it seems, to PMS (depressed, clumsy, exhausted, retaining water like a camel, plus the random menstrual cramps like being stabbed in the kidney.) The Mirena has certainly reduced menstrual flow (which was not something I was ever actually particularly concerned about), but other than that, all it seems to accomplish is making everything as irregular as fuck. Gynecologist appointment in January, and we will most certainly be discussing the matter.

5. I haven't done this for a while, so: if you are a reader of this blog, and you would like to introduce yourself, please feel free to do so in the comments to this post. This offer is 100% obligation free; there is no pressure here of any kind.

I am podcasted!

Drabblecast 189 is a doubleheader special featuring "Darkness, As A Bride" and "National Geographic on Assignment: Mermaids of the Old West."

Go forth and enjoy!

5 more cheerful things

1. Happy birthday, papersky !

2. I have discovered a delightful series of flash games, from Eyezmaze, called Grow . (The first link takes you to Eyezmaze's site, the second to the jayisgames review of Grow Valley, which is the most recent of the games. The jayisgames page also has (a.) the walkthrough for Grow Valley and (b.) links to the jayisgames reviews (and walkthroughs) of the other Grow games.) Grow Valley charmed my socks off.

3. My package from Fountain Pen Hospital arrived (complete with pen pr0n--thank you, FPH). Once I'd let both the Pelikan and the Squeteague warm up (it's kind of, you know, chilly today in the Upper Midwest), I tried it out, and I have to tell you, I think I'm in love.

The Pelikan Technixx has a kind of retro-pulp sfnal aesthetic that I adore (it's the matte chrome finish and the super smooth lines). It's extremely light-weight, and it writes like a dream. The Pelikan nib has a different feel from any of my other fountain pens; more than the others, it feels to me like what rollerball pens are trying to feel like--only this is like the difference between "peach ice-cream" and peach ice-cream made with real peaches and real cream. It's awesome.

Noodler's Squeteague is an extremely dark blue-green color, emphasis on the green. It's almost black when wet, but becomes more visibly green as it dries, leaning just far enough into blue to not be a straight dark green. I may, after further use, consider adulterating it with Couleur Royale to get it just a little bluer, but it's awfully nice as is.

I'm washing out the nib of the JMFMP so I can try the Old Dutch Sepia in it tomorrow. I will, of course, report back.

4. Let me mention Whedonistas again (link to the Facebook page).

5. maryrobinette made it home safely on Sunday, after a comedy of errors and malfunctions that was starting to reach Odyssean levels. Mary, out of curiosity, have you ever tried to go to Ithaca?

Day 122: Four Months Out

This is the four month anniversary of me breaking my ankle, so I thought I'd do one more post about it and then let it subside into the background unless something particular happens.

So, four months out, where are we?

My ankle is still stiff and painful; I can almost but not quite get a flat line along the top of my foot when I point my toes (which I can do easily on the left, for a benchmark). I now can go downstairs foot over foot, although I take it slowly and lean heavily on the banister--and am likely to resort to the one-step-at-a-time method it if my ankle is already crabby. Most of the pain is coming from the tendons directly behind the two knobs of my ankle, with some back-up from my Achilles tendon. Some days I also have pain from the mortis-and-tenon part of the ankle (the talus bone) not quite mortising. (My physical therapist warned me about this, that it can take some time and work to get the talus back the way it should be.) I now can break into a jog if I have to, although it's not fun. It's still painful to walk properly, with the weight rolling through the big toe; up until last weekend, I would have said the pain was steadily decreasing, but Saturday and Sunday I was in considerable discomfort, more than I had been for several weeks, including some extremely unpleasant cramp-like twinges. I still haven't figured out what caused that.

There's also an odd spot along the suture scar on the inside of my ankle that is refusing to heal. Both my physical therapist and my orthopedist's PA said it was probably an interior suture that hadn't dissolved, and that it would work its way out, but it shows no sign of doing so. It's much less irritated now that I've stopped wearing the compression stocking, but it's still there. I will be mentioning this again when I see my orthopedist this Friday.

Essentially, what I'm dealing with now is less the break per se and more the accompanying sprain, plus the six weeks of immobility. Progress is discernible, but frustratingly slow. I still don't feel like I'm safe to drive, which is probably the worst of it.

Also, of course, I'm still fighting with the RLS. Sunday and Monday nights were rendered hellish thereby; I don't know about last night, because I just avoided going to bed until two. The ropinirole seems to be sometimes helping and sometimes not so much; it's much more reliable about making me queasy. This is not exactly what you call win conditions here.

So, things are much better than they were at 3:52 p.m. four months ago (much better), but I'm not all the way back yet.

And there you have it.