C.J. Cherryh's Blog, page 130

And a happier and most felicitous new year to us all!

We're having, unless talked out of it, pizza and champagne—We've not quite succeeded in having the week off: we did, however, get the chance to look at some bathroom tile and make plans to plug the hog-sized (either porker or Harley, take your pick) in our tub enclosure wall…that's been there, well, this last year. It's a major pain, and we're tired of plastic sheeting. We wanted to wait until we could do it right.

Christmas report…

We stayed home and had pizza and Russian teacakes, plus Lynn's really excellent fruitcake.

In the craziness of it all, and being conservative this year, we bought our Christmas at Lowe's on Black Friday, after Thanksgiving—and we were really worried that we had lost one of our two gifts (a saw) to pilferage—I mean, we do live on a major street, and it could happen—

But didn't, as it turned out. Jane remembered that they'd sold out of one item we wanted and they were kind enough to let us have it, to be delivered after the holidays once they had a new shipment. So we bought it—we just didn't have it in house. Or in the garage.

So no pilferage, just forgetful people. We wrapped the things anyway so we'd have nice things under the tree; and then Jane sneaked a good one in on me: she got me a medicine cabinet. Our bathroom (one) has been a case of stuff all over the countertop and jockeying for the mirror when we're trying to get ready to go somewhere and get our makeup on—two women, one countertop, one storage. You may imagine. So as soon as we get it up, I get my own cabinet and mirror, Jane gets a matching cabinet: they're mirrored, and snug up against each other to make one long mirror, and we get the junk off the counter. One thing we're doing this week is hang those cabinets, which necessitates removing the top row of the splash guard tiles.

I got Jane a doorbell—ours had broken.

And I got her a video game—Skyrim, the follower to Oblivion. It has the worst-ever computer control interface (Oblivion had a good one, and of course they changed it), but the user mods are already starting to roll in, so it's going to work. And we are taking one week off to rest, hang cabinets, install the doorbell, and play video games.

A new hobby for the Wave—

You too can find planets. Search the Kepler satellite's data for planet candidates. This link will show you how.

You may have noticed the outage—a stray neutrino…

zapped some code, and there we were.

However, our own wizard behind the curtain, Lynn, fixed it, and here we are!

It's spitting snow, though it's scheduled to rain later in the week, and it's feeling like Christmas. All prezzies are wrapped and under the tree, and the kittehs are seeing goblins—

This morning I heard a frightful noise from the kitchen: it has a timer-light, and that was one. I bailed out of bed and went to see what had sent one of the cats skittering across the Pergo floor.

Shu met me, bristled up all his hair until you'd hardly know he was the same sleek cat, in total fighting pose, tail arched, head down, even his cheek fur standing on end so he hardly looked recognizable. Sei showed up in the dark living room, behind me. I tried to keep Sei away from him, fearing he was going to attack, though Sei's pose was totally calm and blissfully reassuring. I turned on living room lights while trying to keep the two apart and calm Shu down, and by the time Sei got to him, bristled as he was, they went nose to nose kissy-kissy, apparently exchanging "there-there's" and "It'll be ok," –and Shu's hair began to lie down again…But even after a little breakfast, he was staying right near Sei.

I think he had a little kitteh dream—he'd just waked up, Jane told me later, when she heard the skittering; and from my vantage, in the dark living room there was Sei, probably with eyes shining in the timer-run light from the kitchen; which sent Shu skittering ten feet backward and turned him into a bristle-ball.

And a good morning to us all!

I lost somebody's check for Betrayer…

…..I had a letter in the CC mailbox. I brought it home. I carefully got it out and went to the basement to look for the book. I had trouble finding the book. I think I had the letter and check with me.

I found the book. I lost the letter and the check somewhere down there. I have searched the basement (shudder), the kitchen, the living room, Jane is searching the office. We have been searching for over an hour and we cannot find it. I thought, well, I can at least fill the order and hope the check turns up—but—Closed Circle has no record of a manual purchase for that book.

Please if you sent me a direct mail check without leaving a record in Closed Circle, let me know.

I think we're about to start Christmas…

We have a lengthy holiday, snugged in at home while the weather turns toward snow for a week at least.

Tomorrow, Christmas Eve, we'll think of something, probably involving dinner, maybe a fancy breakfast. We don't do prezzies until Christmas Morning.

We do prezzies on Christmas, but always save one for New Year's. And we laze about, probably baking (and consuming) Russian Teacakes. We will put together prezzies and do whatever comes natural with whatever we recieve (not so many surprises this year—except perpetually, from our rowdy kittehs. You set something down and it may appear in another room. Shu has climbed the larger tree clear to eye level and we have not used our more fragile and irreplaceable ornaments on that tree this year! Mostly it's unbreakables like giant snowflakes.

And we'll be on official holiday, interspersed with a little actual work in the mornings, for all of Christmas week. We'll skate when the rink is open. We'll do our best to relax, take deep breaths, and enjoy a few days off. New Year's Eve we'll likely spend at home, with another good dinner, and wake up on New Year's Day to watch the Rose Parade and have a late breakfast.

After which, of course, we make our annual New Year's resolution to shed whatever we gained during Christmas, and then get back to work. But I am determined on that few days off—we really could use it!

 

Merry Christmas from the cable channels? Ha!

I'm watching non-stop murders  because the idiot ditty on "How it's made" erodes the brain, I have no interest in Battles of WWI at this moment, and one more bit about haunted hotels, Al Capone, Atlantis, or the Bermuda Triangle, and I am going to turn extremely un-merry. I have been watching non-stop murders for two weeks.

Mmm. What else do we have? The Apocalypse. That's cheery.

I'm not asking for the umpteenth rendition of Frosty the Snowman, but I'd like something nice and uplifting. The Apocalypse? Gimme a break! We're going to hear plenty of that upcoming—the Mayan calendar thing: I've heard the modern Maya are planning a fiesta to continue past the day—and figuring that's the end of the world is beyond silly. The calendar-maker planned it for the rock he had and thought, "Y'know, carrying this on another full cycle is just overkill. I think the chief will be happy with this one."

Anyway—we're now pretty well Christmassed-up. Got a couple of errands to run. But mostly we're good. And I'm back at work on the novel.

Hope all is well with you guys!

 

 

 

 

The madding throng—or where the heck are my car keys?

Actually—the Swinging Door. Jane and I went out for dinner last night: I owed her a steak after what she did helping me with those galleys. But—I left my keys.

So….today we had lunch/brunch with OSG and OSGuy, and then Jane went home and I went off in quest of lost keys, to mail my brother's birthday present (late) and to get Christmas dessert, cheese, and such—and stop by the pharmacy counter at Freddy Myers—

It is, officially, a zoo out there. Every aisle filled with cart-pushers who erupt into other aisles at high speed; and the stock—OMG, the stock: this store has gone to seed on footed hoodie pjs in very large print and fuzzy. I'm not sure you could wear those things without sweating if you were snowbound in Nome in a power-out. Certainly the patterns are highly visible, if you are planning on a helicopter rescue while wearing a fuzzy hoodie footie.

I am officially tired. But this time it's a good tired. We've got the tree(s) up, the woodland tree, which is little, and all animals; and the big (6′) tree with, this year, mostly snowflakes we're relatively sure the kittehs won't eat. Jane mislaid one of the metal ones and had a laugh when I described it as a kind of shuriken—

Perhaps we've watched too much anime.

Anyway I bought desserts for Christmas, kind of a smorgasbord of small dessert servings; and it'll be pepperoni pizza again.

 

OSG had surgery today, is doing well…

Or as she put it, this is the only scheduled hospital stay she's ever had…her other visits have involved unplanned ones, aka accidents or emergencies.

She had, and we think it is now entirely past tense, a little rapid-heartbeat problem that she's had for many years, fixable by surgery if it should become a nuisance, and it had finally become a nuisance. The procedure involved going in with a little laser and frying a few cells, as I understand it, and it went quite well today: they took only an hour to do the job, instead of the two that might have been—she'll be overnighting in the hospital; and Jane and I talked to OSGuy and to her post-op, and she's quite happy. So think good thoughts for her, and she'll be fine and home tomorrow with OSGuy and the kittehs.

Spence has his Ragi site up, and has an e-book of his work on Ragi

HRSpence, with my blessings, has done a lot of work on Ragi.

So if you'd like to play Bren, and learn the language—here's the link.