Now I'm fixing to make a scene

Yesterday I took two naps and called it an early night, and I still barely dragged myself out of bed this morning - almost two hours after my usual rising. For one thing, it's been a crazy-busy week; and for another, I think I might've been a tiny bit sick. For that matter, I might still be a tiny bit sick. I won't bore you with the details, not least of all because I'm not fishing for the ubiquitous Internet Diagnosis Comments.

I'm fine now, that's the long and short of it. I'm just kind of tired. But I'm NOT so tired that I didn't squeeze out a spot of yardwork between today's thunderstorms.

We've always had this awful dark corner of the yard - the "bird corner" as I've come to think of it, because I strung up some bird feeders and a bird bath, and just let the critters have it. The grade is steep, and the terrain is shady, rocky, rooty, and utterly impossible to clear by hand. We've tried. A lot. We'd need a bulldozer, so forget it.

Anyway, a friend here in the neighborhood suggested I throw down some containers full of hostas or the like, and I finally found a series of cheap black planters that fit the bill. But I went for coleus rather than hosta, because I liked the extra bit of color.



Then I filled in the background with the leftover mulch (from last week's landscaping marathon), blocked off the ends with some decorative black iron fencing (about a foot tall), and adjusted the stakes on the camellias (yes, those are camellias at back corner). No, one does not ordinarily stake camellias. But one does not ordinarily have a 90-pound dog who likes to stomp through them in order to swear at squirrels, so we'll see how they do now that they're surrounded by other stuff.

Maybe Greyson will turn the whole thing into a war zone in under a week. Maybe not.

While I was at it, I took the pruners to the trees growing along/through/over the chain link fence, and cleared out some of the useless shade back there. There's still quite a lot, but it looks cleaner now - and the coleus won't mind either way.

Please pardon the chain link fence. I know it's awful, but it's what came with the house - and you guys should all go and preorder the living daylights out of Maplecroft so I can afford to replace it with something nicer. [:: sigh ::]

Maplecroft at Amazon.
Maplecroft at B&N.
Maplecroft via Indiebound.

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In other news, today I fixed a toilet.
I think.

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I missed Phoenix Comic Con this past weekend, and that was sad; but I got to hang out with Stina Leicht for a couple of days, and that was awesome.



We visited the Chickamauga battlefield and Lookout Point both, rode the Incline, and generally got ourselves sunburned like dorky tourists all over the damn place. Stina is a big ol' nerd for the same kind of history and decrepit architecture that I am, so you may safely bet that we did indeed have one hell of a time.

Sunday after lunch, I sent her off to Woodthrush for the Writing the Other Workshop and Retreat. Then I dashed home and beat my dad and stepmom's arrival by about fifteen minutes.

(Alas, they did not bring the Great Danes for this visit. I told them that next time they head to Florida, they should tote the pooches to our place - and leave them here for a little vacay of their own. I vowed to spoil them stupid, just like Greyson.)

The dad/stepmom combo are headed to my sister's place in Jacksonville, and they stopped over for the night as part of their trip. They'll be back again on Thursday, to stay a little longer before heading back to Kentucky.

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Speaking of Maplecroft - which I totally did, up there someplace - the Goodreads giveaway of a bright, shiny ARC is still going on. Click here to enter the drawing , and thanks a million to everyone who's entered so far.

And thanks a trillion to those of you who've told me you won't enter the drawing, because you've already preordered the book. You folks light up my life, I swear.

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Ordinarily I don't shill for Kickstarter projects, partly because there aren't enough hours in the day - and partly because I'm tired of Kickstarter projects in general. BUT. Once in awhile, something comes along and I sit here and make ridiculous grabby-hand gestures at the screen, because the project in question is just THAT DAMN COOL.

Behold - AVGhost: A Board Game Played in the Dark .
I mean come ON. I would play the SHIT out of that.

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On another note, sort of - Penny Dreadful is killing it. I'm frankly surprised I see so little chatter about this show (relatively speaking) online; it's a wonderful example of gothic storytelling - stylish, dark, sexy ... and okay fine, hella-cheesy at times.

But this most recent episode absolutely nailed the balance of form and content. My husband thinks it was supposed to be the pilot, but I'm not so sure. Maybe he's right, but I was just fine with getting the slow-burn epistolary backstory right where it was; I understand why they opened with the introduction of the American "heavy" - it gives the audience a vehicle character to ride as a point of entry, but the origin piece re: the families Ives and Murray was a positively divine gothic mini-drama, and all but self-contained.

Five out of five stars. Will watch again.
Just try and stop me.