And now…

March 7, 20147 Comments

Full sprawl. How feline. 🙂

…further proof that my son is a bipedal cat:

This morning I was awakened by the sound of Thumper taking down the baby gate from his bedroom doorway. (I really don’t know why I bother putting it up anymore since he knows how to take it down, but I do. Maybe it’s for those extra few seconds I gain in which to prepare myself for battle with a two-year-old.) He tiptoed through the hall, barged into our room, and climbed into bed next to me, where he sat on all fours and stared at me, grinning from ear to ear, his nose about an inch from mine.

When I finally opened my eyes to acknowledge his presence, he whispered, “Time to get up!”

If cats could talk, surely they’d say something similar. And this, my friends, is why I am on my second 2L bottle of Diet Dr. Pepper. The first one was gone by noon.

If you’ve got a cute kid story, share it below! I could use a little cuteness on this dreary Friday afternoon.

C Is for Baby, Not Cat

Camera skills

March 4, 2014March 5, 20147 Comments

IMG_20140301_104334 Apparently, I’m not too shabby with a camera. I’ve been an amateur photographer for a good decade and a half now (a little over that, actually), ever since I got my first camera for Christmas, and it’s something I love. Most of the pictures that accompany my poems are ones that I’ve taken (unless otherwise noted). It’s so much fun; I can’t imagine not having a camera to play around with. And, while I do miss my old film cameras, it’s nice that with my DSLR, I can take as many pictures as I want without having to worry about paying to have bad pictures developed. Of course, this has also made me a little more careless, I think, in my composition, but such is life.

But I digress. When I post something new here, I usually head over to Facebook and share the link in a couple of groups I’m in. Last week, my post “Lonesome Call” gathered a bit of attention there, as someone found my photo of a lone tree in a field near my hometown particularly inspiring. She crafted a whole poem around the image, which I was quite flattered to read. Apparently it’s been making its way around the web via Facebook, from what I can tell. If you’d like to take a look for yourself, you can find it here.

If you decide to check it out, I hope you’ll enjoy. 🙂

Oh, the weather outside is frightful…

January 10, 201412 Comments

…It doesn’t show signs of stopping…

This week was full of weather, among other things. From the much-discussed polar vortex to today’s (tonight’s) ice storm, it’s been a frosty week.

Don’t believe me? Here’s the proof:

So pretty!

Frosty trees always inspire me.

This was even prettier once the lights were on.

Beautiful…and treacherous.

And, joy of joys, we’re supposed to get two inches of snow on top of all the ice. And I have to brave the weather tomorrow so that someone can come and look at my house. Here’s hoping they put in a reasonable offer.

And now, an ecard

December 18, 201316 Comments

awesome

I’ve been fighting a sinus infection, an ear infection, and recovering from back-to-back Christmas parties with a cookie walk thrown in for good measure. I baked 23 dozen Christmas cookies in a span of 24 hours. I hope to be back to my normal self (both blogging and otherwise) soon, thanks to massive antibiotics (seriously, the things are horse pills!) and a(nother) good night’s sleep. Until then, please to enjoy these delicious virtual cookies:

IMG_20131213_134619

Mmm, delicious sugar cookies…om nom nom!

11 Ecards That Perfectly Describe Your Holiday Season (thenest.com)
Christmas Cookies (suzannesblatherings.wordpress.com)
25 Hilariously Sarcastic Ecards (list25.com)

“I speak for the trees…”

December 3, 201323 Comments

IMG_20131202_233702 If you had been in my car last night, you’d have heard the following conversation between Cricket and me. It was just too cute not to share.

C: “Mommy, are the trees mad?”

M: “No, the trees aren’t mad. Why?”

C: *very earnestly* “Because they are. They are mad, Mom. Because I speak for the trees.”

M: “You speak for the trees?”

C: *very somberly* “I do, Mom. I do.”

I hate to think how many times he watched (or read) The Lorax yesterday for that to spontaneously come out last night – once he starts with something, he wants it endlessly (I am seriously sick of Scooby Doo at this point). Still, I’m glad he liked it – The Lorax is one of my favorite Dr. Seuss stories. 🙂

What a weekend!

November 25, 201317 Comments

How was everyone’s weekend? I spent mine mostly offline, fighting a migraine and watching TV. Lots and lots of TV. But it was good, because some of it qualified as research for The Lokana Chronicles. After last week’s writing class and my two-day Reign marathon and a bunch of Wikipedia-browsing, I’ve got a bunch of ideas for revisions (which I’d just resumed and will now have to go back over, but at least it’s only a chapter or two). I decided the book needs to be split in half, so I’ve got a lot of work to do because, once I’m done revising, I’m going to have to figure out how to wrap up the first half so that it feels like a complete book and then do the same for the second half.

Oy. Vey.

icy We had some snow over the weekend that made for lovely inspiration, but I felt too miserable most of the weekend to do much about it. I finally got a chance to sit down this noon and work on a new short story, but then the phone rang, and there went half my lunch hour. Hopefully I can get some more writing done tonight – that would be awesome! I’m still feeling a bit blah, though, so I guess we’ll see what happens.

In other news…

Daily gratitude

October 30, 201310 Comments

Sometimes it’s hard to find things in life to be grateful for. Not everything always goes the way we would like. Certainly I’ve had times like that in my own life; I’ve even written about them (here, there, and everywhere else). Writing sometimes helps me keep things in perspective.

With that in mind, today’s post (that should have gone up yesterday and didn’t for reasons that I’ll mention in a minute) is about the little things, the things that can – and do – make life worth living.

Things I’m Grateful for Today

Snow boats

October 23, 201318 Comments

It snowed here yesterday. October is far too early for snow, in my opinion. If you ask me, the first – and last – snowfall should occur on December 24. It should hang around for Christmas, but then it needs to vamoose on December 26 so as not to interfere with my travel plans.

Clearly I live in the wrong state. Sadly, my dreams of wintering somewhere more tropical are not likely to come true any time soon.

This little burst of winter got me thinking, though, about winters past. I didn’t always hate the snow and the cold. When I was a kid, I used to relish them. I loved sledding and ice skating and building snow forts. I loved walking atop the frozen snow in my neighbors’ yards on my way to and from school, my stomach quivering as I wondered how long it would be before I plunged ankle-deep into a frosty hole.

Old home week

October 22, 2013October 22, 201314 Comments

Friends and fun - what could be better? Photo by Kay Kauffman

The house has changed, and so have we.

They say you can’t go home again, and I think they must be right. My dad lived in the house I grew up in till I was twenty, and I went back after he moved out once. Once was enough.

The people who bought my house after my dad moved out remodeled it extensively before selling it themselves. It was after this second sale that I returned – Miss Tadpole was selling Girl Scout cookies, so I took her through my old neighborhood to see how many of my old customers would buy from her.

It was incredibly surreal being the parent in this scenario. Miss Tadpole was woefully under-prepared when it came to her sales pitch, but I’d been so well-rehearsed at her age that it was easy for me to pick up the slack. We made a great team.

As we strolled through my old stomping grounds…

Late

October 20, 2013October 20, 201323 Comments

Bubbles the Paddlefoot

I know, I know – I’m late again. It seems to be a thing with me lately. Our open house was postponed last weekend (sort of), so we’re doing it again today, and it’s thrown my whole weekend off.

I used to always be very punctual; I miss that particular virtue. Now it seems that no matter what I do, I’m always late, always running behind, and I never catch up. Just when I think I’m caught up, I realize I’ve forgotten something and I haven’t caught up at all. *sigh*

I think this lateness issue of mine can be traced to my eighteenth Christmas. I was living with my ex-husband and his parents at the time (we were just dating then), and I was home from college on break. Things that often happen between consenting adults happened and, lo and behold, some six weeks later, I was late. You never think it will happen to you, but it can. And it does.