Photo prompt

"What the heck are you doing?" Shiloh screeched as her human offered her up in front of Martie.  Unfortunately, it came out as a cross between a hiss and a meow, which did nothing but make her human laugh.

"Hey, you can talk?" Martie asked, sniffing at the cat who was dangling in front of her.  Her question sounded like a sneeze, and elicited another round of laughter from the humans in the room.

"Of course I can talk," Shiloh said.  "Can't everyone?"

"The humans can't," Martie pointed out.  "They make those weird sounds, and that laughing thing."

"Well, obviously humans can't talk," Shiloh said, a note of superiority in her tone.  "But I haven't met an animal who can't talk properly."

The human and her companions seemed to tire of the animals, since all they seemed to do was sneeze and sniff at each other.  The human set Shiloh down, and the cat sniffed at the dog once more.

"Well, I haven't had any other animals around for long enough to talk to them before," Martie told Shiloh.  "There was a squirrel in the yard once, but he just wanted to play chase, so we didn't talk much."

"I have a dog here," Shiloh told him, leading the way into the kitchen.  "He's rather irritating, though, so I wouldn't expect much conversation from him."

"Hey Shiloh!  Hey, hey!  Who's this?  I'm Grover, who're you?  Hey?  What are you doing here?"  A very high-energy, rather large dog came bounding into the kitchen, shouting at the top of his lungs.

"Shhh!" Shiloh hissed.  "The humans will come!"

Sure enough, even as Shiloh hissed her warning, the lead human came into the kitchen, shouting angry words.  The two dogs cringed, while the cat simply stared at her.  After another few shouts, the human left, apparently satisfied that the dogs were now silent.

"Who are you?" Grover asked again, more quietly.  He sniffed at Martie, who stood still while he completed his inspection.

"I'm Martie," the smaller dog replied once Grover moved away.  "I'm new."

"Do you like to play ball?" Grover asked, getting excited again.  "I love to play ball.  Come on, I'll show you my ball!  Hurry!  Come see!"  The big black dog bounded back to the other room, and Martie followed close on his heels, her toenails clicking across the floor.

Shiloh sighed.  Dogs were so uncivilized.

The holidays keep my busy...

I had really great intentions for blogging all throughout the holiday, I really did!  But then I got home, and I had time off, and I had a million projects to finish, and I rediscovered my NaNovel...  Life kind of got the best of me, unfortunately.  But on the bright side, I've been having a great holiday!

I managed to finish two knitting projects, and I've almost used up the yarn that I've purchased for another, which means I've only got two skeins to go, then the border, then I'm done that one, too!  I want to get my boxes open again (since it looks like I won't be moving into the new house until at least February), and pull out some more projects to finish.  I'm a finishing machine!

Of course, all I really want to do is start a new project...

But I can wait, really!  I think I mentioned that I've joined Ravelry, and it's definitely making me want to finish things.  I hate seeing all the WIP tags - they just remind me that I have a hard time finishing what I've started.  Granted, a couple of my projects are big, long-term projects... I've got at least two queen-size blankets that I'm working on, plus three baby blankets, plus a sweater.  Those all get, well, boring after a while.  I'm getting better at finishing the other, million, little projects I have, though.  I've got the yarn and the pattern for a set of wrist warmers for my sister, and those will be the second-next project I start once I'm done with all the holiday fun (the first will be a set of maternity scrubs for my cousin).

Hmm... this blog is supposed to be my writing blog, but this is a very craft-related update!  But really, that's what I've been doing lately, in addition to working on "Happily Ever After" (my NaNovel).  If you want to read more about my crafting fun, check out my craft blog!

It's Christmas!

It's Christmas!  Well, technically, it's Christmas.  It's around 1 am, and I'm still not asleep.  I had presents to wrap after shopping late this afternoon!  But it's very exciting around here - it's like being a kid again.  I'm exhausted, but I can't sleep.  It doesn't help that my sister is in the same room, and she's still MAKING her Christmas presents right now... 

I'm sure I'll have many pics and stories soon, but until then, I wish you all a Merry Christmas!  (And I'll try to sleep, I promise!)

Car go boom!

I don't know what a catalytic converter is, but I have learned that it is an important part of making a car go.  If it is not working, your car is not happy.

My car is not happy.

My catalytic converter is 'dead.'  My timing belt is about to go.  My water pump is also in need of replacement, as are my brakes.

This owning a car thing is expensive to deal with!

Car go boom

Okay, so the car didn't go boom.  It went, "Bing bing bing bing bing!"  (That sound makes me want to watch 'Friends'...)

I was on my way home from the vet, and the ABS light wouldn't go off.  That didn't seem good.  Then, as I was stopping before pulling out of the parking lot, there was a loud beeping sound, much like the sound that means I'm almost out of gas.  I looked down at the gauge, and I was not out of gas.  Then I saw the 'BRAKE' light flashing.  That seemed worse.  As I started going, the brake light turned off, and the beeping stopped.

Then I came to a red light.  As I stepped on the brakes, the care started screeching at me again, and the light came back on.  Again, not good.  This went on the whole way home.  Keep in mind, I'm on my way home from the vet, and so I have a puppy in the car with me.  She's not a happy puppy.  She doesn't like the vet much, even though he didn't give her any shots this time.  (I'm not sure I like him, either... he's got creepily vacant eyes.)  I pulled into Arby's to get dinner (because that's what we do on the way home from the vet), and I went through the drive through.  Of course, this involves much stopping, and there was much binging from the unhappy car.

I finally got home and pulled out the manual.  All combinations of brake light and ABS light apparently require an immediate, slow trip to the nearest VW dealer to fix either broken brake cables or empty brake lines.  Hmm.  I was right.  This is not good.  Of course, all of this was going on AFTER work, so I couldn't get in anywhere.  The place I called is fully booked tomorrow, but the guy on the phone was super-nice, and told me to bring the car in tomorrow and they'll hook it up to the diagnostic computer to see if it's a major problem, or if I just need to top up fluids.  

So I may have to spend my Christmas shopping money on fixing my car.  *sigh*  On the bright side, this guy was really nice on the phone, which says a lot about the company (in my opinion).  As long as they don't charge three times what the market rate is, I think I've found my 'shop.'  Yay!  And since the car's going in anyways, I'm going to get a quote on the price to fix the electrical outlets (can't charge anything!) and the roof (the lining is falling off).  I don't think I'll necessarily get those repaired soon, but it would be nice to know what I'm saving for.  :)

And that was today's car fun.

I want to play in the fog

I was driving home tonight (woot for driving!), and as I drove past Tatnall Square Park, I could see that the lower parts of the park were filled with fog.  It looked so cool!  It was rolling around, like in the movies, which, I suppose, is why movie fog rolls like that...

In any case, I really wanted to just pull over and get out and walk around in the fog for a bit, because it seemed like it would be a lot of fun.  Sadly, the logical part of my brain would not go for it... something about it being 11 pm, and downtown, and dark, and alone... I almost called Blake to see if he'd come play in the fog with me, since it was a block from his place, but the logical bits pointed out that it's bedtime, not playtime.

*sigh*

But the next time I see fog, I'm probably going to get out and play!

Bah, humbug

I can't get into the holiday spirit.  I've tried.  I made Christmas cards, and tonight, I addressed all of them, and tomorrow, they'll go into the mail.

I've got plans to make my Christmas fudge tomorrow after work, and then go shopping for the supplies to make a few Christmas gifts for friends.

I've been working on my sister's Christmas present for weeks, and I'm halfway finished.

I've planned what to get my parents for Christmas.

I've watched Scrooge the Musical twelve times.

But I'm still not in the spirit.

I change the station every time a Christmas carol comes on.  I growl when people ask if I've finished my shopping.  I'm just not into it.

I blame it on the lack of snow.  How can you people have Christmas without snow?  It's like Halloween without pumpkins, or Easter without chocolate eggs, or Valentine's Day without awful attempts at poetry!

Blink, blink

It's over...

I swear, we just opened yesterday, and the show closed tonight.  Okay, it didn't literally open yesterday, but the days have run together, so it feels like it opened yesterday.  I'm tired.  No, I'm exhausted.  And I think I'm coming down with a cold.

I'm looking forward to sleeping, and not rushing through dinner, and getting my evenings to myself again.

Of course, I'm also looking forward to the next show - as long as there are no other conflicts in my life, I'll be Stage Manager for the next three shows at MLT!  Which is kind of cool.  And it's nice because I can organize stuff in the theatre a little more long-term (at least the stage manager stuff).  I'm really enjoying myself backstage, although I do miss being onstage, too.

But I'm exhausted post-show, so I'm going to go sleep for 12 hours now.  Later!

Dear Stupid,

Dear Driver Behind Me,

It's eleven o'clock at night. It's dark out. It's pouring rain. We're on a road with lots of curves and hills. There are almost no street lights. I am driving exactly the speed limit. Riding my ass will not make me drive any faster. And if you don't turn off your brights, I will fucking stick a fork in your eyeball.

Love,
Me

Joke of the day

I work in a medical office, and we get lots of dirty old men coming in and telling jokes. Here's today's "cute" joke:

There was this dog lying on the train tracks, sleeping, when a train came by and ran over its tail and lopped off a bit of it. The dog whirled around to see what was going on, and the train lopped its head off. The moral of the story? Don't lose your head over a piece of tail.

Wasn't that awful?

Opening Night!

There is very little that has the same feeling as opening night.  Tonight, Scrooge opened at Macon Little Theatre, and it was a good show.  There were a few little... snafus (or is it 'snafoo'?)... but overall, it was a good show.

The cast is large.  That's being polite.  It's a bit crazy.  And there are children everywhere.  Insane, mind-reading children.  Have I mentioned that I don't plan to have children?  There were a lot of them.  And they weren't particularly well behaved.

Shows definitely feel different from the perspective of a tech crew member, though.  There's a lot less of the excited energy back at the sound booth, and a lot more reviewing of cues and pre-setting all the technical stuff.  And tonight there was much panicking... the sound board got turned off.  This may not seem like a big deal - if it's off, you just turn it back on, right?  Wrong.  There's a short somewhere in it, and it's a 20 minute process (at least) of plugging in, unplugging, turning on and off, and wiggling cords to get it on again.  So sound check was 20 minutes late.  But we had sound, so it was good!

If you're in Macon, and looking for something to do, go see Scrooge!  Visit Macon Little Theatre for ticket info!

Ah, the theatre!

I showed up at the theatre for tech rehearsal on Sunday, and was immediately asked if I could please run the sound board, as there was no one available that the directors trusted.  That was a pretty nice vote of confidence!  Of course, it's been years since I've run sound of any sort... and I don't think I've ever run musical theatre sound before... so it's an adventure!

So I'm playing with the unlimited authority that comes along with being a stage manager, and the unlimited feedback that comes with running a sound board... I've realized that I need to go on line and do some research about this particular type of soundboard to figure out just what everything does, but I've been told that I'm doing well so far.

Of course, all this work comes after work, so I'm getting, like, five hours of sleep a night by the time I get home and take the puppy out and get things ready for tomorrow and finally get into bed... so the next few blogs may kind of suck.  But I'm planning to write a bit more of "Take Five", and I'll probably throw in some random prompts, too!  Look out for more writing!