We were both sick over the weekend, but we're getting over it.

Extremely boring weekend, though I did finally get around to finishing Stranger Things. I really enjoyed it. I thought they nailed the ending. Long, fun ride. Sorry to see it over.

!gninrom dooG

Quote by gillianleeza
I love the beach in the winter.

I've never see n a beach in winter. It sounds beautiful.

Same old thing here. Writing, with the news in the background. Pick up the grand-boy from school later. I've got a bit of a cough myself - there are SO MANY GERMS at the school. A giant petri dish.

!esaelp eeffoC

Finally saw del Toro's Frankenstein. Really good movie. It's long as heck, and there's a bit of drag in the middle, but, boy is it a beautifully shot movie. Very emotional too.

Windy af down here. It's a little scary, though I can't imagine we're in danger. I'm picking up the grand-boy later, the biggest worry is that he'll blow away.

About halfway through House of Leaves. What a crazy read! It's like walking through a dark house, which I guess it literally is. But having to turn the book and squint and even occasionally use a mirror really makes it a trippy experience.

!eeffoC

Happy President’s Day, for those in the US. Ha. We prefer to think of it as a three day Valentine Day weekend.

The comp entries are fun. I may give Rainbow a shot. We’ve got a month.

Making some headway on the new novel. Talia was laughing at me yesterday for recording and playing stuff backwards. .driew s’ti seY

!!!!!!eeffoC

I'm in the comp! 80 words exactly (not including the title).

Playing video games on a lazy Sunday today. Nice way to close out Valentine's Day weekend.

Baseball next weekend!

Shamrock

“Frikkin Roombas,” howled Owen, lobbing an e-bomb toward the door. He never dreamed he’d use hate-speech, but then the robots went rogue. Burnt the fields first. No more human food. Skies black. Billions dead.

Owen took the kids, hid in an abandoned Walmart. Food, hiding places, guns. Here they’d make their stand.

The door blasted open. In the doorway: a Roomba. Held in its cold hand: a fragile plant. A shamrock. Their shared future. Life.

Hope.

“Come in,” said Owen.

We watched Materialists last night for Valentine’s Day. Really above average rom-com. Other than Dakota Fanning living in Manhattan on $80k a year, we totally bought into it. Well rounded characters, excellent dialogue, good acting. I just enjoyed listening to everyone talk. Highly recommended.

Cool idea! I'm on this! Thanks, WG!

Got ripped up by the cat yesterday, but we did get her to the vet. Notice the scratches look weirdly like my tattoo of the Pleiades. They gave us kitty Xanax (gabapentin!) for next time.

Sorry about the news from Canada, Ape. Sounds like an US headline. Our thoughts are with you guys.

Man. Woke up, turned in the news, and saw House Representatives and AG Bondi in a live screaming match on Capitol Hill. Things are getting weird. The government is no longer interested in answering questions.

Anyway. Taking the cat to the vet for a checkup today, so the always stressful catching of the cat and putting it in the carrier is about to commence.

Quote by WriterGirl
I’m trying to understand curling at the Olympics, but don’t. Can’t figure it out, but looks interesting.

I like to watch it, even with no idea what is going on. Sorry about your Dad, WG. Hard stuff. Hugs.

Still struggling with the novel. Tacked on a few new words yesterday.

Video bird feeder continues to be great fun. The only downside is that it's too small for the Blue Jays to visit.

The play was mediocre, but at least it was short. We were home by halftime. Mr. Bunny was good! The game was not.

First Spring training game in 12 days.

I'm in a serious writing drought. Sigh.

Coffee?

Busy not preparing for the Super Bowl here. We're going to a play instead.

Other than that, a fine day here. Warm and sunny.

Still no laptop. I am going slowly mad without one.

Coffee!

So, anyone remember when my a key was acting up? Well, I tried to fix it, and broke the key, and so have no laptop until Wednesday. I am at my wit’s end. And I didn’t have all that much wit to begin with.

Not much else going on. We got a woodpecker and some blue jays on the bird cam yesterday. Cool!

!eeeffoC

Good morning from Casa Say It Backwards (that's the name of the app I'm using)!

Those brownies look good!

The "a" on my keyboard is behaving badly. I have to hit it extra hard to get it to work. Everytime I write a sentence I have to go back and add in all the "a's" I missed.

Coffeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Quote by Mendalla

su sekat gnitirw erehw egnartS 😊

.deednI

You know, I must type a post here and forget to hit Submit like once a week. I swore I posted yesterday. My short term memory is mush.

Regardless. No grandson pick-up today, so it's the old write and walk combo today. Still messing around with backwards voices. !nuf s''tI

Coffee please.

Quote by Mendalla

Birds can be incredibly aggressive. I've seen jays go after squirrels and I've been dive bombed by a redwing blackbird whose nest was close to my deck and BBQ. Just remember that they are distant cousins of theropods like tyrannosaurus rex and it makes perfect sense. 😊

Dinosaurs fighting in the back yard is a great image with which to begin the day.

Slowly warming up here. We should have a chill day today. The new novel is frustrating right now - I'm playing with backward voices with an app on my phone now, trying to get an idea. gnikrow ton s'ti.

Cooofffeee!!!

Things seem a tiny bit more optimistic in the United States this morning.

I'm certainly in a better mood. Still cold here, but the snow and wind have stopped.

We had a junco attack a finch on the bird cam yesterday. Dive bombed her! Marking territory I guess. No birds appeared to be harmed.

Coffee!

Cold here, but the snow has stopped. I gotta shovel soon. I enjoy shoveling.

Calm weekend, and should be a calm week. I am slowly making progress on Mr. Novel.

I have a bit of memoir up here, from my days in Minneapolis: https://www.storiesspace.com/stories/memoirs/two-neighborhoods.

All Her Fault is really good. Sarah Snook is a force of nature.

Quote by WriterGirl

Cool to be in an anthology!

Thanks, WG!

I hope everyone is safe and warm and have no reason to leave the house until the cold goes away. We hunkered down here with snow flurries and temp in the teens.

A hot coffee would be swell.

Cool, Ape. Big projects are exciting!

I have a very short horror story coming out this week in an anthology - it's the one about the haunted garbage disposal, if you remember me babbling about that awhile back. So, that's cool.

Lazy day today. I got Talia one of those bird feeders that identify the bird (SO COOL!), and we've been experimenting with different spots. We finally found the best spot and I hung it. Now I'm playing video baseball and wishing for Spring.

Seize the carp!

Quote by Mendalla

Not on DVD or in a theater, but I finally saw Godzilla Minus One. Oh wow, did they ever stick the landing on this one. An intense, moving personal drama about a kamikaze pilot who backed out of his mission and has serious PTSD combined with a dark tale of Godzilla terrorizing a late forties Japan that is still recovering from the bombings and other events of the war's end. And all done so, so well. It landed the Oscar for VFX but the writing and acting are top notch, too.

Minus One is a standalone, not related to any other Godzilla movies but there's a post-credit stinger that leaves the door open for a sequel if Toho wants to go there. I think this movie stands very well on its own and would be quite happy to see it remain a standalone.

It's excellent, though it took me awhile to get to it. I think they are going to bring in Ghidorah next.

TGIF!

Quote by Mendalla
Interesting tat. If I get one, maybe something like that would be good. Less inking involved than some of the wildly elaborate ones. Except with my crappy skin, it might be hard to tell what's a star and what's a blemish/lesion. 🙄

It was surprisingly painless. I like the lack of detail and simple inking.

Sick as a dog for 36 hours, and then fine. We think it was a norovirus, though it was over so fast, who knows? Talia luckily didn't get it. I puked HARD for 12 hours (TMI, I know), slept miserably for another 12, and then recovered. Nasty. But I woke up early this morning, and my first thought was, "I'm well!"

Coffee please.

My tat.

Quote by gillianleeza

We had a couple of warm days. It was nice for a change. Now it's back to rainy and cold. It matches my mood.

I hate government red tape. My Mom died over a year ago and was on the waiting list for burial at Arlington Cemetery. It's always over a year wait, typically. That was not an issue. Finally got a call saying she was in the queue, and we could now schedule her service. (We had submitted all the paperwork and had approval.) But on review, they discovered that her middle name on her military service forms had an h in it, and the death certificate did not. I had to provide her birth certificate, and her middle name did not contain an h. So I am now responsible for correcting her military record. I found the Air Force website and forms. Their website states there is no telephone number to call. Everything must be done online or through the mail. Then I read the note at the top. It takes an average of 291 days to make corrections. So it will probably be another year before we get a date.

I'm upset and mad, and it brings back all the grief and the anger I have about dealing with insurance companies, Medicare, Tri-Care, and long-term health insurance problems. I am so tired of things being unnecessarily difficult. So now Monday will be another day of filling out forms, requesting information, etc. Other than that, things are great.

I hope everyone is having a better weekend than I am. Take care of yourselves.

All that because of an "h"? Nuts. Just nuts. Sorry Gil.

Same old thang here, after a rather busy December. Started a new novel. Still in its infancy. Competing with my writing aspirations is the PS5, and shiny new games like baseball and No Man's Sky.

Did I tell everyone I got a tattoo? The Pleiades! My daughter got a matching one. My first tattoo!!!

Peace. Coffee please.