Life as a kitty is tough...

Sometimes you need a nap...

When you're waiting for the, um mail, right...

Sometimes you have to share...

Sometimes you have to hide...

Or protect your territory...

Or help out at work...

And then you really need a nap.

Seasonal Food Cravings

One spring I found myself craving hard boiled eggs. Now I am the type of person that believes the body tells me what it wants. When I crave olives or oranges or cheese, I try to give it what it wants. And I try to ignore those yearnings for chocolate, danishes and Key lime pie.

But I very rarely crave hard boiled eggs. Just not on my list of favorite foods. I'm not a big fan of eggs in any form. So I thought about it. And it occurred to me that it was spring and Easter was around the corner.

I grew up with the tradition of dyeing eggs at Easter. We had Easter egg hunts. When you found your egg, you got a prize, which usually amounted to frilly socks for your Easter outfit or pretty barrettes. Then we had a bowl of colored eggs on the table for about a week. Everyone was encouraged to eat them up.

I haven't dyed eggs since I was a kid, but that tradition turned into a craving. There are a couple other foods that surface in their own season. Like tangerines at Christmas. I think that must have been from fruit baskets we received from my father's business associates.

Funny how taste and smell can be so  strongly attached to memories.

Haircut

Every decade or so I get an urge to cut off all my hair. Then I change direction and spend the rest of that decade growing it all back in.

Well, the time came. I found a local salon that looked interesting and made an appointment. Now, you have to understand that I am the type of person that takes a while to make a decision, but once it's made I'm ready.

The hairdresser was hesitant. This always happens. I go in with hair down past my shoulders, with plans for a short cut, and the hairdresser doesn't believe me. I didn't understand until I met a woman who said she cried every time she got her hair cut. Then I realized how traumatic it must be for a hairdresser to finish and her customer to burst into tears.

So I coaxed her along. Yes, shorter. Oh, maybe a little shorter. This could be shorter, here... And voila! My hair was as short as I had hoped.

Unfortunately, my hair will never do what I want it to do. I have at least 6 cowlicks. So when it's really short it sticks up in 6 different directions. Learned that the hard way. But I'm pleased with the cut. I might even take some pictures to post this weekend.

Support for Worldbuilders

Worldbuilders raises money for Heifer International.

Today is the last day for their fund raising campaign. This is a truly worthy cause. I have donated some books for their auction.

Here's the link to Patrick Rothfuss' blog

I'm the 8th listing down if you're interested.

There are some wonderful things being offered here. Take a look and consider donating to a great organization that helps hunger in a substantive way.

A whole lotta rain

I love a rainy day. But a whole week is too much!

The weather man said some areas have had a foot of rain. Thank heavens it's warm. That'd be like 8 feet of snow.

I want to point out that I dug trenches in the garden to handle the flooding. and they were working really well until today.

However, my new raised beds seem to be holding their heads above water. Which is a really good thing. Last year I had seeds washed out several times.

This should turn into wet snow tonight. A very bad combination. The weight will probably bring down trees that are loose in the sodden soil. And we've had a couple mudslides.

Quite the wacky weather and it's only January.

Another Reading

Not really resolutions

I have decided to dedicate the beginning of the year to just writing.

Silly. I thought I was doing that last year, too. But all sorts of things crept in...

I got the marketing bug and spent hours spinning my wheels on pointless schemes.

And I got stuck a few times. There's nothing like a dull scene to make you wander around the house cleaning, tidying, filing...anything to avoid that ugly scene.

And I got distracted by new ideas and short stories that insisted on being written.

I planned and plotted and organized myself out of writing time.

Now I have been telling everyone that I will have the new mystery story out by March. Um...but it isn't even half done yet. So that means LOTS of writing. Which means I need the time to write. And that leads me to curtailing everything else.

As Erma Bombeck used to say - If it doesn't involve blood or vomit, leave me alone.

I am planning on writing only the novel for the next month or 2. So blogging may be spotty. I'll try for at least once a week. No marketing, no short stories, no futzing around unless I get my goal number of words on paper.

Whew. Hope this works.