It's a very cute kitten. Riding a little tortoise.
http://www.wimp.com/kittentortoise/

TGIF!

Record rainfall... record number of cold days... record number of rainy days... gloomy and wet... I wonder if that's one of the reasons I'm drifting again. Can't even get up the energy to write. Or edit. Not even the daffodils are helping. I need true spring. I'm tired of my hips constantly aching from arthritis. I'm tired of people telling me I'm too young for arthritis. I'm tired of being tired. I'm even starting to feel... depressed. It's fucking annoying.
I'm been forcing myself to take walks again on my lunch break. Discovered that the trilliums are finally blooming. Seems like later than previous years. And the purple dead nettles are popping up. Those are kinda yummy to eat. Fuzzy. And quite nutritious. High in iron, vitamins, and fiber. I found blog of a local forager. I think I'll try to go on one of her foraging walks this spring. I used to love learning about plants and their properties. I wrote a little report in high school on the medical uses of certain plants, just for my own personal edification. Considered being a botanist, but hated chemistry. I don't want to learn how plants work, I want to know which ones can be used for what. I want to walk through a forest and forage for food and medicines. I want a garden where I can grow them. I want a stillroom with shelves of tinctures and drying herbs.
And pickled beans. I love pickled beans.
*yawn*

So for all you ebook readers out there, I found this lovely little freebie. It's a published LOTR book called The Last Ring-Bearer, translated from a russian author, using the idea that history is written from the POV of the winners. What if Gandolf and his crew wasn't really that good? What if Sauron and his crew wasn't all that evil? This is written from the bad guys POV. Looks really interesting... and it's free!
The link has both .epub and .Mobi files.
http://booksprung.com/russian-novel-retells-the-lord-of-the-rings-from-the-bad-guys-pov#more-5621

Well, it's been a long time since I've done one of these... but what the hell...

1: CHOOSE ONE: PARSLEY, SAGE, ROSEMARY, THYME. EXPLAIN.
A: While I love my Rosemary bush, I'd have to say Sage. It's great for purifying energies in the home, the smell brings back happy childhood memories of vacations in Eastern Oregon playing amongst the sagebrush, and there is nothing better than apple brown-butter sage sauce over butternut squash ravioli... heavy on the sage. :D

2. WHAT HOKEY SAYING/TRUISM ANNOYS YOU MOST?
A: I can't really think of one that annoys me, but the phrase "Your imagination is running away with you." used to freak me out as a child.

3. WHAT WOULD BE THE WORST STATE NAME TO GIVE A CHILD?
A: Mississippi? Think of the poor child that has to not only learn how to spell it, but fill in all those little dots on those stupid scan tests.

4. WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE CHRISTMAS PRESENT YOU RECEIVED BEFORE YOU WERE 12?
A: Only one? I think it would be a tie between my Rainbow Bright doll and my Tonka dumptruck.

5. WHEN YOU STEP OUT OF THE SHOWER, WHAT BODY PART DO YOU DRY FIRST?
A: My back, as the first thing I do is grab the towel and wrap it over my back and shoulders like a cloak. And then I go running though the house pretending I'm batman... or not.

6. IF YOU'RE ALONE, AND YOU HAVE THIS OBNOXIOUS NUGGET IN YOUR NOSTRIL, HOW ARE YOU GOING TO GET IT OUT?
A: Fingers all the way. Nothing worse than a crusty schnoz, and one might as well use the tools nature gave us.

7. WHAT ARE YOUR PRE-POST-COITAL PREPAREDNESS PLANS.
A: Wow. Um. Yeah. Considering my sex life boils down to a happy little toy and a good imagination, I'll just leave it at that.

8. WHAT REGIONAL SPECIALTY IS YOUR AREA FAMOUS FOR? DOES IT ANNOY YOU?
A: Beavers and Rain. I love the rain, so no, it doesn't annoy me. I even like beavers, especially when they dam up nice little placid streams and then it rains and the dams cause massive flooding... Yeah, I like beavers and rain.

9. WHAT EIGHT LETTER WORD BEST DESCRIBES YOUR FEET?
A: Flatfoot? But just one. After all, they can't be identical, can they... damn obstinate body...

10. WHAT FRUIT BEST COMPLEMENTS YOUR PERSONALITY? WHY?
A: Durian. One of the only foods Andrew Zimmern couldn't eat. I'm an acquired taste.

11. THINK ABOUT IT. THINK LONG AND HARD. YOU CAN DONATE IT TO CHARITY. YOU CAN KEEP IT. HOW MUCH MONEY WOULD IT TAKE FOR YOU TO HAVE A ONE-NIGHT STAND WITH GEORGE H.W. BUSH THAT NOBODY ELSE WOULD FIND OUT ABOUT?
A: Well, considering he's what, almost 90 years old? Besides the obvious ick factor, I doubt he could get it up anyway... and even if he could, it would probably kill him... Although that alone might make it more interesting.
I'd do it for 1 billion dollars and two nights with Antonio Banderas, one before and one after the event. For cleansing.

12. WHAT PAIRING WOULD YOU SHIP IN THE WIZARD OF OZ FANDOM?
A: Huh?

13. WHAT'S THE WORST WAY TO DIE YOU CAN THINK OF?
A: Being buried alive. And I refuse to see the movie Buried with Ryan Reynolds. Ain't gonna happen. Just the thought makes me shudder.

14. WHAT COMPANY HAS GIVEN YOU THE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE? WHAT HAPPENED?
A: I can't really think of anything specific. Best Buy has a way of pissing me off everytime I go in, jsut from sheer incompentance. Then I went into Staples once looking for something specific for my computer and the guys there gave me the 'Silly girl who doesn't know computers' attitude and tried to get me to buy something else. I left empty handed and enraged. And I won't even get into HP's customer service division in India... I may not be a computer tech, but I'm not incompetant either.

15. DO YOU WANT TO BE BURIED, CREMATED, OR OTHER? WHY?
A: Cremated. I want to go out like Donnie in The Big Lebowski: Directly into the wind. LOL

16. HAVE YOU EVER LIED ON A MEME CAUSE YOU WERE TOO EMBARRASSED TO SHARE THE TRUTH?
A: No.

17. WHAT IS THE ONE THING ABOUT YOU MOST LIKELY TO KILL YOUR MARRIAGE OR CHANCES OF MARRIAGE?
A: My hypnogogic hallucinations. I probably won't recognize them and go for a knife or a blunt object to defend myself. I think I'm safer living alone with my cats. At least they only turn into dead rabbits or spiritual beings.

18. WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING GOES BEST WITH PEANUT BUTTER: BANANAS, CHOCOLATE, JELLY, YOUR DOG?
A: Huh... what about honey? Or apples? Or celery?

19. WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER TO BE YOUR HIDDEN TALENT?
A: My ability to wiggle my eyeballs really fast. It does amuse the children.

20. HAVE YOU EVER, EVEN FOR A SECOND, IMAGINED JUST GOING AHEAD AND RAMMING THE DRIVER TRYING TO CUT YOU OFF?
A: Of course. On a daily basis. I absolutely hate people speeding along the disappearing lane just to get ahead of the line, and then they turn at the next light a few hundred yards away. Really? What was the point? Damn idiots...

OMG! I finally found it!!!

I've had a thing for Jeremy Irons for... well... forever it seems like. Even now, he may be looking aged, but his voice still makes me warm where it counts.

There was this photo I saw years ago while working in the book store. It was in a book of celebrities. I wish I would have bought the book, if only for the one series of photos within. Occasionally I would look online for the pictures, but could never find them.
Well, here it is... my favorite of the collection... and it still makes me quiver.
Enjoy.



It's gotta be the pants... or maybe the horse... could be the muscles... or perhaps it's his voice whispering in my head asking me to come along for a 'ride'. *whimpers*

It is very difficult to write when the cats are literally climbing over the back of your computer chair.

Have you ever read a peice of published fiction that was so bad that you desperately want to rewrite it properly? I've never done a cowboy fic, but I'm tempted. It was supposed to be m/m romance, but it read like a classic m/f cliche. None of the characters made sense. The straight cowboy seemed to have very little problem turning suddenly gay, and the other male was basically a female with a dick. I got about halfway through, to the point where the weak and abused male has suddenly learned to ride the untamable stallion, and when he dismounts the stallion decides to play tag with him. *groans* I just can't bring myself to go further. Even by reading it as a primer on how NOT to write m/m fiction, it was too much. I mean, come on! A kid who's been severely abused and brutalized by his father, is terrified of big men and of attracting attention to himself, decides to wear his leather pants to a bar? Leather pants???
Riiiiiight.
At least I have The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo to turn to. Now THAT is an AWESOME book! The writing vaguely reminds me of Victor Hugo... but much more concise.

I like the name Jordan Rook as a pen name.
Jordan can be assigned to either sex.
My Kindle's name is Magpie, my computer is Kestral, and I want to be Rook.
Jordan L. Rook.
:D

I received a Kindle for christmas... I love it. I've been busily downloading free books, picking out cheap books... this is gonna be dangerous at work. We are not supposed to read at our desk (we have to look attentive at all times, even when it's dead slow), but the Kindle is so small I can just hide it in a drawer with no one the wiser. hehehe And it has games!

Fear.
I've always wanted to own my own home... a little cottage with a big garden. But there are so many things I have to do first, the biggest being to finish paying off my student loan ($4000 left!) and saving up money for a down payment.
Over the last two years my mom keeps bugging me about it. I need to jump now. I need to do it now. The market is ready now!
But I'm not ready.
Over christmas she told me how she was looking around, and how I could get a little place for just under $100,000. The payments, including property taxes, would be the same amount I'm paying for my apartment.
But I'm not ready. I don't have anything to put down. The bank would never approve it, even with my excellent credit.
She said I didn't need it. That it wouldn't matter.
I think she is right.
I think could do it.
So is it really that I'm not ready, or that I'm too scared to jump?
A new year is starting.
I have seven months before my lease is up.
I think it's time to take the first step.
It never hurt to look.

How to annoy people when it snows.

http://www.wimp.com/janitorrevenge/

Now I wish it would snow...

And on top of it all, Bob broke.
*sniffs*
Now I need to go get a new one, but I don't feel like going.
Why can't they make Bobs that last?