dancinghorse | Random babble

For those who continue to be intrigued by gila monsters, there is great fascination (and a medical marvel) here.

...Break for gross domestic interlude...

Does anyone know how to [a] find and [b] size dog diapers? The Doberman has reached that point. The carpet is badly damaged in many places, and today she's gone from number one to number two--liquid, all over the house. Twice. She's going to have to live and eat exclusively outside unless I Do Something--and she does like to come in and sleep on her inside bed and eat several times a day.

In the middle of the second episode, one of the cats showed solidarity by barfing copious quantities (he's a large cat) all over the sofa. Right next to me.

As I said, gross.

Anyway.

Many thanks to

deyaniera for the links to the jewelry. Beautiful stuff. I loved the Sarama necklace.

And very interesting to see which sf writer everyone turns out to be. The joke about Benford is, he and I have gone a number of rounds back along--I once flattened a panel consisting of him, Bova, and Clement, by noting that science is the new religion and scientists hold the position of theologians in the Middle Ages--with just about identical levels of faith in their creed.

So, it's very amusing to get that answer to the quiz.

There's not much horse neep this round. Mostly, more of same as far as lessons go. Pandora had a scary one Friday--the wind was wild and everyone was in a weird mood, and she was having strange hormone rushes. Squealed every time I moved on her back. I hope that means she's pregnant. However Joni worked with us and we calmed her down, and that was good. It's useful to know what your horse will do in extremity. In her case, it was mostly to get tense and jiggy, and to need a free longe to get the ya-ya's out. Quite similar to Pook on hormones, as a matter of fact.

Camilla, that same day, was in a similar mood. She wowed spectators with a "school buck"--a series of very high, totally controlled bucks, just on principle, after which she was perfectly sensible about me getting on.

Reports from Seattle come in regularly. Baby girl (her name is Galatea, shortened to Tia) is a pistol, I'm told--her behavior is strikingly similar to Gaudia's at that age. Oy. She loves to run and explore, and she's driving her mother nuts. I'm going up to see her over Memorial Day.

Here's a quick-and-dirty icon from Cele's granddaughter--taken minutes after she was born. Curly ears and lots of angles, and long long legs--basically, she looks a lot like Ephiny. Different father, same mother.

This week is all about the copy edits. King's Blood, Roc, October, on a short deadline (ye ed is very apologetic). Fortunately it's a beautiful job, one of the best I've had--and I've been copyedited by the greats. Light, eagle-eyed, intelligent and sensible queries...it's a gift of the gods. I've made sure to pass the word, too; copy editing is a sorely underappreciated job, and a difficult one. When it's as good as this, the ce deserves all the kudos I can give.

There are also proofs for the mass-market edition of Rite of Conquest, also due out in October. Yes, we are in mass market again, hooray.

And I have first draft to do, as well. And some articles. Life is full. Someday I may even get paid. (The shoestring is severely stretched at the moment.)

On the principle that the more one does, the more one can do, I've added a morning spate of yard work to the rest--chopping away at the jungle of brush that's taken over the place. I figure in a month or so, it should actually look decent around here.

Must go now and finish cleaning the carpet. Again. Urg.