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Friday, March 13, 2009

Road to recovery
We’ve spent a few days hanging out with friends and recovering from the sinus infections, and we’re feeling much better. Laurell is getting her voice back a little at a time, and we’re having fun with her furiously writing comments at us. All and all, we’re just recovering from the UK trip, and catching up on buseness that has been piling up while we’ve been gone/sick.

Posted by Jonathon on 03/13 at 10:46 AM


Thursday, March 12, 2009

How to Prioritize?
I had three things due at the same time this week. Unsure what to choose I looked to my business books that I’ve been reading. They said, follow the money. The priority should be what will bring in the most money, or is the most money. Sound reasoning in regular business; a little harder as a writer. But I did use it as a tool, and found that, why, yes, I could order them by earning potential. It was some way to bring order to the progressively busy schedule that I have, and yes, I continued to work while sick. Probably one of the reasons I’m sick; yeah, I know, but could you take off your job in the middle of three crunch deadlines? Me either.

Posted by LKH on 03/12 at 09:37 AM


Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Of sinus infections and bursting tendons
I have a sinus infection, but a particularly insidious one. Apparently British germs are more severe, because I have been ordered on voice rest by my doctor. What does that mean? It means I’m writing notes, and getting better at texting on the cell phone. It means I am practicing facial expressions and gestures. It means I’m reduced to being a mime; God save us. If I behave I will get my full voice back sooner. Right now I sound like Whispering Smith. Antibiotics and hot liquids are the order of the day. I was taken off the first antibiotic that I was put on; cipro. Why? One my allergist didn’t feel it was the right antibiotic for a sinus infection, and two, side effect is tendons bursting, especially the Achilles tendon. Like I need more problems with that part of my ankle. It’s a rare side effect, but it’s more likely to happen if you exercise. My allergist was concerned enough that she told me no exercise until it’s out of my system. Yes, another doctor prescribed it. Thank God we went in for allergy shots and my allergist insisted sick us had to see her before shots, or just after, actually. I canceled yoga and Pilates for today, at my doctor’s suggestion. Very happy I only took two of the tendon weirdness antibiotics before reading the fine print and talking to another doctor. Why would an antibiotic burst your tendons? Why the Achilles? I mean that’s just weird for an antibiotic, isn’t it? Go in to clear up a sinus infection and end up having to be operated on to rebuild a tendon. Of course, if you read the fine print the rare side effects are always scary, but this just wasn’t a side effect I thought you’d get from something that was supposed to clear up a sinus infection. So, onto safer meds, and for now bed. Rest is probably in there somewhere on the whole get well recipie.

Posted by LKH on 03/11 at 09:54 PM


Tuesday, March 10, 2009

LKH Bit 03/10/09
BLOOD NOIR, SWALLOWING DARKNESS, ANITA AUDIO, SJ TUCKER AND CATHERYNNE VALENTE, FULL MOON SALE FOR MARCH

BLOOD NOIR
Blood Noir Anita # 16 will be out in paperback May 26, 2009.

SWALLOWING DARKNESS

Swallowing Darkness - Merry #7 will be out in paperback September 29, 2009.
ANITA AUDIO

I know a lot of folks are waiting on Anita 1-7 on audio.Unfortunately, I still don’t have release dates.But the folks at the publishers are putting them together and I hope by the next update to have them.
SJ TUCKER AND CATHERYNNE VALENTE
Catherynne Valente was our guest author in the Winter 2008 newsletter.
SJ wrote songs to go along with Catherynne’s new book Palimpsest and they are currently touring to promote both. So if you get a chance, go meet them both!

There is music to sample or see more info on tours and dates and places at http://www.sknnywhitechick.com.There will be CD’s for sale, but I do not know if they will have books for sale also or if you will be able to get it signed by Catherynne at the concert.I will see if I can find out and share that before the concert.

NOTE: Laurell will NOT be attending the St. Louis concert due to other obligations. Yes, she is disappointed.

This from SJ:

Hi everyone and welcome to the promised tour update message for March.
This past week, I confirmed the last three shows for this month—as I’d hoped, I’ve got one show each in St. Louis, Colorado Springs, and Salt Lake City to add to the tour!

Tuesday March 24, 2009 doors open at 7pm An Evening In Palimpsest Creve Coeur Lakehouse Creve Coeur, Missouri http://www.cclakehouse.com/ for directions
1.3 miles east of Earth City Expressway
and Creve Coeur Mill Road South
314-576-7200


This event is free; please order food and drink!
18+ please, due to subject matter. with author Catherynne M. Valente,
special guests Lee Harrington and Mimi V.

Please help me spread the word, StL family I would like very much to fill up the Lakehouse’s patio so that it contains all of our people, and no one there randomly who will talk over the songs or the readings. *smile* I can dream…

Saturday March 28, 2009 7:00pm
Colorado Springs House Concert
624 Bosque Vista Point
Colorado Springs, CO 80916
RSVP via email at this link: http://tinyurl.com/b5944y
$8-$15 suggested donation



Music will likely begin around 8pm, to give everyone time enough to get there and get comfortable. Please help me spread the word, and bring friends!
Information on the Denver show the night before (with Catherynne M. Valente) can be found at the schedule page: http://www.skinnywhitechick.com/shows.php

Lastly, today, our dear friend JoSelle Vanderhooft hooked us up with Andrea and Jon, owners of Bevalo Art Lounge and coffee shop in Salt Lake City! Please join us for this wee Monday night show: Monday March 30, 2009 7 or 8pm (probably 8pm, but not starting any later!)

Bevalo Art Lounge
123 east 200 south (ground level)
Salt Lake City, UT 84111
(801) 364-3991

Catherynne will be traveling with me, but we will wait to decide whether to give our Palimpsest show or a good old silly and wonderful and simple Sooj concert until we get to town and see the space. I hope you’ll join us, whatever we do!

Thanks and see you soon,
SJ Tucker

FULL MOON SALE FOR MARCH - Wednesday MARCH 11, 2009

Big T-shirt Sale - Sale on all the comic t-shirts, and some of the others that are down to a few of what remains.We want to do more shirts, but first, we have to have some space!So we took a big markdown on some shirts and hopefully, we will be able to add some new ones in. I will fill orders as long as I have the shirts!
http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/Merchandis...lMoonSalea.html

That’s it for this bit!

Smiles….Darla

Posted by Darla on 03/10 at 10:28 AM


Monday, March 09, 2009

Down with the sickness
Yep, we’re sick. though it’s a minor sickness. She’s lost her voice, and mine is rough, blasted drainage. All in all, it was a OK, except for the whole allergic to mold in an old city that is in a pleasant location for mold. *sigh*

The business was great, we even got out of London for a day or so, and saw some of the countryside. I’m not really sure at the moment, what Laurell’s mentioned, so I’ll deal in generalities. We met her new British publisher, and did an interview. More meetings with various publishing and publishing related people, then it was research time. That went amazing, and then we had a few days of being tourists. It was during the touristy days that I got sick from my allergies, and then I was a plague monkey, and compromised my wife.

But we’ve been to the doctor, and we have meds, and all things are on track for the rest of the month.

Posted by Jonathon on 03/09 at 09:21 PM


Saturday, March 07, 2009

Jet Lag
Jet Lag has hit with a vengeance. I had this blog about the first day in England all planned, but right on schedule jet lag is upon us and suddenly thinking is not my best thing. It’s a little after eight in the evening here, but in London it’s a little after two in the morning. No wonder I’m ready for sleep. It’s way past bedtime, if I were in London. Strange I didn’t have as hard a time adjusting to the time zone going from St. Louis to London, and having asked around apparently it’s harder coming this way, then going that way, something about the whole loosing and gaining a day thing makes this direction a little harder. Right at this moment it feels very hard indeed, so we’re off to bed. Our eyes are burning and our attention is beginning to scatter, or hone in on small things. Too tired to stay up, and lucky for us Trinity is willing to go to bed earlier than normal. So, good night everyone, to our internal clocks it’s two AM.

Posted by LKH on 03/07 at 09:11 PM


Friday, March 06, 2009

Flight to England
I am getting better at airplane travel. I’ve even started looking out the window and seeing the amazing landscape down below, but that’s for shorter flights. Eight hours ahead of me and I was actually pretty calm. I even slept a little, until the flight attendant reached across both Jon and I with a hanger to close the window shade right beside me. I don’t know what trust issues you have, but for me having a stranger lean across me with a largish object in their hands while I’m sound asleep and move something almost beside my head woke me up, and that’s putting it kindly. To say I woke up with that nightmare moment when you realize that dream figure looming over you isn’t in your dreams, but real with something long and weapon looking in their head, and . . . I never went back to sleep, because every time I started to relax, another flight attendant would walk by, and I’d be thrown awake again. I also had to open my window shade with my anxiety that high because among many things that makes plane rides difficult is my claustrophobia. With the window closed I had trouble breathing, I know it’s illusionary, but there it is. What I didn’t realize is there was some method to the scary madness of the woman who’d leaned over us. Dawn came right through my window. Everyone else was a snooze in their seats, tucked in like the Who’s down in Whoville, while I, the Grinch, sat staring out of my small window at the first faint hint of light. The light began as just the ability to see the clouds, but then did a spectacular show of molten gold, orange, and red. The colors seemed to burn through the clouds until the sun floated into sight, yellow and shining and too bright to look at. Jon informs me that he got to see most of the light show, because the flight attendant bumped his seat, and the window shade did make quite an abrupt sound when it slammed down. So we got to watch the sunrise over the ocean. The bad thing was that the light began to seep across our fellow passengers who were all still asleep in their seats. Which was why the flight attendant had tried to close our window, so the people would sleep as long as possible, which would make their life easier as well as the passenger’s. I did try to lower it some, but I couldn’t close it completely, because I got panicky again. Sorry to all our fellow passengers, I did not mean to be the Grinch to your naps, but it was either that or have a panic attack. We watched two episodes of THE BIG BANG THEORY on the screen in front of us. The show has quite won us over; clever writing, good characterization and wonderful performances, besides hard not to love a show that derives it’s humor from physics jokes, and sexual double entendre, sometimes in the same bit of dialogue. I also started reading Susan Wittig Albert’s newest book, "The Tale of Briar Bank.“ It’s a cozy mystery with Beatrix Potter as the amateur detective; yes the creator of Peter Rabbit. I find the books charming and very relaxing. They have become some of my favorite books for reading on tour. I had purposefully saved this book for the next plane ride.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Visiting Friends and Friends Visiting Us
Back home again, and I’m doing my typical early-rise on Saturday morning. I’ve left Jon tucked into bed, and it’s just me and the dogs. Trinity is with her father this weekend. Our friends Shawn and Cathy were coming up from out of state but their babysitter has fallen quite ill, as in hospitalized, so they can’t get away. Their sitter is also their nephew, so a double blow. Our best wishes and prayers his way for a speedy recovery. They have the worst luck with sitters, though not usually this serious. (Heard that he’s out of hospital and is going to be okay.)

Some people that see us every day and know how much work we have to do, urged us not to plan all the social stuff this month. They said, the trip to England, and now Laurell’s sick, and there’s the family vacation at the end of the month; conserve yourself. I have to say as we got on the plane to visit Wendi and Daven, and I was voiceless on doctor’s orders, I was beginning to wonder if I had bitten off more than I could chew. Jon and I were on antibiotics, so no longer contagious, but the sinus infection had settled in my throat and my doctor put me on voice rest. This just before we go down to visit out of state friends. How much visiting could a silent me do? I had a pad of paper and a pen, but writing all my comments was getting laborious here at home. How frustrating was it going to be on the visit? As it turned out pretty frustrating. Daven picked us up at the airport, and all I could do was hug him, and leave the men to talk. Now Jonathon and Daven are much more talkative than your usual guys, but even they are not as chatty as girls, and the only girl couldn’t talk. As we gathered the luggage and they talked, and I thought of about a half a dozen things to add to the conversation and could not; I began to realize just how frustrating it was going to be. I had warned both our friends that I was stealth Laurell, so it wasn’t like they hadn’t been warned, but wow, I hadn’t been prepared for just how weird it was going to feel, to simply have to listen and scribble things down on paper. I also didn’t want to distract Daven, who was driving ,with my notes. I finally held them up for Jonathon to read out loud.

But even unable to utter a word, it was a wonderful visit. (I was able to talk a little on the very last day, of course.) Things we got to do on the visit: throw knives and an axe in the back yard at the target Daven had put up; work, since both he and Wendi had work they had to do during the day and Jon and I had deadlines that never seem to go away, we actually all hunkered down on our individual machines and worked; I actually came up with the opening for the next Merry book, I think it’s my third try, but this one may stick; talked, lot’s (okay I wrote lot’s) Wendi said it was like IM-ing, but she could knit; Wendi showed us some of the weirdest knitting patterns on the computer like Daleks, Cuthulu baklavas, demons, (Yes there is more than one reason that Wendi is our friend.) scarves that look like bacon, gloves that make your hands look like Deep Ones fishy claws, slippers from killer bunnies to musk ox, and beautiful spider web shawls, delicate things that I would have said were lace and not knitted at all. It’s inspired Jon to want to know how to knit, he is the crafty one of the two of us. Wendi got to lace me into corsets. That’s there other job, selling corsets. I came home with an under the breast waist-cincher that makes me look verry tiny. I mean I’m not large, but, wow. Jon was very pleased. We went out to a wonderful dinner with two more of their friends that we had met before but not really gotten a chance to talk to at length; Dan and Heather. We all went to a Brazilian meat bar, or something like that. Now I’m pretty sure I blogged about the awful Brazilian restaurant that we went to in Atlanta, and it was so bad that we weren’t sure we’d ever go back to a simular restaurant. But Daven and Wendi assured us this place was great, and we trust them, so off we all went. We actually rode the underground to meet up with Heather and Dan. It was very shades of London, being back on the underground.

The Fogo De Chão really was wonderful. The meat was as good there as it had been bad in Atlanta. The beef was especially good, though others liked the bacon wrapped chicken, or the bone-in chicken, or the parmesan encrusted pork (that really was very good but I tasted it too late in the meal and could not do it justice). I also wanted to save room for the deserts and after dinner drinks. I’d already had salad and veggies in an attempt to be good. This is not the restaurant to come to unless you are on serious Atkins, and even then flee the deserts. But we didn’t want to flee, we were all in the mood to celebrate. Good food, good company, and it was the kind of night to say, yes I’ll look at the desert and drink menu. We started with drinks. Wendi and I got a very sweet Icewine. It’s one of the few things she and I are girlie about, we like sweet drinks, but hey I like Guinness, too. But it wasn’t a night for Guinness. It was a night for the spice and honey infused scotch that Daven and Heather got. Daven let me have a sip, and the entire table thought the face I made was very cute. Ugh, eighty proof, no amount of sweet can hide that much alcohol from my taste buds. Yeech. Jon ordered a glass of Lemoncello (another sweet liqueur) and Dan had Grappa. (which is Greek for engine cleaner) We sipped our drinks and waited for the deserts we’d ordered to arrive. What I’d forgotten about drinking and me is that it ups my emotions, or can. Now a sweet desert wine makes me happier if I’m happy, but it simply amplifies any emotion, not just the positive ones. Jon’s phone binged and he looked automatically, just the sound he made let me know it was not good news. One of those deadlines had given us a reply and it wasn’t the reply we wanted. I went from mellow to furious in the blink of an eye. That warm, happy buzz went straight to hot, unhappy rage. I knew what was happening, wine amplifies emotion for me, other things don’t. I can drink hard cider and some beers and ales and just get buzzed, wine is iffier for me. Knowing why I was feeling so awful helped me get it under control, but I learned a lesson in that moment. Jon has got to turn his phone off. We weren’t on a business trip, and at that moment we weren’t working, we were having fun, and fun shouldn’t involve being hunted down by technology. Daven refuses to have a phone that can do internet and stuff for that very reason. He’s the only techie I know that doesn’t have an uber phone, but this last visit I understood his reasoning. We have to have the tech, but I’ve told Jon that when we’re out having fun either turn it off or don’t check it, because it ruins my mood. Jon is better able to keep it all even-keeled, but as he said last night, my moods are more mercurial than his; ain’t that the truth.

I got my mood under control somewhat, but I was done with the Icewine. It was amazingly good, but I couldn’t afford the mood alternating. Wendi was happy to add mine to hers, so it didn’t go to waste. The deserts came and Jon and I were very glad that we’d decided to share. The sweets were huge. Three of us had gotten the chocolate molten cake with ice cream, and there was key lime pie, cheesecake, and Crème Brûlé. I have to say that the molten chocolate-y goodness went far in lightening my mood. Happy childhood is never far behind when cake is involved.

At one point the three of us girls had to visit the lady’s room. We were all a little warm and happy by this point, maybe Wendi and Heather a little more than me, but then I was on my way to an angry drunk so I had to stop sooner. The bathroom was up a long flight of stairs, and we came back down a little giggly, a gentleman from one of the other tables was coming up as we were coming down. he looked up, and did one of those double takes, eyes flicking through all three so us, but I think in the end staying on Wendi and Heather. Did I mention that they’re both over six feet tall with large blue eyes, and as curvy to their size as I am to mine, maybe curvyer? Did I not mention that before? My bad. The businessman did that wonderful double take and set us all to laughing as we made our way down the stairs. The men asked what was so funny, but somethings are hard to explain and make them funny, so we didn’t try.

The walk back to the tube station was long enough it helped clear our heads, it helped that it had turned cold. The day before we’d been able to throw sharp objects in our t-shirts in the yard, but the next day turned cold enough for light sweaters, not that we brought any, but you get the point. Cold air and walking always help move the liquor through the system.

We got up the next day feeling bright and shiny, none the worse for wear actually, and better for some good food. My voice was back and I was the most relaxed I’d been in weeks. Yes, it was another trip in a month of many trips, but this was a trip we chose to make. This was a destination and people that we wanted to visit just because they are our friends, and that makes all the difference. I said when we got on the plane that I was wondering if I should have listened to the doom sayer’s, about how one more trip was too much this month, but when we got ready to come home I knew that they were wrong, because I felt better: emotionally, physically, and every which way. Jon, too. The work is sort of constant, well the fun needs to be more of a constant, too.

I’m pretty sure I wrote in this blog earlier that my well of creativity was running dry. I was just using myself up, and that I needed to find things that helped refill those waters. This extra trip that some weren’t sure I should take, seems to have been exactly what the doctor ordered.

Posted by LKH on 03/14 at 07:40 AM

Monday, March 16, 2009

Voiceless
I’m still on doctor’s orders for voice rest. Which means I shouldn’t be talking. Frustrating, but doable, right? Well, sort of. What I didn’t realize is that I don’t just talk to people. I talk to the dogs. I talk to the birds outside the windows. I apologize for bumping into inanimate objects. For the love of the Gods, I talk to myself when I write. Apparently, I just talk out loud at odd moments when I’m alone. I might never have realized how much I do it if I hadn’t had this medically imposed limitation. Now I am going to take my sore throat, hoarse little voiced self and go to bed. I’m still not completely well, and since I was pretty much well on Friday, and feeling much better, I can only think that I picked up yet another, different, bug on the airplane coming home. My immune system was already worn down, so I was sort of a sitting duck for it, but the throat is from the original illness, and still lingers. The tiredness and cold symptoms are new. Perfect.

So in the interest of getting completely well of everything I’ve managed to catch, I’m going to bed now. I had more voice today, and over used it on the phone, and now it’s leaving again, which means when I see my doctor tomorrow she may prescribe something new, or yell at me for talking too much. At this point, I’m not sure I care which she chooses to do. I’m feeling quite sorry for myself at this point, and know it’s childish, but there it is, the whole not talking thing is really beginning to wear me down.

Posted by LKH on 03/16 at 09:51 PM

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

New Antibiotics, new shoes, new paint
Doctor put me on a different antibiotic, and a sterioid. We’re trying to kick this thing before we go on our big family vacation which is coming up very soon. Voice is better as long as I don’t over use it. Took a nap, and slept heavily middle of the day, then made myself wake up enough to dress for yoga. My body was feeling creaky from lack of use, if at all possible I had to do the yoga. It felt great, and like I hadn’t done it in almost three weeks, which wasn’t great, but to be expected. But boy, had I missed it. I did cancel Pilates for this week, I don’t want to push it too hard. Jon was happy to be back in yoga, too. I rested for a little while then I took Trinity out for shoe shopping. That whole family vacation is to some place warm which means she and I both need sandles. My ankle is happiest in boots, but that just doesn’t work on the beach, so off in search of shoes that don’t hurt the bad ankle. I tried on shoes I would never have looked at, and if it looked okay, and didn’t hurt my ankle, I bought them. The shoes are surprisingly cute, but some of them are not very, well, me. I actually now own my first pair of shoes with a little bow on them; oh my. But they work for my ankle, and I’ll be a little more girlie if it doesn’t hurt. Because of the odd injury to my tendon higher heels feel better than flats. If I wear too low a heel for more than two days in a row, the ankle starts aching more, so heels. Heels for summer is something I’ve never done before. I’ve never looked so good for such a practical reason in my life. I did get some flats, because I just can’t stand the idea of just heels, but only the flats that felt good to my injury. Now, it’s a matter of wearing the new shoes around the house and out of the house to see what is actually the most comfortable. Those shoes go on vacation with us.

Got home and put my feet up for a few minutes, then Pili was here to take me out to look for paint and tile. The paint we chose, okay that I chose, for the entryway just sucked. Pili only did one part of a wall, before leaving us a note saying it just didn’t work. Today she called the color, Fugly. I’d never heard the phrase before, but it was appropriate. (Jon asked, "You’ve never heard fugly before?" I said, "No." I guess I’ve led a sheltered life.) So I picked a new color and hopefully this one will work. The color, like the shoes, doesn’t look like something I’d pick, but whereas the shoes are about comfort, the paint color is because I’m just worn down. I’ve got to pick something, and I have, I hope it works this time. Too many choices, and there’s something about this space of walls that makes it hard to visualize the right color. We didn’t manage to pick tile, at all. We’ll have to try again tomorrow. The idea is that she’s going to finish up the painting and the tiling while we’re gone on vacation. Hope I like that new color when I come through the door.

I actually did try to nail down the beginning of the Merry book, but I just can’t find that perfect opening, and I am picky on that. I continue to make notes further into the book, and know many of the events now, but I just haven’t quite figured out the exact opening. The idea I came up with at Daven and Wendi’s house has to be pushed further into the book. It’s a great idea, but it needs more set up. So that leaves me with three possible openings, maybe only two. Once I decide the rest will follow, but with being sick and getting ready for vacation I’m having trouble concentrating. The sick part is hurting the most, especially since I’m still needing naps in the middle of the day. We’ve continued to work on the comic, and there are other business matters on the books that must be addressed before we leave on the trip, so busy, busy, busy, but as my doctor said today, "I’ve never seen you when you weren’t busy." True enough.

Posted by LKH on 03/17 at 09:56 PM

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Sleepless in St. Louis
Insomnia; such a simple word. At 2:00 in the morning it doesn’t feel simple, it feels hard. At 3:00, it feels harder. That was about the o’clock that I decided to give up the fight and get up. I thought Jon was asleep, but learned an hour later when I came back to bed that he’d been awake and was still awake. Jon got about two hours of sleep, and I got, none. I saw every hour on the clock, and even after I got up for an hour and did something to try to quiet my mind and lower the stress, which usually does the trick, it did relax me, but it didn’t help me sleep. At 6:00 when the alarm went off it was a relief. We could get up, at last. Jon went down to get the dogs out and I got in the shower. I would say, I hopped in the shower, but I wasn’t hopping anywhere this morning. I’m pretty sure a sleepless night isn’t going to help me get over whatever bug I’ve picked up, but my voice was better this morning and my throat hurts less. Maybe I ruined my sleep pattern with all the naps the last couple of days? No idea why Jon wasn’t sleeping. Could have something to do with that pizza we had at about 9:00 last night. Trinity’s on spring break and our routine has gone to hell. So back on a more normal schedule for food and sleep, and no naps for us today. Gods willing we’ll sleep tonight.

Posted by LKH on 03/18 at 09:25 AM

Thursday, March 19, 2009

A Murphy’s Law Kind of Day
It’s been one of those special days, in a Murphy’s law sort of way. First, the new antibiotic made me violently ill. I am not allowed to take it, or any of the meds in it’s chemical family, again. I’ve spent most of the day lying down and trying to sleep it out of my system. The floor of the bathroom is very cool against my skin. I managed to hit my head on the drawer of the bathroom sink area, because I’d opened the drawer rather frantically to get a hair tie. Those with long hair will understand. When I finally tried to stand up I managed to clip the corner of the drawer pretty solidly. Jon was hovering over me, asking, "Are you all right?" I could only say, yes, as I held my head, and tried to decide which hurt more my head or my stomach. My stomach won the debate. Late in the day Jon was finally able to get me some Gatorade and crackers. Saltines are a wonderful thing on days like this. Once food stayed with me the day improved. And yes, we did sleep last night. Well, until four for me and five for Jon, but since we were in bed ready for lights out at nine, that’s a good night’s sleep. I actually was awake for the two hours, or so, that I felt good all day. Good that I didn’t sleep through it.

Posted by LKH on 03/19 at 08:41 PM

Friday, March 20, 2009

Sick and searching for Harder Music
I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck, that then backed up and drove out through just under my sternum. It’s been a bad week here for health issues. Darla only got to come in Monday and today, because she got that awful flu that’s going around. She actually hallucinated about calculus. Since she’s never had a calculus class in her life she was pretty puzzled by that. My mother-in-law had a root canal and it didn’t fix the problem. Her nerves have calcified, which should mean it’s not painful, but it’s not working that way. So, here I sit feeling like that hangover that you get the day after the night before. I can attest that some of the symptoms have nothing to do with drinking and everything to do with how sick you get, and how violently your body expels everything. So all the bad side effects and none of the buzz. Very sucky.

I’ve got Korn blasting on the player. I still find this album of their’s a little too self-aware, but songs like, "Freak on a Leash" make it worth wading through the gimmicks up front. The music starts on track 13 if that tells you anything? I’m trying to decide if I want the last half of the album on my ipod. On the last plane trip home I was desperate for something harder to listen to, and something I didn’t associate closely with a recent book. When I’m working that music will work again, but when trying to relax anything that I’ve written extensively, or intensely, to is not relaxing. It makes me think of work. I think I’ll try a different album of theirs. Jon says that GREATEST HITS is cleaner. I mean that musically, it’s Korn afterall.

Posted by LKH on 03/20 at 12:16 PM

Saturday, March 21, 2009

From a plane
The plane started to taxi and for a moment I couldn’t remember where we were. I couldn’t remember if we were coming or going from home. I just blanked. Maybe it’s a sign that we’ve traveled a wee bit too much this month. But what trip would I have given up? England and business; no. Seeing Wendi and Daven and friends; uh, no. The family vacation with Trinity, Jon’s parents, and us; can’t skip that. So, I sit here typing on the plane and actually calm. I was hoping that if we started going places voluntarily and for pleasant reasons that the fear of flying would lessen, and it is. But it’s like getting inoculations for the flu, you need them every so often or they don’t keep you safe. I’ve come to almost this calm with my phobia once before after a great deal of business travel, but then I went months and didn’t fly and it began all over again. So, I think we’ll try a fun trip once a month and see if that does it, if not twice a month, though that would be hard to work in every month. But for this state of calm, I’ll travel more, and if it’s to have fun with friends, or family, what could be better?

Posted by LKH on 03/21 at 06:41 PM

Monday, March 23, 2009

Everglades
In college I had a chance to go with my fellow biology students to the Everglades. Before I married, I could have gone, but marrying in college, having to pay rent, buy food, and all those grown-up expenses ate that extra money, so I had to take a pass. I got to sit and listen to the other students talk about all the new birds they saw, and all the adventures they had in Florida. I was having my own adventures as a newlywed, part time employee, and full time student, but it was the stuff of television sitcoms without the laugh track, not in Animal Planet type adventures. I would try several times over the years to see the Everglades and each time something would happen to make it impossible. Yesterday I finally broke my bad planning streak and made it.

Trinity was with us, and Jon’s parents, and us. And yes, us with no appellation always means Jon and I; yeah, it’s cutesy, what can I say. Due to Jon’s knee not being a hundred percent yet, and my ankle so not being a hundred percent, we couldn’t do the hiking I might have done years ago. Also I don’t think his parents were really eager to do hard climbing, and Trinity is not exactly a hardship loving kind of girl. I’m told by family members that she seems to take after my mother, I can’t speak to that since I was too young to really know, but I know Trin is a much better girl than I ever was, and so was my mother. March is a great time for the Everglades. Misquitos are not out yet, or not to notice. The temperature is seventy something, eighty if it gets that high, breezy, and comfy. They had this great boardwalk out over the water and all those acres of grass and reeds and cattails and mangroves and trees I don’t know the names of. I had my new binoculars we bought in England in one hand and my Peterson’s bird book in the other. (Okay the book was tucked under my arm.) Birds we saw: Green Herons both adults and fledged babies (Got to see an adult stalk and catch a minnow, probably a Mosquito Fish, but not sure. The bird was so patient and so deadly serious about it, but then it’s catch it or starve. I guess that is serious.), Great Blue Herons both adults and fully fledged babies (two different color phases of Great Blue), Ahinghas both male and female, plus babies (babies looked like white Flamingo chicks because of the long, graceful necks and all that white baby fluff), American Bittern, Double-Crested Cormorants, Black Vultures (lot’s of them), Boat-Tailed Grackles both adult and fully fledged babies, Belted King-Fisher male (Got to watch the King-Fisher dive into the water and come out in a rush of water and speed), and one Warbler. I can’t be certain what it was, because I got a few glimpses of mostly yellow body and a black mask then the tiny bird flitted further into the scrub of trees and never reappeared. Warblers are always a challenge. We saw lots of alligators of all sizes from the big boys to the babies, though none of them still had the baby markings on them, so they weren’t really babies. Lot’s of turtles of various kinds, not sure on the species don’t have my reptile book with me. The Gar were hitting the surface of the water in a frenzy. The herons were very interested in them. The gators were hovering below the rookeries waiting for those baby birds to fall.

Okay, I saved the vulture story for it’s own section, because it’s going to be too big for brackets. Let me also add that it’s graphic and not for the squeamish, so if too up close and personal on the nature stuff bothers you stop reading here. Nature red in tooth and claw, and all that. Still with me? Then read on.

There are a lot of vultures around Miami and the Everglades. They glide everywhere like ominous kites. In the walk through the Everglades we saw them gathering in the largest flock yet, and landing. As we got closer, we saw them landing on the ground and them fighting over something. One of us said, "Something’s dead." Then as we got closer, the curtain of black feathered bodies parted and I cried out, "It’s an alligator! They’re eating a dead alligator." We went closer, trying to hurry and not scare them away, but we might as well not have worried, the vultures were not leaving their find just because we were close enough to take pictures. The alligator was about eight feet long, a big, beefy one. It was covered in thick black and gray mud, surrounded by a halo of black vultures. Jon started singing, "The Circle of Life," and I joined him. We got a few looks from other people, but it worked for us, and that’s what counts. The vultures were fighting each other for a place at the corpse, sending them flapping up, jumping and running at each other. Some of the large birds had been chased completely away from the banquet, so they waited, if not patient, quiet. The birds at the alligator were not quiet. They squawked and pecked and tore at the body. They defended their tasty bit of corpse from the nearest birds, which sometimes escalated into fights so one would chase the other bird and they’d both loose their places. There were plenty of vultures waiting to slip into any empty spots. They were so eager at the body, that they made parts of it move, giving it an illusion of life. It was especially cool to watch the vultures hit the head and make the entire neck area move, as if the alligator had suddenly sprung to life and would fight back, but then the head would flop back and the vulture that caused all the movement would hit the eye again. Jon got pictures of the vulture in question pecking at the gator’s eye, then burying it’s beak into the now empty eye socket. So cool. Our very own Animal Planet moment.

Posted by LKH on 03/23 at 08:18 AM

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Gone Fishing
I feel like I should just hang a sign on the blog that reads, "Gone Fishing." We’ve been deep sea fishing. It hasn’t been perfect weather for it, too windy, but even less than perfect is still fun. A lot of things were a repeat from last year; Trinity caught the first fish, Grandpa caught the biggest one, they also caught the most between them. Trinity has always understood the zen of fishing much better than I. Jon caught less fish than last year, and I caught one more. I actually landed a fish none of us had ever caught before, a sea trout. Then my daughter promptly caught an even bigger one. I think we all caught at least one Mangrove Snapper. Grandpa caught a 40 pound cobia, a fish none of us were familiar with, but it was the catch of the day size-wise. It was also a catch that I would have lost. It took real skill to land it, skill that I am only learning. Wisdom trumps youth and enthusiasm in a lot of areas and fishing is one of them. Though, Trinity’s skills, hmm. Maybe I should just admit that fishing is one of those things I’m not naturally good at, but willing to learn. I’ve got a few skill sets that were hard won and not natural skill. I guess deep sea fishing will have to be one of them.

Trinity has always adored boats, water, and going fast. As a baby you had to really watch her on boats because she would crawl to the bow of the boat so the spray would hit her, and giggle the whole time. I remember a summer’s afternoon with her in my lap in her baby life jacket in the bow of a friend’s boat. The spray hit us, the boat slapped the water, and my baby laughed louder the faster and wetter we got. She hasn’t changed her mind on any of it. She’s just big enough to lean into the spray without me holding her now, and the sounds of joy are older, girl, not baby, but faster was better and the more spray that was in her face, the better. The three adults took turns sitting in the wettest seat, so we weren’t constantly soaked as the boat moved from one fishing spot to another. When the weather conditions aren’t great, you do a lot of hunting for those pesky fish. We also caught a lot of fish we couldn’t keep, or didn’t want to. The Lady fish were really biting and they put up a good fight, but are not good eating. Why are they called Lady fish? Unsure, but they are pretty with colors streaming in iridescent stripes down their sides. Salt water catfish hit all our lines, but again not good eating, so we’d let them go when we realized what we had hooked. Funny, we couldn’t seem to not bring in the Ladies and the catfish, but the snappers, cobia, and sea trout, made us really work to find them. Since at least snappers and cobia are schooling fish, our captain said it was unusual not to catch more at a time. We ended up catching enough fish to feed all five of us for three days, so we got plenty of fish, we just had to work for it. Grandma stayed ashore when she saw the wind whipping the water. She’s the only one of us that suffers from sea sickness. But she stayed ashore and read and rested and enjoyed some alone time. You don’t get much of that on a family vacation.

I caught the only shark of the day. It put up the hardest fight of anything I hooked. It bent my pole at this abrupt angle, and I really had to fight to bring it in, and it was a baby. It was a hammerhead pup with it’s odd horizontal skull just moving into that characteristic shape that gives the sharks their name. Our captain held it so Trin and I could pet it, very carefully. It didn’t feel at all the way I’d thought it would. It’s skin felt like silk, but softer, more alive than that. Somewhere between silk and velvet if they could be wet and muscled, and even that doesn’t really convey what the pup felt like. I’ll keep working at it until I can describe that amazing tactile sensation. I’ll let you know when I nail it. Then the Captain had us pet the share the other direction and it was like sandpaper. Sharks really are best when you don’t rub them the wrong way. We unhooked the shark and let him go on his way. As far as I’m aware you cannot keep any shark, it’s all catch and release. The Captain said, they weren’t good to eat anyway, and anything we couldn’t eat or use for bait for something bigger was all catch and release. The wind had churned the water until it was murky so we often didn’t know what we’d hooked until it was time to grab the net. It certainly added a surprise to that last few inches of fight.

Posted by LKH on 03/26 at 08:43 PM

Monday, March 30, 2009

Why Goths should avoid the Sun
I’m sitting at my desk in my black high-heeled boots, skin tight jeans tucked into them, and the little black t-shirt with it’s slightly threatening slogan on it. One thing ruins the Goth look; the sunburn. It’s sort of another souvenir from Florida. We both burned through 70 SPF sunscreen. Of course, maybe it was that seven hours on the open water with 30 mile an hour wind gusts that did the sunscreen in. Rule from now on, reapply spackling every four hours regardless of how much sun, shade, or whatever, because sunlight bounces off of water and hits you in places you just didn’t just think it could reach. The sunburn on my shoulders is an odd contrast to all the black, but red would look worse, maybe I’ll try purple tomorrow.

If you haven’t guessed we’re back from vacation. It was a wonderful trip, but we were all ready to come home. I have to admit though, that I hadn’t had a tense muscle, or headache the entire time we were gone. That can’t be said for today. But it’s always hard the first day back from a great vacation. It’s wrenching in a way, to find that all the responsibilities, problems, all of it, just waited for you to come back. Nothing got done. Nothing got solved. It all just waited. If my business was a more typical business, there would be more chances to delegate, but I had the person I delegate the most to with me on vacation. Jon and I were both out of the office. The comic book is our baby. The novels are my babies. The blog is mine, unless I can convince Jon or Darla to take a guest shot. There is so much to do, and more coming, that I am actually almost to needing that clip-board assistant. Someone who can help organize me. Several people here have tried for this part of the job, but either they are less organized than I am, or, my way of working defeats traditional methods. Where is that girl, or guy, Friday, when you need them?

Posted by LKH on 03/30 at 09:18 PM

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Gone Fishing part Two
More fishing. First the hammerhead shark pup I caught and released was a bonnethead shark, which is a subspecies of hammerhead. Also from the shape of the head it was a girl. For the fans who wrote in and said they liked to eat hammerhead shark, but it was a lot of work to clean: I’ve never tasted shark where I was happy. Maybe I’ve never had it cooked correctly, but I also don’t like swordfish, so maybe I just don’t like that much beef on my fish. Besides, I’d rather have released the pup and let it grow then try to eat it. There’s just something about sharks that it’s not about eating them, it’s about catching them, and feeling all that power at the end of your rod.

Today, we caught lot’s fish, but had to release almost all of it. We got to keep one snapper, that I caught, and a Spanish Mackerel that Trinity caught. We had them for dinner and just the two fish was enough to feed all five of us. Add salad and you have a meal. But, because it was the smallest number of fish we’d caught on this vacation we didn’t think it would be that much meat, so we all ordered food, as well. Way too much food. The snapper was it’s usual good self, but none of us had ever had Spanish Mackerel before, and we all declared it better than regular mackerel. In fact, Spanish Mackerel has moved up to my top three spots for tasty fish. Yum.

The rest of the catch was not for eating, but it was for testing our skills with rod and reel. Sharks, lot’s of sharks. Jon caught two lemon sharks, and Grandpa caught one. Grandpa has just reminded me that his shark was the biggest, but that Jon’s grouper was the biggest. The groupers in question were Goliath groupers, and they were all babies, because grown up can be the size of a Volkswagon. No, really, that big. What they caught was big, but not that big. They are protected species so you have to release all you catch, and we did, but wow they are a powerful fish on the end of a rod, and impressive when you get them out of the water. I caught two black groupers, but they were both too small to keep so back they went, but one was big enough to bend my rod in that exciting ’U’ shape that means you’ve caught something big. I caught another bonnethead shark pup late in the day, and it was a fight again. It was a bigger pup, less baby, and more young adult. It’s skin didn’t feel as smooth to the touch as the first one. I guess you have to toughen up as you get older. Trinity agrees with that, but adds, it was also a boy, and maybe boys aren’t as soft. Maybe. Nothing that I’ve hooked fights like a shark, though Grandpa thinks the Goliath grouper is stronger on the line. Having never hooked one of those big, bad, boys, I can’t speak to it. Jon’s undecided, but we both agree the sharks were very cool.

Birds we saw from the boat: osprey, frigate birds, ibis, cormorants, brown pelicans, terns, and gulls, lot’s of gulls. Sea gulls are like sparrows to me, though, I know what they are, but am not good in a quick spot to be definit on exactly what kind of sea gull, or sparrow, the bird happens to be. So, I’ll pour over my Peterson’s guide tomorrow and see if I can narrow down the choices. I’ll have to look up the tern, too, because I’m just not as good at sea birds as I am at more land-locked ones. We saw the osprey at almost the same point as the first fishing trip, but today there were two of them, wheeling and turning in the air. The first time there had been only one and it was doing serious fishing, diving into the water, surfacing with a shake of it’s feathers and climbing into the sky, to search the water below for another chance at fish. I think I’ve only seen one osprey the entire time I’ve lived in St. Louis, here they were the bird of prey I saw most often. There was also a small hawk that kept swooping overhead, and again I’ll look through Peterson’s to see if I can narrow down my choices, but it was always very fast and high overhead, so I may just put that under mystery bird. I’m sure it was a small hawk, but beyond that I’ll have to think on it.

Posted by LKH on 03/28 at 08:03 PM