Of Cats and Mice

Pretty sure he’s never seen a mouse IRL, but Revy already knows where they belong: in the food dish 🙂

 

Music on Friday – Lucky I Lost You

Y’all remember I’m out of town, right? If post-dated posts count, I will have posted every day in November as well as written 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo. I’m tired. Fresh content late Sunday. In the meantime, here’s a song I like –

 

 

First projects done!

The old Singer 301A all set up

 

Ironing station

Sunday I hauled the rest of the Big Stuff over to the studio and now it’s all set up to Get Shit Done. Looking at the back room, I wonder where all this stuff used to be. I also wonder WTF I’ll do with the stuff that’s left. I want to get a bed back there so I can quit sleeping on the fold-out couch* and get some paint on the walls. I have some ideas that I’ll share as they get closer to realization. Just let me say that having all the Crafty Stuff elsewhere is good for my mood.

The first project to be completed is a set of skirts for the table at the craft show this weekend. I haven’t talked about that? Huh. Awana and I are going to have a table Black Friday and Saturday at the Lincoln City Cultural Center’s “Not Quite 11th-hour Santa Holiday Fair” where we will be selling our wares in the hope of de-stashing some of the great stuff we have no room for. We’ll have washed wool and carded batts for spinning, stitch markers, hand knit hats, hand spun/hand knit shawls, handmade soaps, and knitting patterns. I finally found my sewing mojo again, spent three hours hard at it today and whipped up some catnip mice and wool project bags to take. Come on out and see us if you’re in town!

Oh, and Happy Turkey Day if you celebrate 🙂 Also, I finished my 50K words for NaNoWriMo – see the badge to the right => Is anyone else annoyed that people who reach 50K words are called “winners?” I don’t remember that being the case when I did it back in 2005. Also, the badge from 2005 was way better, too. Someone needs to be hired to produce some higher quality graphics. Anyway. 50K written, maybe 50K more to go. I hope to finish in December. Editing will commence in the New Year. Anyone interested in reading and giving me honest feedback just comment or drop me a note. It will take a lot of massaging to make it not shitty 🙂

* It’s no longer the adventure it once was. I woke up Sunday morning with all the teeth on the left side of my mouth hurting. I mean, really hurting. Like I need to get to the dentist ASAP hurting. I need some work, so my thought was that finally everything is going to hell and the dentist will be able to buy a new car just from the cost of my new mouth. Monday I woke up with the upper teeth on the left hurting. Biting down, I can feel what happened – I think I’m grinding my teeth in my sleep. Probably because I’m cold. Another blanket on the bed and the heat turned up a few degrees should take care of it. I hope so – my dentist’s office is closed until December 2…

 

White Trash Countermeasures

The nightly barricade to keep Revy from (further) destroying the houseplants. Sigh. Cardboard and Stuff That Doesn’t Belong on the counter to make it as difficult as possible for him to reach the plants. Working on something a bit more…artful. Hopefully he’ll grow out of this phase. If not, the plants will have to go!

 

Holiday Crazy

The Holiday Crazy has begun! I don’t mean the Holiday displays in the stores, or on the streets, or covering the public park here in town. No. I speak of that special brand of Holiday People Crazy.

I’ve written before about the narc’s dysfunctional family, and this little gem in my inbox this morning is just another example:

Hi [Sofia],

I wanted to wish you a good Thanksgiving and hope that all is well for you and that hopefully we could keep in touch.

Huh. In the past year she has sent me exactly one email. She has made no effort to get to know me at all in the 11.5 years I was living with her brother, and now she wants us to stay in touch? Wasn’t my lack of reply to her last note a clear message that I don’t want to be in contact with her? WTF is she thinking? Why would she think I would respond to her? The narc and I broke up and he is keeping his insane family – I have no use for them. Gaaaahhhhh! Just leave me alone, already!

As for T-Day for my family, Mom has to work and both she and Sis have to be at work early the day after, while I have a very early morning drive to make, so we’ve postponed it until a more convenient time. Yeah, we’ll be having the best Holiday ever, not driving (sorry, Mom!) or sweating about arrangements, getting together on a day the world isn’t going crazy. I plan to have a nap and make final preparations for the craft show, hopefully getting the car loaded for the o’ dark-thirty departure time on Friday.

You wish your family was cool like mine 🙂

P.S. Not sure what the internet situation will be on the weekend, so I’ll be scheduling a couple of posts to publish and keep my NaBloPoMo streak going.

 

“The Mark of Cain” a book review

The Mark of Cain by A.D. Seely. Her blog

Warning: Spoilers ahead. If you haven’t read this book, you have been warned so don’t come crying to me when you read it and get pissed off all over again.

First let me say that I love a tale that takes a biblical story and turns it on its head in an entertaining and enlightening way. I’m not religious, so I don’t have a proper perspective on the wonders in the Bible; it’s all fresh and new to me. A modern-day re-hash of the story of history’s first murderer seemed like a good premise for an entertaining story.

From the Amazon blurb:

History as we know it is a lie. An intricate web of half-truths and falsifications spun by the most infamous murderer in history: the immortal, Cain, son of Adam and Eve. All so the truth of him and his power can stay in the shadows, with every oblivious mortal his pawn. The Mark of Cain, a paranormal romantic suspense novel, reveals the truth.

After murdering his brother, Abel, Cain was unjustly cursed by God. When the curse becomes too unbearable for him and he faces immortality alone, Cain puts his energy into claiming the Earth as his own. Now, after thousands of years living his life as some of history’s greatest conquerors, the ruthless first son of Adam finally has a controlling interest in the world with the strongest governments secretly answering to him.

Tired of the bloodshed and manipulation that has brought him to this point, Cain is ready to relax. But God has sent someone to challenge his interests: a young woman named Hara, whose very life was foretold centuries ago.

To keep God from victory, Cain sets out to woo and corrupt Hara, planning to kill her once she is no longer God’s Chosen One. At first, as she edges off the path leading toward the fulfillment of the prophecy, Cain can’t help but feel smug. However, the closer he gets to her, the more he finds that Hara’s charitable presence causes him to feel shame for the first time in his long life, and soon he finds that he no longer wishes her harm. But the prophecy is clear on this; she has to die for him to win. When it comes to her end, will he be as selfish as he has always been, or will he sacrifice himself for the love of his very long life?

Ah-hem. The first problem I have with this tale is that Anahara, raised in a Catholic orphanage after the murder of her parents (Cain is responsible,) is a twenty-three-year-old virgin working at a night club in LA where the dress code is basically a black slip who is so naive that she even spells S-E-X in her private thoughts. Oh, sure, she’s kissed a few boys, but she never felt anything but friendship for them and it never went any further. It goes without saying she’s saving herself for marriage.

Also, she has gorgeous blue eyes, blond hair that shimmers in moonlight down to her ass and a body that makes every man’s head turn and dick hard. Of course.

Anahara is going through her life, earning a living, waiting for adventure and her Prince Charming. She doesn’t drink or do drugs (EVER) act promiscuous, curse and she’s charming and kind to everyone she meets, making frequent trips Back East to visit the orphanage and bring gifts and hope to the children living there.

She’s a fucking saint. Uncorrupted and pure in every way.

Enter Cain, only he doesn’t tell her his real name, occupation, financial status, beliefs, opinions, or anything, really. He has searched for her for 500 years because of a prophesy – Anahara (chosen for her name alone – that’s all anyone knows about her identity) is to be Cain’s downfall, according to the prophesy. Cain decides to corrupt and kill Anahara in order to piss God off enough that he will finally end Cain’s misery.

In this story, Cain’s “mark” is a tattoo that extends from his neck down his right arm and side, kinda like a cool tribal tattoo, nothing at all weird about that, right? Naturally Cain is drop-dead gorgeous and irresistible to all women. Even Hara, who has never felt arousal before (really? At 23 she doesn’t have a clue? In 2012?) is suddenly overwhelmed with physical feelings for Cain, which she hides because they don’t even know each other.

Gah! So Cain begins his assault on all that is good in Hara, winning his way into her life with a staged robbery where he gets shot, cajoling her into drinking (he drugs her so she forgets) and sex (but he promises to marry her and convinces her that it’s HER idea in the first place.) He lies about what he does all day (plays puppet-master with world leaders, starting and preventing wars according to his own Master Plan) and how he feels about everything until she thinks he’s the Perfect Man and refuses to listen to her room mate and friends who think something is a bit off about Cain.

She invites him home to the orphanage to meet the people who made her what she is today. Cain has a confrontation with the priest, who is forbidden to reveal to Hara what her role in Cain’s life is. Seems no one can say anything to the victim because “god has a plan” and Cain must be allowed to run free until god chooses to stop him.

On and on it goes. Cain is despicable in his manipulations of Hara, turning her into a different person, but she always clings to her perception that there’s good in him if he would only give himself to his better side. She dreams constantly about her upcoming wedding and how it will make her life (and Cain’s) perfect at last. Puke.

Finally, when Cain has decided he’s corrupted Hara enough, it’s time to kill her. He feels guilty and doesn’t want to do it himself, so he hires one of his thugs to do the deed.

BUT at the last minute he changes his mind! He can’t lose her – she’s the person who makes his whole history have meaning! She completes him!

The hired thug is very good at his job and Hara is shot as ordered. Cain runs to her side, tears falling on her face, and declares his love for her. He raises his face to the sky and begs god’s forgiveness, tells him to take him instead, only let Hara live!

And, lo, a miracle happens. The clouds part, a beam of light flashes down, illuminating Hara’s beautiful hair, and she breathes again. Her first words to Cain are about his eyes – they were black when she met him, but now they’re a soft gray. His tattoo is gone, too. Seems god has decided that this is Cain’s last life – he will at last be able to age and die like a normal mortal, presumably wrapped in the arms (and long, blond hair) of his One True Love.

Whew! The writing overall is good, the story moves right along, the characters exchange some good dialogue, but it falls apart for me there. What we have is yet another story where the man behaves abominably, consciously corrupting an innocent and that idiot innocent falls for him hook, line and sinker, even to dying at his whim, for his agenda.

I can’t tell you how much these stories piss me off. We’ve all read them, or watched the movie – lovable rogue turns good because of the love of a virtuous woman. No matter what he does, she loves him and stands by him, even dying if necessary to prove her love.

Srsly? Stories like these are one reason young women get sucked into the clutches of sociopaths/psychopaths/narcissists – we want the romantic happy ending. We’ve been exposed to it over and over and if it can work in fiction, it can work for us, right? I mean, every story has a germ of reality in it, right? If we love hard enough the sun will shine and we’ll get our fairy tale.

This myth is everywhere and the monsters use it to their advantage. What we don’t need is more versions of it disguised as modern fiction. I don’t want a happy ending; I want Cain to get his ass kicked and Hara to go on to live a full life without a sociopath dictating her every move. Actually, had I written this book Hara would not have been so fucking stupid at 23, fercryin’outloud!

Who writes the stories where the sociopath gets what he deserves in the end?

 

Dog park adventures

Sabu resents that The Little Shit has been getting so much play here on the blog, so here’s some pics of her and a boxer called Noodles at the Newport dog park yesterday –

Happy dog in the cold sunshine!

Noodles loves attention and wouldn’t stand back far enough to get a good shot –

And a shot of both dogs together –

A couple of other dogs were supposed to come, but they never showed up. I was in Newport for breakfast and to pick up my stuff from the booth at the Antique Mall to re-label for the craft show next weekend in Lincoln City. It was a lovely Saturday!

 

Blackheart Rum

I’m not a big connoisseur of booze, but I do love a rum & coke. Being out of rum and in a new town, I went over to the local liqueur store to see what was on offer. They didn’t have my usual brand of rum so I picked up a bottle of Blackheart Spiced Rum instead. I’ve never had spiced rum, but the label was cool enough to warrant a try. What? How else do you decide what booze to by if not by the graphics on the label?

Lemme just say that this stuff is yummy! I like the hint of vanilla – makes it go down easy and before you know it I’m swaying on my chair, singing along to YouTube videos while working on my NaNo project. The words are just flying out of my fingertips! The letdown is a bit of a bummer and my stomach doesn’t like ice cream after rum, so that’s a drag, but otherwise it’s all good.

Rum & coke before bed. Life is good!

 

Music on Friday

Jennifer Nettles and “That Girl” –

I love Jennifer Nettles when she sings with Sugarland and some of her earlier stuff is great. I’m happy that she’s doing some solo work again because she has a voice that I could listen to all day.

This one could be the anthem for more than one of us here –

Here’s another great song with Sugarland –

All is well here. We’re having a cold snap and that makes me especially cranky. The water hose froze solid Wednesday night. Oh, Awana called me and warned me to keep a tap running all night, but I forgot. Damn! Took time off work Thursday to drive around town in search of heat tape, ran back to Towanda and installed it. By Thursday evening it was thawed and everything is running as designed.

Left the kitchen tap on at a dribble last night and Revy had a great time playing in the water all.night.long. I couldn’t bear to lock him up, he was having so much fun.

It was 28* when I left for work (hate, hate, hate to have to scrape my car windows!) and when I arrived at work there was a note from The Boss. Seems he wanted me to walk a job that I’d thought finished today. Two miles of street. Make note of all the curbs and stuff to be sure it was correct. Grrrr. I was not dressed for the weather, but off I went to freeze my ass off. The sun was shining, though, and Sabu was over the moon with happiness at walking in the crisp air in a new neighborhood. This cold weather brings out the puppy in her. If only she were a Good Dog that I could let off the leash so she could run some of her energy off in the morning…

 

That silly sweater game

Everyone’s doing it, so here’s my submission to Coke’s sweater contest –

Obviously I went for the Tacky Christmas Sweater genre with a smattering of Cat Fancier. Add some traditional snowflakes and some very nontraditional music notes, et viola! If only there was an option for sequins or flashing lights. I suppose those can be added later because I’m just crafty enough to Make It Work.

Vote for me and I’ll post pics. Hell, if I win, I’ll make everyone I know put it on and pose for pics for the sole entertainment of my readers 🙂