Lunch Break Papers

This is December. There are roses still blooming, there are already willow catkins, and the hedgehogs and squirrels are roaming the garden.
I'm dreaming of apple blossoms for Christmas.

It's quite frustrating when you write and write, feeling pretty good about what you write, and then look at it a few days later, only to tear everything up and start anew. Of course I learn with each sentence I write, but more and more I get the feeling there is something basic I'm missing - I waffle, and don't really know where I'm going. Seems it's back to the concept board.

The other thing I need is more discipline (get ye out of the gutter, reader thoughts - you know who you are!); I've been relaxing too much this month. Maybe I should make myself a timetable, and then make myself stick to it. Discipline still doesn't come easy to me.

It's that time of the year again when my parents are going to drive to my grandmother's for her birthday and pre-Christmas fun. And, like last year, the pre-travel preparations include three days of baking assorted cookies (biscuits?). About fifteen different kinds of cookies, in fact.
We're about three-quarters finished with the baking, and will start with the filling, putting together and decorating this afternoon. I think we will be done tomorrow by this time, fingers crossed.
The whole house is smelling wonderfully of cookie baking, of vanilla and cocoa and almonds. This is so much fun, although I am glad we only do this once a year, it's a hell of a lot of work; I already cut myself twice with the cookie cutters, while dad occasionally looks over our shoulders stealing dough. And since both mum and I can make and taste only so much sweet dough without feeling sick, we're sipping on alcoholic beverages of the bitter kind, and will probably get something very spicy and hot for dinner.

Today was clothes audit day; that's another two bags of clothes gone, winter jumpers taken down from the wardrobe, summer jumpers and most of the t-shirts put up there. Organized the sock drawer. I have no idea why the sock drawer is always the least organized drawer, but I usually put the socks in order when I can't close it any more, and there's always a couple of half-pairs left over.

There are various reasons why I did it, but yesterday, I read up on Onychectomy, which is the amputation of the end digits of clawed animals, also known as "declawing". I am very, very glad it's outlawed in Germany. I have no idea why someone who claims to love their cat would do this to them. Even thinking about it turns my stomach.

I hope I'm going to have a lightning flash of inspiration for a short story by the end of tomorrow. Maybe I will take a bath, that usually calls down the muses. Until then, I will attack a non-fiction book or two, regardless of the pencil notes.

I just managed to erase the contents of my MP3 player's flash card while trying to change a battery. I have no idea how I did it, but although the MP3 player is now working, there's nothing for it to work with, and since I am at Uni, there's no way for me to fill it up again with sound. No music for the way home.

I bought myself boots the other day which my mum first said I would never wear, and then asked if she could borrow one day. They are what mum termed granny boots - black faux-suede thigh-high lace-up stilleto heel Victorian-looking boots. I can walk with them surprisingly well, and they look terriffic. And I did wear them already. If I had the finances, I could turn into a veritable Imelda Marcos; I love buying shoes. Shoe power!

This evening will be spent with a Pretender.

I knew that my mum sort of dislikes slugs, especially since the little pests eat flowers faster than we can plant them. Except for the pink ones, which they find as appealing as I do, which is not at all.
Some of those molluscs get devoured by the hedgehogs and birds in our garden, of course, but there seems to be an endless supply of slugs. Good for the hedgehogs, bad for the plants.
Anyway, I wasn't aware just how much mum hates those slimy gastropods until tonight, when she picked up six of them in an old newspaper, threw them in a bin and set them on fire.

I learned two things tonight.
One, my mum really, really hates slugs.
Two, burnt slugs really, really stink.

The oven still being hot from the bread, I decided to make myself some muffins. Since I eat by the Montignac Method, I don't combine carbs and fats (very roughly speaking), so I used a recipe which substitutes ground almonds and chick pea flour for ordinary flour. Add chopped apples in one batch, chopped plums in the other, bake, yum. Very yum, actually. If only I hadn't forgotten to grease the muffin form. I now have twelve *recounts* seven half-muffins.

Cat owners, a question. Does your cat sit outside sometimes talking to the neighbourhood cats? Mine just did. I heard them yowl, and went downstairs, then listened to them for about five minutes after I stepped outside the house intending to rescue either him or the other cat. They didn't fight or anything, they just sat there, talking in warbling cat voices. Once they had apparently finished, Charlie walked over to me as if to say, "Ok, all done, can I get some food now?" Weird. Maybe dduane's cat wizard books have some truth to them after all.

Events conspired to make me oversleep my mum's birthday.
After going to bed late last night and tossing and turning for about an hour, lost in thought, I was woken up not soon after by my left foot being on fire, which turned out to be a mozzie bite. I tried to get back to sleep, but gave up about an hour later when there was still butzzing in the air, turned on the light, and smashed the pesky insect.
This woke up the cat which had hitherto slept peacefully on my legs. A bit later, he made an almighty racket by playing with something in the now-empty living room, upon which I got up and threw him out into the garden. By now it was about six o'clock, and I slid back into blissfull sleep. Until the phone rang.
"Uh, hi Dad... morning Mum... you sound as if you have a cold, are you OK? ... right... Yeah, I'm fine...OK, catch you later, then."

*thinks* Why did she say they celebrated last night?

... AAARGH!!!!

I immediately called back and wished her a happy birthday in three different languages, and apologized for being too sleepy to realize that there is no September 31st. I'm glad she knows that I am not a morning person.

There's a pigeon chick in our garden. Well, I say "chick", but it looks like a young adult, only - it can't fly. I think it fell out of the walnut tree a few days ago and had a slight concussion.
Now it hobbles gently around the garden, like pigeons will, and hops up the stairs instead of flying. It is otherwise OK, unhurt, looks healthy, flaps its wings enthusiastically enough, but it seems the bird doesn't know that it is supposed to use its wings to fly.

There's a metaphor in this, I just know there is.

One
Good thing about inter-library loans: You get books you would usually have to buy.
Bad thing about inter-library loans: You can only keep the books for three weeks, with no extensions.
Good thing about photocopiers: They exist.

~~~~~

Two
My parents are getting new furniture for their living room. They will also paint the walls and get a new carpet because, as mum says, they probably won't do it again and so might as well do it the right way.
The upshot of this is that I now have, in my living room, a new table which used to stand downstairs. A real honest-to-goodness living room table instead of the ex-garden thing that stood there until yesterday. It looks great.

~~~~~

Three
I was out clothes shopping with mum today. She actually bought me a skirt - a light, sandy brown chequered overknee thing with a certain air of British Schoolgirl-ness. Then I went and bought a fitting lipstick. All I need now are some cool boots.
Good grief. Am I turning into a Chav?

Hey! Yes, I really do still exist; but what with great real-life interaction going on, I sort of didn't have the opportunity to write here.
So, here are a few random things while I catch up.

Where to begin...

We could've used this weather a week ago; it is warm, and not a cloud in the sky. Which is nice though if you want to spend the day in the garden, reading. Until the family next door has a get-together, and the kids train sport stacking in the garden. The sound of the plastic cups makes its way through the window at my desk, while I sit here remembering the past few days.

I always find that I pay more attention to my home town when I have a visitor to show stuff to. And I did want to show off my city - not that ladyjillian and I did much in the way of sightseeing; but we did spend some time at the site of a Roman / Germanic battlefield, walked through the streets here, had ice cream and beer, many fascinating discussions, and exchanges of viewpoints. There's a lot there to be mulled over.
It's too bad ladyjillian's camera appears to be lost. There were a couple of great photographs on there. But I am glad she arrived back home OK.

I'll spend the rest of today goofing off I think, lie in the sun, read, and eat the leftover basil cheese. Good way to take a breather before I plunge back into the adventurous life of a PhD student.

And finally, for the delight of my friend britishamerican, a cute pair of tits, and some perky boobies.